Cream of the Crop 21/Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso/utility/memsz320.zip/ENGLISH.HLP

OS/2 Help File | 1996-07-26 | 16KB | 316 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This program displays several items related to system resources, and updates
the display once per second, providing it is given CPU time to do so.  The
items displayed are:

Date/Time - The current date and time, in the format called for in the default
country information for your system, as specified in the 'COUNTRY=' entry of
your CONFIG.SYS file.

Elapsed Time - The elapsed time since the computer was last restarted.

Physical Memory Free - The amount of system memory available, according to the
DosMemAvail function.

Note:   This function is part of the old 16-bit system, and only reports
physical memory below 16Mb, and was also altered just before OS/2 2.0 was
released to never report less than 512K.

Virtual Memory Free - The amount of virtual memory available, according to the
DosQuerySysInfo function. This is the amount of free physical memory, plus the
amount of free space within the current swapping file, plus the amount of space
by which the swapping file could yet grow, less the amount of free space
reserved on the swapping drive.

Swap File Size - The current size of the system virtual memory swap file,
SWAPPER.DAT. To locate the file, the file CONFIG.SYS is scanned for its
SWAPPATH entry. That entry provides the full name of the swap-file's directory
and indicates the minimum free space that must be left on the swap-file's disk
drive.

Available Swap Space - The amount of free disk space on the logical disk drive
where the system swap file resides, less the mininum free space.  This is how
much more the swap file could expand, if necessary.

Unused Swap Space - The amount of free space within the currently allocated
system swap file.  When this drops to zero, the system swap file must be
increased in size, normally by one megabyte at a time.

Spool File Size - The amount of disk space consumed by spool files.

CPU Load (%) - The approximate percentage of the CPU's available horsepower
that's being used at the moment.  It is averaged over the previous second.

Note:   This function and PULSE do not get along with each other. Why?

Note:   If you have the driver HRTIMER.SYS installed, this number will be more
accurate. Why?

Active Task Count - The number of entries in the system switch list, which is
the list displayed when you press CTRL+ESC.

Note:   Not all entries in the system switch list are displayed in the Window
List.  Some are marked for non-display.

Process Count - The number of processes currently loaded on the system.

Thread Count - The number of threads currently running on the system.  There is
at least one thread for each process.

Total Free Disk Space - The amount of free space on all the local non-removable
disks combined.

Drive X Free - The amount of free space on drive X.

The help facility is active, as you've already seen, and those program commands
that exist may be accessed via the window's system menu.  The following
commands are available:

      Save Settings
      Reset Defaults
      Hide Controls
      Configure...
      Reset Load Meter
      Reset Drives
      Copy
      About
      Close

 In addition to those features already described, this program accepts commands
 from the OS/2 2.0 Font and Color Palette programs, and is a DDE server for all
 the currently displayed items.  The DDE application name is MEMSIZE, and the
 item names are the same as the default display item names (like Physical
 Memory Free).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Save Settings (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

When you select this menu option, the program saves its current position and
the status of the Hide Controls option.  The next time the program is started,
it will be started with that position and with the controls hidden (or not)
according to the saved state.

The short-cut key for this command is F2.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Reset Defaults (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Selecting this menu option will reset the program's font and color attributes
to their default values.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Hide Controls (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program's frame controls (the
system menu, the titlebar and the minimize button) to be hidden. This option
can be toggled with a double-click on either mouse button. Also, since I saw it
as very useful to be able to move the window while the controls were hidden,
the window has been set up so that you can drag it with either mouse button.

The key combination Alt+H will perform this function also.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Configure (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program's configuration dialog
to be displayed. For more information, see Configure (Dialog).

Note:   The short-cut key to this option is Alt+C.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. Configure (Dialog) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog allows you to change all configurable aspects of this program's
operation.  To escape without effecting any changes, press the ESCAPE key or
click on the Escape pushbutton. To save the changes you've made, press the
ENTER key or click on the OK pushbutton.
The configurable items include the following:

Display Items You may select any or all of the items in the Display Items list
for monitoring and display. Simply click on an item to highlight it, click
again to remove the highlight. Highlighted items are monitored. To change an
item's default label, or to restore the default label, double-click on an
unselected item.  The item will be selected and a dialog presented from which
you may alter the item label.

Show 'K'ilobytes This group of radiobuttons allows you to select whether large
sizes are displayed in kilobyte notation always, never, or only when their
values exceed 512K. The default is to show all sizes over 512K in this way.
Keep in mind that one kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes, not 1000.

Monitor Priority This control allows you to set the absolute priority of the
monitoring thread of the program, within the time-critical priority class. You
may vary the priority from 0 to 31.  Priority 31 is the highest possible
priority in the system, short of physical interrupts. Priority 0 is simply the
lowest priority within the time-critical class. Normally, you should set this
to the maximum for more accuracy in system monitoring.  However, some have
complained that their communications programs occasionally miss data while this
program is running.  For that reason the priority is now variable.

Timer Interval This control allows you to set the interval between monitor
window updates.  It can be varied from 1.0 seconds to 30.0 seconds, in steps of
1/10 second.  The number displayed is in tenths of a second.

Window Anchor This control allows you to set the corner of the monitor window
which remains fixed in position when the window size changes.  The monitor
window can change in size when items are added or removed from the active list,
and when the display font is changed from the Font Palette.

Hide Controls When the program window is not iconized, it can be shown with or
without the usual title bar, system menu and minimize/maximize buttons.  If you
chose to hide these controls, the window may still be positioned by dragging
its center area.

Float to Top This button activates an window's float-to-top function. When this
button has been check-marked, the clock will float to the top of the window
stack, making itself visible all the time.

Animate This button activates the window open & close animation feature. When
this is active, the program window will open and close in the same way as the
folder objects do: with sound and motion. As with folders, animation will not
occur unless it has been enabled at the system level.

Table Format This button, when checked, causes the window to arrange itself in
table format, with the display items arranged in rows and columns. It will
optimize itself to use as little vertical space as possible. When this button
is