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1990-08-30
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Version 1.10 - August 26, 1990
(c) Bill Stewart & Ian MacDonald
Dynamic Information Systems - Calgary, Alberta
How Does Magic Work?
When Magic starts up, it tries to retrieve the default control panel
settings from the WIN.INI file. If it can't find them, it creates a new
default set. Magic then installs a 'Journal Hook' (using Magic's DLL) to
monitor the keyboard, mouse movements and mouse location. Then a timer is
created to measure periods of inactivity, the mouse's duration in the
'Sleep Area', and the animation of the 'Nova Icon' (when active).
Conditions for sleep:
1) No user activity for the specifed timeout period (default is 5 minutes),
OR
2) Mouse is inside the boundaries of the 'Sleep Area' with no mouse
movement for approximately 1 second. The 1 second delay period is used
to prevent Magic from going to sleep every time the mouse passes through
the 'Sleep Area'. Note: If a mouse button is down within the 'Sleep
Area', Sleep Mode will not be activated.
Control is given to Magic's graphic routines only when 'null' messages are
detected in the system's message queue. Null messages are present only when
all other applications are idle. This ensures that the performance of other,
properly-written Windows applications will not be affected by Magic. In the
event that other applications (running simultaneously) also use 'null'
messages to control processing, each application gets its share of the 'null'
messages.
The period of the timer is 1 second and was chosen such that it should not
interfere with the system's operation.
The Journal Hook, Timer, and Null message processing can be temporarily
suspended by turning off Magic's control panel 'Power Switch'. This removes
any effects that Magic might have on system performance. Turning the
'Power Switch' back on reinstalls the Journal Hook, Timer, and Null message
processing.
Note: Closing the control panel frees most of the memory required by Magic.