O'Clock only has one purpose in life: O'Clock simply displays the date and time in a circular ("O"-shaped) window. O'Clock works both in the foreground and in the background. The clock is resizeable to some extent, and it can be collapsed to an icon size. O'Clock version 1.0.3 only runs on Macintoshes equipped with System 7.0 or greater, but hopefully future versions will run on System 6 as well. (It's getting there...)
Shareware or Freeware?
O'Clock is freeware. But, if you can, I'd really like to hear from you just so I get an idea as to how many people are actually using O'Clock. You can reach me via e-mail at vfranco.es_cp8@xerox.com, or via U.S. Mail at:
Victor Franco
16401 Underhill Lane
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Nice comments are preferred, but I'll take what I can get!
Although O'Clock 1.0.3 is being given away free, I do retain the copyrights to the program. Also, even though O'Clock does absolutely nothing harmful that I can think of in any way, I give this program to you as-is, with no warranties whatsoever.
Using O'Clock
There's not much to it! Just double-click on O'Clock's icon, and the clock should appear just as you left it, assuming you have the preferences set to do so. Otherwise, the clock assumes a default position toward the middle-right of your screen.
You can move the clock around the screen by dragging anywhere within the clock window, except in the lower right-hand corner, or quadrant, of the window frame. That's where you can resize the clock by dragging this part of the window frame around the screen. Note that O'Clock enforces a minimum and maximum size while you drag the outline of the clock. This is mainly done as a convenience to the implementor. : )
You can display the clock in miniature form by choosing Iconize from the Clock Stuff menu. Personally, I like to Iconize the clock and place it on the right-hand side of my screen along with my other desktop icons.
O'Clock Menus
O'Clock has two simple menus:
The File menu has the Quit option.
The Clock Stuff menu has an option to collapse the clock to an icon size (approximately 32 pixels in diameter). This menu also has convenient settings to set the clock to a standard minimum size, and multiples of that size up to 5. The Preferences item, described below, is also in this menu. You'll find the Help item at the bottom of the (Balloon) Help menu. (Obviously, you must have already found it!!) Balloon Help itself is only supported for the menus and the application icon in the Finder.
Preferences
The Preferences item at the bottom of the Clock Stuff menu has three check boxes: One that allows you to set whether or not O'Clock will remember where it was last positioned on your screen, one to let you turn on and off an annoying ticking noise when the clock is the front-most window, and one to let you turn on and off the display of the second hand. The second hand is never displayed in Iconize mode.
Compatibility & Known "Features"
First of all, the bug in version 1.0.2 that caused dates in other programs (including the Finder) to be displayed in O'Clock's format (i.e. day name but not month or year) has been fixed. Sorry about that! You live an learn (the hard way).
O'Clock has been tested with Systems 7.0,7.0.1, and 7.1, on machines including the Macintosh Powerbook 145, Macintosh SE, Macintosh SE/30, Macintosh II, Macintosh LC, Macintosh IIfx, Macintosh IIvx, Macintosh Quadra 660AV, and Macintosh Quadra 900 (basically anything that anyone I know owns). Single and multiple monitor configurations have been tested as well. Also, the day and date is displayed using the International Utilities package, so it should be displayed as appropriate to the locale of the Macintosh. I haven't seen any compatibility problems, but let me know if you experience any (please try to be as specific as possible).
You may notice that resizing the clock window takes a little bit longer than resizing most other windows. Sorry about that. I think this is mainly because drawing circles takes longer than drawing rectangles. The clock's window frame should appear in the selected window frame color as chosen in the Color control panel under System 7, assuming a color monitor set at least to 256 colors (or gray scale set at least to 16 shades of gray). This is consistent with Apple's way of displaying color window frames.
Finally, if the clock ticking is on, certain sounds like the Simple Beep may not function, but only when O'Clock is the front-most application. This shouldn't affect any other running applications at all.
Details...
Victor Franco (that's me!) wrote O'Clock using Think C 5.0. I welcome any and all comments. For you curious programmers out there, I implemented a custom window definition function (WDEF) that creates circular (well, oval, actually) windows. Drop me a line if you want more information.
Currently (3/21/94), I'm: vfranco.es_cp8@xerox.com. Internal to Xerox, that's VFranco:ES CP8:Xerox.
