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1996-06-25
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13KB
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294 lines
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : SmallSave
Version : 1.15 (25 Jun 1996)
Purpose : Small, fast screensaver
Author : © Andrew Berry, 1996
Licence : Freeware. Please see conditions at the end of this file.
SmallSave supports Interactive Help, and is now *nearly* Risc PC
compatible. See the section ‘Risc PC’ below for details.
PURPOSE
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This program was written because I have yet to find a screensaver which
is small AND fast and has the options I want. I was looking for the
‘dancing lines’ pattern, but although many screensavers contain this
pattern is it often too slow, or only in black and white. I decided to
write my own screensaver to my own specifications and SmallSave is now part
of my boot sequence.
USING
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SmallSave contains a number of options, and these are set from the Options
window. This is opened by clicking on the icon bar or selecting
‘Options...’ from the icon bar menu.
The top box in the window shows the screensaver which is currently
selected. This will be used when the screen is blanked, and can be changed
by clicking in the box with MENU, or on the menu icon to the right. This
brings up a new window with a list of savers. See the section ‘selecting a
saver’ for details.
SELECTING A SAVER
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The left hand side of the saver window contains the 5 savers which are
currently implemented. The sixth option, Random, is explained below.
On the right hand side of the window is an option for Steady or Fading
colours. All savers except Flashing stars will work in either mode. When
Steady is selected either one or two colours are used. These are changed
periodically but the lines do not ‘fade’ between colours. When Steady is
selected the saver will run in any screen mode.
Selecting Fading causes the lines to constantly change colour. The colour
at any moment is calculated from the screen coordinates of one of the
points. This only works in 16 colour modes, so an appropriate mode is
entered if required, with the original mode being reselected on return to
the desktop.
The final saver option is Random. This causes a saver to be selected at
random, and Steady or Fading to also be randomly chosen. As well as this,
a new random saver will be selected after a period of time which can be set
from the savers window.
THE SAVERS
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The following savers are currently implemented.
Lines (1 group)
===============
This is the common ‘dancing lines’ saver and is mode independent, i.e. it
will run in any mode, taking up the whole screen. It looks best in hi-res
16 colour modes, but will work in most modes which are likely to be used.
Mirrored lines (1 group)
========================
This is similar to Lines, except a kaleidoscope effect is achieved by
reflecting the lines in horizontal and vertical axes along the middle of
the screen. This is also mode independent.
Lines (2 groups)
================
Similar to Lines except 2 groups of lines move independently of each other.
Quadrilateral
=============
Four points are joined to form a quadrilateral which constantly changes
shape as it’s corners move around the screen.
Flashing stars
==============
This is a simple effect with stars which flash on and off at random. An
appropriate 16-colour mode is entered if necessary.
Random
======
Explained above.
OTHER OPTIONS
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Blank time is fairly self-explanatory, and any time from 1 to 999 seconds
can be entered.
If ‘Blank after specified time’ is selected then the screen will be blanked
after the time which has been entered. You may wish to turn this feature
off, so that the screen is only blanked when the hotkey is pressed (see
following paragraph).
If instant blank is selected then pressing Control and Insert together
will start the screensaver. This has been improved since version 1.13 so
that the saver only starts when Control and Insert are *released*. In
previous versions, holding one of the keys down slightly too long caused
the saver to start and then stop again as it detected the keypress.
If ‘Ctrl-Insert to return from instant’ is selected then ONLY Ctrl-Insert
will return from a screensaver which has been started using the Instant
method. In other words, if the saver is started automatically after a
period of time then any mouse movement or keypress will kill the saver, but
if Ctrl-Insert was used to start the saver then ONLY Ctrl-Insert will kill
it. This means that the computer is locked in screensaver mode until Ctrl-
Insert is pressed again. This feature may be improved in the future to
support password protection.
If ‘Slow down on Risc PC’ is selected then the savers will be made to
run more slowly. I have used the utility module version to determine
whether the program is being used on a Risc PC. As Acorn have said that
they will not be releasing the ARM 610 or 710 for earlier machines, then
this shouldn’t cause a problem.
Selecting ‘Hide icon on startup’ in the options window causes SmallSave to
start up without placing an icon on the icon bar. This only takes effect
from when the program is next loaded. To hide the icon temporarily the icon
bar menu should be used.
Problems can occur if both SmallSave and the standard RISC OS screenblanker
are active. To overcome this, select ‘Disable standard screenblanker’ which
will issue the command *BlankTime 0 on startup. This doesn’t affect the
configuration in any way.
The four icons along the bottom of the window are as follows:
Demo : This will enter screensaver mode with the saver which is
displayed at the top of the window
Restore : Loads the options file from disc
Save : Saves the new options to disc
OK : Closes the window, remembering any changes.
If any of these four icons are selected while the Savers window is open,
then it will be closed, with the loss of any changes.
THE ICON BAR MENU
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This contains only 4 items, including Info and Quit. ‘Options...’ opens
the options window which is described above and ‘Hide Icon’ removes the
icon from the icon bar without affecting the options settings.
HIDING THE ICON
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If ‘Hide Icon on startup’ is selected from the options window then next
time the program is loaded no icon will appear, although the program will
be active. This should be the normal situation once you have set the
options. If you wish to hide the icon temporarily then the icon bar menu
should be used. In both cases the icon can be unhidden by pressing
Ctrl-Home.
SETTING UP THE PROGRAM FOR INCLUSION IN A BOOT SEQUENCE
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Select the saver and blank time required and set any other options. Make
sure that ‘Hide icon on startup’ is selected and click on Save, followed by
OK. Insert a line in your boot file such as
Filer_Run ADFS::IDEDisc4.Boot.Apps.!SmallSave
The program will be loaded from the boot file. No icon will appear on the
icon bar but the program will be running with the options which you saved.
On a Risc PC the SmallSave application should be placed in the Tasks
directory ($.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks) from where it will load
automatically on startup.
RISC PC
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SmallSave will run satisfactorily on a Risc PC, but at the moment only the
old style modes are used. I am in the process of writing some Risc PC
savers which should be included