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1988-12-19
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POWERKIT Documentation
November 1988
Version 1.90
Copyright 1987-88 by John H. Brooks.
All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to
distribute copies of this documentation.
DISCLAIMER: This software is sold "as is." No warranty is given, either
express or implied, that any specific POWERKIT feature will work on any
particular machine. The manufacturer will not be liable for any damage
caused by the use of POWERKIT.
The names of hardware and software products, and companies mentioned in
this document are trademarks or service marks of the respective companies.
To registered users, version 1.90 is a FREE upgrade.
FORWARD: Welcome, I'll be brief. I'm asking you to please pay for POWER-
KIT if you use it. At $12.95, I believe the price is fair. Give POWERKIT
a good workout, then remit to:
CENTRAL DATA SERVICES
1641 WINONA COURT
DENVER, CO 80204
(303) 595-4218
SUPPORT FOR POWERKIT: Since there are so many different video cards,
versions of PC/MS-DOS, flavors of the BIOS ROM, hardware configurations,
all calling themselves "PC (or AT) compatible," the "non-guarantee" above
is regrettable but necessary. Obviously, you won't buy POWERKIT if it
doesn't work on your machine, but if you could spare a few moments to let
me know what would not work, and what kind of machine you have, I'll do my
best to get POWERKIT to work on your machine. As many registered users of
POWERKIT have already discovered, I intend to have POWERKIT be one of the
best supported SHAREWARE (or commercial, for that matter) programs in the
business. SEE PAGE 11 FOR INFORMATION ON POWERKIT'S NEW ONLINE SUPPORT.
INSTALLATION: Type "PK" at the DOS prompt. You may also type some optional
instructions to POWERKIT (described in detail later) after the "PK".
INTRODUCTION: POWERKIT is small, about 2700 bytes of it stay in memory. If
each of POWERKIT's tasks were to be done by separate "COM" programs,
many thousands of bytes would be used. Almost all of POWERKIT's
operations may be controlled from the command line (the DOS prompt or
a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT), with a keyboard "hot" key, or from a pop-up
"1-2-3" style menu, even while you are inside another program. Many
can be disabled, if your favorite utility program does the same thing.
After all, POWERKIT uses very little memory.
Page 2
You will like the way POWERKIT handles your keyboard. A key, when
pressed, starts to repeat after a waiting period whose length you set,
accelerates smoothly at a rate you set to a top speed you set, and
when released, "stops on a dime." Keystrokes also may be made to
repeat very slowly, or to repeat not at all. POWERKIT's AutoPilot
lets you teach your machine how to do a repetitive task, while you sit
back and relax. If that's not enough, add an extra large keystroke
buffer and an ability to view what's in it, a way to route printer
output to your screen, an escape hatch from programs that falter, a
screen blanker, a floppy disk motor early shut-off, a way to protect
your machine from prying eyes and mischievous fingers (even at
bootup), a few other things, and there's HOOK.
HOOK is unique. HOOK will open up many of those programs that won't
let your "can't live without" pop-up utilities pop up. HOOK will do
other things too (see /K)eyboard redefine, and KEYPAD 5, H, page 9).
LESS EXPERIENCED PC USERS: Don't be put off by the wealth of more or less
technical data which follows. You already know how to get POWERKIT
working and if you read how to get the help menus (see /U1 farther down
this page) you may never have to read anything else about POWERKIT.
COMMANDING POWERKIT: Most POWERKIT parameters may be set by including them
after the "PK" when you call POWERKIT, and several MUST be set from
there. For example, typing:
PK/M15/W5/d2/f110/g68
will set the floppy disk motor to shut off after 1.5 seconds (15
tenths), the wait before repeating a keystroke to 1/2 second (5
tenths), the display to switch off after 2 minutes (if no keys have
been pressed during that time), the keystroke repeat speed to a
maximum of 110 keystrokes per second, and replaces KEYPAD 5 with F10
(68 is the decimal scan code for F10) as the HOT key. The commands
may be entered in any order, in lower/UPPER case.
The following commands can be given ONLY from the command line of
PK.COM
/U1 is for NEW USERS who would like to have a menu to remind them of
POWERKIT's many options. /U1 tells POWERKIT, as it is being loaded, to
attach an interface to itself which will allow it to communicate with
a public domain program called SlashBar. Slashbar is a program that
pops menus of the user's choice onto the screen whenever the "ALT" and
"/" keys are pressed simultaneously. SlashBar, and its complementary
program, MAKEBAR (MAKEBAR creates the menus SlashBar pops up), was
written by R.L. Hummel, who wrote a description of SlashBar and its
operation in the May 26, 1987 (vol. 6, # 10) issue of PC Magazine.
There are many places you can obtain a copy of SlashBar, including PC
Magazine's own BBS, (212) 696-0360 or (415) 598-9100.
Assuming you have obtained a copy of SLASHBAR.COM, some modifications
must be made to it. But don't worry, they only need be made once, and
they are easy to do. Make sure that DEBUG.COM, SLASHBAR.COM, and
SLASHMOD.TXT (included in this package) are on the same diskette,
then, at the "A>" prompt, type:
Page 3
A>debug slashbar.com <slashmod.txt
The modification allows SlashBar to communicate with programs (any
programs, not just POWERKIT) that are loaded "beneath" SlashBar. With
that task completed, see that POWERKIT.MNU (included in this package)
is on the same diskette as SLASHBAR.COM, and at the "A>" prompt, type:
A>slashbar powerkit.mnu/2000
Press "ALT" and "/" at the same time and watch POWERKIT's menu pop
onto the screen. The beauty of using SlashBar for POWERKIT's menus
(besides being my tiny contribution to standardization of program
interfaces) is that SlashBar need not be loaded when you are using a
huge application program that takes up virtually all available memory,
all memory, except perhaps for the 2.5k POWERKIT needs. SlashBar,
together with its menu buffer, uses several thousand bytes.
For you that register POWERKIT, send an extra $2.50, and receive the
latest version of POWERKIT, and a utility program that adds POWERKIT's
commands to any other "BAR" (menu) file you use with SlashBar.
/In, /Jn sets the high byte and low byte, respectively, of the "ex-
tended" ASCII code SlashBar (or any other menu program) uses to get
POWERKIT's attention. With SlashBar, the high byte "must" be zero.
The default low byte is 30 (1Eh), which is CTRL-6 (SlashBar doesn't
recognize KEYPAD 5). These switches were provided in case CTRL-6
means something to one of your programs, and you wish to write your
own "BAR" file (using MAKEBAR.COM), or use the utility provided to