Idle Version 2.2 - The GEM-based Screen Saver / Corner Clock ============================================================ Simply put IDLE.ACC on the root directory of your boot disk, and you'll have a desk accessory called "Idle", which will turn your screen black and make a little Atari logo slide around the screen (to remind you that the machine is in fact switched on). Hitting any key or moving the mouse will restore the screen. Unlike most other screen savers, this one will run on any ST with any type of monitor; even a Moniterm, an Image Systems board, or an ST that's had the "overscan" modification. Idle can also be run as a program simply by renaming/copying the file to IDLE.PRG, but this does NOT mean you can put Idle in your \AUTO folder. Using it as a program simply means that you can run it whenever you want to have your screen blanked and the accessory version isn't installed, for example, when you are about to head out for lunch. Idle relies on GEM for its graphics and background activity monitoring, which is why it only takes up about 24K - even with animation & large-screen support, but this also means that Idle will be ineffective while a non-GEM program is running. NOTE: Idle will usually cause a crash during a change of resolution. This is due to the fact that Idle has to install itself in a couple of system vectors in order to monitor printer and GEM text output. The problem is that there's no way for Idle to see a res. change coming and remove itself from these vectors (and even if it could, there's no 100% reliable way for it to completely remove itself). The best way to avoid this problem is to buy MultiDesk from CodeHead software and use it to load Idle. You can then simply instruct MultiDesk to clear out all of its accessories before a res. change and everything should be fine. Make sure to enable the MultiDesk "timers" option if you're using Idle with MultiDesk, or Idle won't work at all. As an aside, it's lots of fun to configure Idle to ignore GEM text and allow screen updates, then load 4 or 5 of them and watch them all kick-in at the same time. MultiDesk makes this easy since you don't have to reboot to load new accessories, although you can do it the "normal" way too if you like. The Corner Clock ---------------- Idle has a simple corner clock / caps lock indicator that it displays in the upper right corner of the screen. The caps lock indicator shows as an underscore when caps lock is not active, and an up-arrow when caps lock is active. You can change the format of the date / time display by clicking the RIGHT mouse button near the caps lock indicator. There are a total of 6 formats that Idle will cycle through: 15:10 _ { 24 hour time format } May 24, 1990 15:10 _ { date + 24 hour time } 03:10 PM _ { AM/PM time format } May 24, 1990 03:10 PM _ { date + AM/PM time } _ { caps lock indicator only } { nothing at all } The date / time format is saved with the rest of the configuration when the "Save" button is selected (see the next section). Configuring Idle ---------------- Once Idle has been installed as an accessory, you can configure several of its options simply by holding down one of the shift keys while selecting Idle from the "Desk" menu. Idle will present you with a dialog which allows you to set some options and/or save the configuration. If you select the "Save" button, Idle will attempt to save the current configuration to IDLE.ACC or IDLE.PRG (depending on how you ran Idle) in the current directory. If it doesn't find itself in the current directory it will present you with a file selector and ask you to locate the appropriate IDLE.ACC/PRG file. The options you're allowed to change are: - The events to monitor for activity in order to determine that the system is idle. The keyboard is always monitored, but there are 4 other items you can individually select. Enabling an option will prevent Idle from blanking the screen when activity is present, and it will cause Idle to restore the screen if activity occurs while it is blanked. o The mouse - this will watch for mouse movement. Mouse button clicks are not monitored, but it's pretty hard to click without moving the mouse at all. Unlike the other options, any mouse movement once the screen is blank will restore it - even if this option is disabled. o The modem (RS232) port - this will watch for RS232 port activity. o Printer output - this will watch for output to the printer. Note that this watches the documented system call for printer output, so the output of programs which bypass the system call and go directly to the hardware will not be noticed by Idle. o GEM text - this will watch for GEM text output calls. This will catch the output of most GEM programs as well as things like dialog and alert box output. For you programmers out there, the v_gtext() and v_justified() VDI calls are watched. - What Idle will do once the screen has been blanked. o Whether or not to allow other applications to write to the screen while it is blank. Normally, Idle will prevent other GEM applications from writing to the screen while it is blank [by making a wind_update() call]. In 99.9% of the cases Idle would automatically wake up before a program needed to output to the screen anyway, usually due to activity on the modem or printer port assuming you have Idle configured in such a manner. If you enable this option, output from other programs will be allowed to "bleed through" the blackened screen while Idle is doing its thing. There aren't too many programs that would even bother to output to the screen without direct user input, but for ones that do (ex. the STalker terminal accessory) the results can be rather amusing. One additional word of caution: Idle uses the GEM menu/alert buffer in order to save the contents of the menu bar just before it blanks the screen. This is one of the reasons why Idle uses just under 24K of RAM, even on an Image Systems hi-res colour monitor where the menu bar consumes over 9K alone; but the down side is that if an alert is drawn or a menu drops down while the screen is blank the menu bar won't restore properly. It is highly recommended that you leave this option off, but it's there in case you need it. o Whether the Atari Fuji symbol should rotate or sit still as it glides across the screen. o Whether the screen background should be plain black or a bunch of twinkling stars. If you hold down the Alternate key while invoking Idle it will display the other background without the need to bring up the configuration screen. - When to blank the screen. o After the specified number of minutes has passed with no "activity" (based on what Idle has been told to watch). A value of 0 minutes means that Idle will never kick-in on its own. o When the mouse pointer enters a particular corner of the screen. This allows you to invoke Idle at any time simply by moving the mouse pointer into (by default) the top right-hand corner. Copyright etc. -------------- Idle is freeware, and may be distributed freely as long as this text file is included (unmodified). Idle may not be part of a commercial product or package without the written consent of Eric Rosenquist. If you have so much goodness in your heart that you would like to compensate me for my efforts, feel free to send a donation to the following address (please specify *why* if you do - unexplained cheques are very mysterious): Eric Rosenquist Strata Software 94 Rowe Drive Kanata Ontario Canada K2L 3Y9 Phone/Fax: (613) 591-1922 Questions, comments, or suggestions may be directed to the above address, or to: GEnie: E.ROSENQUIST Bix: e_rosenquist CompuServe: 72711,2503 Look for our STalker/STeno package at your local dealer, or call or write us for information. STalker is a full featured communication program that runs as a desk accessory and does *everything* in the background, including uploading, downloading, and sequence dialing. STeno is a text editor accessory / program with word-wrap, search and replace, cut and paste, paragraph reformatting, and much more. You get both for $30 US ($35 CAN - Ontario residents add 8% PST).