Showing hour, minute and second sweep hands, clicking on the face changes the clock picture, resizable, works in the background so can be left on your desktop, optional digital display, optional country times (for over 100 countries) and correction for summer time. If you are familiar with ResEdit then you can add your own clockfaces (if you have some really good ones, please send them to me). Note that the second hand will appear to run slowly and irregularly in two situations, when a PowerBook is doing nothing else and its CPU slows itself down, and when you are doing intensive calculations (DeskMates is always the last to get idle time!). Note also that the clock will not draw on > 8 bit monitors (yet).
2. A notebook:
A text editor not limited to 32,000 characters, with full search, find (including grep) and replace functionality, and able to open any text file from within the application. Does not currently support multiple styles.
3. A stopwatch:
A stopwatch able to run in the back or foreground, with 3 timers able to record split times, and able to be restarted using clicking on their displays or command key equivalents, and 15 alarms which can optionally display reminder text, and record to a maximum time of over 16 hours. All three timers can be started together or separately.
4. A calculator:
Containing simple and more complex mathematical formulae including reciprocals, roots, squares, powers, logarithms to base 2, e, 10, percentages, factorials combinations and permutations, and trigonometric functions (using degrees or radians). Has full error trapping.
5. A calendar:
Click on the month and year titles to set to any month or year. Click on the current date and time to reset to the current date. Click on the small alarm clock icon to show the Alarm Clock settings dialog (see next topic).
6. Alarm clock:
This is an alarm scheduler. It will also work in the background, and will put a small alarm clock in place of the Apple menu icon (System 6) or the Applications menu icon at top right (System 7) after sounding a beep. When you bring DeskMates back to the foreground, a dialog will tell you what alarm you have set. This supports multiple alarms (approx. 10,000 at present), each with premonitory timing and recurrent alarms settings (even several years later if wanted). When the alarm sounds, you can elect to postpone it (minutes to weeks). A future upgrade (if there is any interest) will support an appointments scheduler attached to calendar as well.
7. On-line help system:
A fully integrated on-line help system (and hence DeskMates does not need a manual).
8. Compatibility:
It is compatible with Macintoshes with system 6.05 and above, including system 7, and will run on any screen depth (though note that the analog clock will not show on depths > 8 bit). It has been tested on PowerBooks, LC IIIs and Quadras. The application is set to 520K, so you will be able to read the Help files on a color Mac, but if you want you can run it down to the minimum (esp on monochrome screens or if you dont wish to read the help files). The color clock offscreen pixmap needs about 50K. I have included a clickable “peek control” (courtesy FaceWare) on the top of the clipboard window, which can show you how much compact memory you have left. If you find this shows less than 25K then you should increase the memory partition (choose the File menu items “Get Info” whilst DeskMates is selected in the Finder and set the lowest application memory size partition). Note that if you try to open text files which are large, if there is not enough memory to open them entirely, you will be advised by a dialog. To see the file, quit, and increase the memory partition by 50K increments (or estimate if you know the file size).
9. The hidden salutation:
There is a hidden salutation (the Aussie way) within the program somewhere. Good luck with finding it.
If you like this and use it, then I ask you to be honest, and to send:
(i) suggestions about improving it (eg adding functionality or even adding new modules),
(ii) send what you think it is worth (may I suggest $15) to me at either of the addresses below. If you do, I will register you for free upgrades and be able to enact your suggestions quickly (even customize your copy ). I am sending it out as shareware since I would get the same slice anyway (or less) if I fully published it, which believe me I’ve tried with similar programs, and I believe in the basic goodness of man…
David Darby, WhiteAnt Occasional Publishing
Current Address: 69 Saco St, Newton, MA 02164, USA (current address until 1994), phone 617-965-6506, email darby@sprcore.bih.harvard.edu.
Of course I give no warranty, or guarantees that this software will do what it is intended to do, and it may not be distributed commercially or packaged with any product placed for sale or profit without the explicit permission of the author. If you find any bugs or incompatibilities I will be most surprised and disappointed, but in any case please inform me.
Beta-tester note: if you have used an older version of DeskMates, please throw away the two settings files created by older ß versions, which will be inside your System folder (the variables have been altered). These files are named “ Alarm Clock “ and “DeskMates.prefs”. (Note the spaces on either side of the alarm clock file name.
