ARM Club 1/ARM_CLUB_CD.iso/contents/sillies/silly4/!Sunny/!Help

Text File | 1993-09-01 | 14KB | 269 lines

                     !Sunny © Colin McEwan 1992,1993
                            v2.01 (05 Aug 1993)
                 "To bring some sunshine into dull lives"

   Introduction
   ************

 Hello.

   Chapter 1 - description
   ***********************

 The application !Sunny is completely silly,and should at all times be
regarded as such.By taking such a view of it,all criticisms such as "What's
the point?" or "It's just crap." are instantaneously swept aside,as there is
no point except for that of being completely silly,and it is intended to be
crap. What it does is turns your pointer into a nice little sunny-sunshine-
face-type-thing.This is very silly,and utterly pointless.The sheer silliness
of it,however,is taken to such an extreme that it is funny.This is the
point. If I can make just one person smile,it will all have been worthwhile.
(pitty that one person won't want to make me smile...)

   Chapter 2 - instructions
   ************************

 !Sunny is used thus:
      1):- Double-click on it's icon in the directory viewer.The application
           will be loaded and will place a !Sunny icon on the iconbar.

      2):- Click SELECT or ADJUST over the iconbar icon.

      3):- to turn your pointer back into it's normal form,repeat step 2.

      4):- to terminate the application,Click MENU over the iconbar icon
           again,this time selecting the "Quit" option.The program will kill
           the "Sunny Hourglass" module then commit suicide,
           surrendering it's application memory back to the system,and
           providing no further modules were loaded after the !Sunny
           application was loaded,the memory consumed by the module will
           also be made available for loading of further modules.

      6):- Steps 2 and 3 may be alternatively carried out by clicking MENU
           over the iconbar icon and selecting the "Sunny" option from the
           menu.

 It's that simple.
 NB the above symbols after the numbers are NOT supposed to be psychotically
deranged smileys!

 A point to note is that even if the mouse pointer is switched off using
*Pointer 0 or a SWI OS_Mouse,the Sunny face will still remain. Also,if the
computer is reset using RESET alone (a soft reset),you will have to type
*RMClear before !Sunny will load again,as the module will still be
present,and the !Sprint file uses the presence of the module as an indicator
of wheter or not the !Sunny application is already loaded. I hate this
technique.It stinks. But until someone tells me how to use the Wimp
messaging system to tell if a named task is running,or even better buys me a
copy of the RO3 PRMs,then that's the way it's going to have to stay.A
hard-disc drive is a higher priority than the PRMs at the moment.


   Chapter 3 - the main menu
   *************************

 This may be obtained by clicking MENU over the iconbar icon.It is a list of
items,any of which may be selected by clicking SELECT or ADJUST over
them,or if there is a small arrow to the right of it,by positioning the
pointer over the arrow to reveal a sub-menu or dialogue box.
 This menu has the following entries;

               Info   ⇨;-positioning the pointer over the arrow next to this
                         will reveal a small dialogue box containing the
                         standard information for applications,according to
                         the standard RISC OS style.(well,more or less...)
               Sunny   ;-clicking on this will activate the Sunny pointer
                         animation (see chapters 1 and 2).A tick will appear
                         to the left of the entry when you bring up the menu
                         again.If you click on it when the tick is
                         present,then the animation will be stopped and the
                         tick removed.
               Credits ;-Selecting this menu option will cause a scrolling
                         window to appear with the credits for this
                         application.(Wow.Mega-boring)
               Quit    ;-Causes the application to shut down and surrender
                         it's application memory (see chapter 2).

 NB Those are not smileys either.

 If you click on an item with ADJUST rather than SELECT,then the stated
action will take place,but the menu will remain on screen,rather than
disappearing.

 Under RISC OS 3, small symbols will appear to the left of the entry,but
this is nothing to worry about (calm down,you paranoid person...).

   Chapter 4 - the Credits window
   ******************************

 Selecting the "Credits" option from the main menu will display the credits
window.To the left hand side of this window is an area which scrolls
downwards continuously,displaying the credits and various other stuff.To
facilitate your viewing of this particularly silly window,there are various
buttons ranged along the right hand side.From the top downwards,these are:

   Reset ;-Clicking this will cause the scrolling area to be reset to the
           start of the text.
   Play  ;-Clicking this will cause the scrolling area to continue scrolling
           at the default speed.For use after a Pause or change of speed.
   Slow  ;-Clicking this will cause the scrolling area to scroll more
           slowly.If pause has been pressed,then this will "un-pause" it.
   Fast  ;-Clicking this will cause the scrolling area to scroll more
           quickly.If pause has been pressed,then this will "un-pause" it.
   Pause ;-This will cause the scrolling to halt,if you need to move your
           attention to something else.
   OK    ;-This will stop the scrolling like pause and also remove the
           window from the desktop.If you select the "Credits" option from
           the main menu again,the window will re-appear and continue
           scrolling from where it was when you clicked OK.

NB Those are not smileys either.

   Chapter 5 - boring copyright notice.
   ************************************

 This application is Public Domain.It may be freely copied and distributed
in any medium deemed suitable,so long as the following conditions are
observed;

    1) This application is free,and therefore may not be sold for profit.A
small charge may be levied by anyone wishing to distribute it,but this
charge should be limited to carriage,medium,and other expenses.No profit of
more than 25% of the charge may be made by the distributer.
    2) The application must be left intact,and only distributed as the
whole.No part of it may be copied or distributed seperately of the main
application.This term applies to all code, documentation, sprites,
templates, and all other files contained within the application directory.
    3) Any individual wanting to alter any part of this application must
first obtain written permission from me,the Author,BEFORE sltering any part
of it. Altered copies may not be distributed without my clearance first,so I
may assign a version number and ensure that no-one does anything naughty and
tries to blame me.
    4) If you are un-necesarily paranoid of FAST coming and busting you for
having this application (they won't know me,as I'm not a big software
company,and they might think that you've typed in this copyright message
yourself),then you may obtain a site-licence for !Sunny (you don't actually
need one of these, but if FAST see a signature from somewhere too far away
for them to visit to verify it's validity,then they'll leave you alone) for
£5 from me (my address is at the end of this file).This will entitle you to
use !Sunny on any number of RISC OS machines,copy it as many times as you
like, throw them about,and anything else assosciated with !Sunny.This is
specifically for people like computing teachers (I'm not metioning any
names,Mrs Miller.Oh darn...now all the world knows how paranoid you are...)

 The above terms apply to v2.10 and earlier of !Sunny.

 If a recipitant of a copy of this application (that means you) suspects
that any part of the application may have been altered,if you send me a copy
of your copy,I shall check it to see if anything has been altered and then
return your disc (with a legitimate version,and also some of my other PD
stuff as a reward for helping me to keep track of my applications).But
please only send E format discs,as I don't have a High Density disc
drive.

   Chapter 6 - miscellany
   **********************

 If you recieve a "Filing system or Path 'System:' not present" error when
attempting to load this application,then you should open a directory viewer
with a set of !System resources in it.The !System resources must have a copy
of Jon Ribbens's WimpExt module,version 2.10 or later.If they do not,then
subsequent errors may be "File 'System:modules.WimpExt' not found." and also
a message to the effect of your version of WimpExt is too old. By sending me
a blank disc and an SAE,I will give you a copy of the latest version of this
module I have (currently this is v2.17,but I hope to get my hands on a copy
of v3.00 soon (Take the hint,Andrew)).

 If you want to contact me or anything,then I am Colin McEwan (NB the "c" in
"McEwan" is supposed to be super-script.),and I live at;

                          11 Helen Way
                          Bonhill
                          Dunbartonshire
                          Strathclyde
                          Scotland
                          G83 9PJ

For a version history of this application,see the file !ReadMe in this
application directory.

   Chapter 6 - competition
   ***********************

Yes folks,it's competition time.To win a nice disc full of my PD programs,
and also a FREE site licence for !Sunny. To win these goodies,just send a
blank disc and a letter to me with the answer to the below question. All
entrants will have their disc returned with the programs on it,so everyone
wins.But only the real winner who gets the question right and all that gets
the free site licence(because I can't be bothered printing it out
squillions of times).The question is:

  "The more prominent politicians of today seem to be more concerned with
keeping up their images and swaying the public to them than with their true
jobs,namely that of running the country as smoothly and efficiently as
possible.Discuss."

   The winner will be chosen for sharpness of observation, satrical edge,
general comment and slagging of the government.
   Please state on all entries the application and version number from which
the question came.(This is !Sunny v2.01).If you just send me a blank disc
and a letter,I'll give you the programs anyway,because it's the letters I
really want (I find postage stamps and printer ribbons a very rewarding way
of spending my money.).


   Chapter 7 - complaints
   **********************

   Just a few complaints I have.

          1)  Star Micronics
              **************
              Why on earth did you make the ZX9 ribbon so flimsy? My LC200
              has worked it's way through (quite litterally) just one ribbon
              now,and that ribbon is simply ripped accross the middle where
              the head has passed over God knows how many times.But the
              inking wheel/sponge/thingie is still full of ink! I mean,this
              is not efficient.The ribbon should out-last the ink,as it is
              possible to re-ink the wheel,but it is not economical to
              replace the ribbon for a cartridge.For those who don't have
              one,the LC200 has a ZX9 ribbon cartridge which moves across
              with the print-head.The ribbon is on a continous loop,being
              re-inked each time round by a sponge wheel full of ink.My
              printer has quite litterally chewed through the middle of the
              ribbon,cutting it into 2 seperate strips.And there is still
              plenty of ink in the inking wheel.Horridible

          2)  Acorn Computers ltd
              *******************
              Why are all your computers so expensive? I mean,there's no
              excuse! Sure,you can get away with charging that amount of
              money,but if you want to grow,you're going to have to drop
              basic hardware prices.(especially with the A3010).

          3)  Domark
              ******
              Do a new version of the 3D construction kit for RISC OS 3,and
              THEN I'll consider buying it. By the way,turning off the
              screen blanking DOES NOT make it work with RISC OS 3.You have
              to actually kill the module.

          4)  Vertical Twits
              **************
              Gay Wazzard is useless.Have you actually sold it to anyone?

          5)  HAL from the DataBay
              ********************
              Why didn't you use any of my excellent cheatmods? Don't you
              rate Zool,Chopper Force, SWIV, or James Pond in the top eight?
              And if not,how can you put BOTH versions of saloon cars there?
              AND FireballII Xtra (which is horrible)?AND Cycloids (Which is
              okay,but certainly not amongst the top eight)?
              Idiot.

          6)  Whoever-it-is-that-makes-Select-floppy-discs
              ********************************************
              I bought a box of 10 of your GUARANTEED error free 2DD
              discs,and only 3 formatted correctly.Of those,2 developed disc
              faults later (thankfully the data was backed up).