The Business Master (4th Edition)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Business Master (4th Edition) / The Business Master - 4th Edition.iso / files / utilreen / fracmani / fm12d.exe / FRACTALM.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-02-22 | 39KB | 829 lines

Fractal Mania v1.2 for DOS Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.0 2.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 3.0 INSTALLATION 3.1 ADDING FRACTAL MANIA TO YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE 4.0 USING FRACTAL MANIA v1.2 FOR DOS 4.1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS 4.2 HOTKEYS 4.2.1 CREATING CUSTOM HOTKEYS 5.0 CONFIGURING FRACTAL MANIA 6.0 TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE 7.0 HOW TO CONTACT US 8.0 CUSTOM PROGRAMMING 9.0 TECHNICAL SUPPORT 10.0 OTHER DESERT FROG PRODUCTS 10.1 DESERT FROG SCREEN SCENES 10.2 SHOWLOGO 11.0 REGISTRATION AND SITE LICENSES 1.0 INTRODUCTION Fractal Mania v1.2 for DOS (Fractal Mania) is the latest in a line of sophisticated DOS screen savers from Desert Frog Software. Unlike most other DOS screen savers, Fractal Mania does something fun when it blanks the screen. Fractal Mania can display up to 100 different 256-color palette- animated fractal scenes for your enjoyment. Fractal Mania comes with a separate utility program called FMCONFIG. FMCONFIG allows you to enable, disable or view each scene individually. The length of time to delay before popping up can be set to between 1 and 60 minutes. Password protection can be enabled, preventing unauthorized use of your PC. The palette animation speed can be controlled to allow you to adjust for the speed of your PC. Fractal Mania looks at the keyboard, mouse and printer to decide when it should pop up. This means that it will not pop up when you are entering data or printing. Fractal Mania detects when Microsoft Windows 3.0 or greater is active and avoids interfering with it. Fractal Mania also detects when you are using a SVGA video mode and blanks the screen if it cannot properly save and restore that mode. During telecommunication sessions, Fractal Mania detects that your modem is active and blanks the screen instead of popping up a fractal. This allows your communication session to proceed unimpeded. The fractal scenes in this program were generated using FRACTINT, a freeware fractal program produced by the Stone Soup Group. 1.1 CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.0 o Fractal color 'flow' speed control moved to FMCONFIG o Updated documentation o Enhanced registration incentives 2.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Fractal Mania for DOS v1.2 requires a hard disk and a VGA video card and monitor. Expanded memory is recommended but not required. The program works with DOS versions 2.0 to 6.2 and is compatible with Microsoft and Logitech mice. OS/2 and Geoworks are NOT supported (see below for coexistence with unsupported programs). Fractal Mania requires 256K of available RAM during installation and removal from memory. Fractal Mania occupies about 7K of RAM when waiting to pop up. 3.0 INSTALLATION Fractal Mania is easy to install. Copy the file FM12D.EXE from the distribution disk onto your hard disk. Once FM12D.EXE is copied to the hard disk, log into the directory containing it and run FM12D. FM12D.EXE is actually a self- extracting archive created using LHA.EXE v2.13, a freeware archiving package. When you run FM12D it extracts all the files which make up Fractal Mania. Once you have run FM12D.EXE you can delete it from your hard disk. The following set of commands creates a directory called FRACTALM on the C: drive, copies FM12D.EXE into this directory from the distribution disk in the A: drive, extracts all the Fractal Mania files and deletes FM12D.EXE from the C:\FRACTALM directory: C: MD FRACTALM CD FRACTALM COPY A:\FM12D.EXE FM12D DEL FM12D.EXE The Fractal Mania program itself is called FRACTALM.EXE. To run it enter the path and file name as shown below (assuming that Fractal Mania is installed in a directory called FRACTALM on your C: drive): C:\FRACTALM\FRACTALM Using the full path as shown above, guarantees that Fractal Mania can find its files when trying to pop up. 3.1 ADDING FRACTAL MANIA TO YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE The best way to use Fractal Mania is to add it to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This file is basically a list of commands that are performed each time you turn on your PC. By adding Fractal Mania to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you will save yourself from having to run it manually. Fractal Mania should be loaded after any network drivers or communication programs or other programs that receive real- time messages. Fractal Mania should also be loaded after multitasking software like DesqView or OmniView. Finally, Fractal Mania should be loaded before any DOS Shell or menu programs. As an example, assume you have installed Fractal Mania in the C:\FRACTALM directory. You would then add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: C:\FRACTALM\FRACTALM Do NOT add this line to your PATH statement. It should be a separate line. Using the full path as shown above, guarantees that Fractal Mania can find it's files when trying to pop up. The next time you reboot or power up the system, Fractal Mania will be automatically loaded and ready to save your screen. 4.0 USING FRACTAL MANIA FOR DOS v1.2 Fractal Mania has a wealth of options, allowing you to customize the program for your system and personal style. When you run the program, you can set one or more command line options. Once the program is installed in memory, you can use the menu system or the hotkeys to further control the operation of the program. You can also just run the program without using any of the options. In the vast majority of cases everything will work perfectly without any further effort on your part. 4.1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Fractal Mania can accept various commands when it is run from the DOS prompt. There are two types of command line options. One type controls how Fractal Mania configures itself. This type is entered when Fractal Mania is first run, and the configurations they set do not change while the program is in memory. The other type commands Fractal Mania to do something now. These only work when Fractal Mania is already active. The following are command line options. They are entered like this: FRACTALM /D /S C:\FRACTALM. This set of options tells Fractal Mania to always swap to the disk and to put its swap files in the FRACTALM directory on the C: drive. The command line options are: /D Force disk swapping. Allows you to prevent Fractal Mania from using expanded memory. You would want to choose this option if you need to reserve the expanded memory for another program, or if you have an extended memory RAM disk that you would like to use for the Fractal Mania swap files. /G Go to sleep. Allows the user to prevent Fractal Mania from popping up automatically. It is not necessary to use this command when running your telecommunications software. Also useful if Fractal Mania causes problems when popping up over a particular program. Use this command line option when Fractal Mania is already active. /H hexkey Specify TSR hotkey in hexadecimal notation. It is possible that one of the programs you use may itself use the default <ALT><LeftShift> hotkey for something. If that is the case you will want to change the hotkey which activates Fractal Mania to something else. This option allows you to do so. Two alternate hotkeys are: <ALT><LeftShift><Z> (enter A2C as the hexkey) and <ALT><TAB> (enter 80F as the hexkey). See section 4.2.1 CREATING CUSTOM HOTKEYS for instructions on creating hotkeys other than those shown above. /M Disable swapping messages. Fractal Mania normally displays a message when swapping itself to and from the hard disk. If you don't want the message displayed, select this option. /N No mouse detection before popping up. The Fractal Mania mouse motion detection routine may conflict with some programs. Use this option to disable the mouse detection in case of conflicts. /S path Specify drive and directory for swap files. When swapping itself to the disk, Fractal Mania normally puts it's swap files in the C:\ directory. If you want them stored somewhere else, use this option to enter the drive and directory to use. Use this command to change the drive to one that has more space if you see a message like "Swap path invalid or insufficient swap space" when you run FRACTALM.EXE. /U Unload Fractal Mania. Removes Fractal Mania from memory. This will not be possible if another TSR program has been loaded after Fractal Mania. Fractal Mania will provide a message on the screen telling whether or not it was successfully unloaded. Use this command line option when Fractal Mania is already active. /W Wake up. Reactivates the Fractal Mania automatic pop-up code. Use this command when the program is asleep and you are ready for it to resume it's automatic function. Use this command line option when Fractal Mania is already active. /? Show these command line options. Use this command line option when Fractal Mania is already active. 4.2 HOTKEYS Hotkeys are commands to Fractal Mania that can be used at any time, including while another program is running! Each hotkey is actually a pair of keys depressed simultaneously. Hotkeys are shown like this in the descriptions that follow: <ALT><LSHFT> This means to depress the ALT, Left Shift and I keys simultaneously. It is called the Alt-Left Shift-I hotkey. <ALT><LSHFT> Alt-Left Shift-I the "Instant-on" hotkey. When pressed, this hotkey tells Fractal Mania to immediately display a scene. If Fractal Mania is swapping to disk it will actually take several seconds for the scene to appear. If Fractal Mania is popping up over a graphics- mode program there will be an additional delay while Fractal Mania stores the contents of video RAM on the hard disk. <ALT><LSHFT><G> Alt-Left Shift-G tells Fractal Mania to go to sleep. This hotkey is useful when you don't want Fractal Mania to pop up automatically. It is also useful if Fractal Mania causes problems when popping up over a particular program. For situations where you know you will always want Fractal Mania to sleep, you are better off using the command line switches in a batch file as described in section 4.1. <ALT><LSHFT><W> Alt-Left Shift-W tells Fractal Mania to wake up. This hotkey reactivates the Fractal Mania automatic pop-up code. Use this command when the program is asleep and you are ready for it to resume it's automatic function. There is an equivalent command line switch that can be used in a batch file (see section 4.1). 4.2.1 CREATING CUSTOM HOTKEYS A hotkey is a combination of a normal key and one of the special keys left shift, right shift, control or alt. These keys are pressed simultaneously and signal Fractal Mania to do something. Hotkeys can be used at any time that Fractal Mania is installed in memory, regardless of what program is active. This can lead to conflicts between Fractal Mania and the active program when both use the same key combination. Custom hotkeys can be defined to use in place of the <ALT><LSHFT> hotkey normally used by Fractal Mania to pop up. Two alternate hotkeys are <ALT><LeftShift><Z> and <ALT><TAB>. The hotkey is changed using the /H command line option (see section 4.1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS for details on using this option). If you want or need to create a custom hotkey different from those shown above, you need to follow the procedure detailed below. This procedure creates a custom hexcode: First, determine which special key you will use. The first character of your new hexcode is determined by the special keys as follows: Special Key Code <LeftShift> 2 <RightShift> 1 <ALT> 8 <CTRL> 4 Second, determine the alphanumeric key you will use. The second and third characters of the new hexcode are determined by the key you choose. The table below shows some normal keys and their codes. Key Code Key Code Key Code <1> 02 <2> 03 <3> 04 <4> 05 <5> 06 <6> 07 <7> 08 <8> 09 <9> 0A <0> 0B <A> 1E 30 <C> 2E <D> 20 <E> 12 <F> 21 <G> 22 <H> 23 17 <J> 24 <K> 25 <L> 26 <M> 32 <N> 31 <O> 18 19 <Q> 10 <R> 13 <S> 1F <T> 14 16 <V> 2F <W> 11 <X> 2D <Y> 15 <Z> 2C Third, combine the codes generated in the first two steps to create a new hexcode. For example, suppose you choose the key combination of <CTRL><N> as your new hotkey. Using the tables above you would determine that the new hexcode to use to make the hotkey <CTRL><N> is 431. Other custom hotkeys are determined similarly. 5.0 CONFIGURING FRACTAL MANIA The registered form of Fractal Mania comes with the configuration program (FMCONFIG). It is a normal program that you run from the DOS prompt to control the configuration of Fractal Mania. Running FMCONFIG displays the Fractal Mania Configuration menu. The menu provides information about the program and allows the user to configure the program to his or her taste. The menu options are: About - Provides information about this version of Fractal Mania as well as information about other Desert Frog Software products. Press a key to exit this screen. Exit - Exit the main menu. Returns you to the DOS prompt. Configure - Allows the user to modify the operation of Fractal Mania. Sets the number of minutes to delay before popping up, enables/disables password protection (see Password below) and allows you to control the speed at which the colors change in the fractals. Press <CTRL><ENTER> when done modifying these parameters. Thc configuration information on this menu is saved whenever you exit the menu. To move the highlight down the list press ENTER, the Down arrow, TAB or Page Down. To move up the list press the Up Arrow, Shift TAB or Page Up. Note that the mouse is not enabled when the configure screen is active. Select Scenes - Provides a scrolling list of the available scenes. Scenes are enabled (eligible to pop up) when there is a check mark to the left of the scene name. The currently selected scene is highlighted. The currently selected scene can be enabled, disabled or demonstrated. When a demonstration is being run, the screen will appear exactly the way it would if the scene were popped up. Moving the mouse or pressing a key ends the demonstration. A list of currently enabled scenes is saved whenever you exit the scene list. Keyboard Control - To move the highlight down through the list you can use the Down Arrow, Right Arrow or Page Down keys. To move the highlight up through the list use the Up Arrow, Right Arrow or Page Up keys. Pressing the Space Bar toggles the highlighted scene between the enabled and disabled states. To run a demonstration of the highlighted scene press the Enter key. Press any key to exit the demonstration. Press the Escape key to exit the scene list and return to the Main Menu. Mouse Control - To highlight a scene move the mouse cursor (a red block with a white triangle in it) over the name of the scene you wish to highlight and click the left mouse button. To enable or disable the highlighted scene, click the left mouse button while the mouse cursor is on the highlighted scene name. Repeated clicking of the left button toggles the highlighted scene between enabled and disabled. To view a demonstration of a scene, highlight the scene name then click the right mouse button. To end the demonstration move the mouse or click either mouse button. Along the right-hand side of the scene list is a vertical bar with an arrow facing up at the top of the bar and one facing down at the bottom. This is the scroll bar. To move the highlight down through the scene list place the mouse cursor over the downward facing arrow on the scroll bar and click the left mouse button. Repeated clicking will move the highlight to the end of the visible list of scenes and will scroll the list to display scene names that are not currently visible. To move the highlight up through the scene list place the mouse cursor over the upward facing arrow on the scroll bar and click the left mouse button. Repeated clicking will move the highlight to the top of the visible list of scenes and will scroll the list to display scene names that are not currently visible. It is also possible to move through the list by placing the mouse cursor on the scroll bar itself and clicking the left button. If you place the mouse cursor at the top of the scroll bar and click, the highlight will be moved to the top of the list of scenes. If you place the mouse cursor at the bottom of the scroll bar and click, the highlight will be moved to the end of the list of scenes. If you place the mouse cursor in the middle of the scroll bar and click, the highlight will be moved to the middle of the list of scenes. Note that the scroll bar represents the entire list of scenes and not just those that are visible at the moment. Password - Allows the user to enter a password for use with all the scenes. When password protection is enabled (see Configuration above) and a scene is active, the PC will remain locked with the scene active until the proper password is entered or the PC is turned off or otherwise rebooted. When typing your password, the characters you type will be replaced by asterisks (*) on the screen so that no one can see what you have typed. When finished entering the password, press Control-Enter <CTRL><ENTER>. You will then be asked to reenter the password to confirm it. The password must be 20 characters or less. Your password is encrypted and saved with the other configuration data when you exit the password screen. It is not necessary to enter your password every time you turn on the computer, the password you select remains in force until you enter a new one. 6.0 TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE Fractal Mania v1.2 for DOS is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program. MS-DOS was not designed as a multitasking environment, so there is always a chance of conflicts between the resident program and the normal application running at the time. Try the suggestions listed here if you have a conflict between Fractal Mania and another program. Problem: Fractal Mania pops up when I am running program X and messes it up. Solution: Use the /G command line option to make Fractal Mania go to sleep before running the program and use the /W command line option to wake it up again once you are done. A batch file that implements this fix for a program called ELMER might look like this (if Fractal Mania is in the C:\FRACTALM directory): C:\FRACTALM\FRACTALM /G ELMER C:\FRACTALM\FRACTALM /W Problem: Program X uses the same hotkey as Fractal Mania. Solution: Use the /H command line option to set a different primary hotkey for Fractal Mania. Problem: Fractal Mania won't pop up unless I am logged into the directory it is installed in. Solution: On some systems Fractal Mania has trouble determining the full path by itself. First, unload Fractal Mania from memory using the /U command line option. Try running it again using the full path name. For example if Fractal Mania is stored on the C: drive in a directory called FRACTALM, run the program by entering C:\FRACTALM\FRACTALM. If the program works correctly, you can use the full path name in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file as well. Problem: My mouse behaves funny when I run program X with Fractal Mania installed. Solution: Use the /N command line option to tell Fractal Mania not to check the mouse before popping up. With this option selected, Fractal Mania will pop up if all you are using is the mouse, but it will immediately stop execution when you next move the mouse. Problem: Fractal Mania pops up when I'm doing very long recalculations with my spreadsheet. Solution: Put Fractal Mania to sleep using the <ALT><LSHFT><G> hotkey for very long recalculations. Problem: Program X runs a lot slower than it used to. Solution: Program X was probably using expanded memory for data or overlay storage and now Fractal Mania is using that memory. Run Fractal Mania with the /D command line option to force it to use disk space for storing it's overlays instead of using the expanded memory. Problem: I get a message like "Swap path invalid or insufficient swap space" when I try to run Fractal Mania. Solution: A message like this means one of two things. The first possibility is that you do not have a C: drive. When Fractal Mania needs to store it's swap files, it tries to store them in the C:\ directory. In this case you need to specify another drive using the /S command line option. The second possibility is that your C: drive does not have enough memory to hold the Fractal Mania swap files. Delete some old files from your hard disk or use the /S command line option to specify a different drive to hold the swap files. Problem: Fractal Mania works fine with all my programs except program X, which uses a DOS extender. If it pops up when program X is running, the system crashes. Solution: Fractal Mania is incompatible with some DOS extenders, in particular the one from Phar Lap. Either activate this program with a batch file that puts Fractal Mania to sleep or manually put it to sleep before activating program X. Problem: When Fractal Mania pops up over program X, which is a graphics-mode program, the screen doesn't get restored properly after Fractal Mania is done. Solution: Fractal Mania needs up to 195K of hard disk space to store the contents of the video card's memory when popping up over graphics-mode programs. If there isn't enough hard disk space to store this information, the screen will not be restored properly. Provide some additional space on the hard disk for Fractal Mania to store this information. It is also possible that program X is using a non-standard video mode which Fractal Mania does not recognize. Try running program X in a different video mode or put Fractal Mania to sleep when running program X. Problem: I can't get Fractal Mania to run on my machine, but SideKick works fine. Solution: SideKick can cause problems for other TSRs. Fractal Mania tries to neutralize the problems but is not always able to do so. When it cannot, it won't load after SideKick. To resolve this problem you can try loading Fractal Mania into memory before SideKick. This may work fine. Fractal Mania should work just fine with SideKickPlus. 7.0 HOW TO CONTACT US There are three good ways to contact Desert Frog Software. They are: Phone: (602) 843-0183 U.S. Mail: Desert Frog Software P.O. Box 10413 Glendale, AZ 85318-0413 CompuServe: 70641,1102 Ask for Bill Mann. 8.0 CUSTOM PROGRAMMING Desert Frog Software provides custom programming services. We specialize in graphically-oriented applications for DOS and Windows and provide a high-quality scanning service. Custom versions of this program are also available. To discuss your project contact Bill Mann at (602) 843-0183. We are located in Arizona, which is always on Mountain Standard Time. Our time is two or three hours earlier than on the East Coast and the same time as, or one hour later than, the West Coast, depending on time of year. 9.0 TECHNICAL SUPPORT Desert Frog Software provides free technical support to users of our products. Please see section 7.0 HOW TO CONTACT US. 10.0 OTHER DESERT FROG PRODUCTS Desert Frog Software has produced some other screen-saver programs you may be interested in. 10.1 DESERT FROG SCREEN SCENES Desert Frog Screen Scenes (Screen Scenes) provides 29 (16 if you don't have a VGA system) different scenes for your enjoyment. The wide range of scenes includes a kaleidoscope, an aquarium full of Crazy Fish, the long- awaited hopping frog scene and a set of wild 256-color palette-animated fractals! 10.2 SHOWLOGO ShowLogo is a business-oriented screen saver. Both DOS and Windows versions are now available. Instead of the wild graphics that are displayed by Fractal Mania, ShowLogo displays a scanned or painted image in the popular .PCX format. ShowLogo allows you to display your own scanned or painted image, or you may have your image professionally scanned by Desert Frog Software. ShowLogo also allows the user to lock the system or leave a message. VGA and a hard disk are required. The DOS and Windows versions of ShowLogo share configuration files so the settings you make in DOS carry across to Windows and vice versa. Please contact Desert Frog Software directly for more information. 11.0 REGISTRATION AND SITE LICENSES Discounted site licenses are available for all Desert Frog products. See section 7.0 for information on how to contact us directly. Fractal Mania is shareware. If you find it useful, please register. US/International registration information is shown below. When you register you will receive the latest version of Fractal Mania (one that does NOT display the blue "Please Register" screen). The registered version contains a total of 40(!) fractal scenes and comes with a printed manual and the Fractal Mania configuration program. The configuration program allows you to customize your Fractal Mania installation. With it, you can: set the time delay before popping up; select which fractal scenes you want displayed and which you don't; activate password protection of your computer; select your own password. U.S. & CANADIAN REGISTRATION INFORMATION The registration fee for Fractal Mania is $22.00 plus shipping and handling. You can send a check/money order to: Desert Frog Software P.O. Box 10413 Glendale, AZ 85318-0413 All checks/money orders must be US funds drawn on a US bank. You can order with your MC, VISA, AmEx or Discover card by calling Public (software) Library at 800-242-4PsL (US), or 713-524-6394 (CAN). You can also FAX to 713-524-6398 or send CompuServe mail to 71355,470. THESE NUMBERS ARE FOR ORDERS ONLY. We can NOT be reached at these numbers. For information on site licensing, volume discounts, the status of a shipment, the latest version number, technical information or to discuss returns, contact Desert Frog Software using the means shown in Section 7.0. Name ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25" Qty. Item Unit Price Total Price --- ----------------------------- ---------- ----------- ___ Fractal Mania v1.2B $22.00 ___________ Shipping and Handling + $3.00 US or $5.00 CAN Total ___________ Where did you get your shareware copy of Fractal Mania? [ ] BBS ___________________ [ ] Catalog _________________ [ ] Friend [ ] Other ____________________________________ EUROPEAN REGISTRATION INFORMATION The registration fee for Fractal Mania v1.2 is 17 Pounds Sterling. This includes all the new fractals as well as shipping and handling. This fee may change due to exchange rate changes. Please contact Hillfoots Data Services for the current fee. Send your registration to: Hillfoots Data Services Mains House Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire FK13 6PQ, UK Name ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25" Quantity Price per copy Total ____ Fractal Mania v1.2B 17 Pounds Sterling _____ Total _____ 1.2d AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND REGISTRATION INFORMATION The registration fee for Fractal Mania v1.2 is $35.00 Australian. This includes all the new fractals as well as shipping and handling. Orders can be placed with: BUDGETWARE P.O. Box 496 Newtown NSW 2042 AUSTRALIA Phone (02) 519-4233 Int'l +61 2 5194233 Fax (02) 516 4236 Int'l +61 2 5164236 BUDGETWARE accepts cheques, money orders, BANKCARD, VISA and MASTERCARD. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND REGISTRATION FORM Name ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________ Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25" Quantity Price per copy Total ____ Fractal Mania v1.2B $35.00 Australian _____ Total _____ 1.2d