The Datafile PD-CD 5/DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso/utilities/t/tinyclock/!TinyClock/!Help

Text File | 1991-07-16 | 7.0 KB | 177 lines

Tiny Clock +2
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
by Richard Chubb, 02-Sep-1989
updated by Richard G. Hallas, 04-Apr-1991
version 2 : 01-May-1991, 16-Jul-1991

Help file by Richard Hallas
____________________________________________________

»»»»»»»»»» Version 1 original notes - see the end of
           the file for notes on version 2 ...

Tiny Clock has for some time been my favourite desk-
top clock; it has a very clear and attractive face,
works unobtrusively with all other applications, and
is completely flicker-free. I have it on permanent
'boot-up' on my system. As it stands, though, all it
does is tell the time; there is no facility to set
the internal clock, and for that I have always had
to resort to Acorn's Alarm from Applications disc 2.

High time, I thought, to improve Tiny Clock and give
it Alarm's clock-setting features. Here then, for
your delectation, is Tiny Clock Plus!

Functionally, nothing has changed; it looks just the
same as it always did-after all, how can you improve
upon perfection? (Too many notes, Herr Mozart...)
Anyway, clicking ADJUST on the icon bar clock (or on
the copy in the Info box - neat, eh?) will bring up
a little dialogue box in the centre of the screen.
This looks similar to the one in Alarm, but isn't
quite the same; for one thing, there's now a Seconds
box so you don't have to wait for the seconds to
reach 00 before you press 'Set clock'. (Clicking on
the Seconds display will reset the seconds to 00).
Also, the way adjusting any one icon altered all the
others in Alarm annoyed me somewhat, so I've left
that feature out. However, altering the month or
year will alter the day to be correct for the
displayed date. If anyone really would like that
feature put in (eg increasing the minutes at 11:59
pm on Wed 3rd April would adjust all icons to 12:00
am on Thu 4th April, as in Alarm) let me know; I
could do it easily enough - I just prefer it the way
I've got it, personally. Clicking ADJUST again on
either clock face while the 'Set clock' window is on
the screen will update its contents to the current
time. The year can be set to any value between 1753
(the first complete year of the Julian calendar) and
9999; leap years are accounted for. Therefore the
day of the week, which is calculated automatically,
should (fingers crossed!) never be wrong.

Finally, when setting the clock in Alarm, pressing
OK introduces about a half-second's delay before the
clock is actually set; so to prove that the Arc's
clock really can be accurate, the 'Set clock' button
in Tiny Clock Plus is *instantaneous*!!!

Greetings to Richard Chubb and thanks for writing my
favourite desktop accessory - I hope you get a copy
of and approve of this version. Perhaps you could
give it a new version number? Drop me a line if you
like. In fact - anyone who wants to can drop me a
line! In fact, please do! I can be contacted as
follows:

   Richard G. Hallas,
   31 Skelton Crescent,
   Crosland Moor,
   Huddersfield,
   West Yorkshire,
   HD4 5PN         Telephone:  [phone].

I suppose I'd better put a PD notice in here. OK.
This software may be freely distributed as long as
all the files remain intact and it is not sold for
profit.

That'll do. Buy A.P.D.L.'s disc B057 which has a
couple of my things on it, including an upgrade to
Acorn's Magnifier. (Nothing like advertising your-
self, is there?!)

Have fun, and see y'all later...

Richard Hallas
____________________________________________________

»»»»»»»»»» Extra to version 2:

This new version of Tiny Clock+ has been updated to
look better on multisync monitors. Having just got a
Taxan 795, I thought Tiny Clock+ looked a little
blocky, so I have updated the face to be a Mode 20
sprite. Tiny Clock+2 now checks constantly to see if
a multisync mode is being used, and if it is, uses
the Mode 20 sprite; otherwise it uses the Mode 12
one. In fact, the Mode 20 sprite is only used for
those modes where the desktop's graphic resolution
is doubled but text resolution is not, so for multi-
sync modes which have normal graphic resolution but
twice the desktop space, the Mode 12 sprite is still
used.

If you don't understand the above, don't worry - all
you need to know is that the best-looking clock face
is always used for whatever mode you are using.

Unfortunately, when you change mode, and Tiny Clock
changes its clock face, the icon bar sprite has to
be deleted and recreated, which means that it re-
appears as if it were the most recent application
loaded, with the clock face towards the centre of
the icon bar. Therefore, if you had any applications
loaded after Tiny Clock, the clock face will shift
its position. I decided, therefore, to make Tiny
Clock default to the LEFT hand side of the icon bar,
since icons are changed less frequently at that side
- however, I decided that it would be a good idea to
make the side of the icon bar used definable: so now
there is an additional menu option - 'Change Sides'
- which, when selected, swaps the clock face from
one side of the icon bar to the other, and writes
the information to disc as the new default. You are
informed if Tiny Clock is unable to write this file
for any reason (e.g. the disc is write-protected, or
you are using WatchDog) and if Tiny Clock cannot
find its file, the left side of the icon bar is used
and no error is issued.

There's one further (very minor) modification: I
discovered that one of the blue 'figures' dots on
the original Mode 12 face was in the wrong place, so
I've moved it. Hence, a perfectly symmetrical face
now!

Due to the size of the program and new sprites, I
have had to compress the !RunImage file to make it
still run in 32K (using John Wallace's P.D. BASIC
Cruncher). The uncompressed version of !RunImage is
saved in the application directory under the name
!RunImageS. It contains plenty of comments and
(fairly) understandable variable and procedure
names.

I hope you like this clock. I certainly do, and use
it all the time. I think it's reached it's finished
state now, so I don't expect to alter it any more,
but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd certainly
like to hear them.

R.G.H.

P.S. I think it's a pity the icon has to be deleted
and redrawn when the mode is changed between normal-
and multi-sync. For the technically minded, I did
try the following:  I defined the Mode 12 clock as a
Mode 20 sprite, (which looked identical) as well as
the proper Mode 20 version, and instead of deleting
and recreating, I just renamed the sprites. This
worked, except for the fact that the computer always
plotted the hands on the sprite in Mode 20, even in
non-multisync modes, which meant that in these modes
alternate lines on the hands were missing. This was
OK when the hands were almost vertical, but when
they were almost horizontal, i.e. a shallow angle,
the looked very 'dashy' and not continuous lines.
I decided that this effect was less bearable than
the wandering icon, so that's the reason the icon
moves. I also tried renaming the sprites when there
was both a mode 20 sprite and a mode 12 one, but
that didn't work properly either, so we're stuck
with the floating face icon, I'm afraid.

'Bye for now, R.G.H.