BarClock(tm) v1.31 Copyright 1993 by Patrick Breen - All rights reserved. Archive Contents: README.TXT - this file CHANGES.TXT - revision history of BarClock BARCLOCK.EXE - BarClock executable CLOCKDLL.DLL - BarClock support DLL Description: BarClock (formerly WinClock) is a utility that displays useful information in the caption bar of the active window. This approach is somewhat less obtrusive than having the information in a window which is always on top or that can be covered by other windows. System Requirements: BarClock is completely self-contained and is compatable with both Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1. BarClock uses very little memory (about 12 k) and uses almost 0 system resources. Installation: Since you are reading this, I assume that you have unzipped the BarClock archive. The rest of the installation is very easy. Create a new program manager item for BarClock. Make sure CLOCKDLL.DLL is in the working directory or put it in your Windows directory. Double-click to start BarClock. I prefer to add the program item to the Startup group in Windows 3.1. This causes BarClock to launch every time I start Windows. Another way to cause BarClock to launch every time Windows is started is to add the following line to your win.ini file: load=barclock.exe This works for Windows 3.0 and 3.1. Instructions: Once BarClock is running, information will appear in the caption bar of the active window. Initially, BarClock displays the date on the left of the bar and the time on the right. A short click on either the time or the date will toggle the display of free memory. Another short click will display the percentage of free resources available. One more click will display the disk space available on drive C. Click and hold the mouse button to display a menu. The menu commands are as follows: Setup... The setup dialog is used to specify how the information is displayed. The large group of radio buttons is used to control where each of the items appears. An item can either appear on the left or right of the caption bar or it can be toggled into view. If more than one item is specified for the left or right, they are combined and displayed together. If more than one item is set to toggled, the first short click displays the first toggled item, a click on this item displays the next item, etc. In addition, an item can be turned off which prevents it from being displayed at any time. (If all items are turned off or all are set to toggle, the time will continue to display so the menu can be accessed!) In addition this dialog is used to set the time format and date format. The clock can be 24-hour and optionally display seconds. The date format can be chosen from the set of formats displayed. About... Provides the current version number and tells you where you can reach me. Exit Removes BarClock and quits the application. Advanced Options: I have added the following advanced options (translation - there is no UI to set them!) to modify the behavior of BarClock. All of these options are controlled by adding (or changing) lines in the BarClock.INI file which can be found in your Windows directory. Future versions of BarClock will add dialogs that can be used to set these options directly! Chimes - (General) BarClock can play a sound on the hour, on the half hour, on the quarter hour (15 and 45 past) or any combination of the three. If you have MMSYSTEM.DLL and an appropriate sound driver installed, you can specify a .wav file to play. If you do not have MMSYSTEM.DLL or a sound driver, BarClock will simply beep. Wave files can be found in a number of places. In the future, I hope to distribute a .wav or two with the clock as the default chimes. If you have access Borland C++ v3.1, one of the examples comes with a file called "sounder.wav" which is the perfect hourly chime! NOTE: Microsoft has a sound driver available that let's you play .wav files using the internal speaker - the quality is not great but it works! I beleive the file is called "speak.exe" and should be available in a number of places. If you can't find it, drop me a line and I'll point you in the right direction. HourChime= Specifies name of .wav file to play on the hour. If the name is "none" no chime will occur on the hour. HalfHourChime= Specifies name of .wav file to play on the half hour. If the name is "none" no chime will occur on the half hour. QuarterHourChime= Specifies name of .wav file to play on the quarter hour. If the name is "none" no chime will occur on the quarter hour. Date0 - Date4= These are the 5 date formats. The syntax for the date formats is identical to what Windows uses in its control panel. Here is a brief summary of the keywords: m - Month (1-12) mm - Month (01-12) mmm - Month (Jan - Dec) mmmm - Month (January - December) d - Day (1-31) dd - Day (01-31) ddd - Day (Mon-Sun) dddd - Day (Monday-Sunday) yy - Year (00-99) yyyy - Year (1900-2040) All months and days are stored in a string table. They can be modified with any resource editor. Resource= This specifies the format string for the resource display. The key words are "upct" and "gpct" which stand for the percent of the User heap which is available and the percent of the GDI heap which is available. These heaps are shared by all applications and when they run dry, it is necessary to quit one or more applications before work can continue. The minimum of the two values is often refered to as "System Resources" and is the value that can be found in the Progam Manager's About dialog. DiskSpace= This specifies the format string for the free disk space. The key words are "drive" which expands to the drive letter and "fdisk" which expands to the amount of free space on that drive. Memory= This specifies the format string for the free memory. The key word "fmem" expands to the amount of free memory that is currently available. This amount includes virtual memory. ShowWindow= This determines whether the BarClock window appears if the clock cannot find a home. By default, the window does appear and this value is set to 1. To keep the window from appearing, change this value to a 0. SystemColors= This determines whether BarClock uses the system colors to draw the text or a custom color that from this .INI file. By default, BarClock uses the system colors and this value is set to 1. To specify a custom text color, change this value to a 0 and specify the color by adding the following lines to the .INI file: TextColorR=(red component of text color) TextColorG=(green component of text color) TextColorB=(blue component of text color) SystemBackground= This determines whether BarClock uses the system background color underneath a custom text color. This option is only meaningful if SystemColors is set to 0. By default, this value is set to 1 which causes the clock to be drawn on top of the appropriate caption color. To specify a custom background color, set SystemColors to 0 (and specify a text color - see above), change this value to a 0 and specify the color by adding the following lines to the .INI file: BackColorR=(red component of background color) BackColorG=(green component of background color) BackColorB=(blue component of background color) EraseAlways= This determines whether BarClock invalidates the desktop window to remove "ghost" clocks in Windows 3.0. For machines that are running Windows 3.0, this option will eliminate the redraw that occurs when switching between applications. By default, BarClock does invalidate and this value is set to 1. This option has no effect if you are using Windows 3.1. LeftOffset= RightOffset= These two values specify how much room BarClock should leave between the string it draws and the standard system controls. These can be useful if you are using other utilities that want to put controls in the title bar. By default, both values are set to 0. UseKB= If this option is a 1, the free memory and disk space are always displayed in kilobytes. If this option is 0 (the default), the free memory and disk space scale to the best display value. Overlap= If this option is a 1, the text can overlap the window title text. If this option is 0 (the default), the text is not displayed if there is not enough room. MenuDoubleClick= This option controls whether the menu is access by a click and hold or by a double click. The default value is a 0 and the menu is accessed by click and hold. In order to use the area that the clock information is displayed to postion a window, set this value to a 1. This will cause a short single click to toggle the information and a longer click to behave normally (drag the window). The clock menu can be accessed by a double click on the clock information. Shareware: Feel free to distribute this program to others. All I ask is that this file remain with the distributed copies. This product is shareware. If you like it, send $5. If you want to licence a number of copies, the following table gives the discount rates: Number of users Cost Price per user 25 $ 100 $4.00 50 $ 150 $3.00 100 $ 250 $2.50 250 $ 500 $2.00 500 $ 750 $1.50 1000 $1000 $1.00 Disclaimer: This software is distributed "as is". Although I know of no problems with the software, I make no warranties. Other: If you have any problems with this program or ideas for features that should be added, I can be reached at the following electronic addresses (in addition to the mail address and telephone number below). Internet: pbreen@world.std.com CompuServe: 70312,743 ___________________ Order Form ___________________________ Send To: Patrick Breen 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway #1119 Medford, MA 02155 Telephone: (617) 396-2673 ( ) I enclose $5 for encouragement of continuing development Name: _________________________ Date:_____________ Company: ____________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________ City, State, Zip: ____________________________________________ Country: ____________________________________________ Day Phone: _________________ Eve: ___________________ If you provide an electronic mail address, I will send you updates as they become available. Electronic Mail address: _____________________________________ How did you hear about BarClock v1.31? ________________________ Comments: