Copyright: helpC, (c) Copyright 1992,93 Loewy Ron.


Caledos v1.5

This is a PUBLIC DOMAIN software, and as being such is freely distributable by any transmission medium, as long as it is distributed in its original .ZIP file with no addition or change. It CANNOT be sold and whoever requires a payment for it (except for the cost of the diskette and/or a minimum fee for the distrubution) commits a crime.

              SUMMARY

              Installation

              Disinstallation

              What does the program

              How to use the program

              How does the program work

              Warranty limitations

              The author

CARDWARE

If you like the program you have the moral obligation of sending the author an illustrated postcard of your town with yor greetings, comments, critics and suggestions about the software he produced.

Write to:

  Nicola Delfino

  Via Piave, 16

  80025 Casandrino NA, Italy

  phone/fax/modem: 0039-81-8334213

  E-Mail:

    Nicola Delfino@2:335/231.9  (FidoNet)

    asdlfn037@u6000.csif.unina.it (Internet) (Until 31 Dec 1995)

Special thanks for English translation (and translation bugs) to:

Pasquale Foggia (tfggp027@u6000.csif.unina.it)

Without it's unvaluable (and unpaid) help, this program would never have been known outside Italy (maybe this would have made the world happier).


Installation

To install Caledos evaluation copy is sufficient to unzip the .ZIP file in a directory of your hard disk, and then run the program INSTALL from the DOS prompt, passing the full path of your Windows directory as a parameter.

For example: INSTALL C:\WINDOWS    [Enter]

WARNING!

Since the INSTALL program can modify some DLLs being used by other programs, you must run it from the real DOS prompt, not from a DOS window !!!

Here is a list of the contents of the .ZIP file:

   bwcc.dll          Borland Custom Controls royalty free DLL

   Caledos_.exe      the wallpaper changer

   Caledos.hlp       the help file you are reading

   Install.exe       installer

   ReadMe.txt        introductive notes on the software

   Caledos.CPL       Control Panel compatible DLL

   file_ID.diz       short description


Disinstallation

In order to disinstall Caledos from your system you have to perform the following steps:

   (1)

   Run Caledos from Control Panel and deactivate the ON button (this means there must be no check mark)

   (2)

   Exit from Caledos and then delete the file CALEDOS_.EXE and CALEDOS.INI from the Windows directory.

   (3)

   If you have no other program using the BWCC.DLL file, delete this file from System subdirectory of the Windows directory. BE VERY CAREFUL: this operation could prejudice the execution of other applicaion. We suggest you should make a copy of BWCC.DLL in another directory, and remove it only after you have tried any Windows program you have.

    (4)

    Delete the files CALEDOS.CPL and CALEDOS.HLP from the System subdirectory of the Windows directory


What does the program?

Who has never got bored of having always the same wallpaper on Windows desktop?

In fact, any wallpaper, from the simplest ones to the most complex and intricated, with time becomes tiresom. What can we do to avoid this? Just change the wallpaper! Up to this point the thing seems as clear as the water of a creek, but if we think of how can be annoying changing the wallpaper by hand each time, then we could desire a program that automatically does this job.

Since I had not found any such program, I decided I coud make it for myself, and thus, matching my needs of small memory occupation, high usage simplicity and a wide range of choices for the time interval beetwen wallpaper changes.

I opted for the greatest interface simplicity by allowing a finite set of choices for the time interval, since I think it's quite uncommon that someone wants the wallpaper changed every 12.7 days (if you are such a person, this is definitely not the program for you).


How to use the program

To configurate Caledos, you must run Windows Control Panel and click twice on the Wallpaper Changer icon.

Once the program starts, it shows a dialog box that allows you to choose which .BMP images are to be displayed, and the time interval between wallpaper changes: to add an image to the list, you must enter the listbox on the left with your mouse pointer, and browse the directory until you find the bitmap file you want; select the file name with a click and then press the ADD button, or double-click the file name: the selected file name will appear in the list box on the right, which contains the names of the images used as wallpaper.

To remove a file name from the list box on the right, you have to select it with a mouse click and then press the REMOVE button.

To remove the whole list of selected images, use the RESET button.

By activating/deactivating the ON button you can enable/disable Caledos;

when the program is disabled in this way, it doesn't change the wallpaper,

but still retains the list of selected images.

The RANDOM button, if activated, allows Caledos to choose randomly the next

wallpaper from the selected images list each time the wallpaper needs to be

changed; otherwise the selected bitmaps are used in the order they are listed in.

The INFO ON STARTUP button is for activating/deactivating the information window

displayed when Windows is started.

The FORCE IMAGE button allows you to select the next wallpaper to use among those in the right list box. This function can also be accomplished by double-clicking the selected image name on the list box on the right.

The TILE and CENTRE buttons determine the way the wallpaper is displayed.

If CENTRE is activated, there will be one copy of the bitmap at the centre

of the screen; otherwise, if TILE is activated, the screen is filled with as

many copies of the bitmap as it will needs, arranged like tiles.


How does it work

When you install the program, the file CALEDOS_.EXE (the effective wallpaper changer) is copied into the Windows directory. Then, each time Windows starts up, CALEDOS_.EXE reads from the file CALEDOS.INI (also in the Windows directory) the information it needs (wallpapers list, change frequency etc.) in order to determine the appropriate wallpaper, and sets a line   Wallpaper=... in the [Desktop] section of the WIN.INI file. CALEDOS.CPL, accessible through the Control Panel, modifies the contents of CALEDOS.INI.

NOTE:

since Caledos modifies WIN.INI when Windows is already running, the change will have no effect until the next Windows startup. This means, for example, that if you configure Caledos to modify the wallpaper every week, the change will become effective from the 2nd time you run Windows in the 7th day.

Caledos has been developed using the Borland C/C++ compiler vers. 3.1. It does not use object oriented programming since it uses extensively the Windows API interface. However, some of the C extension have been used, so the source cannot be compiled with a pure C compiler.

This help file has been developed with the HLPDK Help Engine Develop. Kit v8.0 shareware.

To reduce disk occupation and to simplify my life I decided to choose a small memory model, with 386 code generation (is there anybody still using 286?), and we used the BWCC Borland Custom Control library, whose DLL can be shared with other programs.

That's all, folks!


Warranty limitations

 The present software is distributed "AS IS" with no kind of warranty, explicit or implicit. The user will assume all risks about quality and performance of the product. The user, (and in no case the author), will be responsible of every damage caused by a proper or improper use of this software.


Nicola Delfino

Born in Naples (Italy) on 29 Feb 1972, pisces with ascendent pisces, height 1.77 meters, brown hair, green eyes. Hobbies (other than computer programming): strumming guitar, bonsai cultivation, jogging and tennis. Student at the 5th year (1994-95) of Informatic Engineering at the "Federico II" University of Naples. Handsome and nice, he's looking for a women max. 85 years old for a tranquil friendship and eventually a marriage. Don't call if you're not a very rich heiress... [Note of the translator: if you  a rich-but-not-very-very-very-rich heiress, or you are over 85 years old, you can contact me instead: I'm short, not handsome and without green eyes, but... who knows? Pasquale Foggia :-D ]

P.S.

For the registration I'd prefer you send me real-mail, not e-mail, since they are nicer to collect. Possibly send me an illustrated postcard with a picture of your town.