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                      ³        SCREEN.TXT       Û
                      ³                         Û
                        ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛ

                       Mon  02-21-1994  23:42:09

     Hi... Those -few- of you who have been following this unwinding
     drama of me versus the rest of the programming world, know, just
     know... that this is another weird program. Yep, you know I won't
     disappoint in that regard! I'm sure you've figured out by now that
     I write these programs for some -other- reason than for SUCCESS!!!

     Yep, that's right, I do. SCREENIE.EXE is another one of my useless
     but -somehow- intriguing programs. What does it do? Well....

                    It's a MS-DOS SCREEN SAVER!

     How quaint.... how archaic, how droll.... how.... DUMB!

     But, you see, I'm trying to learn how to do multi line editing in
     QuickBASIC, then I wanted to show the edited text in a fancy boxed
     outline with a -real- "Honest to God" 3-D shadow. Then thought it
     would be nice to move the box around the screen a bit and ran into
     a lot of problems with time and numbers and colors that all
     -eventually- worked out.

     So what you have here, my friend is a fairly low-level but USEFUL
     MS-DOS Screen Saver that is pretty to look at if you have a color
     monitor. If you have a monochrome monitor it's dull as dirt....
     sorry.

     SCREENIE.EXE should be fairly "bulletproof" as it is very simple
     in operation and demands only a little of your time the first time
     you use it.

     When you RUN the program for the first time the Edit box (the one
     containing the cursor) has the following message:

               ÛßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛ
               Û     What you enter here is stored in         Û
               Û     the file ~TEMP.$$$ for next time...."    Û
               ÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛ

     Using your regular editing keys, change this to a message you like
     that somehow is "The -real- You." You have to do it in a total of
     two (2) lines and about sixty (60) characters.

     Now press the <Esc> key to start the program; watch the boxes flit
     around the screen, overlapping each other, casting shadows on one
     another in a friendly silent dance. Notice that your message
     -always- stays on top and has a time displayed as the last part of
     your message as [00:00:03] when it starts and changes upward as you
     watch it. This is the LAPSED TIME since you started SCREENIE.EXE

     Now check out the second box. It contains:

          1.   The Day of the Week  (Monday, etc...)
          2.   The Month            (February, etc...)
          3.   The Day of the Month (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 24th, etc..)
          4.   The Present Time     (12:30:22, etc...)

     I figured you cats would know what year it is so left that out; but
     if that's a -big- issue and you can make a humorous and heartfelt
     plea for it's inclusion... ring my E-Mail bell.

     Once you start SCREENIE.EXE, you can leave your computer fairly
     secure that anyone who wants to know where you are can do so, while
     only you know HOW LONG you've been gone (LAPSED TIME, remember???).

     If you friends feel like removing the screen... they are in for a
     surprise. They can't unless they know the Captain Midnight SECRET
     -Key- CODE that you and I know but they won't unless they watch you
     start SCREENIE.EXE. Even then... if you have your message in there
     all it takes is a quick flick of the <Esc> key to start the
     program.


               ÛßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛ
               Û           IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE           Û
               Û            READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH           Û
               ÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛ


     The only way you can Exit "screenie" short of a Warm Boot is by
     pressing the:
                                 ÚÄÄÄÄ¿
                                 ³ F1 ³
                                 ÀÄÄÄÄÙ
                                   key


     John De Palma on CompuServe 76076,571