@database FloatingClock.guide
@rem $Date: 30/04/98 $ $Version 2.1 $
@wordwrap

@node MAIN
@title "FloatingClock help"
Well this little program has been a few months in the making, between exams
and job hunting.  I have had a few suggestions from people who have used
previous versions and I hope that this version is the last for a
while since it is now running very smooth, and there doesn't seem to be any
bugs left. (confidence or what! ;-) )  Enjoy.

@{" Introduction " link INTRO} What is it? And why?
@{" Requirements " link REQUIRE} What you need?
@{"    Usage     " link USER} How you control it!! :)
@{"  What I Want " link PRICE} What its gonna cost.
@{" Whats to come" link FUTURE} Where FClock goes from here...
@{"    History   " link HISTORY} Whats NEW and whats not!
@{"  Contact Me  " link CONTACTME} @{b}Please read this one at least :)@{ub}

@endnode

@node INTRO "FClock - Introduction"
Thank you for taking the time to read these docs. I know how boring reading
docs can be so these are really very short. But please take time to read them.

@{b}What is sooo special about this clock then?@{ub}
Well... Errmm... Not much. It is basically a digital clock which sits nicely
anywhere on your Workbench screen. If you have already run the program you'll
have noticed that it @{i}Appears@{ui} transparent. In fact the program
just grabs the area which the window will be opened over and saves it to use
as the background of the window. :)

In order to close the clock down you will have to send it a CTRL-C signal. 
This can be done two ways:
	1.) If you ran the program from a shell, press CTRL-C
	2.) Or if you used 'run' or the supplied script @{b}Floating Clock@{ub} you
		can send the CTRL-C command by typing 'Kill fclock c'

@{b}Why did I write this?@{ub}
Like a lot of small programs you'll find on Aminet that people have written,
I wanted something a little different. in this case, a @{b}simple but nice@{ub}
clock progam which wasn't a complicated thing with lots of menus and fancy stuff
which you really don't need to tell the time!! :) And so I decided to write my
own!  Also it was an exercise for me to get to know more about C and the 
Amiga's hardware and OS!
@endnode

@node REQUIRE "FClock - Requirements"
@{b}What you need to run this?@{ub}
Well to be honest, I don't know!!! It runs fine on my machine (A1200/060 and 34Mbytes RAM)
and i think I've only used routines and functions which are available to all!!
In order to help me find out what systems it is running on please read @{" Contact Me " link CONTACTME}.
@endnode

@node USER "FClock - Usage"
@{b}Installation@{ub}
The provided script, @{b}Install_Clock@{ub} does the following, so you can
run the script or do it yourself...

	1 - Copies FClock to C:
	2 - Copies FloatingClock.guide to HELP:
	3 - Copies FloatingClock and FloatingClock.info to SYS:WBStartup

	and the source code is left where You unpacked this archive!!


@{b}Usage@{ub}
At the moment the FClock executable can only be run from the CLI / SHELL
with the following paramerters:

	FCLOCK <xpos> <ypos> [<red> <green> <blue>]

where: xpos is the position from the @{i}left@{ui} of the screen, and
	   ypos is the position from the @{i}top@{ui} of the screen.

	   red, green and blue are values to TRY and find a match in the workbench
	   colourmap. Valud ranges are 0-255. FClock attempts to get a pure red
	   as the default colour.

The included script file, FloatingClock, uses IconX and has the following
format:

	Wait 15 SECS
	FClock 0 0

The Wait command is there to make sure that the Workbench Backdrop has been
rendered before the program 'grabs' the section for its background. You may need
to make this a bit longer if the bacground of FClock isnt transparent!

And to change the position of the clock simple change the two 0's to the
X and Y coords you want, as described above.

@{b}Pressing the left mouse button@{ub} over the clock will force it to close
its window and 'regrab' the background before reopening the window. This sort
of preserves the 'transparency' effect if you move something behind the fclock
window!

And as I said earlier, to close the clock you need to send it a CTRL-C command.
The eaisest way of doing this is to type 'Kill fclock c' at a shell.

And thats it... Well I did say its a @{b}simple@{ub} clock!! :)
@endnode

@node PRICE "FClock - Price"
@{b}Whats it gonna cost@{ub}
Nothing... Its completely FREE!

I only request that you mail me, wether to report some bug, to say that
its running nice on your spec or even just to say "Hey GROOVY program" :)

And that if you do distrobute it to anyone, that you include all the files in
the archive without changing any of them!!
@endnode

@node FUTURE "FClock - Whats to come..."
@{b}What devolpments will be made to FClock?@{ub}

Not that many. If there are any major bugs that I can fix, I will do so and
then release new versions onto aminet, and anyone who has mailed me will
be notified of these changes so they can get a new copy.

Other than that I hope you enjoy my little program!
@endnode

@node HISTORY "FClock - History"
@{b}Version 1.2@{ub}
The only bug I know of at the moment is that there is sometimes a delay
in resetting the correct time after a 'regrab' of the background.

There was also a problem with the Intuition message handling in Version 1.0
but I have completely re-written that now! ;)

@{b}Version 2.0@{ub}
Fixed the delay in resetting the time after a regrab.

Added the options for colouring the digits! :-)

Recoded the drawing if the digits.  Not sure what I did in Version 1 but I have
only used half the number of lines, and got the same effect.  Also in response
to some emails I have made the digits slightly smaller!

@{b}Version 2.1@{ub}
Used a different routine for colour matching, should now be more accurate
at finding a match or allocate a new colour if a close enough match is
not possible.  Also this routine should stop other programs changing the
colour of the pen after fclock has set it!

Version 2.0 WAS actually version 2.0 eveb tho' the programs output, and possibly
source code said it was 1.0b. I forgot to change the comments! ;-)
@endnode

@node CONTACTME "FClock - Contact Info"
@{b}Contact info@{ub}
At last the end of the docs. I would like to take the time to thank:

		Ste and ERZ for their answers to lots of my questions
		and @{b}Good Luck@{ub} for next year lads!

		And the numerous people from #Amiga who have answerd many
		Questions.

Any coments, ideas or bug reports to:

	cmspcour@livjm.ac.uk
	
	or look out for me on...

	IRC #Amiga - Usually @{b}Quinn@{ub} but AKA @{b}TallPaul@{ub}


Once again, thanx for reading these docs, and enjoy...

@{b}@{i}Quinn@{ui}@{ub} - 1998.

@endnode