NOTE: the most up-to-date documentation is in CLOCKY.HYP file (read with
      ST-Guide)

Clocky¿ 2.22beta                                                1998/03/29
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this is a sort of README.TXT for English version of Clocky. Sorry for
my English, I translated the programs roughly word by word and wrote this
document in a hurry.

What is Clocky? It's the most useful all-in-one utility for Atari range of
computers (ST, STe, MegaSTE, TT, Falcon). It's very small (under 5 kB)
because it's written in pure assembler. Its development started when I
bought my first 520STM in 1989, and still continues as I keep buying new
Atari hardware (last time it was NOVA graphics card). When you start using
Clocky, you can usually remove many others TSR from your AUTO folder, so
you minimize memory consumption and risk of unwanted collision between the
many other AUTO programs.

Installation:
-------------
1) put CLOCKY.PRG into your AUTO folder. I prefer to put it as the first
   program, so its functions are available as soon as possible.

2) start SETCLOCK.PRG and configure CLOCKY.PRG for your system and
   according to your needs (see below)

3) Clocky is able to read date and time from 'DATE' and 'TIME' Cookies. You
   may want to put DTCOOKIE.PRG into your AUTO folder for this.

4) reboot your computer so CLOCKY starts.

Clocky's features:
------------------

[T] shows Time and date in upper right corner of screen (on Falcon in all
    resolution depths including TrueColor). Graphics cards are partially
    supported (on my NOVA 1-bit and 8-bit color depths work fine).

[?] allows you to define and use two different keyboard layouts (if you are
    not English or American, you may want to use first keyboard layout for
    programming and second one for quick typing of texts in your national
    language - for instance Czech contains 30 additional letters that are
    mapped on different keys on first and second keyboard layouts). Then
    you can switch between the [O]riginal layout from ROM, the first [N]
    and the second [C] keyboards on-the-fly.

[D] you can type special letters with Dead keys (this is hardcoded for
    Czech characters ATM, though I plan on making this freely editable).
    Dead key is the second key left from Backspace.

[A] on TOS < 2.06 you might type special letters (e.g. with ASCII code 240)
    by holding down Alt and typing the ASCII code on numeric keypad.

[M] dynamic Mouse accelerator with variable acceleration (twice or four
    times).

[S] Screen saver - at this moment for VGA monitors on Falcon and for SM124
    on ST - saves screen by disabling screen output. On Falcon this also
    speeds up the computer itself, because VIDEL doesn't hog the data bus
    when screen saver is active.

[L] Latin2 real-time conversion on printer (hardcoded for Czech characters
    ATM, but might be freely editable soon)

[K] Keyboard clicks and/or bells might be disabled

[B] Black on white or white on black? This enables invers colors (on Falcon
    even in 16 and 256 color modes)

[+] special support for MegaSTE - enables 16 MHz and caches during boot
    (greatly speeds up booting). Later you can switch between Slow and Fast
    mode by pressing [-] and [+] on numeric keypad (just like on older
    PC's)

It is possible to enable and disable all these 10 features by simple
pressing the hotkey. Hotkey is the letter in brackets together with some
shifts, control or alternate keys - defined by Hotkeys buttons in the
Configuration program of Clocky. By default the Hotkeys are defined as
LeftShift+RightShift (i.e. both shifts hold down at the same time).

Additional features:
--------------------
Fufin didn't want to have the Time showed on screen all the time, but he
wanted to have a quick look on it from time to time. For this I implemented
so called Seekeys. You can watch the Time by simple holding down the
Seekeys combination (by default LeftShift + Control).

Clocky features Cookie Jar 'JCLK' which points to defined structure. You
can drive Clocky by an external program or just read Clocky's settings. A
good example is Clocky Tools, written by Fufin. This program is able to
stop or enforce Clocky's screen saver by simple moving of mouses pointer to
a defined screen corner.

The most interesting feature is the possibility of external hotkeys. Clocky
holds the control over keyboard buffer and steal any Control-Alternate-key
combination. You can read the key in the Clocky Cookie Jar structure and if
you like this key, you can take it and set the key value to zero in the
Clocky's structure. If you don't react in 0.1 second, Clocky puts the key
back to keyboard buffer so operating system or top application can detect it.

First Clocky's External Hotkey Client is Clocky Tools, written by Fufin.
It's an accessory with configuration file where you can define the GEM
messages sent on different keys detected. This way you can easily launch or
top your favourite applications (like is text editor, ST-Guide, e-mail
program, WWW browser or programming environment) by simple pressing the
hotkey (defined in JCLKTOOL.SET file). So with Clocky Tools you get unified
environment for launching applications from any other application or
desktop by simple keypress!

It's even possible to start several different Clocky External Hotkey
Clients. Every client has to register the keys he's going to use, so
collisions between Hotkey clients are avoided.

Don't know what to say about Clocky's Config app. Simply click on buttons,
edit both keyboards and have fun.

Clocky¿ is fairware. If you use it regularly and like it, consider
sending me a small amount of money (read REGISTER.TXT, do not mind the
Czech characters, note just the postal address and list of registered
users).

EnJoy Clocky!

Petr

e-mail: stehlik@cas3.zlin.vutbr.cz
WWW     http://cas3.zlin.vutbr.cz/~stehlik/