NoClick & ReClick  By Mike McCallum  (Freeware © Copyright 1993 Mike McCallum) Warning: this software only works with Kickstart V37 (KS 2.0) or better.  36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36  INTRODUCTION Sick of your empty drives clicking their way to your insanity? Tired of slamming a disk in them just to keep them quiet? Annoyed at the programs that can silence them, yet have a zillion unrelated and superfluous features? Me too! That's why I created my own version of NoClick. NoClick simply sets the NOCLICK flag for every drive it finds. Nothing more, nothing less. ReClick clears this flag in the event that, in a fit of insanity, you decide you like the reassuring clicking the drives provide, although I doubt it. :-) USAGE Couldn't be simpler: CLI: Type "NoClick" to turn the clicking off. Type "ReClick" to turn the clicking back on. Workbench: Double-click on "NoClick" to turn the clicking off. Double-click on "ReClick" to turn the clicking back on. For maximum convenience, drop NoClick into your WBStartup drawer, or call it from your User-Startup. WARNING When a disk is removed, the drive may continue to click for a minute or so before becoming silent. This is normal, as the disk heads have to reach the outer edge of the disk before they will be silent. If, however, you find that your drive does not become silent after about two minutes, or the click sound changes, run ReClick to prevent any damage to your drive mechanism. You may have an older drive mechanism, and could damage it by using NoClick. Even some Amiga A1200s have been found with old drive mechanisms fitted. (!) See the technical info for an explanation. TECHNICAL The Amiga has the capability to automatically detect the insertion and removal of floppy disks. In order to do this, it must periodically check a status line on the drive, called the CHNG (disk change) line. When a disk is in the drive, the CHNG line will change as soon as the disk has been removed. This is so that the software controlling the drive can detect disk removal immediately. If a disk is inserted into an empty drive, the CHNG line does not change immediately. It only changes when the heads are stepped. This is to avoid a potential problem: what if a disk is removed and another is inserted before the computer checks for a disk removal? If the CHNG line changed as soon as the disk was inserted, the computer would not be aware that the disk had been changed, and might corrupt data on the newly inserted disk. By not altering the CHNG line until the heads are stepped, the drive gives the computer the opportunity to notice that the disk had been removed. The computer then steps the heads, and the drive changes the CHNG line to reflect the fact that a disk has been inserted. Under normal circumstances, the heads are stepped back and forth between two tracks (it doesn't matter which two...) to check for the insertion of a disk. This is what causes the "clicking" that is characteristic of empty drives. More recent drive mechanisms will not permit the drive's heads to be physically stepped beyond the outer edge of the disk, so in order to stop the clicking, the computer need only step the heads toward the outer edge of the disk, rather than back and forth on the spot. When the heads reach the outer edge, they will no longer be stepped, but the CHNG line will still be updated should a disk be inserted. The net result: no more stepping, therefore no more clicking. Blissful silence. Unfortunately, this method of silencing the drives may not work with older drive mechanisms, as they will actually try to step the heads beyond the outer edge of the disk. This could cause physical damage to the drive mechanism as it hits up against a physical hardware stop. Be particularly wary if the clicking sound changes somehow without actually going away. GLOATING TIME Here's some info to gloat over for those of you who enjoy the superiority Amigas provide over MS-DOS machines... :-) Curiously, although the disk format is different for Amigas and MS-DOS machines, the drive mechanisms are the same. This is evidenced by the fact that the Amiga can read MS-DOS disks. The difference, however, is that disk format encoding and decoding is done completely in software on the Amiga, so the Amiga could conceivably read and write any 3.5" double density constant-speed format including, of course, MS-DOS disks. Macintosh drives are variable-speed, so a Macintosh drive is needed to read Macintosh disks, but once this is done reading them is easy, due to the fact that encoding and decoding is done entirely in software. MS-DOS machines, on the other hand, use hardware to decode and encode the disk format. The net result is that they can't (easily) be modified to read Amiga disks. LICENCING AGREEMENT By distributing this package, you agree to adhere to this licencing agreement. You are licenced to distribute this package in any way you see fit with the following limitations: * All files associated with this package must be distributed together. These are: + NoClick + NoClick.info + ReClick + ReClick.info + NoClick.doc + NoClick.doc.info * No part of this package may be modified, with the following exceptions: + Translating the documentation into another language, provided the meaning of the documentation is not altered. + Reformatting the documentation layout to suit your taste or text viewer. + Altering the default tool of the documentation icon. + If you "crunch" the documentation, you must also provide a suitable text viewer. (Executable files and data files may not be crunched.) * You may charge no more for distribution than the cost of obtaining a disk direct from Fred Fish. (The only exception to this limitation is MegaDisc Australia, for whom this software was originally written.) WARRANTY This package is supplied as is, without any warranties, either expressed or implied, as to its fitness for any purpose. The only thing this package is guaranteed to do is occupy space on a storage device. THE AUTHOR I (Mike McCallum) can be contacted by any of these means: Post: Mike McCallum 117 Morrison Road Midland WA 6056 Phone: (09)274-3390 FidoNet: Mike McCallum 3:690/508.1200 Please feel free to forward any comments, bug reports, money, gifts or even postcards to me. It's nice to know that someone actually uses my software sometimes. :-) VERSION INFORMATION $VER:NoClick_documentation 1.0 03-Jul-1993 Mike McCallum  36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36 -+- 36