This text is in ANSI. If your text reader does not support ANSI, just ignore the brackets and numbers, or upgrade your text reader.  Oondy presents the ultimate must-have tool for your Amiga desktop! 2000Counter INTRODUCTION With the next millennium just around the corner, it seemed necessary to write a small and simple tool to display a countdown timer from now until the 1st of January 2000 at midnight. Since no-one else has done it (to my knowledge :) I thought I'd code it in less than 5 minutes, and here it is! SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS · An Amiga with about 23K free RAM (duh..). · A battery backed-up clock would also help, but not required - you'd just get wrong calculations if you don't set the clock yourself at every boot. INSTALLATION Nothing too fancy, and there is no installation script as it is unnecessary. There are two versions of the program - an AmigaShell version and a Workbench (windowed) version. INSTALLING WORKBENCH VERSION This is the same program as the Shell version, except it opens a window on your Workbench screen, and updates every half-second. To install it, just drag the "HowLongGUI" icon into your WBStartup drawer on your boot partition (or the same drawer on your Workbench disk if running from floppy). It can simply be double-clicked from Workbench if you don't want it running all the time. INSTALLING SHELL VERSION I wrote the Shell version because I don't generally use Workbench unless I have to (those damn power-crazed coders... jeez ;). Copy it somewhere useful (like your c directory on your boot disk) or in a valid search path. NOTES · Both programs were written in Blitz Basic. I was going to do them in Amiga E, but I only wanted a quick program - time is of the essence! So, if you experience problems, its most likely to be Blitz ;) - e-mail me if you have any problems. · The Shell version just displays the counter on your console window and exits. Nothing fancy. It excepts no arguments. · The Workbench version is forced to open on the Workbench screen, and always opens its window underneath your Workbench title bar. It does not support public screens, window snapshoting, etc.. If you would like such features, just e-mail. · Neither of the two programs detach from CLI. So, if you execute the Workbench version from your Startup-Sequence, do a Run <>NIL: (or Run NIL: if your running anything less than V37). · This program was tested on an A500+ and a A1200. It has not been tested on anything else - let me know if it fails on your Amiga (for some obscure reason :). · Neither programs require any special libraries, any of which should be in ROM. BUGS Currently there are no known bugs in this program. The program doesn't eat CPU time at all - in fact, the refresh rate gets slowed sometimes by the OS which means it may appear to "miss" a second. If you do find any strange bugs, contact me below. DISTRIBUTION This software is classed under the freeware scheme. This means you can freely copy it around anywhere (give it to your friends, upload it to your favourite BBS, etc.) but you must not charge anything more than 2UKP for disk-duplication and you must not claim any profits from selling/distributing this software. Full copyright remains with Q-Group, all rights reserved. Permission granted for any CD-ROM publication (Fred Fish, Aminet, etc.) and may be placed on magazine coverdisks without warning. This documentation must be kept with the program. Feel free to change the icon :). CONTACTS I am Oondy, lead programmer and designer at Q-Group, a new Amiga programming group. Feel free to contact me at the following ways: BY E-MAIL: 101330.1207@compuserve.com BY WWW: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~img4/Index.html (Q-Group Homepages) BY PHONE: ++44 1296 25654 (for non-UK residents), 01296 25654 in UK. BY FAX: Use same number as phone. BY POST: Oondy, 6 Beaufort Close, AYLESBURY, Bucks, HP21 9BB, UK. So there is no excuse not to contact me :). ADVERT Q-Group is the brains behind the fantastic game called FUBAR. If you don't know what I'm on about, visit our homepages and follow the links to it. There should be demos publically available by the summer. The game is so huge its massive! To give you an idea, its Cannon Fodder, Civilization, Risk, Chess, Command and Conquer and North and South all thrown into one game with a complete game editor! Keep your eyes peeled for the hottest game to hit the Amiga for ages! FUBAR - The Unbelievable Game of War! Cheers, Oondy 08-Apr-97