############################################################################# "TrackOff?" V2.0 - "DevsOff?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ © 1991 by B.Hoffmann ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ############################################################################# I. History ~~~~~~~~~~ As you all should know,the free memory becomes smaller,if you connect ex- pansions as for example external diskdrives,printer and so on with your AMIGA! As long as you own a `standard` AMIGA with 512 KB without any expansions, the memory should reach out generally,although today many programs,as games,painting- or animationprograms,can only work very bad or they can`t work with this number of free memory! If you besides own an external diskdrive and a printer connected with your AMIGA,you nearly can`t work with the WORKBENCH and programming becomes nearly impossible,too,because you can only hold a few programs in the me- mory! One month ago I thought about that problem,and the result of my brainstor- mings was finally "TrackOff?" V1.0 ! I wrote this program animated by a little assembler-routine I found in a computermagazine. The routine removed the task of the "trackdisk.device", what caused a win of 21 KB free memory for every mounted diskdrive! "TrackOff?" V1.0 was a little program,which switched off the "trackdisk. device",when the left mouse-button was pressed. But unfortunately the pro- gram contained a big bug,you could indeed leave the program without switch- ing off the "trackdisk.device",but,funny enough,the device was switched off often nevertheless,what caused,that I had to reset the AMIGA to use the diskdrives again! Thus I sat down again,and coded the whole program again,much bigger and ter,this caused... ############################################################################# II. "TrackOff?" V2.0 - "DevsOff?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This program is able to to remove the tasks of all wellknown AMIGA-devices, what causes a big win of free memory! Here are the features of Version 2.0 °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° - full mouse-interface - uses Intuition - pull-down menus - requesters vor switching off devices - short instruction installed - informations about the devices installed - english and german version This directory should contain the following files : °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° .info TrackOff?_d TrackOff?_e Anleitung Anleitung.info Instructions Instructions.info Source_d.asm Source_d.asm.info Source_e.asm Source_e.asm.info As mentioned above there is a german and a english version of "TrackOff". The differences are only the "on-screen"-texts,I mean the menus and re- questers! ############################################################################# III. Loading ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "TrackOff?" can only be loaded from the CLI or from the Shell. Please enter the following command line: For the german version... 1> [drive]:TrackOff?/TrackOff?_d For the english version... 1> [drive]:TrackOff?/TrackOff?_e Now insert this "ANTARES"-Disk in the chosed diskdrive and press [RETURN]. The Programm will be loaded now! ############################################################################# IV. Instruction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After loading the program an intuition-window will be loaded. Hold down the right mouse-button. Now you see the four menus "Project","Switch off","Informations" and "Instructions". If you now move the mouse-pointer on this menus,the menus it contains and the submenus,if there are any,will be visible. If you want to choose one of this menus,only hold down right mouse-button and move the pointer on it up to it will be illuminated. If it is illumina- ted just let loose the mouse-button! And now a few informations about the menus... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV.a) The "Project"-menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu contains the following menus: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° - About... - Quit About... - This menu shows you,who has written "TrackOff",who owns the ~~~~~~~~ copyrights,and so on... Quit - With this menu you can quit the program. But before switching ~~~~ it off,a requester will ask you,if you really want to quit the program. Just click in the right field,to leave the program or to go on with the work! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV.b) The "Switch off"-menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu contains the following menus: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° - trackdisk.device - clipboard.device - narrator.device - parallel.device - ramdrive.device - printer.device - serial.device With choosing this menus,you can switch off the device you want to. Certainly a requester will appear and ask you,if you really want to switch the device off! ATTENTION : You can only switch the devices off,if their tasks are activa- ~~~~~~~~~ ted at the moment you switch it off,if the tasks aren`t running you can`t switch off the device! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV.c) The "Informationen"-menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu contains the following menus: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° - trackdisk.device - clipboard.device - narrator.device - parallel.device - ramdrive.device - printer.device - serial.device This menus will give you some informations about the devices,if you move your mouse-pointer on it and let loose the right mouse-button ! Here are some informations about the devices °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° 1.) The "trackdisk.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control to access the diskdrives of the AMIGA. Thus all diskoperations were done by the "trackdisk.device",if working under AmigaDOS. Besides it makes programmers possible to work with the disks at a rather low level! If you switch off this device,you can`t do any diskoperations by using it until you reset! 2.) The "clipboard.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control to access the reading and writing from the things between the memory (the german word is "Zwischenspeicherinhalte",sorry,but I don`t know the english word for that!) to or from CLIPS: or to or from DEVS:clipboards. If you want to use the device after switching it off,you have to reset your AMIGA ! 3.) The "narrator.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control to access the speach-synthesizer. And what does the AMIGA-User,if he wants to use the speach-synthesizer af- ter switching this device off? Yeahhh,he has to reset!!! 4.) The "parallel.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control to access the parallel port of the AMIGA. After switching off this device you can first access to the parallel port of your AMIGA,if you reset ! 5.) The "ramdrive.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control to access the non-reset RAM-Disk,which goes with the kickstart-version 1.3 ! Access to the non-reset RAM-Disk is not possible,if you switch it off,until you reset your AMIGA ! 6.) The "printer.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control for access to the printer. You can`t use the printer,until you reset your AMIGA,if you have switched it off! 7.) The "serial.device" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This device has control for access to the serial port of the AMIGA. After switching off this device you can`t access to the serial port until you reset your AMIGA! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV.d) The "Instructions"-menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu contains the following menus: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° - TrackOffV2.0 - DevsOff? Here you can find a short instruction,which will tell you the main advanta- ges of the program! ############################################################################# V. Technical informations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ german version °°°°°°°°°°°°°° Bytes (degecrunched) : 16.080 Bytes ---------------------- Lenght in lines : 4.280 lines ---------------------- Coded with : Devpac V2.0 ---------------------- Loading : (nur) CLI oder Shell ---------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ english version °°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Bytes (degecrunched) : 16.056 Bytes ---------------------- Lenght in lines : 4.283 lines ---------------------- Coded with : Devpac V2.0 ---------------------- Loading : (only) CLI or Shell ---------------------- ############################################################################# VI. Running on... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The program should run on all AMIGA-models without any problems,no problems were notices by the following machines: 1. AMIGA 500 with 512 KB Chip-RAM,Kickstart 1.3 and Fat Agnus 2. AMIGA 500 with 512 KB Chip-RAM,512 KB-Expansion,Kickstart 1.3 and Big Agnus 3. AMIGA 500 with 512 KB Chip-RAM,512 KB-Expansion,Kickstart 1.2 with Fat Agnus ############################################################################# VII. source-code ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The assembler source-code is enclosed in this directory,certainly there are two versions,too: Source_d.asm - The source-code with german comments Source_e.asm - The source-code with english comments The source isn`t commented in the whole,because many structures are re- peated very often,and there wasn`t the time to comment everything! ############################################################################# VIII. Copyrights ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. "TrackOff?" is Public Domain-Software! 2. The program may only be putted in PD-librarys,if the distributor owns my written agreement! 3. All copyrights are reserved by me! 4. The program may be copied freely,as long as you don`t change anything on it! 5. The source-code may be used freely,in commercial programs,too,and you don`t need to mention me as the author of the source! 6. I would be very happy about a little "Thanks",but you don`t must do that,it`s a free gesture,which would support more projects like this one! ############################################################################# For suggestions,critism,praise or bug-reports write to: Bernd Hoffmann Biedenkopfer Str.34 W-5900 Siegen 1 I please you to send me your own expanded "TrackOff"-Versions,if you have coded one ! #############################################################################