Frequently Asked Questions about 100Buddy, 200Buddy, or just plain "Buddy(tm)" February 27, 1995 These questions and answers apply to Buddy version 2.1 only. Topics in this issue ------------------------------------------------------------ Marking todos as completed (Q1) Fn-A and Fn-T functions (Q2) Generating the "ae" character using Fn-K (Q3) FILER.INI in the 200LX (Q4) How to register and upgrade (Q5) Re-registering on a new machine (Q6) International versions, foreign language versions (Q7, Q8) Menu-dot in DOS (Q9) Phases of the moon (Q10) WorldTime map overlay (Q11) Slashes in zeros (Q12) Unzipping (Q13) Unloading (Q14) d-letter (Q15) Crashes, lockups (Q16) Blue keys in Memo (Q17) Function keys in Memo (Q18) Bug summary (Q19, Q20) What's new in version 2 (Q21) Q1. When I try to mark a todo as "completed" by pushing the minus key, Buddy jumps back one week instead. Use SPACE bar to check off your completed todos. Whoa! I bet you didn't know that was possible! It's even in the HP manual. Q2. When I push Fn-A or Fn-T to create an appointment or a todo from a phone book entry, Buddy flashes the SmartClip window but nothing else happens. You have to define a special SmartClip for Buddy to use. The clip's name can be anything, but it must start with a greater-than sign. For example, the SmartClip could be named ">Buddy". In that clip, you define which fields are clipped, and those fields become your appointment description. If Buddy does not see that SmartClip, it stops and does nothing. (Note: if you are in a full- screen note or a Memo file, then Buddy uses the line under the cursor instead of a SmartClip.) Q3. I'm an international user. How can I disable the Fn-K feature to get the "ligature used to represent a diphthong in some Latin words, the low front unrounded vowel like that in Modern English 'hat,' or the character in the International Phonetic Alphabet and some other transcription systems representing this low front unrounded vowel" (Thank you, Mr. Webster), also known as "ae," and which was originally assigned to that key? (What key was that? Oh, we're still talking about Fn-K here.) Whew! That's a complicated question with a simple answer. Just set the "(Int'l) Normal Fn-A, Fn-I..." checkbox or use the "(Int'l) Require MENU before Buddy..." feature. Q4. How can I stop Buddy from overriding my FILER.INI file when I highlight a file and press ENTER in Filer? Press CTRL-ENTER instead. Buddy will send a real ENTER to sysmgr instead of F8 to view the file. FILER.INI is an undocumented feature of the 200LX that lets you specify DOS programs to execute based on a file's extension. Q5. How do I register? Can I upgrade from version 1 or 95Buddy? To register, fill out and send me the registration form (REGISTER.TXT), or use CompuServe's GO SWREG (look for program ID #2101). If you have already registered your copy of 100Buddy version 1, then you do not need to register again for version 2. Sorry, there is no upgrade from 95Buddy. Q6. I was a registered user of version 1.1, but when I loaded Buddy on my 200LX, I was unregistered. Do I have to register again? No, previously registered users can upgrade at no charge. When you move Buddy to a new machine, however, you have to re-enter your serial number using the confidential instructions I mailed to you. If you have lost those instructions, please contact me. Q7. Does Buddy work on an "international" machine? Yes, if your machine is an English version, or an international version that has English-language displays, then Buddy will be happy. But, Buddy only understands English, just like me. On machines with non-English displays, many Buddy features don't work. I do not have a list of those features; you'll have to try it yourself (there is no danger) or ask other people about this on a BBS. Q8. Do you have plans to make a version for German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian(?), etc. No, it would be too much work. For starters, there are hundreds of places in the program where Buddy (1) makes decisions based on particular pixels, letters, or words that appear on the display and (2) outputs certain characters to the application. Too many languages; too little time. Sorry. Q9. Why doesn't MENU-dot work for me in DOS? This can happen if you have manually changed your APNAME.LST file. For example, if you changed it to assign a blue key to "acCIS." To test this, rename your APNAME.LST file and then try MENU-dot in DOS. The proper way to assign a blue-key to an application such as acCIS is to use Buddy to re-assign the blue-key to the hotkey you have assigned to the application. Q10. Can you also indicate the phase of the moon on the map overlay? This is easy to do yourself just by looking at the map overlay. If the moon is near the sun, then it is a new moon. If the moon is near the center of the night region, then it is a full moon. If the moon is near the terminator, then the moon is at first or third quarter. See? You learn something every day! Q11. Why is the map overlay out of sync with the actual time of day? You need to tell Buddy the location of your "local city." This is set on the WorldTime Overlay settings screen in the Buddy EXM. Be sure the "Time zone," "east," and "DST" controls are set correctly according to the instructions and examples on that screen. Q12. How can I stop Buddy from removing the slashes in the zeros? Use this patch (for version 2.1a only). 1. Make a backup copy of BUDDY.COM. 2. Go to DOS. 3. Use the DOS debug command to patch BUDDY.COM as follows: debug buddy.com e76fb [You should see "xxxx:76FB 55." where "xxxx" is anything. If the "55" is not there, push , and try this line again. If you still do not see "55", push and quit debug via q. Now, with the cursor still on the line after the "55.", continue with...] c3 [This changes the "55" value in BUDDY.COM to "c3".] w [This writes the changes to disk.] q 4. Quit sysmgr and Buddy (reboot). 5. Load BUDDY.COM 6. Start sysmgr 7. Slashes should be restored. Q13. I cannot unpack the Buddy ZIP file. What's wrong? My ZIP files have a "header" on them, courtesy of my Mac software. Unzippers are supposed to simply skip over anything before the ZIP signature, but some older unzippers don't do that. You need PKUNZIP version 2.04g or newer. On the CompuServe HPHAND forum, that would be PK204G.EXE in library 1. Q14. How do I unload Buddy? Sometimes, it refuses to unload even though I have followed the instructions. To unload Buddy, be sure you have checked "Unload Buddy when terminating sysmgr" in the Buddy EXM. Then, terminate sysmgr by pressing &More MENU A T ENTER. If Buddy says it is still loaded, then you should check your AUTOEXEC.BAT and be sure you did not load another TSR after Buddy. TSRs must be unloaded in reverse order, and Buddy will not unload if it determines that a later- loaded TSR is still running. Q15. I have the d-letter "inhibit after a lower case letter" box unchecked but I still cannot use d-letter within a word. What's wrong? There are two ways for d-letter to be inhibited. One is "inhibit after a lower case letter," and that will inhibit d-letter after a lower-case letter in all applications where d-letter is active. The other, "dot after white space" in SmartCaps(tm), will inhibit d-letter in all places except the first character position of a word (not just after a lower-case letter), but it will do so only in those apps where SmartCaps is enabled and if SmartCaps is on. SmartCaps figures that if you really want a capital WITHIN a word, as in "WITHIN", you will push the period key before typing the word. SmartCaps is trying to help you keep proper nouns like "Lee" from becoming "LE". Q16. I just loaded a new Buddy. I tried to execute BUDDY.COM (or BUDDY.EXM) and I get "not enough memory" or, worse, my machine locks up or crashes. Why doesn't Buddy work? Buddy works fine, but what you have is not Buddy -- it's garbage. I bet you transferred the COM and/or EXM file to your palmtop in "text" mode. That will corrupt the file because it adds line formatting characters. Do the transfer again, but be sure the file does not get changed. A properly loaded, uncorrupted copy of Buddy will NOT crash your machine. Q17. When I push a blue key in Memo, why do sometimes I get a shifted blue-key symbol instead of the desired application? There are two Buddy features that will automatically shift a blue key for you. Both are set from the "Blue Key Controls" screen of the Buddy EXM. You probably have the "Blue-Key Auto Inhibit" timer enabled in Memo. This feature will shift the blue keys for you if you push one within the specified number of seconds after typing a character. A little "tornado" character appears on the Memo title bar when this timer is running. Q18. What happened to Promote, Demote, Underln, and Bold in Memo? Those function keys are only used in "formatted" Memo files. If you push one of those keys, even by accident, your unformatted (ASCII) file will become formatted. You may not want that to happen. So, unless you are editing a formatted file, Buddy disables those Memo functions and uses those function keys (plus F6) for other things. To get access to those keys for the first time in an unformatted file, just push MENU first. Once your file becomes formatted, Buddy restores those keys to their built-in functions. (To access the original F6 function in an unformatted file, use MENU Edit Insert.) Q19. OK, confess! What's wrong with version 2.1? Not much, but noBuddy's perfect.... Here's a summary of the known bugs in version 2.1: In DOS, an alarm that turns the machine on will not sound until after the password, if required, is entered. If you put the character '-' in a file name, you cannot type that character in an Open File window (it will change your file- key set, instead). If you terminate sysmgr automatically using a macro, then Buddy will not know you did so and some Buddy features will not operate correctly when you reload sysmgr, and you will have to reboot to unload Buddy. If you need to terminate sysmgr, always do so manually (using MORE MENU A T or MENU-SHIFT- DEL) so that Buddy can see you do it. Q20. So, what was so bad about version 2.0? All of the following bugs are history. They were fixed in version 2.1: The @boot macro comes from the wrong macro file. Macros get stuck in Appt and require a key press to continue. In WorldTime, an ESC after a time conversion (F8) on the list view tries to start Magnify. You have to go to the map view (or disable Buddy) and then push ESC. The battery usage timer resets automatically after charging only if HP Setup is active. d-click does not work on the first character typed after turning power on if autoCalc at power on is enabled. Fn-A (with a capital 'A') does not initiate a link to Appt. In Memo, if page mode is latched, MENU-dot does not work. The great circle is not so great if the country is not United States. In CALC, the hotkeys do not work in List Stat mode (200LX only). On the 200LX, the great circle endpoints cannot be set if "locating" is active. After a midnight crossing, Buddy will sometimes re-scramble the display after you enter your password. The locating timer does not work in WorldTime (200LX only). Up- and down-arrow key navigation does not work in NoteTaker. Q21. What's new in version 2? For details about the differences between version 1.1 and version 2.0, see the file RELEASE2.TXT in the distribution. Version 2.1 has some minor bugs fixed (see above), plus these changes: Some people asked that AutoCalc (at power on) not operate if Lotus is the active application. So, that's been changed. I will give you their names if you want to blame them for this. Fn-K is inhibited by the first two "(Int'l)..." checkboxes (see Q3). "\\" (a double backslash) will still be translated to ':' in DOS if you terminate sysmgr but leave Buddy loaded. If you have the serial port off or locked off, pushing F6 F6 or F10 F10 in Filer will turn the port on for you in anticipation of its use. All of these fixes and changes are in the BUDDY.COM file only. You can continue to use the version 2.0 of the EXM if you want to. Jeffrey Mattox The Buddy System, LLC February 27, 1995