Andrew Lord                     Pason 4e                             Jan 1997
***********                     ********                             ********
    
This utility is an enhanced version of pason that was originally written by
Steve Hawtin and whose copyright (the original version) belongs to him.

Here is his description of it :-

"I like the ability to have a password on my Psion, it makes it more likely
that the machine will be  returned if it is lost.  Unfortunately the in-built
password mechanism forces you to retype your password every time the machine
is turned on, this can work out at hundreds of times a day!

What I wanted was to have a password that I have to type in first thing in
the morning but only once a day.  That is what this software provides."

In addition pason4 can optionally do the following:

o The number of hours before pason4 is activated can be between 1 and 24.

o Pason can optionally be set to activate the password a number of minutes
  after the Psion was last switched off. This effectively means that the
  password is enabled after a short period of inactivity (eg 10 mins ).
  
  This can run concurrently with the existing ability to switch on the alarm
  sounds at regular intervals.(described below)
  
o Once Pason is running you can forget about it. It does not stop during
  backups and does not appear when cycling through the list of programs
  ( with SHIFT-SYSTEM)
  
o Switch on your Alarm sounds, in case you forget to re-enable sounds after
  switching them off.

o Switch off the remote link

o For those with an Acorn Pocket Book, having Pason installed should allow
  you to change your system password whenever you please (but not to
  initialise it).
  
*****************
REQUIRED HARDWARE
*****************
Pason4e runs on a 3a , 3c and the Siena.

Sorry Psion 3ers but Pason now uses "Switch on" events. These are not
signalled on Psion 3s. Your best bet is to get Pason2 (or better still,
the unofficial Pason3) until I figure a crude way to mimmick Switch On events
on a Psion3.
 
*********
RESOURCES
*********
pason4 uses 6.8K of disk space and 10K runtime space.

************
INSTALLATION
************
If you already have an older version of Pason running then stop it.

Copy sys$ps4e.opa to the M:\APP\ directory.

Then install the Pason application on the System screen using <Psion-I>. Now
we are ready to start the program using <Enter> on the application.

When the application starts it will ask you a number of questions:  

----

Current System Password   - This should be your system password.

"Activate password at regular intervals after a given time OR a number
of minutes since the psion was last switched off?"

Choose either "Since switched off" or "Regular intervals". If you chose 
"After last switch on" you will also be asked for the number of minutes.

----

"Do you want alarms enabled at regular intervals?"

If 'yes' your alarm sounds will be enabled at regular intervals that you
define. This is useful if you're forgetful (like me) and often switch the
sound off (eg in meetings or at the cinema) but forget to switch it back on
afterwards. Pason remembers to switch thesound back on for you.

----

"Do you want the link Disabled at regular intervals?"

If 'yes' your link will be switched off at regular intervals that you define.
This option is included because it is possible to access all data on the if
the remote link is on, even if the password is set. It's only really useful
if you don't want your data to fall into the wrong hands and remember you 
don't want the link switching off in the middle of a backup.

----

If you are either
1) Enabling the password at regular intervals
2) Re-activating alarms or
3) Switching off the link

You will also be asked for a start time and an interval at which to do
these things.

----

"Start time?"

This is the initial time that pason4 will execute the alarm and link options.


----

"Alarm/Link switch frequency (hrs)"

This is how often the alarm and link options will be executed after the
"first switch time" above.
        
Once this is done the application is running and will disappear from the
screen.

To add security I would recommend that you now remove the application from
the System screen using the <Psion-/> key.
  
********************************
REMOVING PREVIOUS VERSIONS
********************************
Pason4a-Pason4d:
	Stop pason and delete M:\app\sys$pas4.opa
	
Pason2:
	Stop pason and delete M:\app\pason23.opa or M:\app\pason23a.opa

Pason:
If you previously had the first version of pason installed and your desperate
for space you may delete the following files :
M:\app\pason.opa
M:\macro\mco\pason.mco 
and M:\pason.dat if it exists.

*********************************
Why install on the Internal Disk?
(taken from Steve's original file)
*********************************

While the program should work if you copy the files to A: or B: the fact that
M: cannot be removed makes it more secure.  I have run the program from A:
but it has only been fully tested running on the internal disk.

***********
USING PASON
***********
Pason is a background task so there's not much to do. However by pressing the
"Hot Key" combination <PSION+CONTROL+p> and entering your password the PASON
menu will appear.

This allows you to :

1) Re-configure Pason.
2) Change your system password (*)
3) Change the HOT-KEY assignment.
4) Exit Pason.

(*) Change your system password via the PASON menu so that PASON always knows
what it is otherwise Pason will stop running.


Pason Mini FAQ
**************

Q1 PsiWin stops in the middle of a backup because it couldn't copy 
sys$pas4.opa. Can this somehow be circumvented. I mean, do I always
have to sit beside it to conconfirm that annoying dialog box?

Once you perform one backup of sys$pas4.opa when Pason is NOT running the
problem should go away, and you can keep Pason running after this.

Q2 I can't remember my hot key - How do I stop Pason quickly?

Re-install the pason icon and use the "Kill Application" option from
the system screen. This is SHIFT-PSION-K on UK models.

*************************
My favorite configuration
*************************
o Activate password 60 minutes after last switch off.
o Enable alarms at 3am and every 6 hours thereafter.

*************************
Things to be sorted/added
*************************

o Hot key can be mis-assigned to strange characters.

o The owner information screen has temporarily disappeared.

o  pason4 stops running if you change your system password via the system
   screen.

o  The link should not be switched off if the Psion is legitimately on. 
   I.e. user has entered password.

o  Rather than scheduling alarm reminders , there should be a "sleep sound"
   hotkey that disables alarm sounds in half-hour increments. This fits in
   better with the way I think that most people would like to switch off the
   sound.
   Eg in a meeting - switch off sound for half and hour, At the cinema -
   switch off for two hours.
   Pason could inform you if an alarm is scheduled to go off during the 
   "sleep" period perhaps. If there is demand for this functionality I'll add
   it.
   
                                  HISTORY
                                  *******
****************
pason4e
****************
o Finally found a reliable way for Pason to determine whether it was resp.
for switching on the Psion - regardless of event scheduling delays.

o Temporarily removed the owner information screen. The new event loop made
this screen  bit slow to appear. It may be back in a later release.

o Hotkey bug fixed.

****************
pason4d 09/11/96 (limited release)
****************
o Changed onfiguration screens.

o Added switch off tolerence.

o Finally sorted "After last switch off" in such a way that doesn't require
  frequent polling. Eg if you set after last switch off to be one hour, but
  only switched the Psion on for ten minutes, Pason will first wake up one
  hour after switch ON and then ONCE ten minutes later to activate the
  password.
  
***************
pason4c 26/5/96
***************
o Pason will show the correct "Next Event Time" in the configuration menu.
  
o Asyncronous events that complete before the IOWAIT are handled properly.
  Prior to this fix this resulted in Pason being left in the foreground giving
  a blank screen. This was probably the cause of severe battery drain that
  some people experienced. Sorry folks!
  
o When Pason switches on the Psion mementarily it disables the sound so that
  utilities that Play tunes at switch on will not be heard. (They may get a
  chance to play a couple of notes though!)

*************
pason4 9/4/96
*************
o Added facility to activate a fixed length of time after the last switch
  on.

*******************
pason4b-beta 5/2/96
*******************
o  Event driven. - (Can't work on Series 3 :-( due to switch on events)
o  Hidden OPA. <Shift-System> <PSION-ESC> disabled. This only matters if you
   care more about your data than your PSION!
o  HOT-KEY feature to access various options.
o  Configurable Auto-off repeat period.
o  Alarm reminder.
o  Switchs off remote link.
o  Display user information on switch on 
o  Auto-switch off - but only if it was just switched on
     i.e. Should switch off if the PSION is in use.
o  Smaller runtime footprint using GSETWIN 1,1,1,1

******
pason3
******
This was a release  by Edwin Deorre. It is identical to pason2 except that it
switches off the machine rather than waiting for "Auto-Off". This saves
battery usage but unless the event time is set for a really unsociable hour
the Psion could switch off in mid use.

******
Pason2
******
Enabled/disabled password directly with an OS call rather than via Tom
Dolbilin's macro system. This allows it to be used on Series 3's.

Added "LOCK ON" keyword , so that it doesn't need to be restarted after
RCOM/PSIWIN backups.

*****
Pason
*****
The original program by Steve Hawtin. This required the macro system (macsys)
to be installed also.

*********
Legal Bit
*********
Use this software if you accept that I cannot be held liable for any loss or
damage that may occur as a result of using Pason. There is no warranty,
expressed or implied, regarding the use or merchantability of Pason. 

****************
More Legal Bits
****************

(C) 1995,1996 Andrew Lord

Changes pertaining to my version of Pason are copyright Andrew Lord. All
prior copyrights apply.

(c) 1994 Steve Hawtin

This file is copyright Andrew Lord, except for those bits attributed to
Steve Hawtin, it may be freely copied provided

o The complete copyright section is incorporated including these conditions
   unmodified
   
o All changes to the body of the file are clearly marked and attributed

o The file is not supplied in any collection or via any distribution
  mechanism without the written consent of the copyright holder.

********
Manifest
********

This release contains two files

    pason4e.txt    This file
    sys$ps4e.opa   The Pason application for series 3a/3c/Sienna
    sys$ps4e.opl   The source
   
I was distributing the source automatically via email but because Lotus CC
Mail rules are client side this was problematic. So the source is back.
I only ask that you send enhancements/suggestions to me or (because I'm
quite busy these days) release alternative versions with DIFFERENT names
(ie NOT called pason* or similar - and not for money if you use the source!) 

This should allow me to keep control of Pason releases.

****************
Acknowledgements
****************

This software would not exist without the following
people
    Steve Hawtin    For pason!!
    Psion           For the machine
    Tom Dolbilin    For the Macro System
    Paul Merriman   For the Cron program
    
    Holger.Pfaff@class.de - Hot key bug fix

Thanks to them and all those on the comp.sys.psion.* newsgroups who helped
with their feedback, ideas and suggestions and bug fixes.
(You know who you are!)

Author
******

Suggestions for improvements should be directed to

Andrew Lord                Andrew_Lord@tertio.co.uk

Steve is happy for all suggestions to come my way, however I wouldn't like to
see his name disappear from this file so :

Steve Hawtin               steve@tsort.demon.co.uk

(Isn't this a big readme for such a little app!)

