A brief introduction -------------------- Welcome to Handy Plus, a handy accessory for everybody's everyday use. This tiny accessory will make your life easier - and a bit safer! It consists of two files, HANDY_PL.ACC and HANDY_PL.GFA. More about the use and installation of this little utility later. Public Domain products ---------------------- The products mentioned in this bit, just like the product to which this documentation file belongs to, are freeware, i.e. you can copy them freely and you don't have to pay for using them unless you really feel you want to (which would be nice). - The Background Music Utility (BMU) Working on the ST can be tedious. Wouldn't it be nice if you had one of about 25 different pieces of nice music sedately running in the background, taking up only an extremely minor fraction of your memory using the ST's built-in sound routines (which' capacity you should not underestimate)? Then this accessory is perfect for you. - Speedwriter II A somewhat older 'interactive animated correspondence' utility, including its GfA Basic source. With this, it is possible to send remarkable letters that you can see being typed as you look, including all cursor movements. Just a nice titbit. - Write Protect Utility Nothing fancy, this little thingy. It's just a tiny accessory that constantly displays the write-protect status of drives A and B (if connected) at the left top of the screen. Works on all systems! There's a source with it as well, which supplies you with the ONLY RIGHT WAY to read a floppy's write-protect status (works on all TOS versions, with one or two drives, on any ST/TT system). - Handy A tiny accessory that allows you to do three things: Access the file selector (handy when using one like "UIS III"), Specify date & time, and freeze the system until a password is entered. A source is included so that you can easily adapt the password, and then compile it again (using GfA Basic 3.x). - Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged Wowbagger is an accessory (including an editor for its appearance parameters) that swears to you at times. It can swear on the screen, or even on the printer. Millions of swearing words - most of them really ruthless, insulting and filthy - are possible. Nice to copy on the boot partition of an unsuspecting friend... - Name Creator Although this program will only appeal to those into reading and writing fantasy fiction, this utility will be useful to those who generally need to think up fantasy names in the category of dwarves, elves, etc. Using a database of existing parts of names (taken from Donaldson, Tolkien, Weis/Hickman, McCaffrey and Herbert, among others), you will be amazed at the quality of the many thousands of different names this program can come up with. Creating anagrams is also possible - though doing this with large names will use LOTS of memory. This program is being used professionally by a games company for their role playing games. Word parts can be added, a history can be kept, etc... The Handy Plus Manual --------------------- Simply copy the HANDY_PL.ACC file into the root directory of your boot drive. In case you do not have a hard disk, this will be A, and in case you DO have harddisk this will most likely be C. After booting your system, Handy Plus will be ready to be activated. It can be called by selected the entry 'Handy +' in the 'Desk' pull-down menu, on the far left. PARTICULAR USE Once activated, the Handy Plus alert box will appear. It allows you to select three buttons, which are named 'Password', 'Selector' and 'Datetime'. The default one ('Password') can be selected by pressing ENTER or RETURN - the other ones have to be selected using the mouse, clicking on them. PASSWORD If you leave your computer unattended for a while, you might want to make sure that nobody interferes with whatever it was you were doing. This can be done with the 'Password' button. After selecting it, the system completely freezes and will only be accessible again after the password has been completely typed in, faultlessly. The default password is ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. SELECTOR There are multiple alternative file selectors available for the Atari ST/TT series, that all beat hell out of the standard Atari one. It may occur that you need it, but there is no quick way to get to it - i.e. when in the desktop or in a program that doesn't offer a file selector itself (or, indeed, an own fileselector - like "Tempus"). Selecting this button makes the current (alternative) file selector appear on the screen (that is, if you have one installed). The string that is given back to the program will be completely discarded. DATETIME Do you want to know the date or the time? Well, then this is the perfect way to get to know it: Just select this button and you'll get an alert box containing both the date and time. CHANGING THE PASSWORD Allowing you to check what the program's code looks like is not the only reason why I supplied you with the source file (written in GfA Basic 3.x). The second reason is even more important: You can alter the password (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ is default). The format is simple. You have to have CAPITALS, each divided by a comma, ending with a '*'. So if you would want GWARRESK, you would have to change the DATA line to the following: DATA G,W,A,R,R,E,S,K,* That's all there is to it. In case you do not have the GfA Basic 3.x compiler/interpreter, do not panic! Just use a disk editor to change it. Near the end of the file you will find the alphabet, of which each character is separated - but this time by a '0' instead of a comma. You would have to change the letters to suit your particular wishes for a password, ending it with '*'. Be careful not to get rid of any of the zeroes separating the characters, and make sure not to forget the '*'. Any characters AFTER the '*' are ignored. COMPATIBILITY Handy Plus works on any ST system with any amount of memory and any resolution. ANOTHER VERSION There have been one or two other versions of Handy, ranging from version numbers 1.0 to 1.3. These have been released by me personally or through the disk magazine "ST NEWS". The difference: The date and time were not given. Instead, you got the amount of free memory. The Address ----------- I can be reached at the following address. There, I would like to receive possible donations. Richard Karsmakers Looplantsoen 50 NL-3523 GV Utrecht The Netherlands I'd like to remind you of the fact that, unless you've read otherwise, this address is valid up to 1994, for I don't plan on living at that address forever. The program on this disk and its manual are copyright 1991 by Richard Karsmakers. However, you may copy them as much as you want as long as the package remains complete (i.e. program + document file + other associated files). I would also like to send greetings to all my fellow shareware programmers on all systems: Ours is the divine cause! Ours is the task to change the world of software! Or, as Jeff would say: Death to The Men With Suits!