************ * Hot!Stat * ************ (v1.1) Do Not Stamp Software PO Box 467 Des Plaines, IL USA 60016 (c) copyright 1990 Purpose: Hot!stat is a tool for the analysis of "ledger" files created by HotWire (1). The ledger files that HotWire creates contain a listing of programs (with elapsed times) used on a per-day basis. However each time a program is used a new entry is made in the ledger. If a program is used more than once during the day then there will be multiple entries for it, each with a different elapsed time. Until now there was no easy way to add these times together and calculate just how much time was being spent using a particular program. Hot!stat will perform this calculation, and others, with ease. Thus allowing you to accurately assess the amount of use you are getting from your computer investment. Requirements: Hot!stat runs on any Atari ST/Mega computer. A minimum of 1 megabyte RAM is recommended, but 512K should be sufficient for all but the lengthiest of analysis cycles. Monochrome and Medium Resolution color monitors are supported. Additionally the user should refer to the HotWire manual for a discussion of considerations when using the ledger function of that program (eg: clock/date settings, ledger paths, etc). Note: Hot!stat is currently being distributed as "freeware". That is to say that there is no charge to use or distribute the program provided that distribution is done on a not-for-profit basis. Reasonable fees for copying and media are permitted. This program is offered without warranty, expressed or implied. The author has attempted to remove bugs or errors in the program but user feedback is essential in locating and identifying errors as they occur. If you experience trouble please contact DNS Software so the problem can be corrected in subsequent releases. Postal and electronic mailing addresses are given at the end of this document. _ _ 1. HotWire is a commercial product developed by CodeHead Software. There is no connection between DNS Software (hot!stat) and CodeHead Software (HotWire). Using hot!stat: This users guide assumes that any ST owner who wishes to track application usage at the level hot!stat allows is at least somewhat of a "power user". Thus familiar GEM and ST operating conventions are not covered in this discussion. Additionally hot!stat is largely mouse driven and will not perform any potentially destructive options without first warning the user (such as overwriting a file). Experimentation with the various options is encouraged. Getting Started: Upon running hot!stat you will be presented with a familiar GEM window. Various pull-down menus exist where the operation of the program is directed. A full discussion of each of the menu items is given later in this document. For now the first-time user will want to select "open" located under the "file" menu on the left hand side of the menu. Next, an alert box will appear asking if Daily, Weekly, or Monthly analysis should be performed. Logically enough the choices let the user analyze single (daily) ledger files, or in groups of 7 or 31 (weekly and monthly respectively). For our purposes select "daily". (If you wish to cancel the "open" operation select any of the options then click on "cancel" from the item selector that appears next.) An item selector will appear and you will be prompted to select a single ledger file. If you had selected weekly analysis then you would select the _first_ single file that starts the week you want to analyze. This allows you to define your own seven day periods beginning when ever you'd like (2). If you had selected Monthly analysis you would pick _any_ single file from the month you wish to analyze. However for this demonstration just pick any single ledger file. Hot!stat will next report on either the number of entries the daily file contains, or the number of weekly/monthly files found to process. A dialog box is displayed asking if you want to continue with the analysis process. If you select "yes" the program will proceed with the analysis of the selected file(s). _ _ 2. In the current version (1.0) hot!stat will define the week as the selected file plus the next six, in sequential date order, that it is able to locate. The actual dates covered by these seven files may exceed seven days depending on how often you use your system. For example, a weekly analysis may include files from 3/9/90, 3/10/90, 3/11/90, 3/12/90, 3/13/90, 3/14/90, 3/20/90 if there were no ledger files between the dates of the fourteenth and the nineteenth. Selecting "no" will return you to the main GEM screen, aborting the file operation completely and safely. Finally, upon completion of the analysis (3), you will be presented with a screen showing the results: (daily report shown below) ************************************************************ Usage Report for Thursday, March 15, 1990 Total time this date 03:51:02 Application Total Time Percentage ---------------------------------------------------- 2COLUMNS.PRG 00:03:13 1.4% ASCIIVEW.PRG 00:04:00 1.7% Address Book 00:05:19 2.3% Archive Shell 00:05:07 2.2% BA File Packer 00:00:44 0.3% Dirty Word Processor 00:00:42 0.3% Disk Chart 00:00:26 0.2% Flash! 01:40:05 43.3% Madam Librarian 00:02:01 0.9% Maxifile 00:01:59 0.9% NoClick 00:00:00 0.0% Print Spooler 00:00:00 0.0% Quick CompuServe 01:25:00 36.8% Seurat 00:02:04 0.9% Text File Viewer 00:00:47 0.3% Two Column Printer 00:04:11 1.8% What Is This File?! 00:00:11 0.1% WordPerfect/ST 00:15:13 6.6% >end< DNS hot!stat 13.05.1990 *************************************************************** _ _ 3. Note that the analysis procedure may be somewhat lengthy depending upon the size and number of ledger files you have selected. The title on the GEM window will change as the analysis proceeds, letting you know that things are working just fine, and what operation the program is currently performing. This report shows the total usage for the period (daily, weekly, or monthly) and the total time spent in each application. The percentage of use for each application is also shown in the last column (4). The final line ("DNS hot!stat") shows the date which the report was created. In the example created above is was generated May 13th, 1990. Finishing up: That, in a very brief nutshell, is the essence of hot!stat. The promise of HotWire ledger files has been fulfilled. For a discussion of each pull-down menu item please see the rest of this document. Many nuances not covered in this overview are discussed therein. _ _ 4. The percentage option can be turned on or off by selecting "statistics" from the pull-down menus. hot!stat Menu Breakdown DESK: Ahh..an easy one. Select this and you'll see the version number of hot!stat and a friendly copyright notice. FILE: Open...: This is how you select the Hotwire! ledger file that you want to analyze. Select Open... and a file selector box will appear asking for period to be analyzed. Select one and then select a Ledger file per the prompt given. If you select a file other than a legitimate Hotwire ledger file you'll get an error message. Select "CANCEL" on the file selector to exit this screen without selecting a file. Quit...: Exits to the desktop. You'll be given a chance to change your mind before the exit occurs. CONFIGURE: Printer...: Selecting this will cause the program to load a GFA Printer Driver. If it fails to find a driver you'll be notified. If it finds one it will report the name of the file. Right now a driver is not needed since printer output is in straight ASCII. In the future special printing effects (such as underline etc) will be utilized. Alias...: "Alias" is a powerful feature that allows you to combine or exclude certain applications from the analysis. For example, you ledger files may contain entries for both FLASH.PRG (which is what you select from the Desktop to run Flash) and "Flash Terminal Program" (which is what you select from the HotWire menu to run Flash). Obviously both are the same application but because their entry name is different they will be treated as separate by hot!stat. Using "alias" you can instruct hot!stat to treat every entry of "FLASH.PRG" as if it were "Flash Terminal Program", thus obtaining an accurate calculation of the time spent using Flash. Additionally you can tell hot!stat to completely exclude applications from the analysis process. This is useful if, for example, you run an ICD Tape Backup program every night before going to bed. Normally this would create an eight or nine hour entry in the ledger file and drastically skew the "percentage of use" calculations in relation to the other applications. Using "alias" you can disregard entries of this type and once again obtain a more accurate ledger analysis. See the "Using Alias" section later in this manual for more information. Groupings...: Not implemented in this version, but will eventually allow you to group applications under various categories. For example, Flash, QuickCIS, and STalker could be grouped under "Telecommunications" and treated as one application during the calculation of hot!stat reports. Show Status...: A small window will appear on the screen displaying the status off all the various options, system information, and the version of hot!stat you are currently using. Save Config: Selecting this option will cause hot!stat to save a configuration file (HOTSTAT.CNF) to the default path. All settings including statistics, alias', file paths, and output devices are saved and then automatically restored the next time your run the program. If a configuration file already exists you will be asked to confirm the creation of a new one before the settings are saved. REPORTS: Statistics...: Allows the user to toggle statistical calculations on or off. Right now the only stat available is percentage of total use. The default setting for Statistics in ON. Documents...: In the current version Document entries in the Hotwire! ledger files are ignored. A future release will prepare reports on time spent working on documents. Output Device: Allows the user to select how the reports will be displayed. Output can be directed to the screen or a disk file. NOTE: When you first run hot!stat the default output is to your screen. If you select OUTPUT DEVICE from the drop down menu this default will be reset. Thus, you will have to re-select "screen" if you wish to be able to see the reports as they are generated. Hot!stat will work just fine without an output device selected, but you'll get very little information back when you select a report since there is no place to display it. HELP: General: General information about the program. Printer: Unavailable since printed output isn't finished in this version. Credits: Acknowledgements from the author. Using Alias Upon selecting "Alias..." from under the CONFIGURE menu a dialog box will appear with "EDIT", "ON/OFF", and "CANCEL" options. Selecting "Cancel" will safely abort the alias procedure. Select "On/Off" to set if hot!stat should utilize your alias definitions or not. If you do not have an existing Alias definition file you will not be able to successfully turn on this option. (A alert box will appear informing you of this should it occur.) To add/delete entries to your Alias definition file (stored as ALIAS.SET in your default hot!stat path) select "Edit" from the alias dialog box. Another box will appear asking for a selection of either "Add" or "Delete". We'll discuss "Add" first since that is the first thing you will have to do to create your initial alias definition file. "Add Alias": Upon selecting "Add" an item selector will appear asking you to select any single ledger file. Alias entries are entered from existing ledger files and you must select one that contains the applications for which you wish to define alias settings. Once you select a file, and confirm your choice, hot!stat will display the first 24 applications from the ledger file (5). Also a small window will open at the bottom of the screen, this is where you will entering the alias information. To enter an alias: The applications will be numbered (from 1 to 24) on your screen. To set up the alias (FLASH.PRG to Flash Terminal Program) used as an example earlier you would first enter the number that appears beside FLASH.PRG (ie: 5) as "the application wish to define an alias for". Then enter the number beside "Flash Terminal Program" (ie: 12) as the "destination alias". Note that hot!stat prompts for each of these entries separately. Enter "98" as the destination to instruct hot!stat to ignore (or disregard) an application during analysis. Entering "0" (zero) will allow you to "undo" mistakes, and "99" indicates that you are finished adding alias'. Enter "99" and you will be asked if you wish to save the settings you just entered. If an alias definition file already exists you'll be asked to confirm the save before proceeding. NOTE! Alias settings that are already defined (from previous sessions) are _ _ 5. The file will be sorted, and duplicates combined, so each entry will only appear once. Note, however, that only the first 24 entries are shown on the screen so the application(s) you wish to define as alias' must fall within the first 24 entries. not replaced or deleted! New alias' are added to those that already exist. For this reason it is possible to recursively define alias settings (eg: flash.prg=interlink.prg and interlink.prg=flash.prg) but doing so will result in errors and confusion in the analysis! If you wish to redefine an alias entry you should first delete the old entry. Deleting Alias definitions: Select "delete" from the "Edit Alias" dialog box and, providing that a definition file exists, hot!stat will display all the definitions you have defined. They are displayed in groups of twenty. Enter "F" or "B" to browse forward or back in the list, and to delete a specific entry simple enter the number that appears next to it in the display. Typing "Q" will quit the procedure and you'll be asked if you wish to keep or discard the changes you made. Selecting "keep" will create a new definition file on the disk. Further Notes: Hot!stat allows up to fifty alias pairs to be defined. The program will not allow you to add more than fifty entries. If you have any comments, suggestions, or bug reports please send them to author. This program is only as good as the feedback users provide. Thanks... Do Not Stamp Software PO Box 467 Des Plaines, IL USA 60016 GEnie and Delphi: GRMEYER CompuServe: 72307,1502 Internet: 72307.1502@Compuserve.Com If you enjoy using this program you can reward the author by sending a postcard to the address given above.