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No-Slot Clock Utilities Disk

This utilities disk contains a new set
of files, different from those
described in the manual for the No-Slot
Clock.  The previous set of utility
files has been replaced by two files,
NS.CLOCK.UTILS and READ.TIME.

NS.CLOCK.UTILS allows you to install a
special file called NS.CLOCK.SYSTEM on
any PRODOS 8 disks that you wish to
boot with, so that at bootup PRODOS
will recognized your No-Slot Clock.  It
is important to note that this utility
no longer 'patches' or otherwise
modifies the PRODOS system program.
Therefore, you can update to future
versions of PRODOS without affecting
the operation of your No-Slot Clock.
Instead, the NS.CLOCK.SYSTEM program
(contained inside of NS.CLOCK.UTILS) is
added to the main or root directory of
your boot disk so that it will be the
first '.SYSTEM' program executed.  If a
No-Slot Clock is found, the No-Slot
Clock driver will be installed.  If it
is not found, booting will continue to
the next '.SYSTEM' file.
NS.CLOCK.UTILS and NS.CLOCK.SYSTEM no
longer need to be 'Configured'.  They
both automatically find your No-Slot
Clock, wherever it's located.  In
addition, NS.CLOCK.UTILS allows you to
set or change the time of your clock.
You can run the NS.CLOCK.UTILS program
by typing '-NS.CLOCK.UTILS'.

The READ.TIME program allows you to
read the time from the clock while
using BASIC or assembly language
programs.  You install the program by
typing 'BRUN READ.TIME', which will
load READ.TIME in page $300 of your
Apple and automatically find the
location of your No-Slot Clock.  Then
from BASIC you just type 'CALL 768,T


,
and the clock date and time will be
placed in the variable following the
comma after '768'.  This variable can
be any valid string variable.  From
assembly language, after 'BRUN'ing
READ.TIME, you just do a 'JSR $30B',
and the ascii string representing the
time will be placed at $280-$291.
Also, the hex values for the time are
placed at $303-$30A, as was true of the
old CLOCKREAD program.   If no clock is
present, a null value is returned to T$
and at location $304.  See the STARTUP
program on the /No.Slot.Clock disk for
an example of using this call from
BASIC.  This version 1.4 of the
NS.CLOCK.UTILS time setting program now
fully supports the day of the week
function of the clock.  READ.TIME will
return the day of the week in location
774 ($306).  A 1 represents Sunday, a 2
Monday, ... up to a 7 for Saturday.
READ.TIME is not relocatable and will
always load in part of page $200 and
$300.

As an added bonus, the /No.Slot.Clock
disk has a DOS 3.3 partition on it.  If
you boot DOS 3.3 from another disk and
then CATALOG the /No.Slot.Clock disk,
you will find the files NS.CLOCK.UTILS
and READ.TIME on the disk in the
partition for DOS 3.3.  The operation
of each is the same as was explained
above, except that NS.CLOCK.UTILS has
no option for placing NS.CLOCK.SYSTEM
on a disk, since that is purely a
PRODOS function.  You can set or change
the time on the clock.  You start up
NS.CLOCK.UTILS by 'BRUN'ing it.
READ.TIME operates as described above.

CAP  04/21/91
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