SmallTime

I have a small utility called SmallTime running on my RiscPC which places the time in a small icon anywhere I want on the desktop. It’s written by James Freeman and ©1995. It runs as a module, but isn’t 32bit. I saw a newsgroup posting some years back which suggested David Pitt might have 32bitted it for the Iyonix, but I can’t find it anywhere to download. I can only find the module on my system now, but I’m sure it came with a configure application as well.

Does anyone know if SmallTime has been 32bitted? I guess I could write a quick BASIC app to do the same job on my Pi, but it would be nice for SmallTime to keep going!

SmallTime running on my RiscPC which places the time in a small icon anywhere I want on the desktop. It’s written by James Freeman and ©1995. It runs as a module, but isn’t 32bit. I saw a newsgroup posting some years back which suggested David Pitt might have 32bitted it for the Iyonix

So I did! And such a long time ago too!

The 32bit bit was OK but in the here and now it is not ARMv7 compatible. It runs on an old Raspberry Pi in ARMv5 mode or ARMv7 with alignment exceptions off.

The 26bit original runs under Aemulor.

The companion ST-Opts remains 26bit, containing a 26bit “FontWindow” Module.

OTOH, Mk 2 answer. Clock and BigClock

Thanks David! So many different clocks available! In the interest of not losing any more software, would anyone be able to look at the 32bit module and make it ARMv7 safe?

I can only find the module on my system now, but I’m sure it came with a configure application as well.

The German site ArcSite has a page ArcArchie that can be used to search various FTP servers. It allowed me to find a copy of SmallTime including the configure application.

In the interest of not losing any more software, would anyone be able to look at the 32bit module and make it ARMv7 safe?

The manual is quite clear that the software must be distributed unaltered so even if someone made it ARMv7 safe it could not be passed on.

As it looked quite a simply application I decided to re-implement the concept in a new application called MiniTime (name not registered yet). It still needs more work but it’s now progressed far enough to warrant an alpha release which can be found here

MiniTime should compatible with RISC OS 3.50 and above but does require WindowManager 4.00 or higher. Hopefully it will be found useful.

Thanks Fred, that’s excellent. I admit I’d lost the actual application and just the module survived in my !Boot, so I didn’t have the Manual to see the limitations on distribution.

I’d knocked together something to just stick a clock on the bottom left of my desktop above the iconar, but your re-working of the whole SmallTime concept is great! It would be nice if you could drag it to anywhere on the desktop and it stayed there.

A minor bug, as I realise it’s still a work in progress – it’s impossible to change the time format as while you’re typing it it’s not a valid format which causes a crash!

It would be nice if you could drag it to anywhere on the desktop and it stayed there.

You can drag the window around and it will stay in that position but the position isn’t saved ATM, non of the configuration is. Also after changing the settings the window is moved back to its configured position. Both issues will be addressed in a later release.

A minor bug, as I realise it’s still a work in progress – it’s impossible to change the time format as while you’re typing it it’s not a valid format which causes a crash!

Well it worked perfectly but I see a last minute tidy up means it doesn’t work now. This should be easy to fix so the next release will be okay.

Thanks Fred, it was the position being saved I was meaning.

I know it’s still in development, and I can assure you I’ll be using it on my Pi desktop!

I’ve put MiniTime 1.01 on the website

It fixes the issue with changing the time format in the choices window. Loading and saving of the choices is now implemented. There also a small experimental feature; the time window is raised when the iconbar is raised. Might be useful if it’s hidden behind other windows.

Thanks Fred. I like the idea of the time coming to the top with the iconbar! It doesn’t go back when the iconbar lowers again though, it stays at the front of the stack.

Well, it’s something that popped into my head and so I quickly added some code to raise the time window with the iconbar just to see how it worked.

A fuller solution will come when I decide how to handle the time window’s stack position. I had hoped to use the different window stacks that RISC OS employs but it seems there’s a bug in the window manager that prevents this from working.

Most likely I’ll settle for the same way that is used by SmallTime. Not as neat but at least it works and easy to implement.

MiniTime 1.02 is now on the website ( Note that it’s now on my personal page rather than a direct download link)

The following changes have been made:

• The MiniTime window is now repositioned when the screen mode is changed.

• The MiniTime window is now resized when the desktop font is changed.

• Raising the MiniTime Window with the iconbar is now a configurable option.

• No longer tries to use different window stacks. The MiniTime window is now always on the standard stack, either at the front or at the back.

There is an issue with the ‘raise with iconbar’ option when the iconbar is raised using Shift-F12, the iconbar can’t be moved back down. This due to how Shift-F12 works, I’ll try to see if this can be worked around.