Andrew Lord                     Pason 4.c                            May 1996
***********                     *********                            ********
    
This utility is an enhanced version of pason that was 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 a number of minutes after the Psion
  was last switched on. 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.
  
o An option is available to always display owner information when the machine
  is switched on.

o Switch on your Alarm sounds, in case you forget to re-enable sounds after
  switching them off.

o Switch off the remote link

DOWNSIDE - 3a only!
*******************
Sorry Psion 3ers but Pason now uses "Switch on" events. These are only
signalled on 3a machines. 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 6.5K of disk space and 10K runtime space.

INSTALLATION
************
Copy sys$pas4.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 give a dialog.  

The information required is :-

Password   - This should be your system password.

Timer Mode -"Regular Intervals"
                  All Pason features will activate at regular intervals. This
                  is specified in hours.
                  
            -"After last switch on"
                  The Password will activate 'n' minutes after the last
                  switch on. 
                  This does not affect the alarm sounds and link options.
        
"Keep Alarms On" - (yes/no)
             Do you want pason to re-activate your alarm sounds? Useful if you
             use your Psion as an alarm clock - but sometimes turn the sound
             off (eg. cinema/meetings)

"Switch off remote link"
             Do you want pason to switch off the link?( Remember you don't 
             want the link switching off in the middle of a backup.)

"Show owner information (yes/no)"
             If yes , pason4 will make sure that owner information is displayed
             when the Psion is switched on if the password is not activated.

---------------------------------
Timer Mode Dialog
---------------------------------

"Activate After last switch on(min)"
        This is the number of minutes that should elapse after switch on, 
        before the password is enabled. This option is not available if you 
        selected "Regular Intervals" for the timer mode.
        
"Next Event"
        This is the initial time that pason4 should switch on.
        2:30am is a good time for most of us!

"Repeat(hrs)"
        This is how often you want pason4 to activate itself.

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.
  
Done.

If you had the second version then delete
M:\app\pason23.opa or M:\app\pason23a.opa

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?
*********************************

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.
3) Change your system password - so that PASON knows that you've changed it.
2) Change the HOT-KEY assignment.
3) Exit Pason.

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

PASON Uses 10K run-time space and 6.5K file space.

Pason Mini FAQ
**************
Q1 Why not use "After last switch OFF?" rather than "After last switch on"?

I have used this rather than "After last switch
                  OFF because no signals are sent to processes when the Psion
                  is switched off. 

Q2 I've installed Pason and my Psion is not turning off. Whats up?

This happens if you set the "After last switch on time" to be less that the
system "Auto-Off time" in which case it should take the sum of both times, 
before switching off. This problem also MAY manifest itself for as yet
unknown reasons! but I've only had one complaint and I'm investigating!

Q3 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?

Yes! Or you could stop Pason prior to backup and restart afterwards!
This never used to happen with Pason2. I suspect that it's something to do
with the fact that pason4 is bigger than pason2 so it isn't being cached
in some way, but I'm not sure.

My favorite configuration
*************************
o Activate password 30 minutes after last switch on.
o Enable alarms at midnight and every 6 hours thereafter.
o Don't display owner information. (The screen's a bit slow and tacky and the
  password will come on in half an hour anyway!)

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

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
                                  *******

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.
  
o When Pason switches on the Psion momentarily 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 cople 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.

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 Steve Hawtin, it may be freely copied provided

    The complete copyright section is 
        incorporated including these conditions
        unmodified
    All changes to the body of the file are 
        clearly marked and attributed
    The file is not supplied in any collection 
        or via any distribution mechanism for 
        which the eventual user is charged more
        than $20 in total, without the written 
        consent of the copyright holder.

Manifest
********

This release contains two files

    pason4.txt    This file
    sys$pas4.opa   The Pason application for series 3a
   
I have taken the decision not to release the source code with this distribution,
hopefully this should give me better control of Pason release. If you want to
see the source code, email me with the text "PASON SOURCE" in the subject line.

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 newsgroup 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
