Psi-OS Documentation V2.7b                                  21/10/97
                                                           FULL PROGRAM, FREEWARE
Written By Peter Johnson
peter@leven-crow.demon.co.uk
or visit:
http://www.leven-crow.demon.co.uk
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Introduction:
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Psi-OS is basically a new alternative OS to the one that came with the Psion Siena. It has many useful functions to help you do even the simplist task. Psi-OS has been designed with the user in mind with a nice GUI (Graphical, User, Interface). Psi-OS can be altered to how you want it, and how you work, even down to the background pattern!

Psi-OS has most of the disk functions you would find in other file managers, but with added help and instructions to get you through the tasks more easily!

Welcome to the world of Psi-OS!
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Requirements:
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A Psion Siena, with at least 85Kb of free memory, or 100Kb with the optional extras included (Setup, Install programs) PLUS, IT MUST BE STORED ON THE INTERNAL DRIVE (M:\) OTHERWISE IT
DOES NOT WORK!
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CONTENTS:

New Features Of V2.7b
Getting Started
File menu
Disk Menu
Info Menu
Prog Menu
System Menu
Acknowledgments
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THE NEW ALL-ACTION V2.7b:

PSI-OS V2.7b NOW HAS A FEW NEW FEATURES,
NEW KEYS:
SHIFT-DEL - TURNS PSION OFF
Q - QUITS PROGRAM
1 - QUICK RUN OF DATA
2 - QUICK RUN OF SPREADSHEET
3 - QUICK RUN OF WORD
4 - QUICK RUN OF OPL EDITOR
5 - QUICK RUN OF AGENDA

PSI-OS NOW HAS MUCH NEEDED DEBUGGING, AS MANY PEOPLE HAD TROUBLE WITH IT!
PSI-OS RECONISES MORE OF THE KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS OF THE SIENA, E.G CONTRAST AND INFRA-RED BUTTONS
BETTER USE OF THE MENUS, AND SLIGHT NEW ORDER.
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Getting Started & INSTALLATION:
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This manual is laid out in menu order after this Getting Started guide.
Okay, lets start right back at the beginning, first lets install Psi-OS - Follow carefully,

Make the following directory on the root (front) of the Internal drive of the Psion:
M:\PSI-OS

Make sure you have a \APP , \PIC , \TXT

And now make a directory in \APP called:
PSI-STF

NOW... Copy the following Files to the M:\PSI-OS\ directory we created earlier:

Arrows.PIC
Logo.SYS (Which is a PIC File)
System.PIC
Clock.DAT
Beeps.DAT
MyFile.ODB
Text.OPO
Bitmp.OPO

Copy the files 'Psi-OS.OPA' 'Setup.OPA' to your \APP\ directory. To install Psi-OS use the key combination of <Psion> (the Psion key is the underlined U) and the <I> key.
The Psi-OS icon should now appear on your system screen. Now do this for Setup.

YOU HAVE NOW COMPLETED INSTALLATION OF THE PSI-OS SYSTEM.

To run PSI-OS press the <Enter> key on the Psi-OS Icon. Psi-OS will now boot into a Setup Screen, if it doesn't then you haven't installed properly, go back.
You are now presented with a dialog asking for you to finish setup, press enter when you are ready and Psi-OS will create its new data files (defualt options), then will present you with a new dialog saying that it has finished and could you press enter again to boot in for the first time. To Start press <Enter> to quit press <Q>. The key you need to press is always shown in the button (the text above is to tell you what it does)
Quit will exit the program and return you to the Psion system screen.
Start will bring you to the main screen, NOTE:- during the loading process watch closely at the bottom left and right corners of the screen because Psi-OS gives you system information, eg. If you have a PC Link cable still attached to your Psion then Psi-OS picks this up, if not then it will tell you that no PC is connected at this time.

The Psi-OS system is totally based around a menu.
To bring up the menu press the <MENU> key, so do that.

| File | Disk | Info | System | # |

It always defualts to the File menu. So lets look at the menus in more detail,

File			Disk			Info			System

Rename File...     R	Copy File As...	  Y	Memory Info	  O	Core Apps...	 V
Copy File...	   C	Move File As...	  Q	Battery Info	  B	Load OPA         L
Move File...	   M	Make Directory    K	Get Owner Info    H	View PIC File    W
Delete File...	   D	Remove Directory  E	About Siena	  I	View Text File   F
Compress DBF  	   S	Scan Disk	  Z		 	        Change Backdrop  G
File Attributes    X
About...	   A
Quit		   1

#

System Bar On/Off	P		Remember all the shortcut keys are combinations 
Beep Errors On/Off	J		which must include the Psion key. Remember that you
Status Bar On/Off	T		can't use the Quit combination (for safety) but there
Clock On/Off		U		is a quick quit combination of <Psion-Esc>
Turn Off Psion		Shift-N		

To scroll through the menus use the cursor keys, familiarise yourself with their places and order. Okay, now lets look quickly at how to select and use some of the functions:-
Lets try "About" first which is in the File menu, select it and press <Enter>. This tells you about Psi-OS and me, you can press <Enter> again to exit the dialog. You can also use the key combinations <Psion Key> and <A>.
Now lets move onto the "Quit". Select quit from menu and press <Enter>. Quit basically drops you out of Psi-OS back to the system screen. Psi-OS will prompt you with a YES/NO dialog box. Press <Y> or <N> keys to confirm the option you want. There is a quick quit key combination of <Psion-Esc> for emergencies.

Try things out, Psi-OS is clever and will allow you to get out of a sticky situation quite easily (i.e. deleting the system files). If you do make an error in your typing then Psi-OS will let you go back and retype it!
Psi-OS's error detection is able to go around the normal system error detection and tell you exactly what has happened.

The bar down the right-hand side of the main screen is the Status bar, this indicates the time (and date), if the batteries are low in the Psion and whether the Psion is connected to a PC.
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THE FILE MENU:
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Psi-OS Can handle any drive and any files (size, name, file attributes, file extension).
Basically, there are eleven disk, file and directory functions available. Lets first look at the file functions,

Rename - Renames a file to a user defined name
Copy  -  Copies a file to another location on a drive
Move - Copies a file from one place to another, deleting the original
Delete - Deletes a file from a drive
Compress DBF - Compresses the Data files stored on the Psion.
File Attributes - Gets attributes on a selected file (size, date, read only, etc...)

For most of these you need to do two things, the start file and the end file/directory (except for Compress DBF, File attribs & Scan Disk, see later on)

Rename - Renames a file to a user defined name, if this new name is the name of an existing file 	 then Psi-OS will prompt you to either cancel the operation or rename again.

Copy   - This function copies files from one place to another. If it detects there is a file 	 	 already there with that name Psi-OS will tell you with a message. It will give you the           option to overwrite or cancel.

Move   - This function moves files. It puts a copy in the location of your choice and deletes the          original file. Like copy it will give you the option to cancel.

Delete - This function removes files. It won't delete read only files or any protected files, and          will give the option to cancel.

File Attributes are a large part of the Psion disk File System. Each file (and every file) has information regarding what attributes it has,
Read Only, Modified, Hidden, System File,
The date when the file was last modified (or created).
Psi-OS knows what is what and you can change the attributes of files as you see fit (i.e. Data files not Read Only, Etc...).

Go to File Attributes and select it (or Psion-X), you are presented with a dialog telling you about the Psi-OS OPA file. Press the <ESC> key to bring up a new dialog asking you to select a file, press Tab and select a new file (it doesn't matter what). The default location for this is the \APP\ directory. As this is the most commonly used I set this to default, although other things default to other locations, so you don't have to keep swapping directories.

Compress DBF, this allows you to compress Data files, to do this select the function and choose your Data file (remember Tab), once you've selected the file press <Enter>. You are then asked whether you want to move the Data file and compress it at another location, don't, and Psi-OS will compress to the same place (with the same filename). If you had said yes to the dialog then you would have to select a new location for the file to go to.
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THE DISK MENU:
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Copy File As - Allows you to copy a file to another location with a new filename
Move File As - Allows you to move a file to another location with a new filename
Make Directory - Creates a new, empty directory on any drive and location
Remove Directory - Removes an EMPTY directory on any drive and location
Scan Disk - Allows you to move through directories and look at the files

Copy File As & Move File As, these two functions are very easy to use, just select the original file and then enter in the new location and filename, this is a bit like 'Copy' and 'Move' in the File Menu. These functions only process one file at a time so you can't select multiple files!

Make Directory & Remove Directory, Psi-OS makes selecting locations simple, all you do is press <Tab> and Psi-OS will open up a new dialog box with a list of files and a directory name. You can go between drives (If you have an external drive) by pressing the left or right cursor, to go back a directory select the '\', or to go on a directory, select the directory underneath the bold type of the directory you are in (it should contain that name as well, e.g. /Psi-OS/Temp - Temp being the new directory you want)

If Psi-OS detects that the directory contains files it will immediately tell you about it and prompt you with options to delete the files or move them (or just cancel the operation). The same with copy, move and rename, if there is a file there with that name you are asked what should be done.

Scan Disk, this function allows you to move through the drives and directories basically having a good look around, without really doing anything (a rare commodity). Psi-OS gives you the option to select a directory and then get attributes on a particular file within that directory.
If you select the Scan Disk function from the Disk menu then a dialog appears with a directory name and two arrows. Moving the cursor left goes back a directory and right goes forward a directory. Pressing Tab will open a much larger list of directories, select one and look at the files inside (great isn't it!), then come out again and go into another directory.

Scan disk can also use wildcards (*.opl *.* *.wrd, etc) so that only particular filetypes can be seen (or view all filetypes with *.*).

Here are some common ones.

*.*   -  Show all filetypes.
*.    -  Show all filetypes. (alternative)
*.opl -  Show only files with the extension .opl (OPL, Program Files)
*.wrd -  Show only files with the extension .wrd (Word, Word Processor Files)
*.spr -  Show only files with the extension .spr (Sheet, Spreadsheet Files)
*.dbf -  Show only files with the extension .dbf (Data, Database Files)
*.agn -  Show only files with the extension .agn (Agenda, Agenda Files)
*.opa -  Show only files with the extension .opa (OPL, Translated Code Files)
*.opo -  Show only files with the extension .opo (OPL, Translated Code Files)
*.pic -  Show only files with the extension .pic (PIC, Psion Picture Files)

To use a wildcard, press <TAB> when in the file and directory lister (this also applies to functions in the file menu). This is a useful way of filtering the file types out.
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INFO MENU:
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Information can be obtained in Psi-OS easily, in fact some of the information is right in front of you, time (and date), link status and low-battery symbol(only on when battery is low).

Other information is available at the touch of some buttons. The Info menu supplies you with information about the current system state, memory/battery/owner and other information is available from other menus. Lets, however, focus on the three functions in the Info menu,

Memory Info  - Displays the current amount of memory available, to close this
               window press Escape (Esc).
Battery Info - Displays the current voltage the batteries are giving out,
	       Main Battery should be at 2.06, if it is below 2.0 then it is getting low
	       Backup Battery should be at 2.56 or above, if it falls below 2.0  it is low.

If the batteries are low then Psi-OS will tell you with a flashing battery symbol on the status bar at the side, make haste and change those dead batteries!

Get Owner Info - Gets information from the system about the 
                 Psion owner information on the system screen.

You can't input owner information through Psi-OS, but need to quit and enter it through the Psion system screen in the Info menu, and Set Owner options there.

Okay, so that shows you Psi-OS can give you up-to-date information on many things about your Psion Siena. This information can be used to your advantage, knowing how much free memory there is can allow you to check what you may have to get rid of, and still be able to load those new files!
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Prog Menu:
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Okay, in this menu you can run the 'Core' or primary applications that came with your Psion, run OPO programs writen in OPL and OPA files translated in OPL through Psi-OS. Psi-OS allows you to run the 'Core' applications through it, i.e. do some word processing and then a little reorganisation on your agenda's. To do this go to the Prog Menu and select 'Core Apps', you are presented with a dialog box with a choice to select an application (left cursor goes back and right cursor goes forward), you could just press the appropriate first letter to the application you want (p - Program Editor, etc...) , pressing Tab to view a list and select the one you want, if you want to exit the dialog box press 'e' or select 'Exit', it'll take you out of the dialog box. There is also an option to open an existing file or (pressing left or right cursor) create a new file. If you select to load an existing file then you have to select it in a new dialog that appears. When you exit the program you have just been running, you go back to the original dialog box, choose 'e' or 'Exit' from the list to close the dialog.

OPA and OPO files often pop up and you install them onto the system screen, well Psi-OS doesn't install them, but, allows you to easily execute them from within Psi-OS (the default pathname is set to the \APP\ directory). To do this go to the Prog Menu and select Load OPA, then just enter the location and/or the filename (if its in the \APP\ directory then just the filename), do put the .OPO or .OPA, as Psi-OS can't tell the two apart (yet). There probably is more that could be added to this, again maybe in a later version.


There are two files you installed, Bitmp.OPO and text.OPO, these are the PIC and TEXT file viewers.

The PIC Viewer will load in and will prompt you with a dialog box asking for a picture if you have a \PIC\ directory then Psi-OS will default there, if not it will create a directory. Select a picture (*.PIC file), if you don't have any, use the Arrows.PIC in the \Psi-OS\ directory. You're picture is shown. If the picture is bigger than the Psion Siena's screen then you will need to scroll along, using the cursor keys. The Control key moves in small blocks, the Shift key moves to the edges (don't forget to press the cursor key as well!), the Enter key allows you to select a new image, and the Escape (Esc) key exits the picture viewer back to Psi-OS.

The TEXT Viewer will load in and will prompt you with a dialog box asking for a piece of text if you have a \TXT\ directory then Psi-OS will default there, if not it will create a directory. Select a text (*.TXT file), if you don't have any, use the Prefs.DAT file in the \Psi-OS\ directory (its plain text!). You're text is shown. If the text is bigger than the Psion Siena's screen then it will scroll along, to stop it press a key, otherwise it will get to the bottom of the text file and finish before you have read it! When it does get to the bottom it will wait for a key and then prompt for a new file again. The Escape key exits, and can be pressed when scrolling or on the dialog.

A word of warning, don't try to view anything wider than the Psion Siena screen (31 characters), the consequences are unknown.

Changing the backdrop is a very good function, it allows you to have a change once in a while!
Doing this function allows you to display a 160*240 in 2 or 16 colours (Psi-OS will dither down), 
remember that you can change the backdrop only 4 times in a currently running version of Psi-OS, Psi-OS will prompt you with more information if you try to continue over the limit.
This function is not a permanent change, it only works in the Psi-OS you are running currently to change it permanently follow the instructions below: 

Here are two ways of doing this, through the Setup program (available on the net), or manually. The manual way is quite difficult and you need to know what you are doing, make backups of all the Psi-OS files!
There are three main areas of Psi-OS you can customise at the moment,
1.  Fonts
2.  Pictures
3.  Data in system files.

1.  There are two fonts in the \Psi-OS\ directory, Courir13.FON and Zapfch12.FON. To change the fonts, find a suitable PSION compatible font (about 12 point) and rename it to one of the above (making sure the original isn't there with that name or you'll be stuck!)
2.  There are two files in the \Psi-OS\ directory, Prefs.DAT and Arrows.PIC, rename Arrows.PIC to something else (ending in .PIC) and copy your picture in (making sure it is in 16 - 2 colours!), rename your picture to Arrows.PIC, remember that you'll have to convert the picture before you copy it into the Psion! Else it won't work! The Prefs.DAT is an important file and must not be altered!!!
3.  There are three .DAT files in the \Psi-OS\ directory, the Prefs.DAT is an important file and must not be altered!!!But the other two, Clock.DAT and Beeps.DAT can be altered and this is what you can change them to,
     Beeps.DAT - 0 or 1   (OFF or ON)
     Clock.DAT - Blank space to 6 (Different clocks!)

Remember - The clocks are only used when the status bar has been turned off.
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THE System Menu:
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NEW IN v2.7, the system menu automatically updates itself when an object is turned on or off. Please read on for an explanation of this menu...

Now we get into the more technical, but still easy part. In the System Menu there are options to turn things on and off. But why? Well, Psi-OS has permanent features you might want to turn off, such as the status bar down the right hand side. These are all controlled via this menu.
The Clock On/Off function in the menu is for an independent clock that runs automatically when the status bar is turned off, (It does not affect the normal status bar clock operation), and allows you to see the time and date (which appears in a new window at the bottom right of the screen). If you do not want the clock then select Clock Off from the menu. Selecting the status bar will also automatically turn the independent clock off.
If you accidentally select Clock Off before turning the status bar off first, Psi-OS will ask you whether or not you want to turn the status bar off (neat?), if you say yes then it'll prompt you again and ask if you want to turn the clock off (definitely neat).



The other functions are,
System Bar On/Off		- Turns on/off a window which gives memory available
Beep Errors On/Off		- Turns on/off beeps when an error occurs
Turn Psion Off	     		- Turns off your Psion Siena.

You may have thought that the System Bar was the same as the Memory Info bar, well no, their different because the System Bar allows the user to keep working, but the other waits for the Escape key to be pressed.
The last two above are very simple and explanations aren't needed.

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That should have covered everything and given you an insight on how to use the system.
Persevere and you should find it really useful. I do!

This program is still under development, and I hope to have improvements and updates in the future.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GIVE HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS THEN PLEASE DO E-MAIL ME AT:

peter@leven-crow.demon.co.uk
or visit:
http://www.leven-crow.demon.co.uk

Thanks for using Psi-OS. Bye for now....
