FGWP.exe Foreground Wallpaper ver.0.02b
Copyright 1999 January June / Yotogi-Hime / Beliefia Productions

1. Welcome

This software allows your desktop to show desired bitmap in foreground.
It often eats your machime power dreadfully, but you may get some funny effect (of course depending on the appearance of used bitmap).

Features:

Shows bitmap in foreground, with transparency.
Mouse events(clicking, drag&drop, and so on) pass through to your desktop or other applications.
Requires tons of CPU power :-) [PentiumII 300+MHz w/fast PCI or AGP video are strongly recommended]
OS/2 native, 32bit PM application.

1.1. Copyright and disclaimer

'THIS SOFTWARE (FGWP.EXE) AND WHOLE SET OF DOCUMENTS' (CALLED 'THE PRODUCTS') ARE ENTIRELY COPYRIGHTED BY TAKAYUKI 'JANUARY JUNE' SUWA/BELIEFIA PRODUCTIONS, AUTHOR/HOLDER OF THE PRODUCT.
THE PRODUCT IS STILL DEVELOPPING IN PROGRESS AT THE DISTRIBUTION AND MAY BE OCCURED ANY MODIFICATION/DELETION OF APPEARANCE/FUNCTION OR TERMINATION OF DEVELOPMENT/SERVICE IN FUTURE WITHOUT NOTICE.
THE PRODUCT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDED NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE PRODUCT, EVEN THOUGH SUCH HOLDER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY DAMAGE.

We are regarded you agree above disclaimer at first execution of FGWP.EXE. If you disagree disclaimer above, you must discard all files of the product.

1.2. System Requirements

This program will be functioned in environment such as:

Presentation Manager on OS/2 version 4 (or later)

We strongly recommend the use of fast and powerful machine (PentiumII 300MHz or faster w/PCI or AGP video).

1.3. Contact Author

Email to Takayuki 'January June' Suwa:

1.4. Revision History

ver.0.01 - Apr.11th,1999
1. First release.
2. Some functions were not implemented.
ver.0.02 - Apr.12th,1999
1. Added "File Dialog".
2. Added "Rectangles Limit".
3. Added feature to show bitmap information to tasklist.
4. Built Japanese resource DLL.
5. Fixed minor bugs.
6. Wrote documentation (JUST THIS).
ver.0.02a - Apr.14th,1999
1. Added "Hide" menu item.
2. Replaced incorrect icon / module description.
ver.0.02b - Apr.15th,1999
1. Added color pickup feature.
2. Added mask color "None" item.

2. How to use

2.1. Instructions

After launch (and "Product Information" dialog at first execution), FGWP.exe shows default bitmap in foreground, center of screen.

Figure.1 FGWP default bitmap
Almost of mouse events pass through FGWP foreground bitmap to desktop or other applications, however, clicking mouse #2 w/Shift+Ctrl pressing can invoke FGWP popup menu.
FGWP popup menu contains 4 items: "Properties", "Hide", "Help" and "Close".
- "Properties..."
  Shows "Properties" dialog (continues to 4.).
- "Hide"
  Simply hides FGWP foreground bitmap. To show again, use Task List.
- "Help"
  Only submenu item "Product Information..." displays "Product Information" dialog.
- "Close"
  Simply closes FGWP foreground bitmap and terminates FGWP.exe process.
"Properties" dialog determines behavior of FGWP foreground bitmap.

Figure.2 FGWP Properties dialog
- "Bitmap File"
  Specifies bitmap file (*.BMP) as FGWP foreground bitmap. To choose using Common File Dialog, press button "...".
- "Mask Color"
  Indicates transparent region in FGWP foreground bitmap. In other words, the region painted this color in FGWP foreground bitmap will be transparent.
  You can choose left-bottom/right-bottom color of specified bitmap, another specified color or none (means no transparent region).
  To specify another color, double-click color valueset control. "Color Selection" dialog will be shown. Color wheel, RGB value spins and color pickup (doubleclicking mouse #1) can be used.
- "Orientation"
  You can choose one of orientations from each sides and corners, and center of screen.
- "Rects Limit"
  Since FGWP foreground bitmap consist of a set of rectanglar windows, specifing complex bitmap has a lot of window and will bring poor system performance. In worst cases, system response interval may be 5 minites (not seconds!) or longer!
  To prevent such psuedo-(or real-)hangup, you can limit maximal number of rectanglar windows from 64 to 8192. Appropriate range is 128 - 1024, depending on both system performance and specified bitmap.
  If number of rectanglar windows reachs over limit, FGWP default bitmap (and warning message) will be shown instead.

3. Acknowledgement

Ken'ichi Kusakabe <kusakabe@airnet.ne.jp> provided me to begin OS/2 PM programming. Thank you for your helpful source.
Akira Hatakeyama <akira@sra.co.jp> showed me a new possibility of OS/2 PM, "Shape Window".