Clutter
Color Utility for the Mac II
Copyright � 1988 Don Leeper
All rights reserved
Clutter is free, but it is not public domain. You may redistribute it
providing that: [1] You distribute it in it?s original form. (Note
that Clutter remembers where it last was on the screen the last time
it was used, this is not considered a modification to the original
version.) [2] You include this documentation. [3] You do not charge
anything for it. I exclude from this last restriction commercial
networks (CompuServe, Delphi, etc.), non-profit BBS? and non-profit
user groups, but no one else.
OK, enough of that stuff, now what does Clutter do for you, anyway?
Clutter is a desk accessory that provides a window (surprise!) into
your Macintosh II color environment. It displays the current color
table(s) for the screen(s) that the Clutter window spans, including
the effects of any color table animation going on. If any of these
devices is in 256 color mode, the Clutter window will display the
available colors in a 16 x 16 grid about 2 inches square. If all
screens are in less than 256 color mode, the colors are displayed in a
1 row by n column grid about 2 in. wide.
Technical aside:
If the Clutter window spans multiple screens, its size is based on the
deepest device it intersects, and the portion of the window on
shallower screens contain repeats of their available colors. It is all
set up to ignore screens that are not color lookup table based, but
since I don?t have access to such a beast for testing, well you can
probably figure the rest out.
(End of technical aside)
When you start up Clutter you will notice that one of the cells in the
grid is highlighted (surrounded by a white box). Note: this is not
that easy to recognize if you are in two color mode. If the mouse
pointer is over the Clutter window, the cell that is highlighted is
the last one you clicked on or, by default, the first cell. The
interesting stuff comes when you move the mouse away from this window.
As you move the mouse around on the screen, the highlight will move
around the Clutter window to show you which color table entry is used
to color the spot directly under the pointer.
Clutter does not just show you the colors ? it also lets you play with
them. By double-clicking on any cell in the Clutter window, you bring
up the Color Picker and can modify the color table(s). (Of course as
soon as another application gets control it may change the colors back
again.)
Another technical aside:
Clutter comes from the factory set up to display each color in a ten
pixel by ten pixel square, including a one pixel border along two
sides. This size is stored as a point in a resource of type ?PNT ? in
the desk accessory (using the first owned resource ID). If you like,
you can use a resource editor to change this in your copy to anything
from a two by two to a 256 by 256 rectangle. Do not redistribute
copies with this resource changed ? ten by ten seems to be a good size
to prevent your screen from becoming too cluttered. (OK, so you knew
the name had to come from somewhere, didn?t you?)
(End of another technical aside)
Don Leeper
Sept. 9, 1988
You may contact me at:
CompuServe: 70157,1670
AppleLink: D0428
