MicroTimer v1.0by Derrick SchneiderMostly Harmless Software------------------------What is it?   MicroTimer is a small floating stopwatch for your Newton. I came up with the idea for doing a stopwatch when I was doing some benchmarks on different machines at work. I looked at some of the other available timers and decided they didn't quite meet my needs, so decided to write my own. MicroTimer was born!How does it work?      First of all, MicroTimer only counts up from 00:00:00 to whenever you stop it. To start MicroTimer timing, press on the play button. It will then turn into a pause button, which you can use to pause the timer. This then turns into a "play from pause" button to resume timing. The stop button is available at any time. Pressing it once stops the timer, and pressing it twice resets it. The "i" button shows an about box. That's pretty much all there is to it.Features   Though those are the basics of MicroTimer, it has some other features. First of all, it can be dragged all over the screen. Not only that, but I've designed it to be as teensy as possible (and still readable). At the insistence of my users, it's flat enough to fit along the blank area of the status line in the note pad, so you can keep it out of your way. It also fits out of the way in Newton books, so that you can be timing while you read.   Because of the algorithm it uses, MicroTimer will keep time even when closed or when the system is asleep. Courtesy of Newton's soup technology, MicroTimer will also survive resets, so that you can keep track of time even if you have to restart your Newton.Caveats   The algorithm I use for getting the elapsed time is based exclusively on Newton's clock. Ideally, this wouldn't be a problem since the clock would keep perfect time. Alas, such is not the case. If your Newton's clock gets off track, MicroTimer will be affected. This is a trade off for being able to survive resets, sleeps, and closes.   Because of some rounding errors in the algorithm, you'll occasionally see the time jump forward two seconds when resuming from a pause. This is a known problem, and I'm working on fixing it. Keep an eye out for 1.1.   MicroTimer uses a soup to store its information so that it will survive resets. Apple's suggestion for the proper way to make a soup is to attack every store when the app runs, placing a soup on every store it can. Kind of like a virus. Neat, huh? As a result, you'll see a "Timers" soup (hints of things to come?) if you look at your Newton with some soup manager. Also, Apple doesn't seem to provide a distinction between removing a piece of software with a "Remove Software" button and just taking out the card that the app is  on. As a result, I don't clean out any soups that I've made upon being removed, because I have no way of knowing if you're really removing the app or just taking out the card. If I get more info on that, I'll be happy to fix it. Again, keep an eye out for 1.1.Thanks   Special thanks go to Peter Linde, who was my first and most devoted tester. It is him you can thank for the fact that MicroTimer is so compact (though he wanted it smaller). He also used the app extensively, and so reported lots of bugs.   Thanks also to Tim Holmes, who was my "design tester." Things look clean and act right through his efforts.   The cool icon is by Chris Holmes (yes, they are related), one of the best icon artists I've ever seen.  Thanks also to Lauren Antonoff for design ideas, Kevin Fox for programming help, and Hans Hansen and David Schwartz for additional testing.Legalities   This program is public domain, and may be freely distributed on online services, BBSes and through non-profit users groups such as BMUG. This program may not be distributed on CD-ROM or used in any commercial venture without the author's permission.   To contact me with questions or comments, use one of these e-mail addresses:Derrick F. Schneider on Planet BMUG (Derrick_F._Schneider@bmug.org)Zen.Scripter on AppleLink.Defosch on America Online (which I don't check too frequently).Enjoy!