WALLMESS is a simple routine to create a BMP (or "GET") file containing a
magenta text message superimposed (in "transparent" style) over a blue
backround.  It derives its name from the fact that I wrote it to make
MESSages that I could use to make Windows WALLpaper.  (For example, when
I travel with my laptop, my wall paper is a tiled display of my address
and phone number.  When I'm not travelling, my wallpaper is a tiled
display of a message indicating my general hatred of windows. :)  (See
"http://www.geocities.com/gstumpff/windwarn.gif".))  When I am travelling,
my wallpaper shows my contact info in case my laptop and I accidentally
part company.  Just in case anybody else might want to do something
similar, and simply want to use a routine written by someone else instead
of just writing their own program to do it (or use some other ready-made
utility to do things like this), I made the routine available to the
general public.

Just run WALLMESS.EXE from the DOS prompt/window.  (I've included the
source code if you're interested, but it won't be much use without my
QBSVGA library ("http://www.geocities.com/gstumpff/qbsvga.zip").)
WALLMESS will first give you a choice out of three different video modes
to use.  (It's probably best to use the one that you run Windows in.)  It
then asks you for how many lines of text are in your message and then asks
you for two integers, both input on the same line and separated by a
comma.  The first integer specifies the color of the background you want
to use and the second specifies the color of the text.  These must be in
the range 0 - 255.  (The most likely colors you'll want to use are in the
range 0 - 15, and the program displays a color palette to show you those
colors.)  Finally, it asks you to input, one line at a time, the lines of
text.

After you've input the last line, you'll see some stuff happening on your
screen and then you should hear a beep and see a message at the bottom of
your screen saying


Press any key but 'G' to save as BMP.


Normally, you wouldn't press "G" and thus get a BMP file (WALLMESS.BMP).
If you do press "G", you'll get WALLMESS.GET, a graphic file output in
QB's "BSAVE format", just in case you'd be interested in that.  (It's an
8-bit picture, suitable for use in QB's mode 13--if it's small enough.  If
it isn't small enough, particularly if it's larger than 65,535 bytes, the
GET file may actually be in a somewhat altered format from what BSAVE and
QB's GET function generally produce, and you won't be able to use the file
with any standard QB graphics statement.)  After saving the graphic,
WALLMESS terminates.


If your message takes up the entire screen, the above instruction won't be
displayed.  You'll just have to remember to press the desired key after
you hear the beep.
