

                            Fortuna v1.0

                             (15.06.95)

                                 by
                           Alex Van Boxel


Introduction
============

  Welcome to the first release of Fortuna, a fortune cookie displayer. 
  A fortune cookie is a random quote, item of trivia, joke shown to the 
  user from one of the cookie file.

  Fortuna first select one of the cookie files that are in the COOKIES
  directory. Then it select one of the, may-be 1000, fortune cookies in
  the cookie file. It then displays it in a window, centered on the 
  screen.

  Fortuna uses a custom indexed file format for high speed access to a
  cookie. The benefits of this file format are that it won't delay much
  of the boot process and that it doesn't use much memory, just enough
  for the program and the selected fortune cookie.


Features
========

  - A full 32 bit application for Windows95
  - High speed access to a cookie in a cookie file through indexing
  - Low memory usage
  - Popup Menu
  - Get a new cookie at runtime
  - Custom font Support
  - Custom font and background color
  - Multiple cookie files
  - Per-user-customization by use of the registry
  - FreeWare


Minimum Requirements
====================

  - 386SX with 4MB
  - 1MB free disk space
  - Windows95

  Note that you need a NT or Windows95 unzip to extract the full filenames
  of the files in the zip archive.


Installation
============

  When you decompressed Fortuna with its full directory structure and full
  Windows95 long filenames, you should be ready. Make sure there is at least
  one fortune cookie file in the Cookies directory, if you want to get a 
  fortune cookie. The directory where Fortuna looks for its cookie files
  must be named COOKIES and should be in the same directory as FORTUNA.EXE.

  If you like a cookie every time you start your computer, create a shortcut
  of Fortuna (not Fortuna itself) in your Startup directory.


Usage
=====

  Just start the program by clicking its icon or its shortcut. When you
  have done this Fortuna will choose a random cookie in a randomly selected
  cookie file. When you have read the cookie you can get ride of it just by
  clicking on its window or by pressing escape.

  When you don't like the cookie or when it's too long you can get a new 
  cookie by using the popup menu item "New Cookie". You can bring up the popup
  menu by pressing the right mousebutton when you are over the cookie window.

  You can customize Fortuna by using the menu items "Select Font..." and
  "Select Background Color..." in the popup or system menu. The custom
  settings are registered in the registry. This has as wonderful side
  effect that if your computer is used by different people (and are logged
  in as different users), the settings are stored per user and not as a single
  setting for all users.


Conversion
==========

  If you have existing ASCII cookie files there is a extra command line
  program FConvert to convert to the Indexed Fortuna Format. For more
  information read "FConvert.txt".


Other Computers
===============
           
  There will be (or is, depending on when you read this.) a version of Fortuna
  for the Macintosh, ported by Daniel Van Den Broeck. The cookie files are
  interchangeable.


Thanks
======

  Thanks to Nico Franois and Peter Stuer for suggestions and testing.
  Thanks to Daniel Van Den Broeck for porting Fortuna to the Macintosh.


History
=======

  Version 1.0
  - First Release


CopyRight
=========

  This program can be freely distributed and used as long as it is not sold
  or made part of any commercial product.
     

Disclaimer
=========

  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
  EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  IN NO EVENT WILL
  THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING INCIDENTAL OR
  CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF
  ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU ARE USING IT AT YOUR
  OWN RISK.


Contact
=======

  All suggestions, comments (negative and positive) may be send to one of the 
  following addresses:

  - Alex Van Boxel
    Perksesteenweg 16
    B-1910 Kampenhout
    Belgium
 
  - fidonet:    2:292/603.30
