Merlin from Neuon

MERLIN, ARE WE TALKING WIZARDS AND STUFF HERE?

If any of you out there suffer from the vivid imagination with which I have been afflicted, I must first dash your hopes that this program will allow you to turn your boss into a toad or similar… On an EPOC scale however, this is effectively what Merlin allows you to do. This introduction has suffered a number of rewrites, and yet I still don’t feel that I have found a way of conveying the category of app within Merlin falls. Neuon themselves claim that, “MERLIN provides an unprecedented level of customization for your machine.” After much thought, I must agree that this is probably the best way of describing Merlin, which is, in essence an application which provides users with customizable toolbars for any application, alongside a number of different system features, including, what appears to be a full integration of the features found with another of Neuon’s applications – Hotkeys.

The Merlin toolbar hovers above the title bar, offering a wide range of functionality

For all those of you who have used Windows Shell replacements, this is likely to be the closest you will ever get to them on the Psion. Merlin takes the concept of built in system wide Macros one-step further - it is revolutionary in allowing users to create a toolbar for any application they desire.

YOU WERE SAYING?

The loading screen — showing Merlin to be a powerful application

When I first installed Merlin, I really wasn’t sure quite what to expect… Was it really worth it? Isn’t it just another pointless extra? Isn’t it going to clog up all my memory? Bearing this in mind, I installed the sample toolbar included in the basic Merlin installation, and continued from there. The first thing I noticed was, yup, it appeared to be the most memory hungry application I had meet yet. On a second look, I realized that things weren’t quite as bad as I had first expected, with Merlin taking up only about 1MB to install, and 1MB while running. When said quickly this seems pretty insignificant, however its needs considering for users who have 4MB Series 5 originals and even the 8MB, as this can eat quite considerably into the memory available.

This aside, the first thing you notice when running Merlin for the first time, is just quite what a powerful app it is. The loading screen takes a number of seconds, leaving you wondering quite what you’ve let yourself in for… How slow will it be? However, this is not the case, despite this first, I might add, scary wait, as the progress bar clicks along, telling you which of the many components is now being set up, the actual app runs efficiently and reliably. All in all, as mentioned above, Merlin appears to take up about 1MB while running, though I assume this is dependant on the number of toolbars running at time.

The main configuration screen showing that only one toolbar is currently defined

When you first load Merlin, you are confronted with a screen from which the configuration of all the Merlin features can be carried out. This is an incredibly user-friendly application with an easy to understand interface. I’m unable to give an opinion on the quality of the help file, as I found no need to use it, finding the program its self ‘pretty much’ self-explanatory.

The toolbar specific configuration showing off Merlin’s user-friendly interface

The select item dialog, demonstrating some features of HotKeys

IT DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN?

The question I always feel needs asking with any application is if it does what it claims to do. Having found it very difficult to find an actual description of Merlin, this might be a little difficult. In this case though, I feel it is fair to assume that Neuon have achieved what they set out to do, as Merlin comes across as an incredibly well rounded application which provides almost seamless integration into EPOC. Merlin would certainly, but for my minor problem with lack of memory, stay on my system…

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

I was just about to burst into the ‘it’s the best thing since sliced bread’ speech when it occurred to me to warn you about memory usage which, actually, reading back I have a suspicion I have done throughout the article. Well no harm in saying it again I guess, I am currently using a Series 5 Classic with 8MB of memory, and I am managing. I say ‘managing’, as that’s all I’m doing. There is little doubt that the ease of use, and the pure usefulness of Merlin, is enough to make me uninstall a number of different applications in order to make it possible to use Merlin and, yet this shortage of memory can become a little awkward on occasions. I seem to remember saying a similar thing in my review of CalliGrapher, this application is slightly better suited to a more well endowed Psion (in both the speed and memory department) than mine. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that Series 5mx users should not have any worries, and should download the 30 day trial version NOW. Maybe I should write another article covering this very issue, but although EPOC is still considered an extremely efficient operating system, the more advanced shareware and freeware programs become, the more users of the original EPOC machines suffer.

Having sung Merlin’s praises, I am sure that there are a number of users for whom it will not speed your general day-to-day EPOC use in a large way, as is the case with all system extras. I would certainly say this program requires a look at before it is dismissed as ‘something I would never use’. Neuon, have, as always, pushed the capabilities of EPOC still further, making us ask ourselves what they intend to do next. One of my few qualms with this is that there is still no way, in which users can add their own plug-ins. This might give external developers the ability to integrate their own applications which would further the use, this already incredibly useful tool.

4.5/5

A clearly powerful application which offers users with a completely configurable interface, merely hampered by it memory requirements for users with 4MB and 8MB systems.

‘Merlin from Neuon’ first appeared on EpocPlace on June 21st, 2000.

inertia