Boldly Go Collection/version40.iso/TS/17A/CAL201.ZIP/CALV201.DOC

Text File | 1991-10-10 | 15KB | 411 lines

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  CAL.EXE -- Version 2.0 -- (C) 1991 New Day Software (NDS)   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
All Rights Reserved. Use of this program in a manner not granted
by New Day Software is a violation of applicable copyright laws.


     CAL is a best friend to those of us who have more things to
do than we have fingers to tie string around.  Placed in your
AUTOEXEC file, he will remind you of appointments, birthdays, tax
time (ugh!) and other important dates.  You can have Cal give you
your schedule at any time by simply typing CAL at the DOS prompt.


                          FILE FORMAT:

     The file CAL.DAT is a free-format schedule file.  Each line
makes up one entry.  An active entry is a line containing a
sequence of characters that Cal recognizes as a date.  The format
of these entrys follow.  They may be placed anywhere on the line,
but the position may affect the way the line is treated. Please
note that Cal only recognizes CAPITAL letters.


     mm/dd/yy{+|-##}

     This format allows the user to set a range of dates for the
     entry  to appear on.  The range is calculated from the base
     mm/dd/yy and is RR days in length.  If the '+' option is
     used, the range will begin on mm/dd/yy and will continue for
     ## days following.  If the '-' option is used, then the
     range will begin ## days prior to mm/dd/yy and will continue
     until that date.  Each field must have exactly two digits,
     (except for the range ## which may be any number of digits),
     and may not contain spaces.

          10/31/90+61  Halloween, 1990 until New Years Day, 1991
          01/01/91-61  This is the same as the above entry.
          12/09/??     This will show up on Dec 9 of every year
          02/16/68-5   My Birthday! Send money.
          1/2/89  + 100 Invalid Entry.


     EACH

     The keyword EACH in all caps will cause the line to be
     displayed  EACH time the program is executed.  If the word
     occupies positions  1-4 of the line, the keyword will not be
     displayed.

           This line will appear EACH day.
           This line won't appear because 'each' is in lower case     mmm dd

     Using the three letter abbreviation of any month, in all
     caps,  followed by the date will cause the entry to appear
     each year on  that date.  The space is necessary, but a one
     digit date field is  sufficient.

          NOV 23  This entry will show up on November 23
          MAR 1   This entry will show up on March 1
          APR14   This entry will not show up because there is no
                  space between APR and 14


     www n

     The three letter abbreviation of any weekday immediately
     followed  by a number from 1 to 5 causes that line to appear
     on the n'th  weekday.

          WED 3    This will show up the 3rd Wed of each month
          FRI 5    This will show up the 5th Fri of each month
          FRI ?    This will show up on every Friday


     DAY nn

     The keyword DAY followed by a number from 1..31 will cause
     the line to appear on the nn'th day of the month.

          DAY 29 Run End-of-month backups.
          DAY 1  Pay computer payment.


     BEFORE and AFTER

     These keywords modify other date keywords.  Using BEFORE on
     a line  causes that line to show up every day until the date
     on that line.  Similarly, AFTER will wait until the date on
     the line, and then  will display the line until it is
     deleted from the file.

          BEFORE APRIL 15  Buy Mom's birthday present.
          AFTER JAN 1   Get Tax stuff together



     RUN

     When CAL encounters the keyword RUN on a line with a valid
     date or  keyword, the remainder of the line is passed to
     COMMAND.COM for execution.  For instance, this command line
     allows you to run weekly backups:

          FRI ? RUN BACKUP C: /f /s /l

     The RUN command is affected by the setting of the PROMPT FOR
     RUN  PARAMETERS switch on the configuration screen. (See
     CONFIGURING YOUR PROGRAM below for more information.)



     !

     The '!' symbol, when included as one of the LAST TWO
     characters of  a line, causes the line to be displayed in
     high video when the line  is displayed on the screen.  It
     has no effect on printer output  when used with the PRINT
     command line option.

     This will display EACH day in High Video!


     $

     The Dollar character, placed as one of the last two
     characters of a line marks the line as a 'Personal Item'.
     These lines will not show  up on a normal execution of CAL.
     In order to view these entries, include your password,
     entered in the configuration session, on the  command line
     like so:

          CAL MyPassword

     This would cause the following line to appear:

          EACH    This is a personal entry.  $


     ?

     The '?' character functions as a wildcard character much the
     same way as it does in MS-DOS.  It replaces the field with
     the current value for that field.  For instance, if the date
     is 12 July 1991, then this date format will match:

          12/07/??  Dawn's Birthday!                      COMMAND LINE OPTIONS:

     HELP      Displays a quick reference Help Screen

     CONFIG    Rebuilds the configuration file with new
               defaults

     EDIT      Allows you to edit the datafile by having Cal
               invoke your favorite editor.  The default editor
               is MS-DOS 5.0's EDIT command.

     LIST      Displays the line number before each line for use
               with the HISTORY and DELETE commands.

     PRINT     Sends the output to the printer ( PRN: ).

     DELETE    Allows the deletion of lines from the datafile
     or DEL    without using the editor.  To use this option, get
               a display with line numbers.  Use the LIST option
               if necessary.  Then type:

                    CAL DELETE n1 n2 n3 n4 ... nx

               Where n1 .. nx  are the numbers shown beside the
               lines to be deleted.  WARNING!  If you use this
               option and then decide to delete more lines, get a
               NEW display of the line numbers.  The DELETE
               command will re-sequence the datafile and the
               lines you wish to delete may now have a different
               location in the file, and therefore a different
               number.

     HISTORY   This option works the same as the DELETE, but
     or HIST   instead of deleting the lines, moves them to a
               file named CAL.HIS in the CAL directory.  This
               file will be appended to each time the HISTORY
               command is used. The same syntax and warnings as
               the DELETE command apply.

     PAST n    Shows all entries for today and for the past n
     or LAST   days. Ranges will appear normally, but entries
               such as FRI, DAYnn, etc. will not appear unless
               they normally would.

     NEXT n    Works like PAST, but shows the next n days.
     or FUTURE

     WITHIN    Combines PAST and NEXT and shows all entries for
     or CIRCA  the current date +/- n days.

     USE fn    Sets the datafile to fn.CAL instead of the default
               CAL.DAT.  This allows several people using the
               same computer to have their own personal
               datafiles.




                    CONFIGURING YOUR PROGRAM:

     Several CAL settings may be changed by the command CAL
CONFIG. These changes are stored directly in the .EXE file, so
YOU SHOULD NEVER !EVER! RUN A COMPRESSION PROGRAM SUCH AS
LZESHELL OR PKLITE ON CAL.EXE!

At the DOS prompt, type CAL CONFIG to get to the configuration
screens. The following options are available:

A. NAME
     Enter your first name (10 chars. max).  This will be
     displayed on CAL's status bar.


B. LOCATION OF DATAFILES

     Enter the name of the directory where you wish to store your
       datafiles.  Do NOT include the name CAL.DAT.


C. EDITOR

     Enter the name of your text editor.  This can be any editor
     that produces plain ASCII text and accepts a filename from
     the command line.  If the editor is in a directory that is
     in the DOS PATH, then the name alone is sufficient.
     Otherwise, include the pathname and extension.


D. CHANGE PASSWORD

     Changes the password used to display personal entries and to
     protect the EDIT and CONFIG modes of Cal.  The password is
     not echoed to the screen, so you will be asked to enter the
     password twice for verification.


E. DISPLAY LINE NUMBERS

     When this is set to OFF, Cal functions normally.  If set to
     ON, the line numbers will appear in the left column of the
     screen by default and the LIST command will inhibit the
     display of line numbers.


F. CALENDARS IN TITLES

     When this field is set to ON, the calendars for the last,
     current, and next months will appear in the title bar.
     Otherwise, the calendars are not displayed and only the
     small status bar appears.


G. PROTECT EDIT MODE

     When this field is set to ON, the user must enter the
     password in order to enter edit mode.


H. PROTECT CONFIG MODE

     When this field is set to ON, the user must enter the
     password in order to enter the configuration mode.


I. SOUND

     When this field is set to ON, the warning beeps and screen
     announcements are enabled.  Otherwise, Cal runs silently.


J. DOUBLE SPACING

     When this field is set to ON, Cal will double space its
     output.  Otherwise, Cal single spaces.


K. COOKIE

     Cal has a database of almost 1000 one-liners, cliches, words
     of wisdom, and other B.S.  When this field is set to ON, Cal
     will pick one of these at random to be displayed after the
     datafile is processed.

L. PAUSE AFTER xx LINES

     This field determines how many lines Cal will print before
     pausing.  If for some reason you do not want Cal to pause,
     simply enter a huge number here.M. DEFAULT PAST VALUE

     This field tells Cal how many days in the past to look by
     default.  This may be overridden from the command line with
     the PAST command.

N. DEFAULT NEXT VALUE

     This field tells Cal how many days in the future to look by
     default.  This may be overridden from the command line with
     the NEXT command.

O. PAUSE FOR RUN PARMS

     When this field is set to ON and a RUN command is
     encountered in the datafile, Cal will pause and ask you for
     parameters to pass to the program being called.  Otherwise,
     Cal runs the program immediately.

P. MULTI-LINE ENTRYS

     When this field is set to ON, entries may consist of more
     than one line.  The following specifications apply:

          I. The keyword or date MUST be on the first line of the
          entry.

          II. The end of an entry is marked by a blank line.

     When this field is set to OFF, entries are only one line in
     length.  If a Multi-line entry exists in the datafile, only
     the line with the date will appear.


S. EXIT AND SAVE

     This command saves your changes in CAL.EXE and exits
     configuration mode.


Q. EXIT AND ABORT CHANGES

     This command exits configuration mode without saving any
     changes.                        GETTING STARTED:

Getting started with Cal is simple.  Simply COPY CAL.EXE to a
directory in your path.  When you run Cal for the first time, use
the CONFIG option to install your name, the path for your
datafiles, and the name of your editor.  Save the changes, and
run Cal with the EDIT option. This should automatically create
the datafile CAL.DAT in the directory you specified.  Type in
your appointments using the date formats shown above.  Don't
forget that Cal requires uppercase!  Save the file, and exit.
Cal will automatically run when you exit your editor.  The
appointments you entered that match today's date should be
displayed.


                           LEGAL STUFF

 CAL.EXE, the documentation, and example datafile are copyrighted
materials.  NO ONE except New Day software and it's
representatives and programmers has the right to charge for Cal.
Recognized User Groups and Computer Clubs have the right to
recover an amount not to exceed $10.00 (U.S. Funds) for
distribution disks.  Copies may be freely distributed so long as
the files CAL20.DOC, CAL.EXE, and the demonstration CAL.DAT file
remain intact.  ANY DISASSEMBLY OR OTHER FORMS OF REVERSE
ENGINEERING PERFORMED ON THIS SOFTWARE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND
WILL BE CONSIDERED A VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF NDS!

                           DISCLAIMER

 Although NDS tries to present you with high quality, bug free
and virus free software, NEW DAY SOFTWARE MAKES NO WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND. ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO
USE THIS SOFTWARE IS THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER.  NDS
PRESENTS THIS SOFTWARE ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS.  USE THIS SOFTWARE AT
YOUR OWN RISK!

                   SO HOW MUCH IS IT ANYWAY??

 This section is for all of us users that flinch at the prices of
some of today's "Shareware" that is priced at a "reasonable"
$99.95. Cal is yours for the low, low price of $0.00.  That's
right, true believers. Cal is marketed under the concept of
FAIRWARE.  You are not obligated to pay NDS a cent for Cal, so
you don't have to worry about your conscience bothering you
because you didn't register.  However, if Cal makes your day
easier, and saves you time, NDS would appreciate a contribution
of whatever you feel that time is worth.  (We think that's fair.)
Contributions will greatly increase the chances of more FAIRWARE
releases from NDS in the future.

     Those contributing $20.00 or more will be sent the next
version of Cal.  Those contributing $50.00 or more will be sent
the Turbo Pascal source code for Cal, along with the COMPILED
version of several supporting TP55 Units with full documentation.
Those contributing $100.00 or more will be not be sent anything
above this, but will have the eternal gratitude of NDS. ;-)

     New Day Software reserves the right to charge for this, or
any subsequent version of this software.


                        TECHNICAL NOTES:

CAL VERSION 2.0
(C) 1991 New Day Software
All Rights Reserved

DEVELOPER:     TERRY L. LEWIS
LANGUAGES:     BORLAND'S TURBO PASCAL VER. 5.5
               TASM (TURBO ASSEMBLER VER. 1.01)

TURBO PASCAL and TASM are
Registered Trademarks of Borland International, INC.