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Documentation for Recall
------------------------
This document describes the usage of Recall and how to make your own
customized project of events. Please also read the documentation for
ReConvert, describing how to convert your project between different
formats.
Description
Credits and requirements
Copyrights
Installing
Unstalling
Running the programs
Using Recall Preferences
Using Recall
Source
Known bugs
Future developments and plans
Troubleshooting, Tips & Tricks
History
How to contact the author
Users with a 68000 CPU or NO harddrive
About MagicUserInterface
Description
Do you keep forgetting about birthdays, anniversaries and other important
events?
Well, there are plenty of public domain products on the market that will
prevent that from happening.
But, do you also want to
- keep track of the remaining days to important events?
- keep track of the days since important events happened?
- automatically start certain programs depending on the date and time?
- be reminded every # day (e.g. every 14th day)?
- be reminded # days before or after the event
- be reminded once a day, every time you boot, before or after a certain
date, before or after a certain hour or minute?
- be reminded about events until you acknowledge them?
- be reminded with requesters, alerts or practically anything that can be
displayed on an Amiga-monitor?
- display unlimited lines of text in the same requester/alert (only
limited by the screen's resolution and memory)
- group different events in the same requester or alert?
- keep a simple database of the birthdays of family and friends?
- let your Amiga keep track of how old people are by insterting the date
of birth in the middle of the string where you want to display the age?
(E.g. the text "Adam is {080570} years old today" will be displayed as
"Adam is 23 years old today".)
- make advanced events which are displayed for example after 21:00 every
3rd day the first 7 days of every 2nd month the next 4 years?
- combine all of the attributes mentioned above in the same event?
- enter these events in an easy-to-use environment and without the need of
programming-knowledge, just by entering the desired text and pressing a
few buttons?
Well, then you will find this program extremely useful, because Recall
will do exactly that for you! It is an easy-to-use, intuition-based
utility for the absent-minded!
About Recall and Credits
NAME: Recall/Recall Preferences/ReConvert
VERSION: V2.3
PROGRAMMER: Ketil Hunn
PLACE: Fredrikstad / Molde - DHMolde 1993-1994, Norway
COPYRIGHT: All binaries and docs are © 1993-1994 Ketil Hunn
DISTRIBUTE: Freely Distributable, Public Domain
MAIL: ketil@lyr.dhmolde.no
hunn@dhmolde.no
TOOLS: SAS/C V6.3
REQUIREMENTS: Any Amiga with WB2.0+
At least 1Mb free memory
Needs WB2.1+ in order to be localized
MUI V1.4+
ReqTools.library (optional)
MUI: Although, MUI is required to run this program, it is not
included in this archive as it would have made the archive
too big. The MUI-package is available on FTP sites, various
BBS's and Public Domain disks.
On AmiNet mirrors:
Path: /dev/gui/
File: MUI20USR.lha
REQTOOLS: The usage of ReqTools.library is optional. This library is
not included in this archive. It is freely distributable and
you should be able to find it on any FTP site, BBS or PD-
disks.
TRANSLATIONS: The Deutsch catalogs were translated by Dirk Böhmer.
The Nederlands catalogs were translated by Frank Breedijk
The Italiano catalogs were translated by Giorgio Demenego.
The Suomi catalogs were translated by Juha Kettunen.
The Norwegian catalog was translated by me.
The suomi.language is copyrighted to Tomi Blinnikka
(I couldn't get in touch with you, but I have included it
anyway... Hope you don't mind!)
GENERAL: This package was developed on an A3000 25MHz with 6Mb RAM,
1950 multisync monitor, 105Mb harddrive, 3 drives and a Nec
P20-printer. All software were running under WB3.1.
The Graphic User Interface (GUI) was created using the great
MUImaster.library - Copyrighted 1992/93/94 Stefan Stuntz.
The ReqTools.library is copyrighted to Nico François.
BETATESTERS: Giorgio Demenego
Michael Zielinski
Frank Breedijk
Frank Duerring
Philip Graham Meyer
Nuutti Merilæinen
Juha Kettonen
Janne Simonen
THANKS TO: Thorsten Gau for the SBasePro4 script and all those who sent
me suggestions and bugs, and of course the translators and
the betatesters. I would also like to thank all those who
dropped me a note on my e-mail address. The response has
been enormous. If this keeps up, I'll have to hire a
secretary :-)
See also How to contact the author
Copyrights
This application is freely redistributable as long as the archive is not
modified in any way.
Think twice before you:
- SPREAD or DELETE parts of this program. Some people actually read the
docs (you are, at the moment!). All of the following files and
their icons MUST be in the archive:
Install/Install : Installer-script for harddrive-users
Unstall/Unstall : Removes the application from a system
Recall : Main program
Prefs/Recall : Preference-program
Tools/RecallConverter : Program to import and export projects
Docs/Recall.guide : Documentation in AmigaGuide-format
Docs/Recall.ASCII : Documentation in ASCII-format
Docs/ReConvert.guide : Documentation in AmigaGuide-format
Docs/ReConvert.ASCII : Documentation in ASCII-format
Recall.prefs : An example-project
Locale (dir) : Contains the language catalogs
Scripts (dir) : Various scripts for processing data.
- CRUNCH this program and then spread it. Some decrunchers use a lot of
memory and not all of the users have all that memory available! Most of
the Amiga-owners dislike colorcycling pointers and screens, and not all
crunchers have available decrunchers, so the user may not be able to
decrunch the program if she/he wants to!
- SELL or INCLUDE this in a commercial package! This program is dedicated
to the Amiga society and is placed in the Public Domain! If you charge
more than a reasonable copy fee for this package, people are sure to
find out about you sooner or later, and that will certainly be the end
for you in the Amiga-scene!
- BUY this program. You have been swindled! If you actually read this
text, the seller must be pretty dumb not removing this text before
selling it to you (he probably assumes you're just another lamer that
can't read!).
- USE this program. In spite of several test, no warranty is made that
there's no more bugs in this application. You use this program at your
own risks! I will not under any circumstances be liable for any damage,
direct or indirect, resulting of the use of any programs in this
package. If Recall forgot to remind you about some events, DO NOT BLAME
ME - if you were not so absent-minded you wouldn't be needing an utility
like this in the first place: You can either trust Recall and keep on
with your life, or quit using Recall and start to remember things...
- READ this document. I will not be liable for any damage this document
may have caused you; english is not my native language and I guess this
document is full of misspellings and misunderstandings. You can either
live with it and keep on reading, run this through a spellchecker or
stop reading. The program is quite easy to use and needs no
explanations.
- LIKE this program. You may want to send me a postcard if you do, just
telling me how much you like it. Really, I wouldn't mind that at all,
but it is no obligation. You may also drop me a note on the internet.
The address will be at the end of this document.
Installing
I am not going to go through the whole installation process here, since
most of you are already familiar with Commodore's Installer. Just
doubleclick on the install-icon, and the program will install itself
automatically (just answer a few questions...).
Beginning with version 2.1, the installation-script is localized. Just
click on the preferred language and the installation and it's questions
will be given in that language.
The script needs Commodore's 'Amiga Application Installation Utility'
(Installer) in order to run. This is not included in this package because
it is copyrighted to Commodore. The Installer utility is shipped with
WB2.1 and higher.
If not available, please copy the program and its icon as follows:
Recall -> SYS:WBStartup/
Prefs/Recall -> SYS:Prefs/
Tools/RecallConverter -> SYS:Tools/
Recall.prefs -> ENVARC: and ENV:
Docs/<guide files> -> HELP:english/
Unstall -> Wherever you like...
If you do not install Recall and ReConvert to the listed drawers, Recall
Preferences will not be able to find them, and you will not be able to
test projects nor import and export projects.
If you do not install the guide files to the listed drawer, you will not
be able to use on-line help from Recall Preferences or ReConvert.
Unstalling
Doubleclicking on the icon named UnstallMe!, will execute a script to
remove the Recall package from your harddisk (all actions must be
confirmed!).
Running the programs
Both programs may be run from Shell or from Workbench by doubleclicking on
their icons.
An absent-minded person like yourself, is also capable of forgetting to
start Recall every day, so the most secure way of being reminded of
events, is to copy Recall to your SYS:WBStartup drawer. This way it will
check for events every time you boot your machine.
If Recall is run with no parameters it will automatically look for the
project "ENVARC:Recall.prefs". Any parameters will override this.
"Recall test.script" forces Recall to open the script "test.script"
instead of "ENVARC:Recall.prefs".
Using Recall Preferences
This is where all the work is done and where the you create your
customized project. The window of Recall Preferences is dominated by two
groups of objects, each group containing a listview. The listview in the
Event-group contains all the events you want to be reminded of, while the
listview in the Text-group will contain the event's textlines or commands.
The program can either be controlled by mouse or keyboard. Most gadgets
have an underlined character, meaning that a hit on this character on the
keyboard are equal to clicking on the button with the mouse. The two
Delete-gadgets do not have short-cuts, to prevent you from accidentally
delete an event or a text. They may however be controlled from keyboard
by cycling you through the gadgets with TAB until the desired gadget is
highlighted and then pressing return. Even the listviews may be control-
led from keyboard. Whenever a listview's stringgadget is active you may
select the previous or next item in the list by using the arrow buttons.
Create an event
Duplicate an event
Delete an event
Change the placement of an event
Purge events
Sort the list of events
Set the date of an event
Set the time of an event
Finetuning the date and time
Setting the number of days before or after
Making a repeating event
Setting the date and time to now
Clearing the date and time
Set the type of an event
Selecting a command from a filerequester
Set how often the event will be displayed
Selecting the method of field calculation
Add text to an event
Duplicate a textline
Delete a textline
Change the placement of a textline
Sort the list of texts
Save a project of events
Test a project of events
Cancel all changes and quit
Saving the size and position of windows
Creating an event
You can add an event to the list by clicking on the Add-gadget. The
stringgadget above it will become activated, letting you enter the name of
the event. The length of the name is limited to 30 characters. The
event's name should be short, consistent and describe the type of event
well. If you have many events which reminds you about e.g. birthdays, a
good name for all these events could be 'Birthday: <name>', as this would
provide a better visualization of the data and make it a lot easier for
you to seek through the list of events.
The name you have entered, will only be added to the list if you press
return. Failing to do so, will cancel the creation of the new event.
Pressing return will add the new event at the bottom of the list. If the
bottom of the list is not showing, it will automatically jump to the
bottom to show the new event. The new event will be highlighted to
indicate that it is the current active event.
The number of events are only limited by the available memory.
Duplicate an event
You can duplicate an event by selecting the desired event and clicking on
the Copy-gadget. All attributes as well as all textlines of the event
will be duplicated. The new event will appear just below the source. The
stringgadget will be activated, allowing you change the name of the
destination event. The destination is highlighted to indicate that it is
the current active event.
Delete an event
You can delete an event by selecting the desired event and clicking on the
Delete-gadget. All attributes as well as all textlines of the event will
be deleted. The next event in the list will become the current active
event.
If the project has been previously saved, the deleted event can be
restored by selecting Edit->Last saved
Change the placement of an event
When running a project, the events will be run in priority from top to
bottom unless the menu-item 'Group events?' is checked. So moving an
event up, will mean that it will be shown earlier when running the
project.
Up
Moves the current active event up one position.
Down
Moves the current active event down one position.
Top
Moves the current active event to the beginning of the list.
Bottom
Moves the current active event to the end of the list.
See also Settings->Group Events?
Purge Events
When the same project is used for a considerable period of time, it may at
the end contain several events which are expired or said in other words,
contain events which will never be displayed. So instead of going through
the entire list, looking for events that is no longer needed, you simply
click on the Purge-gadget, and the machine will do the checking and
deleting for you!
See also Settings->AutoDelete events?
Sorting the list of events
There are three methods of organizing the list of events. You can either
sort the events alphabetically, sort them by date or by changing their
placement individually.
The list of events will be sorted whenever clicking on the Sort-gadget.
The routine used, is determined by the settings in the settings-menu.
When sorting by date, the events with no date at all will be appearing at
the beginning of the list, then the events with one or more components of
the date replaced by '**' will appear and last, the events with a fixed
date.
See also Settings->Sort by
Setting date an event
The date of an event is now set from a calendar, very much set up like the
Commodore's own Time Preferences. This calendar can be opened by pressing
the Edit-button.
The textwindow on the left to the Edit-button will always show the date of
the event. When no date is set, the date will be substituted by a text
saying 'Every day', and when no time is set, the time will be substituted
by a text saying 'All day'. When a component of the date is of no
importance, it will be displayed as two or more '*', meaning that any
value will satisfy.
To set the day of an event, simply click on one the numbered gadgets in
the calendar-window. The selected day will be highlighted and displayed
in the date field. If you want the event to appear on any day, please set
the day to '0', zero.
The month is set by cycling through the month-cyclegadget until the
desired month is activated. If you want the event to appear every month,
please select the item 'Any month'.
NOTE! that selecting 'Any month', will mean the CURRENT MONTH, thus an
event set to BEFORE '01/**/****' will never be displayed! If you want the
event to be shown x days before the 1st of every month, please set it up
like this: x-1 days before the last day in the month or i.e. after 25th.
The year of the event is set by entering the desired year in the
integer-gadget next to the month-cyclegadget. If you want the event
to appear every year, enter a zero or nothing. Entering a number
which length is less than four, will cause the event to be displayed
each year the given year match with the current year. In other words,
entering year='3' (displayed as '***3') will display the event every year
that ends with '3'.
See also How to tune the date and time
Set the time of an event
Setting the time and date to now
Clearing the date and time
Setting the time of an event
Setting the time is just as simple as setting the time under Commodore's
Time Preferences. Just drag the sliders to the desired level. The
selected hour and minutes will be shown in the main window. Setting any
of the sliders to the bottom level will replace its value with '**',
meaning that any hour/minute will do.
See also How to tune the date and time
Tuning the date and time
It may be times when you do not want the events to appear on a specific
date or time, but rather before or after. This can easily be achieved by
setting the cycle-gadgets at the top of both date- and time-groups in the
calendar. The default value is 'Exact'.
Exact
The event will appear ONLY at the given date or time. If you do not turn
your machine on that day, you will never see the event!
Before
The event will appear only BEFORE the given date or time. If the
selected date is '07.**.1993', the event will appear on the first 6 days
every month during 1993. If the selected time is '11:00', the event will
appear between '00:00' and (not including) '11:00'.
After
The event will appear only AFTER the given date or time. If the
selected date is '07.06.1993', the event will appear every day from
'08.06.1993' to eternity. If the selected time is '11:00', the event will
appear between '11:01' and (including) '23:59'.
See also Setting the number of days before or after
Making a repeating event
Setting the number of days before or after
Allows the user to set the interval of days, and the event will only
be displayed during that interval. Let's say the date is set to
'07.**.1993', days set to value '2' and the cyclebutton selected is
Before, the date will only be displayed on the 5th and 6th every month
during 1993, in other words two days before the 7th day of any month.
This gadget becomes available only when the date is set to Before or
After.
Making repeating events
Allows the user to set the interval of repeating days. If for example the
field contains the number '14', the event will be displayed every 14th
day before/after the specified date.
This gadget becomes available only when the date is set to Before or
After.
Another way of making a repeat event, is of course by setting one or more
of the date's components to a zero (indicated by '**' in the date).
See also Setting the date of an event
Setting the time of an event
Setting the date and time to current values
By pressing the gadget 'Now', the date and time of the event will be set
to the current date and time.
Clearing the date and time of an event
By pressing the gadget 'Clear', the date and time of the selected event
will be reset to default values, meaning that the event will appear "Every
day - All day".
Selecting the type of event
In what way an event will appear, is determined by which type of event is
set for that event. You may select between these modes:
Requester
All texts will be displayed in a standard requester with an OK-button.
Selecting OK will tell Recall to proceed to the next event.
If the menu-item 'Settings->Confirm requesters?' is checked, the re-
quester will also have a Cancel-button. Selecting Cancel will tell
Recall not to show the event more that day.
If the menu-item 'Postpone requesters?' is checked, the requester will
also have a 'Postpone'-button. Selecting this button will postpone the
event until next time you run Recall, even if the event is of Daily type!
It will keep reminding you until you press 'OK' or 'Cancel'.
The maximum number of lines which may be displayed is only limited by
the screens resolution and font. The requester will automatically adjust
to the font used by your system.
Alert
All texts will be displayed using a standard RECOVERY ALERT. The alert
will be opened on a 640*200 screen on a NTSC-machine or a 640*256 screen
on a PAL-machine. The font used will always be Topaz8. The frame of the
alert will be automatically adjusted to fit the number of lines shown
and all lines will be centred. Pressing either left or right
mousebutton will continue. If 'Settings->Confirm alerts?' is checked, the
alert will contain a line at the bottom of the alert announcing that
pressing the left mousebutton will continue and pressing the right
mousebutton will cancel the event. Selecting cancel will tell Recall not
to show the event more that day.
Execute
All texts will be run as if they were typed from Shell. If several
programs is requested, they will be run after each other in priority
from top to bottom.
Running larger batch-programs can be done easily by entering "execute
<filename>". Recall also accepts remarks and 'execute <filename> ;
remark' will work without problems.
Instead of typing in your commands, you can select them from a file-
requester. Just click on the GetFile-gadget to the left of the string-
gadget and select the file you want to run.
See also How often the event will be displayed
Selecting a command from a filerequester
Selecting a command from a filerequester
Instead of typing in the programs you want to execute from Recall, you can
simply click on the GetFile-gadget to the left of the stringgadget.
Clicking this button will bring up a filerequester, allowing you to select
the command you want to run. The name of the selected file will be copied
to the stringgadget and the cursor will be positioned at the end of the
string, allowing you to enter any parameters.
Selecting how often the event will be displayed
The Show-cyclegadget determines how often the event will appear. Several
options are available:
Always
The event will be displayed every time Recall is run.
Daily
The event will only be run the first time Recall is run that day, in other
words; only once a day.
Never
The event will never be displayed. Useful if you want to temporarily
prevent an event of being displayed.
Setting the method of calculation
This cycle-gadget determines which method will be used when calculating
fields. If the texts do not contain any fields, this cycle-gadget has no
effect.
Years
This method will return the number of years between the current date and
the date in the date field.
If the text of the event is "Adam is {080570} years and Dick is {310165}
years old today", it will be displayed as (assuming the year is 1993):
"Adam is 23 and Dick 28 years old today".
When this method is used, it is not necessary to enter the whole date in
the calculation fields. "Adam is {****70} years and Dick is {****65}
years old today' will result in the same message. It is, however,
advisable to always enter the full date in events.
Days
This method will return the number of days between the current date and
the date of calculation field.
Text containing "{020693} days to my exam" will for example be
displayed as "4 days to my exam".
NOTE! Recall will always assume that the given year is in the 20.
century. Attempting to calculate the remaining days to year 2000 will
fail, since {010100} will be interpreted as 01.Jan.1900... :-(
See also Adding text to an event
Adding text to an event
You can add text to an event by selecting the Add-gadget. The string-
gadget will be activated, allowing you to enter the desired text. The
length of the text is limited to 255 characters. The text will not be
added to the list of texts until you press the return key. Failing to do
so, will cancel the creation of the new text. Although the length of text
can be as much as 255 character, you should keep in mind that alerts and
requesters with standard Topaz8.font are limited to a width of 77
characters.
The lines of text will either be displayed in a requester or alert, or
they will be executed, depending which type of event you are adding text
to.
Another nice feature of Recall, is that you can include a date field
within the textlines. These fields will be calculated during the
execution of a project and the resulting value will be displayed instead
of the date field. There is no limit to the number of fields in one line
of text. The format of the date field is {DDMMYY} and MUST be exactly
in that format! Notice the bracket parenthesis surrounding the date field
- they can not be omitted! A few examples to clarify (assuming the date
is 17.11.93), the original on the left and the displayed outcome to the
right:
"I am {080570} years old" -> "I am 23 years old"
"{120294} days left to the Olympic Games" -> "87 days left to the..."
Notice how the first line displays the years, while the second line
displays the number of days. The result of the date field is determined
of which method of calculation is selected.
See also Selecting the method of calculation
Duplicating a textline
You may duplicate a textline by selecting the desired text and clicking on
the Copy-gadget. The destination will appear just below the source and it
will be highlighted to indicate that it is the current active textline.
The stringgadget will be activated, allowing you to change the text.
Deleting a textline
You may delete any textline by selecting the desired text and clicking on
the Delete-gadget.
Changing the placement of a textline
The list of texts may be organized in either two ways, by sorting the list
alphabetically or by individually change each line's position.
Up
Moves the current active text up one position.
Down
Moves the current active text down one position.
See also Sort the list of texts
Sort the list of texts
You can sort the list alphabetically by clicking on the Sort-gadget,
changing the order in which they will be displayed.
See also Changing the placement of a textline
Saving the project and quitting
When clicking on the Save-gadget, Recall Preferences saves the current
project under the default name and exits.
The project can be saved without exiting, by selecting Project->Save from
the Project menu. If you want to save the project under a different name
you can achieve this by selecting Project->Save as...
The settings is always saved with the project.
See also Using the Project menu
Cancel
Settings
Testing a project
When creating a new project of events, there is sometimes a wish to try
things out before saving to disk. This can be achieved by clicking on the
Test-gadget or by selecting the menu-item Project->Test.
When selected, Recall Preferences will run through the list of events and
display them according to their attributes. Recall must be resident in
the SYS:WBStartup/drawer for this to work.
See also Project->Test
Cancel all changes and quit
Clicking on the Cancel-gadget will terminate the program without question,
unless the Settings->Confirm? menu-item is checked. All changes done to
the project will be lost.
See also Settings->Confirm?
Save
Saving the position and size of windows
To keep the size and position of Recall Preferences's windows permanently,
you must first start Recall Preferences and select the desired size and
position of both main and calendar window. Then start MUIPrefs and click
on the Save-gadget in MUIPrefs-window. That's it, and that's that...
When resizing or changing the position of Recall Preferences windows, the
size and position will saved temporarily and used the next time Recall
Preferences are started. However, if these changes are not saved, they
will be lost when rebooting or turning off your machine and Recall
Preferences will use it's default size and position on next startup.
See also the documentation of MUIPrefs.
Describing the Project menu
New...
Selecting this item will clear the list of events and enabling you to
start from scratch designing your new project of events. Remember to save
your changes...
Open...
Brings up a filerequester and lets the user select a new project to be
loaded. The new project will replace the current project. Remember to
save you changes...
Append...
Brings up a filerequester and lets the user select a project to be joined
with the current project. The new project will appear at the end of the
current project.
Import -> ASCII...
Brings up a filerequester and lets the user select an ASCII file which
will be loaded and converted into a Recall project. ReConvert must be
located in SYS:Tools-drawer. See also the ReConvert documentation for
further details on converting projects.
Import -> Recall V1.x...
Brings up a filerequester and lets the user select a Recall V1.x project
to be imported. The ReConvert must be located in SYS:Tools-drawer. See
also the ReConvert documentation for further details on converting
projects.
Save
Saves the project to disk under the default name, without exiting the
program. The settings are saved with the project.
Save as...
Lets the user save the project in a different name. The settings are
saved with the project.
Export ASCII...
Exports the current loaded project as an ASCII file.
Converter
Selecting this item will run ReConvert. The program must be located in
your SYS:Tools-drawer.
Test project
Runs the current project. Recall must be located in the SYS:WBStartup.
Iconify
Closes all open windows and iconifies the program to an icon placed on the
workbench screen. The program may be un-iconified by double-clicking on
the iconified icon or by pressing 'Show Interface' from the Commodore's
Exchange program.
About...
Loaded with interesting information. Try it out immediately!
Quit
Terminates the program. All edited events will be lost. Remember to save
your changes...
Other menus: Edit
Settings
Using the Editmenu
Last saved
Restores the last saved project under the default name to memory. All
edited events will be lost! Remember to save your changes...
Other menus: Project
Settings
Using the Settingsmenu
Group Events?
When this menu-item is checked, events of the same type will be grouped
together in the same requester/alert/execute-block.
Flash Screen?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will flash/beep (or both at the
same time, depending on the configuration set by Commodore's Sound
Preference) before an event is executed or displayed.
Confirm requesters?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will add a Cancel button to all
requesters. Selecting Cancel in requesters will tell Recall not to show
that specific event more that day. If events are grouped and the user
selects cancel, ALL events which were displayed will be cancelled!
Confirm alerts?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will add a line at the bottom of
all alerts, telling the user to press left mousebutton to continue or
press the right mousebutton to cancel the event. Selecting cancel will
tell Recall not to show that event more that day. If events are grouped
and the user selects cancel, ALL events which were displayed will be
cancelled!
Confirm executables?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will always ask before executing
any commands. Selecting 'OK' will carry out the command(s). Selecting
'Cancel' will cancel the execution of all grouped executables.
Postpone requesters?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will add an extra button to any
requester. Pressing this button will postpone the event and force it to be
displayed every time until you press 'OK' or 'Cancel', even if the event
is a daily event! If events are grouped and the user selects Postpone,
ALL events which were displayed will be postponed!
Use ReqTools?
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will open and use the
ReqTools.library instead of standard System's EasyRequests. If the
library is NOT available, Recall falls back to the system's default
requesters. Using the ReqTools library enables Recall to centres it's
requesters and let the requesters follow the mouse. If NOT checked, all
requesters will appear at the upper left corner of the screen, unless you
have installed a patch for requesters.
Centre requesters
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will centre all requesters on the
default public screen. This menu-item will be ghosted if 'Use ReqTools?'
is not checked.
Confirm
When this menu-item is checked, all actions in Recall Preferences that
alters the project, must be confirmed before they are executed.
AutoOpen Calendar
When this menu-item is checked, Recall Preferences will automatically open
the calendar on startup. This option is for users that run Recall
Preferences on an interlaced screen and wish to have the calendar open all
the time.
AutoDelete Events
When this menu-item is checked, Recall will automatically remove all
expired events from the project upon startup.
Sort by
Lets the user select the sort-criteria used when sorting events.
Other menus: Project
Edit
Using Recall
This is the main program. If started without any argument, the program
will look automatically look for the project 'ENVARC:Recall.prefs'.
Any given parameter will override this. Depending on the type of the
event, the event will appear in several ways.
See also Setting the type of an event
Starting Recall
Source
The source is not included anymore :-(
Known bugs and other strange occurrences
Recall:
- The alert-type may crash on some machines. Switch to requester if this
happens...
Preferences:
- No known bugs
See also Troubleshooting, Tips & Tricks
Future developments and plans
I'm almost done with Recall V3.0, but since I have my hands full with work
to do on my graduate thesis, it may take a while before it will be
completely finished and released... Here are the so-far implementations:
o Will not need MUI anymore :-D Recall will still be fontadaptable and
sizeable, though.
o Multiwindow-environment. All windows are 'multitasking'.
o ALL window-positions and sizes (including the ASL requester), as well as
font, screen, colors, etc. etc. may be saved to disk.
o Recall preferences will remember all sizes and positions when exiting.
o The checker may stay resident in memory (optional) and keep on reminding
you until you quit the program or turn off your machine. Will check the
events every minute (idle time may be overridden with a WAIT-tooltype).
o The checker is a commodity, and may be controlled via the Commodore's
Commodities Exchange program. (Deactivate etc.)
o Tooltypes support. Here are the most important ones (almost anything
can be adjusted via the tooltypes):
o FILE=<project>
o LANGUAGE=<language>
o WAIT=<idle time between checking>
o CHECKER=<location and name of the checker utility>
o DOC=<location and name of on-line doc>
o tooltypes to override the settings
o other tooltypes
o Executed programs can be launched either as Shell or Workbench tasks.
Programs started in Workbench-mode will use their tooltypes in their
icons.
o The window of Recall Preferences is an app-window, allowing you to load
projects by dragging the project's icon over the window and releasing
it.
o Project icon support. Projects saved with icons can be started by
double-clicking on their icons. That way you can put two different
projects on the workbench (with icons) and start them by double-clicking
on them. Taking advantage of the tooltypes, you may have several
project icons pointing to the SAME file, but taking usage of the started
icon's tooltypes (different language, idle time and different settings).
o Recall can pop up requesters on any screen.
o Cut and paste of events and texts between events.
o Load- and save-modules will replace the converter-program.
o The alerts can be timed out.
o Catchup of events so that you wont skip events anymore.
o New type of event: Hotkey - generates a hotkey-press.
o Possibility to group only certain events, flash certain events etc. etc.
o Recursive directories, allows you to make folders of events i.e. keeping
all birthday-events in a folder called Birthdays. Unlimited number of
levels!
o Possibility to set the stack of executed programs.
o Possibility to set the current dir for executed programs.
o Possibility to set the priority of executed programs.
o Possibility to set a timeout-value for alerts (V39).
o Unlimited number of dates can be attached to the same event.
o Events can now pop up on certain weekdays.
o You can combine weekdays and date, allowing you to make events which
will be shown i.e. the third sunday in a month etc. etc.
o The calendar will put each day on its right weekday in the calendar.
o Possibility to set the period before or after a specified time.
o Major update of the calculation fields: allowing you to include both the
current date, current time, calculation of days, calculation of years,
current weekday and such in the SAME event! The attributes can be
selected from a listview.
o Lots of new calc-fields...
o Lot's of other goodies...
---
Other implementations to do:
- Possibility to print the project. Will probably be implemented as an
export module.
- Possibility to generate a list containing the text of all events (with
calc-fields replaced by its value). (Suggested by Per Sverre
Vogt-Hansen)
- Graphical overview of the events within a year or month. (Suggested by
Dirk Böhmer).
Troubleshooting, Tips & Tricks
The event does not show even if the date and time is set right
Try setting 'Show' to 'Always' and try again. The event might have been
run earlier that day... If you cycle through the Show-gadget, Recall
Preferences will reset the daily flag.
The event will not execute!
Recall needs the full path! If for example use the Say-command, you must
enter "SYS:Utilities/say" or else it will not be able to find it.
How do I make an annual event?
Set the date of the event to DD.MM.****, where DD and MM represents the
day and the month you want the event to pop up. Setting the year to
**** is the same as saying 'every year'.
How do I make a birthday event?
There is unlimited number of ways to enter a birthday-event, depending
of how you want the event to be shown. Here's one suggestion.
(Problem: Remind me of Rebecca's birthday on 08.05.1970)
Set the date to 'Before', '09.05.****'
Set the time to 'After', '11:00'
Days='3'
Repeat='0'
Text='Rebecca is {080570} on 8th of May'
Show='Daily'
This event will be displayed daily on the 6th, 7th and 8th of May, leaving
enough time to buy her a flower or whatever... (...am I getting soft or
what???).
How do I create events that pop up on certain weekdays?
If you want an event to be displayed every monday, you must first
determine the date of a monday (any monday - last monday will be a good
choice). Enter that day in the date-field and set Repeat to '7', and it
will appear every monday from now on...
Testing an event with Show set to 'Daily'
When testing such a project the event will ALWAYS be shown if it has not
been displayed that day. Furthermore will it not show if it already has
been displayed that day. This is inevitable, since Recall Preferences do
not alter the project's private structure.
How to make events appear both x days BEFORE and y days AFTER a date?
If you want an event to be displayed 3 days before the 10.10.93 AND 2 days
AFTER, you must simply set the date to BEFORE 16.10.93 and days to 5!
When I try to execute a program from Recall it crashes!
When running Recall from the WBStartup-drawer, some programs seem to
cause an out of memory-guru. This is not a bug in Recall! I have only
discovered this error while running ToolManager from WBStartup and
Maxiplan V4.09 (started as an event within Recall) while running under
WB3.0. Other programs might cause similar problems. The solution is
however, quite simple; enter 'Wait 2' on the line above your program, and
your program will work just fine.
Why not include a new type 'Echo' which prints the message to CLI
This can easily be done setting the type of event to Execute, and adding
something like this to the list of texts: '"echo "this will be printed out
in CLI"'.
How do I play a tune while displaying an event?
You have to create two events to do a thing like that (or by creating a
little batch-file to execute). The first event must be of execute-type:
"run >NIL: play birthday.mod". The second event must be of alert- or
requester-type with the desired text. The dates of the two events must of
course be the same.
Annoying shell-windows when executing events
If the executed program echoes a text to the screen or if you use the Run-
command, you should enter ">NIL:" after your commands to suppress any
popping up shell-window.
See also Known bugs
History
The Recall version follows the notation <version>.<revision>, meaning that
V2.10 is greater than V2.1. The current version can be printed out using
'Version full Recall' or by selecting About from the Project-menu in
Recall Preferences.
24.May.93 V1.0
First released version.
25.May.93 V1.1
RecallPrefs used to crash when it loaded an old project and the user
selected 'Use'. Now fixed.
29.May.93 V1.2
RecallPrefs now tries to open its window using the current font set
by the user. If this fails (usually when the window becomes too
big for the screen), it settles for the standard Topaz8-font.
RecallPrefs now uses NewLook-style in menus.
04.Jun.93 V1.3
Recall now only updates the project when it's absolutely necessary .
This saves a lot of disk-access. Fixed a bug in the compare date & time
header file. Fixed a bug in the purge-function which removed events
with empty dates... Updating the attributes of the event is now
speeded up. RecallPrefs disables the corresponding
(Exact/Before/After)-cyclebutton if Datestring or Timestring are
empty. Made more compliant with Commodore's Style Guide.
08.Jun.93 V1.4
Oooooops, made a MAJOR mistake by releasing V1.3 too soon! In the
last minute a minor bug was fixed, and this resulted of course in a MAJOR
bug at another location in the program! Selecting 'Before' or 'After' with
dates did not work at all... nor did # Days or Repeat every #... I
PROMISE to check more thoroughly in the future... When testing the
project from RecallPrefs, the program asked for a assign called 'REC:'.
Now removed... Recall must be located in your working path.
(i.e. >path work:recall). Fixed a bug which resulted in a ghosted
textstring when editing a line of text...
30.Oct.93 V1.5
Fixed a bug which caused Recall to return a returncode and generate an
error when testing a project from 'Recall Preferences'. Now fixed.
08.Nov.93 V1.6
Fixed two tiny bugs which caused Enforcer hits. Since they where
positioned in the main loop of both 'Recall Preferences' and Recall, hits
appeared on every GADGETUP IDCMP and event. Now fixed. (Reported by
Henning Schmiedehausen). Selecting the GetFile gadget when no event was
selected also caused an Enforcer hit. Now fixed. The Add Text gadget was
sometimes not disabled, making it possible to add text to a non-existing
event. Now fixed. Added an extra menu item to save project under default
name without terminating the program. (Suggested by Raoul Rodriguez).
Also, the new archive is better organized with drawers for preferences,
install and documentation. The Installer-script has been rewritten. The
documentation has been processed once again, making (hopefully) easier to
read (all chapter has a right justified margin...).
12.Nov.93 V1.7
The two binaries is now reduced in size. The sources may now be compiled
by double-clicking on the Build-icon in the Source drawer. Added more
tips to 'Troubleshooting'. The installer-script is made more generic and
will also detect if the user already has a Recall project and rename it to
'Recall_OLD.prefs' when installing new example project. Also reorganized
the .guide, so that the chapters appear in the same order as when using
browse. Corrected a few mistakes and misspellings in the documentation.
Fixed a bug which caused repeating events not to be displayed when they
should. Also, when counting days between different months and years did
not come out right. Now fixed. (thanks to Juha Kallioinen for questions
about weekly events, which led me into finding this bug!)
16.Nov.93 V2.0
This version is re-written from scratch. Uses MUImaster.library for
creating a great looking GUI. Font-adaptable window. Sizable window.
Short-cuts for most functions. IFF-FORM .prefs-file. Possibility to
group events, flash screen before event, automatically delete expired
events, acknowledging events alerts. Confirm actions in Preferences.
Setting the date and time from a 'calendar'. Possibility to copy and
sort lines of text. Better readability and better organized .guide.
Documentation also included in ASCII-format. Unstall-script to delete the
Recall package on your harddisk. Importing and exporting projects of
different formats (may be controlled via the Preferences). More show-
options. More date fields in the same line. Do not use reqtools.library
if not requested. The program may be iconified. On-line-HELP. Although
Recall has gained a lot of functions, it is actually smaller in size!
Optimized code if a faster CPU is available. Much more...
07.Dec.93 V2.1
NEW All binaries and the installation-script is localized. English,
french, spanish, german, swedish and norwegian catalogs are included.
NEW Speeded up Recall 30%!!!
NEW All binaries has reduced in size! Rewritten to use tiny ROM-routines!
NEW Postponing events! If you put off an event, it will keep nagging you
until you acknowledge it!
NEW Updating event's attributes is now speeded up (a lot!) in Preferences.
NEW Safer IFF-saving.
NEW Settings menu-item: Confirm executables?
NEW Recall requesters now state the current date in their titles. Uses
the selected dateformat.
NEW Recall uses less memory than before!
NEW Rearranged the GUI a little: The date and time are separated from the
text-group, the getfile-gadget now uses the button-background set in
MUIprefs.
NEW The day-of-the-month gadgets are now of BOOL type (like Time
Preferences).
NEW The calendar can now be controlled from the keyboard.
FIX Events with x days BEFORE or AFTER were not displayed (Reported by
Dirk Böhmer).
FIX Acknowledging alerts did not work, unless 'Acknowledge events?' was
NOT checked. This bug did not appear when the binaries was not
optimized by the compiler... Strange...
FIX The GUI of the installation-script was messy if you did not use the
Topaz.font (Reported by Heikki Kantola).
FIX The GetFile-gadget did not work! (Reported by Olav Müller).
FIX GetFile did not allocate it's memory properly.
FIX The GetFile-gadget was not documented.
FIX Purging did not remove all the events that it should.
FIX Corrected several bugs regarding ghosted buttons and the update of
attributes.
FIX One node in the documentation of Recall was not linked properly.
(Reported by Olav Müller).
FIX Recall and Recall Preferences did not deallocate all used memory when
terminating.
FIX Recall crashed if Use ReqTools? was checked but not available!
FIX Events set to whenever or anytime did not show if BEFORE or AFTER was
selected.
FIX The stringgadgets do no longer get activated when selecting a new
event/text from the listviews, making it easier to use the keyboard
short-cuts.
FIX Recall Prefs no longer asks for a file to import or export when
SYS:Tools/ReConvert is not available...
FIX Changed the name of some items. 'Whenever' and 'Anytime' changed to
'Every day' and 'All day', respectively. 'Once a day' has been
changed to 'Daily'.
FIX Enforcer Hit when accidentally loading certain non Recall IFF-files.
FIX All output to shell from Recall will now be routed to the same shell-
window!
03.Mar.94 V2.2
NEW Italiano catalogs included.
NEW Nederlands catalogs included.
NEW SBasePro 4 batch script for converting a database of birthdays to a
Recall project included. Script provided by Thorsten Gau.
NEW Recall only updates the project when the user has selected a button
which alters any of the internal flags. Less disk-access.
NEW The ASL requester now excludes the .info-files.
FIX Recall now handles dates after 30. january 2000.
FIX When displaying requesters with only one button (no Cancel-button),
pressing OK was interpreted as Cancel.
FIX Events of type 'Execute' were only run once when 'Confirm executables'
was not checked.
FIX You could always cancel an alert, even if the 'Confirm Alerts?' was
not checked...
FIX Prefs only allocates memory for the Asl-requester when needed.
FIX Fixed a bug in the IFF save-routine, which caused a GURU on some
machines.
FIX Safer IFF-saving.
FIX All binaries reduced in size (again). The checker is now only 8Kb!
FIX Recall used c-lib routines to get and calculate date and time. This
could be quite annoying when running SnoopDOS in the background, as
these functions access ENV:TZ a lot. Switched to ROM-routines
instead.
FIX Recall Preferences did not show events which printed texts to a shell-
window when testing the project.
FIX Recall Preferences would not update the list of texts when the first
event in the list was highlighted, and user opened another project.
FIX Corrected some mistakes and misleadings in the docs.
The ReqTools.library will not be included from V2.2 and later in a
desperate try to reduce the size of the archive. Anyway, 99% of all
Amiga-owners already have this library...
28.Apr.94 V2.3
NEW Suomi catalogs included.
FIX Better Nederlands translation. Now fits on a 640x200 screen.
FIX Faster rendering of alerts.
FIX Fixed a bug which caused Alerts to crash on some machines. Thanks to
Olaf Seibert for suggesting the byte-split...
FIX The Recall-documentation contained an unknown link. Reported by
Philip Meyer.
FIX The calendar crashed on some machines when using MUI V2.0.
The source will not be included in V2.3 and later in order to reduce
the size of the archive. (Not many were interested in the source,
anyway...)
Afterword
Send e-mail, bug-reports, comments, suggestions, postcards, A4000 etc. to:
Between 15th of August and 5th of June (every year) I will be available at
the following address:
Ketil Hunn
Leilighet 107
Fabrikkveien 4-8 / Blokk C
N-6400 Molde
NORWAY
or by e-mail:
ketil@lyr.dhmolde.no
In the summertime however, I will be available at the following address
and only by ordinary mail:
Ketil Hunn
Nabbetorpveien 35B
N-1632 Gamle Fredrikstad
NORWAY
no e-mail (you can send e-mail to ketil@dhmolde.no - I may be logging in
from another university during the summer...)
********************************** NOTE **********************************
If you are to report a bug, it is extremely important that you state
which version of Recall you use, what your system-configuration is and
what programs you launch in WBStartup and your startup-sequence. This
will make it easier for me to locate bugs and problems. It would also be
of help if you mentioned where you got this application.
********************************** NOTE **********************************
Please check 'Future', 'Known bugs' and 'Troubleshooting' before
reporting any bugs!
I hope you agree with me, that this program is the BEST reminder-utility
available for the Amiga. If not, tell my why!
Enjoy!
Ketil Hunn
Molde, March 1994
68000 CPU or NO harddrive
This version of Recall uses MUImaster.library to create its GUI. Due to
the modular concept of MUI, it takes a little longer to open the first
application that uses the MUImaster.library. Running Recall from a OFS
disk will take a while.
Also, since the management of the layout of the objects requires many
complex calculations, running this application on a "bare" 68000, could be
a bit slow.
If you are using a 8-colour high resolution, interlaced workbench and
think the application seems slow, just enter the MUIPrefs and force the
Recall-package to open on a non-interlaced, 4-colour screen, and every-
thing will go smoother... Change the size and position of the Recall
windows according to your wishes and SAVE it. Change these values as
little as possible, as changing this needs a lot of calculation and will
probably be quite slow at small machines.
Also, the calendar window should be closed when you're not setting the
date or time, since scrolling through the list of events will be a great
deal slower when the window needs to updated.
Changing the window refresh type and window redraw routine to a type
matching your machine, will also help.
If you still think the application seems too slow, you should either buy a
faster computer or use any version of Recall prior to V2.0 instead...
See also Describing MUI
About MagicUserInterface
This application uses
MUI - MagicUserInterface
(c) Copyright 1993 by Stefan Stuntz
MUI is a system to generate and maintain graphical user interfaces. With
the aid of a preferences program, the user of an application has the
ability to customize the outfit according to his personal taste.
MUI is distributed as shareware. To obtain a complete package containing
lots of examples and more information about registration please look for a
file called "muiXX.lha" (XX means the latest version number) on your
local bulletin boards or on public domain disks.
If you want to register directly, feel free to send
DM 20.- or US$ 15.-
to
Stefan Stuntz
Eduard-Spranger-Straße 7
80935 München
GERMANY