PCal, was developed by Joseph F. Buchanan at the University of Utah. It was designed to facilitate production of various types of calendars, both for the Apple Imagewriter™ and LaserWriter™. PCal will also allow entry of personal events or holidays. This version, 2.11, while functional, does not yet contain all the features planned for it.
The calendar types supported by PCal are as follows:
Year "landscape" or "portrait" 8 1/2 x 11
Month "landscape" or "portrait" 8 1/2 x 11
Week on a page "portrait" only 4 1/4 x 5 1/2
Week on two pages "portrait" only 4 1/4 x 5 1/2
Day on a page "landscape" 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Day on a page "portrait" 8 1/2 x 11
Day on two pages "landscape" 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Day on two pages "portrait" 8 1/2 x 11
The calendar can be printed on both sides on the paper (obviously requiring operator intervention to re-enter the paper for side two). In this mode, the calendar is printed such that it can be assembled very easily into "book" form with the pages in the proper place. For the weekly calendars, (the intended "pocket" calendar), the paper stack will need to be cut through the center horizontally, then stacked together, then folded, producing the finished calendar book. This option works for either Imagewriter or Laserwriter, just feed the paper back in head first. Experiment first on a short calendar to make sure you get it right.
The calendar contains 15 “standard” holidays already. Events may be added to the calendar from an existing "text-only" file. The items should be in the form:
MM DD Text of event (e.g. 12 25 Christmas Day)
OR MM DD [code] Text of event (e.g. 5 1 [2] Mother’s Day)
Each item must be on a new line (i.e. separated by a carraige return). If the text does not fit in the space on the calendar for the day, it will do a word wrap onto the next line. The maximum length of an item's text depends on the calendar type (e.g. the maximum for the month type on Laserwriter should be 21 characters, 7 lines per day). The maximum length for any particular event text is 60 characters. The present limit is 480 event items (not including the 15 "canned" holidays: New Year's, President's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Hallowe'en, Election Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day). In the forms shown above, if MM is zero, then the day’s text will apply to that day in any month. If the second form is used, then the day field becomes “day-of-week” (i.e. 1 thru 7) and the code in the brackets specifies the week number (i.e. 1 thru 5) or else the number “10” for weekly; the number “11” for biweekly (beginning on the ‘start’ week); or the number “12” for biweekly (beginning the week after the ‘start’ week).
The "title" requested on the "Select Style" menu item puts a title on the calendar.
Event items and the title can have any of the standard “styles”.
The style is specified within a set of <> brackets and must be the
first non-blank part of the event text. For example:
3 15 <IB>Our Anniversary
specifies that the text “Our Anniversary” will appear on March
the 15th and will show as Italics and Bold. The styles are:
