Personal Calendar (PC) Program Version 11.81 Documentation 15 Apr 88 Page Topic ---- ------------------------------ ---- ---------------------------------- 2 General Information 20 Options Sample Clock Screen 25 Operation 3 Appointment File, Data Privacy 26 Installation, Re-Installation 4 Event List, Event Window 27 Enhancements Being Considered 5 Note List, Note Window 28 Recent Corrections Clock Screen Footer Recent Enhancements 6 History & Exclusions 30 Recent Internal Changes 7 Changing Events 31 Known Problems 9 Warnings & Alarms Known Limitations 10 Repeating Events 32 Distribution Repeat Intervals Enhancement Requests 14 Types of Repeats Ownership and Duplication 16 User Interface 33 Getting Started 17 Single & Function Keys 19 Copying Appointments Printing Appointments GENERAL INFORMATION. Welcome to the Personal Calendar (PC) program! The Personal Calendar (PC) program lets you to display a three-month calendar and a running clock (both analog and digital). The clock screen display looks approximately like this -- | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ▓▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ 15:47:05 Friday, 2 January 1987 3:47:05 PM ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓░░░░▓▓ 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 December January 1987 February Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 28 29 30 31 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Alternately to the current three month calendar, you may display calendars that contain any date you wish to see, either by asking for a specific date, or by scrolling the calendars forward or backward a month at a time with the east (right) arrow or west (left) arrow keys, respectively. The running clock chimes on the hour and quarter hours. The chimes may be silenced if desired. APPOINTMENT FILE. Along with the display, you may create, keep, and update a useful Appointment File with time-oriented events, other notes, and historical information. Information in this file is described on the following pages. 12-10-86 Wed 13:00 Conference Room A -- Meeting on Year-End Finances B4 12-10-86 Wed 16:30 Biweekly Payroll Due Today W5 12-11-86 Thu 09:00 My Office--Staff Meeting and Weekly Project Reviews 1 By Anniversary Present at Bloomingdale's 2 Call Doctor to Make Appointment for Physical Exam APPOINTMENT FILE PRIVACY. If you wish privacy, you may protect this Appointment File with a password of your choosing. (Be careful entering the password, as it is not displayed on the screen.) 1. EVENT LIST. A list of "current events", or things that you have to do by a certain date and time -- 12-11-86 Thu 09:00 My Office--Staff Meeting An editing menu is available to let you to change the events. The initial default is 60 events (3 screens), and can be contracted or expanded from 20 to 300 in multiples of 20. More appears about events later in this information. Event Window. When you use the event list with the clock and calendar display, the events appear at the bottom of your screen in a highlighted window. You may scroll this window back and forth through the event list with the "PgUp" or "PgDn" keys. You may change the event list (full-screen) by commanding return to the editing menu (with the "E" key), or directly on the clock screen (with the "F3" key). (Note that the "NumLock" key is automatically set off upon entry to PC to give you immediate control of the "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys. Note also that upon exit from PC, the settings of both the "CapsLock" and "NumLock" keys are restored to whatever you had them set to at entry.) 2. NOTE LIST. In addition to the event list, a "note" list is also available. This is for those things which you wish to be reminded of that are not specifically time-oriented -- Call Doctor to Make Appointment for Physical Exam Write Note to Newpaper About Missed Subscription Issues An editing menu similar to the event menu is also used. The same size default, 60, is used for notes with a similar capability to change capacity from 20 to 300. Notes are displayed at the bottom of the clock and calendar screen, just above events in another window. In the note window, notes can be scrolled with the up- and down-arrow keys, edited in full-screen fashion by commanding return to the note editing menu (with the "N" key), or directly on the clock screen (with the "F4" key). CLOCK SCREEN FOOTER. These two windows together are called the clock screen footer. At least one event must appear on the clock screen footer. The number of items in the footer may be varied, and the remaining lines may be shared betwen events and notes, in a mix of your choosing. 3. HISTORY. When an event passes, is changed or deleted, or a note is changed or deleted, it is moved to a "history" list (limited in size only by disk storage). If a disk error occurs which causes an event to have incorrect characters in the date or time fields, the event is also moved to history -- SDN Report -- Go See Cheryl For Chapter 3 Input 12-15-86 Mon 12:00 Xmas Party/Food Auction/Silent Auction 12-15-86 Mon 14:00 Distribute Weekly Meeting Minutes Check on Josi's Library Book at NOVA to Register For Next Quarter 12-17-86 Wed 14:00 Pick up Car at Repair Shop In a manner similar to the events and notes, you may also command a display of the history list (with the "H" key), and likewise edit it (you can make your own version of history)! Optionally, you may exclude one or two different routine events from being automatically recorded in history. For example, if you remind yourself to have lunch every day, you might consider that silly to record. This recording suppression is accomplished by specifying which event descriptions (texts) are to be excluded. MUCH MORE ABOUT EVENTS. Since time is so special to most of us, a wealth of capabilities are available to manipulate time-oriented events. Entering and Changing Events. In specifying an event, you give its date and time, a description of the event, and optional specifications for a repeating event (daily, weekly, biweekly, multiweekly, or monthly). 12-W7 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle │ │ │ │ │ └─ Description │ │ │ │ └─ Time of Day │ │ │ └─ Day of Week │ │ └─ Date │ └─ Repeating Event Weekly on Saturday └─ Schedule This Event 12 Times PC is very forgiving of dates and times if you don't want to enter them--leave either one out and you get the next possible date and/or the current time. The day of the week in the display is automatically computed for you. More On Events (2) --- Date/Time Order Is Maintained. PC always maintains your event list sequenced by date and time, with the earliest event at the top of the list. When entering or changing events, to see what this order will be before you finish your changes, you can resequence the event list as often as needed by pressing the "F2" key. Clock and Calendar Screen. When you're finished entering events, press the "Esc" key. The events are automatically resequenced, again by date and time, and your display then changes to the clock and calendar screen with your earliest events displayed at the bottom of the screen. Days on which you have events scheduled are visually emphasized on the calendar display of the clock screen. More On Events (3) --- Events, Warnings and Alarms. Warnings. A warning will sound when the next event is within a pre-set time period of occurring (5 minutes is the default; you may vary the period from 1 to 99 minutes or disable the warning entirely). When the warning sounds, the event blinks in the event window until the alarm sounds. Alarms. An alarm will sound when the event occurs (you may also silence the alarm). When the alarm sounds, the event appears highlighted and blinking in the window, until you leave the clock and calendar display to enter new events, or until you command that the highlighted and blinking event be erased (with the "Del" key). (If too many events pass at the same time, a separate screen will appear, listing them all). Rescheduling and Resequencing Events. At the alarm, the event is removed from the active event list. If it is a repeating event, a new date is computed for the next occurrence and the event is rescheduled. Remaining events are again automatically resequenced. More On Events (4) --- Repeating Events. Intervals. Events occurring more than once may be set to repeat them- selves. Five intervals may be specified--daily, weekly, biweekly, multiweekly, or monthly. Repeating may be set to indefinitely until you delete the event, orto a certain number (called "limited repeating events", discussed on a later page). - For a one-time event, enter nothing in the repeat interval field. ___ 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field Is Empty For One-Time Event - For a daily repeating event, enter "D" in the field. D__ 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field For Daily More On Events (5) --- Repeating Events. Intervals. - For a weekly, biweekly, or multiweekly repeating event, enter "Wn" or "Bn" or "jn" in the field, where "n" is a number for the day of the week (for example, "W1" is Sunday, "W2" is Monday, and so on), and "j" is the number of weeks for multiweek repeats (for example, "32" is every third Monday). If your date for the event is incorrect for that day of the week, PC will automatically replace it with the next correct one. B7_ 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field For Biweekly On Saturday 47_ 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field For Every Fourth Saturday More On Events (6) --- Repeating Events. Intervals. - For a monthly repeating event on a certain day of the month, enter "Mnn" in the field, where "nn" is a number indicating the day of the month. For example, "M10" is the tenth day of each month. "M31" will work for 31-day months, but when a 30, 29, or 28 day month occurs, the date will be set to the last legal day. Likewise, "M30" will schedule correctly, except in February. If you truly want the last day of the month, use "ML". M06 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field For Monthly on the 6th of the Month More On Events (7) --- Repeating Events. Intervals. - For a monthly repeating event on a certain day of the week (for example, the 2nd Wednesday of each month), enter "Nnm", where "n" is the day of the week (just like the weekly and biweekly events), and "m" is which week of the month. The example just mentioned for the 2nd Wednesday would be entered as "N42". (Of course, if you enter the certain day of the week for the 5th week of the month, not all months have a 5th week for each day. Each time a 5th week request can't be honored for a specific day, the event will automatically schedule for the 4th week instead.) N71 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Repeat Field For Monthly On the 1st Saturday More On Events (8) --- Types of Repeating Events. Indefinite and Limited Repeats. Two types of repeating events are available, those which reschedule themselves indefinitely until you remove them from your event list, and those which schedule themselves the exact number of times you specify (the "limited repeating event"). When giving the interval to say that an event is repeating, you will be prompted for the optional count, if you want to limit the number of repeats. 12-W7_ 12-06-86 Sat 13:00 Bowling Class--BowlAmerica in Fairfax Circle └─ Limited Repeat Count More On Events (9) --- Limited Repeat Example. - For example, say I am going to three planning meetings, every other Tuesday in the afternoon at 1:00, starting on October 11, 1988. I specify "B3" in the repeat interval field for "biweekly on Tuesday", "3" in the limited repeat field for the number of meetings, the starting date 10-11-88, the time 13:00 (note that a 24-hour clock is used), and a description of my activity. The result ends up looking like this -- 3-B3 10-11-88 Tue 13:00 Planning Meeting All Afternoon <- 1st Meeting 2-B3 10-25-88 Tue 13:00 Planning Meeting All Afternoon <- 2nd Meeting 1-B3 11-08-88 Tue 13:00 Planning Meeting All Afternoon <- 3rd Meeting After the last event occurs, it is automatically is deleted from the list. USER INTERFACE. Menus and Instructions. PC is user-friendly. Choices to make are presented in a standard menu fashion, or are explained on each screen. Menu selections are chosen by pressing the space bar or down-arrow to go down the list, and the backspace key or up-arrow to go up the list; or by pressing the first letter of the desired entry. The "Return" key then proceeds with the menu choice. Clock Screen Instructions. If the size of the clock screen footer is 6 lines or more, this is the "experienced user" mode, and clock screen instructions are suppressed. In this mode, you may "pop back" the clock screen instructions at any time for 10 seconds by pressing "F5". Printing This Help Information. If you haven't already noticed it, you can print this help text to your printer by pressing the "Print" key. (If you are printing this before you have created an Appointment File and chosen a type of printer, the IBM PC Color Printer is chosen as the default, unless you are using a WANG PC, which causes the default to be the Epson FX.) User Interface (2) -- Exiting PC. You may leave PC by pressing "Ctrl-Esc" (or "Ctrl-Break") just about any time, except when any serious writing to your Appointment File is going on (in this case the writing is finished to preserve your changes before exiting). ("Ctrl-Esc" results from holding down the "Ctrl" key with one finger and then pressing the "Esc" key with another.) Use of the Function Keys Commands. Five programmed function key commands are available and have been described above. For reference, here is a list of them and what they do -- F1 Accept event information while in editing menu. F2 Resequence event list while in editing menu. F3 Event editing while on clock screen. F4 Note editing while on clock screen. F5 Clock screen instruction "pop back" for experienced user. User Interface (3) -- Use of the Clock Screen Single-Keystroke Commands. Several other single-keystroke commands have also been mentioned for use on the clock screen. Here is a list of them and what they do -- E Event editing in full screen fashion. N Note editing in full screen fashion. H History editing in full screen fashion (the only way). D Show three calendars for a date from year 0001 to 9999. T Return the three calendars the current months. S Change the sound setting (cycles through the settings). Esc Return to the main menu. Ctl-Esc Quit. Print Send appointments to the printer. End Eject a printer page. Del Remove overdue events from the clock display. PgUp/PgDn Scroll the Event Window back and forth. North and South Arrows Scroll the Note Window back and forth. East and West Arrows Scroll the three calendars backward or forward a month. MANIPULATING YOUR APPOINTMENT FILE EXTERNALLY. PRINTING YOUR APPOINTMENT FILE. You may also use the menu to print appointments, or with the "Print" key from the clock screen. For convenience, when you are on the clock screen, you can also eject a page of paper (a form feed) from your printer by pressing the "End" key. When you print your appointments, you always get printed events, and a display of the current three months calendars. You can, by using the "Options" menu, suppress the printing of notes, or enable the printing of history. Another option exists to suppress the dividing line (break) between each week of events.(These options also affect copying to an ASCII file, described below.) You may have to change the type of printer you are using from the "Options" menu to get the best result -- see the next pages. EXPORTING APPOINTMENT FILE INFORMATION. From the menu, you may copy events (and notes and history if you choose) to a standard DOS ASCII sequential data file, on which you may then use any program or utility. Options chosen for printing appointments have the same effect on copying to the file. OPTIONS. PC's main menu, along with the "Options" menu (selected from the main menu), allows you to change the following characteristics PC's operation -- 1. To start Personal Calendar in the automatic mode, going directly to the clock and calendar display, with or without an Appointment File. To do this, choose "Automatic Startup" from PC's main menu. 2. To change the selection of event, note, clock, calendar, menu, instruction, and emphasis foreground and background colors if you have a color monitor. Each of the 7 color pairs, foreground and background, are set together. Select "Change Color Choice" from the main menu. 3. To change the date and time in the DOS CPU clock. The change is effective for the current boot of your Personal Computer. If you have a battery-operated (permanent) clock calendar, the change will be made to it only if you have an associated "resident" program which monitors changes to the CPU clock. Select "Change DOS Date and Time" from the main menu. Options -- (2) 4. To use the instructions portion of the calendar screen for additional event or note information, by setting the size of the clock screen footer to 6 or more, and to determine how much of the window is to be notes or events. Use "Options" from the main menu to do this, or any of the remaining options described below. 5. To change the music that is played on an alarm, warning or chime. This is done by changing the string executed by the BASIC PLAY statement. Consult Microsoft's or IBM's manual for a description of the PLAY statement. 6. To vary the event warning period from 1 to 99 minutes or disable the warning feature, by setting the warning period to 0. The default warning period for an event is 5 minutes. Options -- (3) 7. To start PC with any of four levels of sound -- . Totally Silent . Errors Only . Errors, Warnings, and Alarms . Errors, Warning, Alarms, and Chimes (Everything) 8. To establish, change, or eliminate the Appointment File password. 9. To determine whether notes and/or history are printed or copied to an ASCII file along with the event list. The default setting is print and copy events and notes, but not history. 10. To suppress the dividing line (break) between weeks of events upon printing appointments or copying them to an ASCII file. The default is to show the break between each week of events. Options -- (4) 11. To exclude one or two events from being moved to history. This feature is useful to suppress recording of trivial recurring events. The exclusion is accomplished by specifying the event description(s) (text(s)) to be excluded. The default is not to exclude any events from being moved to history. 12. To determine whether daily events are allowed to be scheduled on Saturday/Sunday if you regularly use PC on weekends. The default setting is not to work on weekends! 13. To choose either the IBM PC Color Printer (4-band) or the WANG PC (Epson FX) Printer. The default is the IBM if you are not operating on on a WANG PC, and the Epson FX if you are operating on a WANG PC. If you have a different printer which does not work properly with either of these options, another choice tell PC to ignore the kind of printer you have; this option depends upon you to initialize your printer before running PC. Options -- (5) 14. To change the capacity of the Appointment File to hold events and notes. The default capacities are 60 events and 60 notes, unless you create a new Appointment File during the same PC session as one whose capacities are different from 60 and 60. If you decrease the event or note capacity, any non-blank events or notes which are at the excess end of the larger list are written to history before the compaction starts. SOFTWARE OPERATION AND INSTALLATION. OPERATION. PC will operate on any system that is compatible with IBM PC-DOS version 2.10, 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, or 3.21, and is known to work on the following personal computers -- IBM PC, PC-XT, or PC-AT IBM PC, XT, or AT Look-Alike or Functional Equivalent WANG PC in IBM Emulation Mode. PC requires a minimum memory of 179.7K plus 3K for every 20 events in the Appointment File. PC also requires minimum disk storage of 239.9K bytes plus 80 bytes for each event, note, and history entry in the Appointment File. PC is compiled by Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.00, linked by the Microsoft Overlay Linker 3.61 under Zenith MS-DOS 3.21, works with either color or monochrome displays, and is invoked from DOS with the command -- CAL INSTALLATION. To install a fresh copy of PC on a system, simply COPY the three DOS files from the original software supplied to you. All of the following files must be in the same DOS disk directory -- 1. CAL.EXE Program IBM PC-DOS Personal Calendar 2. CALHELP.DAT Data Help Function (This Information) 3. CALERROR.DAT Data Error Messages To put PC to another system after using it, and to preserve your Appointment File information and options customization, also COPY the following five DOS files which are created by PC -- 4. <name(s)>.CLD Data Appointment File(s) (Events, Notes, History) 5. CALAUTO.DAT Data Automatic Startup Option Chosen 6. CALMUSIC.DAT Data Music Choices For Chimes, Warnings, & Alarms 7. CALEXCL.DAT Data Events To Be Excluded From History Recording 8. CALFIG.DAT Data Color Choices (Not Used on Monochrome System) ENHANCEMENTS WHICH I AM CONSIDERING. Enhancements to PC which I am already considering follows -- . The option to emphasize all of the limited repeated days for an event on the calendar display of the clock screen, instead of just the first one. . A Terminate-and-Stay-Resident (TSR) version of PC. This means being able have PC run in the background while you are doing something else, much like "Side Kick" operates. Microsoft tells me that the TSR interrupt does not work with QuickBASIC Version 4.00 programs, so I will wait for a later compiler. Any assistance, ideas, or help in this project would be welcome, as it is not my area of expertise ... yet. RECENT CHANGES IN PC. Enhancements which I have made to PC or problems which I have corrected in recent versions follow. The change is preceded with the version number in which it was made -- Corrections -- . 11.75. Titles on the menus are now displayed in a consistent manner. . 11.81. References to the "enter" key now read "return" key. References to function keys now read "F" instead of "PF". Enhancements -- . 11.75. There is now the capability to change the event and note capacity in the Appointment File from 60 (now the default) down to 20 or up to 300, in multiples of 20. This appears on the Options menu. The size of the Appointment File is adjusted automatically. If you decrease the size of the file, events or notes at the end of the list are written to history during the decrease. . 11.80. The wording of the main menu has been simplified. Changes -- (2) Enhancements (2) -- . 11.76. On the main menu, using/changing an existing Appointment File is now a separate menu pick from creating a new file. Help to a new user automatically picks create a new file upon exiting from Help. . 11.79. When an event becomes overdue, it now blinks as well as appearing highlighted. . 11.72. There are now 7 color pairs instead of 4. I separated out events from instructions, menus from notes, and clock from calendars. I chose a new set of default colors. If you already have a CALFIG.DAT file, you have to delete it to see the new defaults completely. If you didn't delete the CALFIG.DAT file before you ran this version, you may have already seen changes to your previous color choices. . 11.77. The number of events and the number of history items now appear in the separator lines of the ASCII file or printed list. Changes -- (3) Internal coding changes (for the programmers among you) -- . 11.73. SUB argument checking across coding modules is now enforced with explicit DECLARE statements in the CAL1.BI file. . 11.75. Arrays which relate to events are now declared DYNAMIC. Changing event capacity causes these arrays to be reallocated through REDIM. . 11.80. The Menu.Driver subprogram has been modified to do automatic horizontal screen centering. . 11.81. The subprograms Enter.Line and Enter.Line.Delete are now Return.Line and Return.Line.Delete. Return.Line and Return.Line.Delete are now Escape.Line and Escape.Line.Delete. KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH PC. PC is extremely stable. If you find a problem, it is important that you tell me about it. Please record carefully the conditions or messages which occur. The ones I know about -- . If a limited repeating event is scheduled, the limited repeat counter is not decreased for the days on which PC wasn't used at all. . Version 9.96 was the last version which will operate on some WANG PCs. This version receives spurious characters from the QuickBASIC 4.00 INKEY$ function with certain WANG PC hardware configurations. No work-around yet exists. KNOWN LIMITATIONS. This program has been observed to conflict with some memory-resident software. If you encounter this, try running and terminating PC once first, before initializing your memory-resident software; this works sometimes. SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION, REQUESTS FOR ENHANCEMENTS, OWNERSHIP, AND DUPLICATION. DISTRIBUTION. If you need a new copy of PC, just send me one diskette, and I will return it to you with the latest version. For you computer programming aficionados, I will supply the source code upon request if you send me two additional diskettes upon which to put it. ENHANCEMENTS TO PC. We all love user-friendly software, and of course, this means different things to different people. I wrote PC to make my life easier. If you can find a way for me to enhance PC to improve yours, I am certainly willing to listen. You may contact me as follows -- Paul Muñoz-Colman Phone: (703) 435-1110 (home) 11645 Charter Oak Ct., Apt. 201 437-2410 (office) Reston, VA 22090-4526 OWNERSHIP and DUPLICATION. PC is the exclusive property of the author. PC may be copied and distributed freely to anyone, as long as the distributor makes no profit. PC may not be sold for financial gain in whole or in part. IN CLOSING. To get started, press "Esc" to return to the previous menu, and select the item appropriate for what you wish to do. If you're a beginner, start by creating your Appointment File, follow the instructions on the screens to put in some events and notes, go to the clock screen, and see what happens! Enjoy!
