WorldTime and all other so-called “Control Panel Documents” or “Control Panels” require System 4.1 or newer. WorldTime can run on a Macintosh Plus or any newer Macintosh. I suspect that it may not run on Macintosh models older than the Macintosh Plus, though I haven’t been able to verify this.
WorldTime works well with System 7.
If you use WorldTime with the Japanese system, text displayed by WorldTime will be in Japanese. If you use WorldTime with the USA system, the text displayed by WorldTime will be in English, including the phrase “Daylight Saving Time.” With the systems of all other countries, text (except, perhaps, the date and time) will be in English, including the phrase “Summer Time” in place of the American “Daylight Saving Time.”
•••••• What WorldTime Does
WorldTime does three things.
(1) It tells you what time it is in other cities, taking into account Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
(2) It automatically resets your computer’s clock at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
(3) It allows you to change the location of your computer as it is stored in your computer’s memory and reset the clock appropriately.
Your Macintosh has what is usually called “Parameter RAM” or “PRAM.” This RAM is battery-powered so that, even if the computer is unplugged, the information stored in it will not be lost. Various Control Panel settings are stored in the PRAM.
Among the various settings stored in PRAM are the latitude, longitude, and time zone of your Macintosh. If you want to find out where your machine thinks it is without using WorldTime, you can use the Map Control Panel Document. The Map will also tell you what time it THINKS it is in other cities around the world. This information about the time in other cities around the world is wrong nearly half the time because Map has no information about Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
This is why I wrote WorldTime. I wanted to know what time it REALLY was in Tokyo and London. Because Japan has no Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time, the time in Tokyo given by the Map is wrong half the time, and the situation with London is much worse. At various times of the year, the time difference between London and Fort Collins is 6, 7, or 8 hours.
I also designed WorldTime to reset the clock at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time. I did this for convenience and because using other people’s programs to do the job would confuse WorldTime’s calculations. I added an INIT resource to WorldTime to reset the clock as the computer starts up so that the clock is reset even if I don’t open WorldTime.
•••••• Paying For WorldTime
If you want to pay for WorldTime, send what you think is a fair price to:
J. David Sexton
C/O Sheilah Mann
1713 Eastwood Court
Fort Collins, CO 80525
U.S.A.
••••••
WorldTime’s
main dialog
•••••• Installing WorldTime
Just put WorldTime into the System Folder. If you’re using System 7, a dialog will appear asking you if you want to put WorldTime into the Control Panels Folder. Answer “OK.”
Don’t lock the WorldTime file or use it from a locked volume. It won’t break anything if you do, but it will keep WorldTime from doing everything it was designed to do. If WorldTime is locked, it will do its best to calculate and display the correct time, but it won’t EVER reset the clock if it can’t save information about the change in the WorldTime file.
(1) After you’ve put WorldTime into the system folder, open it (start it up). Look at the pop-up menu labeled “Here:” to see what city your computer thinks it is in.
(2) If the city name displayed in the “Here:” pop-up menu is the name of your city, go to step 7. The “Here:” pop-up menu may be blank; that is, you may see only the small triangle that indicates a pop-up menu. Don’t worry if this is what you see; just go on to step 3.
(3) Pop up the “Here:” menu to see if the name of your city is listed there. If it is, select it and go to step 7.
(4) If you DON’T have the Map Control Panel Document, go to step 6. If you DO have the Map Control Panel Document, open it (start it up) and use it to set your computer’s location to your city. Then close the Map and go back to WorldTime.
(5) Click on the “Add City” button. In the “Add City” dialog, type the name of your city and set the correct information for Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time for your city. When you have finished, click the “Add City” button to return to WorldTime’s main dialog. You should now see the name of your city displayed in the “Here:” pop-up menu. Go to step 7.
(6) Click on the “Add City” button. In the “Add City” dialog, type the name of your city and set the correct information for Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time for your city and the correct latitude and longitude for your city. When you have finished, click the “Add City” button to return to WorldTime’s main dialog. Back in the main dialog, select your city in the “Here:” pop-up menu.
(7) Use the “-hr” or “+hr” button, if necessary, to set your computer’s clock to the correct time. Installation of WorldTime is complete.
•••••• The Small Black Circle
A small back circle to the right of the date and time in WorldTime’s main dialog indicates that the city is on Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
•••••• Adding and Editing Information about Cities
Although WorldTime keeps its city list in alphabetical order (according to the rules of the language of your System), it identifies cities by their location (latitude and longitude). This means that if you add a city with the same location as a city already in WorldTime’s list, WorldTime simply changes the information it has about the city at that location. It doesn’t put a new city in the city list. This also means that WorldTime will allow two or more cities to have the same name.
When you click on the “Add City” button in WorldTime’s main dialog, the information initially in the “Add City” dialog is the information about the city whose name appears in the “Here” pop-up menu in WorldTime’s main dialog. This is the same city whose latitude and longitude is stored in the computer’s Parameter RAM. Because WorldTime knows a city by its location, you can change all the information about a city except its location by selecting it in the “Here” menu and clicking on the “Add City” button to go to the “Add City” dialog. When you return to the main dialog, don’t forget to use the “Here” pop-up menu to change the computer’s location back to the correct city.
If the location stored in Parameter RAM is a city that WorldTime doesn’t have in its list, the “Here” menu in WorldTime’s main dialog will be blank. You’ll see only the small triangle that indicates a pop-up menu. If the location stored in the Parameter RAM is the location of a real city, you can add that city to WorldTime’s city list by clicking on the “Add City” button, and then entering all the information about the new city. When you click on the “Add City” button in the “Add City” dialog and return to the main dialog, you’ll see the new city’s name in the “Here” pop-up menu.
•••••• When WorldTime Resets the Clock
In America, the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time is supposed to take place at 2 AM Daylight Time (1 AM Standard Time). The change from Standard Time to Daylight Time is supposed to take place at 2 AM Standard Time (3 AM Daylight Time).
I and WorldTime DON’T follow this convention. WorldTime always changes to and from Daylight Time/Summer Time at midnight Standard Time. I can only hope that the benighted American government will follow my example. [By the way, I am an American.]
When WorldTime is open at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time, it will automatically reset the clock. However, WorldTime doesn’t have to be open to reset the clock. WorldTime includes an INIT which will reset the clock, if appropriate, as the computer starts up.
WorldTime’s INIT only operates at start-up. The INIT uses no memory or processor time after start-up.
•••••• If Your Computer Beeps During Start-Up
If your computer beeps three times while it is starting up, it’s because WorldTime thinks it should reset the clock, but can’t save information about the change in the WorldTime file. If this happens, it will beep three times and it will NOT reset the clock.
If your computer beeps twice while it is starting up, it means that your Macintosh has had a problem setting the clock. I know of nothing that could cause this to happen.
•••••• Errors
If your computer beeps twice while the clock is being reset, it means that your Macintosh has had a problem setting the clock. I know of nothing that could cause this to happen.
The name of a city in WorldTime’s city list is not allowed to begin with a hyphen (minus sign) or contain a return. If you try to edit the city name in any way that creates these conditions, WorldTime will beep once and cancel your editing.
If changes can’t be saved to the WorldTime file, an alert will appear to tell you about the problem. These alerts will include an error number. The two error numbers you are most likely to see are
-61 The file is locked or you don’t have permission to change it.
-44 The disk is locked.
•••••• Using WorldTime with Other Programs
WorldTime makes two assumptions about other programs that set the clock and change the computer location stored in Parameter RAM:
1) No program other than WorldTime will reset the clock at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
2) A program other than WorldTime that changes the machine location and resets the clock at the same time will not know about Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time.
Assumption 1 means that WorldTime will NOT get along with the Daylight Saving Time INIT. Assumption 2 means that WorldTime will get along quite well with the Map Control Panel.
Both assumptions mean that WorldTime will not get along with other copies of itself in other System Folders used to start up the computer. It’s best to keep just one copy of WorldTime in one System Folder, the one you use most often. Alternatively, you could move your one copy of WorldTime from System Folder to System Folder.
I suspect that most people always start up their computers from one System Folder on one hard disk and don’t have to worry about this.
•••••• Using WorldTime with the Map Control Panel
WorldTime gets along quite well with the Map Control Panel if you remember one simple rule: don’t leave the Map Control Panel open under System 7 while you change the computer’s location using the “Here” pop-up menu in WorldTime’s main dialog.
The Map Control Panel assumes that no other program can change the computer’s location while the Map Control Panel is open. This is a bug.
With System 7, it is always possible that another program will change the various settings in the PRAM, including the location.
One use I’ve found for the Map Control Panel is to help add cities to WorldTime’s city list. I just change the location to the city I want to add using the Map, and then I click on WorldTime’s “Add City” button and enter the name and Daylight Saving Time/Summer Time information for the city. For more information about editing WorldTime’s city list, see “Adding and Editing Information about Cities” above.
•••••• Revisions
Version 1.1 uses the Mac’s main Clipboard for cutting and pasting in the “Add City” dialog, not just the private clipboard used by dialog boxes. Version 1.1 also takes steps to make sure that a return cannot be pasted into a city’s name.
