DeltaTime is a utility I wrote as a combination desk top calendar and a date differential calculator. DeltaTime began as an experiment in developing a fully functioning 3D "Intuitive" user interface. What emerged was what I think of as a date calculator on steroids. You'll find that just about everything in the window is either a button or an editable field. I went to great pains to try and anticipate every way in which the user (that's you) might want to use it. There is one thing that I didn't implement in the first release that may annoy a few people. There is no copy/paste functionality. The main reason I didn't implement it yet is because I just couldn't decide exactly what to copy and since a user preferences capability is not yet present it will just have to wait for release 2.0.0.
Some Interesting Things About Calendars:
Since your still with me I thought I'd bore you with a few interesting facts I discovered while I developed the calendar functions used in DeltaTime. When I began researching how to determine what day of the week a certain date might fall I discovered that contrary to my original belief the creation of the Gregorian calendar (that's the one most of us use in the Western World) was part art and part science. Friday October 15th 1582 is the first day of the present Gregorian calendar as we use it. The day before Friday October 15th was Thursday, October 4th. Pope Gregory made a 10 day adjustment at this time in history to re-synchronize the calendar with the solar year. This sort of thing has been done throughout history so I decided to start my calendar on January first 1583 the fist day of the first full year of the Gregorian Calendar. If someone really needs a calendar that goes back further just drop me a line with an explanation of how that calendar works and I'll see if I can do anything with it in the next release. Now on the other end of time I felt I really needed to have some upper limit on how far in the future the calendar would extend. Rather that just pick some arbitrary date I picked the last day of the year 2040. Why 2040? I was hoping you’d ask. Well you see on March 10th 2040 at approximately 7:26 PM the Macintosh clock will reset back to 1904. That is when the 32 bit seconds register overflows and resets back to 0. All Mac time is referenced to the year 1904, that is why I didn’t use the system time utilities. Now wasn’t that interesting?? I now return you back to your regularly scheduled program.
Well how does it work, or I Don’t read manuals QUICK START SECTION:
IT’S GOT BALLOONS!!
(Before you read any further ...there is a fairly extensive set of balloon help for
just about every button available so you could just turn that on and not bother reading
any further...but that wouldn’t be as much fun)
There are basically only four things a user can do: Set a starting date, set an ending Date, set a Month and lastly set a time differential. Of course there are several ways to do each of these things but here are the basics:
To Set Starting Date: Just shift click on the calendar button field. The starting date is represented by the button with the red outline, that’s the one with the little squares on the sides on a B/W monitor. You may also directly input the date into the fields of the box labeled START.
To Set Ending Date: This one is even easier. Just click on the button with the date you want on it and the Ending date will be set. Same thing goes for directly editing the END box fields. The ending button is the button that is depressed with out any special coloring or ring with boxes around it.
To Set Month: To set the month you can either directly enter the month and/or year in the calendar header of your choice or you can push the up/down buttons on the sides to advance or decrement the associated field. You will notice that the increment works a lot like you digital watch. The first 10 increments occur rather slowly one at a time. The next 5 go a little faster and then the field really hauls.
TIP: if you want to slow back down to single step just push down the option key while still depressing the mouse...things will slllloooowww down to single stepping again.
To Set Date Differential: The date differential fields work pretty much the same way. Just type in the number and push the Return, Tab or Enter Keys or click outside the text box. The one thing you may find strange is that if for example you have set the units box to Days ( the default ), and you type in lets say 2 years, the year field you just typed in will be set to zero. Two years worth of days, that is two years will be added to the end date and the number of days between the start and end date will appear in the Days field marked D. Just in case you didn’t figure it out, the boxes go (D)ays, (W)eeks, (M)onths, (Y)ears.
TIP/WARNING: So what date is March 31st - one month? Well I asked my beta testers and we concluded that the answer is: The last day of February. So that is how I implemented handling this problem. To be more specific. If the differential you set creates a date that is within the maximum and minimum dates I mentioned above, but the date doesn’t exist, the date will be set to the last day of the month. ( you will note that this problem only occurs when you try to increment or decrement by a month or year when the date is Feb. 29th).
Some Other Goodies:
Besides the normal functions I mentioned above there are a few other things you should be aware of. Fist if you click on the DeltaMan (that’s the little guy with the smile on his face), the whole window will shrink down to a very small window with just the DeltaMan in it. Just click on him again to return to full size. You will also notice a zoom box in the upper right hand corner. As you would expect this Zooms the main window down to a single calendar. This will allow you to use DeltaTime as a calendar only. The buttons still work as well as the month and year fields so click away. Just click the Zoom box again to return to your previous state. What I mean here is that if you were in the small icon window mode than that is where you will return. Same goes for the full window.
You will also notice that I have provided a notice, to all of those who don’t read instructions and don’t use Balloon help, that reminds you that you must shift click to change the starting date. Well don’t be alarmed when this notice vanishes after you have completed one shift click. You see I figured you knew how to do it and didn’t need the notice in you face all the time.
Second to Last but not least there is the maximum units box in the upper left hand corner. This box sets how the differential information will appear. Basically you set the maximum units to be used and DeltaTime does the rest. Let’s say you set the units to Months. The difference between the start and end dates will be given in the maximum number of months. The remainder will be given in days. Same goes for the other units, you’ll see just experiment.
Last feature I promise... The very observant user will notice that I have provided a TODAY box with two arrow buttons on the sides. Basically what these buttons do is set the calendar they point at to today’s date ( that is provided you remembered to set the system clock). Here’s the scoop. If the calendar contains the start date, the start date is set, if it contains the end date the end date is set, if neither the start date is set and if both are in that calendar it depends on who was there first. Phew!!, I got through that one...
System Compatibility’s:
Well my huge Beta testing staff have spent months testing DeltaTime on every Mac know to man...(just kidding)
DeltaTime will run only under system 7 and up... Don’t even bother to try it under system 6 it will refuse to start. Why, well first system 7 has all kinds of great features that I tended to use when possible so... And then there is the one about having to test all the versions of system 6.X.X and lastly my beta testers all use 7.0 exclusively...OK the bottom line here is I’m just too lazy to write all the traps necessary to guarantee compatibility. So if you see my program running on you friends Mac under system 7.0 and you must have a copy running on your system that only runs system 6 drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do. If I get enough requests I may release a 6.4 + version...but only if I get a lot of requests.
DeltaTime has been tested on Mac II’s, Mac IIcx, PowerBook 100 (system 7.0, 7.0.1) Si (system 7.1), and of course an LC without mishap. No guarantee here but I really seems to be very stable, I have tons of inits on my system and it works fine. Actually I don’t mess with the operating system at all so unless an uninitiated pointer got by, you shouldn’t have any problems on the new machines. Go ahead break my bubble prove me wrong that’s what end users are for anyway isn’t it?
ShareWare:
I have decided to release DeltaTime as shareware. First I think some people will find it quite useful, second I worked hard to make DeltaTime what it is, and if you want to see
further releases and enhancements I need your input both monetary and suggestions.
If you find DeltaTime a useful addition to your software collection please send $10.00 U.S.
to :
Bryan C. Harding
18154 Moon Song Ct.
San Diego CA 92127
If you find that too steep at least send me a letter telling me what you think...
THANKS TO MY BETA TESTERS:
I want to that the guys that helped me work through the ideas and tested them:
Thanks...Tony, Eli, Charlie, John and Kent
The Legal Stuff:
Bulletin Board Services/Shareware CD–ROMs
This package may be distributed on BBSes or CD–ROMs as is. As a matter of fact It is encouraged. It must include this document . It may NOT be included on shareware floppy discs sold by BBSes (or their clubs) for a profit. On the other hand if the price of the disk only covers the cost of duplication and the disk itself feel free to include it. The same goes for CD’s. If you make a profit from your CD than I need a request in writing to include DeltaTime on it. I suggest you also include an explanation as to why you can’t pay me a royalty on a CD pressed for profit. I retain all rights to DeltaTime.
End Users:
Feel free to use as many copies of DeltaTime on as many systems as you use. I only ask that one copy be used at a time by a single user. Any more than this constitutes the need for registering another copy. Of course since this is shareware it is left up to the end user as to how closely they are willing to comply with this request.
The Bottom Line: If you want me to continue to support DeltaTime Please let me know by sending in your $10.00 registration fee and/or sending me mail letting me know how much you love or hate DeltaTime and why.
