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- month(1)
-
- NAME
- month - a visual monthly calendar and time/event browser
-
- SYNOPSIS
- month [-d]
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Overview
-
- Month displays a calendar of the current month of the current year,
- with the current day highlighted. It then allows the user to browse
- to any month/day/year he chooses, and to schedule and recall events
- for a day or for some regular repeating series of days.
-
- Screen Areas
-
- There are four distinct areas of the screen. The days area where
- the days of the month are listed in calendar format, the months area
- where the months of the year are listed, the years area where a
- sequence of years are listed, and the schedule area, which may be
- blank and occupies lines 19-24 on the terminal. (lines below 24 are
- not used)
-
- Commands
-
- Quitting
- You may type 'Q' almost any time to quit. This will update
- your event database if you have made any changes.
- Your event database is a file called ".month" in your
- home directory.
- Control-c or Control-\ can be used any time for immediate
- abort and no event database update.
- Any time you quit in any of these ways, you will be informed
- of whether your event database has been updated.
-
- Cursor motion
-
- 'h', 'l', 'k', and 'j' are used to move the cursor left, right,
- up and down respectively within a screen area. In some cases,
- explained later, 'j' and 'k' will not work, and a <TAB> or <CR>
- is used to move between fields in a wrap-around fashion.
-
- Selection
-
- <CR> and <LF> are used to select items/commands at the cursor
- position.
-
- Direct entry of numbers
-
- The user may type the number of a desired month, day, or year
- whenever the cursor is appropriately positioned. This is
- true in all screen areas. <ESC> is used to abort the function.
-
- Scrolling numbers
-
- In the schedule area, numbers may be scrolled forwards and
- backwards with the <SPACE> and <BACKSPACE> keys respectively.
- This is the only way to change hours and minutes.
-
- Time browsing
-
- 'm', 'd' and 'y' are used to move into the months area, the
- days area or the years area respectively. This is only when
- time browsing in these three panes. To get to a particular
- month or year, move to the appropriate area and onto the
- desired month or year, and select it. (<CR>) Years may be
- scrolled a year at a time by using the scroll areas marked
- by '<<' and '>>'. Attempting to move passed these areas will
- scroll by one year, selecting them scrolls by ten years.
- The last month of the previous year, or the first month of
- next year, may be obtained by selecting the area above
- January or below December respectively. The cursor is the
- positioned for immediate return via a subsequent selection.
-
- 'n' and 'p' can be used to go to the next or previous month,
- day, or year, depending on which screen area you are in.
-
- 'M' is used to mark a specific date. You will be prompted for
- an identifier which is a single digit between '0' and '9'.
- Once a mark has been set at a certain date, you may jump to
- that date from any other date with the command below.
-
- 'G' is used to go to a previously set mark. You will be
- prompted for the mark's identifying digit.
-
- ';' is used to go directly to the last date you viewed which
- was in a different month than currently displayed. Use the
- same command again to return to where you were originally.
-
- 'T' is used to go directly the actual, real current date, which
- is the date initially displayed upon startup.
-
- Overviewing a day
-
- 'O' will fill the schedule area with a read only view
- of your day according to your event database. Four
- six-hour grids appear showing which hours of the
- day have been pre-scheduled. The cursor must be placed
- on the day to be viewed with this function.
-
- Overviewing a month
-
- 'A' will mark all the days on the calendar that have
- at least one event posted. This feature is especially
- useful before scanning; described next.
-
- Scanning events
-
- 'S' will cause a sequential list of events for the current day
- to be displayed in the schedule area. The events for any given
- day may be scanned, deleted, or modified.
- After displaying each one, the prompt "[n,p,d,e,q]" is put
- up and will respond to these character commands:
-
- 'n': go to next event
- 'p': go to previous event
- 'd': delete this event
- 'e': edit this event as during a posting described below
- 'q': quit the scan and return to calendar
- <ESC>: same as 'q'
-
- Every event scan
-
- 'E' will display, one at a time, absolutely every event
- in your event database. The prompt "['n','q']" is displayed
- and will respond to these character commands:
-
- 'n': go to next event
- 'q': quit the scan and return to calendar
- <ESC>: same as 'q'
-
- Posting an event
-
- 'P' is the command used to post an event. The
- cursor is placed into the schedule area with a host of
- information displayed. To discontinue, use <ESC> or
- select CANCEL. The cursor first appears on the first
- line of the schedule area. This line gives the starting
- date for the event, and when it shall occur. The user
- may move into the starting date and change the month,
- day and year by scrolling with <SPACE> and <BACKSPACE>,
- or by directly typing it. The other fields in this
- first line may be moved onto and selected. <TAB> will
- move the cursor to the next line which contains the
- time at which the event occurs. 'h' and 'l' move between
- the hours and minutes fields which may be scrolled. The
- AM/PM indicator changes as the hours scroll across
- 12:00 boundaries. <TAB> will move the cursor to the
- next line which gives the duration of the event, and
- it is edited in the same fashion. <TAB> moves the cursor
- to the next line which is a one line description of the
- event, to be typed whenever the cursor is placed here.
- <TAB> moves to the last line in the schedule area which
- allows the user to select ACCEPT or CANCEL. Selecting
- ACCEPT will put the event into the user's event database,
- after being asked if he really wants it to be. Selecting
- CANCEL aborts the process. <TAB> returns to the first
- line.
-
- Event scheduling
-
- When and how often will an event occur? This information
- is contained in the first line of the schedule area. The
- date entered there is the starting date for the event,
- that is, the event will not be recalled until that date.
- This date is best entered by browsing to it, placing the
- cursor in the days area on the desired day, and then
- type 'P' to post the event, in which case the desired date
- automatically appears as the default, but may be edited.
- In the following examples, only the fields that need to be
- selected are mentioned, all others should be turned off.
- (not highlighted) Examples:
-
- March 5, 1990 (once only)
- 3/5/1990
-
- Every Tuesday and Wednesday
- m/d/y every TueWed
-
- The 7th of each month
- m/7/y monthly
-
- Each July 4th
-
- 7/4/y yearly
-
- The 2nd and last sunday of each month
- m/d/y monthly every 2nd last Sun
-
- The 1st and last friday of each year
- m/d/y yearly every 1st last Fri
-
- Every other thursday
- m/d/y every 2nd Thu
- Note, this will include the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.
- thursday, starting from the specified m/d/y
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- 'L' stands for lunar, and causes a picture of what the moon will
- look like at 11:00PM on the day on which the cursor is placed.
- '^L' or '^R' will redraw the screen.
-
- OPTIONS
- Specifying the -d flag causes a background daemon to be born that
- will wake up at 15 minute intervals during the current login
- session, check your event database, and print a message to your
- terminal with a bell if it finds an event that is 15 minutes, or
- less, away. It will do this check upon invocation, then wake up
- on every 15-minute clock division until killed or you log out.
-
- CAVEATS/BUGS
- Very few attempts have been made to prevent the user from browsing
- through negatively numbered years or years with more than four
- digits in them, the latter causing the years area to get messed up,
- but remains functional.
- In rare cases, events with a starting date before the year 1753,
- will not be recalled correctly.
-
- FILES
- $HOME/.month
-