Calendar Magic V6.1 ------------------- Introduction ------------ Calendar Magic is an easy-to-use Windows (3.x or 95) based program that is entertaining, informative, educational, and of equal applicability in the home and in the office. Calendar Magic is "Freeware" and may be freely distributed, provided that no alterations are made to any file contained within the product. Features of Calendar Magic include: * Full year Gregorian, Hebrew, Indian National, Islamic civil and Julian calendars for any year. The year range for Gregorian calendars is 1582 to 9999, with equivalent year ranges for the other calendar systems (except for the Indian National calendar which only began in Gregorian year 1957). * A side-by-side comparison of any of the above calendar systems on a month-by-month basis. The display remains synchronised as you change day, month and year values in either calendar system being viewed. * Lists of Western Christian festivals, Eastern Orthodox festivals and Hebrew holy days for any (Gregorian) year. * National days for any year for many countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, UK and USA. * "Date facts" for any date in the Gregorian, Hebrew, Indian National and Islamic civil calendars including day-of-the-week, day-of-the-year and equivalent dates in the other calendar systems. For the Gregorian calendar many other facts are displayed, such as Julian day value, and year related information including Dominical Letter(s), Julian Period, Golden Number, Solar Number, Roman Indiction and Epact. Various special days are also recognised (e.g. Halloween) as are modern Olympic years. * The ability to create, display, update and delete reminders for events (birthdays, anniversaries, meetings etc.) for "this year", "next year" or "every year". When Calendar Magic is started up, both visual and audible warnings are given for "imminent" events (those occurring within the next seven days) for which reminders have been set. Out-of-date reminders are also automatically purged by Calendar Magic. * "This is your life" information including day-of-the-week on which you were born, number of days you have lived, your Zodiac sign, and the day-of-the-week on which your next birthday falls. * Continuously updated display of date, time and a countdown to the year 2000. Various year 2000 related facts of interest to those involved in year 2000 software conversion projects. * Number of days between any two dates in the Gregorian calendar, and list of the dates on which the 13th. of any month falls on a Friday for any specified range of years. * An analysis of the Gregorian 400-year cycle, after which the Gregorian calendar repeats itself. * Special calendars for 1582 (the year when the Gregorian calendar began) and 1752 (the year when Great Britain and its colonies changed to the Gregorian calendar), with related information. * Support for printing any output displayed and/or copying it to the clipboard. What's New in Version 6.x? -------------------------- Version 6.x represents a major enhancement to Calendar Magic with the introduction of a "calendar comparison" command button to invoke the side-by-side comparison of any two calendar systems (Gregorian, Hebrew, Indian National, Islamic civil and Julian) on a month-by- month basis. The display is continuously updated in line with any changes you make by: (a) decrementing or incrementing a month being displayed, (b) decrementing or incrementing a year value being displayed, (c) clicking on, then changing by editing any year value, (d) clicking on any day value to highlight it in red. Note that equivalent dates are always shown in red, (e) changing the calendar system by clicking the relevant option button. Note also that the Indian National calendar did not commence until (Gregorian) year 1957, so that comparisons with the Indian National calendar cannot be made for years prior to 1957. Side-by-side comparisons are available for the Gregorian date range November 1, 1582 to December 31, 9999 and equivalent ranges in the Hebrew, Islamic and Julian calendar systems (note the remark in the previous paragraph with respect to the Indian National calendar system). About EuroSoft -------------- Calendar Magic was developed by EuroSoft. Contact details are: EuroSoft 50 Freemans Close Stoke Poges Slough Berkshire SL2 4ER England Phone: +44-1753-662015 FAX: +44-1753-664328 Email: EuroSoft@compuserve.com WWW: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/EuroSoft/ Installing Calendar Magic ------------------------- To install Calendar Magic on a Windows (3.x or 95) based system, close down all running applications and then run the program setup.exe on the Calendar Magic floppy disk. The default installation directory is c:\calmagic but you are given the opportunity to specify another directory and/or drive. The following files should be present: calendar.exe Main executable file sun.ico Program icon file message.txt Text file used by Calendar Magic readme.txt ASCII documentation file Readme.doc Word 97 version of readme.txt setup.exe Setup program setup.dta Setup configuration file logo.bmp Setup graphics file msafinx.dll System file spin.vbx Visual Basic extension for spin buttons threed.vbx Visual Basic extension for 3D command buttons etc. vbrun300.dll Visual Basic 3.0 run-time file The first eight files are installed in the directory you have specified. The remaining four are installed in your \windows\system directory, provided that more recent versions of these files do not already exist in that directory. Calendar Magic as a Company Promotional Item -------------------------------------------- Calendar Magic is a highly cost effective way of promoting any company and maintaining contact details on clients' PCs. Would your company like to distribute copies of Calendar Magic to its clients, showing your company name and contact details on the main Calendar Magic screen? EuroSoft is able to produce customised versions of Calendar Magic for any company. Contact EuroSoft with your requirements. Additional company or country specific dates and events can easily be incorporated, as can longer lists of contact names, phone numbers etc. Reminder Imminent Event "Beep" Facility --------------------------------------- When Calendar Magic is initiated, you may hear a "beep" and the text "Remind Me Now!" on one of the command buttons will be coloured red rather than the normal black. This indicates that an event, for which you have set a reminder, is less than seven days away. As soon as you click on either of the command buttons associated with reminders, the text colour will revert to black. Additional Days, Events and Dates of National Significance ---------------------------------------------------------- If you would like any additional days, events or dates added to Calendar Magic, which are of significance in your country, please send the details to EuroSoft for inclusion in a future release of the product. Details required are: 1. Country 2. Day/event/date of significance. 3. How is the date calculated each year? Is the event always on the same date (e.g. January 7) or, if not, how is the date determined each year (e.g. second Tuesday in March)? Anyone providing significant new material, which is added to Calendar Magic, will be sent a free copy of the updated product. Limitations and Restrictions ---------------------------- Calendar Magic is designed to handle Gregorian calendar dates from October 15, 1582 to December 31, 9999 and can produce: (a) Hebrew calendars for Hebrew years 5344 through 13759 (b) Indian National calendars for Saka years 1879 to 9920 (c) Islamic calendars for Islamic years 990 through 9666 (d) Julian calendars for Julian years 8 through 9999 The selection of National Days, however, is only produced for Gregorian years from 1990 onwards, because of the obvious dangers of producing such information for years too far in the past. Note that the "civil" Islamic calendar calculated in Calendar Magic is not uniformly used in all Islamic countries and may also vary slightly from the "religious" Islamic calendars in various countries. In practice, there is no complete consensus among Islamic countries, religious leaders and scientists with regard to how the Islamic calendar should be defined. With regard to the signs of the Zodiac, different reference sources provide slightly different versions of the starting and ending dates for the periods covered by the various signs. For example, one reference source may state that the period covered by Taurus starts on April 20 and another may indicate April 21. As a result, Calendar Magic provides alternatives in these border-line situations. Problems, Comments and Suggestions ---------------------------------- EuroSoft is committed to ensuring that its products are of the highest quality. Any problems reported will be investigated fully, and any comments and suggestions submitted will be carefully evaluated. All problem descriptions, comments and suggestions should be mailed, FAXed or Emailed to EuroSoft using the contact details given earlier in this file. An Explanation of Some Terms ---------------------------- Dominical Letter(s) ------------------- The Dominical Letter for a year is A if the first of the year is a Sunday, B if the second of the year is a Sunday etc. A leap year has two Dominical Letters, the first calculated as just described, the second being the preceding letter (with G "preceding" A). Golden Number (G) ----------------- The Golden Number for a year indicates its position within the 19-year Metonic (lunar) cycle. This is the period after which the phases of the moon repeat (approximately) on the same calendar dates. Solar Number (S) ---------------- This value indicates the position of a year within the 28-year solar cycle. This is the period after which week days and calendar dates repeat in the Julian calendar. Roman Indiction (I) ------------------- This value indicates the position of a year within an ancient Roman 15-year tax cycle. Julian Period ------------- A 7980-year cycle devised by Scaliger in the sixteenth century by taking the product of the 3 values above (19x28x15 = 7980). For its starting point, Scaliger picked the last year in which the values of G, S and I above were all equal to 1, namely 4713 BC. The next time these values will all return to 1 is therefore -4712 + 7980 = 3268. Try using the "Gregorian Date Facts" button with 1/1/3268 and look at the values of G, S, I and the Julian Period. Epact ----- The age of the moon at the start of a year. The value of Epact is an integer in the range 1 to 30. Version History --------------- Version 6.1 ----------- 1. Altered program so that the text displayed, when "The Magic Series" button is pressed, is now read from an ASCII text file. This makes it easier for clients with customised versions to update the message displayed. 2. Added calculation of "week of year" for Gregorian dates from 1/1/1583 onwards. 3. Changed all calendar displays by making "Sunday column" last column in month, rather than first. This is more logical since Sunday is the last day of the week. Also Gregorian "week of year" is easier to confirm when calendars are displayed in this form. Version 6.0 ----------- 1. A major enhancement to Calendar Magic with the introduction of a "calendar comparison" command button to invoke the side-by-side comparison of any two calendar systems (Gregorian, Hebrew, Indian National, Islamic civil and Julian) on a month-by-month basis. 2. Added special 1752 calendar, the year in which Great Britain and its colonies moved from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar system. Version 5.0 ----------- 1. Added Indian National calendar capabilities for Indian Saka years in the range 1879 to 9920 (roughly equivalent to the range 1957 to 9999 in Gregorian terms). 2. Added code to convert Indian Saka dates to/from Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic and Julian dates. 3. Added reminder imminent event "beep" and text colour change capabilities. 4. Added information regarding modern Olympic Games to that displayed by "Gregorian Date Facts" command button. Version 4.0 ----------- 1. Extended handling of Gregorian dates back to the beginning of the Gregorian calendar (October 15, 1582). 2. Added capability to generate the Julian calendar for any year from 8 AD to 9999 AD. 3. Added Hebrew calendar capabilities for Hebrew years in the range 5344 to 13759 (roughly equivalent to the range 1582 to 9999 in Gregorian terms). 4. Added capability to generate Hebrew holy day information for any Gregorian year. 5. Added Islamic civil calendar capabilities for Islamic years in the range 990 to 9666 (roughly equivalent to the range 1582 to 9999 in Gregorian Terms). 6. Added code to convert between Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic and Julian dates. 7. Added code for calculating Orthodox Easter Day and the dates of the Orthodox festivals related to Orthodox Easter. 8. Added code to calculate the Epact for Gregorian years. Version 3.0 ----------- 1. Added continuously changing display showing the countdown to January 1, 2000 in days, hours, minutes and seconds. 2. Added additional button for various "Year 2000" related facts. 3. Improved appearance of initial screen. Version 2.01 ------------ 1. Provided capability to copy results to the clipboard, and hence to word and text processors etc. 2. Fixed minor bug in the code which automatically removes out-of-date personal reminders. Version 2.0 ----------- 1. Major enhancements to allow the creation, update, deletion and display of personal reminders. Version 1.2 ----------- 1. Any results produced may now be printed at the press of a button, e.g. year calendars, lists of holidays and events in any year, "This is Your Life" facts etc. 2. A complete analysis of the Gregorian calendar 400-year cycle, showing how often each day of the month falls on a Monday, a Tuesday, a Wednesday etc. It immediately becomes evident, for example, why the 13th. day of the month is slightly more likely to occur on a Friday than on any other day. Version 1.1 ----------- 1. Installation of Calendar Magic simplified by addition of a "set up" program to install Calendar Magic automatically. Version 1.0 ----------- 1. Original version.