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1994-09-04
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TIMECLOCK 1.0
Copyright 1994 Kenneth A. Reek
All rights reserved.
Internet: kar@cs.rit.edu
SHAREWARE VERSION
WHAT IS TIMECLOCK?
------------------
TIMECLOCK is a Windows program that keeps track of time you've spent on your
computer. Time is charged to one or more "projects" from your list by
"punching in" when you begin work on each project. In addition, projects
may be grouped into different "categories" (e.g. business and pleasure) that
you specify. To give one example, this will greatly simplify your compu-
tation of the percentage of time your computer was used for business
purposes, and thus the percentage of its value that you can depreciate or
deduct as a business expense on your taxes.
REGISTERING TIMECLOCK
---------------------
TIMECLOCK is copyrighted software. It is not in the public domain, nor is
it distributed for free. The author retains all rights to this software.
TIMECLOCK is distributed as Shareware so you can try it out without risk
to see if you like it. Use it for two weeks. If you don't like it,
simply delete it and owe nothing. If you continue to use TIMECLOCK after
the two week trial period, you must register your copy. For your conven-
ience, the file REGISTER.TXT is included: it contains a registration form
that you may use. The fee for individuals wishing to register a single
copy of TIMECLOCK is US$15. The fee schedule for corporate users is shown
in the REGISTER.TXT file. Send the form with your payment to the author:
Kenneth A. Reek
3090 Griffin Rd
Churchville, NY USA 14428-9512
ADVANTAGES OF REGISTERING TIMECLOCK
-----------------------------------
The registered version of TIMECLOCK comes with a Windows-based report
generator with options for more selective reporting than that provided in
the shareware version. A printed manual, which contains more detail than
the shareware documentation, is also available. Registered users will
also receive the next upgrade to the program free of charge, and may call
or write for information on the latest revision, to report bugs, or to
make suggestions or other comments on TIMECLOCK. I am particularly
interested in your ideas for making TIMECLOCK a more useful program. And,
last but not least, you don't have to deal with the registration reminder
screens any more!
DISCLAIMER
----------
TIMECLOCK is supplied as is. The author disclaims any and all warranties,
expressed or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchant-
ability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liabilities
for any damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use
of TIMECLOCK.
INSTALLING TIMECLOCK
--------------------
Installation is easy. First, you must unpack the archive file containing
the distribution (if you're reading this, you have done that already). You
should have the following files:
timeclk.exe TIMECLOCK program (Windows)
report.exe report generator (MS-DOS)
timeclk.ini sample initialization file
project.txt sample project file
timeclk.txt the file you are reading now
register.txt registration form
timeclk.log sample log file to illustrate report pgm.
Copy all these files to any directory you wish; it is most convenient if
they all reside in the same directory. To see how it runs, open the File
Manager and display the directory containing TIMECLOCK. Now double-click
the mouse pointer on "timeclk.exe". The display that you see is based on
the information in the sample project file; you will be modifying this
file to suit your own needs. Select one of the projects shown by clicking
on it with the left mouse button; this "punches you in" on that project.
Select another one; TIMECLOCK "punches you out" (nasty phrase!) of the old
project before punching you into the new one. Now click the right mouse
button anywhere on the screen: this punches you out of the current project
without punching you into a new one.
To see what the report generator produces, open a DOS window and change to
the directory that you copied Timeclock into. Then run the report program
like this:
c:\timeclk: report > report.txt
If you are punched into a project when you generate the report, you will
see an error message telling you that the log file has a check-in entry
with no corresponding check-out entry; you may ignore this error for now.
Now you can examine the file that was produced using Notepad or any other
editor. The report format is described in more detail later. NOTE: Be
sure to delete the "timeclk.log" file that came with the distribution
before starting to use Timeclock to record your actual usage. This sample
log file was distributed only to demonstrate the output of the report
generator.
Should you decide to register TIMECLOCK, you may wish to add it to the
StartUp group in the Program Manager. Here is how that is done:
1) Open the StartUp group.
2) Select File|New from the Program Manager.
3) Verify that the box which appears says "New Program Item", and
click OK.
4) Enter the following values:
Description: TimeClock
Command Line: timeclk.exe
Working Directory: (the directory where you put TIMECLOCK)
5) Click the OK button.
Now TIMECLOCK will start automatically every time Windows is started.
HOW TO USE TIMECLOCK
--------------------
TIMECLOCK consists of two programs (timeclk.exe and report.exe), an optional
initialization file (timeclk.ini), and your project description file
(project.txt). timeclk.exe creates a file (timeclk.log) containing an entry
for each time you punch in or punch out of a project. report.exe reads this
log file and produces a report summarizing usage by project and by category.
The following sections describe these processes in more detail.
THE INITIALIZATION FILE: timeclk.ini
------------------------------------
The initialization file contains information that affects the way in which
TIMECLOCK runs. The sample initialization file contains comments which
describe each of the available entries. Lines beginning with # are
comments; some sample entries are shown as comments -- to enable them,
remove the leading "# " from the line.
THE PROJECT FILE: project.txt
-----------------------------
The project file contains entries that identify each of the projects you
wish to track, and the categories to which they belong. The sample
project file contains comments which describe the formats of these
entries. It also contains the sample entries which you saw when you first
ran timeclock.
SELECTING COLORS
----------------
The initialization file and the project file both allow you to select the
colors that will be used on the timeclock screen. This is done by giving
intensities for red, green and blue as a three-value list, like this:
0,255,0
Each value is a number in the range 0 - 255. While it is possible to
specify 16,777,216 different colors in this way, many Windows displays can
show only 16. Here are the different colors you can specify:
255,255,255 White 128,128,128 Dark gray
192,192,192 Light gray 0,0,0 Black
255,0,0 Light red 128,0,0 Dark red
0,255,0 Light green 0,128,0 Dark green
0,0,255 Light blue 0,0,128 Dark blue
255,255,0 Light yellow 128,128,0 Dark yellow
255,0,255 Light magenta 128,0,128 Dark magenta
0,255,255 Light cyan 0,128,128 Dark cyan
PUNCHING IN AND OUT
-------------------
The timeclock displays your projects in lists, with one list for each
category you have used. To "punch in" to a project, simply point at the
name of the project with the mouse and click the left mouse button. The
project name is shown in the title bar, the current entry is highlighted,
and the elapsed time is shown for your convenience **.
** If you watch the elapsed time display for a while, you might see it skip
a second every now and then. This is nothing to worry about, as the log
file entries record the start time and end time for each project rather than
a count of the seconds used. The anomaly in the display is caused by small
differences between the system's clock and Windows' program scheduling
mechanism.
To punch in to a different project, simply point to it and click the left
mouse button. The former project is automatically punched out, and the new
project is punched in. To punch out of a project without punching in to
another one, click the right mouse button anywhere on the screen.
If a project is punched in when the timeclock program is terminated, it will
automatically be punched out. The same is true when Windows exits. If the
system crashes, though, the log file may be left with a "punch in" entry
which has no corresponding "punch out" entry. This problem can be fixed by
editing the log file as described below.
THE TIMECLOCK LOG FILE: timeclk.log
-----------------------------------
The format of the log file is simple:
Date Time In/Out Project-Category
The date is shown in yyyy/mm/dd format (to avoid any problems that two digit
years might cause as we reach the year 2000), and the time is shown in
hh:mm:ss format. This is followed by a tab, and either the word "IN" or the
word "OUT" to specify punching in or out. This is followed by a tab, and
the name and category of the project. A sample entry is shown below:
1994/02/25 13:12:57 IN Retirement mgr-Business
Normally, you need never look at this raw data, as the reporting program
produces summaries by project and by category. The file is created as an
ordinary text file for two reasons, however. First, if you need an unusual
report, a text file can be read by other programs or easily imported into
a spreadsheet. Second, if the file is corrupted (for example by a system
crash), it can be edited with any text editor (such as Notepad; do NOT use
a word processor such as Write or Word) to repair the damage.
THE REPORTING PROGRAM: report.exe
---------------------------------
The reporting program in the shareware version is an MS-DOS program. The
registered version comes with a Windows reporting program that provides
many options to tailor the report, such as user-specified date ranges,
the ability to report on a single project or a single category, and so
forth. However, the shareware reporting program produces the same type of
output as the registered version so that you can evaluate its usefulness.
The reporting program reads the initialization file to learn the name of the
log file; it then reads the log file and prints an error message describing
each error found in the log file. It then prints a report to the standard
output, which you will probably want to redirect to a file for later
printing. Here is an example of how it is run from the MS-DOS prompt:
c:\timeclk> report > report.txt
Note that you must be in the TIMECLOCK directory when you run the report
program.
The report contains two sections. The first is a summary of usage by
project. A list is printed for each category showing the projects in that
category. The following values are shown:
hours spent on the project,
the percentage of the total use that this project represents,
the percentage of the use in this category that this project represents,
the number of sessions for the project,
the average duration of each session, and
the project name.
At the end of each category's list is a line showing the totals for that
category.
The second section is a summary of usage by category. For each category,
the following values are shown:
hours spent on projects in the category,
the percentage of the total use that this category represents,
the number of sessions for the category,
the average duration of each session, and
the category name.
The report generator does not read the project file (project.txt), so
there is no problem if the log file contains entries for old projects
which no longer exist in the project file.
Thank you for trying out TIMECLOCK, and I hope you find it to be useful.
Remember to register the program if you decide to use it past the trial
period! Show your support of the shareware concept by registering the
programs that you use -- this is the best way to ensure the continued
development of new shareware software.
K. Reek, 6/12/94