ftp.update.uu.se/ftp.update.uu.se.2014.03.zip/ftp.update.uu.se/pub/rainbow/msdos/misc/tao.zip/README.TAO

Text File | 1993-07-02 | 6KB | 99 lines

                     T A O   T E   C H I N G   R E A D M E

     This is the readme file for the program TAO.EXE.  It is a program that I
wrote to display a chapter of the Tao Te Ching every time I boot my computer.
The files included in TAO.ZIP should be TAO.EXE, TAO.TXT, TAO.INI, TAO.C,
and README.TAO.
     The Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese work.  The title translates
literally as 'The Book of the Way and of How It Manifests Itself in the
World'; however, it is usually just known as 'The Book of the Way' or by its
Chinese name.  It was written before 500 B.C. by Lao-tzu -- a man about which
very little fact is known.  The Tao Te Ching was the fundamental work for the
Taoist philosophy/religion.  It laid out the philosophy, and later works built
it to a more religious status.  It contains a great deal of wisdom, and almost
everyone who has read it for the last 2500 years has found something they like
in it.  The English translation included here is particularly well suited to
our modern world.  It continually amazes me how Lao-tzu could so accurately
describe 2500 years ago what would be happening today in a society like ours:
wars, depression, sickness, hopelessness, etc.  I am grateful that he also
told how to turn it around to make a peaceful, happy, healthy, hopeful
society.
     To use TAO.EXE you must run it in the same directory as the TAO.TXT and
TAO.INI files because it looks for these only in the current directory.  So to
run TAO.EXE when you boot up, you would need to add something like the
following to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

c:
cd\tao
TAO
cd\

(This assumes that the files are in the directory C:\TAO.  If they are
elsewhere change lines one and two as necessary.)
     TAO.TXT is the actual Tao Te Ching text as translated from Chinese by
Stephen Mitchell (more on him later).  It is formatted into 81 chapters for
easy displaying by the program and easier understanding for the reader.
     TAO.INI is an initialization file that contains five parameters for
TAO.EXE.  The five parameters are described as follows:
          1. Number of chapters in the work.  This should always be 81.
          2. Number of the next chapter to be displayed.  This is incremented
             every time the program is run without command line arguments or
             with the random flag set to 0.  It should be between 1 and 81.
          3. The random flag.  If this is 0 then the program displays the
             chapters sequentially and updates parameter 2 every execution.
             If this is 1 then the program chooses the chapter to be displayed
             at random and does not update parameter 2.
          4. The keypress flag.  If you want the program to pause at the end
             of the chapter (before returning you to the command prompt) set
             this flag to 1.  If you do not want a pause at the end set this
             to 0.
          5. Number of screen lines.  This is how many horizontal lines of
             text your screen can display.  For most people this will be 25.
             This is used by the program for certain passages which are a few
             lines longer than an ordinary 25 line screen can display.  For
             these the program only shows a screenful at a time and waits for
             a keypress to go on.  (Note: this keypress is not the one
             referred to in parameter 4.)

     Notice that order is very important in TAO.INI as there are no parameter
names or comments allowed in the file.  The five parameters must be in the
correct order, otherwise the program either won't run or it will do something
nonsensical.  To change the default values in the included TAO.INI file use
any text editor (such as DOS's EDIT or EDLIN) to edit the file.
     TAO.EXE will accept a chapter number as a command line argument, and it
will display that chapter immediately (e.g. TAO 57 displays chapter 57).  When
a command line argument is used the TAO.INI file is not updated (i.e.
parameter 2 is not changed), but the relevant parameters are still used
(parameters 1, 4, and 5).  The random flag (parameter 3) is, of course,
ignored.
     The TAO.C file is for programmers only as I just thought someone might be
interested in the source code.  Notice that I make pretty heavy use of the
comma operator (especially in while statements).  If you don't know exactly
what it does (and what value it returns for the expression), look it up!  It's
cool...
     As I said earlier this translation of the book Tao Te Ching is by Stephen
Mitchell.  It is copyrighted 1988 by HarperPerennial, and it is used WITHOUT
permission.  To make my conscience feel better I am adopting this "shareware"
policy for this product:  If you plan to use this program, you must buy a copy
of the Tao Te Ching from HarperPerennial.  The version I have is a pocket
edition, and it costs $6.  In addition to the text that I have included here,
it contains over forty pages of translation notes and insights by Mr.
Mitchell.  I have found these notes to be very helpful in my further
understanding of the material, and I think that they alone are worth the $6.
Anyway, the ISBN number for the pocket edition is 0-06-081245-1.  There is
also a $9 (larger) paperback edition (ISBN #: 0-06-091608-7) and a hardcover
edition (ISBN # unknown).  Buying any one of these will fulfill my "shareware"
policy.
     As I am doing this anonymously, you will, of course, not be able to let
me know that you have bought a copy of the book or that you are using the TAO
program.  I just trust you to do what you think is best.  I have done what I
think is best by providing this to you with no gain for myself.  Well, no
monetary gain anyway... :-)

Love Always,

Mr. NewAge
TAO 54