Congratulations, you've just downloaded a rather useful little program.
It converts between your home currency and every other currency in the world (pre-loaded into a large database with dated conversion rates and ISO codes). It converts length, weight, area, volume, temperature, speed, pressure, fuel consumption, power and energy between Metric, Imperial and US. It also manipulates purchase tax and calculates area, surface area and volume.
To install it, do as follows:
1. Copy the following files to the relevant directories on any drive.
\APP\conver3a.opa
\APP\formul3a.opa
\APP\reg3a.opa
2. Copy the following files to the relevant directories on the Internal or RAM disk - NOT FLASH.
\OPD\currency.odb
\OPD\mem.odb
\OPD\pick.odb
If you're unsure how to do this, refer to page 218 of the user manual.
Next you should install the application. Go to the system screen and place the cursor below the icon to the left of which you want your conversion calculator to appear. From the "Apps" list in the main menu, press on "Install" and you should find "Conver3a.opa" on the selected drive. If not press an arrow key until it comes up. If it doesn't it means you haven't put the file in an \APP\ directory.
You could also assign the "Control+Calc" button to get in and out out of "Convert" while you're doing something else: see page 228 of the user manual.
You should now see the Convert icon with "Convert" writen below. Place the cursor on it and press Enter.
If you've already done all the above, you've probably found out most of the things you need to know about the program, it was designed to work without instructions, but let's just go through it to be sure:
Currency
I thought this would be the most commonly used program, so I put it at the beginning. If you're working abroad or on holiday, simply change the country and rate in "Change/Add" and you can convert in either direction. If you enter numbers in both fields, the program will treat you as an idiot from then on, so watch it!
The database contains exchange rates, currencies and ISO codes for every country listed by the Financial Times in November 1994, so there may be a few obscure ones which aren't there. If so, the program will invite you to add a new country. Duplication doesn't matter; if, for instance, you look for "Holland", you won't find it because it's down as "Netherlands". Ok, have two entries, one under "Holland" and one under "Netherlands" - as long as you set the exchange rate correctly, you could use either. The program automatically records the date of the last exchange rate change, so you can see how up to date each rate is.
There are two ways of finding countries. You can customize a list of ten most used countries in "Pick List", then find it in "Change/Add" by pressing the first letter, using the arrows, or pressing Tab. If the country you want is not in the pick list, press "Other" and type in the first few letters of the country you want. You can then browse through the whole database using the Tab or Menu keys.
You are warned not to use this on a flash disc, the reason being that unlike the internal drive or a RAM disc, the flash disc is a 'once only' storage system, i.e. it copies the information onto free space, it doesn't re-use the space the old information left behind.
Originally, you could only convert from
Sterling to the other currencies, but I had some encouraging feedback asking to be able to change the home currency. OK you've got it - change the home currency ( give the rate of your currency to the pound) and magically all the rates for the other currencies change accordingly. Don't worry, if you go back to your original home currency, the rates wil not have changed. Clever huh?
"Symbol" is the sign that will precede the figure in calculations. It could be
, $, AUS$, or the ISO code for the currency, UKP, USD, AUD etc.
"Decimal" is for those currencies that have a name for their decimal amounts - pennies, cents, pfennigs, centimes etc. If your home currency doesn't have one, just leave this field blank.
The "Unit" field is for currencies like Italian Lire, where you might want to use "1,000 Lire equals..." as the conversion rate.
Enter the exchange rate to the pound and you're done.
Delete
It's not very often you're going to want to delete a country, but it does happen, look at Yugoslavia and the USSR!
Re-Index
What is "Re-index" for? Good question. I thought you might like to scroll through the countries in "Change/Add", which you do with the Tab and Menu buttons. Whenever you change a country's details, it does the same thing as ordinary Data files; it leaves a gap and puts the new information at the end. It still works fine, but the more changes you make the bigger the file gets, and the more out of alphabetical order. If this worries you, just do a Re-index, it's a straight crib from the "Re-order" listing in the programming manual, but I've given it a vague sense of humour, and you get the added bonus of seeing all the countries in the world flit past before your eyes!
Decimal
Blindingly obvious. This sets the number of decimal places for all non-currency calculations.Tax Rate
Likewise, this sets the tax rate, or could be used to play with any percentages.
Tax Name
Just enter the name of your local purchase tax - e.g. VAT.
Registration
Version 1 was free, this'll cost you
10 to receive the passcode that gets rid of the annoying message. See "FORM.WRD" for details. You an also register on-line - simply GO SWREG and follow the instructions.
Metric, Imperial & US
The main event. Choose the category with the arrow keys and press Enter, then put a number against the thing you want to covert - only one at a time though; each category translates simultaneously to up to four others, but it won't convert more than one original value at a time (feet and inches is the only exception). The possible number of categories is enormous. I've tried to include everything, the only omissions are highly specialised or archaic, like Firkins, Scruples, Lasts, Chaldrons, Hoppus Feet, Roods, Rods, Poles and Perches etc. etc.
Formulae
This section does some more maths for you. The tax program calculates, extracts and adds tax, the other three calculate automatically the Area, Surface Area and Volume of circles, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, trapeziums, cubes, cuboids, prisms, cylinders, pyramids, spheres and cones.
User Groups (Registered users only)
On registering, you will find two new sections in the "Formulae" section: "User Groups" and "Define Groups".
Go to "Define Groups" and the program will create a new file, "User.odb". This will contain your definitions. There are four groups, each with 5 parameters. Source name (A), Destination name (B) and three rates, r1,r2 and r3. The formula is displayed at the top of the dialog box:
((A*r1)/r2)+r3
This allows you some pretty complex combinations, or indeed simple ones. If it's a simple multiplication for example, just set r2 to 1 and r3 to 0, etc. etc.
When you've defined your groups, go to "User Groups" which will now work like any other unit conversion.
Wave files
You can have some fun with sound if you like. Just create four files called "001.wve", "002.wve", "003.wve" and "004.wve"
001 triggers if you enter values in both currency fields when changing money
002 triggers if you're rude in "Tax Name"
003 triggers with "Needs a number.." error messages
004 triggers with "Not enough parameters.." error messages
Anything else?
Do write with suggestions, or if you find any bugs, to:
(.txt)