*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢ A REVIEW OF THE NEW DISK CATALOGER¢ and YEARLY CALENDER maker¢¢ by Alan Sharkis¢¢A NEW DISK¢¢RON FETZER strikes again! This time,¢he has many accomplices, including¢ALEX PIGNATO, the O'HAUG president.¢And the IRON is hot. Red-hot! They¢modified and put together some real¢winners. There is a need for calendar¢programs that will run on our Ataris.¢There are,to be sure, lots of them¢out there, but this package uses the¢best of the best, and modifies them.¢¢THE SEARCH¢¢Both RON FETZER and ALEX PIGNATO are¢very capable programmers, and as¢such are also excellent judges of¢programs written by others. They¢give full credit, if not in the¢screen versions then certainly in the¢BASIC listings, to all the authors. ¢¢A GREAT MENU SYSTEM¢¢Also they have created a menu system¢that ties the programs together¢beautifully. Seamlessly. How often¢have you had a menu system in front¢of you where some of the programs¢exit to the menu, some exit to BASIC¢and some simply don't exit? Not¢here!! These programs all exit to the¢menu with no trouble at all. From¢the menu, if you wish, you can easily¢exit to BASIC.¢¢NEW-DIRECTORY MODULE & DISK CATALOGER¢¢In addition-there isa great directory¢module and its called from BASIC that¢deserves a few real words of praise¢and a disk cataloger that is among¢the best I've seen anywhere. More¢about them later. I just have to¢write about the calendars first.¢¢CALENDAR # 1¢¢The first calendar program on the¢menu is called YEARLY CALENDAR MAKER.¢It creates a two-page affair that¢prints to an Epson-compatible¢printer. You give the program a year¢from 1801 to 2399. You also give it¢your name so that it can personalize¢the calender for you. Next, you¢create the calendar by giving it¢dates to highlight in each of the¢twelve months, along with the¢description of that date. Months can¢be skipped. I made use of that¢feature when I created the first half¢of a school-year calendar. On the¢first page of print-out, you get all¢twelve months printed. The SPECIAL¢DATES you included are in bold type. ¢The second page contains the¢descriptions for each HIGHLIGHTED¢DATE. However, you have to be¢careful when entering data. Should¢you discover an error after you've¢entered a date, you can only erase¢the last date that was enterered. ¢Calendars are saved to disk with a¢.DAT extender, so the filename must¢be meaningful to you. Save your¢calendar before printing! Also, if¢you switch to lower-case when¢inputting your name, be sure to¢switch back to upper-case for the¢rest of the program. Filenames can¢only be understood in upper-case. ¢Heed the warning about setting your¢printer to top-of-form before¢printing, and if you're using a¢Graphix AT interface as I do, switch¢it to transparent mode before¢starting. A sample yearly calendar¢is included. This calendar program¢began with a simple one by Steven C.¢Chen, but was made much more useful¢with NEW added routines made by TOM¢ANDREWS, ALEXPIGNATO, and RON FETZER.¢¢DOCUMENTATION AND READER PROGRAM¢¢RON supplied the documentation to¢this and all other programs on the¢disk. Documentation is on side 2,¢with options to read it from the¢screen or to print it in 40- or 80-¢column format. The documentation¢reader/printer program, by the way,¢was also done by RON FETZER.¢¢CALENDAR # 2¢¢The next calendar program creates¢monthly pocket appointment calendars,¢which are small enough to be folded¢and placed in a wallet. This program¢was written by Jim Hodny. You select¢a month and year, enter the dates and¢place up to two appointment reminders¢on each date. I'd advise you to save¢the calender to disk before printing,¢but you are warned by the program to¢save it before quitting the program. ¢You can list all the calendars on the¢disk, and you can view the current¢calendar on screen to see which dates¢have been highlighted, but not the¢specific appointment messages. You¢can, of course, ask to edit a¢particular date, and then the items¢entered are shown. The warnings¢about setting top-of-form, etc.,¢apply to this calendar program, as¢well.¢¢CALENDAR # 3¢¢The third calendar program, the¢Personal Daily and Monthly Calendar¢by Alfred Filskov III, is going to be¢the most useful one for me. It has¢only one flaw -- it puts Monday in¢the left-hand column and Sunday in¢the right-hand column of calendars it¢displays on the screen and prints¢out. This arrangement is far from¢unique, but also far from usual. It¢will take me some time to adjust to¢that placement. However, the rest of¢the program is superb. (EDITORS¢NOTE: This correction was made to the¢program after the author received his¢copy of the disk, and the program¢now prints out starting with SUNDAY¢rather than MONDAY!) At the program's¢initial menu, you can then select¢either load/create a month; delete a¢month; get a directory of months on¢the disk; or go back to the main menu¢of the OHAUG package. If you opt to¢load/create a month, you then input¢the month and year to be loaded or¢created. That takes you to an¢elaborate, five-window screen. Three¢of the windows give you the status of¢the creation process, the fourth is¢used for viewing/editing of¢appointments on a particular day, and¢the fifth contains your menu choices.¢As you put data in for a particular¢day, the date is highlighted in the¢large monthly calendar window. Up to¢seven memos or appointments can be¢placed in any one day. Individual¢daily appointment lists or monthly¢calendars with the daily appointments¢listed in the appropriate boxes can¢be printed out. It's that last¢feature that I find most useful.¢¢THE NEW DIRECTORY MODULE¢¢Let's return to the main menu of the¢package. On it, there's that¢directory entry. What you get if you¢select it is MUCH MORE than your¢usual disk directory. First,¢understand that the program for the¢main menu is written in BASIC, so¢just getting a directory from BASIC¢is something of a feat. But ALEX¢and RON, took this module (yes, it's¢a self-contained module, and it can¢easily be inserted into your own¢programs) thought of some REALLY NEAT¢ADDITIONS! So, you select the¢directory. You get a screen with the¢usual Atari DOS listing on the left. ¢But on the right there are two¢categories that are REAL NEW. One is¢called disk data. It displays the¢NUMBER of FILES on the disk, the¢NUMBER of SECTORS used, the NUMBER of¢FREE SECTORS, the TOTAL NUMBER of¢SECTORS, the DENSITY of the disk, and¢the REVISION of ATARI BASIC in YOUR¢COMPUTER. Below this list are a set¢of choices for you to make, under the¢category of "DISK ACTION.". You can¢get another directory [A]. You are¢prompted, if you select this action,¢to place the new disk in drive 1. At¢present, only drive 1 is supported¢(hint for later improvement?) (EDITOR¢This and other suggested improvements¢have been added after this review was¢written,) You can go to BASIC [B], or¢to DOS [D]. ¢¢You can load a disk (presumably self-¢booting) with [L], again, with a¢prompt that the disk should be in¢drive 1. Pressing [R] brings you¢back to the MAIN MENU. I can think¢of two possible future improvements¢to this screen. There should be an¢item to print out the directory. ¢Space may be a problem here. The¢second involves trapping out¢keysrokes other than A, B, D, L, and¢R. I accidentally pressed another¢key and the module went off into¢never-never land. (EDITOR this is now¢done).¢¢STAR OF THE DISK...THE DISK CATALOGER¢¢Now for that DISK CATALOGER. With¢this inclusion, OHAUG has gone into¢competition with one of their earlier¢packages, and the competition they¢present is stiff. Originally this¢DISK CATALOGER came from M.A.G.I.C.¢Disk Library. The BASIC listing¢cites a revision by Grant Richardson,¢and a further one by ALEX PIGNATO of¢OHAUG. RON FETZER's Docs advise your¢separating files into categories and¢cataloging them separately if they¢number more that 1,279 -- the maximum¢number of files the program will¢process. RON also advises that you¢identify your first disk with the¢number 101, and that you write the¢disk numbers on the disk labels by¢hand, since disk numbers are not¢recorded on each disk by the program.¢From that point on, you can select¢AUTO ADD from the menu, indicate side¢A and the program goes to work. Then¢you flip the disk you're cataloging¢over, press OPTION, and side B is¢automatically done. Pressing SELECT¢brings up the next disk number. ¢Suppose you fail to have the next¢disk in the drive with the drive door¢closed? The program will give you a¢#144 error, and you can restart it by¢typing "CONT" after you put the disk¢in the drive. Choosing MANUAL ADD¢prompts you to put in the filenames¢without extenders, then put in the¢extenders when you are prompted. ¢DELETES can be done from within the¢program. This must be done¢carefully, but it's a useful feature¢if you come across duplicate files¢and wish to have them entered only¢once. When you ask the cataloger for¢a list on screen or printer, the¢deleted filename and extender are¢shown, but there will be a "DEL" in¢the Sector column. Asking the¢program to DISPLAY puts your list of¢files up on the screen. Asking it to¢SEARCH brings up a submenu. If you¢ask for a search by filename, the¢program requires that you put in the¢filename and use spaces to pad out to¢eight characters, then type in the¢extender (no period). That's a¢procedure you'd have to get used to,¢but RON advises searching by disk¢number, rather than file number,¢another submenu option. I've tried¢both, and the search by disk number¢is easier IF you know what disk the¢file occupies. When you ask for a¢SORT, you're taken to a submenu so¢that you can select whether the sort¢is by filename or disk number. It¢might be useful for a future revision¢to include a sort by extension. The¢sort is made in RAM only. Be advised¢that the sort is fast! A machine-¢language sort routine has been¢included. PRINT outputs the catalog¢list in five columns on a page in¢compressed mode. The date and page¢numbers are included. You can LOAD¢and SAVE files. You don't have to¢enter the drive number; the program¢defaults to D1. You can also use the¢unique ERASE command to erase a file¢from RAM. This will not delete the¢file from its disk. You can also get¢a normal disk directory from the¢program. RON advises that you can¢break the program and enter your name¢on lines 2082 and 2800 to personalize¢the program. You should then resave¢it with the filename, "MAGCATAL.BAS",¢so it will continue to work with the¢package. I'll add a custom hint of¢my own. The print routine was¢for EPSON and Star printers, and it¢sends the printer an "ESC-=" before¢printing. This is supposed to put¢the Star in inverse mode, but on my¢Epson-compatible it asks that the¢eighth bit be stripped! Nothing was¢being printed, until I went into the¢BASIC code and took that instruction¢out. It's one of several on line¢2020. The other instructions on that¢line should be left alone. I've seen¢satisfying demonstrations of this¢program, but haven't put it to work¢on my system except for a small test.¢The best part is that the program at¢all times tells you in what catagory¢you are working, via explaination¢prompts, so that you can't get lost!!¢It just might be my next major¢project, and with over 700 disks in¢my collection, it's long overdue.¢¢EXTRA SPACE¢¢The Ol' Hackers thoughtfully left¢enough room on their disk to allow¢saving not only catalogs, but¢calendars in any of the three formats¢used by the calendar programs. There¢are some samples for a couple of the¢programs to help you see the results.¢¢HOW TO GET IT¢¢So, this package is certainly worth¢the $3.00 that you will pay for it. ¢Make your check personally payable¢to RON FETZER. ¢Send the request to:¢Harold Pegler,¢OHAUG Disk Librarian,¢129 Ketchams Road,¢Syosset, NY 11791.¢¢It's a bargain at any price, and as¢good as any COMMERCIAL offering at¢TWICE THE PRICE-AND YOU MAY QUOTE ME!¢*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢¢¢
