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Der Mediaplex Sampler - Die 6 von Plex
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DISK4
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BUSIN_13
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2DAY35.ZIP
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1992-07-26
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│ T O D A Y │
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│ What Happened Today In History? │
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│ Version 3.5 │
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│ July 12, 1992 │
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│ Copyright 1986,1992 Patrick Kincaid │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Welcome To TODAY............................................. 1
Installing TODAY............................................. 1
How TODAY Is Distributed................................... 1
The Files You Should Have.................................. 1
Where To Put Them.......................................... 2
Running TODAY................................................ 2
From The TODAY Directory................................... 2
From AUTOEXEC.BAT.......................................... 2
Using TODAY.BAT............................................ 2
Set The TODAY Environment Variable......................... 2
TODAY's Command Line Options................................. 3
The Configuration File....................................... 4
The TODAYCFG Program......................................... 4
Data File Format............................................. 4
Sample Data Records........................................ 5
The WHEN Program............................................. 6
Command Syntax............................................. 6
Where To Get TODAY........................................... 7
Legal Stuff.................................................. 7
Registration................................................. 7
Page 1
Welcome To TODAY
TODAY will tell you what interesting events happened on this date (or
any date of your choice) in history. The program comes with a large
database of historical events plus you can add your own personal dates.
TODAY also has a configuration program that will help you choose which
options you wish to use. In addition, a companion program named WHEN
will search the database for words you enter. This way you can search
for events rather than searching for a date. It's the perfect
complement to TODAY!
TODAY is shareware. That means if you like it and use it, you are
expected to contribute to its maintenance and support. Only people like
you can make shareware a viable alternative to expensive commercial
programs. TODAY is very inexpensive, so please register today! See the
section on how to register at the end of this document.
Installing TODAY
How TODAY Is Distributed
TODAY is distributed as a ZIP file. This means that the individual
files that make up the system are compressed and stored in a single file
named TODAYnn.ZIP where the nn is the version number. In order to use
the program you must have PKUNZIP.EXE or a compatible program to extract
the files so that you can use them.
Some shareware distributors re-package the programs they sell. If you
did not receive TODAY as a ZIP file, contact your supplier for
instructions.
The Files You Should Have
Filename Description
-------------- ---------------------------------------------
POPD.EXE see Installation below
PUSHDIR.DOC documentation on PUSHD and POPD
PUSHD.EXE see Installation below
README.1ST please do
TODAYCFG.EXE the configuration program
TODAY.BAT a sample BAT file to run TODAY
TODAY.DOC this documentation file
TODAY.EXE searches the database based on the date
TODAY.mon where mon is JAN through DEC: the data files
TODAY.OWN (optional) a file for your own special dates
TODAY.WIT contains the thought for the day
WHATS.NEW What's new in this version
WHEN.EXE searches the database based on a keyword
Page 2
Where To Put Them
Make a directory off your root directory and name it TODAY ( MD \TODAY ).
Copy the TODAYnn.ZIP file to it and type: PKUNZIP TODAYnn to extract
all the files. The program is now installed if you will only run it
from the \TODAY directory. However, there are better ways. Read on...
Running TODAY
TODAY can be run in a number of ways. While the data files always stay
in the same place, you may want to access them from anywhere on your
system. This part of the documentation explains how to do that.
From The TODAY Directory
If you are in the \TODAY directory, you need only type TODAY to run the
program. This is because the programs and data files are in the current
directory. You can easily run TODAY from anywhere in your system using
the techniques described in the following two sections.
From AUTOEXEC.BAT
If you run TODAY from your AUTOEXEC.BAT, you can insert these three lines:
CD \TODAY
TODAY ONCE
CD \
And the program will run each morning when you turn on your computer.
If you want to run it interactively, here are two options you might like
to try.
Using TODAY.BAT
Included with the TODAY package is TODAY.BAT and a couple of public
domain programs (PUSHD.EXE and POPD.EXE) which will save your current
directory, change to another directory, run one or more commands, and
return you to your original directory. This BAT file and the two EXE
files must be in your path and I recommend that TODAY.EXE and WHEN.EXE
be also. Since TODAYCFG is used so rarely, it can remain in the \TODAY
directory.
Set The TODAY Environment Variable
DOS has system variables known as environment variables that can be used
to supply information to programs. You can do this with TODAY to tell
the program where to find the data files. It's easy. Here's how:
SET TODAY=path ( eg SET TODAY=C:\TODAY )
When the program runs, it looks for this variable, and if it finds it,
goes to that directory to find the data files. Put it in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Page 3
TODAY's Command Line Options
TODAY has a number of options which can be entered on the command line after
TODAY. They control different aspects of how TODAY will run.
ADD filename TODAY has twelve data files named TODAY and with an
extension of JAN through DEC. This option specifies
an additional set of data files to be scanned after
the
TODAY.mon files. For example, the option ADD MUSIC would scan MUSIC.JAN
through MUSIC.DEC after TODAY.JAN through TODAY.DEC.
ALT filename would look for monthly files with the name specified by
this option instead of the TODAY files.
ANSI when used with the DISK option will add the ANSI
escape sequences to display TODAY's information in
the same colors as the screen. It is most useful to
bulletin board operators who ANSI displays for their
users.
DIR path tells TODAY where to look for the data files
containing all that interesting information.
DISK will cause TODAY's output to be written to TODAY.PRN
or you can supply a filename in parenthesis right
after the word disk like this: DISK(BULLETIN.TXT).
This example will create a file named BULLETIN.TXT
instead of TODAY.PRN.
HELP or ? will display a help screen showing TODAY's options.
MMDD is the month and day, each as two digits to be
scanned for interesting events. If there is only a
single digit ( 6 ), it must be preceded with a zero (
06 ). This gives TODAY a date to use other than that
in the system clock.
NOPAUSE will stop TODAY from pausing after the display. It
is primarily for use with the DISK option.
ONCE causes TODAY to display its information on the first
time the computer is booted each day. When the
program runs, it changes the Last Access date of
TODAY.EXE to today's date. During future executions,
if ONCE is specified and the Last Access date is
today, the program will quietly stop. You must be in
the \TODAY directory for this to work ( CD \TODAY
first ).
Page 4
NOTIME some people only want to see the date, not the time
of day. This one's for you.
The Configuration File
Instead of entering these options on the command line each time TODAY is
run, you can create a file TODAY.CFG which will be read by the program
and any options contained in it will be applied as though you had typed
them in. While you can use an editor to create this file, there is a
program which makes things much easier.
The TODAYCFG Program
This program will create and modify the TODAY.CFG file for you. If
there is no file, it will create it. If TODAY.CFG exists, the program
will read in the existing settings first, and then you can change them.
TODAYCFG is particularly useful for changing colors. A small sample
screen is displayed so that you can see the changes as you make them.
The top half of the screen displays help for what you are doing, the
bottom half shows the current configuration. Play with it a bit, it's
easy.
Data File Format
TODAY reads its files from files with a name of TODAY and an extension
of JAN through DEC corresponding to the months of the year. There is
also a TODAY.OWN which can contain your personal dates and a TODAY.WIT
which contains the Thought For The Day. If you look at these files, you
will see that they are ordinary ASCII files which you can change and add
to. However, you must use an editor which writes plain ASCII files.
Word processors ususally imbed formatting characters which will ruin the
file. If this doesn't make sense to you - don't mess with the files.
If it makes sense, here is the file format. Remember, just line up with
the line above or below.
Column 1: This is a record type which tells TODAY what type of
message follows. The valid record types are:
B a Birthday
C a Countdown. (not implemented)
F a Fortune Cookie or Thought For The Day
R a Reminder.
S a date of Special historical interest
* an asterisk makes the line a comment.
Any other character in column 1 is ignored.
Cols 2-5: Month and day as MMDD with leading zeros. Zeros for
either month or day cause ALL months or days to match
when being scanned. For example, 0001 would match the
first of every month while 0400 would match every day of
April. The number 0000 is invalid.
Page 5
Cols 6-9: The full year of the event as four digits. Blanks are
always okay or, for Reminders only, you may enter
another MMDD for a range of dates on which the reminder
will display. See the Section Special Reminder Format
below for details. A year in this part of a Reminder
(not Birthday or Special) record will cause an invalid
date error message. The Thought For The Day does not
require, and will ignore anything in this field.
Column 10: A single character that describes any special processing
that is required for this line. The acceptable values
are:
BLANK for no special processing.
C to continue a message from the previous line. Note,
that you must repeat the date fields for the
continuation line.
DAY-OF-WEEK DIGIT where 1=Sunday ... 7=Saturday. This
will cause the message to display only
if the date falls on this day of the
week. See the example for Labor Day
below.
Cols 11-75: The message to display for this date. Anything after
column 75 will not display. Nor will it hurt anything,
it is just ignored.
Sample Data Records
Columns
----------
1234567890
B09011875 Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist, Ah-ee-ah-ee-ah!
B09021838 Queen Liliuokalani (last queen of Hawaii).
B09021952 Jimmy Connors, tennis brat
S09011939 Germany invades Poland, starts World War II.
S09011952 Sutro Baths purchased by George Whitney.
S0901 2Labor Day, a legal holiday
S09021620 The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth with
S09021620C102 Pilgrims.
R0001 Pay the mortgage!
R0401 Taxes due in two weeks.
R0415 Last day to pay taxes!
F0130 Early to bed and early to rise
F0130 CMake a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Note that Labor day must be on a Monday and the Mayflower gets two lines
of coverage befitting that momentous event.
Page 6
This format applies to TODAY.OWN also. You can put in birthdays,
anniversaries, holidays etc. Messages in your personal file will tend
to be Birthdays and Reminders. Also, try putting in reminders using the
new range of dates format. This way if you miss the reminder one day,
you will hopefully see it again the next day.
The WHEN Program
WHEN is a companion program to TODAY. Where TODAY tells you what
happened on a particular date, WHEN searches all the TODAY date files
for a key word or phrase that you supply and tells you when that
particular person or event caused something of note in history. The
program is particularly easy to use: you simply enter the word WHEN
followed by the word(s) you wish to search for. If you want to know
when Mozart was born you enter: WHEN MOZART. Upper/lower case does
not matter. If you want to search on a phrase, meaning words separated
by spaces, you must enclose it in double quotes( "San Francisco"). You
do not need to enter an entire word when searching. It is often better
to enter only the root portion of a word where it might have different
endings. For example, "treat" would match on "treat", "treaty",
"treaties", even "retreat". This partial word technique you will often
get surprising results.
Command Syntax
WHEN searchstring { ALTFN filename / DIR directory / MONO }
As stated earlier the search string can be in upper or lower case in
must be enclosed in double quotes(") for multiple words.
ALTFN is followed by an alternate database filename such as MUSIC and
will then search that database instead of the TODAY files. Note,
when searching the TODAY files, TODAY.OWN is also searched. If
you put in everyone's birthdays, anniversaries etc., you can
quickly look them up by entering WHEN and a name.
DIR followed by a directory path tells WHEN where to look for the
files to search. By default, WHEN looks in the current directory
and in the directory pointed to by the TODAY environment variable.
(See TODAY.DOC).
MONO forces WHEN to display in monochrome in case the program thinks
you have a color monitor but it's really monochrome. Here are some
examples with descriptions:
When mozart This will search for every occurrence of the word
Mozart in the database. Remember, upper/lower
case doesn't matter.
When San Will find every San Francisco, San Miguel, Santa
and Aleksander. In the last example, the middle
of the word matched.
When "San Fran" Now you're cooking! This will find San Francisco.
Note the quotes because of the blank between the
words.
Page 7
When Matti mono Note there are no quotes, so Matti is the search
word and mono is the monochrome option.
Well, that's it for WHEN. It's actually a fascinating program to use.
Also, since it lets you cross reference things, it could be a research
tool were it not for the quality of the data. But then, that's the
story of history ( and send in any mistakes you find ).
Where To Get TODAY
I upload the latest version of TODAY to the Golden Gate Computer Society
Bulletin Board in Corte Madera, California. Others upload Today related
files there too. The Society is kind enough to support a TODAY
Conference on the BBS that is devoted to support for the program. Give
it a try.
Golden Gate Computer Society BBS
(415) 927-1216
2400-9600 bps
8 data bits, no parity bit, one stop bit (8N1)
This BBS uses PCBOARD software.
Legal Stuff
I try to insure that there are no bugs in TODAY but occasionally one
creeps in. I then try to fix it as soon as possible. However, I am not
responsible for any problems caused by your use of the program nor for
the accuracy (or lack of it) in the data. Your use of the program is
totally at your own risk. Nuf said.
Registration
If you use TODAY, please register it. Some people ask a lot of money
for their programs. I ask a small amount and hope that more people will
pay it. Won't you be one of those who help keep shareware in general
and TODAY in particular alive? Here's the reckoning:
Amount Will Get You
------ -----------------------------------------------
$10 Registration for the copy you have
$15 Current Version and docs on 5.25" 360K diskette
$16 Current Version and docs on 3.5" 720K diskette
$20 Either diskette (specify) with printed docs
Please make your check payable to Patrick Kincaid and mail it to:
Patrick Kincaid
618 Douglas Drive
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Page 8
This is also the address to write to me if you don't use Email on the
Bulletin Board mentioned earlier. The BBS is the best way to reach me
because it is a lot more efficient than paper mail. In either case it
may take a bit for me to respond as I travel a lot these days. I always
respond though so a little patience will serve you well.
Finally, thanks to all the people who have contributed to TODAY. You
are responsible for the program being what it is today. I intended it
to be a project to learn a new compiler, not a shareware product. Your
support is what changed all that.
Just remember - We call it software because we cannot keep it up.