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1987-11-06
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Ample Notice
by Mark Harris
Granny's Old-Fashioned Software (tm)
Rt 4, Box 216
Boone, NC 28607
(704) 264-6906
August,1987
Version 1.0
(C) 1987 by Mark Harris
All Rights Reserved
The unmodified Ample Notice distribution diskette, containing a
copy of this manual, may be freely copied and shared, but printed
copies of this document may not be copied.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. A quick tour
3. Installation
4. The NOTES file
5. The appointments screen
6. The editor
7. CONFIG.CAL
8. Command line options
9. Tips for effective use
10. About Shareware
11. Future enhancements
Introduction 1
1. Introduction.
Ample Notice is a calendar and alarm clock package that can
help organize your life. You enter appointments and notes into a
standard text file in any of a variety of natural formats, and
each day you view a calendar of commitments taken from this file.
Appointments which include a time can automatically set a 'pop-up
alarm clock' which notifies you at a given advance interval
(regardless of what you are doing on your computer). Printouts
can be obtained in various print styles so that you can keep track
of your appointments away from your computer; the 'tiny' option
lets you print very compressed listings for your wallet or purse.
The appointments file can be edited from within Ample Notice,
or by using any other text editor. By using a 'background' editor
such as SideKick (tm), you can update this file in the middle of
other computing tasks.
Ample Notice is very easy to use but its flexibility ensures
that you won't outgrow it as your use becomes more extensive. For
example, you can add straightforward entries such as
3/5/88 9:00 Meet with Bill
or
Nov 3, 1988 Report due.
But you can also enter cyclical appointments such as
July 18 Elizabeth's birthday
(once a year date)
!Monday 3:00 Piano lesson
(weekly appointment)
!2Monday 7/20/87 1:00 ADR committee
(every other Monday starting 7/20/87)
!2Monday!3 7/20/87 1:00 ADR committee
(every other Monday for 3 times)
!Jun3Sun Fathers Day
(third Sunday in June each year)
Another category of entries is 'notes'; starting a line with '*'
will place that entry in an initial display of reminders that are
not attached to a specific date (obligations that don't go away
until you do them).
To illustrate, suppose that the file (called NOTES by
default) contains the lines
* Present for John & Mary
* Xmas pictures
Wednesday 11:00 David's piano lesson
11/25 Bill's birthday
11/27/87 11:00 Dentist
November 20, 1987 Fred Smith 2:00
11 Nov 1987 4:00 ADI meeting
* Clean flue
12/26/87 Drive to Alabama
Introduction 2
and if your computer's system date is 11/23/86 then typing 'AN'
will produce the following display:
Notes:
Present for John & Mary
Xmas pictures
Clean flue
Appointments starting Thursday November 19, 1987
Friday November 20, 1987
Fred Smith 2:00
Wednesday November 25, 1987
Bill's birthday
Thursday November 26, 1987
4:00 ADI meeting
Friday November 27, 1987
11:00 Dentist
Saturday December 26, 1987
Drive to Alabama
Ample Notice has a lot of additional features for maintaining
the appointments file and for using the alarm clock. We recommend
that you take the 'Quick Tour' of the program described in the
next section before reading the hard-core reference sections which
follow.
Before you proceed here are a couple of important
announcements:
The Ample Notice package will be updated from time to time and a
description of the changes will be maintained in a file called
READ.ME. You should view this file as soon as possible, either by
typing GO (to see the contents a page at a time on the screen) or
by typing COPY READ.ME PRN (to copy the file to the printer).
Ample Notice is shareware and you are vigorously encouraged to
register; the registration cost is only $30 and carries
appreciable benefits. Please read Section 10 for details.
2. A quick tour.
Ample Notice is easier to use than to describe; in this
section we'll take an on-line tour through the program's features.
To get started, place a copy of the Ample Notice disk (you have
backed up the original, haven't you?) in drive A. (Section 3 has
instructions for use with a hard drive, but for now just use your
floppy.) If your system date and time have not been set, set them
A quick tour 3
now by using DOS's DATE and TIME commands. We'll begin with a
brief look at the alarm clock.
Type ALARM to load ALARM.COM as a resident program. (If you
have a Color Graphics Adapter system which blinks when the screen
scrolls type ALARM -Z to suppress video 'snow'.) Pressing <Alt>
<Left Shift> at any time will bring up the ALARM control window;
if this key combination is used by another resident program you
can substitute another combination. Typing ALARM -? will show a
list of codes for the various pairs of shift keys; for example,
ALARM -K 3 will make <Left Shift> <Right Shift> do the job. Bring
up the control window; you should see something like this:
/ Space,UDRL,<Esc> \
| |
| Now: 7:53 a.m. |
| | (U,D,R,L represent the
| Alarm: OFF | up, down, right and
| | left arrow keys)
| 12:00 p.m. |
| |
\------------------/
Six keys are recognized by ALARM:
Space - toggles alarm off/on
Up arrow - advances alarm time by one hour
Down " - rolls back alarm time one hour
Right " - advances alarm time by one minute
Left " - rolls back alarm time by one minute
<Esc> - closes window
Change the alarm time to two minutes past the current (system)
time indicated by 'Now' in the window, then press the space bar to
turn on the alarm and press <Esc> to close the window. The alarm
will go off at the appointed time regardless of other computer
activities, but rest assured that no interference will occur. For
example, you can be formatting a disk when the alarm sounds with
no ill effects. While we're waiting for the alarm to happen let's
continue our tour.
Load the Ample Notice program AN.EXE by entering AN at the
DOS prompt; the appointments file NOTES will be loaded by default.
Your screen will show a block of text under the heading 'Notes',
followed by a list of dates. The bottom of the screen shows which
keys are meaningful to Ample Notice:
<-, ->, Home, End, A)larm, C)al, E)dit, F)ind, H)elp,
N)ext, P)rint, <Esc>
You can obtain help on any of these functions by pressing the
'H' or F1 key. Go ahead and try it.
The cursor keys let you move through your appointments for a
year. (This default interval can be changed). Take this
opportunity to browse for a while.
A quick tour 4
The P)rint option lets you print appointments for a range of
dates. We won't do any printing now, but press 'P' to see the
print menu. The first entry is the starting date, which defaults
to the current date. Press <Enter> to accept this default. The
next entry is the ending date, which defaults to three weeks from
now; again accept the default. Next comes the 'Mode' field which
indicates the print style to be used; pressing the space bar
cycles through the options Normal, Compressed and Tiny. (These
styles are originally set up for Epson-style printers but can be
changed in the CONFIG.CAL file.) Change to Tiny and press
<Enter>. The final option indicates whether Notes are to be
included in the printout; the space bar toggles between 'Yes' and
'No'. DO NOT press <Enter> now (which would cause printing to
begin); instead, press <Esc> to abort the print operation.
The C)al option opens a window showing a monthly calendar:
November, 1986
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
-----------------------------------
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
The up- and down-arrow keys are used to change the year, and the
right- and left-arrow keys change the month. You can press 'P' to
obtain a printout of a calendar for any range of months, and as
with printing appointments you can select one of three print
styles. When you are finished viewing the calendar press <Esc>.
Now press 'E' to edit the appointments file. The editor has
more features than we can examine in this tour, so we'll just
experiment a little. You should see the first screen of your
NOTES file with the cursor positioned at the top line, and
available options are summarized at the bottom of the screen:
Up-arrow, Down-arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, C)al, D)el, E)dit,
F)ind, H)elp, I)ns, L)oad, M)ove, N)ext, S)ort, U)ndel, W)rite,
eX)it, <Esc>
The cursor keys are used to move through the file, and editing is
done by pressing 'E' to edit an existing line or 'I' to insert a
new one. Move around the file until you get the hang of it, then
insert two new lines. The first line will mark your birthday and
the second will indicate a time for the alarm clock to take note
of. (You can insert the line anywhere except just before a line
starting with '&' which indicates a continuation from the previous
line.) As an example suppose your birthday is July 17. Press 'I'
to begin the insertion, then type
Jul 17 My birthday.
A quick tour 5
Press <Enter> to accept the new line, then insert a second line
which starts with a time 15 minutes from now. For example
assuming that it is now 3:00 p.m. on July 24, 1987, you could type
7/24/87 3:15 p.m. This is a test.
Press <Enter> to accept the line, then press <Esc> to return to
the appointments listing. To see how the alarm works with your
appointments press 'A'. You will see a list of today's appoint-
ments which start with a time; in this case there is only one such
appointment. Next to each item is the advance warning to be used
by the alarm; the default of 10 minutes can be changed with the
right- and left-arrow keys or by putting a different default value
in CONFIG.CAL. For now simply press <Enter> to accept the
displayed interval. You have now set the alarm clock for 3:05
p.m. You can set up to 38 alarms at once, all in addition to the
alarm which you set from ALARM's pop-up window. By placing the
appropriate entry in CONFIG.CAL you can have the alarm set
automatically each day without having to use the A)larm option.
By now you should be back in Ample Notice's appointment
display. Page through the appointments to find the day of the
week of your next birthday. Finally, press <Esc> to exit the
program. If the alarm clock has not yet 'rung' it soon will.
3. Installation.
Installing Ample Notice is simply a matter of putting a few
files where the program can find them. These files are:
AN.EXE (the program itself),
the NOTES file,
the ARCHIVE.CAL file, and
CONFIG.CAL.
In addition you will need to transfer ALARM.COM to a convenient
disk or directory.
The simplest way of handling this is to keep all these files
on the root directory of the disk you boot from (hard disk or
floppy). ARCHIVE.CAL will not exist until you 'archive' your
outdated appointments and CONFIG.CAL won't be needed unless you
want to change Ample Notice's defaults (see Section 7), so you can
get started by using the DOS COPY command to transfer the files
AN.EXE, NOTES and ALARM.COM to the appropriate directory.
If you want to keep your files in more exotic places than the
root directory, Ample Notice is ready to cooperate. You can put
AN.EXE anywhere you like with the usual constraints on executing
it - the file must be in your default directory or in the DOS path
list (see your DOS manual for a description of the PATH command)
unless you give the path on the command line (DOS 3.0 and higher).
AN.EXE searches the DOS path for CONFIG.CAL, so you can put this
file anywhere DOS can find it. You can also reference an explicit
configuration file in the AN command line; this is particularly
useful when more than one person uses your computer. Section 8
Installation 6
gives details on command line options. You do not need a
configuration file at all if AN's defaults are acceptable, but if
your path list is long AN will waste some time hunting for a file
which doesn't exist. If this delay is objectionable you may want
to create CONFIG.CAL as an empty file in your root directory to
'head DOS off at the pass'.
The name of the file used for archiving outdated appointments
is \ARCHIVE.CAL by default. If you want a different archive you
can specify it in CONFIG.CAL (see Section 7) or give it explicitly
when performing the M)ove command in Ample Notice's editor (see
Section 6).
To get the most use from Ample Notice you should view your
appointments on a regular basis. By adding a couple of lines to
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file you can have ALARM loaded, AN run and the
ALARM set simply by turning on your computer. If you don't have
another editor for creating or modifying standard text files you
can use AN's editor, described in Section 6. We'll proceed on the
assumption that you know about the AUTOEXEC.BAT file; if you
don't, see your DOS manual for a description.
It is important that your system's date and time be set
correctly before Ample Notice is run. If your computer has a
battery clock this is probably done for you, but if you lack this
hardware you will need to include the lines
DATE
TIME
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When DATE and TIME are executed you
will be prompted to enter the date and time. There is a nice
public domain utility called DDATE which can be used in place of
DATE; it remembers the last date used and lets you change it (if
necessary) with the cursor keys.
The next addition to the batch file concerns ALARM.COM. You
don't have to load this program, but without it AN.EXE will not
set the alarm from the day's appointments. Use of ALARM once
installed has been described in Section 1 but there are additional
options which can be set when loading the program. The syntax is
ALARM [-?] [-K keycode] [-V n1 n2 n3 n4] [-Z]. Each option is
described below:
-? shows a help screen but does not install ALARM.
-K sets keys to bring up window; 'keycode' is one of
3 - Right Shift + Left Shift
5 - Right Shift + Ctrl
6 - Left Shift + Ctrl
9 - Right Shift + Alt
10 - Left Shift + Alt (default)
12 - Ctrl + Alt
-V changes screen colors. The numbers n1 - n4 (separated by
spaces) correspond to the colors used for the window, the alarm
time, the labels and the actual time. Each number is a value 0 -
255 which describes the foreground and background colors, the
Installation 7
intensity and whether the screen is to blink; see the 'H' option
in Section 7 for a list of colors.
-Z suppresses 'snow' on CGA systems.
You can combine options in any order; for example
ALARM -Z -K 3
will load ALARM, suppress snow and set the key combination to
Right Shift + Left Shift. If you do choose to load ALARM.COM
simply include the appropriate line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
(You may also use ALARM independent of the calendar program; you
can load it in AUTOEXEC or any time you are at the DOS prompt.)
If you want your calendar to come up automatically the next
line should be
AN.
(If more than one person uses the computer you will want to append
an argument to the AN command; see Section 8.) You can also view
your appointments any time you are at the DOS prompt by typing AN,
but note that ALARM should only be loaded once; subsequent access
to the alarm clock is accomplished by pressing the appropriate
shift combination.
4. The NOTES file.
The file in which you keep a list of reminders and appoint-
ments is called \NOTES by default but the name can be changed
permanently (see Section 7) or temporarily (on the AN command line
or by using the Load command in AN's editor). The reason for the
name NOTES is that this is also the default used by the popular
SideKick (tm) program, so if you use this utility you can add a
reminder by pressing <Ctrl> <Alt> regardless of what program you
are running. If you use another 'desktop manager' program you can
rename the appointments file accordingly.
You can edit NOTES with any editor which can read and write
standard ASCII files. As an example, WordStar (tm) in the
nondocument mode is appropriate, as are SideKick and PC-Write
(tm). Ample Notice includes an editor which should prove more
than adequate; the main incentive for using a different editor is
if you happen to be using another program when you want to add a
reminder.
Lines in the NOTES file should begin with a date or one of
the characters '*', '!' or '&'. Lines beginning with '*'
represent notes - reminders which are not associated with a fixed
date. For example if you need to trim your hedges, the date is
not critical but the obligation won't go away until you get around
to it. The text following '*' will be displayed in a special
notes section which can be optionally printed with your
appointments.
One-time appointments begin with a date. If a time
immediately follows the date then the time will be used in sorting
the file and for setting the alarm clock. Several date and time
The NOTES file 8
formats are recognized; e.g.
10/2/87 2 p.m. Call Bob
October 2, 1987 2:00 Call Bob
2 October 87 1400 Call Bob
If the a.m./p.m. indicator is omitted then the time is assumed to
be a.m. if it is from 8:00 to 11:59, otherwise it is interpreted
as p.m. If the year is omitted then the 'appointment' becomes an
anniversary and is displayed or printed whenever the month and day
are in the range specified. For example,
May 25 David's birthday
will show up every year.
It's best to keep your lines to 80 characters (the screen
width) or less; longer lines will be split when read by AN. If
you run out of space on one line (regardless of category) you can
continue to the next line by starting it with '&'. For example:
8/20/87 8:00 pm Party at Griffin's house
& Take Rt 87 4 miles, turn left onto Rattlesnake
& Gutter Road, third house on left
When this appointment is listed, the '&' character will be removed
and the remaining text will be indented beneath the first line.
The '!' character is used to start lines describing
appointments with cycles more complex than simple anniversaries.
The first type of appointment indicated by '!' describes a
commitment which repeats on a given day of the week at a stated
interval. The syntax is illustrated by the following examples:
!Wed 3:00 Piano lesson
(Piano lesson every Wednesday at 3:00)
!3Wed 7/22/87 ADR committee meeting
(meeting every third Wednesday starting 7/22/87)
!Wed!4 7/22/87 ADR meeting
(meeting on four consecutive Wednesdays starting
7/22/87)
!2Wed!4 7/22/87 ADR meeting
(meeting every other Wednesday for four meetings
starting 7/22/87)
Another '!' is used for recording dates such as 'the third
Thursday in March'. For example:
!Jun3Sun Fathers' Day
accurately describes the association of Fathers' Day with the
third Sunday in June. Several such dates are included in the
NOTES file on the Ample Notice disk.
Lines which do not fit into the categories described above
are ignored by Ample Notice when generating the appointments
display.
The NOTES file 9
There is currently a 2000-line limitation on the number of
lines that can be included in the NOTES file. If this causes any
serious inconvenience please let us know - the number of lines can
be raised with minor overhead in memory usage.
5. The appointments screen.
The appointments screen is the default environment when you
execute AN.EXE. The available options concern moving around the
appointments list, setting alarms, viewing a monthly calendar,
printing a range of appointments and editing the appointments
list. Following is a description of each option:
The cursor keys page through the appointments list or jump to
the beginning or end.
'A' takes you to the Alarm screen if ALARM.COM is resident.
Every appointment which begins with a time is listed, and to the
left of each appointment the default warning interval (the number
of minutes before the given time for the alarm clock to be set) is
shown. The original (default) default is 10 minutes but can be
changed in the CONFIG.CAL file. Use the up- and down-arrow keys
to move to an appointment, then use the right- and left-arrow keys
to change the advance warning time. At any time <Enter> can be
used to accept the displayed times, or <Esc> can be used to abort
setting the alarm. In the latter case the previously-set times
are retained. Alarm times are not cumulative - when you press
<Enter> to set the alarm any old settings are lost (except that
made when popping up the ALARM window with <Left shift> <Alt>).
Pressing 'C' opens the monthly calendar window. A day-of-
the-week display of the current month is shown with the current
day highlighted. Use the right- and left-arrow keys to change the
month and the up- and down-arrow keys to change the year. Press
'P' to print a range of months in the print style of your choice.
The space bar is used to cycle through the styles Normal,
Compressed and Tiny. For information on changing the control
characters used with these choices (for different printer makes)
and the default formatting dimensions see Section 7. At any time
in Ample Notice pressing <Esc> will abort a printout. When you
are finished viewing or printing a monthly calendar press <Esc> to
return to the appointments screen.
Note: the calendar window is also available from the edit screen.
Press 'E' to switch to the edit screen. You may then modify
the current appointments file or switch to a new file. Section 6
describes the editor in detail.
Press 'F' to search for text in the appointments listing.
You are prompted to enter a string and the search begins at the
current page. Case sensitivity is not used - your entry will
match upper or lower case. When a match is found all qualifying
appointments or notes on the first appropriate page are
The appointments screen 10
highlighted. Pressing 'N' continues the search to the next match.
Press 'H' for help, here and elsewhere in Ample Notice.
Press 'P' to print a range of appointments. The default
range is a three-week interval beginning with the current date -
press <Enter> to accept the dates shown, or enter new dates. The
interval must fall within the range you can view, which defaults
to the year following the current date but which can be reduced
(not expanded) in CONFIG.CAL. This is not really a restriction:
if you want to print more than a year's worth of appointments you
can run AN again with a new starting date specified on the command
line (see Section 8).
Again, the choice of print styles - Normal, Compressed and
Tiny - and the corresponding formatting can be changed in
CONFIG.CAL.
To exit Ample Notice, press <Esc>. You will be asked to
confirm your intention just in case the key press was accidental.
6. The editor.
Ample Notice's editor puts you in total charge of your
appointments file. You can use the editor to create, modify and
sort this file; you can also use it to move outdated appointments
to a more appropriate place. Ample Notice can also be used in a
stand-alone mode to edit other text files which have nothing to do
with appointments.
You can enter the editor in one of three ways: by pressing
'E' from the appointments screen, by including '-E' on the AN
command line (see Section 8) or by including '%E' in CONFIG.CAL
(see Section 7). Once you are in the editor, the bottom line(s)
will describe the options available; following is a description of
these options.
The up- and down-arrow, Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys move
the cursor through the appointments file. Press 'E' to edit the
line at the cursor position or press 'I' to insert a new line.
Options when editing a line.
Throughout Ample Notice the same conventions are used for
editing line input any time it is sought. The following functions
are supported:
The editor 11
Left arrow or <Ctrl S> - Cursor left
<Ctrl A> - Cursor left one word
Right arrow or <Ctrl D> - Cursor right
<Ctrl F> - Cursor right one word
F3 or <Ctrl R> - Restore original line, continue
editing
Home - Start of line
End - End of line
Ins or <Ctrl V> - Toggle insert/overwrite mode
Default is overwrite mode. Insert mode is
indicated by larger cursor.
Del or <Ctrl G> - Delete character under cursor
Backspace - Delete character left of cursor
<Ctrl T> - Delete word to right of cursor
<Ctrl Y> - Delete line
<Esc> - Restore and accept original line
<Enter> - Accept edited line
When editing the input line will be shown in inverse video.
Pressing <Esc> or <Enter> returns you to the editor's menu.
Pressing 'D' deletes the line at the cursor. Pressing 'U'
restores ('undeletes') the line. You can use these two commands
to move a line - delete, move the cursor, then undelete. Up to 25
deletions will be saved and restored in reverse order. If more
than 25 deletions are made the 'oldest' deletions are lost.
F)ind and N)ext are similar to the same functions in the
appointments screen. If you press 'F' you will be prompted to
enter the text for a search (which is performed independent of
case). The cursor advances to the first match following the
original cursor position. Pressing 'N' then advances to the next
such match.
S)ort is a function which helps keep your file manageable.
As soon as 'S' is pressed the file is sorted: first notes, then
one-shot appointments (sorted by date and time), then annual
appointments (by date and time), then cyclical appointments
starting with '!', and finally all remaining lines. Note that the
sorted file is not automatically saved; you will have to use the
W)rite command to make the changes permanent.
There are three disk-related commands: M)ove, W)rite and
S)ort. With all three you are prompted for a file name and shown
a default; simply press <Enter> to accept the default name. If
you give a wild card file specification or directory name instead,
a display of corresponding files is shown and you are prompted
again for a name. For example, if FOO is the name of a directory
you could enter FOO, FOO\, FOO\*.* (these three are equivalent),
FOO\*.CAL, etc.
M)ove is used to move outdated (one-shot) appointments to an
archive file; the default archive is \ARCHIVE.CAL. You will be
given an opportunity to specify a different archive file; if you
want a new default you can modify CONFIG.CAL (see Section 7).
'Move' performs two functions: the appropriate lines are appended
The editor 12
to the archive file and these lines are deleted from the current
file. It's a good idea to archive your file every few weeks to
keep it down to a convenient size.
The archive file can be extremely useful for reviewing old
activities. You can sort ARCHIVE.CAL (if necessary) by loading it
as the appointments file in Ample Notice. While there is a 2000-
line limitation in file size you can keep archives below this
limit by periodically renaming ARCHIVE.CAL to an appropriate name.
For example, at the end of 1987 type
REN ARCHIVE.CAL ARCHIVE.87 The next time you archive your
appointments a new ARCHIVE.CAL will be created automatically.
W)rite is used to make a permanent copy of the file which you
are editing. You can use the name under which the file was loaded
(the default) or substitute another name instead. Note that
changes to the file will be lost unless the file is explicitly
saved with the W)rite command.
Press 'L' to load a file. If you give the name of a file
which does not exist you will be asked whether you wish to create
a new file.
H)elp or F1 opens a help screen as usual.
C)al brings up the monthly calendar window just as it does in
the appointments screen. This is a handy option if you want to
enter an appointment for next Wednesday and you want to find out
which day of the month it falls on.
<Esc> is used to return to the appointments screen; there
will be a brief delay while Ample Notice interprets and
categorizes dates and times. If you are editing a file which is
not an appointments file you can press 'X' to exit directly to
DOS.
7. CONFIG.CAL.
When Ample Notice begins execution it looks first for a file
called CONFIG.CAL (or other file explicitly given on the command
line) which contains data describing your preference for screen
colors, printer formats, file names, etc. If no such file is
found then default values are used; for many users these defaults
will be appropriate. If you wish to create a configuration file
you may use any ASCII editor, including that in Ample Notice. To
use the AN editor you can start with
AN -E -C \CONFIG.CAL which will load AN and immediately start
editing the file \CONFIG.CAL. The file will consist of lines of
the form
%letter parameters. For example
%H 15 sets the 'highlight' video attribute to the value 15.
Following is a list of CONFIG.CAL options. (Note: from time to
time new options and syntax will be added. The READ.ME file will
describe these additions.)
CONFIG.CAL 13
A - archive file name.
For example, '%A BILL.ARC' makes BILL.ARC the new
default archive file instead of ARCHIVE.CAL.
B - 'bell': set alarm automatically from default
calendar. No parameters.
The entry '%B' causes alarm times (using the default
delay) to be set automatically if ALARM.COM is
loaded. If %B is not included you can set alarms
explicitly with Ample Notice's A)larm option.
C - calendar file name.
E.g., '%C \BILL.CAL' makes \BILL.CAL the new default
appointments file instead of \NOTES.
D - number of days.
The default appointments interval is 365 days.
'%D 30' changes this to 30 days. Any value less than
365 may be used. Lower values result in faster
initial display of appointments screen.
E - start in editor. No parameters.
'%E' will skip the appointments screen when AN is
first run and go directly to the editor. This is
useful in the unlikely circumstance that your primary
use of AN is for editing.
G - delay for alarm.
The default advance warning interval for the alarm
clock is 10 minutes. '%G 15' changes this to 15
minutes. The default interval can be changed
selectively by using the A)larm command.
H - highlight attribute.
The value given is used as the video attribute for
highlighting text. The video attribute is a number
from 0 to 255 which is computed as follows: find the
sum
BLINK*128 + BACKGROUND*16 + INTENSITY*8 + FOREGROUND
where
BLINK is 1 for blinking, otherwise 0,
BACKGROUND and FOREGROUND are values from 0 to 7
meaning
0 - black
1 - blue
2 - green
3 - cyan
4 - red
5 - magenta
6 - brown
7 - white
INTENSITY is 1 for high intensity, 0 for low
intensity.
For example, '%H 12' sets the highlight attribute to
high intensity red against a black background.
CONFIG.CAL 14
L - 'lowlight' attribute.
Sets the video attribute for normal text. See 'H'
option.
M - century base.
In the date 8/15/87, the year is assumed to be 1987
because the 'century base' is 19 by default. If you
happen to be using this program after the year 2000
you should include the line '%M 20' to change this
default.
N - Normal print.
There are three print modes - Normal, Compressed and
Tiny. Each mode has associated with it four pieces
of information: page width, left margin, text lines
per page and printer set-up codes. These parameters
are given after '%N'.
Page width indicates the total character width of the
paper.
Left margin is the number of leading spaces for each
line.
Text lines per page is the number of lines of text
printed on a page before a form feed is sent to
advance to a new page.
The printer set-up codes form a sequence of up to 11
numbers which are sent to the printer at the start of
each page. This control sequence is used to exploit
a printer's modes or fonts.
The default for Normal is
%N 80,0,55
which indicates 80 columns, no left margin, 55
printed lines per page and no set-up sequence.
As a sample alternative,
%N 80,0,54,27,69
sets 54 lines per page and turns on emphasized
printing on an Epson printer (27 = <Esc>, 69 = 'E').
S - small (Compressed) print.
Sets the parameters for Compressed printing. The
default is
%S 132,26,55,15
which indicates 132 columns, a left margin of 26
columns, 55 lines per page, and a single set-up code
of 15 (or <Ctrl O>) which turns on compressed
printing on an Epson.
T - Tiny print.
Sets the parameters for Tiny printing. The
default is
%T 132,26,115,15,27,83,0,27,51,18
which indicates 132 columns, a left margin of 26
columns, 115 lines per page, and a set-up sequence
for turning on compressed superscript with 18/216"
line spacing on an Epson.
CONFIG.CAL 15
W - wait for form feeds. No parameters.
Include '%W' in the configuration file if you print
on single-sheet rather than continuous-feed paper.
At the end of each page you will be prompted to
insert a new sheet of paper before printing resumes.
Z - suppress snow. No parameters.
If you are using an IBM Color Graphics Adapter or
similar video card and are bothered by 'snow' on the
screen during window operations, include '%Z' in the
configuration file.
To handle multiple users (or different sets of preferences)
more than one configuration file can be kept on the same system.
To specify a file other than CONFIG.CAL use the -S option
described in the following section.
8. Command line options.
When you run AN you may specify parameters in the command
line which override those in CONFIG.CAL (or the defaults). The
syntax is
AN [-B date] [-C fname] [-D #days] [-E] [-F fname]
[-I] [-Q] [-S] [-W] (where the options can be given in any
order or omitted). For example, AN -D 30 -B 9/1/87 will list
appointments for 30 days starting on 9/1/87. Options and
associated data must be separated by spaces. Following is a
description of each option.
B - Specifies the starting date to be used for the
appointments list instead of the current date. You
can use this to obtain printouts of appointments for
any time interval of up to 365 days. Since more than
one starting date can be given on different runs of
AN, multiple intervals can be concatenated to cover
longer intervals.
C - Specifies a configuration file other than
CONFIG.CAL. Especially useful if more than one
person uses your system.
D - Gives the number of days to be listed. The value
overrides the default of 365 days or the replacement
default in CONFIG.CAL.
E - Enter editor directly. AN -E will take you
directly into the editor with \NOTES loaded, or
AN -E -F MYFILE will load MYFILE instead.
F - Specifies an appointments file other than \NOTES.
For example, AN -F MYFILE -E will load the file
MYFILE, and the -E option will take you directly to
the editor. In this way AN can be used as an editor
for any standard text file.
Command line options 16
I - Shows information screen at beginning. Use this
option to view the AN version number or to see
registration information. The information screen is
otherwise shown automatically on the 1st and 15th of
each month unless the -Q option is used.
Q - 'Quick'. Suppresses the information screen which
is otherwise shown twice a month. If you use AN in
an AUTOEXEC.BAT file and get tired of these periodic
credits just add the -Q option.
S - Short listing of appointments. All repeating
appointments (birthdays, weekly appointments, etc.)
are skipped on the appointments screen and in
printouts. This is useful for obtaining short
printouts which show immediately appointments which
are out of the ordinary.
W - Wait at form feeds. This has the same effect as
'%W' in CONFIG.CAL but doesn't make the end-of-page
pause permanent.
Again, there will almost certainly be additions to this list
described in the READ.ME file.
9. Tips for effective use.
Ample Notice is a flexible product and you will probably
develop some applications not foreseen by Granny. Here are a few
suggestions that will help you exploit the program.
Since lines which don't start with '*', '&', '!' or a date
are ignored in the appointments listing but maintained in the file
you can include information which you don't want to be forced to
stare at every day. For example you can start lines with ';' to
record long-term reminders that you can view in the editor but
which are not shown in the 'Notes' department. When you sort the
file, lines which don't fall into the 'official' categories are
alphabetized at the end.
Your archive file can be very helpful for business or tax
purposes; you can recall exactly when you took a trip or filed a
report. However, its best not to go overboard - delete frivolous
items before performing the archive operation or you'll have a
file full of dates of haircuts and such. If you sort your
appointment file before archiving then your archive file will stay
sorted, but if you happen to archive unsorted appointments
remember that you can always load ARCHIVE.CAL and sort it
directly.
Until computers get small enough to carry around all the
time, provision must be made for time away from the keyboard. By
using the -S command line option (for suppressing repeating
appointments) in conjunction with the 'Tiny' print style, you can
obtain a listing of one-time appointments for an entire year which
Tips for effective use 17
will fit neatly into a wallet or purse. This is often preferable
to lugging around a bound appointments book, which is not apt to
make it to the tennis court or the grocery checkout line.
For Ample Notice to be most effective it must be used on a
regular basis. Put ALARM and AN in an AUTOEXEC.BAT file - on your
hard disk if you have one, or on a floppy which you will always
use to boot your computer.
If you see 'snow' on your screen be sure to load ALARM with
the '-Z' option and to put a '%Z' in CONFIG.CAL.
10. About Shareware.
'Shareware' is a relatively new means of software distribution
with several advantages to you the consumer. The complete package
including this instruction manual is contained on a single
diskette which may be freely copied and distributed. Word of
mouth provides a more accurate and less expensive way of making a
product known than magazine advertisements, and the savings keep
Ample Notice's cost down.
Shareware does not mean 'public domain'. Distribution is
permitted only if the package stays intact; all files should be
passed on in unmodified form.
You can obtain the current Ample Notice disk from Granny's
Old-Fashioned Software for $10 or a registered package for $30.
Registration provides the following benefits:
1. A current version of the Ample Notice disk, including all
current programs in the package. (Several programs not related
to the appointments calendar are being added.)
2. A printed manual.
3. A mail-in card for a future version of Ample Notice.
4. Telephone support for your technical questions.
5. A reasonable likelihood that features you request will be added
to the package if such features are deemed practical and of
sufficiently general interest.
To register, phone (with MC or VISA) (704) 264-6906 or mail
payment to:
Granny's Old-Fashioned Software
Rt 4, Box 216
Boone, NC 28607
North Carolina residents please add 4.5%.
Also available from Granny's is LQ, a program for the IBM PC
and compatible computers which will allow you to produce high-
quality text on inexpensive dot matrix printers. Most such
printers are supported, but you may have to install or create a
configuration file (see Section 5) if yours deviates significantly
from an Epson.
About Shareware 18
LQ offers these features:
1. LQ can be 'locked' into memory to function
inconspicuously with your favorite word processor
or other program, or it can be used only as needed
to process disk files. In the resident mode a
pop-up window allows for convenient control of
many features.
2. Most control sequences for turning on special
modes (boldface, underline, superscript, etc.)
will produce the corresponding results with LQ, so
you may not have to modify your word processor to
accommodate LQ.
3. LQ includes a print spooler which can be set to
any length from 1 - 200K characters. The spooler
has been customized to work with LQ's long
graphics sequences very efficiently (using about
1/40 the space required by a conventional
spooler); you can continue using your computer for
other tasks while documents print in the back-
ground. If you use single sheet feed, LQ will
interrupt your work to prompt you to change paper
then return to you to the point at which you were
interrupted.
LQ is available from Granny's Old-Fashioned Software at $35
for the registered package or $10 for the distribution disk.
Again, North Carolina residents please add 4.5%.
11. Future enhancements.
Ample Notice has 'room to grow' and your input is solicited
for additional features. In particular we expect to add more
criteria for determining cyclical appointments. For example you
may want to specify appointments on, say, the 10th of each month
or the second Wednesday of each month.
Several additional programs will be added to the Ample Notice
disk. In the works are: a program for printing addresses sideways
so that
envelopes can be printed conveniently, and a print spooler, a
utility for putting keyboard input into batch files
so that data can be entered in application programs
automatically. Additional programs and features will be added
until we run out of disk space. Please let us know if there are
features or utilities of particular interest to you.
$
