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MJOG 2.16 MJOG is a simple program that can help jog your memory for important dates (mjog = Memory JOGger). You can use MJOG to create a small file containing birthdays, appointments, etc., and it will remind you of them as far in advance as you wish. MJOG is a nice program to put in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Version 2 is a complete rewrite of the program. It is much more flexible than previous versions. The basic changes are: -- Flexible reminder dates (remind on day of week, day of month, etc.). -- "Cleanup" is no longer required; obsolete entries are automatically deleted. -- You can delete reminders without editing the data file. -- You can temporarily "forget" a recurring reminder after it has been taken care of. -- You can define different lookahead periods for each reminder. -- More flexible configuration. | marks changes in recent versions. Starting up ----------- MJOG keeps a small text file for your appointments and reminders. You should decide where you want to keep this before running MJOG the first time. If you don't specify where it goes, MJOG will create a file called MJOG.DAT in the current directory. If you want to use a different name and/or directory, set the environment variable MJOG as follows: SET MJOG=FILE:d:\path\filename For example: SET MJOG=FILE:c:\misc\mjog.txt Do this before running MJOG. Note that there are additional options for the MJOG variable, as described below. Adding appointments to your calendar ------------------------------------ To add a date to your calendar file (or to create a new file if there isn't one already), just type MJOG date text where date is a reminder date and text is the reminder text. MJOG's date scheme is very flexible; see the section called "Specifying dates." Here are some examples of entering reminders: mjog tue Dentist 3pm (See the dentist next Tuesday) mjog 4/14 Dinner with CPA (Meet with your CPA next April 14th) mjog every 4/15 Income taxes due (Pay taxes every April 15th) mjog 8/15/* Income taxes REALLY due (Note that * is a wildcard--same as "EVERY 8/15") mjog today 1pm Lunch with Neville & Benito. (Have lunch today at 1 PM) Displaying reminders -------------------- To have MJOG display your reminders, just run it: MJOG It will display all reminders for the next ten days. You can change the number of days MJOG "looks ahead" as described below. If you add a /P switch: MJOG /P MJOG will pause after it displays any reminders. It will not pause if there are no reminders to display. Displaying a calendar --------------------- You can have MJOG display a calendar of the current month: MJOG /L If you want a calendar for a different month, use: MJOG /L(mm/yy) For example: MJOG /L(6/89) This would display a calendar for June, 1989. Specifying dates ---------------- MJOG is quite flexible on dates. You can specify days of the week, months, days of the month, and years, and you can use "wildcards" to create reminders that repeat regularly. There are two kinds of reminders. "Floating" reminders recur periodically (for example, the 1st of every month, every Monday, every April 15th). "Fixed" reminders refer to one specific date (for example, 12/15/89). Here are the two generic date formats: TODAY EVERY dow mm/dd/yy where EVERY is a keyword that forces the date to float; DOW is a day of the week; and MM, DD, and YY represent a month, day of the month ("DOM"), and year, respectively. All fields are optional, but you must specify enough for MJOG to be able to determine a valid date. We'll describe partial and wildcard date specifications shortly. The DOW, if present, must be one of the following three-letter abbreviations: Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Case is not significant (e.g., "mon", "Mon", and "MON" are all OK). All fields can be wildcards, and some can be omitted in certain combinations. Here are the details: 1. Month, Year, DOM wildcards: an asterisk (*) is a wildcard; it allows the field to float. Examples: 12/25/* (December 25th of any year) 12/*/* (any date in any December) 4/*/89 (any date in April, 1989) */15/* (the 15th of every month) */1/89 (the 1st of every month in 1989) */*/* (every day) 2. Month, Year, DOM partial specifications: in some cases you can omit fields of the MM/DD/YY specification. These are the valid partial date formats: MM/YY Shorthand for MM/*/YY Example: "12/89" = "12/*/89" MM/DD The next occurrence of the month and DOM. If entered on 6/9/89: "7/15" = "7/15/89" "4/15" = "4/15/90" DD Means the next occurrence of the specified DOM. If entered on 6/12/89: "12" = "6/12/89" "13" = "6/13/89" "11" = "7/11/89" Note that the MM/DD and DD formats are fixed reminders--they represent one specific date. MM/YY, however, is a floating reminder--it represents any day in the specified month. 3. DOW wildcards: you can make the DOW a wildcard by simply omitting it. Do not use an asterisk. 4. EVERY: this is a keyword that forces the date specification to float. Examples: every 12/25 (same as 12/25/*) every 15 (same as */15/*) every tue (every Tuesday) every 12/89 (same as 12/*/89) This sounds much more complicated than it really is. In practice, you will find it quite natural. Here are some examples of valid date specifications. Where "shorthand" is used, the equivalent full specification is shown in parentheses (MM, DD, and YY represent specific numbers): every thu Every Thursday (THU */*/*) thu Next Thursday (THU MM/DD/YY) 17 The next 17th of the month (MM/17/YY) 4/89 Every day of April, 1989 (4/*/89) 12/15 The next December 15 (12/15/YY) every 12/15 Every December 15 (12/15/*) thu 12/89 Every Thursday in 12/89 (THU 12/*/89) mon */*/89 Every Monday in 1989 */15/* 15th of every month */15/90 15th of every month in 1990 1/*/* Every day of every January every 17 17th of every month (*/17/*) 9/14/89 September 14, 1989 today Today! Note that if your date specification consists solely of a DOW, MJOG will not include today, even if it is the same DOW. For example, if you enter MJOG tue dentist 9:30 MJOG will assume that you mean NEXT Tuesday, even if today is Tuesday. If you really mean today, use MJOG today dentist 3pm If you use EVERY with a DOW, MJOG will include the current date: MJOG every tue Luncheon in the grass In this case, MJOG will display the reminder for today (if today is Tuesday). Finally, note that you can enter a DOW and a DOM, but they must match correctly. For example: tue 1/3/89 is OK: 1/3/89 is a Tuesday tue 1/4/89 is invalid (no such date) tue */7/* will display a reminder on any 7th that is a Tuesday, but will give error messages for other 7ths. Changing the "lookahead" date ----------------------------- Normally, MJOG will look ahead ten days. This means that it will display any reminders that will occur within the next ten days (including today). You can change MJOG's lookahead date by using the /n switch, where n is the number of days you want to look ahead. For example: MJOG /180 This will display any reminders coming up within the next six months. Note that you can permanently change the lookahead period via the MJOG environment variable (see below). You can also specify individual ("local") lookahead dates for each reminder by using a /n switch when you define it. For example: MJOG /30 every 4/15 Income taxes due! This will display your income tax reminder one month in advance, while other reminders remain set at the usual ten days. To be precise, the lookahead date is how many days IN ADVANCE you want to be reminded. If you only want to be reminded on the actual day of the memo, use /0. The maximum lookahead value is 65534 days. Note that MJOG will only display a reminder once, even if it occurs multiple times within the lookahead period. For example, if you have mjog every Fri 9am staff meeting and you run MJOG /30, only the first weekly staff meeting will be displayed. If you specify a global lookahead on the command line, MJOG will use the longer of the two lookahead periods for those reminders that also have "local" lookaheads. For example, if you have: mjog /20 3/2/* Patty's birthday mjog /60 4/15/* Taxes due (specifying a 20-day lookahead for the birthday and a 60 day lookahead for taxes) and you then do: mjog /45 MJOG will use a 45-day lookahead for the birthday and a 60-day lookahead for the taxes. | Displaying a different year | --------------------------- | Some people like to use MJOG as a "this day in history" tool, | displaying interesting things that have occurred on the current | date in years past: | | MJOG /0 5/10/* Churchill becomes Prime Minister, 1940 | | This works well, except that the reminder always shows up with | the current date: | | Wed 5/10/89 Churchill becomes Prime Minister, 1940 | | The date "Wed 5/10/89" has no particular significance in this | context; it is simply an artifact of the way MJOG works. | | The /Y switch allows you to specify a different year for | display; just follow it with a full 4-digit year. For example: | | MJOG /0 Y1940 5/10/* Churchill becomes Prime Minister | | On May 10, this will be displayed: | | Fri 5/10/1940 Churchill becomes Prime Minister | | Any year from 1 A.D. is valid. Note that, for years prior to | the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, the displayed day of the | week may differ from the day as recorded in history. The | Gregorian calendar was adopted by the British Empire (including | the American colonies) on September 14, 1752, and by other | countries at various times. Deleting reminders ------------------ When a reminder is obsolete (i.e., when the date of a fixed-date reminder has passed), MJOG will automatically delete it. To delete a floating reminder or a fixed reminder before its date has been reached, you can either edit the MJOG data file with your text editor and manually delete it, or you can have MJOG delete it via the command: MJOG /D [date] [text] You must include enough of the date and/or text to uniquely identify the reminder. For example, if you have a note: MJOG Tue Call for dentist appointment you could delete it by using: MJOG /D dentist or MJOG /D Tue if and only if the word "dentist" does not appear in any other reminder (first example) or if you have no other reminders for next Tuesday (second example). You can make the deletion unambiguous by including more text or by specifying the date and some text: MJOG /D tue dentist MJOG /D call for dentist If you use a date, you do not have to use the same format as the original entry, but you must specify it so that it evaulates to the correct date. For example, if you had originally used: MJOG 6/20/89 Call dentist for appointment you could use: MJOG /D Tue dentist if next Tuesday is 6/20/89. In other words, that command would work from Tuesday 6/13/89 through Monday 6/19/89. Prior to 6/13/89 or on 6/20, you'd have to specify the date more accurately. Here are several examples: MJOG /D 6/20/89 dentist (always OK) MJOG /D 6/20 dentist (anytime from 6/21/88-6/20/89) MJOG /D 20 dentist (OK 6/1/89-6/20/89) MJOG /D TODAY dentist (OK on 6/20/89 only) If there is no way to make a reminder selection unambiguous (i.e., if two reminders in file are identical), the only way to remove one of them is by editing the file. Forgetting reminders -------------------- After you've taken care of a floating reminder, it's useful to be able to "forget" it until the next occurrence. For example, suppose you have: MJOG EVERY 10/19 Mom's birthday You'll be reminded every year, prior to October 19, that it's time to take care of the birthday. After you've sent her the keys to that new car (say, on October 15), there's not much point to the reminder remaining active. But you don't want to delete it, either, because you're going to have to buy another new car next year. All you want to do is forget it for this year. MJOG allows you to forget the reminder in this fashion: MJOG /F [date] [text] The date and/or text are specified exactly as for deleting a reminder (above). For example: MJOG /F 10/19 MJOG /F 19 birthday When you do this, MJOG adds a special note to the reminder in the file, telling it to forget the reminder until a specific date has passed. Assuming that you issue the above command in 1989, MJOG would change the reminder in file to: MJOG /~10/19/89 10/19/* Mom's birthday MJOG will then ignore this reminder until AFTER 10/19/89, at which time the /F note will be removed and the reminder will again become active (for 1990). The /~MM/DD/YY format is a special one that MJOG uses for itself. It appears only in the data file, and you should probably not enter it by hand. If you insist on doing so, it must be in EXACTLY that format. In particular, the date must be explicit--it can contain no wildcards, missing elements, or days of the week. Displaying MJOG version ----------------------- MJOG does not display its version/copyright notice when it is just listing reminders (it would detract from the display). It does display the notice when any maintenance is performed on the reminder file (new reminders, deletes, forgets, etc.) and when an error is detected. If you need to check your version number manually, use the /V switch: MJOG /V Parameter specifications ------------------------ MJOG is fairly flexible about how you enter parameters, but there are a few rules you must follow. 1. Switches cannot be combined and must be separated from each other by at least one space: Legal: MJOG /L /50 Illegal: MJOG /L/50 Illegal: MJOG /L50 Switches can be introduced by either a slash (/) or a hyphen (-). 2. The keyword EVERY, if present, must precede the date/DOW: Legal: mjog every tue Illegal: mjog 12/15 every 3. MJOG assumes that the reminder text begins with first word it finds that doesn't look like one of these: "EVERY" (unless date has already appeared) "TODAY" (unless date has already appeared) /switch -switch day-of-week specification date specification That's fairly simple. About the only time you can get into trouble with the text is if your date specification is a DOW only (no date) and the reminder text begins with a number: mjog tue 3 wise men arrive, Heathrow 0730 MJOG will think the "3" is a date specification. It does have some special logic built in; numbers that meet any of these criteria are assumed NOT to be dates (and thus to begin the reminder text): Any number that is three or more digits in length. Any number containing a colon (:). Any number that is followed by "AM" or "PM" Therefore, all of these would be OK: mjog tue 0730 3 wise men arrive, Heathrow mjog tue 9:00 staff meeting mjog tue 9am staff meeting mjog fri 10667 Brambley Court, meet Spiro 4. When a date is in the format nn/nn, it could be either MM/DD or MM/YY. MJOG assumes that it is MM/YY if the second number is larger than 31, else MM/DD. 5. Years can be specified either as YY or as YYYY ("89" or "1989"). MJOG accepts dates from 1981-2010. Years are always displayed as YY, except for /Y switch years, which are displayed as YYYY. The MJOG data file ------------------ The file that MJOG uses (usually called MJOG.DAT) is a standard ASCII text file containing all active reminders. You can edit it, if you wish, with your text editor or your word processor in non-document mode. MJOG updates the file by itself whenever a reminder is added, "forgotten", deleted, or obsoleted. Note that MJOG uses a standard format for its dates when writing the data file, so they might not look exactly as they did when entered. For example, "every 15" is the same as "*/15/*"; MJOG will always use the latter, no matter how you entered it. You can prevent MJOG from automatically deleting obsolete reminders from the file via the NOUPDATE field in the MJOG environment variable (see below). You can force MJOG to update the file with a /U parameter: MJOG /U /U overrides NOUPDATE if both are present. Whenever MJOG updates the file for any reason, it is sorted in order of next occurrence date. In other words, the memos will appear in the file in the order they will appear on the screen. Each line of the file is in a specific format: (mm/dd/yy) /~mm/dd/yy /nn dow mm/dd/yy text The mm/dd/yy in parentheses is the date of the next occurrence of the memo. The remainder of the line should be familiar: the "forget-until" date, local lookahead, DOW, reminder date, and reminder text. Many of these fields may be missing from any single line, but everything will be lined up in columns. If you edit the data file by hand, the next-occurrence date (in parentheses) need not be present. However, if it is, it must be enclosed in parentheses, and it must be the first item on the line. The MJOG environment variable ----------------------------- The MJOG environment variable allows you to permanently change a few items of MJOG's configuration. These include the name and location of the data file, the screen attributes (colors) to be used, where to display the calendar, and the lookahead period. The specific syntax is: MJOG=FILE:<filename> ATTRIB:<attribs> CAL:<coords> LOOK:<nn> NOUPDATE All are optional (but you obviously must specify at least one of them). The formats are as follows: FILE: The exact path and filename of the data file. For example: FILE:c:\misc\mjog.dat ATTRIB: A list of screen attributes in ANSI format. ANSI.SYS or equivalent must be loaded to use this feature. You specify three attributes: normal, highlight, and exit. Highlight is used for highlighted displays, which includes any reminders for today or tomorrow and the current date on the calendar. Normal is used for all other displays. Exit is the attribute the system will be using when MJOG finishes. Attributes are specified using the numeric sequence ANSI.SYS uses to specify colors. For example, "1" turns on the highlight attribute (the ANSI sequence is <Esc>[1m), so you'd use "1" for highlighted video; "34;43" would set blue-on-yellow (ANSI is <Esc>[34;43m). The three attribute fields are separated by commas. Examples: ATTRIB:0,1,0 (for a mono display) Normal = white on black Hilite = bright white on black Exit = white on black ATTRIB:34;43,33;44,34;43 (color display) Normal = blue on yellow Hilite = yellow on blue Exit = blue on yellow CAL: the X,Y coordinates where you want the upper left hand corner of the calendar to appear. The standard coordinates are 56,2, and the upper left corner of the screen is 0,0. Example: CAL:20,15 This would cause the calendar to appear at column 20 of line 15. LOOK: changes the global lookahead period from ten days to something else. Example: LOOK:7 This would change the lookahead period to seven days. NOUPDATE: If "NOUPDATE" is found in the variable, MJOG will not perform automatic deletion of memos that are obsolete (i.e., fixed reminders whose date has passed). The file will be only updated when you add, "forget", or manually delete a reminder. The /U command line switch overrides NOUPDATE and causes MJOG to delete any obsolete memos. To create the environment variable, issue a SET MJOG= statement before running MJOG (probably in AUTOEXEC.BAT). For example: SET MJOG=FILE:c:\mjog.dat ATTRIB:0,1,0 CAL:10,2 LOOK:7 NOUPDATE If you see the DOS message "Out of environment space", you must increase the space allocated for your environment. For example, under current versions of DOS, DOS 3.x or later, you could add the following to your CONFIG.SYS: SHELL=c:\command.com c:\ /p /e:512 This obviously assumes that your copy of COMMAND.COM is located in C:\, and it would give you 512 bytes of environment space. Compatibility with previous versions ------------------------------------ We've made every effort to keep MJOG version 2 compatible with earlier versions. The old MJOGDIR and MJOGXY environment variables are still supported. If the new MJOG variable and one or both of the old variables are present, MJOG will override MJOGDIR and MJOGXY (if MJOG contains FILE: and CAL: fields respectively). The old -C switch is no longer necessary and is ignored if present (cleanup is now automatic). Use on non-IBM-compatible systems -------------------------------- All features of MJOG except the calendar display can be used on any MSDOS machine. If you have a non-compatible MSDOS machine and wish to use the calendar: 1. You must have ANSI.SYS or equivalent installed. 2. Your ANSI device driver must support the CPR (Cursor Position Report) sequence. On receipt of the sequence <esc>[6n, the device driver should report the current cursor position via standard input. 3. You must specify an attribute set (using the MJOG environment variable). If you are not using an IBM-compatible machine and use the calendar without taking the above steps, the results will be unpredictable. MJOG will use system interrupt 10h for cursor movement; interrupt 10h is BIOS video service on IBM-compatible systems, but may not be on others. Switch summary -------------- The full list of available switches is as follows: /# Alter lookahead days to #. /D Delete a reminder (include date/text to identify). /F Forget a reminder (include date/text to identify). /L[(m/y)] Display a calendar [for month MM/YY]. /P Pause after reminders. /U Force a file update (counters NOUPDATE). /V Display version number. /Y# Specifies a year for display. Release history --------------- Version 2.16 02/04/89 -- Corrects errors in calendar displays Version 2.15 02/02/89 -- Fixes some problems with the ATTRIBute set. One of these problems could cause the calendar display to hang up or repeat endlessly. -- Fixes some problems with /Deleting and /Forgetting reminders. -- Adds /Y switch. -- Allows larger data files Version 2.10 01/05/89 -- Fixes several problems with local lookahead. -- Formats MJOG data file into columns and adds next-occurrence date to each line. -- Adds /U and /P switches. -- Adds TODAY keyword. -- DOW-only memos now assumed not to include today. -- Adds NOUPDATE field to MJOG variable. -- Numerous internal changes to reduce memory requirements and possibilities of stack overflow. Version 2.00 12/20/88 Initial public release of version 2. Copyright/License/Warranty -------------------------- This document and the program file MJOG.EXE ("the software") are copyrighted by the author. The copyright owner hereby licenses you to: use the software; make as many copies of the program and documentation as you wish; give such copies to anyone; and distribute the software and documentation via electronic means. There is no charge for any of the above. However, you are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with commercial products without prior permission. An exception is granted to not-for-profit user's groups, which are authorized to charge a small fee (not to exceed $7) for materials, handling, postage, and general overhead. NO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IS AUTHORIZED TO CHARGE ANY AMOUNT FOR DISTRIBUTION OF COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION, OR TO INCLUDE COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION WITH SALES OF THEIR OWN PRODUCTS. THIS INCLUDES A SPECIFIC PROHIBITION AGAINST FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE, EITHER ALONE OR WITH OTHER SOFTWARE, AND CHARGING A "HANDLING" OR "MATERIALS" FEE OR ANY OTHER SUCH FEE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION. NO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IS AUTHORIZED TO INCLUDE THE SOFTWARE ON ANY MEDIA FOR WHICH MONEY IS CHARGED. The software is intended for personal use only and should not be used in a commercial, institutional, or governmental environment with prior permission of the copyright owner. No copy of the software may be distributed or given away without this document, and this notice must not be removed. There is no warranty of any kind, and the copyright owner is not liable for damages of any kind. By using this free software, you agree to this. The software and documentation are: Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 by The Cove Software Group Christopher J. Dunford P.O. Box 1072 Columbia, Maryland 21044 (301) 992-9371 CompuServe 76703,2002 [IBMNET]