---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NewCron 1.1 Copyright 1995 Stefan Radig ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. What's new Version 1.1 Bugfixes: - In the event screen, the event year was always the actual one. This has been fixed. - The switch delay is now only active, if there is a switch off event - In version 1.0 it was impossible to switch the machine off, if NewCron showed the message screen. This has been fixed. Version 1.0 New features: - A help is now available if the help file is installed. - Events may now be triggered when the S3a is switched off and/or on. - Settings which are not relevant for the actual event are printed in grey. Other changes: - The sources now need OPP10f to be compiled. This is an OPL-preprocessor by Andy Clarkson. - The language specific code has completely been moved to the file newcron.oph. There are versions for german and english language. - The distribution format has been changed. See later for details. WARNING: Files of version 0.9 and lower may no longer be used! Version 0.9 New features: - A new menu option has been added. Now you are able to search for a message text (wildcards may be used). - A new menu option has been added which displays the copyright screen for a while - There is now an english and a german version. Bugfixes: - A bug has been fixed which led to an error if you inserted an entry before copying or editing one. Now a copy event is executed simply before you may insert something. Version 0.8 This version has been greatly enhanced. So much of the internal structure has changed. New features: - The scheduler may no longer be started manually. It's started, when NewCron is started and finishes when NewCron finishes. - You can switch manually between the events and the message list via the diamond key. - You may edit entries while the scheduler is running. (Although it's stopped while you are looking at a dialog or menu.) - The time when an event occured is logged in the message list. Bugfixes: - Now all the 40 characters of a message may be displayed. Version 0.7 New features: - Now a daily time interval can be given. Events that do not fall in this interval are ignored. Bugfixes: - A little bug in doevnt has been fixed. It was a wrong date comparison. WARNING: Files of version 0.6 may no longer be used! Version 0.6 The first released version. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Intro This is NewCron 1.1, a scheduler program for the psion S3a. It may be used to schedule repeated events. It uses a file for storing a list of events each of which may trigger different actions. Features: - Number of events limited only by size of the used disk. - Triggers sounds, texts, macros and/or opl-programs. - Comfortable builtin editor for events running in parallel to the scheduler. - Switches the S3a on, if necessary. - Repetitions from seconds to years. - Day time intervall for active events - Events may be edited at each time and will be queued after you finished editing. - A help screen is given, which holds a subset of this manual. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Copying The program may be copied and changed according to the terms stated in the file COPYING, which is the GNU General public license. If you make any changes please send them - along with some documentation - to me. If I consider them useful I will include them in the next version. Although you are allowed to, if would prefer if you would not post own versions. This would be very confusing. However if you do, give it a different name and/or state explicitly that it's an 'unofficial' release. If you think, that the program is useful to you, don't send any donations but please feel free to send your own programs (incl. keys, if shareware) to me. I would appreciate very much getting feedback from you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Files The package consists of the following files in the following folders: newcron.txt - this manual copying.txt - the GNU General public license V2 which is to be applied /binaries/ /deutsch/ /app/ newcrong.opa - the german binary /cron/ newcrong.rsc - the german help file /english/ /app/ newcrone.opa - the english binary /cron/ newcrone.rsc - the english help file /sources/ /opd/ newcrong.hlp - the source for the german help file newcrone.hlp - the source for the english help file /opp/ newcron.opp - the program source newcron.oph - the language specific code /pic/ newcron.pic - the icon for the opa newcron2.pic - an alternative icon ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Installation - Choose your language and go into the appropriate folder. Copy everything in it to the correct folder on the internal drive. Install the .opa file in the usual way. Then use it. Example for the english version: - Create the folder /cron/ - Copy /binaries/english/app/newcrone.opa to /app/newcrone.opa /binaries/english/cron/newcrone.rsc to /cron/newcrone.rsc - Install it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Using NewCron The program conforms as close as I could to the style used by the internal applications. This includes the file list from the system screen, which may be used to choose the actual file or create a new one. Even several copies of NewCron may be active at the same time. Starting: Start NewCron from the system screen selecting a file from the file list or creating a new one using the menu option. The program will display a copyright screen and then start to look for events past due. These will be replayed. *** You may stop replaying them by pressing any key. *** THIS WILL STOP THE SCHEDULER until you edit any event! If you didn't press a key or - after pressing a key - edited an event, the scheduler will search for the next due - or passed due - event. This may take a while, especially if you didn't use it a long while. When the next event has been found NewCron will display "Waiting for event #". Stepping around: Step around with the arrow keys. Arrow-up goes to the first event, arrow-down to the last one. Arrow-right creates a new entry if you press it when looking at the last event. The events are not sorted and if you alter an event, it will become the last one. Editing: You may now edit, add and delete events. Note that the scheduler is not active, if either the menu or a dialog box is displayed. However it will replay past due events in the appropriate order after the menu/dialog has been left. Press enter to edit the event you are looking at. To change the fields , or select them then press enter. This is annoying because it does not conform to the builtin app style. But I don't know how to use the -Button-Options in a dialog from OPL. Is there anyone who knows??? The switch may be used to switch between , , and . However means switched off manually not automatically! Using the menu: The menu options may be selected by hotkeys, of course. But I didn't know a reason why you should be forced to press the PSION-key. (Does anyone know one???) So the plain keys will work, too. In addition the delete key will delete an event, too. Pressing the help key gives a help screen. The log screen: Each event executed is logged in the message list although you will only be able to look at the last 10 or so events. If a message is attached to the event, NewCron will switch to foreground and will display the message list when the event occurs. Otherwise it won't. You may manually switch between the event-screen and log-screen using the diamond key. If you are looking at the log screen, every key will bring you back to the event-screen. Hints: - The order of events in the file - and with it the event numbers - will change deliberately. So always check, that you are looking at the right event! - Macros from Tom Dolbilin's MacSys may be used only if MacSys is installed. Otherwise they are discarded without any special note! - The scheduler will execute due events if and only if it displays a message "Waiting for event #" in the bottom left edge of the screen. If you expect an event to be due in future and don't see this something has gone wrong!!! - When you edit an event, it will automatically switch to active state. Switch back if this is undesired! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Changing the program If you want to change the help files you will need helpkit1.zip which is a help compiler written by Jezar. Follow the instructions given there for compiling the help file. Copy the .rsc file to the correct directory. If you want to edit the program or add a new language you will need opp10f by Andy Clarkson. Copy the files in /sources/ to the appropriate folders. Choose one of the two .pic files and name it newcron.pic. All changes concerning the language should be done only in newcron.oph. I hope it works for every language, but I'm not sure. If not, contact me! Choose the target language by setting the switch LANG to the desired number. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Bugs, suggestions and questions I have not found any bugs (if I had I would have fixed them). If YOU find any please send me a short description and I will fix. If you have suggestions and you know how to implement them, then do it or tell me how. If you don't know how then describe your suggestions and I will see, if I manage to implement them. There is one disadvantage when triggering OPL modules: They are always started in foreground. I don't know how to start a program in background. There is a way around this: Simply rename lauch: in launch1: and lauch2: in launch:. Then the opl programs - which must be started with a procedure named 'main' will be started in the background. This has a different disadvantage: The scheduler won't continue until the launched program has finished. There is a way around this: Implement a server process for newcron. This shouldn't be to hard and I will implement it if - but only if - there are people asking for it. The program uses 30 Kbytes when running which is consumed mainly by the window server for the two windows... I would be very happy to get feedback of any kind to help improving the program!!! Also questions are welcome. The newcron2.pic icon is a little joke because I am not at all an artist. If someone develops a reasonable icon please mail it to me. The newcron.pic is a more serious one and is taken from ibox. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Future developments Eventually I will change the application to use asynchrous menus/dialogs. This will bring the style closer to the style of the builtin applications and will allow to trigger events even while a menu/dialog box is displayed. This will only be done, if I get feedback from users who want this. As I got - till now - exactly one message providing feedback, this will probably be the last version. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Credits The program was entirely written on my German 2MB S3a. It's first program I have ever written on a psion machine. - I used the great package ST-Comms for storing on my ATARI ST. To every Atari_and_Psion User: Try it!!! - I got needed information from the psionics files at scr.doc.ic.ac.uk! Thanks to Clive D.W. Feather. - I tried CRON2.0 by Paul Merriman then decided to write a new one but I got many ideas from it. - The program uses runmacro from the great macsys package by Tom Dolbilin. - The file lpcs.zip helped me developing version 0.8. I didn't know before how to mix console events and io-events. - I use Andy Clarksons OPP. It's great! - Thanks to Jezar for the helpkit! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Disclaimer The program is not perfect. So try it at your own risc. There is no disclaimer about my awful english ;-) but feel free to send me corrections especially concerning the english version of the program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. My address Contact me over internet radig@irb.uni-hannover.de or over CompuServe 100753,3503@compuserve.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy! 14.9.95 Stefan Radig