Notes on TIDE.EXE v1.1 Although this program is shareware, it is copyrighted and may be used only by registered users. See the end of this file for registration information. Overview: TIDE calculates tidal heights and tidal current velocities for any time beginning with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (Oct. 15, 1582) through the 21st. century. The program presents the user with a calendar for selecting beginning and ending times for the time series. A graphic plot of the series may then be displayed and printed. Routines are available for changing stations, viewing individual constituents, saving data to a disk file, viewing max-min times and values, setting program defaults, and creating user defined stations. Using TIDE: The program may be configured to initially display the calendar or a plot of the tide for the current day (as determined by the computer's internal time setting). When the program is run for the first time it creates an initialization file (tide.ini) that contains settings which determine the default station, whether to initially show the calendar or tide plot etc. (When moving the program files to another computer be sure to delete the TIDE.INI file). The initial setting is to show the calendar when the program loads. The calendar shows the days in the current month and the moon phases. The current day is highlighted with a square yellow cursor. Full Moon is the filled (blue moon) circle. A time series may be selected by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the yellow cursor to the start day and typing a "B" (beginning), then moving the cursor the end day and typing "E" (end). The text below the calendar shows the selected beginning and ending dates. Typing "T" (tide) will display a plot of the tide. Calendar Functions: When in the calendar display the user has access to several program functions. These functions are as follows: Changing month or year: Typing lowercase "n" or "l" changes to next or last month. Typing uppercase "N" or "L" changes to next or last year. Moving to a particular date: Use the "d" (date) key to change the beginning and ending dates. Dates must be entered as MM/DD/YYY HH:MM with a single space between the year and the hour. If it is necessary to change only the year, use the "y" command and input the year. Changing the calculation interval: The interval used for calculating the tidal series is initially set to 1/2 hour (0:30). The interval can be changed by typing "I" and entering the new interval in the format HH:MM (hours:minutes). The choice of a calculation interval is dependent upon the available memory. Approximately 10,000 intervals are available, depending on available computer ram below 640k. This number of intervals is sufficient to calculate a year of tide data (8760 intervals). If just a few days of data is to be calculated, choosing a shorter interval such as 30 minutes gives a smoother plot. Note: although a math coprocessor is not required calculations will take considerably longer without one. Changing the Station: The "s" command changes the tidal station. The user is presented with a list of available stations. Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to the required station and press enter to accept the change. The Page Up and Page Down keys are used to view additional stations. The "C" and "H" keys are used to select tidal Current or tidal Height stations. All stations residing in the default path are automatically displayed. Displaying High/Low water or max/min current values: Choose "w" to display a list of the times and values of high and low water and max/min and 0 current velocity. The values can also be sent to the default printer. Options: The "o" command allows the user to change program defaults or to input data for a user defined station. The options are as follows: 1. Reset program defaults: 1. Set default station to current value: This option saves the currently selected station as the default station which is used each time the program is run. 2. Set default calculation interval to current value: The current calculation interval will be used each time the program is run. 3. Show Calendar or Plot of current day's tide when program is loaded: Gives the user the option of showing a plot of the current day's tide without having to use the calendar to select beginning and ending times. This is useful for quickly getting a picture of today's tide. 4. Show High/Low water - Max/Min velocity on tide plot: Automatically shows these times on the tide plot. Because these values use additional memory, their use reduces the available length of the time series. 5. Show values in Feet-Knots or Meters-M/Sec: Values can be displayed in English or Metric units. 6. Select Printer: Displays a list of printers supported by DOS. Select by typing the letter of one of the listed printers. Note: a printer must be selected before the program will print a plot. The next two choices change parameters for the current session only, and are not saved as defaults. 2. Show High/Low water on tide plot: Automatically shows these times on the tide plot. Because these values use additional memory, their use reduces the available length of the time series. 3. Show values in Feet-Knots or Meters-M/Sec: Values can be displayed in English or Metric units. 4. Input/modify constituents for a user defined station: This selection allows the user to create new stations which can then be used for tidal predictions. The user must have the constituents for the new station. You must know the first 8 characters of the file name of an existing station or you must input a new file name. Note: tide height stations must end with the extension *.cht and current stations with the extension *.crt. Do not type these extensions as they are automatically appended by the program. The constituents are the standard 38 constituents used by the NOS. It is possible to import constituents from an existing station and save them under a new file name. This might be useful for example, when creating a new station upriver of an existing station whose constituents are known. Phases and amplitudes of the unknown constituents at the new station can be adjusted by "trial and error" until they approximate observations. (good luck!) The new station must be given a name (up to 70 characters) before it can be saved. Tide Plot Functions: Constituents: Allows the user to display selected constituents on the tide plot. Select the constituents to plot by typing the numbers preceeding the constituent. A constituent may be deselected by retyping the two number code. Selected constituents are labelled with a > character. Selection 39 is the default and displays the sum of all constituents. Selection 38 displays the sum of only the selected constituents, not including 39. To view the selected constituents choose "s" to save changes and exit to the tide plot. Be sure to turn off the display of max/min values before viewing constituents. Change Station: The "s" command changes the tidal station. The user is presented with a list of available stations. Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to the required station and press enter to accept the change. The Page Up and Page Down keys are used to view additional stations. The "C" and "H" keys are used to select tidal Current or tidal Height stations. All stations residing in the default path are automatically displayed. File: Saves the data to a disk file. Input the first 8 characters of the file name. A file extension of *.txt is automatically appended to the file name. The format of the file is: Station Name Beginning date/time, Ending date/time, Interval value value value... The first value corresponds to the beginning date/ time and suceeding values correspond to previous time + interval. This file format was chosen because of the ease with which it can be imported into a spreadsheet such as Excel where a time series can be easily created. Calendar: Returns the user to the calendar display. Max-Min: Toggles the display/calculation of max-min values. Turn off Max-Min if individual constituents are displayed. Requirements: DOS v5.0 or higher, VGA display, 640k ram, and any printer supported by the DOS 'Graphics' driver (IBM compatible or Laserjet). Please let me know if you find errors. Paul L. Gay Box N147 Westport, MA 02790 (508-636-6883) Notes: The program uses the DOS Graphics driver to dump the screen to the printer. Printing problems have been reported with VESA local bus systems. Make sure that the DOS Graphics driver is in the path. When moving the program files to another computer be sure to delete the TIDE.INI file. This file holds information about a particular computer's configuration and will probably not be correct for another computer. If TIDE.INI does not exist the program will automatically create a new one. ----------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION INFORMATION Although this program is shareware, it is copyrighted and may be used only by registered users. The cost of registration is $20.00 U.S. Use of the information provided by the program is at the risk of the user and no warranty is stated or implied. To register the program, please fill out the following form and send $20.00 to: ----------------------------------------------------------------- TIDE PROGRAM ORDER FORM Name __________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________________________ City _______________________________ State____ Zip___________ Check Tide Database One database is included, additional databases at $5.00 each __ Northeast Atlantic (Canada-NJ) __ Mid Atlantic (NJ-GA) __ Souteast & Gulf __ Pacific (West Coast to AK) Free Software Manual included with registration. Tide Program Registration $20.00 Additional Database $5.00 each ______ TOTAL ______ Send to: Paul L. Gay Box N147 Westport, MA 02790 (508-636-6883) -----------------------------------------------------------------