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1990-04-04
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EAZEVNT3.EXE V3.55 - Produces lists of Today's Events
-----------------------------------------------------
for use with EaziLink Version 3 Host Mode/EaziHost V1
4th April 1990
Disclaimer
----------
This program is being put into the Public Domain and may be freely
distributed on the understanding that no responsibility can be
accepted for any problems arising from its use. To the best of our
knowledge, it is 'Bug free' and serves its intended purpose.
No charge, other than a nominal charge for duplication and postage may
be made for it and it should only be supplied as a single ARC, PAK, or
ZIP file called EZEVNT35.ARC, EZEVNT35.PAK, or EZEVNT3.ZIP containing
the EAZEVNT3.EXE and EAZEVNT3.DOC files.
Origins
-------
This program was inspired by a program called TODAY, which is readily
found on Bulletin Boards throughout the country.
TODAY was written in 'C' by Patrick Kincaid in 1986 and was apparently
inspired by a program originally written by Mike Butler in PL/1 on an
IBM VM/CMS system.
Whilst TODAY may be made to send output to a file on disk by using MS-
DOS re-direction, the copyright message is always displayed and the
user has no control over the various headings.
EazEvnt3 is written with TopSpeed (JPI) Modula 2 specifically to
overcome these shortcomings and whilst it can be used from the DOS
command line or a batch file, this particular version is primarily
intended to produce output suitable for display either as a message,
bulletin, Log On, or Log Off message.
The program has been written to be file compatible with the TODAY.???
data files supplied with the TODAY program, but with one extra
feature. This means that TODAY data files may be used. The only
disadvantage to this is that many of the dates relate to American
events or people.
The TODAY data files are very American and users may prefer to either
create their own data files, or delete some of the more obscure events
and dates from the TODAY.??? files before using them!
Overview
--------
The program generates a file containing lists of birthdays and events
related to the current date. It will also include 'Reminders' and
'Once Only' dates (These are explained later).
The prime object of the program is to produce output suitable for use
on a Bulletin Board. Many BBs provide a 'Quote for the day'. This is
an alternative! Fairly pointless, but interesting and the reminders
can be very useful.
Running EAZEVNT3
----------------
EazEvnt3 should be located in a directory with all its data files. The
data files must be called DATES.JAN, DATES.FEB, DATES.MAR etc and a
special file called DATES.OWN may also be included (This is described
later). If you are using the TODAY data files, copy them into the same
directory and then rename them using:-
REN TODAY.* DATES.*
By default, EAZEVNT3 will only run once every day, although this can
be overridden (usually only required for test purposes) by adding an
optional command line parameter (described later).
The program would normally be run from a batch file at some stage in
the cycling of the Bulletin Board. The batch file MUST change DOS to
the directory containing the EAZEVNT3.EXE file before the program is
run. The command syntax is:-
EAZEVNT3 <outfile> (/E)
<outfile> is the name of the file to receive the output and may
include drive and path names.
/E is optional, but if used will result in the program being
executed every time.
When the program is executed, it gets the current date from the
computer's system clock and compares this with the date/time stamp of
the EAZEVNT3.EXE file. The program then updates the date of the
EAZEVNT3.EXE file to the current time and date.
If the system and file dates (not times) are the same, the program
then terminates, otherwise it looks for a data file called DATES, with
an extension the same as the first three letters of the month (JAN,
FEB, MAR etc) and searches the data file for matching dates. It also
looks for a data file called DATES.OWN and checks the dates in that.
DATES.OWN is convenient as a means of adding your own dates, or dates
which may need changing periodically, such as the dates of Easter etc.
EazEvnt3 also attempts to find a file called EAZEVNT3.CNF. If found,
it uses the contents of this file as the headers for each group of
dates, but if it is not found, it uses its own default headings
instead. The advantage of using the CNF files is that it allows you to
insert colour into the file in the form of EaziLink pseudo ansi codes.
The data is then written out to the specified output file which may
then be used by the BB however it wishes.
Note: A maximum of 10 Birthdays, 10 Special Events and 10 Reminders
will be written out to the file, in order to keep it to a reasonable
size. This should not normally be a restriction.
Data File Format
----------------
The format of the data files is compatible with that used by the TODAY
program, but also includes an extra option. The data files are plain
ASCII and may be edited with any ASCII text editor.
Each data file must be called DATES.??? where '???' is the first
three characters of the month (in English!), or may be a special file
called DATES.OWN, which is primarily intended as a convenient means of
storing personal dates or those which may need changing periodically.
With the exception of DATES.OWN, which may contain dates for any time
in any year, each of the other data files should only contain dates
relating to that month.
The format of the files is straightforward:-
Any line starting with an asterisk '*' in column one is treated as a
'comment' line and is not processed.
Column 1: The record type which can be a
B - for birthdays.
S - for special dates in history.
R - for a reminder.
Cols 2-3: Month, followed by Day with leading zeros for each, in the
form MMDD. Zeros will cause ALL months to match when being
scanned. For example 0001 will match the first of every
month while 0400 would match every day of April.
Note: Due to maintaining compatibility with TODAY data
files, the dates are in the American format of Month,
followed by Day.
Cols 6-9: The full year of the event as four digits, or spaces. The
entry may be left blank.
Column 10: A special processing flag. Values may be:
BLANK for no special processing.
C - to continue a message from the previous line. Note,
that you MUST repeat the date fields in every continuation
line. Only the text will actually be displayed however.
DAY-OF-WEEK DIGIT - where 1=Sunday ... 7=Saturday. If
used, the message will only be included if the day of the
week is the same as specified by this digit. This provides
a mechanism to display occasions which occur on a
specified day of the week, on or around a given date. See
examples below.
O - (Letter 'O', not zero) is an addition to the original
TODAY format and will result in the message only ever
being displayed once, on the precise day, date and year
specified. You might choose to use it on 01012000 (January
1st 2000) to wish everyone a Happy New Century, for
example.
Cols 11-79 The message to be displayed for this date.
Examples of Data File Entries
-----------------------------
* Examples of Birthday entries.
B02221945 David Foster. Author of this program.
B03011810 Frederic Chopin
* Examples of Special Events.
S03051979 Voyager I flies past Jupiter.
S03101876 the 1st telephone call made by Alexander Graham Bell
* The following includes two 'continuation lines'.
S03011864 patent issued for taking & projecting motion pictures to
S03011864CLouis Ducos du Hauron (he never did build such a
S03011864Cmachine, though).
* Example of a few Reminders.
* The first two will display every day in the appropriate month.
* The third will display on the 1st of every month.
R1200 It's not long to Christmas now!
R0400 Don't forget the Tax Return soon!
R0001 Another New Month.
* Example of a 'once only' Reminder.
S01012000OWelcome to the New Century.
* Examples of using the Day-of-Week Digits
* Each date is only valid if it is a Monday (2) and as the Bank
* Holiday is always the last Monday in the month, the correct date
* will always be displayed.
*
S0525 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0526 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0527 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0528 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0529 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0530 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
S0531 2Spring Bank Holiday Monday
* A reminder, using the Day-of-Week digit.
R0013 6Watch out! It's Friday the 13th!
The Configuration File
----------------------
The EAZEVNT3.CNF file is optional, but may be used to customise the
headings which precede Birthdays, Special Event and Reminders.
If created, the CNF file must contain exactly three lines.
Line 1 contains the Message to precede the list of Birthdays
Line 2 contains the Message to precede the list of Special Events
Line 3 contains the Message to precede the list of Reminders
Each line may also include EaziLink/EaziHost Pseudo-ANSI codes to
provide colours and effects, as required. If a colour is not cancelled
at the end of the line with ^C0, it will be used for all the entries,
unless changed by the next heading.
Two special variables may be used. These are:-
%YEAR - produces the year, according to the system clock.
%DATE - produces the date, according to the system clock, in
the form '30th November' or '21st October'
The variables may be used in any of the three lines in the CNF file
and the results will be substituted when the file is created.
A sample EAZEVNT3.CNF file is included.
Example of a Batch File to use EazEvnt3
---------------------------------------
The following example is called RECYCLE.BAT and is run by EaziLink or
EaziHost every time they recycle after a caller. The only disadvantage
to this is that the first caller each day will receive the information
for the previous day as the program will not have recycled at that
point.
EaziHost includes the provision to run a batch file using the
ENTRY1.HST door mechanism and this can be used to run the batch file
as soon as a caller logs on. EazEvnt3 will only create the file the
first time a caller logs on in the new day and it will be available
for display as soon as they have logged on. This is not possible with
EaziLink Host Mode, unfortunately.
ECHO OFF
REM RECYCLE.BAT is used to run processes during a re-cycle sequence
CD \DATA
EAZEVNT3 \EAZILINK\HOSTMAIN\LOGOFF.HST
In the above batch file, the directory is changed to DATES, which
contains all the EazEvnt3 files and the program is executed, directing
the output to a file called LOGOFF.HST in the \EAZILINK\HOSTMAIN\
directory. LOGOFF.HST is the file which is automatically displayed
whenever anyone logs off EaziLink or EaziHost.
Update History
--------------
The range of EAZ????? utilities for use with EaziLink and now EaziHost
share a common form of Version numbering.
Programs with Version numbers lower that V3.00 were written to work
with EaziLink V1 or V2.
Programs with version numbers V3.?? up to V3.49 were written for use
with EaziLink V3.
Programs with version numbers 3.5? or higher will work with both with
EaziLink V3 and EaziHost V1.
Version
3.50 - 15/12/89 - Initial Beta test version
3.51 - 21/12/89 - First Release version.
3.53 - 02/01/90 - Added default text to be displayed if no match
found.
- Fixed bug which caused problems when month and day
were single digits.
David Foster
H.L.C. Services
High Leys
Crook
Kendal
Cumbria
LA8 8LF
END