Libris Britannia 4/science library(b).zip/science library(b)/ENGINEER/3654.ZIP/FREEZER.TXT

Text File | 1992-11-15 | 16KB | 299 lines

     To start the program always type FREEZER [Return] at the C:\ prompt

                     Press F1 within the program for Help
                    Press F1 twice for the ON-LINE Manual



                 WELCOME TO THE FREEZER TEMPERATURE LOG PROGRAM

 This program has been produced in response to the new food and hygiene
 regulations regarding the cold storage of food. There are now very strict
 laws controlling the temperature frozen and refrigerated food are stored,
 officers form the local health department may arrive unannounced to check
 the temperature of freezer cabinets etc. There are very heavy penalties for
 owners of equipment found to be exceeding the legal minimum temperature. By
 checking the temperature of each piece of equipment, say three times per
 day, and entering the data into the program, you will have a record which
 you can show to the inspector. In the event of one or more items of
 equipment proving to be running above the regulation temperature you will be
 able to show that this is an isolated incident, at the very least you will
 demonstrate to the officer that you are taking the regulations very
 seriously. By entering data on a regular basis and taking any action
 required you will reduce the possibility of prosecution to an absolute
 minimum, the cost of adverse publicity with regards food hygiene can cost a
 company much more than any fines the courts may impose.


      You may evaluate this product for a period not exceeding 30 days.

 ShareWare is a method of distribution which allows you to examine a
 product's suitability prior to purchase 'try before you buy', YOU benefit by
 not having to pay for software which subsequently proves to be unsuitable
 for your requirements. You probably have a number of commercial packages
 which were bought on the strength of an advertisement, only to discover that
 the program had omissions which made it totally unuseable. With ShareWare
 there is no hype, a product stands or falls on it's merits. It is normal
 practice in the Commercial Software Company to employ a number programmers
 during the development of a new product then release them when the project
 is completed. A help line is then manned by someone who may or may not know
 the full ins and outs of the program. The ShareWare Author on the other hand
 usually handles all the help line enquiries directly, as this is the person
 who wrote each individual line of code you cannot have a better expert. Many
 of the problems I am asked about relate to Dos and not to the program, I am
 always happy to share my expertise and help to overcome the problem.
 Although extensive testing is carried out before I release a program there
 is always the possibility that I may have overlooked a subtle error in the
 code, if an error in one of my programs is brought to my attention it is
 usual for the corrections to be made, and an updated version shipped out the
 same day.

 The approved distributors, who make a small charge for the disk copying and
 administration, benefit by not having to stock expensive packages.


 The author benefits from being able to release many more new products than
 would otherwise be possible, updated versions can be supplied to the
 distributors and be out on the street within hours. The Author relies on a
 basic belief that most people are honest and that they will appreciate the
 fact that they have been able to try a product in their own environment
 without any pressure to buy.

 Many people wonder what type of person or organization use ShareWare, my
 registered users include Government Departments, Hospitals, Solicitors,
 Hotels, Chemical Companies, Computer Manufacturers and of course businesses
 from the one man operation right up to Plc's.
 Because ShareWare gets distributed right around the World many of my
 registrations come from outside the UK, registrations from Australia,
 Germany, Italy and Spain are common.

 In order for the ShareWare concept to continue you must play your part by
 ordering registered versions of the programs you intend to use, many
 programs have been removed from the UK market due to users failing to order
 the registered versions.


 The program allows the use of both the two and three button type of mouse.
 Three Button Mouse:
               The Left Button equates to the Enter key.
               The Middle Button equates to the F10 (Save key).
               The Right Button equates to the Esc (Abort Key)

 Two Button Mouse:
               The Left Button equates to the Enter Key.
               The Right Button equates to the Esc key.
               Left & Right Buttons pressed together equates to the F10 key.

 It can sometimes prove awkward to press the Left & Right buttons exactly at
 the same time, the solution is to press and hold down the Right Button then
 press the Left Button then release both together.


 I have been writing ShareWare programs since 1989, like 90% of the worlds
 programmers I am self taught. In 1989 I won the coveted award of 'UK
 Programmer of the Year', which brought me a lot of publicity in the Computer
 press.

 The award prompted me to do programming full time. Since then I have
 produced between 30 and 50 programs each year. Most of the programs I write
 are bespoke packages for companies or individuals who cannot find anything
 suitable available generally, usually they have already had a quote from
 their local consultancy, in desperation they turn to me for a more realistic
 quote, I can usually undercut most quotes by 80 - 85% which gains me the
 business. Obviously, at the prices I charge I cannot afford to run a Farrari
 or whatever, but I receive so much work that I just wouldn't have the time
 to drive one anyway....
 One program I wrote for a local Chemical Company saved them 32 man hours
 each week, the cost of the bespoke package was just £100 - computers in
 business can earn their keep with the right software.


 During the past 14 months I have been trying various packages with a view to
 increasing productivity, in the end it proved impossible to find one package
 which would be suitable for all projects. I have decided to continue to use
 Clarion, my original package plus Turbo Pascal which this particular program
 is written in. Turbo Pascal, one of the most popular languages ever
 produced, is overshadowed these days by the 'C' language, although I had
 used 'C' in the past I had never even considered Turbo Pascal, when I tried
 it I was amazed by the speed. All this research has meant that I have not
 been able to issue as many ShareWare programs as I would have liked, now
 that the research is over I can get back to doing what I enjoy most,
 programming.


 The Main Menu and it's sub menu's allow you access to all the modules which
 make up the program. You should first select SETTINGS to install a printer
 driver suitable for your printer. If there is not a suitable printer driver
 listed you can easily add your own settings, the ADDING PRINTER DRIVERS
 index explains how to add your own printer to the list if necessary. Many
 programs come with printer installation routines which allow you to add your
 own type of printer, my routine allows the control codes to be entered in
 any format they are describe in your printer manual, this makes adding a
 printer to the list a cinch. You can add them in AscII format, Decimal
 format or Hexadecimal format, or a mixture of each. Once you have selected
 your printer driver, press Esc to return to the Main Menu.

 Help is available on a field by field basis, each menu or command menu has
 help associated with it, simply press the F1 key when a menu option is
 highlighted.

 To save any data you have entered press the F10 key, to abort any changes
 press Esc.
 The program also supports a two or three button mouse, see MOUSE COMMANDS at
 the manual index.
 Selecting FILES at the Main Menu takes you to the data entry screen. The
 data entry form is split into two related files, at the top is the Equipment
 file which you describe the equipment and it's type. The TYPE field allows
 only two options, FREEZER and CHILLER. If the equipment is designed to to be
 run at -20C to -14C then the equipment should be designated 'FREEZER' if on
 the other hand the equipment is designed to be run at 2C to 8C then
 designate it type 'CHILLER'.

 The command menu allows you to Find an entry, Add a new item or Delete the
 displayed item etc. When you Delete an item of equipment the items of Data
 related to the equipment are also deleted, this is known as referential
 integrity, there is no point in having data on disk which has no equipment
 related to it. The file relationship is also known as Parent Child files.
 The Equipment being the Parent and the Data associated with it being the
 Child. Similar in the real world, a Parent can have many Children but a
 Child can only have one Parent, well it's almost a true analogy! When an
 item of equipment has been selected press '+' to move to the DATA file
 (press '-' to move back to the Equipment file), here you add the Date, Time
 and Temperature records. The Date and Time default to the system clock time,
 if your computer doesn't have battery back up for the clock you should enter
 the correct time and date when the machine is first started.



 The REPORT option allows you to view or print your data for a selected
 period. The Filter screen allows you to select the dates for the report,
 Start Date and End Date are both inclusive, the page length defaults to 59
 lines which is suitable for both 66 and 70 line deep paper, the printer
 should be set for the correct paper length, it will then produce a formfeed
 to push the paper from 59 lines to either 66 or 70 as appropriate. Pressing
 Enter on the Output Device field when blank will list a number of options,
 CON will send the report to the screen, DSK will send the report to a disk
 file, you will be prompted to enter a filename to save the file to, this may
 also contain a full path if required in order that you can send the report
 to any drive or directory on the system, by default the file will be placed
 in the program directory.

 All the other output options relate to various printer ports, if you are
 using a serial printer you should have your computer set up to assign the
 printer Com port to PRN.
 The printed report will list each item of equipment and it's related data
 together with an error message, 'HIGH' or 'LOW', the reason for indicating
 that the temperature is below the required minimum is to bring to your
 attention that the equipment is actually wasting electricity, obviously if
 the error message is 'HIGH' then this is more serious and action should be
 taken to lower the temperature as soon as possible.


 The Command Menu at the data entry screen allows you to choose various
 actions eg. ADD, EDIT, DELETE etc. The action you choose relates to the file
 you have active. The data entry screen consists of two files, Equipment and
 DATA normally you would use FIND (or NEXT, PREVIOUS) to locate the item of
 equipment you wish to edit, then you would press '+' to switch to the DATA
 file in order to add new records associated with the equipment displayed.
 Pressing '-' takes you back to the Equipment File.

 Deleting a record in the DATA File will simply delete that record, deleting
 an item in the Equipment File will warn you that all associated DATA records
 will also be deleted! there wouldn't be much point in keeping the records
 when the Equipment they relate to had been deleted.

 The Find window allows you to view the equipment records in alphabetic
 order, select DESCRIPTION as the index.

 The Find window lists all the equipment on record, you can use the cursor
 keys or the mouse to highlight the equipment you are searching for then
 press Enter to select it. If you have many items of equipment on record you
 may choose to do a find within the Find Window, when the items are listed
 simply type the description you are searching for, your characters will
 appear on the bottom border, the program will search for a match on a
 character by character basis and highlight the nearest match.

 Screen blanking delay time may be set by pressing ALT+V then setting the
 desired delay period, 0 turns off screen blanking 1 - 600 sets the screen
 blanking delay in seconds (600 = 10 mins)


 The screen blanking may be set individually for the Main Menu and the Data
 Entry screens, each setting is independent of the other eg. you could press
 ALT+V at the Main Menu screen and set the delay to 300 seconds and then at
 the Data Entry Screen press ALT+V again and set the delay to 0 to turn
 screen blanking off during the time the program was not displaying the Main
 Menu.

 The SETTINGS option at the Main Menu allows you to set the video attributes
 for the data entry fields. If the colors I have selected for the fields is
 not to your liking you can easily set them to whatever background and
 foreground colors you please.

 The program, in the interest of speed, access the BIOS directly when
 updating the screen, on some older VDU's this may create interference known
 as 'Snow' to be displayed as the update takes place, turning Snow OFF will
 solve the problem, although screen updates will be a little slower.

 Printer Installation
 A window named Printer Models Available shows the name and model of printer
 drivers supplied with the program. There are many printers on the market
 therefore it is not possible to issue a driver for every one, many printers
 not listed will have the ability to emulate one of the supplied drivers,
 usually requiring the dip switches to be altered, see your printer manual.
 In order for the correct printer driver to be activated you must (S)elect
 one. If your printer is not listed you may add your own printer to the list,
 it is probably easiest to copy an existing driver and then modify that
 rather than starting from scratch.

 Printer Models Window:
 ID:                 The new sequence number will be added automatically for
                     you.
 Printer Model Name: Enter a name for your printer which distinguishes it
                     from the others.
 Items Window:       C = Compressed print.
                     P = Portrait mode.
                     L = Landscape mode.
                     B = Bold print.
                     N = Normal.
                     R = Reset.

 Codes to Activate Style: Enter the actual codes as listed in your printer
                          manual. You can enter them in the following forms.

 Decimal       for example:  , E
 Hexadecimal   for example:  $1B, $45
 AscII         for example:  Esc, 'E'

 or a combination for example: Esc, E
                               , 'E'
                               Esc, $45
                               , $45
                               $1B, 'E'
                               $1B, E



 The Registered version of the program my be obtained by sending a cheque for
 the sum of £20 to the author:
                                Stephen C. Ebbrell (Software)
                                20 Green Lane
                                Garden Suburb
                                Oldham
                                OL8 3AY
                                United Kingdom

 Please state your full company name and address and indicate the disk size
 required, if you require the program on dual media 3½" + 5¼" please add £2
 for each copy required.

 You may order by phone from the Approved Distributor listed at the menu
 screen, the distributor may have to add VAT to the RRP.

 You will receive by return the latest registered version, together with a
 receipt for your payment.