Simtel MSDOS 1992 September

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Text File | 1988-11-25 | 24.5 KB | 545 lines

CALLFOR version 0.1 (c) copy right 1988 All Rights Reserved This program is for the receptionist/secretary. This records the call of a phone/visitor on a pop up memory resident, easy to fill form (each form is called a "record"). And if the default form is not suitable at any given time, you can re-write a new one on-the-fly, while in the pop up with new selections and others pre-filled in already. This pop up will pop up over another program or over DOS. The limit on the number of forms you can store is limited by the amount of empty space in your diskette or the hard disk. If a hard disk is used, then changing from one subdirectory to the next will not prevent the list of filled in forms to be written in the original subdirectory it was in. CALLFOR.EXE keeps track of how many such forms were filled in since the last time the computer system was turned ON. And every form also has the date and the time that the pop up was called, so you don't have to note anything. In case of a power failure, there is no loss of the filled in forms (called records in here) unless the loss occurred during the very short interval that the file is opened. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= If you simply type CALLFOR then you get the help list only. The help list does not occupy needless memory, once the program is in memory. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To run this, simply type CALLFOR RUN and end it with an <ENTER> or <ntr> or <cr> or anything else you want to call the carriage return. Just the letter 'r' in 'run' will work also. The <alt> and 'M' will pop up the menu. The BAZIC.EXE program, another program in this series, must have at least 'ru' of 'run' in order to work. Pop up CALLFOR.EXE from DOS or under another program by pressing down on the alt key and while keeping this key pressed down, also pressing down on the letter "M". CALLFOR.EXE will not pop up from DOS while you're displaying the directory or something else but will pop up right after DOS stops doing whatever you told it to do. You can load any other program AFTER the CALLFOR to be removed along with CALLFOR, provided that the other programs have my name mentioned somewhere or it mentions that that particular program will wipe out this program also. Avoid running any other memory resident program after CALLFOR if not made by this group or specifically mentions that CALLFOR will wipe out that software also. CALLFOR.EXE itself does not have a wipe out feature, but many other programs made by this group will wipe this out from memory without rebooting. Do not load this or any memory resident program from the DOS mode many programs now-a-days. In other words, if you happen to be in your favorite word processor and you suddenly go to DOS with the ability to go back to where you left off on the word processor by typing EXIT at the DOS prompt, do not load any memory resident program and then EXIT back to your word processor. You've just initiated the computer system for a lock up and you will have to reboot the system as soon as you get out of your word processor. Similarly, do not load any memory resident program which can be removed from memory, run your word processor, go to the DOS mode, and then wipe out the memory resident program. These two conditions are both going to cause the computer system to lock up. This is not a fault of this or any memory resident program, free, public, or expensive payware. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HOW CALLFOR.EXE WORKS To run CALLFOR.EXE, type from the DOS prompt CALLFOR RUN<ntr> The first thing CALLFOR.EXE does is to check to see if another copy of CALLFOR.EXE is already in memory or not. After all, why waste memory? Then it checks to see if a copy of the records file CALLFOR (no extension given) is in the diskette or subdirectory which you ran CALLFOR.EXE. If a copy exists, then the drive (and subdirectory, if any) where it exists is also recorded. The total time is read and stored, and it becomes memory resident. If a copy does not exist in the present diskette or subdirectory, then the PATH is searched to find out if the records can be found. If found, then the drive and subdirectory is noted and the total time is read and stored, and it becomes memory resident. If no copy exists, then the present drive and subdirectory is noted and a new CALLFOR records file is created here. (A hard disk is preferable since removing the diskette with the records or running out of empty space can cause errors.) When you press down on the alt key and while keeping this key pressed, you also press down on the letter "M", CALLFOR.EXE will pop up under your program. The pop up is designed to work on 80 columns and higher modes. CALLFOR.EXE will not pop in 40 column modes. This is the type of pop up you'll get: insert mode Record #: 1 Date: September 10, 1988 11:14pm Message for: From: : Please call: Tel #: Ext.: Returned your call: Will call again: Wants to see you: Date: Time: Message received by: Action: Approval: Signature: Note&return: Forward: File-it: Others: =================================================<esc>=exits==v=0.1=DrMS&ASSOC= Let's call this entire thing composed of eight lines of 79 characters wide screen as one record, and let's call each section which ends with the colon ":" as a field. And the entire list of such records as stored in your disk(ette) as a file. So a field is one area to fill in such that "Please call: " is one field, "Tel #: " is another field here and "Ext.: " is still another field. The collection of such fields make up one such form to be filled in, and this one such form which is already filled in by you is called a record. The word "form" is used sparsely here and is used to describe each record which is not yet filled in by anything you typed. Every time someone comes calling into the office or makes a phone call and wants to leave a message, you fill in one such form after another. The collection of all the records which was filled in by you is called a file. It's important that you know the difference between what is meant here by a field, a record and a file, as well as a form, in order to understand the rest of this document since these four words are used to mean exactly that. In text mode, the blinking cursor will be just after the colon ":" of "Message for:" and the mode will be in insert mode. This is like the regular word processor type insert in that all characters to the right of the cursor will move right. Once you start on the comment, the default is the INSERT mode. In this mode, characters to the right of the cursor will be pushed right. To switch between INSERT and OVERWRITE modes, press down on the INS key: The indicator to the left of the record number will tell you which mode you're in. The default mode for the first three rows is the insert mode and the default for the rest of the rows is the overwrite mode. The indicator on the top left will tell you which mode you are currently in. The DEL key will delete the character at the cursor, and the rest of the characters to the right of the cursor are pushed left to fill the spot. The backspace will delete left as expected and all characters to the right of the cursor will move left, following the cursor. Once you press on the INS key, or if you go below the first three rows and the indicator says "overwrite", then some keys behave differently: The DEL key will not work. The backspace will delete left, but all characters to the right of the cursor will NOT move left. In either modes, the backspace will not stop deleting at the colon ":" of the named fields, but will continue to erase till the column 1 on the left corner. (This is not a bug but a feature, since this feature allows you to tailor the form to fit your needs and to have pre-filled parts as well. This is discussed in more detail later on.) HOME will not move the cursor if the cursor is on the left column 1. If not on the very left, then it will search for the colon ":" to the left of the cursor and will move the cursor right after the colon. The HOME key will not move the cursor from the present row of fields. For example, if the cursor is represented by an "x" here "Please call: x Tel #: " and you press on the HOME key, then the cursor will go "Please call:x Tel #: " It's a lot simpler to understand if you use it than if you read this document. But try to read the document, since you can use this program more efficiently if you have an inkling of an idea on what features are available. And you can look up the feature to clarify your vague memory. END will not move if the cursor is already on the very right column. Otherwise, it will search for the presence of a capital letter and moves the cursor to just before the capital letter. For example, if the cursor is represented by an "x" here "Please call: x Tel #: " and you press the END key, then the cursor will move to the end of the field like this. "Please call: xTel #: " The <ntr> key is the third key which does this type of searching. This is the key known as the carriage return or ENTER, or CR or ^M. Every time you press down on the <ntr> key, the program searches for the presence of a colon to the right of the cursor. And if found, then the cursor is placed right after the colon. If the present row of fields no longer contained a colon, then the next row of fields are searched. Once the very last field on the last row is searched, then the cursor will be placed on the top row first field. For example, if the cursor is represented by an "x" here and you press <ntr>, Returned your call: Will call again: x Wants to see you: Date: Time: Message received by: then the cursor will go here Returned your call: Will call again: Wants to see you:x Date: Time: Message received by: and if you press down on the <ntr> now, then it goes to the next field on the next row like this Returned your call: Will call again: Wants to see you: Date:x Time: Message received by: and so on. After such repeated pressing on the <ntr> key and the cursor goes to the very last right bottom field here Action: Approval: Signature: Note&return: Forward: File-it: Others:x and you press <ntr> again, then the cursor will be moved to the very top left row's field here Message for:x This behavior of searching for the colon ":" and a capital letter should be remembered when you modify the form (in other word, the blank record which is not filled in) to fit your needs as it changes over the course of the day. The <esc> key will get you out of the pop up. If you did not even type a single space and just moved the cursor around, then a record is not stored to disk. To make an empty record (in other words, a duplicate of the form) stored in disk(ette), type a few spaces. When you cursor up/down, the insert/overwrite mode will indicate "insert mode" on the first top three rows of fields and will indicate "overwrite" on the rest of the rows of fields. This default is necessary (you can change the default by switching with the INS key) since if you had it in insert mode with the cursor represented by an "x" and you typed any letter, Date: x Time: Message received by: the two fields to the right of the cursor will move right like this Date: x Time: Message received by: You may want this behavior when modifying the number of fields and pre-filling other fields. When you type any letters, numbers and such printable characters (including extended ascii for foreign characters, Greek symbols, box shapes, etc) in the insert mode, every other printable characters, including any field to the right of the cursor is also moved right. When you type any printable character in the overwrite mode, the rest of row does not move. However, you are allowed to overwrite any field name to the right of the cursor on this row. (overwriting to the fields on the next row is prohibited) So, if the cursor is at "x" and you type "but was very rude too" Returned your call: x Will call again: Wants to see you: Date: Time: Message received by: then the record will look like this Returned your call: but was very rude too Wants to see you: Date: Time: Message received by: This will be stored in the file in the disk(ette). However, the next time you pop up CALLFOR.EXE, the fields will be as before. The word "but was very rude too" will not be the default. To change the fields and pre-filled fields of the form which will appear everytime you pop this up, first type over the fields as you like, making sure that each field begins with a capital letter (like A, B or C) and end it with the colon (the ":", not the semi-colon ";"). You can add or subtract as many fields as will fit. Use the insert mode by pressing down on the INS key or use the overwrite mode by pressing down on the INS key again as you see fit. For example, to change this row of three fields Returned your call: Will call again: Wants to see you: to Returned your answer: May call: Wanna talk to you: Wanna borrow dough: move the cursor to the "c" in "Returned your call:" and type "answer: May call: Wanna talk to you: Wanna borrow dough:" To make this the default which will pop up, press down on the alt key and while keeping this key pressed down, also press down on the "S" letter to "S"ave this as the new default of the form to fill in. Similarly, if you really messed up filling the present record in and you want to start by filling it in with a clean slate, do altl with the letter el "L". This will wipe out the mess and will "L"oad the clean form before it was messed up. Note that storing and loading a form is the only operation which require that you press two keys at the same time, once you're in the pop up. This prevents you from accidentally storing a new form or erasing the filled in record by loading an empty form over it. The list of records are stored as regular ascii file and can be loaded into your favorite word processor/editor or printed directly from DOS to your printer; do COPY CALLFOR CON:<ntr> from DOS. Where <ntr> here is the carriage return you type. Do not type the two symbols and three letters representing it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FORMAT OF THE "CALLFOR" TIME LIST FILE CALLFOR.EXE reads a file called CALLFOR without any extension to find out what the total time spent on your project was so far. As presented above, each record consists of eight lines of 79 characters width. The default form has a certain number of fields you can fill in with x's or with text. The number of fields you decide to add or subtract is under your control. Just make sure that each field name begins with a capital letter and ends with a colon. And if the entire row is to be one comment (like the third row), put a colon anyway, so that the HOME and <ntr> keys can work properly. When CALLFOR.EXE first becomes memory resident and if there was already a CALLFOR records file present, then CALLFOR.EXE will check to see if the file was tampered. It does this by dividing the length of the file with 648, the length of each record in the file. If the file length was not divisible by this value, then CALLFOR.EXE will not become memory resident and will display a warning. This last feature is not really necessary since this version does not have other fancy features, but is placed here for consistency's sake. To make CALLFOR.EXE run, rename the file so that CALLFOR.EXE will create a new records file. Or if you can figure out where the changes were made, correct the length of each line to 79 again and CALLFOR.EXE will run properly. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= PROMPTS AND MESSAGES =-=-= You don't have to do it, CALLFOR is already in memory =-=-= If you tried to run CALLFOR when CALLFOR was already in memory, then you get this message. =-=-= The callfor file not found A new one is being created =-=-= CALLFOR.EXE did not find the CALLFOR records file in either the default or the PATH listing. As a result, a new records file is being created. If another of this group's memory resident program was loaded before this program, and that program is removeable, then remove that to remove this from memory. If you need a removeable CALLFOR.EXE, you can try asking for such a feature. =-=-= This file was modified by someone and no longer corresponds to the format originally set up. Please correct this according to the document CALLFOR.DOC =-=-= When CALLFOR.EXE first ran, it read the pre-existing CALLFOR records file. However, you apparently modified it yourself and changed the listing. See above on the format on how the records file should be set up. MESSAGES FROM WITHIN THE POP UP =-=-= File not found. Type any key to retry or <esc> =-=-= The pop up cannot find the CALLFOR records file. Chances are that you removed the diskette where it existed. Insert the diskette with the records file and type any key. Or type <esc> to avoid writing the new record and exit the pop up. =-=-= I cannot write the file. Type any key to retry, <esc> aborts =-=-= It appears that the records file was read but was unable to write the new record in here. Insert the diskette with the records file and type any key to retry, or <esc> to avoid writing the new record and exit the pop up. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= All products and names mentioned are Trademarks or Registered Trademarks of their respective corporations or companies. All enclosed programs, documents and other files are provided AS IS, without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. If you find that this does not work in your machine, we would like to know exactly what happened. With enough information, some of which you may consider useless, we may be able to make it work in your computer as well. A contribution of $10 US/Canadian is appreciated if you find this useful, or $20 for an improved one. Your negative criticisms are as welcome as your positive ones. PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM: This program is for the receptionist/secretary. This records the call of a phone/visitor on a pop up form. And if the default form is not suitable at any given time, you can re-write a new one on-the-fly, while in the pop up with new selections and others pre-filled in already. Features found in a regular word processors makes everything easy to fill. my old forwarding address was Dr. Masaaki Sawada & Assoc. University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3G1 the new forwarding address is Dr. Masaaki Sawada & Assoc. Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Sir M. B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Chemin Cote Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1E2 (you'll find it a lot easier to cut this address out with your word processor and print it on an envelope, rather than trying to write it by hand) The institute name is given instead of home address to lower the chances that any mail is delivered to a wrong address (a common occurrence). However no institute time nor equipment was used to write this program or document.