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Biorhythms 4
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by David French
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Documentation
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This file:
Biorhythms4.01d.doc
Welcome to the Demo of Biorhythms 4!
N.B. Anyone who is familiar with any previous releases of Biorhythms can
skip this doc if they feel like it.
This program, being the demonstration of Biorhythms 4, has two of it's
features, namely Graph Date and Save Configuration, disabled. To obtain the
full version of Biorhythms, send £10 to me at the address in the program and
further down in the document.
Contents
^^^^^^^^^^
Biorhythms - about biorhythms in general
Biorhythms 4 - about the Biorhythms program
Usage - using it
Requirements - what it needs
Privateware - about Privateware
PD Libraries - if you are a PD library
Distribution - about distribution, surprisingly enough
My Address - any MENSA members out there?
Thanks - acknowledgements
Biorhythms
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Biorhythms are three internal biological cycles which, so science tells
us, everybody has. These cycles are: PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL and INTELLECTUAL.
Basically speaking, they cycle up and down every 23 to 33 days, and they
govern the way we "perform", for want of a better word.
Each cycle has a positive phase, a negative phase, and between the two a
critical point. During the positive phase of, say, the intellectual cycle,
we are able to concentrate for longer periods and are more likely to use our
loaves, if you get my drift. During the negative phase however, the opposite
happens. The critical day is the one to watch out for, where we may make
mistakes and generally botch things up. (If it matters that much to you,
there are also mini-critical days at the peak of the positive and negative
phases.)
Another example: on an emotional critical day, it may be best to steer
well clear of arguments which may be emotionally upsetting, because they
will affect you more than usual.
Get the picture? Of course, this document is a guide of how to use the
Biorhythms program rather than how to interpret its results, so I cannot
really go into depth.
If your appetite is duly whetted, I suggest you borrow or buy the
following book: "Biorhythms" by Peter West, published by Thorsons, ISBN
0-7225-0967-7. This book is currently priced £3.50 in paperback, and no, I
do not work for the publishers...
Well, that's that over and done with. Now for the program bit.
Biorhythms 4
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Usage
^^^^^^^
I think that Biorhythms is pretty self explanatory, but just in case you
have trouble:
Windows:
The upper of the two Biorhythms windows contains the graph when it is
produced, and the lower contains any error messages or comments. Think
of it as a status window, or ignore it completely if you want.
Menus:
Project/About My address, etc.
Project/Graph Produces the biograph when supplied with a
birth date
Project/Print Prints the graph, if there is one
Project/Quit Exits the program after confirmation
Date Entry/Birth Date Brings up a date requestor for your birth date
Date Entry/Graph Date Ditto for date at which graph is to start -
N.B. disabled in demo version
Printer/Grey Scale Sets the palette to that for a grey scale
printer
Printer/Colour Ditto for colour printer
Palette/Alter Modifies palette for selected printer type
Preset/Load Loads preset from disk
Preset/Save Saves preset to disk - see below
Configuration/Load Loads configuration from disk
Configuration/Save Saves configuration to disk - N.B. disabled in
demo version
Configuration/Speech Toggles the speech feature
Notes:
The two palettes (for Colour and Grey Scale printers) are
interchangeable at any time, and may not reflect the best palette for
your printer. If so, alter them using the Palette requestor and save
them. I prefer to use the colour palette in general, so that I can easily
identify the three cycles, and swap only to the Grey Scale palette when
printing.
The date requestors cannot cope with high-speed clicking! So please
don't start hitting your Amiga when the program appears to ignore your
frantic clicks. Just take a little more time over it. Hopefully this will
be solved with the new faster version of HiSoft BASIC.
PRESETS are one of the features of Biorhythms 4. When I was using
^^^^^^^^^ the program, I thought: instead of having to enter vital
statistics each time I want a graph for a certain person, why not be able
to load and save the personal statistics as I want? So I wrote it in.
Preset/Load loads a preset from the disk, using the ARP file
requestor, and Preset/Save saves the statistics from the current graph
under the name used in that graph. Simple as that.
In the book I mentioned earlier, entitled "Biorhythms", there is a
section with various famous people's birthdates. Just for you, I've
included a few of these on the Biorhythms release disk, in the
"Famous_People" subdirectory of the Biorhythms disk. Browse through
these and you too can discover the joys of Queen Elizabeth II's Biorhythm
cycle...
Incidentally, I have included my own statistic file with Biorhythms 4,
in case anybody's interested.
What are you waiting for?
Enjoy Biorhythms! (but make sure you read the Privateware section below
first...)
Requirements
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Biorhythms will only run properly with the following files on the path
"Biorhythms4.01 Demo:" (or on the Biorhythms disk, if you don't know what
that means):
Biorhythms4.01 Demo
Biorhythms4.01d.config
Biorhythms4.01d.doc
Biorhythms4.01d.notes
Presets (dir)
and also:
arp.library
in your "libs:" directory.
Standard I/O devices printer drivers as supplied are also needed.
I haven't been able to test it, but Biorhythms should run okay on NTSC
Amigas. The only thing you will lose is the status window, which you should
be able to manage without.
Privateware
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Biorhythms 4 is Privateware. This means that the full program is
copyright and not distributable, but the demo, i.e. this disk, can be
distributed freely. The idea is that if you think Biorhythms is good enough
you will want to alter the graph date, and if you want to do that you will
have to send me £10 for the full program. (My address is below.)
I am not entirely happy with Biorhythms being Privateware, but I have
found out the hard way that not many people are willing to "donate" towards
Shareware. At least this way I ensure that anybody using Biorhythms properly
will have coughed up their pennies. It rather destroys the idea of Public
Domain, but it seems to be the only way. Sorry.
PD Libraries
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PD libraries are invited to distribute Biorhythms 4 Demo freely. However,
the full version of Biorhythms is of course not Public Domain.
Distribution
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Biorhythms 4 Demo MUST be distributed in it's entirety WITH the files
listed under "Requirements" AND all icons. Please leave it on the original
disk, but feel free to add to the disk. Thanks.
My Address
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Send all money, suggestions or complaints to:
David French,
"Gateacre",
Devon Road,
Salcombe,
Devon,
TQ8 8HQ,
ENGLAND.
Thanks
^^^^^^^^
Thanks must go to John Murray for beta-testing, suggestions, motivation
etc., and to the following registered users:
Phillip J. Makins
Dennis Barrett
Vic Eva,
to NBS PD on the Isle of Wight for distributing Biorhythms and being
a generally nice bunch of people,
to Greg King for beta-testing and suggestions,
and to HiSoft for such a good program (HiSoft BASIC) and a very
helpful technical support department.
Enjoy Biorhythms.
David French.