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TIMESET (tm) Version 6.0 A program to set computers to the world's most accurate clocks Copyright 1990, Life Sciences Software 8925 271st N.W., Suite 112 P.O. Box 1560 Stanwood, Washington 98292 206-337-7328 (206-387-9788 after January 1, 1991) "TIMESET" is a trademark of Life Sciences Software (tm) CONTENTS PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i FEATURES OF TIMESET 6.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii SHAREWARE NOTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Toll-Free Registration by Modem -- using TSREGSTR . . . . . . . . iv INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 CONFIGURING TIMESET FOR HARDWARE CLOCKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 "Slotless Clocks" and Tandy's SmartClock . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 CMOS Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Expansion Slot Add-On Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Using CLKDRV10.SYS with Board Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 RUNNING THE PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Standard and Daylight Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Monitor Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Pulse Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Changing the Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Additional Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 THE TIME DATA STRINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Naval Observatory's Data String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The NIST's Data String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 LINE DELAY MEASUREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Line Delay Correction by NIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Line Delay Correction with the Naval Observatory . . . . . . . . . 14 When Should Line Delay Measurement Be Used? . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A Note About MNP Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 THE FINAL DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 A FURTHER NOTE ABOUT ACCURACY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 TIMESET 6.0 AND THE WORDPERFECT LIBRARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 PROGRAMMING NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 CUSTOM PROGRAMMING SERVICES AVAILABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 YOUR SUPPORT IS VERY IMPORTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 TIMESET 6 MAIL REGISTRATION FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE All rights to TIMESET are reserved by Life Sciences Software, and all rights to CLKDRV10.SYS are reserved by Tom Strickland, Alexandria, Virginia. "TIMESET" is a trademark of Life Sciences Software (tm). Both programs are copyrighted and owned by their authors and only their authors have the right to sell them. However, TIMESET 6.0 and its companion files may be distributed by anyone. Firms involved in shareware program distribution and charging only a reasonable fee to cover disk copying, handling, and shipping may also distribute these files. Please help the next person by making sure all the files are transferred together. The version 6.0 package must include the following (no extraneous material added, please): TIMESET.COM (version 6.0) CLKDRV10.SYS (version 1.0) TSREGSTR.COM The READ.ME file (if one was present) This document - i - FEATURES OF TIMESET 6.0 Version 6.0 of Professional TIMESET is a top-to-bottom revision and major enhancement of the classic program for setting computer clocks with high accuracy and precision with a telephone call to the most accurate time sources in the world. The program has many new features, but one of the most notable is its ability to get time not just from one time source, but from two. TIMESET 6.0 does alone what used to require two different programs from two different suppliers. Yet the price has not changed, it's still $35. All the popular features of earlier TIMESET versions are still here, including the big running time display, interactive or automatic operation, immediate timesetting or after a countdown to zero seconds (done offline), and rejection of noise-corrupted data strings. The new features include: 1. Ability to set the computer clock by calling cesium beam atomic clocks of either the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC or the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) in Boulder, Colorado. Previous versions could call and process time signals only from the Naval Observatory. Correction for line delay can be made with both services. If line delay is not requested, estimated delay values are used for both services that are very close to what could be measured for most localities in the continental United States. 2. Ability to get line delay correction with any type of Hayes- compatible modem. Previous versions could get this correction only through the Naval Observatory with modems capable of remote digital loopback testing through the &T6 and &T0 commands. 3. Very fast action. It normally takes only 2-6 seconds online, depending on the service called, if no line delay measurement is requested. 4. Very high accuracy. TIMESET 6.0 even measures the time it requires to process the received data string, and it corrects for that internal delay before setting the time. String processing is one of the slowest things a computer does, and the time it takes is measurable. Yet it's overlooked by every other timesetting program we know of. 5. Self-configuration, with a detailed help screen available for each configuration item and intuitive operation, making this the least manual-dependent version of TIMESET so far. The help screens amount to an online tutorial, and you may not even need the manual. Previous versions of TIMESET needed a separate program to configure for serial port, modem, time zone, time season, telephone dialing procedures, type of display, etc. All that is self-contained in Version 6.0 and available at the press of a function key. The configuration is written to TIMESET's own - ii - source file on disk (there is no separate configuration data file). Most choices are made by pressing arrow keys, and editing functions are available for the few configuration items that require typing. Everything is done on a single configuration screen. 6. The press of a single key toggles the configuration between daylight or standard time and simultaneously adjusts the computer clock to reflect the time season change. Likewise, a single key lets you override the program's video display configuration and toggle between color and forced monochrome display (very useful for some laptop computers). 7. Numerous fixes, including substantial changes to eliminate connection and synchronization problems with certain modems. The program now works with PC, XT, AT, PS/2, and better computers -- on serial ports 1 to 4, at dialing speeds from 1200 to 38400 bps, with local modem speed locked or unlocked. It automatically detects a PS/2 and assigns the correct COM3/COM4 port addresses for that type of computer. 8. Greatly reduced file size -- under 50 kbytes, less than half the combined total of 105 kbytes for TIMESET plus CONFIGTS in version 5.3 and smaller than other programs that can call only one of the two services. 9. Completely redesigned displays to convey more information, plus the big running digital clock display that has always been part of the program. TIMESET has always been a good-looking program, because esthetics and functionality go hand in hand. This version is the most esthetically pleasing yet and by far the most functional. 10. Version 6.0 can even notify you weeks in advance when a time season change is coming. And each time you use it on succeeding days it can tell you the number of days remaining before the change actually takes effect. On the eve of the season change it prints a special announcement to remind you that it's almost time to reconfigure for daylight or standard time. On the day of the change it tells you, in effect, "If you haven't already reconfigured, you'd better do it now" (which you can do by merely pressing a function key, with simultaneous automatic adjustment of your clock). We think all these enhancements put version 6.0 of Professional TIMESET far ahead of any other program for computer timesetting. TIMESET 6.0 is not a "bait" program intended to entice you to send away for something we're holding back that's more complete, more professional, and expensive. It IS the complete professional version. Nothing has been held back. It's all here. You already have the maximum product. And it's still only $35. - iii - SHAREWARE NOTICE TIMESET Version 6.0 is a copyrighted commercial program developed and owned by Peter L. Petrakis (doing business as Life Sciences Software of Stanwood, Washington and formerly of Annapolis, Maryland) and is distributed as shareware. "Shareware" does not mean free and it does not mean public domain. Shareware is a method of software distribution that lets you try a program out and pass it along to others to try out. Those who don't find the program useful are free to junk it (although they could pass it along to somebody else). Those who like TIMESET, find it useful, and continue using it after a reasonable trial period of 21 days are expected to pay $35 for each copy in use (plus 8 percent sales tax for residents of Washington State). Payment makes you a registered user. Registration for TIMESET version 6.0 brings benefits of technical help by telephone, a printed manual, a disk copy of the program containing any recent changes, and a 20 percent discount on the next major upgrade. Organizations such as corporations, other enterprises, government agencies, educational institutions, etc. should not expect to pay $35 for a single copy of TIMESET then put more than one copy into use. That is as unfair to an author as buying a single copy of his book and using the Xerox machine to duplicate it for the office staff. Payment of $35 is required for each copy of TIMESET in use within an organization. That's not unreasonable, and discounts are available for quantity. If your organization requires the formality of purchase order and invoice, don't let that be a deterrent to payment and registration; contact your purchasing agent then let us know the procedures. We've worked that way with several organizations. (Please contact us about a discount for organizational use of more than six copies. The discounting rate will depend on how many additional copies your organization plans to use.) We concede that there is no practical way to make anyone pay for shareware. Few shareware writers have the stomach for that sort of thing anyway. Shareware is an honor system. And it's a valuable system that is bringing many high-quality programs at modest prices from talented people who work diligently to evolve and perfect their products. It should not be exploited through abuse or forgetfulness. Toll-Free Registration by Modem -- using TSREGSTR Experience suggests that many people intend to pay for a shareware program they continue using. But they postpone it. Then they forget to do it. Eventually they might not even have the registration form and the address around anymore. Because that's human nature, the TIMESET version 6.0 package includes a companion program, TSREGSTR, that lets you register by modem -- with the phone call paid by us. It's simple, fast, and - iv - convenient, allowing good intentions to be carried out promptly before the memory cogs slip. All you need to do is type in some information -- your name, address, phone number, etc. -- and press a key to send it to our electronic mailbox automatically. A screen editor in TSREGSTR lets you move around freely in the data entry field so you can make any necessary corrections before pressing F10 to send the information. Your phone number gives us a chance to call you back and confirm the order and take care of problems such as a garbled transmission. We will then send you the latest version of TIMESET, a printed manual, and an invoice. It takes only a few seconds and the call is free, so there is no real reason not to do it if you keep and use TIMESET. To use TSREGSTR you need a 1200 or 2400 baud modem. To keep this limited purpose program simple, we did not provide any support for serial ports other than COM1 and COM2 or for high-speed locked dialing (although TIMESET itself is much more versatile and can handle COM1-COM4 and locked or unlocked dialing speeds up to 38,400 bps). (NOTE: If you pass the TIMESET version 6.0 package along to others, please be sure to include TSREGSTR.) If you prefer to register by mail, using a check or money order, please use the form at the end of this document. Our voice line, if you have any general questions about registration, licensing, quantity discounts, or the program's capabilities, is 206-337-7328 (after January 1, 1991 it will be 206-387-9788). - v - INTRODUCTION One of the least reliable components in any computer is the clock. Computer clocks are notoriously inaccurate, gaining or losing as much as several seconds a day, and it's not unusual for them to be off by minutes within a few weeks or even days after they are set. This doesn't matter to everyone who uses a computer, of course, but it matters a great deal to a lot of people. This includes businesses that need an accurate record of the time of data entry, sometimes for legal reasons. Technological and research organizations need accurate time for numerous serious purposes related to physical measurements. Radio and television stations and cable TV systems need a dependable source of time so they can switch in and out of networks or link up with remotes at the right time. These and many other organizations have found previous versions of TIMESET not only useful but necessary. TIMESET is used in universities, NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administration, Veterans Administration, the military, police departments, municipal agencies, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, commercial banks, power companies, Hewlett-Packard and similar high-tech companies, radio and TV stations, cable networks, and by computer bulletin board operators, satellite tracking hobbyists, professional and amateur astronomers, and many people who simply want to know the time is at least close to what their computer says it is. There are many TIMESET users of all kinds in the United States and abroad who are dismayed that the clock in their expensive computer, which is driven by a high-frequency crystal-controlled oscillator, cannot keep time nearly as well as a ten dollar wind-up watch from K-Mart. They think a computer should provide a standard for setting other timepieces, not the other way around, and they are right. Nor are all of them necessarily interested in split-second accuracy for their computer clocks; many users simply want a convenient way to set their computer to a standard they know is right. TIMESET provides that convenience, and the Naval Observatory and NIST clocks are as right as any clocks can be. The first version of TIMESET was released to computer bulletin boards in July 1987. It was to be the only version (it didn't even have a version number), but the response was astonishing. Phone calls came day and (alas) night from people all over the country who were either delighted with the program or had problems getting it to work with their systems, particularly their modems. That interest has stimulated continued development ever since, and successive versions have been released to make the program work reliably for more and more people and to add new features, many of them suggested by users. It was very gratifying to see Version 5.3, the most recent version until now, written up by PC/Computing Magazine in its October 1990 issue in an article devoted to good ways to enhance a DOS computer's operating environment. Version 6.0 is a top-to-bottom revision that includes, for the first time, the ability to get atomic time from either of the world's two preeminent - 1 - sources for timing by telephone -- the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Naval Observatory. There are programs, including previous versions of TIMESET, that can call one or the other of these two services, but TIMESET 6.0 so far appears to be the only one that can dial both of them (we expect to be corrected if that's not right or ceases to be so) and make full use of the capabilities of each. Thus users from one end of the country to the other can now reduce phone costs by using the nearest service. Users of previous versions will notice numerous other changes. The program looks and feels completely different. Though it has more features, it is much smaller on disk. Configuration procedures are now built into the program itself (there is no external configuration data file and no external configuration program) and are very easy to do. You can enter configuration mode at any time to change things by pressing a function key at the main menu. Help for each configuration item is available by pressing another function key when the item is highlighted on the configuration screen. You can now toggle between standard and daylight time configuration by pressing a function key at the main menu -- and it simultaneously sets the computer clock one hour earlier or later depending on the season. You can generate a usable pulse for synchronizing an external device at the instant of timesetting by pressing another function key before dialing. Command line options are displayed by typing TIMESET followed by a space and a question mark at the DOS command. A quick overview of internal command options is available by pressing a function key at the main menu. Finally, TIMESET 6.0 can measure and correct for line delays with either the Naval Observatory or the National Institute of Standards and Technology. CONFIGURATION Because configuration data for TIMESET 6.0 are written directly to its source file on disk, the program needs to know where its source file is; it reads its configuration each time it's loaded and each time you change the configuration. With DOS versions 3 and up it's no problem; those versions allow TIMESET to find out where it came from, making it possible to configure or run the program from any drive and directory on the system path (which is set up with the DOS PATH command). That's not the case with earlier versions of DOS. With those DOS versions, TIMESET 6.0 needs to be told where its source file is. That's done by using the DOS SET command to put its location in the DOS environment, like this: SET TIMESET=[drive]:\[directory\]TIMESET.COM The drive, directory (if any), and ".COM" are essential. If you're using a version of DOS earlier than 3.0 and are going to be using TIMESET 6.0 regularly, it makes sense to put that command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, which should also include a path to its location using the PATH command. Otherwise you'll always have to be in the drive and directory where TIMESET is located before you can use it. - 2 - THIS IS IMPORTANT!!: If the copy of TIMESET version 6.0 that you received has never been configured before, it will automatically load in configuration mode so you can tailor it to your own system. If you got it from a computer bulletin board, however, the chances are it will have already been configured, probably by the bulletin board operator who tested it before making it available for downloading or by the person who uploaded it to the bulletin board. In that case, it will load in operating mode. In fact, if it was configured to run in non-prompted (automatic) mode it will immediately start dialing. For this reason, if you obtained TIMESET 6.0 from a computer bulletin board or other indirect source, you should put /C on the command line the first time you run it, like this: TIMESET /C This will force the program to go to configuration mode as soon as it's loaded so you can tailor the configuration to your own system. Using /C will not be necessary if your copy of TIMESET 6.0 came directly from Life Sciences Software, because we do not preconfigure the program before shipping it. The configuration screen comes up with values for phone numbers, time season, serial port, baud rate, etc. already listed. Please understand that if TIMESET 6.0 has never been configured before, those values are not yet in the program file's configuration field; they are what WILL be written to that field if you press F10. On the other hand, if TIMESET has already been configured, they represent the actual current configuration that the program read from its own disk source. After the program has been configured, you can always enter configuration mode to check or change your settings by pressing F2 at the main menu. If you are just checking and not changing anything, you don't have to press F10 to resave what's on the screen. Instead, you can get back to the main program by pressing F2 again. If you make a change, you should of course press F10 to save it. If you are configuring for the first time and the values you see are what you want, press F10 to save them to TIMESET.COM on your disk. There is a good chance, however, that you'll need to change some of the default values so they'll correspond to your actual computer/modem setup. That's what configuration of version 6.0 is mostly about -- changing configuration values that are already displayed. It's very easy to do, and it's likely that you'll only need to make minor changes in two or three items. Each configuration item has its own help screen, which can be displayed by pressing F1 when that item is highlighted. The highlighting can be moved up or down by pressing the up or down arrow key on your keypad. Before doing any configuring, we strongly recommend that you use the up and down arrow keys to go through the entire list of configuration items one by one and press F1 to get the help screen for each. That will give you a good overview of what the configuration procedure is about. The help screens collectively amount to an online configuration manual. In a way, they ARE - 3 - the manual, because few particulars are discussed here. Version 6.0 has been designed to reduce the need to consult a printed manual to the minimum. As result, this manual can devote more attention to some theoretical matters that are worth knowing about. Everything is done on a single screen, mostly by pressing the right, left, up, and down arrow keys on your keyboard. Pressing the up or down arrow key highlights a new configuration item. The right and left arrow keys toggle the options that are available for a given configuration item. For example, on the configuration line for baud rate, you can go upward from 1200 baud -- 1200, 2400, 4800, etc. -- to 38400 baud by repeatedly pressing the right arrow key. Pressing the left arrow key takes you in the opposite direction. Only four of the configuration items involve typing anything, and even that might not be necessary if the default or preexisting settings for those items are what you want. Three of the items that may require typing or editing pertain to telephone numbers, the fourth pertains to the user's modem initialization string. All the other items are toggled with the right-left arrow keys. To change the phone numbers or the modem initialization string, you have to get into editing mode. That's done by pressing Return when the editable configuration line is highlighted (a message also appears telling when a line can be edited). In editing mode you can insert characters or delete or type over existing characters. A description of editing functions (inserting, overstriking, deleting, cursor movement, etc.) pops onto the screen at the right as soon as you press Return, so not much needs to be said about them here. For example, the default phone number for the Naval Observatory is shown as 12026530351. If you live in Washington, D.C., the Naval Observatory is a local call and you obviously need to get rid of 1202. You do that by scrolling to the appropriate line with the up or down arrow key, pressing Return, pressing the Delete key four times, then pressing Return again. Or suppose your company requires you to add an account number to the end of a long-distance phone number when you dial out. Scroll to the phone number, press Return, press the End key to move the cursor to the end of the phone number, type in your account number, and press Return again. Insert a comma to generate a pause if you need one. The default pause in virtually all modems is 2 seconds for each comma. (IMPORTANT: Please just modify the phone numbers that are there, and NEVER configure to dial our phone number. The program will refuse to run if you put our number in it, and we don't have an atomic clock anyway.) Editing works the same way for the user's modem initialization string. It's especially important to study the help screen for that one, because it has some crucial information about what to use with different types of modems. Configuration for the type of clock in your computer is a special topic and is discussed in the next section. - 4 - Be sure that no configuration fields are left blank and none contains the word "(edit)". The word "(edit)" appears on a couple of the editable configuration items when you press the right or left arrow key enough times. When you see it, you are supposed to get into editing mode and replace it with actual configuration data. Rest assured that the program will not work properly if configuration fields are left blank or contain "(edit)". When you've checked or changed all the configuration items and are satisified that everything is correct, press F10 to save the configuration to TIMESET's source file on disk. As soon as the configuration is saved, the program jumps into operating mode, reads its new configuration, and is ready to call either of the time services. CONFIGURING TIMESET FOR HARDWARE CLOCKS Every computer comes equipped with at least one clock, called the DOS clock/calendar, which can be read or set with the TIME and DATE commands in DOS or by a program such as TIMESET. Its major limitation is that it's volatile; that is, the time and date settings are lost whenever the computer is turned off, and both have to be reset each time the computer is restarted. Because of this volatility, battery-powered clocks have been developed to maintain the current time and date while the computer is off and pass them to the DOS clock/calendar when the computer is turned back on. There are three kinds of nonvolatile clocks: (1) the CMOS clock found on the motherboards of AT and later computers, (2) add-on clocks that plug into an expansion slot in the computer, and (3) so-called slotless clocks that plug into a socket under the ROM chip or some other socketed chip. TIMESET can work with nearly all of the first and second types, but not with the third. "Slotless Clocks" and Tandy's SmartClock TIMESET can work with CMOS clocks and most add-on clock boards. However, it will not work directly with Tandy's SmartClock nor with slotless clocks. With those clocks you'll have to configure to set the DOS clock/calendar with TIMESET then later on use your own clock's software to reset the add- on clock. CMOS Clocks Depending on the version of DOS that is installed in a computer, a CMOS clock may need special software to be reset or to make it update the DOS clock/calendar. With DOS 3.3 or later, you need no special software, because those DOS versions automatically keep the CMOS clock and the DOS clock/calendar synchronized, so changes made in the DOS clock/calendar are simultaneously made in the CMOS clock as well. That automatic synchronization doesn't occur with DOS versions earlier than 3.3, however. - 5 - Therefore, if your computer has a CMOS clock, the version of DOS you're using will determine how to configure TIMESET 6.0 for clock type. If it's DOS 3.3 or later, you should configure TIMESET to set only the DOS clock/calendar, because the operating system will automatically update the CMOS clock when TIMESET changes the DOS time and date. If you have an earlier version of DOS, you will have to configure TIMESET 6.0 so it can directly set both the DOS clock/calendar and the CMOS clock, thus eliminating the need to run DOS's SETUP program. You can select the correct option by using the right or left arrow key in configuration mode. If you need help, press F1 while that item is highlighted. Expansion Slot Add-On Clocks Add-on clocks that plug into expansion slots present a mixed situation. Some require you to run a special program each time you want to update the DOS clock/calendar from the add-on clock or update the add-on clock from the DOS clock/calendar. Others come with a memory-resident program or driver that takes care of these time adjustments between the two clocks automatically, making them behave very much like the CMOS clock under DOS 3.3 or higher. Configuring TIMESET 6.0 for these add-on clocks therefore depends on the kind of software that comes with the clock. Better known brands of add-on clocks these days come with memory-resident software to keep the add-on clock and the DOS clock/calendar synchronized automatically. An example of such a program is ASTCLOCK, for managing the clock on AST's Six-Pack multifunction board. Running ASTCLOCK with the /R switch on the command line (ASTCLOCK /R) makes it memory-resident so it can automatically keep the two clocks synchronized. If your add-on clock came with a memory-resident driver program or a driver that goes in your CONFIG.SYS file, install that driver and configure TIMESET to set only the DOS clock/calendar. Your driver software will take care of resetting the add-on clock when TIMESET sets the time and date in the DOS clock/calendar. Using CLKDRV10.SYS with Board Clocks There are a number of slot-type add-on clocks that do not come with memory- resident software and therefore can't pass time and date changes back and forth between the two clocks automatically. These clocks, with mail-order prices ranging from $7.50 to $15, have obscure brand names and often no brand name at all. Despite their low cost and generic nature they are surprisingly good, often more accurate and stable than the CMOS clocks that come with expensive computers. For example, mine, which is installed in a 8086 computer, loses about 1.5 seconds a day, whereas the CMOS clock in my wife's 386sx gains about 25 seconds a day. The major limitation of these cheap add-ons is lack of memory-resident software to allow automatic movement of time and date between the two clocks. Instead they require you to run a special program to update the add-on clock each time you change the time or date in DOS (e.g., SETCLOCK), - 6 - or to update the DOS clock/calendar from the add-on clock (e.g., GETCLOCK). With some of these clocks, both functions are handled by a single program, with the desired function chosen with a command line switch. Having to go into DOS to run external programs like these is utterly impractical for a program like TIMESET, which requires timesetting to occur in both clocks at virtually the same instant for maximum accuracy. Furthermore, some of them insist on prompting for the time, which of course means the time will be wrong no matter how fast a typist you are. For people with these obscure brands and that clumsy kind of software, the TIMESET 6.0 package includes a small driver called CLKDRV10.SYS, written by Tom Strickland of Alexandria, Virginia. To use it, put the driver in your boot directory and the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file: device=clkdrv10.sys Loading CLKDRV10.SYS in effect erases the barrier between your DOS clock/calendar and your add-on clock and eliminates the need for any other software to manage the two clocks and keep them synchronized. Thus, if you change time or date in DOS, CLKDRV10.SYS sees to it that the add-on clock gets the same change, and if you ask for time or date in DOS or a program, CLKDRV10.SYS automatically updates the DOS clock/calendar from the add-on clock an instant before DOS displays the time or date. With CLKDRV10.SYS installed, you must configure TIMESET to set only the DOS clock/calendar, and let CLKDRV10.SYS take care of updating the add-on clock. CLKDRV10.SYS is designed to work with board-type add-on clocks that have a base clock address of 240h, 2C0h, or 340h, and it automatically checks to see which of those ports is being used by your clock. Nearly all expansion slot add-on clocks use one of those three base addresses, and some of them allow you to choose between at least two of them by means of a jumper on the clock board. If your clock does not use one of these three port addresses (which is possible but infrequent), CLKDRV10.SYS will not load and you will have to be content with letting TIMESET adjust only the DOS clock/calendar. If you install CLKDRV10.SYS, you should put your clock's regular software aside, because CLKDRV10.SYS has its own method of managing the add-on clock. You won't need your original software anyway, because CLKDRV10.SYS makes your add-on clock directly accessible through the TIME and DATE commands in DOS or from any program. CLKDRV10.SYS is mainly for people whose add-on clock did not come with its own memory-resident driver program. If your add-on clock came with its own memory-resident software, use it rather than CLKDRV10.SYS. It's important to know when not to use CLKDRV10.SYS. You should NOT use it when: (1) your computer has a CMOS clock, or (2) you have an add-on clock board that came with its own memory resident software to accomplish what CLKDRV10.SYS does, or (3) you have only the DOS clock/calendar and no battery-powered clock board at all. Under no circumstances should you load both CLKDRV10.SYS and another driver that accomplishes the same thing -- the two drivers will get into a contest that could paralyze the system. - 7 - Also, CLKDRV10.SYS will be of no help if you have Tandy's SmartClock or a "slotless" clock. (The manufacturers of those clocks should be pressured to develop their own memory-resident drivers for them.) RUNNING THE PROGRAM Options at the Main Menu Dialing If you configured for interactive mode, dialing starts when you press W, Alt-W, B, or Alt-B. W stands for Washington (Naval Observatory) and B stands for Boulder (NIST). Pressing W or B alone gets the time without any adjustment for measured line delay. In combination with the ALT key, pressing W or B gets the time with a line delay adjustment from Washington (Alt-W) or Boulder (Alt-B). Line delay measurements are discussed in more detail later on. If you configured the program to run in noninteractive mode (no prompts), you won't have to press any keys; TIMESET 6.0 will load, immediately dial the time service you chose, set the time, and exit to DOS. The choice of interactive or noninteractive mode is yours. If you plan to have TIMESET in your AUTOEXEC file so it can update you computer clock during the boot- up process, it's best to configure for noninteractive mode so timesetting will be automatic and booting can continue after the clock has been set. TIMESET skips the main menu when it's in noninteractive mode and there are no pauses for input. Standard and Daylight Time One way to switch between daylight and standard time is to press F2 at the main menu to get into configuration mode, scroll down to the time season line, toggle daylight or standard with the right or left arrow key, and press F10 to save the change. You'll need to do it that way during initial configuration since you are automatically put into configuration mode when you run a fresh copy of TIMESET 6.0, and the program won't run until it's fully configured. However, after you have configured the program and it's time to reconfigure for daylight or standard time there is a very simple way to do it from the main menu: just press F7. That will not only change change the configuration, it will simultaneously reset your computer clock for the new season. You should do that reconfiguration before dialing one of the time services on the day the time season changes. Monitor Color Although you can specify color or monochrome display during configuration, a function key toggle is also available at the main menu for controlling monitor color. Pressing F8 at the main menu switches the display between color and monochrome. You may need to force monochrome display this way if - 8 - you run TIMESET 6.0 on a laptop computer that shows colors as shades of "grey"; some colors have poor contrast on certain laptops. Pulse Generation F9 is a special key that will probably not be needed by many people. Pressing it at the main menu allows a single pulse to be generated at pin 1 of the parallel printer port at the instant of timesetting. The pulse can be used to synchronize external devices, which could include specialized (and expensive) clocks. It can also be used for calibrating instruments. According to the NIST, its time mark typically has repeatability of about 1 ms from day to day when obtained with line delay correction. This allows the delay-corrected pulse generated by TIMESET to be used in combination with a digital counter to check or calibrate an oscillator with high accuracy. The uncertainty would be on the order of 1 part in 100 million for oscillation counts at 1/second made a day apart (0.001 second repeatability divided by 86,400 seconds/day). For reference, here are the characteristics of the pulse: Change: ~5 volts Direction: from ~+5 volts to 0 volts (relative to pin 25) Duration: ~55 ms (controlled by the system timer) Depending on the external device's requirements, it may be necessary to invert the pulse or modify it in other ways with appropriate electronic circuitry (which is beyond the scope of this manual). A companion program, PULSEGEN, is available for $15 from Life Sciences Software for generating continuous pulsing at the parallel port at 1/min, 1/sec, 10/sec, or 100/sec with any computer, and up to 1000/sec with computers equipped with slot-type add-on clocks using base I/O port addresses of 240h, 2C0h, 340h, or 3C0h and capable of millisecond resolution (probably all such clocks are, although their port for thousandths is usually not used since the DOS clock resolution is no better than 0.01 sec). The pulse widths produced by PULSEGEN depend on CPU speed and are in the order of microseconds; i.e., no intentional delay is inserted between pulse on and pulse off. The running time display is to three decimal places and is written directly to the video buffer for maximum speed. If the computer clock has been freshly set with TIMESET, the pulses, which can be used for driving external devices continuously, will occur approximately in real time, subject to clock drift. Pulses should not be generated at the parallel port if a printer is attached. - 9 - Changing the Configuration If TIMESET 6.0 is configured for interactive operation and you need to change or check the configuration, press F2 at the main menu to get the configuration screen. If you make any changes, be sure to press F10 to save them, otherwise you can press F2 to go back to the program without making any changes. Getting to the configuration screen can require an extra step if you have already configured TIMESET to run in automatic mode, because it then bypasses the main menu and starts dialing as soon as you run it. In that case you can press the Backspace key to interrupt dialing and go to the main menu, where you can press F2 (there's plenty of time to do that before the call goes through). A better alternative is to load TIMESET 6.0 with /C on the command line, which forces it to come up in configuration mode so you can make your changes. Additional Help Pressing F1 at the main menu brings a help screen that summarizes your keyboard options within the program. There are also some command line options for TIMESET 6.0, including options for temporarily overriding some of the configurations or delaying dialing until a specified time. You can see these command line options by typing TIMESET ? at the DOS prompt. THE TIME DATA STRINGS The data strings from the Naval Observatory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have a few similarities and several differences. The pattern for both services is a string of data that announces the next second, followed by a brief pause, then a character that marks the second. This goes on endlessly, every second, 24 hours a day, year round. When you are connected to either service with TIMESET 6.0 these data strings will be displayed on your screen as they are received for as long as it takes to get a clean data string to set your computer clock. With clean lines and no line delay measurement, that's about 2 or 3 seconds with the Naval Observatory and about 5 or 6 seconds with the NIST. If you request line delay measurement, it takes about 11 seconds online with the NIST and about 21 seconds with the Naval Observatory. These times will increase if there is a lot of noise on the phone lines, because TIMESET will reject data strings that are corrupted by noise and don't match the required pattern. Both services limit your time online. The Naval Observatory gives you a maximum of 60 seconds. The NIST gives you up to 55 seconds but will reduce that to 15 seconds if the service is in heavy use. Except for extremely noisy lines (which may indicate a problem with your own phone system), these times are more than adequate for TIMESET 6.0. - 10 - The Naval Observatory's Data String The pattern of the Naval Observatory's time data string is: JJJJJ DDD HHMMSS UTC (pause) * JJJJJ is the last five digits of the julian day, which is simply a count of the number of days since January 1, 4713 B.C. The first two digits, 24, are left out because they will not change for a long time to come (140 years or so) and can be assumed in calculations. TIMESET uses the julian day to calculate the current month, day of the month, and year. DDD is the day of the year (number of days since December 31 of the previous year). It is only displayed by TIMESET, at the final screen. HHMMSS is what the hours, minutes, and seconds will be when the time mark -- the asterisk (*) -- is sent. UTC stands for Universal Time Coordinated, and it means that the values for julian day, day of the year, and the time all apply to 0 degrees longitude, the longitude of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. TIMESET corrects these values for your time zone and season before setting your computer clock (unless you want your computer on universal time, which is desired by some in the aviation industry and the military, for example, and have configured TIMESET for it). The NIST's Data String The NIST time data string is more complex: JJJJJ Yr-Mo-Da HH:MM:SS Sn L UT1 msADV UTC(NIST) (pause) * (or #) Again, UTC means the time and date values all pertain to Greenwich, England. JJJJJ means exactly what it means in the Naval Observatory string. Unlike the Naval Observatory, the NIST does not provide the day of the year, but TIMESET 6.0 calculates it from this number and displays it on the final screen. Yr-Mo-Da means current year, month, and day of the year. HH:MM:SS means hours, minutes, and seconds. Sn is a two-digit number that indicates whether the continental United States is on standard or daylight saving time or is approaching daylight or standard time. Except for a 48-day period before a time season change, the number is either 00 - 11 - (standard time) or 50 (daylight time). In the fall, the number begins to decrement daily, starting 48 days before standard time officially begins in late October, when it reaches 00. In the spring, the number begins to increment daily from 00, starting 48 days before daylight saving time officially begins, when it reaches 50. During the periods when Sn is either incrementing or decrementing, TIMESET 6.0 prints a special message on its final screen announcing the number of days (including the current day) before the time season is due to change in the continental United States (the days are based on UTC). At all other times it displays the current time season in the continental U.S. on the final screen. L is a flag that indicates whether a leap second will be added or subtracted at midnight on the last day of the current UTC month to compensate for irregularity in the earth's rotation. If a leap second is to be added, the number is 1. If L is 2 it means that a second will be subtracted at midnight on the last day of the current UTC month, but the NIST says a negative leap second is not likely to occur any time soon. The L flag is on for the entire month before a second is added or subtracted, which will usually be in June or December. Most of the time the L flag is set at 0, meaning no change. The flag is merely an announcement and is not needed by TIMESET 6.0. UT1 is a correction factor for converting UTC to an older form of universal time that is still used in navigation. It is the tenths of a second to be added or subtracted from UTC and is preceded by the appropriate sign. It is only displayed by TIMESET 6.0. msADV is the NIST's line delay correction and is discussed as a separate topic in the next section. LINE DELAY MEASUREMENTS It is physically impossible for the time mark character at the end of the data string to arrive at the same instant it leaves the time source. There is always a delay, and it is the sum of three components: (1) the time it takes for data bits moving at the speed of light to travel the distance between the time source and your computer, plus (2) the time it takes for the time source's modem to serialize and send the time mark character, plus (3) the time it takes your modem to process the incoming data and feed it to your computer. With land line communication in the continental United States, the time the signal spends traveling between the modems is almost negligible compared to the processing delay that is inherent in modems. With a satellite link, however, the time the signal spends traveling becomes very significant and accounts for most of the lag. - 12 - Both the NIST and the U.S. Naval Observatory are equipped for measurement of line delay, but each uses a different method. TIMESET 6.0 can handle either method. When TIMESET 6.0 asks for line delay measurement from the NIST, the NIST itself measures the delay and advances the departure of the time mark to compensate so the mark arrives on time. However, with the Naval Observatory, TIMESET 6.0 itself measures the line delay by means of a remote digital loopback test, in which the program sends a stream of characters to the Naval Observatory and measures the time for the Naval Observatory's modem to echo them back. It then captures a time data string and adds the measured one-way delay to the time as a correction before setting your computer's clock. Notice the essential difference in methodology here: delay measurements with the Naval Observatory are made by TIMESET; delay measurements with the NIST are made by the NIST. Because of limitations in standard computers, the line delay measurements the NIST makes are inherently more precise than the ones TIMESET 6.0 makes with the Naval Observatory. The NIST's equipment can measure line delay to the tenth of a millisecond. In contrast, TIMESET must round the line delay it measures with the Naval Observatory to the nearest 0.01 sec since that's the smallest unit of time that a standard computer can accept as a correction. This is a 100-fold difference in precision. It's important to realize, however, that this difference in precision has absolutely no effect on the accuracy of timesetting in your computer. Precision and accuracy are not the same thing. Furthermore, the "granularity" in computer clocks, which is based on the ticking rate of the system timer (18.2 times per second), limits the accuracy with which they can be set to within about 0.055 sec of true time, which means that timesetting accuracy ends up the same with either service. (Delay correction and accuracy are discussed in more detail later.) Line Delay Correction by NIST msADV in the NIST's data string is the milliseconds (ms) that the departure of the time mark was advanced to compensate for line delays. If no line delay measurement is requested, the NIST routinely advances the departure of the mark by 45 ms (0.045 sec), which is displayed in the data string as 045.0. The standard 45 ms is an estimated value for the United States that includes the 8 ms it takes to send all the bits of the time mark character at 1200 baud, plus an assumed 7 ms for travel from the NIST to the average user in the United States, plus 30 ms to compensate for the inherent delay in 1200 baud modems (the modem delay is an average value for several modem brands). If an actual line delay measurement is requested by initiating the call with Alt-B, the NIST itself calculates the delay, then advances the departure of the time mark to compensate for the measured one-way lag so the time mark can arrive at your computer at the right instant. As soon as the NIST has measured and adjusted for line delay, the time mark changes - 13 - from an asterisk to a pound sign (#). TIMESET watches for the pound sign and sets the computer clock the instant it is received. The NIST says that if your modem has the same internal delay as theirs, you should receive the # time mark within +-2 ms of the correct time. If it does not have the same internal delay, the mark should arrive within +-10 ms of the correct time, with different modem brands varying within that range. Repeatability of line delay correction is excellent, typically within 1 ms from day to day according to the NIST. Accuracy of setting the time in your computer is another matter, however, and is discussed separately below. The measured line delay is likely to be slightly larger than the estimated 45 ms that the NIST routinely uses when you don't request an actual measurement and are using land lines, and it's much larger if the communication is by satellite. It will be influenced by the speed of your computer's CPU in echoing characters to NIST as well as by distance and the characteristics of your modem. With a Hayes Smartmodem 2400 and a computer running at 8 Mhz, the delay measured between the Seattle area and Boulder, Colorado is always around 62 ms (0.062 second). Beta testers using TIMESET 6.0 in New Jersey, Maryland, and Illinois with 20-25 Mhz 386 computers and different modem brands have reported delays around 54 ms. A tester in Alaska, with a 386 computer and a U.S. Robotics modem reported a delay of just over .3 second, a magnitude of delay that indicates a satellite link. Our tests show that the measured line delay is also affected by the choice of long distance carrier. The delay is consistently greater with MCI than with AT&T -- about 62 and 54 ms respectively calling from the Seattle area with a land line link in each case. The accuracy of setting is the same in either case, however, since the NIST adjusts for the lag it measures. In the usual, bidirectional, satellite link, the one-way signal delay is in the range of 260 to 300 ms (.26 to .3 seconds). The communications satellites are parked in stationary orbits about 26,000 miles from earth, which requires the NIST's time mark to travel 52,000 miles or more to reach the caller's computer. This alone takes over a quarter of a second with the signal traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles/sec). Modem processing adds further delay. There is one situation where the NIST is unable to report a line delay measurement. That is when the path is by satellite (a long path) in one direction and by land line (a shorter path) in the other. In that situation, which the NIST detects by a delay measurement of 90-260 ms, it is impossible to know whether it's the long path or the shorter one that is carrying the time signal to the user, so a delay adjustment can't be applied; the NIST time mark remains an asterisk and the standard 45 ms advance is used. According to the NIST, a split-path transmission like this is rarely used by telephone services. - 14 - Line Delay Correction with the Naval Observatory If you dial the Naval Observatory without asking for line delay measurement, TIMESET 6.0 will routinely add 50 ms (0.05 sec) to the time it feeds to the computer clock. This value is close to the standard 0.045 sec time mark advance the NIST makes when no actual line delay measurement is requested, has the same purpose, and includes the same estimated delay elements (see first paragraph in the preceding section). Why is the estimate for the Naval Observatory 0.05 second instead of 0.045 second? The answer is that it's impossible to set a computer clock to the third decimal place; 0.045 sec must therefore be rounded up to 0.05 sec. The practical effect of this rounding up is nil; if you dial the two services alternately and in quick succession without requesting line delay measurements, the before/after time readings on the final screen will usually agree within 0.01 sec. each time. Actually, it makes sense to have the default line delay correction slightly larger for the Naval Observatory since Washington, D.C., on the east coast, is farther away from the statistical population center of the nation than more centrally located Boulder, Colorado. The default correction will therefore be about right most of the time for most users in the United States. An actual line delay measurement for Naval Observatory data is made by means of a remote digital loopback test, which not all modems can do. Even if your modem can do remote digital loopback testing, if it doesn't use the &T6 command to initiate the test and the &T0 command to terminate it, you will not be able to make this measurement with TIMESET. An example of a modem that can do remote digital loopback but uses commands other than &T6 and &T0 is the U.S. Robotics HST. There is no reliable way for a program to detect a modem's ability to handle &T6 and &T0, so it's up to you to check your modem manual to see if you can do it. If you ask for remote digital loopback and your modem can't do it, you'll just sit there online wasting money and accomplishing nothing until the Naval Observatory hangs up on you or until you press the backspace key to hang up and go back to the main menu. People with such modems who need line delay measurement should use the NIST's service. In a remote digital loopback test, TIMESET instructs the local modem to send a request for the test to the Naval Observatory's modem. This conditions the Naval Observatory's modem to echo back characters that TIMESET sends it. TIMESET 6.0 calculates the one-way line delay by measuring the time it takes for 20 characters to travel to the Naval Observatory and return. When 20 characters have been sent and echoed back, TIMESET turns off the remote digital loopback test, calculates the average lag per character, reverts to normal operation, and grabs one of the Naval Observatory's regular time data strings. The calculated one-way line delay per character, rounded to the nearest 0.01 sec, is added to the zone- and season-adjusted time just before it is sent to your computer's clock. - 15 - When Should Line Delay Measurement Be Used? The idea of being able to measure and correct for line delay so you can set your computer clock with maximum accuracy is fascinating to many people. It intrigues us, too, which is why we worked very hard to incorporate that feature in TIMESET for both time services. However, it has the potential of being overused or used unnecessarily. A major purpose for measured line delay adjustment is for satellite communications, where line delay is a significant factor. For ordinary purposes within the continental United States, where telephone communications are virtually always by land lines, the default standard estimates should normally be adequate, because they are so close to what can be obtained by actual measurement. For example, TIMESET's built-in default estimate of line delay for the Naval Observatory's signal is 0.05 seconds, whereas the measured delay from Washington, D.C. to Seattle, Washington is typically around 0.0700 -- a difference of 0.02 sec., and usually less. Similarly, the standard estimated line delay the NIST provides is 0.045 second, whereas the NIST's measured delay between Boulder, Colorado and Seattle is typically around 0.062 sec --less than 0.02 second difference. These are very small discrepancies that are so close to the smallest time unit that can be read with a computer clock (0.01 sec) that they are hardly worth worrying about. If you want to see how small 0.02 second is, try reading numbers in the second decimal place in one of TIMESET's running time displays. You can't. They change so fast that they blend into each other. We included the second decimal place in those displays just to remind you how unimportant 0.02 sec is for most purposes and to persuade you that there's no sense in going overboard with line delay measurements. Why go to all that time and trouble for a a couple hundredths of a second more accuracy when your computer clock could drift that much in the next several minutes? Furthermore, computer clock updating can take place only when the system timer ticks, every 0.055 sec, which means you can only be confident that your clock is set somewhere within 0.055 second of true time, a range of error nearly three times larger than that extra 0.02 second of accuracy you're striving for. Clearly, measured line delay is useful only with satellite communications, where line delays are substantial, or for calibrating external equipment in real time. Another thing to consider with line delay measurement is the extra time on line that it requires, as indicated in the following table: Connect time typically required (seconds) ------------------------------------------------------------ Delay measurement No delay measurement ----------------------------- --------------------------- Naval Observatory 21 2 NIST 12 6 - 16 - The size of these connect time differences suggests that if a lot of people get in the habit of doing pointless line delay measurements they will effectively reduce the capacity of these services. The result for everybody could be a lot of frustrating busy signals. Be scientific. Use it sensibly. A Note About MNP Modems TIMESET 6.0 will work if you are using an MNP modem and it's initially set for MNP error checking. However, MNP isn't needed because neither the NIST nor the Naval Observatory uses it. Furthermore, tests show that MNP action can increase the line delay that is measured by the NIST, since it delays the return of echoed characters at the same time the NIST is measuring the echo time to determine one-way line delay. This should not affect accuracy, because the delay is real and the NIST adjusts the departure of the time-mark character to compensate for it if you request line delay measurement. Still it's something you need to know about. If you don't request line delay measurement and use MNP, the nominal 45 ms standard advance used by the NIST, or TIMESET's 50 ms standard adjustment for Naval Observatory signals, will provide even less compensation for delay than they otherwise would, because of the slowing action of MNP. MNP action could also require you to be online a few seconds longer than with an ordinary modem or an MNP modem with MNP turned off, because the first thing an MNP modem does is check for MNP action and MNP level in the remote modem. If it doesn't detect MNP in the remote modem, it reverts to standard operation (provided it's configured to do so, which it should be if you are calling one of the time services). All that can take a few seconds, and during that time data strings being transmitted are not being seen by TIMESET. You are wasting time on line, in other words. If you happened to call NIST at a time of day when there was a lot of phone traffic, a few seconds worth of wasted data strings could make a difference, especially if there was also line noise to corrupt data strings and cause their rejection by TIMESET. Since the NIST may limit your connection time to 15 seconds during busy periods, you could be cut off before your computer clock gets set. For this reason you might need to consider turning off MNP when doing line delay measurements. THE FINAL DISPLAY As soon as the time is received and the computer clock is set, TIMESET jumps to its final screen, which displays the NIST or Naval Observatory data string that was used to set the computer's clock, along with extracted information about UTC time and date, daylight/standard time announcements if the NIST was used, a table showing the computer's time and date before and after the call, the estimated or measured line delay correction, and the time it took TIMESET to process the data and set the clock (internal delay). - 17 - The internal delay is an actual self-measurement by TIMESET of the time it took to process the string of data it received. There's a lot to do with that string -- parse it, convert its components to numeric form, calculate the date from the julian day, adjust for local time zone and season, create new strings from numbers for summarizing results on the screen, etc. Practically all the internal delay is due to string manipulation, one of the slowest processes in a computer. With our 8086 computer the internal delay is always about 0.01 second, but it might well be too small to measure with a very high-speed computer. The value for internal delay is added to the time that is sent to the computer clock. If the call was to the Naval Observatory, the estimated or measured line delay is also added to the time that was sent to the computer clock. With a call to the NIST, only the internal delay will be added (line delay will not be included, because the NIST compensated for it by advancing the time mark's departure so it could arrive on time). Current system time to two decimal places is shown in a running display in the middle of the final screen if TIMESET 6.0 is configured for interactive mode. The main menu screen's large clock display is available at this point by pressing the backspace key to go back to the main menu. A FURTHER NOTE ABOUT ACCURACY It's useful to remember that even though TIMESET 6.0 links you to the most accurate clocks in the world, your computer's clock can never be set to their accuracy. The main reason is that a computer clock is not continuously receptive to timesetting. Because of the way standard computers are designed, their clocks "tick" (advance) about 18.2 times a second, with variations among computers, which means they are updated in approximately 0.0549-second increments (1 divided by 18.2), although they can display time to 0.01 second. So even if a time mark arrives within +-2 ms of true time, this "granularity" in computer clocks means you can only be sure that your clock has been set within about 55 ms (55/1000 sec) of true time, which is very accurate indeed but not perfect. Repeatability of timesetting with TIMESET 6.0 is very good. In tests where one service or the other is called a few times in quick succession, before the computer clock has time to drift to any measurable extent, the "Computer time was:" item on the final screen is almost always within 0.01 second of what it was after the previous call. Usually it's identical. It's important to remember, however, that you shouldn't expect your computer clock to stay highly accurate very long. No computer clock does. (If your computer time is wildly unstable and you have a battery-powered clock in it, it could mean the battery needs replacing.) Get to know your computer clock's stability by running TIMESET a few times over a period of days. How often you need to run it thereafter depends on how stable your clock is and the degree of inaccuracy you can tolerate. - 18 - If you are a scientist or engineer and need accurate time for physical measurements, you already know you'd need to run it just before a procedure. Same thing if you are part of a far-flung organization and need to have computers in the outposts synchronized with a reliable and mutually accessible standard (but don't forget to pay for each copy of TIMESET). If you are part of a radio, TV, or cable network you might need to run it at least a couple times a day so you won't switch into the network in the middle of somebody's sentence. If you are satisfied to have your clock accurate within a few seconds, a run every day or two should be sufficient. If accuracy within 1 minute is enough, you probably need to run it only once every few days. If you're satisfied to be within 5 or 10 minutes, you can probably wait weeks, but you might want to consider just checking the clock on the wall and setting your computer clock manually. If clock accuracy doesn't matter to you, then of course you won't need TIMESET at all. We definitely recommend that these valuable time services be used no more than necessary, and we urge people not to abuse them. TIMESET 6.0 AND THE WORDPERFECT LIBRARY TIMESET 6.0 contains assembly language routines for automatic detection and full compatibility with the WordPerfect Library, an excellent program for task-switching made by the WordPerfect Corporation. It behaves exactly like WPCorp's own programs when managed by the Library, allowing you to: (1) load TIMESET memory-resident or remove it from memory, both invisibly; (2) directly access it from other programs in the Library menu by pressing hot keys; and (3) directly access the other programs from TIMESET by pressing hot keys. Depending on how you load the Library, it swaps TIMESET with the other programs by using either expanded memory (EMS) or a temporary hard or RAM disk file as the storage area for the program's memory image. TIMESET 6.0 takes about 136 kbytes of EMS or disk memory under the Library and about 135 kbytes under DOS. - 19 - PROGRAMMING NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS November 19, 1990 TIMESET 6.0 was written with Microsoft's BASIC Professional Development System version 7.0 and contains scores of linked commercial assembly routines as well as several special purpose assembly routines I developed when no commercial alternatives were available. It's doubtful that using another higher-level language to write the program would have improved anything, and I thank the folks at MicroHelp Inc., Crescent Software, and Microsoft for transforming BASIC into a truly professional language. My special thanks go to a group of special people who tested TIMESET 6.0 for me during its development and made many helpful suggestions: Tom Strickland, Virginia Bob Germer, New Jersey Bruce Felstein, New Jersey Jim Luhman, Illinois Stu Rothman, Alaska Tom Takesian, Maryland Julia Petrakis (my wife), Washington The CLKDRV10.SYS driver for expansion slot add-on clocks was created by Tom Strickland of Alexandria, Virginia and fills an important void. It has been part of the TIMESET package for over two years and is an outstanding piece of work. I'm very grateful to Tom for letting me include it. Pete Petrakis, Life Sciences Software Stanwood, Washington (Compuserve 76555,1175) - 20 - CUSTOM PROGRAMMING SERVICES AVAILABLE FROM LIFE SCIENCES SOFTWARE If you need custom programming, write or phone Life Sciences Software, tell us what you want, and find out if we can help you. The chances are good that we can, and with the same care and experience that has gone into TIMESET and a lot of other very well received programs we've written. But you won't know unless you ask. Our rates are competitive. You can telephone us at 206-337-7328 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday (the phone number will change to 206-387-9788 after January 1, 1991). Our address is: Life Sciences Software 8925 271st N.W., Suite 112 P.O. Box 1560 Stanwood, Washington 98292 - 21 - DISCLAIMER TIMESET is a mature program that has been thoroughly tested through several revisions since its inception in early 1987. Tremendous effort has been expended to make it work properly with as many systems as possible. This includes the bewildering variety of modems that exist, some of which may be described charitably as balky and idiosyncratic. The number of modem brands that TIMESET cannot work with has declined with each refinement over the years, and dramatically since the release of version 5.3 in the fall of 1989. Only a few exceptionally stubborn ones have proved unyielding so far. It is our hope that version 6.0 will work for everybody no matter what kind of equipment they have, but of course we cannot guarantee it. The virtue of shareware is that you can determine a program's usefulness to you before spending any money on it. Nor can we accept any responsibility or liability for any harm the program might cause to your system or your data. We have never heard of any bad effects, have never experienced any ourselves, and cannot imagine how there could be any, but, as with all programs, the user must assume any risk. - 22 - YOUR SUPPORT IS VERY IMPORTANT We hope you like Professional TIMESET 6.0 and find it useful. Please register and pay for it if you do. It has taken a lot of hard work and study; many, many hours (surely thousands since the first version in 1987); and considerable expense to develop TIMESET into the highly sophisticated program it is and the best of its kind. If it's useful to you or your organization, it merits your financial support. It's also advantageous to you to register TIMESET. Registration brings you fresh copies of TIMESET and its supporting programs (including any interim fixes before the next major upgrade), a printed manual, free technical support, and a 20 percent discount on the next major revision. Handling and mailing are included in the $35 per unit registration price. Please fill out the form on the next page and mail it to us with payment, or register by modem with TSREGSTR and be invoiced if you prefer. (Note: Registered users of versions 5.0-5.3 will automatically receive their copies of version 6.0 as promised and need not register again.) By the way, we always like to get reports from TIMESET users -- favorable or unfavorable. They are what have driven the program's evolution from the beginning. - 23 - TIMESET 6 MAIL REGISTRATION FORM For Individuals and Organizations Notice to companies and other organizations: Registration and payment is required for each copy of TIMESET in use within an organization. The price is $35 per copy for up to six copies. Please call Life Sciences Software at 206-337-7328 for discount information on more than six copies (the phone number will be 206-387-9788 after January 1, 1991). Notice to all: If you prefer to register TIMESET by modem and be invoiced for payment, use the TSREGSTR program to send the registration information to our electronic mailbox. The information TSREGSTR will prompt you for and send to us is essentially what you see below. TO: LIFE SCIENCES SOFTWARE 8925 271st, N.W., SUITE 112 STANWOOD, WASHINGTON 98292 I wish to become a registered user of TIMESET. My name: _____________________________________________________________ Organization name (if any): __________________________________________ Street address: ______________________________________________________ Additional address: __________________________________________________ City: _______________________ State: __________________ ZIP: ________ Phone number: ___ ___ ____ Number of copies being registered: ___ PAYMENT: Note: As a licensed business in the State of Washington we are required to charge residents of the state an additional 8 percent for sales tax. ___ I am enclosing payment for ___ copy(ies) of TIMESET at $35.00 per copy (Washington residents please add 8 percent for sales tax). Total enclosed: U.S. $ ________ Please make your check or money order payable to Life Sciences Software. Thank you very much. - 24 -