home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The World of Computer Software
/
World_Of_Computer_Software-02-386-Vol-2of3.iso
/
b
/
bdgr209y.zip
/
BADGER.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-01
|
29KB
|
643 lines
BADGER Copyright (c) 1992 by George Kerber 12/08/92
YOU HAVE A NON-EXPIRING VERSION!
!!!! NOTE !!!!
--------------
If your copy of BADGER has already expired, see the section below titled
BADGER -RESET for more information on how to -reset your copy.
--------------
!!!! NOTE !!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BADGER is released as SHAREWARE. This means that all users who find this
program useful and continue to use it are required to mail the author (me)
$20 to pay for the program and to register their copy. Failure to make
the required payment is THEFT. This program may be used for a period of 30
days (one 30 day trial period per user) without charge. Any user that
continues to use the program past the 30 day trial period should mail
a $20 payment to:
George Kerber
26 Mount Lebanon Road
Long Valley, NJ 07853
(908) 813-8641
As the author, I choose to make this program shareware and require a payment
of $20 for the use of the program. If anyone does not think the program is
worth $20 (which is anyone's choice to make), that doesn't justify not
making payment if you continue to use the program. If my price is too
high, then simply delete the program & documentation.
Your permission to use this SHAREWARE version of BADGER expires 30 days after
the first time you execute the program.
Some SHAREWARE versions of BADGER expire and become inoperative after they've
been used for forty-five days. If the main BADGER menu displays an
expiration date, you have an expiring version. Whenever BADGER is executed,
insure that your computer clock is set correctly.
All registered users will receive an unprotected copy of the latest version
of 'BADGER' that operates without SHAREWARE reminders.
When ordering, please specify AmigaDOS or MS-DOS and the disk size desired
(5 1/4 or 3 /1/2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program: BADGER
Programmer: George Kerber
Written: 03/15/90 - 10/25/92
Application: MS-DOS (3.0 or higher)
Compiler: Borland C++ (ANSI C)
!!!! NOTE !!!!
--------------
If your copy of BADGER has already expired, see the section below titled
BADGER -RESET for more information on how to -reset your copy.
--------------
!!!! NOTE !!!!
PURPOSE: Program description.
MENU OPERATION: Complete details on each menu choice.
DATA FILE LOCATION: Describes the '-p' command line option.
AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE: Describes AUTOEXEC.BAT file modifications.
INSTALLATION: Describes the installation process.
FLOPPY DISK USERS: Information for floppy disk users.
RETURN CODE: Optional information for batch file users.
COLOR: Information about the color options.
DATE FORMAT: Change the default mm/dd/yy date format.
ENVIRONMENT SPACE: Information about the 'environment'.
UPDATES?: Update information.
SITE LICENSES: Site license information.
BADGER -RESET: (SHAREWARE versions only) Information on how to
-reset shareware versions of BADGER.
STATUS: Registration information and copyright notices.
PURPOSE:
--------
BADGER is a 'quick' reminder program with mouse support. The user can
enter important events via prompts, along with the number of days to
pre-notify. BADGER will display any important events that fall within
the pre-notify date from the menu or using the '-s' or '-o' option.
The '-s' & '-o' options will only display the important events that are
'due'. This is useful for inclusion in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. BADGER
is easy to install and use, please read the documentation to learn about
all the features.
SYNTAX: BADGER
------- BADGER -s (see -b)
BADGER -o (see -b)
BADGER -b
BADGER -p alternate_path (Registered Versions Only)
BADGER -c
BADGER -e
BADGER -x
BADGER -m
BADGER -check
BADGER -h or ?
With no option BADGER will display a menu to add, view or search
for current due events. BADGER is easy to use, most choices are
self-explanatory.
-s BADGER will display only the current due important events and
then exit. If no events are due, there will be no output.
-o This option is the same as the '-s' option above, except that
BADGER will only check the Important Event List once per day.
Add 'BADGER -s' or 'BADGER -o' to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
-b Used with the -s/-o options. Causes the normal GREEN border of
the Search Event window to flash between GREEN and RED. This
is useful to attract more attention.
-p If desired, an alternate path may be entered for the location of
the BADGER.DAT data file. By default, BADGER uses \BIN to
store it's files. If used, enter a path only, not a path and
filename. This option is only available with Registered
versions of BADGER.
-c Toggle color/mono. See the section titled "COLOR" for more
information.
-e Use a European date format. All dates will be displayed
and entered as dd/mm/yy instead of the default mm/dd/yy.
-x Do not use the exploding menu screen on startup.
-m Prevent mouse capability if a mouse driver is loaded.
(normally not needed for any reason)
-check This option will display the status of this copy of BADGER,
along with the compile date. If this copy is a SHAREWARE
version, '-check' will also display to the user if this copy
of BADGER has ever been executed. See the 'STATUS' &
'BADGER -RESET' section for more information about this option
for SHAREWARE users.
-h A short help/information screen will be displayed.
or
? A short help/information screen will be displayed.
When choices appear between [] brackets, any choice that is capitalized is
the default and can be selected by simply pressing any key.
MENU OPERATION:
---------------
Any requestor can be cleared at anytime by pressing any function key or
CONTROL-y. Most operations can be cancelled at anytime by pressing the
ESCAPE key.
All menu selections can be selected by the choice number or the highlighted
letter of the description or by moving the selection bar and pressing the
return/enter key. Most selections can also be selected with a mouse. The
center mouse button will select the currently highlighted menu choice (if
your mouse has 3 buttons).
(s) 1. Search For Important Events.
(a) 2. Add Events.
(v) 3. View Events.
(p) 4. Print Event List.
(h) 5. Help/Information.
(q) 6. Quit. (default)
(F) Populate the Event List. (not shown on main menu)
(W) Write (SAVE) changes to disk. (not shown on main menu)
1. (s) Search For Important Events: Any important events that are "due"
will be displayed. If a reference year was entered on the ADD EVENT
screen, the number of years elapsed since the reference year will be
displayed. This is the same screen displayed when the -s or -o option
is used as a command line argument.
1. (c) Continue / Next (SPACE BAR): This is the default choice.
The event will be kept and the user will be reminded again
the next time the program is executed.
2. (d) Delete: The event will be removed from the Event List.
3. (a) Change Advance Notice: This option allows the user to change
the number of days in advance that this Event will be displayed.
4. (y) Remind Again Next Year: The event will be moved to the next
year in the list. Any dates of 2/29/LEAPYEAR will be moved to
2/28 of the next year.
5. (e) Change Event Description: The Event description can be changed
with this option. The existing Event Description will be dis-
played in the requestor. You may edit this text string, or
press a function key (F1 - F10) or CONTROL-y to clear the
requestor to enter a completly new description. Press ESC at
any time to ignore any changes you've made.
6. (r) Change Remind Date: This option allows the user to change
the remind date.
7. (w) Remind Again Next Week: The event will be moved ahead seven
days from the Important Event date. This choice is not
available for re-occurring events.
8. (m) Remind Again Next Month: The event will be moved to the same
date in the next month. If the new date is invalid, the day will
be moved to the last day in the new month.
Example: 05/31/90 will be changed to 06/30/90.
If you want to be reminded of an event at the end of every
month, enter the event for the 1st day of the next month to
notify you a few days before that. This will insure that you
will always be notified the same number of days before the end
of each month, no matter how many days are in the month. This
choice is not available for re-occurring events.
ESC. Press the ESC key or press the right mouse button to exit
this screen.
2. (a) Add Events:
NOTE: BADGER will prevent you from adding an event that already
exists in the event list.
Enter Date: The user will be prompted for the date to be reminded.
The date can be entered almost any way possible: MM-DD-YY, MMDDYY,
DD-MON-YY, MON DD, YY. Entering a year is optional, if entered it
can be a 2 or 4 digit year. A day name can be entered
(SUN, MON, ...) and the next available date will be used.
A number between 0 - 999 may be entered for the number of days
from today. For example, enter 25 to be reminded 25 days from
today.
If European dates are being used, use the following formats:
DD-MM-YY, DDMMYY, DD-MON-YY, MON DD, YY. See the DATE FORMAT
section for more information.
Enter Days: Enter the number of days you would like to be reminded
of this event ahead of time. The default is 10 days. You can
enter 0 - 45 days.
Enter (Reference) Year: You may enter a 4 digit year from 1800 up
until current year. This is useful for birth years and wedding
anniversary years. If a valid year is entered, the number of years
from the reference year to the current year will be displayed on
the SEARCH EVENT screen. Press <return> to skip the reference year.
Enter Event Description: Enter a description of the event. This is
the message that will be displayed to the user when the event is
displayed. You may not use the '?' or '*' characters in the event
description.
You may clear the requester at any time by pressing any function
key (F1 - F10) or by pressing control-y.
NOTE: The SEARCH EVENT screen will show how old a person is or
how many years ago their anniversary was if a reference year is
entered and the word 'birthday' or 'anniversary' appears in the
Event Description field.
3. (v) View Events: If a lower case 'v' is used the user will be
prompted for all or part of an Event Description (if there is
more than 1 event in the list) to search for. If an upper case
'V' is used, the user will not be prompted for a search query.
The search is un-anchored & non-case-sensitive. This means that
entering "ann" would locate both:
---
Mom & Dad's anniversary
Ann Miller's Birthday
---
Standard DOS wildcard ( ? * ) characters are allowed. See your DOS
manual for wildcard usage.
If nothing is entered, then all records will be displayed.
Center Mouse Button / F1 Clears the requestor.
F2 Restores the previous entry.
F3 Clear to end of line.
Any event that is 'due' will be highlighted on the VIEW EVENT
display.
Due events will appear WHITE, all others will appear in LIGHTCYAN.
1. (c) Next / Continue (SPACE BAR):
2. (d) Delete:
3. (a) Change Advance Notice: The number of days advance notice for
the event can be changed with this option.
4. (r) Change Remind Date: The Event Date can be changed with this
option.
5. (e) Change Event Description: The Event description can be changed
with this option. The existing Event Description will be dis-
played in the requestor. You may edit this text string, or
press a function key (F1 - F10) or CONTROL-y to clear the
requestor to enter a completly new description. Press ESC at
any time to ignore any changes you've made.
6. (y) Change Reference Year: The reference year can be added,
deleted or changed with this option. An existing reference
year can be removed by entering a '0' at the prompt.
ESC. Press the ESC key or press the right mouse button to exit
this screen.
4. (p) Print Event List: This option is only available if there are any
events in the Event List, and a printer is connected and ready to
print. Selecting this option will print your entire Event List.
5. (h) Help Screen/Information: A short help/information screen will be
displayed.
6. (q) Quit: If any changes were made to the event list, the user will be
prompted to save or ignore the changes.
THE FOLLOWING CHOICES ARE NOT SHOWN ON THE MAIN BADGER MENU.
------------------------------------------------------------
(W) Write Event List: An uppercase "W" must be used for this option.
This option is only available if any changes have been made to
the Event List. Selecting an uppercase 'W' will write the Event
List to disk if any changes have been made. If the user elects
to UNDO the changes, the disk file is re-read and any current
changes are lost. Use of this option is normally not necessary,
since the user will be prompted to save any changes on exit from
the program.
(F) Fill List: An uppercase "F" must be used for this option.
This option will populate the Event List with the events shown
below. The variable dates will be calculated, so the correct date
will be entered. These events will be added with three special
characters at the beginning of the event description. When these
events are displayed from the Search Event screen, the Remind Next
Week and Remind Next Month menu choices will not be available.
When Remind Again Next Year is selected, the event will be moved
to next year. Variable dates will be recalculated for the correct
date in the upcoming year. BADGER will set the number of days
advance notice to a pre-determined value. The user can change the
advance notice from the View Events screen. BADGER will
automatically add these events the first time it's used.
Constant Dates
------------------------------------
New Year's Day (1/1)
Ground Hog Day (2/1)
Valentine's Day (2/14)
First Day of Spring (3/21)
April Fool's Day (4/1)
Income Tax Due (4/15)
First Day of Summer (6/21)
Independence Day (7/4)
First Day of Autumn (9/27)
Halloween (10/31)
First Day of Winter (12/22)
Christmas (12/25)
Variable Dates
---------------------------------------------------------
President's Day
Begin Daylight Savings Time 1st Sunday in April
Easter Mathmatical Calculation
Mother's Day 2nd Sunday in May
Memorial Day Last Monday in May
Father's Day 3rd Sunday in June
Labor Day 1st Monday in September
End Daylight Savings Time Last Sunday in October
Election Day 1st Tuesday in November
Thanksgiving 4th Thursday in November
DATA FILE LOCATION:
-------------------
Normally, BADGER will use the default data file locations as described below.
Use of the -p option (registered versions only) will allow the user to
specify an alternate location. The default location is recommended, unless
the user has a special situation such as multiple partitions or for use on a
network. (See the section about Site Licenses for use on a network)
If used, only a path should be used, the file must be named BADGER.DAT.
Example: BADGER -p C:\OTHER
This example will make BADGER use C:\OTHER to store the BADGER.DAT file.
The BADGER program looks at the drive that it was executed from and assumes
that this is the drive that the user wants to store the data file on. So,
if you have BADGER.EXE on your c: drive, BADGER will use C:\BIN\BADGER.DAT
for the data file. Or if you have BADGER.EXE on the a: drive, BADGER will
use A:\BIN\BADGER.DAT instead. This allows the program to be used by both
hard disk and floppy disk users. If a current file exists, then it will be
renamed to 'BADGER.BAK' and the new information will be written to
'BADGER.DAT'. This insures that the previous generation file will always be
available in the \BIN directory. If the \BIN directory doesn't exist,
BADGER.EXE will create it.
AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE:
------------------
Add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file after any commands necessary
to set your system clock.
BADGER -s : check the event list on very boot or reboot
or
BADGER -o : check the event list only the first boot per day
Each time you boot your computer, BADGER will check for any important events
that are 'due' and display them to the user. If there is nothing to
display, there will be no output. See the RETURN CODE section below. The
display will be identical to the "Search For Important Events" from the
BADGER menu, except that the main menu will not be displayed.
INSTALLATION:
-------------
Execute the supplied 'INSTALL' program. BADGER will be installed on your
hard-disk. Your AUTOEXEC.BAT file will be modified so BADGER will check the
event list for 'due' events when the computer is booted.
See the README.1ST file for more information, or....
Copy BADGER.EXE to any directory that is in your current path. Remember
that BADGER will use the drive that you executed BADGER.EXE from for the
location of the data file as described above.
Once BADGER is installed, press Shift-F from the main BADGER menu to
populate the event list with all the re-occurring events shown above.
BADGER will fail if a file named BADGER exists in the root directory of
the disk you are running BADGER from. This is because BADGER will try and
make a directory called BADGER and will fail if a file named BADGER exists.
FLOPPY DISK USERS:
------------------
This program will work from floppy disks, but may be annoyingly slow to run
each and every time your system is booted from every disk. I suggest that a
bootable (and writable) disk be created with the program run from the
AUTOEXEC.BAT as described above. Then simply boot from your BADGER disk
whenever you want to check your event list.
RETURN CODE:
------------
If an error occurs that terminates the program prematurely, a return code of
10 (ERROR) is passed to the DOS shell along with a message printed to the
screen informing the user.
When the program is executed using the -s or -o option, a return code of
5 (WARN) is returned to the DOS shell if there were important events to
display. No messages or errors are displayed. Adding 'BADGER -s' to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file will produce no output unless an important event is displayed.
The user can safely ignore the return code if desired.
COLOR:
------
Text and background color is difficult to control in MS-DOS due to the many
possible combinations of graphics cards and monitors. Many programs will
change the cursor, text or background colors for their use and not return
them to the original size/colors when the program ends. This is poor
programming. BADGER always attempts to return your cursor/display to the
way it found it. BADGER attempts to determine the type of video adapter
and current textmode to determine if the display should be in color or
black & white. You can override the automatic choices using one of the
methods shown below:
Using the '-c' option will cause the display to change to the opposite of
the currently 'normal' display when executing BADGER with no option.
That is, if BADGER normally displays in color, using the '-c' option will
change the display to a black & white display, and vice-versa. Of course,
you must have a color monitor and color video adapter to have a color
display.
The '-c' option can be set with an environmental variable if desired to
avoid having to specify the '-c' option every time BADGER is executed.
Add the following line (or enter it at the DOS prompt) to your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.
set NOCOLOR=x (no spaces are allowed on either side
of the equals sign)
If you are not using a color monitor, experiment with the NOCOLOR variable
or the '-c' option to get the best and most readable display.
All programs by George Kerber and Randy Carter that use color displays
honor the NOCOLOR environmental variable.
DATE FORMAT:
------------
BADGER uses the normal American way of entering dates, with the month
before the day. European's usually enter the day first followed by the
month. BADGER can use the European date format. The European format
can be selected in two different ways:
You can execute the program using the -e option or set an environment
variable as shown below.
set EUROPEAN=x (no spaces are allowed on either side
of the equals sign)
You may wish to add the SET command to your autoexec.bat file.
The date formats can be switched and previously entered dates will
be displayed correctly.
ENVIRONMENT SPACE:
------------------
Read this section if you ever see the "Out of Environment Space" error
message during the boot-up process.
The BADGER program may use environmental variables to configure the program.
If you installed the program using the supplied INSTALL program, your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file may now include SET commands to add variables to your
environment. If the "Out of Environment Space" message appears, your
environment is too small to hold all the variables. The space reserved for
environmental varaibles can be increased by setting the SHELL variable in
your CONFIG.SYS file. See your DOS manual for complete information on
COMMAND and the SHELL variable.
Below is an example line from a config.sys file to increase the environment
space. This is an example only, see your DOS manual for information on
changing the SHELL variable for your particular PC and version of DOS.
SHELL=c:\command c:\ /e:1024 /p
UPDATES?
--------
Due to the initial low price of BADGER, registered users will not receive
automatic notification of any updates, bug fixes or improvements to BADGER.
Any registered user may request the latest version of BADGER by sending $5
(for shipping & handling only) to the author. To be eligible for the
update, you must send your current version number and serial number.
Contact the author before requesting an update to be sure an update exists.
Updates will only be sent to the original address of the purchaser. If you
have moved, you must send your original disk as proof of purchase.
SITE LICENSES:
--------------
BADGER is easily used on a network. Each user can use and maintain their
own event list using the -p option. Note that the -p option is not
available when using shareware versions. Contact the author for more
information about site licenses.
BADGER -RESET: (SHAREWARE versions only)
--------------
Some shareware versions of BADGER expire after 45 days of use. If your
copy does not display an expiration date on the main menu, you can safely
ignore this section.
A shareware version of BADGER that has already been date-stamped can be
-reset at any time by using the '-reset' option.
c:> BADGER -reset
Note that SHAREWARE versions of BADGER cannot share data files. If your SHARE-
WARE version has expired, you can -reset it. But the '-reset' version cannot
use an existing BADGER.DAT file. The -reset option is used to insure that all
users get an opportunity to evalute BADGER if the copy they receive has already
been date-stamped. The '-reset' option will not help anyone use BADGER without
making the SHAREWARE payment, unless they want to re-enter all of their events
each 45 days...
Note: BADGER versions prior to version 2.04g used 'reset'
instead of '-reset'.
STATUS:
-------
This program is SHAREWARE. If you find this program useful, and continue to
use it past 30 days, you are required to mail the author $20 as payment for the program and to register your copy.
If you have a registered version of BADGER, you MAY NOT FREELY DISTRIBUTE
your copy. Only unregistered SHAREWARE copies may be freely distributed.
Usage protected SHAREWARE versions of this program can be freely distributed
as long as all files are included in the archive. The archive should
contain the following files:
1. BADGER.EXE 4. README.1ST
2. BADGER.DOC 5. QUICK.DOC
3. BADGER.REG (register) 6. INSTALL.EXE
If a self-expiring SHAREWARE copy of BADGER is redistributed, it should
be the exact copy copy that was obtained from the archive. This is, the
copy that is distributed should not have been executed. You can determine
if BADGER has ever been executed by executing BADGER using '-check' as an
option. If BADGER has been date-stamped, that copy should not be
distributed, since it will become inoperative 45 days from the first time
it was executed, not 45 days from when the new user first executes it.
Please insure that all distributed copies have not been date-stamped.
See the section titled 'BADGER -RESET' for more information.
Please specify MS-DOS (3 1/2 or 5 1/4) or AmigaDOS.
If you wouldn't steal a program off the shelf in a software store, please
don't steal the program from me. If you use the program beyond the 30 day
trial period, failure to mail payment is theft. An ordering form has been
provided in the text file "BADGER.REG".
I am not responsible for any failure of this program, or any missed events
or any consequences of the missed event. (I hate responsibility)
George Kerber
26 Mount Lebanon Road
Long Valley, NJ 07853
(908) 813-8641
Compuserve 74010,2132