World of Ham Radio 1997

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Text File | 1997-02-01 | 35KB | 875 lines

THE WORLD29 Version 2.9x Instructions GENERAL Most inputs have a default. If not specified on the screen the program will use your last response to a specific request. You can generally default from one display to another without changing lat & long. A question mark "?" indicates that WORLD29 is waiting for you---hit ENTER. The "?" allows you to study the map for as long as you wish while telling you that the program has finished all drawing. Due to the default, you must enter something like Lat .00001 and/or Long .00001 to center a map at 0,0 or at any point with a latitude of 0 or a longitude of 0.(00 01 n will also work!) Don't worry about upper or lower case for your input. WORLD29 V2.9 changes the keyboard case to meet its needs. Occasionally you will note a change between upper and lower case. The status of CAPS and NUM will be saved on entry to WORLD29 V2.9 and restored upon proper exit - 99 from menu. I have tried for accuracy of .1 degree but ..... please send the coordinates of any border that you find in error!!!! PRINTING MAPS The complexities of converting LAT & LONG to pen positions for all the plotters in the world are beyond me. I suggest that screen prints of my maps be considered satisfactory. If you have a printer capable of handling screen dumps and have entered the GRAPHICS, file from DOS you should press shift-prtsc when you have created the correct map on the screen. If you want a better map you can create it in a Supplemental file and set the .CNF file to read your data as a part of WORLD29. Those having EGA cards should obtain a dump program which is designed for their printer and takes the place of GRAPHICS. CUSTOM CONFIGURATION To exit the CREATOR ---- any key not on the menu exits the program. A program named CREATOR.EXE is provided to make it easier to create needed files. Type CREATOR then hit ENTER. To customize the program for an EGA or to establish the names and locations of specialized files to be used with WORLD29 and to select the colors that you want WORLD29 to use. Select W to create a new configuration file. OR- you can use your own word processor - see below. CUSTOM LOCATIONS A file named "CUSTOM.LOC" is automatically read when the program loads. If "CUSTOM.LOC" does not exist in the current directory an error will occur. You can add whatever location you have a name, Latitude, and longitudes for by using the CREATOR C command. Finish the additions with ENTER ENTER ENTER Names must have a space or , in them as in WACO TEXAS or WACO, TX A single word without a space or , will cause unpredictable results. -1- OR-You can add any locations you want on your world29 map. Use your favorite ASCII editor to add NAME,LAT,LONG for any place in the world. A SAMPLE is included and the file must be named "CUSTOM.LOC" to become a full part of WORLD29 Sample: NORTH POLE,90,0 SUPPLEMENTAL FILES CREATOR S command will allow you to add lines, symbols, etc. to your maps as supplemental overlays. The CREATOR will ask for lat then long. Enter a Latitude and Longitude using Degrees and decimal degrees only. IE - translate minutes to decimal Degrees - 1 Min = .01666 degrees. Finish line segments with lat 99 and long 99. Finish file with lat 999 and long 999. Line segment COLOR can be set with a xx,99 where xx is a color number.(xx can be 0,1,2,3 in CGA or 0 to 14 in EGA). NOTE: you can assign any of 64 colors to the 15 EGA colors using the configure file. You can either change the WORLD.CNF file to automatically read your new file each time you load WORLD29 or you can enter it in place of the default file by answering the SUPPLEMENTAL FILE? with the name of your new file. - This will replace the SUPPLEMENTAL file called by your CNF file. You MUST have a supplemental file OR a "" in WORLD.CNF! At the prompt for SUPPLEMENTAL FILE? just hit enter to use SUP.DAT. REGISTRATION By registering the program with me you are both rewarding my past efforts and encouraging me to continue developing this program and others that I think will be useful and fun. Registration sent along with a disk formatted on your computer gets you a copy of the latest version of the program. It will also allow you to obtain the latest version of the program for 50% of the current fee (IE $5 instead of $10) plus a disk whenever you want. WORLD29 is an evolutionary development in which large changes result from the accumulation of small changes.You will also feel better each time you end the program. I will, to the best of my ability, respond to any written problem reports and/or suggestions as to what improvements should be made to the program. I will retain a list of those who register and, if a new release with significant changes is made, notify them of such a release. I will not notify anyone of minor improvements. DISCLAIMER Because my copyright notice specifically excludes the commercial use of this program and the program provides no service other than general information I will not be held liable for any damage caused by the use of this program. The program contains inaccuracies and errors in fact that have slipped by me! I will try to eliminate these inaccuracies when notified in writing of them. This program should NOT be used for Navigation or Storm Warning or as an authority for any other purpose. It is only provided to assist in learning and for fun! -2- THE PROGRAM Type WORLD29 and hit ENTER to start the program. The opening screen shows a world view. The ? in the upper left allows you to choose when to go on. Just hit ENTER Somename Supplemental File? Where Somename is the name you have entered in the CNF file as a supplemental file.ENTER takes whatever you have indicated in the CNF file. If you have a supplemental program called GORT.SUP that you would like to use at this time, instead of the file Somename, type GORT.SUP and hit ENTER. If you want no supplemental file you must enter "" in the WOLRD.CNF file in place of "SUP.DAT". The main menu displays as follows: 1 - Select by LAT and LONG 2 - Select by large area name 3 - Select by area of EUROPE 4 - Find using CITY or COUNTRY name 5 - Capitals of the USA 6 - National Capitals 7 - Other CITIES of note 8 - Enter new info on Tracks 9 - The Global view 10 - Point at a location 11 - Approximate distance between Cities 12 - Plot any one Track 13 - Name the City 99 - EXIT to DOS ? ITEM 1. Select by Lat & Long: If you know the latitude and longitude you want to look at, choose option 1. You will be asked for latitude first then longitude. You are permitted to enter decimal parts of a degree. (1 minute =0.016667 degree) You are permitted to enter Degrees and Minutes in the form Degrees followed by a space then Minutes then space then Hemisphere as 30 15 n or 120 23 e.(30 deg 15 min North or 120 deg 23 min East) WORLD29 then asks if you want a World view or nearby Cities W[C] The default of C will start a quick picture of the area around the point you have selected in accordance with the answers to the follow on questions. A W will bring you to a global view centered around the point you have chosen. The program then asks for a scaling factor (a number from one to five). A default scale of 3 is selected by pressing the enter key. The largest area is 1 and the most detailed -3- is 5. Scale 5 will show you the names of all WORLD capitals and any locations you have in the CUSTOM.LOC file which are within the bounds of the map. You will then be asked if you want Tracks (tracks of sample hurricanes are included as file "TRAKS" and "TRAKSXX). XX is the year of the file. "TRAKS" is the current file. TRAKS85 is the history or storms in 1985. No is the default. Y brings up a menu of TRAKSXX files. Use arrows to highlight the file you want to use then hit enter. (Note for HERCULES boards running CGA simulator -- you may not be able to see the highlight bar -- count the number of key presses) The bottom center will show a horizontal line which indicates 100 miles at the center latitude or the map shown. The view in this mode is rather rapid for MOST points on the earth since only part of the globe, and the supplemental data is calculated. The upper right corner of the screen will show the number of miles in one degree of longitude at the latitude of the center of the map being viewed. For scales of 3, 4 or 5 the names of all national capitals within the area displayed and a small circle identifying each capital will appear at the appropriate coordinates. A selection of W above asks for a Scaling Factor which will affect the size of the global map to be shown on the screen. 1 will show the entire hemisphere and a 5 will show a small area surrounding your selected point. The effect is a magnified view of a section of a globe not an Mercator type projection which distorts EW size. The default is 3, a medium magnification. (Note. Scale 5 takes some time for calculation of points that are off the screen.) You are asked if you want state borders. You can save some time by taking the default if you don't need state borders in the specific map you desire. Similarly, you can save time by eliminating the Political boundaries. Next an option for grid lines selects whether you want LAT & LONG lines. Depending upon scale, function, and use, you may or may not want these lines. Default is on. ITEMS 2.& 3. Area : Selected areas of the world, especially the USA, are presented in a list. Choose by typing the capitalized letters for your desired area (don't use the lower-case letters ie. S.AM for S.AMerica). Scaling is handled by the program and the upper right corner of the screen displays the number of miles per degree at the center lat. -4- ITEM 4. City finder: Type in the name of any city, country, or a combination of letters and WORLD29 V2.9 will search its Data Base (and CUSTOM.LOC ) for the combination of letters you have entered. It will then tell you what it found and ask: "[W]orld, Area map, Select again or Look some more" W is the default and centers a global view on the city A centers an small area map on the city chosen S sends you back to re-enter a name L continues the search for another match When no more matches are found WORLD29 V2.9 will say "I can't identify that !" and send you back to the main menu. ITEM 5. State capitals: State capitals are presented alphabetically and selected by number. You are then asked for a scaling factor as in item #1 and if you want tracks. Again the lower center presents the 100 mile scale, the upper right the miles per degree at the lat of the capital you have selected. Any state or national capitals within the area you have chosen will be displayed. If you have selected a scale of 5, all locations in the CUSTOM.LOC file within the bounds of the screen map will be located. The lower left of the screen shows the name of the capital that the map is centered upon. The capital is marked with a small circle. Its lat is shown at the right side center and long at the bottom center. ITEM 6. National capitals: Over 150 randomly selected national capitals are displayed in alphabetical order on several pages. Select by number. 999 for additional pages. As in previous options scale and track questions are asked. The 100 mile line, miles per degree, center location and other visible capitals are displayed as above. ITEM 7. Other cities: Selected (at my whim) cities are displayed and allow selection by number. Scaling factors and track questions are as in #1. 100 mile indicator, miles per degree and national caps are as above. the name of the city and its lat and long. are also displayed. Locations you have included in custom.loc will also be displayed Each entry in custom.loc will be given it's own number and -5- pages divided. (Not fully tested but should work as long as you have less than 900 entries in custom.loc.) ITEM 8. Track data: Allows you to keep track of future Atlantic, Pacific or IO hurricanes. Can be used to track anything that can be given a Lat and long. It asks the track's name first, then date in mmdd form, then type of Track or Confidence level (1 is most intense, 4 least or 1 hurricane 2 tropical storm 3 tropical depression 4 tropical wave)-----(this sets color of the segment of track and can be used for relative strength indicators or what ever you wish it to mean) then lat and long. --- the lat and long must be entered as decimal degrees NOT degrees and minutes ---- this is the way most storms are reported in the media. World29 will then ask if you have data on other tracks (default is no). Next the program asks if you want the display of track data. If you respond "y" then a display will be generated centered upon your last track data with a 100 mile radius circle around it. all appropriate data will be displayed as above. This is an ASCII file and can be maintained by an editor. If you are tracking more than one thing at a time the track plot will be discontinuous. Use your editor or a sort program to keep each track together by name. If you keep data on a particular item in sequence, WORLD29 will connect the data points and put the name at the beginning of the track for that track. The size of the circle at each coordinate represent the intensity of the track, and on global views the color is also indicative of intensity(esp. in EGA mode) This option is being used to track various things throughout the World. Long range bombers flying from Russia to Cuba, UFO's in the north west USA, TVRO satellite Footprints, and anything else that someone wants to track over large areas of the globe. The File TRAKS is the same as TRAKS88. When you are ready to start tracking new storms or other things simply delete traks and use function 8. ITEM 9. Global view: Asks for a lat and long of the point you want at the center of the screen. If you default, Lat and Long WORLD29 V2.9 does its best to center the world on whatever you had selected last in any of the available views. If in doubt, just hit ENTER whenever these two questions show up -- the worst that will happen is that the center of the screen will be at 0 degrees north 0 degrees west. -6- WORLD29 V2.9 now asks for a Magnification factor. 1 will show the entire hemisphere and will include lines of Lat and Long at 10 degree intervals. Numbers less than 1 will show a smaller globe (See the world from beyond the moon with a scale of .25) Numbers larger than 5 will work but there will be long periods when nothing seems to be happening. Actually each point on the globe and the line between them is being calculated. There is no guarantee that any line will show up on your screen. Even 3 is starting to stretch things so have fun. The cursor will appear --- eventually (? in the upper left). ENTER is a bail out at any time in the draw sequence. If you have included a supplemental file name in the WORLD.CNF file. It will now be read in and plotted on the world map. DO YOU WANT HURRICANES? Default = N. Y brings a list of track files on the default directory or the subdirectory selected bye WORLD.CNF . Select by highlight and enter. WANT STATE BOUNDARIES? Default = N. If y is selected, WORLD29 will include state borders with a slight slowdown in completing the world. Take the Default to save time when looking at the far east. DO YOU WANT POLITICAL BOUNDARIES? Default = N DO YOU WANT GRID? Default = Y. Y draws Lat and Long lines N leaves lines off ITEM 10. Pointer: A mercator type projection of the world is displayed with a pointer located in the Atlantic Ocean. Use your number key pad to position the cursor at the location you want to examine. This allows the use of older keyboards. As the cursor moves, its lat and long will be indicated. When it is near where you want it, hit the enter key and the cursor will become the center of an expanded view. You can now reposition the cursor and expand again by hitting enter. Including the full world map you have five expansions. Expansion beyond the fifth level returns to the menu. Hitting the "e" key at any level returns you to the menu. All movement is in 1 deg increments. Your supplemental file will be superimposed over the World Map. After a few expansions the Names and locations of visible cities will be plotted. -7- All except the final expansion can be used as a rough distance calculator. Pick a view in which you can see both places. Move the cursor to either location. You can only move in whole degree jumps. When you are within one degree of the location, touch your F1 key. The lat and long of the point will appear on the second line of the display. Now move the cursor to the second location and press the F2 key. The lat and long of the second location appears on line three and the ballpark distance appears on line four. You can move to another point and press F2 again, leaving your first point where it is or select a new first point with F1 and select another second point with F2. When ever F2 is pressed the distance is recalculated. Remember F1=first point F2=second point & recalculate Only works on Pointer Maps where you can move the cursor. Does not work on largest expansion (? in upper left) NOTE:F1 and F2 at the same location causes a error. ITEM 11. Distance calculator: Enter cities as in the CITY FINDER and approximate great circle distance will be displayed. If you answer "y" to the "Would you like a Map" question. Just for fun: A crude map will display both cities with a line connecting them. The map will ALWAYS display from west to east and the line connecting the cities is generally NOT the same as the great circle route! It merely shows both cities on the same map. Some of the distortions are quite interesting. Try FIJI to HONOLULU. Your data in CUSTOM.LOC will also be checked. To find the distance between you and the last track fix enter the first city as above and enter CANE as the second name. The TRAKSXX selection menu will show up and WORLD29 V2.9 will calculate the distance between the first name and the last entry in which ever TRAKSXX file you selected. This feature is limited to the last entry in the TRAKSXX file. You can enter a name from the CUSTOM.LOC file. *SEE ADDENDUM FOR NEW FEATURE ITEM 12. Plot any one track: A menu will allow you to select one collection of tracks from the files that start with TRAK and are located in the subdirectory selected in the WORLD.CNF file. The screen clears and a list of all different tracks within the selected collection. You must now type the name of the track you want to plot exactly as listed. Misspelling and case variance will cause a recoverable error. Once WORLD29 recognizes what you want it will ask if you want a world or local view and then follow the procedures described -8- above. The view will be centered around the initial coordinates for the specific NAME in the selected collection. ITEM 13. Name the City: A much requested game feature. A map centered around a randomly selected State or National Capital is created and the question "What's my name" appears in the upper left of the screen. Type your guess of the name then press ENTER for the answers. Names must match my data base so study of the maps will help. EG. Denver Colorado must appear as DENVER CO When you hit ENTER the Name will appear WORLD29 will keep score - a blank is a miss. The score is retained while the program is running - so you can go study and comeback for more. WATCH OUT you may learn something. Hitting ENTER at the menu brings another city. State Capitals will appear about 20% of the time. ITEM 99. EXIT: Provides a graceful exit to dos from the main menu and resets the CAP and NUM lock keys to the status that existed before entry into the WORLD29 program. NOTES and HINTS SUPPLEMENTAL FILES: The ultimate in flexibility is now available between CUSTOM.LOC and an optional supplemental file. With CUSTOM.LOC you could enter any name and location into the WORLD29 data base. Now you can use any file name to enter your own lines to represent anything you want. WORLD29 2.9 keeps reading LAT and LONG until it find an EOF. All WORLD29 V2.9 looks for is a pair of numbers and it will interpret the first one as a LAT and the second as a LONG and try to plot it. A second pair of numbers will be interpreted as the next point on a line unless or until a 99,99 sequence is found. 99,99 denotes the end of a line segment and the next LAT,LONG pair will start an new line segment. A ##,99 sequence is used to select the color of the following line segment. WORLD29 V2.9 interprets negative LONG (EG -128.53) as West Long (ie. west of the prime meridian and east of the dateline. Negative LAT (EG -38.5) is interpreted as South Lat (ie south of the equator. There is nothing sacred about the file SUP.DAT. Use whatever name you want ,just put the name on line 4 of WORLD.CNF or enter it on screen one when the Supplemental file question appears. The provincial boundaries are not well done. They are there to show what can be done. -9- A supplemental file must end with two sets of 99. (99,99,99,99) If you create supplemental files PLEASE SEND ME A DISK with the supplemental files on it. My MS has gotten worse and typing is harder and harder. POINTING: Those with both a numerical key pad and cursor control pad MUST use the numerical keys for pointing. The reason for this is that I intercept the numbers to control the direction, enabling single key diagonals. Your upper row of number keys will work (if you keep track of which keys point which way). MEMORY: I believe the program will run in as little as 240Kb and am unaware of any conflicts with TSR program.-----But I won't swear to it. ?: This prompt is used to indicate that WORLD29 is done. It allows you time to look at the map, print the map, use the pointer, or whatever for as long as you want. Just hit ENTER to continue. 99: Used to exit the program from the main menu. 999: Used to go to the next page of data. SPECIAL THANKS David Evers for his release of the popup menus used in this program. Michel Baron, who has created a version of WORLD in French, and encouraged me to keep going. Keith Clark for his addition of the East European countries and other encouragements Brian Cook for his many corrections to errors in data To run WORLD29 on a Hercules system you must have a CGA simulator such as SIMCGA or SIMCGA2 which are available on many BBSs. MANUAL CONFIGURING: The following is only for those interested in manually creating the .CNF file. A file named "WORLD.CNF" is read to configure WORLD29 V2.9 for your computer and preferences. The first line is to setup for an EGA or CGA. These are the only boards supported. The first line must be the capital letters CGA or EGA. The second line is either a capital Y or capital N. Y checks for the presence of certain files and when it finds one missing prompts you to create one. N skips the checks and lets you run most of the program without the missing files -10- The third line is a subdirectory name.(EG. \hurricane) It is used to tell WORLD29 V2.9 where to find TRAKS data files. (Some people use the data in other ways) If the TRAKSXX files will be in the current subdirectory then this line must be double quotes ("") The fourth line is the name of a supplemental file such as SUP.DAT which provides the Canadian provinces. If you don't want a supplemental file read line four must contain double quotes ("") Line five is the color of text. First number text, Second is background (as in color 7,0) Line six consists of 6 numbers which control the color of the Menu boxes and the margins for them. The first two control the main menu foreground and border. The second pair control the TRAKS box foreground and border. The third pair control the TRAKS title box. Line seven is for setting EGA colors. 15 numbers are required. On a CGA system the numbers may be any integer(they are dummy values and are not used). For EGA the numbers are for colors numbered 0 to 63, any other number will create an error. Must be here even for CGA . These numbers can be used in SUP files to color line segments according to your desires. (4,99 sets line color to red) Line eight is for selecting palette 0 or 1 for CGA global screen. 1 is CYAN, MAGENTA, WHITE 0 is GREEN, RED, YELLOW Must be here even for EGA Samples: EGA CGA N Y "" \PRIVATE "" SUP.DAT 7,0 1,4 4,3,4,11,11,4 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,1,2,3,4,5 63,62,61,60,59,58,57,1,0,2,3,4,5,6,1 1 0 -11- _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Robert L. Lloyd is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware- related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. products. To see the documentation one page at a time. Boot computer with DOS disk that contains MORE put WORLD29 disk in second drive type TYPE WORLD.DOC | MORE enter hit the space bar to advance pages. ROBERT L. LLOYD 191 VIA DE LA REINA MERRITT ISLAND, FL 32953 COMPUSERVE:70635,266 Please mention the version number (2.9x) in any correspondence. Multiple copies are offered as follows: Single copy price is $10.........Disk/Envelope/on disk Doc 2 to 10 .............$8/disk..... " " 11 to 50 ............$7/disk..... " " 51 to 100 ...........$6/disk..... " " Over 100 copies is beyond my capabilities and would require on site reproduction at a cost of $2/user. I would supply a single Master Disk which includes documentation. You would reproduce program disks and/or printed documentation. -12- INDEX 99,99 9 Miles/degree 4 999 10 Minutes 3 ASCII 6 Monochrome 10 ASP 12 Name the City 9 Additions 5 National Capitals 4,5 Background 11 Notes 9 Begin 3 Nothing happens 7 CGA 10 Number Key Pad 7,10 COMPUSERVE 13 Ombudsman 12 CREATOR Program 1 Percentages 9 CUSTOM.LOC 1,5,8 Plotting 1 Calculator 8 Pointer 7,10 Case 1 Political 4,7 City finder 5 Problems 12 Color 9 Quick 3 Configure 10 Random Selection 9 Conflicts 10 Registration 2 Continuous 6 Restored 1 Countries 5 Rewards 2 Country finder 5 SHAREWARE 2 Cursor 7 SORT 6 Cursor Keys 10 SUP.DAT 9,11 Cursor Pad 7 Scale 3,6 Customize 1 Scaling factor 3 Decimal 3 Simulator 4,10 Default 1,6 Single Track 8 Disclaimer 2 Site License 13 Distances 7,8 South 9 EGA 10,11 Start the program 3 East 9 State 4,5,6,7,9 End 9 Subdirectory 10 Example 11 Supplemental 2,3,7,9,11 Exit 1,7,9 TRAKS 4,6 Expansion 7 Text color 11 F1 Key 7 Thanks 10 F2 Key 7 Tracking 6 Fees 2 Tracks 4 File check 10 Two Cities 8 Fun 8 Upper Case 1 GRAPHICS 1 WORLD.CNF 10 Game 9 World 6 General Info 1 Zero 1 Global 3,6 quit 9 Grid 4 scale 4 HERCULES 4,10 "" 11 Hints 9 "?" 1,3,7,10 How far 8 Hurricane 6,8 Large Area 4 Lat. 3 Latitude Longitude 3 Line color 2 Long 3 Magnification 6 Main menu 3 ADDENDUM New for option #11 When asked for a FIRST NAME or SECOND NAME you can now enter a latitude and longitude. You will not be prompted for the LATITUDE! If you enter a positive numeric value it will be treated as a latitude entry. If you want to enter a location in the southern hemisphere you MUST use the DEG MIN H format (eg 3 17 S for 3 degrees 17 minutes south). A number preceded with a - sign will NOT be treated as a latitude. You may, however, enter latitudes as decimal degrees if you wish in the northern hemisphere (IE. 3.5 is the same as 3 30 N is the same as 3 30 meaning 3 degrees 30 minutes north). Once you have entered a latitude WORLD29 will prompt you for a longitude. You can still enter a location name for either the first or second name or for both. You are cautioned once more - the answers are APPROXIMATIONS!