This program is released as Freeware. That means it is freely distributable
as long as you do not change anything in any of the supplied files and that
you follow the rules in Distribution. Payment is not necessary and this is
the fully working version.
Disclaimer
----------
This software and information is provided "as is". No warranties are made
either expressed or implied with respect to the accuracy, reliability,
performance, currentness, or operation of this software and information
and all useage is at your own risk. The author does not assume any
responsibility or liability whatsoever with respect to your use of this
software and information.
Basically if this software goes wrong and does anything bad then I cannot be
held responsible. Not that anything bad should happen. If you have found a
serious bug then please let me know.
Distribution
------------
This program and supplied files can be freely distributed. Provided the
following conditions are met.
Magazines can include this program on their coverdisks without my written
permission, although I would appreciate it if they could send me a copy of
the magazine (e-mail me for if you want my address). CD-ROM developers such
as Fred Fish and the Aminet have my permission to include this file on their
CD's.
Public Domain Libraries : You are free to include this program in your
software library provided that you charge no more than a reasonable fee for
copying and distribution.
Users : Please feel free to copy this program and give it to your friends
etc.
Introduction
------------
This program was written because I became fed up with my files not having
the correct date and time on them. My Amiga 1200 does not have a battery
backed clock so I decided to write this program. It enables you to set the
date and the time on startup. This is done using this program and the
AmigaDos® Date command.
Although this task could be done with scripts, StartupDate is faster and
more reliable.
The idea for this feature came from MS-DOS® which automatically requests
the date and time if there is no clock present.
I hope you like this program!
System Requirements
-------------------
This program requires no special version of the operating system. It works
on Floppy Disk or Hard Disk.
The following files are needed in your path :-
Date
StartupDate
If you wish to use the supplied Installer® script then you will need
installer. Any version should work. For more information see Installation.
Installation
------------
Please use the installation script provided. It requires the installer
program from Commodore or Amiga Technologies / Escom. If you get the
message Unable to open your tool 'Installer' then you will need to find the
installer package. You will probably already have this on your system.
Check on your original Operating System disks as well as any application
software disks you have. It is usually stored in the C or Utilities
directory of your disks. These may not have icons, so remember to Use
Show... All Files from the Window menu on your Workbench (Workbench 2.0+
Only). Copy this to your C directory or simply change the default tool of
the install icon to point to the location of Installer. See your Workbench
manual for information on Default Tools.
You should select a mode appropriate to your Amiga knowledge. Novice user
is completely automatic and will create an install log file. Amateur allows
you to select operations regarding log files and installing for real or
pretending to install. After that installation is again automatic. If you
select expert you must confirm at every stage of the installation procedure. You MUST however select to install the main executable StartupDate or the program will not work.
The script does modify your User-Startup sequence file (which it creates if
you do not have one) so bare this in mind if you ever want to remove
StartupDate.
Should the installation procedure fail at any time check that you have
inserted the right disk, that the disk is not damaged in any way and that
there is enough room free on the disk. (StartupDate requires about 1.5K of
disk space). If problems persist then you will have to install manually.
The instructions for doing this are below:-
Manual Installation Instructions
1. Copy the StartupDate program to the C directory of your boot disk.
2. Add the following line to your user-startup file in the S directory of
your boot disk. :-
StartupDate
3. Make sure the date command is in your path. (To see your current path
type path and press return at the Shell.)
Useage
------
The program should be fairly self explanatory, however you should first be
prompted to enter the date. This is in the form of the AmigaDOS® Date
command. For example 15-Aug-97. The day must be numerical (A zero is not
necessary before the number if it is single digit). Then the month, which
uses the first three letters of the month, E.G. Jan, Feb, Mar etc. Case is
not important. The year is just the last two numbers of the current year.
The dashes between the numbers and months are necessary. Use the minus key
(right of the 0 on the main keyboard). Press return to enter the date.
Next you will be asked to enter the time. Enter the hour (in 24 hour
notation) then a colon (:) and then the minute. You can also optionally
enter the second, although don't forget that there will be a short delay
between you entering the time and this actually being set, especially if
you are running from floppy disk. Again a colon should be used.
WARNING : This program does not contain any error checking. All the error
checking is done by AmigaDos, therefore if an error occurs the date command
will inform you and not StartupDate. So if an error occurs an error message
will be displayed and you will have to set the date manually after booting
is complete. If errors persist then check you are using the correct syntax.
If you still have problems then it may be a bug in this program. If this is
the case then please contact me.
Bugs
----
Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure this software is bug free,
there may still be some bugs in the code. If you find anything happening
which you do not think is supposed to then I would like to know about it,
so I can try to fix it! Please make sure that if you are reporting bugs,
that you have the program installed correctly and that you have read all
the supplied documentation. If the error still occurs then please e-mail me
with all the details below. Thank you.
This program has been tested under Workbench 3.0 and Workbench 1.3.
