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Text File | 1994-03-26 | 31KB | 732 lines

Upgrade Instructions for TODAYS Version 2.01 This file is *ONLY* for users upgrading from TODAYS version 2.00 to version 2.01. New users please read the TODAYS.DOC file. This program is somewhat complex. Changes to TODAYS.INF: This file is NO LONGER IN USE!! Nor is TODAYS.HDR. Both have been replaced by the file TODAYS.CFG, which is much more flexable. Because of all the options that are available with this release, it seemed rather silly to continue to require that certain things be on certain lines, and have some lines that are required, and others that are optional. Especially if all you wanted to do was to use the option to change where the error log goes. You have to have a _bunch_ of blank lines in your file just to get to that one. (In the alpha test stage, the line to change where the error log went to was line 17!) In order to fix that, and to provide greater flexability, I changed the TODAYS.INF file so that users could make whatever line they wanted be for whatever they wanted via the use of 'commands' or 'key words', then renamed it so that there wouldn't be confusion over the two different files. You'll note that I've made a number of comments in the file discribing what each command does, which lessens the dependence on the documentation for the user. To make the change easy on everyone, I wrote a upgrade program called T_UP201.PRG. It uses both your old TODAYS.INF and TODAYS.HDR files, along with a 'mask' file called TODAYCFG.NEW to create a working TODAYS.CFG for you. Please check the file before use, however, just in case I goofed somewhere. Changes to TODAYS.LNG: A _major_ change was made to this file. The pipe character (|) has been replaced with the semicolon character (;) in this file to provide a more consistitent method of seperating the part of the file that is used by the program from the user comments. Please replace your file with the one in the distribution archive, then edit the 'Time of day' area to reflect the two time zone names in your area. --------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to the Data Files: TODAYS now recognizes 6 more column 10 codes: Placing a 8 in column 10 means that the line should be displayed if the day is a weekday (ie Monday - Friday), but not on a Weekend. Placing a 9 in column 10 means that the line should be displayed if the day is a Weekend (ie. Saturday or Sunday), but not on a weekday. Placing a B in column 10 means that the line should be displayed only if the day is a "Business Day" as defined in your TODAYS.CFG file. Placing a N in column 10 means that the line should be displayed only if the day isn't a "Business Day" as defined in your TODAYS.CFG file. Placine a L in column 10 means that the line should be displayed only if the current run year is a Leap Year. Placing a R in column 10 means that the line should be displayed only if the current run year isn't a Leap Year. TODAYS now does "Range Dates". Range dates are a method of using one line to replace many, if an event in your data files goes over several days, or can occur on several dates. Here's an example: National Ball Room Dance Week (a real event, by the way) runs from September 11th through September 18th of every year. To display this event in previous versions, you'd have to have 7 lines, one for each day: E0911 National Ball Room Dance Week E0912 National Ball Room Dance Week E0913 National Ball Room Dance Week E0914 National Ball Room Dance Week E0915 National Ball Room Dance Week E0916 National Ball Room Dance Week E0917 National Ball Room Dance Week E0918 National Ball Room Dance Week With Range Dates, you can 'compress' this all down to one line: E0911+6 National Ball Room Dance Week The +6 tells TODAYS how many _additional_ days TODAYS should display the line for in _addition_ to the date in columns 2-5. In Range Date line above, TODAYS will display the line on the 11th, and for 6 additional days for a total of 7 days. Values up to +999, to cover several years can be used. Range dates work only _forwards_ in time, so placing a negative value on the line won't activate the Range Date routine, and TODAYS will use the code as a year BC instead. You can use Range Dates along with the various column 10 codes to indicate which day of the week it should be displayed, or as a continued line. For instance, Mother's Day, which occurs on the 2nd Sunday of May can be put into your TODAY data file(s) as simply: N0508+6 1Mother's Day rather then using the seven lines it would take to cover this same period. If you don't put a month value on the Range Date line, the program will use the current month. This way you can create lines that appear darn near anytime! Range Dates will work over months and years, as long as the line you have it on is accessed by the program, in other words, not the monthly files if it goes over a month. Range dates will *NOT*, unfortunatly, work with a year value. <sigh> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to Function Codes: There are three new Display type codes: R - Gives the 'Roman Numberal' equivalent. Example: %FDOWRNN% Would give off "IV" if it was Wednesday, the 4th day of the week. Warning: Because the Roman Numberal for 5,000 (a V with a line over it) is not part of the Atari character set, this function is limited to those numbers under 4,000 (1 - 3,999). (The number 4,000 uses the Roman character for 5,000.) Also, because there isn't a Roman Numberal for 0, if 0 is the result, you'll get an error. E - External file support. Uses the resultant number of the code to read the resultant-th line *PLUS 1* from a file named as a part of the function code. For example: %FDOWEd:\bbs\weekday.txt% will cause the program to figure out the day of the week, add 1 to it, then read in that many lines from the file "WEEKDAY.TXT" in the d:\bbs\ directory, and replaces the function code with whatever it finds there. If the day of the week was Wednesday, it would use the 5th line of the file and insert that line into the report. (Wednesday is the forth day of the week, so 4+1=5 -> fifth line of d:\bbs\weekday.txt.) In case you're wondering why the +1, that's so that function calls resulting in 0 can still be used. Should the file either not exist or should there not be enough lines in the file, TODAYS will not replace the code and will generate an error of "Invalid display or modifier type code." Display Type code P, short for 'plural', may take some explaining. If you'll take a look at the new TODAYS.LNG, you'll notice that there is a new section called 'Singular/Plural words' after the 'Time of day' section. There are 7 lines in the area, containing both the singular and plural versions of the words for years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds, each seperated by a 'pipe' character. If you use Display type P in your function call and either N (numberic), S (suffex), E (each), or I (integer) for the Modifier, TODAYS will look at the result of the function name, determine if the value is singular (equals 1) and _append_ the appropriate word from TODAYS.LNG onto the result of the function name. TODAYS will then go on to do what ever justification you've told it to do in the function code, including the singular/plural word. If you use Display type P in conjunction with Modifier W you will get _only_ the singlar or plural word without the result of the function name, justified to whatever justification you've told TODAYS to do as a part of the function code. In alpha testing I've discovered that it's best to use two function codes for the left most function code on the line, instead of just the one. One to get the number, and another to get the plural/singular word. It lines up better. 'Course, if your not worried about alignment, feel free to use just the one. There is one new modifier code: Integer (an I in position 6) prevents the ZeroSwap option in TODAYS.CFG from replacing the number 0 with the word(s) you've assigned to the ZeroSwap option. Use of this modifier insures that the result of the Function Code is *always* a number. (The ZeroSwap option is explained in detail in TODAYS.CFG.) There are several new function codes available: GMT A Current Greenwich Time To use the GMT function code, you must also have set the GMT command in your TODAYS.CFG correctly for your area (-5 Eastern Standard, -6 Central, -7 Mountain, -8 Pacific...). If you've also set up the DaylightStart and DaylightEnd dates and the DaylightTime amount in TODAYS.CFG, the GMT time will be automatically adjusted by TODAYS when Daylight Savings Time goes into or out of effect. (There's no effect on your computer's clock. It _assumes_ you've re-set it to the right time.) ZON A Current Time ZONe name as defined in TODAYS.LNG The ZON command uses the Time Zone Names as defined in TODAYS.LNG, and will self-adjust to DayLight Savings time if you've set the start and end dates in the TODAYS.CFG. RIY Roman Indiction or "Tax" Year (a 15 year cycle) LUN LUNar year (aka "Golden Number") (a 19 year cycle) SCY Solar Cycle Year year (a 28 year cycle) The 3 cycles above were used to "create" the JULian date, so I thought it would be apporiate to add them in. They are still used for a variety of date calculations as I've discovered. JYR Julian YeaR (basicly the Julian date/365.25) DA2 A DAte (in format dd.mm.yy - 2 digit year) DA3 A DAte (in format mm/dd/yy - 2 digit year) Some users wanted more flexability in the dating methods used, so the above DA2 and DA3 codes were asked for, as was the JYR code. Simple to put in, so... Ta-Da! QTR QuarTeR of year (1,2,3, or 4. Numbers only, no names. Feel free to use the External file support code in your function call if you wish to apply names to the quarters of the year.) QLY Quarters Left in Year DLQ Days Left in current Quarter DOQ Day Of current Quarter Above are the Quarter function codes also implemented due to user requests. (Keep 'em comming people, I need things to do!) The "Weeks" functions (below) were somewhat problematical, but they work as designed. The problem I've run into is that there isn't a general agreement on _when_ the first week of the month is. The majority of those I've asked (mostly accountants and auditors) say that the first week of the month starts on the first _Sunday_ of the month reguardless if it's the first day of the month or not, counting the first _full_ week as the first week of the month. This method makes more sense to me then to start counting weeks from the first day of the month, especially if the month begins on a Friday or Saturday, so that's what I've programmed the Full week function codes for. Using these functions, TODAYS starts counting from the first _full_ week in the month, quarter, season or year. FLM Full weeks Left in Month FLQ Full weeks Left in Quarter FLS Full weeks Left in Season FLY Full weeks Left in Year FOM Full week Of Month FOQ Full week Of Quarter FOS Full week Of Season FOY Full week Of Year The downfall of the Full week system is that durring the first few days of a month that doesn't begin on a Sunday, you'll get 'weird' results such as it being the '5th week of the month, with 4 remaining.' To counter for that, I also programmed for the other method of determining which week it is, which is determined by how many similar days of the week there have been. Under this method, the first Wednesday of the month means that it's the first week of the month, reguardless of when the month (or quarter, season, or whatever) started, the third Wednesday of the month is the third week, and so forth. WLM Weeks Left in Month WLQ Weeks Left in Quarter WLS Weeks Left in Season WLY Weeks Left in Year WOM Week Of Month WOQ Week Of Quarter WOS Week Of Season WOY Week Of Year The following function code was actually available in TODAYS version 2.00, but was somehow left out of the documentation. (Opps.) MLY Months Left in Year DOT Days of computer On Time HOT Hours of computer On Time MOT Minutes of computer On Time SOT Seconds of computer On Time The four codes above were added for those of you who want to customize your display of the time your computer has been running further then what's allowed with the COT function codes. DO0 A Date On line (in format dd.mm.yyyy) DO1 A Date On line (in format mm/dd/yyyy) DO2 A Date On line (in format dd.mm.yy - 2 digit year) DO3 A Date On line (in format mm/dd/yy - 2 digit year) The above 4 codes can *only* be used on the data lines. If a year is not given on the line, the program will use the current year or the year it calculated for in the case of a calculation line. If the day of the month and/or the month is missing, the program will use the current day of the month and/or month to fill out whatever is missing. ARD A Days _to_ Range Date DLR Days Left in Range DOR Day Of Range ER0 A End of Range date (in format dd.mm.yyyy) ER1 A End of Range date (in format mm/dd/yyyy) ER2 A End of Range date (in format dd.mm.yy - 2 digit year) ER3 A End of Range date (in format mm/dd/yy - 2 digit year) ROL Number of days to display the line for (the Range On Line) SR0 A Start of Range date (in format dd.mm.yyyy) SR1 A Start of Range date (in format mm/dd/yyyy) SR2 A Start of Range date (in format dd.mm.yy - 2 digit year) SR3 A Start of Range date (in format mm/dd/yy - 2 digit year) The above function codes are only valid if used on a 'Range Date' line from the data files. NOTE: The ARD fuction code works only _forward_ in time and is there so that you can have a "countdown" display of the number of days until a moveable event, such as Mother's Day. The ARD function code will _only_ work when you've got a range date in columns 1-9 and a day of the week code in column 10. The ARD function code _will_ _not_ work if column 10 is blank! RAN W import RANdom line from a external file. All other modifiers invalid! RAN works a lot like the EXT Function code, however TODAYS will generate a random number based on how many lines there are in the file, and then use that line to insert into your report. Following %FRAN must come the name of the file you want TODAYS to use. Remember to terminate the Function code with a %. Example: %FRAND:\TEXT\IMPORT.TXT% When run, TODAYS will first count the number of lines in the D:\TEXT\IMPORT.TXT file, generate a RANdom number based the number of lines, and then 'import' the randomly selected line from the file directly where you have the function code. It's slow, since the file has to be read in once just to figure out how many lines there are in the file, and then read through the file to find the line, but it works. Changing the RAN code to RAW, TODAYS will perform a word wrap on the line before inserting it into the report. The EXT function has also been enhanced in the same maner (%FEXW does a word wrap before insertion into the report.) Because of the change allowing users to use a date different then the system date (see below), there have been requests to allow the display of the current date. These 5 codes can be used anywhere in your report or the lines in your data files. They will display the current date reguardless of what day your running for. All calculations still use the date you're running for, of course. CD0 A Current Date (in format dd.mm.yyyy) CD1 A Current Date (in format mm/dd/yyyy) CD2 A Current Date (in format dd.mm.yy) CD3 A Current Date (in format mm/dd/yy) CDW A Current Day of Week The next 5 function codes run exclusive of years (and/or months in the case of MUL and DUL) and provide the user with a method of producing a line that can say something like: "9 months, 25 days until Mom & Dad's Anniversary", as opposed to the code DAY (or DAC) which results in a "pure" count of the number of days from/to an event. DUL number of Days Until/since date on Line MUL number of Months Until/since date on Line FOL Full week of year on Line WOL Week of year On Line WUL number of Weeks Until/since date on Line DXL number of Days until/since date on line, eXclusive of weeks The DXL function returns the number of Days eXclusive of weeks, so that you can put a line in that'll come out something like: '9 months, 3 weeks, 4 days until Mom & Dad's Anniversary'. The return from DXL will _never_ be greater then 6, since if there were more then 6 it'd be another week. The DXL function is designed to work with the WUL function. If you're not going to use WUL, you should use DUL, rather then DXL, on your data line. The following codes have been changed to provide a more consistant set of codes. (If the last character of the Function name is a L, then it's one that can only be used on a Line from the Data files.) The old codes no longer work. Please update your data lines and reports so you don't get errors. Code: Old New Meaning --- --- --------------------------------------------- DAY TUL Total number of days Until/since date on Line JUL JUD current JUlian Date SOL SCY current Solar Cycle Year RNG ROL Range On Line YUL YER Years Until date on Line ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Math in Function Codes! Minor, _very_ minor, math functions are now allowed in TODAYS function codes. Currently the only math allowed is addition, subtraction, multipication, division, and modula (MOD). To use TODAYS math within Function codes, the equation you want TODAYS to do *MUST* be enclosed in brackets: []. For example, to have TODAYS find the day of the year and add 6 to it, you would use the code: %FDOY[+6]NNN%. (The NNN can be any valid Display Type, Modifier, and Justification you want, I just picked those for simplicity.) You can do more then one operation within the brackets if you want. Math will be performed in a simple left to right operation. Don't use paraenthese! It'll just mess things up for you! (I haven't coded for them!) Here's a example of how more then one math function works: The function code: %FJOD[&7+1*10]NNN% will find the Julian Date, mod 7 it, add 1, and multiply the result by 10. I'm not sure what use that number would be, but feel free to find your own combinations! I hope in the future to allow Function Codes to be used recursively, i.e. %FDOW[+DOY]NNN% would result in the Day of the week plus the day of the year. If there's enough call from users to increase the math functions, I'll work on that too, but for now you can only do +, -, *, /, and MOD, and only to numbers you have on the line. One example of how you might use this code is in a Birthday count down. Suppose that you've got a line in your data file that goes: #0508 #Days until Julie's Birthday so that you're given a reminder of how many days until Julie's birthday. Great, but how _old_ will she be this birthday? There's no way to calculate that, because if you put a year value in it, the line won't show up at all because the year is past, and countdowns never appear on the date that's on the line! So let's change the line a little bit so that it _will_ show her age: #0508 #%FTUCNNR9% %FTUCPWN% Until Julie's %FYR4[-1989]NSN% Birthday The %FTUCNNR9% alines the number of days until the date on the line to be right for 9 spaces. The %FTUCPWN% tells TODAYS to figure out if it's "Days" or just the singluar "Day" (as in 1 day), and the %FYR4[-1989]NSN% figures out the current year to 4 digits (that's the YR4 part), subtracts 1989 from it (that's the [-1989] part) and then figures out the correct "th", "nd", or "st" plural suffix to add on. With the line above, on 05/01/1994, we'd see in our report the line: 7 Days Until Julie's 5th Birthday As I said before, that's one example. Feel free to make up your own to do whatever you need. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to TODAYS.RPT: Header calls may now be justified in the same method and manner as Function calls. %HAC69% will center the type A header to 69 columns, %HAL% will left justify the type A header, %HAR69% will right justify the type A header(s) to 69 columns. The 'Trimming' feature also works, though why anyone would want to use it is beyond me. For Centering and Right Justification, the program will use the Wrap value from TODAYS.CFG if you do not give a value as a part of the %H header call. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to the TODAYS program: The Once command, when used in either the TODAYS.CFG file or from the command line (more on that later), will prevent the program from running more then once a day. Changing the date you're running for via the /d command on the command line will have no effect. The Once command works by first looking at the date/time stamp of the TODAYS program. If the date of the program is the same as the computer's system date, the program will abort it's run. If the dates are not the same, the program will run as normal, and at the completion of it's run, update the TODAYS program's date/time stamp. There are of course, 3 major problems with this system: First, the TODAYS program *must* be named TODAYS, and have one of the following extenders: APP, GTP, PRG, TOS, or TTP. Second, the program *must* be run from the 'default' directory. In other words, if you're running TODAYS from a batch file processor of some type (a CLI like PCommand or TomShell), a BBS "shell" or your own self-written program, you *must* first change to the directory TODAYS is in. Otherwise, TODAYS won't be able to find itself. (Weird, eh?) Lastly, if you're doing regular backups using either the date/time stamp of the files or the 'Archive bit' to select the files to backup, the Once command will make your backup program backup the TODAYS program each time you run the backup program. Sorry, there's no way around this. Hopefully, your backup program allows you to 'deselect' specific files, which is the only way around this problem that I can think of. There is a way around the Once command if you choose to use it, and then realized you shouldn't of. Holding down either the Alternate key, the Control key, or the Left Shift key will cause the program to 'ignore' the date/time stamp when it's checking for when TODAYS was last run. The above is also true if you don't want TODAYS to update the program's date/time stamp, which happens _after_ the report has been sent out. If you hold down either the Alternate, Control or Left Shift key, the date/time stamp of the program won't be updated. The display while the program is processing the TODAYS.RPT file has been changed so that instead of all the little dots appearing for each function code converted, there's now a 'count' of each function code converted. If you re-direct the error report to the screen via the ErrorFile command in TODAYS.CFG, or from the command line, TODAYS will display the error message (if one occurs) and then pause for 15 seconds before continuing. This gives you a chance to read the error message. Pressing any key durring the pause aborts the pause, and program will continue on. Pressing the "Undo" key durring the read of a data file 'aborts' the read of that file. This is usefull to those of you who are '1 big file' users. Once you've pressed the Undo key, the program will go on to read the next file you've told the program to use in your TODAYS.CFG file. No other key presses have any effect, and pressing the Undo key will not generate an error. A new mode, called "Quick Mode" can be used to speed up the reading of the data files. When Quick Mode is used, the program will self-abort the reading of a data file when it detects that the line it's reading is of a date greater then the date it's running for. In other words, if the date TODAYS is running for is Feburary 4th and Quick Mode is turned on, TODAYS will stop reading that data file as soon as it detects a date on the data file line as one that comes after Feburary 4th. Quick Mode will also work with the 'file numbering' method so that you can tell TODAYS which files to apply Quick Mode to. To apply Quick Mode only to the AdditionalFiles and/or AlternateFile in TODAYS.CFG, you should give TODAYS the command /q13 on the command line, To apply it only to the monthly files, use /q-13. If used in the TODAYS.CFG file, use the line "Quick 13" or "QUICK -13" respectivly. Your individual useage of the number may vary according to your needs and how many files you have. If, for instance, you have two AdditionalFiles in TODAYS.CFG and one AlternateFile, the first AdditionalFile would be file number 13, the second would be file number 14, and the AlternateFile would be number 15. So if you wanted to apply quick mode to only the AlternateFile you would use q15. To apply quick mode to *all* the files *except* the AlternateFile you would use /q-14. If you're still confused by the file numbering method, please read the documentation for TODAYS, paying close attention to the part that talks about the "SHOW" command. Quick Mode uses the same numbering method. The display, while TODAYS is processing the lines from the data files has been enhanced so that it now displays only the file name of the data file it's using, but not the path to it, and the file number enclosed in parenthases. This allows for a more consistent display of the lines processed and number of items gathered. To provide a 'clue' as to how the program is doing, there is also a display of the date of line being processed. As mentioned above, TODAYS can now be run as a TTP (or GTP for TOS 3.06 users) program. There are a variety of "switches" that can set to change things within the program, including what date to run for. NOTE: You *must* still use a TODAYS.CFG file. The command line switches are intended to _suppliment_ the use of the TODAYS.CFG file, not replace it! Command Line switches for TODAYS.TTP version 2.01 beta a: /a - set age value /d - set date (mm/dd/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy if yyyy not given, uses current year.) /fa - set AlternateFile to use instead of what's in TODAYS.CFG /fc - set which/where TODAYS.CFG file to use /fe - set error report file/pheripheral name /fl - set TODAYS.LNG file to use /fo - set output file/pheripheral name /fp - set default path /fr - set report file to use /f+ - set additional files to use /i - set second line indents /m - set replace/append mode for output /noadd - Don't use AdditionalFiles /noalt - Don't use AlternateFile /nomon - set 'NoMonthly' mode on (TODAYS won't use TODAY.mmm monthly files, but will use whatever AdditonalFiles or AlternateFiles in the TODAYS.CFG) /once - turn once mode on /q - set quick mode on/files to use Quick Mode on /s - set sort mode and/or catagories to sort on /t - set test mode (noshow, show, show2 ,showall, showfile, showlinenumber ,showmemoryposition ,shownone) /v - ok to use version x.xx LNG file (Use *very* carefully!) /w - set column to wrap the lines on /0 - set 0's replacement string /1 - use *only* the AlternateFile /$a - set AfterHeader string /$c - set carridge return string /$h - set pre-header string /$p - set post-header string /$s - set year/text seperator string /$t - set pre-text string /$y - set pre-year string useage: /w40 /frD:\bbs\xe\atascii.rpt /d12/31 /mR /$c013010 meanings: /w40 - wrap on the 40th column (40 column screen) /frd:\bbs\xe\atascii.rpt - use the "ATASCII.RPT" file in D:\BBS\XE\ /d12/31 - run for December 31st of current year /mR - Replace the output file if one is already there /$c013010 - set CarridgeReturn string to be one CR and one LF NOTE: When using the /f commands, it is best to use the complete GEM <drive>:\<path>\<filename.ext> discription for the file you want TODAYS to use as shown above. As always, when sending output to the screen, please use the keyword CON: including the colon (:). For printer output, use PRN: including the colon. BIG NEWS! The 'Calculations' catagory has been removed from the program. This doesn't mean that you can't calculate the number of days since or until a date however. In versions prior to 2.01, if you used a #, *, -, +, %, or & in column 10, TODAYS automatically forced the line into the calculations type code. With version 2.01, that's all gone. You may now have calculation events in any type or catagory you want, and as many 'calculation' type as you want. You are no longer forced to use type # for calculations. Personally, I still keep all my coundowns/ups together, so I went through my data files and made sure all the lines that have a #, *, -, +, %, or & in column 10 were type #. Those of you who'd like to have the counts separate should set up catagories/types for "upcomming birthdays", "upcomming anniversaries", "upcomming events", or "upcomming <whatever>" in both your TODAYS.CFG file, TODAYS.RPT file, and (of course) make the changes in your data files.