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1989-08-01
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REMIND Release 4.6:
The program that lets you "forget about forgetting"
Copyright (C) 1988
Robert M. W. Tsou
28441 Cedarbluff Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90274
Registration and Licensing Agreement:
_____________________________________
REMIND is a user supported software product. It is not in
any way free software. You are granted the right to use
REMIND for a limited evaluation period. If you find REMIND to
be useful and would like to continue to use it, a
contribution of $10 in U.S. funds sent to the address below
would be greatly appreciated. Your registration will legally
entitle you to continue using REMIND. Your support will help
us make REMIND an even better product and make possible other
low-cost, high-quality programs.
When you register, you will receive a free disk through the
mail containing the latest version of the program if what you
have is not already the latest version. Please specify the
type of disk that you use (either 5.25 inch or 3.5 inch disks.)
You may give REMIND to others so that they may try it out as
well; however, you may not modify or remove ANY of the
program or documentation files in the package. No
compensation may be received for distributing REMIND.
To register as a licensed user, send your name, address, and
any comment you may have regarding the program, along with
$10 to the following address:
Robert M. W. Tsou
28441 Cedarbluff Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90274
Thank you for using REMIND.
_____________________________________________________________
REMIND, version 4.6
A Brief Summary Of Features
The concept behind REMIND is very simple: you enter the
important dates that you need to be reminded of, such as your
anniversary, your mother's birthday, your doctor's appointment
date, etc., into the program along with the numbers of days
that you would like REMIND to start reminding you ahead of
the event, the program will then store the information in a
data file. When you run the program using your AUTOEXEC.BAT,
each time you turn on your computer, the program will
automatically execute to compare the current date obtained
from your computer's internal clock/calendar to the entries
in the data file. If a date matches, a window will pop out,
giving you the important reminder. If no date matches,
the program will simply end inconspicuously, allowing you to
proceed with your daily work. You may have multiple entries
for each date if desired and you may enter the dates to be
reminded up to one year in advance of the current date.
Of course, for the program to work correctly, your computer's
internal clock/calendar must be set to the right current
date. Please consult your DOS manual on how to do so if you
do not already know how.
The following is a list of features of REMIND 4.6:
(1). Automatically remind you of important dates and things
to do for the day as the date approaches or arrives.
(2). User-determinable advanced reminding (however many days
of advanced notice for a date/event.)
(3). Recurrent (monthly) reminding for any day of the month.
(4). Perpetually-accurate built-in reminders for most of our
major holidays.
(5). Simple view/editing capabilities built-in for the data
file so one may easily delete out-dated entries.
(6). Celebrate important holidays and birthdays with music.
(7). Includes handy perpetual calendar (with accurate
holidays) for quick referencing.
(8). Interesting historical chronicle included with calendar.
(9). Leap years taken into consideration by programming
logic.
(10). Colorful and intuitively simple to run.
_____________________________________________________________
How To Use REMIND
Installing REMIND;
_________________
REMIND, version 4.6, is a package consisting of five files:
ENTERDAY.EXE : for entering dates to be reiminded,
viewing/editing the entries, and
consulting the handy calendar.
REMIND.EXE : for displaying the reminders. You
should run this with your AUTOEXEC.BAT
or any batch file that you use daily.
REMIND.DOC : this documentation.
REGISTER.FRM : registration form.
WHATS.NEW : summarize the new features
of the current version.
After the program has been run for the first time, a data file,
REMIND.DTA, will be created automatically to store the data.
If you are already using a previous version of REMIND, it is
advisable that you back up your existing REMIND.DTA before
proceeding with the installation.
REMIND is best run from a hard disk using your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
This way, whenever you turn on your computer, the program
will automatically execute to check if you have any reminders
for the given day. One may also run the program with any
other batch file that you use daily.
The way I set up my program is as follows: first I create a
new subdirectory on my hard disk called C:\REMIND. This can
be done easily by typing "MD REMIND" and <enter> at the C:\>
prompt. Then I copy all of the executable files into the new
subdirectory. To run the program using your AUTOEXEC.BAT, I
add the following lines to the end of my AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
CD\REMIND
REMIND
CD\
This way, the program will automatically execute each time
you turn on your computer.
In addition to this, I also make out a batch file (say
"R.BAT") to run the REMIND program. This way, while I am at
the computer and I forgot what was in the reminder, I can run
the program quickly without having to turn off and on the
computer. R.BAT can be made simply by doing the following:
At the DOS prompt, C:\>, type:
Copy con R.BAT <enter>
echo off <enter>
cd\remind <enter>
remind <enter>
cd\ <enter>
After this, you type ^Z by pressing the <CTRL> key and <Z>
keys simultaneously. DOS will acknowledge by responding with
"one file copied." Now you have R.BAT ready to run. Place
R.BAT into your "BATCH" subdirectory and pass your DOS's path
through it. This way you will be able to run R.BAT from any
where within your system. (To understand DOS's PATH command,
refer to your DOS manual.)
Now that you have successfully installed REMIND into your
computer, let's discuss the finer details of how to use the
program:
____________________________________________________________
Running ENTERDAY.EXE:
____________________
As mentioned earlier, ENTERDAY.EXE is an executable file used
to enter the dates to be reminded. You must run this program
first before you can run REMIND.EXE. As you run
ENTERDAY.EXE, it will create a data file called REMIND.DTA
and store your data into it. One may enter the dates to be
reminded of up to one year ahead of times.
When you run ENTERDAY.EXE, you will see the main menu with
several choices. Today's date will be displayed at the bottom
for your reference. The choices are (A). Entering dates to
remind, (B). view/edit entries, (C). consult calendar, and
(Esc) to exit. One may use the up/down arrow keys to scroll
the highlight bar to the desired selection and enter or
simply press the corresponding keys to enter the selections.
* * * *
(A). entering dates to remind:
When you have selected this, a window will pop out asking
you for the month of the date that you need to be reminded.
Simply type in the month in Roman numerals (for example, the
month of May would be "5".) Then the program will ask you
for the day of the date to be reminded, simply type in the
date. After which, the program will ask you to press <B> if
this represents a birthday or simply <enter> if this is not a
birthday. Pressing <B> at this point will tell the program to
sing "Happy Birthday To You" when the date arrives. This, of
course, is an option entirely up to the user. After this, the
program will ask you to fill out the reminder for the date
entered, i.e. things to do for that day. One may enter up to
about 3 lines of text within the given window. Just type
away, the word will automatically wrap. If you make a
mistake and want to start over, just press <Esc> to cancel.
When you are finished with the reminder text, press <enter>
to go to the next step.
The program will at this point ask you to enter the numbers
of days of advanced notice that you desire for the date
entered. You may press any number. Pressing "5" ,for
example, will tell the program to start reminding you 5 days
prior to the arrival of the date entered. If you press "0"
the reminder will only occur on the date of the given event.
You probably want to start the reminding several days in
advance of an important event (to allow time for mailing of
cards or buying of gifts, for example.)
Next, the program will ask you whether you would like the
reminder to occur monthly on the same day (for paying of
bills, for example.) Simply type in a Y/N answer. Of course,
this option will not be given if the date entered is a
birthday- birthdays happen yearly, never monthly. One word
of caution when you use this feature: if the date that you
entered is the 31st of each month, the reminder will NOT
appear on the months of Feb., April, June, September, and
November because, quite simply, there are no such days in
these months. Similarly, the 30th of each month will not
appear in February and 29th will not appear in the same month
unless it is a leap year. The program will warn you of
this if the date that you entered are the ones mentioned
above.
Before you exit the entering of dates section, the program
will ask you whether you would like to enter more dates to
remind. Entering "Y" will repeat the process, and "N" will
take you back to the Main Menu.
* * * *
(B). View/Edit entries:
Notice that if you have just finished entering dates to remind
and getting back to the main menu, the highlight bar now
rests on the view/edit selection. You see, the program knows
that if you are just finished entering dates to remind, it is
unlikely that you will go right back to it to enter more
dates to remind. One may now view/edit the entries that one
has made before and delete any out-dated entries if desired.
By pressing the (B). View/edit entries selection, one will
get into the editor mode and all of the entries contained in
REMIND.DTA will now be displayed on screen. Depending on how
long the list of dates are, one may press the <page down> or
<page up> keys to view the entire file. If you see any
entries that are out of date, you may delete that entry by
first using the arrow keys to place the cursor under that
entry and press <Alt-D>. The out-dated entry will disappear
and the rest of data file will automatically scroll up one
line to fill in the void. You may delete as many entries as
needed to keep your data files clean and up-to-date. When you
are done, pressing <F3> will save the changes and exit or
pressing <Esc> will simply exit without saving the changes.
A note will sound when you save changes to let you know that
the file is now saved.
It is best to keep your data file up-to-date from time to
time (so they won't come back next year) although even if you
have many entries in the data file, it will not appreciably
affect the speed of program execution. For the birthday
entries, it is best to simply leave them there so they will
come back year after year.
The editor does contain one known "bug" in that it will work
only if you have no more than 400 entries in the REMIND.DTA
file, more than adequate for most needs. If you do not use
the editor, however, you may have as many entries as you have
disk space for them. Since REMIND.DTA is written in ASCII
format, one may also use any ASCII editor to edit the
entries. (I will work on the "bug" as soon as I read some
more of my Turbo Pascal reference book <grin>....)
* * * *
(C). Consulting Calendar:
This is the part of the program that is most fun to run.
It is not only a perpetually accurate calendar WITH holidays,
it is also an accurate historical chronicle in a limited
sense.
When you enter the calendar, the current month will be
displayed with the current date flashing. The major holidays
for the current month will be displayed at the bottom in a
box. The holidays are accurate even if they fall on
different dates from year to year (such as Thanksgiving,
Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Etc.) By pressing <page-up> one
can view the months ahead and pressing <page-down> one can
view the months past. Pressing the <up-arrow> key will
advance the year by one and <arrow-down> key will subtract
the year by one. Pressing the <+> key will advance the years
by 10 and pressing the <-> key will subtract the year by 10.
Pressing the <home> key at any time will take you back to the
current month/year. If you forget the above instructions,
pressing <F1> will always bring you help.
Pressing <Esc> at any time will take you back to the main
menu.
Notice that I have also included the dates of Daylight Saving
Time changes for each year (in April and October.) They are,
of course, accurate perpetually (unless Congress changes the
rules again.)
If the calendar being displayed is within one year of the
current date, pressing the <X> key will show the dates that
are marked for reminding (little dark triangles next to the
dates.) If you are not within one year of the current date,
a beep will sound. Of course, you must enter some dates first
before you can demonstrate this feature. Once the dates that
are marked for reminding are displayed, the program will ask
you whether you would like to view the content of any particular
date shown. Pressing <Y> at this point means "yes," and pressing
any other key means "no." If you press <Y>, the program
will prompt you for the date that you would like to examine.
Simply enter the date desired (numbers only) and the program
will display the reminder for that particular date in the
window at the bottom of the screen. This serves to give the
user a "preview" of upcoming reminders.
For your amusement, I have made the calendar also into a
historical chronicle of sort. By "going back in time" using
the <arrow-down> or <page-down> keys, any important world
events that happened at that time in history will be
displayed at the bottom. Try to find the dates for the
sinking of the Titanic, or the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or
the battle of Chancellorsville, for example, and relive the
history. Although this feature has nothing to do with the
main purpose of this program, it does add a historical
perspective to the calendar and, perhaps, a smile to your
face.
Once you have finished running ENTERDAY.EXE, you may then
press <Esc> to exit to DOS. A data file, REMIND.DTA, will
be automatically created to store the data that you have
just entered.
Now you are ready to run REMIND.EXE...
__________________________________________________________
Running REMIND.EXE:
__________________
As mentioned earlier, this is the program that will actually
display the reminders to you when you run it with your AUTOEXEC.
BAT or any batch files that you use daily. When it is run, it
will first access your computer's internal clock/calendar to
obtain the current date. Then it will check the REMIND.DTA
file for any matching dates. If a date matches, a window will
pop out, giving you the important reminder, or else the program
will simply end inconspicuously, allowing you to proceed with
your work.
REMIND.EXE has many built-in reminders that will automatically
pop out when the dates are right. Virtually all of our major
holidays are included (except Easter- the logic is too
difficult to work out.) The holidays that are includes are:
New Year's day, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day,
Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, President's Day,
Martin Luther King Jr 's Birthday, St. Patrick's Day,
Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween,
Election Day, Veteran's Day, etc. The holiday reminders
will pop out on the day of the given holiday and they should
be perpetually accurate even if the holidays fall on different
dates from year to year. Try experimenting by changing your
computer's internal clock/calendar and see these holiday
reminders pop out. On Christmas and New Year's Day, the
program will also play a nice little tune to help you
celebrate. The program will also remind you automatically
one day prior to St. Patrick's Day to remind you to wear
green the next day (something that I always forget until I
wrote the program!) Also, for Mother's Day, Father's Day,
and Valentine's Day, the program will start reminding you
a few days in advance so you will have time to buy
gifts or mail cards.
The program will even remind you to set your clock when
it is time to switch to/from Daylight Saving Time. You
will never arrive to work an hour late from now on!
_______________________________________________________________
A Word About Registering
I am not a computer programmer by trade and I do not expect
to make a bundle by writing this program. Actually, I first
laid my hands on a computer only a year ago when I bought my
first IBM-clone at the urging of my brother. However, this
program does represent literally hundreds of hours of work
on my part, often late into nights and on weekends. Although
It was a lot of work, it also gave me great pleasure in seeing
the program come to life from a germinal idea a few months ago;
besides, I learned a few things about computer programming during
the process.
In order to encourage people to register, I thought long and
hard about a "registration reminder" that pops out randomly
at, say, every 10th or so running of the program; however, I
decided against it because it would be too cynical a thing
to do. I hate programs with "copy protection" and
"automatic delaying," or any other annoying features as
much as you do and I certainly do not approve of "cripplewares"
with some features missing until you register. The version you
are getting here, therefore, is a fully-functioning version
with nothing held back. The same as I have on my own
hard disk.
By registering, you will be letting me know that there are a
few honest people out there who care about quality programming
at low cost, who care about the shareware concept, and who
appreciate my efforts in bringing this program to you.
Unless, of course, if you are utterly destitute, then
you may just send me a nice card.
I hope you have as much fun using this program as I had
writing it. Enjoy!
Robert M. W. Tsou
28441 Cedarbluff Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90274
August 1, 1989
____________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER (Please Read)
The author doe not give any warranty, either expressed or
implied, to anyone using this program. In no event shall
the author be liable for any damages, including loss of
profits or anticipated profits, lost savings, or other
incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use or the inability to use this program. The program
comes "as is" and it is the user's responsibility to
determine whether the program is suitable for his/her
computer system.
***************************************************************
