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t.TotalRecall
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2022-08-28
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T o t a l R e c a l l
by e. g. bell
TotalRecall is a program you can use to create calendars the size of
your refrigerator door. No more relying on your local bank to provide you
with a big calendar every January. Once you have all events that occur on
the same date every year (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays) you will only
need to update the program each month for specific events that take place
that month.
The program supports 80, 96, and 132 column printers -- as long as they
can emulate a Commodore 1525 7-pin printer. The wider paper you can use,
the more spectacular the calendar you can create. You can use 2 or 3 block
Print Shop (tm) graphics to liven your creations and your occasions can be
printed in single or double width, and from 1 to 8 times the single-
character height. Each calendar includes a small display of the previous
and next months.
TotalRecall does a LOT! Thus it takes a while to run. However, it
need only be run once a month. Of course, you may find yourself running
copies for your family. The output is simply that nice!
There are two ways to use the TotalRecall package:
(1) Read the following text, learn how Master and Normal batch files are
formatted, create batch files with any word processor, then run TotalRecall
to print the calendar.
or
(2) Read the following text, learn how Master and Normal batch files are
formatted, run BatchMaker, which prompts you through making batch files,
then run TotalRecall to print the calendar.
Method #1 is recommended because it's really easy once you learn the
batch file format.
TotalRecall - The program
-------------------------
There is very little required of you to run the program. Once you have
the birthdays, anniversaries, etc. out of the way, it is clear sailing.
That only needs to be done once, and updated only occasionally after that
(when someone is born or married, for example).
The first four prompts ask for source drive, destination drive, printer
number and paper width. Throughout the program, defaults are supplied so
you will probably be able to just press RETURN to get the proper settings.
The defaults are drive 8 for both source and destination, printer device #4
and 80-column printer.
Next you are asked if you want to Create a batch file or print the
calendar. DO NOT choose Create. BatchMaker is a much better program for
creating batch files. TotalRecall is only to be run AFTER you've created a
batch file with BatchMaker or with a word processor.
Remember, don't run TotalRecall until you've got a batch file, then
ALWAYS choose "Print Calendar", not "Create Batch Files".
Batch files can be Master Batch Files or Normal Batch Files. Master
Batch Files contain words (which represent files) like "Birthdays",
"Anniversaries", etc. -- events that occur on the same date every year.
Normal Batch Files come in three kinds: Daily, Weekly and Info.
DAILY BATCH FILES
-----------------
First is the "DAILY" type files. These have the following format:
daily First line is the word "daily"
1 Second line is the number of the month (1=Jan, etc.)
Next 2 lines should be blank.
start 1 line with the word "start"
0221 This is the description of the data to follow.
The first 2 digits are how many lines are in the
description. In this example, there are 2 lines
of description to follow.
The next digit is the height of the characters. The
minimum is 1, the maximum is the height of the
block. This height is determined by the columns
your printer supports and the number of rows of the
calendar. The last digit is the width of the
characters, and may be either 1 or 2. Those are
the only 2 values supported. So, in this example:
0221 = 2 lines of description, double height,
single width.
30 Dr. Blinky Text for calendar block. The first 2 digits must be
-at 11{SHIFT-+}00 am the date. After that comes the first line of text
for that data. If more than one line is specified
in the description line, the subsequent lines are
preceded with a "-" character. The number of lines
of text MUST match the number indicated by the
first 2 digits in the description line described
above. Note that you must use different codes for
colons and commas. More on that later.
end Last line for a block for a month. You may have more
than 1 month in a file like this. Just add each
subsequent month to the file following this format.
*NOTE* You only need the "daily" word at the start
of the file, not at the start of every month block.
eof Last line in any batch file. I usually put several
eof of these lines in. These tell TotalRecall that
eof the file is complete.
So, from this information, a sample file for January and February might
look like this:
daily
1
start
0322
01 New
- Year's
- Day
end
2
start
0221
14 Valentine's
-Day
end
eof
eof
eof
GRAPHICS IN DAILY BATCH FILES
-----------------------------
Now, let's expand on what we have learned so far. Here is how you
would add 2 or 3 block Print Shop graphics to your calendar blocks.
start This is the same "start" described above. Only one is
required per month description block.
graphic This is the first line of a graphic description block,
and MUST be the word "graphic".
sherlock This is the second line, and is the name of the graphic
file EXACTLY as it appears on the disk you will be
using as your source drive for your calendar batch
files. (You may use ANY Print Shop graphic)
14 This line contains the date. It must be 2 digits, so
days 1 through 9 would have a leading zero (01,02..)
0141 This is an optional text description. You may include
- A & E text beside your graphic if you like. The description
0141 is similar to the method described under "daily" above
- Monday with this exception. All lines in a "graphic" block
start with "-" followed by the text. The date only
appears in the line above. 3 block Print Shop
graphics support up to 8 lines of text (or heights
that add up to 8) and 2 block graphics support up to
7 lines. Text may be 9 characters wide for single
width text and 4 characters wide for double width when
using graphics.
graphic end The last line in a graphic block MUST be the words
"graphic end". You may have as many graphic blocks
as you like, but remember only so many will fit in
a date block. You can combine them with non-graphic
block descriptions also if you like.
end Same as "daily" description earlier. Only one "end"
line is needed per month block.
So, from this information, a sample file for January and a graphic for
February might look like this:
daily
1
start
0322
01 New
- Year's
- Day
end
2
start
graphic
heart
14
0221
-Valentine Remember, 9 or fewer characters in a graphics
-Day block.
graphic end
end
eof
eof
eof
eof
eof
INFO FILES
----------
TotalRecall recognizes that all blocks in a calendar may not be occupied
by "dates". The ca