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MOC.TXT
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1992-10-25
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MASTER OF CEREMONIES FOR PSION SERIES 3 (beta25Oct92)
======================================= =============
By: John Hind. (Compuserve 70374,756)
INTRODUCTION
============
Master of Ceremonies is an application for the PSION Series 3 Pocket
Computer to assist people who have to control any structured event
such as a conference, meeting, tutorial, television programme etc. It
can also be used by individual presenters to keep their talk to time
and act as an electronic cue card.
Basic Concepts
==============
Master of Ceremonies manages shedules composed of a number of time
slots. The slots occur in a continuous sequence from the start of the
schedule to the end and each slot has a duration associated with it.
The duration of the schedule is the sum of the durations of the slots.
The schedules are stored in database files with each record
representing a slot. In addition to the duration, each slot has up to
two lines of descriptive text associated with it.
Prior to the event, you plan the schedule by entering the slots. These
can be edited and moved about until a satisfactory event has been
planned. The system keeps track of the overall duration of the event
(or you can set a start time and the system will track the end time,
or set an end time and the system will track the required start time).
At the start of the event, you start the schedule running. As each
slot is completed, you record this by hitting the spacebar. The screen
shows the current slot, the next slot and a countdown timer of
remaining time to the next slot change. The screen also shows the
variation from the plan and the estimated finish time. Optional
audible warnings can be enabled.
Maximum flexibility is maintained at all times. Even when the schedule
is running, you can freely examine all parts of it and edit and re-
arrange the slots that are still in the future. This programme was
forged in the white heat of the seminar circuit! A system which
cannot cope when schedules go seriously pathological would be worse
than useless!
Limitations
===========
Master of Ceremonies does all timing to an accuracy of +/- 0.5 minutes
and displays times to a resolution of one minute. Each schedule may
have up to 100 slots defined and the total duration of the schedule
cannot exceed 24 hours.
A previous version, codename "Cinderella's Coach", could not cope with
schedules including midnight. That didn't seem a problem at first,
since, in my experience, things usually get a bit unstructured at that
time of night anyway! However I fixed it since I found it made late
night testing impossible! The application is now certified for use by
astronomers and over-organised night clubs.
There are also some limitations caused by the "write once" nature of
Series-3 storage. In the file, the order of the slots is preserved by
giving them non-contiguous sequence numbers with space left for later
additions. If you add too many slots in the middle of the file, this
scheme can become congested when there are fewer than 100 slots. In
this case, a message "too many slots" will appear. This can be worked
round by copying the file from within MOC, either using the "Save as"
command or the "New schedule" command with "Use template" set to
"Yes". The copy routine does everything that OPL "Compress" does, but
also reassigns the sequence numbers.
INSTALLATION
============
This version of MOC is provided as PC files only, so you will need a PC
and a PSION 3-LINK with associated MCLINK software. Connect up and
download the files "Frame.opo" and "Moc.opa" to the \APP\ directory on
the internal, A or B drives. Make a new directory \MOC\ on the drive of
your choice and download the file "Example.moc" to this directory.
Select PSION-I (install application) and select the "Moc.opa" file. The
Master Of Ceremonies icon will appear.
TUTORIAL
========
Lesson 1: Familiarisation.
==========================
If you have not already installed Master of Ceremonies on your S3,
follow the instructions under INSTALLATION carefully.
The Master of Ceremonies icon should appear when you press the System
button on the S3 - it's a stylised representation of a conference
room. You may need to move from side to side using the left and right
arrow keys to bring the icon into view. Under the icon should be one
file - Example. Highlight this file and press [Enter]. After a short
delay, the Master of Ceremonies main screen will appear.
The screen is divided into four areas.
The top left area shows time in minutes for the current slot. Because
the schedule is not presently running, the planned duration of the
current slot is shown (because the current slot is a dummy start
marker, the duration is 0).
Below the "MINS:" area is a full width area showing the current slot
(presently the dummy [ START ] slot). Below that again is a similar
area showing the next slot (currently the first real slot in the
schedule).
To the right of the "MINS:" area is an information panel showing the
time interval occupied by the entire schedule and by the current slot. The
figures labelled "Est:" and "Var:" will be explained later.
Experiment with using the up and down arrow keys and the [PgUp] and [PgDn]
keys to change the current slot and explore the schedule. Notice how
the "MINS:" area and the interval for the current slot change to reflect
the values for the slot in the "CUR:" area.
Lesson 2: Running the Schedule.
===============================
Before running the schedule for the first time, you might like to turn
the "bells and whistles" on. Press the [Menu] key and use the arrows to
bring up the "Set sound" option on the "Special" menu. This brings up
the "Set sound options" dialogue box. Change all three options to ON using
the arrow keys (leave the "Minutes Before" setting at 2). Press
[Enter] to return to the main screen.
Make sure that the [ START ] dummy item is current (use the [PgUp] key
if it is not). Press the [Enter] key. The schedule is now running,
signalled by the three top areas acquiring a shadow. Notice that the
schedule and slot now show real times and reflect the time when you
started the run. If you wait a bit, you will see that the MINS: area
is now a countdown timer continuously updated to show the number of
minutes remaining for the current slot. The arrow keys still work as
before, allowing you to look forward and backward in the schedule
while it is still running. You can tell you're not on the running
slot, or viewing a countdown timer because the shadows round these
areas have gone, but the shadow remains on the information panel to
remind you that the schedule is still running. You can press [Enter]
as a shortcut back to the running slot.
If you leave the schedule running, you will get a beep at 2 minutes
(as set above by the "Advanced warning" Option), two beeps at 0
minutes (the "Time up" warning) and thereafter as the countdown goes
negative, one beep every minute (the "Overtime" warning). When a slot
goes into overtime, the "Var:" and "Est:" figures start to change
also. You've probably worked out that these show the estimated finishing
time for the schedule and the number of minutes behind or ahead of
time.
When you actually move things on to the next slot, press the spacebar.
The "NXT:" item becomes "CUR:" and, if you're ahead of time, the "Var:"
number decreases and the estimated finish time moves forward.
You can either continue pressing the spacebar until the end of the
schedule is reached or press PSION-Z to terminate the run prematurely.
Lesson 3: Creating Your Own Schedule
====================================
Create a blank new schedule by pressing the [MENU] key and taking the
"New schedule" option from the "File" menu. Enter a file name and
leave the rest of the dialogue as it is (the use of templates will be
explained in the next lesson). This brings up an empty schedule.
You can plan a schedule based either on "rel