Psion Series 3 Word Document | 1994-09-24 | 7KB | 94 lines
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"Convert"
v.3a.2
by Tim Bentinck
Congratulations, you've just downloaded a rather useful little program.
It converts currency between
Sterling (or any other unit) and every other currency in the world. It converts length, weight, area, volume, temperature, speed, pressure, fuel consumption, power and energy between Metric, Imperial and US. It also manipulates VAT and calculates area, surface area and volume.
To install it, do as follows:
1. Copy the following files to the relevant directories on your internal drive or RAM disc.
\APP\conver3a.opa
\APP\formul3a.opa
These can be on a flash disk - the following should not:
\OPD\country.odb
\OPD\currency.odb
\OPD\memo.odb
\OPD\rate.odb
If you're unsure how to do this, refer to page 218 of the user manual.
Next you should install the application. Go to the system screen and place the cursor below the icon to the left of which you want your conversion calculator to appear. From the "Apps" list in the main menu, press on "Install" and you should find "Conver3a.opa". If not press an arrow key until it comes up. If it doesn't it means you're either in the wrong drive or you haven't copied the files across properly.
You could also assign the "Control+Calc" button to get in and out out of "Convert" while you're doing something else: see page 228 of the user manual.
You should now see the Convert icon with "Convert" writen below. Place the cursor on it and press Enter.
If you've already done all the above, you've probably found out most of the things you need to know about the program, it was designed to work without instructions, but let's just go through it to be sure:
Currency
I thought this would be the most commonly used program, so I put it at the beginning. If you're working abroad or on holiday, simply change the country and rate in "Change/Add", press "Convert", and you can convert in either direction. If you enter numbers in both fields, the program will treat you as an idiot from then on, so watch it!
The database contains exchange rates and currencies for every country listed by the Financial Times in March 1993, so there may be a few obscure ones which aren't there. If so, the program will invite you to add a new country. Duplication doesn't matter; if, for instance, you look for "Holland", you won't find it because it's down as "Netherlands". Ok, have two entries, one under "Holland" and one under "Netherlands" - as long as you set the exchange rate correctly, you could use either. The program automatically records the date of the last exchange rate change, so you can see how up to date each rate is.
You are warned not to use this on a flash disc, the reason being that unlike the internal drive or a RAM disc, the flash disc is a 'once only' storage system, i.e. it copies the information onto free space, it doesn't re-use the space the old information left behind.
Originally, you could only convert from
Sterling to the other currencies, but I had some encouraging feedback asking to be able to change the home currency. OK you've got it, BUT - the database will now be completely wrong since the exchange rates are to & from Pounds, so you'll have to change them yourself!
The "Unit" field is for currencies like Italian Lire, where you might want to use "1,000 Lire equals..." as the conversion rate.
"Decimal" is for those currencies that have a name for their decimal amounts - pennies, cents, pfennigs, centimes etc. If your home currency doesn't have one, just leave this field blank.
Delete
It's not very often you're going to want to delete a country, but it does happen, look at Yugoslavia and the USSR!
Re-Index
What is "Re-index" for? Good question. I thought you might like to scroll through the countries in "Change/Add", which you do with the Tab and Menu buttons. Whenever you change a country's details, it does the same thing as ordinary Data files; it leaves a gap and puts the new information at the end. It still works fine, but the more changes you make the bigger the file gets, and the more out of alphabetical order. If this worries you, just do a Re-index, it's a straight crib from the "Re-order" listing in the programming manual, but I've given it a vague sense of humour, and you get the added bonus of seeing all the countries in the world flit past before your eyes!
Decimal
Blindingly obvious. This sets the number of decimal places for all non-currency calculations.
VAT Rate
Likewise, this sets the VAT rate, or could be used to play with any percentages.
Password
Version 1 was free, this'll cost you
5 (or any good idea or bug discovery) to receive the password to get rid of the annoying message. See "FORM.WRD" for details.
Metric, Imperial & US
The main event. Choose the category with the arrow keys and press Enter, then put a number against the thing you want to covert - only one at a time though; each category translates simultaneously to up to four others, but it won't convert more than one original value at a time (feet and inches is the only exception). The possible number of categories is enormous. I've tried to include everything, the only omissions are highly specialised or archaic, like Firkins, Scruples, Lasts, Chaldrons, Hoppus Feet, Roods, Rods, Poles and Perches etc. etc.
Formulae
This section does some more maths for you. The VAT program calculates, extracts and adds VAT, the other three calculate automatically the Area, Surface Area and Volume of circles, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, trapeziums, cubes, cuboids, prisms, cylinders, pyramids, spheres and cones.
Anything else?
Do write with suggestions, or if you find any bugs, to:
(.txt)