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------------------------------------------------------ THORDATE: Appointment Manager and Calendar Utility ------------------------------------------------------ Version 2.0 Copyright (c) 1985 by THORMARK SYSTEMS All rights reserved. THORDATE is a full-featured appointment manager and calendar utility for the IBM PC, PC/XT, and compatible MS-DOS (2.x) computers, allowing the use of free-form, unformatted and unfielded, appointment files prepared by any editor which produces standard ASCII text files. ** ABOUT APPOINTMENT FILES ** --------------------------------- You can construct your appointment files using any editor which produces standard ASCII text files (where each line ends with a CR/LF combination, and a control-Z marks the end of file). Most available text editors, both line editors and full-screen editors -- including the EDLIN editor packaged with DOS -- can be used to prepare such files, and most word-processing programs also have an option permitting production of standard ASCII text files. (If you are using a word-processing program, however, be sure to press <ENTER> at the end of each line -- since word-processors typically use the CR/LF combination to mark the ends of paragraphs -- and to save your file in the appropriate UNFORMATTED fashion.) The freedom to use the editor of your choice to construct appointment files is one of the more pleasant features of THORDATE, for it allows you to begin using the program immediately, without learning yet another, usually different, set of editing commands for preparing your appointment files. THORDATE itself, however, contains two options which allow for the creation and maintainance of appointment files. The APPEND option will add lines to a designated appointment file, giving you the option of creating the file if it does not already exist. The ERASE option will delete lines from a designated appointment file. Although these options do not replace a full-fledged text editor -- neither will allow you to make changes inside individual lines, for example -- they are fully adequate for quick updates and occasional prunings of appointment files, and may prove to be all you need. An appointment file ENTRY is simply a line of text (up to 127 characters) terminated by a CR/LF combination -- that is, by pressing <ENTER> at the end of the line. The date on which you wish to be reminded can appear anywhere within the line -- and, indeed, more than one date may be included, so that you can arrange to be reminded several times, well in advance of the actual event. An entry that looks like this, for example: Our wedding anniversary! august 7 (7/28, 8/1) -- 1 -- THORDATE will get you a total of at least SIX reminder displays each year: on July 27, July 28, July 31, August 1, August 6, and, of course, on the great day itself. Notice that you may omit the year specification in appointment file entries. THORDATE will supply the current year. This especially convenient feature allows you to enter repetitive annual events -- birthdays, holidays, anniversaries -- into your appointment file just once. THORDATE will then reliably display the appropriate reminder each year. THORDATE is remarkably intelligent when it comes to dates appearing in your appointment file entries. THORDATE recognizes ALL standard American (month-day-year) date formats in appointment files, numerical and alphabetic, abbreviated or spelled out in full, upper- or lower-case. Thus all of the following are admissible as dates in appointment file entries: 3/9/85 03-09-85 March 9, 1985 3.9.1985 MAR 9, 1985 MARCH 09 1985 03,09,1985 mar 9 march 9 ** STANDING ENGAGEMENTS: MONTHLY AND WEEKLY APPOINTMENTS ** ------------------------------------------------------------ THORDATE also allows you to enter standing monthly or weekly engagements into your appointment files. It will thereafter remind you, automatically, on the appropriate date each month or the appropriate day every week. To receive automatic MONTHLY reminders of a standing engagement on a given date, simply include that date immediately between two asterisks in a suitable entry-line in your appointment file. For example, an entry that looks like this: *15* Mid-month summary report due. will get you a reminder on the 15th of EACH month (and also, of course, on the 14th). The *dd* combination can occur anywhere on the entry line. Leading zeroes on one-digit dates are optional. Automatic reminders of standing WEEKLY appointments work the same way, except that here it's the day-of-the-week on which you wish to be reminded that gets included immediately between the asterisks. As usual, THORDATE is very forgiving about the details: You may use the standard three-letter abbreviation rather than spelling out the day in full, and you may, as usual, use either upper or lower case. Thus all of the following entries will get you an automatic reminder EVERY Wednesday (and, of course, as a "coming attraction", every Tuesday as well): *WEDNESDAY* 10:30 am Meeting of department heads 10:30 am *wednesday* Meeting of department heads -- 2 -- THORDATE Meeting of department heads 10:30 *WED* Meeting of department heads *Wed* 10:30 am. ** MENU-DRIVEN OPERATION: DISPLAYING APPOINTMENTS ** ----------------------------------------------------- If you call THORDATE without any arguments (that is, by issuing the command THORDATE from the DOS prompt), you will be presented with the THORDATE MENU: [R]etrieve appointments for today through next business day. [T]oday's appointments only. [S]pecified date's appointments only. [W]eek's worth of appointments. [C]alendar for specified month and year. [N]umber of day sequentially within year for specified date. [D]ate for sequential day number within specific year. [A]ppend new entries to appointment file. [E]rase entries from appointment file. [H]elp screen for command line options. You will then be prompted to enter a selection or, optionally, to exit from the THORDATE program entirely. The first four menu options (R,T,S,W) are dedicated to retrieval of entries from appointment files; the next three (C,N,D) belong to THORDATE's calendar utility; Append and Erase allow you to create and maintain appointment files; and the final option (H) displays instructions for invoking any of THORDATE's features or procedures directly from the command line, that is, without making a detour through the menu. This last feature is particularly useful in connection with the use of an AUTOEXEC.BAT file. For example, by including the command THORDATE -R in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with both THORDATE.COM and the default appointment file THORDATE.DTA on your DOS disk or in your root or -- 3 -- THORDATE boot-up directory, you can receive a display of current and pending appointments automatically each morning upon turning on and booting up your computer. Be sure, however, that you have set the date first (using the DATE command from DOS), since THORDATE retrieves the current date from DOS. If you select one of the entry-retrieval options from the menu, you will next be asked various questions. If you have selected [S] (Specific date's appointments) or [W] (Week's worth of appointments), for example, you will be asked for a date or starting date. Dates entered in response to these prompts may be in any standard American (month-day-year) NUMERICAL format. Either a two- digit or a four-digit year specifier may be used, or the year may be omitted entirely, in which case THORDATE will supply the current year. You have the option of responding by simply pressing <ENTER>, in which case THORDATE will use the current date ("today") as its default. In any event, you will be asked for the name of the appointment file which you wish to consult. The default appointment file, THORDATE.DTA, may again be selected simply by pressing <ENTER>. The flexibility of THORDATE is greatly enhanced by allowing you to use alternate appointment files in place of the default file THORDATE.DTA. Any admissible DOS file name may be used as a "filespec". Thus, for example, two partners -- say, Smith and Jones -- might each keep an appointment file -- SMITH.APT and JONES.APT -- in the directory with THORDATE. Answering the prompt for an appointment file with SMITH.APT would instruct THORDATE to scan Smith's appointment file and retrieve his or her appointments, while answering it with JONES.APT would result in appointments and reminders being retrieved and displayed from Jones's appointment file. Finally, you will be asked if you desire printed (hardcopy) output. If you answer 'Y' for YES, just be sure that your printer is switched on and selected (on line). The default here is 'N' for NO, and, as usual, the default can be selected simply by pressing <ENTER>. Once you have answered these questions, THORDATE goes to work. If it finds the specified appointment file on the active disk or in the working directory, the program scans the file and proceeds to retrieve and display the appointments, reminders, and other entries for the selected dates. If you have selected option [R], THORDATE will display the entries listed for both the current day and the following day. THORDATE very practically interprets "the following day" in terms of business days, so that, for example, if you call the program on a Friday, your reminders and appointments for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday will also be retrieved and displayed. If you have selected option [T], THORDATE will display the entries listed for the current day only. If you have selected option [S], entries for the date you specified in response to THORDATE's question will be retrieved. And, finally, if you selected option [W], THORDATE will dutifully display any entries it -- 4 -- THORDATE finds for each day in the seven-day week beginning on the date you specified. ** DISPLAYING SELECTED APPOINTMENTS: COMMAND LINE OPERATION ** --------------------------------------------------------------- THORDATE's various features and options may be invoked directly from the command line by including various "flags" and "parameters" after the name of the program. If you call the program with the -R option, i.e., by issuing the command THORDATE -R from the DOS prompt, THORDATE will proceed to retrieve and display the entries for the current and following day from the default appointment file THORDATE.DTA; if you call it with the -T option, i.e., by issuing the command THORDATE -T THORDATE will retrieve and display your reminders and appointments for the current day only; if you call it by issuing the command THORDATE -D mm/dd/<yy>yy the program will retrieve and display your reminders and appointments for the specified date; and if you call it by issuing the command THORDATE -W mm/dd/<yy>yy the program will retrieve and display your reminders and appointments for the seven-day week beginning on the specified date. THORDATE is also indifferent to the distinction between upper- and lower-case, so that -r, -t, -d, or -w may be used in place of -R, -T, -D, or -W. Thus all of the following commands are admissible: THORDATE -t THORDATE -D 04/18/85 THORDATE -D 4/18 thordate -w 4/18/1985 To select a specific appointment file other than the default file THORDATE.DTA, simply include the option -F filespec on the command line when you call THORDATE. Calling the program by issuing the command THORDATE -R -F SMITH.APT for example, would retrieve entries for the current and following -- 5 -- THORDATE days from the file SMITH.APT, while calling the program by issuing the command THORDATE -f jones.apt -d 7/9/85 would display any entries for the specified date from the appointment file JONES.APT. You may combine the appointment file selection option with any of the -R, -T, -D, and -W options. THORDATE will conveniently ignore the difference between upper- and lower-case, as well as the ordering of options on the command line. Thus all of the following are allowed: THORDATE -F JONES.APT -T THORDATE -f smith.apt -D 03/09/1985 thordate -w 7/17 -f JONES.APT thordate -r -f smith.apt If you want a tidy hardcopy printout of your appointments, simply include the option -P on the command line when you call THORDATE. This printout option can be combined with any of the appointment-management options already discussed. ** MORE FEATURES: THE CALENDAR UTILITY ** ------------------------------------------ THORDATE is more than just a full-featured appointment manager and reminder service, however. In addition, the program provides you with a handy calendar utility. Menu options [C], [N], and [D] give you access to this utility. If you select menu option [C], THORDATE will ask you to specify a month and year. THORDATE will then supply you with a convenient calendar display for the month of your choice to help you with your scheduling. The next two options are particularly useful for businessmen: If you select menu option [N], THORDATE will ask you to specify a date, and then respond by telling you the SEQUENTIAL DAY NUMBER (1 to 365 or 366) of the specified date within the indicated year. If you select menu option [D], THORDATE will run the same operation in reverse -- asking you to specify a sequential day number and year, and then responding with the DATE on which the specified sequential day number falls within the selected year. These two procedures make it easy to compute the number of days between two given dates or to find the date which is a specific number of days later or earlier than another. -- 6 -- THORDATE Like all of THORDATE's features, these calendar utility procedures can also be invoked directly from the command line. For example, if you call THORDATE by issuing the command THORDATE -C mm/<yy>yy from the DOS prompt, using 'mm' (1 - 12) to indicate the month, THORDATE will display a calendar for the desired month. Here you may NOT omit the year specifier, but THORDATE is forgiving enough to allow you the two-digit form. If you call THORDATE by issuing the command THORDATE -J mm/dd/<yy>yy THORDATE will respond with the sequential day-number for the selected date within the specified year. THORDATE will accept your date specification in any of the standard American NUMERICAL formats and will supply the current year if a year specifier is omitted. To invoke the reverse operation -- date for a specified sequential day- number and year -- use the command THORDATE -X nnn/yyyy where 'nnn' is the sequential day number (1 to 365 or 366) and 'yyyy' is a FOUR-DIGIT year specifier. (Please note: Here you may NOT omit the year specifier, and all four-digits are required.) Notice that the "flags" (-J, -X) for these two commands differ from the corresponding menu selections. Finally, there is an additional calendar utility option which can be invoked only from the command line. Issue the command THORDATE -K mm/dd/<yy>yy and the program will respond by telling you the DAY OF THE WEEK (Sunday, ..., Saturday) on which the specified date falls. (This command is actually superfluous, since the same information is readily accessible on the appropriate monthly calendar display. It is left over from earlier versions of THORDATE, but there was nothing in particular to be gained by omitting it here.) ** FILE MAINTAINANCE: APPEND AND ERASE ** ------------------------------------------- If you select the option [A] from the THORDATE menu, you will be prompted for the name of an appointment file. (As always, THORDATE.DTA will be used if you simply press <ENTER>.) In this instance, if the file does not exist, you will be offered the option of creating it. In any event, once a (new or existing) file has been successfully specified, THORDATE will proceed to prompt you for new entries to append to that file. Simply type each entry (up to -- 7 -- THORDATE 127 characters) the way you wish it to be displayed, being sure to include the date or dates (or standing-appointment indicators) to trigger THORDATE's retrieval procedures, and press <ENTER>. Until you press <ENTER>, you may backspace and correct any part of the current new entry. THORDATE will continue to prompt you for new entries until you signal you are finished by just pressing <ENTER> alone, then write your updated appointment file back on the active disk from whence it came. The APPEND procedure adds entries to the end of an appointment file. The ERASE procedure -- menu option [E] -- on the other hand, lets you delete entries starting from the beginning of an appointment file. If you select option [E], you will again be prompted for the name of an appointment file. Once THORDATE has located the file, the program will present you with the entries in that file one at a time. As each entry is displayed, you are given the option of deleting it or keeping it. To delete an entry, you just press D; to retain it, you press <ENTER> or <SPACE>. You may also terminate this operation at any time, simply by pressing <ESC>, upon which all remaining (unviewed) entries are written back to the edited appointment file unchanged. The "flags" for invoking these APPEND and ERASE operations directly from the command line are once again straightforward. For APPEND, you use THORDATE -A filespec and for ERASE, THORDATE -E filespec where "filespec" is the name of the appointment file you wish to update. ** GETTING HELP: THE [H] OPTION ** ----------------------------------- To help you keep track of the many command line options which THORDATE provides, a help screen is available. Simply select option [H] from the THORDATE menu. When you're sitting there trying to remember the command line "flags" for day-of-the-week or date-for-a-given-sequential-day-of-the-year, you'll find this a nice touch. Like all of THORDATE's features and options, this help screen too is accessible directly from the command line. Just issue the command THORDATE -H from the DOS prompt. -- 8 -- THORDATE ** DISCLAIMER ** ------------------- Every attempt has been made to ensure that THORDATE.COM and its supporting files and programs perform as represented and are free from bugs, flaws, and errors. However, THORDATE.COM, together with its documentation and any other supporting files or programs, is distributed "as is" without warranty as to performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. Any direct, incidental, or consequential damages, including, but not limited to, loss of anticipated profits or benefits, lost data or savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this product are not the responsibility of THORMARK SYSTEMS or the author of the programs and, to the extent permitted by law, are hereby excluded for property and, to the extent not unconscionable, personal injury damage. ** PERMISSION TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE ** ---------------------------------------- THORDATE is now being distributed as "shareware", under the concept of user-supported software pioneered by Jim Button, author of PC-File III (tm). Individuals are hereby granted permission, and indeed encouraged, by Thormark Systems to freely copy THORDATE programs and documentation both for their own personal use and to share with others on the conditions that no price or other consideration is charged and that the program and documentation are distributed together and not modified in any way. If, after evaluating this program, you find it useful, you are requested to send a registration fee of $25 payable to THORMARK SYSTEMS 1507 E. FRANKLIN ST., SUITE 125 CHAPEL HILL, NC 27514 (North Carolina residents are requested to add 4% sales tax.) User-supported software is a matter of trust. The "shareware" system not only encourages the creation of quality software but makes it available to individual users at a reasonable price, unaffected by the high costs of media advertising and undesirable copy-protection schemes. Users are free to evaluate a program in their own homes or offices and at their own pace, without risk. The shareware system of free software distribution can only survive, however, if the commitments of time and effort on the part of program authors continue to be supported through the voluntary payments made by satisfied users. I encourage you, therefore, to copy and distribute this program for evaluation by others -- and I trust you to forward payment in registration of your own copy if you enjoy and continue to use it. -- 9 -- THORDATE Jay F. Rosenberg Compuserve: 72145,1155 Usenet: unbent@ecsvax (919) 942-3771 THORMARK SYSTEMS 1507 E. FRANKLIN ST., SUITE 125, CHAPEL HILL, NC 27514 [THORDATE programs were written and developed using TURBO (tm) Pascal. The TURBO (tm) run-time library is the property of and is copyrighted by Borland International Inc.]