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Roadways PC Copyright 1990 By Doug Fitler Roadways PC Table of Contents System Requirements ------------------------------------------ 1 Distributed Files -------------------------------------------- 1 Installing Roadways PC on your Computer ----------------------- 1 Final Installation -------------------------------------- 2 Registration -------------------------------------------------- 3 Using Roadways PC --------------------------------------------- 4 Controlling Roadways PC with the Keyboard --------------------- 4 Selecting a city ---------------------------------------- 5 Route Screen -------------------------------------------- 6 Saving Routes to Disk ----------------------------------------- 6 Retrieving Routes from Disk ----------------------------------- 7 Controlling Roadways PC with a Mouse -------------------------- 7 Y/N Prompts --------------------------------------------- 8 Using the Mouse on the Route Screen --------------------- 8 Changing the Mileage Rate ------------------------------------- 8 Option 1 ------------------------------------------------ 8 Option 2 ------------------------------------------------ 9 Option 3 ------------------------------------------------ 9 Quitting Roadways PC ------------------------------------------ 9 Command Line Switches ----------------------------------------- 9 Environment Use ---------------------------------------------- 10 Adding Cities to Roadways PC --------------------------------- 10 Different Kinds of Roads ------------------------------- 13 Things to keep in mind --------------------------------- 13 The City Sorter ---------------------------------------- 14 Common Pitfalls When Adding Cities --------------------- 14 A Note about Windows in Roadways PC -------------------------- 14 Upgrading Roadways PC ---------------------------------------- 15 Background on Roadways PC ------------------------------------ 15 About the Author --------------------------------------------- 16 About Roadways PC -------------------------------------------- 16 Disclaimer --------------------------------------------------- 17 Summary of Changes ------------------------------------------- 18 INVOICE ------------------------------------------------------ 20 ROADWAYS PC Release Version 2.54 By: Doug Fitler Copyright 1990 & 1991 Roadways PC is an easy to use program to help you find the shortest route from one city to another. It fully supports either a mouse or keyboard entry and will work on any IBM PC/PC- XT, AT or compatible computer with MS-DOS 2.11 or newer. Roadways is distributed as Shareware and as such is free to be copied, passed on and uploaded to any computer service or bulletin board. After a trial period, it is expected that the user will register his or her copy if it is going to continue to be used. To register your copy, see the registration form at the end of this documentation. If you have a modem, you may get the latest news and version of Roadways PC as well as technical help by calling the Missing Link bulletin board at (618)233-6982, 2400 baud, 8 bits, No parity and 1 stop bit (2400, N, 8, 1), and [J]oin the Roadways conference. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Here are the requirements for running Roadways PC on your computer: An IBM PC/XT/AT/286/386/486 or compatible computer Minimum 384K of RAM Any type display (Monochrome, CGA, EGA, VGA, etc.) One Floppy Drive (any size or density) (Hard drive recommended) Microsoft or Logitech Compatible Mouse or Trackball (Optional) Printer DISTRIBUTED FILES Your copy of Roadways PC should include the following files. If it does not, please contact the author with information about where your copy came from, so a good copy of Roadways can be sent to both you and your source. This will ensure everyone will have a complete copy of Roadways PC, with all of its features intact. ROADWAYS.EXE ----------- The main Roadways PC program file ROADWAYS.DAT ----------- The text file containing the city data ROADWAYS.DOC ----------- This documentation file ROADWAYS.STA ----------- Data sorted by State ROADWAYS.CTY ----------- Data sorted by City PRINTDOC.BAT ----------- Documentation Printer File INSTALL.EXE ----------- Roadways PC installation program REGISTER.EXE ----------- Registration program for Roadway PC README.DOC ------------- Special information not in the manual INSTALLING ROADWAYS PC ON YOUR COMPUTER Installing Roadways PC is very simple. You may install Roadways PC to either a floppy disk or to your hard disk if you have one. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, please go to page 15 and perform the procedures in the section entitled, UPGRADING ROADWAYS PC. If you try to run Roadways PC without first running the INSTALL program, Roadways will remind you. You will see a screen that informs you that Roadways PC has not been configured for your system. At this point, Roadways will end and you can run INSTALL to configure the program. - 1 - To install Roadways PC, all you need to do is follow these instructions: 1. Insert the disk containing Roadways PC into your disk drive. 2. Type INSTALL and press <enter>. 3. After a few seconds, you will be asked if you wish to make a backup of your Roadways PC program disk. If you answer Y to this question, you will be exited from INSTALL so you can use DISKCOPY to back up your original disk. If you answer N to this question, you will be allowed to continue with the installation procedure. 4. Now you will be asked if you wish to install Roadways PC onto a Hard drive. If you answer Y to this question: a. You will be asked if the subdirectory C:\ROADWAYS is where you want Roadways installed. If you want Roadways installed in a sudirectory on drive C: called ROADWAYS, type Y. b. You can enter a different drive and subdirectory if you want. Just enter the letter of the drive you want Roadways installed to, and when asked for the subdirectory name, type in any legal DOS name. c. The subdirectory will be created on the specified drive and Roadways will install (or copy) itself into that subdirectory. FINAL INSTALLATION The next question asks if you want to continue with installation. If you do not want to do so at this point, simply type N and Roadways PC will terminate. If you want to continue (and you really should!), type Y and you will be asked if you have a color monitor. If you have any type of color monitor and card, type Y. If you have a monochrome display of any type, type N. The next question asks if you want Roadways PC to calculate a mileage reimbursement cost per mile. This option is primarily designed for folks that get reimbursed for their mileage on business trips, although it has other uses as well, such as calculations for IRS mileage deductions and so forth. Please note, however, that the author of Roadways PC makes no claims as to the accuracy of the mileages calculated. Roadways PC is primarily a tool to help you plan your trip, and as such should not be used when accuracy is important. If you want Roadways PC to calculate a cost per mile, simply type 'Y'. Next you will be asked for the mileage rate. This is the amount per mile you want Roadways PC to use. You must enter this number as a decimal. For example, if you want to use 24 cents per mile as the rate, type .24 and hit <enter>. Don't worry if the amount you want to use changes later, as you can easily update it from within Roadways PC and save it back to disk. Next, you will need to choose the type of printer you have. Simply select your printer from the list. You will notice that this list is very general. This is because the options differ only in the characters that are printed from the trip route screen. If you have a dot matrix or laser printer, it is probably IBM compatible. You can tell by looking at the printout when you do a route. - 2 - If you selected the IBM, laser or EPSON selections from the list, when you print out a route, you should see smooth, uninterrupted lines between the headings and the list of cities and routes. If you have an EPSON printer and you get a bunch of letters instead of smooth lines, you will need to change your printer dip switches to the IBM or alternate character set. For other printers, if you see a bunch of letters across the page separating the headings and the list of cities, you will need to select the option for daisy wheel printers. This will use the '-' and the '=' instead of the extended characters. If you do not have a printer, it doesn't matter what you select, but you must select something! After you have made your display and printer selections, Roadways PC will create a file called ROADWAYS.CFG which will contain the configuration information for your computer. This file will be put in the subdirectory where you installed Roadways or on the floppy disk if you did not put it on a hard disk. **** NOTE **** If you have configured Roadways PC for your computer, and wish to pass Roadways along to someone else, please do not copy the ROADWAYS.CFG file onto their disk. Also, do not include it in an archive or zip file, as it may cause problems for the next person who gets the copy. The files that should be included are the ones listed above in the section entitled "DISTRIBUTED FILES". Once the configuration program is complete, you will be returned to DOS. To run Roadways PC, simply type ROADWAYS and hit <enter>. REGISTRATION If you are a registered user of Roadways, you may bypass the copyright screen that appears on bootup. To configure your system to allow this, follow these steps: 1. Insert your Roadways PC disk into your computer or go to the subdirectory on your hard drive that contains the Roadways PC program. 2. Type REGISTER <enter>. 3. Next, you will be asked if you are installing Roadways on a Tandy 1000 HX, EX, SL, TL, SL/2, TL/2 or TL/3. If you own one of these computers, ROADWAYS.EXE will be renamed RW.EXE, and you will be taken directly to step 5, and upon completion, a file called ROADWAYS.BAT will be put on the disk that contains your copy of Roadways. 4. When asked, enter the letter of the drive where you boot your computer. REGISTER will check that drive to see if an AUTOEXEC.BAT file exists. 5. You will be asked for the code that was in the registration letter that was sent to you by the author. Enter that code and hit <enter>. 6. If you have a Tandy, at this point the REGISTER program will end and the file ROADWAYS.BAT will be written to your disk. To run Roadways, type ROADWAYS and hit <enter>. If all has gone well, Roadways will run without the copyright screen. - 3 - 7. IF you do not have a Tandy, REGISTER will check your boot drive for an AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If one does not exist, you will be asked if you want to create one. If so, type Y . 6. A single command will be added to the beginning of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This command can be moved anywhere in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file you wish, as long as it get's executed before Roadways PC gets run. Please note that without the statement that REGISTER puts in the AUTOEXEC.BAT, you cannot bypass the copyright screen. 7. If all has gone well, after you re-boot your computer and type ROADWAYS, you will find that Roadways PC will start-up without the Copyright screen. USING ROADWAYS PC Roadways PC is designed to be simple to use. If you have a mouse that is 100% Microsoft compatible (i.e. - Microsoft, Logitech, Dexxa, etc.) and the driver is loaded, Roadways PC will detect that it is present and display a Mouse cursor whenever appropriate. Once you have Roadways PC properly configured, the program will load and run, presenting you with a copyright notice if you are not a registered user. To exit this screen, simply press any key or left mouse button. At this point, Roadways PC will check to make sure you have all of the necessary data files and if not, it will attempt to create them. The most important file of all is the file ROADWAYS.DAT. Without this file, Roadways PC will not run. The other two data files, ROADWAYS.CTY and ROADWAYS.STA are created from the ROADWAYS.DAT file, so if they are missing, Roadways PC can still run. However, before it will work, it must create the missing files. If for some reason, either one or both of the sorted data files is missing, Roadways PC will inform you of this and then it will proceed to create the files, save them and then run Roadways PC. This should be an almost automatic action requiring no input from you other than pressing a key to go on. Once Roadways has loaded and made sure all of the required files are present, it will begin loading the city data in. You will see two lines in the lower portion of the screen that look like this: Counting to: City Number: The first line indicates the number of cities in the database. The second line will count up until it matches the first line. The purpose of this is just to let you know that something is going on, and that your computer hasn't locked up. When the two numbers match, you will be presented with a choice of having the cities sorted either Alphabetically by city or Alphabetically by state. Press either 'C' or 'S' or use the mouse to click anywhere on the word 'City' or 'State'. CONTROLLING ROADWAYS PC WITH THE KEYBOARD You should now be at the main program screen. Down the left side there should be a list of cities, arranged either by state or by city, depending on your choice earlier, with the top choice highlighted. - 4 - At the bottom, you will see a block with five choices, labeled NEXT PAGE, PREVIOUS PAGE, MILEAGE, RETRIEVE and QUIT. This block is for the Mouse user only. It can, however, help you remember the proper keys to use. The first letter of each of the commands is highlighted. Pressing any of these keys will do what the function says. If you have a mouse, see the section on Controlling Roadways PC with a Mouse for more information on their use. The key help block will appear just above this Mouse block, and provides you with the functions of all of the keys that can be used at this point in the program. Toward the top, you will see a block with the prompt: Select Starting City You do this by using the following keys: Up Arrow Key --------------------- Move up the list Down Arrow Key ------------------- Move down the list PgUp key (or P key) -------------- Go to Previous Page PgDn key (or N key) -------------- Next Page Home key ------------------------- Go to the First Page End Key -------------------------- Go to the Last Page Enter Key ------------------------ Select a city ALT Key -------------------------- Activate the menu bar Q key ---------------------------- Quit Roadways PC R key ---------------------------- Retrieve saved routes M key ---------------------------- Change the Mileage Rate Any other key -------------------- Key help window If you have problems remembering what keys do what, just press a key that is not on this list ('H' for example), and you will be presented with a window that shows the primary key commands for Roadways PC. To clear the window, just press <enter>, space bar or ESC. Selecting a City To select a city, simply use the arrow keys to move the highlighted area over the city you want, then press <enter>. If you do not see the city you are looking for on the screen, press the PgUp (or P) or PgDn (or N) keys to flip through the 'pages' of cities until you locate the city you are looking for. Once you have selected a Starting City, you will notice that the block at the top right now says: Select Ending City Also, you will see a block just below that block which now indicates what city you chose as the starting city, and is waiting for you to choose the ending city. Repeat the above procedure to select the ending or destination city, and again press <enter>. Now you will notice that the window that contains the starting city also displays the ending city along with a prompt for you to decide if these are correct. If so, type 'Y'. If not, type 'N', and you will be able to re-select both the starting and ending cities. If the starting city and ending city are the same, Roadways PC will clear the block and tell you to select the starting city again. - 5 - Once you type 'Y', you will see a small square toward the top of the screen that is labeled: Miles: You will see numbers count up, as Roadways PC calculates the total mileage to the destination. As before, this is put on the screen mostly to let you know something is happening, since on a slower computer, the route can take longer to complete. This is especially true of long, coast-to-coast routes. Pressing and releasing the ALT key will toggle the menu bar at the top of the screen. From these menus you can perform many of the functions that are also available from the hot keys, such as retrieving saved routes and exiting Roadways PC. ROUTE SCREEN Once the route is complete, the screen will clear and the route will be displayed. At this point, you have five more options: 1. Press 'P' to print the route out to your printer. 2. Press 'O' to save the route to disk. 3. Press 'M' to see Mileage information if it is enabled. 4. Press 'Q' to Quit Roadways PC completely. 5. Press the Spacebar to do another route. You may print the route out as many times as you wish. Simply press 'P' for each copy you want. When you are done printing, you may either quit or run another route. A help menu is available on this screen as well. To activate it, press any key not highlighted on the screen in a command box. I recommend either 'H' or 'F1' since these are the normal help commands in other programs, but any key will do. The right mouse button will also turn this screen on. Once the help window is open, you can close it by pressing either ESC, <enter> or the space bar, or by clicking in the upper left hand corner or on the <CLOSE> spot with the mouse. If you calculate a route that is longer than will fit on a single screen, you will see two little boxes at the bottom of the screen that say Scroll Up and Scroll Down. By using the arrow keys or the U and D keys, you can scroll through the list of cities at your leisure. SAVING ROUTES TO DISK Saving routes to disk is very simple. From the Route sceen, press 'O'. Roadways PC will ask you for a path and filename. If you want to save the route in the same directory as Roadways, all you need to do is enter the filename you want your route saved under. Do not enter an extender, only a valid MS-DOS filename of eight characters or less. PLEASE NOTE: You cannot save any routes under the filename ROADWAYS. Roadways PC will not allow this, since it would be possible to overwrite one of the program files by accident. Also, if you at any time change the extender from .RDW to another, Roadways PC will not be able to find the file. - 6 - All Roadways files are saved with the extender .RDW and are simply text files. There are no special characters or funny formatting. This was done to make it easy for you to read into your favorite word processor for inclusion in a letter or document you are preparing. RETRIEVING ROUTES FROM DISK Retrieving is almost as easy as saving the route. From the main City Selection screen, type 'R' and you will be asked for the drive and directory name of the directory containing your Roadways PC route files. If you have saved the route files in the same directory and drive that has Roadways PC, all you have to do is press <enter> . You will see a directory of all files that have an extension of .RDW on the screen, and a prompt asking which file you want to retrieve. Just type in the name of the route file (with or without the extender. It doesn't matter.) and press <enter>. You should now see the route just as you saved it. At this point you may elect to do one of the following: PRINT - Print the route you just retrieved MORE - Retrieve another route RETURN TO ROADWAYS PC MAIN - Return to the City Selection screen Simply press the first letter of the option you want and do what Roadways PC tells you. CONTROLLING ROADWAYS PC WITH A MOUSE Roadways PC is a program that lends itself well to a mouse or pointing device. Use of the mouse is almost intuitive, since it makes sense to point at what you want. This is the philosophy around which the mouse interface was designed. When you first boot up, after the copyright screen, you are presented with a choice of sorting the cities by either city or state. Simply move the mouse cursor to the one you want, and click with the left button. You can click on any part of the word, not just the first letter. Once at the main menu, the following is the assignment of the mouse buttons: Left Button - Select button Right Button - Activate the Keyboard help window As this implies, to choose a city, just position the mouse cursor over the city you want and press the left button. To page through the cities, simply go to the boxes at the bottom of the screen. Here is the function of the boxes: NEXT PAGE - Selects the next page (screen) of cities PREVIOUS PAGE - Selects the previous page (screen) of cities MILEAGE - Change the Mileage calculation amount RETRIEVE - Retrieves previously saved routes from disk QUIT - Quit Roadways PC - 7 - By using the mouse cursor and clicking with the left mouse button on your selection, you can page through the cities effortlessly, and select your starting and ending cities. The same thing goes for the other screens. When you see a box with several selections in it, simply click on the word or box you want. [Yes/No] PROMPTS When using a mouse, you can answer a yes or no prompt by simply putting the mouse cursor over your choice. For example, after selecting the ending city, you are asked: Is this Correct [Yes/No]? To answer yes, position the mouse cursor over the 'Y' at the end of the question and click the left mouse button. This is the way to answer all Y/N prompts if you do not want to use the keyboard. This includes the ones when exiting Roadways. USING THE MOUSE ON THE ROUTE SCREEN The only active mouse areas on the route display screen are in the box at the bottom of the screen. Here you have the options of either Printing, Disk Output, Mileage display, Quitting or Space bar to continue. By clicking with the left mouse button on the word with the highlighted letter, you can select that option. Also, if you have a route longer than the screen will display all at one time, you can click in either the Scroll Up or Scroll Down box to scroll the city route display. Again, you do not have to click on the highlighted letter, just anywhere on the word that contains the highlighted letter. CHANGING THE MILEAGE RATE You can change the mileage rate at any time by pressing 'M' from the City Selection screen. Upon entering the Mileage change screen, you will notice three options: 1) Calculate actual cost per mile based on price of gasoline 2) Calculate cost per mile on a cents per mile rate 3) Don't do a mileage calculation Option 1 Selecting option 1 will result in your being asked for the pump price of a gallon of gasoline. For example, if the price of gas is $1.25 9/10, then enter 1.259 and press <enter>. Next, you'll be asked for the miles per gallon your car gets. If your car gets 22 miles per gallon, enter 22 and press <enter>. You will then be told how many cents per mile it costs to operate your car with those figures. Next, you are asked if you want to save this rate to disk for permanent use in Roadways PC. If you do, press 'Y', if not, press 'N'. If you pressed 'N', you will be asked if the amount calculated is correct. If it is, press 'Y' and you will be returned to Roadways PC and that rate will be used until you exit Roadways PC, or change it. - 8 - If the rate calculated is not the one you want used for routes, press 'N' and you will then be asked if you want a mileage rate calculation done. If you answer 'N' to this question, there will be no mileage rate calculations on your routes, until the end of the current Roadways PC session or until you change it again by pressing 'M' at the City Selection screen. Option 2 Use this option if you want to calculate a cost per mile based on a set per mile rate. For example, if you get reimbursed by your company at the rate of .24 cents per mile, you would select this option. You will be asked what rate per mile you want to use. You must enter this amount as a decimal number. For example, if you get 24 cents per mile, you would enter .24 and press <enter> . If you forget, Roadways PC will remind you and give you some instructions. As for option 1, you will have the option of saving the rate to disk or not. If you select to not save the rate to disk, it will still be used to provide mileage calculations during the current session of Roadways PC. Option 3 Option 3 will turn off the mileage rate calculations. If you select this option, you will not have the mileage rates displayed on the route screen or on your printout or disk save. To re-activate the calculations, just press 'M' to get back into the Mileage Calculation screen. As with all of the other screens in Roadways PC, this screen also supports a mouse. The mouse cursor will appear when it can be used. QUITTING ROADWAYS PC To end your Roadways PC session, go to either the main screen (the one that contains the city list) or the route display screen. You may either press 'Q' or click on the appropriate box with the mouse. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES There are several command line switches available to make loading and running Roadways PC easier and more customizable. Here are the command line options: /C - Load Roadways and sort the cities in City order for display /S - Load Roadways and sort the cities in State order for display /I - Run the city sorter program (creates ROADWAYS.CTY and ROADWAYS.STA) /? - Provides help on the Command Line switches If at any time you cannot remember what the different switches are, simply type: ROADWAYS /? This will display all the switches available and return you to the DOS prompt. The /C and /S switches speed entry into Roadways PC, by selecting ahead of time, the way you want the cities displayed; whether by city or by state. You will find out more about using the /I switch in the coming section. - 9 - ENVIRONMENT USE If there is one particular setup you always want to use, you can install it in an environment statement. You can have up to 3 separate environment switches to activate options in Roadways PC. In reality, if you look at the list of possible command line switches, you will notice that there is really only a need for one switch. The most obvious use for this is to add the capability to have Roadways PC come up with the cities listed either by city or by state. Here are the options available: SET ROADWAYS =/C Makes Roadways PC come up sorted by City SET ROADWAYS =/S Makes Roadways PC come up sorted by State To use one of these, just add the appropriate statement above to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Please note that the command line will override whatever environment switches you choose. While you can use some of the other command line switches in the environment, I don't recommend it, since Roadways PC will come up with those options selected every time you run it. ADDING CITIES TO ROADWAYS PC Obviously, this program would be of only limited use if it could not be expanded and customized. Since the initial database is fairly limited, it would be good to be able to add new cities. Adding cities is fairly easy, but does require some planning. Before adding your first city, make sure you have the following available: A good road atlas A calculator (to help add up the number of miles) A printout of the datafile ROADWAYS.DAT A backup copy of the datafile ROADWAYS.DAT (VERY IMPORTANT!!!) While I can't help you with the first two, I can help you get a good printout of the data file. 1. Set up your printer and make sure it is on-line. 2. At the DOS prompt, type COPY ROADWAYS.DAT PRN <enter> The data file should now print out. Be forewarned. This is a fairly long datafile (about 4 to 5 pages) so make sure you have enough paper! Once you have all of the items at hand, sit down at a table and lay the data file printout out in front of you. The first 4 lines should look something like this: 201,8 1,ALBANY,NY,5,156,90,146,151,90,85,105,87,88,23,-7,154,14,88,142 2,ALBERT LEA,MN,4,87,90,262,94,35,93,147,90,168,47,35,148 3,ALBUQUERQUE,NM,4,56,40,323,37,25,365,52,25,257,192,40,114 Let's look at what each piece of this data means: The top line is very important. This line contains two pieces of data indicating the number of cities in the datafile and the maximum number of connections that any one city can have. In this case, the first number tells us that there are 201 cities in the datafile. - 10 - Your listing may have a larger number here depending on whether or not any new cities have been added since release of Roadways PC. The second number tells Roadways PC what the maximum number of cities any one city is connected to. This will become more apparent as we move on, so don't worry too much if you don't understand yet. On the second line is the first piece of city data. Please note that the cities are numbered from 1 to 201 (in this example. Yours may be higher), consecutively. YOU MUST NOT MOVE THE CITIES AROUND! You cannot change the order of the existing cities or remove a city without invalidating the entire listing. You can remove the last city or put a new city on the end, but that is the extent of the modification you can make to the city file. The city data is set up like so: CNUM,CITY,STATE,CONN,C1,R1,D1,C2,R2,D2,C3,R3,D3... CNUM is the city number and applies to this line only! In our example, CNUM for Albany is 1. CITY is the city name. STATE is the state name. CONN is how many other cities this city connects to. In the case of Albany, it connects to 5 other cities (in the example). C1 is the city number of the first city that this city connects to. In our example, the first connection from Albany is to city number 156, which should be SYRACUSE,NY. R1 is the number of the route by which this city connects to the city indicated by C1. Albany is connected to city number 156 by interstate 90. D1 is the distance from this city to the city indicated by C1. Albany is connected to city number 156, by interstate 90 at a distance of 146 miles. C2, R2, D2, C3, R3, D3, etc. are the other cities that connect to this city, in exactly the same format as C1, R1, and D1. The data for each connecting city is always entered in this format: City number, route number, distance. Spaces are not allowed anywhere but in the actual city name. To make it easier to understand adding a new city, let's take a look at how city number 201 was added to the data file. If you haven't already, print out the city data file, ROADWAYS.DAT. Take a look at city number 201. We are going to pretend that this city does not yet exist in the datafile. What we want to do is add the city MARION, Illinois. By looking at my atlas, I have decided that I want it to connect to three other cities that are in the datafile already. The cities I want Marion, Illinois to connect to are: Mt. Vernon, Il. (city number 99) Paducah, Ky. (city number 112) Sikeston, Mo. (city number 145) - 11 - From my atlas, I get the route information about the roads like so: Mt. Vernon, Il. is 53 miles away on interstate 57 Paducah, Ky. is 42 miles away on interstate 24 Sikeston, Mo. is 60 miles away on interstate 57 Now, I just have to build my new line entry. Here are the steps for this example: 1. First is the new city number: 201 2. Next is the city name: MARION (all caps) 3. Next is the state name: IL (two letter abbreviation) 4. The number of cities we want to connect to: 3 5. City number of the first connecting city: 99 (Mt. Vernon) 6. Route number of the first connecting city: 57 7. Number of miles to the first connecting city: 53 8. City number of the second connecting city: 112 (Paducah) 9. Route number of the second connecting city: 24 10. Number of miles to the second connecting city: 42 11. City number of the third connecting city: 145 (Sikeston) 12. Route number of the third connecting city: 57 13. Number of miles to the third connecting city: 60 Our new line should look like this: 201,MARION,IL,3,99,57,53,112,24,42,145,57,60 The order of the cities in the line is not critical, however the format of the data is. In other words, it's ok to put Sikeston, Mo. as the first city in the line of connecting cities, however it is not ok to put the number of miles before the route number, since Roadways PC will think the route number is the distance and vice-versa. Once you have developed the new line, you must now go and make the connection at the other end. For instance, you have added a connection to city number 99 (Mt. Vernon, Il), but Mt. Vernon still does not have anything showing it's connection to city number 201. To complete the connection, go up to city number 99 and increase the number of cities it connects to. Next add the connecting city information. In this case you would add the following to the end of the line: 201,57,53 This should look familiar. 201 is the number of the city that was added at the end of the datafile. 57 is the route number from Marion, Il. to Mt. Vernon, Il., and 53 is the number of miles between the two cities. - 12 - Repeat this for each of the connections made to the new city. To simplify matters, I usually just use a pencil to write the new information on the datafile printout. This way, I can verify that I haven't left anything out. Once you have finished adding cities and making the changes to the printout, load up your favorite text editor. Please be aware that you should avoid using a word processor if possible, unless you are very familiar with using it to make a true ASCII file. You MUST save the datafile as an ASCII file with hard carriage returns ONLY at the end of each line of data. If you break any of the data lines anywhere other than at the end of the last piece of data for that line, Roadways PC will not work. I recommend using an editor such as MEDIT or even EDLIN, if you are familiar with it's use. DIFFERENT KINDS OF ROADS Roadways PC allows three kinds of roads to be used. They are 1) Interstates, 2) State Highways, and 3) Turnpikes. To differentiate between them, you use the following rules: 1) To specify an Interstate, Simply type the number of the interstate (i.e. 64 would indicate interstate 64 or I-64). 2) To specify a State Road, simply type the number of the road as a negative (i.e. -64 would indicate US-64). 3) To specify a turnpike, simply type the number 0 (zero). This will cause Roadways PC to print the word Turnpike, instead of the highway number. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND Here are some important things to keep in mind when adding cities: 1. NEVER insert a city into the datafile anywhere but at the end! 2. NEVER delete a city from the datafile, unless you are prepared to either delete all of the cities after the city you want to delete or completely rebuild the file to renumber all the cities after the deletion and change all references to the cities to the new numbers. 3. After adding a new city or connection, make sure you go the cities connected to and make the connection back to the new city or connection. 4. If you add a city to the listing that is on the path between two cities that are already connected, it's best to remove the connection between the two farthest cities and connect them through the in-between city. Once you have made all the changes to the datafile, go to the top of the file to the very first two pieces of data. If you remember, in our example these were the numbers 201 and 8 separated by a comma. You will need to change the first number to reflect the total number of cities now in the data file. For instance, if the last city is city number 205, you should change the 201 to 205. - 13 - Also, if any of the cities connects to more than 8 other cities, you will need to change the second number to the maximum number of connections. For example, if the city with the largest number of connections has 10 total connections, you will need to change the number 8 to a 10. THE CITY SORTER Now that all of your changes have been made, save the datafile and exit your editor. If all has been done correctly, you should now be ready to run Roadways PC with the city sorter activated. To do this, type: ROADWAYS /I <enter> This will run the city sorter, recreating the sorted city files with your changes included. Now Roadways will run, and you should see your added cities in the list. I recommend you try some routes, in both directions, on your cities to make sure that the information you put in is correct and that you didn't make any errors. COMMON PITFALLS WHEN ADDING CITIES Probably the single biggest pitfall when adding cities is the temptation to try to add new cities without a printout of the data file. This is NOT a good idea, and can result in errors or omissions. Another big problem area can crop up if you use a word processor or editor that splits the data lines. When doing an ASCII save, these programs will frequently put a hard carriage return at the end of each screen line instead of at the end of the physical line. This is why it is very important to keep a backup of the datafile on hand, in the event the one you are working with gets messed up. If something goes wrong with your datafile, it will be obvious, as the program will either not run at all or it will give you an error and terminate operation. If this happens, you know something is wrong with your datafile, and you will either have to correct the problem with a word processor or re-copy your original datafile back to the directory or disk you are running Roadways PC from. It really isn't hard to add cities. Just copy your datafile to some other place and play with it. Just remember to run Roadways PC with the /I switch to allow the city sorter to update the lists of cities. A NOTE ABOUT THE WINDOWS IN ROADWAYS PC You will notice that the help windows and the mileage calculation window are very similar. For the mouse user, these windows can be either closed or moved at will. To move a window, just click and hold the left mouse button down on the top bar of the window, and draw it where you want it. After the window is closed, it will revert to it's original location if re-opened. You can close the windows by either clicking in the top left corner, clicking on 'OK', hitting <enter>, pressing the space bar or hitting ESC. - 14 - UPGRADING ROADWAYS PC If you are upgrading from a previous release of Roadways PC, here are the steps you need to take to avoid losing any changes you have made to the city datafiles: 1. If you have added or modified your city datafiles, make a backup copy of YOUR city datafiles (ROADWAYS.DAT, ROADWAYS.CTY and ROADWAYS.STA). Put the backup away so you don't accidentally erase or over-write it. If you haven't changed the datafile, you may want to use the newer datafile as it may contain new city data you don't currently have. If this is so, copy everything from the new disk to your ROADWAYS subdirectory, go to step 3 and skip step 6. 2. Copy the files ROADWAYS.EXE, INSTALL.EXE and REGISTER.EXE from the newer version to your Roadways directory or disk. 3. Delete the file ROADWAYS.CFG from your Roadways directory or disk. 4. Type INSTALL at the MS-DOS prompt. INSTALL should load and run. Follow the steps listed in the section INSTALLING ROADWAYS PC to make the new ROADWAYS.CFG file. 5. Go through the configuration process. When it is done, you should now have a completely upgraded Roadways PC! 6. Now, copy the following files from your new Roadways disk to the disk you are going to run Roadways PC from: ROADWAYS.DOC README.DOC Key things to remember are that the configuration file (ROADWAYS.CFG) is very likely incompatible with earlier releases. BACKGROUND ON ROADWAYS PC The idea for Roadways PC came from a similar program done on the Apple many years ago. This program worked but was very slow and not at all flexible. It seemed to me that a much better implementation of the idea could be had by using the IBM PC with it's far superior processing speed, memory capabilities and the availability of better languages to work from. Initially, Roadways PC was done in GW-BASIC, however it became apparent very rapidly that this was unsuitable. Besides being horrendously slow, it was also bulky, requiring the use of the BASIC interpreter. After discovering Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.0, the entire program was re-written in modular form without line numbers. Several bugs manifested themselves, some of which were in Roadways PC and some which were part of QuickBASIC. At this point, I discovered the Microsoft BASIC Compiler, version 7.1. This is what this version of the program (ver. 2.5) is written in. Here, finally, was the support I needed without the limitations and bugs in QuickBASIC. Another nice feature was not having to re-write the program to compile it under the BASIC Compiler. - 15 - ABOUT THE AUTHOR Doug Fitler is in the U.S. Air Force and has been for the last 15 years. In his spare time, he is the managing editor of the magazine One Thousand, a magazine geared to the Tandy 1000 owner. He has been programming since 1983 and is currently trying to learn enough 'C' to be able to re-write Roadways PC in that language to increase it's speed, reduce it's size and maybe (don't hold your breath) provide a Windows 3.0 interface. ABOUT ROADWAYS PC Roadways PC is distributed under the Shareware concept. If you like it, please register it. This will help support the further enhancement of the product, as well as compensate the author for the work put into the program. Registering Roadways will entitle you to free upgrades for a year. Also, registered users will be able to disable the opening copyright screen and will receive a free subscription to The Roadways Times, a newsletter published quarterly for registered Roadways PC users. Manuals are available as are lifetime free upgrades. See the registration form for more information on these options. Basic registration costs only $10.00. You are free to give this program to anyone, and put it on any information services you wish, as long as all of the files are included. Send registrations to the following address: Doug Fitler Box 424 Scott AFB, Il. 62225 Please make all checks and money orders payable to Doug Fitler. If you have any questions or suggestions to improve Roadways PC, please drop me a line. Thank you for supporting the Shareware Concept! - 16 - DISCLAIMER The author hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if the author or an agent of the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall the author's liability for any software ever exceed the price paid for the license to use this software, regardless of the form of the claim. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software. Please note that the author of Roadways PC makes no claims as to the accuracy of the mileages calculated. Roadways PC is primarily a tool to help you plan your trip, and as such should not be used when accuracy is important. It is highly recommended that if you wish to use Roadways PC to plan a trip, you double check the route with a reputable atlas to make sure it meets your requirements. Roadways will provide a route that is the shortest based on the data it has to work with. Any errors, omissions, oversights or problems with the data and the algorithm used to calculate the mileages and display the data are the sole responsibility of the user and not the author. - 17 - SUMMARY OF CHANGES IN VERSION 2.0 1. Added checking of Environment for defaults. 2. Added the ability to bypass the copyright screen for registered users. 3. Added the option to save routes to disk. 4. Added Retrieval of routes from disk with optional printout. Includes a directory listing of .RDW files (roadways saved files). 5. Added 'R' to the help menu and to the Mouse selection blocks. Also added Disk Output to the display screen. Added a mouse box with Print, More and Return to Roadways PC Main to the Retrieval screen. 6. Added the mileage rate input to the config screen. 7. Added mileage output to all output screens. 8. Added the option to change the mileage rate from within Roadways with the 'M' key. 9. Updated the documentation to include all of the above features. 10. Changed the Help box to a true window that is closeable and moveable. 11. Put the mileage information on the route screen into a moveable, closeable window. Changes to version 2.5: 1. Pull down menus have been added to the main city selection screen. 2. The route display is scrollable if it exceeds the room on the screen. 3. Starting and ending cities in the route display have been highlighted to make them more visible. 4. A help menu has been added to the route screen. 5. The configuration program has been removed from the main program and revised to include installation to a hard drive. Changes to version 2.51, 2.52 and 2.53: 1. Several minor bugs were fixed that caused problems with calculated dollar amounts in the mileage calculation routines. 2. The Up and Down keys were switched to make the Up Arrow key scroll the list up and the Down Arrow key scroll down. (oops!) 3. The colors were fixed for monochrome displays to make the display screens readable and highlighting look correct. - 18 - 4. A bug in the scroll screen was fixed that caused the scroll up and scroll down block to appear if only 12 cities were in the route. The minimum should have been 13. - 19 - INVOICE Roadways PC version 2.54 Remit to: Doug Fitler P.O. Box 424 Scott AFB, Il. 62225-0424 From: Name: __________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________ Street Address: ________________________________________ City: ____________________ State: ____________________ Zip Code: ________________ Quantity: ________ Pricing: Check the options you wish Basic Registration : $10.00 [ ] Printed Manual : $ 7.00 [ ] Lifetime Free upgrades: $15.00 [ ] Special offer: All of the above : $30.00 [ ] Total sent : $________ I use 5 1/4" _______ 3 1/2" _______ Home Phone (not required): (____)-______________________ Work Phone (not required): (____)-______________________ Where did you find Roadways PC?_________________________ ________________________________________________________ Comments or Suggestions: _______________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Note that Roadways PC has been delivered and accepted by the customer. Upon receipt of this paid invoice, if an upgrade has occurred, a current disk and any updated documentation will be sent.