4]---------------------------------- 3]DATEBOOK 1991: An AmigaDOS Special 3]By Teresa Gomes 4]---------------------------------- If you have enough nerve to open a CLI or Shell window and learn three simple AmigaDOS commands, then you can possess a quite serviceable 1991 datebook. I tested it on 1990. It works and I'm ready to go public with it. As the first extra added attraction, I've given you a 1991 calendar. Click on any of the month icons in the DateBook1991 drawer to see the month's days. But to the main business: First, it's imperative you give DateBook1991 its own disk. If this JUMPDISK is anywhere near as crammed with material as those in the past year, there's not enough room on it for everything you might plan to do with DateBook. Format a disk. I'll presume in my instructions ahead you have renamed the disk as DATEBOOK. Copy the DATEBOOK1991 drawer to the new DATEBOOK: disk, using click-and-drag. That is, click open both the JUMPDISK and DATEBOOK main windows, click and hold on the DATEBOOK1991 drawer icon in the J: window, and roll the mouse to move it into the DATEBOOK: window, then release the button and wait for it to copy. Remove JUMPDISK. Open a CLI or Shell window and therein type: cd datebook:datebook1991 You have changed the directory, so you don't need the full pathname into the drawer. You are figuratively within the drawer for any command you want to type. The display of months from within the DATEBOOK1991 drawer will not work on the new disk. It isn't needed. You'll be doing all work from a CLI or Shell. To start, type: list . . . to see contents of the drawer. The important files are jan91, feb91, mar91, and so on through dec91. Type: type jan91 . . . and you will see the JAN91 file. As with the other month files, it starts with a handy calendar of the month at hand. 3]MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU To make entries within a month file, use any text editor you want. The following instructions apply for anything from ED to WordPerfect, presuming you know how to open, edit and close the file. Open the JAN91 file. Take the cursor to the bottom of the file, and type the following nine lines, then save the file back to disk. You can delete the entries once you start inserting your own material. 01 Have tomato juice ready this a.m. 09 Dental appointment Dr. Lind 10:30 a.m. 12 Bill's birthday bash 7 p.m. 15 Start studying for anthro final 16 Teresa's birthday 22 County taxes due 28 Trip to Dallas. Check with Sam on accommodations. 29 Anthro final 31 Payday! . . . The numbers beginning each line are dates. Now you have a month file with a very important bit of information in it: my birthday. To see the file, type: type jan91 . . . If the file is large, stop the scrolling by holding down the right mouse button, release it to continue. I do quite a bit of self-reminding just by TYPEing a file onto the screen. You could also send a given month to the printer, as in: type > prt: jan91 Back to a very important date. If you ever forget my birthday, AmigaDOS' SEARCH can help you find it. The command: search jan91 Teresa . . . will display all lines containing the name "Teresa" within the month (what a charming concept!), while the command: search jan91 birthday . . . will display all the "birthday" references within the month. The command: search > prt: jan91 day . . . would send to the printer all references to "day" in the month file. I've purposely kept this simple to lure beginners into using AmigaDOS in ways that can truly make the computer a useful tool. The commands LIST, TYPE and SEARCH, coupled with some form of text editor to add and delete items from month files, are all you need to make a $500 to $3,000 computer take the place of a $2.95 datebook. 3]ANOTHER EXTRA ADDED ATTRACTION! Now that you know how to manage AmigaDOS files, consider an electronic phone book. Create files A to Z on your DATEBOOK disk. Edit as applicable. Example, here's a listing for my old friends, the Zahlmeimers: (679) 555-3829 Bob and Patty Zahlmeimer, 43 Otter Dr., Preslow, ZQ 99281 Of course, I put then in the Z file because of their last name. I can then find their phone number, address, etc. with the command: search z Zahlmeimer . . . and get the line I need for references. I can still find them if I forget their rather ordinary name but remember either their state, street name, ZIP code, or other included information I might retain in my mind. 3]INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SEARCHES Back to DATEBOOK and its month files. There are times, I admit, when I misplace some important event within the year -- say, Uncle Harry and Aunt Bertha's wedding anniversary. I made up a special script file for searches. It's in the DATEBOOK1991 drawer under the filename BIGSEARCH. This technique may be a bit beyond beginners, but carefully read about and try it, and I'll bet you can make it work. Here's what the BIGSEARCH file looks like: list jan91 search jan91 qz list feb91 search feb91 qz list mar91 search mar91 qz list apr91 search apr91 qz list may91 search may91 qz list jun91 search jun91 qz list jul91 search jul91 qz list aug91 search aug91 qz list sep91 search sep91 qz list oct91 search oct91 qz list nov91 search nov91 qz list dec91 search dec91 qz As presented, the file is only a template. To use it, some preparation is required. I continue to presume you are working from your DATEBOOK disk and you're still CD'd to it. First, copy it to RAM: copy bigsearch to ram: Next, open the RAM:BIGSEARCH file and replace the characters "qz" with the string of characters for which you want to search. From ED, the text editor supplied with the Amiga, you would put the cursor over the first character in the file, press the ESC key to get an asterisk prompt at the bottom of the screen and type: rp e/qz/Harry/ . . . and all the substitutions are automatically done for you. Save the RAM:BIGSEARCH file and back at the CLI or Shell, type: execute ram:bigsearch . . . then watch the screen carefully. Each month is announced, and if the characters "Harry" are found in it, the line is displayed. The number at left of displayed lines is the number of the cited line within the file. Meanwhile, the original BIGSEARCH file remains on your DATEBOOK disk, ready for copying into RAM and altered to fit your next search. Of course, you won't be able to give BIGSEARCH the acid test until you've plugged in some data to be searched. In time, you may find it useful. My 1990 DATEBOOK month files contain more than 7,000 line entries. I hope this has given you some ideas and that it makes your time with the Amiga more fruitful. 4]END OF TEXT