******************************************** * * * Program : AmigaDiary version 1.13 * * * * Author : Andrew K. Pearson * * * * Machine : Commodore Amiga * * * * * * (c) Andrew Pearson 1992/93 * * * ******************************************** AmigaDiary is freeware. That is, it may be freely copied and distributed but remains copyright (c) Andrew K. Pearson. Everything in this distribution must be kept together in its original, unmodified form. No commercial usage is permitted without written permission from the author. Program History =============== v1.0 : The 'original'. Finished around spring '93. v1.1 : Finished 20/3/93. Added some features not originally intended, eg. hotkeys. This version on July '93 Amiga Computing coverdisk. v1.11 : Removed a few bugs present in v1.1 Thanks to all the people who pointed them out to me. v1.12 : Fixed the following bugs: (21/6/93) 1. When the diary starts up, the whole entry for today is displayed, not just the most recently added one. 2. After loading a file, the correct entries are displayed, and the day shown in the window is today's date - not the last day loaded from the file. 3. The Edit gadget in the scribblepad window no longer has the E underlined. (Hotkeys only work in the main window). 4. (Not a bug) I never expected people to want to insert entries in the past, so I made the lookup date routine add 2000 to the year if it was less than 90. It would seem, however, that if you were keeping records or something then you might want entries in previous years. Now, only years less than 30 are 21st century. Any others go to 20th century, so for example if you entered 69 it would become 1969, not 2069. This means the diary can be used up until 2030. If anyone is still using it after that don't expect help from me! 5. The program now correctly sets the topaz 8 font in each window that uses the graphics library text function. 6. Diary now correctly handles years. (This was a major bug - whoops!) v1.13 : Thanks to Peter Wesson for pointing this out. If the date given in the LookUp Date window is an old date eg. in 1959, the day is wrong. This was because the exec function datestamp returns the date as the number of seconds since midnight, 1st Jan 1978. When I changed the range of years allowed in to 1930 onwards (v1.12), I forgot to take this into consideration, so any date before 1.1.78 would give the wrong day. This has now been fixed. (28/6/93) Known Bugs ========== AmigaDiary seems to cause problems for ToolsDaemon v2.0b - I don't know why. The error reported is "can't find .info!" when I try to select a menu option. I think the problem lies in ToolsDaemon, though, because I have had this error when AmigaDiary has not even been running. Future Additions ================ Version 1.13 was really just v1.0 with the bugs removed. I plan to release a version 2 at some point in the future, so here are some features that I may or may not include. Some of these were suggested to me by other people. Thanks to all those who wrote to me. 1. A print facility. This is doubtful as I do not have a printer, and have no experience of writing printer routines. However, it will be interesting to try. 2. A calendar facility so you can see which days have entries at a glance. This was a very good suggestion, and I will definitely include this. 3. Font selection facility. This is useful also, as not everybody likes the faithful topaz 8 font (Though I for one still use it). 4. Requestor prompting saving any changes before quitting. Originally, I tried to keep the program so small that I didn't really think requestors such as this and "Are you sure you want to quit?" were really necessary. However, they aren't that hard to do, and they don't add much to the program size - so watch out for them. 5. Adding entries without going back to the main window and selecting Add Entry again. Nice one - why didn't I think of that? 6. Inclusion of standard entries. For example, if you played squash at 7pm every Tuesday, you would not want to have to add it again and again. This facility should allow you to enter it only once. 7. Reminders, eg. birthdays, should pop up a requestor if it gets near the time. Possibly specify the time eg. day, week, month in advance. 8. A search facility with wildcards to search for, eg. "#? birthday" 9. A real time clock, visible from the main and shrink windows. Documentation 28/6/93 ====================== AmigaDiary is a handy workbench tool of the type that currently abound office PC's. It is a mouse driven diary capable of storing all personal events and is the perfect solution to all those forgotten birthdays, missed appointments etc. Getting Started --------------- AmigaDiary can be started by double clicking the diary icon from the workbench, or by typing "run AmigaDiary" from the CLI. If you wish a default file to be loaded each time you start up, save your entries file in the s directory as "diary.def". The Interface ------------- The main diary display shows open 'pages' of the diary. The current date is displayed in the centre of the display. There are four arrows under the pages - these represent (left to right) week backward, day backward, day forward, week forward - and are used to move to dates within close proximity to the current date. The eight gadgets at the bottom of the screen represent the main diary functions : LOOKUP This gadget is used to go immediately to a date that is without ------ having to use the arrow gadgets. If clicked, a requestor will appear prompting the user for the day in the format shown. ADD This gadget allows the user to add an entry into the diary which, --- heck, I suppose is quite vital. A window will appear with gadgets to input and manipulate your entry. More about this under 'The Add Entry window'. EDIT This allows the user to alter, or delete any entries in the diary. ---- When clicked, it opens an edit window which is used to step through the entries for that day. To edit an entry, you must go to that date first, using either the arrow gadgets or the LOOKUP gadget. More editing under 'The Edit Entry window'. SCRIBBLE The ScribblePad is used to jote down notes, reminders, and any -------- entry which does not have a specific date eg. 'get a haircut'. Scribblepad entries are added in the same way as diary entries, to activate the appropriate window, select SCRIBBLE, then select ADD from the scribblepad gadgets. Note - scribblepad entries have no time option. LOAD Allows the user to load a previously stored, AmigaDiary file. ---- SAVE Allows the user to save all information in the diary, including ---- the scribblepad, in an external file. ABOUT Information about the program and author. ----- SHRINK Reduces the diary to a small window. This allows you to 'pop' it in ------ the background without having to quit. The diary can be 'unshrunk' by closing the shrink window. THE ADD ENTRY WINDOW -------------------- This window supplies the gadgets to add diary entries. Entry : This string gadget is for the entry text Hours : Supply a time in hours (24hr clock) for the entry, if required Mins : Supply a time in minutes, if required Include time : Entries do not necessarily need a time, eg. 'Go shopping' could apply at any time. These entries are displayed at the bottom of the diary page. Add : Creates an entry from the inputs given, and inserts it into the diary. Clear : Clears all the inputs in the gadgets. Cancel : Cancels choice, ie. closes the window without adding the entry. THE EDIT ENTRY WINDOW --------------------- This window supplies the gadgets to edit diary entries. Entry : as above Hours : as above Mins : as above Include Time : as above Prev : Retrieves the next diary entry for that day Next : Retrieves the previous diary entry for that day Delete : Removes the entry from the diary Clear : Clears the gadget values Change : Applies the changes to the entry Done : Finish, ie. close the edit entry window HOTKEYS ------- The letters that are underlined in the program gadgets indicate the keys that can activate the gadget by pressing along with CONTROL. (not SHIFT as was wrongly stated in earlier docs!) If you have any suggestions, bug reports, etc. please send them to :- Andrew Pearson 216 Deeside Gardens, Aberdeen AB1 7PS Scotland OR: email akp@uk.ac.ed.dcs