QuoteGiver v1.02 by Omar Siddique
                           for the Amiga computer
                              August 25, 1994


WHAT IS QUOTEGIVER AND WHAT GOOD IS IT?

   QuoteGiver is a fortune cookie program.  That is, it randomly selects a
quote from a list and displays it.  There are other, similar, programs
already available for the Amiga, but I think this one is a nice implementation
of the idea.  I use it myself.  :-)  Besides, I needed the programming
experience.

   QuoteGiver includes a sampling of my favorite quotes that I've collected
over time -- 225 of them.


HOW TO USE QUOTEGIVER

  QuoteGiver is simple to use.  Simply type:

QuoteGiver <pathname>

with the pathname being the directory where your .quoteslist is located.
If no pathname is provided, QuoteGiver will check the current directory and 
then the s: directory.

   It works well to include QuoteGiver in your shell-startup file.


HOW TO ADD QUOTES TO THE LIST

   Adding quotes is simplicity itself.  Simply fire up your favorite text 
editor and edit .quoteslist.  The three things to keep in mind are:

1)  The quotation (and attribution if any) MUST be enclosed in quotation marks.
    If you need to quote something inside the quotation, use single quotes.

2)  The quotation being added MUST be preceded by a number and period.  The
    number has to be one more than the previous quote.  So, if the last quote 
    was number 225, the next quote should look like this:

    226. "This is my quotation"

3)  The first line at the beginning of the .quoteslist file MUST be
    NUMQUOTES=x (all caps, no spaces), with x being the actual number of quotes
    in the list.  The NUMQUOTES figure should correspond to the last quote
    number, if all is well.

And that's all!  QuoteGiver will then use your new quotes.  Make sure you
update the NUMQUOTES figure, or QuoteGiver won't know you've added new ones.


COMPATIBILITY, BUGS, AND LIMITATIONS

   QuoteGiver was tested on an Amiga 3000/25 with 5 megs of RAM, KS 2.04, 
and Workbench 2.1.  It should run without any problems on any Amiga.

   There are no known bugs.  The only possible problem that may arise is if
QuoteGiver is called twice within one second, it will produce the same quote
twice.  This is the result of using the number of seconds past the minute
(among other things) to generate the random seed.

   The only limitation is that a quote may not be any longer than 2000
characters.  Since a quote this size would scroll off the screen on a
80 characters by 24 lines display, I'm assuming this is sufficient
for most people.  If you find this to be a problem, please let me know.


CONTACTING THE AUTHOR

   Feel free to send any comments, question, complaints, flames, bug-reports,
requests, your favorite quotes, and whatever else to me at:

   Internet: osiddi1@umbc.edu
             o.siddique2@genie.geis.com
      GEnie: O.Siddique2

Or if you prefer to use slower means (or wish to send presents, money, 
a new SGI Indy, etc):

 Snail Mail: Omar Siddique
             P.O. Box 451
             Perry Hall, MD  21128


DISTRIBUTION AND DISCLAIMER

   QuoteGiver is freely distributable.  However, it must be distributed in
its intact, original archive, which includes this document, the executable,
and the .quoteslist file.

   While QuoteGiver has proven stable and problem free, the standard disclaimer
applies; this program should work just fine, be harmless entertainment, and so
forth, but if it causes your computer to achieve sentience and take over the
world, or you get jailed for bombing somebody after reading the "There are few
personal problems that can't be solved by a suitable application of high
explosives", the author is not responsible or liable for any damage or claims
that result. :-)


OTHER FINE WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

   QuoteGiver for UNIX.

   Quoter, a utility to, at a set interval (or immediately), change the
   quote in your UNIX .signature file.


VERSION NOTES

1.00     Initial Release

1.01     Increased maximum quote size to 2000 chars -- this should be
         more than enough for our purposes.
         
         Fixed a minor bug which could cause an infinite loop if the user had
         for some reason deleted a number quote that was within the range
         of NUMQUESTS without replacing it, and QuoteGiver tried to access
         that quote.

         Minor source and documentation revisions.

1.02     Slight improvement to random quote selector.
         Fixed a potential bug if the path to .quoteslist exceeded 120 chars.
         Added a slightly lengthier .quoteslist to the standard distribution
         (with 20 additional quotes).