@Database StartupDate guide file @wordwrap $Ver:Version 1.0 This file ©1997 Jonathan Combe. Please do not modify this guide file! @node main "Welcome to StartupDate" @{b} StartupDate Version 1.0 @{ub} @{b} ----------------------- @{ub} Please note : This guide file is best viewed with V39+ of Amigaguide.library. This allows @{B}Bold@{ub} and other styles. @{" Copyright " link "Copyright"} @{" Disclaimer " link "Disclaimer"} Please read this! @{" Distribution " link "Distribution"} @{" Introduction " link "Introduction"} @{" System Requirements " link "System Requirements"} @{" Installation " link "Installation"} @{" Useage " link "Useage"} @{" Bug Report "link "Bug Report"} @{" AmigaGuide® Compatibility " link "compat"} @{" 1.3 Users " link "1.3 Users"} @{" Contact Details " link "Contact Address"} @{" History " link "History"} @{" Future " link "Future"} @endnode @node Copyright "Copyright" @{b}Copyright@{ub} @{b}---------@{ub} This guide file, the supplied document file, the Installer script, the readme file and the supplied executable file are all Copyright ©1997 Jonathan Combe. This program is released as @{b}@{i}Freeware@{ub}@{ui}. That means it is freely distributable as long as you do not change anything in any of the supplied files and that you follow the rules in @{"Distribution" link "Distribution"}. Payment is not necessary and this is the fully working version. @endnode @node Disclaimer "Disclaimer" @{B} This software and information is provided "as is". No warranties are made either expressed or implied with respect to the accuracy, reliability, performance, currentness, or operation of this software and information and all useage is @{i}at your own risk@{ui}. The author does not assume any responsibility or liability whatsoever with respect to your use of this software and information.@{ub} Basically if this software goes wrong and does anything bad then I cannot be held responsible. Not that anything bad should happen. If you have found a serious bug then please let me know. @endnode @node Distribution "Distribution" @{b}Distribution@{ub} @{b}------------@{ub} This program and supplied files can be freely distributed. Provided the following conditions are met Magazines can include this program on their coverdisks @{i}without@{ui} my written permission, although I would appreciate it if they could send me a copy of the magazine. CD-ROM developers such as Fred Fish and the Aminet have my permission to include this file on their CD's Public Domain Libraries : You are free to include this program in your software library provided that you charge no more than a reasonable fee for copying and distribution. Users : Please feel free to copy this program and give it to your friends etc. @endnode @node Introduction "Introduction" @{b}Introduction@{ub} @{B}------------@{ub} This program was written because I became fed up with my files not having the correct date and time on them. My Amiga 1200 does not have a battery backed clock so I decided to write this program. It enables you to set the date and the time on startup. This is done using this program and the AmigaDos® Date command. Although this task could be done with scripts, StartupDate is faster and more reliable. The idea for this feature came from MS-DOS® which automatically requests the date and time if there is no clock present. I hope you like this program! @endnode @node "System Requirements" "System Requirements" @{b}System Requirements@{ub} @{b}-------------------@{ub} This program requires no special version of the operating system. It works on Floppy Disk or Hard Disk. The following files are needed in your path :- Date StartupDate If you wish to use the supplied Installer® script then you will need installer. Any version should work. For more information see @{"Installation" link "Installation"}. @endnode @node Installation "Installation" @{B}Installation@{ub} @{B}------------@{ub} Please use the installation script provided. It requires the installer program from Commodore or Amiga Technologies / Escom. If you get the message @{i}Unable to open your tool 'Installer'@{ui} then you will need to find the installer package. You will probably already have this on your system. Check on your original Operating System disks as well as any application software disks you have. It is usually stored in the C or Utilities directory of your disks. These may not have icons, so remember to Use @{I}Show... All Files@{ui} from the Window menu on your Workbench (Workbench 2.0+ Only). Copy this to your C directory or simply change the default tool of the install icon to point to the location of @{i}Installer@{ui}. See your Workbench manual for information on Default Tools. You should select a mode appropriate to your Amiga knowledge. Novice user is completely automatic and will create an install log file. Amateur allows you to select operations regarding log files and installing for real or pretending to install. After that installation is again automatic. If you select expert you must confirm at every stage of the installation procedure. You @{B}MUST@{ub} however select to install the main executable @{I}StartupDate @{ui}or the program will not work. The script does modify your User-Startup sequence file (which it creates if you do not have one) so bare this in mind if you ever want to remove StartupDate. Should the installation procedure fail at any time check that you have inserted the right disk, that the disk is not damaged in any way and that there is enough room free on the disk. (StartupDate requires about 1.5K of disk space). If problems persist then you will have to install manually. The instructions for doing this are below:- @{B}Manual Installation Instructions@{ub} 1. Copy the StartupDate program to the C directory of your boot disk. 2. Add the following line to your user-startup file in the S directory of your boot disk. :- StartupDate 3. Make sure the date command is in your path. (To see your current path type @{I}path@{UI} and press return at the Shell.) @endnode @node Useage "Useage" @{B}Useage@{UB} @{B}------@{UB} The program should be fairly self explanatory, however you should first be prompted to enter the date. This is in the form of the AmigaDOS® Date command. For example 15-Aug-97. The day must be numerical (A zero is not necessary before the number if it is single digit). Then the month, which uses the first three letters of the month, E.G. Jan, Feb, Mar etc. Case is not important. The year is just the last two numbers of the current year. The dashes between the numbers and months are necessary. Use the minus key (right of the 0 on the main keyboard). Press return to enter the date. Next you will be asked to enter the time. Enter the hour (in 24 hour notation) then a colon (:) and then the minute. You can also optionally enter the second, although don't forget that there will be a short delay between you entering the time and this actually being set, especially if you are running from floppy disk. Again a colon should be used. @{B}WARNING :@{ub} This program does not contain any error checking. All the error checking is done by AmigaDos, therefore if an error occurs the date command will inform you and not @{i}StartupDate@{ui}. So if an error occurs an error message will be displayed and you will have to set the date manually after booting is complete. If errors persist then check you are using the correct syntax. If you still have problems then it may be a bug in this program. If this is the case then please contact me. @endnode @node "Bug Report" "Bug Report" @{B}Bugs@{ub} @{B}----@{ub} Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure this software is bug free, there may still be some bugs in the code. If you find anything happening which you do not think is supposed to then I would like to know about it, so I can try to fix it! Please make sure that if you are reporting bugs, that you have the program installed correctly and that you have read all the supplied documentation. If the error still occurs then please e-mail me with all the details below. Thank you. This program has been tested under Workbench 3.0 and Workbench 1.3. Machine :- [ ] Amiga 500 [ ] Amiga 500+ [ ] Amiga 600 [ ] Amiga 1000 [ ] Amiga 1200 [ ] Amiga 1500 [ ] Amiga A2000 [ ] Amiga B2000 [ ] Amiga 3000 [ ] Amiga 4000/030 [ ] Amiga 4000/040 [ ] CDTV [ ] CD32 / SX1 [ ] CD32 Pro Module [ ] SX32 [ ] Amiga 1200 (Manufactured by Escom.) [ ] Amiga 3000T [ ] Amiga 4000T/040 [ ] Amiga 4000T/060 [ ] Other (Please state) _____________________________________________ Operating System (Kickstart / Workbench):- [ ] 1.0 [ ] 1.1 [ ] 1.2 [ ] 1.3 [ ] 2.0 [ ] 2.04 [ ] 2.05 [ ] 2.1 [ ] 3.0 [ ] 3.1 [ ] Other (Please state) _____________________________________________ Processor :- [ ] 68000 [ ] 68010 [ ] 68020 EC [ ] 68020 [ ] 68030 [ ] 68030 EC [ ] 68040 [ ] 68060 [ ] Other (Please state) ______________________________________________ If above processor was added as an expansion board / accelerator please state name of board and manufacturer : ____________________________________________________________________________ FPU :- [ ] 68881 (Please select type of FPU and the name of the chip) [ ] 68882 [ ] PGA [ ] PLCC RAM :- Chip : [ ] 512K [ ] 1MB [ ] 1.5MB [ ] 2MB [ ] Other amount (state) _______ Fast : [ ] 1MB [ ] 2MB [ ] 4MB [ ] 8MB [ ] 16MB [ ] Other amount __________ Storage :- (You may tick more than one) [ ] Internal floppy disk [ ] External floppy drive : Maker _________ ID df__: [ ] Hard Disk Size : ___ Maker _________ [ ] IDE [ ] SCSI [ ] Zip Drive [ ] CD-ROM [ ] Single speed [ ] Double speed [ ] Quad Speed [ ] Other ____ [ ] Syquest : Size ________ [ ] Jaz [ ] Floptical [ ] CD-ROM Writer Expansion Cards :- Please enter as much detail as possible : __________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Problem : (detail please) __________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ (Use more paper if needed) What you did to get it ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ (Use more paper if needed) Any other information : ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Please e-mail this form to the @{"author" link "Contact Address"}. @endnode @node "Contact Address" "Contact Details" @{B}Contact Details@{ub} @{B}---------------@{ub} Please only contact me if you are suggesting improvements or reporting bugs. I will currently only accept correspondence by e-mail. E-Mail : J.G.Combe@exeter.ac.uk Please note that this is a University e-mail address, therfore I only have access to it during term time. If you send me an e-mail outside term time then I cannot reply. This address will be valid until July 2000. @endnode @node compat "AmigaGuide® Compatibility" @{B}AmigaGuide® Compatibility@{ub} @{B}-------------------------@{ub} As stated on the contents page you may see some strange codes. These are special formatting code to allow @{b}bold@{ub} @{i}italic@{ui} etc. These codes are supported by version 39 (OS 3.0) of the AmigaGuide.library. Any earlier versions @{i}should@{ui} just leave out these codes, however with the amount of viewers around I cannot be sure of this. Other earlier versions may support these codes but I have not yet found any earlier version or program which does. Secondly some versions of AmigaGuide do not support the Word Wrap function used in this guide. This will mean the paragraphs will appear as very long single lines. I have written the guide in this way, so it is still easy to read with different sized windows, resoloutions, fonts etc. However in a small minority of cases this problem occurs. If this is a problem to you then use the supplied ASCII text file, which contains all the information in this file. If you feel it necessary then try loading this file into a WordProcessor, change the margins to a more readable size, and save it out as ASCII again. This may solve your problem. Also sometimes letters are missed off and replaced with a space at the start of the next line. This may be visible to you on the third line of the first paragraph on this page. This is not my fault and is a bug with AmigaGuide. @endnode @node "1.3 Users" "1.3 Users" @{B}1.3 Users@{ub} @{b}---------@{ub} @{i}StartupDate@{ui} will work on your system. However installation can be harder than on newer systems. All versions of the Amiga installer up to and including 1.24 will work on your machine. However the updated Installer by Amiga Technologies / Escom will not. This version is called 43.3. The file @{i}user-startup@{ui} is not a standard part of Workbench 1.3 and was introduced in Workbench 2.0. The StartupII file is similar to the user-startup file. However the install script for @{i}StartupDate@{ui} was written with 2.0+ users in mind. Therefore it expects a user-startup file to be present. You will be prompted by the installer that some lines need to be added to your startup-sequence. These are the files to load the user-startup file the installer creates. The default location should be fine, but if you are in doubt then you should check the detailed help file for this section. The user-startup file will now be created. This should cause no problems and should work fine, but you should note that this is not the standard way of working under version 1.3 @endnode @node "History" "History Of StartupDate" @{b}History@{ub} @{b}-------@{ub} Version 1.0ß Written in Blitz Basic 2.1 and relied too much on scripts and external commands. Was never released. Version 1.0 First public release. Now completely re-written using Amiga E which produces fast, small code. Now uses the dos.library Execute command to set the date using the Date command. @endnode @node "Future" "The Future of StartupDate" @{b}Future@{ub} @{b}------@{ub} I plan to add new features as and when users request them. As more users get accelerator cards then this program becomes less neccessary, however whilst there is still demand for this program I will try to update it. @endnode