MemoPad and CheckMemo are products which may be freely distributed on the condition that they are not altered in any way, either by omission or addition to the contents of the ARC file. The author welcomes comments, suggestions for improvement, and any praise you may have for this product. He may be reached at the following address: Michael Griebling COMPUTER INSPIRATIONS 150 Clark Blvd., Suite One Brampton, ON, Canada, L6T 4Y8 (416) 792-6797 In order to reward anyone wishing to be registered for a nominal fee of $20, for a limited time, a free upgrade will be given to the commercial release of MemoPad. Suggested list price of the enhanced program is $45. The commercial release is expected near the end of 1988. FREE upgrades to the commercial version will be made available to any users who have registered before this release date. Commercial Release Version ========================== In order to better support users of MemoPad we will be producing a commercial version which may be known under a different name -- yet to be determined. Our working name has been MemoPad V2.0. Due to a significant number of changes we may be forced to change the name to better describe this new product. Following is a partial list of planned features : 1) An address book facility with an automatic telephone dialer will be added. 2) A daily appointment utility will be supported which allows appointments to be booked at selectable intervals. 3) The original MemoPad functions will also be available along with a facility to allow batch processing to be invoked via a dated and timed memo item. 4) A speech facility will be added to allow memo items or appointments to be announced. 5) More options will be added to give more flexibility in selecting screen colours, methods of repeating memos and appointments, and in reporting matured items. 6) Text import/export into/from the address book, appointments, or memo items will be supported. Note that although all these additions are planned to appear in the commercial release we cannot guarantee that they will operate exactly as described above. Whenever possible we will attempt to improve on our offerings and thus the list above may become obsolete. Please contact us at the above address or telephone number to get up to date information. Installing MemoPad & CheckMemo ============================== There should be a total of 7 files for this program set. As soon as you invoked `ClickMe', all the names (if they were de-arced) were auto-magically expanded out, so you won't have to go through the usual hassle of EXECUTING the Execute.Me file that is usual in these cases. Install MemoPad as follows from the Command Line Interpreter (CLI) : (Make certain there is enough disk space to hold the copied files. The MemoPad disk icon should be named `MemoPad:'. Substitute the name/directory of the disk which is to hold the MemoPad utility in place of the dummy "Working Disk" name). FROM CLI : Copy MemoPad:CheckMemo to C: Copy MemoPad:MemoPad#? to "Working Disk" Copy MemoPad:CheckMemo#? to "Working Disk" Copy MemoPad:ClickMe#? to "Working Disk" Copy S:Startup-Sequence to S:Startup-Old Finally, in order to automatically invoke `CheckMemo' when the AMIGA is powered on, invoke your favourite editor to modify the following file : S:Startup-Sequence. Place the line `CheckMemo', without the quotes, near the end of this file, just before the line containing `EndCLI > Nil:'. Note: you can also manually check the memo items at any time simply by typing `CheckMemo' from CLI or by clicking on the CheckMemo icon. If nothing happens except a disk access when you invoke CheckMemo, don't worry -- it just means that no memo items were found for today's date. The MemoPad utility, which creates the memo items read by CheckMemo, was placed on your working disk as part of the installation. It is also possible to just drag the MemoPad icon over to your working disk. MemoPad Operation ================= MemoPad is a WorkBench utility which runs in a separate window on the WorkBench screen. It is capable of allowing you to generate memo items which are simply dated reminders of appointments, birthdays, holidays, or any to do list. Each memo item can be any length, limited only by the amount of memory or disk space where the memos are stored. When MemoPad is first invoked, it searches the S: startup directory for a file called MEMOPAD.DAT. This file contains all the memo items which have been entered by yourself. Naturally, the first time it is invoked, MemoPad won't find this file and will attempt to create one. At this time, you may get a message indicating that the WorkBench disk is required or that you should unprotect the write tab. During start-up, one other file is accessed : MEMOPAD.CUS. This file contains user customization information which allows you to customize the MemoPad operation to your individual preferences via the CUSTOMIZE menu selection in MemoPad. If this file is not found, MemoPad makes some assumptions and gives you a 24-hour clock, a day-month-year date, and a plain MemoPad title. Naturally, you can customize all these parameters and the next time MemoPad is invoked, all your selections will be used. By the way, the same selections will also be used by CheckMemo. Changing the Data File Directory ================================ We felt that everyone would have WorkBench in their drive during startup, so this is where MemoPad normally assumes it will find your memo items. If you don't like these files on your WorkBench disk, then it is possible to change the directory where MemoPad will look. device to some other disk. MemoPad and CheckMemo both accept an optional parameter on the command line which is the directory which they will use in place of the default S: directory. To change from the default simply edit the S:Startup-Sequence file again, replacing the `CheckMemo' line with `CheckMemo DIRECTORY', where DIRECTORY is replaced by a directory or device string. As an example, if we wish the MemoPad files to be placed on our working disk, WORK:, and in the MemoFiles directory, we would enter `CheckMemo WORK:MemoFiles' into the S:Startup-Sequence file. Whenever invoking MemoPad, you will also have to remember to specify the new directory in the CLI invocation line, so for our example, we would type : `MemoPad WORK:MemoFiles'. If invoking MemoPad and/or CheckMemo from the WorkBench, simply edit the INFO file from the corresponding WorkBench menu, after having selected either the MemoPad or the CheckMemo icon, and place the desired new directory specification as the first item in the `Tool Types' string gadget. Thus our example from above would require that the default tool type entry of `MEMODIR=S:' be changed to read the following instead : `MEMODIR=WORK:MemoFiles'. Don't include the quotes. Be sure to do this for both the MemoPad and CheckMemo icons. Operating Instructions ====================== Creating a Memo Item -------------------- Click on the ENTER button to create a memo item. The total number of memos should increase by one and the newly created item will be automatically assigned today's date. The comment field will be blank. To enter some text, just point to the line where the text is to be placed and click with the left mouse button. Then type the memo text. A RETURN will automatically take you to the next line of the comments. Comments longer than five lines can be created by clicking on the down arrow under the comment scroll bar. The scroll bar will reduce to half its original size. The text which is displayed represents those five memo lines located in the scroll bar range. Thus, if we created a new page of comments, we now have a total of ten comment lines available for this memo item. The scroll bar's position illustrates where we are within this ten line range. By clicking on the down arrow repeatedly, additional comment pages in multiples of five lines are created. New pages are created as soon as the scroll bar reaches the bottom of its container and the down arrow is clicked. The only limitation to the comment size is the amount of memory available. A help message will let you know when you run out of memory. The up and down arrows work in cooperation with the scroll bar to advance the comment window up or down by a single line of text. Click on the up arrow to move up a line and click on the down arrow to move down a line. Pages of five lines are traversed by clicking just within the scrolling container either under the scroll bar to move down five lines or above the scroll bar to move up by five lines. A trailing blank page of comment lines is automatically deleted once it is no longer visible. The scroll bar also changes its size and position to reflect the reduced number of comment lines. Blank page deletion occurs either when the scroll bar is dragged to the top of the scroll container or repeated clicks on the up arrow cause the blank page to scroll off the comment area. Viewing Memo Items ------------------ The date window, which normally is used to set a memo item's date, can also be used to display all the memo items for a given month. Just click on the VIEW button and all memo items for the current month will be highlighted in the date window. Any dates with more than one item will be outlined. To see the contents of one of these memo items, just click on the highlighted date. The related memo item will be displayed in the main window. (You may have to move or QUIT the date window in order to see the full memo text.) Multiple memos on a single date are displayed in a similar manner. Once the first memo item has been shown, the MORE button in the date window will light up to indicate that additional items are available. Click on the MORE button to see these memos one at a time. Printing Memo Items ------------------- The Print menu options give printer output from all the memo items or just the memo currently being displayed. By displaying only selected items, then invoking the single memo print option from the menu, it is possible to selectively print only those memos due for a single day. The amount of space on the left of the printed memo items can be altered by adjusting the printer left margin from within Preferences. Make certain that the right margin is adjusted so that sufficient space is available on the print line to contain a full line of comment text. Repeating Memo Items -------------------- MemoPad lets you specify repeated memo items which occur fairly regularly on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis for a fixed length of time. To generate such a memo item, first you'll have to enable repeats by selecting one of the repeat choices in the REPEAT MEMO menu list. By default, repeats will be disabled as is shown by the checkmark in front of the "No Repeat" menu item. Choose one of the repeat options and use the NEXT or PREV buttons to get to the memo you wish to have repeated. Click on the DATE button, and use the Date Window controls to get to the starting date to be repeated. Click on the desired date. All repeated dates will now also be selected. Use the Date Window controls to check them if you don't believe it could be that easy. Click on the OK button to close the Date Window and accept the chosen date; otherwise, just click on the QUIT button to keep whatever date was originally on your memo item. Finding a Dated Item -------------------- The FIND button and the related menu item will let you find one memo out of the list of memo items which you have defined. Click on this button, use the Date Window controls to maneuver to the desired date, and click on the date to be found. Click on the OK button and the first memo item with this date will be located and displayed. This date search may be cancelled by clicking on the QUIT button. If the date is not found, a message indicating this will be displayed in the Help Window. A trick, which may be used to find any memo item in a given month might be to select the daily repeat for a month before clicking on the Date button. Any date which is selected will now cause a search throughout the entire repeat range for any matching memo item dates. Help Window ----------- The Help Window is a context sensitive help feature which displays help messages as various buttons and/or menu selections are made. It is located in the top rightmost portion of the MemoPad window. Automatic Memo Item Backup -------------------------- There is never any need to worry whether or not all your memo items have been saved to disk! MemoPad will automatically update the disk file, as soon as it notices that some memo item has been changed. Even if some other program should cause the AMIGA to crash in a shower of fireworks, you'll be secure in the knowledge that your memo items are safe. About the Modula-2 Source ========================= We, as a company, provide the source code for MemoPad and CheckMemo primarily to give interested individuals the tools for programming the Amiga using the Intuition-based interface in Modula-2. Included in the source are many examples of gadget-based control, menu initialization and use, window creation and manipulation, and requester window use. Although bits and pieces of what we do are available in other programs, we feel that having an example which unites all the working principles required to produce a full program is beneficial to novice AMIGA programmers. Our primary aim, of course, was to produce a program from which others could see how to work within an Intuition-based environment using Modula-2; and in this respect, we feel that we have succeeded. Acknowledgements ================ As always, there are a bunch of people behind the scenes who must be thanked for their contributions, either direct or indirect, to a program such as this. Firstly, thanks to TDI for their Modula-2 compiler, which may not be fastest or the best, but it certainly was the first. Secondly, thanks to all the people who have contributed public-domain programs to demonstrate Modula-2 concepts and give others source code examples upon which to build. In particular, thanks to Richie Bielak for his FastTextIO routines, used in this previewer and thanks also go to Jerry Mack for his TextTools module used in MemoPad. We also appreciate the artistic talents of Anna Lise Scheel, Colour Consultant, for her work on MemoPad. Thanks also to all the Beta test sites (you know who you are) for their assistance and helpful comments. Thanks also to the people who brought us PowerWindows which was used as a starting point for the design of windows, gadgets, menus, and requesters used in both MemoPad and CheckMemo. Although, the Modula-2 extensions to this program are VERY buggy and have been given inadequate thought, the tool has been useful. Finally, thanks to the makers of the Amiga -- without whom none of this would have been possible. Bug Fixes ========= Much as we hate to admit it, a few bugs crept into the V1.0 release of MemoPad and CheckMemo. Thanks to the people who pointed out the bugs (people tend to do that). All known bugs as listed below have been exterminated : Bug 1.0-1 The programs stomped over memory location 00000000 while starting up and initializing the Date window. Although this bug didn't usually cause the programs to crash, sometimes, if another program depended on something in memory location 00000000, a crash could occur. As a matter of fact, if both MemoPad and CheckMemo were running together (yes, they can do that too), closing down one would cause the other one to crash the Amiga. In our defense, the bug was traced to a pointer to a pointer which the current V3.0a TDI Modula-2 compiler doesn't seem to handle very well. PowerWindows forced us to use the awkward pointer to a pointer syntax (they must be `C' programmers!), hence our memory stomping. Bug 1.0-2 To our shock, we discovered that the DOS date was in error by one day (at least during this leap year). It worked fine last year. ;-) A new algorithm is now being used. To date no bugs have been reported for MemoPad V1.1. Please let us know if you find any in this V1.2 release. About Computer Inspirations =========================== Although COMPUTER INSPIRATIONS is fairly new to the AMIGA and other personal computers, we have gained considerable experience in software and hardware development from work in the aerospace industry and from a university environment. We are committed to bringing quality products to AMIGA owners at affordable prices. We will make certain that all our products reflect this attention to detail and we will respond promptly to any customer problems or concerns. Michael Griebling, President, COMPUTER INSPIRATIONS