Version 1.3 - minor bug fix
Version 1.0 - Initial release
Version 1.1 - Added automatic update of today indicator
in calendar at turn of midnight.
Version 1.2 - Added update of month & year gadgets at
turn of midnight. Doh!
Version 1.3 - Fixed bug in GMT display which caused
values like 24:10 etc. to display in some
time zones.
Note: There is a bug in Blitz Basic's date handling, it
insists that January 1st 2001 is in fact December 32nd
2000! This means ClockCal will not show the correct date
on that day. On January 2nd everything works normally
again. I have included a reminder of this in the
eventlist in this archive.
1. INTRODUCTION
ClockCal opens a window on your WB containing up to four
analogue clock faces which can be configured to show the
current time in different world locations, with or
without Daylight Saving Time in force, plus a calendar
for the current (or any other) month. Gadgets exist to
toggle the display between just the clocks, just the
calendar or both. Events may be noted for particular
dates and those days will be highlighted in the calendar.
The window sizing takes account of the title bar height
so should work irrespective of your system font, and safe
guards exist to prevent the window failing to open
because part of it is off screen etc. (since the window
changes size depending on how many clocks you have active
and whether the calendar is on).
I wrote this programme for my own use and do not
anticipate further development. It is Freeware. If you
find it useful complements are always welcome!
2. INSTALLATION
None required. Copy the directory wherever you want it.
3. USAGE
Double click the ClockCal icon. The window will open in
the same state as last time you closed it, in the same
position on the screen.
3.1 CONFIGURING THE CLOCKS
The Clocks.. gadget opens a new window containing a set
of gadgets for each of the four possible clocks. It is
essential that Clock 1 is set to show your local (system)
time, but with the correct time zone difference and DST
setting, as this clock is used to calculate GMT, which in
turn is used to calculate all the other clocks. Clock 1
need not be on, but it must be set right. Clocks with a
tick in the ON checkbox will be displayed in the window.
When the DST checkbox is ticked the clock will have the
DST value (usually 1 hour) added to it. Note the timezone
is set using a GMT +/- cycle gadget and a number of hours
and minutes - do not put a sign in the time difference
box.
Close the window for the new settings to take effect.
3.2 USING THE CALENDAR
The month displayed by the calendar always starts off as
the current month. The cycle gadget enables you to view
different months (remember that the Shift key makes this
cycle backwards!). Going from December to January or
January to December will also change the year, but any
year may be viewed by typing a different year in to the
year gadget. The two tiny buttons beside the year gadget
provide a convenient way of shifting the year up or down
by one. Note that events will not be highlighted for
years before 1978. I do not believe the calendar is
reliable for extreme dates but should be OK for the next
40 years or so at least. (It shows 1900 and 2100 as leap
years - which they are not - although 2000 is, and that
is correctly displayed (The full rule for leap years is:
Years exactly divisible by 4 are leap years EXCEPT
centenary years, but in the case of millennial
centenaries like 1000 or 2000 they ARE leap years - I
think!)).
Clicking on a day will open the notes window, which lists
events noted for that date. Up to 20 one-line notes can
be entered for a given date. Use the mouse to highlight
any existing note or an empty line. The text for the note
can be entered in the text gadget. The "Annual" checkbox
should be ticked for events like birthdays which happen
every year, and left clear for events like appointments
which relate to a specific date. These two different
kinds of events are highlighted in different colours on
the calendar (appointments taking precedence over
birthdays where both occur on the same day). You may also
set a number of days in the "Warning" gadget, which will
put up a reminder when the programme is started. Use 0
for no reminder.
After setting these gadgets, use the SET button to set
the note. To delete a note, select it with the mouse and
press DELETE. In either case the changes will not be made
permanent until you exit the window with the OK gadget.
The CANCEL gadget will discard the changes.
The "Purge old events" checkbox causes old events to be
removed from the eventlist, but obviously those marked
"annual" will not be removed. Events are only removed
when new notes are set or deleted, but there is one
exception to this - when you check the purge checkbox for
the first time, or uncheck it and check it again, old
events will be deleted there and then. Thereafter they
will only be removed when some other change is made to
the eventlist. Note that the purge checkbox is NOT
associated with a particular date or a particular note.
The "List All" gadget lists the actual text file which
stores the events, using an external text viewer. The
default is C:More, but you may change this in the fconfig
file (see below).
The three slim buttons across the bottom of the window
have the following functions: the leftmost resets the
calendar to the current month and year. The middle one is
the "only show calendar" button, which will hide the
clocks. If the clocks are already hidden, however, they
will be restored by this button. Similarly the rightmost
button is the "only show clocks" gadget which will hide
or restore the calendar. If only the clocks or only the
calendar are visible, you can toggle between them by
pressing the appropriate button (if clocks are visible
the "only show calendar" button will switch to the
calendar, and then the "only show clocks" button will
take you back to the clocks).
4. OTHER CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
4.1 fconfig file
This is a simple text file which should be in the same
directory as the executable. You can use it to set the
fonts and colours used, and also the text viewer invoked
to list all events. You can also change the file names
and locations for the eventlist and prefs files. The file
that is included with the archive has all the possible
options set. Internal defaults exist in the executable
for any which are missing from this file or if this file
itself is missing.
See fconfig itself for more information.
The two fonts which can be set are for the gadget text
and the clock and calendar text. The latter (set in
fconfig as, say _8X8_FONT=p0t-noodle.font) must be a
fixed 8x8 font.
The colours are the first and last four from the WB
palette and should remain correct regardless of your
screen depth. Which are used for each part of the display
may be changed in fconfig (rather laboriously, I admit).
4.2 lconfig file
The lconfig file contains all the text strings used in
the programme. If it is not present then the internal
English defaults will be used, however, by changing the
strings in this file it is possible to localise the
programme for other languages. Care must be taken that
the strings are entered in the same fixed order, and that
they consist of approximately the same number of
characters. The strings for days and months must have
spaces (for the days) and | dividers (for the months) as
in the English version. See lconfig for more details.
5. TECHNICAL NOTES
Most of the time the programme sits idle, only checking
for input every quarter of a second. This means there may
be a slight delay when you first hit a gadget. As soon as
a gadget is hit however, the programme checks
continuously for input, until a full minute passes with
no user-action, when it goes back to its standby state.
6. OTHER INFO
Author: Mike Child mike@mikech.demon.co.uk
Tools used: Blitz Basic 2.1
Written on: A1200 Apollo060@66 32MB WB3.0
Thanks to the subscribers to BlitzList (blitz-
list@netsoc.ucd.ie) for solving some queries.
7. HISTORY
Version 1.0 - Initial release
Version 1.1 - Added automatic update of today indicator
in calendar at turn of midnight.
Version 1.2 - Added update of month & year gadgets at
turn of midnight. Doh!
Version 1.3 - Fixed bug in GMT display which caused
values like 24:10 etc. to display in some
time zones.
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