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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #1259)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5170"]
Waiting for machine "ibm5170" to load....
Information about “PAL”
PAL is a handy scheduling tool, as well as a to-do list generator. PAL
shows you sorted lists of upcoming appointments to help you use your
time more efficiently and remember vital appointments.
PAL maintains a to-do list which prods you if you fail to do something
after a specified date. You can set a virtually infinite number of
alarms. PAL automatically repeats appointments and deletes old
appointments. Secular and religious holidays are automatically
displayed. You can also display calendars for any month in the 20th or
21st century.
Help is on-line from any place in the program. PAL can also interface
with SIDEKICK appointment files.
FILE1259.TXT
Disk No: 1259
Program Title: PAL version 2.0
PC-SIG version: 1
PAL is a handy scheduling tool as well as a to-do list generator.
PAL shows you sorted lists of upcoming appointments to help you use your
time more efficiently and remember vital appointments.
PAL maintains a to-do list which prods you if you fail to do something
after a specified date. You can set a virtually infinite number of
alarms. PAL automatically repeats appointments and deletes old
appointments. Secular and religious holidays are automatically
displayed. You can also display calendars for any month in the 20th or
21st century.
Help is on-line from any place in the program. PAL can also interface
with SideKick appointment files.
Usage: Business.
Special Requirements: A hard disk.
How to Start: Type GO (press enter).
Suggested Registration: $49.95
File Descriptions:
PALREAD ME Small text file.
PALINST EXE Installation program.
PAL2A ARC Archived file.
PAL2B ARC Archived file.
PAL2C ARC Archived file.
PC-SIG
1030D E Duane Avenue
Sunnyvale Ca. 94086
(408) 730-9291
(c) Copyright 1989 PC-SIG, Inc.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< Disk No 1259 PAL version 2.0 >>>> ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ To install the program to your hard disk, type PALINST (press enter) ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
PAL.DOC
PAL
The Personal Appointment Locator
Version 2.0
______ ______ _
| __ | | __ | | |
| |__| | | |__| | | |
| ____| | __ | | |
| | | | | | | |___
|_| |_| |_| |_____|
Copyright (c) 1988 by PAL Software NY, Inc.
All rights reserved
PAL Software NY, Inc.
51 Cedar Lane
Ossining, New York 10562
Voice: (914) 762-5322
BBS: (914) 762-8055
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
PAL and PALARM are trademarks of PAL Software NY, Inc.
SideKick is a trademark of Borland International
Preface
PAL is the Personal Appointment Locator that radically
improves your ability to manage your time. It is distributed
both commercially and as shareware.
(i) The Shareware Distribution Concept
The term "shareware" refers to a distribution method
through computer user groups, bulletin boards, friend to
friend, and associate to associate. Shareware permits a
person to try the program before buying it. If you find the
program useful and intend to continue to use it, then you are
required to register and pay the commercial price. You will
then receive a copy of the commercial version. For informa-
tion on how to register, see chapter 17.
The shareware version of PAL is a completely functional
version, identical in all respects to the commercial version,
except that you cannot exit the shareware version without
being nudged to register the program and providing a yes/no
response to that nudge.
If you have registered your shareware version or have
received the commercial version directly, then, in the words
of the wine cooler salesmen, thank you for your support.
Please understand that only the shareware version may be
freely distributed to others and that your commercial version
may not be further distributed by you without violating your
license to use the product.
Persons who would like to receive the try-before-you-buy
benefit of the shareware version may receive the most current
shareware distribution disk directly from PAL Software NY,
Inc. by printing out the order form which can be generated by
PAL from the "registration" section of the online help
facility.
The author is a member of (in fact, he drafted the
bylaws for) the Association of Shareware Professionals, an
organization dedicated to the advancement of the concept of
shareware.
(ii) The History of PAL
PAL is the brainchild and beloved work of a single
programmer, a lawyer by day. Law office work being what it
is, the author wanted to harness the power of the computer to
assist him in more efficiently managing his time.
i
SideKick seemed like a good starting point, since it
allows the entry of appointments quickly, even while the user
is busy working within another application. But, oh, to try
and get the information back out of SideKick in an efficient
and useful manner! Gordon Liddy gives information more
freely.
So, PAL was born in the spring of 1985 as a simple
program that would read the SideKick appointment file, sort
it, and display upcoming appointments starting with the
present system date and continuing through a number of days
that the user chose when invoking the program.
The programmer was pleased enough with that first
version 1.0 that he placed it on a few computer bulletin
boards for dissemination, under the philosophy of paying back
to the computer public what the author had received in the
past from downloading other useful programs. The response
was fantastic! Following the show of support and encourage-
ment, the author listened to the needs and desires of his
users (as well as some of his own needs and desires). The
result to date is PAL version 2.0.
(iii) What PAL Can Do For You
In addition to the ability to show a sorted report of
your upcoming appointments, PAL can, among other things:
* search for a particular appointment,
* maintain a to-do list which will tickle you if you
fail to do something after a specified date,
* set a virtually infinite number of alarms,
* run reports on multiple appointment files,
* automatically repeat appointments,
* delete old appointments,
* run with or without SideKick,
* provide online help,
* show common secular and religious holidays automa-
tically,
* allow you to customize the program for your own
needs and style of use,
ii
* show you a calendar for any month in the 20th or
21st century, and
* do much, much more....
(iv) The Future of PAL
If the release of this new version of PAL were held off
until all potential goodies were implemented, then you'd
never get a chance to see it. PAL is, and probably will
always be, a work in progress. On the drawing board for
future versions:
* Timed Events: Make an alarm cause your computer to
execute a batch file, run a program, or insert something into
your application as if you were there typing at the keyboard.
* Enhanced Multiple Appointment Files: Have PAL
read appointments from multiple SideKick appointment files,
one or more cloned versions of PAL, one or more clone image
files, and any combination of the foregoing.
* Pop-Up PAL: Edit the appointment scratchpad
while running within another application.
* SideKick Plus compatibility.
* Context sensitive help.
Registered users are entitled to notices of upgrades.
Upgrades within 6 months of payment for registration will be
made at a nominal cost; upgrades thereafter will be available
at a discount for registered users.
I have enjoyed creating PAL, and I very much hope that
you enjoy using it. If there is something that you would
like PAL to do that it does not presently do, then express
your desires. Through comments from users like you, PAL has
grown to what it is today.
Robert D. Tolz, President
PAL Software NY, Inc.
Ossining, New York
June, 1988
iii
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 PAL in hard disk systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 PAL in floppy disk systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 PALARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 Screen Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.6 Customizing PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7 PAL.COM and PALARM.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 3: SUMMARY OF OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 Menu Operation of PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Entering a Command Line From the Menu . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Command Line and Batch Operation of PAL . . . . . . 10
3.4 Menu or Command Line? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 4: ONLINE HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 5: REPORT MODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1 What Does a Report Show? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2 REPORT MODE Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.3 Date Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.4 Toggle Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.5 File Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.5.1 File Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.5.2 PAL's Appointment Scratchpad . . . . . . . . . 19
5.5.3 Overriding PAL's Assumptions . . . . . . . . . 19
5.6 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.7 Special Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 6: SEARCH MODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.1 SEARCH MODE Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.2 SEARCH MODE Optional Parameters . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.3 What SEARCH MODE does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 7: THE APPOINTMENT SCRATCHPAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.1 Getting There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.2 The Appointment Scratchpad Menu . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.3 The Appointment Scratchpad Screen . . . . . . . . . 26
7.4 "A"dding Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
7.4.1 Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.4.2 Setting Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.4.2.1 Once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.4.2.2 Daily, Weekdays and Weekends . . . . . . . 28
7.4.2.3 Weekly, First, Second, Third, Fourth,
Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
7.4.2.4 Biweekly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7.4.2.5 Monthly, Bimonthly, Quarterly . . . . . . 30
iv
7.4.2.6 Annual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7.4.3 Entering the Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.4.4 Choosing the Time Slot . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.4.5 Saving (or Erasing) Your Choices . . . . . . . 31
7.5 "D"eleting an Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.6 "E"diting an Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.7 "F"inding an Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.8 "N"ext Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.9 Removing "O"ld Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.10 "P"revious Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.11 "S"orting Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.12 "ESC"ape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 8: REMINDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 9: SK AUTO-REPEAT APPOINTMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9.1 Single Character Auto-Repeat . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9.2 Special Auto-Repeat Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . 39
9.2.1 Daily types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9.2.2 Weekly types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9.2.3 Monthly types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9.2.4 Annual type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9.3 Special Month Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
9.4 Limiting the Number of Times to Repeat . . . . . . . 42
9.5 Auto-Repeats Not Shown Within SideKick . . . . . . . 42
9.6 Auto-Repeats in Appointment Scratchpad . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 10: SK DELETE and PURGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
10.1 Out of Date Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
10.2 Deleting Auto-Repeat Appointments . . . . . . . . . 45
10.3 Putting Out the Garbage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
10.4 Avoiding a Conflict With SideKick . . . . . . . . . 46
10.5 How to Safely Update When SK is Loaded . . . . . . . 47
10.6 Multi-Tasking and Task-Switching Systems . . . . . . 48
10.7 Knowing When to Use PURGE or DELETE . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 11: MULTIPLE SK APPOINTMENT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . 50
11.1 SideKick's Deficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
11.2 PAL's Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
11.3 An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 12: ALARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
12.1 Auto-Repeat Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
12.2 PALARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
12.3 Two Ways to Set Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
12.4 Capacity for 10 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
12.5 How to Kill or Snooze a Sounding Alarm . . . . . . . 53
12.6 Controlling the Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
12.7 How to Write a Memo to Become an Alarm . . . . . . . 54
12.8 Advance Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
12.9 Run PAL to Automatically Update Alarms . . . . . . . 56
12.10 Editing Alarms Manually with PAL SET . . . . . . . . 56
v
12.11 Removing PALARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 13: CLONING NEW VERSIONS OF PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
13.1 The Clone Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
13.1.1 Appointment Scratchpad . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
13.1.2 File Location Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . 62
13.1.2.1 The Second Directory . . . . . . . . . . . 62
13.1.2.2 The Third Directory . . . . . . . . . . . 62
13.1.2.3 Appointment Calendar Name . . . . . . . . 62
13.1.2.4 Appointment Calendar Type . . . . . . . . 62
13.1.2.5 Report File Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
13.1.3 Holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
13.1.4 Miscellaneous Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
13.1.4.1 Default Command Line . . . . . . . . . . 65
13.1.4.2 Color Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
13.1.4.3 Reverse Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
13.1.4.4 Single Character Auto-Repeat . . . . . . . 66
13.1.4.5 Effect of PURGE and DELETE . . . . . . . . 66
13.1.4.6 Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.4.7 Extended Alarm Report . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.5 Printer Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.5.1 Initialization String . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.5.2 Exit String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.5.3 Lines Per Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.1.6 Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
13.1.7 <ESC> to quit without change . . . . . . . . . 68
13.1.8 The RESTORE Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
13.1.9 Saving and Reading CLONE Images . . . . . . . . . . 69
13.2 The PAL SET INSTALL Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . 71
13.2.1 Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
13.2.2 Sound Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
13.2.3 Snooze Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
13.2.4 Clock and Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
13.2.4.1 Clock Visibility on Start-Up . . . . . . . 73
13.2.4.2 Date Visibility on Start-Up . . . . . . . 73
13.2.4.3 Colors for Clock and Date . . . . . . . . 73
13.2.5 Cloning Your PALARM Changes . . . . . . . . . . 74
Chapter 14: TSR WARS, RAM CRAM AND MULTITASKING . . . . . . . . 75
14.1 TSR Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
14.2 Ram Cram and Multitasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
14.3 Hints on PALARM with Multitasking . . . . . . . . . 76
14.4 PALARM and Task-switching Programs . . . . . . . . 78
Chapter 15: SUPPORT AND UPGRADES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 16: LICENSE, WARRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS . . . . . . . . 80
16.1 Shareware License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
16.2 Commercial License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
16.3 Further Shareware Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . 80
16.4 Site Licenses and Dealer Pricing . . . . . . . . . . 81
vi
16.5 No Modifications Permitted . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
16.6 Limitations on Warranties and Remedies . . . . . . 82
Chapter 17: REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
17.1 Shareware Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
17.2 Commercial Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Postscript: SideKick Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
vii
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Please check your distribution files to see if you have
received a file called "PALREAD.ME". If so, this file
contains additional information or changes which do not
appear in this documentation. Use the DOS type command or
any other file listing utility to read the file.
PAL is distributed in three "archived" files:
PAL2A.ARC, PAL2B.ARC and PAL2C.ARC. The various files within
these archives can be extracted with PKXARC, a shareware
program distributed by PKWARE, Inc. If you have received a
shareware disk from us or registered or purchased PAL
commercially, then you will find a program called PALINST.EXE
on the floppy distribution disk. This program will extract
all the files from the three archives and place them into a
subdirectory of your choice within your DOS path.
You should have the following files:
PALREAD.ME If present, contains latest
information not included in
this documentation.
PAL.EXE PAL main program file
PAL.OVR PAL overlay file
PALARM.EXE PALARM program file
PALOFF.EXE Removes PALARM from memory
PALDEMO.BAT Demonstrate PAL
PALDICK.APP Data file for PALDEMO.BAT
PALJANE.APP Data file for PALDEMO.BAT
PAL.DOC This documentation
PAL is a utility which was initially designed especially
for IBM-PC and compatible owners who use SideKick. PAL
enhances SideKick's appointment calendar feature.
Beginning with this version of PAL, even if you do not
use SideKick, you will be able to use PAL by taking advantage
of PAL's own Appointment Scratchpad feature. The only major
feature which you would lose by not using SideKick would be
the loss of the ability to pop up over an application program
to enter an appointment. However, you can obtain the
equivalent of pop-up use by employing multi-tasking or task-
switching software such as Desqview or Carousel.
If you would like a quick demonstration of some of PAL's
1
features, then run the batch file PALDEMO.BAT.
PALARM is a resident alarm which is usable on IBM-PC's
and compatibles, regardless whether you use SideKick.
PAL provides online help, which is available to you by
choosing the help selection from PAL's opening menu, or you
can bypass the opening menu by typing "PAL HELP" at the DOS
system prompt.
Following is a quick overview of each of the chapters
contained in this manual.
Chapter 2 describes the installation of PAL and PALARM.
Chapter 3 summarizes the two methods of using PAL:
through menus or directly from the DOS system prompt.
Chapter 4 describes how you can get help within PAL.
Chapter 5 tells you how to get a report of your upcoming
appointments and your old reminders.
Chapter 6 shows you how to find a particular appoint-
ment.
Chapter 7 describes PAL's own internal Appointment
Scratchpad. It is this facility which allows PAL to stand
alone, even if you do not have SideKick.
Chapter 8 tells you how to get PAL to remind you to do
something.
Chapters 9, 10 and 11 are exclusively for SideKick
users. Chapter 9 shows how you can create auto-repeat
appointments within SideKick. Chapter 10 describes how to
get rid of old appointments in your SideKick file. Chapter
11 tells you how to combine multiple SideKick appointment
files so that PAL can do a side by side search.
Chapter 12 describes how to create alarms.
Chapter 13 tells you how to customize PAL and PALARM to
your own liking. In particular, section 13.1 focuses on
changes to PAL's operation, while section 13.2 focuses on
changes to PALARM's operation.
Chapter 14 contains a discussion of multitasking and
possible conflicts with other resident programs.
Chapter 15 describes support available to registered
users.
2
Chapter 16 contains your license to use PAL and PALARM
as well as other important limitations. Please read it
carefully.
Chapter 17 provides guidance on how to register.
3
Chapter 2: INSTALLATION
2.1 System Requirements
You must be running on an IBM-PC or compatible computer.
Some machines which are not 100% compatible and which include
their own screen displays may have some difficulty showing
PAL well. If you have such a problem, then see section 2.5
below for possible solutions.
You will find it convenient if you have a clock/calendar
within your system which sets the clock and date when you
turn on your computer. If you are uncertain whether your
machine sets the time and date automatically, either through
hardware or software, consult your manual or your installer.
PAL requires at least 138K bytes of free memory to
operate.
If you want to use the resident alarm feature, then
you'll need an additional 30K bytes to install PALARM.EXE.
PALARM must be loaded into memory for PAL's alarm feature to
work.
The term "free memory" means the amount of memory left
over after you have installed all drivers and resident
programs. You can determine the amount of free memory by
running the DOS program CHKDSK. CHKDSK will report "xxxxxx
bytes free", where xxxxxx stands for the actual number
reported. To convert that number to "K" bytes, just knock
off the last three digits on the right.
A hard disk is not required, but is strongly recom-
mended.
Expanded memory (memory above 640K which meets the LIM
specification) is not required. However, if you do have 164K
of expanded memory available, then PAL's overlay file will be
loaded into that region of your computer and accessed with
lightning speed.
2.2 PAL in hard disk systems
To use PAL in a hard disk system, copy the following
files to a single subdirectory which resides in your PATH (if
4
you aren't familiar with paths, check your DOS documenta-
tion):
PAL.EXE (the main program file)
PAL.OVR (the overlay file)
Invoke PAL by issuing the command "PAL" from the DOS
system prompt.
2.3 PAL in floppy disk systems
To use PAL in a floppy disk system, copy the main
program file and the overlay file mentioned above to a single
disk. If you use SideKick, then use the disk on which you
keep your SideKick appointment file. Make sure that the disk
containing PAL is in the current drive, or else that you have
set your DOS PATH to look in that drive. Invoke PAL by
issuing the command "PAL" from the DOS system prompt.
Operation from a floppy disk based system which does not
have expanded memory may seem slow as PAL accesses its
overlay file from time to time. Registered users may request
a special, non-overlaid version of PAL, at no extra cost.
The tradeoff in using the non-overlaid version is that it
requires much more free memory to operate: 265K as opposed to
138K.
2.4 PALARM
PALARM is the central switching station for your alarms.
It remains resident, waiting to be fed information from PAL
regarding the alarms you want to trigger. It then stands
watch over your system's clock and calendar until the
appointed time to alert you with your audible and visual
alarm.
To use PALARM, make sure that the file PALARM.EXE is in
your current drive and directory or in your DOS path. Then
simply type "PALARM" at the system prompt and hit the
carriage return. You will probably find it most convenient
to place the "PALARM" command within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
PALARM will then install itself and remain resident in
memory. You will not have any further need of "PALARM.EXE"
until the next time you boot.
If you are using SideKick, PALARM must be invoked prior
5
to the time that you invoke SideKick, so place the PALARM
command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file prior to the SK command.
When PALARM first loads itself into memory, it will
search your disk for the presence of a file containing alarm
information which it may have previously written. If PALARM
detects an alarm that was supposed to have been triggered at
an earlier time but wasn't (because your computer was shut
off or PALARM was not loaded at the appointed time), then
PALARM will sound that alarm a few seconds after it is
loaded. This is your assurance that you will be notified of
all alarms which were scheduled for a time when PALARM was
unable to alert you. Better late than never.
2.5 Screen Display
Persons with 100% compatible monochrome and color
monitors will ordinarily find PAL's screen display quite
comfortable.
However, persons with less than 100% compatible displays
which try to emulate the IBM color screen may have difficulty
reading what PAL writes. For instance, it is known that some
laptop computers which show colors as shades of gray inter-
pret some of PAL's color combinations very poorly.
Solutions:
1. The simplest solution is to have PAL write to
your screen in basic black and white.
To see quickly how your screen will look in basic
black and white, go to the directory in which the PALDICK.APP
file resides (this is a demo SideKick appointment file which
is used by PALDEMO.BAT) and issue the command "PAL 60C
PALDICK". If you find the display more readable, then you
should CLONE PAL to always show in black and white. See
section 13.1.4.2. Since the CLONE procedure itself may
display poorly on the screen, before attempting to CLONE,
issue the DOS command "MODE BW80" in order to turn off color
generally within your system. After you finish cloning, you
can restore color to your system with "MODE CO80".
2. Another possible solution to the screen
display problem is to use the facilities that may be provided
by your own computer manufacturer for dealing with such
problems. Many computers have the ability to emulate
monochrome monitors rather than color graphics adapters.
Others may permit you to choose from several palettes of
6
color combinations to avoid a difficult display. In any
case, you should explore your hardware manual to see what
options you have.
2.6 Customizing PAL
You may, if you like, customize PAL to your own specifi-
cations in many respects. See the sections on the CLONE
procedure (section 13.1) and on the SET installation function
(section 13.2) to understand the possibilities.
2.7 PAL.COM and PALARM.COM
Versions of PAL and PALARM prior to version 2.0 were
produced as "COM" files rather than the "EXE" files which
come with version 2.0. If you have used any earlier ver-
sions, then you may have the files "PAL.COM" and/or "PA-
LARM.COM" remaining on your hard disk. If so, this could
cause confusion, because DOS will always execute a COM file
before an EXE file of the same name. For this reason, you
should either delete the old COM files or move them to a
directory which is not within your DOS path.
7
Chapter 3: SUMMARY OF OPERATION
PAL may be run either through menus or directly from the
DOS system prompt.
3.1 Menu Operation of PAL
PAL is distributed so that if you invoke the program
without any additional command line parameters, it will
present you with a menu so that you may choose from its
various operations. PAL's main menu appears as follows:
1. Appointment Scratchpad
2. Clone New Defaults
3. Delete Old Appointments
4. Enter Command Line
5. Help
6. Purge Deadwood From Appointment File
7. Restore Original Distribution Defaults
8. Set Alarms
<ESC> to exit program
To select an operation on any menu, hit the alphabetic
key, function key or numeric key which corresponds with the
operation you desire to activate. No carriage return is
required.
Some of the foregoing choices on the main menu will lead
you to other menus. Just to give you an idea of the pathways
you can follow with PAL's menu system, here's a diagram
showing the menu structure:
MAIN MENU
______________________|__________________
| | | |
Appointment Clone Help Set
Scratchpad Menu Menu Menu
Menu | |
Appointment Alarms
Scratchpad Menu
Menu
For detailed information about the various choices, see:
1. For more information about the Appointment Scratch-
pad, see chapter 7.
8
2. For more information about cloning new defaults,
see chapter 13.
3. For more information about deleting old appoint-
ments, see chapter 10.
4. For more information about entering a command line,
see chapter 5 for REPORT MODE and chapter 6 for
SEARCH MODE.
5. For more information about online help, see chapter
4.
6. For more information about purging deadwood from
the appointment file, see chapter 10.
7. For more information about restoring original dis-
tribution defaults, see section 13.1.8.
8. For more information about setting alarms, see
chapter 12.
If you require online help, just choose the help
function. You will be presented with a number of topics to
choose from.
You may use the CLONE procedure to force PAL not to show
the menu on start up, but to perform some other operation
instead.
Hint:
If you do clone PAL to perform a different operation on
start up, you can always reach the main menu by issuing
either "PAL MENU" or "PAL M" from the DOS system prompt.
3.2 Entering a Command Line From the Menu
If you choose selection 4 ("Enter Command Line") from
the main menu, you will be able to enter the commands which
instruct PAL to perform any of its possible operations, with
the same syntax you would use if you were summoning PAL
directly from the DOS system prompt. You will be provided
with an on-screen reminder of the syntax that PAL uses.
When entering a command line here, do not start with the
word "PAL" as you would from the DOS system prompt. The
initial word "PAL" is assumed; you'll see it on the screen
9
already.
Examples:
If you enter "7" and hit return, PAL will give you a 7
day report of your appointments.
On the other hand, if you enter "PAL 7", this is
incorrect syntax since the word "PAL" is already assumed.
What you have entered is equivalent to the entry "PAL PAL 7"
at the DOS system prompt. You'll get an error message on the
"booboo" screen.
More often than not, you will be using the command line
to summon PAL's REPORT MODE to show your upcoming appoint-
ments, reminders and alarms, or to summon PAL's SEARCH MODE
to search for an entry. For more information about REPORT
MODE, see chapter 5. For more information about SEARCH MODE,
see chapter 6.
3.3 Command Line and Batch Operation of PAL
As an alternative to menu operation, you may invoke any
of PAL's operations directly from the DOS system prompt by
adding parameters after the program name. Command line
operation is especially useful for batch files.
There are many possible parameters which may be added
after the program name to instruct PAL to perform its
operations. These include the following (the items which are
shown within square brackets are optional):
PAL [@mm/dd/yyyy] n[ABCFHPR] [FILENAME]
for REPORT MODE
(see chapter 5)
PAL [@mm/dd/yyyy] $[BCFPR] SEARCHTERM [FILENAME]
for SEARCH MODE
(see chapter 6)
PAL APPOINT or PAL A
for invoking Appointment Scratchpad
(see chapter 7)
10
PAL CLONE or PAL C
for invoking Clone procedure
(see chapter 13)
PAL DELETE or PAL D
for invoking Delete procedure
(see chapter 10)
PAL DELETEAUTO
for non-stop Delete procedure
(see 10.4)
PAL DELETEAUTOALL
for non-stop Delete procedure
(see 10.4)
PAL HELP or PAL H or PAL ?
for invoking online help
(see chapter 4)
PAL MENU or PAL M
for invoking Menu operation
(see chapter 3)
PAL PURGE or PAL P
for invoking Purge procedure
(see chapter 10)
PAL PURGEAUTO
for non-stop Purge procedure
(see 10.4)
PAL READIMAGE [FILENAME]
to read a Clone image
(see 13.1.9)
PAL RESTORE or PAL R
for invoking Restore procedure
(see 13.1.8)
PAL SAVEIMAGE [FILENAME]
to save a Clone image
(see 13.1.9)
PAL SET or PAL S
for invoking the Set procedure
(see 12.10 and 13.2)
The shareware version contains a registration request at
the conclusion of the program. In order to exit the program
you have to answer two yes/no questions regarding registra-
tion. This requirement to answer yes/no makes it inappro-
11
priate to use PAL in an unattended batch file operation
unless there are no significant commands in the batch file
following the invocation of PAL. The only way to get around
this impediment is to register and pay for a "commercial"
version of PAL.
The commercial version of PAL generally does not require
any keystrokes to exit the program when an operation is run
from the DOS prompt. There are two situations, however, in
which PAL does wait for you to hit a key to exit the program.
These are (1) any time the "booboo" screen pops up (you'll
know what the booboo screen is the first time you make a
mistake in how you enter the parameters), and (2) any Report
Mode or Search Mode operation for which you specify the
optional "B" switch (see section 5.4) but which does not
involve the "F" toggle switch (writing to a file) or the "P"
toggle switch (sending the report to the printer). Use of
the optional "B" switch will pause the automatic execution of
additional batch file commands that could obliterate informa-
tion from the screen.
3.4 Menu or Command Line?
In general, once you get the hang of what PAL can do for
you, you will find that things go more quickly by using
command line operation directly from the DOS system prompt.
Hint:
The one instance in which the menu will be more effi-
cient is if you want to perform more than one operation with
PAL; in that situation, rather than reloading the program
each time you want to do something, you can quickly initiate
each successive request directly from the menu.
12
Chapter 4: ONLINE HELP
You can invoke online help from the beginning menu, or
directly from the DOS system prompt with "PAL HELP" , "PAL H"
or "PAL ?". To select a subject for help, hit the alphabetic
key which corresponds with the subject which you wish to
review. No carriage return is required.
Additional help regarding alarms is available from the
PAL SET menu. You reach the PAL SET menu by issuing "PAL
SET" or "PAL S" from the DOS system prompt or by choosing
"S", "8" or "F8" from PAL's main menu. Once at the PAL SET
menu, you can summon the additional help by striking "H", "4"
or "F4".
13
Chapter 5: REPORT MODE
5.1 What Does a Report Show?
When you request a report from PAL, you will first see
PAL's title screen. In the upper left hand corner, PAL will
provide a message telling you the name of the file it is
analyzing. In the center of the top line, as PAL inserts
your memos in a sorted manner into your computer's memory,
PAL may display the number of bytes of free memory which
remain as it does its work. Here's a sample screen display:
Personal Appointment Locator
Ver. 2.0 Copyright 1988 PAL Software NY, Inc. ----------------------
|April 20 1988|
Searching \SK\PAL.APP |--------------------|
Today is Wednesday, April 20, 1988 | 10:38:13am |
14 entries listed for next 14 days: |--------------------|
|SU|MO|TU|WE|TH|FR|SA|
Wed, Apr 20 1988, 9:00 am :Mr. Kurlin |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
Wed, Apr 20 1988, 10:30 am :Word processing demo |27|28|29|30|31| 1| 2|
Wed, Apr 20 1988, 5:00 pm :Run for the train@ |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9|
Thu, Apr 21 1988, 5:00 pm :Run for the train@ |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|
Fri, Apr 22 1988, 5:00 pm :Run for the train@ |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|
Mon, Apr 25 1988, 8:00 am :Partner's Meeting |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
Mon, Apr 25 1988, 12:00 pm :Lunch with Gracie @10 |24|25|26|27|28|29|30|
Mon, Apr 25 1988, 5:00 pm :Run for the train@ ----------------------
Tue, Apr 26 1988, 5:00 pm :Run for the train@
When the file is completely read and sorted, PAL will
flash the first screen of the report.
On the right side of the screen, you will see a calendar
for the current month, with today's date highlighted. There
will be a digital clock above the calendar, ticking away with
the present time. The clock will continue as you page
through the report.
PAL will highlight your most pressing appointments.
Today's appointments will show in intense yellow on color
monitors, and all appointments after today through the next
business day will be highlighted in intense green. Mono-
chrome and black and white monitors will show all these
appointments in reverse video.
14
The memo "Run for the train @" is an auto-repeating
weekday alarm which was produced by a single memo entry.
When PAL has finished showing you your coming appoint-
ments, it will then tell you if you have any future alarms to
load into PALARM. For information on alarms, see chapter 12.
Then PAL will show you your old reminders, if any. See
chapter 8 for information on reminders.
There are a few modifications to the report which you
can make with the CLONE procedure. First, you may have PAL
tell you at the beginning of the report how many bytes could
be saved from your file if you use the DELETE or PURGE
procedures. Second, you may have PAL give you an extended
report describing each of the alarms which will be loaded
into memory. Third, you may turn off the sound which PAL
makes as it displays each page. For information on the CLONE
procedure, see section 13.1.
5.2 REPORT MODE Syntax
Syntax for the REPORT MODE is:
PAL [@mm/dd/yyyy] n[ABCFHPR] [FILENAME]
The only required entries at the DOS system prompt are
the program name and "n", where "n" is the number of days you
would like the report to encompass. The maximum number for
"n" is 32,767. PAL can show memos and holidays through the
year 2099.
For instance, "PAL 7" would give you a report of your
next week's appointments.
The remaining parameters are optional. Do not type in
the brackets; they are set forth above only to indicate that
the items are optional.
Note that all operations which can be invoked from the
DOS system prompt can also be entered at PAL's main menu.
See section 3.2.
15
5.3 Date Control
The first optional parameter is to set the start date of
the report at other than your present system date. For
instance, "PAL @1/1/88 7" will give you appointments for the
first week in 1988.
Hint:
If you use the "@" by itself without a following date,
then PAL will assume you mean "@1/1/85"; this is useful if
you want a shorthand method to begin a Report or Search from
a very early date. For instance, "PAL @ 730" will show all
appointments for 1985 and 1986.
5.4 Toggle Switches
The second group of optional parameters ("ABCFHPR")
consists of toggle switches. They must be specified imme-
diately following "n", without intervening spaces. They
stand for:
* "A" disables the "A"larm updating function.
Any alarms which PAL finds scheduled within the
appointment file will not be loaded. This toggle switch is
useful, for instance, where you have combined your own
SideKick appointment file with somebody else's so that you
can view them together, but you do not want the other
person's alarms to be loaded into your system. See chapter
11 for information on combining several SideKick appointment
files.
* "B" is for batch usage. This forces reports
to pause before exiting back to the DOS prompt, requiring the
user to strike a key. This switch would be useful only if
you are invoking PAL from a batch file and PAL is not the
final command in the batch file, thus preventing the report
from scrolling off the screen while the remaining commands
execute. Since the shareware version of PAL already requires
user action to exit from the program, the "B" switch is only
necessary in batch operation of the registered, commercial
version of PAL.
* "C" toggles "C"olor.
If you have a color display, or a screen which
tries to emulate a color display (such as many laptop
16
computers), then PAL will automatically attempt to show in
color. You may prefer to see a simple black and white
display, or your laptop may display the colors poorly. If
this is the case, then you should try the "C" toggle to see
how the reports look with color turned off; e.g., "PAL 7C".
If you prefer to have color turned off permanently,
then you can make the adjustment permanently within the CLONE
procedure. Once you make such a permanent adjustment with
the CLONE procedure, the meaning of the "C" toggle is that
you will temporarily be viewing the report in color. The "C"
toggle switch will not have any effect with monochrome
displays.
* "F" sends your report to a "F"ile.
PAL uses the name PAL.TXT for the file. You may
change the name with the CLONE procedure. When you specify
"F", the screen display will not pause as it fills with
appointments. Instead, the appointments will scroll by
quickly as they are being written to the file. You may force
the scrolling to pause by hitting the key combination CTRL-S;
strike any other key to continue scrolling.
* "H" suppresses the reporting of "H"olidays.
This toggle switch is useful if you want to see a
report of your appointments without the clutter of holidays.
PAL will ordinarily show several holidays automatically.
Within the CLONE procedure, you may turn off holidays
individually, and you can make PAL show several other
holidays which the distribution version is not set to show.
See section 13.1.3 for information on holidays.
* "P" sends your report to the "P"rinter.
PAL assumes that you would like only 48 lines per
page and that you would like a form feed at the conclusion of
each page. With the CLONE procedure, you may change these
assumptions and send tailor-made instructions to your printer
immediately before and after each report. As with the "F"
parameter, when you specify "P", the screen will not pause as
it fills with appointments. Instead, the appointments will
scroll by quickly as they are being sent to the printer. Use
CTRL-S to pause and any other key to continue.
* "R" suppresses auto-"R"epeat appointments.
This toggle switch is useful if you want to see a
report without the clutter of repeating appointments.
17
5.5 File Handling
The last optional parameter permits you to specify the
complete name, including drive and path if needed, of the
file you desire to examine.
5.5.1 File Assumptions
If you do not specify the filename, then PAL will use
its default assumptions for the name and location of the
file. These default assumptions can be set in the CLONE
procedure. On distribution, PAL assumes that the name of the
file to examine is "APPOINT.APP" and looks for it first in
the current directory and the DOS path. If PAL does not find
APPOINT.APP, it looks for the file in "C:\SK" and then in
"C:\".
PAL allows you to specify your filename in "shorthand".
If you specify a directory only, then PAL will supply the
filename and extension. If you specify a directory plus a
filename but leave out the extension, then PAL will automati-
cally supply the assumed extension. You can have PAL examine
a file that has no extension by adding a period after the
filename.
Examples:
For instance, assume that you have a file called
"BUSINESS.APP" for your business appointments and "VIDEO.APP"
to schedule all the TV shows you want to video tape, and that
both files reside in "C:\SK". The command line "PAL 7 VIDEO"
will examine the file "C:\SK\VIDEO.APP".
Similarly, the command line "PAL 7 BUSINESS" will
examine the file "C:\SK\BUSINESS.APP".
The command line "PAL 7" will cause PAL to look for the
file "APPOINT.APP" in the series of directories described
above, while the command line "PAL 7 C:\SK\" will force PAL
to look for the file "C:\SK\APPOINT.APP".
18
5.5.2 PAL's Appointment Scratchpad
In addition to examining the specified SideKick appoint-
ment file, PAL will examine all the appointments which you
have entered in PAL's own Appointment Scratchpad. See
chapter 7 for a complete description of the Appointment
Scratchpad.
If you specify "Nofile" as the file to examine, then PAL
will not examine any physical file on your disk. Instead,
PAL will only examine the Appointment Scratchpad. For
instance:
PAL 30 NOFILE
will force PAL to avoid looking in any SideKick appointment
file and to focus its attention on the Appointment Scratchpad
instead.
If you are not using SideKick with PAL, then you
absolutely must specify "Nofile" as the file to examine.
Otherwise, PAL will always be looking for a non-existent
APPOINT.APP.
Instead of specifying "Nofile" each and every time that
you run PAL, you can force PAL to change its internal
assumptions so that it will always act as if you had speci-
fied "Nofile". See section 13.1.2.3 for instructions on how
to CLONE this change into PAL. Once you make the change to
"Nofile" with the CLONE procedure, you can always explicitly
name a SideKick file on the command line.
5.5.3 Overriding PAL's Assumptions
In general, if PAL's assumptions as to the name and
location of your appointment file are incorrect, then you may
either:
(1) change PAL's assumptions with the CLONE
feature, or
(2) change the name and location of your appoint-
ment file in order to match PAL's assumptions, or
(3) fully specify the name and location each time
you invoke PAL.
19
5.6 Examples
As an example of REPORT MODE, to see all your appoint-
ments for the next week, issue the command "PAL 7".
A very common use for PAL is to insert such a command as
the last line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, so that your coming
appointments greet you when your computer finishes booting in
the morning. It was for this very purpose that the author
wrote the first version of PAL in early 1985.
Other examples:
PAL @1/1/88 366hr
-- shows all appointments in 1988, sup-
presses holidays and auto-repeat appoint-
ments.
PAL 30 nofile
-- shows appointments for next 30 days,
but only those which have been entered in
the Appointment Scratchpad.
PAL @ 32000p myapp.
-- shows appointments for 32,000 days
starting at 1/1/1985, and sends the
report to your printer. Looks for file
MYAPP (which does not have a filename
extension).
5.7 Special Memos
In REPORT MODE, PAL will interpret some of your memos as
having special meaning and will provide you with extra-
special results when those memos are encountered. They are:
* Reminders: Memos containing "!"
* Alarms: Memos containing "@"
* Auto-Repeat: SideKick memos containing any
of the following characters: [ ] { } ~
Caution:
A caution for persons printing out this documentation
rather than viewing it on a computer screen: The special
20
characters shown on the immediately preceding line are
generally known as the left and right square brackets, left
and right curly braces and the tilde (a small, wavy line).
Some printers may not print the correct image of these
characters. Therefore, if you have any doubt as to the
"truthfulness" of your printer, consult PAL's online help
regarding auto-repeat appointments and view the characters on
your screen; or you can view this documentation with DOS's
TYPE command or any other program that permits you to view
the documentation on your monitor.
For details on reminders, see chapter 8.
For details on alarms, see chapter 12.
For details on auto-repeat, see chapters 7 (for the
Appointment Scratchpad) and 9 (for SideKick auto-repeat).
21
Chapter 6: SEARCH MODE
6.1 SEARCH MODE Syntax
Syntax for the SEARCH MODE is:
PAL [@mm/dd/yyyy] $[BCFPR] SEARCHTERM [FILENAME]
The required parameters in SEARCH MODE are the program's
name, followed by the "$" character (think "$earch"),
followed by the term for which you want PAL to search.
6.2 SEARCH MODE Optional Parameters
The optional parameters are identical to those permitted
in REPORT MODE, with minor exceptions.
For information regarding date manipulation, see section
5.3.
For information regarding the toggle switches, see
section 5.4. The only differences in the effect of the
toggle switches within SEARCH MODE are that the "A"larm and
"H"oliday switches have no effect, and the "R" switch
prevents search of the Appointment Scratchpad.
For information regarding the FILENAME, see section 5.5.
6.3 What SEARCH MODE does
SEARCH MODE is restricted to the single, simple function
of conducting a search for your "Searchterm" through your
file and/or through PAL's own Appointment Scratchpad. A
search will pick up appointments which fall on or after the
date of the report.
The "Searchterm" is the string of characters that you
are trying to match. The search is insensitive to upper or
lower case.
Suppose you want to search for "Uncle Herman's Birth-
day". You can shorten the number of letters you type by just
choosing a few. Let's say you issue the command "PAL $ man".
22
You may get a search report that looks something like this:
Personal Appointment Locator
Ver. 2.0 Copyright 1988 PAL Software NY, Inc. ----------------------
|March 7 1988|
Searching C:\SK\APPOINT.APP |--------------------|
The following matches have been found | 6:47:37pm |
for "MAN": |--------------------|
|SU|MO|TU|WE|TH|FR|SA|
Scratchpad # 15, Yearly :Uncle Herman's Birthday |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|28|29| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5|
Tue, Mar 8 1988, 2:00 pm :Ullman appointment |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
| 6| 7| 8| 9|10|11|12|
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
|27|28|29|30|31| 1| 2|
----------------------
Notice that this search picked up another appointment as
well. You would have picked up only the appointment you
wanted if you had been more exclusive in your search by, for
instance, using "Herman" as your searchterm.
In your search report, all matching appointments which
are found in the Appointment Scratchpad which are auto-
repeating (that is, all of them except those which you
designate with a frequency of "once") will be clustered at
the beginning of the report with an indication that they are
located in the Scratchpad, the number of the appointment slot
within the Scratchpad, and the frequency of the auto-repeat.
For more detailed information, you'll have to enter the
Appointment Scratchpad to see the restrictions imposed on the
appointment.
All "carryforward" appointments from your SideKick
appointment file will also be shown. By "carryforward" we
mean appointments which were entered prior to today's date,
but which are intended to be shown today or after today's
date, such as auto-repeat appointments and reminders. These
carryforward appointments will be shown in your search screen
as occurring on the day for which they were initially
entered. Thus, auto-repeat appointments are shown only once
in Search Mode. It is up to you to look at the special
character codes that you have entered in the memo in order to
determine when they will repeat.
If your searchterm spans more than a single word, then
you must enclose the entire searchterm within quote marks;
23
otherwise, PAL will interpret the second word of the search-
term as the name of the file you wish to search.
If you wish to search for a string which itself contains
quote marks, then you must enclose each of those quote marks
themselves within quote marks.
Examples:
PAL @ $r ~
-- will pick up all appointments in your SK file
(the "r" disables search of the Appointment
Scratchpad) after 1/1/85 which contain the tilde
character, which signifies an auto-repeat appoint-
ment within a SideKick memo.
PAL $c max
-- will pick up "max", "maxine", "maximum", etc.
in your default appointment file. Color is
toggled.
PAL $ max planck
-- will pick up same as preceding command, but
will search a file called "PLANCK.APP" (if it can
be found).
PAL $ "max planck"
-- will search for the words "Max Planck" in your
default appointment file.
PAL $ "Pay Joey """The Hatchet""" !"
-- will search for the words:
Pay Joey "The Hatchet" !
24
Chapter 7: THE APPOINTMENT SCRATCHPAD
PAL's Appointment Scratchpad allows you to keep track of
your appointments even if you do not have, or prefer not to
use, SideKick. You are provided with 60 slots to enter your
memos, but by employing the easy to use auto-repeat editing
capacity within the Appointment Scratchpad, the number of
appointments you actually design could easily exceed 60,000.
Furthermore, by using PAL's ability to save and read images,
you can have an infinite number of Appointment Scratchpads,
restricted only by available disk space. See section 13.1.9.
7.1 Getting There
You can reach the Appointment Scratchpad any of three
ways.
1. From the DOS system prompt:
PAL APPOINT, or PAL A
2. From PAL's main menu:
Hit "1", "F1" or "A"
3. From PAL's CLONE menu:
Hit "1", "F1" or "A"
7.2 The Appointment Scratchpad Menu
When you first enter the Appointment Scratchpad, you are
presented with the following simple menu:
Add, Delete, Edit, Find, Old, Sort, ESC to quit
To choose any of the operations, just hit the first
letter of the operation you wish to perform, or strike the
ESC key to exit the Appointment Scratchpad.
Use the cursor keys to view another screenful of
appointments. The Home key will always take you to the top
screen, while the End key will always take you to the bottom
screen. To page down through individual screens, use either
25
the Page Down key, the right arrow key or the down arrow key.
To page up through the individual screens, use either the
Page Up key, the left arrow key or the up arrow key.
If you perform a Find operation which results in a match
for a memo which is located on a screen not currently
visible, then the menu will also show "Next" if the match is
on a screen with higher numbered appointments and/or "Pre-
vious" if there is a match on a screen with lower numbered
appointments.
7.3 The Appointment Scratchpad Screen
When you enter the Appointment Scratchpad, you will see
your appointments in tabular form. Here's a sample showing
the first page:
No Frequency Restrictions Memo Timeslot
1|Once |11/07/1987x 1, ...............|Finish Documentation! | Title
2|Once |11/25/1987x 1, ...............|First Jersey |10:30 am
3|Weekly |10/22/1987x 40, Thu............|Mtg with D.M. @45 | 7:30 pm
4|Weekly |10/27/1987x , Tue............|Mtg with K.T. @45 | 7:30 pm
5|1st Week |Always--------, Mon............|Partner's Meeting | 6:00 pm
6|1st Week |10/27/1987x 9, Tue............|Marianne @45 | 6:30 pm
7|3rd Week |10/22/1987x 9, Thu............|Rhetta @45 | 6:30 pm
8|3rd Week |10/27/1987x 9, Tue............|Lynn @45 | 6:30 pm
9|Yearly |Always--------, 07/06/****.....|Delia's Birthday | Title
10|Yearly |Always--------, 07/20/****.....|Aunt Ethel's Birthday | Title
11|Yearly |Always--------, 10/16/****.....|Micah's Birthday | Title
12|Yearly |Always--------, 12/21/****.....|Dad's Birthday | Title
13|Yearly |Always--------, 11/21/****.....|Laura's Birthday | Title
14|Yearly |Always--------, 02/06/****.....|Jesse's Birthday | Title
15|Yearly |Always--------, 02/20/****.....|Phyllis' Birthday | Title
As you can see, each appointment is numbered (from 1 to
60). The columns show the frequency with which the appoint-
ment will appear, the restrictions which you have imposed on
the appearance of that appointment, the memo which will be
shown with REPORT MODE or SEARCH MODE, and the time slot for
which the memo will appear.
To some extent, the facilities of REPORT MODE and SEARCH
MODE are duplicated within the Appointment Scratchpad's own
menu. For instance, you may "F"ind a sequence of characters
in the Appointment Scratchpad instead of exiting and running
a search. You may also order the appointments within the
Appointment Scratchpad with the "S"ort command; however, only
a complete report in REPORT MODE will expand the auto-
repeating appointments, show you holidays, load alarms, and
26
provide all the goodies available in REPORT MODE.
7.4 "A"dding Appointments
To add an appointment to the Appointment Scratchpad,
just hit the "A" key. PAL will select the lowest-numbered
empty slot for your appointment to occupy.
As you construct the record for the appointment you want
PAL to memorize, PAL will guess at the answers to the
questions posed and will display those guesses opposite the
questions. If you wish to accept PAL's guess, then just hit
the return key. Otherwise, enter your own choice and then
hit the return key.
As soon as you finish answering each question, PAL will
convert your answer to start building a visual record of your
choices. When you complete all of your answers, the record
will appear in identical form to all the other appointments
which already reside in the Appointment Scratchpad. This
record will appear on the line immediately below the last
line of the Appointment Scratchpad.
If you make a mistake while building the record, don't
worry about it. Just keep hitting the return key in answer
to all the rest of the questions until you come to the last
query: "Are you satisfied with the record you have built?"
-- which can be answered only with a "Y" or an "N". Strike
the "N" key, and your erroneous information will disappear so
you can try again. Even if you select "Y" and the informa-
tion in your Appointment Scratchpad is changed, the changes
are not permanently accepted unless you CLONE when you exit
the Appointment Scratchpad.
27
7.4.1 Frequency
The first choice you are requested to make is the
frequency of the appointment:
Enter desired frequency: _____
A. Once D. Weekends G. 2nd Week J. Lst Week M. Bimonthly
B. Daily E. Weekly H. 3rd Week K. Biweekly N. Quarterly
C. Weekdays F. 1st Week I. 4th Week L. Monthly O. Yearly
You will see an "A" to the right of the "Enter
desired frequency:" prompt. If you want to enter a non-
repeating appointment, then just hit the return key to accept
the "A" selection. Otherwise, choose a letter that corre-
sponds to the frequency you desire and then hit the return
key.
7.4.2 Setting Restrictions
Once you have chosen the frequency for the appointment,
then you will be asked for the manner in which you would like
the appearance of the appointment to be restricted.
7.4.2.1 Once
Setting restrictions for a one-time appointment is
simple. All you need to do is set the date on which the
appointment falls. Use the cursor keys to manipulate the
month, day of month, and year.
7.4.2.2 Daily, Weekdays and Weekends
For daily, weekday and weekend appointments you will
first be asked whether you would like to show the appointment
always.
If you answer "Y", then the appointment will be picked
up by PAL for every appropriate day which is contained within
your report, regardless of the beginning and ending day of
your report.
28
If you answer "N", then you will next be asked for the
earliest date for which you would like the appointment to
appear. To manipulate the date, use the cursor keys as shown
at the bottom of the screen. For weekday and weekend
appointments, you will note that as you change the date with
the cursor keys, the date will jump over inappropriate dates
so that, for instance, you cannot select a weekend date for a
weekday appointment.
If you have answered "N" to the query whether you want
the appointment to repeat always, then after you select the
date, you are asked whether you would like to limit the
number of times for the appointment to repeat. If you answer
"N", then the appointment will repeat from the date you have
chosen in the prior step until the end of your report,
regardless of the ending date of your report (The Appointment
Scratchpad will reflect your choice by inserting a series of
three "infinity" characters in the line you are building).
If you answer "Y", you may then select a number between 1 and
255 to limit the number of repetitions.
7.4.2.3 Weekly, First, Second, Third,
Fourth, Last
The procedure for restricting weekly appointments is
substantially similar to the discussion for restricting
daily, weekday and weekend appointments. The only difference
is that prior to getting into any of the other questions, you
are first asked the day of the week on which you would like
the appointment to be reported. Then you answer all the same
questions outlined above in section 7.4.2.2.
Appointments which you request to be scheduled for the
first, second, third, fourth or last occurrence of a particu-
lar day of the week in each month are restricted with the
same steps as for weekly appointments. However, you are
given the additional opportunity to further restrict the
appointment to be shown only in a particular month each year,
so that, for instance, you can set an appointment to fall on
the fourth Thursday in November if you know of any holiday or
appointment that could benefit from such a schedule.
29
7.4.2.4 Biweekly
The procedure for restricting a biweekly appointment is
the same as for a weekly appointment, but with one signifi-
cant difference. Since it is important to know the starting
date for a biweekly appointment (so that PAL knows which of
the alternate weeks you want the appointment to be shown),
PAL goes directly to the question of the starting date.
Thus, you are not given the opportunity to designate a
biweekly appointment as repeating "always". However, if you
do want the appointment to appear from the beginning of any
report through the end of any report, then simply pick a
starting date prior to today (or prior to any earlier date
that you might conceivably specify with the "@MM/DD/YYYY"
parameter on the command line) and do not restrict the number
of times for the appointment to repeat.
7.4.2.5 Monthly, Bimonthly, Quarterly
If you select a monthly, bimonthly or quarterly appoint-
ment, you will first be asked to specify the day of the month
on which the appointment must appear. For bimonthly and
quarterly appointments, you must then specify which monthly
pattern to follow; for instance, for bimonthly you can choose
either the even numbered months or the odd numbered months of
the year.
Once you have specified the day of the month, and, where
appropriate, the monthly pattern, you will then be given the
opportunity to state whether the appointment should be shown
always. As with other types of appointments, if you answer
"Y"es, then the appointment will be shown from the beginning
to the end of all your reports. If you answer "N"o, then you
must specify a start date and then will be asked whether you
wish to limit the number of repeats.
7.4.2.6 Annual
First you will be asked to specify the month and day on
which you would like the annual appointment to fall. Then
you will be given the opportunity to require the appointment
to be shown always. If you do not want it shown always, then
you must specify the beginning date and whether or not you
want to limit the number of repeats.
30
7.4.3 Entering the Memo
Now that you have chosen the frequency and have set the
restrictions for your appointment, you may enter the memo as
you would like it to appear in your report. As with Side-
Kick, your memo can be as long as 26 characters.
Any of your memos in the Appointment Scratchpad may
contain the special codes to create an alarm. In this way
you can readily create repeating alarms. See chapter 12 for
how to create an alarm within your memo.
Since the Appointment Scratchpad has already learned the
frequency of your memo and the restrictions on how your
appointment will repeat, there is no need to use any of the
valuable 26-character memo space for the special codes which
would have been needed in a SideKick memo to design an auto-
repeating appointment.
7.4.4 Choosing the Time Slot
You may choose any standard SideKick-type time slot,
including "Title" and all half-hour intervals from 8:00 a.m.
through and including 8:30 p.m. Of course, with the ability
to set advance alarms (see section 12.8), you have a much
wider choice of times at which you can be alerted to your
appointments.
7.4.5 Saving (or Erasing) Your Choices
Once you have selected the time slot, you will be asked
whether you are satisfied with the record you built.
If you answer "N"o, then the record will be erased and
you will be returned to the Appointment Scratchpad menu.
If you answer "Y"es, that you are indeed satisfied with
the record, then your new appointment will temporarily be
added to the Appointment Scratchpad. You will be able to see
it inserted in the slot which was selected when you initially
selected the "A"dd operation. In order to make the addition
permanent, you must CLONE when you exit the Appointment
Scratchpad. You will be given this opportunity when you hit
31
ESC to leave the Scratchpad. If you choose not to CLONE,
then you will lose the changes which were made to the
Appointment Scratchpad during this session.
7.5 "D"eleting an Appointment
To delete an appointment from the Appointment Scratch-
pad, simply supply the number of the appointment you wish to
delete. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete
the appointment.
As with changes made using the "A"dd operation (see
section 7.3), the changes which you make with the "D"elete
operation take effect only temporarily. To make the changes
permanent, you must CLONE when you "ESC"ape from the Appoint-
ment Scratchpad.
7.6 "E"diting an Appointment
To edit an appointment, select any appointment slot.
You will then be taken through each of the choices that you
would have to make if you were "A"dding an appointment (see
section 7.3). The difference here is that if the slot you
have selected to edit is already occupied, the guesses which
PAL makes for the answers to the questions it poses will
match the original information which you already have for the
entry being edited. If you would like to retain any of the
original information, just hit the carriage return key to
accept that default information. To change the information,
just enter the information as you would like it to appear,
then hit the return key.
7.7 "F"inding an Appointment
While within the Appointment Scratchpad, you may search
for an appointment without having to exit and run PAL in its
SEARCH MODE. Of course, you may always run PAL in SEARCH
MODE to look for an appointment, and PAL will turn up the
matches in both your SideKick appointment file and PAL's
Appointment Scratchpad.
When you select the "F"ind operation, you will be asked
what you want to search for. You can enter any sequence of
32
characters or words to search for. Do not use quotation
marks to surround groups of words as you would if you were
using SEARCH MODE. Hit the return key when you are finished
typing the term or terms you want to find.
PAL will then immediately examine all of the appoint-
ments in the Appointment Scratchpad to see if there is a
match. Lower and upper case characters will be treated
identically.
If PAL finds a match or matches, then those matches will
be highlighted in the Appointment Scratchpad screen, and PAL
will report in the lower left hand corner the numbers of the
matched appointments.
If there is a match located on a screen with appoint-
ments numbered higher than those on the visible screen, then
the "N"ext operation will appear in the menu, and hitting the
"N" key will take you immediately to the next screen with a
match on it. Similarly, if there is a match located on a
screen with lower-numbered appointments, then the "P"revious
operation will appear in the menu, and hitting the "P" key
will take you immediately to the prior screen with a match on
it. You may also use the cursor keys to page through the
Appointment Scratchpad screens one by one.
Choosing any operation other than "N"ext, "P"revious or
paging with the cursor keys will remove the highlighting on
the found appointments.
7.8 "N"ext Screen
Immediately following a "F"ind operation, if a match is
found in an appointment which resides on a screen with
higher-numbered appointments than the screen presently being
shown, then the "Next" selection will appear on the Appoint-
ment Scratchpad menu. By hitting the "N" key, you will be
taken directly to that screen.
7.9 Removing "O"ld Appointments
When you select the "O"ld operation, you are being given
the opportunity to delete all non-repeating appointments
(those which show in the frequency column as "Once"). You
will be prompted whether or not you also want to delete old
reminders, that is, appointments with the "!" character in
33
them.
It is possible that some of your auto-repeating appoint-
ments for which you specified a limited number of repeats are
indeed out of date. However, the "O"ld operation will not
automatically delete them. Since it is possible that when
you specified the limited number of repeats you gave only a
rough guess, it may be inappropriate for PAL to assume that
you want to get rid of the limited auto-repeat appointment
automatically.
To cull out the auto-repeat appointments which are out
of date by reason of the limitation on the number of repeti-
tions, you must examine each of them, and if you truly no
longer need them, use the "D"elete operation.
Hint:
You may find it convenient to examine limited auto-
repeat appointments by using the "S"ort operation to sort by
number of repeats, thereby bring the limited appointments all
together. This will force the time-limited appointments to
be sorted between those which appear only once and those
which appear an infinite number of times. See section 7.11.
7.10 "P"revious Screen
Immediately following a "F"ind operation, if a match is
found in an appointment which resides on a screen with lower-
numbered appointments than the screen presently being shown,
then the "Previous" selection will appear on the Appointment
Scratchpad menu. By hitting the "P" key, you will be taken
directly to that screen.
7.11 "S"orting Appointments
To sort appointments within the Appointment Scratchpad,
just hit the "S" key. You will be presented with a number of
choices as to the order in which you would like to sort the
34
appointments:
A. Complete F. Start Date, Descending
B. Memo G. Frequency, Ascending
C. Time Slot, Ascending H. Frequency, Descending
D. Time Slot, Descending I. Repeats, Ascending
E. Start Date, Ascending J. Repeats, Descending
To run a sort, strike the alphabetic key which corre-
sponds with the type of sort you want. To get back to the
Appointment Scratchpad without sorting, strike the "Q" key to
"Q"uit.
Once you run a sort, you may then immediately re-sort on
another category if you wish. This will permit you to set up
sorts within sorts, so that you can tailor the order of your
Appointment Scratchpad display to your own needs. For
instance, if you would like to see your appointments sorted
mainly by the number of repeats but would also like to see
all appointments further sorted by increasing start date,
then first use sort "E" (for the start date), then use sort
"I" (for the number of repeats).
Hint:
In general, when you want a sort within a sort (or a
sort within a sort within a sort, etc.), then the least
significant category should be sorted first, and the most
important category should be sorted last.
If you select "Complete" (choice A), which is the
default choice, then PAL will do a multiple sort. The
sequence of the complete sort, in order of most to least
significant, is (1) ascending frequency, (2) ascending start
date, (3) ascending time slot, (4) ascending repeats, and (5)
alphabetic.
Selecting "Memo" (choice B), will sort alphabetically by
your memo.
"Time Slot, Ascending" (choice C) will sort by the time
slot in increasing order of time, while "Time Slot, Descend-
ing" (choice D) will sort by the time slot in decreasing
order of time.
"Start Date, Ascending" (choice E) will sort by increas-
ing order of the commencement date of the appointment, while
"Start Date, Descending" (choice F) will sort in reverse.
When sorting by start date, appointments which are
marked as "Always" (that is, they have no start date) will be
considered to be earlier than appointments with a specified
35
start date. "Always" appointments will also be considered to
be equal to each other in start date, except that annual
appointments situated next to one another will be sorted by
month and date, monthly type appointments (monthly, bimonthly
and quarterly) will be sorted by day of the month, and weekly
type appointments (weekly, biweekly, first, second, third,
fourth and last) will be sorted by the day of the week.
"Frequency, Ascending" (choice G) will sort by the
frequency order. The order used for frequency is that which
is displayed in the choices provided when you add or edit an
appointment (see section 7.4.1). "Frequency, Descending"
(choice H) will sort in the opposite order.
"Repeats, Ascending" (choice I) will sort by order of
increasing number of repetitions, while "Repeats, Descending"
(choice J) will sort by decreasing number of repetitions.
Appointments which are not limited in the number of repeti-
tions will be considered to repeat infinitely.
If you want to quit back to the Appointment Scratchpad
menu without sorting, then strike the "Q" key.
7.12 "ESC"ape
At the Appointment Scratchpad menu, once you hit the ESC
key, you will either be dropped back to the DOS system
prompt, the main menu or to the CLONE menu, depending on how
you first entered the Appointment Scratchpad.
If you have made changes to the Appointment Scratchpad,
then you must CLONE them in order to save them. PAL will
automatically remind you of the need to CLONE unsaved changes
when you exit back to the DOS system prompt or to the main
menu; if you are "ESC"aping back to the CLONE menu, then
you'll be reminded of your unsaved changes if you attempt to
exit the CLONE menu without saving. If you choose not to
CLONE, then the changes you made in this session will be
ignored.
36
Chapter 8: REMINDERS
If you want to maintain a reminder list, then enter an
appointment either with SideKick or with PAL's internal
Appointment Scratchpad and insert an exclamation point ("!")
anywhere in the memo. If the day passes and the memo is
still there, then PAL will remind you of that memo in a
special section of its report.
This feature is designed to serve as a "tickler." Any
time you have passed the day for which the reminder has been
set, you will be specially alerted. If you have run the
demonstration batch file "PALDEMO" you will recall that Dick
was supposed to have bought an engagement ring for Jane quite
a long time ago.
Hint:
Once you no longer require a memo to be characterized as
one of these tickling reminders, all you need to do is enter
SideKick or PAL's Scratchpad, as the case may be, and edit
the memo to delete the "!", or else delete the memo in its
entirety.
Caution:
You cannot create automatically repeating reminders.
PAL will tickle you only for the actual, physical entry which
you make, but not for any repetitions of that appointment
which it interprets with its auto-repeat function. For
instance, study the two following appointments:
Pay mortgage!
Pay car loan!]
Assuming that both are entered on March 1, 1988, then on
March 2, 1988 and thereafter both will appear in the remin-
ders section of your report. If you have asked for a report
which extends beyond March 31, 1988, then since the car loan
memo is a monthly auto-repeat (see section 9.1), you will see
the car loan memo on the first day of each month which is
included in the report. However, in the reminders section of
the report, you will see each of those memos only once. To
be reminded for more than a single date, you must enter a
memo on each date for which you want to be tickled.
37
Chapter 9: SK AUTO-REPEAT APPOINTMENTS
If you are not using SideKick with PAL, you can skip
this chapter 9 in its entirety.
PAL has extensive facilities to automatically repeat an
appointment. You may combine the auto-repeat capability with
the alarm function to have an automatically repeating alarm.
PAL's Appointment Scratchpad gives you a very simple
method to automatically repeat appointments, but that is not
the focus of this chapter. Instead, this chapter focuses on
creating auto-repeat appointments with SideKick. For an in-
depth discussion of the Appointment Scratchpad, see chapter
7.
9.1 Single Character Auto-Repeat
Daily, weekly, monthly and annual appointments may be
repeated in either of two ways. That is, you may either use
a single character or a sequence of characters. All auto-
repeat patterns other than daily, weekly, monthly and annual
require a special sequence of characters to be set.
If you want to have an appointment come up periodically
on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis, then you may
insert characters as follows:
Annual:
Use the left bracket ("[") or the sequence "~A"
Monthly:
Use the right bracket ("]") or the sequence "~M"
Weekly:
Use the left curly brace ("{") or the sequence "~W"
Daily:
Use the right curly brace ("}") or the sequence
"~D"
38
The four single-character codes are found on two keys on
your keyboard. To remember their use, it may be helpful to
visualize them as follows:
weekly daily
\ /
\ /
{ }
[ ]
/ \
/ \
annual monthly
Thus, for instance, if you would like PAL to remind you
of your client's wedding anniversary so that you can remember
to send out a greeting card and thereby be assured that the
client will view you as a thoughtful person entitled to even
more business, then either of the following two methods will
produce an annual auto-repeat of that memo:
Mr. Money Anniv. [
Mr. Money Anniv. ~A
The single-character codes (the square brackets and
curly brackets) were chosen because of the likelihood that
they would be infrequently used in your memos. However, in
the event that you find that it is more important to you to
use the square brackets and the curly brackets as text
instead of as auto-repeat characters, then you may disable
them as auto-repeat characters. To do so, simply enter the
CLONE procedure and make the change described in section
13.1.4.4.
9.2 Special Auto-Repeat Sequences
More complex auto-repeat patterns can be inserted
through the use of the tilde ("~") character. PAL interprets
the tilde as a signal that the next character or characters
represent the codes for a special pattern. You may follow
the tilde with any of the following combinations:
39
9.2.1 Daily types
~D Daily
~WD Weekdays
~WE Weekends
9.2.2 Weekly types
~W Weekly
~WO Biweekly (think "Week Other")
~1 First occurrence of that day in each month
~2 Second occurrence of that day in each month
~3 Third occurrence of that day in each month
~4 Fourth occurrence of that day in each month
~L Last occurrence of that day in each month
9.2.3 Monthly types
~M Monthly
~MO Bimonthly (think "Month Other")
~Q Quarterly
9.2.4 Annual type
~A Annually
Each of these patterns will repeat starting with the day
for which the appointment has been entered, with the follow-
ing exceptions:
* If you enter a ~WD appointment on a Saturday or
Sunday it will not commence repeating until the following
Monday.
* If you enter a ~WE appointment on a weekday it will
not commence repeating until the first Saturday which
follows.
* If you enter patterns ~1 through ~L, and the day
40
for which you have entered the appointment does not coincide
with the occurrence that you have specified, then the
appointment will not repeat until the first appropriate
occurrence thereafter. For instance, suppose that you have
entered "Department meeting ~2" in a timeslot for Thursday,
October 15, 1987. Your specified pattern calls for the
appointment to repeat on the second Thursday of each month,
but the date on which you entered the appointment is actually
the third Thursday of October, 1987. The auto-repeat will
not commence until the second Thursday of the following
month: Thursday, November 12, 1987.
9.3 Special Month Restrictions
The patterns of ~1 through ~L may be further restricted
to a particular month. The way to impose this restriction is
to add a single character at the end of the pattern to
signify the desired month. The characters to add are:
1 -- January
2 -- February
3 -- March
4 -- April
5 -- May
6 -- June
7 -- July
8 -- August
9 -- September
O -- October
N -- November
D -- December
Thus, for instance, you can make Thanksgiving appear on
the appropriate date each year by entering the following memo
in any Thursday timeslot:
Thanksgiving ~4N
Of course, PAL itself will automatically show Thanksgiving
for you, but you get the idea. This month-limiting feature
may be useful for special holidays for which PAL does not
provide.
41
9.4 Limiting the Number of Times to Repeat
An additional useful function which PAL permits in an
auto-repeat appointment is to specify the precise number of
times that you would like the appointment to repeat. This is
accomplished simply by placing the number sign ("#") imme-
diately following the pattern which you have already con-
structed, and then following the number sign with an integer
between 1 and 255 to signify the limitation. Placing the
number sign in any position other than immediately following
your auto-repeat pattern will be ignored by PAL.
To help understand this ability to limit the repeats to
a specified number, compare the following two entries:
Pan Am Flt #7~m
Pan Am Flt ~m#7
The first memo will display as "Pan Am Flt #7" and will
appear every single month, without restriction as to the
number of times displayed. The second memo will display as
"Pan Am Flt" and will repeat monthly for 7 times beginning
with the date for which it was originally entered.
If you do not limit the number of repeats with the
number sign, then the memo will repeat through to the last
day of your report, regardless of the number of days in your
report.
9.5 Auto-Repeats Not Shown Within SideKick
Caution:
One final caution regarding using the auto-repeat
ability within SideKick's appointment file. It is important
to understand that what is happening with PAL's auto-repeat
function is that PAL is interpreting a single memo within
your SideKick file and showing it multiple times within PAL's
own report. That memo will not be reproduced physically
within SideKick's own file. Therefore, when you use Side-
Kick's calendar pad to page through the appointment file, you
will NOT see a repeating appointment unless you are looking
at the actual day on which you entered the appointment.
For this reason, if you use auto-repeat appointments
within SideKick and want to know whether a particular time
slot is available to make a new appointment, you will be best
off by using PAL first to report on what's doing for the day.
42
Once you have determined with PAL that you have the time, you
can then invoke SideKick to actually enter the appointment.
9.6 Auto-Repeats in Appointment Scratchpad
Once you start playing with the character sequences to
generate automatically-repeating appointments in a SideKick
memo, you may rue the 26 character limitation in each time
slot. The auto-repeat character sequence, depending on the
restrictions you impose, may take up much more space than you
would like.
The logical alternative is to make use of PAL's own
internal Appointment Scratchpad, where auto-repeat appoint-
ments can be designed without using up any of the 26 charac-
ter limitation for your memo. See chapter 7 for complete
information about the Appointment Scratchpad.
43
Chapter 10: SK DELETE and PURGE
If you are not using SideKick with PAL, you can skip
this chapter 10 in its entirety.
PAL has the ability to get rid of entries in your
SideKick appointment file which are of no further use to you.
If you would like to see the amount of space that you could
save in your SideKick appointment file by employing the
DELETE or PURGE procedures, then by making the appropriate
changes within the CLONE procedure (see section 13.1.4.7),
you can have PAL advise you of the benefits each time you run
a report.
To remove old appointments from the Appointment Scratch-
pad, use the "O"ld function from the Appointment Scratchpad
menu. See section 7.9. Deleting old appointments from
SideKick's file is the subject of the remainder of this
chapter.
10.1 Out of Date Appointments
If you'd like to delete all your old appointments from
the SideKick appointment file, then invoke the delete
function with "PAL DELETE" or choose "Delete" from the main
menu. This will get rid of all your out of date appointments
except for reminders ("!") and auto-repeat appointments. PAL
will specifically ask if you would like to delete old
reminders as well, and will do so if you answer "Y"es. PAL
will not automatically delete old auto-repeat appointments
whose usefulness has expired.
The DELETE procedure has no effect on the Appointment
Scratchpad.
Caution:
Beware! When you DELETE old appointments, the SideKick
file is changed so that you will not be able to recover the
old appointments unless you have previously saved a backup
copy of the file.
44
10.2 Deleting Auto-Repeat Appointments
The DELETE procedure, as stated above, will not delete
old automatically repeating appointments. This is so even
though it is possible that an auto-repeat appointment whose
number of repeats has been limited may indeed be out of date
(see section 9.4 for an explanation of how you can limit the
number of repeats in a SideKick memo). The reason that we
have implemented PAL so as not to delete such appointments is
that we recognize that you may have merely estimated the
number of times that you want the appointment to repeat.
Hint:
If you want to examine your time-limited auto-repeat
appointments to make a conscious decision whether to delete
any of them, then simply ask PAL to locate them for you so
you can examine them. To locate the time-limited auto-repeat
appointments within your SideKick file, search for the
special character that signifies the limited number, the "#"
character. The command to search for those appointments,
starting from 1/1/85, is "PAL @ $ #".
10.3 Putting Out the Garbage
The DELETE procedure will also get rid of some useless
records in your appointment file which SideKick tends to
leave there even after you delete them with SideKick. When
you delete an appointment with SideKick, SideKick does not
physically remove the bytes from its file. Instead, all that
SideKick does is place a special code within the file so that
the appointment then becomes invisible.
If all you want to do is collect and dispose of this
garbage but leave your old visible appointments intact, then
use the command "PAL PURGE" or choose "Purge" from the main
menu. The PURGE procedure has no effect on the Appointment
Scratchpad.
The DELETE procedure will automatically invoke the
garbage collection procedure that PURGE uses, so you needn't
invoke both procedures separately.
45
10.4 Avoiding a Conflict With SideKick
If PAL detects that SideKick is not loaded, it will
automatically change your appointment file and rewrite the
new, clean version to disk. However, PAL will refuse to
upgrade your file automatically if it senses that SideKick is
resident within your system. Instead, PAL creates a new file
with the name "CLEAN.APP" and instructs you to copy CLEAN.APP
over your existing file when SideKick is not loaded in memory
or when you know that SideKick is not attached to the file
that has just been cleansed.
Caution:
If you have multitasking software or task-switching
software in your system, PAL may not be able to sense the
presence of SideKick. If you have such software in your
system, please read section 10.6 carefully.
The reason for this protection is that we have observed
that SideKick has at times had problems writing new appoint-
ments to its appointment file when that file has been
shrunken (by PAL) without its knowledge, with the potential
result of scrambling data on your disk! For this reason,
please heed PAL's warnings!
For convenience, we supply you with three additional
command line alternatives which you may find useful to place
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file prior to the command which loads
SideKick. Each of these commands will perform its operations
to their conclusion, without pausing to provide instructions
or to request input from the user. If PAL senses that
SideKick is loaded when these commands are issued, then the
requested operation will not be completed.
PAL DELETEAUTO
Deletes all out-of-date appointments,
except for old reminders.
Also performs "PURGEAUTO".
PAL DELETEAUTOALL
Deletes all out-of-date appointments,
including old reminders.
Also performs "PURGEAUTO".
PAL PURGEAUTO
Deletes only the empty appointments left
behind when you erase an appointment within
SideKick's calendar.
46
10.5 How to Safely Update When SK is Loaded
We strongly recommend against DELETING or PURGING while
SideKick is loaded and encourage you to follow the procedures
set forth earlier in this chapter. If you do follow those
procedures, then there is no need for you to read the
remainder of this section.
If, however, you have a particular need to use DELETE or
PURGE while SideKick is loaded, then please read this section
carefully. If you have multi-tasking or task-switching
software in your system, please read section 10.6 before
attempting to employ these procedures.
When PAL senses that SideKick is loaded, PAL tells you
it is not automatically updating your appointment file but
instead is creating the file CLEAN.APP. There are three
methods you can follow to copy CLEAN.APP over your
APPOINT.APP:
1. First, if and only if you have not yet used
SideKick's appointment entry pad since you booted your
computer, then SideKick will not yet be attached to your
appointment file. You may then perform the copy.
2. Second, you can remove SideKick from memory
before issuing the copy command. Follow the instruc-
tions in your SideKick manual to do this. Go ahead and
copy the appointment file. You may then reinstall Side-
Kick.
3. Third, you can force SideKick (without removing
it from memory) to recognize the new size of your
cleansed appointment file with a little bit of fancy
footwork:
a) Pop up SideKick and force it to
disattach itself from your original appointment
file by doing the following. Call up the calendar,
then enter the appointment entry pad (Alt-L,
followed by Return). Hit "F2" to tell SideKick to
attach itself to a new file name for the appoint-
ment file. Give it the name of any file other than
the original appointment file which PAL has just
cleansed. Press return to make sure that SideKick
has accepted your new choice of file. SideKick has
now disattached itself from your original appoint-
ment file. Drop out of SideKick and return to the
DOS system prompt.
47
b) Now: "COPY CLEAN.APP APPOINT.APP".
c) Pop up SideKick again, and reattach your
original appointment file by using the "F2" selection in
the appointment entry pad and supplying the name of the
original file. SideKick now will be operating with
correct information regarding the length of your
cleansed file.
10.6 Multi-Tasking and Task-Switching Systems
Persons who use multi-tasking systems (e.g. Desqview,
Taskview, Topview) or task-switching systems (e.g. Carousel)
must exercise extra-special caution, because PAL will not be
able to sense when SideKick is loaded in a partition of
memory different from that from which PAL was invoked.
In particular, PAL will be able to sense SideKick only
if (a) SideKick has been made resident globally prior to
installation of the multi-tasking or task-switching software,
or (b) if PAL is run within the separate partition in which
SideKick has been made resident.
When SideKick is made resident within one partition, and
you ask PAL to run either the DELETE or PURGE procedures
within another partition, PAL will merrily go about its
activity oblivious to SideKick's presence in a hidden
partition of your system and will change your file without
the built-in precautions described above.
To avoid potential data loss in multi-tasking or task-
switching systems, you may exercise any one of the following
precautions:
1. Refrain from using DELETE and PURGE during the
normal course of your computer usage. Instead, insert
one of the automatic batch file commands (described in
section 10.4 above) within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file prior
to the command which loads SideKick.
2. If you must use the DELETE or PURGE procedures
while SideKick is loaded in your system, make sure that
SideKick is not hidden from PAL in another partition.
You can assure yourself of this by either:
(a) loading SideKick globally
before your multi-tasker or task-
switcher, or
48
(b) if you load SideKick after your
multi-tasker or task-switcher, then
use PAL only within the partition in
which SideKick is loaded.
3. You may run PAL DELETE or PAL PURGE with
complete safety from a partition which differs from that
in which SideKick resides only if the operation is
performed prior to your first use of SideKick's calendar
since you last booted your computer.
4. If you mistakenly run the DELETE or PURGE
procedure from a partition which differs from SideKick's
partition, and if SideKick's calendar has already been
invoked, then refrain from permitting SideKick to write
any additional appointments to your appointment file
until you follow the "fancy footwork" instructions under
option 3 described in section 10.5.
10.7 Knowing When to Use PURGE or DELETE
If you would like to know how many bytes you can save in
your appointment file with these garbage collection proce-
dures, then you can enter the CLONE procedure, call up the
screen for Miscellaneous Defaults, and ask PAL to show you
the effect of the PURGE and DELETE procedures. The next time
you run PAL in REPORT MODE, you will receive information at
the head of the report showing the number of bytes you could
save if you use either procedure. See section 13.1.4.5.
49
Chapter 11: MULTIPLE SK APPOINTMENT FILES
PAL offers the ability to merge two or more SideKick
appointment files in order to view them together. If you are
not using SideKick with PAL, you can skip this chapter 11 in
its entirety.
11.1 SideKick's Deficiency
SideKick by itself has no capability for simultaneously
viewing the appointments of two or more persons. In particu-
lar, you can merge two files into a single file to be read by
SideKick, but if both files contain an appointment on the
same day at the same time, SideKick will show you only one of
the appointments in the time slot. PAL corrects this defi-
ciency.
11.2 PAL's Solution
If you keep more than one appointment file and would
like to view them together to check on conflicts or common
free time, then copy them together (using the "/b" parame-
ter), and view the combined file with PAL. For instance, if
Dick uses DICK.APP and Jane uses JANE.APP, use the following
command to combine the files into TOTAL.APP:
COPY DICK.APP + JANE.APP TOTAL.APP /b
Then use PAL on the combined file:
PAL 7 TOTAL
If you fail to use the "/b" parameter, then the combined
file will not have the correct number of bytes, and PAL will
refuse to recognize it as a valid appointment file.
If any of the files to be combined contains alarm
appointments, then you may or may not want PAL to load all of
the alarms from all of the files. By default, PAL will load
all alarms which it senses. One of the command line toggle
switches which might be appropriate for using here is the "A"
parameter, which turns off alarm loading. To turn off alarm
loading when reporting on the combined file, use the command
"PAL 7A TOTAL".
50
11.3 An Example
Suppose a single appointments secretary maintains
appointments for six lawyers on her own computer using
SideKick. She uses files named "JOHN.APP", "SUSAN.APP",
"ROBERT.APP" and so forth, all in the "\SK" directory. There
are no other "*.APP" files in her system. Here's the
contents of a simple batch file which she could write to give
her a hard-copy printout of everyone's appointments for the
next week:
CD \SK
DELETE ALL.APP
COPY *.APP ALL /B
REN ALL ALL.APP
PAL 7PA ALL
This batch file first changes to the directory on which
the *.APP files can be found, then deletes the old merged
file (if any), then merges everyone's appointment records,
then sends a 7 day report on the merged file to the printer.
Alarm updating has been suppressed.
51
Chapter 12: ALARMS
PAL will insert alarms into your computer memory for you
so that you may have an audible and visual signal at the time
you wish to be alerted to an appointment.
12.1 Auto-Repeat Alarms
By combining the alarm feature with PAL's auto-repeat
feature, you may design automatically repeating alarms. For
instance, with PAL and PALARM you can set your computer, with
just two memos, to awaken you at 7:00 a.m. each weekday and
11:30 a.m. every weekend day for the rest of your life.
Since you'll be visually and audibly reminded at the
appropriate times with an auto-repeat alarm, you may consider
viewing these alarms in your REPORT MODE reports to be
unnecessarily cluttering. Do you really want to see your
7:00 a.m. wakeup call in your report intermixed with your
other appointments? Probably not. Therefore, PAL allows you
the option of making an auto-repeat alarm invisible to REPORT
MODE. This is accomplished by inserting the inverted carat
character -- ^ -- any place within the memo. Although this
memo will thereafter not appear in any report, you can still
search for it in SEARCH MODE, and any alarms which are sent
off to PALARM will be visible in the table of alarms accessi-
ble in the PAL SET ALARMS menu (see section 12.10).
12.2 PALARM
In order for PAL to insert alarms into your computer
memory, you must first load PALARM. To do so, all you have
to do is issue the command "PALARM", and that program will
install itself and remain resident. You must call PALARM
prior to installing SideKick, because SideKick must remain
the last-installed program in memory.
12.3 Two Ways to Set Alarms
There are two ways that PAL can communicate an alarm to
PALARM: automatically and manually.
52
First, PAL has the capability of automatically inter-
preting a special character (the "@") in your SideKick or
Appointment Scratchpad memo as signifying that you want the
memo treated as an alarm. See section 12.7.
Second, in the PAL SET menu, you may manually add or
edit alarms directly without using SideKick or the Appoint-
ment Scratchpad. See section 12.10.
12.4 Capacity for 10 Alarms
PALARM allows your computer to maintain up to 10 alarms
at any time. When the moment comes for the alarm, PALARM
will pop up over your current application and will present
you with both a visual and an audible alarm (the visual alarm
will not pop up over a graphics application).
12.5 How to Kill or Snooze a Sounding Alarm
You kill a sounding alarm by hitting the carriage return
key.
If you fail to kill the alarm within a specified period,
then PALARM will automatically silence the alarm, snooze for
a period, then pop up again later. You can intentionally
force PALARM to snooze by hitting any key other than the
carriage return when it pops up. If PALARM is snoozing, you
will hear a soft ticking sound approximately once per second.
As distributed, the alarm will display for 10 seconds
and will snooze for 1 minute. You can change the time for
display to between 1 and 60 seconds, and the snooze time to
between 1 minute and 24 hours. This change can be made by
entering the Install function from the PAL SET main menu.
See section 13.2.3.
Hint:
If you want to kill an alarm before it pops up or while
it is snoozing, then you must delete it within the PAL SET
ALARMS menu. See section 12.10.
53
12.6 Controlling the Sound
An additional control you have over the alarm is the
ability to specify the type of sound you hear when the alarm
goes off. You can change the sound to OFF, LOW, NORMAL or
HIGH. The distribution version of PALARM has the sound set
to LOW. See section 13.2.2.
12.7 How to Write a Memo to Become an Alarm
To tell PAL that you want a memo to be loaded automati-
cally as an alarm, simply insert the "@" character anyplace
in the memo. All of the following are valid examples of
memos which will be treated as alarms:
Run for the train @30
@@@@@@ WAKE UP @@@@@@
@ Partners Meeting
When you ask PAL to run a report of your coming appoint-
ments, PAL will translate your memo into an alarm and feed
the information to PALARM. The alarm will then pop up at the
time for which you wrote the memo. The "Title" slot in
SideKick and the Appointment Scratchpad will be interpreted
as 7:30 a.m.
12.8 Advance Alarms
If you want advance notice of the appointment, you can
force the alarm to pop up prior to the time slot of the
appointment by writing the amount of time to advance the
alarm immediately following the "@" character. The alarm
will then pop up that number of minutes prior to the time
slot for which you wrote the memo. For instance, the
sequence "@20" means you want the alarm to pop up 20 minutes
before the time slot of the appointment.
The maximum number you can use is 1440. This gives you
the capability of advancing the alarm anywhere from 1 minute
to 24 hours.
Furthermore, you can amplify the effect of the number to
reflect the number of days or the number of hours for which
you would like advance notice. If you follow the number with
a "D", then the alarm will be advanced that number of days;
54
if you follow the number with an "H", then the alarm will be
advanced that number of hours; if you follow the number with
any other letter or with nothing, then the alarm will be
advanced that number of minutes.
Hint:
By using advance alarms, you can effectively set
appointments for after 8:30 pm (the last regular time entry
slot in SideKick and the Appointment Scratchpad) or before
8:00 am (the earliest slot). Note also that PAL will
interpret the Title slot as calling for an alarm at 7:30 am.
For instance, suppose you want an alarm to sound at 11:30 pm:
you could enter an alarm in the next day's Title slot with
the code "@8h", in the 11:30 am slot with the code "@12h" or
in the 8:00 am slot with the code "@510" -- any of the
foregoing combinations (and innumerable other possible
combinations) would produce an 11:30 pm alarm.
Examples:
Call IRS @
A simple alarm
Wake up @ ~wd
Example of a repeating alarm, every weekday
Run for the train @ ~wd^
Example of a repeating weekday alarm which will not
show up when you run a report, but which will pop
up at the appointed times regularly.
Flight to London @240
Warns you 4 hours in advance
Wedding Anniversary @1d
Lets the forgetful husband/wife know a full day in
advance
Catch Train @ 10
Beware! This will pop up at the precise time of
your memo slot, not 10 minutes in advance! The
space between the "@" and the number means that PAL
will not interpret the "10" as a command to advance
the alarm.
55
12.9 Run PAL to Automatically Update Alarms
In order to automatically update your alarms, you must
run PAL in REPORT MODE from time to time. The alarms which
you design with SideKick and the Appointment Scratchpad do
nothing at all unless PAL reads them, interprets them, and
sends them off to PALARM.
PAL will examine each alarm for its intended date and
time, and if the alarm is to be sounded after the moment at
which PAL is examining it, then PAL will try to load it into
the ten-slot queue which PALARM holds in memory. Only the 10
most immediate alarms will be held in the queue.
Hint:
Periodically running PAL to ask for a report will make
sure that your alarms are updated regularly. If you run PAL
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file every morning when you boot up,
then you're likely to do just fine. Since PALARM has only a
10 alarm capacity, if you set more than 10 alarms during a
day, you'll have to run PAL more frequently than once daily.
12.10 Editing Alarms Manually with PAL SET
Editing alarms manually is accomplished by entering PAL
SET, then entering the "Alarms Menu".
You can reach the PAL SET menu by issuing the command
"PAL SET" or "PAL S" from the command line, or just invoking
"PAL" to get to the main menu and then selecting "SET" from
the main menu.
The PAL SET menu appears as follows:
1. Alarms Menu
2. Clock Toggle
3. Date Toggle
4. Help
5. Install Assumptions
6. Load Info From Disk
7. Save Info To Disk
<ESC> to quit to main menu
From the PAL SET menu, press the "A", "1" or "F1" keys
to enter the Alarms Menu. The Alarms Menu appears in the
56
lower right hand corner of your screen as follows:
1. Add an Alarm
2. Clear all Alarms
3. Delete an Alarm
4. Edit an Alarm
5. Purge Old Alarms
<ESC> to return to main menu
At the top of the screen when you enter the Alarms Menu
is a listing of all the alarms which PALARM currently
contains in memory (up to 10):
You have the following Alarms set:
1. Thu, Mar 3 1988, 4:30pm : Gary Fields @30 ................
2. Thu, Mar 3 1988, 6:45pm : Aerobics @45 ..................
3. Mon, Mar 7 1988, 6:45pm : Art Class @45 ................
4. Thu, Mar 10 1988, 6:45pm : Aerobics @45 ..................
5. Mon, Mar 14 1988, 5:45pm : Lynn @45 .......................
6. Mon, Mar 14 1988, 6:45pm : Art Class @45 ................
7. Thu, Mar 17 1988, 5:45pm : Rhetta @45 .....................
8. Thu, Mar 17 1988, 6:45pm : Aerobics @45 ..................
9.
10.
You are shown the full memo for each alarm and the time
at which it is scheduled to pop up. The next scheduled alarm
will be highlighted to set it off from the rest of the
alarms. If any of the alarms are currently snoozing, that
fact will be noted together with the time at which it will
pop up again.
From the Alarms Menu, you can add alarms, edit them
(change the date, time or memo), delete specific alarms,
purge old alarms (those which are listed prior to the next
scheduled alarm), or clear the entire alarm sequence.
When you exit the Alarms menu and get back to the
opening PAL SET menu, you should "S"ave your changes to the
data file if you want the information remembered the next
time you boot up. If you fail to "S"ave the information,
then your changes will be remembered only for your current
computing session. If, prior to saving the current changes,
you would like to restore the information which was last
saved to disk, then use the "L"oad option from the PAL SET
main menu.
Manual editing of an alarm permits you to determine
57
explicitly the date and time that a memo will pop up, without
having to insert any special codes within the memo.
Hint:
It is best to manually edit alarms which are not near
the end of the 10-place queue that PALARM holds. The reason
for this caution is that the automatic interpretation by PAL
of SideKick and Appointment Scratchpad memos may, under
certain circumstances, delete your manually entered alarm.
Here's how that would happen. Let's say you have manually
entered an alarm for one year down the road. PAL, however,
sees from your SideKick or Appointment Scratchpad memos that
you want 15 alarms sounding between now and then. As
indicated above, PALARM has space for only 10 alarms. What
PAL will do is insert the 10 most immediate alarms in those
spaces. If it finds that an alarm which has already been
scheduled is set to occur later than the 10 alarms it wants
to insert, then the later alarm will be pushed out of the
queue. If that alarm which has been kicked out was within
the SideKick or Appointment Scratchpad memos, then PAL will
automatically add it back to the queue when there is room.
But if the unfortunate alarm was manually added, then it
won't get back in unless you manually add it in once again.
Hint:
Whenever you kill a sounding alarm, PALARM will update
the alarm data file on your disk, even if you are in the
midst of an alarm editing session. Therefore, if an alarm
pops up in the middle of an editing session and you don't
want the current changes to overwrite your existing data,
then instead of killing the alarm, force it to snooze. When
you are certain that your editing changes are correct, you
can then kill the alarm the next time it pops up.
12.11 Removing PALARM
To remove PALARM from memory, you must be at the DOS
system prompt. Simply invoke "PALOFF" at the DOS system
prompt. "PALOFF.EXE" is one of the files supplied, and it
should reside in a directory within your DOS path for maximum
convenience.
If it is safe to unload PALARM from memory, then the
program will terminate its operations and release its
occupied memory.
If another program is resident in memory after PALARM
58
and that program uses some of the same interrupt vectors that
PALARM uses, then it is not safe to remove PALARM until the
other program is first removed from memory. In the event
such a condition exists, PALARM will remain in memory. You
will have to remove the other program first before trying
again to unload PALARM.
59
Chapter 13: CLONING NEW VERSIONS OF PAL
There are many, many ways you can customize PAL to meet
your own needs. All you need to do is tell PAL how to change
its assumptions, then PAL will clone a new version of itself
which will remember what you told it.
There are two places within the program in which you can
specify assumptions:
1. In the CLONE procedure, you have numerous
options to change regarding the operation of PAL. See
section 13.1.
2. To change aspects of the operation of PALARM,
you must first enter the SET procedure and then select
"Install Assumptions". See section 13.2.
To reach the CLONE procedure, simply invoke "PAL CLONE"
or "PAL C" from the command line, or select it directly from
PAL's opening menu.
Similarly, to reach the SET procedure, invoke "PAL SET"
or "PAL S" from the command line, or select it from PAL's
opening menu. Then select "Install Assumptions".
13.1 The Clone Procedure
After reaching the CLONE procedure, you will be pre-
sented with a menu of the following choices:
1. Appointment Scratchpad
2. File Location Defaults
3. Holidays
4. Miscellaneous Defaults
5. Printer Defaults
6. Clone
<ESC> to quit without change
You may select any of the six operations by hitting the
alphabetic key corresponding to the function, the numeric
key, or the function key (F1 - F6).
Each of the first 5 operations permit you to change
PAL's internal assumptions. You may change all, some or none
of the assumptions. You may jump from operation to opera-
60
tion, and PAL will remember all of your changes until you
leave the CLONE menu.
There are only two ways to leave the CLONE menu: by
choosing operation #6 to CLONE the changes you have made, or
by hitting ESC to leave the menu without making any changes.
Hint:
If for some reason you have made so many changes from
the original distribution default assumptions that you want
an easy method of returning to PAL's original assumptions,
then use the RESTORE procedure, discussed at section 13.1.8.
Example:
The benefit of being able to CLONE different copies of
PAL is illustrated by the following scenario. Suppose you
use PAL sometimes to print out (on paper) a report of your
coming appointments for a month, and you need to use special
printer control codes to squeeze the characters to the
smallest possible size so that you have a nice neat little
schedule to slip into your wallet. At other times you want
to use normal size print for a hard copy of the coming week's
appointments to place on your desk. For the first use, you
can insert the special printer codes , make the default
command line "30P", and, when you go through the CLONE
operation specify "MONTHLY" as the name of your new ".EXE"
file. For the second use, use PAL's default printer codes,
change the command line to "7P" and name the ".EXE" file
"WEEKLY". At the DOS system prompt, issuing the command
"MONTHLY" will cause your squeezed, monthly report to be
issued, while issuing the command "WEEKLY" will give you your
hard copy for the next week, at normal print size.
A description of each of the operations which can be
initiated from the CLONE menu follows.
13.1.1 Appointment Scratchpad
This choice summons PAL's Appointment Scratchpad, which
can be used both as an auxiliary to and/or as a replacement
for SideKick's appointment file. For detailed information
about the Appointment Scratchpad, see chapter 7.
The changes which you make in the Appointment Scratchpad
will take effect only if you choose to CLONE the changes.
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13.1.2 File Location Defaults
When you summon this choice from within the CLONE menu,
you are given the opportunity to change the following
assumptions. Remember that the changes which you make here
will not take effect unless you CLONE and do not ESCape from
the CLONE procedure.
13.1.2.1 The Second Directory
This is the full path name of the directory in which PAL
should look for your SideKick appointment file if it cannot
find the file in your DOS path. As distributed, PAL assumes
the Second Directory to be "C:\SK\".
13.1.2.2 The Third Directory
This is the full path name of the directory in which PAL
should look for your SideKick appointment file if it cannot
find the file in your DOS path or in the Second Directory.
As distributed, PAL assumes the Third Directory to be "C:\".
13.1.2.3 Appointment Calendar Name
This is the filename (first 8 characters only) of the
SideKick appointment file. As distributed, PAL assumes the
name to be "APPOINT".
If you change this name to "NOFILE", then PAL will
automatically look only in its own Appointment Scratchpad,
unless you supply a specific filename on the command line.
13.1.2.4 Appointment Calendar Type
This is the extension for the filename (the 3 characters
after the period in the whole file name) of the SideKick
appointment file. As distributed, PAL assumes the type to be
"APP". The purpose of this assumption is that PAL will
automatically add the extension to a filename specified by
you on the command line but for which you do not explicitly
state the extension.
If your filename is "NOFILE", PAL will not add the
extension. Instead, the NOFILE filename will force PAL to
look in the Appointment Scratchpad without looking at any
SideKick appointment file.
To override the assumption for files that do not have
any extension, simply specify the filename on the command
62
line with a period immediately following it.
Examples:
PAL 7
-- will look for APPOINT.APP in the DOS path, then
the Second Directory, then the Third Directory.
PAL 7 JANE
-- will look for JANE.APP in the same sequence of
directories.
PAL 7 d:\utility\
-- will look for d:\utility\appoint.app
PAL 7 d:\utility\jane
-- will look for d:\utility\jane.app
PAL 7 noextens.
-- will look for the file NOEXTENS, which does not
have any extension in the last three character
places of the file name.
13.1.2.5 Report File Name
This is the name of the file to which PAL writes your
report when you specify the "F" optional parameter. On
distribution, PAL assumes the name of the file to be PAL.TXT.
This file will be written in the current subdirectory from
which you invoke PAL.
13.1.3 Holidays
PAL will automatically show you several common holidays.
You may use the CLONE procedure to change the holidays that
PAL shows.
Once you enter the CLONE procedure, hit "3", "F3" or "H"
in order to view your holiday settings. You will be pre-
sented with a list of possible holidays in two columns:
"General Holidays" and "Religious Holidays". On distribu-
tion, PAL is set to show fewer than 50% of those holidays
which it is capable of showing. The holidays marked below
63
with an asterisk are the ones which PAL will show you if you
make no changes to its initial assumptions:
*New Year's Day *Easter Sunday
Martin Luther King Day *Good Friday
Lincoln's Birthday Ash Wednesday
Valentine's Day Shrove Tuesday
*President's Day Palm Sunday
St. Patrick's Day Pentecost
*Mother's Day
*Memorial Day *Hanukkah
Flag Day *Rosh Hashanah
*Father's Day *Yom Kippur
*Independence Day *Passover
*Labor Day Succoth
*Columbus Day Simchat Torah
Election Day Tu B'Shevat
Veteran's Day Sh'mini Atzeret
*Thanksgiving Day Purim
*Day After Thanksgiving Yom Hashoah
*Christmas Day Lag B'Omer
Shavuot
Tisha B'av
When you first enter the holiday screen, those holidays
which are set will appear highlighted. You will be asked
whether you want to change any of the holidays. If you
answer "Y" for yes, a small arrow will be pointed at "New
Year's Day" and you will be prompted for your response for
each holiday. At each position, you may answer "Y" or "N",
you may simply hit the carriage return to accept whatever
state the holiday is set for, or you may hit "ESC" to end
your editing session.
The changes which you make in the holiday editing
session will take effect only if you choose to CLONE your
changes.
The holidays you select will show up whenever you run a
report in REPORT MODE. If you prefer not to see the holidays
in a report, you may either (a) turn off all of the holidays
permanently in the CLONE procedure, or (b) turn them off
temporarily by using the "H" toggle switch (e.g. "PAL 7H").
13.1.4 Miscellaneous Defaults
The Miscellaneous Defaults operation is selected by
hitting "4", "F4" or "M". You will be presented with a
series of choices, with a description of the effect of each
64
choice, and you will be asked whether you want to change any
of the assumptions. If you answer "Y" for yes, then you will
be able to make the following decisions:
13.1.4.1 Default Command Line
This is the command which PAL will execute if you do not
specify any additional parameters on the command line. In
the distribution version of PAL, this default command line is
"MENU", so that PAL will show you its main menu if all you do
at the DOS system prompt is write the command "PAL".
You may change the default command line to any command
that PAL can understand. Do not start off the command with
the word "PAL" as you would if you were issuing a command
from the DOS system prompt. Instead, provide a command
similar to that which you would use in the "Enter Command
Line" choice in the main menu. The beginning "PAL" is
assumed.
If you have substituted a new default command line with
this option, you can always request the main menu from the
DOS system prompt with the command "PAL MENU" or "PAL M".
13.1.4.2 Color Display
This choice is important only for color monitors. The
distribution version of PAL will display in color on systems
with color monitors. Systems which try to emulate color
monitors but in shades of gray will try to display PAL's
colors.
Some color and composite monitors may display PAL's
colors poorly. A "composite" monitor is one which displays
only two colors (e.g., black and white, black and amber,
black and green) but which tries to emulate a color graphics
adapter rather than a monochrome display; this is common in
many laptop computers. You can use this selection to
permanently turn off color so that PAL will write to your
screen as if it were a simple monochrome monitor. If your
screen display is so poor that you cannot even read the
directions within the CLONE procedure, then please read the
discussion in the Installation chapter under the heading
"Screen Display" at section 2.5. If you run PAL on a true
monochrome monitor, your selection for this option is
unimportant.
Hint:
Whatever you choose for this selection, you can tempo-
rarily force PAL in REPORT MODE or in SEARCH MODE to toggle
back to the reverse kind of display by using the "C" toggle
65
switch.
13.1.4.3 Reverse Video
This choice is significant only for monochrome and black
& white monitors (including color monitors for which you have
forced PAL to display in simple black and white).
The distribution version of PAL will show some messages
in reverse video on monochrome monitors and black & white
monitors. For instance, your appointments for today through
the next business day will show up in reverse video.
However, some monitors may not show reverse video in a
satisfactory manner. If you prefer to use intense (bright)
video in lieu of reverse video, then answer "N" to this
question. Otherwise, answer "Y".
13.1.4.4 Single Character Auto-Repeat
PAL will interpret certain special characters in your
SideKick memos as signals that you want the appointment to be
repeated in your report automatically. The square brackets-
- '[' and ']' -- and the curly brackets -- '{' and '}'--
will signal annual, monthly, weekly and daily repeating
appointments. These frequencies for repeating may also be
signified by two-character sequences beginning with the tilde
character "~". See the chapter on auto-repeat appointments
for more information, section 9.1.
You may prefer to employ the bracket characters for
normal usage within your SideKick memos without having them
signify auto-repeat appointments. You would then rely on the
tilde sequences instead. To make PAL ignore the bracket
characters, answer "N" to this question, otherwise answer
"Y".
The distribution version of PAL does use the bracket
characters to signify auto-repeat.
If you do not use SideKick with PAL, then your answer to
this choice is unimportant.
13.1.4.5 Effect of PURGE and DELETE
If you answer "Y" to this question, then at the top of
each Report of your appointments, PAL will let you know how
many bytes you could save in your SideKick appointment file
if you were to use the PURGE or DELETE procedures.
The distribution version of PAL does not show this
information.
66
If you do not use SideKick with PAL, then your answer to
this choice is unimportant.
13.1.4.6 Noise
The distribution version of PAL will blip at you occa-
sionally in certain circumstances. You can silence PAL by
answering "N" to this question.
13.1.4.7 Extended Alarm Report
The last thing that PAL tells you in REPORT MODE is
whether you have alarms to be loaded into PALARM. If so, you
can have PAL tell you all the alarms which it is loading. On
distribution, PAL does not give you this extended report. To
force PAL to give you this information, answer "Y" to this
question.
13.1.5 Printer Defaults
You can send a report to your printer by using the "P"
switch. For instance, "PAL 7P" will send a 7 day report to
your printer. There are three changes which you can make to
PAL's printer defaults.
13.1.5.1 Initialization String
PAL allows you to send up to 26 bytes to your printer to
initialize it prior to printing a report. You need to know
the hex notation of the printer codes you want to send. On
distribution, PAL's initialization string is merely a series
of zeroes, which should not have any effect on your printer.
13.1.5.2 Exit String
PAL also allows you to send up to 26 bytes to your
printer after the report is concluded. As with the initiali-
zation string, you need to know the hex notation of the
printer codes to send. On distribution, PAL's exit string is
just a form feed character (hex code: 0C), followed by a
series of zeroes.
13.1.5.3 Lines Per Page
This is the number of lines that PAL will print to a
page before telling your printer to advance to the next page.
On distribution, PAL will issue the form feed instruction
after every 48 lines. You may change this number to any
other number. A simple 0 will force continuous printing
67
without form feeds.
13.1.6 Clone
Once you have made all the changes that you desire
within the CLONE procedure, the only way to make those
changes permanent is to strike "6", "F6" or "C" to force the
changes to be written to disk.
The first screen that you reach is one which reminds you
what happens if you proceed. If you want to avoid writing
your changes, then hit the ESC key. You may proceed to CLONE
by hitting any other key.
Assuming that you proceed, you will next be asked the
name of the file that you want to create. You may accept the
default name by hitting return, or you may select any other
name for the file. The default name will appear as "PAL" or
as the last name you chose when you previously CLONED the
program. You can CLONE several copies of PAL, all with
different names, each of which can contain different internal
assumptions.
The next screen informs you that PAL will seek a valid
PAL.EXE file in your path and will CLONE a new copy into that
directory. Here again you will be given the opportunity to
avoid CLONING by hitting the ESC key. If you hit any other
key, PAL will proceed with the CLONE operation. If PAL
cannot find a valid PAL.EXE file in your path, it will seek
your help in locating one. If you are asked to supply the
name of a valid PAL.EXE file, you may provide the name of any
renamed or CLONED file which is a descendant of your original
PAL.EXE.
If PAL finds that a file already exists with the same
name that you are trying to create, PAL will give you the
choice of overwriting that file, backing it up, changing the
name, or hitting the ESC key to abort the process.
13.1.7 <ESC> to quit without change
....means just what it says. If you hit the ESC key,
then all the changes which you have made within the CLONE
session will be lost, and the defaults which existed within
PAL prior to entering the session will be retained.
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13.1.8 The RESTORE Procedure
For a quick method of restoring PAL's original distribu-
tion defaults, use the RESTORE procedure. Employing this
procedure returns all of the selections back to PAL's virgin
state. You may have need of this procedure, for instance, if
you have made many changes, have thought better of it, and
would like to start from scratch again.
The RESTORE procedure restores only the assumptions
which were changed with the CLONE procedure, as described in
all of the sections which fall within section 13.1 of this
manual. The changes which you may have made with the PAL SET
INSTALL procedure described in section 13.2 will not be
affected.
To invoke the RESTORE procedure, either choose the
RESTORE selection from PAL's main menu, or you can call it
from the DOS system prompt with "PAL RESTORE" or "PAL R".
13.1.9 Saving and Reading CLONE Images
You can use virtually an infinite number of CLONE setups
by taking advantage of PAL's ability to save its CLONE
settings, including the entire Appointment Scratchpad, to a
disk file. You may then read back any one of those CLONE
images to make PAL accept all the assumptions contained in
the requested image.
This feature may also come in handy for you when future
enhancements of PAL come out. Instead of having to re-enter
all your Appointment Scratchpad memos and all your CLONE
settings to a new version, each new version of PAL will be
able to read your old image file.
Saving and reading CLONE images affects only the
assumptions which were changed with the CLONE procedure, as
described in all of the sections which fall within section
13.1 of this manual. The changes which you may have made
with the PAL SET INSTALL procedure described in section 13.2
will not be saved or affected.
To save an image, go to PAL's main menu. Press the
"ALT" key, then while still holding the ALT key, press "S"
(this key combination is commonly referred to as "ALT-S").
You will be asked for the name of the file to which you would
69
like the image written. The default name is "PAL2.0", which
will be used unless you specify a different name. If you
accept the default name, the file will be written in the
current directory. If the file already exists, then you will
be given the choice to overwrite the file, back it up, change
the name you want to use, or else escape the procedure.
To read an image, press ALT-R at PAL's main menu. Since
reading a new image into PAL will obliterate the CLONE image
which currently exists within PAL, you will be asked to
confirm your choice to read an image. This will give you the
opportunity to change your mind so that you can save the
existing image first. If you choose to proceed, you must
select the file name of the image. The default name is
"PAL2.0", but you may choose any other existing image file.
Once you select the name, PAL will search for the file along
your DOS path and the two alternate directories which you
previously set with the CLONE procedure. If you specify a
complete file name including the directory, then PAL will
look only in that directory for that particular file.
As an alternative to using ALT-S and ALT-R at the main
menu, PAL offers two special command line parameters:
SAVEIMAGE and READIMAGE. Each of these command line alterna-
tives is designed for quick action by PAL without pausing for
confirmation or choices from the user, and therefore should
be employed only when you know that the data which will be
overwritten either has been previously saved or does not need
to be saved.
To save an image, use the command:
PAL SAVEIMAGE [FILENAME]
where FILENAME is the optional name of the file to which you
would like to write. If you do not designate a FILENAME,
then PAL will write to the file PAL2.0 in the current
directory. PAL will not query whether you want to take
alternative action if the file already exists, it will just
overwrite the file, so be certain before using this command
that you are not concerned about losing the data in the
existing file.
To read an image, use the command:
PAL READIMAGE [FILENAME]
where FILENAME is again the optional name of the file which
you want to read. If you do not designate a FILENAME, then
PAL will try to find PAL2.0. PAL will seek the image file in
the DOS path and the two special directories which you have
set with the CLONE procedure. It will not query you to
70
confirm whether you want to proceed, so satisfy yourself that
the existing CLONE information either is not of importance to
you or has first been saved. If PAL cannot find the speci-
fied file in the path, then it will return to the DOS system
prompt without further action.
13.2 The PAL SET INSTALL Procedure
This chapter has, so far, described the assumptions that
can be changed within PAL concerning its methods of operation
and how it presents its reports to you. We now turn to a
description of how you can change various assumptions that
PALARM uses with respect to how it deals with your alarms.
As with the CLONE procedure, PAL offers you the opportu-
nity to change these assumptions through a series of choices,
then writes your desired changes to your PALARM.EXE file for
permanence. These changes are reached from the PAL SET menu,
at which you arrive by issuing "PAL SET" or "PAL S" from the
command line, or hitting "7", "F7" or "S" from PAL's main
menu. Once in the PAL SET menu, choose "Install Assumptions"
by hitting "5", "F5" or "I".
When you request the INSTALL procedure, you are pre-
sented with a screen that shows the current assumptions with
which PALARM is presently working, and you are asked whether
you want to change any of them. If you do, then respond with
a "Y"; if not, then hit the "N" key and you will be returned
to the PAL SET menu.
When you respond with a "Y", you will be presented with
a series of four screens offering you the opportunity to
change assumptions. Each screen shows a few of the assump-
tions which can be changed, describing what effect they have
and what PALARM presently assumes. The screens are as
follows:
13.2.1 Data File
This is the name of the file which contains a record of
your alarms. When PALARM is first loaded into memory, it
will look for this file. When PALARM pops up an alarm and
you kill it by hitting the carriage return key, then PALARM
will update this file. This is so that PALARM will know the
next time it's loaded that the alarm has already been popped
up. If, when PALARM loads, it senses an old alarm in the
71
data file which has not yet been popped up, then PALARM will
pop up with that alarm immediately. This will assure you
that if you missed an alarm because your computer was shut
off at the appropriate time then you will not ignore the
alarm in silent bliss.
On distribution, the name of the data file is assumed to
be "\PALARM.DAT". You may change this to any legal file
name.
13.2.2 Sound Level
When an alarm pops up, you will be presented with a
visual and an audible alarm (though the visual alarm will not
pop up over a graphics screen). You may select any of four
sound levels for the alarm:
a) Off -- self-explanatory.
b) Soft -- the distribution default, sounds a
bit like the squishy sound of walking in soggy
shoes.
c) Medium -- a more insistent beeping that
sounds like your nephew's toy ray-gun.
d) Loud -- a high-pitched siren.
13.2.3 Snooze Feature
Once the alarm pops up, you may cancel it by hitting the
return key. If within a limited period of time you fail to
hit the return key, or if you hit any key other than the
carriage return, then the alarm will silence itself and
permit your system to continue running while it snoozes. You
will be reminded that an alarm is snoozing because your
system will be emitting a soft ticking sound in the meantime.
The alarm will pop up once more after a specified period of
time.
The two changes you can make here are:
(a) The number of seconds for the alarm to sound:
between 1 and 60 seconds.
(b) The number of minutes for the alarm to snooze:
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between 1 and 1440 minutes (a full 24 hours).
The purpose of the snooze mode is fairly obvious.
Imagine the following scenario with an alarm system that
captures your system and refuses to let go until you con-
sciously choose to silence the alarm. Suppose you start a
sort of your customer records with SlowBase VI, knowing that
it ought to take an hour. So you go out for lunch, expecting
the sort to be completed by the time you come back. Lo and
behold, when you return you find that the alarm is screeching
at you for some event that you had forgotten about. When you
kill the alarm, SlowBase VI resumes its sort at the 45th of
5,784 records! An alarm without a snooze feature is fairly
useless, isn't it?
Hint:
If, while an alarm is snoozing, you would like to cancel
the alarm without waiting for the snooze period to finish,
you can delete the alarm by entering the PAL SET procedure.
From the PAL SET menu, select "A"larms, then "D"elete the
alarm that shows as snoozing.
13.2.4 Clock and Date
13.2.4.1 Clock Visibility on Start-Up
As distributed, PALARM will automatically show you the
time in the upper-right corner of your monitor. With this
choice, you may force PALARM not to show the clock when it
loads.
To turn the clock on or off quickly and temporarily, you
may use the "Clock Toggle" selection at the PAL SET menu.
13.2.4.2 Date Visibility on Start-Up
As distributed, PALARM will automatically show you the
date in the upper-right corner of your monitor. With this
choice, you may force PALARM not to show the date when it
loads.
To turn the date on or off quickly and temporarily, you
may use the "Date Toggle" selection at the PAL SET menu.
13.2.4.3 Colors for Clock and Date
If you are not pleased with the color combination for
the clock and date display, you may change the colors with
this choice. You will be presented with a table of numbers
73
displayed in varying combinations of background and fore-
ground colors. Simply choose the number which corresponds to
the color combination of your choice.
13.2.5 Cloning Your PALARM Changes
Once you have made your desired changes within the PAL
SET INSTALL procedure, you may clone these changes permanent-
ly. Just follow the instructions presented on the screen.
If you choose to clone, then all changes will take effect
immediately.
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Chapter 14: TSR WARS, RAM CRAM AND MULTITASKING
This chapter discusses some of the problems you might
face if you use PALARM so that you can take advantage of
PAL's alarm capability. If you do not use PALARM, then you
don't need to read the remainder of this chapter.
14.1 TSR Wars
Resident programs are often referred to as TSR's, named
after the DOS programmer's function that permits a program to
Terminate but Stay Resident. As more and more resident
programs vie for memory, processor time and control, it is
inevitable that skirmishes may result, sometimes resulting in
total system lockup which can only be remedied by turning the
system off and then back on again.
PALARM has been tested in many system configurations and
has been found to coexist peacefully in the vast majority of
situations. If, for any reason, you find that the introduc-
tion of PALARM as a resident program in your system causes
computer lock-ups or any other problems, then try the
following:
1. In most cases, you will find that loading PALARM
early on in the sequence should solve your problem.
2. You should also make sure that SideKick is your
last-loaded resident program.
Caution:
Running "CHKDSK" with the "/F" parameter is a potential
problem under certain limited circumstances. This is the
case with ANY program that alters your disk's FAT table.
Although this is not the result of a war between two resident
programs, it is a concern which can arise because two things
are happening in your computer at the same time without the
two processes being aware of each other. If you kill an
alarm while CHKDSK is running, PALARM updates its data file,
and it is possible that CHKDSK may be fooled into thinking
that you have a disk error when in fact there is none.
Answering "YES" to CHKDSK's query whether it should fix the
"problem" could result in scrambling PALARM's data file and
other unknown results. For this reason, you should do either
of the following when running "CHKDSK /F": (1) Snooze the
alarm instead of killing it if the alarm pops up before
CHKDSK makes its report, or (2) Answer "NO" to CHKDSK's fix-
up query if the alarm has popped up before CHKDSK has
finished its processing and CHKDSK then reports an error on
your disk.
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14.2 Ram Cram and Multitasking
Another problem which is presented by the proliferation
of resident programs is "ram cram," a malady that results
when you have so many programs residing permanently in your
computer's memory that you don't have sufficient memory left
to run your normal applications programs. A few years ago,
CP/M based computers with a 64K limit were the cutting edge
of technology, and when IBM came forward with a 640K capa-
city, many people wondered why anybody could possibly want so
much memory. Now, the 640K "horizon" is more frequently
viewed as a "barrier" to efficient computing. PALARM only
uses about 30K of your RAM, but that little bit may, to some
people, be too precious to part with.
In order to go beyond the 640K barrier, you'll need to
get operating software that supports breaking down that wall.
Future versions of OS/2 promise to permit this, and some
presently available software, such as Desqview operating on
80386 machines, offer this possibility now.
14.3 Hints on PALARM with Multitasking
PALARM and PAL have seen limited testing in multitasking
systems. If you have any problems using PAL and PALARM in a
multitasking system, please let us know so that we can make
it work for you.
If you use a multitasking program, PALARM will work best
if it is loaded prior to the multitasker. This will ensure
that PALARM will always be watching the system clock and that
PAL and PALARM can communicate with each other.
If, for reasons of limited memory, you must load PALARM
in a window of the multitasker, then you have a solution to
the ram cram problem, but the operation of PALARM will be
somewhat inefficient. Following are considerations which you
should be aware of if you load PALARM within a window of your
multitasker:
1. The PALARM window should be configured to run
in the background. Otherwise, PALARM won't be able to
watch your system clock to determine when to pop up an
alarm.
2. When an alarm pops up over your current
application, you will not be able to communicate with
PALARM to snooze or kill the alarm unless you switch to
the PALARM window first.
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3. Once you snooze or kill the alarm within the
PALARM window, PALARM will attempt to restore your
screen to its state at the moment before the alarm
popped up. The trouble here is that the visual alarm
originally popped up over an application in an entirely
different window. Consequently, the PALARM window will
wind up with screen information from your Lotus spread-
sheet (or whatever you were in), and the Lotus spread-
sheet will still have the visual alarm blinking in it
when you return to the Lotus window. Although this may
be disconcerting when you see it, no harm is done. What
has been scrambled is only your screen information, not
your data. Each window's screen will be corrected the
next time you take an action in that window which causes
the screen to be refreshed.
4. You will have to decide whether you want
PALARM by itself in a small window, or whether you want
PAL and PALARM together running in a larger window.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both choices.
The advantage of the small PALARM window is that
multitasking RAM is being used more efficiently. The
disadvantage is that PAL will not be able to communicate
with PALARM unless it is within the same window. The
advantages and disadvantages of the large PAL/PALARM
window are, of course, the converse of the small PALARM
window.
5. If you choose the small PALARM window, you
will still be able to communicate new alarms to PALARM
by observing the following procedure. To update alarms
either automatically or manually, you'll have to
completely kill the small PALARM window, temporarily
open a large PAL/PALARM window to communicate the alarms
and create an updated data file (PALARM.DAT), kill the
large PAL/PALARM window, then open a brand new PALARM
window which will read the updated PALARM.DAT. This
procedure is clunky, but if you must save RAM by loading
PALARM in a small window, you will find that it does
work.
6. Lastly, you will have to design a batch file
to be executed in each window. An appropriate batch
file for the small PALARM window would be:
PALARM
PAUSE
The "PAUSE" is required to prevent your window from
closing immediately. You would add the same command for
any window in which you want to load a program that
terminates and stays resident. An appropriate batch
77
file for the large PAL/PALARM window would be:
PALARM
PAL
This window will close whenever you exit PAL.
14.4 PALARM and Task-switching Programs
Task-switching programs such as Carousel are designed to
shift programs rapidly in and out of memory. The application
which is shifted out of memory does not run in the back-
ground. For this reason, it is inappropriate to load PALARM
in a window of a task-switching program. Instead, PALARM
should be loaded globally before the task-switching program.
78
Chapter 15: SUPPORT AND UPGRADES
Support will be provided to paid, registered users only.
This is one of the benefits of registering your shareware
version of PAL.
a) Voice Line: (914) 762-5322. This line is
answered most of the time by an answering machine. Let us
know the problem and we'll call you back.
b) PAL Software BBS: (914) 762-8055. Answers your
computer 24 hours a day at 300, 1200, 2400 and 9600 (US Robo-
tics) baud.
c) Compuserve: ID # 70475,1071. Send us an EASYPLEX
message, or you can send a public message on any of the
following SIGS: IBMSW or BORAPP.
d) Source: ID # ST2338. Send us mail to the fore-
going ID number.
e) By mail at PAL Software NY, Inc., 51 Cedar Lane,
Ossining, NY 10562.
Registered users are entitled to notices of upgrades.
Upgrades within 6 months of payment for registration will be
made at a nominal cost; upgrades thereafter will be available
at a discount for registered users.
79
Chapter 16: LICENSE, WARRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS
Our lawyer says we have to write this stuff here. It
just so happens that the sole shareholder of PAL Software NY,
Inc. is a lawyer.
16.1 Shareware License
PAL and PALARM (the "Licensed Programs") are the
exclusive property of PAL Software NY, Inc. (the "Licensor").
Holders of the shareware version are granted a license to try
the Licensed Programs for a limited period of time.
If you use the Licensed Programs at least once a week or
over a period in excess of one month, then it is understood
that you are satisfied with the Licensed Programs and must
register and pay for the Licensed Programs. If you continue
to use the Licensed Programs under such circumstances without
registering and paying for them, then you are in violation of
this limited license.
The plain English limitation here is: If you like and
use the program, then register and pay for it. If, after a
period of time of using the program you choose not to pay for
the it, then stop using it.
16.2 Commercial License
It is understood that users who have purchased the
commercial version directly from the Licensor or from an
authorized dealer have satisfied the requirements of the
preceding paragraph.
The commercial, non-shareware version may not be sold,
transferred, sublicensed or otherwise disposed of by any
person except with prior written authorization by PAL
Software NY, Inc.
16.3 Further Shareware Distribution
Persons in possession of a copy of the shareware version
of the Licensed Programs are encouraged to share them with
others by uploading them to computer bulletin boards, sending
copies to friends, etc. You are permitted to re-distribute
the shareware version so long as no changes are made to the
80
programs or the documentation and the entire archived set is
distributed unaltered.
A reasonable charge may be received for the expense of
copying the programs and transmitting them, but in no event
must the person with whom you are sharing the Licensed
Programs be lead or permitted to believe that payment of such
amounts constitutes registration or satisfies the require-
ments to register which are imposed by this license.
Disk distribution services are encouraged to distribute
the shareware version of the Licensed Programs so long as the
service's catalog or other indexing material contains a clear
statement that the Licensed Programs are shareware, not
public domain, and that the user is expected to pay for the
Licensed Programs if the user likes them and intends to
continue to use them. Disk distribution services are
encouraged to contact the Association of Shareware Profes-
sionals for suggested language.
Computer consultants and hardware sellers are permitted
to distribute the shareware version of the Licensed Programs
along with their products and services so long as it is made
clear to the end user that the Licensed Programs are share-
ware and that the Licensor requires payment if the end user
continues to use the Licensed Programs. In no event may the
end user be lead or permitted to believe that the fee paid
for consulting, hardware or software includes the registra-
tion fee required for the Licensed Programs.
16.4 Site Licenses and Dealer Pricing
For information concerning site licenses, please contact
the Licensor.
For information on dealer pricing, please contact the
Licensor.
16.5 No Modifications Permitted
In no event is any person permitted to modify the
Licensed Programs or any of the associated documentation.
81
16.6 Limitations on Warranties and Remedies
The Licensor represents that many users have enjoyed
using PAL and certainly hopes that you will, too. However,
the Licensor DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE LICENSED PROGRAMS ARE
FIT FOR ANY PARTICULAR USE OR ARE MERCHANTABLE. THE LICENSED
PROGRAMS ARE NOT WARRANTED TO BE FREE OF BUGS, NOR ARE THEY
PROVIDED WITH ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE
LICENSED PROGRAMS ARE SUITABLE FOR YOU. IN NO EVENT SHALL
THE LICENSOR, ITS OWNERS OR AGENTS BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR LOST DATA OR
PROFITS TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY THAT MAY ARISE OUT OF THE
USE OF THE LICENSED PROGRAMS, EVEN IF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE LICENSOR.
RECOVERABLE DAMAGES IN ANY EVENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO NOT MORE
THAN THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LICENSED PROGRAMS OR THE RETAIL
PRICE OF SAME, WHICHEVER IS LESS.
82
Chapter 17: REGISTRATION
17.1 Shareware Version
If you have the shareware version of PAL, you are
obliged to register the program and pay the required fee if
you continue to use the program.
Every time you exit the shareware version of PAL, you
view a screen which reminds you to register. At the bottom
of your screen, you will see two successive prompts asking
whether you would like to print out a registration form and
mailing envelope. Make sure your printer is connected and
turned on, then answer "Y" to each question.
You will have the following three options, listed in
increasing order of benefits and price:
1. A disk of the latest shareware version:
$3.00. This choice does not constitute registration and is
offered so that you or your associates can get the latest
available shareware version. The cost of the shareware disk
may be applied against a future full registration.
2. A disk of the latest commercial version,
without printed documentation, but with documentation
contained in a disk file which can be printed to your
printer: $35.00. This choice entitles you to full support
and notices of upgrades.
3. A disk of the latest commercial version, with
binder and printed documentation: $49.95. This choice also
entitles you to full support and notices of upgrades.
Fill out the form, fold the envelope, insert your check
and the completed registration form into the envelope, seal
and stamp the envelope, then entrust the entire assemblage to
the U.S. Post Office.
We reserve the right to change prices without prior
notification. If there has been a price increase, then we
will communicate with you before processing your order. If
there has been a price decrease, we will process your order
immediately and rebate the excess.
83
17.2 Commercial Version
We recommend that you register your commercially
distributed version of PAL. In this way, we can inform you
of updates and other pertinent news. Furthermore, if you
have purchased your commercial version from an authorized
dealer rather than directly from PAL Software NY, Inc., then
you must register with us so that we know you are entitled to
support.
To obtain a registration form, enter online help and
select the choice for "registration". As with the shareware
version, you will be presented with a screen describing
registration and permitting you to print out a registration
form and envelope. Follow the instructions described above
in section 17.1, except do not send a check unless you are
ordering a shareware disk ($3.00) which you might wish to
give to a friend or associate. The cost of the shareware
disk can be applied to a subsequent commercial purchase.
84
Postscript: SideKick Plus
It has finally been released! After many months of
anticipation, Borland has completed and commenced distribu-
tion of its long-awaited enhancement to SideKick.
What does this mean to you, and how does this news
affect PAL?
Well, if you're using PAL as a stand alone product, it
probably doesn't make a whit of difference.
If you're using PAL with SideKick, you're probably
wondering whether to pay the (expensive) freight and pick up
SideKick Plus. You should be aware that Borland has an-
nounced its intentions that SideKick Plus is not necessarily
a replacement for SideKick, but is a brand new product, and
it is anticipated that the two products will coexist in the
marketplace. In fact, Borland's documentation for SideKick
Plus clearly contemplates that the two products may coexist
peacefully IN THE SAME COMPUTER!
The following comments are designed to assist you in
understanding the choices.
As you may know, SideKick Plus includes a complex array
of features: a file manager, multiple notepads, multiple
outline processors, a phonebook, a time planner, four
calculators, and an ASCII table. If all of this flexibility
is important to you, then by all means pay the piper.
However, if your main concern is the difference between
SideKick's calendar (enhanced by PAL) and SideKick Plus's
time planner (not yet enhanced by PAL), then you'll need a
bit more information.
What does SideKick Plus (without PAL) have that SideKick
(with PAL) does not have? Among other things:
* More than 26 characters in the memo field
* Optional notepad attaches to the calendar
* Move and copy appointments
* Dial the phone at pre-appointed time
* "Paste" text at pre-appointed time
* Search for a vacant time slot
* Show graphic schedule of appointments
* Change available time slots and resolution
Although SideKick Plus's time planner is clearly
superior to SideKick's calendar, standing alone, there are
several things that you might miss if you abandoned the
SideKick-PAL combination:
85
* More flexible auto-repeat appointments
* Easily obtain reports of upcoming appointments
* Batch operation
* To-do list (reminders)
* Automatic snoozing of alarms (see 13.2.3)
* Control sound of alarms
* PAL's internal Appointment Scratchpad
* Report and search on multiple files
* Automatically show holidays
As a final note, we reproduce for you the text of a
message left on the PAL Software BBS shortly after SideKick
Plus became available:
"Msg # 220 Dated 04-06-88 20:16:16
From: xxx xxxxxx
To: ALL
Re: PAL SUPPORT FOR SIDEKICK+
I just bought Sidekick Plus and have not been happy
with the way it handles the calender. I much prefer
how PAL does it. Will there be any new version of
PAL to support the new sidekick files?"
We are committed to upgrading future versions of PAL to
ensure that they will remain compatible with SideKick Plus.
This will not involve the purchase of a new program from us,
just an upgrade of the existing PAL. Registered users will
receive notification of the availability of this upgrade.
Acknowledgments
The following are gratefully acknowledged:
Borland International, for their great products (Side-
Kick and Turbo Pascal).
The Association of Shareware Professionals.
TurboPower Software, for their wonderful collection of
programming utilities for Turbo Pascal.
Lester Penner, author of JCAL, a shareware program which
was instrumental in developing the dates used by PAL for
Jewish holidays. JCAL can be ordered for $15 from its author
at 25 Shadow Lane, Great Neck, NY 11021. Phone numbers are
(516) 466-5574 evenings or (516) 273-3100 days.
86
Compuserve, onto which the author logs daily to confe-
rence with IBM mavens and novices alike.
PAL's beta test cadre, who are good at breaking things.
Delia Tolz, who has graciously put up with the author's
fanaticism for PAL.
87
Index
Alarms 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21, 31, 38, 50, 51,
52, 52, 53,
54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 67, 71, 72, 73
ALT-R 70
ALT-S 69
Appointment Scratchpad 1, 8, 10, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 44, 45, 53, 54, 56, 58, 60,
61, 62, 62
Auto-repeat 15, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35,
35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 52, 55, 66
AUTOEXEC.BAT 6, 20, 46, 48, 56
Batch 2, 6, 10, 20, 46, 48, 51, 56
CHKDSK 4, 75
Clock 4, 5, 14, 73
CLONE 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 25, 31, 32, 39, 44, 49, 60,
60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 74
Color 6, 7, 14, 16, 17, 24, 65, 73
Command Line 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 30, 46, 50, 56, 60, 61, 62,
63, 65, 69, 71
Date 4, 14, 16, 22, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 58, 73
Delete 8, 9, 11, 15, 25, 32, 33, 34, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 53, 57,
58, 66, 73
DELETEAUTO 46
DELETEAUTOALL 46
Directory 4, 18, 62, 63
DOS 4, 5, 6, 18, 62, 63, 65
Edit 25, 32, 56, 57, 58
Hard Disk 4
Help 2, 8, 9, 11, 13, 21
Images 69, 70, 71
Install 4, 7, 53, 60, 65, 71
License 80, 81, 82
Memory 4, 14, 47
Menu 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 25, 65
Monochrome 6, 14, 17, 65, 66
Multi-tasking 47, 48, 49
76, 78
Multiple Appointment Files 50, 51
Nofile 19, 20, 62
PALARM 2, 5, 6, 15, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 60, 67, 71, 72, 73, 74,
75, 80
Path 4, 5, 18, 58, 62, 63, 68
Print 17, 20, 60, 61, 67
Purge 8, 11, 15, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 57, 66
PURGEAUTO 46
READIMAGE 70
Registration 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 86
Reminders 10, 15, 20, 21, 33, 37, 44, 46
Repeat 15, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36,
37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 52, 55, 66
SAVEIMAGE 70
88
Scratchpad 8, 10, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
37, 38, 44, 45, 53, 54, 56, 58, 60, 61, 62
Search 9, 10, 16, 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 45, 63, 65
Shareware 79, 80, 81, 83, 84
SideKick 1, 2, 5, 6, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 32, 37, 42, 43, 45, 46,
46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 61, 62, 75
SideKick Plus 85
Site License 81
Snooze 53, 58, 72, 73
Subdirectory 4, 18, 62, 63, 68
Support 79
Task-switching 46, 47, 48, 49, 78
89
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #1259
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
FILE1259 TXT 1162 1-13-89 3:11p
GO BAT 38 10-19-87 3:56p
GO TXT 386 1-13-89 3:10p
PAL2A ARC 157158 6-24-88 2:01a
PAL2B ARC 31384 6-24-88 2:01a
PAL2C ARC 81533 6-24-88 2:01a
PALINST EXE 39840 6-24-88 2:01a
PALREAD ME 1465 6-24-88 2:01a
8 file(s) 312966 bytes
5120 bytes free