Misc

MISCELLANEOUS UTILITIES ====================== INTRODUCTION I created a number of utility programs in OPL which I find useful, and have one or two from other people which I use, and I figured that there must be some way to have these available as stand-alone programs, and from any other calling program or application for the sake of convenience, and also in order to make maximum use of restricted memory space. If I wanted to be able to use exactly the same routines in other programs then all I wanted to have do is call the code which I had already created. So I set about converting them so that I can do exactly that, and the result is the undernoted group of utilities together with a small application which makes accessing them easy. The utilities themselves are as follows: Alarm Alarm creation tool (virtually straight from the User Guide). Days Program which calculates the date for any given year from the offset number of days ináthat year (e.g. 1 January = 1, 1 February = 32, etc). Distance Converts miles to/from kilometres. DTMF Phone dialler which uses an optional data file to supply the telephone number to be dialled, defaulting to my home telephone number if none supplied - more notes below). Easter Calculates the date of Easter Monday for any given year. Fuel Calculates fuel consumption in MPG/Litres per 100 Km given distance in miles & litres of fuel. Height Converts inches to/from centimetres. Liquids Converts pints to/from litres. Lottery Picks 6 random numbers every time. Shifts Calculates my work's shift roster for any given week for any date in that week from 3-9-79 until 2-9-2009. These dates are significant to me! I may consider tailoring it to anyone else's shift pattern for a suitable fee - there is a lot of work involved. Sort Database sorting utility which uses John Boyce's sorting code (more detailed notes below). Temp Converts degrees Fahrenheit to/from degrees Celsius. Weight Converts pounds to/from kilograms. Each program can be run directly from the RunOPL application, or can be called from another OPO or APP. I have created a simple application called MISC which gets details of all the available programs from a database file called MISC.ODT, which resides in the OPD directory. So, adding or removing utilities is straightforward. In order to use a program from the MISC application it must have a procedure called "Start:" in it, because this is what MISC calls to start off every program which it calls. The DTMF & SORT utilities are somewhat different from the rest, and I will expand on these individually. DTMF This program requires a Psion with DTMF tone dialling, so will not work on a Siena, although it will not crash one if it is run, it just doesn't do anything. I have included the source code so that anyone who wishes to make use of it can amend it to include their own default 'phone number, rather than mine. It also show the way I have set it up my programs to work with MISC. As can be seen, the optional data file is called DTMF.ODB, is looked for in the OPD directory, and consists of 1 record with 2 fields. The first field contains the dialling code, and the second contains the number. If you wish to use this facility in your own programs to dial a particular number then your program must create that file for DTMF to read. The DTMF program adds a prefix, which I have set to "9" (change this if required), so that for users within a private exchange it will dial for an outside line prior to dialling the number. The program offers the option of including or excluding either or both the prefix and the code. SORT The front end is based on the sample which John Boyce supplies in OPL format. I used to use my own home-grown file sorting utility, until I found John Boyce's. His code runs like a hare compared to my own tortoise-like offering. Why re-invent the wheel? I don't believe that I have the right to distribute his program, so this requires to be obtained from the same source which this came from. I have passed this group of utilities to Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib, and the sorting utility can be obtained lawfully from there. In any case I have included the amended source code for this program also, should it be required. The changes from John's source code are few, & only to make it compatible with MISC. This could be converted to use an optional file, similar to DTMF, without too much difficulty. MISC This is the application which calls all of the above programs. As I said earlier it makes use of a data file (MISC.ODT) which contains details of the programs which can be called by it. There is a record for each program, and each record consists of 2 fields. The first field contains the name to be displayed, and the second contains the filename of the OPO file which is used by MISC to call the program. By editing this file (or creating a new one if you like) the user can tailor MISC to suit him or herself, including only the utilities wanted, or adding new ones to suit. Again, I have included source code for this so that it can be fully tailored to suit. If anyone wishes to do so, then the programs themselves can be moved to a different directory entirely, with only minor changes to the code for MISC. INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE Copy the files into the following directories on your Psion computer: File Destination directory ---- --------------------- MISC.OPA Any "APP" directory if more than one drive MISC.ODT "OPD" directory within default drive *.OPO "OPO" directory within default drive *.OPL "OPL" directory (if required) SPANNER.ICO "OPD" directory within default drive (if required) I have included the icon which I used, so that if anyone decides to make any changes then he or she can do so and retain the same icon on the screen if desired. COPYRIGHT As this is entirely my own work, except for the code for the sorting program for which I take no credit as I have explained already, then I require that anyone who distributes or passes this on does so without any change to the original code as supplied by me, together with all files including this file. If anyone has any suggestion for permanent changes then please write or e-mail me at the addresses below. Small donations of £5, or whatever is thought an appropriate sum, would be gleefully accepted from anyone who makes use of this collection of miscellaneous utilities, which I did not just knock together in 2 minutes. Please contact me also if anyone wishes further details of a shift pattern calculator - no promises, but I will consider seriously any requests, as I have found my own very useful to me. I will charge a fee, but it won't break the bank. ADDRESSES Postal Brian J Coutts 80 Callaghan Wynd Blantyre Glasgow G72 9RP E-mail brian@bjcoutts.clara.net