Reminder for Psion 3A Palmtop Computer

Designed and programmed by A. Wright. 1997


 ***IMPORTANT, USERS OF VERSION 1.00 NOTE THAT SOME KEYS HAVE CHANGED!***

Reminder is a program to 'Remind' you of an important task every time you
turn on your 3A on a set day. I have used my Psion 3A for a couple of years
but it is easy to miss an alarm for various reasons. It is also easier to
remember something if you are prompted several times a day. As a side effect
Reminder tells you of a fact for each day of the year, plays a sound file and
also offers a 'Quick-Note' function.

Reminder consists of four files:
        1, DAY.OPA      The main executable.
        2, YEAR.DAT     A list of facts and storage for the set Reminder.
        3, WEEK.DAT     Storage for weekly Reminders.
        4, NOTE.DAT     A page of text for taking 'Quick-Notes'.

        Plus optionally,
        SOUND.WAV
        1.WAV
        2.WAV
        3.WAV
        4.WAV
        5.WAV
        6.WAV
        7.WAV
        8.WAV
        9.WAV
        0.WAV

The total disk space used is approximately 24K plus about 42K if the sound
files are used.

Reminder should be installed as follows:

        Copy DAY.OPA to a \APP directory
        Copy all the other files to \APP\REMINDER on the same disk as DAY.OPA
        (This can be any disk but a flash disk will use space up each time you
        use Quick-Note or enter a new Reminder)
        Then use APPS: INSTALL to put DAY.OPA on the desktop.

When first run, a credit screen will be shown. Pressing <ENTER> will send
it to the background. When it is running the program will come to the
foreground each time you turn your 3A on or select Reminder from the
Desktop. At this point several keys can be used.

        1. 'O' This key will 'De-activate' Reminder until the next day.
               It will also 'Re-activate it (You will have to select Reminder
               from the desktop).
        2. 'R' Allows you to enter a Reminder for a particular day.
        3. 'C' Allows you to enter a Countdown to a particular day.
        4. 'W' Allows you to enter a weekly Reminder for each day of the week.
        5. 'N' Activates the 'Quick-Note' function.
        6. 'S' Accesses the sound options.
        7. 'D' Allows you to alter the delay before Reminder returns to the
               background.
        8. 'T' Will state the time using the WVE files 0 to 9.

        These functions can also be selected by the Menu key.

        N.B. If Reminder is stopped and restarted you will lose any
        countdown that is set, any Reminder will be recovered.


Functions

Reminder.
        Pressing 'R' or selecting 'Set Reminder' from the Menu will bring
        up a dialogue box which will allow the following inputs:
                Day   <Day of Month>
                Month <Month of Year>
                Text  <The message that you want to appear>
        After entering the relevant information press <ENTER> to accept
        or <ESC> to cancel.
        On the set day the Reminder screen will contain a line that states:
                Remember: <MESSAGE>

Countdown.
        Pressing 'C' or selecting 'Set Countdown' from the Menu will bring
        up a dialogue box which will allow the following inputs:
                Day   <Day of Month>
                Month <Month of Year>
                Year  <The Year>
                Text  <The message that you want to appear>
        After entering the relevant information press <ENTER> to accept
        or <ESC> to cancel.
        The Reminder screen will then contain a line that states:
                Only x days until: <MESSAGE>
        On the last day the message will change to:
                Remember <MESSAGE> today.

Weekly Reminder
        Pressing 'W' or selecting 'Set Weekly Reminder' from the Menu will
        bring up a dialogue box which will allow the following inputs:
                Mon:  <TEXT>
                Tue:  <TEXT>
                Wed:  <TEXT>
                Thu:  <TEXT>
                Fri:  <TEXT>
                Sat:  <TEXT>
                Sun:  <TEXT>
        After entering the relevant information press <ENTER> to accept
        or <ESC> to cancel.
        If text is input for a particular day of the week then on that day
        the Reminder screen will contain a line that says:
        E.G.    Sat : <TEXT>
        (No indication will appear if the text is all spaces).

Quick-Note
        Pressing 'N' or selecting 'NotePad' from the Menu will display the
        file NOTE.DAT which is a simple ASCII editor that allows you to take
        'Quick-Notes' Pressing the Menu key allows you to:

                Save As. Entering a file name will save the current page as
                        a plain text file for use in the word processor or 
                        other applications
                Clear.  This option will clear the entire screen.
                Tab.    This option allows you to change the number of spaces
                        that tab moves with each press.
                Exit    Returns the program to the background.
                <ESC>   Also returns the program to the background.

Sound.
               When 'Reminder' is brought to the foreground, either by turning
        your 3A on or selecting 'Reminder' from the desktop one of two sounds
        will be played depending on the time.
        By default the following times will apply:
                Between 07:00 and 23:00 SOUND.WVE will be played.
                Between 23:00 and 07:00 the time will be stated using the
                        files 0.WVE to 9.WVE

        Pressing 'S' or selecting 'Sound' from the menu will bring up a
        dialogue that will allow you to choose the following:
                Sound     <On>:<OFF>:<No Time>
                Time On   <HH:MM> (Time at which Time will be stated starts)     
                Time Off  <HH:MM> (Time at which Time will be stated ends)    
        (If the sound Files have not been installed this option will
        obviously have no effect)

FILES

        YEAR.DAT
        This file is a plain text file that contains a line for every day
        of the year (Plus a few more!). Each line has the date (e.g. 01-JAN)
        a space and then a fact. This file can be edited to hold your own data.
        E.G. You could enter peoples birthdays or other events that occur on
        the same day every year. Each message has a maximum length of 66 chars.
        (The date at the start of the line is for reference only and not
        used by the program)

        IMPORTANT. This file must contain the same number of lines!
        Also if this file is edited in the Word application it must be saved
        as file type 'TEXT', afterwards use "Exit, lose changes" to exit the
        application. Do not use Psion-X or the file will be saved as a
        standard Word file and this cannot be read by 'Reminder'.

        NOTE.DAT
        This file is a plain text file. If it becomes corrupted and cannot be
        opened by 'Reminder', you can recreate it in Word by opening a new
        file, creating 17 lines of 60 spaces and saving it as a 'TEXT' file.
        Then use "Exit, lose changes" to exit the program.

        WEEK.DAT
        This is a plain text file that holds seven lines of 66 characters,
        one line for each day starting with Monday.

        SOUND.WVE
        This can be any recorded sound EG the Tricorder sound from StarTrek.

        0.WVE to 9.WVE
        These files are just the numbers 0 to 9 recorded and edited to about
        half a second long (You may want to replace these files as soon as
        possible as my voice is not the best thing to wake up to in the
        middle of the night!)




DISCLAIMER
        This program is FREE and I accept no responsibility what so ever
        for any results of using it. (Unless it makes loads of money!)
        Feel free to pass copies around but do include all files and
        give me some credit.
        Thank you.

        This program has not been tried on a 3C but I cannot imagine
        any problems.

        If you have any suggestions or problems please let me know at:

                100670.3322@compuserve.com

                Tony Wright.

Updates.
        Feb 1997 Version 1.10
        Instructions not shown at the start (Use Help key or read this
                manual)
        The 'Set Reminder' dialog box now shows the last set / current
                Reminder.
        'Set Reminder' input corrected to 66 characters.
        'Proper' cursor added to 'Quick-Note'
        Tab works correctly. (Does not just add 8 to cursor position)
        Time start and end times adjustable.
        'Stated Time' cancelled by <ESC>
        Tab is adjustable in 'Quick-Note'
        'Time-Off' delay adjustable.
        System icon added
        Cannot be left in Quick-Note accidentally (When system key is pressed
                or another application is brought to the foreground,
                'Quick-Note' is cancelled)
        Weekly alarm added
        Month input for Reminder & Countdown changed from number to
                abbreviation

Thank you to:

        Jan Carson,
        Kim Nielsen
        and
        Ike Ugwu

        For their feedback



Finally a hint from Kim Nielsen
        "I have created a Word-alias as text only pointing at
        \APP\REMINDER. This way you can edit both DAT files and exit with
        Psion-X"

        This is done by moving the highlight to the Word application and
        selecting menu [Special] : [Create New List]
        Enter the following information

                    Directory for files     \APP\REMINDER
                    Extension for files     DAT
                    Icon                    Default
                    Type                    Text Editor
                    Save list as: Name      DAT
                                  Disk      (Which ever disk you have
                                                Reminder installed on.

     NB This is also useful if you save the Quick-Note files with the
        extension of .DAT
        (You could have a second list with 'Extension for files' set to
        TXT and save 'Quick-Note' files with the same extension)


