Psion Luach 1.10

Jewish dates, times & festivals calculator
with World and Agenda interface

For Series 3a, Series 3c, Siena

(c) Aron Landy 1997


Description
-----------
Use Luach for easy calculation of: 
* Shabbat times for every major city in the world 
* Sedrah of the week, special maftirs and haftarot 
* Yomtov & Fast Dates & Times 
* Barmitzvah Sedrah and Date 
* Yahrzeit Dates 
* Civil - Hebrew Calendar conversions
* Hebrew birthdays and anniversaries
* And even zmanim for tefillah! 

Customise Luach according to:
* Where you are in the world (using the Psion World database)
* Your preferred halachic interpretation (pre-set to London Beth Din) 

Use Luach Pro to write to (and delete from!) your Agenda the following.....
* the Hebrew calendar date for every day - e.g. "26Adar1", "Pesach1", 
 "Yom HaAtzmaut-Omer 20" (optionally, for chagim only) 
* Shabbat, Yom Tov & Fast times 
* Sedrah, Maftir & Haftarah of the week 
* Yahrzeits 
* Hebrew birthdays and anniversaries
* Year view codes for chagim and Yahrzeits

On-line help is available (and removable in case space is scarce).



Installation
------------
You should have (unzipped) the following files:

File name    Description of file  Installation directory
---------    -------------------  ----------------------
luach.txt    this file
luach.opa    program file         \app
luach.hlp    help file            \luach
sys$help.opo help manager         \opo


Basic installation:

* Copy luach.opa to directory \app
* From Psion System screen menu, install Luach using Menu-Apps-Install or Psion-I.
* That's it!

[Note: if you don't have this directory, create it using PsiWin or, on your Psion, 
using Menu-Disk-Make Directory-\app]

If you want on-line help (it is optional), then:
* Make a new directory \luach
* Copy luach.hlp to directory \luach
* Copy sys$help.opo to directory \opo


Advanced installation information:
Memory requirements: Luach requires approx 50k disk space for installation, and an 
additional 50k run-time space.

Luach's help files, luach.hlp and sys$help.opo, can be on any drive.  



Shareware Information
---------------------
Luach is freeware.  You are welcome to use it without payment, and to distribute copies 
PROVIDED that this manual is included in your distribution.

Luach Pro Licence
Luach can write diary information into agenda files, for dates up to a week ahead.  
For unrestricted transfers, you need a licence to convert Luach into Luach Pro.

The licence is created by the program itself when a correct password is given.  To get 
a licence password, please send 10 or equivalent to the author at: 56 Primrose Gardens, 
London NW3 4TP, England, or register using RegNet (http://www.swregnet.com).  Please 
quote the version no. and where you got the program from.  Email comments & suggestions
to aron@mcmail.com.

Conditions of Use
Before using the software you must agree to the following.  By using it, you are deemed 
to have agreed to it.
1.  Any legal relationship between you and the author shall be governed by the laws of 
England.
2.  You warrant that you will keep proper complete and recent backups of all files used 
by the program, in particular all agenda files which you access with Luach.
3.  You agree not to decompile, reverse translate, reverse engineer or tamper with the 
software or licence in any way.

Disclaimer
Note that the software is provided as is, without any warranty of any kind.  The author 
shall not be liable for any loss of data or damage arising from the use of the software.



Suggested Use - Illustration
----------------------------
On my own Psion, I use the program in the following way.

I use the Agenda Transfer function to write the times of Shabbbat, Sidrot of the week, 
Hebrew Month/Day names and Festival names into my diary.

I don't have any Yahrzeits, but I would write them into the diary too if I did.

I then have everything I need in the diary.  I use the Luach program to work out other 
info, such as Barmitzvahs, times of Shabbat in other places, other people's Yahrzeits, 
and Zmanim.



Program FAQ
-----------
***	How do I change the display?
Press enter, tab or menu.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Are my settings saved?
When you exit from Luach, a file called \luach\luach.dat is created automatically, to 
save some parameters.  If there exists a directory \luach, on any drive, it will be 
used for this file - if not, the directory will be created on drive M: (internal).  
So if you want this file to be on another drive (e.g. B:), make sure that there is a 
directory (such as B:\luach) ready.  If you are happy to have it on drive M: no action 
is necessary.
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***	How do I enter a Hebrew calendar date?
Psion-M switches between civil date entry and hebrew date entry.
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***	Which haftarah do we read?
Rule for haftarot - unless otherwise specified, read the haftarah corresponding to the 
last component of the "Sidrah".  For example, if the "Sidrah" is "Vayikra;RCh;HaChodesh", 
read the haftarah for HaChodesh.
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***	In the Day Info screen, is there a quick way to get back to today's date?
Press space bar.
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***	How do I see the zmanim?
In day info mode, pressing Psion-Z brings up a window showing the "zmanim" for the given
date and location - 7 different times from Alot HaShachar, via Kriat Shema to Sunset & 
"Night" times.  [On the Siena, Shabbat commencement times are also displayed - note that 
in this window, this times is for the day itself, as if it were shabbat, and not for the 
next shabbat.]  Any time shown as "n/a" indicates that it could not be calculated, 
probably because the Sun didn't get to that position at all on that day (e.g. there is 
often no sunrise/set at the north pole).
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***	How can I interrupt the Shabbat Timetable mode?
Pressing any key will stop it after the current line.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	In the Major & Minor Chagim modes, how can I skip through years quickly?
Press enter/tab to change year, left/right arrows to scroll columns one at a time, 
Control-left/right to scroll by the screenful.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	In Barmitzvah mode, what is the "BM Birthday"?
The 13th hebrew birthday.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Can I save Yahrzeit & Barmitzvah details for different people?
Pressing left/right scrolls through different people's details.  The names and details 
are saved on exiting the program (5 barmitzvahs and 15 yahrzeits).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	How do I set my location?
The location setting mode is accessed by the key Psion-L.
Use this mode to select your location, chosen from the cities in the "World" database.  
If your location is not shown, add it into the "World" database using the World program.

To change cities, either 
* press left/right to move to the previous/next city in the database (in alphabetical 
order)
* press Tab/Enter, and enter the name of the city (or the first few letters, a "clue") 
and the database will be searched.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	How do I set Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time) for my location?
The dates for Daylight Saving Time (summer time) are set automatically, but can be 
overridden.  Automatic calculation is based on the "Zone" settings in the "World" database.  
The rules used are:

Zone    DST starts             DST ends
Europe  last Sun in March      last Sun in Oct 
North   first Sun in Apr       last Sun in Oct
South   last Sun in Oct        last Sun in March
Const   none                   none
Israel  first Sun after Pesach Sunday of Selichot start

Please take care with DST - countries all around the world change their practice frequently
(Israel being a particular culprit) so make sure that the dates are those in use for your
location.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	How do I override automatic Daylight Saving Time?
Go to the location setting screen.  Press enter and specify that DST is manual, and enter
the correct start and end dates.
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***	What are the halachic settings?
Setting   Preset   Explanation
Alot      16.1    Alot HaShachar is when the sun is this number of degrees below the horizon
Talit     11      Earliest Talit is when the sun is this number of degrees below the horizon
Candles   15       Shabbat starts this number of minutes before sunset
Tzait deg 7.5     Shabbat goes out "Tzaitmin" minutes after the sun is this number of 
                   degrees below the horizon
Tzait min 3

Presets are London Beth Din settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Why do I get different times to those published in newspapers?
You might be using slightly different co-ordinates.  For example, the London Beth Din 
appear to use the geographical co-ordinates of North West London for their calculations; 
I have found 5135'N,011'W (i.e. Golders Green!) to be the best fit to their published 
times.  You may wish to add this location to your "World" database.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	What can I write into my agenda?
There are 5 options:
* the Hebrew day name for every day - e.g. "26Adar1", "Pesach1", "Yom HaAtzmaut-Omer 20"
* Day names for chagim only (major, minor and fasts - total 43 days)
* Shabbat, Yom Tov & Fast times for your location, together with Sedrah, Maftir & Haftarah 
  of the week 
* Yahrzeits 
* Hebrew Anniversaries/Birthdays
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	My agenda file is already cluttered.  What should I do?
Make a new agenda file specially for Luach info, and transfer into that one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	What year codes show up in my agenda?
P-Purim and Pesach, S-Shavuot and Sukkot, R-Rosh Hashana, Y-Yom Kippur, Z - Yahrzeit,
A - Hebrew birthdays/anniversaries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Is Daylight Saving taken into account in transfers?
Yes. (see above for more info re DST)
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***	How does the program know which Yahrzeits to transfer?
Yahrzeits for all of the 5 entries will be transferred EXCEPT any with names beginning "*"
(these are considered test names).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Which hebrew anniversaries are written to the diary?
You give the first few letters of the anniversary name as it is in your Agenda, then Luach
searches through the Agenda file until it finds such a name.  Then (after confirmation) it
writes hebrew anniversaries for that entry between the dates set for the agenda transfer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	In agenda transfer, what is the "signature"?
This is rather technical.  I suggest that you leave it on "Hidden".

	TECHNICAL DETAIL
	It is easy for Luach to write to an agenda, but when finding an entry which Luach
	wrote before, it must have a way of telling that a particular entry was actually 
	written by Luach.  It does this by looking for a "signature".  This is a little 
	item which other agenda entries are unlikely to have.

	The signature works in one of 2 ways - a special code is included with the agenda 
	entry either "Hidden" inside the agenda file or as a "Visible" character at the end 
	of the text of the entry (or both).  

	The hidden signature is neat and works for the current software version - but may 
	not work, or may conflict with, future versions. This is because it uses a tiny 
	unused bit of memory in each agenda item - and future Psion versions might come 
	along and want to use it too.  If you encounter problems, use the visible signature.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	I have made a mistake in an agenda transfer.  How can I get rid of the Luach entries?
Set the transfer function to "find" or "delete".  The program will display each relevant 
record as it finds them (not necessarily in date order) and will prompt you for action.  
Thus you can choose which records to delete and which not.

If you do any deleting, it is a good idea to use the Compress function in the agenda to 
keep the agenda file from growing too big.  This is because items "deleted" from the agenda 
are not actually removed from the file, but are simply not shown.  It is the compress 
function which removes them from the file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	Is the transfer totally safe?
Make sure you have a backup copy of your agenda before transferring data - just in case 
something goes wrong.  I have used it many times without problems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***	How are all the zmanim and agenda times calculated?
Times shown as "Zmanim" or written to agendas are calculated as follows.  Note that all 
of the parameters mentioned in <angle brackets> can be set by the user via the program's 
"Settings" option.

Alot HaShachar: time at which the sun is <Alot> degrees below the horizon.

Earliest Talit:  time at which the sun is <Talit> degrees below the horizon.

Kriat Shema: 3 proportional hours after sunrise (a proportional hour is one twelfth of 
the time between sunrise and sunset).

Tefilla: 4 proportional hours.

Mincha Gedola: 6.5 p.h.

Plag HaMincha: 9.75 p.h.

Shabbat In: <Candles> minutes before Sunset.

Shabbat Out: <TzaitMin> minutes after the time at which the sun is <TzaitDeg> degrees 
below the horizon.  N.B. Candle lighting time forthe second day of a weekday Chag is this 
time WITHOUT adding TzaitMin minutes.

Fasts: start Alot HaShachar, end at the time at which the sun is <TzaitDeg> degrees 
below the horizon (WITHOUT adding TzaitMin minutes)

9Av: start sunset, end as for other fasts

Erev Pesach: Eat up to end of 4th proportional hour, burn up to end of 5th hour
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Version History
---------------
1.00c - first public release
1.00d - minor bugs fixed 22 Sep 97
1.00e - Improvements 28 Oct 97
	MAJOR - bug fixed in sunrise/set times calculations - there were errors of a few
		minutes in times for places west of New York & east of Israel
	OTHER - When writing to an agenda file, if it is open, Luach will now close it
		down, and restart it when it has finished with it
	      - Luach's location defaults to your home city
	      - The limit for candles time is now 60 minutes before sunset
	      - Luach checks whether there is sufficent free memory available
1.00f - 15 Yahrzeits now, not 5
      - the ability to set Agenda entry "style" (ie bold etc) added 
1.10  - Can write hebrew anniversaries to agenda
      - Help which is context sensitive and which zooms
      - User's own date and time formats, and home city, are used 
      - Manual Daylight Saving - 4 dates can be saved
      - Supports diamond key


Credits
-------
The help system is a development of Tom Dolbilin's work.

