TMPCUT.DOC (CORRECTED DOCUMENTATION)

Five TMPC Handy Utility Programs for Advanced Users

by Jean-Luc Crevier, CIS [73720,2456]

1) FDTODO.MPC    Checksum:  62,077
2) APPTR1.MPC    Checksum:  86,088
3) APPTR2.MPC    Checksum:  70,947
4) DECODE.MPC    Checksum: 104,698
5) ENCODE.MPC    Checksum:  77,278





After one year of absence on the M100SIG, I downloaded during a recent weekend
(October 29,30 1988) the entire array of files concerning TMPC by Acroatix.

In my job (television producer-director), I am preoccupied with schedules and
to-do lists [see my last year's upload PROCAL.BAS (same as PROCAL.100) in DL4
with associated files].

I was happy to find this professionnal package made available to
MODEL 100/TANDY 102 users. But after a week of experimentation on the job,
I found that some needed (elementary) features were lacking such as being able
to locate an appointement by a simple string search. (Since then I located a
program called SEARCH.MPC written by Acroatix in DL4 that solves this problem.)

In TMPC itself, you can only select dates for inspection. So unless you
remember the correct date, you must scan the entire calendar...

I wrote 5 short utility programs to 'somehow' supplement some TMPC minor
deficiencies.

The first one 'TODOFD.MPC' was adapted from PTODO and is similar in design
to 'SEARCH.MPC' - but is case sensitive. Each todo I add to my task file is in
the following format:

         Subject: description

When I want to locate all the to-dos relating to a subject or project, I use
this utility. It can also in a way replace PTODO by entering ALL as the search
string. Priority and stress are ignored though. By sorting this complete list
(except to-dos selected in daily list), I get all my to-dos grouped by subject.

The second and third one 'APPTR1.MPC' and 'APPTR2.MPC' prints an
appointment/memo report by temporarily fooling TMPC...  By cheating today
(DATE$) and setting it very far ahead, TMPC can output in DIARY.DO the entire
list of appointments (up to this future date) in a readable date format. But
unless you previously saved your task file to ram, disk or tape and even if you
can re-append the diary back to the purged task file with the APPT program, you
would still have a problem with the last activation date. 

'APPTR1.MPC' and 'APPTR2.MPC' streamline the file manipulation required to use
this approach in appointment/memo reporting.

'APPTR1.MPC' first makes a ram backup of your task file, writes today's date
and task filename in TODAY.DO before cheating DATE$ and calling TMPC itself
which creates DIARY.DO as your report. You leave TMPC as soon you enter it to
run 'APPTR2.MPC'. This is part two of the process.

'APPTR2.MPC' resets the real today's date, kills the purged task file and
replaces it back with the safety task file, sorts the report (TMPC limitations)
and outputs it to any legal device.

The fourth one 'DECODE.MPC' deciphers the date encoded in an appointment that
you can locate with the Find option in Text - but can't figure out the date!
That's the crude way I found to extract (copy not cut) the data directly from
the task file itself - potential hazard unless you know what you are doing!

The fifth one 'ENCODE.MPC' converts a normal date into a coded string
compatible with the machine language format of TMPC - so I can fix the date at
the beginning of a task file if I need to. ENCODE.MPC comes handy to help fix
potential corrupted task file problems!


All programs contain enough rems to document themselves.


Jean-Luc Crevier [73720,2456]