Notes on and instructions for UP.DATE.SYSTEM

Program and notes (C) 2000 by Aaron Heiss (heiss@pdx.edu)


This is a program that sets the system date.  I wrote it because I was frustrated
at my Apple //c always saving things with no date stamp.  Since this computer has
no clock capability, software is required to initialise and/or update the ProDOS
date.  Many applications will sense this and allow the user to set the date on
entry.  However, many suffer from one form or another of the Y2K bug: some take
'00' to mean '1900,' and others simply refuse to accept dates later than 1999 in
the first place.  So, I decided to take care of the problem myself.

Using the program is straightforward.  Start the program, and there will be a
title at the top and brief instructions at the bottom.  The most recently set
date will be displayed in the middle, and there will be an inverse-text cursor on
the 'day' field.  This cursor can be moved from one field to an adjacent one by
using the left and right arrow keys, and the value currently selected can be
incremented or decremented by using either the up and down arrow keys or the 'I'
and 'D' keys (for compatibility with Apples without the up and down arrow keys). 
Incrementing the 'day' field past the maximum date for the current month causes
the 'month' field to increment, and incrementing the 'month' field past December
causes the year to increment.  If the program is run every day or so, only the
'day' field need ever be adjusted.  When the date is set to your satisfaction,
press <RETURN> to save the current setting both in the ProDOS date variable and
on the disk (so don't take the disk out while using the program!); if for some
reason you want to leave the program without saving the current setting, hit
<ESCAPE> instead.  Either way, you will be returned to whatever selector or shell
is currently set up.

Note that this program saves itself, so if it is locked or renamed to anything
other than "UP.DATE.SYSTEM", it will get a ProDOS error when it tries to update
its record of the current date setting.  This is done because saving the date as
a separate file would result in the allotment of one block on the disk (512
bytes, or half a kilobyte) to hold two bytes of data, with no reduction in
program size.  This makes little sense, aside from avoiding the minor
inconvenience of not being able to lock or rename the file.  I thought this
inconvenience to be negligible, especially in light of the alternative!

This program is distributed as Freeware.  That means that although it is
copyrighted, you can own, copy, distribute and use it however you like, provided
that you 1) do not distribute it in anything other than unmodified form, and 2)
you include this document (also unmodified) with it in the same package.  It may
not be distributed commercially without my explicit permission.

If you have any comments, please contact me.  I hope you find this of use!