
SOFTWARE NOTES:
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EVENTCAL.DLL was put in the Public Domain by ECI, as an example of programming for Excal BBS.  It's not a bad calendar applet as it sits, but the retrieval of date information was a little slow for our tastes.

Like all good computer weenies, we had to fix it.

Since then, ECI has placed inline graphics capacity into Excal, and this has allowed a better treatment of the base screen on which the calendar information is displayed.  We like to keep things simple, so we just replaced the calendar "page" with a tiled paper graphic.  Of course, you could jam whatever graphics you want on the page, since the calendar is "laid over" the background -- just make sure you're using something light colored, so the calendar info will appear with good contrast.

These improvements are simple and cosmetic.  We hope it serves as an example that a few simple changes can make quite a difference.  Too often we see very grandiose, overblown efforts to "make a better mousetrap," and a lot of effort goes down the tubes for very little improvement.  Perhaps where we see a "Calendar" someone else sees "comprehensive time management, reference and analysis subsystem" or something.

Anyhow, here's what you do to use the thing:

You can name the graphic and calendar text file anything you like, though the two files must share the same name to operate as a calendar.  You can have all the calendars you want.

You should open up the screen file and make any changes you like.  You -MUST- edit the actions list: the screen's name appears twice (for moving forward and back), so these have to jibe with your screen name.  The screen you want to chain back to is also listed towards the bottom of the list, so you'll want this to point back to your originating screen -- in this case, it's MAIN.SCR.

If you make more than one calendar, the contents of the action list in each must be edited to point to the correct screen files.  If you forget, you'll start on one calendar and pop into another if they caller selects a new month!  Highly-skilled computing professionals making thousands a week describe the results as a "boo-boo."  Don't let this happen to you!

Here's the REALLY hard part: getting it into your system.

Copy the screen, JPG and calendar text file into your screen directory.  Edit to your heart's content.

Insert a CHAIN-TO action wherever you want to call the calendar.  Use the calendar's screen name.  Everything is else is taken care of by the logic of the calendar screen.  Easy, no?


WARRANTY INFO:  
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Forget it.  This is free, use-at-your-own-risk, unsupported software.


AUTHORS:
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Original:	Tim Robinson @ ECI
Adaptation:	Kenneth & Joe Adamson @ VR Software Labs

