




                              Convert 1.01


              Copyright 1991 by Gordon Haff and Bit Masons Consulting.
                             All rights reserved.



          Description:

                    Unit conversion calculator for Windows 3.0.
                    Comes with a data file containing a large number of
                    common (and not so common) conversions in categories
                    such as length, speed, pressure, volume, and time.
                    The data file is a plain ASCII text file so the user
                    may add or delete units to best fit his individual
                    needs.

          Prereqs:  100% IBM Compatible PC running DOS 3.0 or higher
                    Windows 3.0

          Archive Name:   CNVRT101.ZIP


          Other:    As mentioned above, the units data file is easily
                    modified.  Please DO NOT, however, distribute a
                    modified data file in place of the distribution file.
                    (Feel free to distribute augmented data files
                    separately, however.)

                    The data files must be placed in either your Windows
                    subdirectory or in a location specified in your
                    WIN.INI file.

                    This program is being distributed as free, copyrighted
                    software -- commonly called 'Freeware'.  The author
                    reserves the right to change the status of the program
                    to Shareware in future revisions.


                                 Ŀ
                           Ŀ                   (tm)
                         ĳ         o    
                              Ŀ   Association of
                                         Shareware
                           ĳ    o        Professionals
                         ĳ        
                                   MEMBER


          CONVERT 1.01                                               2


                                     DISCLAIMER

          The author hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this
          product, whether express or implied, including without limitation
          any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
          particular purpose. The author cannot and will not be liable for
          any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar
          damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if the
          author or an authorized agent has been advised of the possibility
          of such damages.  In no event shall the liability for any damages
          ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software,
          regardless of the form and/or extent of the claim.  The user of
          this program bears all risk as to the quality and performance of
          the software.

                                       LICENSE

          CONVERT is distributed as free, copyrighted software.  What this
          means is that you can use this program for as long as you like
          without cost or obligation.  What you cannot do is to sell this
          software or make a profit off of it (except as described below)
          without the express written permission of the author.

          CONVERT is the sole property of Gordon Haff.  The program may be
          freely copied and transferred to individual parties.  It may be
          posted on Bulletin Board systems (BBS) for electronic access as
          long as NO FEE is charged for its distribution except for private
          BBS operations that charge a regular user subscription fee.
          Computer information services such as Compuserve (CIS), Genie,
          and Byte Information Exchange (BIX) are authorized to post this
          product for subscriber access.  CONVERT may be distributed on
          diskette only by 1) disk distributors/vendors who are associate
          members of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) or
          2) users groups which do not charge more than a nominal fee ($5)
          to cover the costs of distribution.  Any changes to these
          policies must be made in writing by the author.

          This program is produced by a member of the Association of
          Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the
          shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
          shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
          member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
          help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
          does not provide technical support for members' products. Please
          write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Rd., Muskegon, MI
          49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP
          Ombudsman 70007,3536.

          CONVERT 1.01                                                3

                                  TECHNICAL SUPPORT


          Since this program is a freebie, unlike the shareware programs
          for which I request a registration fee, I'm not going to make any
          guarantees here with respect to bug fixes or other technical
          support.  Having said that, I do like my programs to be as
          bug-free as possible, so feel free to report any problems which
          you run across.


               Contact via:

                    Channel 1 BBS            (617) 354-8873
                    Compuserve User ID#      72561,2637  (See Note 1)
                    InterNet/ARPANET         72561.2637@compuserve.com

                    U.S. Mail                3205 Windsor Ridge Dr.
                                             Westboro MA 01581
                    Telephone                (508) 898-3321 (after 6pm
                                                          Eastern time)

          The above are roughly in order of preference (i.e. how quickly
          I'm likely to see your message and be able to respond).  I check
          Channel One almost daily and the other electronic services at
          least weekly in most cases.  In addition, I monitor the Interlink
          and the PCRelay Shareware relays through Channel One.

          Note 1:
          When contacting me via Compuserve, please use the Easyplex mail
          system since I do not regularly monitor any of the IBM SIG
          message bases.

          CONVERT 1.01                                                4


          1.0     What is CONVERT?
          ------------------------

          Convert is a handy little utility for Windows 3.0.  Convert
          is effectively a special-purpose calculator which converts
          between most units (i.e. things like inches, feet, and so
          forth).  You pick a category such as mass or volume and
          the available units (available in the units database, that is)
          are then displayed.  You then pick your to and from units, enter
          a number to convert from and out pops the answer.

          There's a button to swap the TO and FROM units.  You can change
          the format of the answer display.  Just go ahead and run it.
          It's pretty much intuitive and has a full-blown hypertext
          Windows help function if you get stuck.

          CONVERT comes with a fairly extensive general-purpose units
          database.  Lots of people have a need for industry or
          job-specific units though, so I've designed the database so that
          it can be easily modified.  It's just a plain ASCII file which
          can be modified using any text editor or wordprocessor capable
          of generating plain ASCII files (i.e. files without formatting
          codes and such).  The database formats are given in the on-line
          help, so I won't repeat the information here.

          CONVERT 1.01                                                 5


          2.0   Setting up CONVERT?
          -------------------------

          The first step is to install CONVERT.EXE in the standard manner
          for a Windows program.  If you don't know how to do this, please
          consult your Windows manual.

          If you want to have access to the on-line help, the CONVERT.HLP
          file should be placed in the same directory as CONVERT.EXE.

          The database files (CATS.DAT and UNITS.DAT) can either be placed
          in the main Windows directory, or you can add the following
          section to your WIN.INI file:

               [Convert]
               CatData=d:\dir\cats.dat
               UnitData=d:\dir\units.dat

          where d:\dir is the drive specification and path of the
          subdirectory containing the data files.

          3,0   About the Database.
          -------------------------

          Convert 1.0 comes with a database which should be useful for
          many general purpose needs.  The conversion factors are derived
          either directly or indirectly from those in the CRC Handbook of
          Chemistry and Physics.

          At the same time, 1) the database could be expanded considerably
          and 2) it may contain errors -- although all reasonable care has
          been taken to check the data.

          The database is supplied in an easy-to-modify format.  If you
          make any extensive additions, I'd be interested in adding them
          to the program.  You should also feel free to distribute any
          additions for use with Convert.  I only ask that they be
          distributed in addition to the original files rather than in
          place of them and that they be accompanied by documentation
          clearly stating their source.

          If you do find any errors in the distributed data, I would very
          much appreciate your dropping me a line to let me know of the
          problem so that it may be corrected in future revisions.


          CONVERT 1.01                                                 6


          4.0   Technical and Acknowledgments.
          ------------------------------------

          CONVERT was written using Borland's Turbo Pascal for Windows.

          CONVERT was developed on a homebrew 386 (named Dejah Thoris)
          based on an AMI 20MHz full-size motherboard with a Micropolis
          160MB ESDI disk and Ultrastore 12(F) ESDI controller.  It is a
          dual monitor system with an Orchid Prodesigner 512KB VGA board
          and an IBM MDA board.  The system runs DOS 3.3, QEMM, and
          Windows 3.0.

          Thanks to Rick Strom and Ron Lloyd for testing help and
          suggestions and to Rick for icon design.


          5.0    Other Programs from Gordon Haff and Bit Masons Consulting.
          -----------------------------------------------------------------

          Directory Freedom (DF):

              Offers users a fast, compact alternative to DOS Shells which
            provides 1) selective file and directory operations; 2) a
            scrollable environment for examining files and directories; 3)
            user-defined keys which can operate upon highlighted files
            (e.g. by defining an editor).  All this in a program which
            takes less than 20KB since it is written in assembler! Easily
            customized through an external configuration program. A "look-
            and-feel" similar to PC Mag's DR, but does much more.  Now with
            SmartViewers and many more exciting new features.
                         Shareware: $20 Registration
                         Latest version: 4.00 (DF400.ZIP)


          the last word:

            'the last word' is a quotations trivia game in which 1 to 4
            players compete against each other and their own high scores in
            identifying the source of quotations and completing partial
            quotes.  Most answers are entered free-form and are matched
            against a set of acceptable responses with a sophisticated
            pattern-recognition algorithm.  'the last word' runs in text
            mode -- including on mono displays -- and offers a high level
            of user configurability.
                         Shareware: $15 Registration
                         Latest version: 1.00  (LWORD100.ZIP)


          CONVERT 1.01                                                 7

          ND:

            Renames a file to the current date.  In other words, if the
            current date were 10-06-90, the file 'FILENAME.QWK' would be
            renamed to 901006.QWK.  The letters A through Z will be
            appended as required to largely eliminate duplications.
            This is a handy program for archiving message packets from
            bulletin boards, for example.
                           Free, copyrighted software (with 'C' source)
                           Latest version: 1.0  (ND.ZIP or NEWDATE.ZIP)

          Volume Edit and Copy (VEC):

            In addition to the usual volume label edit and display
            features, VEC allows you to copy the volume label from one
            drive to another.  This can be handy in a batch file when
            you're copying dissimilar-sized diskettes and you can't use
            DISKKCOPY (since some manufacturers depend on the volume label
            during software install processes).  VEC supports lower-case
            and high-ASCII characters in labels.
                           Free, copyrighted software
                           Latest version: 1.1

          ZIP X-Ray (ZR):

            Browses the directory of ZIP archive files and allows for
            the extraction of individual files or the piping of individual
            file contents to Vern Buerg's LIST viewer.  Much smaller and
            faster than full-fledged archiver shells and all you need much
            of the time.  If you configure ZR as a SmartViewer in
            Directory Freedom (see above), viewing the contents of
            archives couldn't be easier.  One space saving trick is to
            combine documentation files into a single archive and then
            browse the archive's contents with ZR.
                           Free, copyrighted software
                           Latest version: 1.24


          These programs and others (Multi-Edit macros for use with Qmail
          Deluxe, for example) are available on many fine bulletin boards.
          The latest releases are always available on Channel One.   If you
          just have to get a copy of one or more of these programs and
          can't find one, however, I can send them out for a nominal media
          and postage charge.

          CONVERT 1.01                                                 8


          6.0     History.
          ---------------

          Rev. 1.00       Initial Release

          Rev. 1.01       Original upload defective.  Was missing data 
                         files.


          7.0     Known Limitations.
          -------------------------

          (i.e. This is a free program and I got tired of beating out my
          brains over it for the time being.)

              o  Both the numerical entry and the answer only support
                 numerical digits -- i.e. no exponential notation.  This
                 program limitation arises of limitations in the runtime
                 library String->Real and Real->String conversion
                 functions.  I'll probably write replacement functions one
                 of these days.

              o  You may notice that the program doesn't have a
                 temperature conversion.  This is because the common
                 temperature conversions require an offset in addition to
                 a multiplier.  If people come up with other examples that
                 also require an offset, I'll likely add an offset as a
                 data field.  If not, I'll probably just add temperature
                 internally to the program as a special case.