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. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄ¿ ³ (tm) Äij ³o ³ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÁÐÄÄ¿ ³ Association of ³ ³ ³ÄÙ Shareware ÀÄÄij o ³ Professionals ÄÄÄÄÄij º ³ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÀÄÄÄÄÐÄÄÄÄÙ 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.