Chesiresoft Calendar-Almanac version 1.16
(k) by Andrew Ziem 1997, 1998, 1999
(formerly named Psych0Day)
Released: 1999-07-01 (Gregorian)

"With CDAY your days are numbered!"

[ Chesiresoft website | CDAY online ]

Contents

Introduction

The Chesiresoft Calendar-Almanac (refered to as "CDAY") can report what happened in history, whose birthday it is, astronomical events, religious happenings and the phase of the moon as well as display the date in a variety of calendrical systems. CDAY's inspiration came from other programs and an article by Robert Anton Wilson.

TODAY has many incarnations: the original was written by Mike Butler in PL/1 on an IBM VM/CMS system. This, in turn, inspired Patrick Kincaid to write TODAY/PC in Datalight C in July of 1986. OS2DAY, authored by Oleg Titov, is the OS/2 incarnation that I had been using until I wrote CDAY.

License Agreement

Used mostly like a copyright symbol, "(k)" is short for kallisti, or "to the prettiest one" (ancient Greek). This means CDAY is hereby released to the public domain. Portions, however, were not written by me and belong to their respect authors.

If you make any interesting improvements or modifications, send them to me. At least drop me a note: I'd like to see how this thing gets around.

CDAY is provided `as is.' There is no warranty of any kind-- expresed, implied or otherwise. If it breaks, you keep both pieces. Furthermore, the accuracy of this program is not guaranteed. Typos will fault the database, and the algorithms by which the calendars are created will never be completely accurate.

Enjoy.

Command Line Arguments

These can also be listed by running CDAY ?. The command line is case insensitive.

  Usage: CDAY [{-|+}c[x]] [-Fdd[mm[yyyy]]] [-i] [{-|+}l[x]]
              [-dir=drive:\\dir\\]
      or CDAY 

Switches:

      c: toggle display of calendars (all on by default)
     cd: toggle Discordian calendar
     cf: toggle French Republican calendar
    cgl: toggle Goddess Lunar calendar
    cgr: toggle Gregorian calendar
    cgu: toggle Great Underground Empire calendar
     ci: toggle Illuminati calendar
    cje: toggle Julian calendar
   cjul: toggle Julian calendar
   cjus: toggle Jusanotoron calendar
    cma: toggle Maya calendar
    cmp: toggle moon phase information
     ct: toggle Thelemic information (disabled by default)
      f: force date in the format dd[mm[yyyy]]
      i: display program information
      l: toggle library support (all on by default)
     lb: toggle birthdays
     le: toggle events
     lr: toggle reminders
    lib: specify library directory

Examples:

ex1: CDAY
Run with all defaults and search current directory for library files.

ex2: CDAY -f09101981
The date October 9th, E.V. 1981 is used.

ex3: CDAY -f0910
The date October 9th of the current year is used.

ex4: CDAY -libdir=c:\apps\cday\
The directory `c:\apps\cday\' is searched for the library files. Notice that the trailing backslash is required!

ex5: CDAY -cjul -cf
The Julian and French Republican calendars are disabled.

ex6: CDAY -c +cd
The calendar displayed is the Discordian. (This neat little trick is possible because the command line is parsed from left to right.)

ex7: CDAY -l
No database libraries are displayed.

ex8: CDAY -le -lb
No library events and birthdays are disabled; essentially, nothing is done.

Included Files

If any of these are missing or damaged, see the end of this document for information on how to get a fresh copy of CDAY.

main directory of archive
CDAY.EXE DOS 16-bit executable
CDAY2.EXE OS/2 32-bit executable (requires EMXRT)
GO2.CMD OS/2 batchfile to run CDAY/2
CDAY386.EXE DOS 32-bit executlabe (requires DPMI server)
GO386.BAT batchfile to run CDAY/32
CDAY95.EXE Windows 95 32-bit executable
GO95.BAT batchfile to run CDAY 95
FILE_ID.DIZ BBS-compatible description
PSOFT.URL Windows 95 Shortcut

doc subdirectory of archive
CDAY_DOC.HTM HTML documentation
CDAY_DOC.TXT text documentation
README.xxx important notes for version xxx, changes, etc.
RAWTIME.TXT R.A.W.'s "How to Live Eleven Days in 24 Hours"

lib subdirectory of archive
CHURCH.ALL religious happenings
MUSIC.ALL happenings related to music
CDAY.ALL my own general additions
TODAY.* Patrick Kincaid's original TODAY.??? files

src subdirectory of archive
SRC.ZIP source code; only needed pieces of the packages used have been included as not to waste space
** contains nested subdirectories: use PKUNZIP -D

Redirection

CDAY's output can be redirected (piped) to a file or a device. Below are several examples of how this done. You may wish to see your system manuals for more information.

Note: error messages are not piped but instead always sent to the console.

CDAY > COM1
Sends the output to the first communications port.

CDAY > PRN
Data is sent to the default printer.

CDAY > NUL
This is useless considering CDAY's function, but the data is sent to the null device (i.e., oblivion).

CDAY > c:\bbs\texts\today.asc
The file c:\bbs\texts\today.asc is overwritten, if it exists. If it doesn't, it is created.

CDAY >> c:\bbs\logs\today.log
The file c:\bbs\logs\today.log is appended with CDAY's output. If it doesn't exist, it is created.

CDAY | MORE
Output is sent to the screen, and when the screen is full, the user is prompted for input. This is useful so that you don't miss information as it scrolls off the screen.

Common Problems: "Load error: no DPMI" (DOS)

The CDAY386.EXE requires DPMI (DOS Protected Mode Interface) to access extended memory. You must either install a DPMI host or use another version.

Available hosts include Windows v3.1, '95 and '98 (in a box running DOS); OS/2 (in the DOS box a.k.a. VDM); QEMM; and CWSDPMI. CWSDPMI is available for free and works very well.

CWSDPMI from ftp.cdrom.com via FTP
CWSDPMI from members.xoom.com via HTTP

Common Problems: not enough memory using CDAY386.EXE under OS/2

In the DOS Settings, set your DPMI_DOS_API to ENABLED (instead of AUTO) and increase the DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT to atleast 16 megabytes.

Common Problems: "emx not found" (OS/2)

CDAY2.EXE requires the EMX runtime library to access certain functions. You must install the emxrt or use another version.

emxrt from hobbes.nmsu.edu via HTTP
emxrt from members.xoom.com via HTTP

References and Recommended Reading

Title: Calendrical Calculations
Author: Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold

Contains code for many calendrical systems. All calculations are very accurate. Book and web-site supply Lisp code for all operations.

Title: Calendar Information Page
Author: Will Linden (
wlinden@panix.com)
URL: http://www.panix.com/~wlinden/calendar.shtml

Today's date in various calendars and eras, celestial and astronomical information, and many good links.

Title: Calendar Studies
Author: Peter Meyer (serendipity@magnet.ch)
URL: http://www.magnet.ch/serendipity/cal_stud.html

Information covering the Mayan, Goddess Lunar, Gregorian, Julian and other lunar calendars.

Title: Celestial Delight: The Best Astronomical Events through 2001
Authors: Francis Reddy and Greg Walz-Chojnacki
Publisher: (?) Berkeley California: CelestialArts

Great for novice astronomers. Has history, planet data, and a table of events (visable planets, full moons, asteriod showers, etc.) from about 1990 to 2001 (like the name implies).

Title: Frequently Asked Questions About Calendars
Author: Claus Tondering (c-t@pip.dknet.dk)
Included as: CALENDAR.FAQ
WWW: www.pip.dknet.dk/~pip10160/calendar.html

Contains answers to frequently asked questions about the Christian, Hebrew, Islamic, and various historical calendars.

Title: How to Live Eleven Days in 24 Hours
Author: Robert Anton Wilson
Included as: RAWTIME.TXT

This is the article inspired me to write CDAY. Robert Anton Wilson writes of using a "no-bias multi-cultural" calendar. Explained herein are 11 systems.

I'd like to know where this was originally published.

Title: Illuminatus! Trilogy
Authors: Bob Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Publisher: Dell Publishing
URL: http://rawilson.com

I've finally found one of the books, the third, at a used book store, but I haven't started reading because I want it in order. I haven't bought the trilogy as one book because it is much abridged.

Title: Principia Discordia
Author: Malaclypse the Younger
Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, Washington
Publisher: (or) IllumiNet Press, P.O. Box 2808, Libum, Georgia 30226
ISBN: 0-9626534-2-X (4th/5th edition)
WWW: www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~bach/gwd/principia/body.html

The Discordian Bible wherein is explained absolutely everything worth knowing about absolutely anything.

There are many versions floating around: dead-tree (paper), scanned .GIF, ASCII text and HTML. Most contain the section on the Discordian calendar.

Title: SNIPPETS
F'REQ: SNIPPETS from 1:106/2000 or 1:2320/38
FTP: snippets.org/pub/snippets
WWW: www.snippets.org

SNIPPETS is a huge collection of C source snippets where I have found many a useful thing. I've included the pieces used in this program.

Title: Jusanotoron calendar
WWW: http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/jusanotoron.html
Written by: Pope Icky Fundament, PZK.

Title: Thelemic Calendar and Holidays
WWW: http://www5.crl.com/~thelema/calendar.html
Maintained by: Vere Chappell (thelema@crl.com)

Title: Yahoo! - Reference:Calendars
URL: http://www.yahoo.com/Reference/Calendars/

A good starting point for research on the WWW.

Where in the World is Andrzej?

My name is Andy, and I produce Chesiresoft myself. (You can call me Andrzej if you can pronounce it.)

E-mail
ziem@iex.net (checked often)
andy@chesire.freeservers.com
psych0o@juno.com

Snail
3080 Woodview Ct.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918-4635

Distribution

Look for the latest updates directly from the CDAY website.

File Naming Conventions

xxx signifies the version release. For example, the DOS package for v1.15 would be CDAY115D.ZIP.

includes archive name
DOS, OS/2 and Windows executables; source code; extra files CDAYxxx.ZIP
DOS executables (16-bit and 32-bit); extra files CDAYxxxD.ZIP
OS/2 executables; extra files CDAYxxxO.ZIP
source code; extra files CDAYxxxS.ZIP
Windows 32 executables; extra files CDAYxxxW.ZIP

WWW
http://chesire.freeservers.com
http://chesire.freeservers.com/cday.html

Sites
Simtel archive
Hobbes archive

Acknowledgments and Credits (in no particular order)

Public domain code from

Portions copyright 1993-1995, Scott E. Lee, all rights reserved. Visit his webpage.

Borland C Borland International, Inc.
DJGPP DJ Delorie
EMX Eberhart Mattes
MS-DOS Microsoft Corp.
OS2DAY Oleg Titov
OS/2 International Business Machines Corp.
RSX Rainer Schnitker
Windows 95 Microsoft Corp.
TODAY Michael W. Butler
TODAY/PC Patrick Kincaid
Turbo C Borland International, Inc.
Windows 95 Microsoft Corp.

All other programs are copyright and/or trademarked by their respective author unless otherwise noted.