!
!  Alan L. Zirkle
!  Naval Surface Warfare Center
!  Code K53
!  Dahlgren, Virginia  22448
!  (703) 663-8023
!
1 REMINDER
!
Reminds you of the appointments you have.  You are reminded by messages on the
terminal screen when you login, and periodically as the time of an appointment
approaches.   Each message tells you when your appointment is, and what it is.
The terminal bell is rung to get your attention.

 Formats:  $ [1mREMINDER /ADD[m      to enter an appointment in REMINDER's database

           $ [1mREMINDER /DELETE[m   to delete an appointment before it becomes due

           $ [1mREMINDER[m           to display your appointments

  Note:  If you get a reminder message while you are in EDT or EVE, just enter
         [7m CTRL/W [m to remove it from the screen.

If you wish,  you can give permission for other users to add, delete, and dis-
play your appointments.   This is controlled by the qualifiers  /USER, /ALLOW,
/DISALLOW, and /ACCESS.

Instead of displaying a message on your terminal, you can have REMINDER send a
MAIL message to you when the appointment is due, or you can  have it  submit a
batch job for you at that time.   See subtopics MAIL and BATCH for more infor-
mation.

The "Recurring Appointments" feature allows you to enter a single reminder for
an appointment which occurs  at predictable intervals.   See that subtopic for
more information.

You can copy your appointments to a file or printer by using the /OUTPUT qual-
ifier.
!
2 /ADD
!
Enters an appointment in REMINDER's database.  When you run the REMINDER/ADD
command,  you will be prompted for,  separately,  the date, time, and reason
for the appointment.

Example:        $ [7mREMINDER /ADD[m

                   Date: [7mTODAY[m

                   Time: [7m14:00[m

                 Reason: [7mSTAFF MEETING[m

You can also put everything on the command line, as in:

          $ [7mREMINDER/ADD  TODAY  14:00  "Staff Meeting"[m

You can omit the quotes around the reason;  if you do, it will be entered in
all capital letters.
!
3 Date
!
If you enter just a carriage return for the date, today is assumed.  Today
is also assumed if you enter an asterisk (*).

You can enter the words  [1mTOD[mAY or  [1mTOM[mORROW  (any date field can be abbre-
viated to three characters).

If you enter  a day  of the week,  the next occurrence of that day will be
used (i.e. entering  [1mMON[mDAY  implies 'next Monday').  You cannot enter to-
day's day of the week.

If you enter  a day of the month  alone,  the next occurrence  of that day
will be used  (i.e. entering [1m5[m on June 1 implies 'June 5', and entering it
on June 20 implies 'July 5').  You cannot enter today's day of the month.

You can enter [1m+n[m, which signifies "n days from today"; n must be positive.
If this form  is used  on the command line  (as opposed to at the  "Date:"
prompt), it must be surrounded by quotes (").

All of the following  formats are also valid for dates.   Blanks, hyphens,
or commas can be between the parts of the date.

        5 JUN     5 JUN 84     5 JUN 1984

        JUN 5     JUN 5 84     JUN 5 1984

You can also enter a  "date expression",  surrounded by angle brackets, to
add a "Recurring Appointment".  See HELP REMIND RECUR for more information
on this feature.
!
3 Time
!
Times must be entered in 'Navy time', from 0000 to 2400 hours.   If the
time is on an even hour, you do not have to enter the minutes.  A colon
is allowed between the hours and the minutes.

Examples:    [1m9  900  0900  9:00  09:00[m  all mean '9 a.m.'

               [1m14     1400     14:00[m    all mean '2 p.m.'

3 Reason
!
You may enter up to 90 characters of text describing the appointment, or
just a carriage return.  The messages displayed on your screen will only
show the first 80 characters;  the MAIL and BATCH options use the entire
string.
!
2 /DELETE
!
Deletes an appointment from  REMINDER's  database.  When you run the command
REMINDER /DELETE, you will be prompted for, separately, the date and time of
the appointment you wish to delete.  Note that  REMINDER  automatically del-
etes appointments after the scheduled time of the appointment passes.

Example:        $ [7mREMINDER /DELETE[m

                   Date: [7mTODAY[m

                   Time: [7m14:00[m

You can also put it all on the command line:  $ [7mREMIND /DEL  TODAY  14:00[m

3 /CONFIRM
!
If you execute  REMINDER /DELETE /CONFIRM  and give a date and time,  then
for each appointment you have at that date and time, REMINDER will display
the associated "Reason",  and will then ask you if you want to delete that
appointment.  It will not delete it unless your response begins with "Y".

If you do not use the  /CONFIRM  qualifier, and you have more than one ap-
pointment at a given date and time, REMINDER /DELETE will delete the first
one it finds.
!
3 Date
!
If you enter just a carriage return for the date, today is assumed.  Today
is also assumed if you enter an asterisk (*).

You can enter the words  [1mTOD[mAY or  [1mTOM[mORROW  (any date field can be abbre-
viated to three characters).

If you enter  a day  of the week,  the next occurrence of that day will be
used (i.e. entering  [1mMON[mDAY  implies 'next Monday').  You cannot enter to-
day's day of the week.

If you enter  a day of the month  alone,  the next occurrence  of that day
will be used  (i.e. entering [1m5[m on June 1 implies 'June 5', and entering it
on June 20 implies 'July 5').  You cannot enter today's day of the month.

You can enter [1m+n[m, which signifies "n days from today"; n must be positive.
If this form  is used  on the command line  (as opposed to at the  "Date:"
prompt), it must be surrounded by quotes (").

All of the following  formats are also valid for dates.   Blanks, hyphens,
or commas can be between the parts of the date.

        5 JUN     5 JUN 84     5 JUN 1984

        JUN 5     JUN 5 84     JUN 5 1984

You can also enter a  "date expression",  surrounded by angle brackets, to
delete a "Recurring Appointment".  See HELP REMIND RECUR for more informa-
tion on this feature.
!
3 Time
!
Times must be entered in 'Navy time', from 0000 to 2400 hours.   If the
time is on an even hour, you do not have to enter the minutes.  A colon
is allowed between the hours and the minutes.

Examples:    [1m9  900  0900  9:00  09:00[m  all mean '9 a.m.'

               [1m14     1400     14:00[m    all mean '2 p.m.'

2 Login
!
When you login,  if you have any appointments you will receive a message re-
minding you of how many appointments you have, and when the first one is due
to occur.  Recurring Appointments are not included in this message.
!
2 MAIL
!
If the first two characters of the  "Reason"  entered for an appointment are
"[1mM:[m", then REMINDER will MAIL you a message when the appointment is due, in-
stead of displaying messages on your screen.   The rest of the "Reason" text
is used as the text of the MAIL message.  The subject of the message will be
"Message from REMINDER".  The sender of the message will be you.

If the first character after "M:" is "[1m+[m", then  REMINDER  will MAIL the mes-
sage to you, as above, but will also send  the normal screen displays as the
appointment time nears and arrives.

If the first character after "M:" is "[1m@[m", then the rest of the "Reason" text
is assumed to be a file name, and the contents of that file  are sent as the
MAIL message.   When REMINDER accesses this file, its default directory will
be your master directory,  so you must enter the filename with that in mind.
For example, if user TBONE who is on disk UDISK1 enters "[1mM:@[.TESTS]MY.MSG[m",
then the file must be [1mUDISK1:[TBONE.TESTS]MY.MSG[m.  If the file cannot be lo-
cated, REMINDER will attempt to send you MAIL explaining the problem.

Each time REMINDER sends you MAIL, it does so from a batch job which it runs
under your username.   This  may be reflected  in the  "Last non-interactive
login" message which VMS displays when you log in.  This also means that the
file name used in the "@" option may contain a logical name which you define
in your LOGIN.COM.

Remember that the "Reason" text is limited to a total of 90 characters.
!
2 BATCH
!
If the first two characters of the  "Reason"  entered for an appointment are
"[1mB:[m", then REMINDER will submit a batch job for you  when the appointment is
due, instead of displaying messages on the screen.  The rest of the "Reason"
text must be the command you want executed in the batch job.  Example:

	Reason:  [1mB:PURGE [.DATA]MYFILES.DAT[m

The batch job will run in your master directory.  Thus the above example, if
run by user LCHOP who is on UDISK2, will purge the file:

		UDISK2:[LCHOP.DATA]MYFILES.DAT

By default, the batch job will have no log file.  If the first character af-
ter "B:" is "+",  then a log will be produced.   The log will reside in your
master directory, and it will not be printed.  The name of the log file will
be REMINDER_BATCH.LOG.

Although you can only specify one command to be run,  that command  can be a
call to a  command procedure, which of course can do any number of commands.

The batch job will run in the default batch queue (SYS$BATCH).   If your job
needs to run in another queue, or if you want your log printed, given a dif-
ferent name,  or placed in a different  directory,  then your command can be
SUBMIT.   This will then run another batch job,  which you can set up (using
qualifiers on the SUBMIT command) as required.

This feature is most useful when used with the "Recurring Appointments" fea-
ture; see HELP REMINDER RECURRING for information on this.

You cannot enter 'B:' reminders for other users,  even if they have /ALLOWed
you access to their reminders.

Remember that the "Reason" text is limited to a total of 90 characters.
!
2 /OUTPUT
!
You can have a list of your appointments written to a file or printed.

Example:    $ [1mREMINDER /OUTPUT=APPTS.DAT[m	  ! Write to a file

            $ [1mPRINT APPTS.DAT[m		  ! Print the file

The /OUTPUT qualifier can also be used with the /ACCESS qualifier to have a
list of other users, whose appointments you can access or who can access
your appointments, written to a file or printed.
!
2 /ALLOW
!
You can allow other users to add, delete, and display your appointments.  To
do this, you execute:

		$ [1mREMINDER /ALLOW=username[m

Any user you let access your appointments can also do /ALLOWs and /DISALLOWs
on your behalf.

If you no longer want a user to access your appointments,  use the /DISALLOW
qualifier to remove their access.

To see which users can access your appointments, execute [1mREMINDER /ACCESS[m.

Users having  SYSPRV privilege can add, delete, and display the appointments
of other users by default; i.e. no  /ALLOW  is necessary.  They can also add
"B:" appointments for other users, which is normally not permitted even when
the user has /ALLOWed access.
!
2 /DISALLOW
!
If you have previously allowed a user access to your appointments by using
the qualifier /ALLOW, you can cancel their access by executing:

		$ [1mREMINDER /DISALLOW=username[m

To see which users can access your appointments, execute [1mREMINDER /ACCESS[m.
!
2 /ACCESS
!
When you execute [1mREMINDER /ACCESS[m, it displays two lists:

  1. A list of other users who you have given access to your appointments.

  2. A list of other users who have given you access to their appointments.

You can use the /OUTPUT qualifier to have these lists printed or written to
a file.
!
2 /USER
!
If another user has given you access to his/her appointments, you use the
following formats to do so:

		$ [1mREMINDER /USER=username[m

		$ [1mREMINDER /USER=username /ADD[m

		$ [1mREMINDER /USER=username /DELETE[m
!
2 Recurring_appointments
!
If you have appointments  which occur at predictable intervals,  you can use
the  "Recurring Appointments"  feature of REMINDER to avoid continually add-
ing the same reminders.   For example,  if a meeting is scheduled  for every
Wednesday at 10 o'clock, you can  /ADD  an appointment with a date of  [7m<WED>[m
and a time of  [7m10:00[m.   From then on, you will be reminded about the meeting
every week.

Whenever you use a  "date expression"  enclosed in angle brackets in an /ADD
(or /DELETE) operation,  REMINDER will add (or delete)  a Recurring Appoint-
ment.   See subtopic  DATE_EXPRESSIONS  for the valid formats for these date
expressions.

Once you add a  Recurring Appointment,  it will remain in the REMINDER data-
base forever,  unless you  explicitly delete it.   To display a list of your
Recurring Appointments, use the command REMINDER /RECURRING.

When you add a new Recurring Appointment, it will not have effect immediate-
ly.  Early every morning, REMINDER checks every Recurring Appointment in its
database.  Those whose date expression matches the current day are activated
as normal appointments; later in the day (when the appointment TIME is due),
the appointment triggers (i.e. you get the screen messages, or the MAIL mes-
sage, or your batch job is run).

MAIL and BATCH appointments  whose TIME occurs before the Recurring Appoint-
ment check will still be run.  For example, a BATCH appointment for <WED> at
00:01 will still run even if the Recurring Appointment check is done at 2 AM
on Wednesday (it will run immediately at 02:00).
!
3 Date_expressions
!
The following examples show every legal format for a date expression.  The
angle brackets around the expression are required.  Where an example has a
blank, exactly one blank is required.  Where "FRI" is used, any day of the
week can be used (three-character abbreviations are the only valid forms).
The same applies for "AUG" and months.   Where a number is used (1, 3, -1)
you can use any reasonable number; leading zeros are not allowed.

	<FRI>	      Every Friday
	<FRI AUG>     Every Friday in August
	<1 FRI>	      The first Friday of every month
	<3 FRI AUG>   The third Friday in August
	<10>	      The 10th of every month
	<11 AUG>      Every August 11th
	<1BD>	      The first business day of every month
	<3BD AUG>     The 3rd business day of August
	<-2BD>	      The next-to-last business day of every month
	<-1BD AUG>    The last business day of August
	<-1D>	      The last day of each month
	<-3D AUG>     The 3rd-to-last day of August
	<-2 FRI>      The next-to-last Friday in every month
	<-1 FRI AUG>  The last Friday in August
	<ED>	      Every day
	<ED AUG>      Every day in August
	<EBD>	      Every business day
	<EBD AUG>     Every business day in August
	<H>	      Every holiday
	<H FRI>	      Every Friday holiday
	<WD>	      Every weekday (including holidays)
	<WE>	      Every Saturday and Sunday
	<H WD>	      Every weekday holiday
	<H WE>	      Every weekend holiday

("Business days" are weekdays, minus legal federal holidays)

Any of the above formats can also include an offset,  in days, placed just
before the closing bracket.  For example "<-1 MON -2>" means "Two days be-
fore the last Monday in every month".   The offset must be between  -9 and
+9 days and be non-zero.   Positive offsets must have a plus sign.   Other
examples of offsets:

            <H +1>  "One day after every holiday"

          <1BD -1>  "One day before the first business day in every month"
                     (this could be the last day of the previous month, or
                     the first Sunday of the month, or the first Monday of
                     the month if it is a Holiday).

Note that if you enter a date expression which contains any blanks or plus
signs on the REMINDER command line, you must put quotes around the expres-
sion.  You do not use quotes if you enter it at the "Date:" prompt.
!
3 Examples
!
  1. Add a Recurring Appointment for a 10:00 meeting every Wednesday:

        $ REMIND /ADD "<WED>" 10 "ADPCRB Meeting in Room 100"

        (the quotes around the date expression are not required in this
         case, but do not hurt; they are required in some cases)

  2. Add a Recurring MAIL Appointment to remind you to fill out your
     monthly progress report:

        $ REMIND /ADD "<-3BD>" 0000 "M:Fill out your Progress Report!"

  3. Add a Recurring BATCH Appointment to run a job every Sunday night:

        $ REMIND /ADD <SUN> 2300 "B:+@UDISK2:[TEST.PROCS]MYPROC"

  4. Display your Recurring Appointments:

        $ REMIND /RECUR

  5. Delete the Recurring Appointment added in (1.) above:

        REMIND /DELETE <WED> 1000
!
