> RODATE.TXT

(c) B.A. Brand, Version 1.01, 16 Jan 2000,


About RODATE:
-------------

RODATE is a small program to be used on a PC card (or under the PC emulator)
in an Acorn or RISC OS computer.  It requires ARMEDIT by Alexander Thoukydides
to work.  (Address follows below.)

Its purpose is to set the DOS date and time from the RISC OS date and time.  It
can be used to fix year 2000 problems with older versions of !PC, !PCx86 and
!PCpro that do not pass the date correctly after 1 Jan 2000.

It can also be used to synchronize the DOS time and date with RISC OS at any
time during a DOS/Windows session in case you think the time is drifting too
much.

And it can be used to get the RISC OS UTC (or GMT) time rather than the local
time for the currently configured territory, timezone and daylight saving time
(summertime) setting.  This is useful if you want to use Windows 9x's own
timezone and daylight saving time/summertime management.


Contents of archive:
--------------------

The archive used for the distribution of the program should contain three files:

  RODATE.COM: the program itself
  RODATE.C  : the source
  RODATE.TXT: the file you are reading now


Usage:
------

Be sure to have at least the ARMEDIT module loaded at the RISC OS side.  See
the installation instructions of ARMEDIT for that.

Put the RODATE.COM program somewhere convenient, e.g. together with the other
ARMEDIT programs, on your DOS `disc', e.g.: C:\ARMEDIT\RODATE.COM.  If you
want to use the program from the command line to re-synchronise the time
during a DOS/Windows session either put RODATE.COM in a directory that is in
your PATH or add the directory where you put it to your PATH.

To set the correct date and time at the start of your DOS/Windows session add
RODATE to the beginning of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  A line like:

  @C:\ARMEDIT\RODATE

as the very first line of AUTOEXEC.BAT is probably best.

Advanced: if you install date sensitive drivers in CONFIG.SYS, a line like:

  INSTALL=C:\ARMEDIT\RODATE.COM

as the first INSTALL or INSTALLHIGH command in CONFIG.SYS will probably work
as well, but keep in mind that devices installed through a DEVICE or DEVICEHIGH
command are already installed before the INSTALL commands are parsed.

To synchronize the DOS time with RISC OS at any time during the DOS/Windows
session, just type RODATE from the command line if you installed the program
somewhere in your path or type the complete path to the program if you did not.

To set the DOS time to RISC OS's UTC time, add /u or -u as option to the RODATE
command.  I.e.:

  @C:\ARMEDIT\RODATE /u

as first line in AUTOEXEC.BAT and `ARMEDIT /u' from the command line.  And do
not forget to set the correct timezone and start and end dates for summertime
in Windows's date/time control panel.

  RODATE /?

(or in fact any argument other than /u and -u) will give a short help.


Compiling it yourself:
----------------------

The source of this program is included in the same ZIP archive as the program
and the file you are now reading.  To compile it you need the ARMEDIT.LIB li-
brary from the ARMEDIT package and a 16 bits C compiler for DOS.  Alexander
Thoukydides compiled the library under the tiny (=.COM) memory model, but with-
out any optimizations so small model ought to work too.  He used Borland ver-
sion 3.0.  RODATE was compiled with Borland 3.1 (under campus license).  It
should be possible to compile this with any other 16 bits compiler that under-
stands the .OBJ (and .LIB) format Borland and Microsoft use.  This version was
compiled with options -a -d -v- -O2 -mt -lt -f- (align on word boundary, merge
duplicate static strings, no debug information, general optimization, tiny
memory model and no floating point).


Addresses:
----------

ARMEDIT can be downloaded from the website of Alexander Thoukydides:
http://www.btinternet.com/~thouky/

I can be contacted via e-mail at b.a.brand@wtb.tue.nl, Fido 2:2801/208.2
(soon to become 2:280/1208.2) or snail mail:
  B.A. Brand
  Achilleslaan 42
  NL-5631 BT  Eindhoven
  the Netherlands


Thanks:
-------

To Alexander Thoukydides for providing ARMEDIT.



Legal matters:
--------------

It seems that no piece of software can do without these days.

This program and its documentation are provided `as is'.  There is no warranty,
express or implied, that this program will do anything useful.  Neither the
author nor any distributor can be held responsible for direct or indirect dama-
ges or losses due to the use of this piece of software.

This program is freeware.  You are allowed to use and distribute it provided
you distribute the three files (RODATE.COM, RODATE.C and RODATE.TXT) together
and unchanged.

All trademarks mentioned in the program or this documentation are acknowledged
as properties of their respective owners.
