As a bonus to the registered users of her shareware programs, Don
Hawkinson (author of CCA, DH-Grep-PM, PMStripper, Pastry Box, and DH_ClipSave/2
) is making DH_Notifiy 2.0 available for download from her web site. Rather than
creating a special download directory, Don have placed the zip file in her beta
directory. To get the file you need an username and a password (ask Don Hawkinson)
The user name and password are both case sensitive and there is no white space before
or after either one.
DH_Notify 2.0
The install.cmd file will create a destination directory if needed
and copy the executable files and the program icon to the destination
directory. It will also create a desktop object called DH_Notify.
Double clicking on the object will cause a parameters dialog box
to open. You then enter a short one line message in double quotes
and an optional time in 24 hour format. If no time was specified,
the DH_Notify window will popup with the message. If a time argument
was entered, the DH_Notify window will not popup until the desired time.
Notify.exe
Version 2.0 of DH_Notify adds a timer shell that has an alarm clock
function. This replaces the original REXX script. The shell program
Notify.exe is a command line program and it calls NotifyPM. The input
for the alarm function is the second argument on the command line. If
there is no second command line argument, NotifyPM.exe is executed
immediately.
The alarm function requires that the alarm time be entered in 24 hour
format with a ':' between the hours and minutes. Any seconds
specified will be ignored. If the time entered is less than the
current time, NotifyPM.exe is executed immediately.
notify "Its lunch time" 12:00
The alarm time may also be specified as a delta to the current time
in minutes. This option requires that a plus '+' sign be entered
before the delta.
notify "Go back to work" +15
NotifyPM.exe
NotifyPM is a small PM utility that will open a window on the OS/2
desktop and display a one line message. When the the window
is opened there will be 5 beeps and the title bar and border will
flash until the window is closed. The window is 1.3 inches high when
the video resolution is 800 by 600 and the width is sized to fit the
number of characters in the message. The maximum message length is
256 characters, but the message length should be limited so that all
of it will be on screen. NotifyPM uses the default font and does a
query to determine the font information. NotifyPM has an internal
timer function that will cause the window to float to the top and
beep twice, if the window is not closed after the inital window
diaplay and alarm.
The message must be entered as a command line argument and redirection
is not supported. If no command line argument is entered, a default
"Task Completed" message will be displayed. Since most messages contain
blanks, double quotation marks should be placed around the message.
I use NotifyPM to tell me when a task running in the background has
been completed. I add the following line to a CMD file or makefile
and then the message is displayed on the desktop.
detach NotifyPM "Your message here"
The detach command is used so that the focus of the background task
is not changed. Without the detach command, the focus would be
changed and the DH_Notify window would need to be closed to terminate
the backgound task.
Run_At.exe
Included in this release is a small command line program that allows
the user to execute a program at a specific time. Run_At requires
two arguments, the program to be executed and the time to run the
program. The program to be executed must be in the search path or
a fully qualified program name must be specified. The time must be
entered in 24 hour format with a ':' between the hours and minutes.
Any seconds specified will be ignored. If the time entered is less
than the current time, the Run_At will assume the user wishes to run
the program during the next 24 hour period.
Run_At internet.cmd 8:09
The alarm time may also be specified as a delta to the current time
in minutes. This option requires that a plus '+' sign be entered
before the delta.
Run_At internet.cmd +15
One application of Run_At would be to delay execution of a program
that requires an internet or lan connection.