"Pcal" Version 4.7
This is a new release of "Pcal", the PostScript calendar program. The major
new features are the "-H" flag for generating output in HTML table form,
expansion of "%y" in the "include" filename into the last two digits of
every applicable year in "year all" mode, and the addition of build-time
support for A4 size paper.
Major changes:
1) Of interest to Pcal hackers and installers:
. Automatically looking for the calendar file in the directory where
the Pcal executable lives (Un*x only) is not a Good Thing when there
is already another executable named 'calendar' in the same directory.
This feature is now optional and may be disabled by #define'ing
SEARCH_PCAL_DIR as 0 in pcaldefs.h (or in the Makefile).
. The obsolete PRT() and FPR() macros have been scrapped and replaced
with simple calls to printf() and fprintf().
. The installer can specify different default output file names for
PostScript and HTML output (cf. pcaldefs.h) on those systems (VMS,
Amiga) where output is automatically directed to a file.
. In case anyone still uses moon files, moon96 and moon97 have been
deleted and moon98 added. There are no plans to support moon99.
. Support for OS/2 (new Makefile.os2, revised pcallang.h) has been
added.
. Cleaned up most gcc warnings in "-Wall" mode. This effort revealed
one long-unnoticed bug (see below).
. Realigned the page so that the top of the calendar boxes is now the
Y origin (instead of 35); the origin had not previously corresponded
to any physical feature on the page. Note that this changes the
default value for the little-used -Y flag from -120 to -85.
. Revised Makefile for use in cross-build environment: PCALINIT_CC
defines the host compiler for building pcalinit; CC defines the
cross-compiler for building pcal itself. For native builds (i.e.,
host == target), these are the same.
. Dropped the "EPSF" designator in the initial PostScript comment
since the output is not truly EPS. The special "%%" comments used
by some previewers (e.g., ghostview) are still generated when
built with -DEPS.
. Added support for A4 size paper at build time; see below.
2) New command-line options:
. Pcal now supports the -H flag to generate calendars in HTML table
format. Most of the other flags are overridden or ignored in HTML
mode (moons, note text, Julian dates, small calendars, date
color/style, scaling/transformation, font selection, left/right
footstrings), but one is overloaded in an appropriate manner: the
string specified by the -C flag (PostScript center footstring) is
used as the page title and as a centered page heading.
Other HTML formatting details - minimum lines per box, color and
format of holidays, etc. - can be configured at build time (see the
various Makefiles and pcaldefs.h), but not on the command line.
The latter is theoretically possible, but would require either a)
using up the remaining single-letter flags (all six of them), b)
supporting multiple-letter flags (as per many of the GNU utilities),
or c) overloading even more of the existing flags - none of which is
particularly appealing.
As of the 6/19/98 release, the "-w" flag in conjunction with "-H"
generates HTML whole-year calendars in a multicolumn format similar
to the PostScript equivalents. "-l" and "-p" may be used to specify
landscape or portrait mode, respectively. Pcal normally prints only
five weeks per row unless at least one month in the row requires six;
to print six weeks all the time, build with -DCONSISTENT_SPACING .
. Pcal now supports a numeric (0-6) argument for the -F (first day of
week) flag, thus allowing this to be specified independently of
selected language.
3) New date file functionality:
. Pcal attempts to be somewhat smart about converting simple HTML
tags (`<b>', '<i>', etc. to PostScript bold/italic fonts, and
` ' etc. to ASCII) when generating non-HTML output from a
date file containing these tags.
. In "year all" mode, the "include xxx%y" directive expands to include
a file corresponding to every applicable year (e.g., if the calendar
spans 1997, 1998, and 1999, "include xxx%y" will include xxx97, xxx98,
and xxx99 in that order) instead of just the initial year.
4) Other new functionality:
. Pcal predefines the symbol `v4_7'; this allows the user to ifdef out
v4.7-specific constructs from date files that might also be used
by older versions of Pcal. If "-H" is specified, Pcal also
predefines the symbol `html'; this allows the user to ifdef out
HTML code (e.g. links, font size/color changes, etc.) that is
undesirable in PostScript output.
. On systems where output is normally written to a file, the -o flag
without an argument redirects it to stdout.
. Pcal may optionally be built to generate output for A4 size (545x842)
paper by adding -DA4PAPER to the COPTS line in the Makefile and
rebuilding. There is a block of code in writefil.c that forces the
printer to select the appropriate paper tray in environments where
multiple trays are available; it is, however, known to confuse some
previewers and may be #ifdef'd out if desired (look for "#if 1").
5) Bug fixes:
. I have received reports of a Y2K-related problem on some Un*x systems:
when no year is specified on the command line, the year is calculated
as 100 instead of 2000. I can't reproduce this problem myself, but
incorporated the suggested fix anyway - see pcal.c and pcalutil.c.
. Revised pcallang.h to parse the F_HELP, F_USAGE, and F_VERSION flags
in the preliminary command line pass (P_CMD0) instead of in the first
"real" command line pass (P_CMD1), generating the appropriate message
and exiting without attempting to parse any numeric arguments. This
fixes an obscure bug where "pcal -v 99999" generates a "year out of
range" error instead of the version stamp.
. Fixed a long-standing bug where "note/1" text would overwrite the
small calendar for the next month if the "-k" flag was specified and
the month began on Sunday. See note_box() in pcalutil.c.
. Minor tweakage for compatibility with C++ compilers: ensure that
"C" prototypes are visible wherever necessary (cf. protos.h); change
"template" (C++ reserved word) to "templt" (cf. moonphas.c).
. Fixed a long-standing bug where the final month and year were
miscalculated when spanning year boundaries in whole-year mode.
Credits:
The original calendar PostScript was Copyright (c) 1987 by Patrick Wood and
Pipeline Associates, Inc. with permission to modify and redistribute.
The following people contributed to Pcal v4.7:
C and HTML code: Andrew Rogers
OS/2 support: Alexander Mai
For a list of all known contributors to date, see the Orig.ReadMe file and
topline comments in pcal.c.
Future updates of Pcal v4.7 will be available at the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/5555/PS/pcal_4_7_tar_Z.txt
Andrew W. Rogers (andrew.rogers@east.sun.com)
09 February 2000
PS: Here's something handy - an alphabetical list of the Pcal options (v4.7)
and their meanings:
------------------------------- clip 'n' save -------------------------------
-A parse American date format -a select language for months/days
-B don't fill unused boxes -b print day in black
-C define center foot string -c generate "calendar" utility input
-D define preprocessor symbol -d select alternate day font
-E parse European date format -e print empty calendar
-F define alternate starting day -f select alternate date file
-G print day as gray-filled outline -g print day in gray
-H generate calendar as HTML table -h generate full help message
-I re-initialize program defaults -i <unused>
-J print Julian day and days left -j print Julian day (day of year)
-K prev in first box, next in last -k prev/next in first two boxes
-L define left foot string -l landscape mode
-M print all moons -m print new/half/full moons
-N define heading for notes box -n select alternate notes font
-O print day as empty outline -o select alternate output file
-P <unused> -p portrait mode
-Q <unused> -q <unused>
-R define right foot string -r remap fonts for 8-bit characters
-S suppress prev/next calendars -s define date/fill box shading
-T select typeface for date/note text -t select alternate title font
-U undefine preprocessor symbol -u generate parameter usage message
-V <unused> -v generate version ID
-W <unused> -w print whole year per page
-X X-axis transformation -x X-axis scale factor
-Y Y-axis transformation -y Y-axis scale factor
-Z generate debugging information -z specify alternate time zone
-# print multiple copies of each page