			      Readme for xalarm-3

			Welcome to xalarm for X11R4/5

		    Ideal for the permanently late, like me

		     Copyright (c) 1991 by Simon Marshall

		   If you still end up late, don't blame me!


DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~

  xalarm is a program analogous to leave(1), only much more powerful.

  xalarm sets an alarm to a time you specify and will tell you when the time is
  up.  The ``time'' may be a specific given time or in a specific amount of
  time, and xalarm can be set to warn you of the impending triggering of an
  alarm.

  If a time is not specified or recognised, or a warning time is not
  recognised, xalarm prompts for one by popping up a dialog box.  This form is
  suitable for inclusion as a menu option in a window manager.

  You can make xalarm read alarms and the messages to display from a file.  The
  alarms will only be set on the dates specified in the file.  This form is
  suitable for inclusion in an X start up or initialisation script.

  xalarm may ask for confirmation of the alarm settings.  The confirmation
  gives you an opportunity to change the alarm setting, warnings times, and the
  message xalarm will display when the alarm is triggered.  The dialog box can
  be resized to edit any message larger than the space given by default.

  Even after you have set the alarm and confirmed it, you can reset the alarm
  as long as you know the xalarm process number - given by the -list option.

  xalarm allows you to snooze the alarm after it is triggered, to give you an
  opportunity to carry on and be late anyway - basically resetting the alarm.

  The ``time'' format is quite flexible and natural, eg.  hmm, h:mm, h.mm,
  h-mm, h, +m (for times that are relative), and absolute times can be suffixed
  with an am/pm indicator (upper or lower case).  The format is a super-set of
  the format recognised by leave(1).

  xalarm makes maximum use of resources, as well as having a number of command
  line options, and these can be used to control most of the appearance of
  xalarm and (just about) all of its behaviour.

  The current xalarm options include:
	-appointments
	-time time
	-warn time[,time...]			-nowarn
	-list
	-reset pid
	-snooze time
	-confirm				-noconfirm
	-bell	-beep				-nobell	-nobeep
	-help

  Also supplied are xmemo, xfortune and xyou front ends to xalarm.  Note that
  xfortune and xyow require the fortune and yow programs respectively, so they
  must be somewhere on your system.

  To have a preview of the manual, try something like:

% nroff -man xalarm.man | less		# or "more" if you haven't got "less".
	or
% xalarm -help

  See the file INSTALL for help with installation and problems.


THE END
~~~~~~~

  Xalarm uses Xt & Xaw stuff only, and may well be a useful aid to someone
  trying to learn X, as I was/am.

  You may have problems with X function names if using R3 or earlier;
  application contexts are used, but this should not take much changing - using
  #defines may do most of the job.

  It trys to find fortune and yow for their absolute path names (so you don't
  need the relevant directories in your path), but if you haven't got them, you
  can hardly use xfortune or xyow - they don't come with this!

  Written in an attempt to learn X Windows in as short a time as possible; it
  may be written badly, but makes as much use of resources as possible.  I
  don't think it is (but I wouldn't, would I?) and I have found it is very
  useful for me now I'm to be responsible for giving lectures...

	Simon.
_______________________________________________________________________________
    Simon Marshall, Dept. Computer Science, University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
	     ``"La la la la la la la la la", means I love you...''
			     S.Marshall@Hull.ac.UK
