PMWeather 1.30 1995 by David DuPre' Distributed by Lookout Mountain Technologies INTRODUCTION: PMWeather is a shareware program that allows you to view weather reports and forecasts. Using your Internet connection, you will be able to read the latest weather reports and view the current Radar and Satellite images. Schedule the download to happen automatically and have PMWeather make your weather image of choice become the Desktop background. Now you won't have to remember all those unusual Internet addresses. Just point and click. PMWeather is only $19.95! ABOUT David DuPre' : I have been involved with computers since I was a Sophomore at Balboa High School in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1978, it was still the Canal Zone. I learned to program on Wang 2200 programmer workstations in Wang Basic. Now I am an Associate Systems Programmer for a large financial institution supporting approximately 100 OS/2 LAN Servers with 2000+ workstations. Lookout Mtn. Technologies: Provides workstation and LAN on-site support for the Chattanooga area, distributes selected software packages, contract programming, hardware upgrades and servicing. For more information contact: John Farrar at 423-821-1676. REGISTRATION/ORDERING INFORMATION: PMWeather is shareware---or try before you buy software---which means that you can freely distribute PMWeather, but that you have to pay the registration free ($19.95) if you use it. Shareware is based on trust---authors rely completely on the honesty of their users. It is up to users like you to keep it alive. Some users do not send in their fees thinking that others will send in their fees. But in reality, every user is kind of a barometer of everyone else. If you do not send in your fee, most likely, others will not send in their fees. If users do not send in their fees, shareware authors will stop producing quality software. We will all lose in the end if we do not support shareware. When I receive your registration for PMWeather, I'll send you the most up-to-date (the version you're currently using may be old) registered version eliminating the opening shareware registration notice and the "Unregistered" window titles in PMWeather. You'll also be entitled to comprehensive, unlimited FREE support from the author by mail, E-mail, fax, and phone. (Phone call support provided: Callbacks from me will be somewhat limited as the registration fee for shareware doesn't generate very much income. Please feel free to call me, number below.) How to Register: We believe that perhaps the best way for us to show you our appreciation for your order is to make the registration process as easy as possible! You can register by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone fax, E-mail, or mail. We gladly accept checks, and money orders, and P.O. Orders. Checks and money orders should be made payable to Lookout Mtn. Technologies and drawn on a US Bank in $US. We will also accept cash, although we recommend that you wrap it in paper so that it doesn't get "lost" on the way! Ordering by Phone: We're open 8 - 5 EST, Monday - Friday for your convenience. After these hours you can leave a message on the answering machine. Call Lookout Mtn. Technologies at 423-821-1676 Ordering by Mail: To order by mail, print the ORDER.TXT file and mail it to: David DuPre' Lookout Mtn. Technologies 912 Shingle Rd. Chattanooga, TN. 37409 Ordering by Fax: We welcome your fax orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just fax your name, address, credit card information, and the name(s) of the product(s) you'd like to order to: 423-821-5301. You can also fax us a copy of the ORDER.TXT file. Ordering by E-mail: We can accept E-mail orders through the Internet. Just send your name, address, credit card information, and the name(s) of the product(s) you'd like to order to: Internet: dupre@cdc.net (Feel free to E-mail us a copy of the ORDER.TXT file as well.) Ordering by P.O. Order: We welcome P.O. Orders by mail, fax, or E-mail. Pricing & Shipping Options: PMWeather is only $19.95! If you'd like to order more than 10 copies, please contact us for site license and volume discount information. Shipping and handling is $5 per order for addresses in the US and Canada, and $7.50 for international shipping. Overnight shipping: Call Lookout Mtn. Technologies at 423-821-1676 for details. PMWEATHER DOCUMENTATION: Installing PMWeather: Installing PMWeather is easy. If you received this file in a compressed file format such as the zip file format (zip files end with .zip), you'll first need to decompress the program with UNZIP or PKUNZIP. UNZIP is available on the internet for download. If you have trouble finding it access my WWW page at "http://www.cdc.net/~dupre/home.html" my page will point you to lots of OS/2 shareware sites. Where you can download UNZIP. Decompress all the files into the same directory on your hard drive. If the files were not compressed (or you just decompressed them), you can install PMWeather by opening drives folder, then open the directory where you UNZIPed the files. Once there you can double-click the INSTALL.CMD file. Or from the OS/2 Window, change to the drive and subdirectory where the files exist and run the INSTALL.CMD file from the command line. This installer will check the current drive and directory and create a desktop ICON that points to the program. This ICON can be moved to another folder (drag+drop) without problems. Configuring PMWeather: To Configure PMWeather, do nothing, if you are dialed into the internet it is ready. There are some settings you can change if you like. One the screen, after the shareware notice, there is an option button. This will let you configure how often you would like your selections to be refreshed. There is also a selection for how you would like a bitmap to display on you OS/2 Desktop. There is a button on the Image Viewer screen that will set your desktop background to the image in the viewer. City forecasts: Select a city from drop down box and click the "FORECAST" button. City Radar Imagery: Select the city you wish to view. Select the kind of image you wish to view. It will download as soon as you make your selection. Then it will automatically refresh at the interval you selected in the OPTIONS window. Fonts: Drag and drop fonts from the "Font Palette". These font changes are saved when you exit the program so you won't have to do it again. Using PMWeather: PMWeather is undoubtedly one of the easiest to use programs for OS/2! Once you're connected to the Internet, just double-click on the PMWeather icon. (If you're not connected to the Internet, PMWeather will let you know that it can't initialize the Socket interface. It will show lots of other error messages too.) BETA TESTING: I'm always looking for good beta testers, and all registered users are more than welcome to join our beta testing team. Beta testers are an invaluable part of the development process. As a beta tester, you'll not only help me find bugs in my software, but also discuss new features and make suggestions that guide the development of our products. I currently do all my testing on the internet. Please see my home page for details. http://www.cdc.net/~dupre/home.html To join our beta testing team, just send an E-mail message to David DuPr‚ dupre@cdc.net with your name and address so that I can confirm that you're a registered user. TECH SUPPORT: Technical support is available to all users of PMWeather at no charge. Please contact us if you have any problems with or questions about PMWeather. We're also very open to suggestions for improvements to the program. You can also contact us by phone at 423-825-1941. Leave a message with your question or problem. Please be sure to leave your EMAIL address, just in case I can't return your call at a decent hour. Faxes can be sent to 423-825-1267. On the internet E-mail to: dupre@cdc.net. Of course, you can also send mail to us at: David DuPre' Lookout Mtn. Technologies 912 Shingle Rd. Chattanooga, TN. 37409 ----------- Changes from .085 to .118 beta release -------- 1-18-96 Made Forecast window sizeable. Delete old GIF just before writing out the new one. Added support for saving customer selections and fonts. (Bug discovered in .118 code. Was using HPFS filename and it didn't save user settings on FAT file systems.) Added more cities, fixed some problem entries. Made download more stable. ---------- Change in Version 1.20 1-21-96 ---------- Multi-threaded the downloads. Now you can cancel if it is too slow. Auto-Update function added. Refresh is automatic for forecast and images. Desktop background bitmaps can be Scaled, Tiled, or Normal. Save User Settings, really works now. Was broken in version .118. Other Misc. bugs. ---------- Change in Version 1.21 1-21-96 ---------- Some user settings still not being saved. Should be resolved now. Enable button in Options Window didn't save and restore. ---------- Changes in Version 1.30 2-7-96 ---------- Added: - more US cities to the list - ForeCast Printing capability. - Menu's (File, Edit, Help, About) - Error handler routine. Various minor bugs were fixed. --------- Changes planned ---------- Handle Download errors better. (Done 1.30) Make downloads run in separate thread so it can be aborted easily. (Done 1.21) GBMSIZE errors handled with better messages. (Done 1.30) Check for existense of GBMSIZE and error if not found. Provide option to save image downloaded to file. Delete or clean-up old image files at program completion. Provide command line options to automate download of preffered text and images. (DONE in 1.20) Allow Timer function to auto-update images and text in viewer, user determines interval. (DONE in 1.20) Desktop Backgrounds should support SCALED, TILED, and NORMAL images. (Currently only supports Normal) Larger database of images for more cities, and countries. (More US cities in 1.30)