TODAY.OW4

By Bruce T. Goldman
   2180 Bolton St.
   Bronx, NY 10462

April 2, 1987

This ˙file is an update with many additions and a few corrections to 
TODAY.OW1, TODAY.OW2 and TODAY.OW3.  Back ˙in ˙the ˙late ˙70's I was 
working on a database of female celebrities. Can't recall the reason 
why, ˙I ˙undertook that database but still had the straight ASCII on 
one of my TRS-80 ˙disks.  ˙Well with some simple formatting tricks I 
was ˙able to get the file in the proper format for TODAY.  ˙I ˙˙then 
transfered it to the PC and ˙with more ˙research ˙updated my list to 
over 1,000 ˙female celebrity birthdays. Beginning with TODAY.OW3 the 
files ˙include every American manned space flight to date and ˙every 
Russian manned space flight through mid 1984.  

There ˙is a very interesting shareware package on many BBSes ˙called 
TODAY.ARC ˙written ˙by ˙Patrick ˙Kincaid.  ˙In the ˙true ˙spirit ˙of 
shareware ˙he asked users to contribute dates and ˙enhancements ˙for 
his program in leiu of money.  ˙This is not only more agreeable ˙but 
becoming ˙more ˙of the hobbyiest's trend to help and ˙work ˙together 
rather than to turn a small profit for their work. 

To activiate this list you can incorporate it into each month of the 
TODAY ˙data ˙files ˙or you can make it stand alone ˙by ˙renaming ˙it 
TODAY.OWN. 

If you do not have TODAY.ARC, ˙definately make plans to download ˙it 
as you will find it to be a neat addition to your autoexec.bat.  The 
program ˙reads the date and then presents you with some ˙interesting 
things that occurred on that date. 

I ˙used Daniel Doman's (Sysop of P.C.S.I. ˙(212-529-0498)) ˙˙BB-SORT 
program to really neaten it out. 

TODAY.OW4 includes dates in history for: (* new category for .OW4) 
        Celebrities birthdays
        Manned Space flights
    *   The New York Islanders
    *   Israelli History
    *   Television landmarks
    *   Associated Press' dates in history


Future edition: TODAY.OW5
Besides update additions under construction by myself and others are:
        New York Yankees
        New York Rangers
        Inventors and Inventions

My Wishlist for TODAY

1 - Use  of color  -  to highlight year and whether birthday/date in 
    history. (and for wish # 4)

2 - Correction  of minor annoyance when requesting a specified date, 
    you are greeted as though today is that date. 

3 - The ability to need a path named "TODAY"

4 - A ˙simple  calculation  that would state how many years ago ˙the 
    event took place. 

5 - A sort by year before displaying.

6 - The ability  to read files other than TODAY.XXX (specific month) 
    and TODAY.OWN.  ˙I prefer it would read TODAY.XX? ˙for its files 
    along with TODAY.OWN.  That way in April, the program would read 
    TODAY.APR plus TODAY.AP1, TODAY.AP2, etc. 

I ˙have ˙uploaded this file to the Marin-Sonoma PC User ˙Group ˙BBS. 
This ˙is the board to reach Patrick Kincaid, ˙so we shall ˙see ˙what 
happens.