This episode features Weekly Planner, originally released in 1981 by APX. It was written by Ronald & Lynn Marcuse. This program for the Atari 8 bit line of computers was written in BASIC and released on cassette and diskette.
Podcast: Download
APX Weekly Planner
The cover of the manual:
Many Faces of APX
APX, Atari Program Exchange, was a software distribution model run by Atari between 1981 and 1984. It was similar to shareware in that it allowed users to write and sell software as commercial titles, but it allowed for a central point of sale and distribution. I like to think of it as a very early App store.
1981. Similar to the Atari Connection magazine logo:
1982. This one is my favorite.
1983. This is the one I remember the most:
APX Weekly Planner in Action
When the program loads you are presented with a menu of options. They are depicted in the screen shot below. Note the program displays the date and day name:
Selecting add event. After entering the date, it determines the day name as well. Note in the example below that HOLIDAY is entered for the TYPE field. None of the fields are limit restricted, however they are truncated to the internally defined size. As such, HOLIDAY becomes H:
When selecting INQUIRY menu item, first select the Date, Time, and Person which can all have a wildcard. Then select BROWSE or INQUIRY from the sub menu:
When selecting the INQUIRY sub menu, all matching records are displayed in full detail. Select CONTINUE to move to next matching record:
When select BROWSE from the INQUIRY sub menu, a list of matching records is presented in partial detail:
The APPOINTMENT LIST main menu option allows you to print a daily agenda on a full sheet of paper. It can be blank or populated with data matching filter criteria you specify similar to the INQUIRY function:
The CALENDAR main menu option allows you to print a full month calendar on a full sheet of paper. It can be blank or populated with data matching filter criteria you specify similar to the INQUIRY function:
Printed Output
Appointment List Output (in PDF form)
Weekly Planner Version Update:
As noted in the podcast I have updated the software to version 1.1. I am hosting it for now. Rename the file from .ZIP to .ATR. I can’t host files named as .ATR so it had to be renamed.
Once booted to BASIC prompt, enter: RUN “D:CALY2K”
The changes I made to the day name determination routine are covered in depth on my blog Unfinished Bitness at http://unfinishedbitness.info/2014/12/10/basic-what-day-is-it/
Change Summary
The following changes were applied to the original 1.0 code to allow Weekly Planner to work with dates from 2000 to 2099. The 1.0 version would not work with dates beyond 1999.
- Line 11: Added: REM UPDATED BY WADE RIPKOWSKI (2014)
- Line 100: Changed version to 1.1, added (wr), spaced out word M E N U
- Line 140: Set Instructions to lowercase (differentiate from Menu better), added one space before Press to properly center it
- Line 420: Changed 19 to 20
- Line 950: Changed 19 to 20
- Lines 960,962,964: Removed
- Line 966: Renumbered to 974
- Lines 960,962,964,966,968,970,972: Added
- Line 990: Changed to new month table values: 033614625035
- Lines 991,992,994: Propercased Month and Day names
Changed Code
Since there is not an easy or practical way to print Inverse ATASCII characters on modern computers, captured printer output will have to do. Here is an image of the code changes:
Update Main Menu
Screen shot of my version 1.1 update:
Show Links:
- Atari Mania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-weekly-planner_29819.html
- Atari Archives: http://www.atariarchives.org/APX/showinfo.php?cat=20079
- Wikipedia Day of Week Determination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determination_of_the_day_of_the_week
- Time and Date Calendar Tools: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2014&country=1
- Unfinished Bitness Day Of Week: http://unfinishedbitness.info/2014/12/10/basic-what-day-is-it/
inverseatascii.info 
Another Great podcast. And thanks for the update. It’s a great Atari Christmas present. The updated version has been added to the Weekly Planner entry on Atarimania.com.
Many thanks for the comments and for adding the file as an update on AtariMania. I was going to reach out to you after the episode had a chance to air but you beat me to it! Though I would not use the software, at least someone that wants to examine it now can. AtariMania link for those interested: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-weekly-planner_29819.html