Directory macros/latex/contrib/calendar

The LaTeX Calendar bundle (version 3.1)

INTRODUCTION
------------ 
The files in this bundle provide an interface for the creation of calendars
using LaTeX.  It is easy to use, flexible and powerful.  Promise me more,
right?  Read on.

Each calendar "style" provides an environment which will read its contents
as a date or range of dates, and produce a corresponding calendar in a
particular format.  For example, a calendar for the first two weeks in
August 1997 in the "weekly" style would be expressed as follows:

  \begin{weekly}{}{}
   1 Aug 1997 to 8 Aug 1997
  \end{weekly}

The syntax for expressing dates is human-friendly: initial capitals are
converted to lower case, abbreviations will be recognized, and within
ordinary dates word order is irrelevant (i.e. both 1 aug 1997 and August 1
1997 mean the same thing).

Calendars may incorporate lists of events and appointments from external
files.  The syntax for such files permits the use of recursive dates limited
by a range or ranges of dates ("every second saturday" during school
session, that sort of thing), with a stop-list of holidays.  Entries
may also be color-coded if you have a color printer.  You can also manage
complex data sets by building large lists from smaller files in an
object-oriented fashion.

INSTALLATION
------------
The simplest way to install the tools in the package is to make a
subdirectory in the search path of your TeX, FTP all of the source files to
that directory, and run "latex allcal.ins".  You should then be able to run
the demonstration files.  Note that demoover.tex and demodate.tex do not
produce any printed output; these files just demonstrate the capabilities of
the relevant code on the terminal.

UPGRADING
---------
If there is a previous version of the LaTeX Calendar package on your system,
these files should be used as a complete replacement.  Each release
is likely to incorporate bug-fixes or enhancements that affect several
files, so it is best to save yourself the potential frustration of
a broken installation and do it from scratch each time.

WHAT'S NEW
----------
==Version 3.1==
The LaTeX Calendar Bundle now speaks HTML.  Language support and
documentation have also vastly improved.  You can now specify any language
as the default, AND you can include multiple languages in a single *.cld
file, choosing which text to include when a calendar is actually produced.
There is now ONE manual, that tells you everything you need to know.

==Version 2.2==
Lots of bugfixes, large and small.

First day in yearly calendars can now be selected at run time.

Parsing code greatly optimized.  Note that only the first letter
of words in date text is now downcased.

Documentation in timetabl.dtx improved.

==Version 2.1==
A lot of redundant and ornamental processing has been eliminated,
and the package is slightly faster now.

A bug affecting 2nd and subseqent pages in the Timesheets package
has been fixed.

The behaviour of "every other" declarations has been modified
to make this slightly more useful.  See calman.tex for details.

Validation of entries has been tightened up somewhat.

==Version 2.0==
The "weekly" package and its supporting style "autofilo.sty" creates
calendars in Filofax(TM) format (those little ring-binder-type things that
seem such a good idea until you discover how much the commercially printed
pages cost).  All page parameters, including the size, number and spacing
of the punch-marks, are configurable.

For Unix systems with Emacs and Tcl, the "mkaddr" package includes some
hacks that can be used to generate Filofax(TM)-type-format address lists
from an Emacs BBDB database (q.v.).

The limitation in the code which demanded that a bogus entry be placed at
the bottom of files in some circumstances to protect against reads beyond
end of file has been eliminated.  The syntax for use in *.cld files has also
been slightly modified to make the interface internally consistent; =all=
declarations other than "freeze" are now meant to be followed by a
description in squiggly braces.

Anniversaries are now supported.

Several cross-nested global/local assignments to the same variable, which
produced "save size" errors with even relatively modest volumes of
data, have been fixed.  I =think= that bugs of this kind have been
eliminated from the code, but if you do see this error on a large job,
send me the logfile and I'll try to track the problem down.

CONTRIBUTORS
------------

Most of the code in this package was written by Frank Bennett
<fb@soas.ac.uk>.  The core upon which it is based, however, is a collection
of calendar macros for plain TeX, still available in the plain TeX area on
CTAN.  Very slightly modified versions of these macros are the means used
for generating dates, identifying days of the week and so forth.  These
macros were released anonymously; if anyone can tell me who wrote them, I
will include their author among the credits here.

Christian Horn and Miroslav Novak did beta-testing of early versions of
Bennett's LaTeX code, and their help is gratefully acknowledged here.  The
"Timetable" package was suggested by Miroslav Novak, and implemented by
Bennett.  Edward Czilli provided invaluable feedback in the testing phase of
versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2.  Thanks are also due for comments and bug reports
received from Jason Alexander, Edward J. Czilli, Bob Fiegel, Lico Hoekema,
and Gabrielle Owen.  To everyone who has corresponded with me about the
package, I want to convey my sincerest thanks.

Enjoy!

Frank Bennett
fb@soas.ac.uk