brians@sequent.UUCP (Brian Sheets) (01/19/89)
I am looking for a tsr like cron or a time execution program for the pc. Has anybody seen one or know where I can get one??
toddg@hpldoma.HP.COM (Todd Goin) (01/20/89)
>/ hpldoma:comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d / brians@sequent.UUCP (Brian Sheets) / 11:09 pm Jan 18, 1989 / >I am looking for a tsr like cron or a time execution program for the pc. >Has anybody seen one or know where I can get one?? >---------- I am using a program called "Auto-might" This program is as close to "cron" as I could find. The file to specify what to run is not like cron. It is an interactive window that opens and you fill in all of the information. They have a newer version available than I use, just haven't upgraded yet :-) The price is about $50 from: The Pendulum Group 333 W Hampden Ave. Suite 1015 Englewood, Co. 80110 Sorry, no phone number is listed.
heiby@falkor.UUCP (Ron Heiby) (01/23/89)
Sidekick Plus is supposed to be able to do this, via the Time Planner's Quick Paste Alarm function. The idea is that at a specific date/time SK+ sends a string to whatever is running on the PC. If the string happens to be a command line and the "whatever is running" happens to be command.com, the command will get executed. Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried this. All I know is what I read in the documentation. -- Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.chi.il.us Moderator: comp.newprod "There is a fine line between stupidity and cleverness." (This is Spinal Tap)
jls@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Jerome Schneider) (01/24/89)
Although several people have suggested commercial solutions for running programs at pre-defined times, I am curious whether the "cron" daemon is to run in the background (like a TSR program), or is it just started from the command prompt and left to run programs from crontabs at the specified times? The background method, used by several commercial programs including Irwin Magnetics EzTape, has one major problem on my system. The TSR must keep watching until the keyboard has been inactive for "nnn" minutes so that it does not start running a program between command prompts. However, most of the keyboard enhancers and macro generators do funny things with console input, and several of the TSR-style cron programs continually see the keyboard BUSY because of the method the keyboard enhancers use for command line editing and history. It seems, then, that a daemon that is just started up (like before bedtime to run through the nite fetching news and mail) would be as acceptable as one that is a TSR. If you have a 386 or maybe a system with Desqview, it would be possible to start the cron daemon as a task running in a separate partition/VM at all times. Any thoughts on methods of implementations would be appreciated. I will summarize to the net, since I am currently working on a non-TSR cron daemon work-alike and can use all the feedback possible. TIA -- Jerome Schneider UUCP: killer!jls.DALLAS.TX.US (guest account) Aspen Technology Group Ft. Collins, CO Voice: (303) 484-8466
toddg@hpldoma.HP.COM (Todd Goin) (02/02/89)
The program "Auto-Mite" that I listed before waits until the specified time, awakens (regardless of keyboard inactivity/activity) and warns you with a beep and small windowed message that the time has come to run a process. If you are in the middle of something, you can press a function key that will delay the program for a specified time. You can also press a key that causes immediate execution. The only problem, the programmers tried to be nice, just in case you went to get coffee when the time comes, if you don't respond the program continues to beep for ten minutes before going ahead with the execution. The new version, (the one I don't have yet) claims that you can configure it to not wait, that is if you don't confirm/deny the program, it runs anyway. Todd Goin