Difference between revisions of "Cosmos"

Revision as of 08:25, 1 December 2008

COSMOS is a personal cost monitoring system written by Dimitris Karalis. It runs under CP/M 2.2 (v 1.2) and is under development since 2005. The user can track his expenses and organize his costs. Original disk contains a user friendly SETUP installation utility. COSMOS requires at least 128 kB of RAM and two disc drives. Furthermore it supports the Dobbertin Hard Disk (20 MB), deals with the RAM expansion (up to 576 kB RAM), includes a user friendly GUI using AMX mouse, supports a 16 color screen saver, supports high capacity external drives (up to 800 kB), deals with the Amstrad Serial (RS232C) and Parallel ports and contains graphics.

History

May 2005

• Starting COSMOS coding during Military Service

January 2006

• COSMOS first release (v.18) *

June 2006

• Improved COSMOS documentation
• COSMOS OverView added in COSMOS Tools
• Transfer function added in OverView module (Overview -> Month processor)
• Number of hits added in search (SRC) module
• New editor added for user attachments (NotePad-like)
• Added support for attachments: *.ATT extension files only
• Added the ability to modify text attachments with built in editor (ATT files)
• All in-progress ASCII bars converted to real graphic bars
• Verification of Cost matrix added in tools module
• Improved speed for SUM module
• Option added for <End Of Month> Calculations and 2D Graph
• Added the ability to install COSMOS in HD-0 (Dobbertin/Vortex/Campursoft ?)
• Small graphic icons added at specific procedures and locations
• Option for 5 sequential inputs added in month processor (instead of calc.)
• Annual agenda module included in COSMOS OverView (view and edit)
• Full Agenda Search support added in search module
• Individual Annual Agenda module added (this requires a lot of memory...)
• Improved Month editor
• Alarm signal added in SUM module
• Warning Meassages added in case of negative cash availability
• Optimized Ram Expansion management for multiple projects
• COSMOS second release (v.19)!

July 2007

• Improved Verify procedure to check Net annual costs and income
• Skip Option added in SUM module providing faster execution time
• Save icon added in advanced mode (3.5" disc)
• Printer support for TXT review file (instead of using CP/M PIP)
• Printer function checked with EPSON Stylus Color 640 printer, Hewlett Packard 410 Laser printer and EPSON EPL-6200L Laser printer.
• Auxiliary logical device support for review file (PUN: and RDR:)
• Improved Agenda editor
• In-progress bars added while Printing or transferring
• Left margin added on printed hard copy in SUM print function
• All CRT frames and logos tuned for reasons of uniformity
• Calculation of maximum profit added in SUM module
• Previous year residual added in TXT review file
• VDU bugs fixed in Overview, Annual and Constant module
• Help modules homogenized in one executable
• All modules renamed for easier backup using wild cards (module.*)
• Improved management of temporary files
• Free disk space and free RAM space added
• Added control of destination disk space in Setup
• Each comment variable size reduced by 1 byte
• Day and Date added in Agenda in Overview module
• Graphic bar added in month module
• Sequantial month analysis added for faster processing
• Added comments length check
• New low level routines added (some provided by Werner Cirsovius :) )
• New TAX module added to control TAX
• Virtual matrices reduced to allow COSMOS execution in 169 kB disks
• Alert function implemented in COSMOS Main, Overview, Agenda and SUM
• Code checked for its validity for more than 2 years on a daily basis
• Automatic tracking of income or expenses added in Search module
• COSMOS third release (v.20)

Latest version: v.21!, November 2008 

• Improving software performance 
• Improving software processing speed:
• Improved speed for End of Month calculations (+ 700 %)
• Improved speed for project Verification (+ 700 %)
• Improved speed for Constant module (+ 700 %)
• Cash available included in Month Module

• Improving management of memory resources:
• Improved memory management for AmsDOS/X-DDOS/ParaDOS ROM machines
• Improved TPA memory resources
• Adding the ability to compress (ZIP) projet, releasing disk space
• Adding the ability to Retrieve project from ZIP file
• ZIP effect:Up to 16 projects for X-DDOS/ParaDOS users on the same disk!

• Improving Graphics User Interface:
• Added 2D graph support for very large profits (larger than MaxInt)

• Improving software performance:
• System bug fixed for drive B: free disk space in Tools
• Added user defined delay parameter in SUM module and option for page mode
• Escape function implemented using ESC key for on board help
• Improved robustness of SETUP installation utility
• Included Currency support (Euro, USD, GBP, or other) for all modules
• Added the ability to edit any ASCII char (127-255) in Attachments
• Printer support
• Adding drivers for Windows 95/98 dot matrix printers (EPSON LX-300)
• Added the ability to directly print attachments
• Added the ability to directly print each month data
• Added the ability to directly print constant income / expenses
• Added on board calculator
• Adding Options for Networking with other CPCs or Windows XP HyperTerminal through RS232 ports
• V21 Ready for Upload

User manual

• Cosmos 2.0 user manual (at cpcwiki.eu)

Web links

• Download site