AUTHOR	nbauers@samphire.demon.co.uk

		
		SETTING UP THE CAT TIMETABLE STRUCTURE
		

CAT uses a file with the .TIM extension to set up the skeleton of the
timetable.  This file contains information about the Periods,  Days,  as 
well as Room,  Teacher,  Class and Subject information.


To design the timetable


Periods,  Days,  Rooms,  Teachers and Classes don't need much thought.  
Simply type in the lists.  Cat alphabetically sorts rooms,  teachers,  
classes and subjects.  Use the example below as a guide.  You can add 
and remove items from these lists whenever necessary.  Duplicate names 
are not allowed.


The Subject List


The subjects list contains Period by Period information on what needs to be 
taught.  This needs more thought and it helps to use a consistent style.

It might help to think of this list as specifying what is required.  You 
then look for a timetable slot that meets the needs.  CAT makes this search
fairly easy.  

This is the section that needs advanced preparation.  For example,  
departmental heads will specify their needs.  These are represented as
entries in the subjects list.  In this list,  the author also records who 
made the timetable request and their telephone extension.  In a small school 
this would not be necessary.

For example to timetable Mr Jaques Frogley to teach French to 2p for three 
periods per week one of which must be in the language lab,  the subject list 
entries might look like this ...

2p
    French   1 JF LLab
    French   2 JF
    French   3 JF

... The class is 2p
... The subjest is French
... the ',1'   ',2'   ',3' specify the three periods and ensure the
    uniqueness of the subject name.
... JF is the teacher.  Leave this out if any teacher will do.
... LLab is the Language lab.

The important part of this from the point of view of students and teachers
is "French   ".  The rest is needed for the timetabling person and program.
"French   " occupies the nine characters that will be displayed on the room,
class and teacher timetables when printed out.  This layout is not mandatory
but it looks nicer.

Once these requirements are correctly booked,  you are sure that 2p will get
the right amount of french in the right places.


The .TIM file has the following format ...

FILE CONTENTS		EXPLANATIONS
		

TIMTAB                  This identifies the file to the CAT program.

# ----- 3/10/1993 ----- This date stamp is optional
			Blank lines are ignored by CAT
# ----- Periods -----   Lines beginning with '#' are ignored by CAT

+1			The '+' symbol indicates that a period name follows.
+2			These may be up to four characters long excluding
+3			the '+' sign.
+4
+5
+6
+7
+415
+5-6
+6-7
+7-8
+8-9

# ----- Days -----

-Mon			The '-' sign indicates that a day name follows.
-Tue			These may be three characters long.
-Wed 			Lun,  Mar,  Mer,  etc are acceptable.
-Thu 
-Fri 


# ----- Teachers -----

=Evans			The '=' sign has a special meaning to CAT.
=Matthews		The teacher names are started with the '=' symbol.
=Paul			These names may be 10 characters long.
=Davis B
=Davis N		Ensure the uniqueness of the names.
=Jones
=Frogley
etc
etc
etc ...

# ----- Classes and Subjects -----

3a French					This is the name of a class
    French   1 J Frogley L Lab 			These are the three hours of
    French   2 J Frogley			french needed by class 3a.
    French   3 J Frogley			There are optional reminders
						to use the L Lab for one hour
						and for J Frogley to teach
						the class.

    English 1					3a also has 3 hours of
    English 2					English.  Any teacher will
    English 3					do.

4b French					This is the name of a class
    French   1 J Frogley L Lab 			These are the three hours of
    French   2 J Frogley			french needed by class 4b.
    French   3 J Frogley			There are optional reminders
						to use the L Lab for one hour
						and for J Frogley to teach
						the class.

    English 1					4b also has 3 hours of
    English 2					English.  Any teacher will
    English 3					do.


etc						=== NOTE ===
etc						The numbering of the periods
etc ...						to ensure they are unique.

The layout is important here.  The class names start in the leftmost column.
The subject names belonging to each class are indented by four spaces.
Don't use the tab key for this.  All the subjects under a given class name
belong to that class.

You must specify the class name before typing in subject names.



GENERAL RULES


All names of a particular type must be unique.
For example, you can't have two classes called 3p.

CAT lets you have a room, class and teacher all with the same name.
To avoid confusion it might be worth avoiding situations like this.

CAT will complain if you have duplicate names of the same type.
The duplicates will not be loaded.  You should remove them when convenient.

Several classes can have subjects with the same name.  
For example the following is fine.

2p 
    English
    
3q 
    English
    
4r 
    English

The class name is joined to the subject name making a unique name.

Avoid the tab key and rogue spaces.
3p[space] is not the same as 3p[tab] and both are different from 3p[].

Subject names may have up to 68 characters.
Longer names will be truncated.
The first 9 characters should be chosen carefully as 
some displays show only the first 9.

Other names may have up to 10 characters.
Longer names will be truncated and some displays only show 9.

Items that are too long,  may cause CAT problems when loading the bookings.
The long names may not be unique after being truncated.

Invent a system for naming items that makes duplication unlikely.  For
example if 3a has 4 lessons of French,  use names like ...

3a
    French   1 Lab
    French   2 Lab
    French   3 French room
    French   4 French room

CAT prevents you booking 2b into a 3a french lesson.  It is up to you to
ensure that 3a gets 4 lessons two of which should be in the Lab.  It is your
responsibility to ensure that 3a goes into the language lab and not physics.
You can reduce the chance of accidents by using meaningful names.
 
Extra periods,  days,  rooms,  teachers,  classes and subjects can be 
added to the .TIM file at any time without affecting the existing timetable 
with one exception ...

NOTE : If you add a duplicate name,  CAT will complain and not load the 
       duplicate.  This could lead to the loss of the item not loaded.
       Quit without saving to avoid such a loss.

Periods,  Days,  Rooms,  Teachers,  Classes and Subjects can be removed 
from the .TIM file.  If you remove these,  any bookings involving the 
removed items will be lost.  This is correct behaviour but dangerous if you 
delete the wrong room or teacher etc by mistake.  

	KEEP BACK UP COPIES ! ! !  
	
If you delete an item in the definitions file by mistake,  close the 
timetable WITHOUT saving.  The original bookings will be intact and you 
can put back the item you deleted by mistake.  You should be able to 
restore your backup if you make a real mess of things.  Accdental
deletion of a Class name is likely to be most damaging.  Be careful.

You can have up to 16000 times, rooms, classes, teachers and subjects if
you have enough RAM available in your machine.

You can have a week with more than seven days if you want.

The free RAM is indicated on the left edge of the timetable window by a
vertical bar.  E means Empty.  F means Full.  CAT will not work if there is
not enough memory.


