             Ŀ
              The Dallas Cowboy Fanatic's Companion v1.0 
                         32 Bit OS/2 Version             
             

                       Ŀ
                        What This Program Does 
                       

This is a menu-driven, 32 bit OS/2 text mode program that makes it easy
to view an enormous amount of information on the National Football League
team, the Dallas Cowboys.


                  Ŀ
                   The Information In This Program 
                  

This program includes the following information on the Dallas Cowboys
which is current/up-to-date through the 1994 NFL Season (although, I
threw in a couple of records that were set during the 1995 season):

                  * The NFL Standings (1960-1994) with the
                    Cowboy's won/loss record highlighted

                  * The Head-to-Head scores of every regular
                    season & post season game played by the
                    Cowboys, categorized by division/conference

                  * Cowboy Team & NFL records in numerous
                    categories, including Cowboy players in
                    the all-time Top 20 lists for rushing,
                    receiving & passing, playoff & Super Bowl
                    records, 1000 yard rushers & receivers,
                    and quite a few other Cowboy accomplishments

                  * A detailed run-down of every Super Bowl
                    that the Cowboys have played in

                  * A list of Cowboy Hall of Fame player profiles

                  * A list of Cowboy Ring of Honor player profiles

                  * A list of important dates in Cowboy history

                  * Cowboy team info (address/phone number/etc.)

                  * A list of players drafted first by the Cowboys


                      Ŀ
                       How To Run This Program 
                      

Run the program either from an OS/2 Window or Full Screen command prompt,
or you can drag a Program template from your Templates folder and specify
the path of this program (see OS/2's documentation on setting up a program
object).

After the title screens, you will end up at the main menu which lists
various options available in the program (Standings, Head to Head, etc.).
Use your cursor keys (those keys with the arrows to the right on your
keyboard, usually) to move the little smiley face  up & down on the main
menu. When the smiley face is next to the option you wish to chose, hit
the <Enter> or <Return> key (usually an L shaped key on right side of the
group of keys with numbers/letters).

This will execute the option you chose. Depending on your choice, you may
end up at another SUB MENU with more options (the Standings menu, or the
Head to Head menu, for example). Repeat the steps above to maneuver this
sub menu. You are also given the option to "Quit back to previous menu" if
you have mistakenly picked the wrong item on the menu or you are through
viewing the information from that menu. Other options (such as the Help
Screen and the About This Program items on the main menu and various items on
the sub menus) will display a screen full of info, pausing for you to read
it. When you are through reading these items, hit any key on your keyboard
to exit back to the menu you picked that item from.

When you are completely through viewing info in the program, you should
maneuver back to the main menu and choose the Quit & Exit option which
either takes you back to the OS/2 command prompt session you ran this
program from, or back to your OS/2 desktop if you created a program object.


           Ŀ
             The Harsh Reality of Trickle Down Economics  
           

This program took a lot of hard work to produce (Almost three months of
trial'n'error programming to fine tune the menu driven "engine" and then
several weeks of entering the data, debugging and proof-reading which
all resulted in over 6700 lines of C/C++ code!)

And, unfortunately, nothing in life is free. But this nifty little
program almost is! That's right -- you can clear your conscience and
assure that there'll be future updates to this program (as well as
other neato-frito programs from Snake-Byte Inc.) for the ridiculously
reasonable, almost-FREE sum of $10.00. How can we afford to let this
rare jewel of a program go for the piddly little amount of $10.00?!?!

Because, here at Snake-Byte Inc., we deal in VOLUME! VOLUME!! VOLUME!!!
We'll eat a bug to make a sale! Come on down to our Midnight Madness
sale and...Wait a minute. Wrong sales pitch. Sorry. Anyway, you get the
picture. <Insert normal shareware begging/pleading/demanding here>.

What do you get for your $10.00? That warm-tummy feeling of satisfaction
knowing you did the RIGHT thing. This program is in no way "Crippled". I
detest "CrippleWare" and decided early on that I wouldn't do that kind
of thing. So, there's no "registered version". What you have now is the
fully-functional program. It contains one little shareware notice option
on the main menu (that you don't even have to look at if you don't want
to) and it shows that "nag" screen ONLY when you exit the program, so
it doesn't inconvenience you before or during the program's execution.
(And if that gets your shorts in a bunch, send me a 3.5 disk plus return
postage and the registration fee and I'll compile you a special version
sans nags!).

Here's where to send the cash/check/money order:

                              Will Morgan
                              2516 Wood St.
                              Texarkana, Tx   75503


                Ŀ
                  The History of This OS/2 Program   
                

Version 0.999  Beta version. Fine tuned the menu-driven "engine" of
               this program. Entered the data and set up the nested
               menus and compiled using Watcom's 32 bit OS/2 compiler.

Version 1.0 -  First release version of the program. A menu-driven text
               mode OS/2 32 bit "Companion" for fans of the Dallas Cowboys
               and football fans in general.


                      Ŀ
                        Known Bugs & Problems  
                      

One pesky little bug in the menu driven "engine": After choosing an option
that brings up a screen full of information to read, if you use one of the
cursor keys (or any other "extended" key, like the F# keys or DEL/HOME etc.)
to go back to the current menu, *IF* you choose another option that brings
up a screen full of information to read, the program won't pause for you to
read it.

Why this happens: Extended keys have "two" values in C/C++, whereas the
other keys have just "one" value. This "extra" value remains in the keyboard
buffer, and when the user picks another screen to view, the menuing system
sees that buffered value and thinks the user has already hitten another key
to exit back to the menu, so it doesn't pause like it should.

Workaround: Simply choose that option again and the screen full of info will
come back up and pause for you to read it. Also, use another key when you're
through reading a screen like this (the <ENTER> key or <SPACE> are a couple
of good choices). I'm sifting through the thousands of lines of code trying
to isolate the problem and eliminate it from future versions.


                  Ŀ
                    Swatting All the Pesky Insects  
                  

If you encounter any other problems with this program (either bugs in the
actual mechanics of the program, or misspellings and/or incorrect info in
the various areas of the program) please drop me a line at one of e-mail
addresses in the last section of this document. I will try and implement
the fix in the next version of the program that I release.


                     Ŀ
                       Big Plans For The Future  
                     

I will try to update this program ANNUALLY, to reflect each completed
NFL season and any future records set by the Cowboys.

I'll probably add some printing routines so you can print out stats,
records and lists.

A 32 bit Extended DOS version which is basically the same program as
this OS/2 version is also available. Look for CBYDOS##.ZIP where you
grabbed this OS/2 version (the ## is the two digit version number code).

If I *ever* learn how to program for the OS/2 Presentation Manager, I
may release a PM version of the Fanatic's Companion.

A Windows 3.1 version "may" be in the works. This all depends on whether
I'm able to grasp the oddities of programming for Windows.

A Win95 version? Not at the present time. I have Win95 installed on a
another partition of my hard drive, but I don't have a compiler that
supports Win95 (yet) and I don't really know anything about programming
for Windows (let alone, Win95). I have tested the 32 Bit DOS FanCompanion
under Win95 and it works like a charm, so Win95 users should check that
version of this program out for the time being...

MAC, Unix & Amiga versions? Very doubtful because I don't own a MAC and
don't run Unix (although, I do own an Amiga 500 - but I don't have a hard
drive or compiler or current version of AmigaDOS).

A Pet, Vic20, C64, C128, Timex Sinclair, TI or CoCo version? Jeeeez!
It's the 90s, people!!! Isn't it about time you upgraded your computer?

FanCompanions for other NFL teams? Well, as loyal a Cowboy fan as I am,
it may be tough for me to "do" another team, but if the demand is great
enough, I may release other FanCompanions. Email me if you'd like to see
an F.C. for your favorite team.


                    Ŀ
                       Other Programs Available   
                     from SNAKE-BYTE INCORPORATED 
                    

I've released a series of "Autmated Episode Guides" for various popular
television programs. They are just as easy to use as THIS program, since
they are using the same basic menu-driven "engine". Here is a list of
the TV shows & the filenames for both DOS & OS/2 versions available:

   TV Show Name                        DOS Filename    OS/2 Filename
   =================================================================
    Mystery Science Theater 3000        MSTDOS##.ZIP    MSTOS2##.ZIP
    The X-Files                         XFLDOS##.ZIP    XFLOS2##.ZIP
    Quantum Leap                        QLPDOS##.ZIP    QLPOS2##.ZIP
    Star Trek: The Next Generation      TNGDOS##.ZIP    TNGOS2##.ZIP
    Star Trek: The Original Series      TOSDOS##.ZIP    TOSOS2##.ZIP
    Star Trek: Deep Space 9             DS9DOS##.ZIP    DS9OS2##.ZIP
    The Simpsons                        SMPDOS##.ZIP    SMPOS2##.ZIP
    Babylon 5                           BA5DOS##.ZIP    BA5OS2##.ZIP
   =================================================================
All Snake-Byte Incorporated programs are available from the FTP site
at clover.cleaf.com /pub/mst3k/snake-byte/NON-MST. Fidonet users can
download or FREQ Snake-Byte Incorporated programs from the following BBS:

    Board Name             Location         Fido Address  Phone Number
  =======================================================================
   X-Capade BBS          Texarkana, TX       1:3819/190   1-903-793-0166


               Ŀ
                Contacting the Author of This Program  
               

Want to thank me for such a fantastic program? Bitch me out for wasting
your download time & hard drive space? Suggest future additions to this
program, corrections on the data/info or ideas for future programs?
Lonely and just need a cyber-shoulder to cry on? Well, for all these
reasons except that last one there, you can contact me at one of the
following email addresses:

               Fidonet   1:3819/128.103
               Internet  wmorgan@clover.cleaf.com
                         will.morgan@p103.f128.n3819.z1.fidonet.org

