cps.tar.gz README            Last changed: 13 July 2013

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Car Park System (CPS) README
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This file will guide you through the CPS.  Please read
carefully before you proceed to any operation.

NOTE: This file has to contain less than 8000 lines in
order to be displayed properly in CPS.

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Distribution Contents
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This CPS distribution contents following files

core.h - The general head file earn.c lxs.c makefile -
Used by make to build CPS power.c README - This file,
providing guidance record.c store.c ui.c yhz.c

All the files above except makefile and README are
essential for CPS.

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System Requirements
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Screen Size: Columns >= 35, Lines >= 10

Platform: UNIX-like

Max Memory Consumption: 1.3 gigabytes for largest
possible database size, 7 million parking slots

Max Disk Space Consumption: same as above

Developing tools: C compiler, ncurses library, make

NOTE: The system should have ncurses library to run
CPS.

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Preliminaries & Installation
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0.  If you are reading this, you have presumably
succeeded in extracting the distribution from the
compressed tar archive file, via the following command,
or equivalent:

	tar zxf cps.tar.z

1.  Then use "make" to build the executable "cps".

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User Interface and Operation
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0.0 Overall Screen Display

0.1 Except for the initialization menus, the screen is
divided into three parts: Main Window for menu and main
output, Parameters Window for a quick reference and
History Window recording recent operations.

0.2 The last three lines of the screen is preserved.
The third last one is for character input.  The second
last is for key function displaying.  The last line
acts as the status bar.

0.3 The current active window is marked with reverse
video.

1.0 Key Instruction Bar

1.1 In most situations, the function keys (direction
keys, tab and 0 - 9) for window & menu operation is
displayed in the 2nd last line.

1.2 Users are always advised to stick to function keys
only shown in this bar.

2.0 Status Bar

2.1 The status bar display short information for
current operation.  It may display important info so
please keep an eye on it.

2.2 The status bar will sometime display a progress
bar.

3.0 Character Input Mode

3.1 In the input mode, the available input keys will be
shown on the status bar.  Backspace and horizontal
arrow keys also function as in common sense.

3.2 The up arrow key inputs the cancel command which
rollback any modification to current entry.

3.3 The down arrow key inputs the send-in command which
submit the input for examination.  Should the input
failed to qualified, the input line will be restore to
initial state for another input.  Should it passes, the
entry will be modified.

4.0 Menus

4.1 Menu items comes with different functions.  The
current one is marked in bold and with reversed item
number.

4.2 The items are numbered in the following way: the
first digit indicates the ancestor item in the main
menu, the second, if any, indicates the ancestor in the
secondary menu.

5.0 Result Display Pad

5.1 The result display pad is a scrollable pad
containing relatively long operation result.  It ends
with an EOF line of asterisks.

5.2 Sometimes, the result display pad is used to get
confirmation from the user.

5.3 If the information to be displayed exceeds the size
of the pad, CPS will ask for saving it.

6.0 Parameter Window

6.1 Within the parameter window, the item names are
underlined while their values are displayed in plain.

6.2 For the slots state item.  The numerator shows the
occupied slots.  The denominator shows the capacities.
When CPS is empty or full, this value will be displayed
in bold.

7.0 History Window

7.1 The history window displays operation history, with
the latest at the bottom of the window.

7.2 The character within the brackets after the license
No. indicates the operation.  'I' stands for check-in.
'O' stands for check-out.

7.3 The '#' stands for slot number, '$' for
money/balance.

7.4 The history window only holds a certain number of
records.  Once the content exceeds it, the oldest one
will be deleted from storage.

8.0 Discount Policies

8.1 CPS provide 2 "discount" policies: special time
span and cumulative award.

8.2 The special time span policy offers another price
to be set for a certain time span during a day.  The
price does not necessarily be lower than normal.

8.3 The cumulative award policy reward customer once
they have spent certain amount of money.  The award
will be taken off from the current bill.  If the award
exceeds the payment, the extra amount will be
discarded.

9.0 Search

9.1 In all interval searches, strings are compared
based on ascii character value.

9.2 In all interval searches, leaving the start and end
point empty makes search display all cars checked-in.

10.0 Business Records

10.1 Total business records is calculated and replace
the detailed record after a day or month has passed.
This prevents herding a large number of record files
and makes detailed information inaccessible.

11.0 Limits

	CPS Profile: 30 characters

	License: 20 characters

	Customer Name: 30 characters

	File Path & Name: 90 characters

	Price: 7 digits (including decimal point)

	README: (somewhat fewer than) 8000 lines

	Result display: somewhat fewer than) 8000 lines

	History: (somewhat fewer than) 250 operations

12.0 Special Notifications

12.1 For CPS operations involving slot update.  All the
time need to be as new as or newer than latest time
recorded.

12.2 The CPS will create a folder named after the car
park under the program directory.  Manually operated it
only with full understanding and due care.

12.3 The user should guarantee enough disk space for
functioning.

12.4 All the double variables, i.e., money related
calculation are no more precise that one thousandth.

12.5 All time used in CPS are measured in 24 hour
clock.  Daylight Saving Time is not considered.

12.6 CPS uses a failsafe mechanism to ensure that
transactions are preserved under failure.  (Only
affected by disk cache)

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License
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All the documents accompanied within this distribution
are available under terms of GNU Free Document Licence.

All the source codes, scripts, programs are available
under terms of GNU GPL.

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End of README
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