SCHEDULE MAKER 2.4 2/22/88
==================

This is a useful program for people in college (particularly freshmen
and sophomores) who have so many choices of classes and sections that
it becomes most difficult to visualize all possible schedules to
select the ones they like best.

After spending hours devising a semester's schedule, have you ever
waited hours in the registration line to find out that some of the
classes you wanted were full? Most of the time you settle for waiting
lists, or you just forget about a class or two when just another
combination of sections could be available. Who's got the time?

Even if you already registered for classes, you can use the schedule
generator to make a pretty schedule table.

Given a list of classes, sections, and times, this program finds all
the schedules without time conflicts. It will also produce neat
outputs of these schedules.

An optimizing option can select only the best of these schedules. The
optimizing criterium is:

- keep schedules with small gaps between classes, and
- keep schedules with gaps large enough so they are useful
for part-time jobs, study time, etc. . . .

First the program asks for the name of your input file. It then
prompts you for the number of classes you want to have in this
schedule. If the program is unable to generate any schedule with that
number of classes it will tell you so and stop. In that event, try
again with fewer classes. The input file must contain the list of all
the classes with all the sections that interest you, regardless of
time conflicts. List as many sections for a class as possible to
increase your chance of finding the right schedule. The program is
smart enough to select only one section of any class and avoid time
conflicts.

The format of a schedule file is:

CMSC420 0101 MWF 11:00am-12:30pm TU 9:00am-10:00am ; comments
CMSC420 0201 TUTH 9:00am-10:15am
FREN101 0101 MTUWTHF 1:00pm-1:50pm
HIST330 0201 MWF 11:00-1:00pm
CMSC498A 0001 M 2:00pm-2:50pm WF 4:00pm-5:00pm TUTH 12:00pm-12:50pm
;this is a comment. the line starts with a `;'


It is important not to ommit the 'pm' when necessary. The default is
'am'. The comment delimiter is anything other than a valid day code.
Day codes are the usual:

M : Monday
TU : Tuesday
W : Wednesday
TH : Thursday
F : Friday
Saturday and Sunday classes are not handled by this version.
Comments contain any information that you may want to figure on your
printed schedule such as: Professor name, location. . . .

This program was written in Turbo Pascal. I will make the source
available on request and provide some help to whomever wants to
add features to my program.
Mallku Caballero
caballer@tove at U of MD


features added by jack velte, [email protected]