VMS Scheduler

The scheduler in the VMS works on the concept of changes being made at specified times. If you think of the scheduler as an employee that needs to be sent to the sign to make the needed changes from the keyboard then you won't have any trouble deciding how to program the schedule that matches your required sign operation. There is no duration to an event. In order to have the sign display messages from 10:00 am to 4:00 P.M., one event must be set for 10:00 am to change the Current Message Sequence to the messages to display, another event must be set for 4:00 P.M. to change the Current Message Sequence to the Blank Message in order to blank the sign.

The schedule in the VMS has three parts:

1. Daily Schedule has up to 8 times during the day to change the signs operation.

2. Weekly Schedule can change which Daily Schedule is followed for each week day.

3. Yearly Schedule can change the Weekly followed by the Daily Schedule

The Daily Schedule and the Weekly Schedule allow you to define several Daily Schedules and several Weekly Schedules from which to choose the Current Daily Schedule and the Current Weekly Schedule. The events in the Yearly Schedule are all always active and will take effect when the date matches the activation date set for the Yearly Schedule event.

You can think of the scheduling system as a bulletin board where the scheduler posts the list of things to do. There is a Yearly Schedule area that has a calendar with all of the Yearly Schedule events written on it; there is a place to post the Current Weekly Schedule; and there is a place to post the Current Daily Schedule.

Beside the bulletin board is a file cabinet with two drawers. One drawer has the Weekly Schedules that have been entered. The other drawer has the Daily Schedules that have been entered.

Each of the Weekly Schedules are a form with an entry blank for a Daily Schedule number and description for each day of the week. An entry blank can be left empty if there is not to be any change for that day of the week by entering 99 as the Daily Schedule for that day.

That is different than entering 0 for that day since 0 (the "Blank Daily" schedule) is a Daily Schedule that does nothing all day. Each of the Daily Schedules are a form with a line of entry blanks for each of the eight events.

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