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Educatabase v1.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright (c) 1992,1993 S.Griffiths
Copyright 1992-1994 S.Griffiths, All Rights Reserved
Contents
~~~~~~~~
Introduction
Disclaimer Of Warranty
License
Terms Of Distribution
The Designer
Files
Editing
Options
Verify Errors
Running Tests
Printing
Printing Errors
Setup
The Examiner
Files
Running Tests
Printing
Setup
Configuration
Installation
Error Messages
Files
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Educatabase is a multichoice question and answer program. It allows you to
create, print, and run multichoice tests. Educatabase consists of two main
programs, firstly the designing program which is used to create and edit
questions and run tests, secondly the program which just runs the
multichoice tests that have already been designed. Various reports may be
printed from both parts of the program.
The shareware version is not restricted in anyway, except for the reports
printed will always have a header line saying 'Shareware'. This is removed
in the registered version. If you find Educatabase useful and would like to
continue using it you can register it for only $40 (N.Z.) by filling in the
form at the end of the README.DOC file.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE SUPPLIED "AS IS". THE AUTHOR HEREBY DISCLAIMS
ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION FILE, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGE TO HARDWARE, SOFTWARE AND/OR
DATA FROM USE OF THIS PRODUCT. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR OF THIS SOFTWARE
BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES. YOUR USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE INDICATES THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE TO THESE AND OTHER TERMS
INCLUDED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION FILE.
DUE TO THE NATURE OF EVOLVING PROGRAMMING AND THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND
SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS IN WHICH THIS SOFTWARE MAY BE USED, IT IS UNDERSTOOD
THAT OCCASIONAL "BUGS" OR UNFITNESS MAY ARISE. THE USER SHOULD ALWAYS TEST
THIS SOFTWARE THOROUGHLY WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT.
LICENSE
~~~~~~~
EDUCATABASE is distributed as shareware. This means that you are granted a
limited license to use it for a period of 30 days. If you find it useful and
decide to continue using it after the trial period, registration is
required. EDUCATABASE is neither free software nor is it in the public
domain. The software and its documentation, this file, are property of the
author and may not be sold without written permission from the author.
Registered users will be granted a just-like-a-book license which means a
registered version of the software can be used by more than one person and
can be moved from one computer to another so long as there is NO POSSIBILITY
of it being used by two different persons on two different computers at the
same time, just like a book can not be read by two different persons in two
different places at the same time.
A dealer license allows you distribute as many copies of EDUCATABASE as you
like, to whomever you please, provided no charge is made and the following
distribution terms are met.
TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Redistribution of EDUCATABASE must include the software, its documentation
file, and all supplemental files as a single unit without any modification
AND subject to the following conditions:
1.Any individual is welcome to make copies for his/her friends and/or
colleagues if NO FEE is charged.
2.Electronic bulletin boards, whether they charge or do not charge their
users subscription fee, are welcome to post the program for down loading
as long as they do not charge any fee in particular for the distribution
of EDUCATABASE.
3.Non-commercial user groups and computer clubs may distribute the program
to their members if only a small distribution fee charged.
4.Disk vendors approved by the Association of Shareware Professionals or
disk vendors who explain the concept of shareware in their ads that quote
a price may distribute the shareware version of EDUCATABASE.
5.Other commercial enterprises wishing to distribute EDUCATABASE either
alone or in combination with other hardware, software, books or materials
must obtain permission in writing from the author.
HOW TO REGISTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please read this section before filling out the order form at the end of
this document.
1. Read the License information (above)
2. Foreign order. Payment in the following forms is accepted:
A. Cash (Please note that the author cannot be responsible
for any loss in the mail)
B. Bank check.
C. International money order issued by banks, etc...
To compensate the inconvenience of currency exchange, foreign users are
charged the same amount for shipping and handling as N.Z. users.
The Designer
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once loaded a window displaying the program title, in this case - 'Educater'
and the version number. Once a key is pressed this disappears the program
continues. There are two main parts to this program, the pull down menus at
the top of the screen and the editor, which is the majority of the screen.
The pull down menus control the settings and allow loading, saving etc... of
questions. The editor screen is where the questions are actually entered,
and edited. Questions can be inserted and deleted when in the editor screen.
When the program is first loaded the option bar is placed of the file menu.
To navigate the menus the arrow keys are used to move about. The left/right
keys move from one menu topic to the other, while the up/down keys move the
highlite selection bar to the desired option. The <Enter> key will select
the current option. To select a menu item from the editor screen, hold down
the <ALT> key and press the highlighted option of the menu you want.ie for
the file menu you would hold down the <ALT> key and press < F > . When in
the Designer you are either using the pull down menus/options or are in the
editor screen.
File Menu
~~~~~~~~~
These options deal mainly with the storage of disk files etc...
Load: This loads questions previously saved to disk. Firstly a entry box is
displayed prompting the user for the file type to load, a default of 'EDU'
extension is assumed, as this is the extension used by Educatabase. However
this can be changed if need be. When <Enter> is pressed the file window
appears showing the files in the current
directory that match the filespec specified (eg. '*.EDU'). Use the arrow
keys to select the file that you wish to load. Pressing <Space> while the
file window is displayed will toggle the layout of the files from three
columns, to one column, when in one column mode more information is
displayed about each file. Once a file has been selected a check is made to
ensure you wish to load the file. The load option can also be selected from
the editing screen by pressing < F3 > .
New: This erases any questions currently in memory, clearing the total
questions back to one. Warning: Any questions in memory that haven't been
saved to disk will be lost.
Save: This saves the current questions to disk. If the questions are new and
have not been saved before a query is made to prompt you for the filename, a
default of 'NONAME' appears. Once you enter the filename you wish to use the
file is saved to disk. If no extension is specified the default of 'EDU' is
used. Once the question have been saved subsequent save's to disk will not
result in the prompt for the filename and the questions will just be saved.
This option can also be selected from the editor screen by pressing < F2 > .
Write to: This option allows questions to be saved to disk with a different
name. Once questions have been saved to disk they have a specific filename
for those questions, however if you wish to create a different file
containing the same questions, this option will again prompt you for a
filename and create a new file on disk.
Directory: This displays all the files in the current directory, which by
default will be the data directory. As in the load option <Space > can be
used to toggle the output style of the files.
Change Dir: This allows a different directory to be used as the data
directory.
See your DOS manual for more information on file names, file specs
(wildcards), extensions, and directories.
Edit Menu
~~~~~~~~~
The edit option does not have any submenu options. Selecting the edit option
puts the cursor into the main editor screen where most of the work is done.
The arrow keys are used to move the cursor up, down, left and right. Each
question has five lines for the question, and five answer with up two lines
for each answer.
The prompts within the editor screen indicate several things. The question
status firstly displays the current question number, followed by the total
number of questions. ie: 'Question 4/25' indicates that question 4 is
currently being edited, and there are currently a total of 25 questions. The
top right of the edit window will inform you of whether the insert mode is
on or off. If the insert mode is one 'Insert' is displayed, when the insert
mode is off nothing is displayed. When insert mode is on old characters are
pushed along and not overwritten. The current file name is also displayed on
the top line, if the file has not yet been saved then this will have
'NONAME' displayed otherwise it will have the name of the file that is
currently being edited. Finally the correct answer to the question is also
displayed on the top line.
Questions can contain information on any lines in any order. Also not all
the answers need to have an entry. For example you might only want to have
two options for a particular question. Any gaps in the answers are
automatically removed when the test is run, however they remain visible when
editing the test. For example say a question contains answers for only
options A, C, and E, when the test is run this question will be displayed
with only three answers but they will be displayed as A, B, and C. Each
question must at least contain two options to choose from.
Entering hints can be done with the <ALT-H> keystroke. A single line pops up
allowing a simple one line hint to be entered for that particular question.
As many hints as you want can be entered (ie. one for every question is so
desired). However the user can set a limit (which is on the options menu) to
only allow a person doing the test to use a set amount of hints. If the
number of hints is set to zero (ie. turned off) then <ALT-H> will not allow
any hints to be entered.
Inserting and deleting questions is done with <ALT-I> and <ALT-D>. Inserting
a question will move all the current questions up one and the editor screen
will have a empty question. Deleting a question will remove the one
currently being edited and all other questions are moved down one, and the
next question will be displayed.
To blank out all the entries for the current question use <ALT-C> this will
confirm you wish to do this (It only erases the current question that is on
the screen). <ALT-L> will erase the current line that the cursor is on.
Moving around questions is done with the <CTRL> key and the left and right
arrow keys. This moves in either direction one question at a time, the
current question status at the top of the screen will change each time to
move to a new question. In addition to the arrow keys the <Page Up> and
<Page Down> keys with <CTRL> allow jumping to the start and end of the
questions quickly.
The following is a summary of the editor commands:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cursor Movement Commands:
Character left - Left arrow
Character right - Right arrow
Line up - Up arrow
Line down - Enter or Down arrow
Next Question - Ctrl+Right arrow
Previous Question - Ctrl+Left arrow
First Question - Ctrl+PgUp
Last Question - Ctrl+PgDn
Insert Question - Alt+I
Delete Question - Alt+D
Erase current line - Alt+L
Erase all lines - Alt+C
Insert mode on/off - Insert
Edit hint line - Alt+H
Display Helpscreen - Fl
Save Questions - F2
Load Questions - F3
Run current test - F9
Go to menus - F10
Options Menu
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The options allow different settings to be made regarding how the test is
run etc... All these options are stored with the questions on disk when they
are saved, and hence all still apply when the test is run through 'The
Examiner' program, except they can not be viewed or changed when in 'The
Examiner' program.
Time Limit: Selecting this will prompt you for a value in seconds to act as
the time limit. If this is set to zero then no time limit is set, any value
greater than zero limits the person doing a test to that long on each
question. Once the time limit expires when doing a test a 'Pass' message
appears on the screen and the user is forced to go on to the next question.
When ever the time limit expires for a particular question it is classed as
a pass, and can be seen on the final results screen.
Questions Randomised: When this item is selected a query box pops up
allowing you to select either yes or no for this current option. If 'yes' is
selected then whenever the test is run, firstly the questions be randomised
so they will be presented in an unfamiliar order. The questions however
remain in the order that they were entered while you are on the editing
screen, the randomization's only takes place when the test is run. There
maybe a small delay while this is done depending on the number of the
question.
Choices Randomised: Again selecting this item pops up another 'yes' or 'no'
query boxing allow this feature to be turned on or off. When yes is selected
then the different answer for each question will be shuffled among
themselves for each question. This only randomises the answers for each
question individually and does not change the answers with different
questions. As with the previous option the answers remain in the order in
that which they were entered and only appear mixed up when the test is being
run.
Number of Hints: The number of hints determines how many hints the user can
use while a test is being run. A popup box prompts you for the number of
hints you wish to make available. A value of zero indicates that no hints
are to be allowed. This option is independent of the number of hints that
you may wish to enter from the editor screen. When a test is being done
during the test the user may elect to 'use' up a hint and view the hint for
that question.
Inform Right/Wrong: This options again presents you with a yes/no query box
allowing the user to select either yes or no. Selecting 'yes' to this means
that for every answer the user does during a test, the user will receive a
message informing them of whether they were right or wrong in there answer.
Setting this option 'no' means that no information at all is giving during
the test of which questions have been answered correctly and which wrongly
until the end of the test, where the total result is displayed.
Display Correct: This option lets you decide whether you want the correct
answer to be given out if the user selects an wrong answer. This options
makes no difference to questions that are answered correctly how ever for
ones that are answered incorrectly a message will be displayed telling the
user what the correct answer is if this option is set to 'yes'.
Verify Test: This function allows the person setting up the questions to
check the test for errors in the questions, this is automatically done each
time the test is run to prevent silly mistakes. Also 'The Examiner' program
also verifies the test each time the test is run. The test can also be
verified from the editor screen by pressing <F9>. The following is a list of
possible error messages and reasons.
Error Cause
----------------------- ----------------------------------
Blank Question No data was entered in the
question field of the screen
(5 lines)
No Choices No choices were entered for the
question (A to E)
Only one choice Only one answer was entered for
the answers to a question. Must
be at least two options to choose
from.
Invalid Answer The answer specified for a
question was not within the range
of A to E, or is still blank.
Selected Answer is Blank The answer specified for a
question contains a empty option.
Run Test
~~~~~~~~
This options does not have any submenu options, and allows you to run the
test as it would appear in 'The Examiner' program. Any settings like
randomising or time limits still have an effect here. The test is displayed
on the screen and the user selects the answer they think is correct by using
the up/down arrow keys to move the highlite box to their selection. Pressing
<Enter> selects the chosen question and any right/wrong messages are
displayed (;f they are set - see the options menu for more details).
Two new pieces of information appear in the test window. One is the current
status. The first number indicates the number of questions answered
correctly followed by the total number of questions so far answered. If the
Inform Right/Wrong option is turned off then this status message will not
appear, otherwise it would allow the user to see which questions have been
answered correctly.
The second message is the number of hints. The first digit is the number of
hints that have been used so far in the test, followed by the total number
of hints allowed. If the hints are turned off from the options (ie. set to
zero) then the hints status does not appear. If there are is no hint
available for the current question or if there are no more hints allowed for
the test then a beep will be issued when a hint is asked for by pressing
<F5> .
Key command summary:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fl - Display Help screen.
F5 - Display hint, if available and if hints are allowed.
F8 - Pass question, same as when time expires.
F10 - Abort Test, and return to the editor screen.
Up/Dn - Move highlite box to selected answer.
Printing
~~~~~~~~
The printing menu allows questions to be printed. Several selections are
available from this menu, these options allow different information to be
printed out.
Current: This will print the current question you have displayed on the
editor screen, including the answer and the hint (if there is one).
Test: This prints all the questions that are currently in memory, excluding
the answers for each question. No hints are printed. Any blank lines in the
questions are also not printed as well as any answers which don't contain
any data. The answers are printed after each question. Also if a complete
question will not fit on the bottom of a page without being split up then
the printer is advanced to the beginning of the next page.
Questions & Answer: This prints all the questions that are currently in
memory, including the answers for each question. No hints are printed. Any
blank lines in the questions are also not printed as well as any answers
which don't contain any data. The answers are printed after each question.
Also if a complete question will not fit on the bottom of a page without
being split up then the printer is advanced to the beginning of the next
page.
Answers: This just prints the answers for all the questions in a tabulated
form. No other information is included, just the question number and that
questions answer, like an answer sheet.
Hints: This also like the answers option just prints the hints for questions
that have hints, questions without hints are automatically not printed.
Answer Sheet: This prints out a sheet with the correct number of questions
and correct number of options for each question on, in a form so that it can
be filled in with the correct answer.
Report Heading: This prompts you for a title you may wish to give any
reports printed. This heading is printing at the top of the pages when
printing any of the above reports. This setting is saved with the questions,
so it only needs to be entered once.
Several error messages are possible when printing, these are as follows:
Printer Out of Paper: The program detects that there is no paper loaded in
the printer, to correct load paper into the printer.
Printer Off line: The printer is not on-line and can not receive any data,
press the on-line button so the printer is ready to operate.
Printer Busy: The printer is already printing, and more printing can not yet
be started.
Printer Problem: Some other problem other than the ones mention above has
occurred.
For more information on how to load paper, and select on-line, etc please
consult your
Setup
~~~~~
These menu options deal with some of the main configuration settings. All
the settings can be set and saved to disk through the main configuration
program, 'EDINST'. However these options allow certain settings to changed
quickly and easily without having to load the setup program. Any changes to
the setup options here are not made permanent on the disk, unless the
'Update Config' on the menu is used.
Test Colours: This allows the colours used in the testing part of the
program to be changed. See the configuration section for more information.
Sound: Sound can either be on or off. Turning off the sound prevents all the
beeps that can occur from the editor and test screens.
Data Dir: This lets a specific directory be used for the storage of
Educatabase files This directory will be the default when either programs
are first loaded.
Form Length: This allows the number of lines per page to be specified for
the size of paper that is being used in your printer. Once this many lines
have been printed the printer advances to the top of the next page by means
of a form feed.
Form Feed: This just advances the printer to the top of the next page,
enabling the paper to be aligning ready for a print out.
Printer Output: This allows you to choose where you would like the reports
printed The options are printer, screen, and file. The printer being the
most common option The printer is port is set from within the setup program
(EDINST). Selecting to print to the screen means that the questions etc...
will be displayed on the screen instead of being printed on a printer.
Printing to a file further prompts you for a file name, which will be
created when you print the data. The file will then just contain all the
data that would have normally been printed, this allows the data to be used
in other programs that accept standard text files.
Update Config This saves any changes made in this setup menu to make the
settings permanent on disk, for both the educater and examiner programs.
The Examiner
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once loaded a window displaying the program title, in this case - 'Examiner'
and the version number. Once a key is pressed this disappears the program
continues. There are two main parts to this program, the pull down menus at
the top of the screen and the test screen, which is the majority of the
screen. The pull down menus control the settings and allows the loading of
questions etc... The test screen is where the questions are actually
displayed in the test, this remains blank until a test is actually run.
When the program is first loaded the option bar is placed of the file menu.
To navigate the menus the arrow keys are used to move about. The left/right
keys move from one menu topic to the other, while the up/down keys move the
highlite selection bar to the desired option. The <Enter> key will select
the current option. To select a menu item from the editor screen, hold down
the <ALT> key and press the highlighted option of the menu you want.ie for
the file menu you would hold down the <ALT> key and press <F> .
The Status line at the bottom of the screen displays the filename of any
questions loaded and the total number of questions.
File Menu
~~~~~~~~~
These options deal mainly with the storage of disk files etc... However
unlike the 'Educater' program questions can only be loaded and not saved to
disk, as the 'The Examiner' does not allow any editing of the questions to
be done.
Load: This loads questions previously saved to disk. Firstly a entry box is
displayed prompting the user for the file type to load, a default of 'EDU'
extension is assumed, as this is the extension used by Educatabase. However
this can be changed if need be. When <Enter> is pressed the file window
appears showing the files in the current directory that match the filespec
specified (eg. '*.EDU'). Use the arrow keys to select the file that you wish
to load. Pressing <Space> while the file window is displayed will toggle the
layout of the files from three columns, to one column, when in one column
mode more information is displayed about each file. Once a file has been
selected a check is made to ensure you wish to load the file. The load
option can also be selected from the editing screen by pressing < F3 > .
Directory: This displays all the files in the current directory, which by
default will be the data directory. As in the load option < Space > can be
used to toggle the output style of the files.
Change Dir: This allows a different directory to be used as the data
directory.
Quit: This just exists the program and returns you to DOS.
See your DOS manual for more information on file names, file specs
(wildcards), extensions, and directories.
Run Test
~~~~~~~~
This options does not have any submenu options, and allows you to run the
test. Any settings like randomising or time limits must be set when the
questions are saved from 'The Educater'. The test is displayed on the screen
and the user selects the answer they think is correct by using the up/down
arrow keys to move the highlite box to their selection. Pressing <Enter>
selects the chosen question and any right/wrong messages are displayed (if
they are set - see the options menu in 'The Educater' for more details).
Two pieces of information appear in the test window. One is the current
status. The first number indicates the number of questions answered
correctly followed by the total number of questions so far answered. If the
Inform Right/Wrong option is turned off then this status message will not
appear, otherwise it would allow the user to see which questions have been
answered correctly.
The second message is the number of hints. The first digit is the number of
hints that have been used so far in the test, followed by the total number
of hints allowed. If the hints are turned off from the options (ie. set to
zero) then the hints status does not appear. If there are is no hint
available for the current question or if there are no more hints allowed for
the test then a beep will be issued when a hint is asked for by pressing
Pressing < F7 > will print the current question displayed on the screen,
excluding the correct answer and any hints. <F10> aborts the test and
returns to the menus.
Key command summary:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F1 - Display Help screen
F5 - Display hint, if available and if hints are allowed
F7 - Prints the current question
F8 - Pass question, same as when time expires
F10 - Abort Test, and return to the menu screens
Up/Dn - Move highlite box to selected answer
Printing
~~~~~~~~
The printing menu allows questions to be printed. Several selections are
available from this menu, these options allow different information to be
printed out.
Test: This prints all the questions that are currently in memory, excluding
the answers for each question. No hints are printed. Any blank lines in the
questions are also not printed as well as any answers which don't contain
any data. The answers are printed after each question. Also if a complete
question will not fit on the bottom of a page without being split up then
the printer is advanced to the beginning of the next page.
Hints: This just print the hints for questions that have hints, questions
without hint are automatically not printed.
Answer Sheet: This prints out a sheet with the correct number of questions
and options for that question on, in a form so that it can be filled in with
the correct answer.
Results: This option is only available once a test has been completed. This
prints the statistics from the test. ie. the results that are displayed once
a test is finished.
Several error messages are possible when printing, please refer to the
'Educater' section for a description of these.
Setup
~~~~~
These menu options deal with some of the main configuration settings. All
the settings Will be set and saved to disk through the main configuration
program, 'EDINST'. However these options allow certain settings to changed
quickly and easily without having to load the setup program. Any changes to
the setup options here are not made permanent on the disk.
Sound: Sound can either be on or off. Turning off the sound prevents all the
beeps that can occur from the editor and test screens.
Data Dir: This lets a specific directory be used for the storage of
Educatabase files.
Form Length: This allows the number of lines per page to be specified for
the size of paper that is being used in your printer. Once this many lines
have been printed the printer advances to the top of the next page by means
of a form feed.
Form Feed: This just advances the printer to the top of the next page,
enabling the paper to be aligning ready for a print out.
Printer Output: This allows you to choose where you would like the reports
printed The options are printer, screen, and file. The printer being the
most common option The printer is port is set from within the setup program
(EDINST). Selecting to print to the screen means that the questions etc...
will be displayed on the screen instead of being printed on a printer.
Printing to a file further prompts you for a file name, which will be
created when you print the data. The file will then just contain all the
data that would have normally been printed, this allows the data to be used
in other programs that accept standard text files.
Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This program lets you view and change any of Educatabase's settings. These
options can be saved back to disk to make the settings apply for the
'Educater' and 'The Examiner' programs.
Change Defaults: This option will pop up another menu with contains all the
items that are available on the options menu in 'The Educater'. Each of
these options lets input a value like you normally would from 'The
Educater'. However the options that are set here will become the defaults
when 'The Educater' is loaded.
Test Colours: This allows the colours used in the testing part of the
program to be changed. A window is displayed showing all the different items
that can have different colours. Most items have a foreground and background
colour. In some cases the background colour is already determined from an
overall background setting. Where the background option is not available is
value is replaced with N/A for not applicable. The foreground entries can
range from 0 to 15 and the background entries can range from 0 to 7. The
test pattern shows what the current colour selection looks like, and the
colour range at the bottom of the colour windows is purely for reference to
see what the range of colours look like. Pressing < Enter > moves from the
colour item to the prompt allowing the colour value to be entered. The arrow
keys allow the colour to be modified to be selected.
Editor Colours: This firstly displays another menu, allowing the item you
wish to change to be selected. Once you have selected an item (eg. Pull down
menus) another window similar to the one used for the Test colours is
displayed, however the topics to change colours for will be different and
the sample windows will be different.
Printer Port: The selects the port the data will be send to when you are
printing to a printer. Three choices are displayed on the screen allowing
the printer to be selected. The normal and default will be LPT1 which is
just the parallel port. Printing to serial ports can be achieved by using
the DOS MODE command to redirect printing. Please refer to your DOS manual
for information regarding this.
Form Length: This allows the number of lines per page to be specified for
the size of paper that is being used in your printer. Once this many lines
have been printed the printer advances to the top of the next page by means
of a form feed.
Data Dir: This lets a specific directory be used for the storage of
Educatabase files. This directory will be the default when either programs
are first loaded.
Sound: Sound can either be on or off. Turning off the sound prevents all the
beeps that can occur from the editor and test screens.
Save Setup: This records the settings to disk, so they will be used whenever
'The Educater' or 'The Examiner' are used. Note: Both 'Educater' and
'Examiner' programs use the same config file which is 'EDUCATER.CFG' on the
disk. If this file cannot be found then the programs own defaults will be
used.
Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Educatabase is best run from a hard disk however it is possible to use twin
floppy drives. The installation procedure copies the files from the original
disk to the disk where the program will be used, and sets up the colours and
directories etc...
If the Educatabase files are archived then it is simple to create a
directory for the program, and a data directory, and extract the files into
this directory, and place the .EDU files into the data directory. Then all
that has to be done is the EDINST program needs to run to create a config
file, you need to specify the location of the data files. The first time
EDINST is run (with no CFG file) the default colours and settings are used.
If the data directory is not specified then the current directory will be
used.
Error Messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
File not found: An invalid file name was specified or the file does not
exist on the disk.
Path not found: An invalid path or filename was specified or the directory
could not be found.
Access denied: Access rights to particular files has been denied, possibly
if the file is locked, or another user could be accessing the file.
Not enough memory: Insufficient computer memory was available to carry out
the task.
Disk Read Error: A disk error preventing the correct operation of the disk
files has occurred, probably due to bad sectors on the disk or a corrupted
hard disk.
Disk Write Error: See 'Disk Read Error' above.
Disk is write-protected: The disk you choose to save a file to is write
protected preventing any files being saved on the disk.
Drive not ready: A error when accessing the specified drive. Usually this is
when the diskette is not in the drive, or the drive door is not closed.
Incorrect File: The file that was tried to be loaded was not an
'Educatabase' type file.
File exists, Overwrite ?: A file by the name you tried to save already
exists on the disk, overwriting this file means that the contents of the old
file will be lost.
Invalid File Name: The characters specified in the file name were invalid,
DOS filenames must contain only letters and or numbers.