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Text File | 1991-04-20 | 21.2 KB | 465 lines

Q.TTP by Chuck Grimsby Copyright 1989, 1990, 1991 by Chuck Grimsby In my "travels" via the modem around the country I've noticed quite a few BBSs are using some sort of program to give their users a quote or a thought for the day. I applaud those SysOps. From my point of view, we can ALL do with a brief bit of philosophy from time to time. Something to mull over during those (all too rare) quiet times when we ponder our existence. Scouring around for such a program to use myself, I noticed one thing about the programs that were available. They all read in some sort of file and printed out the text in either a sequential or random manner, but they never checked to see if that "thought" had been used before! One program even limited the user to only 10 quotes! Thus was born the idea for my own program: Q.TTP. Q.TTP uses a "index" file to make sure the program does NOT repeat the same quotes over and over again. It's also "open ended" so that the user can have as few or as many "quotes" as they want. The unfortunate side of this is that the setup gets rather complex, so please read the following information carefully. There are a lot of files & Programs in the "Q family" so I STRONGLY suggest you make a folder on your drive for all this before you begin. You don't have to though. SET UP Before you can use the program you will of course need a collection of quotes or thoughts, or whatever for the program to use. There are a number of these things available already on most of the "major" BBSs. GEnie, CompUServe, BIX, ect no doubt have several in their various areas. You may have to go to their "religion" or "ethics" areas to find the stuff you need, but remember that Q.TTP won't care WHAT the text is. Humor and trivia are as valid as anything else, so feel free to look for that stuff as well! Since I'm a member there, I don't feel any shame in giving GEnie's Religion & Ethics RoundTable a plug! M 390 from any prompt. Once you've got the text you want to use, load it into your favorite Word Processor. You need to look at several things: 1) Where you want a quote to start, have a blank line. NO SPACES!!!!! (VERY IMPORTANT!!) 2) Where you want a quote to end, have a blank line. NO SPACES!!!!! ((VERY IMPORTANT!!) 3) DO NOT have two blank lines between the quotes! 4) If you want a blank line in the MIDDLE of a quote, make sure there is at LEAST one space on that line. 5) Make sure that BEFORE the first quote you want to use there is a blank line. (again NO SPACES on that line!!!) 6) Make sure that AFTER the last quote you want to use there is a a blank line. (and again NO SPACES on that line!!!) Now SAVE the text in ASCII format calling it "Q.ASC", and exit your Word Processor. Run the text you saved above through Q_VERT.PRG. Q_VERT will create a new file called "Q.TXT" which is the text file that Q.TTP will use. You may want to load this file into your Word Processor to double check your quotes. On all the blank lines in the Q.ASC file there will now be a single period (.). These periods mark the start and stop points for Q.TTP. WARNING: NOWHERE SHOULD YOU SEE THIS: . . IF YOU DO, YOU HAVE A EXTRA BLANK LINE IN YOUR FILE!!!! FIX YOUR Q.ASC FILE AND RE-RUN Q_VERT.PRG. (Enough caps, eh? I hope you get the message.) Now that Q.TXT is ready, run it through QIDXMAKE.PRG (why such a weird name? Answer: Q Index make.) QIDXMAKE.PRG will create the Q.IDX file for Q.TTP. another WARNING: ONCE Q.IDX IS CREATED YOU CAN NOT MODIFY Q.TXT WITHOUT RE-RUNNING QIDXMAKE.PRG!!! Besides Q.TXT and Q.IDX, Q.TTP also needs some information from you to tell it what to do with the "quote" it gets. So go back into your Word Processor and create a file called Q.INF. Q.INF is a simple 9 line ASCII file telling Q.TTP what to do. On the first line is the location of the quote file to use. Be sure to use a FULL GEM filename for it's location! (that's that <drive>:\<path>\<filename.ext> stuff like d:\quotes\q.txt.) The program will default to Q.TXT in the current folder if this information is not supplied, but PLEASE supply it just in case! On the second line put where you want the quote to go to. Use CON: if you want it to go to your screen, PRN: if you want it to go to your printer, or place on this line a GEM filename (see above) for where you want the quote to go. Line 3 is for what you want the program to do if there already is a file with the same name as in line one. Append or Replace are your only options here. (I don't need to tell you that Append will add to the existing file and Replace will erase the old file and create a new one, do I? Nah. Didn't think so.) Line 4 is for how you want the program to read the Q.TXT file. As mentioned previously, some people like things done in order, others like it as random as possible. Put the word RANDOM on line 4 if you want Q.TTP to randomly find a quote, or SEQUENTIAL if you want it to use the quotes in the order you have in your Q.TXT file. (Note: for those of you who have trouble spelling "sequential" (like me!) just use SEQ. RAN will also work work for RANDOM.) If you want some text to always appear before the "quote for the day", put that into a text file and put the name of that text file on line 5. Again, remember to use it's FULL GEM name (drive:\path\filename.ext). If you want the program to place some text after the quote, put the name of the file containing the text on line 6. (I'm not going to tell you to use the full GEM filename here. I'm sure you've already figured that out for yourself that you need to do that.) Line 7 is for the filename where you want Q.TTP to send it's warning that all the quotes have been used. FoReM ST SysOps who have the log to disk option on will want to put the location and name of their FOREM.LOG on this line. (There's more about this in the PROGRAM OPERATION section of this file.) Line 8 tells Q.TTP if you want the "statistics" printed out as a part of the "quote." Statistics are things like the "number" of the quote in the file, how many quotes there are in the file, the size in bytes of the quote, where the quote started at in the file, the number of times the program has run, the number of times the file has been re-cycled, what "mode" the program ran in to find the quote, and how many tries it took to find the quote it used. This information used to be printed to the screen, but some people wanted it in the output file so they could watch how Q.TTP was performing. If you want the "Statistics" printed out with the quote, Put the word "STATISTICS" on line 8. If you DON'T want the statistics printed out, put "NO STATISTICS" on line 8. Q.TTP defaults to "NO STATISTICS" if it can't understand this line. If you'd like a blank line to be printed out both before and after the quote, place the length you'd like that line to be on line 9 of the Q.INF file. If you place a 0 on line 9, the program won't put a blank line before and after the quote. Thus if you DO want a blank line, it must be at least 1 space long. Save this file as Q.INF in ASCII format from your Word Processor and that's it! Your set up is complete! Just one last thing. Remember that in order for Q.TTP to work properly, Q.IDX and Q.TXT _MUST_ be in the same directory! (It won't run right if you don't do this, so......) PROGRAM OPERATION When Q.TTP is run, the first thing it does is to read in the Q.INF file to find out what you want it to do and what files to use. It _assumes_ that Q.INF is in the same directory as the text file, so be forwarned about that! It then closes that file and opens up Q.IDX. The first thing it does there is to find out how many quotations there are in Q.TXT. If you've told it to run in sequential mode, it "searches" though the Q.IDX file until it finds a quote that hasn't been used. If you've told Q.TTP to run in random mode it generates a random number and checks the Q.IDX file to see if that quote has been used yet. If it has, it generates a new random number and tries again. If Q.TTP can't find a unused quote after 5 attempts, it will automatically switch to sequential mode and find the first unused quote and use that instead. (This was done to make sure that your computer wouldn't be "locked up" all day long looking for a unused quote.) After getting the starting point of the quote (in Q.TXT) and length information from Q.IDX, Q.TTP "marks" the quote as being used, and closes the file. If you've told the program that there's some text to "print" out before the quote, Q.TTP will read that in at this point. Q.TTP then opens up Q.TXT, jumps to the starting point of the quote, "reads" in the text it's supposed to and closes the file. Finally, Q.TTP opens up the file you've told it to "print" to, replacing or appending to it as you've told it to, "prints out" the "header" text (if there is any) and then the quote. If you've told Q.TTP to use a "trailer" file, that file is then opened, read in, and appended to the output file. The last thing Q.TTP does is to check to see if all the quotes in Q.TXT have been used. If they have, it "prints out" a warning to the operator that the quotes are "cycling" to the file named on line 7 of the Q.INF file. It then re-opens Q.IDX and goes through it marking each quote as not being used. Thus the next time Q.TTP is run, ALL the quotes are available! Some Final Notes This program is so simple that there is little "error trapping" in it. Not much is needed! Mostly, it just checks to make sure that the files it needs are where you've told it they are. If the files it needs are not available, the program will simply end. If it can't find the "header" or "trailer" text files, it just ignores them and goes on. So if you didn't get the "before" or "after" text you thought you had told Q.TTP to use check the Q.INF file to make sure the name and path you put there is the same as where and what the file actually is! I tried to make this as "free" as possible from limits as I could, but in reality there are actually 3 limits: 1) The "header" and "trailer" text files cannot be longer the 32,767 bytes. 2) No quote can be longer then 32,767 characters long. 3) You can only "cycle" through the Q.TXT file 256 times. Your computer WILL "crash" if you go over any of these limits! I also said above that the quotes in Q.TXT and Q.ASC have to be in ASCII format. Well, that's not _exactly_ true. You can also have VT-52 or VT-100 (or whatever) codes in there as well. The message I was trying to get across was NOT to do the "save" in your Word processor's format (i.e. Word Writer II or STWriter). Q.TTP won't do any translations, so if you save your file in that format and hope to use it all you're going to get is a mess! You also don't HAVE to run your ASCII file through Q_VERT if you want to put in all those periods yourself. Q_VERT was written to quickly convert a couple of files I already had but didn't have the periods in them. I thought you might be in a similar situation, so I added it to the procedure. The ONLY difference between Q.ASC & Q.TXT are those periods. (It also provides a VERY graphic way of seeing where you have "unwanted" blank lines, which Q.IDXMAKE will think are new quotes.) Once your Q.IDX is made, and you find you don't have to make any changes to the file, Q.ASC can be deleted. It isn't used anymore. TEXT SOURCES As mentioned previously, there are a number of good text files already available for conversion to use if you find yourself in need. Some suggestions to "search for" would be: (for humor) "PITHY" and "PITHY2" (someone ARC'd these together a while back into "PITHYTXT.ARC".) "MURPHY.ASC" is some of Mr. Murphy's "laws" (i.e. "There's no way to make something foolproof because fools are so ingenious.") Nearly the whole Bible is available in GEnie's Religion and Ethics RT and (no doubt) on many of the "Religious" BBSs that are around. "NOTEBOOK.TXT" is also floating around in BBS-Land. This file is also called "POWER_Q.TXT" from time to time. Don't make the same mistake I did and download both of them. They are the same file just renamed. (Thanks people. Sheesh!) It's a bunch of quotes for sales and "upwardly mobile" people. "10RIGHTS.ASC" is the Bill of Rights, which is also floating around in BBS-Land. "I_CHING.TXT" are some quotations from the Chinese book of changes: The I Ching. "LAZARUS.DOC" is some of Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long's "sayings". Q.TTP will also work just as well with trivia! Make a "header" file with the words "Did you know: " and then use ANY trivia book as a source. The Q*.* programs never look at the text in your Q.TXT or Q.ASC file (except for looking "blank" lines & column 1 periods in Q_VERT.PRG and QIDXMAKE.PRG respectively), so feel free to put whatever you want in Q.TXT! ADDED EXTRAS Along with the programs you need to set up and run Q.TTP, I'm also including two programs that are not needed, but are kind of helpful if you've got some problems. QIDXVIEW.PRG reads in your Q.IDX file and prints it's contents to your screen. QIDXVIE2.PRG uses both Q.IDX and Q.TXT to print both the status and the quote to your screen. So if you'd like to see the 15th qoute in your Q.TXT file, you can use QIDXVIE2 to see that quote. I'm also including 10 quotes that I've collected from various sources over quite a few years. Q.ASC is that file and it needs to be run through Q_VERT.PRG and QIDXMAKE.PRG to create the Q.IDX file before Q.TTP can use it. These 10 quotes are just to get you started. Obviously, 10 quotes aren't really enough to use. The REAL purpose of this is to get you used to the program, and to try it out to see if you like it enough to spend time looking for a bigger file, or typing something up yourself. By the way, if you do type something up yourself, I'd LOVE to see it! Just use any of the E-Mail sources below to send it to me. I won't pass it around unless you say it's OK. BUG REPORTS, ERRORS, & COMMENTS If you find a "bug" or get an error you can't account for, or if you just want to say "hi", feel free to contact me via any of the methods below: GEnie: C.GRIMSBY CompUServe: 73217,1363 FIDO-NET: 1:282/47.1 Enjoy! Chuck Grimsby January 7, 1990 (Updated Feburary 27, 1991) Update Notice! Q.PRG, now Version 1.03, had two slight problems. It seems that if there wasn't a "proper" output line for the "re-cycle notice" (Q.INF line 5), the program would error out with a TOS error 33 (file or path not found.) This has now been fixed. If the line is left blank, or it's filled with spaces, Q.TTP will send it's notice to the screen. No alert box. So much for that. My Thanks to: Robert Groh Sysop of The Mind^s Eye BBS 614-231-3716 300/1200/2400 Baud 24 Hours/7 Days Visitor access through Name: Guest Password: Atari Free plug provided for his error report! Also fixed was a problem with the calculation of the number of runs. This didn't cause a problem with the program operation since the number is simply provided for the user's benefit, and as a "tool" for my use when I'm working on the program. It _was_ adding to itself twice, but no longer. It now reports the correct number of times run. A new Q.ASC file is also being distributed with this archive. This one is a collection of quotes from our old friend Ben Franklin. There are 13 quotes in this file. Why 13? That's just how many I've collected so far. If someone can add to this.... Update #2 I've added additional error reporting to this version (1.04). To provide as few "problems" as possible to the SysOp, most of the reporting is done to the file listed on line 7 of the Q.INF file. (This is the same line that reports when all the quotes have been used.) With the improved error reporting, the only time the program _should_ require operator input is if the Q.INF file is *NOT* in the same directory as Q.PRG. Error reports sent to the Screen by leaving line 7 blank, filling it with spaces, or placing the word "CON:" on it *WILL* require a keypress however! The program will not stop if the "Header File" listed on line 5 of the Q.INF file. You _will_ get an Error Report from the Q.PRG saying that the file can't be found, but the program will continue on without it anyways. All reports are Time and Date stamped with the current system time and date and a line saying "Error report from Q.PRG" so SysOps can better "fix" the problem. When reporting errors, Q.PRG will automaticly append to the file listed on line 7 of Q.INF. If it doesn't exist, Q.INF will create it, so be sure to type the name correctly! UPDATE #3 Q.PRG is now a TTP program! Once again, thanks to Robert Groh, SysOp of the Mind^s Eye BBS for the suggestion! If you read NOTHING else in this file, PLEASE read the following, as there are many changes from previous versions. The Q.INF file is now 9 lines long. Older versions of Q.INF were either 5 or 7 lines, but not only has the file "grown", the order has changed as well! PLEASE read the section on the Q.INF file to understand those changes. The main change in Q.TTP is that you may now use as many different text files, index files, and inf files as you wish. When you run Q.TTP enter the name of a INF file you wish to use on the command line. This file *DOES NOT* have to be named "Q.INF" nor does it have to be in the same directory or even on the same drive as Q.TTP. You don't have to have Q.TXT or Q.IDX in the same folder or drive either! They don't even have to be named Q.TXT or Q.IDX! The INF file you select will have the name and location of the text file in it (as line #1) and Q.TTP will figure out the name and location of the IDX file to use from that. (Q.TTP simply replaces the ".TXT" extention with ".IDX". Cheap trick, but it works!) Be warned, Q.TTP will expect to find the IDX file in the same directory as the TXT file! The ONLY restriction here is that the text file MUST, I repeat *MUST* have a extention of some form! The routine I use to get the name of the IDX file looks for the LAST "." in the text file name and replaces whatever is after that with "IDX". (That's the problem with "cheap tricks." You have to follow certain rules to make them work. <sigh> ) If you run Q.TTP with no arguements on the command line, Q.TTP will look for Q.TXT, Q.IDX, and Q.INF in the same directory as the program is. (These are the "default" settings left in for those that don't care and want a program that's simple to run.) (Like me! <GRIN> ) QIDXMAKE.PRG has also been fixed so that you can now "change" your text file and not lose any of the used/not used data or number of times run, number of times "cycled". When run, QIDXMAKE.PRG looks to see if there is a Q.IDX file already in the same folder as Q.TXT. If there is, it is renamed as Q_OLD.IDX and as the new IDX file is created the data is copied over. This way you can now edit out spelling errors, or increase the file without losing all the data on what quotes have been used. (Yes, you can now ADD to the text file!) My thanks go out to the SysOp of a private BBS who asked not to be named for the suggestion. (See, I didn't say who you were. You can now relax. <grin> ) Once QIDXMAKE.PRG is done, you may remove Q_OLD.IDX if you want. QIDXMAKE.PRG won't do that automaticly in case you change your mind. UPDATE #4 There was a problem in the way Q.TTP got the "quote" it was to use. Often, for no appearent reason, the program would grab the last carridge return or line feed from the line before the quote! Although I've not quite yet determined how/why this happens, I added in a routine to check for it and to eliminate it from the quote when it happens. Q.INF has been increased by 2 lines to add two more options for the user. See the part of this document about lines 8 and 9 for more information on those changes. (Statistics and blank lines.)