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Precision Software Appli…tions Silver Collection 1
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Precision Software Applications Silver Collection Volume One (PSM) (1993).iso
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1993-02-14
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DOS QUIZ MANAGER DOCUMENTATION
1. What is DOS Quiz Manager (DQM)?
2. Running DQM
3. Registration Info
WHAT IS DOS QUIZ MANAGER?
DOS Quiz Manager, or DQM for short, was written to allow
institutions to customize the suite of DOS Quiz programs to their
needs. The DOS Quiz programs (DOSQuiz, DOS 5 Quiz, and Advanced
DOSQuiz [ADQ]) are used primarily by schools and businesses to test
students or applicants for employment on their knowledge of DOS.
For more information about any one DOS Quiz program, see that
program's documentation.
What DQM allows the test administrator to do is customize many
of the parts of each DOS Quiz. The first DQM screen shows a menu
of the three DOS Quiz programs. By selecting one of the menu
choices, that program will be run. A function key may be pressed
on this screen to move to the setup screen. Access to the setup
screen is protected by a password.
Once on the setup screen, the test administrator can change
many of the functions of the DOS Quiz programs. Note that for DQM
to be able to properly interface with any of the DOS Quiz programs,
the DOS Quiz program must be version 2.0 or higher.
The next section will fully explain all of the options
available to the test administrator. The bottom line is that DQM
was designed to allow you to use the DOS Quiz programs to the best
of their abilities. I hope you find the enhancements to the DOS
Quiz programs and the DQM program to your liking.
RUNNING DQM
To begin running DQM, all you need do is type DQM at the DOS
prompt and press ENTER. As long as DQM is in your DOS path, DOS
will find it and run it. DQM does use an external data file called
"DQM.DAT." The best way, then, to run DQM is to change directories
into the place that DQM.EXE and DQM.DAT are located and run DQM
from there.
DQM will run on either a color or a monochrome monitor. DQM
looks best on a color monitor, but it will work fine with
monochrome. DQM attempts to set itself to color or monochrome
automatically. If you have trouble running DQM, try passing DQM
the /m option (i.e.: type DQM/m) - this forces DQM to run in
monochrome mode. DQM runs in 25-line mode. If you have an EGA or
better video card and have the number of text lines set to
something other than 25 lines, DQM will detect this and reset the
number of video lines to your choice when you quit the program.
After typing DQM, the main screen will appear. There are
three things of interest on this screen. First is a menu of the
three DOS Quiz programs. Second, there is an input box for the
user to type his or her choice of quiz to run. And third is a note
that the F10 key will switch to the setup/quit screen. We will
address this third area first.
After pressing F10, you will be prompted for a password. This
password is here to help protect the program's setup data from
those who should not be viewing or altering it. The first time you
run DQM, the password is STEVE. After entering setup, you may
change this password to any 10-character combination.
If the password is entered incorrectly or not at all, the user
will be returned to the main screen. Note that you must know the
password to exit the program. This is to prevent unauthorized
access to DOS itself. The test administrator can setup DQM to run
itself all day long with no fears of users getting into DOS. Be
aware, however, that DQM does NOT trap the Ctrl-Alt-Delete key
sequence, so if a user is determined enough, he will be able to
access DOS by resetting the computer. If this is of great concern,
you should acquire a boot-time access program. There are many
commercial, shareware, and public domain programs of this type on
the market. There are even programs that will trap and force the
system to ignore the Ctrl-Alt-Delete sequence. A combination of
security programs may be your best bet. For the casual and non-
malicious user, however, DQM's security measures should suffice.
Once the proper password has been entered, the setup screen
will appear. There are several options available here, listed and
explained below in the order they appear on the screen:
F1: Ask User for Name/Social Security #?
----------------------------------------
Use this function to change how much name and Social Security
Number information is desired. Press F1 to toggle through all
possible choices, which are: NAME AND SSN, NAME ONLY, SSN ONLY,
NEITHER. Determine which level of identification you wish. This
information will appear on the final scoresheet. If Name and/or
SSN is requested here, each individual quiz will ask for the users'
name and/or SSN before the quiz begins. The default is NAME AND
SSN.
F2: Scoresheet - Print/File:
----------------------------
Use this function to specify how much or how little post-quiz
file saving the user should be allowed. Use F2 to toggle through
the possible choices, which are: ALLOW BOTH, ALLOW NONE, FORCE
FILE, FORCE PRINT. These are explained below:
ALLOW BOTH: This option allows the user to choose which
method of scoresheet saving he or she wishes, if any. This setting
is the default.
ALLOW NONE: This option prohibits the user from saving his or
her scoresheet in any form.
FORCE FILE: This option saves a file automatically when the
Quiz is complete. The filename will be based upon the user's name
in the form "NAME____.EXT" If no name is asked for because of the
setting of the F1 key mentioned above, then the filename will be
QUIZFILE.EXT. EXT is always based on the quiz being run (i.e.: EXT
is D5Q for the DOS 5 Quiz). The file will automatically be
overwritten if it existed. The file will be created in the
directory DQM was run from. No other saving method is permitted.
FORCE PRINT: This option prints the scoresheet to LPT1. Be
sure the printer is on, on-line, and full of paper before beginning
DQM or the quiz to be run. There is no recovery from any printer
failure, and no other saving method is permitted.
F3: Allow File Overwrite?
-------------------------
If you permit the user to ALLOW BOTH in the F2 function above,
and the user tries to save a scoresheet over an existing file, the
user may or may not be able to overwrite the existing file,
depending on your answer to this question. The F3 key will toggle
this setting between YES and NO. When set to YES, the user has
full overwrite permissions. When set to NO, the user will never be
allowed to overwrite a file. This will prevent accidental or
intentional deletion of important files like COMMAND.COM or
AUTOEXEC.BAT. No matter what the setting of this option, if FORCE
FILE is specified as explained above, overwrite will ALWAYS occur.
The default is YES. If this is set to YES, I will accept no
responsibility for accidental or malicious data loss, except as
required by law.
F4: Show Copyright Notice at Startup?
-------------------------------------
If you do not wish the user to see the Copyright notice at the
beginning of each Quiz, set this to NO by hitting the F4 key.
Toggle back to YES to show the copyright screen at startup. Note
that no matter how this is set, all of the DOS Quiz programs are
copyrighted. The default is YES.
F5: Show Instructions at Startup?
---------------------------------
If you wish the instructions screen to be displayed at the
beginning of each quiz, hit F5 to set this choice to YES. If you
do not wish instructions to appear, then hit F5 to toggle the
choice to NO. The default is YES.
F6: Allow User to ReRun Quizzes?
--------------------------------
Press F6 to set this to YES if you wish user to be able to run
a quiz over and over again. If you wish a user to be able to run
each quiz only once without administrator permission, set this to
NO. The default is YES. When set to YES, the user will be able to
rerun a quiz from within DQM or from within the quiz itself.
F7: Change Password. Currently:
--------------------------------
Press F7 to change the setup screen password. You may edit
the current password as needed. Use the standard editing keys
(BackSpace, Delete, Insert) to change the password. It may be any
combination of characters, up to 10. Press ENTER when done.
F8: Print LF and CR in print jobs?
----------------------------------
Press F8 to toggle this Yes/No question. The correct setting
for this question will require some testing - some printers need a
CR/LF combination to properly print the Quiz score-sheets, some do
not. In general, I have found that Ink Jet and Laser printers need
this set to Yes, and Dot Matrix printers need it set to No. The
default is No.
F9: Reset Quiz ReRun Flags
--------------------------
Press F9 to reset the rerun flags on all quizzes. If all
three quizzes have been run (or as many as needed/desired) and you
wish a new user to take a quiz or the same user to retake a quiz,
hit F9. After the flags have been reset, the screen will show OK
next to this option.
ESC: ESC exits DQM (no password)?
---------------------------------
Press the ESC key to allow users to exit DQM without
supervisory permission. This allows DQM to be a part of a menu
system or batch file where user security is already built in.
Access to Setup is still controlled by the F10 key and its
associated password. The default is NO.
ENTER=Back to Menu
------------------
Press F9 when you are fished making your changes. You will be
asked if you wish to save the changes. The default is YES. If you
say N, the changes made will be in effect for the remainder of
DQM's execution or until they are changed again. The settings will
be saved in a file called DQM.DAT in the current directory.
Answers other than Y or N will not be accepted.
F10=Exit DQM
------------
Pressing F10 will exit DQM and put you back to DOS. This is
the only way to exit DQM. This is a safety precaution. You must
know the password to exit.
Once all of the setup settings have been made, you are ready
to run a DOS Quiz. All 2.0+ versions of the DOS Quiz programs have
been modified to allow them to interface with DQM. Please note
that each of the programs may be run as a stand-alone product, and
for the most part, there have been few other changes to the quizzes
penultimate release levels.
To run DOSQuiz, for example, the user simply presses 1 and
presses ENTER. And DOSQuiz will run will all settings set by the
test administrator taken into consideration. When selecting a DOS
Quiz to run, the following error messages (along with a beep) may
appear on screen:
PERMISSION DENIED TO RERUN DOSQUIZ: This error occurs when
option F6 in setup is set to NO and this quiz has already been run
once before reset.
DOSQUIZ.EXE NOT FOUND IN PATH: This error will occur if DQM
cannot find the quiz in the DOS path. For best results, it is
recommended that all DOS Quiz files, including the DQM files, be
kept in one directory.
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO USE DOSQUIZ WITH DQM: Running a quiz
from within DQM requires about 256K memory. If there is not at
least this much memory available when DQM starts up, then you
should run the quiz in normal mode from the command line.
ERROR RUNNING DOSQUIZ.EXE: Some other non-determined error
has occurred. If this error occurs, check your quiz files for
corruption (by copying from the distribution media). If this error
persists, call me at the number in the Registration section.
Note that choices not between 1 and 3 inclusive are ignored.
Once a quiz has been run, the word DONE will appear next to it
as a reminder that the quiz has been taken. Depending on the F6
setting in setup, the user may or may not be able to rerun the
quiz.
DQM has been designed to be very easy to use and to make tests
taken with DOS Quizzes easier to run, with more options. Please
feel free to explore DQM. You cannot hurt anything by doing so.
If you do not have the 2.0+ versions of the DOS Quizzes, you
may still run them with DQM. However, none of the options set in
the setup screen will have an effect.
NOTES ABOUT DQM.DAT:
--------------------
DQM.DAT is created only when saying Y to the Save Changes
screen is setup. If you are running DQM for the first time, or
from a new place, then DQM.DAT may not exist. If this is the case,
DQM will use its defaults as explained above. You may totally
reset all DQM settings by deleting the DQM.DAT file in the current
directory. At that time, remember the password will be STEVE.
DQM will not find DQM.DAT unless it (DQM.DAT) is in the same
directory as DQM. If DQM cannot find DQM.DAT, it will use the
defaults.
None of the information is encoded - in other words, it is
saved in ASCII format. So if you forget your password, you may
type: TYPE DQM.DAT <ENTER>. The password is the last ten
characters of that file.
REGISTRATION
DQM is shareware, and I retain all copyrights to the program. If
you use and like DQM, I request that you donate $10 to continue to
use it. If you do, and also send a diskette (5¼ or 3½ Double or
High density), I will include any new version of DQM, as well as
any bonus utilities I have written at that time. Please enclose an
extra $1 to cover postage, and be sure to enclose your address.
If you would like to register your copy of DQM and would like me to
send you a diskette with the latest version of DQM on it, please
send an extra $2 to cover postage and diskette costs.
If you would like a customized version of DQM or any DOS Quiz, the
cost is $100, including one license fee. Site licensing is
available. Please see the document PRICE.LST for details.
SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR USERS OF ANY DOS QUIZ
See the document PRINT.LST for details on discounts for those
registering any combination of DOS Quiz products. See the enclosed
file PRICE.LST for and invoice and other ordering info. The latest
versions of all DOS Quiz products can be downloaded from the IBMAPP
forum on CompuServe.
REGISTRATION NOW EASIER FOR COMPUSERVE USERS
You may now register DQM through CompuServe's Shareware Registration Service.
To use the service, GO SWREG and register program #26.
Steve Mount
RR 1 Box 320
Starksboro, VT 05487-9702
Contact me on CompuServe.....: 73720,3404
Contact me on America On-Line: Mountain
Call for ordering/support....: (802) 453-5273
I have fax capability at the above number for orders, but you must
call me to have my fax set up before faxing (it is a card and
shares the line with my answering machine).
THE DQM PROGRAM AND THIS MANUAL ARE COPYRIGHTED DOCUMENTS. THE
OWNER OF THE COPYRIGHT GIVES OTHERS PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE
UNALTERED COPIES OF THE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION TO OTHER
INTERESTED PARTIES. THIS PROGRAM IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. IF
YOU USE DQM, PLEASE PAY THE REGISTRATION FEE. IT WILL ENSURE
CONTINUED GROWTH OF THE PROGRAM FOR ALL USERS.
DQM AND DOCUMENTATION COPYRIGHT (C) 1991-1993 BY STEVE MOUNT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.