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Text File | 1986-09-22 | 39KB | 912 lines

QFONEDIT--THE QMODEM PHONE DIRECTORY EDITOR Version 2.22 (C)1985, 1986 Karl Brendel Although the copyrights for Qfonedit and its documentation are reserved by the author, permission is hereby granted for their distribution by any desirable means, with only these restrictions: No-one but the author or his designated agent is to receive any remuneration for Qfonedit or its documentation, except that bona fide users' groups, clubs, etc, may charge a nominal fee for the materials and handling involved in non-profit distribution of this package on magnetic media. Distribution of any kind must include the entire Qfonedit program and documentation. Inclusion of the file SAMPLE.FON is optional. It is expressly stipulated that Qfonedit and its documentation may be distributed by "electronic bulletin boards", via modem connection or other means, so long as the listed restrictions are observed. Unlimited license for the non-commercial use of this program, and its use in a place of business by individuals for their non-commercial purposes, is hereby granted. License for commercial use requires registration. See section 13 of this document for details. Qfonedit 2.22 Table of Contents 1. Qfonedit: What It Does ............................... 1 2. Starting Qfonedit ..................................... 1 3. Qfonedit Keys ......................................... 2 4. The Main Menu ......................................... 3 5. Stopping Qfonedit ..................................... 3 6. Configuring Qfonedit .................................. 3 7. The Main Menu Options ................................. 5 8. Specifying Blocks ..................................... 5 9. Undo .................................................. 6 10. The Editor ............................................ 7 11. Sort .................................................. 8 12. Print ................................................. 9 13. The Pitch: Fund-raising and Support ................. 10 14. My Thanks to ......................................... 11 15. Acknowledgements of Other Kinds ...................... 12 Appendix A: WordStar(tm)/Turbo Keys in Qfonedit ......... 13 Appendix B: Block Specifications ........................ 14 Appendix C: TopView and DESQview ........................ 15 1. Qfonedit: What It Does Qfonedit is designed to be your all-purpose Qmodem directory maintenance utility. It is one of those rare programs that carries its own answer to the question, "Why do I need it?" You may not need Qfonedit. If your entire dialing directory fits on one display page, you can probably maintain it more easily within Qmodem. If, however, you are one of us--those people who cannot help acquiring new numbers to feed to their modems--you should take Qfonedit now! Remember--the use will reveal the need. Qfonedit operates on the file QMODEM.FON to allow you to view all entries, sort them in several fashions, rearrange or delete them quickly in arbitrary ways, reset the communication parameters en masse, insert blank lines, print the directory to disk, or edit the entries with an intelligent full-page editor. Qfonedit allows you to configure several of its features, including varying or eliminating its sound effects. At your option, Qfonedit will read communication parameters and screen colors from Qmodem, or allow you to set them directly. Qfonedit can find QMODEM.FON down any file path which you have provided in configuring it, and will prompt for a new path if its search fails. Likewise, using DOS 3.X, Qfonedit will find its own configuration file even if your Qfonedit files are not in the current directory. (With DOS 2.X, Qfonedit looks only in the current directory of the logged drive to find its configuration file.) Floppy disk users will be pleased to realize that they do not have to keep the Qmodem files and the Qfonedit files all on one disk. Qfonedit requires DOS 2.0 or later, with enough RAM to run Qmodem. 2. Starting Qfonedit From the DOS prompt, call for QFONEDIT, using any required drive specifier and path to enable DOS to find it. Example: C>A:\QDIR\QFONEDIT You may also start QFONEDIT and give it the name of your phone directory file, including drive and path if not the logged drive and current directory. (If you do this, you must provide the file name, even if it is QMODEM.FON.) Example: C>QFONEDIT A:\QDIR\SPECIAL.FON In order to function, Qfonedit must be able to find the phone directory file and the overlay file QFONEDIT.000. Depending on Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 2 your version of DOS, Qfonedit may find these files if they are in the current directory of the logged drive, in the same directory as QFONEDIT.COM, or located along the DOS path. (If you are using DOS 2.X, QFONEDIT.000 must be located either in the current directory on the logged drive or in the same directory as QFONEDIT.COM.) Additionally, if Qfonedit is able to find the file QFONEDIT.CNF, it will check to see if a special path to the phone directory has been configured. If so, it will check for both the phone directory and overlay files at the end of that path. If none of its searches result in finding the required files, Qfonedit will halt with an error message. If Qfonedit does find the configuration file, it will use the values in that file to set screen colors, sound effects, default communication parameters, etc. If unable to find the configuration file, Qfonedit will attempt to create a new one with its standard default values. If unable to create the new configuration file, Qfonedit will give you a chance to attempt the save again or to continue without it. As Qfonedit looks for the required files, it will display its progress in a status window. If all files are found, it will display the Main Menu and await further command. 3. Qfonedit Keys Qfonedit makes consistent use of keys everywhere except in the Editor and the configuration routines. The Editor's use of keys is described in the section on the Editor. The use of keys in the configuration routines follows the lead of the Qmodem program QINSTALL.COM. Qfonedit command keys are "hot": when you press them, an action occurs without the need to press Enter. If you press a key that has no meaning to Qfonedit in its then-current context, the computer will beep; otherwise, you will hear a click. You may think of the beep as an error signal, and the click as a success signal. (Beeps and clicks can be changed or turned off in the configuration routines.) Qfonedit is never sensitive to letter case. Pressing "C" will have the same result as pressing "c". Pressing Esc (the Escape key) may return you to the previous menu, or from the Main Menu to DOS. Esc is active whenever Qfonedit is awaiting a single-key response or numeric input. The PgDn and PgUp keys will change the phone directory display just as they do in Qmodem. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 3 Pressing O at a menu will toggle the phone directory display, alternating between the display of communication parameters and script file name, and the display of last date called, total calls, default protocol and echo. 4. The Main Menu The Main Menu resembles: = C - Clear D - Defaults E - Edit F - conFig S - Sort T - Tidyup X - eXchange U - Undo P - Print I - Insert O - Other display Choice Esc to Exit PgDn - Show Next Page PgUp - Show Previous Page = (Thruout this text, the = character denotes the top or bottom of a picture of the screen.) The Main Menu is typical of all Qfonedit menus (except in the configuration routines). Selection is indicated by pressing the key shown to the left of a command, eg., X for eXchange. The use of Esc, PgDn, PgUp, and O were described in the last section. Details of the other choices from the Main Menu will be discussed later. 5. Stopping Qfonedit From the Main Menu, pressing Esc (Escape) will stop Qfonedit and return to DOS. You will be prompted to insure that you do wish to exit Qfonedit. If changes appear to have been made to the phone directory file, you may be prompted to save it. If the phone directory is to be saved, you may be prompted to save the old file with the extension .BAQ. If you choose to save the old file, and a .BAQ file already exists, you may be prompted whether to save it with the extension .OLD. During configuration, you may specify which prompts you wish to be given and which actions you wish to have occur without prompting. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 4 6. Configuring Qfonedit Choosing F (for conFig) from the Main Menu will bring up the Configuration Menu. If you have ever run the program QINSTALL for Qmodem, this menu should look familiar. Indeed, the entire Qfonedit configuration system should seem so. The Configuration Menu resembles: = Configuration for Qfonedit v2.22 1) Screen and menu colors 2) Communication parameters 3) Path definition 4) Exiting and file saving 5) Sounds 6) Save configuration and return to Qfonedit X) Return to Qfonedit without saving configuration Option > = Your selection is indicated by pressing the number or letter shown to the left of the description. Configuration Menu choices are: 1) Screen and menu colors: You may select foreground, background and border colors just as they are selected in QINSTALL. At your option, you may have Qfonedit attempt to read the screen and menu colors from the file QMODEM.CNF. 2) Communication parameters: You may select default speed, parity, data bits, stop bits, protocol and echo. The selected settings will be used whenever you command Clear or Defaults from the Main Menu. Here, also, you may have Qfonedit attempt to read the parameters from the file QMODEM.CNF. 3) Path definition: You may specify a drive and path down which Qfonedit should look for the phone directory file. (If you enter a path and filename on the DOS command line, that will be checked first.) 4) Exiting and file saving: You may specify which prompts you wish to be given for leaving Qfonedit and saving the phone directory file, and/or which actions you wish to have taken without prompting. 5) Sounds: You may specify whether Beeps and Clicks (keyclicks) are to be turned on or off. You may also select the length and pitch of the Beeps and Clicks Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 5 and hear a sample of your selection. (When pressing F2 or F4 to hear the sample, you may first hear a Click--if Clicks are turned on. After a brief pause, your selected Beep or Click will be demonstrated.) 6) Save configuration and return to Qfonedit: Attempt to save the configuration in the file QFONEDIT.CNF, then return to the Main Menu. X) Return to Qfonedit without saving configuration: No attempt is made to save the configuration. Note that changes in configuration are effective immediately. The new configuration will not be saved on disk unless you choose 6). Changes in communication parameters will not be apparent in your phone directory unless you choose Defaults and/or Clear from the Main Menu. 7. The Main Menu Options Aside from options already discussed, those available from the Main Menu are to: Clear lines, giving the cleared lines the default parameters. eXchange lines. Insert empty lines. Default--assign the default parameters to empty lines (or, optionally, to all lines). Sort lines in a variety of fashions. Undo the last operations on the phone directory. Edit the displayed page. Tidyup by forcing empty lines to the bottom of a group of lines. Print lines to disk. For the most part, these options are self-explanatory and should require no additional documentation here. Some of the options are discussed at greater length in following sections. New users are advised to experiment on a copy of the file SAMPLE.FON (which should accompany this document) or on a copy of their own phone directory file--but not on their original file--until they feel comfortable with the various options. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 6 8. Specifying Blocks Most of the Main Menu options operate on some specified portion of the phone directory file. Except for Defaults, all of those options give you some means to designate the beginning and end of the blocks of lines to be operated on. (Defaults operates either on all lines--"Global"--or only on "Empty lines".) The terms used in specifying blocks are: Global global by Page Line/Lines Page/Pages Range Global operates on the entire directory as a block. global by Page operates on the entire directory, but treating each page as a separate block. Line operates on one line. Lines operates on a pair of lines, or from the first given line thru the second one. Page operates on one page. Pages operates on a pair of pages, or from the first given page thru the second one. Range operates over a given number of lines, starting at given lines. (Exchange is the only option using Range. For example, exchange the 10 lines starting at line 25 with the 10 lines starting at line 111.) An appendix shows which block specifications each option uses. 9. Undo Qfonedit provides two levels of protection of your phone directory file. As already explained, Qfonedit may save backup copies of the file. No matter if you scramble the file as it appears in Qfonedit, unless you have turned off the backup features, your old file will remain intact. Sometimes, tho, it is helpful to be able to "take back" a command without having to start all over with the editing process. For example, you may have just sorted your entire Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 7 directory by times called, when you really wanted to sort by area code. That is when Undo may rescue you. Each time you move from the Main Menu to an option where you may change the phone directory, Qfonedit prepares to make a backup of it. The backup (which is in RAM, rather than on disk) is made when you call for the first operation to modify the phone directory. For example, if you go from the Main Menu to the Exchange Menu, and command to exchange lines 1 and 10, the backup will be made just before the two lines are exchanged. At any time when the phone directory is displayed, and a backup is available, you may use Undo to copy from the backup to the display, and overwrite the memory of the phone directory's current state. Qfonedit will then prepare to make another backup, just as if you were moving from the Main Menu to another one. That backup will be made just before the next operation to modify the phone directory. With Undo, you can always restore your phone directory (in RAM) to the state it was in when (a) you were last at the Main Menu, or (b) you last gave the Undo command. If there have been no modifications to the phone directory, or none since the last backup, Undo will report that no backup is available. When working in the Editor, Undo is commanded with the CtrlU key combination. (Thruout this document, notation such as CtrlU means to hold down the control key--usually labeled Ctrl- -and at the same time, the U, or other indicated key.) 10. The Editor Upon choosing Edit from the Main Menu, the cursor will move to the top left corner of the phone directory display. The menu will be replaced by a brief summary of keys used in editing. The cursor will remain within the phone directory display until the Esc key is struck. The cursor may be moved about with the normal IBM-type cursor keys, the Enter key, tab, shift-tab, and Home and End. In some of the displayed fields, editing can use the Del, Ins, CtrlEnd (erase to the end of the field) and backspace keys. The normal cursor mode for editing is "overwrite"--the character you type will replace that previously at the same location. In some fields, Ins will toggle between overwrite and insert modes. When in insert mode, the cursor will be thicker, to remind you of the mode. The mode will return to overwrite when the cursor passes the end of the field, or a Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 8 cursor control key or PgUp or PgDn changes the cursor location. PgUp and PgDn will change the displayed page. CtrlO will toggle the display of alternate information in the right-hand columns. CtrlU will attempt Undo. Esc will return to the Main Menu. Several WordStar(tm)/Turbo Pascal key combinations may be used as substitutes for the listed keys. See the appendix for details. The Editor will refuse to accept key input which it recognizes as meaningless to Qmodem or to DOS. For example, you cannot use the Editor to specify communication parameters of 8-E-3, or a script file name of .FOO. You can do something such as make total connects be "12 34", but when you save the phone directory, you will find that the total connects are "1234", without the internal space. (Not all errors are caught in the Editor. Some are trapped in phone directory file processing when the file is about to be saved.) 11. Sort The phone directory can be sorted over any group of lines, over any combination of supported fields, with any combination of ascending and descending orders. The fields supported in Sort are: Name Entire number Area code eXchange Last four digits last Call Speed Times called (shown as Total in the directory display) Done (a false field which ends field specification) Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 9 The definitions of the number fields assume that phone numbers are right justified (no spaces to the right of the last digit) and grouped like this: 1 234 567 8901 (The groups may be separated by any non-numeric characters, not just spaces.) If they are so formatted, then the fields will correspond to the numbers like this: Entire number = 1 234 567 8901 Area code = 234 eXchange = 567 Last four digits = 8901 After specifying a group of lines to sort, you must specify on which fields to sort, and whether to sort in ascending or descending order on each field. You will be reminded of which fields have not been selected by the prompt, which will initially be: Sort on field: N E A X L S C T D ? Each time a field is selected, its letter will be deleted from the prompt. If the E field is selected, the keys A, X, and L will also be deleted; if A, X, or L is selected, the E will also be deleted. (Why sort on A when you are already sorting on E? Or vice versa?) After you have selected all other desired fields, select the D field to signal the end of your selections. After a prompt to be sure you are ready to sort, the chosen lines will be sorted and the display updated. Not all characters are significant to the sort. In the Name field, only the alphabetic and numeric characters are significant. Anything else is treated as a space, so that "First/Bank" would actually sort as "First Bank". Numeric characters sort in their own sequence, but behind all alpha characters, so that "Bank1" would sort behind "Banks" and ahead of "Bank2". In the number fields, only the numeric characters are significant. Again, everything else is treated as a space. The sort is not case sensitive. "BANK" sorts like "bank" sorts like "BaNk". This sort conforms to my particular biases, with modifications from user input. I remain open to such input (most particu- larly from contributing supporters). Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 10 12. Print The Print option allows you to create a disk file containing the desired portions of your phone directory in a format which may easily be printed. That file will contain headers similar to the top lines of the Qfonedit display and the information from the main display (from the Name field thru the Script File field). It will contain no special printer format codes, altho you may use any text editor or word processor to format it as you wish. The default name for the print file is QMODEM.PRN. You will be prompted whether to accept that name or use another. You may easily print the file from the disk by using the DOS COPY command, like this: A>COPY QMODEM.PRN PRN (Of course, you must have your printer connected and on-line for this to work.) Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 11 13. The Pitch: Fund-raising and Support If you have much user-supported software, you are probably familiar with the arguments in favor of it. User-supported software allows you to try before you buy, encourage creative programming, avoid paying the costs associated with commercial marketing, even use a program legally without ever compensating the author. (You wouldn't do that, would you?) This program and manual have required far too many hours of work, but I did it because of a need to create. Even so, I request your financial assistance. If you have not paid for Qmodem, please do that now. After you have paid for Qmodem, if you find Qfonedit to be useful enough, or perhaps interesting enough, please pay $10.00 (or more!) for it. You will earn my appreciation, as well as having the feeling that you have furthered the development of affordable software. Whether you pay or not, please pass this package along to anyone else who has a use or desire for it. If you do pay, you can help us both by including a little information: Where did you get Qfonedit? Which version do you have? What is the phone number and name of a bbs system you can call as a local number? Checks, cash and hard-copy messages may be sent to: Karl Brendel 718 East B Avenue Hutchinson, KS 67501 Questions, bug reports, anything suitable for modem communication, are most likely to reach me at these bulletin boards: Fargo RBBS 701 293 5973 Twin Cities PCBoard 612 824 8167 Atlantic Palisades dbbs 718 238 7855 Tamiami BBS (PCBoard) 813 793 2392 Sleepy Hollow PCBoard 213 859 9334 or on CompuServe (ID 73307,3101). I try to call the listed bulletin boards on a weekly basis, and CompuServe twice a week. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 12 14. My Thanks to... First and foremost, thanks to John Friel III for the creation of Qmodem, as well as for encouraging and aiding the development of Qfonedit. Without making any comments derogatory to other communication programs, suffice it to say that the others which I have used would never have led to the creation of Qfonedit under any name. John has rendered an important service to many of us through Qmodem. Thanks, John! (If you haven't paid him for Qmodem, please do. Such payment will entitle you to use restricted numbers to access his Twin Cities PCBoard. That is a nice reward for doing what you ought.) Thanks to Dave Baldwin for creating and distributing (without cost) TDEBUG, a commercial-quality interactive debugger for Turbo Pascal. Thanks to TurboPower Software for making and selling affordable, quality programming tools which assisted greatly in the development of Qfonedit. Thanks to TurboPower and Dave, both, for TDebug+, which contributed immensely to the latest releases of Qfonedit. (I strongly urge all Turbo Pascal programmers to use TurboPower's products.) Thanks to Keith Shafer for circulating the file TURSORT.PAS, containing sorting procedures adapted from "Data Structures Using Pascal", by Tenenbaum and Augenstein. (And thanks, indirectly, to them as well.) The Radix sort algorithm was new to me, and adapted (with extensive modification) from TURSORT.PAS. Thanks to Jim Everingham. His windowing package ("The Window Manager"), as modified by the Forbin Project, is the basis for the windowing and direct screen writing routines in Qfonedit. Thanks to Marshall Brain and Bela Lubkin for Turbo routines to trap DOS critical errors. Thanks to Sammy Mitchell and Marty Moleski for stimulating my thinking, both in regards to this project and in general. Thanks to Philippe Kahn for Borland International, and to Borland for Turbo Pascal and Sidekick, both of which were nearly essential to the development of this program. If these thanks are modest, it is only because Visa has thanked these parties for me. And thanks also to my employer, the National Cooperative Refinery Association, for putting an Enhanced AT on my desk! Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 13 15. Acknowledgements of Other Kinds Qmodem is the copyrighted name of the communications program produced by John Friel III and the Forbin Project. Turbo Pascal is Borland International's trademark for its Pascal compiler. I presume AT to be IBM's trademark for its "Personal Computer AT". DOS, as used in this document, refers to one or both of two copyrighted products: MicroSoft's MS-DOS, and IBM's PC-DOS, in any of their various versions. Any such reference should be understood to recognize the rights of those parties to the names of their products. DESQview is Quarterdeck Office Systems' trademark for its multitasking, windowing operating system. TopView is IBM's trademark for its multitasking, windowing operating system. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 14 Appendix A: WordStar(tm)/Turbo Keys in Qfonedit Because I use the Turbo Pascal editor a great deal, it has often been convenient for me to configure other programs to use "Turbo keys" whenever possible. The Turbo Pascal editor key combinations, in turn, are based on the WordStar(tm) word processor. I have included several Turbo key combinations in Qfonedit, altho they do not show up on the menus. The IBM-style keys and their equivalent Turbo key combinations are: PgUp CtrlR PgDn CtrlC Home CtrlT End CtrlB Ins CtrlV Del CtrlG CtrlEnd CtrlY Tab CtrlI or CtrlF Shift Tab CtrlA Note that not all of the key combinations are "standard" Turbo keys. Some of these operate by field rather than by word or by line, so CtrlF moves to the start of the next field and CtrlA moves to the start of the current or previous field. Two-key combinations are not supported, so CtrlY functions like Turbo's CtrlQ-CtrlY combination. Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 15 Appendix B: Block Specifications The means to specify blocks of lines for the various operations are: Global Line/Lines Range global by Page Page/Pages Clear X from/thru from/thru Sort X X from/thru from/thru Tidyup X X from/thru from/thru eXchange line&line page&page X Print X X from/thru from/thru "from/thru" indicates that the prompts will be for "From Line:" (or "Page") and "Thru Line:" (or "Page"). "line&line" indicates that the prompts will be "Line:" and "and Line:". "page&page" indicates similar prompts for page. Additionally, Defaults requires that a specification be made of "Empty lines" or "Global". Qfonedit: The Qmodem Phone Directory Editor Page 16 Appendix C: TopView and DESQview Qfonedit will run under TopView, "in a window". In order to install Qfonedit under TopView, select "Add a Program to Menu" from the opening TopView menu. From the "Select a Program" menu, select "Other". When prompted, provide the path to the directory in which Qfonedit resides. Then when prompted, provide the "Program Title"--the name TopView will use in listing Qfonedit on the opening menu--and the "Program Name"-- QFONEDIT.COM. For "Memory Requirements", type 196. After you hit Enter, TopView will return to the opening menu. There, select "Change Program Info" and then select Qfonedit. Edit the screen to change the following information to what is shown here: Data Files Location = [ dr:path to QMODEM.FON ] Program writes directly to screen : n Program accesses system keyboard buffer : n Program runs only in the foreground : n Program uses math coprocessor : n Not having TopView or its documentation, I must tell you that I have seen Qfonedit 2.22 run quite successfully under TopView 1.01, on an IBM AT with 512 KB of RAM, using these settings. I would appreciate hearing about modifications of the settings required to run Qfonedit under different releases of TopView or with different computer systems. I am told that the techniques which enable Qfonedit to run in a TopView window should also enable it to run in a window under DESQview. Not having DESQview, I am unable to confirm that. Again, I would appreciate hearing details from users who do attempt to run Qfonedit under DESQview.