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1988-06-12
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QESSUMRY.EXE
Copyright (c) 1988
R. Mike Worley
Boise, Idaho
REGISTRATION & WARRANTY
QESSUMRY is not warranted in any way, nor is it applicable to any specific
application. The user is solely responsible for any and all consequences
resulting from the use of this program. There are no known bugs in the
program, but that doesn't mean you might not find one.
QESSUMRY is offered under the Shareware concept. You are free to try it to
determine if it will meet your needs, and you are encouraged to upload program
and documentation to bulletin boards. If you continue to use this program, you
are asked to register. To register, complete the registration form on the last
page of this documentation and send it to the address listed. Users are asked
to send a registration fee of $10.00. If you do not feel you can afford the
$10, but still like the program, please send the registration anyway. I do ask
that you register just so I will have an idea of the level of usage of this
program.
PROGRAM SUMMARY and HISTORY
QESSUMRY is a program to summarize data from bulletin board questionnaires
developed for RBBS-PC. The program will tally the number of responses for
multiple choice and yes/no questions, and will calculate a response percentage
for each choice.
QESSUMRY will ignore questions requiring a text response, provided in-
dividual the questions are named as outlined below. It will also skip
questions for which there have been no responses, as sometimes occurs when the
questionnaire follows different paths depending on answers to previous
questions. Output can be to a Text File, a Printer, or to a Delimited Data
File for use with database programs. QESSUMRY will also create a special text
file which integrates the actual questions from the questionnaire .DEF file
with the response summaries.
QESSUMRY started as QESTALLY, which was released in February, 1988. Some
users requested improvements to the program to make it more versatile in
output. The delimited data file output was immediately added, but before the
revision was released, I noted a need to integrate the actual questions from
the .DEF file with the answer summaries. This creates a bulletin which shows
the reader the question, the correct answer, and the summary of responses. The
revision was major enough to warrant renaming the program, and thus QESSUMRY
was born.
DEFINING THE QUESTIONS
The RBBS-PC questionnaire is developed according to the directions in the
RBBS-PC documentation. Each questionnaire is named with a filename of up to
eight characters with a mandatory extension of .DEF. Questionnaires which will
be summarized with QESSUMRY must follow these guidelines:
1. The data file where the questionnaire responses are recorded MUST
have an extension of .DAT . The "Summarize Questionnaire"
option of QESSUMRY requires that both the .DAT and .DEF files
have the same file name. If used the answer file must also have
the same filename.
Therefore, the data file for UPLOAD.DEF (the questionnaire) would
have a data file named UPLOAD.DAT and an optional answer file
named UPLOAD.ANS.
2. Multiple choice and yes/no questions MUST be designated by the
label "QUESTION", followed by a two-digit question number. It is
preferable, but not necessary, that single-digit question numbers
by preceded by a zero. According to the questionnaire develop-
ment criteria for RBBS-PC, labels are indicated by a colon (:).
Therefore, multiple choice question number 2 would be labeled
:QUESTION02
To avoid conflicts, questions requiring text input should have a
label other than "QUESTIONxx". See Examples.
3. QESSUMRY will summarize up to 15 multiple-choice or yes/no
questions per questionnaire, each with up to 8 choices. Multiple
choice responses must be in the range A-H. QESSUMRY is not case-
sensitive to responses, so both upper and lower case responses are
acceptable. Yes/no questions must have the "yes" response listed
first. (Responses must be Y/N - True/False or T/F responses are not
supported by QESSUMRY.)
RUNNING THE PROGRAM
QESSUMRY is a stand-alone executable program. It must exist on the same
drive/subdirectory as the questionnaire data file. If you wish to use the
Summarize Questionnaire option, the .DEF file for the questionnaire must also
exist on the same drive/subdirectory. Additionally, the .DAT and .DEF files
must have the same file name.
Variation 1:
To start the program, type QESSUMRY at the DOS prompt. QESSUMRY will
display its intro logo and ask for the name of the questionnaire data file.
You may enter either the filename alone, or with the extension of .DAT. If the
filename is entered without an extension, QESSUMRY will append .DAT to the
filename.
You will then be asked whether you want the output routed to a Database
file, Text file, Printer or whether you want to Summarize the Questionnaire.
The default is to a text file. See OUTPUT OPTIONS.
Variation 2:
QESSUMRY may also be started by placing the output selection and filename
on the command line. The output selection follows the program name and is
indicated by either "-" or "/". The data filename follows the output selec-
tion, and does NOT include an extension.
Example: C:> QESSUMRY -D 300BAUD will output the tally of responses to
300BAUD.DAT to a delimited data file called 300BAUD.DTA.
C:> QESSUMRY /p upload will output the tally of responses to
UPLOAD.DAT to the printer.
NOTE: If you use the command line option, you MUST include both the output
specification and the filename. You cannot omit either, and they must appear
in the correct order. Command line entries are not case-sensitive.
OUTPUT OPTIONS
Text [F]ile
The default output option is to a text file with the name <filename>.FIL.
This will create an ASCII text file on the default drive/subdirectory contain-
ing the number of responses and a percentage breakdown of each response.
(P)rinter
If you select Printer, QESSUMRY will direct its output to your default
printer. This output will be in the same form as the text file output, but
will be formatted to break properly on 11 inch paper.
(D)atabase File
If you select Datafile, QESSUMRY will direct its output to a file called
<filename>.DTA. There will be one text line for each question in the question-
naire. The file format is:
1) The word "QUESTION" followed by the question number
2) the total number of responses to that question
3-10) the number of responses to each choice A-H. If the question is
a yes/no, "Y" responses will be in field 3 and "N" responses in
field 4. Fields are delimited by commas.
NOTE: This output is NOT of itself in any particular database format. It
is merely in the delimited format which can be imported by various database
programs.
(S)ummarize Questionnaire
If you select Summarize Questionnaire, QESSUMRY will tally the responses.
It will then check for the existence of a file called <filename>.ANS. This is
the answer file for those questionnaires where there is a "correct" answer for
each question. If this file is located on the default drive/sub-directory,
QESSUMRY will insert the correct answers into the output file.
The answer file may have correct answers on one line, delimited by commas,
or may have each answer on a separate line. NOTE: It is your responsibility
to ensure that there are the proper number of answers for the number of
questions in the questionnaire. QESSUMRY will terminate abnormally if there
are too few answers in the .ANS file for the number of questions. Valid
entries for the .ANS file are Y, N, or A-H. Entries are not case-sensitive.
If no .ANS file exists, you will be asked if you wish to provide "correct"
answers to the questions. If the questionnaire is of the general survey type
where there is no "right" answer to the question, press "N". If you do wish to
provide "correct" answers, such as to a knowledge questionnaire, press "Y";
QESSUMRY will then display each question in the questionnaire and prompt you
for the correct answer. In this form, only a one character response is
accepted, but the responses are not case-sensitive.
The output of this option is to a text file named <filename>.SUM.
.FIL, .DTA, and .SUM files will be over-written each time their option is
selected.
EXAMPLES
In the following example of an RBBS-PC questionnaire, the question :HOWMANY
would be ignored by QESSUMRY. The questionnaire outputs its information to a
file called UPLOAD.DAT, which is the file that QESSUMRY would use to summarize
the responses to this questionnaire. (This example is not a complete question-
naire)
"UPLOAD.DAT",7
*
:QUESTION01
*How long have you been a user of this BBS?
*
* A. New User (just signing on)
* B. Less than 1 month
* C. More than 1 month but less than 6 months
* D. More than 6 months but less than 1 year
* E. More than 1 year
*
?Enter A, B, C, D, or E
=AABORT=BHOWMANY=CHOWMANY=DHOWMANY=EHOWMANY= QUESTION01
:HOWMANY
*How many times do you estimate you have called this BBS?
*
?
:QUESTION02
*
*
*Do you feel uploads should be allowed by all users. (Y/N)
*
?
=YQUESTION04=NQUESTION03= QUESTION02
*
:QUESTION03
*
*Since you do not feel that all users should upload, how do you feel about
*uploads?
*
* A. The current policy should be maintained.
* B. No user uploads are necessary.
* C. I sign on here for the messages, not files.
* D. All of the above
* E. Both B and C
*
?Enter A, B, C, D, or E
=AEXIT=BEXIT=CEXIT=DEXIT=EEXIT= QUESTION03
:QUESTION04
*
*There are several ways uploads can be handled. Do you support:
*
* A. All users should be required to upload in a certain proportion to
* the number of files they download.
* B. Users should be free to upload if they want, but should not be
* restricted from the number of files they download if they do not
* upload.
* C. Users should only be allowed to upload after a certain 'trial period'
* to be sure they will act responsibly.
* D. I've reconsidered - I think uploads should be discouraged on this BBS.
*
?Enter A, B, C, or D
=AQUESTION05=BQUESTION07=CQUESTION06=DQUESTION03= QUESTION04
...
This is an example of the Text file or Printer output from QESSUMRY.
Again, this is only a partial display, and is intended only as an example.
QESSUMRY (c) UPLOAD.DAT 06-11-1988
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 11:04
Question 1 Total Answers: 16
Choice # Responding Percentage
A or Y: 0 0.00 %
B or N: 4 25.00 %
C: 2 12.50 %
D: 5 31.25 %
E: 5 31.25 %
F: 0 0.00 %
G: 0 0.00 %
H: 0 0.00 %
..............................................................................
Question 2 Total Answers: 16
Choice # Responding Percentage
A or Y: 9 56.25 %
B or N: 7 43.75 %
C: 0 0.00 %
D: 0 0.00 %
E: 0 0.00 %
F: 0 0.00 %
G: 0 0.00 %
H: 0 0.00 %
..............................................................................
REGISTRATION
QESSUMRY
Name:___________________________________________________________
Address:________________________________________________________
City:____________________ State:______ Zip Code:__________
Are you a SYSOP of an operating BBS? ( ) Yes ( ) No
If Yes, what is the data phone number for the BBS? ___________________
Where did you obtain your copy of QESSUMRY? ________________________________
If from a BBS, what is the name and number of the BBS? ______________________
OPTIONAL $10.00 Registration fee enclosed: ( )
Complete and send to:
R. Mike Worley
P.O. Box 45321
Boise, ID 83711