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     ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MICROPENDIUM
     P.O. Box 1343  Round Rock TX 78680
     Phone [phone]
     Internet [e-mail]

MICRO REVIEWS for November 1993 Micropendium
by Charles Good

CARD FILE by Bill Gaskill

     There are many data base programs, some full featured and very complex and
some simple and easy to use.  Card File is in the simple easy category.  It is
written in extended basic with 40 column assembly support and simulates a paper
index card collection with "cards" that have information on both sides of the
card.
     Card File loads from a SSSD disk.  Drive number and printer defaults can
easily be altered.  You are presented with a freeform data entry screen on
which you can type data any way you want.  There is a text mode for data entry
and a command mode.  Text mode allows full screen cursor movement.  Word wrap
is included (coded in XB so it is a little slow) as well as the ability to add
solid vertical and horizontal lines to divide your card into sections and make
it look good.  Command mode lets you delete single lines or the whole screen,
insert lines, display either "side 1" or "side 2" of your index card, print
both sides of the card (direct screen dump or in a report format), save the
card, load an existing card for viewing, display a disk directory, or bring up
the on line help.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: "all software
should have on line help screens" for those of us who don't remember all the
commands.
      Card File lets you load in templates, fill in the templates with your own
custom data and save these filled cards back using other file names.  This
template concept is very handy, and Card File comes with a bunch of templates
to get you started.  These include part of a multi year calendar, employee
personnel record, auto insurance, birthday list, TI cartridge data sheet,
personal information, phone list, golf score record, recipe, personal
references, a "to do list", personal weight record, and motor vehicle service
record.  These templates are blank, waiting for you to enter the data.  Other
useful "cards" that come with Card File already have useful data, such as help
screens for several TI word processors.
     Card File is NOT a full featured data base, but it is nice for those with
a minimal expansion system.  You can't sort and you can't search.  All you can
do is find card files from a disk directory, load the card to display and alter
the data, then print and/or resave the data.
     Card File's cards are saved as DV80 text files, and that is the key to
Card File's usefulness.  In my opinion, Bill Gaskill's card templates and word
processing help screens are worth more than the software he has created to
manipulate the cards.   You can load any of the cards or handy blank card
templates into an ordinary word processor for easy viewing and editing.  I find
this procedure quicker than using the Card File software itself, because text
editing from a word processor at assembly speed is faster and usually more
convenient.  For searching you can use Funnelweb's Disk Review or Birdwell's
DSKU to quickly search a whole disk full of card files for key words.  You can
also quickly view a disk full of cards with Disk Review's V(iew) option.
     Bill offers at extra cost two "libraries" of filled data cards.  One is if
interest to TI history buffs such as myself and the other has broad general
interest.  The CARTRIDGE LIBRARY is based on Bill's extensive TI command module
collection.  Cartridge name, product number, type, date released, manufacturer,
release price, and additional notes are included for each cartridge of the
cartridge library.  Of particular interest are the actual dates acquired and
actual price paid for the cartridges Bill has.
     The STATES card library is really interesting.  I recommend its purchase
to anyone.  This information was apparently obtained from a good very recent
atlas.  I have a similar STATES data base on my home MS-DOS machine's hard
drive and I paid more for that than Bill is asking for his STATES library.
     Each state card has the following information: total land area, highest
point, lowest point, record high and low temperatures, list of natural
resources, percent of land area that is federal, number of hazaderous waste
sites, 1990 population and percent change since 1980, population density, per
capita cost of public education, average pupil/teacher ratio, annual deaths
from cancer heart disease and homicide each per 100000, date and order of
admission to union, capital, governor, electroal votes, number of congressional
representatives, average federal income tax per capita, number of police
officers and lawyers per resident, per capita income, number of farms radio and
TV stations and daily newspapers, area of national parks, and phone number of
tourist board.  This is useful interesting information.
     Card File is fairware.  If you just want to try it out I will send it to
you for $1.  Better yet, send a fairware donation of any amount plus a disk and
paid return mailer directly to Bill.  The Cartridge and States libraries are
not fairware.  They are only available directly from Bill for $7 each, which
includes the SSSD disk and postage.  Bill Gaskill 2310 Cypress Ct., Grand
Junction CO 81506
-------------------------
AUDIO CALCULATOR by Larry Tippett

     There are lots of "me too" applications and games in the TI world,
software that does the same things as previously available software.  Newer
software may be faster, more user friendly, or just slightly different, but the
game formats and types of applications don't seem to change much.  It isn't
often that you find software that does something new and different, a type of
computer task that nobody thought of before.  Audio Calculator is new and
different.
     Audio Calculator is for use by those who transfer music from CDs and
phonograph records to cassette tapes.  The software will calculate (with
emphasis on the work "calculate") the maximum number of song titles that will
fit on each side of an audio cassette tape and then to print a tape box label.
Yes I know.  There are several public domain cassette tape box label printing
programs, and Bruce Harrison's Time Calc program can be used to accurately add
up the cumulative elapsed times of songs you add consecutively to an audio
tape.  Audio Calculator is different.  It actually calculates the ideal fit of
songs onto both sides of an audio cassette of any length so that you can
squeeze the maximum number of songs onto the tape without leaving out part of
the last song and with minumum unused tape time at the end of the tape.
     You start out by inputting into the computer a tape title and date (or
other information in place of the date such as artist).  Then you enter the
titles and durations of all the songs you want to squeeze onto your tape.
Duration information can be read directly from a CD player or found on the CDs
documentation.  You are than asked for an "autospace", a soundless time
interval you will insert between songs.  The default of 4 seconds usually works
well.  Finally you enter the tape length (eg. enter "90" for a C90 tape), and
Audio Calculator begins to calculate.
     You are presented on screen with a suggested list of songs (title and
individual durations) for side 1 and 2 of the tape, a statement of total used
and unused time (after the last time) on each side, and a listing of which
songs will NOT fit on the tape.  At this point you have the opportunity to edit
your song entries.  Maybe you have a lot of room left and want to put more
songs onto the tape. Or maybe you really want to put some of the "won't fit"
songs onto the tape and must delete some of the fitted songs to make room.
When you are finished editing, Audio Calculator will recalculate based on your
new data.
     As an example of what can be done; I took a favorate CD and typed in the
names and durations of all its 13 songs, specified a 4 second "autospace" and a
C30 (15 minutes on each side) tape length.  Audio Calculator told me it could
put 6 of my songs on each side of the tape with unused time of 29 seconds on
side 1 and 45 seconds on side 2.  One song with a duration of 3 minutes 24
seconds would not fit.
     When everything is set up as you wish you can print either a full 80
column listing or a cassette label to cut out and put in the cassette box.
Each printout includes the tape title and date plus information about song
duration and unused tape space.   There is room on a label for a maximum of 25
songs per tape side.  Then comes the hard part.  You have to manually use your
audio equipment to transfer music onto the tape in the sequence specified by
Audio Calculator, which is not necessarily the same sequence you used to input
the son titles.  Don't forget to manually leave the "autospace" between songs.
Wouldn't it be nice if this could be done automatically under computer
control!
     Audio Calculator is written in extended basic and comes in 40 and 80
column versions both of which come on the same SSSD disk and are almost
functionally identical.  The 80 column version (requires a Geneve or a 99/4A 80
column device such as TIM or AVPC) is written using Alexander Hulpke's X80.  I
am grateful for another really useful 80 column application for my 99/4A.
There arn't many of them.
     I highly recommend Audio Calculator to anyone who makes backup cassette
music tapes.  It is fairware, and the requested donation is only $5.  If you
just want to try it out before sending Larry his money, I will send it to you
if you mail me a buck (pays for the disk and return postage).  Why not save
some time and postage by getting it directly from the author.  Send the $5
fairware donation AND a disk with paid return mailer to Larry Tippett, 5826
Buffalo St., Sanborn NY 14132.
---------------
     It has been 10 years since "Black Friday", and the Micro Reviews column is
proof that new really useful software is still being created for our trusty old
99/4A.  Please continue to send new material my way for a quick Micro Review.
My address is P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894.  My evening phone is
419-667-3131.