World of Education/World of Education.iso/world_t/tp20ba.zip/TAPEMAN.TXT

Text File | 1993-05-13 | 13KB | 521 lines

                              TapeWin v2.0b
                                 (c)1993
                            Modern Microsystems







































  LIMITED WARRANTY

         Modern Microsystems warrants these products to be free
         from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of
         60 days from the date of the purchase. During this period
         Modern Microsystems will repair or replace , at its option,
         any defective parts at no additional charge, provided the
         product is returned, shipping prepaid, to Modern Microsystems.

         This warranty does not extend to any products which might
         have been damaged as a result of accident, misuse, abuse, or
         as a result of service or modification by anyone other than
         Modern Microsystems.

         Modern Microsystems specifically disclaims all other
         warranties, expressed or implied, but not limited to
         implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for
         a particular purpose with respect to defects in the
         documentation. In no event shall Modern Microsystems
         be liable for any loss or profit or any other commercial
         damage, including but not limited to special , incidental,
         consequential or other damages.

         This agreement shall be construed, interpreted, and governed
         by the laws of the state of New York.






















 Unauthorized duplication of Tapewin is prohibited by Federal Law.









INTRODUCTION

TapeWin  is a program that should have been written long ago, when the
first tape drive was introduced. When I first received my tape drive,
I was surprised at the fact that there wasn't such a program to go along
with the drive. 40,80, 120 megs of storage, and you need one file?
Where do you look?? This is where TapeWin evolved and serves it's purpose.
Thank you for supporting this software, we hope it makes this cataloging
task easier for you.


The program has all the features of a disk cataloger. It will allow you
to have a catalog  for EACH tape, this makes it much easier to work with,
since tapes are capable of holding such large amounts of data. With each
database you create, you can store descriptions of each file - so you know
exactly what it is. This is especially useful for archived data. Tapewin
even allows you to export your database to a compatible dBase file, so you
can just use Tapewin to catalog, and use your favorite database to view,
or edit your database to you liking!


Currently, we are working on other utilities to be used with Tapewin, to
make the ease of cataloging a tape even easier. One utility will allow
you to extract descriptions of BBS file lists and add them to your catalog
(if you have those files that match!). If you are a registered user of
Tapewin, you will be notified when these products become available.


Tapewin is an extremely easy to use program, that doesn't really even
require any documentation.  These instructions are provided, just as a
general reference. On-line help will be available shortly. Registered users
will be able to download this from our BBS free of charge.


Enjoy Cataloging!














Installation


Unlike the last version of Tapewin (1.02), you no longer have to manually
install it, and you don't have to store it in the same directory as your
CMS software either. Just run the automated INSTALL.EXE file, and it
will ask you where you want to put Tapewin, and then where your tape
software is located. TAPEINST will also create a directory within your
existing CMS tape directory, which Tapewin will use to store all of your
database files.




When cataloging tapes, be sure to use a different volume label for each
volume! This makes it much easier to find a file in the future! If you
use the same name (e.g. ZIPPED) then when you do a file search with
Tapewin, it will list all the files it finds, with all the same volume
labels, which makes for a really confusing - and time consuming task of
finding the file when you try to go grab it fromt the tape!


If you have multiple files with the same name in different volumes, then
Tapewin will delete (not on the tape, but the database file!) the duplicated
files it finds AFTER the first file.

































Main Menu Commands

1. This command is the foundation of the whole program. This is where the
   program reads the directory listing and converts it for the program's
   use. Depending on how much memory you have, will depend on the amount
   of files it can catalog PER tape.  If you have approximately 600K of
   base memory available, you can catalog 20,000 files per tape.  This
   amount should be more than sufficient.

You will be shown a directory of *.DTA files. These files are your tape
data files. If you don't  have any,  Tapewin will tell you that there
are no files, and will open up a window above the directory list for you
to enter a new name.

If you would like to start a new database, just simply start typing it's
name in and a window will open up for your entry.


DO NOT type an extension, this will be added for you, 8 characters or
less are all that is needed. If you type an extension, it will be over-
written by the standard .DTA extension. This is the only file extension
that Tapewin will recognize.


It is important that you choose a name that will be on the tape's case
- such as TAPE1 , that way you have a separate file for each tape that
you have. It is a good idea to back up these data files also! Having to type
in the descriptions in again will surely be something you don't want to do.
Keeping a separate database file for each tape makes it easier to catalog,
since there won't be as many files to look through. You can add more than
one tape to a database file if you want though. We don't recommend this,
since having one big database file will be easier to corrupt than having
separate little ones!


If you simply want to add 2 or more tapes to a data file, simply scroll
to the file that you would like to use, hit enter, and then it will ask you
if you are sure you want to catalog the tape. If you choose YES, it will
go through the process needed to generate the database. Time for each
tape varies depending on how many volumes you have on the tape.





REMEMBER: Use a different volume name for each volume when
             you catalog! Some examples might be the date that
             you are doing the backup, an alphanumeric code.





2. This command is self explanatory, it uses the shell-sort method, which
   is very efficient for high volume files. The time to sort 20,000 files
   generally takes under a minute, depending on the computer.

The sort is automatically done for you when you use command 1,  but
there are features in the add description command that allow you to
delete files on the list, you will have to run the sort for the files to
delete. You will see how we can use this command in the next command.









3. Descriptions for large amounts of files can be very tedious.
   Sometimes, the user just wants a listing of what is on his/her tape.
   So this feature does not have to be performed. This feature DOES HAVE
   TO BE PERFORMED if you plan on doing database searches for files
   (Search Command in the Browse Menu). This feature is very simple and
   easy to use.

   Type in the descriptions for the files, just hit enter if you don't
   need a particular description for that certain file. You can always
   go back and add the description later.





To end all descriptions, just hit   'X' on a blank  description line,
then hit <ENTER>

To  make the current filename the description of your file,
 type 'F' <ENTER>

To put ALL the filenames as the description,  just hit
      'A' <ENTER>

   This will add the filenames to the description line to ALL the files!


If you find that you do not want a particular file in the list you can
delete it by typing 'DELETE' and hitting enter. This command MUST be
typed in UPPERCASE. After you have chosen all the files you want
deleted, exit the description section (type 'X') and choose option 2 from
the main menu (Sort Files). Tapewin will begin sorting the files and when
it finds the files with a description of 'DELETE', it will delete that file.
This is a handy feature if you want to exclude certain files from your
database, such as batch files which you might not want in your
catalog. In any case, it was added as a convienience to the user.







4.  Load a data file. This command allows you to load a different data
    file to work on. This is handy if you already have a data file
    in memory, and you want to stop and work on another one.

   Certain commands require that you load the data file first before
   they will work. Others will give you a directory of the data files for
   you to choose from.





































Browse Menu


  This menu has the necessary commands to list files to the screen,
  save files to a text file, output them to a printer or search for a
  file by description, and also export them to a .DBF file.

 Certain functions may not be available if you are using the evaluation
 copy.


1. This option enables you to list the database to screen, the listing
   shows all the necessary descriptions, volumes, file sizes, etc. To
   exit this list at any time, just hit the ESC key.

   Page UP - Move one screen up the list

   Page DOWN - Move one screen down the list

   Home - to move to the beginning of the file

   End - to move to the very end of the file.

This viewer is capable of viewing THOUSANDS of lines, and it's fast!
You can go from the beginning of the listing to the end, instantly!
This is FASTVIEW, which is available as a stand alone program for
viewing LARGE text files. Handy when you have a large BBS file listing.
Contact Modern Microsystems if you are interested in the stand alone
version of the viewer.




2. There are times when you may want to list all of the database to
   a text file, this is what this option will do for you. The file is
   just a plain dump of the database with the same type of list format.
   This file will have a name of TAPECAT.TXT and will appear in your
   tape backup directory.


3. This option allows you to search for a specific file in that massive
   listing that you may have. This option allows you to search by
   description or by filename. You will be prompted as to which of the
   two you would like to search by. After you have completed the
   search, you will be asked if you would like to do another search.



To do a search by keyword:
      Just type in a partial or keyword, and it will list all the files
      that meet that search criteria. This will allow you to locate
      the file and which volume it is under on that tape.

To do a search by filename:
       Type in a partial or filename - (NO WILDCARDS!), and
       Tapewin will list all the files that meet that search criteria.


      Future versions will include, an automatic extract of the file
      or files you found, and a GLOBAL search of all the data files,
      for specific files. If you are a registered user, you will be
      notified when this is released, and can upgrade for a nominal cost.



4. Output to printer. The listing can get very large! Make sure that
   your printer is on-line and ready to go. The list will look similar
   to the List Files listing, all the descriptions, file sizes, and
   volume names will be there! Remember, tapes hold thousands of
   files! If you are going to print this list, be sure you have plenty of
   paper available to do the job!





































If you have any questions or things you would like to see in Tapewin,
please write to:

       c/o Tapewin
     Modern Microsystems
     PO Box 1220
     Cicero, NY 13039

   or you can call our BBS

 Dreamscape BBS - [phone] - 14.4k-1200     8-N-1
 6000 Megs, 3 nodes

  --  A lot of quality shareware is available here!  --

  or call us voice  at [phone], [phone]


Upgrades are available through our BBS only! If you are a current
user of an older version of TapeWin, please call the BBS and request
the upgrade. Owners of Tapewin 1.02 will upgrade to Tapewin 2.0a free
of charge. Releases after the 2.0a require a small cost. Please call or
write if you have any questions, or want to upgrade to the newest
version.

Thank you again for your support, we hope you find this product useful!