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RoseWare - Network Support Library.iso
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btrieve
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btrsim.exe
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BSIM.HLP
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1990-06-16
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GENERAL HELP
22
This program allows you to execute most of the Btrieve operations directly
without having to write your own program.
This can be very helpful when you are just learning Btrieve as well as
when you want to analyze how Btrieve operations affect the different
parameters byte by byte.
Also, it is very useful for trouble-shooting problems in your application
program - i.e, if the same sequence of Btrieve calls can reproduce your
problem, then you know that it is not a bug in your application.
Major features of this program.
- Up to 20 files open and accessible at once. Detailed info on each file.
- Viewing / editing facility for Data and Key Buffers.
- Can access, view, edit records up to 32K bytes long.
- English status and error messages.
- Use to easily Create any kind of Btrieve file.
- Get statistics on files.
- Create and Drop supplemental indices.
- Viewing of Position Block.
- Shell to Dos feature.
- Help menu.
DATA/KEY BUFFERS
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- When you choose Data or Key Buffer, you can see or edit all values
stored in the buffer. All displayable characters are shown in ascii,
while all values are displayed in hex below the ascii line.
- You can move right or left using arrows, tab, shift-tab, home, or end.
You can use the up and down arrows to move to the ascii or hex lines.
- When you change an ascii character, the hex values change. When you
change a hex value, the ascii value changes.
- If you position the buffer at, e.g. offset 300-380, hit return, and
do a get next, the next record will be displayed at that offset. This
makes it easy to scroll and view a certain area in each record.
- Use Alt-D to toggle the Display Hex mode. Use this if you only want to
look at the displayable characters in the buffer.
POSITION BLOCKS
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This program provides great flexibility for doing multi-file simulations.
You can have up to 20 position blocks allocated at once and each position
block can use a different amount of memory. This is very useful if you
need to access files with very large record sizes.
- Pos Blk 1 is already allocated for you.
- Go to Change position block screen to allocate or deallocate pos blks.
This just grabs memory off the heap to store data/key buffers and
various other internal structures. User enters amount of heap space
to allocate for each position block. This allows you to access 1 file
with very large records and several other files with small records.
- Information regarding each position block and any file opened to that
block is on the screen, including filename, open mode, last operation
and status on that position block and maximum record length. This is
useful in keeping track of where you are in a complex multi-file test.
- If you shell out to Dos from the main menu, your position blocks are
still allocated and intact when you return.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
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Bsim allows you to perform many of the difficult Btrieve operations
by, for example, prompting you for information to put in the data buffer
for the CREATE operation. It also interprets information returned from
Btrieve in, e.g. the STATUS operation. Here is a list of the operations
which are are handled differently:
- Create: Put data in buffer 1st, then do the actual Create operation
- Create Supplemental Index:
Similar to create, just with key info
- Version: Give version of Btrieve loaded
- Stat: Displays statistics from Stat operation in easy-to-read format.
- Extended Gets {not implemented yet}
Will allow user to simulate filtering operations
- Extended Steps {not implemented yet}
Will allow user to insert a load file into their Btrieve file.
Note: As with all other operations, the Btrieve parameters are changed
as they would be in your program. You can see how Btrieve actually
modifies these parameters. This can be very useful when you are first
learning how to do, e.g. a Create operation. Enter the information
through prompts and then look at how the information is stored
in the data buffer.
SUGGESTIONS / BUG REPORTS
17
Please direct all enhancement suggestions or bug reports to
David Garrison @ Novell (DPD)
Again, please do not distribute this program externally to Novell.
Thanks for your cooperation.