home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Archive Magazine 1996
/
ARCHIVE_96.iso
/
_textfind
/
_help
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-09-14
|
7KB
|
133 lines
!TextFind - Fast text search for the Archive CD
===============================================
This program will search the text files of the Magazine, Hints and Tips
or Products Available on the Archive Magazine CD. It is not intended to
'search and display'. You can do this using any good text editor.
Instead it will produce a list of references with the issue and line
numbers where a match was found together with a copy of the line. You
can then use this list, with 'goto line' in your text editor, to jump to
the sections of the files you wish to read.
The control window
------------------
To use the program run it in the usual way and then click SELECT on the
icon. The main control window will then open.
At the left-hand side are three option buttons, 'Case sensitive', 'Whole
words' and 'Confirm'.
If 'Case sensitive' is ON only text which matches the case of the search
string will be found, if it is OFF case is ignored. If the search string
is 'Test' then with this option ON only exact matches will be found, if
OFF 'test', TEST, etc. will also be matched.
If 'Whole words' is ON then the matched text will need to be complete
words. For example, with this off, if you were searching for 'test'
words like 'latest', 'tests', 'testing' would also be found. With it ON
only the word 'test' would be found. (Please see the notes under
'Problems' before using this option).
'Confirm' changes the way in which the program operates when a match is
found. If it is OFF then the program just counts the matches found in
each file in the small display icon at the right hand side of the
window. If is is ON then it will pause when it finds a match and display
the line where it was found at the top of the window. The small display
icon then tells you which line the match was found. You must then click
on either 'Include' (to have that reference included in the search list)
or 'Skip' to have it ignored.
The three radio buttons in the centre of the window choose which
sections of the magazine will be searched. As the Products Available and
Hints and Tips sections are very much smaller than the whole magazine
searching just one of these will be much quicker. Don't forget that the
magazine itself includes these two sections, so if you choose to search
the whole magazine you will also find all references which are in the
Hints and Tips and Products Available sections.
Using TextFind
--------------
Now that the various controls have been explained using the program
should be self evident. There only remains one control to be explained,
this is the display icon labelled 'From' with its two 'bump' icons. This
selects which issue of the magazine the search will begin from. If you
don't want it to start from the first issue (for example, if you only
want recent references to an item) then just use the bump icons to
change it. The number can go right down to 1, although the magazine
actually begins at issue 4. This is because the Hints and Tips and
Products Available sections do go right back to issue 1.
When you have entered the search string (which must have at least three
characters) and set the various buttons as you want them just click on
'Begin' or press RETURN. The '#' (hash) character is used as a
'wildcard' which means it will match any single character. For example,
'de#d would match 'dead' or deed'.
Unless you have selected 'Confirm' all you will see until the search
is complete is the name of the file(s) being searched and the matches in
each file being counted.
When the search is complete the top icon in the window is used to tell
you how many matched were found and a 'Save' window will open. You can
drag the file icon in this window to any filer window (changing the
filename first if you wish) or directly to your text editor. If you
close the SaveAs window before you save the file then it can be opened
again from the icon bar menu.
If you save a file to disc then the name in the 'Saveas' window will
then include the full path/filename of the file as it was saved. It will
then be possible to save subsequest files by just pressing RETURN with
the caret in the filename icon, changing the leafname first if you wish,
and the file will be saved in the same directory as the first.
'Stop', as the name suggests, will abort the search at any stage. If some
matches have been found when you click on 'Stop' then the SaveAs window
will open so you can save the results of the partial search. There might
be a slight delay before this happens.
Technical notes and possible problems
-------------------------------------
The program has been (fairly) thoroughly tested using the 1995 Archive
CD, so it should be error free. However, if you do have any problems
please report them directly to me (see the end of this file) and not to
N.C.S., as they will probably not be able to help.
To make the search fast the program loads whole files into memory and
uses machine code search routines. This means that you must have enough
free RAM available to hold the largest file needed and the whole of the
'found' list. The files used are the Hints and Products files for a
complete year and the individual issue magazine files. The largest of
these is around 400K, so with the program itself and some RAM for the
list you will need at least 450K of free RAM. This should be within the
capabilities of any machine provided you do not have too many other
applications running at the same time.
The 'Whole words' system is not completely foolproof. A 'terminating
character' is regarded as anything other than the letters a-z, A-Z or
the figures 0-9. A word must also begin with one of these characters, a
pound sign (ú) or an exclamation mark (!) so words which start with
'foreign' characters or any other symbols will NOT be found when this
option is on. In practice, provided you are aware of this limitation, it
is not likely to cause problems. If in doubt switch off 'Whole words'
since if the word or phrase you are looking for does contain this type
of character you are not likely to have many false matches anyway.
The three 'option' buttons are checked before each file is searched so
if they are changed while the program is working the change will take
effect when the next file is loaded. Changing the 'From' icon or the
section of the magazine have no effect once the search has begun.
Any problems or suggestions please contact -
David Holden
39 Knighton Park Road
Sydenham
London SE26 5RN
email - info@apdl.co.uk