Amiga Computing 58

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***** * * **** ***** * * ***** **** * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *** * *** **** * * ** * * * * * * * * ***** * * **** ***** * * ***** * * COPYRIGHT (1992) MICHAEL CORT PYRAMID PRODUCTIONS 11320 LABASTIDE D'DANJOU FRANCE AMIGA COMPUTING VERSION FEBRUARY 1993 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ (This version is free to be used by anybody, copied and passed ) ( on, so long as this document file accompanies it. ) THE INDEXER =========== The idea for the Indexer came to me a couple of days after I had spent three weeks in hospital last summer. Not a serious matter, "just a bit of investigation", the doctor said. So after a week of being poked and pummelled and no sign of a release, the family were dispatched to bring all past issues of my magazines to the sick bed. What joy just relaxing and perusing each item with all the time in the world. After all I was in a French Hospital, and when you speak as little of the lingo as I do conversation is at a minimum, so without the mags life could have been a bit boring. Ah! I exclaimed one evening, as I shoved over the dinner dishes and wiped the crumbs from my pillow. Bye the way, cuisine in French Hospitals is superb, incase you ever get stuck here! There, tucked away in the corner of a page, was the answer to a problem that had been bugging me for a number of weeks over a part of a program I was making. Good! I felt, as soon as I'm out of this sterile hole, I'll get it done. As I say, the foods OK, but I can't recommend the nurses! So there I was sitting, two weeks later, with a pile of forty magazines ready to solve the bug in my program. When it suddenly dawned on me I had an even greater problem. Which magazine? For that matter, even if I knew which damned magazine it was that held the secret to my success, I certainly didn't have a clue, as to which page it was on. After three days, my wife, who really can find a needle in a haystack, took over the search. Rather than face further strain and suffering by the whole family as I paced up and down tossing one magazine after another into the cat's basket, she decided it was time she took control. Bless her, for the first time, she failed to find the needle. To this day, eigth months later, we have never found the little tip tucked away in some corner, which could have saved me three weeks of debugging and rewriting. SO THAT IS HOW THE INDEXER WAS BORN. Not to be caught again, I quickly knocked up a data base. Actually we don't use words like that at PYRAMID, spreadsheets, wordprocessors etc are verboten in our sphere of work, we do make things like letter pads, account books and telephone books though. This little program to keep bits of information, such as this lost mag item at my finger tips (literally!) began to grow. Soon this got bigger and began to cover more items, especially those connected with domestic matters. It dawned on us gradually as the system began to materialise, that this tool could be very useful to a lot of us Amiga owners. PYRAMID PRODUCTIONS That is how all our products at PYRAMID PRODUCTIONS begin. They are created from a personal need of an AMIGA owner and translated by AMIGA programmers into a system that can be shared by all. We only make applications for the AMIGA, in fact none of us has ever used any other machine. We were quite stumped the other day, a French chappy called by. He could not get his "com-pat-teeee-bul" going. "Vous comprenez le EMM EZZ DOOZE" he asked. Well I don't know how many of you have ever tried the EMM EZZ DOOOSE, but it's weird. No wonder secretaries have to go on six month courses to learn how to type a letter. Of course being the computer experts in this little village and EMM EZZ DOOZE being written in English, our French friend expected us to have the answers. To cut a long story short, we couldn't figure it out. Honestly we only know about AMIGA'S, so our friend eventually gets the machine to load a program, by making a thousand mile telephone call to the head office of "le com-pat-teee-bul" maker. The second time we tried, we failed and another phone call was really out of the question. So we then took our frustrated French friend and sat him at one of our AMIGAS. Ten minutes later, he was tapping away, clicking icons and manipulating Workbench like a contented cat. One must also not forget, it was an English keyboard. There really has been, a very successful outcome. He has sent back "le com-pat-teee-bul" for refund, and we are now awaiting delivery of a new A1200 for him. He will then be running his "petit enterprise", with a personally signed Professional Version of PYRAMID'S GREEN MACHINE. ABOUT US: We are a small enterprise, we make programs only for the AMIGA. We do not package our little disks in enormous gaily coloured boxes covered in technical graffetti and sexy photos of VGA screens. They come in jiffy bags, which are re-usable, fit the disks well and thereby stop them rattling all over the place. We don't supply great big encyclopaedia full of misprints, for you to spend months figuring out how to insert the disk, only then to find that another purchase of a techno-jargon book is necessary, before you can click on any insipid looking menu to get the thing to run. Our programs are made by AMIGA owners and users, to make your AMIGA work for you and not embroil you in slave-like dedication to accomplish the most trivial of tasks. What our programs do, is work on AMIGAS. Work with the minimum of effort and work with intuition only the AMIGA has built in. We make programs for specific functions, like a diary or a telephone book or a cheque book or petrol record. We call them by these names and don't dress them up as super intellectual expeditious interfaces, and look down our noses if you don't understand what we are talking about. Normally. if you want to keep a record of your expenses, you buy a little book at Boots for a few bob, and scribble in your weekly milk bill and booze expenditure at Safeways. OK, that little book doesn't automatically add it up and budget it out, but it works. We are making programs to save the trees consumed by these little pieces of paper we all use, but programs that work with the same simplicity as a little book. This is why we have developed our GREEN MACHINE system for the AMIGA. A system for Home Organisation, which makes the AMIGA earn it's keep, is as simple to use as a note book, and costs no more than a good game. You don't have to have a degree in engineering to use a Black and Decker to drill a hole. Likewise you don't need a PhD in computer studies for PYRAMID PRODUCTIONS. Our programs just slot in, go, and do a specific job. Our Testing Department can vouch for that. It is perhaps the most rigorous of any in the world of computing. She knows nothing about computers. Wants to know nothing about the machines, yet she can crash the most expensive digital creation, within a couple of minutes if a flaw exisits. If she can work our programs and they work for her, then we sell them. Please don't ask us if they are idiot proof either, they certainly are. You can rest assured our Quality Control Manager, will definitely not pass them for distribution if his mother-in-law fails to load, even the smallest file. Our programs are made to be used by all of the family, with no compu' jargon, no complicated formulae and no technical fear. You know, push in and go like a game or whatever. RELEASES -------- THE GREEN MACHINE To be released in Spring as a grand Easter Egg for all you AMIGA enthusiasts. THE GREEN MACHINE is the complete home organiser. A simple to use and operate program which banishes all those scruffy pieces of paper that lie around the house. On one disk you have the opportunity to have a diary, a telephone book, a bank and credit card record, and a letter pad. Added to these four main facilities are innumerable other home helps, like list makers for anything, and weekly and yearly organisers. There is a `scribble pad' for doodling whilst on the `phone, and it will tell you your emotional, intellectual and physical state for any day past, present or future, by displaying your biorhythms. One feature we consider excellent was totally turned down by our Consumer Research team. This is the Rota-Maker. Having completed this module, we showed it to our children and explained it was the complete solution to the arguments over whose turn it was to clear the dinner table each day. Their response was to demand Sega consoles for Christmas. THE GREEN MACHINE is organic, and new facilities will be added from year to year. For those of you who are very `eco' minded, we are arranging to supply re-cycled paper for the `letter pad'. Incidentally the `letter pad' is not one of those verboten words we have here, a word processor. It will do most things a WP does, but what it does do best, is to write and print beautiful A4 letters with your own customised letter heading. To the future we are investigating the possibility of turning your AMIGA into a telephone and fax controlled by THE GREEN MACHINE. Perhaps the most innovative part of the system, is that it comes in any colour, so long as it's green! To obtain your registered copy of THE GREEN MACHINE look out in the near future for DEMO RELEASES of the system. You will then be able to try the system for a couple of months, after which you will have to fork out to register it. Don't forget you will be getting four major modules each at the price of a medium game. MAGIC NUMBERS Some of us here at PYRAMID are into esoteric things like biorhythms and numerology. We expect you will be seeing a copy of this little fun-program on a magazine disk in the future. MAGIC NUMBERS automatically gives an intepretation of your or your friends numerological aspects, by simply typing in your name. It also gives you horrific numbers like how many days and weeks you have lived. Like us, if you can never find the dice when it comes to play a family game, just turn on MAGIC NUMBERS and it will roll the dice for you. It will of course, like THE GREEN MACHINE, give you an update on your biorhythms. We are actually putting this out as a share-ware disk, as we would like to have a share in any ill-gotten gains that are made! Although there is absolutely,- absolutely - no guarantee whatsoever, and MAGIC NUMBERS is just for fun, it will also pick the numbers for your pools entries,roulette, bingo, races of any type - horses or dogs, give you your lucky number for the day, and work out any sequence of numbers you would like to choose. For those of you with esoteric notions, these numbers are worked out on an intuitive basis controlled by your birthdate and biorhythmic state. The full version costs £12, but there will be a limited version appearing in the near future. Early next year we will be releasing a follow-up to MAGIC NUMBERS which is a complete Home Business for the AMIGA. This involves offering a numerological and biorhythmic service to your local community. The complete system, which includes a Business Organiser will be in the usual PYRAMID price range. We will however, be asking for a franchise royalty on the vast!!! profits you will be making. For those interested drop us a line, pop in £3 for our expenses and we will send you a demo disk plus full details and a limited version of MAGIC NUMBERS. THE INDEXER This is actually what you've been waiting to read about! But the Ed did say we could put a bit of spiel in about PYRAMID, as we have made this a very special version of the INDEXER for you AMIGA COMPUTING readers. The complete family INDEXER in itself is like a compilation of all those little programs we have littering our disk boxes, allowing you to list videos, list menus, list stamps, list photographs, list records, CD's, news items, furniture and all those other things we never organise in our lives and home. This is one stand alone program needing at least 1Meg which does all these things and keeps the lists on one disk (limit 4,500 items). Here again, we keep our promise to keep our prices within that of a game, and only ask £18.00 for this indispensable family computer application. (see ordering details on Menu 1 in program). AMIGA COMPUTING INDEXER This AC DISK program, THE AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX is a small part of THE INDEXER and gives a very good example of how the main program works. It is one of those programs that really justifies the cost of having a home computer. Now if you are only into games, then tell your mum and dad about it, and they will never regret the day they forked out all that lolly for an AMIGA. Mind you, I wouldn't tell them about THE GREEN MACHINE as you might find yourself not getting time to play your games! THE AMIGA COMPUTING INDES is a complete program in itself, and can be used for you to record those items in the magazine which interest you each month. Due to disk space and the ability to work on half Meg machines, this version has certain limitations. It is slower than the full version, which is exceedingly fast at finding items. Because of the limited memory it cannot make the full buffers for sorting and searching, and therefore limits the spectacular use of PYRAMID'S DMI system. A full version of the AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX, which also includes the ability to BROWSE, DELETE and CHANGE entries, is also available. With the full version you can customise your own categories and make a brand new INDEX each year for the magazine.With this version on a stand alone disk you can get over 5,000 records in the files.If you find AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX particularly useful, then it is certainly worth while registering for the full version. All you have to do is send a cheque (if you're in the UK), or your credit card details, for the sum of £6.00 to register. (Remember minimum 1Meg required) On the first menu of the program, you will find a DEMO of our complete INDEXER for the home. This is part of THE GREEN MACHINE system and is available now. See details within the program demo on Menu 1 as to how to obtain your copy. OPERATING THE AMIGA COMPUTING INDEXER As we have said above, we try to make the use of our programs as simple as possible. Our "Testing Department" only took 10 minutes to master the technique. OVERALL The principle of THE INDEXER is to enable you to find items as quickly as possible, by referencing them under a main index and then re-cross referencing them with other indexes. LOAD THE PROGRAM You are presented with a main central box which gives you all the information, five mode control buttons marked in red in the top right hand corner, and nine green control buttons with which you can pick the category of your desired INDEX. To the right of the title box (red), is a window displaying the number of records and beyond that a little box which displays your options and directions while you are operating the INDEX. The instruction box will now be telling you to "LOAD MENU". Pull down Menu 1 and click on "LOAD AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX". You will now see the DMI loading. THE DMI THE DYNAMIC MENU INDEX allows you to make 540 separate indexes and displays them on nine categorised menus. CONTROL MODULES There are two control modes for the program. SEARCHING and ENTERING You can work in either of these two modes, and get in or out of them by clicking on the button EXIT MODE. SEARCHING We have inlcuded over 680 references to items in the past year's issues of AMIGA COMPUTING. We have made in the main general indexes like "ART-" which in itself will bring up every item over the past year concerned with graphics, drawing, painting etc. This comes under Category 1. In this menu we include certain favourites such as DELUXE PAINT, but have left it to you to make more specific individual indexes to suit your own requirements. On this version for the half Meg machines, you are limited to 100 items under each index. With 540 indexes this should give you 54,000 entries. On the other hand, putting the program on a stand alone disk, you will have room for about 4500 entries. But with this number of entries you would certainly need the full AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX version, or treat yourself to PYRAMID'S family INDEXER, to benefit by the speed of the complete DMI. Within the `SEARCH' mode there are two ways of finding items. SEARCH DMI or SEARCH ALL. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ SEARCH DMI To use the DYNAMIC MENU INDEX click on SEARCH DMI then click on the Category button that interests you. You will now be told to choose an item from the Menu of that Category. Go up to the appropriate menu which will now be in operation and choose your desired subject. For starters try Category 1 and click on ART-. Whilst in SEARCH DMI you can go back up to the same Menu or change the Category by clicking the appropriate button. You can also click on SEARCH ALL to change the searching method. SEARCH ALL You can of course go straight to SEARCH ALL, by clicking on this button when you open the program. On clicking, you will be presented with four string boxes to enter a search string. The first box is `ghosted', as this is used for entering a new DMI. The first open box will let you enter an Issue No after which it will display all items from that particular issue. The next box lets you enter a page number, and displays all items on that page for the year. The last box allows you to enter any 33 letter string you choose, and searches all the records to see if such an item exists. You are only allowed to enter a string in one box at a time, and you must therefore click on the search box of your choice before entering. To enter further searches just click on the desired string box and it will allow you to enter a search. If you want to pop back into using the DMI just click on SEARCH DMI after any search. To exit you of course click EXIT MODE which brings you out of any searching situation. ENTERING ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ENTER DMI OR ENTER NEW Here again there are two methods of entering new items into indexes. ENTER DMI Click this button and you will be asked to choose a Category. Go to the Menu chosen and choose the index under which you want your new entry to be made. The Menu will then place the INDEX NAME in the first string box and all you have to do is to then enter the Issue No, Page and then your Comments. (see Comments below) When you are satisfied with your entry (you can click any box to change your entry) press F1 and your new reference will be saved forever. If you wish you can now choose a new category or an index from the same menu in the same way as you searched above to write your next entry. ENTER NEW INDEX By clicking on this control button you are first asked as to which Category your new index will be listed. Click on your choice and you will be presented with the first string box open to enter in the new name. There is only one discipline you have to observe in making entries and that is indexes cannot start with a number. For example, A600 is absolutely ok. Whereas if you entered 600A you might get some peculiar results when searching. You then enter the rest of the details as above.(Please note here that this new index will not be displayed in the DMI menu until the program is reloaded. The full version puts it up immediately) You can of course click back on ENTER DMI within this entry mode. To cease entering click EXIT MODE. COMMENTS ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ When entering COMMENTS in a new item, one can become quite creative in the structure of your index. When the program searches a DMI it will not only search the INDEX name but also any mention of that index in the COMMENTS column. It is therefore redundant to enter under an index, for example called REVIEW, a record in COMMENTS which states REVIEW DELUXE PAINT. Just write in DELUXE PAINT, and if after this you write in capital letters ANIM- or any other code, then if you have already an index called ANIM- then the DMI while searching will also include this record. It is important when using this facility to write these codes in CAPITAL letters. This facility is of great value when you are not quite sure which index to put a new item in. For example, on our entry for OPALVISION can be found in our index by clicking on MM- (for MultiMedia),BOARD (for Technical) and under DTV (for Desk Top Video applications). This is the spectacular part of the INDEXER in that it can cross- reference records under many subjects. You will note that we have made these type of indexes as code words (WB-, ART-, EDU-, PC* etc etc) we have put such things as a star or dash in these codes as just putting the letters alone can obtain some interesting results. For example, entering ART on its own will bring up the record of a HACK available on one of the magazine disks which makes a sound that rhymes with - ART, and a lot of other peculiar references. We have left one example of this, as we are sure very few of you are interested in news about the ST. There is only one mention of the ST in the whole year, and that appears in issue 55 page 57, if you're interested. But to get our point over about making correct codes, click on Menu ST, and see what happens without a control symbol after the letters. We have actually left another example of this which cropped up as a bug, when we were testing. This is under the Menu referring to SID. Have a click on that, as we find it rather amusing. As we say above, we have limited our indexes to general and popular items. If you want to be more specific, then when you make a new entry for one of your main interests, check first to see if the subject already exists in the file, but without an index. If it does, then create a new index in the name of that subject, and all the existing references will then be included in that Category and DMI. Should you want to print any of your listings, we are afraid this is a matter of having to send for the Share-ware version, or for that matter, for the complete family INDEXER, which this year includes the full 1992 AMIGA COMPUTING INDEX ( Pssss! don't tell the editor, but under the complete family INDEXER, you can also index other magazines! Honestly Ed, we are of course referring to other magazines like Woman's Weekly or Play Boy!) HAVE FUN!! From: Michael Cort who suffered in hospital, so that you could all benefit.