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1995-02-20
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SUPER-MEMO TOOLKIT
A wide range of professional and semi-professional tools have been
developed to assist users of SuperMemo 6 and SuperMemo 7 in development
of professional SuperMemo databases. If not specified otherwise, all
programs work with databases of both SuperMemo 6 and SuperMemo 7.
The Toolkit programs are:
RESCUE.EXE - used to recover from database damage resulting from
viruses, hardware failures, user errors, etc. (in SuperMemo 6,
RESCUE.EXE is named RECOV6.EXE; in SuperMemo 7.3 and later, the
recovery procedures are built in the program)
RESET.EXE - used to convert SuperMemo databases to intact form. In the
intact form, databases look the same as directly after their
development, before any learning process started.
For example, Memorized=0, Burden=0, Workload=0, etc.
(in SuperMemo 6, RESET.EXE is named RESET6.EXE)
TRANSFER.EXE - used to transfer items between two SuperMemo databases.
The transferred items retain their learning parameters, including
the date of the next repetition. They can also be reset to
intact form.
The program may be used to merge or split databases.
TO_TEXT.EXE - used to convert SuperMemo databases to a text form, and
to compute ordinal numbers that can be used in database sorting.
The ordinal numbers are established on the basis of the learning
process, and are supposed to reflect the difficulty of particular
items. By means of the SM_SORT, a database may be sorted with respect
to ordinal numbers, and consequently, provide easy items at the
beginning, and difficult items at the end of database files.
(example databases sorted with respect to ordinals established by
TO_TEXT: Advanced English, English Vocabulary, Human Biology).
TO_SORT.EXE - used to convert SuperMemo database text files (extension
TXT) to sortable files (extension STB).
SM_SORT.EXE - used to sort STB files with respect to ordinal numbers
established by (1) TO_TEXT or (2) manually by the developer of the
database.
Sorted files have the extension SRT.
TO_SM.EXE - used to convert sortable STB files, or sorted SRT files
back to the SuperMemo format (extension ITM)
CROSS.EXE - used to compute a statistical cross-section through a number
of databases. Such parameters are computed as the total number of items,
total number of outstanding items, average burden, average knowledge
retention, and many more.
UP_2_5.EXE - used to convert SuperMemo 2 database format to the format
acceptable by SuperMemo 5
UP_5_6.EXE - used to convert SuperMemo 5 database format to the format
acceptable by SuperMemo 6
REPSTR.EXE - used to replace fonts or substrings in a SuperMemo
database with another set of fonts or substrings
FONTDES.EXE - used to define fonts used by databases in SuperMemo 6
(only releases 6.6 and later)
SWAP.EXE - used to swap questions with answers in SuperMemo databases
(e.g. to convert active-use vocabulary database to a passive-use
vocabulary database)
CLEAN.EXE - used to reset optimization matrices used by a given
database. The forgetting index, retention, and average grade are
also reset.
GATHER.EXE - used to collect optimization matrices from several
databases, and to place the cumulative data in a selected
destination database
MULTI.EXE - used to generate multiple bilingual vocabulary databases
from multilingual text source files
BRANCH.EXE - used to copy BMP and WAV files used in the Standard
file access mode, to the directory tree used by CD-ROM and CD-ROM
Alias modes
HOW TO USE THE TOOLKIT PROGRAMS
RESCUE.EXE -
1. run RESCUE.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the database to recover, and
press Enter
3. inspect the <database name>.REC file to analyse the results of
recovery
4. optionally, the command-line syntax can be used:
RESCUE <database name>
Note that as of SuperMemo 7.3, the recovery procedures have been
integrated with the program. Instead of running RESCUE.EXE, choose
File:Recover.
RESET.EXE -
1. run RESET.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the database to convert to
the unused form, and press Enter
3. (optionally, use Miscells|Garbage in SuperMemo to compact the
<database name>.ITM file)
4. optionally, the command-line syntax can be used:
RESET <database name>
TRANSFER.EXE -
0. prepare a range file in which subsequent lines will define the
range of items to be transferred. For example:
1-22
25-60
2000-2999
The range file should have the extension RNG.
1. run TRANSFER.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the source database from
which the items will be transferred (if you change the extension
to TXT, you can also use text files generated by TRANSFER.EXE as
the source)
3. in the file selection window, choose the range file, or press
ESC if your want to transfer all the items from the source
database
4. in the file selection window, choose the destination database
to which the items are to be sent
5. optionally, the command-line syntax can be used:
TRANSFER <options>
where available options are:
S=<name of the source database>
D=<name of the destination database>
R=<name of the range file, without extension>
RESET - reset the transferred items
TXT - generate a text file with the transferred items
ALL - transfer all the items from the source database
NO_WAV - do not transfer wave files
NO_BMP - do not transfer bitmap files
<no1>-<no2> - single range of items to be transferred
(the variable MAX may be used in place of <no2>)
For example:
- merging databases GEOG1 with GEOG2:
TRANSFER S=GEOG2 D=GEOG1 ALL
- fast merging text databases ENGLISH1 with ENGLISH2:
TRANSFER S=ENGLISH2 D=ENGLISH1 ALL NO_WAV NO_BMP
- moving items 2000-2999 from a colleague's database
ALEX to the database MY_DB:
TRANSFER S=ALEX D=MY_DB 2000-2999 RESET
- splitting LARGE:
TRANSFER S=LARGE D=SMALL1 1-5000
TRANSFER S=LARGE D=SMALL2 5001-MAX
(Note, empty databases SMALL1 and SMALL2 must exist
beforehand)
- editing the parameters of a used database or changing
the order of items in a used database:
1. TRANSFER S=OLD D=DUMMY TXT
2. process the text file OLD.TXT
3. run TRANSFER again and use OLD.TXT as the source
database
TO_TEXT.EXE -
0. prepare a filter file used by TO_TEXT.EXE (see later)
1. run TO_TEXT.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the database to convert to
the text format, and press Enter (DO NOT RESET THE DATABASE
WITH RESET.EXE BEFORE CONVERSION, IF YOU WANT THE TEXT FILE TO
BE SORTED LATER ON)
3. in the file selection window, choose the filter file (extension
FLT)
4. optionally, run TO_TEXT.EXE with the command line syntax:
TO_TEXT N=<database name> F=<filter filename> <options>
where options are:
LABEL - label particular items with the name of the source
database
ORDATA - display data used to compute ordinal numbers
NO_WAV - speed up processing by ignoring wave files
NO_BMP - speed up processing by ignoring bitmap files
CUT_BRACK - cut comments in square brackets
CUT_ANG - cut comments in angle brackets
CUT_BRACE - cut comments in braces
5. inspect the <database name>.TXT file to analyse the results of
conversion, and the ordinal numbers
An exemplary item generated by TO_TEXT is presented below:
d: REP=5 RES=0 EF=2.660 UF=2.797 INT=621 LAST=05.06.93
i: LEN=33 INT=29 EF=7 LAPS=0 REPS=37 ORD=20
c:
o: 20
k:
q: bus: accumulated wealth used in production of
q: further wealth
a: capital
In the example above the following lines are present:
d: item data used by TRANSFER.EXE
i: item ranking for difficulty (see below)
c: category
o: overall ordinal number (used in sorting)
k: keyword
q: question
a: answer
The above item is ranked on a point scale from 0 to 100 in
the following categories (see Line i:):
LEN - length of the answer, 33% difficulty
INT - length of the current interval, 29% difficulty
EF - E-factor, 7% difficulty
LAPS - Memory lapses, 0% difficulty
REPS - No of repetitions, 37% difficulty,
ORD - Overall difficulty used in sorting the database: 20
Note that the filter file may request modifying the ordinal
number ORD which will then differ from the o: ordinal.
6. Note the following:
- if the COMMENT option has been specified, comments placed in
angle brackets will not be transferred to the TXT file
as in the example below:
ITM file
Question
What is the annual US defence budget? <1990>
Answer
about 300 billion US dollars
TXT file
q: What is the annual US defence budget?
a: about 300 billion US dollars
- the following characters are disallowed in the source file:
#219 - full-block character (used as a separator in
ITM files)
#1 - smiling-face character (used as a separator in
STB and SRT files)
7. Filter files used by TO_TEXT.EXE are text files with the
extension FLT. They contain the following sections:
[ORDINALS] - defines substrings that affect the ordinal
numbers of items. For example
form: 20
indicates that the substring 'form:' will increase the ordinal
number according to the formula ord=ord+(100-ord)*20%
[INCLUDE] - defines substrings that qualify items for
inclusion in particular output files. For example:
bus: business
indicates that the items containing 'bus:' should be
placed in the file BUSINESS.TXT
[EXCLUDE] - defines substrings that disqualify items
[DELIMITERS] - defines delimiters used to place comments
and ordinal numbers in items. For example:
< > cut
indicates that comments placed in angle brackets should be
cut while
{ } ordinal
indicates that ordinals placed in braces should supplant
ordinals computed from item parameters
Note that [ and ] are reserved for the name of the
section therefore you should use:
'[' ']' cut
to remove texts in square brackets.
[CUT] - defines strings that should be cut from items
[REPLACE] - defines strings that should be replaced with
other strings. For example:
bus. bus:
indicates that 'bus.' should be replaced with 'bus:'
[OPTIONS] - defines options such as SLIM, FULL (opposite to
slim), NO-WAV, NO-BMP, SOUND <no> (defines a shifting ordinal
for items associated with sound), INTACT <no> (defines a
shifting ordinal for intact items), POS-ORD (using overriding
position ordinals), ORDATA (see the command syntax), LLO
(last line ordinals), RESET (resets processed items),
REVERSE (reverses the direction in which string replacement
takes place), etc.
For example:
LLO 5 1
indicates that all items contain ordinal numbers placed
in the last line of the question. The easiest items have
ordinals 5, and the most difficult items have ordinals 1.
POS-ORD 80
indicates that position of the item in the database will
be weighted against the standardly computed ordinals
along the 80:20 proportion.
SOUND -25
indicates that ordinals of items associated with sound should
be reduced by 25%.
INTACT 40
indicates that ordinals of intact items should be increased
by 40%.
TO_SORT.EXE -
1. run TO_SORT.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the <database name>.TXT file
to convert to the sortable STB format, and press Enter
3. optionally, run TO_SORT.EXE with the command line syntax:
TO_SORT N=<database name>
4. inspect the <database name>.STB file to analyse the results of
conversion.
An exemplary item generated by TO_SORT is presented below:
79 bus: money value of real assets => share-capital #0#0
where 79 corresponds to the overall difficulty used in sorting
the database by means of SM_SORT.EXE
Remember! In the TXT file, items must be separated by at least one
empty line.
SM_SORT.EXE -
1. run SM_SORT.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the <database name>.STB file
to convert to the sortable SRT format, and press Enter
3. optionally, run SM_SORT.EXE with the command line syntax:
SM_SORT N=<database name>
4. inspect the <database name>.SRT file to analyse the results of
conversion. The format of SRT files is the same as that of STB
files with the exception that SRT files are sorted for the overall
difficulty; lower difficulty coming first
(see COMPILE.BAT which illustrates the compilation stages used by
SuperMemo World to compile the Advanced English database from 14
SuperMemo source databases)
TO_SM.EXE -
1. run TO_SM.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the <database name>.SRT or
<database name>.STB file to convert it to the SuperMemo ITM format,
and press Enter
3. optionally, run TO_SM.EXE with the command line syntax:
TO_SM [N=<SRT filename>] [/L] [S=<size>] [NO_BMP] [NO_WAV]
where:
/L switch is used to request cutting labels generated by TO_TEXT
with option LABEL
S=<size> is used to determined the maximum size of the database
(in case the database is greater than <size> then it will be
split to portions filenamed <name>00, <name>01, etc.
NO_BMP speeds up processing by ignoring bitmap files
NO_WAV speeds up processing by ignoring wave files
4. inspect the database by means of SuperMemo
(see COMPILE.BAT which illustrates the compilation stages used by
SuperMemo World to compile the Advanced English database from 14
SuperMemo source databases)
CROSS.EXE -
1. run CROSS.EXE
2. type name of the report file (the extension will always be REP)
3. in the file selection window, choose the name of the CRS file
with the list of databases subject to analysis, or press ESC if
you have not created such a file.
In the CRS text file, database names must be placed in separate
lines without filename extensions, e.g.
BIOL1
BIOL2
BIOL3, etc.
4. if you have not created the CRS file, in the file selection window,
one by one, choose the names of databases which are subject to
analysis (no more than 20 databases can be scanned)
5. optionally, run CROSS.EXE with the command line syntax:
CROSS <CRS filename>
where <CRS filename>.CRS is a text file which lists the names of
databases subject to analysis (see Point 4)
6. an exemplary result of the analysis is shown below:
Name a_hb b_hb c_hb d_hb e_hb f_hb g_hb h_hb Aver Total
Date 08.92 08.92 08.92 08.92 08.92 08.92 08.92 08.92
Day 1696 1452 958 856 745 593 563 471 949 -
Total 992 996 1001 1001 999 1001 999 439 965 7428
Memorized 992 996 1001 1001 999 1001 999 439 965 7428
Outstand 9 7 11 4 2 11 10 9 7.8 63
Burden 4.87 3.28 4.50 7.89 8.53 11.29 13.18 8.70 7.72 62.25
Time 9.21 8.47 8.20 8.34 7.90 5.60 6.44 6.43 7.66 -
Workload 0.75 0.46 0.61 1.10 1.12 1.05 1.42 0.93 0.93 7.45
Interval 619.4 592.9 614.0 523.2 359.0 311.1 271.1 149.1 450.9 -
Factor 2.067 2.122 2.143 2.145 2.144 2.146 2.225 2.335 2.153 -
Rep 6.09 6.20 4.79 4.85 4.70 5.06 6.00 4.79 5.35 -
Day/Rep 278.6 234.0 199.9 176.6 158.6 117.3 93.9 98.4 174.9 -
Lapses 1.12 0.90 0.74 0.71 0.70 0.73 0.59 0.32 0.76 -
FI assumed 15 12 8 7 5 4 3 3 7 -
FI 21.18 19.09 18.58 15.79 13.09 11.05 8.73 6.76 14.84 -
FI_sup 1893 1917 1938 2477 3522 5212 7163 2322 3381 26444
Quality 2.782 3.040 3.063 3.064 3.063 2.975 3.232 3.745 3.074 -
Last 05.98 10.96 10.96 11.95 10.94 05.94 06.94 02.94
1.3s 148 130 118 106 105 100 83 21 107 811
Dif 1 0.67 0.79 0.83 1.48 1.47 0.09 0.20 0.15 0.75 -
Dif 2 0.14 0.20 0.10 0.22 0.15 0.11 0.10 -0.03 0.14 -
Dif 3 0.12 0.11 0.06 0.10 0.09 0.07 0.06 0.11 0.09 -
OF[1.3,1] 11.26 10.39 4.93 2.18 2.02 1.92 1.21 1.53 4.64 -
OF[1.3,2] 1.87 2.00 1.52 1.21 1.21 1.44 1.20 3.32 1.60 -
OF[1.3,3] 1.57 1.41 1.51 1.27 1.20 1.20 1.20 1.20 1.33 -
OF[2.5,1] 19.28 19.87 14.92 19.91 19.67 2.95 3.59 3.35 13.66 -
OF[2.5,2] 3.59 4.42 2.71 3.89 3.00 2.77 2.36 2.93 3.23 -
OF[2.5,3] 2.99 2.78 2.21 2.45 2.25 2.00 1.92 2.47 2.38 -
The meaning of particular rows is as follows:
Name - name of the database
Date - date on which last repetitions were made (month.year)
Day - day of the learning process
Total - total number of items in the database
Memorized - total number of memorized items in the database
Outstand - number of outstanding items in the database
Burden - burden parameter (sum of inverse intervals)
Time - repetition time per item in seconds
Workload - repetition time in minutes per session
Interval - average interval
Factor - average E-factor
Rep - average number of repetitions per item
Day/Rep - average number of days between repetitions per item
Lapses - average number of memory lapses per item
FI assumed- the requested forgetting index (Lapses parameter)
FI - the measured forgetting index
FI_sup - number of repetition cases used to measure the FI value above
Quality - average response quality (Grade)
Last - date of the most remote repetition (month.year)
1.3s - number of bad items (E-factor = 1.3)
Dif 1 - average difference between optimal factors for two E-factor
columns in the OF matrix for the first repetition
Dif 2 - ditto, for the second repetition
Dif 3 - ditto, for the third repetition
OF[1.3,1]
OF[1.3,2] Optimal factor values OF[EF,Rep] where
OF[1.3,3] - EF - E-factor
OF[2.5,1] - Rep - number of the repetition
OF[2.5,2]
OF[2.5,3]
The Aver and Total columns list the average and the sum of
values in the database columns.
GATHER.EXE -
1. run GATHER.EXE
2. in the file selection window, one by one, choose the names of
databases which are to provide optimization data collected in
the output database
3. press Esc when finished
4. in the file selection window, choose the name of the database
which is to store the data collected in Step 2. Note, that this
database should be newly created or reset; otherwise, its
optimization data will be added to the data collected in Step 2
(unless this is your intention)
5. inspect the results in the output database by using options such
as Retention factors, Cases, and, in SuperMemo 7, Graph
MULTI.EXE -
0. prepare a text source file containing multilingual vocabulary
entries. Each entry should be preceded by a language marker,
for example E: for English, F: for French, etc. Each group of
entries should be separated from other groups by a blank line.
The text could look as follows:
A: devil
G: Teufel
E: diablo
A: cat
G: Katze
E: kato
1. run MUTLI.EXE
2. in the file selection window choose the name name of the source
text file containing multilingual vocabulary entries.
which are to provide optimization data collected in
the output database
3. convert the newly created SRT files to databases by means of
TO_SM.EXE (MULTI.EXE will generate n*(n-1) databases, where n
is the number of languages used in the source file). You can
use the batch file automatically generated by MULTI.EXE
UP_2_5.EXE (only for SuperMemo 2.x) -
Run UP_2_5.EXE and follow the instructions on the screen.
Have the database number of the upgraded copy handy.
The new database will be created without affecting *.DB files
of SuperMemo 2.
UP_5_6.EXE (only for SuperMemo 5.7 and 5.8) -
Run UP_2_5.EXE and follow the instructions on the screen.
The database number will automatically be determined.
Old database files of SM5 will be upgraded and no new database
files will be created. If you wish to keep the files in both
the SM5 and SM6 formats then back up the SM5 database beforehand.
REPSTR.EXE -
1. prepare a conversion file. The file should have the extension
CNV, and should contain, in successive lines, pairs of fonts
or substrings to convert. Spaces should separate the fonts or
substrings in each of the pairs. Spaces in replaced substring
should be denoted as #32 (to avoid confusion with the
separator). For example:
the club
club #5
.#32. ._.
In the example above, all 'the' and 'club' substrings will be
replaced by a club symbol, and dots separated by a space will be
replaced by ._.
Note, that the sequence of pairs in the CNV file may influence
the way the conversion is done. For example, if the first two
lines in the example above were swapped, 'club' strings would be
replaced with a club symbol, and 'the' strings would be replaced
with the string 'club'.
2. run REPSTR.EXE
3. in the file selection window, choose the conversion file
prepared in Step 1, and press Enter
4. in the file selection window, choose the database to convert,
and press Enter
5. inspect the results of conversion by means of SuperMemo
6. optionally, use the command-line syntax:
REPSTR [N=<database name>] [C=<conversion file name>]
(Do not provide filename extensions in the command tail)
To delete a substring from the database, set the second element
of the pair to an empty word. If necessary, provide special
characters with their codes preceded by #.
Note, items that are longer than 48 characters per line will be
truncated.
(You can also use REPSTR to convert text files and binary files.
Provide parameter TXT or BIN in such cases. Output files will be
stored with the extension NEW. The binary conversion will use only
the first character of conversion strings)
FONTDES.EXE (only for SuperMemo 6 releases 6.6 and later) -
1. Copy and rename any FNT font file to be used with
your database (the name should be <database name>.FNT)
2. Run FONTDES.EXE
3. Press F3 for Load, and choose the FNT file to be
modified (the same as created in Step 1)
4. Press P for Pick, and specify the code of the character you
want to modify (e.g. 65 for 'A', 97 for 'a', etc.)
5. Use arrow keys and Space to change the character bitmap
according to your design
6. If you want to modify more characters, goto 4
7. Press ESC to quit FONTDES.EXE
8. Copy the FNT file to the directory with other files of the
database in question
The format of the FNT file is as follows:
- 8 bytes of the font header
$AA $55 $08 $00 $10 $00 $10 $00
- 4096 bytes of the font definition
SWAP.EXE -
1. run SWAP.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the database whose items are
to be swapped
CLEAN.EXE -
1. run CLEAN.EXE
2. in the file selection window, choose the database whose
learning process is to be reset
BRANCH.EXE -
1. run BRANCH.EXE using the followig syntax:
BRANCH <source database> <destination directory>
2. note that the destination directory must have room for all
WAV and BMP files taken from the source database, and it
must contain the file LINK.DIR, which may be empty
3. inspect the sound and bitmap referencing in the source
database by setting Miscellaneous:Options:AudioVis files
mode to CD-ROM, and by providing the same path as the
destination directory (only SuperMemo 7.4 or later)
The CD-ROM directory structure can be transferred to a CD-R
(compact disk recordable) or to a magnetoptical device. This
way, a substantial saving in hard disk space taken by audiovisual
databases can be made.
=======================================================================
SUPER-MEMO WORLD
P.O. Box 1
Poznan 48
POLAND
Tel: (48) 61 764066, 764073, 203157
Fax: (48) 61 764073, 793435
