Educational Software Cooperative 4/Educational Software Cooperative 4.iso/qbible12/question.doc

Text File | 1995-09-02 | 14KB | 333 lines

                 QUESTIONS FROM THE BIBLE

                       Version 1.2


Description:

     QUESTIONS FROM THE BIBLE  is an in-depth storehouse  of
questions  gathered  from  the   Old  and  New   Testaments.
Thousands of  interesting facts  are presented  as questions
in  a  quiz-like  environment,  prompting  the  user for the
correct answers.  The questions are  grouped into dozens  of
categories,  from  "Word  meanings"  to  "Geography  of  the
Bible".   The DELUXE  VERSION (available  upon registration)
allows  the  user  to  add,  modify  or  delete the existing
questions, and  even create  new categories  for individual,
customized Bible study.


Special features:

     A)  Users  can  receive   an  echo  printout  of   each
question they take on-screen.

     B)  Several   command  line   instructions  allow   the
program to  be   "fine-tuned"  by  a   teacher  to meet  the
needs of  a Sunday  school student  or seminarian.     These
command   line instructions  can force  a student  to answer
"x" number of  questions before they  are permitted to  exit
the program.  Or the teacher can set up  a time  limit   for
the   student  where  after   "x"  number  of  minutes  have
elapsed the program will quit.

     C) Progress  charts are  kept for  each quiz  that will
record the best 10 students' quiz results for EACH  category
of questions.   This is  an excellent  way for  a teacher to
track the progress of a student.

     D) Up to 9 players can participate in the same quiz  at
a  time.   Great  for   contests  and  Bible  study   circle
competitions!


Requirements:

     No  special   requirements  are   necessary  for   most
computers.   A DOS  version of  3.0 or  higher is  necessary
(although  it  is  possible  that  some  2.x  versions  will
work,  but  not  guaranteed).   The  program  can be used on
both  monochrome  and  color  monitors.   A  printer  is the
only option  that is  required IF  you wish  to create  quiz
printouts.


To start:

     To start the program type -->  QUESTION  then press the
[ENTER] or  [RETURN] key  at the  DOS prompt.   The  program
will  load  itself  into   memory  in  seconds.   After   an
opening screen or two, a Main Menu will appear.


Menus:

     Selections from the Main Menu (or any menu) can be made
by   moving the  highlighted bar  to the  selection of  your
choice,  then   pressing  the   [ENTER]  or   [RETURN]  key.
Selections also  can be  made by  pressing the corresponding
first  letter  for  each  option  in  the menu list.  If you
press the [ESC] key instead,  the user will be taken  to the
previous menu (if any).


Quiz printouts:

     Before taking an actual  quiz, the user can  select the
"Print quiz:" choice from the "Take a quiz" sub-menu.   Once
the  "Print  quiz:"  option  is  toggled "ON", all questions
that are displayed  on the screen  during the course  of the
quiz  will  also  be  echoed  to  a printer attached to port
LPT1:  The  solutions to these  printed quizzes will  appear
after every two  pages of questions.   If you wish  to print
every  single  question  in  each  category  (regardless  of
whether they are displayed  on the screen during  the course
of a quiz) then you  will need to obtain the  DELUXE VERSION
(available by registering this program with the author).


Repeat errors:

     Before taking a quiz,  the user can select  the "Repeat
errors:" option from the "Take  a quiz" sub-menu.  When  the
"Repeat errors:"  option is  toggled "ON",  then   questions
that  have  been  answered  incorrectly  will  be saved into
memory and recalled  at random during  the remainder of  the
quiz session.


Scoreboard:

     When a  user has  finished with  a quiz  and wishes  to
exit to DOS, or chooses a new question category, their score
will be entered  into a scoreboard  file and then  displayed
on the screen in  a "Top-Ten"  chart  if they  have  one  of
the ten best records for  that quiz.  Each  quiz  that   you
participate in  has its  own scoreboard  ".SCB" file.    For
example, if  you are  using a  quiz named  "GOSPEL.QZ"  then
the quiz   results will   be kept  in "GOSPEL.SCB"  when you
finish the quiz.


Command line options:

     The "command line" refers to what was typed at the  DOS
prompt before loading QUESTIONS FROM THE BIBLE into  memory.
For example, if  your program disk  is located in  drive A:,
your  screen  should  display  "A>QUESTION" before you press
the [ENTER] key to begin  the program.  "A>QUESTION" can  be
referred to as the "command line".

     Additional text  can be  appended to  the command  line
after  the  program  name  "QUESTION"  that  will   instruct
QUESTIONS FROM  THE BIBLE  to perform  certain functions not
available  through  the  menu  selections.   Here  are  some
examples of the enhanced command line parameters available:

     QUESTION filename.QZ

     If  a   name  of   an  existing   .QZ file is added  on
the command line after the  key  word "QUESTION", then  that
.QZ file will  be  automatically  read  and  used  to   quiz
the user/student.    In such  cases  the  "Main Menu"   will
be skipped, and the user will  be  greeted with a prompt  to
enter  his  name,  followed  by   the  quiz.    In the above
example replace the word  "filename" with  the actual   name
of  the quiz you  wish to  use.    If your  quiz is   called
"APOSTLES.QZ"  then you must  enter  "QUESTION  APOSTLES.QZ"
on the command  line  before running  the  program.


     QUESTION QTY=x

     The above  "QTY="  command  line option   can be   used
to force QUESTIONS FROM THE BIBLE   to stop  and return   to
DOS after  "x" number   of   random   questions   have  been
attempted by  the student.   You can  replace   the "x" with
any positive number that you wish.  For instance,  "QUESTION
QTY=2",  "question  qty=150",  "QUESTION  qty=90"  are   all
acceptable command line instructions.   Do  NOT  forget   to
separate the  program name "QUESTION" and the "QTY="  option
with a space!

     QUESTION STARTAT=10 STOPAT=20

     The  above  combination  of  "STARTAT="  and  "STOPAT="
commands instruct  QUESTIONS FROM  THE BIBLE  to start  at a
specific  question   number  and   to  display    subsequent
questions sequentially  (10, 11,  12,...19, 20).   Once  the
number designated by "STOPAT=" is reached, the program  will
exit to  DOS.   If you  use "STARTAT="  without a  "STOPAT="
statement,  the  program  will  still proceed with questions
sequentially  until  the  very  last  question is reach, and
then will terminate to DOS.

     QUESTION TIMEOUT=x

     The above  "TIMEOUT=" command  line option  can be used
to force  the program  to stop  and return  to DOS after "x"
number of minutes have elapsed since the first question  was
attempted by the student.  You can replace the "x" with  any
positive  number  that  you  wish.   For instance, "QUESTION
TIMEOUT=5" will cause the program to end after 5 minutes  of
play have elapsed.

     Command line instructions can be combined or placed  in
any  order.   In  other  words,  the  following command line
instructions are all acceptable:

     QUESTION TIMEOUT=10 STOPAT=100

     The  command  line  instructions  above  will cause the
program to end after 10 minutes of play have elapsed or  100
random questions have been attempted, whichever comes first.

     QUESTION ENFORCE QTY=15

     The  command  line  parameter  "ENFORCE" when used with
"STOPAT=" or "STARTAT=" or "QTY=" parameters will prevent  a
student from  exiting the  program/quiz until  the specified
range or quantity of questions have been attempted.

     QUESTION PLAYERS=1

     If you would  like to skip  over the "How  many players
are participating?:"  prompt when  your users  begin using a
quiz (particularly when ONLY  ONE USER would ever  be taking
your quiz), then specify  the number of participants  on the
command line  with "PLAYERS=x"  where "x"  is replaced  with
actual number of participants.

     QUESTION SCORELOG=ON

     Since  the  scoreboard  only  records  the  top 10 high
scores, there may be times when your student/user obtains  a
score worth knowing about and  yet falls short of making  it
into the "top ten" scoreboard.  To maintain a record log  of
your  user's  scores  (regardless  of  the  score),  use the
"SCORELOG=ON"  parameter.   This  will  cause QUESTIONS FROM
THE BIBLE to maintain a  file with all user's scores,  along
with  date  and  quiz  used.   The  file  generated  will be
straight  ASCII  text  and   will  automatically  be   named
"SCORE.LOG".

     QUESTION SCRAMBLE

     When taking  a multiple  choice quiz,  you will  notice
that  the  "pick  list"  of  possible answer choices appears
exactly in  the same  order as  the answers  were entered by
the quiz creator/teacher  when first  creating that
question.  In other words, if a multiple choice question
exists where...

       Question: Who prophesied of the destruction of Judah?

       Answer: Moses
       Answer: Jeremiah
       Answer: Jonah
       Answer: Elijah

     ...when   you  are  presented  this   question within a
quiz  on  the  screen,    the  order  of  answers    "Moses,
Jeremiah, Jonah, Elijah" will be  identical  to  the   order
in  which  the  quiz  creator/teacher  entered  them.    If,
however,  you  would  like  to  see  the  order  of  answers
SCRAMBLED  up,  then  add   the  "SCRAMBLE"  command    line
parameter when starting QUIZ.  The scramble that will  occur
will vary from moment to  moment, so that if a  question was
to reappear twice, the  order of answers would  be different
from the first appearance.


Possible system conflicts:

     There  is  a  font   file  that  was  distributed  with
QUESTIONS FROM  THE BIBLE  that may  give a  small number of
users some problems.  The QUESTION.FNT is used with  systems
running VGA graphics and uses an enhanced video screen  font
for display purposes.  If  you do not have VGA  graphics you
may  wish  to  delete  this  file  IF  YOU  ENCOUNTER  VIDEO
PROBLEMS.   There  have  been  a  report  of a conflict when
running  this  program  from  WITHIN  Microsoft Windows 3.1.
Although  the  author  has  tested  the  program via the DOS
prompt within  Windows and  experienced NO  problems, if you
should experience such  a conflict, delete  the QUESTION.FNT
file and let us know.


Disclaimer:

     The author makes  no warranties, expressed  or implied,
as  to  the  quality  of  performance  of this program.  The
author will  not be  held liable  for any  direct, indirect,
incidental or consequential  damages resulting from  the use
of  QUESTIONS  FROM  THE  BIBLE.   Your  use  of the program
constitutes  your  agreement  to  this  disclaimer  and your
release  of  the  author  from  any  form  of  liability  or
litigation.


Shareware:

Shareware  is  a  try-before-you-buy  marketing concept that
allows you a  trial period in  which to evaluate  a software
program.   QUESTIONS FROM  THE BIBLE  is shareware  software
and continued use of  the program requires that  you support
the author.  Once you have registered, you will receive  the
latest version  of the  program, which  will be personalized
in your name, with all registration  reminders removed.  The
unregistered, evaluation copy comes with only 500 questions.
The  registered version,  however,  comes with over 2500 NEW
questions - over 3000 questions in total!


Distribution of this program:

The unregistered,  shareware version  can be  distributed by
BBS's as  long as  NO FILES  ARE DELETED  from the  original
group  of   files  (see   PACKING.LST  for   original   .ZIP
contents).   Shareware  vendors  are  permitted  to charge a
small  fee,  not  exceeding  $5.00,  in  exchange  for their
services in providing evaluation  copies to others.   CD-ROM
publishers  are  permitted  to  include  QUESTIONS  FROM THE
BIBLE in  any compilations  as long  as the  .EXE file  date
stamp is less than 2 years old.


Other programs:

     If you are interested in other programs written by  the
program  author,  a  catalog  is  available.   Most  of  our
programs are family or  Bible oriented and very  affordable.
Mail a legal size #10 self-addressed envelope and enclose  4
U.S. first class postage stamps (do NOT affix or stick  them
to the envelope)  to the  author below.  You can ignore this
request for stamps and envelopes  IF YOU ARE REGISTERING the
program at the same time. Simply ask for a catalog - free to
registrants.


Program Author:

     Philip Kapusta  406 Monroe Ave. Falmouth, Va. 22405 USA


Your feedback:

     We welcome all  feedback - positive  and negative.   We
will   consider   your   suggestions   for   future  program
enhancements.   If  you  desire  a  reply,  enclose  a self-
addressed stamped envelope when writing, or else you may not
receive a response.   Better yet, if  you have a  modem, you
may  wish  to  leave  an  e-mail  message  to "SYSOP" on The
Mustard Seed BBS at [phone] N81.  The Mustard Seed is
our BBS, available 24 hours a day, and contains hundreds  of
Bible,  religious,  home  schooling  and  educational files.
You are welcome to call (their is no subscription fees,  the
BBS is  free).   Set your  modem software  settings to N-8-1
with ANSI terminal emulation.   The BBS supports  high-speed
modems.