Night Owl 6

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Text File | 1991-11-18 | 18KB | 438 lines

LIGHTNING LETTERS DOCUMENTATION NOVEMBER 18, 1991 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - NOTICE: November 18, 1991 This is a new release which will now be - - compatible with any version of DOS. - It also uses new editor for change letter - - function with on-line help and improved DOS call.- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - This issue has enhanced documentation regarding alternate methods of - - startup and problem resolution. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightning Letters is primarily designed to send form letters with the appearance of a typed letter. It may serve other useful functions such as printing mailing labels and record keeping. Method of operation: To run this program type "GO" at the DOS prompt. If it does not display the main menu, look ahead to documentation on system design and problem solving. The install program is useful only if you wish to put this program on another system. In that case, if all files are on a diskette, "install" will create a directory "\llmail10" on drive C: copy all files there and start the program. A sample form letter with file id of mailing.cbl is included. You should create your own letter before serious use. The quick thing to do is to use the change-letter function on the main menu to start an editing session to compose letter. Instructions for using the editor are then displayed. Please do a print screen when instructions are displayed the first time. With the TE-25 public domain text editor, the change letter function is less stressful in that help is available through the F1 key. See separate documentation for using TE. In making your form letter, note the special lines in the example. A line beginning with DAT# tells the system to write out the date from the computer clock and insert it in alignment with the preceding line. A line beginning with ADD# tells the system to insert your current addresses at this point and space after. A line beginning with SAL# tells the system to create a greeting based on the last name found in line # 1 of the current address record. Depending upon how you input was coded, this line can be; Gentlemen:, Dear Mr. xxx, Dear Miss xxx, Dear Ms. xxx, or Dear Mrs. xxx. When you are satisfied with the contents of your letter, proceed to enter your current addresses using the Input choice from the main menu. The screens for this function seem self-explanatory. Be sure to code the salutation type correctly using keys 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. If there are in your address entries they can be checked and changed by useing the browse/edit function on the main menu. This will scroll addresses. If you enter the displayed numeric code for an address record, the complete address will reappear, allowing you to change any or all lines, or the greeting code value. When you are satisfied with address entries, proceed to set up your computer printer and use the print letters function. As printers sometimes jamb up, this function provides for restart from a specified point in your list of addresses. When letters are printed you will want to print mailing labels. The printer should be set up with 3.5" by 15/16" labels, one across. (Other label options may be available in future enhancements). This function allows the option of printing two dummy labels repeatedly until you know the printer is properly aligned on the labels. Again, the program also allows for a print restart from any point in your list of addresses. At this point you should have necessary output. Review it for accuracy and mail your letters. Now, you will probably want to store the addresses you used in your history file. Use the Transfer to History function on main menu. This makes life easier, as an old address may be recalled from history, based upon a match of the first address line. The history file is also important for record keeping, and can be printed from the main menu. Should the history file become huge, you have the option of clearing the entire history file using the Erase History choice on the main menu. This is not normally advisable, and shouldn't be required in a normal environment. For obvious reasons, you also have the option of running DOS commands from the program. Most of us have this need often to make different versions of the address file etc. FILES: There are three modifiable data files in the system. ADDRE.DAT is the driver for most functions and contains your current addresses. It has a size limit of 50 addresses. If this is too small, contact the programmer. File HISTORY.FIL contains the history of addresses used. It is a direct access file, the key being the first address line. When transferring addresses to history, any address which has a duplicate first line in the history file will over write the similar history record. File mailing.cbl is the text form letter you will customize and print.. Again. remember the the special lines this text contains as explained above. KILL.BAT: This bat file should not be needed. What it does is to remove the screen handler from memory. The screen handler, VIDPOP, will not normally remain in memory and this situation only occurs when the program aborts abnormally. In that case, kill is executed to clear the handler. Note- this program doesn't start up if VIDPOP is in memory from aborted run. HINT! HINT! The address file is a sequential file. The end of the current list of addresses is signaled to the software with ^^^ appearing in the first 3 characters of the first line of an address record. If you want to abbreviate your list of addresses for test purposes, you can you browse/edit to alter the placement of the end point, anywhere between 1 and 50. The data input function offers the alternative of adding your new records at the end of present entries or eliminating present entries by over writing them. =================================================================== : L I G H T N I N G L E T T E R S M A I N M E N U : =================================================================== : Help ...................... - Explains general steps : : Input Data ................ - Builds current addresses : : Browse/Edit Records ....... - Review or change address : : Print Letters ............. - Print form letters or memos : : Output Labels ............. - Print mailing labels : : List Addresses ............ - Print current addresses : : Transfer names to History . - Add addresses to History : : Review History File ....... - Scroll through History : : Write History to print .... - Print a list of History : : DOS Command ............... - Run DOS, then return : : Erase History ............. - Erase all history CAUTION! : : Change Form Letter ........ - Edit/Modify Mailing.cbl : : Quit ...................... - End program, return to DOS : ==================================================================: : Type a letter or move the highlight bar and press Enter : =================================================================== Shareware Alfred J. Welch $15 Registration fee desired ====================================================== 2248 South 33rd Street, Milwaukee, Wi. 53215 phone (414) 383-9908 SYSTEM DESIGN This program is more a product of evolution than plan. It is therefore, hybred and uses some C modules, COBOL programming and purchased utilities. There must be inter-program communications between VIDPOP, and RUN.EXE. Most other files included play a vital role and must be kept in the same directory. Directory of C:\TEST . <DIR> 11-10-91 10:09a .. <DIR> 11-10-91 10:09a README DOC Documentation RUN EXE COBOL MAILING CBL Form letter, ASCII text VIDPOP COM Screen Handler WORKFILE OBJ COBOL compiled application INSTALL EXE Install (Drive A to Drive C only) GO EXE This is the startup command file MAILLIB LIB Library of screen images HISTORY FIL History data file with previouly used addresses HISNDX NDX File of index keys to HISTORY.FIL HISSAV SAV .SAV files are empty backups for clearing history NDXSAV SAV "" "" ADDRE DAT This data file contains your current addresses GOTWO EXE This is an alternative to GO.EXE if GO doesn't work KILL BAT BAT command kill removes VIDPOP, if VIDPOP left active TE DOC The following are the TEX editor files, downloaded TE EXE as a public domain product. TEG HLP TEMOD EXE TEREAD 1ST PKUNZIP EXE A utility from PKWARE, needed for install process. 21 File(s) 5199872 bytes free NOTE: TE.EXE is a public domain editor, information as to it's source is displayed upon entering change-letter function. ALSO: read te.doc. *********************************************************************** * Some cautions about ISAM access method -- * *********************************************************************** The initial version of this program used a file handler for indexed files which worked well with DOS 3.2, but not other versions. Therfore, the direct access to the history file now is accomplished with ISAM methods written in COBOL. This should allow almost instantaneous direct access respose on a 386 machine, regardless of the number of records in the history file. There are trade-offs that have to be made in designing any ISAM data base. This design will never require more than 2 or 3 i-O operatins to retrieve a record from the history file. However, each record stored is located according to the first letter of the address line. As there are 122 buckets for each letter of the alphabet, therefore, if more than 122 addresses begin with the letter "A", the additional keys will be forced into the overflow record 27 along with records beginning with special characters. It should be noted that the direct access is performed only at data-input time and in the transfer to history function. CAVEATS: I. The history file and its index file must remain a matched set. If index file HISNDX.NDX is changed outside of normal operations, access to HISTORY.FIL will fail. All the kings men wont be able to fix it. II. Your ISAM system can become corrupted by losing or otherwise getting the history and index out of sync. If this happens, addresses in your history file will be lost so backing up a good dad-base is advisable. III. ISAM systems are moderately complex. There is always a possibility of some logic omission in programming. If your run halts, displaying strange messages on the console, print the screen, dump your files and contact the author. IV. The limitation of file size has been mentioned. The theoretical history file limit is 3294 records. In practicality, most users would experience problems if about 2000 randomly chosen address names are entered. If you want to use the program commercially so that more file size is needed, contact the author about a custom design to meet your needs. ****************************************************************************** |-------------------| | GO.EXE | | Initiates the run| --------------------- | --------------------------------- SCREENS | VIDPOP.COM | MAILLIB.LIB-->| resident utility | --------------|------------------ | -----V------ | RUN.EXE | COBOL | | -----|------ Address List | Address History ================== ============ ============================. | ADDRE.DAT |<-->| |<--->| HISNDX.NDX-- HISTORY.FIL | ================== | WORKFILE.| ============================ | OBJ | Letter Text | | ==================<-->| |---->=================== | MAILING.CBL | ============ | Printer Lists | ================== | =================== | V --------------------------------- | | V V ============================= ============================= | Printed mailing labels | | Multiple Printed Letters | ============================= ============================= EXAMPLE: Input text file-- _______________________________________________________________________________- 1225 Easy Sreet Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53215 DAT# ADD# SAL# As of December 15, 1991, I am moving to Hollywood California. I do plan to keep in touch with all my friends and associates. My new address is listed below. 1771 El Ceritto Hollywood, California 87632 The new phone number will be announced later. Sincerely, Cheryl Tiegs ________________________________________________________________________________ Printer Output adjusted to- ___________________________________________________ 1225 Easy Sreet Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53215 November 13, 1991 Donald Trump 1771 7th Avenue Suite 213 New York, New York 12398 Dear Mr. Trump: As of December 15, 1991, I am moving to Hollywood California. I do plan to keep in touch with all my friends and associates. My new address is listed below. 1771 El Ceritto Hollywood, California 87632 The new phone number will be announced later. Sincerely, Cheryl Tiegs ________________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEMS: This program has been extensively tested, however, its complexity may present problems in some installations. 1. If system fails to start up properly, problem probably involves communication between VIDPOP and RUN.EXE. The makers of VIDPOP say- "for the child process method... to work, COMMAND.COM must be available on the drive the system was booted from. This is not normally a problem on hard disk systems, but floppy disk users take note. If the boot disk is not available it is possible to change where DOS will look for COMMAND.COM when it is needed by modifying the environment variable called COMSPEC. You can change it at the DOS prompt or via a batch file with the DOS command: SET COMSPEC=<path to COMMAND.COM> ex: SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM If your program fails to start properly you can implement the above change OR another option is to start the program using "GOTWO.EXE" rather than "GO.EXE". The difference is that GOTWO does not use the sometimes problematic child process, but is not as clean as GO.EXE. 2. Once started the program hopefully will not fail. Inexperienced users might create problems for themselves in running DOS commands from the menu, however. If DOS commands are used to change drives, change the current directory, rename or delete system files the system can crash. 4. Sould the program lock up with the keyboard still operating, the task can be aborted with Cntrl-C. This situation removes the main program but leaves VIDPOP in memory. You would then have to employ KILL.BAT to remove VIDPOP prior to next run. 5. Other problems relative to the ISAM feature are explained above and will not be repeated here. 6. Please report any problems not explained away to the author. REGISTRATION- Please register so I can get some feed-back. (Cash too) If you choose to become a registered user, you will be entitled to one hour of free support to customize your application. You will also receive any updated versions. It is my plan to incorporate the form letter function into a complete small business package. To register send: name- address- city- state- zip- phone- bulletin board id (optional)- fee- $15.00 Alfred J. Welch 2248 S. 33rd Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53215 The author greatly appreciates your comments and suggestions... *** Also open to contract programming, any popular language.