Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/007a/rnkls102.zip/RANKLIST.DOC

Text File | 1991-12-14 | 8KB | 331 lines

                                   RANKLIST.EXE

                               List Ranking Utility
                                   Version 1.02




                                Copyright (c) 1991
                                  R. Mike Worley
                                    Boise, ID





































 Program Documentation                - 1 -                    December 14, 1991
 RANKLIST.EXE




      BBS Sysops may distribute this program on their systems, subject to the
 following conditions:

           1 - The program, documentation, and associated files are distributed
           as a package.

           2 - No modifications are made to the program or documentation.

           3 - No fee is charged for distribution.




                             WARRANTY & REGISTRATION

      Every effort has been made to locate and correct program errors, and the
 author continues to use this program.  However, as with any software, some
 "bugs" may occur.  No warranty of this program or the results of its use is
 expressed or implied.  Users accept all responsibility for results derived from
 any use of this program.

      RANKLIST is a fully functional program, distributed under the Shareware
 concept.  Users are granted a limited license to use the program for 30 days
 for purposes of evaluation.  If you find this program useful, you are asked to
 complete and submit the registration form on the last page of this documenta-
 tion.



                               PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

      Often in our daily lives, we need to prioritize a list of items.  Such
 lists as which of a number of items to do are most important, which people in a
 group are best suited to sit on a committee, which items are most important to
 buy with a limited budget.

      If the list is short, four or five items, this is no problem for most
 people.  However, the human mind really does not work well at prioritizing long
 lists of items.  It is relatively easy to arrive at the three or four top
 items, but the rest of the list often takes on a frustrating sameness.

      The mind can readily compare two items against each other.  A technique in
 use by many professional planners involves reducing a long list of items to be
 prioritized to a series of one-to-one comparisons.  That is exactly what
 RANKLIST does.  RANKLIST starts with an ASCII file of up to 200 items.  It then
 presents the user with a one-to-one comparison of each item with every other
 item on the list.  By simply selecting "A" or "B" in a methodical manner
 throughout the list, applying whatever criteria the user wishes to use, the












 Program Documentation                - 2 -                    December 14, 1991
 RANKLIST.EXE




 user will use RANKLIST to create a prioritized list which is as objectively
 correct as the criteria applied allows.


                                PROGRAM OPERATION

      Before using RANKLIST, the user must create an ASCII file containing the
 list of items to be ranked.  Each item is placed on a separate line of the file
 and each item may contain up to 60 characters, including commas and other
 punctuation.  The program will accept any valid MS-DOS file name for the data
 file.

      To start the program, simply type RANKLIST at the DOS prompt.  Only one
 command line parameter is accepted: if the user wishes a printed list routed to
 a printer connected to LPT2, start the program by typing RANKLIST 2 at the DOS
 prompt.

      RANKLIST will prompt for the name of the file containing the items to be
 ranked.  The program accepts any valid MS-DOS file name, including extension.
 The program may be terminated by entering END as the file name.  After reading
 all data, up to 200 items, into memory, RANKLIST will begin presenting pairs of
 items for selection.

      RANKLIST ensures a one-to-one comparison of items by presenting each item
 in comparison with every item BELOW it on the list.  Therefore, each pass
 through the list becomes progressively shorter, since any given item will have
 already been compared with those items ABOVE it on the list.  (See Appendix A
 for a graphic representation of this comparison technique.)  The user selects
 one item of the pair presented, based on whatever criteria has been established
 for prioritizing the list.

      Upon completion of the selection process, RANKLIST will sort the list into
 priority order.  The list will also show the number of times each item was
 selected in the pairing process, showing relative placement and items which
 "tie" for priority.

      The program will the allow the ordered list to be output to the Screen, a
 data File, or to a Printer.  The same list may be output to more than one
 destination.  If FILE is selected, RANKLIST will output the prioritized list to
 a file named RANKLIST.DAT on the default drive/subdirectory.  Printer output
 will be directed to LPT1 unless "2" has been specified on the command line.
 Upon completion of each output, RANKLIST will ask if the user wishes to create
 another output of the same data list.  Answering "N" will end the program.

















 Program Documentation                - 3 -                    December 14, 1991
 RANKLIST.EXE




                                                                      Appendix A

      Following is a graphic representation of how RANKLIST allows comparison of
 a list of items to be prioritized.  Each item is paired once and only once with
 every other item on the list.  As each pair is presented, one of the two is
 selected.  Finally, the number of "votes" each item in the list received is
 tallied and the list is sorted according to the number of times each item was
 selected in the pairing process.

      Consider a list of six items, named One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six.
 The user wants to determine which item holds the highest priority.  Each item
 is paired with every other item one time by making multiple passes through the
 list, comparing each item with every item BELOW it on the list.

 Pass 1         Pass 2         Pass 3         Pass 4         Pass 5
 One - Two
 One - Three    Two - Three
 One - Four     Two - Four     Three - Four
 One - Five     Two - Five     Three - Five   Four - Five
 One - Six      Two - Six      Three - Six    Four - Six     Five - Six








































                        R E G I S T R A T I O N    F O R M
                              RANKLIST Version 1.02


          Name: ______________________________________________________

          Address: ___________________________________________________

          City: _______________________  State: ____  Zip: ___________


          From where did you obtain your copy of RANKLIST:

          ____________________________________________________________

          If this source is a BBS, what is the data phone #:

                                         ____________________


                                REGISTRATION FEE

                                     $15.00

          Please mail this form, along with the registration fee to:


                                  R. Mike Worley
                                2420 Grandee / 901
                              Boise, ID  83704-5936











                                    Thank You