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Monster Media 1993 #2
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INSTALL.EXE
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NAME.REV
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1993-06-01
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╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Review of NAME - From File NAME.REV ║
╟──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢
║ PAF Review - Edition 93.4 - June 1993 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Because of my particular (some would say unhealthy!) interest in
the PAF NAME file, I decided to review the NAME file listing
program written by Kent Riggins. It's a very simple program,
written in BASIC, and includes the source code but no
documentation.
When you execute the program, it displays some brief program
identification and then asks you to enter the "path for input".
This would be the name of the directory containing your PAF data.
The program doesn't validate this information so if you enter an
invalid directory name, you will receive a cryptic message saying
something profound like: "Bad file name in module NAME at address
23D3:00E3." At this point you have to just start over. The
program requires that you enter a "\" at the end of the path or
directory name. An example of the right way to enter this
directory name would be: C:\PAF\DATA\, assuming of course that
your PAF data were located there.
The program asks a second question too: "Enter path and file for
output:". This is a file name you pick for the name list to be
written to. Any valid DOS file name will do. I entered
"NAME.LST" which the program created in the current directory.
This happened to be the PAF directory.
The program then worked away for about 25 seconds after which the
DOS prompt reappeared. During this time, there was no indication
on the screen that anything was happening. I was running under
Windows on a 25Mhz 386SX, a moderately fast computer. The name
file contained roughly 2,500 names. I then looked at the file
"NAME.LST" where I directed that the name list be placed. It
contained the entire list of names, formatted for printing with
three columns to a page and 55 lines to a page. Each page ended
with a page eject character so the file could be printed easily by
merely copying it to the printer. For example, with my file name
and printer setup, I used the command "COPY NAME.LST PRN".
The resulting name list was alphabetically sorted and included the
PAF name code for the name. This number is the code that actually
appears in all other PAF data files when the name associated with
it occurs. There are no headings on the pages. The numbers are
right justified and the names left justified, making it easy to
scan the listing.
It's a simple program, but it did what was expected. Because the
source code is included, NAME could be helpful as an example to
anyone wanting to traverse the PAF NAME file tree in a program.