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Best of www.BestZips.com (Collector's Edition)
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Best of WWW.BESTZIPS.COM Collector's Edition (JCSM Shareware) (JCS Marketing).ISO
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teachtol
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quiz308.zip
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WHATS.NEW
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Text File
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1996-07-01
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24KB
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545 lines
Version 1.30
+ Added automatic word wrap feature when the teacher is entering
a new question.
+ Scoreboard files (*.SCB) are now encrypted to prevent any
possibility of students changing their scores.
+ The student can change the order of questions from random to
sequential mode from within the program at the Options Menu.
+ New command line parameter "ENFORCE" when used with "STOPAT="
or "STARTAT=" parameters will prevent a student from exiting
the program/quiz until the specified range or quantity of
questions have been attempted.
+ New command line parameter "NODUPES" when used in random mode
will guarantee that no duplicating questions will be given to
the student. In other words, each question presented to the
student will appear only once (i.e., no duplicates).
+ New command line parameter "QTY=" where "QTY=5" specifies that
five RANDOM questions MUST be answered before exiting a quiz.
+ Directive pointers can be imbedded in an answer that will force
what question number the student will be presented based upon
their answer of the previous question.
+ Documentation can be printed from within the program.
Version 1.34
+ Longer multiple-choice answers
+ Replace the "_" fill-in-the-blank default character with a
different character using FIBCHAR=x
+ NOREVIEW withholds answers and/or reviewing of previous
choices during an on-screen test.
+ SCOREALL prevents user from bypassing the top 10 score chart.
+ NOOPTS suppresses the "Play Options" menu.
Version 1.35
+ Longer references (up to 19 lines via use of ALT+M maximize
hot-key).
+ REFNOTES parameter forces automatic display of long reference
notes after each question
+ Fixed a bug that causes computer lockup when two or more players
participate using sequential question mode. After the last
question is displayed, the program locked up.
+ Alternating background colors are now used when more than one
student is taking an on screen quiz. Player #1's background
color is blue, player #2's is red, and so on... This helps
to identify whose turn is up when playing contests.
+ When sequential question mode is active during an on screen
quiz, a new "How many questions remaining" indicator appears
in the status bar at the top of the screen. The number of
remaining questions is identified as "Left: ###" where "###"
is the number of questions remaining to be answered before
the quiz is finished.
+ Teacher can now redirect printouts of their quizzes (from
the editor) to an ASCII disk file by using the command line
parameter LPT=filename
Version 1.36
+ Allowed use of a double comma token to represent a true
comma in a fill-in-the-blank answer. Example, if the question
was "What is 500+500? _" the answer the student may think to
enter may be 1,000 or 1000. Since a comma represents a
separator between multiple answers, previous versions would
not except "1,000" as a correct answer since "1,000" would
be interpreted as either "1" or "000". To avoid this problem
the teacher can now use a double comma when creating a fill-
in-the-blank question where there is a need for an actual
comma in the answer itself. In the example above, the teacher
would code the actual answers as "1,,000, 1000".
+ Fixed a bug that would lock up the computer if the user was
taking a sequential quiz and reached the very last question
and having answered the question then pressed [ESC]. If the
student then selected "Exit to D.O.S." from the Options menu,
the computer would lock up. This problem has been fixed.
+ The prompt window that asks for the quantity of students
participating in an on-screen quiz, and then the following
prompt asking for their name can now be customized. If you
create an ASCII file an name it "QUIZ.WHO", the contents of
this file will change the prompts in these two windows.
On line 1 of this QUIZ.WHO ASCII file, enter the word(s)
that would go in the following blank: "Enter total number
of ________ participating: " If line 1 of this file is
left blank, the word "students" will appear since it is
the default.
On line 2 of the same file, enter a text string that you
want displayed when each player is prompted for their name.
Example: "Please enter your student identification number:"
If this line is left blank, then the default prompt "Please
enter your name:" will be used.
Version 2.00
+ Enhanced reference note file parameter added that will define
the last line to display within an ASCII reference file.
Previous versions would only allow a beginning line number to
be specified (e.g. {BIBLE.ASC,15} start on line 15). Now
you can define the last line to be displayed in the reference
file by adding another comma and the ending line number (e.g.
{BIBLE.ASC,15,25} where only lines 15 to 25 of this ASCII
file will be displayed as an reference introduction to a
specific question).
+ A custom "help screen" can be displayed on the screen for a
student taking a quiz. If a "xxxx.HLP" file exists, it will
be displayed PRIOR TO the first question in a quiz. "xxxx"
represents a file name (up to 8 characters) and MUST match
the same name of the quiz file (xxxx.QZ). The extension
".HLP" must be used. This "help screen" (or information
screen) is a simple ASCII text file. If one does not exists,
it will not be used. Also, this same .HLP file can be accessed
at ANY TIME during the actual quiz by pressing the [F1] key.
If you would like to have such a screen appear PRIOR TO the
first question in a quiz, but NOT be available again after
the first question is displayed, then use the file extension
".1ST" instead. Again, it is important that all these files
have the same prefix filename as the quiz file (.QZ) that you
wish to use. Example: MYTEST.QZ and MYTEST.HLP, and STUDY.QZ
and STUDY.1ST are valid file combinations.
+ A new command line parameter has been added that will bypass
the scoreboard at the conclusion of a quiz or the program.
If you DON'T want your students' progress or scores recorded
via the scoreboard, add "NOSCORE" to the command line when
starting Create A Quiz from the DOS prompt (QUIZ NOSCORE).
+ Multiple choice questions have been expanded to support up
to 7 choices per question (previous versions supported up
to 5). Also, the number of lines available to the question
field has been expanded from 4 lines to 6.
+ The file/quiz selection menu now SORTS all listings by the
quiz file name ALPHABETICALLY. Previous versions performed
NO sorting whatsoever.
+ The student taking a quiz on-screen can now print individual
questions "on the fly" by pressing the [P] key.
Version 2.01
+ Fixed a bug which would occur during a teacher printout of
questions (when in the editor mode) when answer strings
were longer than 68 characters.
+ Fixed a bug that caused the question window to explode and
fill the screen entirely when really long words occurred
(e.g. thrombolymphangitis) at the end of a question line.
Version 2.02
+ Fixed a bug which would occur when any question contained
6 or 7 multiple choice answers AND when the solution was
either multiple choice number 6 or 7. This error would
not occur if 6-7 m/c answers existed AND the actual correct
solution was either m/c answer 1-5.
+ Fixed a bug that during actual quiz time would cause
multiple-choice windows to be too small for all the possible
m/c answers when 6-7 m/c answers existed. Choices 6 and 7
would spill outside of the window.
Version 2.10
+ Added the ability to delete a question from within the
editor.
+ Changed all Yes/No window prompts to a more sophisticated
menu selection with a moving highlight bar.
Version 2.11
+ Fixed a bug that would intermittently occur when loading a
.QZ file containing a large number of questions. The
program would abort during the percentage bar display and
report an error 5. This only occurred with registered
versions.
+ Added an "[O] Options" feature in the editor that when
chosen gives the teacher the ability to force prerequisites
on that particular quiz. For example, if the teacher wanted
to insure that before QUIZ-2.QZ the student took QUIZ-1.QZ and
achieved a score/percentage of 20 questions taken with a
percentage of 80% or above, then the teacher can define these
prerequisites from the new "[O] Options" input window.
When ANY student attempts to take QUIZ-2.QZ, the scoreboard
file for QUIZ-1.QZ will be scanned, and the highest score
(regardless of the student's name) in the QUIZ-1.SCB scoreboard
file will be compared with the prerequisites you have defined.
If you specify in QUIZ-2.QZ that a score of 75% or better
(with a minimum of 10 questions attempted) be obtained from
QUIZ-1.QZ, then QUIZ-1.SCB will be checked as the student
attempts to take QUIZ-2.QZ. If the highest score in QUIZ-1.SCB
exceeds this requirement, then the student will be allowed to
continue with QUIZ-2.QZ.
+ For real long questions (170 characters or >, approximately
3-6 lines of data) the question pop-up window has been
expanded to fit better in the interactive quiz interface.
Previous versions force a question window of no greater
than 55 characters. This made the window much taller than
necessary when it appeared to the student. This version
now makes the pop-up question window wider and narrower for
real long questions.
Version 2.20
+ With all the command line parameters now available, it can
get very crowded at the DOS prompt when you try to create a
custom environment for your students. To eliminate the
lengthy DOS command line startup, the user can now create
a QUIZ.CFG and enter the parameters into that file rather
than type the parameters at the DOS prompt. Here's an
example: Instead of typing QUIZ TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1
when starting a interactive quiz session for your students
you can create an ASCII file and on line #1 of the QUIZ.CFG
file place the text --> TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1
Next time when you start the program (just type QUIZ) the
QUIZ.CFG will be looked for, and if it exists, the first
line will be loaded and the parameters used.
+ Fixed a bug that occurred when {NOERR} was used with multiple-
choice questions where the answer chosen was greater than
55 characters in length for the "Your response..." window.
Since {NOERR} is an undocumented feature, this bug affected
no one.
+ Create A Quiz is now "Create A Survey", with the new command
line parameter "SURVEY". What this parameter does is turn off
all scoring (no score header, nor scoreboard), and record
all responses from the student during a quiz in an ASCII
file "RECORD.LOG". The student's name, the quiz, the date
and time, in addition to all the responses to the questions
are maintained in the RECORD.LOG file on the default disk.
Version 2.21
+ If you as a teacher would like to grade your students'
knowledge of a quiz but do not want them to know how they
scored, then use the command line parameter "4AGRADE".
This new command will instruct Create A Quiz to 1) suppress
the "Correct" or "Wrong" result window; 2) suppress the
status header from displaying "Correct:" and "Percent:".
The teacher will find the student's answers/repsonses in
a file called "RECORD.LOG" and their scores in the
"SCORE.LOG" file.
+ For those students who are heavy handed, or all thumbs, you
can give them the opportunity to change their answer/response
to a quiz by adding the command line parameter "CONFIRM".
After the student selects/inputs his response, a confirmation
window will appear asking the student if he is sure that he
wants to accept his response, with an option to return to
the question and choose/input a different answer. After the
student has confirmed his response, his response will be
judged "Correct" or "Wrong".
+ The teacher can customize what appears on the top status line
with the command line parameters "NOPCT" or "NOSTATS". The
former will display the following:
┌─────────────────────── WHO'S WHO ─────────────────────────┐
│ Name: James Attempts: 4 Left: 3 │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If you wish to suppress all of the status line, use "NOSTATS"
and you will instead have the following header:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ WHO'S WHO - LESSON 1 - FAMOUS MEN │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Version 2.22
+ The student's version has been modified so that when the quiz
file pick list is displayed the actual .QZ file names are
excluded. Only the quiz title and description will be shown
to the student to pick from. We felt that there was no reason
for the student to know the actual DOS file name of the .QZ
file, hence we have removed it from the display list. The
teacher's edition, however, still has the .QZ file names
displayed in the file pick lists.
+ When a quiz is being taken in sequential mode (i.e., 1,2,3,)
a bug would occur if the user exits to the Options Menu early
and then resumes the very same quiz. The problem involved
the program failing to set the quiz back to the beginning of
the quiz, rather than continuing where they left off. This
problem has been corrected.
Version 2.23
+ The teacher can now specify a random selection of questions
to be printed. This now means the teacher has the option to
print quizzes: 1) by range (from # to #), 2) by marked questions,
or 3) by random selection.
+ When printing quizzes (see above) the option has been added
that allows two printouts to be created automatically - one
for the teacher (with the solutions revealed), and one for the
student (no solutions shown).
+ The teacher can set an expiration period in minutes which when
a specified quiz is used beyond this time limit the quiz will
become unaccessible to a student. In plain English, this means
that the teacher can establish a time limit of 120 minutes for
EXAMPLE.QZ. Over the period of days, weeks, etc. the program
will track the time all students use EXAMPLE.QZ. If the
accumulated time over the days, weeks EXCEEDS 120 minutes, the
EXAMPLE.QZ will not longer be available for the student to use.
This "expiration" option can be set from the Teacher's edition
editing screen - select [O] for advanced "Options" menu.
Version 2.24
+ Fixed a bug which would occur with the "Take a quiz" selection
where sometimes dummy answers are displayed from a previously
edited quiz. This would only occur if a teacher edited a quiz,
saved the file, and then immediately took/played a different
quiz.
+ Added step-by-step instructions when a new quiz is created,
plus added more input error checks to make the program more
user friendly for the novice teacher and for those who don't
read the documentation.
Version 2.25
+ Adding the command line parameter "NOQS" will turn off the
familiar ? ¿ wallpaper symbols that appear on the screen.
+ The teacher can now EXPORT questions to a new .QZ file from
the edit session. Exporting can be based on marked questions
or a range of questions.
+ The QUIZ.WHO file format has been expanded in order to prompt
more information from the student prior to taking a quiz.
Lines 3-9 can now be used to gather information from the
student, such as address, social security number, age, and
so forth. See Version 1.36 notes above for details on lines
1 & 2. If you are going to take advantage of this expanded
prompt feature to collect detailed information from the
student prior to taking a quiz, then lines 1-2 can be left
blank. Line 3 of the ASCII file QUIZ.WHO will be assumed
to be a prompt asking the student for their name. Lines 4-9
then can be used to prompt for whatever additional information
one wishes.
Example QUIZ.WHO file:
Line 1 ->
Line 2 ->
Line 3 -> Your complete name
Line 4 -> Your age
Line 5 -> Social security number
What value is this additional information? If you use the
command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx then all of the additional
information input by the student will be saved in the specified
log file. If you do not use the LOGFILE=xxxx parameter, then
all of this extra prompted information is of no value.
+ The command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx will save ALL questions
choices presented to the student, AND the student's response.
Replace "xxxx" with a legal DOS file name. Included in this
log file will be the student's name (and additional prompted
data, see above), quiz name, date, time, and a summary of
attempts, correct responses, etc.
Version 2.26
+ The command line parameter LOG1ST has been added which is
used in conjunction with the QUIZ.WHO file (see Version
2.25 notes). LOG1ST will cause the student input prompt
window to appear only once EVER. If the student attempts
a second quiz on another day, there will be no expanded
input prompts to greet them (asking for address, city,
phone, whatever...). How does the program know whether
the student is using the program for the first time?
Because when LOG1ST is used, it will automatically delete
the QUIZ.WHO file if it exists. Since the QUIZ.WHO is
used to determine what input prompts are displayed, if
it does not exist, then no expanded prompts will appear.
So in review, LOG1ST with a QUIZ.WHO file will cause an
expanded player input field window to display the first
time the student uses a quiz. The program will then
automatically delete the QUIZ.WHO file, which means any
future uses of the program will NOT display an expanded
player input prompt window.
+ The reference/help files were limited to a maximum of
500 lines each in previous versions. The maximum limit
has now been increased to 1000 lines in a reference or
help file. Error checking has been added also to prevent
the teacher from going beyond this limit (which was lacking
in previous versions).
+ Fixed a bug which prevented reference notes from displaying
AFTER a question IF there was a reference file {} displayed
BEFORE a question.
+ Fixed a bug which would not allow quizzes to be used from
the command line or from a QUIZ.CFG file if that .QZ file
had a "-" dash in the .QZ file. In other words, starting
the program from the DOS prompt --> QUIZ MY-TEST.QZ
would have tripped an error message, whereas QUIZ MYTEST.QZ
would have been OK. This has been fixed.
+ The NOEDIT command line parameter will remove the "Create"
and "Edit" selections from the Main Menu in the Teacher's
Edition. This is used when you want to prevent students
from accessing or tampering with your quizzes.
Version 3.0
+ Added support to use high-resolution 16 color .PCX images
with each question.
+ Provided an option screen layout format where instead of the
traditional "pop-up exploding" windows and menus, a more
"open" and wider screen layout is used. With this new
screen layout (that appears during interactive test time)
the answers are preceded with "A...B...C" letters and the
student must now press "A" or "B" or "C" etc. to select the
correct response.
+ Added a new NAME= command line parameter that allows you to
pass the name of a single student/user to Create A Quiz.
By passing this value the "Please enter your name:" prompt
will not appear when a student selects a quiz. Example:
QUIZ NAME=MIKE If the name you are using consists of more
than one name, then use an underscore character "_" to
connect each name (example: QUIZ NAME=MIKE_R._JONES).
+ At the conclusion of each interactive quiz, a window will
now appear on the screen that displays in a list the
questions that the student answered INcorrectly, along with
the correct answers. This feature is useful in reviewing
the areas where the student needs to concentrate further
study.
+ Create A Quiz is now offered in a "Lite" version. Most of
the bells and whistles and advanced features (such as
command line parameters) have been REMOVED and are not
available in the "Lite" version. This "Lite" version is
priced 1/3 less to offset the increase in prices.
Version 3.01
+ The maximum number of lines in a .HLP file has been
increased to 2000 lines (up from 1000).
Version 3.02
+ Greater control over how a question is displayed/formatted
on the screen has been added. The teacher can force new
lines in questions by using the "|" character. See QUIZ.ADV
file for an example of how this works.
+ If you create a DOS environmental variable and call it
"USER" and then store a value/string to it, Create A Quiz
will pass the contents of USER= to the name of the player/
student taking the test.
+ We have now insured that when Create A Quiz is used on a
network that unique temporary file names are created that
store the progress of each user. In the past, the same
temporary file name was always used, which created a problem
on a network when more than 1 user would be opening the same
temporary file.
+ Existing quizzes are now renamed with a .BAK extension
whenever the user saves a quiz.
Version 3.03
+ Fixed a bug which would report that a file was missing or
corrupt when you saved a new .QZ file. This problem
was a side-affect from the v3.02 file backup feature.
Version 3.04
+ Fixed a bug that would occur when NODUPES and 4AGRADE were
used together. The problem was that the SCORE.LOG file
was not getting updated at the end of the quiz.
Version 3.05
+ Added super- and sub-script on-screen fonts for numbers.
ASCII characters 128 to 137 are used to represent sub-
script numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 respectively. ASCII
characters 138 to 147 are used to represent super-script
numbers 1,2...0. The QUIZ.FNT file must be present for
this feature to work, however.
+ Fixed a bug related to the NAME=xxxxx parameter, which
caused the first 3 characters of the user's name to be
truncated.
+ Added the COMMA=x command line parameter (useful for
International users).
+ The extended, full-screen reference note editor now is
a WYSIWYG editor. Previous versions reformatted all
reference notes, destroying hard returns and blank lines.