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1995-12-08
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3KB
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65 lines
***************************************************************************
PARSE-O-MATIC
***************************************************************************
COPYRIGHT (C) 1986, 1995 BY PINNACLE SOFTWARE (MONTREAL)
***************************************************************************
WHAT IS PARSE-O-MATIC?
----------------------
PARSE-O-MATIC IS A PROGRAMMABLE FILE-PARSER. SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR EVEN A NON-
PROGRAMMER TO MASTER, IT CAN HELP OUT IN COUNTLESS WAYS. IF YOU HAVE A
FILE YOU WANT TO EDIT, MANIPULATE, OR CHANGE AROUND, PARSE-O-MATIC MAY BE
JUST THE TOOL YOU NEED. PARSE-O-MATIC CAN SPEED UP OR AUTOMATE YOUR LONG
OR REPETITIVE EDITING TASKS.
NOTE: PARSE-O-MATIC IS NOT A FILE CONVERTER. IT WILL NOT, FOR EXAMPLE,
CONVERT WORDPERFECT FILES TO MS-WORD FORMAT, OR CONVERT LOTUS 1-2-3
SPREADSHEETS DIRECTLY TO EXCEL FILES (ALTHOUGH IT CAN READ REPORTS FROM ONE
PROGRAM AND CONVERT THEM TO COMMA-DELIMITED FORMAT, WHICH CAN BE IMPORTED
BY THE OTHER PROGRAM).
WHY YOU NEED PARSE-O-MATIC -- AN EXAMPLE
----------------------------------------
THERE ARE PLENTY OF PROGRAMS OUT THERE THAT HAVE VALUABLE DATA LOCKED AWAY
INSIDE THEM. HOW DO YOU GET THAT DATA OUT OF ONE PROGRAM AND INTO ANOTHER
ONE?
SOME PROGRAMS PROVIDE A FEATURE WHICH "EXPORTS" A FILE INTO SOME KIND OF
GENERIC FORMAT. PERHAPS THE MOST POPULAR OF THESE FORMATS IS KNOWN AS A
"COMMA-DELIMITED FILE", WHICH IS A TEXT FILE IN WHICH EACH DATA FIELD IS
SEPARATED BY A COMMA. CHARACTER STRINGS -- WHICH MIGHT THEMSELVES CONTAIN
COMMAS -- ARE SURROUNDED BY DOUBLE QUOTES.
UNFORTUNATELY, NOT ALL PROGRAMS EXPORT OR IMPORT DATA IN THIS FORMAT.
EVEN MORE FRUSTRATING IS A PROGRAM THAT EXPORTS DATA IN A FORMAT THAT IS
ALMOST WHAT YOU NEED!
IF THAT'S THE CASE, YOU MIGHT DECIDE TO SPEND A FEW HOURS IN A TEXT EDITOR,
MODIFYING THE EXPORT FILE SO THAT THE OTHER PROGRAM CAN UNDERSTAND IT. OR
YOU MIGHT WRITE A PROGRAM TO DO THE EDITING FOR YOU. BOTH SOLUTIONS ARE
TIME-CONSUMING.
AN EVEN MORE CHALLENGING PROBLEM ARISES WHEN A PROGRAM WHICH HAS NO EXPORT
CAPABILITY DOES HAVE THE ABILITY TO "PRINT" REPORTS TO A FILE. YOU CAN
WRITE A PROGRAM TO READ THESE FILES AND CONVERT THEM TO SOMETHING YOU CAN
USE, BUT THIS CAN BE A LOT OF WORK!
PARSE-O-MATIC TO THE RESCUE!
----------------------------
PARSE-O-MATIC IS A UTILITY THAT READS TEXT, FIXED-RECORD-LENGTH AND DBF
("DBASE") FILES, INTERPRETS THE DATA, AND OUTPUTS THE RESULT TO A TEXT,
FIXED-LENGTH OR BINARY FILE. IT CAN HELP YOU "BOIL DOWN" REPORTS INTO
THEIR ESSENTIAL DATA. YOU CAN ALSO USE IT TO CONVERT NEARLY COMPATIBLE
IMPORT FILES, OR GENERATE PRINTABLE REPORTS.