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1990-01-11
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N U N L E Y 'S S M A R T II U T I L I T I E S
Welcome to Pierce Nunley's SmartII Utilities. Enclosed are some util-
ities that are very useful for any SmartII user from the novice to the
advanced user. I have written several project files to streamline
SmartII, and, due to the prodding of my friends, I have decided to re-
lease a few of these as ShareWare. Please Read the section at the end
of this document for registration.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
These project files are under copyright (c) 1989, by Pierce D. Nunley
Consulting. The user is allowed a brief (less than 30 days) period
of operation without fee of use. If after this grace period all or
any part of these project files are used, the user must, by law, reg-
ister them and pay a nominal fee. Please Read the section at the end
of this document for registration.
DISCLAIMER
These project files are distributed "as is" and without expressed or
implied warranty. Because of the diversity of conditions and hardware
under which these projects may be used, no warranty as to performance
or fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user is advised
to test the projects and must assume the entire risk of using the
projects.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now with all of that out of the way, let's talk about the utility
package! You should have received the following files.
README.DOC - This document
REGISTER.DOC - registration form, Load and Print this from the WP
INSTALL.RF0 - Project file to install QuickDir, Secure, and EditProj
QUICKDIR.RF2 - Directory Changer
SECURE.RF2 - Screen blanker with password protection
EDITPROJ.RF2 - Utility to edit & compile project files
EDITPROJ.PF2 - source code
ASCII.RF2 - Utility to display ASCII characters
ASCII.PF2 - source code
TEXTVIEW.RF2 - Text viewing function/project for programmers
TEXTVIEW.PF2 - source code
INSTALLATION - Read Carefully
The installation process will do several things:
1) copy the utility files from their current directory to the Smar-
tII system directory,
2) create the file "SMART.MNU" which allows commands to be added to
the SmartII "Tools" menu. Note: If you have already defined a
"SMART.MNU" file, this will rename the old file to "SMARTOLD.MNU"
and will create a new "SMART.MNU" file. You will then have to
load both menu definition files into the text-editor or wordpro-
cessor and add the old menu selections to the newly created
"SMART.MNU" file. See Optional Menu Keywords section (pp 67-68)
of the Project Processing Manual for more information.
3) modify the "Tools Preferences Global" file so that SmartII will
look for the "SMART.MNU" file on entry to SmartII.
TO RUN INSTALL:
1) make sure all of the files for this utility are in one directory
2) run SmartII (you should be in the Main-Menu)
3) use "Tools Directory New-Directory" to change the default direc-
tory to the directory where the utilities are.
4) Press "F8" and run Install
5) Answer any questions that are asked during the installation pro-
cess.
The installation is complete and SmartII will be exited. You must run
SmartII again to activate the new menu selections.
When SmartII is reloaded, you will notice that the commands "Secure"
"Quick_dir" and "Edit_projects" will be added to the "Tools" submenu
of ALL the modules of SmartII. To the user they will behave as if
they were internal SmartII functions. You can select them from the
menu or even set up macros to execute them. (e.g., personally I have
a macro file that is loaded every time I enter a module. In it I have
defined ^E to run the Project Editor and ^D to run QuickDir)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PROJECT FILE DESCRIPTIONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
QUICKDIR
QuickDir is a pop-up directory changer. It is very simple in it's op-
eration which is precisely why it is such an invaluable addition to
SmartII. It allows the user to quickly change back and forth from the
most frequent directories that are used by the operators of the sys-
tem.
To use it you simply move the highlighter up and down until the direc-
tory you want is highlighted and then press "Enter". The options
available are:
"E" - This will allow you to edit the directory list
"M" or "\" - allows you to quickly choose a directory manually
"Esc" - exit without changing directory
These options are always listed at the bottom of the window, and the
bottom row will always show the current datapath for your reference.
The first time QuickDir is run it will prompt the user to create a new
"SMART.DIR" file in the SmartII system directory. There will be a
pop-up screen with a few rules and examples and then the text-editor
will be loaded to create the directory file. Basically you just need
to enter standard DOS path names in upper case, lower case, or mixed
case. The terminal backslash is optional unless you are specifying
the root directory of a drive (i.e. C:\ or A:\).
The number of directories QuickDir will allow you to define is depen-
dant on the current screen driver. The total number of possible di-
rectories can be calculated as (screen height)-6 [e.g. on most com-
puters there are 25 lines to the screen, so therefore a total of 25-6
or 19 directories can be defined] But, if the display is EGA or VGA,
depending on the driver being used, there can be from 29 to 54 direc-
tory entries stored.
NOTE: If you were a user of SMART 3.1 or earlier versions, you may
have used a project file called CD which popped up a window and al-
lowed you to scroll up and down and select a directory to change to.
This was either the project file that I wrote or the file after some-
one had modified it (I had distributed the source code). QuickDir is
a vast improvement over the 3.0 version. It now uses many of the ad-
vanced functions that SmartII has over Smart 3.1.
TECHNICAL INFO: QuickDir looks very simple, but it is actually over
300 lines of compact code. The error checking and streamlining in it
is extensive and it has taken many hours to develop and debug.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURE
SECURE will ask for a password, will verify the password, and will
then blank the screen and do some nice unobtrusive graphics until the
password is reentered. This serves as a screen saver to keep from
burning the screens of some monitors. But more importantly, SECURE
keeps others from viewing or manipulating the files the user is work-
ing on and SAVES TIME because the user won't have to unload their cur-
rent work.
The password can be up to eight key strokes. One nice feature is that
ANY key except "Esc" or "Enter" are valid keys in a password (e.g.
Alt-P, Ctrl-U, Home, F12, etc.). The screen will then blank and you
are required to enter the exact keystrokes again in order to gain con-
trol of the terminal. SECURE constantly monitors the keyboard, so it
is only necessary to reenter just the password (i.e. an "Enter" is not
needed). The operator is allowed about four tries at reentering the
password, at which point each time a key is pressed an alarm will
sound. This will let the operator know if someone has been trying to
access the system. The password can still be entered, but an alarm
will still sound with each key stroke.
NOTE: SECURE cannot be circumvented short of rebooting the entire
system. There are no "loopholes" to this protection once it is acti-
vated (i.e. ^Z, ^C, ^Break, etc). If the password key sequence is
forgotten, the computer will have to be rebooted to regain access. If
a person reboots the system, they will obviously have to know the
passwords of any databases, spreadsheets, documents, etc. in order to
reload them. It is recommended that all current work be SAVED before
executing this program.
IMPORTANT: Be CAREFUL using User Defined Macros. A User Defined Mac-
ro will feed ALL the keystrokes that are defined. For example, if
Ctrl-D is defined as [F8,"c:\smartii\secure.rf2",Enter,Enter] then all
of these keystrokes will be sent to SECURE if the user types ^d as a
keystroke. This would be greater than 8 keystrokes, and, therefore,
will not work as a keystroke in a password. However, if a User De-
fined Macro contains less than eight key strokes it can be used as a
keystroke and ALL of the keystrokes in the Macro Definition will be
sent to SECURE. (e.g. if Ctrl-F10 is defined as [Down,Down,Right],
then if the user presses Ctrl-F10 in a password then the three key-
strokes [Down,Down,Right] will be sent to SECURE and it will be the
same as if they were typed separately.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITPROJ
EDITPROJ is a programmer's tool. It's purpose is to aid in editing
and compiling project files. It will select all the project source
code files (*.pf?) for the current module that are in the current da-
tapath. It will put them in a menu from which they may be selected to
edit in the Text-Editor. When the editor is exited, either by Esc or
F10, a menu will pop-up asking if the project is to be compiled. If
yes, then it will ask if No-Debug or Debug mode is to be used.
EDITPROJ will save the information of which project was last chosen to
edit so that it will first highlight that file on re-execution of this
project while in the SAME module and the SAME session. This saves
time when debugging, recompiling, and executing a project file when
the programmer is smoothing out the edges.
I personally do not like the Project File editor because it always
compiles the file in Debug mode and doesn't give the user a choice.
EDITPROJ always gives the programmer a choice of compiling and whether
to use Debug or No-Debug mode.
For a large project file a programmer will probably want to write the
bulk of the project in a programming editor, but SmartII's text-editor
is adequate for writing most project files, and the on-line help in-
cludes the entire function and project command reference manuals.
If an error occurs during compilation, this project will reload the
file in the Text-Editor and move the cursor to the line and space of
the error. [This is a very interesting piece of code for a program-
mer. This is a good example of the power of SmartII PDL]
I have set ^E (EDIT) as a macro that will run this project. It is in
my default macro load. I have also put this as a menu option off of
my tools menu using the SMART.MNU file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ASCII
This will display an ASCII table for the current text driver. SmartII
ASCII characters will be different depending on which text driver is
being used (set by Tools Preferences Hardware). As programmer it is
very useful to be able to pull up an ASCII table to eliminate guess-
ing.
This program will store each screen driver's ASCII table to disk so
that it will be "instantly" restored when run again. The programmer
will want to look at how this storage and retrieval is done.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TEXTVIEW
TEXTVIEW is a text viewer with built in Find, Goto, and Word-Wrap
functions. This is strictly a programmers tool. Its only practical
use is within a Project when you want to allow the user to view, but
NOT edit, a file (e.g. help files, and text file reports, etc). I
have not cleaned up the code, and there are plenty of places to make
modifications. I recommend using this as a function in which it is
fed $filename (the filename to be read) and $title (the title that ap-
pears on line 1 of the screen). e.g. the function would be "FUNCTION
textview($filename,$title)"
TEXTVIEW is currently set up to put all the "*.txt" files in a menu
from which to choose. If you want to quickly see how it works, set
the datapath to a directory that contains some "*.txt" files and then
run TEXTVIEW.
Play with it and enjoy. If you use it, or any significant part of it,
for any commercial applications, I would appreciate some reimbursement
for my efforts. This may seem like easy code, but it took quite a
long time to get the bugs out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A NOTE TO FELLOW PDL PROGRAMMERS
I hope that these utilities aid you in your programming. The source
codes for QuickDir and Secure were not included, but both programs
were written so that they could be run within another project and used
in your projects even though you don't have the source code.
Even though the source codes for QuickDir and Secure were not in-
cluded, they can be purchased. If you are interested in purchasing
the source code write me or leave a message on DocTalk BBS (See be-
low).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE PROGRAMMER
My name is Pierce Nunley and I have been a SMART user since 1985. I
am a third year medical student at the University of Kansas School of
Medicine and am planning on going into a surgery sub-specialty or pos-
sibly interventional radiology. I also hope to be a bridge between
clinical medicine and totally integrated computer applications in med-
icine.
I started extensively using project processing in 1986 and have writ-
ten many powerful applications since that time including a project to
run a greeting card company [AlphaLight Publishing, Inc.] (orders, in-
voicing, inventory, commissions, client tracker, sales rep tracker,
prospective client tracker, etc.) which has been running for 14 months
now. I have also written programs for the KU medical center. One is
a (CAI) Computer Assisted Instruction program for the basic sciences
which is currently installed on > 12 computers around the medical cen-
ter and many private computers which has been running since the summer
of 1987. Another is a program to keep track of all the InHouse pa-
tients in the Department of Family Practice (patients, diagnosis,
problem lists, medications, admitions and discharges).
I am always open to suggestions and new ideas so please write if you
have any. I can be reached at the address on registration form or al-
so at:
DocTalk BBS
913-588-1998
2400,N,8,1
24hours/day, 4 nodes.
I am a Co-SysOp of this medically oriented BBS out of the department
of Family Practice at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
REGISTRATION
These files are distributed under the ShareWare concept. If you find
that you are still using any of them after 30 days they should be reg-
istered. If these are used by a For-Profit organization then you are
REQUIRED by law to register these utilities.
With registration you will receive any future updates to these proj-
ects.
Prices are as follows:
Private User - $20.00 or whatever you think it is worth.
Non-Profit Organization - $10.00
$ 5.00 per terminal
For-Profit Organization - $30.00 1 terminal
$20.00 per terminal 2-10
$17.00 per terminal 11-20
$14.00 per terminal > 21
----------------------------------------------------------------------
REGISTRATION FORM
Name/Company: ________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
City: ________________________ State: _____ Zip: _________
Contact Person: _____________________________________________________
Type of Computer(s): ________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Main Use of SmartII: ________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Where did you obtain these utilities: _______________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Qty. Description Unit Price Price
_____ Pierce Nunley's SmartII Utilities __________ ________
If Missouri Resident add 6.425% sales tax ________
===========
Total ________
Mail to:
Pierce D. Nunley Consulting
3921 Bell Avenue
Kansas City, Missouri 64111
Make Checks payable to Pierce D. Nunley Consulting.