Name Finder documentation

 

 Version 1.1                                                                                                         July 1996 

©1996 Alessandro Levi Montalcini   Technical support, permissions, suggestions:
C.so Re Umberto 10                          Internet email: alm@torino.alpcom.it
10121 Torino                                   ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini
Italy                                                ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini/alm.html

Binary Software, Inc.                       Orders and registrations only:
2118 Wilshire Blvd Suite 900           Phone: (800) 8-BINARY (824-6279)
Santa Monica, CA 90403                   or: (310) 449-1481
United States of America                   Fax: (800) 555-7217 or (310) 449-1473
                                                        Internet email: sales@binarysoft.com
                                                        CompuServe email: 74220,3377
                                                        America Online email: BINARY SW
                                                        ftp://users.aol.com/binarysw/

• Shareware: $10
◊  This program is distributed as shareware: if you use it please honor the shareware system by sending $10 U.S. to Binary Software at the address above. You can email, fax, snail-mail, or call. When registering please specify the name and version of this program as well as your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, fax number, and your credit card number and expiration date (we accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover). You can also pay with a check, money order, or cash.
◊  Binary Software is only collecting the registrations on my behalf; please contact me directly by email for any information, suggestion, permission, or request about this software. If you want to send non-U.S. cash or any other material including software, books, magazines, CD-ROMs or any hardware, please send it to me at my Italian address. If you do so, however, you should also notify me by email because I only receive my snail mail once per month.
◊  If you can’t afford to register you may still want to send Binary Software your name, address and email address so they can send you new product announcements and other special offers.
◊  Site licenses and group discounts are available for 5 or more registrations. Please check my ftp site or send email for more information.
◊  Please register: your support is the only way for me to keep working on cool shareware programs.

• Introduction
◊  Name Finder is a simple database engine that lets you build and browse lists of names. It was specifically designed to let future parents or pet owners choose a name by repeatedly assigning a positive or negative vote to each name in the list, until only a few names are left.
◊  Separate vote columns are available for the father and the mother (or for one or two pet owners), and votes are saved to disk so that they can be assigned separately and later compared.
◊  The names can be sorted by vote, by sex, by name or by origin and they can be selectively displayed according to many useful cryteria.
◊  Version 1.1 comes with a cool database of Italian names (which is unfortunately only available in Italian). You can send me your own lists along with a short note about yourself if you want me to store them on my ftp site or include them in future versions of Name Finder. Name databases with 500 or more entries entitle you to a free Name Finder registration. Names in all languages are welcome, although I suggest that the notes and origin be written in English so that everyone on the Net can use the database.

• Instructions
◊  Click on the small faces repeatedly to change a name’s votes; or do it faster by using control-click for a positive vote, option-click for a negative vote, and command-click for a null vote (no vote).
◊  Click on the field titles above the names list to sort the list by vote, by sex, by name or by origin.
◊  Drag the vertical lines that separate the fields to change a field’s size.
◊  File menu:
  - New: creates a new, empty names database. Use "Add Name" or cmd-K to add new names to it.
  - Open…: opens a names database or a tab-delimited text file (see tech notes below).
  - Close: closes the frontmost window.
  - Save: saves a names database to disk, including all the votes.
  - Save As…: same as Save, but you can save the database under a different name.
  - Quit: closes all windows after checking for unsaved data and quits.
◊  Edit menu:
  - Undo is not implemented in Name Finder (there’s not much to undo anyway).
  - Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear are never enabled. Use the votes to delete some names from the list, or open the database with a text editor or word processor for more advanced features.
  - Add Name: adds a new name to the database. You must enter the name, its gender, its origins and any additional notes you know about the name.
  - Delete Names w/ Two Bad Votes: permanently removes from the database all names that were given a bad vote by both parents or pet owners. You’ll usually want to use the View menu instead to hide them, since this command deletes them forever.
  - Delete Names w/ Any Bad Vote: permanently removes from the database all names that were given a bad vote by any of the parents or pet owners. You’ll usually want to use the View menu instead to hide them, since this command deletes them forever.
  - Delete Names Without Vote: permanently removes from the database all names that were assigned no vote (i.e. both votes are null). You’ll usually want to use the View menu instead to hide them, since this command deletes them forever.
◊  View menu:
  - All Names: displays all the names in the database.
  - Female Names: displays all female names among the currently displayed names (hides male names).
  - Male Names: displays all male names among the currently displayed names (hides female names).
  - Names Whose Vote Is…: lets you specify which names should be displayed based on their votes.
  - Names Beginning With…: lets you specify which names should be displayed based on their first characters.
  - Names Containing…: lets you specify which names should be displayed based on a substring search.
  - Names Whose Origin Is…: lets you specify which names should be displayed based on their origin.
◊  Options menu:
  - Font: changes the names window’s text font.
  - Size: changes the names window’s text size.
  - Color: changes the colors used for female and male names and those used for the name origin.
  - Be Quiet: disables the “assign vote” and “read notes” sounds.

• Technical notes
◊  The names database file is actually a simple text file that can be edited with any text editor or word processor for advanced needs such as database merging, faster data entry, and so forth. Name entries are separated by return characters, and fields in each entry are delimited by tab characters.
◊  The votes are stored in the file’s resource fork. When editing a database file with a text editor or word processor, there’s no way to preserve them so you should clear them when you first open the database with Name Finder.
◊  Each names database can currently contain up to 2048 names. I can easily raise this limit if you find it too low.

• Compatibility notes
◊  PowerPC: Name Finder is a fat binary, containing both 680x0 and native PowerPC code.
◊  System 7 and later: Name Finder runs fine on any version of the Mac OS starting with 7.0.
◊  System 6: System 6 is fully supported by Name Finder, although the names list doesn’t scroll as nicely and the small icons are only drawn in black and white.

• Distribution
◊  This software is ©1995-96 Alessandro Levi Montalcini. It can be freely distributed as long as it is not modified and there’s no charge for it, but it may not be included in any commercial package without my consent.
◊  All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
◊  All non-profit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
◊  All magazines may publish it on floppy disk or CD-ROM without asking me first, as long as I get a copy of the issue containing my software.
◊  All CD-ROM shareware collections and CD-ROM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD-ROM or an offer to buy the CD-ROM at a discounted price.
◊  All redistribution companies such as Pacific HiTech, AMUG, Celestin or Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalog of the company’s offerings (where applicable).
◊  You may find the latest version of all my shareware and freeware programs by anonymous ftp to ftp.alpcom.it, inside the /software/mac/LMontalcini directory. The ALM Share and ALM Free packages, which contain most of my stuff and can be registered at a very low price, are also available there.

• Version history
◊  1.1 - First English version, various bug fixes and improvements.
◊  1.0 - First public release. This localized italian version was named MacHebelnome and distributed exclusively on the 3"1/2 Mac Disk Magazine. You may request the back issue to the Gruppo Editoriale JCE if you want to browse names in Italian.

• Thanks to…
◊  Valentina Pavia, who waited patiently until late at night;
◊  Michele Pizzi, who built the way cool Italian names database;
◊  Roberto Leonardi, who had the original idea;
◊  Alberto Ricci, for his beta-testing and suggestions;
◊  Fabrizio Oddone, for all his usual help;
◊  Masatsugu Nagata, for his invaluable beta testing of all my stuff;
◊  Gary Gonzalez and Charles Haspel, of Binary Software, Inc.;
◊  All those who registered for my other shareware; they are now way too many to be listed, but this program wouldn’t be here without them.

• Disclaimer
◊  This software should never cause any damage, but you’re using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can make no warranties whatsoever on it.

• Have fun!
◊  And don’t forget to register your shareware, so that more cool inexpensive utilities can see the light in the future.