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* * * My Little Realm, v2.5 * * *
- Private Library -
____________________________________________________________________
General Information
____________________________________________________________________
Important
Private Library is protected by copyright. It is not freeware,
and it is not in the public domain.
This is the evaluation version of My Little Realm's Private
Library. It is a full-featured, fully functional program. You are
welcome to try it on your computer to ensure that it functions on
your system as it should, and that it meets your individual needs.
If after 30 days you decide to keep using Private Library, you must
register the program with the author. To print an order form,
press <$> in the Options Window.
Bonus! Purchase any MLR stand-alone program before 12/31/94 and
receive another absolutely free. See DESCRIBE.TXT for details.
Thank you for trying Private Library!
______________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The Private Library Routine allows you to keep track of your
privately owned volumes (including books, records, tapes, cd's and
videos). With Private Library you can view, edit, print and sort
your file. The most powerful feature, however, is the search
function.
For example, if you'd like to see which books you have of a certain
author, enter that author's name in the Search function and you'll
get every work in your library that has that name in the Author
field.
If you're a Sci Fi fanatic and you'd like to see what you have on
robots, tell the Search function to look for "robot" in the Title
field.
Would you like a way to keep your books separate from a roommate's?
Use the Category field to identify your possessions and your
roommate's. Then you can search on the Category field to see which
works (or items) belong to whom. It can help keep the peace.
____________________________________________________________________
Getting Started
The Quickeys.
If you'd like to see what the Quickeys are for Private Library,
enter the backslash key in the Options Window. This invokes the
Change Quickeys function, and displays the following query in the
Options Window:
_______________________________________________
| |
| Change which Quickey? __ |
| ________________________________ |
| | | |
| | 1 fic 3 l/d 5 a/t | |
| | 2 n/f 4 v/t 6 c/d | |
| |________________________________| |
| |
|_______________________________________________|
If you don't want to change the Quickeys at this time, simply press
<esc> when you're finished studying them. If you'd like to make
changes, enter the number of the Quickey category you want to
change and type in the new definition. Read the section entitled
"Extended Processing Options" at the end of this document for
details on changing your Quickeys.
Creating records.
The most common items recorded in the Private Library program are
books. They're easy to enter since there are only three fields to
deal with: the Title field, the Author field, and the Category
field. Example:
Title Author Cat.
Lincoln Vidal, Gore fic
Other personal collectibles that can be recorded are videos. Enter
the title, as you would a book, and in the Author field, enter the
time and whether the item is black & white or color. Finally,
enter the Quickey <4>, v/t, for video tape. Example:
Title Author Cat.
Casablanca 103 min. black/white v/t
After you've entered all of your video tapes, you can obtain a
printed listing (to keep by the television) by invoking the Search
function and searching the Category field for v/t.
Exiting Private Library.
If you've made changes to your data file, Private Library will so
notify you when you attempt to return to your operating system and
ask if you want to save the changes. You will almost always
respond with <Y> or <enter> to save the changes. If, for some
reason, you do not want to save the changes, press <N>. Following
either response, you'll be returned to DOS. If you press <esc>,
Private Library will instead return you to the Options Window from
where you can resume processing.
Why would you ever want to not save changes? Home programs must
take into account the unwanted help of children who occasionally
get into a program and wreak havoc. Should you find that someone
you love is "helping you" with Private Library, don't get angry.
Just exit the program and don't save the changes.
____________________________________________________________________
Program Information
____________________________________________________________________
There are seven choices in the Options Window.
________________________________________
| |
| 1 Add 2 View 3 Change |
| 4 Delete 5 Print 6 Sort |
| 7 Search |
| |
|----------------------------------------|
| Choice __ |
|________________________________________|
There are also several extended processing options available from
the Options Window. They are detailed at the end of this document.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 1, adding new records.
The Add function in this program has only three entries. To back
up through the fields in this function, press the up arrow. To
advance through the fields, press the down arrow key or <enter>.
[Note: You cannot use the down arrow to advance from the Title
field to the Author field unless the Title field has something in
it. In other words, the Title field must have an entry.]
~ Field Definitions ~
- Title field (38, required).
Leading articles and prepositions should be put at the end of the
title. For example, the title of the novel "The Agony and the
Ecstasy" by Irving Stone would be entered as:
Agony and the Ecstasy, The
____________________
- Author field (33, optional).
An author's name should be entered with the last name first:
Stone, Irving
The major reason for entering titles and names in this manner is
that it facilitates record sorting should you request that option
(# 6 in the Options Window).
____________________
- Category field (3, optional).
Private Library displays its built-in Quickeys when it is time to
enter the category field. The default categories are:
Quickey Category Definition
1 fic fiction
2 n/f non-fiction
3 l/d laser disc
4 v/t video tape
5 a/t audio tape
6 c/d compact disc
If the Quickeys are turned on, you will only be able to enter a
category from the Quickey list. If you should delete any of the
Quickey categories, leaving the category blank, Private Library
will not let you enter that Quickey in the Add or Change functions.
For example, say you had no need for the l/d (laser disc) category
shown above as Quickey 3. If you deleted the category and left it
blank, you could not enter 3 in the Category field in the Add or
Change functions while the Quickeys are turned on.
If you want to enter category information that is not in the
Quickey list, turn off (that is, hide) the Quickeys using the <|>
EPO. You can then enter any three character string you wish. To
hide the Quickeys, enter <|>, the pipe symbol on your keyboard, in
the Options Window. Private Library will tell you that your
Quickeys are not hidden and then ask if you want to hide them.
Respond <Y>, yes. If you change your mind, press <esc> or <N>.
See Extended Processing Options at the end of this document for
more details.
You can change any of the Quickeys that come with Private Library
by using the backslash EPO. If you plan to use the Dewey Decimal
System frequently to categorize your works, change the Quickeys to
the six DDS codes you'll be using most often.
-- The Dewey Decimal System Codes --
DDS Code Definition
000 General titles (journalism,
bibliographies, etc.)
100 Philosophy
200 Religion
300 Social Studies
400 Languages
500 Pure Sciences
600 Technology (Applied Sciences)
700 Arts
800 Literature
900 Geography and History
You can also set up your Quickeys as the initials of the realm
members so that you can identify the owner of each of the works you
enter in this program. To use the Change Quickey EPO refer to the
section entitled Extended Processing Options at the end of this
document.
Note: You cannot change the Quickeys if they are hidden. The only
exception to this rule is if there are no Quickeys (i.e., you
deleted all of them previously), in which case Private Library will
allow you to create a new Quickey list, but then your new list will
be considered hidden until you expressly state otherwise.
If you leave Private Library with the Quickeys turned off, Private
Library will remember that the next time you run the program. To
show the Quickeys (i.e., turn them on), press <|> in the Options
Window and reply <Y>, yes, to Private Library's query.
______________________________________________________________________
Option # 2, viewing your records.
Private Library will ask you which record number you wish to see.
You do not have to enter a record number. You can use the
scrolling keys to browse through your records. Should you wish to
focus on one particular entry, give the record number to Private
Library and that record's information will be highlighted for you.
If you have a large number of records and you're trying to find a
specific title or author, use the Search function, Option # 7,
described below.
To exit the View function and return to the Options Window, press
<enter> (without entering a record number) or <esc>.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 3, changing the contents of a record.
To change the contents a record, you must first find the specific
record you wish to modify. Enter the record number, and Private
Library will highlight the record you have selected to change.
If you tell Private Library that you want to modify one of the
fields but then change your mind, press <esc> while on the input
line (before you press <enter>), and it will reinstate the original
entry. Remember, the Title field must have an entry. You cannot
leave it blank.
To exit the Change function and return to the Options Window, press
<enter> (without entering a record number) or <esc>.
Don't forget that if you elect to change the Category field and you
want to use the Quickeys, they cannot be hidden.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 4, deleting records.
Enter the record number. Private Library will highlight the entry
and ask you if you are sure. You must respond <Y> for yes if you
wish to effect the delete. Press <N>, for no, or the <esc> key to
cancel the delete request. Be sure the highlighted record is the
one that you wish to delete.
To exit the Delete function and return to the Options Window, press
<enter> (without entering a record number) or <esc>.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 5, printing records.
The Print function prints a listing of all of your records as they
appear at the time you request the printout. Thus, if you want the
records sorted, you must select option 6 first, and direct Private
Library to sort the array containing your records and on which
field it is to perform the sort. The sort function then brings up
the View procedure and shows you the sorted file.
If all is in order, press <esc> to return to the Options Window and
select 5 to print out the results of the sort.
You can abort the printout at any time during the printing process
by pressing <esc>.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 6, sorting records.
Option 6 lets you sort your records by title, author, or category.
After the sorting is finished, the View function is automatically
invoked and your sorted records displayed.
Press <esc> to return to the Options Window.
Note: Private Library stores your records on disk in the same
order shown in the Viewing Window. Thus, if you've sorted your
records by title, they'll be stored that way, and the next time
you run Private Library, that's the order in which they'll be
displayed.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 7, searching a field for a string.
The Search function allows you to find all of the records with a
specific character string, called a keyword, in a given field. You
enter keywords without quotes. You may use the backslash as a
special delimiter, described below, to force the Search function to
look for external spaces.
If you want the Search function to display all of the books with
the word "computer" in the title, select the Title field from the
its sub-menu and enter the keyword "computer" (without the quotes).
In short order, the Search function would display all of the
volumes it found with the word "computer" in the title.
If there is more than a screenful of records, the Search function
will tell you to use the scrolling keys to peruse the listing. The
scrolling keys are the directional keys, <ctrl> + <home>,
<ctrl> + <end>, <pageup>, and <pagedown>. You can also print the
Search function listing by pressing <P>.
You must be as precise as possible if you are looking for a
specific record. That is to say, if you are looking for a
particular author, you must give the Search function the entire
name of said author or it might retrieve a number of records whose
authors have the same keyword in their names.
As an example, if you were searching for all of the volumes written
by "Smith, Alice", you could enter "Smith" for a keyword, but you
would also get all of the records with any other Smith's you had in
the Author field. You would have to enter "Smith, Alice" to have
the Search function display only those works by that author. The
same is true for the Title and Category fields.
When you can't recall the spelling of an author's name or the title
of a book (or whatever it is you've cataloged), enter just enough
of the keyword to have the Search function weed out the bulk of the
unwanted records.
For instance, if you're trying to find a book but all you can
remember of its author's name is that it contains the syllable
"Long", just enter that portion. The Search function will display
the records it finds with that syllable in the author field, like
"Longman" or "Longfellow" or "Longacre", but the number of records
will have been reduced considerably, and you'll be able to find the
record you're looking for much more quickly.
The Search function strips off the external blanks that you enter
around a keyword when it performs the search on either the Title
field or the Author field. " ABC ", for example, is reduced
to "ABC". You can force the Search function to search for
precisely what you enter by delimiting your keyword with
backslashes. To make the Search function look for a keyword like
" ABC " (with its concomitant external spaces), you can enter:
\ ABC \
Let's assume you have the following titles in your file:
Longbows of the 18th Century
Long John Silver
Longacre's Mysteries
If you simply entered "Long" at the keyword prompt, the Search
function would show you all three of those records, even if you
entered the keyword as "Long ". To winnow it down, you can force
the Search function to search for "Long " (with a trailing space)
by entering \Long \ and get only the second title, "Long John
Silver".
When using the backslash as a delimiter, however, you must ensure
that you begin and end your keyword with backslashes. If, instead,
you entered:
\ long\acre
the Search function would assume that it was supposed to look for
the backslashes since one is embedded, and it will search for
exactly what you entered ... including the backslashes.
Notes.
Private Library's Search function is not case sensitive, so "ABC"
is the same as "aBc", and so on.
When you search on the Category field, you must use the Quickeys
if they are active. If they are inactive (hidden), you cannot use
them, but you can enter any string found in the Quickey list. You
simply have to key it in manually.
Keywords do not have their external spaces removed when searches
are performed on the Category field. So " d " (with a space on
either side) is different from "d " (with two trailing spaces),
and so on.
____________________________________________________________________
Extended Processing Options.
EPO Definition
<\> Change the Quickey categories employed by this program.
The Quickeys categories can be up to three letters long,
and are used to describe the categories of your personal
volumes. Private Library comes with six Quickey
categories that represent general purpose categories.
Default Quickeys.
________________________________
| |
| 1 fic 3 l/d 5 a/t |
| 2 n/f 4 v/t 6 c/d |
|________________________________|
Quickey Code Definition
1 fic fiction
2 n/f non-fiction
3 l/d laser disc
4 v/t video tape
5 a/t audio tape
6 c/d compact disc
You can, of course, change any you choose. For example,
you could make one of your categories "C/B" for comic
books or "BBC" for baseball cards. You can even use
the initials of the owners of the works you are
cataloging as a means of identifying ownership, should
you wish to keep your possessions separate from your
roommate's.
Note: You cannot change the Quickeys if they are
hidden.
- - - - - - - - -
<|> Hide/show the Quickeys.
The Quickeys are numbers one through six in the first
position of the category entry. Enter <|> in the
Options Window and Private Library will tell you if
your Quickeys are hidden or not. It will then ask
you if you want to reverse the situation.
If the Quickeys are turned on, you must use them when
you are entering data in the Category field. If you
want to enter categories not found in your Quickey
list, you must either turn off the Quickeys or change
the current Quickeys. If you turn off the Quickeys,
you can enter anything you wish in the three character
field.
You do no harm to your previously entered records by
turning the Quickeys on and off.
- - - - - - - - -
<+> Print a listing of a specific category.
Note: This EPO is no longer supported in Version 2.x.
See the Search function, option <7> in the Options
Window, for this and many other new features found in
Version 2.x and later.
- - - - - - - - -
<#> Switch between color and black/white modes.
- - - - - - - - -
<$> Print an order form.
- - - - - - - - -
<?> Display the EPO's used in this program.
______________________________________________________________________
+ The End +
______________________________________________________________________
(c) Copyright 1991 - 1992 John L. Salisbury
