DP Tool Club 24/CD_ASCQ_24_0995.iso/vrac/showdos.zip/SHOWADD.TXT

Text File | 1995-05-17 | 10KB | 188 lines

                  OTHER INFORMATION CONCERNING *SHOW*



1.  Did you know if your filename has the extension .TXT, you don't
    have to type that when using SHOW?

    Example:  You have a ASCII file called MYLIST.TXT.

        To SHOW it, you could type SHOW MYLIST.TXT

                        ***OR***

        You could type SHOW MYLIST

        --Notice no ".txt"--that's because SHOW automatically appends
        .txt to any filename it doesn't find.

    If you DO have a MYLIST and a MYLIST.TXT file, not to worry: SHOW
    will distinguish between the two.  It is only when SHOW does not
    find the file MYLIST when it will look for a MYLIST.TXT file.

2.  You can OVERRIDE the QWICKLOAD feature by using the \n flag after
    the TEXT FILENAME you wish to display:

        SHOW text.txt \n

    WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

    Well, the idea behind the .QLD feature is to load a document into
    memory at a blazing speed, allowing you to jump around and do text
    searches as if the entire document were in memory.  But, perhaps you
    have several documents with the same filename and different extensions,
    as with the MYFILE example above:

        Say you had a MYFILE.1, a MYFILE.2, and a MYFILE.3--*SHOW*, in order
        to create a .QLD file, removes the file extension and appends a
        .QLD to the filename.  So if you were to display MYFILE.1 and create
        a Quick-load file for it and you wanted to display MYFILE.2, SHOW will
        actually make the mistake of reading the MYFILE.1 Quick-load file,
        and will not display the text properly.  In such cases where similar
        filenames exist, use the "\n" flag to turn the Quick-load option off.
        Your document, depending on its size, will take longer to be read into
        SHOW, but you will be displaying the proper file without any fear of
        confusion--either on your behalf or SHOW's behalf.

3.  Standard screen sizes go to 80 horizontal characters.  Especially in the
    case of WINDOWS (TM) files saved as TEXT, many ASCII files go beyond the
    80 character line size.  This version of SHOW corrects this by limiting
    each line to 80 characters.  Text beyond that will not be visible.

4.  SHOW works with STANDARD ASCII FILES, displaying text and NOT
    wordprocessing files, which contain endless streams of special font and
    formatting information.  The way a line of text ends is also important
    to SHOW.  Many text files from the INTERNET and other places have text
    lines that end with LINEFEEDS (10/0A) only.  SHOW does not LIKE these
    files and cannot read them.  SHOW requires files that end with a CRLF
    (carriage return [13/0D] and a linefeed [10/0A]).  Most text files on
    MS-DOS compatibles exist in this format.  Since many of you "surf the
    net," there is a chance you will run one of these text files through
    SHOW.  If that is the case, and if SHOW acts strange, use the *FREE*
    utility TXTCRLF.EXE I have included in this batch of files.

        HOW TO USE TXTCRLF.EXE:

                TXTCRLF [oldfile.txt] [newfile.txt]

        OLDFILE.TXT will be the old file you wish to convert.
        NEWFILE.TXT will be the NEW file adhering to the CR/LF standard.
          --You will use NEWFILE.TXT with SHOW.

5.  You can extract or CLIP text from the file you are displaying: to do
    so, write down the line #'s you wish to copy to the CLIP.TXT file and
    type 'C' while in SHOW.  You will be asked for a Starting and an Ending
    line.  Answer appropriately and the text you wish to clip will be
    stored in the CLIP.TXT file, which will exist until you perform another
    "clip" operation.  Once the CLIP.TXT file has been created, you can
    rename that file or do whatever you want with it--but understand that is
    only a TEMPORARY file and will be rewritten once the CLIP function has
    been invoked again.

6.  You can save your reading place and create a Virtual Bookmark:  Before
    you exit SHOW, type 'B' while in SHOW.  This will create a .BMK (Bookmark)
    file.  When go into SHOW at some later date or time and view that file,
    simply press 'P' and SHOW will jump to where you last left off.

7.  Show will run on an 80286 CPU or better.  The faster the CPU, the better
    it will perform.  Longer files will take longer to load into SHOW, but
    once you create a QLD file for them, the next time you access those large
    files, they'll appear instantly before you.  You have the benefit of
    total access to your document without memory concerns.

8.  *******KEEP IN MIND*******

    As your TEXT file changes, so must your QLD file, otherwise it will not
    give SHOW the proper data needed to display your file:

        Example, you wrote a short story, and it's called STORY.TXT.

        You've loaded it into SHOW and created a QLD file for it.  But, now
        you've gone back and edited it.  Now, when you try to SHOW it with
        the QLD option, your new file will be going by the OLD QLD file.

        TO AVOID THIS:

                CD C:\QLD
                DEL STORY.QLD
                CD..

        This will remove your old .QLD (Quickload file) and eliminate any
        discrepancies between your old QLD files and your updated text files.

    FOR THIS REASON, YOU SHOULD AVOID GENERATING A .QLD FILE *UNTIL* YOUR
    TEXT FILE IS NOT GOING TO BE ALTERED.  Save the QLD feature for an ASCII
    file you have or have downloaded, one that will not be subject to change.
    If the file happens to change, be sure to DELETE THE OLD .QLD file and
    generate a NEW .QLD file from within SHOW.

9.  The C:\QLD directory cannot be renamed, nor should it be removed unless
    another software package actually addesses a directory called QLD, in
    which case you simply do not use the .QLD option in SHOW.

    You MAY, however, RD (remove [the] directory) or do a DEL *.QLD from
    within the C:\QLD directory if you really need the space--but, understand,
    the .QLD files are VERY SMALL, and, unless they're creating conflicts
    between same-name text files, it is not a good idea to delete them for
    other than that reason.  By removing the directory, SHOW will not perform
    correctly.

10. WHAT DOES THE .QLD FILE CONTAIN?

        *SHOW* can rapidly display a document/textfile because of line
        character-summations: it adds up the characters in each line and
        stores them in an array in RAM.  When jumping from line to line, it
        accesses this array and generates a corresponding FILE-POINTER, a place
        in the text file to jump to.  That is why SHOW reads all the textfile's
        lines into memory--the lines themselves do not enter RAM, they are
        simply tallied and their line limits are stored in an array, which
        allows for 2-3 megabyte files (the largest I've tried) to be displayed
        quickly and without any detectable lapse in display performance.

        The .QLD file contains this information, which SHOW looks for and, upon
        finding the right .QLD file, reads the line data from the text file
        into memory, rather than reading the text file all over again.  Once
        a QLD file is created, even a 1 MEG text file loads in SECONDS because
        the file itself is not being read--only the QLD file is being read,
        saving time and defying memory limits.

11. *SHOW* is shareware, which is a software marketting technique beneficial
    to both the programmer and the user:  You get to try out the software for
    free and register it once you decide it is of use.  I, as programmer, gain
    the luxury of your audience and am allowed to demonstrate my product
    without any financial obligations on your behalf.  Shareware works best
    when its principles are observed.  SHOW IS NOT CRIPPLED OR DISABLED IN ANY
    WAY--YOU HAVE THE FULL, UNCUT VERSION, unlike many other shareware
    programs which permit you to do so much and then require a registration
    fee for any further functionality.  I believe in the honesty of users and
    know if you find this useful you will send your registration in.  The "fee"
    is only $5.00, and what you get is a program you can use often and
    effectively.  Programmers spend endless hours honing code and optimizing
    routines so their programs do more and occupy less space.  While the
    results can lead to astounding effects and useful programs, the labor often
    goes uncompensated, other than the "programmer's high" a programmer might
    attain when his or her program's finally debugged and runs as expected.
    By supporting shareware authors, you give validity to the cause and ensure
    a continual development of new ideas, new games, new utilities.  Without
    financial support, shareware authors suffer, and so do you:  they will,
    more than likely, be unable to continue developing quality software because
    their efforts go unpaid and the expense of time and energy advances to a
    point where they begin to question, as I have, Is it worth it?  My answer
    would be yes, provided people out there in the computer community verify
    that worth by registering their shareware products.

12. If you chose to upload SHOW onto other Bulletin Boards, please be sure to
    upload it in its entirety, together with all the companion files, including
    this one, in the original .ZIP format.  It would be easier if you kept the
    original .ZIP file pack somewhere on your hard drive or a backup disk so
    you wouldn't have to re-compress them.  It saves you time and keeps the
    file in their original, intended format, ultimately benefitting any user
    who wishes to tap the power of SHOW.


Thank you for trying *SHOW*