Thank you for trying out this program! In order to load the program, copy the program BROWSE.OPO to either the INTERNAL drive, or the A or B drive in the OPO subdirectory.
Set the default drive to the drive which has the DBFs you want to BROWSE. Run the program. It will ask you for the file you want to look at. Select the dbf to browse and it will show a listing of the records in the selected dbf.
I believe I have activated all needed record movement keys. See the list below:
* Up Arrow: Moves up to the previous record.
* Down Arrow: Moves down to the next record.
* PgUp: Moves up 7 records and displays them.
* PgDown: Moves down 7 records and displays them.
* Home: Goes to the first record.
* End: Goes to the last record.
This program makes a number of assumptions. The first and most important - the first field is the field used most often to lookup on. This should be the normal setup for all DBFs.
The next assumption - the second field has the data you are looking for. What does this all mean ? Not a whole heck of a lot, but it needed to be mentioned ! Let's look at a couple of examples -
DBF name = PRODUCT, field 1 = Product, field 2= Price, field 3 = Location, etc.
Adding Machine XL5 $129.85
Fanny Pack $ 8.99
Television AC221 $899.00
DBF name = PEOPLE, field 1 = Name, field 2 = Phone, field 3 = Address, field 4 = City, etc.
Abbott, John 818-123-4567
Achar, Harry 310-123-4567
Baca, Jane 818-234-5678
The shareware version will only show the first 2 fields, the full version will show up to 6 fields, and I have plans to expand this to include all fields within the DBF. This will be determined by the response.
Why have I done this, considering the great utility provided by PSION ? The answer is simple, the power of the PSION Series 3 is not fully utilized. If the database has been sorted on the first field using an UPPER function, my program will return a found record in under 1 second. Not impressed ? I am using this on a DBF which has 10,715 records. My estimation of the maximum number of records which can easily be handled by my program has been set at 32,768. This is based on my using integer numbers to preserve memory and get a little more speed out of the process .
Let's consider just how much of the hardware is needed to make this happen. My file has name, phone, and building location. It currently occupies 567,988 bytes. Being conservative, I will just talk about one 2 meg card. O.K., so each record averages about 56 bytes. This works out to a 2 meg disk theoretically being able to hold about 35,714 records. You can easily substitute the integer values with long integer variables and bring the barrier up to a theoretical limit of 2,147,483,647 records.
Now I am sure that this number is a LITTLE unrealistic. I would have to contact PSION to figure out what the real limits are, but I can guarantee that 10,715 records is real doable!!
If there is enough of a demand, I will work out a method to handle the record update, edits and deletions as well.
Try the menu functions, they all work. Rather than list them here, try out the program and use all the menu options.
To recap, you MUST follow the guidelines set out by PSION regarding the formation of the database. The method I used to create the database on the PSION was to set up a new dbf, then merge the data from my desktop into the PSION. This allows me the option of being able to update, edit and delete from within the PSION in the event I want to.
The DBF should be sorted on the first field in order to work the way it should. The sort must be done as an upper case, this does not mean that the data has to be all UPPER case, but the sort should be done that way.
To look for information in a field other than the first, use the menu function "Find Group (PSION+G)" to find a string anywhere within the record.
Try it out, see if you like it. If the program helps you out, I encourage you to register your copy with me for $50.00, and I'll send you the source code, single record browse facility and the ability to create groups.
I will be delighted to answer questions from registered owners through the CompuServe network. If for some reason you can not log on to CompuServ, I can be reached at the address above.
The only thing left is to handle the legal stuff -
LEGAL STUFF:
I can't be responsible for any damages you cause by using the program. I (Steven Heard) retain all rights to these programs. By giving it away free, I am NOT releasing any rights to the program, its concepts, etc. If you use or distribute the programs, you are agreeing to the following: You can give BROWSE.OPO and README.WRD away to whoever you want, but you can't charge them any money for it. You also can't charge a fee for diskettes or other media that you use to distribute the software. You can't include these files in other software packages, collections, etc. without my express written permission.