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1993-12-07
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47KB
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892 lines
CD SCAN Version 5.02
Budget Edition
Copyright (c) 1992, 1993
By
Joseph K. S. Dunn.
for
Australian Intelligent
Software Services
All rights reserved.
USER MANUAL
7 December 1993
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Copyright Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1 Installation and System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 How Cd Scan Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 Starting the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4 Entering a New Cd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5 Exiting Cd Scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6 Browsing Your Cd Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.1 Re-sorting the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.2 Deleting a Cd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7 Displaying a Cd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.1 Editing a Cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.2 Tagging and Pasting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8 Creating and Viewing Lyrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
8.1 Summary of Display Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9 Searching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
10 Print Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10.1 Printing the Cd Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10.2 Printing the Full Catalogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10.3 Viewing a Text File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10.4 Printing a text file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10.5 Printer Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10.6 Notes about Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11 Utilities Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11.1 Optimising the Data File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11.2 Undeleting Cds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.3 Merging Catalogues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.4 Select Colour Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
11.5 Calculating Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
12 Errors and Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Final Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Foreword
This project has taken nearly two years of hard work to complete. I would
like to express my appreciation of those who support me by their registration
of this software. This is a Budget Edition designed to give you a feel for
what the software can do. Although I have made this edition legal as is, I
would strongly encourage you to register a fully functional version if you
intend to use it for cataloging a large collection. The registered version
will accommodate 4000 cds instead of the limited 75 of this Budget Edition.
Please see the order.frm on the distribution disk.
A bit about me: I am a blind student studying at The Flinders University of
South Australia. I enjoy listening to music, playing drums and being a
friend. I hope to complete my B.Sc. degree and major in Computer Science and
use this as a basis to go on writing software to aid the disabled.
Credits
Special thanks to:
- The Lord Jesus Christ who is my inspiration and saviour, to whom I owe
everything. (Psalm 139, Galatians 2:20)
- To my family for their support and patience,
- To Rohan Lewis and Tony Galliford, faithful partners in Australian
Intelligent Software Services, for suggestions, help with the mouse
routines, testing of new versions, help with the organisation of the
print manual, etc.
- To you for choosing this software.
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines
Corporation. Disclaimer
I Joseph Dunn, the author of Cd Scan, and Australian Intelligent Software
Services, will not be made liable, under any circumstance, regarding the use
or inability to use this software. I will not be made liable for any loss of
data or loss of profits even if I am notified of the possibility of such an
event. This software comes as is, you use it at your own risk. I have tested
this program as extensively as time has permitted and found it to perform as
documented in this Manual. If you do find a bug in the program, please report
it. I will fix any bugs submitted to me in writing.
Copyright Notice
The Budget Edition of Cd Scan and its accompanying documentation is copyright
and may not be reverse engineered or modified in any way. It may be freely
distributed provided that the original contents of the distribution archive
file are all distributed together, either as the originally named archive file
or on a diskette in its unpacked form. All files must be included. Introduction
Cd Scan is a powerful music cataloguing system specifically designed for
cataloguing a compact disk collection. Up to 75 cds each containing up to 99
tracks may be accommodated on this Budget Edition. The program includes a
powerful and flexible search facility and a quick scan browse facility which
allows you to quickly browse through your collection. The index may be sorted
by either the cd title or the artist name at the press of a key. A cd's
contents may be displayed, and you may even browse the lyrics of a given track
(if they exist). The print facility allows you to create title or artist
lists as well as a complete record of your whole catalogue and much more.
These lists may be printed directly or exported to your favourite word
processor for further editing.
Preparation of recorded material is made easy by Cd Scan's ability to
accumulate selected track times and generate a list of these selections, which
perhaps could be used as a cassette label.
A Utilities Menu offers maintenance features like Optimisation to ensure the
most efficient access to your cd collection, an option to recover deleted cds,
a facility to merge two catalogues together, the ability to select a different
colour scheme and a function to calculate some statistics about your
collection like average track time etc.
You may also "lock" Cd Scan so that if you are using it in a library or other
public display, data may be protected from unauthorised modification.
Besides Cd Scan's powerful features to make cataloging your cds enjoyable and
efficient, the program will also do its best to protect your data. Cd scan
will automatically detect a missing or corrupt index and will attempt to
rectify the situation, if it is ever needed.
To ensure that you get the most out of this cataloguing system, the User
Manual may be called up from any of the menus at the press of a key (or the
click of a mouse button).
1 Installation and System Requirements
To run Cd Scan you need an IBM compatible with at least 384k ram and DOS 2.11
or later. If you intend to use Cd Scan near full capacity, 640k is required.
A hard disk is recommended for fastest and most reliable performance. Cd
Scan is distributed on a single floppy disk. The files on this disk should
be placed in a directory by themselves. For the uninitiated, a directory is
a place on the disk which contains files belonging to a particular group,
i.e. all these files belong to Cd Scan and therefore should be placed in an
area by themselves to distinguish there function from say your word processor
files. To make a directory and place Cd Scan into it do the following:
1. Exit any application you may be running and get to the DOS prompt. It
may look something like:
C>
2. From this point type:
CD\
(after pressing Enter) type:
MD CD-SCAN
(after pressing Enter), type:
CD\CD-SCAN
(and press Enter again).
3. Place the disk with the Cd Scan files on it into drive A and type:
COPY A:\*.*
then press Enter again.
4. Once you have been returned to the DOS prompt, you may run Cd Scan by
typing the command:
CDSB
See your DOS manual about creating batch files if you wish to run Cd Scan
from a batch file or see the appropriate documentation if you wish to run Cd
Scan from a menu program.
Any lyrics files must be placed in a subdirectory of cd-scan called lyrics,
I.e. the directory structure should look like:
c:\cd-scan\lyrics
2 How Cd Scan Works
Cd Scan maintains two special files on disk, one contains the main text of
the compact disk data and the other is an electronic index for quick access
to the cds. This file basically contains a reference pointer for all cds.
You, the user will not directly come in to contact with either files but you
must be made aware of their presence and warned not to modify, move or delete
these special data files. Cd scan also creates text files for printing or
editing and these will be discussed in a later section.
3 Starting the Program
To start Cd Scan, just type the command, cdsb, followed by enter from the DOS
prompt. If you are not in the cd-scan directory, and if this directory is not
in your path, you will have to change to it by typing: cd\cd-scan, first. A
basic knowledge of DOS is assumed, if you have problems, consult a friend or
the DOS Manual. You may wish to start the program from a menu system such as
a Shell program, see the relevant documentation for the installation
procedure.
Cd Scan provides a mode of operation suitable for a public library, to prevent
unauthorised modification of data. To run Cd Scan in "Locked" mode, add the -
l command line option. In "Locked" mode, you will not be permitted to modify
any data whatsoever.
Run Cd Scan by typing the appropriate command, e.g. cdsb -l, or by choosing
it from your menu system.
Your screen will clear and a menu box will appear in the middle of your
screen with the option "3 Browse Cd Index" highlighted. By pressing the up
and down cursor keys, or by using a mouse to point to an option and pressing
the left button once you can move the highlight bar to any of the six
options. To select an option, either press the left mouse button again or
press Enter. Alternatively, you can press the number next to the option to
highlight it and select it in one go. To cancel an option at any time, press
the Escape key or the right mouse button. Options may be selected from sub-
menus in the same way as the Main Menu, the first option of each sub-menu
will return you to the Main Menu as will the Escape key or right mouse
button. (Options such as Utilities Menu are examples of sub-menus). Most of
the instructions you need to operate the program will be displayed on the
Status Line (the last line on the screen).
You may view the User Manual by pressing the f1 key or by clicking the left
mouse button while pointing to the message "Press f1 for User Manual".
While viewing the User Manual with Cd Scan's built in text file viewer, you
may search for a particular section by pressing f2 and typing the text to be
located.
After pressing Enter, the cursor will be located at the beginning of the text
if it is located. The search facility in the file viewer is case sensitive,
i.e. uppercase and lowercase characters are different. To locate the next
match, just press f2 followed by Enter. To exit the User Manual, press Escape
or click the left mouse button while pointing to the esc-exit message. You
will be returned to the Menu from which you invoked the User Manual.
4 Entering a New Cd
Well, lets get the show on the road! Lets begin by entering a compact disk
into the system. Select "Enter a New Cd" by using the mouse or keyboard as
discussed in the previous section. Cd Scan keeps track of several items of
information about your cds. These are: The Artist, Title, Unique
Identification Code (used when accessing lyric files), Track times, Track
names, and a short comment about the cd. If a cd contains various artists
(such as many compilation cds), these may also be recorded.
When entering any data, the following keys may be used:
- Left and Right arrow keys: move cursor left or right one space,
- Backspace: move the cursor one space to the left and delete the character
there,
- Delete: delete the character at the current cursor position,
- Ctrl+w: delete to end of word,
- Ctrl+l: kill line (in comment box only),
- Ctrl+y: yank back line (in comment box only),
- Home and End: move the cursor to the first or last character in the
field,
- Insert: toggle between insert or over-strike mode,
- Enter/Tab: give completed data to program,
- Escape: quit operation.
Some brief notes:
1. The cursor is the flashing square which appears when you are asked for a
response and which indicates where the next character will be placed on
the screen.
2. Insert mode is where characters typed are inserted before other
characters on the line rather than over the top of them as in over-
strike.
3. You will notice that all characters typed will be converted to uppercase.
This feature standardises all data as many publishing companies can't
make up their minds about how the information on cd covers should be
printed. If all text is in one case it is faster to search through.
4. The time for a track must be entered in the form mmss (you may omit
leading zeros, i.e. 355 is the same as 0355 and 50 is the same as 0050.
If you press Enter on a time field it will be left blank. Some cds
don't have a record of the track times.
5. Text fields may be up to 60 characters in length and the comment may be
up to 5 lines of 60 characters.
6. When entering filenames etc, moving the cursor with the arrow keys or
home/end before typing any characters will enable you to edit the default
response. If you just start typing, the default response will be
replaced by the new characters.
7. The left mouse button is interpreted as the Enter key in the context of
editing or accepting default responses such as in filename prompts. The
right mouse button is interpreted as the Escape key at all relevant
times.
The first item you will be asked for is the Artist's name. If you are
cataloguing a various artist cd, just enter a # as the artist's name. This
tells the program to prompt you for the artist of each track. After you have
typed in the Artist name and pressed the Enter key, (as in all cases of data
entry), Cd Scan will then respond with a prompt asking you to type the Title
of the cd. If you make a mistake during the entry of data and don't realise
it in time to correct it, i.e. you've pressed Enter, don't worry, you can
correct it later. (see 7.1). You will then be asked to enter a unique id for
the cd. You may leave it blank at this stage by just pressing ENTER or
ESCAPE, or you may enter your personal coding scheme. I use a scheme which
gives each artist a number and for each disk by that artist, a letter, i.e.
the first disk I purchased had the code 1a, the second by the same artist had
the code 1b etc. After you have typed in the id of the cd and pressed ENTER,
Cd Scan will check the uniqueness of this code. If it is found in the index,
you will be asked to "try again".
Next, the screen will display a box with three columns in it and the artist
and title centred above the box. This box will become familiar to you as you
use the program. This screen will be referred to as the "Display Screen".
The three columns are the track number (1 to 99), the time (mm:ss) and the
track name. You will be asked to Enter the second two pieces of information,
i.e. the track duration and name. If you don't wish to enter a time in,
leave it blank by just pressing Enter.
If you specified that the cd contained various artists by entering a # at the
first prompt, you will also be prompted for the artist of each track. If you
leave this field blank, Cd Scan will record it as "NONE SPECIFIED".
Once all the tracks have been entered in, press Enter on a name field and you
will be asked to type in a comment for the cd. If you don't wish to include
a comment then just press Enter until the box disappears or press the Escape
key. Such information which might be included in the comment box could be
the copyright date, a favourite song or a music category etc. Once the data
for a cd has been entered, the program will store the cd on disk and add its
reference to the index. A Various Artist cd will be denoted by "VARIOUS
ARTISTS" when browsing the index (See chapter 6). Cd Scan will automatically
sort the index each time an addition is made Repeat this Enter process until
you have several cds in the index.
5 Exiting Cd Scan
If you have had enough for this session and wish to Leave the program, you
may select this option from the main menu or just press the Escape key or
right mouse button until you are asked if this is your real intention. If
you press Escape again, the operation will be cancelled and you will not exit
the program. If you answer y for yes or hit the left mouse button you will
leave Cd Scan and return to DOS.
Note: For all (y/n) prompts, the right mouse button is equivalent to a
negative response, i.e. pressing "n" or the Escape key while the left button
is equivalent to a positive response, i.e. pressing "y".
6 Browsing Your Cd Collection
Once the index contains at least one cd you will be able to browse. Select
Browse from the main menu and two boxes will be displayed, the number of cds
in the index will be written above these boxes and the bottom line (status
line) will display several options.
The two boxes (or windows) contain a list of artist names and cd titles. A
highlight bar will appear marking an artist and title. You may browse through
the cds using the following keys:
- Up/Down: move the highlight bars up or down one cd,
- Pgup/Pgdn: move the bars forward or backward a page at a time,
- Home/End: move the bars to the first or last cd in the index.
- Tab: swap windows and re-sort the index.
- f2, go to cd with a particular id code.
- Escape: return to the main menu.
You may also use the mouse to point to a cd and press the left button to
highlight it. To display the previous or next screen of cds using the mouse,
point to the top or bottom border of the windows and press the left button.
Note: the cd highlighted will be referred to as the current cd.
As you highlight a cd, its id code (if it has one) will be displayed in the
top right corner of the screen. You may go straight to a particular cd by
using the "go to" option. To select this option either press the f2 key or
use the mouse to point to it and click the left button. You will be asked to
enter a cd id code. If this code is located, the cd with that code will
become the current cd.
To exit the Browse facility, just press the Escape key or the right mouse
button.
6.1 Re-sorting the Index
When you press the Tab key or press the left mouse button when pointing to
the "tab-swap windows" message on the status line while browsing the index,
the two windows will be swapped and the index sorted by whatever is in the
left hand window. For example, if the index is currently sorted by the
artist name (the artist names being displayed in the left hand window), then
these will be moved to the right hand window and the titles will be moved to
the left hand window and the index re-sorted. The highlight bar will be
placed on the same cd in its new sorted position in the index. When you exit
the browse screen, if Cd Scan is not "Locked", any modifications to the index
will be written to disk so that next time you browse your collection, the
sort order will be preserved. This doesn't apply if you are browsing the
results of a search.
6.2 Deleting a Cd
If you wish to delete a cd altogether, you can do this from the browse
screen. Just make the cd you wish to delete the current one, i.e. highlight
it, then either press Ctrl-d or use the mouse to point to the option and
press the left button as usual. If Cd Scan is not "Locked", You will be
asked if you really want to go ahead with the deletion and then according to
your response, the appropriate action will be taken. (Don't worry if you
delete a cd accidentally, you will be able to undelete it later from the
Utilities Menu.
7 Displaying a Cd
If you press Enter on the current cd or press the left mouse button while
pointing to the highlighted cd, the familiar box first encountered in the
"Enter a New Cd" option along with several other items will be displayed.
The first time of the first track will be highlighted. This highlight bar
indicates the current track. You may move this highlight bar up and down
with the following keys:
- Up/Down: move to next or previous track,
- Pgup/Pgdn: move to the previous or next screen of tracks,
- Home/End: move to the first or last track on the cd.
- F2/F3: goto next/previous matching track or cd.
You can also use the mouse to highlight a time by pointing to the track and
pressing the left mouse button.
If the cd contains various artists, the usual position for the cd artist will
be replaced by the artist of each track as you scroll through the tracks. The
words "VARIOUS ARTISTS" will appear above this.
7.1 Editing a Cd
Cd scan allows you to edit the contents of a cd. This is useful if you find
that you've miss-typed a name or if you missed some information. You are even
permitted to Reorder the tracks just in case they were printed on the cd cover
in a different order to what they were actually recorded on the cd. This
option also allows you to add tracks that may have inadvertently been left off
when you initially entered the cd.
The edit options are accessed by pressing Alt+e or by pressing the left mouse
button while pointing to the option on the status line.
If Cd Scan is not "Locked", pressing Alt-e or selecting this option with the
mouse will display options corresponding to the field names that can be
edited and the options of reordering and adding tracks.
You may select:
a -to correct the artist name,
t - for the title,
i - for the id,
n - for the current track name,
c - for the comment or
l - for the length of the current track.
r - to reorder the tracks,
Enter to Add tracks.
Remember you can also make a selection using the mouse. Once a selection is
made, you are permitted to edit the selected field.
If you delete all the characters when editing the name of a track, you will be
asked if you really want to delete the track. According to your response, the
appropriate action will be taken. If you delete the track, all other tracks
will be moved up one position. If you delete all the tracks on the cd then
the empty cd will be deleted from the index and obviously irrecoverable.
If the cd contains various artists then selecting a for artist will allow you
to edit the artist of the highlighted track.
To reorder the tracks, simply highlight the track you wish to move using the
keyboard or mouse, select the edit options, select reorder, then highlight the
track before which you want to insert, finally, press Enter or press the left
mouse button on the highlighted track. The initial track will be inserted
before the second track you selected and the rest of the tracks will be
shifted appropriately.
You will not be permitted to delete either the title or main artist of the cd,
only edit them. If you attempt to delete these fields, they will just
miraculously reappear when you press Enter.
When you return to the browse screen by pressing Escape from the display
screen, the changes will be written to disk. The index will be re-sorted
if need be only when you exit the browse screen. This means that if you edit
the artist or title of a cd which causes them to take a different order in the
index, they will not be moved until you exit the browse screen and go back in
to it.
7.2 Tagging and Pasting Tracks
Once you have a cd displayed on the screen, you may use Cd Scan's functions to
help you compile a radio program, create a tape label or just create a list of
your favourite tracks from your collection.
The tag function may be viewed like the Program facility offered on most Cd
Players. If you tag a track, it is marked for pasting to a text file and its
time is added to the Total Time Box. You may unmark the track and subtract
its time just by tagging the track again. Alternatively, if you wish to
create a label containing all but one or two tracks, you only need mark those
two tracks and then use the Invert function to invert the status of all the
tracks on this cd, i.e. unmark all marked tracks and mark all unmarked tracks
and add the time of just the marked tracks to the Total Time Box.
To mark a track and add its time to the Total Time Box, simply make the track
the current one by highlighting it and then by pressing the Space Bar. To
unmark and subtract this track's time, just press the Space Bar again. To
perform a tag invert, just press and hold down the Alt key and press the Space
Bar. As described above, the status of all the tracks will be inverted.
The tag facility is also selectable via the mouse as usual.
This facility allows the text of the track number, time, name and possibly
artist, to be added to a text file for later printing or editing. A "+" or
"*" will be placed in the right margin to indicate that a track has been
tagged for pasting, depending on whether the track also has a lyrics file
linked to it (see chapter 8). When you use the Invert function (Alt-Space),
you will notice the indicator symbols (see 8.1) change to reflect the new
status of each track. When you exit this screen and return to the browse
index, you will be asked to enter a filename. A default name will be
offered, either accept this name or edit the field to change it. The
artist's name, cd title and all tagged tracks will be added to this file. To
edit this file you must use a text editor of some sort, although you can
print it as it is from the Print Menu.
If this file is not deleted, it will be added to each time you Paste a track
to it. You are given the option to delete this file from the "Print Text
File" option on the Print Menu.
Times will be accumulated as different cds are displayed. To clear the time
box and unmark all tracks on the displayed cd, press the Delete, (Del), key.
Note: Times will not be accumulated above 99:59. If an attempt is made to
add times that total more than this, or to subtract times until total is less
than 0 then an error message will alert you. The Time box must then be
cleared using Del.
Play with this tag function and practice tagging tracks and creating text
files of your favourite songs. Remember you may even return to the browse
screen by pressing Enter (or Escape) and selecting another cd. Notice that
the time box is not cleared. Make sure you clear the time box if you just
want the total of one cd.
8 Creating and Viewing Lyrics
If you have the lyrics to any of the tracks in your collection and wish them
to be displayed when you select the track from the Display Screen, you must
use your favourite editor to create a text file containing the lyrics and
store it in the lyrics subdirectory under the name of idtk.lyr where id is the
unique cd identifier and tk is the track number, e.g. if the disk id is 1a
and the track is 1 then the file should be called 1a01.lyr.
If the lyrics file exists when you select the track, it will be displayed and
you will be permitted to browse through the file using the standard
procedures. When you exit the file viewer by pressing Escape, you will be
returned to the display screen. An "X" or "*" will appear in the right margin
when displaying a cd if the track to the left has a lyrics file linked to it.
When you optimise the catalogue, you will be given the option to update any
links to lyric files, in case new lyrics have been added or files have been
deleted. If you edit any field while displaying a cd, i.e. if you edit say
the current track name, the lyrics file links will be updated when you return
to the Browse Screen. An attempt to display a nonexistent lyrics file will
result in an error message.
If you re-order the tracks on the cd, the program will automatically check to
see if there are lyrics files which need to be renamed and perform the
appropriate house keeping. If you delete a track, its lyrics file will be
renamed with the "old" extension and the subsequent tracks will be renamed as
appropriate. If you edit the cd's id and change it, all lyrics files linked
to that cd will automatically be renamed. If a cd is deleted, no action is
taken with regard to its lyrics files if they exist. Except for the house
keeping described above, the maintenance of lyrics files is left up to the
user.
8.1 Summary of Display Symbols
Symbols appearing in the right margin while displaying a cd indicate a tracks
status as follows:
A blank indicates that this track has no lyrics file,
An "X" indicates that this track has a lyrics file,
A "+" indicates that this track will be pasted to a text file on exit from the
Display Screen,
A "*" indicates that this track has a lyrics file and will be pasted to a text
file on exit from the Display Screen.
9 Searching
Cd Scan allows you to search for any part of any field in the catalogue
except the id. Select "Search Menu" from the Main Menu and you will be given
the options of searching the different fields. Select the field you wish to
search and enter the text to be located. The text may appear anywhere in the
field.
If you select Artist, all various artist cds will also be searched.
Selecting the "Track Length" field allows you to either search for all
tracks which are a specific length, which are in a range of lengths, less
than a given length or longer than a given length. Here are some examples of
how track length searches are entered:
1. 233 - search for all cds containing tracks exactly 02:33 in length.
2. <30 - search for all cds containing tracks of length < 30 seconds.
3. >1000 - search for all cds containing tracks with length > 10 minutes.
4. 233-302 - search for all cds containing tracks whose lengths are in the
range 02:33 to 03:02 inclusive.
An example of entering a time specification is given on the status line when
you choose this option.
Note: Searching by artist or title will be significantly faster as these
fields are held in memory.
Once the search has taken place, the results will be presented in the same
form as the browse screen. See chapters 6 and 7. When you display a cd after
being presented with a list of cds containing matches, the first matching
track will be highlighted if appropriate. To jump to the next matching track,
press F2 or use the mouse; to jump to the previous matching track, press F3 or
use the mouse. This facility will only be available if you searched by either
Track Name or Track Length or if the cd has various artists and you've
searched by Artist Name.
10 Print Menu
Printing is very useful because it gets the words out of the computers grubby
hands and onto paper like we are all used to. The print facility offers you
the options of printing an artist list containing a list of artist names and
titles, a full compact disk list containing all the information you entered,
the ability to view or print a text file like the one you pasted tracks to
(see 7.2), directing the output to a file or to the printer and sending a
special command string to the printer.
10.1 Printing the Cd Index
Selecting this option will print a list containing the artist names and
titles of all your cds. When you select this option, you will be asked to
enter the name of the output file or device. If you wish to send the list to
the printer, just accept the default name, otherwise, enter a valid filename
to create. This file may then be imported into a text editor for further
editing.
The list will be printed in a similar form and in the same order as the
browse presentation, i.e. if your index is sorted by cd title then the cd
titles will be in the left column otherwise the artist names will be in the
left column. Titles or Artist names of more than 39 characters will be
truncated. The pages will be automatically numbered and a heading printed at
the top of each page.
10.2 Printing the Full Catalogue
Selecting this option will print a full listing of all your cds, i.e. each
cd will be listed in the order specified by the browse presentation. All the
information will be printed including the comments. Pages will be
automatically numbered and a heading will be printed at the top of each page.
If a cd must be split across a page boundary, a continuation message is
printed after restating the title of the continued cd.
When you select this option, you will be asked to enter the name of the output
file or device. If you wish to send the list to the printer, just accept the
default name, otherwise, enter a valid filename to create. This file may then
be imported into a text editor for further editing.
10.3 Viewing a Text File
Cd Scan offers a facility to view any text file. You may view a file created
by Cd Scan such as one you pasted tracks to. After selecting this option,
enter a filename. If the file is found, you will be permitted to view it
using the usual keys, i.e. up/down, pgup/pgdn, home/end. You may search for
text by pressing f2 and typing the pattern to be located. After you have
entered the search pattern and pressed Enter, the cursor will be placed at the
start of the pattern if it is located. This search facility is case
sensitive, i.e. the case of the characters typed in must match the characters
in the text exactly if a match is to be found. To locate the next match, just
press f2 followed by Enter. To exit the file viewer, press the Escape key.
This file viewer will enable you to view any strictly text document of up to 4
megabytes in size.
10.4 Printing a text file
If you used the Paste Track facility discussed in section 7.2 then you may
print the text file created by selecting this option. If you select "Text
File", You will be asked for the filename and offered a default name. Either
select this name or edit it to change it. After printing this file, you
will be asked if you wish to delete it. If you respond affirmatively, the
file will be deleted and any subsequent pastes will be written to a new file.
If you respond negatively or just press Escape, the file will be left intact
and any subsequent pastes will be appended to the end of the old file.
10.5 Printer Control
When you select this option, you will be prompted to enter codes to send to
the printer. You will need to refer to your printer's documentation to
determine what codes to send. Once you know what control codes to send, the
characters can be generated by holding down the Alt key and pressing the
corresponding number on the numeric keypad. For example, to send a Formfeed
character, control code 12, hold down the Alt key and type 12 on the numeric
keypad then press Enter. You will be asked if you want to send the string and
according to your response an attempt is made to send the string to the
printer. This facility is useful for setting up your printer for say a tape
label for which compressed print is appropriate. If you have trouble
generating the characters with the numeric keypad, check the state of your
Numlock key (it should be on).
10.6 Notes about Printing
1. The print facility assumes you are using A4 paper and prints 60 lines
to a page.
2. A printer error will result if you attempt to print without paper or if
the printer is off line. Press a key when you have fixed the problem
or press Escape to cancel printing.
11 Utilities Menu
This menu offers such facilities as optimisation, undeletion, merging, colour
scheme selection and statistical analysis of your collection.
Note: If Cd Scan is "Locked" then the only valid options will be Select Colour
Scheme and Calculate Statistics. Also, the Colour Scheme will not be
remembered when you next use the program.
11.1 Optimising the Data File
Note: If you wish to undelete any cds, this must be done before Optimise is
selected, see 11.2.
Before I discuss what Optimisation does, you need to understand a bit about
the way Cd Scan stores its information. I mentioned earlier about an index
file, a file containing a list of reference pointers to the main text. The
index file is generally the file which undergoes the most modification when
adding or modifying data. In fact, when a cd is deleted, its reference
pointer is just removed from the index and placed in a special deletion
tracking file allowing undeletion which will be discussed soon. The
information stored in the main data file is not modified in any way, this
eliminates the possibility of disk error and minimises disk operations. When
a cd is modified, a new copy of the cd is added to the end of the data file
and the old pointer in the index is updated to point to the new copy. After
many modifications have been made, the speed of the program may be affected.
This is where Optimisation comes in. What Optimisation does is reads each cd
from the index and writes a new copy of the data file, writing the cds in
their correct alphabetic order and eliminating obsolete data. Optimisation
need only be performed when many modifications have been made. Optimisation
also gives you the option of updating links to lyrics files which may have
been added or deleted.
When Optimise is selected from the Utilities Menu you will be asked if you
wish to update links to lyrics files during the operation. Choosing to update
these links will cause the optimise process to take a little longer. Before
the optimisation begins, a backup of the catalogue is automatically made.
You must not disturb the disk activity in any way until the Optimisation is
complete or data may be lost and irrecoverable.
Note: With a large catalogue, an XT type computer or a floppy disk system may
take a while to perform the Optimisation. Please be patient and don't
disrupt the operation.
After Optimisation has finished, searching and browsing will be more
efficient and the main data file will probably be smaller. If something does
go wrong during Optimisation the old files which were renamed with the bak
extension may be renamed with the dat extension and the old catalogue
restored. See your DOS manual with regard to renaming files. Installing a
Disk Cache such as SMARTDRV.SYS, which comes with DOS, will speed up
optimisation significantly.
11.2 Undeleting Cds
If you accidentally deleted a cd or you just decide that you want back a cd
which has been deleted, and if you haven't Optimised the catalogue, you may
Undelete it. When "Undelete Cds" is selected from the Utilities Menu an
attempt to locate a deletion tracking file is made. If found, you will be
asked if you wish to undelete any cds contained in this file. If you
undelete the cds at this point they will be added to the index again and will
be accessible. If you choose not to undelete the cds at this point and
decide to Optimise the catalogue they will be lost forever as the obsolete
data will be removed from the main data file. (obsolete data includes deleted
cds or old copies of a cd which have since been modified). The Deletion
Tracking File DELETED.DAT will be deleted when the catalogue is Optimised.
Note: If you undelete a cd, remember to check its id code as Cd Scan will not
verify its uniqueness.
11.3 Merging Catalogues
This facility allows two catalogues to be merged into one. If you know
someone who has already catalogued some cds which you have obtained and don't
wish to re-type all of the details, you may incorporate that complete
catalogue into your own.
Warning! Read Carefully to avoid disaster: Rename the catalogue files to be
merged before copying them into your CD-SCAN directory as follows:
ren cds5.dat Cds5.mrg
ren cds5ndx.dat cds5ndx.mrg
Then copy these files to your CD-SCAN directory as follows:
copy *.MRG C:\CD-SCAN
Finally, run Cd Scan and select "Merge Catalogues" from the Utilities Menu.
When you next browse, your index will contain the new merged catalogues,
sorted the same way as your original catalogue. You may then delete the .MRG
files.
Note: Remember to check the id codes of the merged cds as Cd Scan will not
verify their uniqueness.
11.4 Select Colour Scheme
This option will cycle through 4 colour schemes, one is suitable for a
monochrome monitor or a lap-top, the others are just varying colour schemes.
Once you have selected the desired scheme, it will be remembered the next time
you use the program, that is, unless the catalogue is locked.
11.5 Calculating Statistics
When you select this option from the Utilities Menu, Cd Scan will go away and
calculate some information about your cd collection. (all the vital
statistics you just were dying to know about and which will cure your
insomnia, at least for tonight). The following information will be presented
in a table:
minimum, average (mean) and maximum track length, minimum, mean and
maximum cd length, minimum, mean and maximum number of tracks per
cd, number of cds in index, total number of tracks, Number of tracks
with lyrics files and approximate playing time.
12 Errors and Troubleshooting
If Cd Scan does not run correctly, check the following:
1. Your CONFIG.SYS file contains at least 20 files and buffers. (See your
DOS manual for more information)
2. Your cds5ndx.dat and cds5.dat files are both present in the same
directory as the cdsb.exe file.
3. If Cd Scan runs too slow, try Optimising it. If you have several thousand
cds, Cd Scan will operate significantly slower than with a smaller
catalogue.
4. If your system locks up on start up, check how much memory your system
has free. You may have to get rid of a TSR or something.
5. When the index is either empty or full, you will be notified. If full,
no more cds may be added and if empty, there will be no data to
search, browse or print.
6. A printer error can usually be rectified just by ensuring that the
printer is on line and that the paper is correctly aligned. If you
still have trouble printing, consult your printer manual.
7. Note on Deletion: The deletion tracking file, created when a cd is
deleted, is called deleted.dat. Do not delete or modify this file or
you will not be able to undelete any cds. Do not try to undelete a cd
from an obsolete deletion tracking file as its reference may not be
valid. Suffice to say, don't try to do the programs work for it or
you may find yourself in trouble!
8. When Cd Scan is "Locked" via the -l command line option, the message
"Access denied" will be displayed when any attempt is made to modify
data.
9. If a lyric file is not found when you select a track, check that you have
correctly named the file and that the cd has the id you think it should.
If a cd has no id, Cd Scan will just look for a file with the track
number and extension "lyr" as its name.
10. The file viewer is strictly for text, it will convert any non-printable
characters to spaces. You will be able to view any size file up to about
4 megabytes. Remember that the search facility in the file viewer is
case sensitive, i.e. uppercase characters are different from lowercase
characters.
Final Word
This completes the discussion of the Cd Scan cataloguing system. I sincerely
hope it meets your cataloguing requirements. All suggestions are welcome.
For more information about the program or author, all correspondence should be
sent to the address below.
Joseph Dunn:
1/58 Murray Terrace,
Oaklands Park S.A. 5046
Australia
Phone: +61 8 296-3899
THE END
