Frostbyte's 1980s DOS Shareware Collection

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Text File | 1989-09-18 | 20KB | 426 lines

V4L.EXE (VIAL for LIFE) Version 4.12 September 17, 1989 A Program to prepare VIAL FOR LIFE records and BLOOD GLUCOSE records Copyright 1989 by William M. Galvin, Jr. All Rights Reserved VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 2 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS V4L.EXE? ---------------- V4L: a fourth generation program to prepare "Vial for Life" record sheets, and weekly Blood Glucose/Insulin dosage records. A sheet is produced listing pertinant medical facts, medicine doses, pre- scription numbers, doctors names and phone numbers plus a short medical history; useful in the "Vial for Life" rescue squad program. The "Vial for Life" is an ongoing project that some of the local rescue squads have. The members of the squads are trained to look at the refrigerator for a sticky tag that says "Vial for Life"; and if one exists on the door, they then look on the shelves in the door for a large prescription (5" approx.) container that has the same label. All the data that they need is in the container. If your local rescue squad does not use this project, they should start it. Additionally, record sheets are produced for a diabetic to record daily blood glucose readings and insulin dosages. Sheets are also printed for an individual who has an anomaly in medication require- ments. The sheets will be combined if the individual has medication anom- alies and insulin requirements. The program can run on a floppy disk system or a system with a hard drive. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 3 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTERING V4L.EXE ------------------- V4L is a Shareware product. It is not public domain software. P.S.G. urges those who find V4L to be of sufficient utility so as to use it on a regular basis to remit a registration fee of $30.00. Registration will also provide the user with one year's updates without cost. You may print a registration form using the DOS PRINT utility. Enter PRINT REGISTER.FRM. The mailing address for registrations is: P.S.G. 11016 Powder Horn Drive Potomac, MD 20854 WHY REGISTER V4L? ----------------- Shareware is a unique concept. It benefits the user by providing high quality, low cost software that can be thoroughly evaluated before purchase. If you like the product and you decide to use it, then you should register. Shareware is not like public domain soft- ware -- it is protected by federal copyright laws and it is not free. More importantly, the only way to encourage Shareware authors to continue to provide Shareware products is by paying them for the products that you use. V4L LICENSE TERMS ----------------- V4L, and all supporting/attendant documentation and utility software, is copyrighted by P.S.G., Inc. (William M. Galvin, jr.), all rights reserved (1989). It is licensed specifically for eval- uation use by all IBM PC/XT/AT and compatible owners and operators as Shareware. As Shareware, V4L may be freely copied by individ- uals, Computer User Groups, and Bulletin Board System (BBS) op- erators for transmission to others for evaluation. V4L is not free. It is a fully mature software product distributed via the Shareware method by P.S.G., Inc. which is owned and operated by William M. Galvin, jr. No charge of any amount may be made by anyone for V4L without the express permission of P.S.G., with the following exceptions: Bona fide organized computer user groups and/or clubs may charge a nominal copying and handling fee for the purpose of distributing Shareware copies of V4L to their members. BBS operators who operate on a subscription basis may include copies of V4L on their boards for downloading by board subscribers. COMPUTER DISK VENDORS AND SIMILAR DISTRIBUTORS OF PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE WHO PROFIT FROM THE DISTRIBUTION OF DISKS ARE SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED FROM DISTRIBUTING V4L WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM P.S.G., Inc. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 4 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- All others are encouraged to make copies of V4L and pass them along (without charge) to their friends, associates, or acquaintances for the purposes of evaluation. The self extracting V_4_L should be used for this purpuse. WARRANTY -------- V4L is provided AS IS without any warranty, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. P.S.G. takes no responsibility for the data entered by the users. DISTRIBUTION FILES ------------------ The following files are included in the Shareware distribution package: V_4_L.EXE which contains: V4L.EXE the operational program V4L.DOC this document V4L_READ.ME (if necessary) REGISTER.FRM a registration form PRODUCT SUPPORT --------------- I support my software! I will respond to phone calls, letters, or telegrams. The author/proprietor (Mike Galvin) can be reached at (301) 299-8581. ABOUT P.S.G. -------------- P.S.G., Inc. is the registered business name of an entity owned and operated by William M. Galvin, jr. (me). I am a systems engineer. TECHNICAL INFORMATION & HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS ------------------------------------------------------ Version 4.1 is written entirely in Borland International's Turbo BASIC (R). Development and initial test of the program was on an COMPAQ 386-20 equipped with an EGA card and monitor; plus an XT clone using a TURBO motherboard and mono monitor. V4L is designed to operate on IBM PC/XT/AT/PS System2 and true compatible computer systems under PCDOS (or MSDOS) 2.0 or higher. It supports monochrome or color (CGA/EGA/VGA) systems and is best uti ized in a system with one or more hard disk drives. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 5 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLING V4L -------------- Installing and operating V4L is a straight forward process. Users with floppy drive systems should install the distribution disk in drive B: and a blank, formatted disk to be used as a work disk in drive A:. Make the A: drive the default drive. Enter "COPY B:V_4_L" from the "A>" prompt. Put asside the distribution disk for safe keeping. The work disk being in the A: drive, enter "V_4_L". All the operating files will then be unarchived. You may then DELete V_4_L. The program is then invoked by entering V4L. Users with hard drives have some options. First, you may place the program file V4L.EXE in any directory of your choice on whatever system drive you choose. It is suggested that the user make a direct- ory for V4L, for the operating files and the files V4L creates Place the distribution disk in the A: drive. Make the C: the de- fault drive and enter MD V4L to create a sub-directory named V4L. Enter COPY A:V_4_L. then enter V_4_L which will unarchive the needed files The user may begin using V4L. A batch file in your root directory or in a directory called out in the user's PATH statement, named "V4L.BAT". might be used to call the program. The text of the program would be something like: CD\V4L V4L %1 The %1 will take the customer's last name to V4L should it be en- tered on the command line and skip the opening screen. Once this is accomplished, go ahead and start V4L by typing V4L at the DOS command prompt. V4L creates a file for each customer; "I###.V4L". (### may be from 0 to 9,999,999 which means the theoretical limit is 10,000,000 customers which is far beyond the capacity of most PC disks. The "I" is a holdover from INSULIN.EXE.) VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 6 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- OPERATION: ---------- "V4L", the name of the program, was written with several param- eters or "Givens" in mind. It provides the necessary information that a rescue squad would need in an emergency. It grew out of one of P.S.G.'s previously copyrighted programs, named "INSULIN", which was designed to keep a Blood Glucose and Insulin dosage log for the doctor's perusal. Additionally, a cover sheet was pro- duced that could be invaluable on the occasions that emergency medical assistance is required. It became obvious that more people than diabetics could use the cover sheet produced by "INSULIN". As a result, "V4L" was written to produce "Vile for Life" sheets, take care of anomalities in med- ication, and insulin dosage sheets. If a medical emergency arrises, just hand the "Vile for Life" sheet to the paramedic and its all there for the doctors in the emergency room. Actually, two cover sheets are produced; one for the log notebook, and one for the "Vial for Life". The cover sheet contains the following information: 1) Full name, address, phone and Sociaaal Security numbers 2) The date the form is printed 3) Age - computed at time of printout 4) Race 5) Sex 6) Weight 7) a brief medical history 8) a list of medical allergies 9) Date of last Tetanus shot 10) Hospital of Choice 11) Medications 12) Dose schedule 13) A list of doctors The forms are printed on standard 8 1/2 X 11" paper. Notebooks of that size are easy to procure. The standard page may have 60 lines of text and up to 80 characters per line. The form produced has 59 lines of text. The 60th is reserved, so that laser printers may be used and not produce a blank sheet between printed sheets. Pre- punched three ring tractor feed paper is available. The form is designed to cover a week; 59/7=8 + 3 remainder. This gives eight lines per day. The three lines are used as a header. The eight lines per day are broken down: one for the date and a prompt to use the left or right side and a reminder about some annivesary; the second is used for header information, times etc.; and the last six are used for data entry. The form uses an area approximately .33 X .5 inches for data entry, to assist the aging, infirm and poor of sight. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 7 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- No special "computer characters" are used in the printout which means that the widest variety of printers may be addressed. This leaves the form somewhat ragged but the printing time is much faster. A neater form could have been made using the graphics mode of the printer, but this would restrict the types of printers that could be used and the printout would be painfully slow. All boxes are drawn using the "_" character. The program issues a carriage return without a line feed and then restrikes the areas that need the "_" character. The form is laid out in a manner requested by an endocrinologist; with the blood glucose readings arranged horizontally so that he can scan the readings and look for a trend, mornings and evenings. Space is provided to write a short summary of an event for later perusal. Several items are variable as far as the program is concerned. The form provides room for two types of insulin; one of which is Regular; the other may be changed for the patient when the form is printed, and is printed in caps. From time to time, daily medication for the user may be changed; e.g., a dose of 250 mg of Dilantin daily would be hard to admin- ister as Dilantin com s in capsules. The solution is to take two on one day and three on the next. This leaves the problem of remembering the day's dosage. The program takes care of this sort of thing. As a matter of fact, it will take care of up to seven of this type anomaly and the cycle may be made between two and thirty days. (Entering a period of one day will repeat the prompt on a daily basis.) V4L will create a file for each customer named "I###.V4L". It also creates a master index CUSTOMER.LST. A file named CUSTOMER.BAK is also created after the second name is added to the list. CUSTOMER.BAK is useful should an erroneous name be entered. If the operator catches the error and no other names have been added, it is possible to step back and repair the damage. Just delete CUSTOMER.LST and rename CUSTOMER.BAK as CUSTOMER.LST. Don't worry about the I###.V4L file as it will be overwritten the next time a name is added. The program may be invoked in several ways. The most obvious way is to enter "V4L" at the DOS prompt. The user is then led through the intro screen to a short menu with two choices. 1) to enter a name, and 2) to quit (a simple <ENTER> will also exit). The program then prompts for the customer's name. A file will be created if none exists and the user must enter all the data required. <CR> may be entered if no data is needed for a given item. Next, the the data is scrolled in the report's form and the user is prompted "Do you wish to modify the data?" Entering a "Y" or "y" will take the user through the editor; any other key will print the "Vial for Life" sheet. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 8 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- If the customer has a medication anomaly or is diabetic, the user is presented prompts for the dates required for the data sheets; it will start the printout on the previous Sunday if the date given is not a Sunday, and run through the following Saturday if the end date is not a Saturday. The second and third lines on the printout may be changed by entering "V4L /M" (for maintenance). Follow the prompts. Obsolete files may be deleted by entering "V4L /E" for edit. The user will be stepped through the customer list and obsolete ones may be discarded. The name is removed from the customer list, CUSTOMER.LST, and the obsolete customer file is deleted, I###.V4L. The reasoning for not placing these options on the main menu was that it was felt that untrained drug store clerks could operate the computer to produce the sheets, but the proprietor would not want them to remove names from the file or change the heading on the sheets. The intro screen may be bypassed by entering "V4L {last name}". Should the user arrive at the short menu screen and be presented with the choice of entering either "1" or "2", the user may enter the custoner's LAST NAME and the program will skip to the prompt for the customer's first name(s). The customer's last name should be entered letter for letter; but the search is based on the number of letters entered. Therefore, the program will only look at the first six letters in its database if "John J" is entered and find "John J.". The program will find "Barbara Q. Galvin" if "Barbara Q Galvin", "Barb Galvin" or "barb galvin" is entered. Obviously it will not match "Mike" with "Michael". The way it works now; if "John M. Smith" and "John C. Smith" exist in the database and "John Smith" is entered, the program will display both names, one at a time, and the operator is given the opportunity to select or reject the name displayed. If both are rejected, the operator is given the option to add another name to the database. A non-formatting word processor, or for that matter, any word pro- cessor in the ASCII mode may be used to edit the customer's file, but there is an "editor", if you can call it that, built into V4L. The editor will keep any prompt if a <CR> is entered. Please note; there are two control characters imbedded in this file. They are both "Control D" which may also be described as "^D" or ASCII "EOT" and are used to separate portions of the various items in the printout. PC-WRITE (R), a shareware word processing program, was used to edit during debug. PC-WRITE displays "EOT" as a diamond. WORDPERFECT was also used in an ASCII mode; it displays "EOT" as "^D". Version 2.0 of INSULIN had a place on the sheets to check when the various medication doses were administered. It was found that the checkoff boxes were not used and of use to any one so they have been eliminated from the sheets produced by V4L. VIAL FOR LIFE V4L.EXE Rev 4.1 Sheet 9 of 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The obvious solution as to whether or not a dose had been taken was to lay out a days dosage in separate "piles". If the pile was gone then the medicine had been taken. Multi compartmented pill boxes don't even seem to be the answer. Plain old PYREX nesting custard cups work fine. Put the full ones in one pile and the empties in another. A glance, from across the room, will tell if the medicine has been taken. Remember to keep the custard cups out of reach of small children. The program will accept lower case letters in all cases. Remember to keep a fresh ribbon in the printer. A conversion program is needed to convert the files created in the older "INSULIN" program. PSG will provide "INS2V4L" upon request if we overlooked you in this issue of V4L. Revision 4.2 adds the Social Security Number and date of last Tetanus series. A customer's file created under Rev 4.1 will prompt for the added data and insert it in the proper file. A trip to the local E.R. showed that this data was needed. PSG (301) 299-8581 Mike Galvin 9a to 5p Eastern Time 11016 Powder Horn Drive Mon thru Fri Potomac, MD 20854