DataMan is shareware. You can test it before purchasing it, and you are encouraged to give copies to other users for testing. You can purchase a copy of DataMan for use on one computer by sending US$35 to FeatherSoft, 515 S. Few St., Madison, WI 53703 (after July 15, 1993, send it to 2447 Upham St., Madison, WI, 53704). You’ll receive a registration number and a 58-page manual with examples. Once you’ve entered your registration number, that annoying dialog box no longer appears when you start DataMan.
Technical support is presently available to registered users at (608) 251-1735 (evening). My daytime phone during the school year is (608) 262-9822, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (the information number of which is (608) 262-1234).
When giving copies to other users, please include all the files you received — the application, the installed instructions, the other instructions, AND THIS README FILE. Thank you.
If you used the first version of DataMan, in addition to the new features you’ll notice an incredible speed improvement.
DataMan 2.1 is in beta-testing, and should be released shortly. New features include string remapping; file insertion; use of variable characters in Edit:Do:Remap; and random ranges, characters, numbers and strings.
••• PLEASE READ THE AGREEMENT AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT. •••
WHO IS DATAMAN?
DataMan is a superhero whose focus is saving organic lifeforms — that’s you — from boring, repetitive text-editing tasks. He works in System 6 and System 7. He’s faster than a speedy typist, more powerful than search-and-replace, and easier to use than weird macros.
Anyone working with large amounts of text or files should have a copy of DataMan. He can save you hours of time.
You instruct DataMan in a window of scrolling dialog boxes. DataMan follows these instructions to edit source text, showing you the changes as they are made.
You can install tested instructions as menu items with keyboard shortcuts. Installed instructions appear in the Zoom hierarchial menu in the Edit menu.
One of DataMan’s strengths is symbolization. A wide range of symbols are available to refer to specific and wild card characters and strings. Some symbols are simple, like ^p for carriage return — others can be complex, like the definition for the symbol ^aNumber.
When you press a caret in an instruction capable of symbols, DataMan presents a symbol-editing dialog. Many options are available. You can define and create some symbols.
DataMan will work on any size file of any type. You may also find it handy to keep him active in the background, switching back and forth from another application with text copied in the clipboard.
DataMan comes with some standard instruction files; you’ll probably add your own. But many times you’ll want to write instructions for a specific task, using them only once. For example, adding a column with derived values in a table after the existing third column. If your table has 10 lines, it’s probably easiest to enter the values by hand. But if your table runs in the hundreds of lines, or you have many tables, DataMan becomes very helpful, and much more accurate.
EXAMPLES
A PUBLISHING EXAMPLE: A client wanted to add 1 to every page number in a cross-index. The cross-index was 40 pages long and had about 80 page numbers per page. Entering them by hand would have taken hours and been error-prone. DataMan can finish the job in minutes — correctly.
A CONVERSION EXAMPLE: A client was using the word processor WordStar — the business didn’t have a conversion utility for WordStar. DataMan was able to convert the WordStar document to Microsoft RTF format, saving style information.
A MULTI-FINDER EXAMPLE: In another application you’ve typed several paragraphs in all-uppercase. You decide you want it in both cases. Rather than retyping them, you copy them, switch into DataMan, paste them in a window, run the “Lowercase, Smart” instructions, copy them again, switch back into your application and paste them. If you have many such paragraphs, you may decide to instruct DataMan to perform some of the repetitive tasks for you, so that you need only copy them, switch to DataMan, run your instructions, and paste them back.
A FILE MAINTENANCE EXAMPLE: a client has given you 120 files for a project, each of whose names are prefixed by the same 15 characters. You can’t tell them apart in the file dialog. Ordinarily, you’d have to click on each and dispose of them — or cut and paste them on the end. You can tell DataMan to do it for you.
A PROGRAMMING EXAMPLE: changing a parameter’s type coercion in C language for a specific function. In most editors, you would have to look for the function name, then at each instance select the type coercion and replace it yourself. DataMan can look for a function name, followed by a variable number of characters which are not a carriage return, followed by the type coercion, and replace it with the function name, those same variable characters, and the new type coercion.
HOW DO I USE DATAMAN?
Use installed instructions by choosing them in the Zoom hierarchical menu under File.
To make your own instruction files, click on the tool window to place instructions in the instruction window. Each instruction looks like a dialog box, but you can cut, copy, paste, delete and move them when pressing the option key.
When you’re ready, choose Fly, Leap or Hop to tell DataMan to act on your instructions. In Fly, he follows all of the instructions in order from top to bottom. In Leap, he follows each instruction and pauses after each. This is useful for testing. In Hop, he follows one instruction or loop.
You can place your finished instructions in the “Installed Instructions” folder, causing them to become menu items. If you want, you can turn off “Update During Fly and Zoom” to increase speed.
The instruction with the eyes is the Find instruction. Every time DataMan finds a match for its text, he performs the instructions between the Find instruction and its Blink instruction. This is called a loop.
Other instructions allow you to instruct him to write text, perform the usual File and Edit menu choices, move the cursor, make a dialog appear, and perform Finder operations.
The text in some instructions can use symbols. Symbols are text that refers to other text. As in other software, for example, ^p refers to a carriage return. All symbols begin with a caret — e.g., ^c for the contents of the clipboard. When you type a caret in these instructions, a dialog box will appear allowing you to choose your symbol and its options. Browse through the dialog box — there are many choices with many options.
For example, DataMan allows you to use symbols meaning the clipboard; the string found in the last Find; and the current date — or portions of any of these. You can use symbols where DataMan is to find a varying number of characters — e.g., find two to four tabs, or one to two punctuation characters. You can numerically and ASCII-modify strings. You can define what “punctuation characters” is to mean.
LIMITATIONS
System 7: Not all of the Finder menu items are guaranteed to work in the next Macintosh system release, until an upgrade of DataMan is also released. If you don’t use the Finder menu, this does not affect you.
System 6: Some Finder and “Do” operations are not available.
CAN YOU TELL ME MORE?
The manual discussed above introduces DataMan in more depth. Using DataMan is much, much simpler after reading the manual — and you’ll appreciate the full scope of his capabilities.
Thank you for trying DataMan.
Andrew Thomas-Cramer
TEMPORARY AGREEMENT
You are allowed to use DataMan for a brief period for testing purposes. If you are satisfied with its operation and intend to continue using it, you will purchase a license for the amount described elsewhere. This purchase allows you to use DataMan on a single central processing unit.
You are welcome to give copies to other users, provided these copies contain all of the following: the application, the installed instructions and other instructions, and this READ ME file. IN NO EVENT MAY YOU UPLOAD THE APPLICATION IN A SEPARATE UPLOAD FILE FROM THIS FILE, “READ ME,” WHICH CONTAINS THIS AGREEMENT.
You will not reverse engineer, disassemble, reverse translate, or in any manner decode the software in order to derive any source code form. Nor may you or others develop any application using the software interface or any substantial portion thereof.
Andrew R. Thomas-Cramer, d.b.a. FeatherSoft, makes no warranties, express or implied, regarding the DataMan software. The entire risks as to the results and the performance of the software is assumed by you.
In no event will Andrew R. Thomas-Cramer, d.b.a. FeatherSoft, be liable to you or to any third party for any loss of data, lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use of or the inability to use this software and its documentation, even if notified of the possibility of such damages.
