Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/dbase/cds110.zip/CDSCAN.DOC

Text File | 1992-07-30 | 23KB | 560 lines

CD SCAN V1.10
USER MANUAL
Copyright (c) 1992 by Joseph Dunn. All rights reserved.


FOREWORD

This project has taken many hours to complete. I would appreciate
it if you would consider my efforts by registering your copy if
you continue to use it after a 30 day trial period.

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 my family for their support and patience,
- To Rohan Lewis for his help with colour choices and   the
  preparation of this manual,
- To Tony Galliford for his help and suggestions,
- To you for choosing this software.

CONTENTS:   PAGE

Introduction
1  Installation and system requirements
2  How Cd Scan works
3  Getting started
4  Entering data
5  Quitting Cd Scan
6  Browsing your cd collection
7 Displaying a cd
7.1 Track time manipulation
7.2 Editing a field
7.2.1 Deleting a cd altogether
7.3 Pasting tracks
8  Searching
9  Printing
10 Pack (house keeping)
11 Errors and Trouble Shooting
Final Word

INTRODUCTION:

Cd Scan is a powerful music cataloging system specifically
designed for cataloging a compact disk collection. Up to 1250 cds
each containing up to 30 tracks may be accommodated on this
registered version.

The program includes a powerful and flexible search facility, a
quick scan browse facility and the ability to print a short or
long form listing of all compact disks.

You will never have to guess how many tracks can fit on the side
of a tape again because Cd Scan also gives you the ability to
calculate track times for recording purposes and A special
"Pasting" function is available to aid in creating cassette
labels.
A "house Keeping" facility is included to always ensure optimum
performance after many changes have been made to the catalog.


1 INSTALLATION AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

To run Cd Scan you need an IBM compatible with at least 256k ram
and DOS 2.11 or later. 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:

    CDS

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.

A sample batch file which can be typed in from the DOS prompt
follows:

CD\BATS
COPY CON CDS.BAT
@ECHO OFF
CLS
C:
CD\CD-SCAN
CDS
CD\
^Z


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. Like a book's index, this file
basically contains a key and reference field 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 and editing and these will be
discussed later (in the section on printing and pasting).

Cd Scan communicates with you via menus. You select an item from
a menu by pressing the indicated letter or in the case of the
main menu, you can move the highlight bar with the cursor keys to
highlight the item you wish to select and then press enter.


3 GETTING STARTED:

Run Cd Scan by typing CDS (enter) or by choosing it from your
menu system.
Your screen clears and a menu bar is written across the top of
your screen with the item Browse highlighted. By pressing the
left and right cursor keys, you can move the highlight bar to any
of the six items.

At this point, selecting some of these items will result in a
warning being displayed to the effect that your index is empty.
This is because your index currently contains no cds. In fact,
the only options available to you as a new user are the option of
Entering new data and the option of leaving (quitting) the
program.


4 ENTERING DATA:

Well, lets get the show on the road! Lets begin by entering a
compact disk into the system. Select Enter by either pressing e
or in the manner discussed above.

Cd Scan keeps track of several items of information about your
cds. These are: The Artist, Title, Track times, Track names, and
a short comment about the cd.

When entering any data, the following keys may be used:
- left and right cursor keys: move cursor left or right one
  space,
- back space: move the cursor one space to the left and delete
  the character there,
- delete: delete the character at the current cursor position,
- home: move the cursor to the first character in the field,
- end: move the cursor to the last character in the field,
- insert: toggle between insert or over-strike mode,
- enter: 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 standardizes 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.

After you have typed in the Artist name, and are happy with it
you should tell the system that you are finished by pressing the
ENTER (or Carriage Return) key as in all cases of entering data.
(If you make a mistake, don't worry, you can correct it later.)

Cd Scan will now respond with a prompt asking you to type the
Title of the cd. After you have typed in the Title of the cd and
pressed ENTER the screen will display a box with three columns in
it and the artist and title centered above the box. This box will
become familiar to you as you use the program. The three columns
are the track number (1 to 30), 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. 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 favorite 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 artist name and title to the index.
(Cd Scan will automatically sort the index by the artist's name
each time an addition is made)

Repeat this enter process until you have several cds in the
index.


5 QUITTING CD SCAN:

If you have had enough for this session and wish to quit the
program, you may select this option from the main menu or just
press the Escape key until you are asked if this is your real
intention. If you press Escape again, the quit will be cancelled
and you will not exit the program. If you answer y for yes and
press Enter (as for all yes/no responses) you will leave Cd Scan
and return to DOS.


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 in
place of the menu bar 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,
- page up/down: 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.
- escape: return to the main menu.

Note: the cd highlighted will be referred to as the current cd.

7 DISPLAYING A CD:

If you press enter on the current cd, the familiar box first
encountered in the Enter option along with several other items
will be displayed. A red colon will also be placed on the first
time of the first track. This colon indicates the current track.
You may move this colon up and down with the following keys:
- up/down: move colon up or down a track,
- page up/down: move the colon to the previous or next screen of
  tracks if appropriate,
- home/end: move the colon to the first or last track on the cd.

7.1 TRACK TIME MANIPULATION:

All options on the status line of the display screen may be
accessed by first pressing and holding down the ALT key and then
by pressing the indicated letter. (The ALT key is a key which
acts in a similar way to the Shift key.)

The track time related options on the status line include the
following:
1.    ALt+a add the time of the current track to what is already
in the total time box.
2.    ALT+s subtract the time of the current track from what is
already in the total time box.
3.    ALT+c clear the time box.
4.    ALT+t add the total of all the tracks on this cd to what is
already in the total time box.

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 Alt+c.

Play with these time functions and practise adding times of
different tracks. 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.

7.2 EDITING A FIELD:

You will have noticed two other functions on the status line,
namely ALT+e to edit a field and ALT+p for pasting a track to a
text file. This section deals with the first of these two items.

Editing a field allows you to make a correction to a miss-typed
field. This is where you can correct a mistake typed in during
the entry of data.

Pressing ALT+e will display options corresponding to the field
names that can be edited.

You may select:
- a to correct the artist name,
- t for the title,
- n for the current track name,
- c for the comment or
- l for the length of the current track.

Once a selection is made, you are permitted to edit the selected
field.

Notes:
1.    The cursor will be placed on the last character of the
field.
2.    In the comment box, you can't move up a line so if you make
a further mistake, just press escape and edit it again.
3.    Pressing enter will just place the cursor on the last
character of the next line (or in the case of a blank line
the cursor will be placed at the beginning.)
4.    When you return to the browse screen by pressing enter or
escape from the display screen, the changes will be written
to disk and if need be, the index is resorted.

7.2.1 DELETING A CD ALTOGETHER:

If you wish to delete a cd altogether, you can do this from the
browse screen. Just press CTRL+d on the cd. 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 before tidying up).

PASTING TRACKS:

This facility allows the text of the track number, time and name
to be added to a text file for later printing or editing. It is
useful in creating cassette labels or just to keep track of songs
with a particular theme.

From the Display screen, pressing ALT+p will write the artist and
title of the cd once for each paste session and then the track
number, time and name to a text file called TRACKS.TXT. A star
will be placed in the right margin to show the track has been
pasted.

For example, pressing ALT+p the first time you display a cd will
write the artist name and title followed by the current track
information, then, for each track pasted during that display
session, just the track information will be written. An example
of what the paste file would look like follows:
     AD
     COMPACT FAVORITES
     01 04:22 ALL CREATION SINGS
     04 03:43 WE DRAW THE LINE
     07 04:18 GAMES OF CHANCE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
     09 04:15 EXILES

     AD
     RECONSTRUCTIONS
     04 04:15 EXILES
     08 03:45 HIGHWAY TO THE HEART
     09 04:20 ONE GOLDEN THREAD

To edit this file you must use a text editor of some sort
although you can print it as it is from the Print option from the
main 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 paste file option discussed later (in
the print section).

Practise browsing your cds, displaying a cd, manipulating times,
pasting tracks etc, until you become familiar and comfortable
with these operations.

8 SEARCHING:

Cd Scan allows you to search for any part of any field in the
catalog. Select Search from the Main Menu and you will be asked
to enter  the search text, i.e. the pattern to look for. You may
enter part of a title, a word within a song name or a time. You
may also enter a time range to locate cds containing tracks which
fit this range.

Once the search text has been entered, the options of searching
the artist field, title field, song name, length or comment are
offered. Searching by artist or title will be relatively quick
due to the index. Other searches will take a bit of time if you
have a large cd collection. Once the search has taken place, the
familiar browse screen will be displayed and almost all of the
options available before are offered to you again. The only
options you will not be permitted to do are deleting or editing a
cd. You will also note that the index only contains the cds with
the specified search criteria in the field you specified. For
information on how to browse and display a cd from this search
index, see chapters 6 and 7.

Examples of searching for times:
1.    02:33 - search for all cds containing tracks exactly 02:33
in length.
2.    <02:33 - search for all cds containing tracks of length <
02:33
3.    >02:33 - search for all cds containing tracks with length >
02:33
4.    02:33-03:02 - search for all cds containing tracks whose
lengths are in the range 02:33 to 03:02 inclusive.

To exit from the search index, press Escape as usual.


9 PRINTING:

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 except the
comments and the ability to print the paste file you created
during your inspection of a cd's contents.

If you don't have access to a printer directly or just want to
edit the text created by this system to suit special needs, the
output of the print can be directed to a file. Select Print from
the main menu by pressing p or by highlighting it and pressing
Enter. Once selected, three options are offered to you.

c - catalog: prints the entire catalog
a - artist list: prints an artist and title list only
p - paste file: prints the paste file.

After pressing c for catalog or a for artist list you will be
prompted to print to file or printer. If f for file is selected,
the text will be written to a text file called LIST.TXT. The
print facility will automatically print page numbering, a header
and work out how many cds to put on a page so that a cd is not
split over a page boundary. If you select p for printer, you will
be instructed to align the paper to the top of form position and
then press a key when ready.

Notes:
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.

If you select p to print the paste file, you will not be given
the option to print to a file as it is already in a suitable
format to be edited. After printing this file, you will be asked
if you wish to delete the file. 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 in tact and any subsequent pastes will be
appended (or added) to the end of the file.


10 PACK (house keeping):

Before we discuss what Pack does, we need to understand a bit
about the way Cd Scan stores its information. We mentioned
earlier about an index file, a file containing a list of artist
names and 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 minimizes 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 Packing comes in. What packing 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. Packing need only be performed when
many modifications have been made. When Pack is selected from the
main menu a backup of the catalog is automatically made and 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 go ahead with the packing
operation, they will be lost forever as the data file will be
re-written and all references lost. You may just undelete the cds
and not pack the catalog, just press escape after the undeletion
has been performed. If you choose to pack the catalog, you must
not disturb the disk activity in any way until the packing has
finished or data may be lost and unrecoverable.

Note: with a large catalog, an xt type computer or a floppy disk
system may take a while to perform the packing. Please be patient
and don't disrupt the operation.

After packing has finished, searching and browsing will be more
efficient and the main data file will probably be smaller. If
something does go wrong during packing, the old files which were
renamed with the BAK extension may be renamed WITH THE dat
EXTENSION and the old catalog restored. See your DOS manual with
regard to renaming files.


11 ERRORS AND TROUBLE SHOOTING:

If Cd Scan does not run correctly, check the following:

1.    Your CONFIG.SYS file contains at least 15 files and buffers.
(See your DOS manual for more information)
2.    Your INDEX.DAT and CDS.DAT files are both present in the
same directory as the CDS.EXE file. If one of these files is
missing and you don't have a backup, contact me for possible
suggestions.
3.    If Cd Scan runs too slow, try packing it.
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
when you pack the catalog. 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!


FINAL WORD:

This completes the discussion of the Cd Scan cataloging system. I
sincerely hope it meets your cataloging 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: [phone]