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Precision Software Appli…tions Silver Collection 4
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What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS CONTENTS
I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
III. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
IV. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
V. REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A. The Next Two Releases Are Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
B. The Other Six Benefits of Registration . . . . . . . . . 3
C. How Much Does Such a Priceless Gem Cost? . . . . . . . . 3
D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition . . . . . . . . . . 5
VI. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
VII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
VIII. HISTORY & NEW FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME . . . . . 8
A. Using the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
B. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
X. MANAGING FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
A. Set-up - Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry . . . . . 9
B. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files . . . . . . . . . . 10
C. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy . . . . . . . . . . 10
D. Formatting Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
XI. DATA ENTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
A. Entry of Service Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
B. Entry of Departments, Mechanics, Service Codes, and
Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
XII. REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
XIII. HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
-i- -i-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ("WVH") IS PROVIDED "AS
IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THOSE CONCERNING MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. BY USING WVH, YOU ARE EXPRESSLY RELEASING ANGEL
BABUDRO FROM ANY LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND
DOCUMENTATION. YOU MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING WVH. YOU ARE
ADVISED TO TEST AND SUPERVISE WVH THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT.
II. LICENSE II. LICENSE
1. WVH is being distributed as Shareware. This program is not
free. WVH is licensed for individual personal use and evaluation for
an unlimited time. Use and evaluation by businesses, corporations or
individuals in a commercial venture is limited to 60 days, after which
time the REGISTERED Edition of WVH must be purchased or the use of
Unregistered Edition of WVH must be discontinued.
2. You may keep as many backup copies of WVH as you wish, but
you may not run WVH simultaneously on more than one computer.
Additionally, you are granted the right to share WVH with others, as
long as you distribute the WVH archive exactly as you received it,
with all associated files included. REGISTERED USERS MAY NOT
DISTRIBUTE THE SEPARATE FILE CONFIG.WVH since it contains the
registered user's name.
3. Under no circumstances may you charge any fee or receive any
other form of consideration for distributing the WVH files without
express written consent from the copyright holder, Angel Babudro. You
may only recoup your cost of such distribution, not to exceed US$6
(six dollars).
III. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) III. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME)
Thanks for trying my software. Please throw your comments,
suggestions, criticisms, negotiations, prayers, wishes, notions, mud,
donations, orders, jokes, new cars, wallet, etc. my way. Check out orders
the Registration section below for ways to get a free registered copy
of WVH. Sysops please read SYSOP.DOC for special deals. Shareware
vendors please see VENDOR.DOC for distribution information.
I can be reached via the mail or BBS. The bulletin boards below
will have current versions of my software and I will get any messages
left there for me.
-1- -1-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry",
28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY 13323-1506,
(315) 853-1070
BBS Angelo Babudro
West Coast The Researcher's BBS, Southern CA (805) 949-8151
USR HST DS
East Coast Nite-Air BBS, Central NY (315) 339-8831 USR HST 14.4
Odie's PCBoard, Central NY (315) 339-6713 USR HST DS
IV. INTRODUCTION IV. INTRODUCTION
What Vehicle History? has been designed to help your company ______________________
track the maintenance history on its vehicles, whether they be a fleet
of cars, construction equipment, or even support equipment like power
generators.
WVH employs the standard 2-dimensional pull-down menu system
which is familiar to most PC and Macintosh users. All you need to do
is highlight your choice and press ENTER or just press the highlighted
letter of your choice. What could be simpler?
I have designed WVH to be used without a manual as much as
possible. One of my customers used a computer for the first time (a
complete novice) with WVH and was able to learn it without a manual
and just a little help from a computer-literate co-worker, so I guess
I have achieved this goal at least to some extent.
Please feel free to contact me (please refer to the last page
for my address and phone number) with any comments or questions you
may have. I am a "consultant" by trade (rather an ominous word, eh?),
so I am able to make custom modifications to this or other software.
If you don't have a local "computer person," maybe I can help you with
any computer needs you may have.
Thank you for your interest in What Vehicle History? _____________________
V. REGISTRATION V. REGISTRATION
Registration entitles you to many benefits, not the least of
which is full use of WVH to enter up to 5.5 million vehicles! You
will get the latest version of WVH and two free upgrades (see below).
I have graduated the registration fee so that a small company with two
vehicles does not pay the same price as a large corporation with a
fleet of 100 cars.
-2- -2-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
A. The Next Two Releases Are Free A. The Next Two Releases Are Free
When you register you will receive the latest version of
WVH. Then when the next two versions are released they will be
sent to you free of charge.
Following the two free releases you will receive notices of
any other releases in the mail. The cost of a new release (no
matter what version you are using) is 10% of the original
registration fee. You may also upgrade your package to any
higher level for the difference in cost between levels -- you
don't pay more, so you can just get what you need and upgrade as
necessary.
B. The Other Six Benefits of Registration B. The Other Six Benefits of Registration
1. The limits on service items, mechanics, and departments will
be removed, and you can track as many vehicles as your
registration level permits.
2. You may order the detailed manual, printed & bound or on-
disk/ready to print for your laser printer
3. You will be getting a high quality programme for a very
reasonable price.
4. My 3-month-old son handles all the tech support calls ;),
but for everything else you will have a real person who is real person
100% knowledgeable about WVH whom you can contact with
suggestions, comments, questions, problems, etc.
5. You'll have that warm feeling of having helped one of the
"little guys" -- someone who isn't a huge corporation.
6. You will have helped to keep shareware alive, that great
concept that lets you try out software before buying it. before
C. How Much Does Such a Priceless Gem Cost? C. How Much Does Such a Priceless Gem Cost?
Single Copy - The Table I Single Copy Table I
registration fee for WVH
depends on how many
Vehicles Registration ________ ____________ vehicles you need to track.
5 $25 The table at the right
10 $40 shows the registration fees
20 $75 which apply to the maximum
50 $150 number of vehicles WVH will
100 $225 allow. Prices are in U.S.
Unlimited $300 or Canadian funds; I wish
there weren't any exchange
rate, so I'm willing to
forget that there is one...
-3- -3-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
You will receive the latest, registered version of What ____
Vehicle History? with automated installation, the latest _________________
revision of this documentation on disk, two free updates (see
above), and notification when updates are available. (See below
for detailed manuals on paper or disk.)
Multiple Copies / Wholesale -- If you would like to resell Multiple Copies / Wholesale
What Vehicle History? or have multiple locations at which you ______________________
would like to install WVH, you may receive a discount on the
price of WVH as follows:
- Single wholesale copy 35%
- 2-4 copies on the same order 40%
- 5 or more copies on the same order 50%
Site License -- purchase one copy of WVH and use it on as Site License
many computers as necessary at a single location of a single single location of a single
business. Add the amount below to your registration fee. business
- Up to 4 computers add 10%
- Up to 10 computers add 20%
- Up to 20 computers add 30%
- Any number of computers add 50%
Manuals -- these are typeset with Ventura Publisher, printed Manuals
on a laser printer, and placed in a binder (very nice looking).
Every screen is shown and explained, basic computer and data
base terminology are discussed, and an index is included to
locate topics quickly. Although I want people to have and use
these manuals, I am concerned about our planet hurting from
deforestation, so I would like to encourage people to only order
manuals if necessary. Experienced users will probably have
little need for these detailed manuals; they are intended more
for the occasional or novice computer user. Purchasing multiple
copies or a Site License gives you the right to photocopy the
manual yourself, if you prefer, for the number of copies
purchased or number of computers licensed.
Pricing for manuals is as follows:
- First copy $8.00
- 2nd through 4th copies on same order $7.00 each
- 5th through 9th copies on same order $6.00 each
- 10th copy and beyond on same order $5.00 each
- Formatted output of the complete manual for your
printer from Ventura Publisher (many megabytes, hard
disk required) $5.00
-4- -4-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition
My Shareware career is just getting started, and I know I
need some help from all of you BBS users to be successful. So
if you'll help me in one of the following ways I will send you a
free registered copy (at the lowest registration level):
1. Write a review of one of my packages and post it on a
bulletin board. Send me a copy of the review with the BBS's
header on it and the name and phone number of the BBS. Just
give me your honest criticism and praise in a good review
(not a one-liner), and I'll send you a registered copy.
2. If you upload a package to at least five BBS's, send me the
names and phone numbers of the BBSs you uploaded to and I'll
send you a registered copy. Please be honest, folks; I want
your help, but this costs me money, after all...
3. If you have an idea that would make my software better please
send it to me. If I use your idea I will send you a
registered copy with your idea in it.
These offers subject to withdrawal or change at any time
without notices. Prices are subject to change without notice.
Bulletin Board Sysops please see the file SYSOP.DOC for
special pricing and information.
Angel Babudro
28 Mulberry Street
Clinton, NY 13323-1506
(315) 853-6942
Please register the software you keep. Please register the software you keep.
-5- -5-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
What Vehicle History? REGISTRATION/ORDER FORM What Vehicle History? REGISTRATION/ORDER FORM
Your Name______________________________________________________
Company Name___________________________________________________
Address________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
City_________________________ State/Prov_____ Zip code_________
Single copy No. of vehicles to track ______ $______ Single copy
Multiple or 1 wholesale copy -- deduct 35% Multiple or
Wholesale 2-4 copies -- deduct 40% Wholesale
copies 5 or more -- deduct 50% _______ copies
Please send me your resale # for wholesale purchases.
Site Up to 4 computers, add 10% to single copy price Site
License Up to 10 computers, add 20% License
Up to 20 computers, add 30%
Unlimited license, add 50% _______
Printed One copy is $8 Printed
Manuals 2-4 copies Qty _____ x $7 each Manuals
5-9 copies Qty _____ x $6 each
10 or more Qty _____ x $5 each _______
Disk Manuals Full manual output from Ventura Pub. Disk Manuals
Circle PCL or Postscript. $5.00 _______
Shipping & Please add $2 $2.00 Shipping & _______
Expenses Manual prices include shipping Expenses
Shipping to Canada add $5 extra _______
** T O T A L ** _______ ** T O T A L **
Disk size & quantity [__] 5¼" okay [__] 3½" required
Drive density [__] Low (DD) required [__] High (HD) okay
All prices are in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Please contact me
for orders to other countries. Orders to New York State please add
sales tax for your area.
Please mail this page with your cheque or money order to Angel
Babudro, 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY 13323-1506. Thank you!
-6- -6-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
VI. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS VI. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
In a nutshell, a 286 or better is recommended, a hard disk is
highly recommended, MS/PC-DOS 3.3 or later, and at least 350k free
RAM. WVH has been tested on MS-DOS 3.3 and 5.0. It should work
properly under PC-DOS or MS-DOS version 3.1 or later. You will need
about 400k of disk space for WVH and its necessary files plus disk
space for the files you will create. Any dot matrix printer should
work fine. WVH uses Epson control codes for bold, compressed, and
underline printing, which are pretty much standard. Please let me
know what printer model you have if it does not work properly and I
will add support for your printer.
Although the system is capable of handling 5.5 millions entries
per file, you would need a supercomputer or a lot of time to manage
it. On a PC/XT (8088 or 8086) computer you should be able to manage a
few dozen vehicles with adequate speed. A 386 will handle larger
companies better (30-50 vehicles or so), and a 486 should do the trick
if you've got 100 or more.
When you register just let me know your printer model and I'll
be sure to include it in the list of supported printers.
VII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE VII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE
What Vehicle History? consists of the following files: _____________________
WVH.EXE The executable file
WVH.HLP The help file
WVH.TXT The ASCII text file of this document
WVH.WP The WordPerfect file of this document (so you can
format it for your printer)
READ.ME A file containing late-breaking news...
ORDER.FRM Order form for all of my software
PRINTER.DAT Printer definitions
These are the files which are provided with the package.
Additional files will be created in the same directory as you use the
software.
VIII. HISTORY & NEW FEATURES VIII. HISTORY & NEW FEATURES
WVH was initially written in October, 1991 using the dBFast
dBase compiler (the original dBFast which would make tiny EXE
modules). This version was rather limited and not too awfully user-
-7- -7-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
friendly, but I wrote it for a friend of mine at Del Webb Corp. in Las
Vegas who needed it in a hurry.
I got such enthusiasm from Del Webb for the software, so I
decided to invest a major amount of time to make it commercial-
quality. About four months later WVH Version 2.0 was born.
IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME
Before you can use WVH you will have to install it on your hard
disk or create a working floppy disk. Since almost no business uses
dual floppy disk systems anymore I won't bother to explain the
procedure here. Contact me if you need help.
If you received your copy of WVH on floppy disk it should have
come with an INSTALL programme. If INSTALL.EXE or any other of the
files which make up the software are not on your disk please contact not
me so I can make sure the distributor you got it from is aware that
their copies are missing files.
Go to the DOS prompt (usually "C:\>" or some such variant), and
type "d:INSTALL" where "d:" is the letter of the floppy disk drive
with the WVH disk (e.g., "A:INSTALL" to install from floppy A:). You
will be asked to supply the source disk letter and the destination
drive and directory. If you have an existing version of the software
on disk you will be informed that it will be updated with the floppy
disk in the drive.
After INSTALL is finished you will see some helpful information
for setting up your computer well, and directions on how to run WVH.
A batch file called WVH.BAT is created in your root directory, and
your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are not touched at all, not one
little bit -- I wouldn't invade your system that way.
While in the root directory you just type "WVH" to start the
programme. WVH is a batch file which merely changes to the proper
drive & directory then runs WVH. You can delete this file if you are
using a menu or would rather type the commands yourself.
A. Using the Menus A. Using the Menus
I have used what I understand to be an SAA-compliant (Standard
Industry Architecture, an IBM slogan) menu system. Most folks know it
better as the Macintosh or Windows menu standard. Basically, there is
a horizontal menu of choices -- File, Data Entry, etc. Under each of
-8- -8-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
the horizontal choices is a menu of functions pertaining to that
item -- it is a two-dimensional menu, in other words.
There are two ways to select an item from the main menu:
1. Press the letter which is highlighted in the option
description
2. Use the Up/Down/Right/Left arrows to highlight the option
you want then press ENTER (a.k.a. RETURN or CR).
Some menus do not have highlighted options. On these menus you
must use the arrow keys to highlight your choice then press ENTER.
If you want to cancel an operation you selected, just press the
Esc ("Escape") key.
B. Quick Start B. Quick Start
Okay, manual haters, here's your section. Type "WVH" from
the DOS prompt, use the menus. Everything is pretty self-
explanatory, really. There is a brief, on-line manual under
Help/Index for quick reference.
X. MANAGING FILES X. MANAGING FILES
The choices under the File menu have to do with your system set-
up, file management, and ending the programme.
A. Set-up - Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry A. Set-up - Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry
The set-up screen lets you set two important items: The
sales tax rate for your area and whether or not you want to
enter the labour hourly rate on the Maintenance Data Entry
screen.
If you do not need to track sales tax, just enter zero for
this. Otherwise, enter your sales tax rate as a percentage
(i.e., 7.50 for 7.5%).
When you are entering service information for a vehicle you
are asked to indicate the mechanic or place of service which, in
turn, indicates the hourly rate for labour. If you wish you can
enter the labour rate on the service data entry screen, which
allows you to over-ride the rate set for the mechanic or place
of service. This can be handy if you don't want to track
mechanics, only the service done. In this case you could set up
-9- -9-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
a single mechanic and enter the hourly rate as it pertains to
each incident of service.
B. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files B. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files
File/Back-up protects your information by allowing you to File/Back-up
copy it to another disk. Version 2.1 of WVH will have a
Preferences menu, under which you will be able to choose how you
want to perform a back-up -- using the DOS COPY command or ARJ,
LHARC, or PKZIP compressors. After you select this option you
will see a summary of the files to be backed-up. If you have
more than one floppy disk drive you will be asked to select one.
All WVH data files will then be backed-up to the floppy disk.
C. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy C. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy
If you ever need to recover data files from a floppy disk
you made using the Back-up command (above), just place the
floppy disk in its drive and select File/Restore. If you have File/Restore
more than one floppy disk drive you will be asked to select one,
then the data files will be copied from the floppy disk onto
your hard disk.
D. Formatting Floppy Disks D. Formatting Floppy Disks
This option is for those times when you have decided to make
a back-up copy of your data but don't have a formatted disk
handy. File/Format Floppies lets you format a floppy disk to File/Format Floppies
your computer's standard density without exiting WVH. If you
have a high density drive you can only format high density disks
(in other words, WVH doesn't pass any parameters to DOS FORMAT).
If you have What Floppy Format? (WFF.EXE) available
somewhere in your search path WVH will automatically access it
for formatting floppy disks (so you can do whatever you want).
You will receive a complimentary copy of the latest version of
WFF with your WVH registration.
XI. DATA ENTRY XI. DATA ENTRY
This menu of What Vehicle History? lets you enter vehicles, ______________________
mechanics and other information into the data base. The Data Entry
menu is split into three sections:
1. Regular data entry for vehicle service information
-10- -10-
What Vehicle History? What Vehicle History? _____________________
Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved.
2. One-time data entry for vehicles, mechanics, departments, and
service codes
3. Rarely needed data entry (schedule next maintenance) -- this
function is run automatically after you enter service for a vehicle,
so you would normally not need to access the function directly. NOTE:
The Schedule Maintenance option is available only on the Registered
Edition of WVH.
A. Entry of Service Information A. Entry of Service Information
You will be guided from item to item as you press ENTER
after each line. You can use the arrow keys to move around
within a window. The F6 key will cycle between the windows.
B. Entry of Departments, Mechanics, Service Codes, and Vehicles B. Entry of Departments, Mechanics, Service Codes, and Vehicles
Press Ins to insert a new item and Del to delete an item.
Once you have information on file you can use the Up/Down arrow
keys to scroll through the list. A "speed search" is also
available -- just press a letter or number and the list will
"jump" to the first entry beginning with that letter or number.
XII. REPORTS XII. REPORTS
Nothing tricky here. Just highlight the one you want, follow
the instructions on the screen. S'all there is to it!
XIII. HELP XIII. HELP
The Help menu has two options: About and Index. "About" gives
some information about the programme and free memory. Index gives a
menu from which you may choose a topic and press ENTER, whereupon a
helpful window of information will appear. :) It's a handy (albeit
brief) on-line manual, in other words.
-11- -11-