Share Gallery 1/share_gal_1.zip/share_gal_1/HD/HD024.ZIP/QUESTOR.MSG

Text File | 1990-05-23 | 12KB | 367 lines

@@TITLE
  Type in the ^btitle^b of the video to
 be recorded in this database. Quotes
 are not needed.
  Example:
     TITLE: The Guns of Navarone
@@STAR
  Type in the name or names of the ^bmain
 star or stars^n for this video. You may
 separate the names of stars with commas
 or a space; either is fine.
  Example:
    STARRING:Joe Smith, Sally Mae
@@RATING
  Type in a viewing guide rating for
 this video. Is it ^bG,PG,PG-13,R,X,XX^n?
 Lowercase letters will automatically be
 converted to uppercase. Example:
    RATING: PG13
@@CATEGORY
  Type in the video ^bcategory^n.  Is it an
 action video? adventure? mystery? horror?
 western? music video? pornographic? science
 fiction? supernatural? family? children's?
  You may type in several categories
 separated by a space or comma. Upper or
 lowercase is OK. Example:
    CATEGORY: Romantic comedy
@@YEAR
  Type in the year the video was released
 (the copyright year). Example:
    YEAR: 1987
@@LOCATION
  Where can this video be found? If you
 are a home collector, you may wish to
 enter a catalog number or the name of
 a rental store that carries this video.
 Example:
    LOCATION: Video World. Aisle B.
@@EDITOR
  ^b[Esc].........Save edits + Exit editor^n
  [Insert]......Toggle Insert/Overwrite
  [Home]........Go to beginning of line
  [End].........Go to end of line

  [PgDn]........Scroll to Next Page
  [PgUp]........Scroll to Previous Page
  [Tab].........Tabs the cursor
  [Ctrl-Y]......Delete current line
  [F9]..........Graphics characters ON
  [F8]..........CR display ON/OFF
  [F10].........Reformat the paragraph
  [Alt-M].......Mark a block of text
  [Alt-C].......Copy the block to scrap
  [Alt-X].......Cut  the block to scrap
  [Alt-P].......Paste scrap at cursor
  [Alt-S].......Search for a pattern

   As you can see, the editor notepad
 allows free editing (word processing)
 of any information you want to record
 about the current video.  All edits
 are ^bautomatically saved upon exiting^n
 the editor notepad (by pressing ESC).
@@COMMENT
  Type in a one line comment about the
 video.  It may prove to be useful for
 evaluation of the video in the future
 when you view this database.
  You can type in a more lengthy de-
 scription of the video plot, etc. by
 using the editor notepad ( activated by
 pressing the <F7> key during data entry
 mode ). Example:
     COMMENT: 120 minutes. Great movie!
@@CRITIQUE
  Type in the evaluation of the video,
 such as poor, bad, fair, good, great,
 excellent, etc. Using a one to five
 star rating system, i.e. *, **, ***,
 ****,*****, is quick and can be very
 useful later when doing searches for
 videos of a given rating. Example:
    CRITIQUE: ***1/2
@@FILEMENU
  This menu will allow you to manipulate
 the videofiles. You will be able to
 open, make, search (using english), and
 to list disk videofiles. Before you can
 use the EDIT menu options of Questor,
 i.e. before you can view/add records to
 the videofile, you must "Open" a video
 videofile.
@@EDITMENU
  You can add, edit, or view videos
 information. But make sure you have
 first opened a videofile which
 exists.
  If you have opened a videofile which
 does not yet have data in it, you will
 need to add video information to it. So
 choose "Add" from the EDIT menu. Then
 a screen will appear and allow you to
 enter information about videos, with
 [F1] help available on how to do this!
  If you have opened a videofile which
 has data in it, you may choose "Edit"
 or "Add" from the EDIT menu.
@@PRINTMENU
  You may print out videofile info
 using this menu.
@@REGSMENU
  Select this menu option to find out
  about benefits of registration,e.g.:
  ■ More powerful english interpreter
  ■ Videos already typed in for you
  ■ Enhanced file utilities
  ■ Notification of updates
  ■ Written & bound user manual
@@OPEN

  Before you can edit or add videos to
 a videofile, and before you can
 print videos to the screen or to
 the printer, the videofile must first
 be "opened".
  A videofile filename can be up to
 8 characters in length. You can give
 a full 'pathname' including the disk
 drive prefix, subdirectories, etc. if
 you desire. The most recent videfile
 used will appear automatically on the
 screen, for which you need only press
 press <Enter> if you wish to open the
 videofile displayed.
@@AI

  This is the most powerful and useful
 feature of Questor! Select this if
 you want to search the currently open
 videofile for videos of interest.
  You will be able to converse with the
 computer using everyday english to tell
 Questor to find all videos fitting
 your search criteria.
 @@MAKE
  Use this option of Questor to create
 and initialize a blank video datafile
 for adding new video information.
   A sample of a database name to
 provide might be
        MYMOVIES
 but you may choose another name, as
 long as the database name is 8 or
 fewer letters.
  If you attempt to make a datafile
 which already exists, Questor will
 alert you to the impossibility of
 this (since all data would be
 destroyed!!).
  You may optionally type in a full
 pathname for a videofile to make,
 which might include a disk drive.
 In this case, the pathname can be
 as long as space is provided on
 the screen for typing it in.
  To make a file on drive B called
 myfile you would type in
   B:myfile
@@LIST

  Choose "List" from the FILE menu
 to see a list of all videofiles in a
 disk directory. You can either accept
 the current disk directory which
 appears, or type in a different
 directory (which can include a disk
 and/or subdirectory).
  Note that if you are using "List" to
 find the names of videofiles, the video
 'database' actually is two data files,
 with "suffixes" (filename extensions)
 of ".DB" and ".IDX" For a videofile
 named VIDEOS the files VIDEOS.DB and
 VIDEOS.IDX actually make up the
 database. But when opening a videofile,
 you need only type in the name VIDEOS
  You may optionally type in a full
 pathname of where you want Questor to
 look for Questor videofiles. For example,
 to look for Questor datafiles on a
 floppy in disk drive B you would type
 in "B:"  (without the quotes) to tell
 Questor to look at drive B
@@ADDREC
  Choose this option if you want to
 add video information to an existing
 and previously opened videofile.
  Make sure you have opened a videofile
 using the FILE menu and the "Open"
 option.
 @@EDITREC
  Choose this option if you want to
 view and/or edit video information
 found in an existing and previously
 opened videofile.
  Make sure you have opened a videofile
 using the FILE menu and the "Open"
 option.
@@PRINTDBASE
  Choose this option to have the curr-
 ently open videofile titles sent to a
 connected IBM compatible parallel
 printer.
  Make sure the printer is ON and you
 have adjusted the paper.
  To speed printout, Questor does not
 check for whether the printer is
 on-line during printout. So do not
 turn off your printer during the
 printing or Questor will "jam up".
@@MESSAGE
  This is the message window which is
 displayed to tell you about a warning
 or to let you know that an operation
 has been successful, or to ask you
 a yes/no question.
@@FILENAME
  Type in a file or pathname using DOS
 conventions, i.e. a filename may have
 up to eight letters. A pathname can
 be as long as the space provided for
 typing in the pathname. Extensions are
 ignored (VIDEOS.XYZ is the same thing
 as VIDEOS). You may type a pathname if
 desired, such as when the database file
 is located in an MS-DOS disk directory
 other than the current directory, such
 as
     C:\MYSTUFF\VIDEO\DATA\mymovies
 to specify the database file "mymovies"
  Videofiles exists as both index and
 physical files. The index file will
 have the extension ".IDX"  The physical
 file will have the extension ".DB" and
 contains the actual data. You need not
 concern youself with the extensions,
 except it may be helpful to know them
 so that you do not accidentically do a
 deletion of your videofiles if you
 perform MS-DOS commands outside of the
 Questor environment.
@@PATHNAME
  A pathname tells Questor where to look
 for a videofile. For example, you might
 tell Questor that a pathname to search
 for videofiles is simply  B:  if you
 want to see a list of videofiles on the
 B floppy drive. "A:" "B:" and "C:" (with-
 out the quotes) are valid examples of where
 to search. You might have created a MS-DOS
 subdirectory on your hard disk called
 DATA within another subdirectory called
 QUESTOR; in such a case you would tell
 Questor to look for videofiles in a path
 called
             C:\QUESTOR\DATA
@@DIRECTORY
  Files listed in the directory listing
 window represent the names of Questor
 videofiles located in the requested
 MS-DOS disk directory (pathname).
@@EDITSCREEN
  Type in appropriate data, pressing
 the <Enter> key when done with each
 line of information. The title must
 be entered, but other information
 is optional. You can press [F1] when
 typing in each piece of information
 to get more specific help.
@@BACKUP
  The possibility exists that a Questor
 videofile may become corrupted due to
 bad floppy or hard disks, or even
 electrical power surges, etc.
  It is a good habit to make a backup
 of your videofiles every so often.
 Then if Questor tries to open a datafile
 that is damaged, you will have a backup
 of the videofile to "restore" the data
 that is damaged. You can backup the
 data to the same disk or another
 disk or directory. Just make sure to
 include a disk drive and/or MS-DOS
 subdirectory (path) in the filenames
 when asked.
  EXAMPLE: To backup a videofile called
  "videos" from a floppy in drive A:
  to a formatted floppy in drive B: you
  would tell Questor that the damaged
  datafile is   A:VIDEOS
  and you would tell Questor to write
  the backup videofile to drive B: with
  perhaps a name of "vidbak". So tell
  Questor to write the backup datafile
  as     B:VIDBAK
@@RESTORE
  The possibility exists that a Questor
 videofile may become damaged due to
 bad floppy or hard disks, or even
 electrical power surges, etc.
  It is a good habit to make a backup
 of your data every so often. Then if
 Questor tries to open a videofile that
 is damaged, you will have a backup of
 the videofile to "restore" the data
 that is damaged. You can restore the
 data to the same disk or another
 disk or directory. Just make sure to
 include a disk drive and/or MS-DOS
 subdirectory (path) in the filenames
 when asked.
  EXAMPLE: To restore a videofile called
  "videos" which was damaged, but which
  you had backed up to a floppy on drive
  "B:", you would tell Questor that the
  damaged datafile is    A:VIDEOS
  and make sure that the disk with the
  damaged VIDEOS videofile is in drive A:
   If the name of the backup videofile
  in drive B: was, e.g.   VIDBAK
  you would tell Questor that the name of
  the backup datafile was  B:VIDBAK
   Questor will then attempt to copy the
  backup videofile from drive B: to the
  damaged videofile in drive A:
   You could give another name as the
  name of the "damaged" file for Questor
  to attempt a restoration, even the
  name of a file which does not exist.
  Questor is simply going to attempt to
  copy the backup datafile to the name
  that you supply as the "damaged file".
@@MINDEX
   The index file (*.idx) for a given
  videofile (*.db) may get damaged due
  to hardware errors, etc. This menu
  option uses a software "patch" to
  attempt to rebuild the index file
  for the videofile. Without an index
  file, Questor can not use a videofile.
@@CLOSE
   Videofiles are automatically closed
  when you open a new datafile.
   However, you must close the current
  videofile that is open (being used)
  before you can perform a "Backup"
  or "Restore" operation.
   You need not close the currently
  open videofile when exiting Questor.
  Questor automatically closes the
  datafile when you finish using
  Questor, saving any data still in
  the computer's RAM (volatile)
  memory.
@