Shareware Super Platinum 8

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Super Platinum 8 / Shareware Super Platinum 8.iso / mac / DATABASE / WVH21A.ZIP;1 / WVH21A.ZIP / WVH.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-11-21 | 35.4 KB | 859 lines

What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 Four Benefits of Registration . . . . . . . . 3 C. Registration Levels and Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition . . . . . . . . . . 5 VI. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 VII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 VIII. HISTORY & NEW FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME . . . . . 9 A. Using the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 B. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 X. MANAGING FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A. Set-up - Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry . . . . . 10 B. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files . . . . . . . . . . 11 C. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy . . . . . . . . . . 11 D. Formatting Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 XI. DATA ENTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A. Entry of Service Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 B. Entry of Departments, Mechanics, Service Codes, and Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 XII. REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 XIII. HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 -i- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 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, other than to charge a fee of not more than US$6 (six dollars) which shall be solely for the service of distribution. (Put another way, I sell the software, you sell your service.) 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 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. -1- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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. 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 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. I hope you will find the menus intuitive and the screens self-explanatory. Your input would be very helpful and welcome. Please feel free to contact me with comments, questions, etc. I am available as a consultant and programmer if you would like custom modifications to my software or if you don't have a local "computer person." I may be a good answer man to call before you pull your hair out. :) Thank you for your interest in What Vehicle History? _____________________ V. REGISTRATION Registration entitles you to many benefits! 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- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 (this does not apply to complimentary copies). Following the two free releases you will receive notices of any other releases in the mail. The cost of an update is 10% of the registration fee plus shipping (i.e., $4.50 to $32). If you send me a disk & return postage, I'll re-use the envelope and you can deduct $4.50. To upgrade from one level to another costs the difference between what you've got and what you want. If you receive a complimentary registration from me (see below) I can't afford these freebies, so, instead, if you will send me a disk with return postage inside, I'll re-use your envelope & send you back the latest version. B. The Other Four Benefits of Registration 1. You may order the detailed manual, printed & bound or on- disk/ready to print for your laser printer. 2. The pause at start-up goes away. 3. My 5-month-old son handles all the tech support calls ;), but for everything else you will have a real person who is 100% knowledgeable about WVH whom you can contact with suggestions, comments, questions, problems, etc. 4. You'll have that warm feeling of having helped one of the "little guys" -- someone who isn't a huge corporation. C. Registration Levels and Pricing Single Copy - The registration Table I fee for WVH depends on how many vehicles you need to Vehicles Registration ________ ____________ track. The table at the 5 $25 right shows the 20 $75 registration fees which 50 $150 apply to the maximum number Unlimited $300 of vehicles WVH will allow. The idea is that those who benefit the most pay a higher price in return. If you feel your situation warrants a lower registration price please call or write me about it. Prices are in U.S. or Canadian funds; I wish there weren't any exchange rate, so I'm willing to forget that there is one... -3- 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 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 many computers as necessary at a single location of a single business. The fee is a percentage of your registration fee. If you are registered at the lowest level, multiply the percentage by that and is added to the registration. - Up to 4 computers $25.00 - Up to 10 computers $70.00 - Up to 20 computers $140.00 - Any number of computers $400.00 Manuals -- these are typeset with Ventura Publisher, printed 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 9th copies on same order $7.00 each - 10th copy and beyond on same order $6.00 each - Formatted output of the complete manual for your printer from Ventura Publisher (many megabytes, hard disk required) $5.00 -4- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition I would like to give away some complimentary registrations in return for a little bit of marketing assistance... 1. If you write a review of one of my packages and post it on a bulletin board, send me a copy of it showing the BBS's header and the name and phone number of the BBS. Just give me your honest praise and criticism in a decent review. Your review will be most helpful to me if it mentions your best & worst-liked features and any ideas you have for improvement. This will help me decide the future of ANGELIB and for that help I will send you a complimentary registered disk. 2. If you upload a package to at least five public ("open") BBSs, send me their names and phone numbers and I'll send you a complimentary registered disk. I would appreciate you uploading to time-share systems, private ("closed") BBSs, or part-time BBS, but please do not use these to apply for a complimentary registered edition. 3. If you are a consultant or other type of computer professional and your recommendation leads to one or more of your clients purchasing one of my packages, just send me a note with your client's registration or have them mention your name when they register. I will send a complimentary registered edition or an update for every registration you get for me. This is in lieu of a multiple copy discount; I intend it for consultants who choose not to deal with sales tax. Complimentary registered disks for WVH will be at the lowest registration level. If you need to track more than five vehicles you may deduct $25 from the fee for the registration level you require. When you order a complimentary registration please fill in the appropriate blanks below PLUS the Invoice so I know what size disk you need, etc. COMPLIMENTARY REGISTRATION APPLICATION Also fill in the Invoice (put $0 for the disk) (__) Review posted on (BBS) _____________________________________ Phone number & modem_______________________________________ (__) I uploaded (archive name, like WVH21a.ARJ)__________________ to these 24-hour public ("open") BBSs: BBS Name Phone Number/Modem Type Sysop Name ________ _______________________ __________ 1_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 2_______________________ ________________________ _______________ -5- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 3_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 4_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 5_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 6_______________________ ________________________ _______________ These offers subject to withdrawal or change at any time without notice. All prices are subject to change without notice. Bulletin Board Sysops please see the file SYSOP.DOC for special pricing and information; vendors & sysops please see VENDOR.DOC. Angel Babudro "Organic Computer Wizardry" 28 Mulberry Street Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506 (315) 853-6942 Mon-Fri 9-5 Eastern Time (home phone; east coast is 3 hours later than west) Please register the Shareware you keep. -6- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. What Vehicle History? REGISTRATION/ORDER FORM Your Name__________________________________________________________ Company Name_______________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ City_________________________ State/Prov______ Zip code__________ WVH 5 vehicles = $25; 20 vehicles = $75 50 vehicles=$150; Unlimited = $300 $_______ Multiple or 1 wholesale copy -- deduct 35% Wholesale 2-4 copies -- deduct 40% copies 5 or more -- deduct 50% (_______) Site Up to 4 CPUs = $25, Up to 10 CPUs = $70 License Up to 20 CPUs=$140, Over 20 CPUs = $400 _______ Printed One copy is $8 Manuals 2 to 9 copies: $7 ea Over 10 copies: $6 ea Qty ____ x $______ = _______ Disk Manuals Full manual output from Ventura Pub. Circle PCL or Postscript. $5.00 _______ Shipping & Please add $2 $2.00 _______ Expenses Please add $3 for 8-inch disks _______ Shipping to Canada add $3 extra _______ ** T O T A L ** _______ Disk size & quantity [__] 3´" [__] 3´" [__] 8" Drive density [__] Low (DD) required [__] High (HD) okay FDFORMAT/FDREAD [__] FDFORMAT extended densities okay All prices are in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Please contact me for orders to other countries. NYS residents please add sales tax for your area. Mail this page with your cheque or money order to Angel Babudro, 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY 13323-1506. Thank you! -7- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 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 make up WVH. If you distribute evaluation copies to friends and bulletin boards please be sure to include all of these files. Additional files will be created in the same directory as you use the software. The files marked with [*] can be deleted if disk space is a premium, but I ask that you please keep ORDER.FRM on disk until you decide whether or not to register. Registered users -- please keep the file CONFIG.WVH only for yourself as it contains your registration stamp. Share only those files listed above. -8- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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- friendly, but I wrote it at the request of 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 that I decided to invest a major amount of time to make it commercial- quality. About four months later WVH Version 2.0 was born which somehow brings us to now, although it get's a little fuzzy in places... 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 would like my input on this. 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 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 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 new disk. 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 if you so permit, 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. -9- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 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 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 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 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, -10- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 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 a single mechanic and enter the hourly rate as it pertains to each incident of service. B. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files File/Back-up protects your information by allowing you to 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 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 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 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 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 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: -11- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Copyright (c) 1989-92, Angel Babudro. All rights reserved. 1. Regular data entry for vehicle service information 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 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 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 Nothing tricky here. Just highlight the one you want, follow the instructions on the screen. S'all there is to it! 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. -12-