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Text File | 1994-03-16 | 164.8 KB | 3,643 lines |
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- | N A M E | | V I E W |
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-
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- ver 4.00
-
-
-
-
-
- A Reader/Printer/Sorter for BBS messages and ASCII
-
- text files which will highlight in reverse video
-
- every occurrence of every search word/name which is
-
- entered in the support file search list.
-
- Messages/text sections can be printed immediately,
-
- or stored sequentially in any of 20 user defined
-
- archive files.
-
-
-
-
- REQUIRES DOS 2.11 OR LATER!
-
-
-
-
-
- Files included in NAMEVIEW version 4.00
-
-
- NAMEVIEW.EXE - The main program file.
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT - A sample of the type of file used to support
- NAMEVIEW.EXE. You'll have to write your own .DAT
- file(s) or modify this one in order for the
- program to search for your list of names and
- other words.
-
- NAMEVIEW.DOC - This documentation file. Do not be intimidated
- by the size of the DOC file. There is much more
- information in the documentation than you need to
- run the program. The only MUST READ section is
- the chapter on Set Up. The rest of the informa-
- tion has been made available for those who would
- like to know more about the program, its numerous
- features, and how it runs.
-
- DEMO.KDM - A file included so you can immediately run a
- quick demo of NAMEVIEW. It includes information
- on what is new for this version, a quick tutorial
- on what you need to know to use NAMEVIEW, and a
- few actual messages to let you see how NAMEVIEW
- really works.
-
- DEMOVIEW.BAT - A batch file which will start NAMEVIEW and run a
- demo using the other files provided for this pur-
- pose. Type DEMOVIEW + <ENTER> for the demonstra-
- tion.
-
- README.1ST - An ASCII file containing any last minute documen-
- tation corrections or other information that you
- should be aware of (may not be present).
-
- TED.COM - A simple text editor (by Tom Kihlken of PC maga-
- zine). TED is distributed free with this package
- to make it easy to write and/or modify your NAME-
- VIEW.DAT file. TED is not a part of the NAMEVIEW
- package.
-
- TED.DOC - Documentation for the TED text editor.
-
-
- NAMEVIEW Documentation
-
- This documentation file can be easily printed by using your DOS PRINT
- command ([path]PRINT [path]NAMEVIEW.DOC). Page breaks are included
- in the file for proper formatting, so ensuring that you have at least
- 61 pieces of paper available to your printer is about all the
- preparation you need to do.
-
- ii
-
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT NOTICE
-
- Copyright 1990 - 94 by
-
- Ray Cox
-
- 17410 Huntersglen
- Humble, TX 77396-1657
- 713-454-6074
-
-
- The NAMEDROP and NAMEVIEW set of programs are copyrighted and will
- remain my property. This program is not FreeWare!
-
- You may use, copy, and distribute the NAMEDROP and NAMEVIEW shareware
- program files provided that:
-
- 1. ALL of the original files are included WITHOUT MODIFICATION
- when you copy and distribute the shareware version of the
- program.
- 2. You do not charge for use, copying, or distribution.
- 3. Registered versions of NAMEVIEW are not to be distributed,
- but backup copies may be made for your own use.
-
- If you find that the NAMEVIEW program is useful, saves you time,
- and in general makes your text/message hunting easier, you can
- register in one of two ways:
-
- 1. You can become a life-time user for a registration fee of $10.
- This is a "paper" registration only. The shareware version is fully
- functional, so no "registered" version will be sent with a $10 regis-
- tration.
-
- 2. If you would like a personally serialized copy of NAMEVIEW (beg
- message is also removed) then send $15 with your registration. You
- will be sent a personal copy of the latest version.
-
- Either type of registration entitles you to download and use any and
- all future versions which you find on your BBS system. If you want
- to upgrade to a later version of your personally serialized copy,
- then send $5 for this service.
-
- I have spent countless hours writing, revising, testing, documenting,
- uploading, etc., this program - hours which I could have spent on
- genealogy! It is also very reasonably priced. If you try NAMEVIEW
- and decide to use it regularly, the only ethical thing to do is to
- register. Your only other choice is not to use it.
-
- A form is provided in Appendix E (last page of documentation)
- for your convenience in registration.
-
-
-
- iii
-
-
-
-
-
- NAMEVIEW Text/BBS Message Searching/Reading/Storing Program
-
- Table of Contents
- Page #
- Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- What is NAMEVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
- Program Speed Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
-
- Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
- How to run a quick demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
- NAMEVIEW Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
-
- SET UP - Preparing to Use NAMEVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- Message Mode Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- Saving your Message Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- Converting *.MSG files and Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . 8
- Text Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- General Set Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- The NAMEVIEW.DAT Data File in General . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - Message Format Section . . . . . . . . . 9
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - File Name Section . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - Search List Section . . . . . . . . . . . 13
- Sample NAMEVIEW.DAT File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
- Floppy Disk Set Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
- Hard Disk Set Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
-
- Start Up - How to start NAMEVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
- Command Line Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
- Command Line Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
- Configuration Line Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- FILE MENU Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
- SET UP MENU Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
-
- Program Operation - How to use NAMEVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- Information Line - Action Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- Information Line - Additional Message Lines Indication . . . . . 24
- Information Line - Messages/Sections Processed . . . . . . . . . 24
- Information Line - Names Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
- Information Line - Hot Key Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
- Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
- Early Termination of Program Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- Normal Program Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
-
- NAMEVIEW Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- Active Parameter Switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- AutoLoad Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- Automated Caps Lock/Num Lock Adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Automatic DESQVIEW Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Book Mark Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Command Line Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Custom Message Screen Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
-
- iv
-
-
-
-
-
- Display Adapter Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Enhanced DAT File Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Error Message Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Escape Key Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Extended Keyboard Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
- Fail Safe Message Processing (Message Mode) . . . . . . . . . . 32
- Floppy User Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
- Force Mono Function: default is OFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
- Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Intelligent End of File (EOF) Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Jump to Highlight - default is NO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Line Wrap Check - default is ON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Mark File Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
- Message/Section Display Mode: default is "Messages/Sections
- containing SEARCH WORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- Message/Text File Deletion Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- Screen Text Review Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- Name(s) Found in Message/Section Indication . . . . . . . . . . 35
- NoEcho Mode (Message Mode only): default is OFF . . . . . . . . 35
- Page Break Indicator (Text Mode only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
- Print Device Customizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
- Print Message (using "P") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Print Message (using "F") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Reverse Read (Back Up) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Search List Tailoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Search Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Smart Point & Shoot Download File Selection . . . . . . . . . . 37
- Sort Files: Defined and Undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Sort Files: User or Default Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Sort Files: Writing to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Sound: default is OFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Special Search: default is NO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Text Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Text Mode - Adjustable Section size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Upper Case Check: default is ON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-
- APPENDIX A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
- Word Processing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
- TED - (Tiny EDitor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
-
- Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
- Information Line Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
- Miscellaneous Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
- Specific Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
-
- Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
- NAMEVIEW Upgrade Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
-
- Appendix D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
- Registration and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
- NAMEVIEW Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
- NAMEVIEW Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
-
-
- v
-
-
-
-
-
- *** Background ***
-
-
- Glossary
-
- Current File - The file which was most recently chosen from the file
- listing. The full path and filename will be displayed on both menu
- screens. In addition, it will be displayed on the Sort File List
- Help screen.
-
- Download File - a file downloaded (captured) from a BBS which con-
- tains multiple messages. Your modem software may call this a capture
- file or a log file. For maximum efficiency, select the BBS option
- for continuous read while capturing the file.
-
- File Menu Option Screen - the first screen you see on loading NAME-
- VIEW (if the AutoLoad command line parameter is not used). This menu
- is used to choose operating modes, change directories, list and
- choose download and text files, list and choose DAT files, toggle the
- AutoLoad parameter, and when applicable, delete or mark files.
-
- Help Screen - any of the three help screens which can be called up on
- your display.
-
- Hit - occurs when one of the search words listed within your DAT
- file is found in a message/text section.
-
- Message(s) - the individual message(s) which are contained within
- your download file (Message mode).
-
- Message Format Block - a four (optionally five) line section of the
- NAMEVIEW.DAT file which contains one or more filename extensions, the
- First Line key word(s), the Subject Line key word(s), the Last Line
- key word(s) of each message, and optionally, a Configuration Line.
-
- Message Screen - the screen seen while you are reading messages or
- text. It includes 24 lines for message/text viewing plus an Informa-
- tion Line which may be placed at the bottom or top of the screen. It
- was called the Message screen in the program versions which did not
- include Text mode, so I'll continue to call it the Message screen for
- simplicity.
-
- Message Unit - a "message" created by NAMEVIEW to contain the "Over-
- flow" from a previous message which exceeded 198 lines in length
- (Message mode only).
-
- Program Disk - for floppy disk users; the disk on which your
- NAMEVIEW.EXE and NAMEVIEW.DAT files are kept.
-
- Program Files - refers collectively to NAMEVIEW.EXE and
- NAMEVIEW.DAT; it does not include the download file or any of the
- files written by NAMEVIEW.
-
- 1
-
-
-
-
-
- Screen Text - Whatever type of text happens to be currently shown on
- the screen. In Message mode, the Screen Text will be in the form of
- messages. In Text mode, the Screen Text will be in the form of Text
- Sections. Screen Text always refers to the entire message/text
- section appearing onscreen, even if the message/text section cannot
- appear in it's entirety on one 24 line screen.
-
- Search Name(s) - this term is synonymous with "search word(s)".
- Since NAMEVIEW was originally designed for use by genealogists, and
- they are principally interested in searching for names, this term
- will occasionally be used.
-
- Search Word(s) - (a) word(s) from the list you create in the
- NAMEVIEW.DAT file. All messages/text in the current file will be
- searched to see if they contain any of the search words. Search word
- is synonymous with search name.
-
- Section - a part of an ASCII text file which NAMEVIEW has (or will)
- processed and placed on the screen. Since files processed in Text
- Mode will not have any readily identifiable divisions such as the
- individual messages in message download files, NAMEVIEW divides them
- up into "sections" for processing and viewing.
-
- Set Up Menu Screen - seen only after a file has been selected (from
- the File Menu Option screen or the AutoLoad feature) and if the "X"
- command line parameter is not used. This menu is used to enter
- Special Search items, and to change operating parameters, if desired,
- prior to searching and reading the message/text file.
-
- Sort Files - the user defined file names which are assigned to the 10
- Function keys (and 10 ALT + Function keys). Individual Screen Text
- items are added to these files at the user's discretion. The sort
- file names are specified in the NAMEVIEW.DAT (or NAMEVDAT.*) file(s).
- Defined sort files are those which have a complete file name speci-
- fied. Un-defined sort files are designated by including a question
- mark "?" only once as the last character and may be edited when
- selected.
-
- Text Section - in Text mode, NAMEVIEW processes files in "sections"
- of finite length. This ensures the capability of being able to read
- a text file of virtually unlimited size. Sections in Text mode are
- handled identically to individual messages in message mode.
-
-
- What is NAMEVIEW?
-
- NAMEVIEW is a message and text searcher/reader/printer/sorter.
- It was originally created so that genealogists could read rapidly
- through large download files with the program highlighting all in-
- stances of names/words contained in an essentially unlimited (in
- number) search list. NAMEVIEW is adaptable enough to be useful to
- anyone who needs to search message downloads or other ASCII text
-
- 2
-
-
-
-
-
- files for large or small numbers of interest items. While using
- NAMEVIEW to read messages or text, you can select output of individ-
- ual Screen Text sections to the printer, or to any of 20 user defin-
- able Sort Files. As program operation and searching are quite fast,
- your time saved in searching for important words/names with this
- program will probably be substantial.
-
- Simplicity of set up and use were foremost in my mind when the
- program was written. Only one support file is necessary
- (NAMEVIEW.DAT, to be detailed later) regardless of the number of
- message formats which will be searched. Also, there is no practical
- limit to the number of search words (also stored in the NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file), so the program need only be run once for each file to be read.
-
-
- Program Speed Considerations
-
- Speed of operation was, in most cases, the primary consideration
- during the programming of NAMEVIEW. My objective was to make use of
- any time available for searching. While you are viewing and paging/-
- scrolling through the current Screen Text, NAMEVIEW is rapidly scann-
- ing ahead finding and searching the next message/text section to be
- presented. In most cases, the search will probably be completed
- before you are finished with the current Screen Text, making the next
- Screen Text section immediately available whenever you ask for it.
-
- There are, however, many variables which will affect the speed
- at which NAMEVIEW will do its job. Microprocessor speed, disk speed
- (hard or floppy), the number of names in your search list, the size
- of each message in your download file, and other choices that can be
- made from the menu will all affect the speed of operation.
-
- NAMEVIEW's work is disk intensive, as it is constantly reading
- through your download/text file. Thus, the biggest difference in
- program speed depends on whether you are using a floppy or a hard
- disk system.
-
- NAMEVIEW is not a throughput program. Once it is started, it
- doesn't work steadily until it is finished. Instead, it accepts
- input from the operator as to when to continue after a message is
- presented onscreen. For this reason, no benchmark tests are really
- possible. If you have an 8088 system running at the original
- 4.77MHz, you may not be overly impressed with program speed. If you
- have an 8088/8086 running at 10MHz, program speed becomes more im-
- pressive. If you have an 80286 or better machine, regardless of
- speed, hold on to your hat!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 3
-
-
-
-
-
- *** Quick Start ***
-
-
- How to run a quick demo
-
- Enough files have been included in the NAMEV###.ZIP set to
- enable you to run a quick demo of the program prior to setting up
- your own NAMEVIEW.DAT file. You will need the NAMEVIEW.EXE file, the
- NAMEVIEW.DAT file provided (which happens to include my own list of
- names), the DEMOVIEW.BAT file, and the DEMO.KDM file (a tutorial
- combined with a set of sample messages and text to show you what the
- program will do with them).
-
- Floppy disk users:
-
- Place these four files on one disk and place the disk in drive
- A. Make sure that drive A is the default drive if you have more than
- one floppy drive. If you are looking at the DOS prompt on your
- screen, merely typing "A:" (don't include the quotes, just type the
- A and the colon!) followed by the <ENTER> key should do it. See
- your DOS manual for details on default drives if you have questions.
-
- Hard disk users:
-
- Place all four files in the same subdirectory on your hard disk,
- then make that drive and subdirectory the current one. If you have
- questions on making subdirectories (MKDIR or MD) and/or changing
- directories (CHDIR or CD), see your DOS manual.
-
- All users:
-
- Now type "DEMOVIEW" (again, don't type the quote marks, type the
- word between quotes) and press <ENTER>. A short instruction screen
- will give you enough directions to get started, and then NAMEVIEW
- will be loaded. Once the Set Up menu is onscreen, you can experiment
- with the menu selections if you like by pressing any highlighted
- letter until the setup shows the desired options. You can get help
- by pressing "H", and in fact, most of the program's operation can by
- understood by looking through the three available help screens (<Esc>
- gets you out of Help). When you are ready to start, press <ENTER>
- and the demo program will begin.
-
- The first "message" you will see is a "what's new" rundown on
- the current version. This is followed by a tutorial section to
- familiarize you with the NAMEVIEW commands. When you have finished
- with the tutorial, you will see some actual messages which will show
- how NAMEVIEW's highlighting normally works. When all messages have
- been seen, the "Last Message.." action indicator will appear. Press
- the <Esc> key to exit NAMEVIEW, or "M" to go back to the "File Menu
- Options" screen.
-
- If you like what you saw on the demo, then continue on with the
- set up chapter so you can customize the program for your own use!
-
- 4
-
-
-
-
-
- NAMEVIEW Conventions
-
- This section pulls together many items which are found scattered
- throughout the documentation file. Use it to help your overall
- understanding of what NAMEVIEW needs to give you the most benefit
- from its features, or as a quick answer to questions which may come
- up from time to time. Information is available in more detail in the
- individual sections covering these items.
-
-
- Support Files -
-
- The only support file NAMEVIEW requires is NAMEVIEW.DAT. It may
- also use NAMEDROP.DAT if you have one, or you may create addi-
- tional support files (usually so you can use different search
- lists) using the naming convention NAMEVDAT.*. NAMEVIEW.DAT
- must be in the default drive and directory when NAMEVIEW is
- started.
-
-
- Download Files (Message Mode) -
-
- You may name your download file anything you want, but it is
- suggested that you use mmmdd.xxx format where mmm is a three
- character month identifier, dd is a two digit day (of the month)
- identifier, and xxx is a file extension which is found in at
- least one of the Message Format Blocks in your support file.
- This naming convention must be used for the AutoLoad feature
- (available in Message Mode only) to work. If you use another
- naming convention, do not use the "!", "$", or "#" characters.
- NAMEVIEW needs to have these characters reserved for its own
- use. Also, filenames should not be over seven characters long
- (to the left of the period), as NAMEVIEW needs to add an addi-
- tional character at times.
-
-
- Message Format Blocks -
-
- These are in your support file(s) and tell NAMEVIEW how your
- messages are configured. You must have at least one, and up to
- ten can be stored in each support file.
-
- In Message Mode, you must have a Message Format Block listing a
- particular file name extension before a file using that exten-
- sion will show up in the file list to be loaded.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 5
-
-
-
-
-
- Command Line Parameters -
-
- A = Activate (A)utoLoad feature (Message Mode only)
- Cdddd = Set Custom Message Screen (C)olors as specified
- I = Display (I)nformation Line at top of screen
- M = Force Display into (M)ono mode
- O = Change (O)perating Mode to Text Mode
- Pd = Set (P)rint device as specified
- Tdd[d] = Set number of (T)ext lines in each text mode section
- X = Start reading without stopping at Set Up menu
-
-
- Configuration Line (in Message Format Block) Parameters -
-
- Param Controls Default Setting
- J Jump to Highlight NO
- D Display Messages/Text sections containing
- SEARCH WORDS
- U Upper Case Check YES
- L Line Wrap Check YES
- S Sound OFF
- E NoEcho Mode OFF (Message Mode only)
-
- All Configuration parameters return to their defaults when a new
- download file is loaded, unless a Configuration Line in the
- appropriate Message Format Block dictates otherwise.
-
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- 6
-
-
-
-
-
- *** SET UP - Preparing to Use NAMEVIEW ***
-
-
- Message Mode Operation
-
- Message Mode is the default mode of operation for NAMEVIEW.
- Unless you change operating modes via the command line or the File
- Menu, you will be in Message Mode. Message mode is for reading
- messages downloaded from BBS systems which have been stored in con-
- tinuous ASCII format.
-
-
- Saving your Message Downloads -
-
- I will not attempt to cover the use of a modem and communica-
- tions program in downloading message files. There are, however,
- certain conventions which must be followed, and others that are
- recommended in order for NAMEVIEW to function correctly.
-
- Dial into your BBS and set your terminal program to capture (or
- log) to file. Then download your messages by using the (BBS) command
- to read messages without stopping. For ease in cataloging, it is
- suggested that your capture file be named as follows:
-
- MMMDD.NNN (example - JAN01.TRS)
-
- where -
-
- MMM = the first three letters of the month (i.e. JAN)
- DD = the two digit day of the month (i.e. 01,28, etc.)
- NNN = a three letter abbreviation of the conference or
- BBS from which the message file was downloaded
- (i.e. NGC for National Genealogical Conference, KDM
- for The Kingdom BBS, etc.)
-
- For example, a file which you download from the Kingdom BBS on
- January 1, would be named JAN01.KDM.
-
- NOTE: This format is mandatory if you plan on using the Autoload
- feature! In addition, the exclamation point (!), the pound sign (#),
- and the dollar sign ($) are reserved filename characters to be used
- by the NAMEVIEW program only. If you use these characters, certain
- NAMEVIEW features will be negated, and the program's usefulness to
- you will be greatly reduced.
-
- If you don't ever plan on AutoLoading, then the format described
- above is not mandatory, as any filename will work. It will, however,
- reduce confusion and help catalog your downloads.
-
- If you choose to use another filename format, it is recommended
- that the length of your filename (the portion to the left of the
- "period") be restricted to seven characters or less. Certain fea-
-
- 7
-
-
-
-
-
- tures of NAMEVIEW cause download file names to be changed by the
- addition of a character. If your filename is eight characters long,
- the eighth character is replaced with NAMEVIEW's special character.
- When other NAMEVIEW features remove the extra character, NAMEVIEW
- does not replace the originally deleted eighth character.
-
- The filename extension (portion to the right of the "period") is
- the one place where you must be consistent. The extension that you
- use MUST be found in the first line of one of the "message format
- blocks" (see the next section for details) stored in the NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file. Otherwise, NAMEVIEW will not show the file in the selection
- list, and you will not be able to read it.
-
-
- Converting *.MSG files and Other Formats -
-
- If you download messages as a "point" or via a "mail handler"
- then your messages may be saved individually in *.MSG or similar
- format, or in a special continuous format such as a QWK packet.
- NAMEVIEW will not work on files saved in these special formats, but
- several programs are available which will convert them to a con-
- tinuous ASCII format file which is compatible with NAMEVIEW. The
- following programs have not been tested by me, but the information
- listed has been taken from message traffic describing their use:
-
- Program Use
- -------- -------------------------------------------------
- SAVECHO combines *.MSG files into 1 continuous ASCII file
- Mexport combines *.MSG files into 1 continuous ASCII file
- B2T converts BlueWave packets to continuous text
- QWKTXT40 converts QWK packets to continuous text
- QWK2TXT converts QWK packets to continuous text
- HARDCOPY (unknown - but designed for NAMEVIEW compatibility)
-
-
- Text Mode
-
- Text mode may be used to read any file stored in ASCII text
- form. The file is broken down into "sections" for processing and
- reading, but searching and search word highlighting are performed
- exactly as when in Message Mode. When a file listing is selected
- while in Text Mode, all filenames in the selected directory are
- shown, regardless of suffix.
-
-
- General Set Up
-
-
- The NAMEVIEW.DAT Data File in General -
-
- In discussing the NAMEVIEW.DAT file, all items apply to any
- support file which you create for use with NAMEVIEW. There is no
-
- 8
-
-
-
-
-
- limit to the number of support files you can create and use with
- NAMEVIEW. The only requirement is that additional support files must
- follow the naming scheme of "NAMEVDAT.*". You can use anything you
- like for a file extension, but a numbering (NAMEVDAT.1, NAMEVDAT.2,
- etc.) or lettering (NAMEVDAT.A, NAMEVDAT.B, etc.) system is recom-
- mended for easier cataloging. Support files in general will be
- referred to as DAT files, even though your file name extension may be
- other than DAT.
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT begins with an optional Comment Line. If this
- Comment Line is included, it must begin with the "@" character, so
- NAMEVIEW will recognize it as a comment, and consist of no more than
- 78 characters. When the DAT file list is onscreen, this comment may
- be displayed for the DAT file which is highlighted by pressing "R"
- (Remark).
-
- After the optional Comment Line, the NAMEVIEW.DAT file consists
- of three sections: the Message Format section, the File Name sec-
- tion, and the Search List section. Users of NAMEDROP, who have
- already made a NAMEDROP.DAT file, will find that the formats are very
- similar. The only differences between the two are the addition of an
- optional Configuration Line in each Message Format Block, and the
- File Name section in the NAMEVIEW.DAT file. In fact, if NAMEVIEW
- cannot find a NAMEVIEW.DAT file, it will automatically look for a
- NAMEDROP.DAT file and use it if it is available! If you add a File
- Name section to a NAMEDROP.DAT file, it can be used by both NAMEDROP
- and NAMEVIEW (NAMEDROP will ignore the File Name section).
-
- Perhaps the easiest way to make your personalized NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file, once you have read over the following instructions, would be to
- load the NAMEVIEW.DAT file provided with the demo and simply make any
- necessary changes. Several message format blocks are included in the
- sample, and chances are that one of them will work with the message
- format your BBS uses.
-
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - Message Format Section -
-
- The Message Format section is composed of one or more (max of
- 10) Message Format Blocks. If you download messages from only one
- conference or one BBS, or if all of your download files will have the
- same format, regardless of source, then you may need only one message
- format block. Multiple message format blocks are necessary only if
- you download messages of more than one format, or if you desire
- different configurations, as defined in the Configuration Line (we're
- coming to that!), for different files. In this case, a separate
- message format block is needed for each different format.
-
- NOTE: If you plan on using NAMEVIEW in Text Mode only, and don't
- care to have any functioning Message Format Blocks, merely enter four
- blank lines at the beginning of your DAT file. You can place a caret
- (^) on the fifth line, followed by your Sort File names, if you
-
- 9
-
-
-
-
-
- desire to enter file names, or you can place a double tilde (~~) on
- the fifth line. You can then enter your search list, one search
- item per line, and be done with your DAT file.
-
- For message readers, the first line of your NAMEVIEW.DAT file
- (other than a Comment Line) will be the first line of your first (and
- possibly only) Message Format Block. The first line of a Message
- Format Block lists the filename extension(s) which you use for
- message download files which are formatted in accordance with that
- message format block.
-
- A complete Message Format Block (MFB) is composed as follows:
-
- Sample MFB Explanation (NOT part of the NAMEVIEW.DAT file!)
- ------------ ------------------------------------------------
- TRS - the filename extension(s) using this format block
- From: - First Line key word (or group of characters)
- Subject: - Subject Line key word (or group of characters)
- * Origin: - Last Line key word (or group of characters)
- DULSE - Configuration Line (optional)
- ~ - separates multiple message format blocks (use ^ to
- start filename section if only one message format
- block is used)
-
- Your First Line key word should be a word (or group of charac-
- ters) which is consistently found at the beginning (on the leftmost
- side of the top line) of each message contained in your download
- file. This entry is used by NAMEVIEW to determine the beginning of
- each message in turn to be searched. Some typical First Line key
- words are: "From:", "Message #:", "Date:", "Msg #:"
-
- Your Subject Line key word should be a word (or group of charac-
- ters) which is consistently found at the beginning of the line that
- states the subject of each message.
-
- Your Last Line key word should be a word (or group of charac-
- ters) which is consistently found on the leftmost side of the last
- line of each message contained in your download file. This entry is
- used by NAMEVIEW to determine the end of each message being searched.
- Although the line found containing your Last Line key word is not
- searched, this line is written to any Sort files chosen, is printed
- if either Print option is chosen, and is shown onscreen, if appli-
- cable.
-
- The Configuration Line is optional and can contain as many or as
- few (or none!) of the letters J, D, U, L, S, and/or E as you desire.
- Any letter placed on a Configuration Line will cause the parameter
- controlled by that letter (covered in the Configuration Line Parame-
- ters section) to be toggled to the opposite of the default setting
- when a file with an extension listed in that same Message Format
- Block is loaded. See the Configuration Line Parameters section for
- more details about the use of these settings.
-
-
- 10
-
-
-
-
-
- Filename extension(s) (on the first line of each Message Format
- Block) must be in UPPER case. Upper and lower case MUST BE ACCURATE
- when entering the rest of your message format block information.
-
- NOTE: If your downloaded messages have NO key word which consistent-
- ly appears on the leftmost side of the last line of each message,
- then leave a blank line (with NO spaces) for the Last Line key word.
- In this case, you will have to run NAMEVIEW with NoEcho mode toggled
- ON while reading download files which use this Message Format Block.
-
- NOTE: The entry for "Last Line key word" (" * Origin:" in sample
- above) must be entered EXACTLY as it appears in your messages. YOU
- MUST INCLUDE ANY LEADING SPACES, IF ANY, WHICH APPEAR ON THIS LINE.
- If NO leading spaces precede your key word, then DON'T include them.
- NAMEVIEW will not be able to correctly identify individual messages
- if this is not done.
-
- NOTE: Although the term "key word" is used in the descriptions of
- the parameters discussed above, do not be misled. It is not neces-
- sary for these "key words" to end with a space character or to con-
- sist of a complete word (some users have been under the impression
- that the space was necessary so NAMEVIEW would recognize the "key
- word" as a stand-alone word). If your "key words" end with a colon,
- as most of them do, then using the colon character as the last char-
- acter of your "key word" will work fine. Using as many characters as
- consistently appear at the end of each message will improve NAME-
- VIEW's accuracy in defining message separation.
-
- Enter up to ten message format blocks as necessary for your
- needs. Use a single tilde (~) on a line by itself to separate the
- preceding message format block from the next message format block.
-
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - File Name Section
-
- The second section of the NAMEVIEW.DAT file is the File Name
- section. A single caret (^) on a line by itself signals the end of
- the Message Format Block section and the start of the File Name
- section (the caret should be in between your last Message Format
- Block and the first file name you wish to assign). You can enter up
- to 20 file names, which will be assigned to function keys 1 - 10 and
- then to ALT + function keys 1 - 10 in the order in which they are
- found in the .DAT file. The file name section is composed as fol-
- lows:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 11
-
-
-
-
-
- Sample Block Explanation (NOT part of the NAMEVIEW.DAT file!)
- ------------ ------------------------------------------------
- ^ - signals start of file name section
- C:\NGC\SENT - first file name (assigned to F1)
- A:RECEIVED - second file name (assigned to F2)
- TO_CHECK - third file name (assigned to F3)
- TO_ANSER. - fourth file name (assigned to F4)
- GENERAL.DAT - fifth file name (assigned to F5)
- ? - sixth file name (assigned to F6)
- C:\NMV\? - seventh file name (assigned to F7)
- ~~ - signals end of File Name section and start of name
- (search) list section
-
- If you enter file names without an extension, as in the first
- three file names in the example above, NAMEVIEW will automatically
- add the extension "NMV" (NaMeView). If you would prefer not to have
- the default extension added, simply end your file name with a period,
- as in the fourth file name assigned above (TO_ANSER.). If you want
- your own extension on your file name, simply enter the full file name
- + extension, and NAMEVIEW will assign your full file name, as in
- "GENERAL.DAT" above. The file names assigned to function keys F1 -
- F5 in the above sample are "defined" sort file names.
-
- If a file name entry is made which consists only of a question
- mark "?" (as in the entry for F6 above) or ends with a question mark
- "?" (as in the entry for F7 above), it is considered by NAMEVIEW to
- be an "UNdefined" sort file name. NAMEVIEW will not add anything to
- an UNdefined sort file name entry. Whenever an "UNdefined" sort file
- is selected to add a message to, NAMEVIEW will prompt you to enter/-
- edit the filename (and path and/or drive if you want) before a mes-
- sage is added to it. Your entry/editing is retained after the mes-
- sage filing is completed, and the UNdefined sort filename will be
- presented to you as you entered/edited it the next time the same
- function key is pressed. Pressing <Esc> allows you to terminate the
- editing session without writing the message to any file.
-
- NOTE: An Undefined file name entry must contain only one question
- mark "?" and it must be the last character.
-
- In the above example, only seven file names are assigned from
- the DAT file, but the first 10 functions keys will all be assigned a
- file name. If you enter any number of file names less than 10, the
- remaining file names (up to a total of 10) will be assigned the
- program default names of the function key pressed + the extension
- "NMV".
-
- Notice also that full drive and path specifications can be given
- as well as file names. Any file name entered without a path will be
- written to the default drive and subdirectory, but any file name
- entered with a [drive][path] will be written to in accordance with
- those directions. Your file name entries can be checked at any time
- by calling the (Filename) Help Screen. All file names are shown in
- their complete format (the last 24 characters are shown, if your
- entries are longer than that) on the NAMEVIEW Filename Help page (see
-
- 12
-
-
-
-
-
- Help section for details).
-
- With a File Name section in your NAMEVIEW.DAT file as described
- above, file names would be assigned to the 10 function keys as fol-
- lows:
-
- F1 - C:\NGC\SENT.NMV (default extension added)
- F2 - A:RECEIVED.NMV (default extension added)
- F3 - TO_CHECK.NMV (default extension added)
- F4 - TO_ANSER. (no extension added - suppressed with period)
- F5 - GENERAL.DAT (your extension added, as it was specified)
- F6 - ? (undefined sort file - nothing added)
- F7 - C:\NMV\? (undefined sort file - nothing added)
- F8 - F8.NMV (default filenames and extension used for
- F9 - F9.NMV remainder of files, as no more filenames
- F10 - F10.NMV were specified)
-
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File - Search List Section -
-
- The last section of the .DAT file is your search list. The end
- of the File Name section and the start of the Search List is signaled
- by a double tilde (~~) on a line by itself. Each search list item
- (or name) is placed on a separate line. Search words may consist of
- any sequence of characters (letters, numbers, and punctuation) which
- you wish to find. Search words may be entered in UPPERCASE, lower
- case, or MiXeD Case, as only the sequence of characters is important.
- There is no practical limit on the length of a search word, and there
- is no practical limit on the number of search words in your list.
-
- More than one word can be entered on the same line as a single
- search list item. For example, if you use Family Roots software, and
- would like to be shown all instances of "Family Roots" as you read
- messages, then "Family Roots" (without the quote marks, of course)
- should be entered on a line by itself.
-
- NAMEVIEW is not confused with multiple occurrences of the same search
- word in separate entries. In other words, you can have the following
- entries in your search list without causing problems:
-
- North
- South
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Carolina
- Virginia
- West Virginia
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 13
-
-
-
-
-
- Sample NAMEVIEW.DAT File -
-
- In order to clarify the above separate examples, a complete
- (almost) sample NAMEVIEW.DAT file is given below:
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT Explanation (NOT part of the NAMEVIEW.DAT file)
- ------------ ------------------------------------------------
- @Sample comment - Comment line (optional, up to 78 characters)
- TRS PAS KDM \ (notice that more than one file name extension
- From: \ may be included in a MFB)
- Subject: - First Message Format block
- * Origin: /
- D / - (Configuration Line - optional)
- ~ - Divider for additional format block
- HPC \
- Msg #: \
- Topic: - Second Message Format block
- * Origin /
- U / - (Configuration Line - optional)
- ~ - Divider for additional format block
- EDH MSC \
- Message #: \
- Subject: - Third Message Format block
- * Origin: / (contains NO Configuration Line)
- ^ - signals start of File Name section
- SENT \
- RECEIVED \
- TO_CHECK - File Name section
- TO_ANSER. /
- GENERAL.DAT /
- ? /
- ~~ - signals start of Name List section
- Archer \
- Atwood \
- . - Name List (Search List) section
- . /
- . /
- . (names until list is completed - no end marker required!)
-
-
- NOTE: If the above sample DAT file were to be used, the AutoLoad
- feature (to be described in detail later) would initially load a file
- with the extension TRS. Successive attempts to AutoLoad files would
- search for files with extensions of PAS, KDM, HPC, EDH, and MSC (in
- that order).
-
- When you have completed your NAMEVIEW.DAT file, save it in ASCII
- format. See Appendix A, "Ways to Write Your NAMEVIEW.DAT File" for
- help in doing this if you have questions.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 14
-
-
-
-
-
- NAMEVIEW.DAT File Tips -
-
- If you have a name with several spelling variations (for ex-
- ample, BASYE, BASEE, & BASEY) you can easily put all variations in
- your search list, as the number of entries is essentially unlimited.
- By doing so, you'll catch a message containing your name regardless
- of which version the originator used. Although there is no real
- reason to do so, I put all of the primary spellings of my names at
- the beginning of my list. The secondary spellings are started when I
- have finished entering all of my primary ones.
-
- Entering just the root of a name will probably result in no
- finds at all. If you tried to cover the three variations given above
- on BASYE by using BAS as one of the search items, your search would
- be unsuccessful. NAMEVIEW does not find imbedded words (example: it
- will not find "the" in "theatre"). A "hit" is made only when it is a
- stand-alone word.
-
- Other items you may want to consider putting in your search
- list are county names, city names, the name and/or abbreviation of
- your favorite genealogy program, and things like LDS. If there is
- anyone on your echo who's messages are always of interest to you, put
- their full BBS name in your search list. If you like to read mes-
- sages addressed to ALL, then figure out the spacing which will appear
- on your messages' TO line. For example, you would enter something
- like "To: ALL" in your search list.
-
- Beware of search words which may turn out to be a nuisance. For
- example, I have the names "Page" and "North" in my list. Every time
- there is a reference to a page number, or North Carolina, etc. I get
- a hit during my search. Even when I check for uppercase (see fea-
- tures section), there are still many useless hits on the Page (for
- obvious reasons) name. It's up to you to decide if a name like that
- is important enough to keep in your list.
-
- See the Search Parameters description in the Features chapter
- for information which may give you additional ideas on what needs to
- be included in your search list.
-
- If you have only one Message Format Block, including NMV (or the
- extension you choose to use with your sort file names) in the first
- line will enable you to use NAMEVIEW to read any of the Sort Files
- which you save to.
-
-
- Floppy Disk Set Up -
-
- NAMEVIEW works fine on a floppy disk system, but there will be
- limitations on the size of the download file that can be handled due
- to the limited capacity of a floppy disk.
-
-
-
- 15
-
-
-
-
-
- If you have two floppy disk drives, one drive can be used ini-
- tially to load the program. The same drive can then be used to read
- your download file, and the second can be used to write your Sort
- files (specify the correct drive when entering file names in your
- .DAT file).
-
- In any floppy configuration, your floppy drive light will prob-
- ably seem to light up at unusual times. This is normal, as the
- program will be continuously reading and searching for the next
- Screen Text section until it is found and readied for viewing.
-
-
- Hard Disk Set Up -
-
- NAMEVIEW works best on a hard disk system due to the speed ad-
- vantage and the numerous ways in which the files can be set up. The
- simplest set up is for all files to be in the same directory. If you
- desire, the program, DAT, download, and sort files can all be in
- separate directories, depending on how you like to manage your hard
- disk.
-
- NOTE: The only hard set up requirement is that your NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file MUST be in the default drive and directory when you start NAME-
- VIEW. NAMEVIEW will not search your DOS path until it finds your
- NAMEVIEW.DAT file!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 16
-
-
-
-
-
- *** Start Up - How to start NAMEVIEW ***
-
-
- Command Line Entries
-
- To start NAMEVIEW from your DOS prompt simply type:
-
- [drive][path]NAMEVIEW <ENTER>
-
- No additional parameters are required to start the program. The
- optional drive and path names are necessary only if you wish to load
- NAMEVIEW from other than the default drive and/or directory. This
- could also be done via your DOS PATH command if you prefer. Addi-
- tional command line parameters MAY be added if you desire. Consult
- the "Command Line Parameters" section for details.
-
- At this point NAMEVIEW will load and commence. If a
- NAMEVIEW.DAT or NAMEDROP.DAT file cannot be found IN THE DEFAULT
- DRIVE AND PATH, then the program will produce an error message and
- stop. See Appendix B for explanations of all possible error mes-
- sages.
-
-
- Command Line Parameters
-
- After you have run NAMEVIEW several times, you might wish to
- customize certain aspects of its operation. This can be done by
- including certain parameter characters on the command line when you
- start NAMEVIEW. Automatic repetition of these characters can be
- accomplished via your menu program or a simple batch file.
-
- To enter your customizing changes on the command line, type a
- space after "NAMEVIEW" and then type the appropriate characters (case
- does not matter). Using the menu letters on the command line will
- take the configuration out of its default mode the same as if you had
- pressed the letter once when stopped at the NAMEVIEW menu. If you
- want a particular feature to run in the default mode, then don't
- include that menu letter on the command line.
-
- Allowable Command Line entries are as follows:
-
- A = Activate (A)utoLoad feature
- Cdddd = Set Custom Message Screen (C)olors as specified
- I = Display (I)nformation Line at top of screen
- M = Force Display into (M)ono mode
- O = Change (O)perating Mode to Text Mode
- Pd = Set (P)rint device as specified
- Tdd[d] = Set number of (T)ext lines in each text mode section
- X = Start reading without stopping at Set Up menu
-
-
-
-
- 17
-
-
-
-
-
- In order for the AutoLoad feature to work, the following condi-
- tions must be met:
-
- 1. The "A" parameter must be specified in the command line or
- you must toggle AutoLoad ON at the "File Menu Options" menu.
-
- 2. You must be (remain) in Message Mode. AutoLoad is not
- active, and in fact will not appear on the Menu, in Text
- Mode.
-
- 3. Your system (DOS) calender must be correctly set (NAMEVIEW
- uses the current system date to formulate the filename to
- search for).
-
- 4. The file name extension(s) of the file(s) you wish to Auto-
- Load must be found in the current DAT file.
-
- 5. There must be at least one download file in the current
- drive and directory named in accordance with the method
- described in the "Saving your Message Downloads" section
- (mmmdd.ext) with a name reflecting the current date.
-
- Custom Message Screen Colors are set with the "Cdddd" command
- line entry where "dddd" consists of 2 two-digit number entries. The
- first two digits following the "C" specify the foreground color
- (color of the actual characters themselves) to be used. The last two
- digits specify the background color (space surrounding the actual
- characters) to be used. These colors are reversed to create the
- highlighted parts of your messages.
-
- Enter numbers as follows to customize your Message Screen:
-
- Color Number Foreground Color Background Color
- 00 Black Black
- 01 Blue Blue
- 02 Green Green
- 03 Cyan Cyan
- 04 Red Red
- 05 Magenta Magenta
- 06 Brown Brown
- 07 White White
- 08 Gray Black
- 09 Bright Blue Blue
- 10 Bright Green Green
- 11 Bright Cyan Cyan
- 12 Bright Red Red
- 13 Bright Magenta Magenta
- 14 Yellow Brown
- 15 Bright White White
-
- Notice that "bright" colors are only available for foreground
- colors. However, if the numbers 08 - 15 are used to specify the
-
- 18
-
-
-
-
-
- background color, high intensity characters will appear when the
- colors reverse temporarily for highlighting. If you specify numbers
- other than those given in the chart above, NAMEVIEW will refuse to
- process them and revert to the default (Cyan letters, black back-
- ground) settings.
-
- NOTE: Enter numbers exactly as shown. BOTH digits must be specified
- for each color (include leading zeros)! Otherwise, NAMEVIEW will
- probably ignore your settings!
-
- The Print device may be customized with the "Pd" entry, where
- "d" is a single digit specifying the number of the LPT device to be
- used. If, for example, your entry is "P2" then all print requests
- will be made to LPT2. If no entry is made, the default LPT1 is used.
- See the caution note in the "Print Device Customizing" topic of the
- features section about assigning unsupported print devices.
-
- The number of text lines processed in each "section" of text
- while in Text Mode can be set with the "Tdd[d]" entry. The "d"
- entries are 2 to 3 numeric characters making up a number between 24
- and 150. Any number entered outside these parameters will be in-
- creased/reduced as applicable to the minimum/maximum values as given.
- For example, if your entry is "T125" then NAMEVIEW will process text
- (while operating in Text Mode) in sections of 125 lines at a time.
- If your entry is "T200" then NAMEVIEW will reduce the value to 150
- (as it exceeds the allowable upper limit) and process text in sec-
- tions of 150 lines at a time. If no "T" entry is given, the default
- value of 24 is used.
-
- Notice that the last command line letter entry will allow the
- program to bypass the Set Up Menu without the requirement for user
- input from the keyboard. If no "X" is present in the command line,
- the program will make its normal pause at the menu.
-
- For multiple command line entries, merely type all of the de-
- sired parameter letters one after the other without separating them
- with spaces or punctuation. Command line letters can be entered in
- any order.
-
- Example: entering the following on the command line -
-
- NAMEVIEW AP2C1402X
-
- would load NAMEVIEW, activate the AutoLoad feature, set the printer
- option to LPT2, set Message Screen colors to Yellow on Green, and
- bypass the Set Up Menu. Providing that the AutoLoad feature found a
- file name reflecting the current date, NAMEVIEW would load that file
- (bypassing the File Menu), bypass the Set Up menu, and go directly to
- the Message screen, which would be the first thing you would see!
-
-
-
-
- 19
-
-
-
-
-
- Configuration Line Parameters
-
- Configuration Line parameters are the same as those items which
- appear on the Set Up menu for you to toggle ON/OFF or YES/NO. They
- include Jump to Highlight, Message Display (ALL or Messages/Sections
- Containing Search Words), Line Wrap Check, Upper Case Check, NoEcho
- Mode (Message Mode only), and Sound. Downloads from different BBS
- systems and different echos may require different parameter settings
- based on your needs and wishes.
-
- NAMEVIEW operation can be further customized/automated by in-
- cluding Configuration Lines in the Message Format Blocks of your DAT
- files. Configuration Lines may contain any or all of the characters
- J, D, U, L, S, and E. When a file is AutoLoaded, or you choose a
- file from the Smart Point and Shoot File Selection menu, that file's
- extension dictates which Message Format Block is selected for message
- formatting. If Configuration Line information is included in the
- selected Message Format Block, it will be used to automatically set
- the Configuration Line/SetUp menu parameters.
-
- Each time a new download file is loaded, any parameters not
- included in the Configuration Line will be set to their defaults. If
- no parameters are found, all settings will return to their defaults.
- If you return to the Set Up menu via the File Selection menu without
- selecting a new download file, no changes to Configuration Line
- parameters are made. This lets you retain any interim changes you
- might have made and wish to repeat until you change files. The
- Special Search parameter is always retained, regardless of any of the
- previous conditions, until it is reset to NO or a new DAT file is
- loaded. These parameters, regardless of how they were initially set,
- can always be changed while stopped at the Set Up menu or while
- reading messages.
-
- The default settings for Configuration Line/Set Up menu parame-
- ters are as follows:
-
- Jump to Highlight - NO
- Display - Messages/Sections containing SEARCH WORDS
- Upper Case Check - YES
- Line Wrap Check - YES
- NoEcho Mode - OFF (Message Mode only)
- Sound - OFF
-
- When the following letters are included in Configuration Lines, the
- associated actions are accomplished:
-
- J = Jump to Highlight activated
- D = Display ALL messages/sections
- U = Upper case check will NOT be done
- L = Line Wrap Check turned OFF
- S = Sound will be turned ON
- E = NoEcho Mode Activated (Message Mode only)
-
- 20
-
-
-
-
-
- The current settings of these parameters are displayed on the
- Information line while reading messages.
-
-
- FILE MENU Operation
-
- After a few moments to load, the NAMEVIEW File Menu will appear.
- This menu allows you to select the Operating Mode (Text or Message),
- set the drive and/or path for your download/text or DAT file listing,
- list files in the default (or optionally selected) drive and
- directory (Smart Point & Shoot), list DAT files in the default (or
- optionally selected) drive and directory, toggle the AutoLoad
- parameter (Message Mode only), mark the current file, and delete the
- current file. In addition, pressing <Esc> will allow you to exit
- NAMEVIEW, if desired, even though this option does not appear
- onscreen. All menu features are activated by pressing the highlight-
- ed letter associated with the feature. See the features section for
- full details on all of the menu items.
-
- The Mark file and Delete file options will not be available
- unless the current file has already been read during the current
- session. Additionally, these options are not available when the
- current file has been "Book Marked." You will be asked to verify
- these two selections for safety before action is taken.
-
- When the (L)ist Files feature is selected, NAMEVIEW shows you
- either its Smart Point and Shoot file list (Message Mode) or a com-
- plete file list (Text Mode). Use the Up and Down arrows to highlight
- the desired file, then press ENTER to select it.
-
- If a download/text file has been selected (filename is visible
- in the Menu) and the Operating Mode is changed, the file selection
- will be deleted (just your selection of the file, not the file
- itself) to prevent improper operation with files selected for the
- opposite operating mode.
-
- When the (S)elect New DAT File feature is selected, NAMEVIEW
- shows you all of the NAMEVDAT.* files which it finds in the default
- or optionally selected drive and directory. Use the Up and Down
- arrows to highlight the desired support file, then press ENTER to
- select and load it. Selecting and loading a new DAT file will also
- reset the Special Search parameter to NO if previously changed. For
- any highlighted file, pressing "R" will show the first line remark on
- screen, if present. See the "The NAMEVIEW.DAT Data File" section for
- details on entering a remark.
-
- To quickly reselect your default path after initially making a
- change, press "P" followed immediately by <ENTER> (make a null en-
- try).
-
- If you are in Message Mode, the AutoLoad feature can be toggled
- ON or OFF at any time. NAMEVIEW will attempt to perform an AutoLoad
- any time this feature is changed to an ON setting. If this parameter
-
- 21
-
-
-
-
-
- is left ON, successive AutoLoads are automatically attempted whenever
- a return to this menu is accomplished and the current file is "mark-
- ed" or deleted, or if a new DAT file is loaded.
-
- Changing the Operating Mode (Message/Text) will result in the
- removal of the current file name from the Menu, and a new file will
- be have to be selected before proceeding from the File Menu.
-
- You cannot proceed beyond the File Menu until a download/text
- file has been chosen. Once this has occurred, the "<ENTER> for Set
- UP" prompt will appear at the bottom of the menu. Press ENTER to
- continue to the SET UP Menu. You will be able to return to the File
- Menu (to select additional files!) at any time from the Message
- screen by pressing "M"(enu).
-
- If you included the AutoLoad parameter on the command line, and
- the AutoLoad feature found a file to load, the File Menu will be
- bypassed on initial program start up. Even if initially bypassed,
- the File Menu can still be called from the Message screen as pre-
- viously mentioned.
-
-
- SET UP MENU Operation
-
- The Set UP Menu allows you to change any of NAMEVIEW's operating
- parameters and optionally to select a Special Search item. As with
- the File Menu, options are selected or toggled by pressing the high-
- lighted key associated with the feature. <Esc> will allow program
- termination if desired.
-
- The "Find Book Mark" parameter is available (and visible) only
- if you selected a "Book Marked" file. If this is the case, the "Find
- Book Mark" parameter is then automatically set to YES, but can be
- changed at your discretion.
-
- The "NoEcho" parameter is available (and visible) only if you
- are in Message Mode.
-
- If the "X" command line parameter is used, the Set Up Menu will
- be bypassed on initial load up. If additional download/text files
- are subsequently selected for reading, the Set Up menu will then be
- available for use.
-
- All parameter settings return to their default settings whenever
- a new download/text file is selected. Settings can be automated by
- including Configuration Lines in the Message Format Blocks of your
- DAT file(s).
-
- Help is available from the Set Up Menu screen (or any time you
- are reading messages) by pressing "H".
-
- When you are finished toggling your Set Up Menu selections,
- press <ENTER> to exit the menu and begin reading messages/text.
-
- 22
-
-
-
-
-
- *** Program Operation - How to use NAMEVIEW ***
-
-
- Once <ENTER> is pressed at the Set Up menu, NAMEVIEW will switch
- to the Message Screen, start searching, and present Screen Text
- onscreen for you to read. An Information Line will always be present
- at the bottom/top of the screen (your option) to keep you informed of
- program progress, actions, available hot keys, and possible error
- messages. A key to the information line is available as one of the
- Help screens. The following sections are given as full descriptions
- of the individual Information Line features.
-
-
- Information Line - Action Messages
-
- The first section of the Information Line presents several
- Action Messages which describe what the program is doing. A descrip-
- tion of the Action Messages can be reviewed at any time by pressing
- "H" for the Help section. Then PgUp or PgDn until you find the
- "NAMEVIEW Information Line" Help page.
-
- Action Message Description
- -------------- ----------------------------------------
- Searching... NAMEVIEW is finding and preparing the
- (steady) next message/section. This is the normal
- message which appears immediately after a
- new message/text section is shown on-
- screen.
-
- Searching... NAMEVIEW has acknowledged your "N" or "R"
- (blinking) keypress asking for the next (or pre-
- vious) message/text section, but is still
- searching for or processing it. The next
- message/text section will be shown on-
- screen as soon as it is ready.
-
- Waiting... Shown if NAMEVIEW is able to find and
- (steady) prepare the next message/text section
- before you are ready for it (you haven't
- pressed "N" yet after the current Screen
- Text was shown to you). The next mes-
- sage/text section will be shown imme-
- diately when you press "N".
-
- Processing! Shown while NAMEVIEW is reProcessing the
- (blinking) current onscreen message (which you
- caused by pressing "E" to change the
- NoEcho Mode (Message Mode only), or by
- pressing "L" to toggle the Line Wrap
- Check).
-
-
-
- 23
-
-
-
-
-
- Last Message/Section Shown if the Screen Text that is
- (blinking) currently onscreen is the last message/-
- section meeting your criteria in the
- download/text file. Press <Esc> if you
- are ready to exit NAMEVIEW, or any other
- Hot Key for appropriate action.
-
- Printing message/section The current Screen Text is being sent
- to LPT# to the printer.
- (steady)
-
- Adding message/section The current Screen Text is being added
- to filename added to (filename).
- (steady)
-
-
- Information Line - Additional Message Lines Indication
-
- The next area of the Information Line is used to indicate whe-
- ther there are more than 24 lines in the current onscreen message/-
- text section. If a down arrow appears, then the DOWN arrow cursor
- key (or PgDn, or End) can be used to view additional Screen Text
- lines below those which currently appear on the screen. If an up
- arrow appears, then the UP arrow cursor key (or PgUp, or Home) can
- be used to view additional Screen Text lines above those which cur-
- rently appear on the screen. It is not uncommon to have both up and
- down arrows appear in this area simultaneously. If either or both of
- the arrows are blinking, this indicates that highlighted words may be
- seen by scrolling the Screen Text in the direction indicated by the
- blinking arrow. If no arrows appear, then the Screen Text is short
- enough to be seen in its entirety without any scrolling functions.
-
- In addition, this section may show a blinking "Smiley" face.
- This will happen when Display ALL messages/sections is selected and
- the current Screen Text contains at least one search word. This is
- to alert you to the fact that a search "hit" was found in the current
- Screen Text. This may not otherwise be apparent to you if the Screen
- Text is longer than 24 lines and no highlighting appears within the
- first 24 lines.
-
-
- Information Line - Messages/Sections Processed
-
- The next section of the Information Line keeps a total of the
- number of Messages/text Sections processed. This is not the number
- of messages/text sections you have viewed, but rather the number of
- messages/text sections NAMEVIEW has had to process in it's search.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 24
-
-
-
-
-
- Information Line - Names Found
-
- The next section of the Information Line keeps a total of the
- number of names found. This total will always be higher than the
- totals you have seen using NAMEDROP. This is due to the fact that if
- the same name is found more than once in a message, NAMEVIEW will add
- all occurrences of the name to the total. NAMEDROP would only add
- one count per name found per message.
-
-
- Information Line - Hot Key Area
-
- The next section of the Information Line gives a listing of the
- hot keys available for you to control program features and execution.
- This listing is shown as:
-
- Esc/F#/H/I/R/P/F/B/M/J/D/U/L/S/E
-
- The status of the parameters controlled by the last 6 hot keys
- listed (J/D/U/L/S/E) are continuously shown. Except for the Display
- Messages/Sections parameter, any setting which is toggled ON or YES
- will be shown highlighted (blinking for mono displays). The Display
- Messages/Sections parameter ("D" character) will be highlighted
- (blinking) when set to ALL Messages/Sections.
-
- "ESC" indicates that the ESC key can be used any time to ter-
- minate program operation. <Fk#> indicates the function keys and Alt
- + function keys are active. Additional keys not shown which may be
- active depending on Screen Text length are the Screen Text viewing
- keys (cursor arrows, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End).
-
- A description of the Hot Keys can be reviewed at any time by
- pressing "H" for the Help section. Then PgUp or PgDn until you find
- the "NAMEVIEW Hot Keys" Help page. Keys shown in parenthesis below
- are additional keys which will also activate the described feature.
- The Hot Keys are used as follows:
-
- Hot Key Description of Action
- ------- ---------------------------------------------------------
- F1-F10 To add the current onscreen message/text section to a Sort
- file, press the function key to which the desired filename
- has been assigned. Ten additional Sort files are avail-
- able by using Alt + a function key if you provided extra
- filenames in your DAT file(s). If a function key is
- pressed which has been assigned an undefined sort file
- name (includes a "?" as the last or only character), you
- will be prompted to enter/edit the file name which the
- message is to be written to. Pressing <Esc> will ter-
- minate the editing session without writing the Screen
- Text to a file.
-
-
-
- 25
-
-
-
-
-
- Hot Key Description of Action (continued)
- ------- ---------------------------------------------------------
- Esc Used to return to normal program operation if you are in
- (Q) the Help section, or to exit NAMEVIEW during normal pro-
- gram operation. (Pressing "Q" calls the EXIT routine only
- when the Last Message/Section prompt is visible).
-
- H Brings up the Help pages.
-
- N Puts the next message/text section on the screen.
- (ENTER)
- (RT arrow)
- (space bar)
-
- I Toggles the Information Line location between the top and
- bottom of the screen.
-
- R Puts the previous message/text section on the screen.
- (LEFT
- arrow)
-
- P Prints the current Screen Text (to LPT#).
-
- F Prints the current Screen Text (to LPT#) followed by a
- Form Feed.
-
- B Inserts a "Book Mark," and returns you to the File Menu.
-
- M Returns you to the File Menu (after a prompt).
-
- J Toggles the Jump to Highlight parameter (status shown on
- Info line).
-
- D Toggles the Message/Section Display parameter (status
- shown on Info line).
-
- U Toggles the Upper Case check parameter (status shown on
- Info line).
-
- L Toggles the Line Wrap check parameter (status shown on
- Info line).
-
- S Toggles the Sound parameter (status shown on Info line).
-
- E Toggles the NoEcho Mode (Message Mode only) parameter
- (status shown on Info line).
-
- PgUp Selects the previous 22 lines of the Screen Text, if
- applicable. Also used to cycle through the three Help
- pages.
-
-
-
- 26
-
-
-
-
-
- Hot Key Description of Action (continued)
- ------- ---------------------------------------------------------
- PgDn Selects the next 22 lines of the Screen Text, if applic-
- able. Also used to cycle through the three Help pages.
-
- Home Returns you to the beginning of the Screen Text.
-
- End Takes you to the end of the Screen Text (shows you the
- last 24 lines.
-
- NOTE: For those with BIOS supported enhanced keyboards, the grey
- cursor, PgUp, and PgDn keys will work as well as the white ones.
-
- NOTE: Under certain conditions, additional messages may temporarily
- appear in place of the Hot Key listing. These messages are:
-
- Check FIRST LINE Parameter!
- Check LAST LINE Parameter!
-
- See Appendix B - Error Messages and Problems for explanations of
- these messages.
-
-
- Help System
-
- NAMEVIEW's Help system consists of three Help pages which can be
- called at any time (except when the File Menu is onscreen) by press-
- ing "H". Once you have called the Help system, PgUp and/or PgDn
- (and/or the left and right arrow keys) can be used to cycle through
- the Help pages in either direction. The three Help pages cover
- NAMEVIEW Hot Keys, NAMEVIEW Filenames, and the NAMEVIEW Information
- Line Key.
-
- The information contained on the NAMEVIEW Hot Keys Help page and
- the NAMEVIEW Information Line Key page has been covered elsewhere.
- The NAMEVIEW Filename page is a listing of the complete filenames (or
- the last 24 characters, if longer) assigned to each of the twenty
- function keys (normal and ALT + function keys). In addition, it
- shows the name of the current message download/text file which is
- being searched and read.
-
- To exit the Help section, press <Esc>. NAMEVIEW remembers what
- Help page you were on when you exit. The next time you call the
- Help section, you will be returned to that same page. Most users
- might want to exit Help while viewing the NAMEVIEW Filename page.
- Then when you wish to add to a Sort file and can't remember the
- function key to which the desired file name was assigned, pressing
- "H" will immediately return you back to the NAMEVIEW Filenames page.
- Of course, exiting the Help section will return you to the same
- screen page of the Screen Text you were viewing when Help was select-
- ed.
-
-
- 27
-
-
-
-
-
- Early Termination of Program Execution
-
- NAMEVIEW can be terminated at any time (except while viewing
- Help screens or the Smart Point & Shoot file list) by pressing the
- <Esc> key. If you are viewing the Help screens or the file list,
- pressing <Esc> will return you to normal program operation. Another
- press of <Esc> at this time will start the termination procedure.
- Since anyone can make a mistake, you will be prompted to verify that
- you want to terminate the program before you are actually "dumped."
- Pressing "Y" at the termination prompt will dump the program. Press-
- ing any other key will return you to normal NAMEVIEW operation.
-
-
- Normal Program Termination
-
- Normal program completion is first signaled by the flashing
- "Last Message/Section.." prompt in the Action message area of the
- information line. Exit at this point via the normal <Esc> key func-
- tion, or by pressing "Q" (for Quit) when you are finished with the
- last message/text section. If you desire, you can return to the
- File Menu by pressing "M".
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 28
-
-
-
-
-
- *** NAMEVIEW Features ***
-
-
- Active Parameter Switching -
- Users can now change the Line Wrap Check, Message/Section Dis-
- play (ALL or those containing Search Words), Sound, NoEcho Mode
- (Message Mode only), and Upper Case Check parameters at any
- time while Screen Text is being read. This is in addition to
- being able to set/change them via the Message Format Block
- Configuration Line or at the Set Up menu. If these settings are
- changed while viewing Screen Text, a short BEEP will sound to
- let you know the change has been made (except for the Sound
- parameter). It may take one additional Screen Text screen for
- the changes to take affect, since NAMEVIEW is usually already
- processing the next Screen Text section while you are viewing
- the current one. The status of these parameters is reflected on
- the Information Line by highlighting (or blinking for mono
- systems).
-
- AutoLoad Feature -
- If the AutoLoad command line parameter ("A") is present and you
- remain in the default Message Mode, NAMEVIEW loads and automati-
- cally looks for a download file with a prefix reflecting the
- current date and a suffix found in your DAT file. If a file
- meeting these conditions is present, it is loaded, the "File
- Menu Options" menu is skipped, and the user is immediately
- presented with the Set Up menu. If the file is not found, the
- "File Menu Options" menu is presented normally.
-
- After reading the initially loaded file and returning to the
- "File Menu Options" menu, NAMEVIEW will look for additional
- files with a name reflecting the current date AFTER the prev-
- iously read file is "marked" or deleted. Additional (or ini-
- tial, if the command line parameter wasn't used) AutoLoading can
- also be triggered by toggling the AutoLoad parameter to ON at
- the "File Menu Options" menu (in Message Mode only). Starting
- with the 2nd file to be AutoLoaded, NAMEVIEW will remain at the
- "File Menu Options" menu until <ENTER> is pressed to continue to
- the SetUp Menu.
-
- Files are searched for in the order in which file suffixes ap-
- pear in your message format blocks. NAMEVIEW will continue to
- AutoLoad additional files in turn until no more are found meet-
- ing the above criteria. When no more files are found, this
- fact is stated onscreen beside the AutoLoad toggle setting.
- AutoLoad is reactivated each time a new DAT file is selected
- provided you are in Message Mode and the AutoLoad parameter is
- left on (or toggled ON after loading the new DAT file). Condi-
- tions for ensuring that the AutoLoad feature will work are given
- in the "Command Line Entries" section of the documentation.
-
-
-
- 29
-
-
-
-
-
- Automated Caps Lock/Num Lock Adjusting -
- NAMEVIEW doesn't care about the status of your Caps Lock and
- Num Lock keys and does nothing to change them. Pressing the
- appropriate key will activate NAMEVIEW features regardless of
- the status of the Locking keys. This means that even the num-
- bers on the top row of the typewriter keys will activate fea-
- tures in accordance with the comparable numeric keypad paging
- and arrow keys.
-
- Automatic DESQVIEW Detection -
- NAMEVIEW automatically detects if it is being run under DesqVIEW
- and makes the necessary changes to be friendly with this system.
- No action is required from the user.
-
- Book Mark Feature -
- This feature gives you the option of saving your place while
- searching/reading through a long download/text file (or even a
- short one). After affirming that you want to place a book mark,
- NAMEVIEW "marks" the last Screen Text that was searched. This
- "Book Marking" is done by placing a file location code in a
- special file which NAMEVIEW will create automatically for you.
- The special file will have the name of your download file with a
- dollar sign ($) added. In addition, your download file name is
- changed by adding an exclamation point (!) to it. For example,
- if your download file is named MAY05.TRS, after placing a book
- mark, your download file will be named MAY05!.TRS, and the
- additional file created will be MAY05$.TRS.
-
- You can now run other programs on your computer, read other
- files with NAMEVIEW, or even turn your computer off. For your
- protection, files which have been "Book Marked" cannot be de-
- leted (by NAMEVIEW). When you wish to resume reading your "Book
- Marked" download/text file, simply choose it from the file
- listing (it should be easily recognized because of the "!" in
- the filename). When you get to the Set Up Menu, NAMEVIEW will
- automatically recognize that you have chosen a book marked file,
- and will automatically set the "Find Book Mark" parameter to
- YES. At this point, you have the option of changing this para-
- meter to NO, but if you do, you'll start searching all over at
- the beginning of the file. If you choose to stay with the YES
- setting, NAMEVIEW will start searching and show you the next
- Screen Text you would have seen if you had not suspended your
- original search with the Book Mark function. After starting
- operation with a file in which a "Book Mark" was made, NAMEVIEW
- automatically cleans up after itself by deleting the special
- file and renaming the download file to its original name (with-
- out the "!").
-
- Command Line Interface -
- A command line interface is available to set Custom Message
- Screen Colors, force your display into Mono mode, change your
- print (LPT#) device, change to Text Mode, Set the number of
-
- 30
-
-
-
-
-
- lines per Text Mode "section," Autoload a download file with a
- name reflecting the current date (Message Mode only), set the
- Information Line location, and to direct the program to start
- immediately at the Message Screen without a pause at the Menu
- Screen. See the "Command Line MENU Operation" section for
- details.
-
- Custom Message Screen Colors -
- Message text colors may be customized by using the command line
- interface. Menu and Help screens and the Information Line at
- the bottom of the Message Screen are not affected. See the
- Command Line Parameters section for information on how to spe-
- cify your desired colors.
-
- Display Adapter Detection -
- NAMEVIEW will detect whether you are using a Monochrome or Color
- Graphics adapter. Color adapters will get the full color treat-
- ment. Monochrome adapters will get reverse video and high
- intensity highlighting. For Mono users, if you can't distin-
- guish high intensity characters when the menu is onscreen, then
- your monitor's contrast control needs adjustment (if your screen
- is still hard to read, see the Force Mono Function).
-
- Enhanced DAT File Capability -
- NAMEVIEW allows as many DAT files as you care to create. When
- initially started, NAMEVIEW automatically loads NAMEVIEW.DAT.
- If NAMEVIEW.DAT cannot be found in the current drive and direc-
- tory, NAMEDROP.DAT will be loaded, if found. Additional DAT
- files you create must be named using the NAMEVDAT.* format. It
- is suggested that you use a numbering (NAMEVDAT.1, NAMEVDAT.2,
- NAMEVDAT.3, etc.) or lettering (NAMEVDAT.A, NAMEVDAT.B, NAMEV-
- DAT.C, etc.) system for the suffixes of your additional DAT
- files. Any of your additional DAT files can be loaded with the
- "(S)elect New DAT File:" item any time you are at the "File Menu
- Options" menu. This is done with a point-and-shoot selection
- from a list exactly like the download file list. A comment line
- may now be included in your DAT files to help you remember their
- purpose. See the "The NAMEVIEW.DAT Data File" section for
- details.
-
- Error Message Display -
- NAMEVIEW checks for, protects for, and displays messages for
- numerous errors. See Appendix B for a comprehensive description
- of error messages.
-
- Escape Key Function -
- Pressing <Esc> will let you back out of sub-program routines,
- and finally, terminate program execution. Esc can be used to
- terminate NAMEVIEW from the Message screen or from either Menu
- screen. NAMEVIEW will always ask "Are you SURE you want to exit
- NAMEVIEW?" before dumping you out of the program. In addition,
- pressing <Esc> will allow you to terminate an undefined sort
-
- 31
-
-
-
-
-
- file editing session.
-
- Extended Keyboard Interface -
- You can now choose from multiple keys to activate many NAMEVIEW
- features. The "N" (Next Message) key action can be duplicated
- with the ENTER, RIGHT arrow, or Space bar keys, the "R" (Reverse
- Read) key can be duplicated with the LEFT arrow key, and "Esc"
- can be duplicated with the "Q" (Quit) key when the "Last Mes-
- sage.." prompt is visible. In addition, enhanced keyboard users
- can use either white or grey versions of the cursor and paging
- keys. All activating keys are indicated on the Features Help
- screen. Keyboarding is designed so that all message reading
- functions can be performed conveniently on the numeric keyboard
- and/or cursor (arrow) keys.
-
- Fail Safe Message Processing (Message Mode) -
- Whenever NAMEVIEW's message size limits (150 lines) are exceed-
- ed, another message unit is automatically created to handle the
- excess information. This results in all information in the
- download file being available to the user regardless of the
- formatting problems present in the file. When any "oversized"
- message is presented onscreen, it will consist of 150 lines.
- The last line will say:
-
- *** Message OVERFLOW...continued in next message unit!
-
- The first line of the next message unit which NAMEVIEW created
- will say:
-
- *** Message OVERFLOW...continued from last message unit!
-
- The lines which appear next will be a continuation of the pre-
- ceding oversized message.
-
- Floppy User Enhancement -
- Floppy disk users with only one drive can use one floppy disk
- containing the program files to start the program. Once the
- first menu is onscreen, the program disk can be safely exchanged
- with a second disk containing the download file(s) to be search-
- ed. This allows the maximum possible room on the floppy disk
- for download and Sort files. If the AutoLoad feature is to be
- used, however, then the download file which is to be AutoLoaded
- must be on the disk which is in the current drive (and in the
- current subdirectory) during program loading.
-
- Force Mono Function: default is OFF -
- Some computers have color graphics adapters driving monochrome
- monitors, with colors being interpreted as "different shades of
- grey." If this is the case, NAMEVIEW will probably try to use
- its full color mode, as it will have detected the color adapter.
- This may result in less than optimum readability on your mono-
- chrome monitor. If your monochrome monitor seems to be hard to
-
- 32
-
-
-
-
-
- read, you can force NAMEVIEW to run in Mono mode by adding an
- "M" (for Mono) following a space at the end of your starting
- command line (for example: NAMEVIEW M). The only change forced
- by this parameter is the screen color set. This option can
- also be used for a color monitor, if you would prefer to run the
- program in black and white!
-
- Help System -
- A three page help system is built into NAMEVIEW. Once Help is
- selected (by pressing "H"), help pages can be cycled forward or
- backward with the PgUp or PgDn keys (white or grey, for enhanced
- keyboard users). The Help page which is onscreen when you exit
- Help will be the first one you see if you re-select Help. Help
- always returns you to the Screen Text page you were viewing when
- Help was selected.
-
- Intelligent End of File (EOF) Detection -
- Due to line noise, file corruption and who knows what else, the
- DOS end-of-file character sometimes appears within a download
- file at a location other than the actual end-of-file. This used
- to cause normal termination of the program with the "Last Mes-
- sage" indicator. NAMEVIEW now ignores all EOF characters and
- considers itself finished only when it has read the number of
- bytes reported in the DOS file length. No indication is given
- of any EOF characters found within the file.
-
- Jump to Highlight - default is NO -
- It is possible to activate and use this feature only when the
- Message/Section Display Mode is set to display "Messages/Sec-
- tions containing SEARCH WORDS." This feature, when set to YES,
- will come into play only when the first highlighted word in a
- message/text section occurs more than 24 lines into the message.
- In that case, NAMEVIEW will automatically jump to a point in the
- message 9 lines before the first highlighted word. This saves
- you time by not having to use the scrolling keys to hunt down
- the first occurrence of a highlighted word when it doesn't
- normally appear on the opening screen of a message/text section.
- Jump to Highlight can be toggled from the Set Up Menu, at any
- time while you are reading Screen Text, or set via the Message
- Format Block Configuration Line, (but only if the Message Dis-
- play Mode is set to display "Messages/Sections containing SEARCH
- WORDS"). If toggled while reading Screen Text, a short BEEP
- will be heard to let you know the change has taken affect. The
- status of this parameter is indicated on the command line while
- Screen Text is being read.
-
- Line Wrap Check - default is ON -
- This feature, which is set ON by default to provide the most
- fail-safe text parsing and formatting, corrects three different
- download/text file problems. The first is caused by line
- lengths which exceed 80 characters. This can occur within the
- body of a message itself, or just on the "tag line." If it
-
- 33
-
-
-
-
-
- occurs on the "tag line," then multiple messages being loaded/-
- processed as if they were one message is the most notable sym-
- ptom. The second is caused when the (message/text) originating
- software does not provide a standard carriage return (CR) and
- line feed (LF) at the end of each line. What typically happens
- is that a line will end with a CR and two LF's. This fools all
- manner of file reading software into thinking that the subse-
- quent line begins with a LF, and therefore plays havoc with
- precise screen placement of text, which is critical to NAMEVIEW.
- The third problem is caused when the tab character is found at
- the beginning of a line, which will result in misplaced high-
- lighting. The majority of these problems occur due to "flaws"
- (I've been told by BBS software writers it is for "efficiency")
- in the BBS software which automatically gathers a batch of new
- messages to be downloaded.
-
- With this feature left ON, NAMEVIEW will scan each line and make
- the appropriate adjustments if any of the above problems are
- found. There is only a small (under 5%, but increases with the
- amount of correction which has to be done) speed penalty for
- retaining this feature. If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that none of
- the problems which this feature corrects for are present in your
- download/text files, this feature may be deactivated for a
- resultant increase in search speed. However, if NAMEVIEW seems
- to skip or overwrite lines, if you see active scrolling (lines
- moving up on the screen) which you haven't commanded, if it
- seems that multiple messages are being processed as one (in
- Message Mode), if your Information Line seems to start disin-
- tegrating, or if highlighted words appear to be misplaced in the
- Screen Text, then you will need to leave this feature activated
- to correct these faults.
-
- Some of these occurrences MAY cause unrecoverable errors (pro-
- gram will freeze or crash). Line Wrap Check can be toggled
- from the Set Up Menu, at any time while you are reading Screen
- Text, or set via the Message Format Block Configuration Line.
- If toggled while reading Screen Text, a short BEEP will be heard
- to let you know the change has taken affect. In addition, if
- you toggled this option to the ON setting, the current Screen
- Text will automatically reprocess, which should eliminate any
- current onscreen problems. The status of this parameter is
- indicated on the command line while Screen Text is being read.
-
- Mark File Option -
- This option appears on the "File Menu Options" menu only after a
- download/text file has been searched (even partially). If you
- don't wish to delete the file, but wish to leave an indication
- that you have already read through it, this option will give you
- that indication. After you have affirmed that you want the
- current file marked, NAMEVIEW will add a pound sign (#) to the
- filename. For example, if the original file name was MAY05.TRS,
- after marking, the filename will be MAY05#.TRS. Files thus
-
- 34
-
-
-
-
-
- marked can be easily picked out when they are listed for selec-
- tion by NAMEVIEW. If the AutoLoad parameter is ON (Message Mode
- only), searching for additional qualified files will continue
- after using the Mark File option on the current file.
-
- Message/Section Display Mode: default is "Messages/Sections contain-
- ing SEARCH WORDS" -
- If "ALL messages/sections" is selected, all messages/text sec-
- tions will be shown onscreen in turn, regardless of whether or
- not any search "hits" were made in the current message/section.
- If "Messages/Sections containing SEARCH WORDS" is selected, only
- those messages/sections in which at least one "hit" was made
- will be shown onscreen. This parameter can be toggled from the
- Set Up Menu, at any time while you are reading Screen Text, or
- set via the Message Format Block Configuration Line. If toggled
- while reading Screen Text, a short BEEP will be heard to let you
- know the change has taken affect. The status of this parameter
- is indicated on the command line while Screen Text is being
- read.
-
- Message/Text File Deletion Option -
- This feature is active only when visible on the "File Menu
- Options" Menu. You will be asked to verify this choice before
- the file is erased. The only file that is erased with this
- feature is the filename listed on the "File Menu Options" Menu
- screen. If there is no file listed, or if the file listed has
- been "book marked," then this option will not be available. No
- Sort Files are ever erased by NAMEVIEW.
-
- Screen Text Review Keys -
- Numerous keys are available to review those individual mes-
- sages/text sections which are longer than 24 lines (one screen
- page). Line scrolling is available using the UP and DOWN arrow
- keys. The Home key takes you to the beginning and shows you the
- first 24 lines. The End key takes you to the end and shows you
- the last 24 lines. PgDn will move you 22 lines down from the
- current position (the previous two bottom lines will be at the
- top of the screen). PgUp works like PgDn, only in reverse.
-
- Name(s) Found in Message/Section Indication -
- If you select the "Read ALL Messages/Sections" menu option, and
- a search "hit" was made in the current Screen Text, a "Smiley"
- character in the Additional Message/Section Lines indication
- section of the Information Line will blink at you. This will
- help alert you to the fact that a search "hit" was found in the
- Screen Text even if it does not appear in the initial onscreen
- portion of the Screen Text. This feature is not active if you
- use the "Read messages/sections containing SEARCH WORDS" menu
- option, thus avoiding the useless nuisance of constant blinking.
-
- NoEcho Mode (Message Mode only): default is OFF -
- It is a characteristic of certain BBS systems that the Origin
- line is not added to messages until they are "echoed," or sent
-
- 35
-
-
-
-
-
- to another BBS system. This results in all of these non-Echoed
- local messages being displayed simultaneously by NAMEVIEW as a
- single message (and possibly resulting in overflow to another
- message unit). If the noEcho mode is set to ON, NAMEVIEW will
- use only the "First Line" entry as a message separator instead
- of the "Last Line" entry in your DAT file. If you see several
- messages that seem to be strung together without Origin lines,
- set noEcho Mode to ON. NAMEVIEW will automatically reprocess
- the current onscreen message and redisplay it whenever this
- parameter is changed.
-
- Using the ON setting will result in your seeing some "between
- message garbage" whenever it occurs. Some BBS systems are
- consistent with what appears at the end of their nonEchoed
- messages, and some merely end with whatever the user left.
- Because of this total lack of predictability, NAMEVIEW will show
- you EVERYTHING that was sent between successive "First Line"
- entries. I recommend you use the ON setting only when you
- specifically encounter nonEchoed messages, and reset it to OFF
- when it is no longer needed (when your "Last Line" entry starts
- reappearing in the messages). In general (when nonEchoed mes-
- sages are not present) searching for the "Last Line" parameter
- will eliminate all "between message garbage." NoEcho Mode can
- be toggled from the Set Up Menu, at any time while you are
- reading messages, or set via the Message Format Block Configura-
- tion Line. If toggled while reading messages, a short BEEP will
- be heard to let you know the change has taken affect. The
- status of this parameter is indicated on the command line while
- messages are being read.
-
- Page Break Indicator (Text Mode only) -
- If FF (form feed - used to indicate page breaks) codes are
- present in the current text file, NAMEVIEW will indicate these
- page breaks with a double line (==========) across the screen.
-
- Print Device Customizing -
- NAMEVIEW can be customized as to the print device written to by
- the Print Message/Section features. The default device is LPT1.
- Any other LPT device recognized by your computer can now be
- specified on the command line. COM ports are not supported due
- to the number of extra parameters which must also be specified
- for their use. See the Command Line Parameters section for
- details on how to set different LPT devices.
-
- NOTE: Newer versions of DOS don't seem to produce error mes-
- sages when a non-supported print device is specified. For
- example, if you specify P4 on the command line, and LPT4 is not
- supported by your motherboard, no error message will result when
- you attempt to print. Instead, your print selection will be
- "printed" to a disk file named "LPT4." To avoid this problem,
- you merely need to assign only those print devices which your
- computer supports.
-
-
- 36
-
-
-
-
-
- Print Message (using "P") -
- During Screen Text reading, the current Screen Text can be
- printed immediately by pressing "P". All printing is sent to
- LPT1 by default or to your custom chosen device (see Print
- Device Customizing). The device being printed to is indicated
- on the Information Line while printing is in progress. Using
- "P" to print a message inserts a few blank lines at the end of
- each message/text section. Therefore, several messages/text
- sections can be printed on the same page if you prefer to save
- paper.
-
- Print Message (using "F") -
- This feature prints the Screen Text exactly as in the above
- feature with the exception that a form feed is added to each
- message/section instead of several blank lines. This feature is
- for those who prefer to file each message/text section on a
- separate piece of paper.
-
- Reverse Read (Back Up) Command -
- A LEFT arrow or "R" keypress will result in the most previously
- screened Screen Text reappearing on your screen. Up to 100
- previously screened messages/text sections can be viewed.
-
- Search List Tailoring -
- Due to numerous problems with different text editors trying to
- produce DAT files, NAMEVIEW now automatically strips trailing
- spaces from all Search List entries and removes any null en-
- tries from the end of the list.
-
- Search Parameters -
- NAMEVIEW is written so that a "hit" must be a stand-alone word.
- This means that your search word, as found in the download/text
- file, must be surrounded by spaces, punctuation, hard return
- codes, or be at the beginning of a line (or any combination of
- these) in order for the program to report it as a legitimate
- find. For example, if one of your search words is "Cox" the
- program will find "Cox" but will not find "Wilcox" or "Coxe".
- By ignoring imbedded words, the number of nuisance hits in your
- search is reduced. This is why it is important to include all
- spellings of the names (for genealogists) which you are inter-
- ested in finding, as searching for just the root part of the
- name will probably result in no success in your search. All
- lines (including the To:, From:, and Subject: lines) are search-
- ed for your search words EXCEPT the Origin line when NoEcho mode
- is OFF.
-
- Smart Point & Shoot Download File Selection -
- When the "(L)ist File Names" selection is chosen from the "File
- Menu Options" menu in Message Mode, NAMEVIEW displays only those
- files with filename extensions appearing in your NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file. This shortens the time necessary for you to find the
- desired file, and eliminates unnecessary errors caused by trying
- to load files that were not meant for use with NAMEVIEW. The UP
-
- 37
-
-
-
-
-
- and DOWN arrow keys are used to highlight the desired file. If
- the file list is bigger than the display window, up and/or down
- arrows are displayed to indicate that additional file names are
- available by scrolling beyond the top or bottom of the window.
- Any drive and/or directory can be targeted for file listing.
-
- In Text Mode, all file names are listed, as there is no way for
- NAMEVIEW to determine what filename extensions your text files
- will have.
-
- Sort Files: Defined and Undefined -
- Defined sort files are given complete file names (and optionally
- drive and path designations) in your DAT file(s). Any time a
- function key is pressed (while reading Screen Text or viewing
- the HELP page showing your sort file names) which was assigned a
- defined sort file name, the current Screen Text is added to the
- selected sort file.
-
- Undefined sort files are designated as such by entering a ques-
- tion mark "?" as the last (or only!) character in the sort file
- name. The question mark "?" may be entered alone, after a drive
- letter only, after a path, after a partial file name, after a
- complete file name, or any combination of the preceding, as
- long as a question mark "?" is entered only once as the last
- character. Any time a function key is pressed which was as-
- signed an undefined sort file name, you will be prompted to
- enter/edit the current sort file name before the current Screen
- Text is added to it. Your entry is then saved, and the next
- time you press the same function key, you will be prompted to
- enter/edit your new file name. Pressing <Esc> will terminate
- the editing session without doing a file write.
-
- Sort Files: User or Default Naming -
- All sort files (20) can be named (including drive and path
- parameters) completely at the users discretion. If file names
- are not listed in the NAMEVIEW.DAT file, NAMEVIEW will automati-
- cally assign default filenames to the (first ten) function keys.
- See set-up section for details.
-
- Sort Files: Writing to Disk -
- NAMEVIEW never overwrites previous Sort File data. Any NAMEVIEW
- Sort File write will only add (append) the current Screen Text
- data to the data already in the file. Sort Files will automati-
- cally be created as specified if not previously in existence
- when you attempt to write to one. In order to safeguard your
- data, NAMEVIEW does not "open" a Sort File until you elect to
- write data to it. The file is then opened, the data is written,
- and the file is immediately closed. If you use floppies for
- your Sort File writes, this means you can change floppy disks in
- your Sort File drive between Sort File writes (not advisable for
- single floppy drive users). The Information Line will tempo-
- rarily change to show you which Sort File is currently being
- written to during the Sort File write.
-
- 38
-
-
-
-
-
- Sound: default is OFF -
- If sound ON is selected, different chimes will be heard depend-
- ing on the setting of the "Read Selection" parameter. If "Read
- Messages/Sections containing Search Words" is selected, a short
- chime will sound as NAMEVIEW completes its processing of each
- message/text section. If you have selected "Read ALL Messages/-
- Sections", a longer chime will sound whenever Screen Text is
- presented onscreen which contains a "hit". A warning chime will
- sound if <Esc> was pressed, and a program completion chime will
- sound as the program is exited. Program execution is slowed
- with the Sound parameter ON, as it takes a certain amount of
- time to sound the message/section counting chime (approximately
- .15 seconds, regardless of microprocessor type) and during this
- time, no other processing takes place. A warning tone will
- sound, regardless of the Sound parameter setting, if a key press
- is inappropriate or if the Delete option is selected. Sound
- effects can be toggled from the Set Up Menu, at any time while
- you are reading Screen Text, or set via the Message Format Block
- Configuration Line. A special chime sounds when this parameter
- is toggled ON. The status of this parameter is indicated on the
- command line while Screen Text is being read.
-
- Special Search: default is NO -
- When selected from the Set Up Menu, permits entry of a single,
- special search item for a speed search. When this feature is
- used, your normal search list will be ignored, and the down-
- load/text file will be searched for this single item only. If
- your search item is found in any message/text section, that
- message/text section will be displayed onscreen with all occur-
- rences of the special search item in reverse video. All other
- NAMEVIEW key functions remain the same. This is the fastest
- possible search, as only one item has to be searched for instead
- of your entire search list. Select "Input Special Search"
- (press "I") again to erase a search item which was previously
- entered. The Special Search parameter is automatically reset to
- NO whenever a new DAT file is loaded.
-
- Text Mode -
- Using Text Mode, NAMEVIEW can be used to search any ASCII format
- file. This means that any general text file, genealogical
- story, etc. can be searched/read in one pass with all of your
- names/search words being highlighted just as they would be if
- you were using NAMEVIEW to search messages.
-
- Text Mode - Adjustable Section size -
- While in Text Mode, NAMEVIEW processes ASCII files in manageably
- sized "sections." These sections are sized by setting the
- number of ASCII data lines which are read and processed by the
- program during each cycle. The default number of lines of text
- in each section is 24. This is the number of lines of text
- which can appear on the screen at one time, so by using the left
- and right arrow/cursor keys, one can easily move forward and
-
- 39
-
-
-
-
-
- backward through the text without any up or down scrolling being
- necessary.
-
- If your personal preference is to process your text files in
- larger sections, you can tell NAMEVIEW to increase the size of
- each section up to a maximum of 150 lines. By processing in
- larger chunks, you can now use the up/down/PgUp/PgDn/Home/End
- keys to review each section. This might make your reading
- easier in some cases by allowing you to scroll the onscreen text
- to optimize the placement of charts and other collective data
- which is easier to comprehend when viewed on the same screen
- rather than having to key back and forth between two different
- screens.
-
- The "Jump to Highlight" feature is usable in Text Mode, if
- activated, and will work exactly as it does in Message Mode,
- taking you right to the first occurrence of a "hit" in each
- section, if the "hit" would not otherwise be visible on the
- first screen presented for that section.
-
- NOTE: When using the Print Screen Text feature, NAMEVIEW will
- print the entire onscreen section. Hence with the default
- section size setting, NAMEVIEW will print 24 lines of text. If
- you set 150 lines as the size of your Text sections, NAMEVIEW
- will print 150 lines of text.
-
- Upper Case Check: default is ON -
- When this parameter is ON, NAMEVIEW will not return a "hit"
- unless the first character of the found word/name was an upper
- case letter in the download/text file being searched. Leaving
- this parameter on will reduce the number of nuisance "hits" if
- all of the words in your search list are proper names. Upper
- Case Check can be toggled from the Set Up Menu, at any time
- while you are reading Screen Text, or set via the Message Format
- Block Configuration Line. If toggled while reading Screen Text,
- a short BEEP will be heard to let you know the change has taken
- affect. The status of this parameter is indicated on the com-
- mand line while Screen Text is being read.
-
- The following chart shows how NAMEVIEW will handle different
- cases depending on how the Upper Case parameter is set:
-
- Upper Case Check
- Words appearing in download/text file ON OFF
- +--------------------------------------+------+-----+
- | PAGE | * | * |
- | Page | * | * |
- | page | | * |
- | pAGE | | * |
- +--------------------------------------+------+-----+
- * signifies a "hit"
-
-
- 40
-
-
-
-
-
- APPENDIX A
-
-
- Ways to Write Your NAMEVIEW.DAT File
-
- There are numerous ways to write or modify your NAMEVIEW.DAT
- file, as it is merely an ASCII file containing information in a
- particular format.
-
- Word Processing Software -
- Perhaps the easiest way to create an ASCII file is with your
- word processor. Most word processors can read and write ASCII
- (or DOS text) files, if you know the required commands to do
- so. Using your word processor makes writing the file very easy,
- as you are already familiar and probably very comfortable with
- your program. If you are not familiar with reading and writing
- ASCII files with your word processor, be sure to review your
- manual for instructions.
-
- DO NOT try to create NAMEVIEW.DAT by using your normal Save
- option. Doing so will result in special formatting codes being
- saved along with your text, and NAMEVIEW will be unable to read
- the file correctly. Check for special quirks of your program
- that may thwart your efforts for an ASCII save. For example, I
- use WordPerfect 4.2 at times to write ASCII files. The ASCII
- save is pretty straight-forward (press Ctrl + F5, then choose #1
- from the menu presented). The problem comes when you exit the
- program after your ASCII save. When you select EXIT, you are
- asked if you want to save your document. You MUST choose NO at
- this point. If you choose yes, the file is saved again in
- formatted form, and it will overwrite the ASCII version which
- you originally saved.
-
- If your word processor is not capable of reading and writing
- ASCII files, chose one of the other methods available to you.
-
- TED - (Tiny EDitor), an excellent full screen editor
- TED is a tiny, full screen editor intended for line-oriented
- files up to 64k in size. It was written by Tom Kihlken and made
- available for non-commercial public use by PC Magazine. It
- makes full use of the keypad cursor keys for moving and scroll-
- ing, and it lets you cut, copy, paste, and print. TED has been
- distributed free along with the NAMEVIEW files for your con-
- venience in writing your NAMEVIEW.DAT file. This is probably
- the simplest and easiest way to handle your ASCII file process-
- ing needs.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 41
-
-
-
-
-
- Appendix B
-
-
- Problems and Error Messages
-
- For DOS error messages which occur prior to NAMEVIEW loading and
- starting, see your DOS manual. There are numerous errors which
- NAMEVIEW specifically guards for. Errors which occur prior to the
- presentation of the menu are announced in a prominent error message
- box. Errors which occur with menus or once the message screen is
- entered are presented in the Information Line area. If you are
- presented with an "Information Line Error," pressing <ENTER> will
- erase the error message and resume normal operations. The operation
- which caused the error will not be resumed or retried automatically
- by NAMEVIEW.
-
- The following messages may appear on the Information line to alert
- you of unusual circumstances or to advise you to check certain DAT
- file parameters:
-
- Information Line Messages Description of problem
- --------------------------- --------------------------------------
- Check FIRST LINE Parameter! NAMEVIEW has searched the entire file
- (Message Mode only) specified without finding a First Line
- indicator. This message advises you to
- correct this part of your DAT file in
- order to read the message. See the
- "NAMEVIEW.DAT file - Message Format
- Section" for details.
-
- Check LAST LINE Parameter! NAMEVIEW has calculated that all of
- (Message Mode only) your message units have resulted in
- overflow being processed. This is a
- prime indicator of an incorrect Last
- Line parameter in your DAT file. See
- the "NAMEVIEW.DAT file - Message Format
- Section" for details.
-
-
-
- Miscellaneous Problems
-
- If your specified command line colors do not appear:
-
- They were probably specified incorrectly on the command line.
- Both numbers specified on the command line must be between the
- values of 0 and 15. See the "Command Line Parameters" section
- for details.
-
-
-
-
-
- 42
-
-
-
-
-
- In Message Mode, if each message unit shown onscreen seems to contain
- several actual messages:
-
- You should toggle to NoEcho mode (press "E"). If the onscreen
- presentation immediately changes to a single message, then
- remain in NoEcho mode. If this does not solve the problem, and
- you are operating with Line Wrap set to OFF, then you need to
- toggle Line Wrap to ON (press "L"). You can change either/both
- of these settings at the Set Up Menu, by pressing "E" or "L" to
- toggle them while viewing messages, or by adding a Configuration
- Line to the appropriate Message Format Block in your DAT file.
-
-
- If your Information Line seems to partially disintegrate:
-
- You are probably operating with Line Wrap Check set OFF and you
- scrolled down through a message/text section containing lines
- longer than 80 characters. Toggle Line Wrap Check back ON
- (press "L") - your Information Line will be rebuilt, NAMEVIEW
- will reprocess the message to shorten any offending over-length
- lines, and further scrolling should be without further discrep-
- ancies. Keep your Line Wrap Check ON (default mode) if you
- encounter this problem often.
-
-
- If NAMEVIEW freezes with only "ENTER to continue" visible on the
- Information Line:
-
- You have encountered an unrecoverable error due to the Line Wrap
- parameter being toggled OFF. Restart NAMEVIEW and leave the
- Line Wrap parameter in the default setting of ON.
-
-
- Specific Error Messages
-
- The following are errors which may be announced after NAMEVIEW
- has initially loaded:
-
- Error Message Error Explanation or Fix
- =============================== =================================
- Attempt to ReName - File Al- You already had a "marked" file
- ready Exists! with the same base name as the
- file you are attempting to "mark."
- DOS has rejected your attempt to
- make "duplicate" files.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 43
-
-
-
-
-
- Bad format in DAT file, can't NAMEVIEW can't read your DAT file
- continue (press ESC to exit) on initial startup, as it is
- formatted so badly as to be un-
- recognizable. (If you used your
- word processor to create it, you
- might check to see if you forgot
- to save it in DOS or ASCII format)
-
-
- Can't Access PRINTER, DRIVE, The printer (LPT#) or disk drive
- or PATH specified you are attempting to access is
- not on line or does not exist.
-
- The path you specified does not
- exist
-
- Can't find NAMEVIEW.DAT or NAMEVIEW has looked for both
- NAMEDROP.DAT in the default NAMEVIEW.DAT and NAMEDROP.DAT
- Drive and Directory! files and can't find either in the
- current drive & directory. Cor-
- rect the problem and restart the
- program.
-
- DISK in specified drive is There is not enough room on the
- FULL disk for the completion of the
- current PRINT operation.
-
- DISK Missing, Unformatted, No disk in drive specified or the
- Flawed, or Write-Protected locking lever/door is not lock-
- ed/closed on the specified drive.
-
- An attempt was made to read or
- write to an unformatted disk.
-
- Your disk drive hardware has
- detected a physical flaw on the
- disk.
-
- An attempt to write to a write-
- protected disk was made. Replace
- disk with non-write-protected
- disk, or remove write protection.
-
- Illegal FILENAME (too many or A filename specified in your NAME-
- improper characters) - VIEW.DAT file does not conform to
- DOS filename specifications. You
- will see this error only when you
- attempt to write to the file using
- the illegal filename. No error
- checking is done on Sort File
- names when they are read from the
- .DAT file.
-
- 44
-
-
-
-
-
- PRINTER is OFF, OFF-Line, or Check ON/OFF switch!
- OUT of PAPER
- Check the printer on-line light
- and correct the situation.
-
- Add paper!
-
-
- Problem loading DAT file...no NAMEVIEW couldn't make sense out
- data loaded of the NAME????.DAT or NAMEVDAT.*
- file which you attempted to load.
- Check for proper formatting (see
- the section on Preparing your
- NAMEVIEW.DAT file) or select
- another support file to use.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 45
-
-
-
-
-
- Appendix C
-
-
- NAMEVIEW Upgrade Enhancements
-
- Current version 4.00
-
- The NAMEVIEW shareware version can be identified as #.##S###, and the
- registered version can be identified as #.##R###.
-
-
- Version 0.00 - No number...first BETA test program
-
-
- Version 1.00 - Original program release
-
-
- Version 1.01 -
-
- 1. "Esc" key bug fix.
- Fixed a bug in the "Esc" routine which would disable the
- PgUp and PgDn keys if an "Esc" key press was aborted (re-
- turn to program operation instead of terminating program).
- 2. Additional Error Routines.
- Error routine improved to give specific "Duplicate words in
- search list," "I/O Error...can't continue," and "Probable
- hardware error in specified drive" error messages.
-
-
- Version 1.02 -
-
- 1. Error Routine Bug Fix.
- Fixed bug in "Probable bad <Last Line> entry in .DAT file"
- routine. Program used to hang, necessitating reboot when
- this error occurred rather than displaying the error mes-
- sage. NAMEVIEW now correctly identifies and displays the
- error message before terminating.
- 2. Print Routine Bug Fix.
- Fixed a bug which would sometimes dump the program when a
- message was printed and then immediately saved to an FKey
- file.
- 3. Null ".DAT" File Entry Errors Eliminated.
- This routine was added to strip any null entries found at
- the end of the NAMEVIEW.DAT file, eliminating one of the
- most common problems with setting the program up.
- 4.* Added "Name(s) Found in Message Indication.
- Added a blinking "Pg" indication that names have been found
- in the onscreen message if Read ALL messages parameter is
- chosen.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 46
-
-
-
-
-
- Version 1.03 -
-
- 1.* Extended Keyboard Interface added.
- NAMEVIEW features can now be activated by several different
- keys, depending on your preference. Grey keys on enhanced
- keyboards (with BIOS support) now work.
- 2.* Caps Lock and Num Lock no longer changed.
- NAMEVIEW no longer messes with your locking key settings.
- Instead, it will trap all possible combinations of the hot
- keys so they will activate regardless of the locking key
- settings.
- 3. Help Section Bug Fix.
- Fixed a bug which would cause a crash if Help was selected
- while paused at the opening menu.
-
-
- Version 1.04 -
-
- 1.* Line Wrap Check added.
- NAMEVIEW can now check for and correct excessive line
- lengths and missing carriage returns. This is essentially
- a fix for errors which are due to BBS software problems.
- 2. Hot Key bug fix.
- Several hot key bugs which crept in with the change over to
- the Extended Keyboard Interface have been corrected.
-
-
- Version 2.00 -
-
- 1.* Smart Point & Shoot download file selection added.
- NAMEVIEW displays only those files which have filename
- extensions described in your NAMEVIEW.DAT file. Any drive
- and/or directory can be targeted for file listing.
- 2. Multiple download file reading capability added.
- Users can now read numerous download files without having
- to reload NAMEVIEW for each one.
- 3.* Mark File feature added.
- At your option, you can mark a download file as having been
- read without deleting it.
- 4.* Book Mark feature added.
- You can now stop in the middle of reading a download file,
- mark your place, and return to where you left off later.
- 5.* AutoLoad feature added.
- If selected, registered users can automatically load a file
- named to reflect the current date on start-up.
- 6.* Reverse Read feature added.
- Users can now back up and view previous messages.
- 7.* Print + Form Feed feature added.
- Users can now optionally select a print feature which adds
- a form feed after your message is printed.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 47
-
-
-
-
-
- 8.* Active parameter switching added.
- Users can now change the Line Wrap Check, Message (ALL or
- Search Word), Sound, and Upper Case Check parameters at any
- time while messages are being read.
- 9. Right-most spaces and null items are now automatically
- trimmed from search list entries.
- These items caused lots of problems in getting your search
- list set up so NAMEVIEW would work correctly. NAMEVIEW now
- does the work for you!
- 10. Active menu file-protection feature added.
- NAMEVIEW will not let you delete a file which has not been
- read yet, or which has been "book marked."
- 11. Automatically set Find Book Mark parameter.
- NAMEVIEW automatically sets the Find Book Mark parameter to
- YES when a download file which has had a book mark placed
- has been selected.
- 12. Screen printing routine enhanced.
- Printing of highlighted items is now approximately 50%
- faster.
- 13. Prohibition on repeated words in the search list is deleted.
- This problem was cured simultaneously with the faster
- screen printing routine!
- 14. Line Wrap check enhanced
- Code was changed to eliminate errors (& freeze-ups) which
- could occur in some special circumstances.
-
-
- Version 2.01 -
-
- 1.* Added Custom Message Screen Color ability
- Registered versions now allow user defined colors for the
- message screen.
- 2.* Print device can now be specified
- Registered versions allow user definition of the desired
- print device.
- 3. Added "File Already Exists" error protection.
- Protects from crashes if "marking" a file will result in
- duplicate file names (another file already has the name
- that the current file will have when the "#" is added).
- 4. Code cleanup & consolidation.
- Always trying to make it smaller and faster!
-
-
- Version 2.02 -
-
- 1.* Fail Safe Message Processing added.
- Earlier versions would drop those message lines in excess
- of 240 until the next Last Line indicator was found.
- NAMEVIEW now automatically creates a new "Message Unit" to
- contain all excess message lines.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 48
-
-
-
-
-
- 2. Line Wrap checking enhanced for more consistent results.
- 3. Fixed bug which would load multiple messages if tag lines
- exceeded 80 characters. Line Wrap Check must be selected ON
- for this protection to work.
- 4. Fixed "Lost Cluster" bug.
- Versions 2.00 and 2.01 would cause lost clusters on the
- disk where directory searches were performed. See Appendix
- D for directions on how to recover lost clusters.
-
-
- Version 2.03 -
-
- 1. Fixed Information Line Action Message bug.
- Earlier versions would not correctly set and retain the
- blinking "Searching" message when Reverse Read was select-
- ed.
- 2. Added Leading Tab detection to Line Wrap Check.
- This enhancement was added after experiencing problems with
- download file messages in which tab characters were found
- at the beginning of a line. This would cause erroneously
- placed highlighting to occur on those lines.
- 3. Searching speed improved.
- Due to coding changes/enhancements, program speed during
- Special Search runs has been improved by approximately 10%.
- The improvement for normal searches using your search list
- is somewhat less than 10%.
-
-
- Version 2.04 -
-
- 1.* Intelligent End-of-File Detection.
- NAMEVIEW now checks to see if the EOF has actually been
- reached whenever it detects the EOF character before ter-
- minating with the "Last Message" indicator.
- 2. Fixed bug which would let the user progress past the File
- Menu without having selected a download file.
-
-
- Version 2.05 -
-
- 1. True DOS 2.11 - 5.0 Compatibility.
- Versions 2.00 through 2.04 would crash when trying to list
- files on systems using DOS versions earlier than 3.00.
- Code has been changed to eliminate this problem and file
- listing speed has been greatly improved. Code has been
- test run successfully on DOS versions 2.11 through 5.0.
- 2.* Sound usage changed to enhance "hit" detection.
- With the sound parameter set "ON", NAMEVIEW will sound a
- special chime to signify that a message containing a "hit"
- has been placed onscreen when ALL messages are being read.
- (Works the same as the blinking "Pg" on the Information
- Line).
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 49
-
-
-
-
-
- 3.* Line Wrap Check default parameter changed to ON.
- Changed to ON to provide fail-safe message parsing/formatt-
- ing. Those users who read the documentation and therefore
- know how to check to see if this parameter is needed may
- get the benefits of an increase in search speed.
- 4.* Number of available Sort Files increased.
- The number of user-defined sort files has been increased
- from 10 to 20. The first 10 sort files (listed in your DAT
- file) are selected by the 10 function keys. The next 10
- sort files are selected by using ALT + Function keys.
-
-
- Version 2.06 -
-
- 1.* Cleanup routine added.
- Cleanup will do an in-depth search of the onscreen message
- for those low ASCII characters which may be causing video
- formatting problems. Use it if the screen presentation of
- a message appears strange.
- 2.* DESQVIEW compatible mode added.
- Differences in video memory assignments when running under
- DESQVIEW made it necessary to add this enhancement. DESQ-
- VIEW compatibility is gained at the expense of losing video
- "paging" capability.
- 3. Fixed a bug in the Processing OVERFLOW information message.
- Nobody noticed this one, but it is fixed anyway.
-
-
- Version 2.07 -
-
- 1.* FIDO noEcho mode added.
- NAMEVIEW now correctly separates messages which have not
- been "echoed" on FIDO BBS systems (no "* Origin" line
- added) when this toggle is set to YES.
- 2. Bad DAT file format error trap and warning message added.
- NAMEVIEW will now report an unrecognizable DAT file format
- instead of hanging.
- 3. Fixed a bug in the Back-Up feature.
- Nobody noticed this one, but it is fixed.
- 4. Fixed a bug in the Special Search routine.
- NAMEVIEW would not correctly restore the first item in your
- search list after a special search if Special Search was
- reset to OFF. Another one fixed before it was even
- reported!
-
-
- Version 2.08 -
-
- 1.* NoEcho Mode enhanced.
- The original FIDO NoEcho mode was designed to work only
- with messages originating on the FIDO network. This en-
- hancement enables NAMEVIEW to separate nonEchoed messages
- originating from any network. The automatic reformatting
- feature (on toggling NoEcho mode) was also added.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 50
-
-
-
-
-
- 2. Keyboard changes for some toggled modes.
- The Message Display (ALL or those with "hits") toggle key
- was changed from "M" to "D". This makes all toggle keys
- case INsensitive for easier keyboarding (upper or lower
- case "M" will now recall the Menu).
- 3. Command Line entries changed.
- Command line entries were changed for compatibility with
- the hot key toggles ("D" used on command line to change
- Message Display mode).
- 4. Overflow Message deleted.
- This message appeared onscreen so briefly when it was
- called, that most users didn't have time to notice it
- anyway.
- 5. Small sorting bug fixed in the download file listing.
- Another non-reported bug fix.
-
-
- Version 2.09 -
-
- 1. Fixed bug in toggle for NoEcho feature.
- This bug caused the NoEcho feature to toggle each time a
- new file was selected to read. It also caused intermittent
- problems with reading files.
- 2. Fixed bug in time display of file listing.
- This bug caused random numbers to be displayed in the file
- creation time column of the file listing. Occasionally, it
- would also crash the program.
-
-
- Version 3.00 -
-
- 1. New linking library used (Crescent Software PDQ).
- Linking with the PDQ library has produced a considerable
- increase in speed and an EXE file size reduction to ap-
- proximately 50% of the size of version 2.09 in spite of
- numerous enhancements. Using the special search feature to
- provide a quasi benchmark for continuous file reading/-
- searching has shown search times taking less than 1/2 the
- time of version 2.09 searches.
- 2.* New Screen Routines added for better message viewing.
- True line scrolling as well as Home and End key functions
- have been added. PgUp and PgDn functions were slightly
- modified. Direct video writing is now used for screen
- printing for fastest speed and greatest accuracy.
- 3.* Error routines consolidated and simplified.
- The number of error messages has been reduced, but enough
- information is still provided to allow for recovery of all
- expected user/hardware errors.
- 4. Internally controlled file buffer added.
- NAMEVIEW now contains an internal file buffer which it
- fully controls. This has resulted in significant increases
- is search throughput due to faster file reads.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 51
-
-
-
-
-
- 5.* Enhanced DAT file capability.
- You can now maintain and use an unlimited number of DAT
- files. A descriptive remark can be added to each DAT file
- for easy identification and viewing while making DAT file
- selections. A total of 10 Message Format Blocks can now be
- defined in each DAT file.
- 6. Auto parameter setting for each format block.
- Each Message Format Block can now contain custom configura-
- tion information which is loaded automatically when a file
- using that MFB is selected.
- 7.* Autoload enhanced.
- The autoload feature now searches successively for current-
- ly dated files with any of the suffixes contained in the
- current DAT file.
- 8. CleanUp routine removed.
- Changing to direct video writes for screen printing re-
- sulted in the CleanUp routine becoming unnecessary. All
- characters are now echoed to the screen exactly as they
- were downloaded and stored.
- 9.* Toggle settings now displayed on Information Line
- The status of the Configuration settings which can be
- toggled while reading messages are now displayed on the
- Information Line. This eliminates any guessing as to what
- the current setting for any parameter might be.
-
-
- Version 3.01 -
-
- 1. *AutoLoad enhanced some more.
- The AutoLoad routine call was added after the file kill
- routine (should have been there in 3.00!).
- 2. Made some small code optimizations.
-
-
- Version 3.02 -
-
- 1. Changed file input routine for Blue Wave compatibility.
- The Blue Wave message bundler uses only a CR code between
- each message line rather than the more usual CR/LF combina-
- tion. Earlier versions (prior to 3.00) of NAMEVIEW used a
- different file input routine which automatically compen-
- sated for this. The new file input routine used in ver-
- sions 3.00 and later has now been changed to work with
- either method of message line delimitation.
- 2. Corrected Menu display bug.
- The File Menu now correctly displays the next AutoLoaded
- file following a "Kill" operation.
-
-
- Version 3.03 -
-
- 1. Small code change to speed up directory listings.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
- 52
-
-
-
-
-
- Version 3.04 -
-
- 1. Small change to PgDn code.
- The PgDn routine was changed so that when the last screen
- of the message was reached via the PgDn key, only the last
- two lines of the previous screen are retained at the top of
- the new screen (instead of the last 24 lines of the mes-
- sage). This makes the PgDn action of scrolling down 22
- lines consistent throughout the message.
-
-
- Version 3.05 -
-
- 1. Changed wording in red error box.
- This error box now specifically states that NAMEVIEW.DAT
- and NAMEDROP.DAT files cannot be found in the default drive
- and directory to reduce confusion over DAT file name con-
- ventions.
- 2. Blinking attribute added to up/down arrows.
- An up/down arrow will now blink to indicate that a high-
- lighted word or words may be seen by scrolling the message
- in the direction indicated by the arrow.
- 3.* Jump to Highlight feature added.
- If the first highlighted word occurs more than 24 lines
- into a message, this feature, if activated, will jump
- immediately to that portion of the message containing the
- first highlighted word.
- 4.* Defined/Undefined Sort File Name designation added.
- By adding the capability to recognize undefined sort file
- names, you can now make NAMEVIEW pause to let you change or
- enter any file name to which a message will be added.
- 5. Various bug fixes.
- * Force Mono command line search error - "M" now correctly
- forces NAMEVIEW into mono mode as the docs indicate.
- * Blinking error message attribute in mono mode - "Press
- <ENTER> to continue..." now appears with correct
- attributes in mono mode.
- * Line wrap check bug - no more crashes under some long
- line circumstances when using Line Wrap Check.
- * Unannounced memory error with long messages - no more
- hung machines when two or more extremely long messages
- appear consecutively in your downloads.
-
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 53
-
-
-
-
-
- Version 3.06 -
-
- 1. Minor Bug fixes.
- The Special Search item now correctly resets to NO (null)
- whenever a new DAT file is loaded.
- Previous messages now display correctly when Home key has
- been used.
- 2. Sort files can now be written while viewing HELP screen.
- Function key presses will now cause sort files to be writ-
- ten (appended) while viewing the HELP screen on which your
- sort files are listed.
-
-
- Version 4.00 -
- 1. Minor bug fixes.
- Another small problem with long messages (over 150 lines)
- was fixed.
- A problem with incorrect file name extensions getting by
- the smart point and shoot file listing was corrected.
- A problem with consecutive special searches was corrected.
- 2.* Undefined sort file name changes are now saved.
- Editing changes to undefined sort file names are saved so
- that the edited version shows up the next time the same F
- key is pressed.
- 3.* Information Line location option added.
- The Information Line can now optionally be placed at the
- top of the Message Screen.
- 4.* Back-up (Reverse read) limit increased.
- The back-up feature can now store up to 100 Reverse read
- selections so this will no longer seem like a limitation.
- 5.* Text Mode (general ASCII text search capability) added.
- NAMEVIEW can now be used to do search-list searches of any
- general ASCII format file.
-
- for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 54
-
-
-
-
-
- Appendix D
-
-
- Registration and Support
-
- If you become a regular user of NAMEVIEW, please support it by regis-
- tering. The forms on the following page are included for your con-
- venience.
-
- If you wish to obtain additional information not covered in this
- documentation or to make comments or suggestions about NAMEVIEW,
- contact:
-
- Ray Cox
- 17410 Huntersglen
- Humble, TX 77396-1657
- 713-454-6074
-
- NAMEVIEW was designed and written for genealogy users. If you have a
- question or problem that may be of interest to others, you may ad-
- dress a message to me, Ray Cox, on the GENSOFT BBS Conference (or the
- National Genealogical Conference - NGC - if GENSOFT isn't available
- to you) via any BBS which supports it. I download and review mes-
- sages from these conferences at least three times a week, and will
- answer all messages using that medium.
-
- The fee for "paper" registration only (no disk sent!) is $10.00. For
- a personally serialized copy (without the "beg" screen) send $15.00.
- Upgrades will be provided to registered users for $5.00.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 55
-
-
-
-
-
- NAMEVIEW Registration: "Paper" ($10.00)____ Send Disk ($15.00)____
-
- Name ____________________________________ Phone ___________________
-
- Address _________________________________
-
- City, State _____________________________ Zip ____________________
-
- I understand that my registered version of NAMEVIEW is not for public
- distribution, but is solely for my own use.
-
- Signature ___________________________________
-
- Disk configuration: 1 floppy_____ 2 floppy_____ Hard Disk_____
-
- Disk size requested: 5 1/4 [] 3 1/2 []
-
- Video: Color_____ Mono_____ System memory: ___________k
-
- Windows_____ DESQView_____
-
- Where did you get NAMEVIEW? ______________________________________
-
- NAMEVIEW Shareware version number: _______________________________
- (appears in reverse video bar as v#.##L### while MENU is onscreen)
-
- Suggestions, Comments ____________________________________________
-
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- __________________________________________________________________
- ==================================================================
- NAMEVIEW Upgrade Disk ($5.00)
-
- Name ____________________________________ Phone ___________________
-
- Address _________________________________
-
- City, State _____________________________ Zip ____________________
-
- NAMEVIEW serial no. _____________________________________
- (appears in reverse video bar as v#.##L### while MENU is onscreen)
-
- Disk size requested: 5 1/4 [] 3 1/2 []
-
- I understand that my registered version of NAMEVIEW is not for public
- distribution, but is solely for my own use.
-
- Signature ___________________________________
-
- Problems, Suggestions, Comments: _________________________________
-
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- 56
-