APDL Public Domain 1/APDL_PD1A.iso/database/powerbase/readpb

Text File | 1996-10-13 | 12.8 KB | 289 lines

Powerbase                                    26 January 1996
=========                                    ===============

Powerbase version 5.24 ("final" RO2 compatible version)
Powerbase versions 6.x (for RiscOS 3.x only)
© Derek & Steven Haslam 1989-1996

Derek Haslam, 112 Keighley Road, Colne, Lancashire BB8 0PH

Please make cheques payable to Derek Haslam.

Copyright subsists in all versions of Powerbase. We reserve the right
to withdraw support and authorisation to distribute Powerbase.

No warranty, express or implied, is made about the suitability of
Powerbase for any purpose. We can not be held responsible for any loss
or damage to your health, wealth or marriage due to the action or
inaction of Powerbase.

Powerbase is shareware. You are allowed to copy it freely as long as
you do not do so for any profit, and that the application is kept
intact and unchanged. If you find you use Powerbase on a regular
basis, you should register your copy with us. For £10.00 you will get
support and “free” upgrades. When registering please say whether you
require a RISC OS 2 or RISC OS 3.1 version. The latter has some extra
features not found in the former. Further changes to the RISC OS 2
version will be limited to fixing reported bugs.

Updates are supplied as needed rather than on a regular basis.  If you
encounter any problems or need an additional facility, please send a
disc with the program and database that you are using and give as much
information as possible about how and under what circumstances the
program misbehaves.  (It is not possible to give a meaningful answer
to a letter that says merely "it doesn't work" !)  If you have an
unusual system (eg colour card, RO2, RiscPC) please let us know.
Limited telephone support is available most evenings and sometimes
during the day.

New users of Powerbase do unexpected things, and reach parts of the
code the programmers don't normally use.  Because of the feedback we
have recieved, minor upgrades have been appearing almost daily,
amounting to a major upgrade about every six months.  Also, some nice
people have sent us small (like !Friends and !Boxes) sample databases,
and we would be pleased to receive more, or user functions or
Powerbase-specific utilities for distribution in the public domain.
To receive the latest version of Powerbase, just send us a formatted
disc (E format or HD) or four first class stamps.  If you would like
any extras, please tell us which ones you already have.

Direct mail-merge is implemented for Impression, including Publisher
(v4.01 onwards) and Style (v3.03 onwards), and two sample files are on
the disc.  Ovation uses CSV files for mail-merge, and a sample file is
on the disc.  CSV (comma separated value) files are also useful to
transfer data to text editors (ie Edit and StrongEd) which do not
support mail-merge.

Powerbase is unlikely to run from an archive or to use an archived
database: !CDList in the Examples archive gives a buffer overflow error
instead of loading.  Powerbase is also unlikely to run from CFS.

Contact us at:
Powerbase Support, 112 Keighley Road, Colne, Lancashire BB8 0PH
When registering, please send cheques payable to Derek Haslam.
Tel. [phone] (UK, country code 44)


The database !Elements is used extensively as an example in the
tutorial, and !Friends is used in the quick tutorial.  Other example
databases are available to show the flexibility of Powerbase.

Major updates will be sent to Arcade BBS, APDL, and to the Datafile PD
Library.


Powerbase users should be aware that the use of a database to store
personal details other than those of immediate family members may
render them liable for registration/compliance with the provisions of
the Data Protection Act.  (Data Protection Registrar, Springfield
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AX.   Tel. [phone])

Important note to existing users of versions prior to 4.93 (NOT 4.993!!)
========================================================================
v.4.93 was the first to allow indices to be case sensitive. If you create
a database using that, or a later, version and try to run it on any
version of Powerbase prior to v.4.93 an error will occur. It is usually
either “String too long” or “Address exception”. The problem is most
likely to afflict a user who is given a database by someone using a recent
version and who then tries to run it on an earlier one.

It is also possible for a database created with, and working
satisfactorily with, a pre-4.93 version to suddenly start giving errors
after being used on a later version. This will only happen if indices have
been created, or the primary key rebuilt, under the later version.
Deleting the contents of the Indices directory may then put matters right.
If it doesn’t then rebuilding the primary key under the older version
will.

The problem was alleviated somewhat in v.4.98. Databases created with this
will work on earlier versions of Powerbase provided you do NOT make any
index case-sensitive.

The best solution, of course, is to send us a disc with sae (or 4 first-
class stamps; discs don’t really enjoy postal journeys) and ask for an
upgrade. There is NO problem running databases created with a version
EARLIER than 4.93 under a version LATER than 4.93.
=========================================================================

NOTE for RISC OS 2 users
 ========================
 Some versions of Powerbase give an error during initialisation. This is
 apparently due to a bug in RISC OS 2 which causes corruption of the BASIC
 stack if a window template with a name shorter than 4 letters is used.
 (No, I don’t understand it either!) RISC OS 3 doesn’t mind such short
 template names at all. If any RISC OS 2 user experiences problems, please
 write for version 5.24 or later.
==========================================================================


v.4.995 11 February 1994
========================
Please note the following:

(1) Clicking SELECT over a data field with CTRL held down enters the
 field  tag into a search formula if the caret is in a search formula
 icon (e.g. in the ‘Match’ window).

(2) Holding down SHIFT whilst moving a record to the next or previous
 subfile allows you to “follow” the record to its new location.

 Previous versions used ALT for both these purposes and the two uses
 were found to clash - (2) didn’t work when using a customised record
 format in which the keypad buttons were on the record window itself.
 In view of this  and the fact that Acorn’s guidelines discourage the
 use of ALT for keyboard shortcuts the keys above were substituted.

 v. 4.998 6 March 1994
 =====================
 It is sometimes useful for a key to be generated from a key-field
 without paying any attention to word boundaries. e.g. If the key
 length is 8 then it is composed of the first 8 non-space characters
 regardless of how many words are involved. This facility has now been
 adopted as the default. Simply clicking on an option switch before
 creating the index returns you to the familiar “characters from up to
 four“ words system.

 v. 4.999a 10 April 1994
 =======================
 A “Use index” button, identical in function to the one in the “Match”
 window has been added to the CSV export window.

 A new script command !CSV <search formula> allows the creation of a batch
 of CSV files from a script file.

 v. 4.999d 15 May 1994
 =====================
 In previous versions deleting a record (as opposed to shifting it into an
 adjacent subfile) only removed the keys from the indices: the actual
 record data was still present in the file ‘Database’ and could be
 recovered by rebuilding the primary key without reference to the existing
 one. This is sometimes undesirable so an option has now been provided in
 the ‘Config’ file to make deleted records blank. The option is “ON” by
 default.

 A switch has been added to the ‘Match’ window to allow the record number
 to be printed as part of a report. The switch (which is “OFF” by default)
 is accessed by toggling the ‘Match’ window to full size.

 To the “column calculations” on numeric fields (count, sum, mean, S.D.)
 maximum and minimum have now been added.

 Mail merge with Computer Concepts’ Impression Publisher (version 4.01
 and later) works exactly as for ImpressionII. Do NOT change the name
 of the merging application in the writable icon to “Publisher”; leave
 it as “Impression”.  Mail merge with Computer Concepts’ Impression
 Style (version 3.03 and later) works when the name of the merging
 application in the writable icon is changed to “Style”. The current
 version of Powerbase also supports the new Impression single-file
 format (&bc5).

 v.4.999g 20 May 1994
 ====================
 It is now possible to query Memo and Text block fields to find out if
 they contain (or do not contain) a string.


 v. 5.0 27 July 1994
 ===================
 An extra option button has been added to the key-definition window to give
 more control over situations where, for example, the key calls for four
 letters from a word but the actual word is shorter than this. The default
 action (as previously) is to use the whole word in such cases, but not add
 anything to the end. Setting the new ‘Pad with spaces’ switch would cause
 enough spaces to be added to make up the specified 4 characters. This can
 be especially helpful for the alphabetic ordering of personal names.

 v. 5.01 9 August 1994
 =====================
 The default field type when creating a new database is now Type 0
 (unrestricted) rather than Type 1 (Alphanumeric) as in previous
 versions. This field type has no list of allowed characters in its
 validation string and therefore accepts any printable character. A further
 change is that the keyboard status is not changed from its previous value
 when the caret enters a field of Type 0. Field types 2 (Upper case) and
 4 (Yes/No) cause Caps Lock to be selected, as previously, and all other
 field types cause Caps Lock to be deselected.

   v. 5.03 16 August 1994
 ======================
 An annoying bug in the index-creation routine sometimes caused the
 database to be scanned rapidly (with hourglass and percentage display) but
 the resulting index would be empty. It was especially apt to occur when
 indexing after making a global change or printing a report. This bug has
 now been fixed.

 v. 5.06 3 September 1994
 ========================
 Minor bug which caused check-boxes to vanish while validation was turned
 off has been fixed.

 v. 5.08 9 October 1994
 ======================
 Now possible to load Text block and Picture fields into Edit and Paint
 respectively by simply clicking with SELECT over field, as with Text,
 Sprite and Draw buttons.

 v. 5.09 13 October 1994
 =======================
 Bug which prevented user-defined Print Options files from working fixed.

 v. 5.14 23 October 1994
 =======================
 Current date can now be entered into fields defined as type Date by
 pressing Ctrl D.
 Bug which prevented saving of new validation table links has been fixed.
 Some improvements made to interpretation of user functions in calculated
 fields. Previously written functions may need slight modification.

 v. 5.15 25 October 1994
 =======================
 When a validation table is opened to seek an entry for a linked record
 field a double-click on the appropriate table field will now enter the
 required string in the record window at the current record field. It is
 possible to a place any table entry in any record field into which it
 will fit (subject to normal validation restrictions).

 v. 5.16 26 November 1994
 ========================
 Single click to load text-block or picture into Edit or Paint is too
 easy to do by accident and has therefore been changed to a double-
 click. After re-saving the edited file a click on any field in the
 record window re-displays the text-block or picture.

 v. 5.17 10 December 1994
 ========================
 Bug associated with the ‘Pad with spaces’ button in key-definition
 window has been corrected. Minor changes made to ‘Impression’ mail-
 merging.

 v. 5.18 20 December 1994
 ========================
 Displayed logos no longer disappear when record is deleted and blanked.

 v. 5.20 01 January 1994
 =======================
 The ‘Batch delete’ (now ‘Batch move/delete’) facility has been enhanced so
 that it is now possible to gather records together into a single subfile.

 v. 5.22 7 January 1995
 ======================
 Validation tables will now scroll automatically so that the caret remains
 visible at all times. Moving the caret down from the last row or up from
 the first causes wraparound to the start or end of the table respectively.

 v. 5.23 29 January 1995
 =======================
 If print is directed to printer but printer is not on, text is saved into
 PrintJobs subdirectory of database.

 v. 5.24 26 March 1995 ("final" RO2 compatible version)
 =====================
 Bug fixed in routine for updating calculated fields so that automatic
 updating works in TIME$ included as a parameter in calculation formula.

 v. 6.x
 ======