★ APPLICATIONS ★ DIVERS ★ Alyssa ★ |
| Alyssa Database (CPC Attack) | Applications Divers |
Alyssa - the game database (a database for games. Ed.) was written by Julian Cassin. "It is not Public Domain, but version 1.6 may be freely distributed by Amstrad users for their own personal use", says the introduction at the beginning of the help file. This excellent utility falls into the catagory of "almost PD". It was designed for games players - collectors and cataloguers to efficiently organise and store information about their collections. It is 128k disk only as it uses the extra RAM for data storage. The copyright message gives the impression that the author likes Tiffany! The main options available are displayed in the main menu. The EDIT sub-menu presents further options, including APPEND, which adds a new record to the database file; EDIT, which, erm...edits an existing record; BROWSE, to view records, without editing; SEARCH, which searches the whole database file and includes wildcard options; PACK deletes selected records from the database file; INVERSE inverts all TAGged and UNTAGGED files and last, but by no means least, is the NEW option, which clears the current database. The FILE sub-menu allows you to CATalogue a disk, LOAD/SAVE/MERGE files, and also included is a COMPARE option, which compares two database lists! Disk drive support includes 3.5" accessing - even under ROMDOS! The PRINT sub-menu, has options to print to screen, file or PRINTER, define the print mode and definition of start and stop record numbers. The SORT sub-menu hides a very powerful sorting routine, which is one of the fastest available. You can sort by SIZE, TYPE, MEDIA, NUMBER and NAME. The XANY sub-menu comprises the kind of options and external support that makes this program so very good. From this menu it is possible to issue external ROM commands (RSX's), chain external subroutines, display the memory map and status info and display information about Alyssa. There's nothing adverse I can say about this program. The quality of the programming is superb, the SORT routines are fast, and it's neatly presented. Definitely goes straight into the CPC Attack! top ten of PD software! CPC ATTACK!
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