| ALYSSA DATABASE V1.1
==================== (C)1990 Designed & Programmed by Julian Cassin Julian Cassin 21 Victoria Road Northcote Melbourne 3070 AUSTRALIA This program remains the copyright of Julian Cassin. It has NOT been placed into the Public Domain but this version may be freely copied amongst Amstrad CPC users for their own personal use as long as it is complete. IT MUST INCLUDE THE FILES: ALYSSA.BAS, ALYSSA.BIN, ALREADME.BAS, ALYSSA.DOC. No part or parts of the database or its documentation may be modified or SOLD without prior written permission of the copyright holder. This program has been extensively tested by the author and contains no known bugs. This is not to say bugs don't exist, but the author holds no liability or responsibility to the users or any other persons or entities (including Software Companies) for any loss or damage caused or alledged to be caused directly or indirectly by this product. Public Domain libraries can feel free to contact the copyright holder, Julian Cassin, for WRITTEN permission to distribute or use this product (it may be exactly what a PD library needs to keep track of their software). Please report any copyright violations to the author at the above address. Thankyou. Contributions: Although you are not obligated to do so, if you like this program and find it at all useful, feel free to send any contributions, comments, or donations (eg: $20) to the copyright holder, Julian Cassin, of the above address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ALYSSA DATABASE 1.1 USER DOCUMENTATION ====================================== Minimum Hardware: Any Amstrad CPC with at least 128K RAM. At least one floppy disc drive. This program was written especially for the Amstrad computer user (Enthusiast, Hobbyist, Gamesplayer, or 'Pirate') who needs to efficiently and easily organise their 'Large' software lists. Features include: Access to background ROMS (RSX support). Compare two software lists. Full Amstrad memory support (upto 576K RAM). - 2048 records on a 128K system. - 8192 records on a 320K system. - 16384 records on a 576K system. Sort by NAME or storage MEDIA order. Works with the majority of 80 track Drives. Updated versions to come. Unexpanded 464/664 owners can run Alyssa but they wont be able to use it. They can however look through the options. If enough unexpanded 464/664 owners write in (at least 50 - and please enclose an SAE) I may release a CUT DOWN version (Mini-Alyssa) with a capacity of around 512 records, a few less options and better TAPE compatibility. 80 TRACK & DOUBLE SIDED DRIVES The majority of 80 track AMSDOS, XDDOS, ROMDOS and double sided ROMS should work. Maybe RODOS and RAMDOS (If the unexpanded 464/664 option is selected). Any DOS's that sit in extra memory will eventually be overwritten by data. If RAMDOS is used on a 6128, you should be safe until you exceed 1024 records (I think). DIFFERENCES WITH ALYSSA V1.0 There has been one major change in this version over Alyssa V1.0. Binary database files are NOT upwards compatible to this version due to the new method of searching (Thanks Colin, Wow! What a difference!). A small index is also saved. Don't panic though, everything has been taken into account. To convert your V1.0 list to a V1.1 list, save your 1.0 list as ASCII with Alyssa V1.0 then load it as ASCII with Alyssa 1.1. Simple eh!! By the way, your Alyssa V1.1 lists will be downward compatible. What a strange upgrade? GENERAL INFO When Alyssa is first executed, the top part of the screen contains the programs name and version. The main menu is displayed in the centre of the screen (this is where all menus will be displayed) and some information is displayed at the bottom of the screen. This information includes RAM: Total available RAM. FILENAME: Current list in RAM. FREE: Number of remaining entries (Free RAM). USED: Number of currently used entries (Used RAM). REC: Record currently being pointed at. MENU SYSTEM The menu system throughtout Alyssa uses a highlighter to allow the user to select an option. Some options (in some menus) will contain something in braces (). These options are toggles which change the way Alyssa behaves in different circumstances. Keys used to control the menus: <enter> - Select highlighted option. <esc> - Return to previous menu. <up cursor> - Highlighter up. <down cursor> - Highlighter down. <left cursor> - Cycle left through toggles. <right cursor> - Cycle right through toggles. Options include: MENU OPTION FUNCTION ---- ------ -------- EDIT APPEND Add a new program to the end of the list. EDIT Change entries in the list. BROWSE Browse through the current list. PACK Delete selected entries from the list. NEW Delete current list, and start from scratch. FILE CATALOGUE Display the current discs directory. LOAD Load a list. SAVE Save a list. MERGE Join two lists COMPARE Compare two lists. TYPE Toggle between BINary and ASCii files. PRINT PRINT Print a list. LOAD PRINTER Load your printer. PRINT TO Select print on SCReeN, DISC or PRiNTer. LABEL NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. KEYFIELD NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. SELECT NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. MODE NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. START@ Record number to start printing from. FINISH@ Record number to finish printing at. LINE SPACING Printer line spacing. GAP SPACING Printer Gap size. SORT NAME Sort list by name. MEDIA Sort list by storage media. XANY RSX Enter RSX, change drive, quit etc. STATUS Display memory map and status info. NOT FIN. ABOUT Display info about Alyssa. APPEND & EDIT Append and edit are explained here together as they are operated in the same way (to keep with consistancy). Keys used: <enter> - If on last record, add another one. <esc> - Return to EDIT menu. <up cursor> - Back a record. <down cursor> - Forward a record. <left cursor> - Back a field. <right cursor> - Forward a field. Depending on which field is selected, an appropriate message is displayed. The TAG field is used in conjunction with the PACK option. If this field contains ANY data, the record is temporarily deleted until the data is removed. BROWSE Browse through the current list. Keys used: <esc> - Return to EDIT menu. <up cursor> - Scroll list down the screen. <down cursor> - Scroll list up the screen. PACK This option permanently deletes ALL records TAGged with the APPEND/EDIT options. NEW Start a new list from scratch. Clears all data from memory, be carefull. It does not prompt for confirmation!! LOAD & SAVE These options load or save a list to disc (or tape) if selected. A list of more than 5330 records CANNOT be saved on a normal 178K single sided format (like on 3") as you are never prompted to flip the disc! Bigger lists are exclusively for the use of 80 track or double sided drives (see above). If you are unsure whether your list (or pridicted list) will run out of space (in Kilobytes) just use this formula where n is the number of records to save and x is the amount of disc space. n / 512 * 17 + 1 = x (eg: 5330 / 512 * 17 + 1 = 178 K) MERGE Merge an ASCII file from disc with a list already in memory. To merge two binary files, save one as ascii, load the other binary file, then merge the saved ascii one. COMPARE A useful option here especially for pirates! This will compare an ASCII list from disc with a list already in memory (the more rescent of the two). All records in common will be automatically tagged (in the file in memory) ready to be PRINTED if you want. To get maximum accuracy, the list in memory should be in sorted name order because of the searching algorithm used. The idea of this option is that if you get someones list, you should store it away. Next time the SAME person sends you an updated list, compare the new one with the old one. You can then PRINT out the programs that person has got since. The FULL lists are needed for comparing so don't pack them before comparing. TYPE This toggle is to enable you to load and save as either BINary or ASCii. Merge and Compare are not affected by this setting. ASCII files generally take longer to load and save than binary one. Also the index is not saved with the file and must be created while loading. PRINT MENU This is the most complicated of all options. PRINT - Print the list to the destination in the PRINT TO toggle. All TAGged records are ignored! (Good for COMPARE). Keys used: <esc> - Return to PRINT menu. <space> - Pause printing. * <enter> - Resume printing. * Most printers have buffers and prevent the Alyssa from pausing the printer immediately! LOAD PRINTER - Select this option to load your correct printer driver. The default printer driver is EPSON. The two supplied drivers are: EPSON.PRN CITOH.PRN PRINT TO - You can print the list to SCReeN, DISC or PRiNTer. START @ & FINISH @ - Toggle to select a portion of the list to print. LINE SPACING - Set the line spacing for the printer. GAP SPACING - Every time a new first letter is reached when printing, a gap is inserted. You can adjust the size of this gap. SORT Unfortunately one weakness of this database is the slow assembler bubble sort. Don't get me wrong though, since it is RAM based it is on par with dBase II (not using indexes) and is about 50 times faster than the BASIC equivalent! Hopefully it will be improved in the future. On average, it takes about 15-20 minutes to sort 1000 records not completely out of order. Go feed the dog! XANY MENU This is the 'eXit and ANYthing else which doesn't belong in the other menus' menu. RSX - You can type any RSX (bar command) in here. Beware though, if you are unsure whether a particular one will crash Alyssa (some will) try it out before you load any important data!! RSX's known to be - GOOD BAD A (drive A) SDISC * ACCESS PROTEXT B (drive B) X (utopia) BASIC (to quit) * C * CALL * CAT CPM (to quit to CPM) * DEDIT DIR (directory) DISC * DISCTEST * ERA * FORMAT MAXAM * MEDIT * REN TAPE * TYPE * UTOPIA STATUS - Display a memory map of used RAM by Alyssa. ABOUT - Alyssa info and credits to the author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- That about sums up the functions of Alyssa. Enjoy yourself!! Julian Cassin (30 January 1991) |