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tm ======================= F R E E W A R E ======================= User-Supported Software If you are using this program and find it to be of value your $25 contribution will be appreciated. Jim Button P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue, WA 98006 Regardless of whether you make a contribution, you are encouraged to copy and share this program. --------------------------------------------------- FREEWARE user-supported software is an experiment in distributing computer programs, based on three principles: First, that the value and utility of software is best assessed by the user on his/her own system. Only after using a program can one really determine whether it serves personal applications, needs, and tastes. Second, that the creation of independent personal computer software can and should be supported by the computing community. Finally, that copying and networking of programs should be encouraged, rather than restricted. The ease with which software can be distributed outside traditional commercial channels reflects the strength, rather than the weakness, of electronic information. The user-supported concept: Anyone may request a copy of a user-supported program by sending a blank, formatted disk to the author of the program. An addressed, postage-paid return mailer must accompany the disk (no exceptions, please). A copy of the program, with documentation, will be sent by return mail. The program will carry a notice suggesting a contribution to the program's author. Making a contribution is completely voluntary on the part of the user. Regardless of whether a contribution is made, the user is encouraged to share the program with others. User-supported programs are not copyrighted or licensed. Payment for use is discretionary on the part of each subsequent user. Will it really work? Up to now, distribution of software has relied either on restricting access (and charging for the cost of doing so), or anonymously casting programs into the public domain. The user- supported concept might -- just might -- be a way for the computing community to support and encourage creative work outside the traditional marketplace. This is an experiment in economics more than altruism. Free distribution of software and voluntary payment for its use would eliminate the need for money to be spent on marketing, advertising, and copy protection schemes. Users could obtain quality software at reduced cost, while still supporting program authors. And the most useful programs would survive, based purely on their usefuness. Please join the experiment. FREEWARE is the trademark of The Headlands Press for its user- supported software, but we are inviting all software authors to participate in this distribution concept. FREEWARE is publishing a CATALOG of user-supported software by program authors everywhere who are willing to make their work available on a free, non-restricted basis. If you would like your program listed, please send a description of the program and the address to which requests for copies should be sent. Fulfilling requests and suggesting contributions are the sole responsibility of the program author. Listings in the catalog are free. Our own programs are designed to run on the IBM Personal Computer but we will include software for any computer in the Freeware Catalog. (Please specify system requirements.) We welcome your comments about the user-supported concept and about any of our programs. Andrew Fluegelman The Headlands Press, Inc. Post Office Box 862 Tiburon, California 94920 CompuServe 71435,1235 Source TCP204 PC-FILE A Database Manager Program For the IBM Personal Computer (1982) by Jim Button Jim Button P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue, WA 98006 PC-FILE Table of Contents General Information........................................2 Getting started............................................3 Defining your file.........................................3 The Master Menu screen.....................................4 Adding Records to your Database............................5 Modifying a Record.........................................5 Deleting a Record..........................................6 Displaying a Record (by using the 'key')...................6 Finding a Record...........................................6 Listing the Records........................................7 Sorting the Database Index.................................8 Seeing the Record Layout...................................9 Altering a Field Name.....................................10 Ending the program........................................10 Backing up the Database...................................10 Using other printers......................................10 Using 40-character width displays.........................11 Using the PC-File Data With Other Programs................11 Importing Other Files into PC-File........................12 Compatibility With Prior Versions.........................12 Some Maximums and Minimums................................12 Calculating the Size of Database Disk Storage.............12 A Note For Users With Only 1 Disk Drive...................13 Disclaimer................................................13 1 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 2. GENERAL INFORMATION: PC-File is a general purpose "Data Base Manager" program. It was written with one overriding goal in mind: Ease of use. With PC-File, its very easy for the casual or professional user to create and maintain data files on the computer, and to create simple printed reports based on that data. You can use PC-File for all kinds of tasks: Maintain mailing lists and print labels, Maintain price lists, Maintain telephone directories, Keep various types of inventory lists, Build recipe files, Build and maintain files to be used by other programs, and many other tasks which only you can dream up. PC-File will allow you to sort your data into almost any sequence. It allows rapid access to any record in the file, with a sophisticated search technique allowing comparison searches on any field in the record. For example, you can display all employees over a certain age, or all clients in a certain state, or all items that are not in a certain category. You can print out reports from your database, listing all or some of the fields, from all or some of the records, in many different sequences, with totals on the numeric fields. Reports can be sent directly to your video screen, or to any one of many different types of printers. But above all else, PC-File is EASY! Most people can use it with no training or instructions whatsoever. You need read the documentation only to pick up some extra 'fine points' of the program. The author has steadfastly refused to make any additions to PC-File which would make it harder to use. Any suggestions which you have for improving this program will be greatly appreciated. PC-File requires a 64K or larger IBM Personal Computer, with at least one disk drive. A printer is optional. PC-File can be set up to support either 40 character or 80 character wide displays. 2 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 3. GETTING STARTED. To start the program, put the PC-File disk in either drive and enter the drive name followed by a colon: Thus, if the disk is in the right-side drive, type "B:". Then execute the command "pc-file". An 'Autoexec.bat' file is also provided on the disk, so you can start the program by putting the disk in the A-drive and turning on the power, or by simultaneously pressing (Ctrl)(Alt)(Del). When prompted with the question "Which drive (ABCD) has the Data:", enter the letter corresponding to the disk drive where your files will be stored. The left hand drive is "A", the right hand drive is "B". DEFINING YOUR FILE. PC-File will show you a screen with the message "These files are already defined:", and will then ask "What File:". If this is the first time you have run the program, there will be no file names displayed. Type in the name of the file you will want to define. This should be a one to eight character name, starting with the characters A to Z. The only other characters allowed in the name are the numerals 0 to 9, but do not include a numeral as the first character in the file name. Do not include a file suffix (a period followed by three more characters), because PC- File will supply standard suffixes for your files. You will next be prompted with "KEY FIELD NAME:". The first data field in your record is known as the "Key" field. This is the data which most uniquely defines the data contained in the record. For example, 'employee number' in an employee file, or 'part number' in an inventory. It is not necessary for each key in your file to be unique. The only significance of this field is that, by specifying it correctly, you will be allowed somewhat quicker access to the data records in your file. You will still be able to get at all the data in the file if you specify this incorrectly, so don't fret too much about it. In choosing a field name, any valid character can be used. However, you will find it convenient to choose relatively short names, just long enough so you understand and can remember what the name stands for each time you see it. It is best to choose a name that is not longer than the amount of characters actually in the field itself, because the name will be truncated to the data length when printing titles for your printed reports. For example, if an employee number is six digits long, and you name the field "EMPLOYEE", the title for that field on your output reports will be "EMPLOY". Sometimes you have to choose longer names, so let your own judgement and taste be your guide. Just be careful not to use this same name for any other field in the record. The name is also sensitive to whether or not you use upper or lower case letters. If you name it with upper case letters (which is recommended), then you will have to refer to it subsequently with upper case letters. The same is true if you use lower case letters in the field name. If the field will contain numeric data, such as price, or quantity, give the name a "#" at the end. Example: "PRICE#". This will cause PC-File to keep totals for that data when printing the 3 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 4. reports, and will also cause the data to be printed "right- justified" on the output reports. Don't worry if you select an inappropriate name for a field. You will be allowed to change the field names any time you wish after the file has been completely defined. You will now be prompted for "FIELD LENGTH:". Enter the number of characters which are required to contain the data for that field. In general, field lengths should be kept to 25 characters or less. You will continue to be prompted for "FIELD NAME:", followed each time by "FIELD LENGTH:". Continue to supply the data until you have defined all the fields in your data record. Then, when prompted again with "FIELD NAME:", simply press the (enter) key. Since no data was entered, PC-File will know that you have finished with record definition. The maximum number of fields which you will be allowed to define is forty-one. The minimum is one. After you have finished with record definition, PC-FIle will take you to the Master Menu screen. THE MASTER MENU SCREEN. It looks like this: FILE:xxxxxxx (F1) ADD a record (F2) MODify a record (F3) DELete a record (F4) DISplay a record (F5) FINd a record (F6) LISt the records (F7) SORt the index (F8) see the record LAYout (F9) alter a field NAMe (F10) END Your Command:___ 4 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 5. You may perform any of the functions on the master menu screen by pushing the appropriate function key at the left of the keyboard. You can accomplish the same thing by typing in the three-character function code (indicated by the three capitalized letters in each command). For example, to alter a field name, you could either push (F9), or you could type NAM followed by the (enter) key. Some people like function keys, some learn the names of the commands more easily and so prefer to type the three characters. PC-file lets you suit yourself! Now that you have defined your database, the first thing that you will want to do is put some data into it. ADDING RECORDS TO YOUR DATABASE. To add records to your file, push (F1) or type ADD when viewing the master menu screen. PC-file will then find an empty spot for your new record to go into. If there has been a record deleted previously from the file, that location will be reused for the added record. If there are no deleted records in the file, the new record will be added to the end of the file. In either case, PC-File will tell you at the top of the screen which location it has found for adding your record. You will then be promped to enter your data, one field at a time. PC-File will print out the name of the field that the data is to go into, and will then prompt you to fill in the data for that field. After you have entered all the data for one record, it will be added to the file. PC-File will then prompt you to add another record. If there are no further records to add at this time, just press (enter) when asked for the data for the first field of the record. You will be returned to the master menu screen. There is a maximum of 2000 records allowed in this version of PC-File. Depending on the amount of main memory on your personal computer, you may not be able to sort the entire maximum of 2000 records. You will be able to enter as many records as can physically fit on one diskette (even exceeding the 2000 limit), and to print reports and do all the other functions provided by PC-File; but the amount of records that can be sorted is dependent on main memory available, and cannot exceed 2000. See the section titled "Sorting The Database" for more information on this topic. MODIFYING A RECORD. To modify a record in your file, push (F2) or type "MOD" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be asked "KEY or #n,*,+,-,\ ". If you know the key (the first field in the record) of the record to be modified, enter it at this time. Alternately, you can enter the record number of the record in the file. The first record is number 1, the second is 2, and so on. To modify record number 120, you would enter "#120". Entering an "*" will allow you to modify the most recently retrieved record. This is handy when you have just used "FINd" to locate a record, and now you are using "MODify" to change it. Instead of having to enter the record # of the found record, just enter an "*". It's also handy for making another modification to 5 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 6. the same record that you just finished modifying. A fourth way to specify the record to be modified is to enter "+", meaning to modify the next record after the one which you just modified. You can also enter a "-", meaning to modify the record just prior to the one you just modified. If you enter a "\", you will be presented with the last record in the file and allowed to modify it. PC-File will retrieve the record to be modified and display one field at a time for you to either modify or leave alone. For each field, you will be asked to "Press 'M' to modify, or press (enter)". If you press (enter), the field will remain unchanged. If you press "M", you will then be promped to enter the new data for that field. After you have modified the entire record, you will be prompted to enter the KEY value for another record to be modified. If you have no other modifications to make at this time, just press (enter) and you will be returned to the master menu screen. DELETING A RECORD. To delete a record, press (F3) or type "DEL" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be asked "KEY or #n,*,+,-,\ ". You should then enter the Key value of the first field in the record to be modified, or the record number in the file (preceded by a #), or an "*" to delete the most recently retrieved record, or a "+" to delete the next record in sequence, or a "-" to delete the previous record in sequence, or a "\" to delete the last record in the file. (Read the above section "Modifying A Record" for a longer explanation of this prompt.) PC-File will retrieve the record and display it for you and then ask you to "Type 'DELETE', or press (enter)". If you decide that you really do wish to delete the record, type "DELETE" and press (enter). If you decide not to delete this record, just press (enter). You will then be prompted for the next record KEY to be deleted. When you have finished with all your deletions, just press (enter) when asked for the next record KEY. You will be returned to the master menu. DISPLAYING A RECORD (by using the 'KEY'). To display a record, press (F4) or type "DIS" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be asked "KEY, or #n,+,-,\ ". You should then enter the Key value of the first field in the record to be displayed, or the record number in the file (preceded by a #), or a "+" to display the next record in sequence, or a "-" to display the previous record in sequence, or a "\" to display the last record in the file. PC-File will retrieve and display the record for you, and then prompt you for the next record to be displayed. When you are through displaying records, just press (enter) and you will be returned to the master menu screen. FINDING A RECORD. To find a record, press (F5) or type "FIN" while viewing the 6 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 7. master menu screen. You will then be shown a list of all the field names in the database, and asked "FIELD TO SEARCH". You should type in the name of the field which you wish to search on. Be sure to type the field name exactly as it was originally entered (watch out for upper and lower case characters). PC-File will next prompt you with: '>xxx' scans full field. (slow) Look for:__________ You should now type in the data which you would like to search for. If you precede the data with a ">" character, PC-File will look for an occurrence of that data anywhere in the field. For example, if you type ">mit", records will be returned which have "Smith", or "transmit", or "miter", etc. If you type "mit" (without the ">" in front) records will be retrieved which start out "mit" in the field, such as "miter", "mitten", etc. The second type of search will proceed considerably faster than the first type, because to do a "full field scan", PC-File must look at every record in the file. To do the second type of search, PC-File can take advantage of its index file for very rapid retrieval. Note that the search is fully "generic": that is, all records will be retrieved when the data field "begins with" the search data. You can, for example, find all records with last names that start with "S", or find all records with zip codes starting with "980". Each record found will be displayed in its entirety, followed by this prompt: "S to stop, or press (enter)". If you want to find more records which match this search criteria, just press (enter). The next record will be found and displayed. If you wish to stop searching for this data, thpe "S" and then push (enter). LISTING THE RECORDS. The listing capabilities of PC-File are very powerful indeed. You will be allowed to search for data based on "equal", "unequal", "greater than", or "less than" relationships. The data can be displayed in any format which you specify. And you can list the report on your printer or on your video screen. To list the records, press (F6) or type "LIS" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be shown the names of all the report formats which you have previously defined to the system, and asked "Which format, or press (enter)". If this is the first time you've ever created this particular report format, just press (enter). You will then be shown all of the field names in this database, and prompted with: "Column=0. Field to List:". You should type in (watching out for upper and lower case) the name of the field which you would like to see first on your report (at the far left). As you continue to be prompted to enter field names, PC-File will keep you informed, at the bottom of the screen, about the number of print columns which you have used up. If the report will go to your screen, you should not let this number go beyond 80. If the report will go to your printer, you should not let the number go beyond the maximum width of a print line. If you are defining a "Labels" listing, you should enter a 7 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 8. "/" instead of a field name at the times when you would want a carriage-return/line feed to occur. In this case, you must cause at least one blank line to appear between each label (a "/" as the only field defined on the last line of the report). When you have entered all of the fields to appear on the listing, just push (enter). You will be asked "Save this report format?". Reply "Y" if you will ever want to print this report again, or "N" if this is a one-time-only report. If you replied "Y", you will then be asked "Name for this format:". Just type in a 1 to 8 character name by which you would like to remember this report format. You will next be asked "List on Printer or Screen (P or S)". Type "P" to get a printed list, or "S" to get the listing on your video screen. If this is not a labels list, you will be asked "Title of Report:". Enter any title up to 39 characters long. You will then be asked "List All records or Selected records (A or S):". If you want to see all the records in your report, answer "A". If you only want to list some of the records, answer "S". In this case, you will be shown all of the field names and asked "Field to Select on:". PC-File wants to know which field will determine whether or not the record will be printed. Enter the field name (watching out for upper and lower case). You will then be asked "Compare how? >,<,=,<> ". The field which you have selected will later be compared to some value which you will also later enter. PC-File is asking how it should compare the field to the value. If you will want them to be equal, enter "=". If you will want to see records which have the field less than some value, enter "<". For a "greater than" comparison, enter ">". For "unequal", enter "<>". Now you will be asked for the value which your field will be compared to. PC-File asks: "Compared to value:". Enter the value. Example: To list all records with zip codes greater than "980", you would respond as follows: "Field to select on:" ZIPCODE "Compare how? " > "Compared to value: " 980 If you are using a printer for output, PC-File will now pause with a message to allow you to set up the printer. Now is when PC-File really goes to work for you. Here's a peek at what's going on behind the scene: PC-File will select or reject each record based on your selection criteria. It will automatically print your titles, column headings, and page numbers for a report, or omit them for labels. It will automatically format your output list, sending it to the screen or printer, pausing the screen at the right moments. For labels, it automatically compresses the output lines and data to make nice looking labels. It accumulates final totals for all field names ending with a "#". To stop the listing and abort it early, you may press (Esc) at any point in time. SORTING THE DATABASE INDEX. You can cause your records to be placed in a different 8 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 9. sequence by using the sort feature. To sort the records, press (F7) or type "SOR" while viewing the master menu screen. PC-File will load a special sort program into the computer, print out all the field names, and ask: "Sort field #1:". You should enter the name of the field which you would like to use to sequence the file. If the sequence will depend on multiple fields, you should give the name of the most primary field in the sort sequence. You will be allowed to enter up to ten field names in the sort sequence. After each field name, you will be shown the length of the field and asked "Length?". Sometimes you don't have to sort on the full length of the field, and the sort would run more effeciently in these cases. For example, to sort on a last-name field that is 15 characters long, it may be sufficient to sort on only the first 6 or 7 characters. You be the judge. Enter any number from 1 to the full length of the field. When you have finished identifying all the sequence fields, just push (enter). You will then be asked "Ascending or Descending (A or D):". This is your chance to tell whether you want the file to be sorted into ascending or descending sequence based on the sort fields that you specified. The sort will now proceed and keep you informed of its status as it progresses. During the main part of the sort, you will see the message "Sorting xxx Records" and a number appearing centered under that line. The number will decrease by 1 each time it changes, from 5 down to 1. This is an attempt to give you a feeling for how long the sort will take. When the number reaches zero, the sort phase is complete. At the start of the sort phase and of the index rebuild phase, you will see an estimate of how long that particular phase will take. During the index rebuild, the countdown from 5 to 1 may appear several times, because the rebuild phase reinvokes the sort routine once for each 500 records in the file. I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised by the speed of the sort. When the sort is finished, it will reload the main program and take you back to the starting point of PC-File. A technical note for those who are so inclined: The sort is a "Shell" sort and takes place entirely in main memory. The data file itself is not sorted. The Index file, which contains pointers to the data records, is sorted. This permits very large files to be sorted at high speed. The sort program has been defined with a maximum of 2000 records to be sorted. This number is an entirely arbitrary guess, and may be changed in future releases of PC-File as more experience is gained with computers of various memory sizes. If you ever run out of memory during the sort, try sorting with a smaller number and size of sort fields. SEEING THE RECORD LAYOUT. To see the record layout as it was originally defined, press (F8) or type "LAY" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be shown a list of all the field names defined for the record, along with the corresponding length defined for each field. Pressing (enter) will then return you to the menu screen. 9 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 10. ALTERING A FIELD NAME. You can change the name of any field defined in your database. You might want to do this, for example, to change a field from numeric to character, or to shorten the field name. Press (F9) or type "NAM" while viewing the master menu screen. You will be shown a list of all the field names and asked "Which Name to Change:". Type the name of the field you wish to change (watch out for upper/lower case). You will then be asked to "Enter the New Name:". Type the name that you would like to use for the new name of the field. You will then be allowed to change the name of another field, or just press (enter) to return to the master menu screen. ENDING THE PROGRAM. To end the program and return to the DOS operating system, press (F10) or type "END" while viewing the master menu screen. PC-File will ask "Quit?", just to make sure you're serious. Answer "Y" if you are, "N" if you're not. BACKING UP THE DATABASE. From time to time, it is a good idea to make a backup copy of an important database. In order to back up your PC-File database, you will need to get into the DOS operating system. Then, assuming that your data disk is in the B: drive, and that your disk which will receive the backup copy is in the A: drive, the following two commands will make a backup copy for you. COPY B:filename.* A: COPY B:*.RPT A: (where "filename" is the name that you used for your database file.). This will copy the following files for you: filename.HDR filename.INX filename.DTA and all ".RPT" (report) files which you have defined on the disk. USING OTHER PRINTERS. PC-File is distributed for use with the IBM Printer or with the Epson MX-80. However, it is possible to use PC-File with other printer types. When the PC-File program starts up, it opens a file called "PRT.CTL", which contains control characters for causing the printer to print either condensed characters (132 characters per line) or normal sized characters (80 characters per line). You can change these characters to anything that you like, to override the defaults which have been established. You will need to use a text editor program, or the EDLIN program that comes with your system. The default PRT.CTL file looks like this: /80,18,/132,15 The /80 starts the definition of control characters to cause the printer to print "normal" width. the ",18" is the decimal representation of the necessary control character. Replace this with whatever is necessary for your printer. If multiple control 10 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 11. characters are required, enter as many as necessary, each one separated by a comma. The "/132" starts the definition of control characters to cause the printer to print "condensed" characters. The ",15" is the decimal representation of the necessary control character. One possible example of a change you would want to make, would be for a daisy wheel printer that always prints 132 columns wide, in which case you wouldn't need any control characters at all. The PRT.CTL for this example should be set up as follows: /80,/132 (no control characters used.) USING 40-CHARACTER WIDTH DISPLAYS. If you have a video display which only allows viewing in "40-column" mode, such as a television set with an RF Modulator, you can change the file named "PRT.CTL" to cause PC-File to handle this situation. If you are using an IBM printer or the Epson MX-80 printer, the easiest way to do this is to copy a standard file which has already been provided on your disk, overlaying the old copy of PRT.CTL. While running under DOS, just enter the command: COPY PRT40.CTL PRT.CTL This will cause the file named PRT.CTL to be overlayed with a copy of the file named PRT40.CTL. You will now run in 40 column mode whenever you use PC-File. If you ever wish to go back to 80 column mode, just copy the file named PRT80.CTL to PRT.CTL. If you need to use 40-column mode, and also have a unique printer, you will need to read the above topic titled "Using Other Printers". While creating the PRT.CTL file as described in that section, also include the characters "/40" (separated from the other data by commas), in your file. USING THE PC-FILE DATA WITH OTHER PROGRAMS. PC-File makes an excellent "Front End" program for other systems which you might develop. You can use PC-File to handle the file maintenance functions, and concentrate your efforts on the rest of the system. The file "filename.DTA" (where "filename" is the name you gave the database), is the data file which you will want to use. The file is laid out just as you would want it to be, with each field of the record being fixed length (the length that you defined for it) and padded on the right if necessary with blanks. The fields are in the record in the same order in which you defined them. Deleted records which have not been re-used, will be totally filled with the "/" (slash) character. There is a carriage return character (HEX 0D) added to the end of each record. This is put there to make it easier for you to process this data with any programming language available. The end of the file is marked with a "\" (backslash) in the far left position (Byte 1). All records in the file will be the same length. The sequence of the records in the file is the same sequence in which they were originally entered (ADDed), except that deleted records are re-used when another ADD takes place. The sort program does not resequence the data portion of the database, only the index. 11 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 12. IMPORTING OTHER FILES INTO PC-FILE. It is possible to use files created on other systems, defining them to PC-File as your own database. To do this: 1. Start up PC-File and define the file as a new file on your system, so that the "filename.HDR" file will be established. 2. Erase "filename.DTA" from your PC-File data disk (it should be empty anyway at this point.) 3. Copy your file to be converted, onto your PC-File data disk, giving it the name "filename.DTA". 4. Your file must be in fixed-length record format, and contain a "\" (backslash) as the first character in the last record of the file. You may have to use a special program, or an editor program to get your file into this format. The following short basic program will put the '\' there if you care to use it: 10 INPUT "Enter the filename:",F$ 20 OPEN F$ FOR APPEND AS #1 30 PRINT#1,STRING$(254,"\") 40 CLOSE 5. Now you have everything that you need except "filename.INX". Start up PC-File again, specifying your filename as the file you'll be working with. Select the "SORT" option, and sort your file in whatever sequence you desire. Since the sort program builds a fresh index from scratch whenever it is run, you will have a complete database going for you after you have finished the sort. COMPATIBILITY WITH PRIOR VERSIONS. PC-File is an enhancement to a previous program by the same author entitled "EasyFile". One of the improvements is that the index now takes two fewer characters per record. Therefore, users of the old EasyFile program will have to cause a new index to be built on their database. This can be done by invoking the Sort immediately after starting up PC-File. The sort will build a new index, and then the old files will be 100% compatible with all versions of PC-File. SOME MAXIMUMS AND MINIMUMS. Minimum RAM Memory required..............................64K Minimum Disk Drives required...............................1 Maximum Disk Drives supported..............................4 (Drives A through D, but all the programs must be on one drive, and all the data must be on one drive.) Maximum Field length......................................25 Minimum Field length.......................................1 Maximum Field Name length.................................12 Minimum Field Name length..................................1 Maximum Fields per Database (80 char. display)............41 Maximum Fields per Database (40 char. display)............21 Maximum Records per Database............................2000 (more, if you don't need to sort, up to maximum capacity of the disk) Maximum Number of Sort Control Fields.....................10 CALCULATING THE SIZE OF DATABASE DISK STORAGE. You can quickly calculate the amount of disk space your 12 PC-FILE USER'S GUIDE Page 13. database will consume. For the filename.INX file, take the number of fields defined and multiply this by 2. To that answer, add 4. The answer is the number of characters in an index record. For the filename.DTA file, add together the length of each field defined. To that answer, add 1. This gives the number of characters in a data record. If you add together the calculated length of the INX record and the length of the DTA record and multiply this by the maximum number of records you expect to have in your database, you will have the total number of characters of disk space required to contain your database. A NOTE FOR USERS WITH ONLY 1 DISK DRIVE. You will probably want to create a "Production" version of PC-File, to give yourself the maximum amount of available disk space. To do this, Make a copy of the PC-File diskette, which will become your production copy. Then, on this copy, delete all files except PC-FILE.EXE, PC-SORT.EXE, PRT.CTL, and COMMAND.COM. This will leave you with about 87000 characters of free disk storage space. This is enough to store about 700 records in an "average" database. Review the section above entitled "Calculating the Size of Database Disk Storage. DISCLAIMER. In no event will the Author be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use these programs, even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. 13 any other party. 13