Install the “IM VI Index” application in an appropriate place. System 7 users will probably want to put it into the Apple Menu Items folder. Double-click on the application icon. If all goes well, a window will open with some info in it. At this time you can type any letter and the index entries for that letter will appear in the window. Typing another letter will display the entries for the new letter. If you have an extended keyboard, try hitting the “help” key for more info (the home, end, page up, page down, up arrow and down arrow keys do what I think they ought to, also).
The application now has a Find command. Type Cmd-F and a dialog box will appear. Type in the text that you wish to find and hit Return or Enter or click on the Find button. The database will be searched until the string is found, in which case it will be hilited. You can continue the search by pressing Return, etc. again. After the entire database has been searched, the application will beep when it returns to the starting place. Dismiss the Find dialog box by clicking Cancel or typing Esc or Cmd-period. It will also go away if you press Return or click Find when there is no text in the dialog. The format of the dialog box looks a little strange because it was designed to fit on a 9" screen.
This application was written in assembly language using the CDS assembler from Consulair. The application has been tested on a Mac 512Ke under System 6.05, an SE/30 under System 7, a PowerBook 100 with System 7, and a Mac IIci under System 6.05 and System 7. If you have another kind of Mac and System it should work, but I can't guarantee that.
If you don't like the way that I implemented the index, want to delete some items or add some items, the application can be edited with ResEdit. When you open the application with ResEdit, the index entries are TEXT type resources and they are all named (I wish more programmers would name their resources, especially Apple), so it should be obvious which one is which.
I made this Index separate from the “Inside Mac I-V Index” application because Inside Macintosh volume VI is for System 7, a whole new ballgame. It also has a different page numbering system that I didn’t think was compatible with the older volumes’ page numbers. I didn’t make a DA version of this application because I felt that anyone programming for System 7 would be actually using it (or at least MultiFinder) and would therefore want a “small application” (in the words of Apple).
This application is FREE, but I would like to hear from anyone who finds it useful. Thanks.
