2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries/2,000 Greater and Lesser Mysteries.iso/spybase/help.doc

Text File | 1994-06-10 | 15.1 KB | 282 lines

 select one of the following help options:

     1) introduction
     2) phonetic search
     3) leading letters search

    name search:
        4) splitting a name into three fields
        5) rules used by the program for matching names
        6) Spanish surnames
        7) examples

     8) country search
     9) extracting one source
    10) printout and file dump
    11) reconfigure the program
    12) ordering updates or annotations/photocopies of source material

1. INTRODUCTION

     This database is a cumulative name index that cites sources where the
name is mentioned. It includes names of both individuals and groups. If the
source mentioned that the name was located in or associated with a foreign
country for a period of years, this information was included. The United
States is not included in the country list because this would have made
data entry unmanageable.

     Because of the country information that was required, sources in
that were already indexed, such as most books, were read and re-indexed.
Many of the sources have never been indexed before anywhere. Some were
already indexed, but important names were skipped for some reason. And many
books were thoroughly indexed, but for the purposes of this database it was
too thorough and wasted too much space. Generally speaking, a judgment was
made to skip casual references to celebrities unless the information was
new or substantive, and preference given to more obscure names that would
be impossible to locate with conventional reference materials.

2. PHONETIC SEARCH

     Often you hear a name but have no idea how it should be spelled. Other
times you see names that have been transcribed from other languages, and
several variations of the spelling are common. The phonetic search allows
you to get a list of entries that might be phonetically close to name you
want. You won't see the citations, just the name itself. But now you can use
the name search to get the citations.

     The phonetic search asks for the probable spelling and then searches
all files that contain names which start with the first letter. It analyzes
every name in those files according to how the letters representing various
hard consonant sounds are grouped in those names. If the first three groups
in any of those names match the first three groups in the probable
spelling, then the name is produced.

     For example, if you didn't realize that no apostrophes are used in
this database, then the phonetic search is one way you could discover this,
since an apostrophe in the probable spelling has no sound equivalent and
would therefore be ignored. Usually the leading letters search is preferable
to the phonetic search, because it is several times faster. But you must know
the first three letters of the name before you can use it.

3. LEADING LETTERS SEARCH

     Besides the phonetic search, another way of producing a list of search
candidates is with the leading letters search. As long as you are certain
about the first three letters of the name, you can use this option. If you
are certain about more letters, you can narrow your choices further.
Finally, if you know one or more leading letters of the next name field,
you can get even more specific.

     Be specific with names that are quite common, such as SMITH, but if a
name is uncommon then you might lose the information you want by being too
specific. The point is to produce a useful amount of information in the
shortest time. Your technique should not produce too many or too few names,
relative to what is available.

     There is so much variation with proper names that it is difficult to
be consistent in entry format. Last names with spaces are particularly
tricky, because they are frequently not used consistently from citation to
citation. It takes a certain amount of proficiency before you can be certain
that the name you want is not listed. You could stack more than one name
search at a time to accommodate variations, but the phonetic and leading
letter searches are probably faster for locating candidates.

4. SPLITTING A NAME INTO THREE FIELDS

     Perhaps you noticed from the leading letters search that the spacing
between the different portions of a name provides a clue as to how that
name is split between the three fields. These fields are called most
significant, next, and least. The reason for the computer jargon is to
avoid the confusion of "last" and "first" name, which works fine with
individuals but not with groups.

     The most significant is the individual's last name. Sometimes it is a
double last name, with both names separated by a space in this field. For
group names, it is the first name of a group. Even here we ocassionally
have a double name, but only when it would seem illogical to split it, as
with groups that have UNITED STATES for the first name.

     The next significant is the individual's first name or initial. In
most cases, WILLIAM is used rather than BILL, JOHN rather than JACK, DONALD
rather than DON. Frequently you have to account for such variations in your
search technique. For groups, the next name is the second word of the name.

     The least significant for individuals is the middle name or initial,
and for groups it is everything that didn't fit in the other two fields.

5. RULES USED BY THE PROGRAM FOR MATCHING NAMES

     The only way to use the name search effectively is to know the rules
the program uses for determining whether a name in the database matches a
name requested by the user. The program examines each field in turn and
makes a yes/no decision. As soon as it comes up with a no, it decides that
the names don't match. If it decides yes for all three fields, then the
name and citations are displayed. The rules are the same for both groups
and individuals:

     Most significant field: This field must match exactly for the two
names, and that includes spaces and punctuation. It does not include upper
and lower case matching. The only exception to this rule is described in
the next section on the help menu.

     Next significant field: There are three ways to match, and any of the
three are sufficient. The first is an exact match. The second is if a
solitary letter in one field matches the first letter of the other field.
The third is if either or both fields are blank.

     Least significant field: The same rules apply here as in the next
significant field described in the preceding paragraph.

6. SPANISH SURNAMES

     Double last names present a special complication because of the fact
that the most significant field requires an exact match. In many cases, if
the Spanish name you want is in the database, it will be entered with the
mother's name after the father's. There is no way you can get an exact
match for this field until you determine how it was entered. One way is to
use the leading letters search with the father's name only, and get a list
of possible candidates for the name search.

     Another way is to skip the leading letters search and force a leading
letters mode in the name search. In other words, you are forcing an
exception to the matching rule on this field only. The way this is done is
to follow the name with a question mark. For example, if you are looking
for HUMBERTO GOMEZ, you would search for it by using GOMEZ? as the most
significant name, since you recognize this as a Spanish surname and want to
include the possibility that the mother's name follows GOMEZ in that field.

     Do not use a space in front of the question mark, as this would
produce GOMEZ only if a space follows Z in the database. At least three
letters must always precede the question mark.

7. EXAMPLES

     Assume that the name as entered in the database is as follows:
most significant name: GOMEZ PENA   next: HUMBERTO   least: [blank]

     Now assume that these are some of the ways you attempted to search for
this name. A yes means you got a match, and a no means that because of some
rule for matching, the name was a mismatch and did not display.  If nothing
is entered, it means the field was left blank.

1) most significant name: GOMEZ   next: HUMBERTO   least: LUIS        no
2) most significant name: GOMEZ P?   next:   least: LOU               yes
3) most significant name: GOMEZ PENA   next: H?   least:              no
4) most significant name: GOMEZ?   next: HUMBERTO   least: LUIS       yes
5) most significant name: GOM?   next: LUIS   least:            wrong person
6) most significant name: GOMEZ PENA   next: H   least:               yes
7) most significant name: GOMEZ PENA   next: H.  least:               no
8) most significant name: GOMEZ PENA?   next: H   least: L            yes
9) most significant name:                                       start search
(If you make a mistake in a stack of names, enter -1 to back up one entry.)

8. COUNTRY SEARCH

     If the program does not recognize the country you enter, you will be
shown a list of valid countries. For some countries more than one name is
valid. For example, by asking for RHODESIA you get all entries for a combined
Rhodesia / Zimbabwe, but all will be identified as ZIMBABWE, the latest name.

     By entering the country and time frame, you get a dump of all entries
that were associated with that country at a time that overlaps the time you
requested. In some cases, you may get information that does not turn out to
be relevant. This is because the database shows a particular country for a
particular entry only once, and as new sources are added it simply expands
the time frame to account for the extremes at either end. So if a person was
in a country at one time, and then again ten years later, it will be treated
as one long duration. This is a problem for only a very small number of
country entries.

     You can see a chart and graph of the entry-year distribution for the
first country in your stack at the end of the search. If you want ONLY the
chart and graph, enter 00 for the beginning year and 00 for the ending
year. Nothing will display except the chart information at the end.

9. EXTRACTING ONE SOURCE

     Sometimes a citation will be compelling, but you need more information
before you bother with tracking it down. By using this option you may
extract all other entries from the same citation. Simply enter sufficient
letters to lock onto the source, and then if it is a periodical with a
date, you may want to add the date to exclude entries from the same source
but different dates. The entry format for the date must be an exact match
for the format used for that particular periodical. Some periodicals use a
number sign in front of an issue number, followed by a slash and the year.
In this case, you would also have to use a number sign and issue number.
All dates in the database are in the form of MM/DD/YY or MM/YY without
leading zeros. Quarterlies use SP, SU, F, or W, with a slash and the year.

     Occasionally you may want to cross one source with another. Instead
of Y when asked if this is the correct source, enter 2 and you will be able
to add a second source. With two sources locked in, only names with both
sources in their citations will be produced. How many members of the Council
on Foreign Relations are also on the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, and
who are they?  This is the way to find out.

10. PRINTOUT AND FILE DUMP

     You may add P and/or F to three of the main menu selections to get a
printout and/or file dump. The printer must be set up externally, because
the program will not format the printed output. If you want the printer to
skip over the perforation, for example, this would have to be set up before
loading this program. The chart at the end of a country search will print,
but not the graph.

     Another way to get a formatted printout would be to use the file dump
and then print out the new file from your word processor. This simply means
that you make up a file name, observing the rules of MS-DOS for file names.
Hard disk users may also use path names in front of the file name.
Everything that hits will then go to that file in addition to displaying on
the screen. If the file did not exist, it will be created; if it already
existed then the new information will be added at the end. If you are using
a dual floppy system, the file will go to the default drive -- a B: drive
filename is not permitted because you are switching the B: floppy as
prompted by the program. Be aware of space limitations on your default
floppy; some country searches will produce large amounts of material.

11. RECONFIGURE THE PROGRAM

     In the upper right corner of the main menu next to the version number,
you will see XT/AT, PC5, or PC2. These mean, respectively, the hard disk
configuration, the configuration that prompts for five data disks in B:
drive, and the configuration that prompts for two data disks in B: drive.
The five-disk configuration is for 5.25-inch disks, and the two-disk is for
3.5-inch, which hold twice as much data. On some machines, such as some
laptops, the designation for the prompting drive may have to be changed
from B: to another letter. If configured for XT/AT, all files must be
available on the default drive, otherwise you will crash the program with
a "File not found" error.

     You may also configure for reverse video (some people find it easier
on the eyes) or even choose a cover name for the program (some people want
a more respectable name before they copy the disks for a friend). Another
reason for changing the name is that you can load a one-name search from
the DOS command line by passing it as a parameter. If you choose a short
name like "S" then you can run a search for JOHN Q PUBLIC from the DOS prompt
as follows:  S PUBLIC J   or   S PUB? JOHN   or   S PUBLIC J Q     Once you
change any configuration, it will stay that way until you change it again.

12. ORDERING UPDATES OR ANNOTATIONS/PHOTOCOPIES

     Updates are available for $19.00 if you are a registered user.
Registration is automatic if your purchase was at the $39.00 price, or
you may register for $10.00 if you got your copy from a friend or from
a "Shareware" outfit. Update notices are available from Micro Associates
with a list of recent sources. An update includes all data, which is always
cumulative, the latest version of the program, the latest update notice,
and necessary how-to documentation. It is the same as an original purchase
except for the price.

     All sources cited are filed at Micro Associates, and a photocopy
service is available. The cost is $12.00 per hour plus ten cents a page,
postpaid. The time required is for pulling and refiling, and feeding odd
sizes to the machine; the copier is on-premises. There is no minimum and
fractions of an hour are prorated. Copies are sent first class, usually the
next day. For faster service, annotations are also available at $12.00 per
hour. These may be sent by overnight mail or Telex as requested, with the
cost added to the total. Invoicing at 30 days net is available, but no
credit cards are accepted. Contact Daniel Brandt, Micro Associates, P.O.
Box 5369, Arlington VA 22205, Phone [phone], Telex 650-304-8285 MCI.