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N A M E D R O P P E R ver 1.19 A Message Searching Utility which searches downloaded message files for a list of supplied names or other words and provides output in a variety of ways. Files included in NAMEDROP version 1.19 NAMEDROP.EXE - The main program file. NAMEDROP.DAT - A sample of the type of file used to support NAMEDROP.EXE. You'll have to write your own .DAT file in order for the program to search for your list of names and other words. FOR PRIOR USERS OF NAMEDROP -- a small but impor- tant change has been made to the format of NAMEDROP.DAT. See chapter 3, par. b for details. NAMEDROP.DOC - This documentation file. Do not be intimidated by the size of the DOC file. There is much more information in the documentation than you need to run the program. The only must read sections are the chapters on Set Up and Running NAMEDROP. The rest of the information has been made available for those who would like to know more about the program and how it runs. JAN01.KDM - A small message file included so you can immediately run a quick demo of NAMEDROP to see what it will do. DEMODROP.BAT - A batch file which will start NAMEDROP and run a demo using the other files provided for this pur- pose. Type DEMODROP + <ENTER> for the demonstra- tion. README.TXT - An ASCII file containing any last minute documen- tation corrections or other information that you should be aware of. TED.COM - A simple text editor (by Tom Kihlken of PC maga- zine). TED is distributed free with this package to make it easy to write and/or modify your NAME- DROP.DAT file. TED is not a part of the NAMEDROP package. TED.DOC - Documentation for the TED text editor. NAMEDROP Documentation This documentation file can be easily printed by using your DOS PRINT command. Line your paper up so that your printer's print head is approximately one inch down from the page perforation. If started in this manner, NAMEDROP.DOC will print with one inch top and bottom margins. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1989, 1990, 1991 by Ray Cox 17410 Huntersglen Humble, TX 77396-1622 713-454-6074 The NAMEDROP and NAMEVIEW set of programs are copyrighted and will remain my property. You may use, copy, and distribute the NAMEDROP and NAMEVIEW shareware program files provided that: 1. All of the original files are included without modification when you copy and distribute the shareware version of the program. 2. You do not charge for use, copying, or distribution. 3. Registered versions of NAMEDROP are not to be distributed, but backup copies may be made. If you find that the NAMEDROP program is useful, saves you time, and in general makes your message hunting easier, a registration fee of $10 would be appreciated. Registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of NAMEDROP on disk. The registered version of the program has a command line interface feature (see features sec- tion for description), and will not have the shareware screen. A form is provided in Appendix D (last page of documentation) for your convenience in registration. Many thanks to George Pardue who helped in Beta testing this product. He provided many helpful suggestions, most of which were incorporated into the program. NAMEDROP BBS Message Searching Program Table of Contents Page # 1. Background a. Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 b. What is NAMEDROP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 c. What NAMEDROP does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 d. How fast is NAMEDROP?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2. Quick Start a. How to run a quick demo of NAMEDROP. . . . . . . . . . . 7 3. Set Up - Preparing to Use NAMEDROP a. Saving your message downloads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 b. NAMEDROP.DAT file - Message Format Section . . . . . . . 9 c. NAMEDROP.DAT File - Search List Section. . . . . . . . . 10 d. NAMEDROP.DAT File Search List Tips . . . . . . . . . . . 10 e. Floppy disk set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 f. Hard disk set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4. Running - How to start and use NAMEDROP.EXE a. Command Line Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 b. Menu operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 c. Command line MENU operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 d. Early Termination of Program Execution . . . . . . . . . 16 e. Normal program termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 f. NAMEDROP output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 5. Displaying Output Files a. NAMEVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 b. Word Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 c. TED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 d. BROWSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 e. DIRMAGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 f. DOS TYPE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 6. NAMEDROP Features a. Command Line Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 b. Display Adapter Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 c. Download File Name Length Check. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 d. Error Message Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 e. Escape Key Function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 f. File Creation List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 g. First Find/All Names Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 h. Floppy User Enhancement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 i. Long Message Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 j. Make Leftover (LFT) File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 k. Offscreen Name Hit Indication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 l. Search Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 m. Sort (SRT) File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 1 n. Speed Rating Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 o. SUBJECT Line Active Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 p. Upper Case Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Appendix A - Ways to Write Your NAMEDROP.DAT file a. Word Processing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 b. TED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Appendix B - Problems and Error Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Appendix C - Upgrade Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Appendix D - Registration and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 a. Registration form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 b. Upgrade form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2 *** Background *** Glossary Download File - a file downloaded (captured) from a BBS which con- tains multiple messages. Your modem software may call this a capture file. For maximum efficiency, select the BBS option for continuous read while capturing the file. Hit - occurs when a message that is contained within your download file has been identified as containing one of your search words. LFT File - a file which may optionally be written by NAMEDROP; it contains all messages originally in the download file in which hits have NOT occurred. Message(s) - the message(s) which are contained within your download file. Message Format Block - a four-line section of the NAMEDROP.DAT file which contains one or more filename extensions, a word which iden- tifies the starting line of each message, a word which identifies the subject line of each message, and a word which identifies the last line of each message. Program disk - for floppy disk users; the disk on which your NAMEDROP.EXE and NAMEDROP.DAT files are kept. Program files - refers collectively to NAMEDROP.EXE and NAMEDROP.DAT; it does not include the download file or any of the files written by NAMEDROP. Search Name(s) - this term is synonymous with "search word(s)". Since NAMEDROP was originally designed for use by genealogists, and they are principally interested in searching for names, this term will occasionally be used. Search word(s) - (a) word(s) from the list you create in the NAMEDROP.DAT file. All messages in the download file will be search- ed to see if they contain any of the search words. Search word is synonymous with search name. SRT file - the file which will always be written by NAMEDROP; it contains all messages originally in the download file in which hits have occurred. SUB file - a file which may optionally be written by NAMEDROP; it contains a list of subject lines from ALL messages originally in the download file, regardless of whether the message has had a hit or not. 3 What is NAMEDROP? NAMEDROP is a program system designed to expedite your searches of downloaded BBS message files for desired words/names of interest. It was originally created so that genealogists could search large downloaded files for long lists of names and topics of interest. In spite of this original intent, the program is suitable for use with any ASCII message file format. The end result of running NAMEDROP is that a much smaller file is created which contains only those mes- sages in which at least one of your search words was found. Your time saved in reading this smaller file instead of the larger ori- ginal message file will probably be substantial. Simplicity of set up and use were foremost in my mind when the program was written. Only one support file is necessary (NAMEDROP.DAT, to be detailed later) regardless of the number of message formats which will be searched. Also, there is no practical limit to the number of search words (also stored in the NAMEDROP.DAT file), so the program need only be run once for each downloaded file to be searched. What NAMEDROP does... NAMEDROP.EXE starts by analyzing and inputting data from your NAMEDROP.DAT file. From this file, it gets information on the format of the message files it will be reading (searching through). Next, NAMEDROP.EXE loads the list of search words which you are interested in finding. Every message contained in the download file will be searched for every search word on your list. After your initial menu selection is made (or optionally entered on the command line for registered versions), the search will begin. At least one output file will be written by the program, depending on your menu selections. This "mandatory" file will contain each mes- sage in which at least one of your search names/words was found. If you choose, an additional file will be written which contains only the subject lines of all messages in the downloaded file. This subject file can then be studied to see if you might be interested in any topics which would otherwise have been missed in the search. An additional file may also be written which contains "left- overs." This file will consist of all messages in which none of your words/names were found. By using this option, you will have divided your original download file into the "haves" and the "have nots," although the original download file will not be deleted. The list of your search words is displayed onscreen (maximum of 95 onscreen words, but list is unlimited) during the search, and each time there is a hit the search word which was "found" is marked if you care to watch while the program is working. 4 You may also select whether or not the word found must begin with an "uppercase" letter in order to be considered a hit, and whether or not the computer will BEEP at you each time it makes a "hit." How Fast is NAMEDROP? I ran several "benchmark" tests of NAMEDROP so that its time saving capabilities might become apparent. Obviously, there are many variables which will affect the speed at which the program will complete it's task. Microprocessor speed, disk speed (hard or flop- py), the number of names in your search list, the size of your down- load file, the number of files that NAMEDROP is asked to write (al- ways at least one, with options of up to three), and other choices that can be made from the menu will all affect the speed of opera- tion. The file used for testing was an actual download from the Na- tional Genealogical Conference (NGC). It was 150k in size and con- tained 196 separate messages. To further put the tests in perspective, I'll describe the machine that the tests were run on. NAMEDROP was developed and tested on an AT&T 6300PC computer. It has an 8086 processor running at 8 MHz, and measures approximately 2.25 on speed tests which com- pare to the speed of the original IBM PC computer. My hard disk is nothing fancy - it is a FlashCard 30 (Miniscribe Hard Card clone), with a random access time of 65ms and a throughput of 104MB per second running at 6:1 interleave. The hard disk was almost full, being a 32MB disk with approximately 2MB left empty at the time of the test, which made it slower still. My floppy drives are standard double density 360k models. No disk cacher was used, but I did have BUFFERS=20 set in my CONFIG.SYS file. Unless you have an extremely slow system, you should have no problem matching or exceeding the following test times. The program's work is very disk intensive, as it is constantly reading and sometimes writing files. This results in a big diffe- rence in run times depending on whether you are using a floppy or a hard disk system. For this reason, testing was done and results given for both type systems. Three representative tests were run, using different configura- tions of the program (selected from the menu), and each test was run with three different sizes of search lists, 88, 50, and 20 names. The test configurations shown below are representations of the menu just prior to starting. See the features section for a full explanation of the menu items. The test timer was started at the same time the menu was exited to start the program run. The timer was stopped when the program flashed the onscreen message that it was finished. 5 Test one (the fastest) configuration was as follows: Make Subject (F)ile: NO Find First/All (N)ames: ALL Make (L)eftover File: NO (U)pper Case Check: NO (S)ound: OFF Speed Rating: 10 Test two (medium speed) configuration was as follows: Make Subject (F)ile: YES Find First/All (N)ames: FIRST Make (L)eftover File: NO (U)pper Case Check: YES (S)ound: ON Speed Rating: 4 Test three (the slowest) configuration was as follows: Make Subject (F)ile: YES Find First/All (N)ames: FIRST Make (L)eftover File: YES (U)pper Case Check: YES (S)ound: ON Speed Rating: 1 Speed Test Results... | Hard Disk Test | 88 Names | 50 Names | 20 Names | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 1 | 1:25 | 1:01 | :48 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 2 | 1:47 | 1:19 | :54 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 3 | 2:15 | 1:52 | 1:30 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Floppy Disk Test | 88 Names | 50 Names | 20 Names | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 1 | 2:26 | 1:40 | 1:18 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 2 | 2:50 | 2:02 | 1:30 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Test 3 | 4:04 | 3:27 | 3:15 | +------------------+----------+----------+----------+ Again, the above times are only to show how quickly NAMEDROP will do it's work. Your determination as to what mode of operation you choose should be based primarily on what you want the program to do for you. 6 *** Quick Start *** How to run a quick demo Enough files have been included in the archived program set to enable you to run a quick demo of the program prior to setting up your own NAMEDROP.DAT file. You will need the NAMEDROP.EXE file, the NAMEDROP.DAT file provided (which happens to be my own list of names), the DEMODROP.BAT file, and the JAN01.KDM file (a small sample of actual messages downloaded from the NGC). Floppy disk users: Place these four files on one disk and place the disk in drive A. Make sure that drive A is the default drive if you have more than one floppy drive. If you are looking at the DOS prompt on your screen, merely typing "A:" (don't include the quotes, just type the A and the colon!) followed by the <ENTER> key should do it. See your DOS manual for details on default drives if you have questions. Hard disk users: Place all four files in the same subdirectory on your hard disk, then make that subdirectory the current one. If you have questions on making subdirectories (MKDIR or MD) and/or changing directories (CHDIR or CD), see your DOS manual. All users: Now type "DEMODROP" (again, don't type the quote marks, type the word between quotes) and press <ENTER>. After the presentation of an explanation screen, the program will load and then pause with the presentation of the menu screen. You can experiment with the menu selections if you like by pressing any letter shown in red (highlighted for mono users) until the setup shows the desired options. When you are ready to start, press <ENTER> and the program will continue the demo. The message and names found counters will increment as the program runs, and the search words will be marked onscreen as they are found. When the program finishes (should take only seconds on the demo file), pressing the <Esc> key will return you to your command prompt. You can now recheck your floppy disk or your hard disk subdirectory for the file(s) which were written by the program depending on your menu selections. If you liked what you saw on the demo, then continue on with the set up chapter so you can customize the program for your own use! 7 *** SET UP - Preparing to Use NAMEDROP *** Saving your Message Downloads I will not attempt to cover the use of a modem and communica- tions program in downloading message files. There are, however, certain conventions which must be followed, and others that are recommended in order for NAMEDROP to function correctly. Dial into your BBS and set your terminal program to capture to file (also called a log file by some programs). Then download your messages by using the (BBS) command to read messages without stopping. The capture file should be named as follows: MMMDD.NNN where - MMM = the first three letters of the month (i.e. JAN) DD = the two digit day of the month (i.e. 01,28, etc.) NNN = a three letter abbreviation of the conference or BBS from which the message file was downloaded (i.e. NGC for National Genealogical Conference, KDM for The Kingdom BBS, etc.) For example, a file which you download from the Kingdom BBS on January 1, would be named JAN01.KDM. The month and day format de- scribed above is not mandatory, as any filename will work, but it will reduce confusion and help catalog your downloads. If you choose to use another filename format, it is recommended that the length of your filename (the portion to the left of the "period") be restricted to five characters or less. NAMEDROP needs room to add three more filename characters when it names the output files which are written by the program. Your five characters plus NAMEDROP's three equals the maximum of eight that DOS will allow. If your filename is longer than five characters, the program will still run, but NAMEDROP will use only the first five and add three more when the output files are named. This may make it harder to recog- nize the connection between your message download file and the output file(s) written by NAMEDROP. The filename extension (portion to the right of the "period") is the one place where you must be consistent. The extension that you use MUST be found in one of the "message format blocks" (see the next section for details) stored in the NAMEDROP.DAT file. If NAMEDROP cannot find your extension in NAMEDROP.DAT, the program will ter- minate with an error message. 8 NAMEDROP.DAT File - Message Format Section The NAMEDROP.DAT file consists of two sections. The first section is the Message Format Section. It provides information to the NAMEDROP program about how the messages which you will be search- ing are formatted. The message format section is composed of one or more message format blocks. If you download messages from only one conference or one BBS, or if all of your download files will have the same format, then you will need only one message format block. Multiple message format blocks are required only if you download messages of more than one format as recorded in the message format block. In this case, a separate message format block is needed for each different format. Upper and lower case must be accurate when entering your message format block information and the filename extension(s) must be in UPPER case. NAMEDROP.DAT starts immediately with the first line of the first (and possibly only) message format block. Message format blocks are composed as follows where EXT stands for the extension given to your download file name and information enclosed in brackets [] is option- al: Sample Block Explanation (NOT part of the NAMEDROP.DAT file) ------------ ------------------------------------------------ EXT [EXT] [EXT] - the filename extension(s) using this format block From: - First Line key word Subject: - Subject Line key word * Origin: - Last Line key word ~ - (or ~~) end of the message format block (or sec- tion) Your First Line key word should be a word which is consistently found at the beginning of each message contained in your download file. This entry is used by NAMEDROP to determine the beginning of each message in turn to be searched. After loading the entire mes- sage, beginning with the line on which a First Line key word was found, NAMEDROP then starts searching. If a SRT or LFT message is written, the first line of the message written to these files will be the same line on which your First Line key word was found. Your Subject Line key word should be a word which is consistent- ly found at the beginning of the line that states the subject of each message. NAMEDROP uses your Subject Line key word to locate each message subject line, and in turn extracts the subject information to write to the SUB file, if that option is selected. 9 Your Last Line key word should be a word which is consistently found at the end of each message contained in your download file. This entry is used by NAMEDROP to determine the end of each message being searched. Although the line found containing your Last Line key word is not searched, this line is written to the SRT and possib- ly the LFT file as the last line of the message written. NOTE: The entry for "...last line..." (" * Origin:" in sample above) must be entered EXACTLY as it appears in your messages. YOU MUST INCLUDE ANY LEADING SPACES WHICH APPEAR ON THIS LINE. NAMEDROP will not be able to correctly identify individual messages if this is not done. Enter as many message format blocks as are necessary. Use a single tilde (~) to separate multiple message format blocks. Use a double tilde (~~) instead of the single tilde at the end of your last (or only) message format block. NAMEDROP.DAT File - Search List Section The search list section is that part of the NAMEDROP.DAT file which follows the double tilde (~~). Place each search name or search word on a separate line. Search words may consist of any sequence of characters (letters, numbers, and punctuation) which you wish to find. Search words may be entered in UPPERCASE, lower case, or MiXeD Case, as only the sequence of characters is important. There is no practical limit on the length of a search word, although words longer than 14 characters will be truncated for the screen display of your list. There is no practical limit on the number of search words in your list, but only the first 95 will be displayed onscreen. If you still have questions about the format of a DAT file, use TED (or your favorite text editor) to load the NAMEDROP.DAT file which was included with the demo. After looking over the format of this file it will probably be easier to create your own. You could also create your own by using over-write mode to insert your own data in place of that in the demo version. When you have completed your NAMEDROP.DAT file, save it in ASCII format. See Appendix A, "Ways to Write Your NAMEDROP.DAT File" for help in doing this if you have questions. NAMEDROP.DAT File Search List Tips There are several things you may wish to consider when putting together the Search List portion of your NAMEDROP.DAT file. The order of search names (or search words) may be of importance depend- ing on which selection you make for the "Find First/All (N)ames:" menu item. If you select "FIRST" for this option, searching is 10 stopped after the first hit is made in each message. The search word which caused the hit is then underlined when the message is written to the SRT file. If you choose to regularly use this option, you might want to put your more important names at the front of your list so they will be the ones which trigger the hit and are therefore shown underlined. If you have a name with several spelling variations (for ex- ample, BASYE, BASEE, & BASEY) you can easily put all variations in your list, as the number of entries is unlimited. By doing so, you'll catch a message containing your name regardless of which version the originator used. I put all of the primary spellings of my names at the beginning of my list. The secondary spellings are started when I have finished entering all of my primary ones. Other items you may want to consider putting on your list are county names, city names, the name of your favorite genealogy pro- gram, or anything else you would not want to miss in your scan of the messages. Beware of search words which may turn out to be a nuisance. For example, I have the names "Page" and "North" in my list. Every time there is a reference to a page number, or North Carolina, etc. I get a hit during my search. Even when I check for uppercase, there are still many useless hits on the Page name. It's up to you to decide if a name like that is important enough to keep in your list. See the Search Parameters description in the Features chapter for information which may give you additional ideas on what needs to be included in your search list. Floppy Disk Set Up NAMEDROP works fine on a floppy disk system, but there will be limitations on the size of the download file that can be handled due to the limited capacity of a floppy disk. If you write all possible files (three) during your search, then a 150k download file will be close to the maximum that can be handled (assuming a 360k disk). By the time you start with a 150k file, add the normal SRT file, and write the optional SUB and LFT files, your floppy disk will be just about full. If you have two floppy disk drives, Drive A: can be used for the program disk and Drive B: can be used for the various message files. See the "How to Start and Use NAMEDROP" section for details on how to start each of the possible floppy drive and disk configurations. In any floppy configuration, your floppy drive light will prob- ably remain on continuously once the search procedure has started. This is normal, as the program will be continuously reading and intermittently writing to the disk until it has finished. 11 Set Up 1 - For a Single Floppy System: 1. place program and download files on the same disk (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to A:) Set Up 2 - For a Single Floppy System: 1. place program and download files on separate disks 2. place the program files disk in Drive A: (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to A:) Set Up 3 - For a Dual Floppy System: 1. place the program disk in Drive A 2. place the download file on a disk in Drive B: (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to B:) Hard Disk Set Up NAMEDROP works best on a hard disk system due to the speed ad- vantage and the numerous ways in which the files can be set up. The simplest set up is for all files to be in the same directory; the most complicated is for the NAMEDROP.EXE, NAMEDROP.DAT, download file, and NAMEDROP created file(s) to all be in different direc- tories. These two set ups and every variation in between are all handled by a combination of the DOS path command and the way the command line is entered to start the program. If you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the DOS path command and its effects, I recommend that you keep your program and download files in the same directory (I use the one in which I download my message files). If you prefer separate directories for your program and download files, pathnames are acceptable when entering the name of your download file. See the "How to Start and Use NAMEDROP" section for details on how to start each of the possible hard disk configurations. Set Up 4 - For a Hard Disk System: 1. place program files and the download file in the current directory (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to current directory; all files in same directory) Set Up 5 - For a Hard Disk System: 1. make the program files path the current directory 2. place the download file in another directory (PATH1) (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to PATH1 with download file; program files in different directory) 12 Set Up 6 - For a Hard Disk System: 1. make the download file path the current directory 2. NAMEDROP.DAT must be in the current directory 3. place NAMEDROP.EXE file in another directory (PATH1) (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to current directory with download file and NAMEDROP.DAT file; NAMEDROP.EXE file in different directory) Set Up 7 - For a Hard Disk System: 1. make the download file path the current directory 2. NAMEDROP.DAT must be in the current directory 3. place NAMEDROP.EXE file in another directory (PATH1) 4. set PATH=(PATH1) (SRT, LFT, & SUB files will be written to current directory with download file and NAMEDROP.DAT file; NAMEDROP.EXE file in different directory) 13 *** Running - How to Start and Use NAMEDROP *** Command Line Entries Before you attempt to run NAMEDROP, you should have completed all set up requirements. Find the Set Up you are using (described in the "Floppy Disk Set Up" and "Hard Disk Set Up" sections). Enter the command line as shown where "filename" is the name of your download file, <PATH> and <PATH2> are the paths for the applicable subdirec- tories, and characters in brackets [] represent optional command line menu interface letters (for registered users). Do not type the "<" and ">" characters or the bracket [] characters. Registered users can consult the "Command Line Menu Operation" section for instruc- tions on how to automate and bypass the opening menu. Press <ENTER> after typing all of the required command line information. Set Ups 1,2,4,&7: NAMEDROP filename [F][L][S][N][U][X][X] Set Up 3: NAMEDROP B:\filename [F][L][S][N][U][X][X] Set Up 5: NAMEDROP <PATH1>\filename [F][L][S][N][U][X][X] Set Up 6: <PATH1>\NAMEDROP filename [F][L][S][N][U][X][X] At this point the program will load and commence. If there is a problem with the filename extension or if either the NAMEDROP.DAT file or the download file cannot be found, then the program will produce an error message and stop. See Appendix B for explanations of possible error messages. MENU Operation After a few moments to load and set up the screen, the NAMEDROP menu will be ready to accept your input as to which "modes of opera- tion" you desire. Merely press the red letters (highlighted letters for mono users) to toggle the various modes. See the features sec- tion for full details on all of the menu items. As you toggle the modes, a speed rating from 1 to 10 (with a 10 being the best, of course) will instantly be given on your current configuration. This is nothing scientific, but merely a general indication. If you wish to terminate program operation before exiting the menu screen, press- ing <Esc> will do the trick. When you are finished toggling your selections, press <ENTER> to exit the menu and begin searching. Now you have nothing to do but wait/watch/listen until the program is finished, which will be indi- cated by a flashing prompt. 14 Command Line MENU Operation The command line menu option is available in registered versions of NAMEDROP. After you have run NAMEDROP several times, you might settle on one configuration which you prefer to use all the time. This configuration can be entered on the command line after the <filename> so you will not have to toggle it in each time in the menu. This would be particularly convenient if you call NAMEDROP from a menu program or batch file, where you would only have to enter the download filename as a variable before proceeding. To enter your configuration changes on the command line, type a space after your <filename> and then type the appropriate letters (case does not matter). Using the menu letters on the command line will take the configuration out of its default mode the same as if you had typed the letter once when stopped at the NAMEDROP menu. If you want a particular feature to run in the default mode, then don't type that menu letter on the command line. Command line entries are as follows: F = Subject file will be written L = Leftover file will be written S = Sound will be turned on N = All names will be searched for U = Upper case check will NOT be done X = Start searching without stopping at menu to verify entries XX = Start searching without menu stop, and exit program without stopping with "press Esc key to continue" at end of search For multiple command line letter entries, merely type all of the desired mode letters one after the other without separating them with spaces or punctuation. Command line letters can be entered in any order except for the X's, which must be placed last. Notice that the last two command line letter entries will allow the program to continue (and possibly end) without the requirement for user input from the keyboard. If no "X"s are present in the command line, the program will make its normal pause at the menu, but your command line entries will already be selected for you to verify. Using the XX command line entry opens up the possibility of using NAMEDROP on batches of download files. Assuming that your chosen file name extension is KDM, the following batch file will automatically process up to five files. This number could actually be increased up to the maximum number of DOS command line parameters allowed (nine). ECHO OFF CLS FOR %%A IN (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5) DO IF EXIST %%A.KDM NAMEDROP %%A.KDM XX 15 A sample command line entry which would take advantage of this batch file's (named ND.BAT) capabilities would be: ND JAN01 JAN02 JAN03 JAN04 JAN05 Early Termination of Program Execution Once NAMEDROP has started its search, program execution can be terminated at any time by pressing the <Esc> key. There may be a slight pause before the program terminates, as it will finish search- ing the message it was working on when the <Esc> key was pressed. In this case, the output files will still be written, but the information they contain will consist only of information sorted out of the download file up to the point at which the search was ter- minated. Normal Program Termination Since nearly the full screen may be used (depending on the size of your NAMEDROP.DAT list) for the program display, the return of the DOS prompt (or your favorite menu screen) could possibly overwrite a portion or all of the screen. The flashing "finished" prompt does not cover any of the names or other information onscreen, and gives you a final chance to look over the name list for "names found" markings. It also gives you a chance to review the list of files written by the program. Only after you press <Esc> will the DOS prompt (or your menu) return and overwrite the display. NAMEDROP Output NAMEDROP output will always consist of at least a SRT file. The SRT file is a single continuous ASCII file containing all messages from your download file in which at least one of your search words was found. If you toggled the subject file option on, then you will also have a SUB file. This file will contain a list of subject lines from ALL messages originally in the download file, regardless of whether the message had a hit or not. If you toggled the leftover file option on, then you will also have a LFT file. This file will contain all messages originally in the download file in which hits did NOT occur. The file names of the above files will always be the first five letters of your download file + "SRT," "SUB," and/or "LFT" as ap- propriate + the file name extension of your download file. 16 For example, if you follow the recommended file naming format outlined in the set up section, and your download file was named JAN01.KDM, then your output files would be as follows: JAN01SRT.KDM = your sorted file JAN01SUB.KDM = your subject line list, if selected JAN01LFT.KDM = your leftover file, if selected These output files can be read by your favorite ASCII file reader. If you need help or suggestions on reading ASCII files, see Appendix A. 17 *** Displaying Output Files *** The following are suggestions for displaying your output files: NAMEVIEW - This is a sister program to NAMEDROP which was released in September 1990. It displays messages onscreen, and using the word list from your NAMEDROP.DAT file or a separate NAMEVIEW.DAT file, highlights each occurrence of each search word found in reverse video. Individual messages can be selectively sent to any of ten user designated disk files (simplifying your message organization and storage), sent to the printer, or ignored. In fact, NAMEVIEW has the same basic "search engine" that NAMEDROP has, and there is no reason to prescreen your files with NAMEDROP if you use NAMEVIEW! Word Processor - Your word processor should be able to load an ASCII file. If this is not a specific menu item, try to load the file as you would a normal document. It will not have any of the formatting codes used by your word processor, but they aren't needed, as spaces are used in ASCII files to "pad out" the tabs and mar- gins. Because of the space padding, you may need to set your left margin to 1 and the right margin to 80 to get the right appearance of the messages onscreen. Use the normal commands for your software to scroll through the file as you read. TED - As a mini word processor, TED is capable of loading and reading ASCII files. It has, however, a file size limit of 64k. This limit can easily be exceeded (and most often is, in my expe- rience) by the files written by NAMEDROP. BROWSE - There seems to be several programs that go by this name. One was distributed in PC Magazine, and is available from them via PCMagNet or possibly via your favorite BBS. This program will read through any file line by line or page by page. DIRMAGIC - This program was also distributed by PC Magazine along with DM as a subscription incentive. After showing a listing of files in a given directory, any file can be displayed onscreen for review. Page and line scrolling are supported, and a "find" feature also works quite well in searching for single items. DOS TYPE Command - Going back to basics, the DOS Type command will work quite well. At the DOS prompt, enter the following: TYPE <filename><ENTER> 18 This will scroll the entire file without stopping. To stop the file, press the Ctrl key + the "S." Another way to stop scroll- ing is to press the Ctrl key + the Num Lock key. If you have an enhanced keyboard, you may also have a scroll key, which should stop scrolling when pressed by itself. When you are ready to resume scrolling, pressing any key should start things rolling again. The DOS command MORE can be combined with the TYPE command to display one screen of information at a time. MORE is an exter- nal DOS command (the MORE.COM file has to be found and loaded), so the location of MORE.COM will have to be in your PATH, or a copy of MORE.COM will have to be on your floppy disk (for floppy users) or in your current subdirectory (for hard disk users). When you have taken care of these details, enter your command line as follows: TYPE <filename> | MORE<ENTER> Your file should scroll until it fills the screen and then stop. When you press any key, another screen full of information will be presented, and this will continue until the entire file has scrolled by. If you want to stop reading the file at any point, pressing the Ctrl key + the Break key will do the trick regardless of whether or not you used the MORE option. 19 *** NAMEDROP Features *** Command Line Interface - For registered users, a command line interface is available using the same letters as the menu to toggle the modes of opera- tion. Additional selections can be made which will allow the program to start without a pause at the menu screen, and will allow a return to your menu or batch file without the normal requirement for user input. See the "Command Line MENU Opera- tion" section for details. Display Adapter Detection - NAMEDROP will detect whether you are using a Monochrome or Color Graphics adapter. Color adapters will get the full color treat- ment. Monochrome adapters will get reverse video and high intensity highlighting. Download File Name Length Check - The download file name is always checked to see if the name (characters before the "dot") length is greater than five char- acters. If it is, only the first five characters of the name are used in creating the "SRT", "LFT", or "SUB" filenames so they will not exceed the maximum number of allowed characters. Error Message Display - See Appendix B for a more comprehensive list of error messages. NAMEDROP checks for and displays specific messages for the following errors: 1. missing download file (command line error) 2. missing file name extension (command line error) 3. file name extension not found in NAMEDROP.DAT Escape Key Function - Pressing Esc will terminate program execution while the menu is displayed. Once the search has begun, Esc will terminate prog- ram execution as soon as the search of the current message has finished. The output files will still be written, but the information they contain will consist only of information sorted out of the download file up to the point at which the search was terminated. Esc is also used to exit the program from the final flashing "completed" prompt. File Creation List - When NAMEDROP has finished searching the download file, the names of all files created in the current program run are dis- played onscreen. 20 Find First/All Names Option: default is FIRST - If the Find First option is selected, only the first name/word found is listed on the "Name Found:" line. The message will then follow, and the first occurrence of the first word/name found in the message will be underlined. If the Find All Names option is selected, all names/words found in the message will be listed on the "Names Found:" line. The message will then follow, but no words will be underlined. Floppy User Enhancement - Floppy disk users with only one drive can use one floppy disk containing the program files to start the program. Once the menu is onscreen, the program disk can be safely exchanged with a second disk containing the download file to be searched. This allows the maximum possible room on the floppy disk for the SRT, LFT, and SUB files to be created. Long Message Indicator - NAMEDROP now has crash protection when messages are found with no apparent ending (problem with "Last Line" indicator) or if messages actually exceed 240 lines. In order to let the user know that message processing has been temporarily suspended until an apparent end of message is found, NAMEDROP places a flashing exclamation point (!) in place of the Messages Processed number. If this flashing indicator stays in place for any length of time, NAMEDROP can be terminated with the Esc key. If you let the program continue until the complete download file has been read, you will get a positive indication of a "Last Line" indicator problem, if that is the case. Make Leftover (LFT) File: default is OFF - When selected ON, this option will write a file which contains all messages originally in the download file in which hits have NOT occurred. The LFT and SRT files, if combined, will contain all of the messages in the download file which was searched. Offscreen Name Hit Indication - If the number of names in your NAMEDROP.DAT file is greater than 95 (ninety) they cannot all be displayed onscreen. If a "hit" is made on one of your offscreen names, a "hit marker", or asterisk, will appear beside the NAMES SEARCHED header which appears above your name list. Search Parameters - NAMEDROP is written so that a "hit" must be a stand-alone word. This means that your search word, as found in the download file, must be surrounded by spaces, punctuation, hard return codes, or be at the beginning of a line (or any combination of these) in order for the program to report it as a legitimate find. For example, if one of your search words is "Cox" the program will find "Cox" but will not find "Wilcox" or "Coxe" (assuming you are not using Upper Case check). By ignoring imbedded words, 21 the number of nuisance hits in your search is reduced. This is why it is important to include all spellings of the names (for genealogists) which you are interested in finding, as searching for just the root part of the name will probably result in little or no success in your search. All lines (including the To:, From:, and Subject: lines) are searched for your search words EXCEPT the last line, which is usually the Origin line describing the bulletin board on which the message was entered. Sort (SRT) File - The sort file will always be written by NAMEDROP and will have one of two formats, depending on which name finding option was selected from the menu or command line. The sort file is a single continuous ASCII file containing all messages from your download file which contained at least one of your search words. Each message is preceded by a Name Found: <name(s)> line, with <name(s)> being the word(s)/name(s) found in the message. See the Find First/All Names Option feature for more details. Speed Rating Display - A speed rating is displayed in the menu as you toggle the dif- ferent "modes of operation." The rating is nothing scientific; it is only an indication of the relative changes your choices will make on the speed of execution. The rating is given as a number from one to ten (ten is best, of course). SUBJECT Line Active Search - In the NGC, the Subject line is always the third line, counting from the first line of the message. In order to work with messages from other conferences which may have other formats, an active search is performed to count lines while searching for the subject line. This allows for non-standard NGC message formats to work, or allows for use of the program with any type of message download which contains a Subject line. Upper Case Check: default is ON When selected ON, the program will not return a "hit" unless the first character of the found word/name was an upper case letter in the download file being searched. Upper Case Check Words appearing in download file ON OFF +--------------------------------------+------+-----+ | PAGE | * | * | | Page | * | * | | page | | * | +--------------------------------------+------+-----+ * signifies a "hit" 22 APPENDIX A Ways to Write Your NAMEDROP.DAT File There are numerous ways to write your NAMEDROP.DAT file, as it is merely an ASCII file containing information in a particular for- mat. Word Processing Software - Perhaps the easiest way to create an ASCII file is with your word processor. Most word processors can read and write ASCII files, if you know the required commands to do so. Using your word processor makes writing the file very easy, as you are already familiar and probably very comfortable with your pro- gram. If you are not familiar with reading and writing ASCII files with your word processor, be sure to review your manual for instructions. DO NOT try to create NAMEDROP.DAT by using your normal Save option. Doing so will result in special formatting codes being saved along with your text, and NAMEDROP will be unable to read the file correctly. Check for special quirks of your program that may thwart your efforts for an ASCII save. For example, I use WordPerfect 4.2 at times to write ASCII files. The ASCII save is pretty straight-forward (press Ctrl + F5, then choose #1 from the menu presented). The problem comes when you exit the program after your ASCII save. When you select EXIT, you are asked if you want to save your document. You MUST choose NO at this point. If you choose yes, the file is saved again in formatted form, and it will overwrite the ASCII version which you originally saved. If your word processor is not capable of reading and writing ASCII files, chose one of the other methods available to you. TED - (Tiny EDitor), an excellent full screen editor TED is a tiny, full screen editor intended for line-oriented files up to 64k in size. It was written by Tom Kihlken and made available for non-commercial public use by PC Magazine. It makes full use of the keypad cursor keys for moving and scroll- ing, and it lets you cut, copy, paste, and print. TED has been distributed free along with the NAMEDROP files for your con- venience in writing your NAMEDROP.DAT file. This is probably the simplest and easiest way to handle your ASCII file process- ing needs. 23 Appendix B Problems and Error Messages Some errors are specifically guarded for, and are therefore announced in a prominent error message box. Other errors are only minimally provided for by the routine libraries which were used to create the .EXE file. One error which will not produce a NAMEDROP Error Message is a bad "First Line..." entry in your NAMEDROP.DAT file. If you try to run NAMEDROP and the "Messages Processed" counter does not go beyond zero and the text "NAMEDROPPER SEARCH ABANDONED..." appears on top of your search list, then recheck your "First Line..." entry for accuracy. For DOS error messages which occur prior to NAMEDROP loading and starting, see your DOS manual. The following are errors which may occur after NAMEDROP has initially loaded: Error Message Error =============================== ================================= BAD FILENAME FORMAT... Command Line Error - extension required You neglected to include the filename extension of the download file to be searched. Bad file name... The <filename> entered on the command line was not in the proper DOS format or contained illegal filename characters. Disk full... There is not enough room on the disk for the completion of the current PRINT operation. Disk not ready... The disk drive door is open, no disk was is in the drive, or the locking lever was not locked on the specified drive. FILE NAME EXTENSION NOT FOUND Command Line or NAMEDROP.DAT error IN <filename> The filename extension given in the command line was not found in any of the Message Format Blocks in the NAMEDROP.DAT file. 24 File not found... The <filename> entered on the command line or NAMEDROP.DAT could not be found at the specified location. Check your set up for the proper file locations and PATH command entries. MISSING SEARCH INFO FILE Command Line Error - You neglected to enter the name of the download file to be searched. Path not found... The path entered on the command line for the download file could not be found. Probable bad <Last Line> entry NAMEDROP could not find a "Last in .DAT file. Line" indicator anywhere in your download file as specified in your .DAT file. Check the format of your download file messages and the "Last Line" indicator in your .DAT file for accuracy. See the NOTE on page 10 for one possible reason for the error. To many files... The 255-file directory maximum has been exceeded. 25 Appendix C NAMEDROP Upgrade Enhancements Current version 1.19 Starting with version 1.11 the shareware version can be identified as 1.##S, and the registered version can be identified as 1.##R. Version 0.00 - No number...first BETA test program Version 1.10 - 1.* Upper case check added; default is ON. 2.* Leftover file write added; default is OFF. 3.* Searched file name length check added. 4.* Active SUBJECT line search added. 5.* Offscreen name hit indication added. 6.* New program speed rating display. 7.* New error messages. 8. Menu has been updated. The menu was revised to reflect the new features, and the color was changed to a white background (color monitors). This standardizes the background color with the white information background that appears after the search has started to show which selections were made for the current search. 9. Code writing and consolidation. Version 1.11 - 1.* File creation list. 2. Name of support file changed to NAMEDROP.DAT for consistency. 3.* Escape key function added for program termination. 4.* Display adapter detection. 5.* Command line interface (registered versions only) 6. Adapted multiple suffixes in first line of Message Format Blocks. 7. Corrected several underlining BUGS. 8. Menu clarified. The menu was clarified to make it easier to understand the choices for Subject and Leftover files. Information on the <Esc> key function was added. 9. Syntax statement added to error messages. 10. Code writing and consolidation. for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details 26 Version 1.12 - 1.* Esc key now exits final screen. "Pressing any key to continue" caused problems for those using screen saver (screen blanking) utilities. Only the Esc key will now exit the program, so other keys can be used to restore the screen display without losing it. 2. More specific format for message endings. The old non-specific format for "word(s) found on the last line of every message" could cause the program to cut a message short in which the writer had quoted the last line of another message in his. The new specific format elimi- nates this error. Version 1.14 - 1. Corrected ALL NAMES option bug in version 1.12 Due to a compiler error, the ALL NAMES option in version 1.12 would either crash or search unreliably. 2. Unwanted menu flash eliminated. When the "X" option was entered on the command line, the menu would still flash onscreen for the briefest moment; this problem has been eliminated. 3. Corrected long filename problem. Long filenames which were not preceeded with a drive or path designation would not be corrected. This would cause the program to crash if a long filename was entered which was in the current drive and directory. Version 1.15 - 1. Corrected another underlining bug This bug occurred only if underlining was done on the first line of a message (usually the "From:" line). Version 1.16 - 1. Increased capacity NAMEDROP was originally designed to handle messages limited in size by the FIDO net limits. A message entered and circulated in the NGC in early April exceeded the original limits of the program. The message size limit (for in- dividual messages) has now been increased to 240 lines. for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details 27 2. Error message clarified A line showing the correct syntax has been added to the error messages which appear when a problem occurs while reading the name of the download file from the command line. 3. MENU enhancement for Mono screens. Color codes were changed so that the active selection keys on the menu would be shown in bold on mono screens (with mono cards only) Version 1.17 - 1. Program compression Program code is now compressed, resulting in 30% less disk space being required to store NAMEDROP. 2. ENTER key adapted to start program execution. In order to lesson confusion and standardize key usage, the ENTER key is now adapted to start program execution when you are finished making your menu selections. Version 1.18 - 1. Elimination of NULL Search List Entries A routine was added to strip any null entries found at the end of the NAMEDROP.DAT file, eliminating some common problems. Version 1.19 - 1.* Error recovery and indicator for long messages added. Eliminates the "lock ups" experienced when NAMEDROP tries to process messages longer than 240 lines, messages in which the "First Line" indicator cannot be found, and messages in which the "Last Line" indicator cannot be found. 2. Excess spaces are now stripped from search list items. Done for more consistent searching. 3. Other small code changes. for items marked with "*", see the Features section for more details 28 Appendix D Registration and Support If you wish to obtain additional information not covered in this documentation or to make comments or suggestions about NAMEDROP, contact: Ray Cox 17410 Huntersglen Humble, TX 77396-1622 713-454-6074 NAMEDROP was originally written for genealogy users. If you have a question or problem that may be of interest to others, you may ad- dress a message to me, Ray Cox, on the GENSOFT BBS Conference (or the National Genealogical Conference - NGC - if GENSOFT isn't avail- able to you) via any BBS which supports it. I download and review messages from these conferences at least three times a week, and will answer all messages using that medium. Upgrades are provided to registered users for $2.50 AND YOUR ORIGINAL DISK (covers disk mailer and postage charges). If you find a share- ware version of NAMEDROP which is a later version than your regis- tered copy and you would like to upgrade, send in your old NAMEDROP disk to the above address along with your upgrade fee. Your updated version will be returned promptly. If you become a regular user of NAMEDROP, please support it by regis- tering. The forms on the following page are included for your con- venience. Only 5 1/4" disks are supported at this time. 29 NAMEDROP Registration ($10.00) Name ____________________________________ Phone ___________________ Address _________________________________ City, State _____________________________ Zip ____________________ I understand that my registered version of NAMEDROP is not for public distribution, but is solely for my own use. Signature ___________________________________ Disk configuration: 1 floppy_____ 2 floppy_____ Hard Disk_____ Video: Color_____ Mono_____ System memory: ___________k Where did you get NAMEDROP? ______________________________________ NAMEDROP Shareware version number: _______________________________ (appears at bottom of screen as v#.##L### while NAMEDROP is running) Suggestions, Comments ____________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ ==================================================================== NAMEDROP Upgrade ($2.50 and your original disk) Name ____________________________________ Phone ___________________ Address _________________________________ City, State _____________________________ Zip ____________________ NAMEDROP serial no. _____________________________________ (appears at bottom of screen as v#.##L### while NAMEDROP is running) I understand that my registered version of NAMEDROP is not for public distribution, but is solely for my own use. Signature ___________________________________ Problems, Suggestions, Comments: _________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 30