Loadstar 128 #12/q12.d81/t.library boot

Text File | 1990-01-01 | 3.8 KB | 65 lines

                            1 2 8    L I B R A R Y

                              by Barbara Schulak

     Subscribers to LOADSTAR for the C-64 were recently treated to LOADSTAR
LIBRARY by Jeff Jones.  It's a fast database of all of 80+ LOADSTARs and the
hundreds of programs published over the past seven years, and was sorely
needed by anyone faced with the herculean task of finding a particular
program.  Well, LOADSTAR 128 may not have hundreds of programs yet, but
sifting through 12 disks (with 91 programs) is no walk in the park, either.

     Barbara Schulak, perceptive as always, figured we needed a more
powerful program than her LOADSTAR INDEX, which was found on previous
LOADSTARs, and came up with 128 LIBRARY.  It follows the same format as the
other databases on this issue so you will have no trouble jumping right into
it.  It allows you to search by any of five fields -- issue (1 - 12),
category (Brainware, Helpware, etc.), program name, author name, and flag.
A flag is just a way to mark a program for whatever reason you want.

     128 LIBRARY also allows you to print out lists of selected programs in
a neat, organized way.  By searching, then printing, you can make selective
tables of contents which will making finding certain programs even easier.

     Each issue from now on will have an update file that you can add to
your database file.  You don't have to do any programming.  There will be a
program on LOADSTAR 128 #13 called UPDATE which will quickly append #13's
data onto the master file found on this issue.  Barbara wisely allows you to
name your data files, so you can have backups on your data disk.  The master
file for the first 12 issues of LOADSTAR 128 is called "128 loadstars".  To
load it from the main menu, just move the highlight bar to LOAD FILE and
enter "128 loadstars".  You may use wildcards, so "128 l*" will work, also.

     After to LOAD the master file, Record #1 will be displayed.  Use the
FUNCTION keys to move from record to record.  Every key you can press is
shown on the screen so feel free to play around with it.  You can even
change the records.  The final field for each record is COMMENTS, which you
might want to make more meaningful for you.  A HINT: you should keep the
format of each field consistent from record to record since this will make
the search feature work better.  For instance, Barbara has entered the
authors' names as Last Name, First Name with the first letter capitalized.
You can change the format if you want, but you should keep it consistent.

     The LOADSTAR database format, perfected by Barbara and Bob Cook, has a
lot of disk utilities built-in.  Just check out its menu and you'll see that
the days of having to break out of a program just to see the directory or
issue a disk command are gone.  You can even change drive numbers and switch
between the 1541 and 1571 modes.  If you have a 1581 drive, just use the
1541 mode.  Be careful with the Format Disk command -- it really will.  We
have an edict here at Softdisk never to publish a program that allows
formatting, but I disagree with it.  The order came about because an IBM
program once allowed a faulty entry of a format command to erase large
portions of a user's hard drive.  Luckily, we hard drive-less Commodoreans
keep our valuable programs backed up on floppies and don't have to worry
about the fragility that power often brings.  We have a CMD hard drive and
it's terrific, but the worst you could do with the format command in this
program is destroy the partition you're in.  But be careful, anyway.

     128 LIBRARY is not a real large program and I would have no qualms
about publishing it again if it were to be upgraded in a major way.  If you
have any suggestions for it, please let us know and we'll check into it.

FT
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