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DATAMAGE tutorial and WELCOME The installation of DATAMAGE on your hard disk is completed. I thought I might take an opportunity to say a few words about it. DATAMAGE is a system that has no specific purpose. It offers the capability to process datafiles. This type of data management system is commonly called a DATABASE. Don't let the name scare you off. DATAMAGE is easily the most user-friendly of databases, and requires you to learn NO syntax! If you wish to use a syntax you have your choice of two: BASIC or C. HYBRID METHODOLOGY A Hybrid system consists of canned and user-originated software. DATAMAGE is, as far as I know, the only true hybrid system that runs on PC hardware. DATAMAGE gives you the ability to organize and record your files, fill them with data and execute many powerful, general-purpose operations on your data. Every effort has been made to make the origination of software interacting with DATAMAGE files as easy as can be. Sample source code is provided in BASIC and Microsoft C. The C libraries contain an ISAM and the usual windowing, input, etc. They contain every feature needed to process a DATAMAGE file, and some especially designed to make your programs pretty as well as useful. USER-FRIENDLY By now, you're probably thinking: So, you gotta be a PROGRAMMER, hum? On the contrary, the system was designed for use by the neophyte. It is the purpose of this written tutorial to take you by the hand and show you the POWER and the SPEED of DATAMAGE. Along the way you will notice it doesn't bite. SPLIT SCREEN DATAMAGE uses two windows: The DATA DISPLAY AREA and the DIALOG BOX. The program displays all it's prompts and mini-menus in the dialog box, and all it's data in the larger, upper data display area. Soon, you will automatically scan the bottom of your screen for options and choices while looking high for display data. This method is common to the entire system. THIS TUTORIAL We are going to take a stroll through DATAMAGE and learn it's function, structures and capabilities. We will leave many a stone un-turned, a door un- opened. I'm not at all certain that I'm capable of exemplifying all the ways DATAMAGE could be used but I am sure that neither of us have the time. I'll just hit the high notes, visit the bright spots. I'll do it in the form of SAMPLE JOBS that one might, for any number of reasons, really want to do. Please follow along ON YOUR COMPUTER. PRINTING THIS FILE The VIEW program will print this text. View starts printing atop the current page, and stops at the end of the file, or when you press a key. To print this align the next heading atop your screen and press P. Allow the printout to continue until the end of the file is reached. After you press escape to end the VIEW program the HD_INST batch file will start DATAMAGE for you. To start DATAMAGE after the install is completed enter CD\MAGE then GO. You should have the program up and running to participate in the following tutorial. SAMPLE JOB 0 - CREATE NEW DATAFILE The DATAMAGE system menu offers six choices. To create a new file use option number five. Just press 5, no need to hit return. DBSEMAKR loads and executes. If the program fails to execute and returns you to the GO program you need to place your COMMAND.COM in a path so that system calls can find it. The first question is whether we wish to edit the structure of an existing file or start fresh. Opt to originate a new file. The next prompt asks us if we wish the new file to be accessible to the POWER MAIL system. If we will be needing to do mass mailings to the file we would answer yes and the program would define the first fields in the file for us, according to the POWRMAIL datafile requirements. We would then be free to add whatever fields we needed, up to the 200 field limit. This time, opt no. We will do no sticky labels from this file. You are prompted for the name of the first field. Enter NAME. It's a string field, indexed cross, 35 characters in length. The field appears atop the screen and the dialog box fills with DBSEMAKR's options. Press A to add the next field. We will use several. First field is PHONE NUMBER. It's a string, indexed unique, at least 12 long. Next field is NUMBER AND STREET, string, cross indexed, 35 long. Next field is CITY, string, cross indexed, 25 long. Next is STATE, string, no index, 2 long. Next is ZIP CODE, string, no index, 10 long. Next is COMMENT 1, string, no index, 35 long. Next is COMMENT 2, string, no index, 35 long. Press W to write the file definition to disk. As directory name, enter FRIENDS. As description enter ALL MY FRIENDS IN THE SAME PLACE. The DBSEMAKR program now offers to reserve initial space for this file. Since we will not be doing much with it, opt no. DBSEMAKR writes the definition files into the newly created directory off C:\MAGE called FRIENDS and ends, returning you to the system menu. You are ready to use this file. All you need to do is to load it with the BASE program and enter data. BASE PROGRAM FAMILIARIZATION The first menu option runs a program called BASE.EXE. Press your 1 key, no need to hit return. The BASE program that accompanies the shareware version is not limited in any way, and will load files of up to 32,000 records. Having loaded and executed BASE.EXE first presents a menu of the DATAMAGE files it found in directories off the MAGE directory made off the root on C: by the installation batch file. This menu should show five files. This menu window is similar to a lot of other programs, the flasher file moves with the up-down arrow keys, you hit return to select a file. But, take a moment to read the mini-menu in the dialog box. Press H to read the on-screen help for loading files. There's no sense in me writing it twice, no? Now that you know all about how to load files, even if they're on another drive, etc. Load your new file called FRIENDS. Opt to continue the startup by entering records into the file. Opt to use type-ahead mode. The screen clears and you are prompted for an entry to fill each of the fields in the initial record of your FRIENDS file. When the prompting stops you have the opportunity to go back and check your work. Press home. Look it over. If you see a mistake use the up/down arrow keys to align the flasher on the offending field, press return to edit it, then hit return again when done. The dialog box keeps you informed of your options at all times, refer to it often while learning the program. After you get it right press W to record your new record. The screen clears, and returns you to the BROWSE screen. This would have been the first screen after loading the file except that there were no records to browse. Now, there is one, and it sits lonely atop the data display window. To enter the next record press F-1. Don't use type-ahead mode this time. Your screen will not prompt you for the fields. You will have to move to the field you wish to fill and hit return. This can be useful for taking information off the phone, when you never know the order in which you'll get it. Press W to write your second record to disk after filling the fields with data. Now you are looking at two friends names on the browse screen. The flasher is beside the second. Press up arrow, and the flasher moves to the first. Hit return, the first record is displayed for edit. Press Q. Move the flasher to the second record, hit return. The second record is displayed for edit. Press Q to return to BROWSE. By declaring the phone number field as INDEXED UNIQUE we stipulated that we wanted all records to contain a different entry in this field. If we have two friends who room together we are going to have a problem, because DATAMAGE will reject records with duplications in the phone number field. On the other hand, should we ever mistakenly attempt to enter a friend twice, the computer will make us aware of our error by rejecting the second record on entry. Let's try it. Get the phone number out of the second record you entered. If you don't remember it put the flasher on the second record and hit return. You can print the record by pressing P, or just jot it down. Press Q to return to BROWSE. Press F-1 to enter another record. Do not accept type-ahead. Type anything into the name field, say XXXX. Go down to the phone number field and enter the same number that you have in the second record. Press return to record it, then W to write the record to disk. The program rejects the record with an awful beep, and gives an error message. We also declared the NAME, STREET and CITY fields as cross indexed. Together, these three fields make up a unique index. The program will allow duplicates of any two of these fields. If a record is entered that has duplicates in all three of these fields it will be rejected. To get all the details of DATAMAGE file indexing refer to INDEXING.DOC in the C:\MAGE\DOCS directory. Press Q to abandon your failed record. Let's work in a file that has a few records to see more of BASE.EXE. Press alt and hit F-9. Load a datafile called CUSTOMER. DATAMAGE will process as many datafiles as you care to create and fill with data. BASE PROGRAM OPERATION CUSTOMER is basically a name and address file. In an hour or so we are going to perform some real-world processing on it. But first, let's become acquainted with the TOOL, then try and use it. Might be easier that way? Your file having loaded you are now looking at the BROWSE screen. Your keyboard has many "hot" keys during browse. The function keys cause things to happen. Your navigation keys (up/down arrows, page up/down home/end) cause the BROWSE screen to move it's display. Your H key offers the usual on-screen help, and the escape key displays a listing of the keys and their assignments. Press H and read the on-screen help.... Thanks. Try the navigation. Press your down arrow key a bunch of times. Hit page down, end, home. What you are seeing is the same thing you would see were you to open any file cabinet: "tabs" sticking up identifying their file. STEP-BY-STEP OPERATION The BROWSE screen does MUCH more than merely display the records and allow editing. It shows the affect of all the operations we have done. Were we to execute an operation that selected all the addresses with California as their state the BROWSE screen would then display only the california records, and all subsequent operations could be directed at only those records. These steps are the execution of available functions, of which there are 22. Press your escape key to see a listing of these functions and a brief description of them. All functions have their own on-screen help. Note that you must press a key to return to the BROWSE screen before your F- key based function can be called by pressing it's key(s). So, just hit the spacebar to return to BROWSE. BASE FUNCTIONS In order to assimilate a system we need to know what it can do for us. This will be quite simple. Press F-1. Press 3. Read the on-screen help for entering records. Thank you. Keep hitting function keys until you've done F-10, and learned how DATAMAGE can "index" a file, or even PART of a file, any way you want it, and allow you to re-load the sorted (etc.) file quickly as a MARKER FILE. Now, hold your alt key down and hit F-1. So, THAT'S how you get the records back! Keep going with your alt key 'till you've done Alt-F-10 and found out how to escape the BASE program. There's just three more. Press ctrl-F1 and F-2. MACROS, anyone? Finally, press return. The record display/update function has it's own help, just press H. The "hot" keys have their own help. Press C, then 3. SAMPLE JOB 1 In this datafile we need to find the average rate of compensation offered by companies in California and Texas. We want to know, based on our data, which state pays more to software authors. And we want a printout of the companies in those states publicizing a rate, in order on same. And a set of mailing labels to same. SAMPLE JOB 1 METHOD To do this job in a STEP-BY-STEP manner we will first tell the program to ignore all the records not from California companies, then to ignore all records from California having no rate. We will sort the records on their rate, then make our printout. Finally computing our average, and printing it. And, lastly, we will create a MARKER FILE that will allow us to re-load the results of our work later. The label program: POWER MAIL will need the marker to make labels for only those records that fit our parameters. EXECUTE SAMPLE JOB 1 Press return. Examine the record. The state information for each record is in field 6 and the rate information, if any, is in field 12. Press Q to quit the record, then press F-7 to select records on the basis of alpha data. We will target only one field in this selection process: the field holding the record's state information. Select field 6, state. Opt to EXACTLY MATCH case and spacing. All we need, here. Opt for strict equality comparison, we want records that EQUAL the search string. The search string is CA. In all caps. The two-letter state code. Your screen should say: Object: records in current group Target: Field 6 EQUAL search string: CA. Press 1 to execute the selection if it does, 2 to re-enter your params if it doesn't. After the select process has executed you will return to browse. Your dialog box will now say: GROUP IS: and the number of records you found. The records for non-California companies are gone from the screen! Now, to get rid of the records that list no rate. Press F-8. Since you have done an initial select operation your select screen has another option tacked onto the front of it. This option allows the impending select to affect all the records in the file or only the records we now have in the group. If you wanted to process TWO states you could add the second now by using the select-alpha function again and opting to target ALL RECORDS. You would then add the records found by the second select to the first. This time, we want to get rid of some of the records we already have; those having no rate in field 12. So, opt to target the records in the current group. That way, the records we now have that don't pass the next test will dis-appear, and cease to be processed. Our target is disk data, field 12. Our comparison option is > (greater than). Our comparitor is a keyboard entry: 0. Check your screen and run it. When the numeric select ends you will, as always, return to browse. You will have lost quite a few more records. Having identified the group of records we wish to deal with, press F-6. That's put the group in order. Our target is disk data, field 12. Upon returning to browse you will find your group in order on rate. Press home to see the low, end to see the high. Now, for the printout. Of course, the print function will print only those records on the screen. But the essence of a report is that it presents only the data we need; this saves paper, too. So, just before we go to press, press your alt key and hit F-2. Opt to enter the I/O GROUP from the keyboard, then enter 1, 2, 8, 12, RETURN. Now, press 6 to examine your group. You should see fields 1, 2, 8 and 12. Press any key. Press 7 to accept your group. You return to BROWSE. Press return and look at a record now, then Q to get back to BROWSE. To print it, press F-3. As a heading, say: CALIFORNIA COMPANIES IN ORDER ON RATE. After the printer stops you're back in BROWSE. Press alt + F4, compute totals and averages. Opt to print the output, heading as: AVERAGE CALIFORNIA RATE. Opt for an average and target field 12. Then, opt for no more totals/averages. Now we make the index or marker file to record our work. Press F-10. Opt to write a marker, call it CALIF and describe it as CALIFORNIA COMPANIES IN ORDER ON RATE. To get the labels you need to end BASE and use POWRMAIL. So, press alt and hit F-10 to exit the base program and return to the GO program. Select option 3 from the system menu. When POWRMAIL starts opt to use the CUSTOMER datafile and the CALIF marker. Use plain paper instead of labels. Finally, we need to select BASE again and repeat the above for Texas. You will be surprised who pays better. After you have processed both groups press F-10 to load first the California marker, then the Texas marker. The information can be recalled anytime. SAMPLE JOB 1 WRAP-UP Sample job 1 illustrates how easy it is to define the records with which we wish to work, process them and get output of only the selected records. Press alt and hit F1, restoring all the records to their active state. To get rid on the I/O group we used for the report press alt and hit F2, the I/O menu appears. Press 2 to restore all fields, then 7 to accept the group. FINDING RECORDS Before leaving the CUSTOMER file please take time to use the find records function. Of course, before you try it, you have to know some data to try and find. That's easy: Press end. Now, press return, and P to print the record. Use the right arrow key to go to the next record, print it. Do 2 or 3. Press Q to return to BROWSE. Now, press home. To execute the find records function press F-5. First, opt to find the target record by record number. Enter the number of the last record you printed. After finding the record press home. Press F-5 again, and opt for the file indexes. Enter any indexed data from the records you printed into the corresponding prompt. The record is found quickly. You may fill any or all indexes, but you must enter at least one. BINARY SEARCH Before we can BINARY SEARCH the CUSTOMER file we will need to place it in order. Press F-6, opt for disk data as your sort target. As your first parameter, select the STATE field. It's alpha sort format is NORMAL. Opt to select a tie-breaker, use the CONTACT field, sort as a NAME field, execute. When the sort finishes you are the proud user of the B-TREE index that you just created in MEMORY. You have not, as yet, created a disk file to hold your INDEX, nor do you need to. It is now ready to use. Now, to climb around in the tree a little. Note that your BROWSE screen now displays the records in the order in which you placed them. Press F-5 again, this time go for the BINARY SEARCH. Enter OR as your first parameter, in all caps, and opt for strict equality in the search. Your speaker beeps and the dialog box informs you that case and spacing may not be ignored in the next entry, which is a name field. Enter MIKE BROWN. Hit return. Your BROWSE moves to MIKE's record. Now, let's try and find a record that's not there. Search again, for NM as the state and JOSE ORTEGA as the contact. Your BROWSE moves, just like before. Jose is not there but, if he were, you are now at the place where his record would be in the current order. Press HOME and try it one more time. This time enter PA as the state, and press return on the second entry. Do it again, if you like, with a state that is not in the file - RI. If you wish, save your index by pressing F-10. You can re-load it later, and save the time the SORT routine takes. See the INDEXING.DOC file for more on DATAMAGE's indexing features. SAMPLE JOB 2 - CRUNCHING NUMBERS To do some math we'll need a file with several numeric fields. Press alt and hit F-9 to load another datafile. This time select SDB2. This file has 32 records, 8 squares, circles, boxes and tubes. Press return and examine the records. Please find the dimensions for the item and that field number 13 holds the item's area or volume in inches, and number 14 feet. Sample job 2 is to find the area of the two dimensional figures and write it into 13 and 14, and find the volume of the three dimensional figures and place it the same place, then sort the records on the result and make a marker file. Press Q to quit the record you're looking at. Press ctrl and hit F-2. Select AREA_VOL.MAC from the menu of macro files recorded in the SDB2 datafile. The next screen cautions you to ready your printer, but this macro doesn't print. Just before you press return to start the macro, note the time. Yeah, that's right: It aint too slow! Your screen now shows the records in order on the results of the calculations. Press alt and hit F-8. Opt to place the counters on the screen. Counter 1 now holds the area/vol in sq./cu inches, and 2 feet. The macro you just ran was recorded from your BROWSE screen. I just pushed the right keys, in the right order, and let the DATAMAGE do the rest. I started with the file as it was when it loaded, pressed ctrl and hit F-1, then did it. When I had done it I pressed ctrl and hit F-1 again and closed the macro file. Now you could enter 5,000 more circles etc. and it would still work. Press alt and hit F-1 restoring all records to the group. Now the file is back like we found it when we loaded it from disk, but the numbers computed are still in fields 13 and 14. Press F-9. The write code option will write the same code into all records in the current group, in this case all 32 records in the file. We will use it to zero fields 13 and 14. Before getting into how to use the calculation function I need to do a little background. DATAMAGE provides two "spare" numeric "fields" for each record in the current group. These two can be thought of as two fields that aren't there. These COUNTERS (for want of a better name) exist in the computer's RAM, making them extremely fast. If your computer runs out of memory the counters exist in temporary disk files, and are still faster than picking through the main file. The COUNTER fields make a perfect place to store transient data during calculations. It's important that you remember that the COUNTERS are associated with a record; each record OWNS two counters. And the numeric data contained in those two counters relates to that record. The macro took me fifteen minutes to write, and the full treatment would boor even me to sleep. Let's just do one of the figures, say, the circles, OK? The very first thing we need to do is to get rid of the boxes, squares and tubes so we can process the circles. So hit F-7, target field 1, search on strict equality and exact matching for CIRCLE. Now, BROWSE shows eight circles. Press return and look at a record. There is only one dimension for the circles. Remember which field it's in (I don't!). Press Q to exit the record. The formula for area of circle is: pi X (radius squared) Press alt and hit F-3. The calculation routine. Just watch how simple it can be! Select disk data as the first value and select the field holding the circle's one dimension (#6). As the operation select divide; we need to cut the diameter in half to get the radius. As the divider select a keyboard entry and enter 2. Place the results in counter 1. Name counter 1 RADIUS. Now, BROWSE shows your results for each record. Press alt and hit F-3 again. Select as your first value counter one. Operation is multiply. Second value is counter one. Destination counter one. Name counter one RADIUS SQUARED. Go for the calculation routine again. First value: counter 1. Operation: multiply. Second value: keyboard entry: 3.14159 (pi). Destination: counter 1. Name counter one AREA IN SQUARE INCHES. One more. First value: counter 1. Operation: divide. Second value: keyboard entry: 144 (square inches in square foot). destination: counter 2. Name counter 2 AREA IN SQUARE FEET. Now, how might we get our hard-won figures onto that disk? Calculation: First value: counter one. Operation: replace Destination: disk data: field 13. And so for counter 2 into field 14. Now, might we even get a report, in order on area? As usual, you will need to use the I/O GROUP function to inhibit unwanted data from your report and save paper. Hit return. Look at a record and decide what fields you need on the report, suggest only name and dimensions. Remember their field numbers or jot them down, in any order. Press Q to return to the BROWSE display. Press alt and hit F-2. Opt to enter the group from the keyboard. Enter your numbers. Press return when finished. Back at the I/O GROUP menu, press 6 to verify your group, then 7 to accept it. Now, we need to sort it on the area of the figures. Press F-6, opt to sort on counter one. Then Hit F-3, name the report CIRCLES WITH AREAS. Notice that the records have the counters listed after the data you selected and placed in the I/O GROUP. The counters will always print if active, along with your name for their contents. To deactivate the counters you simply do a calculation with an entry of zero, replace and a counter as target. Then they won't print. Since we'll need to re-load this vital information later on we'll made a marker. Press F-10, opt to write a marker. Call it circles. Describe it as circles in order on area. Write it to disk. Press alt and hit F-1. Now all records are restored to the BROWSE display. Press F-10, and opt to load a marker. Select the marker made by the macro: area_vol.mkr. Your browse screen now is EXACTLY in the state it was when you wrote the marker. Press alt and hit F-8. Opt to place the counters on the screen. Press return. Note that the counters are displayed in the dialog box during record display. SAMPLE JOB 3 - FILE FRAGMENTATION There are many reasons for file fragmentation: Someone wants our info, on DISK, so they can work with it; they have a DATAMAGE, too. We decided to keep 52 separate customer files by state because the one file was getting too big to handle. We are moving a group of records into our dead customer file, etc. Sample job 3 is to make a new datafile on drive A: with the same format as the CUSTOMER datafile. Into it we need to copy all our records having a rate. The information is to be sorted by state and, within state, in order on rate. To do this it is necessary to make some preparations outside the DATAMAGE system. So, press Q to quit the record you're in, then press alt and hit F-10 to exit BASE. The system menu re-appears on your screen, hit return. Take a blank floppy and shove it in A:. Enter A:. Enter CD. The response should be A:\. If it's not, set your default drive to A:. Enter MD CUSTOMER. Enter COPY C:\MAGE\CUSTOMER\*.SAD A:\CUSTOMER. The .SAD files contain the file setup. Now you have a directory on A: (all DATAMAGE files are in their own directory!) that contains a blank format for the CUSTOMER file, but has no records. Enter DIR CUSTOMER. You should see: HEADINGS.SAD, KEY.SAD and CITYNAME.SAD. Enter C:. Enter GO to re-start DATAMAGE. Having created our destination, the rest can be done from within the system. From the system screen select BASE, then load CUSTOMER. To selectively move records from this file we will need to create a MARKER FILE that contains the records we wish to move, in the order we wish to move them. Our parameters were: records with rate in order on state then rate. First, press F-8. Opt to target a single field, rate (#12). As the operation use greater than. As comparitor use a keyboard entry of zero. Execute. To place our group in order we need to sort on two parameters: The first rate, Then we will sort alpha on the state. the second state. Opt for normal alpha sorting, execute. Now, to make a marker file press F-10. Opt to write a marker. Call it MOVE. To exit BASE press alt and hit F-10. From the system menu select program number 4, POWER COPY. When POWER COPY loads it presents a menu of files. Flashing atop the screen it says it wants the SOURCE file. Select CUSTOMER. You will be prompted to move all records in the source file or the records in a marker file, select marker operation and, of course, use MOVE.MKR. Then, same menu, but it wants the TARGET file. Press escape. Enter A:. Select the only file on the menu of files on A: CUSTOMER. The program will inform that the target file has no records, that's OK. Use the source record numbers, opt for automatic pairing on absolute field numbers. POWER COPY will display the pairings for edit. Since none of the fields have been changed it has found them all. Press escape to see the functions for this screen. Press spacebar to return to pairing display. Hit F-9 to accept the current pairings. The records will be copied across to the file fragment in drive A:. POWER COPY, having done the simple task we offered it, ends. This program is capable of much more than this simple usage. It can establish record pairings by a key field and move data from ALL MATCHES found in the source file into the target file. It can pack datafiles. See the docs for POWER COPY. Press 1 from the system menu. When BASE displays the menu of the four sample files on C: press escape. Enter A:. The menu will now show our new file. Select it, and browse it to be sure the data came across OK. APPLICATIONS MAKER APPLICATIONS MAKER is a fourth generation language. To try this program select six from the system screen. There is a sample APPLICATION in the SALES sample datafile. This APPLICATION handles inventory operations for a small business. Select it in the same manner, by using the EDIT option from the initial menu, then targeting the SALES datafile. You might do well to print the APPLICATION on your printer. When you test-execute this application you will be prompted for the record number of the new record to be created in the SALES datafile. You may allow the computer to select one for you. There are no records in this file. Then a window will open on the screen and you will select the desired operation from the four possible options. For your first trip through it go all the way to the top of the window with your up arrow key, and hit return on ENTER SALE - PRODUCE INVOICE. Next, a customer in the CUSTOMER datafile must be identified as the purchaser. You may select your customer by entering his record number, or by searching the file via the FILE INDEXES. The records in this file start at number 100, and increment by 100. You might also type in the phone number 818-703-8112, or fill the CONTACT field with MIKE BROWN. The APPLICATION then identifies up to four items ordered by the customer and gets the number ordered, displays the number of items on hand, and gets the number of items to ship. The items in the TESTIVNT file are numbered starting at 10, and increment by 10. The first prompt is for a record number. If you bypass this entry (by pressing return) you can identify an inventory item by it's code. Valid codes are: WL90, AR12, CW11 and CW44. If you bypass the entry a window will open on your screen and the records in the datafile will be listed in it. You may use the up/down arrow, page up/down and home/end keys to browse the file and select your item by hitting return with the item highlighted. Before attempting to put APPLICATIONS MAKER to any use of your own PLEASE read the APCNMAKR.DOC file in your \MAGE\DOCS directory. THE DOCUMENTATION In the C:\MAGE\DOCS directory are this file, and many others. All the programs have their own document file. VIEW.EXE is also recorded there. It will display/print any of the .DOC files that come with DATAMAGE. You're in the C:\MAGE\DOCS dir and you want to view and maybe print the MAIN.DOC file. Enter VIEW MAIN.DOC. All the DATAMAGE .DOC files are ascii files. You might wish to copy VIEW to your \DOS directory so you can use it anytime. Also found there is sample source code in BASIC and C. The BASIC consists of POWRMAIL.BAS, MAILLIB.BAS and MAGE.QLB. This file is the source code for POWER MAIL, the sales mail manager, and is ready to compile with the Microsoft BASIC Compiler 6.0b, or Quick Basic. The C consists of a "core library": HCWP_LIB, an "ISAM": MAGEISAM.C, and a control routine that makes calls into these files: MAGEDEMO.C. There are also text files: HCWP_LIB.TXT and MAGEISAM.TXT that contain my comments on the C files and their content. THE END Please read the ORDER.FRM in the C:\MAGE directory to register DATAMAGE. To print this form simply enter COPY REGISTER.FRM LPT1 from the MS-DOS command line. The form must be filled in and returned with registration.