From the Editor's Desk
Dear
Member,
We are back
on track with the publishing of our newsletters. Those members who have been
with us from the beginning should by now have a nice collection of newsletters
(and software). In fact, this newsletter would have been with you two weeks
earlier were it not for the Comrades (I managed only a 9:56 but ran up all of
Pollies and finished the last 6 K's in less than 25 minutes!). Thank you,
Natalians, for the incredible support and hospitality - you're an incredible
bunch!
I also
finished my MIS honours TR (survey of SA expert systems) so that takes some
pressure off my back and should hopefully leave some more time for the JSE!
Look forward to a new catalogue and more software in the coming months.
Quite a
number of members (membership numbers smaller than 6300) are due to renew their
membership - only R 32 if you do it within the next two weeks. Do it NOW before
you forget - we cannot send out reminders (too expensive); so you may loose out
on the next newsletters and catalogues! Refer to page 42 for our full fee
structure.
Enjoy
reading and thanks again for your continued support.
Jean-Paul,
Eva, Anneke & Jonathan; Farah-Deebah & Albertina.
Contents
How Not to Break It
A guide to PC maintenance 2
An Open Letter to Shareware Authors
How to write good and
profitable shareware 6
Programming Corner: Soundex Algorithms
Principles and dBase & C
examples 9
Gems from the Computer Literature
Humorous extracts from PC
magazines 15
The Library Pages
Additions to the JSE software
library 22
HOW NOT TO BREAK IT
A Guide to Maintaining Your PC
By Arthur E.Barker, Jr.
AAA Computer Repair.
Preventing expensive repairs
is not difficult, but it does require constant attention to problems, and
resolving them as quickly as possible. The main sources of problems with
electronic equipment are heat, vibration, surges, dust, and operator
malfunction.
Heat is a real enemy of
electronic equipment. The life of silicon components is inversely proportional
to their operating temperature. By keeping it cool, you save money. Look over
your equipment; notice the cooling vents. It is wise to keep them free from
anything that will block airflow. A good three or four inches is necessary for
good circulation. Don't place papers or books on top of a monitor, as most have
vents on top.
A fan is often used to force
air into or out of an enclosure to reduce heat build-up. This aids in reducing
package size by allowing less room for airflow, but heat build-up will
drastically increase if the fan were to malfunction. It is a very bad idea to
use equipment if this happens, as some other component will overheat and fail
very rapidly. Fans also cause increased dust buildup, which blocks the airflow,
and causes mechanical problems. One way to eliminate the dust problem is to
install a fan filter. This will eliminate almost all of the dust, but if not
cleaned very often the filter will clog up with dust and shut off airflow.
Cleaning the filter daily would be a good idea. Fans also make noise, and their
vibrations can cause mechanical problems.
Dust is usually an easy
problem to overcome. A plastic sheet available at any hardware store for a
dollar makes an excellent dust cover. One size fits all. A little overhang is acceptable,
although possibly not appealing. For a higher price dust covers are available
for most brands of computers. Dust covers also prevent liquid spills.
Surges can be devastating to
electronic equipment. They can originate on the power line, the phone line, or
from local electrostatic sources. Surge suppressors are available for the power
lines and are well worth the money. Surges can originate on the ground line as
well; so unplugging equipment is the only sure way to prevent damage. The
ground line is connected even with power off. Controlling static electricity
can be a problem. The best solution is not to use equipment on a carpet. If
this is not possible static mats are available, though expensive. Static sprays
are inexpensive and effective if used regularly. Wrist straps, heel clips and
other devices are nice to have, but get the spray first. The pump style is more
cost effective than the aerosol can.
Vibration is a very easy
problem to cure if your system is not portable. Just put it somewhere and leave
it there. Moving a computer around is a sure way to cause a cable or board to
loosen.
Hard disk drives are very
sensitive to vibration, especially sudden shocks. Always "ship" the
heads of a hard disk before shutting it off. You may destroy your hard disk if
you do not. Never move the drive with power applied. Not even an inch. If you
must move a hard disk system, ship the head first on the drive, shut it off,
then wait for the drive to stop spinning (30 seconds or so). When you move it
use two people, be careful, and set it down gently. Opening the sealed cover on
a hard disk outside of a class 100 clean room will destroy the drive.
Operator malfunction is
usually caused by communications breakdown between the operator and the
manuals. (Remember the manuals? Those dusty books on the shelf!?) Reading your
manual will tell you all kinds of neat things about your equipment. Some of
them were written by programmers so they are bound to be confusing. Figure out
what you can and see if the rest is important. Don't forget to check for the
errata sheet and make corrections in your manual. Other sources of operator
malfunction are take-apart-itis, cola-in-a-keyboard, and the canine-cable-chew
syndrome.
Printers tend to be a
maintenance headache. The problem is dust caused by paper lint, and vibration
caused by its mechanics. Cleaning out the dust is not difficult and aerosol
cans of compressed air are quite useful for this purpose. The old ink can be removed
with denatured alcohol obtainable at most pharmacies.
Most dot matrix printers
require lubricating ink to prevent printhead failure. Use of standard
typewriter ribbons should be avoided in matrix printers for this reason.
Daisy wheel printers do not
require lubricating ribbons, although care should be used while installing the
ribbon to prevent it from being fed between the daisy wheel petals. Check your
manual for proper ribbon installation. Some of the ribbon installation
procedures are pretty obscure, and many printers can be broken by improper
ribbon installation.
Daisywheels and thimbles are
a very nice way to print, but they too have their quirks. A broken petal on a
printwheel will cause a single character to leave a ink blob rather than a formed
character. Daisywheels should be tested for flatness before installing in a
printer. To do this, simply lay the printwheel on a table characters up, and
turn it by hand, checking for wobble. When you place the printwheel in the
printer, be sure to seat it fully against the motor shaft.
Another thing to watch out
for around printers is your fingers. Make sure the printer is offline
(preferably off all together) before lifting the cover. Most printers will
perform a self test, which is useful when you have problems. The usual
procedure is install paper, disconnect interface cable, then press and hold the
line feed button while turning the power on. Some printers are different, so
check your manual. This self test will often be enough to determine if the printer
or the computer is failing.
If you are having problems
with your printer, check the following things: ribbon installed properly and
not empty, paper installed, cover closed, cable connected, and printer online.
If the printout is in italics, double size, compressed, and it shouldn't be,
try shutting your printer off and back on. Printers normally contain small
computers, which can remember a command you gave it three programs ago.
Shutting the printer off will clear all of those old commands.
Last and most important is
the problem of a label stuck under the platen. If you can, feed labels from the
bottom of the printer, or use a printer with a removable platen. If you can't,
see if you can borrow a printer. All else failing, check your service contract,
and pray. Never try to feed a labels backwards out of the printer. Cut the
labels as close as you can, and line feed the rest out. Many printers have
mechanisms that will snag a label going backwards and cause a jam. Don't use a
metal object to try to remove a jammed label, try something plastic or wood, or
else you may destroy the platen. If you can't get it out, take it to your
favourite service centre. (That's us.)
The next biggest mechanical
device, and therefore headache, is the floppy disk drive. It suffers from the
same vibration headache as the printer. Dust in a floppy drive is not nearly
the problem as with printers. The heads on a floppy disk drive stay remarkably
clean, as the floppy disk drive jacket contains a cleaning pad. If your system
contains a fan which draws air into the drive, you may need to clean your heads
annually, but do not do it more frequently.
Improper use of a cleaning
disk can destroy the head load pad in a single sided drive. Read the directions
carefully.
The read/write head in a
floppy disk drive must be in the proper place on the diskette, or else improper
operation will result. This adjustment, the radial head alignment, should be
checked by a qualified technician if you are experiencing disk problems.
Using quality media cannot be
over emphasized, regardless of the form. Cheap media is like a cheap parachute.
Turning a single sided disk over and cutting out the notches is bad practice,
and can cause problems. You must make a valiant effort to protect your media
from magnetic fields caused by monitors, transformers, telephones, motors, etc.
Don't forget to make backups.
Proper care of your disks is
very important. Keep them in the jacket in the box, or in the drive. Anywhere
else, and you are playing russian roulette with your data. Keep them from
temperature extremes, do not fold, bend, staple, paper clip or touch the shiny
part. Insert the disk carefully into the drive, and close the door gently. The
label (almost always) goes away from the red light.
Never write on a floppy disk,
you will ruin it. Write on a label, and then put the label on the disk. Be sure
to peel the old one off first. Too many labels will keep a disk from turning.
Cassette drives need to have
their heads cleaned often. Every ten to twenty hours of use is a good figure.
See your local stereo shop for everything you need. Don't forget to rewind your
tapes and remove from the drive as soon as possible. Keep your cassette drives
as far away from your monitor as possible. Those of you with Commodore cassettes
and a VIC-20 or a 64 should tape the ground lead to the cable to prevent it
from wandering into your computer and shorting something out.
Monitors are usually very
nice machines. Don't twiddle with all those little knobs inside, or you could
cause problems. Clean the front of the tube once in a while with glass cleaner
sprayed on a paper towel. Pull the plug first.
Modems are usually
cooperative, except when the phone lines aren't. Some are better than others.
See if your modem has a loopback test. It can tell you if a majority of the
modem is working without calling anyone. Surges are just as much a problem on
the phone lines as on the power lines. Some surge suppressors are available
with phone jacks, but they are rather expensive. Unplugging the phone line is
certain to prevent a surge.
It is good practice to mark
the location and orientation of your cables to prevent them from being plugged
in wrong. Watch out for frayed wires, and loose strain relief clamps. Route
your cables neatly around your system, wrapping up the extra length by making a
loop and securing it with tape. "Flat" cable requires extra care to
prevent damage, as it has no outer sheath.
Cartridges and circuit boards
should be handled carefully to prevent damage to the edge connector. If the
edge connector becomes damaged, do not attempt to insert it into the machine as
you may damage the socket as well. Do not clean the edge connector with an
eraser, as you will remove the gold plating. Store in a static safe container.
Make sure power is turned off before you insert or remove any board or
cartridge. If it is possible to insert a cartridge upside down, put a warning
sticker on the bottom. Always be careful when inserting or removing cartridges
or cables.
Electrical noise is
occasionally a problem. Most common is a computer messing up someone else's TV
set. If this happens, a noise filter attached to the computer power line will
usually cure it.
An open letter to Shareware Authors
by Dan Moore
User-supported software is,
unfortunately, often thought of as belonging to the public domain. After all,
shareware authors are assuming a risk when making their products available
through public distribution channels, since it co-exists with true
public-domain software. And, unfortunately, there is some devious enjoyment
about getting something for nothing.
Interestingly, legitimate
businesses that produce and/or market personal computer software have learned a
lot from shareware: good products need not cost a lot. As a result, a number of
excellent commercially-distributed software packages are competing with
available shareware as far as price is concerned. Of course, the reverse is
also true: shareware authors realized that professional marketing, advertising,
and distribution often yields better financial results than any honour
system--they went commercial. PC-File, PC-Write, and PC-Outline, Automenu, and
ARC, just to name a few, are such products.
What makes the difference
between a product that sells and one that does not? What does the potential
buyer expect of shareware? What specific attributes of a software package will
compel him to send in his contribution, and which others will cause him not to?
Here are a few observations.
Functionality obviously ranks
high on the list. After all, I download a program because it supposedly
performs a function which I have a need for. Does it do what it is supposed to,
and does it do it well? Has it been thoroughly tested against most hardware and
software configurations and can it be configured to run in various
environments? Has it been circulated among users' groups and has their input
been taken into consideration? What would you think if the documentation read
"Use caution....some programs will trash you royally when attempting
to....". Would anyone in their right mind use anything that could
"trash you royally"?
Does the program have an
intuitive human interface, or does the user have to read the documentation each
time he wants to perform a trivial function? Some shareware which is otherwise
outstanding requires incredible convolutions to perform the simplest tasks.
Again, the product should be tested by a large number of people other than its
author. Anyone who has ever written a program knows that your personal opinion
is always biased in favour of your brainchild. In fact, you may have to make
significant changes to a program--even going as far as completely re-writing
it-- before it can gain acceptance.
Bugs are deadly, especially
in shareware. Since the user didn't have to pay for it until satisfied, not
only will they not use the product, but they will quickly share their feelings
about it--ie, on bulletin boards, one of the quickest and most effective
implementations of electronic grapevine--. This again reinforces the need for
testing the product as much as possible prior to formal release. Don't get
greedy until you are reasonably sure that it works.
Do not partially implement
features or even give a hint that new ones will become available in future
releases of the product unless you already have an unblemished reputation and a
loyal following. People won't pay for what they have; they will just wait for
the next set of goodies. Some shareware products out there have literally gone
through dozens of releases in a few months, each one bringing forth new
features or correcting errors. There is no way you can build user trust unless
the product you are peddling is reasonably stable. I have personally given up
on half a dozen shareware products that went through monthly updates
--regardless of their usefulness--. As with the boy who cried wolf, this will
quickly damage your credibility and could permanently affect your reputation.
Do not cripple your product
or its documentation in any way. Doing so goes directly against the spirit of
shareware since all you have released is a purposely limited demonstration copy
of your product. People will no more pay for that than for demo copies of bona
fide commercial software.
Although this is somewhat
controversial, there is some question as to the usefulness and purpose of a
logo screen which asks for a monetary contribution, especially when this is a
permanent fixture of your program. A much better method is to have a copyright
notice and an optional display of the shareware motto (ie, option "P"
for program information). Be assured that hackers will go to work immediately
to remove that display from your program and replace it with a public domain
notice. Since we're on the subject of logos, remember that your "Welcome
Screen" is the first thing the user sees; use wisdom in designing it.
Jumping right into the program may be an indication that it was put together
quickly without concern for cosmetic detail. WHAT you display on your logo
screen can also detract from the overall value of the program. A skull and
crossbones, for example, may not be well suited for an otherwise serious
program and is revealing of the author's playful nature. Some people may never
get past your opening screen....
Online help is a very nice
feature which has been adopted by most commercial software and is slowly
finding its way into Shareware. Even better is context-sensitive help which
takes into account what you were doing at the time you invoked the help
function.
Cosmetic appearance may or
may not be a concern depending on what the program does. Use of color,
graphics, even as rudimentary as box-drawing characters, can add to the
attractiveness of a program. It also increases the user's confidence in the
program's author. Spending the extra time to make it look good--besides working
good--indicates care and craftsmanship.
Documentation and other
textual information which are part of the product are extremely important and
often overlooked. Some absolutely outstanding products never made it because of
lousy documentation, while others with fewer features made it because its
documentation was well above par. An awful lot of people who are true
programming geniuses just cannot express themselves very well in writing, and
vice-versa, although there are exceptions. A good recommendation would be to
seek qualified help in developing good, complete, and readable documentation.
Don't forget to run it through a spelling checker and submit it to beta testing
also. Of course, this also applies to the help screen or any textual
information within the product itself. Street talk in software documentation is
not desirable and unfortunately lends an amateurish flavour to the product. An
interesting fact is that successful shareware authors have spent a significant
portion of their time developing good, understandable, and readable
documentation.
Last, but certainly not
least, are the administrative and support responsibilities which go right along
with selling a product. From a legal standpoint, accepting remuneration for any
type of product or service makes you a business. If a big corporation decides
to buy your product, you may be faced with far more demands for non-productive
time than you can handle. If you state that you will provide support once a
contribution is received, you must be prepared to do so. This means maintaining
mailing lists of registered users and making good on all the promises stated on
your shareware notice, such as "Registered users will be notified of all
new releases when they become available" or "Telephone support will
be provided at no charge for 90 days following the purchase". These
seemingly innocent statements which are included in a lot of shareware products
become legal, binding agreements once you accept payment. Remember, nasty users
can easily sue the shirt off your back if they can prove that you have not
performed as stated.
If your shareware sales grow,
seriously consider incorporating into a legitimate business; many shareware authors
have. This will pretty much eliminate your personal liability in the event you
encounter legal problems.
Who am I and what business do
I have giving this unrequested advice, you may ask. Well, my name should appear
at the end of this document, unless someone else hacked it. I've been in
commercial data processing for 18 years and responsible for PCs in a fairly
large company for about 5 years. I have spent quite a bit of the company's
money on shareware products--but only good ones--. One thing for sure,
Shareware can't be beat as far as cost and convenience. Try it all you want,
and pay only if you use it. I have seen a lot of outstanding products, and a
lot of junk. Some shareware products are hastily thrown together, uploaded to a
few bulletin boards, and it's obvious that the author's only motivation is to
take the money and run. Some others are absolute jewels that could easily fetch
3 to 10 times their shareware price in the commercial market. From personal
experience, though, it looks like the junk to jewel ratio is about 300 to 1.
Maybe this document can help reduce this sad state of affairs.
(c) Dan Moore, 1531 13th St.,
Columbus, IN 47201, USA, (812)379-3426.
Programming Corner: Soundex Algorithms
INTRODUCTION (BY
JEAN-PAUL VAN BELLE).
Ever wondered why you receive
ten identical pieces of junk mail in your letter box? If I look closely at the
address labels I find myself variously being addressed as Vanbelle, Van Beller,
Von Bella, Vanderbellen, Vanbeelen, and occasionally as Van Belle. Reflecting
on how much this is costing the marketing organization, I realised that the
Joint Software Exchange is also guilty of this practice.
So when we decided to
computerize our operations a bit, I put some thought in how we could sort out
"look-alike" name duplications (residing at the same address). Fairly
quickly (through PC-File, initially) I stumbled on the "SOUNDEX"
algorithm which will recognize sound-alike names that are not necessarily spelt
identically.
The basic idea is that S, C
and Z can all sound alike, so they should therefore all be represented
internally by the same symbol. In all (according to the theory) there are 7
major categories or groups of equivalent letters:
Group
0: A,E,H,I,O,U,W,Y are always
ignored (vowels, silent letters), as are spaces and other non-characters
(punctuation, digits, hyphen etc.)
Group
1: B, F, P, V.
Group
2: C, G, J, K, Q, S, X, Z.
Group 3: D, T.
Group 4: L.
Group 5: M, N.
Group 6: R.
The following look-up table
(string) could be used:
"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'-,
"
"012301200224550126230102020000"
Obviously, no distinction is
made between lower and upper case characters. In addition to group 0 letters,
repetitions of characters of the same group are ignored as well. Lastly,
initials or first names would also be excluded as people tend to change these
quite fast...
As a practical example, take
the following hypothetical name:
Van Belle Jean-Paul translates into:
105010440 which
compacts to:
1514
It seems to be a general
consensus that four SOUNDEX values are sufficient. Algorithms that implement
the soundex algorithm are included lower down (both a "C" source code
and a "dBase" subroutine).
Where does that leave me? I
customized the routine further in the following ways:
1) Vander, Van Den, Von, etc. are common
South African surname prefixes and these I compacted specifically into a
"V" only.
2) Since there are only 6 soundex codes (1
to 6) and 6^3 < 256, one can fit 3 codes into one byte and thus 6 codes into
a two-byte integer. I thus actually used 6 soundex values (although most
surnames reduce to 3 or 4).
3) This algorithm will generate a lot of
soundex-equivalent names which are completely different persons. Hence an
address identifier needs to be found as well. I used the two first digits
(INTEGER DIVIDE BY 100) of the postal code, as well as the lowest two digits
(MODULO 100) of the street number or post box.
This way, two records can
receive a match value of 4 [soundex AND street number AND code match], 3
[soundex AND (street number OR code)], 2 [street number AND code] or 1 [soundex
only]. Initial testing of this system seems satisfactory and hardly any false
matches are made at levels 3 or 4 - with very good matches at level 2.
The beauty of the entire
scheme is that everyone is "uniquely" identified by only four bytes,
even in a relatively large database. So a large number of records can easily be
held in RAM memory without having to access the hard disk e.g. 25 000 people
take up 100K of RAM. There are even a few bits left over for each person for
miscellaneous flag usage. Or am I showing severe signs of old-fashionedness
when I am still worrying about a few bytes of RAM...?
SOUNDEX ALGORITHM
IMPLEMENTATION FOR DBASE III
* Purpose of
this program:
* 1. Store
the soundex code for every entry in a database file with a
* character
field containing the last name.
* 2. Enter a
last name. This program generates a soundex code for it,
* and
retrieves all records matching the code.
* (The codes
are case insensitive)
*
* Original
program from the Data Based Advisor, Aug., 1984 page 46
* By John
Gillen, Lexicon Publishing, 725 J Street,
*
Sacramento, CA 95814
*
* Adapted to
dBASE III and modified June 14, 1985 by
* Michael
Shunfenthal,
* 2602 West 235
Street, Torrance CA 90505
*
* Modified
to run faster on September 10, 1985 by
* Kenneth E.
Madl
* 9995 E.
Harvard, #M-186, Denver CO 80231
*
*
* To use
this program:
* 1. Modify
the structure of your database to add a 4-character field
* to hold
the soundex code for each last name. Then enter:
* set
procedure to soundex
*
* 2. Set the
code into this field for the entire database:
* (the
program requires approx. 3 seconds for each record)
* do
sreplace with '<dbfname>', '<lastname field>', '<soundex
field>'
*
* 3.
Retrieve records having the same code for the entered last name:
* do
sdisplay with '<dbfname>', '<last name>', '<soundex field>'
*
* Notes on
above commands:
* 1. The
apostrophes (or double quotes, or brackets) are required
* per the
dBASE III manual, to delimit character values.
* 2. Omit
the angle brackets: <>.
* 3. The
last name field or entry may have an embedded apostrophe
*
("O'Brian"), space, or hyphen.
*
*************************************************************************
* Program
operation: (procedure sndxcalc)
* Create a
Soundex code for the last name parameter
* (either a
field or variable) and save in public variable sndxcode
* 1. Assign
the first letter of the last name to the first digit of
* the code
* 2. Check
for and remove double consonants
* 3. Assign
a value to the remaining letters
* 4. Adjust
the code length to four characters
* 5. Store
this value in the soundex field
*
*
Modifications to the original article listing:
* 1. Added
multiple functions:
* a. Store
the soundex code for a given last name field (input)
* and a
given soundex-code field (output) in a given database
* b.
Retrieve names given a last name, last-name field,
* and
soundex field
* 2. Made
more generalized: replaced the hard coded database file name
* and field
names with user-entered parameters
* 3. Fix
bugs: ignore apostrophe, hyphen, or space within the last name.
* 4. Fix
bugs: ignore second key letter or equivalent when consecutive
*
procedure
sreplace
parameter
dbfname, lastnmfld, sndxfld
public
sndxcode
set talk off
use
&dbfname
clear
? ' Rec #' +
space(8) + 'NAME' + space(13) + 'SOUNDEX'
?
do while
.not. eof()
mlastnm =
&lastnmfld
do sndxcalc
with "&mlastnm"
?
space(2)+str(recno(),4)+space(7)+&lastnmfld+space(7)+sndxcode
replace
&sndxfld with sndxcode
skip
enddo
?
wait
set talk on
clear
return
procedure
sdisplay
parameter
dbfname, lastnam, sndxfld
public
sndxcode
set talk off
use
&dbfname
do sndxcalc
with "&lastnam"
?
?
? ' The
soundex code for ' + '&lastnam' + ' is ' + sndxcode
?
display all
off for &sndxfld='&sndxcode'
?
set talk on
return
procedure
sndxcalc
parameter
charname
name =
upper(trim("&charname"))
if name = '
'
return
endif
length =
len(name)
lettr =
"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'-, "
numbr =
"012301200224550126230102020000"
sndxcode = '
'
* assign the
first letter of the name to the first digit of the code
sndxcode =
substr(name,1,1)
pos = 2
cnt = 2
prior = '0'
* ignore
double consanants at beginning of name
if sndxcode
= substr(name,2,1)
pos = 3
endif
do while pos
<= length
* substitute
code number for letter of name
cnum =
substr(numbr,at(substr(name,pos,1),lettr),1)
* ignore
vowels and non-letter characters
if cnum
<> '0'
* ignore
second letter of double letters
if cnum
<> prior
* code only
the first 4 letters of the name
if cnt <=
4
sndxcode =
sndxcode + cnum
prior = cnum
cnt = cnt +
1
endif pos
<= 4
endif cnum
<> prior
else
prior = '0'
endif cnum
<> 0
pos = pos +
1
enddo
* check for
soundex code length less than 4
do while
len(sndxcode) < 4
sndxcode =
sndxcode + '0'
enddo
return
SOUNDEX ALGORITHM
IMPLEMENTATION FOR "C"
/****************************************************************
* SOUNDEX ALGORITHM in C
*
* The basic Algorithm source is taken from
* EDN Nov. 14, 1985 pg. 36.
*
* As a test Those in Illinois will find that the
* first group of numbers in their drivers license
* number is the soundex number for their last name.
*
* RHW PC-IBBS ID. #1230
*
****************************************************************/
char (*soundex(out_pntr,
in_pntr))
char *in_pntr;
char *out_pntr;
{
extern char get_scode();
char ch,last_ch;
int count = 0;
strcpy(out_pntr,"0000"); /* Pre-fill output string for */
/*
error and trailing zeros. */
*out_pntr = toupper(*in_pntr); /* Copy first letter */
last_ch = get_scode(*in_pntr); /* code of the first letter */
/*
for the first 'double-letter */
/*
check. */
/*
Loop on input letters until */
/*
end of input (null) or output */
/*
letter code count = 3 */
while( (ch = get_scode(*(++in_pntr)) ) && (count
< 3) )
{
if( (ch != '0') && (ch != last_ch) ) /* if not
skipped or double */
*(out_pntr+(++count)) = ch; /* letter, copy
to output */
last_ch = ch; /*
save code of last input letter for */
/* next double-letter
check */
}
return(out_pntr); /*
pointer to input string */
}
char get_scode(ch)
char ch;
{
/*
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ */
/*
:::::::::::::::::::::::::: */
static char soundex_map[] =
"01230120022455012623010202";
/* If alpha, map input letter to soundex code. If not,
return 0 */
if( !isalpha(ch) ) /*error
if not alpha */
return(0);
else
return(soundex_map[(toupper(ch) - 'A')] );
}
#include <ctype.h>
main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
char *code[10];
int i;
if(argc == 1) /* No arguments, give usage */
{
printf("\nUsage: soundex (name) (...)\n");
exit(1);
}
for(i = 1; i < argc; i++)
{
soundex(code, argv[i]) ;
printf("The Soundex Code for \"%s\" is:
%s\n", argv[i],code);
}
exit(0);
}
Final Note from the Editor
(who always has the last word):
My FNMakeSoundex
implementation in dirty (Turbo-)BASIC is obviously only about 10 lines of code,
which worked (almost) first time around. I'll leave that one for you to figure
out, but try to do it in less than 4 lines of 80 characters - Okay?
GEMS FROM THE COMPUTER LITERATURE
WHEN A WINDOWS
PROGRAMMER DIES
A Windows programmer died and
went to the place where they figure out n you go to Heaven or Hell. The guy was
asked if he'd like to see Heaven and Hell before he made his choice.
Sure," he said.
So an angel guided him to a
place with a beach, volleyball, lots of women, liquor, rock'n roll, and
everyone was having a generally great time. "Wow!" he exclaimed. That
was great! Was that Heaven?"
"Nope," said the
angel.'That was Hell. Want to see Heaven?'
Sure!' So the angel took him
to another place. This time there were a bunch of senior citizens sitting in a
park playing bingo and feeding pigeons.
This is Heaven,' said the
angel.
'I'll take Hell,' he said
without hesitation. instantly he found himself immersed in seething lava, his
clothes and hair being burnt from his body.
"Where's the beach? The
women? The liquor?" he screamed frantically as the heat began to overcome
him.
"That was the demo,'
replied the angel.
[Multimedia Computing & Presentations July 16 1990 v2
n9 p12(1)]
COMPUTER JUNKIE
QUOTIENT: TEST YOURSELF
This week, I decided to give
you a formula that calculates your "computer junkie quotient." It's
of absolutely no scientific value but it's a bit of fun to work out.
While I was designing the
formula I realised that demographers and sociologists and advertisers already
have a method of classifying us according to education, income, social position
and so on. Perhaps we should take the ball and design a real designation system
for people involved in computers. What a boon to the advertisers -- I can hear
them saying "... and this campaign is aimed squarely at the 0011,0111,1000
group, with a bit of scatter onto the 0111,0111,1000s."
I might throw this one over
to you for a bit of feedback. Do we need a classification system like this?
What would we look for and how would we denote it? Who would be the final
arbiter? Where do I complain about my grading?
To get you thinking, how
about these factors:
Position: (User, high-level
users, supporter, manager)
Purchasing: (User, user with
some purchasing, purchaser on instructions, purchaser and decider, decider but
not purchaser)
Type of system used:
(Mainframe, mini, terminal, workstation, PC, Mac)
Budget: (0 to $5k, to $20k,
to $100k, to $500k, above $500k)
Stubborn-ness: (Only using
present system until it gets stolen, doesn't care what system, likes current
system, will only swap for big bribe, already works for IBM so is highly
unlikely to buy Epsons)
Attitude to salespeople:
(Likes to party, will give 3 minutes, what do I get?, go away, have that man
shot)
Attitude to advertising:
(likes lots of mail, likes cartoons, likes free gifts that you mail away for,
ignores ads, hates ads, never buys a product unless he's never seen an ad for
it)
Got the idea? Of course, I
only expect you A2BC44s to be interested! So back to the Computer junkie
quotient - The formula is:
Computer Junkie Quotient = (20A+B+10C+5D+5E+6F+7G+20H)
where:
A is the number of computer
screens you can see as you sit at your desk.
B is the number of computer
books and computer software packages you can see from your desk.
C is the number of computer
journals that you get on your desk each month.
D is the number of telephone
numbers you can remember without any mechanical aids, and write on paper within
1 minute from NOW!
E is the number of disks and
tapes on your desk at this moment.
F is the number of discrete
pieces of electronic equipment within two metres (six feet) of your desk.
G is the number of computer
packages you use within a week.
H is the number of domestic
applications you have committed to computer (such as a database of you LPs, a
list of birthdays and so on).
Eg.
20*4+80+10*30+5*20+5*6+6*6+7*8+20*0 = 80+80+30+100+30+36+56+0 = 412
[Newsbytes June 19 1990, by P. Zucker]
BUT A BETA'S BETTER
One of the best things about
being a top PC journalist is being allowed to play with very early test
versions of software. Sometimes I get to see it too. A well-known computer
gossip columnist by accident left his copy of OS/3 in my office the other day,
and I was amazed to see that it has an artificial intelligence interface.
Unfortunately, OS/3 bombs out
a lot (good to see they haven't taken away all the features we've grown to love
in operating systems.) Here are a few of the error codes. By decompiling the
files with Norton SafeCracker, we've worked out what the machine was really
thinking.
83 Date formula too
complicated = "Let's see. -- 2592000 seconds hath September ...."
16 Out of memory =
"Sorry. What did you say?"
76 Disk full = "I didn't
think you'd mind. I'm looking after some files for a friend.
98 Advanced features
unavailable = " I don't know how you found out about that command, but
don't use it again!"
145 Too many files open =
"How many fingers do you think I've got?"
154 Permission denied =
"I've got a headache!!!"
345 Warning, save file now =
"I think I just deleted your file!"
47 Incorrect Password =
"I've forgotten your password, but I'll make you think you've got it
wrong!"
615 Variable does not exist =
"I thought I put it next to the red light on the disk drive but I can't
find it now!"
288 Unexpected end of routine
= "Sorry, did I drop off for a while there?"
999 Internal error =
"Jim at R&D said no one would ever try something as silly as that, but
you had to, didn't you!"
218 Indent too wide =
"Listen dummy. If I put that on the screen I'd probably punch a hole in
the side of the monitor."
344 Keyboard buffer overload
= "How did you manage to hold down eleven keys at once?"
[Newsbytes May 29 1990, Zucker, Paul]
IS IT GERMANE? IT
DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK.
Like Morley Safer, I've had a
bit of extra time lately to go through the mail bag and respond to some of your
letters. Not all of it is fan mail, but there sure are lots of questions. And
I'm certainly never loath to offer free advice.
However, I should warn you
that I didn't exactly pass the Q&A column course from the correspondence
school of journalism I attended. Then again, I didn't really flunk; it was just
that the teacher returned my check with a little note about his sense of
personal integrity. (It was a nice note, but not particularly germane.)
So here goes nothing!
Q: My new database program's
manual mentions Boolean fields. Do I need to understand what they are?
A: Yes and no. It depends.
Boolea is a region in Eastern Europe, somewhere around Dalmatia and Pomerania.
It is principally fields -- there's just not a whole lot there. Even the
capital, Boolea, is mostly fields. I believe Roosevelt, Stalin and Disraeli met
there during World War II to carve up something or other, but that's beyond the
scope of this column and not especially germane.
In any case, Boolean fields
have little to do with databases, and I suspect you've been infected with a
virus. Try using Suitcase II, Full Impact or one of the other good
virus-removal utilities around today.
Q: I've got an Apple 40-Mbyte
internal hard disk in my SE/30, and I have to perform multiple restarts to get
it to mount. What's wrong?
A: If you are performing
multiple restarts in rapid succession, you're probably just flooding the
carburettor. Turn the Mac off, open the case and let it stand for about 15 or
20 minutes. Then restart it, but try to avoid pressing the power switch
"to the metal."
If that doesn't help, your
drives are probably infected with a virus, most likely one introduced by
virulent floppies. For protection, you should always keep the thin, transparent
plastic covers on floppy disks when you insert them into the Mac. I believe they
also make some sort of aerosol foam that you can use for the same purpose.
Q: I'd like to add more
memory to my Mac II. What do I need to buy?
A: You need a product called
SIM, which is put out by Symantec. It's part of their SAM/SIM/SUM line. (I
heard that the company gets an excellent deal from the printer so long as the
different packaging requires only changing one vowel.)
Be warned, however, that
there is such a thing as too much memory and, quite often, subjects you'd
sooner not have your Mac remember. Also, adding memory increases the risk of
infection by viruses because they have a bigger target to attack.
Q: I'm trying to use a
statistics program but I'm having some difficulty interpreting the
multiple-regression summary table, particularly in testing the null hypothesis
with the F-ratio. Any suggestions?
A: I could answer your
question, but I won't. Instead, you should learn to direct this kind of inquiry
to the people best equipped to handle them -- the experts at your local Apple
dealership.
But, first ask yourself this
question: "Could my difficulty possibly be caused by a virus?" That's
a germane point to consider -- statistics programs are likely targets because
no one really understands what they do, so you don't notice when the results
get all skewed up.
Q: I keep hearing about
"Trojan horses" and "worms." Are they similar to viruses?
A: A Trojan horse is like a
virus in sheep's clothing, with the horse stuff thrown in to cause extra
confusion. And don't let anyone try to con you with this cutesy
"worm" business. A virus is a virus is a virus. The only good virus
is a dead virus!
Q: Kudos to you for your
sage, germane column. How can I thank you enough?
A: The pleasure's all mine,
so no thanks are necessary. And I've never really understood what a kudo is,
but I've got my suspicions, so don't even try it! n
[MacWEEK April 10 1990 v4 n14 p134(1), Klatzin, Dennis]
ON THE NEW CCILPV
STANDARDS
Over the past year, the newly
formed CCILPV (Comit Consultatif International de Logiciel et Progiciel avec
Vins), dedicated to the careful consideration of worldwide standards in a
relaxed bistro setting, has begun codifying the standards that have so far
slipped through the cracks. In secret sessions at Versailles, convened beneath
the classic French coat of arms (whose motto translates to something about
eating cake), members of the organization's various subcommittees have been
working diligently to create a body of new standards that conform to recognized
industry practices. The goal is to unite America, Europe, and the rest of the
globe in time for the opening of the European Common Market in 1992--with the
help to of protocols such as these:
BAR (Binder Assembly Required)
2.2. Propounds an ironclad rule that no three-ring bound manual may come
preassembled with dividers in place; offers additional recommendations to make
the otherwise boring binder-assembly process more challenging and fun for
users.
SBF (Spiral Binding Formula)
15. Prescribes that all spiral-bound manuals must appear absolutely identical
when shelved spine out.
IO (Index Omission) CP7-7.
Bipartite standard recommends unindexed manuals and also suggests means of
rendering indexes useless where inadvertently supplied.
CP (Chapter Pagination)
4-56-7.7. Demands that manuals be paginated within individual chapters rather
than throughout the book to maintain ease of production and updating rather
than ease of use.
NQS (No Quick Start) X.0.
Mandates that setup instructions be included in a weighty reference volume
rather than a slim, pithy quick-start manual.
MIS (Mandatory Installation
System) 0.1. Stipulates that program installation must always take place from
drive A:.
SOFA (Standardized
Off-standard Format Availability) 1. A multipart protocol requiring vendors to
offer products in formats other than the ones users are actually like to own.
SOFA 1.1, for example, ensures diskette/drive mismatch; SOFA 1.2 works
similarly for jacks and connectors. Other standards are reportedly in the
works.
UPS (Upgrade Path Stymie)
6.7. Prescribes numerous means of making software and hardware upgrades
inaccessible to the vast majority of current users by requiring additional
memory, additional hardware devices, costly special adapters, and so on.
UNDOC (Uniform Need for
Documentation) 0.2. Ensures that no salient operational information (such as
jumper settings, basic help, and so on) or identification (such as function of
cable) will appear anywhere on a product, thus requiring consultation of a
manual that is certain to be unavailable when necessary.
NCI (Non-Conforming
Interface) F13. Demands that at least one function in any new software or
hardware product work in a substantially different way from all predecessors.
MDL (Minimum Difficulty
Level) 99.9. Originally developed for recreational software, this generic
software standard ensures that mastery of even the lowest level will require
more time than any fully employed adult has available.
FFC (File Format Change) Level
6. Requires that each new software upgrade employ a new file format utterly
incompatible with all previous releases, as well as with all third-party add-on
programs.
2BIG (Excessive Memory
Utilization)4U. Requires that device drivers and RAM-resident programs
(including network software, described in Subpart Z) occupy sufficient memory
that popular stand-alone programs won't quite run--or, optionally, will run,
but without room for data.
VAR (Value Addition Required)
7/70. Ensures that network systems require consultants for successful
operation.
OS2U (OS/2 Upgrade) 1.3.
Guarantees that IBM versions of OS/2 will not work in their entirely on other
computers. Further guarantees that non-IBM versions will arrive a minimum of
six months after the originals.
GAS (Graphics Adapter
Standard).PC. Ensures that no VGA card (including IBM's) will adhere properly
to IBM VGA documentation or run the entire suite of PC Labs benchmark tests.
CDXA (CD-ROM Extension
Anomalies). Prescribes that CD-ROM programs conflict with certain other
software and fail to operate under such "advanced" operating systems
as OS/2.
EEMS (Extended-Expanded
Memory Stupefaction) 5.0. Guarantees utter confusion in all attempts to
describe extended and expanded memory functions.
NLS (Nationwide Local
Support)6.7. Offers vendor guidelines for maintaining total independence from
user complaints via a policy of offering support only through dealers who have
no idea how to diagnose or fix problems.
SCP (Support Call Protocol)
15.6. Sets standards for the minimum number of rings, minutes kept on hold, and
unavailability of trained help, as well as consistency and lameness of excuses.
UR (Unnecessary Registration)
7.9. Strictly limits the use of registration-card information to promotional
purposes only; prohibits its use for bug fixes or free upgrade notifications.
PDR (Printer Driver
Responsibility) 0.0. Fixes responsibility for the development of any necessary
printer drivers for any purpose whatsoever squarely on the user.
NDP (Network Downtime Procedure)
3.1. Offers recommendations for determining how users of a given network
installation should pretend to perform their duties during system outages.
U (Standards Development
Nomenclature) 3.77bis Level 5.3. Stipulates that future CCILPV nomenclature is
to follow the traditional international-standards policy of incomprehensibility
and arbitrariness (as in V.22bis, X.400, and U2), thereby requiring most new
CCILPV standards to be renamed next year.
[PC-MAGAZINE, Stephen Manes]
ADDITIONS TO THE J.S.E. LIBRARY
2930 CUSTOMER ORDER
MANAGEMENT 1.1
COMS v1.1: Comprehensive
Customer Order Management System. Handles multiple orders for customers and
multiple line item orders. Does delivery schedules, shipment info, tracking,
backlog, forecasts and more! (HD)
2931 & 2932 TIMETRAK 1.1A
TimeTrak provides a proportional
display of time dependent events. It is a Real-Time replacement for
whiteboard/booking sheets. Up to four schedules (up to 999 resources/schedules)
may be viewed at one time.
2933 & 2934 SELL MORE
SOFTWARE
Designed to facilitate the
marketing, sales, and administrative activities of selling software. It helps
to plan projects, track contact with prospects and clients, track support, and
print custom letters and forms. (AT & HD required)
2935 & 2936 YOUR
COLLECTOR 4.1
Don't turn to a Collection
Agency for bill collection. Try Your Collector to help collect payments due. It
keeps track of all services rendered, payments received, and the difference
between the two. (HD)
2937 DIMANAGE 2.1
Property management system to
manage as many properties, with as many units as your hard drive or patience
will tolerate. Design to make it simple and fast.
2938 & 2939 REGIT 4.2
Regit transforms a PC into a
powerful point-of-sale cash register for retail an/or service businesses. It
controls as many as 12,000 products. It will also work with or without bar code
equipment. A customer data file maintains names and addresses for up to 10,000
customers. Generates many reports, password protection, price quotes, menu
driven, on screen help and more!
2940 SITTER 1.05
Full-featured placement service
for baby sitters and respite care. Features: weekly scheduling, unlimited job
orders per patron, match job to sitter, full accounts receivable, general ledger,
statements, and more (HD).
2941 THE MOONLIGHTING ADVISOR
1.0
Helps you find a business which
suits your skills and personality by analyzing your interests, abilities and
temperament. Shows you ways that people with similar skills and temperaments
are earning money at home. (HD)
2942 UNIVERSAL CONVERTER
Over 600 standard and not so
standard calculations at your fingertips. From a menu of 85 categories.
Converts just about anything you can possible think of.
2943 PEOPLE PICTURES &
SOUNDS 1.1
Easy to use rolodex type program
with simple pull-down menus. Up to 3 events can be associated with each name.
Events are pictures (PCX,256, GIF, FLI), Songs (BASIC, ROL), text files, EXE
and COM files. (HD)
2944 SOFTWARE SUSIE II 1.05
A computer software library
program. It is not a diskette catalog program. It will keep track of all the
software one accumulates. Tracks version, cost, where & when acquired,
publisher, vendor, description and more. (color monitor)
2945 COLLECT! 1.01
Do you have a collection? It
doesn't matter what it is. Collect! is a program that you can easily set up to
intelligently manage ANY type of collection. Many features make this an
excellent program. Disk 2945 requires AT, VGA & mouse, a version for all
PCs (text) is available on disk 2946.
2947 BOOK LIBRARIAN 1.0S
An easy-to-use menu driven
program designed to quickly organize your personal, church, club or corporate
library. Unlimited number of database, unlimited number of entries. Full
featured reports to printer or disk.
2948 VIDEO LIBRARIAN 3.0
Easy-to-use program that quickly
organizes and maintains any size Video Library. It can maintain over 2 billion
titles. Full-features reports to screen, printer or disk. Prints labels for
cassettes.
2949 DBS-KAT
For cataloguing floppy disks and
managing hard drive files. With pop-up instruction manual. Up to 9,999
diskettes and 16 million filenames. Requires high density floppy drive (1.2 or
1.4meg) or hard drive.
2950 SAPPHIRE 3.10A
An efficient BBS designed to run
with a minimum amount of effort. All aspects of maintenance are automated.
Popular with consultants, churches, type-setters, customer support, etc.
(Requires hard drive).
2951 FREE SPEECH BBS
A completely new kind of BBS
that will challenge everything you ever believed about BBS communications. It
uses artificial intelligence routines to guarantee free speech! Supports
foreign character translation. (Requires hard drive).
2952 TRANSFER TIME 2.0
A program designed to estimate
file transfer times for the popular XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM and CompuServe B+
file transfer protocols, at modem speeds of 1200, 2400, and 9600 bps. Also cost
estimating.
2953 RECON 2.10A
CompuServe/TAPCIS Message file
manager, with message/reply editor & script generator, pull down menus
& command line mode. many features make this a very usable program.
(Requires hard drive).
2954, 2955 & 2956 SPORT
1.41
Sport is a full service
telecommunication software program designed to make it easy to access and share
information, regardless of distance, in business, personal and professional
situations using PC's interconnected via modems and phone lines. Sport will
automatically sen and receive messages and files as well as provide protected
remote access to your system. Ideal software for establishing private networks
for collaborative effort.
2957 FAR VIEW /S
Hypertext browsing and editing
with over 100 commands. Uses mouse, button border, menus, etc. Editor includes
wordwrap, macros, cut & paste. Three linking methods. Also, links to ascii
text files. (HD)
2958 DISK CONSULTANT 1.0
A software package that includes
valuable information about computer cleaning & maintenance, speeding up
your machine, hardware & software buyer's guide, 800 and fax number
directories, business opportunities and more!
2959 POPDBF
Terminate and stay resident
program can pop up within text and graphics programs to view, search and edit
any dBASE (.DBF) file records. Give you access to dBASE files within and
application! Extremely handy program!
2960 AQUARIUM 1.031
This program allows to select
different fish, jellyfish, bubbles, snails, anchors, treasure chest, coral, and
more! (EGA/VGA)
2961 CLOCKS
6 different full screen clocks.
Rolex, Tweety Bird, Pink Panther, Japanese Girl, Casio, Gator and Snoopy.
EGA/VGA
2962 GENET - A BIOLOGY TUTOR
Contains; history of genetics,
the use of Punnett squares, genetics terms, an experiment involving dominant
and recessive traits, and a quiz. The program is menu-driven. Good introductory
exercise for students beginning a study of genetics. CGA
2963 THE INTEGRAL SCIENTIST
1.0
Periodic Table and element
information database. Over 50 items of information on each of the elements.
Flash card learning mode, Units conversion calculator, chemical solutions
calculator, and more!
2964 TYPE TREK 1.0
Here is a typing tutorial
program in a game format. It provides exercises by having the player type
letters and words to fire phasers, photon torpedoes, etc. 15 levels, words per
minute, online help, and more.
2965 COMPUTER TRIVIA QUIZ 1.0
Computer Trivia Quiz is a trivia
game that will test the players knowledge of computer history, terms, events,
etc., while increasing the players computer literacy.
2966 CHILDREN'S GRAPHIC
PROGRAM 2.0
Designed for children.
Easy-to-use graphics program to draw lines, boxes, circles, arcs, text, and
macros. These can be drawn in one of four colours. Once a drawing is made it
can be edited, stored, painted, and even animated. CGA (mouse option).
2967 DAD'S CHOICE V 2.0
An educational tool for children
of all ages. Its main options are Register, Laser Blast, Bug Numbers,
Applespider, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Prealgebra
Math, and Graphics. CGA (mouse optional).
2968 MOM'S MATH VERSION 1.01
MOM'S MATH is an educational
tool for children of all ages. Its main options are Register Program, Laser
Blast, Bug Numbers, Applespider, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and
Division, and Pre-algebra Math. CGA
2969 ULTIMATE SPANISH
Quiz yourself on the Nouns,
Verbs, and Miscellaneous Words first, then move on to Verb conjugation and
Phrases. Great for students who wants extra drilling or for those preparing to
visit a Spanish speaking country.
2970 ULTIMATE FRENCH
For those interested in the
French language. It has the same user friendly interface as the Ultimate
Spanish program.
2971 MORAFF'S MATHER 1.0
Mather is a game of speed and
arithmetic skill. The object of the game is to accumulate money, to "buy
things". Great fun while learning skills. A learning game for all ages.
2972 123-TALK
123-Talk is a fabulous talking
teacher with real human speech that helps children age 1-7 learn how to say
numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, remember phone numbers, and more!
2973 & 2974 PCSTAT 2.3
PCstat provides stats and
histograms ideal for many business and industry situations. Also accepts Lotus
123, dBase, ASCII and DIF files. (HD)
2975 COLLEGE TRACKER 1.0U
Designed for high-school
counsellors who want to keep track of what schools their seniors attend. Lots
of features make this a nice program. (HD)
2976 COLLEGE PROBE 3.0U
Allows the user to review
statistics and information about colleges and universities in the U.S. More
than 1,500 listed. Criteria include SAT/ACT scores, tuition costs, size of
enrolment, handicap status and more. (HD)
2977 SURVEY POWER 1.0
Designed to create, analyze, and
print out complete demographic and correlation results to your surveys, opinion
polls, and tests. Useful for both business and schools.
2978 AIR-CONDITIONING REPAIR
Diagnoses and tutors every
aspect of air conditioner repair. Nice CGA graphics display all the various
sub-systems & circuits allowing you to test each. The program asks question
then provides a diagnosis! Top quality, comprehensive software.
2979 ABC-TALK
ABC-Talk is a program with a
real human voice that teaches children how to talk, learn the alphabet, read,
spell and work with computers. For children ages 1 - 7.
2980 to 2987 THE 'FONETIC
SPELING' MENU
'Fonetic Speling' is a system of
word lists and programs that enables users to explore a corpus of 44,000
English words. Each word in the corpus is accompanied by a proposed simplified
spelling that uses the 26 letters of the alphabet to consistently describe the
42 sounds we use when speaking English. The word pairs are held in 128 files
which are indexed for use with the accompanying programs. The words are in
common text form and can be viewed with common word processors. Each word pair
is also accompanied with its frequency of use. The programs provide the ability
to translate common word processing documents from normal spelling standards to
a phonetic spelling standard. It also assist researchers who wish to study the
words of the English language. (8 disks, HD)
2988 WORDQWIK 1.11
Puts a college English teacher
at your shoulder. WordQwik pops up from DOS or any application program to give
help on correct usage of words.
2989 GRADE BOOK POWER 3.0
A full featured grade book for
teachers that creates comprehensive progress reports for parents, teacher, and
students. Features options for: elementary and secondary teachers, pull down
menus, 20 different reports and more.
2990 FINANCIAL ANALYZER 1.0
Enables the user to quickly
calculate various Financial situations that may occur many times in the average
life time.
2991 to 2994 FRED'S RECIPES
There are over 6 mb's of recipes
for Edna's Cookbook in this collection. You can use just one database or all.
Disk 2991 contains Appetizers, Beverage, Canning, Eggs, Gravies, Pizza,
Seafood, and Soups. Disk 2992 contains Cake, Salad, Sandwich, and, Vegetables.
Disk 2993 contains Breads, Breakfast, Meats, and, Pasta. Disk 2994 contains
Desserts and Poultry.
(Requires HD & Edna's
Cookbook - Disk 3174)
2995 & 2996 HEALTHAIDE
Disks Profiles food consumption
towards target weight to knowledgeably limit/control fats, cholesterol, sodium
and increase/control vitamins, fibre, electrolytes, protein, etc. Based on Am
Heart Assn, Am Cancer Soc, USDA and The Human Nutrition Inf Svc reports.
2997 FAIRY GODMOM 2.1
A game of magical mayhem. The
object is to finish all fifty levels to free your fellow fairy godmothers. It
has fully animated graphics, on- line help, save/restore, boss key and more.
Supports CGA to VGA monitors.
2998 SUPER ZZT
Sequel to the popular ZZT
series. Journey through the giant seven-level Monster Zoo, shooting and solving
puzzles every step of the way! Supports mouse. Works on Monochrome monitors and
better.
2999 THE MANIAC 1.0
A Speed and strategy game. Zap
the Maniac before he leaves the Blue Zone. The authors are offering a
$10,000.00 Give-A-Way to the top players of the game. (Requires mouse).
3000 CROSSWORD POWER 4.0
Crossword puzzles can be created
and printed out from your own words and clues. Auto search can quickly create
over 200 different word arrangements to find the puzzle with the most words.
Many features make this a great program!
3001 WORDSEARCH/BINGO POWER
1.0
Word searches, vocabulary bingo
cards and flash cards can be created from your words and definitions. The word
lists are 100% compatible with Crossword Power.
3002, 3003 & 3004 WIZARD
GAMES
Games from Wizard Games of
Scotland. 3002: Greyhound - dog racing and kennel management. Soccer - league
football team management game. Goal - international soccer management game.
3003: Insanity - a highly original maze based adventure/action game with many
puzzles. RockStar - the crazy world of sex, drugs and rock & roll. 3004:
Capitalist - business management and gambling game. Grandprix - formula 1 race
team management game. Compendium - 5 game sampler from Wizard Games. (Requires
CGA)
3005 CHINESE CHECKERS 1.1
In Chinese Checkers, 2 to 6
players race each other to see who can be the first one to get all his/hers
marbles to the opposite side of the board. All beautiful looking program!
Supports a mouse. (Requires EGA/VGA monitor).
3006 COMMANDER KEEN 4
The further adventures of
Commander Keen. An excellent 3D Graphics adventure game! It rivals some of the
best commercial games anywhere. This game will only fit on a 720k disk or
larger. EGA/VGA
3007 PAGANITZU
Another great program offered
from the people at Apogee. Here you find yourself in a pyramid where you
traverse the upper levels in search of the Magical Crystal Rose. Challenging
game with great graphics. (Requires hard drive, EGA/VGA).
3008 CRYSTAL CAVES
From Apogee Software comes
Crystal Caves "Trouble with Twibbles". Enter an underground world of
treasures and traps. This colourful EGA game rivals any commercial game with
its arcade quality, puzzles and graphics! (Requires hard drive, EGA/VGA
monitor).
3009 SHERLOCK 1.1
Sherlock is a game of deduction.
It is your task, based upon the information available in provided clues, to
determine the locations of 36 blocks. Very Nice! (Requires mouse, EGA/VGA
monitor).
3010 3 BALL JUGGLER
3 Ball Juggler uses fast animation
with high resolution EGA/VGA graphics to teach juggling. It also includes a
challenging multi-level non-violent arcade game that simulates juggling.
EGA/VGA
3011 BRAINDEAD2
Two distinct games in a single
program - a hidden tile match game that tests memory skills and a visible tile
match game that pits the player against a clock. Kids do well with this game.
(EGA/VGA, mouse).
3012 ROBOMAZE III: THE DOME
This game includes 56 graphics
screens of adventure, 17 different enemies, and its own story line. You are a
freedom fighter of the resistance against your country's tyrannical dictator
and his henchman the Mad Scientist. EGA/VGA
3013 STOCK MARKET TECHNICIAN
Based on over 10 years of stock
market research and trading. Designed to be both entertaining and educational.
Game board includes three, animated, full color, screens. 1 to 4 players. No
special skills required.
3014 JUMPJET 1.06
For those who want to blow
things up after a hard day. Shoot down planes and blow up tanks. Test your
shooting skills and rake up a high score. Easy to play and addicting. Supports
Mono up to EGA
3015 FIELD GENERAL 5.0
Field General brings the
exciting game of professional football to your PC! The plays, and statistics,
mirror those of an actual game. Many options make this an exciting game.
(Requires HD & CGA or better).
3016 MORAFF' STONES 2.1
Stones is a barter-gambling game
played in the finer taverns of Moraff's World. Many Species congregate to play,
and they are a pretty formidable bunch! This game supports Monochrome up to
Super VGA!
3017 MORAFF'S WORLD
Moraff's World, the Beginner's
Version, contains 16 level deep dungeons. It also contains about 20 classes of
monsters. Great fun! Supports Graphics Monochrome to Super VGA!
3018 MORAFF'S ENTRAP
Mind bending logic game. Picture
yourself on a 3D maze-like playing field with enemy robots and garbage cans
closing in on all sides! Get tougher as you get deeper! Supports Graphics
Monochrome up to Super VGA!
3019 SCORCHED EARTH
Scorched Earth is a simple, yet
exciting artillery combat Game. Most of the options are very intuitive, and you
can begin playing with only a little bit of information. (VGA).
3020 THE ONE ARM BANDIT 1.0
The One Arm Bandit is a program
that will provide the User with one of the best Slot Machine simulators
available anywhere. Bandit offers all the fun and excitement of the real thing!
(VGA)
3021 CASTLES OF MEW
You will be exploring Two MEW
Castles and Caves of the MEW World. You will be looking for Treasure, and
attempting to slay the Fearsome Dragons who live in the Caves. VGA
3022 CUMBERLAND TREE 3.1
An application program for doing
genealogy work. Allows entry of names, birth, christening, marriage, death, and
burial dates. Friendly pop-up menus, LDS ordinance fields and many different
print reports. (HD)
3023 & 3024 SHOW PARTNER
LITE 3.7
Simple & easy program to
develop sophisticated screen shows and demonstration disks. Features window
screen capturing, fast, smooth effects, mouse menus, PCX conversion, animation,
and more. (HD)
3025 FINGER VGA 1.10
A color image processing,
painting and animation program. Only VGA (320x200x256 colours) graphics mode is
supported. Files are loaded and saved in the .PCX format. Prints to Laserjet
printer. (Requires VGA, Mouse, LaserJet).
3026 ANOTHER PROGRAM 1.0
Easy-to-use drawing, text,
sound, animation & presentation program to bring your ideas to life. Put
lesson on disk for students, create colourful catalogues, send fancy disk-based
messages to your friends. VGA
3027 256-DRAW
Designed to draw or edit images
in 256 color VGA mode. The images created are simple bitmap images. This
product encompasses many diverse drawing and graphics related routines.
(Requires 256-VGA & mouse).
3028 IMAGE CONVERSION
IMGCON is a program for
converting images between different image formats. It also allows you to
display the images on your screen. IMGCON has a windowed interface to make it
user friendly.
3029 THE CODE MACHINE 3.0
This program provides for Morse
Code practice sessions. It transmits perfect code at any speed from 1 to 100
words per minute. Features: type ahead, modifiable transmission signals, menu
driven and more!
3030 BREW BEER
2 programs for helping you brew
your own beer and keeping track of your recipes. Plus some favourite recipes
for making brew.
3031 COCKTAIL MIXER
A database of different cocktail
drinks. Very easy to use menu system that also allows you to add in your own
drink recipes.
3032 TURBO CHECK 1.0
A very user friendly checking
account program made for the novice. Prints checks and all types of reports.
Very smooth graphics look. (Requires, CGA or better, hard drive).
3033 THE HOME INSPECTOR
Designed by professional home
inspectors to aid a prospective home buyer in objectively evaluating a homes
condition. Covered areas are: electrical, plumbing, heating/AC, basement,
roof/attic, garage, interior, and much more!
3034 SHOW-TALK
It will draw fancy collages and
about every 30 seconds it will say catch phrases (in real human speech) to try
and catch someone's attention like, Get Me Out Of Here! Great for retail stores
or jokes on your friends.
3035 NON-MEDICAL PAIN RELIEF
Learn how to help yourself and
your relive pain with acupressure, massage and other techniques, Pictures &
text tutorial. (Requires CGA or better).
3036 PIANO TUNING
Modern Professional Piano Tuning
Course. Taught by a professional tuner/technician with over 30 years
experience. Everything you need to know to tune your own piano or tune for
profit. Musical knowledge not required. Start your own business.
3037 SOUNDFX 4
A collection of executable sound
effects. (.COM & .EXE files) FHONETONE, CHIRP, PHASORS, BIRDSONG, SLIDOWN,
SPACE and more! (24 different effects.) Includes utilities for creating your
own effects.
3038 to 3044 BIBLE STUDENT
1.1
Bible Student is the entire King
James Version of the Bible on 7 disks. One of its most appealing aspects is
that it can be run directly from FLOPPY DISKS! It is menu driven and its
features include overlapping resizeable windows, mouse support, online
context-sensitive help, fast reference and search facilities and the ability to
extract text to a printer or an ASCII file.
3045 SW-TALK
SW-Talk is a new speech product
for Shareware Authors and Programmers. The library contains over 100 words that
can be used to help increase registrations. Excellent speech quality through
the PC speaker. (Requires 512k, EGA/VGA for PCX file display).
3046 PC-TALK
The Voice Library for business
and personal applications. Contains over 100 words that can be used in all
sorts of possibilities. It all works through the PC speaker. (Requires, 512k,
EGA/VGA for PCX file display).
3047 FITNESS LOG 2.3
Exercise log for use in homes,
business, schools and hospitals. Features 34 types of exercise and calories
burned, exercise history, 999 users per log, printed reports, monthly basis
yearly and more.
3048 PERSONAL GOLF TRACKER
2.1
Keeps track of your golf scores
and more. Displays personal best for each course, average scores, calculates
handicaps, tracks statistics, and more! Handles up to 32 golfers, 25 courses
and 99 rounds. Also useful for leagues.
3049 AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION
PROGRAM
Prepares flight log with check
points. Keep perf info on multiple aircraft. Airport, navaid, rnav,
climb-decent profiles, great circle planning, US VOR database and more. Course,
compass & ground speed corrections. ETE, ETA & Fuel estimates and more
!
3050 SAILBOAT RACE SCORING
SYS
Easy to use menus to update
fleet and race data. Scores by Olympic, Hi & Low Point Methods. Edit &
Print Fleet Data, Race results, Regatta results and seasonal standings. Up to
200 boats and 100 races. Includes sample database of 10 boats & 5 races.
3051 WEATHER FORECASTER
From the Temperature and
Barometric Pressures changes predicts the weather for the next 24-48 hours.
Includes Wind Chill, Heat Index and Temp-Humidity Index Comfort Calculators.
Compare results with popular TV weather forecasters.
3052 RAVITZ EDITOR 1.10
A small but powerful ASCII text
editor with integrated outlining and over viewing. Some features are: hide
lines, outline, sort lines, view two files or parts of the same file, undelete,
and more.
3053 TEXT EDITOR
Full screen text editor. Small
30K size. Commands similar to Wordstar and Sidekick. Edit files as large as
memory. Insert, delete, block, copy, move, find, replace, set margins, set page
length, word wrap, shell to DOS and more. Public Domain program!
3054 & 3055 MEN ON
WOMEN/WOMEN ON MEN 1.0
New electronic book tells naked
truths about the opposite sex. This program contains over 800 quotes, quips and
witticisms from 470 different authors on Men, Women, Sexes, Husbands, Wives and
Love. (HD)
3056 QUOTABLES 1.0U
A quotation/message program that
works with any screen. Activate from the autoexec.bat file, it randomly selects
a quote for the day. You can add your own quotes and messages.
3057 & 3058 OFFLOAD 1.1