Prodata v1.10 documentation update


Summary of Main Changes between v1.0 and v1.1

1. Extra facilities added to layouts.

(a) Headers and  footers  are  defined  as  'forms'  -  several lines,
including fields, variables, text and line drawing.

(b) Epilogue form added.

(c) Items in forms are not restricted  to a single line. Multiple line
items can be field data or  variables  and will be formatted with word
wrap when printed. Proportional  printing  with right justification is
supported with a suitable printer driver.

(d) The mouse may be used to position items quickly.

(e) Layouts may be of variable height.

(f) An option to display the form with data has been added.

2. Display mode facilities

(a) Display mode now shows as many records as will fit on the screen.

(b) A string search option has been added which scans the whole data.

(c) Long displays may be scrolled up and down.

(d) Print record to ASCII file has been added.

3. Long data fields (up to 999 characters) may be used without special
configuration and less memory is required.

4. Totalling of data is now supported.

5. Up to 10 indexes may be created, with up to 4 segments each.

6. Filtering is generally faster.

7. An option has been added to create a sub-database.



Chapter 5 - Overview of Prodata

(page 40)

The default text length of 100 characters has been removed. All fields
may contain up to 999  characters  without further configuration. With
the introduction of multi-line items  in  layouts, long fields can now
be displayed satisfactorily.

The maximum number of  fields  remains  at  50  unless increased using
PDCONFIG. This may be increased up to 300, but at some memory cost.

The maximum number of indexes is now 10.


Chapter 7 - Entering and Editing Data

(page 47)
Display mode commands

Multiple record display

Prodata will now show as many  records  that will fit onto the screen.
CTRL-<up> and CTRL-<down> (or Page Up / Page Down) can be used to scan
through a screenful at a time.

The standard layout is always shown with only one record per screen.

The current record (for editing)  is  always  shown  at the top of the
screen and may be edited in the usual way.

If it is required to  override  the  multiple  record display and show
only one record, increase  the  layout  height  to  the  height of the
screen (usually 18).


[shift-up]
        Scrolls the display up one line
[shift-down]
        Scrolls the display down one  line.  This enables layouts that
        are longer than the  screen  height  to  be  viewed in display
        mode. Once the display has  been  scrolled down it will remain
        in the same position when  you  move  to  the next record, and
        until it is scrolled back.

[G]o    This moves directly to the  required  record and is equivalent
        to [F] as described in the manual.

[F]ind  The new find command will  scan  all  fields of all records to
        find a particular string. This is  similar to the FIND command
        in Protext. The search  will  initially  be  forwards from the
        current record. It may be abandoned by pressing ESC twice.

        After [F] has been used, whether or not a match was found, the
        following keys may be used:

        f5      resume search backwards (PC: or kpd -)
        f6      resume search forwards  (PC: or kpd +)

(page 49)
[PA]    Print single record to Ascii file

        This option has  been  added   to   the   'P'   (print record)
        command. Now, pressing 'A' will write the record to  a file in
        Ascii format. This is the same  as  'F' except that  the  side
        margin and any printer control codes are ignored.


(page 50)

[S]el/unsel
        This replaces the [U] command  and  may  be  used to select or
        unselect the current record. The help panel shows either 'SEL'
        or 'UNS' to indicate the current selection state.

        Note that in  v1.1  all  records  are  shown  in display mode,
        whether selected or not. Two  new  commands have been added to
        move between selected records:

[shift-left]
        moves to previous selected record
[shift-right]
        moves to next selected record


Chapter 8 - Creating Filters and Selecting Records

(page 51)
Filtering is much quicker than v1.0, especially with multiple indexes.
Display mode now shows all records, both selected and not selected.


(page 53)
The  switch  selection  option  (S)   has  been  replaced  by  'Invert
Selection' (I). This only has two  settings  as the 'ALL' option is no
longer relevant.  Pressing  'I'  will  simply  swap  the  selected and
unselected records.

Creating a sub-database

This is a new option added  to  the 'Alter/Create database' menu. This
creates a new  database  which  is  the  same  as  the  currently open
database but contains only the selected records.

You will be asked for  a  name  for  the  new  database (which must be
different from any existing databases)  and  then  given the option to
open it.

This provides the ability to  scan  quickly  through just the selected
records. Note that the sub-database  is a completely separate database
in its own right with a different  name  and any changes made will not
affect the original main database.


Chapter 9 - A First Tutorial

(page 58 first paragraph)

The G command should be used instead of F.

(page 60 last paragraph, page 61 first paragraph)

This sections should now be  ignored.  Instead,  press 'I' to swap the
selected and unselected records - this will change the number selected
on the status line.


Chapter 10 - Checking Data Input

(page 62)
When editing field names the  information  set  by input checks is now
displayed in a convenient abbreviated form.  It shows the type of each
field (S - string, I - integer, N - number, D - date), '*' to indicate
that the field may not be left empty,  and the length of input that is
allowed. Upper and lower limits and masks are not shown so you need to
go into the input check editing to view these.


Chapter 11 - Creating and using Layouts


The Form

The term 'form' is used to  describe an output specification which may
include fields, variables, text and  line  drawing.  A form may occupy
one or more lines. Prodata v1.0  only  allowed  one form to be defined
and referred to this as 'the layout'.

v1.1 allows four forms to be  defined  for each layout. The basic form
used for displaying records is called the 'record form'. The new forms
are 'header', 'footer' and 'epilogue'. The header form is displayed at
the top of each page, as long  as  the  header margin is not zero. The
footer form is displayed at  the  top  of  each  page,  as long as the
footer margin is not zero. The  epilogue  form is displayed once only,
after the last record, as long as the epilogue height is not zero.



(page 70)
Header and footer text  are  not  included  here  in  v1.1, but may be
edited separately and consists of more than one line.

%% will no longer  print  the  page  number.  Printer control codes in
header and footer text will not work (these were introduced in v1.03).
Any existing %% and  control  codes  should  be  edited out. Both page
numbers and attributes can be used by different means in the new style
headers and footers.

Epilogue height
        This new setting has been  added  to  define the height of the
        epilogue form. This will initially be zero which means that no
        epilogue will be  printed.  The  setting  of  this height will
        determine the maximum number of lines that may be put into the
        epilogue form.

Header margin
Footer margin
        The values set for these  options determine the maximum number
        of lines that may be  put  into  the  header and footer forms.
        Setting either  to  zero  (the  initial  settings)  turns  off
        headers or footers.

(page 73)

Layout Editing commands

        This section  now  applies  to  all  forms  and  so  should be
described as 'Form Editing commands'.  The  new options 'Edit Header',
'Edit Footer' and 'Edit Epilogue' are all used in the same way.

The keys used  to  move  layout  items  have  been  changed from those
described in the manual. The new commands are:

SHIFT & cursor keys
                move layout items (previously just cursor keys)

SHIFT-CTRL & cursor keys
                scroll display (previously SHIFT & cursor keys)

Cursor keys
                move to previous or next item
                <down> and <right> have the same effect as TAB
                <left> and <top> have the same effect as SHIFT-TAB

Layout items may now be moved  to  the  mouse pointer simply by double
clicking the left mouse button. This allows faster moving of items.

(page 75)

[L]     Line drawing. The cursor is  positioned under the current item
        instead of in the top left corner.

[S]how  shows the form  using  the  first  record  in  the  file. This
        enables easy checking that the form is correct.


(page 77)

Variable Height Layouts

The global attribute ^

If ^ is used as a global  attribute  for  a layout, the layout will be
printed as variable height. That is,  when  a  record does not use all
the lines of a layout the blank lines  at the end will not be printed.
In this case the layout height  determines the maximum number of lines
that may appear in a layout. If the ^ attribute is not used the layout
will be padded to the layout height with blank lines.


Multi-line items in forms

CTRL-up and CTRL-down may be  used  to resize items (header, variable)
vertically.

Text may be entered  into  fields  using  a  form with multi-line data
items with word wrap over the lines provided.

These items will be formatted as they are printed. Word wrap is always
used.

If the justify option is set to  'R' (in the item attributes) the text
will be right justified, otherwise ragged right (equivalent to Protext
justify on/off).

If the printer driver contains  an  MS  ON  command  the items will be
printed (to printer, file) with microspacing (as Protext).

If  the  item  has  the  proportional  attribute  set  or  the  global
proportional  attribute  is  set  the  items  will  be  proportionally
justified. As with Protext this requires  the printer driver to be set
up with the character widths. If  the  widths  are  not set up you can
turn off right justification.



Chapter 18 - Variables and the Expression Evaluator

(page 115)

Totalling variables have been introduced. Add a line 'TOTAL_F9' in the
variable list will cause field 9 to  be summed throughout the file. No
expression is needed here, just  give  the  name. This variable can be
used anywhere the ordinary variables  can.  When entering the variable
name you can press f1 as usual to select from the list.


(page 118)

New system variables that may be used in expressions:

SYS_PAGE    page number
SYS_FILE    current filename
SYS_RECNUM  record number (counted while  printing  to allow numbering
            of records in a printer). This number is determined whilst
            printing and is not stored with  the  record in the file -
            it will change depending on the records in the file.

Note that SYS_PAGE must be  used  to  put  page numbers in headers. %%
will no longer work.



Chapter 26 - Configuration

(page 162)

The maximum field length option has  been  removed as it is not needed
in v1.1.

Option to set default directory

An option has been added to  the  'file  and disc options' menu to set
the directory which will be selected when Prodata is loaded.


Other Changes between v1.0 and v1.1

Layouts wider than the screen width.  Text  that  is 'off the right of
the screen' is suppressed instead of  being displayed on the next line
and spoiling the display.

Editing layout and attributes  -  paremeter  file  not written to disc
unless something was changed.

Memory allocation rotuines have been  optimised so that larger amounts
of data can be handled on small memory machines.

PFP and  PFX  files  are  much  smaller  than  before.  Old  types are
automaticaly converted the first time they are used.

NOTE: when converting an old  file  passwords  are erased and password
protection is removed. (If file open better to close it first).



Hint: how to sort on the contents of variables

A variable may not be used as an index but 'Assign fields' may be used
to sort the database on a  calculated  result.  Simply set up an index
field as desired and whenever this  form of sorting is required assign
the required expression to  this  field  throughout the database. When
this is complete, the  index  on  that  field  will  give the required
sorting sequence.

(c) Arnor, December 1989