
Documentation for DataPick, 5th January 1990

IN USE:
=======

This is a card index type database program, which holds 8 lines by 50
characters of textual information, with a TITLE and 6 KEY PICTURES.  It is
similar in style to DataCard, except that 'Key Pictures' are used instead of
just Keywords.

The cards can be searched in 3 ways:

1.  By clicking on the Record: writable icon and pressing <Return> you can
move straight to any existing card.

2.  By clicking the 'MENU' button in the card window a menu presents you
with various menu options.  By moving to the 'Find card' arrow, you may
enter the title of the card into the writable icon, and pressing return will
attempt to find a card with that title.

3.  Also from the menu options, by clicking on the 'Pictures' option, you
open the pictures window.  You are limited to only 10 DIFFERENT pictures at
the moment, but I plan to extend this, memory is the main limitation.  By
DOUBLE clicking on the appropriate picture, the database will search for the
NEXT card with that picture.

Pictures can be added to a card by dragging a picture from the picture
window over to the main window and dropping it in the appropriate place.  By
clicking on a key picture in the card with the adjust button, a picture can
be deleted.  This is not necessary to 'overwrite' a picture.

No searches are possible on the main body of text, I feel that this is not
necessary, and also not a good discipline in the construction of a database.
Remember, key pictures can be added after the data has been entered.  It is
not necessary to structure your database before you start, but hopefully
they will start to see the limitations in this for themselves.

Also from the Pictures Menu, is the save option, to save the picture's names
and their frequencies to DataPlot, and get a graph plotted.  Unfortunately
due to the limitations of DataPlot, only the first 10 items will get
imported. However the whole of the data is exported, or saved, (say to a
file), and this is compatible with Minerva's GraphBox, so that larger graphs
can be plotted if required.  I know that GraphBox is a mite expensive at
70:00, but it is considerably more sophisticated, and if you want DataPlot
to be the same you will have to be prepared to pay the same for it.  Also,
what's the point in me duplicating somebody else's program, the whole point
of RISC_OS is to share jobs between tasks, so that they can work together!


LOADING and SAVING
==================

All standard RISC_OS transfers but with the additional 'FILING' feature.
This is now available in the menu rather than on the 'easy to find' icon.
Clicking on this option opens the data directory.

The cards can be saved and loaded as usual through the desktop filer.
DataPick files have the same file_type as DataCard, this is for the sake of
compatibility, and for extending the different number of 'keywords'.
Obviously by double clicking on a file saved under DataPick, will run and
load it into DataCard.  Files can only be loaded into DataPick by dragging
them into one of it's windows or the icon on the iconbar.  The file_type for
DataPick currently stands as &024, when the software is released, I shall
ask Acorn to reserve me a commercial number rather than just a User type.
Remember that files created NOW may not get loaded when the software is
officially released.

See the 'Edit' paragraph under MORE MENU OPTIONS for the saving of the
associated sprite file.


MORE MENU OPTIONS
=================

Add card - This creates an new blank card after the last card in the
database for you to fill in.  Please not that cards cannot at the moment be
deleted.

Forwards - Moves to the next card, or creates a new blank card if you are
currently at the last card.  Same applies to clicking on the forward
pointing arrow icon.

Backwards - Moves back one card.  Same applies to clicking on the backwards
pointing icon.

Reformat - Due to the current limitations of the text editing in the main
body, a reformat command is necessary.  This is something that may get
changed in a version 2.  Although when entering text, word wrapping is
catered for, if many characters are deleted, the text will not automatically
shuffle itself up to fill in the gaps at the end of the row.  This is where
Reformat comes in.  By clicking on reformat the text shuffles itself
together, in a reasonably intelligent manner.  There are some interesting
features in the way that it does this and I leave you to comment on them and
let me know what you think.

Edit - From the Pictures Menu there is the 'Edit' option.  This allows you
to edit the pictures.  Essentially the current set of pictures are saved as
a sprite file in the directory Sprites, to be found in the standard Data
directory.  The name will be the same as the current leaf-name in the save
icon.  This file is then 'RUN', ie. as if it were double clicked.  If
RISC_OS 'knows' about Paint, it will install Paint and then load the sprite
file into it.  However if Paint is already installed then the sprites are
just loaded straight in.  They can be edited and then saved 'straight' back
into DataPick by dropping the sprite icon into one of DataPick's windows.
When the cards are saved, so is the associated sprite file.  The question is
where to save the sprites and under what name.  I have decided that although
card files can be saved anywhere, the associated sprite file will always be
saved with the same leaf-name as the card file but in the Data.Sprites
directory.  The only limitation of this is that if you want DIFFERENT card
files with the same name in different directories on the same disc, you can
only have the ONE associated sprite file.  No great hardship I trust!
Needless to say, when a card file is loaded, a sprite file of that name is
searched for in the Data.Sprites directory and is also loaded, if found.


PRINTING
========

Much enhanced over DataPlot!  Clicking on the print option in the menu
prints the current settings, by default that's the CURRENT CARD, in LARGE.
By moving over the arrow of print, you can change the settings.  You may
choose a range of cards, and three different sizes.  On a standard form you
can get:

1 LARGE card, 2 MEDIUM cards or 4 SMALL cards.

You must have already installed a printer driver, I think there are bugs in
the printer driver, although not too noticeable.  If you try to escape while
printing, all goes well, except possibly the escape condition is still
enabled.  Other packages from Acorn suffer this fate as well, so I presume
that it is not my fault. I could cancel the escape condition myself, but
have chosen not to do so. If you get this problem, type <f12> to get the OS
* prompt and then press RETURN to go back to the desktop, this cures
everything.

It is no good trying to drop a data_file onto the printer driver, as this
will, if you wish, printout the data as ascii text, but not as a card.  I
may work on this.  It's a matter of deciding the default settings for
printing an arbitrary data file.


BUGS:
=====

Mostly ironed out, I hope! I know about most of them, maybe you can comment
on any that you find!  I hope it doesn't crash on you to often.  Most of the
features have now been implemented. (?)

The data transfer to other packages uses <Wimp$Scrap>, I know it's rather
clumsy, but what do you expect for the price (?)  I may use the
RAM_Transfer in future releases.

The program includes an error handler for times when: the disc is full, bad
path names etc., ie. errors outside the control of the programmer.  When
these occur the error is reported, and by clicking on the OK icon, control
should be passed back to the user without any major hiccup.  I hope that
you do not get into a recursive problem when the error box will not cancel.
It should also be pointed out that; in pre-release versions, 'untrapped'
errors contain error numbers and line numbers of where they occurred.  This
is so that beta-testers can report back to me, PRECISELY what the error was,
where it occurred plus how and when it occurred.  Such verbosity will be
removed in official releases.


FEATURES ?
==========

The text handling is something to be played with!

The Title field must be entered in capitals only.  This occurs automatically
anyway.  This makes searching easier and doesn't allow pupils to mix cases
when searching.  A case-insensitive search would be too slow.

If you try to quit after making some modifications, it may do so without
warning you first.  This will happen if you edit a Title icon with the
CapsLock on.  Fairly trivial, but worth pointing out to you before somebody
points it out to me.  I doubt you will ever lose much data.  Don't expect
the modified icon in the 'File' window to get updated until you have done a
'filing' operation.  This maybe moving to another card, saving the data etc.
I can't see anyone worrying about this.

This is almost finished, but I would be grateful of any feedback so that
SMALL changes can be implemented.



Yours, Gary Atkinson.

Kudlian Soft

Version no. 1.01  Out to Warwickshire Trial Schools
Version no. 1.02  ?
Version no. 1.03 - BETT demo
