Bibliography Generator
----------------------

version 1.10

By: Dan Snyder
855 Valleywood Drive SE
Salem, OR 97306
(503)364-8674

Archive Contents:

README.NOW -- It really is important.
BIBGEN.EXE -- Main Program
BIBHELP.HLP -- Help File
BIBGEN.TXT -- This File

Introduction:

I hate writing bibliographies. So, I decided to write a program to do it
for me. This program is the result. It will accept the title, author,
copyright date, and other pertinent information about a book, magazine,
reference book, or other source, and then be able to print a bibliography for
all the sources you enter, with proper alphabetizing, capitalization,
indentation, and punctuation (including underlining). It can also export the
data to a text file, as well as save it in it's own format to be loaded later.
In the text file, it will do all the features of the printed version except
for underlining.

Acknowledgements:

This program was written using Borland's Turbo Pascal version 6.0. It
makes use of the Turbo Vision utilities for its user interface and data file
routines. I'd like to thank my Advanced Writing teacher, Ms. Griffin, for
forcing us to write bibliographies in a billion and a half different formats
and not giving us clear documentation on most of them. I'd also like to thank
her for introducing us to some really strange reference materials we probably
never would have been able to find on our own and would have been just as
happy, indeed moreso, without. I would also like to thank Jason Hills and
Derek Westcott for all the help they've given me with Turbo Vision, and object
oriented programming in general. Finally, I'd like to thank my mother, the
world's pickiest librarian, for helping me get all these formats right, as
well as giving me pointers on how to make the program more user friendly.

Disclaimer and other legal stuff:

I (the author) am in no way responsible for anything that happens to your
hardware, software, or writing grade as a direct or indirect result of the use
or misuse of this program. Use of this program represents your acceptance of
this stipulation and releases me from any liability whatsoever. In other
words, don't come crying to me!!

This program, its help file, and its documentation are all copyright 1991
by Dan Snyder, and all rights are reserved. This program may be freely
distributed as long as the following conditions are met: The archive must
contain the program, documentation, and help file, and none of those files may
be modified in any way; the person distributing the file may not profit in any
way from its distribution, however, a fee may be charged to compensate for the
cost of storage media, and SysOps of pay BBSs may put the file up for download
by subscribers.

Registration:

I did not write this program with registration in mind. The program is
fully functional as is and you are not required to register it. If you feel a
burning desire to send me money, however, send it to the address at the top of
this file. Any amount will be appreciated.

Fundamental Interface stuff:

This program is a typical (if such a thing is not self contradictory!)
Turbo Vision application, and has many of the same types of user interface
devices as other TV applications. A few simple instructions here will save
you many hairs pulled out if you've never before encounterred a Turbo Vision
application.

Dialog Box: This is that little box the computer puts up on the screen
every time it wants to talk to you. The only two ways the
program will ever get input from you are 1) through the menu
bar at the top of the screen, and 2) through dialog boxes
with specific information asked for in a number of input
lines.

TAB key: This key will move the cursor around between the various items
in a dialog box.

ARROW keys: These keys will move you around on the menu bar. They will
also move the selection bar up and down a list in a dialog
box, as well as moving the cursor around inside of the input
lines in a dialog box.

ESCape key: This key will close a dialog box and discard the information
you enterred in the box. The original values of whatever it
is you were editing in the box will be restored (if there
were any original values).

RETURN key: This key selects the option indicated on the current button.
If the cursor is on an input field or list box, than the
current button is the one with blue letters, if the cursor
is on one of the buttons, then the current button is the
button with white letters. Buttons with black letters are
never the current button.

ALT key: If a menu option or button has one letter that's a different
color than the rest (Always the first letter on buttons,
usually the first letter on menu options), than you can access
that button/option by pressing plus the different colored
letter.

F1 Key: This key lets you into the context sensitive help system. Move
around the different cross references by pressing the TAB key.
To view the help for a cross reference, press the RETURN key.
To return to the program, press the ESCape key. The help system
gives you pertinent information based on where you are in the
program.

Should you forget which keys do what, look at the status line at the
bottom of the screen, or press F1 for help. The Status line has a brief
summary of what the keys do, depending on what part of the program you're in.
The status line changes as the key functions change, so before you get
frustrated, read it.

Program Use (the meat of this file):

The basic purpose of this program is for you to enter resources that you
have used to do research for something, and then, sooner or later, have the
program either print this information out as a bibliography or export it in
bibliography form to a text file to be imported by a word processor or similar
application. You may save your work in what is know as "Data format" so that
the program can read it off the disk again later and allow you to make changes
or additions to it. What follows is a brief listing of the menu items with a
description of what each one does:

File SubMenu:
Load: Loads a file that you have sometime earlier saved in "Data
format" using the "Save as Data" menu option.

Upgrade: Use this tp upgrade files saved using BIBGEN 1.00. It will
load a file just like the Load option, but it will then turn
around and save it again in the format used by BIBGEN 1.10.
Only use this option on files saved using BIBGEN 1.00.

Save as Text: Exports the bibliography to a text file (asks you for the
name) for later importing into a word processor or text
editor. BibGen CANNOT load files saved in this format.
If you want to load the file later, save it in "Data
Format." You may save the same information in both formats
as long as you give the files different names.

Save as Data: Saves the bibliography in a format that the program can
read again later using the "Load" menu option.

New: This is how you start over. It will erase the bibliography in
memory and let you start with a clean slate. BibGen will give you a
warning before it does this, however, and you will have the
opportunity to cancel the command.

Quit: This quits the program. Make sure you save first.

Add Submenu: This submenu lets you add any of several different types of
resource materials. When enterring the data on the new item,
neither the order of words in the author's name (or authors'
names), nor capitalization of the title is important. The
program will do all of this for you. For example, it would
convert the author "Dan Snyder and Marylin Monroe" to "Snyder,
Dan and Marylin Monroe" as it should appear in a bibliography.
It would also convert the title "The Life And Times Of No One
Special" to "The Life and Times of No One Special." You also
need not worry about putting bibliography punctuation after
anything, it will be done for you. For example, it is not
necessary to put a period after the author's name. If BibGen
does not capitalize something as it should, set the input field
labeled "Auto-Capitalization?" to N and BibGen will leave well
enough alone whatever you put in the title and author input
lines.

Edit: Allows you to edit any of the entries you've already enterred.
The program will put up a list of the entries in memory and ask
you to select one to edit.

Delete: This allows you to remove an entry from your bibliography. It will
put up a list, exactly like the one in the Edit option, and will ask
which one to delete. After you choose one, it will give you one more
chance to save the entry. If you say it's OK to delete it, it is
gone forever and the only way to get it back is to re-type it.

View Submenu:

Individual Entry: This allows you to view an individual entry in your
bibliography. That entry will be capitalized and
punctuated exactly as it would appear in a printout,
with the exception of underlining.

Entire Bibliography: This lets you view the entire bibliography as it
would appear in a printout (except for underlining).
You may scroll up and down through the bibliography
to check it out. You may also zoom the display
window to fill nearly the whole screen by pressing
F5, and return it to normal size by pressing F5
again.

Print Submenu:

Print: This causes the program to print the complete bibliography, in
alphabetical order, and with proper punctuation and spacing. It
will ask you to verify the current setting for line spacing, and
left and right margins.

Configure Printer: This allows you to change the settings for line
spacing and left and right margins.

Edit Header: This allows you to create a "header" that will be put at
the top of the printed (or outputted) copy of the
bibliography. You may use up to 5 lines of header, and
each may be either left justified, right justified, or
centerred. When the bibliography is printed, blank
lines will be ignored if there are no lines containing
text following them. There will always be a number of
black lines on the printed bibliography after the last
header line containing text. This number will be the
same as the Line Spacing defined in the Configure
Printer menu option. The header and the printer
configuration will be saved when the benliography is saved.

Command Line Parameters:

BIBGEN will recognize two types of command line parameters. First of
all, if you use a file name as a command line parameter, BIBGEN will try to
load that file. If it cannot find the file, and you do not supply an
extension, BIBGEN will try to find the same file but with a .BIB extension.
The second type of command line parameter is the /U parameter. This is
used to upgrade data files saved using BIBGEN version 1.00. A file saved
with BIBGEN 1.00 must be upgraded before it can be read using BIBGEN 1.10.
The following examples show both of these command line parameters.

Load the file called TEST.BIB:

BIBGEN TEST.BIB

or

BIBGEN TEST

Upgrade the file called TEST.BIB:

BIBGEN /U TEST.BIB

or

BIBGEN /U TEST

Comments, Suggestions, or Bug Reports:

Any comments, suggestions, and/or bug reports will be greatly
appreciated. Please send them to the address at the top of this file. I can
also be reached through the RIME Pascal conference.