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C A R D E X

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This is the documentation file for CARDEX by Carson Information Services.

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Written by Mark L.Carson, 821-A Puunani Place, Honolulu, HI 96817

Copyright 1986 - Mark L. Carson
Copyright 1985 - Borland International
Copyright 1985 - Blaise Computing

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|| N O T I C E ||
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CARDEX by Carson Information Services is a copyrighted work and is NOT a public
domain program. No modification or alteration to CARDEX is authorized. Any such
modification or alteration constitutes illegal and unlicensed use. The source
code is not intended nor available for public distribution.

If you did not purchase the copy of CARDEX you are using, and find the program
useful, you are encouraged to send what you feel the program's worth to you is
to Carson Information Services. If you would like to purchase a customized or
modified version of CARDEX, please write to Carson Information Services with
your request. THANK YOU.
- Mark Carson

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CARDEX files : CARDEX.COM - The executable file
CARDEX.CFG - The configuration file (optional) that tells the
computer if you have a color/graphics monitor ,
your local area code, long distance access number,
if form feeds are sent to the printer, and the
default data file.
CARDEX.DAT - The file generated by CARDEX.COM for data storage
if no data file is specified in CARDEX.CFG or by
the user at run time.
CARDEX.DOC - This file, the documentation file that explains
the functions of CARDEX

UTILITY files : CX2TEXT.COM - Creates an ASCII file from a CARDEX data file
TEXT2CX.COM - Creates a CARDEX data file from an ASCII file
CXMERGE.COM - Merges two CARDEX data files
ZIPSORT.COM - Creates a zip code filtered CARDEX data file

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VERSION : 1.2 P/N - Personal use, non-memory-resident version.
Cards have last and first name fields.
Executes as a stand alone COM file.

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OVERVIEW

CARDEX creates an rotary index card file on IBM PC computers and compatibles.
It is the equivelent of a ROLODEX (tm) for storing addresses, phone numbers,
and misc. information of persons or companies. CARDEX is a visual facsimile
of a rotaty index card file, with the added feature that the names and phone
numbers of the three preceeding entries and three following entries are
visible along with the full information on the current card.

All 10 function keys are utilized. The opening screen lists their functions.
The CARDEX screen summarizes the functions of the 6 most frequently used keys
in the lower right portion of the screen, with the PRINT key selecting a
sub-menu of the 4 print commands. 3 of these print commands are directly
available without having to select the PRINT sub-menu first.
The up and down cusor keys, the PgUp and PgDn and Home keys are also active
and allow the user to "spin" the CARDEX file (select preceeding/following
cards). The HOME key advances the CARDEX to the first card. The End key ends
use of the current data file and prompts the user for a new data file. The "M"
and "T" keys are used to transfer (copy) data from one data file to another.
The Esc key exits the CARDEX program, saving the data to disk file if changes
have been made during the current CARDEX session.

CARDEX reads data from an external file (floppy or hard disk) and stores
all the data from the file in memory. The data is accessed via pointers.
Upon exit, the data in memory is read back onto the disk (if the data file was
changed). If the data file to be read from (specified from the opening screen)
does not exist, CARDEX initializes with the author's name and address as the
first card. If additional entries are made, the file name specified is created
and written to. After entering a second card, the user may delete the author's
card from his data file, but is encouraged to maintain this entry. Should the
user need to contact the author, this information can always be accessed by
specifying a data file that does not currently exist when promted in the
opening menu or when selecting a new data file using the END key.

Besides presenting information on the screen, CARDEX can print the contents of
a single card, or the contents of all cards, and can print an address label of
a single card, or of all cards. Mailing lists can be kept on CARDEX and
address labels printed with a single keystroke. Labels are printed using 3
lines per label for the name and address with 3 additional lines spacing to
the next label. Suggested set up is using 6 lines to the inch printer advance
and 1 inch by 3.5 inch or wider labels. Pressing the Esc key aborts the
printing of a list of card contents or address labels.

--------------------------------------------------

IF YOU HAVE A MODEM AND SIDKICK (tm)

CARDEX also is compatible with the telephone dialer function of Borland Intl's
SIDEKICK (tm). CARDEX writes the telephone number of the current card in the
upper left hand corner of the screen, (invisibly, to the user with most video
display adaptors, (but always visible to SIDEKICK), so the dialer in SIDEKICK
will detect the telephone number of the current card rather than the first user
visible number (which is the card entry 3 past (above) of the current card).
CARDEX, by use of the default area code, knows when to write the long distance
access code and the area code ahead of the telephone number for long distance
dialing. Long distance dialing within the default area code is not directly
supported. For long distance within the user's area code, it is recommended the
user enter the long distance access code, ("1", etc.), followed by the phone
number in the additional information lines of the card entry (the last five
lines of the card). Then SIDEKICK's "captured" phone number can be advanced
using the right cursor key until this number is highlighted, then dialing can
be performed. Long distance services requiring pauses are supported by SIDEKICK
by using an "@" to pause the diaing. The CONFIGURATION/SET-UP mode prompts for
your long distance access code. Your local access number, followed by a pause
("@") and your authorization code will allow access to long distance services.
If no particular long distance service is desired, use the default access value
of "1-".

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FUNCTION AND CUSOR KEY COMMANDS

F1 : Configure the CARDEX system for Monitor, Area Code, Long Distance
Access Number, Printer Form Feeds, & Default Data File Name.
F2 : Add a new card to the CARDEX. (Automatically inserted in order)
F3 : Prints the name and address of the current card in label format.
F4 : GOTO - The user enters a name to match, CARDEX advances to it.
F5 : Prints address labels for all cards in the CARDEX.
F6 : Edits the information on the current card.
F7 : Prints out all of the information in the current data file.
F8 : Deletes the current card from the CARDEX.
F9 : Print Menu / Prints out the information of the current card.
F10 : Manually saves the data to disk.
(Automatic save is done upon exit if the data file was changed)

Up arrow : Selects the card above the current card.
Down arrow : Selects the card below the current card.
PgUp : Advances the CARDEX ahead 4 cards.
PgDn : Advances the CARDEX back 4 cards.
Home : Selects first card in the current data file.
End : Ends use of the current data file, and asks for a new data file.

M : Marks the currently displayed card for subsequent copying to
another CARDEX data file.
T : Transfers (copies) the data from the marked card to the current
CARDEX data file. (this only works for transferring between files)

Esc : Exit program. Also aborts printing of lists and escapes from
selected functions.

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RECORD AND FILE INFORMATION


All data is of type character string, however the record structure used does
not store data as a text file, so data is not readily readable without CARDEX.
CARDEX defaults using CARDEX.DAT for an initial data file but additional data
files can be user named. The user may want to have a number of different data
files, (friends, business contacts, Christmas card list, mailing lists, etc.).
Any legal file name may be used. Personally, I use my initials for my personal
data file, and the suffix ".CX" to indicate a CARDEX data file. The reason
CARDEX uses "CARDEX.DAT" for internal default, is so a first time or
ocassional user can correlate the data file with the program, and so using the
DOS copy command "COPY CARDEX.*" will copy the data file along with the CARDEX
program file, the configuration file, and this documentation file.

Record size is 420 bytes on disk and 432 bytes in RAM. (12 bytes used by the
forward and backward pointers.)

CARDEX data files can be copied to ASCII text files using the external
utility program CX2TEXT.COM, the source CARDEX data file and target ASCII file
can be pased to CX2TEXT.COM as command line parameters 1 and 2 respectively.
The CARDEX utility TEXT2CX.COM will convert text files to CARDEX data files,
but should only be used with caution as incorrect string lengths, number and
placement of data and carriage returns will result in corrupted CARDEX data
files. the source text file and target CARDEX data file can be passed to
TEXT2CX.COM as command line parameters.

Other external utilities are: CXMERGE.COM which merges, (in alphabetical order),
two CARDEX data files, creating a single merged CARDEX data file. ZIPSORT.COM
is a utility that filters a CARDEX data file to produce a subset data file that
contain only a specific zip code. This is handy when you want to break up
CARDEX data files into smaller geographically based files. IE: you can create a
file that only contains customers in a specific zip code for selected mailings.
The command line parameters for ZIPSORT.COM are the source CARDEX data file,
and the zip code to filter for. The resulting target file has the zip code as
the prefix, and ".ZIP" as the suffix. This target file is then used like any
other CARDEX data file.

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Record format - The first field is the person's last name The second field is
the person's first name. The third field is the telephone area code. A default
will appear (which is set by the confirguration/set-up) and can selected by a
carriage return, or changed by overwriting the area code. The forth field is
the first 3 digits of the telephone number. ENTER A CARRIAGE RETURN AFTER ONLY
3 DIGITS AS THE LAST 4 DIGITS ARE ANOTHER DATA FIELD.The forth field is the
first 3 digits of the phone number, the fifth field is the last 4 digits of
the phone number. The above is all on the first line and appears on the 3 cards
above and the 3 cards below the current card.

The second line contains the address field only. (sixth field)

The third line contains the city name (seventh field), the state code
(2 letters only), (eighth field), then the 5 digit zip code, (ninth field) and
finally, the last 4 digits of extended zip codes. (tenth field)

The next line on the card is blank (used for messages by the CARDEX program).

The last five lines of the card are each a single field per line, for entering
free-form additional data. (fields 11 through 15)

Field lengths: 19,15,3,3,4,54,26,2,5,4,54,54,54,54,54
(405 bytes data and 15 bytes record structure)

Data can be stored in less space externally as ASCII. (Trailing spaces are not
written to text files using CX2TEXT.COM). So if disk space or file transmission
speed are critical, convert CARDEX files to ASCII, then copy, transfer, etc.,
then convert the ASCII file back to a CARDEX file using TEXT2CX.COM.

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Configuration file (CARDEX.CFG) - Is written to and read from CARDEX. It tells
the program what type of monitor is in use,(Color, Monochrome-Graphics, or
Monochrome-Text), the local area code of the user, (so the area code prefix is
or not available to SIDEKICK (tm) by Borland Intl for telephone number dialing
if the user is modem equiped, and lastly, the default data file is specified.
This is the data file that appears in the opening screen as the default, which
can be default selected with a carriage return in the opening screen.
The configuration file is a 5 line text file. If this file is not present,
CARDEX has internal defaults settings which are : Monochrome-Text, Area code
808, Long Distance Access "1-", No Form Feeds to the Printer, and default data
file CARDEX.DAT. The configuration of CARDEX can be done "on the fly" while
the program is operating and can also be done from the opening.
The CONFIGURATION/SET-UP mode is entered by pressing the F1 function key.

If the cursor is not displayed during EDIT, ADD, etc., you probably have not
configured CARDEX for your color monitor. Press F1 to enter the configure mode.


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PARAMETER PASSING

CARDEX can optionally have a data file name passed to it upon call from DOS.
This eliminates the opening screen from appearing with its data file prompt.
The data file name is specified after "CARDEX" at the DOS prompt.
IE : A> CARDEX YOURFILE.DAT (YOURFILE.DAT being the data file name)

You may also declare the default data file by passing "*" as the parameter.
IE : A> CARDEX * (Selects the default data file)

To have CARDEX print this documentation file to the monitor, pass "?" as the
file parameter. To send a make a hard copy of this documentation file, at the
DOS prompt type Ctrl-P (depress the Ctrl and P keys together) to toggle on the
printer, then enter "TYPE CARDEX.DOC" followed by a carriage return. Remember
to toggle off your printer later by again typing Ctrl-P.
IE : A> CARDEX ? (Displays this documentation file)

CARDEX can optionally have a second parameter passed to it. The second
parameter is a "GOTO" entry for advancing to a particular CARD entry.
IE: A> CARDEX * CARSON (Selects the default data file and advances to
the CARD entry with last name of "CARSON")
IE: A> CARDEX CARDEX.DAT JONES/BILL
(Selects data file "CARDEX.DAT" and advances to CARD
entry with last name "JONES" and first name "BILL")

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DEVELOPMENT NOTES

CARDEX was written by Mark Carson in Hawaii as a personal productivity aid.
It was started the 4th of July holiday weekend 1985.
The development language was Borland International's TURBO Pascal version 3.0
Some procedures used were written by Blaise Computing, (Cursor control).

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