BIB

The Bibliography Manager




Version 1.05







Operation Manual
Copyright (c) 1986
Glenn Snow







This is the reference manual for BIB, a bibliography
management database as implemented for the IBM PC, XT, AT, or
100% compatible. Although context sensitive help screens are
available throughout most levels of the program, they are not
intended as exhaustive aids in any sense. This manual will
detail the structure and workings of BIB, and give examples as
to its use.


Created by
Glenn Snow, O.Carm.
1600 Webster St. N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017























NOTE

This program is Copyright (c) 1986 Glenn Snow.

BIB may be copied ad lib by the user provided that the author's
copyright notice and disclaimers of warranty are reproduced in full.

Copies of this program may not be altered in any way, except at the
express consent of the author.

Bulletin boards, User Groups, and SIGS may post and distribute this
program for personal use only, provided that the author's copyright
notice and disclaimers of warranty are reproduced in full. Such groups
may choose to charge a fee for the disk, shipping and handling,
packaging, or other copying expenses, however, in no case may this
program be sold for more than $10.00.

This program is supplied "as-is", and is intended for personal
use only, and not for commercial use. The author disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,
the warranties of merchantability and the warranties of fitness for
any purpose.







PLEASE NOTE

Any suggestions, reports of problems, or comments on this program
would be greatly appreciated by the author. Contributions are not
requested, but if you find this program useful, please let me know, so
that I may appraise the usefulness of further modifications and the
release of updated versions. I may be reached at the following
address:

Glenn Snow, O.Carm.
1600 Webster St. N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017

(202) 526-1221





















TABLE OF CONTENTS


1. Introduction...........................................1
2. Making a Working Copy..................................2
3. Installation...........................................3
Program Installation
Two Floppy installation
RAM-DISK installation
Hard Disk Installation
Screen installation
4. Operation..............................................5
First time Start-up
Using BIB
Adding Cards.....................................6
Deleting Cards...................................7
Editing Cards....................................8
Grouping Cards...................................9
Card Status
Viewing Cards...................................11
Transferring Cards..............................11
Overhauling the Index...........................11
5. Printing..............................................12
Configuration files
Print Destinations
Printer
Screen
Disk
DOS FORMAT
WordPerfect
6. Merging...............................................14
With other BIB files
With other programs
MailMerge
dBase II - III
7. Problems..............................................15
8. Technical.............................................16
Programming Language
Limits
Auxiliary Files
9. Tips and Shortcuts....................................17
Speed Up
RAM DISK use
Built-in Macros
10. On-Line Help..........................................19
Screen Divisions
Top - General Help
Bottom - Specific Help
11. Key Word Listings.....................................19























INTRODUCTION

BIB is a database system intended for personal use, not
large scale or library use. For those undertakings, a larger,
more sophisticated and integrated cataloguing system is
appropriate.

NOTE: BIB has a working limitation of 32,000 cards per catalogue
file. However, a catalogue of this size would prove quite
cumbersome, and should be broken into smaller, more manageable
catalogues of related materials.

BIB was written in Turbo-Pascal, version 3.01 on an IBM-AT
personal computer running PC-DOS 3.10. The program will run
unmodified on any IBM PC, XT, or AT. On IBM compatibles, or
"clones", you should run the INSTALL program before using
BIB.

BIB is based on the database management tools of the Borland
Turbo Pascal Database Toolbox. Since the Toolbox is copyright
Borland International, BIB is available only in compiled format,
thus respecting the rights and restrictions of Borland
International, and the author.


Also note: Parts of BIB perform direct video buffer
addressing, however it has been designed to be compatible with
DoubleDos, from SoftLogic Solutions. If you experience problems
with screen compatibility, FIRST run the INSTALL program. If
the problems still exist, contact the author for assistance or a
customized (within reason) version for your machine or monitor.

NOTE: As with any program, you should make a back-up copy of
the program, and store it in a safe place, in case your original
is damaged.
















-1-








MAKING A WORKING COPY
If you will be running BIB from a hard disk, skip this
section and proceed to the Installation instructions for hard
disk operation.

If you have floppy disk drives only, read the following set
of instructions.

To make your working copy of the master program disk, you
will need the following: your DOS disk, the original BIB master
disk, and a new blank disk.

1. Insert your DOS disk into Drive A: and turn on your
computer. Enter the date and the time as prompted.

2. At the A> prompt, type FORMAT B: /S and press
ENTER. The command "FORMAT B: /S" tells the computer
that you want to format the disk in drive B, and add
the programs which will start up the computer.

3. The system will prompt you to put the blank disk that
you wish to format into drive B. Do this.

4. Close the drive door and press (ENTER) to begin
formatting the disk.

5. When the screen displays the message "Format another
(Y/N)?" type N for No.

6. Insert the BIB master disk into drive A, and leave the
newly formatted disk in drive B.

7. At the DOS prompt, type COPY *.* B: and press ENTER.
This tells the computer to copy all the files from the
disk in drive A to the disk in drive B. If it gives
you the message "File cannot be copied onto itself."
then you must type the above command EXACTLY as shown,
including the spaces. The spaces come BEFORE and AFTER
the "*.*" symbol.

8. Put the master disk away in a safe place.

9. Insert your working copy of BIB into Drive A.

10. Proceed to the Installation Section of this manual, and
follow the instructions for two-floppy or RAM DISK
installation.

If you do not have a hard disk, then you will need another
blank, formatted disk for the actual catalogue. You may keep
separate catalogues on separate disks, if you want. e.g. You
might want one for History, another for English, etc.






-2-








INSTALLATION

Installation is a two-part process. The first part
configures BIB for your disk drives, and the second part
configures BIB for your particular screen. To install BIB,
follow the directions for your machine's disk capabilities,
(i.e. Two-Floppy, RAM DISK, or Hard Disk), and then run the
SCREEN installation option.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Two Floppy Installation:

To install BIB on a two floppy system, first, make a working
copy of your BIB disk by following the instructions in the
section titled, "MAKING A WORKING COPY".

Put the working copy of BIB into Drive A: and type the word:

INSTALL (ENTER)

The INSTALL program will perform a machine identification
procedure, and will suggest either a two-floppy installation or
a RAM DISK installation. You may follow these suggestions or
override them, as you choose. NOTE: because of the problems
inherent in memory and disk management, INSTALL will not allow
RAM DISK installation if you have less than 512K of memory.

Don't forget to run the SCREEN installation option from the
INSTALL menu. Also, if you are having problems with the display
on your monitor, run the SCREEN option and try out the different
screen options to see which one works best with your monitor.





RAM DISK Installation

If you have a two-floppy system, no hard drive, and at least
512K of memory, you should consider running BIB with a RAM DISK.
Follow the procedure above for two-floppy installation, but
choose the RAM DISK option instead of the two-floppy option.

IMPORTANT! If you run BIB from a RAM DISK, you must never shut
down the system while BIB is running. If you do, no damage is
done, but you will lose any changes, additions, or edits
performed during that session. Always follow the proper QUIT
procedure until you see the message that says BIB is finished.









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Hard Disk Installation

From the C> make a new directory for your BIB program,
using this procedure. Type the following:

MD C:\BIB (ENTER)
CD C:\BIB (ENTER)

Insert the master disk into Drive A: and copy the contents
of the master disk onto your hard disk by typing:

COPY A:*.* (ENTER)

When it is done, at the DOS prompt, type:

INSTALL (ENTER)

Follow the instructions in the INSTALL program for
installation onto a Hard disk.




================================================================





Screen Installation

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A COLOR MONITOR, A HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD, OR
A NON-IBM MACHINE, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU RUN THE SCREEN
INSTALLATION OPTION FROM THE INSTALL MENU. If you have a
monochrome monitor on an IBM machine, you may skip the SCREEN
installation option.

Also, any time you add or change equipment on your computer,
you should re-INSTALL the BIB program. For instance, if you add
a hard disk, or more memory, or a new monitor, etc. then run the
INSTALL program again.
















-4-









OPERATION

First Time Start-up

IMPORTANT! You should not run BIB from the master disk. If
you have not done so, make a working copy, and run the INSTALL
program. The installation process creates the necessary files
to start BIB.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =


Two-Floppy
or
RAM DISK

1. Place the working disk with the BIB program into Drive A:

2. Place a blank, formatted disk into Drive B: (This disk will
hold the actual card catalogue.)

3. Turn on the computer.

4. The batch file created during the installation process will
take it from there.

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

Hard Disk

If you are running BIB from a hard-disk, simply place
yourself in the root directory by typing:

CD \ (ENTER)

...and then type:

BIB (ENTER)

The batch file created during the installation process will
take it from there.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

If this is the first time you are running BIB, it will tell
you that the catalogue is empty, and ask your permission to
create a new one. IF this is the first time using BIB, then
type Y for Yes.

After you do this, the main menu of BIB will appear, and you
are ready to begin using BIB, The Bibliography Manager.






-5-








USING BIB

General note: The bottom four lines of the screen are devoted to
informing you of your options, as well as giving
an indication of where you are in the program.
You may press the HELP key (F1) for help at any
time during the operation of BIB, and it will show
you an abbreviated version of these instructions.

Adding Cards

You begin adding cards by hitting "A" from the main menu.
You will immediately see a blank entry form on the screen, with
the field for First Name being highlighted.

The first name of the author is entered here, just as you
would like it to appear on the printed form. If there is a
middle initial, it should follow the first name. In the case of
multiple authors, only the first or MAIN author should appear
here. The other author or authors can be entered into the
(-Other1) field which follows the main author's Last Name.
Hitting the RETURN key, (or ENTER key) will move you to the next
field.

The second field is the author's Last Name. Again, you
should enter it just as you would like it to appear in the
printed form. Do not enter a middle initial here, or the card
will be placed in incorrect alphabetical order. (It will be
filed under the middle initial instead of the last name.) A
middle initial should go at the end of the First Name field.
However, if there is a degree, association, or other
abbreviation which follows the last name, it may be entered
after the last name, like this: Johnson, O.Carm.

The third field may be used for any information which
follows the name of the main author. This might be an editor, a
coauthor, a translator, etc. The information entered here will
be printed directly after the author's name, and before the
title of the article.

Next comes the Article title. If the card is a reference to
an article in a journal, magazine, etc. then the name of the
article itself is entered here. Whatever is entered here will
be printed out surrounded by quotes. If nothing is entered
here, (as would be the case if the card referred to an entire
book, instead of an article), then nothing at all will be
printed, and the quotes will be omitted as well.

After the article name, if there is any additional
information, such as the word "in" or the words "found in",
or the like, it may be entered into the second (-Other2)
field...the one which follows the Article title. Anything






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entered here will follow the Article title, but will NOT be
within the quotes.

The field marked "Work" should be used for the title of the
book, journal, or collection. When this reference is printed,
whatever is entered in this field will be underlined in the
printed form. If you are printing to disk, the WordPerfect
format will retain the underlining, while the DOS format will
not.

The last (-Other3) field should contain any information which

follows the name of the work, but which should not be
underlined. For example, if this is a reference to a journal,
the volume number and date of the issue should be entered here.
If it is a multivolume work, the number of volumes should be
recorded here.

The "City", "Publisher", and "Date Published" fields should
all be filled in with the appropriate information. All
punctuation between the fields (a colon, commas, etc.) will
automatically be filled in when printing.

The entire entry will be ended by a period when printed.

The final fields are used in organizing and filing the
cards. These Key Words are NOT printed out in the final form.
Each of the KEY WORDS will constitute a separate category under
which this card is filed. You may specify anywhere from 0 to 10
different categories under which to file the card. When
choosing a group to print out, you may select any cards with a
particular KEY WORD. For example, you may say, "Print out all
the cards which have the word LITERATURE as a key word."
Selection is accomplished by choosing the "S" option from the
main menu.

When you have finished adding a card, BIB will remain in the
ADD mode. That way, you do not have to constantly go back to
the main menu to add a number of cards. To get out of the ADD
mode, just hit ESC.


Deleting Cards

You enter the Delete Mode by hitting "D" from the main menu.
Since this should be only an occasional operation, BIB only
allows one deletion at a time. Once a card is deleted, it
cannot be retrieved. To make sure that you want to delete the
card, you will be asked to confirm your decision.

When you first enter the Delete Mode, BIB will display an
entry form, and ask you for the file number of the card you want
to delete. If you happen to know the exact card number, you can





-7-








jump right to it and delete it. More probably, you will not
know the number. In this case, just hit the RETURN (or ENTER)
key, and search for the card by the author's last name.

If you know the author's last name, you may enter it in the
Last Name field, and BIB will jump to the first record it finds
which matches that name. Note that you don't have to enter the
ENTIRE name, even a few letters will produce a "best match"
result. You may enter this name in UPPER or lower case letters,
or any combination you please. The result will be a best match
attempt. For example, you may enter "wil". BIB will jump to
Wildred, or Williams, or Wilson, or whatever the first
"wil" it finds (alphabetically). You may then use the PgUp or
PgDn keys to find the exact card you want to delete. Again, the
bottom lines of the screen will show you your options at any
time. ESC will get you back to the main menu.

If you don't even know the author's last name, or can't take
a guess, you can hit the RETURN (or ENTER) key, and BIB will
jump to the alphabetical head of the catalogue. Again, you can
use the PgUp or PgDn keys to go through them one by one to find
the one you want. This is obviously a last choice option.

If you want to jump to another part of the alphabet quickly,
instead of repeating the PgUp or PgDn keys, you may JUMP there
by hitting the J followed by the letter you want to JUMP
to. For instance, if you are viewing a book written by
Andrews. By pressing J and then R, you jump right to the books
written by authors whose last names begin with R., such as
Richley.

ESC will get you back to the main menu.

Once you find the card you want to delete, hit the RETURN
(or ENTER) key, and BIB will ask for confirmation before
deleting the card. Answering Y will delete it. Hitting
N or ESC will leave the card intact, and return you to the
main menu.



Editing Cards

You enter the Edit Mode by hitting "E" from the main menu.
When you first enter the Edit Mode, BIB will display an entry
form, and ask you for the file number of the card you want to
edit. If you happen to know the exact card number, you can jump
right to it and edit it. More probably, you will not know the
number. In this case, just hit the RETURN (or ENTER) key, and
search for the card by the author's last name.

If you know the author's last name, you may enter it in the






-8-








Last Name field, and BIB will jump to the first record it finds
which matches that name. Note that you don't have to enter the
ENTIRE name, even a few letters will produce a "best match"
result. You may enter this name in UPPER or lower case letters,
or any combination you please. The result will be a best match
attempt. For example, you may enter "wil". BIB will jump to
Wildred, or Williams, or Wilson, or whatever the first
"wil" it finds (alphabetically). You may then use the PgUp or
PgDn keys to find the exact card you want to edit. Again, the
bottom lines of the screen will show you your options at any
time. ESC will get you back to the main menu.

If you don't even know the author's last name, or can't take
a guess, you can hit the RETURN (or ENTER) key, and BIB will
jump to the alphabetical head of the catalogue. Again, you can
use the PgUp or PgDn keys to go through them one by one to find
the one you want. This is obviously a last choice option.

If you want to jump to another part of the alphabet quickly,
instead of repeating the PgUp or PgDn keys, you may JUMP there
by hitting the J followed by the letter you want to JUMP
to. For instance, if you are viewing a book written by
Andrews. By pressing J and then R, you jump right to the books
written by authors whose last names begin with R., such as
Richley.

ESC will get you back to the main menu.

Once you find the card you want to edit, hit the RETURN (or
ENTER) key, and BIB will allow you to edit each field, in the
same manner as when you added the card in the first place.
Hitting ESC will ignore your changes, leave the card intact,
and return you to the main menu.


Grouping Cards

Grouping the cards will allow you to print out only a
selection of cards, instead of all of them. In this way, you
can print out only those works by a particular author, or on a
particular subject.

You enter the Group Selection Menu by hitting "S" from the
main menu. When you do this, BIB will display a second menu,
which gives you the options for grouping the cards.

The first choice is Group Selection Menu option "C". This
will set a flag to clear all the previous entries from a group.
It works like this: When you select a card for inclusion, a
"mark" is made on the card. Then if you choose to print out a
group of cards, only those cards which are "marked" will be
printed out. These cards will remain "marked", even when you






-9-








quit BIB. Thus, you can save a group from one session to the
next. If you press "C" from this menu, it will clear all the
marks from previous sessions, and thus allow you to start your
grouping all over again. However, it does not automatically do
this clearing right away. The reason behind this is to save
time by not going through two review passes...one to clear the
old marks and one to set the new ones. It will perform the
actual clearing either when you select a new set, or when you
try to go back to the main menu.

Option "K" from this menu will allow you to select cards for
the group by searching for and matching a key word. Any card
which contains that key word will be added to the group. If the
Clear Flag has been set, then the new set will contain ONLY
those cards with the key word. If the Clear Flag is not set,
then these cards will be ADDED to the existing group. Pressing
the ESC key will return you to the Group Selection Menu.

Selections "E" and "I" will allow a search by Multiple Key
words. The difference between them is this: Option "I" stands
for INCLUSIVE, and is really just a quick way of doing 2 "K"
searches. That is to say, you enter two key words instead of
one, and if a card has EITHER of those key words, it will be
added. For example, if you are writing on China and Indonesia,
and need a list of all your books or articles which deal with
either one, then you can run an INCLUSIVE key search for China
and Indonesia.

Selection "E" is also a Multiple Key word search. The
difference is that "E" (which stands for EXCLUSIVE) will only
add a card if it has BOTH of the key words which you enter here.
For example, if you have a lot of cards which deal with Africa,
and a lot of cards which deal with India, and you are writing to
compare the two, you might want a list of only those works which
deal with BOTH Africa AND India. That is where you perform an
EXCLUSIVE key search.

Selection "S" and "M" are essentially the same. "S" allows
you to enter an author's name, and will add any cards written by
that author. "M" simply allows you to enter up to 5 authors at
once, and any books by any of them will be added. "M" is really
just a shortcut way to do several "S" searches.

Selection "R" stands for Individual Review. This simply
allows you to browse through the cards, and see whether they are
included or not. If you want to change that status, you can do
so by hitting RETURN (or ENTER) while browsing. Once again,
look to the bottom four lines of your screen to see what your
options are.

Selection "A" will allow you to include ALL of the works for
printing. This is probably more trouble than it is worth,






-10-








because when you print, you always have the option of printing
just the group or all the cards in the catalogue. It is
included here for convenience only.
----------------------------------------------------------------
If you wish, you may see the group status while in the EDIT
or DELETE modes. This option is toggled on and off with the F9
key. If the STATUS is ON, then when you are editing a record,
deleting a record, or just browsing through, the STATUS (of
whether or not that particular record is included in the current
group) will be displayed on the screen.
Viewing Cards

There are basically two ways to view the cards in the
catalogue. The first way is to use the EDIT or DELETE mode
and browse through them one by one with the PgUp, PgDn, and
(J)ump keys.

The second way of viewing the cards is to use the "VIEW"
option from the main menu. If you do this, BIB will use the
screen limits as the margins, thus, what you see on the screen
will only be a close approximation of what will print out on the
paper, depending on the margins you choose there. On some
machines, the underline may print out as a highlight instead. If
you have trouble with this, try running the SCREEN option from
the INSTALL program. If you try different styles of screen
setting, you may get the results you want on your particular
monitor. Some monitors are not capable of showing underlines and
text at the same time.



================================================================

Transferring Cards

If you wish to share BIB catalogues with others, use the
merge facilities provided with the Import/Export option. See
the section on MERGING cards elsewhere in this manual.

================================================================

Overhauling the Index

It is possible that disk damage, dust, or variations in line
voltage can cause errors to occur in the card index. This
usually shows up as a TURBO-ACCESS error, and the program will
abort. If this happens, run BIB again, and select option "O"
from the Main Menu. This will overhaul the index, and set
things right again. On a floppy system this can be painfully
slow, but with a RAM DISK or Hard disk, it is quite fast.








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Printing


Configuration Files

BIB does not rely on complicated printer control codes for
most of its operations, and so can run unmodified on many
printers. The default is set up to use the printer codes for
the Epson FX series of printers. You should try printing BIB on
your printer to see if this default mode will work. If it does
not, then run the PRINTER program (included on the disk). This
program will provide the proper communication between BIB and
your printer. If you find it necessary to run PRINTER, have the
operation manual for your printer in front of you, and follow
these instructions.

Floppy Drive System

1) Put your WORKING disk into Drive A:, and turn on the
computer.

2) Quit the BIB program by hitting "Q" from the main menu.

3) Skip to step #6 below.


Hard Disk System

4) Turn on the computer.

5) From the C> prompt, type CD \BIB (ENTER)


6) Type PRINTER (ENTER)


From this point, either choose your printer from the
supplied list, or select "Custom" and answer the questions which
come up. Be sure to use the information in your printer's
manual. (Usually the section called "Printer Codes").

If it is necessary, the PRINTER program will create a file
called CONFIG.BIB which contains any necessary codes to
drive your printer.

================================================================
The Printer Parameter Settings

You access the print functions by selecting "P" from the
Main Menu. When you do so, you will see the "Printer Parameter
Settings" screen. Here you can set your margins, destination,
and heading.






-12-









The "Print to: " setting allows you to print to the
(S)creen [see "Viewing Cards" elsewhere in this manual], to the
(P)rinter (the default), or to a (D)isk file.

"Heading" allows you to enter a title for the printout. The
title will be AUTOMATICALLY centered between your chosen
margins, and will appear only on the first page of the
bibliography.

If you print to a disk file (in order to use it from within
your word processor), you also have the choice of using
WordPerfect or DOS format. If you use DOS format, the
underlining is not transferred. (This is because DOS doesn't
"understand" underlined letters.) The WordPerfect format,
however, will retain the underlining. A file created in
WordPerfect format should then be retrieved just like any other
WordPerfect document.








































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Merge Operations

Bib has the capability to merge its catalogue with other BIB
catalogues, and also with other database systems, including
MailMerge, dBaseII, dBaseIII, dBaseIII+, Cornerstone, and many
others.

If you would like to share your bibliography with someone
else, pool resources, or make a "master bibliography" file, you
can do this using the "IMPORT/EXPORT" option from the main menu.
You can MERGE all of the cards, or only a select group, in just
the same way that you can print all or only a group of the
cards. When you hit "I" from the Main Menu, you are asked if
you want to IMPORT or EXPORT the cards.

Importing Cards requires that there is something to IMPORT
in the first place. BIB can import ONLY cards which have been
EXPORTED by another BIB program. You cannot IMPORT directly
from other database programs, although there is a way around
that. BIB looks for a file called MERGE.BIB on the main
drive. THIS FILE MUST BE PRESENT ON THE DEFAULT DRIVE, OR BIB
WILL NOT IMPORT. On a two floppy system, that means you need it
in Drive A: (where the BIB system disk is). You may remove the
BIB diskette and insert the disk with MERGE.BIB on it. Be
sure to re-insert the BIB diskette when the MERGE is finished.
On a Hard Drive system, MERGE.BIB must be located in the \BIB
subdirectory, along with all the other BIB files.

Exporting cards requires that you specify two things:
First, whether you want to EXPORT all of the cards in the
catalogue, or only the group which is currently selected. The
second thing you must specify is which format you want to EXPORT
in. If you plan on MERGING with another BIB catalogue, (as when
pooling resources with someone else who has BIB) then choose the
BIB format for your EXPORT. If you would like to use your BIB
information in another database program, use the TRANSFER
format. This format is known as the "Standard MailMerge"
format, and also the "Delimited" format (to dBase). Once you
specify these things, BIB will begin to export your cards. The
files produced here will be called either MERGE.BIB or
TRANSFER.BIB depending on the format they are in.

If you really must import from another database program,
there is a way around BIB's restrictions. From your database
program, output your records to disk with one line per field,
and a blank line between each record. They MUST be in the
format: Last Name, First Name, Other, Article, Other, Work,
Other, City, Publisher, Date, Pages, and KEY1 through KEY10.
You MUST have exactly 21 lines per record, and a blank line
before the next record. Then rename this output file as
MERGE.BIB, place it on the default drive, and proceed to IMPORT
it in the usual manner.






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Problems

Following are some solutions to common problems with BIB.

1) Problem: It dies whenever I try to EDIT, ADD, DELETE,
GROUP, PRINT, EXPORT...ANYTHING! It always says:

TURBO-access I/O error 153
File Record (some number)
Program aborted

Solution: The INDEX has become damaged in some way. It is
necessary to OVERHAUL the index. Start up the BIB
program, and before doing anything else, select
"O" from the Main Menu. This will perform an
OVERHAUL of the index.

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

2) Problem: I have a two-floppy system, and it died when I was
ADDING or IMPORTING cards. It said:

TURBO-access I/O error 240
File Record (some number)
Program aborted

Solution: Your catalogue disk is full, and your additions
cannot fit onto the disk. A normal double-sided,
double-density disk can only hold 425 cards.
Insert a new disk, and start a new catalogue, or
break up your old catalogue into smaller related
ones, or use BIB on a hard disk machine.

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

3) Problem: It looks OK on the screen, but the print-out is
not correct.

Solution: Run the PRINTER program to let BIB know what kind
of a printer you have.

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

4) Problem: From the very start, my screen looks funny. It
jumps all around, and looks like a TV set when the
vertical knob is way off.

Solution: BIB is assuming your screen is a standard IBM
monochrome screen, but it is not. Run the SCREEN
option from the INSTALL program, and try the 80 X
25 Black and White option (or one of the others).







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Technical
BIB was written in Turbo-Pascal, version 3.01 on an IBM-AT
personal computer running PC-DOS 3.10. The program will run
unmodified on any IBM PC, XT, or AT. On IBM compatibles, or
"clones", you should run the INSTALL program before using BIB.

BIB is based on the database management tools of the Borland
Turbo Pascal Database Toolbox. Since the Toolbox is copyright
Borland International, BIB is available only in compiled format,
thus respecting the rights and restrictions of Borland
International as well as those of the author.

There is a working limitation of 32,000 cards in any one
catalogue. Since each card takes up 850 bytes of disk space
(including the Index space), 32,000 cards would require a hard
disk of almost 30 megabytes. Indexing, searching, and grouping
in such a large database would result in long delays and disk
accesses, and would prove to be unworkable.

A standard DS/DD diskette holds 360K bytes of information,
and this comes out to about 425 cards per diskette. If you run
BIB on the standard RAM DISK option, the RAM DISK is set up with
360KB of space as well. If you try to add more, the added cards
will be lost, and the program will abort.

Following is a list of files which can reside on your
WORKING diskette or directory:

BIB.COM -The main BIB program
HELP.BIB -The HELP messages displayed with F1

INSTALL.BAT -The batch file which runs the
installation process
BI.COM -The machine ID and Disk Installation
portions of the Installation process
SCREEN.COM -The Screen installation program, run
from INSTALL.BAT
SCREEN.DAT -Associated data file for SCREEN.COM
SCREEN.MSG -Associated message file for
SCREEN.COM

RAMDISK.SYS A RAM DISK program


AUTOEXEC.BAT Created by the INSTALL program for
automatic start up at Power-On

CONFIG.SYS Created by the INSTALL program for
installation of the RAM DISK


MERGE.BIB CAN reside on the BIB disk, if small






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enough. Should be moved to another disk
for safety and convenience.
There are three files which reside on the DATA or CATALOGUE
disk. They are:

BIB.DAT -The data file, which contains all the
information on the cards

BIB.IXN -The index file, which organizes all the
information on the cards

BIB.GRP -The group information file, which
stores information about the current
group.

Tips and Shortcuts

BIB was designed to take up very little memory (RAM) in the
computer. This has several advantages. First, BIB can be used
on almost any IBM or compatible machine, no matter how small the
memory (RAM) available. {If you don't know how much RAM is
available on your machine, run the INSTALL program.}

A second advantage of BIB's small size is that it can run in
the background mode of DoubleDos [from SoftLogic Solutions].
DoubleDos makes it possible to run two programs at once on any
IBM PC, XT, or AT. Thus, you can devote most memory to the main
program, and can have BIB available at the touch of a key,
running in the bottom section of memory. BIB version 1.xx is
compatible with DoubleDos, even though it is partially a "direct
screen writer" program.



SPEED UP

RAM DISK USE

By far, the greatest advantage to BIB's small size is that
it enables you to use a virtual disk, (called a RAM disk) for
the catalogue files. If your machine has 512K or more of RAM,
and you don't have a hard disk, you probably should use BIB with
a RAM disk. Searching and selection of cards will run about 20
times faster than with floppy drives alone. To run BIB with a
RAM disk, choose the RAM DISK option from the INSTALL menu.
(See also "Installation" elsewhere in this manual.)


BUILT IN MACROS:

1) While browsing through cards, you may press J to jump to
another part of the alphabet. (author's last name) For






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example, you are editing cards, and looking at a book
written by Andrews. By pressing J and then R, you jump
right to the books written by authors whose last names begin
with R.

2) When adding or editing a card, you may SKIP to Last Name
by hitting ALT L......or to First Name by hitting ALT F....
or to Work by hitting ALT W....etc. This method might be
faster for you than repeatedly hitting RETURN to get to the
same field. You can SKIP up or down on the entry form.

3) When adding or editing a card, you may take a shortcut
to complete the entry. This is done by hitting CTRL RETURN
(that is, holding down the CTRL key and tapping RETURN).
This is the same thing as stepping through the fields one by
one to the end of the last key word. {This is similar to
the SKIP short cut mentioned in #2 above.}










































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ON-LINE HELP

Help is available at any time during the program by hitting
the HELP key (marked F1). Getting HELP will not disturb the
operation in progress.

The help screens which come up are most often divided into
two parts. The top part gives general help, and deals with the
general area you are in: EDIT MODE, ADD MODE, etc. General help
usually corresponds to the main menu selection that you last
hit. For example, if you hit "E", and then ask for HELP, (by
pressing F1) the general help portion will give you information
about the EDIT MODE. If you hit "I", then the general help will
deal with the IMPORT/EXPORT function.

The bottom part of the help screen displays more specific
information, if available. Here is usually a description of
what EXACTLY the program is asking for. It may also say what
BIB will do with the information that you enter there.

Striking any key will return you back to where you were when
you hit the HELP key.



KEY WORD LISTINGS

Anywhere you can get HELP, you can also get a listing of key
words. This list is pulled from the cards in the catalogue.
They are not sorted or arranged in any way, and duplicates are
NOT removed. This allows you to see what key words are in use,
and how many times each occurs. The screen will fill with Key
words, starting at card number 1, and will pause when full. You
may continue displaying more key words, or go back to where you
were by hitting the ESC key.






















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