Dec 252017
 
Compare BBS File Lists, or any other ASCII files. Has several very nice features to make things easy for you.
File COMPARE1.ZIP from The Programmer’s Corner in
Category Word Processors
Compare BBS File Lists, or any other ASCII files. Has several very nice features to make things easy for you.
File Name File Size Zip Size Zip Type
COMPARE.DOC 23191 5682 deflated
COMPARE.EXE 75936 28750 deflated
ORDER.FRM 5623 1406 deflated

Download File COMPARE1.ZIP Here

Contents of the COMPARE.DOC file
































BBS File Listing COMPARE
Version 1


FORWARD Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 1545
Germantown, Md. 20874

Forward Associates Inc. Page 1
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
______________________



Compare software and documentation are provided "AS IS" and without
warranty for performance/merchantability. Other persons and
organizations may make statements about this product. These statements
do not constitute warranties and must not be relied on by the buyer
in deciding whether to use this program.

Compare is sold under the Shareware concept which gives you a limited
time to use and test the product to see if it meets your needs before
having to purchase the program. Because of the diversity of conditions,
hardware, and other software under which the program may be used, no
guarantee for a particular purpose can be made.

Any physical diskettes and documentation provided by Forward Associates
to users are warranted to be free of defects in material and
workmanship for thirty (30) days from the date of receipt. Users may
return defective diskettes during that time for a replacement at no
charge.

Forward Associates Inc. Page 2
C O M P A R E
_____________


BACKGROUND
__________

Compare came about because of a need to be able to compare BBS file
lists to personal file lists. I use to download a file list from a
board, print a listing of the list then sit down and try to determine
if there were any files there that I may what to review. After finding
some files that seemed worth reviewing, I had to check to make sure
that I didn't already have them and if I did, did I have the most
recent version. Thus did the idea for compare come about. It is a
simple program (at least for now) that will allow you to compare a
BBS file list (in ASCII format) to a file list of your own or another
BBS's file list. A report will be generated that will list either
similarities or differences between the files and tell you have many
files were found to be similar or different. I don't want to put
restraints on Compare because it does not just limit itself to
comparing BBS lists. You can use it to compare any ASCII file to
another. I'm just using BBS lists as an example because that's what
I use it for primarily.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
___________________

DOS 3.0 or higher
IBM PC or compatible
64K of RAM
Graphics card


COMPATIBILITY
_____________

Compare has been tested on a: Toshiba 3100; Compaq portable (8088);
IBM PC XT; IBM PS model 50/60; and a Samsung S800. No hardware problems
cropped up but a few compatibility problems with some software occurred.
With Sidekick resident the is a problem with previous pop-up menus not
being cleared off the screen. The only problem that could result from
this is a cluttered screen. Two utilities from Golden Bow's VOPT package
also seem to create conflicts. "VKETTE & VSCREEN" seen to confuse
Compare and return unexpected messages. With either of these running
the results from Compare could be suspect.

Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 3



Getting Started
_______________

The screen show below is Compare's main screen and the one from which
all selections will be performed from.


COMPARE
Version 1


>F1 -Compare
F2 -Set Destination
F3 -Set Compare Type
F4 -Set Compare Files
F5 -Set File 1
F6 -Set File 2
F7 -Set Compare Options
F8 -View File
F9 -Quit to DOS









File 1: Start Col =
FIle 2: Start Col =
OutPut File: C:\COMPARE.LST
File_Name




OPTION 1 - COMPARE
__________________

The first option or the F1 key is what will actually kick off the compare
process once you have selected all of your options. The '>' denotes the
option currently selected. You can select a particular option by either
using the UP and DOWN arrows or you may strike the appropriate 'F' key.


OPTION 2 - SET DESTINATION
__________________________

This option will allow you to tell Compare what name you want to call
your output file and where you what to file it (what path) or you can
send the output directly to a printer by typing in '>PRT' (without the
quotes). Compare has already assigned a default name and directory (the
one you are currently working under) in order to help speed up the
selection process. See 'Output File: COMPARE.LST' on the first screen.

Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 4



OPTION 3 - SET COMPARE FILES
____________________________


This option tells Compare how you want the files compared. Do you want
the first file compared to the second file then compare the second file
to the first (F1 BOTH Files). Do you want to compare only the first file
to the second and quit (F2 File 1) or do you want to compare the second
file to the first file and quit (F3 File 2). Once you have selected one
of these options it will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. An
example would be I have elected to show the differences between 2 files
I want to compare. The line at the bottom of the screen would read
'show differences in BOTH Files'. Once you have set the compare files,
Compare will default to 'Differences' for the type. You can leave this
as it is or change it to 'Similarities' using the next set Compare Type
function.



COMPARE
Version 1



BOTH Files
File 1
File 2



F8 -View File
F9 -Quit to DOS









File 1: Start Col =
FIle 2: Start Col =
OutPut File: C:\COMPARE.LST
File_Name
show differences in BOTH Files


Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 5



OPTION 4 - SET COMPARE TYPE
___________________________


This function tells Compare to check for similar or different file
names. If you want to determine what files are common between your
list and say a BBS list, select the similarities option. This will
send a list of all names that match from to 2 files to your output.
As mentioned earlier, when you select compare file names the
differences option is defaulted. So if you want to compare differences
in files you can just bypass this option.



COMPARE
Version 1



>F1 Differences
F2 Similarities



F7 -Set Compare Options
F8 -View File
F9 -Quit to DOS









File 1: Start Col =
FIle 2: Start Col =
OutPut File: COMPARE.LST
File_Name
show differences in BOTH Files


Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 6



OPTIONS 5 & 6 - SET FILE 1 & 2
_____________________________

Through this option you will tell Compare what 2 files you want to
compare. You will be prompted to enter a file name at this time. There
are several ways you can feed a file name to compare, the first being
actually typing in the name of the file of the full path with file
name if the file is not in the default path. If you do not remember
the file name in its entirety Compare supports wildcards, so you can
key in a partial name followed by an '?' or an '*'. An example would
be that I have a file that I can only remember the first 3 characters
of the name. I could key in 'BBS?????.LST' if I know the file name is
8 characters in length and the extent is .LST. I could also key in
'BBS*.LST' or even 'BBS*.*' (if I couldn't remember the extent name.

Another way for me to pass the file name to Compare would be when
prompted for the file name, just hit the enter key. This will bring up
a window that has a list of all of the file names in your current
default directory. Using the UP or DOWN arrow keys you can then select
the file you wish to compare. Once you have the cursor positioned over
the desired file, press the enter key and that file name will be
passed to Compare and will be displayed in the appropriate position
(it will either show next to 'FILE 1:' or 'FILE 2:' depending upon
which file you were telling Compare to load). Show below is an example
of the window which will show the current directory.



COMPARE
Version 1


F1 Help Select Space Toggle
C:\TEMP\*.*
Matching files: 5 Total bytes: 93092

.. Jul 22,1988 11:10a
TEMP1 Aug 10,1988 8:23a
TNMCWEL.ASC 1084 Apr 25,1989 1:34p A
BOTOMSCR.CAP 573 May 01,1989 3:13p A
COMPARE.DOC 16064 Apr 04,1984 7:26p A
COMPARE.EXE 74960 May 04,1989 5:51p A
PICSUM.LST 411 Dec 18,1988 4:44p A


Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 7



If the file you want to compare is not in the current directory, don't
fret, just move the cursor to the double period file ('..') and press
enter. The action will take you to the next higher level in your
directory structure. Using this method you can move to any subdirectory
on your disk and select the file you want compared. It's as easy as
that.

An additional feature available is once you have opened the window that
shows all subdirectories and files within the current directory, you
can hit the space bar and your display will change to show a 'DIR/W'
display rather than a 'DIR' display.

Below is displayed what additional functions are available when you
bring up the directory display. This particular screen can be displayed
by hitting the F1 key from the directory window. As you can see there
are a number of helpful functions to help you find the particular files
you want.



COMPARE
Version 1

press any key ...

Alt-D sort in native DOS order
Alt-N sort alphabetically by file Name
Alt-E sort alphabetically by file Extension
Alt-S sort by file Size
Alt-T sort by date/Time of file
Alt-O sort in ascending or descending Order

Alt-Z toggle long/short box size

Alt-C change to new drive/directory
Alt-B backup to parent directory
Current: DOS in ASCENDING order (not zoomed)

Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 8



OPTION 7 - SET COMPARE OPTIONS
_____________________________

The Compare Options menu allows you to select what you want to compare,
File Name or a User Specified location. If file name is selected Compare
will compare the file name in File 1 to File 2 (depending on what
option was selected previously this statement could be different) and
continue until a match is found or the name being compared to is
greater. If the User specified location option is specified you can
tell compare where you want it to start (same as the File Name option)
and also where you want it to stop (ie. start in col. 4 and end in col.
25). This option gives you the ability to compare something other than
just the file name in a file list. I have used this particular option
to check for descriptions as well. Just an added note that if you
elect to compare a string that is longer than can be displayed back
to the screen, Compare will truncate the display being show. It will
not change the actual field length being compared, only the display.




COMPARE
Version 1


>File Name
User specified locations



F6 -Set File 2
>F7 -Set Compare Options
F8 -View File
F9 -Quit to DOS









File 1: C:\MYFILE.LST Start Col = 1
FIle 2: C:\LOCALBBS.LST Start Col = 1
OutPut File: C:\COMPARE.LST
File_Name
show differences in BOTH Files


Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 9



OPTION 8 - VIEW FILE
____________________


The view file option has a major requirement. You must have Vernon
Buerg's List program available through a path or in the current working
directory. With this program available to Compare you may view the
contents of either file selected for comparison(File 1 or File 2),
view the output report generated by Compare (Output), or any file on
your system (Select). This option was added as a result of having to
get out of Compare to often to view the report.



COMPARE
Version 1


COMPARE
Version 1

s
>F1 File 1
F2 File 2
F3 OutPut ons
> F4 Select










File 1: C:\MYFILE.LST Start Col = 1
FIle 2: C:\LOCALBBS.LST Start Col = 1
OutPut File: C:\COMPARE.LST
File_Name
show differences in BOTH Files


Forward Associates Inc. COMPARE Page 10



If for any reason you should need to contact me, I can be reached
through most conferences in RelayNet Mail or through the board The
New Micro Connection (see below). All mail should be addressed to the
ID, Forward Associates.










Online since April, 1986--Formerly as The Micro Connection
A member of the RelayNet International Network of BBS's since 10/88
Beta-test site for The Qmail Door

24 Hrs a day/7 Days a week/365 days a year
PCBoard 14.0/E3 4000+ Files Online 320 Megs Online
Over 36 Conferences Relayed Daily

Doug Burg -=- Sysop
Member: Capital Area Sysops Association, RelayNet Regional Council

Node 1: (301)698-0212 Node 2: Not Open Yet
1200/2400/19200 Baud
MNP 5



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