>>>>> SKIM >>>>>
A TEXT FILE SEARCH UTILITY

Previously released as "SCAN"

Copyright notice and Registration info:

All rights reserved, copyright 1988, 89 by Brian H. Lawler.

This software and documentation may be freely distributed in
UNMODIFIED form. Alteration of the program code or
documentation or inclusion of same in any commercial
application without the written consent of LAWLER
MICROSYSTEMS is expressly forbidden.

A thirty day conditional license is granted to the user at
no charge for the purpose of evaluating this product. You
may obtain a perpetual conditional license by completing the
registration form and returning it to LAWLER MICROSYSTEMS.
There is NO CHARGE for registering your copy of SKIM. You
may receive a current revision (specify 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch
diskette) of SKIM by remitting five dollars (US) to LAWLER
MICROSYSTEMS, #3 Evergreen Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64505-9661.
PLEASE do not send disks, mailers, or stamps. Foreign orders
are $10 U.S.


What SKIM does:

SKIM is a simple text-file searching program. Give SKIM the
name of the file to search and the string to look for and
the program will do the rest. There are a number of
utilities out there that perform a similar function but none
(that I have seen) provide the output format of SKIM.
I wrote SKIM as a utility for searching a textfile
containing a list of 12000+ public domain programs and
descriptions. Rather than write a full-blown database I
decided that all I really needed was a fast query
capability. SKIM will list all lines containing a given
sub-string. Using the public domain list as an example you
might query all programs relating to assembly language by
SKIMming for 'ASM'.

















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SKIM's Syntax

SKIM [input-file] [search-string]

SKIM may be invoked alone, or with one or both of the
perameters. Any parameters not specified on the command line
will be obtained at run-time.

INPUT-FILE - This is the name of the text file to be
searched. Up to 40 characters are allowed for the file name
with optional DOS pathname. The file is ASSUMED to consist
of a series of text lines not exceeding 80 characters in
length. Characters beyond the 80th will be ignored. File
length is un-limited. The INPUT-FILE is NOT altered in any
way by SKIM.

SEARCH-STRING - This is the word, text, or character group
to look for in each line of the input-file. The
search-string may be up to 40 characters in length and is
NOT CASE SENSITIVE. i.e. "Test" would match both "test" and
"TEST". SPECIAL NOTE: When specifying the search-string on
the command line the string must consist of continuous
characters (no spaces allowed). To include spaces in the
search invoke SKIM with-out the command line search
parameter. This is important, for example, if you are
looking for references to the "C" language. {SKIM test.txt
c} would match EVERY LINE in "test.txt" that contained the
letter "c". Invoking SKIM and later specifying
{space}c{space} would only match lines where "c" or "C" are
bound by spaces.

OUTPUT-FILE - This is OPTIONAL. If you simply want to review
the matches on the screen press RETURN. The matching lines
will scroll up, stopping at each screen-full waiting for a
keypress to continue. If you so desire, the output can be
re-directed to a DOS path/file-name of up to 40 characters.
The output file will consist of copies of all of the lines
from the input-file that contained the search-string (even
if the search-string appears more than once in a line it is
only displayed or written ONCE). Screen output will be
suppressed except for the summary.

SPECIAL NOTE: If output-file does not exist, it is created.
If it DOES exist it is PRESERVED and the new lines are
APPENDED to it. This allows you to Search for multiple
related strings and have all of the output in ONE FILE for
later review.













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REGISTRATION FORM for SKIM

Complete and mail to:LAWLER MICROSYSTEMS
#3 Evergreen Drive
Saint Joseph, MO 64505-9661
(816) 232-0286

Completion and mailing of this form (or facsimile thereof)
constitutes legal registration of SKIM. NO FEE is required
or requested BUT I would never turn away a buck or two!

NAME: _______________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
City ________________________ , _____ ZIP ____________

Phone: (optional) (_____) _____-__________

SKIM Version # 1.02 / _______

Where did you obtain SKIM? (if BBS give telephone #)
___________________________________________________________
Computer MAKE: ________________________________
MODEL: _________________________________
Configuration (Drives, etc) _______________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________


What enhancements or changes would you like to see in SKIM?
___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

General comments: ________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

________________________________________________





















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Ramblings....

Q: Why ANOTHER search utility?!?

A: I recently started using a BIG BBS (Executive PC) that
has over 12,000 files available for download. I wanted an
easy way to scan that 900K directory for stuff that
interested me. I like Norton's Text-Search but it is a
"general purpose" searcher. It is not line oriented, stops
after EVERY match, and has annoying screen attributes
(flash-flash). SKIM is tuned to it's special function as a
LINE ORIENTED utility and still manages to keep close pace
with TS (about 5% slower by my benchmarks).


TECHNICAL STUFF:

SKIM is written in Microsoft Quick C 2.0. There is no "fancy
screen-work" in version 1.02 so it SHOULD work on many
less-than-100% compatibles. In the interest of speed &
efficiency SKIM digests the source file in 16K pieces
(buffer-size). You can tell the progress of the program by
seeing the drive light blink every 16,384 characters. I
experimented with different buffer sizes but found 16K to
perform as well as 32K on my 12 Mhz AT class rice-burner.
Quick-C's default buffer of 512 BYTES was a definite
bottle-neck; slowing performance by nearly 500%


TIPS TO EXEC-PC USERS:

Download and un-arc all of the XFER?.ARC files to prepare
them for SKIM. Assuming you have 1 Meg+ of disk space, use
the DOS COPY command to CONCATENATE all of the separate
files into one BIG one. COPY newest.txt+older.txt+oldest.txt
(etc...) BIGFILE.TXT Once you have them all you can add the
new files (XFERM.ARC) every month to keep updated. Be sure
to concatenate in the proper order to maintain the date
sort.

SKIM was previously released as SCAN100 via the EXEC-PC BBS
and was renamed to avoid confusion with another program.



















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