CONTENTS OF THIS READ.ME FILE: --------------------------------------------- * HOW SHAREWARE WORKS * DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS * INSTALLING PC-FILE * PRINTING A COPY OF THE MANUAL * NOTES ON COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS * CHANGES TO PC-FILE 5.01 * NOTES AND UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES * CORRECTIONS TO THE MANUAL * ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS (ASP) * SHAREWARE COPYING OUTSIDE OF THE USA +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Welcome to the Shareware revolution. This remarkable method of software | | distribution was co-pioneered in 1982 by Jim Button and Andrew Fluegelman. | | It has become a major force in the software industry, helping to reduce | | software prices and eliminate copy protection schemes. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ HERE'S HOW SHAREWARE WORKS: You are encouraged to copy the PC-File diskettes and share them freely with others. You have the luxury of trying out the complete programs, at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or workplace. This is not a crippled or demo copy, but the complete working version of the program. After you have used PC-File for a reasonable evaluation period (not to exceed 90 days) you must either stop using it or buy a licensed copy from ButtonWare or from an authorized dealer. We invite you to purchase PC-File for a substantial discount from any of the following retail outlets: United States: CompuAdd (800)666-1872 Babbages (see local store) Egghead (800)EGG-HEAD Software, Etc. (see local store) PC-Connection (800)243-8088 Walden Software (see local store) Soft Warehouse (800)451-7638 Software City (see local store) Canada: Business World (800)668-4305 Doppler Computer Centre (604)875-0261 Software City (519)659-2366 London Drugs (see local store) Soft Warehouse (800)661-3616 UK: ButtonWare 071 323-2722 Australia: Algar Burns (09)367-8277 Manaccom Pty (07)368-2366 Or you can purchase PC-File from your local dealer or directly from ButtonWare. Call (800)J-BUTTON or (206)454-0479 for the dealer nearest you, current pricing and order information. Why pay at all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * You receive the most CURRENT copy of the program * You receive the printed manual (typeset and bound, over 400 pages) * Access to the on-line ButtonWare Bulletin Board * Notification of updates and new products * Inexpensive updates (typically 1/3 the retail price) * Periodic special price offers (for our registered users only) * Your input and ideas help shape future products * A sense of pride and ownership, by having honestly participated in the Shareware revolution * The satisfaction of helping to keep software prices down, by supporting a distribution method which doesn't depend on expensive advertising campaigns So please dive in and enjoy the fun of legally sharing good software with your friends and associates. The following restrictions are designed to protect the community of Shareware users and to prevent others from taking unfair advantage of the trust, hard work, and good will of Shareware authors. Exceptions to these conditions must be received in writing from ButtonWare. +-----------------------------+ | DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS | +-----------------------------+ 1. Disk vendors (those who sell Shareware disks for a profit) must follow the procedure outlined in the "VENDOR.DOC" file. 2. You may not charge more than $3 U.S. per diskette. 3. The files and programs on the disks may not be modified or deleted. 4. The programs cannot be sold as part of some other more inclusive package. 5. The programs cannot be rented or leased to others. 6. When distributed via a telecommunications link, all ButtonWare programs (and documentation files) must be transferred in a library or archive format. This means that all the files on each ButtonWare disk must be combined into one file - one file for each ButtonWare disk. 7. A separate version of PC-File is available for student use in classrooms. The educational version includes a typeset and bound manual (over 400 pages) and authorization to use PC-File for a specific class in a specific classroom. For more information about ButtonWare's Education Policy and pricing, call (800)-JBUTTON. 8. Shareware distribution is permitted only in the United States, Canada, The British Isles, and Australasia. Please see the section below entitled: SHAREWARE COPYING OUTSIDE OF THE USA. 9. The Multi-user version is not Shareware. It may not be copied and shared with others. +----------------------+ | INSTALLING PC-File | +----------------------+ NOTE: This copy of PC-File requires DOS 3.0 or later. It is not compatible with most versions of DOS 2.x. If DOS 2.x compatibility is important to you, please contact ButtonWare to see if a DOS 2.x compatible version is available. PC-File requires a hard disk or two 3-1/2" disk drives. To install the programs, put the PC-File program disk into your A: disk drive and type A:INSTALL INSTALL creates a subdirectory on your hard disk and copies the necessary programs and files into that subdirectory. You'll need about 1 mb of available disk space to INSTALL PC-File. +----------------------------------------+ | PRINTING A COPY OF THE USER'S MANUAL | +----------------------------------------+ If you did not purchase PC-File (complete with printed manual) directly from ButtonWare or from an authorized dealer, then you are evaluating the program. We have tried to provide you with everything necessary to evaluate PC-File. The program uses clear, informative menus. Help screens are always available. Also, the file "CARD" can be printed to create a quick reference card with a summary of the program commands. This is sufficient for most people to evaluate the program. However, some people prefer to have a complete copy of the printed manual. A complete copy of the printed manual for PC-File is available on floppy disk to help you with your evaluation. It's almost 500 pages long so you'll need a lot of time, patience, and paper to print it out. Because of space limitations, we have had to omit the tutorial section from the disk manual. This was not done to cripple the manual in any way. It was a required step because even when compressed, the full manual would not fit on a standard 5-1/4" floppy disk. The manual on disk has been mailed to most of the major computer clubs, user groups, shareware disk dealers and bulletin board operators. You can obtain the manual on disk from one of these groups. Just ask for PC-File disk number 3, or the PC-File manual on disk. To keep costs down, disk 3 is not included with purchased copies of PC-File and cannot be bought directly from ButtonWare. Purchased copies include a complete printed User's Manual, typeset and bound. +---------------------------------+ | NOTES ON COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS | +---------------------------------+ ** PC-File 5.0 does not run under most DOS 2.x versions. In order to use PC-File 5.0, you must be running DOS 3.x or 4.x. We recommend you upgrade to DOS 3.3 or 4.0 since these versions are current. We did not discover these limitations until after the manuals and literature were printed. Unfortunately, these limitations will not be removed in this version of PC-File. +-------------------------+ | CHANGES TO PC-FILE 5.01 | +-------------------------+ PC-File 5.01 is a minor update to PC-File 5.0. The major difference is that PC-File 5.01 requires 450K available RAM -- 62K less than PC-File 5.0. Listed below are other minor changes and enhancements: ** PC-File 5.01 includes a new function, TOSTR(any). The TOSTR function converts data to a character string whether the data is currently character (text), numeric, date or logical data. The TOSTR function is especially useful when creating a user-defined index with two types of data (character and date, for example) or two dates. To create a user-defined index of two date fields, DATE1 and DATE2, you would enter the following for the index string: TOSTR(DATE1) + TOSTR(DATE2) ** The DESCEND() function now takes a character, numeric, date or logical field and produces a character result. This allows you to build a descending index using fields of different types. ** PC-File 5.01 now dials the modem directly through the hardware instead of using the BIOS. This should make PC-File 5.01 compatible with more hardware. ** A new configuration parameter has been added to allow you to specify the dialing string for your modem. This can be used to include modem commands or special dialing strings. For example, the following line in your profile will cause PC-File to send ATDT to the modem: /PHINIT,"ATDT" If you don't include the /PHINIT parameter in your profile, PC-File sends ATD to the modem. The /PHINIT parameter must be added by editing your profile with a text editor. ** A new configuration parameter, /NODESC, has been added allowing you to tell PC-File not to display the file descriptions when listing databases, reports, letters and graph files. Using the /NODESC parameter speeds up the display of files, since PC-File doesn't need to access each file to read the description. The /NODESC parameter must be added by editing your profile using a text editor. ** PC-File 5.01 takes advantage of Expanded memory, if available. It still requires 450K available RAM, regardless of how much expanded memory you have. Expanded memory will speed up PC-File in several ways. First, PC-File stores a copy of the program overlays in expanded memory, allowing PC-File to quickly access the same overlay again and again. Second, when dropping to DOS or displaying a graph, PC-File 5.01 uses expanded memory to store a copy of itself. ** You can now tell PC-File where to write temporary files using the environment variable called TMP. To set this variable, you type the following at the DOS prompt: SET TMP=drive:\subdirectory where "drive:\subdirectory" is the drive and subdirectory where the temporary files should be created. +---------------------------------+ | NOTES AND UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES | +---------------------------------+ There are some other text files on your disk worth looking at: CARD - a reference card (summary of commands) CHANGES - detailed account of differences between this and previous versions of PC-File PRODUCTS - Short review of ButtonWare products, and an order form RESPONSE - A user feedback survey. Very important to us. After the manual was sent to press, we added a few very useful features to PC-File. These features are documented below. ** In PC-File, (Alt)X is a toggle which forces PC-File to use the current index. Normally, PC-File switches to the index which allows the search to be performed as fast as possible. (Alt)X can be used to prevent PC-File from switching to the best index. ** We have included a utility program called SETU which can be used to change the next unique value. To run SETU, at a DOS prompt, type: SETU The SETU program asks you to provide the name of the database and the new unique value. You can also include the database filespec and the new unique value on the command line when you start SETU. For example: SETU C:\DATA\CLIENTS 1001 would change the unique value to 1001 in the database called CLIENTS on the C drive in the \DATA directory. +-----------------------------------------+ | ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO THE MANUAL | +-----------------------------------------+ ** These page numbers refer to the typeset, bound manual. They do not correspond to the manual on disk. Page 63, add the following line below the line with (Alt)V: (Alt)X force PC-File to use current index Page 89, add the following line under the field names section: Note: The first 10 characters of each field name must be unique. This is a limitation imposed by the dBASE file format. Page 95, third paragraph should read: For each data entry screen, you are allowed a maximum of 21 display rows. Page 115, add the following sentence to the third paragraph: (PgUp) and (PgDn) can be used to move from one entry screen to another. Page 121, fifth paragraph, second sentence should read: You can switch to the sort sequence index using (Alt)I. Page 136, fourth line from bottom should read: [SUBCMD*] (* is missing in manual) Page 224, last paragraph should read: The indexes are automatically built at the end of the import process. (The second sentence should be deleted.) Page 227, database option in third paragraph should read: - Database (.HDB, .DBF, .DBT, .NDS) Page 231, add the following sentence to the sixth paragraph: You can also run the SETU program to change the next unique value. (SETU is described above in the READ.ME file) Page 238, sixth example should read: (QTY*PRICE).2*A Page 265, fourth option (Rename an existing index) should be deleted. Page 266, AT() function should read: AT(char str1,char str2) Page 270, section 36.4 should be deleted. Page 342, eighth line should read: (date2(@DAY#,mdy) - date1(@DAY#,mdy)) Page 345, second line should read: /PHPORT,COMx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Jim Button is a founding member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. +----------------------------------------+ | SHAREWARE COPYING OUTSIDE OF THE USA | +----------------------------------------+ 1. Shareware distribution of ButtonWare programs is permitted only in the United States, Canada, England, and Australasia (the "shareable Area"). 2. For information on distribution of ButtonWare software in countries outside the shareable Area please contact your local distributor. 3. Jim Button, residing at Bellevue, State of Washington, U.S.A. and ButtonWare, Inc., State of Washington, U.S.A., hold the copyrights for the following products: PC-File III PC-Type PC-Stylist Baker's Dozen PC-File/R PC-Type+ PC-Tickle PC-Tickle PC-File+ PC-Type II PC-Calc PC-Calc+ PC-File:dB PC-File XD 4. On October 5th, 1987, we issued a statement that the aforementioned ButtonWare products may not be copied and shared outside the shareable Area. Furthermore, we stated that these ButtonWare products may no longer be advertised and sold as Shareware, Freeware, Public Domain or User-Supported Software outside the shareable Area. 5. Outside the shareable Area, ButtonWare software may not be downloaded from Public Libraries or Bulletin Boards, or copied from CD-ROM or CD-WORM disks onto other media, including, but not limited to, diskettes, hard disks, magnetic tapes or optical disks, for the intentional or unintentional purposes of sales or distribution, whether or not for financial gain. The issue of a sale or distribution whatsoever cannot be bypassed by claiming that only consulting time or the costs of a diskette or labor has been charged. 6. Any exportation from the shareable Area without authorization from the author is a violation of Copyright laws. 7. Violation of the above-mentioned is grounds for legal action by ButtonWare, Inc. for violation of Copyrights. 8. By using the aforementioned software, you agree to the statements above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We acknowledge the significant technical contribution of the Apex Database Library (A product of Apex Software Corporation) in the creation of this product. We highly recommend the APEX library to all programmers needing to access files that use the dBASE format.