Windows Cardfile Text Conversion Program

      The program WINCRD is a little program which converts TEXT ONLY 
files in Microsoft Windows Cardfile to and from ASCII files.

      The Cardfile program which comes with Windows is a handy utility
for keeping track of small lists, but has no easy way to import or 
export data. In my case, I wished to be able to extract data from a data 
base and put selected fields into a cardfile file, so I could check on 
things in windows without having to run and load the data base program. 

      The ASCII file generated (or read) has one line per card, with the 
data on the card being divided into fields. The index line is the first 
field, and each line of text on the card terminated with a CR/LF is 
another. The fields are separated by a TAB (ASCII 9) delimiter. A string 
of text on a card may occupy more than one line, but still be considered 
one field, if each line is not terminated with a CR/LF. The manner in 
which the card was typed will determine this. Although this ASCII file 
format is not that common, I used it because cardfile does not put tabs 
in the cards, it expands them to spaces.

      When converting an ASCII file into cardfile form, no sorting is
done on the index lines, which means that when it is read in, it will 
not be in the correct order if the ASCII file was not. Cardfile seems to 
have no problem with this if the resulting file is merged into a 
cardfile. (For a new file, simply merge into a new file with a blank card,
and delete the blank card). No checking is done on the length of the 
index line, the first field must be less than 39 characters, and the 
remainder of the text must fit on a card.

      Users converting large files should be warned, there seems to
be a limit of 630 cards in a Cardfile file. The Wincrd program will 
convert an ASCII file with more, and Cardfile seems to be able to read 
it, but can not save it back out. An error saying not enough disk space 
is generated. (At the time I was getting this error I had 5Meg free, 630 
cards puts the amount of memory needed for tracking the index lines 
[first part of file], just under the 32768 byte mark. I'm guessing it 
is just an indexing limitation of the write routine, but who knows.)

      The source code for the program, along with a .PIF file for the 
program are included. Anyone wishing to modify, expand, or whatever with 
the source is more than welcome to. I apologize in advance for the 
hashed structure of the program. I'd never programed in Pascal, so 
having heard good things about Turbo Pascal, picked one up, sat down 
with the manual, and this came out a day later. 

Richard Haw [76257,3346]