.IF DSK1.C3 JACK'S JOTTINGS by Jack Sughrue Box 459, E.^Douglas, MA 01516 [This copyrighted article originally appeared in ASGARD NEWS and may be reprinted in non-commercial TI newsletters.] GOOD TIBINGS! In some recent articles we talked about the best buy of the year for 99ers: Dennis Faherty's TI-BASE (TEXAMENTS, 244 Mill Rd., Yaphank, NY 11980 - $24.95 plus $1.50 S&&H for two disks [one a tutorial] and 78-page manual). It still is. In the interim between articles Dennis has improved his already-superb program remarkably. He readily incorporated many good suggestions made by newsletter authors around the whole country. At the time of this writing (March 1989) TI-BASE is at Version 2.1. The manual - now almost double in size - has been completely done over, too (except that it is still printed blue on grey), and contains much better explanations and tutorials and some descriptions of the added and changed items. These changes were done so quickly and so professionally that my original very high assessment of this data base rose even higher. This base is becoming so popular that many templates are being created to provide easier and better access to all users. Soon there will be templates in every club library in the world, the way there are TI-ARTIST pictures and TI-WRITER letter files and MULTIPLAN setups. It will stand alongside TI-ARTIST as a standard for this computer. It probably already has. Now that we've opened up TIB by designing our own template (see last ASGARD NEWS and/or recent IMPACT/99 columns in newsletters), we should be able to tie up the rest of the uses of this program fairly easily. But, first, a little review. Always make backups of your originals before doing anything else; particularly as TIB requires the write-protect tab to be off so changes can be made right on the disk. Next initialize a disk for your data. If you have two or more drives you can do this DURING the program with the FORMAT command, but it's still more convenient to have one or more ready. Okay. Now boot the disk. Note that it is much faster than the original version. You'll be prompted for date (Just type in 03/17/89 or whatever.) and all files created during this time will contain this date. ENTERing this will bring up STATUS report: DATDISK=DSK2. (your DB files will go on Drive 2) PRGDISK=DSK1 (Drive 1 for your TIB system master) PRINTER=PIO. (port) LINE^^^=080 (number of columns wide) PAGE^^^=056 (number of lines long) HEADING=ON (all headings will be printed) TALK^^^=ON (commands on screen during execution) SPACE^^=01 (spaces between fields) RECNUM^=ON (displays record numbers from 0) LSPACE^=0256 (space made for LOCALS) DATE^^^=03/17/89 (as mentioned above) FCTN/7 will bring up some handy DV/80 "Help" files at most points along the way or you could print them out as docs through your FUNNELWEB or TIW. On the STATUS listed above, all that is necessary to make changes is to use the SET command at the dot in the lower left of the screen. To change your datadisk from Drive 2 to Drive 3, for example, all you have to type is SET DATDISK=DSK3.^and press ENTER. Next, to see that all is A-OK, just type CLEAR (and ENTER each time to perform the function) to get rid of all the junk on the screen, and then type DISPLAY STATUS. Your setup will be redisplayed with your changes listed. Very easy and quick. Last time we made a database of videos. I chose to do that rather than the simpler address base because I wanted to show how such a base could be used in a personal, different way. Most of the letters I've received seem to be more concerned about whether the writer could find a USE for TIB. Trust me: the uses are as unlimited as your imagination. Most people collect things: videos, stamps, teapots, watercolors, records/tapes, books, candle snuffers, quotations. TIB can help you put order into your collection. If it's at all valuable, it's important to have records in case of fire or theft or wills. TIB could also be used to sort important household items: insurances, car papers, and so on. It is ideal for taxes. It's perfect for businesses. Exceptional for names and addresses. Wonderful for inventories. For making labels. For identifications. For mathematical (spreadsheet-style) computations. For teachers. For secretaries. For plumbers. For housewives and househusbands. For clergymen. For butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. In short, I can't think of an occupation (or hobby) where TIB wouldn't be very handy. As I promised last time, though, I would list and define of the common commands used by TIB. The DISPLAY and PRINT commands are powerful tools. They let you display on screen (or print hardcopies) of any combinations of displays you wish. If you have done a LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, STREET, CITY, STATE, ZIP, PHONE, COMMENT file and sorted it on LASTNAME, you could display in columns any combination of the above. At the dot, just type DISPLAY ALL FIRSTNAME LASTNAME PHONE. What I will get is a listing of the first name, last name, and phone number of everyone in the base as SORTed on the last name in alphabetical order. I could just as easily asked for the STATE sorted on CITY or whatever. I can have as much or as little information displayed or printed out as I want and sorted any which way. If I said PRINT ALL FIRSTNAME LASTNAME PHONE, I would have gotten a hardcopy of the above. SNAP instantly dumps the current screen to your printer, so you can DISPLAY and SNAP for a quick hardcopy. For you PRBASE, CFS, NAVARONE, DB 500 or whatever owners, TIB will CONVERT your files. Whew! That saves a lot of sweat and time. FCTN/9 will abort a process; SPACEBAR will pause it; S will continue execution. The * will permit comments (but they hog memory); the ";" will permit continuation of commands to another line; the "|" is like && in XB (sticks together things). The PRINTER control codes include FF, formfeed; LF, linefeed; CR, carriage return; DS, doublestrike; UL, underline; EX, expanded; CM, compressed (and very useful); IT, italics; B, bold; SPS, superscript; SBS, subscript; HT, horizontal tab; ST, set tab; NM, normal. You can also go into Draft or Near Letter Quality modes. You can APPEND records or APPEND BLANK (s), CATALOG DISK, FORMAT (to initialize), change COLOR (s), DELETE DATABASE or RECORD or FILE; RECALL deleted files; COPY files, MOVE files, MODIFY STRUCTURE; PACK, WAIT, LIST, SCROLL, SELECT (a different active database), READ, EDIT, FIND, SORT. Expressions such as ELSE, IF, WHILE (and corresponding ENDWHILE and ENDIF) are also part of TIB's massive open structure. The powerful DO command acts like RUN in BASIC or XB. When you have created a template you wish to activate (such as a label program), DO LABEL is the way you would execute it (if "LABEL" was what you had named it). The best way to learn to use TI-BASE is to own it and play with it. Right now it is one of the safest small investments in the TI World. The returns for such an extraordinary program are enormous, and the wealth of information surrounding it continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There has been a large number of tutorials and reviews and template creations published worldwide on this program. Martin Smoley and Bill Gaskill have written the most extensive and lucid and intelligent articles I have seen to date on TIB. Smoley, whose articles originally appeared in Northcoast 99ers' newsletters, has a DSSD disk available in user groups that not only includes his excellent tutorials (which may be printed freely by any TI newsletter), but he has also created many, many templates. TIB templates (such as labels) make the work easier and the value greater. Gaskill has written TIB reviews for MICROpendium, but he has written some very fine tutorials in the L.A.^TopIcs newsletter, another great resource. Harry Brashear of the Western New York 99ers has been putting together disks of everything written about and for TI-BASE. Getting any (or ALL) the materials mentioned above would be the very best way to develop the best possible TIB use for your own personal and/or business needs. [If this article is reprinted, please be kind enough to place the author on your newsletter subscription list. Thank you. J.S.] Հ