Club 100 Library - 415/939-1246 BBS, 937-5039 NEWSLETTER, 932-8856 VOICE Instructions for LILDEX.TDD and LILDOS.TDD by Don Zeikel LILDEX.TDD, when used with POWR-DISK by Acroatix, or LILDOS.TDD when used with POWR-DOS by Acroatix, creates an alphabetical index of your Tandy Disk Drive disk file names. LILDEX and LILDOS operate identically; the following instructions apply to both WARNING WARNING IF YOU HAVE POWR-DISK, USE LILDEX. IF YOU HAVE POWR-DOS, USE LILDOS. OTHERWISE, A COLD START MAY RESULT. Since it uses a machine language routine, it only works on the Model 100 (or 102, I assume). It does not have a lot of whistles and bells, as it was intended to be little, allowing the most possible available RAM for the index ( hence the name LILDEX). It also does not have a print routine in it; there are plenty of fine text processors in the DL's, as well as excellent commercial programs, and different people will want to print out their indexes in different formats (for example, you may wish to double or triple space it to write in new files between re-printings of the index). Each time you run the program, you MUST re-enter all the disks you want listed. The trade-off of these limitations is, you can have a very long index, since it sorts in place. An index of over 20K is not impossible. To give you a feel for this, a 27-disk index with 545 files was 12.5K. This was using three digit names for each disk. DIRECTIONS FOR USE To begin, since LILDEX uses a machine language subroutine, save all files, as there is always the possiblity of a cold start. You must have POWR-DISK by Acroatix loaded and operating at its highest possible location (which puts MAXRAM at 60850). If it isn't, the program will end. You also should not have any other machine language programs loaded in high memory. If you do, the program will ask you if you want to [C]ontinue or [A]bort. If you press "C" it will overwrite whatever you have loaded below POWR-DISK. Have the Disk Drive attached and on. You will be asked if you want to save INDEX.DO already in RAM. Unless you have interrupted the program as described below, answer "N". If INDEX.DO is present, it will be killed. If it isn't, it doesn't matter. The program will then ask you for a disk name. I recommend that you use numerical names, for easy filing, but any name will work. After you enter the name, it will prompt you to load a disk and press ENTER again. This prompt also gives you a second chance to write the disk name, in case you made a mistake. You will then see the files being entered into INDEX.DO, with the disk name tagged onto them. After you have entered all your disks, enter * at the prompt, and it will load the sort routine and sort the file. This sorting may take several minutes. DO NOT RESET THE COMPUTER WHILE IT IS SORTING! A 12.5K files took about 5 minutes. When it is finished, it will beep and return to MENU. You will now have an INDEX.DO file with all of your disk files alphabetized, followed by the disk name. This can be printed with any text processor, or directly with the PRINT function of TEXT. ERRORS There should be enough error trapping in the program to cover most contingencies. If you have to break out of the program midway through, which could happen if you run out of memory, for instance, simply enter INDEX.DO and delete any of the file names, from the end of the file, that are from the disk you will be starting with. When you re-start the program, answer "Y" for saving INDEX.DO and you can pick up where you left off. CAUTION: If you plan to re-run the program with ALL your disks, answer "N" when it asks you if you want to save INDEX.DO. Otherwise, you will have some duplications of files previously entered. It's really easy, as long as you follow the prompts. CREDITS The sort routine was created by SORT.LDR in DL4 by Rick Perry, and LILDEX would have been impossible without it. I have no idea how it works, but it does! The portion of the program that loads the sort was created with BASBLD.BA in DL4 by Richard Haw. As you can see, the least of it was done by me. Any comments would be appreciated. Don Zeikel