S$AVER.BA Documentation - by David Dunn Thomas GEnie's Laptops RoundTable CLUB 100 Library - 415/939-1246 BBS, 937-5039 NEWSLETTER, 932-8856 VOICE S$AVER.BA is intended to save money by easing the comparison shopping calculations. Prices of fifty selected items are recorded in .DO files, one for each store being priced. The program then provides 1) a screen display of the total cost of the items in each store, and 2) a print out with columnar listing of each item, the price in each store, and the total cost in each store. Operation: The first step is to record the prices found in each of three stores for the fifty selected items. All three stores do NOT have to be entered in one run of the program; when prices have been recorded for one store, the computer may safely be turned off because those prices are recorded in a .DO file. Select <1> from the opening menu, then the proper store from the "Record Prices Section" and enter the price per item as prompted. Note that it is up to the user to determine pricing method: one may prefer to record prices of sugar in 5 pound bags, the next might prefer to use one pound boxes --- the main thing is for each user to maintain the same standard for each store. Prices of fifty identical items from all three stores must be recorded before the other options are available from the opening menu - but they don't have to be recorded in one use of the program. With all three stores recorded, option <2> provides a screen display of the total cost of all fifty items for each of the three stores. Option <3> will send to printer, if properly set up, a columnar listing of the product, price of each item in each store, and total cost of the items per store. The print out is designed for a one page listing - one reason for 50 items. Customizing: Changes to the DATA lines are all that is necessary in order to adapt S$AVER for individual needs. T'would be easiest to make these changes to the program while it is still in TEXT format, before LOADing to BASIC. Line 90 contains the names of the three stores; change those as needed being sure that each has at least four characters [ANDP rather than A&P] and contains no more than ten characters. Technical note: the first four characters of the store name are used by the program to create, and then write/read, files containing needed data. Lines 100-104 contain the fifty products, including a general variety that should provide a good basis for satisfactory comparison shopping. Those items are listed below to enable users to plan their store pricing visits in advance - perhaps with this list in hand. Fifty products (with line numbers) --------------------------------- 100 eggs milk butter margarine bread sugar sweetener cooking oil coffee decaf tea flour 101 chicken (fresh) chicken (frozen) hamburger ground round steak pork chops ham turkey 102 paper towels toilet paper paper napkins hand soap dishwasher soap liquid soap all purpose cleanser laundry detergent 103 lettuce cabbage tomatoes carrots peas spinach onions potatoes broccoli apples pears peaches cherries oranges grapefruit grapes 104 carrots (frozen) peas (frozen) spinach (frozen) broccoli (frozen) peaches (frozen) cherries (frozen)