Press [ALT]+[P] for a printed copy of this document... Remember to set up your printer first! The INSTALLATION instructions are now separately supplied 'on-disc'. See the file INSTALL.DOC. Install using 'B:SUBMIT INSTALL'. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E ABRIDGED EVALUATION COPY DOCUMENTATION V2.13 - PCW 8000-9000 SERIES U N I C O R N S O F T W A R E 60 Shortwood Ave HUCKNALL Nottinghamshire NG15 6DA Program and documentation Copyright (c) M. L. Shaw 1987-1989 All rights reserved This demo program is supplied under the 'Shareware' principle. Under NO circumstances must it be commercially distributed, resold, amended, or given away by commercial software houses unless express written permission has been obtained from Unicorn Software. Neither must it be distributed by private individuals or authorised distributors without the official documentation supplied by Unicorn. This program is issued to the user on a licence of 30 days, after which period the user must register it's use with Unicorn Software and pay the appropriate registration fee or pass on the software to another user without charge or destroy this copy by reformatting the supplied disc. No responsibility will be accepted for damage caused or loss of profits etc through the use of this program. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- L E G A L W A R N I N G THIS PROGRAM IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOCOSCRIPT is a trademark of Locomotive Software. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research Inc. All other trademarks etc. are acknowledged. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E C O N T E N T S 1 Conditional file-splitter and file-merger, Keybase Maintain 2 Further Installation Notes. (Main instructions are 'On-disc'.) Resetting the screen colours. PCW 8256 Models - Memory requirements. 3 Loading directly from CP/M. Write-protection of discs. 4 Specifications. 6 Automatic loading - 'Start-of-day' or 'Booting-up' About the manual - keystrokes. 7 Opening menu.- Selecting a disc drive - Choosing a file 8 File Manager Menu. 9 Housekeeping Menu - Options 10 Creating a new file 12 Setting a password 13 Cloning a file 14 Main Menu - Searching the Demo files. Edit report template. 15 Registration Information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE-SPLITTER AND MERGER - KEYBASE MAINTAIN Please note that these program modules which enable conditional file- splitting, merging, export to SuperCalc2 (TM) and file-repair are NOT supplied with the Keybase Demo. These will be supplied, along with a replacement disc and the latest manual on registering your use of Keybase and the return of #24.95 + #1.00 P&P for the full non-shareware version. For more details, write to:- Unicorn Software, 60 Shortwood Avenue, Hucknall, Notts, NG15 6DA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E INSTALLATION RESETTING SCREEN COLOURS FROM WITHIN KEYBASE Keybase is configured to set the screen display to 'reverse video', i.e with dark letters on a light background, in order to improve contrast. Some users may wish to reset the screen to the normal 'colours'. Most of the text-input options used from within the Main Menu or Edit screens give the option to set the screen colours. Press [ALT]+[R] or [RELAY] to set to 'reverse' video and [ALT]+[N] to set to 'normal'. You may alter the screen colours as many times as you wish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE : PCW 8256 MODELS As parts of Keybase will reside on drive M: whilst using the program, it is VERY strongly recommended that a memory upgrade to 512k is installed in any PCW 8256 used in conjunction with Keybase. Add-on memory packs and boards are now available, which can take the total memory of the PCW to over 2000k, giving the potential for massive files on drive M:. Especially if used with a hard disc. Adding a second (720k) disc will also bring much benefit in terms of maximum file size as the 180k discs will limit the user to around 200-600 typical sized records. A 20 field x 50 character record will be almost 1k in size, which uses roughly 1-2k per record in disc-storage terms after including space used by the index file. Economic file design will increase disc-usage dramatically, poor design can halve useful disc space. Keybase-2 is designed to be used primarily with the data-files on drive M: for speed of operation. You may use the disc drives if you wish but Keybase will not perform as quickly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- README : ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION Some versions may contain the file 'README' which will contain the latest details of amendments to Keybase not contained in the manual. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E LOADING DIRECTLY FROM CP/M Although, after installation, you will have created an automatic loading 'start-of-day' disc, you may still load Keybase from CP/M, avoiding the loss of files on drive M: which would be caused by resetting the PCW. At the CP/M 'A>' prompt, insert side one (A) of your INSTALLED Keybase 'start-of-day' disc into drive A: and enter the following command. SUBMIT PROFILE (and then press [RETURN]) Keybase MUST be installed, after which it will load automatically. Note that your start-of-day disc must NOT be write-protected!. See section 2, chapter 2.5, page 27 of Your PCW (8000) manual. See also chapter 1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITE PROTECTION OF DISCS - WARNING! Discs for use with Keybase, either program or data discs, must NOT BE WRITE-PROTECTED. The write-protect tab must, depending on the type of discs, be pulled up or across to obscure the write-protect hole. If a program disc is write-protected then it will NOT load automatically. If a data-disc is write-protected then it will be unuseable by Keybase and will cause an error to be reported. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E KEYBASE-2 DATABASE V2.13 Information - December 1989 Auto-boot from CP/M ? Y All program modules interlinked ? Y Text editing modes Insert & Break-in Modes Maximum No. of records - Theoretical 32767 180k Disc (PCW8256) Typical Approx 500 720k Disc (PCW8512) Typical Approx 2000 Data files on which drives ? A,B,M, A and B (Split) Split option to use both drives A: and B: ? Y Maximum Split file-size 1.2 megabytes-PCW 9512 Maximum number of fields 20 Maximum number of indexed fields 8 Indexing method Preset on fields 1 to 8 Automatic secondary indexing ? Y Duplicate index entries allowed ? Y Maximum characters per field 60 Maximum record size (characters) 1000 Excluding Titles Maximum field title length 25 Field types Alphanumeric only Recommended date format for indexing - Swedish (YYYYMMDD) Automatic justification of data (Left/right) ? Y Typical record access time <1 second approx using M: Field to field calculations No Built-in filecopy to & from drives A: B: & M: ? Y From file manager . Filecopy copies datafiles & auxiliary files ? Y Copies all rqd files. Use delete -> & <- & cursor keys to edit text ? Y Plus PCW keys Password Protection ? Y Password is hidden on the screen ? Y (Replaced by a '*') Stored password scrambled in file ? Y Records number of times file is accessed Y Context sensitive help ? Y Menus & single keystroke operation ? Y Use & store phrases to disc (cut & paste) ? Y Automatic load/store Auto load stored phrases ? Y From data disc. R E P O R T G E N E R A T O R ------------------------------------------ Search conditions available - One per field/line. Contains text/value ? Y Does not contain text/value ? Y Equal to text/value ? Y Not equal to text/value ? Y Less than text/value ? Y Greater than text/value ? Y Less than or equal to text/value ? Y Greater than or equal to text/value ? Y Contains either text1 OR text2 ? Y Contains text1 AND text2 ? Y Numerically greater than a but less than b ? Y Find all matching non-empty fields ? Y Find all matching non-empty fields and total ? Y Find all empty fields ? Y K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E R E P O R T G E N E R A T O R ----------------------------------------- AND - OR Searching ? Y Maximum number of conditions set per record 20 =To No. of fields Maximum conditions set per field/line 1 (As other programs) Any combination of tests on a record ? Y Conditional jumps in current index ? Y Save set search pattern to a disc-file ? Y Auto-load search pattern on opening a file ? Y Saves selected fields to o/p and current title ? Y Output search report to a disc file ? Y Report disc-output types ASCII, CSV, RANDOM ACCESS Call up last report to screen by keypress ? Y [I] From Main Menu. Report title centred on printed o/p ? Y Dependent on pitch set Output to drives - A,B & M ASCII output type Exact echo of screen Output format Horizontal (columnar) Vertical (label) Swap output format with one keystroke ? Y Turn off field titles for label output ? Y Output to PCW printer ? Y Toggle output on-off ? Y Output pitches available (Char per inch) 10, 12, 17, PS Auto default to 17 cpi if report too wide ? Y Auto reset to 10 cpi after printing ? Y Automatically turns printer o/p off when done ? Y Set printer to italic print ? Y Running numeric total of field data on report ? Y Mean and standard deviation calculated ? Y U T I L I T I E S -------------------------------------------------------- Erase datafiles ? Y Rename datafiles ? Y Disc directory - all drives ? Y Disc directory shows free disc space ? Y Protects files from a disc-full error ? Y Enter & store report title ? Y Conditional file splitting ? Y File merging (data import) ? Y File splitting conditional on search pattern ? Y File output types Random-access Comma-separated (CSV) File conversion (MAINTAIN) program ? Y Convert ASCII file to CSV file ? Y Convert CSV file to Keybase file ? Y Convert Random-Access to Keybase file ? Y Link data to a spreadsheet ? Y (CSV files) Recommended spreadsheet ? SuperCalc 2 Output to Locoscript 1 & 2 ? Y (Via ASCII files) LocoScript/LocoMail/LocoFile to Keybase ? Y (Via ASCII files) Set screen to 'reversed' or 'normal' video ? Y Example training files supplied ? Y Unicorn reserve the right to alter or amend specification without notice. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E KEYBASE - AUTOMATIC LOADING Follow the instructions in the Installation section of this manual to produce a working Keybase program disc. Once Keybase has been installed according to these instructions Keybase should load automatically on this initial occasion. Keybase MUST be installed properly. To load Keybase on subsequent occasions, turn on the computer or reset it by pressing the [SHIFT]+[EXTRA]+[EXIT] keys simultaneously and insert side 1 of the installed Keybase program disc to 'Boot-Up' Keybase. Alternatively, to load manually, if at the CP/M A> prompt, place side 1 (a) of the Keybase program disc in drive A: and type:- SUBMIT PROFILE (and then press [RETURN]) Keybase will now load. These are the ONLY approved ways of loading Keybase. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- USING THIS MANUAL This manual is extremely abridged and is designed only to give you a 'get- you-going' guide to the demo version of Keybase-2. The full manual is around 80 pages long. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEYSTROKES When using this manual, in all cases any letter or group of letters enclosed between square brackets denotes a key to press, i.e [G] means press the letter 'G' key. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E KEYBASE OPENING MENU - SELECT DISC DRIVE(S) After the copyright screen(s), press the [RETURN] key to start Keybase, you will next see the Opening Menu which will request you to:- Insert Disc(s) - Then Enter Drive To Use - Split or Quit : A-B-M S-Q You have the options to select and work on drives A:, B:, M:, 'Split' the files between A: and B:, to Quit to Maintain if the disc containing the Maintain program is in drive A:, or Quit to CP/M if Maintain is not found. The Split option is almost identical to selecting drive A:, except that the datafile (.DAT) is kept on drive B: enabling larger files to be created. The two discs should be kept clearly labelled and always be used as a pair. The efficiency of this option depends on the structure of the file. Note that the Split option should only be used with dual-disc PCW's, not with single-disc PCW's else frequent disc-swapping will be required. Most users will not require to use this option. Using a twin-drive PCW 9512 with the 'Split' option, a massive datafile of up to approx 1.25 Mb may be created without the need for a hard-disc. This may even be loaded to drive M: for speed-searching if a ramdrive expansion kit is added. Insert side 2 (B) of the Keybase program disc which contains a selection of demo datafiles, into drive A:, and press the [A] key. You will have selected and logged onto drive A: and a directory of demonstration datafiles will be shown on the screen. The next prompt will request you to choose a filename:- Enter Filename [HOMES ] Either type in the name of one of the current files up to a maximum of 8 characters (without entering the '.DEF' part of the filename). Or just type-in the name of a NEW file you want to create, i.e. TEST or MYFILE, etc, pressing [RETURN] or [ENTER] to pass the name to the program. Note that if a file exists on the selected drive, Keybase will automatically find and enter the name of the first file for you. You may either amend, use the Delete keys to erase of overtype this or press the [RETURN] key to select this file. As a shortcut, instead of typing in the name of any other existing file in full,- pressing the DOWN, [ò], arrow selects the name of next file on the disc - pressing the UP, [^], arrow selects a previous file. To abandon and return to the startup menu, press the [EXIT] key or just press [RETURN] if a filename is not displayed within the entry-bars]). If a password has been set to the file, either on creation or by Amendment, then you MUST enter it now in order to be able to proceed to the File Manager Menu and on to the rest of the Keybase program. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E FILE MANAGER MENU The next menu you should see after selecting a current file and entering any password is the File Manager Menu which will give the options to - Edit, Search, Amend, Delete, Inspect, Copy, Quit. Press the key corresponding to the option you require, i.e the keys:- [H], [E], [S], [A], [D], [I], [C], [R], [Q] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE MANAGER OPTIONS [H] Display a Help Screen. [E] Open the file for editing or searching. Enter the EDIT screen directly to enter data into your file. [S] Open the file for editing or searching. Enter the MAIN MENU directly. You can enter the EDIT DATA screen from the MAIN MENU. [A] Amend - Change field titles and set or clear a password. Move the cursor up or down to select the field or password as required then use the left-right cursors to edit into the item, or in the case of a blank password just type one in. Don't forget to press the [RETURN] key after changing each item. Press [EXIT] to write the changes to the disc, or [CAN] to cancel. [D] Delete - Erase a set of Keybase files permanently. You may delete the file you have selected by pressing D. You will be asked to confirm deletion twice to prevent careless or accidentall erasure of a file. The contents of the file will be erased but the file (FILENAME.VAR) which contains details about the file structure will be retained and may be re-used to re-create a file with the same format. [I] Inspect - A quick way of checking what is in a file. Pressing [I] shows the current format of the file, the number of times it has been opened and displays the first record in the file if present. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E HOUSEKEEPING MENU OPTIONS [C] Copy - a complete Keybase file set between drives. This option allows the file on the selected or 'logged-on' drive to be copied to any other drive. Each datafile set consists of four basic files. These will be copied along with any ancillary files belonging to that file. There is little difference in speed between the Keybase COPY facility and CP/M's PIP program on small files. Keybase is more convenient to use. If you select the same drive as the logged drive it will be treated as Quit. Press any key to abandon the copying process. Press [H] for Copy Help. Press [Q] or [RETURN] or [ENTER] to quit. [R] Rename a file-set. Rename the DAT, KEY, DEF and ACC files of which each file is comprised. Also erase any files which match the old filename or the new filename to avoid confusing Keybase. [Q] Pressing [Q] or [RETURN], Quits and returns to the Opening Menu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E CREATING A NEW FILE Insert a FORMATTED disc in the correct drive if A:(PCW8000=180k) or B:(720k), then press the key corresponding to the drive, either [A], [B] or [M]. If there are no 'VAR' files which must accompany each datafile on the selected drive then Keybase will state:- No Datafiles : Swap Disc Or Create File : S-C Press [C] to continue file-creation, [S] to change the disc or drive. Alternatively, if there are files already on the disc then these will be shown on the screen and you will be asked to enter a filename. If you want to create a new file, just type in a filename, which must obviously be different from any existing file. The next file creation prompt will ask:- Creating A New File : How Many Fields (1-20) > -- Just pressing [RETURN] or entering zero quits the option and returns you to the Opening Menu. Values higher than 20 will be rejected. The first eight fields of your file are ALWAYS used by Keybase to generate the separate 'Key-Indexes' by which your data will be listed and accessed. Fields after the eighth will cannot be indexed without altering the file structure using Maintain. Each field may be between 1 and 60 characters long, with a maximum record size of 1000 characters or approximately 1k. Ideally, fields to contain numeric data should be no longer than 20 characters. If you don't observe this, the data may not index correctly. 20 is given as the standard length. The PCW's screen will clear to give an entry screen for the field lengths. You wil note that Keybase has already given your fields a temporary title, 'Line 1' to 'Line n' where 'n' is the number of fields you have chosen and it has also given each field a default length value of 20 characters which you may either accept or alter. After the field titles, and to the middle to the screen will be the entry- area for the field lengths, next, the type of field will be shown, either 'Keyed' or 'Normal', finally Keybase will draw out the record's appearance to help you design your record. Type-in a value for each field length then press the [RETURN] key. Note that you can move around and alter these using the cursor keys until you are satisfied with your record. The structure of the file CAN be changed later-on, by creating a new file with the different structure and using the Data-Export facility from the full version of Keybase-2, to export data from an old file into a new one with a different structure. This is quite easy to do, but you would be better advised in spending a litle time designing your record structure before creating it. Once you are satisfied with the structure of the record, press the [EXIT] key to the right of the spacebar to continue or press the [CAN] key to the top-right of the keyboard to cancel file-creation altogether. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E EDITING THE FIELD TITLES AND PASSWORD Once you have left the record-definition screen, you will enter the 'Amend Details' screen which can also be entered from the File Manager each time you next open the file for use. From this screen you can add or remove a password, and change the field titles:- Password [SECRET ] Line 1 [Name ] Line 2 [Telephone ] Line 3 [Age ] Line 4 [Credit Rating ] Amend Password or Field Titles : [CUT]=Remove : [EXIT]=Done : [CAN]=Abandon Keybase has already given the file a set of field titles, but it is unlikely that you will want to keep these, so use the cursor keys to move up or down the record, along with the normal delete [DEL->] and [<-DEL] keys to the top-right hand side of the keyboard to edit these 'default' values as required. You may enter this screen again from the File Manager at a later date. A field title or password may be upto 25 characters long. You can press the [CUT] key to remove a password or a field title that you may have entered. Keybase doesn't like to have fields without titles though!, so if you [CUT] out a field title then the program will substitute the usual 'Line 1' etc in it's place when you have done. When you are satisfied with the result, press the [EXIT] key to write the changes to the disc or press the [CAN] key to cancel the operation, keeping the values already set and returning to the File Manager screen. The password will be 'scrambled' before being written to disc. This prevents someone. (Even yourself) from inspecting it by using the CP/M 'TYPE FILENAME.DEF' command or using DUMP.COM or SID.COM etc. The password MUST be entered before you can gain access to the file the next time around, so write it down and don't forget it!!. Should you forget your password, you will need to contact Unicorn, who will, for a small service fee, reconstruct the file to remove the password. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E CREATING A NEW FILE CLONING A FILE All of the details of a file's structure and VAR-iable information such as a password and field titles which can be changed, are held in a file with the filetype 'DEF', i.e. MYFILE.DEF. This file alone may be used as a quick method to create an exact copy of, or 'Clone' a file's structure. You may 1, copy this file, either by renaming it in the process, to the same disc using CP/M's PIP program, i.e:- PIP NEWFILE.DEF=OLDFILE.DEF or 2, by copying the file using any name, to another drive, i.e:- PIP B:HOMES.DEF=A:HOMES.DEF or, PIP A:HOMES2.DEF=M:HOMES.DEF etc. See your Amstrad CP/M manual for more details on using the PIP.COM program. Or 3, by using Keybase to copy the WHOLE File-Set (DAT,DEF,KEY) to another drive, then opening and erasing the file from the File Manager Menu. The WHOLE file-set MUST be copied in order that the file-set can be opened properly then deleted. Keybase will refuse to open an incomplete file-set unless the DEF file is on it's own. The DEF file will be retained by Keybase during deletion. This is possibly the most convenient method to use especially if you are using drive M: for the new file. Once the DEF file is alone on the disc, (i.e. the matching DAT/KEY files have been deleted - in example 3), you may, starting from the Opening Menu, choose the drive containing the copied 'DEF' file by pressing the key corresponding to the drive letter. Enter the name of the DEF file (without the '.DEF' part of the filename!), and press the [RETURN] key. Keybase will realise that you may want to use the DEF file and will ask you:- Use FILENAME.DEF To Create A New File : Y-N Where FILENAME is the name of your DEF file. To quit, press [N] (No), or press [Y] (Yes) to automatically create and open the new file for editing etc, - you will first be presented with the File Manager Menu. If a password was set to the old DEF file, it will, in this case, be ignored and removed. The field titles and password may, of course, be amended from the File Manager Menu as soon as the file is created. You will find this method saves an enormous amount of time if you wish to create an empty duplicate file. Although there are other ways for Keybase to create new Keybase files or 'daughter' files containing data by using the Search & Extract facility and Maintain which will be mentioned later. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E MAIN MENU - SEARCHING THE DEMO FILE Once you are familiar with the Disc Housekeeping Menu, You may proceed to open the file for Searching by pressing the [S] key.You will be presented with a number of options from the Main Menu, listed from A to Z on V2.13. To actually enter data into a file, option A is used which loads the Edit Screen as from the File Manager Menu. The HOMES file however, actually contains sufficient data to search so we will go on to search it. Press the [G] key from the Main Menu. After a few seconds a 'blank' or template record should appear on the screen. This will be used to enter your search pattern for producing the report. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAIN MENU OPTION [G] - EDIT REPORT TEMPLATE The type of report which will be produced depends on the parameters or 'search pattern' entered. Option [G] allows you to edit or enter this pattern before running a search. If a search pattern has not been entered then Keybase will assume that you want to list out the whole file. Pressing the [E] or UP arrow key key allows you to start editing the search pattern an places the cursor initially in field number one. You should see that a search pattern has already been entered for you if the HOMES demo file has not been altered. This search pattern requires no further alteration and so a report may be run straight away. You could come back to this screen and change it later if you like. Note that, before commencing the search, you may change the type of output by pressing [D] (DUMP) to change from column-type output to address-label type output, and also, in case you are actually going to print out address labels you can press [T] to turn the field titles off or on. Also you can turn on or off the output to the printer and change the size of the printer output although if your report won't fit across the page on the PCW printer then Keybase will automatically reset to the smaller print size. You can also tell Keybase which fields to print out, what key-index to use for the search and even the order in which you want it listed. For help with any of these options press [H] to display the matching HELP page. (Use [ALT]+[H] whilst editing your search pattern.) To RUN the report as set, press the [R] key and the file-search will begin. Once the search has ended, you will be prompted to 'Press [RETURN]', doing so will take you back to the Main Menu. K E Y B A S E D A T A B A S E REGISTRATION INFORMATION Now you have successfully produced your first report you may want to alter some of the parameters,- list out different fields, list out the data in reverse order, change the key-index. There are many powerful features in Keybase which can be learned from the manual, the Help pages, or by experimenting. This introduction is not intended to give a full explanation of Keybase. You must register your use and send for the full manual. The best and most natural way for most people to learn is by experimenting at their leisure. You cannot damage your PCW with any of the Keybase options and additionally, providing you copy the file you are working on to drive M: by using the Housekeeping Menu's COPY command then you can't damage the demo disc supplied. It is important that you READ THE MANUAL!! So register soon and get a copy! If you want help with a particular problem then registered users may WRITE to Unicorn. You will find that there will be an additional advice sheet for your problem. Failing this, help will be given on a individual basis. Please do NOT telephone as telephone support CANNOT be provided. Written support will always be given, but, it must be stressed, that this applies ONLY TO USERS REGISTERED WITH UNICORN SOFTWARE. Please remember to enclose a stamped-addressed-envelope for your reply. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE REGISTER THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND SEND THE APPROPRIATE REGISTRATION FEE. YOU WILL RECEIVE THE LATEST FULL VERSION OF KEYBASE AND THE FULL MANUAL PLUS USER SUPPORT. IT IS HOPED THAT YOU WILL HAVE ENJOYED USING THIS DEMO. PLEASE PASS A COPY ON TO ANOTHER PCW USER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS PROGRAM AND THE ABRIDGED MANUAL IS COPYRIGHT PLEASE DO NOT 'PIRATE' THIS PROGRAM OR PARTS OF IT. YOU WILL BE BREAKING U.K. LAW AND LIABLE TO PROSECUTION. PIRACY ALSO DESTROYS THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT THAT BROUGHT YOU KEYBASE IN THE FIRST PLACE! --------------------------------------------------------------------------