The PC-SIG Library 10

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Text File | 1991-02-05 | 25KB | 742 lines

Welcome to the TEST series of programs Ver. 2.0. The purpose of the programs is to facilitate learning and keep track of the progress. This is part of the documentation for the programs TEST, TRAIN and TDEBUG. The encoded file DOC.TST presents the same material in Training format. Programs copyright 1987-1991 Frank Lendaro - P.O.Box 241021, Douglas AK 99824 LICENCING AND ORDERING INFORMATION DISCLAIMER Frank Lendaro hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Frank Lendaro will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason. In no event shall liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to use software regardless of the form of the claim. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software. LICENSE The TEST series of programs TEST.EXE, TRAIN.EXE, TDEBUG.EXE, and TENCODE.EXE are not, and have never been, in the public domain. Non-registered users are granted a limited, 90-day license to use the programs to determine whether or not they meet their needs. Continued use of the programs beyond the 90-day valuation time period requires registration of the package. Use of non-registered copies of the TEST programs beyond the original evaluation period is strictly prohibited. No one may modify the programs for any reason, in any way, including but not limited to, decompiling-compiling, patching, disassembling, or reverse engineering the program. These restrictions also apply to all TEST program screen displays such as the opening screen, and all other proprietary output. The Shareware version may be copied and distributed to others, subject to the above restrictions and the following: All programs in the series must be copied in unmodified form, including the file containing this license information. Complete documentation must be included. No copying fee of any type may be assessed other than basic charges for the cost of the copying medium. The TEST programs may not be distributed with any other software or hardware product(s) without the express written permission of Frank Lendaro. Sysops (bulletin board SYStem OPerators) may make the Shareware version available as long as all above conditions are met. CORPORATE SITE LICENCE When granted, this is a license for use of the software within a single company, and is not transferable. This allows internal use and copying of the software by as many users/machines as contracted for. An unlimited Site License allows unlimited copying of the software for internal use. Distribution, repackaging, or reselling of the software to third parties is not allowed. DISTRIBUTION No blanket authorization has been issued for commercial distribution of these products. ORDERING INFORMATION In order to register for the use of the programs on a single computer, send a check for $11.88, shipping included, to the author. Non-U.S. residents: please send checks or money orders drawn on U.S. Banks or in U.S. Funds. Write for State, Corporate and Site licence prices. ORDER FORM Remit To: Frank Lendaro P.O.Box 241021 Douglas, AK 99824 Qty. Description Amount ____ Test series of programs V.2.x $11.88 ea _________ If you wish 3.5 Diskette, add $1.00 ea _________ Subtotal _________ Total _________ Payment: Check [ ] Money Order [ ] Name: _____________________________________________________ Company:_____________________________________________________ Address:_____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Work Phone: (____) __________ Home Phone: (____) _________ Signature: ________________________________________ OVERVIEW Testing or training material for the programs can be prepared with any word processor that produces standard ASCII files. The programs will present the material on the screen, accept one of the valid answers, grade it, time it and save the results. The material can be "frozen" (encoded) to prevent others from being able to look at, print or modify it. The Test and Training files prepared for and using the programs can be distributed or sold royalty free, along with a special copy of TRAIN.EXE that comes with the registered version. The programs keeps track of: The name of the test taker; The time and date the test started, The answers given to each question, How many times each question was answered incorrectly, How long each question was on the screen, The time taken on different sections, The total time elapsed, The final score. An evaluation message tied to the score can be shown. Selected results are displayed at the end of the session. The results are stored in an ASCII file named using the last name, middle initial and first name letters of the test taker. The material can include : Questions whose answer is either Yes or No; Questions whose answer is either True or False; Questions that offer three choices, named 1, 2 and 3; Multiple choice questions, named A, B, C, D and E. Notices that do not require an answer. All of the above can be freely mixed in the same test file. IMPORTANT: All files for the TEST series of programs must be in pure ASCII format. This means that for many word processors you MUST choose the option to SAVE the document as PLAIN TEXT. Most word processors have that option, however procedures vary. Refer to the manual for your editor of choice. Right and left margins should be set to 0, page width to 80 characters. Tabs should be set at 8. HOW DO I KNOW THAT THE FILE IS IN PURE ASCII FORMAT ? If you can display the file on the screen with the standard DOS command: > TYPE FILENAME.TXT and there are no funny looking characters, it should be in ASCII format. Note: Tabs should be set to 8, meaning that every time you press the TAB key in your word processor, the cursor moves ahead 8 spaces. TEDIT.EXE TEDIT is a fast, small and simple ASCII editor included with the programs. It has cut and paste functions, undo, and the ability to print while editing. The name of the file to edit has to be given at the command line. EX.: TEDIT ONE.TST will bring in the file ONE.TST if it exists, or start a new file by that name. To print a file or a portion of it is necessary to mark the part of the file to print using F4. To move a line or a block first delete it, then move to the new location and undelete it. Tabs are already set at 8. ADDITIONAL EDITING KEYS FOR TEDIT.EXE HOME....................Beginning of line END.....................End of line PGUP....................One screen up PGDOWN..................One screen down CTRL-PGUP...............Beginning of file CTRL-PGDOWN.............End of file INS.....................Toggles Insert-Overstrike XCOL.EXE XCOL is a simple utility that temporarily changes the colors of the screen. If called up without parameters a help window will show the possible options. To change TEDIT colors call up XCOL.EXE before the editor. THELP.EXE THELP is a memory resident help utility for preparing test files. Since it is memory resident, it can be used with almost any word processor. After calling up the program, it can be used by pressing at the same time the Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys located at the RIGHT side of the keyboard. This unusual key combination is less likely to conflict with other software. The program will use about 13K of memory until the machine is rebooted. The help screens will appear on the right side of the screen, leaving the left side of your document visible. HOW TO PREPARE YOUR OWN TEST OR TRAINING MATERIAL A Test or Training file contains: One or more Questions, each in a question Section. That section might contain Comments to be shown by the TRAIN program when the answer is incorrect; Optional Notices, each in a Notice section; Optional Evaluations, each in a Evaluation Section; The file might also contain notes to yourself. The notes will not show on the screen, and can be useful for referencing the material. THE QUESTION Each question has : A HEADER : The Header tells the program what the question number and the correct answer are, how many points are assigned to it, and if a section timer should be toggled. A BODY : The lines of text comprising the questions itself. An optional EXPLANATION; Special markers lines to separate its elements. QUESTION HEADER The HEADER for each question starts with: The Star * immediately followed by this bracket '(', The question number, The correct answer, The point value, An optional '*' to activates the section timer, And ends with this bracket ) Elements are separated from each other by ONE blank space, except there is NO BLANK BETWEEN THE STAR AND THE NEXT CHARACTER. Example of a QUESTION: *( 5 T 1 * ) | | | | | | | | | --Starts a special section timer. Optional. | | | -- Point value | | -- Correct answer. Can be one of: T F Y N 1 2 3 A B C D E | --Question number. --Marker indicating a Question section. True or False Question : The HEADER tells the program the question parameters, and it must be located at the very beginning of each question section. *.... This line marks the end of the question. This is the EXPLANATION. A maximum of 20 lines can be used for the question plus the explanation. This question will accept only the T for True and F for False Keys. True is the correct answer. If False is selected and you are using the TRAIN program, this message will be shown. *++++ This line marks the end of the Question. THE BODY OF THE QUESTION The text lines that are the question proper are the body of the question. Example: *( 5 A 1 ) This is the body of the question. All lines will be shown up to the the one that begins with a star immediately followed by a period. *................................... Question ends This is the explanation section. *+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Question section ends The BODY of the question is comprised of all the lines between the header and the line with the *. as the first characters of the line. The optional EXPLANATION is comprised of the lines between the one starting with a *. and the line beginning with a *+ signs. The EXPLANATION will be shown only by the TRAIN program when the answer given is incorrect. The EXPLANATION section is optional. Even if there is no explanation there must be a line starting with the *+ signs to mark the end of the section. NUMBER OF LINES AVAILABLE The body of the question and the optional comment COMBINED can be up to 20 lines long. This means the two TOGETHER should not exceed that length. WARNING : Using more lines than allowed will cause the program to STOP with an error message. QUESTION FORMATS The different formats available are questions whose answers can be : Yes or No, True or False; 1, 2, or 3; ( three choices ); A, B, C, D or E ( multiple choice ); The correct answer must be one of the following: Y N for Yes or No T F for True or False 1 2 3 for a three choice question A B C D E for a multiple 5 choice question The total number of questions a Test or Train file can hold is 255. POINT VALUE Point values can range between -128 and 127. The point value can be assigned only to one answer. If the point value is negative the test taker is penalized the appropriate number of points for choosing that answer. Note: there cannot be blank spaces between the minus sign and the value. Example : *( 5 T -2 * ) is fine, but *( 5 T - 2 * ) does not work. THE SECTION TIMER * Inserting the '*' symbol before the closing ')' bracket will start a special timer that will add up the time taken by all questions up to the next one with the '*' symbol. An unlimited number of timers can be used. Every question is already timed individually. The total length the question stays on screen is counted. If the question is put on hold (while using using the Test program ), or answered incorrectly and therefore presented again and again until it is gotten right (if using the Train program), the total time the question was on the screen is added. NOTICES Notices are formed like Questions, except that they require only the Enter key to be pressed to continue. All parameters set to zeros. Example of a NOTICE: *( 0 0 0 ) This is a NOTICE, not a question. The prompt will simply ask you to press ENTER to continue. *.......................................................................... This message will never show on the screen, since there is not such a thing as an incorrect answer to a Notice. Using this area for notices is a waste of lines. Warning : both lines with the *... and the *+++ have to appear. *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ EVALUATION SECTION(s) None, one or a number of different evaluation message can be prepared. The program will look for an evaluation message At the end of the session the programs will attempt to match the score with one of the evaluation messages. Only the first evaluation message that matches the score will be shown. The evaluation section should be placed at the top of the test file. The first line of the evaluation section contains a header of this format: The star character * immediately followed by this bracket { the lower acceptable score value, the upper acceptable score value, and this bracket } Each element separated from the next by ONE blank space, except there is NO BLANK BETWEEN THE * AND THE {. All lines following, up to the line with an *= (star equal) sign as the first character of the line, will show as the evaluation message. A maximum of 20 lines of text can be used by each evaluation section. Example : *{ 51 100 } THIS MESSAGE WILL BE SEEN IF YOUR SCORE WAS between 51 and 100 points *=============== this line marks the end of the evaluation ================== SPECIAL END OF TEST FILE MARKER IMPORTANT: The test files must end with a line beginning with the *- symbols. TDEBUG.EXE This is an invaluable aid in catching logic errors since it allows you to immediately detect question where you said Yes and really meant No.... The program shows the correct answer, its point value and a running score on the screen at all times. In case of fatal errors the program will exit with a message naming the last correct question. TDEBUG runs in training mode, showing explanations when the answers are incorrect. For security reasons, Tdebug will not work on encoded files. Possible errors are: - Using more lines that allowed - a total of 20 is the maximum ! - Forgetting to mark the end of the question or comment section with a line beginning with the star * followed immediately by the appropriate character. - Reversing the order of the parameters in the question header. For example, a header like *( 5 1 Y ) was probably intended to mean that the correct answer is Yes for 1 point, but it really means the correct answer is 1 and the point value is Y, something that is not acceptable. The correct header would have been *( 5 Y 1 ). ENCODING (Or should that be Coding?) Encoding takes just a few seconds, and creates another file whose contents are unreadable except by the Test series of programs. The use of the Tencode program is very simple: 1) Call up Tencode by typing TENCODE, 2) Give it the name of the file to encode, 3) Give it the name of the file to generate. The generated file can be used by any of the programs. Remember to keep your original in a safe place, since the encoding process cannot be reversed. W A R N I N G !!! Attempting to print an encoded file will result in much wasted paper, and unpredictable printer behavior. Attempting to view an encoded file with the TYPE command will result in loud audible warnings. Test and Train can read all encoded files with a negligible delay. For security reasons TDebug CANNOT read encoded files. CONTROL CHARACTERS The programs looks at each first non-blank character of each line for clues on what to do next. If your test malfunctions odds are 100 to 1 there is a missing or misplaced control character at the beginning of a line. The main control character for the TEST series of programs is the STAR * symbol. To avoid possible problems, DO NOT USE this symbol as the first non-blank of a line except to control the flow of the program. The following control characters are used IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE STAR *: This bracket { Means the evaluation limits follow; The equal sign = Means the evaluation section is over; This bracket ( Means information about the question follows; The period . Means the question is over; The plus sign + Means the comment on the question is over; The minus sign - Means all questions and comments are over; This sign ~ Reserved. Do not use. This sign | Reserved. Do not use. The star * and any of the above characters can be freely used anywhere else. NOTE TO VERSION 1.XX USERS: In order to upgrade your material to Version 2.0, you need only to add the star * symbol in front of the above control character. COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS A command line parameters is information typed after the program name and on the same line. The Test, Train and TDebug programs can be started using command line parameters as follows : - The first parameter is the name of the test file to use. - The second parameter is the name of the result file. For example, the command: TRAIN DEMO CLASS1 will start the Train program, loading the Demo.tst file (if it exists), and append the results to the CLASS1.RES file. Example : Test c:\docs\demo will start the Test programs and read the test file from drive C: subdirectory DOCS (if the file exists). Test c:\docs\demo d:\student\geometry will do the same as the above, and store the results of the test in a file named GEOMETRY.RES located in drive d: subdirectory STUDENT Appending means nothing in that file will be overwritten and the new information will be added to the bottom. Command line parameters allows you to create batch files that can : 1) Get a test started without the test taker having to know or type in the test name; 2) Assign a name the result file yourself, and keep results from different tests and test takers in the same file. Each test taker results will still be clearly separated from all others. Refer to your DOS manuals on how to produce batch files. Note: Special feature of the TEST program ! If the first command line parameter is /X then the test taker cannot abort the test by pressing Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break. The only way to exit the program is by completing the test. This is true only for the TEST program. TEST RESULT FILES The test results are stored in a file in ASCII format. A file name is created using the fist 6 letters of the last name plus as many letters as possible from the first name and the middle initial. The total length of the name is 8 letters maximum, in order to conform with DOS rules. An extension of .RES ( for RESults ) is attached to the name. To see the names of all the result files in your directory, type DIR *.RES at the command prompt. If the result file already exists new information will be appended. Different sessions will be clearly marked. If you want to start a new result file erase the old and a new one will be created. If you want to keep all the old results rename the file or use a different name or middle initial. The result file contains the name of the test, date, test taker name, start and finish time, as well as a complete timing record for each question and for marked sections. To view the file you can either issue the command TYPE <Filename> at the DOS prompt or bring the file into your editor. The RESult files are not encoded and can be printed. AUTOMATING THE PROCESS The following batch file: TEST SAMPLE FILE1 COPY FILE1.RES LPT1 will run the TEST.EXE program, loading SAMPLE.TST, put the results in a file named FILE1.RES and then print it to your printer if it is attached to the LPT1 port. If you like to show the result file on the screen, include the command: TYPE FILE1.RES | MORE in the batch file to shown one screenful at the time. Entering the above lines at the DOS command prompt achieves the same result. PROBLEMS SOLVING Nothing works: Chances are the test was not stored in ASCII format. Bring it back into the editor, and store it properly. I made some minor changes and now it won't work. If the margins were changed, reformatting could move text around changing the first non-blank character. It works and then it stops: Look at all the first non-blank characters of each line. You might have forgotten a star * before one of the control characters ( { . - + = Something else : Look at the sample test files and at your files. What is different? If the error message is "Question xx is too long" chances are you forgot the end of question markers *..... and *+++++ If your tests do not work correctly, go back and see what you did differently from the demos. Details count. For example, REMEMBER BLANK SPACES between the header information. These examples all work : *( 100 a 76 ) *( 3 1 9 ) *( 2 f 3 ) These will not *(100 a 76 ) *( 3 1 9) *( f 2 3 ) ^ spaces missing ^ ^ ^ wrong sequence IF YOU ARE STILL UNSURE ABOUT WHAT TO DO Remember that in most cases it all becomes much clearer when you look at the printout of a sample file while you are running it with the Tdebug or Train program. If you still have questions, please write. NOTES ABOUT THE PROGRAMS The programs are designed to require a minimum of hardware, and can run on any IBM compatible with as little as a single drive, monochrome monitor and 124K of available memory. Color monitors are supported. The priorities in designing them were compatibility, simplicity, ease of use and minimal hardware requirements. Source code is not available, but the programs can be customized. UPGRADES New features under consideration are: - The ability to accept an answer in the form of a word or phrase. - Incorporation of graphic capability, allowing drawings and pictures. - Branching to other test files depending on score or answers. OTHER SERVICES Preparation of Training files from any material is available. Customized version of the programs are available. Software development based on your ideas is available. There is no charge for estimates on feasibility and cost. ============================= Frank Lendaro, P.O.Box 241021 Douglas, AK 99824 U.S.A. =============================