DP Tool Club 16/CD_ASCQ_16_0994.iso/news/2540/summary.doc

Text File | 1994-03-20 | 18KB | 386 lines

                                   SUMMARY


                     RMS-III: REFERENCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

                               III Version 3.2


                       A Personal System for Managing
                        Entry, Search, and Report of
                              Bibliographic Data


                            Mulberry Software,Inc.
                             234 Mulberry Place
                            Ridgewood, New Jersey


                          Program & Documentation
                    Copyright (c) Mulberry Software,Inc.
                            All Rights Reserved


             This is an introductory/summary of RMS-III. It is
             extracted from the RMS-MAN.DOC file to provide an
             immediate, uncompressed indication of the program.

             THIS IS NOT THE USER REFERENCE MANUAL - use the
             RMS-MAN.DOC file for that purpose as it contains
             many more details of actual operating procedures.


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                               TOPICS OUTLINED


    General Description               Database and Index Files

    Structure of RMS-III              Record Maintenamce

    System Requirements               Search Techniques

    Installation and Start-up         Document Generation

    Record Display & Structure        Utilities

    Data File Characteristics         Concluding Remarks



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                            GENERAL DESCRIPTION


RMS-III: Reference Management System provides an annotated menu driven
system for operations relevant to bibliographic reference handling: data
entry, viewing, editing, searching, screening, tabulation and reporting.
It provides data file compatibility with Borland's dBase III, III+ (R)
so that data can be easily utilized elsewhere. It also provides greater
speed for many operations than is possible in non-compiled applications.

Reference material in files is managed as records which contain data
fields.  There are fields for author(s), title, source (publication,
volume, pages, year, type), key words, sponsor, language, comments,
special codes, and abstract.  A single record structure is used for all
source types; built in manipulations (and user definitions) provide for
treatment of different record/source types.

All fields can be searched by several techniques to find records of
particular interest.  Records can be indexed or sorted by various key
fields and subject matter. Duplicate records within and between database
files can be identified and eliminated.  Individual records and subsets
of the database can be extracted to create new databases or reports;
extraction can be specified by any user-designated order or search match
criteria.  Authority/topical and statistical data can be tabulated for
independent output and for access during entry and search operations.

Report content and format can be widely varied to accomodate many
different requirements: publication bibliography variations (APA, etc),
library listings, research notes, catalogues, card files.  Styles not
included can often be generated by user definitions.  Reports can be
stored to disk-file for incorporation into word processor texts, or
printed in hard copy form.

In addition to the basic data management, there are several utility
functions.  These include file manipulations and maintenance such as
create, erase, append, backup, condense, and check status. The utilities
also allow data field search/replace and re-numbering of record
identification.  Limited printer manipulation is also provided. There
are facilities to import and export data of different format types.

Background information is provided throughout the program, and individual
operations generally include online help and information items.


========================================================================

             STRUCTURE OF RMS-III: REFERENCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM


RMS-III is organized in five operating menus.  Each Menu and Sub-Menu
function is accessed by either (a) entering its number, 1-7, in a
highlighted selection box and pressing enter, or (b) using the
corresponding function key. The following table shows the menu structure.

                      System Outline, from MAIN MENU:

     1.          2.              3.            4.           5.
   INFO      UTILITIES        MANAGEMENT    SEARCH       REPORTS
   Terms     Information      Information   Information  Information
   Outline   File Status      Open File     Open File    Open File
   Notes     File Operations  Add Records   Scanning     Topic Freq.
             File I/O         Edit Records  Single Item  Topic Index
             User Definitions Scan Records  MultipleItem Lists/Cards
             Printer Set-Up   Check Dups.   Mixed-Logic  Word Proc.

Menu screens are numbered for easy reference as for example, screen 5.5
is data report, output to printer (lists or cards).  Each menu includes
an information section which presents purpose and operation of the menu
items.  Additional "help" is available within many menu selections. The
utility menus open up sub-menus with additional options.  There is some
redundancy among menus to minimize switching.

The entire system can be reviewed, with the DEMO database, by scanning
the menus in default modes; this is recommended for a fast introduction
to the system.


________________________________________________________________________

                            SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

RMS-III runs on fully IBM compatible systems.  A fixed disk is highly
recommended.  For a fixed disk, least 1200kbytes should be available
for the program plus documentation and whatever will be needed for your
data files.  (Without the documentation files, only 950 kb is needed.)

The program can be run from high density floppies (720 kb and greater),
but the speed of many operations will be slow.  Operation from low
density floppies (360 kb) is possible but not advised.

The recommended memory level is 512 kbytes, although as little as 490 can
suffice (for example if you are running in a window).  More memory can
improve speed of operation.  The config.sys boot-up file must contain
the lines files=25 or more and buffers=25 or more.

dBase III, III+ or similar database software is not required. You may
wish to use such products to do operations that may not be offered in
RMS-III.  Also, though not necessary, there are some dBase type commands
that can be utilized within RMS-III if you are familiar with the language
syntax.


________________________________________________________________________

                       INSTALLATION & START-UP

Installation must be done using the RMS-III INSTALL program.  This will
de-compress stored program files and provide selections for type of disk
set-up and selection of monitor types.  All of the initial parameters can
be changed within the program.  See the README files, VENDINFO.DIZ (if
present) and RMS-MAN.DOC file for full details.

Most likely the program will need no further setup and can be started
immediately.  Simply switch to the drive and directory containing the
program files and type:
                            RMS <enter>

This will start the program.  A license notification will appear as the
first screen until your license number is activated.  The main menu will
follow.

 _______________________________________________________________________

                       RECORD DISPLAY AND STRUCTURE

Data entry and editing are done in a full screen display which presents
all the data of a record as well as some status and control information.
The full screen data display is used in several sections of the program
and is central to the system operation.

The main part of the display is the data presentation which shows the
complete set of data fields for the record.  Shaded areas indicate the
data fields and the size allocated for each.  RMS-III uses 20 data fields
of fixed length and one memo/abstract field of variable length.  These
fields accomodate many types of data structures and output formats by
combination of built-in function operations and spill-over handling.
The defined fields and their lengths are as follows:

Field   Name   Length   Field   Name    Length  Field   Name    Length

  1   IDENT_NO     5       8   SOURCE     128     15   COMMENT    192
  2   INDEX_NO     5       9   VOLUME      10     16   LANGUAGE    10
  3   CODE_1      14      10   YEAR        10     17   TYPE        11
  4   CODE_2      14      11   PAGE_FRST    6     18   NREFS        5
  5   LST_NAME    15      12   PAGE_LAST    6     19   SPONSOR     32
  6   FST_NAME    10      13   TITLE      128     20   ABSYN        1
  7   AUTHOR_2    64      14   KEY_WORDS  128     21   NOTES    (memo)


_______________________________________________________________________

                       DATA FIELD CHARACTERISTICS

The Ident_No, Index_No, and Code_1, and Code_2 fields are provided for
general purpose identification and tracking based on user defined
schemes.  The Ident_no can provide a record identification (in addition
to the record number).  The Index_No field can be used to code in schemes
for rapid grouping or ordering based on general record content or class
of information (e.g., subject index); it is for user definition and has
no other internal purpose.  The Code_#'s can be used at will; they are
especially suited for publication data such as ISSN, ISBN, or DEWEY nos.

Authors.  Separation is made between first authors and additional authors.
The first author's first and last names are separate to facilitate certain
internal operations.  Other authors are included on a separate line. The
format of authors names is adjusted at time of output to meet different
requirements.  Names can be tested during entry to see that they will be
manipulated correctly.

Reference source, volume, year, pages, title, and language are all
obvious.  The source and title fields have been made long to accommodate
extended entries.  If they are not adequate in a particular case, you
might use the comment field for additional data.  'Nrefs' is used to
include the number of references cited in an entry, a data point that
can be very useful in expanding a search.

The 'type' field can have some obvious and not-so-obvious uses depending
on your purposes and possible interfacing to other applications.  Type
designations might include article, book, chapter, conf.proc., thesis,
video, record, etc.  These designations can also be used in some cases
to control output format.

Keywords and sponsors can include multiple entries if they are separated
with comma and space.  This will permit searching and listing based on a
series on entries.  Lists of key words and their use frequency in the
report menu (see topical lists).  Such lists can be accessed in the data
entry and search operations.

Comments can include up to three lines of whatever notes, annotations, or
comments you care to enter.  This area is included as a supplement to the
abstract area, the text of which is not presented on the main display
screen.  It is also used as a spill-over area for authors, title, and
source data that exceeds the normal field length.

The abstract field is special type of entry which is included as a memo
and has a different type of behavior.  As explained under definitions, a
memo field accommodates extended and variable length data entries.  This
can be an abstract or any other entry you wish to make.  From the multi-
item search menu, the memo field can be searched for words or phrases.
(You can import and export text files through the abstract editor.)


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                          DATABASE & INDEX FILES

Databases may be created in either the Utility Menu or in the Management
Menu.  There is no limit to the number of databases that can be created.
Database files can be opened in any of the primary menus.

Index files are optional; they control the order in which records are
presented. Index files can be generated at any time or at any point in
the data entry process, including prior to data entry.  A database file
may have several indices, each built on different fields or combinations
thereof (keys), however, only one index can be active at any one time.
An active index is automatically up-dated if records are changed.


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                             RECORD MANAGEMENT

The Record Management Menu provides for the primary record operations of
data entry, editing, viewing, scanning, duplicate checking and elimination.

Adding and editing records uses the full screen record display discussed
earlier.  When adding or editing records the F1 help/list feature can
provide information about data entry characteristics and lists of existing
data for several critical fields.

Viewing of data for many records at one time is with the Rapid Scan option.
The amount of data displayed is more limited than in the full screen, single
record presentation, but the record range is broader.

Duplicate checking can be done within a database, or between two different
databases.  Duplicate records are marked, and deletion is done as a
separate step; this provides some safety as well as other operational uses
of the record marking feature.  There are options to view, select,
de-select, and transfer records which have been marked.


_________________________________________________________________________

                            SEARCH TECHNIQUES

Four search techniques are facilitated through the Search Menu:
view/search, unique item listing (single field), generalized multi-field
search, and mixed logic constructions.  The first is appropriate to
general viewing of single records, the others are appropriate to complex
searches, culling, or ordering of specific groups of records according
to user selected criteria.  The multi-field and mixed-logic searches
allow for Booliean logic search criteria, and control of searched fields
(including the abstract/memo field) and report output.


_________________________________________________________________________

                         REPORT/DOCUMENT GENERATION

Output of reference/bibliographic reports and topical list/index reports
is addressed in Document Generation.

Topical lists present special information based on single fields within
the records, e.g., subjects (key words), authors, sponsors, etc.  These
can be useful for checking the consistency of entries and in analysis of
the reference data.  Their most important function is in the help/list
operations of the data entry, editing, and search operations.  Topical
indexes identify specific records in which topic items are located. They
are similar to the lists, but they are not critical to other operations.

Reference/bibliographic reports can be prepared from either of two
internal formats (with some variations), or from external, user defined
style files, UDS's.  The internal formats are (a) line (linear) type
used for most bibliographical listings, or (b) card (block) type for
preparation of `file cards' of several popular sizes.  The external,
UDS files provide for styles approximating several common formats: APA,
Chicago A & B, Turabian.  Others can be defined as required.  Any of
these reports can be directed to a hard copy printer or to a disk file
that can be used as input in other operations, e.g., a word processor.

The internal formats provide no special attributes such as bold,
underlining, subscripts, etc.  If needed, these must be added with the
aid of a wordprocessor, or with the user defined styles.

_______________________________________________________________________

                             UTILITIES

The utilities provide system and file information, various manipulations
of data files, printer setup, export definitions, and user defined style
(uds) output definitions.  Many of these items are essentially self
explanatory e.g., list, create, index, sort, import, append, erase,
condense, renumber, replace, etc.

There are some redundancies between the various utility menus and between
the utilities and other program operations.  For example, database files
can be listed or opened in several places.  Some printer controls can also
be handled in the report menu, but the settings in the utility menu
establish the defaults.  There are similarities between the custom export
and user defined output style operations.

An add-in utility is available which expands the capabilities for import
and export of data.  This is the TSX translation module.  It can be used
to adjust formats of downloaded data.  It is not included in all RMS-III
distributions due to size considerations.  See README.TSX for details and
availability.

_________________________________________________________________________

                            CONCLUDING REMARKS

As noted earlier, the entire RMS-III system can be reviewed by scanning
the menus in default modes; this is recommended for a fast introduction
to the system.  Use the database named DEMO to examine the database
operations.  The DEMO file and the RMS-III help items (F1) include most
of the information in this summary file, as well as additional tips and
operational details.  The DEMO file abstracts also contain useful tips.

RMS-III tries to provide considerably flexibility in handling reference
data of many types. It is generally set up for bibliographic material from
books, articles, etc.  However, it has been used for many other forms of
data collection and reporting.  The guide lines outlined here are just
that - guides.  You should experiment to find what works best for your
materials, application, requirements, and work style.  There are many
possibilities.



END