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╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ jBASE 3 │ │ │ │ Humor Resource Management System │ │ │ │ (C) Copyright 1991 Milestone Technologies │ │ │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Welcome to the jBASE 3 Humor Resource Management System! Are you hearing more jokes than you can keep track of? Well, here is the solution to your problem. jBASE 3 will allow you to catalogue jokes quickly and easily so you can always find the right joke for the right occasion. jBASE 3 is the EASY way to keep track of JOKES-- but it can also be used for virtually any other form of text classification. Use it for your record or tape collection, recipes, book reviews, and lots more. jBASE 3 is the shareware/demonstration version of the tBASE 3 Text Management System, which you will receive if you register. Registration is a bargain at only A$35 (US$30), which includes surface postage to anywhere in the world. Why should you register? The main reason is that shareware just doesn't work without registered users. We software developers take the risk that a package will be popular enough to generate registrations and income. If the response is good enough, we'll keep developing and improving our products, and creating new ones. If not, we won't. So you SHOULD register out of common decency if you are going to use jBASE, but there are better reasons than that-- -------------------------------------------- tBASE 3, the Text Resource Management System -------------------------------------------- If you register, we will send you a copy of tBASE 3, the Text Resource Management System. tBASE 3 is jBASE 3 without reference to jokes, and more: You can keep multiple "libraries" of text information. For example, your joke file might get pretty big if you add a hundred jokes a week, like we do. With tBASE, you can keep different types of items in different libraries, so for example you might keep all your "knock-knock" jokes in one library and all of your riddles in another. If you are using tBASE for recipes, you might have a library of salads and another of deserts. Et cetera. And you can send the output from the program to a file, rather than just to the screen or printer. If you send a list of jokes (recipies, tapes, or whatever) to a file, you can specify that the result is either an ASCII text file, or a new database file (which can be the basis of a new library.) You also have more powerful editing facilities, such as adding lines of text to an item. And of course there are no commercials, like this one and the ones appearing on the screen when you start and leave jBASE. ------------------ To register, just: ------------------ ...send your check or money order for US$30.00 or A$35.00, and your name and delivery address, to: Milestone Technologies Milestone Technologies Pty. Ltd. 3551 S. MONACO PKWY SUITE 223 PO BOX 699 DENVER, CO 90237-1228 USA MT. WAVERLEY, VIC 3149 AUSTRALIA Tel: (303) 756-9205 Tel: (03) 807-6767 ----------------------- Warranty and Disclaimer ----------------------- We're not selling you anything. Even if you register, the A$25 is a registration fee only, and is not a purchase price or license fee. As they say in car-parks, "All care, but no responsibility." Only you can determine the suitability of jBASE or tBASE for your particular requirements. We will accept no liability for any failure of the program to perform according to your expectations, or for any damage caused by or resulting from the use of the program. ---------------- Copyright Notice ---------------- The jBASE 3 computer program and associated materials are the intellectual property of Milestone Technologies and all rights are hereby reserved. The program may be freely copied and distributed, on the express condition that it must be distributed in the original format, with no modifications, and without having been used by the person who copies or distributes it. The program may not be sold or incorporated in any other material offered for sale. ----------------------------------- jBASE Files Included in the Package ----------------------------------- The following files are distributed in the jBASE self-extracting archive and should be present after extraction. All files must be present in the default directory. You can delete JBASE3.EXE (the archive file) after extraction. Program files: JBASE.EXE -- main program file CURSOFF.BIN \ CURSON.BIN \ -- binary program files ED.COM -- text file editor Data files: JTEXT.DBF -- catalogue file JTEXT.DBT -- text file JCATS.DBF -- catagories file JCATS.NDX -- catagories index TEMP.DBF -- temporary file Documentation file: JBASE.DOC -- this file -------------- Starting jBASE -------------- To start jBASE, simply type JBASE<Enter> at the DOS prompt in the directory containing the jBASE files. The screen should display a title screen for about three seconds, then an information screen for about three seconds, then prompt you to press any key to continue. Then you will see the jBASE main menu. Select a menu function by moving the highlight cursor up or down with your cursor keys and pressing <Enter> when the function you want is highlighted. Or type the letter corresponding to the function. ------------------------- Main jBASE Menu Functions ------------------------- Following is a description of each of the main menu functions. jBASE is distributed with a joke library containing a few sample jokes, so you will probably want to begin by using selections C and D to get a feel for the program. ------------------- A) Append Text File ------------------- Putting jokes into jBASE requires you to create a text file containing the jokes. You can use the supplied text editor ED.COM to do this, or any ASCII text editor, or your word processor if it can produce ASCII text files without control codes. To use ED, simply type ED followed by the file name and a carriage return at the DOS prompt. Function keys are used to control the program, and a key is provided at the bottom of the screen. Basically you want to create a file that looks something like this (we've called the input file TEMP.TXT)-- {contents of file TEMP.TXT} %Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. %Have you heard about the Zen Boy Scout? Tried to light a fire by rubbing one stick together. The rules are pretty simple: Each joke is flagged by a percent sign (%) in column position one of its first line. After the percent sign, jBASE will recognize all text as belonging to the same joke until it encounters either another percent sign (start of the next joke) or the end of the file. Maximum line length is 80 characters, including the percent sign on the first line. Maximum joke size is 100 lines of 80 characters. To get the text file into jBASE, start jBASE and select A from the main menu. Rudimentary instructions will be displayed on the screen, then you will be prompted for the name of the file to append. The default is TEMP.TXT, and if you have used TEMP.TXT for your input you need only press <Enter> to start the append process. First, jBASE will examine the input file and warn you if either (a) no jokes are found, or (b) the average joke length exceeds 20 lines. If that is the case, you can either continue or abandon the operation (which will depend on whether there really is a problem or not). For example, if you know that the file contains a lot of short jokes, and you get the warning, you may realize that you forgot to mark the jokes with percent signs, in which case you would abandon the operation, leave jBASE, and edit the file before trying again. Then jBASE will report on the number of lines read, and the number of jokes recognized and added to the file. ------------------------- B) Catalog Appended Jokes ------------------------- Once you have appended jokes to the file, you need to catalogue them. The program will find any uncatalogued jokes in the file (by definition, jokes with no recorded primary category) and display them along with the input fields for the catalogue data: Overall Rating LOW: 0 HIGH: 9 Filth Rating LOW: 0 HIGH: 9 Primary Category: [ ] Type of Joke : [ ] Key Words : [ ] Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Examine the joke critically, and enter appropriate information, bearing in mind that the care you take here will determine how easy it will be to find the joke later, or list jokes of a similar type. You can construe the data fields any way you like, but the following might be appropriate till you know what your are doing. 1. Overall rating-- this is the funniness rating, on a scale of one to ten. A not funny joke might be a 0, while a side-splitting one might be a 9. 2. Filth rating-- this is the degree of offensiveness, on a scale of one to ten. All of the sample jokes have a filth rating of 0, meaning they are suitable for your grandmother. A really filthy gross disgusting offensive joke might score a 9, meaning you wouldn't even tell it to yourself. 3. Primary category-- this is basically what sort of joke it is, i.e. chicken jokes, elephant jokes, etc. Use this field in conjunction with the key words field to provide a means of finding jokes on a particular subject. 4. Type of joke-- this is used to categorize the joke type as, for example, a limerick, a riddle, a yarn, or a knock-knock, etc. 5. Key words-- enter words or expressions which you think provide a key to the joke, e.g. CHICKEN CROSS ROAD. Basically, you should enter anything which serves to identify the joke that is not already covered in the category or the type. You can use the cursor keys to move around within and between the fields, until you press-- Enter or page down in the last field of the screen, or Right or down from the last character position in the last field. Leave the primary category blank (or press page down when the screen first appears, without entering anything) to leave the catalogue function and return to the menu. If you enter a question mark (?) in either the primary category or type of joke fields you will be shown a list of existing entries in the categories file to select from. If you enter catalogue data for all uncatalogued jokes in the file, the program will return to the main menu after the last joke is catalogued. The primary category and joke type are checked against a categories file, and if not found you can add them at the press of a key. ------------------------------ C) Edit or Search Catalog File ------------------------------ Use this function to display a joke, to search for one, or to edit one. First you will be asked if you wish to restrict the selection list. If you answer yes, you will be shown a screen like the catalogue screen, on which you can specify search or listing criteria. For example, you can restrict your search to jokes having an overall rating between 7 and 9, and containing the keyword "CHICKEN." You can use any or all of the fields, but bear in mind that when the file gets big, the program will take longer and longer to display the list. If you enter a question mark (?) in either the primary category or type of joke fields you will be shown a list of existing entries in the categories file to select from. Once you have entered the selection criteria (or elected not to) the program will provide a summary list from which you can select the individual joke that you want to look at or edit: ===>--EXIT WITHOUT MAKING A SELECTION-- CHICKEN RIDDLE Why did the chicken cross the road? ZEN RIDDLE Have you heard about the Zen Boy Scout? ELEPHANT RIDDLE Why do elephants paint their toenails red? ELEPHANT RIDDLE Why did the elephant cross the road? ═ Select or enter PRIMARY CATEGORY search request ═══════════════════ [ ] The list shows the primary category and type of the joke, and the first line of the joke text (or the first 40 characters or so if the line is longer). To select a joke, move the SELECTION CURSOR (===>) down the list until it appears next to the joke you want, then press enter. If the list is a long one, you might want to put in a search request-- type up to five letters of the Primary Category, and the first record to match will appear at the top of the list (after which you can press the "\" key to repeat the search if that is not the one you want). You can move to the top of the list (file) by pressing the HOME key, or to the bottom of the list by pressing the END key twice. Once you have selected a joke, the text will be displayed on the screen and you can edit it (but you can't add lines or delete them-- you need the registered version, tBASE for that). If the joke won't fit in the ten lines available, press page down to see the rest of it. Once you have finished editing or examining the joke, pressing page down one more time (or the first time if it is less than ten lines long) will display and allow you to edit the catalogue data. ------------- D) List Jokes ------------- This function will list all of the jokes in the file (without the catalogue data) either on the screen or to the printer. Before listing the jokes, you can restrict the selection criteria (see selection C above). ------------ E) Utilities ------------ See the section on Utilities, below. --------------- Q) Quit to DOS --------------- This function is self-explanatory. -------------- Utilities Menu -------------- Following are descriptions of the functions accessible from the Utilities Menu: --------------------------- A) Set System Time and Date --------------------------- This function allows you to set the DOS clock from within jBASE. -------------------------- B) Backup Data to Diskette -------------------------- This function allows you to backup your data files from the current drive/directory to DRIVE A: provided the file sizes are small enough to fit. You may prefer to use another backup program or the DOS BACKUP command. ----------------------------- C) File Maintenance Utilities ----------------------------- Selecting the function from the Utilities Menu will display a menu of file maintenance functions, described below: ------------------------- A) Update Categories File ------------------------- This function will read the main jokes file and update the categories file by counting the jokes in each primary category (the joke types are not counted) and adding to the categories file any primary categories found in the main jokes file but not in the categories file. This latter feature is handy if you have been using dBASE or dBXL to edit your jokes file. ----------------------- B) Edit Categories File ----------------------- This function allows you to edit the contents of the categories file. By the time you need to do this, the procedure should be fairly self-explanatory. At the conclusion of an editing session, you will be given the option of listing the categories either to the screen or printer. This is a handy thing to do to keep track of the categories you have been using, and the number of jokes in each category. To get the categories list without editing the file, simply exit the selection screen without selecting an item and you will be prompted for the list option. -------------------- C) Pack Catalog File -------------------- It is the nature of dBASE files that memo fields are stored in a crude (but moderately effective) way. Each memo takes up blocks of 500 bytes in the .DBT file, and each joke will use at least one whole block. If you change a joke, the original text remains in the file and the revised text is added to the end of the file. Similarly, if you delete a joke, the text remains in the .DBT file. Occasionally, particularly if you do a lot of editing, you should pack the file with this function. It will copy the records to a temporary file, then restore them by deleting the original file and renaming the temporary file. Unfortunately there is no other way to do this within the dBASE language. --------------------------------- D) Change a category in main file --------------------------------- Let's say you suddenly realize that you have been calling some jokes CHICKEN jokes, and others POULTRY jokes, but they really all should be CHICKEN jokes. You can use this function to change primary category of jokes in the file, simply by specifying the 'old' category and the category you want to change them to. -------------------------- Using jBASE files in dBASE -------------------------- If you have dBASE, FOXBASE, dBXL, or another program which allows access to dBASE III+ type files, you can play around with the jokes database to your heart's content, but don't blame us if you mess something up. ---------------- In Conclusion... ---------------- jBASE is pretty useful for cataloguing jokes, and it can be adapted to handle other types of text items like recipies and memoranda if you are prepared to live with the humorous interface. But remember, the registration fee isn't a lot to ask for the additional facilities of tBASE, and only YOU can make shareware work. So why not register now? ---------------------- Milestone Technologies ---------------------- Milestone Technologies is dedicated to the development of quality software at reasonable prices. Our product range includes: US$ A$ tBASE 3 -- Text Management System (shareware) -- 30 35 MasterPrice -- Quotation and Pricing System -- 119 149 Milestone Business Accounting (Integrated!) 149 199 CODEMASTER -- Morse Code Proficiency Training -- 19 39 LOGMASTER -- Amateur Radio QSL and Log System -- 69 99 (Prices subject to change without notice, but include postage and sales tax where appropriate.) To order these products, or for further information, contact: Milestone Technologies Milestone Technologies Pty. Ltd. 3551 S. MONACO PKWY SUITE 223 PO BOX 699 DENVER, CO 90237-1228 USA MT. WAVERLEY, VIC 3149 AUSTRALIA Tel: (303) 756-9205 Tel: (03) 807-6767 [eof JBASE.DOC]