Confused title? Nope! We need to understand that the bread and butter for QL computing are the many new softwares, AMERICAN MADE, and INEXPENSIVE, that depend upon the PSION group for operation. This article will help us to prepare for ARCHIVE DEPENDANT software, of which there are several excellent titles available for around $20. Two such softwares by Bill Cable were given in the last (October 88) issue of UPDATE (“REFIELD” and “SCAN”). Another is the “Mailbag” software currently advertised by EMSOFT in this issue.
EMSOFT has several other titles that use ARCHIVE as a “towing vehicle”. I know that you have seen a small car pulling a HUGE recreational vehicle down the interstate. Some of these RV’s are 35′ long and weigh five times the weight of the towing vechicle. The corollary to that is our new softwares, made in North America to be towed by the PSION vehicles.
Is this trend in software development good or bad? Answer, “GOOD”! Why? Ans, “Why re-invent the telephone just to carry new messages?” A less facetious answer lies in the understanding of the principles adopted in the development of the four PSION softwares. Each of the PSION softwares contain their own “command structure”. The combination of these software commands forms a very powerful new “language” that can be used by other softwares. Using the corollary, “why buy an engine and steering mechanism for the Recreational vehicle when we can tow it to the camp with our car?”. The new softwares use the engine of the PSION group of Programming Languages”. We will now explore the “ARCHIVE BRANCH” of PSION functions.
Most of us thought that ARCHIVE was just a little data base program “thrown in” with our QL. We loaded it a few times and got past a few menus until it stopped. Then we set it aside until the time when we could get roundtuit. Likely rountuit hasn’t come around as yet.
Archive is not just a little DBM program. It is that, plus a RAM based extension group of new function commands similiar to Super Basic. We could call these “Archive Language” in the same sense as we think of Super BASIC Language. Too complicated? Not if we want to have about 20 times the capability we can achieve without Archive! And, it wont be as difficult to learn as some of our contemporaries are experiencing with their IBM software “Data Base 3”. In fact, there is now a IBM version of the QL’s Archive that is becoming quite popular within that user group. I’ll bet that the IBM users pay more for Archive than we did for the QL, plus the four PSION Softwares.
One of the nice things about learning to use Archive is that the command functions are displayed during all of its operation, right at the top of the screen, in plain view. Another nicety is the HELP instructions which are always available at the touch of the F1 Key. So, the Archive program was designed with a lot of built in features to help us learn it. We CAN learn it if spend a little time and effort trying.
The results of our getting comfortable with Archive will be the ability to use the many new inexpensive softwares that are developed for use with the Archive Language. These new softwares are excellent, but cannot be loaded and operated alone. We must load Archive first, and then use an Archive command to load the other software.
All of these new Archive Dependant softwares are excellent and they are inexpensive. More and more will be coming as our North American programmers get into high gear. Some are for un-expanded QL’s. Some are huge programs that require extended memory. All can be used with disk drive. So, it is imperative that we learn to use ARCHIVE! And why not? The PSION group is a very valuable set of programs, more valuable than the money paid for the QL and the software. I would place Archive right up there with the $450 IBM title “Data Base 3” as to effectivity. It is even more valuable than DB3 if one considers its ability to “sponsor” other softwares loaded to it.
LEARNING ARCHIVE
With that heavy hype, we should now be itching to learn it durn it! First, lets start by spending an afternoon or two reading the Archive Section of the QL manual. Just read it without doing the exercises. Then I suggest a reading of Bill Cables article “Why use Archive”, page 56 of the October issue of UPDATE. Tackle the little exercise given in the Cable article, page 59. Dont worry much if you get tripped up. Then come on back to “exercise 1” given next.
ARCHIVE EXERCISE 1
I know that you Disk Drive users have noses up in the air and an acquired haughtiness about using Micro Drive, but suppress that and lets use Micro Drive. It wont hurt you and the practice will help. Now I could just tell you to do the exercises given on page 6 of the Archive section, but this will have some more detail and explanations. Instead, lets keep the book handy and open at page 6 for reference. I hope that by now you have the UPDATE issues in a note book so that you can just remove a page to work with and put it back when finished. That helps when working with the computer. Please follow me through step by step, reading it and doing it with the computer.
1. Situation: The QL is OFF. The Archive cart is in MDV1. A FORMATTED cart is in MDV2. Everything that follows involves using the ARCHIVE LANGUAGE.
2. Plug IN the QL to power, and use F1 to auto load the ARCHIVE program. When the Archive program loads in, it will display the COMMAND list at top. These are the Archive Commands that we have been talking about. Each is a “FUNCTION” command that causes a series of things to be accomplished. The first command will be used to transfer a file in MDV1 to MDV2.
3. Notice the “>” prompt at bottom of screen. This is the place that Archive commands are entered. Lets use the command > backup. Type: backup then ENTER.
4. Notice that the prompt line at bottom changes and adds some “”quotes. This is a convenient way of asking for the next input. The input needs “device number”, title of the file, and file extension. This is information about the “source device”, which is MDV1. The title of the file that we want to transfer is “gazet_dbf”, so type: mdv1_gazet_dbf ENTER.
5. Again, the bottom prompt will change. Now ARCHIVE is expecting an input of DESTINATION information. Since we are transferring the gazet file to MDV2, type: mdv2_gazet_dbf ENTER.
6. It takes a little while for the gazet program to transfer, so lets reflect upon what we have done. We have begun to use a new programming language, the ARCHIVE language. The Archive program assisted us by displaying a list of possible commands to use. We used the Archive command “backup”. When we typed and entered “backup” Archive took over and prompted for further information. This is typical of the way Archive treats us as we use its command structure. If we get confused, a touch of F1 will bring up a HELP file to help us out.
7. Now that the gazet file has been moved into MDV2, lets reflect upon how a Archive file can be used. We cannot LOAD it “outside of the PSION software environment”. We could load it to QUILL to print it. Or, we can use the Archive commands to do other things with the file.
8. Since Archive has finished with the last instruction, it is now waiting for the next command. Lets explore one of the other commands given at the top of the screen. “Look” is an Archive command used to look at a file. It is a SAFE command, ie, it allows you to read a file, but not change it.
9. Type: look ENTER. Note the typical stepping given in the prompt line. Archive now expects a file title- no device number or extension, because Archive assumes that MDV2 is the device and “dbf” is the extension. But we will do something else instead.
10. Touch the F1 key for HELP. Note that the help file that loads in is about the last command that you used, which is the “look” command. Some of the information may not be very intelligent to you right now, but as Archive is used the help information will become more understandable.
11. To get back to the “look” function, just touch ENTER.
12. Now we will look at the gazet file that we just moved into MDV2. Type: gazet ENTER.
13. The gazet file loads into Archive, but nothing seems to have happened. Its in thar but Archive is waiting for instructions.
14. Type: first ENTER. This sets up the first data base record to be acted upon.
15. Type: display ENTER. Now we have hit pay dirt. The Data Base file, gazet, is a demo file about countries of the world. It has eight topics of information about each of the records. Note the “name$” left column of the record. We can use these with some of the Archive commands to find things.
16. We are looking at one record of the gazet dbf file, but we could be looking at any other named dbf file created by use of Archive or one of the North American softwares that use the Archive program language. It could be a “Mail File” and the record could be “John Hancock” with 7 information lines about ole John.
17. Remember, we are still operating under the “look” command. To look at the next record, type: next ENTER.
18. To go back one file, type: back ENTER.
19. Type: next ENTER several times. See how you can step through the records?
20. Tired of looking at foregn countries? Lets use another of the commands at top. Type: find ENTER. Then type: Canada ENTER. Type: United States ENTER. Uh Oh!
21. Can’t find United States! Try: United ENTER. Now we’re in Arab countries! This is an example of the need to construct a data base that is easy to find things in.
22. Lets use the SEARCH command, and a little bit of inguenity. Touch F3 to get a new set of commands at top. Search is one of them. Type: search ENTER. Archive expects another entry of somehing to search for.
23. Since we know that the dollar is the currency used, lets try that. Type: currency$=”$” ENTER. -and we get Trinidad. Now we can use the step command to step through the countries that use dollar as their currency.
24. Type: next ENTER. Now we find how U.S.A. is set up in the data base file.
————-end of exercise————
Archive starts off seeming to be very complicated, and turns out to be easy to cope with. It’s kinda like the kids game “Simon Sez”. It gives you the commands at top of screen, and when you are explicit in how you use them, you are rewarded with action. Better still, when you make a mistake Archive just ignores that and presents another prompt line for a “good” command to be entered.
To keep on learning Archive, follow the other steps given in Chapter 4 of the Archive Section. Keep on working until you have learned how to construct a file, how to open it for modification, and how to create different types of files. It wont be difficult now that we have stepped through the principles of the Archive command structure. It will take a few days to get comfortable with the Archive program language, but the rewards will be great.
Only after becoming comfortable with Archive can we begin to take advantage of the excellent new softwares that are becoming available here in North America. These softwares are inexpensive because they take advantage of the existing language structure of the Archive software.
—————-BJ—————–