Información disponible del juego en la base de datos.

DATA GENIE

DATABASE UTILITY
SINCLAIR 48K SPECTRUM

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

ASL - Audiogenic Software Ltd


DATA GENIE

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

The best way to learn about Data Genie is to read through this
manual until you get to the section on loading the program. At
that point you should load the program and read through the rest
of this manual while sitting at your computer. In this way you
can try out the various features of the program as they are
described, thus leading to a better understanding of how the
program works.


CONTENTS

OVERVIEW Page 2
DATA GENIE ORGANIZATION Page 2
LOADING THE PROGRAM Page 3
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS Page 3
Pop-Up Menus Page 3
The Main Menu Page 4
Operation 1 - Setup File Page 5
Operation 2 - Entering Records Page 7
Operation 3 - Viewing and Editing Records Page 9
Operation 4 - Deleting Records Page 10
Operation 5 - Storage Page 10
Operation 6 - Reference - Loading and Searching Page 12
Operation 7 - Printing Records Page 14
SAVING THE DATA GENIE PROGRAM TO MICRODRIVE Page 15
DATA GENIE ERROR MESSAGES Page 15
BREAKS Page 16
EPILOGUE Page 16

1


DATA GENIE

Overview

Data Genie is an innovative home database system for the Sinclair
48K ZX Spectrum. The program employs the latest user-friendly
control concepts. All of its facilities are controlled by a
series of "pop-up" menus which appear on the screen when
required, and disappear when not required. In this way you can
control the program through its various stages by using only
three keys, or a Kempston joystick, thus avoiding the usual
"which key do I press now?" dilemma.

Data Genie is user definable. You can tailor the program to your
own particular record keeping requirements.

Data Genie allows you to enter information, which can be saved
onto cassette or Microdrive cartridge for long term storage. It
can then be loaded back in whenever you need to refer to the
information. Also the information can be easily updated, changed
or deleted as you wish. Data Genie can be used to keep all sorts
of information - names and addresses, lists of collections, club
memberships, in fact any application that requires easy storage
and recall of data.


Data Genie Organization

Data Genie is organised in terms of Records, and a collection of
Records that are saved together on a cassette or Microdrive
cartridge is called a File. Data Genie allows you to have up to
146 Records in memory at any one time. Each individual Record
consists of a certain number of Fields. Let us look at an example
of a record. Supposing we use Data Genie to keep a list of names
and addresses, then a complete Record could look something like
this ...

Example 1
name: johnny baxter
street: 342 acacia avenue
district: neasden
town: london
county:
postcode: n3 6ww
telephone: 01 987 0065

As you can see, the Record consists of 7 Fields, each having a
Field Name. The Field Names are name, street, district, town,
county, postcode and telephone. The Fields themselves are the
blank spaces into which the information, e.g. "342 acacia
avenue", has been entered. Data Genie is a versatile program - it
allows you to keep Records of anything, not just names and
addresses. You can specify how many Fields you need, what their
Names will be, and how long they must be to accommodate the
information that you are entering. So the first thing you have to
do when you are about to use Data Genie is think about how you
are going to organise the type of Records you wish to keep; how
many Fields do you need?; what is the Field Name of each Field?;
how long do the Fields need to be in order to accommodate the
information?.

2


Loading the Program

The program loads into the 48K spectrum as normal. Place the
program tape into the cassette deck, and rewind it. Make sure
your cassette leads are plugged in correctly. Press the LOAD key,
then follow it by two quotes so that on the screen you have ...

LOAD ""

and press ENTER. Then press the PLAY key on the cassette deck.
The program should load. You will see the program title appear
first and then the main program will load in. If you have any
loading problems try experimenting with the volume level on the
cassette deck. If you still have problems, the program is
repeated on the other side, so turn the tape over, rewind, and
try again. In the unlikely event of the tape not working at all,
return it to your dealer for free replacement.


Operating Instructions

In this section we shall look at the various facilities of Data
Genie in the order in which you, using the program for the first
time, are likely to want to use them. When the program has
loaded, the first thing that happens is that you are asked how
long the fields need to be, You can enter a number between 10 and
20 by typing the number and pressing ENTER. Say you enter 20 -
this means that you are telling Data Genie to make each Field 20
characters long, i.e. you will be able to enter up to 20
characters' worth of information into each Field. By now you
should have an idea of what each Field is going to be used for,
so you should be able to estimate how long the Fields will need
to be. When you have entered your length of Field, the screen
will clear and then you will be presented with the first of the
"pop-up" menus, the Main Menu. But first here's some general tips
about ...

Pop-Up Menus
All the "pop-up" menus in Data Genie are operated by the same
three keys. Every menu contains a list of options and a Cursor
Line which you can move up and down with two keys, so that you
position this Cursor Line over the option that you want to
choose. The keys are ...
6 = DOWN and 7 = UP
Practice moving your Cursor line up and down. When you have
positioned the Cursor Line over the option you want, you make
your choice by using the ENTER key as normal. But, for menu
choices ONLY, you can also use the 8 key instead of the ENTER
key. This means that you can have speedy three-fingered menu
operation using the 6, 7, and 8 keys.

If you have a joystick fitted via a Kempston joystick interface,
Data Genie will automatically sense this and allow you to use the
joystick to control the menus. Push the stick forward to move the
cursor up, pull back to move down, and press the FIRE button to
select the option.

3


Back to the Main Menu. It will help to think of the Main Menu as
like the trunk of a tree. The options in the Main Menu are like
branches off from the trunk, each taking you a different way.
Each option leads on to its own sub-menu, like each branch has
smaller branches growing off from it. Going through the menus,
you make certain things happen along the way until you can't go
any further - you have reached the tip of a twig! Then you have
to go backwards through the menus towards the Main Menu, until
you come across another option that you wish to branch off on.


The Main Menu
The Main Menu comprises 10 options ...

SETUP FILE
ENTER RECORD
SEARCH
STORAGE
CLS
PRINT RECORD
EXIT
SINCLAIR SET
GENIE SET
SYSTEM RESET

Most of these options lead onto other menus, except where stated
otherwise below ...

SETUP FILE - Is the one which we shall be using first. Choosing
this option leads you through the part of the program that allows
you to specify how many Fields you want, and what their Field
Names are to be.

ENTER RECORD - Is the part of the program in which you enter the
information into the Fields that you specified in the previous
option.

SEARCH - Is the crucial part of the program. The whole point of
this program is to allow you to keep Records which are easily
accessible, and the Search facility is the one which allows you
to access the Records. It enables you to very quickly find the
information that you want to refer to, and also to edit, update
or delete certain parts as required.

STORAGE - Is the part of the program which deals with the saving,
verification, and loading in of your Files. It also allows you to
specify either cassette or Microdrive storage.

CLS - Stands for Clear Screen. This option does not lead onto any
other menus. Its function is quite simple: after a lot of menu
operations you may find that the screen is cluttered by bits of
old menu display that you aren't using. If you select CLS from
the Main Menu, the screen will clear, and the Main Menu will be
redisplayed, but without all the spurious clutter.

PRINT RECORD - Allows you to specify certain or all Records in
memory, and print them out to your screen or to your ZX Printer.

4


EXIT - Does not lead onto any other menus. When you have finished
using the program, you can choose Exit on the Main Menu. The
program will stop and the message:-
9 STOP statement,28,2 will be displayed on the bottom line of
the screen. You can then load another program, or if you selected
Exit by mistake, you can continue with Data Genie by pressing the
CONT (Continue) key and ENTER.

SINCLAIR SET
and GENIE SET - These two options do not lead to any other menus.
They allow you to choose between alternative character sets. When
you have loaded the program and it is running it will
automatically use the normal Sinclair characters that you are
probably familiar with. However, we have provided the Data Genie
character set as an alternative so that you can choose whichever
is easiest on your eyes. So to choose the Data Genie character
set, select Genie Set from the Main Menu, and to get back to the
normal character set, just select Sinclair Set.

SYSTEM RESET - When you have finished entering Records you should
save them onto cassette or Microdrive cartridge, and verify that
they were saved properly. Suppose that you then wish to enter
some more Records of a different type, using different Fields and
Field Names. System Reset allows you to do this - it clears the
memory of all the records that are in there, and then takes you
back to the very beginning of the program. Because it clears the
memory, it incorporates a safeguard so that you don't wipe out
all your Records by mistake. When you have selected System Reset,
you will be asked to confirm your choice. Press Y for Yes to go
through with the Reset, or press N for No if you don't want to.

Now that you know what each option in the Main Menu is about, let
us start using Data Genie.


Operation 1 - Setup File
When using Data Genie for the first time, the first thing you
will have to do is specify how many Fields you want, and what
their Names are going to be. (Remember, you have already
specified the length of the fields at the start of the program.)
You are now about to choose your first option from the Main Menu.
Position your Cursor Line over the Setup File option, and press
the 8 key (or ENTER). The Setup File menu will now appear,
overlaying the Main Menu. The menu title, i.e. Setup File, is
written at the bottom of the screen - in fact you will find that
Data Genie always displays there the title of the particular menu
that you are using at the time. These are the Setup File
options ...

5


EXIT
NO. FIELDS
ENTER FIELDS
CLEAR FIELDS
SYSTEM RESET

EXIT - Selecting Exit takes you back to the Main Menu. In fact
when you select Exit on any menu (except the Main one) it has the
effect of taking you back to the previous menu.

NO. FIELDS - Allows you to select how many Fields you want up to
a maximum of 15.

ENTER FIELDS - Allows you to give each Field a Name up to 10
characters in length.

CLEAR FIELDS - Clears Out all the Field Names if you decide you
wish to rename them all.

SYSTEM RESET - Allows you to change the length of the Fields if
you decide that the figure you entered at the very beginning was
wrong. It has the same effect as the System Reset in the Main
Menu, i.e. it takes you right back to the beginning of the
program and asks you for the Data Length again. This has the
effect of wiping all Records from memory, so be careful when you
use this option.

The first thing to do is specify the number of Fields, so select
No. Fields. A purple sub-menu will appear, containing two
options, Exit and 0 Fields. Select the 0 Fields option, and enter
the number of Fields that you want in the Input line at the
bottom of the screen, and press ENTER. Let's suppose that you are
setting up a name and address File as in Example 1. That has 7
Fields, so we'll enter 7. You will see that the 0 Fields option
has changed to 7 Fields, and the Cursor Line is now waiting on
the Exit option. Press 8 or ENTER to select Exit, and you will
return to the Setup File menu.
The next thing we want to do is specify the Names of the Fields,
so select the Enter Fields option. The Enter Fields display will
appear. This menu has two choices, Exit and Edit Line, at the
top, but below you will see a white block representing the space
where we are going to enter our Field Names. Then underneath the
white block there is a grey block, which represents the other 8
out of the 15 Fields that we could have had. Move your Cursor
Line down to the first blank line below the Edit Line option, and
press 8 or ENTER. You can now enter the first Field Name in the
Input Line at the bottom. So enter "name" and press ENTER. You
will see that the word "name" appears in the line where your
Cursor Line is. Now move the Cursor Line to the next line down
and repeat the procedure for the next Field Name, i.e. "street".
In this way you can continue adding Field Names until you have
used up the number of Fields that you selected. Please note,
however, that Data Genie will not accept Field Names over 10
characters in length.

6


If you have entered your Field Names and then you discover that
you made a mistake, just move the Cursor Line over the line where
the mistake is and press 8 or ENTER. You can then re-enter the
proper Field Name in the same way. If you want to add or delete
any Field Names, you should select the Edit Line option. A small
red menu display will pop up on the right of the screen with five
options ...

EXIT
INSERT
DELETE
UP
DOWN

You now have two menus on the screen at the same time, the red
Edit Line Menu and the yellow Enter Fields menu. In the red menu
the Up and Down options are used to control the position of the
Cursor Line in the yellow menu so that you can place it over
where you wish to insert or delete a Field Name. So position your
yellow Cursor Line by selecting the Up or Down options in the red
menu, and when you have positioned it, you can then move the red
Cursor Line up to Insert or Delete. If you choose Delete, then
the line underneath the Cursor Line will be deleted. If you
choose Insert, then everything below the Cursor Line will move
down by one line, leaving you a gap into which you can enter
another Field Name by Exiting from the red Edit Line menu back to
the yellow Enter Fields menu, and entering the Field Name as you
did before.
Please Note - Data Genie will not allow you to have a Field
without a Name. You must give a Name to every Field.
You have now set up your Fields. You have specified how many
Fields there are, how long they are, and you have given them
their Names. You can now Exit from the yellow menu, which will
take you back to the light blue Setup File menu. Exit from that
one too, and you will find that you are back on the Main Menu.
You are now ready to enter some Records.


Operation 2 - Entering Records
From the Main Menu select the Enter Records option. The purple
Enter Records menu will pop up, containing these options ...

EXIT
ENTER RECORD
VIEW RECORDS
DELETE RECORDS

EXIT - As usual takes you back to the previous menu.

ENTER RECORD - Allows you to enter the information into the
Fields.

VIEW RECORDS - Allows you to look, one by one, through all the
Records that you have entered.

DELETE RECORDS - Allows you to delete Records from memory.

The three lines below these options are the Current Record
counter, which displays the Record number of the last Record that
was Viewed or Searched for; the Total Records counter, which

7

keeps track of the total number of Records in memory at the time
- you will see the figure change as you keep entering new
Records. and the Maximum Records indicator, which tells you how
many Records you can enter. This figure varies according to the
number you entered for the length of Field. If your Fields are 20
characters long, you can have up to 73 Records, and if your
Fields are 10 characters long, you can have as many as 146
Records! So the shorter the Fields, the more records you can
have.

You are now at the stage where you want to enter your
information. Select Enter Record from the menu. What happens?
Your screen goes blank and then in the top left hand corner the
Name of your first Field is displayed. At the same time in the
Input Line at the bottom of the screen the flashing cursor
appears, waiting for you to type in your data. Above the cursor
you will see a black line. This corresponds in length to the
length of Field that you specified earlier. It provides a visual
indication of how much room you have in which to enter your data.
So type in your data, taking care not to exceed the length of the
Field, and press ENTER. Your data will appear next to the Field
Name at the top, and the cursor will appear again at the bottom,
waiting for you to enter data into the second Field. Carry on in
this manner until you have filled all the Fields. You have now
entered a complete Record.

After you have filled in the last Field of a Record, the Record
will be logged in memory, and the menu will pop up again. Just
select the Enter Record option again, and you can go on to enter
as many Records as you are allowed according to the Maximum
Records indicator. But first, some hints about entering
Records ...

When entering the information into the Fields, you may find that
it is best to use lower case letters only, i.e. no capital
letters. Why? - Well, supposing you were to command Data Genie to
search through the Records for a particular name or word. for
example - baxter, but you had entered it into the Field as Baxter
with a capital B. Data Genie, clever though it is, would not be
able to find that Record. Thus you will find that when entering
the information it pays to be consistent in your use (or disuse)
of capital letters.

If you wish to leave a Field blank, you can do so, but only by
entering spaces. If you hit the ENTER key without entering
anything, you will find that it takes you back to the Enter
Records menu. This is provided as a way of exiting from a Record
if you need to, for instance if you see that you have made a
mistake in one of the previous Fields. A Record is only logged
into memory after you have entered the last Field, so if you go
back to the menu half way through a Record, any information that
you may have entered into that Record will be forgotten, so you
will have to enter it again.

8


Operation 3 - Viewing and Editing Records
When you have entered all the Records you want, you can look at
them by selecting the View Records option. As soon as you select
View Records, the screen goes blank and then the Current Record
(i.e. the Record with the number displayed in the Current Record
counter on the previous menu) will appear, and then the purple
View Records menu pops up on the right. The Current Record
counter will normally be on no. 1, until you use the View or
Search facilities; then it displays the number of the last Record
Viewed or Searched for. Also displayed at the bottom is the Field
counter, which is used during editing. The View Records menu
contains the following options

EXIT
EDIT UP
EDIT DOWN
REC UP
REC DOWN
EDIT REC
LIST REC
LOOK

EXIT - As usual takes you back to the previous menu.

EDIT UP - Is used to select which Field you wish to edit.

EDIT DOWN - Also used to select which Field you wish to Edit.

REC UP - Allows you to look at the Record previous to the one
currently displayed.

REC DOWN - Allows you to look at the Record after the one
currently displayed.

EDIT REC - Allows you to make alterations to the Field that you
have selected by Edit Up and Down and which is displayed in the
Field counter at the bottom.

LIST REC - Allows you to specify the Record number of the Record
you wish to look at, and gets that Record from memory and
displays it.

LOOK - You may find that the View Records menu itself is
obscuring part of the Record that you wish to have a look at. If
you select Look, the menu will disappear until you press a key.

You can use the View Records options to look at the Records when
you have just entered them to make sure they are correct. You can
also use it at a later date when you want to refer to the
information in your File. The easiest way of looking at the
Records is to use the Rec Up and Rec Down options to scroll up
and down through the Records. For example every time you select
Rec Down, it will display the Record after the one currently on
screen. In this way you can go through all the Records in memory.
Another way you can refer to Records is to use the List-Rec
option. Just specify the number of the Record you wish to look
at, and Data Genie will display it for you instantly.

9


If you find when looking through the records that you wish to
alter some of the data, this is what you do. Keep the Record that
you want to alter on screen, and see which Field contains the
data that you want to alter. Then, looking at the Field counter
at the bottom, using the Edit Up and Edit Down options, scroll
through the Fields until the Field that needs altering is
displayed in the Field counter. Then select the Edit Rec option -
the flashing Cursor will appear in the Input Line. You can now
re-enter the data into that Field and press ENTER. The new data
will replace the old data.


Operation 4 - Deleting Records
This is the Delete Records menu ...

EXIT
DELETE CUR/REC
OTHER RECORD
SYSTEM RESET

There are three ways of deleting records....

1 - If you find when looking through the Records that you wish to
delete a Record, then, using the View Records menu, find the
Record you want to delete and leave it on the screen while you
Exit from that menu back to the Enter Records menu. Because that
Record was the one you Viewed last, its number will be stored in
the Current Record counter. Now you should select the Delete
Records option. The red Delete Records menu will appear
containing the options listed above. Select the DELETE CUR/REC
option, and this will delete the Record whose number is in the
Current Record counter.

2 - Another way of deleting Records is to use the OTHER RECORD
option. To use this you must already know the number of the
Record you wish to delete. When you select this option, the
Cursor will appear in the Input Line, waiting for you to enter
the number. Just type it in and press ENTER, and that Record will
be deleted. When a Record is deleted, all subsequent records are
moved up one place to fill the gap.

3 - If you decide that you want to delete ALL the Records in
memory, you can choose the SYSTEM RESET option. This is the same
as the System Reset option in the main menu, i.e. it wipes the
memory of all Records.

CAUTION - Once a Record is deleted it has gone for good (unless
you still have it stored on tape). So be sure you really mean it
before you delete any Records!


Operation 5 - Storage
Once you have entered all the Records, and have carried out all
the Editing and Deleting that you want, you should store your
File of Records onto cassette or Microdrive cartridge. To do
this, go back through the menus to the Main Menu and select the
Storage option. The Storage menu will pop up with seven
options ...

10


EXIT
SAVE RECORDS
LOAD RECORDS
VERIFY RECORDS
MICRODRIVE
CASSETTE
NAME: DATA

EXIT - As usual

SAVE RECORDS - Allows you to store your File of Records on tape
or Microdrive cartridge.

LOAD RECORDS - When you wish to refer to a File that you have
Saved, you can use this option to load the Records into memory
from the tape or Microdrive cartridge.

VERIFY RECORDS - As soon as you have Saved your Records, you can
use this option to check that they have been Saved properly.

MICRODRIVE
and CASSETTE - These options allow you to select which storage
medium you wish to use. The One that is in use at any time is
highlighted in black. To change to the Other medium, just
position the cursor over it and select in the normal way. PLEASE
NOTE - If you have a multi-Microdrive system, all Microdrive
operations in Data Genie must be carried out on Drive 1.

NAME - When you save or load a File, you must specify a Filename.
The Filename is preset as "DATA", but you can easily change it to
whatever name you want by selecting this option. The Cursor will
appear in the Input Line at the bottom of the screen. You can
then enter any name of up to 8 characters, and press ENTER. The
new name will appear in the menu where "DATA" used to be. This
Filename will be used when you carry out a Saving or Loading
operation.

So, you are now ready to store your File. The first thing you
must do is give it a name. If you want to call it "DATA" then
leave the name as it is. Remember, however, that if you are going
to save more than One file Onto a single cassette or Microdrive
cartridge, you will have to give each of those files a different
name. It is probably best to give the file a name that relates to
the information in it. To change the name, use the Name option as
described above.

The next thing to do is specify the storage medium by choosing
either cassette or Microdrive. You can tell which of the two is
currently in operation by the black highlight. You are then ready
to go to the Save Records option.

SAVING TO CASSETTE - If you are using cassette, make sure you
have a blank cassette in your cassette deck, and the saving lead
is wired up correctly. Rewind the cassette, but wind it forwards
past the leader tape. Select the Save Records Option, and a small
menu will pop up as a safeguard in case you selected Save Records
by mistake. Select the Save Data option from this small menu,
start the tape and press a key. The File is saved in two parts,
first the Records themselves and then the Field formats. This
means that you will have to "Press a Key" once to save the first

11


part, and again to save the second part. So when saving a File it
is essential that you sit by the Spectrum, ready so that you can
"Press a Key" the second time when the "Press a Key" message
appears on the screen. When the Save is complete you will be told
to "Stop the Tape" and you can then press a key to continue.

SAVING TO MICRODRIVE CARTRIDGE - Put a formatted Microdrive
cartridge into the Microdrive. You should use a cartridge that
has at least 22K of space left on it otherwise you will get an
error and have to repeat the operation. Select the Save Records
option, and again you will get a small safeguard menu. Select
Save Data and you will be asked "Do you wish to Replace a file or
Save a new one? (R or S)". To replace a File you must make sure
that the current Filename is the same as the Name of the existing
File. So type either R or S and press ENTER, then press a key to
carry Out the Save. When the Save has been carried Out, select
EXIT to continue.

When storing your Files on cassette it is best to use short tapes
with just one File on each side, rather than putting lots of
Files on one long tape. You will find that in this way you don't
have to keep searching through the tape to find your File.
Whether you are using cassette or Microdrive, it is always a good
idea to label the cassette or cartridge so that you know what is
on there.

After doing a Save, it is always a good idea to Verify the File.
So, if you are using cassette, rewind it first, or if you are
using Microdrive, leave the cartridge in the drive. Then select
Verify Records from the Storage menu. Again there is a small
safeguard menu in case you selected the option by mistake, so
select the Verify Data option from this small menu, then press a
key and, if using cassette, start the tape. What happens is that
the File is loaded back into the Spectrum and checked against the
File in memory. If it does not Verify, an error message will
appear at the bottom of the screen. If that happens, then you
have to restart the program by entering the command ...
GO TO 10 [ENTER]
This will take you back to the start of the program, but will
leave the data in memory intact. You should then try Saving and
Verifying your File until it Verifies correctly. You can tell if
it has Verified correctly by the absence of error messages.

PLEASE NOTE - Verification of a File should be done immediately
after Saving it, because if you go back and do a Search or a View
in between, it can alter pointers in memory; this would mean that
when you came to Verify the File you would get a verification
error even if the File was Saved correctly.


Operation 6 - Reference - Loading and Searching
So, you now have a File Saved, Verified and labelled. At some
later date you will want to refer to the information stored
there. The first thing to do is, of course, load and run Data
Genie. Choose the Storage option from the Main Menu, and from the
Storage menu choose the correct storage medium, then set the Name
to the same name as the File you wish to load, and finally select
the Load Records option. Get your File cassette or cartridge

12


ready in the cassette deck or Microdrive, Again there is a little
safeguard menu, so select the Load Data option, press a key and,
if using tape, start the tape. If your File doesn't load
properly, you will get an error message, and you will have to
restart the program by typing ...
RUN [ENTER]
and try loading the File again.

When your File has loaded correctly, press a key to get back to
the Main Menu. Then select the Search option, The screen will
clear and the Search menu will pop up on the right, and a list of
the Field Names will appear on the left, The Search menu has only
three options ...

EXIT
SEARCH
CONT SEARCH

... and the Current Record counter at the bottom,

EXIT - As usual.

SEARCH - Allows you to specify a string (i.e. a name or word)
that you wish to Search for, and displays the first Record it
finds that contains that string.

CONT SEARCH - Allows you to keep Searching for subsequent
occurrences of the same string.

So select Search from the Search menu. The flashing cursor will
appear at the bottom in the Input Line. You can now enter the
word or name that you wish to search for. The maximum number of
characters that you can specify is the same as the length of
Field that you specified earlier, and is represented by the black
line above the Input Line. So do not exceed the length of this
black line. So type in the characters and press ENTER. Within
seconds Data Genie will find and display the whole of the Record
that contains the first occurrence of that string, and displays
in the Field counter the Name of the Field where the string
occurs. (It also displays the View Records menu in case you wish
to do any editing or scroll through the Records.)
Why does it display the first occurrence? Well, the Search
procedure starts from Record number 1, and goes through the
Records in numerical order till it finds the specified string. So
say, for example, you are Searching a name and address File to
find the address of John Smith. If you specify "Smith" as your
Search string, you may have a few Smiths in your File, and the
first occurrence that Data Genie finds may not be the one you
want. But if you specify "John Smith" then it will go straight to
the one you want (unless, of course, you happen to have more than
one John Smith on your File). So when specifying a Search string,
it pays to be as specific as you can if you want to get the File
that you are looking for immediately. However, if you did specify
just "Smith" you could carry on Searching through the Records by
using the Cont Search option. So let us suppose that you have
found the first occurrence of "Smith" and it is not the one you
want. Just go back to the Search menu and select Cont Search. You
will then have to enter "Smith" again in the Input Line, but this

13


time it will find the second occurrence of "Smith". If this is
still not the one you want, you can select Cont Search again and
repeat the procedure until you find the one you want.

Please Note ...
1 - Remember what we told you earlier about using Capital letters
when entering the Records. When you search for a Record, make
sure that you enter your Search string in the same way that you
entered it into the Record.
2 - When you specify your Search string, the string must be of
characters from one Field only. For instance, if your name and
address File had two separate Fields for first name and surname,
then you would have "John" in the first name Field and "Smith" in
the surname Field. If you then try to find the Record by
specifying "John Smith" as your Search string, Data Genie would
not be able to find it because the string contains characters
from two different Fields. This should be taken into account when
you design your Fields.
3 - Your Search string must be longer than one character - Data
Genie will display "Length Error" if you try to enter just one
character. In practise, a Search string of one character would be
of little value in finding the Record you want, so this
limitation should not present any problems.
4 - The View Records menu which appears after each Search is the
same as the one described above in Operation 3. The Search and
the View facilities together make Data Genie an amazingly
versatile reference system for most information handling
applications.


Operation 7 - Printing Records
The Print Records option on the main menu allows you to either
print the Records to the screen, or hardcopy them via the ZX
Printer. If you select the Print Records option from the Main
Menu, you will get the blue Print Records menu ...

EXIT
PRINT CUR/REC
OTHER
MORE THAN ONE
PRINTER
SCREEN

... plus the Current Record counter at the bottom.

The first thing to do is decide whether you want to print to the
screen or to the printer. You can choose by selecting one of the
two bottom options, Printer or Screen. When you first come to the
menu you will see that "Screen" is reversed out in black. That
means that Screen is already selected. If you move the blue
Cursor line down to Printer and select that, then you will see
"Printer" is now reversed out, and now all printout will be
routed to the printer. You can then choose which Records you want
printed out by using the other menu options ...

EXIT - As normal.

PRINT CUR/REC - Will print out the Record whose number is
displayed in the Current Record counter. What will normally
happen in practice is that when referring to your File, you will

14


have found the Record you want by Searching or Viewing. This
means that the Record number will be stored in the Current Record
counter, so that when you want to print it out you don't need to
remember the Record number, you can just select this option and
it will be printed out on the screen or printer. When you print
to the screen, the Record will stay there until you press a key.

OTHER - Choose this Option if you wish to print a record other
than the Current Record, You must already know the number of the
Record you want to print, and the Cursor will wait in the Input
Line for you to enter it. So type in the number, press ENTER, and
the Record will be printed.

MORE THAN ONE - This option allows you to specify two Record
numbers, and will print out every Record between and including
those two numbers. When you select the option, the Cursor will
wait in the Input Line for the first number, so enter the first
number (FROM), then enter the other number (TO). Of course, you
must specify the lower number first and then the higher. When
printing to the screen, each Record will stay on the screen until
you press a key before displaying the next. You can use this
option to print out all the Records in memory.


Saving the Data Genie Program to Microdrive

If you have a Microdrive system, it is likely that you will want
to transfer the Data Genie program onto Microdrive cartridge. We
have included a routine that allows you to do this, Load the
program from cassette as normal and go to the Main Menu. From the
Main Menu choose the Exit option. This will break the program and
allow you to type into the input line at the bottom of the
screen. Put a blank cartridge into the Microdrive and type ...
GO TO 9500 [ENTER]
The Save routine will then take place. PLEASE NOTE - the Save
routine formats the cartridge, thus erasing anything that might
be already on it, so make sure that the cartridge you are using
is either blank, or does not contain programs or data that you
wish to keep!

To load the program from your Microdrive, first give a NEW
command, or switch the computer off and then on, put the
cartridge in the drive, and enter ...
RUN [ENTER]
The program will then load from the Microdrive and autorun.


Data Genie Error Messages

The following error messages are additional to the normal system
error messages, and may occur if you do something wrong ...

0 RECORD ERROR - Occurs if you try to View or Search or Delete a
Record when there aren't any Records in memory.

15


O FIELDS ERROR - Occurs if you try to View, Enter, or Delete
Records when you haven't specified your Fields.

DATA GENIE IS FULL - Occurs if you try to enter more Records than
the amount given in the Max Records indicator.

LENGTH ERROR - Occurs if you try to enter just one character or
too many characters into the Input Line when doing a Search.

When one of these error messages is displayed, the program waits
for you to press a key to continue.


Breaks

We have tried to make the program as foolproof as possible, but
if it should break for any reason, you should be able to get back
into it without losing the data in memory by entering the
GO TO 10
command.


Epilogue

You should now know all you need to about how to operate Data
Genie. The concept of operating by pop-up menus is a very new one
and may be unfamiliar at first, but once you have mastered it you
will find Data Genie a lot easier to Operate than old fashioned
home databases.
Any comments or criticisms of Data Genie will be welcomed. Send
them to Audiogenic Software Ltd., P. 0. Box 88, Reading, Berks,
England.


DATA GENIE program written by Andre Powell
Version 2 by Richard Desforges
Manual by D. A. Henry Smithson.


-- End of File