Program SCIENTRY

The purpose of Program Scientry is to allow entry of information into data files. A data file contains blocks of information the User wishes to keep track of. Each block of information has its own space which is a defined number of characters called a field. The fields represent one set of information which is called a record. There will be as many records in the data file as there are set of information the user wants to keep track of. Because the fields contain a fixed number of spaces and a record contains a fixed number of fields, data files are thought of as fixed length record files. Data files are easily accessed using a form or display on the screen which is specified by the display file. One or several display (.DI) files may be used with one data (.DA) file. Likewise, several data files may be used with one display file. Program Scientry extracts one record at a time from a data file and permits editing. When the record is written back to the disk, the revised record replaces the original record in the data file. The information in data files may be sorted, manipulated using the programming language, Chaprola, and retrieved using the data base manager, Mercury.

Program Scientry may be executed using the batch file, ENTRY, which contains:


DEFINE SCIENTRY.DA
INPUT SCIENTRY.DA
JL3 JL4
&1.DI &2.DA &1.PR
EOF
RUN SCIENTRY

The proper syntax for the batch file entry is:

>>? AC ENTRY [display fnprefix] [data fnprefix] Then, press Enter.

To execute Program Scientry without using the batch file, ENTRY, after the >>? prompt type RUN SCIENTRY


 Program Scientry responds:
  THE SCI DATA FILE DIRECT ENTRY PROGRAM
  ENTER THE PRINT AND DEBUG FILE NAMES
  ?
where PRINT FILE NAME is the name of the file to which printing by way of the Chaprola PRINT command is to go.

The DEBUG FILE NAME is the name of the debug file which is the destination of the Chaprola debug listings during the execution of a Chaprola procedure. If no print and debug files are to be used, then the default print and debug files are NUL and NUL.

To specify the print and debug files after the ? prompt type


   ? NUL NUL

Program Scientry then responds ENTER THE DISPLAY, DATA AND PROCEDURE FILE NAMES ?

where DISPLAY FILE NAME contains the desired screen display (.DI) and the DATA FILE NAME (.DA) contains the data records corresponding to the specified displayfile.

PROCEDURE FILE NAME is the compiled chaprola program to be resident and ready to be executed. If no procedure file is to be used, STOP.PR or NUL is given as the procedure file name.

The proper syntax for the calling (execution) of program Scientry is:


  >>? RUN SCIENTRY
      ? NUL NUL
      ? [fnprefix.DI] [fnprefix.DA] [STOP.PR]
A complete description of how to enter information into a data file is in the User Guide Section, "Using Program Scientry".

Limitations of Program Scientry

192 is the maximum number of lines allowed in a text file. A screen contains 25 lines. SCIOS uses line 25 for the status line; therefore the display you are designing may be 24 lines long on each screen. Data entry is easiest if the display fits on one screen or if the logical break is after line 24. It is useful to put information on how to fill in the fields on screens 2-8.

2047 is the maximum number of fields allowed in single text file. 450 fields is the maximum number that may be visible at any one time in a screen display. This is useful if multiple screens are needed accessing various combinations of the same fields.

4095 is the maximum record length. This number is the sum of the characters in the fields. The longer the record length the longer sorting, retrievals and programs will take to execute. Therefore, care should be taken to be efficient when deciding how many characters will be used in each field.


 MOVE "fnprefix" 6031 8 display file name prefix
 MOVE "fnprefix" 6039 8 data file name prefix
 MOVE "fnprefix" 6047 8 procedure file prefix

The five MOVE statements may be combined into one MOVE statement with the syntax

MOVE "#bb#####" 6023 32

where # is any number 0 - 8. The number entered represents one of the 8 possible combinations of ways the resident display, data and procedure files may be changed as a result of the MOVE statement. Chose the appropriate number from the following chart: 0 no change 1 .PR changes 2 .DA changes 3 .PR and .DA change 4 .DI changes 5 .DI and .PR change 6 .DA and .DI change 7 .DI, .DA, and .PR changes 8 Changes the field number bb two spaces or two blank spaces ##### is the record number which appears on the screen after the execution of the MOVE statement. For example, 00001 positions at record number 1. 00125 positions at record number 125.

Note: several MOVE statements may be in one chaprola source program or each MOVE statement may be in a separate chaprola source program. If one chaprola source program is used for several MOVE statements the .PR file would not change.


Note:   6001 5 Julian Date YYDDD
  6006 2 Hour Military
  6009 2 Minute