INFO BITS

Simplest database program ever!

by ANDY BARTON

A superbly simple file program, It provides an easy way to save and retrieve notes and references to sort items that catch your interest-perhaps while perusing Antic and other favorite magazines.  The BASIC program runs on all Atari computers of any memory configuration and requires a disk drive.  Antic Disk subscribers  RUN"D:INFOBITS.BAS".

Have you ever flipped fruitlessly through stacks of magazines or books looking for a piece of information that you saw two months ago but need today?  Perhaps you jotted down a note or clipped the item.  But by now the item has disappeared forever, the way most valuable scraps of paper do.  Such disorganization resulted in the creation of Info Bits.
   Once you've typed your notes and references into Info Bits you can retrieve them by searching for a key word or phrase found anywhere in your entries.  Unlike other file management systems, there are no records, fields, or files to dimension, no search schemes to creat, no heavy manuals to ponder, etc.

USING THE PROGRAM
Type in listing 1, check it with TYPO, and SAVE a copy of the corrected version.  You needn't type in listing 2 to use Info Bits.  Before you RUN the program, you must have a disk with the data file INFOBITS.FIL on it in drive one.  To create the file, execute the following:

OPEN #1,8,0,"D:INFOBITS.FIL":
CLOSE #1 [RETURN].

   Once you've done this, RUN the program.  You'll see a menu with two choices-Add to File and Search for Entry.  The first time, press [1](RETURN].  Now type in an entry or two, pressing [RETURN] to mark the end of each entry.  You don't need punctuation to mark off fields for separate items within an entry-just type a space or two.  An entry can be as long as 119 characters, about three screen lines.  If you were cataloging articles from Antic, you might first enter the type of article or program, then the title, a brief description, the date of the magazine, and the page number of the article.  Here's a sample entry cataloging Info Bits:

FILE PROGRAM INFO BITS FAST, EASY STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF SHORT NOTES DECEMBER 1984 PAGE 17 [RETURN]

You needn't type entries entirely in upper case, but it makes things easier during the search if you don't have to remember whether you typed an entry in upper or lower case.  When you're finished entering, press [RETURN] at the prompt to close the file and return to the menu.
   To search for a date, choose menu selection 2. You can search for one or two characters, a word or phrase, or the entire entry, up to 119 characters.  The program displays on screen each entry in the file that contains the key.  If there is more than one screen full of information, the program pauses after each screen and prompts you to press any key for the next.  If you enter ALU as a keyword, the program displays the entire file.
   Listing 2 (INFOBITS.ASM on the Antic disk) contains the assembler source code for the machine language used in Info Bits.
   If you want to send the program output to a printer, change the S in line 30 to a P, and change the ? in line 1040 to LPRINT.
   And don't forget to write Antic if you create any interesting changes in this program.

Andy Barton is a Registered Nurse in San Carlos, California.  He's also an extremely creative and tenacious programmer in both BASIC and machine language.  You'll be seeing his name here a lot-particularly because he just completed Antic's new, improved line-by-line TYPO II program which starts appearing in the magazine next month.

Listing 1: INFOBITS.BAS Download

Listing 2: INFOBITS.ASM Download / View