CFOG's PIP, May 1986, Volume 4 No. 7, Whole No. 43, page 10
START YOUR OWN I.R.S.
by Jim Holmes
It's more than just a catchy title. The I.R.S. referred to is an "information retreival system", and you'll find it easy to create and use your own... at least you will after you've bought a superb new program called FREE FILER, from Telion Software. The author, Allan Gomes, was OKOK's [Pasadena, CA] guest speaker at the April 8th General Meeting. Let me tell you what he's got for you.
FREE FILER searches text or data files; those created for it or your existing ones. It locates (and will copy) card file entries, using key words -- much like a relational database program. There are several important differences, however.
Databases ask you to define "fields" (headings under which entries will be listed), naming these for later use in searches, etc. Most "card file" data bases work only on their own data files. They ask you to list the "key words" you will later wish to search on at the time of data entry. This limitation may not seem severe, but consider this example (from Gomes), an entry from a college research project:
"Uranus was a Greek god who was the personification of the heavens, the husband or son of Gaea (Earth) and father of the Titans, Furies, and Cyclopes; he was overthrown by his son Cronus (Saturn)."
You'd certainly select "Mythology" and "Uranus" as "key words" if you had to define them in advance. You might go so far as to list every proper noun, though that's unlikely if your main interest at the time was in Uranus. Be that as it may, what if you later want this information but all you can remember is that it concerns, "...some god who was dethroned by his son."
You'd find it with FREE FILER, and quickIy. You could search for the key words "god" .AND. "son"; FREE FILER would produce the reference... along with only those others which contained BOTH key words! Output may be to the CRT, printer or a disk file.
FREE FILER does more than simple "boolean searches"; you may combine two or more logical operators in a single search. Quoting Gomes, "Searches like these are now possible:
(Computers and MS-DOS) but not (IBM or COMPAQ)
(World War II and Churchill) or (Roosevelt and Yalta)."
FREE FILER avoids the limitations of predetermined headings (by searching the information itself, for the labels you define at search time), and the use of boolean operators allows you to be quite selective in your search criterea. Further, you can sort the output from FREE FILER, in ascending or descending order. This is very useful should you care to alphabetize your output set of cardfile entries; when these entries are to be organized by date, you may prefer to organize them chronologically, either "from the earliest" or "latest entry first". With FREE FILER you have your choice.
FREE FILER can be configured "as you like it". This means it's easy to get it to work with your "old files", not just those created for it. Since it only occupies around 34K, FREE FILER won't crowd you for disk space. It's also very fast; most of the work is done in RAM. A benchmark search of a 55K file took only 20 seconds (at 4mhz., DD 8" drives); it's even faster with a RAMdisk or hard disk drive. Wildcard search parameters [such as B:*.TXT or C:FNAME.*, etc.) are permitted; you can even search [D:*.*] an entire disk at once, if you wish.
As you know, I like to save the best for last. FREE FILER is not only fast and versatile, it's a bargain. Both CP/M and MS-DOS versions are available, and each is only $79.95. Gomes is willing to discuss a discount for Group Purchases, based on the number of units ordered, etc. He can be reached at: Telion Software, P.O. Box 1464, La Mirada, CA 90637-1464; Phone: (213) 547-9673. [If some enterprising CFOG member is interested in getting together a CFOG group purchase, please contact President Bill Kuykendall so that we don't have more than one person doing it. -- bhc]