How I Modified the BeeBug Magscan Utility (BUG-00) to a Music Record File
By 3WU Fred Price
Being a presenter on our local hospital radio made it essential that I had
some method of listing music titles plus other data and where it was
located. I must confess it was was my son who showed me how to do it.
Firstly he modified the index heading to suit my program (line 300). Then
the subject types in lines 210 and 230. The rest was up to me to alter all
the volumes. All nine were in View format. That is when my problems started.
With 200 organists to cater for plus music titles, record numbers, sides,
tracks and playing time as well. It had to work and it does!
Data for the Magscan program is stored on disc in text files called Vol1, Vol2,
Vol3, Vol4 and so on.
Each of these data files should be a maximum of &5800 bytes in length. You may
have more text than can fit into the space allowed for one volume. You may
therefore split volumes up into Volxa and Volxb. Vol1a and Vol1b for example.
Each entry consists of five lines with the following details:
LINE 1
^ Followed by the letter A to J denoting the subject type.
ONLY USE THE ^ SYMBOL TO DENOTE THE START OF AN ENTRY.
A=General Article
B=Programming Article
C=Review
D=News
E=Hint
F=Points Arising
G=Application Program
H=Utility Program
I=Games Program
J=Miscellaneous Program
These are the default settings. To alter the wording, change lines 280 to 300
in the program Y.INDEX
LINE 2
Title of article. Maximum of 39 characters. The line must finish with a
carriage return.
LINES 3 & 4
Two optional lines to give a brief description of the article.
You must separate each word with a space and end each line with a carriage
return.
LINE 5
\ Followed by the issue number then the page number separated by a space.
This is repeated as many times as required. Each entry follows on directly from
the previous.
FINALLY
[ This bracket follows the last entry in any file.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that all lines must end with a carriage return
AND must contain no more than 39 characters. Working from line to line was
very repetitive on each section and an easier way had to be found. So I
constucted a dummy like this small sample which I copied 20 times.
Some records had up to 10 titles on each side. The only thing I had
to alter on the dummy was the side and track numbers. The dummy was then
ready. This is how it looked: (ignore line numbers)
Dummy..*.......*.......*.......*.....B.< THIS LINE IS FOR THOSE OF YOU USING
VIEW AND IS NOT PART OF THE Magscan
SYNTAX!
line 1 ^M
line 2 ( Fill in as needed )
line 3 AAA BBB ( You can overun onto this line )
line 4 CCC
line 5 \DDD 1-1
[ THIS BRACKET MUST APPEAR ONLY AFTER THE LAST ENTRY
After loading a volume I read in the dummy then I use Views very handy
change system. That is why I use the 3 letter system in the dummy as
you seldom find 3 letters in a row. After filling in all other details
I deleted the left overs. I used a ruler with the bell on as a warning to
save a lot of trouble that can occur when the limit of 39 characters on any
line is exceeded. Please note that for those of you using word processors other
than View, the ruler ( ...*.......*........* etc) MUST be omitted!
Searching is carried out on lines 2 & 3 so they must contain all keywords
that relate to the subject of the article.
This is the layout that I have used for my records:
Line 2 is blank for the Title
Line 3 AAA BBB is the Artist's first and second name.
Line 4 CCC is pipe or electronic.
Line 5 DDD is the record number. The Side & Track is already in. The Playing
time is added as needed.
There is so much info in each volume that in mode 7 you cannot get a whole
volume into View. I use the second processor and mode 3 when working on any
volume.
The following is a small sample of how a volume looks when completed:
Dummy..*.......*.......*.......*.....B.< USED IN VIEW ONLY!
^B
GET HAPPY - NICE PEOPLE - CHICKEN REEL
HOWARD BEAUMONT - CHINATOWN - MED OF 8
Elec
\1B 1-1 0330
^M
WHATS ANOTHER YEAR - I'M IN THE MOOD
PHIL KELSALL FOR DANCIN - XANADU
PIPE MED OF 4
\2A 1-5
[
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that all lines must end with a carriage return
AND contain no more than 39 characters. If you don't observe these two
requirements it can cause a lot of trouble for you. It's only recently
that I have got out of my troubles with it but it is worth it in the end.
So as you can see you can modify Magscan to suit your own system. It requires
only one word of a title or name to bring up all of the relevant information,
such as where an item is. It's then very easy to find.
If you want more details, that can be arranged for you. So give me a ring on
091 567 9135 or drop me a line to:
Fred Price
8 Orchard St
Pallion
Sunderland City
Wearside
SR4 6QL.