BTP - The Btrieve Unit for Turbo Pascal 6.0 (C) 1991 John C. Leon
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Version 1.5, 11/9/91
** DISCLAIMER AND LICENSE *******************************************
This unit was authored by and is the copyrighted property
of John C. Leon. It is supplied without warranty of any kind,
and without any representations as to its usefulness or adequacy
for any task. Under no circumstances does the author take any
responsiblity for loss or damage, alleged or actual,
arising from usage of this property. Use at your own risk.
THIS PRODUCT IS *NO LONGER* FREEWARE. Use of this product beyond an
initial trial period of 30 days obligates you to remit the
registration fee of $25
(for a non-corporate, non-commercial license) to:
John C. Leon
3807 Wood Gardens Court
Kingwood, TX 77339
713-359-3641 (residence)
CIS #72426,2077 (Email responded to promptly)
Corporate users must contact me directly for licensing terms.
Production of a commercial product using this unit is strictly
forbidden without permission and license.
Coming soon ONLY for licensed users...a Turbo Vision based Btrieve
utility program for creating files, adding/dropping supplemental
indices, reporting stats, cloning and crunching files, etc, etc.
Will be free to all registered BTP owners.
**********************************************************************
Pre-Requisites to Using this Software
=====================================
This unit provides a rich suite of Btrieve programming tools.
However, it is NOT an educational tool. While proven to be extremely
easy to use, it is assumed that you are familiar with Turbo Pascal 6.0,
use of dynamic variables and pointers, object-oriented programming,
and Novell's Btrieve product. BTP requires Turbo Pascal 6.0 and will
NOT function with prior releases.
This unit was designed with, and has only been tested with, version
5.10a of Btrieve, with all current patches applied.
WARNING! Do NOT use with other versions! Having said that,
I have every reason to believe it will work fine with prior versions
if you don't try to use the op codes that apply to later versions.
WHAT IT DOES!
-------------
It makes the Btrieve black box friendly!
Total support for standard, fixed-length Btrieve files, using all
standard calls and the get/step extended calls. While no specific
support exists for extended insert calls, such calls can readily
be made; an example of extended insert calls is in EXAMPLE2.PAS.
Imagine opening a Btrieve file in any mode, saving a "permanent"
copy of its stats and structure, establishing and isolating its
position block, and being able to refer to all your fields by
name... all with just ONE SIMPLE CALL with only TWO PARAMETERS!!!
NO BTRIEVE CALL MADE WITH THIS UNIT'S TECHNIQUES REQUIRES MORE
THAN TWO PARAMETERS (the op code and key number). This is ONLY
made possible with object-oriented programming and the encapsulation
it provides.
INCLUDED in this distribution package are several useful Btrieve
utilities that make full use of this unit. The CLONE and CRUNCHx
programs, in particular, illustrate the extraordinary ease of Btrieve
programming with BTP! The STATS program displays the same information
as Novell's BUTIL program. These utility programs alone are worth
the $25 registration fee.
Further, you are authorized to distribute these compiled utilities
freely SO LONG AS YOU DO NOT MODIFY THE SOURCE CODE IN ANY WAY...
INCLUDING MY COPYRIGHT NOTICES AND NAME.
Full details on BTP are to be found in the BTP.DOC file.
Aside from standard TP6-style OOP techniques, BTP uses collections
to handle a list of filter and extractor specs for extended calls.
That's as sexy as it gets. You don't even need to understand
collections... just use them as illustrated in BTP.DOC,
CRUNCH3.PAS and EXAMPLE2.PAS! BTP creates, maintains, and disposes
of those collections for you. These collections and the provided
object methods will transparently set buffer lengths for you,
and construct your outgoing data buffers for extended calls.
THE SETUP DRUDGERY FOR GET/STEP EXTENDED CALLS IS COMPLETELY REMOVED!!
It is imperative that you read the sample programs and documentation.
They are structured carefully to take you gradually from the simplest
BTP structures to the more "advanced". The best news is that even
the advanced structures are a piece of cake to deal with!
The suggested order for reviewing the programs is:
1. VERSION: Quite simply, the shortest Btrieve program possible.
Just displays a message revealing what Btrieve version
is running.
2. STATS: Reports stats on any Btrieve file. Makes a single BTP
style call, after which you can immediately read the
object's data fields containing the file's stats.
Is an effective replacement for 'BUTIL - STAT',
and can be distributed with your applications freely.
3. CLONE: Rivals VERSION in being about the shortest Btrieve
program possible, but is of GREAT use!
Make one BTP style call, then execute just one BTP
function to create a clone of the source file!
4. CREATE1: Example of creating a new file on the fly from within
your application. Set the values in one BTP data type,
and call one function!
Included in this .ZIP file is a file named CREATE1.SPC.
This is a standard description (spec) file that can be
used to create the 'EXAMPLE' Btrieve file with Btrieve's
own BUTIL program.
CREATE1.SPC is provided only to demonstrate that the
CreateFile function in the BTP product does generate
files that are byte-for-byte the same as if you used
'BUTIL -create'.
5. CREATE2: Same as CREATE1, but creates the file to use an alternate
collating sequence for ordering the keys.
Piece of cake w/BTP!
6. CRUNCH1: Creates a duplicate of a file, effectively "squishing"
the file to remove dead space. Opens source file in
read-only mode, creates the target file and opens it in
accelerated mode. Reads records one at time from source
file, inserts them one at a time into target file.
Uses non-extended calls exclusively.
7. CRUNCH2: Performs same functions as CRUNCH1, but uses extended
inserts to populate target file.
8. CRUNCH3: Performs same functions as CRUNCH1, but uses step next
extended and extended inserts.
9. EXAMPLE1:A simple program using BTP to insert records into a file
of names.
Provided only to illustrate use of BTP and several Btrieve
calls.
10.EXAMPLE2:Another simple program using BTP with extended calls.
Provided only to illustrate syntax of initializing filter
and extractor specs for extended calls, and required
function overrides.
ADDITIONAL BTP FEATURES
=======================
The BTP unit provides an initialization section that checks for
presence of Btrieve in memory before running your main program.
You need never code such a test yourself again.
Just 'USES' this unit, and you're covered.
The universal Btrv function call IS INCLUDED in the BTP unit.
When using BTP, do NOT include the call from any other source.
It is used internally by BTP, and is available directly in its
'native' form if needed, exactly as defined on the Btrieve
distribution disks from Novell.
Pascal's features have made it a pleasure to code this unit.
The inherent capabilities of Pascal records, in all their forms,
have greatly facilitated what at first seemed a VERY difficult task.
The power and flexibility afforded by OOP's encapsulation and
inheritance have reduced quick and dirty Btrieve programming to what
it should be...quick (but not dirty!). Examine the unit's source
code and the example programs carefully. You should find everything
there you'll ever need. If it ain't there, let me know and we'll
make 'er better!
The DOTPC.BAT file is provided for your convenience.
Assuming the command line compiler, TPC.EXE, and a properly
configured TPC.CFG file are in your path, you can run DOTPC to
compile BTP and all the example programs quickly.
ENJOY! Constructive criticism and suggestions welcome.
| 
John C. Leon