On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:47:48 -0500, Keith Nuttle <Keith_Nuttle@sbcglobal.net> wrote: >On 1/7/2013 10:49 AM, Steve Hayes wrote: >> On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:08:44 -0500, Keith Nuttle <Keith_Nuttle@sbcglobal.net> >> wrote: >> >>> On 1/6/2013 11:05 PM, Steve Hayes wrote: >> >>> To extract the data from these files you first need to determine how the >>> field data was maintained, and then extract each field. I find the >>> macros for word processors to be great for this. >> >> There is one problem with that notion, however. >> >> Computers with floppy disks having very limited storage space, programmers >> tried to get them to hold as much as possible.; >> >> Have you looked at early versions of PAF (1.0 and 2.x)? >> >> They stored each name separately, and in the actual firstname field they had a >> pointer to the name. So if the first name was James, the extual string "James" >> was stored only once, and the Firstname field just had a pointer pointing to >> that name. >> > >As I said you have to determine how the data was stored, then you can >get the record. Sounds like you have completed the first step Not really. I was just pointing out some of the difficulties in the way of finding how the data is stored. Modern databases tend to be quite prodligate with disk space -- xml for example. But back then programmers tried to cram the maximum of data into the minimum of space, so they used all kinds of tricks that make it very difficult to discover how the data is stored. Old sequential access BASIC files are dead easy -- you can import them into a spreadsheet "as is" -- in fact for some purposes of repetitive data entry, like transcribing parish registers, it might be a lot easier to design a BASIC front end than to try to enter it into a spreadsheet. -- Steve Hayes Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/ http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

On 1/8/2013 8:24 AM, Steve Hayes wrote: > On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:47:48 -0500, Keith Nuttle <Keith_Nuttle@sbcglobal.net> > wrote: > >> On 1/7/2013 10:49 AM, Steve Hayes wrote: >>> On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:08:44 -0500, Keith Nuttle <Keith_Nuttle@sbcglobal.net> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 1/6/2013 11:05 PM, Steve Hayes wrote: >>> >>>> To extract the data from these files you first need to determine how the >>>> field data was maintained, and then extract each field. I find the >>>> macros for word processors to be great for this. >>> >>> There is one problem with that notion, however. >>> >>> Computers with floppy disks having very limited storage space, programmers >>> tried to get them to hold as much as possible.; >>> >>> Have you looked at early versions of PAF (1.0 and 2.x)? >>> >>> They stored each name separately, and in the actual firstname field they had a >>> pointer to the name. So if the first name was James, the extual string "James" >>> was stored only once, and the Firstname field just had a pointer pointing to >>> that name. >>> >> >> As I said you have to determine how the data was stored, then you can >> get the record. Sounds like you have completed the first step > > Not really. I was just pointing out some of the difficulties in the way of > finding how the data is stored. Modern databases tend to be quite prodligate > with disk space -- xml for example. But back then programmers tried to cram > the maximum of data into the minimum of space, so they used all kinds of > tricks that make it very difficult to discover how the data is stored. > > Old sequential access BASIC files are dead easy -- you can import them into a > spreadsheet "as is" -- in fact for some purposes of repetitive data entry, > like transcribing parish registers, it might be a lot easier to design a BASIC > front end than to try to enter it into a spreadsheet. > > If you ever find a good front end that uses a spreadsheet for its database please post it. I grew up on dBase where you could look at the data in the form format or spreadsheet format, I would love to find a front end where I could look at my speadsheet data in the form format. It is much easier to look at one row in a form presentation that to try to trace it in the spreadsheet format.

In support of a legal battle, about 10 years ago I took on a job of converting 15 years of business spreadsheets (all on 5 inch floppy disks) created on an Apple II computer to a modern format. I ended up purchasing an Apple II and serial port adapter of eBay as well as pulling an old 5150 IBM PC out of a closet, hooking the two computers together with a null modem cable and running an ancient program that converted the the Apple II data to a DOS version of Lotus 123 format data and transferring the data to the IBM PC. The IBM PC also had a 1.44 mb floppy disk and it was fairly easy from there to burn the complete information to a CD. It took lots of time and research but was worth every penny to the client who as a result was not sent to jail for money laundering.