8/3/95                SORTX 2.0
                      =========

                 by Warren S. Macchi
                  macchi@cs.ucf.edu

   SORTX is an enhancement to the sort program distributed
with DOS operating systems. It has the same functions as
the normal sort, plus some additional capabilities.

   This document has two sections. The first part introduces
the operation of the DOS sort program in a simple and short
manner. The second part details the characteristics of the
SORTX program, which is an enhancement of the DOS version.
If you are familiar with the operations of the DOS sort
version, you may want to skip part one.

PART 1:
------
   The sort distributed with DOS (2.0 and up) is a simple
to use sorting program that reads ASCII character lines
from the standard input, sorts the lines in increasing or
decreasing order, and outputs the sorted lines to the
standard output. The lines are sorted without regard to
upper or lower case letters. In addition, lines can be
sorted beginning at a particular column specified in the
command line.

   The following explanations assume that you have a path
to the DOS files directory, or that you are in the directory
that contains these files.

   A sample use of the DOS sort program is:

         sort /+8 <unsorted.doc >sorted.doc

where the input is taken from the "unsorted.doc" file, the output
goes to the file "sorted.doc", and the sorting is accomplished
starting at column 8 (specified by the /+8 switch). A reverse
sort can easily be done by including the /r switch.

   As you can see, sorting of text lines is an easy task. Some
uses of this program are encountered while programming in
high level languages like BASIC, C, or PASCAL. The program
invokes a shell to the DOS operating system with the name of
the file to be sorted in place of "unsorted.doc," and the output
filename in place of "sorted.doc." Typical users of the sort
program are addresses, dictionaries, and other databases.

   You can see how sort works by just typing "sort"+ENTER. The
program is now waiting for input from standard in, which is the
keyboard. Just type in some lines with names or other data, then
press the F6 function key (or CTRL-Z) plus ENTER, and the
input is displayed in sorted order. That easy!!

PART 2:
------
   The DOS version of sort has some rather limited capabilities.
Input data is restricted to no more than 64K, and line lengths are
restricted to about 130 characters. This means that a database with
data above these limits can not be processed with the DOS sort. In
addition, a file with many lines may take a long time to sort.

   SORTX comes to the rescue by increasing the number of lines
accepted to 30000, line lengths of up to 5000 characters, a fast
sorting algorithm, and less memory requirements for small files.
Input data is only restricted by available conventional memory and
the line lengths and number of lines limits specified above.

   SORTX has the same command line parameters as the regular
sort version, plus some more. The following is a list of them:

    /h or /?  displays a list of available switches and current
              configuration
    /r        produces a reverse sorting order
    /+nn      sorts data starting at column "nn"
    /c        case sensitive sort
    /l        converts all input to lower case
    /u        converts all input to upper case
    /d        deletes duplicate lines
    /i        specifies input file (instead of stdin)
    /o        specifies output file (instead of stdout)
    /x        outputs data in Unix format
    /p        prints data statistics to stdout
    /s        skips sorting of data
    /-        inhibits output of sorted data

   The /p and /- options are useful when only an idea of the size
and characteristics of the input file is needed. It is also useful
for giving an idea of the time required to process a particular file,
without displaying it. You can rename SORTX.EXE to SORT.EXE,
so that programs that look for SORT.EXE can use the extended
capabilities of SORTX.

   Note also that SORTX can be used to process all sorts of text
files in order to change them to lower or uppercase, change text
to DOS or Unix format, etc. by an appropriate use of the command
line options.

   Running on a 286-16Mhz machine, SORTX can sort 15000 lines
of data in about 22 seconds! This is achieved by the use of a fast
heapsort algorithm. Information about heapsort can be obtained in
many computer science books. If you are interested in getting a
copy of the source file, you can ask me to e-mail it, or mail it
to you, at the e-mail address in the heading.

   Hopefully you will appreciate the improvements that SORTX gives
to the sorting of data. If this is the case, or if you have ideas
for new features that you would like it to have, please let me know.

   SORTX is freely distributable, but please include all the files
with it (SORTX.EXE and SORTX.TXT).

   Thank you for using SORTX!!


Disclaimer: This program is provided as is, without warranty
of any kind. The author shall not be liable for any damages
caused by the use of this program.  Use of this software
indicates you agree to this.