This document lists products from HAL SoftWare that are either
      currently available or in development.  Four of these programs,
      ADDTODAY, CHK4DES, MERGESYS, and KILLVER are specifically designed
      for sysops to help manage their bbs filelists.


      MergeFile

      MergeFile will merge two sorted ASCII text files of any size with
      various options available.  The user can select case sensitivity,
      order (ascending/descending), and to keep or remove duplicates.  The
      merge key can be the entire line or any of the first nine fields,
      with multiple fields in sequence of priority, e.g., merge first on
      field three, then field seven, followed by five (the fields do not
      need to be specified by columns since one or more spaces act as
      delimiters).  A single file can also be "merged" on itself, e.g., to
      remove duplicates from a sorted list.  MergeFile can detect four
      types of errors in the input files:  blank or empty line and missing
      key or field.  The user will be prompted before the overwrite of an
      existing file (the prompt can be disabled for batch processing).


      MergeFile Professional and MergeFile for Sysops (beta release)

      Descended from MergeFile, there is no other merge program like them!
      Even calling them merge programs now is not accurate, although they
      will merge almost ANY kind and size of sorted ASCII text file.  They
      are more like list management tools, capable of comparing two files
      and removing cross file duplicates (records from one file whose keys
      match those in another) without merging them, or retaining the cross
      file duplicates but removing all others, or even merging into a file
      only records that match, which can replace the existing records with
      others.  To give a full accounting of all their features here would
      nearly DOUBLE the size of this document, but a brief list includes
      select order, multiple merge keys (and the order for each, along
      with date or time fields), case sensitivity, delimiters, to keep or
      remove duplicates, skip over a heading, fixed or variable length
      records, error checking, write a "trash" file of stripped duplicates
      and/or records with errors, write a log file of all activities, and
      read or write a configuration file.  The only difference between
      these two programs is their default switch settings.  MERGEPRO is
      set for one line records with the entire input line as the merge key
      and MERGESYS is set for multi-line records of the PCBoard DIR format
      with the first field (file name) as the merge key.  With the proper
      settings, each can handle the other's default type files.  The basic
      MergeFile may be enough to satisfy your requirements, but if not,
      MERGEPRO/MERGESYS should be the LAST merge program you'll ever need!


      Check 4 Description (beta release)

      CHK4DES will run on a list of file descriptions generated from a
      program such as WGM-MAKE, which searches a directory full of zips
      and writes a PCBoard DIR type file with the descriptions from the
      FILE_ID.DIZ's.  However, when WGM-MAKE doesn't find a DIZ, it writes
      "Description is unknown at this time." where the description would
      go.  CHK4DES goes through WGM-MAKE's list and removes all of the "no
      description" names to another list, which can be dealt with later.
      The finished list will contain only file names with descriptions
      that can then be added to your bbs file listings. You can change the
      "no description" phrase to anything you need, including an "empty"
      phrase, which will locate file names where the description area is
      blank (nothing is there).  CHK4DES can also execute an optional
      batch file with each file name that has a description, such as
      moving the parent file to another directory.


      Addtoday's Description (beta release)

      ADDTODAY can be run daily (e.g., from a batch file) on a list of new
      file descriptions that are ready to be added to a bbs and add those
      whose "day of month" number matches the current system day (e.g.,
      the file date is 08-30-93 and the system date is 11-30-94).  Also,
      when ADDTODAY appends the descriptions, it changes the file date to
      the current date (e.g., 11-30-94).  As far as callers to your bbs
      are concerned, they just see new files every day.  ADDTODAY can also
      execute a batch file on each file name whose description has been
      added, such as moving it to your upload directory, and be set for a
      minimum, maximum, or fixed number of files to add each day.


      Kill Earlier Versions (under development)

      KILLVER will INTELLIGENTLY search a bbs filelist and automatically
      locate (and remove) descriptions of earlier versions of the same
      file.  It will run totally on its own without you having to sit for
      hours scanning directories to look at descriptions as possible
      earlier versions of the same file.  If KILLVER isn't sure about a
      name it finds, the description will be kept but also written to an
      "unknown" list that can be checked later.  All deleted descriptions
      will be written to a "removed" file and the version and description
      it thinks is the latest will also be written so you can compare them
      easily if desired.  A third file will contain only the file names of
      removed versions so you'll know what files need to be deleted
      (KILLVER won't delete any of the parent files for obvious reasons!).
      I assume utilities exist now that can read an ASCII text file, do a
      search for the file name, and delete it - if not, let me know and
      I'll write one!


      All the bbs utilities will also handle WildCat! format filelists,
      but with an extra step.  The descriptions in the database must first
      be written to an ASCII text file, which can then be converted back
      to the database format after running the utilities.  For ADDTODAY,
      if the descriptions to be added are already in a text file, only the
      list created daily would need to be incorporated into the database.


      PCBoard is a registered trademark of Clark Development Company, Inc.
      WildCat! is a trademark of Mustang Software, Inc.
      WGM-MAKE is copyrighted by Wayne G. Maas.


      If you cannot locate any of these fine programs,

      Write to:  Hal Parks         E-Mail:  8:970/201              RBBSNet
                 HAL SoftWare               1:11/157               FIDONet
                 404B W. Oak                           InterNet
                 Carbondale, IL 62901       charlies@twister.c-lib.siu.edu

      OR leave a message for me with InfoQuest BBS at 618-529-0000
      OR contact me through InfoQuest's sysop (safest bet for all E-Mail)

            InterNet:  charlies@twister.c-lib.siu.edu
            RBBSNet:   8:970/201       FIDONet:  1:11/157
                            USERNAME:  Charles Strusz
            FIDO NODELIST CORRECTION:  Phone should be 618.529.0000