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Please Note: The information in this document has just been translated over from the printed version (14-Aug-98) and is being reviewed. There are errors! This notice will go away once all the obvious errors are corrected. From there, this document will be upgraded over time.
A short, general discussion of the ASCII file format, and the creating and subsequent use of such between a laptop and a DOS desktop; with examples using Lapdos, Lotus 1-2-3 and the delimited ASCII format.
The Model 100, 102 and 200 computers use a built in text editing program called TEXT. TEXT creates ASCII files (1). ASCII files will import into almost all DOS application programs. When you copy a .DO file over to a MS-DOS or Mac computer the .DO extension that the laptop places on its ASCII files means absolutely nothing to Microsoft Disk Operating System (DOS) or the System x (DOS) used on Macs. A .DO file is an ASCII file. As a matter of course, after you copy the .DO file over to your desktop computer, rename the extension to .TXT. The extension .TXT is generally used by desktop computer applications to designate an ASCII file ... but the extension, by itself, does not effect the file, or automatically convert a non-ASCII file into an ASCII file. It is just a designation that has become sort-of standard throughout the industry.
Most laptop/desktop users incorporate their laptop files in with their word processing. Word processing is by far the largest single operation that most of us do with personal computers ... followed closely by desktop publishing. Virtually "all" word processing and desktop publishing programs can import and export ASCII files.
Note: For whatever reason, I've often heard folks ask if the .DO file can be imported into Microsoft Windows. This makes no sense whatsoever. For all intense and purposes, Windows is a "shell utility." Like any shell to an operating system, it provides access to the equipment and media, and sets up rules for communications between applications and equipment.
For those that use spreadsheets and databases, delimited ASCII files represent yet another way the laptop can collect data, import-ready for desktop use.
To "delimit" is to separate. The delimited ASCII file is a method of separating information into fields and records. There is a standard layout to delimited ASCII files. Each field within the record is separated by a comma. Each non-numeric field within the record is further-separated by quotes. Numeric fields are not separated by quotes. The record ends by hitting Example The example above contains only ASCII characters. It is ASCII delimited for incorporation into a spreadsheet or a database. For instance, a Lotus 1-2-3 user would collect data into the above structure, using their laptop. They would transfer the data to their desktop via Lapdos, then incorporate it into Lotus 1-2-3.
Example Use the (R)ename function of Lapdos to rename the file DATA.PRN (Lotus 1-2-3 looks for the PRN extension for ASCII file import)
(Q)uit Lapdos and run Lotus 1-2-3. Issue the commands: / (F)ile (I)mport (N)umbers, enter the name, DATA, and hit The file will come into Lotus 1-2-3 with each field occupying a separate cell. If this were a database example, each field would become a separate field in the database.
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Today's computers process numbers, only, not letters, numbers, symbols or control codes. ASCII represents an agreed upon standard number/symbol relationship used by most of today's computers to represent letters, symbols and control codes; also known as characters or bytes.
ASCII uses 8 binary digits (BITS) to represent each byte. An 8 bit, binary byte yields 256 possible combinations for character representation (00000000 to 11111111). The first 128 combinations (00000000 to 01111111) were standardized by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). All common-use characters fall within these first 128 possible combinations, i.e., character code 0 through 127, all alpha, arithmetic, special and control characters. Any file containing characters within the first 128 possible combinations, only, is called an ASCII file. (See chart below)
If a file contains characters 128 through 255 then that file is not an ASCII file. Many files contain these non-ASCII characters, e.g., spreadsheets, some word processing files, desktop publishing, graphics, voice and machine language code.
COLECT.BA Lines 10 & 20 are remarks
Lines 30 - 130 are user info
Line 140 opens the data file
Lines 150 - 240 are the menu with branch on response
Lines 250 - 380 collect user responses into variables A$ - F$
Note: A$ - F$ are temporary storage areas for data input.
Lines 390 - 470 place responses stored in A$ - F$ into DATA.DO delimited by the proper characters see ASCII chart above.
Filename: DATA.DO
"firstname","lastname","phonenumber",owes,paid,"comment"
"Jim","Smith","800-123-1234",5000.34,354.78,"good customer"
Run Lapdos, but before transferring the file with Lapdos, place the left-hand screen of Lapdos onto the data disk or into the subdirectory where Lotus finds files, then copy the file into that area or onto that disk.
THE ANSI ASCII CHARACTER CHART
(the 1st 128 characters)
Dec HEX Binary Symbol
0 00 00000000 CTRL @ Null
1 01 00000001 CTRL A
2 02 00000010 CTRL B
3 03 00000011 CTRL C
4 04 00000100 CTRL D
5 05 00000101 CTRL E
6 06 00000110 CTRL F
7 07 00000111 CTRL G
8 08 00001000 CTRL H
9 09 00001001 CTRL I
10 0A 00001010 CTRL J Line Feed
11 0B 00001011 CTRL K
12 0C 00001100 CTRL L Page Feed
13 0D 00001101 CTRL M Return
14 0E 00001110 CTRL N
15 0F 00001111 CTRL O
16 10 00010000 CTRL P
17 11 00010001 CTRL Q
18 12 00010010 CTRL R
19 13 00010011 CTRL S
20 14 00010100 CTRL T
21 15 00010101 CTRL U
22 16 00010110 CTRL V
23 17 00010111 CTRL W
24 18 00011000 CTRL X
25 19 00011001 CTRL Y
26 1A 00011010 CTRL Z End Of File
27 1B 00011011 ESC
28 1C 00011100 RIGHT ARROW
29 1D 00011101 LEFT ARROW
30 1E 00011110 UP ARROW
31 1F 00011111 DOWN ARROW
32 20 00100000 SPACEBAR
33 21 00100001 !
34 22 00100010 "
35 23 00100011 #
36 24 00100100 $
37 25 00100101 %
38 26 00100110 &
39 27 00100111 '
40 28 00101000 )
41 29 00101001 (
42 2A 00101010 *
43 2B 00101011 +
44 2C 00101100 ,
45 2D 00101101 -
46 2E 00101110 .
47 2F 00101111 /
48 30 00110000 0
49 31 00110001 1
50 32 00110010 2
51 33 00110011 3
52 34 00110100 4
53 35 00110101 5
54 36 00110110 6
55 37 00110111 7
56 38 00111000 8
57 39 00111001 9
58 3A 00111010 :
59 3B 00111011 ;
60 3C 00111100 <
61 3D 00111101 =
62 3E 00111110 >
63 3F 00111111 ?
64 40 01000000 @
65 41 01000001 A
66 42 01000010 B
67 43 01000011 C
68 44 01000100 D
69 45 01000101 E
70 46 01000110 F
71 47 01000111 G
72 48 01001000 H
73 49 01001001 I
74 4A 01001010 J
75 4B 01001011 K
76 4C 01001100 L
77 4D 01001101 M
78 4E 01001110 N
79 4F 01001111 O
80 50 01010000 P
81 51 01010001 Q
82 52 01010010 R
83 53 01010011 S
84 54 01010100 T
85 55 01010101 U
86 56 01010110 V
87 57 01010111 W
88 58 01011000 X
89 59 01011001 Y
90 5A 01011010 Z
91 5B 01011011 [
92 5C 01011100 \
93 5D 01011101 ]
94 5E 01011110 ^
95 5F 01011111 -
96 60 01100000 `
97 61 01100001 a
98 62 01100010 b
99 63 01100011 c
100 64 01100100 d
101 65 01100101 e
102 66 01100110 f
103 67 01100111 g
104 68 01101000 h
105 69 01101001 i
106 6A 01101010 j
107 6B 01101011 k
108 6C 01101100 l
109 6D 01101101 m
110 6E 01101110 n
111 6F 01101111 o
112 70 01110000 p
113 71 01110001 q
114 72 01110010 r
115 73 01110011 s
116 74 01110100 t
117 75 01110101 u
118 76 01110110 v
119 77 01110111 w
120 78 01111000 x
121 79 01111001 y
122 7A 01111010 z
123 7B 01111011 {
124 7C 01111100 |
125 7D 01111101 }
126 7E 01111110 ~
127 7F 01111111 DELETE
Short, data collection program from the Club 100 public domain program library, available online 24 hrs a day. Key the following program into BASIC then SAVE"COLECT" to store as a useable program.
10 'COLECT.BA by Richard Hanson
20 'Club 100 Public Domain Program
30 CLS
40 MAXFILES=1
50 PRINT""
60 PRINT"This program creates records"
70 PRINT"containing name, company, address,"
80 PRINT"city, state, zip and two phone"
90 PRINT"numbers into a delimited ASCII"
100 PRINT"file named DATA.DO."
110 PRINT""
120 PRINT"Tap any key to continue...";
130 Z$=INKEY$:IFZ$=""THEN130
140 OPEN"DATA.DO"FORAPPENDAS1
150 CLS
160 PRINT""
170 PRINT"(N)ew record..."
180 PRINT"(Q)uit..."
190 PRINT""
200 PRINT"Select N or Q..."
210 Z$=INKEY$:IFZ$=""THEN210
220 IFZ$="n"ORZ$="N"THEN250
230 IFZ$="q"ORZ$="Q"THENCLOSE:MENU
240 GOTO210
250 CLS
260 PRINT"Use any characters except commas"
270 PRINT"--------------------------------"
280 INPUT"Name";A$
290 INPUT"Company";B$
300 INPUT"Address";C$
310 INPUT"City";D$
320 INPUT"State";E$
330 INPUT"Zip";F$
340 CLS
350 PRINT"Use any characters except commas."
360 PRINT"--------------------------------"
370 INPUT"WrkPhone";G$
380 INPUT"ResPhone";H$
390 PRINT#1,CHR$(34);
400 PRINT#1,A$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
410 PRINT#1,B$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
420 PRINT#1,C$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
430 PRINT#1,D$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
440 PRINT#1,E$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
450 PRINT#1,F$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
460 PRINT#1,G$CHR$(34)CHR$(44)CHR$(34);
470 PRINT#1,H$CHR$(34)
480 GOTO150