Working with files - FILES
- Gunther Strube
- Vic Gerhardi
The commands on the FILES menu allow you to load documents from the Cambridge Z88 filing system, and save documents to the filing system.
You can create a document consisting of several files linked together by a List file. Commands are available to move to the next file or previous file, or go directly to the first file or last file in a multi-file document.
For simple use of PipeDream you do not need to use files, since you can leave documents you are working on as suspended applications. However, since there is a small overhead in keeping suspended applications, saving a large number of small documents as files will prevent the inconveniences of memory low conditions.
File names
When you start PipeDream with a blank document, the document will have no File name associated with it, and it will show:
File No File
at the top right-hand side of the Options Page. A File name can be given to a document with the Name command. Loading a file, with the Load command, will set the File name to the name of the loaded file.
The File name of the document is displayed in the Options Page, and is used as the default file name in the options for the Save and Name commands. The File name is also used to label PipeDream suspended activities, in the Index YOUR REF. column.
| Name |
Sets the File name for the current document. Gives the prompt:
The current File name, if any, will be displayed; this should be edited to the new name, followed by
ENTER
. | |
Loading a document | |
| Load |
Loads a document of a given name from the filing system. The following options are displayed:
Name of file to load: specifies the file name. If a file of the same name but with the extension' The File name, displayed in the Options Page, will be set to the name of the file loaded. In the case of a multi-file document, this will be the name of the current document, not the name of the List file. Instead of typing the file name, the file can be selected from the Filer. After typing
ENTER
(see Selecting files). You can then return to PipeDream from the Filer by pressing
ESC
, and the full file name will have been entered for you. Press
ENTER
to load the file.If the document in memory has been altered since last saving it, the message
will be displayed, and the document will only be loaded if
Insert at slot: appends the file to the document already in memory, either at the specified slot reference, or at the current cursor position if no slot reference is specified. Type Insert at slot Yes and enter a slot reference. Limit to range of rows: enables files too large for the available memory to be edited by splitting them up into sections. If the option is set to Load as plain text: if After loading a document, expression slots are recalculated twice, once to obtain the correct values of constant slots, and then again to ensure that references to constant slots have the correct values. If the document contains complicated forward referencing, it may need further recalculation before the values of slots stabilise. | |
Saving a document | |
| Save |
If none of the options are changed, pressing
ENTER
saves the whole of the current document to the name last set by the Load or Name commands.The following options are displayed:
Name of file to save: by default, the current File name is displayed, as shown in the Options Page. This can be edited to save the document under a different name. Save only range of columns: altering this option to Save selection of rows: altering this option to For example, column E in an inventory of goods may represent the quantity of each item in stock. To save a copy of the database which excluded out-of-stock items, you would type
All row references in the expression are incremented before the expression is evaluated for each row in the document. So in this example row 6 will be saved if E6>0. Save marked block: altering this option to Save plain text: altering this option to | |
Multi-file documents | |
Documents comprised of several different files can be edited and printed as a single document by means of a PipeDream List file The List file is a plain text file containing the names of all the files making up the entire document. It should be saved with the Save plain text option, with each file name on a separate line. The List file should be given a name with the extension' Any error which occurs during the processing of a multi-file document cancels the multi-file mode after reporting the error, to avoid overwriting files with incorrect text. The following commands provide a convenient way of moving between files in a multi-file document: | |
| Next File |
| Loads the next file in a multi-file document, but first saves the current file if it has been altered since the last save command. | |
| Previous File |
| Loads the previous file in a multi-file document. The current document is saved if it has been altered since last saving it. | |
| Top File |
| Loads the first file in a multi-file document. The current document is first saved if it has been altered since last saving it. | |
| Bottom File |
| Loads the last document in a multi-file document. The current document is first saved if it has been altered since last saving it. | |
Multi-file example
For example, first create a List file in PipeDream, containing the following text:
Take care not to add any blank lines after the last file name. Then save this as a plain text file called book.L, by typing 
FS book.L, and setting the Save plain text option to Y.
Create three files, chapterone, chaptertwo, and chapterthree, containing, for example, the following lines of text respectively:
This is the first chapter
This is the second chapter
This is chapter three
Now load the multi-file document by typing FL book. If you use the Filer to select the file you will need to delete the '.L' extension from the end of the file name.
Typing FN, FP, FT, and FB will then move between the three files.