This program is a simple screen oriented database manager. It does have some rudimentary file formatting and printing capabilities. I use it as a library catalog. The metaphor is a stack of index cards with fields and subfields on them. To explain subfields, think of a book with multiple authors. Each author must be treated equally and there may be many authors. If you search for any book written by "John Smith" you want to find it whether he is the only author or the fifteenth author.
To configure cardfile, the simplest way is to run configure. For Solaris, Linux, or BSD systems, that should be all that is necessary. If your system is not detected correctly, it is possible to specify it to configure, configure --help will show the usage. If you have some other type of system you will have to edit the Makefile by hand. Copy Makefile.dist to Makefile and follwow the instructions in the comments at the top of the file.
Some of the source may look a little strange because I wrote it originally to run under CPM.
One thing that needs to be done yet. The indexing needs to be converted from a sequential search to something faster such as a B tree. Even with a sequential search, the speed is acceptable on a database of about 500K.
Included in the package is a piece of the catalog file for my library so that you can get the feeling for what it does. After you make it, execute "cardfile library" and then play.
If anyone finds any bugs (What? Bugs in MY code? :-) ), or makes any improvements, please let me know.
Dave Lampe
djl@dplace.com