Lexa 

Update Documentation 

Vol.1 

Raymond Hickey 
English Linguistics 
Essen University 

Contents 

1	Introduction
	1.1	General remarks on using the Lexa suite
	1.2	Primary data processing
	1.3	Retrieving information
	1.4	Using databases
	1.5	File management
2	Sorting and searching
3	Font module
4	Programme check list 
5	Installing Lexa7 
6	Possibilities difficulties operating Lexa

I	Programme Description											9 

1	Lexa
	1.1	Expanded desktop commands
	1.2	Text processing
	1.3	Concordance in database form
	1.4	Batch on startup and CEF-file
	1.5	Altered initializable parameters
	1.6	System limitations 

2	Lexa Bat

3	Lexa Browse

4	Lexa Comp
	4.1	Key settings for directory lister
	4.2	Function key settings
	4.3	Disk file comparison
	4.4	Online file viewing
		4.4.1	Searching through files
		4.4.2	Comparing files	
		4.4.3	General commands

5	Lexa Form
	5.1	Enhanced editing commands
	5.2	Integrated database manager
	5.3	Text window enhancements
	5.4	Revised initialization file
	5.5	System limitations

6	Lexa Text
	6.1	Enhanced editing commands
	6.2	Text formatting
	6.3	Block processing
		6.3.1	Line block processing
	6.4	Find and replace
	6.5	Text management
	6.6	Printing
		6.6.1	Sample (PCF) printer command file
		6.6.2	Sample (TBL) character translation file
	6.7	Alterations in initialization files
	6.8	File manager options
	6.9	System limitations
6.10	Further remarks	

7	Lexa View

8	TxtLook

9	User Font Loader

10	Lexa Context
	10.1	Introduction
	10.2	Setting search parameters
	10.3	System limitations

11	Lexa DbPat

12	Lexa Pat
	12.1	Enhanced desktop options
	12.2	Text editing facility

13	Lexa Replace

14	Lexa Search

15	Lexa Sweep

16	Lexa Words
	16.1	Introduction
	16.2	Desktop key settings
	16.3	Menu options
	16.4	Viewing level commands
	16.5	Using setup files

17	Install

18	Lexa Backup
19	
20	Lexa Byte

20	Lexa Demo

21	Lexa Kill

22	Lexa Move
	22.1	Parameters and switches

23	Lexa Repeat

24	Lexa SetKey

25	Unique Lines

26	Empty Lines

27	Every Directory

28	Make List

29	Dos Colours

30	Cocoa

31	Lexa Chain

32	Lexa Control

33	Lexa CrLf

34	Lexa Desk

35	Lexa Dirs

36	Lexa File
	36.1	Command line parameters
	36.2	Altered or expanded commands
	36.3	Structure of initialization file

37	Lexa Find

38	Lexa Shell

39	Lexa Sort

40	Set File Attribute

41	Rename Directory

42	Compare Databases
	42.1	Full-screen commands
	42.2	Browse commands

43	Database Bibiliography

44	Database Look

45	Database Make

46	Database Statistics

47	Database Text
	47.1	Command line options
	47.2	Enhanced desktop commands
	47.3	Additional full-screen editing options
		47.3.1	Database management
		47.3.2	Database display
		47.3.3	Record editing
		47.3.4	Database searching
		47.3.5	Generating index of numbers
		47.3.6	External interface
	47.4	Revised browse-mode editing
	47.5	Using document files
		47.5.1	The structure of a document file
		47.5.2	Copying information from a document file
		47.5.3	Regenerating a document file
	47.6	Enhancements to the text editor
		47.6.1	Text processing
		47.6.2	Text formatting
		47.6.3	Formatting in record fields
		47.6.4	Text display
		47.6.5	Text management
		47.6.6	External interface
		47.6.7	Block processing
		47.6.8	Line block processing
47.7	Alterations to the directory lister	
	47.8	Enhancements with initialization files
	47.9	Working with report forms
	47.10	System limitations

48	Database Page

49	Database Translate

50	Database Delimited

51	Database Chain

52	Database UnChain

53	Field List

54	Report Database
	54.1	Introduction
	54.2	Specifying form parameters
	54.3	Editing form options
	54.4	Batch mode operation

55	Combine Indexes

56	Make Database Link

57	Corpus Manager

58	Corpus Manager Editor
	58.1	Command line options
	58.2	Text database management
	58.3	Block processing options

59	General-purpose text editor

Technical notes

Glossary 

 

Foreword 

Since the distribution of the Lexa corpus processing software began in late 1992 a number of changes have been made by the present author. It has been an ongoing project and has benefited from many suggestions of colleagues who have been kind enough to communicate their reactions, frequently in the form of long lists of improvements which they envisaged. I hope that the present version incorporates the majority of these proposals and other changes besides so that those looking for corpus processing software feel they can turn in confidence to the present package. 
	The main organizational change made for Version 6.0 of Lexa involves memory management. There is now no restriction on the size of files which can be processed or the number of programmes which can be nested in each other, assuming that the computer you are running has enough physical memory available, say 8 MB. This reorganization has been rendered possible by employing the same memory management technique as that used by Microsoft Windows and which has the additional advantage of making Lexa compatible with this environment. Any or all of the programmes of the present suite can be started from the programme manager of Windows and still have enough memory for the processing of large files at their disposal. 
	Apart from this change in organization, most of the programmes of the Lexa suite have been thoroughly revised. This can be seen when using them: there are additional options, improved interfaces, better data handling. If you compare for instance the previous version of Lexa Context, the programme for finding syntactic contexts, with the current one then this will be immediately obvious. A full description of all additions is given in the update documentation below. This consists of sections on the programmes which have been enhanced. Users can hopefully recognize at a glance what new options are available. 
	Once again it is a pleasure for me to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement which I have received from the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities which has been kind enough to publish this documentation and distribute the software. In particular my thanks go to Knut Hofland at the Computing Centre who has always been helpful and patient during the realization of this project. 
 
Raymond Hickey				Essen, 
						December 1994 

 

1	Introduction 

Before describing in detail the alterations to the programmes of the Lexa suite it would seem opportune to offer a general characterization of the changes made. 

Co-existence with Windows The new version of Lexa works effortlessly together with Windows. It can have several megabytes of working memory for texts (the limit is your hardware not the Lexa software). Programmes can be nested one within the other without the slightest difficulty. All can be called from a (revised) single unified desktop, Lexa Desk This is first loaded from Windows by specifying ldesk (by activating File and Run in the Programme Manager of Windows) and the system takes off from there. 

Database management A number of major changes affect the area of database management. The database manager of the suite now comes in two flavours: a full form DbStat for statistical computation on the basis of databases with numerical fields (as before), a form DbTxt with all functions except the statistical options. The generation of new databases has been assigned to a separate module DbMake which is loaded automatically from the desktop of both the database managers. 
	The database managers now allow the generation of customized numerical and/or subject indexes. An index can be created from a single database and combined with others to form a composite index. 

Interfacing The interface between data processing programmes and users’ word processors has been expanded so that any data processed with a Lexa programme can be transferred to WordPerfect or Word without any difficulty. 
	The text-database interface has been considerably enlarged. The report form generator ReportDb takes care of this and the additional features are available in the database managers and the text editors. 
	A special text interface has been included in the database managers which permits the entry of free text of any length associated with the records of a database. This text can be formatted in DbStat/DbTxt, printed separately or transferred to your word processor, such as WordPerfect or Word, with little or no extra editing. Database document files can be linked together and the data in them is transferable to other databases. A typical application of this option would be to create a commented bibliography via a database with associated document file. If you want to work with bibliographical data, you should try the new programme DbBib which facilitates the processing of such data. 

Customized fonts and data display There are many revisions concerning fonts, especially in the retrieval software. Of particular interest for users of the Helsinki corpus is the addition of user-specifiable routines for sorting and searching. Test files are supplied which show how you can view, sort and search for Old English words/phrases with real Old English characters by converting the escape characters of the Helsinki corpus into real symbols and then using the supplied sort and search files (these put ash ‘æ’ between ‘ad’ and ‘af’ and put thorn and eth in that order after ‘t’ as well as treating yogh and ‘g’ as equal for retrieval purposes, etc.) 
	Special character processing has been further enhanced by the option of specifying a user font with both text editors and database managers which allows the full ASCII set and a further 256 symbols of your own. There is a sample user font LTXT_CHR.VGA included in the suite with which you can see for yourself how this option works. User fonts can be created and processed with the LinguaFont software by the author of Lexa which is also available from the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities. 
	All programmes which involve data processing or display can be run in a 50-line VGA mode. You switch by simply pressing Ctrl-V (or Ctrl-Backspace in the text editors). 

New initialization files Because of the increased number of features, many programmes have initialization files with more parameters than in the original version of the Lexa suite. If you work with Version 6.0 please ensure that you use the newer versions of initialization files (the easiest way to be certain that this is the case is to install the entire suite on your hard disk afresh). There are one or two new programmes like TxtLook, a flexible browser for ASCII files (like those of a corpus). 

1.1	General remarks on using the Lexa suite 

Let me remind users of the present software that the first matter they have to decide before using the programmes is just what goal they are trying to attain with the corpus data they intend to process. The task of tagging a corpus or portion of it is carried out by the main programme, called simply Lexa It may well be, however, that this is not what one wishes to start with. Equally, if not more common, is the wish to retrieve information from an available corpus, tagged or not. In this case one should precede to the retrieval software of the package (see menu two in the programme Lexa Desk). 
	You may wish to convert textual data into a database for more accurate statistical processing. In this case one should look at the database management software. If you have not acquainted yourself with database management you might try doing so with the database processing software of Lexa By using this kind of programme you can arrive at results not possible with text editing software. 
	It should be mentioned at this point that the Lexa suite does not constitute natural language processing software in the sense of programmes which make decisions on the grammatical status of input data. This must be done by the user of Lexa in advance (for instance when tagging a corpus or part of one). Lexa can only recognize categories which have been conveyed to it by the user. 

1.2	Primary data processing 

What is a text and how is it processed? The primary input data for Lexa are texts. At its simplest, a text is a series of lines, each of which ends with a pre-defined pair of characters. Corpora such as those of the ICAME Collection of English Language Corpora distributed by the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities at Bergen are shipped in simple text form. Such texts can be processed directly by virtually all programmes of the Lexa group; the only exception to this rule are the database managers. Tasks such as tagging (automatic, manual or a combination of both), concordance generation, generating lexical density profiles, transferring of text to a database environment are achieved by the main programme Lexa. 
	Other programmes allow one to edit texts directly, to compare versions with one another, to gain relevant information on the structure of texts, or to view a supplied sample corpus from within a comfortable interface. 
	If you just want to see what type of tasks the Lexa suite can be used for you might care to try out the demonstration programme, Lexa Demo (choose option ‘Run demonstration’ in first menu of Lexa Desk while ensuring that you are located in the home directory of Lexa). 

1.3	Retrieving information 

What kinds of information retrieval are there? In the Lexa suite three main types of information retrieval are possible. The first is the simplest: you are looking for a string and want to know what files it occurs in (use: Lexa Search). The second is much more powerful: you wish to find all strings which match a partially specified input where you may also set a number of search parameters (use: Lexa Pat). Thirdly there is a programme which will allow you to search for syntactic contexts (use: Lexa Context). Here you specify a frame by entering an initial string (or part of one) and a terminal string and set various parameters such as where the frame is expected (line or sentence) how large it can be maximally, manual confirmation of potential finds, etc. 
	Retrieval involves texts in the main. However it is equally possible to carry out similar operations with databases. Furthermore retrieval can include the option of replacing finds with some user-specified string or strings. 
	Information gleaned from texts can be sensitive to the parameters and their values contained in Cocoa-style text file headers as provided for by the Helsinki corpus, for example. 

1.4	Using databases 

How to make the most of databases Most linguists involved in corpus processing will have experience with a word processor and hence be oriented towards data in textual form. The potential to manipulate data within the confines of a text are quite limited so that it is strongly recommended that users of corpora consider the option of transferring part if not all of their data to a database environment for further processing. 
	Transfer to a database can be achieved most easily by availing of the inbuilt options in the programme Lexa (first option in first menu of Lexa Desk). It allows you to extract all unique word forms from a set of texts, keep a track of their frequencies, generate a reverse dictionary and carry out a variety of grammatical analyses specified by the user on the basis of formal criteria applying to the data contained in the output database. 
	Bear in mind the following rule of thumb: if you have large quantities of data which are structurally similar and which you wish to expand on and still have quick access to and to manipulate it easily, then you should maintain this data in a database environment. You can sort, extract, combine and filter data selectively in database form. And you can always re-export data back into a text environment if you want to (use database managers: DbStat or DbTxt). 

1.5	File management 

Looking after your files and your hard disk Last but not least, users of corpora should pay attention to the maintenance of their data in file form on the hard disk of the computer. This is of particular relevance if one makes temporary copies of files (as one should) when experimenting with them or indeed if one is engaged actively in the task of corpus compilation. You should store different kinds of data in different directories on the hard disk and be careful to name files in a sensible manner so that one can later recognize from their operating system name what their contents are. 
	For your convenience, the Lexa suite puts at your disposal a number of powerful tools for file management. First and foremost one should mention the file manager Lexa File, one of the major programmes of the group. You can use it for all file maintenance and as a launching pad for processing tasks if you wish. To move around directories use Lexa Dirs and to gain a quick overview of the contents of a disk, use Lexa Browse When locating files is an urgent need, use Lexa Find Lastly remember that there is a configurable shell in the Lexa suite with which you can customize the type of operations you wish to carry out on your corpus data, the programmes you want to use, etc. (use: Lexa Shell). 

 

2	Sorting and searching 

What is a CEF-file? The retrieval and data processing programmes of the Lexa suite now make provision for a special kind of file which is of value when sorting and searching. The name of this file is conveyed to the particular programme in an initialization file (as with Lexa or DbTxt) or is specified interactively on the desktop level (as with Lexa Pat or Lexa Context). Such files always have the extension .CEF which stands for ‘correspondence-equivalence-file’. The way they work is as follows. 
	You specify what symbols of the ASCII character set are taken to correspond to what other ones for the purpose of (i) sorting and (ii) searching. For instance when sorting an Old English text which includes the letter yogh a predecessor of the present-day ‘g’, it is sensible to regard this as corresponding to ‘g’ to ensure that it is sorted together with the latter and does not appear at the end of an alphabetical list, for instance. You can equally specify that yogh corresponds to ‘g’ for the purpose of searching. Again with an Old English text it might be sensible to treat the letters thorn and eth as identical so that the spelling of words with the interdental fricative phoneme of Old English is irrelevant for retrieval purposes. 
	The second use to which a CEF-file can be put is to determine what characters or sequences of characters are to be regarded as equivalent. Again an Old English example: to ensure that the letter ash ‘æ’ appears at the expected point in a sorted list, one can specify that ash ‘æ’ is equivalent to ‘a’ and ‘e’. Doing this guarantees that ash ‘æ’ appears after ‘ad’ and before ‘af’ in any sorted list. 
	Another twist to the notion of equivalence, as can be seen from the sample file below, is that one can specify any symbol as equivalent to a normal letter of the alphabet followed by the character ASCII 1. If you lay down for instance that Old English eth is equivalent to ‘u’ plus ASCII 1 then all instances of eth will appear before all u’s which is just what one wants. 
	CEF-files can be devised by users at will. There is, however, a certain structure to these files which is hopefully obvious from the sample below. The best way of making your own such files is to take HELSINKI.CEF and alter it for your purposes. 

Contents of supplied CEF-file for use with the Helsinki Corpus 

; This is a file which specifies the sorting order and the manner in which
; search routines work for the files of the Helsinki corpus.
;
; All files of this type have the extension CEF (= Correspondence-Equivalence-
; File) and are specified in the initialization file of the particular Lexa
; programme, eg Lexa Sort, Lexa Pat, etc. 
;
; Note that any line beginning with a semi-colon is ignored.
;
; Bear in mind that the particular programme using a CEF file reads it in a
; particular order. There are three sections to a CEF file. 
;
; The first one specifies what symbols are to be treated as corresponding to
; what others during SORTING operations. This section begins with the key-word
; CORRESPOND_SORT, starting in the first column of a line.
;
; The second section specifies what symbols are to be treated as corresponding
; to what others during SEARCHING operations. This section begins with the key-
; word CORRESPOND_SEARCH, starting in the first column of a line.
;
; The third section specifies what equivalencies are to hold during a SORTING
; operation. By this is meant what symbols are to be treated as equivalent to
; a set of two symbols. For instance the 'ash' symbol of Old English is viewed
; as equivalent to 'a' plus 'e' for sorting purposes. The symbol 'thorn' is re-
; garded as equivalent to 'u' plus '' (ASCII 1) which will ensure that any
; instance of 'thorn' is placed after all words in 't' and before any beginning
; in 'u'. This section begins with the key word EQUIVALENCIES, starting in the
; first column of a line.
;
CORRESPOND_SORT:	(used for sorting only)
;
; Treat 'yogh' and 'g' as identical when sorting.
;
242 ò	G
243 ó	g
;
;
CORRESPOND_SEARCH:	(used for searching only)
;
; Treat 'thorn' and 'eth' as the same for searches.
;
242 ô	ü
243 õ	ý
;
; Treat 'yogh' and 'g' as identical when searching.
;
242 ò	G
243 ó	g
;
;
EQUIVALENCIES:		(used for sorting only)
;
; 'Ash' is equivalent to 'a' + 'e' to ensure that it is ordered between
; 'd' and 'f' during sorting
;
146 ’	Ae
145 ‘	ae
;
; 'Thorn' is to follow 't' so specify that it is equivalent to 'u'+ the
; lowest symbol of the character set (ASCII 1). This ensures that it occurs 
; AFTER any instance of 't' and BEFORE any of 'u'.
;
244 ô	U
245 õ	u
;
; 'Eth' is to follow both 't' and 'thorn' so specify that it is equivalent to
; 'u'+ the second lowest symbol of the character set (ASCII 2). This ensures
; that it occurs AFTER any instance of 'thorn' and BEFORE any of 'u'.
;
252 ü	U
253 ý	u
;
; End of File

 

3	Font module 

In the first version of the Lexa suite there was already included a font management subset of programmes with the explicit aim of allowing users to process the older texts of the Helsinki corpus with the original characters displayed and entered if necessary (eg for searches). 
	The values for the symbols of the font module character set were not listed in the original documentation and so are given here. The letters listed in the left-most column represent those used by the supplied keyboard driver key_hels.exe (see p.163f. in Vol 3. of the documentation). The arrangement of the ASCII values is deliberate. With this ordering any words beginning with these symbols will be placed at the end of the alphabet with the following internal order within the Helsinki character set. E caudata has been placed at the numerical value for É while the pound sign requires no value shift at it is already present in the extended ASCII character set. 

Combinations of Right Alt key and letter: 

	letter		symbol	name		ASCII value 

	a 	æ	’ash’			$145 
	d 		’eth’			$253 
	g	-	’yogh’			$243 
	t 	”	’thorn’			$245 
	x,z	-  	’crossed thorn’		$248 

	e	É	’e caudata’		$144 
	l	-	’pound sign’		$156 

Combinations of Left Alt + Control keys and letter: 

	letter		symbol	name		ASCII value 

	a	Æ	’ash’			$146 
	d	-	’eth’			$252 
	g	-	’yogh’			$242 
	t	“	’thorn’			$244 
	x,z	—	’crossed thorn’		$246 

 

4	Programme check list 

There are in all some 87 programmes in Version 6.0 of the Lexa suite. Not all of these are of equal importance to the user. Some are central, some are minor and run in the background without users being aware of them. In order to grasp what areas of data processing are covered the following structured list is included. 

Lexical Analysis 

1 : 	Lexa				LEXA.EXE 

Data Processing 

2 : 	Lexa Bat			LBAT.EXE    
3 : 	Lexa Browse			LBROWSE.EXE    
4 : 	Lexa Comp			LCOMP.EXE    
5 : 	Lexa Form			LFORM.EXE    
6 : 	Lexa Hex			LHEX.EXE    
7 : 	Lexa Info			LINFO.EXE    
8 : 	Lexa Text			LTEXT.EXE    
9 : 	Lexa View			LVIEW.EXE   
10 : 	TxtLook			TXTLOOK.EXE   
11 : 	[ Calculator Module		_CALC.EXE ]   
12 : 	[ Database Module		_DB_MOD.EXE ]   
13 : 	[ User Font Loader		LOADSET.EXE ] 

Information Retrieval 

14 : 	Lexa Context			LCONTEXT.EXE   
15 : 	Lexa DbPat			LDBPAT.EXE   
16 : 	Lexa Filter			LFILTER.EXE   
17 : 	Lexa Pat			LPAT.EXE   
18 : 	Lexa Replace			LREPLACE.EXE   
19 : 	Lexa Search			LSEARCH.EXE   
20 : 	Lexa Sweep			LSWEEP.EXE   
21 : 	Lexa Words			LWORDS.EXE 

Utilities 

22 : 	Install				LX_INST.EXE   
23 : 	Lexa Backup			LBACKUP.EXE   
24 : 	Lexa Byte			LBYTE.EXE   
25 : 	Lexa Demo			LDEMO.EXE   
26 : 	Lexa Extended Memory		LEM.EXE   
27 : 	Lexa KeyBoard			LKEYB.EXE   
28 : 	Lexa Kill			LKILL.EXE   
29 : 	Lexa LoadVideo		LLOADVID.EXE   
30 : 	Lexa Memory			LMEM.EXE   
31 : 	Lexa MkAsc			LMKASC.EXE   
32 : 	Lexa Move			LMOVE.EXE   
33 : 	Lexa Perm			LPERM.EXE   
34 : 	Lexa Repeat			LREPEAT.EXE   
35 : 	Lexa SetKey			LSETKEY.EXE   
36 : 	Lexa Strip			LSTRIP.EXE   
37 : 	Make Symbols			MAK_SYMB.EXE   
38 : 	Unique Lines			UNIQ_LIN.EXE   
39 :  	Empty Lines        		EMPTYLIN.EXE   
40 :  	Every Directory        		EVERYDIR.EXE   
41 :  	Make List  	            		MAK_LIST.EXE   
42 : 	Dos Colours			DOSCOL.EXE 

File Management 

43 : 	Cocoa				COCOA.EXE   
44 : 	Lexa Adjust			LADJUST.EXE   
45 : 	Lexa Chain			LCHAIN.EXE   
46 : 	Lexa Control			LCONTROL.EXE   
47 : 	Lexa CrLf			LCRLF.EXE   
48 : 	Lexa Desk			LDESK.EXE   
49 : 	Lexa Dirs			D.EXE   
50 : 	Lexa File			LFILE.EXE   
51 : 	Lexa FileCat			LFILECAT.EXE   
52 : 	Lexa Find			LFIND.EXE   
53 : 	Lexa LineNo			LLINENO.EXE   
54 : 	Lexa List			LLIST.EXE   
55 : 	Lexa Print			LPRINT.EXE   
56 : 	Lexa Scan			LSCAN.EXE   
57 : 	Lexa Shell			LSHELL.EXE   
58 : 	Lexa Sort			LSORT.EXE   
59 : 	Lexa Unchain			LUNCHAIN.EXE   
60 : 	[ Set File Attribute		SET_ATTR.EXE ]   
61 : 	[ Rename Directory 	  	REN_DIR.EXE  ] 

Statistical Computation; Database Management 

62 : 	Calculate Statistics		CSTAT.EXE   
63 : 	ClassifyField			CLASSFLD.EXE   
64 : 	Comp Databases		COMPDB.EXE   
65 : 	Database Bib			DBBIB.EXE   
66 : 	Database List			DBLIST.EXE   
67 : 	Database Look			DBLOOK.EXE   
68 : 	Database Make			DBMAKE.EXE   
69 : 	Database Page			DBPAGE.EXE   
70 : 	Database Stat			DBSTAT.EXE   
71 : 	Database Text			DBTXT.EXE   
72 : 	Database Trans			DBTRANS.EXE   
73 : 	Database Delimited	 	DBDEL.EXE   
74 : 	Database Chain 	         	DBCHAIN.EXE   
75 :  	Database UnChain		DBUNCHAI.EXE   
76 :  	Field List			FLD_LIST.EXE   
77 : 	Merge Databases		MERGEDB.EXE   
78 : 	PackMemo			PACKMEMO.EXE   
79 : 	Report Database		REPDB.EXE   
80 : 	Combine Indexes		COMB_IND.EXE   
81 :  	Make Database Link		MK_DBZ.EXE 

Corpus Processing; DOS learning utilities 

82 : 	Corpus Manager		CM.EXE   
83 : 	Corpus Manager Editor		CME.EXE   
84 : 	CharInd			CHARIND.EXE   
85 : 	DosDemo			DOSDEMO.EXE   
86 : 	DosDict			DOSDICT.EXE   
87 : 	DosHelp			DOSHELP.EXE 

Additional files organized according to directory 

Additional files organized according to directory

Dir.: LEXA			Mainly help and initialization files

CHK_FILS.LST			Check list of files for Lexa package
CM      .INI			Initialization file for Corpus Manager
COCOA   .DOC			List of Cocoa parameters
COMM_TST.DEF			Lemma definition file for Helsinki comments test file
COMM_TST.INP			Test file for Helsinki comments in Lexa
COMPDICT.IND			Index file for Computer Dictionary text database
COMPDICT.TDB			Computer Dictionary text database
CSTAT   .HLP			Help file for CalcStat
CSTAT   .IND			Index file for CalcStat help
DBSTAT  .HLP			Help file for DbStat
DBSTAT  .IND			Index file for DbStat help
DBSTAT  .INI			Initialization file for DbStat
DBTRANS .INI			Initialization file for DbTrans
DBTXT   .HLP			Help file for DbTxt
DBTXT   .IND			Index file for DbTxt help
DBTXT   .INI			Initialization file for DbTxt
DMP     .PCF			Dot matrix printer command file
DOSDEMO .AUX			Auxiliary dictionary file for Dos Demo
DOSDICT .LEX			Dictionary input file for Dos Dict
EME_CORR.IND			Index for file for following text database
EME_CORR.KEY			Keyword file for following text database
EME_CORR.TDB			Early Modern English Correspondence text database
F       .BAT			Batch file for starting Lexa File 
FONTS   .TST			Test file for various fonts with editors
GER_LAS .TBL			Character translation table for German
INI_FILS.LST			List of initialization files
INKJET  .PCF			Printer driver for Hewlett Packard Inkjet
INSTALL .BAT			Batch file which starts installation of Lexa suite
KEYBOARD.LAY			Keyboard layout template
LASER   .PCF			Laser printer command file
LDESK   .HLP			Help file for Lexa Desk
LDESK   .IND			Index of help file for Lexa Desk
LETTERHE.AD 			A typical letterhead for use with Lexa Form
LEXA    .HLP			Help file for Lexa
LEXA    .IND			Index file for Lexa help
LEXA    .INI			Initialization file for Lexa
LEXAINFO.TXT			Text file for online info in Lexa Control
LF      .HLP			Help file for Lexa File
LF      .IND			Index file for Lexa File help
LFB     .BAT			Batch file for starting Lexa File
LFILE   .INI			Initialization file for Lexa File
LKEYB   .LST			List of keyboard plane settings for LKEYB.EXE
LPRINT  .FTR			Test footer file for Lexa Print
LPRINT  .HDR			Test header file for Lexa Print
LS      .BAT			Batch file for starting Lexa Shell
LSHELL  .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Shell
LT      .HLP			Help file for Lexa Text
LT      .IND			Index file for Lexa Text help
LTB     .BAT			Batch file for starting Lexa Text
LTEXT   .ALT			<Alt> macro file for Lexa Text
LTEXT   .FTR			Footer file for printing with Lexa Text
LTEXT   .HDR			Header file for printing with Lexa Text
LTEXT   .IND			Index file for text database
LTEXT   .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Text
LTEXT   .LIN			Lines file for Lexa Text
LTEXT   .TDB			Text database for Lexa Text
LTEXT   .WDS			Words file for Lexa Text
LTXT_CHR.VGA			Character set with special symbols (phonetic) 
LWORDS  .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Words
LX_FILE .LST			List of files to search for Lexa Search
MASTER  .FRM			Master form file for Lexa Form
MASTER  .HDR			Header used with master form
MASTER  .TXT			Sample text for insertion into form file
NO_COMM .FRM			Test form file without any comments
PART    .LST			List file with wild cards for Lexa Pat
PC_KNOW .IND			Index file for PC Knowledge text database
PC_KNOW .TDB			PC Knowledge text database
PC_WORDS.LST			List of words for searching through PC_KNOW.TDB
PRONOUNS.LST			Set of pronouns for search in EME_CORR text database
README      			Last minute information on programme improvements
ROMAN_8 .TBL			Character translation table for Roman 8 fonts
SAMPLE  .IND			Index for file for following text database
SAMPLE  .TDB			Sample text database for Corpus Manager
SHORT   .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Text without comments
STARJET .PCF			Printer command file for Starjet printer
VERBFORM.LST			Set of verb forms for search in EME_CORR text database
VIDEO   .BAT			Batch file to load font needed for Helsinki texts
_PRELUDE.BAT			Customizable startup batch file for Lexa Desk

Dir.: LEXA\DB_DATA

BIB     .BAT			Batch file to start Database Bibliography for test
BIBLIO  .DBD			Document file for following database
BIBLIO  .DBF			Bibliographical database
BIBLIO  .DBX			Index on field SURNAME for above database
BIB_YEAR.DBX			Index on field YEAR for above database
BIBLIO  .TXT			Bibliographical database in delimited text form
CLEAN   .WPM			WordPerfect macro for bibliographical database
CONCORD .DBF			Intake database for concordance data
DBBIB   .INI			Initialization file for Database Bibliography
DBPAGE  .$$$			Database structure in text form for direct import
DB_TEST .DBF			General test database with various field types
DB_TEST .DBX			Index on SURNAME field for above database
DB_TEST .REP			Report form (standard letter) for above database
DB_TEST .TXT			General test database in delimited text form
DELIMIT .REP			Report form to convert records to delimited text
LEXA2WP .WPM			Macro to convert Lexa codes to WP attributes
MLA     .REP			MLA report form for BIBLIO.DBF
MOUTON  .REP			Mouton-de Gruyter report form for BIBLIO.DBF
SNIPPETS.TXT			Stretch of text for importing into DbStat clipboard
TEST    .BIB			Bibliographical references as input to DbBib

Dir.: LEXA\DEMO		Files for demonstration of Lexa

BEOWULF .INP			Extract from Beowulf epic
BEOWULF .WDX			Index of above for Lexa Words
BLOOM   .TXT			Extract from Molly Bloom's soliloquy in Ulysses
CHAUCER .INP			Extract from Prologue to Canterbury Tales
CM_EME  .INI			Corpus Manager initialization file
CONJUNC .LST			List of conjunctions used for search
DB_NORM .INI			Initialization file for DbTrans
DEMO    .LST			List of the demostration files
DEMO_01 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_02 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_03 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_04 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_05 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_06 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_07 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_08 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_09 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
DEMO_10 .BAT			Batch file to start a demonstration
HELSINKI.CEF			Correspondence-Equivalence-File for Helsinki corpus
LC_SYNGE.INI			Initialization file for Lexa Context and Synge text
LDEMO   .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Demo
LP_BEOW .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Pat and Beowulf extract
LP_JOYCE.INI			Initialization file for Lexa Pat and Joyce extract
LW_BEOW .INI			Initialization file for Lexa Words and Beowulf extract
LX_BEOW .DEF			Lemma definition file for Lexa and Beowulf extract
LX_BEOW .INI			Initialization file for Lexa and Beowulf extract
LX_CHAU .DEF			Lemma definition file for Lexa and Chaucer extract
LX_CHAU .INI			Initialization file for Lexa and Chaucer extract
NORMAL  .DBF			Database with forms for normalization operation
NORM_INP.TXT			Test input text for normalization operation
POS_NEG .LST			List of negative forms for search
PRONOUNS.LST			List of pronouns for search
RIDERS  .TXT			Text of Synge's Riders to the Sea
TRANS   .DBF			Database with translations for DbTrans
TRANS   .001			Sample input file for DbTrans
TRANS   .002			Sample input file for DbTrans
TRANS   .003			Sample input file for DbTrans

N.B. This directory and the following three exist on the distribution diskettes of
Lexa and are not created on your hard disk when you install the suite. Instead
their contents are merged with that of the main directory.

Dir.: LEXA\HELSINKI		Files for use with the Helsinki corpus

CODES   .TST			Test file for Helsinki corpus special characters
HELSINKI.ASC			Document explaining encoding of Helsinki symbols
HELSINKI.CEF			Correspondence-Equivalence-File for Helsinki corpus
HELSINKI.WP5			Same document as WordPerfect 5.1 file
HELSINKI.TST			Test file for Helsinki symbols
KEY_HELS.EXE			Special keyboard driver for Helsinki files
SHOW_SYM.BAT			Batch file for loading video and keyboard files

Dir.: LEXA\HELSINKI\DRIVERS

HELS_DMP.PRS			WordPerfect dot matrix printer driver 
HELS_LAS.PRS			WordPerfect laser printer driver 

Dir.: LEXA\HELSINKI\FONTS

DMP_FONT.BAT			Batch file for downloading to dot matrix printer
HELSINKI.DL1			Dot matrix download file with Helsinki symbols
HELS_SYM.EGA			EGA video file with Helsinki symbols
HELS_SYM.FNT			VGA video file with Helsinki symbols
HELS_SYM.VGA			Hercules Plus video file with Helsinki symbols
HEL_ITAL.LPF			Italic Helsinki symbols for laser printer
HEL_UPRT.LPF			Upright Helsinki symbols for laser printer
IBM     .VGA			Normal IBM video character set
ID1         			Laser printer ID no. for first font
ID2         			Laser printer ID no. for second font
LAS_FONT.BAT			Batch file for downloading to laser printer

Dir.: LEXA\LEXADATA		Test files for use with Lexa programme

CHAUCER .TXT			Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
LEM_DEF .LST			List of lemma definition files
LEM_DEF .001			First file listed in LEM_DEF.LST
LEM_DEF .002			Second file listed in LEM_DEF.LST
LEM_DEF .003			Third file listed in LEM_DEF.LST
LOB     .TAG			Manual tag file with LOB tag definitions
_LEXA   .DEF			Tag definition file (basic types and tokens)
_LX_TST1.INP			Test input file 1 (extract from CHAUCER.TXT)
_LX_TST2.INP			Test input file 2 (extract from CHAUCER.TXT)
_LX_TST3.INP			Test input file 3 (extract from CHAUCER.TXT)
_LX_TST4.INP			Test input file 4 (extract from CHAUCER.TXT)
_MANUAL .TAG			Manual tag file (basic grammatical categories)
_STOP   .LST			Stop words list (common words to be excluded)

Dir.: LEXA\STATDATA		Test files for use with database managers

BOTH_FLD.DBF			Two field database for Chi-Square test
CHI_SQ_1.DBF			Chi-Square test database (1)
CHI_SQ_2.DBF			Chi-Square test database (2)
EXPECTED.DBF			List of expected values for Chi-Square test
FREQ_LST.DBF			Test database for frequency lists
F_TST_1 .DBF			Test database for F test (1)
F_TST_2 .DBF			Test database for F test (2)
INDEX   .001			Sample data for author index generation (1)
INDEX   .002			Sample data for author index generation (2)
INDEX   .003			Sample data for author index generation (3)
INDEX   .LST			List of input files for Combine Indexes
INTERVAL.DBF			Test database for numerical intervals
MANN_1  .DBF			Test database for Mann Whitney U test (1)
MANN_2  .DBF			Test database for Mann Whitney U test (2)
NUMBER  .DBF			Database with large set of numerical values
OBSERVED.DBF			List of observed values for Chi-Square test
PEAR_1  .DBF			Test database for Pearson correlation coeff. (1)
PEAR_2  .DBF			Test database for Pearson correlation coeff. (2)
SAMPLE  .DBF			Sample database with numerical data
SIGN_1  .DBF			Test database for sign test (1)
SIGN_2  .DBF			Test database for sign test (2)
SPEAR_1 .DBF			Test database for Spearman correlation coeff. (1)
SPEAR_2 .DBF			Test database for Spearman correlation coeff. (2)
TEST1   .LST			Numerical list for List Processing in CalcStat (1)
TEST2   .LST			Numerical list for List Processing in CalcStat (2)
WILCOX1 .DBF			Test database for Wilcoxon signed-rank test (1)
WILCOX2 .DBF			Test database for Wilcoxon signed-rank test (2)

Note In addition to the above files there are two which are necessary for Version 6.0 of Lexa as this runs in the DOS Protected Mode (see above), i.e. with the same system memory management as Microsoft Windows These are RTM.EXE (Run Time Manager) and DPMI16.OVL (DOS Protected Mode Interface 16 Bit Overlay) which are copyright of Borland International and distributed with the Lexa suite under the conditions specified in the license for Version 4.02 of the Borland C++ compiler. 

The discussion below is arranged according to the list of the files above. Certain programmes have not been altered for Version 6.0 of Lexa These are the following. 

	Lexa Info			Lexa Hex 
	Lexa Filter			Lexa List 
	Lexa Backup			Lexa Print 
	Lexa Unchain			Lexa Scan 
	Lexa Extended Memory		Calculate Statistics 
	Lexa KeyBoard			ClassifyField 
	Lexa LoadVideo		Database List 
	Lexa Memory			Merge Database 
	Lexa MkAsc			PackMemo 
	Lexa Perm			CharInd 
	Lexa Repeat				 
	Lexa Strip			DosDemo 
	Make Symbols			DosDict 
	Lexa FileCat			DosHelp 
	Lexa LineNo

 
 
5	Installing Lexa 

The installation procedure for Version 6.0 of Lexa is the same as before. You place the first diskette in drive A: and type install This then loads the installation programme LX_INST.EXE which is very similar to the previous version of the same programme. The essential difference is that the installation routine now checks to see if at least 8MB of space is still available on your hard disk. If not, a message is issued and you must abort installation. 
	There are now six diskettes in the Lexa suite which are copied successively onto the hard disk. On completion of the installation you can do one of two things: (i) install the font module and have an alteration made to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of drive C: of your computer or (ii) start directly with the programme launcher Lexa Desk from which you can start any of the programmes of the group and where you obtain general information on the organization of the entire set. 

 

6	Possibilities difficulties operating Lexa 

Smart Drive Users who normally run Microsoft Windows on their system will probably have a call to the memory cache programme SMARTDRV.EXE in their AUTOEXEC.BAT startup file in the root directory of drive C:. This should be rendered inoperative by typing "rem" at the beginning of the relevant line of the batch file. Otherwise Lexa Install may not be able to make the alterations to AUTOEXEC.BAT which are necessary for automatic font loading and the specification of the path to the Lexa programme directory. You can reinstate SMARTDRV.EXE afterwards. 

Using memory managers You may experience difficulties with the Lexa set if you use some kinds of memory managers which are incompatible with the DOS Protected Mode. For instance older versions of the QEMM memory manager (a popular device) will simply cause a Lexa programme which is a Protected Mode Application to abort to DOS immediately after it starts. This is due to the fact that such a programme attempts to allocate memory for itself on loading and if it encounters an incompatible memory manager in the process it simply terminates. 

Using Lexa with an LCD screen The main programme Lexa along with the text editors Lexa Text and Corpus Manager Editor, the database managers DbStat and DbTxt as well as Lexa Browse, Find, View, Control, Shell, Desk, Context, Words and DbLook can now be forced to operate in a monochrome mode by entering the DOS command line switch "/m" (m = monochrome) without any inverted commas as in: ltext /m The advantage of this is that with monochrome systems with colour adapters (notably portable computers and notebooks which either have a VGA or a so-called CGA double scan video subsystem realised by a liquid crystal display) the attempted use of colours is suppressed to ensure better quality display. 
	Notes The switch "/m" must be entered at the end of a DOS command line, i.e. after any other switches for the programme being called. 
	There is a parameter at the end of the initialization file for Lexa, Lexa Text, Lexa File and DbTxt/DbStat with which you can force the programmes to operate in the monochrome mode. 
	You can also switch to the monochrome mode by pressing Alt-0 in the programmes just mentioned. 

Serial transfer of data If you are using the Microsoft operating system utility interlnk.exe for serial communication between a portable computer, notebook or palmtop and a main computer via the serial port then no difficulties should arise as the remote drives of the client or server computer system are listed in the various programmes, such as Lexa File, which allow users to select a drive via F4. 
	Note If a serial transfer device is loaded then some programme may report more drives than are actually present, eg C: to H: although only C: to E: are available. Avoid attempting to log in these drives are there are non-existent and only there as possibilities for logical drives. 

Mouse drivers The mouse driver supplied with MS DOS 6.0 (version 8.20) may be  slow on starting, causing a 2 to 3 second delay after loading a Lexa programme with mouse support (in effect nearly all programmes). To avoid this use an older version (one of the release 6 versions). There is no disadvantage to this, the driver will work with MS DOS 6.0 and Windows without any difficulty and is considerably faster. 

Using 50-line display Bear in mind that changing to 50-line display on a VGA machine means that any customized font is lost (neither displayed nor regained after switching back to 25 lines). 

 

 

I	Programme Description 

1	Lexa 

Syntax:	1)	lexa 
	2)	lexa ini_file /b 

Status:	Protected Mode Application 

As can be seen from the status specification, the main programme Lexa can now handle files of any size, physical memory permitting. The remaining changes concern chiefly the interfacing of texts and databases. Databases can be merged with each other and concordances can be stored in database form and later processed with the database manager DbStat or DbTxt. 

1.1	Expanded desktop commands 

Two database merge In the third menu on the desktop a further option has been added with which you can merge two databases together. This works just like the option which merges the text currently in memory with a database on disk. The reason for this addition is that you may wish to merge databases which Lexa generated during a previous work session. In this case you must choose two databases from a directory listing, the first as the receiving database and the second as the donating database. The rest of the operation is the same as merging a list and a database, i.e. only those records from the second database are added to the first which are not present in the former, for those which already exist in the first database, the field FREQUENCY is incremented for each find in the second database. 
	Bear in mind that both databases for this operation must have been created by Lexa and just contain the four fields used when making a database from a list in memory. If you wish to have more fields in your databases then carry out this merge operation first and then alter the structure of a database with DbStat afterwards. 

Additional picklist options 

Given that programme nesting does not present problems to programmes which run in the Protected Mode, calls to additional programmes of the Lexa set have been included in the picklist available on the desktop by pressing Shift-Tab. 

F11 Pattern matcher This option loads the programme Lexa Pat with which you can search for patterns in sets of texts. 

Shift-F11 String search The programme which is loaded here is Lexa Search with which you can determine if a user-specified string occurs in a text (or texts) or not. It does not return statistics on the number of occurrences (for this use Lexa Pat). 

F12 Context finder To locate a context, some syntactic frame with an initial element and a closing element, you should use Lexa Context which is loaded with this option. 

Shift-F12 Word indexes Lastly you may wish to view a word index for a text or a number of texts. This can be done with Lexa Words which is loaded here. Recall that word indexes can be generated and stored to disk and so used later or can be created as the need arises (see the description of Lexa Words below for details). 

1.2	Text processing 

The text processing module of the Lexa programme is that which you activate from the second menu and which allows you to edit a text which you have previously loaded from a directory listing on selecting the first option in the right-most menu (the default menu option on loading Lexa in the interactive mode). 

Manual tagging interface The alteration here concerns the amount of text which is displayed for the user. This has been increased to accomodate texts with very long input lines. Furthermore the current form is highlighted for ease of recognition. 

Editing level Recall that with Lexa any text which has been loaded can also be edited by selecting the third option in the second menu on the desktop (Edit text in memory). On this level you have a wide range of processing options geared specifically to the task of tagging a section of a corpus. Two minor alternations have been made to this level. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-Zero Shape of cursor With this key combination you can change the shape of the cursor to a fairly large block to make sure that it is plainly visible on monochrome systems such as with notebooks. 

Alt-Zero Force monochrome This command forces monochrome display irrespective of the hardware of your computer. With laptops and notebooks which often have a monochrome VGA video adapter this option is useful as it improves the quality of display. 

1.3	Concordance in database form 

With the main programme Lexa you can now specify that a KWIC concordance is to be generated in the form a delimited text which can be read directly into a database and thus processed from there subsequently. There is no change made to the desktop of Lexa but merely to the initialization file, LEXA.INI by default, in which you say whether a delimited text is to be generated and which character is to act as a delimiter. Here is an extract from LEXA.INI with the relevant information specified (items 4 and 5): 

; (V) Information concerning the generation of a CONCORDANCE 
; 
; 1: Name of concordance output file 
; 
OUTPUT 
; 
; 2: Line column at which to insert keyword in context (KWIC) 
; 
40 
; 
; 3: Only use a selection of forms for concordance? 
; 
no 
;
; 4: Name of file with list of forms for concordance 
; 
EXCERPT.WDS 
; 
; 
; 5: Generate a KWIC concordance as a delimited text? 
; 
yes 
; 
; 6: Character to be used as a delimiter 
; 
| 
; 

There is a sample database called CONCORD.DBF which can be used to import a delimited KWIC concordance into; the database has the following structure: 

	CONCORD.DBF 

	Field Name    	Type   	Size 
	FILE_NAME    C     	 40 
	LINE_NO       	N      	5 
	LEFT_CON      C      	60 
	KEYWORD      C      	20 
	RIGHT_CON    C      	60 

As with any other database, you can alter the structure at will, add fields, alter their type or length, place a filter on the contents, selectively export to a further database or to a text file, sort on a chosen field, etc. 

1.4	Batch on startup and CEF-file 

A batch file can be specified here so that when Lexa is loaded this is executed to begin with. The advantage of this is that you can ensure that certain procedures are carried out before beginning work with the programme. As an example one can take the following file which loads the keyboard driver of the Lexa suite with a customized keyboard layout and furthermore sets the keyboard repeat rate to a maximum. 

	Contents of batch file _PRELUDE.BAT 
	lkeyb 2 
	lrepeat 1+1 

This option is available with a number of the major programmes. The programme launcher Lexa Desk always tries to load the batch file _PRELUDE.BAT. 

;  58: Call batch file on loading? (leave empty for none) 
; 
GER_KEYB.BAT 
; 
;  
59: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file) 
; 
HELSINKI.CEF 
; 
; 60: Use monochrome display irrespective of video hardware? 
; 
yes 
; 

1.5	Altered initializable parameters 

Overwriting output files You may now specify in the initialization file for Lexa that output files may be overwritten in the batch mode. Be careful with this parameter, however, as it is potentially dangerous. 

Using the extention .TXT Should you specify an input file with the extension .txt and that a delimited text file be generated for later importation into a database then a problem arises as the latter type of file demands the extension .txt. In such cases Lexa detects the conflict and gives the delimited text file the extension .tx$ so as not to overwrite your input file. You may choose to alter the dollar sign to ‘t’ later if you either rename the input file or copy it to another directory, either of which can be achieved easily using Lexa File. 

1.6	System limitations 

The limitations have remained more or less the same. The following have been altered as some users have noted that directories may contain large numbers of files and some texts have very long lines. 

	Max. length of line in a text file	2,048 characters 
	Max. no. of files in directory listing	360 

 

2	Lexa Bat 

Syntax:	lbat 

Status:	Protected Mode Application 

Lexa Bat is a programme with which you can edit batch files and execute them at will. It now runs in the Protected Mode to ensure that enough memory is always available. Note that this programme contains the general text editor of the Lexa suite as do Lexa File and Lexa Pat which is described in the section 59 General-purpose text editor below. 

 

3	Lexa Browse 

Syntax:	1)	lbrowse 
	2)	lbrowse [drive:]file_template /v 

The purpose of a browser is to allow users to view the opening section of a file while moving backwards and forwards in a directory listing. You also have access to DOS via a command line which can be seen at the bottom of the screen. 

Enhanced commands on file viewing level By pressing the Tab key in Lexa Browse you can view the entire contents of the currently highlighted file from the directory listing. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50-line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

 

4	Lexa Comp 

Syntax:	1)	lcomp 
	2)	lcomp [file1] [file2] 

The present programme has undergone a major revision to ensure that it can be used profitably when comparing corpus texts for differences. You can now view two texts simultaneously and have the differences highlighted on screen. Furthermore you can specify different lines at which file comparison is to start. If differences are found the system halts and you can renew it using different line numbers as the starting points for both texts if required. 

4.1	Key settings for directory lister 

Assuming that you load Lexa Comp without passing any command line parameters (i.e. file names) to it then you are presented with a screen which is much like that of Lexa Byte. 
	On this level you have two basic options regarding file comparison. You may either initiate a disk file comparison or choose files to load, comparing them online afterwards. 

4.2	Function key settings 

F1 Online help Displays a screenful of help text; press any key to return to the point you called help from. 

Shift-F1 DOS command  Here you are presented with an input line within a popup window and can enter anything you like. Lexa Comp then tries to load your entry externally by passing it on to DOS so that for successful execution you must have entered (i) a DOS command or the name of an external startup file which is either in the current directory or accessible via the DOS path variable. 

Ctrl-F1 Shell down to DOS With this command DOS is loaded temporarily and you can carry out any commands as if you were in DOS normally with the restriction that some of your system memory is now taken up by Lexa Comp which is in the background. If you load a further programme when you enter DOS avoid making another DOS call from within this programme as this may lead to difficulties. When finished working in DOS, type exit to return to Lexa Comp The screen is restored just as you left it. Importantly any marking of files which you undertook before loading DOS is still there. 

F2  View file Before processing a file it is frequently expedient to view it externally to confirm that the contents match the name. You can do this by moving the highlight bar to the file in question and pressing F2 Be sure that the utility Lexa View is accessible or else nothing will happen. F7 exits Lexa View and the screen of Lexa Comp is restored as it was. 

Shift-F2  Edit file  This allows you to edit the file the highlight bar is resting on. By default Lexa Comp calls Lexa Text for this purpose. 

Ctrl-F2  Hexedit file  Here you can hexedit the file the highlight bar is resting on; Lexa Comp calls Lexa Hex with the name of the current file. This will work with any type of file; an automatic return to Lexa Comp is made. 

F4 Log in new drive Permits the selection of a new current drive from a list of the logical drives of the present system. 

Shift-F4 File template A window appears with this key combination allowing the entry of a new file template. If you conclude this step with Return the display is refreshed to show the files matching the new template. 

F8 Show disk tree As with other programmes such as Lexa Browse the Disk Tree option assumes that the file adirs.fil is present in the root directory of the present drive otherwise the latter is read by Lexa Comp and then its structure offered for swift directory change. 

F9 Show environment This command displays a window with relevant information on the environment in which Lexa Comp is running. 

Alt-F4, F7, Shift-F7 Exit to DOS Unloads Lexa Comp and returns the user to DOS. If you exit via Shift-F7 then Lexa Comp does not return to the directory from which it started (this command variant is similar to that with all other programmes of the Lexa suite). An alternative means of exit is to move the mouse cursor to the top lefthand corner of the screen and click the left button. In both cases user confirmation of exit is required. 

4.3	Disk file comparison 

F6 Compare files on disk This is the first of the two types of file comparison possible with Lexa Comp It is obvious that it requires two files for comparison. The user may select these from different directories; to change to a different directory press F8 for a graphical representation of the current disk’s tree structure. 

Note Should you by accident select the same file twice for comparison then Lexa Comp will not proceed with the operation. 

Shift-F6 Reset compare files It may happen that after choosing the first file for comparison you wish to reject this and select another. Just press Shift-F6 and the first choice is abandoned. Strike F6 to re-select the first file. 
	Note The file(s) chosen for disk comparison are echoed at the bottom of the directory help window on the lefthand side of the screen. 

Alt-F6 Edit output file Loads Lexa Text with the output file if found in the current directory. 

F10  Specify output file  Allows the user to specify the name of the output for disk file comparison. The default name for this file is LCOMP.OUT. 

4.4	Online file viewing 

The second type of file comparison provided for by Lexa Comp is achieved by loading texts into memory and viewing them online. The steps of this procedure involve selecting two texts from a directory listing. Once two files have been loaded you can compare them for differences as well as carrying out other operations relating to the examination of texts. To grasp quickly what options are at your disposal press Shift-Tab for the command picklist of the viewing level. 

Space Switch files As the main aim of Lexa Comp is the comparison of files it is necessary to load two of these. The first is chosen from the directory listing which appears immediately after loading the programme. You can then switch to the second text area by pressing the space bar. As no text will be present a directory window opens and you are prompted to select a file for the second area. Instead of using the space bar toggle you can switch to file one by pressing Alt-1 and to file two by striking Alt-2 Alternative keystroke: F8. 

Tab Split screen Normally an entire screen is used for the display of each text. On the top line of the screen there is a reference to the file you are currently viewing. If you wish you can split the screen horizontally. 

In this mode 10 lines of the first text are visible in the upper half of the screen and 10 lines of the second text in the bottom half. You can tell what half is active by noting whether the first or the penultimate line of the screen is hightlighted in cyan (on colour systems) or inverse display (on monochrome monitors). Alternative keystroke: Alt-F7. 

F3 Line numbers Toggles the line numbering on the left of the screen on and off. 

Ctrl-F3 Formatting Shows line ends, tabs and spaces using special characters. This can be useful when checking on the layout of a text. 

Ctrl-V  Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

4.4.1	Searching through files 

Ctrl-F Find string Any search string can be entered here (but wild cards are not allowed, for this use the Lexa Pat pattern matcher). Lexa Comp starts combing through the text from the current offset and halts at the first find or the end of the text if there is no match for the string. When a match is found pressing any key leads to Lexa Comp continuing the search. Matches are displayed in inverse video. Alternative keystroke: Shift-F6. 

Ctrl-R Repeat search Using a string entered previously the search is continued from the current file offset. Alternative keystroke: Ctrl-F6. 

Ctrl-X Count occurrences of string Counts the matches for a particular search string. The count starts at the current offset and continues until the end of the text. To count all occurrences in a file, press Ctrl-PageUp to jump to the beginning of the file. Alternative keystroke: Alt-F6. 

F6  Search switches The user may specify via this keystroke whether case is to be ignored and whether whole words or just strings are the basic units for searches in a loaded text. 

4.4.2	Comparing files 

F4 Compare sections Assuming that two texts have been loaded and that you are running Lexa Comp in the full screen mode, i.e. not with a split screen, then this keystroke forces a comparison between the sections of file one and two which are visible on the screen. If there are differences then Lexa Comp switches to file two and displays these in inverse video. 

Shift-F4 Compare files To compare large stretches from two files use the present key combination. This works as follows. Lexa Comp initiates a comparison between the two loaded files and halts at the first difference between them, highlighting this in file two by inverse video (as with the previous command). You are then given the option of pressing any key to continue or Escape to interrupt the comparison and remain at the position at which the difference was found. 
	Note The comparison always begins at the current offset for each file. To compare two files in their entirety, move to the beginning of each with Ctrl- PgUp and then press Shift-F4 

4.4.3	General commands 

F1 Online help Shows a screenful of online help, any key press returns you to the point from which you called help. 

Shift-F1 DOS command Allows the execution of a DOS command, i.e. either a command of the operating system or the name of a programme or batch file. 

Ctrl-F1 Shell down to DOS Moves the user to the operating system temporarily. To return to Lexa Comp, type exit. 

F5 Load new file To load a new file into either window press F5. A directory window opens and you choose a file in the accustomed manner (or press Escape to revert to the old file). 

F9 Show environment Offers a windowful of useful information on the environment in which one is working. 

Alt-F4, F7, Shift-F7 Exit to DOS Unloads Lexa Comp and returns the user to DOS. If you exit via Shift-F7 then Lexa Comp does not return to the directory from which it started. User confirmation of exit is required. 

 

5	Lexa Form 

Syntax:	lform 

The current programme has been expanded considerably to allow for more flexible form editing. The changes involve (i) a database interface to forms, (ii) a text macro facility and (iii) extended text editing facilities. All the alterations take effect when you load a form from the desktop by choosing a FRM-file from the current directory listing. 

5.1	Enhanced editing commands 

Inserting a file during output Instead of entering some contents in a field you can enclose the name of a file in double arrowheads: «». The contents of this file will be outputted at this point in the file generated when Lexa Form saves the form to a FRX-file. 

F2 Text lines On pressing this key a window opens and you can enter text on a series of 26 lines. Alternatively you can load the contents of a text file into this window. Then the first 64 bytes of the first 26 lines of the chosen file (excluding those lines beginning with the comment character ‘;’) are loaded into the array and can be edited or loaded directly into a field of the current form. 

Note You cannot save the contents of the text line window from within Lexa Form to disk so that if you have something important for this window it is recommended writing this in a text editor (Lexa Text), saving it to a file and then loading the latter in the manner described above. 

F3 Save to delimited text This option allows one to save the contents of a specified number of fields to a file which contains the information in delimited form, ie in a form which allows this information to be loaded into a database, for instance into DbTxt The information is appended to the file specified in the initialization file as the repository of delimited text. If the file does not already exist, it is created. 
	The character used to delimited field information in the resulting text file is the broken vertical bar ‘|’. 

F10 Save text to FRX-file This is a text output file which contains the information from the fields of the form as specified in the initialization file. 

F12 Save form to FRM-file This stores the same information but as a form file, ie as it was originally loaded from the directory listing on the desktop. Form files which are stored via F12 always include any comments which might have been present in the original form. 

Ctrl-U Convert field to uppercase Changes the entire contents of the current field to uppercase letters without user confirmation. 

Ctrl-L Convert field to lowercase Changes the entire contents of the current field to lowercase letters again without user confirmation. 

F4 Load text editor Here the text editor specified by the user in the form file is loaded. The default text editor is Lexa Text. 

F5 Load text editor with output (FRX-file) Assuming that there is a FRX-file to match the current form, then the user’s text editor is loaded with this file. 

F8 Load Lexa File Starts the file manager and automatically returns to Lexa Form once the former is unloaded. 

F9 Load a database This commands allows one to load a database from a directory listing. The database manager is automatically activated. 

5.2	Integrated database manager 

The current form editor contains a database managing module. The idea here is that users can export information contained in the fields of database records to the fields of the current form. If you press F5 when in the database manager then the contents of the highlighted field will be transferred (or as much of it as will fit) to the current field of the current form. 

Shift-F9 Load a new database If a database has already been loaded, then the current key combination will load a new database rather than returning to the one already present on the database managing level via F9. 
	Note The printing option has been removed from Lexa Form Any output texts can be printed by using Lexa Text. 

5.3	Text window enhancements 

The text window has been increased to full-screen size. The commands available on this level are the following. 

F2 Edit text title Enter text which is printed as the title for the present stretch of text when the latter is outputted. 

F3 Store/retrieve line Allows one to copy and retrieve a single line using an internal buffer for this purpose. 

Ctrl-F3 Show line-ends Displays the end of lines as ‘¶’ and spaces as a small dot to allow one to identify ‘white space’ in a stretch of text. 

F4 Open line in text Add an empty line at the current cursor position. 

Shift-F4 Erase line in text Delete the line at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50-line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

5.4	Revised initialization file 

The enhanced options of the new version of Lexa Form are reflected in the increased number of user-specifiable parameters in the initialization file. To recognize the changes most easily you can compare an old version of an initialization file with a new one. Pay attention to the fact that the end of a stretch of text is signalled by an omega symbol ‘’. 

; Item 1:  Is there a stretch of text to be included on form?
;
1
; Item 2:  Position of text (1 = Bottom of form, 0 = Top of form)
;
1
; Item 3:  Field total for entire form (max.: 80)
;
11
; Item 4: Required national date format (used for date strings in form!)
;
2
; Item 5: Use 50-line VGA display?
;
0
; Item 6: Name of file with text lines (code block via F2)
;
SNIPPET.TXT
; Item 7: Name of delimited text file for import into database
;
DELIMIT.TXT
;
; Item 8: Name of user editor
;
LTEXT
;
; FIELD NO. 1
;
; 	(1) Title length:
12
; 	(2) Title name:
;
®letterhe.ad¯
;
; 	(3) Title start row:
1
; 	(4) Title start col:
1
; 	(5) Title style:
0
; 	(6) Field length:
0
; 	(7) Field window width
0
; 	(8) Field contents:

; 	(9) Field start row:
0
; 	(10) Field start col:
0
; 	(11) Field style:
0
;
; FIELD NO. 2
;
; 	(1) Title length:
20
; 	(2) Title name:
;
Seminar
; 	(3) Title start row:
2
; 	(4) Title start col:
1
; 	(5) Title style:
0
;
; 	(6) Field length:
40
; 	(7) Field window width
30
; 	(8) Field contents:
;
Introduction to linguistics
;
; 	(9) Field start row:
2
; 	(10) Field start col:
24
; 	(11) Field style:
9
;
; This is where a stretch of text is to be placed in the form file:
;
; Heading:
Further comments
;
; Text contents (max.: 22 lines)
;
This is where additional text can be added

ê
; Note: Omega above marks the end of the stretch of text
;
; This is a list of fields which are to be put in a delimited text file
; Numbering starts at first filled field, if (as above) there is an empty
; field to begin with then this is skipped in the numbering
;
; Seminar
1
; Student
2
; Referat
3
; Mark
10
;
; End of File

; Note: Omega above marks the end of the stretch of text ; ; This is a list of fields which are to be put in a delimited text file ; Numbering starts at first filled field, if (as above) there is an empty ; field to begin with then this is skipped in the numbering ; ; Seminar 1 ; Student 2 ; Referat 3 ; Mark 10 ; ; End of File 

5.5	System limitations 

There are as always system limitations for Lexa Form The following is a list of these and are dictated mostly by the desire to output the text of a form on a single page (though there is no necessary restriction to this format). 

	Maximum length of title:  		64 
	Maximum length of field:  		128 
	Maximum length of text title:  		64 
	Maximum length of text line:   		80 
	Maximum number of text lines:  	24 
	Maximum number of fields per form: 	80 

 

6	Lexa Text 

Syntax:	1)	ltext 
	2)	ltext /i(-ini_file) 
	3)	ltext file_name search_string /s 
	4)	ltext /p 

There have been many alterations to the text editors of the Lexa suite so that this section is particularly extensive. The alterations discussed below apply to both the Lexa Text and Corpus Manager Editor editors with the exception of the remarks on those functions which are in principle not available in the latter editor, such as printing facilities. 

6.1	Enhanced editing commands 

Ctrl-A ASCII special characters Here a window appears on the right-hand side of the screen and you can choose a character to enter the current text at the present cursor location. The special characters are arranged in a coherent fashion so that the present function can be used for such purposes as drawing boxes. 

Ctrl-V View video character set (formerly: Ctrl-Y) With this option the entire ASCII character set is presented on a separate screen and by moving a highlight bar one can choose any character to enter into the current text as with the key setting Ctrl-A. 

Ctrl-Y  Switch two letters around Just reverses the sequence of any two letters. Useful to quickly rectify a typical kind of typing error. 

Ctrl-K  Copy current word into word buffer or empty contents This key setting is a toggle. Assuming that you are using it for the first time in a work session, it stores the current word into an internal buffer. Pressing Ctrl-K again leads to the contents of this buffer being emptied into the current text at the current cursor location. Once this has been done, Ctrl-K then stores a word into the buffer once more and the process is repeated. 

F11  Compare files in text areas 1 and 2 for differences For linguists working with corpora it is frequently necessary to compare two versions of the same text. The current option in the Lexa text editors allows one to realise this. You load the first file into text area one and the second into text area two. Then press F11; the text editor compares each line of both texts for possible differences. It stops if it finds any and highlights the first line in each text where there is a difference. 
	Note The comparison of files always starts from the current line of both texts (determined by the cursor position). 

F12  Switch between text 1 and 2 and back again This key toggles between the first and second text area. It is functionally equivalent to pressing Alt-1 or Alt-2 respectively. To move to the remaining text areas use the Alt-key with the appropriate digit (3-8). 

Activating attributes The six keystrokes, Ctrl-H (= hightlighting, i.e. boldface), Ctrl-I (= italics), Ctrl-U (= user font), Ctrl-D (= underline), Ctrl-S (= small caps) and Ctrl-O (= ordinary font) can be realised alternatively by Alt-H, Alt-I, Alt-U, Alt-D, Alt-S, Alt-O What this does is to mark each word separately for the attribute involved. The advantage of this is that if a stretch of marked text is broken up during later editing (or by word wrap) then the attribute setting is retained correctly as each word is marked. 

Editing Alt Macros You may now choose a new file via F5 from the macro editing level in the same manner as with the "get words" function, activated via Ctrl-G. 

         Copy current line to text macro If you copy a line into the line buffer via F3 you can then retrieve this in the text macro window by simply moving the bar to the letter for the line and pressing F3 The contents of the line buffer are placed in the line for the letter in question and is henceforth available when you press the Alt-key and that letter. 

Ctrl-Zero Toggle shape of cursor With this key combination you can change the shape of the cursor to a fairly large block to made sure that it is plainly visible on monochrome systems such as with notebook computers. 

Alt-Zero Force monochrome This command forces monochrome display irrespective of the hardware of your computer. With laptops and notebooks which often have a monochrome VGA video adapter this option is useful as it improves the quality of display. 

Ctrl-Tab Direct import This key combination loads the file specified for this purpose in the initialization file into the present text at the current cursor location. 

Ctrl-F11 Direct save one Here the current text is save to disk without the user specifying the name. Note that there is no confirmation of overwriting a previous disk version with this option. 

Ctrl-F12 Direct save all This command saves all open texts to disk. Be careful here as there is no confirmation of overwriting disk versions. 

Alt-Tab Execute programme The programme which is specified in the initialization file for this combination is loaded directly on pressing this key combination. 

F10 Save file to disk The normal manner of saving a file to disk is with this key combination as you can specify a file name and are warned before overwriting an existing version on disk. You also have three further options which determine the manner in which tabs and line-ends are treated on converting the text in memory to a file on disk. 

F5	Convert tabs into spaces Removes all tabs and replaces them by the number 
	of spaces which is specified for the resolution of a tab (can be set during 
	editing with Ctrl-T). 

F6	Delete single CRs Deletes all instances of a single line-end. This is effect 
	makes single lines of paragraphs. The advantage here is that when you 
	import a text stored in this manner into a word processor the paragraphs 
	will be word-wrapped as they contain no hard carriage returns. 

F7	Convert single CR to LF This is similar to the previous option. It converts 
	the line-ends of a paragraph into a line feed only. Normally the ends of 
	lines consist of two symbols, carriage return (ASCII 13) and line feed 
	(ASCII 10). For some word processors this may help to word-wrap 
	paragraphs in a text which was edited with Lexa Text. 

Ctrl-W Set line width for word wrap This allows you to set the column at which word wrap takes effect. The legal values are 20 to 200. You check on whether word wrap is on or not by pressing F8 for the printing menu. 
	If the value for word wrap is below 80 then it is indicated by a small down-pointing arrow in the ruler on the second line of the screen. 

Ctrl-F4 Table of contents The symbol  (ASCII 23) is used as a marker for an entry in a table of contents. It is immediately followed by a digit which indicates the level of the marker in question, eg 1,2,3, etc. In the table which is generated each level is indented by a single tab. The number of the page on which the marker is found is printed in the right-hand column of the table of contents. The value for this column is that specified for line width in an initialization file or entered interactively in the printing menu. 
	The text which is extracted from the current line and entered for the table of contents starts at the marker  and continues until the next occurrence of the marker  or the end of the line is reached. An entry for the table of contents can only be one line long. If you regenerate a table of contents you should delete the old one at the end of your text before you do so. 

Ctrl-C Create word index To make an index of key words in a text use this option. It works by examining each line in the current text and extracting whatever is enclosed between two instances of the index marker _ (ASCII 18). This may be a single word or a couple of words. However you cannot have punctuation within an index entry and an entry cannot be spread over more than one line. 
	The entries are deposited at the end of the text with the relevant page numbers for their occurrences. You can make a columned text from this list by block marking it and pressing Ctrl-F2. 

Ctrl-8 Enter note into text This command is similar to the one for numbered quotes and will place a numbered note at the cursor position which is delimited by a vertical bar . You can recalculate the numbers in the same manner as for numbered quotes. 

Ctrl-5 Recalculate text notes Here the notes are renumbered in ascending numerical order as with the following option. 

Ctrl-9 Recalculate numbered quotes This option deals with a frequent wish of linguists to have continuous ascending numbering for the language examples which they may quote in a text. The way it works is as follows. It combs through the present text from the current cursor position, looking for instances of the numbered quote marker  (ASCII 28) and then increments its own internal variable, setting its value into the text at this point. By these means the numbered quotes are renumbered ascendingly without the user having to find each of these and to say what the number should be. 
	If you have entered two references to the same numbered quote then Lexa Text will treat these as different and number them separately. Should you want to have more than one reference to the same numbered quote then you must deal with this manually. 

Alt-9 Enter numbered quote By pressing this key combination a set of parentheses is inserted at the current cursor position with two markers for numbered quotes as well, ie (). You can now type the number which the quote is supposed to have. 

Alt-Esc User font switch Assuming that you have specified a font of your own in the initialization file you are using and that this font is loadable, ie that the video subsystem of your computer accepts the value for User Font Activation then the current key combination will toggle between user font display and normal display. During user font display the remaining colours for text attributes are altered as in this display mode no bright lettering is available. 

Ctrl-Back 25 / 50-lines Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Shift-RightArrow Put word in clipboard By pressing this key combination you cause the current word to be copied into the clipboard. A window with its contents is displayed and you can one of four things. 

	Return		Edit highlighted word in clipboard. 
	Ctrl-Return	Transfer the highlighted word to current text. 
	F5		Load file from disk into clipboard. 
	F10		Save clipboard contents to file. 

If you transfer a word to the clipboard it is put at the next empty point in the clipboard array. Should the latter be full, the new word is put at the beginning of the array and replaces the old contents of this array element. 

Ctrl-Slash Words clipboard window If you just want to open the words clipboard window without depositing a word from the current text in it then you use the present key combination. 
	When loading a new file into the clipboard, you shift to the directory manager level and any files with the extension .WCL are listed. The default name for this file is LTEXT.WCL (WCL stands for words clipboard). 

Shift-PageUp Moves up in current text by a page. If the text is not divided into pages the jump is to the beginning of the text. 

Shift-PageDown Moves down in current text by a page. If the text is not divided into pages the jump is to the end of the text. 

Ctrl-Hyphen Hyphenate word The key combination Ctrl-Hyphen will hyphenate the current word if (i) word wrap is on and (ii) the section to the left of the current cursor position will fit on the previous line. 

Alt-Space Line clipboard window With this command you can transfer lines from any text to a special lines clipboard which is kept by Lexa Text in an array which can be accessed at any time when you are editing a file. The lines clipboard can handle up to 1,024 lines; the maximum length for a line is 256 characters. A file can be specified at the source for these lines if you fill in the appropriate parameter in an initialization file (see below). The default name for this file is LTEXT.LCL (LCL stands for lines clipboard). 

On pressing the current key combination the current line is copied into the point in the lines clipboard array at which the cursor is located (the first line the first time you activate the clipboard). If this line is empty the text line is copied directly; if not a new line is created after the current line and the text line is transferred to this. 
	When editing the lines clipboard you have the following commands at your disposal. 

	F3		Move current line to another position. 
	F4		Insert new line after current one. 
	Shift-F4	Delete current line. 
	F5		Load new file into clipboard or start an empty one. 
	F6		Remove marking from lines in clipboard.
 	F10		Save clipboard contents to file. 
	F12		Transfer marked lines to text. 
	Tab		Mark lines in clipboard. 

Note if you process lines in the clipboard it is up to you to remember to save these to a text file if you wish to use them at a later date. If you wish to copy all lines to a text, the easiest way to do this is to save the lines to a file and load this file into a text area via F5 or Shift-F5. 

Ctrl-Alt-Space With this variant of the above command any Lexa Text formatting present in the current text line is removed on copying it to the lines clipboard. 

Ctrl-Space This command is identical to the previous one but the current text line is not copied into the clipboard. 

Alt-Back Set parameters online This option has been included to allow you to determine the values for four parameters which you may also specify in an initialization file. 

1) Specify a user font Here the font file is chosen from a directory listing of files with the extension .VGA and then you choose a font code which is either 8 or 32 depending on your computer system (try out which one produces the right results, ie which leads to display of the user font). 

2) File for direct load With this option you enter the name of the file which is to be automatically loaded into the current text on pressing Ctrl-Tab. 

3) Programme to execute This is the programme which is loaded directly on pressing Alt-Tab. 

4) Select date format At this point you can select one of four date formats for insertion of a date into a text on pressing Ctrl-F10. 

Note Any new values specified for these parameters are not saved to disk. 

6.2	Text formatting 

Although Lexa Text is an ASCII editor a certain amount of text formatting is catered for. The essential point about this is that texts are still organized on the basis of single lines so that any software which processes ASCII texts can recognize a Lexa Text file as one. 

Shift-F12 Do indent Indenting is a frequent device for highlighting text and can be realized with the present command. There are three options here, the first two indent and the third undoes indenting which had been done previously. 

Bear in mind that when indenting Lexa Text takes the first symbol of the first line and leaves it in the leftmost column. The reason for this is that this is more often than not a signal that an indentation is intended at this point. The number of spaces used to indent a paragraph depends on the value for tab resolution. 

Ctrl-S Small Caps Enter the code for the small capitals attribute. 

Ctrl-U User Font Enter the code for the user font attribute. 

Ctrl-D Underline Enter the code for the underline attribute. Note that Ctrl-D is not used to display the present search string any more. 

Ctrl-1 Enter font general marker 1 Enter the code for the first general font attribute. 

Ctrl-2 Enter font general marker 1 Enter the code for the second general font attribute. 

Ctrl-3 Enter font general marker 1 Enter the code for the third general font attribute. 

Ctrl-4 Enter font general marker 1 Enter the code for the fourth general font attribute. 

Shift-F11 Convert codes This is an option which involves the codes used to realize formatting attributes in Lexa Text The first option allows you to remove all formatting attributes from the current text (press ‘0’). The second option will convert sequences of ASCII 5 and a following digit to single formatting characters. The former are used in Lexa Text, the latter are equally possible and are additionally used in the Corpus Manager Editor The third option carries out this process only in reverse. 

Ctrl-V Video set Displays a chart of the ASCII character set from which you can choose a symbol. 

Ctrl-J Custom set Assuming that a user font has been loaded (check entries in the initialization file and try out the supplied file LTXT_CHR.VGA) then this gives you a chart of the symbols from this user set from which you can select a symbol. 

Ctrl-Z Calendar Displays a perpetual calendar. You can change the year by pressing F4, the display is then refreshed to take account of this. 

Alt-F11 Top of text 1 Simply moves to the beginning of text 1. This can be useful, for instance if you wish to search through all loaded texts for a string. 

6.3	Block processing 

The following options refer to a section of text which has been block marked by pressing F4 initially and then moving upwards or downwards in the text. The options can be offered as a picklist if you press F1 during block marking. 

Alt-F2 Case-sensitive sort Like the option with F2 but takes the difference between capitals and small letters into account. 

Ctrl-F2 Make columned text You can halve any stretch of marked text and put the lower half in a second column next to the first with the present option. When activated two items of information are required. The first is the starting column for the lower half. Lexa Text suggests a value which is two columns more than the longest line in the first half of marked text. Then you say when the justification of the text for the second column is to be realized by using spaces or tab characters. The latter may have advantages if you transfer the text to another text editor or word processor. 

Ctrl-F3 Shift to lower ASCII This converts a large number of characters from the extended IBM ASCII character set (that of nearly all PC’s) to equivalent lower characters. There are many situations in which this is desirable, for instance when transferring data across to a mainframe as when using email. The following alterations are made if required. Note that tabs are replaced by the number of spaces specified for tab resolution by Ctrl-T or in an initialization file. 

Resolution of German umlaute 

	Ä	AE		ä	ae 
	Ö	OE		ö	oe 
	Ü	UE		ü	ue	ß	ss 

Diacritical forms of characters resolved to simple forms 

	í,ì,î,Ý	i	é,è,ê,ë	e	á,à,â	a 
	ó,ò,ô	o	ú,ù,û	u	ï	y 
	Ç,ç		C,c		Å,å	A,a	Æ,æ	A,a 
	Ñ,ñ		N,n		-,-	?,!	«,»		<,> 

Note Any upper characters which are not included in the above list will be replaced by a question mark after this function has been executed. 

Alt-F8 Font selection Activates the fonts window and allow you to select one for the stretch of marked text. 

F9 Remove empty lines Simply deletes any empty lines in the stretch of text marked. An empty line is one which has no characters or only spaces or tabs. 

Alt-F12 Empty the current block buffer directly Copies the contents of the current block buffer at the cursor position without offering you the option of selecting which buffer should be used. 

6.3.1	Line block processing 

There are two kinds of block processing available in Lexa Text The first is that with which you are already acquainted. This is where you mark a stretch of text by first pressing F4 and then using the cursor keys. With this manner of block processing you must decide what action to take immediately after marking text. Furthermore the section which has been highlighted is one contiguous block. 
	To overcome the shortcomings of this kind of block processing a further type is available where you mark lines at will in a text. These do not have to be contiguous. 
	Shift-Up/DownArrow By means of these keystrokes you mark lines in a text for later processing. Such lines are henceforth displayed in bold lettering on a cyan or blue background. Note that this marking is independent of any other operation in Lexa Text, ie using the conventional type of marking does not affect the status of text as line blocked or not. When you are finished with line blocking text you can decide what action to take on the lines thus highlighted by pressing Alt-F9 on which a screen like the following presents itself. 

F2 Clear marking Removes any line marking in the current text after user confirmation. If a text in a different area is line blocked this is not affected. 

F3 Comment lines This option is designed to allow users to include some item of text at the beginning of each line which is block marked. Such a piece of text could be just a single character. It can also be more sophisticated. Here is an example of what is meant. Suppose you mark lines in a text and would like to have them numbered. The numbering should be enclosed in angular brackets followed by a tab character to ensure that each line of text starts in the same column; the tab is to be followed by a colon and a space. To achieve this you would enter something like the following in the window which opens when this command is activated: <#>[TAB]: . The reference [TAB] above stands for the symbol (a small circle) which appears when you press the Tab key when editing the input line in Lexa Text. 
	Note that at the point where you want a number inserted you type #. At this place the value of the number variable will be entered into the text. Lexa Text detects if you have entered # and if so you are then asked what the initial value of this variable is to be, ie if it should start numbering lines at 1 or some higher value. 

F4 Buffer block Here the marked lines of the current text are copied into an internal buffer and can be retrieved later (see below). 

Ctrl-F4 Move block This command is the same as the previous one with the difference that the marked lines are also deleted. 

Delete Delete block The marked lines are simply deleted with this command. User confirmation is required. 

SpaceBar View block Here you are shown the first 23 (or 48) lines of the internal lines buffer. 

Alt-F12 Retrieve block With this command you can copy the contents of the lines buffer at the current cursor position. The buffer is not zapped so that its contents are available for later use if required. 

 

6.4	Find and replace 

A notable expansion to Lexa Text which is of relevance to those processing or compiling corpus texts concerns a complex method of finding and replacing search strings. You can now search for a context delimited by two strings and replace it by a single one by means of the following procedure: 
	Enter a first string and a second string and separate them by a single instance of the character ‘•’ (ASCII 254, accessible via Ctrl-A). Then enter the replacement string. What this will do is the following: it will search for the first string and if this is found then it will continue searching the current line until the second string is found. If this is the case then it will replace everything between the beginning of the first string and the end of the second string by the replace string. The following example should help to grasp this process. 

	Find String		Replace String 
	code•ing		code flipping 

	Possible inputs: code switching, code mixing, etc. 

Bear in mind that the context which you are searching for must be on located on a single line but it does not have to be a single word as can be seen from the above illustration. 

Extended search option When carrying out a search you can now force Lexa Text to search all texts from the current one onwards for the string in question by pressing F6 Here the reference Texts:One or Texts:All is to be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the input window which opens on pressing Ctrl-F. To ensure that the search encompasses all texts, ie numbers 1 to 4, jump to the beginning of the first text by pressing Alt-F11 before starting the search. 

 

6.5	Text management 

In Version 6.0 of Lexa Text you can process up to 8 texts at a time, system memory permitting. You may switch between text areas by using the keys Alt 1- 8 Alternatively you can press Alt-Return or Alt-F6 which opens a large window in the centre of the screen. 

Here you can move the highlight bar up and down and by pressing Return you switch to a new text area. If there is no text already loaded in this area then you are requested to choose one from a directory listing. By pressing Escape on this level you may start a new text for the given area. 

 

6.6	Printing 

Character translation tables used for printing can now take a string (of up to 12 characters) as the output to printer from a single character in the input text. Furthermore you can specify a table for each font in the printer command file. At the end of a PCF-file you can specify what assignments are to hold for the general font markers 1 - 4 (see above for details). 

6.6.1	Sample (PCF) printer command file 

;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 31: Initial string to be sent to printer before print job
;
; (N.B. String must be entered as ASCII numbers, each separated a single
; blank, Maximum number of encoded bytes: 24!)
;
;
05 49
;
.............................
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 43: Number of files to automatically save. The legal values here are
; 1 - 4 (total number of files). If you specify 1 then only the text in 
; area 1 is automatically saved. If you specify 2 then the first two are
; saved and so on.
;
1
;
.............................
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 45: No. for user font activation. This parameter has to do with VGA
; adapters which differ in certain respects. There are some which require
; 8 for the activation of a user font in an internal register and some
; which demand the figure 32. Try these two out. I'm afraid that if neither
; of these works, there is not much you can do. There may be the odd VGA
; adapter which is not 100% compatible with the industry standard and which
; does not support user defined fonts.
;
8
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 46: Name of font file with User Character Set
; Note: This must be in the Lexa Text home directory and should not contain
;       any drive or directory information, i.e. do not enter a full path!
;       Leave the line empty if you do not want any special symbols.
;
LTXT_CHR.VGA
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 47: Use VGA 50-line display mode
;
no
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 48: File to be imported directly on pressing Ctrl-Tab
;
MY_TEXT.IMP
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 49: Call batch file on loading? (leave empty for none)
;
GER_KEYB.BAT
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 54: Name of text file to be loaded into WORDs clipboard
;
MY_TEXT.WCL
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 55: Name of text file to be loaded into LINEs clipboard
;
MY_TEXT.LCL
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 56: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing Alt-Tab
;
DBTXT.EXE
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 57: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file)
;
HELSINKI.CEF
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 58: Use monochrome display irrespective of video hardware?
;
yes
;
; End of File

6.6.2	Sample (TBL) character translation file 

A TBL-file is a small text file which Lexa Text will read on printing if this is demanded. Any instances of the characters at the beginning of a non-comment line will be replaced by the character specified after a tab on the same line. 

; This file contains the character translations required to convert a 
; Roman 8 font to a PC ASCII style font (only a selection of characters 
; are translated, namely those needed for German). 
; ü
129	207	
; ö  
148	206	
; ä  
132	204	
; Ü  
154	219	
; Ö  
153	218	
; Ä  
142	216	
; ß
225	222	
;  

6.7	Alterations in initialization files 

Nearly all of the alterations discussed above are reflected in the additional parameters which can be specified in an initialization file for Lexa Text Below the altered parameters are listed with a brief comment concerning their function. 

;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 31: Initial string to be sent to printer before print job
;
; (N.B. String must be entered as ASCII numbers, each separated a single
; blank, Maximum number of encoded bytes: 24!)
;
;
05 49
;
.............................
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 43: Number of files to automatically save. The legal values here are
; 1 - 4 (total number of files). If you specify 1 then only the text in 
; area 1 is automatically saved. If you specify 2 then the first two are
; saved and so on.
;
1
;
.............................
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 45: No. for user font activation. This parameter has to do with VGA
; adapters which differ in certain respects. There are some which require
; 8 for the activation of a user font in an internal register and some
; which demand the figure 32. Try these two out. I'm afraid that if neither
; of these works, there is not much you can do. There may be the odd VGA
; adapter which is not 100% compatible with the industry standard and which
; does not support user defined fonts.
;
8
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 46: Name of font file with User Character Set
; Note: This must be in the Lexa Text home directory and should not contain
;       any drive or directory information, i.e. do not enter a full path!
;       Leave the line empty if you do not want any special symbols.
;
LTXT_CHR.VGA
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 47: Use VGA 50-line display mode
;
no
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 48: File to be imported directly on pressing Ctrl-Tab
;
MY_TEXT.IMP
;
;----------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 49: Call batch file on loading? (leave empty for none)
;
GER_KEYB.BAT
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 54: Name of text file to be loaded into WORDs clipboard
;
MY_TEXT.WCL
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 55: Name of text file to be loaded into LINEs clipboard
;
MY_TEXT.LCL
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 56: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing Alt-Tab
;
DBTXT.EXE
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 57: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file)
;
HELSINKI.CEF
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 58: Use monochrome display irrespective of video hardware?
;
yes
;
; End of File

6.8	File manager options 

The file manager is a level in Lexa Text which can be activated directly from a text by pressing F2 Recall that the listing you are offered can be that of the current text directory (when loading a text or after pressing F2) or that of the directory used for auxiliary files such as the various text macro files. 
	There are a large number of options which can be carried out via a menu system by pressing Shift-Tab as usual. The following are new options. 

SpaceBar, Alt-V View Programme 1 In the initialization file you can now say what programme is to be loaded when the space bar is pressed on the file manager level. 

F2 View Programme 2 Here the programme used for this second viewing option is loaded. It may be the same as the first if you wish. 

Alt-T Copy via tree This option now works directly when copying files to bring it into line with the file manager Lexa File. 

F12 Back to text without loading new file This is an escape key to return to you to the current text from the file manager level without any change. 

6.9	System limitations 

The sizes of various variables and parameters in Lexa Text should not cause any problems in normal circumstances. In some extreme situations it might be of relevance to check on the maximum values the most important of which are listed here. 

	Maximum length of text line		4,096	characters 
	Maximum length of file path		50	characters 
	Maximum length of <Alt> macro	50	characters 
	Number of available files		4 
	Number of file templates		4 
	Number of macros lines 		1,024 
	Number of words macros		1,024 
	Length of word entry			84	characters 
	Number of undo buffers			4 
	Size of undo buffer			16,384	characters 
	Number of printer commands		16 

6.10	Further remarks 

Three small programmes are used by Lexa Text for various purposes during text processing. These are part of the package and if the installation was carried out correctly they will be in the Lexa home directory and you will not be aware of them. They are listed here just in case you experience difficulties. 

	Calculator Module	_CALC.EXE	
Database Module	_DB_MOD.EXE 
	User Font Loader	LOADSET.EXE 

Note further that there are some obsolete forms of the Lexa text editor. These were all smaller versions designed to overcome memory restrictions when operating in the real-mode of DOS with its ceiling of 640KB for loadable programmes. These obsolete versions of the editor are: Lexa Text Small, Text Editor, Tiny Text. 

 

7	Lexa View 

Syntax:	1)	lview 
	2)	lview file_name search_string /i 

Ctrl-F Find string This allows you to search for a string in the current text. The search starts from the current position in the text. Any string found is highlighted. You are then prompted to press any key for the next occurrence of the string or Escape to cancel the search. 

Ctrl-R Repeat search Renews a search without the user entering a search string again. 

Ctrl-X Count strings Runs through the text and counts the number of instances between the current position and the end of the text. 

 

8	TxtLook 

Syntax:	1)	txtlook 
	2)	txtlook [drive:]file_template /v /m 

This programme is a kind of browser which is intended for use with ASCII text files, ie with those files which do not contain any formatting information specific to a particular word processor. Its user interface is similar to that of Lexa Browse. The main difference is that TxtLook has a number of search options when viewing texts. Furthermore the programme can be loaded with the viewing level activated immediately. For this reason TxtLook is called by a variety of other programmes when the user wishes to view a text file, frequently by pressing F2 Note that TxtLook will not load a file with lines longer than 2,048 characters. 

Escape Exit to DOS Terminates TxtLook after user confirmation and returns to DOS. 

Alt-F7 Main Level Moves back to the directory listing level from where you can view another file or execute a command through DOS or finish TxtLook. 

F3 Line numbers Toggles the display of line numbers on the left of the screen. 

Ctrl-F3 Formatting Toggles display of white space and line ends. 

Ctrl-V Vga Mode Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-F Find string This allows you to search for a string in the current text. The search starts from the current position in the text. Any string found is highlighted. You are then prompted to press any key for the next occurrence of the string or Escape to cancel the search. 

Ctrl-R Repeat search Renews a search without the user entering a search string again. 

Ctrl-X Count strings Runs through the text and counts the number of instances between the current position and the end of the text. 

 

9	User Font Loader 

Syntax:	loadset 

This utility serves the purpose of loading a user-specified font into the VGA video adapter on systems which have this hardware equipment. There is a sample user-font supplied with the Lexa suite, LTXT_CHR.VGA. If you have the package LinguaFont (by the present author) you can create your own fonts for use during data processing with the major programme of the Lexa group. 

The user font loader is never called directly. Instead the programme which avails of it loads it in the background when the display of a customized font is demanded, for instance on pressing Alt-Esc in Lexa Text or Dbtxt/DbStat. 

 

10	Lexa Context 

Syntax:	1)	lcontext 
	2)	lcontext [setup_file] /b /m 

10.1	Introduction 

Of all the information retrieval programmes of the Lexa suite the one to have experienced the greatest number of changes since the completion of the original version is Lexa Context Many of these have been described in the addendum to Vol. 1 Lexical Analysis and Information Retrieval However, since then some alterations have been made to improve the flexibility of the programme. 
	Lexa Context starts by presenting the user with a desktop as do the other retrieval programmes like Lexa Pat and Lexa itself. The menu on the left is the one concerned with actual retrieval tasks. 

Before any operation can be carried out, parameters must be set for a search. These can be gleaned from a setup file, as indicated in the second syntax variant above, or specified interactively by choosing the first option of the first menu (default option). 

10.2	Setting search parameters 

Note first of all that the Search Parameters screen has a slightly different appearence to before. More parameters are to be seen and still more can be set via the picklist which is activated in the standard way by pressing Shift-Tab. 

View on screen There are basically two modes here as with the other retrieval programmes. You can view the possible finds on screen as they occur in the texts combed through or you can send the results of a search to a text file which can be looked at after the operation is completed. 

Using a CEF file Lexa Context can use a CEF-file which means that certain characters can be treated as equal for searches. This parameter can be set at the bottom of the screen under Sorting file For a description of how this works, consult Section 2 Sorting and searching above. 

 F1 Online Help Displays a screen with suggestions for the use of Lexa Context. 

Shift-F1 DOS Command Here an input line appears and you enter a command which is passed on to DOS. This can be a DOS command or the name of a programme. 

Ctrl-F1 DOS Shell Like the previous option only this time the system switches to DOS entirely. To return to Lexa Context enter exit. Note that as Lexa Context is a protected mode application shelling down to DOS offers you the maximum of memory for a DOS application, ie something in the region of 600KB. 

F2 Comments, range This function key setting refers to comments and the section of a text to be examined for a syntactic context. On pressing F2 a window opens in the centre of the screen. You may now specify whether the information of a Cocoa header (if present in a given file) should be ignored and whether comments in the style of those used for the Helsinki corpus of English are to be skipped over or not. 
	In addition one can say what character is to introduce a comment line, what characters are to delimit user-defined comments (these are separate from Helsinki comments) and furthermore what line text examination is to start and finish at. By default the value for the latter parameter is 10,000 which is large enough to cover any text file you may wish to examine. 

F3 List Matches  Two additional function key settings are to be found here. The first, that for F3, allows one to view the files which match the File Template parameter. This calls Lexa List and lists all the matching files, if any, in the current data directory. 

Shift-F3 Change Directory Here the directory manager Lexa Dirs is loaded. You can change directory and drive (via F4) if you wish. Lexa Context will accept the directory you are in when you leave Lexa Dirs as the new text directory. 

F4 View Matches This option loads TxtLook with the file which is chosen for a search. If there is no find for this file then TxtLook is still loaded but remains at the entry level, i.e. just shows a list of the files in the current directory but not the contents of a specific file. 

Shift-F4 Make File List In this case the programme Make List is loaded. With this you can make of a list of files by marking them in a directory listing. This file list can then be used by Lexa Context when deciding what files to comb through. 

F5 Specify Output The default name for the output file is LCONTEXT.OUT. You may of course specify a file of your own with the present option. 

Shift-F5 Save Configuration The default name for the configuration file is LCONTEXT.INI. However you are not bound to this and may with the present option enter a name of your own. 

F6 Examine Output Here the user editor is loaded with the name of the output file passed to it as a command line parameter. The default editor is Lexa Text An output file should look something like the following. 

Shift-F6 Load Configuration A new configuration can be loaded with this option. Normally the configuration is specified on the command line when loading Lexa Context or on the desktop before moving to the search parameters level. 

F8 Last Statistics Assuming that at least one search has been carried out you can look at the statistics for the last run by pressing F8. 

F9 Environment Here you are presented with a window of information relevant to the environment in which Lexa Context is operating. Note that the directory used for texts and the name of the setup file are displayed. 

F10 Start Search This begins a search. If you specify that an output file is to be generated and one with the name entered already exists on disk then you must confirm overwriting. If you do not you are returned to the search parameter level and can enter a different name. 

Alt-F7 Back to Desktop Simply returns you to the desktop. Bear in mind that the parameter values are not automatically saved to disk. This must be done with the relevant option in the first menu on the desktop. 

10.3	System limitations 

No.of characters 
	Max. length of line in text		1,024 
	Max. length of sentence			4,096 
	Max. number of sentence delimiters	24 
	Max. number of intervening items	255 

 

11	Lexa DbPat 

Syntax:	1)	ldbpat 
	2)	ldbpat /i(-ini_file) 

The major change to this programme is the ability to use a CEF-file to ensure that user-specified character correspondences are respected during searches through a database or databases. The file to be used is entered in the window which opens on choosing the first option Specify Parameters. 

 

12	Lexa Pat 

Syntax:	1)	lpat 
	2)	lpat setup_file /b 

12.1	Enhanced desktop options 

There are quite a number of enhancements here compared with the older version of the pattern matcher. These are dealt with below according to the menu in which they are to be found. 
	Bear in mind when using Lexa Pat that it expects its setup file in its home directory unless another file is specified on the command line. If you wish to run the programme in the batch mode you must enter the name for a setup file and after this the switch /b as indicated in the second syntax option above. 

Configuration 

Specify parameters The window which opens on selecting this parameter includes a number of new features of relevance to searching. 

Comment Character You may specify a character which is regarded by Lexa Pat as that which signals a comment line which is then ignored. A typical example would be a semi-colon. 

Use Form List Instead of entering a string with or without wild cards, you can demand of Lexa List that it consult a list of forms (with one form/word per line) to be searched for. This is useful if the words you are looking for cannot be expressed in the form of a string with the DOS wildcards * or ?. 

Use File List Similar to the above option is the present one with which you can specify a list of files stored itself in a file (with one name per line) rather than enter a string with a wild-card. 

Using a CEF-file Lexa Pat can use a CEF-file which means that certain characters can be treated as equal for searches. This parameter can be set at the bottom of the screen under Sorting file For a description of how this works, consult Section 2 Sorting and searching above. 

Show configuration This option displays the customizable parameters for a search within Lexa Pat. 
	 User evaluate finds With Lexa Pat as with other retrieval programmes such as Lexa Context and Lexa itself it is often expedient to decide yourself whether the finds which the programme reports back are indeed genuine from the point of view of the linguist operating the programme. 

Assuming that you demand user evaluation on the desktop as just indicated you are then requested by Lexa Pat to confirm whether its finds are acceptable. There are three choices when the programme pauses on returning a find. You can either (i) accept it as satisfactory, (ii) reject this find and continue with the search or (iii) cancel the entire search operation in which case you are returned to the desktop. 

Any search will not only report back possible finds but generate a set of statistics which are stored internally in Lexa Pat These are displayed at the end of a search. If any finds were rejected by the user then this is noted. From the desktop you can also view the last statistics by choosing the relevant option in the first menu. If an output file is created then the statistics are automatically stored in this. 

Disk options 

Use 50-line Display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can determine if a display with 50 lines or one with 25 lines is used when finds are shown on screen. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Files in Directory This just gives you a list of the files in the current directory. You can move around directories or to another drive with the standard keys F4 and F8 A selective listing can be made by specifying a file template via Shift-F4. 

Make List of Files In this case the programme Make List is loaded. With this you can make of a list of files by marking them in a directory listing. This file list can then be used by Lexa Pat when deciding what files to comb through. 

Command activation via picklist On the desktop a picklist with the commands assigned to function keys listed is available. 

12.2	Text editing facility 

Recall that Lexa Pat contains an integrated text editor. This is the general purpose editor described in section 59 below. 

Alt-F12 Text editor This activates the text editor. If no file is loaded one must be chosen from a directory listing. 

Alt-Backspace Return to text editor Here you are returned to the text which you loaded last into the text editing area. 

F5 Examine search output Loads the internal text editor with the name of an output file passed to it. Note that if no run of the pattern matcher has yet been made a zero is displayed in the picklist and nothing happens on pressing F5. If an output file has, however, been generated the result should look something like the following. 

 

13	Lexa Replace 

Syntax:	1)	lreplace /r,/d String1 String2 FileSpec 
	2)	lreplace /r,/d /f-FindReplaceFile FileSpec 

String1 = String to be found in each file of FileSpec 
String2 =  String to be inserted in each file of FileSpec 
/r = Replace String1 by String2 
/d = Just delete String1 
FileSpec = File(s) for replace operation, DOS wild cards legal 
FindReplaceFile = File with list of strings to find and replace 

This is a utility which users are likely to disregard to begin with but which can perform many tasks which are required when processing corpora, particularly when involved in compilation. 
	Basically what Lexa Replace does is to replace (use: /r) one string by another in a text or set of texts. It can also be instructed just to delete the first string specified by the user if the switch /d is used. 
	The simplest case is offered under the first syntax option. Here the first string is replaced or deleted by the second in a file or in several if the user enters a parameter with DOS wild-cards for FileSpec. 
	The second syntax option above refers to the cases where users use not a simple instance of one find string for one replace string but a list of such input and output strings which are enumerated in a FindReplaceFile. For Lexa Replace to recognize the parameter as such a file you must precede it by /f- as indicated above. 

A notable expansion to Lexa Replace which is of relevance to those processing or compiling corpus texts concerns a complex method of finding and replacing search strings. You can now search for a context delimited by two strings and replace it by a single one by means of the following procedure: 
	Enter a first string and a second string and separate them by a single instance of the character ‘•’, number 254 in the ASCII character set. Then enter the replacement string. What this will do is the following: it will search for the first string and if this is found then it will continue searching the current line until the second string is found. If this is the case then it will replace everything between the beginning of the first string and the end of the second string by the replace string. The following example should help to grasp this process. 

	lreplace /r code•ing "code flipping" *.doc 

	Possible inputs: code switching, code mixing, etc. 

Bear in mind that the context which you are searching must be located on a single line but it does not have to be a single word as can be seen from the above illustration. 

 

14	Lexa Search 

Syntax:	1)	lsearch 
	2)	lsearch /b-setup_file 
	3)	lsearch /i-setup_file 
	4)	lsearch search_string file_template /i 

Additional commands 

F6 Make List This key causes the programme Make List to be loaded. With this you can make of a list of files by marking them in a directory listing. This file list can then be used by Lexa Search when deciding what files to comb through. 

F8 Tree Here the directory manager Lexa Dirs is loaded and the current directory can be changed by moving to another directory within Lexa Dirs and exiting with Return or F12 The new directory is echoed at the bottom of the screen. 

Sorting file Lexa Search can use a CEF-file which means that certain characters can be treated as equal for searches. This parameter can be set at the bottom of the input window under Sorting file For a description of how this works, consult Section 2 Sorting and searching above. 

 

15	Lexa Sweep 

Syntax:	1)	lsweep 
	2)	lsweep /i(-ini_file) 

The only changes to this programme concern the limits for two important parameters which are given below. 

	Maximum number of files per directory	360 
	Maximum length of line in input text	1,024 characters 

 

16	Lexa Words 

Syntax:	1)	lwords 
	2)	lwords setup_file 

16.1	Introduction 

This is an additional utility which is not described in the original documentation as it was written after the latter was sent to the printers. Its basic function is to generate a list of unique word forms from a file which the user chooses from a listing on the desktop level of the programme. 

On choosing a file Lexa Words checks to see whether there is an index file with the same name as this but with the extension .WDX. If an index file is found then it is read and its contents deposited in memory; if not found a new index file is generated. It is not necessary to load a text file with an index file; whether this is done depends on the keystroke one uses when selecting a text from the directory listing. 

	Return  Load file with index if present on disk. 
	Control-Return  Load file without index. 

In both cases, the screen changes and the user can then view the chosen file. If an index was either successfully loaded from disk or generated by Lexa Words then its contents will have been deposited in memory and be accessible in a word list via a picklist (more on this below). 
	Note When the directory listing is active you can select a new drive via F4 and enter a new template via Shift-F4 (the normal keys for these steps in the Lexa set of programmes). When in a directory listing in the main programme Lexa you can activate the tree structure of the current drive by pressing F8 as with other programmes. 

16.2	Desktop key settings 

F1 Online help Shows a screenful of online help, any key press returns you to the point from which you called help. 

Shift-F1 DOS command Allows the execution of a valid command for DOS, i.e. either a command of the operating system or the name of a programme or batch file. 

Ctrl-F1 Shell down to DOS Moves the user to the operating system temporarily. To return to Lexa Words, type exit. 

F6 Alter search parameters The user may specify via this keystroke whether case is to be ignored and whether whole words or just strings are the basic units for searches in a loaded text. 

F9 Show environment Offers a windowful of useful information on the environment in which one is working. 

Alt-F4, F7, Shift-F7 Exit to DOS Unloads Lexa Words and returns the user to DOS. If you exit via Shift-F7 then Lexa Words does not return to the directory from which it started (this command variant is similar to that with all other programmes of the Lexa suite). An alternative means of exit is to move the mouse cursor to the top lefthand corner of the screen and click the left button. In both cases user confirmation of exit is required. 

16.3	Menu options 

Display text file This is the default option and allows you to choose a file from a directory listing and view this on another level of the programme. 

Regenerate index This option rebuilds the index for a chosen file. This might be sensible if you suspect that the index file is corrupt or it has been deleted. 

Save index to disk The word index which is created by Lexa Words can be stored to disk by means of the present option so that it is not always necessary to re-index a text file. 

Index to database The programme Lexa Words will now generate a Lexa-style database from a word index file, so that you may build lexical databases from the information contained in such index files. Of course the latter do not contain any information on possible tagging of texts. To realise this you will have to use the main programme to tag a text or texts and then generate a database from the output. 

Load index file Permits the loading of a user-specified index file. This option can be useful if the index for a text file does not bear the same name as the latter. Indeed in such a case this option must be used as there is no way in which Lexa Words can know which disk file represents the index for a given text file. 

Use subset list It may well occur that you do not want to use an index of the words in a text file but just a selection which you have determined in advance. Say for instance you are looking for a set of words in a group of texts, e.g. ‘glory, splendour, honour, grace, fame’ in Early Modern English texts from a corpus. Then you create a list file with precisely one word per line, store this (as an ASCII text file) on disk, load the first file in question without an index (via Ctrl-Return), then specify the list file you created and generate an index for the chosen file. If you then switch to the viewing level with the following option then you can trace the occurrences (if any) of the words you are looking for in the current text. 

View loaded text Returns you to the viewing level of Lexa Words. 

Run file manager Loads the file manager Lexa File. 

User text editor Allows the user to specify which editor he/she wishes to use. By default it is assumed that you will wish to work with Lexa Text, the more general of the two text editors in the Lexa suite. 

Edit setup file With this option one can edit the currently valid setup file (by default lwords.ini) without exiting to DOS. The user editor is chosen for this task. Note that any alterations to this file will, however, only be registered when you exit and re-start Lexa Words. 

Load user editor Starts the user editor without unloading Lexa Words. 

Index all files A group of files can be indexed by means of a single command. The index files created for each text file are stored to disk. These bear the same name as the text file examined but with the extension .WDX. No overwriting of index files is possible in this mode. 

Search switches This option is functionally equivalent to pressing the F6 key (see description above). 

16.4	Viewing level commands 

Either after selecting a file to view or on returning from the desktop you are presented with a screen on which the contents of the current file are to be seen. Various commands are available on this level and can be viewed and activated by pressing Shift-Tab as indicated on the bottom righthand of the screen. 

F1 Online help Same as the command on the desktop. 

F3 Line numbers Toggles the line numbering on the left of the screen on and off. 

Ctrl-F3 Formatting Shows line ends, tabs and spaces using special characters. This can be useful when checking on the layout of a text. 

Ctrl-A ASCII Chart Displays a chart of the symbols of the ASCII character set. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50-line Display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-Q Colours Toggles the display of text as white lettering on a blue background or black lettering on a grey background.  F9 Environment Same as the command on the desktop. 

Alt-F7 Desktop Returns you to the desktop without unloading the current text, however. 

F10, SpaceBar Word index Activates the word index, displaying this in the form of a picklist on the right of the screen. Note that the total number of unique words for the current text (or the number of forms in a subset list) is indicated on the top margin of the window. The numbers in the column on the right of the window tell you how often a particular form occurs in a text. To move in the word list window, use the arrow keys or PgUp, PgDn; in combination with the Control-key the latter keys cause a jump to the beginning or end of the word form list respectively. To locate a word form in a list quickly, type the first few letters of the word you are looking for. This activates a type of letter search, similar to that used in directory listings in all the programmes of the Lexa suite. 

Note Pressing Return when the word list window is open causes Lexa Words to start immediately with a search (from the current file offset) for the word which is currently highlighted in the picklist. 

Ctrl-F Find string Any search string can be entered here (but wild cards are not allowed, for this use the Lexa Pat pattern matcher). Lexa Words starts combing through the text from the current offset and halts at the first find or the end of the text if there is no match for the string. When a match is found pressing any key leads to Lexa Words continuing the search. Matches are displayed in inverse video. Alternative keystroke: Shift-F6. 

Ctrl-R Repeat search Using a string entered previously the search is continued from the current file offset. Alternative keystroke: Ctrl-F6. 

Ctrl-X Count occurrences of string  Counts the matches for a particular search string. The count starts at the current offset and continues until the end of the text. To count all occurrences in a file, press Ctrl-PageUp to jump to the beginning of the file. Alternative keystroke: Alt-F6. 

F6 Switches This command is the same as that which can be activated from the desktop. Note that you may alter the value for a search parameter while entering a search string after pressing Ctrl-F (see above). 

16.5	Using setup files 

A setup file is used with Lexa Words in which various parameters can be given user-specified values. The default setup file is named LWORDS.INI and can be edited with the text editor Lexa Text Its determines whether case is ignored during searches, whether whole words are looked for, where a search is to begin in a text and where it is to end, what special characters are to initiate and terminate a comment section, etc. In this respect it is very like the setup file used by the main programme Lexa. 
	The setup file must have the extension .INI and be in the format of the supplied setup file LWORDS.INI. 

Sample setup file for Lexa Words 

; This is the initialization file for the programme Lexa Words. It is a 
; normal ASCII text file which you can edit with any text editor (such 
; as Lexa Text).
;
; Note that the programme only reads information from those
; lines which do NOT begin with a semi-colon.
;
; To indicate a positive value for a parameter you may type either
; the word "yes" or the number "1" (without inverted commas). A
; negative value is symbolised by either "no" or "0".
;
; The backslash is a so-called escape character. By this is meant
; that the character immediately following it is interpreted at its
; literal value, despite the fact that it is a special character for
; the programme in question. For instance "\;" is intepreted as a
; simple semi-colon, i.e. not as a comment.
;
; If you change any parameters then be very careful to keep
; to the pre-determined format as outlined in the comments below.
;
; Lexa Words only reads the setup file on starting. To operate the
; programme with altered parameters you must exit, edit this initialisation
; file and start Lexa Words again.
;
;
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------;
;
; 1: Name of Text File to be examined
;
BEOWULF.TXX
;
; 2: Name of Word Index File to be used with Text File
;    (Lexa Words assumes that this has the same name as the text file,
;     but the extension .WDX)
;
BEOWULF.WDX
;
; Note if names are specified for the above two files (as is the case here)
; then Lexa Words will automatically open the text file and index
; (so-called autostart mode)
;
; 3: File Template to be used for directory listing on desktop
;
*.TXT
;
; 4: Name of Stop Words File (leave this line empty if you do not
;    want any to be used)
;
NOSEARCH.STP
;
; 5: Is Lexa Words to use an index which is a subset of the words in
;    a text file? This is useful if you are interested in a group of
;    words and wish to see if they are present in a text or texts
;
no
;
; 6: Name of ASCII text file with a list of words to look for with Lexa
;    Words
;
VERBFORM.LST
;
; 7: Current directory to be used for search
;    (Leave empty if you do not want to change dir.)
;

;
; 8: Line at which to start analysis
;    (default = 1, leave line empty for this)

;
; 9: Line at which to end analysis
;    (default = last line of text, leave line empty for this)

;
; 10: Ignore Case during searches?
;
yes
;
; 11: Only search for whole words?
;
yes
;
; 12: Ignore COCOA header at beginning of file?
;
yes
;
; 13: Ignore Helsinki Corpus comments?
;
yes
;
; 14: Character which introduces a Comment Line in a Text File
;
\;
;
; 15: Characters which delimit User-defined Comments
;
[]
;
; 16: Character which functions as a delimiter between a word and
;     the tag attached to it (default = underscore)
_
;
; 17: What characters are to count as punctuation?
;
_-,.;:`'"!?	()[]{}<>
;
;
; 18: Exclude characters below ASCII 32 from index?
;
yes
;
; 19: Exclude characters above ASCII 128 from index?
;
;yes
no
;
; 20: Name of user's text editor
;
LTEXT
;
; 21: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file)
;
HELSINKI.CEF
;
; 22: Template for file listing on dekstop
;
*.TXX
;
; End of Lexa Words setup file
; 

Stop words file This reference in the above setup file is to a small text file which contains a list of common words not to be indexed by Lexa Words By using such a file you can avoid time- and space-consuming indexing of irrelevant grammatical forms. In a way a stop words file is the reverse of a subset list file. Instead of specifying a small number of words to be indexed, one gives a list of word forms which are not to be deposited in an index. 

Filtering of characters For the operation of Lexa Words you can specify that certain characters are not to be considered for word list generation, (i) those which represent an item of punctuation or (ii) those below ASCII $32 (so-called printer control characters and those above ASCII $128 (ie part of the extended ASCII character set of an IBM-style personal computer). 
	When using Lexa Words with files which have been processed by the programme Make Symbols to generate genuine Old and Middle English characters you must not filter out characters above ASCII $128 as this would exclude these special symbols from the indexing operation. 

Note For any given input text file a maximum of 10,000 unique words can be deposited in the index generated by Lexa Words. 

 

17	Install 

Syntax:	install 

The install procedure is now initiated with a small batch file which loads the actual install programme LX_INST.EXE (Lexa Install). This has been adapted to accomodate the larger number of programmes and disks. Furthermore it checks to see if at least 8MB of free space is available on the hard disk of your computer. 

Another alteration in the install procedure is that you have the option of starting work with Lexa straight away after the installation procedure. This is done by loading the desktop programme Lexa Desk. 

 

18	Lexa Backup 

Syntax:	1)	lbackup 
	2)	lbackup ini_file /b 

Lexa Backup has now been extended to work together with Lexa Move (which copies files from a source to a target). The way this works is as follows. You generate a log file with Lexa Backup and request a list of the files which have been altered on the present day. Lexa Backup now creates a log file which looks something like the following. 

You can now copy some or all of these files by typing a right-pointing arrow ‘>’ in front of those files which are to be copied. As a next step Lexa Move can examine this log file and will only copy those files which have been marked in the manner just described. 

 

19	Lexa Byte 

Syntax:	1)	lbyte 
	2)	lbyte file1 file2 /f 

For the hex editor a picklist is now available by means of which the commands of the editing level can be easily activated. 

 

20	Lexa Demo 

Syntax:	ldemo 

A number of demonstration files have been included on the disks the Lexa suite to make the potential of various programmes easier for users to grasp. The demonstrations are organized according to the areas of data processing which they refer to. All the files necessary for initialization of the various programmes called are deposited during the install procedure in the main directory for Lexa Lexa Demo switches to this directory for its operation and returns to the directory from which you started on termination. 

For its correct operation, Lexa Demo must have access to its own initialization file called ldemo.ini which is to be found in the main Lexa directory of your hard disk. For the various options ten batch files are required. Again these should be contained in the relevant directory. Be careful not to erase or alter the contents of these files otherwise Lexa Demo will no longer function correctly. You may of course copy any of the demonstration files to another directory and then tailor them to your needs if you so wish. 

	demo_01.bat		(lexical analysis and tagging) 
		lexa lx_beow.ini /b 
		ltext beowulf.lem 

	demo_02.bat		(lexical analysis and tagging) 
		lexa lx_chau.ini /b 
		ltext chaucer.lem 

	demo_03.bat		(word crunching) 
		lwords lw_beow.ini 

	demo_04.bat		(information retrieval) 
		lpat lp_beow.ini /b 
		ltext beowulf.out 

	demo_05.bat		(information retrieval) 
		lpat lp_joyce.ini /b 
		ltext joyce.out 

	demo_06.bat		(syntactic context location) 
		lcontext lc_synge.ini /b 
		ltext synge.out 

	demo_07.bat		(lexical database management) 
		dbstat beowulf.dbf 

	demo_08.bat		(lexical database management) 
		dbstat chaucer.dbf 

	demo_09.bat		(text normalisation) 
		dbtrans db_norm.ini /b 
		ltext normal.txt 

	demo_10.bat		(corpus management) 
		cm cm_eme.ini 

Note The file VIDEO.BAT is generated during the installation of Lexa from diskettes if you choose to install the font module as well. By entering video from the DOS command line the Helsinki special character set will be loaded automatically assuming that you are running Lexa on a computer system with a VGA colour adapter. 

A word about initialization files 

Any programme which uses an initialization file will expect this to be in the programme’s home directory, in all probability C:\LEXA. This applies both to default initialization files, such as LPAT.INI for Lexa Pat and to customized files. If you wish to use an initialization file in any other directory then the latter must be specified before the name of the setup file, eg LPAT E:\CORPUS\MY_FILE.INI.  
	Note that the terms setup file and initialization file are synonymous. Initialization via a setup file does not necessarily imply that a programme be run in the batch mode (automatic starting and termination) although the batch mode does require a setup file as the programme in question must glean information normally entered by the user from a file (the only other possible source of parameter values). 
	Normally it is enough to enter the name of a setup file after the programme name on the DOS command line. However with Lexa Search it is necessary to include an initialization switch /i- as a simple file name would be interpreted as a search string to be looked for in a file or set of files. Similarly for Lexa Text, Lexa File and DbStat the /i- switch is necessary as these programmes can take other command line parameters. Please consult the relevant sections of the documentation for more details and take a look at the supplied initialization files. 

Recall that setup files are commonly used with the following programmes: 

	Lexa (main programme)	
	Lexa Text, Corpus Manager Editor 
	Lexa Pat, Lexa DbPat
	Lexa Search, Lexa Words 
	Lexa Sweep, Lexa Print, Lexa Backup 
	DbStat, DbTrans, RepDb

 

21	Lexa Kill 

Syntax:	lkill [drive:]file_template /n /p 

The switch /p will now force Lexa Kill to pause before continuing its operation if the user so wishes. 

 

22	Lexa Move 

Syntax:	1)	lmove 
	2)	lmove /l-log_file target 
	3)	lmove source target /d /c 

The present programme will copy files from a source drive to a target one. The information for this operation can be entered interactively or gleaned from the command line. Furthermore Lexa Move can copy just those files which have been marked in a log file produced by Lexa Backup (see sample supplied with the Lexa suite). 

22.1	Parameters and switches 

For SOURCE and TARGET you can enter any valid file template (with wildcards) on the command line along with two other optional switches. 

	lmove a:\*.c d:\temp /d /c 

	/d   Delete files on source. 
	/c   Confirm overwriting of existing files. 
	/l   This switch is necessary when using a log file. It should be followed by the       name of the log file and then by the target drive as above. 

		lmove /l-today.log a:\ 

 

23	Lexa Repeat 

Syntax:	lrepeat #+# 

Lexa Repeat is a simple keyboard accelerator. It is called with two number parameters linked by a plus sign. The first number represents the desired repeat rate and the second the desired delay before repeat sets in according to the following table: 

	Repeat Rate		Delay 
	1 : 30.0  per sec.	1 : 250  msecs. 
	2 : 24.0			2 : 500 
	3 : 18.5			3 : 750 
	4 : 13.3			4 : 1000 

You can combine the number parameters as you wish, e.g. 

	lrepeat 1+1,  lrepeat 2+3, lrepeat 4+1, etc. 

Lexa Repeat is a well-behaved keyboard accelerator. Many commercial keyboard enhancers have the peculiar feature that when certain other programmes (or even DOS in some cases) are loaded then the repeat function is disabled entirely, something which is quite the opposite of what is intended; the present programme does not suffer from this drawback. 

 

24	Lexa SetKey 

Syntax:	lsetkey [keyboard_file] 

The keyboard setter Lexa SetKey has been improved somewhat. It is now possible to determine what characters are to be set on what keys by choosing a symbol from the currently active video character set. This is done by pressing Alt-V, moving the highlight bar to the desired symbol and pressing Return. 
	This option is most practical when you load your special video font for the screen with Lexa LoadVideo or Lexa Permanent beforehand. If you do that the assignment of video symbols to keyboard keys presents no difficulties. 

 

25	Unique Lines 

Syntax:	uniq_lin input_file output_file /o 

The programme Unique Lines serves the purpose of generating a list of unique lines from an input file. There are many situations in which this might be necessary, for instance if you store the contents of a field of a database to a text, say the names of authors, you may then want a list of the names but with only one entry per name obviously. Unique Lines will create a new file output_file from the input_file with only one occurrence of each line transferred, the result being a list of unique lines from the input file. 
	The switch /o can be used to automatically overwrite an output file, otherwise user confirmation is required. 

 

26	Empty Lines 

Syntax:	emptylin input_file output_file /o 

This utility simply removes any empty lines from an input file and writes the results as an output file. With /o you can automatically overwrite an output file. 

 

27	Every Directory 

Syntax:	everydir command/programme /s /p 

With Every Directory you can force the execution of a command in the current directory and all directories which lie below this (with the /s switch). 

	/s   Subdirectories are to be included for execution 
	/p   Pause before continuing to a new directory 

Recall that a parameter on a command line is normally a string which does not contain any spaces. Should you wish to enter a parameter with blanks then you must enclose it in inverted commas, eg everydir "llist *.doc" document.fil.

 

28	Make List 

Syntax:	1)	mak_list 
	2)	mak_list output_file file_template /o 

The purpose of the present programme is to generate a list of files from a listing on a desktop where the user has marked files interactively or to generate such a list using information passed on the command line (see both syntax options above). 
	A list of file names can be used by the information retrieval programmes of the Lexa group such as Lexa Pat, Lexa Context or Lexa Search If you wish to use a list with these programmes you enter the name of the list file and set the appropriate parameter on (see descriptions of programmes above). 

You move the highlight bar in the usual way and mark files with the key combinations Shift-Down,UpArrow or simply with Return The number of marked files is echoed in the top left-hand corner of the screen. 
	When you have finished marking you save the list to a disk file by pressing F10 You must obviously specify a name for Make List to use; if this is already present on disk then you must confirm overwriting. A list created with the present programme would look something like the following. 

	; File list generated by Make List 
	; 
	; Time: 15:09:32   Date: 12/24/1994 
	; 
	BALLY.ASC 
	FINGAL.ASC 
	HENRY_V.ASC 
	HUDIBRAS.ASC 
	PURGATOR.ASC 
	RIVALS.ASC 
	SERMON.ASC 

The following commands are also at your disposal in Make List. 

	F1 		Online Help 
	Shift-F1	DOS Command 
	F2 		User Editor 
	F3 		Mark all Files 
	Shift-F3	Unmark Files  
	F4		Log in Drive  
	Shift-F4	File Template 
	F5		Edit List File 
	F7		Exit to DOS 
	F8		Directory Tree 
	F10		Diskwrite List 
	Space		View Current File 

 

29	Dos Colours 

Syntax:	doscol b,g,c,r,m,w(+)w,n,b,r,g,y 

Background Colour  +  Lettering 

b	:	Blue		w	:	White 
g	:	Green		n	:	Normal black 
c	:	Cyan		b	:	Blue 
r	:	Red		r	:	Red 
m	:	Magenta	g	:	Green 
w	:	White		y	:	Yellow 

Note The lettering colour need not be specified, it’s default value is white; any combinations of background and lettering are possible as seen in the following examples. 

doscol b+y, doscol m+g, 
	doscol w+n, doscol g, doscol r, etc. 

Warning The lettering disappears if both colour parameters are the same. 

 

30	Cocoa 

Syntax:	cocoa 

This utility is specifically designed to cater for corpus files which contain header information in the Cocoa format as does the Helsinki corpus for instance. 

Return Examine Cocoa header Here the programme Cocoa reads the header from a user-specified file and then displays this on a separate screen. 

F6 Display filter Here the current settings for the Cocoa parameters as noted internally by Cocoa are displayed on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. 

F9 Make file subset Here an ASCII text file is generated with the names of all the text files of the current directory listed which match the Cocoa parameters contained in the filter constructed by the user (see previous option). By these means you can find how many and what files match any combination of Cocoa parameters which you care to assemble. 

The output file of this operation lists the current filter condition at the beginning and then the finds along with the current directory. 

Note If you carry out this command before any filter condition has been specified then all files of the current directory will be returned, probably something which you do not want to happen. 
	After the generation of a file subset list Lexa Text is loaded along with the list just created. 

F5 View database This option loads the database manager DbTxt with the name of an output database passed to it if one has been generated by the user (see next option). 

F10 Generate database of Cocoa information This option generates a database with information from the headers of Cocoa files stored in pre-defined fields. This file is a normal dBASE-style database. 

The database can be edited with the database manager DbTxt In it the information from the Cocoa headers of the appropriate files in the current directory is stored. The database created has the following strcture. 

	Field 1:	File name		FILE_NAME 
	Field 2:	File size		FILE_SIZE 
	Field 3:	File date		FILE_DATE 
	Field 4:	File time		FILE_TIME 

The following are the Cocoa code fields: 

	Field 5:	Name of text file			B_FILE 
	Field 6:	Text identifier				Q_TEXT_ID 
	Field 7:	Name of text				N_NAME 
	Field 8:	Author					A_AUTHOR 
	Field 9:	Part of corpus				C_CORPUS 
	Field 10:  Date of original			O_ORIGIN 
	Field 11:  Date of manuscript			M_MANUSCR 
	Field 12:  Contemporaneity			K_CONTEMP 
	Field 13:  Dialect				D_DIALECT 
	Field 14:  Verse or prose			V_VERSE 
	Field 15:  Text type				T_TYPE 
	Field 16:  Relationship to foreign original	G_REL_FOR 
	Field 17:  Foreign original			F_FOREIGN 
	Field 18:  Relationship to spoken language	W_REL_SPO 
	Field 19:  Sex of author				X_SEX 
	Field 20:  Age of author				Y_AGE 
	Field 21:  Social rank of author			H_SOCIAL 
	Field 22:  Audience description			U_AUDIEN 
	Field 23:  Participant relationship		E_PARTIC 
	Field 24:  Interaction				J_INTERAC 
	Field 25:  Setting				L_SETTING 
	Field 26:  Prototypical text category		Z_PROTO 
	Field 27:  Sample				S_SAMPLE 
	Field 28:  Page					P_PAGE 
	Field 29:  Line					L_LINE 
	Field 30:  Record				R_RECORD 

Directory lister commands When on the desktop of Cocoa there are a number of commands at your disposal which you will be acquainted with from other programmes of the Lexa suite. 

	Shift-F1		Execute command for DOS 
	F4			Log in new drive 
	Shift-F4		Enter new file template 
	F8			Load directory manager Lexa Dirs 
	SpaceBar		View current file with TxtLook 

 

31	Lexa Chain 

Syntax:	1)	lchain OutputFile File1 File2 File3 ... /i /n /o /s 
	2)	lchain OutputFile FileSpec /i /n /o /s 

Recall that the aim of Lexa Chain is to chain together ASCII files to a composite file which can be unchained again at a later point with Lexa UnChain if required. The various parameters and switches have the following effect. 

OutputFile  File to result from chain operation File1,etc.  

Input files to be chained. In this variant of the syntax the files to be chained are all listed on the command line. 

FileSpec    Specification of input files, e.g. *.c, prog?.txt. In this variant the user enters a file template and the matching files of the current directory are chained together assuming that there are  matches. 

/i    Insert text file before file to be linked. You may wish to insert something before a file which is to be added to the output chain file. Lexa Chain does the following in this case. It looks for a file with the same name as that to be chained but with the extension .INS. If one is found then it is inserted at the current position in the output chain file. 

/n    No insertion of documentation information into output. Normally Lexa Chain enters a line like the following at the beginning of a file which is inserted into a chain file. 

	• LEXA CHAIN FILE NO. 1:  MY_FILE.TXT 

/o    Overwrite output file without user confirmation. This option turns off the warning about overwriting an output file which already exists on disk. 

/s    Search all subdirectories for input text files. Here you can force Lexa Chain to search not only the current directory for file matches for a chaining operation but all subdirectories below the current one as well. To have an entire disk searched you must first move to the root directory by entering CD \ on the DOS command line. Assuming that you have not suppressed documentation (see option under /n above) a line like the following is entered in the output chain file before the first file in a directory. 

	• CURRENT CHAIN DIRECTORY :  C:\LEXA 

 

32	Lexa Control 

Syntax:	lcontrol 

Lexa Control now contains descriptions of the additional programmes which have been added in Version 6.0 of Lexa. 
	There is no need to call Lexa Control via the batch file lc.bat. This was an option with the older version which ran under 640K of system memory and utilised a technique to optimize memory availability. This is redundant with the Protected Mode of the new version. 

 

33	Lexa CrLf 

Syntax:	1)	lcrlf file_name /## (=column) /n /r 
	2)	lcrlf /i-setup_file 

Lexa CrLf now works interactively while retaining the command line mode. If no parameters are passed to the programme except perhaps a setup file (see option (ii) above) the programme run in the interactive mode. 

 

34	Lexa Desk 

Syntax:	ldesk 

The present programme has been expanded to include information on new programmes. It also contains a more comprehensive help system which can serve as a brief introduction to the various sections of Lexa. 
	The idea behind Lexa Desk is to offer users a platform for loading individual programmes of the Lexa group. Each option of a menu activates one of the programmes. After completion of this programme you return automatically to Lexa Desk Note that some programmes require that you enter information in the form of command line options before loading. 

Programmes of your own can be loaded via Shift-F1 or F5 You can exit to DOS with Alt-F4 or F7 Lexa Desk and any programmes called must be accessible via the DOS path variable (usually specified in the startup file AUTOEXEC.BAT). 

Bear in mind that when Lexa Desk is first loaded it executes the batch file _PRELUDE.BAT which you can use to customize the environment for the Lexa programmes. This is especially useful if Lexa Desk is called from within Microsoft Windows with which it is fully compatible. 

N.B. You may also use Lexa Control to launch programmes. There is furthermore a user-configurable shell available, Lexa Shell. 

 

35	Lexa Dirs 

Syntax:	1)	d 
	2)	d /v [drive:]path_fragment 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

F12 Direct exit to DOS with directory change This key is functionally equivalent to Shift-F7. 

 

36	Lexa File 

Syntax:	1)		lf 
	2)		lf /i(-ini_file) 
	3)		lf drive: /v /t /b 

36.1	Command line parameters 

There are a number of situations in which one might want to configure Lexa File or to run it automatically. For this reason a number of command line parameters are available which have the following effects. 

	a:	Log in a specific drive 
	/i	Load initialization file 
	/t	Just read tree structure 
	/b	Start in batch mode 
	/v	Activate VGA 50-line display 

Note The startup option /e (EGA-mode) has been replaced by /v (VGA-mode). 

36.2	Altered or expanded commands 

F11 Display perpetual calendar There is a calendar available in the online diary of Lexa File This can now be reached directly with the present keystroke. 

Alt-F12 Activate internal editor The general purpose text editor (see section 59 below) has been included in Lexa File in order to edit ASCII files without loading any further programme. 

Alt-Backspace Return to text in internal editor If you leave a text with Alt-F7 you can return to it with the current key combination. 

F12 Direct exit to DOS with change to currently highlighted directory. This key is functionally equivalent to Shift-F7. 

Ctrl-F12 Load DbDel to view a database in delimited text form Assuming that the currently highlighted file has the extension .TXT the programme Database Delimited is loaded and the file displayed. It may of course happen that a file with the extension .TXT is not a database in delimited text form. In this case the display will naturally be erratic. 

Alt-F1 DOS Services This option is that which is already available in the older version of Lexa File The number of drives available here has been extended to the letter J. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Alt-V View beginning of file When managing files, eg when marking them for copying, it may be expedient to display the first few lines in order to recognized their contents. By pressing Alt-V you can toggle the display of the beginning of the currently highlighted file. 

Note This option works best when you have also activated the VGA 50-line display because then you see some 20 lines of the currently highlighted file. 

Space Internal viewer You can now specify an external programme which is to be loaded instead of using the internal viewer of Lexa File If the currently highlighted file has the extension DBF then the database viewer DbLook is automatically loaded. 

Alt-Tab Load programme directly (1) In the initialization file of Lexa File you can specify what programme is to be loaded with this keystroke. 

Ctrl-Tab Load programme directly (2) This key combination loads the programme which is associated with it by means of the appropriate parameter in an initialization file. 

Ctrl-A Choose character from ASCII chart In the User Input Editor you can choose a character from a chart of the ASCII set by pressing this key combination. 

Note For the File attribute option to work the external programme SET_ATTR.EXE must be available to Lexa File via the DOS path variable. 

36.3	Structure of initialization file 

Recall that initializing Lexa File is done via the /i switch on the command line. The initialization file is now a user-editable ASCII file which be edited with the internal text editor of Lexa File itself. Below is a sample file which indicates what parameters are involved and how they can be set. 

Sample initialization file 

; This is the initialization file for Lexa File. It is a normal ASCII text 
; file which you can edit with Lexa Text itself or any other text editor.
; Note that the programme only reads information from those lines which do
; NOT begin with a semi-colon.
;
; You may enter "0" or "no" to reject and option; "1" or "yes" affirms it.
; Do not type the inverted commas.
;
; If you change any parameters then be very careful to keep
; to the pre-determined format as outlined in the comments below.
;
; 1: Change to new directory on starting Lexa File
;   (Leave line empty if no change is desired)
;

; 
; 2: File template to be used for display
;
*.*
;
; 3: Sorting type (Options: Name; Extension; Size; Date)
;
Name
;
; 4: Sorting order (Options: Ascending; Descending)
;
Ascending
;
; 5: Date format for file listings
;
; Key:
; 	0  =  American  (MM/DD/YYY)
; 	1  =  British   (DD/MM/YYY)
; 	2  =  German    (DD.MM.YYY)
;
2
;
; 6: Type of date filter (Options: Before; After; Today; None)
;
None
;
; 7: Date on which filter is to act (form: MM/DD/YY)
;
01/01/94
;
; 8: Use browse mode (file listing is refreshed when you move in tree)
;
no
;
; 9: File window (move to right window automatically on loading)
;
no
;
; 10: Mark all files in listing in right window
;
no
;
; 11: Only update target when copying
;
no
;
; 12: Target drive and directory used for copying
;
A:\
;
; 13: Automatically terminate Lexa File after copying
;
no
;
; 14: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing F2
;
TXTLOOK
;
; 15: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing F2 when file ends in .DBF
;
DBTXT
;
; 16: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing Shift-F2
;
CME
;
; 17: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing Ctrl-F2
;
LBYTE
;
; 18: Release all memory when Alt-F9 or GreyPlus are pressed in batch mode?
;
no
;
; 19: Name of programme as default with Ctrl-F9, Alt-F9, GreyPlus
;
WP
;
; 20: Name of programme to be loaded on pressing Space Bar
;
TXTLOOK
;
; 21: Call batch file on loading? (leave empty for none)
;
GER_KEYB.BAT
;
; 22: Name of user font to be used in text editor
;
LTXT_CHR.VGA
;
; 23: No. for user font activation. This parameter has to do with VGA
; adapters which differ in certain respects. There are some which require
; 8 for the activation of a user font in an internal register and some
; which demand the figure 32. Try these two out. I'm afraid that if neither
; of these works, there is not much you can do. There may be the odd VGA
; adapter which is not 100% compatible with the industry standard and which
; does not support user defined fonts.
;
8
;
; 24: Name of file to be loaded on pressing Alt-Tab
;
LTEXT
;
; 25: Name of file to be loaded on pressing Ctrl-Tab
;
DBTXT
;
; 26: Use monochrome display irrespective of video hardware?
;
yes
;
; End of File

Alt-Zero Force monochrome This command forces monochrome display irrespective of the hardware of your computer. With laptops and notebooks which often have a monochrome VGA video adapter this option is useful as it improves the quality of display. 

 

37	Lexa Find 

Syntax:	1)	lfind 
	2)	lfind [drive:]file_template /v 

F12 Direct exit to DOS with directory change This key is functionally equivalent to Shift-F7. 

Alt-Tab Load programme directly This option is similar to that in the other major programmes of the Lexa suite and loads a programme directly. In this case it is always Lexa File as Lexa Find does not have user-specifiable parameters. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Limits and boundaries The new version of Lexa Find has altered maxima for a few vital parameters as indicated below. 

	Max. number of files per disk:		10,000 
	Max. number of directories per disk:	500 

Note The startup option /e (EGA-mode) has been replaced by /v (VGA-mode). 

 

38	Lexa Shell 

Syntax:	1)	lshell 
	2)	lshell /u 
	3)	lshell ini_file 

There is no need to call Lexa Shell via the batch file ls.bat. This was an option with the older version which ran under 640K of system memory and utilised a particular technique to optimize memory availability. This is redundant with the Protected Mode of the new version. 

DOS Services This option is that which is already available in the older version of Lexa Shell The number of drives available here has been extended to the letter J. 

 

39	Lexa Sort 

Syntax:	lsort /(t)# /c InputFile OutputFile CEF-file 

The syntax of Lexa Sort has been altered somewhat to take account of the additional options. Recall that the first two switches and parameters have the following effect. 

	/(t)#      (Tab) or Column No. at which to start sorting 
	/c         Case sensitive sort 

	InputFile  Input file for sorting 
	OutputFile Output file after sorting 

In the current version you can specify a CEF file to use. This is advantageous if you wish to have certain letters treated as equal for a sort operation such as yogh and ‘g’ in Old English texts inasmuch as these are distinguished. 

Limits and boundaries Lexa Sort now operates in the protected mode which makes more memory for sorting available as indicated by the altered maxima for a number of parameters. 

	Max. file size:			1 MB 
	Max line length:		512 characters 
	Max. number of lines in file:	12,000 

 

40	Set File Attribute 

Syntax:	set_attr 

This programme is used by Lexa File to set the attributes of any marked files when the user activates this command via Ctrl-F4 when a directory listing window is active. 

 

41	Rename Directory 

Syntax:	ren_dir 

This utility is used by Lexa File to rename a directory when the user activates this command via Ctrl-F8 in a directory graph window. 

 

42	Compare Databases 

Syntax:	compdb 

The idea behind Compare Databases is to allow the comparison of two databases, for instance a current version and an older one of the same database. There are a whole series of options which have to do with this type of operation. In addition Compare Databases allows one to edit a field of a record. The editing options are nothing like those of the fully-fledged database managers DbStat/DbTxt The idea here is that should you discover a typing or entry error when viewing databases which are being compared then you have the chance to make a correction without having to leave Compare Databases. 

42.1	Full-screen commands 

Tab Switch display windows Moves from the left to the right window and back again. If there is no database open on the right-hand side of the screen then the directory lister is activated and you are prompted to choose one for this half of the display. 

Return Edit field at cursor Enters the edit mode in which a cursor is displayed at the beginning of the current field. You may enter and/or alter text. When you are finished, press Return again to exit the edit mode. 

F3 Find duplicate records This function allows you to search through a database going on the contents of the opposite database. Compare Databases stops when it finds the first instance of the search string from the opposite database and offers you a number of choices which basically allows you to transfer data or delete records. 

	F8		Transfer record to outset database 
	Shift-F8	And go to top of second database 
	Del		Tag record for deletion in outset database                        
	Shift-Del	Tag in database searched 

Shift-F3 Find duplicate using respective cursor fields This function is basically the same as the previous one but in this case the fields used for the search are those at which the cursor is located in each database. The advantage here is that you can use a different field in each database for the search by placing the cursor on varying fields in each database before pressing Shift-F3 to initiate a search. 

Shift-F2  Determine screen split You can choose with Compare Databases what way you want to view the two databases being compared. The vertical screen split is the default one. 

If you choose a horizontal split then you see more of each field but in all fewer fields. This disadvantage can be overcome by using the 50-line display mode (see the following command). 

F2, Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50-line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-F2 Full-screen display It is equally possible to use the entire screen to view one database. When switching between the two with the Tab key you should pay attention to the name of the currently displayed database which is shown on the first line of the screen. 

F6 Show database structure Displays the structure of the current database in a window in the centre of the screen. 

F7 End Compare Databases Exits to DOS after user confirmation. 

F8 Transfer record to opposite database Copies the contents of the current record in one database to the other one by appending a record to the latter and transferring the information in each field of the source database over to this new record. 

Shift-F8 Replace current record in opposite database This is a potentially destructive command as it overwrites the contents of one database with that of the currently displayed database on the other side of the screen. 

F9 Show file information Displays a windowful of information on the environment in which you are operating. 

F5 Load new database As with the database managers and ancillary database management programmes like DbLook you can load a new database by pressing the F5 key which activates the directory lister from which you can choose a database to view/compare. 

42.2	Browse commands 

F10 Browse view/edit database Recall that a browse mode is one in which the contents of each record are displayed on one line of the screen and that you can pan to the left and right to view/access those fields of the current record which are not on display at the moment. 

Tab Switch Databases Moves backwards and forwards between the two loaded databases. 

Escape No Relocate Reverts to the full-screen mode and returns to the record from which you started the browse mode. 

Ctrl-Return Goto Record Returns to the full-screen mode but relocates the record pointer to that record where you were positioned on leaving the browse mode. 

Delete, Ctrl-T Tag Record Mark the current record for later deletion, eg with DbStat or DbTxt. 

F9 Environment Displays a windowful of information on the environment in which you are operating. 

Shift-F1 DOS Command Opens a window in which you can enter a command or programme name which is passed on to DOS for execution. 

Ctrl-F1 Move to DOS Shells down temporarily to DOS. 

Ctrl-Q ASCII Chart Displays a chart of the ASCII character set. 

Ctrl-W Wipe all tagging for deletion Removes the deletion tags from all records. 

Ctrl-L Letter search field Allows you to determine what field is to be used for letter search. 

Space Do letter search Activates the letter search function. Recall that here you enter one letter at a time and Compare Databases relocates the record pointer to the next record which contains this letter and any previously entered ones in the field which you have chosen for this function (see previous command). 

Shift-Tab Picklist Activates the picklist from which you can choose a command for execution in the usual manner by moving the highlight bar and pressing Return. 

Ctrl-F Find record contents Searches through the databases examining the contents of the field which you specified for use in this function. 

Ctrl-R Repeat record search Repeats a search but without the user specifying a field and search contents again. 

Ctrl-G Go to record number Prompts the user to enter the number of a record which Compare Databases is to move to. 

 

43	Database Bibiliography 

Syntax:	1)	dbbib 
	2)	dbbib /b(-ini_file) 

The purpose of Database Bibliography is to extract records from a database going on a text file which contains only a fraction of the information of database records. For instance you might collect bibliographical references in a single large database and create a small text file with the names of authors and year references which you then would like to have extracted from the large database. If Database Bibliography is successful in its search the records for which there are matches are deposited in a separate database which ideally contains all and only the records of the input file. Such an input file can be compiled by going through a word processor file (an article or a chapter of a book for instance) and copying the information on bibliographical references to a separate file which is then stored as an ASCII file, ie without any formatting information. 
	For Database Bibliography to operate correctly you must specify three items of information: 

1)	Name of database to be examined (file template also possible, if several are 
	to be combed through) 

2)	Name of output database file 

3)	Name of input text file (this must have the extension .BIB) 

The finds for the items in the input text file are transferred from the source to the target database. The line with the item found is indented in the input text file to insure that it is not examined again. 

Database Bibliography can be run in the batch mode by entering dbbib /b. It is then assumed that there is a file dbbib.ini in the DBBIB.EXE home directory which contains the information otherwise specified interactively. By entering dbbib /b-my_file.ini you could specify your own setup file. 
	An input text file may consist of (i) Initial, (ii) Surname, (iii) Further Authors, (iv) Year Page references are ignored as are punctuation items. Each line must begin and end with «» (ASCII 174 + 175) or user symbols. Here are some examples of the kind of conversions which Database Bibliography undertakes for searching. 

	«Jones, 1989»			->	[Jones][][][1989] 
	«Müller and Meyer, 1980»	->	[Müller][][Meyer][1980]  
	«G.Schmidt (1949:324)»	->	[Schmidt][G][][1949] 

Sample initialization file 

; This is the initialization file for DbBib. It is a normal ASCII text 
; file which you can edit with Lexa Text itself or any other text editor.
; Note that the programme only reads information from those
; lines which do NOT begin with a semi-colon.
;
; You may enter "0" or "no" to reject and option; "1" or "yes" affirms it.
; Do not type the inverted commas.
;
; If you change any parameters then be very careful to keep
; to the pre-determined format as outlined in the comments below.
;
; 1: Name of database to examine (entering a file template will lead to all
; matching databases being combed through)
;
*.DBF
; 
; 2: Name for output database to be created or appended to (automatic if
a
;    with the same name is found in the current directory, unless Item 4
;    is specified positively).
;
BIB_OUT.DBF
;
; 3: Name of input text file with references which are to be found
;    (this file MUST have the extension .BIB !)
;
TEST.BIB
;
; 4: Erase an output database with the same name as that specified in 2
;
yes
;
; 5: Delimiting character for beginning of line (bibliographical reference)
;
®
;
; 6: Delimiting character for end line (bibliographical reference)
;
¯
;
; 7: Enter search parameters as new record when not found in searched
database?
;
yes
;

 

44	Database Look 

Syntax:	1)	dblook 
	2)	dblook file_name /v /m 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

 

45	Database Make 

Syntax:	db_make 

This programme is intended for use when you wish to design a new database. It is the equivalent of the module of DbStat/DbTxt which was activated by choosing the second option on the desktop level. For internal reasons this has been extracted and deposited as a separate programme. Functionally there is no difference so that users need not worry about this alteration. 

Note The programme Database Small has been removed from the Lexa suite as there is no demand for a small version of the database managers as these run in the Protected Mode which can utilize all physically present system memory. 

 

46	Database Statistics 

The alterations to this programme do not concern statistical calculations. The relevant functions have remained the same but the keys have been altered slightly to accomodate the integration of these functions with those of the rest of the database manager. The changes made to the database manager are discussed in the following section on DbTxt. 

Function key reassignments in Database Statistics 

	Function		Former setting		Present setting 

	Tests on sets		Alt-Back		Alt-F1 
	Central tendency	Alt-F5			Alt-F4 

	Run Calculator		(no change) 
	Organization		(no change) 

 

47	Database Text 

Syntax:	dbtxt 	(see section ‘Command line options’ below) 

Introduction The enhancements to the database manager of the Lexa suite are very considerable so they have been arranged according to the area in which they belong. 

47.1	Command line options 

(i)	dbtxt FileName 

FileName Name of database to edited. Desktop is skipped editing mode is             activated directly. Extension .DBF is supplied if not typed. 

(ii)	dbtxt /i-FileName 

FileName Name of initialization file, if not DBTXT.INI. Examine supplied file for             details of specifiable items. 

(iii)	dbtxt /s,z(x)-FileName 

FileName Name of file with information from a previous editing session. This file             must have the extension .SRT; it is used by DbTxt to determine how to carry out a sort. Note the following details: 

	S    sort database 
	SX   remove blanks and sort all databases in current directory 
	ZX   remove blanks and sort for one database in current directory 

	dbtxt /s-one_db.srt	(sorts this database) 
	dbtxt /sx-all_dbs.srt	(removes blanks + sorts all databases in dir.) 
	dbtxt /zx-all_dbs.srt	(removes blanks + sorts one database in dir.) 

N.B. The ‘x’ option also regenerates a document (.DBD) file checking sections against the records of the database in question. 

(iv)	dbtxt /e,t-FileSpec 

FileSpec Name of delimited text file which is to be expanded to a database.             Assumes that there are two files with the same name and the extensions .DBF and .TXT in the current directory. Wildcards ? * are allowed. 

	E	expand database 
	T	expand and terminate automatically 

Third parameter can be the number of index field to be used. If this is greater than zero then the database will be indexed and the index used when database is loaded. 

	dbtxt /e-biblio.dbf 6  (6 = field 6 to be used for index) 
	dbtxt /e-*.dbf 

	dbtxt /t-biblio.dbf 6  (6 = field 6 to be used for index) 
	dbtxt /t-*.dbf 

(v)	dbtxt /p(x)-FileName (z) 

FileName Name of database. This option will create a delimited text file from the             database specified. N.B. Files are overwritten! 

	P	pack database			dbtxt /p-biblio.dbf 
	PX	pack all databases		dbtxt /px 

The additional argument ‘z’  causes the packed database(s) also to be zapped (all records removed). 

	dbtxt /p-biblio.dbf z	dbtxt /px z 

(vi)	dbtxt /d(x)-FileName 

	D	regenerate document file 
	DX	regenerate document file for all databases in current directory 

	dbtxt /d-one_db.dbf	make DBD-file again for this database 
	dbtxt /dx		make DBD-file again for all databases 

Note. This option always consults a file with extension .DBZ which contains the name of the last database file processed. 

(vii)	dbtxt /n(x)-FileName 

	N	regenerate index of record numbers for field contents 
	NX	regenerate indexes for all databases in current directory 

	dbtxt /n-one_db.dbf	make IND-file again for this database 
	dbtxt /nx		make IND-file again for all databases 
	dbtxt /nx 1 2 3		numbers are those of fields to be used 

Alt-Zero Force monochrome This command forces monochrome display irrespective of the hardware of your computer. With laptops and notebooks which often have a monochrome VGA video adapter this option is useful as it improves the quality of display. 

 

47.2	Enhanced desktop commands 

Create a new database This option is now realised by an external programme, DBMAKE.EXE, being loaded by DbStat/DbTxt The commands within this programme are the same as those which existed within the integrated database structure editor. 

Sort Database You can now sort up to six fields with the appropriate command on the desktop. These fields are echoed at the top of the screen when you are constructing the sorting condition. 

Copying a section of a database There may be occasions when users wish to copy a part of a database, this being numerically defined as a number of records which form a subset of the total. You can achieve this quite easily from the desktop of the database editor. The window which opens on the option Shell, Copy, Delete now has an additional feature labelled Copy part of a database When you choose it you are asked to enter the name for the new database (just as if you were generating a shell database). After this you must then specify the record at which to start the copying operation and the record at which to stop. Both these values are echoed at the bottom of the screen. During copying the number of records transferred is indicated. The following three items of information are required which are echoed at the bottom of the screen. 

	1)		Name of new database 
	2)		Record to begin copy at 
	3)		Record to finish copy at 

Export, import This menu has been expanded to include three new options. 

	1)		Export a field 
	2)		Import a field 
	3)		Expand databases 

The first of these options transfers the contents of a user-selected field of a database and stores this in an output ASCII text file with one line for the contents of the chosen field in each record. The option is functionally equivalent to that which is activated via Alt-F10 on the full-screen editing level. 
	The second option is the reverse of the first. It examines a user-specified ASCII text file and imports the contents of each line into the selected field of a chosen database. 
	The third option imports the contents of a delimited text file into a database. It only works with databases which are empty and where for each .DBF file there is a corresponding .TXT file, ie one with the same name before the extension. This option is the reverse the other one, Pack Databases which converts the contents of each database to a delimited text file with the extension .TXT and which optionally zaps all the records of each database examined if the user demands this. 

47.3	Additional full-screen editing options 

47.3.1	Database management 

You can now edit up to 4 databases at any given time with DbTxt/DbStat These databases occupy areas of memory which are labelled one through four and accessible by pressing the Alt key and a digit from 1 to 4. If a database is not already open in the area chosen then the directory lister is activated to allow you to choose a database. 

Alt-Return Database management On pressing this key combination a window opens in the centre of the screen and you can see how the four editing areas are occupied, if at all. The easiest way to switch to a different area is to move the highlight bar and press Return. 

Ctrl-1 Transfer target From the previous version of DbTxt/DbStat users will know that you can transfer data from one database to another which is located in a different area. Given the fact that you can now edit four databases you also have the option of choosing which area data should be transferred to. Naturally you cannot transfer data to the area you are in and not to an area in which there is no open database. The target for record transfer (activated by Alt-F1 and Alt-D, see descriptions elsewhere in this documentation) is indicated by an arrowhead in the management window. 

47.3.2	Database display 

Alt-Escape Split Screen Cuts the screen in half and displays the second database in the lower half, assuming that there is a second one loaded. Note that if you use the 50-line VGA display mode then you can see twice as much as with the normal video mode. 

Alt-F11 Flip Colours There are three colours combinations available in the full-screen editing mode and by pressing Alt-F11 you can cycle through the combinations. 

Ctrl-B  Field Begin The beginning of a field can be displayed in DbStat/DbTxt in either the first column of the screen or in the 10th or in the 18th. The latter two options will additionally show the name of field and the name, type and length respectively in front of the contents of a field. This parameter can also be specified in an initialization file. 

Ctrl-Back, Ctrl-V 25 / 50 Lines Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-Q ASCII Chart Displays a chart of the ASCII character set. 

Ctrl-J User Font Displays a chart of the user font assuming that one has been loaded (see sample initialization file for details). 

47.3.3	Record editing 

Recall that you edit a field in a record by pressing Return and terminate editing by pressing Return again or by using Escape in which case the changes to the current field are rejected. There is a special help screen available when editing a field. It indicates what commands are at your disposal and furthermore lists the formatting macros which you can use (see also section 47.6.3 Formatting in record fields below). 
	Observe that you can mark a piece of the current field by pressing F4 and then using the left and right arrow keys to mark text. Pressing F4 again stores this text in the field buffer. While you are marking text this appears in a different colour to the rest of the field (the actual colour depends on the colour combination currently active) and is echoed on the bottom line of the screen. In addition an asterisk blinks in the lower left-hand corner of the screen to show that you are marking text for the field buffer. 

Ctrl-I Insert Current Date This commands now applies not only to date fields. 

Alt-F1 Transfer Several Assuming that two databases with identical structures are loaded then one can transfer all the marked records of one database into the opposite database. 

Alt-F4 Get Text Buffer When editing the field of a record one can copy part of the text buffer from the text editing level with the current key combination. As much of the buffer as will fit into the current field is copied. 

F12 Text Macro Facility A similar macro facility to that available in the Lexa text editors has been added to the database editors DbStat and DbTxt This option involves the text snippets which you can enter in the text window, activated by pressing F2 The appearence of this has changed somewhat as can be seen from the following printout. 

You will notice that the snippets are associated with a letter from ‘A’ to ‘Z’, i.e. from 1 to 26 (an increase of 10 over previous versions of DbTxt). If you now strike F12 to enable macros then pressing the Alt-key and one of the first 16 letters of the alphabet will cause the contents of this text line (if any) to be entered in the field of the record at which the cursor is currently located, assuming that this field is of type ‘character’. 

Notes When you activate the macro facility the normal settings of Alt and a letter are deactivated, e.g. you cannot append a number of records with Alt- A when macros are active. To do this, press F12 to turn the macro facility off temporarily, append the records you wish and turn macros back on by striking F12 again. The same procedure would apply to any other setting of Alt and a letter which is temporarily inactive due to the use of the macro system. 
	The contents of a text file can be transferred to the text macro array by loading this with F5 when the array window is open. 

47.3.4	Database searching 

Alt-F Search through several databases Searching for a string may often be unsuccessful in the current database. What is frequently necessary is an option like the following where one can search through several databases at once. 
	There are four parameters which can be determined by the user before the search begins. These are the following. 

	1)		Examine current directory? 
	2)		Search all subdirectories? 
	3)		Pause after each database? 
	4)		Pause at each string find? 
	5)		Collect finds in new database? 

The first option ensures that the present directory is searched through. The second determines whether all the subdirectories under the current one are also combed through. The third option can be used to force DbTxt to pause when the end of a database has been reached and before another is opened. 

The fourth option is similar in that it does the same but this time at each find for the search string. The last option can be used to collect the records which match the search string in a separate database. Note that if you activate this option then you must enter the name for the repository database. 

When a search has been completed you are presented with a group of statistics referring to the number of databases combed through, the record total and the finds achieved during the search. 

 
 
47.3.5	Generating index of numbers 

F11 Number Index By a number index is meant the type of index which you have at the back of a book. Say you have a printed version of a bibliography then in all probability there will be an index in which the names of the authors and the references they occur in (and possibly the page numbers of the book) are listed. Such an index in termed a number index within the context of the database managers. 
	For a number index to be generated there must be a field ABS_NO (= ‘absolute number’) in the current database. DbTxt then consults every record and collects the entries for the first field (SURNAME); it also notes the value for ABS_NO. After this step has been completed it sorts the list obtained and generates a new one in which only unique entries for the first field are contained. If however there are several records with the same entry for this field then the values of ABS_NO for each record is noted. 

47.3.6	External interface 

Alt-Tab Execute Programme This option executes the programme which has been specified for this key combination in an initialization file. The default programme (that assumed when no initialization file is used) is Lexa File. 

Alt-F12 Set Current Directory Loads Lexa Dirs to allow the user to switch to a new directory (and possibly a new drive). The directory you leave at is the one which acts as the new current directory. 

Shift-F12 Toggle Bell Here you can decide on whether the computer should use its loudspeaker to emit an acoustic signal whenever DbTxt demands this. If you set this to ‘on’ a tick appears in parentheses (.  

Ctrl-F6 Diskload Filter Filter expressions can be constructed with DbTxt and stored to disk. Any filter which is well-formed can be re-loaded at a later point to avoid the chore of specifying it once again. However you must be careful that the database for which you load a filter has the same structure as that with which the filter was constructed originally otherwise the display will be erratic. 

47.4	Revised browse-mode editing 

F10 Normal Browse There are two browse modes in DbTxt The first is the most flexible as it allows record editing and includes a wide variety of commands. It is activated by pressing F10 The screen changes and you are presented with a display in which one record occupies a single line on the screen. The field on the left of the screen is always that where the cursor is positioned in the full-screen mode before switching to the browse mode. 

Shift-Tab Activate picklist A picklist with all the commands of the browse listed is available via Shift-Tab as with most of the programmes of the Lexa suite. 

Alt-Return Database management On the browse editing level you can switch between databases in the same way as when editing in the full screen mode. However, there is a difference which users should be aware of. In the browse mode you cannot open a new database (for this you must return to full screen editing) so that if you wish to switch between databases in the browse mode ensure that these are already open. 

Alt + 1-4 Databases 1-4 Switches to the database indicated by the digit, assuming that one is open in this area. 

Alt-F11 Colours Toggles between the two colour combinations of the browse mode. 

Alt-T Text editor Activates the internal text editor of the database manager (see below). 

Alt-Tab Direct Load Loads the programme which has been specified for this command directly. An automatic return to DbTxt is made. 

Escape No Relocate Returns to the full-screen mode and stays at the record from which you activated the browse mode. 

Ctrl-Return Goto Record Returns to the full-screen mode but remains positioned at the current record of the browse mode. 

Delete Tag Record Tags a record for deletion. Records which have been so tagged are displayed in bright lettering. 

Tab, Alt-E Mark Record Marks a record for an export operation. Any record which is so marked appears with an asterisk in the first column of the line on which it is to be found. 

F1 Online Help Activates the help system where you can choose a topic from the list of areas dealt with. 

F6 Export Info This commands displays a windowful of information about the exportation of record contents (target, report form, records marked for export, etc.). 

F9 Environment Shows a window with information on the environment in which DbTxt is operating. 

Shift-F1 DOS Command Here a window opens with an input line and the user can enter a command which is passed on to DOS for execution. Such a command can be the name of a programme or that of a command for DOS itself such as dir or chkdsk. 

Ctrl-Q ASCII Chart Displays a chart of the ASCII character set. 

Ctrl-J User Font Shows a chart with the user-determined font assuming that one has been specified in an initialization file. 

Ctrl-F5 Edit document Allows you to edit the document which is associated with the current database. The stretch of text which is assigned to the current record is shown. Depending on the size of the screen for text editing, the browse display of records may still be visible as in the sample screen below. 

Ctrl-F1 Move to DOS Here a DOS shell is loaded. The effect is that you are in DOS and can carry out any operation as if DbTxt were not loaded. 
	Remember that you return to the database manager by typing exit on the DOS command line and pressing Return. 

Browsing with index The second type of browse is much simpler and depends for its operation on an open index. Recall that an index is a text file with information on a certain field of the records of a database. An index is a sorted list which is independent of the physical arrangement of the records of a database. 

Shift-F10 Index Browse Here a window opens and you are presented with a list of the keyfield entries of the currently active index. 

47.5	Using document files 

To make maximum use of the text editing possibilities of DbTxt it is essential to grasp what a document file is. You can visualize it as follows. For any database there can exist a corresponding text with the same name but the extension .DBD (= database document). This text file contains text divided into sections. Each section corresponds to the number of a record in the database. When in DbTxt you can load this text and at any given record you can view/edit the stretch of text which is associated with it. 

47.5.1	The structure of a document file 

The section of text for a record is delimited in the document file by two special characters. A section begins with Chr 217 and finishes with Chr 218. The number of the current record appears after the beginning and end characters so that DbTxt knows what section of text is associated with what record. The amount of text between these characters is unlimited. It can be formatted just like any other text with the internal editor of the database manager. 

47.5.2	Copying information from a document file 

Information which is contained in a document file can be copied either out of such a file or into another one. There are two procedures for such copying depending on the direction of the copy. 

Export		To extract information from a document file you mark records on 
		either the full-screen or the browse edit mode and then with Alt- F8 
		you say how the records are to be exported (appended to an existing 
		database or deposited in a new one). You are also asked if you wish to 
		copy the contents of relevant sections of a document file if one is 
		present. 

Import		If you use the option Import from database on the desktop then the 
		information from a document file will be copied into the receiving 
		database assuming that there is such a document file for the donor 
		database. 

47.5.3	Regenerating a document file 

As you change the information in the records of a database you may also alter inadvertently the numbering in the field ABS_NO which is essential to the document file. You may however regenerate a document file for any loaded database by pressing Ctrl-F7 and following the suggestions of the system (see below). If you are at any stage in doubt whether the numbering of the document file is not numerically ascending then you should regenerate it. 

Ctrl-F5 Edit stretch of document file which belongs to current record With this command you shift to the text editing level and jump to the beginning of the stretch of text for the current record. 
	Note that if there is not a section of text for this record one is created at the end of the present document file. To have this section inserted at the numerically correct position you must regenerate the document file. 

Ctrl-F7 Numbered Text This option regenerates the document file for the present database. You may specify what number the document file is to start at. By these means you can have different parts of the same document file in different databases, say the first one with the numbering 1-100, the second with 101-200, and so on. 

Shift-F11  Show document With this command you can continually view the stretch of a document file which matches the current record. 

Ctrl-F11 Continually edit stretch of document file This command is similar to the previous one but with the essential difference that you can edit the section of text at the same time. In this case using the PageUp or PageDown keys causes an exit from the editing mode and moves the record pointer in the database up or down. 

Ctrl-F12 Notes file Within the database manager DbTxt you can edit a text file which has the same name as the database in question but the extension .NTS for notes Pressing the current key combination loads a notes file if there is one available for the present database. If not an appropriate file is created. 

47.6	Enhancements to the text editor 

47.6.1	Text processing 

Alt-1,2,3,4 Switch between text areas You can now edit up to four texts on the text editing level of the database manager. To switch between the four texts, use the present keys. Note that the text areas two to four always have a default text called DBTXT.002,3,4 unless you load a text of your own into this area. 

Ctrl-F12 Direct save text This writes the current text to disk without asking the user to specify a name or to confirm overwriting. 

Ctrl-F11 Direct save both texts Here both texts are committed to disk without name specification or confirmation of overwriting of disk files. 

Ctrl-F8 Insert current date into text Enters the present date at the current cursor position of the text. Note that the format of the date can be specified by means of the appropriate parameter in an initialization file. 

Ctrl-Y Switch around letters Simply reverses the order of two letters to remedy a common typing error. 

Alt-A, Ctrl-A Insert author name Inserts the contents of the first field of a database at the current cursor position. If field 4 of the present database has the title YEAR then it is inserted in parentheses after the contents of field 1. 

47.6.2	Text formatting 

Alt-F8 Picklist for fonts The text editing level works with a printer driver just like the text editor Lexa Text You can view the fonts specified in this driver file in the form of a picklist which appears on the right of the screen. A font is chosen in the normal way, ie by moving the highlight bar and pressing Return. 

Ctrl-O Ordinary font (normal) Inserts the marker for the normal, ordinary font at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-H, Ctrl-B Highlight font (bold) Inserts the marker for highlighted, bold text at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-I Italic font Inserts the marker for italics at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-S Small caps font Inserts the marker for the small capitals font at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-U, Ctrl-X User font Inserts the marker for a user-specified font at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-D Underlining Inserts the marker for underlining at the current cursor position. 

Alt-I Italic font symbol Here the single character font marker for italics is inserted into the text. 

Alt-B, Alt-H Bold font symbol Here the single character font marker for bold is inserted into the text. 

Alt-S Small caps symbol Here the single character font marker for small capitals is inserted into the text. 

Alt-U User font symbol Here the single character font marker for a user-specified font is inserted into the text. 

Alt-D Underlining symbol Here the single character font marker for underlining is inserted into the text. 

Alt-F3 Show font markers By means of this command you can display the font markers which may be embedded in the current text. 

47.6.3	Formatting in record fields 

Ctrl-Z Exchange codes This option is important if one wants to embed formatting attributes into the contents of database fields. The purpose of this is to enable users to mark bits of text in fields for printing as bold, italics, underlined, etc. The principle here is quite simple: certain pairs of non-alphabetic characters are used to indicated where an attribute begins and where it ends. It is true that this formatting is not visible when editing a record field (as databases do allow for formatting) but when you transfer this information to a text by means of an export operation then you can convert the database formatting codes into those which do result in bold, italic, underline display. Furthermore the text formatting codes can be converted to the corresponding formatting attributes in WordPerfect by means of the supplied macro LEXA2WP.WPM. 

On activating the present option a search is initiated in which any instances of the database codes found in the present text are replaced by the corresponding text codes. 

Macros for database codes When editing the field of a database you have a series of five macros which will automatically insert a database code pair in the following manner. 

47.6.4	Text display 

The text editor in the database manager can be manipulated in a variety of ways to ensure that text is displayed in a manner which is suitable for the user. The following commands can be used for this purpose. 

Alt-F5, Alt-Escape Switch user font and normal display In an initialization file one can specify if a user font is to be available to display special characters such as those symbols needed for a foreign language. With this key combination you can toggle between a user font and the standard font. Note that in the user font mode there is no bold lettering available. 

Alt-F11 Switch colours used for text display There are two colour combinations on the text editing level one with grey on blue lettering and the other with black on grey lettering. This key setting toggles between the two combinations. 

Alt-F10 First screen row Here you can decide how much space is to be take up by text display. If you specify a value which is greater than two then display will begin somewhere below the top of the screen. The net effect of this is that whatever was behind the text screen, eg a database in the full-screen mode, becomes visible. 

Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Q Get character from ASCII chart Displays a chart of the ASCII character set and allows you to choose a symbol to enter into the text at the current cursor position. 

Ctrl-J Chart of user font symbols The same as the previous option with the difference that here it is the user font which is displayed in chart form. 

Ctrl-F7 Format current paragraph Assuming that word wrap is on the current command will format the current paragraph. Bear in mind that a paragraph is bound at the end by two instances of a carriage return or a carriage return followed by a tab. 

Alt-W Set word wrap width Allows the user to specify at what column the word wrap function is to become effective. The default value is 72. 

Ctrl-Zero Set cursor shape With this key combination you can change the shape of the cursor to a fairly large block to made sure that it is plainly visible on monochrome systems such as with notebooks. 

47.6.5	Text management 

In the new version of DbTxt/DbStat you can process up to 4 texts at a time assuming that the system memory of your computer allows this. 

You may switch between text areas by using the keys Alt 1-4 Alternatively you can press Alt-Return or Alt-F6 which opens a large window in the centre of the screen. Here you can move the highlight bar up and down and by pressing Return you switch to a new text area. If there is no text already loaded in this area then you are requested to choose one from a directory listing. By pressing Escape on this level you may start a new text for the given area. 
	An asterisk * before the name of the text in a particular area indicates that it has been altered by the user. To retain any such alterations you much save the text to disk with Ctrl-F12 or F10. 

47.6.6	External interface 

Ctrl-Tab Import file directly This key combination loads the file specified for this purpose in the initialization file into the present text at the current cursor location. 

Alt-Tab Load programme directly The present command causes a programme to be loaded immediately and an automatic return to be made. The programme is specified in an initialization file. The default value for this parameter is Lexa File. 

Shift-F8 Desktop calculator There is a background programme in the Lexa suite called _CALC.EXE which provides an online calculator for the database managers and for the text editors. 

This calculator can be used to carry out calculations pertinent to the text you are editing. Note here that the calculator imports the first number on the current text line into its own input line so that this value can be used for calculation. A later computed value can be returned to the text by concluding work in the calculator with Ctrl-Return. 

47.6.7	Block processing 

Shift-F4 Retrieve database field block into text If you mark a piece of text when editing a database field then you can copy this into the current text with this key. 

F4 Buffer block To copy the stretch of text which you have marked you press this key which stores it in an internal buffer. 

Ctrl-F4 Move block If you exit block processing with this key combination then the text is deleted at the present position before it is stored in the text buffer. 

Delete Delete block This command simply deletes the marked stretch of text. 

F8 Print block Here the marked text is sent to the printer. If you have two printer output sockets (technically known as ports) then you must choose which one to use. 

Alt-F8 Font for line This allows you to choose what font is to apply to the stretch of marked text. 

F9 Delete empty lines Removes any empty lines in the stretched of marked text. 

F10 Disksave block Stores the marked text to disk using a user-specified name. The default name is BLOCK_1.TMP or BLOCK_2.TMP depending on which text area you are currently in. Note that you must say whether the marked text is to be appended to an output file or whether the latter should be created. If you choose the latter option and a file with the name you specify already exists then you must confirm overwriting this. 

47.6.8	Line block processing 

There are two kinds of block processing available in DbTxt/DbStat The first is that with which you are already acquainted. This is where you mark a stretch of text by first pressing F4 and then using the cursor keys. With this manner of block processing you must decide what action to take immediately after marking text. Furthermore the section which has been highlighted is one contiguous block. 
	To overcome the shortcomings of this kind of block processing a further type is available where you mark lines at will in a text. These do not have to be contiguous. 
	Shift-Up/DownArrow By means of these keystrokes you mark lines in a text for later processing. Such lines are henceforth displayed in bold lettering on a cyan or blue background. Note that this marking is independent of any other operation in DbTxt/DbStat, ie using the conventional type of marking does not affect the status of text as line blocked or not. When you are finished with line blocking text you can decide what action to take on the lines thus highlighted by pressing Alt- F9 on which a screen like the following presents itself. 

F2 Clear marking Removes any line marking in the current text after user confirmation. If a text in a different area is line blocked this is not affected. 

F3 Comment lines This option is designed to allow users to include some item of text at the beginning of each line which is block marked. 

Such a piece of text could be just a single character. It can also be more sophisticated. Here is an example of what is meant. Suppose you mark lines in a text and would like to have them numbered. The numbering should be enclosed in angular brackets followed by a tab character to ensure that each line of text starts in the same column; the tab is to be followed by a colon and a space. To achieve this you would enter something like the following in the window which opens when this command is activated: <#>[TAB]: (see above). The reference [TAB] above stands for the symbol (a small circle) which appears when you press the Tab key when editing the input line in DbTxt/DbStat. 
	Note that at the point where you want a number inserted you type #. At this place the value of the number variable will be entered into the text. DbTxt/DbStat detects if you have entered # and if so you are then asked what the initial value of this variable is to be, ie if it should start numbering lines at 1 or some higher value. 

F4 Buffer block Here the marked lines of the current text are copied into an internal buffer and can be retrieved later (see below). 

Ctrl-F4 Move block This command is the same as the previous one with the difference that the marked lines are also deleted. 

Delete Delete block The marked lines are simply deleted with this command. User confirmation is required. 

SpaceBar View block Here you are shown the first 23 (or 48) lines of the internal lines buffer. 

Alt-F12 Retrieve block With this command you can copy the contents of the lines buffer at the current cursor position. The buffer is not zapped so that its contents are available for later use if required. 

47.6.9	Picklist options 

There are now three main menus with the various commands of the text editing level available in the form of picklists. In addition the options for block processing, for formatting codes and the settings of general keys are indicated by extra windows which can be accessed from the first two of the picklists. 

47.7	Alterations to the directory lister 

F8 In DbTxt it is now possible to display a tree for the current disk in the directory lister by pressing F8 This calls the programme Lexa Dirs which can be used to alter the current directory by presenting the disk structure in a visually effective manner. 

F2, SpaceBar These keys load Lexa View with which you can take a look at the contents of a file (but without loading it). This function is the same as that which is available in Lexa Text and Lexa File for example. 

47.8	Enhancements with initialization files 

Many of the improvements to the database manager are reflected in the type of initialization file which the programme now uses. This includes many more parameters than the older versions of this file. Ensure that you use the new style initialization file with Version 6.0 of DbStat/DbTxt otherwise the behaviour of the programme will be erratic indeed it will probably abort immediately. 

;-------------------------------------------------------------------------; 
; Item 4: Name of third database to be loaded 
; (Leave this line empty if you do not want automatic loading): 
;

;
;------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 5: Name of fourth database to be loaded
; (Leave this line empty if you do not want automatic loading):
;

.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 9: Number of field in database for index
;
1
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 11: Required date format for directory listings
;
; Key:
; 	0  =  Ansi      (MM/DD/YYY)
; 	1  =  American  (MM/DD/YYY)
; 	2  =  British   (DD/MM/YYY)
; 	3  =  French    (DD/MM/YYY)
; 	4  =  German    (DD.MM.YYY)
;
4
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 13: Required date format for text insertion
;
; Key:
; 	0  =  Ansi      (MM/DD/YYY)
; 	1  =  American  (MM/DD/YYY)
; 	2  =  British   (DD/MM/YYY)
; 	3  =  French    (DD/MM/YYY)
; 	4  =  German    (DD.MM.YYY)
;       5  =  AlphaMonth (1 January 1995)
;
5
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 15: First row for text in editor (number must be a multiple of 2 
;          between 2 and 18)
;
2
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 16: No. for user font activation. This parameter has to do with VGA
; adapters which differ in certain respects. There are some which require
; 8 for the activation of a user font in an internal register and some
; which demand the figure 32. Try these two out. I'm afraid that if neither
; of these works, there is not much you can do. There may be the odd VGA
; adapter which is not 100% compatible with the industry standard and which
; does not support user defined fonts.
;
8
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 17: Name of User Font (leave line empty if none is desired)
;
LTXT_CHR.VGA
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 18: Use 50-line VGA display for database and text editing
;
no
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 19: Use split screen during database editing
;
no
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 20: First column for field display in full screen mode. The default
; is 18; the other legal values are 11 and 0.
;
11
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 21: Use grey instead of blue for background in text editor
; 1 = Yes; 0 = No
;
1
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 22: Use grey instead of blue for background in browse mode
; 1 = Yes; 0 = No
;
1
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 23: Colour combination for full screen editing of databases
;
;        1 = Blue background, field displayed in inverse
;        2 = Grey background, field displayed in black
;        3 = Grey background and field display
;
3
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 24: Use Word Wrap in text editor?
; 1 = Yes; 0 = No
;
1
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 27: Name of printer command file
; (Leave this line empty if you do not want to change the default, i.e.
; LASER.PCF for Laser Printers and DMP.PCF for Dot Matrix Printers)
;  
LASER.PCF
;
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 29: Print line numbers on left of page?
; 0 = No, 1 = Yes
;
0
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 40: Initial string to be sent to printer before print job
;
; (N.B. String must be entered as ASCII numbers, each separated a single
; blank. Maximum number of encoded bytes: 24!)
;
;
05 49
;
.................................
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 43: Load batch file on starting? (leave line empty for none)
;
GER_KEYB.BAT
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 44: File to load directly on pressing Ctrl-Tab
;
DBPAGE.$$$
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 45: Programme to load on pressing Alt-Tab
;
LTEXT
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 46: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file)
;
HELSINKI.CEF
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------;
; Item 47: Use monochrome display irrespective of video hardware?
;
yes
;
; End of File
;

Loading user font You can now load a user font from within the text editor of DbTxt by pressing Alt-Backspace The font file is chosen from a directory listing of files with the extension .VGA and then you choose a font code which is either 8 or 32 depending on your computer system (try out which one produces the right results, ie which leads to display of the user font). 

47.9	Working with report forms 

Alt-R Edit Report Recall that a report form is a set of instructions for the database manager about the manner in which the information contained in database fields is to be transferred to text so that it can be processed further with either a text editor (like Lexa Text) or a word processor (like WordPerfect or Microsoft Word). A report form typically contains a list of fields and some extraneous text the inclusion of which can be made dependent on whether the fields of a record examined during export actually contain information. 
	With the current command you can edit a report form with Report Database (see below) and then choose the altered form from a list within the database manager. The information concerning the generation of a report is realigned when you choose a report form, ie you can use different report forms with one and the same database during a single work session with DbTxt. 

The files generated both by DbStat/DbTxt and Report Database from databases by the use of report forms are always ASCII text files. Recall that such files do not allow for formatting information such as character attributes, page layout, etc. However it often occurs that the user of a database would like to have the data contained in it transferred to a word processing environment and to have characteristic items of information set with some particular item of formatting. Take as an example a bibliographical database. This can be maintained and manipulated with DbStat/DbTxt When you require data from it for output with your word processor you can export the contents of the records you require to an ASCII text file via an appropriate report form. Now with bibliographies which appear in printed form it is usual to have the titles of books, collections, series and journals set in italics. However, the specification of the attribute ‘italic’ is something which is specific to a particular word processor and as such cannot be determined by a report form used to convey data from a database environment to an ASCII text file. The solution to this is to use the report form WORD_PRO.REP instead of a regular one like MLA.REP or MOUTON.REP. This form works as follows. Before the contents of the field JOUR_COLL of the sample database BIBLIO.DBF it places a marker ASCII $243 and at the end of the field the matching marker ASCII $242. Now when you load the text file generated by DbStat/DbTxt into the word processor WordPerfect you can run the supplied macro ITALICS.WPM. This macro removes instances of ASCII 243 and 242 which enclose the title of a journal or a collection such as a festschrift but mark the enclosed text as italics as it does so. By these means the contents of the relevant field of the source database will turn up formatted for italics within WordPerfect The supplied macro can be edited with WordPerfect. Equivalent macros are possible for Microsoft Word and other popular word processors. Please note that it is not possible for the author to devise macros for different kinds of word processors as there is no way of knowing what type of macros users of the database managers would like. The aim here is to demonstrate the principle of realizing formatting attributes for an ASCII text within a word processor. 

47.10	System limitations 

In the present version of DbStat/DbTxt the maximum sizes of many parameters have been increased to cater for larger files and greater quantities of data. The following specifications are given as general information for the user. It is unlikely that the limits will be reached during actual work with the database manager. 

	Number of databases/texts				2 
	Maximum number of fields per record			80 
	Maximum number of fields in browse mode		48 
	Maximum length of a field				256 characters 
	Maximum length of a line in a text			4,096 characters 
	Maximum number of marked records			20,000 
	Maximum number of files in directory			360 
	Maximum length of a file path				56 characters 
	Maximum size of undo text buffer 			16,384 characters

 

48	Database Page 

Syntax:	dbpage 

Database Page can now sort a maximum of 10,000 pages in memory. An input file for sorting can be up to 320K in size. 

 

49	Database Translate 

In the initialization file for DbTrans you can now specify a number of additional items of information which increase the flexibility of the programme. These are listed briefly below; you should also consult the supplied initialization file dbtrans.ini. 

1)  File template for output text(s) Assuming that you wish to have different output files from input ones you should enter a valid file name or file template at this point. Bear in mind that for DbTrans to create a new output file from each input file it examines, the input and output file templates must contain a different name up to the dot and after this a single asterisk, i.e. input and output files can only differ in their endings. For instance if you enter NORM_INP.* as the file template for input files then something like NORM_OUT.* would be a sensible file template for the corresponding output file. In such a case if there was an input file NORM_INP.001 matching the file template then an output file NORM_OUT.001 would be created as a recipient of the normalised output. 

Note Leave this line empty if DbTrans is to overwrite files, i.e. alter existing files and not create new ones; an output file template must be different from an input file template otherwise the programme will abort. 

2)  Automatically overwrite any new files? To take the above example, suppose the output file NORM_OUT.001 already existed in the current directory, then DbTrans would abort rather than overwrite the file. This is a precautionary measure which can, however, be suspended if you set the current parameter to ‘yes’. Be careful when doing this as you might just overwrite an important file inadvertently. 

3)  Ignore Cocoa header? This option should be well known to users of other programmes. It simply causes DbTrans to skip a Cocoa header at the beginning of a file if one should be present. 

4)  User-defined comment This is a single character which is specified by the user at this point in the initialization file. Any line which starts with this character will then be ignored by DbTrans during its operation. A common character to use is a semi-colon. 

 

50	Database Delimited 

Syntax:	dbdel 

The idea behind Database Delimited is to allow users to view the contents of those files which represent databases in delimited text form. Any such file will have the extension .TXT. The programme shows you one record at a time by re-arranging the contents of a single line of the text file. 

There are only a few options available in Database Delimited These include navigation in the database with the usual keys and, most importantly, searching for contents. Note that Database Delimited has no access to structural information about the database so that no field names are displayed and searches cannot be specified for a specific field. The string is looked for in the entire record and displayed in inverse video if found. 

F1 Help Shows you a screenful of help on the aim and operation of Database Delimited. 

F5 File Allows you to load a new database text file without having to exit and restart the programme. 

F7 DOS Exits after user confirmation to DOS. 

Ctrl-F Find string This is the search function of Database Delimited. You enter a string while specifying one or both of two search parameters as you do so. The first parameter refers to whether case should be ignored during a search. The second determines whether the search string must occur in a record starting from the beginning of the first line or whether it can occur anywhere in the record. 

Ctrl-G Goto record number With this command you can jump to a particular record in the database text file by entering a valid number. 

Ctrl-V Lines Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

 

51	Database Chain 

Syntax:	dbchain OutputFile InputFileSpec 

This utility chains input databases (specified by a file template on the command line) to a composite database. Note that the information on what databases are combined is contained in the log file, created by DbChain, which consists of the name of each input database and its size. This log file has the same name as the output database of DbChain but the extension .L$$. 

	OutputFile 	Receiver database to accept new records 
	InputFileSpec	Donor database(s) to supply records to receiver 

The following is an example of a log file in which the names of three database chained together to an ouput database are listed. The number of records in each database is also noted so that DbUnchain can recover the original databases. 

	01_NBEAE.DBF		23 
	02_AUSTR.DBF		27 
	99_COLLN.DBF		7 

Notes The composite database for this operation must already exist as a shell database. If not no chaining is done. 
	The shell database used for the chain operation must have the same structure as each of the input database. If not, nothing happens, ie no databases are chained. 

 

52	Database UnChain 

Syntax:	dbunchai input_file 

The present programme extracts databases from a composite database which has been generated by DbChain (see previous section). input_file is the specification for this composite database. You must enter a valid file name and of course not use any wild-cards. 
	Note that the information on what databases were originally combined is contained in the log file, created by DbChain, which consists of the name of each input database and its size. This log file has the same name as the output database of DbChain but the extension .L$$. 

 

53	Field List 

Syntax:	fld_list DbfTemplate CollField YearField Delimiters OutputFile /o 

The purpose of this utility is to make a text file of one or two fields in a database. These fields are delimited optionally so that the output file can serve as input to the programme Database Bibliography which will extract the records matching the lines of the input file and store these in a separate database. 
	Here is an example of a typical application. You use Field List to create a list of names of editors of collections (stored in the field JOUR_COLL), adding the YEAR field as well in the sample database BIBLIO.DBF. The output text file can then be used as the input file to Database Bibliography to extract the full records of the collections from a global database COLLECT.DBF. Database Bibliography then stores these in a new database which can be merged with the original input database for Field List By these means one obtains the full references for all collections mentioned in a bibliographical database. 

The command line parameters for this programme are somewhat complicated as it needs quite an amount of information for its correct operation. Be careful to enter these properly as indicated below. 

	DbfTemplate		Template for the database to be examined, eg *.DBF 
	CollField		Number of primary field in database 
	YearField		Number of secondary field in database 
	Delimiters		Characters for start and end of line, eg «» 
	OutputFile		Text file which is to be outputted 

	/o	Overwrite exiting output file automatically 

Note If the second field is specified as 0 then it will be ignored. If no delimiters are required specify zero instead, ie 0. 

 

54	Report Database 

Syntax:	1)	repdb /b 
	2)	repdb /x 

54.1	Introduction 

The present programme allows you to design a form which determines the manner in which the data from fields of a database are transferred to a text which can then be edited with a text editor or word processor; it is the interface between databases and texts. 
	The report forms you design can be used by Report Database and also by DbTxt/DbStat and the Lexa Text database module. 
	To create a report form choose the second option Define/Alter Form and enter the relevant information: a name and values for all form parameters. Note that a database must be associated with a form (use the desktop option: Choose a Database). Then you may edit the form with Design Report Layout Here you may specify where field contents are to appear and add extra text at will. You can think of a report form as a user-designable page (or partial page) which is generated for each record of the database associated with the form when the reporting is done. 
	Remember to save a report form to disk to ensure that you have access to it another time via the first option on the desktop. To transfer data from database to text use the option Export the Database. 

54.2	Specifying form parameters 

The report form generator Report Database can produce highly accurate output from databases which are intended as repositories for bibliographical references. To this end a number of further parameters can be specified with Report Database which are of relevance when generating a bibliography in text form. 

	1:	Style sheet number 
	2:	Style sheet brackets 
	3:	Repeat name if author occurs twice? 
	4:	Use a text string instead of name repeat 
	5:	Number of fields to check to see if there is a name repeat 

The first of these parameters refers to a number between 1 and 9 which the user chooses in order to identify a particular style sheet. By a style sheet is meant here not so much an entirely different report form but one of a set of choices in a field of a database during transfer to text form. Consider a practical example. 

	EDITOR_2  O’Cuív {1:(ed.)}{2:1969.}  

This is an entry in the field EDITOR_2 which indicates that a particular reference is contained in a collection edited in this case by someone called O’Cuív. Now in a bibliography one may wish to have this reference appear as "O’Cuív (ed.)" or "O’Cuív 1969." followed by the page numbers for the contribution from the collection. If you specify a style sheet as 1 in Report Database then the form "O’Cuív (ed.)" is generated, for style sheet 2 you obtain "O’Cuív 1969." as seen in the following extract: 

	Jackson, Kenneth H. 
		1969	"The Irish language and the languages of the world", 
				in O’Cuív (ed.) 1-10. 
	Jackson, Kenneth H. 
		1969	"The Irish language and the languages of the world", 
				in O’Cuív 1969. 1-10. 

This leads to the second parameter listed above. It specifies the set of brackets which Report Database (or Database Text or Lexa Text, etc.) recognizes as containing a style sheet reference. By default all programmes assume that these brackets are braces though you may specify your own of course. 
	The third parameter can be turned off if you do not wish to have an author’s name repeated if he/she occurs twice in succession in a database. Here is an instance of what is meant. The repetition of the name was avoided by setting this parameter to zero. 

	Greene, David 
		1960	"Some problems of Irish phonology", Celtica 5: 103-106. 
		1973	"The growth of palatalization in Irish", Transactions of the 
	             Philological Society, 127-136. 

The fourth parameter can hold a string which you would like to use instead of a name repeat. In the above case none was used but you could specify something like "---" if you wish. 

The fifth parameter specifies how many fields are to be examined before a programme decides that a record is by the same author as the previous one. In the case of the supplied report forms the first 4 fields are examined. With the database BIBLIO.DBF this means that the fields SURNAME, FIRSTNAME, OTHERS, EDITOR_1 are examined. 
	There are two style sheets supplied with Report Database in the form of report form files. These are MLA.REP which transfers records from a database to a text while conforming to the Modern Languages Association style sheet. The file MOUTON.REP does the same but uses a format which is favoured by the Berlin publishers Mouton-de Gruyter. Needless to say these style sheets can be modified to suit users’ own needs. 
	See section 47.6 Working with report forms for details of interfacing databases and word processors. 

Date field format This option allows you to decide on how a date is to be entered into an output text at the point where this is demanded. There are a number of national date formats and one further one called Alphabetic Month by which is meant that a date appears with the month as a word preceded by the day as a digit and followed by the year as a four digit entry, eg 19941210 (so-called ASNI format) translates into 10 December 1994. 

54.3	Editing form options 

There are a number of additional options for the form editing level all of which are accessible through the enlarged picklist. There is also some context-sensitive help at this point (press F1). 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Ctrl-Q Set colours for display Toggles between white lettering on a blue background and black on a grey background. 

Ctrl-A Get character from ASCII chart Offers a chart of ASCII symbols from which you can select one by moving the highlighting and pressing Return. 

$173 Convert field to uppercase This specifier (inverted exclamation mark) will force the conversion of the contents of the relevant record field to uppercase. 

$20 Insert Carriage Return at this point Forces the output of a carriage return (ASCII 13 and 10) at this point. 

«FILE_NAME» Print file at this point in report form This option will cause a file whose name is entered here to be printed at this point during the generation of a report assuming that there is a match for the reference under FILE_NAME. 

54.4	Batch mode operation 

To run Report Database in the batch mode it is necessary to enter the /b switch on the DOS command line as in the following example. 

	repdb my_file.rep /b 

Previously it was sufficient to type the name of a setup file. However, to bring this programme into line with the others which can take an initialization file and which run in the batch mode, the /b switch is now mandatory. 
	There is a further switch which is of relevance here. This is indicated in the second syntax variant above. The /x switch causes report forms for all databases in the current directory to be generated. This is a powerful command and should be used with care. 

 

55	Combine Indexes 

Syntax:	comb_ind OutputFile ListFile /o 

This utility merges two indexes, creating a combined new one. These are indexes created by DbTxt of authors and the numbers of records which contain them (F11 = Number Index in Export Menu, see section 47.3.4 Generating index of numbers above). DbTxt makes use of the fields FILE_NAME and ABS_NO in the current database it is processing when index generation is activated. 

The command line parameters used by this programme have the following meanings. 

	OutputFile File to be created by combining indexes 
	ListFile         List of index files to be combined 
	/o               Overwrite exiting output file automatically 

 

56	Make Database Link 

Syntax:	mk_dbz database.seq 

This programme examines a file called DATABASE.SEQ which consists of a list of databases which are to be sequenced when a numerical index is generated. Make Database Link takes the name of the first database which is preceded by an asterisk and places the name of this in a file with the extension DBZ and procedes with the remaining names of databases in the DATABASE.SEQ file. By these means DbTxt knows what number to starting a numerically ascending index at: it simply consults the DBZ-file which matches the database being processed. This file must have been generated previously by Make Database Link. 
	The following is a sample DBZ-file which illustrates the operation of the current programme. 

Sequencing order for databases in a given directory 

Note: The programme MK_DBZ.EXE looks for the first line which begins with an asterisk. Then it places the database name in a .DBZ-file for the following database and so on until the last database name is reached. 

The .DBZ-files are used by DbTxt to determine the number of records of a previous database (named in the .DBZ-file) and then uses this number plus 1 as the starting number for the ABS_NO field of the current database when regenerating a document .DBD-file. There is no overwrite warning before making a .DBZ-file. 

This is also used when DbTxt is called with the switch /DX (regenerate all document files). 

A file name with full path which begins with a tilde and is placed before the first database and has the extension .$NO is a small file with the number of the last DBD-file generated for the directory specified in the path of this file. DbTxt then takes this number and uses it as the beginning for the first DBD-file to be generated in the current directory. 

Example: 

/*   	~F:\DBS\IR_ENG\IR_ENG.$NO		
contains say 967 then 967 + 1 is the first number used for the first DBD-file 
	in the current directory say 

	F:\DBS\IR_ENG\ULSTER  */ 

The manner of entering database names seen below must be strictly observed. 

*01_NOMEN.DBF	-> 

02_BIBLI.DBF		-> 

03_OVERV.DBF	-> 

04_SURVE.DBF	-> 

05_INDIV.DBF		-> 

06_REMAR.DBF	-> 

07_VARIE.DBF	-> 

08_MEDIE.DBF	-> 

09_FORTH.DBF	-> 

10_EARLY.DBF	-> 

11_SHERI.DBF	-> 

12_BROGU.DBF	-> 

# 

 

57	Corpus Manager 

Syntax:	1)	cm 
	2)	cm ini_file 

A few enhancements have been added to the corpus manager of the Lexa suite. The most important of all is the change in status as indicated above. The remaining alterations concern the initialization file and on-line viewing of texts. 

Enhanced commands when viewing text database The on-line help window when viewing a text is now a picklist with which you can activate a command by moving the highlight bar and pressing Return. 

Ctrl-V Toggle 25/50 line display Assuming that the computer you are using has a VGA video adapter you can switch between a display with 50 lines and one with 25 lines. Note that if a customized font has been loaded then this is lost on moving to the 50-line display and will not be reinstated on reverting to 25 lines again. 

Enhancements to initialization file 

; 13: Name of batch file to execute on start of programme 
; 
GER_KEYB.BAT 
; 
; 14: Name of sorting and search file (.CEF file) 
; 
HELSINKI.CEF 
; 
; End of File 

 

58	Corpus Manager Editor 

Syntax:	1)	cme file_name /p /i /m /o 
	2)	cme file_name search_string /s 

Corpus Manager Editor is both a reduced version of the text editor Lexa Text and a special programme with features not found in others. It replaces TinyText in older versions of the Lexa suite. Because of this some of the key settings of the older programme have been reassigned within the newer one where the previous key settings have received different values. 

58.1	Command line options 

/o	Jump to file offset. This option is used internally by Corpus Manager to load a corpus with the text editor and jump to a specific section. The numerical reference which is passed to the editor is the distance of the section to be located from the beginning of the file. 

/m    Forces the programme to operate in monochrome mode, something which is       useful on notebooks with a black and white VGA display. 

/p    This switch causes the previous file to be loaded and the cursor to jump to the line at which editing finished. Here the editor uses a small text file CME.LOG which it generates every time a work session is terminated. 

/i    Here one can force Corpus Manager Editor to accept values for many of its internal parameters from an initialization file. You can force initialization with a customized file if you enter a name after this switch as in the following example. 

	cme /i-my_file.ini 

The second syntax variant causes a file (file_name) to be loaded and a search for search_string to be started with possible consideration of case (/s) as in: 

	cme my_file.txt "Theoretical Phonology" /s 

58.2	Text database management 

In the menu system of the text editor there is a picklist, the last on the right, which is concerned with the management of text databases (hence the abbreviated heading TDB). There are a number of commands associated with text databases which users should be aware of. The keys used for these functions in TinyText are indicated in brackets at the end of each line. 

	Ctrl-C		Check database integrity       ( F2 ) 
	Ctrl-R 		Remove one marker               ( F3 ) 
	Ctrl-M 	Delete all markers                 ( Shift-F3 ) 
	Ctrl-1,2,3	Find level 1,2,3 marker         ( F8, Shift-F8, Ctrl-F8 ) 

58.3	Block processing options 

Discontinuous marking of text Corpus Manager Editor has an unusual feature in block processing which may be of interest to users, not only in the management of text corpora. This is that it is possible to discontinuously mark lines in a text. 

	F1		Mark a single line 
	F8		Buffer lines 
	Shift-F8	Unmark lines 
	Ctrl-F8		Delete lines 
	Alt-F8		Comment out marked lines 
	Ctrl-F4		Move lines 
	Alt-F10	Disksave blocked lines 
	Alt-1,2,3	Insert level 1,2,3 marker at beginning and end of block 

 

59	General-purpose text editor 

In the file manager, in the pattern matcher and in the batch editor of the Lexa suite there is a general-purpose text editor integrated. The editing module is the same in all instances so that only one description is necessary which is what is offered below. No detailed discussion is offered here as the commands are very similar to those of Lexa Text or the text editor within the database manager (on both see above). 

	Shift-Tab		Activate picklist 
	F1			Help screen 
	Alt-Esc			Toggle User Font 
	F3			Store/Retrieve Line 
	Ctrl-F3			Formatting 
	F4			Mark Block 
	Alt-F3			Attribute codes 
	F5			New File 
	Shift-F6		Copy Previous Line 
	Alt-F7, Alt-Q		Exit 
	F9			Show Environment 
	Ctrl-F9			Standard Directory 
	F10			Save Text 
	Shift-F10		Get Block 
	Ctrl-F12		Direct Save 
	Ctrl-Home		Go to Line Number # 
	Grey Minus,Plus	Up,Down 1/2 Page 
	[Ctrl-]PgUp,PgDn	Up,Down a Page/Beginning,End of Text 
	Ctrl-T			Set Tab Width 
	Ctrl-R			Delete Word to Right 
	Ctrl-End		Delete to Line End 
	Ctrl-L			Remove Line 
	Ctrl-Q			Switch Colours 
	Ctrl-F			Find String 
	Ctrl-N			Next Find 
	Ctrl-E			Exchange strings 
	Ctrl-A			Ascii Characters 
	Ctrl-V			Video Font 
	Ctrl-J			User Font 
	Ctrl-Zero		Set cursor shape 
	Escape			Cancel any operation 

Warning With this editor a loaded file remains in the text area even when you leave the editor and return to the previous level of the programme which you are working from. You are asked, however, if you wish to save the text file before exiting the editing level. This question should be treated seriously because you are not warned about any altered file in the text area when you exit to DOS from the calling programme, eg Lexa Pat, so that you might lose valuable data if you do not return to the text editor and save this before finishing a work session with the calling programme. 

 

Technical notes 

The Lexa suite is written in C++ and has been compiled using the Borland C++ compiler, version 4.2 which can generate protected mode applications. 
	To start a protected mode application from DOS about 80K of system memory must be available. This means that the main programme Lexa or an editor like Lexa Text can be started from within a normal (ie real-mode) DOS application as long as this amount of memory is still free which is usually the case. Calling one protected mode application from within another does not present any difficulties as there will under all normal circumstances be sufficient physical memory available for a further programme call. 
	In a few cases minor bugs have been fixed. Users who have experienced difficulties with data handling by the Lexa programmes are asked to contact the author via email at the following address: r.hickey@uni-essen.de. 

 

Glossary 

Note This glossary contains a few selected terms which are either not included in the glossaries in the three volumes of Lexa documentation already published or which are regarded as requiring further clarification. 

Alt-Return A dedicated key combination in the Lexa suite which is used in the database manager and the text editor to activate the database and text file management windows respectively. 

ASCII chart A table which is displayed for the user, for instance on pressing Ctrl-A when editing an input line. It contains the 256 symbols of the IBM extended ASCII character set. Note that the symbols under numerical value 32 cannot normally be processed by a word processor and may have some special function within a programme apart from a putative textual value. The symbols above 128 may be problematical in some cases, eg when transferring data between computers. 

Batch mode An operating mode in which a programme requires no input from the user apart from the command line entry which actually starts the programme. This mode is usually activated by entering the switch /b (= batch) on the DOS command line. The information necessary for the operation of a programme in this mode must be gleaned from an initialization file either default or user-specified. 

Buffer A part of memory used for temporary storage (see entry on clipboard). 

CEF-file Here one is dealing with a file which specifies the order of characters for sorting operations and furthermore whether, for both sorting and searching, certain characters are to be regarded as identical (see discussion in 2 Sorting and searching above). CEF stands for ‘Correspondence-Equivalence-File’. It is often referred to within a programme simply as a sorting file. 

CFG-file Another term for a setup file which is not user-editable. CFG stands for ‘ConFiGuration’. 

Clipboard An area of system memory which can be used as a temporary buffer to which data can be written and from which it can be retrieved easily without exiting the programme currently running. 

Command line This is the line which you type on the DOS level when you wish to start a programme (unless you are running Microsoft Windows in which case you click an icon with the mouse cursor). A command line may consist of a bare programme name like ltext or this plus some additional information as in ltext my_file.txt You execute a command line entry by pressing the Return key. 

Corpus processing A collective term for all the processing tasks carried out on the files which comprise a corpus. 

Data directory A directory in which data is stored. Normally your enter this directory to process some file(s) in it. The programme you require to do this is accessed via the DOS path variable from the start-up file AUTOEXEC.BAT. 

Database A file type in which data in arranged in a structure which consists of fields with a specified name, length and type. The entire database consists of a number of such structures which are termed records This type of organization facilitates the accurate retrieval of information and the selective extraction of data. 

Dedicated keys Any set of keys or key combinations which have a consistent purpose within a programme or group of programmes. For instance within the Lexa suite in a directory listing the following keys always have the following values: F4 log in new drive, Shift-F4 specify new file template, F8 load directory manager in order to change directory or create a new one. 

DOS shell A term for a duplicate of the operating system which can be loaded from within a programme of the Lexa group. In effect you are transferred to DOS on loading a shell. Dedicated key in Lexa suite: Ctrl-F1. 

DOS command Any entry made by the user on an input line within a programme of the Lexa group and which is passed on to the operating system for execution. This can be the name of some programme (eg ltext) or that of a command of the operating system itself (e.g. dir /p). Dedicated key in Lexa suite: Shift-F1. 

DOS Protected Mode An operating mode for programmes on a personal computer running under the system MS-DOS. This is in distinct contrast to the DOS Real Mode. Essentially the protected mode is a means of accessing the entire physical memory of a computer, say 8MB, from within a single programme and thus of overcoming the former upper limit of 640K. For the user the advantage of this mode is that there is ample system memory available for loading large texts. 

Environment A collective term for a number of parameters which determine the external conditions under which a programme runs. This includes such references as the current directory, the drive used, the version of the operating system, etc. Dedicated key in Lexa suite: F9. 

File manager A type of programme which is used for managing files but not for processing them. Such programmes carry out typical operations like copying, moving, deleting or renaming files. The file manager of the Lexa suite is Lexa File which also includes directory management options. 

File template This is a specification which is passed on to DOS for matching, for instance when in a directory listing. For instance entering *.TXT will list all files which have the extension .TXT. There are two legal wild-cards in DOS the question mark ? which stands for a single non-specified character and the asterisk * which stands for more than one. The template *.* encompasses all files. In the programmes of the Lexa suite you can enter a file template by pressing Shift-F4 Additionally specifications for searches in retrieval programmes like Lexa Pat or in a lemma definition file for Lexa itself can include wild-cards. 

File chaining A process whereby files are linked to each other as with a chain. Usually markers are inserted at the points where one file ends and the next begins (eg in Lexa Chain). If this is not the case then a log file is created (as with DbChain) so that the individual files can be re-constructed later. 

File list Similar to a form list (see following entry) but this time consisting of a list of file names again for the same reason, ie because the files in question cannot be represented by a file template. 

Form list A list of forms (words or strings) which is used for some retrieval operation, eg in Lexa Pat The advantage here is that forms can be listed which could not be encompassed by using a form template, eg morph* will encompass morpheme, morph, morphology, etc. but the word forms semantics, pragmatics, textlinguistics can only be sensibly accessed via a form list as the form template *ics would be far too general. 

Hard carriage return A special character (ASCII 13) which in a word processor signals the end of a paragraph. Usually some other character like line feed (ASCII 10) or the so-called soft carriage return (ASCII 141 ì, ie 13 + 128) is used to indicate the end of a line within a paragraph, ie in a block of text which can be word-wrapped. 

Home directory The directory in which a programme is located. It is of course not usually the directory in which data is stored, indeed this should be avoided at all costs. A programme can be accessed in its home directory by specifying the latter in the DOS path variable (an item in the start-up file AUTOEXEC.BAT, consult your DOS documentation for details of this). 

Index A special file, usually a text file, which contains information in sorted order on the units of some other file, eg a database and which can be used for fast searching and sorted display. 

INI-file This is a small ASCII text file which is read by one of the major programmes of the Lexa group on starting. The values for many parameters of the programme in question are gained from this file and used for the subsequent work session. Note that an initialization file must match the programme which consults it exactly. If not the programme will behave erratically. 
	The term setup file is used almost synonymously in the current documentation. However a setup file is not necessarily user-editable. For instance with Lexa Context and Lexa Pat the parameters for programme execution are specified interactively on the desktop and can then be stored to a setup file by saving the programme configuaration from the desktop. This file cannot be edited directly, however. 

Key combination A key setting which consists of more than one key, usually two. it is realised by pressing a first key, a so-called status key, followed by another key (an alphabetic or function key) which is struck while the first key is still depressed (this fact is essential to the functioning of a key combination). The status keys of the PC keyboard are: Shift, Ctrl, Alt and typical key combinations would be: Shift-F1, Ctrl-F, Alt-0. 

Picklist A list of options shown in a pop-up window. You can move a highlight bar within the list and press Return to execute the particular option. Pressing Escape hides the window without any action being taken. 

Report form A special file which contains information on how the contents of a database are to be transferred to a text environment, eg on which fields are exported and how they are arranged and whether extraneous text is to be included in the output file. The programme which achieves this in the Lexa group is Report Database. 

Switch An item of information on the command line of DOS which consists of a forward slash / and a letter afterwards and which causes a programme to load in a particular manner, e.g. lf /m will cause the file manager Lexa File to load in the monochrome mode. 

Text file Any file which consists of a series of lines each of which is terminated by two special characters, carriage return (ASCII 13) and line feed (ASCII 10). A text file is often termed an ASCII file or a DOS file. In all cases there is no formatting information included which cannot be treated as simple text or which can only be read by a word processor. 

Toggle Any key which inverts a state, eg Ctrl-V which changes 25-line display into 50-line display or vice versa depending on the initial state. 

User evaluation A procedure whereby the user decides whether a find made by an information retrieval programme is genuine in his/her interpretation of it. The retrieval programmes of the Lexa suite allow the user to decide on whether to accept finds returned by the system or not. 

VGA mode On any computer with a VGA video adapter one can display either 25 or 50 lines on the screen in the non-graphic mode (the so-called character-oriented mode). With most of the Lexa programmes you can switch between these modes usually by pressing Ctrl-V A VGA adapter usually displays colour but on notebooks and laptops the display may be monochrome. 

White space A general term for blanks and tabs.