
                                 dBTAB 1.00
                             Copyright (c) 1997
                              by Simone Govoni

  Undergraduated Computer Science student at University of Bologna (ITALY)
                         E-mail: govoni@cs.unibo.it
            Home Page: http://www.cs.unibo.it/~govoni/index.html


1. WHY dBTAB?

dBTAB is a utility written to solve a common problem: inclusion of DBF files
into word processor's documents, like those produced with Word or
Wordperfect.
dBTAB reads a DBF file (created with dBASE III+ or Clipper) and writes an
ASCII file with field contents delimited with TAB characters. This file can
be easily converted into a table by a feature that many word processors
have: making a table from a TAB delimited file (WinWord 6.0 and Wordperfect
5.1 surely have this capability). In this way you don't have to take care of
alignment problems arising when printing fixed format files with
proportional fonts.

2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

dBTAB can be executed on every computer equipped with DOS 3.0 or higher.
Using and old PC with an 8088 CPU and 256 KB of RAM you should have no
problems. If your PC can execute dBASE III+ or Clipper, you can surely make
dBTAB run on it.

3. USAGE

dBTAB is very easy to use. The command line is:

    DBTAB [switches] dbffile[.dbf] [txtfile[.txt]]

where square brackets means an optional argument. dbffile is the name of the
DBF file to read (.dbf is the default extension), while txtfile is the name
of the file to create (.txt is the default extension). If txtfile already
exists it WILL BE OVERWRITTEN WITHOUT CONFIRM. If the user doesn't specify a
name for the txtfile, dBTAB will send the output to standard output. Writing
DBTAB /h at the DOS prompt gives you a summary of recognized switches. Here
follow a more detailed explanation:

/d	Records marked as deleted are excluded from the ASCII report.

/f	With this switch you can specify which fields should appear in the
        output (default: all). After /f you must put a comma delimited list
        of field numbers: only these fields will be inserted in the ASCII
        report. The space between /f and the list is not mandatory.
        Examples:

       	dbtab /f1,3 cars.dbf		Only the first and the third fields
        				will be printed.
        dbtab /f cars.dbf		Error: missing field list.
        dbtab cars.dbf			All fields will be printed.

        Wrong field numbers (to high, to low, not numeric) are ignored and
        don't stop the execution. To get the field numbers the /s option can
        be used.

/s	Display the structure (the field list) of the DBF file.

dBTAB is case sensitive about the switch list; you can use /f but not /F.
Date type fields are printed using the local format as set with the COUNTRY
entry in the CONFIG.SYS file (default is US format) and using the correct
separators.

4. LIMITATIONS

I've tested dBTAB only with DBF files produced by Clipper and dBASE III+. It
can't process memo fields. The only field types recognized are: character,
numeric, logical and date.
dBTAB doesn't know how handle index files (those with extensions like NDX
and NTX).

5. FEEDBACK & SUPPORT

If you have suggestions, bugs notifications or any other kind of complaint,
please drop me an e-mail. If you like the program feel free to le me know
about this by sending me an e-mail or giving a look at my home page.
My e-mail address will be valid until last months of 1998.

6. LICENSE

dBTAB 1.00 is copyrighted freeware. You may use it at home, at the office or
in any government institution. You may give it to your friends as long as
you don't ask money for it. You can't sell it. dBTAB 1.00 may be included in
freeware and shareware software collections.
The author is not responsable for any damage caused by bugs in the software
or improper use of the program.
The only thing granted about dBTAB is that it take some space on your
hard-disk.

7. REVISION HISTORY

1.00	First public released version.
