A Review of askSam (DOS and Windows)

by Roland Tessein

Republisher with Permission from The Home Reckoner

The Official Newsletter of the Central Jersey Computer Club

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     I'm in love.  There have been few computer programs that can generate this response from me.  This especially is true as we have moved into the Windows generation.  I now usually cringe when I begin to install a new program. "What chaos will it cause before I finally get it to do what I want done.  And what will it prevent me from doing that I had no trouble doing before." You know the feeling.

     But it is difficult.  Not the program, though it does require a little attention (at least at first) to learning it.  Of course, most of us don't mind being taught, as long as the manuals are clear and complete and the learning curve doesn't require the equivalent of a Master's Degree enrollment.  AS is tolerant in this respect, though honestly, if you want to wring from this program all of its goodies, you will want to curl up with its references and soak in the clearly expressed instructional material.  What is difficult -- is defining askSam.

     Rather than doing this generally, allow me to define it from my perspective.  I am a researcher who needs randomly entered notes quickly organized so that I can use them.  I use no database program for informational entry.  I can spend days collecting desultory morsels of data that cause masse are meaningless.  There generally are too many diversely distributed informational elements to readily correlate the data without significant effort.

     What I needed was something that could look upon my pile of disorganized notes, miraculously understand what went with what and export sections relative to keywords and phrases.  The output would be a sort of fully annotated index (if such a document description ever existed).  That phrase may be original, but then again, so is AS' ability to fulfill it.  It truly gave me my "fully annotated index."

     This is even more amazing, when you recall that I originally hadn't entered my mound of data in any organized way.  There were no traditional database fields and records for AS to use as guides.  It virtually created its own fields on the fly.  If this wasn't remarkable in itself, it then had to decide how much to place in the outputted extraction so that the sorted field made sense.  I gave it very little help.

     Open a repository file for AS to work, import your document files with disorganized notes, give it some rudimentary guidance (e.g. keyword or words and any Boolean ramifications, how you want the output file to appears, etc.), then wait.  It performs amazingly fast, considering what it has to do.

     Now my notes mean something.  And it really didn't involve that much effort.  In fact, I only ran into one unresolvable learning dead end (how to install a mouse under DOS, though I don't know why I spent so much time trying to understand that, since you don't need it under DOS and I anyway dislike using the little darn rodents, even under Windows).

     The User's guide is instructional.  The Reference source provides a listing of details about commends, menus, etc.  And that's the way it used to be -- and still should be.

     The Windows version provides the Windows stuff (copy and pasting, etc.), more glitz and automates many commands via menus, etc, what the DOS version demands as semi-programming language input.  For example, to sort under DOS, you must enter the word "sort" and the keyword on which to sort, etc..  Put all this inside curly brackets.  This is what some complained was "programming" language? I understand the next Windows version will also allow this DOS-version feature, so it obviously has value and certainly isn't traumatic for a non-programmer to use or learn.

     Yes, the Windows version (oriented for Windows 3.x, but runnable under WIN95) seems to be a bit more capable, but I found that the last (currently available) DOS version was more than adequate, took up far less space and gave me much more control over what I wanted done.

     It even comes with a Desqview DVP file for direct inclusion and working under that wonderful DOS multitasker (in which I live when computing).  This means I easily can refer back and forth between files (normally the original master and outputted one) without leaving whatever step I am in within askSam.

     You can run AS as another type of database management program.  It does well for those traditional chores, and you will find that template changes and record additions can be made on the fly without disturbing what you have already done.  It also can index, conduct some highly complex sorts, outputs to screen, printer or disk files and even can double as a word processor.  You can use it to receive original data entry or import whole clumps of existing data (remember, neither the existing data nor the newly entered data needs to be organized or even placed in fields in order later to be workable).

     The Windows version seems to require less manual reading, but the DOS version has so many advantages for those still in DOS that I wouldn't regard the Windows version as absolutely necessary.  In fact, having looked at both, I believe I will revert to the DOS version.

     Sure, you may not have HTML support in the DOS version, there are nice import document filters for the Windows version, but both still work nicely with free form text and don't take up that much room (would you believe a contemporary, fully functioning comprehensive program with only two installation disks?).

     See the askSam homepage for more specifics (http://www.asksam.com/).  AS works with files in traditional DBM formats. But if your concern is organizing and extracting from large mounds of data, especially in nothing imagining any sort of structure, this definitely should be your database management program (DOS or Windows).

Roland Tessein

The Home Reckoner

The Official Newsletter of the Central Jersey Computer Club