Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 08:31:11 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Cleaning Up Control Characters

2 Messages, 68 Lines
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From: Junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu (Peter D. Junger)
Subject: Re: Cleaning up control characters

As I understand it, CITEREAD will only work on files that have VT100 _escape
sequences_ that need to be filtered out.  It is written to clear out the
computer droppings from a file downloaded from a NOTIS electronic catalogue.

I have written a program, that I am still testing, intended to do the same
thing.  It will however also filter out control characters even if there are
no escape codes present.  My program attempts to--and seems to do a pretty
good job of--creating an ASCII file that contains snapshots of the screens
that appear when one records a session with INNOPAC or NOTIS.  I am sure
that there are better filters if just wants to get rid of control
characters.  Thus my program (which I call PACFIX) pads or truncates all
lines so that they are exactly eighty characters long.

If anyone would like to do some beta-testing of PACFIX, just send me a
message and I will tell you how to get a copy.

Peter D. Junger

Case Western Reserve University Law School, Cleveland, OH
Internet:  JUNGER@SAMSARA.LAW.CWRU.Edu -- Bitnet:  JUNGER@CWRU
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From: "Clyde W. Grotophorst"  <WALLYG%fen1.gmu.edu@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>
Subject:  CiteRead/Control Chars/NOTIS etc.

Don Baker at Northern Arizona mentioned one of my programs, CITEREAD,
which cleans up Kermit log files (or any log file that preserves
ANSI codes).  He's right, it's freeware, but the ftp address
had a typo.  The correct address is:

gmuvax2.gmu.edu   (the 2 was omitted...gmuvax is another machine)

the directory is, as mentioned, library

While I'm on the subject of OPAC logs, I recently finished another
program (MAKEBIX) which supports CD-ROM download imports (ERIC,
PsycInfo, ABI/Inform, Medline and Agricola) into BIBL (a SHAREWARE
library management package).  MakeBix also has the ability to read a
file of screen dumps from a NOTIS opac session and create a file
which BIBL accepts for ASCII import.

I mention that here because you don't need to be a BIBL user
to find a possible use for MakeBix.  The utility creates an
ASCII file with 2 character labels that can be imported into
other database packages as well. For example, with your word
processor's find & replace function, you could convert the
BIX file that MakeBix creates into one that will import into
ProCite or some other package. The tough part (wrapping long
titles, grabbing multiple screens of data, etc.) has been done
by MakeBix...

MAKEBIX.ZIP is also available via ftp from gmuvax2.gmu.edu.  There
are a few other files there as well--a KWIC/KWOC indexing package
(ZKWIK14.ZIP); BIBL (BIBL75.ZIP);BIBL/NET (for Novell) BIBNET24.ZIP;
InfoPop (InfPop22.zip) and CDMenu (CDMENU20.ZIP).  With the
exception of BIBL and BIBL/NET (which are shareware), the rest of the
files may be freely copied, used, and/or distributed.

Clyde W. Grotophorst                              voice: 703 993-2239
Associate Librarian/Automated Systems               bbs: 703 993-2219
George Mason University                    email: wallyg@fen1.gmu.edu
Fairfax, Virginia 22030                               CIS: 70404,3376
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU