Read Me

README.TXT

This note applies to all products provided under the 'Basic-Code' base.
It includes :

Nad         - Name and address system

Order Entry - Basic OE system in use in the late 70's before the internet
              where orders are taken over the telephone.

IY          - Original Inventory  / Stock Control from around 1979/80.
              The (ACAS) Cobol version is Stock Control that made use of
              very few of the design elements from this version.

Payroll     - Designed for the American market. Due to the design of tables
              for deductions and additions etc it can be used today with
              some tweaks but will still need work for today's USA standards.
              This product was never used for ACAS as it was totally rewritten
              for the UK market but that version has not been release as
              Open Source due to the maintenance requirements over any time
              period to match in with UK taxation requirements etc.

The code for these was written to use CBASIC in a CPM platform.
The copyright and usage notices as used within the ACAS system, applies
to all these supplied. There is needless to say, no guarantees that it will
do as specified or documented but should do.

Documentation : These are supplied in the original format for the WP used at
the time, needless to say the WP is no longer available but used one under
CPM and MPM. Note that only the Payroll system has a manual set available and
is included under the doc folder. The other three do not as I cannot find them.

If you decide to use a Basic compiler such as the Free Basic Compiler you will
need to make a number of changes to this code to match with what the FBC
accepts.

You should start with the include files that are small blocks of common code
that is used in many of the source files. Having converted them over start
with the largest sources by size of file along with a notebook to record code
that needs changes and record said changes. After a while you should be able to
make up some automatic replace scripts depending on the text editor you are
using as this will cut down on the amount of time required for these changes
but it will not cover all the changes required.

Some of these source file includes usage of files where the path is specified
including a drive letter such as 'B:/' etc these need to be removed so it work
with the current directory, at least initially.

In addition, in order to use the data within the ACAS system such as
IRS or General, Invoicing etc, you should make use of the FH (File Handler)
modules found in the common source directory as these are converted to C code
which can be read from most Basic compiled programs.

Another option is to just convert these programs to Cobol and again use the
F.H modules that in turn will call a DAL (Data Access Layer) module that will
process any Mysql or Mariadb database tables. Note that there is one FH and one
DAL for each Cobol ISAM (Indexed Sequential) file used in ACAS v3.02 onwards.

The copyright notices still apply, in that Applewood Computers and myself, so
remains as the holders but it is available to use by anyone for their own usage.

For commercial use contact me using the email address below with your proposed
plans and requirements.

Good luck.

Vincent Coen
August 2023.
Hatfield, UK
vbcoen@gmail.com