[200,200] TAB: A low-overhead data management system.

This account contains files for building a small-scale, low-overhead data
maintenance system.  

Submitted by:

	R. N. Stillwell
	Institute for Lipid Research
	Baylor College of Medicine
	Houston, Texas 77030
	
(who would be glad to receive comments, suggestions, bug fixes, etc., but
who promises no support whatever).

Literature reference:

	R. N. Stillwell.  A low-overhead laboratory data management system
	for the PDP11.  Comput. Biomed. Res., 15, 29-38(1982).

Abstract:

      These programs provide a small,  relatively  unsophisticated  data
 base  management  system for the PDP11 in which the user can easily de-
 fine and manipulate his own data tables without  requiring  the  assis-
 tance  of a programmer.  Data tables are expected to be fairly small (a
 few thousand records at most), and organized simply as arrays  of  rows
 and  columns.   A table will contain all the information required for a
 given project;  for example, plasma drug levels for a  group  of  pati-
 ents.   Each  row of the table constitutes a record, and is referred to
 by its row number.  Each column in the table represents  a  data  field
 relating  to  the  sample;   for  example,  the  patient name, hospital
 number, nortriptyline level, imipramine level, etc.  One of the  tasks,
 an interpreter, provides a means of writing specialized applications.

      Facilities provided by this system are:

      1.  To define a table, or modify the format of an existing table.

      2.  To edit a table, correcting data and entering new data.

      3.  To list an entire table or selected parts of a table.

      4.  To generate a printable report file including standard text,
          values from one or more tables, and user-entered or computed
          values; to update tables, invoke subsidiary tasks, and perform
          general arithmetic and character-string operations.

      5.  To extract a subtable consisting of a set of contiguous rows
          from a table.

      6.  To merge two tables having the same number of columns and the
          same lengths of each column.

      7.  To convert a table to a sequential file for transfer to a
          different system, and to restore the table from the sequential
          file.



Distribution:

All source files required to build the tables programs are provided;
languages used are Macro and Flecs.  An object library and command files
to build the Flecs preprocessor are also provided.

Both IAS and RSX-11M versions are provided.  Files in this account are:

    README.1ST		This file.
    INSTALL.DOC		Installation documentation. Print this file next.
    USERGUIDE.RNO	User manual for these programs.
    *.BIS		Batch files for IAS installation and testing.
    *.CMD		IAS command files.
    *.RSX		RSX-11M command files.
    *.TKB		RSX-11M taskbuilder indirect files.
    FIXLIB.TEC		TECO macro to edit files for name of resident library.
    *.FLX		Flecs source files.
    *.MAC		MACRO source files.
    *.MAS		Master table listing files for testing.
    RPTTAB.ODL		Overlay descriptor file for RPTTAB (IAS).
    RPTTAB.ODM		ditto for RSX-11M.
    FLECS.OLB		Flecs object library.
    *.RPI		Test files for RPTTAB.

Acknowledgements:

	NIH Grants GM-13901 and GM-26611 for support.
	Terry Bayer for the Flecs language and preprocessor.
	Mark Lewis for the IAS timesharing interface and the DCL interface
	to Flecs.
	Phil Cannon for the Fortran interface to FCS.
	My colleagues for suggestions and stimulation ("When will I be able
	   to ...?")

