New e-book tutorial on fields.awk flat-file database

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cabbie0
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu 23 Jun 2016, 05:19
Location: British Columbia, Canada

New e-book tutorial on fields.awk flat-file database

#1 Post by cabbie0 »

Hey Puppy Linux users,

It's been a while since you've been commenting on the fields.awk database script. If anyone is interested in pursuing this subject in greater depth, I have just published a book tutorial on the latest version which some of you might enjoy. At the moment it's available at Lulu.com's site, as an "epub" format e-book.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ian-forsyth/fi ... 87250.html

Cheers,
Ian Forsyth

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#2 Post by musher0 »

Hello Ian.

Good to hear from you!

I have a very tight budget ATM, but I'll make a note of purchasing your
book as soon as things get getter.

BFN.
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

cabbie0
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu 23 Jun 2016, 05:19
Location: British Columbia, Canada

#3 Post by cabbie0 »

Hello Christian :)

I hope you can manage to download a copy eventually. It has come a long way since the early version. There are several new modules, including one for editing/printing/deleting any files saved to from the read module, and one for encrypting data-files using the command-utility "ccrypt".

The read_from module has been modified to allow print-to-file, as well as selective field-filtering of output. That was originally done with a clunky grep approach that required defining how many fields to list and typing in the field names. But the new approach is using associative arrays and only requires a list of comma-separated numbers representing the field-numbers desired for output.

There is also a section on bold/color highlighting, not just for the Main Selections window but also for the output from read_from searches. Also an appendix on debugging issues.

I think you'd enjoy the read.

Take care.
Ian

cabbie0
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu 23 Jun 2016, 05:19
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Update, fields.awk

#4 Post by cabbie0 »

Hey, musher

Just to let you know I've uploaded the latest fields.awk to SourceForge so it has its own download page now.
You can find it at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fields-awk/
Also, the ebook is now available on both iBooks and Barnes&Noble in addition to the Lulu site. The Barnes&Noble (nook) site is interesting because it includes a free read of the Introduction section:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fields ... 1775310303

However, the sourceforge code is free of course. The zip file contains the recent code, the GPL license text, and a README file. There's also an icon .png file to download if anyone wants. Check it out; let the other puppies know :)

Cheers,
Ian

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