@CB Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.00 Plant Information System by Robert W. Boufford Ferris State College Ornamental Horticulture Technology program Department of Biological Sciences Big Rapids, MI 49307 (C) Copyright, 1985,86 by Robert W. Boufford All Rights Reserved Please share unmodified copies of the diskette containing a copy of this manual (not a printed copy) with others in the landscape industry. If you find the Landscape Plant Manager useful in your work, we would appreciate a tax deductible donation to the OHT program. See Registering near the end of this manual. Landscape Plant Manager Table of Contents Introduction 1 Equipment Requirements 2 Getting Started 3 LPM Menus and Windows 4 Using This Manual 7 Tutorial 8 Ending a work session 8 Creating a new file set 8 Adding plants to a file 9 Closing a file set 15 Opening an exiting file set 15 Searching for plants by name 16 Searching for plants by criteria 19 Modifying plant records 24 Quitting the Landscape Plant Manager 26 Reference 28 Menus 28 Help Menu 29 File 29 Record 29 Search 29 About LPM, FSC and OHT 29 File Menu 30 New 30 Open 31 Close 31 Print 32 Info 33 Quit 35 Record Menu 36 Add 36 Modify 37 Delete 37 Search Menu 39 Scientific Name 39 Common Name 40 Criteria 40 Cursor Control Keys Assignments 43 Managing Landscape Plant Manager Files 45 Errors, Problems and Bugs 46 LPM Alert Box Messages 46 PC-DOS/MS-DOS Error Message 49 Bugs 50 Landscape Plant Manager Program Information 51 Registering 52 User supported software concept 52 Where your money goes 52 Future plans, goals and ideas 53 Why Should I Pay? 53 Registration Specifics 54 Registration Form 56 Appendicies 57 Credit Where Credit is Due The following companies and corporations have copyrights, trademarks, registered trademarks, liscensed trademarks and/or patents on various items mentioned in the documentation. Lack of further mention of the rights or marks of various items in the documentation does not imply failure to recognize those rights and marks by the author. Apple Computer Corporation Borland International Buttonware Epson Corporation Headlands Press, Inc. International Business Machines Microsoft Corporation Quicksoft Zenith Data Systems INTRODUCTION When choosing plants for use in the landscape, all of us go through some sort of selection process to find the right plant for a location in our landscape. Some of these selection methods include experience with particular plants, looking in encyclopediae or plant manuals, paging through nursery catalogs, working with a designer, consulting a nurseryperson or outright guessing. To speed up the selection process, we can take advantage of computers to assist us in finding a particular plant or group of plants for our landscape. Computer based plant selector programs provide us with the means to rapidly search for plants based on a given set of criteria. The Landscape Plant Manager is a specialized computer information management program for use in horticulture education programs and the landscaping industry. The prime goal of LPM is to be a plant selector to assist you in the selection of plants based on design criteria. LPM was developed as an alternative to constantly paging through nursery catalogs and plant manuals when trying to find plants for a particular landscape situation. The Landscape Plant Manager will allow you to: -Add, delete and modify information about plants used in the landscape. -Search for plants based on scientific name or common name. -Search for plants matching one or more design criteria for use in the landscape The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 1 EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS The Landscape Plant Manager was developed on the Zenith Z-150 computer that is compatible with the IBM Personal Computer series. LPM should also run on any true IBM-PC compatible computer such as Compaq, Columbia and Epson Equity. To run the Landscape Plant Manager, you will need the following equipment: IBM-PC series or true compatible computer. A true compatible computer is considered one that can run the Microsoft Flight Simulator program. Along with the Zenith Z-150 series, LPM has been tested and found to work on the IBM PC series and the Epson Equity I series. Even though not tested, LPM might run on more generic MS-DOS computers. A minimum of 128 kilobytes of memory. A capacity of 256 kilobytes of memory or greater is preferred. Certain parts of the program may not run with 128 kilobytes of memory if there are a large number of plant records in a file. One 360 kilobyte floppy disk drive or a hard disk drive partition. A second disk drive is not required and is not used by the program. The hard disk partition size can be greater than 360 kilobytes which will allow for larger files. PC-DOS or MS-DOS version 2.00 or greater. A monochrome or color monitor. A monochrome monitor attached to a color card or color output will show colors as different shades of gray. The program will work with an IBM monochrome adapter card and certain monochrome monitors with some loss in the display. For further comments on monitor displays see the Landscape Plant Manager Program Information section. An optional printer. The program is designed to work with an Epson printer or Epson compatible printer. If you are unfamiliar with operating the equipment listed, you should consult the operations manual of your computer or ask a friend for help in getting started. To save on the size of this manual, it will be assumed that you have some familiarity with your equipment and using the disk operating system (PC-DOS or MS- DOS) that you have with your computer. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 2 GETTING STARTED The very first thing you should do is make a backup copy of the LPM disk. This is done by one of several methods available to you on your DOS disk. If you are not familiar with making copies, see your Disk Operating System manual or ask a friend for assistance. Once you have made a backup copy, put the original in a safe place and use your backup copy as a work disk. LPM requires only one disk drive to run the program. If you have a hard disk, you can place a copy of LPM in a directory or partition. To the LPM program, the directory or partition will look just like a single disk drive. (To those of you who know what paths are, LPM does not support DOS 2.0+ paths at this time.) To run the Landscape Plant Manager you will need the following files: LPM.COM The Landscape Plant Manager core program. LPM.000 Various pieces of the program in one large file. These two files must always be together. Also, never change the name of the program files. The Landscape Plant Manager will not work and may require you to reset your computer if either one is missing or the names have been changed. Any other files that originally came with the LPM disk can be removed when you are done using them. If you are using a floppy disk drive, never remove the floppy disk while you are running the Landscape Plant Manager. To start the Landscape Plant Manager, at the DOS prompt, type: LPM followed by the return or enter key. After a brief period, you will be presented with an introductory screen briefly describing the Landscape Plant Manager system. When this screen appears, you are ready to use the Landscape Plant Manager. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 3 LPM MENUS AND WINDOWS Menus The Landscape Plant Manager is known as a menu driven system. To start a particular operation or to select a choice, you type a key or number or letter from a list of possible choices called a menu to perform some action. Menus displayed on a computer are patterned after the menus found at some 'unique' eateries where a food order is placed by giving a number to the waiter or waitress. If a number two on the menu is two eggs and bacon with toast, you would place your order by telling the waiter or waitress you want a "number two over easy". A number six might be the indigestion special consisting of an onion and green pepper omelet with biscuts and gravy. Almost all your "ordering" with the Landscape Plant Manager will be with numbers, letters or special keys on the keyboard as displayed in menus. When you start up LPM, you will notice a white bar with black letters at the top of the screen that looks similar to this: F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search This is known as a menu bar. Behind the menu bar are other menus that pop down. Pull down menus are popular on the Apple Macintosh computer and some other computer systems. To pop open a menu, you type a function key related to a particular menu item. For example, if you want to do editing, you press the F3 function key located on the left side or top of your keyboard and a Record menu will pop open looking similar to this: F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ================ |F1-Close Menu | |F2-Add | |F3-Delete | |F4-Modify | ================ The opened menu gives you choices to specific editing functions. You again use the function keys to select a particular choice. As you pop down the various menus, you might notice that the F1 function key will always close the menu and return you to the menu bar. When you pop down a menu, you will notice that some items are gray or dimmed (may not show on a monochrome monitor). This means the item is not available for use at that particular moment and continued pressing of the related key will result in nothing happening. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 4 If you select a choice that is in black letters signifying it is active, the menu will close and a window will pop open allowing you to work in that section. There are other types of menus found in the Landscape Plant Manager. You will encounter choice menus where you need to select a particular choice by number. =========Choices========== | Density: | | 0: No Choice | | 1: Compact | | 2: Medium | | 3: Open | |Choice by number: 3_ | ========================== You type in the number next to your desired choice and then press the return or enter key. Another menu you will encounter is known as a command letter menu that looks like this: C)ontinue, R)estart, D)isplay, P)rint, Q)uit? To execute a command in the menu line, you type the letter just to the left of the right parens ")". In the above example, to print your records, you would type the letter "P" to start the printing. The letter can be upper or lowercase. As with the main function key menus, you donot have to press the return or enter key. If you type the wrong letter, the program will beep and patiently wait until the right letter is entered. Even though not considered menus, you will occasionally be asked to verify an action by yes or no. Usually it will be a question such as: Continue searching (Y/N)? The "(Y/N)" means to type 'Y' for yes or 'N' for no in response to the question. As with the command letter menu, the letters can be either upper or lowercase and you donot need to press the return or enter key. Windows All Landscape Plant Manager activities are displayed in windows that will pop open and shut. Think of the windows as a stack of papers with the paper on top being the one you currently do your work. Once you are done, the window is closed until needed again at a later time. When you first start the Landscape Plant Manager, the introductory window is opened. As soon as you press any key, the window will close and not open until the system is started again. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 5 Most windows will have a title in the top part of the frame to tell you what window is currently active. Unlike the windows on the Apple Macintosh or other windowing systems, all the windows in LPM are fixed and cannot be restacked, moved or resized. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 6 USING THIS MANUAL This manual is divided into several sections. It is hoped that you will read through the complete manual to familiarize yourself with the Landscape Plant Manager. If you are new to computers or working with software that falls in the catagory of database managers, you should work through the Turtorial which is the next section in this manual. If you are more experienced, particularly with pull down menus and pop up windows, you can probably dive right into the program occasionally consulting with the reference section. If you have trouble using the program, try going through the tutorial. Remember, "If all else fails, read the manual." After you have reviewed the program and this manual, it is hoped you will read the section on Registering and make a contribution towards this program. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 7 TUTORIAL In this section we will go through the process of using the Landscape Plant Manager. If possible, you should be at your computer with the LPM program running so you can try out the various tasks as you read along in the tutorial. In later sections of this tutorial, you may want to have the LPMDEMO file set on your disk for practicing with the searching sections. ENDING A WORK SESSION Before you start, it is important to tell you how to quit incase you have to stop working at the computer and have not completed the tutorial. Assuming all other windows are closed and all you see is the menu bar at the top of the screen, press the F2 key to pop open the File menu and then press the F7 key to quit. This will cause the Landscape Plant Manager program to stop and return you to the Disk Operating System level. You can then do whatever you want at this level or turn off the computer. CREATING A NEW FILE SET We can consider the Landscape Plant Manager to be like an index card file of plants used in the landscape. Inorder to use this 'index card file', we must first buy a card box, index cards and dividers then arrange the cards in a neat, organized manner. You must also create a new file set in the Landscape Plant Manager before you can store any plant information. This is done through the New option in the File menu. To create a new file, press the F2 key to open the File menu then press the F2 key again to open the New File Window. After you press the F2 key a second time, a window will open up in the middle of the screen that looks similar to this: ================New File================= | | | Current LPM files: | | | | LPMDEMO | | | |New File Name (ESC to exit): ________ | | | ========================================= If there are any existing LPM files on the disk, they will be listed in the window. It is recommended that only one LPM file The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 8 be kept on a floppy disk. If you have a hard disk, two or more files can be stored on the disk. The blank line is where you will type in a new file name. The new name must follow DOS naming conventions. The name must be eight characters or less consisting of letters (A to Z) and digits (0 to 9). Under DOS, file names may also have a three character extension seperated by a period. You donot have to and should not add any extensions. There are three special extentions added to your filename by the program. Any other extentions will cause problems. If you type a period in your filename signifying an extension, you will be greeted with an alert box warning you of the error. Just press any key and try again. ================New File================= | =============Alert============= | | Cu|Invalid extension in the | | | |file name. | | | | | | | | Press any key to continue | | |New | |t | | =============================== | ========================================= If you type in the name of an existing set of files, you will also be greeted with an alert window. If at any time before you press the return key, you donot want to create a new file set, you can press the Escape key to exit from the New file section. No new files will be created even if you had already typed a name. At this time, type in a file name for your own personal set of LPM files. After you type in the new name, a new set of files will be created on the disk for you to use and the New File window will close. You should notice that the Record and Search items on the menu bar are no longer dim. If you open the File menu, you will find that the New and Open menu items are now dim and the Close, Print, Info menu items are no longer dim. When you create a new set of files, they are automatically opened for you to add plants. ADDING PLANTS TO A FILE Once you have created a new set of files, you can start adding plants to your 'electronic index file box'. To get started, close any other menu you may have open and press the F3 key to open the Record menu. With the Record menu open, press the F2 key to open the Add to File window. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 9 Before you start actually adding plants to you files, we should discuss how you will be entering the information about the plants and how the information is stored. LPM Plant Record Form All the information you enter about a single plant is stored in a record that is placed in a data file. You can think of a record as the equivalent of one index card which is stored in the data file that is equivalent to our imaginary index card file box. The plant record is further divided into what are commonly called "fields" of information. These fields are in an orderly arrangement as a form. The form used in LPM is like many other forms you encounter daily such as application forms. The LPM plant record form will look similar to this: =============================================================== |Genus: Species: | |Name: | | Class: Bark Color: | | Type: Bark Texture: | | Mature Height: Hardiness Zone: | | Mature Spread: Soil Type: | | Growth Habit: Soil Moisture: | | Density: Soil pH: | | Texture: Light Conditions: | | Summer Leaf Color: Growth Rate: | | Fall Leaf Color: Fertility Needs: | | Flower Color: Insect Problems: | | Flower Bloom Time: Disease Problems: | | Fruit Color: | |Landscape Uses: | | | |Note 1: | |Note 2: | |Note 3: | =============================================================== When using LPM, you will encounter this special form often. In the searching section, you will fill in parts of this form and have the program fill in the rest of the form matching the information you typed in the form with information found in plant records in the data file. When you enter the Add to File section, you will see the form in the window with an underline next to 'Genus:' Genus: _______________ Species: Name: This is where you will start typing in your information about a plant. However, before you actually start typing, let's discuss some text editing controls you will have available to you. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 10 Text Editing Controls Whenever an underline ("_____") apprears, you will have some text editing controls available to you. Text editing means that you will be able to move the cursor around on the line which will allow you to edit, change or correct the information you have typed on the line before you press the return or enter key. Even though these are limited editing features, none the less they are still helpful in typing in information. Basically, you use key combinations to move the cursor around on the line inorder to change anything you have already typed on the line. All or most of the keys are used whenever the underline appears for input of information. Any key below marked "Ctrl-x" means to hold down the CTRL key and type the related letter or key at the same time. The cursor control keys are: Home or Ctrl-A: This will move the cursor to the beginning of a line. End or Ctrl-F: This will move the cursor to the end of a line. Up Arrow, Shift-Tab, or Ctrl-E: This will move the cursor up one line, field or position. This will only work if you will be entering in information on more than one line in a window. In some sections, this key will be equivalent to using the return or enter key. Down Arrow or Ctrl-X: This will move the cursor down one line, field or position. This will only work if you will be entering in information on more than one line in a window. In some sections, this key will be equivalent to using the return or enter key. Left Arrow or Ctrl-S: This will move the cursor left one space. Right Arrow or Ctrl-D: This will move the cursor right one space. Del or Ctrl-G: This will delete the character above the cursor and shift all characters to the right of the deleted character over to the left on the line. The cursor stays in the same spot and does not move to the left. Backspace or Ctrl-H: A rubout or destructive backspace. A backspace will cause the cursor to move left erasing the character in front of it and drag all characters on the right to the left. Ctrl-End or Ctrl-Z: End of input for a record or field. This key allows you to finish without having to move the cursor to the end of a line or use the down key to move the The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 11 cursor to the bottom of a record when there is more than one line of information. Ctrl-Y: This will erase or clear all characters from the cursor to the end of the line. Return or Enter: When you are done typing in the information on a single line you press this key to finish. If all these keys are confusing, do not worry. Alot of work can be done by just using the backspace key to erase your mistakes and retyping an entry. One more thing about the underline. As you work through a record, you will notice that the underline changes length at different fields. This will give you an idea of how many characters you can type on a line. For example, the Genus underline is fifteen characters long. This means that a genus name must be equal to or less than fifteen characters. Any characters after the first fifteen will be ignored. On the other hand, the common name underline is thirty characters long as the common name is usually much longer than the genus name. Before you start adding a plant, you should know how to get out of adding a plant or any other activity. If you have the Add to File window open at this moment, look at the bottom of the window. There you will notice the line "ESC to exit". This means you can press the escape key (marked either Esc, ESC or Escape depending on your keyboard) to get out of whatever you were doing at that time. Pressing the escape key will take you to a level that will allow you to quit. Be aware however that anything you typed on the form just before you pressed the escape key will not be saved and usually the data will be erased from the form. Adding a Plant to the File Finally, we are ready to enter some information on a plant. Let us use Larch (Larix decidua) for practice. If you are not familiar with Larch, the complete record can be found in Appendix A. Type in "Larix" for the Genus and press the return or enter key. Then type in "decidua" at the Species line and "Larch" at the Name line. Donot worry about the rules for capitalizing scientific names (First letter in the genus is capitalized with the species in lower case). The program will correct the names for you before they are saved in the data file. However, be aware that the program does not correct spelling! Before you press the return or enter key after typing in the common name, the display should look similar to this: The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 12 ==========================Add to List=========================== | | |Genus: Larix Species: decidua | |Name: Larch_______________________ | | Class: Bark Color: | | Type: Bark Texture: | If at anytime, you have made a mistake and have already pressed the return key, you can use the up arrow to go back to the line you just entered and correct it. Also, at the end of the record, you will be given the opportunity to correct the record before it is saved to the file. If you have not done so, press the return or enter key after entering the common name so we can start adding additional information. For the next 24 fields starting with Class, you will be entering information by selecting a choice by number for each field. At each field, a choice menu will pop open next to it offering up to sixteen different choices to select from. You should also notice a little arrow (<-) pointing at the field label that is related to the opened choice window. To select a choice, type the number next to your choice on the line labeled "Choice by number:" and press the return or enter key. Just as with the names, you can edit the number before pressing the return or enter key (Did you notice the underline?). If you make a mistake and press the return key, the alert box will pop open telling you what is possibly wrong. Press any key to close the alert box and try again. When you type a valid number, the choice window will close and the arrow will be replaced with your choice. The arrow will jump down one field and a new choice window will open up. The window will look similar to this: The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 13 =============================Add to List======================== | =========Choices========== | |Genus: Larix Species: deci| Growth Habit: | | |Name: Larch | 0: No Choice | | | Class: Tree | 1: Rounded | | | Type: Evergreen | 2: Oval | | | Mature Height: 68-77 feet | 3: Vase | | | Mature Spread: 24-27 feet | 4: Pyramidal | | | Growth Habit: <- | 5: Columnar | | | Density: | 6: Irregular | | | Texture: | 7: Arching | | | Summer Leaf Color: | 8: Upright | | | Fall Leaf Color: | 9: Spreading | | | Flower Color: | 10: Horizontal | | | Flower Bloom Time: | 11: Pendulous | | | Fruit Color: | 12: Prostrate | | |Landscape Uses: | 13: Vining | | | | 14: Mound | | |Note 1: | 15: Weeping | | |Note 2: |Choice by number: 4_ | | |Note 3: | | | | ========================== | ================================================================ Continue selecting your choices for this record. If you get to a field where none of the choices apply (Such as bark color for tulips) type zero for No Choice. Also, when you get to Landscape Uses, you will be able to select up to five different choices. The three Note lines can be used to type in any other information on the plant such as cultivars, special cultural practices or price information. To finish with the record, press the return or enter key after typing in Note 3 or use the Ctrl-End key combination. You will then be asked if the record you just entered is correct. Is this correct (Y/N)? If you find mistakes, type N for no and use the cursor keys to move through the different fields, correcting any mistakes using the text editing keys as mentioned earlier. When you are done correcting the record, finish as above by typing the return key at Note 3 or use the Ctrl-End key combination. When your record is correct and you respond with yes to the question, your plant record will be saved to the file set. You will then see at the bottom of the window a question asking you to: Continue adding to list (Y/N)? The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 14 Typing Y for yes will clear the form for you and allow you to enter more plant records. Typing N for no will cause an exit from the Add to List section and return you to the main menu bar. When entering you plants, donot worry about keeping the plant names in any kind of alphabetic order. There are two other files associated with the data file in the file set. These files are indexes to the data file. One index is for scientific names and the other is for common names. Both these indexes will have the names in alphabetic order. Later on, when you want the search for a particular plant by name, the program will look in the index first to find the "card number" for that plant and then go into the data file to get the actual information. For practice, enter some more plant records to get use to adding plant records and using the text editing keys. When you are done adding plant records to your file, exit the Add to File section by responding N for no to the questions so you can practice opening and closing a file. CLOSING A FILE SET When you no longer want to work with a particular set of files either newly created files or opened existing files, you must close the currently opened file set before any other file sets can be opened up. Assuming all other windows and menus are closed, type F2 to open the File menu and then F4 to close the currently opened set of files. You donot need to supply any names as the program keeps track of the files you opened previously. When the file set has closed, you will notice the Record and Search items in the menu bar are dim again. If you have been following this tutorial and have created a new set of files using New along with adding plants to the file, close the files now so you can try out the Open option. Remember, in the Landscape Plant Manager, you have to close an opened file set before you can open another file set or create a new file set. OPENING AN EXISTING FILE SET In order to work with plants in our 'electronic index box', you must open up the box before you can search through the cards for a plant or add new cards to the filebox. The Open option in the File menu will allow you to open a file set on the disk so that you can work with the file set. To open any existing file set, press the F2 key to pop open the File menu then press the F3 key to pop open the Open File window. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 15 ================Open File================ | | | Current LPM files: | | | | MYFILE | | LPMDEMO | | | | File to Open (ESC to exit):LPMDEMO_ | | | ========================================= As you can see, the Open File window looks just like the New File window. You type in a file name for the file set that you want opened. However, in this section, if the name you type does not match any of the names in the directory, you will be greeted with the alert window. Just as in the New File section, if you donot want to open a file, press the Escape key to exit. Once a set of files is opened, you can search through the plants in the data file or work with individual plants in the data file including adding new plants, deleting plants and modifying existing plant data. So you can practice using the searching sections that will be discussed next, open up the file set on your disk entitled "LPMDEMO". There are enough plants in this file for you to get a good demonstration on how the search sections are used. If the demo file set is missing, go back to the Add to File section and add about fifty plants to your own personal file. SEARCHING FOR PLANTS BY NAME There are three ways of searching for a particular plant or group of plants in our electronic index box. The ways you will be able to search for plants is by scientific name, common name or design criteria. This section will deal with finding plants either by scientific name or common name. The next section will cover searching for plants based on design criteria. As you may recall from the section on adding plants to a file, that the program automatically alphabetizes the plants you add to the data file regardless of entry order. This is done by keeping two indexes, one for the scientific name and one for common name. When you search for a plant by name, the program will go through the appropiate index first to find the reference or "card number" to the plant record and then go into the data file to find and display the plant record. To actually search for a plant by name, you will type in the name of the plant which is called a "key". The program will search for any plant names that match the given key. For example if The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 16 your key is 'Viburnum lantana', the program will search through the index until Viburnum lantana is found or the end of the index is reached. If the plant is found, the form on the screen will be filled with the information on this particular viburnum. A feature of this section is the ability to give partial words as the search key. For example, in the search by common name section, you will be able to give 'maple' as a key and the program will find all plants that have 'maple' in the common name such as Red Maple, Silver Maple and Sugar Maple. Partial words can be as small as one letter. If you give just the letter 'Q' for a scientific name, any plants whose scientific name begins with 'Q' such as the oaks (Quercus sp) will be found by the program. Once you have found one plant, you will be able to scan forward and backward through the file to look at plants that are alphabetically before your searched plant or after your searched plant. Let's now actually search for plants by name. The first search you will do is to search by scientific name. Searching for Plants by Scientific Name To search for plants by scientific name, first close any windows or menus so you are back to the main menu bar. Press the F4 key to pop open the Search menu. Now press the F2 key to open the Search by Scientific Name window. If nothing happened when you pressed the F2 key and the titles look rather dim, remember you must open a file before you can search it. If you need to open a file, close the Search menu and open up the LPMDEMO file or your own file at this time following the procedure that was discussed earlier. When the Search by Scientific Name window is opened you should see a form on the screen which looks just like the Add to File screen. However, in this section, you will be filling in the Genus field and maybe the Species field with your desired search key. Filling in the Genus and Species fields is the same as when you added a plant record. All the editing keys discussed in the Adding Plants to a File section also work in this section and the Search by Common Name section. As in other sections, pressing the escape key will allow you to exit promptly. Type in a scientific name at this time. As an example, let us use a Red Oak for our key. The scientific name of Red Oak is Quercus rubra. In the Genus field, type 'Quercus' and press the return or enter key to move to the Species field. In the Species The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 17 field, type 'rubra' and press return. As in adding plants, you donot have to worry about capitalization. After pressing the return key the second time, the disk drive will briefly turn on and then your plant with all the information about the plant should appear in the form on the screen. If the search does not find your plant, the plant that is next in alphabetic order will be displayed. Once a plant is displayed in the form, a command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the window that looks like this: N)ext Record, L)ast Record, P)rint Record, Q)uit? Pressing the N key will display the plant record in the data file that is next in alphabetic order from the current record on the screen. This will allow you to move forward through the data file. Pressing the L key will display the plant record in the data file that is previous in alphabetic order from the current record on the screen. This will allow you to move backward through the data file. Pressing the P key will print on the printer a copy of the plant record that is currently displayed on the screen. If you donot have a printer connected to your computer or the printer is not turned on, an alert box will pop open warning you of the problem. Again, just press any key to close the box. You can try again if you forgot to turn on your printer which opened the alert box. Pressing the Q key will allow you to quit searching that particular section of the list. You will then be asked: Continue searching (Y/N)? Answering Y for yes will allow you to type in another scientific name for searching. Answering N for no will close the window and return you to the main menu bar. If you have the Red Oak plant on the screen and have not tried scanning backward and forward through the list, try using Next, Last and Print now for practice. When you are done, type Q for quit and N for no to exit the Search by Scientific Name so we can try searching for plants by common name. Searching for Plants by Common Name Searching for plants by common name works the same way as searching for plants by scientific name. You type in a name or partial name in the Name field and a plant that matches or nearly matches the key name is displayed on the screen. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 18 To open the Search by Common Name window from the menu bar, type F4 to open the Search Menu and type F3 to open the Search by Common Name window. When the form appears on the screen, you will notice the underline is at the Name field having skipped over the Genus and Species fields. For an example let's search for Maple. At the Name line, type 'Maple' and press the return key. If you make any mistakes before you press the return key, you can use the text editing keys as previously mentioned in the Adding Plants to a File section. If there are maples in the file, some type of maple should appear on the screen otherwise the plant next in alphabetic order to maple will appear on the screen. As with searching by scientific name, once a plant is on the screen, the 'N)ext, L)ast, P)rint, Q)uit)?' menu will appear at the bottom of the window so you can scan through the file looking at the different maples. Go ahead and practice scanning through the file at this time. By quitting and then responding yes to continue searching, you can search for some other plants by common name. When searching by name, you should be aware that the key is adjusted so that the program searches for plants based on the name first then the adjectives that further describe a plant. For example, as you saw above, typing 'maple' will search and find the first maple tree in the file and using Next will display the other maples. However, if you type 'red' thinking you will get Red Maple, instead, you may get Redbud or Rhododendron. To find Red Maple, you must type 'red maple'. Also, typing 'red m' as a partial word will give you the first plant that begins with an 'm' such as Magnolia. As before, practice in the section for a while then return to the menu bar by pressing Q for quit and then N for no at the continue searching question. Now you can try out the major feature of the Landscape Plant Manager, the Search by Criteria section. SEARCHING FOR PLANTS BY CRITERIA When selecting plants for the landscape, we should always determine the needs or criteria of a landscape before deciding on a particular plant so that we can maintain a well-balanced, aesthically pleasing, easy to maintain landscape. These needs or criteria are many and varied depending on a variety of factors at the landscape site. For the north side of The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 19 the house, we may want an evergreen tree that is over 50 ft tall for use as a windbreak. In the front yard, we may want a shrub to use as a ten foot high hedge that has purple flowers in late spring with red bark and few insect problems. Traditionally, to find plants that match the above needs would involve several techniques including past experience, paging though plant manuals and searching through nursery catalogs. Usually, this is a time consuming task. The Search by Criteria section will allow you to search for plants based on one or more of up to 24 different criteria. The criteria selection can be in any order. Because you will be able to search for plants based on up to 24 criteria in any order, you will find the Search by Criteria section operates a little differently than the other searching methods. However, donot worry, this section is actually easier to use as it consists of all menus. (Great for you hunt and peck typists). Starting the Search by Criteria Section To start the Search by Criteria section, from the main menu bar, type F4 to pop open the Search menu and then type F4 again to open the Search by Criteria window. When you press the F4 key the second time, the Search by Criteria window will open and then another window will open up the looks like this: =============================== | Please wait, loading list | | into memory. | | Total Records: 140 | | Records loaded: 15 | =============================== At the same time, the disk drive should start running. Depending on the type of disk drive (floppy disk or hard disk) and the size of the data file, this should take from 30 seconds to a few minutes. As the list of plants from the file is loaded into memory, the 'Records loaded:' number will increase. As soon as the 'Records loaded' matches the 'Total Records', you will be able to use the Search by Criteria Section. Up until now, when you did a search by name, the program accessed the files on the disk to do the searching. However, to speed up the task of searching by criteria, a special copy of your data file is loaded completely into the memory of the computer whenever you start the Search by Criteria section. Unfortunately, there is a tradeoff. To avoid conflicts with other parts of the LPM program, this special copy of the file in memory must be erased from memory (but not the file on the disk) The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 20 when you quit the Search by Criteria section and must be reloaded again the next time you want to search by criteria. Therefore, be sure you really want to quit searching by criteria. Searching for Plants by Criteria When the data file is completely loaded into memory, the Search by Criteria window will look like similar to this: =========================Search by Criteria===================== |Plants in file: 140 Plants found=========Choices========== | |Genus: Species: | Class: | | |Name: | 0: No Choice | | | Class: <- | 1: Tree | | | Type: | 2: Shrub | | | Mature Height: | 3: Groundcover | | | Mature Spread: | 4: Vine | | | Growth Habit: | 5: Herbaceous Orn. | | | Density: | Choice by number:__ | | | Texture: ========================== | | Summer Leaf Color: Growth Rate: | | Fall Leaf Color: Fertility Needs: | | Flower Color: Insect Problems: | | Flower Bloom Time: Disease Problems: | | Fruit Color: | |Landscape Uses: | | | |Note 1: | |Note 2: | |Note 3: | | | ================================================================ Look familiar? You may recognize it from the Add to File section when you selected different choices for each design criteria. As you make a choice for each criteria you select, the choice you pick will be used as a key to find all plant records in the file in memory that match the key. Since the Class criteria choice window is opened, let's use Tree as an example and see how many plants are found. To find all the plants that are trees in the data file, with the Class criteria window opened, type the number one for tree and press the return key. You will notice that the criteria choice window closed and for a brief period, numbers started flashing next to the 'Plants Found:' label at the top of the screen. The top of the screen should now look similar to this (even though the numbers may be different): The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 21 =======================Search by Criteria======================= |Plants in file: 140 Plants found: 70 | |Genus: Species: | |Name: | | Class: Tree Bark Color: | | Type: Bark Texture: | | Mature Height: Hardiness Zone: | The top line will give you some information on the plant file that is in memory. The 'Plants in file' shows how many plants were loaded into memory from the disk. The 'Plants found:' shows you how many plants have been found matching the currently selected criteria choices that are listed in the criteria fields. In the above example, out of 140 plants, 70 were found that matched a criteria Class of tree. The remaining 70 plants were not trees but a combination of shrubs, vines and groundcovers. To find just a few plants based on criteria, you will pick a choice from another criteria (We donot want to print and choose from a list of 70 trees!). When you make you second criteria choice, the search will be made through the 'Plants found' list not the 'Plants in file' list that was originally loaded into memory. When you make your first criteria search, the program creates a list of plants in memory that match the first criteria. When you make your next choice, the program will create a new list from the first 'Plants found' list matching those plants in the first list with you second key. Using our file card analogy, you can think of it as going through your index card box and pulling out all those plants that are trees. You then take the stack of cards that have all trees in it and pull out all those plants that are evergreens. You would now have a smaller stack of cards that would be just evergreen trees. You could continue pulling plants out of each new card deck that match a particular criteria until you are down to one or two cards that match all your desired criteria choices. In this section, the program works in a similar manner. At the bottom of the window, you will find a command letter menu that looks similar to this: C)ontinue Search, R)estart Search, D)isplay List, P)rint, Q)uit? If you press R for restart at this point, you will restart your searching with the original number of plants. Any plants found will be erased from memory and the form will be cleaned to start again. If you press D for display or P for print, you will receive an alert box warning you that there are too many plants in the list to print out and that you should continue searching. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 22 At this time, you want to continue searching so press the C key for continue. When you press C for continue, a new choice window will open up with a pointer at the name of the next blank criteria field. If you are following the example and previously chose a Class criteria, the pointer should be pointing at the Type criteria. At this time, you can make a choice for the Type criteria and have the program search for plants based on that choice. However, if you would like to select some other criteria, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move the pointer to another criteria field and open up the field's related window. Using the arrow keys, make criteria selections repeating the above procedure of making a selection, searching, press C for continue and making a new selection. Continue this procedure until you have trimmed the 'Plants found' list down to five or fewer plants. During the searching, an alert box may pop open telling you that no plants where found matching your selected criteria choice. If that happens, just try again using a different choice. Also remember that you can use the Escape key to bail out to a level that will let you quit. Once you have trimmed the 'Plants found' list down to five or fewer plants, you can display or print the list to see what plants have been found matching your criteria choices. When you press D for display, the program will fill the form on the screen with the first plant in the 'Plants found' list. At the bottom of the screen will appear a new command letter menu that looks like this: N)ext Record, P)rint Record, Q)uit Display? If you press N for next record, the next plant in the list will displayed on the screen. If you press P for print record, the plant currently displayed on the screen will be printed on the printer. When displaying the list on the screen, the print function will work just like the print function in the search by name sections. You can continue pressing the print option as many times as you want to print the same record until you press the N for next or Q for quit. When you press N for next record at the last plant in the list or press the Q key for quit, you will return the the previous menu. Once you get down to five or fewer plants in the 'Plants found' list, you can print the complete list on the printer. Just press P for print list from the menu. The complete list will be The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 23 printed on the printer with numbered page headings and a copy of your selected criteria called a Criteria Selection Template. You can repeat the printing as many times as you want until you press C for continue, R for restart or Q for quit. You can also display the list several times until you press C,R or Q. When you press Q for quit from the menu, an alert box will pop open to warn you that if you donot want to continue searching, the file in memory will be erased. Remember, only the file in memory is erased. The file on the disk will not be erased by the LPM program. When you start or restart searching by criteria and the Class criteria choice window is open, you donot have to select a Class criteria choice. Just use the up and down arrow keys to move the pointer to the first desired criteria field to make a selection. So, if you want to first look for plants that are resistant to insects, you can move the pointer to the Insect Problems field and make '1: Resistant' your choice. Then you can move the pointer to any field that does not have a selected choice in it. Practice finding plants based on criteria choices. When you are done, quit this section so we can briefly cover editing existing plant records. MODIFYING PLANT RECORDS As you work with your plant data files, you may need to make changes to individual plant records. You might find typographic errors or wrong criteria choices for a plant which need to be corrected. Or, you are keeping prices and/or varieties in the notes section which must be changed to reflect current prices or plant varieties. These changes can be made to individual plant records in a file through the Modify section found in the Record menu. To modify a plant record you need to be familiar with searching for plants by scientific name and be familiar with the text editing control keys. If you are not familiar with these techniques see the section on Adding Plants to a File to learn about text editing control keys and the section on Searching For Plants by Name to learn how to search for plants by scientific name. Before you can modify any plant records, you must open the data file that contains the records. If a file is not open at this time (Did you notice a dim Record menu?), open the file as discussed earlier by using Open in the File menu. Once a file is opened, you can modify any plant record in the opened file. To enter the Modify section, from the main menu bar press F3 to pop down the Record menu and then press the F3 key to open up the Modify Plant Record window. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 24 When the window opens up, you will notice that it looks just like the Search by Scientific Name window with an underline at the Genus field. As you recall, the underline signifies you are to type in some information for that field, in this case, the genus of a scientific name. You are going to retrieve plant records that need modifying from the data file by first searching for the plant by scientific name. Then you can have the option of modifying the plant record on the screen using the same techniques you learned earlier in the Adding Plants To a File section of the turtorial. For example, let's use Red Maple again. Type in the scientific name 'Acer rubrum' just as you learned earlier to display the plant record on the screen. If Red Maple is in the file, the plant record for Red Maple should be displayed in the form on the screen. At the bottom of the window, you will see the question: Modify this record (Y/N)? This is to make sure you want to make corrections to the record. At this time, type Y for yes. When you type Y for yes, the underline will be at the Genus field. You can now use to text editing control keys to make any corrections and move through the record. When you added plants to the file, did you make any corrections by responding yes to 'Is this correct'? If you did, you modified the record in the same way as you would modify a record here. At this time, go ahead and make any corrections to the Red Maple plant record. Or, press the Cntrl-End key combination to finish. Pressing the Escape key will also allow you to exit. However, with Escape, any changes you made on the form are not saved and your old plant record on the disk remains unmodified. When you are done, you can press the return key at the Note 3: field or press the Cntrl-End key combination. When you finish modifying the record this way, a line will appear at the bottom of the window: Is this correct (Y/N)? If everything in the record is correct, you can type Y for yes. However, if there are still errors, type N for no and repeat the process of modifying until you are done. If you change the scientific name so that it matches some other plant in the data file or you leave any name fields blank, you will get the now familiar alert box. When this happens, just re- edit the record. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 25 When you are done with your correct plant record, the disk drive will come on briefly as it corrects the information in the data file. After the newly modified record is put in the data file a new line will appear at the bottom of the window that looks similar to what you saw in the search by name sections: N)ext Record, L)ast Record, Q)uit Search? Pressing N for next or L for last will allow you to move back and forth through the alphabetic list. Every time you move forward or backward one record, you will be asked if you want to edit the record. Pressing N for no will bring you back to the menu. This is useful if you need to make changes to similar records. As an example, you may have accidently classified all the maples in hardiness zone 1 instead of zone 3. Starting with the first maple in the file, you could easily modify all the maple (Acer) records to the correct zone. When you press Q for quit, another command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the window: S)earch File, Q)uit Modify? Pressing S for search will clear the form in the window and allow you to type in a new scientific name. This is useful when you need to modify plant records that are not in close alphabetic order. As with the Search sections, you can specify a partial word as the search key then use the Next/Last menu to scan through the list. By specifying the letter 'A' as a partial word, you can edit every record in you file. When you are done modifying records, press Q for quit from the menu and type N for no to the 'Continue modifying records in list (Y/N)?' question. Continue practicing modifying any records in your file that need correcting or changing. When you are finished, return to the main menu bar so we can finish the turtorial and quit the Landscape Plant Manager. QUITTING THE LANDSCAPE PLANT MANAGER Whenever you want to quit using a computer program, you should always do what is called an 'orderly exit'. For many computer programs, failue to do this orderly exit by just shutting off the computer or pressing a reset key could damage the information in your files. To make sure you donot damage any information in your Landscape Plant Manager files, you should always properly quit the program. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 26 When you are finished with the Landscape Plant Manager, press the F2 key to open up the File menu. Then press the F7 key to quit. That's all there is to quitting. If you had any files opened that you did not close using the Close option in the File menu, do not worry. When you press the F7 key, the program will automatically close any opened files for you. Once you quit the LPM program, the computer will return to the Disk Operating System level. At this time, you can do any other work with your computer or shut it off. If you have added records to your files, you should promptly backup you files right after you quit the Landscape Plant Manager. Backup of files is the process of recording copies of your files and/or programs on another diskette. Programs and data recorded on magnetic diskettes used in computers can be easily altered if you are not careful with your disks. Hours of work can be and has been lost in relatively little time. Making copies of your work and storing the copy in a safe place is insurance against losing some or all of your work. There are several methods of making backup copies of your work. It is best to consult your computer manuals as to what method is recommended for your type of equipment. Or, have a friend help you make copies for you until you are familiar with the technique. The important thing is to get into a good habit of making backup copies. Murphy's laws tend to be applied more often in computers than anywhere else. Having worked through this tutorial, you should now be familiar with at least the basics of using the Landscape Plant Manager including creating new files, adding records to a file, opening and closing files, searching for plants in a file, modifying plant records and quitting the system. There are several other functions available to you in the Landscape Plant Manager including a series of brief help screens, the ability to print a complete plant file, the ability to delete individual plant records in a file and obtaining some important size information on an opened file. You will find information on these functions in the reference section along with more concise information on the functions we have discussed in the tutorial. You will also find some information on the program, registering, managing LPM files and dealing with program bugs (Sorry, pesticides donot work on these bugs). Try and take some time to read the rest of the manual, it will avoid some problems for you later on as you use the Landscape Plant Manager program. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 27 REFERENCE MENUS The Landscape Plant Manager is classified as a menu driven system where various sections and functions of the program are accessed by pressing keys or key combinations associated with each section or function label. The main menu is a menu bar located at the top of the screen will look similar to this: F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search By pressing the function key associated with a menu item, a menu will pop down containing a list of items that are related to the main menu item. In this example: F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ================ |F1-Close Menu | |F2-Add | |F3-Delete | |F4-Modify | ================ The F3 key was pressed which opened up a menu of functions related to the editing of plant records in a file. Pressing one of the four function keys (F1-F4) will invoke the function related to the function key as listed inside the popped down menu. Pressing any other key will result in no action and be ignored. In all popped down menus, the F1 key will close the menu, returning to the main menu bar. Also, the opened menu is always left justified with the item in the main menu bar. This is to serve for further identification of the popped down menu in relation to the item in the menu bar. During the program, some of the menu items will appear dim or gray (may not show on some monochrome monitors) and the function key will not respond. This means that the function or section is currently inactive and that some other task or action must be performed before a dimmed function or section is activated. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 28 HELP MENU F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ================ |F1-Close Menu | |F2-File | |F3-Record | |F4-Search | |F5-About LPM | |F6-About FSC | |F7-About OHT | ================ The Help menu provides brief information on using the various functions in the Landscape Plant Manager. All other functions and windows must be closed inorder to access the Help menu. Help File Brief information on the various functions found in the File menu. For further information on using the functions in the File menu, consult the reference section on the File menu and various lessons in the turtorial. Help Record Brief information on the various functions found in the Record menu. For further information on using the functions in the Record menu, consult the reference section on the Record menu, the reference section on cursor control keys and various lessons in the turtorial. Help Search Brief information on the various functions found in the Search menu. For further information on using the functions in the Search menu, consult the reference section on the Search menu and various lessons in the tutorial. About LPM, FSC and OHT About LPM provides some brief information on the Landscape Plant Manager including minimum system requirements. About FSC and OHT provides some brief information on Ferris State College and the Ornamental Horticulture Technology program with which the author is associated. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 29 FILE MENU F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ================ |F1-Close Menu | |F2-New | |F3-Open | |F4-Close | |F5-Print | |F6-Info | |F7-Quit | ================ The File menu lists functions associated with files located on the disk. This menu provides means to create new files, open and close files, print a complete file, obtain basic file information and perform an orderly exit from LPM. File New Pressing the F2 key for New will open up a New File window in the center of the screen. This will allow the creation of a new set of files for use in the Landscape Plant Manager system. The window will show a listing of all current LPM files on the disk and an input line for a new filename. The new filename can be up to eight characters long. The characters can be letters, digits or some special characters as specified in the MS-DOS/PC- DOS Reference Manual. Donot add any extensions to the filename. Special extension will be added to the names when the files are created by the LPM program. Also, the new filename must be different from the names listed in the display of current LPM files. When entering the name, cursor keys can be used to edit the name before the Return or Enter key is pressed. For information on using the cursor keys for editing, see Cursor Control Keys Assignments later in the manual. If a valid name is entered, the LPM program will create three new files on the disk: A data file with the extension '.DAT' and two index files; a scientific name index file with the extension '.SIX' and a common name index file with the extension '.CIX'. Any filenames created with the New File function can be renamed at the disk operating system level using the Rename command as long as the extensions are not altered. The Landscape Plant Manager does not keep a seperate file of LPM filenames. However, donot use the LPM reserved extensions with other files on the same disk or in the same directory as problems will most likely occur possibly causing damage to a file. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 30 Once a new set of files are created with the new filename, the New and Open functions in the File menu, will become inactive. The Close, Print and Info functions in the File menu will become active. In the Record and Search menus, all the functions will become active. With a 360k floppy disk drive, it is recommended that only one file set be kept on a disk. For hard disk drives or larger capacity floppy drives, two or more file sets can be kept on a disk. For further information see the reference on the Info function in the File menu and the section on Landscape Plant Manager Program Information. File Open Pressing the F3 key will open up an Open File window in the center of the screen. This will allow the opening of an existing set of files for use in the Landscape Plant Manager system. The window will show a listing of all current LPM files on the disk and an input line for a filename. The filename can be up to eight characters long. The characters can be letter, digits or some special characters as specified in the MS-DOS Reference Manual. The filename must be one of the names listed in the display of current LPM files. When entering the name, cursor keys can be used to edit the name before the Return or Enter key is pressed. For information on the cursor keys for editing, see Cursor Control Keys Assignments later in the manual. As with the New File function, the extensions (.DAT, .SIX, .CIX) must not be added to the filename. Once a valid filename is entered, the file set will be opened for use. The New and Open functions in the File menu, will become inactive. The Close, Print and Info functions in the File menu will become active. In the Record and Search menus, all the functions will become active. File Close When a file set is opened, pressing the F4 key in the File menu will close the currently opened LPM file set. This will be done automatically. The filename does not have to be supplied as the program will keep track of the currently opened file set. Once a file set is closed, all Record and Search menu functions will become inactive. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 31 File Print Pressing the F5 key in the File menu will print a complete data file of a currently opened file set to a connected printer loaded with continuous feed (fanfold) paper. When the Print function is activated, a window will open in the center of the screen that looks similar to this: ==================Print================== | Choose the form of the report: | | C)omplete records | | N)ames only | | A)bort print | | Make a selection (C,N,A)? | ========================================= Pressing the C key (either upper or lower case) will print out the complete information found in each plant record in the file. With an Epson or Epson compatible printer, the scientific name will be boldfaced and italicized and, the common name will be boldfaced. Any field in a record that is blank or contains the choice 'No Choice' will be printed with an underline to denote the empty field. Pressing the N key will print only the scientific name and the common name. With an Epson or Epson compatible printer, the scientific name will be boldfaced and italicized and, the common name will be boldfaced. Pressing the A key will cause an exit from the Print function without any printing on the printer. Once a print choice is selected, a plant data file will be read from the disk and printed on the printer. All records in the plant data file will be printed in alphabetic order by scientific name. When printing starts, the print window will look similar to this: ==================Print================== | During printing, press: | | F1-to pause | | F2-to exit | | after the current record is printed. | ========================================= Pressing the F1 key during printing will pause the printer after a plant record is completely printed. To restart printer, press the F1 key a second time and printing will resume. Pressing the F2 key during printing will stop the printing and close the print window with a return to the main menu bar. Exit will occur after a plant record is completely printed. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 32 With either selection, printing will always stop after a complete record (C option) or complete name (N option) is printed. *****CAUTION!***** During printing, donot take the printer off line or turn the power off to the printer. The LPM program will not trap this kind of error. Instead, the DOS error system will be activated: Write fault error writing device PRN Abort, Retry, Ignore? This message may also alter the screen display. Printing can continue if the problem is corrected and then pressing 'R' for Retry. *****WARNING!!***** Pressing 'A' for abort will cause an exit from the Landscape Plant Management program with a return to the DOS operating system. A paper out error will also activate the above error system. To avoid this problem, it is important to check for adequate paper supplies. To estimate the amount of paper needed, see the File Info section on obtaining the number of records in a file. The number of records in a file divided by three records per page will give the approximate number of pages that will be printed. File Info Pressing the F6 key will open a window that will provide some basic information on the currently opened file and other information related to the file. The window will look similar to this: The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 33 ==========================File Info========================== | File currently opened: OHTLIST | | | | Number of active records in the file: 140 | | Number of inactive records in the file: 1 | | Total number of records in the file: 141 | | | | Appoximate number of records that can be | | loaded into memory for Search by Criteria: 583 | | | | Approximate number of records that | | can be stored on the current disk drive: 472 | | | | Approximate number of records that can | | be added to the file on the current disk | | disk drive not including inactive records: 364 | | | | Press any key to continue | ============================================================= The 'File currently opened' will list the file that was either created with the New File option or the Open File option. The 'Number of active records in the file' gives the number of plant records in a file that can be accessed through the Record and Search menus. The 'Number of inactive records in the file' gives the number of plant records that were previously deleted from the file. As a file space saving measure, the LPM program will reuse inactive record space when adding new plants to the file before additional record space is created in the file. The 'Total number of records in the file' is the sum of the previous two number. Even though not listed, there is an additional 'header' record reserved for program use only. The next number gives the approximate number of records in a file that can be loaded into memory for use in the Search by Criteria section. The Search by Criteria section is totally memory based during operation. The number given here can be used to establish the approximate upper limit of the number of active records that can be in a file. In the above example, the OHTLIST file should not exceed approximately 580 plant records. This number will change as it is based on memory allocations of the current computer in use. If the number of active records in a file exceeds the approximate number of records that can be loaded in memory, all sections of the Landscape Plant Manager can still be used except for the Search by Criteria section. (See Search by Criteria section for further details). The 'Approximate number of records that can be stored on the current disk drive' gives the approximate total number of records that can be stored in one file on the disk drive used by the LPM The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 34 program. This number takes into account the space needed by the LPM program itself and the Disk Operating System program files. This number does not take into account any non-LPM files currently residing on the same disk. In the above example, 472 records is the approximate capacity for a standard 360k floppy disk containing the DOS files and the LPM files. Larger capactiy floppy disks and hard disk partitions will give larger storage capacity numbers. The last number gives the number of records that can be added to a file on the current disk. This number is calculated from the free space on a disk, the current file size and the record size. Unlike the above number, this number does take other non-LPM files into account. Note that the number does not include the number of inactive records. A more accurate number would be the sum of inactive records and number of records that can be added to a file. In the above example, the approximate number of records that could be added is 365 (364 + 1). It should be noted that the above three numbers are very conservative approximations and can be exceeded. However, exceeding these numbers may result in the occurence of fatal program errors. It is the user's responsiblity to stay within the numbers listed in the File Info window. File Quit Pressing the F7 key in the File menu will cause an exit from the LPM program. If any files are currently opened, they will be properly closed before the program is terminated. A file set does not need to be explicity closed with the File Close function before quitting the Landscape Plant Manager. Once the LPM program is terminated, the user will be returned to the Disk Operating System command level. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 35 RECORD MENU F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ================ |F1-Close Menu | |F2-Add | |F3-Modify | |F4-Delete | ================ The Record menu provides functions for the manipulation of individual plant records. Through this menu plant records can be added to, deleted from and modified in an opened file. If a file is not opened these functions will be inactive. (See New and Open in the File menu section). Record Add Pressing the F2 key from an opened Record menu will open the Add Plant Record window and allow for the addition of plant records to an opened file. In the window a form will appear for filling with plant information. For the Genus, Species and Name an underline will appear for input of the names. Various cursor keys are available for editing any information typed on the line. (See the Cursor control keys assignments in the Reference section for further information.) The three names donot have to be properly formatted in regards to upper/lower case. After input, the names will be formatted in the following way: Genus will be capitalized, species will be lower case, Name will have each word capitalized. Following the names, information on the plant will be made through choice menu selections for each field from Class through Landscape Use. At each field a choice menu will appear presenting up to 16 choices related to each criteria data field. Selection is made by typing in a number next to the desired choice. The cursor control keys are available for editing the number. As each selection is made, a pointer will move to the next field presenting a new choice menu related to the new field. The Notes fields allow for information that does not fit in any of the above fields such as varieties, costs and cultural notes. At the end of adding a record, confirmation will be required in regards to a correct plant record. Responding no will allow editing of the record. This process can be repeated until a correct record is on the screen. Responding yes to a correct record will result in the record being saved to the file and the appropiate indecies updated. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 36 Exit without adding a record can be done by pressing the Escape key. This will move to a level that will allow quitting from the Add Plant Records section. Record Modify Pressing the F3 key from an opened Record menu will allow for the modification or editing of an existing plant record. Once corrections are made the old record is removed and replaced with the updated record. When the Modify Plant Records window is opened, the standard LPM form will be on the screen with input expected at the Genus field. At this point, the scientific name or part of the name can be typed in as a search key for finding the plant record that is to be modified. To find a plant record, the scientific name of the plant is typed in at the Genus and Species fields. Once a scientific name is typed in, the data file will be searched for the plant record. When the plant record is found, the form will will be filled in with the data. If desired, the record can be edited using the same procedure as editing in the Add Record section. If the record does not exist, the next record in alphabetic order will be presented. When finished with a record, a command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the window allowing for access to the next or last record in alphabetic order from the current record on the screen. As with adding records, Escape will allow for exit without updating of the current record. For further information on accessing records with partial scientific names see the Search Menu section on Scientific Name in this Reference section. Record Delete The Delete function in the Record menu will delete or remove any plant records from an opened file. To start the Delete Plant Records function, press the F4 key from an opened Record menu. When the Delete Plant Records window is opened, the standard LPM form will be in the window. To delete a specific plant record, the scientific name or partial name is typed in at the Genus and Species field. The plant record is then found and displayed in the form. Verification will be required as to deletion of the plant record. Once a plant record is deleted, it cannot be undeleted. After the decision is made as to the deletion of the current record, a command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 37 window allowing for access to the next or last record in alphabetic order from the current record on the screen. As with the other edit functions, pressing the Escape key will allow for exit without deleting of the current record. For further information on accessing records with partial scientific names see the Search Menu section on Scientific Name in this Reference section. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 38 SEARCH MENU F1-Help F2-File F3-Record F4-Search ===================== |F1-Close Menu | |F2-Scientific Name | |F3-Common Name | |F4-Criteria | ===================== Search Scientific Name Pressing the F2 key from an opened Search Menu will open up the window for finding plants in a data file by scientific name. By specifying a complete or partial scientific name, the data file will be searched and any plant equal or greater in alphabetic order than the scientific name key will be displayed. Forward and backward scanning of the data file will be available from the first plant displayed. Also, optional printing of each displayed record will be available. When the window opens, the LPM form will be on the screen. A complete or partial scientific name is typed into the form. The genus of the plant is typed into the Genus field and the species is typed into the Species field. Once the return or enter key is pressed at the Species field, searching will begin on the opened data file. The first plant matching or greater than the scientific name will be displayed in the form. At the bottom of the form will appear a command letter menu. Pressing N or L will allow forward or backward scanning of the data file in alphabetic order from the record currently displayed on the screen. Pressing P will print the record currently displayed on the screen to the printer. Pressing Q for quit will quit the searching through the current part of the data file. The option will be available to specify a new scientific name search key. Partial keys may be specified in the scientific name search key. The search key can consist of a partial genus name and a blank species name or, the key can be a complete genus name and a partial species name. A partial genus name and a partial species name will be the same as a partial genus name and a blank species name. A partial key can consist of just one letter in the Genus field. The search key is not case sensitive so the key can be typed in any combination of upper and lower case characters. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 39 Search Common Name Pressing the F3 key from an opened Search Menu will open up the window for finding plants in a data file by common name. By specifying a complete or partial common name, the data file will be searched and any plant equal or greater than the common name key will be displayed. Forward and backward scanning of the data file will be available from the first plant displayed. Also, optional printing of each displayed record will be available. When the window opens, the LPM form will be on the screen. A complete or partial common name is typed into the form at the Name field. Once the return or enter key is pressed at the Name field, searching will begin on the opened data file. The first plant matching or alphabetically greater than the common name will be displayed in the form. At the bottom of the form will appear a command letter menu. Pressing N or L will allow forward or backward scanning of the data file in alphabetic order from the record currently displayed on the screen. Pressing P will print the record currently displayed on the screen to the printer. Pressing Q for quit will quit searching through the part of the data file. The option will be available to specify a new scientific name search key. Partial keys may be specified in the common name search key. A partial key can consist of just one letter in the Name field. The search key is not case sensitive so the key can be typed in any combination of upper and lower case characters. When searching by common name, the search key will be based on the noun of the common name followed by the adjectives preceding the noun. As an example: Typing 'Maple' will display the first Maple in the data file. Typing 'Red Maple' will display Red Maple if it exists in the data file. Typing 'Red' will display Eastern Redbud if it exists in the data file, not Red Maple. To avoid problems, type in the common name as commonly referenced; that is, adjectives followed by the noun. Donot type in the name as based on how searching is performed. Search Criteria Pressing the F4 key from an opened Search menu will open the Search by Criteria window. In this section, plants are found based on up to 24 design criteria selections. Starting with a list of all plants in a data file, as each design criteria selection is made, the list of plants is reduced in size, retaining only those plants that match selected criteria. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 40 When the Search by Criteria window is opened, another window will open noting that the data file is being loaded into memory. Once the file is loaded into memory, the window will close and the LPM form will appear in the Search by Criteria window. Searching is done by selecting a choice from a choice list associated with each criteria. Once a selection is made, the list in memory is scanned and all plants matching the selected choice are placed into a new list in memory. When another criteria choice is selected, searching is performed on the new list in memory. All plants matching the selected choice are placed in a new list. This process can be repeated until the 'Plants Found:' field at the top of the window has five or less plants. Once there are five or fewer plants in the list, the list can be displayed in the window or printed on a printer. To make a choice selection, type the number corresponding to the choice in the opened choice window for a particular criteria. Along with a label at the top of the choice window, an arrow will also point to the criteria in the form that is associated with the choice window. Pressing the return key will start the search process. To move through the criteria fields, use the up and down arrow keys (See Cursor Control Keys Assignments in the Reference section). As one of these two keys is pressed, a choice window will open at each criteria field. Continued pressing of the keys will close a current choice window and open the next choice window. Once a search is performed, a command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. Pressing C will return to criteria choice selection for continued searching. A choice window will open at the first blank criteria field on the form. Use the up/down arrow keys for continued moving through the different criteria fields. Any non-blank fields will be skipped over. Pressing R for restart will reset the 'Plant Found:' to zero and clear any list resulting from previous searches. The only list remaining in memory will be the list originally loaded into memory at the beginning of the section. Once a 'Plants Found:' list is trimmed down to five plants or less, the list can be displayed on the screen by pressing D for display. Using information from the list in memory, the complete plant records are loaded into memory one at a time from the data file on the disk. After each record is displayed on the screen, a command letter menu will appear at the bottom of the window. Pressing N for next will display the next record in the list. Pressing P will print the record currently displayed in the form. Pressing Q for quit will quit the display of records and return to the previous command prompt line. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 41 Pressing P for print instead of D for display will print the complete list of plants to the printer. Included with the plants will be a copy of the selected criteria choices and appropiate page headers. During printing, donot interrupt the printer as it will invoke the MS-DOS level error system. (See the File Print in the Reference section). Pressing Q for quit will start an exit from the Search by Criteria section. Because quitting this section will destroy the list in memory requiring reloading of the list, an extra warning will be issued before exiting is allowed. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 42 CURSOR CONTROL KEYS ASSIGNMENTS Whenever an underline ("_____") apprears during a request for information, there will be cursor control keys available for text editing and moving the cursor through the LPM form. All or most of the keys are used whenever the underline appears for input of information. Any key below marked "Ctrl-x" means to type the CTRL key and the related letter or key at the same time. The cursor control keys are: Home or Ctrl-A: This will move the cursor to the beginning of a line. End or Ctrl-F: This will move the cursor to the end of a line. Up Arrow, Shift-Tab, or Ctrl-E: This will move the cursor up one line, field or position. This will only work if entering information on more than one line in a window. In certain sections this key will be equivalent to using the return or enter key. Down Arrow or Ctrl-X: This will move the cursor down one line, field or position. This will only work if entering information on more than one line in a window. In certain sections this key will be equivalent to using the return or enter key. Left Arrow or Ctrl-S: This will move the cursor left one space. Right Arrow or Ctrl-D: This will move the cursor right one space. Del or Ctrl-G: This will delete the character above the cursor and shift all characters to the right of the deleted character over to the left on the line. The cursor stays in the same place and does not move to the left. Backspace or Ctrl-H: A rubout or destructive backspace. A backspace will cause the cursor to move left erasing the character in front of it and drag all characters on the right to the left. Ctrl-End or Ctrl-Z: End of input for a record or field. This key allows finishing of input without having to move the cursor to the end of a line or use the down key to move the cursor to the bottom when there is more than one line of information. Ctrl-Y: This will erase or clear all characters from the cursor to the end of the line. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 43 Return or Enter: End of single line input. These keys assignments are based on the IBM PC keyboard and true compatible keyboards (Zenith Z-150). If the arrow keys and other similar keys (Home, End, PgUp, PgDn) are not available or give erratic results, the control keys should be used in place of the cursor keys. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 44 MANAGING LANDSCAPE PLANT MANAGER FILES Landscape Plant Manager file sets on a disk can be manipulated like any other file on a disk using various PC-DOS/MS-DOS level commands. Each time a new file set is created, three files are established on the disk. These files are: Plant Data File: xxxxxxxx.DAT Scientific Name Index File: xxxxxxxx.SIX Common Name Index File: xxxxxxxx.CIX where 'xxxxxxxx' is the user assigned filename with '.DAT', '.SIX', and '.CIX' being the LPM file extensions. The three extensions should not be used for non-LPM files in the same directory. Copying, deleting and backing up of the LPM files can be accomplished using the available PC-DOS/MS-DOS commands. For further information on using the various commands, consult the appropiate reference manual. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 45 ERRORS, PROBLEMS AND BUGS While using the Landscape Plant Manager various problems may occur. Many times these are due to simple mistakes made by the user because something was typed in that was not expected by the LPM program. The author of the program has tried to anticipate most of the errors that might occur and has impleted ways to avoid 'crashing' the program. Errors detected by the LPM program will appear in an alert box that will pop up in the middle of the screen. If an alert box pops open, read the error message and press any key to close it again. Usually, the mistake can be easily corrected after the alert box is closed. LPM Alert Box Messages The error messages that will appear in the alert boxes are as follows: Under FILE NEW "Sorry, insufficient space on this disk to create a file. Exiting New File." The program determined that there was not enough room on a disk to creat a new file set. If this occurs, exit the program then format a new disk and place a copy of the LPM program files on the new disk. Restart the LPM program using the new disk. An alternative is to delete any non-essential files from the disk. "File already exist. Please choose another name." A file was found on the disk that matched the name given as the new file name. Choose another name for the new file set. "Invalid extension in the filename. Please try again." An extension dot or full extension was typed in with the new file name. The LPM program will add it's own extensions to the new file name. Donot add any extension when typing in a new file name. "Sorry, error detected in creating Data File. Possible disk problem." The program could not create a new plant data file. Possible problems could be insufficient room not detected earlier or a damaged disk. If this problem occurs, it is recommended that a new LPM system disk be created and the new disk used in place of the current disk. "Sorry, error detected in creating Scientific Name Index File. Possible disk problem." The program could not create a new scientific name index file. Possible problems could be insufficient room not detected earlier or a damaged disk. If The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 46 this problem occurs, it is recommended that a new LPM system disk be created and the new disk used in place of the current disk. "Sorry, error detected in creating Common Name Index File. Possible disk problem." The program could not create a new common name index file. Possible problems could be insufficient room not detected earlier or a damaged disk. If this problem occurs, it is recommended that a new LPM system disk be created and the new disk used in place of the current disk. Under FILE OPEN "File set does not exist. Please recheck name or use NEW to create a file set." The program could not find the files on the disk that match the name given by the user. This will most likely be due to a mistyped name. Check the directory listed in the window and try again. "Sorry, error detected in opening Data File. Possible disk problem." The program could not open the plant data file. Possible problems are a damaged data file or a damaged disk. If this problem occurs, use a copy of the data file from a backup disk. If no backup copy is available, the data file is considered lost. "Sorry, error detected in opening Scientific Name Index File. Possible disk problem." The program could not open the scientific name index file. Possible problems are a damaged index file or a damaged disk. If this problem occurs, use a copy of the index file from a backup disk. If no backup copy is available, the index file is considered lost. "Sorry, error detected in opening Common Name Index File. Possible disk problem." The program could not open the common name index file. Possible problems are a damaged index file or a damaged disk. If this problem occurs, use a copy of the index file from a backup disk. If no backup copy is available, the index file is considered lost. Under FILE PRINT "Cannot detect printer. If one is connected, please check it." If a printer is connected to the computer, check to make sure the printer is turned on, on-line and loaded with paper. "Printer does not respond. Please check it." During a pause, the printer was taken off-line or turned off. Turn the printer on or put it back on-line to correct this error. Under RECORD ADD "Selected choice is not in the choice list. Please try again." When making a choice from an opened choice window, the number The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 47 typed in did not correspond to any of the numbers in the choice list. "Duplicate use has been selected. Please choose another landscape use." Up to five landscape uses can be selected for each plant. However, to avoid problems in searching, all of these uses with the exception of 'No Choice' must be different. "Names cannot be blank. Please re-edit the record." Because the scientific name and common name are used in the indecies, they cannot be blank. Re-edit the record by filling in the blank name fields. "The plant already exists in the datafile. Please re-edit the record." Before a plant record is added, a check is made for any existing plants with the same scientific name. If this occurs, change the scientific name to a different name. "Sorry, file is full and cannot add on any more records. Exiting Add to List." It was determined that the maximum allowable number of records for a file was reached. "Sorry, insufficient room on the disk to safely add new records. Exiting Add to List." If was determined that there was little room left on a disk to safely add more records to a file. To correct this, one must go to a larger capacity disk or remove any other files on the current disk to make more room. Under RECORD MODIFY "Selected choice is not in the choice list. Please try again." When making a choice from an opened choice window, the number typed in did not correspond to any of the numbers in the choice list. "Duplicate use has been selected. Please choose another landscape use." Up to five landscape uses can be selected for each plant. However, to avoid problems in searching, all of these uses with the exception of 'No Choice' must be different. "Names cannot be blank. Please re-edit the record." Because the scientific name and common name are used in the indecies, they cannot be blank. Re-edit the record by filling in the blank name fields. "The plant already exists in the datafile. Please re-edit the record." When a scientific name is changed, a check is made for any existing plants with the same scientific name before the edited recorded is put back in the data file. If this occurs, change the scientific name to a different name. Under SEARCH SCIENTIFIC NAME and SEARCH COMMON NAME The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 48 "Cannot detect printer. If one is connected, please check it." If a printer is connected to the computer, check to make sure the printer is turned on, on-line and loaded with paper. Under SEARCH CRITERIA "Cannot detect printer. If one is connected, please check it." If a printer is connected to the computer, check to make sure the printer is turned on, on-line and loaded with paper. "Number entered is not in the choice list. Please try again." When making a choice from an opened choice window, the number typed in did not correspond to any of the numbers in the choice list. "No records where found matching your choice. Please make a different choice." Based on the plants contained in the opened file, none of the plants had a design criteria that matched the selected choice. Select other choices for the particular design criteria until plants are found, or choose another design criteria. "There are more plants in the found list than can be printed. Please search again." A plant list must be trimmed down to five or fewer plants before the list can be displayed on the screen or printed to a printer. Type 'C' to continue searching for plant based on additional design criteria until the list is down to five or fewer plants. "The Plants Found list is empty. Please continue or restart search." There were no plants in the plants found list to print or display. Type 'C' to continue or 'R' to restart. "Insufficient memory. Sorry, Search by Criteria not permitted." The program determined there was not enough memory to load the currently opened plant file into the remaining memory space. If this occurs, use a computer with more memory or, delete several little used and unused plants from the data file. See Delete under the Record menu in the Reference section. "Leaving this section will clear the list from memory (but not the disk). Be sure you really want to quit!" This is not an error message but a warning to avoid accidental exit of the Search by Criteria section before one has intended to quit. PC-DOS/MS-DOS Error Messages There are a few situations that will cause errors that the LPM program cannot intercept. Instead these errors will invoke the PC-DOS/MS-DOS error system and generate an error message that will look similar to this: Write fault error writing device PRN Abort, Retry, Ignore? The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 49 Usually this will garbage up the screen display. The most possible causes of this type of error message will be: Turning the printer off during printing. (Either off line or powered off). Opening a floppy disk drive door. Removing the disk containing the LPM program files while the program is running. Damaged diskettes. Faulty disk drives. To avoid these problems remember to: Never turn off the printer while it is running. Make sure the printer has enough paper. Never open up a floppy disk drive door once the LPM program is started. Treat the diskettes and computer equipment with care. Always make backup copies of your files onto one or more disks. Bugs In the landscape industry, a bug is a type of insect that sometimes causes damages to plants. In the computer industry a bug is an error in the program that will cause false data to be generated or cause the program to stop at the most inopportune time. If you encounter bugs in the program even though you have done everything right several times, please inform the author so he can correct the problem. If a fatal error (bug) occurs which stops the program, restart the program and repeat your steps that caused the fatal error to see if the error will occur again. If the same or similar fatal error happens several times, please write down any error messages that appear on the screen (or do a screen dump if possible) and send a report to the author of the program. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 50 LANDSCAPE PLANT MANAGER PROGRAM INFORMATION Minimum system requirements: IBM-PC series or true compatible computer with 128k of memory,one 360k floppy disk drive and MS-DOS/PC-DOS version 2.0 or above. Optional system equipment: Color display monitor, Epson or Epson compatible printer, hard disk drive in place of floppy disk drive. Minimum RAM Memory: 128k Maximum RAM Memory: 640k Minimum Disk Drives Required: 1 Maximum Disk Drives Supported: 1 Minimum Disk Storage Capacity Required: 360k Maximum Disk Storage Capacity: 20 megabytes (est.) Maximum Records per File: 32,767 Approximate Storable Records on a 360k floppy disk in one or more files: 450 records. Approximate Storable Records on a hard disk in one or more files: Based on partition size. Approximate number of records that can be loaded into memory for Search by Criteria: Memory Records ====== ======= 128k 570 256k 2200 320k 2800 512k 4400 640k 5600 Development System: Zenith Z-150 (IBM PC compatible) with 320k of memory, 360k floppy disk drive and 11 meg hard disk drive. Development Software: Turbo Pascal 3.00B, Turbo Toolbox, MS-DOS 2.11, PC-Write, and Microsoft Word (IBM and Macintosh versions). Monitor Display Note: During testing, it was found that some color display card and color monitor combinations will show a flicker or snow as windows pop open and close. This is a hardware problem and does not affect program operation. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 51 REGISTERING After reviewing the software to determine if the Landscape Plant Manager will meet your needs, a tax deductible donation of $50.00 would be appreciated to continue support of this program. Registering by sending in the donation will enable you to receive additional benefits. (See Registration Specifics for further details). User Supported Software Concepts User supported software is a general concept where the author encourages his or her copyrighted software be copied and shared with others. After a trial period of trying out the software, if the user finds the software to meet his or her needs, the user then supports the author with some form of donation, registration fee, support fee or payment. In return for supporting the author of the software, the user usually obtains further benefits such as free copies of major software updates and technical support. User supported software goes under several other terms such as Freeware, Shareware and MacHonor. To quote Bob Wallace, author of the PC-Write word processor, "Sharware is like public television: the programming is freely distributed, but support from users is encouraged." Please note that the Landscape Plant Manager and other user supported software is NOT public domain software. All Landscape Plant Manager software and materials (including this manual) are copyrighted materials. Please respect the author's rights. For those unfamiliar with public domain software, it is software written by programmers and released into the public domain for whatever use others see fit without any compensation for the author. Usually software released as public domain means the author has given up any rights to the software. Also, users of public domain software receive no additional support when using the software. Where Your Money Goes When you send in your donation, part of the money will go toward providing extra services to you as a registered donor and, continued support and enhancement of the Landscape Plant Manager software. Any remaining money will be used to support and develop computer usage in the Ornamental Horticulture Technology courses and provide hands-on horticulture related computer training for the students in the program. This support will be in the form of computer hardware, application software and development software. The Landscape Plant Manager is the first such project for use by our students in plant identification and landscape design courses. Another project currently being developed is use of The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 52 computer aided design by our students in the Advanced Landscape Design course. Even though the author has spent a year developing the Landscape Plant Manager over and above a full time teaching load, none of the money will go towards his salary. Future plans, goals and ideas As mentioned above, your donation will go towards enhancement of the Landscape Plant Manager and development of other computer software related to ornamental horticulture. As these enhancements and new programs are developed, registered donors will be the first to receive the software. Some plans and ideas that will hopefully be developed in the near future are: -Enhancement of the Lanscape Plant Manager to include program control by use of a mouse, improved file printing and possible limited report generation for incorporation into a word processor. -Symbol libraries and templates for use with computer aided design software in landscape design. Why Should I Pay? Because you have received the software free for your review before paying for the software, there is a temptation not to send in a donation. Many excuses are given such as: "They will not miss my one payment" or "How are they going to catch me". It is hoped that you will make a donation. The author established a low tax deductible donation price for the software to make it affordable to schools, students, homeowners and small landscapers. As an alternative, the author could have: copy protected the software, asked for a $300.00 payment before giving you the software and made you sign a ridiculous liscense agreement. The author would appreciate your monetary support of this program. Without your support, other projects mentioned above cannot be developed and passed on to you. Also, the author may be forced to do the alternative mentioned above. Basically, we trust you in the landscape industry. Please help us maintain that trust. Thanks. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 53 Registration Specifics After you have reviewed the Landscape Plant Manager, if you find it useful in your work, we are asking for a tax deductible donation as follows: INDIVIDUALS AND SMALL LANDSCAPE BUSINESSES: If you are an individual in a landscape business, a single site landscape business or a homeowner then please send in a single $50.00 donation. LARGE LANDSCAPE BUSINESSES: If you are a multiple site or branch business where the Landscape Plant Manager will be used at two or more sites please send in a $50.00 donation for each site that will be using the Landscape Plant Manager. SCHOOLS: If the Landscape Plant Manager will be operating on only one non-networked computer that is used by all the students, the donation is the same as an individual. If copies of the Landscape Plant Manager are distributed to students for individual student use or the program will be used in a computer network, please send in a $50.00 donation each term (quarter or semester) that copies are distributed or a copy of the program resides on the network. Schools may not charge students towards payment of the donation. However, students can be required to purchase the diskette necessary for obtaining a copy of the Landscape Plant Manager and pay up to but not over $2.00 for a manual to cover the cost of manual reproduction. For details and permission on manual reproduction using more traditional means, please contact the author. STUDENTS: No charge. However, you will not receive the benefits of registered donors. Once you leave school and obtain a position in the landscape industry, it is hoped you or the business where you are employed will make the $50.00 donation. Registered donors will receive the following benefits: A letter thanking you for your tax deductible donation to the Development Fund and support of the Ornamental Horticulture Technology program at Ferris State College. Postcards notifying you of the next two major Landscape Plant Manager updates. The first postcard is redeemable towards receiving one free disk with a copy of the updated program. The second postcard is redeemable towards a copy of the updated program for a small charge to cover cost of the diskette and mailing. Written support for any problems you may have with the Landscape Plant Manager for one year. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 54 If you wish to make a donation larger than the requested $50.00 donation, it would be very much appreciated. Because of the low cost of the software and a full time teaching load, the author cannot provide telephone support for any problems you may have with the Landscape Plant Manager. Sorry. If you donot find the Landscape Plant Manager useful in your work, please pass the disk on to another member of the landscape industry for their review and destroy this manual. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 55 REGISTRATION FORM Name:__________________________________________________ Organization:__________________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________ City:________________________ State:_____ Zip:_________ Phone: (______) ______-_________ ext.__________ Number of sites:________ LPM Version number:_______________ (found at top of LPM Intro. window) Computer System: Manufacturer:____________________________________ Model:___________________________________________ RAM Memory Installed:____________________________ Number, Capacity and Type (Floppy, Hard, etc) of Disk Drives: _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Video Display (Monochrome or Color Graphics, etc) Please describe display most often used: _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ On the back, the author would appreciate any enhancements, suggestions, comments and criticisms concerning the Landscape Plant Manager software and documentation. Also, please make note if you would like to see the Landscape Plant Manager on other computer systems (Apple, Tandy, Commodore) and, any other ideas you may have concerning computer useage in the landscape industry. With a check made out to "The FSC Biology/OHT Development Fund", please send this registration form and your donation to: Department Head Department of Biological Sciences Ferris State College Big Rapids, MI 49307 The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 56 Appendix A-Larix Data Sheet Genus: Larix Species: decidua Name: Larch Class: Tree Bark Color: Medium Gray Type: Deciduous Bark Texture: Fissured Mature Height: 68-77 feet Hardiness Zone: #2/-50 to -40 F Mature Spread: 28-37 feet Soil Type: Loam Growth Habit: Pyramidal Soil Moisture: Moist & Drained Density: Medium Soil pH: Slightly Acid Texture: Medium Light Conditions: Full Sun Summer Leaf Color: Medium Green Growth Rate: Fast Fall Leaf Color: Yellow Fertility Needs: Moderate Flower Color: Yellow Insect Problems: Susceptable Flower Bloom Time: Apr-May Disease Problems: Susceptable Fruit Color: Yellow Orange Landscape Uses: Screen Specimen Note 1: Deciduous conifer (drops needles in fall) Note 2: 'Fastigiata' columnar shape Note 3: 'Pendula' weeping form The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 57 Appendix B-Ferris State College Ferris State College Big Rapids, MI 49307 Ferris State College is entering its second century as a national leader in career-oriented education. Over 130 programs are offered through the Schools of Allied Health, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Pharmacy, Technology and the College of Optometry. A feature at Ferris is "laddering" which allows students who have completed one of many one and two year degrees to transfer into the four year programs without little or no loss of credit. Founded in 1884, Ferris has developed a modern 600-acre campus in BigRapids, at the gateway to west-central Michigan's vacation and recreation country. For further information or applications, contact the Director of Admissions, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, MI 49307 Appendix C-Ornamental Horticulture Technology Program The Ornamental Horticulture Technology program is offered through the School of Arts and Sciences at Ferris State College. It is an eighteen month program leading to an Associates of Applied Science degree. The prime orientation of the OHT program is to provided students with training in the outdoor landscaping area. A majority ofthe OHT students upon graduation go into the landscape industry. Due to the "laddering" concept at Ferris State College, several of our students upon completion of their OHT degree continue in one of several baccalaureate programs. Most of these students complete a four year degree in business within two additional years of coursework. For further information on the Ornamental Horticulture Technology program at Ferris State College, contact the: Program Coordinator, Ornamental Horticulture Technology Program, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, MI 49307. The Landscape Plant Manager Version 1.0 Page 58 ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of Public (software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. 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