This diskette holds the files which make up the FREEFORM TUTORIAL.

*********************************************
USING THE TUTORIAL DISKETTE and DOCUMENT	
*********************************************

To install:

1) Create a directory
2) cd to the new directory
3) copy *.* from the directory containing the tutorial diskette
	into the new directory

To follow the tutorial document:

1) Begin with "Creating a Binary Archive"
2) The commands in command boxes can be entered at the keyboard




*********************************************
	GENERAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR FIXES
*********************************************

Various problems have been reported due to the placement of non-printing
characters (like ^Z) into files. This problem has been noted by users of
EDIX
KEDIT  (Problems can be avoided by set end_of_char(?) to OFF

If you have problems please check to make sure the files you have are the
same length as those listed in the file named files.


1) The first record changes formats corectly, but others do not.
The problem is that you have not described the last variable in
the format.  FREEFORM needs a way to find out how long a record is in
the files it is reading, both ASCII and binary.  It does this by
finding the variable with the largest end position and assumes that
this variable is at the end of the record.  If this assumption is not
true, FREEFORM gets lost after the first record.
	
2) Make sure your file lengths are correct.
For ASCII files on DOS machines the length should be:
			number of records * (record length + 2) 
because the DOS EOL is 2 characters.

For ASCII files on UNIX machines or MACS the length should be:
			number of records * (record length + 1) 

For binary files on any machines the length should be:
			number of records * record length 

Pre-Release versions:

During the development phase of FREEFORM we have had versions of newform available in anonymous/pub/FREEFORM on luna.
These pre-release versions included Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy,
Doc and Happy. A summary of improvements made during this time include:

	Improved variable list processing: 33% increase in speed!
	Able to read files with non printable characters at the beginning of lines.
	Tested binary to ASCII 	conversions more completely
	If you are writing an ASCII file from a binary file with a header the
		header will be included in the ASCII file.
	Added some checks to find file lengths that do not match the
		record lengths.
	Check for variable record lengths in the input file.
	Headers no longer come out on ASCII outputs from binary files with headers.
	Some conversions added for latitude, longitude signs and earthquake
		magnitudes.
	Grumpy runs under UNIX on a SUN SPARCII!!
	If an attempt to write a number which is too large for an
		ASCII variable is made, the field is filled with *'s.
	Conversions from ASCII to binary are checked for overflow and an ERROR
		occurs if such an overflow is detected. This means that you attempted
		to write an ASCII number which was TOO BIG for its binary format
		description. The type of the binary variable needs to be changed to
		make it larger.



Release version 2.1
	
	This version includes all of the above improvements and is being
	used extensively by data managers at the Data Center.

Release version 2.2

	Included testting of data files with record headers and some number
	of data records following. The number of data records can be described
	either in the record headers with a variable "count" or in a .eqv file.
	Degree/minute/second conversions were changed to allow minutes or seconds
	to be signed if the value was between -1 and 0.


*********************************************
DIRECTORY CONTENTS USED BY FREEFORM TUTORIAL	
*********************************************
		
Executables:

AFM2BFM  EXE
CHECKVAR EXE
FILLHEAD EXE
GETHEAD  EXE
GETLL    EXE
GETLLSYM EXE
NEWFORM  EXE
READFILE EXE
DIFF     COM

Files used in the tutorial:

CALIF    TAP 
DEGABSM  AFM 
DEGMGEOG AFM 
D_M      AFM 
D_M_S    AFM 
EQTAPE   AFM 
GETLL    C   
GETLLSYM C   
HYPO71   AFM 
HYPOE    AFM 
HYPOI    AFM 
LATLON   AFM 
LATLON   BFM 
LATLON   DAT 
LATLON   FMT 
LATLON1  LL  
LATLON2  LL  
LATLON3  LL  
LATLON4  LL  
LATLON5  LL  
LATLON_D BFM 
LL       FMT 
LLMAXMIN DAT 
LLMAXMIN FMT 
MDY      AFM 
MDY      DAT 
NODC     DAB 
NODC     FMT 
NODCHEAD AFM 
SERIAL   BFM
SERIAL   BFM 
TIME     AFM 
TIME     DAT 
USGS     DAT 
USGS     FMT 
YYMMDD   AFM