The 8BS questionnaire system The 8BS questionnaire system Version 0.13 by Steven Flintham (15A) Introduction The 8BS questionnaire system aims to provide a convenient method for members to let the editor know what they think of 8BS and to provide information which will be useful in shaping future issues. Members use a program provided on this disc to complete a questionnaire and then send the resulting answer file to the editor on their submission disc. It also allows members to enter up to five computing and five general interests if they wish. These will then be used to produce a list to be released on future issues of 8BS, allowing members with similar interests to contact one another. Basic instructions When run, the program will ask you to insert your 8BS submission disc. After doing so, you should then press SPACE. You must NOT take your submission disc out of the drive until you have finished using the program. You must also avoid pressing BREAK - this will not harm the disc but will probably leave the questionnaire file either corrupt or incomplete. If this happens, just type the following at the BASIC prompt with your submission disc in the drive: CLOSE _0 *DELETE !QUEST To avoid this happening, you should leave the program by pressing ESCAPE while answering the questions - this will make sure than any information you have given will be stored correctly on the disc. Entering your personal details If you have not used the program before, you will be asked to fill in an on-screen 'form' giving your name, address and (if appropriate) telephone number. You can type on to the form in the normal manner, using the cursor keys to move around. DELETE will delete backwards most of the time, but it does not close up any gap produced - this is not necessary as only small amounts of information are being entered and providing a close up facility slows down the program. Typing over an item with spaces will also remove it. Pressing RETURN will move the cursor to the next line. You should type as 'neatly' as possible, using both capital (ABC) and lower case (abc) letters, but this is not essential. It is perfectly acceptable to leave blank lines, for example if your address does not need seven lines, although where an item requires more than one line you should start on the top line. You MUST enter your user ID, name and address, since the editor needs these to identify each member. You do not have to enter your telephone number, but you may do so if you wish - please enter the area (STD) code as a number if possible (e.g. 01754 rather than Skegness), although the program does not insist on this. 'Punctuation' throughout the information is entirely at your discretion but I would suggest leaving out any commas and full stops. Although you must give your address, you do not have to agree to it being published. If you do not change the setting it will be published where appropriate - moving the cursor to the 'Publish: Yes' area next to 'Address:' and typing N will prevent this. Type Y to change it back. Your name is not treated as part of your address and will be published with your user ID if necessary - this is not affected by the address 'Publish:' setting. Any members wishing to keep their name anonymous should temporarily use a pseudonym in the 'Name:' section and enter their name as the first line of their address, making sure to specify that this should not be published. You should also mention this to the editor in a note somewhere on the submission disc and contact me so that I can modify the program to provide a 'don't publish name' option - no provision has been made for this at the moment as I do not expect it to be required and it would increase the size of the program still further. As with the address, even if you give your telephone number you do not have to agree to it being published. Change the 'Publish:' setting below the telephone number to indicate your choice. If you do not agree to your address or telephone number being published then only the 8BS editor will see them. You can press f0 at any time during this process for help. Press ESCAPE when you have finished - the program will remind you to enter your user ID, name and address if you have not done so. Answering the questions After entering your personal details you will be able to answer the questions. If you have already entered your personal details then the program will come straight to this point when run. Once you have reached this point you can leave the questionnaire partially completed and come back to it later. The first question will automatically be displayed and you can move freely between questions by using the left and right cursor keys. Answering a question will automatically move to the next question, except on the last question when this is obviously not possible. There are two types of question - multiple choice and non-multiple choice! To answer a multiple choice question, just press the appropriate number from the list displayed. To answer non-multiple choice questions, just type in the answer - a row of dots will appear below the answer when you press the first key. On these types of question, deleting what you have typed in and pressing RETURN on a blank line will leave the previous answer, whatever it was. Some questions require only the press of a 'Y' or 'N' key. You can refuse to answer any question by pressing COPY and also by selecting 0 on multiple choice questions. Please try to complete as many questions as possible, however. You can press f0 for help. Pressing ESCAPE will save your answers to disc and return you to BASIC - this is the only completely safe way of leaving the program. You can also press f1 to force the program to save your answers without finishing, f2 to change your personal details as described above or f3 to enter/change your interests as described below. Entering/changing your interests You can enter up to five computing and five general interests. This 'form' operates in the same way as the personal details form. You do not have to enter anything and there is no need to use every line, although you should start at the top line of each section. You can enter interests in only one section if you wish. Punctuation and layout are up to you, but as with the personal details I would suggest using both capital and lower case letters and omitting commas and full stops. Press f0 for help and ESCAPE to return to answering the questions. PRESS SPACE