Re: Help with PFS File

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Dale Baskin (baskin@concentric.net) wrote:
: I'm hoping somebody can help me solve a problem.

: My grandfather has had an Apple //e for about 15 years.  During this time he
: has built up a substantially large geneology database (possibly thousands of
: records) in the program "PFS File."  He recently got a new Windows PC, and
: would like to transfer these records to the new computer.  (Both to provide
: increased functionality, but also to assure that at some point these records
: are not lost forever)

: Unfortunately, PFS File will not allow you to save records in any sort of
: text format, only the program's proprietary format.  We are trying to figure
: out a way to move them to a more modern computer.  Any ideas on how this
: could be accomplished would be appreciated.

The fact that you say that PFS:File won't save the file as a text file or
anything else tells me that you have the older, more common Pascal version
of PFS:File.

(PFS:File, incidentally, is the one database that can actually handle the
kind of data I usually want to put into a database, and does it remarkably
well...)

The ProDOS version of PFS: will allow you to export data to non-PFS:
applications, if I remember correctly...

Anyway, I happen to have a copy of the ProDOS version on my //e, sitting
at the other end of my desk.  Well, that is a start, anyway.

The problem is that while Software Publishing produced a program to
convert data files from the Pascal format to the ProDOS format, I don't
have a copy of it available.

If one of us could get the data converted to the ProDOS format, I could
run disk images through the version of PFS: that I have, and return plain
text files.  Those could then be imported into whatever database you're
migrating to.........

It's a thought, anyway...

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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