FAQ

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CCFF99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04078671esnimw.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#CCFF99" FACE="Arial" ><B>Awkmaster.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Awkmaster.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Products and Services"><U>Our Products and Services</U></A>   |   <B>FAQ</B>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Me"><U>Contact Me</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Awk Tutorials"><U>Awk Tutorials</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#336699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="041c83b3.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCFF99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>FAQ</I></div> <div> Frequently Asked Questions</div> <bR> <div> <B>Problem:</B> You have a program that only outputs in pre formatted report, but you need it in a format that your state or bank requires, on a disk/electronic transfer. </div> <div> <B>Solution:</B> AWKMaster! A very small program, (<20KB, REALLY!) with freely available source code, takes available information and converts it into the format your bank/state or other electronic reporting center requires. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Question:</B><B> Who are you?</B></div> <div> My name is Gerald Young. I have A+ and CCNA certifications. I have been programming and working on computers since 1984. I am currently a network administrator in a 50 workstation environment. I have written conversion programs for different companies for data mining, electronic claims reporting, electronic submissions to insurance companies and state agencies.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Q:</B><B> What programming language are you using?</B></div> <div> I am using the "awk" parsing program. For data changes, I may also use the "vim" text editing program.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: I've never heard of awk and vim. What are their operating system requirements?</B></div> <div> DOS 3.3 or greater, including all Windows variants, including most Unix/Linux variants. Awk is a text parsing program. It is available for free for many operating systems. Check this site out for more information: <A HREF="http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/htmlchek/awk-perl.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/htmlchek/awk-"><U>http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/htmlchek/awk-perl.html</U></A>. The awkmaster derivative programs are in plain text. The source code for the application, the batch file, and the script are easily viewed and modified. The result from me can be as small as 20K or less.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: What can an extremely small program do for me that my spreadsheet program or database program or report writing program not do? </B></div> <div> This just works. You and I both have the source code. Any changes made for you require mere seconds download time, because it's a tiny text file. No compilations. At worst, a batch file change. If you have a file that has a standard output (flat file) in tab delimited, comma separated, or just can print to disk with no font formatting, the raw information can be put into the format as required by the agency to whom you wish to submit. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: Can't I do this through a spreadsheet? </B></div> <div> For the most part, perhaps, but even if you have it in a spreadsheet, you still have to export it into exact widths and positions in an electronic format. It's tedious. If you export the file to CSV, AWKMaster make it formatted exactly for submission. Spreadsheets are OK, but they don't always import all the fields you might need, and they can be tough sometimes to use for merging and cross-referencing. Also, some spreadsheet programs have line limitations for how many total records they can contain. AWKMaster does not care how many lines/records it has to parse. Also, if you have a proprietary database, you may have or desire to have direct access via ODBC to "live data." Sure, you may be able to copy the live data to another directory (possibly several hugefiles,) run an spreadsheet on it in chunks at a time, and then format it, but the resources used are generally large. Some databases are designed against this anyway. You could write an SQL program to pull your information out, or use your proprietary database program to write a report, but it's probably never exactly what the state needs, with exact columns, etc. </div> <div> AWKMaster takes the report your program generates: text, formatted reports, comma separated, tab delimited, anything that can be printed on a page or viewed on screen in some regular intervals, and puts the records in a perfectly formatted (and, if you so desire, filtered, and/or sorted) file. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: What do I need to give you? </B></div> <div> Actually, very little information. Hopefully, text files of one to three pages of information, in order to have adequate range of testing for your required output, and exact specifications of output format. If you have merge requirements, text files of each report being merged, and upon which field(s) to link. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: OK, what's it going to cost? </B></div> <div> From $25 and up. Specifically, how many merges, desired output format, condition of original report. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Q: Can I get a sample? </B></div> <div> Yes. I'll provide downloads in the Awk Tutorials Section</div> <bR> <div> By the way, It's not just electronic submissions that will be helped, any report that you can get on paper that you'd like to import to another database, this will help! </div> <div> <U>Email: awkmaster@awkmaster.com</U><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>