KWIC‐REF/1 for document storage and retrieval
| Date | 01 February 1985 |
| Published date | 01 February 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044647 |
| Pages | 92-93 |
| Author | Gerald Cathcart |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
KWIC-REF/1 for
document storage
and
retrieval
KWIC-REF/1 is a very stable and powerful storage, indexing and
retrieval tool. It is particularly suited for general document storage and
retrieval. The package allows full text storage of documents and easy
reference through keywords. It is simple to use and quick at sorting and
selecting documents. Priced reasonably, it can be useful for smaller
special libraries, for issue files in larger libraries and for filing client and
business correspondence.
The package runs on IBM/PC and compatible computers with disk
storage of at least five million
bytes.
The price
is
$300.
It
is
available from
Chen Information Systems, 1499 Bayshore Highway, 205, Burlingame,
CA 94010, USA. Tel: (415) 692-4358.
GERALD
CATHCART
SOFT
WARE
review
K
WIC-REF/1 (Key Word in
Context REFerence) is a general
purpose electronic filing package
designed to file and cross-refer-
ence up to 32,000 documents.
These documents can be retrieved in seconds
through the use of keywords and the package
commands.
The documentation likens this package to
a
filing cabinet, and in some ways it can serve
the same functions. It is simple to use and
able to serve very well as a fast filing cabinet,
but it is also capable of being used as a com-
puter database and a reference facility.
Easy
access
to functions
The package operates from menu displays
and provides editing facilities for the infor-
mation that is to be stored. Function keys are
used to step through the heirarchical menu
structure. The main menu gives access to the
following functions: Build a Dictionary;
Index Documents; Search Documents and
Display/Print words from the dictionary. In
many cases the menu displays have to be
summoned up in reverse order to move from
one function to another. This is not a
handicap because relatively few such displays
are used.
KWIC-REF/1 accepts virtually any kind
of document, processes it, and builds a
dictionary of keywords or a dictionary of
words to be excluded during searches. It can
be used to reference documents according to
any desired categorization scheme. One
limitation is that all filed documents must be
in a certain standard form (ASCII format).
This means, for example that documents pre-
pared with a word-processor like Wordstar
must be prepared using the so-called non-
document mode. This is no great limitation
since most file and text processing packages
provide the necessary mode.
Documents of virtually any size can be
handled. The limitation here is the size of the
storage medium used. Storage of documents [
must be done on the same drive as the one
that holds the package software. The vendor
recommends using at least a five million byte
hard disk, but a minimum of ten million is
probably more practical.
Indexing and
searching
When loading
a
document into the computer,
the user first builds a dictionary of terms that
will be used to index the document. This
may
be done by entering selected terms into a file,
or by using the document itself as a source
of
keywords. A file of words to be excluded
from searching (a stop word list) can also be
built. All these functions are easily set up by
making selections from the KWIC-REF/1
menus.
Indexing a large file can take considerable
time.
Re-indexing an already-established file
can take even longer, since old indexing re-
lationships must be broken as new ones are
formed.
Document searching is a simple process.
Those documents that contain selected com-
binations of indexing terms can readily be
searched out. The package also allows use of
Boolean search terms with keywords con-
nected by AND, OR and XOR (exclusive
OR).
The use of the keyboard to control the
operation is unique to this package. Users
who are accustomed to the conventions in
popular packages like Wordstar and Lotus
1.2.3 may find the usage confusing initially.
Some keyboard use is inconsistent. For ex-
ample the back-space key works in numeric
fields but not in alphnumeric fields.
Once use of the keyboard is mastered, the
menus are easy to use, and they are clearly
worded and arranged. This reviewer fre-
quently made the error of hitting the Return
key instead of the F9 key. The package did
not respond to the incorrect keystroke, wait-
ing instead for the correct key to be pressed.
Some filing software is sensitive to operator
errors,
giving problems when the wrong keys
are hit, or when keys are hit in the wrong
order. No such problems were found in
KWIC-REF/1.
A Help feature offers appropriate tutorial
text, mainly taken from the printed manual.
Pressing the F1 key brings up text that
explains the functions of the menu currently
displayed. The manual itself is very sparce
and is not laid out for easy reference. This is
92 The Electronic Library, April 1985.
Vol.
3, No. 2.
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