Quick Help File

This program allows the search of the groups.io archives in any one of four areas:

(a) the text of the message
(b) the title of the message
(c) the author (originator) of the message
(d) message number

The whole of the archives may be searched with one click.

The first three lines (String 1, String 2, String 3) allow you to search for any words (part-words) or phrases.

e.g. ensure that the "Search Text" radio button is selected and then enter "scam" in String 1 and "e-bay" in String 2. Clicking "Search" will return references to all articles containing both those two words.

Although only String 1 is mandatory, it is common for just the use of this line to return too many hits. String 2 and String 3 can be used to refine the search.

String 1 is special in that it recognises common abbreviations for some slide-rule makers. Thus in this field e.g. "K+E" will be recognized as "Keuffel & Esser", "keuffel" etc. Similarly "thatcher" will be recognised as "thatcher", "thacher" etc.

Full details can be obtained from "Full Help".

Since input is not case-sensitive it is suggested that input is in lower-case.

String 4 allows you to exclude strings. For example, to search for articles with "loga" in the title", click on "Search Title" and then insert "loga" in String 1 and click on "Search". A large number of hits will be returned containing not only "loga" but "logarithm", "logarex" etc.

Now repeat the search but insert "logarithm" in String 4.

All articles with "loga" in the title but not "logarithm" will be returned.

Using "logar" in String 4 will suppress all references to "logarithm" and "logarex".

Each line in the database contains a line of the form:

Number   Title   Name   Date

"Number" is clickable to give the specified article. However, since here I use Yahoo's access technique it is possible that an advertisement will be shown prior to the article.

Under "Name", I have removed all e-mail addresses. If Yahoo only provided an e-mail address then I have used the base part of the e-mail name (i.e. the part before the '@'). If even this is not available then the the string "(no name)" will be displayed.

Requesting "Message Number" will provide the 20 consecutive articles from that point.

For full information please see: Help


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