~Overview~

OffLoad is a collection of administrative aids which are
made available on a microcomputer.  The system is intended
for those users who require a general purpose microcomputer
system for some aspect of their work and who wish to use
the system for additional administrative functions.

The individual components of the OffLoad system have been
made as compatible as possible to provide a
straightforward, uniform set of facilities to the user. 
Extensive use is made of "menus" from which choices of
action may be made and help information is provided by the
system.

         +-------------+
         |   Computer  |
         |   Network   |
         +-------------+
                ^
                |
                v
         +-------------+         +-----------+
         |   OffLoad   | ------> |  Printer  |
         | workstation |         +-----------+
         +-------------+
                ^
                |
                v
               user
                            
The design of the OffLoad workstation allows
straightforward integration with facilities available over
a computer network. This will enable interpersonal
communication facilities (such as electronic mail, viewdata
and document transfers) as well as access to more powerful
computer based facilities, document archives, printing,
etc.

~System Requirements~

The full OffLoad system will run on the UCSD p-System
Version IV and it has initially been provided on the
Intertec SuperBrain QD microcomputer. Many of the
individual components of OffLoad are available as part of
the WORDSET Word Processing Facilities or other packages
available from the ERCC for UCSD based microcomputers. 








~OffLoad Command Level~

The components of the OffLoad system are arranged in a
hierarchy. At all levels you are presented with a prompt
line giving the options available to you and inviting you
to press a key to select one of them.  Options are
indicated by a form such as E(dit or S(et.  Type the letter
to the left of the parenthesis to make the appropriate
selection. You may return to a higher choice level by
typing Q to Q(uit.

~OffLoad Components~

E(ditor        to create and modify documents
F(iler         to examine disk contents, manipulate disks
L(ist          to print out documents
P(rose         to format documents
S(can          to list a document to the screen for review
T(ty           to communicate with other computers
D(iskAids      to copy and tidy disks
H(elp          to provide assistance in the use of OffLoad
X(ecute        to execute other utilities and programs
               Crackup       splits up large documents and 
                             rejoins parts
               Compact       reduce space used by document
               Calc          Desktop arithmetic calculator
               Compare       two documents
               Sort/Merge
               Mail          Mailing label manager and
                             form letters
               Configure     workstation environment
               Fund,Enuf,etc Cashflow analysis,
                             Data base management system, etc
               + others

~OffLoad Parameter Text~

Instead of making arbitrary choices for the default action
of the various components of OffLoad, the system will check
for the presence of setup information in a text file held
on the system disk (*PARAM.INFO).  This is set to general,
useful values but may be altered by the user with the
Editor. An appendix to this document describes the various
features which may be set up.  Suitable general purpose
defaults have already been chosen for the OffLoad system as
it is distributed.









~Help~

The OffLoad workstation provides help on several topics. 
You can get a summary of the OffLoad commands, recall the
special keystrokes needed for editor functions, get a list
of the Utilities available, etc.

A document *HELP.HINT may be created by a user of OffLoad
to hold any useful information and this can be recalled in
the OffLoad Help facility at any time.


~Editor~

A screen oriented editor is used for the entry of text to
the system and for its subsequent modification.  The editor
displays a screen image which shows a "window" onto the
text being edited.  The screen image is as close as
possible to the current state of the part of the text being
entered or modified.  Cursor moving keys may be used to
move to any position on the screen or to move through the
text to cause a different "window" to be shown on the
screen.

~DiskAids~

A set of commonly needed disk operations has been provided
in an easy to use manner via the DiskAids component of
OffLoad.  These simplify the copying of entire disks and
the setting up of new user disks.  Normally these
operations would each consist of several steps and
necessitate otherwise unnecessary background knowledge of
the computer system being used.  The DiskAid facilities
are:

B(ackup-#4    create a backup of the OffLoad System Disk
C(opy-#5      create a copy of the User Disk
N(ew-#5       create a new, formatted, blank, User Disk
T(idy         compact unused space on the disks in drives


~Filer~

The Filer is a collection of facilities to examine the list
of documents or files on disks (known as disk directories),
to copy files, remove files, change the names of files,
copy entire disks, etc. Floppy disks are prone to damage
from dust, grease, etc, so there are aids for checking
disks are sound and recovering parts of disks found to be
faulty (see the appendix on handling floppy disks for more
information on disk handling and recovering from errors).

The "DiskAids" facilities in OffLoad are intended to
provide a straightforward method of manipulating entire
disks, to take back-up copies of disks, etc.

~LIST~

LIST is a utility for listing text to a printer.  Simple
paginated output is possible using a format which you may
specify in the OffLoad parameter information text. However,
the OffLoad workstation is set up so that, by default, A4
paginated output will be produced. The document to be
listed may consist of several separate parts.  These can be
given to LIST by separating them by commas.

Text may be underlined and characters printed in an
alternative font using the LIST utility.


~PROSE - Text Formatter~

More sophisticated text formatting is possible using the
text formatter PROSE.  Directives may be placed in the text
to produce a wide variety of output styles.  Without
directives PROSE will attempt to produce a reasonably
formatted document according to a default description.

Sample directive texts for PROSE are provided with the
OffLoad System.


~Scan - review a long text~

The S(can) option of OffLoad is a simple method of
reviewing a text file which is too long to edit.  It lists
the document on the screen.


~TTY - Communications~

TTY can be used to enable the microcomputer to act as a
video terminal to a host computer.  The microcomputer is
connected to the network via a Terminal Control Processor,
either directly or via an accoustic coupler and telephone
to the host computer. The normal conventions for logging on
to and using the host computer should then be followed.

It is possible to enter a "local mode" of the TTY program
and to P(ut documents to the host computer from the micro-
computer's disks or to G(et documents back from the host
computer to the microcomputer's disks. The F(iler option
allows the microcomputer's disk directories to be examined,
documents removed, etc. from within TTY.

TTY forms a part of the ERCC X-Talk communication
facilities.



~X(execute)~

Less commonly used components of the OffLoad system do not
appear on the main options menu list.  These can be used by
typing X and giving the component name.

~CRACKUP~

CRACKUP can be used to break up a large document into
several manageable pieces suitable for editing.  This may
be necessary where a document is brought onto the
workstation from elsewhere (e.g., from another computer).

In addition, should it ever be desirable to put together
all the separate sections of a large document (e.g., for
sending to someone on a different computer) CRACKUP will
also perform that operation.


~COMPACT~

The Editor and some other OffLoad utilities represent
documents in a reduced form.  In some cases, such as
receipt of documents from a host computer via the G(et
document) facilities of the TTY communication package, the
document created will be larger than strictly necessary. 
If this causes inconvenience, such as making the document
too large to edit, perform a COMPACT operation on the
document and the leading spaces will be converted to their
reduced form, and all trailing spaces on lines will be
removed.

~CALC~

CALC enables simple arithmetic calculations to be
performed. A display can be maintained showing the current
values of a set of "variables" which can be used to hold
intermediate results.  Help information is available in the
utility.

~COMPARE~

This is a utility to compare 2 similar documents and to
produce a report of the differences between them.  It is
normally used to compare a revision of a document against
an original.

~SORT/MERGE~

SORT/MERGE is a general package which is able to perform a
number of operations on lines of text (usually in some
fixed format or list) or on other types of files.  The
OffLoad system includes one version of this facility which
allows a document consisting of single line records to be
sorted according to up to 6 'keys' or ordering fields.
     
~MAIL~

MAIL is a utility to manage a data base of name, address
and other information.  The data base may be added to,
changed and entries deleted.  It is possible to search
through the data base for records satisfying certain
criteria.  Mailing labels may be produced and record
entries merged into standard letters to produce "form"
letters.


~CONFIGURE~

CONFIGURE can be used to set characteristics of the OffLoad
workstation hardware.  Normally, information for the ports
for connection to a printer and to other computers can be
set in CONFIGURE. See the manual for the particular
hardware in use for details.


~FUND (Cash Flow Analysis), ENUF (database), etc.~

FUND, ENUF, etc. are systems provided on the UCSD p-System
in which OffLoad operates.  They are not provided directly
in OffLoad due to limitations on disk space.  However, they
may be used as separate systems.

FUND is a utility to maintain a list of transactions by
Cost Centres (e.g., grants or departmental groupings) and
Cost Codes (e.g., expenditure headings).  Transactions may
be entered and later examined. Reports may be generated to
the screen or to a printer giving income, expenditure, cash
balances and committed expenditure for various cost centres
or cost codes.

ENUF - the Edinburgh User Friendly Data Base Management
System - is a flexible, easy to use, general purpose data
base management system.  It may be used in many situations
where record processing is required.

~FORMATDISK, BOOTER, etc~

These utilities are normally called via the OffLoad
DiskAids component.  However, they can be called
separately if required to format disks or to copy the
bootstrap area of disks.

~User Provided Programs~

There are several general purpose tools to aid in providing
programs suitable for administrative functions. In
particular, there are facilities to provide ISAM (Indexed
Sequential Access Method) file support and "electronic
form" oriented front ends to programs.

