Help File

This program allows the search of Bill Robinson's Slide Rule Archive for strings appearing in this archive.

There are two sort of string searches:

(a) Ordinary searches which allow the search of the following fields in the database:
Maker, Model, Structure, Construction, Date, Source, and Information.

(b) Scale searches which allow the search of the following fields only:
Scales Front, and Scales Back.

This second search is only available if the following check box is ticked:
Only Check This Box If You Are Searching For a Scale:

Examples of type (a):

1. Insert "Dietzgen", without the quotes, into the first field and click "Search".

All entries with "Dietzgen" in one of the fields mentioned above will be displayed.

The search string is not case-sensitive so any combination of upper and lower case characters may be used.

2. Now insert "1735", without the quotes, into the second field and click "Search".

Now the output shows those records containing both "Dietzgen" and "1735".

3. The "BUT NOT" search facility was provided to maintain compatibility with other
Search Engines I have created. The database we are using here is very small so that
this facility is hardly necessary. However, a somewhat artificial example is now given.

Insert "hemmi" in the first field and "duplex" in the second and click "Search".

Notice that the rules displayed are for "Electrical Engineers", "Expert Electrical Engineers" and "Advanced Electrical Engineers".

To remove the "Advanced" entries, insert "advanced" in the "BUT NOT" field and click "Search".

Examples of type (b):

The checkbox Only Check This Box If You Are Searching For a Scale: must be clicked for these searches.

1. Insert "l,k,a", without the quotes into the first field and click "Search".

All entries with a front and/or back scale containing that pattern will be displayed.
The search string is not case sensitive and either commas or spaces (any number) may be used as separators.
Thus "L K a" or "l, k a" will give the same result.

2. The database uses the "||" to separate the body from the slide and this symbol may be used in the search pattern.

Insert "l, k, a || b ci", without the quotes, into the first field and click "Search".

The expected output will be displayed.

3. The whole of a front or back scale may be searched.

Insert "Sh2, Sh1, Th, A || BI, S, T, CI, C || D, DI, LL3, LL2, LL1" without the quotes into the first field and click "Search".

Notice that to facilitate the search, subscripts are ignored. Thus "Sh1" in the search string will find "Sh1" and "Sh₁ etc.

The number of the rule shown in the page listing of each rule is the number of the rule appearing in Bill Robinson's original spreadsheet. It has no other significance.

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