Hints and Tip (January 1994)

(Updated 2002)

• Weight Graphs
• Label abbreviations
• Searching for text on the management record.
• Accessing the last seen client
• Premvet logo
• Interesting commands
• 10 Minute guide to VI.

The vet system can display in graphical form the weight gain/loss of animals. This option is helping practices that run obesity clinics by showing clients in a easy way how their pets are progressing. The following notes will help you in setting them up.

Add an Automatic pricing code as follows:

Description	Weight
Keyword	W
Analysis code	229
Price	0
Extra	^7=

Make sure <G>en <P>aram <F>ields <D>efaults <9> is set to 229

Now all you do on the animal card is enter a W followed by the animal weight e.g. W 35.23. This will updated the management record weight field and add a clinical line 'Weight 35.23 Kgs.' Once a few weight recordings have been made you can press 'W' on the Clinical record screen to display the graphs.

There may be occasions where the standard BID, TID, QID codes may not cover the dosage adequately as it varies. You can set up a new abbreviation to ask you the regime when the drug is used. Set up an abbreviation either via -

Stock Control -> <P>arameters -> <L>ook up -> <L>abel or <G>en -> <P>aram -> <L>ook up -> <D>ose

Abbreviation : ASK Text : Give && tablets every && days.

Abbreviation : LEY Text : Apply && drops to the left eye daily

These when used ask you to fill in the &&'s

There may be times when you need a quick list of 'Spaniels' in 'Lime Grove'. You could use the report generator or listing programs, but you can also get this list from the main menu.

• Select 'Find a client'
• Press <RETURN> at 'Client name' question
• Enter a '/' at the animal name
• Enter the search details separated with a comma e.g. spaniel,lime

This will list all clients where the phrases 'SPANIEL' and 'LIME' both appear on a record.

Accessing the last seen client

Lets say you have just finished entering clinical work and returned to the main menu, when you remember there was something else to add/look at. If a full stop '.' is entered the client record will be redisplayed.

Premvet logo

When Premvet starts up you will see the boxes displayed on the screen. On some terminals this can take a noticeable length of time. This logo can be changed to speed up starting the system. This is done on a per terminal basis via the option:

<G>en <P>arams <H>ardware <L>ine <M>odify <13>

This is set as follows:

Interesting commands

Here are some interesting ones you could play with. Why don't you assign them to a function key and use them within the vet system?

10 Minute guide to VI.

It is the nature of Unix and how it operates which makes knowing an editor absolutely critical if you are going to operate your system successfully. The operating system uses files to direct all of its functions. Most of these files are 'user modifiable' to allow for customisation and control. 'vi' is the editor supplied with every copy of Unix.

There are only 10 important (i.e. necessary) commands to learn in order to use 'vi'. They are simple to remember. If you learn them, you will be able to do virtually anything you might need to do when editing a text file.

You get into 'vi' by typing 'vi filename' at the $/# prompt, replacing filename with the name of the actual file you wish to edit or create. If the file exists it will be loaded and displayed otherwise it will be created and you will be shown a screen with tildes (~) down the left hand side of the screen. As lines are added the tildes will be replaced with the text entered.

When you are in COMMAND mode you can enter various commands which may bring in text from other files, delete lines, characters, words etc., or perform a staggering variety of functions. But the single most important thing to know about the COMMAND mode is that you must be in this mode to move your cursor around! That is to say, if you are in TEXT ENTRY mode typing in text and you decide to use your arrow keys to move the the cursor around you will confuse 'vi'. You must remember to return to the COMMAND mode if you have been entering text and wish to go to another place in the file and do something else. You enter COMMAND mode only one way, by pressing ESCAPE. That's it, very simple. When you first enter 'vi' you are always placed in COMMAND mode from the start.

So, if you start in COMMAND mode how do you get into TEXT mode? There are several ways, but we are only going to learn three ways here :

• after the cursor
• before the cursor
• next line

Entering the TEXT ENTRY mode is governed by where you want your cursor to start writing. If you want to enter text 'after' after the cursor position, press 'a'. If you want to have text 'inserted' before the cursor press 'i'. To 'open' a new line below the current line press 'o'. To stop entering text and do anything else, you must leave TEXT ENTRY mode by pressing ESCAPE.

With these three commands you can enter text anywhere in a file. You will however, make the odd mistake, so how do you delete text? There are only two commands to learn. The first is 'x', this deletes the character under the cursor. The delete options do not put you in TEXT ENTRY mode so you can move around the screen deleting as required. The second delete command is 'dd', this deletes the line the cursor is on. Many of the commands in 'vi' have a quantity specified before them. In other words if you type '3dd' it will delete three lines, or 5x will delete five characters.

However, lets say you have just deleted five very important lines. Don't panic, you can use the 'undo' command 'u', this will undo the last command and bring your text back.

Replacing character and words - you could delete and then enter the new text but this could be time-consuming. There are two 'replace' commands to look at, the first is 'r', this replaces the single character at the cursor. The other is a capital 'R', this puts you into TEXT ENTRY mode and allows you to replace everything you are typing over until you press ESCAPE to return to COMMAND mode.

The final command you need to learn is how to leave 'vi'. To leave the file and save all your changes, make sure you are in COMMAND mode and type 'ZZ'. That's it, you are returned to the #/$ prompt. If you want to abandon the changes type ':q!'.

To sum up

Practice using 'vi' for a while and you will come to appreciate its quick entry and powerful command set. In later newsletters we will be giving you simple changes you can make to the O.S. files that will enhance your system e.g. log out inactive screens, add user name and terminal name to your screen, create individual user id's.

'vi' can also be used to set-up and edit definition files that the built-in text editor cannot handle.