I started this thread to pick your brain and to offer what little I have learned about Townsend Analytics, Ltd.
(TAL) Software that I use from S&P Comstock.
I have found that by editing the misc. files CAREFULLY, I could customize several item within TAL.
This all started when I had a Boardview layout that I liked, I had set the column widths, alignment, and
order and then.. I crashed. After rebuilding the boardview, a couple of days later, it became corrupted and
TAL would not draw the screen, I had to start over AGAIN. I went looking for help and found none. I then
started looking at the files in the PRAM folder and found the boardviews componentslisted there.
====================
Follow all standard editing prodecures, MAKE A BACKUP OF THE FILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
File name: Brdview.dat
Below is the start of my "new" Brdview.dat file.
;spc 7/5/96 4:43:32 PM Modified by LD Rorrison Jr 11/29/96
A,Complete
B,Position
C,Fundam.
D,Markets
E,Italian
F,Options
G,Platt's
H,Forex
I,Mutual funds
J,MMkt funds
K,Gov't bonds
L,Prefered
END Record Types
; Complete
A,C_SYMBOL, -,0,8,1,1,STR,RIGHT,DISP,REQD, Symbol,Symbol
A,C_USERNOTE, -,0,13,0,1,STR,RIGHT,DISP,OPTN, Desc.,User supplied description
A,COMPANY_NAME, A,0,30,0,0,STR,RIGHT,DISP,OPTN, Comp Name,Company Name
A,CHANGE_LAST, A,0,8,0,0,LPK,RIGHT,DISP,OPTN, Chg Last,Last non-zero change in price
If you compare the above with yours, you can see I have a new type of board view called "Prefered". How
I made that later. But first, a simple accounting of the information for the field lines.
A,C_SYMBOL, -,0,8,1,1,STR,RIGHT,DISP,REQD, Symbol,Symbol
"A" - identifies that it is associated with the Board view Complete.
"C SYMBOL" - shows the field requested from the server.
"-" - MY guess! This identfies the server to get the info from. This symbol can also be a "A", "B" or "C"
"0" - Number of decimal places. Mostly useless as My prices are transmitted as a fraction, percent change
does use them.
"8" - Number of characters to display. Default length.
"1" - Is it on the default display when you pull up this board view. 1=yes 0=no
"1" - My guess. I really don't know. I think this makes the field editable?????
"STR" - Type of information returned, don't touch.
"RIGHT" - Default alignment. Can be RIGHT, LEFT or CENTER
"DISP" - Display or no display returned stuff. I would assume that you want to see it so leave it alone.
"REQD" - ????? Don't play with it until you know what it's for.
"XXX.XX" - This is the text displayed as the column titles, the first word is the top line then a space then
the second word for the column. I have not been able to put a blank as the first or top line so that single
word column titles are on the second line.
"XXX.XX" - This is the description that you see when you click on the name in Boardview setup.
NEXT:
The order in the list displayed in Boardview setup of all the columns is the order that they appear in this list.
The order in which the default display "1"'s are listed, is the order of the columns in the Boardview.
My objective in editing this file in the first place was to have a default Boardview in MY order, with MY
column widths, and MY alignment., and as I played with it, I moved all of the default fields to the end of the
list so. if I wanted to add more columns later I didn't have to scroll through column names that were
already displayed.
I also wanted to have some of the columns that were shown on other "canned" boardviews, line percent
institution owned, and common shares outstanding, available on my boardview if I wished. To do this I
copied the "Complete" boardview list from the file, changed the "A" to the "L" added the new boardview
name to the top of the list as shown above. Then I copied some of the other column stuff from the other
views and edited them for inclusion in the list. I then put all of my default columns at the end of the list,
and sorted the remaining into an order I thought I might need in the future - most used at the top.
Now if I crash, or make a new page view and want MY boardview, I pull it up and I have little editing to
do, just color t and be done.
I was able to edit this file live or "hot", that is while TAL was running. This is probably not a good idea,
but it worked for me. For every change you make to the boardview, you will need to do the following:
1- edit file with note pad Brdview.dat and save
2- bring up Boardview setup, click on the first field in the list, then click on the delete this column until
3- there are no names listed,
4- select another board view, any other than the one you are working on and click on OK
5- get boardview setup back, select the boardview that you are editing and all your changes should be
6- there
WARNINGS: edit with care, check every change carefully for consistence with the know standard (your
backup if you really screw up). |
