        Bigsort V2.2 : A Fast in-memory sort for large files.
        -----------------------------------------------------
                     User Supported Program


(C)1988-90 Turgut Kalfaoglu

The reason why I wrote BigSort is because I HAD to sort a large file, and
the DOS's SORT program frustrated me with its 'OUT OF MEMORY' errors. 

Usage:

BIGSORT [options] < inputfile > outputfile

if you omit the '< inputfile' part, BigSort will wait for an answer
from the keyboard. If that is what you wish, enter the data,
separating each one by a RETURN character, then enter CTRL-Z to finish
the entry.

if you omit '> outputfile' part, BigSort will send its output to the
screen.

For some online help, type


      BIGSORT HELP

* Options

    If you wish to use multiple options, you need to separate them by
    a space. The options available right now are:
  
  /+nnn   where nnn's are a number, will cause BigSort to start sorting
          items from that column. (Default /n+0)
	    
  /R      Reverses the sort order. The sorting order will be ZYXW...DCBA if
          you use this option.

  /I      Ignore case. Without this option, A comes before a, and Z comes
          before a! Use this option to prevent this.

  /MMDDYY The field is a date field, in the format of MM-DD-YY. The
          dash in between is ignored, so your data can be MM/DD/YY and
          it would still work.
  /DDMMYY Similar - the data field is in DD-MM-YY format.
  /YYMMDD Similar - the data field is in YY-MM-DD format.

* Why the < and > operations

I could have written this program so that it asks you for the
filenames. However, as the law of Redirection states, it is more
versatile this way. Think of this command:

DIR | BIGSORT

It is possible with this setup, whereas it would have required an
extra step if I made BigSort ask you for filename(s)..

BIGSORT and multiple files:

You may use BIGSORT, with the program called SEARCH, (written by me,
also in the public domain), to merge and sort several files. Imagine
that you want to merge and sort all the contents of the *.C files you
had (for some strange reason :) and put the result into RESULT.TXT:

   SEARCH "" *.C | BIGSORT > RESULT.TXT

Impressive line, eh?

Note: If you get an 'out of memory' when piping (using the | symbol),
try dividing the above like this:

SEARCH "" *.C > TMPFILE
BIGSORT < TMPFILE > RESULT.TXT

Source Code
-----------

BIGsort is written in Microsoft C, 5.0. Source code, and the necessary
.MAK file are available for $10, plus a blank disk (5 1/4 or 3 1/2)

If you have any questions, or suggestions, please let me know.
Turgut Kalfaoglu
1378 Sokak 8/10
Izmir 35210
Turkey

Please don't think that you need to make a contribution in order to
ask for additional features or to report suggestions. I am eager to
hear from you.

I can be reached at TURGUT@TREARN.BITNET as well..


New Version: (V2.1 to V2.2)
---------------------------

Added features: It can now handle dates as well!
                Now /R and /I can be used at the same time.
                Improved performance, but code size still about
                the same (you should see the tricks that were done
                to keep it that way :)

Bugs Removed:   None were found in V2.1

