Introduction Selesort is a NeXTstep application providing one Service which sorts ASCII selections in other applications. It was born of the desire to keep a neatly formatted compact disc database in FrameMaker, which cannot sort selections. (Improv can, but try typing ªQueensrıcheº or ªPrİludeº in Improv, or searching for ªFloyd.º) Selesort can sort on specific fields, and knows that ö comes before z. (Thus it is not a simple pipe to the UNIX sort command.) Selesort is not free. Please read the ªSharewareº selection below. Use To install Selesort, put it somewhere within the WorkSpace's search path (/LocalApps may not be part of this on some machines; the comp.sys.next Frequently Asked Questions gives instructions for fixing NeXT's snafu). Selesort will then (after logging out and back in) cause the ªSort Selectionº item to appear in the Services menu of properly obedient applications. Once installed, select some ASCII text in a random application (Edit?) then choose the ªSort Selectionº item in the Services menu, or hit Command-$. Selesort will then launch and give a panel asking you how you wish to conduct the sort. Choosing the Sort button will cause Selesort to sort the data in the requested manner and rearrange it in the calling application. Please note: If you spend too much time in the Sort Panel, the calling application may time out and give an error. If this happens, set the panel the way you like it then hit Cancel and re-call Selesort. (The panel keeps settings between calls.) The nastiness of the panel is due to the fact that NeXT Services apparently do not provide for interaction by the called application. The Sort Panel allows you to sort lines based on a specific field in a delimited set of lines. For example, if you had the following lines selected: 1 ack 11 2 zot 0 3 yow 4 then called Selesort and specified column 2, you'd get: 1 ack 11 3 yow 4 2 zot 0 or column 3.: 2 zot 0 3 yow 4 1 ack 11 You may also sort on the entire line (column 0), change the delimiting character (Tab is the default), and change the sort order for each sort. To numerically sort data, refer to the column number with a period suffix: ª0.º Shareware I'm not going to give you a ªstarving studentº plea, or make you feel guilty for not sending in gobs of money for a pretty simple application. I ask this: Send me what Selesort is worth to you. If you don't think it's worth anything, then you should obviously not use it. If you use it once a year, fine. But if it's something you don't allow dust to collect on, evaluate its worth and send me the monetary equivalent. You may redistribute Selesort freely under these conditions, but charge someone for it (other than a processing fee) and I'll sue you into oblivion. Feel free to send me comments telling me why Selesort is the greatest thing invented (dream on), or why I should concentrate on being an Electrical Engineering major and not a hobbyist programmer. Please include a return address (network!) in all correspondence, so I may respond to you. John B. Lockhart 2212 Haverhill Court Marietta, Georgia 30067 john%3jane.uucp@mathcs.emory.edu That's ...!emory!3jane!john or maybe just ...!uunet!3jane!john in UUCP form. Anyway, I'm on the map. gt1439a@prism.gatech.edu (Student account forwarded to 3jane.)
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.