The Brian Harney Years, 1981-1999
In 1981, KGS member Brian Harney started keeping the KGS mailing list on his
TRS80 Radio Shack Model I PC, using a program of his own invention, in Basic. He also created
a "surname index" (perhaps better known as a "who's searching what families"
list), which was published in Bluegrass Roots (the KGS quarterly
publication) that year. This machine had 32k of RAM and two 5.25 inch diskette
drives, capable of 89k storage each. He still has this machine, and it still
works, although it's primarily now a conversation piece in his office.
In 1984, he purchased a  TRS80 Model 4 and
acquired the Profile III Plus database package, a Radio Shack product, originally written by the
small Computer Company. He converted the mailing list to that format.
In 1985, the KGS bought, for his use as Treasurer, a Tandy 1200 XT IBM
compatible PC. This had a whopping 10mb hard drive, and 256k of RAM, later
upgraded to 640k. He converted the mailing list to IBM PC format, and
started using dBASE III, by Ashton-Tate, Inc.
In 1986, he wrote dBASE programs to make the general-ledger database work in
tandem with the mailing-list database. This allowed him to query the
mailing-list (in business accounting terms, "a customer lookup" ) when posting
an income transaction. The bottom half of the screen opens a scrollable window
into the mailing-list. If the member is found, most fields from that record
populate like fields in the general-ledger record. He then proceeds to fill-in
the check-number, date, amount, and account-code the payment is to be posted to.
While in the general-ledger record, he can make changes to the name and
address fields, along with member status, member history, member type, and
finally, a place for comments. Any changes will be posted back to the
mailing-list and the accounting record is also appended to the end of the
general-ledger. This has to be seen to be appreciated, but it saves lots of
time, since the general-ledger is updated at the same time as the
mailing-list. The main-menu screen has a variety of options, and selectable
reports, even one that prints the deposit slip.
In 1988, he upgraded to FoxBase, a dBASE compatible program, with
compiler, on his own Tandy 286 PC.
In 1992, he upgraded to a Gateway 486/33DX, and January 1998 to a NEC
200 Pentium. His home-grown software for the KGS is still in FoxBase for
DOS, but it takes little space, and is very fast.
Not long ago, the programs were enhanced so reports
are written to disk files in RTF format, rather than straight to the printer. These RTF files can then be
opened with a Windows word-processor like Microsoft Word, and the report is already formatted with the correct
font, tabs, margins, etc, ready to print with Word. However, we can first touch up the report if we want,
add the KGS logo, etc, and get all the benefits of fancy printing. This feature has extended the life of
this DOS application and has allowed us to keep from being forced to move to Microsoft Access, for Windows.
He also uses a Paperport scanner, and the
Paperport Windows-based software to store and manage administrative documents,
such as book-orders, changes of address, and in general, anything that we need
to keep a copy of the original record. Filing images electronically has proven
much faster and more efficient than paper-based filing, and has allowed us to
get rid of two 5-drawer filing cabinets.
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