FetchDave for Windows Help

		Merging in List Collections
		Retrieving lists from the CBS Website
		Command line options
		Contacting the author

 
FetchDave is a simple 32-bit Windows application that was created with Visual Basic 6.0. Once it has been successfully installed, launching FetchDave should bring up a random Top Ten List. Some further tips:

• The "Random" button is selected by default. If you click this button (or press <Enter>), FetchDave will switch to another randomly-chosen list.
   
• Click "About" to see information about FetchDave.
   
• To add a list collection to your FetchDave database, click "Merge". The merge command is described below.
   
• To check the CBS Web Site for new lists, click the "Update" button. The update command is described below.
   
• Click "Exit" (or press <Esc>) to close FetchDave.
   
• For information on once-per-day and timed-close operation, consult the section on command line options below.

Merging in List Collections

A List Collection file contains a group of Top Ten Lists in a simple format that FetchDave can easily interpret. When you merge in a List Collection, all lists in the collection are permanently added to your FetchDave database.

The original use of these collection files was to add lists from the pre-CBS era, which were not included in the FetchDave v1.0 install file. However, the current version includes all the lists I have up to the release date.

Eventually, I may add "freshener" collections as time progresses, though it's quite simple to update your collection from the CBS web site.

To merge in a list collection, click the "Merge" button on the FetchDave window. A dialog box like the one shown above will appear. Type the name of the list collection file in the "File to Merge" field (or use the "Browse" button to locate it), then click "Merge;". FetchDave will add the lists in the collection file to your database.

Once you have merged in a collection file, you can delete the collection file (*.M10). Once the merge operation is complete, the lists from the collection file are stored in your database.

Merge over Existing Lists

Normally, when you merge in a list collection, FetchDave does not replace any lists that are already in your database. Only lists that you don't already have are added.

Checking the "Merge over Existing Lists" box causes FetchDave to replace existing lists in the database with lists from the list collection file. You might want to do this if you know there are broken lists in your database that have been fixed in the collection file.

Generally, you don't want to enable the "Merge over Existing Lists" option. FetchDave's database logic is deliberately very simple. In particular, FetchDave makes no attempt to recover "lost space" in its database, so if you replace existing lists, your database file may get rather large. This doesn't hurt anything, but it does waste space on your hard disk.

If you ever feel that your database file is getting too large, you can rebuild it at any time by closing FetchDave and deleting the files TOP10.IDX and TOP10.DAT. When you restart FetchDave, it will show an empty Top Ten List; you can then use the Merge or Update commands to rebuild your database.

Note that rebuilding your entire database from the CBS Web Site (which will happen if you delete the database files and do an Update) will take a long time and use a lot of Web bandwidth. It's much better to reinstall FetchDave or retrieve collection files from the web site.

Remember: Your database will only have "lost space" in it if you use the Merge command with the "Merge over Existing Lists" option selected. Otherwise, rebuilding your database will gain you nothing.

Retrieving Lists from the CBS Web Site

Dave and his writers are constantly churning out new Top Ten Lists. To stay abreast, you can use FetchDave's "Update" command.

When you click "Update", you'll see a dialog box like this (though this sample shows how the box looks when the update is running):

Click "Go" to start the update process. FetchDave will connect to the CBS Web site and begin downloading the lists. You will see lists go by, one by one, until all the new lists have been downloaded.

To stop the update operation, you can click the "Cancel" button. Note that it may take a few seconds for FetchDave to act on your cancel request.

Proxy Server support

FetchDave can connect to the CBS web site through a proxy server if necessary. You generally only need to worry about proxy servers if you are using the program on a corporate network.

There is no need to establish proxy settings within FetchDave; it uses whatever proxy is configured at the operating system level. In fact the program uses same settings as Internet Explorer.

In general, if you can connect to the CBS web site using Internet Explorer, you should be able to perform FetchDave Internet updates.

FetchDave Command Line Options

Run once per day

When I turn on my machine of a morning, I like to be greeted by a Top Ten List. For this reason, I have placed a shortcut to FetchDave in my Startup Group. However, I don't like to be bothered with closing the list, and I don't really want to wait for FetchDave to load if I reboot.

To accomodate these whims, I have added a command line option to FetchDave: the /1 option. In its pure form, like this:

[path]FetchDave /1

the option causes FetchDave to run only once per day.

Timed-Close Option

If you add an equals sign and a number to the /1 option, FetchDave will interpret the number as an interval in seconds. For example:

[path]FetchDave /1=30

will automatically close FetchDave once 30 seconds have elapsed. When the timed-close option is active, you will see a small stopwatch icon next to the "Random" button, like this:

Note: You can abort the timer by switching to another Top Ten List or by clicking on the stopwatch icon.

Contact Information

If you have any questions, comments, or problems, please don't hestitate to send me mail at fetchdave@miken.com.

Last revised: 30 December 2001