ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/PROG/MISC/FPC355_1.ZIP/INSTALL.TXT

Text File | 1991-02-25 | 8.6 KB | 202 lines

INSTALL.TXT             Installing F-PC                 by Tom Zimmer

  F-PC includes an installation program, but since installation
programs are nebulous black boxes, this file will tell you where
things go.

WHAT INSTALL DOES.

  The first thing INSTALL.EXE does is ask you whether you are
installing F-PC on your hard disk, or configuring a copy of F-PC
already present on your hard disk. To this question, you would answer
"I" for Install, or "C" for configure. The default is "I".

  Question two is "Where you want F-PC placed on your hard disk?". You
will need to answer that question for yorself now. The default is
"C:\FPC".

  Question three is "Where are you installing F-PC from?", which is usually
drive "A:", but can be "B:" or any drive and directory (like "C:\MASTER").

  At this point you are asked six (6) yes or no questions about what
portions of F-PC to install. I will discuss those below.

  Lastly you are prompted to insert F-PC disk number one, and press
Enter to start the installation.

  INSTALL.EXE proceeds to create directories and expand .ZIP files
onto your hard disk. This process takes only a few minutes, and will
consume about 2.5 megabytes if all portions are installed. After
installation completes, the program proceeds into the configuration
section. You are asked questions about your hardware. Then an
installed copy of F-PC is created.

  If the above process makes you uncomfortable, or you just want to
do it yourself, proceed to the next section. Otherwise just type:
A:INSTALL <Enter>.



INSTALLING F-PC WITHOUT USING INSTALL.EXE


      ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
      │   In this section I am assuming you are an experienced │
      │ DOS user. If you are not, then please go ahead and use │
      │ INSTALL.EXE. The process is pretty painless.           │
      └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


  Unlike F-PC Version 2.25, F-PC Version 3.5 makes its own Forth PATH
command and several directories to hold its files. This keeps the
clutter down in the main F-PC directory while keeping files available
when needed. F-PC's directory structure looks like this:


                C:\ ─────────── \FPC ─────┬──── \SRC
                                          │
                                          ├──── \HLP
                                          │
                                          ├──── \TOOLS
                                          │
                                          └──── \NEWZ


  You can of course put F-PC on a drive other than C:, and in
directories other than \FPC etc. but for this discussion we will
assume you will be using the above directory structure.

  NOTE: A known bug in the install program prevents its working on a
        drive higher than "F:".

  Create the above directory structure on your hard disk using the
dos "MKDIR" (make directory) command.

  Use PKUNZIP.EXE to "unzip" the .ZIP files from floppy into the
directories as shown below:

                Directory               .ZIP File
              ┌───────────────────────┬─────────────┐
              │ \FPC                  │ FPC.ZIP     │
              ├───────────────────────┼─────────────┤
              │ \FPC\SRC              │ FPCSRC.ZIP  │
              ├───────────────────────┼─────────────┤
              │ \FPC\HLP              │ FPCDOC.ZIP  │
              │                       │ FPCHLP.ZIP  │
              ├───────────────────────┼─────────────┤
              │ \FPC\TOOLS            │ SAMPLES.ZIP │
              │                       │ SMITH.ZIP   │
              │                       │ CURLEY.ZIP  │
              │                       │ ZIMMER.ZIP  │
              ├───────────────────────┼─────────────┤
              │ \FPC\NEWZ             │ NEWZ.ZIP    │
              └───────────────────────┴─────────────┘

  A typical PKUNZIP command line looks like this:

        C:> PKUNZIP A:FPC C:\FPC <Enter>


  When you have finished the above, copy the following files from
floppy to the "\FPC" directory:

        README      FLOPPY.TXT      INSTALL.TXT     INSTALL.EXE

  This completes installation, and leads us into configuration.



CONFIGURING F-PC WITHOUT USING INSTALL.EXE

  The following section will allow you to configure F-PC for your
hardware without using INSTALL.EXE. It is however MUCH EASIER to
configure F-PC using the install program, so PLEASE USE IT.

  F-PC uses a configuration file to hold several default
configuration commands. The F-PC.CFG file is automatically loaded
each time you startup F-PC from the DOS command line. Part of the
installation process is creating a configuration file for your
hardware environment. Since we are doing the installation manually,
we need to create a configuration file.

  Using your favorite text editor (One that doesn't insert TABs or
other special characters into the file.), place the following lines
in a file named "F-PC.CFG" (don't include the box around the text).

        ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │ FPATH C:\FPC;C:\FPC\SRC;C:\FPC\HLP;C:\FPC\TOOLS │
        │ FAST                                            │
        │ COLORIZEON                                      │
        │ BLANKOFF                                        │
        │ ' >COLOR IS INITCOLOR                           │
        │ BACKUPON                                        │
        └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

  When creating F-PC.CFG, if you installed F-PC on a hard drive other
than "C:", change each occurance of "C:" following the FPATH command
above to the drive letter you used.

  The above words setup F-PC for a normal configuration. It will work
even if you have a MONOCROME system. The commands have the following
meaning:

        FPATH C:\FPC;C:\FPC\SRC;C:\FPC\HLP;C:\FPC\TOOLS
                        The Forth PATH tells F-PC which directories
                        to search when you open or load a file. You
                        can include other directories as well up to a
                        maximum of 132 characters.

        FAST            Select direct video writes. The opposite
                        option is "SLOW" DOS i/o.

        COLORIZEON      Use colors when displaying various Forth word
                        classes. This is automatically disabled on
                        Monocrome systems. The opposite option is
                        "COLORIZEOFF".


        BLANKOFF        Don't blank the screen when writing to the
                        display. If you have a CGA display you may
                        want to use "BLANKON"; all other displays
                        use BLANKOFF.

        ' >COLOR is INITCOLOR
                        Allow F-PC to support a color monitor if one
                        is available. Will support monocrome even
                        with this command included.

        BACKUPON        Keep a single backup file for each file
                        edited. If you are very short on disk space,
                        or are using F-PC on a floppy system, you may
                        want to use "BACKUPOFF".

  Optionally you can add a command to select a default printer type,
PROPRINT and LASERJET are the only two supported currently.

  After the configuration file is saved to disk, issue the following
command from the DOS prompt while in the "\FPC" directory:

        C:> F-PC - FSAVE F BYE <Enter>

  This command will startup F-PC, which automatically reads in the
configuration file we just created. The "-" above signifies no other
file is to be opened. The next two words "FSAVE F", save F-PC to disk
with the new name "F.EXE". You can of course use a name other than
"F". "BYE" leaves F-PC and returns to DOS. This process creates a
fully configured copy of F-PC called F.EXE that contains all of the
default configuration parameters you specified. If you are doing this
on a floppy based system, use "FSAVE F-PC" to save the executable back
to the same file since there is not room for an additional executable.

  Be sure to include the "C:\FPC" directory in your system PATH
command in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

  After rebooting your computer, you can run F-PC from any drive and
directory by typing "F <filename> <enter>", and Forth will be able to
find its source files, help files, and tools from wherever you are.

  I hope this clears up any questions you may have about what INSTALL
does to your computer. Now if you haven't already done so, go ahead and
use it to install F-PC, its really pretty painless.