Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaUtilCD2.iso/Misc/EPU_GUI.LHA/epugui/EPU_GUI.DOC

Text File | 1994-11-04 | 7.5 KB | 198 lines

                             Code 16 Presents

                  The EPU Graphical User Interface System


Introduction
------------

The EPU pd program provides the hard disk owner with a method of
automatically packing and depacking programs and data files transparently
while using his/her computer in the normal way.  The claimed rates of
compression are in the region of being able to store 150Mb on an 80Mb HD.
This all sounds very good - where's the catch?

EPU is a CLI based program, and whereas it is easy to install and use, if
you wish to change the options (auto compress on save, for example) for any
reason you need to open a CLI window and type a command such as this

EPU dev dh1 nosave chng

To some people, this represents no hardship, however, to others, a
graphical system, such as the one integrated into the commercial program
'Disk Expander' is a much preferable state of affairs.  That is the reason
we wrote EPUGUI.

EPUGUI does away with the need for any CLI usage, all that is required to
(for example) switch off automatic compression upon saving is to click on
the correct button with your mouse.

However, due to the gadtools gadgets used in EPUGUI, KS2.0 or higher is
required to run it.

If you have any comments, queries or suggestions, please e-mail to
                [e-mail]
                [e-mail]

Alternatively, if you have no e-mail access, then write to
                Code 16
                10 Siward Street
                Hull Road
                York
                YO1 3LW
                ENGLAND

e-mail is much more likely to recieve a reply, and the reply will be much
faster than snail mail.




Installation
------------

Installation of the EPUGUI program is very easy - simply run the supplied
install program from the WB.  This program will prompt you for a place to
put the EPUGUI program, and will copy a datafile into your s: directory.
Alternatively you can simply copy the datafile object.obj into the s:
directory, and the program files (program+icon) wherever you wish.




How to run EPUGUI
-----------------

EPUGUI recognises where you ran it from, so for example, if you double click
on the program icon from the WB then the program window is opened on the
workbench screen.  If the program is run from the CLI then the window will
open on the foremost public screen.

For EPUGUI to work, you must have the EPU system installed onto your
system.  EPUGUI expects to be able to access EPU through the normal path
assignments (ie. EPU must be executable as a CLI command).  You must also
have your compression libraries in the libs: folder, and they must be named
as follows:

epu? where ? is a number.  Currently only 0 and 1 are supplied with EPU.

xpk???? where ???? is a name such as NUKE.

This is the standard xpk name
format, and so all xpk compression libraries should conform to this
already.  Encryption libraries will be displayed in the compressor
selection window, but usage should be avoided since EPU does not support
libraries that require a password.




Using EPUGUI
------------

EPUGUI is extremely easy to use, all that is required is a little knowledge
of how the EPU system works.

(skip this if you have bothered to read the EPU docs - because it is all in
there anyway)
EPU has a number of options which are supplied by the user to control it's
operation.  When using EPU through the CLI, these are as follows:

LOAD/NOLOAD     This tells EPU whether you wish to have it automatically
                decompress compressed files when they are encountered.

SAVE/NOSAVE     This tells EPU if you wish to have all files saved
                automatically compressed or not.

EXAM/NOEXAM     This tells EPU if you wish to see the uncompressed or the
                compressed file size in a directory listing.

EXNEXT/NOEXNEXT If EXNEXT is specified, then the directory size in, for
                example, a 'list' of a directory will be the uncompressed
                size.  Otherwise, the compressed size will be used.

HMODE/LMODE     LMODE forces EPU to always compress a file (as long as SAVE
                is specified), but if HMODE is set, the file will only be
                compressed if the compressed size is smaller than the real
                size.

BLOCK           The block size is the size of memory allocated per block.
                Larger amounts mean better and faster compression rates.

TABLE           The table size is the max number of blocks per file.

LIB             The lib name is the name of the compression library to be
                used.

EPUGUI has all of the above options, however, for the LOAD/NOLOAD etc.
options, a checkbox is provided.  A check in the box means the option is
enabled, no check means not enabled.  For the HMODE/LMODE parameter, a
check means HMODE, no check LMODE.

The BLOCK and TABLE parameters have a numerical text entry box supplied -
simply click on the gadget and type the value you require.

The LIB parameter is provided with a straight text entry box, which has two
modes of operation - you can either enter the library name straight into
the box, or if you click on the fileselector gadget then a window will open
with a slidable list of all xpk and epu libraries for you select one.

5 other gadgets are also displayed - These are:

Device                  A text gadget which displays the currently selected
                        device.
Device Fileselect       A small icon next to the Device gadget, which
                        brings up a fileselector.
Install                 This button will install EPU to the device
                        specified.
Remove                  This button will remove EPU from the specified
                        device.
Modify User-Startup     This button will place some lines at the end of
                        your User-Startup script to run EPU with the
                        specified device and parameters every time the
                        computer is booted from the current system
                        partition.

EPUGUI runs as a commodity, allowing you to control the program from
Commodore's supplied Exchange program.  This program lets you enable,
disable, hide and reopen the user interface, and quit the program.


For more information on how EPU works, refer to the docs included with it.

Late Add-ons to EPU-GUI
----------------------

ToolTypes
---------

EPU-GUI now accepts ToolTypes so that you can alter the default
configuration to whatever you like. To change them, click on EPU-GUI`s
icon in the directory that you have it stored (or make an icon and select
it), then select the Icon/Information menu option (on Workbench).

The ToolTypes supported are:

DONOTWAIT - not used by EPU-GUI, but tells Workbench not to wait for the
program to exit. Use this if you want to run EPU-GUI from your WBStartup
drawer extra. BUT MAKE IT THE FIRST TOOLTYPE IN THE LIST

CX_POPUP - If YES (CX_POPUP=YES) then the window will open when the
program is run, if NO then it doesn`t. Default is YES.

CX_POPKEY - Set this to the key you wish to use to pop open the window.
Default is ctrl lalt e. Examples are lalt lshift r and rcommand e   etc.

DEVICE - This sets the device to check when the program is started. Set
this to a device with EPU installed on if you can. eg WORK:


Commodities
-----------

EPU-GUI runs as a Commodity, and can be controlled via the Exchange
program supplied with Workbench. The window can be opened, closed, enabled
or disabled, plus the program can be quit from Exchange. Also, the window
can be forced to open by pressing a Hotkey - see the tooltypes section
above for how to set the hotkey.