GOREADME.TXT This is a brief explanation of how to set up your computer to run the StuSoft GO utility. If you want basic info on what GO does and how it works, read the file GO.TXT. To set up a computer to run GO, you need an environmental variable called GODIR (defined using the SET command). The string should contain the default directory for GO and be back-filled with forward slashes (/) to allow enough room for your deepest nested path -- more about that later. EXAMPLE: SET GODIR=.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// You can type this line from the DOS prompt and GO will work. The program GOSETUP.BAT will automatically set the GODIR variable to the above default value. But the best way is to include a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to SET the variable GODIR. If you know how to use EDIT, EDLIN, or another editor to change AUTOEXEC, you can just add the example line (above) to your AUTOEXEC and you should have no problems with GO! IMPORTANT!!!!! Before you change the file AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS, you should make a backup copy. It is best to do this on a bootable floppy disk (so you can restore them if a problem develops). Here's the quick 'n' dirty directions for that: 1) put a disk in drive A:, and type: FORMAT A:/S 2) switch to drive A:, by typing: A: 3) create a backup directory; type: MD BACKUP 4) change the backup directory: CD BACKUP 5) copy the files to A: COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS Once you have made a bootable floppy, restoring the original CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files is easy: 1) put the bootable disk in drive A: and restart the computer 2) type: COPY A:\BACKUP\*.* C:\ If you do add a SET statement for GODIR in your AUTOEXEC, you could include a default drive/directory for GO. You might do something like this: SET GODIR=D:\UTILS\STUSOFT////////////////////////////////////////////////// Then GO would change to the directory D:\UTILS\STUSOFT the first time you typed: GO If you set GODIR as the first example shows (and as GOSETUP does) typing GO with no arguments will get you the message: Nowhere to go! (go) Another NOTE: You will get the same message if you type: GO . This is because . (a period) is a xxDOS alias for the current directory. Go traps this, since there is no real reason to GO to and store the path for the current directory. O.K., what is this nested subdirectory stuff? As you know, xxDOS keeps files in directories. A disk may have many directories, with the root directory (\) always being the top. Directories *below* that are called subdirectories. These subdirectories may also have subdirectories within them. This box-in-a-box method of storing files is referred to as NESTING. The limit to nesting is xxDOS's limit of 63 characters for a path name. GO's default limit for pathname length is 66 characters *including* the drive letter, the separating colon (:), and the separating slashes (\). The program GOSETUP sets the GODIR variable as big as xxDOS will ever use. GO's arbitrary limit for a pathname is 117 characters (because of xxDOS's 128 character limit on command lines). This shouldn't be a problem since xxDOS won't let you create a path that big enough to fill the default setting for GODIR. NOTE: Your environment MUST be large enough to hold the string you enter as GODIR. You can change your environment size in the file CONFIG.SYS on your boot drive. It should have a statement something like the following: SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:512 /P /E:512 sets the environment size to 512 bytes. You can adjust this number up to allow more room for the GODIR variable, but the bigger you make GODIR (and the environment) the less memory you will have free for running programs. It should be noted that the upper limit for the size of the GODIR variable is nominally 128 bytes (all you can type on a command line) and that 128 bytes in not much memory at all!