GWIN -- INSTALL FILE. Mike Bonnell, 1993 GWIN 1.00 is for people who like to have nearly complete control of their PC and will spend some time setting things up right. Proper implementation requires real work, a lot of thought, and patience. When you finish, you will have a Menu Application that is yours alone. The requirements and limitations are -- 1) MS-DOS 5.00 or greater. 2) Hard Disk. (About 385k to store GWIN and associated files.) 3) 386sx AT or Compatible and 640k system Memory minimum. 4) PC only. We do not have an Apple or Mac Version of GWIN. 5) VGA color monitor with IBM compatible video card. 6) 3.5 or 5 1/4 " diskette drive. (To copy GWIN to your Hard Disk.) 7) No Mouse. (GWIN does not support Mouse.) 8) Built-in Screensaver. (timeout is user adjustable.) 9) 30-35 Menu Items per Screen. 10) 100 Screens. ( up to 100 Menus, Text pages, or a mix of either in one file.) 11) Unlimited files. Allows a filename.ext to be entered at the command line. (Default filename - (if none entered) - is "GWIN.MNU") 12) SHAREWARE Ver. supports 1 screen, and one file only. 13) Enough open memory remains to load most applications. (some games may require more than is available, though.) 14) Reports "available memory" on the screen. 15) GWIN is not copy-protected. Most of the monitor's screen is yours to play with. (We use one line at the bottom of the screen as a status line, and Popups are used for messages.) GWIN displays your Menus and/or Help files in Graphics Mode. We decided to give you, the user, nearly complete control over what gets displayed -- and where. It uses a file on disk to retreive information that will be displayed on the screen. A sample file, containing 1 Menu is included in the SHAREWARE release. GWIN will create three graphics windows on your screen. The Top Window is used for Screen Titles, the Main Window is for text or Menu Items, and the Status Line (at the bottom) reports other information pertaining to the operation of GWIN. You are able to set the color of all three Windows to any of the standard EGA colors. You may set the size and/or the color of the text and position text or Menu Items anywhere within the Main Window. You may give each Menu or Text Screen an individual Title. HELP is contained in the "GWIN.DOC" file included in this release. The file may be printed. "GWIN.INI" contains popup HELP. GWIN -- INSTALL FILE. Mike Bonnell, 1993 This install file is provided as a guide to the Application Installer who wishes to make life easier for others. The GWIN Help File/Menu Application will allow the creation of Help and/or Menus that may be personalized to a given function. The Installation process requires familiarity with DOS, and you must design and implement your own MENU/HELP files. GWIN will make no assumption as to what will be implemented. You must take control of your PC and tell it what YOU want to do. The sample MENU File, "GWIN.MNU" contains working examples of program loading, text display, and screen layout. You should review the manual and the "GWIN.MNU" file to see how to use GWIN. GWIN supports 14 keyboard Keys. We tried to support more, but couldn't find a use for them. (Keys are described in the HELP section of the GWIN.INI file. Load up GWIN, and press ) GWIN uses GRAPHICS MODE to display Menus and Text on the screen, so a color monitor with VGA support is required. 640k of memory and DOS ver. 5.00 or greater are also required. GWIN is NOT a 'TSR' program. It is in memory only when you want it to be, and goes away when you are finished using it. GWIN uses about 92k of memory when loaded and reports remaining memory that may be used by other programs. Usually, there will be at least 500k of open memory after GWIN has loaded. We have loaded and used ParaDox, Quicken, Quattro Pro, Word Perfect, and others with no problems. (Some games require more memory than is available when GWIN is loaded. These need to be loaded directly from the command line or a special boot diskette.) GWIN does not support a mouse. We didn't see enough need, and the extra memory overhead required is not helpful. Your other applications that do support a mouse are transparent to GWIN. (Use the arrow keys and/or PgUp/PgDn to navigate GWIN.) To load GWIN, type 'GWIN' at the command line and press 'Enter'. You may name a Menu/Text file and GWIN will load the file you name. If you type 'GWIN' with no commandline argument, GWIN looks for the file -- 'GWIN.MNU' in GWIN's Directory. (This is the released SAMPLE MENU file.) You may create your own Help files or Menu files using another filename.ext and name this file in a commandline argument when GWIN is loaded. GWIN will look along the DOS PATH for the file you name. The Commercial version may have as many as 100 Screen Pages in a single file. You may also create as many files as you require, giving "unlimited" MENUS and/or HELP files. The SHAREWARE Version allows a single usable screen and will only load the file, "GWIN.MNU". This version of GWIN is the SHAREWARE Version. It is restricted to two screens, one of which must be the "END OF FILE" screen. The sample Menu File, "GWIN.MNU" is intended to show examples of use and capabilities of GWIN. You may freely modify "GWIN.MNU" to suit your needs. The GWIN.EXE program has been restricted to a single file containing a single screen. It is otherwise fully functional. You have ONE screen page to work with. .............................................................................. GWIN INSTALLATION -- 1) Make a new Directory somewhere on your hard disk. You may use any name you like. ex. From the C:> type -- 'MD GWIN' and press 'Enter'. 2) Copy the GWIN release into this directory. You'll need about 385k of disk space for GWIN and associated files. (1k = 1024 characters.) 3) Add this new directory to your AUTOEXEC.BAT [PATH] statement. 4) Add a SET statememt to AUTOEXEC.BAT -- SET GWINDIR=[d:]\[path]. ex. Assume the GWIN dir is named 'GWIN' and is located on your C: drive: The statement would be - 'SET GWINDIR=C:\GWIN' The SET statement should appear on a line by itself. 5) Change (or add) FILES=20 and BUFFERS=20 in CONFIG.SYS. (If FILES and BUFFERS are each 20 (or more) you don't need to change them.) 6) When this setup is complete, reboot your PC to make the changes permanent. These changes allow GWIN to be loaded from the command line or a batch file no matter what your CURRENT DEFAULT directory may be. If you do not make these changes, GWIN will not load. .............................................................................. Software Requirements: MS-DOS 5.00 or greater and a Text Editor. (edit.com works fine.) If you do not have DOS 5.0 or greater, GWIN will not load. .............................................................................. Hardware Requirements: AT 386sx or greater, 640k memory, Hard Drive (500k disk space), vga graphics. Color Monitor. (Vga adapter must be IBM compatible. Monitor must be at least 640x480 resolution.) .............................................................................. There are three other programs included in this release -- GDSK.EXE -- is a Disk Free-Space analyzer. It will tell you how much free space remains on the drive you name at the command line. ex. gdsk b: It supports drives A: - Z: GSAVR.EXE -- is GWIN's screensaver. It is a free-standing program that may be loaded from the command line or is invoked by GWIN when the timer runs out. DSPLY.EXE -- A textfile displayer. This program supports the and arrows and the keys only. It will display any ascii textfile that is less than 32k in size. useage is -- DSPLY [filename.ext] [\1] [filename.ext] is the name of the file to be displayed, and [\1] will allow cr/lf and tab characters to be seen. DSPLY will not expand tabs, and will truncate lines that are longer than 78 characters. DSPLY.EXE uses the WINDOWBOSS(c) text window interface. (ser. # 9302) .............................................................................. Other Files on the release disk -- GINSTALL.TXT -- This file. GLICENSE.DOC -- License and Ordering Information. Please read. GWIN.DOC -- GWIN's Manual. (It's lacking, but we're working on it.) GWIN.INI -- GWIN's control file. (Also contains GWIN HELP.) GWIN.MNU -- SAMPLE MENU file for GWIN. (Copy this to make your own.) EGAVGA.BGI -- Graphics Driver. (Must be present in GWIN's DIR.) TRIP.CHR -- Graphics Font file. (Must be present in GWIN's DIR.) LITT.CHR -- Graphics Font file. (Must be present in GWIN's DIR.) GREAD.ME -- Startup and/or last minute changes. GREADME.TOO -- How to contact us.