******************************************************************************** PATHFINDER V.1.00 An Applications Program Launching System by BROOKS SOFTWARE ENGINEERING San Diego, California 1-(800)-778-PATH I. GENERAL INFORMATION II. SETUP III. YOU NEED TO KNOW IV. PURCHASING INFORMATION V. UPCOMMING PRODUCTS ******************************************************************************** NOTE: Be sure to read the HELP screens when you run PATHFINDER. They contain information that will help you enjoy PATHFINDER more (eg. Easy Screens). NOTE: This information is contained in a file called 'pathfndr.txt'. You may display it again by typing within the pathfndr directory... display pathfndr.txt at the DOS prompt. Please accept the program display.exe as a gift from us for trying out PATHFINDER. You can display any text file with it. ******************************************************************************** I. GENERAL INFORMATION PATHFINDER is a program designed to give you easy access to all of your other programs. It is what is generally called a 'Program Launcher' or a 'Menu Program'. Once it is set up, all you need do is press a key or click your mouse to launch one of your applications programs. PATHFINDER will feed command line arguments to your programs, or ask you for them as you wish. It will move to the directory of your application program while running it, and return to the 'pathfndr' directory on completion to maintain all housekeeping functions in order. What is displayed to you, the user, is a screen with thin, horizontal, areas called 'buttons' with descriptions of your programs in those areas. Left of the description are function key assignments which, if pressed will cause PATHFINDER to run the application. You will notice a highlighted border surrounding one of the buttons. This highlighted border can be moved from one button to an adjacent button with the Up/Down arrow keys on your keyboard. Pressing the return key will launch the program that is highlighted. If you wish you can click the mouse on the button to highlight the button and click on it a second time to launch the program or select it for other operations. In short, you can fully automate program launching. As your applications programs fill up a page (you can have 8 applications on a page) new pages are created, automatically, which can be reached with the Page Up/Page Down keys. You can install the same program, with the same or different button descriptors anywhere you wish. That is, redundancy is fully acceptable, and may be useful. For instance, you may wish to have a WINDOWS word processing program in a sub-menu(described below) for WINDOWS programs and in a sub-menu for word processing programs, as well as in your main menu if you use it a lot. You will notice two special separate buttons at the bottom of your screen. One is labeled 'SETUP AND UTILITIES' and the other is labeled 'DOS GATEWAY'. The 'DOS GATEWAY' is for your convenience and will run a DOS shell for you. You need only click it once with the mouse, or select it as with the above applications. The 'SETUP AND UTILITIES' mode gives you the ability to configure PATHFINDER. Setting up requires that you enter your program applications into a data file that can be referenced. This is easily done, and does not require that you understand DOS structures and formats. You just have to know the program name. The help functions and on screen instructions provided while PATHFINDER is running will easily guide you through these procedures. You can set up sub-menus in PATHFINDER. What this means is that you can create a description, just like a program description, but, instead of running a program when you select it, it displays a new menu with its own application programs. This is especially useful for grouping applications such as DOS applications or Windows applications. Also note that the color of the title of a sub-menu in a button is different from the color of the title of a program. Set up is accomplished by selecting the F9. button near the bottom of the menu selection buttons. Selecting the set up button will take you to another screen which will allow you to set up menus, select screen colors, select a different screen saver(if you wish) and the idle time, install a password, so only those who know the password can use the menu, change the time or date, select a new windows directory(if you later change it), select a mouse screen pointer, and change the company name(your name) displayed at the top of the screen. There is a help section available in the set up section. Just read the help, and follow directions to accomplish the above tasks. PATHFINDER itself is run by typing 'pf' at the DOS prompt. You may include the '\pathfndr' directory in the path in your autoexec.bat file, and/or you may have your autoexec.bat file run PATHFINDER by typing '\pathfndr\pf' as the last line of the autoexec.bat file. As a convenience to you, a number of screens of different color combinations have been created which can be toggled through by typing the tab key. These screens are, collectively, referred to in the program as 'easy screens'. ******************************************************************************** II. SETUP SETUP is a program which will run automatically for you when you exit this information viewing, if you are installing pathfinder. Otherwise, you may run SETUP anytime by typing at the DOS prompt, while you are in the pathfndr directory... setup There are three choices given by the first SETUP screen. Choice 1. is the most comprehensive setup proceedure and will initiate a search of your disk for current popular programs and establish them as menu items if you have any of these programs. Choice 2. will set the menu up, but not include any programs. Choice 3. should be run after you have set up in order to access lockout and password codes. ******************************************************************************** III. YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. If you add WINDOWS later - Change the WINDOWS directory. Press F9 to go to SETUP menu. Then press F8 to change the WINDOWS directory. Enter a full pathname, usually... C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM 2. If you reinstall PATHFINDER - If you delete the PATHFINDER data file during setup you will have to re-enter all the data you enter by hand. Just press the escape key when setup first runs to avoid this. 3. Do not run PATHFINDER from WINDOWS. ******************************************************************************** IV. PURCHASING INFORMATION Thank you for trying out the PATHFINDER menu program. Besides owning a copy of PATHFINDER, purchasing a copy entitles you to the following... 1. Technical help 2. Update notifications 3. Notification and discount on our near future Windows release 4. Notification and discount on other new product releases. If you would like a perminant copy of the PATHFINDER, please call... 1-800-778-PATH from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time M - F. You will be given a 30 day extension of run time by issuing you a code number. Charge it to your Master or Visa card or During that 30 days you can send a check or money order... for: $19.95 to: BROOKS SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (+tax if applic.) 4267 44th Street, #9 San Diego, CA 92115 and we will mail you a perminant copy of PATHFINDER upon receipt of your payment. When you call and receive your 30 day extension code, run the program again and enter your extension code at that time. ******************************************************************************** V. UPCOMMING PRODUCTS 1. Windows Version of PATHFINDER (Summer 1994) 2. MACH1 - The Programmer's Choice (Fall:Winter 1994) MACH1 is a text oriented Shell Operating system designed to aid the programmer in writing code. It comes complete with a text editor, a disk viewing system(with tree), a low level disk viewer to read and change the disk contents at the lowest level, and a large set of MACRO driven 80x86 assembly language driver routines for I/O, MATH, GRAPHICS, etc. 3. SIMPLE SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (Winter:Spring 1995) SIMPLE SOFTWARE SYSTEMS is a Graphical User Interface(GUI) system built on a philosophy that the user need know nothing about computers in order to use one. The computer makes everything obvious in plain language. This system will make computer usage easy and automatic for even the novice. Its format is much like PATHFINDER and works with PATHFINDER as a complimentary program.