**************************************************************************** README.TXT for EtCetera ETC-DEM0 1.25 & 2.10 **************************************************************************** Contents -------- Installation Changes from Previous Versions Installation ------------ To install EtCetera, copy the EtCetera files into your Windows directory, and then create the program icon using whatever method your shell program requires. For Program Manager, choose the New option from the File menu. Choose "Program Item". Then type in the name of the program file, ETCETERA.EXE, and press Enter. The EtCetera icon will appear. EtCetera comes with a copy of Microsoft's COMMDLG.DLL to provide file/ directory dialog boxes. If you already have this file (it would be in your Windows SYSTEM subdirectory), do not copy the one provided by EtCetera. The file is included with Windows 3.1. You may already have it with Windows 3.0 if any other program you have requires it (in which case that program would provide it). EtCetera also includes DDEML.DLL, another file which is necessary for DDE support, and also included with Windows 3.1. Follow the same procedure for DDEML.DLL as for COMMDLG.DLL. ETCETERA.HLP is the on-line documentation. This can be accessed via the Help menu in EtCetera. You can also run it yourself using the Windows Help program, WINHELP.EXE. Refer to the help file for information on using EtCetera. ETC_DEMO.ETC is a sample EtCetera batch file. It shows off some of EtCetera's capabilities. In order to use ETC_DEMO.ETC, you must copy the SAMPLE.BMP bitmap file into the same directory where EtCetera is located. This file is included with EtCetera. You must also have a copy of Write, Notepad, and Calculator in your Windows directory. As noted in the next section, included with EtCetera 2.10 is ETCETERA.386, which allows some special features which would not otherwise be possible. The description of ETCETERA.386 describes how to install it. Changes from Previous Versions ------------------------------ EtCetera 2.10 differs substantially from previous versions. The descriptions which follow describe differences between 2.10 and earlier 1.2X releases. EtCetera 2.10 now supports sending keystrokes to a DOS window as well as a Windows window. To send keystrokes to a DOS window, use the Type command. Type does not work with Windows windows. In order to use Type, however, you must install the file ETCETERA.386 as a device driver into the SYSTEM.INI file and restart Windows for it to take effect. There are several other commands which require this driver and would not be otherwise available. See the help file for details. Use the line device=ETCETERA.386 in the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. You should copy ETCETERA.386 to your Windows System subdirectory (i.e. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). Other items supported by EtCetera 2.10 are rudimentary DDE commands, error trapping, and simulating mouse input. View the help file for details. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you. All written correspondence will be handled through: Alpha Computer and Graphics 6138 Zelzah Avenue Reseda, CA 91335 Via CompuServe: 73340,3452 Any comments you send in will receive our immediate attention. NOTES.TXT: A word from Thetaware Development regarding EtCetera 1.25/2.10 EtCetera 1.25 and 2.10 contain a few enhancements based on user suggestions, as well as some bug fixes. Also included with EtCetera 1.25 and 2.10 are some additional sample batch files. Some of the bug fixes are as follows: Ctrl+Break stopped working. The algorithm used to determine when Ctrl+Break has been pressed has been completely rewritten to bypass a documentation error in the Microsoft Windows SDK which, peculiarly, did not prevent Ctrl+Break from operating in previous versions. SendKeys would send inappropriate data which would affect its behavior with applications which define individual keys, particularly terminal emulators which define the standard and enhanced versions of keys differently (i.e. PageDown in the edit cluster versus PgDn on the numeric keypad). An error in the translation to 2.00 from a previous version was resulting in the wrong value being sent to applications. SendKeys now simulates keystrokes by sending them through the same mechanism as the keyboard driver, rather than sending them to the active window, and the correct keystroke data is sent. Also note that new key representations have been added for Alt, Ctrl, and Shift, so that these keys can be sent as actual keys rather than simply as key modifiers. Refer to the help file for details. Errors would occur when attempting to use TitleFill when no windows were visible. The errors would appear as blank entries in the string array structure. In this case, using Unhide would result in an error, since a blank string cannot be used with the Unhide command. The method used to get window information has been modified to compensate for the previous method's inability to handle this special case. Sample batch files: Besides ETC_DEMO.ETC, there is also PLAYWAVE.ETC, NOTE_TUT.ETC, and NOTESTUT.ETC. PLAYWAVE.ETC simply plays all WAV files in your Windows directory, in succession, while simultaneously displaying the name of the file which is being played. NOTE_TUT.ETC is a BRIEF "tutorial" using Notepad. It demonstrates how to choose an item from the menu bar in Notepad. NOTESTUT.ETC is the same demo, but it also adds sound. It requires the use of the eleven WAV files included with EtCetera. You will need to modify the NOTESTUT.ETC file so that the line $D = "C:\ETCETERA\" actually reflects the directory where the WAV files (NOTE*.WAV) are located. The voice used is the best willing voice we had available to record the data. We apologize for the nasal quality. One other note: Due to an oversight on our part, the routines used to store string data rely on Windows to store the data for them. Windows does not make a distinction between case, however, so if a string already exists, even though the cases of the letters in the strings differ, Windows will store the new string as the old string. In other words, after the following statements: $C = "Yes" $D = "YES" the string "Yes" is stored in both $C and $D. $D will NOT contain "YES". Consequently, the string comparison operators EC and NC, "equal, case sensitive" and "not-equal, case-sensitive", behave just like EI and NI, respectively. In a future release of EtCetera, the entire string data storage routines will be changed to correct this behavior. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.