Document 1209 ViewMAX 1/6/92 RR Description: Installing ViewMAX through DR DOS Setup DR DOS Setup has a section that allows end users to choose basic configuration options for ViewMAX. Available options include the ability to select screen type, mouse type and port, and color palette. Video The DR DOS default for screen driver is VGA. If a user is not sure what screen type to select choose the default. If a blank screen appears when running ViewMAX the wrong screen driver has probably been selected. Try Ctrl-Q to restore the DOS prompt. Ctrl-Q is the keyboard shortcut for quitting ViewMAX. Check the video card manual for the type of video card installed. DR DOS comes with drivers for the most common types of video cards. Setup also allows a choice of color palette. There are 8 different color palettes available, although more can be created by editing the VIEWMAX.INI file. Two of the palettes (Monochrome and LCD/Plasma) can be used on the special displays that come with some laptops. These same two palettes are also usable on color systems. IMPORTANT for monochrome video displays If a monochrome display is installed it is recommended that the user choose the monochrome palette. Choosing a full color palette could result in some sections of the ViewMAX screen having the same foreground and background color. IMPORTANT for CGA video displays Because of the limited amount of video memory in a CGA video card, ViewMAX can only display in black and white (2 color mode) on CGA displays. Any of the color palettes can be selected when installing ViewMAX for CGA but the screen may not be acceptable when translated into black and white (this is the same problem that was mentioned above for monochrome displays). It is recommended that CGA users select the monochrome palette when setting up ViewMAX. IMPORTANT for EGA video displays Early EGA displays did not come with enough memory to display 640x350 in 16 colors. If one of these cards is installed select the CGA driver. If an end user is not sure what type of EGA card is being used try the EGA driver. If it is one of the older cards vertical stripes that may have blinking characters in them will appear or the screen may fill with random characters as the mouse is moved. If the video adapter is not an EGA card and the screen gets characters as mentioned above or simply gets a blank screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left corner then the video card is not 100% compatible with the video driver selected. Check hardware manuals for compatibility. At this time Digital Research does not offer any screen drivers other than the ones found on the DR DOS 6 ViewMAX disk. If the video card is not compatible with the drivers included please submit an SPR form detailing the manufacturer, type and model of the video card. Mouse The ViewMAX setup offers 5 different choices for mouse. The first option is for keyboard only support. The second option is for Bus mouse or a pointing device that requires its own driver. This option is the default. As long as the device has a driver that can emulate a mouse then it can be used with ViewMAX. This includes devices such as trackballs and graphics tablets. The PS/2 mouse option is for any computer that uses a PS/2 type mouse. The other options are drivers for the specific devices listed. IMPORTANT for mice that use drivers If a mouse driver is loaded in CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT or command line prior to running ViewMAX then the Bus Mouse option (default) should be used. This option is also recommended if there is trouble configuring a mouse to work with ViewMAX. Set ViewMAX for bus mouse and load the driver. If the problem continues make sure the mouse is installed correctly. Most pointing devices come with their own diagnostic software to help trouble shoot problems. When ViewMAX is set for Bus it does not matter if the mouse is a true bus mouse or is attached to a COM port. ViewMAX does not try to control the mouse directly but instead communicates with the mouse driver. The Microsoft and Logitech options in Setup are drivers. If a driver is already loaded and either of these options is chosen the mouse may behave erratically or not move at all. Either unload the mouse driver or change the ViewMAX setup to bus mouse. If you find yourself in ViewMAX with your mouse not working you can exit ViewMAX with a CTRL-Q (holding the Control key and striking Q ). If you wish to continue using ViewMAX a CTRL-RIGHT SHIFT will toggle the cursor to keyboard control. This is not the same as choosing keyboard control from Setup. When cursor control has shifted to keyboard the HOME key takes the place of the mouse button, not the ENTER or SPACEBAR key. To drag a selection box use the END key. Double clicking is accomplished by striking the HOME key twice quickly. IMPORTANT for all mouse users If you have trouble executing applications from ViewMAX (double clicking) you may wish to adjust the double click speed in the Options/Preferences menu in ViewMAX. The default setting is 3 (medium) but it may be easier for some users to select 1 (slow). If you change this setting be sure to Save Preferences so that this speed setting is preserved. Automatic startup The final question in Setup is whether to load ViewMAX at boot time. If the answer is yes then the ViewMAX command will be added to your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Users can enter Setup at any time and change the ViewMAX configuration without affecting any other installation settings. Changing the configuration through Setup will not affect any User Preferences set previously nor will it affect configured applications. Configuration Tips and Common Questions about ViewMAX ViewMAX requires 512K of RAM to run. ViewMAX memory requirements can be reduced by disabling the clock and calculator accessory. To do this rename VIEWMAX.ACC (for example to VIEWMAX.ACX). ViewMAX will then not attempt to load the accessory. This will save approximately 20K. Refer to the RENAME command description in the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide. ViewMAX will use approximately 20K of the available DOS memory to execute an application. This is due to overhead required to shell. ViewMAX will not reduce DOS memory when executing an application if TaskMAX is running and ViewMAX controls TaskMAX. Each application that is executed from ViewMAX will be spawned as a new task. If ViewMAX is used to control TaskMAX it is recommended that the Bus mouse option be used. This will allow the user to have mouse control in other applications. It is important to remember that any device loaded before TaskMAX is universal to all tasks. Any driver or TSR loaded after TaskMAX is available only in the task in which it was loaded. The Format command in the ViewMAX File Menu does not pass parameters. This means that if a computer has a high-density drive then no low-density disks can be formatted using this menu command. The workaround for this is to execute the FORMAT utility in the DR DOS directory. ViewMAX will then ask for any parameters that need to be entered. Changing the date and time on the ViewMAX clock will update system date and time in the CMOS. This is a convenient way to update the clock without having to enter CMOS Setup. Users who have complex sub-directory structures (such as network drives) may wish to turn off the Tree. This is due to the fact that ViewMAX reads the entire directory file structure when it starts or returns from an application. Not displaying the Tree will cause ViewMAX to read only the current directory, not the entire drive structure. Under some configurations ViewMAX may want a user to insert a floppy disk every time that ViewMAX loads. The user has Saved Preferences with a window open on a floppy drive. To stop this from happening simply Save Preferences when no window is open on a floppy drive. Advanced User Configuration of VIEWMAX.INI This section is primarily intended for advanced users who feel comfortable with changing configurations and would like a better understanding of how ViewMAX works. Novices will find the first section of this note on DR DOS setup useful in understanding what choices are available and how to do some basic trouble shooting but we do not recommend that they try to directly edit the VIEWMAX.INI file. ViewMAX configuration The file VIEWMAX.INI is an ASCII file that contains the configuration information that ViewMAX uses on initialization. The file includes parameters for screen colors, mouse type and port, screen driver to be used, and programs that have been configured. Also stored in this file are the User Preferences, starting directories for each window, window size, and other defaults. If a user makes a mistake and ViewMAX indicates that the VIEWMAX.INI file is missing or unusable just copy the file from the ViewMAX disk or better yet make sure there is a backup copy before making any changes. The DR DOS Editor will automatically make a backup with the extension .BAK when a file is changed and saved. Editing the VIEWMAX.INI file The DR DOS EDITOR program or any other ASCII editor can be used to edit the VIEWMAX.INI file. Keywords in the file are case sensitive. For example, if a colorset is added it must be spelled "ColorSet". The C and S must be upper case and all other letters lower case or ViewMAX will not recognize the line. Anything after a pound sign "#" is regarded as a comment and is ignored by ViewMAX. Comments will not affect Setup's ability to read the file but beware: Changing the VIEWMAX.INI file with Setup will remove all comments. Brackets "[ ]" indicate different paragraphs within the configuration file. It is not recommended that the order of these be changed. VIEWMAX.INI fields [PREFS] A series of switches from the OPTIONS/PREFERENCES menu where 0=off and 1=on. It is not really necessary to manually edit these functions as ViewMAX has the ability to adjust these values easily. [WINDOW] This section controls the size of the two ViewMAX windows. While this may give the impression that users can configure ViewMAX windows to any size they want on the screen, there are only 3 windows sizes that can be used. It is recommended that users not adjust these except via the ViewMAX program. Also stored here are the sort order, view, path, tree and wildcards. These are also easily configurable from within ViewMAX. [PROGRAMS] This is for configured applications. The paragraph contains information about the selected icon, the name of the application, whether or not it takes parameters and what the associated document extensions are. Do not change or modify the first 6 entries that contain wildcards (*.exe,*.*, etc.). ViewMAX sets aside a 1K buffer for the storage of the information in this section. That amounts to approximately 35 configured applications. If you need to enter more applications you can remove the GEM and DR DOS applications that are preconfigured in this section. Example: a b c d e | | | | | (G:12,44) DRAW.APP *.GEM syntax: (a:b,c) d [e] a D = folder G = GEM application m = DOS, no params, needs full memory M = DOS, no params p = DOS, params, needs full memory P = DOS, params b,c internal id numbers for app and document icons; -1 means no icon d application name; ~ means not applicable e document type(s); ~ means none [COLORS] This section is the one that will probably attract the attention of most users. This is where information on colorsets are stored for the various windows and dialog boxes. Remember that CGA and Monochrome monitors will interpret the color to black and white and so little will be gained by changing palettes on these systems. MaxColors should equal the total number of ColorSets. MaxColors will determine the total number of colors listed in the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog. CurrentColor indicates the palette that is currently selected to be the startup palette. This value can be changed by both Setup or the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog. If using the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog be sure to SAVE PREFERENCES to change the CurrentColor in VIEWMAX.INI. Information contained in the ColorSets indicates individual colors and fills for each component of a window. Below is a listing of the ColorSet variables and a reference of where they appear on the ViewMAX screen. Refer to page 20 of the ViewMAX User Guide for a diagram of the ViewMAX screen. ColorSet ViewMAX diagram page 20 -------- ------------------------ NAME TITLE BAR (active window) INFO INFORMATION TITLE SLCTDNAME TITLE BAR (inactive window) DESKTOP background color SLIDER SLIDER BUTTON SCROLL BAR The ColorSet called Button is also used as the color of ViewMAX dialog boxes. Each ColorSet setting has 4 numbers that are in groups of 2. The first 2 digits are colors. The next 2 numbers establish the fill by which the two colors are blended together. The following is a section of a ColorSet called Bright. The name of the ColorSet must be in quotes. The chart indicates what portions of the sequence are colors and which ones are fill patterns. Commas must be used as delimiters for proper syntax. All spaces are ignored. ColorSet3="Bright" Name= 2,0, 1,0 Info= 3,4, 2,4 ColorSet Color 1 Color 2 Fill Fill -------- ------- ------- ---- ---- Name 2, 0, 1, 0 Info 3, 4, 2, 4 There are 16 possible colors in ViewMAX. Valid numbers are 0-15 with the first 8 as high intensity colors. Color number Color ------------ ----- 0 white 1 black 2 red 3 green 4 blue 5 cyan 6 yellow 7 magenta 8 light gray 9 dark gray 10 dark red 11 dark green 12 dark blue 13 dark cyan 14 dark yellow 15 dark magenta There are a total of 39 fills that can be used with the above colors. ViewMAX will generally use the first few fills in its default ColorSets. As indicated earlier it takes a pair of numbers to define a fill. If the first digit is 0 a hollow or white fill is displayed. If the first digit is 1 then the first number is used as a solid fill. In both of the cases the second digit has no meaning. For example the fill 1,n has the same result as 2,8. If the first digit is 2, then a pattern is generated where the two colors are blended together in various proportions. There are 24 combinations possible whose values range from 2,1 to 2,24. A first digit of 3 indicates a hatch. Valid values for hatches are 3,1 to 3,12. Some of these fills can be very busy so test them first. If a color or fill is out of range ViewMAX will substitute a 0 in its place. Here are the total range of color combinations that are possible. The letter "n" indicates that any number can be used. Hollow Pattern Pattern Pattern Hatch Hatch ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ----- 0,n 2,1 2,9 2,17 3,1 3,9 2,2 2,10 2,18 3,2 3,10 Filled 2,3 2,11 2,19 3,3 3,11 1,n 2,4 2,12 2,20 3,4 3,12 2,5 2,13 2,21 3,5 2,6 2,14 2,22 3,6 2,7 2,15 2,23 3,7 2,8 2,16 2,24 3,8 [DRIVERS] This section is for screen and mouse drivers. MaxDrv indicates the total number of drivers listed. DR DOS comes with 4 screen drivers that can be used on 7 different type of video cards. CurrentDrv is the driver that ViewMAX is configured to use on startup. VidPatch sets internal switches for screen drivers. When ViewMAX is configured to use an EGA or VGA display, it automatically determines the current display type, either Monochrome or Color, EGA, or VGA. If, for any reason, a different display mode is required, ViewMAX can be forced to work with a specified display type by editing the VIDPATCH keyword with the following contents: VIDPATCH = nn where nn is replaced by a digit between 00 and 03. 00 Monochrome EGA Display 01 Color EGA Display 02 Monochrome VGA Display 03 Color VGA Display MouseType describes the type of mouse chosen in DR DOS Setup. MousePort is the communications port to be used by the mouse. Any device that uses the Bus mouse option will have 255 as the port number.