Introduction to PIC (Program Instance Control) V2.00a

June 7, 1995

System Requirements

PIC requires Windows 3.1 or later running on compatible
hardware and was designed to run with Microsoft Program
Manager.  It is not known how it will perform with other
shells, e.g, Norton Desktop for Windows, to name one.

Installing

Install PIC by running SETUP.EXE provided with the PIC
distribution files.  You must run SETUP from Windows.
Please be sure that all of the PIC distribution files
are on the same directory on some disk and that this
is NOT the destination directory for the installed
version of the program.

It's best to unzip the compressed PIC distribution file
to a floppy disk and then run the SETUP on this floppy.
For example, from the Program Manager menu select "File"
and then from the drop-down menu select "Run...".  Then
in the edit window of the Run box type something like,

               a:setup

if, for example, the PIC files are a floppy disk in the 
a: drive.

Previous Users

Please be sure to read the section of this file that 
describes how to keep your original button configuration.
(See "Users with Previous PIC.INI Files" below.)

Standard Installation

In the installation, PIC is installed to the Program 
Manager Startup group is so that PIC will automatically
run whenever Windows starts up.  This is usually just
what you want.  But, if not, you can modify the startup
option from within the PIC program after you get it 
running as follows:  

When PIC is running, click on the upper left corner 
of the PIC button bar to open the system menu.  Select 
"Run..." from the menu.  Then click on the "Help" button
and find the "PIC Setup" topic in Help for descriptions
of the several ways that PIC can be configured.

PIC Directory

The only installation option is the name of the PIC
directory. This directory can be renamed, if necessary
but, in general, you should NOT make it a subdirectory 
of your Windows directory because of possible multiple
configuration issues which are discussed next.  
 
File Locations

As a new user, you will probably not need to be concerned
with the issues discussed here because PIC will quite
efficiently take care of all of its file management 
behind the scenes.  However, if you are a system 
administrator or if you have a previous version of PIC
and want to use your original PIC.INI file, you may need
to know where PIC places its files.

After installation, PIC.EXE along with a few text files
and the default INI files will be located in a directory
probably called C:\GWPIC unless you have renamed it. The
INI files that you find in this directory are used ONLY 
to create the working INI file which will be placed in 
your Windows directory by PIC the first time you run 
the PIC program from Windows.

That is the organization recommended by Microsoft and is
very convenient if either you run PIC on a network or if,
like the developer on this side of the keyboard, you boot
more than one operating system.  In this case, you must
install PIC separately on each operating system, (WIN 3.1
and WIN95, for example) or network node. This will result
in only ONE home directory for PIC (e.g., C:\GWPIC) but 
each operating system or network node will get a separate
GWPIC.INI file in its local Windows directory when PIC
runs.

Users with Previous PIC.INI Files

For the reasons discussed above, this version of PIC 
organizes its files differently from previous versions.
If you are using a previous version of PIC and want to 
retain your current PIC configuration, you will need to
replace the GWPIC.INI file with your original PIC.INI
file.  This is how to do it:

  1) Delete any existing copy of the file:
               
                     GWPIC.INI 
     
     that you might find in your Windows directory. 
     If you find a copy there, it was created as a
     default by the new version of PIC. 
  
  2) Find the file:
                     PIC.INI 

     in the directory that contains your old PIC 
     1.0 files. 

  3) Rename this PIC.INI file to GWPIC.INI.  

  4) Move your renamed file directly into the Windows
     directory. (Not into a subdirectory of it.)

  5) Finally, delete the remaining PIC 1.0 files.

If you follow the steps above, all of your previous 
configurations will be retained.

Customizing PIC

As with previous versions, PIC will run standard Windows
programs without requiring any configuring.  However,
since this version makes custom configuration incredibly
easy, naturally, you will want to add your own buttons 
to the button bar.  To see how to do this, run PIC and 
when it is active, click on the upper left corner of the 
PIC button bar to call up the system menu.  Then select 
"Modify Buttons.." from the menu.  At this point, if you 
don't instantly see what you need to do, just click on 
the Help button.

The evaluation version of PIC will allow you to create 
up to 10 separate button bars of 10 buttons each. The 
registered version (which is the only one you are 
licensed to use for purposes other than evaluation) 
will create up to 52 separate, simultaneous button bars
for a total of 520 maximum independent buttons.  More
than enough for even the REALLY SERIOUS uses.

Enjoy,

Ray Connell
Green Willow Software
CompuServe 73277,1501
rayconl@netcom.com