executor/docs/readme-commercial-crlf.1st

1.99x DENOTES EXPERIMENTAL VERSIONS OF EXECUTOR

In an effort to keep our customers in the development loop, we are
periodically releasing experimental versions of Executor.  These
experimental versions are numbered 1.99a, 1.99b, 1.99c, etc.  We try
not to break features with new releases, but sometimes that happens,
so be aware that anything mentioned in these notes may fail to work.
To keep totally up to date, you should join the Executor Interest
mailing list.  To do so, send e-mail to "majordomo@nacm.com" with a
blank subject line and a mail body of "subscribe executor" and then
you'll have access to a more timely forum concerning the latest
developments in Executor.



HOW TO INSTALL

This distribution has an installation program which will automatically
install Executor from two floppies.  To run the installation script, make
sure that the first floppy (the one with this README.1ST file on it) is in
your 3.5" floppy drive.  If that drive is drive "A:", all you need to
do is:

        C:\> A:\INSTALL

Unlike previous versions of Executor's installer, starting with 1.99i,
the installer program will allow you to install Executor anywhere on
your hard drive.

    IMPORTANT:

    If you are using disk cacheing you should set it to only do read
    caches.  Write caches can result in the ".hfv" files being
    corrupted if Executor dies unexpectedly.  (NOTE: if you forget to
    turn off your write cache, you may have to reinstall the ".hfv"
    files after Executor crashes).



MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AFTER YOU INSTALL

The installation process creates a "docs" directory that contains
other files that may help you to better understand Executor.  The most
important of these is called "faq", which stands for "answers to
Frequently Asked Questions".



EXECUTOR NEEDS A MOUSE DRIVER TO WORK

In addition to needing a mouse to be physically connected to your
computer, Executor requires a mouse driver to be loaded before it can
run.  If Executor complains that you don't have a mouse installed,
even though you have one connected, the problem is that your
autoexec.bat does not load the mouse driver for use with DOS programs.
Since many people only use their mouse with Windows, which has its own
mouse driver, they don't have the mouse driver commands in their
autoexec.bat.

The exact changes that need to be made to your autoexec.bat varies
depending on what type of mouse you have, and where the mouse driver
has been installed on your system.  In general, anyone knowledgeable
about your particular configuration should be able to give you simple
instructions for modifying your autoexec.bat, whether that's the
technical support line of the company that made the machine, or your
local DOS wizard.



HOW TO GET STARTED COPYING MACINTOSH FORMATTED FLOPPIES

Executor/DOS can only read High Density (1.4Mb) formatted floppies.
Most older Macintosh applications were distributed on 800K floppies
which can't be used with Executor, so MAKE SURE you use 1.4Mb
Macintosh formatted floppies with Executor/DOS.  Executor/DOS doesn't
format floppies for you; you'll have to do that on a Macintosh, for
now.

The key to copying Macintosh formatted floppies is the "Desk
Accessory" called HFS_XFer.  Desk accessories are little programs that
piggyback off other programs to do their work.  It's like the old
Vermont joke (beware, provincial humor does not always translate well)
"You can't get there from here (pause) you have to go someplace else,
first".  The upshot is that you must run a program, almost any
program, in order to find and use "HFS_XFer".  I usually start up the
"Mines" program.  Once Mines is started, and the initial "OK" box is
clicked, you can find "HFS_XFer" under the Apple menu at the far left
of the menu bar.

Internally at ARDI we have a file browser that allows you to
graphically copy, delete and rename files.  It will be included with
E/D 2.0, but it is not yet available to the general public.

It is important to note that you have three different areas that you
can copy to/from.  In addition to Macintosh formatted floppies, you
can copy Macintosh files to your hard disk, either as DOS files, or as
Macintosh files within a single DOS file which represents a Macintosh
"volume".  This fully-enabled version of Executor/DOS 1.99x also
allows you to copy to/from Mac formatted SCSI drives (if you have a
SCSI adapter) and copy from Mac formatted CD ROMs if you have a CD ROM
drive.

When you copy Mac files as DOS files, they are broken up in two
halves.  One half will have the original name of the file, the other
will have a "%" prepended to the original name.  The file with the
original name represents the "data fork" of the Macintosh file, and
that's where data that can be used in both Macintosh and DOS
environments resides.  The other half, the one with the "%" prepended
is the "resource fork" and it contains information that only makes
sense in the Macintosh environment.

Using the DOS filesystem to represent Macintosh files is very awkward.
In fact, if the names contain funny characters, you might get an "I/O
error".  The alternative is to store files within a single "Macintosh
Volume".  This demo version of Executor comes with a 5 Mb Mac Volume.
It should be sufficient to allow you to explore Executor.  While
Executor is working within a Macintosh volume, files can have upper
and lower case names with lengths up to 31 characters, but your DOS
programs can't see the individual files.  More about what's going on
is in the printed documentation.



USING MKVOL TO CREATE A NEW VOLUME

Although we don't supply documentation with this demo version of
Executor, you may notice the "MKVOL" program in the "\EXECUTOR"
directory.  If you are adventurous and want to use mkvol, it is
important that the new volume that you create have the suffix ".HFV".
If you do not call your new volume "something.HFV", Executor will
ignore it.



RUNNING PROGRAMS DIRECTLY OFF FLOPPIES

Running programs directly off floppies is incredibly slow.  You will
find it much quicker to use HFS_XFer to copy a program from a floppy
into one of your ".hfv" files and then run the program directly out of
the ".hfv" file.



UNIXISMS LEFT IN EXECUTOR

Executor was developed originally under UNIX.  A few "UNIXisms" have
remained in Executor; they will be gone in 2.0.  Sometimes you will
see "/" used where "\" would normally be used in DOS.  In addition,
switches are introduced with a leading "-" instead of "/".  We
apologize for this annoyance.



USE WITH WINDOWS

Executor/DOS 1.99x will run under Windows 3.1.

You can make a double-clickable icon for Executor by using the
Program Manager in Windows:

        Choose "New..." from the Program Manager "File" menu

        Click the "Program Item" radio button

        Click "OK"

        Enter "Executor" in the Description field

        Enter "c:\executor\executor" in the Command Line field

        Enter "c:\executor" in the Working Directory field

        Add a Shortcut Key if you wish

        Click on "Change Icon...

        Click on "OK" when the error message comes up

        Find, Select and Click OK on an Icon you like

        Click on "OK" to leave "Program Item Properties"

Remember, Executor is its own windowing system.  It does not need
Windows to be effective, although the only way you can run two Mac
programs at once it to do so under Windows.  Once you have one copy of
Executor running under Windows, you can use "Left_Alternate-Tab" and
"Right_Alternate-Enter" to hot-key back and forth between different
programs and screen modes.



USE WITH OS/2

Executor/DOS 1.99x works with OS/2 2.11, but not with previous versions.
To get E/D 1.99x to run you'll need to adjust use these settings:

    DPMI_DOS_API ENABLED
    DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT 16
    EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT 0
    XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT 0



USE WITH NT

Currently, Executor/DOS 1.99x does not run under Windows NT.  This should
change soon, I believe.



IF EXECUTOR RUNS SLOWLY

Executor needs about 4 Mb of memory to work efficiently.  If it does
not have enough physical memory, it will make do by writing
infrequently used parts of itself to your hard disk and only "paging"
them in when they're actually used.  However, DOS systems can have
their memory artificially eaten up in too many ways to describe here.
If think Executor is running slowly, you might want to have a DOS guru
check to make sure that it's not being memory starved.



CREDITS

Executor is a product of ARDI (Abacus Research and Development, Inc.).
The majority of Executor proper was designed and implemented by
Clifford T. Matthews.  The synthetic CPU and DOS port were done by
Mathew Hostetter.  Executor was originally written under X-Windows,
then ported to NEXTSTEP and finally ported to DOS using DJGPP, a port
of the Free Software Foundation's gcc compiler done by DJ Delorie.
The file "EXECUTOR.EXE" is actually a modified version of DJ's "GO32"
DOS extender, the source to which is freely available, from us (for
the cost of a floppy plus postage).

More information about the Free Software Foundation and DJGPP is
included in our documentation.



Thanks!

Clifford T. Matthews    questions@ardi.com
Founder                 +1 505 766 9115 Phone
ARDI                    +1 505 247 1899 FAX