WELCOME TO EASY INSTALL Easy Install packs your program using LHARC by Yoshi. It then transfers your program together with a customized installation program and a Readme.Bat file to your installation disk. If your program, in packed form, together with the install program will not fit on a single disk, Easy Install will pack your program onto additional disks automatically. All you have to do is fill in the fields on the main screen. 1. PROGRAM NAME Please use proper case eg. Payroll Master 2. DEFAULT DIRECTORY TO INSTALL TO Enter a suggested directory for the installation. This will be offered as a default on the installation disk but the user will be able to choose another. If your program includes sub directories these will retain their names but will be recreated under the main directory name chosen by the user. If you require your program to be installed to a fixed main directory name then enter "No Choice" in this field and the installation will be made to a directory with the same name as the source directory. If you enter a default then you must include a drive letter with the default directory eg. C:\MYPROG START UP COMMAND If your program is an EXE or COM file and there are no parameters to pass on the command line then enter the EXE or COM file name (without the extension) and the installation program will start your program automatically after installation. For the automatic start, Easy Install assumes that your executable file will be in the main directory. If it is in a sub directory then you must use the "No Start" option. (see next Para.) If your program starts with a batch file or if there are parameters to pass on the command line you must enter "No Start" in this field. - The installation program cannot start such programs and will generate an error message if you try. If you enter "No Start" in this field you will be asked to supply the actual start command - this will be shown on screen when the install routine completes. If there is no start command for your application then enter N/A and the installation program will not print the start command line. When you use the "No Start" option, the installation program terminates at the DOS prompt, on the drive and in the directory to which the installation was made. SOURCE DIRECTORY This is the directory (or main directory) in which your program can be found for packing. Please include the drive eg. C:\PROGFILS COMPANY OR AUTHOR NAME Your Company or Author Name will be displayed on the main screen of the installation program. DRIVE WITH INSTALLATION DISK Enter A or B FILE TO USE AS README.TXT Easy Install is supplied with a ready written DEFAULT.TXT file suitable for any program which does not require special instructions. If you select this it will be copied to your installation disk as README.TXT and displayed after installation. You can create your own Readme files for different programs. Easy Install includes an editor for the purpose (Press F6). If you prefer to use your own favourite editor that's OK - provided the files are in the Easy Install directory and have the extension .TXT they will be listed for you to choose from each time you make an installation disk. If you do not wish to have a readme file displayed then select "None" in this field. If you use the readme.txt facility then you should not have another file called readme.txt among your program files. INSTALLATION DISK LANGUAGE Select the language to use for the installation program. English is the only language supplied with the evaluation copy. The reg- istered version currently supports English, Dutch, German and Spanish. -------------------------------------------------------------------- SETUP DATABASE Each time you make an installation disk with Easy Install it enters all the parameters you have used in a data file. After your first disk it will display a list of the programs you have already made install disks for. If you are re-doing a previous installation disk all you have to do is pick its name from the list and the last parameters will be entered in the appropriate fields. The choice is made on the program name field. If you have more than one version of a program then you can differentiate between them by remming a note after the name. Easy Install recognizes a double apostrophe as a rem indicator. For example two sets of parameters could be saved with the program names:- Easy Base ''Shareware Easy Base ''Reg When the installation disk are made only "Easy Base" will be copied to the install disks as the program name. UNINSTALLABLE FILES The file names ~PACK1.LZH ~LHA.EXE ~FILES.LST AND ~PACK. are created as temporary files in the target directory and are erased after the installation. You cannot therefore install files with these names in your main directory. AUTOMATIC OVERWRITE Installations with Easy Install automatically overwrite files with the same name in the target directories irrelevant of date stamp. This is ideal for updates to program files and for replacing Eval. copies with registered ones. However, if you ship a combination of program files and starting data which your user will modify then you should create two disks, one for the program and one for the initial data so that the user can do a program re-install without overwriting his data. DISCLAIMER John Turnbull disclaims all warranties as to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose functionality, data integrity or protection. LHARC AND ASCII 255 The ASCII Character 255 is not recognised as a legal character in filenames by LHARC. You CANNOT pack and install any file with the character 255 in the name.