CD ROM Paradise Collection 4/CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso/win/cinstp17.zip/CHIEF.FAQ

Text File | 1995-02-09 | 6KB | 125 lines

            CHIEF'S INSTALLER PRO: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
            -------------------------------------------------

Please READ this file BEFORE contacting me with any questions!!
^^^^^^                ^^^^^^

1.    Q: WHAT RESERVED WORDS (COMMANDS) DO I ACTUALLY *NEED* IN MY
         WINSTALL.INF FILE?

      A: Most of the commands in the INF file are optional. However, some
         of them are essential. At the absolute minimum, you MUST have the
         following;
                   $TITLE
                   $DISK1
                   $SPACE
                   $TARGET


2.    Q: WHAT FILES IN THE CHIEF'S INSTALLER PRO PACKAGE ARE ABSOLUTELY
         NECESSARY FOR AN INSTALLATION?

      A: As with the commands, most of the files in the package are
         optional. At the absolute minimum, you must have;
                   INSTALL.EXE
                   WINSTALL.INF

         The installation will run perfectly well with these two files.
         However, if you want the "banner" to be displayed, you must also
         have WINSTALP.DLL. If you are using a language other than
         English, you must have a copy of WINSTALL.DLL compiled with the
         string resources translated to your language.


3.    Q: WHY DO I ALWAYS GET A DIALOG TELLING ME THAT THE INSTALLATION
         IS NOT COMPLETE WHEN I KNOW THAT IT IS?

      A: The installer tries to match the figure in your $SPACE line with
         the sizes of the files installed (to approximately 2% either way).
         A substantial (more than 2%) discrepancy leads to this error
         dialog. The solution is to make sure that your $SPACE information
         is accurate, or to disable the end dialog by using the
         $NO-END-DIALOG command.

         Note that if you do not ensure the accuracy of your $SPACE line,
         the progress "percent" meter will also not be accurate - and in
         such cases, you SHOULD use $NO-END-DIALOG otherwise your users
         will get a spurious error message which will confuse them into
         thinking that the installation has failed.

         The easiest way to calculate ALL your space requirements is to
         run AUTOCALC.EXE, AFTER completing your INF file. You can then
         use the figures that it supplies to replace the ones you had before.

         Please NOTE question 7 (below) as well.



4.    Q: I HAVE SPECIFIED CERTAIN FILES TO BE INSTALLED INTO THE WINDOWS
         SYSTEM DIRECTORY WITH THE $SYSDIR COMMAND. WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING
         INSTALLED?

      A: The $SYSDIR and $WINDIR lines only specify the DESTINATION of the
         files on those lines (the default is to install all files into the
         directory pointed to by $TARGET). When you use $SYSDIR or $WINDIR
         you still have to put those files on your $DISK lines, otherwise,
         they will not be installed at all.

         Another possible cause is that your files are compressed, and you
         are putting their compressed names (with underscores and all) on
         these lines. The only place where you should use the file names
         with the underscores (if they are compressed with the -r switch)
         is on the $DISK lines. In EVERY other place where you specify file
         names, you MUST use the original names of the files (i.e., the
         names of the uncompressed files, before they were compressed).


5.    Q: IN WHAT ORDER SHOULD THE ENTRIES IN MY INF FILE APPEAR?

      A: The whole INF file is read and processed at once. This means that
         the order is which the reserved words appear is not important in
         most cases.

         However, note that $USER-OPTION lines MUST appear before $OPTIONAL
         lines, and that any reserved word which is numbered (e.g., $DISK,
         $USER-OPTION, $OPTIONAL) must appear and be numbered in the correct
         numerical order.


6.    Q: IN WHAT LANGUAGE IS YOUR INSTALLER WRITTEN, AND WILL YOU SUPPLY
         THE SOURCE CODE (ON PAYMENT OF A FEE)?

      A: Chief's Installer Pro is written entirely in Borland Pascal 7.01.
         I am sorry I cannot supply the source code.


7.    Q: AUTOCALC SEEMS TO BE GETTING THE DISK SPACE CALCULCATIONS WRONG.
         WHAT GIVES?

      A: There are many causes for wrong calculations by AUTOCALC. The
         primary cause is indiscriminate use of wildcards in your INF
         file. Other causes, which might be related to the one already
         mentioned are:

            [a] Mixing wildcards and full file names on $DISK, $SYSDIR,
                $WINDIR, $TEMPDIR, and $OPTIONAL lines - this might
                result in some files being processed more than once.

            [b] Having files in the directories being processed by
                AUTOCALC which files are not going to be on your
                distribution disks.

         The bottom line is this - if you are going to use wildcards on
         your $DISK and/or $OPTIONAL lines, you need to think very
         carefully about what you are doing. It is up to you to arrange
         your lines so that no file is liable to be processed twice -
         this is because AUTOCALC processes your INF file _exactly_ as
         it finds it.

         In my view, it advisable to AVOID mixing wildcards and full file
         names on $OPTIONAL lines. The $OPTIONAL lines in SAMPLE4.INF
         are a good example of what will cause wrong calculations by
         AUTOCALC.