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1990-08-06
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ID:QW Quarterdeck White Papers
Quarterdeck Technical Note
by Daniel Travison
Welcome aboard the Quarterdeck White Papers! The White Papers
originated as separate documents prepared by our Technical Support
Staff. Each one explores a single topic of importance to users of
Quarterdeck products. They were originally written as independent items
in response to inquires by our users. Previous versions have been
distributed by mail and FAX as one avenue of supporting our customers.
Over a period of time these Papers tend to change; there are additions
and deletions all the time as products evolve. Rather than distribute a
paper version, we hope you will enjoy our diskette version which
respects the environment.
The Quarterdeck White Papers program (QWHITE.COM) is a DESQview-specific
program for viewing these technical notes within DESQview. QWHITE.COM
is NOT designed to replace your favorite file viewing utilities. It is
written specifically to provide quick access to Quarterdeck's technical
notes, or your own, using an interface similar to DESQview's Open Window
menu.
Using DESQview's Add A Program:
> Place all of the technical notes and QWHITE programs in the same
subdirectory. This is normally done by the install program.
> Select Open Window from the DESQview menu
> Select Add A Program from the Open Window Menu.
> Select 'Other (Add Program Not in List)' by pressing the O key or by
clicking on the selection with the mouse.
> Type the drive and subdirectory where QWHITE.COM is located in the
path field. For Example: If you have installed the Quarterdeck White
Papers to the subdirectory QWHITE on the C drive type in the following
and press the enter key:
C:\QWHITE
> An entry 'Quarterdeck White' will be displayed, move the cursor to
this entry, press the space bar, then press enter. The Quarterdeck
White Papers is configured to use QW as the keys to use on the open
window menu. If QW is already in use, you will be prompted to provide
a different two-key combination.
Change A Program:
Conventional Memory: 95k
System Memory: 15k
QWHITE.COM requires 95k to run. If you have expanded memory available,
QWHITE.COM will automatically load the technical note into expanded
memory, reducing its conventional memory overhead to 31k. This allows you
to set the Memory Size field in Change A Program to 31. QWHITE.COM will
automatically notify you if it can not allocate enough memory to run
correctly.
QWHITE.COM also requires about 15k of System Memory to function
correctly. System memory is a block of memory DESQview allocates on
behalf of a program that uses DESQview's Applications Programming
Interface (API). This memory is used to store some of the program's
DESQview specific data. For example, when you select HELP for the
program, the help screen is stored in system memory.
The System Memory field is found on the Advanced Options screen of
Change A Program. DESQview will notify you if it runs out of system
memory for the program at any point. If you receive an error message
from DESQview indicating there is insufficient system memory for the
program, increase the System Memory field by 1 and run the program
again.
The Main menu:
The main menu contains 5 selections:
Open Technote: Displays a menu of technical notes in a format similar to
DESQview's Open window menu. This menu can contain up to 256 entries.
Search Technote: Allows searching all technotes for a character string.
Create New Open Menu: Tells QWHITE.COM to scan all files in the current
directory for files that contain a specific header record.
Help: Displays a help screen describing each menu option.
Quit: Allows quiting the Quarterdeck White Papers.
Getting Help:
QWHITE.COM has two methods for obtaining help. The first uses
DESQview's help system. Normally, when you bring up the DESQview menu
you see an option called 'Help for DESQview'. When you bring up the
DESQview menu while QWHITE.COM is the foreground program, you will see
an entry 'Help For Program'. You may press the ? key at this point to
activate QWHITE.COM's help. Additionally, you can press the ? key from
most screens to display help specific to the screen.
Open Technote:
The Open Technote menu option provides a menu of technical notes in a
manner similar to DESQview's Open Window menu. However, instead of
opening a window to run a program, this option allows you to open
a window to read a technote.
To read a technote, highlight the entry with the mouse and click either
mouse button, -or- highlight the entry with the Up and Down cursor keys
and press the spacebar, -or- type the two letters to the right of the
entry. If two or more entries displayed have the same two-letter
combination, you will need to select the second, third, etc. entry with
the mouse or cursor keys. The PgDn and PgUp keys are used to display
the the entries on other screens.
Two-key limitations:
QWHITE.COM will only accept files that use the letters A through Z and
the numbers 0 through 9 for the two-key combination when building the
Open Technote list. QWHITE.COM will allow you to specify the same
two-key sequences in more than one technical note. Although this allows
some flexibility, it does provide certain limitations for the Open
Technote menu. Here is a description of how QWHITE.COM decides which
technote to view when you select a two-key combination that appears two
or more times in the Open Technote list:
a) When the first key is pressed, QWHITE.COM searches its internal list
for any entries that start with the key. If none are found, you will
hear a beep and the key will be ignored.
b) When the second key is press QWHITE.COM starts with the first entry
on the current Open Technote screen when searching for a matching
two-key selection.
c) If the two-key combination you type is on the screen, QWHITE.COM will
open that technote.
d) If the two-key combination is not on the current screen, QWHITE.COM
will search to the end of the Open Technote list to find an entry
that matches. If none is found, it will go back to the top of the
list and search from there until if finds a valid entry and opens it.
If none are found, you will here a beep when you press the second
key.
e) If two or more entries with the same two-key combination appear on
the same screen, QWHITE.COM will ALWAYS open the first. You will
need to select the second (third, fourth, etc) manually by using the
cursor keys to highlight the entry and pressing enter -or- by
clicking on it with the left mouse button.
Search Technotes:
The Search Technotes option allows scanning all technical notes on the
Open Technote menu for the character string you specify. It is not case
sensitive and it will also ignore trailing spaces when scanning the
files. There are two options for searching: Start Search and Continue
Search. Start Search ALWAYS starts with the first entry in your Open
Technote list. Continue Search is only active if Start Search
previously found a match. If so, it will continue searching from the
point of the last match. If either Search option reaches the last entry
in the Open Technote list the Continue Search option will be disabled.
If either search option finds a match, the file will be loaded into the
list window. The page that contains the match will be displayed and the
line that contains the match will he highlighted.
Create new Open menu: Adding new technical notes to the Open Technote menu
The Create new Open menu searches all files in its directory for files
that have a specific ID line at the beginning of the file (NOTE: See
Technical Note Header). The file should be normal ASCII files without
special control codes in it. Your editor or word processor may refer to
it as Non-Document, Text, or ASCII files. See the notes on Technical
Note File Types.
Your own technical notes may be added to the Open Technote menu by
inserting an ID line at the begining of the file. Your file should be
copied to the directory where QWHITE.COM is located and the Create
option should be selected from the menu.
QWHITE.COM can only display 256 optins on the Open Technote menu at a
time. If you have more than 256 files you will need to create a second
subdirectory and divide your technical notes between the two
subdirectories and place a copy of QWHITE.COM in each. Run DESqview's
Change a Program and modify the Directory field to point to the new
subdirectory and change the 'Keys to Use on Open Menu' create a second
entry for the new subdirectory.
Technical Note Header: Example: See the first line of this file
QWHITE.COM checks the first line of a file for a specific character
sequence to identify the file as a technical note for including in the
Open Technote menu. The first three characters should be 'ID:' (NOTE:
the single quotes should not be not included). The next two characters
are the two keys used on the Open Technote menu. This is similar to
DESQview's own Open Window menu except QWHITE.COM allows duplicates. The
next character MUST be a space. Finally, the next 35 characters will be
used on the Open Technote menu to describe the file, much as the
Program Name field of Change A Program is used to identify the entry on
DESQview's Open Window Menu. Also, it is not necessary to provide all 35
characters, QWHITE.COM will automatically stop if it finds a linefeed
character.
Technical Note File Types:
QWHITE.COM will attempt to display ANY file that contains a valid
header. However, for best results, you should use an editor or word
processor that can create normal ASCII format files. Your editor/word
processor may refer to this type of file as NON-DOCUMENT, ASCII, TEXT,
or some similar name.
QWHITE.COM processes the following control codes, all others are ignored
and not displayed.
LINEFEED - indicates the end of a line. If you experience trouble
viewing your document, make sure your word processor is
creating a TEXT file instead of its own DOCUMENT file
format.
TAB - moves the 'cursor' 8 positions before printing the next
character. This is a non-standard method of displaying
the TAB character. It is designed to allow you to
compress a file that is 'slightly' larger than 64k by
replacing sequences of 8 blanks with a tab character.
END OF FILE - indicates the end of the file. If no END OF FILE marker
is found, the physical file size will be used.
OTHERS - All other control codes will be ignored and not displayed.
Additionally, QWHITE.COM will display a maximum of 78 characters/line
and drop any characters found after that position.
Reading Technical Notes:
The view mode of QWHITE.COM provides a simple interface for reading a
technical note. The following keys are active when reading a technote:
P Print
Up Scroll up
Down Scroll down
PgUp Previous page
PgDn Next page
Home Top of the file
End End of file
Esc Exit window
* F2 Continue search.
* The F2 key is an invisible option. This option is available only when
the the search option displays a file. It allows you to select Continue
Search without having to return to the Search menu.
File Size limits: 64k
QWHITE.COM will not display files that are larger than 64k. Since the
technical documents are written to answer a specific question or solve a
specific problem, by nature, they should be concise and we have found
they often fit on a single sheet of paper. The 64k limit we choose is
merely a convenience from a programming standpoint. In actuality, 64k
is generally too large for a technical note and should probably be
rewritten in a more concise manner or as two or more separate technical
notes. See the note on TAB in the section discussing Control Codes
above if you have a file that exceeds 64k.
Printing:
The List window provides the option for printing a technical note. This
option is here for those times when you want to quickly print the
technical note you are viewing. If you have need for extensive printing
or printer specific options, you may want to open a seperate DESQview
and perform your printing from there. When you select the Print field
or press the letter P, a window will pop up indicating the name of the
file that will be printed. You may press Esc at this time to cancel the
request or Enter to start printing. A running total of lines printed
will be displayed as the file prints. You may press Enter or Escape
while the file is being printed to abort the print. QWHITE.COM will send
a formfeed character at this point, or when it finishes printing the
file to the printer and return you to the list window. QWHITE.COM
prints to the standard printer device. In other words, what ever printer
is currently assigned to PRN will be used by QWHITE.COM. This will
allow your print spooler loaded before DESQview to capture the output
from the White Papers.
Printer Setup:
QWHITE.COM does not attempt to perform any printer setup commands. If
you wish to have the printer set up a particular way you have two
options:
1: Many printers provide setup capabilities from a control panel on the
printer. If you use this method, do so before selecting Print from
the list screen.
2: There are numerous utilities available that allow the user to set up
the printer from software. If you have DESQview configured to manage
printer contention, you may need to run your utility prior to running
the White Papers. If you do not have DESQview configured to manage
printer contention, you can open another window and run the utility
prior to selecting the Print option from QWHITE.COM's list screen.
Using The Quarterdeck White Papers on a Network:
QWHITE.COM does not make network specific calls. If multiple users will
be running QWHITE.COM from a network drive, the network administrator
will need to establish some constraints for file access:
a: Generally, only ONE user should have create rights to the file
QWHITE.WPO. All other users should have read-only access.
QWHITE.COM checks the read-only file attribute on startup and will
disable the Create New Open Menu option for users with this file
attribute set. When a new technical note is added to the directory
QWHITE.COM is run from, the user with create rights should choose the
Create New Open Menu option to generate a new QWHITE.WPO file. Other
users can then restart the program to see the new Open Technote
entry.
b: Users that do not have the read-only attribute set for QWHITE.WPO and
also do NOT have create rights will be able to select the create
option. QWHITE will scan the files and create the Open Technote memu
in memory but will generate an error message when it attempts to
write the file to disk.
c: QWHITE.COM attempts to open technote files in read-only mode. If the
file has been locked by a user then QWHITE.COM will not be able to
display the file. Some word processors and file viewing utilities
disable read access to files being edited. Technical notes are loaded
completely into memory when selected and closed immediately. These
files are not left open.
d: QWHITE.COM loads QWHITE.WPO at startup and then closes the file. It
does not leave the file open after it has been loaded.
Copyright (C) 1990 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
* * * E N D O F F I L E * * *