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- /// Opus Installation ///
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- If you read nothing else, please read this document
- completely!
-
- Opus requires a one-megabyte ST. In addition, GDOS or G+Plus,
- printer drivers, and fonts are needed to use the charting
- facility, meaning you already possess a GDOS application, such as
- Easy-Draw, Publisher ST, Microsoft Write, or WordUp, among others.
- If GDOS isn't installed, you will be able to use the spreadsheet
- but unable to chart; to print charts from Opus, the GDOS files
- must be available in the directory specified in ASSIGN.SYS. These
- files include the screen and printer fonts, the printer driver,
- and the META.SYS file. Suggested setups for various disk drive
- configurations follow.
-
- A. 1 double-sided drive
-
- 1. Boot Disk
- AUTO folder: GDOS.PRG
- ASSIGN.SYS (taken from other application)
- GDOS screen fonts
- GDOS printer fonts, printer driver
- META.SYS
-
- 2. Opus disk- all files except screen fonts must reside
- in the same directory!
-
- GDOS screen fonts
-
- OPUS.PRG
- OPUSMONO.RSC and/or OPUSCOLR.RSC
- OPUS.CNF
- PRINTER.INF (you may rename EPSON.INF or
- DESKJET.INF to PRINTER.INF, provided you are
- using an Epson-compatible or Hewlett Packard
- Deskjet printer)
- OPUS.WID (printer font widths file- more on this
- later)
-
- The general procedure for running Opus would be:
- 1. boot with disk 1,
- 2. load Opus from disk 2,
- 3. use disk 1 whenever you want to print a chart
- from within Opus.
- Other disks may be used to store files, as they will
- obviously have more space.
-
- B. 2 floppy drives
-
- 1. Drive A: Contents of A.1 above
- 2. Drive B: Contents of A.2 above, WITHOUT the screen
- fonts
- 3. Work Disk: Place in drive B:. Leave disk A with all
- the GDOS files in place for printing charts.
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- March 12, 1989 Opus Installation
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- C. Hard drive
-
- 1. Place the contents of A.2, LESS the screen fonts,
- wherever you see fit.
-
- For all configurations, please remember to have your "PATH=" line
- in ASSIGN.SYS point to the drive and directory containing the GDOS
- files. This line should be the first line of ASSIGN.SYS and has
- the form PATH=A:\GEMSYS if GDOS files are located in a GEMSYS
- folder on drive A:.
-
- Also remember you can print charts from OutChart.
-
- Now that you have your disks set up, you need to follow the
- following two-step procedure to create the file OPUS.WID, which
- provides a table of GDOS printer font widths so that Opus may
- provide truly accurate screen displays of charts. Make sure you
- first boot with GDOS or G+Plus present!
-
- Step 1: Running "The Assigner"
-
- In order to provide screen displays that are
- representative of the final printer output, Opus
- requires you to have a 1:1 correspondence between screen
- and printer fonts. Some programs, most notably
- Publisher ST, specify screen fonts without corresponding
- printer fonts (and vice versa) in the ASSIGN.SYS file,
- the file which tells GDOS which fonts and device drivers
- are available. Since it's a lot easier to modify an
- existing ASSIGN file than create one from scratch, I've
- written "The Assigner," a program that takes an existing
- ASSIGN file and creates a new one that adheres to this
- (I think) good rule. So go ahead and run ASSIGNER.PRG,
- following the prompts, to create your new ASSIGN file.
- If you have G+Plus, you can create a file "OPUS.SYS" and
- install Opus as an application. If you have Atari's
- GDOS, you will have to delete the original ASSIGN.SYS
- and rename the new one to ASSIGN.SYS, and then reboot
- your computer so the new ASSIGN file will take effect.
-
- One other thing: Opus requires ASCII characters 32-126
- to be present in all fonts used, since these are the
- characters you can access from the standard keyboard.
- Some fonts don't contain all of these characters, such
- as the Publisher ST "Bullets" and "Drury Lane Caps"
- fonts, and trying to print characters that don't exist
- can crash the system. Should the Assigner encounter
- these two fonts, it will not include them in the ASSIGN
- file it creates.
-
- Step 2: Running FONTWID.PRG
-
- This program shares name and purpose with the Publisher
- ST program and is needed because GDOS screen and printer
- fonts can have very different character widths. In
- general, screen fonts are wider than printer fonts, and
- this becomes really significant if you want to create
- text centered in a box. If you base the box dimensions
-
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- March 12, 1989 Opus Installation
-
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- on the screen font widths, the box will be too large on
- the printer.
-
- Before running FONTWID, make sure the new ASSIGN file is
- in effect, either by loading it from G+Plus or rebooting
- the system with Atari GDOS. FONTWID will load the
- printer driver and printer fonts, and create a file
- called OPUS.WID. Make sure OPUS.WID is in the same
- directory as OPUS.PRG, which will be the case provided
- you ran FONTWID from this directory. You will then be
- ready to run Opus.
-
- FONTWID will also tell you how much free RAM you will
- need to print charts from within Opus. To see that you
- in fact have this much free RAM while in Opus, before
- entering any data into the worksheet, select
- "Statistics" from the worksheet "Options" menu item, and
- compare the amount of memory given under "System Memory"
- with that reported by FONTWID. If you don't have enough
- free RAM, you will have to remove desk accessories or
- memory-hungry AUTO folder programs (like RAMdisks) or
- remove some fonts from your ASSIGN file, and repeat the
- process just described.
-
- Finally, FONTWID will produce an error message should it
- load a printer font that doesn't at least contain ASCII
- characters 32-126. The Assigner accounts for the
- Publisher ST fonts that fail this test, but there may be
- others. Should you encounter one, you will have to
- remove it from your ASSIGN.SYS file (I personally
- haven't seen any others).
-
- Whew! No one said GDOS was easy to work with, but I think the
- Assigner and FONTWID automate the process of installing Opus to
- the extent that it's reasonably painless. If you run Opus and it
- tells you "screen and printer fonts don't match- charting
- disallowed" or something similar, double-check your installation
- and try again. If all else fails, leave me E-Mail on GEnie or
- Compuserve, or check the Opus section in Category 2 of the GEnie
- ST message base.
-
- For those of you that have delved into the mystery of ASSIGN files
- and GDOS, let me mention a couple of things. There's no problem
- with using a single ASSIGN file for medium and high resolution.
- The Assigner will first fix up medium and high rez fonts, then fix
- up the printer and medium rez fonts, and finally go back and fix
- up the medium and high rez fonts, so that there's a "1:1:1"
- correspondence between all three font groups. Only a single
- OPUS.WID file is needed here; separate OPUS.WID files are needed
- if you're using two different printers or ASSIGN files where you
- want different printer fonts for different projects. Finally, let
- me note that the Assigner assumes a couple of things. First, fonts
- must conform to the standard file name format: two characters
- serving as a font identifier (such as "SS" for Swiss) followed by
- a two-digit size indicator. Second, the printer driver must be
- listed as device 21 (i.e. 21 printer.sys or 21 hpdsk150.sys, for
- example). Opus also requires the printer driver to be listed as
- device 21. The line "31 meta.sys" *absolutely must* be present in
-
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- March 12, 1989 Opus Installation
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- the ASSIGN file, else you will be unable to print charts or save
- them as metafiles (this shouldn't be a problem, as all ASSIGN
- files I've seen include this line).
-
-
- Using PRINTDEF.PRG
-
- If you have an Epson-compatible printer or a Deskjet, rename
- EPSON.INF or DESKJET.INF to PRINTER.INF and store it in your Opus
- directory. If not, you will have to run PRINTDEF.PRG to create a
- PRINTER.INF file. This file contains the control codes for various
- text effects, such as bold, underlined, condensed, etc. This means
- you'll have to dig up your printer manual, look up the codes, and
- input them into the PRINTDEF dialog. Be sure to use the decimal
- codes, and separate them by spaces. Opus uses PRINTER.INF to print
- worksheets, and PRINTER.INF has nothing at all to do with chart
- printing.
-
-
-
- Remember, if you have any problems installing Opus, leave me a
- note in any of the following places:
-
- 1. Opus Topic in Category 2 of GEnie ST message base
- 2. GEnie E-Mail (send to D.S.HARRISON)
- 3. Compuserve (ID 72277,2315)
-
- Good luck, and I hope you enjoy my program!
-
- Doug Harrison
- 3/8/89
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