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SDLSETUP.DOC
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1991-04-27
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SDLSETUP.BAT - DOCUMENTATION - Copyright 1987-1991 Bob Stephan
* * *
You will be able to browse through the SDLSETUP documentation at
your own pace. Just use the keys on the cursor pad to turn the
pages as you read. Note the reminder at the top of the screen,
and remember that you can exit at any time by pressing Esc.
* * *
SDLSETUP will not modify any of your original files. Only
SDL.COM will be affected. In particular, your CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT will not be touched.
* * *
NOTE: A menu facility and more options have been added to
SDLSETUP. This makes it more "user-friendly" and self-
documenting. Therefore this documentation has been reduced in
size to cover just a few essential points. Now that many
defaults can be more conveniently set with the DOS SET command,
future versions of SDLSETUP may have a reduced number of options.
(Press the PgDn key to continue)
Documentation for SDLSETUP.BAT for SDL Version 5, March 1991
Copyright 1987-1991 Bob Stephan and MOBY DISK.
SDLSETUP is a handy program to customize many of the options of
SDL.COM, the Sorted Directory and disk Label printing program.
It requires only that you answer a series of questions with
single keystroke responses and, if desired, input new titles to
appear in the top two lines of the directory display.
The easiest way to run SDLSETUP is to establish a working disk or
directory (a RAM disk will be fastest, a directory on a hard disk
next, and a floppy can be quite slow). Enter the following
command to copy the necessary files from the MASDIR diskette to
your working area. Assume that the MASDIR diskette is in drive
B: and that your RAM disk is drive D:. Then just enter
COPY B:SDL*.* D:
Remember to adjust the drive letters for your system. You can
add the path after D: if you so desire, or just issue this
command after changing to the working disk or directory. You can
use INSTALL to help you do this if you like. Enter INSTALL at
the DOS prompt for your MASDIR working disk and follow the
instructions.
The questions in SDLSETUP are self-explanatory and should cause
no confusion. A few of them are explained in a little more
detail here. If you have any questions, read on, and then if you
still have questions after running SDLSETUP please contact me.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After establishing your working disk or directory, enter the
command:
-2-
SDLSETUP
* * *
The first thing SDLSETUP does is check system resources. At this
point SDLSETUP is looking for the DOS DEBUG external command file
DEBUG.COM. If it is not found you will see the message "Bad
command or file name". This will be followed by a beep and an
explanatory message. SDLSETUP cannot work without DEBUG, or in
the case of DR DOS, SID.COM. It must be in the current directory
or in one of the directories on your path. At this point your
PATH will be displayed so you can see what is included, and
SDLSETUP will exit back to the DOS prompt.
If DEBUG is found, SDLSETUP will check for the presence of other
necesary files. Depending on what is found you may see some
explanatory messages. If you don't see them, then all is well.
(REM: One user reported a problem during this portion of the
setup program, and it turned out that he was running a RAM
resident program (TSR) named DOSEDIT. This appeared to interfere
with the redirected input to DEBUG. The solution was just to
boot the computer without DOSEDIT temporarily while running
SDLSETUP.)
Next the DOS version will be checked. If it is found to be
version 2.x you will see a message. Please see the note at the
end of this DOC file if you are using an early version of DOS.
* * *
Remember, you can exit from SDLSETUP at any time by pressing
Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break.
* * *
SDLSETUP has two sets of menus from which you can choose which
features you want to customize. At each menu, if you make no
selection by just pressing Esc or Enter, you will proceed on to
the next menu. Some selections will lead to related options, so
if you don't see exactly what you want, select the closest item
and see if it will lead you to where you want to go.
In Version 5 the defaults for the selections on the first
SDLSETUP menu can simply be set with the DOS SET command. This
makes it convenient to set options "on the fly" without going
through all the details of SDLSETUP. If the option is a "command
line" option (indicated by the / switch character), it can be set
directly from DOS. Read the documentation for more information
on setting defaults in this manner. Please let me know if you
like this feature and if you would prefer to reduce the number of
items in SDLSETUP to just those that cannot be set with the SET
command.
There are a few defaults that can only be modified in SDLSETUP.
These are on the second menu, so you can just press Enter for the
first menu if that is all you want to change. Registered users
-3-
can also customize the first two header lines of the directory
display to include personal or business identification. These
two lines plus a third line can be used for describing the files
on a disk with the E(ntitle) option when runing SDL. The best
procedure is to make a quick run through SDLSETUP to see for
yourself which items are on the menus so you can decide whether
you want or need to run SDLSETUP. If you are satisfied with the
way SDL displays your directories and prints, and with setting
your defaults with SET, then you probably don't need to run
SDLSETUP at all.
If you are evaluating the shareware version of MASDIR, you will
want to run SDLSETUP to eliminate the moving line of text
containing the information about registration. SDLSETUP will
adjust SDL.COM to turn off the moving message for a 30 day
evaluation period. After that time it will reappear to remind
you that you are using an evaluation copy. There is nothing to
prevent you from running SDLSETUP as many times as you want to
suppress this reminder message, but if you find that you like
SDL.COM that well, you should obtain a registered copy from the
author. Your support of shareware authors will enable the
continued development of this kind of quality, low cost software.
If everything completes normally you will see the message...
SDL.COM has been modified.
Don't forget to COPY your new version of SDL.COM
to the disk and/or directory with your other DOS
commands and utilities.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That's all there is to it, so enjoy using SDL with your own
configuration.
SDLSETUP creates one or two working files named SDLSETUP.TXT and
SDLTITLE.TXT. These files will be erased when SDLSETUP is
finished with its work.
NOTE: If you run into a problem running SDLSETUP under DOS 2.1
read this section. Generally it works fine, and I can detect no
problems under DOS 3 or later, but if you see either of the
messages "EXEC failure" or "File creation error" please let me
know. You might try increasing the "FILES=" value in your
CONFIG.SYS file and reboot. A remote possibility is that the
directory is full, so you might try running it on a different
drive or in a different directory. You can also run CHKDSK to
see if there are any other conditions that might cause the error.
This seems to be caused by a problem with DOS 2.1 in the number
of open files it thinks it has. One method that some have used
successfully to work around this is to make only one or two
changes to the defaults on each invocation of SDLSETUP. If this
works, you will have to reboot your computer before you can run
SDLSETUP again. This may be tedious, but it is one way to use
-4-
SDLSETUP with DOS 2.1. Be sure to use the Esc key to skip the
sections in which you are not making changes.
This problem is apparently caused by a bug or deficiency in DOS
2.1, but I have included a work-around for it. If you see either
of the above messages, AND if SDLSETUP has finished all of its
questions through the ones about changing the titles, then reboot
with Ctrl-Alt-Del and get back to the drive and directory in
which you were running SDLSETUP. (If you are working on a RAM
disk, copy your work to a permanent disk first.) One or two of
the .TXT files named above should be in that directory (2 if you
changed titles, otherwise only the first one). If you see
SDLSETUP.TXT you can run SDLDEBUG, the last batch file in the
series. This should install your changes and clean up after
itself. See the CAUTION above about other types of problems. I
apologize for any inconvenience, but it is a problem beyond my
control.
(CAUTION: Do NOT run SDLDEBUG if there has been any other error
or interruption. In that case it is safer to start over again.
SDLDEBUG uses redirection and if the input file SDLSETUP.TXT has
not been completed, it can cause a hangup that will require a
reboot.)
As a last resort, run SDLSETUP on a machine that is running DOS
3.0 or later. Then copy the resulting SDL.COM to your machine.
Good luck!
Now, if you want to exit, remember to press Esc.