home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Night Owl 9
/
Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO
/
020a
/
pc_set.zip
/
PC-SETUP.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-11
|
14KB
|
265 lines
PC-SETUP.EXE (VERSION 1.0) Copyright (c) 1992 Ethan Winer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
First Published in PC Magazine March 16, 1993 (Utilities)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PC-SETUP:
PC-SETUP is an installation program for in-house programmers,
shareware authors, data services, and others who distribute software to
nontechnical users. Supports multiple distribution disks, and automatic
or manual file installation. Creates directories and subdirectories as
necessary. Requires use of PKZIP.EXE on all distribution files, and
DOS 3.0 or later.
Distributing in-house or shareware programs and file updates can
produce corporate chaos when novices have to install files into multilayer
directories. Commercial-scale installation utilities guide the
unsophisticated user safely through the process, but these are often too
elaborate and expensive a solution for smaller-scale programmers.
Engineers, hobbyists, and database services that distribute data files
regularly by subscription need an install utility scaled to their needs.
If you've got too many users to go from machine to machine and make
the installation yourself, yet you're not confident that these users won't
mess up the installation if you don't, what you need is PC-SETUP.
PC-SETUP is designed to install any number of program or data files
that have been compressed with the shareware utility PKZIP. It supports
multiple distribution disks and will use or create any needed directories
and subdirectories on the user's hard disk. File installation can be
automatic or manual, and you can include comments to guide the user.
After the first installation, there is no need to repeat the procedure
in order to install a different printer driver or other optional files.
And best of all, no printed user instructions are necessary.
The utilities and programs that appear in PC Magazine may neither be
distributed for a fee nor included in a commercial product. However,
because of its purpose PC-SETUP is in a somewhat different category.
While it may not be sold by itself, PC-SETUP may be distributed with any
software--including commercial programs--provided no additional fee is
charged.
PC-SETUP requires a minimum of 256K RAM and DOS 3.0 or later.
DOS 3.0 is necessary because PC-SETUP uses interrupt services that are
not available in earlier DOS versions. In addition to PC-SETUP.EXE, you
must also have a copy of PKUNZIP.EXE on your first (or only) distribution
disk. PKUNZIP is a shareware program that is available for downloading
on CompuServe and other bulletin boards. Note that if it is included
with commercial software, PKWARE Inc. requires a nominal license fee.
(To register PKUNZIP, send $47 to PKWARE Inc., 9025 N. Deerwood Dr.,
Brown Deer, WI 53223. To inquire about licensing fees, call 414-354-8699.)
The program was written using Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.5. To recreate
PC-SETUP from the supplied source code, you need QuickBASIC 4.0 or any
later version of Microsoft compiled BASIC (including VB-DOS).
When linking, you must specify the appropriate library name so that LINK
can find the interrupt routine PC-SETUP uses. The correct syntax and
library names are shown below:
BC PC-SETUP /O ;
use above line for all versions
LINK PC-SETUP, , NUL, QB.LIB ;
use above line for QuickBASIC
LINK PC-SETUP, , NUL, QBX.LIB ;
use above line for BASIC PDS
LINK PC-SETUP, , NUL, VBDOS.LIB ;
use above line for VB-DOS
USING PC-SETUP
To begin installing from your distribution disk, the user simply
enters
d:PC-SETUP [/B]
where d: is the drive containing the .ZIP files to be decompressed and
installed. PC-SETUP detects whether a color or monochrome adapter is
present and adjusts its display colors accordingly. The optional
/B switch is needed only for systems with a composite display, that is,
a CGA adapter connected to a monochrome monitor.
The three parts of the main PC-SETUP screen display the names of
the .ZIP files to be installed, the drive and directory into which they
will be stored, and an optional comment that will usually be used to
describe each file's contents. On-screen instructions explain each of
the keys that are used by PC-SETUP, and pop-up dialog boxes are used for
any warnings. A brief status message shows the name of each file as it
is being installed, further clarifying the program status.
As explained below in the section ``Setting Up for Installation,''
you may elect to have one or all of your distribution files installed
automatically. Assuming that the user is (or wants) instead to make the
installation manually, he selects each .ZIP file to be installed by
pressing the Spacebar. A check mark adjacent to the currently highlighted
.ZIP filename is turned on or off each time the Spacebar is pressed.
By default, PC-SETUP lists the current directory as the destination
directory. If this is not correct, the user can enter the destination
directory of his choice: The Tab key toggles between selecting .ZIP
files for installation and editing the destination directories. If the
user enters a destination directory that does not exist, PC-SETUP will
create it. When installing to an existing directory, the program asks
whether to warn before overwriting same-named files.
Once all the desired files are marked and destined, the user presses
F2 to begin installation. To exit from PC-SETUP, a simple press of the
Esc key will suffice. These options are shown at the bottom of the main
screen, and operating PC-SETUP should be easy enough for even the most
inexperienced user.
SETTING UP FOR INSTALLATION
Your installation can use a maximum of 99 distribution disks, each
of which may contain up to 19 .ZIP files. No single .ZIP file can be
larger than the maximum capacity of a single distribution floppy disk,
however. You are not restricted to using the root directory of the disks,
though you must be sure to place PC-SETUP.EXE in the same directory as
PKUNZIP.EXE. Both of these files must be located on the first distribution
disk, together with your .ZIP files.
If your installation takes more than one disk, you must create a
file named NUMDISKS.n on the first distribution disk--the one that you
label as ``Disk 1.'' The NUMDISKS extension, shown above as n, indicates
the total number of disks and enables PC-SETUP to prompt for additional
disks as they are needed. The file itself can be empty; the filename
and extension are the information. If you're operating under DOS,
the easiest way to create an empty NUMDISKS file from the DOS command
line is like this:
REM > A:NUMDISKS.004
SETTING DESTINATION DIRECTORIES
In preparing your distribution disks, there are several ways to
establish the default destination drive(s) and directories for the files
to be installed.
If you do nothing at all, the user's current drive and directory
will be displayed in the ``Destination Directory'' field for each
of the files being installed. However, if the current drive is
A: or B:, PC-SETUP will substitute Drive C:. The utility won't
attempt to unpack the files onto the distribution disk.
You can specify a directory as the global default destination
directory by including a file named DEFAULT.DIR in the root
directory of the first distribution disk. The one-line contents
of this file specify the path for all of the .ZIP files. You
can create DEFAULT.DIR, either with any standard text editor
that saves files in plain ASCII form or directly from the DOS
prompt, by entering
COPY CON: A:DEFAULT.DIR
C:\PRODUCT
and then hitting F6 followed by Enter. (F6 puts a Ctrl-Z, or
end-of-file marker at the end of DEFAULT.DIR.)
You can embed a directory name in the comment field provided
for each file by PKZIP. Such an embedded directory name will
override the global directory specified in the DEFAULT.DIR
file (if one is present). To see how PC-SETUP works with
PKZIP in such a case calls for a brief explanation.
Comments can be added to .ZIP files by executing the command
PKZIP filename.zip -z
Normally, your comment might be, for example, ``This is the main
program.'' PC-SETUP displays such comments in its right-hand column,
so the user can know the purpose of a particular .ZIP file.
In place of or appended to such a comment, you can embed a default
destination path by entering the box character (ASCII 254), followed by
the drive and directory. Thus, for example.
This is the main program (ASCII 254)C:\DIRNAME
The comment will be displayed in the usual manner, but PC-SETUP will put
the drive and directory in the left-hand, Destination Directory field.
You can enter the box character at the DOS command prompt (and in most
editors) by holding down the Alt key, typing 2,5, and 4 on the numeric
key pad, and then releasing the Alt key.
Note that whichever of the three methods you use to supply a
default destination directory, users can override your suggestion and
specify a different drive and directory of their own choosing.
SELECTING FILES FOR INSTALLATION
In some cases your users may not want or need to install all of the
files on the distribution disks. For example, some companies provide
source code with their products, but many people aren't interested in
programming languages and may prefer not to waste their disk space with
such files. Or perhaps you distribute software that works with a variety
of printers, and only one or two of several supplied drivers will be used
by each customer.
To have a file selected for installation automatically, append an
ASCII 251 check mark () to the end of the comment string, but before the
optional box character and destination path. Three examples cover the
possibilities:
This is the main program(ASCII 251)(ASCII 254)C:\DIRNAME
or
This comment has no default path(ASCII 251)
or
(ASCII 251)(ASCII 254)C:\PATHNAME
Files whose comments have no trailing check mark will not be
automatically installed when the program runs, although the user may,
of course, select those files manually. Again, you can enter the check
mark by pressing and holding the Alt key, and then typing the digits 2,5,
and 1 when PKZIP prompts you to enter the .ZIP file comment.
The comment portion (before the box and optional check mark) can be
up to 36 characters long, and the directory name portion of the comment
(after the box) can hold as many as 25 characters. (To make the comment
field as long as possible, I compromised on using only 25 characters for
the directory name.)
You can tell PC-SETUP to run a program automatically after PC-SETUP
finishes by storing its name in a file named PROGRAM.RUN placed on the
first distribution disk. The name of the program must be no longer than
14 characters, since PC-SETUP stuffs the program name (plus Enter) into
the keyboard buffer. PC-SETUP is smart enough to change to the directory
where the first .ZIP file was installed, on the assumption that this
directory will hold the main executable program.
If you need to execute a series of commands--for example, to load a
TSR that must be present in order for the main program to operate--you
can include a batch file within the .ZIP file and specify the name of
the batch file in PROGRAM.RUN. Such a batch file should be in the same
.ZIP file that holds the main program, so it will be installed where DOS
can find it when PC-SETUP ends. Note that the program or batch file
specified in PROGRAM.RUN is executed only when the first .ZIP file on the
disk is being installed: If PC-SETUP is rerun to install a new printer
driver, for example, it would be inappropriate to run the main program at
that point.
INSTALLING TO NESTED DIRECTORIES
The only precaution you must take when your software is to be
installed into nested directories is to specify that the higher
directory levels be installed first. PC-SETUP will create the
directories needed if they are not already present, but it must work from
the top down. For example, if you have main files that should go into
\APPMAIN and ancillary files that are to go in \APPMAIN\SUBDIR, PC-SETUP
has to create \APPMAIN before it can create \APPMAIN\SUBDIR.
If you are careful to copy the .ZIP files on your distribution
disk(s) in the correct order, this will not be a problem. Unfortunately,
it is still possible for a user to create problems by changing the
directory names during installation. There is little that can be done
about this and if PC-SETUP is unable to create a directory, it simply
ends with an error message describing the problem. Note: If you include
a DEFAULT.DIR file, it should specify a root-level directory only (with a
leading backslash) unless you are certain that the upper levels already
exist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ETHAN WINER IS A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO PC MAGAZINE.