home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Pier Shareware 4
/
The Pier Shareware #4 (The Pier Exchange) (1994).ISO
/
thepier
/
thepier.doc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-03-08
|
16KB
|
365 lines
The Pier Shareware CD-ROM
Copyright (c) 1994 The Pier Exchange Inc..
All rights reserved.
ThePier(tm) - High Performance CD-ROM Access
Retrieval Engine
Copyright (c) 1993 RoboSoft Systems.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
1 ........................................ Introduction
2 ........................................ Installation
3 ..................................... Basic Operation
4 .................................... The Subject List
4.1 ............................. The Subject List Menu
4.1.1 ................................. The System Menu
4.1.2 ................................. The Search Menu
4.1.3 .............................. The Configure Menu
4.1.3.1 ............................. Configure Display
4.1.3.2 ............................ Configure Database
4.1.3.3 ......................... Configure Directories
4.1.3.4 ............................. Configure Viewers
4.1.3.4.1 .............................. Default Viewer
4.1.3.4.2 ................................ Custom Shell
4.1.3.4.3 ............................... Smart Viewers
5 ...................................... The Files List
5.1 ............................... The Files List Menu
6 .............................. The File Detail Screen
6.1 .................................. The Content List
6.2 .............................. The File Detail Menu
7 ..................... Technical Questions and Support
1. Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of one of The Pier Shareware
CD-ROMs, the finest shareware CD-ROMs available. ThePier(tm)
CD-ROM Access program will assist you in finding files on your
CD-ROM and performing common operations on those files. It will
allow you to view the filenames and descriptions of the files,
search the CD-ROM files for filenames, keywords, and archive
content filenames, and view many of the content files.
2. Installation
To install ThePier(tm) CD-ROM Access program, change to the root
directory of The Pier Shareware CD-ROM and type INSTALL. The
install program will ask where on your hard drive you want
ThePier(tm) CD-ROM Access program to reside and will copy all
necessary files to that directory. (For performance reasons,
ThePier(tm) must be installed to a hard disk. It can not be run
directly from the CD-ROM.) ThePier(tm) requires approximately 1MB
of disk space for the program and associated data files. Additional
disk space will be used for the comments you enter in the comment
database.
3. Basic Operation
You should find ThePier(tm) very easy and intuitive to operate. To
start ThePier(tm), change to the directory where ThePier(tm) was
installed (for example, CD \THEPIER) and type THEPIER.
ThePier(tm) is designed to use the best available video mode your
computer will support. By default, it will try to use graphics
mode (EGA or VGA required) and resort to text mode if graphics mode
is unavailable. If you have problems viewing the screens in
graphics mode, you can force the program into text mode by using a
/T parameter on the command line (i.e. THEPIER /T). Graphics mode
also requires the file EGAVGA.BGI to be present in the directory
where THEPIER.EXE resides. (The install program will put it
there.) If this file isn't present, ThePier(tm) will use a text
mode display.
Online help is available throughout ThePier(tm). Press F1 to view
the context-sensitive help screens.
4. The Subject List
The first screen you see when you start ThePier(tm) is a list of
the subjects available on The Pier Shareware CD-ROM. If you have a
mouse on your system, a mouse pointer will be displayed. You can
use the mouse to click on any of the subjects, the items on the
menu bar on the top of the screen, or on the scroll bar to the
right of the screen. If you click on a subject, a list of the
files in that subject will appear.
4.1 The Subject List Menu
At the top of the subject screen you'll see a drop-down menu bar
containing System, Search, and Configure.
4.1.1 The System Menu
At this point there are three options on the System menu:
1) Shell to DOS, keeping ThePier(tm) in memory and ready
to go when you type EXIT at the DOS prompt.
2) Execute a Custom Shell program. (This will be
covered in more detail under Configuration.)
3) Exit ThePier(tm).
4.1.2 The Search Menu
The Search menu will allow you to search ThePier(tm) database for
matching file names, keywords, or content file names. In this
context, file names refers to the names of the files on The Pier
Shareware CD-ROM, many of them archive files; keywords refers to
significant words used in the file descriptions; and content file
names refers to the files that are contained within the archive
files. At this point (on the Subjects List screen), searches will
included all subjects. If you wanted to search for all files that
might have something to do with Windows, you would select Keyword
from the search menu and type WINDOWS in the prompt box.
ThePier(tm) will then display a list of all the files containing
the word "windows" somewhere in their description.
Wildcard characters are not recognized in search strings, but
partial strings are allowed if the Exact Match box is not checked.
For instance, you could have entered WIN in the search above and
matched all occurrences of Windows (along with all other keywords
that begin with the letters WIN).
4.1.3 The Configure Menu
The Configure menu allows you to change the operational parameters
used by ThePier(tm). You can force the display to text mode
(meaning you wouldn't need the /T on the command line), change the
active database (useful if you have more than one The Pier
Shareware CD-ROM), change the directories used by ThePier(tm) for
temporary files, and set up viewer programs to be called
automatically when certain files are selected. On all of the
configuration screens, if you press ESCape, any changes you entered
on that screen will be thrown away and the old data will be
restored.
4.1.3.1 Configure Display
The Configure Display screen allows a simple choice between forcing
ThePier(tm) to use text mode displays or allowing it to use
graphics mode displays. (Graphics mode requires an EGA or VGA
display system.) Graphics mode displays are slightly larger than
text mode, allowing more subjects and files to be displayed on a
single screen, but they are slightly slower than text mode
displays. Other than these minor differences, the two modes are
functionally identical.
4.1.3.2 Configure Database
The Configure Database screen can be used to select an alternate
ThePier(tm) database. If you have more than one The Pier Shareware
CD-ROM you can use this screen to select the database associated
with one of the other CD-ROMs. If you only have one The Pier
Shareware CD-ROM, do not change the settings on this screen.
You can select any of the directories shown in the lower right
section by clicking on them with your mouse. If you don't have a
mouse, use the TAB key to switch to the directory section, then use
the arrow keys to highlight the desired directory. Press the ENTER
key to select the directory.
If the desired directory is on another drive, position to the Dir
field and type the desired drive letter.
When you've selected the proper directory, position to the left
window and select the desired database file. To finalize the
database selection, position to and select the OK button.
4.1.3.3 Configure Directories
Directories Configuration allows you to specify the directories
used by ThePier(tm). The Work Directory is used by ThePier(tm) for
temporary files. A default value is set up by the installation
program, but you can change it if desired. The Work Directory
should be on a drive that has free space at least as large as the
largest file you intend to view. (Five megabytes should be more
than sufficient.)
The Default Copy/Extract Directory specifies the default directory
used when copying or extracting archive files. This is just a
default and can be changed on the fly when copying or extracting
files.
The Comment Database Directory specifies the location of the
comment database. By default, this is the directory where
ThePier(tm) program resides. It is recommended that you stay with
the default.
CD-ROM Drive specifies the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive. The
installation program initially sets this value to the drive from
which ThePier(tm) was installed. If you have more than one CD-ROM
drive, you will need to change this value if you move The Pier
Shareware CD-ROM to a different CD-ROM drive.
4.1.3.4 Configure Viewers
The viewers are one of the nicest features of ThePier(tm). They
allow you to associate programs with data files on the basis of the
data file extension. The Viewer configuration screen is divided
into several areas.
4.1.3.4.1 Default Viewer
At the top of the screen is the default viewer. This is the viewer
program that is called whenever the selected file does not match
one of the file extensions specified on this screen. ThePier(tm)
has a built-in viewer that is used as the default viewer unless you
specify something different. Leave the Default Viewer field blank
if you want to use the built-in viewer. (The built-in viewer is
designed to work only with plain ASCII text files and will view
only the first 32k bytes of any file. If you plan to view
non-ASCII files or very large files, you will probably want to
specify a different program as the default viewer. Vern Buerg's
LIST program is an excellent choice for the default viewer.)
To specify a different default viewer, enter what you would
normally type at the DOS command line to start that program. Where
you would ordinarily type the name of the file to be viewed, enter
$F. ThePier(tm) will replace the $F with the name of the file
you've selected for viewing. If you wanted to use Vern Buerg's
LIST program as your default viewer, your default viewer line might
look like:
Default Viewer: LIST $F
4.1.3.4.2 Custom Shell
The next field allows you to specify a "shell" program. This is
intended for use with DOS "shell" programs such as PCTools Shell
and Norton Commander. ThePier(tm) will allow you to jump directly
to the program specified in this field and return to ThePier(tm)
when you exit the shell program. If your DOS shell can accept a
directory on the command line, you can use $D to designate the
current working directory. If you use the Extract and Custom Shell
option, $D will be the directory into which the file was extracted.
If you wanted to use PCTools Shell as your shell program, your
shell program line might look like:
Shell Program: PCSHELL $D
4.1.3.4.3 Smart Viewers
The other viewers are all paired with a line of file extensions
associated with that viewer. Anytime you select a file with an
extension from the viewer list, the viewer program associated with
that extension will be executed. The viewer command lines are just
like the Default Viewer line as far as format goes. Use $F in the
command where you want the file name to go.
5. The Files List
When you select one of the subjects on the Subjects List, you'll
see a list of the files in that subject along with as much of the
file description as will fit on a single line. If you select one
of the files by clicking on it with your mouse or pressing enter
when the file is highlighted, you'll see detailed information about
that file.
5.1 The Files List Menu
At the top of the files list screen you'll notice the menu bar has
changed. System is still there, though it now contains an
additional "Return to previous menu" item. (You can also return to
the previous screen by pressing ESCape or clicking on the little
box in the upper left corner of the file list window.) The Search
menu is still there too, but its function has changed a bit. At
this point searches will not scan the entire database, but will be
limited to the subject currently selected.
6. The File Detail Screen
The File Detail Screen contains detailed information about the file
you've selected. In the upper left of the detail screen is the
file name, location, size, and date. In the upper right is a list
of the contents of this file. (If the file is not an archive file,
you'll just see the file name again.) In the middle of the screen
is the full file description. The scroll bar at the right of the
file description box can be used if the full description doesn't
fit in the available lines.
Toward the bottom of the screen is a box where you can enter your
own comments about this file. These comments will be saved in a
database on your hard disk and redisplayed when you view this
file's detail information again.
At the very bottom of the screen is a prompt bar. Pressing any of
the specified keys will perform the indicated action. You can also
click with your mouse on any of the words to take the indicated
action.
6.1 The Content List
The content list in the upper right of the detail screen is where
the viewers come in. If you select one of the files in the content
list, that file will be extracted from the archive (if necessary)
and passed to the appropriate viewer program. If no viewer is
associated with the selected file extension, the default viewer
will be used. (When ThePier(tm) executes a viewer, it swaps all
but about 10k of itself to EMS or to disk, so the viewer program
should have plenty of memory available.)
6.2 The File Detail Menu
At the top of the file detail screen you'll see the familiar System
menu along with a File menu. The File menu will allow you to copy
a complete file or to extract an archive file. If you select
either of these options, you'll be prompted for a destination
directory for the copy or extract operation. These directories
will default to the Copy and Work directories specified in the
configuration menu off the subjects screen. You can change them by
selecting a different directory from the displayed list. If you
want the files to go to a different drive, you'll have to type the
drive letter on the directory line.
The File menu will also allow you to Extract and execute the Custom
Shell or Extract and Shell to DOS. Both of these options will
allow you to select a directory for the extract operation and will
then either execute your Custom Shell or shell to DOS in the
extraction directory.
7. Technical Questions and Support
If you have trouble installing ThePier(tm), contact The Pier
Exchange Inc. at:
80 W. Hazeltine
Kenmore, NY 14217
Info (716) 875-4931
BBS (716) 875-3130
If you have detailed technical questions or comments about the
access software, you can contact RoboSoft Systems, the authors of
the retrieval engine, at:
RoboSoft Systems
P.O. Box 2221
Orange, CA 92669