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1989-02-07
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In keeping with our commitment to provide you, the user, with
support that will maximize your productivity with the dBASE IV
product, we are continuing our tradition of publishing timely,
detailed anomaly and work-around reports.
The following listing addresses three known anomalies when using
dBASE IV. Use of these techniques will aid you in avoiding
anomalies that have been reported to our Software Support
Center. This report will be supplemented as new information is
received. There is also one Usage Tip that may be used in
order to avoid further problems or misunderstandings when using
the dBASE IV product.
*******************************************************************
ANOMALIES
Installing dBASE IV Multi-user on Novell 2.1x
Users may experience problems while installing the dBASE IV
product on Local Area Networks (LANs) using Novell's
Advanced Netware 286 version 2.1x software in
conjunction with some PC clones. The following
procedure will help you in avoiding problems during the
installation process.
1) If you have not already gone through the process of
identification of the dBASE IV product by filling in
the User name, Company Name, and Serial number
information (referred to as ID), go to step #5.
2) If you have completed the identification process of the
dBASE IV product and the Multi-user install has failed,
go to step #3.
3) Uninstall dBASE IV.
That simply means to either go through the DBSETUP
program and choose the option UNINSTALL, or make sure
that all the dBASE IV system files are deleted from the
dBASE IV directory and the directory DBNETCTL.300 has
been removed. Certain files in the dBASE IV directory
are marked as Read-only. In order to delete these
files, use the DOS ATTRIB command to change their
attribute status to Read-write and then delete the
files. This can be accomplished by:
CD C:\<dBASE IV directory name>
where it is assumed that C: is the drive into which the
files were installed.
ATTRIB -R *.*
DEL dbase*.*
4) Call the Ashton-Tate Software Support Center at
(213)329-0086 and ask for a replacement diskette. You
will be sent either a System Disk #1 (5.25" disk) or
Installation Disk (3.5" disk). Upon receiving the
replacement diskette, continue your installation with
step #5.
5) The System disk should be IDed with the network shell
down or unloaded.
This means that the user should perform the
identification process while at a stand-alone PC or a
LAN workstation that has not yet loaded its network
shell. Some workstations load the shell from the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and others invoke it through a Batch
file. Regardless, the workstation can be booted with a
DOS floppy to insure that the network shell is not
loaded.
6) To ID the dBASE IV product, place the replacement disk
in the A: drive and change to the A: drive by typing
A: <return>.
7) At the A> prompt, type INSTALL <return>
8) Follow the on-screen instructions to fill in the User
name, Company name, and Serial number. After the user
identification has been entered, press Ctrl-End to save
the changes.
9) At the next screen a prompt displays "There are three
phases to the installation ...", choose "Exit". Follow
the prompts and when asked "You may exit to DOS or
transfer to DBSETUP", choose "Exit to DOS".
10) Reboot the workstation. Load the network shell and
login as the supervisor.
11) Use the Novell MAP SEARCH command to make the dBASE IV
directory accessible as a search drive. Then use the
MAP command to assign the dBASE IV directory a logical
drive letter. (For further information refer to
dBASE IV Network Installation guide.)
12) Install the Single-user version of dBASE IV to the
desired network drive. This is done by selecting
Install:Modify Hardware Setup:Multi user installation
and choosing the default option of No in the DBSETUP
program. Continue with the install process until you
have been prompted that the installation has completed
successfully.
13) After completing the installation, delete the file
DBASE.EXE from the dBASE IV directory.
14) From the A> prompt run the INSTALLH program. Running
this program creates the file DBASE.COM and the
DBNETCTL.300 sub-directory. This can be accomplished
by inserting System Disk #1 (5.25" disk) or the
Installation Disk (3.5" disk) in the A: drive. At the
A> prompt type INSTALLH <return>.
15) Follow the on-screen instructions, giving the Source
and the Destination drive letters when prompted.
(Usually the Source Drive is A: and destination is the
MAPped network drive where dBASE IV needs to be
installed.)
16) Issue the Novell FLAG command to mark all dbase*.*
files as Shareable Read-only (SRO). This is the DOS
equivalent of ATTRIB +R dbase*.* command.
17) After these procedures, dBASE IV will be fully
installed and will run properly.
NOTE: When installing the Single-user version of dBASE IV,
the file CONFIG.DB is created. Due to the fact that
each workstation may have unique hardware settings,
this file might need further modification. For more
information, please refer to "dBASE IV Installation",
page 2-13 of Network Installation.
=================================================================
Changing colors through DBSETUP is not saved
Defining colors via DBSETUP will reflect the new foreground
and background color selections on screen, but fails to
store the new settings to CONFIG.DB.
WORKAROUND:
There are 2 possible workarounds for the above problem:
1) MODIFY COMMAND CONFIG.DB at the dot prompt and define
color with a COLOR OF ... = <settings> statement.
Appropriate color <settings> are discussed in the
"Commands" section, page 3-18 of Language Reference.
2) Delete the COLOR OF ... commands from the CONFIG.DB
file. It is now possible to run DBSETUP and have the
new settings saved to the CONFIG.DB file.
=====================================================================
DBSETUP may create an invalid PATH statement for the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file
When installing dBASE IV through DBSETUP, one of the options
at the end of the install routine allows you to create or
modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. If there is
no PATH in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, DBSETUP adds the PATH
statement "PATH=;C:\<directory name>". Since the PATH
statement starts with a semicolon, typing "dBASE" from any
directory other than the dBASE directory will return the
error message "Bad command or filename".
Furthermore, if there was a PATH already in AUTOEXEC.BAT
file, the DBSETUP program does not check the length of the
PATH statement. The addition of the dBASE IV PATH to an
already lengthy PATH statement, results in a PATH that may
exceed DOS's limitation. If so, upon start-up DOS will
return the error message "Out of environment space" and/or
typing "dBASE" from any directory other than the dBASE
directory will return the error message "Bad command or
filename".
WORKAROUND:
As a general rule, type the contents of the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file and check the validity of the PATH statement. The PATH
statement should start with a valid directory name. Multiple
paths must be separated by a semicolon.
=====================================================================
USAGE-TIP
Environment Expansion and the SHELL Command
The SHELL command is one of several configuration commands.
SHELL's basic purpose is to allow users to define the
location and name of an alternative command processor, which
is ordinarily COMMAND.COM. SHELL's command syntax is:
SHELL = d:path\Filename.EXT d:path /P/E:nnnn
in which d:path is the drive name and full path name to the
command processor, and Filename.EXT is the file name of the
command processor. The SHELL command is often used for
implementation of customized command processors.
In an environment with memory at a premium, where resident
software (possibly a network shell) is loaded, an
environmental variable may be required for an application to
be utilized. Given the default environment size of 127
bytes, it often becomes necessary to expand the size of the
system environment. This is accomplished using the SHELL
command's /E option. The nnnn values for the /E option in
MS/PC-DOS version 3.1 requires values between 11 and 63
bytes, where an increment of nnnn equals 16 bytes
(16*16=256). In MS/PC-DOS version 3.2 and 3.3, required
values range between 160 and 32768 bytes.
To increase the system environment's size, modify the
CONFIG.SYS found in the root directory and add the following
command:
SHELL = C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P/E:256
The /E will increase the system environment size to 256
bytes. The SHELL /P option has a two fold effect. First,
it installs the command processor in the system's memory,
and remains active until the computer is rebooted or shut
off. Second, it causes COMMAND.COM to execute AUTOEXEC.BAT
during system initialization. Without /P, the environment
size will be increased but will not execute the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.
When using MS/PC-DOS version 3.1 the appropriate value of
the /E parameter should be 16. If the value of /E is
greater than 63 it will result in the error message "Out of
Environment Space". So again, it is extremely important
that you adhere to the range values listed for the different
DOS versions.
It should be noted that the /E and /P options were
undocumented features in MS and PC-DOS versions 3.1, but are
documented in PC-DOS versions 3.2 and 3.3.
======================================================================