What is SoftCD?
SoftCD comes in two parts: SoftCD Publisher, which makes amendment
files; and SoftCD Client which uses these amendment files to make a CD appear to have been
updated.
What platforms does SoftCD run on?
SoftCD Client and SoftCD Publisher are designed to run on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0.
Note - Version 1.0 of SoftCD did not support Windows NT on the client.
Is SoftCD year 2000 compliant?
Yes. SoftCD has been tested all the way through to 2099.
For further details refer to iOra's year 2000 compliance statement.
What are the requirements for SoftCD Publisher?
SoftCD Publisher Requires the Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
operating system and between 32MB and 64MB of memory depending on the maximum size of a
publication.
What are the requirements for SoftCD Client?
SoftCD Client Runs on Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT with minimum memory
requirements.
Note - Version 1.0 of SoftCD did not support Windows NT on the client.
Can SoftCD be used to keep a complete CD up-to-date?
Yes. Just create a SoftCD publication that has the root of the CD as its
base content. Copy the CD onto your hard disk and edit this copy. This copy is the amended
content of the publication.
Can SoftCD be used to keep part of a CD up-to-date?
Yes. Whilst you can use SoftCD to keep a whole CD up-to-date, you can
also choose to keep a portion of the CD up-to-date by selecting a sub-folder of the CD as
the base content of the publication.
Can SoftCD be used to keep folders on a hard disk up-to-date?
Yes. SoftCD can be used to keep the contents of a folder and all its
sub-folders up-to-date, even when the folder is on a hard disk. Both the publisher and
client machines must have the base content of this folder, with identical contents for
this to work.
Can SoftCD be used to keep a single file up-to-date?
Yes, but only if it is stored in a folder on its own and this folder is
selected as the base content for the publication.
What applications will SoftCD Client work with?
SoftCD should work with any Windows application as it works at the file
system level. SoftCD has been tested with a wide variety of Windows configurations,
applications and utilities.
How effective is SoftCD at compressing changes in databases?
Normally SoftCD will produce very good delta factors with databases. For
example adding new records to a Microsoft Access database, and changing a small numnber of
exsiting records will tend to result in leaving the majority of the database unchanged,
and so it will produce a small delta file. An example of a change that will not result in
a good delta factor is when a global change affecting all records in a database is made.
How effective is SoftCD at compressing changes in presentations?
Normally SoftCD will produce very good delta factors with presentations.
This is particularly true if all the clip-art is included in the original (base)
presentation, as clip-art is usually represents most of the size of a presentation.
How effective is SoftCD at compressing changes in images?
Formats that don't have much compression, such as bitmaps, usually
achieve excellent delta factors, especially if only part of the image is changed. Those
formats with extensive compression (such as JPEG) are likely to produce good rather than
spectacular delta factors. Nevertheless, SoftCD provides a very effective mechanism for
distributing amended images of any format.
How effective is SoftCD at compressing changes in movies?
Formats that don’t have much global compression (such as AVI)
usually achieve excellent delta factors, and consequently are very effectively compressed.
Those formats with extensive global compression (such as MPEG) are likely to produce good
rather than spectacular delta factors) delta less effectively, and typically achieve good
rather than spectacular results. There are a number of ways the user can address this that
are highly effective:
- Move to a format (like AVI) that has less non-local compression in the codec. This
increases the size of the movie, but actually greatly decreases the size of deltas. Since
the initial version is delivered on CD anyway then (provided everything still fits on one
CD!) the extra size is often not an issue, and the decrease in update size outweighs it.
- Split large movies up into smaller sections and splice them together in the
presentation. Very impressive delta factors can result from using this technique.
How is the streaming performance for movies and audio
playback affected by the use of SoftCD?
Streaming performance is affected to a small degree by SoftCD, but we
have not generally found that the effect is significant (though this depends on the target
machine to some degree). In general use of SoftCD can improve performance in some areas
(since hard disk access is faster than CD access typically), but reduce it in others
(random access tends to be generated where there was streamed access, though 'random'
still tends to be sequential with gaps). For audio playback no performance degradation
should be noticeable.
In terms of movie playback performance we have found no visibly detectable performance
degradation except on a few older low-end systems. However, we have only seen this on
systems that tend to have trouble even when the movie is streaming from the CD itself. We
recommend trying this in your environment and with your target hardware to ascertain that
the results achieved are what you require.
What does the message "SoftCD is already keeping this
folder up-to-date" mean?
SoftCD only allows one a folder to be kept up-to-date by one
publication. If you attempt to apply an amendment for another publication to the same
folder you will get this message. There are a number of possible solutions to this
problem:
- Bring up the properties panel for the folder in question and select the SoftCD tab to
find out which publication is already keeping this folder up-to-date. If this publication
is no longer applicable, it may be deleted using the Client Publication Manager (see
deleting all amendments in the help). The new publication can now be applied.
- If the current publication is still applicable, disable the amendments and copy the
folder to another drive. The new publication can now be applied to the copy. This may not
work if the original folder was on a CD and the publication is restricted to only working
from CDs.
- There may be another folder with the same name that is the base content for this
publication. Try using Find Files and Folders from the Windows Start menu to search for
another folder of the same name. Try updating this folder with the new amendment.
How can SoftCD be configured to work with Compuserve?
If your ISP is Compuserve, the following should allow both
Internet Explorer and SoftCD to make a connection to the internet:
- Connect to Compuserve, as normal.
- Bring up Internet Explorer and browse to a web site e.g. www.iOra.com.
- Disconnect from Compuserve.
- SoftCD will now be able to make a connection to the internet without the need for a pre-existing Compuserve connection.
Does SoftCD work with NT Server?
Yes. If you are using the console, SoftCD will work in exactly the
same manner as an NT Workstation and you will be able to access any SoftCD updated data
on the NT Server. If you also want SoftCD updated data to be available over the network,
it is necessary to keep the first user permanently logged on. Therefore a good practice would
be to login on the console as Administrator at boot time and lock the console.
Does SoftCD work with NT Terminal Server?
Yes, SoftCD works in the same manner as on NT Server. However there can be issues installing SoftCD,
so you are recommended to contact iOra support before installing SoftCD on NT Terminal Server.
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