======================================================================= Thing 0.54 README.TXT Copyrights (c) 1994/95 Arno Welzel Read Me TOS2GEM (c) Thomas Binder (binder@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de) ST-Guide (c) Holger Weets (Holger_Weets@OL.maus.de) 'Dcheneva' fonts (c) Thomas Schulze (ts@uni-paderborn.de) English version UK software support by Joe Connor - see SUPPORT.TXT for details. ======================================================================= Thing is not Public Domain! If you want to use Thing permanently, you should register as user. See REGISTER.TXT for details. Thanks! Snail Mail: Arno Welzel Georgenstrasse 55 86152 Augsburg EMail: aw@zaphot.augusta.de (Internet) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Update of Version 0.44 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I M P O R T A N T Users of MagiC!3 has to copy the shutdown program SHUTDOWN.PRG and its configuration file SHUTDOWN.INF from the directory C:\GEMSYS\GEMDESK\ to the home directory of Thing! Otherwise the shutdown of MagiC!3 will not work and you may loose data when using the 'write back cache' WBDAEMON. To update an older version, copy the following files: TOS2GEM\ .... to the AUTO folder TOS2GEM.PRG THING\ .... to the folder of Thing THING.APP THINGICN.PRG DOC\ .... to the GUIDES folder of ST-Guide THING.HYP THING.REF THINGICN.HYP THINGICN.REF ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents of archive ----------------------------------------------------------------------- You should find the following files: README.TXT .... this file ;-) SUPPORT.TXT .... details about UK software support REGISTER.TXT .... registration form THING\ .... all required files for Thing THING.APP THINGRUN.PRG ICONS.RSC ICONS.INF MONOICON.RSC THINGICN.PRG PICTURES\ .... some GEM images, wich may be used as ATARI.IMG 'background pictures' for Thing BACKGRND.IMG DESKTOP.IMG INTEL.IMG KACHEL1.IMG KACHEL2.IMG THING_C.IMG THING_D2.IMG DOC\ .... documentation and further infos THING.HYP THING.REF THINGICN.HYP THINGICN.REF VAPROTO.H THINGICN.TXT ST-GUIDE\ .... small english distribution of ST-Guide by ST-GUIDE.ACC Holger Weets, wich is required to display the ST-GUIDE.INF online manual of Thing STG-LITE.TXT GUIDES\ ST-GUIDE.HYP ST-GUIDE.REF TOS2GEM\ .... TOS2GEM from Thomas Binder, wich is required to T2GRESET.PRG use the console window of Thing TOS2GEM.PRG TOS2GEM.TXT GEMSYS\ .... several GDOS fonts THING04.FNT THING10.FNT DCHENM05.FNT DCHENM07.FNT DCHENM10.FNT DCHENP07.FNT DCHENP10.FNT DCHENP13.FNT PINPOINT\ .... PinPoint - the 'notebook' for Thing from PINPOINT.APP Holger Weets PINPOINT.INF PINPOINT.TXT ----------------------------------------------------------------------- System requirements ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thing is can be used with MagiC (2.00 or later), TOS (1.04 or later) or MultiTOS. Alternate file systems with MiNT (MinixFS etc.) or MagiC Mac will be supported as well. Using Thing with TOS 1.02 or TOS 1.00 is not possible - sorry! Changes for such old version of TOS would be too complex and could not be done in a 'clean' way, as TOS 1.04 and later contains some very important system functions, wich are missing in TOS 1.02 and TOS 1.00! Please get a newer version of TOS (2.06 would be the best) or use MagiC. To display the online manual of Thing (hypertext documentation), ST-Guide from Holger Weets is required. If you want to use the console window of Thing, you have to install TOS2GEM by Thomas Binder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Installation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thing ----- Create a new folder for Thing (e.g. C:\THING). Now copy all files from the folder THING - except MONOICON.RSC - to this folder. Your new folder should contain now: THING.APP THINGRUN.PRG ICONS.RSC ICONS.INF THINGICN.PRG If you want to save memory or if you are working with a monochrome display only, you can use the 'small version' of ICONS.RSC - - MONOICON.RSC. Delete ICONS.RSC and copy MONOICONS.RSC to the folder of Thing. After copying, you have to rename the file to ICONS.RSC - otherwise Thing will not work! MONOICON.RSC contains the same icons as ICONS.RSC - but without colours and animation. Online manual (hypertext documentation) --------------------------------------- To display the online manual, ST-Guide from Holger Weets has to be installed as accessory. Installing ST-Guide ------------------- Copy ST-GUIDE.ACC and ST-GUIDE.INF from the folder ST-GUIDE to your boot partition (e.g. C:\ if your systems boots from drive C). Now create a new folder for the hypertext files (e.g. D:\GUIDES). Change the entry 'HYPFOLD' in the configuration file ST-GUIDE.INF. This entry tells ST-Guide, where to search for hypertext files. If you use D:\GUIDES for these files, the entry must be: HYPFOLD=D:\GUIDES\ Now copy ST-GUIDE.HYP and ST-GUIDE.REF to this folder. These files contain a hypertext documentation of ST-Guide. Installing the online manual of Thing ------------------------------------- Copy THING.HYP, THING.REF, THINGICN.HYP and THINGICN.REF from the folder DOC to the GUIDES folder (as described above) of ST-Guide. TOS2GEM ------- If you want to use the console window of Thing, you have to install TOS2GEM by Thomas Binder. Just copy TOS2GEM.PRG from the folder TOS2GEM to your AUTO folder an re-boot your system. Please refer TOS2GEM.TXT for details about this tool. Alternate AES system font with MagiC ------------------------------------ MagiC 2.00 or later allows you to use an alternate AES system font, when a GDOS (AMC-GDOS, NVDI etc.) is installed. This is not neccessary to use Thing - it's just an option. You will find the font 'Thing System' in the folder GEMSYS. After copying the font files to your GEMSYS folder and registering them in ASSIGN.SYS, the font can be registered with the following entry in MAGX.INF: #_TXT 10 4 99 Please note: All changes in MAGX.INF must be before '#_CTR'! The entry '#_TXT' must only be used once! Now you have to setup your operating system... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Setting up the operating system ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thing and Single-TOS -------------------- Register Thing as an 'autostart application' in the Atari desktop. Starting Thing from the AUTO folder is not possible! Thing and MagiC --------------- To use Thing as a shell for MagiC and as 'AV server', you have to add the following entries to the file MAGX.INF: #_SHL ...\THING.APP #_ENV AVSERVER=THING Replace '...' by the real path of Thing (e.g. C:\THING). Thing will be started automatically when re-booting the system. Please note: All changes in MAGX.INF must be before '#_CTR'! The entry '#_SHL' must only be used once! Thing and MultiTOS ------------------ Here you have to modify the configuration file GEM.CNF. Add the following entries: setenv AVSERVER=THING shell ...\THING.APP Replace '...' by the real path of Thing (e.g. C:\THING). Thing will be started automatically when re-booting the system. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- How to continue? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Further informations are available by pressing the [Help] key in Thing. A complete version of ST-Guide is available from Joe Connor. See SUPPORT.TXT for details. Now Enjoy Thing! Arno Welzel