home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- GOREADME.TXT
-
- This is a brief explanation of how to set up your computer to run the
- StuSoft GO utility. If you want basic info on what GO does and how it
- works, read the file GO.TXT.
-
- To set up a computer to run GO, you need an environmental variable called
- GODIR (defined using the SET command). The string should contain the
- default directory for GO and be back-filled with forward slashes (/) to
- allow enough room for your deepest nested path -- more about that later.
-
- EXAMPLE:
-
- SET GODIR=./////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-
- You can type this line from the DOS prompt and GO will work. The program
- GOSETUP.BAT will automatically set the GODIR variable to the above default
- value. But the best way is to include a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to
- SET the variable GODIR. If you know how to use EDIT, EDLIN, or another
- editor to change AUTOEXEC, you can just add the example line (above) to your
- AUTOEXEC and you should have no problems with GO!
-
- IMPORTANT!!!!!
-
- Before you change the file AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS, you
- should make a backup copy. It is best to do this on a
- bootable floppy disk (so you can restore them if a problem
- develops). Here's the quick 'n' dirty directions for that:
-
- 1) put a disk in drive A:, and type: FORMAT A:/S
- 2) switch to drive A:, by typing: A:
- 3) create a backup directory; type: MD BACKUP
- 4) change the backup directory: CD BACKUP
- 5) copy the files to A: COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
- COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS
-
- Once you have made a bootable floppy, restoring the original
- CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files is easy:
-
- 1) put the bootable disk in drive A: and restart the computer
- 2) type: COPY A:\BACKUP\*.* C:\
-
- If you do add a SET statement for GODIR in your AUTOEXEC, you could include
- a default drive/directory for GO. You might do something like this:
-
- SET GODIR=D:\UTILS\STUSOFT//////////////////////////////////////////////////
-
- Then GO would change to the directory D:\UTILS\STUSOFT the first time you
- typed: GO
-
- If you set GODIR as the first example shows (and as GOSETUP does) typing
- GO with no arguments will get you the message:
-
- Nowhere to go! (go)
-
-
- Another NOTE: You will get the same message if you type: GO .
- This is because . (a period) is a xxDOS alias for
- the current directory. Go traps this, since there
- is no real reason to GO to and store the path for
- the current directory.
-
-
- O.K., what is this nested subdirectory stuff?
-
- As you know, xxDOS keeps files in directories. A disk may have many
- directories, with the root directory (\) always being the top. Directories
- *below* that are called subdirectories. These subdirectories may also have
- subdirectories within them. This box-in-a-box method of storing files is
- referred to as NESTING. The limit to nesting is xxDOS's limit of 63
- characters for a path name. GO's default limit for pathname length is
- 66 characters *including* the drive letter, the separating colon (:),
- and the separating slashes (\). The program GOSETUP sets the GODIR variable
- as big as xxDOS will ever use. GO's arbitrary limit for a pathname is 117
- characters (because of xxDOS's 128 character limit on command lines).
- This shouldn't be a problem since xxDOS won't let you create a path that
- big enough to fill the default setting for GODIR.
-
-
-
-
- NOTE: Your environment MUST be large enough to hold the string you
- enter as GODIR. You can change your environment size in the
- file CONFIG.SYS on your boot drive. It should have a statement
- something like the following:
-
- SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:512 /P
-
- /E:512 sets the environment size to 512 bytes. You can adjust
- this number up to allow more room for the GODIR variable, but
- the bigger you make GODIR (and the environment) the less memory
- you will have free for running programs.
-
- It should be noted that the upper limit for the size of the GODIR
- variable is nominally 128 bytes (all you can type on a command line)
- and that 128 bytes in not much memory at all!
-
-
-