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- Delphi Zip
- Version 1.20, Sept 28, 1997
- by Eric W. Engler
-
-
- See CHANGES.TXT for note on changes since version 1.10. If you
- already have v1.10 installed, then install this update right over
- the top of it. Make sure you rebuild the Component library with
- the updated VCLs included with this release.
-
-
- This is a complete release, so you DO NOT need to have any prior
- version before installing this release.
-
-
- IMPORTANT NOTE FOR C++ BUILDER DEVELOPERS
- -----------------------------------------
- I wrote up some very important notes that you should read
- before doing the following install. See the file
- "\ZIP\DOC\CBUILDER.TXT", which came with this release.
-
-
- Installation
- ------------
-
- This is one of the biggest freeware software releases for Delphi and
- C++ Builder. To get going quickly and correctly, please follow these
- instructions. Read them over once before starting. If you don't
- understand a step, get help before you start the install!
-
-
- 1. You MUST install this package on a computer that has Delphi 2 or
- 3, or C++ Builder. Minor version upgrades to any of these compilers
- should not affect this package, but you should always rebuild your
- VCL component library after doing a minor or major upgrade.
-
-
- 2. You MUST have PKUNZIP.EXE v2.04g on your hard disk before trying
- to install this package. It should be located anywhere in the MS-DOS
- search PATH. After this package is installed, you'll no longer need
- PKUNZIP.EXE on your hard disk. The DLLs and VCLs distributed with
- this release do NOT require the PKZIP/PKUNZIP programs.
-
-
- 3. Decide which "base directory" you will use for the ZIP package.
- I am using C:\ZIP on my computer, but you can use whatever you
- want. Install this package from the MS-DOS prompt. This set of
- MS-DOS commands will set up your directory tree (assuming your
- base directory will be \ZIP):
-
-
- CD \
- MD ZIP
- CD ZIP
- COPY <source>DELZIP11.ZIP
- PKUNZIP DELZIP11 (unzip the main distribution archive)
- INST (run the INST.BAT batch file)
-
-
- 4. The VCLs included with this release are:
- TZipMaster - the main ZIP support VCL
- (used by demo1 and demo2)
- TSortGrid - a very handy descendant from TStringGrid
- (used by demo1 and demo3)
- TZipDir - a simple utility VCL to get the contents
- of a ZIP archive (used by demo3)
-
- The files required to support these VCLs are located in the
- VCL subdirectory. You have two choices for how to proceed
- (option A is recommended):
-
- A) add the directory C:\ZIP\VCL to your VCL search path
- or
- B) copy the files in C:\ZIP\VCL to another directory already
- in your VCL search path
-
- If you want to use option A, the instructions for this are
- included below. If you want option B, then please copy those
- files now.
-
-
- 5. Install the three VCLs
-
- This procedure will install the VCLs into the IDE. After
- this, you will be able to see them on the "Samples" tab.
-
- Delphi 2:
- a) Close any Files or Projects that are open.
- b) Select the "Component...Install" choice.
- c) If you want to add C:\ZIP\VCL to the library search
- path, you may do it now using the second edit box.
-
- d) Click on the Add button.
- e) Enter the path and filename of where the ZIPMSTR.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- f) Click on the Add button.
- g) Enter the path and filename of where the SORTGRID.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- h) Click on the Add button.
- i) Enter the path and filename of where the ZIPDIR.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- j) Click on OK. The component library will rebuild.
-
- Delphi 3:
- These instructions assume you will place the VCLs into
- the standard user package "DCLUSR30.DPK". Advanced
- developers may want to use a different package, or to
- make a new package. Packages can be confusing, so I will
- only document the simplest case, of putting them into
- "DCLUSR30.DPK", which will work fine for most developers.
-
- a) Close any Files or Projects that are open.
- b) Select the "Component, Install Component" choice. Make
- sure the "Into existing package" tab is selected.
- c) Check to see if package: "DCLUSR30.DPK" is already
- selected. If not, you should now locate "dclusr30.dpk".
- d) Add the C:\ZIP\VCL directory to the search path
- box (unless you copied the files to a path already
- in the search path).
-
- e) In the Unit name block, enter ZIPMSTR.PAS. Click OK.
- f) It will ask if you want to rebuild the Component Library.
- ANSWER NO (saves time to do it only 1 time later).
-
- g) Click on Add.
- h) In the Unit name block, enter SORTGRID.PAS. Click OK.
- i) It will ask if you want to rebuild the Component Library.
- ANSWER NO (saves time to do it only 1 time later).
-
- j) Click on Add.
- k) In the Unit name block, enter ZIPDIR.PAS. Click OK.
-
- l) It will ask if you want to rebuild the Component Library.
- ANSWER YES this time. The component library will rebuild.
- If it does not automatically install the new VCLs to the
- component palette, then click on the "install" button of
- the package option dialog box.
-
- m) When done, close the package option dialog box by
- clicking on it's upper right corner. Say "Yes" to
- keep the changes.
-
- C++ Builder:
- a) Read the file \ZIP\DOC\CBUILDER.TXT for very important
- notes. Make a backup copy of your VCL library.
- a) Close any Files or Projects that are open.
- b) Select the "Component...Install" choice.
- c) Add C:\ZIP\VCL to the library search path, unless you
- copied the files to a directory already in the path.
-
- d) Click on the Add button.
- e) Enter the path and filename of where the ZIPMSTR.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- f) Click on the Add button.
- g) Enter the path and filename of where the SORTGRID.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- h) Click on the Add button.
- i) Enter the path and filename of where the ZIPDIR.PAS
- file is located, or find it now with Browse.
-
- j) Click on OK. The component library will rebuild.
- If you have "warnings" enabled, you will get lots
- of warning messages. Ignore these.
-
- 5. You're ready to try a demo program!
-
-
- DELPHI DEMOS
-
- 1. From the IDE, open the project C:\ZIP\DEMO1\DEMO1.DPR.
- Select Run.
-
- Examine the forms and decide if you need to resize any of
- the controls, or change the position of anything. This is
- sometimes necessary if I developed the forms at a different
- screen resolution than you are using.
-
- The demo1 program is a fairly straight-forward example
- of what you can do with this package! Everything revolves
- around the TSortGrid, which always shows you the contents
- of your ZIP archive. Use right-click on a column header to
- do an descending sort, or a left-click for an ascending sort.
-
- NOTE: You should have the compiler option "break on exception"
- turned off if you want to use the click-to-resort option of
- the grid. This is only a concern when running the program
- from the IDE.
-
- 2. Now, you can look at the simplest demo program. This is
- especially useful because it doesn't have so much "clutter".
- It just shows you the easiest way to use TZipMaster from
- within any of your programs.
-
- From the Delphi IDE, open the project C:\ZIP\DEMO2\DEMO2.DPR.
- Select Run.
-
- 3. Demo program #3 is not intended for use by most programmers.
- If you're not extremely curious about the inner workings of
- the DLL interface to Delphi, I advise you to skip this demo!
- It shows very advanced programmers how they can access the
- DLL's without using the TZipMaster VCL. This gives them a
- few more options, but can be difficult to code and debug.
- This level of programming is how I had to start out in
- developing the DLL interface. The last step I did was to
- create TZipMaster and demo programs 1 and 2. The moral of
- the story: sometimes things have to get complex in order to
- make them easy!
-
- NOTE: You should have the compiler option "break on exception"
- turned off if you want to use the click-to-resort option of
- the grid. This is only a concern when running the program
- from the IDE.
-
-
- C++ BUILDER DEMO
-
- 1. This is a simple program to show you how to use TZipMaster
- from C++. From the C++ Builder IDE, open the project
- C:\ZIP\CDEMO1\PROJECT1.MAK
-
- 2. Examine the forms and decide if you need to resize any of
- the controls, or change the position of anything. This is
- sometimes necessary if I developed the forms at a different
- screen resolution than you are using.
-
- 3. Select Run.
-
- NOTE: This demo does not show an example of deleting a file
- from a ZIP archive. This is, however, a supported method of
- TZipMaster. It is done almost the same way an "Add" is done.
- See the file ZIPMSTR.PAS for an explanation of all properties,
- methods, and events of TZipMaster.
-
-
- Deployment of Your Programs
-
- Any program you write using this package will require the two
- DLLs: ZIPDLL.DLL and UNZDLL.DLL to be present of each user's
- hard disk. You should have your install procedures put these
- files into directory C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. If that isn't possible,
- then you should put them into the same directory as your .EXE
- program that uses them.
-
- NOTE: Microsoft is said to be recommending that DLLs should
- be installed in application directory, rather than the Windows
- system directory. This may become a requirement of a future
- version of Windows.
-
- Of course, there are no distribution fees for the DLLs, or
- any other part of the package. This whole package is
- freeware, but does have some minor distribution restrictions
- (mainly that you can't profit from the ZIP DLLs, and you need
- to document where users can get source code). Please see
- README.TXT for these restrictions.
-
-
- See README.TXT for more general information about this release,
- and also check out the DOC subdirectory.
-
-
- Eric Engler
- englere@swcp.com
-