home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- VERSION CHANGES & UPDATES
-
- Thanks to everyone that has helped out in enhancing First Impression to
- become a first class installation utility! Keep on sending in your
- suggestions!!!
-
- Version 2.6 6/1/93
-
- Fixed three bugs, first being a problem when DOS' SHARE.EXE command was
- running and multiple source disks were used. The second was when the
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file was edited it would corrupt the memory on occasion(never all
- the time). And finally batch files would not run in the exit program mode.
- It was running out of memory trying to executed another copy of COMMAND.COM.
-
- The system files may now be Prepended or Appended with your commands. Also
- if the line is not long enough to fit all of your parameters onto you may
- enter a '\' (without the ') in the first space on the following line to
- continue your statement. The '\' will be replaced with a space.
-
- Check out the "Default" section under the "Enhancements Menu". There are
- many changes there as well. You may now skip asking the user for the source
- drive since First Impression already senses where it is being called from and
- also bypass the "Press ENTER to Continue, Any Other Key To Edit" message as
- well. The phrase that used to pop up during the DOS Command execution may
- now also be customized to your liking. These changes only take place in
- Media Selection Window #2 though. There are now three overwrite methods to
- choose from; prompt to overwrite first duplicate only, prompt on all
- duplicates, or don't prompt at all. If No is answered it will continue on to
- the next file.
-
- Media selection #2 has gone through an overhaul. You may now position the
- window, not prompt the user for the source drive and the colors used for the
- input fields, previously yellow on red are not the colors of the status
- window. You may also change the default prompting text in this window. This
- only applies to #2, #1 remains unchanged.
-
- Under the System menu you can now choose where to leave your user at the end
- of a successful install. Choices are; source disk, destination directory or
- original location when the install was executed.
-
- The exit program is now called after the Exit window instead of before.
-
- The Directory Window may now be positioned anywhere on the screen.
-
- You may call programs either before or after the displaying of the greeting
- window. If you have a GIF or PCX you wish to display you can do this before
- the greeting screen by entering the program to spawn and the GIF file as the
- parameter. The Post greeting screen function can be used for something like
- trying to call .WAV player or something of that sort that will not destruct
- the screen.
-
- You may also have subdirectories on your source disk now. To instruct the
- install you must use the # followed by the directory name in the "files to
- copy" section. For instance:
-
- !Disk #1
- *.exe
- #data
- *.dat
- #picture
- *.gif
-
- Will prompt the user for "Disk #1" then copy all the EXE files from the root
- directory. Then it will copy all the DAT files from the "\DATA" directory
- and then copy all the .GIF files from the "\PICTURE" directory.
-
- The file browser was changed back to a black and white viewer. To much
- confusion was caused by the page break characters and so forth.
-
- Version 2.5 2/1/93
-
- WYSIWYG Screen designer was added to make the generation even easier and
- more flexibility was given to designing your screens. Justification &
- Positioning to name a few. Background window is also adjustable.
-
- Monitor Detection
-
- Novell Aware; either require a network or refuse installation to a net drive.
-
- Two switches were added: /M for monochrome install and /N to bypass monitor
- detection
-
- EXIT program was changed to allow .BAT files to be called.
-
- If multiple .CFG files are found a menu will appear giving the user the
- choice to pick which to install.
-
- And a few more things that I forgot already!<g>
-
- Version 2.1b 7/27/92
-
- Using the /V command with INSTALL.EXE you can find out what version of the
- installation program you are using.
-
- Finally fixed the bug that blanked out the screen after the user viewed a
- file!!! Not an easy one to nail down. Line by line scrolling was improved
- so it will not "flash" on the screen.
-
- Fixed the (: ): parameters in the DOS COMMANDS section to handle an install
- that was from a subdirectory on a hard drive to another sub on the same
- drive.
-
- Exit Program was not being executed if the autoexec.bat or config.sys files
- were edited. Fixed that one to.
-
- Version 2.1a 7/01/92
-
- Enhanced the i/o error routines in IMPRESS.EXE
-
- Fixed some flaky bugs that would occur when updating the CONFIG.SYS
- and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
-
- Fixed a bug in the Distribution Disk Generator. If the first disk was left
- in after it was filled and the developer pressed a key some peculiar things
- would happen.
-
- Version 2.1 6/7/92
-
- Distribution disk generator was added to create your disk set.
-
- Will allow two types of installs. The normal installation and an update
- installation. By using two different configuration files there can be two
- types of installs.
-
- Ability to add an ENVIRONMENT variable to the autoexec.bat file.
-
- Ability to add device drivers to the config.sys file.
-
- Files that were set to print can now be sent to a user selectable printer
- port. Error routines were also improved.
-
- Users can install from a subdirectory on a hard drive to another subdirectory
- on the drive. Great for users that pull your application from a BBS.
-
- An UNINSTALL option was added. By typing INSTALL /U and several
- confirmations, it will erase all the subdirectories and child subs along
- with the files. READ THE MANUAL REGARDING THIS!!!!
-
- The most important one of all......you may now order using VISA/MC through
- Software Excitement!. Check out the order form for details!
-
- Version 2.0 2/8/92
-
- Renamed to FIRST IMPRESSION and down to less that 45k!
-
- Hard error recovery was added. This will prevent thing from going awry
- if a user takes out the disk or uses a write protected disk and the like.
-
- Now checks for game port, math coprocessor and base memory.
-
- Developers now have the option of letting the user have the option to add
- the subdirectory to the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
-
- Graphical Display Amusers(GDA) were added. One of six may be displayed
- as the files are being copied. This may prevent the user from falling
- asleep while the installation is occurring.
-
- A file browser was also added to let users view up to four README.1ST files.
-
- Improved multiple directory installations.
-
- Added a windowing utility, SETUP.EXE, that will allow developers to create
- customized windows.
-
- Sound was added and is optional.
-
- The fill character that appeared in all the fields to fill in, '_', was
- changed to a small dot. When the character was used in text it was converted
- to a space.
-
-
- Version 1.5c
-
- Allows the CONFIG.SYS file to update the FILES and BUFFERS statements.
- If the subdirectory is not added to the path statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT
- the user will be prompt for the drive that the computer boots from,
- otherwise it uses the same drive that the autoexec.bat file was located.
- This routine will not ask the user if they want to do this or not, it is
- performed automatically. After all, your program will not work without it.
- The values are filled in in the INSTALL ENHANCEMENTS menu option.
-
- The ability to Shell to DOS was added when in INSTALIT.
-
- Version 1.5b
-
- The window that copies files from source to destination was not clearing
- itself and kept showing files being copied as Error Opening: filename
- after it needed the next disk with the following file.
-
- You can now hardcode the user name into two files. This was originally
- done for internal purposes but I thought others might be interested in
- it as well.
-
-
- Version 1.5a
-
- Four more border types have been added to the window sections.
-
- INSTALL.EXE will now check if the DOS version on the system running
- meets your minimum required version.