Ham Exams/Ham Exams.iso/HAMEXAMS/EXAMS/VEWD/README.VE

Text File | 1995-04-07 | 5.9 KB | 122 lines

Hardware/Software Requirements
At a minimum, the program requires:
     IBM PC-XT, PC-AT, or clone, with an Intel 8086, 8088, 8086,
       286, 386, or 486 processor.  A numeric coprocessor is not needed.
     640 KB of memory, preferably 1 MB or more.
     A Hard Drive and a floppy drive.
     MS-DOS, or IBM-DOS, Version 3.3 or later. Actually, it might
       run on earlier versions. Its just never been tested.
A  hard  drive  is  a must, and the faster the  better.   A  fast
computer  won't hurt either.  This program will run on  a  floppy
based  system,  but the point is to speed up your exam  sessions,
not  make them take forever.  The reason for this is that program
does  not keep things in memory.  Everything is written to  disk,
and everything is read from it.  Except for the time between when
you  first  enter  something, and the time you complete  whatever
screen  you  are  on,  you can't lose information  from  a  power
failure.



Installation
Installation is fairly simple.
     1)   Insert the installation floppy into your disk drive.
     2)   Type "A:" or "B:" depending on which floppy drive you use,
          followed by a return,
     3)   Type "VEWDINST <sdrive> <ddrive> <pathname>" followed by a
      return, where <sdrive> is the drive letter of the installation
      floppy, <ddrive> is the drive letter of the hard disk,
      <pathname> is directory on the hard drive where you want the
      program to be stored.  Include the colons after the two drive
      letters.
     4)   Edit your CONFIG.SYS file and make sure the line "FILES = x",
      is at least 40.
VEWD uses many open files, about 32.  If you are running VEWD in
a DOS window under Microsoft Windows the value may need to be
even higher.
For  example, "VEWDINST A: C: \VEWD" will install into  the  VEWD
directory on hard drive C from floppy drive A.

To  start VEWD, change to the VEWD directory and type VEWD at the
DOS prompt.  VEWD supports the command line options:

Option  Description
/B=NO   Inhibits the beep on errors
/V=n    Sets the screen saver to n minutes. Zero disables the option.
/L      Disables setting of keyboard locks.
/E      Specifies that an enhanced keyboard is being used.

Although VEWD fits entirely in the lower 640 KB of DOS memory, it
is  somewhat of a memory hog.  If you run with many Terminate and
Stay Resident (TSR) programs, you may find yourself running short
of  memory.  At bottom right corner of the screen, below the date
and  time,  is the number of bytes of free memory remaining.   If
there  is  less than 32000 bytes free at the top level menu,  you
need  to  make  more room.  Each pop-up menu or form  causes  the
portion  of  the  screen that it covers to  be  saved  for  later
restoration.  By default this is in the low 640 KB  memory.   You
can  specify five alternate locations by including Virtual Memory
environment  variables in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  Each  variable
is of the form:
                    SET CLAVMx=path,size[,ram-indicator]
Where,
     x is 0 to 4.  A value of 0 indicates the first used virtual
        memory region, 4 indicates the last used.  Once all the storage
        is used in the 1st region, the second it used, and so on.
    path is the drive and directory of the RAM drive or hard
    disk area, or the word MEMORY to indicate conventional (low 640KB)
     Size is the number of KB available.
     Ram-indicator is M for a RAM Drive, blank otherwise.
For example, the line:
          SET CLAVM0=D:\,1024,M
defines the first virtual memory region as the root directory  of
a 1 megabyte RAM disk.  Another example is the line:
          SET CLAVM1=C:\TEMP,768
specifies  the second virtual memory region as a 768 KB  area  in
the TEMP subdirectory of drive C.
If  you  have  the  memory,  setting up  a  RAM  disk  is  highly
recommended.  The  RAM disk should be at  least  64  KB  in  size
(preferably 128 KB).  To create a RAM disk you need to include  a
line in your CONFIG.SYS file similar to:
          DEVICE=C:\DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 1024 128 /E
This defines a 1024 KB RAM disk using extended memory.

The  install  process created a complete set of startup  database
files.   The VECLIST and ELEMSTAT files are pre-initialized  with
fixed  data  and never change.  The DEFAULTS file is  initialized
with  a  sample record that should be modified for the particular
VE   team(s).   The  remaining  files  are  empty.     The   file
EMPTYDB.ZIP is an archive containing these startup files.  If  it
is  ever  desired to return to a fresh state, simply extract  the
files from this archive.
To  prevent  the  loss  of valuable session  information,  it  is
important that you make backup copies of all the data files.  The
minimum  set  of files to backup are those with the DAT  and  MEM
extensions.   VEWD will regenerate the key files  at  startup  if
they  do  not exist.  However,  if incorrect key files are  used,
the   database  files  may  become  corrupted  beyond   recovery.
Therefore you should backup the DAT, MEM and Knn files to  insure
a  complete  database.  If  you customize or create  any  printer
control  files (.DEV files) you should also make save  copies  of
those.
A  reasonable  method  of  archiving the  database  files  is  to
compress  them into a single zip file.  The archive can be  named
in  form  YYMMDDx.   YYMMDD is the reference date of the archive.
This  is  usually the date of a session.  The x  is  one  of  the
following:
Letter               Description
O     Original.  This is the archive made at the end of the session.
U     Updated.  This is the archive made after post processing the session,
    making any corrections, adding candidate phone numbers but before
    merging the session candidate data into the global database.  This
    is normally done by the VE preparing the paperwork for the VEC
blank This is the archive made immediately after merging a session into the
    global database.