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- GBSETUP (SETUP.EXE) by Gordon Bamber (c)1995
- ============================================
-
- PURPOSE
- =======
- This file is intended to be a replacement for the
- Microsoft-supplied SETUP.EXE that comes with their
- excellent VISUAL BASIC(tm) V2.0 and V3.0 products.
- As VB4 has not been released at the time of
- writing (Aug1995) I have no idea of its useability
- with VB4.
-
- SETUP.EXE will copy the files in SETUP.LST to the
- users SYSTEM directory, and then run SETUP1.EXE,
- passing it the current drive as a parameter.
- Multi-disk installations are supported.
- It can be used as a direct replacement for the
- supplied SETUP.EXE with no modifications. (see SETUP.INI)
-
-
-
- DISTRIBUTION AND LICENSE
- ========================
- SETUP.EXE was written from scratch in Turbo Pascal V1.5,
- and is entirely original code. As such, it is copyright
- material.
-
- SETUP.EXE is distributed FREE of royalties or charge by
- the author (Gordon Bamber) under the following conditions:
-
- 1) Source code is not available or distributable.
- 2) Version information in SETUP.EXE remains untouched.
- 3) The author accepts no responsibility in its use or misuse.
- 4) Copyright remains with the author.
-
-
-
- DIFFERENCES FROM MS SETUP.EXE
- =============================
- 1) Size. This version is approx 4KB smaller.
- 2) Speed under the Windows 95 operating system.
- When using tyhe Add/Remove Programs applet
- in Windows 95, the MS SETUP.EXE takes an
- inordinate amount of time to initialise, and
- gives the impression of a locked-up system.
- This SETUP.EXE is slightly faster.
- 3) Copying time. If the items on SETUP.LST are already
- present in the target \SYSTEM directory, then
- they can optionally be skipped, thus speeding
- up the bootstrap process considerably. (especially
- when testing/debugging under development)
- 4) Configurability. You can put your own caption on
- the SETUP.EXE title-bar. SETUP.EXE can optionally
- use a configuration file SETUP.INI for this. The
- format of SETUP.INI is below; choices are in square
- brackets. If a keyword is absent, a default is chosen.
- SETUP.INI would be on the same disk as SETUP.EXE
-
-
- Format of SETUP.INI
- ===================
- SETUP.INI has only one section, and nine keywords.
-
- [SETUP]
- ForceCompatible=[yes/no][true/false][0/1][0/-1]
- AlwaysOverwrite=[yes/no][true/false][0/1][0/-1]
- Quick=[yes/no][true/false][0/1][0/-1]
- Caption=[no][false][0][Your Caption Text]
- Message=[no][false][0][Your initial message]
- SETUP1.EXE=[SETUP1.EXE][Your alternative to SETUP1.EXE]
- DateFile=[GBSETUP.DAT][Your alternative to GBSETUP.DAT]
- WindowWidth=[300][Width in pixels]
- WindowHeight=[200][Height in pixels]
- OnlyPassDrive=[yes][no]
-
- ***************** PLEASE NOTE *********************
- If SETUP.INI is absent, then the following defaults
- are set. No error is triggered. Note that ForceCompatible
- will make GB SETUP act like MS SETUP always did..
-
- ForceCompatible=yes
- AlwaysOverwrite=yes
- Quick=yes
- Caption=SETUP V1.00
- Message=Please wait. Initialising...
- SETUP1.EXE=SETUP1.EXE
- WindowWidth=300
- WindowHeight=200
- DateFile=GBSETUP.DAT
- OnlyPassDrive=no
- ***************************************************
-
- KEYWORDS
- ========
- ForceCompatible=
- If yes then all additional features of GBSETUP are turned off,
- and GB SETUP mimics MS SETUP.
- The default of =no is optimum for normal use.
-
- AlwaysOverwrite=
- If no, then if the target file is present on the users machine,
- then it is not recopied. This includes VBRUN300.DLL
- N.B. DDEML.DLL and VER.DLL are never overwritten if they are in use.
- The SETUP1.EXE file is always copied over.
- The default of =no is the optimum for normal use.
-
- Quick=
- If no, then messages are displayed for a minimum of one second.
- For developer testing, =yes is best.
-
- Caption=
- This is displayed on the title bar of SETUP.
- If =n0 then the caption is 'SETUP V1.00'
-
- Message=
- This is displayed in the window when SETUP starts.
- If =no then the default is 'Please wait. Initialising...'
-
- SETUP1.EXE=
- This is the program that SETUP chains to, passing the driveletter
- as a parameter. You may want to change the name of yout VB program.
- If you rename it using DOS, then it is expanded to \SYSTEM\SETUP1.EXE.
- The default is =SETUP.EXE
-
- WindowWidth=
- WindowHeight=
- This is expressed in pixels.
- The default is Width=300, Height=200
-
- Datefile=
- SETUP creates a small ASCII file on the users \SYSTEM directory.
- It is 8 characters long.
- Characters 1 and 2 (range 01-99) is an installcounter. Each time
- the user runs SETUP, it is incremented by 1.
- Characters 3,4,5,6,7 and 8 are the users system date in the
- format YYMMDD (ie. 950817 = 17th August 1995)
- When the installcounter is incremented, this date is untouched.
- Your VB Setup program can therefore use this DATEFILE to gain
- information about:
- 1) When was the original (first) installation?
- 2) How many times has it been re-installed?
- The default is 'GBSETUP.DAT'
-
- OnlyPassDrive=
- If you want your installer ONLY to run from the root drive (ie. floppy disk)
- then set this to yes.
- The default is =no
-
- REVISION HISTORY
- ================
- 08/08/95 Birth/Creation
- 08/08/95 First public release.
- 15/08/95 Bugfix. Current Directory problem fixed.
- 16/08/95 New keywords added.
- 17/08/95 Bugfix. SETUP.LST read problem fixed.
- 25/08/95 Bugfix. SETUP1 now copied to \WINDOWS. OnlyPassDrive= keyword added.
-
- ================
- Gordon Bamber
- 25th August 1995