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PRELUDE.DOC
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1994-02-19
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PRELUDE 1.0 -- UNIVERSAL INSTALLATION UTILITY -- SICHEMSOFT -- NETHERLANDS
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INTRO
PRELUDE is a simple but good looking generic installation utility. It gives
your users a professional first impression of your products. You build your
distribution disks as if you were using an old fashioned install.bat file.
You create a simple installation script, copy that and install.exe to the
first disk and presto. Key features of PRELUDE are:
- DOS text version, DOS graphics version and Windows version of install.exe
- professional looking installation screens in graphics or text mode
- (human) language independent !!!
- checks available memory, disk space, graphics adapter
- warns against overwrite of existing directories
- supports up to 6 different destination directories
- allows users to select a destination other than your default
- prompts for correct disk and refuses wrong one
- displays text files (e.g. read.me) if desired
- runs any program as a daughter process (e.g. self extracting files)
- allows users to abort the installation at any time
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INSTALLATION
Copy all files to a temporary directory, make this the current directory and
type INSTALL to make PRELUDE install itself. This is an example installation.
You will be asked if you want to install LINGUA as well. You need this for
creating language independent installations. After installation you can remove
the temporary directory. Do NOT use the temporary directory as the directory
to install PRELUDE in.
The programs should run on any IBM-PC compatible computer with at least 512KB
memory and running under DOS 3.x or later. For the DOS graphics version
an EGA, VGA or Hercules adapter is required. If such an adapter is not found,
the installation program uses text mode. A mouse is recommended but not
required.
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SHAREWARE NOTICE
The PRELUDE package is provided as is. There are no warranties expressed or
implied. PRELUDE is distributed as shareware. You may use it without charge
on a trial basis to determine its suitability for you. If you intend to use
it for the distribution of your own software, you must purchase a registered
copy for $50. A registered copy has no shareware message but a welcoming
message according to your wishes. For registration print the file REGISTER.TXT
and send it with payment to:
SichemSoft VoF
Roghorst 160
6708 KS Wageningen
Netherlands
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COPYRIGHTS
PRELUDE is (C) SichemSoft, Roghorst 160, 6708 KS Wageningen, Netherlands.
PRELUDE was written in Borland C++ 3.1 and uses Zinc Application Framework
3.6 for it's GUI. PRELUDE uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to minimize
memory use while running other programs. The executables were compressed
using LZEXE of Fabrice Bellard.
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FILES
PRELUDE.DOC Documentation
REGISTER.TXT Registration form
PRELUDE.EXE Installation script encoding utility
TESTFIL.EXE Test program to check encoded script
INSTALL.EXE Installation program - DOS graphics version
TINSTALL.EXE Installation program - DOS text version
WINSTALL.EXE Installation program - Windows 3.1 version
INSTALL.SCR Install script example (text file)
INSTALL.FIL Install script example (binary file)
INSTALL.TXT Install's own dialog text (text file)
INSTALL.ETF Install's own dialog text (binary file)
OEM2ISO.EXE Text conversion utility
LINGUA13.EXE Self extracting international language support package
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USAGE
Using any ascii text editor, create an installation script according to the
syntax described below. Call this INSTALL.SCR. Then run PRELUDE (with no
parameters). If all goes well a binary encoded file INSTALL.FIL is created.
Copy this, plus one of the ?INSTALL.EXE's to the first floppy. Also, copy
INSTALL.ETF to this floppy. This contains all INSTALL's own dialog text
and was generated from INSTALL.TXT with our utility LINGUA (see below under
International Language Support). You can choose from INSTALL.EXE (the DOS
graphics version), TINSTALL.EXE (the DOS text version), and WINSTALL.EXE
(the Windows 3.1 version). Be sure to rename your choice to INSTALL.EXE
on the floppy if necessary. You may use the provided INSTALL.SCR as a
template for your own scripts.
NOTE: At present the PRELUDE package only takes care of the installation
part, not of the diskette preparation part. We use Opticopy for this.
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INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT
The INSTALL.ETF file was created from INSTALL.TXT with LINGUA. The current
version of this package is included with PRELUDE. See LINGUA.DOC for details.
You can translate INSTALL.TXT to your language of choice and put the resulting
INSTALL.ETF on your first disk. Now INSTALL speaks that language. If this
language uses diacritical characters (like â or é) you must first convert your
INSTALL.TXT with OEM2ISO because INSTALL does not use the IBM character set
but the ISO 8859 set. This allows for one INSTALL.FIL that can be used by
both the Windows and the DOS version.
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SCRIPT SYNTAX
While writing an installation script the following rules must be observed:
- A script file may contain a maximum number of 200 commands
- Comment lines must start with * on the first position
- Lines should be no more than 250 characters long
- Labels must start with : on the first position and consist of one word
Startup commands
----------------
PACKAGE name
This command defines the name of the package that is about to be
installed. This name will be displayed in the title bar of the main window
and in various dialogs and should not be too long. This command is required
and must be the first command in the script. Examples:
PACKAGE Lingua
PACKAGE Universal Puchcard System 17.6
MEMORY conventional [extended]
If you use this command, it will be verified if the target computer has enough
memory to execute your program(s). If the available memory is not sufficient,
a warning message is displayed. The user can then choose to abort or continue.
The numbers in the MEMORY command for conventional and, optionally, extended
memory must be given in kilobytes. Examples:
MEMORY 384
MEMORY 512 2048
Note 1: the Windows version ignores the MEMORY command.
Note 2: the DOS version determines if the package is installed on a network
drive. If so, the MEMORY command is ignored.
VIDEO [ HERCULES and/or CGA and/or EGA and/or VGA ]
The VIDEO command verifies that the target machine has the right kind of video
adapter. In the list you may use either or all of the following: HERCULES,
CGA, EGA, VGA. If one of the adapters in the list is not found, a warning
message is issued. Examples:
VIDEO EGA HERCULES
VIDEO VGA
Note 1: the Windows version ignores the VIDEO command.
Note 2: the DOS version determines if the package is installed on a network
drive. If so, the VIDEO command is ignored.
NETWORK
To notify INSTALL that this will be a network installation and that VIDEO
and MEMORY commands should be ignored. A warning message is issued if no
NETBIOS is detected.
DESTINATION mnemonic path space name
The DESTINATION command lets you define what default destination directory
should be displayed in the field(s) that the user can edit if he/she so wishes
before the installation is started. A maximum of 6 DESTINATION commands is
allowed. The mnemonic parameter serves as a placeholder for the directories
that the user chooses