Title : How to use this Archive | Electronic Arcs By : Brad Grier | Volume 1, Number 3 Filename : HowTo | (c) 1987, Brad Grier & Authors --------------------------------------------------------------------- How to use programs distributed with this Archive... Since you are reading this successfully, you already know about Archives, and De-Archiving files. What makes up an Issue of Electronic Arcs... The Driver Program. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The driver program, titled EAmag,loads and displays all text. This driver program will be available in a separate Archive, and not normally bundled with the magazine archive. The Driver program only has to be downloaded once, unless you receive an error message stating that the driver software has recently been upgraded, in which case you should download the new driver software. It will have new features, and capabilities not in the old version. The version of the Driver is printed in the Title window at the bottom of the screen, next to the Electronic Arcs title. Version 1.0 and above support IFF format graphic files. Often a graphic file will be in a menu with other text files, and you won't know it's a graphic file till you try and display it, or it has a (pic) description beside the menu item. To view a text file, you just select the menu item you wish to read. That article will be loaded and displayed a page at a time. To advance to the next page, either hit any key (except 'Q' which quits reading that article) or push the left mouse button. To view a IFF/ILBM picture file, just select the menu item (pic) with the mouse, and the picture will load from the current directory and be displayed. When you are done, just press any key and you will be returned to the main screen. It Seems that there are at least 2 versions of the Amiga 1000 graphics system in these computers. Older Amiga's may have problems with the background logo, and the bottom screen banner information. If this is the case with your Amiga, then despair not! There is a Fix. When invoking EAMAG, just specify the flag NL when running the file. 1>RUN EAMAG -NL | | | |_ Carriage return | | |_____ NO LOGO | |__________ Electronic Arcs Driver Program |_______________ To run from the CLI You may have noticed that this version is NOT executable from the Workbench. This will be changed in the near future. The Magazine Archive. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Magazine Archive contains Text and Graphic files. The text files will contain Articles, Letters, Editorials, or support information for the Driver Program. In addition to reading them from the Menu of the Driver Program, these files can be displayed by using any normal text editor, or "Type"ing them from the CLI. The Archive may also contain IFF or ILBM Graphic files relating to an article or letter, or simply some art-work for your entertainment. Each article's file is named and numbered by which menu it appears under. If you have more than one issue of Electronic Arcs, (Thank you!) I suggest that you keep each issue in it's own directory, and keep the driver program, EAMAG, in the ROOT directory. You can then open any issue you want by first changing the Current Directory to the Issue that you want, and then calling the EAMAG program from the root directory. Executable Programs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each Program should have an accompanying Article, which will describe the program, and how to use it. If the article deals with some specific aspect of the program, then there should be a. doc file to describe the instructions for that specific program. Some programs in this magazine will be self-documenting, or they will display all the necessary instructions within the program itself. *** Important Note *** As of Electronic Arcs Volume 1, Number 2, The Public domain Executable programs will be included in a separate Archive. So for a Complete issue of Electronic Arcs...you will need the following files: EA05.arc ---The archive contains the driver program EAmag. EApd?-?.arc ---Contains Public Domain Software for vol ? and issue ? EAtxt?-?.arc ---Contains Text and menu files for vol ? and issue ?. You do not have to download the EApd?-?.arc file to be able to read the text files...but you must take the other two. Having the PD progs in a separate archive will allow the readers to decide (especially if they are getting this from a long-distance bbs or Time-Sharing system) if the PD progs are interesting or not, by reading about them in the text files. *** End of important note *** Other Information. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This text file may be changed or updated as newer versions of the Driver software come into existence, but it will be included in every issue of the magazine erased to the public. If you have any comments, please send them to me care of the address listed in the ABOUT section of the magazine. I would like to thank Chris Saulit for taking the awfully large True BASIC code and finessing it (while converting to 'C') to the point where I can be truly proud to release this magazine to the public.