Cream of the Crop 1/Cream of the Crop 1.iso/EDUCATE/QMTEK601.ARJ/QWHITE.TEC

Text File | 1991-03-12 | 17KB | 375 lines

ID:QW Quarterdeck White Papers
Quarterdeck Technical Note
by Daniel Travison

  Welcome aboard the Quarterdeck White Papers! The White Papers
originated as separate documents prepared by our Technical
Support Staff.  Each one explores a single topic of importance to
users of Quarterdeck products.  They were originally written as
independent items in response to inquires by our users.  Previous
versions have been distributed by mail and FAX as one avenue of
supporting our customers.

  Over a period of time these papers tend to change; there are
additions and deletions all the time as products evolve.  Rather
than distribute a paper version, we hope you will enjoy our
diskette version, which respects the environment.

  The Quarterdeck White Papers program (QWHITE.COM) is a
DESQview-specific program for viewing these technical notes
within DESQview.  QWHITE.COM is NOT designed to replace your
favorite file viewing utilities.  It is written specifically to
provide quick access to Quarterdeck's technical notes or your
own, using an interface similar to DESQview's Open Window menu.

Using DESQview's Add A Program:

   > Place all of the technical notes and QWHITE programs in the
     same subdirectory.  This is normally done by the install
     program.

   > Select Open Window from the DESQview menu

   > Select Add A Program from the Open Window Menu.

   > Select 'Other (Add Program Not in List)' by pressing the O
     key or by clicking on the selection with the mouse.

   > Type the drive and subdirectory where QWHITE.COM is located
     in the path field.  For Example: If you have installed the
     Quarterdeck White Papers to the subdirectory QWHITE on the C
     drive, type in the following and press the enter key:

          C:\QWHITE

   > An entry, 'Quarterdeck White,' will be displayed.  Move the
     cursor to this entry, press the space bar, then press enter.
     The Quarterdeck White Papers program is configured to use QW
     as the keys to use on the open window menu.  If QW is
     already in use, you will be prompted to provide a different
     two-key combination.




Change A Program:

     Conventional Memory: 95k
     System Memory:       20k

  QWHITE.COM requires 95k to run.  If you have expanded memory
available, QWHITE.COM will automatically load the technical note
into expanded memory, reducing its conventional memory overhead
to 31k.  This allows you to set the Memory Size field in Change A
Program to 31.  QWHITE.COM will automatically notify you if it
cannot allocate enough memory to run correctly.

  QWHITE.COM also requires about 20k of System Memory to function
correctly.  System memory is a block of memory DESQview allocates
on behalf of a program that uses DESQview's Applications
Programming Interface (API).  This memory is used to store some
of the program's DESQview-specific data.  For example, when you
select HELP for the program, the help screen is stored in system
memory.

  The System Memory field is found on the Advanced Options screen
of Change A Program.  DESQview will notify you if it runs out of
system memory for the program at any point.  If you receive an
error message from DESQview indicating there is insufficient
system memory for the program, increase the System Memory field
by 1 and run the program again.  Maximum Height: QWHITE detects
the value you specify for MAXIMUM HEIGHT Change A Program to
determine the number of lines to use for the file view window.
If you run DESQview in 43,50, or 60 line mode you can have QWHITE
use the entire physical screen by specifing an appropriate
starting HEIGHT.  QWHITE also will adjust the number of lines it
uses for PgDn or PgUp when you have used DESQview's resize
option.

The Main Menu:

  The main menu contains 5 selections:

  Open Technote: Displays a menu of technical notes in a format
similar to DESQview's Open window menu.  This menu can contain up
to 256 entries.

  Search Technote: Allows searching all technotes for a character
string.

  Create New Open Menu: Tells QWHITE.COM to scan all files in the
current directory for files that contain a specific header
record.

  Help: Displays a help screen describing each menu option.

  Quit: Allows quitting the Quarterdeck White Papers.

Getting Help:
  QWHITE.COM has two methods for obtaining help.  The first uses
DESQview's help system.  Normally, when you bring up the DESQview
menu you see an option called 'Help for DESQview'.  When you
bring up the DESQview menu while QWHITE.COM is the foreground
program, you will see an entry 'Help For Program'.  You may press
the ? key at this point to activate QWHITE.COM's help.
Additionally, you can press the ? key from most screens to
display help specific to the screen.

Open Technote:

  The Open Technote menu option provides a menu of technical
notes in a manner similar to DESQview's Open Window menu.
However, instead of opening a window to run a program, this
option allows you to open a window to read a technote.

  To read a technote, highlight the entry with the mouse and
click either mouse button, -or- highlight the entry with the Up
and Down cursor keys and press the spacebar, -or- type the two
letters to the right of the entry.  If two or more entries
displayed have the same two-letter combination, you will need to
select the second, third, etc.  entry with the mouse or cursor
keys.  The PgDn and PgUp keys are used to display the entries on
other screens.

Two-key limitations:

  QWHITE.COM will only accept files that use the letters A
through Z and the numbers 0 through 9 for the two-key combination
when building the Open Technote list.  QWHITE.COM will allow you
to specify the same two-key sequences in more than one technical
note.  Although this allows some flexibility, it does provide
certain limitations for the Open Technote menu.  Here is a
description of how QWHITE.COM decides which technote to view when
you select a two-key combination that appears two or more times
in the Open Technote list:

   a) When the first key is pressed, QWHITE.COM searches its
internal list for any entries that start with the key.  If none
are found, you will hear a beep and the key will be ignored.

   b) When the second key is press QWHITE.COM starts with the
first entry on the current Open Technote screen when searching
for a matching two-key selection.

   c) If the two-key combination you type is on the screen,
QWHITE.COM will open that technote.

   d) If the two-key combination is not on the current screen,
QWHITE.COM will search to the end of the Open Technote list to
find an entry that matches.  If none is found, it will go back to
the top of the list and search from there until if finds a valid
entry and opens it.  If none are found, you will here a beep when
you press the second key.
   e) If two or more entries with the same two-key combination
appear on the same screen, QWHITE.COM will ALWAYS open the first.
You will need to select the second (third, fourth, etc) manually
by using the cursor keys to highlight the entry and pressing
enter -or- by clicking on it with the left mouse button.

Search Technotes:

 The Search Technotes option allows scanning all technical notes
on the Open Technote menu for the character string you specify.
It is not case sensitive and it will also ignore trailing spaces
when scanning the files.  The START SEARCH option ALWAYS starts
with the first entry in your Open Technote list.  After a match
has been found two additional options will be available:
"Continue Current File F2" and "Continue Next File F3".  The
"Continue Current File" option continues searching from the point
of the last successful match.  The "Continue Next File" option
skips the file where the last match occured and starts searching
the next file.  This option is useful when you have a search
string that occurs more than one time in the same file and you
want to go on to other files.  If any of the above search options
reach the last entry in the Open Technote list the Continue
Search options will be disabled.  If any of the search options
find a match, the file will be loaded into the list window.  The
page that contains the match will be displayed and the line that
contains the match will he highlighted.  If you select either of
the Continue Search options and no match is found, the last file
containing a match will be reloaded and positioned to the line
you had last viewed.

Create new Open menu: Adding new technical notes to the Open
Technote menu

  The Create new Open menu searches all files in its directory
for files that have a specific ID line at the beginning of the
file (NOTE: See Technical Note Header).  The file should be
normal ASCII files without special control codes in it.  Your
editor or word processor may refer to it as Non-Document, Text,
or ASCII files.  See the notes on Technical Note File Types.

  Your own technical notes may be added to the Open Technote menu
by inserting an ID line at the beginning of the file.  Your file
should be copied to the directory where QWHITE.COM is located and
the Create option should be selected from the menu.

  QWHITE.COM can only display 256 options on the Open Technote
menu at a time.  If you have more than 256 files you will need to
create a second subdirectory and divide your technical notes
between the two subdirectories and place a copy of QWHITE.COM in
each.  Run DESQview's Change a Program and modify the Directory
field to point to the new subdirectory and change the 'Keys to
Use on Open Menu' create a second entry for the new subdirectory.

Technical Note Header: Example: See the first line of this file
  QWHITE.COM checks the first line of a file for a specific
character sequence to identify the file as a technical note for
including in the Open Technote menu.  The first three characters
should be 'ID:' (NOTE: the single quotes should not be not
included).  The next two characters are the two keys used on the
Open Technote menu.  This is similar to DESQview's own Open
Window menu except QWHITE.COM allows duplicates.  The next
character MUST be a space.  Finally, the next 35 characters will
be used on the Open Technote menu to describe the file, much as
the Program Name field of Change A Program is used to identify
the entry on DESQview's Open Window Menu.  Also, it is not
necessary to provide all 35 characters, QWHITE.COM will
automatically stop if it finds a linefeed character.

Technical Note File Types:

  QWHITE.COM will attempt to display ANY file that contains a
valid header.  However, for best results you should use an editor
or word processor that can create normal ASCII format files.
Your editor/word processor may refer to this type of file as
NON-DOCUMENT, ASCII, TEXT, or some similar name.

  QWHITE.COM processes the following control codes, all others
are ignored and not displayed.

  LINEFEED - indicates the end of a line.  If you experience
trouble viewing your document, make sure your word processor is
creating a TEXT file instead of its own DOCUMENT file format.

  TAB - moves the 'cursor' 8 positions before printing the next
character.  This is a non-standard method of displaying the TAB
character.  It is designed to allow you to compress a file that
is 'slightly' larger than 64k by replacing sequences of 8 blanks
with a tab character.

  END OF FILE - indicates the end of the file.  If no END OF FILE
marker is found, the physical file size will be used.

  OTHERS - All other control codes will be ignored and not
displayed.

  Additionally, QWHITE.COM will display a maximum of 78
characters/line and drop any characters found after that
position.

Reading Technical Notes:

  The view mode of QWHITE.COM provides a simple interface for
reading a technical note.  The following keys are active when
reading a technote:

                P      Print

                Up     Scroll up
                Down   Scroll down

                PgUp   Previous page

                PgDn   Next page

                Home   Top of the file

                End    End of file

                Esc    Exit window

            *   F2     Continue Current File

            *   F3     Continue Next File

  * The F2 and F3 keys are invisible options.  These options are
available only when the search option displays a file.  It allows
you to select either Continue Search option without having to
return to the Search menu.

File Size limits: 64k

  QWHITE.COM will not display files that are larger than 64k.
Since the technical documents are written to answer specific
questions or solve specific problems, by nature they should be
concise and we have found they often fit on a single sheet of
paper.  The 64k limit we choose is merely a convenience from a
programming standpoint.  In actuality, 64k is generally too large
for a technical note.  See the note on TAB in the section
discussing Control Codes above for a file that exceeds 64k.

Printing:

  The List window provides the option for printing a technical
note.  This option is here for those times when you want to
quickly print the technical note you are viewing.  If you have
need for extensive printing or printer specific options, you may
want to open a separate window and perform your printing from
there.  When you select the Print field or press the letter P, a
window will pop up indicating the name of the file that will be
printed.  You may press Esc at this time to cancel the request or
Enter to start printing.  A running total of lines printed will
be displayed as the file prints.  You may press Enter or Escape
while the file is being printed to abort the print.  QWHITE.COM
will send a formfeed character at this point, or when it finishes
printing the file to the printer and returns you to the list
window.  QWHITE.COM prints to the standard printer device.  In
other words, whatever printer is currently assigned to PRN will
be used by QWHITE.COM.  This will allow your print spooler loaded
before DESQview to capture the output from the White Papers.

Printer Setup:

  QWHITE.COM does not attempt to perform any printer setup
commands.  If you wish to have the printer set up a particular
way, you have two options:

  1: Many printers provide setup capabilities from a control
panel on the printer.  If you use this method, do so before
selecting Print from the list screen.

  2: There are numerous utilities available that allow the user
to set up the printer from software.  If you have DESQview
configured to manage printer contention, you may need to run your
utility prior to running the White Papers.  If you do not have
DESQview configured to manage printer contention, you can open
another window and run the utility prior to selecting the Print
option from QWHITE.COM's list screen.

Using the Quarterdeck White Papers on a Network:

  QWHITE.COM does not make network specific calls.  If multiple
users will be running QWHITE.COM from a network drive, the
network administrator will need to establish some constraints for
file access:

  a: Generally, only ONE user should have create rights to the
file QWHITE.WPO.  All other users should have read-only access.
QWHITE.COM checks the read-only file attribute on startup and
will disable the Create New Open Menu option for users with this
file attribute set.  When a new technical note is added to the
directory QWHITE.COM is run from, the user with create rights
should choose the Create New Open Menu option to generate a new
QWHITE.WPO file.  Other users can then restart the program to see
the new Open Technote entry.

  b: Users that do not have the read-only attribute set for
QWHITE.WPO and also do NOT have create rights will be able to
select the create option.  QWHITE will scan the files and create
the Open Technote menu in memory but will generate an error
message when it attempts to write the file to disk.

  c: QWHITE.COM attempts to open technote files in read-only
mode.  If the file has been locked by a user then QWHITE.COM will
not be able to display the file.  Some word processors and file
viewing utilities disable read access to files being edited.
Technical notes are loaded completely into memory when selected
and closed immediately.  These files are not left open.

  d: QWHITE.COM loads QWHITE.WPO at startup and then closes the
file.  It does not leave the file open after it has been loaded.

       Copyright (C) 1991 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
              * * * E N D  O F  F I L E * * *