NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT DOCUMENT PROCESSING INFO: Replaces Document FYI-M-1205 TITLE: Configuring Viewmax - Advanced DOCUMENT ID: TID800075 DOCUMENT REVISION: A DATE: 18AUG94 AUTHOR: KBANTA;DPARTRID ALERT STATUS: Yellow DISTRIBUTION: Public INFORMATION TYPE: Issue README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT CLASS: Desktop Products NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: DR DOS 6.0 CATEGORY: Viewmax ABSTRACT: This document is primarily intended for advanced users who feel comfortable with changing configurations and would like a better understanding of how ViewMAX works. Novices will find the document titled, "Configuring ViewMAX - Beginning" useful in understanding what choices are available and how to do some basic trouble shooting. We do not recommend that novices try to directly edit the VIEWMAX.INI file. ----------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE VIEWMAX CONFIGURATION VIEWMAX.INI is an ASCII file that contains the configuration information that ViewMAX uses on initialization. The file includes parameters for screen colors, mouse type and port, screen driver to be used, and programs that have been configured. Also stored in this file are the User Preferences, starting directories for each window, window size, and other defaults. If a mistake occurs and ViewMAX indicates that the VIEWMAX.INI file is missing or unusable just copy the file from the ViewMAX disk or better yet make sure there is a backup copy before making any changes. The DR DOS EDITOR will automatically make a backup with the extension .BAK when a file is changed and saved. EDITING THE VIEWMAX.INI FILE The DR DOS EDITOR program or any other ASCII editor can be used to edit the VIEWMAX.INI file. Key words in the file are case sensitive. For example, if a colorset is added it must be spelled "ColorSet". The C and S must be upper case and all other letters lower case or ViewMAX will not recognize the line. Anything after a pound sign "#" is regarded as a comment and is ignored by ViewMAX. Comments will not affect SETUP's ability to read the file but beware: Changing the VIEWMAX.INI file with SETUP will remove all comments. Brackets "[ ]" indicate different paragraphs within the configuration file. It is not recommended that the order of these be changed. VIEWMAX.INI FIELDS [PREFS] A series of switches from the OPTIONS/PREFERENCES menu where 0=off and 1=on. It is not really necessary to manually edit these functions as ViewMAX has the ability to adjust these values easily. [WINDOW] This section controls the size of the two ViewMAX windows. While this may give the impression that users can configure ViewMAX windows to any size they want on the screen, there are only 3 windows sizes that can be used. It is recommended that users not adjust these except via the ViewMAX program. Also stored here are the sort order, view, path, tree and wildcards. These are also easily configurable from within ViewMAX. [PROGRAMS] This is for configured applications. The paragraph contains information about the selected icon, the name of the application, whether or not it takes parameters and what the associated document extensions are. Do not change or modify the first 6 entries that contain wildcards (*.exe,*.*, etc.). ViewMAX sets aside a 1K buffer for the storage of the information in this section. That amounts to approximately 35 configured applications. If you need to enter more applications you can remove the GEM and DR DOS applications that are preconfigured in this section. Example: a b c d e | | | | | (G:12,44) DRAW.APP *.GEM syntax: (a:b,c) d [e] a D = folder G = GEM application m = DOS, no params, needs full memory M = DOS, no params p = DOS, params, needs full memory P = DOS, params b,c internal id numbers for app and document icons; -1 means no icon d application name; ~ means not applicable e document type(s); ~ means none [COLORS] This section is the one that will probably attract the attention of most users. This is where information on colorsets are stored for the various windows and dialog boxes. Remember that CGA and Monochrome monitors will interpret the color to black and white and so little will be gained by changing palettes on these systems. MaxColors should equal the total number of ColorSets. MaxColors will determine the total number of colors listed in the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog. CurrentColor indicates the palette that is currently selected to be the startup palette. This value can be changed by both SETUP or the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog. If using the OPTIONS/COLOR SCHEMES dialog be sure to SAVE PREFERENCES to change the CurrentColor in VIEWMAX.INI. Information contained in the ColorSets indicates individual colors and fills for each component of a window. Below is a listing of the ColorSet variables and a reference of where they appear on the ViewMAX screen. Refer to page 20 of the ViewMAX User Guide for a diagram of the ViewMAX screen. ColorSet ViewMAX diagram page 20 -------- ------------------------ NAME TITLE BAR (active window) INFO INFORMATION TITLE SLCTDNAME TITLE BAR (inactive window) DESKTOP background color SLIDER SLIDER BUTTON SCROLL BAR The ColorSet called Button is also used as the color of ViewMAX dialog boxes. Each ColorSet setting has 4 numbers that are in groups of 2. The first 2 digits are colors. The next 2 numbers establish the fill by which the two colors are blended together. The following is a section of a ColorSet called Bright. The name of the ColorSet must be in quotes. The chart indicates what portions of the sequence are colors and which ones are fill patterns. Commas must be used as delimiters for proper syntax. All spaces are ignored. ColorSet3="Bright" Name= 2,0, 1,0 Info= 3,4, 2,4 ColorSet Color 1 Color 2 Fill Fill -------- ------- ------- ---- ---- Name 2, 0, 1, 0 Info 3, 4, 2, 4 There are 16 possible colors in ViewMAX. Valid numbers are 0-15 with the first 8 as high intensity colors. Color number Color ------------ ----- 0 white 1 black 2 red 3 green 4 blue 5 cyan 6 yellow 7 magenta 8 light gray 9 dark gray 10 dark red 11 dark green 12 dark blue 13 dark cyan 14 dark yellow 15 dark magenta There are a total of 39 fills that can be used with the above colors. ViewMAX will generally use the first few fills in its default ColorSets. As indicated earlier it takes a pair of numbers to define a fill. If the first digit is 0 a hollow or white fill is displayed. If the first digit is 1 then the first number is used as a solid fill. In both of the cases the second digit has no meaning. For example the fill 1,n has the same result as 2,8. If the first digit is 2, then a pattern is generated where the two colors are blended together in various proportions. There are 24 combinations possible whose values range from 2,1 to 2,24. A first digit of 3 indicates a hatch. Valid values for hatches are 3,1 to 3,12. Some of these fills can be very busy so test them first. If a color or fill is out of range ViewMAX will substitute a 0 in its place. Here are the total range of color combinations that are possible. The letter "n" indicates that any number can be used. Hollow Pattern Pattern Pattern Hatch Hatch ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ----- 0,n 2,1 2,9 2,17 3,1 3,9 2,2 2,10 2,18 3,2 3,10 Filled 2,3 2,11 2,19 3,3 3,11 1,n 2,4 2,12 2,20 3,4 3,12 2,5 2,13 2,21 3,5 2,6 2,14 2,22 3,6 2,7 2,15 2,23 3,7 2,8 2,16 2,24 3,8 [DRIVERS] This section is for screen and mouse drivers. MaxDrv indicates the total number of drivers listed. DR DOS comes with 4 screen drivers that can be used on 7 different type of video cards. CurrentDrv is the driver that ViewMAX is configured to use on startup. VidPatch sets internal switches for screen drivers. When ViewMAX is configured to use an EGA or VGA display, it automatically determines the current display type, either Monochrome or Color, EGA, or VGA. If, for any reason, a different display mode is required, ViewMAX can be forced to work with a specified display type by editing the VIDPATCH keyword with the following contents: VIDPATCH = nn where nn is replaced by a digit between 00 and 03. 00 Monochrome EGA Display 01 Color EGA Display 02 Monochrome VGA Display 03 Color VGA Display MouseType describes the type of mouse chosen in DR DOS SETUP. MousePort is the communications port to be used by the mouse. Any device that uses the Bus mouse option will have 255 as the port number. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. -----------------------------------------------------------------