Chapter I: INTRODUCTION
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5: Windows Installation |
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Electric runs under Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0.
The system compiles with Visual C++ 5.0 or later
(Visual C++ 6.0 project files are included).
The Electric distribution is a single file in UNIX "tar" format,
GNU-zipped.
This can be extracted by a number of programs, including "WinZip"
(see http://www.gzip.org for
more information).
To install Electric, follow this procedure:
- Extract the contents of the "tar" file.
When using WinZip, make sure that the "TAR File Smart CR/LF Conversion"
box is checked in the "Configuration..." dialog of the "Options" menu.
Once extracted, you will have a top-level directory called
electric-VERSION with four subdirectories:
src, lib, examples, and html.
- There are a number of binary-format files that have been text-encoded
into the file \src\graph\graphpc.uue.
Use "WinZip" to extract the files into the same directory (there should be
5 cursor files that end in .cur and
2 icon files that end in .ico).
- Run Visual C++ and open the workspace file Electric.dsw
(both it and the associated file Electric.dsp are in the top level,
alongside the src directory).
If you have trouble with these files (or are using Visual C++ 5.0), use the MAKE file
Electric.mak.
Compile Electric.
This will create a new directory in the top level called
Debug, which will contain all of the object files.
- Inside of the Debug directory, you will find the executable file
Electric.
Move this file out of the Debug directory and place it
in the top-level directory.
Double-click the Electric executable to run the system.
Here are some detail on the Electric distribution:
- Since the language extension is not distributed as part of the GNU download,
users who wish to add this facility must acquire the sources
separately.
Use the same procedure to extract the language extension file (which will also
be a GNU-zipped tar file).
Extract it into the same location as the main source distribution and it will
add the necessary files to the source tree.
Then use the file ElectricLang.dsw to build Electric with the language extension.
The resulting executable will be in the DebugLang directory.
- Electric must run on a display that is set to "65536 Colors" or
"True Color".
Anything less will cause the colors to appear wrong.
- The src directory contains the source code.
It is hierarchically organized by function.
- The html directory contains one subdirectory, manual, which is
this manual in HTML format.
To see the document, point your browser to the file index.html
inside of the manual directory.
- Installation of Electric requires some care.
Although Electric will run properly from the directory where it was built,
you cannot move the executable to a different location and expect it to work.
This is because Electric makes use of a collection of support files.
The main support file is called cadrc.
In addition, Electric needs to find the lib and html directories.
If these support files cannot be found, Electric will not be able to initialize
its graphical user interface (just type "-quit" to exit the program if this happens).
It is sufficient to move the support files, along with the executable,
to a public location.
Then make a shortcut to the executable and place that anywhere you like.
When the shortcut is run, the directory with the executable will become the
current directory, and all of the needed support files will be found.
- The examples directory has some demo files.