Chapter I: INTRODUCTION
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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++ 5.0 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, 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:
- 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.
- Electric makes use of an initialization file (cadrc) and a
library directory (lib) with other necessary files.
The file cadrc can be located in the same place as
the Electric executable or in
the library directory.
If the file cadrc cannot be found, Electric will have
no graphical user interface and will function only in its native command-line mode
(just close the window to kill it).
Therefore, if you move the cadrc file,
you must change the #define of "LIBDIR" in the source file
src\include\config.h to tell Electric where to find it.
If you wish to move the library directory, you must edit
the cadrc file and correct the "library default-path" command
(this command overrides the "LIBDIR" define).
When Electric is being used in a shared environment,
the lib directory should be in a shared location which is
coded into the "LIBDIR" define, and
the cadrc file should be inside of this directory.
You can then remove the "library default-path" command from the cadrc
file, or set it to the current location.
- The examples directory has some demo files.