Instructions for Installing the ConIX Pull-Down Menu System: ============================================================ Simply described, MENU is a user-friendly front-end to many rather complex ConIX functions. Through the use of different levels of menus and built-in help, the user will be guided through many tedious operations with great ease and reassurance. The goal of the Pull-Down Menu System is to eliminate the inconvenience of constantly having to refer to the printed documentation in order to perform every-day tasks, such as enabling the Print Spooler, or setting a Disk Variable. Additionally, the Menu System interfaces to the ConIX PROFILE start-up program to configure very basic operating parameters, such as the character sequence used to clear the console screen and the directories used when searching for a command. Previously, to set these kinds of features, the user had to manually edit his own customized PROFILE and then preprocess it with XCC and install it. This is now done by MENU automatically. The source code to the PROFILE that interacts with MENU is provided in the ConIX distribution. The preprocessed PROFILE.COM is also supplied on disk. PROFILE itself remains the same in that changing a default setting does not change the physical PROFILE.COM file. Instead, MENU manipulates an intermediate file PROFILE.SET which contains the configurations. This file is read by PROFILE when the system is first started and the commands in it executed automatically. Installing the Menu System is merely a matter of correctly positioning the files in the disk directory. MENU.COM, the program executed to change system configurations, should be accessible from all disk directories. In other words, whether you are working on drive A user area 10 or drive B user area 5 you should be able to execute this program. The way to do this is to place MENU.COM in a Search Path directory. For the moment, drive A: user area 0 is good location since the Search Path defaults to include this directory. You can change this later as you reorganize your disks to your own preference. More crucial is the positioning of the PROFILE.COM and PROFILE.SET programs. In order for these programs to be executed automatically, they must be present on the same disk and user area from which ConIX was initially loaded into your system. For example, if you load ConIX from drive A user area 0, the PROFILE files should be stored there. You will of course note that we have not supplied the PROFILE.SET file on your ConIX Distribution. The reason is that PROFILE.COM will create this file automatically the first time it is executed by ConIX. Therefore, after positioning PROFILE.COM, simply cold boot your system (hit RESET or turn it off and on) and PROFILE should sign on with a message saying it created PROFILE.SET. This message should never appear again unless the settings file was deleted somehow. Once all the files are positioned, you can load MENU and configure your system as desired. MENU itself does not give you particular steps to perform for initial system configuration. You must first read the ConIX documentation to see what you want to configure and then use MENU to do it. MENU is not an installation program, but rather a tool to be used at any time. Invoking MENU brings us into a little definition of why we call this a "Pull-Down" Menu System. The reason is the way you execute MENU is similar to many modern systems of requesting help menus. ConIX comes configured to execute the MENU program by typing a single keystroke - CTRL-B. Hitting CTRL-B at the system prompt (in the same place you'd hit CTRL-C to reset the disks) will cause MENU to be pulled-down or booted. Of course, you could manually enter M+E+N+U+, but hitting CTRL-B is more convenient. The first time you execute MENU, you will be asked for the setting of the Clear Screen Sequence, which is the ASCII control string used to clear the screen and position the cursor at the top left corner of your terminal. Since every terminal is different, MENU must ask you for your particular configuration. You do not have to set it here, but it is preferable that you do since MENU would like to clear the screen at certain points if it knew how. Consult the operation manuals for your computer/terminal if you don't know the clear screen sequence. Most terminals use either CTRL-L or CTRL-Z to clear the screen. In either case, to enter a control character, type the `^' and then the control letter rather than the actual CTRL-x sequence. When you finally enter the control sequence, have MENU set it as the startup default in PROFILE.SET. This way, the next time ConIX is loaded you won't have to reset the CLS sequence. Once all this initial toil is behind you, you will be given quick access to the main menu screen of MENU. From this menu you can select various MENU operations. All choices should be self- explanatory after reading the ConIX documentation, as MENU is just a supplement to ConIX itself. However, there are a few new additons that MENU was able to bring to your system. The first is called ConIX Auto-Load. It's described in the manual, but implemented through MENU and PROFILE. Briefly, this feature when set will cause ConIX to be loaded into memory automatically whenever your system is cold booted. This is done by placing a $$$.SUB submit file in the boot directory (usually drive A user 0, the directory which you are placed into when your system is first booted.) This SUB file contains an instruction to load ConIX, and then ConIX executes the PROFILE which resets this file to Auto-Load the next time you boot. This feature is rather convenient, except the BYE command won't work properly. Use the new replacement for BYE, BYEBYE.COM as provided. Another new MENU feature is that PROFILE can be set to execute or chain to another program each time your system is cold booted. A possible use for this is to execute a program that prints the time and date if your system has a built-in clock. The possibilities are endless, and entirely at your discretion. Currently, the startup command feature is used to print a friendly welcome message, which you receive whenever PROFILE is executed. If you are not familiar with any other terms/features handled by MENU, refer to the ConIX documentation. Be reassured, however, that MENU will not change any configurations unless you explicitly tell it to. So, you can explore all of the menu features, read the short help messages, and still not make any configuration changes. In total, the Pull-Down Menu System should prove to be a very useful and convenient tool for painlessly integrating ConIX into your system.