

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.

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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.
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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. 

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