IPAD  Copyright (C) 1997  Sergio Masci, all rights reserved.

Email: ipad@titan.demon.co.uk

Primary distribution site for IPAD:
       http://www.demon.co.uk/titan


TERMS AND CONDITIONS
====================

THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND THEIR AGENTS PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS"
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE
DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR THEIR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU
FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM
(INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF
THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.


This Beta version of IPAD will expire on the 28-Feb-1998.

In situations where you are relient on a particular version of IPAD,
lifeboat strings can be applied that will enable IPAD to work past its
expiry date.


TARGET PLATFORMS
================

The Solaris version of IPAD has only successfully been run on SPARC
Solaris version 2.5 under X11 R6.3.

The Linux version of IPAD has only successfully been run on Linux 2.0.x.
It is provided as two seperate ELF executables, one being the SVGALIB
exacutable and the other being the X11 R6.3 executable. The SVGALIB
executable will only run on machines that have an SVGA card that is
supported by SVGALIB 1.2.10. If in doubt, try the demos that come with
the SVGALIB package. Simply switching between virtual consoles proves
nothing. The X11 R6.3 executable will only run on machines that have X11
R6.3 running on them. They may or may not run on Linux 2.1.x. Should you
be in the situation where you are using an incompatible version of
Linux, SVGALIB or X11 and you feel uneasy about upgrading just to
checkout a new peice of software, consider running IPAD under MSDOS. The
look and feel is identical and the functionality is 99.9% the same. The
SVGALIB version of IPAD requires less processing power than the X11
version. So if you are using a slow machine, consider using the SVGALIB
version in preference to the X11 version.

The MSDOS version of IPAD has only successfully been run on MSDOS
version 6.2 and full screen DOS sessions on Win95. It may or may not
run on other versions of MSDOS or DRDOS.

The OS/2 version of IPAD has only successfully been run on MSDOS
version 6.2 and full screen DOS sessions of OS/2 Warp, Windows 95,
Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 3.1. It may or may not run on other
versions of MSDOS, OS/2 or MS Windows.

Beware, the MSDOS version of IPAD will not run on Windows 3.1,
Windows 95, OS/2, or NT. The OS/2 / MS Windows version of IPAD runs
slightly slower than the MSDOS version. The difference in speed is not
noticeable on a fast machine (Pentium 90+).


MINIMUM SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
============================

The minimum recommended system configuration, is a 486 33MHz with
8MB of RAM and ISA SVGA graphics card running on Linux or MSDOS.
IPAD will use virtual memory (if you let it) even when run from
MSDOS. So you can get by with only 4MB of RAM but 8MB is
recommended.

The minimum recommended system configuration for the X11 version, is a
Pentium 90MHz with 16MB of RAM running both client and server on the
same machine.


GETTING STARTED
===============

(MSDOS, OS2, Windows 95/NT/3.1x)
=================================

If you get a problem starting IPAD from MSDOS that indicates that it
cannot find a VESA BIOS or that it cannot set the required VESA mode
or that it cannot set the number of pixels to 1024, you should try
installing a VESA TSR such as univbe (held in the package
sdd53a-d.zip). Beware, while some VESA TSRs fix problems, they can
also introduce others. So try to use IPAD without the VESA TSR
first. You may have to change the screen resolution if you cannot
get IPAD to use the screen at all. Try changing the resolution
(which is currently set to 800x600) to 1024x764. This is done by
copying the file named 1024x768 to the file called resol.ipd, or you
could try changing the resolution to 640x480, by copying the file
named 640x480 to the file called resol.ipd

NOTE:	IPAD is known not to work on the Matrox range of video
	cards in 800x600 resolution, it does however work on these
	video cards in 640x480 and 1024x768 resolutions. This will
	be corrected as soon a time permits.


(X11 R6.3)
==========

The resolution is set using resol.ipd (see above). IPAD should be
started from an Xterm using the command:
	"ipad -n=machine_ip_address:0.0"
where the machine_ip_address is typicaly just the name of your machine.
e.g.	"ipad -n=thor:0.0"


Once you have successfully started IPAD you will be presented with a
copyright dialog in the centre of the screen. Move the mouse to the
OK button and press the left mouse button. The dialog will disappear
to be replaced with a menu button in the top right hand corner and a
large grey area at the bottom of the screen. If you do not see the
menu button, your monitor needs adjusting to bring the menu button
onto the screen.

Move the mouse onto the menu button and you will see that it becomes
highlighted. If you have moved the mouse onto the inset arrow you will
see a sub-menu drop down.

Select the 'open draw window' option and the draw window will appear
on the screen. You are now ready to start


TROUBLE SHOOTING
================

If you have problems starting IPAD, or it stops suddenly for no apparent
reason, check the file 'err_log'. This contains diagnostic information
which may help you resolve your problems, and it will certainly help me
if you should need assistance from me.


GENERAL INFORMATION
===================

IPAD is optimised for integer arithmetic and so benefits little from
a fast floating point co-processor. Even if you happen to have a
machine that has a floating point unit that is 100 times faster than
that of a Pentium Pro 200, chances are that the integer unit will
still be faster. IPAD, run on a Cyrix Pentium class processor,
should perform better than on an Intel Pentium processor of the same
clock speed. IPAD will currently not benefit from graphics
co-processors that provide hardware drawing functions, but does
benefit from cards that have a high bandwidth interface such as VLB
or PCI.

IPAD can read native PNG format files, all other graphic file
formats are currently only read via filters. This is primarily to
remove copyright and licensing restrictions imposed by various
formats such as GIF and to allow additional file formats to be
supported without needing to upgrade to new versions of IPAD. Only
the Linux and Solaris versions of IPAD are currently able to use
these filters.

IPAD can currently print directly to printers supporting HP PCL5 (or
higher), EPSON ESC-P2, PostScript (level 2 or higher) and virtual
PNG or PPM printers. One HP500C driver is provided. This driver will
produce standard PCL5 encoded data and will drive most HP Deskjet
(laser) and Inkjet printers provided they understand PLC5 (some
older HP printers use PCL4). Two Epson drivers are provided. The
LQ570 driver should be usable on any 24 pin Epson supporting ESC-P2
(which is most of them). The Stylus 400 driver will produce standard
ESC-P2 encoded data and will drive most EPSON laser and inkjet
printers. Most other printer manufacturers produce printers which
support either PCL, ESC-P2 or PostScript. IPAD can print in colour
where the printer has colour capabilities (e.g. the HP500C and
Stylus 400) and can print in grey scale where the printer has only
black ink (e.g. laser printers).

The virtual PNG and PPM printer drivers allow drawings and bit
mapped images to be printed to files and either be displayed
directly on a screen by some other program, or translated to some
other printer format by using image converter software. IPAD is thus
able to produce images in GIF, JPG and BMP formats by using PPM to
GIF, PPM to JPG or PPM to BMP converters, or PNG to GIF, PNG to JPG
or PNG to BPM converters. In the near future IPAD will be able to
output directly to such converters to produce the output in the
required format without needing to go through intermediate files.

IPAD will be available in four flavours: LITE, STANDARD, EXTENDED
and PRO. The LITE version will be the sampler. You get a copy in
every box of breakfast cereal. This will be a restricted version
with nag screen, limits on the number of objects you can have on
screen at any one time and nag stamp on printed output. The LITE
version will also VERY SLOWLY degrade groups so that after a dozen
or so edit operations (on a particular group) the group will not
look as good as when it was first created. The STANDARD version will
be the registered paid for LITE version with no nags, no
restrictions as to the number of objects on screen at any time and
the group degradation removed. The LITE and STANDARD versions are
drawing packages. 

The EXTENDED and PRO versions will support special types of template
objects and will allow additional properties and logic to be
assigned to connection points and will have the ability to import
and export using a very sophisticated proprietary file format, which
will allow it to be used as a front end to third party products.

The PRO version will be able to generate the properties, logic and
templates. Whereas the EXTENDED version will only be able to use
them. This will allow developers to buy a PRO version for
development, and ship the EXTENDED version with their product.

Although BETA release versions of IPAD allow import and export, the
file format has not yet been frozen so do not rely on it.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
================

Thanks to Angelo Masci for his many contributions and constant
encouragement.

The version of CWSDPMI supplied with IPAD is Copyright
Charles W Sandmann (sandmann@clio.rice.edu)
                    1206 Braelinn, Sugar Land, TX 77479

The version of GO32-V2 supplied with IPAD is Copyright
DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com>

IPAD uses the freely available PNG library, libpng, which
is Copyright (c) 1995 Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.

IPAD uses the freely available compression library, zlib,
which is Copyright (C) 1995 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

IPAD uses the freely available graphics interchange library,
netpbm, the pbm, pgm, ppm and pnm components are
Copyright (C) 1988, 1991 by Jef Poskanzer.
with support for BDF fonts Copyright 1993 by George Phillips.

All other Copyrights and Trademarks are acknowledged. 

