OSPlus 1.00 Readme
1st August 2000
==================

OSPlus 1.00
Copyright (c) Owen Rudge 2000


README CONTENTS
---------------

- Introduction
- Installation
- Running OSPlus
- GEM
- Sound Drivers
- Swap File Information
- Floppy Disk Version
- ViewPlus
- OSPlus Setup
- OSPlus 1.1 - Graphical Version
- Known Bugs
- File List
- Revision History
- Contact Information

Introduction
============

Thank you for downloading the release version of OSPlus, version 1.0! To use OSPlus, run the OSPLUS.EXE file from MS-DOS. OSPlus will not run from Windows 3.1 Standard Mode (it seems to run in enhanced mode). OSPlus will, however, run under Windows 9x or NT. To do this, run OSPLUSNT.EXE. OSPlus may or may not run under OS/2, but it has not been tested.

I, Owen Rudge, will not he held responsible for any loss or damages caused by the use of this software. You may not decompile, disassemble or modify OSPlus in any way. Suggestions or additions to OSPlus are welcome. E-mail me at osplus@orudge.freeuk.com.

Installation
============

To install OSPlus 1.00, extract all the files to your previous OSPlus directory (or create a new directory).

Then,

*either* type in the following commands:

CD ospluspath\SYSTEM  (replace ospluspath with your OSPlus path)
DEL VIDMODE.EXE       (only if upgrading from OSPlus Beta 1 Release 1)
DEL OPGIF.EXE	      (only if upgrading from OSPlus Beta 1 Release 1-4)
DEL CW3215.DLL        (only if it exists)
DEL OSPBETA.DLL       (only if upgrading from a beta version)
DEL OPBETA32.DLL      (only if upgrading from a beta version)
DEL ..\OPBETA32.DLL   (only if upgrading from a beta version)
DEL ..\OSPLUSNT.BIN   (only if upgrading from OSPlus Beta 1 Release 6-7)
DEL *.CHR
DEL *.BGX
OSPSETUP

*or* (if you have Windows 3.1 or higher) delete the VIDMODE.EXE, OPGIF.EXE and OSPLUSNT.BIN files, the O[S]PBETA[32].DLL files, and all the *.BGX and *.CHR files from your SYSTEM directory (if they exist) and run OPSTPWIN.EXE.

and set up your swap file, video and sound settings. If you used the first beta, you will notice that you can now disable swap file support, which is more suitable for floppy disk support.

Running OSPlus
==============

If you are using MS-DOS or Windows 9x in MS-DOS, run OSPLUS.EXE from the MS-DOS prompt. If you are running Windows NT/2000 or Windows 9x in Windows, run OSPLUSNT.EXE. You cannot run OSPlus from Windows 3.x standard mode, but it should work in enhanced mode - run OSPLUS.EXE from the MS-DOS prompt. OSPlus may not run under OS/2.

Instead of going through the Control Centre, you can quickly get into the Text Editor, File Viewer or File Browser by running the FILEVIEW.COM, TEXTEDIT.COM or DIRBROWS.COM files. Please note that to run the Directory Browser, you must specify a drive as well, for example, 'DIRBROWS C:'. There is also a new Find File tool. Just run the FINDFILE.EXE program in the SYSTEM directory and it will display an information screen on how to use it.

GEM
===

FreeGEM used to be provided with OSPlus. However, support for it has been removed (although there are still GEM items in the system menu and setup program), but if you want it, download my GEM distribution from www.owenrudge.co.uk/GEM/. It is newer, and there will be an update soon.

Sound Drivers
=============

OSPlus now has support for sound, in the form of WAVE files. There are currently three drivers:

PC Speaker
----------
This driver plays WAV files through your internal speaker. The quality isn't always very good.

Sound Blaster
-------------
This driver, which was written by Heinz Rath (see http://www.geocities.com/heinz_rath/), works on any Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster-compatible card.

Sound Blaster Pro
-----------------
The Sound Blaster Pro driver, which was also written by Heinz Rath, should work on any Sound Blaster Pro card. It doesn't work properly on my ESS AudioDrive, which is Sound Blaster Pro compatible. The problem is with the driver, as many other DOS applications with sound set to SBPro work.

Please note that the two Sound Blaster drivers are beta versions. The Sound Blaster driver is version 0.2 and the Pro driver is version 0.3. Please see Heinz Rath's web site at http://www.geocities.com/heinz_rath/.

IMPORTANT: The BLASTER variable must be set before starting OSPlus if you use the Sound Blaster drivers.

To change the sounds played, change STARTUP.WAV for your startup sound, DING.WAV for your menu item-click sound and SHUTDOWN.WAV for your exiting sound.

Soon I will get some new drivers. A patch for OSPlus will be provided. This will include a Sound Blaster 16 driver and the ability to play sounds in the background.

Swap File Information
=====================

Although the swap file frees memory, it may not be visible to MEM because OSPlus may still have some other memory allocated. However, the swap file will greatly help computers with less memory.

Floppy Disk Version
===================

OSPlus will not run properly off floppy disks any more, because of size limitations. FLOPPY.BAT is no longer supported.

ViewPlus
========

If you want to copy ViewPlus to your DOS path, or another folder, copy VIEWPLUS.EXE, 32RTM.EXE, OPKRNL32.DLL, TXTRTF32.CNV and DPMI32VM.OVL from your OSPlus SYSTEM directory. See below for a description of these files.

Also, if you want to use ViewPlus under Windows 3.x, you must make sure WINDPMI.386 in in the SYSTEM.INI file as follows:

[386Enh]
DEVICE=[ospluspath]\SYSTEM\WINDPMI.386

or ViewPlus will not load.

OSPlus Setup
============

It is recommended that you use the Windows version of OSPlus Setup where possible, since it is easier to use and more reliable. Now drawn in 3D!

OSPlus 1.1 - Graphical Version
==============================

A test program (GUITEST.EXE) has been provided that renders a small test display with some of the OSPlus 1.1 GUI functions. Instead of text check boxes and windows, there are now graphical versions. Please note that this program will not let you input anything, it is only for demonstration/testing purposes.

Known Bugs
==========

- The Write converter does not work. If you try to open a Write file in the text editor, you will see the actual file instead of the document.

- The Copy, Move, Delete and other file manipulation actions have not been added to the File Browser yet.

- OSPLUS.EXE may crash when run under Windows 3.0 (it won't crash if you run it from the Windows DOS prompt or a normal MS-DOS prompt)

- When you boot off Drive A into MS-DOS 6.x (may affect earlier versions) and run OSPlus from that drive, you may get messages that OSPlus cannot find video drivers. I don't know what causes this problem, but it does not seem to affect Windows 98 DOS (7.0) or hard disk versions.

- OSPlus may not run properly under OS/2.

- The Text Editor or File Viewer cannot show fonts, graphics or OLE objects from RTF files.

- The File Viewer shows tabs from RTF files as little symbols (usually circular ones)

If you find any new bugs, please e-mail me at orudge@freeuk.com.

File List
=========

Here is a list of most of the files in the OSPlus directory structure, and a description of what they do:

\OSPLUS
  OSPLUS.EXE			OSPlus DOS Real-mode Stub
  OSPLUSNT.EXE			OSPlus Win32 Stub
  README.TXT			OSPlus Readme

\OSPLUS\SYSTEM
  32RTM.EXE			32-bit Runtime Manager for DOS
  BGI16.DLL			Borland Graphics Interface 16-bit DLL
  BWCC.DLL			Borland Windows Custom Controls DLL
  CTL3D.DLL			3D Control DLL for Windows
  CTRLCNTR.EXE			OSPlus Control Centre
  DISK*.OSP			OSPlus Floppy Disk Support Files
  DISPIMG.OSP			OSPlus Image Displaying Module
  DISPLAY.PPR			OSPlus Display Support Module
  DPMI16BI.OVL			16-bit DPMI virtual machine support
  DPMI32VM.OVL			32-bit DPMI virtual machine support
  DRIVMAN.DLL			OSPlus Driver Manager Support DLL
  EXTENDED.PPR			OSPlus Extended Display Support Module
  OPDIRBRO.DLL			OSPlus Directory Browser Support DLL
  OPDIRBRO.EXE			OSPlus Directory Browser
  OPFILVIW.EXE			OSPlus File Viewer
  OPKERNEL.DLL			OSPlus Kernel
  OPKRNL32.DLL			OSPlus 32-bit Kernel
  OPSTPWIN.EXE			OSPlus Setup for Windows
  OPTXTEDT.EXE			OSPlus Text Editor
  OPUI.DLL			OSPlus User Interface DLL
  OSEXPAND.DLL			OSPlus File Expansion Support DLL
  OSPBETA.DLL			OSPlus Beta Support DLL
  OSPLUS.INI			OSPlus Initalisation File
  OSPLUS.L16			OSPlus 16-colour Startup Logo
  OSPLUS.L2			OSPlus 2-colour Startup logo
  OSPLUS.LGO			OSPlus 256-colour startup logo
  OSPSETUP.EXE			OSPlus Setup
  OSPSTUB.EXE			OSPlus Protected-mode stub
  RTM.EXE			Run-time manager for DOS
  SPEAKER.DLL			OSPlus PC Speaker Driver
  TESTGUI.EXE			OSPlus 1.1 GUI Tester
  TXTRTF.CNV			OSPlus RTF Converter
  TXTRTF32.CNV			OSPlus 32-bit RTF Converter
  TXTWRITE.DLL			OSPlus Write Converter
  VIEWPLUS.EXE			OSPlus ViewPlus
  WINDPMI.386			Windows 3.x DPMI Driver

\OSPLUS\SYSTEM\DRIVERS
  ATT.BGX			ATT Video Driver
  BOLD.CHR			Bold Font
  CGA.BGX			CGA Video Driver
  EGAVGA.BGX			EGA/VGA Video Driver
  HERC.BGX			Hercules Video Driver
  IBM8514.BGX			IBM 8514 Video Driver
  LITT.CHR			Small Font
  PC3270.BGX			PC 3270 Video Driver
  SANS.CHR			Sans Serif Font
  SCRI.CHR			Script Font
  VESA16.BGX			VESA Video Driver
  *.SYS				Sound Drivers

Revision History
================

VERY EARLY VERSION

15th January 2000 (or so)

- Created very basic building blocks of OSPlus

BETA 1 - RELEASE 1

12th/13th February 2000 (or so)

- Converted from Watcom C/C++ to Borland C++
- Started work on File Browser
- Started work on Text Editor
- Improved kernel and internal system (because of addition of DLL support, etc, thanks to BC PowerPack for DOS)

14th February 2000

- Started work on File Viewer

15th February 2000

- Created Control Centre
- Created Video Setup Utility

16th February 2000

- Added File Type Detection Support to File Browser

17th February 2000
- Improved File Type support and added more file types

18th February 2000
- Attempted to create Windows Write filter for Text Editor, but the filter failed (what I want to know is how could it possibly make a 75mb file (which was full of unrelated material) out of the Windows 3.1 Readme, which was 90k???)

19th February 2000

- Created Windows/MS-DOS stub, disabled Windows support
- Cut down file sizes (reduced Text Editor from 384kb to 285kb, for example - almost removing 100kb, and whole SYSTEM folder from 1.76mb to 1.46mb)
- Updated messages and About dialogs for beta one

BETA 1 - RELEASE 2

19th February 2000

- Added swap file support
- Changed VIDMODE.EXE to OSPSETUP.EXE and modified it for swap file

20th February 2000

- Added other minor improvements

BETA 1 - RELEASE 3

27th February 2000

- Added floppy disk support
- Improved video handling
- Improved other little features
- Added Windows NT/2000/9x version of loader
- Improved startup screen

28th February 2000

- Improved Win32 loader by adding DOS stub that simply runs OSPlus
- Improved more internal features

29th February 2000

- Added OS/2 version of loading stub
- Created and implemented RTF filter

BETA 1 - RELEASE 4

1st March 2000

- Added ViewPlus - quick, cut-down, 32-bit version of viewer

2nd March 2000

- Improved beta-only features
- Added Windows 3.x device driver for ViewPlus compatability

3rd March 2000

- Added Calculator accessory
- Created 'easter egg' - try pressing ALT+0 in Control Centre or clicking just to the right of the Control Centre status text...

4th March 2000

- Added RTF converter support to File Viewer. Howver, tabs and bullets and so on are represented as little symbols

- Improved and added various kernel APIs

5th March 2000

- Improved efficiency of code

12th March 2000

- Started work on major project (to remain secret for now)

13th and 14th March 2000

- Did more work on secret project

BETA 1 - RELEASE 5

14th March 2000

- Released Release 5 of OSPlus

******************************************************************
***  PLEASE SEE THE OSPLUS WEB SITE FOR MORE REVISION HISTORY  ***
*** NAVIGATE TO http://www.owenrudge.co.uk/osplus/revision.htm ***
******************************************************************

New releases of OSPlus will come out all the time. Stay up-to-date at http://www.owenrudge.co.uk/osplus/. A patch is expected soon. If you subscribe to the OSPlus Newsletter, you will hear about it the day it comes out.

================================================================================
Contact Information:

Web Site:  http://www.owenrudge.co.uk/osplus/
E-mail:    osplus@orudge.freeuk.com