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Our work with Peter begins by installing the program. You will need the setup CD and the license floppy disk, computer with a Pentium processor (or at least 486), floppy disk drive and CD-ROM drive, and with Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000. There should be about 500 MB of available hard disk space, but as few as 10 MB will be enough for minimal setup.
First, insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive. After a while, you will see the setup program window. If this window does not appear, the CD AutoPlay feature is probably disabled, and you will have to start the setup program manually: Click Start / Run / Browse, locate the SETUP.EXE program on your CD, and click OK.
The setup program window contains four choices. The first choice installs the Peter application, the second one adds or removes installed components, the third one uninstalls the Peter application, and the last choice quits the setup program without applying any changes.
Click the first choice, Install. The setup program prompts you to insert the license floppy disk. Insert your license floppy disk into the drive, and then click the Next button. Wait a little while the setup program reads all the necessary data from the disk. After that, the License Agreement window appears. Read this agreement carefully, and then accept its conditions by clicking the I Agree button.
When you accept the License Agreement, a window containing the installation choices will be displayed. Your license data are displayed in the upper right corner. Make sure that these data are correct and complete. The upper left pane contains check boxes that specify the components of the Peter application you want to install. To the right of the check boxes, the size of the components is displayed. Select the appropriate check boxes for the components you want to install.
The most important check box is the first one, which represents the Peter application main program. This check box should always be selected. The second check box installs the sample programs created in Peter. The sample programs are a good beginning for creating your own programs, and so it is recommended to keep it selected as well. The remaining check boxes install libraries containing images, sounds, sprites, and other elements. These libraries are not required for the operation of the Peter application itself. You can select them as you wish, depending for example on the amount of available hard disk space.
The amount of free space required on the target disk is displayed in the middle right part of the window. The bottom part shows the name of the target folder, into which Peter will be installed. You can change the folder by clicking the Browse button. When you are ready, click Finish to start the setup process.
The Peter application may be used by several independent users. Multi-user environment is achieved by separating the Peter application folder from the individual users' data folders. Each user has their own working space, in which they can change both sample and their own programs and libraries, without any effect on the other users' programs and libraries.
On the Windows desktop, right-click Peter's icon, and then click Properties. The properties dialog shows two paths. The first path is labeled Target, and it represents the path to the main program of the Peter application. Typically, this will be "C:\Program Files\Peter\Peter.exe". This path will be the same for all users. The second path is called Start In, and it represents the path to the user's working folder. This is usually C:\My Documents\Peter (according to Windows settings). Each user has his or her separate working folder.
If you want to create a Peter startup icon for a new user, you should first create the user's working folder by using e.g. Windows Explorer. Browse to the users' common working folder (typically C:\My Documents), and create a new folder by choosing File / New / Folder. Then, right-click the Peter application icon, drag it on the desktop, and click Copy Here to create its copy. Right-click the new icon and display its properties. Modify the Start In path to represent the path to the new user's working folder. You can also (using the right mouse button again) rename the new icon, and everything is ready for the new user.
When installing into a networking environment (e.g. in a school class), install Peter on the network server by the same procedure as with a standalone computer. The folder with the Peter application may be set as Read-only after setup, as no additional write operations will be performed in it.
When Peter is installed, create Peter's working folder for saving user files on the system administrator's workstation (e.g. H:\My Documents\Peter). Prepare a startup icon whose Target path will refer to the Peter application's main program (Peter.exe), and whose Start In path will refer to Peter's working folder. Create working folders for the remaining workstations in the network, and copy the startup icon on their desktops.
Peter, just like other 32-bit applications, supports long file names with extended characters. In Novell networks, you can enable long file names by using the following commands:
1. On the server, type "load
os2",
2. On the server, type "add name space os2 to
volume1", where volume1 is the name of the
volume where you install long file names support,
3. Add the "load os2" command into STARTUP.NCF.
In some versions of Novell networks, it is impossible to run programs with extended characters in their names (not only from Peter, but also from Explorer), although all the remaining file operations work fine. In such cases, you will have to avoid using extended characters in program names, or upgrade the network software.
When there is not enough disk space, you may install only some of Peter's components. You can add or remove the individual components that will be installed by clicking Add/Remove in the setup program. After you insert the license disk and the license data are loaded, the same selection window appears as when you perform installation, but now you cannot change the target folder. Blue check boxes indicate the components already installed. You can change what components will be installed by selecting and unselecting the appropriate check boxes. Click Finish to begin reinstallation.
You can add or remove files from the sample library as needed. When you uninstall a library, the setup program removes only the original, unchanged files. When you add files, they will overwrite files with the same name, regardless of the date, time and size of the files.
When you run Peter from the Windows Start menu, you can make direct changes to the sample library. In such cases, the sample folders become working folders at the same time. You may also use the Peter with Sample Library Modification command in the Peter x.xx menu.
You can uninstall Peter by running the setup program from the setup CD-ROM and clicking Uninstall. Another possibility is launching the uninstaller through Windows Add/Remove Programs control panel or by clicking Start / Peter x.xx / Uninstall.
Uninstalling deletes all unchanged sample programs and libraries and Peter's program files. Uninstalling does not delete users' working folders. If needed, you can delete these folders manually, e.g. in Windows Explorer.
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