Installation(1)

INSTALLATION

This page describes introductory notes for the installation and setup of MicroEmacs '99.

Quick Install

The quickest way to install MicroEmacs without reading the rest of this document is to:-

• Create a new directory i.e. me or microemacs.
• Unpack the macros archive into this directory.
• Unpack any spelling dictionaries into this directory.
• Unpack the executable into this directory.
• Run me from this directory.

On starting, use the mouse and configure the user from the menu bar:-

Help->User Setup 

This allows the user and screen settings to be altered. On becoming more accustomed to the editor then a fuller installation may be performed.

Getting Help


See Contact Information for full contact information. A mail archive exists at:-

http://www.egroups.com/list/jasspa/ 

If you wish to participate in the list then you must first register by sending an empty mail message body to:-

jasspa-subscribe@egroups.com 

You will then be able to mail any questions into the group. Registration is required in order to prevent spam mailings from entering into the lists.

Distribution

MicroEmacs is distributed in the following files:-

Complete Installations


The Microsoft '95/'98/NT platforms may be installed using the Install Shield installation utility and do not require the components specified in later sections. me32inst.zip - '95/'98/NT Install Shield Installation

Executable Source Code


The source code release for MicroEmacs '99 contains makefiles (*.mak) for all supported platforms. Microsoft '95/'98/NT makefiles contain options at the top of the makefile to enable/disable console and URL support. mesrc.zip - Source code for all platforms
mesrc.tar.gz - Source code

Executable Images


medos.zip - DOS Executable
mewin32.zip - Windows 32' (95/98/NT) Executable
mewin32s.zip - Windows win32s (Win3.1/3.11) Executable
meirix5.gz - Silicon Graphics Irix 5 Executable
meirix6.gz - Silicon Graphics Irix 6 Executable
meaix34.gz - IBM's AIX 3.4 Executable
mehpux9.gz - Hewlett Packard HP-UX 9 Executable
mehpux10.gz - Hewlett Packard HP-UX 10 Executable
mesunos55.gz - Sun OS 5.5 Executable
mesunos56.gz - Sun OS 5.5 Executable
mesolx86.gz - Sun Solaris 2.6 Intel Platform Executable
melinux20.gz - Linux 2.0.0 Executable
mefreebsd.gz - Free BSD Executable

Help File Images (all platforms)


mewinhlp.zip - Windows Help file
mehtm.zip  - HTML Help files for 8.3 file systems (.htm)
mehtml.tar.gz - HTML Help files (.html)

Macro File Images (all platforms)


memacros.zip - Macro files
memacros.tar.gz - Macro files

Spelling Dictionaries (all platforms)


One of the following base dictionaries is required for spelling. The extended dictionaries require the base dictionary and are recommended for a more comprehensive spelling list. Other languages are supported.

american.zip - American rules and base dictionary.
americax.zip - American extended dictionary.
british.zip - British rules and base dictionary.
britishx.zip - British extended dictionary.
deutsch.zip - German rules and base dictionary.
deutschx.zip - German extended dictionary.
espanol.zip - Spanish rules and dictionary.
francais.zip - French rules and dictionary.
portuges.zip - Portuguese rules and dictionary.

american.tar.gz - American rules and base dictionary.
americax.gz - American extended dictionary.
british.tar.gz - British rules and base dictionary.
britishx.gz - British extended dictionary.
deutsch.tar.gz - German rules and base dictionary.
deutschx.gz - German extended dictionary.
espanol.tar.gz - Spanish rules and dictionary.
francais.tar.gz - French rules and dictionary.
portuges.tar.gz - Portuguese rules and dictionary.

NOTE: The binary versions of the executables held on the site include the platform name as part of the executable name i.e. me for DOS is called medos.exe. On installing the binaries onto the target machine, you should rename the executable to me or me.exe, whatever is appropriate. The ONLY exception to this rule is the Microsoft Windows executable where mewin32.exe should be renamed to me32.exe. Our reason for this naming is to allow the executables to be unpacked in the same directory and not be confused with each other.

Quick Start Guild For All Platforms

Simply create a directory, down-load the files required (see list for each platform below) and extract into this directory. From a shell or command prompt, change to the directory, making it the current one (i.e. cd to it), and run the executable. MicroEmacs '99 should open with the on-line help page visible.

On Windows based systems this can also be achieved by creating a short-cut and setting the Working Directory in Properties to this path.

To enable MicroEmacs to be run from any directory, simply include this directory in you PATH environment variable. Alternatively, copy the executable to somewhere in your PATH and set the environment variable MEPATH to point to this directory.

MicroEmacs '99 will function normally in this environment, but in multi-user environments and for up-dating purposes, it is strongly recommended that a proper installation is used, see below.

Installation

DOS

Executable:


Compiled with DJGPP V1.0

Distribution components required:


medos.zip
memacros.zip
<spelling>.zip

mewinhlp.zip if you are using windows 3.1/3.11

Recommended installed components:


4dos - Command shell (giving stderr redirection).
grep - Version of grep (djgpp recommended)
make - Version of make (djgpp recommended)
diff - Version of diff (djgpp recommended)

Installation:


Create the directory c:\me (or other location)

Unzip the MicroEmacs components into c:\me

Edit "c:\autoexec.bat" and add the following lines:-

SET MENAME=<name> 
SET PATH=%PATH%;c:\me 
SET MEPATH="c:\me" 

Reboot the system.

MicroEmacs may be run from the command line using

me 

Graphics Cards:


MicroEmacs may be configured to the text modes of your graphics card. Refer to you graphics card DOS text modes to identify the text modes supported by your monitor. The text mode number may be entered into the user monitor configuration, defined in Help->User Setup.

Running From Windows (3.x)


The DOS version of MicroEmacs may be executed from a .pif file. Use the pif editor to create a new .pif file to launch MicroEmacs. The size of the DOS window may be configured from the command line, set the terminal size using one of the following command lines:-

me -c -v$TERM=E80x50        - 80 x 50 window 
me -c -v$TERM=E80x25        - 80 x 25 window. 

We usually add the -c option so that MicroEmacs is executed with history information. This may be omitted if required.

Windows 3.1/3.11

Executable:


Compiled with Microsoft Developer 2.0

Helper DLL:


Under Win32s a helper DLL methnk16.dll is required to perform the pipe-shell-command(2) in a synchronous manner. This should be installed into the C:\WINDOWS\SHELL directory. This (rather inelegantly) gets around the problems of spawning a process under win32s due to a number of Microsoft bugs in the operating system. Note: that on a spawn operation a MS-DOS window is visible, this is due to the nature of the command shell on this platform which has a tendency to prompt the user at every opportunity, hence a certain amount of interaction (which is out of our control) is necessary.

The helper DLL is compiled with a 16-bit Windows compiler - MSVC 1.5.

Distribution components required:


mewin32s.zip
memacros.zip
mewinhlp.zip
<spelling>.zip

Recommended installed components:


4dos - command shell (giving stderr redirection)
grep - Version of grep (GNU port of grep recommended)
diff - Version of diff (GNU port of grep recommended)
make - use nmake or GNU port of make.

win32s


win32s is a requirement on this platform, typically taken from pw1118.exe which freely available on the Internet.

Installation:


This version of Windows does not have a install directory as '95/'98 and it is expected that the MS-DOS version will coexist. No Install Shield installation is provided. Install in a directory structure similar to MS-DOS. Install the helper DLL methnk16.dll in the C:\WINDOWS\SHELL directory. Create a me32.ini(8) file in the C:\WINDOWS directory to identify the location of the MicroEmacs '99 components, this much the same as the '95/'98 file, change the directory paths to suite the install base.

Support Status:


The win32s release has not been used with vengeance, although no specific problems have been reported with this release.

Windows '95/'98/NT

Executable:


Compiled with Microsoft Developer 5.0

Install Shield


An Install Shield version of MicroEmacs is available which includes all of the distribution components.

Distribution components required:


mewin32.zip
memacros.zip
<spelling>.zip
mewinhlp.zip (optional)

Recommended installed components:


4dos or 4nt - command shell
grep - Version of grep (GNU port of grep recommended)
diff - Version of diff (GNU port of grep recommended)
make - use nmake or GNU port of make.

Installation:


Create the directory "C:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs" (or other location)

Unzip the MicroEmacs components into "C:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs"

Create the file "c:\windows\me32.ini" and add the following lines:-

[Defaults] 
mepath=C:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs 
userPath=C:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs 
fontfile=dosapp.fon 

Create a short cut to MicroEmacs for the Desktop

Right click on the desk top

=> New 
=> Short 
=> Command Line: "c:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs\me.exe -c" 
=> Short Cut Name: "MicroEmacs" 

MicroEmacs may be executed from the shortcut.

Open Actions


Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT provide short cut actions, assigning an open action to a file. The short cuts may be installed from the Install Shieled installation, but may alternativelly be explictly defined by editing the registry file with regedit(1).

A file open action in the registry is bound to the file file extension, to bind a file extension .foo to the editor then the following registry entries should be defined:-

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.foo] 
"MicroEmacs_foo" 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MicroEmacs_foo\DefaultIcon] 
"C:\Program File\JASSPA\MicroEmacs\meicons,23" 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MicroEmacs_foo\Shell\open] 
"&Open" 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MicroEmacs_foo\Shell\open\command] 
"C:\Program File\JASSPA\MicroEmacs\me32.exe -o "%1"" 

In the previous exaple the DefaultIcon entry is the icon assigned to the file. This may be an icon taken from meicons.exe (in this case icon number 23), or may be some other icon. The open action in the example uses the -o option of the client-server, which loads the file into the current MicroEmacs '99 session, alternatively the -c option may be used to retain the previous context, or no option if a new session with no other files loaded is started.

A generic open for ALL files may be defined using a wildcard, this may be used to place a MicroEmacs edit entry in the right-click popup menu, as follows:-

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell] 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\MicroEmacs] 
"&MicroEmacs" 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\MicroEmacs\command] 
"C:\Program File\JASSPA\MicroEmacs\me32.exe -o "%1"" 

UNIX

Executable:


Compiled with native compilers.

Distribution Components Required:


me<unix>.gz
memacros.tar.gz
<spelling>.gz
html.tar.gz (optional)

Installation:


It is recommended that all files are placed in /usr/local, although they may be installed locally.

Unpack the executable and placed in "/usr/local/bin"

Create the new directory "/usr/local/microemacs", unpack and install the memacros.tar.gz into this directory.

For csh(1) users execute a "rehash" command and then me(1) can be executed from the command line.

By default a X-Windows terminal is displayed, ensure that $DISPLAY and $TERM are correctly configured. To execute a terminal emulation then execute me with the -n option i.e. "me  -n". Note that this is not required if you are using a vt100 emulation.

Organizing a local user profile

MicroEmacs uses local user configuration profiles to store user specific information. The user information may be stored in the MicroEmacs directory, or more typically in a users private directory. The environment variable $MENAME is typically used to determine the identity of the user.

The location of the user profile will depend upon your installation configuration.

Single Machine


For a single user machine it is typically easiest to use the installed MicroEmacs directory where user specific files are placed. This method, although not recommended, is simple as all files that are executed are in the same location. The $MEPATH is not changed.

UNIX


The UNIX environment is fairly easy and operates as most other UNIX applications. The user should create a MicroEmacs directory in their home directory for their own local configuration. Assigning a suitable name such as "microemacs", or if the file is to be hidden ".microemacs".

The $MEPATH environment variable of the user should be modified to include the users MicroEmacs path BEFORE the default macros MicroEmacs path i.e.

Ksh/Zsh:


export MEPATH=$HOME/microemacs:/usr/local/bin

Csh/Bash:


setenv MEPATH $HOME/microemacs:/usr/local/bin

Where $HOME is defined as "/usr/<name>" (typically by default).

DOS/Windows


DOS and Windows are a little more tricky as numerous directories at the root level are more than a little annoying. It is suggested that the user directory is created as a sub-directory of the MicroEmacs directory. i.e.

"c:\me\<user>" for DOS

or


"c:\Program Files\Jasspa\MicroEmacs\<user>" for Windows

The $MEPATH environment variable (see me32.ini(8) for Windows) is modified to include the user component before the MicroEmacs component where $MEPATH is defined i.e.

SET MEPATH=c:\me\<user>;c:\me 

where <user> is the user name (or $MENAME).

Alternative Directory Configurations

Numerous other configurations exist to organize the macro directories, to take the directory organization to the extreme then it is sometimes easiest to keep all of the macro components separate. An installation layout which encompasses different macro directories for:-

• User profiles - 1 per user.
• Shared company profiles - 1 per organization.
• MicroEmacs macros which are updated from time to time.

The configuration on different systems may be defined as follows:-

UNIX


The shared files are placed in /usr/local

/usr 
   \ 
  local 
     \ 
  microemacs   - Spelling + standard macros 
       \ 
     company   - Company specific files 

The user profile is stored in the users directory

/usr 
  \ 
<name> 
    \ 
 microemacs    - User specific files 

The user should configure the $MEPATH as:

MEPATH=$(HOME)/microemacs:/usr/local/microemacs/company:/usr/local/microemacs 

DOS/WINDOWS


For DOS and MS-Windows environments, bearing in mind the problem of the root directory, then it is easier to use the "me" directory as a place holder for a number of sub-directories, using a configuration such as:-

            c: 
            | 
            me      - Place holder directory 
          / | \ 
        /   |   \ 
   <name> macros company 

The user should configure the $MEPATH as:-

SET MEPATH=c:\me\<name>;c:\me\company;c:\me\macros 

User Profile Files

Files contained in the user profiles typically include:-

<name>.emf - The users start up profile.
<name>.edf - The users spelling dictionary.
<name>.erf - The users registry configuration file.

These files are established from the menu "Help->User Setup". The "Setup Path" item defines the location of the files, but must be MANUALLY included in the $MEPATH environment.

Company Profiles

Company profiles include standard files and extensions to the standard files which may be related to a company, this is typically <company>.emf where <company> is the name of the company.

The directory may also include template files etf(8) files which defines the standard header template used in the files. Files in the "company" directory would over-ride the standard template files.

The company directory should be added to the $MEPATH after the user profile and before the MicroEmacs standard macro directory.

SEE ALSO

$MENAME(5), $MEPATH(5), Company Profiles, File Hooks, File Language Templates, User Profiles.

(c) Copyright JASSPA 1999
Last Modified: 1999/12/01
Generated On: 1999/12/01