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Notes for Microsoft Windows

The information in this appendix provides troubleshooting notes for installing and running Prolifics software on Microsoft Windows.

DLLs for JPEG Decoding

WECJLIB.DLL is a dynamic link library which performs JPEG decoding. There are two versions of the DLL. The version that comes with Panther can be freely distributed. An enhanced version, which has added functionality, can be ordered from Express Compression Labs (ECL).

In the version of the DLL provided with Panther, images are rendered using ordered dithering. The enhanced version of the DLL supports Hi-Color and Tru-Color display hardware. With such hardware, dithering is not necessary and the best possible picture quality can be achieved. Two-pass color quantization and improved dithering are also supported in the enhanced version, which results in better picture quality on 256-color display devices.

To order single- and multiple-user licenses for the enhanced version of the DLL, email: ecl@netcom.com, or write:

Dr. Y. Shan
P.O. Box 367
Caulfield East VIC 3145, Australia

Environment Space

If COMMAND.COM runs out of environment space when you issue a SET command, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file: 

SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:1000 /P

If COMMAND.COM resides on a different drive or directory, modify the line accordingly.

Visual C++ Floating-Point Options

For Microsoft Visual C++ distributions, all the distributed libraries created in the current version of Panther are compiled with the /FPc switch, so that you can choose at link time which floating-point library to use. You can use either the math coprocessor library (LLIBC7.LIB), the emulator library (LLIBCE.LIB, the default), or the alternate math library (LLIBCA.LIB).

Visual Workbench or Developer Studio

A single makefile is provided for creating Panther executables. It is not necessary to use Microsoft Visual C++'s Visual Workbench or Developer Studio to create new Panther executables. Instead, you can invoke the nmake utility directly from the command line to create executables. If you want to use Visual Workbench or Developer Studio, you can use the makefile as an external module.

Using Microsoft Visual C Project Files

You can use Microsoft Visual C (MSVC) project files to build and link Prolifics executables with your C and C++ modules.

Prerequisites:

Prolifics Executables that may be rebuilt:

How to Rebuild Prolifics Executables

  1. Make sure that the environment variable SMBASE points to the Prolifics distribution. This will be set by the Prolifics installer in the repository for Windows NT and in AUTOEXEC.BAT for Windows 95 and Windows 98.
  2. Create a new directory for project and change to that directory.
  3. Copy all the files from the distribution's link\msvc directory to the project directory. Copy all of the .c, .rc, .ico and .cur files from the distribution's link directory.
  4. Start the Visual C++ Developer Studio (msdev.exe).
  5. Select File=>Open Workspace. Select Prolifics.dsp in your project directory to open the workspace containing the project files.
  6. Use Project=>Set Active Project to select the project for the executable you want to work on.
  7. Use Project=>Add To Project to add your modules to the project.
  8. Use Build=>Rebuild All to rebuild the project. This will ensure that all object files are rebuilt. This is important because some object files are built differently depending on the executable they are in.
  9. In some cases you will see the following messages from link:

Using Panther Utilities

Because of various limitations of Windows, it can be challenging to use Panther's utilities when launched from the Program Manager or the Start menu. The problem arises because Window's notion of the current directory is hidden from the user.

By default, all Panther's utilities are designed to be run from the DOS command line, with the following exceptions: binherit.exe, f2asc.exe, clnt2svr.exe, and isqlw.exe (refer to the Note below). In the DOS environment, there is a current directory, and when the utilities run they operate on files in that directory by default. Under Windows, however, the current directory is usually set to the directory holding the executable, for example, c:\prolific\util.

Therefore, if you launch a utility, such as f2asc, from the Program Manager or the Start menu and type -a foo.asc foo.pro in the Parameters window, f2asc looks for foo.pro in the util directory and creates its output foo.asc there as well. Since this is usually not what you want, consider one of the following approaches: