MaxDOS 2.5 Demo Version Docs 3/20/95 A guide to the features and proper use of the demo version of MaxDOS 2.5, the original Mac compatible filesystem for the Commodore Amiga ** LEGALITIES ************************************************************ All elements of this archive (with the exception of the "Installer" software and icon) are Copyright © 1993-1995 Media4 Productions Inc. "Installer" copyright and license notice: Installer 1.24 and Installer project icon Copyright © 1991-93 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved. INSTALLER SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE; NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED. You may distribute verbatim copies of this MaxDOS25Demo.lha archive so long as all contents are entirely unmodified and no there is no cost involved which is in excess of a reasonable charge for the service of making and distributing the copy and the cost of any media. No guarantee of any kind is given that the enclosed software is reliable or suitable for any given purpose. Nor is there any guarantee that the included documentation is complete or accurate. Should you choose to use this material for any purpose, be aware that you are using it entirely at your own risk. If you think that MaxDOS 2.5 would be useful to you or your business, you can order it by phone or with the electronic order form included in this archive. MaxDOS is a very mature product with a video/film-aware tech support staff behind it. Please call with any questions. ** FOREWORD ************************************************************** This is a demo of MaxDOS 2.5 for the Commodore Amiga. MaxDOS is a full-featured Mac compatible filesystem which allows reading and writing of Mac high-density floppies and SCSI drives of nearly any type (hard, optical, floptical, SyQuest, Bernoulli or CD-ROM). Floppy access requires a high-density drive and the system file "L:mfm.device". Unlike the actual release version of MaxDOS 2.5, this demo does _not_ allow unlimited reading and writing of files on Mac disks. You are free to get directory listings and traverse the directory tree of any Mac format disk, but you will only be able to actually read file data from Mac floppies, assuming that you do indeed have a high-density floppy drive and the "L:mfm.device" file. If you are a MaxDOS 2.0 user, please write or e-mail us for details on an inexpensive upgrade. It might even be free! In a nutshell, MaxDOS works like this: · Mounter is used to analyze drives based on a device driver name and unit number. Mounter uses the results of its analysis to build a mountlist for the Mac drive, and will either immediately mount the desired partition, or save the mountlist for future use. This demo version does not allow saving of mountlists. · MaxDOSFiles is a commodity (default hotkey: [CTRL][ALT][M]) which allows customization of the display of data fork, resource forks and icons, as well as the handling of text translation and MacBinary. Use of MaxDOSFiles is entirely optional. · MaxDOSTypes is a commodity (default hotkey: [SHIFT][ALT][M]) which allows setting of the TYPE and CREATOR attributes assigned to newly made files on Mac format disks. It also allows assignment of default tools to be called when files with particular TYPEs and CREATORs are double-clicked on Workbench. Use of MaxDOSTypes is entirely optional. · The utility program XRes is automatically activated whenever a resource fork icon is double-clicked on Workbench. XRes is for eXtraction of Resources. If you know what Mac resources are, you might want to take advantage of this feature. If you don't know about resources, you probably don't need to take advantage of XRes. · The utility program XHex is a general purpose hex file viewer. It is sometimes called by XRes, but you may want to use it even for general purpose Mac or non-Mac file viewing chores. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of MaxDOS capabilities and features: · Reads/writes high-density Mac floppies · Reads/writes Mac format SCSI drives · Auto SCSI configuration · Compatible with all Amiga software · Displays Mac icons on Workbench · Transparent translation of text files · Transparent handling of MacBinary · Viewing and setting of TYPE and CREATOR · Settable reactions to TYPE and CREATOR · Will extract resources from Mac files · Allows hex viewing of any file or resource · Workbench 3.1-compliant interface · Film & video-savvy technical support ** QUICK-START *********************************************************** INSTALLATION OF MAXDOS 2.5 DEMO Installing the MaxDOS 2.5 demo is very straightforward. Simply double-click on the Install MaxDOS Demo icon and follow the directions. FLOPPY ACCESS If you have a high-density floppy drive and were not alerted during the installation that floppy access is not possible on your system, then you will be able to take advantage of four new mountlists installed on your system. To establish floppy access under Workbench 2.04: Type the following into a shell window: mount mf0: from devs:mountlist.maxdos The mf0: argument might alternately be mf1:, mf2: or mf3:, as is appropriate. To establish floppy access under Workbench 2.1 and above: Double-click on the appropriate mountlist icon(s) in the Storage/DOSDrivers drawer. HARD DRIVE ACCESS The installation procedure places a program called Mounter in the Utilities drawer. This program is responsible for analyzing Mac format hard drive partitions and telling the operating system and MaxDOS how to properly access them. Mounter needs two key pieces of information in order to do its job--the first is the appropriate Device driver name, which can be selected from the Devices menu. The other is the SCSI Unit number of the drive to be accessed-- this number can usually be determined by examining a thumbwheel on the rear of the drive. If the partition to be mounted is an A-Max or Emplant partition on an internal drive, then the SCSI Unit number may need to be determined through trial and error (it is a number from 0 to 7). After the Device and Unit have been entered, click the Analyze Device gadget--if the Device and Unit provided are correct, the next gadget, Find Partitions, will become available. Assuming that the drive being analyzed does indeed contain at least one Mac format partition, a click on Find Partitions will provide a scrolling list of available Mac partitions. Simply click on the parition you are interested in, and then click Mount Partition to make the partition immediately available to all applications. The demo version does not save mountlists. COMMODITIES The installation process also installs two utilities as part of the MaxDOS system. By default, these commodities can be summoned by pressing the hot-key [CTRL][ALT][M] for MaxDOSFiles or [SHIFT][ALT][M] for MaxDOSTypes. MaxDOSFiles allows customization of MaxDOS' handling of file listings and icons. MaxDOSTypes allows customization o MaxDOS' assignment of and reactions to Mac files' CREATOR and TYPE attributes. Use of both of these utilities is optional--MaxDOS will work fine (but be less customizable) without them. THE "REAL" DOCUMENTATION The full release version of MaxDOS 2.5 features in-depth electronic documentation in AmigaGuide format (it is not included, however, in this demo distribution). This is not simply a "linear" manual dropped into a text file--instead, it is an intuitively constructed document which takes thorough advantage of the power of hypertext. It also has the advantages of being readily updated and being available even when your MaxDOS package might not be. REMOVAL OF MAXDOS 2.5 DEMO When you are done experiencing the power of MaxDOS 2.5, simply double-click the Remove MaxDOS Demo icon, and all MaxDOS-related files will be tidily deleted from your system. ** ABOUT MEDIA4 PRODUCTIONS INC ****************************************** OUR STATS: Media4 Productions Inc. 2800 University Ave. Suite H1B-101 West Des Moines IA 50266 515-225-7409 voice 515-225-6370 fax mediafour@dsmnet.com OUR UPCOMING PROJECTS: By the time you've read this, we expect to be shipping PhotoPro Plug-Ins, which is a software package that allows ADPro and ImageFX users to load and save native Photoshop 2.5/3.0 files directly. For many users, it is a powerful addition to MaxDOS. If you are an Amiga Lightwave user who is moving to Lightwave on the PC, you will definitely be interested in one of our other new products. We are looking for a few beta-testers for this project, so be sure to let us know if you are interested. Write or e-mail us for more information on these upcoming products.