(readme.txt)
                               MAPIT (v 1.4)
                             Allison Software
                              166 Shady Lane
                          Apollo, PA  15613  USA
                  412-727-2198           CompuServe 72600,1200
    

Product Description:
    
                MAPIT  -  Your Graphics Notepad on the World

    MAPIT is an integrated world-wide mapping system of amazing detail
    which helps you create customized maps for work, school, or fun.

    Use MAPIT to

        * print detailed, publication-quality, customized maps,

        * merge maps with word processing documents,

        * record and plot live GPS data,

        * add your own customized detail with 100' precision,

        * zoom to any level and navigate around the world,

        * show day and time anywhere in the world,

        * measure distances, calculate azimuth angles, and plot great
          circles and range curves and calculate associated areas.

    A powerful reference tool, MAPIT contains a wealth of information and
    is just plain fun to use.

    Import your own data.  Mark locations with figures (simple line
    drawings).  Document with stroked and hidden text.

    Record real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) data from your car,
    boat, or plane on your laptop and use MAPIT's sophisticated GPS
    Utilities Package to import and view your exact track.

    School age children will amaze teachers and friends with accurate,
    detailed maps of foreign countries and states. And your little ones will
    love to color-fill the oceans, lakes, islands, and countries imported
    into their favorite paint brush program.

    More serious users have a choice of exporting data in the colorful .PCX
    screen dump file format or in the ultra-detailed HP-GL/2 graphics
    plotting language format accepted by many laser printers and pen
    plotters.  They can even merge this data into publication-quality
    compound (text and graphics) documents supported by modern word
    processors.

    MAPIT displays a true Mercator projection, the choice of navigators.
    Layout great circle tracks between multiple points totaling their
    distances.  Dynamically plot range curves measuring the enclosed area as
    you go.

    MAPIT includes almost 6000 international cities and 19,000 US cities
    with their 1990 populations. The underlying vector-based geographic
    database consists of over 5 million points organized by coastlines,
    lakes, rivers, canals, reefs, salt flats, national boundaries, and US
    and Canadian state and provincial boundaries.  Believe me, you'll find
    places in this database you never imagined existed.

    MAPIT comes network-ready for multi-user installations.  The large
    read-only main database can be located on a shared disk for more
    efficient operations.

    If you are looking for more than just a pretty picture -- or perhaps
    need many different pretty pictures, let MAPIT be the end of your
    graphical quest.  Home, school, lab, or office, MAPIT can do the job!
    MAPIT, your electronic notepad on the world.


Install MAPIT:

    The shareware version of MAPIT is distributed as a one, two, or
    three disk set.  The installation process copies MAPIT to your hard
    drive.

    Insert the first MAPIT diskette into floppy drive A: (or B:) and
    enter

         C:> A:INSTALL

    The install program will ask where you want the MAPIT data stored
    (C:\MAPIT) and complete the installation for you.

    The Install program normally runs MAPIT for you the first time.

    MAPIT REQUIRES A MOUSE.  Unless you have a mouse physically attached
    to your computer AND have installed its driver, you will be unable
    to operate MAPIT.  You can exit MAPIT from the keyboard by entering
    <CTRL>Q.

    If you see a cursor when you run MAPIT, everything is okay.  SKIP
    THE NEXT SECTION.


How to Install a Mouse:

    Install the mouse driver by issuing the following command at the
    command prompt.

        C:> "path"\MOUSE             (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE)

    where "path" is the path to the directory containing the mouse
    driver.

    Place this command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT so MOUSE is always available.

    Caution:  Windows is smart and will show a mouse cursor without the
    mouse driver's being installed.  If the cursor doesn't appear when
    you run MAPIT, <CTRL>Q out and try to edit a file with the standard
    DOS editor from the DOS prompt (EDIT VENDINFO.DIZ).  If you don't
    have a mouse cursor in the editor, the driver isn't loaded.  Try
    loading it from the DOS prompt as above, and if that works, add the
    same command near the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT but before any call
    to WINdows.


How to Run MAPIT:

    Run MAPIT with the shareware data by entering

        C:> MAPIT      (or MAPIT DEMO)

    Each time MAPIT runs, it looks for the private database
    EXTENDED.MP3. If not found, it creates a zero length EXTENDED.MP3.

    To run MAPIT with the Columbus demo, copy COLUMBUS.MP3 over
    EXTENDED.MP3 before runing MAPIT.

        C:> COPY  COLUMBUS.MP3  EXTENDED.MP3
        C:> MAPIT

    You may also wish to print the text file COLUMBUS.TXT to have a
    hardcopy in front of you as you run the demo.

    Follow the instructions in Hidden Text 1 (Press Left Mouse button in
    triangle 1) to follow the Columbus demo and learn to use MAPIT. When
    you are finished with the Columbus demo, delete EXTENDED.MP3.


Establishing your Time Zone:

    MAPIT dynamically displays a calculated day and time for any place
    in the world based on your computer's clock and the value you assign
    the environmental variable TZ which you can set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
    file.  Use the following syntax to establish TZ:

         set  TZ=tzn[+|-]hh[:mm[:ss]]dzn

    where
         tzn      - three-character standard time zone name.
         hh:mm:ss - offset from GMT in hours and optionally minutes
                    and seconds.  Use positive for west, neg for east.
         dzn      - three-character savings time zone name.

    example:
         C:> SET  TZ=EST5EDT     // Eastern Std/Daylight Time with a
                                 // 5 hour offset west of Greenwich.

    If you fail to set TZ, your time zone defaults to "PST8PDT", Pacific
    Standard and Daylight Time, next best thing to visiting California!


For More Information:

    After installing MAPIT, see MAPIT.TXT and GPS_UTIL.TXT for
    documentation covering the operation of the programs provided with
    Shareware MAPIT.

    See VENDINFO.DIZ for information about your MAPIT Shareware License,
    Warranty, and right to duplicate.


More MAPIT Particulars:

    In general, MAPIT is started from the command line by entering

     > MAPIT  [main_mp3_data]  [/extended=mp3_data_file]
              [/figure=figure_file]  [/font=font_file]  [/save=save_file]
              [/delete]

    where

        main_mp3_data -
            The primary .mp3 format data file opened read-only. 
            Defaults to WORLD.MP3 if not specified.

    MAPIT looks for four other files at startup time:

        /extended=mp3_data_file -  
            A private .mp3 format data file opened for update with user 
            data or changes. If none exists, a zero length file is created.  
            Defaults to EXTENDED.MP3 if not specified.

        /figure=figure_file - 
            The standard figures file. Normally this file is 
            user-created by FIGEDIT and contains the user's custom figures. 
            Without it, figures won't be displayed.  Defaults to STD.FIG if 
            not specified.

        /font=font_file - 
            The standard font file. Without it, stroked text 
            doesn't work.  Defaults to STD.FNT if not specified.

        /save=save_file - 
            The file holding MAPIT's final state.  Defaults to 
            MAPIT.SAV if not specified.

        /delete - 
            Allows the MAPIT menu selection EDIT/Copy & Delete to work by 
            opening main_mp3_data for update.

    Enter MAPIT /? from the command line for a listing if you forget 
    these options.

    You can abbreviate command line switches short of the point of 
    ambiguity.  /fig=x is the same as /figure=x, but /f=x will induce an 
    error message listing the ambiguous possibilities as /figure and 
    /font.  
    
    Entering just a / is a sly way of forcing MAPIT to list all 
    its command line switches.

  Using the Mouse

    There are two distinct ways to use the mouse.

    DRAGGING - Some selections (eg. Zoom by Corners) require depressing 
    the left button to establish the starting corner or position and, WITH 
    THE BUTTON STILL DEPRESSED, dragging the cursor to the second corner 
    or position to be measured BEFORE RELEASING THE BUTTON.  If you press 
    and release at the same point when a drag is required, nothing happens.

    POINT & CLICK - Other activities, notably those requiring 
    one-at-a-time point selections, look for the depression and release of 
    the left mouse button without any intervening movement.  Sometimes use 
    of the RIGHT mouse button is required to signal the end of multiple 
    point entry.


  Tuning Your System.

    MAPIT requires a properly tuned high performance computer.  The most 
    significant performance boost you can give is by using disk cache such 
    as SMARTDRV which comes with DOS and WINDOWS. 

    The disk cache must be of adequate size, at least 500K, if it is to be 
    of any use.  If when redrawing a portion of the world, you notice a 
    lot of disk activity, your system will perform better with a larger 
    disk cache.  
    
    MAPIT's .mp3 data files are LARGE, but they are efficiently designed 
    and already compact.  Data compaction drivers such as DOUBLESPACE will 
    NOT gain you appreciable space and may SLOW your disk system (by as 
    much as one half).  Do NOT place MAPIT's data files on compressed 
    drives without first verify performance loss versus space savings for 
    your hardware/software combination.

    MAPIT is designed to display graphics adequately without a math 
    coprocessor.  Stroked text, however, which can be oriented at any 
    angle, is compute intensive and will respond positively to the addition 
    of a math chip.


Making Maps

    MAPIT supports a variety of methods of producing output which differ 
    in quality and complexity.

  Direct Output

    The simplest method of generating output is to direct hard copy 
    directly from the screen to your printer. GRAPHICS, a TSR (Terminate 
    and Stay Resident program) at the DOS command level, outputs a 
    graphics screen when you press the Shift+Print Screen key 
    combination. (You cannot be running under Windows when you do this.) 
    If you have a laser printer, the results from within MAPIT can be 
    quite good. Entering

         > GRAPHICS LASERJETII

    after bootup loads the TSR GRAPHICS and readies it for an HP LaserJet 
    II or III. Check your DOS manual for a complete list of supported 
    printers.

  Screen Capture

    A number of stand-alone programs, word processors, or TSR's can 
    capture the screen image produced by MAPIT. If, for instance, you run 
    MAPIT within a Windows' DOS box, you can capture a screen with the 
    Print Screen key, switch back to Windows (ALT-TAB), and Shift/Insert 
    the image into Paintbrush, a standard Windows appli cation. If your 
    intent is create line images for import into a word processor, use 
    Paintbrush's PICK/Inverse option to change the black background to 
    white (and other colors to their compliments). Typically you might 
    want to select a part or all of the image for direct insertion into 
    your compound document.

  .PCX Files

    A more controlled way of capturing screen images from MAPIT is to 
    select the TOOLS/.PCX menu items and save the images to files. The 
    .PCX command allows you to invert MAPIT's black background to white 
    first, if you so desire.  The entire screen including the menu 
    heading and footer, just the mapping area, or a selected rectangle 
    from within the mapping area can be saved to a file whose name you 
    choose.  Later you can import these files from within Paintbrush by 
    selecting File/Open with List Files of Type: set to PCX files.  Then 
    print the output to your output device.

  HP-GL/2 Output

    Hewlett Packard's Graphics Language/2 provides the most detailed 
    output possible.  Unlike the .PCX format which is limited to the 
    resolution of your screen, HP-GL/2 is a vector format output which is 
    limited by the resolution of MAPIT's underlying database and the 
    resolution of your laser printer or pen plotting device. MAPIT 
    directs this output to either your printer/plotter attached to the 
    PRN port or to a .HGL file.  If, for instance, you want to import 
    HP-GL/2 input into a Microsoft Word for Windows document, first 
    produce the file from within MAPIT, then, from within Word, select 
    Insert/Picture setting the List Files of Type: option to HP Graphics 
    Language (*.hgl).  (In this example you must be using Word for 
    Windows version 2.0c or later.  Other word processors may or may not 
    support .HGL format or compound documents.)


Working from within Windows

    Working between MAPIT and paint or word processing programs can be 
    facilitated by running MAPIT from within a Windows DOS box. This 
    allows you to switch between MAPIT and your other program(s) by using 
    the ALT-TAB task switching sequence.  (Hold the ALT key down while 
    clicking the TAB key until the desired program's banner comes up.) 
    You needn't quit MAPIT each time you want to switch to the another 
    program.  The down side of this example of power computing is its 
    demands on computer resources: you should have at least 4MB of RAM to 
    insure adequate response and MAPIT will be slowed by approximately 
    30%. Be certain that your DOSPROMPT's PIF is set for High Graphics, 
    Full Screen, Background, and that Advanced Options include Uses High 
    Memory Area, High Graphics, Emulate Text Mode, and Retain Video 
    Memory.


Fun with Maps:

    If, as a child, you enjoyed paint-by-numbers, you'll understand why
    young children will love to create .PCX bitmapped maps in MAPIT,
    import them into paint programs (such as Paintbrush provided in 
    Windows), and color them with flood fill.  In Paintbrush, File/Open
    looking for *.PCX (see scroll box "List Files of Type"), open a map
    file, set the color to light blue and the tool to the paint roller, and
    begin color filling away.  The files AFRICA.PCX and MID_EAST.PCX are
    provided for you as examples.  If color bleeds across national 
    boundaries, choose the paint command Zoom and add missing pixels to
    shore up the dike.  (Note, you can't unflood dithered colors.)

    Students will find the ability to print maps of foreign countries 
    invaluable in their shool work and helpful in visualizing the 
    places where world events are unfolding.


MAPIT Explained:

    MAPIT is a professional-level mapping application which includes a 
    detailed database of the world and programs to interact with and 
    supplement that database.  You have the shareware version of MAPIT, a 
    data-truncated version designed to give you the feel of MAPIT's full 
    capabilities in an affordable format.  

    Registered versions of MAPIT come in a range of mapping detail to fit a 
    variety of users' mapping needs, hard disk limitations, and 
    pocketbooks.  The full MAPIT requires upwards of 28 MB of disk storage 
    and is shipped on 24 1.44 MB 3.5" floppies.

    The different detail options of MAPIT's database can most easily be 
    explained in terms of zoom factor.  The initial MAPIT display including 
    the whole earth is defined as zoom factor 1 (shown in the lower left 
    corner of the screen).  Zooming in to half that distance changes the 
    zoom factor to 2.  Zooming in on the US so it fills the whole screen, 
    for instance, requires a zoom factor of approximately 5.  
    
    The world database included with shareware MAPIT holds resolution to a 
    zoom factor of approximately 6.  Zoom much closer than that and you 
    begin to notice the jaggies - a decided compromise in object detail.  
    
    The island of Cuba, just south of the United States off the coast of 
    Florida, is supplied in its full detail as an example of that available 
    elsewhere in the registered data.  You should be able to zoom in to a 
    factor of 750 or so before detail becomes an issue.  At Cuba's 
    latitude, this means the entire screen width covers a distance of 31 
    miles (as opposed to 24,857 miles at zoom factor 1).  As noted above, 
    to provide this level of detail everywhere in the world requires a 
    significant amount of disk space.  
    
    Not everyone needs or wants to devote resources to supporting the 
    maximum available detail world-wide.  MAPIT's World Base Data level 
    supports a global zoom level of 24 and requires more than 3 MB of disk 
    space.  Those wanting maximum detail are free to order from the six 
    Detail packages, divided roughly by continent.  See REGISTER.DOC for 
    particulars.


Included Programs:

  MAPIT

    The central display program for working with the voluminous MAPIT 
    database.  Detailed instructions are beyond the scope of this file.  
    Turing the system with the Columbus Demo is the best way to learn its 
    capabilities.  (See Run MAPIT above.)

    Anytime you enter data into MAPIT, the data is stored in the private 
    file EXTENDED.MP3.  Copy or rename EXTENDED.MP3 to an unused filename 
    to save the data permanently.

        > COPY  (or REN) EXTENDED.MP3  myfile.MP3

    Copy makes an additional copy of EXTENDED.MP3 while rename effectively 
    deletes the original so that you'll start out with a fresh zero-length 
    EXTENDED.MP3 the next time you run MAPIT

    Alternately you can run MAPIT with a command line argument specifying
    an alternate name for your private data file.
    
        > MAPIT  /EXTENDED=myfile
    
    Enter MAPIT /? at the command line for a complete list of arguments.
    
    You can combine several of your private files with the binary copy 
    command.

        > COPY  /B FILE_1.MP3+FILE_2.MP3+...  BIG.MP3
            or
        > COPY  /B FILE*.MP3  BIG.MP3

    Remember that once files are combined, they can't be separated. Don't 
    delete the orginals until you are sure.


    MAPIT TIPS

    MAPIT is busy scanning the databases when the cursor disappears 
    between repaints. When it becomes visible again, MAPIT is ready to 
    accept command input again. Remember, you can cut short each database 
    scan by pressing the Esc key _ once for the main database and again, 
    if necessary, for your private database. (Usually the main database 
    scan is much longer.)

    Use the cross hairs displayed by POSITION/Center for more accurate 
    lat/long display in the status line while measuring positions of 
    objects. Cancel when finished with the right mouse button.

    Use DOS's NUL file name if you need an empty file to read from or a 
    bit bucket to write to.  For example, if you wish to view or operate 
    on the private database file EXTENDED.MP3 file by itself without 
    possible interference from the data in the main database WORLD.MP3, 
    open MAPIT using the NUL file as the main database name:

         > MAPIT  NUL


  FIGEDIT

    The figure creation/editing program.  This program operates on files 
    ending in the extension .FIG.  

    There is a limit of 100 entities per figure.

    The key is to KEEP FIGURES SIMPLE.  Detail which looks good at full 
    screen is clutter at 10%.

    .FIG files can be concatinated with the binary copy just as .MP3 files.

  MP1TOMP3

    A conversion utility designed to convert straight text files 
    containing strings of latitutde/longitude pairs as might be generated 
    from a CAD system or digitizer into .MP3 file format. .MP3 files 
    require only about 1/3 the disk storage of their .MP1 counterparts.
    
    The .mp1 file format is a simple ASCII listing of latitudes and 
    longitudes representing strings of connected points. String 
    termination is marked by separator records.  
    
  MP3TOMP1

    A conversion utility which converts line data from MAPIT's .MP3
    binary format to .MP1 ASCII format.  Layer, id, and min and max
    zoom information carried in the MAPIT format are lost.


Enhancements:

    Many obvious and some not-so-obvious enhancements are in planning.  
    Register your copy of MAPIT and let me know what YOU'D like to see.  
    The best ideas come from users.  This is your chance to influence the 
    direction of product growth.


Contents of Disks:
    
    The shareware distribution disks contain the following files:
    

    install.exe       installation program
    installx.fil      installation scripts
    vendinfo.diz      distributor legal information & product descriptions
    mapit?.pak        packed archive files

      *.pcx             example screen dumps for color fill and ad material 
      readme.txt        general information and instructions
      register.txt      shareware registration form
      columbus.mp3      Columbus demo instruction database
      columbus.txt      text from the Columbus demo
      demo.mp3          Shareware MAPIT's main data file
      mapit.txt         (older) MAPIT User's Manual
      mapit.exe         main map display program       
      figedit.exe       figures creation program
      std.fig           example figures file
      std.fnt           stroked font file
      gps_util.txt      GPS Utilities Manual
      gpstonme.exe      GPS data capture utility
      nmetomp1.exe      raw GPS NMEA to .mp1 data conversion utility.
      mp1tomp3.exe      ASCII to .mp3 data converter
      mp3tomp1.exe      .mp3 line data to ASCII converter
      apoloop.nme       actual GPS NMEA data generated by gpstonme.exe
      track.mp1         small example GPS data in .mp1 format
    

