        README.TXT for LWHIZ FREEWARE Graphic Viewer for DOS and Win95
                         Version 1.21 .. March 97
                  
                          Contents of README.TXT
                          ======================

( 1 )  ... What is LWHIZ?
( 2 )  ... Who are Refco (Scotland)?
( 3 )  ... Current and forthcoming Products
( 4 )  ... Will LWHIZ run on my PC?
( 5 )  ... What file formats does LWHIZ read?
( 6 )  ... Installation Instructions
( 7 )  ... Contents of LWHIZ.ZIP
( 8 )  ... Commands for LWHIZ
( 9 )  ... How do I use LWHIZ in DOS?
( 10 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ in Windows 95?
( 11 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ in Windows 3.X?
( 12 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ work in OS/2?
( 13 ) ... What problems might I get running LWHIZ?
( 14 ) ... How do I contact you with suggestions, criticisms etc?
                                              ( Drop us a line! ) 
( 15 ) ... What's this about LWHIZ being written in 100% Machine Code?
( 16 ) ... How do I order and pay for the Source Code Package for LWHIZ? 
( 17 ) ... Acknowledgements
( 18 ) ... Disclaimer
( 19 ) ... Important Notice to Potential Purchasers of Source Code


( 1 ) ... What is LWHIZ?

LWHIZ is a FREEWARE Graphic Viewer, written in 100% 32-bit 
Protected mode machine code by Refco (Scotland) for your PC using 
DOS, OS/2 or Windows 95. If your machine can handle it, LWHIZ will allow 
you to view images up to a resolution of 1280x1024 in TrueColor 
ie 16.7 Million Colors ( Essential for Photographic Quality Images )
and will read ANY image size of a supported graphic format! 

Of course, LWHIZ will still let you view your favourite 256 color 
GIF and PCX files etc.

Because of the way LWHIZ is designed, it is not restricted to your 
current Windows 95 Screen Mode as most Win95 Graphics Viewers are. 
For example, if you only have a 1Mb Graphics card, and you have set 
your system to 800x600 then, unless you use LWHIZ you will not be able 
to see TrueColor Pictures in TrueColor! 

With LWHIZ you can access different TrueColor Screen modes with  
the press of a key.

To enhance your enjoyment of your favourite picture files
we have added an easy-to-use "Screen Magnifying-Glass" feature!


( 2 ) ... Who are Refco (Scotland)?

We are a small company based about 30 miles North of Edinburgh, 
the capital of Scotland, and are involved primarily with the 
programming of AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Access and Graphic Utilities  
using C++, AutoLisp, Visual Basic and 32-bit Assembler, for the 
home and workplace user.

We also are very strongly committed to the production of quality 
material and resources which will accelerate the process of 
gaining the knowledge and skills needed by potential or existing 
software developers. 

To this end, we are making available the full source code of 
LWHIZ! More details about this later.


( 3 ) ... Current and forthcoming Products

WHIZ: A shareware Graphics Viewer with a difference.
WHIZSCAN for Network and Disk Graphic-Management.
Shareware and Freeware AutoCAD, Access and AutoCAD LT tools.


( 4 ) ... Will LWHIZ run on my PC?

You will need at least a 386 with a minimum of 2 Mb RAM 
equipped with a VESA compatible Graphic Card that supports 
TrueColor at a minimum resolution of 640x480 that means you must 
have a 1Mb Graphic Card at least. 

Don't let that last bit worry you, most PC's will run LWHIZ
just fine but ... 

if you do have problems, then let us know! Thanks.


( 5 ) ... What file formats does LWHIZ read?

Most popular file formats, including PhotoCD ( 768x512 ), 
JPEG, GIF, TIF, PCX, TGA and BMP. 
Please note that some graphic file formats have countless 
( or so it seems! ) variations and LWHIZ is guaranteed NOT 
to read them all. 

LWHIZ is pretty fast at reading most image types but with 
some formats we know we still have to optimise our code further!
There's plenty of highly optimised C code out there for that 
task but because we wanted to do it ALL in machine-code we had 
to do everything ourselves. 

Every last bit and byte!!!!

Unlike most graphic viewers it will attempt to parse
( make sense of! ) any file it is asked to do ie it will
ignore the file extension. 

Many commercial programs try to disguise the type of file format 
they use to store graphics by changing the extension. This will 
not fool LWHIZ! 



( 6 ) ... Installation Instructions

If you are reading this document you probably have used 
PKUNZIP already, but here we go...

Make a folder or sub-directory, go into it and use 
PKUNZIP or WinZip to extract the files which make up 
the LWHIZ package eg:

PKUNZIP LWHIZ.ZIP or PKUNZIP C:\DOWNLOAD\LWHIZ.ZIP

If you want to use LWHIZ from anywhere on your drives or
network then add its path into your autoexec.bat file.

Note that LWHIZ.EXE needs certain support files to be in
its directory. That means if you move or delete these
files LWHIZ will not function correctly.

If you wish to uninstall LWHIZ simply delete the files in
its directory. Unlike most Windows Programs LWHIZ leaves
no trace behind in INI files etc!


( 7 ) ... Contents of LWHIZ.ZIP

README.TXT   ... This document
LWHIZ.EXE    ... The program itself
MOUSE.RAW    ... Graphic information needed for the mouse pointer
CHARS.RAW    ... The graphics for the text characters
REFCO.JPG    ... A wee picture to look at before your picture is loaded!
ORDER.TXT    ... Only of interest to Programmers or Potential Programmers

Please Note that ORDER.TXT is only needed if you decide to purchase 
the LWHIZ Source Code Package - Remember LWHIZ itself is Totally FREE 
to use as often as you want!

Feel free to distribute copies of LWHIZ to your family, friends 
and colleagues; they may find it useful. 

Whether you like LWHIZ or you hate LWHIZ, we'll still be pleased 
to hear from you.


( 8 ) ... Commands for LWHIZ

Command Line Switch: Video Modes ( 16.7M Colors )
/1 = 640x480      /2=800x600     /3 = 1024x768    /4=1280x1024

 - If you leave out this switch, LWHIZ will default to the 
   highest screen resolution supported by your Graphics Card.

Keyboard: Video Modes ( 16.7M Colors ) - Runtime Only 
1 = 640x480        2=800x600      3 = 1024x768     4=1280x1024

Command Line Switch: Viewing Options
/P = Hide Path and Filename       /M = Hide Mouse Cursor

Keyboard: Viewing Options - Runtime Only
P = Hide/Show Path and Filename    M = Hide/Show Mouse Cursor

Keyboard: Exit Program - Runtime Only
Press ESCAPE Key to exit program and any key to exit the
closedown screen

Mouse: Screen Magnifying Glass - Runtime Only
Left Button Down/Up: Show/Hide "Screen Magnifying Glass"


( 9 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ in DOS?

Please load your standard mouse driver before running LWHIZ if
it's not already loaded.
Then run LWHIZ  from the DOS prompt ( eg C:\LWHIZ> ) adding command line 
switches as needed eg:

LWHIZ MARY.JPG
   This would show the file mary.jpg, in the current directory, at
   the highest TrueColor resolution your PC is capable of. 
   Both the Mouse Pointer and Pathname would be displayed.

LWHIZ D:\SNAPS\LESLIE.JPG  /2 /P
   This would show the picture leslie.jpg, in the snaps 
   subdirectory of the D drive at a resolution of 800x600, without
   showing its Pathname. 

NOTE: The maximum TrueColor resolution possible with a 1Mb Graphics 
      Card is 640x480. 

LWHIZ C:\JIMBO.PCD /M /P 
  This would display jimbo.pcd, without showing the Mouse Pointer or
  Pathname at the highest TrueColor Resolution your PC can handle.

Don't worry about giving LWHIZ wrong information. Your PC will not
suffer!

( 10 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ in Windows 95?

A very easy way to use LWHIZ is to create a shortcut on your desktop. 
Then simply Drag and Drop a graphic ( or suspected graphic! ) file 
onto the LWHIZ shortcut icon. If LWHIZ can read the file, it will 
display it in TRUECOLOR.

Don't forget to try the keyboard and mouse commands ( See Above ).

Note that LWHIZ needs to run full screen in Win95. 

If you need to set this, right-click the LWHIZ shortcut icon, 
Choose Properties, Click the screen tab and then choose the 
full-screen option. 

You won't be able to see the task bar while LWHIZ is running 
but ALT+TAB will still give you the chance to switch to
the desktop or other applications, if it is enabled.

You may wish to use the associate-file feature offered by
Windows 95 for different graphic types eg PCD, JPG etc. 
Doing this means that when a graphic file or icon
is double-clicked it will run LWHIZ automatically and display 
your picture in full screen at the appropriate resolution. 

Use the Windows Help system and search for "associate",
if you don't know how to do this. 

Because LWHIZ is much smaller than typical Windows Image viewers, 
it loads pretty quickly.

HINT: Use the Find Feature from the Start button on the taskbar 
and set the multiple "Named" option such as *.JPG,*.PCD,*.GIF 
before you click the "Find Now" button. 

Once Windows-Find has done its job, Drag and Drop files from the 
search window onto the LWHIZ shortcut, if you have made one.


( 11 ) ... How do I use LWHIZ in Windows 3.X?

Depending on your system set-up, LWHIZ may or may not work, 
although it won't do any harm to your PC if it doesn't. 

SOLUTION : Use DOS ( Not the DOS Prompt in Main, however ) to run LWHIZ. 
           Better still move to 95 or better!

( 12 ) ... How Does LWHIZ work in OS/2?

In order to utilize the flexibility of LWHIZ where 16M colors are
available the options are:

(a) ... Open a DOS full-screen window and initiate LWHIZ from the
        command prompt as in DOS

(b) ... From within a REXX batch file ( .cmd ) use eg:
        START "/FS /DOS D:\PATH\LWHIZ [/Switches] LESLIE.JPG"
        NB Please do not include the square brackets

(c) ... Create  a program object, open SETTINGS, under SESSION
        click DOS full-screen, close SETTINGS. LWHIZ will now run
        when you click on the program icon.

The same hardware limitations apply as with DOS and Win95.


( 13 ) ... What problems might I get running LWHIZ?

Currently we don't have access to NT so the jury is still out
on that platform!

Please note that LWHIZ is designed to shrink any size of picture to 
fit the screen. For example should you wish to view a 20 Mb image but
only have a 1 Mb Graphics Card, then LWHIZ can only use 1 Mb of the
Graphic information contained in the source file. This means, logically,
that 19 Mb of information has to be discarded. Most times the picture
looks just fine but, at other times, your image may appear patchy! 
If this is the case, please, please, please don't delete the file 
concerned. When you get a copy of LWHIZ's Big Brother WHIZ, you'll 
be delighted you didn't.

If you are using a Memory Manager such as EMM386 you will notice 
that LWHIZ will take longer to start up than without it, 
particularly on a PC with a lot of RAM. 

However, it is very unlikely that many people will still be needing 
to use EMM386, so this should not be too much cause for concern!
Perhaps you should consider removing EMM386 from your config.sys,
doing so may give a marked improvement when using other applications
as well.

Remember please, that LWHIZ will not read all the variants of some 
types of graphic files eg compressed BMP and TIFF files.

Let us know if you have any problems, and we'll look into them.


( 14 ) ... How do I contact you with suggestions, criticisms etc?
                                              (drop us a line!)

If you use LWHIZ and find it useful, or if you can offer suggestions 
for its improvement, or even if you just want to say hello then ... 

Please drop us a line. 
( Roy Fisher - 101473,500@compuserve.com )


( 15 ) ... What's this about LWHIZ being written in 100% Machine Code?

One of the reasons we picked 32-bit Assembler to write LWHIZ was to 
give us the in-depth knowledge and understanding of low-level 
PC Graphics, which higher-level languages like C frequently hide 
from the programmer. 

This approach has paved the way for the top-end, high performance 
graphic utilities and programs that we're planning AND producing 
for the future.

At times we regretted our choice of language. Writing and debugging 
TrueColor graphic applications in 100% machine code, without any 
of the assistance offered by C, BASIC or PASCAL, is painful. We even
had to create our own character sets!

... Very Painful!

Now we've done it, we have no regrets. Most of the graphic 
functions and routines we will ever need are now done. 

Thanks to this and the debugging tools we were forced to develop,
new applications are far less painful and much quicker to write. 

With LWHIZ source acting as a core for our new 32-bit Protected Mode 
programs, we have OUR Springboard for the future!

We would like to offer YOU, OUR Springboard by giving the opportunity 
to purchase the LWHIZ Source-Code Package. 

This Package contains the COMPLETE Source Code and Resources along with
the Instructions, Documentation and Support files that WE used to make 
LWHIZ!

Anyone who decides to purchase the LWHIZ Source Code Package has 
freedom ( ** But Please See Note 19 Below ** ) to use any, or all of it 
for their own/corporate program development or learning purpose! 

If you wish to modify, improve or add to the code then ...  
thats the right we give you. 

If you should decide to take up this offer, you will be supplied free-
of-charge with the updated source-code of all future versions of LWHIZ. 

Furthermore, you will be entitled to generous discounts on all our 
range of future products.

PS ... Even if you do purchase the LWHIZ Source Code Package please 
understand that this does not mean you will get an easy ride into the 
exciting, frequently frustrating but hopefully lucrative, world of 
computer graphic programming! 

Having a complete application like LWHIZ to guide you, will certainly 
ease the pain of, and reduce the time taken to become a graphics Guru. 

You need commitment, discipline and above all a hunger to succeed to do this.
Plus a lot of time.

If you think you can meet these requirements then fine, go ahead and 
purchase the source code package, otherwise please save your money!


( 16 ) ... How do I order and pay for the Source Code Package?

*** If you plan only to use LWHIZ as a viewer, please ignore this section!

See ORDER.TXT  (But please read Note 19 before finalising your decision)

Overseas customers please allow up to 15 days for delivery following 
receipt of your order. UK customers allow 5-10 days.

Please note that we can process your order more
speedily and efficiently, if you e-mail us first
( Roy Fisher - 101473,500@Compuserve.com )


( 17 ) ... Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to many only some of whom are listed here. 
TRAN ( Thomas Pytel ) for his excellent PMODE header, 
Dale Williams for his sterling work with graphic filters 
and Ron Kirkpatrick for his valuable suggestions.

( 18 ) ... Disclaimer

Please note that LWHIZ is a graphics viewer only and that 
Refco ( Scotland ) cannot be held responsible for the content 
of the material viewed with this program! 

( 19 ) ... Important Notice to Potential Purchasers of Source Code 

*** If you plan only to use LWHIZ as a viewer, please ignore this section! 


We MUST make two stipulations to purchasers of the LWHIZ Source Code
Package.  

(ONE) ...  is that you don't offer the source code of LWHIZ to others for 
gain or otherwise. We are prepared, however, to consider relaxation 
of this requirement in certain cases! The areas most likely to be  
considered would include work done within :

Schools, Colleges, Higher Education, Authors, Student Theses or 
Organisations involved with commercial work for clients where 
source code ownership by the customer is a necessary or contractual 
obligation.

If in doubt then ask us! We are not concerned at all with the bona-fide 
majority but rather with the unscrupulous minority. 

Anyway we'd like to hear what you do with the code, perhaps we could 
provide assistance; additional to that provided by the package.

(TWO) ... LWHIZ is the complete demonstration of what the source code 
does. We omit nothing that we used to make it ourselves, you get it
ALL. We cannot guarantee it to be bug-free although if bugs are 
detected you will be notified as soon as reasonably possible.

REFCO ( Scotland ) or any of its future agents will NOT be held 
responsible for any loss, damage or injury, consequential or otherwise, 
resulting from your usage of any part of the package and its contents 
thereof.

**** Please Make Sure You Have Read and Understood the above conditions
**** By ordering the LWHIZ Source Code Package you will be agreeing
**** to acceptance of these stipulations. 

