Running a PSION S3a-emulator under Windows95 -------------------------------------------- The PSION-S3a emulator is software to simulate a PSION S3a on a PC. This can be handy to exchange data with the PC, to have a virtual backup S3a in emergency situations, or for development work. The emulator is available from CompuServe's PSION forum, at PSION's web site http://www.psion.com/downloads/pc/, and from traders specialising in PSION software. The emulator was written by PSION staff to support inhouse development, but is not an official PSION product and is not supported by PSION. The emulator is freeware, however, traders might charge a nominal amount for the floppy. The emulator run's under DOS, and unfortunately it does not run in a DOS window but only in full screen mode. Windows95, however, can switch to DOS mode automatically. To set up the emulator for Windows95 proceed as follows: 1. Create a new directory on the C-harddrive. and call it 's3emu'. (using Windows Explorer). Copy all emulator files into this directory. Other drives are fine too, simply replace the drive letters in the following instructions. Stay away from compressed drives - in case of an emulator crash a scandisk might become necessary. On a compressed drive this takes ages. Delete all batch files that came with the emulator. Do NOT try to execute them as they will hang up Windows95. 2. Open the new directory. Within this new directory create the following directories: M for the internal disk A for flash disk A B for flash disk B 3. Copy the following files from this package into \s3emu S3a.ico Icon representing an S3a hhserver.s3a parameters for emulator s3a.bat runs an S3a with the original screen size 480x160 hhserver.pc parameters for emulator bigs3a.bat runs an S3a with screen size 640x400 hhserver.pcv parameters for emulator verts3a.bat runs an S3a with screen size 480x480 4. Within \S3emu - Right click S3a.bat and select 'Properties'. - Click the 'Program' tab. - In the first line change the name to 'S3a' (or whatever your like). - Under 'Working' enter the name of the emulator directory: C:\S3emu . - Leave the other lines unchanged but click 'Advanced'. - In the following dialogue click the 'MS-DOS mode' check box. - Check or uncheck 'Warn before entering MS-DOS mode' (up to you). - Now set 'Specify a new MS-DOS configuration' to checked. The windows for CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT should now show some content. - In the last window (AUTOEXEC.BAT) add the following lines under the last line: lastdrive=z SUBST M: C:\S3emu\m SUBST A: C:\S3emu\a SUBST B: C:\S3emu\b Make sure that this window does not contain any other conflicting SUBST commands. These SUBST commands simulate the disks for the emulated S3a. You must specify them all, even if you do not want Drive A or B. Otherwise the emulator would ask for floppies when started. - Click OK - Click 'Change Icon'. - Under File Name specify: C:\s3emu\s3a.ico - Click OK, Click OK, Click OK - You should now be back in the directory window and there should be a new element called 'S3a'. If not, click 'Refresh'. You can now drag this icon to the desktop, if you like. To test, double click the new icon. Windows will shut down and there will be a brief moment where you look at the clouds and contemplate where you want to go today. Eventually MS-DOS will boot up and start the emulator. Your new S3a will be equipped with two Flash disks (A and B) and they will be huge. You can also access all other disks on the PC, including compressed disks, CD-ROMs, Cartridges. The only thing which you cannot access are floppy disks, because their drive letters have been taken away. Printing is possible through parallel and serial port, and it is also possible to exchange data with a real S3a through the serial port. To stop the emulator press CTRL-ALT-Esc. The emulator will inform you about FATAL ERROR 0 (= no error) and ask you to press a key. Do so and Windows will boot up again. - You can now repeat this process for BigS3a.BAT and VertS3a.BAT. Or you can simply make copies of the new S3a item and change the Command line in 'Properties|Program' accordingly. 5. Unfortunately there is no emulator for the S3c, but there is an emulator for PSION-Siena (from the same sites). If you want to install this emulator, copy its files into a different directory, say C:\SienEmu, and copy the file Siena.BAT from this package into this directory, too. Then proceed as described under 4, but use C:\SienEmu as working directory. 6. We found it convenient to add a few lines to C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT lastdrive=z SUBST I: C:\S3emu\m SUBST L: C:\S3emu\a SUBST R: C:\S3emu\b These instructions will list your S3a drives as separate drives in Windows. They will appear in the 'My computer' folder and can behave like disks. To avoid name clashes with floppies they have been renamed: Windows S3a --------------- I M internal drive L A left flash disk R B right flash disk You may choose other drive letters if you like. 7. Startup Leaving the emulator is like a hard reset on the real thing. When you start the emulator again, all applications and groups must be reinstalled. This process can be automated with a program found in AUTOINST.ZIP in this package. Please refer to the documentation provided there. 8. Exchange of data Connect your palmtop to the PC with the serial cable (3-link). Activate the Link function in the palmtop and in the emulator. You are now able to copy files, directories, or whole disks between both computers, or to backup disks to from one computer to the other, using the functions in the PSION system menu. When running applications on your palmtop, you can open files on the emulator, and vice versa. 9. Printing Printing from the emulator is possible in the usual way, either through the parallel or serial port. It is also possible to print from a real palmtop through the emulator to a printer: On both the palmtop and the emulator start the Link function. Invoke printer Setup on the palmtop, specify the printer model and select 'File' as printer port. For the file name specify 'REM::LPT1' if your printer is connected to the LPT1 port of your PC. Then use the applications print function. Note: Both printing function require that your printer works in DOS mode. This is not possible with some GDI printers, which require the Windows GDI active. Newer PC's can set up the parallel port as ECP port using DMA instead of IRQ. For DOS printing, set the parallel port up as a bidirectional port (using IRQs). This must be done in the BIOS - changing the setting in Windows doesn't affect DOS. 10. Troubleshooting Emulators have usually a few shortcomings and this one is no exception. There are a few things that are not quite compatible: - gtmode 2 in OPL doesn't always work properly. This can for instance make cursors leave a trace on the screen. - ioopen mode 4 (unique filename) The file name reported differs from the actual generated filename. A following ioread with the reported filename will not find the file. If an application uses this file mode, you may get an error message 'File does not exist'. Our own applications do not use this mode. - Some key combinations don't work CTRL+3digits are not translated into an ASCII character. Shift-F9, Shift-F10, Shift-F12 are not reported as Shift-MENU, Shift-HELP, Shift-Diamond. - Keyboard scan codes are always zero. Applications using keyboard scan codes, such as some games, do not work. - The PC sound card is not supported. Instead you get only very basic sound effects from the emulator. Tone dialling doesn't work either. - ALT + cursor key cannot be used as PageUp,PageDown,Home,End. Instead, use the original PageUp,PageDown,Home,End keys on your keyboard. - BigS3a and VertS3a. We have observed some applications bombing out when used with a big screen. OPL-written applications (OPAs) don't have this problem, but badly C-written applications (APPs) may. The inbuilt applications work all very well with the big screen. 11. Purpose - We provide this information to make our applications for the PSION S3 range more useful. The following applications run on the emulator: F11: yes, but some keys are different: use ALT-Esc followed by F9 (Menu) for Shift-Menu. use ALT-Esc followed by F10 (Help) for Shift-Help. Text selection by pressing the two Shift-keys doesn't work. HyperPoc: but Sound effects are very basic, no tone dialling MusiPoc: tunes can be edited, but not played, and the piano doesn't work FlowPoc: yes, no tone dialling PicPoc: yes PocDoc: yes, no tone dialling PocView: yes ProPoc: yes RepPoc: yes, no tone dialling All applications: cosmetic problem in Help (Morpheus) - the cursor leaves a trace when moved. 12. Open questions Users of Windows95sr2 have the choice between to file systems FAT (the traditional) and FAT32. I haven't tested the emulator under FAT32 yet but can't see a reason why it should not run under this system. Please drop me a line if you have experience with this setup. Author contact: Berthold Daum lichtbild@compuserve.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lichtbild End of document