MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.4 (C) UK 1994-6 Steve Litchfield ======================================================= Released as shareware July 1996 ... Note for upgraders: the filenames for some of the main modules in Mapper-3a/Ireland have been changed. You may wish to remove old (originally-named) copies of these files from your \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory. *************** If you unzipped this product from its constituent ZIP file _without_ the "-d" option (to rebuild the original correct directory structure), then you have two options. *EITHER* delete this file and the other files you've just created and try again, or carry on reading here until you get to the part where it tells you which directories to put everything in, and then use the MCLINK/DOS installation script or copy everything across manually! If you use a Mac, please note that you should avoid any unzipping options that involve 'smart'-handling of linefeeds. *************** Registration address (send cheque for 9 pounds to): Steve Litchfield 22 Grays Crescent Woodley Berks RG5 3EN or register electronically on Compuserve with GO SWREG no. 6567 (full price), or no. 12071 (half-price offer for users of Mapper-3a/GB) Mapper-3a update information and new versions can be found at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/slitchfield Requires Psion Series 3a or Acorn PocketBook II, with approximately 90k of free system memory to run in. New for v1.4 (over v1.3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Added Coast-to-coast and Ulster Way walks; added forest parks; added NI National Trust sites; added Youth Hostels; added more town plans; added cathedrals and abbeys; added viewpoints; changed some of the filenames to match up better with Mapper-3a/GB; reference info for overlay items now shows up below icon, not to side of name; proper Irish Grid support (grid letters etc); added Irish Grid square overlay; now supports Cyclone drive; added museums overlay; ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.4 is shareware. This does not make it a free program! Yes, you can copy it freely to friends or acquaintances, or even upload the original ZIP file to bulletin boards etc, but if you like it and continue to use it, then you are honour-bound to register the program by sending me a cheque for œ9 (pounds). If you have already registered MAPPER-3a for Great Britain, you can register at half-price, i.e. œ4.50 ... Registration gets you: a) a clear conscience that you're using paid-for software, and that you're helping support future development of MAPPER-3a/Ireland and other quality Psion shareware software. b) a special code that will personalise your copy of MAPPER-3a/Ireland, remove the opening and closing (and a few in-between!) shareware screens and let you access the program more conveniently, mainly the ability to shrink or remove the status window to give more room on-screen. No need to re-install the software, just use the registration menu option and type in the code! c) A direct say in how the program develops. *Note* the supplied MCLINK/RCOM script file which may help you to install the MAPPER-3a/Ireland v1.4 modules. You may need to customise it to suit your particular Psion's disk configuration etc. If in doubt, check your mapper installation against the module listings in the sections below ... ******************************************************************** ***************** IMPORTANT!! ******************************** ******************************************************************** This text file documents the history of the program, its installation, and some of the more technical aspects to running it. For general help in using and understanding MAPPER-3a, please browse through the *extensive* on-line help. This help is the only documentation of most of MAPPER-3a's features, so work through it properly! 8-) ******************************************************************** *******r*e*a*d***t*h*e****o*n*-*l*i*n*e*****h*e*l*p*!*!************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- All rights reserved, and copyrights, including the database files and their format, where appropriate (see listings below). MAPPER-3a/Ireland is a Geographical Information System (GIS) with a friendly interface..... All data sets are original work, collated using information from low resolution free maps, genuine public domain information and data gathered from personally-owned GPS units. Please note that in much of the displayed graphics, road vectors are shown diagrammatically, for ease of understanding. Please especially note Mapper-3a's low resolution. *Everything* is at least +/- 1km! Using low resolution means that the program won't conflict or overlap with existing PC-based GIS systems or infringe OS map copyrights and (more importantly) means that quite large areas and amounts of information can be crammed into a palmtop, where a PC version would need megabytes!! Memory requirements ------------------- MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.4 needs approximately 90k of system memory while running. If you try to start it with less than this amount available, it will hopefully warn you and exit. Components and Installation. ---------------------------- Mapper-3a/Ireland may well be the largest and most complex program you'll ever have to install on your Psion, so don't get frustrated if you can't seem to work out how to get everything going immediately. Try installing another (simpler) program first, and then try Mapper-3a again when you're more confident with files, directories etc. NOTE: Before installing Mapper-3a/Ireland, do the following. Go into 'Set Preferences' on your system screen menu and set 'Update lists' to "System Button". If you don't do this, the 3a will try and update all its lists after *every* file is copied, which will take ages .... If you are a MCLINK user: (i) If you've unzipped the ZIP file without using the -d and have all the Mapper-3a/Ireland files in the current directory. Note that an example MCLINK script file is included, called INSTALL.SCR, which you'll need to customise for yourself by changing the disk names to suit your set-up and then use it to save yourself some typing! To use it, start MCLINK and type @INSTALL.SCR (ii) If you *did* use -d with PKUNZIP and now have all the files in their original directory structure, don't worry. With the link on between the Psion and the PC, go to the Psion keyboard. Position the cursor on the system screen on Time and press Psion-C. The 'Copy Files' dialog will appear with the root directory selected. Change the second line to point to the appropriate directory on the PC. Change the third line to be "\", i.e. a single backslash. Change the fourth line to be the disk you want to install Mapper-3a/Ireland onto. Set the fifth line to read "Yes". Your Psion will then copy over the directory tree in one go to the appropriate disk. If you use RCOM: See above, as for MCLINK. Note the MCLINK script above will still work, but you'll have to manually create the appropriate directories on your Psion's disk etc. You can do this in one step by using the 'Make Directory' menu option to create \APP\MAPPERIR\PLANS\ on your chosen SSD etc. In RCOM, you can then run the script with "CALL INSTALL.SCR" ... If you use PsiWin (or Winlink?): (i) If you correctly unzipped Mapper-3a/Ireland with its original directory structure, then simply drag and drop this directory tree onto one of your Psion's disk root directories. Note: dragging and dropping whole directory trees is not trivial and you may wish to read the manual and/or practice first!! I tend to drag and drop from a highlighted directory in the right-hand side of a drive pane over to the drive root directory (\) in the left-hand side of the target drive pane. Confused? Blame Psion! Practice the procedure, you'll soon get the hang of it. (ii) If you've got all the Mapper-3a files in the same directory, you're definitely going to have to do it all manually, but at least you can do it all with 'drag and drop'! You'll need to create the \APP\, the \APP\MAPPERIR\ and the \APP\MAPPERIR\PLANS\ directories by hand on your Psion using the 'Create Directory' menu command. A good tip is to sort the unzipped files by extension/type, i.e. all the .PICs together, all the .MP3s together, and so on. You can highlight blocks of files in PsiWin by clicking on the first one and then holding the key down and clicking on the last one. All files in between will now be highlighted as well, and you can drag and drop the lot in one go across to your Psion's drives!! If all else fails refer either to the list below, or to the INSTALL.SCR script file, both of which should give you enough clues as to where things go! TIP: - when you drag and drop, remember to hold the key down throughout the operation. This forces PsiWin to just copy the file(s) and not try to do any fancy conversions! {Inside MAPI14.ZIP are the following files. Copyright and contributor information also included where known or appropriate} MAPPERIR.TXT - this file! MAPPERIR.OPA - the main program module. Place this in an \APP\ directory on any Psion drive, and install onto your system screen with Psion-I. Note the name of this module is deliberately named differently to the MAPPER3A.OPA file in the main GB product, in case you want both installed on your machine at the same time! (C) Steve Litchfield plus some support files, to be placed in a \APP\MAPPERIR\ subdirectory: MAPHELP.RSC - the comprehensive on-line help file IRELAND.MP1 - a data-set of towns and cities COASTLIN.MP2 - a data-set showing the coastline of Ireland ROADS.MP2 - a data-set of the Irish motorway and most of the primary route network MAPPERIR.PIC - some icons for use with the overlays, including a default one, the town planning symbols and the title screen Vector overlays (i.e. lines and boundaries): NATIONAL.MP4 - the boundary between Northern and Southern Ireland RAILWAYS.MP4 - a vector data-set of the Irish railway network OSGRID.MP4 - a vector data-set of the Irish Grid Reference system Item overlays (i.e. specific points and labels and reference info): AIRPORTS.MP3 - airports! (updated by Paddy Dillon, 1996) INTEREST.MP3 - places of interest CAMPING.MP3 - camp sites PEAKS.MP3 - mountain peaks over 700m PORTSIRE.MP3 - ports capable of taking yachts (see PORTSIRE.WRD file for more info - (contributed by Graeme Smith) HMCGIRE.MP3 - coastguard stations (see HMCGIRE.WRD) - (contributed by Graeme Smith) COASTRIR.MP3 - coastguard radio stations (see COASTRIR.WRD) - (contributed by Graeme Smith) COAST2C.MP3 - coast to coast walk - (contr. by Paddy Dillon, July 96) ULSTRWAY.MP3 - Ulster Way walk - (contr. by Paddy Dillon, July 96) YHA.MP3 - Youth Hostels - (contr. by Paddy Dillon, July 96) FOREST.MP3 - Forest Parks - (contr. by Paddy Dillon, July 96) NATTRUST.MP3 - National Trust sites (Northern Ireland only) - (contr. by Paddy Dillon, July 96) CATHEDR.MP3 - Cathedrals, abbeys etc - (contr. by Zoe Ingle, Jul 96) VIEWPONT.MP3 - Viewpoints - (contr. by Zoe Ingle, Jul 96) MUSEUM.MP3 - Museums etc - (contr. by Zoe Ingle, Jul 96) Each of the .MP3 overlays listed above has an associated .PIC file of the same name. These are the on-screen icons for overlays, and will be used if present in the main \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory. If they are not present, a default 'star' icon will be used.... Each of the overlays includes reference information for each item, and this can be displayed by turning 'Overlay Reference Fields' On. Some of the overlays may have .TXT files of the same name. These give more information about the overlay and can be read on the desktop machine or the Psion, as appropriate, and then deleted if necessary. As I say, all the above support files live in the \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory. Note the town plan schematics, as used in MAPPER-3a for Great Britain. Users can use the supplied VECTDRAW utility to create town plans of their locality and then (hopefully) submit them to me for inclusion in the next release of MAPPER-3a/Ireland. The TPLIST utility is useful to keep track of which towns have been 'done'! A selection of about 20 town plans is supplied with MAPPER-3a/Ireland v1.4, as a starter, and hopefully the number of them will grow as time goes on. So ... VECTDRAW.OPO & TPLIST.OPO - put these into a \OPO\ directory on any drive on your Psion. The Tpnnnnnn.MT1 town plan files should be put into a \APP\MAPPERIR\PLANS\ directory on any drive. .MP3 Overlays and their format etc. ----------------------------------- You can use the overlay creation menu options to create your own overlay and then use the point and shoot method to identify where you want each item icon to appear, together with information for the reference field. Please note that although these user-made .MP3 files are editable under DATA, you will run into a few problems if you update the records in the file on a *flash disk*, as the file *must be compressed* for MAPPER-3a/Ireland to use it, and the 3a won't let you compress a file on a flash disk! Thus you'll have to copy the file onto your internal or RAM disk, make the changes, compress the file and then copy it back over into the \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory on your flash. MAPPER-3a/Ireland *should* default to creating new .MP3 files on your *internal* disk, which is where you'll have less problems updating your overlay. Note that some of the built-in/supplied overlays have been compressed slightly to save space and so are not editable under DATA. If you're desperate to see what's in them, the freeware program JBDATA will let you do this. You will probably want to create a custom icon as well. In this case, MAPPER-3a/Ireland needs a 17 by 17 single-plane PIC file of the same filename as the .MP3 overlay, but with a .PIC extension. I normally create these icons by starting with a 48x48 blank icon using DRAW28 (see appendix notes), drawing my icon in the top-left corner, and then using 'Alter/Dimension' to create a 17x17 PIC. Save and exit. Deleting info from the custom town database, \OPD\MAPPERIR.DBF -------------------------------------------------------------- The \OPD\MAPPERIR.DBF file is editable under DATA, so you can delete individual towns etc and modify them in this way. Please remember to compress the file before exiting DATA ! Keeping a standard/default settings file ---------------------------------------- You can set everything up how *you* like it (i.e. your own private default for all settings) and then make the \OPD\MAPPERIR.SET file read-only. MAPPER-3a/Ireland will then always load your preferred settings in and will be prevented from overwriting them when you exit the program. Grabbing the current map screen as a PIC file --------------------------------------------- You may well want to grab a map screen as a standard Psion .PIC file, for printing or editing using DRAW (see small print at end) or PAINT or any other 3a bit-map editor. Grabbing the 3a screen is done with pressing 'Control', 'Shift', 'Psion' and 'S' simultaneously (it's easier to do than it sounds) and lo and behold a file called SCREEN.PIC will have appeared in the root directory (\) of your internal disk ... _+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_ Thanks for trying MAPPER-3a/Ireland! If you decide to remove MAPPER-3a/Ireland from your Psion, please note that it creates three small files in \OPD\ on your default disk. MAPPERIR.DBF (custom place database), MAPPERIR.REG (your registration key, once I've given it to you) and MAPPERIR.SET (used to store your preferences and position etc from session to session. If you've created any custom overlays or their icons, there may also be a few files in an \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory on your internal disk. Small print: ------------ 1) Reverse engineering of the program or data modules is strictly forbidden. Attempts to try and 'crack' the methods used by me to protect MAPPER-3a/Ireland from reverse translation are also forbidden. If you would like to create a complementary program and use my data-sets, then please get in touch with me. 2) Please note the availability of the GB version of MAPPER-3a, which is much larger and more comprehensive, with over 40 overlays. The latest version (at July 1996) is 4.3 and the file names to look out for are MAPA43.ZIP, MAPB43.ZIP & MAPC43.ZIP, three ZIP files being needed as there's so much data there, to keep unzipping possible even on a S3a machine itself. 3) A useful related program to have available for editing and cropping any screen-grabs you do in MAPPER-3a/Ireland is DRAW 2.8, by Rick Andrews. This is a S3a-only full bitmap editor and manipulator and is also shareware, available wherever you got MAPPER-3a/Ireland from. 4) You can contact me via email at slitchfield@cix.compulink.co.uk, if you'd like. To speed up registrations, you can quote your email address for quick return of your registration code. 5) If you give MAPPER-3a/Ireland to a friend (as is encouraged with shareware!), then it's always best to give him/her the original ZIP file. If the transfer takes place by SSD, then remember to include both the main MAPPERIR.OPA program and the \APP\MAPPERIR\ subdirectory full of data files. Do *not* give your friend your MAPPERIR.REG registration file, as this is unique to you and contains *your* name, and subsequent piracy will tell the world who started the outbreak! 6) Note on copyrights etc.: be careful to only make use of freely available and public domain data sources when compiling any overlays, unless of course you sourced the information (from memory?) in the first place! If you submit an overlay to myself for inclusion in future versions of MAPPER-3a/Ireland, please state your source(s) of information and their copyright status. 7) For more information on connecting Mapper-3a/Ireland to a GPS unit to provide a moving map display, please see the GPSNOTES.TXT file shipped with Mapper-3a/GB, or the equivalent page on my web site at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/slitchfield