ascend/trunk/README-windows.txt

README for Windows Users
========================

The following contains some specific comments for people who have
installed ASCEND on Windows using the binary 'setup' installer. If you have
built you own copy of ASCEND from the source code, comments here may not 
apply to you.

For more information about and support for ASCEND, consult our home page:
http://ascend.cheme.cmu.edu/

ASCEND documentation (such as it is) is available at the above link, or
if you selected to install the Documentation, you should have a link
called "User's Manual" in your Start Menu under ASCEND. At present the
documentation is available only as a PDF file.


Running ASCEND
--------------

There are two different GUIs for ASCEND. Depending on the software that was
available on your machine at the time when you installed ASCEND, you may
have either the Tcl/Tk GUI and the PyGTK GUI, or both of these, or neither.

The newer GUI is the PyGTK GUI. It looks nice and is under active development.
An alternative GUI is the Tcl/Tk GUI which is older but still somewhat more
stable and complete than the new GUI. It is not really under active development
any more, however. You can choose for yourself.

If you've had any problem with getting either of the two GUIs up and running
it may be worth reviewing the prerequisites list on our Wiki at

http://ascendwiki.cheme.cmu.edu/Prerequisites_for_Windows

In some cases, download/install of components may have failed during
installation. One know case where this occurs is for people who are using
their computer from behind an HTTP proxy. Our current installer is not
set up for that use-case, and you should manually install all prerequisites
before attempting to install ASCEND.


Running the PyGTK GUI
---------------------

ASCEND can be launched from the Start menu. If you didn't choose to install
the Start menu shortcuts, you can run ASCEND using

c:\Python25\pythonw.exe c:\Program Files\ASCEND\ascend

The location of 'pythonw.exe' and 'ascend' may be different depending on 
where you installed Python and where you installed ASCEND.

You can also launch the PyGTK GUI for ASCEND by double-clicking on files
with the .a4c or .a4l extension. The installer will associate ASCEND with
those file extensions.

There is not yet a manual for the PyGTK GUI. The 'Help' menu also provides
access to the online manual.


Running the Tcl/Tk GUI
----------------------

The Tcl/Tk GUI can be run from the Start menu.

If you didn't select to install start menu shortcuts, you can launch it
via

c:\Program Files\ASCEND\ascend4.exe

The file location will depend on the folder where you chose to install ASCEND.

There is no file association for .a4c and .a4l files with the Tcl/Tk GUI.

Note that .a4s files are 'scripts' for the Tcl/Tk GUI.

A PDF-file manual has been written for the Tcl/Tk GUI and may be downloaded 
from the ASCEND wiki.


If ASCEND Stops Working
-----------------------

An easy way to break ASCEND is to remove some of the software it depends
on in order to work. This includes uninstalling Python, GTK+, Tcl/Tk,
PyCairo, PyGObject, PyGTK, IPython, Numpy, Matplotlib and possibly others.

The best thing to do in this case is to uninstall ASCEND using the
Add/Remove Programs control panel, then attempting to re-install it. At this
point, the installer should tell you what components you are missing.


Configuration Settings
----------------------

There are configuration settings in the Windows Registry that the ASCEND 
PyGTK GUI uses to determine where its files have been installed.

There are also per-user settings installed in

c:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\.ascend.ini

This last file can be edited if you want to add new folders to your
ASCENDLIBRARY path, for example if you are building up a collection of your
own ASCEND models in a directory of their own.

For example:

[Directories]
librarypath = C:\Program Files\ASCEND\models;C:\Program Files\freesteam\ascend

Other settings are also stored in this file. You can delete this file if you
to revert to the default settings that ASCEND used when you first installed
it.

Neither .ascend.ini file nor the Windows Registry are used by the Tcl/Tk
version of ASCEND. Instead, a number of files are stored in the 'ascdata'
folder within  your My Documents folder.


Removing ASCEND from your System
--------------------------------

The uninstaller for ASCEND can be found in the Start menu and also in the
Add/Remove Programs list. In any case, the uninstaller will remove all 
ASCEND components from your system.

NOTE however that when the uninstaller runs, it does NOT remove the
dependencies such as Python, PyGTK, GTK+ etc that may have been downloaded
and installed by the ASCEND installer when you first installed ASCEND.
These additional components will need to be removed by you manually. The
reason that they are not automatically removed is that it is not
possible to determine whether or not you have other programs installed
that also depend on them.

Syntax Highlighting for TextPad
-------------------------------

If you would like to be able to edit ASCEND files using a text edit that 
provides syntax highlighting support, you can use the editor 'TextPad'
available from http://www.textpad.com. If you use TextPad, you can use
the syntax file 'ascend.syn' that is installed in c:\Program Files\ASCEND
by first copying it to your c:\Program Files\TextPad 5\system folder, 
and then creating a new 'Document Class' for .a4c and .a4l files, and
selecting the 'ascend.syn' syntax file.

-- 
John Pye
4 Aug 2007.
1	README for Windows Users
2	========================
3
4	The following contains some specific comments for people who have
5	installed ASCEND on Windows using the binary 'setup' installer. If you have
6	built you own copy of ASCEND from the source code, comments here may not
7	apply to you.
8
9	For more information about and support for ASCEND, consult our home page:
10	http://ascend.cheme.cmu.edu/
11
12	ASCEND documentation (such as it is) is available at the above link, or
13	if you selected to install the Documentation, you should have a link
14	called "User's Manual" in your Start Menu under ASCEND. At present the
15	documentation is available only as a PDF file.
16
17
18	Running ASCEND
19	--------------
20
21	There are two different GUIs for ASCEND. Depending on the software that was
22	available on your machine at the time when you installed ASCEND, you may
23	have either the Tcl/Tk GUI and the PyGTK GUI, or both of these, or neither.
24
25	The newer GUI is the PyGTK GUI. It looks nice and is under active development.
26	An alternative GUI is the Tcl/Tk GUI which is older but still somewhat more
27	stable and complete than the new GUI. It is not really under active development
28	any more, however. You can choose for yourself.
29
30	If you've had any problem with getting either of the two GUIs up and running
31	it may be worth reviewing the prerequisites list on our Wiki at
32
33	http://ascendwiki.cheme.cmu.edu/Prerequisites_for_Windows
34
35	In some cases, download/install of components may have failed during
36	installation. One know case where this occurs is for people who are using
37	their computer from behind an HTTP proxy. Our current installer is not
38	set up for that use-case, and you should manually install all prerequisites
39	before attempting to install ASCEND.
40
41
42	Running the PyGTK GUI
43	---------------------
44
45	ASCEND can be launched from the Start menu. If you didn't choose to install
46	the Start menu shortcuts, you can run ASCEND using
47
48	c:\Python25\pythonw.exe c:\Program Files\ASCEND\ascend
49
50	The location of 'pythonw.exe' and 'ascend' may be different depending on
51	where you installed Python and where you installed ASCEND.
52
53	You can also launch the PyGTK GUI for ASCEND by double-clicking on files
54	with the .a4c or .a4l extension. The installer will associate ASCEND with
55	those file extensions.
56
57	There is not yet a manual for the PyGTK GUI. The 'Help' menu also provides
58	access to the online manual.
59
60
61	Running the Tcl/Tk GUI
62	----------------------
63
64	The Tcl/Tk GUI can be run from the Start menu.
65
66	If you didn't select to install start menu shortcuts, you can launch it
67	via
68
69	c:\Program Files\ASCEND\ascend4.exe
70
71	The file location will depend on the folder where you chose to install ASCEND.
72
73	There is no file association for .a4c and .a4l files with the Tcl/Tk GUI.
74
75	Note that .a4s files are 'scripts' for the Tcl/Tk GUI.
76
77	A PDF-file manual has been written for the Tcl/Tk GUI and may be downloaded
78	from the ASCEND wiki.
79
80
81	If ASCEND Stops Working
82	-----------------------
83
84	An easy way to break ASCEND is to remove some of the software it depends
85	on in order to work. This includes uninstalling Python, GTK+, Tcl/Tk,
86	PyCairo, PyGObject, PyGTK, IPython, Numpy, Matplotlib and possibly others.
87
88	The best thing to do in this case is to uninstall ASCEND using the
89	Add/Remove Programs control panel, then attempting to re-install it. At this
90	point, the installer should tell you what components you are missing.
91
92
93	Configuration Settings
94	----------------------
95
96	There are configuration settings in the Windows Registry that the ASCEND
97	PyGTK GUI uses to determine where its files have been installed.
98
99	There are also per-user settings installed in
100
101	c:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\.ascend.ini
102
103	This last file can be edited if you want to add new folders to your
104	ASCENDLIBRARY path, for example if you are building up a collection of your
105	own ASCEND models in a directory of their own.
106
107	For example:
108
109	[Directories]
110	librarypath = C:\Program Files\ASCEND\models;C:\Program Files\freesteam\ascend
111
112	Other settings are also stored in this file. You can delete this file if you
113	to revert to the default settings that ASCEND used when you first installed
114	it.
115
116	Neither .ascend.ini file nor the Windows Registry are used by the Tcl/Tk
117	version of ASCEND. Instead, a number of files are stored in the 'ascdata'
118	folder within your My Documents folder.
119
120
121	Removing ASCEND from your System
122	--------------------------------
123
124	The uninstaller for ASCEND can be found in the Start menu and also in the
125	Add/Remove Programs list. In any case, the uninstaller will remove all
126	ASCEND components from your system.
127
128	NOTE however that when the uninstaller runs, it does NOT remove the
129	dependencies such as Python, PyGTK, GTK+ etc that may have been downloaded
130	and installed by the ASCEND installer when you first installed ASCEND.
131	These additional components will need to be removed by you manually. The
132	reason that they are not automatically removed is that it is not
133	possible to determine whether or not you have other programs installed
134	that also depend on them.
135
136	Syntax Highlighting for TextPad
137	-------------------------------
138
139	If you would like to be able to edit ASCEND files using a text edit that
140	provides syntax highlighting support, you can use the editor 'TextPad'
141	available from http://www.textpad.com. If you use TextPad, you can use
142	the syntax file 'ascend.syn' that is installed in c:\Program Files\ASCEND
143	by first copying it to your c:\Program Files\TextPad 5\system folder,
144	and then creating a new 'Document Class' for .a4c and .a4l files, and
145	selecting the 'ascend.syn' syntax file.
146
147	--
148	John Pye
149	4 Aug 2007.