The philosophy of CVS is such that no files are on the CVS server which can be generated locally from other files on the server. Thus, when you finish the CVS download you have no .INI file, no .WKS files, the PREFS folder contains no preference files, and the FSLFILES folder has no .FSL files in it. These are all generated files. Therefore, you have to generate these files. That's what this readme file is about.
NOTE: During the following process, ViSta will create and save a new workspace and then restart itself using the new workspace. This occurs several times. Occasionally it will attempt to restart before the workspace is entirely saved, generating a "Corrupt Image File" message. When this happens, simply double-click the ViSta.exe file to get ViSta running again.
Perhaps I should explain that I've changed the directory structure to speed up the program's startup time by reducing the number of files that need to be loaded. Since it doesn't have to load in very many files, the program's startup time is MUCH FASTER.
There are three code directories are:
1) SOURCE which contains files that are loaded into the system at the MAKE-VISTA time to become
part of the .WKS file. These are the ones which are no longer loaded
at run-time, thereby reducing the startup time by the time it took
to load 94 files.
2) MAKETIME which
contains files that are used to make the WKS file. Since everything depends on these files, they should normally not be changed.
3) RUNTIME which contains files that have to be distributed and
then loaded in after the WKS file is loaded. These files are mostly model
object code, which I judge to be useful for others to see if they want
to write model objects. Some additional files cannot be put into the WKS
file because they must get information that is specific to the local
installation. These SPECIAL RUNTIME files, such as vista, vismenu1,
vismenu2, vismenu3, config, dialogs, etc, are distributed in FSL form for
code security reaasons.
Unfortunately, this has made the developers process much more complicated. Now, whenever you change a SOURCE file or a RUNTIME file, it has to be recompiled and reloaded, and a new WKS file has to be made. This is the equivalent of the C/Unix Make process. Thus, I call it MAKE-VISTA.
I have completely automated this MAKE-VISTA process. It is not efficient (all files are loaded, whereas usually only one or two need to be, but its too time comsuming and complex for me to tackle at this time), but it works... now, when you've made such changes, and you exit ViSta, it compiles files that have changed. If there were some, it automatically remakes the WKS file. If not, it asks if you wish to make vista anyway. Usually, you do not. This option is more for me, to allow me to make changes in the MAKETIME files.
If a file doesn't compile properly, then the whole process terminates in a state in which you have no WKS file. In this situation, if ViSta is still running, DONT EXIT. First, correct the error and then type (make-vista) or use the MAKE-VISTA menu item.
If ViSta has stopped running, then try the following, in this order:
I've really spent a great deal of time trying to optimze the startup time, and at the same time make it possible for developers to develop! It's my top priority to get this working smoothly for developers, now that it works smoothly for users. So, if there are problems, let me know.
But above all, enjoy!