
       32-bit Unicode Console API Runtime DLLs for OS/2 "read me!"

              Copyright (c) 2000 Jonathan de Boyne Pollard.
         c/o 1 Queen's Close KENILWORTH  CV8 1JR, United Kingdom

              Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, FIDONET#2:257/609.3
              Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, FIDONET#1:109/921.70
          Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard@tesco.net>


    Why you may need this package
    

    If a developer has written an application that uses the 32-bit Unicode
    Console API, the application will require several DLLs that are not
    supplied with IBM OS/2.  This package contains versions of those DLLs
    that are suitable for 32-bit IBM OS/2 (i.e. versions 2.0.1 upwards).

    The developer can distribute this archive along with the application,
    or, more preferably, can point you to a central location from which to
    obtain this archive and require you to install it beforehand.

    You only need to install this package once, not every time that you
    install an application that uses it.


    Guarantee and Software licence
    

    The Console API is copyrighted software.  The author reserves all
    rights in order to protect his good name and in order to prevent other
    people from passing it off as their own and making money from it.  The
    author wants this software to enjoy as wide an audience as possible,
    and also wants you to receive this software as it was originally
    released. Therefore:

     YOU MAY archive, store, copy, and distribute this software (which
      means the programs, and any accompanying electronic documentation,
      helptext, and message or data files) in its entire original,
      unmodified, form for any purpose, commercial or otherwise.  In fact
      you are *encouraged* to give copies of this software to your friends
      so that they can enjoy it too.

     YOU MAY make *limited* modifications to the original distribution
      archive before passing it on to others, to convert it to another
      archive format.  Extended attributes and long filenames must be
      preserved, however.  A FILE_ID.DIZ description file is already
      supplied.

     YOU MAY NOT pass this software off as your own, attempt to modify
      it, or obscure or remove the copyright notices or this software
      licence in any way.  Nor may you attempt to make money from
      distributing it to others apart from media costs, with the exception
      that you may include it in a "shareware collection" CD-ROM or other
      similar product or file collection which you make money from.

     YOU MAY NOT (and this part is especially true for those madly
      litigious Americans) sue the author or anybody else in respect of
      any supposed guarantee.  You receive this software exactly "as is".
      There's no guarantee whatsoever.  The author takes pride in his
      work, and naturally wants the software to behave well and do its
      job; but he isn't prepared (*certainly* not for software that you
      are getting entirely for free) to make any sort of guarantee of
      merchantability or fitness for any purpose.

     Bug fixes and enhancements to the software will occur entirely at
      the whim of the author, as and when he has spare time to write them.
      If you want a specific modification to the software, please remember
      that the author is a professional programmer.  You can always pay
      him to write it!

     The source code for the software is the product of a lot of time,
      skill, and effort.  It is not given away for free.  If you need to
      have access to the source code, approach the author about paying for
      a source code licence.

     Technical support for the installation or use of the software
      consumes time and effort.  If you need such support, approach the
      author about paying for a support contract.


    Installation to the standard system directory
    

    It is best to place the contents of this archive in the standard OS/2
    system directories.  The directory structure of the distribution
    archive is organised so that the "read me" files extract to an
    TAU\ReadMe\CONAPI\Runtime subdirectory off the current directory, and
    the DLL files extract to an OS2\DLL subdirectory.

    Therefore, simply change drive and directory to the root directory of
    the OS/2 boot volume (C:\, for example) and unpack the archive
    preserving pathnames:

        PKZIP -extract -dir=curr CONRT C:\ *

    ( This assumes that the distribution archive that you received was in
      ZIP format, and that you are using PKZIP version 2.50 for OS/2. )


    Conflicts with OS/2
    

    There should be *no* conflicts with IBM OS/2.

    None of the files in this package have the same names as files that
    are supplied as standard with IBM OS/2 Warp version 4.  If PKZIP asks
    you whether to overwrite a file, it is most likely that you are
    overwriting a previously installed version of these DLLs, in which
    case you might not need to install them again, depending from whether
    or not the DLLs already present are the most recent versions or not.

    To ensure that you only overwrite older versions with newer ones, and
    never /vice versa/, unpack the archive with the appropriate switches
    to force it to check file date and time stamps:

        PKZIP -extract=update -dir=curr CONRT C:\ *

    ( This assumes that the distribution archive that you received was in
      ZIP format, and that you are using PKZIP version 2.50 for OS/2. )


    Installation to a dedicated directory
    

    Placing the contents of this archive in a dedicated directory requires
    that the system configuration be altered, and may require the system
    to be shut down and restarted.  However, it does allow the operating
    system directory tree to be wiped and re-installed without needing to
    reinstall this package along with it.

        PKZIP -extract -dir=curr CONRT C:\CONSOLE\ *

    ( This assumes that the distribution archive that you received was in
      ZIP format, and that you are using PKZIP version 2.50 for OS/2. )

    This will extract the files that comprise the utilities into various
    subdirectories of C:\CONSOLE.  You will then need to add the relevant
    subdirectory to the LIBPATH environment variable (or CONFIG.SYS
    directive).  For example, if you have unpacked the utilities into the
    C:\CONSOLE directory, you will need to either

        (a) Create a *.CMD file with the following statements in it

                SET BEGINLIBPATH=C:\CONSOLE\OS2\DLL;%BEGINLIBPATH%

            which you then execute before using any program that requires
            the Unicode Console API; or

        (b) Make the following changes to your CONFIG.SYS

                Add C:\CONSOLE\OS2\DLL to your LIBPATH directive

            and restart your system.


    Documentation
    

    This archive contains only enough to enable you to run programs that
    use the 32-bit Unicode Console API on IBM OS/2.  For full
    documentation of the API, and a developers' toolkit, you need to
    obtain the CONAPI.ZIP or CONAPI.RAR distribution archive.
