jBASE International

jBASE Download - Installation Advisory

Here is all you need to know to get going with jBASE for Windows. Please read these instructions carefully before using jBASE. The information covers installation of jBASE, modifications to the Windows environment and the steps required to port legacy applications.

Visual C++ Compiler

When you compile a Basic program with jBASE, it is converted to C++. The C++ code is then compiled to machine code. The supported compiler is Microsoft Visual C++. For jBASE 3.4.2 and later, you must use Visual C++ 6.0 or Visual C++ .NET. The standard editions of these products is adequate.

Installation
User Setup
The jSHELL
Tape Devices
Spooler
Environment Variables
Frequently Asked Questions

Installation

Insert the cd or disk 1 of the installation set and then run SETUP.EXE (Start->Run). Answer any questions you are asked. Once the installation has completed, it is wise to log off and then back in again in order that all changes take effect.

If you have received the software via the Internet, it may be in the form of a self-extracting executable. To install the software, simply run the executable.

NOTE: At the present time, jBASE does not support spaces in the installation directory name. For example, installing jBASE in "x:\Program Files\jBASE" will not work. The default installation directory is "x:\jBASE30".

During the installation you will be prompted for a license key. If you do not have a valid license key, then choose Evaluation, which will allow you to use jBASE for 30 days. A permanent license key can be entered subsequently using the jInstallKey command.

When installation is complete you will see a new Program group and a number of new icons.

User Setup

Windows 2003 Server

Users need to be set up as members of the Telnet Clients group.

This same group also has to have Modify permissions on the jBASE \tmp directory, so that temporary files can be created.

Windows NT/2000/ME/XP

Before installing jBASE you should create yourself a development user from which to compile your programs. Ensure that you create a local directory for the user rather than using c:\users\default. The user should have Administrative privilege. This user should set an environment variable called HOME to the local directory just created. If you intend to compile Basic programs in the jBASE environment you should either install Visual C++ version 6.0 or higher or set up the environment variables for PATH, LIB and INCLUDE accordingly.

You can now run jBASE. This should be done as a user that has Administrative privilege.

Windows 95/98

Before installing jBASE on Windows 95/98, you should create a working (HOME) directory for jBASE using the Explorer, then edit your AUTOEXEC.bat file as so (this example assumes a directory name of HomeAccount).

set HOME=c:\HomeAccount

This is where any ACCOUNT-RESTORE etc. will take place by default. Your programs will be compiled in this directory too. You should now reboot to ensure this variable is installed.

Note that you should not load any data into the jBASE install directory.

The jSHELL

You can now click on the jSHELL icon, which will start a jBASE Shell window. When the jsh starts up, it will display a prompt of the form:

jsh GregN ~ -->

this represents:

ShellMode UserName Path -->

The UserName is the name of the NT or Windows 95/98 user, this can be changed by setting the environment variable JBCLOGNAME, but this must be done before running the jsh. Note: if your Windows 95/98 machine is not part of a network, then the username will be displayed as "unknown", set the JBCLOGNAME variable if you wish to change this. The Path is the current Windows path, the shorthand notation of ~ is used to indicate the HOME directory (the pwd command will show you the actual path here). The ShellMode is the current mode that the jsh is in, see the jBASE Shell Reference for a full description.

Of course, you can change the jSHELL prompt to any sequence of characters you require. Refer to the online documentation for the jsh command.

Tape Devices and Commands

jBASE provides commands such as T-ATT, ACCOUNT-RESTORE, SYSRESTORE, RESUV, RESTOREADDS, and MAGRES which allow you to load data from legacy systems.

Before you start loading accounts take a moment to review the instructions in C:\jBASE30\dev\device_notes (or wherever you installed it), and check that your tape devices are configured correctly (i.e. they must be working correctly under Windows). The standard devices are FLOPPY0 for the 3.5" floppy, SCT0 for Cartridge tape, and DAT0 for 4mm DAT.

Be aware that a tape "device" can also be a file. Quite often you can avoid tape compatibility problems between the source and target machines by backing up your data to a file and restoring from that file.

The utilities such as ACCOUNT-SAVE and ACCOUNT-RESTORE are provided as a mechanism for transferring data to and from legacy systems. We recommend that for normal backup and restore procedures, you use the more powerful jbackup and jrestore commands.