CompuServe Messages

Ok, simple and to the point. When you mail a letter at the post office, you have to go through several steps, which include collecting pages of the letter, and placing them in an envelop. The same goes for files sent over the modem. A application like Autopilot can consists of dozens of separate files. The main program, data files, help files, etc. And other programs may also have custom fonts, libraries, device drivers, and extra commands files. A special program is used to create a special 'archive' file, to act as an envelop in which to place the dozens of separate files. This allows a person to upload a archive file, so others only need to find and download that single file. Simular to placing several pages of a letter into a single envelop, instead of mailing the pages — one page at a time. One such program is called 'LHA'. This program can create the envelop file called a <aname>.lha, then pack several file inside it, and later can be used to unpack the files from this envelop. When you downloaded the file 'AP.LHA', you actually got a package containing several files. You need the LHA program to unwrap the package. LHA, is in LIB14 (Archivers/Crunchers) as program 'LHA138.RUN'. This program can unwrap itself. After you download it, you run LHA138.RUN and it will unpack the actual LHA program and docs to disk (RAM, HD or floppy). You will need to move the LHA program to a place were it can be easily accessed and re-used (like the C: directory). Once you have LHA, you can use LHA as a crowbar to open the AP.LHA package and other '.lha' files. To open AP.LHA, you would use the CLI and enter something like: LHA -x dh1:AP.LHA RAM: This: – runs the LHA program – tells LHA to eXtract files from the .lha (envelop) file – the envelop is to be the AP.LHA file found on dh1: – and to place the unpacked file in the RAM: directory Once the files are extracted, you can then access them. It this case, I placed them in the RAM:. The AP.LHA file, included an 'installer script'. This is a set of instructions that can be read be the program called INSTALLER. Installer, can read this instructions, and based on them — it can ask the user questions on where to place the AP program on the Harddrive, and it can also place the other included files where they need to be. You may also need to download the INSTAL.LHA file from LIB2 (upgrades), to get the Installer program. — Does this help? Ron. – ("I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going!" – quote made by any low level RPG player.)