16 June 2003

Daniel Hellerstein (danielh@ers.usda.gov, 202 694-5613)

                        ZIPFIP
1) Installing ZIPFIP

To install ZIPFIP:

  a) Create a x:\ZIPFIP directory (x: can be any one of your
     drive letters)
  b) Copy the ZIPFIP_02FEB.ZIP file to x:\ZIPFIP
  c) Unzip ZIPFIP_02FEB -- make sure your unZIP program
     retains the directory structure!


No other setup is required (though you might need
to enable ANSI screen support, as discussed below).


2) Running ZIPFIP

ZIPFIP is a DOS program, with a 1980's style user interface
(function keys and arrow keys, using different colored fonts).
We recommend that you run ZIPFIP from a DOS prompt.

Furthermore, ZIPFIP uses "ANSI" screen control sequences,
which means ZIPFIP requires that your DOS session have ANSI
support.  If you don't know how to incorporate ANSI support
into your DOS session (different operating systems do it in
different ways), you can try running ANSI.COM (which will
be installed in your ZIPFIP directory) before running ZIPFIP.
For example: assuming you copied ZIPFIP to the D:\ZIPFIP directory...
   D:\ZIPFIP>ansi
   D:\ZIPFIP>zipfip
(where lower case is your input):

For more details, please see ANSI.TXT.

Note: if funny character strings, such as [$;, are being written to
      the screen, then you probably do NOT have ANSI support!


3) Short description of files

Sub-directories of ZIPFIP are:

OTHER    : Other useful ZIPFIP programs.
OUTPUT   : Default directory for output files. Also contains a few
          sample output files
PROFILES : Default directory for "user profiles" (an optional feature)
DOCS     : ZIPFIP documentation in WP 5.1 format, and in ascii text
           format.
DATA     : The ZIPFIP databases

Files in the ZIPFIP directory:

MODERN.FON   : Used by the VUPOLYS program
ANSI.TXT     : How to install ANSI support
ANSI.COM     : Enables  ANSI support
ZIPFIP.IMG   : The ZIPFIP "splash" screen
SOURCES.DOC  : Description of ZIPFIP data sources
ZIPFIP.DOC   : Short description of ZIPFIP
ZFINTRO.DOC  : Intro to ZIPFIP
ZIPFIP.EXE   : The ZIPFIP program
ZIPCHNGE.DOC : Documentation of recent modifications to ZIPFIP
ZIPFIP.DB    : List of currently installed ZIPFIP databases
ZIPFIP.HLP   : ZIPFIP's on-line HELP

The .DOC files are in ascii text format, and can be deleted if need be.
They are NOT Word documents (though Word can read them as text files).

The DOCS directory contains several documentation files.
In particular, ZIPFIP.WP5 is the main ZIPFIP manual,
and ZIPCHNGE.WP5 are recent changes (both are in WordPerfect 5.1 format).

Hint: the F1 function key will give you context-sensitive help.