[Indigo]<Spruce>documents>sprucemanual.dm!3>sprucemanualinst.bravo

Six files are needed to produce a Spruce system. Five may be obtained from the dump file [Maxc]<Spruce>Spruce.dm. They should all be placed on the server’s DP0 disk:

In addition, one must obtain a version of the font dictionary, Spruce.Fonts, appropriate for the printer, the disk configuration, and other installation-dependent conditions. Each installation tailors the font directory to its own needs. For more information about font production, see [Fonts] and [PrePress]. Also, please consult your local font experts.

Finally, several other files will be produced during installation. They will contain spooled Press documents, system state information, and intermediate results. They are:

Spruce.Spoolanyoption3Spooled Press documents for server
Spruce.Bandsanyoption4Intermediate file processing results
Spruce.CheckPointsDP0ca. 40Holds installation values, file descriptions

3Supplied at installation time. This file must hold all documents that have been spooled but not yet printed. See the chart at the end of this section for typical values. For stand-alone systems, this file must exist, but may be made as small as is desired.

4Supplied at installation time. This scratch file contains the results of the pre-scan pass over the Press file. Its size, for the largest Press file to be accommodated, must be roughly (2c + 4r + 80s) words, where c is the length of the Press file in bytes, r the total number of rectangles, and s the total number of different font characters used in the file. Again, see the chart below for typical values.

It is important for correct operation that the various files be allocated contiguously, or at least nearly so. Therefore, the following procedure is recommended for initial installation.

First, obtain a disk whose current contents is not valuable. Use the "Ether boot" facility to obtain a new operating system. Install it using the long installation dialogue, erasing the disk first. Do not install a password. Provide the Alto’s name as the user name: "Menlo", "Clover", etc., and a disk name of "Spruce Server" or "Spruce Dover Server".

Unless you are producing a T80 installation (whence space is not at a premium on DP0), you should immediately delete DMT.Boot and FTP.Run. Then use the "Ether boot" facilities to run Ftp, and obtain <Alto>Installswat.Run (from [Maxc] or your local IFS if it’s there.) Run InstallSwat, then delete InstallSwat.run.

Get FTP back, then fetch the Spruce operational files from [Maxc]<Spruce>Spruce.dm, plus the appropriate Spruce.Fonts as described above. You should also get <Alto>Sys.Errors.

If you have fetched a new font file or either of the new run files, if you need to modify the size or location of any of the scratch files, or if you need to modify any of the printing parameters (see next page), you should first run Sprint (type "SprintCR"), then proceed to the installation sequence (via "Spruce/ICR".) It is not strictly necessary to run Sprint unless Sprint.Run has changed, but it will never hurt anything, it is sometimes necessary to clean up messy situations, and it is always recommended.

Spruce, as distributed, contains defaults to install a Dover system at 384 bits/inch, with average printer-dependent adjustments (see below). On subsequent installations, unless the spooling program’s version has changed, the most recently installed values will be used as defaults.

Both the spooling program, Spruce, and the printing program, Sprint, contain a version number of the form (major version) . (minor version) (e.g., Spruce version 8.3). It is intended that Spruce version n.x will run successfully with Sprint version n.y, for any x and y. The system will refuse to start if the major versions differ. Fetch the most recent versions and continue.

An example of a numerical parameter is the Scan resolution. One selects it by clicking any mouse button while the cursor is positioned over its box, then types the new quantity, terminated by CR -- standard sorts of editing operations also work.

The printer type (Dover, etc.) is a selection parameter. For some perverse reason, the selected printer is displayed as black text on white background, while the rejected ones are shown in the inverse sense. Let me know how you would like that choice if you weren’t already used to the opposite approach.

There are two kinds of boolean parameters. The landscape/portrait mode option is an example of the first -- clicking the box toggles the underlying parameter and reflects the choice by modifying the legend. The other kind, seen only in the files menu (two pages hence), is true if it is displayed as black text on a white background, false if inverted -- again, a perverse reversal of the standard inversion scheme.

Printer Type. Select one of the available printers. A number of the other parameters, described below, will now change to reflect typical default values for that kind of printer. You must now modify those to suit.

Resolution: The number of scan lines per inch and bits per inch for the device. This value depends on the capabilities of the device and on the resolution of characters in the current Spruce.Fonts dictionary. I believe that all current systems run at 384 dots/inch.

Paper Parameters, Printer Parameters: These are values that describe the physical parameters of the printing device and the paper it prints on. They are used to control the actions of the imaging hardware. See the chart at the end of this section for typical values.

Margin Adjustments. These numbers should be used to center the Press page image on the real page. The default values are approximately correct for Dover, although the actual values vary from printer to printer and from time to time. The printer-dependent values given in the appendix were once correct, but will probably not remain so. Use the file Align.Press, a cross whose arms are 5" long, and whose center is at the center of the page. Larger values for "scan margin adjust" move the image to the right. Larger bit values move the image towards the page top. On "portrait mode" printers (Dover is a "landscape mode" printer, since the paper moves sideways through the machine), scans move the image down and bits move it to the right. The alignment file is supplied as part of the Spruce release.

To adjust the length of the arms of the alignment cross to exactly 5", you can try modifying the scan line length and paper speed parameters. Scan line length can be adjusted in .1" units, paper speed in units of .01"/sec.

Break Page/No Break Page: Determines whether an informative title page will be issued as the first page of each document. Enable the break page unless your printer is very slow and is used by only a small number of people.

Debug Settings: This value provides the Debug argument to be supplied when the global "/D" switch is used. As distributed, it is 32 (40b): Spruce will not actually try to run the printer.

To abort the installation without changing any values, click the Quit menu item in the bar below the window. To accept the printer paramters and proceed to file installation, click Install Files.

Disks. To produce a single-disk system, or a system where two model 31s are configured as one file system, do not change the default disk settings. When using two model 31s, however, it is preferable (because it minimizes head motion) to configure them separately, placing Spruce.Fonts and Spruce.Bands on DP1, everything else on DP0. By far the preferred configuration uses a T80 to hold the Spruce.Fonts, Spruce.Spool, and Spruce.Bands. When using this configuration, the second model 31 is legal, but relatively useless. Remember, a disk is considered available if its menu entry is shown as black text on a white background. The installer must explicitly toggle each disk entry to indicate interest in that disk. Spruce will refuse to consider a disk which is not currently connected, on line, and possessing a valid format.

Files. The menu contains one line for each file, with fields for specifying the file’s size and disk location. Spruce will try to find each of the named files on the currently-specified disk. If successful, the file name will appear in black text on white background, and its size (in pages) will be indicated. Otherwise, the name field will remain inverted, with a null size field.

For each file, first select the desired disk by toggling the associated disk entry until the right name comes up. Spruce will try to find a matching file. Failing this, fill in the size field, then click the file name entry. Spruce will create a file of the appropriate size.

To place a file on a different disk, toggle the disk entry and repeat the above steps. To change the file’s size, fill in a new size entry and click the file name entry. To cause Spruce to rebuild its structures representing a previously-installed file (black on white background), toggle the file name and wait for it to return to the installed state -- see TroubleShooting, below.

Finishing up. Finally, to accept the files as produced and modified, click the Install button, and wait for Spruce to finish. The system is now ready for operation. If you run into trouble along the way, click the Quit entry to return to the executive, fix the problem (see below), then repeat the installation sequence.

If, during or after installation, there are zero or fewer free pages remaining on any of the disks, perform the whole process over, reducing the size of the bands or spooling file as needed. As a guideline, after running Sprint, the spooling and bands file sizes may be chosen to use up all but 257 of the remaining pages on DP0, and essentially all the pages on other disks. We suggest leaving at least 20 additional pages for breathing room -- to allow larger program files, small Press files to be printed in stand-alone mode, etc.

If, after Spruce has been successfully running for some time, things go bad and it looks like software, try re-installing both Sprint and Spruce before resorting to sterner measures. If Spruce seems to be having trouble accessing its files, try verifying each file, even if it appears to be properly installed, by toggling its name entry in the file parameter menu.