Thank you for trying PARALINK.
Don't forget its freeware, and we would love to hear your views (only 
good!). 


CREDITS
~~~~~~~
       (c) 1995/6 Paul Finch and Thomas Haines


NOTE
~~~~
       A lot of work has gone into this program, mainly due to an all but
complete lack of documentation on either the PC's or the Falcon's parallel
ports.  You may not realize this when you run the program, this is why I
point it out here:-)


WHAT IS IT?
~~~~~~~~~~~
       Para2000 is a program for transferring files between PC's and Atari's
using the parallel port.  It will only work with a bi-directional parallel
port.  It has been tested (i.e. run at least once) between the following
computers:-
                         486Dx2 <=========> Falcon 030
                      Atari STe <=========> Falcon 030
                     Falcon 030 <=========> Falcon 030
                        Pentium <=========> Falcon 030
                        Pentium <=========> Pentium

but it should work with any combination.  If only one end has a bi-directional
parallel port, then only that end can receive.


HAVE I GOT A BI-DIRECTIONAL PARALLEL PORT?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       If you have a PC then you will need to check you mother board manual
or your I/O card manual.  The setting you want is probably PS2/Bi-directional.
You might find that to configure your parallel port to this setting you need
to change a jumper setting on your I/O card.  Alternatively you might be able
to do it via your BIOS (this is often the case when the I/O is on your
motherboard).  *NEW* Nowadays the BIOS setting you require should be parallel
port mode, this should be set to EPP (the specific version (1.7/1.9) should not
matter).

       If you have an Atari then the answer should be a yes.  As I understand
it all non-Falcon Atari computers have a bi-directional port by virtue of the
fact that they are not buffered, that is the lines go straight into the chip.
With the Falcon Atari started describing the parallel port as bi-directional.
However the only difference that I know of between the Falcon's parallel port
and that of other Atari computers, is that the Falcon has two additional
lines (Acknowledge and Select).  These lines do not make it bi-directional
though (they are both present on the standard non bi-directional parallel
port found in PC's).  It is possible that the Falcon's parallel port is now
buffered, which would mean that a little extra hardware is required in the
controlling chip to make it bi-directional and this is why Atari now
describes it as bi-directional.

       You may have noticed that I have started to waffle on a bit, so here
is a recap:-

IBM-PC      - You will need to check to see if it is bi-directional.
Atari       - Yes it is bi-directional.


CABLES CABLES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       The easiest way to make up the required cable is to buy a transparent
25 D-type to 25 D-type (male to male) cable.  Open up one end and un-solder
the strobe and busy wires (pins 1 and 11), swap them over and re-solder.

       If you want to make one up from scratch the minimum requirements are
as follows:-
              connect the 8 data pins to each other (pins 2 through 9)
              connect busy to strobe (pins 11 and 1)
              connect strobe to busy (pins 1 and 11)
       In addition you can of course connect up all the grounds etc.  As to
how important it is to do this I have no idea although one of our leads
has only one ground wired up and works fine.

NOTE:- A LapLink cable will NOT work with this program.  Apart from the fact
       that our program does not use the laplink method, the Atari computer
       does not have half the pins that laplink uses actually connected on
       its parallel port.


DISCLAIMER
~~~~~~~~~~
       This program may go wrong.  It may blow up your computer.  Which may
burn down your house.  Which could drive you to becoming a mad deranged
psychopath.  However, should you kill anyone, we take no responsibility.
Nor do we take responsibility for anything else that could go wrong.  If
anything untoward happens, even if it just prints a character out of place
it is --YOUR-- fault.  This revolutionary piece of software does not contain
the worlds best error handling code, but hay, its free ! 

       If however it all works perfectly, you are happy with it, it saves
your marriage, or inspires you to pick the winning lottery numbers, then
that was --US--.  Please feel free to send any rewards (financial, material,
or good karma) in our direction:-)

====SPEED=====>!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Between two Atari Falcon 030 computers we managed about 6 Mbytes per minute.
Between two Pentium PCs we managed about 7 Mbytes per minute.

We had wanted to get a faster transfer rate than this, but at least it is faster
than serial.

USAGE  (THE COMMAND LINE VERSION for All Machine Combinations)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       On the receiving end you just run the program with no parameters, it
will then wait forever until it receives commands from the sender.

       On the sending end you pass any files and/or directories you want to
send on the command line.  The program will accept standard wild cards and
any number of parameters (to the limit of the command line of course).


USAGE  (THE -*INTERFACE*- VERSION)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	For Atari<->Atari transfer you can use PARALINK.TOS.  The first machine 
to run it will become the server and the other machine will provide the interface.  

Keys are: D                    -      Select Drives (then drive letter)
          (right arrow)         -     Move to Local List 
          (left arrow)          -     Move to Remote List
          (up/down)             -     Move Up and Down
		  Left Shift  (up/down) -     Move Up/Down A Page 
		  Right Shift (up/down) -     Move To Top/Bottom Page
		  (Space)               -     Tag File/Directory
		  A                     -     Tag All Files
		  Shift A               -     Tag All Files on Page
		  C                     -     Clear All Tags
		  Shift C               -     Clear All Tags on Page
		  I                     -     Invert All Tags
		  Shift I               -     Invert All Tags on Page
		  (Return)              -     Change Directory
		   \			        -     Go to Root
		  (backspace)           -     Move Back a Directory
		  G (Get)               -     Copy Remote To Local
		  P (Put)               -     Copy Local To Remote 
          (escape)              -     Terminate Both Ends

	When you first run it, you must select both drives using the drive
	letter.


DISTRIBUTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~
       Please distribute this program to anyone you think might find it useful.
We are currently out of touch with where people go to find Atari software, so if
you know of anywhere that this program can be placed (ftp/bbs etc.) we would be
grateful if you could place a copy there.

       The only condition that we impose on the distribution of this software is
that it remains free and that you inform us of any location/source to which you have
added this software.


REGISTRATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~
       If you use this program then you should register it.  Registering is FREE.
All you have to do is mail both myself and Paul and tell us what you use the program for.


WARNING
~~~~~~~
       There is currently no way to quit this program other than successfully
completing a file transfer, which means that you need the cable in place before
you run it.

       You will need to be running in a DPMI environment (such as Windows 3.1),
OR you will need the file cwsdpmi.exe in your path or the program directory.

       Unfortunately this program does not run well under Windows 95, which seems
to interfere with the parallel port whilst it is running (if any one has a solution
or explanation to this, please let us know).  If you are a Windows 95 user and wish
to use this program then you must boot into Dos mode.


CONTACTS
~~~~~~~~
       If you would like to contact us:-

       You can contact me 
                 by email:-    thomas@mistral.co.uk
                 on the WWW:-  http://www3.mistral.co.uk/thomas/
       You can contact Paul 
                 by email:-    paul.finch@virgin.net
