

 linux.txt: Using Simfit and Simdem in Linux under Wine
 ------------------------------------------------------

 Revised details for Simfit Version 7.3.4 onwards.

 https://simfit.org.uk 

 In order to maintain the functioning of Simfit and Simdem in
 Wine/Linux, several changes to the configuration items described
 in configure.txt or configure.pdf have been made at Version 7.3.4
 as now listed.

 Item 1 : Show logo on start up.
          ----------------------
          This has been disabled as it is inconsistent with window 
          hierarchies in some versions of Wine, despite using
          winecfg to allow Wine to perform window management.

 Item 20: Ghostscript.
          ------------
          Simfit and Simdem now are installed with Ghostscript as
          a DLL, so an independent version is no longer required.
          To force use of an independent Ghostscript installation
          delete or rename gsdll32.dll (or gsdll64.dll).

 Item 30: Paint a background.
          ------------------- 
          This has been disabled for the same reason as Item 1.  
          If there are still background display problems check 
          if simfitbar.exe (or x64_simfitbar.exe) are present and,
          if so, delete.

 Item 48: Gdiplus and anti-aliasing.
          --------------------------
          Wine does not now call gdiplus.dll for antialiasing with
          Simfit and Simdem as this has been disabled. In addition,
          dashed, dotted, and dashed-dotted line types do not work
          properly, so a Simfit routine is now used for this purpose.  
    
 Using native Linux binaries.
 ----------------------------
 Note that, with some Linux versions, a certain amount of reconfiguring
 and editing of permissions will be required in order to allow Simfit
 and Simdem to uses native Linux binaries and shared libraries. To avoid
 this it is suggested that, if problems persist when using the native
 binaries, you should use the built-in Wine defaults such as:
 For a text editor   ... Use C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe
 For a disk explorer ... Use C:\Windows\System32\Explorer.exe
 For a calculator    ... Use C:\Windows\System32\Calc.exe
 For a pdf reader    ... Use C:\Program Files\sumatraPDF\sumatraPDF.exe
 Of course you may need to install Calc.exe and sumatraPDF.exe, but with
 this combination every Simfit procedure will work correctly.

 Summary
 -------

 The Simfit package will run very well in Linux under Wine, but
 the configuration is somewhat more complicated than in Windows.
 Note that the two configuration files

      l_simfit.cfg and w_simfit.cfg
 
 will be in the ...\Programdata\Simfit\user\cfg folder. These can be
 viewed  or edited using the configuration option from the main Simfit
 menu.
 
 When installing Simfit for the first time, Simfit will try to
 create sensible Linux defaults. If you already have a satisfactory
 configuration, then re-installing Simfit will not overwrite any
 such configuration files. 

 ...

 1) Installing Wine
 2) Installing Simfit
 3) Running Simfit
 4) Configuring Simfit
 5) About l_simfit.cfg
 6) Linux auxiliaries
 7) Trouble shooting

 ...

1) Installing Wine
   ---------------

 You must have a recent version of Wine installed and
 fully functional noting these two very important points.

  a) You must have a set of Windows True Type Fonts or equivalents 
     installed in the Wine Windows Fonts folder, and Simfit will warn 
     you about any missing fonts. 
     Recent versions of Wine should have the fonts but, if not, then
     these fonts can easily be copied over from your Windows
     installation, then added to the Wine supplied fonts. Use
     an external drive or disk, and the DOS command line if you
     cannot do it from the Windows File System Explorer. 

  b) You must use the winecfg option to let the Wine windows be
     managed by the operating system windows manager. If you do
     not do this, then the the Linux task bars will be permanently
     obscured, and when you call the Linux auxiliaries they will 
     not be visible, as the Simfit controls will remain topmost 
     in the Windows hierarchy.  

2) Installing Simfit
   -----------------

 It will be presumed that you have Wine installed as in, e.g. 
  
 /home/wine_installation_name/.wine/drive_c

 Get the simfit setup.exe file from 

 https://simfit.org.uk
 
 then copy it into the drive_c and use wine to execute it, as
 in the command, e.g.

   wine simfit_setup7_3_4.exe (or wine x64_simfit_setup7_3_4.exe)

 This will then install the Simfit package in

 /home/wine_installation_name/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Simfit/bin

 with no default configuration. On running the Simfit driver
 w_simfit.exe (or x64_simfit.exe) for the first time you will get the
 option to install a default Linux configuration. If you install a
 Windows configuration by mistake, or your configuration becomes
 unusable, delete the  configuration files l_simfit.cfg and
 w_simfit.cfg, so that Simfit can replace the default Windows 
 configuration by the default Linux configuration.

 Note that, in recent versions of Wine the single drive called drive_c
 also has a copy in the \dosdevices\c:\ folder and this is where the
 command winepath will specify paths if you try to use Linux executables. 
 
 There are no registry entries needed to run Simfit. However,
 note that the installation program registry entries that are
 created are not required to run Simfit, only to de-install
 the package.

3) Running Simfit
   --------------
  
 The Simfit package is run by the single program w_simfit.exe 
 (or x64_simfit.exe with 64-bit Simfit) in one of several ways

  (a) You can make a link to this program, or else define a 
      shell command to provide the equivalent of
 
      wine w_simfit.exe

      from within the Simfit directory. 

  (b) You can run Simfit from the Wine sub-menu, if Simfit has
      been added to the list of Wine programs. 

  (c) You can add desk-top icon to run Simfit from the applications
      bar or elsewhere.    
   
 The first time you run Simfit you will have created the files

       l_simfit.cfg and w_simfit.cfg
 
 in the ...\ProgramData\Simfit\user\cfg folder in order to allow 
 Simfit to create defaults. At this stage you should be aware of 
 the information in the next two sections. 

4) Configuring Simfit
   ------------------

 Be careful as this is much more complicated in Linux than in 
 Windows. 

 You must appreciate several things before attempting to 
 configure Simfit.

  a) Within the Wine environment, drive_c behaves just like C: in
     a Windows installation. So the reference manual in the Wine
     environment would be

     C:\Program Files\Simfit\doc\w_manual.pdf
 
     which is case-insensitive

  b) To Linux outside the Wine environment however, it would be

     "/home/your_name/.wine/dosdrives/c:/Program Files/Simfit/doc/w_manual.pdf"  

     where the fully qualified path-filename is case-sensitive and
     the quotes are required because of the space in Program Files. 
     You are strongly recommended to set up folders within the
     Wine environment without spaces in the names, and to avoid all
     use of spaces in file names for files you create from Simfit.

  c) When asked to create l_simfit.cfg you must respond by attempting
     to create a Linux default, otherwise a Windows default will be
     created and this will disable the Linux specific aspects of
     Simfit.
  
    The Windows default is set up to expect Windows auxiliaries
    such as Notepad, Adobe acrobat reader, GSview, etc., but these
    are not required for the Linux installation, as Linux comes 
    ready supplied with many excellent auxiliaries. That is, if you
    can get them to work. You may need to use ldconfig to make the
    shared library programs available to Simfit.

    The Linux default attempts to configure Simfit to use the Linux
    built-in programs instead of the Windows programs, but you can
    re-configure to use Windows programs using [Configure] then [Advanced]
    from the main Simfit menu.

    If the Simfit configuration menu shows all Windows auxiliaries then
    either edit l_simfit.cfg using the [Configure] then [Advanced]
    buttons, or delete l_simfit.cfg and w_simfit.cfg from your 
    installation and start again.  
   
  d) In Linux, Simfit may create and read local files anywhere
     except within the ...\Simit\bin folder.
     This has several important consequences.
  
     i) The files such as w_simfit.cfg and l_simfit.cfg that are
        used to configure Simfit will be in the 
        ...\ProgramData\Simfit\user\cfg folder not in the Simfit folder. 

    ii) Temporary files such as f$123456.tmp that are created by
        Simfit will be in the temporary folder.
        If you choose to delete temporary files (which is the usual
        choice) you will never be aware of such files. 
        
   iii) You will have to configure w_simfit.cfg using the [Configure]
        button on the main page, but then also the l_simfit.cfg file
        using the [Advanced] button.   

   e) After using the [Configure] button to edit the configuration
      you must use [Check] to check the changes, then [Apply] to
      overwrite the configuration files. To force an attempt to find
      a default you delete the existing file name then use [Check] 
      then apply. Otherwise the full path can be copied and pasted
      into the blank field followed by [Check} then [Apply].

5) About l_simfit.cfg
   ------------------

 You must edit the file l_simfit.cfg that has been created by Simfit
 to contain the exact Linux path to your home directory, and to the 
 Simfit directory, so that Simfit can pass files to the Linux 
 auxiliaries. Typical entries would be as follows.
 
3 %linux%
Z:\
H:\
/home/YOUR_home_user_name/
/home/WINE_home_user_name/.wine/dosdrives/c:/
/home/WINE_home_user_name/.wine/dosdrives/c:/Program Files/Simfit/bin/
Z:\usr\bin\
Z:\usr\local\bin\
Z:\opt\kde3\bin\
Z:\opt\gnome\bin\
kwrite
konqueror
kprinter
klipper
kghostview
kpdf
kcalc
 
Details for the above configuration parameters
==============================================
The first lines of l_simfit.cfg must be as follows:
 1: version (use 0 %windows% to disable for Windows users)
 2: case-insensitive Wine drive for the root, e.g. Z:\
 3: case-insensitive Wine drive for your Home, e.g. H:\
 4: CASE-SENSITIVE full Linux path to your Home directory
 5: CASE-SENSITIVE full Linux path to Wine C drive, i.e C:
 6: CASE-SENSITIVE full Linux path to the Simfit binary directory
 7: case-insensitive Wine system binary search path 1 (obsolete)
 8: case-insensitive Wine system binary search path 2 (obsolete)
 9: case-insensitive Wine system binary search path 3 (obsolete)
10: case-insensitive Wine system binary search path 4 (obsolete)
11: favourite editor, e.g. kwrite, kedit, gedit
12: favourite explorer, e.g. konqueror, nautilus
13: favourite PS-driver, e,g, kprinter
14: favourite clipboard viewer, e.g. klipper
15: favourite PS-viewer, e.g. kghostview, ggv,evince
16: favourite PDF-reader, e.g. kpdf, evince
17: favourite calculator, e.g. kcalc, gnome-calculator
      
 Lines 1 to 17 must be exactly as above, and lines 4 to 6 are
 case-sensitive. Note that using a tilde (~) or $HOME for your
 home directory may not work.

 If Simfit fails to drive the Linux auxiliaries, it may be
 because w_simfit.cfg and l_simfit.cfg are not formatted
 correctly. In that case delete these configuration files and
 let Simfit create default versions. Alternatively, upgrade
 Wine and Linux and attempt a re-configuration which should
 then allow the binaries or shared library items to be linked
 in at run-time. 

6) Linux auxiliaries
   -----------------

 Linux has many excellent programs to edit text files, read,
 ps and pdf files, and to transform ps files into pdf or png
 files.
 For instance, in Fedora, you can use
   a) Z:\usr\bin\evince for reading ps and pdf files,
   b) Z:\usr\bin\gedit to edit text files, and
   c) Z:\usr\bin\gnome-calculator as a calculator.
   
 You should experiment and find the best binaries on your
 Linux installation to act as an editor, PS-viewer and
 PDF-reader, etc. Note that you must use [Configure], then
 [Check] and [Apply] to alter the auxiliaries, but note that
 the [Check] option will not work if l_simfit.cfg is formatted
 incorrectly.  

7) Trouble shooting
   ----------------

  a) Problem 1:

     Simfit programs appear as full screen programs blotting out
     the Task bar and obscuring the Windows created by Linux
     auxiliaries.

     Use winecfg to install the mode where Wine employs the window
     manager to manage windows. This should be the Wine default
     anyway.    

  b) Problem 2:

     A Linux auxiliary will not display, transform, or print
     a Simfit graphics file or document.

     Some paths defined in w_simfit.cfg and l_simfit.cfg may be 
     incorrect. Windows users new to Linux should note that
     paths and filenames are case sensitive, and spaces in file 
     names should be avoided. Within Wine always use \ as you
     would in Windows, Simfit will transform the file names
     into Linux format. Note that, you should normally switch
     on the options to add quotes to filenames passed by Simfit
     as arguments, especially if the filenames have spaces.

  c) Problem 3:
 
     Linux users have a great deal of control on how windows attain or
     relinquish focus (the procedure that determines which program will
     receive keyboard keystrokes and other information) with models such as
     click-to-focus and focus-follows-mouse etc. as well as settings to
     prevent focus loss. The latter is useful, for instance, if you find a
     window launched from another process grabs text that you were typing
     into another window - potentially hazardous if you're typing your
     password at the time.  If you find that Simfit dialogs do not attain
     focus and appear hidden behind the current window, you will need to
     experiment with these setting.  In particular, it has been reported
     that on some KDE systems, setting the "Focus Stealing Prevention
     Level" in System Settings->Look and Feel->Windows Behaviour->Advanced
     to anything other than "None" will prevent Simfit dialogs from
     appearing properly.
      
  d) Problem 4:

     At one time Simfit could easily use the native Linux programs but, due
     to the growth of new distributions together with security issues, this
     has become increasingly problematical. Because of this a version of 
     Simfit is being developed that will not need any auxiliary programs.
     For instance, Simfit no longer needs a Ghostscript installation. 

     Note that Simfit versions 7 onwards have been compiled in Windows 10 and
     you should configure Wine to use the Windows 10 mode, although Simfit
     will work perfectly in Windows 7 mode.
     
      
      
   
