			  The Parasol Language
			       version 1.0
				   and
			The ALYS Operating System
			       version 1.0

			   Copyright  (c) 1993
			      Robert Jervis

This package is designed to compile and run Parasol programs on IBM PC
compatible systems.  This file describes important information about
licensing, installation and basic operation of the package.

This package consists of the ALYS operating system, which includes a Parasol 
compiler.  This system will run on most 80386, 80486 or Pentium based
PC's with at least a VGA display adaptor.  This system has been run on
many ISA bus systems and will probably work on EISA and MCA buses as well,
although some device drivers may not work correctly.

You must have some uncompressed DOS hard disk partitions where you can
place this package.  This package consumes about N megabytes of disk space.

1. Licensing

You may copy this package and give copies to as many other people as you
wish.  You must keep the copyright notice in each source file you give to
anyone else.  You may not sell all or any part of this package without prior
written consent.  If you find this software useful or interesting you can
register your copy by sending US$50.00 to the following address:

	Robert Jervis
	17645 Via Sereno
	Monte Sereno, CA 95030

Registered users will receive a list of known bugs and will be notified when 
upgrades are available.

This package is made available AS IS.  I may no representations about the
correctness or completeness of this package in any respect.  

You may use compiled library files to help create your own applications, and 
you may sell those applications without owing any royalty.  You may also 
modify the sources to the libraries, recompile them and link them into your
applications royalty-free.  You may modify the source to an application 
program that is part of the package or use the source in another application
and you may sell the resulting program royalty free as long as it is not 
substantially identical in form or function to the original application.

You may not sell the source files, in original or modified form, nor may
you include the sources in another package for sale without prior written
consent.

For example, you could use part of the Parasol compiler to create a Parasol
compiler for a new target machine and you could sell the compiler as long
as you did not include any unoriginal source files to either the compiler or
the runtime library in the package.  Similarly, you could modify the 
Parasol compiler to compile another language for ALYS and you could sell
this new compiler as well.


2. Reporting Problems

If you find any problem with the product, please let me know.  You can
e-mail comments or problem reports to:

	bjervis!parasol@relay1.uu.net

or mail them to:

	Robert Jervis
	17645 Via Sereno
	Monte Sereno, CA 95030

Please try to be as specific as you can about the problem, including a
repeatable test case if you can.


3. Installation

This package is organized as a directory tree.  You can install this
directory tree on any uncompressed DOS FAT partition of your hard disk.
The ALYS operating system can only mount uncompressed FAT partitions, so
keep this in mind when using this package.

The ALYS.ENV file supplied in this package is a skeleton that assumes you
have placed the directory tree at C:\ALYS.  If you are placing the 
software in another directory or on another drive, you must modify the
path names in this file.  You must then copy this file to the C: root
directory.  It is the only file that must be located in any specific spot
on your disk.

The BOOT.EXE program is a DOS program that actually boots the ALYS system.
Once booted, the ALYS system takes complete control of your machine.  I have
had some problems with some DOS extenders.  Basically after a program that 
uses a DOS extender (like Windows) runs, some of these extenders leave the 
machine in a funny state.  The BOOT program will then fail, usually locking
up the machine and forcing a reboot.

Once ALYS is loaded, it then mounts the floppy disks and your hard disk
partitions, and then loads the console driver which loads a teletype window
and starts a shell.

The floppy drives are given the names /a and /b.  Fixed disk partitions
are assigned letters /c, /d and so on.  The algorithm is generally the
same as used by DOS.  Also, if you have an older version of DOS with Disk
Manager installed to give you large partitions, ALYS will mount those
partitions correctly.

Note that in this release, the /a and /b drives are not mounted.

4. Documentation

The documentation is supplied as MS Word for Windows files and also as
PostScript files.

5. The editor

There is a bug in the buffering of the editor.  You cannot use the buffer
switching key (F6).  That key will end up hanging the editor.  If you
open a second edit buffer (using F3), you must close that buffer in order to 
return to the first buffer (Alt-C).
