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SIL Converters 2.5 Installation

Kent Spielmann, 2007-02-01

Overview
Installation
Known issues at release time

Overview

SIL Converters version 2.5 is intended to be installed using the Master setup program found here.

This document is intended to guide you through the Master Installer installation screens and initial SIL Encoding Converters2.5 Setup. This guide may be sufficient for many users. However, to make full use of SIL Encoding Converters 2.5, you should refer to the SIL Encoding Converters documentation.

The Master Setup program runs a series of installers:

Software prerequisites—Necessary system updates and add-ons are installed on your computer.
SIL Encoding Converters2.5 Setup—Conversion applications are installed and conversion Maps and Tables are copied to your hard drive.
SIL Converters for Office 2003—Currently this installer only installs an additional operating system update.
Converter Installer—A utility that allows you to activate the conversion Maps and Tables you want to use.

Installation

If this is the first time you are running the installer, be sure to close all programs before starting the installation program, including the program that you are using to read this document. Several of the software prerequisite sub-installers will stop and tell you to shut down programs.

Suggestion: If this is your first time installing SIL Converters, you may want to print out this document to guide you through the process.

Software prerequisites

These installers may require that you answer some dialog box questions. Be sure to allow these updates and add-ons to be installed; they are necessary for SIL converters to run properly. Several of the software prerequisite programs may stop and tell you to shut down programs you were not even aware were running. Be sure you follow all instructions.

If it seems the installer has stalled, it may be there is a dialog box waiting for you to respond. However, be patient. Some of these installers take several minutes to finish.

SIL Encoding Converters2.5 Setup

Overview

This section is intended as a guide for initial setup. For detailed information on the SIL Encoding Converters2.5 Setup see Help for SIL Converters 2.5.

You should probably choose all defaults, except if there is a Maps and Tables package that you might want to use.

Tip:

You do not need to know exactly what you want to install the first time you run the Setup program. You can run the Master Setup program again to add or delete components. For more information on the SIL Converters components and features see Help for SIL Converters 2.5.

Installation

Welcome screen.
- Click Next .

Destination folder
- To use the suggested folder (recommended), click Next .

For Advanced Users: As many of the components in the SIL Converters suite are shared utilities, the vast majority of the download will be installed in specific, fixed, shared locations. For example, most of the transduction engines are provided by DLL programs which must be in a folder that is in the Windows Path environment variable. For this reason, the TECkit, CC, ICU, Perl, and Python DLLs are put into the C:Program FilesCommon FilesSIL folder, which is also added to your system Path variable. However, the majority of the client applications, which otherwise don’t need to be in one of these shared locations (e.g. the Bulk SFM converter, the Clipboard EncConverter, etc), will be installed in the folder which you select from this dialog box.

Select features

This screen allows you to select which conversion applications are installed and which conversion Maps and Tables are copied to your hard drive. Selected Map and Tables will need to be activated using the Converter Installer dialog latter in the installation process.

Select Features—Alternatives:
- To install the most commonly used features and components, click Next .
- To install additional font conversion packages:
Click Next again to begin installation.
When you see the SIL Encoding Converters 2.5 has been successfully installed message, click Finish to continue.

SIL Converters for Office 2003

The SIL Converters for Office 2003 Setup currently only installs a critical operating system update. However, the update is needed by all users, whether or not you have Office 2003.

Click Install .

Tip:

This installer does not check to see if update has already been installed. If you know the update has been installed, you may click Cancel and OK to skip this installer.

Converter Installer

The Converter Installer allows you to add the converters you want to use to the system repository of your machine. This makes them available to all applications that use Encoding Converters.

This selection menu is also permanently available from: Start / Programs / SIL Converters / Launch Converter Options Installer. All conversions currently copied to your hard drive are listed.
- A gray check indicates conversions that are currently active
- A dark check indicates conversions that are selected to be activated.
- No check indicates conversions that are not activated or are selected to be deactivated.
Check All: Click this box to cycle between
- Check All,
- Clear All, and
- Show Currently Installed
Show Tool Tips: When this box is checked, hovering over the conversion name will display information on the conversion.
- Select the conversion you want activate. Most users will only use one or two conversions.

Tip:

Do not activate all the converters. Too many active converters will slow down your system considerably, particularly if you are using the Clipboard Encoding Converter application.

Click Commit to activate your selections.
Click Cancel to finish.

Known issues at release time

CC Unrecognized keyword error

CC Error dialog box

If you see this error message: begin > utf8 ?CC-F-Unrecognized keyword, it means that there is a version of the file cc32.dll somewhere in your Windows Path that is older than the one installed by SIL Converters into the C:Program FilesCommon FilesSIL folder. It is best if you delete any older copy of cc32.dll. The existing application which installed it will be able to use the newer version installed by SIL Converters because it is also on the Path.

Alternatives

Delete any versions of cc32.dll that may be in your C:WindowsSystem32 and C:LingLinkCellarSmv folders.
Do a Search of your hard drive for cc32.dll and delete any versions older than 4/16/2002 (Version 8.1.6).
- Click Start / Search.
  - Result: A Search Results window opens.
- In the All or part of file name: drop down box, type or paste: cc32.dll.
- In the Look in: drop down box, make sure Local Hard Drives appears.
- Click More advanced options and make sure Search system folders is checked.
- Click Search
  - Result: The search should find cc32.dll in C:Program FilesCommon FilesSIL as well as in some other locations on your hard drive.
- Delete any versions of cc32.dll in folders other than C:Program FilesCommon FilesSIL.
  - Warning: If the search finds versions of cc32.dll in .zip or other compressed file folders, you should not try to delete them.

Python 2.4 required for Python script conversions

If you want to use a Python script converter, such as 'UnicodeName' (installed when you select the 'Python Script Functions 2.4' transduction engine feature in the SILConverters' installer), you must also install a separately-available Python distribution of the same version number.

SILConverters 2.5 supports encoding conversions using Python Version 2.4. This means you must have a Python Version 2.4.x. installed on your computer. It will not work with an earlier or later Python version (e.g. 2.3.1 or 2.5.2).

As of this writing, Python Version 2.4.4 is available for download from http://www.python.org/download/.

Perl 5.8.7 required for Perl expression conversions

If you want to use a Perl expression converter, you must also install a separately-available Perl distribution of the same version number.

SIL Converters 2.5 supports encoding conversions using only Perl Version 5.8.7. It will not work with any other Python version (e.g. 5.8.8). The Perl converter has been tested with the following freely available Perl distributions: ActiveState Perl or PXPerl.

The PXPerl 5.8.7 installer may be downloaded here:

PXPerl 5.8.7 installer
PXPerl, 2005-08-23
Download "PXPerl-5.8.7-6.exe", Windows application, 29MB [2175 downloads]

Unable to add converters with PXPerl installed

The PXPerl program inserts its path Path environment variable ahead of the Windows path folders. This causes certain problems (e.g. unable to add an ICU Transliterator from certain SIL Converters’ client applications).

If you have trouble installing some converters, you should follow these steps to rectify this problem:

Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Result: The System Properties dialog is displayed.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click the Environment Variables button.
In the System variables area, scroll down to and select Path and click the Edit button).
Move the portion of the path that refers to Perl (e.g. C:PXPerlparrotbin;C:PXPerlbin;) to anywhere after the Windows path folders (i.e. the %SystemRoot%... items).

Tip

Open a text editor like Notepad. Right after clicking Edit, click CTRL + C to copy the path statement from the Variable Value box of the Edit System Variable dialog window, then paste the path into the text editor. After editing you can paste it back.

Result: When you’re finished, your Path variable should look something like this (though it may be much longer, and there should be no line breaks):

%SystemRoot%system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%System32Wbem;
C:Program FilesCommon FilesSIL;C:PXPerlparrotbin;C:PXPerlbin

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