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Welcome and System Requirements
Welcome to HyperLink 2.5e!
HyperLink is a full-featured hypertext environment for your Commodore 64 or
Commodore 128 in 64 mode, allowing you to unite graphics, text and
presentation elements into an easy to use interface for navigating information.
The 2.5 version series is Internet-enabled, allowing you to use the same
HyperLink interface to browse the Internet and the World Wide Web with a
Unix shell account and the HyperLink Parsing Proxy, a Perl program you
run on your Unix shell account.
HyperLink is a venerable Commodore application with a long history, starting
with version 1.0 in 1994, and progressing through version 2.0 in 1999,
version 2.5 in 2001, version 2.5a in 2002 and now version 2.5e.
HL2.5 introduced mouse support, faster disk access routines, a document cache to allow previously referenced documents to be fetched from memory, and the ability to allow documents to accept queries and make intelligent responses. HL2.5 is 100% backwards compatible with all HL1.0 and 2.0 scripts.
Also new to HL2.5 is Internet access! Using HL2.5 and a Unix shell account,
you can access Web pages and graphics on a Commodore without a SuperCPU.
Using the new HyperLink Parsing Proxy (HLPP), web pages and images are
distilled down to HyperLink-compatible elements and displayed for you using
the same familiar HL interface.
Version 2.5a takes all the features in 2.5, and adds REU support and fixes several important bugs, as well as introducing new groundwork for more sophisticated HLPP features to come.
The current version, version 2.5e, further builds on version 2.5a with a
high speed display engine, the ability to autoboot and configure in both
64 and 128 modes, a disk wedge, and several other small feature upgrades
and bug fixes.
We suggest that all users of the original 2.5 and the 2.5a update upgrade
to 2.5e, except if you are using the original 2.5's unsupported 1200bps mode
as this is not in 2.5a nor 2.5e. You can find
out what version you are using by pressing the = (equal sign) key in
HyperLink. If you are
using 2.5a or 2.5e, it will display its version number in the lower right
corner.
A note on piracy
HyperLink 2.5e and all previous HyperLink versions are distributed as shareware. Feel free to use the free unregistered version as long as you like, and to make copies of the free unregistered version for anyone interested. If you're satisfied with the free version, you don't have to pay for using it. Enjoy! However, should you decide to purchase a registration key and register the software, we unlock additional features: registered users can go directly to URLs and files by typing them in instead of clicking through pages, and receive priority support from us with technical issues.
Please don't illegally copy or distribute the registered version. While odds are we can't stop you, you'll be putting small companies like us that still support the Commodore 8-bit platforms out of business that much sooner. Please, don't pirate!
System requirements
HyperLink 2.5e requires these minimum system elements to boot:
- Commodore 64 or Commodore 128 (either native 128 mode or 64 mode)
- A 1541 or 100% compatible disk drive. If you are using a 128 in native
128 mode, a 1571 or 1581 is strongly recommended to allow faster loading
times. HyperLink
uses 100% Kernal routines and should
be compatible with the majority of serial hard drives, disk drives and many fastload
utilities.
- A joystick or Commodore 1350 mouse or 100% compatible for joystick support
(use port two), or a Commodore 1351 mouse or 100% compatible for mouse support
(use port one)
- A colour monitor
For Internet access through HLPP, these elements are additionally required:
- A Unix shell account (either through null-modem connection to a Unix server
or direct dialup shell) with Perl 5.0 or later. SLIP and PPP are not supported.
To check if Perl is installed/available on your server, type perl -v at a shell
prompt to display its version.
- A CMD Turbo232, CMD SwiftLink, or other 100% compatible ACIA cartridge
interface is strongly
recommended. 1200bps through the user port is not a supported configuration and
no technical support is available for this mode. It only operates in the original 2.5
release, not 2.5a or 2.5e.
- A Hayes-compatible modem for dialin, or a null-modem adaptor for a direct
null-modem connection, connected to your interface.
For cache support, HyperLink 2.5e supports the VDC memory in all Commodore 128
systems (up to 64K, depending on model), all geoRAM-compatible RAM expansion
units (128K minimum required), and all REUs and 100% compatible REU clones
(128K minimum required).
CMD SuperCPU SuperRAM, Quick Brown Boxes and CMD RAMLinks
are not presently supported as cache devices. Cache support significantly decreases
the time required to load previously viewed web pages and disk files, but is not required
to boot and use HyperLink 2.5e.
The CMD SuperCPU is supported and allows faster screen display and system
responsiveness, but is in no way required to boot and use HyperLink 2.5e.
HyperLink 2.5e's memory requirements make it incompatible with the
IDE64 extension. It has not been tested with the Xetec Lt. Kernal. It is
100% compatible with the Epyx FastLoad cartridge.
For those wishing to run HyperLink 2.5e on an emulator, it has been tested
100% compatible with C64S (2.0 and higher), Power64 (3.0 and higher) and
VICE. 1541 emulation is not required for operation. We would appreciate
information about any compatibility issues with other emulators.