This is the Idol public distribution directory.
Read idol.man and idol.doc for details on running Idol.
Read systems.doc for system-dependent notes, such as how to
build Idol for your system.

The Idol source is idol.iol; the Idol booting kit is idolboot.icn.
In addition to these two files, there is a system-specific Icon file
which must be linked in to produce an Idol executable: so far there
are files amiga.icn, mpw.icn, msdos.icn, mvs.icn, os2.icn, unix.icn,
and vms.icn.

BUILDING IDOL

If you are running MS-DOS, the file install.bat contains the sequence
of commands necessary to build Idol.  This sequence consists of:

(1) Compile idolboot with a line such as
	icont -Sr1000 -SF30 -Si1000 idolboot msdos

(2) Install an Idol environment directory with a line such as
	iconx idolboot -install

For MS-DOS, this generates a batch file named idolt.bat which
you would then execute to create the environment directory.
For other systems, idolboot creates the directory itself.

(3) Translate Idol from its idol.iol source file with a line such as
	iconx idolboot idol msdos.icn
(Again, on MS-DOS, this generates a batch file named idolt.bat
which you should then execute.)

This makes a good initial test of the system's operation.

In addition there are several other files with extension .iol; these
are unfinished fragments of Idol source code for your perusal.
Contributions are of course welcome!

Note that Idol is still a work in progress, and this must be
considered a test distribution.  Support for non-UNIX systems is
minimally tested; feel free to add code to support your system
and send it in.

The -strict flag not only generates paranoid code for public field
access, it generates extra warning messages when inherited fields
are named in a subclass.

The file idol.hqx is a Macintosh BinHex 4.0 file of configuration
material for Icon to run under MPW.

Mail jeffery@ringer.cs.utas.edu when you have questions or bug fixes for Idol.
