################################################################################
#                                                                              #
#  Fred - Time Tracking Tool                                                   #
#  SoPra Group 5                                                               #
#  Wolfgang Bischoff, Sebastian Krysmanski, Christoph Müller                   #
#  2006-2008 - University of Stuttgart                                         #
#                                                                              #
#  Fred's Website:                                                             #
#  http://fred.mayastudios.com                                                 #
#                                                                              #
#  Website of the section "Software Engineering"                               #
#  at the University of Stuttgart:                                             #   
#  http://www.iste.uni-stuttgart.de/se/research/projects/Fred/index.html       #
#                                                                              #
################################################################################

This file contains notes for using Fred.


Required Java version
---------------------
To run Fred you must have installed at least the Java Runtime Environment 
version 1.5.0_00 on your computer. Although it's recommended that you use the 
most recent Java version (this includes Java 6). The version 1.4.2 or less is
unsupported and cannot be used to start Fred.

To determine your Java version open a console and type "java -version".

The most recent version of Java can be obtained through:

  http://www.java.com


Supported Operating Systems
---------------------------
Currently the following operating systems are supported:

* Windows XP (32 bit)
* Linux (32 bit and 64 bit)
* MacOSX

Fred may run on the following operating systems, too. However this has not yet
been verified:

* Windows 98 (2.Edition)
* Windows ME
* Windows 2000 Professional (SP3+)
* Windows 2003 Server
* Windows x64
* Solaris (32-Bit und 64-Bit)


Fred doesn't run on Windows 95 (or less) nor on Windows NT4 (or less) as these
operating systems aren't supported by the Java runtime version 1.5.
(see: http://java.com/en/download/help/5000011000.xml)


Starting Fred
-------------
To start Fred use:

* on Windows: fred.exe
* on Linux/Solaris: fred.sh
* on MacOSX: Fred's special MacOSX package
* on other OS: the command from the file "fred-command"

If Fred doesn't run against one's expectations, use the command from the file
"fred-command" to start Fred. (If you experience such behaviour, please file
a bug in our bug tracking system. For more information, see at the end of this
file.)


License
-------
Fred is distributed under GNU General Public License; i.e. it's freeware/open 
source and is therefore free for personal and for commercial usage. The detailed
license agreements can be found in the file "license.txt" or under:

  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt


Commandline Parameters
----------------------
Fred knows the following commandline parameters. The must be passed to the Java
virtual machine when (i.e. not directly to Fred; the best way to do this is to
put them before the parameter "-cp"):

* "-DUseShout=1" : Enables various debug messages on the console. (On Windows 
       you should start Fred using "java.exe" rather than "javaw.exe".)
                   
* "-DUseDoubleInstanceCheck=0" : Disables checking whether Fred is already 
       running.
                                 
* "-DUserMode=[Single|Multi]" : Specifies in which user mode (single user mode/
       multi user mode) Fred shall operate. See section "User Mode" for more
       information.


User Mode
---------
Fred offers support for a multi-user mode. This involves above all where Fred
is storing a user's setting (e.g. the path to the manual or which work file was
loaded last time). When Fred runs in single-user mode these information are 
stored within a file in Fred's program directory. When Fred runs in multi-user
mode these information are stored somewhere (depending on the operating system) 
in the user's home folder instead.

Which mode is used by Fred is saved in the following file:

  "<program directory>/config/UserMode.xml"

The two valid values for "value" are "Single" and "Multi" (for the respective
mode). Moreover the mode can be specified using the command line parameter 
"-DUserMode" when starting Fred. In this case the file "UserMode.xml" is been
ignored.

If the file "UserMode.xml" doesn't exist, it'll be created when starting Fred. 
At this the multi-user mode is automatically used, if this mode is supported by
Fred on the used operating system. Otherwise the single-user mode will be used.

The multi-user mode is supported by Fred on the following operating systems:

 * Windows 2000, XP und Vista
 * Linux
 * Solaris
 * MacOSX


Known Issues
------------
* Fred can't be used on Linux with Java 1.5 while using the window managers
  "Compiz" or "Beryl". Fred starts when they are used but Fred's main window 
  will remain empty. The reason for this problem is a bug in Java (see Java bug 
  6429775). 
  To solve this problem you have to install Java 6.
  
* The column heads in tables are one Windows Vista too high. This problem has
  been fixed in Java6u4. As soon as you've installed at least this Java version
  the problem disappears (see Java bug 6434444).


Source Code
-----------
Fred's source code is available for download via Subversion 
(http://subversion.tigris.org). The URL to the Subversion repository of Fred is:

  https://svn.mayastudios.de/sopra/repos/sources/fred
  
The directory "trunk" contains the most recent development version of Fred. All
released version can be found in the directory "tags" (see also the file 
"changelog.txt").

Furthermore the source codes for the internally used software libraries is 
available. On the one hand they are contained with special jar files (whose file
name endes with "-src.jar") and on the other hand they can be obtained via
Subversion. These source codes aren't required for compiling Fred but may 
increase the understanding of Fred's own source code:

  Replication:  https://svn.mayastudios.de/sopra/repos/sources/server
  JavaTray:     https://svn.mayastudios.de/maya/repos/javatray
  MSCL4j:       https://svn.mayastudios.de/maya/repos/mscl4j
  IXML+Labels:  https://svn.mayastudios.de/maya/repos/ixml
 
To build Fred, simply checkout Fred's source code and run the Ant build script
(build.xml). (Only since version 1.3.1b)


Bug Reports and Feature Requests
--------------------------------
All known bugs in Fred and feature requests can be viewed through Fred's bug
tracking system which can be found under:

  http://fred.mayastudios.com/bugtracking/
  
Here you can file new bug reports, if you've encountered a bug in Fred, or make
suggestions for new features or improvements.
