The last step of the installation program is to build for you a desktop or start menu shortcut that contains the instructions needed to launch ATE. To launch ATE, therefore, you simply run the instructions embedded in the shortcut by double-clicking on it; that's all there is to it. For normal operation of ATE in most environments, nothing else is required and you can skip the rest of this chapter. If you have some reason for needing a special launch of ATE, read on.
Typically, the installation will place onto your Windows desktop an icon that looks approximately like this:
If you right-click on the icon and select "Properties," you will see that "target"—the information Windows uses to launch ATE—looks something like this:
C:\ATE\bin\ashw32.exe -i "C:\ATE\miame.ini" -g ashell1_t -z -atecfg ?
In this example, ATE was installed to the location C:\ATE; what you see will likewise reflect the folder in which ATE was installed.
The first part of the command line, which is everything before the first space, tells Windows the location and the name of the program to run. The rest of the information and instructions on the line are all command line switch options and specifications; see the following topic.
Switches Versus Configuration
The purpose of ATE is to connect your PC to another computer and manage the communications between the two computers. Some of the things about the way ATE runs for you, in your particular environment, are not related to the computer to which you are connecting. Other things about how ATE operates are related to the specific computer to which you connect.
All of the things that have to do with a specific connection to another computer are referred to, in ATE-speak, as "Configuration" issues; there is an entire section of this help file devoted to Configuration. All of the variables and operational controls that are not related to a particular connection are controlled through command line switches, which are discussed in the following section.
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ATESTART.CMD
When ATE (actually ashw32.exe) is launched, it looks for ATESTART.CMD[2,2] or ATESTART.DO[2,2] and if found, executes it. Otherwise, it executes TELNET <config> to initiate the connection. The ATESTART (CMD or DO) file allows you to fine-tune the configuration of the ATE client prior to connecting to the server—perhaps to customize the menus, for example. The more common way to customize the ATE environment would be from the server side after the connection has been established, typically using the Extended Tab(-10,x) Commands.
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