USSA Alpine Masters ACE Scoring
Version 4.0
You should have 3-5MB of free disk space available for installing the ACE Scoring software. The tools themselves require 1MB of disk space, with additional disk space required depending the amount of race result and scoring data you work with.
The ACE Scoring software is based on the JavaTM software technology and can be installed and run on any system for which a suitable verson of the Java runtime environment (JRE) is available. Standard implementations of the JRE for Windows and certain Unix platforms can be freely downloaded from Sun Microsystem's web site, as described below. JRE implementations may also be available for other system platforms from the vendor (e.g., Apple for Macintosh) or other sources.
Version 1.4 or later of the JavaTM 2 Runtime Environment (Standard Edition) is required for the race scoring tools. The J2RE 1.4 installation documentation recommends that you have 40MB of free disk space available.
Note: Believe the 40MB JRE requirement is a bit high, particularly if minimal subset is delivered with the MRST installation. Review and update this [DJL 25-Mar-2002}
Note: Separately installing a JRE is optional as of ACES 4.0.5 and later. The ACES software distribution now includes a self-contained build with the JRE included, so that all you have to do is install ACES itself. The Windows installer provided with ACES 4.0.6 and later also installs a fully self-contained version of the ACES software and does not require a separate JRE installation.
You can download and install the latest version of the JavaTM 2 ver. 1.4 Runtime runtime environment (JRE 1.4) by going to Sun's Java web site:
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition - Version 1.4
Choose the appropriate platform implementation to download for your system (Win32 for Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Sun's Solaris Unix, or Linux) and click on the DOWNLOAD link in the JRE column. Follow the instructions provided by Sun to download and install the JRE. The compressed download file is approximately 10MB.
Note for developers: Developers may wish to install the equivalent Java SDK 1.4, which includes development tools such as the compiler, along with programmer's documentation and source code for the standard J2SE class library. Use the DOWNLOAD link from the SDK column in the table and the documentation link.
Note: If you believe you already have the standard Java platform installed on your system, you should verify whether you have a suitable version installed. In Windows, open the Control Panel and use the Add/Remove Programs tool to verify that you have Java 2 Standard Edition v 1.4 or later installed.
Starting with ACES 4.0.6, the ACES software is now distributed with a Windows installer. Simply run the installer and follow the instructions to install the ACES software. A program group is added to your Start menu with icons to launch the software and access the user document.
The ACE Scoring software is provided in the form of a .zip file containing the software, along with any relevant race data files for the current season. Unpack the files using any standard .zip file reader, such as WinZip or PKZip for Windows on Windows systems. The aces.zip file contains the root ACEScoring directory and appropriate subdirectory structuring of the files.
You can install the ACEScoring directory anywhere on your hard drive, according to your preferred file system organization. In most cases, you should simply unpack the files onto your root C: hard drive. If you follow this standard convention, the ACE Scoring installation directory will be c:\ACEScoring.
After unpacking the aces.zip distribution file, the ACEScoring installation directory on your hard drive should contain two subdirectories (folders) as follows:
c:\ACEScoring
ACESData
ProgramFiles
The top-level ACEScoring installation directory contains a command file ACEScoring.bat which
launches the ACE Scoring software. It also contains a Windows script named CreateACESShortcut which creates an icon on your desktop to launch the ACE Scoring tools, which is the simpler and recommended technique for launching ACES - simply double-click on the CreateACESShortcut script to run it.
The ProgramFiles folder in the top-level ACEScoring installation directory contains this Installation documentation and a DocIndex documentation file with links to the User's Guide and other documentation on operating the ACES software. The doc, lib, and Tools subdirectories contain system files for the program; you should not make changes to the contents of these program file subdirectories.
The data files that you work with in the course of using the ACE Scoring software will be stored under the ACESData folder in the top-level ACEScoring installation directory. Initially, the ACESData directory contains only a short ReadMe text file describing the purpose of the directory. The files for each race series that you create will be stored in a separate folder in the ACESData directory.
When you run ACE Scoring for the first time, a default race series is automatically created for you and stored in the Default directory under the ACESData data directory. You can use the Default race series for experimenting, but in most cases you will want to create a new race series for the data you intend to work with. The ACE Scoring User's Guide is available from the Help menu of all ACES tools and includes a description of how to create a new race series.
After running ACE Scoring for the first time, another directory named ConfigurationSettings will also be created under the main ACEScoring installation directory. This directory contains files used by the ACES tools which can optionally be modified or extended as you work with the ACES to customize your configuration.
After running ACE Scoring, the ACEScoring installation directory on your hard drive will contain subdirectories (folders) as follows:
c:\ACEScoring
ACESData
Default
(your race series directory)
ConfigurationSettings
ProgramFiles
To launch ACES Scoring on a Windows system, simply run the ACEScoring.bat command file in the installation directory (c:\ACEScoring\ACEScoring.bat).
Launching the ACE Scoring tools using the Windows batch command file causes a Windows command line window to be opened, within which the command to actually run ACES is executed. The command line window is classically a small black window with white letters (although it may have a different appearance on newer Windows systems such as Windows XP). Once ACE Scoring is running, you can close the command window at any time (simply clicke the X box at the top right of the command window to close it).
Starting with ACES 4.0.5, a Windows script is provided which will create an icon on your desktop to launch ACE Scoring. This is simpler than using the ACEScoring.bat batch file and is the recommended approach for running ACES.
To create the desktop shortcut icon for ACES, go to your ACESScoring with a file browser (e.g., the Windows explorer or through the hard disk icon in My Computer) and double-click on the Windows script named CreateACESShortcut. This will create an icon on your desktop named ACE Scoring to launch the ACE Scoring tools.
Note: you may get a warning from your system when you run this script that it could be dangerous. Sure, but tell it to go ahead anyway, I've tested it under a variety of conditions and it's hopefully safe... [Deb 23-Feb-2002]
Note: The remainder of this section can be ignored if you have used the Windows script that is now provided to automatically create a suitable desktop shortcut to launch ACES.
You will usually want to create a shortcut on your desktop to make it convenient to launch ACE Scoring. This section describes the settings you need to install on the ACES shortcut.
IMPORTANT: In order to create an ACES shortcut, you will need to either know the path to the Java runtime installation directory on your hard drive or have a Windows environment variable defined for this path. I believe the standard Java runtime installation directory is something along the lines of C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.0 or something similar, depending on which version of the JRE you have installed. You may also have an environment variable JAVA_HOME defined, although that may only get created when you have the Java developer SDK installed. Don't have a non-developer system available at the moment to verify these. [DJL 01-Jan-2003]
ISSUE: Aaargh, Windows... The full pathname version of this shortcut doesn't seem to work, at least on Windows XP. For the moment, it seems that you need to have or create a Windows environment variable to the JRE installation directory so you can use the variable-reference form of the shortcut target command. [DJL 01-Jan-2003]
To create a Windows shortcut to launch ACE Scoring:
-jar lib\aces.jar parameter. Note also the double-quotes that have to be wrapped around the javaw.exe pathname due to the space in the Windows Program Files directory name.ACE Scoring as the name of the shortcut.Target field will contain the command that you entered in the first step to launch ACES. To complete defining the ACES shortcut, enter the following two values:Start in: enter the pathname of the ACES ProgramFiles directory in your ACEScoring installation directory (e.g., c:\ACEScoring\ProgramFiles).ACEScoring.ico file in the ACEScoring installation directory (C:\ACEScoring\ProgramFiles\ACEScoring.ico)Note: you can also add this shortcut to your Windows Start menu.
***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
[... explain symptoms of PATH problems manifested by not being able to find the javaw.exe program...]
NOTE: If you have installed ACES 4.0.6 or later using the Windows installer, you can uninstall ACES using the standard Windows Add/Remove Programs facility in the Control Panel. Uniinstalling ACES in this way does NOT destroy your data files - the ACESData folder is left unchanged when the software is removed using the uninstaller feature.
IMPORTANT: The following step will delete your data files as well as the ACE Scoring software. If you want to remove the program while keeping your scoring data files and reports, be sure to make a copy of the ACESData directory before following the instructions in this section.
To remove the scoring software, simply delete the root ACEScoring installation directory from where you installed it on your hard drive. If you have created any shortcuts, such as a program shortcut to launch the scoring software or a file system reference shortcut to browse race data and report files, delete them as well. (It's not harmful to have leftover shortcuts - they simply won't work anymore - but it's much neater to clean them up if no longer needed!)
If you installed the JavaTM 2 Runtime environment in order to support the scoring software and do not otherwise need this technology on your system, you can remove it as well after you have finished deleting the USSAMastersRaceScoring files. To remove the JRE components, open the Windows Control Panel and select the Add/Remove Programs tool. In the list of currently installed programs, locate and remove the following two entries:
Deb Lewis
Last update: 09-Mar-2003