Using the Decker/Hirshfield Logic Simulator

1. If you have an Internet connection, you can visit the website maintained by the publisher. This method should work without much problem, though perhaps you are at the mercy of the speed of the Internet connection.

2. If you are on the CC network and have the J: drive mapped as expected, I have placed a copy of this software there.

Once you are viewing the main page for the textbook's software, you will find their labs organized by chapter. You can select the lab you wish to run. For many of the labs, when you run the software for the very first time, a window will pop up labeled with a title such as "Security Warning" and it will ask you whether or not you wish to "trust" the software. Please answer "YES"; we will explain why in the next section.

There is one catch to using the save/load features, because the software will be running from within your web browser. For security reasons, software running in a web browser is not allowed to access files on your computer without explicit permission. This is to help protect against viruses or other malicious attempts to corrupt your computer and its files. The only way such software is given access to saving or loading files is by explicitly getting your permission, as we described in the preceding section.

So long as you granted permission, in advance, you will be able to save and load files. Generally, the software will include buttons at the bottom right of the program screen labeled "Open" or "Save" or "Save as." If you have been working on a newly created configuration, you must use "Save as" so that you can provide a filename and location to be used. If you are modifying a previously saved configuration, you can choose between "Save" which will overwrite the previous file with the current configuration, or "Save as" which will allow you to give a new filename (while still keeping the previous versioin saved in its prior form).

If you have mistakenly typed "NO" to the software's original request for your permission, please see the "Trouble shooting" section below.

However, you cannot simply click on those files when you wish to use them. You must instead start the software as normal, and then you can open the file by using the "Open" button, as described in the preceding section.

Worse yet, once you respond "NO" your computer may try to remember your answer and so even if you close the window and rerun the program, it no longer asks you about permissions; it thinks it knows of your desire to say "NO".

If you are unable to save files, try the following two solutions:

1. Close your browser completely. Then restart the browser and try to view the lab again. If it asks you about granting permissions, answer "YES"

2. If the software does not ask for your permissions when restarting, and thus you are still unable to save files, this means your browser is remembering your answer from an earlier session. To remedy the situation in Internet Explorer, do the following:
   Go to the Tools menu at the top of the browser
   Select Internet Options
   Click on the Content tab of the new window
   Click on the Publishers button at mid-window
   You should see an entry for "International Thomson Publishing" - click on this entry and then the Remove button. Then click on OK
   Now quit your broswer, restart it and try again. Hopefully it will ask you to grant permissions (and certainly you should say "Yes")

   (If you are using Netscape, or an older version of Internet Explorer, contact me for help)