First of all, let me explain what it does not mean. This is not "public domain software" - it remains copyrighted (principally, but far from totally, by myself). However, neither does it come in a sealed package, the opening of which pledges you to any number of implausible conditions.
So what is it? To quote from the copyright notice "The Canalplan interpreter is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version".
What this means that there is no charge at all for the core part of the Canalplan application. The copyright conditions allow you to use it as you see fit, make more copies, change it (complete source code in the C programming language is available) and so on. Note also that not all of the software needed to run Canalplan is under the GPL. Other parts including at least the web server (see below), the Cygwin libraries and the Berkeley Database library are released under different conditions. As long as all you are doing is installing the free version of the software on your computer or computers, running it, giving it to others for free or modifying it for your own use you'll be fine. If you want to do more, read the licenses very carefully.
Other parts of the Canalplan suite are under my copyright. However, out of the goodness of my heart, I have chosen to put a subset of the package under the same conditions. This means that you can download a completely free minimal version of CanalplanAC and run it on your computer.
To keep the size of the application down this version omits the following features:
In addition, the database is simplified, with over 2000 of the smallest places removed
Why do I split Canalplan into server, program and browser? Most software you are used to is a single program that displays within a window on your screen. Why does CanalplanAC have to be so complicated and different?
There are several really good reasons for this:
But of course there are drawbacks to this, mainly that it is more complicated - (particulary to install, once installed you'll hardly notice the difference). However, it's not that difficult, and these instructions talk you through the process step by step. And you are doing all the fiddly stuff with the free version - if it doesn't work you haven't lost anything except a bit of time. Once it is working, you can easily upgrade to the full version [see below]
To recap: to run CanalplanAC personal edition you need three things on your computer; a browser, a web server and Canalplan itself. We'll look at each of those in turn:
There should be no need for this. You are already running a suitable browser or you couldn't read this. So we are 1/3 of the way already!
Some versions of Windows come with a web server (Microsoft's IIS or a personal version of this) and many other web servers are available (including Apache). But proving configuration instructions for all these servers would have been a nightmare, and would not have helped the majority of users who have no web server at all. [If you do have a server installed, know how to use it, and can pursuade it to work with Canalplan I'd be interested to hear from you]. Instead I've found a superb free product that is very easy to install, and have written software that automatically configures it as part of the Canalplan install process.
If you already run a web server on your computer, follow this link for more information on how to avoid conflicts.
The web server I've chosen is "Abyss" from Aprelium Technologies.
If you run the K9 mail filter program, it will upset the installation of Abyss. Once Canalplan is installed all will be well again (for the technically minded: K9 uses port 9999 as does Abyss. When Canalplan is installed it reconfigures Abyss to use port 9898 instead). To avoid problems during installation, please turn K9 off now. You will be told when to restart it later.
Assuming all has gone well, you now have successfully installed the Abyss Web Server. While you are on line, you may wish to register your copy.
Now shutdown the webserver (you should have a small icon in the system tray that represents a globe on stand - double click on this to show the server panel). Select "Server", "Exit" and "Yes" to quit. It is necessary to do this because installing Canalplan changes the server's configuration. When you restart Abyss later in the process it will pick up the new configuration.
You now have a browser and a web server, so we're two-thirds of the way there. The third and final stage is to install CanalplanAC. The instalation program will also automatically configure the Abyss Web Server to work with Canalplan.
Now, before running Canalplan you need to start the web server. Find "Abyss Web Server" from the "programs" (also called "start") menu and run it. All is now complete...
If you turned K9 off earlier, you can start it again now.
The link below should launch your own version of Canalplan into life. On some versions of windows you may get a message about connecting to the internet and offering you the options to "Work Offline" or "Try Again". If so, select "Try Again" and all should be well.
Whenever you connect your computer to the Internet, people can gain access to the web server and to CanalplanAC. It's almost certain that something this big and complicated has some weaknesses in it that could be exploited for nefarious purposes
For your own protection you should therefore: