Like most programs, / depends on your computer for some vital resources, and if those resources are not available or operating, / may not work well. Unlike most programs, / does something about it.
The system date is used by / for all of its decisions about what to do when. If your system doesn't have the right date, / will send wrong letters and make the wrong decisions. Many / systems have special hardware to automatically set the date when the system is turned on, but if your system does not have this feature, you must manually enter the proper date by using the / `Date' command. For details, see your / manual. / does some simple `sanity' testing at startup to make sure the date is not moving backwards, and tells you if the date is clearly inconsistent with it's prior knowledge.
At installation, / tests your system to make certain there is enough disk space to hold all of the installation files, but over time, / consumes more or less space depending on the number and complexity of the collection cases you keep in the system. Eventually, if you have enough cases and too little disk space, / will be unable to operate properly. As a warning device, / notifies the user at program startup when the disk is nearly full, but it doesn't force you to do anything. If there is so little space that / has no hope of operating properly, it will refuse to allow you to enter until enough space is available.
Since / uses your system's `print' command to print letters, it is important to have a printer attached to the system and working properly. To make sure the printer program is installed in memory, the / `print' command is run when starting /. Normally, the user simply presses / if the printer identification is prompted. / assumes a 60 line, 80 column printer, but even if this is not the case, the `print' command normally makes things work properly.
The / `print' command normally limits the number of files in its `queue', so if / printed file after file without pause, the system could forget to print some of the files. For this reason, when printing files, / prompts the user to press / when the file is finished printing. This is also handy when you run out of paper or have any other printer problem. Printer files are stored in the `printer' subdirectory, and the user is prompted to erase old printer files before each new letter printing run. Since printer files remain until the next letter run, they can be manually reprinted if necessary using the standard / print command.