Commodore Free 5/Commodore_Free_Issue_05_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.quikmenu

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 354 lines

uHow to Quik menu
How to "Quikmenu"
by Commodore Free

Loadstars quick mznu system featuring
"mini presenter" Allows users to
quickly and easily create a disk based
magazine or menu system to launch
applications and text files. Ok then
Creating "commodore Free" issue number
4

Layout and art work We need a title
for the magazine this would be a text
"title" obviously we are going to use
"commodore free", this can be a
Doodle, Advanced art studio, Art
studio, Loadstar SHP format or a Kola
Picture, If you can draw draw a logo
in 2 colours black and white and go
to the Everyone who can draw section.

I am assuming little drawing ability
and we are going to use a PC to design
our Screen. This is a 320 x 200 screen
with the words Commodore Free. The
conversion will create a mirror image
of the screen and we need only draw in
black and white 2 colour design. Just
create a text picture. Right artwork
created but, this is a PC bitmap we
need to convert the image to Doodle
format and I have used Congo for the
process. Start Congo and search for
the picture, Congo opens a familiar
Windows browser to look for the files

Now press the convert button (this is
the icon of 3 floppy disks stacked on
top of each other) This will walk
through a Conversion process. Select
the output format of "doodle
uncompressed" Select a location to
save the file here just to the root of
drive c:\ Click NEXT

You can now adjust brightness and
Gamma correction, the screen will
update live so you can see the
effects. Pressing next moves you to
the Dither settings I find here you
need to go forward and backwards
through these screens as changing one
setting will affect others, so it's a
little trial and error I selected
Everything on Zero except the Gamma
correction of 2.55 normally works ok
.Dither percent of Zero and dither
kind of nearest click Next select 2
nearest colours and then click Save
the file will be saved in our case to
the root of our C;\ drive

Getting the File to Disk Various
utilities exist for getting files to
commodore disk images just picking one
from random then and for no reason I
am using Copy 64 Start the application
press F9 to get the menu system Scroll
through the list and select "create
disk image" I am going to make a D81
disk So select D81 and press enter
Give the file a name here I am using
free4.d81 and the file will be created
in the current directory. Select the
file and press enter to see the images
contents Pressing TAB moved between
the spit screen window display, now
look for the Doodle image it should
end .dd remember we saved it in the
Root of drive c:\ select the file and
press F5 to copy it into our disk
image, a message will appear about
renaming or copying now the image has
been copied to our D81 file

GODOT For some reason the file wont
load properly in the quick menu so we
need to run it through Godot, I think
all Godot does is rename it to
ddfree.dd I.e. prefix the file with dd
otherwise our software cant tell it's
a Doodle file, anyway it gives an
excuse to run

Godot Select LOAD as Doodle and Select
SAVE as Doodle Then click LOAD on the
Right and search for your file from
disk Find the file on your disk or
disk image

Set the "screen Controls" HIRES
Colours 2 Exec Area Clip

Click display to look at the image,
ensure its all ok Then Click anywhere
to return to the menu Screen, now we
are going to select a region to work
on Image operators Click on Execute
and the Clip works should already be
loaded then select CLIP and draw
around the area you want then select
Accept to confirm this as the working
area , redisplay then save the image
with a new name I called mine free2.dd
save the file uncompressed

Everyone who can draw Ok doodle
experts and arty types can stop
laughing now and continue with the
tutorial. Ok so we have a logo now to
convert the logo to the loadstar SHP
format for further manipulation.

Start Qmenu application and from the
list on the right select STB PRINT Run
the application, Now select the Source
disk "where the image file is" and
then select the Target "where the file
will be saved by pressing T"

Select the file free2.dd notice Godot
added the dd prefix once selected
press RETURN to view the file, if it
looks ok select C to convert the file
and then select the output format of
SHAPE give the file a name I am using
"SHPfree" now Quit by pressing Q to
return to Qmenu main screen

Select from the menu SCRNFONT to
convert the Screen to a font option 1
changes disks so select the drive with
the file to convert on it then select
option 2 GET SHP Select Make block and
drag around the image, you may need
several attempts but once a block is
drawn you see the preview if it looks
ok then you can go on otherwise select
make block again and continue with the
process until you are happy. Select
Make FTS and select 128 characters to
convert, ours is a big logo, if you
select to little fonts the screen wont
look right as all our letters won't be
converted save the file and Exit to
main menu.

MR MICK Now to the screen layout start
MR Mick application Select File then
DISK/DIR to select the drive and or
directory to load the SHP file from
Select the file from the list and load
the file, remember the image will be
reversed Black is now white and whit
black, but as we created a mirror
image, you still with me ? Press F4 to
bring back the menu bar, the text will
look strange cos we have converted it,
but don't worry, Press F3 this will
show the characters that have been
used to convert our Screen logo to
Text characters. Press F5 with is the
Colour menu and will show the
available colours and on the left a
representation of the screen border
and page colour,

I am going for Light blue page and
black border. Select the colour and
move to the border or page and click
to change Press F5 then F3 to return
to the main menu SAVE the file, we
don't wnt to be home to mr cockup as
well as MR Mick Save the file as an
FTS file Press F3 then F5 select white
for the colour of our TEXT logo and
then press F5 and F3 now colour the
Logo, play around reselecting colour
or whatever you want.

Press Shift and Enter to go to Free
text mode should be able to type now
if it doesn't work press F5 and F3 and
you can select the Text click on the
text and click where on the page you
want it to appear. A little tidying up
and the footer added and we have or
title screen, basic you can play
around more if you like, Time is
running out and we have lots to look
at. the items on the footer are
optional, and self explanatory, the
page is already set with hotspots for
the mouse so all you do is add the
text in the rough location.

The shortcut keys are built in the
application E for exit H for Help etc
TEXT Processing

We need text files, so if you are
using some other system save the text
as plain ASCII standard, and then
import them to the disk image we
created or you can enter them free
hand if you like typing directly in to
the editor, the editor loads plain
PETAscii files. save the files give
them names and then copied the plain
PC text files into my disk image. Now
start the TEXT to T application from
our Qmenu main screen Selecting the
files menu allows you to select the
disk you use for input, the output
files are saved to the same disk,
ensure you have space on the disk,
once ou have selected the right disk
select DO IT and the application looks
for the Text files and converts them
to Commodore format, then renames them
with the prefix of t. More about why
this is later on, once the process is
done (supercpu users hit turbo)
otherwise go and make a cup of tea.)
Now press SCREW it to return to the
main menu (Dave this is shocking slang
language >>Grin<<)

MR EDSTAR Now select Mr edstar from
the main Qmenu menu system this runs
the text editor, the editor can load
plain ASCII (pc text files and convert
them on the fly) if you want these
remember to save them with the t.
prefix so editor.txt becomes just
t.editor the file extension isn't
needed! Load the file and click
through the menus, options exist for
centred, indented, adding a new line
etc. This isn't a normal word
processor it may take time to get used
to it, Once all your files are edited,
save them back with the same filename,
or rename pc text files as described
above,.

DISK and options Nearly there now I
suggest you make a copy of the Qmenu
disk, once done remove all the text
files and files beginning with B
Basically everything except for These
will be needed for our disk, the
quick.fts is our layout design screen
this can be deleted and our splendid
effort copied in its place, Also the
quick list is a list of all the files
on the disk, you can edit it by hand
or do the lazy way delete it and once
the disk is started it will be
generated automatically with the
correct files added, do this at the
end though after adding all your
files! Now start Mr edstar and load
the file quick.ini This is the screen
options menu, load the file as a c=
file and not a pc text file You should
see these

options Center menu Yep you guesse d
it this centers our list menu on
screen other options are left and
right

Background + border Sets screen and
border colours, although these have
been already set in MR MICK so are
ignored for our setup text

Text colour Menu Highlight Selects the
highlight used for the menu

frame Sets the frame colour of the
menu Reader text colour Colour of the
text when viewing text files

RRF X coordinate + RRF Y coordinate
Co ordinates for the mini menu layout

Menu Top Sets the location of the
menu on the screen reader background

Colour of the paper when viewing text
files Play around and get a feel of
the options does or leave them and see
what happens. Save converted Text
files back to your copy of the disk in
the order you want them to appear on
the menu, Run the disk

Things to note are All text files must
start with a t. prefix, if you have an
application this needs to start with a
B. prefix, Each Application needs a
text file otherwise it wont work. Then
menu system handles displaying text or
an application with the mini menu, you
get the Read the text files about how
you can get your applications to run
then quit back to the menu system
Read the documentation!

QuikMenu Disk
center menu 0
background 0
border 1
text 7
menu
highlight 8
frame 0
reader text color
00 RRF X coordinate
16 RRF Y coordinate
xx not used 02
Menu Top 15
reader background
+++++++++++++++++
center menu
right menu
# menu (column
of left edge of menu)

2 "!" prg 4
"star" prg
71 "quikmenu.pkd" prg
2 "quik.ini" prg
17 "quik.fts" prg
1 "quiklist" prg 4 "hello connect" prg
0 "________________" del
Read It Run
It Forget It Commodore Free

...end...