17 Bit Software 4: Phase Four

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* AMOSEYES EDITOR * Version 1.0.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Lee Bamber Development Team: Digital Ninja Origional Creation Date: 10-APR-93 Version 1 Release: 17-APR-93 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AMOSEyes Editor V1.0.0 is SHAREWARE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The Shareware Deal * There will not be 'regular' updates to this utility. It is designed to work on A500 thru A1200, the idea has been done. It's here. You can try it out and see what you think. I'll release an update when I need one my- self. I now use this utility (AMOSEyes V1.10) to write the instruction manuals for my games. And I've written enough of them to know I like it. This editor and viewer is free. You can use this without fear of guilt as I have called it shareware to get the message across that I've something else to offer. It's big brother. This version is good, but the V1.10 update can: [] Completely customise the frontend selector screen [] Shows a percentage of read data while loading [] Load in a parallax scrolling backdrop in the main viewer [] Load in a different font for the text [] Change font to suit graphics [] Have as many .DOC files as you like [] Compact the .DOC file to save disk space And has: [] Upto 10 pages of book space (That's 30 screens!) [] The main viewer size is reduced [] Improved viewer graphics [] Split screen menu bar option [] Parameter passing as standard on viewer If you still don't know, purchase one of the following games to see what can be done with the AMOSEyes Editor... Knight Fight . . . 2 Disks . . . CLR Licenceware £4.50 - Used V1.01 Placebo Invaders . 1 Disk . . . Magnetic Fields £1.00 - Used V1.10 Calculus Combat . 1 Disk . . . NBS (PD) - Used V1.10 Fortress . . . . . 1 Disk . . . F1 Licenceware £3.99 - Used V1.10 Obliteratives . . 1 Disk . . . - Used V1.10 I've been using it for 8 months and haven't found reason to change a thing in it. I've only released it into PD because the V1.10 is so much better, that I can't really loose anything by giving everyone V1.00. Infact, my hope is that more people become aware of this great little utility and go out into the fresh new world with an incredible urge to send me the amount I ask for. If you want AMOSEyes Package V1.10. That includes AMOSEyes Viewer V1.10, AMOSEyes Editor V1.01, AE-FrontEnd Maker and a free game Placebo Invaders. Just send a Cheque or Postal Order for £5.00 + Postage, made payable to: Mr LJ Bamber And send to: Mr LJ Bamber (AMOSEyes) `Rockville` Warrington rd Lower Ince Wigan Lancashire WN3 4QG POSTAGE RATE: UK = £0.50p Rest of Europe = £0.75p Rest of World = £1.35p PD SHELF-LIFE WARNING: This offer expires 31-12-94. Write with SSAE after this date to check the offers validity. ( Update may no longer be sold? ) Only the AMOSEyes Package and our Shareware Titles are available direct from Digital Ninja. All games mentioned above must be purchased through the normal channels, unless otherwise stated. If you want to see what Digital Ninja have been getting upto recently, just send an SSAE saying so, and we'll rush off one of our Info Sheets. Thanks for reading. Be Happy! By the way, SSAE stands for Self Stamped Addressed Envelope! Ok Malcolm! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Instructions * The AMOSEyes Editor is the only editor that can create modules compatable with the AMOSEyes Viewer as at 17-APR-93. The features of the Editor are not particularly complicated but extensive. It might serve better to have an experiement before reading this, just to have a common frame of reference. The Editor has been designed to offer a user friendly interface that will help get those instructions written without too much fuss. Unlike most text writers, the AMOSEyes format is slightly different. Where a huge continuous band of text fed through a scrolly viewer applied to almost all types of document. The AMOSEyes presents it like a book. With possibly a title page, contents, pages to which the user can brouse through and all tidied up in a multi-control utility. The controls of the Editor are pretty typical of a text editor and the graphics are very easy to integrate. On the whole, I think you will find the Editor acceptable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title Page On executing the AMOSEyes_Editor Program, you will be given a Title screen which displays the Version Number plus other sundry information. To leave this screen simply press either mouse button and you will be taken to the main editor screen. The Editor Given several seconds for the editor to set itself up, you will be given a screen which can be seen as four segments. The 1st is the Main Control Icons. There are six items to select from, and these may, later branch off into further controls. But for the moment, the controls read WRITE, IMAGE, LOAD, SAVE, EMPTY and QUIT. These can be found at the top of the screen. The 2nd is the Status Panel. This is located directly under the main icon controls. It`s purpose is to show the current MODE of editing, the current DEVICE worked on and the BUFFER space remaining in memory. The 3rd is the Scroll Bar. This is a familiar feature of top-end packages, and which the usage is almost childs play. It acts as a fast wind locator, which allows the user to instantly locate the edit cursor at any point in the document. This is located down the right side of the screen and the bar also indicates the amount of memory remaining to edit. The 4th, and the one which will be used the most is the Display Area. It shows a portion of the document being edited and can be entered into with everything this editor offers. This is where the cursor will be shown to be ready and waiting for Text Input from the keyboard. With the screen combining all these, editing becomes optimised as all the information required can be immediately read and acted upon. Also, should any erros occur as a result of an incorrect usage of controls, the Status Panel also acts as an error report, which temporarily replaces the Status Figures. The Main Control Icons These have a variety of effects to the editor and are explained in full below. * WRITE * What the Write does is selects one of two modes. The first is Text Mode, of which there are two states. Write State and Amend State. The other is Image Mode, more of which can be learned of later. This icon sets this mode to write, enabling normal text input. [] When editing text, the pointer must be within the Display Screen and also above the `|-End of Edit Buffer-|` line. [] The pointer can relocate the cursor to any point in the Display Screen by pointing and clicking once. [] Observe the different effects of entering text in Write or Amend. Writing with `Write State` To select this, if it is not already in the state. Move the pointer to the Symbol displayed in the square brackets after Mode in the Status Panel. You can see it as: Mode[x] - this x could be one of three symbols. `W`, `A` or `+`, respective to the order, this means WRITE, AMEND and GRAPHICS. For Write State, this symbol must be `W`. If it is `A`, you must click on this symbol and it will switch to `W`. Vice versa, if it is `A`, it will switch to `W`. This will repeat without incident. Should the symbol be a `+`, then the Mode is in Image Mode and should be set to Write Mode by clicking the WRITE icon in the Main Control. Now you are actively in Write State, what can be done? Well, first you are able to type using the keyboard and your words will appear in the display screen at the cursor position. As the write state has automatic justify as standard, as you reach the end of a line, the word you carried past the end of the line will be re-located to the next line and the previous line will be spaced out to block it into the page. This will become a welcome feature as you begin to work this utility for real. As this state is also regarded as insert mode, should you attempt to enter a word(s) in the middle of an existing sentence, the letters following your entry will make room for the new letters but the end of the line will suffer loss of any words that get pushed off. Also, as insert goes, when you use the RETURN Key, any words following the cursor will be dragged to the next line. It is usually used at the end of an average line so by placing the cursor at the middle of the line and hitting RETURN, you will effectively pull the remaining words to the next line. Reversing this is easy. By hitting the Backspace Key directly afterwards, the text will be returned. As anyone familiar with word processors knowns, the best way of learning is no holds barred experimentation. If fact, you will pick up the trends of insert quite quickly. Writing with `Amend State` Amend State is probably the easiest to grasp. When writing text, the cursor will move like the insert cursor but will have no effect on the surrounding text. You will write your text but RETURN will not drag any words. Delete will not pull any words. The amend is best used to correct errors of remove text from an area on the screen. It is also a faster way of writing large documents. Also, for those who like to lay out there work in little text blocks, but have found the automatic justify throws your words everywhere when trying to place text away from the edges. The Amend State will allow you to order your work anyway you wish. It`s also useful for placing stray letters in and around your document. Writing States and Speed Speed generally isn`t a problem with text editors. But for really large documents, alot has to be considered. But only in the insert mode. As you type your sentence, then hit RETURN, what happens is your are pushing a line into the document. This means moving all the following lines down one line. If there are two hundred lines below you, then this may take some time. Not alot of time but noticable if you are typing at speed. However, by using the Amend, this is not a problem because you are not inserting a line into the document. You are overwriting the next line and therefore not incuring the process of line pushing. The only time Amend inserts a line is at the end of the edit buffer and this is instant! So your best bet is to write your documents using Write State and then when your want to redraft your document, select Amend State. The Text Edit Window The impressive tool of the Write Control is the edit window. This is a selection box of five commands which affect anything highlighted. It enables you to COPY, CUT, PASTE, JUSTIFY and CENTRE. You must first high - light the desired text to be effected then click the right mouse button, to bring up the edit window. To highlight a single line of text, press the left mouse button on a line sentence and while holding down the button move the mouse left or right. The whole line will now become highlighted. To highlight a whole area of your document, apply the same procedure as above but move the mouse down the document. You will notice the highlight shade will cover anything from your starting click to where you release the button. To abort any highlighting you may have done. either type something on the keyboard, move the pointer out of the display screen or click outside the shaded area. Clicking inside the area will simply relocate the cursor, nothing more. To select something from the edit window, move the pointer up or down the list of options and click the left mouse button. The command will be carried out and you will exit the edit window. The commands are shown below: COPY - This will record upto one area of highlighted text until recalled or overwritten by another COPY command or CUT command. CUT - This will record a specified area in memory then erase that same area from the document. PASTE - This will detect any stored text in memory and position it at the first line of the highlighted area. JUSTIFY - Any text highlighted will be justified and spaced and blocked in order to conform to the standard page width. Any words that can be dragged to the previous line will be replaced so the final peice of text is as compact as possible. CENTRE - The centre will take each highlighted line in turn and calculate the centremost position of the text. Ideal for titles and sub- titles. Should at any time the edit window not be required once called, it can be aborted by clicking outside the presented window. * IMAGE * This is what sets this package apart from the rest as it enables graphics to occupy the same space as text without any special methods. Just simple grab and place techniques. The Image Edit Window The Image Edit window is a list of commands which in combination, help you place your own graphics in the text document. It can be obtained by first clicking the IMAGE icon on the main control segment at which time the symbol in the MODE Status should change to a `+`. Now you can call up the Image Edit Window by clicking the right mouse button. From this window, you can select the following: GRAB - This takes you into the Grabber which is explained later. In short it grabs your images and stores them in banks to be used anytime you wish. CHOOSE - This will select any images stored in the image banks and will automatically allow you to place your choice on your document. The choose window is very simple to use. Use the + to increase through the list of images (the image will be represented in the space above the control icons). The - decreased through the list and the OK icon says this is the image you would like to use. PLACE - If you are not happy with your placement or would like to place your image directly after leaving the Grabber, you can use this to place the current image. PALETTE - This allows you to change the colour of the Editor and therefore your document. When the player runs your saved document, these colours will take over and you`ll have your own custom palette! Same with the Text Edit, to leave the window, simply click outside away from the list of commands. The Grabber Grabbing images for use in your document isn`t all that difficult. What is difficult is making those graphics in the first place. This version does not support a graphics tool. But there are far superior Packages to handle this. I personally recommend DPaint. It supports IFF Standard pictures and has more features that you`ll ever need. You will need to create yourself a Graphics Picture when creating your own instruction books. AMOSEyes supplies a nice range of Piccies to be getting on with but you will eventually be using your own. Some things to remember when creating your file: [] The picture must be a minimum size of 320 pixels wide and 200 pixels in height. [] The picture must be IFF standard(Dpaint uses this as default). [] The picture must only have four colours. Failure to do so will result in the Edfitor rejecting your file. [] The actual colours do not have to conform to the editor colours, they will be converted when grabbed. [] The picture can be as big as your disk space allows! Once you have a compatable IFF picture, you can access the Grabber. In the grabber your picture will retain it`s own palette colours but when grabbing them they will be re-displayed in the editors colours(see The Palette). There are several controls available to you once in the Grabber Screen. At the base of the screen(not viewable to NTSC users), the panel is split into three areas. The IMAGE VIEWER, IMAGE GRABBER and the SCREEN MOVER. Each is selected by pressing the left mouse button over the boxes. The Image Viewer simply shows the current image bank and whether an image is stored there. If one is, it will be shown, compressed or enlarged to fill the rectangle. At the top of this rectangle, a number and a word will be shown. The number is the image bank number. This can range from 0 - 50 images. The word will either be `Ready` or `Done`. Any grab will render this word as `Ready`. the `Done` description will indicate that the image has been placed somewhere on the document and not usable unless the user wishes to relocate the image. The Image Grabber has several command boxes to control grabbing. Probably the most obvious there is the `+` and `-`, which control the movement through the banks. This is for viewing empty banks ready to place an image into for later positioning in the document. Next is the `Store` command. This is done once a part of the graphics picture has been selected. To select a part of the graphics screen, you simply move the pointer to the top/left corner of the rectangle you wish to grab and then press and hold down the left mouse button. Now drag what will appear to be a sizing rectange `right` across and `down` to the bottom right corner of the area and let go of the mouse button. You can adjust the shape of the selected area by re-clicking to relocate the bottom/right corner. Or you could just simply click the right mouse button which will clear the selection and you can select another area in the same way. One you have the area you wish to turn into an image, simply click the `store` command and it will suddenly appear in the Image Viewer and resized to fit perfectly inside. (Don`t worry, the actual size is still intact, but will only become evident when placing!) Going to the second line of commands, there is the `clear`, which simply clears all data from the current image displayed in the image viewer and the `OK` which leaves the grabber and returns to the editor screen. The Screen Mover In cases where all the screen is not displayed. Maybe your picture is double the size of the actual screen, you can move around your picture by making use of the screen mover arrows. In case this is unfamiliar to you: [] The Arrow at the top moves up your picture until it reaches the top- most display of your picture. [] The Arrow at the bottom moves down your picture until it reaches the bottom. [] The Arrow pointing left moves you left across your picture. [] The Arrow pointing right moves you right across your picture. If you do not like the colour of your graphics when they are converted into the image viewer, you can leave the grabber and enter the palette window. Remembering which colours you would like to change, alter them accordingly them return to the grabber. You will find this proceedure soon finds a winning combination of colour and graphics. Placing an Image Now whether you arrived to place the image via the Choose Window or a Place Command, you must know the limits of it`s usage. When you enter Place, you are given two markers. One at the top/left and another at the bottom/right. These show the actual size of the image. It accomodates on line at the base for a line of text and borders either end of the image. The top of the image has no border so the placing must not over-run any text. More simply, here is the actual image: 12345678 12345678 12345678 When you grab an image and try to place it, three borders are given for presentation reasons: _12345678_ _12345678_ _12345678_ __________ As you can see, place the text directly above and if it`s too close, the whole thing may look out of place. So it is advisable to keep a line gab inbetween the text and the image top. You may also insert a little title or phrase in the border, overlapping the shaded area reserved for the image. This is because the images are drawn `before` the text in the viewer! Like this: _12345678_ _12345678_ _12345678_ __MadMod__ When you have selected the ideal position for your image, click the left mouse button to place. If you want to cancel the place, click the right mouse button or push the pointer out of the display screen. If you successfully place an image, you will see the selected part of the screen shade black. You will never see the actual image in the editor as the time spend redrawing them all would slow the utility down. This shade will not effect your text in any way but act as a marker to show where the document will eventually display graphics. Work around these and you will find a presentation awaiting your pleasure on entering the viewer! You can place as many images as you want on one area, you can overlap them and position them in any order you wish. But remember to record where and what you have placed. The best method is to plan out your instruction book prior to editing it, this way you get things done faster, believe it! One point to consider when editing with images, do not assume the image is going to move with your text(as you insert around it). When you push your text from the top of your document, the image will stay the same number of lines from the top of the document. The Palette The Palette window, reached from the Image edit list of commands, is most important in this editor. Not only does it offer you the chance to alter your environment some, it also gives each instruction book you write it`s own identity. The effect can be quite professional. The colours are shown as four large squares, coloured accordingly. With a click on one of these boxes, you can select a colour to alter. Above these are three bars with a marker within each. The bars control the Red, Green and Blue mixtures respectively and are labelled to help you. By altering the position of the markers, by clicking each side of them, you can alter the amount of each colour getting to the end result. As an exanple of this, none in each of the bars(pots), would result in not much atall(black!). But everything mixed in equal measures would give a grey colour. If just the red was marked high, the result would be a red colour, etc. NOTE: If you just happen to set all colours to black and cannot find the bars to set them back! There is a default key which sets the colours to the origional palette. Just press `SPACE` when you get in a fix! As colours go, the editor and viewer can only handle four colours. Similar to the default workbench. Should a demand for more colours arise through public demand, a later version will contain such features. * LOAD, SAVE & EMPTY * These are self explainatory as commands, however there usage is unique to AMOSEyes. Each can be selected by clicking with the left mouse button. LOAD - By clicking this, the editor will erase what is currently being edited and will load in the .DOC document found on the current device specified in the status panel. However: [] The device must be available and the file `AMOSEyes.DOC` must exist on the current device. [] Only one of these special module files can exist per device. Any attempt at creating a second will erase the first. [] No confirmation exists in these icons so be sure you click wisely. SAVE - By clicking this, you will save what is currently being edited onto the file `AMOSEyes.DOC` on the current device. All the above items apply to this command. It WILL erase any files of the same name on the current device. EMPTY - This will, without confirmation, erase everything currently in the working memory and all variables will reset. Just as if you had entered via the title page. * QUIT * This will leave the editor and return to the Workbench or from wherever the utility was called from. It will egnore any changes other than those which have been saved via the SAVE command. Make sure you have saved your work before leaving. The Status Panel In order to convey all useful information as easily as possible, the status panel has been positioned on the main screen just under the Main Controls. Three information items are displayed, two of which can be changed by directly clicking the info detail. There is the MODE, DEVICE and BUFFER. The MODE This shows what the editor is currently under. Whether it be text editing mode or graphics mode. This is important to know so the right mouse button feature is not confused when being used. Three symbols represent what mode the editor is under: `W` - Write Mode `A` - Amend Mode `+` - Image Edit Mode(Graphics Mode) The DEVICE The device is the storage hardware you wish to write to for saving your work. usually this is `df0:` for your internal disk drive but on occasion you may fund it better(and it is) to use an external second drive. This may be refered to as `df1:` (or `df2:` for a third drive!). For those very lucky so-an-so`s out there, they may feel they want to use their Hard Drive as a storage device, in which case `dh0:` or `dh1:` would apply. Should you wish to change the device, you can click the left mouse button while the pointer is over the device type. The order of rotation is as follows: `df0:` - `df1:` - `df2:` - `dh0:` - `dh1:` and back to `df0:` If you attempt to write to a non-existant device, an error message will be given. You may only create instruction books to reside in the root of your device so Hard Drives are not recommended unless it is to be a regular feature of your `well-organised` HD. The BUFFER Simply this shows how much more memory is reserved for your document to consume. You are given around 25K in which is split into 10 Pages. Of one page, there are three screens of empty paper. It was felt that this would be enough. The Scroll Bar In appearance, it looks quite plane, but it`s usage is invaluable as it not only offers the manouverability of any editor but also indicates the size of your document and how much you have left. There are two ways to use the Scroll Bar: i) By clicking above or below the bar(away from the white part), the doc will be advanced back or forth 10 lines. This is for casual viewing. ii) By pressing the left mouse button on the white bar and pushing up or down, the document moves to the exact equivilant position as that in the bar. By letting go, the screen will refresh at the new position! The Display Screen This shows all the document as you understand it. Text and Black shapes in DTP order through the document. But there are one or two things you will want to know. There are symbol lines which appear within your document even before any editing has occured. You get an `End of Edit Buffer` line, a pure line of underscores(the `_` symbol). You also get a patch of `#` symbols to show there is not more buffer space to edit. The end of edit buffer is movable and only acts as a feature to save as little as possible. By recording where you edit up to, the file can be saved the hassle of saving unwanted buffer space. It will not appear in the viewable document! The line of `_` symbols show a Page Break. To make editing as familiar as possible the document was made as one continuous sheet. These breaks show where the viewer will break up this band of text and graphics. Text can be written on this line without error but any graphics that overlap this line will be in error and must be avoided. It is useful to put some kind of PTO or MORE message on this line, as a kind of prompt! The mesh of `#` are clearly unavoidable and cannot be written on. This shows non-exostant buffer space and shows that no more space is available. At this point it is best to consider where you went bazzerk! Some restrictions to consider here as: [] Do not remove the pointer from this area unless you wish to use a control icon. Any editing will terminate on leaving this area. [] In the viewer, the background will use the transparent colour of the palette(Colour 0 or Black as Default). [] The Pointer defenision will indicate the whereabouts of your mouse pointer. ie, whether you are in the display screen or not. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------