Graphics Plus/Graphics Plus.iso/msdos/editors/willdraw/manual.doc

Text File | 1993-08-04 | 10.0 KB | 229 lines

******* 0. INFO *******

This program is freely distributable as shareware, please see below.

Also, two sample drawings are included: EXAMPLE.DRW and EXAMPLE2.DR.


******* 1. Introduction *******

Well, everybody, this is my first real foray into the realm of shareware and I
hope it goes well.  To be honest, this was a project that I was
assigned to do in my graphics class in college.  Of course, as of this date
that was only about two months ago (and I am still there).  The actual
assignment was to create a simple drawing program with primitive commands for
drawing circles, lines, et al., but found this a little dull (after all I wrote
simple drawing programs when I was 12 (can you say computer geek? (I like to
parenthesize things by the way.)))  Add to that the fact that there are more
drawing packages available than (insert cliche here).  So I decided to spruce
up the look of the program's appearance a lot.

I think I succeeded in that.  I have never seen anything quite like what I have
done here.  Fully animated icons!  (Although I am not really sure what
half-fully animated icons look like)  Of course I know that there is
animation in the Amiga (which I have one of) (Amiga is a registered trademark
of Commodore Business Machines, Inc).  But I have not seen a program
with constant animation of the menu selections.  That's what my program does.

The menu system allows you to move the menu windows around in the normal
manner.  I think the menu/dialog box system is pretty intuitive.

******* 2. Legal Mumbo Jumbo. *******

By the way, I'm not planning on indenting at all.  If it weren't for
documentation, I would have released this program two months ago.  So I am
purposely not going to indent to get back at the Evil Daemon of Documention.

In simple terms, I'm not responsible for this program doing bad things to you
at all, period (.).  Even If I were, it would only be responsible for the
amount you paid me for it (if any).  So if you want to sue me and get your
money, please hurry up and send it in.  And even if I were somehow liable, I'm
poor and still in college so forget it.  Go sue Big Blue or something.

But on a more serious note, I better put the following:

Disclaimer:

Will Hatcher makes no warranty of any kind, either implied or express,
including (and not limited to) implied warranties of merchantability and fitness
for any purpose with respect to my software and the documentation accompanying
it.

In no event will Will Hatcher be liable for any damages including arising out
of the use of this program, regardless of Will Hatcher's knowledge or lack of
knowledge of the possiblity of such damages.  These damages can include
damages for loss of business profits, interruption of a business, or loss of
business information or any other loss.

Basically use it at your own risk, because suing me won't do any good since I'm
poor.

******* 3. Hardware Requirements. *******

The program requires VGA and I estimate around 400 KB of RAM to run.  I would
very much recommend running it on a hard drive since it accesses the disk
frequently.  The program must have write access to the disk since it makes a
temporary file.  A mouse is required as well.  The program was developed and
tested under DOS 5.0, and I don't know if it will work under earlier versions
of DOS or not (although I think it probably would.)

******* 4. Working the program. *******

I am going to keep this rather short and sweet.  I wouldn't read it,
personally, so I doubt many other people have made it this far anyway.

** Using the Dialog Boxes **

The dialog boxes work about the same as most command dialog boxes work today.
The TAB key takes you from one button/item to another.  As each button or text
field is highlighted, a short help message appears in the help line at the
bottom of the box.

To press a button, click on it with the mouse or TAB over until it is
highlighted and press ENTER or SPACE BAR.

To use the text fields, you may click on one to activate it or use the TAB key
to tab over to it.  You may then type.  Usually a default text will already be
in the field.  You may use the BACKSPACE key to delete it.

** The Program Itself **

The program begins with a nifty screen that was created (in part) using
Willdraw.  Press the SPACE BAR to begin.

Next comes up a little dialog box that tells you that to start the software you
need to either create a new file or open one.  If you choose to open a file, an
OPEN dialog box appears in which case you need to type in a file name of an old
file for it to load.

If you choose to Create a new file, you are asked for a filename (a default name
is given) and you may optionally change the given World Definition.  Be careful
in choosing a filename since if that file already exists, it will be zapped.
That is, it doesn't warn you that you are about to erase a previous file, it
just does it.

The World Definition may not be of importance to many of you.  It is just the
outer most bounds your picture file may encompass.  The main effect of this is
the vertical/horizontal proportions or aspect ratio.  The default values will
create a picture file that exactly matches the proportions of the editing
window.  The numbers are Real numbers and I recommend keeping them in a
somewhat moderate range.  That is, not to big and not too small.  This is
recommended since I don't think I have gotten all bugs relating to dividing
by zero and overflow out yet (isn't that comforting?).

If you choose to open a file, you must type in a valid filename of an existing
file.

Once you have successfully created/loaded a file, you are presented with the
Main Menu.  Now is when you get to see all the neat little animated icons.  You
can drag the menu around by using its blue bar if you want to move it for some
reason.  If you click with the right button on an icon, you will get a help
line pertaining to the choice.  Clicking with the left button will select the
icon.

** The File Menu **

The File Menu has six choices.  You can choose to OPEN a file, SAVE the current
file, CLOSE the current file, create a NEW file, EXIT the program, or return to
the MAIN menu.

** The Edit Menu **

The Edit Menu has three choices.  The first one is UNDO which will undo the
lastest drawing (or color/pattern/linestyle etc) change in the file.  Note:
UNDO will undo the last item in the picture file.  It doesn't matter if it was
done in this particular session or not.

The WORLD choice lets you change the world definition (if you need more drawing
room for instance).

MAIN returns you to the Main menu.

** The Draw Menu **

The Draw menu gives you several different choices.  There are eight drawing
tools available including: circle, filled circle, line, box, bar, polygon,
text, and filled polygon.  Also available are: color--to change the active
drawing color, pattern--to change the current fill pattern, style--to change
the line-drawing style, and main which we know what does.

At the bottom of the screen with the drawing menu is a status/help line.  It
shows the current fill pattern, current drawing color, and current line style.
Above all this will be help text when a drawing tool is used.

When you select a drawing tool, all you have to do is follow the instructions
given in the help line.  I used a slightly different method than most drawing
programs of today, so the first few times you might want to carefully follow
the directions until you are used to doing it.  Pressing SHIFT lets you abort
drawing operations.

The color/pattern/line style options are pretty self obvious.

** The View Menu **

The View menu simply lets you zoom in/out of your drawing.  You may choose a
rectangle piece of whatever proportions.  Zoom out backs you out to the maximum
world default (the whole world).

** That's it **

Well that pretty much describes it.  I hope it is pretty obvious and easy to
use.  It was fun to create.

******* 5. Registration Information. *******

Well I know that there is a glut of drawing software on the market, but if just
love my program and plan on using it a lot, a contribution of any amount would
be appreciated (I'm poor).

And hey, write me a letter (some of you) even if you don't have any real use
for the program.  I'm a little curious as to how far this program will get.

******* 6. Notes. *******

A few notes about the program.  As I said this program was written for a
class, and as such has a few things that I didn't have time to finish that
weren't necessary (for the class).

Foremost that comes to mind is that if you give it a bad filename (or
nonexistent one, for loading) it will generally barf out on you.  Sorry, but
I haven't had the time and patience to get to this problem yet.

However, if you are working on a picture, if the program barfs out on you
for some reason (bad filename for saving under a different name or whatever)
the drawing up to the last change should be ok.  This is because each change
is saved as the drawing is done.

******* 7. Upgrades. *******

It is possible that I will upgrade this software in the future.  I don't know
if I will have the time or not, however.  But if I get overwhelming response
(heh, heh) I may make some additions/ modifications.

Possibilities:

1)Some rudimentary printing abilities.
2)Fewer bugs.
3)Multiple window support.
4)Some other things too, I guess that I can't think of right now.

Thanks for your support!  All money accepted!

My info:

Will C. Hatcher
216 N Walnut Ave
Cookeville, TN  38501

Internet address:

[e-mail]

Send cash now!  I'm poor.  Or write me a note telling me what you think (as
long as it's pretty good.)  If you send me a SASE, I thank you (but you won't
getting anything back).

All of this and the accompanying software is Copyright (c) Will Hatcher, 1993.

WillDraw 1.0