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The Graphics Language For Clipper 5.01 (Version 1.01) Addendum Documentation 24 June 1991 ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 24 June 1991 [Release v1.01] - Changed all PUBLIC arrays and variables to STATIC. Also changed all PRIVATE arrays to LOCAL declarations. - Modified the SET MOUSE command to account for the change to Clipper 5.01 that caused the function ONOFF() to be eliminated. - Modified the three business objects so that the SELECT() function handles the saving and restoring of the plot databases properly. - Modified the VIEWICON utility to enable the display of separate as well as composite icons and fixed a bug in the composite display that previously used the color command for each of the four color planes. - Established preprocessor constants for NoSuchHandle and NoLabelsLeft and set to error codes 04 and 05 respectively. - Modified the VIEWICON and MENUDEMO programs to change all PRIVATE variables to LOCAL variables. Also note that both the VIEWICON and MENUDEMO programs must be compiled with the /N option. ______________________________________________________________________________ Design Issues: - The event array only contains the super icon number in the case of a physical object. This needs to change so that once an icon event is de- fined, the programmer need not worry if the icon file is loaded when the event is activated. The problem will manifest itself when different icons have been selected during the define sequence from multiple icon files, and activation occurs later among those disparate icons. The work around for this is that you always immediately activate when defining an icon, but you won't be able to refresh the icons without reloading each icon file. This can be changed if(when) icons can be collectively stored in a dynamic file. Icon "labels" will also help alleviate this design flaw. - It may be that the event region coordinates will need to be stored in a different part of the array separate from the phisical object coordinates. Currently, we use the physical coordinates as the basis for the click re- gion. This is not the best methodology because there will be times when a programmer will want a mouse hot region that is larger or perhaps smaller than the object itself. This does not impact invisible objects however. - Since The Graphics Language supports both row/column and cartesian posi- tioning coordinates, all further reference to coordinates will be specified as Pos1,Pos2 where Pos1 is the Clipper row number from 0 to 24, or the car- tesian horizontal (X) coordinate from 0 to 1350. Pos2 cooresponds to the Clipper column coordinates from 0 to 79, or the cartesian vertical co- ordinates 0 to 1000. In version 1.0 however, there is no support for the use of the Cartesion coordinates. That will come later on in version 1.1. - Currently there are no functions that allow a programmer to inquire about changes that occur in the event array when a mouse button is clicked. These will be added after the first Beta Test pass. - The business charts currently use a FILTER command and this should be changed to facilitate faster processing on large files. I suggest that anyone thinking about using the FILTER clause should consider a different method of isolating data from large files. Then use the GL commands on the smaller database subsets. - The FLASH command is basically a "redraw" command and this should change to a method that uses Xor to simulate a flashing when an object is clicked on. - There is an experimental menu function in a new sample program named MENUDEMO.PRG. It demonstrates the characteristics of a planned menu object that has three dimensional attributes. The function creates an array of menu choices and further uses that array to create multiple event regions in the Graphics Language event array. There has been very little testing and use of this function. It is only provided for demonstration purposes. - All color and other constants are coded as manifest constants in the .CH file. Unfortunately, this means that they are hard coded into any function in the library that uses them. Users will not be able to change these unless you provide the source to the LIB as well as the CH. - Perhaps there should be VCENTER and VTOP options for the DRAW text command. ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 29 Jan 1991 to 05 Feb 1991 [Beta v1.0f] - Modified the __DrawBevel() function to display the first box in a pattern fill of 20 to clear the area. - Modified the __DrawBevel() function to save the current Clipper color and then restore it afterwards. - Fixed a bug in the __WordToColor() function that was causing color incon- sistencies due to Clipper's inconsistent return values as discovered by Peter Freese. ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 23 Jan 1991 to 28 Jan 1991 [Beta v1.0e] - Fixed a bug in the bar chart color statement so that it now will support the word COLOUR as well as COLOR. - Modified the SET MOUSE ON command to check for the existence of a mouse driver, and abort if unavailable. - Modified the __PieChart() function to use a more appropriate normalizing algorithym recommended by BPS. ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 18 Jan 1991 to 23 Jan 1991 [Beta v1.0d] - The commands DRAW BOX and CLEAR GRAPHICS WINDOW have a new command clause option called BEVEL. When used with DRAW BOX, the box will have beveled edges and appear to be 3 dimensional. The color support for the various bevel surfaces are defined in the GLLIBR.CH header file. When used with the CLEAR GRAPHICS WINDOW command, BEVEL will clear a window area that is slightly larger. This is necessary because beveled boxes are displayed slightly larger. Future vuersions will enable better color control from the command language rather that hard coded color schemes. - A bug in the PCL5 optional clause of SET VECTOR PRINT has been fixed. - A bug in the SET VECTOR PRINT command that causes the PATTERN variable not to be passed from the command to the function has been fixed. - A bug in the SET VECTOR PRINT command that causes a case sensitive eval- uation of the MMS clause has been fixed to ingnor case sensitivity. - Two new optional clauses have been added to the DRAW <text> command that enable centered and right justification modes to be invoked. The command options are CENTERED, and RIGHT. For example, the following syntax could be used to display a title in the center of the screen on line 2. draw "The Graphics Language" at 02,40 using system 1609 center Note that the CENTER command invokes "centering" at the column origin. Also note that the DRAW <text> command defaults to left justification, but the word LEFT may be used in the command syntax. The LEFT clause is a no-op command. - The SET GRAPHICS PRINT command has been changed and now requires only one parameter, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, or COM2. For example, to send printer output to a serial printer attached to COM1, the following syntax is appropriate. SET GRAPHICS PRINT TO com1 // send output to serial, com1 - The WAIT EVENT command has been modified to continue looping until a valid click region has been selected. - A bug in the __DgeColor() function was causing Clipper color settings to be evaluated improperly. This has been fixed. - The DRAW BAR CHART command has been altered in the following ways: > The COLOR option now accepts a color parameter instead of alternating the colors of the bars. The COLOR option is used to specify the color of the bars. The current Clipper color will be used lacking a COLOR specification. > The 3D option now draws the outline of the bars but does not fill the bar displays. ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 01 Jan 1991 to 18 Jan 1991 [Beta v1.0c] - The FIX POSITION AT and SET DGE VERSION TO commands have been removed from the product. They serve no useful purpose at the present time. - The SET POSTSCRIPT PRINT command has been changed to SET VECTOR PRINT with command option modifications as follows: - The PCL5 and/or LASERJET optional clauses are the default. - The POSTSCRIPT optional clause is new. - The GREYSCALE optional clause is new and applies to PCL5/LASERJET III printing only. All other optional statements that have been previously documented remain unchanged. See the command documentation below for complete details. - The only changes that have been made to the documentation are the removal of FIX POSITION AT and SET DGE VERSION. Additionally, the SET POSTSCRIPT PRINT command has changed to SET VECTOR PRINT as shown below. Note that there have been changes to the command options in SET VECTOR PRINT. Also note that these changes have been updated to the Norton Guide database included with beta version 1.0c. SET VECTOR PRINT Description: This command toggles vector printing to an ON or OFF state and accepts commands to control page eject, color, and other aspects of vector printing. This command, without any arguments will toggle vector printing off and eject the current page. Syntax: SET VECTOR PRINT [ON] [OFF] [HORIZONTAL OFFSET <hoffset>] [VERTICAL OFFSET <voffset>] [HORIZONTAL LENGTH <hlength>] [UNITS <units>] [VERTICAL SCALE <vscale>] [PORTRAIT] [PCL5] [LASERJET] [POSTSCRIPT] [WINDOW] [COLOR] [PATTERN] [EJECT] [NOEJECT] Arguments: <hoffset> is the horizontal offset from the left of the page. <voffset> is the vertical offset from the base of the page. <hlength> is the base length of the image on the page. <units> is the specifies either "MMS", points "1/72" nd of an inch, or "1/100" th of an inch. <vscale> is the specifies the Cartesian Y axis scale factor percent. [PORTRAIT] is the invokes an orientation angle on page of 90 degrees. [PCL5] invokes a printing mode that supports HPGL, LaserJet III and above, and any printer that supports HPGL plotter emulation. [LASERJET] is synonomous with PCL5. [POSTSCRIPT] invokes a Postscript printing mode. [WINDOW] prints within the current clipping window. [COLOR] is the invokes postscript color printing mode. [PATTERN] is the invokes postscript pattern priority. [NOEJECT] is the suppresses page ejecting when toggling postscript printing to the OFF state. Example: SET VECTOR PRINT ON LASERJET // toggle vector print on * drawing commands * SET VECTOR PRINT OFF EJECT // toggle vector off, eject Purpose: Set the vector print feature ON or OFF Mapped Function: __SetVectorPrint() contained in GLLIBR.PRG. dGE functions: printps(),vpon(),vpoff() Other GL UDFs: None. System variables: None. System constants: None. - In previous versions, there were certain hard coded row and column increments that were in use to automatically adjust the height and width of frames and positioning of text. This caused some confusion when using the DRAW BOX, DEFINE EVENT REGION, and DRAW TEXT commands together. The confusion has been eliminated and now all row and column positioning is performed without these subtle adjustments. ______________________________________________________________________________ Change Summary: 30 Nov 1990 to 31 Dec 1991 [Beta v1.0b] - A resturcturing of the object array has resulted in a more formal declar- ation of creating, activating, deactivating, and releasing event object and such. The following commands have been added and/or restructured. - Event Objects: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Event objects make up the basic structure that support the event menuing system. Each event has a click area that is the same size and coordintes of the physical object or an invisible event region. The click area does not include a shadow area if specified. Currently, there are two types of event objects supported; invisible region, and super icon button. The commands asterisked(*) are planned for the near future. DEFINE EVENT <label> // event region (no object) FROM <Pos1_a>,<Pos1_b> // upper left coordinates TO <Pos2_a>,<Pos2_b> // lower right coordinates [ACTIVATE] // optionally arm the region DEFINE EVENT <label> // icon event object AT <Pos1>,<Pos2> // center point coordinate USING SUPERICON <icon> // specify a super icon [ACTIVATE] // display and activate icon button [SHADOW] // display drop shadow *DEFINE EVENT <label> // text event object FROM <Pos1_a>,<Pos1_b> // upper left coordinates TO <Pos2_a>,<Pos2_b> // lower right coordinates USING TEXT [<string>] // specify type and [text] [ACTIVATE] // display and activate text button [BOX] // optionally display a frame [SHADOW] // display drop shadow *DEFINE EVENT <label> // check box event object AT <Pos1>,<Pos2> // center point coordinate USING CHECK BOX [<title>] // specify type and [title] [ACTIVATE] // display and activate check box *DEFINE EVENT <label> // radio button event object AT <Pos1>,<Pos2> // center point coordinate USING RADIO BUTTON [<title>] // specify type and [title] [ACTIVATE] // display and activate radio button ACTIVATE EVENT <label> // activate event object and display FLASH EVENT <label> // clear and redraw event object MOVE EVENT <label> TO <Pos1>,<Pos2> // move event region and object WAIT EVENT TO <memvar> // process all active events [NOFLASH] // supress select flash WAIT EVENT <label> // process a single event object [DEACTIVATE] // optionally deactivate [RELEASE] // optionally release the event DEACTIVATE EVENT <label> // deactivate event object [CLEAR] // clear from screen also RELEASE EVENT <label> // kills the event and clears For example, the procedure for prompting for multiple icon buttons in various locations on the screen would be accomplished like this: CLEAR // clear the text screen (std Clipper 5.0 command) SET GRAPHICS ON // graphics mode SET MOUSE ON // turn on the mouse SET ICON TO DEMO.ICO // load the super icon file CLEAR GRAPHICS SCREEN // clear the graphics screen DEFINE EVENT "one" AT 03,08 USING SUPERICON 2 SHADOW ACTIVATE DEFINE EVENT "two" AT 09,08 USING SUPERICON 4 SHADOW ACTIVATE DEFINE EVENT "three" AT 15,08 USING SUPERICON 6 SHADOW ACTIVATE DEFINE EVENT "four" AT 21,08 USING SUPERICON 7 SHADOW ACTIVATE DEFINE EVENT "five" AT 21,63 USING SUPERICON 1 SHADOW ACTIVATE WAIT EVENT TO LABEL_ // wait for a mouse click DO CASE // evaluate the choice CASE LABEL_ == "one" // if button one was clicked ... // process code for button one CASE LABEL_ == "two" // if button one was clicked ... // process code for button one So, for example, the procedure for prompting for a single mouse click at any location on the screen would be accomplished like this: DEFINE EVENT "pause" ; // define and activate the event FROM 00,00 TO 24,79 ; // specify the location ACTIVATE // activate the event region WAIT EVENT "pause" RELEASE // wait for a mouse press - For our neighbors to the south (Australia) and those to the east (UK), I've added support for the word COLOUR. Wherever the COLOR statement is documented, you may also use alternate. - Added support for the clipwin() function. SET DRAWING AREA has been assigned as the command for this function, and the syntax is shown below. SET DRAWING AREA [FROM <Pos1_a>,<Pos1_b> TO <Pos2_a>,<Pos2_b>] Using this command without the FROM...TO clause will cause the drawing area to be set to dGE's default of the entire visible screen. - Added support for the snapcopy(), snappaste(), and snapkill() functions. The commands to effect a screen save and restore are shown below. SAVE GRAPHICS SCREEN <label> ; FROM <Pos1_a>,<Pos1_b> TO <Pos2_a>,<Pos2_b> RESTORE GRAPHICS SCREEN <label> The intelligence to support the saving and restoring of screen by using a simple <label> name is possible through the use of a small array that contains the dGE snapcopy() handle, label name, and positional co- ordinates. The array is named _screens_[] and is created when the Graphics language is initialized by SET GRAPHICS ON. - Added support for the prndev() function. The command syntax is shown below. SET GRAPHICS PRINT TO <device> ON <channel> Where <device> is either "LPT" or "COM", and <channel> is either "LPT1" or "LPT2". Optionally, the more verbose arguments are supported as shown. For example, the following syntaxes are supported. There are no defaults and both arguments must be specified. SET GRAPHICS PRINT TO parallel ON com1 SET GRAPHICS PRINT TO serial ON com2 - Removed the NORESET option in the command SET GRAPHICS TO per BPS request. - Changed MaxObjects preprocessor constant to 70 as per BPS request. - A new command SET DGE RESOURCES has been added so that supporting files such as character sets, icon files, super font files can be found by your applications without specifying the path in the command statements. The search hierarhy is based first on a specified SET DGE RESOURCES command. If a SET command has not been issued, the search for resource files con- tinues with a look at the DOS environment for a DGE environment variable. Lacking an environmnt variable, the current directory is assumed to be the location of all resource files. Note that like other Grahics Language commands, SET DGE RESOURCES must be used after SET GRAPHICS ON has been issued. - The following new syntax formats are now supported in addition to the ones currently documented. For example, DRAW <string> AT Pos1,Pos2 is supported in addition to the more consistent form listed below. @ Pos1,Pos2 DRAW <string> @ Pos1,Pos2 DRAW STANDARD ICON <icon> @ Pos1,Pos2 DRAW SUPER ICON <icon> - Overlay, and composite icons, although difficult to achieve, are available in this release of the graphics language. It is accomplished by simply overlaying 4 separate icon images to achieve color seperations and other special effects. This involves the creation of icon image collections, 2 per icon file that work in unison to effect 4 separate image planes for an overlay, and 4 adjoining icons for a composite display. The command to display a composite icon is shown below: DRAW SUPER ICON 0 AT 10,10 COMPOSITE The example shown above will use super icon positions 0 through 3 in the current icon file to make a composite icon display at the specified center point. Each icon in the display will adjoin at position 10,10. The command to display an overlay icon in four different colors is shown below: DRAW SUPER ICON 0 AT 10,10 OVERLAY 7 3 15 9 This example will use super icon positions 0 through 3 to make a composite icon display using the colors listed after the OVERLAY option. Eventually, we'll change the command so that words or numbers can be used to specify the color settings for each of the planes. The problem of course, is that GFONT is incapable of easily designing color icons, so you have to improvise by creating the full icon in one icon position, and then copy it to the other three locations while removing the pixels that correspond to each of the other three colors desired in the icon. In an effort to make this a useful feature, we've provided a few basic icons that demonstrate the concept. This capability is not intended to be THE color icon support for dGE. The ability to display color icons is simply a by-product of the OVERLAY clause. The OVERLAY clause was added to enable parts of icons to be used to create a single image. - A new file named DGELIBR.ICO has been created that provides for specific icon management support. It must be in the DGE environment path, or in a directory specified in the SET DGE RESOURCES command. Lacking either of these, the file must be in the current directory of the application that uses the Graphics Language. Currently, its only purpose is for clear- ing and displaying the shadowing of icons. If you are not using the sha- dow options for icons, this file will not be called upon by your applica- tions. ______________________________________________________________________________ Operational Notes: - This product requires a mouse and either EGA or VGA video support. - This product requires Clipper 5.0 and dGE 4.1. You must be familiar with compiling and linking Clipper 5.0 applications and dGE graphics support before attempting to use this product. - Some of the icon files have not been duplicated in inverse format. DEMO.ICO is a copy of ICONS000.ICO. In all, there are 88 icons in- cluded with the Graphics Language. There is no specific documentation provided showing each icon but there is a utility included that will display each super icon files' contents. The utility is called VIEWICON and must be compiled first. The syntax for using it follows. C:\GLDEMO> viewicon sample <cr> The icon viewer is capable of displaying composite icons as well. The syntax is shown below. C:\GLDEMO> viewicon composit /c - Watch for the release of the dGE Icon Library with more than 1000 icons. It will be available from Pinnacle Publishing, Inc. - If the \CLIPPER\INCLUDE or \CLIPPER\LIB directories do not exist on the drive specified at installation time, the files GLLIBR.CH and GLLIBR.LIB will not be copied. The installation file assumes Clipper 5.0 has been installed first. ______________________________________________________________________________ Demo Program: The sample program contains not a single dGE function call. Only english like statements of the Graphics Language for Clipper 5.0. Most of it is commented and much of it is self explanatory. The menu it produces is quite impressive considering it is less than 20 lines of code. The entire program including charts is only about 100 lines. Compiling is accomplished in ordinary fashion but does require the Graphics Language header file GLLIBR.CH to be present in the compilation directory or in the Clipper 5.0 INCLUDE directory. Additionally, you must link in GLLIBR.LIB in addition to the standard dGE screen drivers and library. At run-time, this program requires the dGE character sets listed below. DEMO.PRG also uses DEMO.ICO which contains all of the icons for the menu. The demo program will look for these files on the C: drive for a directory named \DGERES. DEMO.ICO is simply a copy of ICONS000.ICO. DGE0EGA.CHR RMN1628.STX DGE1EGA.CHR RMN2828.STX DGE1108.STX RMN3828.STX DGE1609.STX A batch file to compile DEMO.PRG has also been included named CDEMO.BAT. Bill French Global Technologies Corporation (303) 337-7758 [CompuServe 71350,461]