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MM MM IIIIII CCCC RRRRRR OOOOO MMM MMM II CC CC RR RR OO OO MMMMMMM II CC RR RR OO OO MM M MM II CC RRRRRR OO OO MM MM II CC RR RR OO OO MM MM II CC CC RR RR OO OO MM MM IIIIII CCCC RR RR OOOOO MM MM AAA PPPPPP PPPPPP EEEEEEE RRRRRR MMM MMM AA AA PP PP PP PP EE E RR RR MMMMMMM AA AA PP PP PP PP EE E RR RR MM M MM AA AA PPPPP PPPPP EEEE RRRRRR MM MM AAAAAAA PP PP EE E RR RR MM MM AA AA PP PP EE E RR RR MM MM AA AA PPPP PPPP EEEEEEE RR RR Version 3.1 Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald All Rights Reserved Micro-Mapper Documentation Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved Introduction Micro-Mapper was born of the desire to program smarter, not harder. One of the most tedious jobs in programming is designing and coding screens(maps). Usually you go through several screen revisions before you get it just right, continually changing the code. With Micro-Mapper you can now create screens for your programs without writing code. Just paint it the way that you want with the desired colors and save it in one of several built-in formats, or design your own format, for later use by your program. Creating screens without writing code enables you to make changes and experiment without the pain of changing, re-compiling and testing the code. When you have your screen drawn, use the Map Field function to define field names, sizes, types, etc. The field definitions can then be used by your program or by Micro-Coder to generate code to perform all input and output from the screen. Micro-Coder is a code generator for ZBASIC, C, COBOL, dBASE and REXX languages(more comming, if you have a need for another language, include the request with your registration) and may be purchased by registered users. Copyright 1990, 91, 92 by Mark McDonald Micro-Mapper is the intellectual property of the author, Mark McDonald, who reserves all rights. This software is NOT public domain or freeware. Sale of this program or its source code, in any form, is expressly forbidden without written permission of the author. Users of this program are allowed to evaluate it for a period of two weeks. After which, the user is required to register the program with the author to obtain a licensing agreement or discontinue its use. Users are encouraged to share the original Micro-Mapper programs with their friends so they may try it out. Bulletin Boards may provide this program for downloading by its users provided the programs and documentation file, as distributed by the author have not been modified or altered in any way and that no fee is required to download this program(other than a board membership fee). Shareware Distributing Houses may provide this program as long as the diskette or compressed file contains only the original programs and documentation file for this version as provided by the author and only a nominal distribution fee is charged. Registration Micro-Mapper is marketed as Shareware, a system that allows you to try out the software before purchasing it. You are allowed to use Micro-Mapper for two weeks to decide its usefulness to you. If after that time you find that you desire to continue using it, you are required to register your copy. This program required MANY hours of design and coding. It would be appreciated if you would take the trouble to register it. The registration fee has been kept low to make it easy to register. I 1 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved understand how hard it is to buy good utilities, especially when they cost $100.00+. So I kept the price low and rely on BBS's, users, etc. to distribute the program. Shareware is for those of us who just don't make the mega bucks but still need useful utilities. Your support of the shareware concept makes it work. It is up to you. To register your copy of Micro-Mapper, run RESISTER.COM or print the REGMAP.COM screen and fill it out, send $15.00, your name, address, company name(if for a company), floppy size and Micro-Mapper version number to: Mark McDonald P.O. Box 31533 Aurora, Colorado 80041 You will be sent a registered copy of the latest version of Micro-Mapper if the version that you have is not the latest. Being a registered owner entitles you to upgrades, purchase of Micro-Coder input/output code generators, and announcements of new products. Site Licenses for Corporate, Educational, and Government users are available on request. Send your site license information request on letter head to registration address. Please specify exact type of business and number of computers to be licensed. Purchase orders are accepted at Net 30 terms. Possible incentives to register: *Ability to purchase Micro-Coder, a code generator that compliments Micro-Mapper generating all code needed to display and edit map fields. A great way to do rapid prototyping and to create a program shell to start with or include in your application specific code. The cost of Micro-Coder is low in keeping with my philosophy of making good software easily purchased. *Future enhancements for registered users will include extended Video card support for EGA, MCGA, VGA and Super VGA which would allow you to have a bigger screen(Rows and Columns). *I will also be working on a 32bit version that should scream(as if it weren't fast enough) on 386 and 486 machines. *What new features or utilities do you want? Let me know. Liability Exclusion By using this utility, you agree that the author may not be held responsible or liable in any manner or for any reason, should anything happen while using or due to the use of this program. This includes, but is not limited to, any real(or otherwise) monetary loss should unforeseen circumstances arise causing data or productivity loss. Simply put, use it at your own risk. You also agree that you will register one copy of Micro-Mapper per computer that it is to be used on. 2 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements Thanks to Hal for helping me proof the documentation and for his encouragement during the development of this utility. I would like to thank the many Micro-Mapper users who have contributed to its growth. Bug Reports I like to ensure that my software works, so if you do find a bug, or wish to have a feature added, please feel free to write the me at the registration address. You may also leave E-Mail on the NEW AGE SERVICES BBS, (303) 366-1106. Include the version of Micro-Mapper that you are using. Mouse Usage If your mouse driver is loaded, your mouse may be used to position the cursor and to select menu items. Use of the mouse tends to make Micro-Mapper even easier to use. Pressing the right button will work the same as pressing the ESC key. When in a menu, place the mouse cursor over the letter and press the left button to execute a function. When NOT in a menu, pressing the left button will work the same as pressing the ENTER key. When arrows are displayed, the mouse cursor may be placed over the arrow and pressing or holding the left button will issue the arrow command. If a mouse is found, the cursor position information area at the bottom left of the screen will also show the mouse mickeys for column and row(Handy if you want to determine mouse position of a screen item). Note: A lot of people load their mouse drivers via the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This generally loads a COM or EXE program. If your mouse came with a MOUSE.SYS file, it is recommended that you place the following statement in your CONFIG.SYS file(DEVICE = C:\PATH\MOUSE.SYS) and remove the MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE statement from the AUTOEXEC.BAT. This ensures that no matter what a program does with the mouse, it will be available to a subsequent program. Otherwise, a program may turn off the mouse, depriving the next executed program from using it. If the clicking the right mouse button causes the menu to appear and then disappear, it is due to the CPU speed of your machine. To adjust the mouse delay times, change the value of the mouse delay time in the MAPPER.CFG file using Main Menu function O. The default delay time is 200(seems best for 8MHz 8088 machines. For faster 286 machines 400 is recommended. For 386 and above, you need to start at 400 and decide, up or down, from there. 3 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved Requirements Micro-Mapper will run on any MS/DOS(2.11 or greater version) compatible computer system with at least 100k of free memory. It may be invoked from within your favorite editor or other programs provided at least 100k of memory is free. Micro-Mapper will run from a floppy, but a harddrive is recommended for best performance. A mouse is HIGHLY recommended as cursor positioning with a mouse is MUCH faster than with the keyboard. To execute the DOS window function, at least 17k of memory must be available. Otherwise the results may be unpredictable. Installation For Floppy: 1. Format a floppy diskette, with or without DOS. 2. Copy the required files to the floppy using REQ.BAT: REQ A: A: Copies from a disk in Drive A (source) to a disk in Drive A (destination). Be sure to read the prompts on the screen to determine which diskette to put in the drive at each point of the copy process. For Hardrive: 1. Make a directory called MAPPER off of the root: MD C:\MAPPER or MD D:\MAPPER 2. Copy the required files to the sub-directory using REQ.BAT: REQ C:\SOURCEDIR C:\MAPPER REQ.BAT will also create the batch file required to call up Micro-Mapper. Be sure to move this batch file to a directory mentioned in the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file(hard drive only). The following programs must be the MAPPER directory: MAPPER.COM - Screen Editor. MAPPER.MNU - Contains Menus for Micro-Mapper. TBL.MEM - Screen for ASCII character chart. COLOR2.MEM - Change color screen. COLOR1.MEM - Configuration change screen. MAPPER.CFG - Holds your custom configuration information. DANSI.COM - Displays ANSI screens without having the ANSI.sys device driver loaded. DWCAT3.COM - Displays screens saved in the WildCat 3 BBS format. DMEM.COM - Displays screens saved in the Micro-Mapper MEM format. DASCII.COM - Displays screens saved in ASCII format(no color). 4 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved NOTE: DANSI.COM, DWCAT3.COM, DASCII.COM and DMEM.COM may be used as stand alone screen displaying programs using this format: DANSI filename.ANS cc,rr DWCAT3 filename.WC3 cc,rr DMEM filesname.MEM cc,rr DASCII filename.ASC cc,rr The extension must be specified. cc,rr are optional allowing you to display a saved area. When cc,rr are not present, the screen is cleared prior to the screen display. If cc,rr are present, the screen is not cleared and the area is displayed starting at column cc and row rr. Subsequent lines are started at column cc. These programs are also used by Micro Mapper to load a saved area onto the screen. This in effect allows you to use your hard drive as a scratch pad. NOTE: MSDOS does not properly retrieve blank lines. This means that when an ASCII area is brought in and placed on the screen, any blank lines are not written. The only solution to this is to place a hold character as the last character. This is what is done for the large character sets. It is not practical for ASCII areas though as it corrupts the image stored. I recommend that the MEM format be used instead of ASCII in all cases. It will save the color and is the most compact of all methods. Customizing Micro-Mapper IF MAPPER.CFG is found, Micro-Mapper will use the values found as the programs defaults. Here is how the file should look: 7 :'Default Zap Color NOTES:Do NOT change the number of lines. 240 :'Default MSG Color Keep Comments for Future Reference 31 :'Default Window Color 7 :'Default Footer Color 12 :'Default Cursor Info Color 350 :'Default Mouse Delay <<---- Change value up for faster CPU's 7 :'Default Start Up Color or mouse clicks will be too fast. BLOCK.MCS:'Default Block character set file name. IF MAPPER.CFG is NOT found, the above values will be set as defaults for the session. You may edit the MAPPER.CFG file to suit your needs with any ASCII editor or use the Options function on the Main Menu. It is recommended that you use the Options function to edit MAPPER.CFG. WARNING!!!! The configuration routine is real dumb. Change the number of lines in the MAPPER.CFG file and you won't like the results. If the mouse buttons are too fast or too sluggish, change the default mouse delay until it is acceptable. 5 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved Start-Up To start Micro-Mapper, enter MAP and press ENTER. Note that you may rename the batch program, MAP.BAT, as desired without affecting its function. If you desire to start Micro-Mapper without it clearing the screen, enter MAP SAVE (case does not matter). The screen will be saved and re-displayed when the copyright information display has finished. Micro-Mapper automatically starts out in what is called TEXT MODE. There are three modes, TEXT, DRAW, and ERASE. Each of these modes is indicated as T, D or E on the status line at the bottom of the screen. Screen Format Rows 1 through 24 are available for screen painting and only those lines are saved and loaded into Micro-Mapper. The 25th screen line is reserved for Micro-Mapper's use. This allows it to display the following info: ccc,rr│asc│atr│MR│ff,bb│aaaaaaaaa│mccc,mrr│<<-Message Area->> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | || | | | | +--- Mouse Column in mickeys | | | | || | | | +------- Mouse Row in mickeys | | | | || | | +-- ANSI Color Sequence | | | | || | +- Background Color Number | | | | || +---- Foreground Color Number | | | | |+------- Drawing Character | | | | +-------- Mode (T=Text, D=Draw, M=Map) & current color | | | +----------- Color at cursor position | | +--------------- Decimal character code | +------------------- Cursor Row +---------------------- Cursor Column Text Mode In text mode, all keyboard characters are accepted. In addition, use of the number pad(num lock on) and the alt key will enable you to enter non-keyboardable characters, though it is easier to use the character chart(X on the main menu). While in text mode, use the arrow keys or mouse to position the cursor. Pressing F2 while in this mode, will cause the color under the cursor to be used for any subsequent typing. Main Menu The main menu allows access to all sub menus. To activate the menu press the ESC key. Pressing the ESC key again will terminate the menu and restore the screen. Remember that the right mouse button will issue an ESC for you. 6 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved The following describes the commands available under the Main Menu; * Area - allows you to mark off an area and perform one of several functions against the area. Press A and you are prompted to position the cursor to the first corner of the area. Press ENTER and you are prompted to move the cursor to the second/opposing corner of the area. Press ENTER and the Area menu is now displayed. Under the Area menu you may select; S-T C Change the color of the area. Press C and the color chart will be displayed. Notice that all 256(0-255) color combinations are displayed. The current color (that is the color at the cursor position prior to invoking the menu) is displayed towards the bottom of the screen in brackets []. Pressing the U key will change the current typing color to this color. If you desire to use another color, place the cursor over the desired color number and press ENTER or the left mouse button. Any subsequent typing will now use that color. - F Find/Change an Attribute or Character within the area. - A - This function allows you to change a color to another color. This is different from the Color Change option in that only the FROM color is changed. When this function is selected, a color chart is displayed and you are prompted to position the cursor over the color/number that you wish to change FROM and press ENTER. Now you are asked to position the cursor over the TO color/number and again press ENTER. All of the matching FROM colors in the area are now changed to the TO color. Note that you may press ESC prior to pressing ENTER the second time and you will exit the area function. - C - This function allows changing a character to another within the area. When selected, an ASCII chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the FROM character and press ENTER. Next you are asked to place the cursor over the TO character and again press ENTER. All characters in the area matching the FROM character are changed to the TO character. Note that you may press ESC prior to pressing ENTER the second time and you will exit this function. - D - This function allows finding an attribute and changing the character within an area. When selected, the Attribute chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the attribute to find and press ENTER. Next the Character Chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the character to change to and press ENTER. Pressing ESC at any time will exit this function. - E - This function allows finding a character and changing the attribute within an area. When selected, the character chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the find character and press ENTER. The attribute chart is then displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the attribute to change to and press ENTER. Press ESC at any time to exit. 7 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved - D Delete the area. Press D and you are prompted to verify the deletion. Press Y to delete the area, N or ESC to not delete the area. The area is filled with spaces. The attribute of the space is the same as the current screen attribute. - L Line Color change. This function allows you to change the color of the semi-graphics characters(lines) within the area. Press L and the Color Change window pops up. Use this menu the same as when changing the character colors. Press ENTER and the area is searched for any character between decimal 179 and 218. If found, the color is changed to the selected color. - M Move the area. After marking the area, press M. You are prompted to position the cursor to the new upper/left-hand position of the area. Press enter when you have located the position and the area is moved to the new location. Note that the old position is filled with spaces using the current screen attribute. - T Save as ANSI. This function saves the marked area as a ANSI file(with color) called SA#.ANS. - R Replicate area. This function allows you to copy a marked area to another location on the screen. After marking the area, press ENTER. You are prompted to position the cursor to the copy location. Press ENTER when positioned and the area is copied. Note that the attributes of the area are also copied. - S Save Area. This function allows you to mark an area, and save it to your current disk as an ASCII file called SA#.ASC. This allows you to quickly create boxes with text and include them in your code using your favorite programming editor. - U Save area as MEM. The name of the file is SA#.MEM. The area is saved in a character attribute ... format. - W Save area as Wild Cat 3 BBS format. The name of the file is SA#.WC3. This was suggested by a user and coded to her specifications. Note: Each area file is saved with its own extension. MEM for Memory, ASC for ASCII, WC3 for WildCat 3, and ANS for ANSI. Each area is saved as a unique file name using the # to make it so. Up 999,999 files for each of the three types may be saved in any one directory. Each SA file is saved in the current directory. Each SA file is saved as a sequential file, each line of which corresponds to a line on the screen. ANSI SA#.ANS files may be typed to the screen as well as SA#.ASC files. Don't type SA#.MEM files to the screen as the results can be most annoying. - Zap attribute. This function allows you to increment(+) or decrement(-) the colors(attributes) in the area. Press ESC to exit and restore the area to original attributes or press ENTER to keep changes. 8 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved * Block Char. A very handy function that allows you to create large block letters, useful for titles, etc. Press B, Enter the desired character (A-Z, 0-9, ?,/,!,:,-) and press enter. You are now asked to position the cursor to where you want the character printed. The position is the upper-left hand corner of the block character. Remember to take this into account when positioning the cursor. If you change your mind, press ESC before pressing ENTER. Three block character sets are provided with Micro-Mapper. BLOCK.MCS contains the original set of large letters composed of ASCII character 218. WIRE.MCS contains the same character set but is slightly smaller and is composed of double lines. LLET.MCS contains characters the same size as BLOCK.MCS but each letter is composed of its own letter, i.e. the A character is composed of capital A's. You may change from one character set to another by using the Options function on the Main Menu. Each character set is an ASCII file that may be edited with your favorite editor. You may also create and use your own character sets provided you follow these rules: 1. The entire character set 0-9, A-Z, ?, /, !, :, -, must be represented or at the very least, a hole left for each character in the file. 2. The first line MUST contain a two digit number representing the width of each character, a space and a two digit number representing number of lines used to form each character. 3. All characters must use the same number of lines or at least that space reserved for each character is the same number of lines. 4. Each line must be terminated with a asterisk "*" at width + 1. If your character set is 4 characters long, the asterisk will be in the fifth position. 5. The character set file must be a standard ASCII/MS-DOS sequential file where each line is terminated by a carriage return and line feed character (CHR$(13) CHR$(10)). Most editors will put these characters on for you automatically. 6. All the above rules MUST be adhered to or the Mapper will not read in your characters properly. To get performance in the character retrieval routines, the sequential file is accessed randomly, calculating relative starting position of each character based on the width and length defined in the first line and a number obtained from a list kept internally defining the order of the characters. Be sure that your characters are in the same order as found in the provided character sets. Note that you can use Micro-Mapper to create letters out of graphics characters in the Draw mode. When each letter is finished, save it as an area and assemble the areas into a file 9 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved using your programming editor. All of the character sets were created with Micro-Mapper. * Chg Color. When this function is selected, a color chart is displayed. Place the cursor over the color/number and: - Pressing ENTER allows you to start drawing or typing characters using that color. - A Alter. This handy function allows you to change the attribute of each character on the screen. The characters remain the same, only the color is changed. Both characters and lines are changed. - L Line allows you to change the color of all single and double lines on the screen. Only the line characters are changed. - ESC . This function allows you to change your mind and restore the current screen attribute to its original value. - U Use. Picks up the attribute at the current cursor location and sets the screen attribute to that color. * Draw allows you to draw single/double line boxes and repeating characters to accent your screen. After pressing D, use the arrow keys to draw. Note that if you have a mouse installed, you may use the mouse to position the cursor WITHOUT drawing. While in the draw mode, pressing ESC will bring up the draw menu or you may select a draw function by pressing; - A use Attribute. Changes drawing color to be same as under cursor. Position the cursor over the color you wish to use and press A. - C Color Change. A color chart will be displayed. Position the cursor over the desired color/number and press ENTER. All subsequent drawing will use that color/number. - D Double Line. Press D to toggle to the double line mode. - S Single Line. Press S to toggle to single line mode. - R Repeat Char. Press R to enter repeating character mode. An ASCII chart is displayed. If this is the fist time, position the cursor over the desired character and press ENTER. If a character had already been specified, just press ENTER to continue to use it. - T Text. Press T to exit the drawing function and return to Text mode. - U Use Character. Changes draw character to one under cursor. - +- Increment/Decrement drawing color by 1. - */ Increment/Decrement drawing color by 16. 10 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved * E Eraser - Allows you to erase the foreground character. Pressing ESC or M will display the sub-menu for this function though you may just press the letter of the command desired to save time. Press T to return to Text Mode. - A - Use the attribute under the current cursor position when erasing. - B - Changes erase color to white on black. - C - Change the erase color(works the same as draw mode). Press ESC to not choose a color. - K - Keeps attribute of character when erasing. The erase color will change as the color of the character being erased changes. NOTE! often the background color is completely obscured by the foreground color and character. Sometimes this function will not return the color you think it should though it is working correctly. - T - Return to Text Mode. The current erase color is saved and the current screen color is returned to its value prior to execution of the erase function. - +- - Increment/Decrement erase color by 1. - */ - Increment/Decrement erase color by 16. * F Find/Change an Attribute or Character within the area. - A - This function allows you to change a color to another color. This is different from the Color Change option in that only the FROM color is changed. When this function is selected, a color chart is displayed and you are prompted to position the cursor over the color/number that you wish to change FROM and press ENTER. Now you are asked to position the cursor over the TO color/number and again press ENTER. All of the matching from colors in the area are now changed to the TO color. Note that you may press ESC prior to pressing ENTER the second time and you will exit the area function. - C - This function allows changing a character to another within the area. When selected, an ASCII chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the FROM character and press ENTER. Next you are asked to place the cursor over the TO character and again press ENTER. All characters in the area matching the FROM character are changed to the TO character. Note that you may press ESC prior to pressing ENTER the second time and you will exit this function. - D - This function allows finding an attribute and changing the character within an area. When selected, the Attribute chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the attribute to FIND and press ENTER. Next the Character Chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the character to change TO and press ENTER. Pressing ESC at any time will exit this function. 11 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved - E - This function allows finding a character and changing the attribute within an area. When selected, the character chart is displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the FIND character and press ENTER. The attribute chart is then displayed and you are prompted to place the cursor over the attribute to change TO and press ENTER. Press ESC at any time to exit this function. * G Get Area. This function allows you to get an area that was previously saved. All formats are valid though MEM is the recommend save/get format for an area. Use of the Get function requires that the DASCII, DANSI, DMEM, DWCAT3 programs be in the DOS path to be able to load your saved area. Select G at the Main Menu. You are prompted to position the cursor to the column and row that you want the area to start at. Pressing enter will display format selection menu. Press the letter of your choice or press ESC to return to the screen editor. Now the file directory is displayed showing all the files that have the appropriate .ext. Enter the name of the file to get and press ENTER. The area is now loaded. * I Info. Displays copyright info and author's address. * L Load. Allows you to load a previously saved map or a screen capture(using CAPTURE.COM supplied with Micro-Mapper), in the current directory or DOS PATH, into the mapper. The following formats are supported; - ASCII. The ascii format loads a screen of characters. Each line of the ascii file(every 80 characters) needs to be terminated with a carriage return/line feed combination. This allows you to save an entire screen and reload it latter. Remember, the colors are not loaded, only the characters. - C Com Generate. This format is unique as it allows you to de-compile your generated screen programs(see SAVE) and load the screen characters and colors for further modification. - G General Ansi. This choice allows you to load an ANSI file without having an Ansi driver loaded. This is NOT foolproof. There are MANY combinations of ANSI commands that may be used in an ANSI file. The only commands recognized are #J, #;#m, and #H. If your screen is not properly displayed, load your ANSI device driver in your CONFIG.SYS file, re-boot the computer to install the driver and use option A. Save the screen in ANSI or other format. From that point on, the mapper will be able load the screen properly. For this function to work properly, Micro-Mapper must be able to find DANSI.COM(supplied in the MAPPER zip file). Make sure it is in a directory mentioned in your DOS path. - M Memory. This format loads a map in a character then attribute format. Screen captured using the supplied Micro-Mapper TSR, CAPTURE.COM are saved in this format. It is the most compact format of them all. - N ANSI. Loads an ANSI screen, complete with colors. This function requires that your ANSI device driver be installed. 12 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved - W Wild Cat 3 BBS format. Loads the new WC3 format. After choosing one of the above formats, the screen will clear and a list of possible files are displayed. Enter the desired file name and press enter. NOTE: If you specify a file that is not loadable by the Mapper, it will still attempt to load it. This may cause the screen to look pretty strange. If this occurs, use the NEW function under the Main Menu to clear the screen and start over. * Map Field. This function allows you to specify field definitions for a location on your map. When at the Main Menu press M. Micro-Mapper will look in the current directory to find filespec.DEF where filespec is the name of your map. If filespec.DEF is NOT found, one is created. If filespec.DEF is found, all of the defined locations will be marked with a (decimal 16) character in the color defined for the field. When in the Mapping mode, pressing; - ENTER - will bring up the field definition box for that screen location box where you may specify the C-Name or comment field name, V-Name or Variable name(as used in your code), type where A=any keyboardable character, D=date characters(0-9/), I=inclusion List, L=alphabetic letters only(A-Z,a-z), N=numeric(0-9) only, P=phone(0-9-()), S=lower case letters returned(a-z), U=uppercase letters returned, T=time characters(0-9:), length(0-999), skip(Y/N) and Inclusion List(up to twenty characters). Note that entering a number as the V-Name will tell Micro-Mapper and Micro-Coder(a code generator to write input/output code and available only to registered Micro-Mapper users) that this field is an array field which will allow automatic subscript incrementing when replicating a field. Pressing ESC will exit the field definition box without saving the field definition to filespec.DEF. Use the up and down arrows to move from one field to another. Pressing ENTER on the last field will cause the field definitions to be saved to filespec.DEF. Note that Micro-Mapper does not require you to enter only certain character in each field. Micro-Mapper does not check to see if the options choosen are valid. They are only suggestions. - A - Allows you to change the current color to the color under the cursor. - C - Brings up the color change screen to allow color selection from the color chart. 13 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved - D - Define field. Brings up the field definition box. - E - Erase a field. Place the cursor over the field mark to be deleted and press E. - M - Move a field. Place the cursor over the field to move and press M. You are prompted to move the cursor to the new field location and press ENTER. Pressing ESC will abort the move. Note: If the position that you are trying to move to already contains a field mark, the move is aborted. If you still want to move a field to that position, erase(option E) the field from the desired position first and then move the new field to that position. - R - Replicate Last Field. Use this function to "copy" or replicate a field definition as another field. This function will NOT work after you have erased a field or if you have not looked at the definition (D) of a field or if you try to replicate a field over one that already exists. To replicate a field for the first time, place the cursor over the field to replicate and press ENTER and then Escape(ESC). Now place the cursor at the spot that you wish to "copy" to and press R. The definition box will pop up and will contain the same data as defined for the last defined field. Change the definition as needed and press ENTER. Pressing ESC will abort the replication process. If the field that you are replicating is a subscripted field, where the V-NAME is a number, then the subscript will be incremented automatically for you. Note that the held definition that is "copied" is that of the last defined field. In other words, if you define field A and replicate it as field B then the next replication will use the definition for B, etc. - T - Return to Text Mode. When selected, the field marks are removed and the screen is restored. - U - Use current color. This option allows you to change the color of a field. Change the current color using the A, +, /, *, -, or C options, place the cursor over the field mark and press U. The field mark will change to its new color and filespec.DEF will be updated. +-*/ Change current color(same as draw mode). * New. Clears the screen and starts the mapper all over. All characters/attributes previously displayed are lost. * O Options Edit. When Micro-Mapper in invoked, it tries to find and load the contents of MAPPER.CFG. This file contains the configuration info. Using this function, you may change the configuration, Reset the configuration back the the original(author set) values, Get the config file, or Save the current configuration to be used at next start-up. 14 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved When this option is chosen, the mapper looks for the MAP "COLOR1.COM" and displays it. You will see the familiar color chart along with instructions and information on the current settings. A - Allows you to specify the name of the large character to be used when the block character function is selected. Three files are provided: BLOCK.MCS, WIRE.MCS and LLET.MCS. You may also specify your own. B - This option allows you to specify the mouse button delay value. On my computer 300 seems to work fine. If you have a 286 or faster processor, you will want to increase this number to prevent your mouse clicked selections from occurring too fast. C - Allows you to specify color in which the cursor and mouse information is displayed. Place the cursor over the desired color/number on the color chart and press C. You should see the change immediately. E - Changes the color of the Message. Position the cursor over the desired color/number and press E. F - Changes the color of the FOOTER line. Place the cursor over the color/number and press F. G - Get the contents of the MAPPER.CFG file. K - Saves the current definitions the MAPPER.CFG file. M - Changes the color of the pop-up menus. Place the cursor over the desired color/number on the color chart and press M. R - Resets the definitions to those originally specified by the author. S - Changes the Start Up screen color. Position the cursor over the desired color/number and press S. Z - Changes the Zap Screen color. Place the cursor over the color/number and press Z. ESC - Press ESC or the left mouse button to exit the editor. Note that any changes made are not saved to the MAPPER.CFG file but are used for the rest of the session. NOTE: If the configuration screen just displays the numbers, it is because the mapper could not find COLOR1.COM which is the screen for the configuration editor. Make sure that all of the needed files are in a directory mentioned in your DOS PATH. * Print. Prints Screen to Printer. * Quit. This function terminates Micro-Mapper. It does NOT save your work. Be sure to save your work prior to leaving the mapper. 15 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved * Save. This function allows you to save your map in, in the current directory, one of the following formats; - ASCII. Saving your map in this format saves just the characters and lines. The colors are not saved. The map is saved in 80 character lines with each line terminated in the MSDOS standard of a carriage return and line feed combination. A map saved in this format is easily loaded into your favorite programming editor for inclusion into your source code. - Com Generate. This format is special in that it creates a COM program that can display your map very quickly on even the slowest computers. Both the characters and attributes are displayed, just as you painted them. There are two execution formats for the stand-alone map; Mapname - This causes your generated map to be displayed until a key is pressed. At which time, the screen is cleared and control is returned to DOS or the controlling program. Works ok for quick and dirty slide shows. Mapname /F - This displays your generated map and immediately returns control to calling program or DOS level without clearing the screen. This allows you to display a map from within your program via the DOS SHELL command common to most MSDOS supported languages. Imagine, no more coding to display a screen. Just paint it with Micro-Mapper and have your program display it. Example in your program, the command SHELL "MAPNAME/F" would execute the generated map MAPNAME and return control to your program. For dBASE use: RUN MAPNAME.COM /F - Memory. This format saves your map in a character and then attribute format. Such a map could subsequently be loaded into your source code as data statements and displayed via a reading loop. The total size of the file is 3840 characters, 1920 characters and 1920 attributes. Note this format is sometimes referred to as a Binary format as it is a direct dump of video memory to disk. Each byte is an integer. - N ANSI. Saves the screen as an ANSI screen. This does NOT require that your ANSI device driver be installed(applies to save only). IF your ANSI driver is installed, use the TYPE command to view the map. Screens saved in this format may be loaded using option G on the load menu - without having an ANSI.SYS device driver loaded in CONFIG.SYS. - W Wild Cat 3 BBS format. * User. Allows you to call a program(BAT, EXE or COM) that you have written. Such a function could be used to display a ANSI screen, and then call a routine that you have written that would then read the screen and develop a screen displayable in a format peculiar to your application. Remember, most batch programs write to the screen. If you desire to use a batch program to issue various commands without clearing the screen, it is recommended that you compile the BAT file using one of the sharware batch compilers available on most boards. This will 16 Micro-Mapper -- Copyright 1990 by Mark McDonald -- All Rights Reserved prevent the commands from being displayed and also prevent user tampering should you decide to distribute the batch file. * Window. This function allows you to open a window to DOS. Note that enough memory must be available or the results will be unpredictable. Most of the time the function will refuse to operate. If you have a 384k or larger memory and the Micro-Mapper is at the 1st level, there will be enough memory. If you have called Micro-Mapper from within your programming editor, there may not be enough memory. Be careful! Experiment before putting any work to risk. At least 17k of free memory is need to open a window to DOS. * XChart. This function is available to assist with entering non-keyable characters. When this function is selected, a ASCII chart containing all 256 character is displayed. Place the cursor over the desired character, press ENTER and the character is placed on the screen. You may also use the ALT NUM to enter such characters. * Zap. This command allows you to replace the current contents of the screen with a text pattern. Select Z from the main menu and the ASCII chart is displayed. Position the cursor over the desired character and press ENTER. The screen will be cleared and all positions will contain the zap character. Map Field record format: The filespec.DEF file created/updated by the Map Field function is an ordinary ASCII(sequential) file, each record terminated with a carriage-return and line-feed combination. Columns - Purpose -------- ------- 1 - 6 Cursor Column,Row 7 - 11 Foreground, Background color numbers 12 - 14 Decimal Color Attribute number 15 - 23 ANSI Color Code Sequence 24 - 32 Mouse Mickey Column, Row 33 - 52 Comment 53 - 72 Variable Name 73 - 73 Field Type 74 - 76 Field Length 77 - 77 Skip to Next Field Indicator 78 - 98 Inclusion List 99 - 99 Logical End of Record Mark * 100 - 100 Carriage Return (Decimal 13, Hex 0D) 101 - 101 Line Feed (Decimal 10, Hex 0A) 17