Shareware Grab Bag

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Grab Bag / Shareware Grab Bag.iso / 008 / thedraw.arc / THEDRAW.DOC < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1986-05-11 | 19.3 KB | 1,409 lines

TheDraw Version 1.01 Color Screen Image Text Editor COPYRIGHT (C) 1986 TheSoft Programming Services and Ian E. Davis All rights are reserved by TheSoft Programming Services Written in Turbo Pascal on a Tandy 1000. TheDraw was written as an improvement to AnsiDraw by Amrich Enterprises. Both programs provide similar operation, with TheDraw giving a much enhanced user interface. In addition, TheDraw does not utilize hardware blanking as AnsiDraw does (you can verify this by pressing CTRL-C before ANSIDRAW displays its opening screen, and then doing a Dos directory). There have been reports that hardware blanking on a system using a Hercules compatible graphics interface can cause physical damage. This makes TheDraw safe for such computer setups. TheDraw is designed to create, store, and retrieve screens of either ASCII text or ANSI compatible color images. As examples, these images can be used in batch files or with the RBBS Bulletin Board System. For any given application, if one screen of text is insufficient (the program can only handle one 80x23 image) then multiple screens can be linked together with the DOS copy append function (ie: COPY FILE1.EXT+FILE2.EXT FILE3.EXT). TheDraw Page 2 C U R S O R C O N T R O L: The cursor can be moved by using the following keys: Up Arrow : Up one line. Down Arrow : Down one line. Left Arrow : Left one position. Right Arrow : Right one position. Home : First column of current line. End : Last column of current line. Page Up : First line in current column. Page Down : Last line in current column. Ctrl-Home : Upper-left position of screen. Ctrl-End : Lower-right position of screen. Tab : Next set Tab position (see Alt-T). Enter : First column of following line. Naturally, if you are at a border no action will be taken. If no tab position follows the current location, pressing [TAB] will return you to column one of the current line. TheDraw Page 3 C O M M A N D S: TheDraw provides the following 16 command functions, available through ALT-Letter key sequences: Alt-A Change Text Color Attributes Alt-C Clear Current Screen Alt-D Set Default Clear Screen Color Alt-F View Function Key Sets Alt-H Display Help Information Alt-K Delete a File Alt-L Load Screen from Disk Alt-M Block Action Commands Alt-N Insert a Line. Alt-O Change Drive/Sub Directory Alt-Q Exit TheDraw Alt-R Restore Current Line Alt-S Save Screen to Disk Alt-T Tab Setup Alt-V View a Screen (not load). Alt-Y Delete Current Line. On the following pages are explanations of each of the above. TheDraw Page 4 Alt-A: Change Text Color Attributes This function allows you to change the colors text will be displayed with. The current settings are represented in the status line with the word "Color". You can select from the following foreground colors: 0 Black 8 Dark Gray 1 Blue 9 Light Blue 2 Green 10 Light Green 3 Cyan 11 Light Cyan 4 Red 12 Light Red 5 Magenta 13 Light Magenta 6 Brown 14 Yellow 7 Light Gray 15 White Characters can be made to blink by selecting colors from the range 16 through 31. These match the above listed colors exactly, except they blink. Background colors can be any of the first eight (0 through 7) colors listed. There are no background colors available that allow blinking. A current setting for either foreground or background can be maintained by simply pressing <ENTER> at the appropriate prompt without any number entry. TheDraw Page 5 Alt-C: Clear Current Screen This should be a fairly obvious option. You are first prompted to verify the command. If changes have been made to the current image, you are then asked if you want to save the current image. After that, the screen is cleared with the color specified in the following option. TheDraw Page 6 Alt-D: Set Default Background Color The default background is used to 'paint' the entire screen a given color upon invoking the above command. The same restrictions of colors apply here as to the background colors available in Alt-A. TheDraw Page 7 Alt-F: View Function Key Sets This displays on the screen all 10 sets of available special characters. These character sets can be selected in the editor mode by using either the CTRL or SHIFT key and pressing a function key 1 to 10. ie: CTRL-F1 Selects set #1. SHIFT-F10 Selects set #10. The Ctrl and Shift keys are seen as the same by TheDraw. TheDraw Page 8 Alt-H: Display Help Information This displays a short help screen of these command options. TheDraw Page 9 Alt-K: Delete a File This option allows you to free up some disk space if the need arises. It displays the directory so you can identify those files which you don't want easily. Simply type in the appropriate filename and press <enter>. TheDraw then checks to see if the file exists. If it does, you are asked if you really want to delete the file. This is your last chance before you delete something you might regret later. TheDraw Page 10 Alt-L: Load Screen from Disk This allows you to load any ANSI color compatible or ASCII text file. The ANSI.SYS driver must be installed to load a color image. This can done by adding a 'DEVICE=ANSI.SYS' statement to your CONFIG.SYS file. If you do not have a CONFIG.SYS file, you can create one by typing the following: COPY CON CONFIG.SYS<enter> DEVICE=ANSI.SYS<enter> ^Z<enter> If you have a CONFIG.SYS file, append the sequence with: EDLIN CONFIG.SYS<enter> #I<enter> DEVICE=ANSI.SYS<enter> ^Z<enter> E<enter> If the current screen image has not been saved, you are prompted before the load continues. The current directory is displayed for convenience. Simply type in the appropriate filename and press [ENTER]. The file extension ".ANS" is assumed if none is specified. You may specify a file without an extension by placing a period as the last character of the filename (ie: TESTFILE. ). If the file contains more than 23 lines of text, only the first 23 are loaded. TheDraw Page 11 Alt-M: Block Action Commands The block action commands are one of the more useful utilities TheDraw offers. It allows you to change a block (from 1 character to the entire screen) to the current color attributes, copy or move a block to another position, erase a block, save a block as a mini-image, or load/merge part of another image into the current one. To use any of the above commands, first the block must be defined. This is done immediately after typing Alt-M. Go to the upper-left corner of the wanted block and press [HOME]. Then move to the lower-right corner and press [END]. The current block will have all attributes reversed to make it obvious. If you move above or left of the upper-left block corner (once defined), no block will be shown inverted. Upon pressing [END] you will be presented with the available options: [A]ttributes will paint the defined block with current color attributes. [C]opy allows you to copy the defined block to another position. Use the arrow keys to move the block. Press [ENTER] once satisfied with the new position. [M]ove operates identically to [C]opy except the original position is erased (see following option). [E]rase does what is implied. All characters in the defined block are changed to spaces and the color attributes are set to a black background with the currently defined foreground color. [S]ave operates identically to the save screen command except only the defined block is output (see Alt-S). [L]oad allows you to import data from another image (saved on disk). The current image is stored, and you are prompted for the import filename (this operates just like Alt-L). The new image is loaded onto the screen and a inverted block of the size defined appears in the upper-left corner of the screen. Move this block (using the arrows) over the wanted part of the screen and press [ENTER]. That portion will then appear in the defined position in the original image. TheDraw Page 12 Alt-N: Insert a Line Inserts a line at the current position. The current line and everything below it is shifted down. The bottom line is lost. This command is not reversible, so use it carefully. TheDraw Page 13 Alt-O: Change Drive/Sub Directory The command requires the use of DOS 2.0 or higher to operate, and should be appealing to those hard drive users out there. This option allows you to change to a different directory if your need requires it. This is the only way you can change the directory displayed in the Load or View Screen commands. All sub-dirs in the current directory are displayed for you, but you are in no way restricted to using just those. You may enter any valid CHDIR (or CD) command (I am not going to explain the details of sub-directories. Refer to your Dos manual for that). This command unlike the CHDIR of Dos allows you to change the current drive. For example, if you were on drive C: in a sub-dir called 'GAMES', you could switch to drive D: sub-dir 'UTILITY' by entering "D:\UTILITY". You could get back to the 'GAMES' directory by simply entering "C:" (no backslash). TheDraw Page 14 Alt-Q: Exit TheDraw This should be obvious. You are prompted to verify before leaving the program. TheDraw Page 15 Alt-R: Restore Current Line This allows you to erase any changes made to the current line. If you type something and realize it was in the wrong position, pressing Alt-R will restore the line to its original contents. All changes are permanent once you move to another line however. TheDraw Page 16 Alt-S: Save Screen to Disk This command will save the entire screen to disk in either an ASCII or ANSI compatible color image. Please note that all color attributes are lost in an ASCII file. You are first prompted if you want the save as an ANSI file. Answer Yes or No. If no, you are prompted if you really want a non-color image made. If yes, you are then asked if you wish to have the screen cleared initially. If no, then you are finally asked if you want the cursor homed (returned to upper-left position of the screen). Following the above you are prompted for a filename. If the file already exists, you are prompted to verify the save. The program assumes the file extensions ".ANS" for ANSI compatible files, and ".ASC" for ASCII text files. A file without an extension can be specified by placing a period as the last character of the filename (ie: TESTFILE. ). The screen is then output to disk (assuming a valid filename was entered). TheDraw Page 17 Alt-T: Tab Setup This command allows you to specify at what positions you want the [TAB] key to stop at. Initially the positions are at every tenth column. You can [S]et additional ones, [C]lear a setting, [R]eset the tab line to the initial settings, [E]rase all tab settings, or set tab points at every [I]ncremented position. With the incremented option, you are prompted for a step size. From the current position, every nth location is set. This allows you to quickly specify, say every fourth position if your need requires it. Press [ESC] to exit this mode. TheDraw Page 18 Alt-V: View a Screen This command allows you to look at another image from disk without erasing the current one. You might use this in conjunction with the data import function in the block action commands. It works similar to the load screen command (Alt-L) except the image is not stored. TheDraw Page 19 Alt-Y: Delete Current Line Should be an obvious command. Everything below the current line is shifted up one position. The bottom line is left cleared. This command is not reversible, so use it carefully. TheDraw Page 20 Please consider the donation of $5.00. Quality software at good prices is difficult to find these days. We at TheSoft Programming Services firmly believe in and support the concept of freeware products, and hopefully you do also. If you have any comments or suggestions for TheDraw, please send them to: TheSoft Programming Services c/o Ian Davis 1929 Whitecliff Court Walnut Creek, Ca, 94596. Thanks for your support! TheDraw Page 21 TheDraw