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PC-Pen User's Manual Version 1.0 (C) Copyright 1985 SoftTec Systems All Rights Reserved SoftTec Systems 2251 Pimmit Drive #434 Falls Church, VA 22043 (703) 356-0722 Registration No. __________ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Hardware and Software Requirements 3. Getting Started 4. Basic PC-Pen 5. Text 6. The Status Lines 7. The Pen 8. Resolution 9. Color 10. Mode 11. The Window 12. Loading and Saving 13. Quiting 14. Help 15. The Mark 16. Cutting and Pasting 17. Erasing 18. Clearing 19. Painting and Unpainting 20. Backing-Up and Restoring 21. Printing Appendix A - Loading PC-Pen Pictures from Other Programs Appendix B - Error Messages Appendix C - Shareware Appendix D - Registration Appendix E - Disclaimer Appendix F - Keyboard Reference Appendix G - Command/Function Reference 1 INTRODUCTION PC-Pen is a graphics editor program for the IBM Personal Computer. It lets you draw pictures and print text, in color, on your personal computer monitor. PC-Pen pictures may then be printed on paper or saved on diskette for later retrieval by PC-Pen or any BASIC program. PC-Pen provides many features to help you with your artistic endeavors. Circles, rectangles and lines can be drawn automatically. Figures can be painted and unpainted. Any part of your picture can be copied to any other part of your picture in a number of modes. You have two resolutions, sixteen background colors, two palettes, and three pen colors to choose from. An on-line help facility is provided to make reference quick and easy. And perhaps most importantly, you have two ways to erase! PC-Pen is a shareware product. As such, feel free to copy and share it with others. If you find PC-Pen useful, however, we trust you to register your copy. Registration will provide you with your own registered PC-Pen diskette, bound user's manual, and other benefits. See appendices C and D for more details. 2 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS PC-Pen is designed to run on the IBM Personal Computer series of computers (PC, PCjr, XT and AT). 128 KB of memory, one disk drive, and a color monitor are required. In addition, a printer is needed in order to print PC-Pen pictures on paper. PC-Pen is written in IBM Advanced Basic and therefore must be run by the Advanced Basic interpreter program BASICA.COM (version 2.0 or greater). PC-Pen pictures are printed using the DOS print screen function (Shift-PrtSc). In order to use this function the Graphics command must have been previously executed from DOS. The Graphics command is an external DOS command and requires the GRAPHICS.COM program. Both BASICA.COM and GRAPHICS.COM come with DOS on the IBM DOS diskette. They do not come with PC-Pen and must be acquired separately. 3 GETTING STARTED The PC-Pen distribution diskette contains the following three files: PCPEN.BAS - The PC-Pen program. PCPEN.DOC - The PC-Pen user's manual. PCPEN-PR.BAS - The PC-Pen user's manual printer program. The first thing you should do, as with all new personal computer software, is to make a work copy of PC-Pen and save the distribution diskette as a back-up copy. To do this, first set your default disk drive to A:. Then place the PC-Pen diskette in drive A: and a formatted diskette in drive B: and enter: COPY A:*.* B: If you have only one disk drive you should put the PC-Pen diskette in drive A: and enter the same thing. You will be prompted to replace the PC-Pen diskette with the formatted diskette when necessary. When this is done put the PC-Pen distribution diskette in a safe place. You probably want the Advanced Basic program and the Graphics program on your work diskette too. So now replace the PC-Pen distribution diskette in drive A: with your DOS diskette and enter the following two lines: COPY BASICA.COM B: COPY GRAPHICS.COM B: Again, if you have only one disk drive you will be prompted to replace the DOS diskette with the formatted diskette when necessary. When this is done, your PC-Pen work diskette is complete. But do not run PC-Pen yet! There are still other things you should do first. If you have not already done so, print out the PC-Pen user's manual. The user's manual is on your diskette in a compressed format and must be printed using the PC-Pen user's manual printer program. Put your PC-Pen work diskette in drive A:, make sure your printer is ready, and enter: BASICA PCPEN-PR The printer program will prompt you for the number of lines per page for your printer. Standard 9-1/2 by 11 inch printer paper has 66 lines per page. This is the default for the printer program so you may simply press the return key if your paper is 66 lines per page. If your printer paper is of some other length type the number of lines per page and then press return. Next you will be prompted for the destination of the printed manual. You can print it to a file on your diskette or directly to your printer. Enter a 1 or 2 to indicate your choice. If you select to print the manual to a diskette file, the file will have the name MANUAL.DOC. Finally, you will be prompted to "Press any key to begin printing." Double check your printer and then press any key. When the printer program is done it will print "Finished" on your screen and return to DOS. Remember that the printer program is also a BASIC program, so if you have any problems while printing you can Ctrl-Break the program and run it over again. Now you have a back-up copy of PC-Pen and a printed copy of the user's manual. You are almost set to run PC-Pen! If you plan to print any pictures while in PC-Pen you must first execute the Graphics command. The Graphics command enables the Shift-PrtSc key combination to print the current contents of your personal computer screen on your printer. It is executed by entering: GRAPHICS The Graphics command need only be executed once after your computer system has been turned on. PC-Pen pictures may then be printed any number of times without executing the Graphics command again. The Graphics command is an excellent candidate for inclusion in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your DOS diskette. If you put it there you can use Shift-PrtSc to print the contents of your computer screen at any time. For information about AUTOEXEC.BAT files see your DOS manual. Now you are ready to run PC-Pen. This is the simplist part! Just enter: BASICA PCPEN 4 BASIC PC-PEN PC-Pen begins with a special introductory screen. After reading it press any key to begin editing. After leaving the introductory screen you will see a large rectangle on your personal computer screen with three lines of text beneath it. In addition you will find a small blinking point in the center of the rectangle. The large rectangle is the PC-Pen window. This is where you will be drawing your pictures and entering your text. When you save or load a picture to/from a diskette it is the contents of this window that will be saved or loaded. The lines of text beneath the window are the three PC-Pen status lines. The first line is status line A. It contains the PC-Pen name on the left and indicates that you can press the F10 function key for help on the right. Status line A is also where PC-Pen places other temporary messages at times. The second and third lines are status lines B and C. These lines contain information regarding the current state of PC-Pen. The meanings of the eight entries on these two lines will be described in chapter 6, The Status Lines, and other chapters. Finally, the blinking point represents the current position of the PC-Pen pen. It is this point that you will manipulate within the window to draw your pictures. PC-Pen is operated entirely from your computer keyboard. There are basically three sets of keys that you will be using. These are the function keys to the far left (along the top on a PCjr), the text keys in the center, and the numeric keypad to the far right of the keyboard. The function keys are used to invoke special PC-Pen commands. Change the pen color and save the current picture are two examples. The function keys can be pressed alone or in combination with the Shift and Ctrl keys. To press a function key in combination with the Shift or Ctrl keys first press and hold down the Shift or Ctrl key and then press the desired function key. Throughout this manual, function key and Shift or Ctrl key combinations will be referred to using a dashed notation. For example, Ctrl-F3 denotes the function key 3 and Ctrl key combination. Remember that although Ctrl-F3 may be referred to as a single key, it really involves the simultaneous pressing of two keys. The text keys are used to enter text into the PC-Pen window. The numeric keypad keys are used to manipulate the PC-Pen pen. The rest of this manual describes how to use these keys to perform these functions in detail. 5 TEXT Entering text into the window is probably PC-Pen's most easy to use capability. Simply press any text key to print that key's character on the screen. In other words, treat your keyboard like a normal typewrite keyboard. The backspace, return, shift, Caps Lock, and tab keys act just like you would expect too. (The tab keys take you just one space forward or backward, however.) The text will be printed on your screen at the pen's current position. If you type past the end of a line PC-Pen will drop you down to the beginning the next line. If you backspace past the beginning of a line PC-Pen will lift you up to the end of the previous line. If you tab past the beginning or the end of a line PC-Pen will take you to the opposite end of the same line. What will the other keys on the keyboard print? The function keys do not print any text all. They each have their own special PC-Pen functions. The numeric keypad keys also have special functions, but through the correct usage of the Num Lock key these keys can be used as text keys too. See chapter 7, The Pen, for information on how to use the numeric keypad. The PrtSc key is a special key used in printing PC-Pen pictures. The Ctrl key can be used in combination with some of the text keys to print a few special characters. For example, by pressing the Ctrl-C key a heart can be printed. Experiment with other Ctrl-key combinations to see what other characters you can get! 6 THE STATUS LINES The status lines are the three lines immediately beneath the PC-Pen window. These lines help you to keep track of the status of PC-Pen. As stated above, status line A contains the PC-Pen name and the "F10 ==> Help" message. Error messages and prompts are also printed on this status line when necessary. Status lines B and C show the current states of the eight PC-Pen status variables. Each line contains four status indicators. The status indicators on line B are for resolution (RES), background color (BACK), palette (PAL), and pen color (COL). The status indicators on line C are for mode (MODE), mark (MARK), pen state (PEN), and pen position (POS). The values of these status indicators and their meanings will be described in the appropriate chapters below. 7 THE PEN In order to draw pictures PC-Pen gives you control over what is called the pen. Find the flashing point on your screen again. This point represents the point of the pen. You will move the pen on your personal computer screen to draw your pictures. The pen is manipulated via the numeric keypad keys located at the far right of your of computer keyboard. (These keys are the light off-white keys on the IBM PC keyboard.) In order to use these keys you must first be aware of the status of the Num Lock key located above the keypad. With Num Lock on, the numeric keypad keys will produce numbers (or a decimal point) when pressed. You want the Num Lock key off in order to use the keypad to manipulate the pen. To find out whether Num Lock is on or off simply press one of the numeric keypad keys. If a number (or decimal point) appears on your screen where the pen point was then your Num Lock is on. Turn it off by pressing the Num Lock key once. The Num Lock key turns Num Lock both on and off. So if you want to use the numeric keypad to enter numbers simply press the Num Lock key again. When Num Lock is off the numeric keypad keys will cause the pen to move on your screen. The keys with arrows on them will cause the pen to move in the direction of the arrows. Try pressing the up-arrow key a few times. The pen point will move upwards on your screen. You can also move the pen diagonally by using the Home, PgUp, End, and PgDn keys. These keys will move your pen up-left, up-right, down-left, and down-right, respectively. Try pressing the End key a few times. The pen point will move diagonally downwards and towards the left. When the pen is moved beyond one of the borders of the window, it will wrap around to the opposite side. Try this by holding the left arrow key down. The pen will begin moving to the left. When it reaches the left window border it will reappear on the right side of the window and continue moving to the left. Continue moving the pen around until you become comfortable with it. As you have probably already noticed, you have been moving the pen around but you have not drawn anything yet. This is because your pen is not down. The third entry on status line C tells you the status of your pen (UP or DOWN). In order to draw, your pen must be set down. The Ins key is used to switch the pen between up and down. When you set your pen down, the pen point on your screen will look the same. But now when you move it a line will be left behind. Try drawing something! Also notice that the pen status line entry has changed to DOWN. To stop drawing simply lift the pen up by pressing the Ins key again. Notice the status line entry change back to UP. With the pen up you can move it anywhere in your picture without disturbing what you have already drawn. Another thing you can do with the pen is turn its position off and on. The fourth entry on status line C tells you the current status of the pen's position (ON or OFF). When on, the pen's position is identified by the blinking point. Now turn it off. The Del key is used to turn the position of the pen off and on. The status line entry changes to OFF and the pen's position is no longer visible. Lift the pen up and move it around with its position still off. You will not see it at all. Now set the pen down and continue moving it. You can draw but the pen point will be solid rather than blinking. For most of your work you will probably want to keep the pen's position on. But some people prefer to draw without the blinking pen point. You may also want to turn the point off when you print your pictures. (chapter 21) 8 RESOLUTION PC-Pen provides two resolutions: low and high. In low resolution, you can take advantage of color but your text will be printed in the 40 character per line size. In high resolution, you only have black and white colors but your text will be printed in 80 character per line size. This makes high resolution better adapted for text oriented pictures while low resolution better adapted for art oriented pictures. The first status indicator on status line B indicates the current resolution (LOW or HIGH). Function key F1 is used to change from one resolution to the other. Low resolution pictures, of course, come out in black and white when switched to high resolution and high resolution pictures come out in various color patterns when switched to low resolution. When changing resolution, a picture back-up is automatically performed. Thus, if a picture was previously backed-up it will be overwritten by the current picture. See chapter 20, Backing-Up and Restoring, for more information about backing-up. 9 COLOR PC-Pen gives you control over background, palette, and pen colors. There are 16 different background colors in low resolution. The second status indicator on status line B indicates the current background color (1-16). Function key F2 is used to advance the background color to the next available color. In high resolution the background is always black and the status indicator remains at 1. If you press F2 while in high resolution you will receive an error message. There are two different palettes in low resolution. A palette is a set of colors from which you can select the pen color. Palette 1 contains the following colors: 1. Green 2. Red 3. Brown Palette 2 contains the following colors: 1. White 2. Blue 3. Purple The third status indicator on status line B indicates the current palette (1 or 2). Function key F3 is used to change from one palette to the other. When you change palettes all of the colors in your picture will automatically change to the corresponding colors in the other palette. In high resolution there is only one palette containing the single color white. The status indicator remains at 1. If you press F3 while in high resolution you will receive an error message. There are three different pen colors within each palette in low resolution. These colors were listed above. The pen point within the window will always be blinking in the current color. You can draw in any of the colors of the current palette simply by changing to the desired color before moving the pen. The fourth entry on status line B indicates the current pen color (1-3). Function key F4 is used to change the pen color to the next available color. In high resolution the only pen color is white. The status indicator remains at 1. If you press F4 while in high resolution you will receive an error message. 10 MODE PC-Pen provides two modes: draw and erase. The mode determines what will occur when you move the pen around with its point down. In draw mode you will draw in the current pen color, while in erase mode you will erase whatever you move the pen over. As opposed to the Erase command (chapter 17) this method of erasing gives you a very fine level of control over what you are erasing. The first status indicator on status line C indicates the current mode (DRAW or ERASE). Function key F5 is used to change from one mode to the other. 11 THE WINDOW The PC-Pen window is the large rectangle which frames your picture. This window, along with the three status lines beneath it, may be turned off (erased) by the Window command. This enables you to clear your screen of all but your picture. Function key F6 is used to turn the PC-Pen window off and on. PC-Pen may be operated normally with the window off. 12 LOADING AND SAVING PC-Pen pictures may be saved on diskette and loaded from diskette. Function key F7 is used to load a picture. Function key F8 is used to save a picture. Either way, you will then be prompted for the name of the picture on status line A. Type the name of the picture and press the return key. Your picture will then be saved or loaded. If your picture cannot be found on the diskette, or some other error occurs, you will be notified by an appropriate error message. The file name you enter may be any valid PC file name, and may include a disk drive and path specification. For example, all of the following file names are valid: HOUSE MOUNTAIN.PIC B:TREE.PIC B:\PICTURES\DUNGEON.PIC If you press the F7 or F8 key by accident, or you decide that you really do not want to load or save after having pressed the F7 or F8 key, you may press the Esc key to return to PC-Pen instead of entering a file name. 13 QUITING Function key F9 is used to quit PC-Pen. Make sure that you save your picture before quiting if you do not want to lose it! However, to insure that this does not happen accidentally you will be prompted "Are you sure?" after pressing the F9 key. If you respond Y (upper or lower case) to this prompt you will leave PC-Pen and return to DOS. If you respond N (upper or lower case) you will continue in PC-Pen. You may also press the Esc key to continue in PC-Pen without quiting. 14 HELP PC-Pen provides a very helpful on-line help facility. Function key F10 is used to call for help. The normal PC-Pen screen will then be replaced by a help screen. The help screen contains a large picture of the PC keyboard's function keys. Next to each key are listed the PC-Pen commands which the function key invokes. A function key may invoke up to three different commands depending upon whether the key is pressed alone, or in combination with the Shift or Ctrl keys. The commands which are invoked by pressing the function keys alone are listed in blue. The commands which are invoked by pressing the function keys with the Shift key are listed in red. And the commands which are invoked by pressing the function keys with the Ctrl key are listed in yellow. You may press any key to leave the help screen and return to your picture. 15 THE MARK All of the Shift-Function keys invoke PC-Pen commands which work with what is called the mark. The mark is a reference point that may be set anywhere in your picture. Function key Shift-F1 is used to set the mark at the current position of the pen. At first you will not notice anything different. But if you move the pen away you will see that you have left behind a new blinking point. This point is the mark. Now let us find out what you can do with the mark. Function key Shift-F2 is used to unset (turn off) the mark. If you just want to move the mark, however, you do not need to unset it. You can set the new mark with Shift-F1 and the old mark will automatically be unset. You can copy portions of your picture from one place to another by using the Shift-F3 and Shift-F4 keys with the mark. These commands are explained in chapter 16. You can erase large areas of your picture by using the Shift-F5 key with the mark. This command is explained in chapter 17. Function key Shift-F6 is used to draw a circle around the mark. The circle will be drawn in the current pen color and will have the mark as its center and the pen as its edge. Thus, the distance between the pen and the mark points will be the radius of the circle. Function key Shift-F7 is used to draw a rectangle between the pen and the mark. The rectangle will be drawn in the current pen color and will have the pen and the mark as diagonally opposite corners. Function key Shift-F8 is used to draw a line between the pen and the mark. The line will be drawn in the current pen color. There are two occasions in PC-Pen when the mark, if set, will automatically be unset. These are when you change resolution (chapter 8) and when you clear your picture (chapter 18). The second status indicator on status line C indicates the current status of the mark (SET or OFF). 16 CUTTING AND PASTING Copying portions of your picture from one place to another is a two part process called cut and paste in PC-Pen. First you must cut out the portion you are interested in. This copies the portion into a buffer area where it may be held indefinately. Then you can paste the contents of this buffer back into your picture. Once having cut you can paste any number of times. But each time you cut you are overwriting any previous cuts...the buffer can hold only one cut at a time. The Shift-F3 key is used to cut. Cutting requires that the mark first be set. The idea is to arrange the mark and the pen so that they become the diagonally opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle. The Cut command then copies the contents of this rectangle into the buffer. The Shift-F4 key is used to paste. Pasting does not require the mark to be set. The Paste command copies the contents of the buffer back onto the screen at the current position of the pen. The pen point becomes the upper left hand corner of the picture portion that is pasted. The Paste command provides five different methods of pasting. After pressing the Shift-F4 keys you will see the message "Method=Normal" appear on status line A. You may advance through the five paste methods by pressing any key except the return key. When you have selected the method you wish to paste with, press the return key to proceed with the paste. The five paste methods are described below. Normal - The picture portion within the buffer is copied onto the screen exactly as it appeared when it was cut. Complement - The picture portion within the buffer is copied onto the screen with its colors reversed. In high resolution, this means that what was black will now be white and what was white will now be black. In low resolution, this means that what was the background will now be color 3 of the current palette (and vice versa) and what was color 1 of the current palette will now be color 2 of the current palette (and vice versa). Animate - The picture portion within the buffer is overlayed onto the screen without disturbing the pre-existing background. The colors of the portion may become reversed (as in complement above) in places, however. This method is extremely useful because a second paste of the same picture portion onto the same exact location on the screen will restore whatever was there previously. Thus, you may paste a picture portion using the animate method over and over again until you position it just right. Superimpose - The picture portion within the buffer is overlayed onto the screen without disturbing the pre-existing background just like in the animate method. However, unlike the animate method, the colors of the portion are not reversed in any way. Mask - The picture portion within the buffer is used as a mask with whatever is already on the screen to yield very interesting results. Try experimenting with this method. If you press the Shift-F4 key by accident, or you decide that you really do not want to paste after having pressed the Shift-F4 key, you may press the Esc key to return to PC-Pen instead of selecting a paint method. 17 ERASING The Erase command lets you erase large areas of your picture very easily. It is the alternative to erasing point by point in the erase mode. (chapter 10) Function key Shift-F5 is used to erase between the pen and the mark. The Erase command utilizes the mark in the same way as the Cut command. You should position the mark and the pen so as to be the diagonally opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle. The Erase command will then erase the contents of this rectangle. The Erase command is not capable of erasing single points or straight lines. The erase mode should be used to accomplish these types of erasures. 18 CLEARING Function key Ctrl-F1 is used to erase the current picture. However, just to insure that this is not done accidentally, you are first prompted "Are you sure?". If you respond Y (upper or lower case) to this prompt your picture will be cleared. If you respond N (upper or lower case) your picture will not be cleared. You may also press the Esc key to return to PC-Pen without clearing your picture. 19 PAINTING AND UNPAINTING PC-Pen lets you paint any bordered figure in your picture any color in the current palette and unpaint the same. The figure you are painting or unpainting must be fully bordered. That is, a solid line of a single color must completely surround the figure you wish to paint. This is because the Paint command works by painting from the pen point outward, in all directions, until a specified border is reached. If the border is not found your entire picture may be painted over! Because of this possibility it is probably a good idea to use the Back-up command to make a back-up copy of your picture before doing any painting. Function key Ctrl-F3 is used to paint. First you must position the pen within the borders of the figure you wish to paint. Then set the pen color to the color you wish to paint in. Finally, press Ctrl-F3 to paint. You will see a "Border=B" message appear on status line A. This message is prompting you for the color of the border of the figure you wish to paint. (B stands for the background color.) Press any key except for the return key to advance to the next color. In low resolution the colors are 1-3 and will be printed on your screen in the color they represent. In high resolution the only color besides B is 1, white. When you have selected the correct border color, press the return key to proceed with the paint. Remember, the paint color is selected by setting the pen color and the border color is selected by the prompt. To unpaint you must again position the pen within the borders of the figure you wish to unpaint. Function key Ctrl-F4 is used to unpaint. You will see the same "Border=B" message appear on status line A and should respond to it as described above for the Paint command. Note that if you locate the pen on top of a point which already has the border color that you select, and then you paint or unpaint, nothing will happen. This is because the paint reaches the border before ever getting a chance to leave the pen! 20 BACKING-UP AND RESTORING It is always a good idea to back-up anything that you are editing from time to time. In PC-Pen, a true back-up is performed by saving your picture on diskette using the Save command. This back-up could then be restored using the Load command (chapter 12). But PC-Pen also provides a quick back-up facility in the form of the Back-up and Restore commands. Function key Ctrl-F5 is used to back-up the current picture. This command copies the current picture into a buffer. Function key Ctrl-F6 is used to restore the most recently backed-up picture. This command restores the contents of this buffer to the screen. Once having backed-up a picture, you may restore it any number of times. But each time you back-up you are overwriting any previous back-ups...the buffer can hold only one back-up at a time. 21 PRINTING The Shift-PrtSc key combination is used to print your pictures on paper. This is the standard DOS Print Screen function. In order for this function to work, the DOS Graphics command must have been executed before entering PC-Pen. (See chapter 3 for information about executing the Graphics command.) Shift-PrtSc will print out the entire visible contents of your screen. If you do not want the window, status lines, mark, and pen to appear in your printed picture you must turn them off before printing. The window and status lines are turned off by the Window command (chapter 11), the mark is turned off by the Unmark command (chapter 15), and the pen's position is turned off by the Position command (chapter 7). In low resolution your pictures will be printed in three different shades of black, corresponding to the three different colors of the current palette. In high resolution only one shade of black will be printed, and your pictures will be printed sideways on the paper. This is so that the picture will fit on normal 9-1/2 by 11 inch paper. Make sure your printer is on and your paper is aligned correctly before printing. APPENDIX A - LOADING PC-PEN PICTURES FROM OTHER PROGRAMS PC-Pen pictures which are saved on diskette can be read and restored to your computer monitor by other BASIC programs. Assuming that a PC-Pen picture has been saved on diskette under the name of PRETTY.PIC the following BASIC code will read in the picture and restore it to your screen. 10 OPTION BASE 1 20 DIM PIC%(6802) 30 BLOAD "PRETTY.PIC",VARPTR(PIC%(1)) 40 SCREEN 1,0 50 COLOR 0,0 60 PUT (0,0),PIC%,PSET Note that line 40 puts the monitor into low resolution graphics mode. The 1 on this line may be replaced by a 2 to put the monitor into high resolution graphics mode instead. Also note that line 50 sets the background color to black (the first 0) and sets the palette to the first palette (the second 0). The background color may be changed by replacing the first 0 with any number between 1 and 15, and the palette may be changed by replacing the second zero with a 1. APPENDIX B - ERROR MESSAGES Two types of errors can occur in PC-Pen: fatal errors and non-fatal errors. The fatal errors are errors that cause PC-Pen to abort. When a fatal error occurs, a description of the error will be printed at the top of the screen and you will be prompted to "Press any key to continue." When a key is pressed PC-Pen will abort and return to DOS. The non-fatal errors are your run-of-the-mill errors (if there are such things!) from which PC-Pen can recover and continue normally. PC-Pen registers non-fatal errors by beeping and printing an error message on status line A. There are only two fatal PC-Pen errors. These are described below. Not Advanced Basic - PC-Pen is written in IBM Advanced Basic and therefore must be run by the Advanced Basic program BASICA.COM (version 2.0 or greater). This error is raised if you attempt to run PC-Pen under some other version of Basic (Disk Basic, for example). See chapters 2 and 3 of this manual for information on how to run PC-Pen with Advanced Basic. Out of Memory - PC-Pen requires approximately 100 KB of memory in order to run properly. This error is raised if your PC does not have this amount of memory. (The 100 KB requirement is derived as follows: 40 KB for PC-Pen, 30 KB for Advanced Basic, and 30 KB for DOS and other.) The non-fatal error messages are printed beneath the PC-Pen window on status line A. The left-hand part of a message contains a brief description of the error. The right-hand part of a message says "Press any key." to indicate that you may press any key to continue working with PC-Pen. However, whatever you were attempting to do at the time the error arose will not have been completed successfully. The non-fatal PC-Pen errors are listed and described below. Steps to resolve the problems are also provided. Disk error. - This error is raised when a disk error occurs during a save or load that does not fall into one of the other error message categories. Resolution: Check over the name you entered for the file you are saving or loading and try again. Disk is bad. - The diskette you are trying to save to or load from has developed a bad spot. Resolution: There is not much you can do when this happens. Luckily, it does not happen very often. You are only in trouble if you get this message while trying to load a picture. If this is the case, try to load a couple more times. If it still does not work you have probably lost your picture. Your last resort is to return to DOS and experiment with the Chkdsk and/or Recover commands on the bad diskette. (See your DOS manual for more details.) If you are saving, simply save your picture to another diskette. Disk is full - The diskette on which you are trying to save a picture does not have enough free space for the picture. (PC-Pen pictures are 13612 bytes in size.) Resolution: Save your picture on another diskette. Disk not ready. - The door of the disk drive you are referencing is open, or the disk drive does not contain a diskette, or both. Resolution: Correctly insert your diskette into the proper drive and close the drive door all the way. Disk write-protected. - The diskette you are trying to save a picture to has its write-protection notch covered, or does not have a write-protection notch. (This is the samll, rectangular cut-out area on the upper right edge of a diskette.) Resolution: If the notch is covered over, uncover it and try to save your picture again. If there is no notch, the diskette is permanently write-protected and you must save your picture on an unprotected diskette. File not found. - The diskette you are trying to load a picture from does not contain the file you named. Resolution: Make sure you have the correct diskette in the correct drive and that you spelled the name of the file correctly, and then try again. If you get the "File not found." message again then the file is just not on your diskette! Invalid area. - The area of the screen you are trying to erase with the Erase command is invalid. This area is defined by the current positions of the pen and the mark. See chapter 17 for information about valid and invalid erase areas. Resolution: Reposition the pen and/or the mark and erase again, or use the erase mode instead of the Erase command to erase. Invalid drive or path. - The disk drive and/or directory path of the picture you are trying to save or load is an illegal DOS disk drive or path, or the disk drive or path do not exist. Resolution: Make sure you specified the correct drive and path and then try again. If it still does not work see your DOS manual for path naming rules. Invalid file name. - The name of the file you are trying to save or load is an illegal DOS file name. Resolution: See your DOS manual for file naming rules. Low resolution only. - The PC-Pen command you are trying to use works only in low resolution. Resolution: Switch to low resolution and try the command again. Mark not set. - You are using a PC-Pen command which requires the mark to be set, but the mark has not yet been set. Resolution: Make sure you set the mark correctly before using a command which requires the mark. No back-up. - You are using the Restore command to restore a picture but a picture has not yet been backed-up. Resolution: You must back-up a picture before restoring. Not enough room. - The portion of the picture you are trying to paste with the Paste command is too large to fit on the screen at the pen's current position. Resolution: Reposition the pen and try to paste again. Nothing cut. - You are using the Paste command to paste a portion of the picture without having cut a portion first. Resolution: Make sure you cut correctly before pasting. Printer error. - All printer errors get this message. Resolution: Check your printer and try again. Y=yes, N=no. - When prompted "Are you sure?" by the Clear and Quit commands you must respond Y or N only (upper or lower case). Any other key will result in this error. Resolution: Respond Y or N to the "Are you sure?" prompt. APPENDIX C - SHAREWARE PC-Pen is a shareware product. As such, we ask that you help us distribute PC-Pen by sharing unmodified copies of the PC-Pen distribution or registration diskette with others. You may not, however, copy or share the bound registered PC-Pen user's manual. If you find PC-Pen useful, we trust you to register your copy. See Appendix C for registration details. Shareware has come to be known as software that can be freely copied and distributed, but for which registration (including a registration fee) with the author is requested if the software is found useful. If the user does not register he or she is trusted to discontinue use of the software. Shareware is founded on the following three principles: 1 - Users should be allowed to test software before purchasing it. 2 - Software Developers can be supported directly by users. 3 - The copying of programs by users is a powerful marketing and distribution device and should therefore be encouraged rather than discouraged. Shareware is an experiment in economics. It allows users to purchase software at greatly reduced prices and to test software on their own systems before puchasing it, and it saves software developers the costs of advertising and copy protection schemes. APPENDIX D - REGISTRATION You need not currently have a copy of PC-Pen to register. Registration costs $25 and entitles you to the following benefits: - telephone and mail support for any of your questions - the PC-Pen registration diskette including your own registered copy of PC-Pen - a bound and registered copy of the PC-Pen user's manual - a free mailed copy of the next updated version of PC-Pen - our most sincere thanks for supporting us and the concept of shareware The last sheet of this manual is a registration form. To register, complete it as directed and forward it along with a check or money order to: SoftTec Systems 2251 Pimmit Drive #434 Falls Church, VA 22043 Make checks payable to SoftTec Systems. Residents of Virginia do not forget to include 4% sales tax! APPENDIX E - DISCLAIMER The PC-Pen program, user's manual, and manual printer are sold "as is", without warranty as to their performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk as to the results and performance of this program is assumed by you. APPENDIX F - KEYBOARD REFERENCE Key(s) Command/Function ------ ---------------- Ctrl-F1 Clear Ctrl-F3 Paint Ctrl-F4 Unpaint Ctrl-F5 Back-up Ctrl-F6 Restore Del Position Esc Escape F1 Resolution F2 Background F3 Palette F4 Color F5 Mode F6 Window F7 Load F8 Save F9 Quit F10 Help Ins Pen Up/Down Numeric Keypad Keys Pen Movement Regular Text Keys Text Shift-F1 Mark Shift-F2 Unmark Shift-F3 Cut Shift-F4 Paste Shift-F5 Erase Shift-F6 Circle Shift-F7 Rectangle Shift-F8 Line Shift-PrtSc Print Backspace Tab Return APPENDIX G - COMMAND/FUNCTION REFERENCE Command/Function Key(s) ---------------- ------ Background F2 Backspace Back-up Ctrl-F5 Circle Shift-F6 Clear Ctrl-F1 Color F4 Cut Shift-F3 Erase Shift-F5 Escape Esc Help F10 Line Shift-F8 Load F7 Mark Shift-F1 Mode F5 Paint Ctrl-F3 Palette F3 Paste Shift-F4 Pen Movement Numeric Keypad Keys Pen Up/Down Ins Position Del Print Shift-PrtSc Quit F9 Rectangle Shift-F7 Resolution F1 Restore Ctrl-F6 Return Save F8 Tab Text Regular Text Keys Unmark Shift-F2 Unpaint Ctrl-F4 Window F6 PC-Pen Registration Form 1.0 Name:____________________ Company:____________________ Street Address:______________________________ City:_______________ State:__________ Zip Code:__________ Telephone:(___)__________ Computer:_______________ Operating System and Version:_______________ Item Qty Price Each Total ---- --- ---------- ----- PC-Pen ___ $ 25.00 $________ 4% Sales Tax $________ (Virginia residents only) _____________________________________________________________ Total $________ SoftTec Systems 2251 Pimmit Drive #434 Falls Church, VA 22043