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- TDOODLE.TXT v1.20 January 23, 1986 6:45pm
-
- tDoodle (pronounced "tee doodle") was designed to simplify the tedious
- task of creating color text display using ANSI codes. Because of this,
- there are only 79 available columns across, and 22 up-and-down. (Animation
- is not part of tDoodle's definition, and never will be; however, an ANSI
- animation package is in development and will be out in a couple of months.
- If you have any suggestions or ideas for it, PLEASE leave a message at the
- address or BBS listed below.) tDoodle's family tree includes the drawing
- boards mDoodle and hDoodle (Medium-resolution "doodle board" and High-
- resolution "doodle board", neither of which anyone but myself is
- masochistic enough to use) and mTitle, a titling system used for videos and
- promotional movies. The "t" in tDoodle stands for tEXT.
-
- DOS version 2.00 or greater must be in use, as well as ANSI.SYS. If
- you are unsure how to install ANSI.SYS, please consult your DOS manual.
-
- To get started, type "tDoodle" and press RET. You may also specify
- one of the files you want to edit by entering it after the command
- "tDoodle" as in "tDoodle a:\text\file.dat". Although tDoodle supports the
- simultaneous editing of two screens, only one screen may be specified on
- the command line from DOS.
-
- When you first enter tDoodle, you will be in the ENTRY mode. The
- entry mode is where you do all of the editing to the screen. The other
- mode is the COMMAND mode, where you can execute all sorts of non-entry
- type functions.
-
- While in the entry mode, the following keys have the following actions:
-
- RET Go down one line and all the way to the first column
- BKSP Go back one column and erase chr (subject to MODE, below)
- ^ v < > Move about the screen (arrows)
- HOME Go to line 1, column 1
- END Go to line 22, column 1
- INS Insert a space at the current cursor position
- DEL DELete the character under the cursor
- ESC Toggle over to the COMMAND mode
- TAB Skip to the next eigth column
- ^HOME Home to center of current line
- ^< ^> Go to extreme r/l sides (arrows)
-
-
- All of the above keys which are involved in cursor movement are
- subject to wrap-around. Wrap-around is what happens when the cursor
- goes off the edge of the screen and "wraps around" to the other side.
-
- The function keys F1-F10 have the following definitions:
-
- F1 Box Set the current box-pad mode
- There are four "Box" modes. The "BOX" indicator on the
- status line shows which of the four modes in activated (if
- any). Boxes may be drawn in four different formations:
-
- ┌ ┬ ┐ ╔ ╦ ╗ ╒ ╤ ╕ ╓ ╥ ╖
- │ ║ │ ║
- ├ ┼ ┤ ╠ ╬ ╣ ╞ ╪ ╡ ╟ ╫ ╢
- ─ ═ ═ ─
- └ ┴ ┘ ╚ ╩ ╝ ╘ ╧ ╛ ╙ ╨ ╜
-
- Each of the pieces is arranged on the following grid:
-
- Q W E The horziontal bar is made with "\"
- A S D The vertical bar, with "-"
- Z X C The space bar works normally
-
- If no box mode is selected a T will appear after
- "BOX". Otherwise, the center cross of the current
- box formation will be shown there. The box modes
- are identical to text mode in all ways, except that
- only box pieces can be entered from the keyboard.
-
- In addition, while in one of the BOX modes, the
- numbers 1-8 display a variety of box chars.
-
- F2 GetClr Set the "Current Color" to what's under cursor.
- The "Current Color" is the color combonation you have
- selected. It includes the foreground, background, and
- bright and blinking attributes. All of these are
- displayed ON the words "Current Color" on the Status
- Line. The CC can be set explicitly in the command mode.
-
- F3 Revers Reverse the "Current Attribute"
- The foreground/background attributes of the CC are
- swapped.
-
- F4 Mode Set the display mode
- When text is put onto the screen normally, both the
- text and an attribute (usually the CC) are put on the
- screen. However, there are cases where you may only
- want to put down text OR color, but not both. F4 allows
- three different modes of display to be used: Paint, for
- putting only color; Text, for putting only text; and
- Both, for putting both text and color-- Both is the
- Default.
-
- ** Note that any funtion in the ENTRY mode which displays
- anything is subject to MODE changes, including PASTE
- (F8), INS, DEL, and the BOX modes (F1).
-
- F5 SayClr Show the attribute under the cursor in text
- This feature was designed for the monochrome crowd.
- If the cursor is sitting on a green "V" on a blue
- background with the "V" blinking, hitting F5 will
- make tDoodle respond with "Blinking Green on Blue".
-
- ** Note that this is a toggle (with the default set to ON
- for monochrome users). That means that it will keep
- doing it until you tell it to stop by hitting F5 again.
-
- F6 Swap Swap between the two editing screens
- One of two editing screens may be displayed, allowing
- simple cut and paste operations between them.
-
- F7 Cut Pick up a block of the screen
- Using the arrows, the block (displayed in inverse
- video) is selected. The starting place for the block is
- where you pressed F7. It is normal for all of the
- attributes to disappear when you push F7-- they will
- reappear when you leave the function.
-
- F8 Paste Put down a block of text gotten with F7
- The block picked up with F7 is put at the current
- cursor postion. The way it is put down is
- determined by MODE.
-
- ** Note that the upper-left corner of the block is ALWAYS
- put wherever the cursor is positioned when F8 is hit.
- You may use UNDO (F9) to remove the "pasted" block.
-
- F9 Undo Undo screen modifications to a certain point
- The screen is saved before F7 (CUT), F8 (PASTE) and
- ESC (COMMAND mode). It may be restored to the state
- it was in the time of the last one of these
- keystrokes.
-
- F10 ASCII Display an ASCII chart of all characters above code 127.
- When you strike a key to remove the chart, the
- keystroke is thrown away, not put on the screen.
-
- While in the COMMAND mode, you have the following single letter commands at your
- disposal:
-
- ESC Go back to the ENTRY mode
-
- C Set the Current Color
-
- F Flip the two screens.
-
- G removes IBM Graphic chars. You have the choice of replacing them
- with a space, or from a tDoodle determined list of replacements
-
- L Load a file for editing to current screen
- See DOS manual for valid filespec information.
-
- Q Quit tDoodle
-
- R Replace character with another character. Replaces everywhere on
- screen.
-
- S Save current screen to file
- Allows the option of adding a clear-screen ESCape sequence to
- start. An ESCape sequence replaces multiple spaces to optomize
- size/sending time, if you want.
-
- U Undo. Works like F9 in ENTRY mode.
-
- W Wipe out screen
- You may choose among text, attributes, or both.
- Particularly useful for editing screens of non-graphics files.
-
-
- For both the [S]ave and [L]oad options the DOS editing keys are used (i.e.,
- F1=next char; F2, go to specified char; etc.) In addition, each of the two
- editing screens has its own separate filename, so whatever was last entered
- for that screen is available to be edited. Also, if there is an
- error in loading or saving, a (terribly) non-descriptive message
- is related, with the addition of a DOS error number in
- hexadecimal. These error numbers can be found in you DOS 2.0
- manual, or the DOS Tech Ref Manual. We wanted to get this out, so
- the error messages didn't get in this time. Sorry.
-
- Good Luck and Happy drawing!
-
- If you have any suggestions, problems, or (haha) donations, please write or
- call voice:
-
- Daniel E. Bennett
- PO Box 7820
- La Verne, CA 91750
- (voice) (714) 593-2404
- or call data:
-
- L a V e r n e & P C S t r e e t B B S
- La Verne, California
- Operating 24 hours a day
- Call up at 300/1200 baud, 8 data bits, No parity, 1 stop bit
- (714) 596-0084