ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 Shareware Freeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)

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THE CHILDREN'S GRAPHICS PROGRAM Version 2.0 INTRODUCTION Although anyone may find it useful, this simple graphics program was designed especially for children. With this software your child can draw lines, circles, boxes, arcs, text, or other figures we call macros. You can create your own macros or choose one of the macros that is programmed or built into the software. The programmed macros can be drawn in one of four sizes -- small, medium, large, and extra large. All the figures and macros can be drawn in one of four colors (background or none, red, blue, and white). Actually the red and blue colors are magenta and cyan but these terms are usually not recognized by children. Once the drawing is complete your child can color-in the drawings by painting them in one of eight colors. By placing animation marks in the drawings at strategic locations you can also animate your drawings. This is a little more complicated and may require parent's assistance. This software comes with six example drawings. These are draw1, draw2, draw3, draw4, draw5, and draw6. You may load them using the FILE option which is located in MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. You can use these drawings to practice deleting or painting. Draw3, Draw4, and Draw6 are animated drawings -- try them! You will also find some user-defined macros on the disk that have already been created for you. These can be recalled through the MACRO option. The following paragraphs describe the operation of this program in detail. OVERVIEW This section shows you the logical breakdown of the various options. MAIN GRAPHICS MENU 1-GRAPH Graph Options: 1-DRAW Draw Options: 1-LINE 2-BOX 3-CIRCL (CIRCLE) 4-MACRO Macro Options: 1-Choose a Programmed Macro 2-Choose a User-defined Macro 3-Store Existing Drawing as Macro 5-END 6-ARC 7-TEXT 2-PAINT 3-DEL (DELETE) 4-CLOAK 5-END 6-AMARK (ANIMATE MARK) 7-AMATE (ANIMATE) 8-EXPRT (EXPORT) 9-COPY 2-FILE File Options: 1-STORE 2-GET 3-DIR (DIRECTORY) 4-CHDIR (CHANGE DIRECTORY) 5-END 3-ERASE 4-PRINT 5-END TO MOUSE OR NOT TO MOUSE Before the program starts it will ask you whether or not you'll be using a mouse. If so, you must press the y key. If not, you must press the n key. You can use the mouse to select options and move the cursor. The left button is used in place of the return key to accept or answer yes. The right button is used in place of the ESC key or to answer no. I recommend you use a mouse if you have one. You'll find that it's much easier than using the keyboard. FINDING THE INSTRUCTIONS The instructions are always found on the top two lines above the drawing box. If the cursor is visible it's position will be shown on line 2 with the x-position first and the y-position shown last. The x-position increases from left to right while the y-position increases from top to bottom. The options that you may choose from will always be shown on the last row, below the drawing box. CHOOSING AN OPTION If you don't have a mouse you must use the keyboard to choose options. If you have a mouse and choose to use it you must use the mouse and not the keyboard. KEYBOARD To select an option using the keyboard just press the number key that corresponds to the option you want to select. The options and their corresponding numbers are listed at the bottom of the screen. MOUSE To select an option using the mouse just move the mouse left or right until the arrow is pointing to the option you want then press the left button. Note that this arrow only appears when you're using the mouse and when its time to select an option. You can only move this arrow left or right. MOVING THE CURSOR The cursor is a flashing circle that appears when its time to place an object in the drawing box. Its sole purpose for existing is to show you your location in the drawing box. It will not show on your printed drawings. The cursor can be moved using the keyboard or the mouse. KEYBOARD You may move the cursor one pixel at a time by using the appropriate arrow key. If you want to move in larger steps in the vertical direction, use the PGUP or PGDN keys. To move in larger steps horizontally you must first press the CONTROL key then the left or right arrow key before releasing the CONTROL key. MOUSE This is the easy part. Just move the mouse and the cursor will follow. MAIN GRAPHICS MENU In this menu your options are 1-GRAPH, 2-FILE, 3-ERASE, 2-PRINT, and 5-END. Choose one of these options using the procedures described above. GRAPH Choose this option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. The GRAPH menu has nine options. The first five are 1-DRAW, 2- PAINT, 3-DELete, 4-CLOAK, 5-END, and >. Choose > to see the additional options. These are <, 6-AMARK, 7-AMATE, 8-EXPRT, and 9-COPY. Choose < to see the first 5 options again. Press c to change the background color if you're using the keyboard. If you choose END you will be returned to MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. DRAW Choose this option from GRAPH MENU when you want to draw something in the drawing box. Your options in the DRAW menu are 1-LINE, 2-BOX, 3-CIRCL, 4-MACRO, 5-END, and >. Choose > to see the additional options. These are <, 6- ARC, and 7-TEXT. Choose < to see the first 5 options again. If you choose END you will be returned to GRAPH MENU. After you choose one of these seven options you must choose a color. Your color options are 1-NONE, 2-BLUE, 3-RED, or 4-WHITE. Remember, the color NONE is just the background color. If you are not using a mouse, this background color can be changed by pressing the c key on the keyboard. You can even get green and yellow backgrounds! LINE Use this option to draw a line between any two points in the drawing box. After you choose the color. Move the cursor to where you want the line to start then press ENTER. If you have a mouse, you must press the left button instead of pressing ENTER. After you do this, move to where you want the end of the line and accept this point in the same manner. Now that you've chosen the color, the starting point of the line, and the ending point, the line will be drawn. After the line is drawn you're placed back in DRAW MENU. You may now choose another figure. BOX As with the LINE option, after you select BOX you must select its color. Next, move the cursor to where you want one corner of the box then press ENTER. If you have a mouse, you may press the left button instead of pressing ENTER. After you do this, move to where you want the opposite corner and accept this point in the same manner. It makes no difference which corner you start with. Now that you've chosen the color and two opposite corners, the box will be drawn. After the box is drawn you're placed back in DRAW MENU. You may now choose another component. CIRCLE Use this option to draw a circle in the drawing box. Again, you must first choose a color. Next, enter the radius measured in x-axis pixels. The y-axis pixels are further apart than those of the x-axis and a circle will have 0.833 times as many pixels in the y direction. Now that you've entered the radius using the keyboard, you must position the cursor where you want the center of the circle to be and press ENTER (or the left button if you're using a mouse). The circle will now be drawn and you'll be returned to DRAW MENU. MACRO Macro refers to a command that draws a complex figure for you automatically --- a house for example. Choose this option and you'll see a list of three Macro options to choose from. These options are CHOOSE A PROGRAMMED MACRO, CHOOSE A USER-DEFINED MACRO, and STORE EXISTING DRAWING AS MACRO. Programmed macros are those that are programmed into the software and cannot be changed. The user-defined macros are those that you can create and delete. These are stored as macro files on disk. The third option allows you to store one of your drawings as a macro file. Options can be selected from this menu by using either the keyboard or the mouse. If you're using the keyboard, use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the options you want then press ENTER. If you're using a mouse, move the mouse up or down to highlight the option you want then press the left button. CHOOSE A PROGRAMMED MACRO Select a programmed macro by highlighting the desired macro using the technique described above then pressing ENTER or the left mouse button. Next you must select a color. Once you've selected it's color you must choose a size. Your choices are: 1-SMALL, 2-MED, 3-LARGE, and 4-EXLRG. Finally, move the cursor to where you want the macro drawn then press ENTER or the left mouse button. The programmed macro will now be drawn with the color, size and location you have selected. CHOOSE A USER-DEFINED MACRO This option allows you to place a previously designed macro into your current drawing. When you choose this option you're shown a list of the current macro files. Use the keyboard or mouse as described above to select the file you want. Now that you've selected the file you must select a location for it to be drawn. Place the cursor over the desired location then press ENTER or the left mouse button. The macro will be drawn at this location and you'll be returned to the DRAW menu. STORE EXISTING DRAWING AS MACRO This option allows you to store your drawing as a macro file. You must not have any copies, animation marks or other user-defined macros in this drawing. After you select this option, type a name for the macro file but do not include an extension. For example, suppose you have a drawing of a dog. Do not type DOG.MCR for the filename. Just type DOG. A MCR extension will be automatically added to the end. END Choose this option to return to GRAPH MENU. ARC This option allows you to draw complete or partial arcs. After choosing this option you must first choose a color. Next, you must enter the aspect ratio. This is the ratio of y-axis pixels to x-axis pixels. Since we know the y-axis pixels are 1/.833 times further apart than the x-axis pixels, to get a circle we'll have to choose the aspect ratio to be 0.833. Now choose the radius. If the aspect ratio that you chose above is less than one, the radius will be measured in x-axis pixels. If the aspect ratio is greater than one, the radius will be measured in y-axis pixels. In other words it is always measured along the longest axis as measured in pixels. After you've entered the radius from the keyboard, you must enter the start angle in degrees. This is the angle at which the computer starts drawing the arc. Next, you must enter the end angle for the arc. You can see that with these two values you can cause the computer to easily draw half or quarter arcs. Finally, you must move the cursor to where you want the center of the arc to be and press ENTER or the left mouse button. After you've done this the arc will be drawn and you'll be returned to DRAW MENU. TEXT Choose this option if you want to type some text in your drawing. This option supports most ASCII characters including the number characters 0 through 9. You are limited to 22 characters each time you use this option. This DRAW option with its variety of components, including TEXT, should provide you with all the tools you need for drawing. Now lets return to the GRAPH menu and learn how to paint your drawings. PAINT This option from GRAPH MENU allows you to fill in an enclosed area with one of the following colors: 1-NONE, 2-BLUE, 3-RED, 4-WHITE, 6-GRAY, 7-PINK, 8-CKBRD (CHECKERBOARD), or 9-HSTRP (HORIZONTAL STRIPE). After choosing PAINT, you must choose the fill color. Next, you must specify the boundary color. This boundary color must completely surround the area to be painted. The paint will fill all the area surrounded by the boundary color. If the area is not completely surrounded by this color the paint will spill over outside the area. If you do this accidentally, you can correct it by going to the delete option and deleting it. After you select the boundary color, move the cursor to a point within the boundary and press ENTER or the left mouse button. The area within the boundary will now be filled with the color previously selected. When drawing a figure that is to be painted, try to use a border color that is different than the desired paint color. If the colors are the same, you cannot change the paint color without deleting the old one. If you try to delete a border while it contains paint it will make quite a mess; therefore, delete its paint first. If you want to paint your drawing it is best to wait until all your drawing is finished. This allows you to make changes in lines, boxes, circles, macros, and arcs without having to delete the paint first. DELETE Use this option to delete individual elements in your drawing. The last thing drawn will begin to flash and you must answer the question "Do you want to delete this?". If you're using the keyboard use the y key for yes and the n key for no. If you're using a mouse use the left key for yes and the right key for no. Choose yes and the drawing will be redrawn without that object. Choose no and the next object will flash. This continues until you either choose yes, press the ESC key to escape, or all objects are flashed. When deleting a painted area, the entire paint does not flash. Only a small circle located around one pixel in the painted area will flash to indicate which painted area is being referenced. When deleting a graphics copy, a box will flash around the copied area showing you the graphics that is to be deleted if you choose to. Also, when deleting a user-defined macro, a circle (larger than the one for a painted area) will flash around the starting point of the macro. CLOAK The purpose of cloaking is to hide a piece of a drawing without deleting it. This is sometimes easier than going through the delete process. For creating an animated drawing it is an absolutely essential option. This option works by hiding everything within a boxed area that you define. You must first place the cursor on one corner of the cloaked area and press ENTER or the left mouse button. Next, place the cursor on the opposite corner of the area and accept it. Whatever is within the box drawn with these opposite corners will be hidden from view but not deleted. If you find that not all the enclosed drawing becomes hidden, try it again. Sometimes it will not take it all in a single step. END Choose this option to return to MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. ANIMATE MARK Choose this option if you want to store the current drawing to be used later as an animation screen. You can find more information on how to do animations in the tutorial. ANIMATE Use this option to animate your drawing if you have placed animate marks in the drawing as it was created. To stop the animation press key 5, press ESC or press the right mouse button. EXPORT Choose this option to export graphics to programs written in Turbo Basic or Power Basic. All the graphics within a box that you define will be stored in a file that you specify. This file can then be opened from other programs you've written. It can then be drawn on the screen using a few simple commands. You must first place the cursor at the upper left corner of the graphics you want to export then select it. Next, place the cursor at the bottom right corner of the graphics and select it. You are then shown the dimensions of an integer array required to store the graphics. You'll need this number when its time to place the graphics in your new program. Finally, you must enter a name with no extension for a file where the graphics can be stored. After the graphics is stored you'll be returned to GRAPH MENU. The following is an example Basic program for placing one of these drawings on the screen. The array dimension is 100 and the file name is draw10. SCREEN 1 DIM GRAPHICSARRAY%(100) OPEN "i",1,"DRAW10.GFL" FOR X%=0 TO 100 INPUT#1, GRAPHICSARRAY%(X%) NEXT X% CLS PUT (50,50),GRAPHICSARRAY% CLOSE 1 END COPY Choose this option from GRAPH MENU if you want to copy graphics to another location in the drawing box. If you choose this option you must move the cursor to the upper left corner of the graphics you want to move then select it. Next, enter the cursor at the lower right corner of the graphics. Finally, move the cursor to the upper left corner of the area you want the graphics copied to then select it by pressing ENTER or the left mouse button. The graphics will be copied to this new location. Be careful where you copy the graphics. If you copy it over some graphics that already exists, it probably will not look quite right. FILE Select the FILE option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU when you need to get an existing drawing, store a drawing for later use, or change the directory. Your options in the FILE menu are 1-STORE, 2-GET, 3-DIR (DIRECTORY), 4-CHDIR (CHANGE DIRECTORY), and 5-END. STORE Use this option to store or save a drawing to file. After choosing this option you must type the name of the file where the drawing is to be stored. Do not put an extension on the file name. For example, do not use something like draw10.dat. Just use draw10. The extension is added automatically. GET Use this option to retrieve a drawing that you previously saved. You are shown a list of existing files and then you must select one. Select by highlighting it then pressing ENTER or the left mouse button. DIRECTORY Choose this option if you just want to see all the graphics files on the current directory. Press the ENTER key or the left mouse button to return to FILE MENU. END Choose this option to return to MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. ERASE Choose this option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU to erase all the current drawing. Be careful, once you've erased it you can't get it back unless you stored it earlier. PRINT Choose this option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU to print your drawing to a printer. This program was not designed with its own print routine. If you want a hardcopy of your drawing you must load your favorite graphics screen dump memory resident program before you load this program. A program like this that supports most dot matrix printers, called GRAPHICS, usually comes with your operating system. To print, choose the PRINT option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. Next, wait at least 4 seconds, press the SHIFT key then the PRINT key without releasing the SHIFT key (if your computer has it, press the PRINT SCREEN key instead). Your drawing will now be printed on your dot matrix printer. When it's completed, press the RETURN key to go back to MAIN GRAPHICS MENU. END Choose this option from MAIN GRAPHICS MENU to exit the program. You'll find that this option exists in all the menus. In all other cases it returns you to the previous menu. If you have questions or suggestions for improving this program please send them to me at this address: Dr. Andy Motes 1632 Brooks St. Fayetteville, AR 72701 I hope you and your children enjoy this program. A lot of time went into designing it. Hopefully it is much easier to use than the elaborate commercial products that require large manuals. To run the program just type go then press ENTER. I'VE MADE EVERY EFFORT TO REMOVE ALL BUGS FROM THIS SOFTWARE; HOWEVER, I CAN'T GUARANTEE THAT NONE EXISTS. NEITHER CAN I GUARANTEE THAT A VIRUS HAS NOT BEEN ATTACHED TO THE PROGRAM SINCE I'VE RELEASED IT. THE RISK MUST BE ALL YOURS. BY USING THIS SOFTWARE YOU ARE EXPRESSING YOUR WILLINGNESS TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE RISKS. If you're interested in educational software for children try my program called SCHOOL-MOM. It is a menu driven program with modules for Music Composition, Art, English, Spelling, Math, Time and Exams. It's a complete educational tool for kids age 4 to 16. You can get it from your favorite shareware dealer, from the IBMAPP forum on CompuServe, or from me by specifying it on your registration form. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.