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- Luminus
- Version 2.12 (Beta)
-
- Written by Paul A. Schifferer
-
- Copyright © 1996 Gandalf's Middle-Earth Software Wizardry Labs
- All rights reserved.
-
- Terms
-
- You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the programs' executable code
- and documentation as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspic-
- uosly and appropriately publish only the original, unmodified programs, with
- all copyright notices and disclaimers of warranty intact and including all the
- accompanying documentation, example files and anything else that came with the
- original.
-
- You may not copy and/or distribute these programs without the accompanying
- documentation and other additional files that came with the original. You
- may not copy and/or distribute modified versions of these programs.
-
- You may not disassemble, decompile, re-source or otherwise reverse engineer
- the programs.
-
- You may charge a fee to recover distribution costs. The fee for diskette
- distribution may not be more than the cost to obtain a public domain diskette
- from Fred Fish.
-
- Disclaimer of Warranty
-
- THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAMS, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE
- LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING, THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR
- OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAMS "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
- EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
- WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE
- ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAMS IS WITH YOU.
- SHOULD THE PROGRAMS PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
- SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
-
- IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL
- ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAMS AS
- PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL,
- INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE
- THE PROGRAMS (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
- INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE
- PROGRAMS TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER
- PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
-
- Introduction
-
- I got to writing Luminus as a request from my wife, who enjoys designing ANSI
- pictures and animations, and after using TheDraw on her MS-DOS machine, found
- no suitable alternative for the Amiga. The few programs we ran across were
- sorely lacking in features and/or friendly operating interfaces. As I have
- recently learned, there are actually quite a few available, but alas, none
- that suit her particular tastes. And so was born Luminus.
-
- Luminus' features include:
-
- - Operates in any display environment (supports any screen display available
- in the display database).
-
- - Amiga User Interface Style Guide compliant.
-
- - On-line help (requires AmigaGuide).
-
- - Built-in ARexxTM and Workbench App support.
-
- - Supports all ANSI BBS codes.
-
- - Ability to load and save IFF and ASCII files.
-
- System requirements
-
- Luminus requires version 2.04 or higher of the Amiga OS. It is designed to
- take advantage of some features available in higher versions, if they are
- available.. As yet, Luminus does not have Locale support.
-
- Luminus also requires a stack size of at least 16,000 bytes. See the chapter
- Using Luminus below on how you may change the stack size from either the Shell
- or the Workbench.
-
- Registration
-
- Luminus is technically giftware. (I hate all the different -ware terms.) I
- don't believe or subscribe to the current shareware philosophy. If I wanted
- (read: demanded) money for my work, I would release it as a commercial
- product. I've written and released this program in this form because I
- believe the Amiga is an awesome computer, and I want to lend my support to its
- (hopefully) long and glorious life. I want to make your use of the Amiga
- productive, efficient, and most of all enjoyable. All I want is a 'thank you'
- or 'great job'. (Of course, I don't object to receiving money :) (see below),
- but I'm not going to get nasty about it, like some other authors.)
-
- But enough blithering; here's the bottom line: This program is NOT crippled
- in any way, shape or form, thus no fee is required to make it fully
- functional. You have it in all its splendor and glory. Use it, enjoy it. If
- you like it, send me a postcard, or a program you've written, or something to
- say thanks.
-
- If you want to, you can send me $5US, which will get you the next release sent
- right to you. The money's only to cover disk and mailer costs (and a teeny
- profit). Another $5US will get you a nicely typeset, printed manual, done in
- FinalWriter.
-
- The address to which you can send me money, postcards, a spare Amiga, or any-
- thing else is:
-
- Paul A. Schifferer
- 515 11th Street
- Edwards AFB, CA 93523
-
- I can also be contacted via Internet at:
-
- pschiff@pablo.elan.af.mil
-
- Undocumented Features
-
- Some people call these things 'bugs'. If you happen to notice one of these
- little critters, let me know, please! I've done my best to make sure all the
- bugs were discovered and removed, but I can't find them all. If finances are
- favorable, I may send you the next release at my cost. (See Beta-Testers'
- Note below.)
-
- Beta-Testers' Note
-
- This release is in general distribution as a beta version. If you wish to be
- a beta-tester for future versions of this program, or for any other program I
- may release, drop me a postcard or e-mail. I will put you on the list of
- beta-testers, for which you will receive test-releases via Snail mail, FidoNet
- or the most cost-effective means for me to get the program to you.
-
- Acknowledgements
-
- I'd like to thank the following people:
-
- My wife, Michelle, who gave me the idea for this program, provided construct-
- ive critique during its development and pre-release testing and encouragement
- to continue when things got frustrating or bleak. Thanks, hon. I love you.
-
- The authors of the Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Libraries. This was one
- of the most useful books I've ever picked up, and taught me a lot about pro-
- gramming the Amiga.
-
- Stephen Provencher and Andrew Toth, who provided a lot of insight into pro-
- gramming in C, and always had another point of view.
-
- Using Luminus
-
- This chapter will discuss the general usage of Luminus, both from Workbench
- and the Shell, what command line options/ToolTypes are available, and Luminus'
- general behavior.
-
- Workbench
-
- Luminus requires a stack size of at least 16,000 bytes to run. You can check
- that the icon's stack size is set properly by clicking once on the icon, then
- selecting Information from the Workbench's Icon menu. In the upper left cor-
- ner of the Information window is an integer gadget marked "Stack:". If the
- value in this gadget is less than 16,000, click in it, change it to 16000,
- press Return, and click the button marked Save. Now you may run Luminus.
-
- To start Luminus from the Workbench environment, simply double-click on its
- icon. Luminus' behavior can be modified by using ToolTypes. The following
- ToolTypes are supported:
-
- SETTINGS=file Lets you specify a particular settings file to use. You
- can supply the complete pathname here, or Luminus will use
- its current directory to find the file. If this file can-
- not be found or loaded, Luminus will resort to its stored
- internal defaults. The default file is Luminus.prefs.
- NOTE: Any of the following ToolTypes will override the corresponding default
- loaded from the settings file.
- CUSTOMSCREEN=name This ToolType will signal Luminus to open on a custom
- screen (the default behavior). You must provide a screen
- name when using this ToolType. The custom screen opened
- will be a public screen, for use by other programs and
- identified by the name given. The default name is LUMINUS.
-
- NOSHANGHAI Specifying this ToolType tells Luminus not to set the
- global public screen SHANGHAI flag. The default behavior
- is to set it, which causes the current default public
- screen to try to make windows open on its screen. This
- ToolType is ignored if Luminus is not opened on a custom
- screen.
-
- NOPOPPUB Specifying this ToolType tells Luminus not to set the
- global public screen POPPUBSCREEN flag. The default
- behavior is to set it, which causes the current default
- public screen to pop to the front of the display when a
- window is opened on it. This ToolType is ignored if
- Luminus is not opened on a custom screen.
-
- PUBSCREEN=name Use this ToolType when you want to open Luminus on another
- program's existing public screen. The name you supply is
- the name of the screen on which to open. This ToolType may
- be specified in a project icon, and will be effective only
- for that document.
-
- PORTNAME=name Lets you specify an alternate basename for Luminus' ARexx
- port. Each document that you open in this invocation of
- Luminus will use this basename plus a numeric suffix, i.e.,
- the first document opened will be called 'LUMINUS.0'. The
- default name is 'LUMINUS'. This ToolType, if specified in
- a project icon, will completely override the naming conven-
- tion, and will be effective only for that document.
-
- UNIT=number This will specify the default Clipboard unit to use for
- cut, copy and paste operations. All documents opened will
- use this unit. The default unit is 0. This ToolType may
- be specified in a project icon, and will be effective only
- for that document.
-
- IOBUFFER=size This ToolType sets the size (in Kilobytes) of Luminus'
- internal input/output buffer. This buffer speeds access to
- and from disk. Setting this to 0 will disable the buffer.
- The default size is 16.
-
- STARTUP=script Specifying this ToolType tells Luminus to attempt to start
- execution of the specified ARexx script following its
- initialization. By default, no script will be started.
-
- The Shell
-
- Before you start Luminus, you must make sure your Shell's stack size is at
- least 16,000 bytes or greater. You can check this by entering
- stack
- at the prompt. This will tell you the size of your Shell's stack. If it's
- less than 16,000, then enter
- stack 16000.
-
- This will change the stack size so it's large enough for Luminus to run.
-
- To start Luminus from the Shell, simply enter its name at the command line,
- and the program will begin execution. The following options are available
- from the Shell:
-
- files Anything typed on the command line that does not correspond
- to a supported command line option will be taken to be a
- file to be loaded. You may enter as many as you like that
- will fit into memory.
-
- SETTINGS file This option allows you to specify the settings file to use
- for this invocation of Luminus. You may enter a complete
- path specification with the filename.
-
- CUSTOMSCREEN name Lets you set the name of the custom screen which Luminus is
- to open. When using this option, you must specify a name
- for the screen.
-
- PUBSCREEN name Use this option when you want to open Luminus on another
- program's existing public screen. The name you supply is
- the name of the screen on which to open.
-
- PORTNAME name Lets you specify an alternate basename for Luminus' ARexx
- port. Each document that you open in this invocation of
- Luminus will use this basename plus a numeric suffix, i.e.,
- the first document opened will be called 'LUMINUS.0'. The
- default name is 'LUMINUS'.
-
- STARTUP script Specifying this option tells Luminus to attempt to start
- execution of the specified ARexx script following its
- initialization. By default, no script will be started.
-
- NOPOPPUB Specifying this option tells Luminus not to set the global
- public screen POPPUBSCREEN flag. The default behavior is
- to set it, which causes the current default public screen
- to pop to the front of the display when a window is opened
- on it. This option is ignored if Luminus is not opened on
- a custom screen.
-
- NOSHANGHAI Specifying this option tells Luminus not to set the global
- public screen SHANGHAI flag. The default behavior is to
- set it, which causes the current default public screen to
- try to make windows open on its screen. This option is
- ignored if Luminus is not opened on a custom screen.
-
- UNIT number This will specify the default Clipboard unit to use for
- cut, copy and paste operations. All documents opened will
- use this unit. The default unit is 0.
-
- IOBUFFER size This option sets the size (in Kilobytes) of Luminus' inter-
- nal input/output buffer. This buffer speeds access to and
- from disk. Setting this to 0 will disable the buffer. The
- default size is 16.
-
- NOGUI Specify this option if you want Luminus to start without
- opening up its interface, i.e., no screens or windows.
- This option is useful if you are running an ARexx script
- that starts Luminus, modifies one or more documents, and
- exits without user intervention.
-
- QUIET Using this option tells Luminus not to present its initial
- copyright banner. This option would most likely be used in
- conjunction with NOGUI.
-
- Operations
-
- This chapter deals with various aspects of Luminus, like its modes of oper-
- ation, basic editing information and general behavior of the software.
-
- Editing Modes
-
- Currently, there are two editing modes available in Luminus. The modes are
- fairly versatile, and allow switching between them "on-the-fly." Their
- attributes and details are discussed below.
-
- Page Mode
-
- Page Mode is an editing mode that is used for editing static ANSI images of
- one or more pages. Subsequent pages in the document are generally images in
- a later stage, much like a flipped-page cartoon is made up of a series of
- static images that when moved through rapidly simulate animation. This allows
- page mode to have a crude, page-sized animation.
-
- Cels edited on the page are directly overwritten, replacing the old cel on
- that page.
-
- You can have as many pages as can fit in memory in your documents.
-
- When Page mode documents are saved, the cels are saved in displayed-order.
-
- Animation Mode
-
- Animation Mode is an editing mode that allows you to create fine-tuned anim-
- ations using ANSI escape sequences for cursor positioning and screen control.
-
- When you type characters in, or insert cels, everything is saved in the se-
- quence in which it is entered.
-
- There are no pages in this mode. Overwritten cels are not replaced in the
- document, but are remembered and simply hidden behind the newer cels. A way
- exists to edit existing cels, though, so if you do make a mistake, it is
- possible to correct it without having to waste additional cels to "hide" it.
-
- Drawing Modes
-
- While Editing Modes affect the way cels are stored in the document and later
- saved to disk files, Drawing Modes affect how they are created and placed into
- the document. There are two Drawing Modes available at this time. (I have
- two more under development right now.) These are discussed below.
-
- Text Mode
-
- This mode is pretty much the "standard" drawing mode. Typed text is placed
- into the document (according to the Editing Mode), and cursor movements are
- simply that. You can change the colors and text attributes and all that
- during your editing.
-
- Attribute Mode
-
- This mode acts basically the same as Text Drawing Mode as far as typing in
- text is concerned. Where this one differs is in the way cursor movement is
- handled. The cursor keys still move the cursor around the same as normal,
- except that the cel at the destination position of the cursor is changed. A
- set of Attribute Mode Flags are available that determine how the cel is
- changed. Currently, there are three flags:
-
- Change foreground? - this flag, if set, means that the foreground color
- of the affected cel is changed to the current foreground color.
-
- Change background? - this flag, if set, means that the background color
- of the affected cel is changed to the current background color.
-
- Change attributes? - this flag, if set, means that the text attributes of
- the affected cel are changed to the current text attributes.
-
- If in Animation Editing Mode, the cel isn't actually changed, but a copy is
- made with the new colors and/or attributes and placed in that position.
-
- Line Types
-
- Luminus supports the use of several line types that assume an IBM-style font
- is being used. The line types are known as Single, Double, Single-Double
- and Double-Single. (Pretty descriptive, eh?) The Single line type is a col-
- lection of line pieces that are single width lines both horizontally and
- vertically. The Double line type is the same except that the line pieces are
- double parallel lines. The Single-Double and Double-Single line types use
- combined single and double-parallel lines. The first part of the their name
- is the type of vertical line, the second part is the type of horizontal line.
-
- Two additional line types are available that can be used with just about any
- font. They are Custom and Select. The Custom line pieces are defined in the
- Box & Line Settings panel. This allows you to define the pieces used in all
- parts of line drawing. (See the Box & Line Settings panel for more infor-
- mation on defining custom line pieces.) The Select line type is a single
- character that is used to draw all parts of a line, whether horizontal,
- vertical, intersecting or whatever. Generally, when the line should be drawn,
- a requester is presented asking for the character to use for the line. There
- are some exceptions to this, such as ARexx commands for line or box drawing.
-
- Cursor Directioning
-
- This is an interesting little feature, I think. Most text editors and word
- processors (or just about any kind of editor) process input text from left to
- right (or right to left, if the font is designed that way). But since Luminus
- is basically a ANSI text-based drawing program, it can come in handy to have
- the cursor move in other directions during a drawing function or whatever.
-
- So Luminus supports flexible cursor directions. You can specify (separately)
- the desired vertical and horizontal directions of the cursor. The available
- directions for movement are:
-
- Vertical dir. Result
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- None The cursor doesn't move vertically.
-
- Up The cursor moves upwards one character position.
-
- Down The cursor moves downwards one character position.
-
- Horizontal dir. Result
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- None The cursor doesn't move horizontally.
-
- Left The cursor move to the left one character position.
-
- Right The cursor moves to the right one character position.
-
- Vertical and horizontal directions can be combined to make angled cursor move-
- ment. And it's actually even possible to specify both as None and have the
- cursor not move at all!
-
- AppIcon, AppMenuItem & AppWindows
-
- Luminus supports all three of Workbench library's App features. Each
- feature's implementation in Luminus will be discussed here.
-
- AppIcon
-
- By default, Luminus will display an AppIcon on the Workbench window upon
- start-up. This behavior can be changed via menu item or through the
- Operations Settings panel and saved in the settings file. Luminus' AppIcon
- has two behaviors.
-
- Should you double-click on it, Luminus' screen will be brought to the front,
- and the current document's window will be brought to the front and activated.
-
- You may also drop icons onto the AppIcon. Luminus will attempt to open a new
- document for each icon and load it. These are usually icons for documents,
- but Luminus will take anything and try to make sense of it.
-
- AppMenuItem
-
- This App feature places an item on the Tools menu in the Workbench's menu
- structure. Selecting this menu item will cause Luminus' screen to pop to the
- front, and the current document's window to be brought to the front and acti-
- vated.
-
- AppWindow
-
- Each document that Luminus opens up, it will attempt to attach an AppWindow.
- The AppWindow enables you to drop icons into the document's window (only while
- it is opened on the Workbench screen), which will tell Luminus to overlay the
- files to the document. Note that if multiple icons are dropped in one window,
- Luminus will attempt to overlay all of them onto the document on which they
- were dropped.
-
- General Editing
-
- This section covers the miscellaneous editing commands and keystrokes, such as
- cursor keys with qualifiers, the Help key and the numeric keypad.
-
- The numeric keypad
-
- Just about all the programs I've used on the Amiga, if they've made use of the
- numeric keypad, have used it in one mode only. (The only exception to this
- has been WordPerfectTM for the Amiga.) It's either used just for numbers
- (its default behavior), or for cursor movement (like SAS/C's editor), but
- never for both. Luminus doesn't suffer from this oversight. The status line
- of each document my reflect the current state of the numeric keypad. If it is
- in "number mode", 'Num' shows in the status line. If it's in "cursor mode",
- nothing shows. You can switch between these modes by pressing they NumL key
- (marked on the front of the '(' key on the numeric keypad) in combination with
- either Shift key.
-
- Number mode
- In this mode, the keys act as they are labelled on the top, i.e., numbers, the
- symbols '(', ')', '/', '*', '-', '+', '.', and the Enter key.
-
- Cursor mode
- In this mode, the keys act as key are labelled on their fronts, while the
- Enter key works as in "number mode." See the section below, Cursor keys, for
- information on the behavior of the cursor keys. The key marked 'Ins' (keypad
- 0) toggles Insert mode on and off. The key marked 'Del' (keypad .) acts like
- the Delete key (next to Help). The '+' and '-' keys act normally. The keys
- marked '5', 'NumL' (execpt when Shifted), 'ScrL', and 'PrtSc' do nothing.
-
- Help key
-
- The Help key is active in Luminus. Pressing it tells Luminus to execute the
- AmigaGuide on-line help system. Luminus' help system is context-sensitive, so
- pressing the Help key within a subwindow will bring up the help file at the
- appropriate place.
-
- There is one exception: pressing the Help key in the menu gives a brief
- description of that menu item.
-
- Cursor keys
-
- The arrow keys (and their counterparts on the numeric keypad, when not
- NumLocked), when unqualified, do normal cursor movement, i.e., left, right,
- up, down. When Shifted, the keys still behave as normal, but will extend an
- existing block in the appropriate direction. Following is a chart on the
- behavior of the keys with and without qualifiers.
-
- Keystroke What it does
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Up arrow Moves up one line
- Down arrow Moves down one line
- Left arrow Moves left one column
- Right arrow Moves right one column
- Home Move to the beginning of the line
- End Move to the end of the line
- PgUp Move up one windowful
- PgDn Move down one windowful
- Control + Up arrow Moves to the top of the document
- Control + Down arrow Moves to the bottom of the document
- Control + Left arrow Move to the absolute beginning of line
- Control + Right arrow Move to the absolute end of the line
- Control + Home Move to the top-left corner of the document
- Control + End Move to the bottom-right corner of the document
- Control + PgUp Move to the top line of the document
- Control + PgDn Move to the bottom line of the document
- Alt + Up arrow Delete the current line, move all lower lines up
- Alt + Down arrow Insert a blank line
- Alt + Left arrow Delete the current column, move all right
- columns over
- Alt + Right arrow Insert a blank column
- Alt + Home Move to the top of the window
- Alt + End Move to the bottom of the window
- Alt + PgUp Move up one windowful, cursor doesn't move
- Alt + PgDn Move down one windowful, cursor doesn't move
-
- Error Codes
-
- Standard AmigaDOS defines a set of general error codes that are normally
- returned from a called task or process that indicate the state under which the
- program exited. The are normally 0 (normal exit, no errors), 5 (warning),
- 10 (error) and 20 (failure). Luminus defines a set of specific error codes
- that may be reeturned from the program itself to a Shell process, or from
- ARexx commands to the ARexx script in the variable rc.
-
- Following is Luminus' error code listing. Several codes are referred to in
- some chapters by a name. This name is given in parentheses after the error
- code's meaning.
-
- NOTE Luminus defines failure codes beginning at 50. Code 0 indicates
- everything is okay and codes 1 through 49 are informational codes
- which are used internally; you will never see them.
-
- Code Meaning
- ----------------------------------------------------
- 0 Okay
- 50 General (undefined) failure
- 51 Unable to open file
- 52 Unable to save file
- 53 IFF error
- 54 Unable to open clipboard
- 55 Insufficient memory
- 56 Unable to lock public screen
- 59 Unable open window
- 60 Unable to lock directory
- 61 Unable to create port
- 62 Unable to create AppWindow
- 65 Wrong library version
- 68 Unable to create icon
- 69 Not enough screens
- 70 Unable to switch screens
- 71 Document in limbo
- 74 Unable to find cel
- 75 Invalid screen pointer
- 77 Invalid box dimensions
- 79 Invalid margins
- 80 No text
- 81 Out of dimension
- 82 Unable to open screen
- 83 Unable to open font
- 84 No such command
- 85 Invalid parameter (INVALID_PARAMETER)
- 87 Unable to open document
- 88 Command not available (COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE)
- 89 Unable to execute command
- 90 Unable to load settings
- 91 OPTIONS RESULTS not set in script (OPTIONS_RESULTS_NOT_SET)
-
- Menus
-
- This chapter deals with Luminus' menu structure and operation.
-
- Project Menu
-
- New
-
- Selecting this menu item causes Luminus to open a new document, complete with
- its own window.
-
- Holding down either Shift key while selecting this item tells Luminus that you
- want to specify the screen on which the new document is opened. Please refer
- to Select Public Screen under Requesters in the Control Panels & Windows
- chapter.
-
- Open...
-
- This menu item lets you open up an existing document for editing. The ASL
- file requester is opened for you to select a file or files to open. Multi-
- selection is enabled in the file requester, so you can choose as many files
- as you like to open, provided there is enough available memory for them all!
-
- Holding down either Shift key while selecting this item tells Luminus that you
- want to specify the screen on which the document(s) is (are) opened. Please
- refer to Select Public Screen under Requesters in the Control Panels & Windows
- chapter.
-
- Overlay...
-
- This menu item allows you to choose a file or files to overlay onto the exist-
- ing document using the ASL file requester. Multi-selection is enabled in the
- requester, and all files selected will be appended to the current document.
-
- This item is only available in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- Save
-
- This menu item allows you to save the current document to disk. If there is
- no current filename of the filename is "Untitled", you will be prompted for
- one via the ASL file requester. Otherwise, the document is just saved.
-
- Holding down either Shift key will bring up the Save Panel, so you may alter
- the save parameters before saving the file. You can have the Save Panel come
- up automatically for every save attempt by enabling the Save Prompt gadget in
- the File Settings Panel.
-
- This item is ghosted if no changes have been made since the last save.
-
- Save as...
-
- This menu item allows you to save the current document to disk under a differ-
- ent name than its current one. An ASL file requester is presented for you to
- choose the directory and filename.
-
- Holding down either Shift key will bring up the Save Panel, so you may alter
- the save parameters before saving the file. You can have the Save Panel come
- up automatically for every save attempt by enabling the Save Prompt gadget in
- the File Settings Panel.
-
- Close
-
- Selecting this item causes the current document to close, shutting down its
- window and freeing all memory associated with it. If the document was
- modified since its last save, you will prompted for verification to close the
- document.
-
- If the last document open is closed, Luminus will shut down as if you had
- selected Quit.
-
- About...
-
- This menu item brings up an informational window, giving you the low-down on
- Luminus. It also informs you of the ARexx port name of the current document.
-
- Help...
-
- Selecting this item tells Luminus to activate its on-line-help feature. In
- order for on-line-help to work, the AmigaGuide file (a file of the same name
- as the program ending with the extension '.guide') must be in either the same
- directory as the program, or the logical directory HELP:. Pressing the Help
- key on the keyboard has the same effect.
-
- Quit
-
- You want to completely shut down Luminus. This item causes that to happen, no
- matter how many documents are open. Holding either Shift key while selecting
- this item will suppress the 'are you sure?' requester.
-
- Luminus will normally inform you if any opened documents have been modified
- since their last save, and give you a chance to save them. Holding either Alt
- key will suppress this requester.
-
- Edit Menu
-
- Cut
-
- Cut grabs from the currently blocked area of the document, removing its cels
- to the clipboard you have specified for the document. Luminus will store the
- data to the clipboard in IFF format, according to the type you specify, either
- FTXT CHRS, which can usually be read by text editors and the console device,
- and ANSI CEL, a compact proprietary format that Luminus uses.
-
- The blocked data is removed from the document in the same manner as Erase.
-
- This item is only enabled when a block is selected in the document.
-
- Copy
-
- Copy grabs from the currently blocked area of the document, duplicating its
- cels to the clipboard you have specified for the document. Luminus will store
- the data to the clipboard in IFF format, according to the type you specify,
- either FTXT CHRS, which can usually be read by text editors and the console
- device, and ANSI CEL, a compact proprietary format that Luminus uses.
-
- The blocked data is left in the document and the block is deselected when the
- copy is complete.
-
- This item is only enabled when a block is selected in the document.
-
- Paste
-
- Choosing this item will cause Luminus to grab whatever is in the specified
- clipboard for the current document (each document may specify a different
- clipboard unit number), and paste it at the cursor position. Luminus under-
- stands IFF clips of type FTXT CHRS and ANSI CEL. No other types are
- supported.
-
- Erase
-
- Selecting Erase will removed all blocked cels from the document without
- pushing them onto the clipboard. The rest of the document is left intact (see
- Delete below).
-
- This item is only enabled when a block is selected in the document.
-
- Delete
-
- Delete does somewhat the same as Erase, removing all blocked cels from the
- document without pushing them onto the clipboard. The difference is that
- anything to the right of the deleted block is moved over to fill in the space
- vacated by the removed cels. Erase simply leaves the area blank, Delete
- attempts to fill it in.
-
- This item is only enabled when a block is selected in the document.
-
- Clear
-
- This sub-menu allows you to do global clears in the document.
-
- Current page
- This sub-item will remove all cels from the current page, rendering it
- blank. You will be asked to verify your choice.
-
- This item is ghosted in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- Document
- This sub-item removes every cel from the entire document. You must
- verify your choice.
-
- Column
-
- This sub-menu provides you with items for manipulating columns, i.e.,
- inserting and deleting.
-
- Insert
- This sub-item causes Luminus to insert a blank column at the current
- cursor position for the entire height of the document. All columns to
- the right are moved over.
-
- Note that any columns that are moved beyond the boundaries of the docu-
- ment are not lost, but may not be saved with the file, and are not
- displayed until they are moved back into the document's boundaries.
-
- Delete
- This sub-item causes the column at the cursor to be irretrievably removed
- from the document, and all columns to the right are moved over to fill
- its space.
-
- Line
-
- This sub-menu provides you with items for manipulating lines, i.e., inserting
- and deleting.
-
- Insert
- This sub-item causes Luminus to insert a blank line at the current cursor
- position for the entire width of the document. All lines below are moved
- up.
-
- Note that any lines that are moved beyond the boundaries of the document
- are not lost, but may not be saved with the file, and are not displayed
- until they are moved back into the document's boundaries.
-
- Delete
- This sub-item causes the column at the cursor to be irretrievably removed
- from the document, and all columns to the right are moved over to fill
- its space.
-
- Document Menu
-
- Use border?
-
- This is a toggle item that determines if the current document's window will be
- drawn with the standard Intuition border (and all appropriate gadgets,
- including scroll bars). When the state of this item is changed, the
- document's window is closed and reopened accordingly.
-
- Show status line?
-
- This is another toggle item, which determines whether the document's status
- line will be rendered. If so, it is placed at the top or bottom according to
- the Status line at top? option in the Document Settings panel.
-
- Ruler
-
- This sub-menu controls the ruler and its display aspects.
-
- Display?
- When this item is checked, two lines, one vertical, one horizontal, are
- displayed, intersecting at the current mouse position. The ruler is
- automatically and temporarily disabled when the mouse pointer is outside
- the boundaries of the drawing area of the active document window.
-
- Hash marks?
- With this item checked, the ruler is displayed with vertical or horizon-
- tal hash marks along each of its beams, placed at character intervals so
- they would intersect the midpoint of each character row or column. If
- the ruler Display? item is not checked, this item will be ghosted.
-
- Numbers?
- With this item checked, the ruler is displayed with position numbers
- drawn at a user-specified interval (which can be set in the Document
- Settings Panel). Each number is drawn either above or to the left of its
- respective hash mark. Should the ruler come close to the left or top
- drawing boundaries of the window, numbers may not be displayed that won't
- fit into the display wholly. If the ruler Display? and Hash marks? items
- are not checked, this item will be ghosted.
-
- Edit mode
-
- This sub-menu's items are the available editing modes in Luminus. Each mode
- is discussed below. For details on Luminus' editing modes, see the Operations
- chapter.
-
- Page
- This sub-item causes Luminus to revert to Page Editing Mode. (See Page
- under Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.) Since an existing anim-
- ation can get severely damaged, i.e., certain portions of the animation
- may be lost, by switching to this mode, your choice is verified before
- any real action is taken.
-
- Animation
- This sub-item causes Luminus to revert to Animation Editing Mode. (See
- Page under Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.) Since switching to
- this mode makes no changes to the document's contents, as switching to
- Page Mode might do, no verification is necessary.
-
- Draw mode
-
- This sub-menu's items are the available drawing modes in Luminus. Each mode
- is discussed below. For details on Luminus' drawing modes, see the Operations
- chapter.
-
- Text
- This is the normal drawing mode. Text is rendered normally and cursor
- movements are treated as only that.
-
- Attribute
- This mode is a unique drawing mode. Text can entered as in Text Drawing
- Mode, but cursor movements are handled in an entirely different manner.
- Depending on the attribute mode flags set, moving the cursor over cels
- can change their colors or attributes.
-
- Line type
-
- This sub-menu contains the various line types with which Luminus may render
- boxes and lines. Each line type is briefly discusses below. For details on
- the line types, see the Operations chapter.
-
- Single
- This line type is a single vertical or horizontal line, including corners
- and intersecting pieces. This type assumes an IBM-style font.
-
- Double
- This line type is a double vertical or horizontal line, including corners
- and intersecting pieces. This type assumes an IBM-style font.
-
- Single-Double
- This line type is rendered using single vertical and double horizontal
- lines. Corners and intersecting pieces are drawn with respect to these
- types. This type assumes an IBM-style font.
-
- Double-Single
- This line type is rendered using double vertical and single horizontal
- lines. Corners and intersecting pieces are drawn with respect to these
- types. This type assumes an IBM-style font.
-
- Custom
- This line type's pieces are rendered according the ASCII codes set up in
- the Box & Line settings panel. This type assumes no particular font, but
- may be set up according to any font.
-
- Select
- This line type's pieces are rendered using a single ASCII code, which is
- specified at the time of the line drawing. This type assumes no part-
- icular font.
-
- Attribute mode flags
-
- This sub-menus contains some toggle-items that control how Attribute Drawing
- Mode will affect existing character during cursor movement. (See the
- Attribute Mode under Drawing Modes in the Operations chapter for more infor-
- mation.)
-
- Change foreground?
- If this item is checked, Attribute Drawing Mode will affect the fore-
- ground color of all cels the cursor passes over during cursor movement.
-
- Change background?
- If this item is checked, Attribute Drawing Mode will affect the back-
- ground color of all cels the cursor passes over during cursor movement.
-
- Change attribute?
- If this item is checked, Attribute Drawing Mode will affect the character
- attribute of all cels the cursor passes over during cursor movement.
-
- Vertical movement
-
- This sub-menu controls the vertical movement of the cursor during text entry.
- This movement is in conjunction with the horizontal movement (above), thus
- allowing such really cool effects as angled cursor movement.
-
- None
- When this item is enabled, the cursor makes no vertical movement during
- text entry. This is the default behavior.
-
- Up
- This item causes the cursor to move upward after each character is
- entered.
-
- Down
- This item causes the cursor to move down after each character is entered.
-
- Horizontal movement
-
- This sub-menu controls the horizontal movement of the cursor during text
- entry. This movement is in conjunction with the vertical movement (above),
- thus allowing such neat-o dog effects as angled cursor movement.
-
- None
- With this item checked, the cursor makes no horizontal movement after
- text entry.
-
- Left
- This item cause the cursor to move to the left after each character
- entered.
-
- Right
- This item causes the cursor to move to the right after each character
- entered. This is the default behavior.
-
- Text/Graphics Menu
-
- Attribute
-
- This sub-menu affects the current drawing colors and attributes.
-
- Foreground color...
- Background color...
- Selecting one of these two menu items brings up a requester that prompts
- for the desired color to which to change. See Choose Color under
- Requesters in the Control Panels & Windows chapter for more information
- about the requester.
-
- Plain
- Bold
- Italics
- Underline
- Blink
- Inverse
- Concealed
- These items toggle the various text attributes on and off, with the
- exception of Plain, which clears all other attributes. A checked item is
- enabled.
-
- At cursor
- This menu item grabs the colors and attributes of the cel underneath the
- cursor and makes them the current values.
-
- Cycle colors
-
- Color cycling is the ability for Luminus to change foreground and/or back-
- ground colors 'on-the-fly', as you are entering text, making for some very
- interesting (and psychedelic) effects. Luminus cycles forward through the
- available colors, looping around to the first color when it reaches the end of
- the list.
-
- Foreground
- This item toggles the state of foreground color cycling. A checked item
- indicates that cycling is enabled. Luminus will affect the Bold
- attribute during color cycling, in order to take advantage of the full
- range of ANSI colors, shutting the attribute off or turning it on as
- needed.
-
- Background
- This item toggles the state of background color cycling. A checked item
- indicates that cycling is enabled. Background color cycling only cycles
- through the first eight background colors, keeping within the ANSI
- specification.
-
- Text...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the Text panel, which allows you to enter
- multiple lines of text, which may be left-, center- or right-justified accord-
- ing to any specified dimensions, and may optionally have a box or bevel box
- rendered around it. See the discussion of the Text Panel under Control Panels
- in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- Draw box
-
- This item causes a box to be drawn using the currently selected block as its
- dimensions. The box is drawn using the current colors (including color
- cycling) and attributes.
-
- This item is ghosted if a block is not selected.
-
- Draw bevel box
-
- This sub-menu causes a bevelled box to be drawn using the currently selected
- block as its dimensions. The box is drawn using the current background color
- (including color cycling) and attributes. Its foreground color is rendered to
- give it a raised or recessed appearance, according to the sub-item chosen.
-
- Raised
- This sub-item specifies that the bevel box should have a raised
- appearance.
-
- Recessed
- This sub-item specifies that the bevel box should have a recessed
- appearance.
-
- Insert
-
- This sub-menu allows you to insert ANSI codes into the document that are not
- possible directly from the keyboard.
-
- Custom ANSI code...
- This sub-item brings up a string requester (see the Control Panels &
- Windows chapter) that allows you to enter the guts of an ANSI code. As
- the requester indicates, do not type in the escape character and opening
- bracket ([), as these are assumed and added for you when the file is
- saved. Custom codes are ignored during normal display.
-
- Clear screen...
- This sub-item presents a color requester (see the Control Panels &
- Windows chapter) from which you pick a background color with which to
- clear the screen.
-
- Page Menu
-
- This menu and its items are only available in Page Editing Mode.
-
- New page
-
- This sub-menu lets you add pages to your document, thus allowing a static
- image multiple pages. There is no limit (other than available memory) to the
- number of pages you can add to the document.
-
- Append
- Selecting this item causes Luminus to create a new empty page at the end
- of the document.
-
- Insert
- This menu item inserts a new empty page at the current page, moving all
- subsequent pages back.
-
- Delete page
-
- This item allows you to delete an entire page of an image. This data will be
- irretrievably lost, so Luminus will verify your desire to delete the page. If
- there is only one page in the document, this item will be ghosted, as you
- cannot delete the last remaining page (you may as well close the document!).
-
- Previous page
-
- This item moves to the previous page in the document. If there is no previous
- page, this item will be ghosted.
-
- Next page
-
- This menu item moves to the next page in the document. If there is no next
- page, this item will be ghosted.
-
- Animation Menu
-
- This menu and its items are only available in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- Display...
-
- Selecting this menu item tells Luminus to re-display the current animation
- sequence from the first entered cel to the last. You will be prompted for a
- delay time. Delay values are in 100ths of a second, i.e., a value of 100 is
- 1 second delay between each cel displayed.
-
- Any input events (such as keystrokes, mouse-clicks, etc.) encountered during
- the animation display are considered interruptions, and cause the animation to
- stop its sequential display. The finished image is then calculated and drawn
- on the screen. This is useful for interrupting long animation sequences, or
- inadvertently long delay times.
-
- Insert pause
-
- This sub-menu allows you to insert a pause into the animation sequence (so
- that you can stop and admire your work). Two different types of pauses are
- available.
-
- Key
- This flavor of pause waits for a keystroke or mouse-click before
- continuing with the animation sequence. If the document's window is
- bordered, even clicking on the close gadget counts toward it. Note that
- only one input event is consumed when this pause executes, and any events
- before or after are considered interruption events (as discussed above
- under the Display... menu item).
-
- Timed
- This pause, when executed, wait for a specified length of time before
- continuing with the animation sequence. You are prompted for a delay
- time Delay times are in 100ths of a second, i.e., 100 is a 1 second
- delay.
-
- Edit cel...
-
- This item brings up the Edit Cel panel. From this panel you may edit
- individual aspects of existing cels in the animation sequence. See the
- Control Panels & Windows chapter for details on the operation of the Edit Cel
- panel.
-
- Windows Menu
-
- Attribute
-
- Selecting this menu item tells Luminus to open up the Attributes interactive
- support window. (See the Control Panels & Windows chapter for details on this
- type of window.) If the window is already opened, but is partially or wholly
- covered by other windows, it will be moved to the front. If the window is
- opened on another screen, it will be closed and reopened on the screen on
- which the summoning window is opened.
-
- This window provides a convenient method by which you may edit the current
- colors and text attributes of your documents. This window always reflects the
- current settings of the currently active document.
-
- Switches
-
- Selecting this menu item tells Luminus to open up the Switches interactive
- support window. (See the Control Panels & Windows chapter for details on this
- type of window.) If the window is already opened, but is partially or wholly
- covered by other windows, it will be moved to the front. If the window is
- opened on another screen, it will be closed and reopened on the screen on
- which the summoning window is opened.
-
- This window provides a convenient method by which you may edit the modes and
- miscellaneous attributes of your documents. This window always reflects the
- current settings of the currently active document.
-
- Character set
-
- Selecting this menu item tells Luminus to open up the Character Set interact-
- ive support window. (See the Control Panels & Windows chapter for details on
- this type of window.) If the window is already opened, but is partially or
- wholly covered by other windows, it will be moved to the front. If the window
- is opened on another screen, it will be closed and reopened on the screen on
- which the summoning window is opened.
-
- This window provides a convenient method by which you may enter character not
- directly available from the keyboard, or characters for which you may not
- remember the keystrokes, into your documents.
-
- Refresh
-
- This menu item causes Luminus to do a total refresh of the currently active
- window. Its border, gadgets, status line and other miscellaneous items, as
- well as the actual display, are completely redrawn. This item can come in
- handy if one of your windows is graphically damaged, and the Amiga's display
- refresh routines or Luminus' internal refresh routines don't catch it.
-
- Jump screen...
-
- This menu item brings up a scrolling list requester with all the available,
- open public screens. From this list you may select a public screen on which
- you wish the current window to be reopened. If you click the 'Move all
- windows' checkbox so it is checked, then all windows, no matter what screen,
- will be reopened on the desired screen.
-
- Selecting this item while holding either Shift key will cause the current
- window to reopen on the next screen in the public screen list, whichever that
- may be. No requester is presented.
-
- To front
-
- This item will move the current window in front of all other windows on the
- screen. It is available for when the document's window doesn't have a depth
- gadget (which is the default) or it is obscured.
-
- To back
-
- This item will move the current window behind all other windows on the screen,
- except backdrop windows (see your AmigaDOS manual for information on backdrop
- windows). It is available for when the document's window doesn't have a depth
- gadget (which is the default) or it is obscured.
-
- Zoom window
-
- Selecting this menu item causes the window to behave as if its zoom gadget had
- been selected, switching between its zoomed size and position and its regular
- size and position. It is available for when the document's window doesn't
- have a zoom gadget (as when the window is rendered borderless) or it is
- obscured.
-
- Settings Menu
-
- Create icons?
-
- This item's state determines whether document's will be saved with icons or
- not. It is a global flag and affects all documents opened in this invocation
- of Luminus.
-
- Use AppIcon?
-
- This item's state determines whether Luminus' AppIcon will be presented on the
- Workbench window or not. It is a global flag and affects all documents opened
- in this invocation of Luminus. See the Operations chapter form more infor-
- mation on the behavior of Luminus's AppIcon.
-
- Use preset color
-
- This sub-menu allows you to choose from predefined color sets. These color
- sets are only available if you are using a custom screen in Luminus, and will
- only affect that screen. This entire sub-menu is disabled if no custom screen
- is being used.
-
- A2024
- Selecting this sub-item changes the custom screen colors to a color set
- optimized for the A2024 monitor. This color set assumes an 8-color
- screen. A screen of fewer colors will not look right, and a screen of
- more colors will only have the first 16 changed.
-
- Amiga
- Selecting this sub-item changes the custom screen colors to the standard
- Amiga-style colors. This color set assumes an 8-color screen. A screen
- of fewer colors will not look right, and a screen of more colors will
- only have the first 16 changed.
-
- ANSI
- Selecting this sub-item changes the custom screen colors to the standard
- ANSI colors. This color set assumes a 16-color screen. A screen of
- fewer colors will not look right, and a screen of more colors will only
- have the first 16 changed.
-
- EGA
- Selecting this sub-item changes the custom screen colors to the standard
- EGA colors. This color set assumes a 16-color screen. A screen of fewer
- colors will not look right, and a screen of more colors will only have
- the first 16 changed.
-
- From Workbench
- Selecting this sub-item grabs the current colors from the Workbench
- screen and plugs them into the custom screen.
-
- Display...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the Display Settings panel, from which you
- can edit aspects of Luminus regarding the display, such as screen mode, dim-
- ensions, depth, and other things. See the Display Settings Panel under
- Control Panels in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- If the screen mode, dimensions, depth, or font are changed in the panel,
- Luminus will attempt to close and re-open its custom screen. Any document
- windows on this screen are temporarily closed, and after the screen is re-
- opened, Luminus will attempt to re-open those windows. Make sure any visitor
- windows are closed.
-
- Operations...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the Operations Settings panel, from which
- you can edit the operational settings of the program. See the Operations
- Settings Panel under Control Panels in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- File...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the File Settings panel, from which you can
- edit the file settings of the program. See the File Settings Panel under
- Control Panels in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- Document...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the Document Settings panel, from which you
- can edit the document settings of the program. See the Document Settings
- Panel under Control Panels in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- Boxes & lines...
-
- Selecting this menu item brings up the Box & Line Settings panel, from which
- you can edit the box and line settings of the program. See the Box & Line
- Settings Panel under Control Panels in the Control Panels & Windows chapter.
-
- Restore defaults
-
- This menu item tells Luminus to disregard the currently loaded settings and
- revert to its internal defaults. These are the same defaults used if no
- settings file is located upon program start-up.
-
- Save settings
-
- Selecting this menu item saves the current settings to disk. The settings
- file will be saved in the directory from which it was loaded. If the file
- wasn't loaded, it will be saved into the program's directory. If the file
- can't be saved there, it will saved in the ENVARC: and ENV: directories.
-
- Save settings as...
-
- This menu item prompts for a path and file name for the settings file, and
- saves the current settings to disk.
-
- Load settings...
-
- This menu item brings up an ASL requester for you to select a settings file to
- be loaded.
-
- Tools Menu
-
- Shell window...
-
- Selecting this menu item causes Luminus to attempt to bring up a shell window,
- using the Console Specification. The Console Specification may be changed in
- the Operations Settings Panel.
-
- Execute script...
-
- This menu item brings up a string requester in which you input the name of the
- AmigaDOS script to be executed. If no path is entered, the S: directory is
- assumed.
-
- ARexx script...
-
- This menu item brings up a string requester in which you input the name of the
- ARexx script to be executed. If no path is entered, the REXX: directory is
- assumed.
-
- Control Panels & Windows
-
- The purpose of this chapter is to explain the operation of various windows
- that may pop up during certain activities in Luminus. The general purpose of
- these windows is examined, followed by a description of each window's gadgets
- and their purpose. There are three different types of windows in Luminus, not
- counting document windows.
-
- The first kind are called interactive support windows. What this means is
- that, unlike other windows, this window does not block input into the document
- window from which it was summoned, but remains open in conjunction with all
- document windows, and reflects the current settings of the active document.
- As the active document is changed, usually by clicking in its window, all
- interactive support windows are updated to reflect the settings of that newly
- active document. Interactive support windows' positions are saved in the
- settings file.
-
- The second type of window is the control panel. These are windows that open
- up, usually with several gadgets, that allow you to change, control, and in
- some cases, 'fine-tune' the action that you have chosen. Input to the
- document window that summoned the control panel is blocked until the window is
- closed and action is taken or cancelled.
-
- The final type of window is the requester, of which there are two sub-types.
- The first is the standard informational/query requester. These are basically
- the same as standard Intuition requesters. They provide you with some
- (essential) information or prompt you for a response, and have one or more
- button gadgets at the bottom of the window to respond to the query. The
- second sub-type are specialized, each kind asking for information that cannot
- be gathered using a few sentences and some buttons. These are discussed in
- detail below.
-
- Interactive support windows
-
- Attributes Window
-
- The Attributes window allows you to control current drawing colors and
- attributes as an alternative to using the menu system. The following gadgets
- are available in the Attributes window:
-
- Foreground
- This palette gadget reflects the current foreground color of the active
- document. Clicking on a color will change the active foreground color of that
- document to the color chosen. This gadget only allows access to the first
- eight colors of the screen palette. This is due the way ANSI foreground
- colors are displayed. To access the bright equivalents, simply click the Bold
- gadget so it is checked.
-
- Background
- This palette gadget reflects the current background color of the active
- document. Clicking on a color will change the active background color of that
- document to the color chosen. This gadget only allows access to the first
- eight colors of the screen palette. This is due to the fact that the ANSI
- specification only supports the eight dark colors for background display.
-
- Cycle?
- A checkbox gadget labelled 'Cycle?' is located beneath each palette gadget.
- Each corresponds to the color cycling facility of the fore/background colors.
- If the box is checked, color cycling is enabled. Enabling color cycling
- causes Luminus to move through the available spectrum of colors, circling back
- around to the beginning when the end is reached. Colors are cycled during
- text-entry, whether interactive or ARexx-induced, during attribute drawing,
- and is respected by the box and line drawing routines.
-
- Plain
- Pressing this button causes the currently set attributes to be cleared. It is
- basically provided as a convenience to having to deselect each attribute.
-
- Bold/Italics/Underline/Blink/Inverse/Concealed
- These checkboxes control the various attributes available in the ANSI
- specification for text display. A checked box indicates an active attribute.
-
- NOTE Some attributes may not be displayable on some computers. For
- instance, the ANSI blinking attribute cannot be displayed on the
- Amiga, while underline and italics are normally not displayed on
- MS-DOS machine standard text displays.
-
- Switches window
-
- The Switches window allows you to control current editing and drawing modes,
- line types and cursor movement as an alternative to using the menu system.
- The following gadgets are available in the Switches window:
-
- Edit mode
- This cycle gadget allows you to choose from the available editing modes, which
- are currently Page and Animation. Switching from Animation mode to Page mode
- can ruin a perfectly good animation, so your choice is verified before any
- real action is taken. Please see the discussion of Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.
-
- Draw mode
- This cycle gadget allows you to choose from the available drawing modes, which
- are currently Text and Attribute. Please see the discussion of Drawing Modes
- in the Operations chapter.
-
- Line type
- This cycle gadget allows you to choose from the available line types. Please
- see the discussion of Line Types in the Operations chapter.
-
- Vertical
- This cycle gadget selects the vertical direction the cursor will move during
- text entry. Please see the discussion of Cursor Directioning in the
- Operations chapter.
-
- Horizontal
- This cycle gadget selects the horizontal direction the cursor will move during
- text entry. Please see the discussion of Cursor Directioning in the
- Operations chapter.
-
- Change fgnd.
- This checkbox gadget's state determines whether foreground colors will be
- affected during Attribute mode drawing. Please see the discussion of
- Attribute Mode under Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.
-
- Change bgnd.
- This checkbox gadget's state determines whether background colors will be
- affected during Attribute mode drawing. Please see the discussion of
- Attribute Mode under Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.
-
- Change attr.
- This checkbox gadget's state determines whether character attributes will be
- affected during Attribute mode drawing. Please see the discussion of
- Attribute Mode under Editing Modes in the Operations chapter.
-
- Character Set window
-
- The Character Set window allows you to view and access the entire character
- set for the font you have chosen for text editing. This font is distinctly
- difference from the screen font. Program-related stuff is displayed in the
- screen font, while the actual document text is displayed in the text font,
- which is shown here.
-
- Since many of the characters in a font are not accessible from the keyboard,
- this window allows you to simply click on one of those characters and insert
- it in the document at the cursor position. A scroll bar is located at the far
- right of the window, allowing you to peruse the available characters.
-
- At the far left, there is a gap between the window's edge and the first column
- of characters. This space is provided for the current row marker. This
- marker is a dark red (in the ANSI color set) box positioned on the current
- row. Note that the current row is an absolute position, and may not be
- visible if the scroll bar is used to scroll through the character set.
- Clicking the mouse in the area to the left of a row of characters will cause
- that to become the current row.
-
- From any active document window, the eight characters in the current row may
- be accessed by pressing any of the functions keys, F1 through F8. Pressing
- function keys F9 or F10 will decrement or increment, respectively, the current
- row.
-
- Control Panels
-
- Save Panel
-
- This panel allows you to specify the save parameters of a file before actually
- saving it.
-
- Save type
- This cycle gadget allows you to change the type of file that will be saved.
- The choices available are ANSI, IFF, and ASCII. Note that the ASCII type is
- not available when saving a file in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- The ANSI type indicates that Luminus will save the file in standard ASCII
- format with embedded ANSI codes for color, cursor movement, etc., as appro-
- priate.
-
- The IFF type indicates that the file will be saved in IFF format, as specified
- by (the late) Commodore and Electronic Arts. There are two different IFF
- formats that Luminus understands. See the 'IFF type' gadget below for more
- details.
-
- The ASCII type indicates that the file will be saved in standard ASCII format.
- ANSI codes will not be saved with the file. Again, this type is not available
- in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- IFF type
- This cycle gadget allows you to choose from the IFF formats that Luminus
- understands. The IFF formats currently supported are FTXT CHRS and ANSI CEL.
- See the Miscellaneous chapter for a further discussion of the IFF formats.
-
- Line length
- Specifies the maximum line length of a single line. Luminus will not exceed
- this value when saving to the file. Some BBS software only allow a message's
- lines to be a certain length, and since each character of an ANSI code
- generally counts toward this, Luminus will start a new line if the ANSI code
- would extend beyond this value. This prevents ANSI codes from being obliter-
- ated by a BBS's display routines. This gadget is ghosted (not available) in
- IFF save mode.
-
- Video preparation
- You may want the screen cleared before your animation in drawn, or the cursor
- to be placed at the top-left corner of the screen. This gadget allows you to
- pick from certain types of codes that may be saved with your file before the
- actual animation.
-
- The video prep 'None' indicates that no codes should be saved first. The v.p.
- 'Home' will place a code that positions the cursor at the top-left corner
- ('home' position). The v.p. 'Clear screen' places a clear screen code before
- the animation.
-
- End-of-line type
- Since Amigas, DOS machines, Macintoshes and UN*X machines handle newlines
- differently, you can indicate that type of newline that will be saved in the
- file. The available types are 'CR only', 'CR + LF', and 'LF only'.
-
- Use alt. escape?
- This checkbox indicates whether you would like ANSI codes, which begin with
- an escape character (ASCII code 27), saved with an alternate escape character,
- which some BBS software use instead of the escape character. The string
- gadget next to the checkbox is where you indicate the alternate escape char-
- acter. These gadgets are only available in ANSI save mode.
-
- Filter solid spaces?
- This checkbox tells Luminus whether or not to treat solid spaces (ASCII code
- 160) as normal spaces or leave them as they are.
-
- Save
- This button tells Luminus that you are satisfied with the current settings and
- want to proceed with the save operation.
-
- Cancel
- This button tells Luminus that you've changed your mind and don't want to save
- the file after all. Clicking on the window's close gadget is equivalent to
- clicking the Cancel button.
-
- Edit Cel Panel
-
- This panel allows you to edit individual aspects of a cel. It provides finer
- control and the ability to edit existing cels in an animation sequence. Note
- that when this window is first summoned, the cel being editing is the topmost
- available cel in the animation sequence at that cursor position. There may be
- cels hidden beneath it. See the description below of the Prev and Next
- buttons for information on how to get to those cels.
-
- This panel is only available in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- Character
- This string gadget shows the character at the current position. This gadget's
- character is shown in the screen font, as opposed to the text font, so the
- character may look different. Next to the string gadget is a display box that
- shows the actual character, given colors and attributes in the text font.
-
- Foreground
- Background
- These two palette gadgets allow you to change the foreground and background
- colors of the cel.
-
- Plain
- Bold
- Italics
- Underline
- Blink
- Inverse
- Concealed
- The Plain button and all the attribute checkboxes here are the same func-
- tionally as the corresponding gadgets in the Attributes interactive support
- window. (See that window's description above for more details.)
-
- Change
- When you edit the colors and attributes of the cel in this window, you are
- only affecting a copy of the cel contents. Clicking on this button makes the
- changes take effect.
-
- Prev
- Next
- Clicking on one of these two buttons causes Luminus to search further through
- the animation sequence for underlying cels at the cursor position. Next moves
- deeper into the layer, Prev shallower.
-
- Done
- Clicking on this button tells Luminus that you are done editing cels. The
- window will close, and any changes made to the animation will take effect.
-
- Text Panel
-
- This panel window comes up when you select 'Text...' from the Text/Graphics
- menu. It allows you to input one or more lines of text that may be justified
- in some manner and/or outlined. The following sections provide detail on the
- Text panel's gadgets.
-
- Text
- This scrolling list gadget allows you to enter the text that you wish to have
- displayed. Click on any line of text to edit it. When the panel is first
- opened, there will be no text in this list. You can enter new text by click-
- ing on the 'Add' gadget (see below).
-
- The string input gadget at the bottom of the list is where you actually enter
- the text. Press Enter when you are finished with that line, and the text will
- be placed in the list.
-
- Add
- Clicking on this button creates a new blank line at the bottom of the list of
- text and activates the string gadget.
-
- Delete
- Clicking this button causes the currently selected line of text to be deleted
- from the list. Once deleted, the test is irretrievably gone. If this list is
- empty, this button will be ghosted.
-
- Clear
- Clicking on this button will clear the entire list of text. You will be asked
- to confirm this, since once the text is gone, you can't get it back (except by
- retyping all of it!).
-
- Line type
- This cycle gadget allows you to select the type of line that you would like to
- have surrounding your text. See Line Types in the Operations chapter for more
- detail on the available line types. If you don't want a line, click this
- gadget 'til it reads 'None'.
-
- Bevel
- If you would like the line around your text to have a bevelled appearance, use
- this cycle gadget to select the bevel type. The two types available are
- 'Raised' and 'Recessed'. If you want a normal line, select a bevel type of
- 'None'. This gadget is ghosted if the line type is set to 'None'.
-
- Justification
- If you would like your text justified in the document, use this cycle gadget
- to specify the type of justification. The available types are 'None', 'Left',
- 'Center', and 'Right'. All the justification types obey the margin values on
- the Left and Right Margin gadgets (discussed below), except for 'None', which
- places the text at the current cursor position.
-
- Left margin
- Right margin
- These two integer gadgets let you specify the margin values to use when using
- justification. They default to the left and right edges of the document, but
- you can change them to have text placed according to different settings. The
- margin values are bounds-checked against the document, and the left margin
- cannot exceed the right margin value.
-
- For example, you have an ANSI image that takes up the left side of an
- 80-column wide document. If you want your text centered on the right hand
- side, you would set the justification to 'Center' and the margins to 41 for
- the left, and 80 for the right.
-
- These gadgets are ghosted if the justification is set to 'None'.
-
- Okay
- When you click this button, Luminus will first check to see that the text you
- specified, taking into account line type, justification and margin values,
- will fit into the visible portion of the document. (The 'visible portion' is
- the total document size, not the part that is only displayed in the window.
- Luminus preserves cels that extend beyond the boundaries of the document's
- specified width and height.) If your specified text would go beyond the
- boundaries, you have the option of returning to the Text panel to make changes
- or to just tell Luminus to put it in the document anyway. This button is
- ghosted if the text list is empty.
-
- Cancel
- Clicking this button will abort the Text panel and return you to your document
- with no changes made.
-
- Display Settings Panel
-
- This panel deals with the basic Intuition display aspects of Luminus, such as
- screenmode, colors, etc. Each of the gadgets used in this panel are discussed
- below.
-
- Screenmode list
- This scrolling list gadget presents the available screenmodes with which you
- may open a custom screen. Simply click on the desired mode for the custom
- screen. The standard dimensions for that mode will be plugged into the Width,
- Height and Depth gadgets (discussed below). The selected screenmode is only
- valid if the Custom Screen? checkbox is checked.
-
- Custom screen?
- This checkbox determines whether or not Luminus will attempt to open a custom
- screen of type PUBLICSCREEN upon start-up. All documents, unless otherwise
- specified, will open on this screen. This is the default behavior.
-
- Width
- Height
- Depth
- These two integer gadgets and slider gadget control the width, height and
- depth of the custom screen. The width and height are bounds-checked with the
- dimensions in the display database. These gadgets are ghosted if Custom
- screen? is not checked.
-
- Shanghai windows?
- Pop public screen?
- These two checkboxes apply to the public screen attributes of the custom
- screen. They control the global public screen flags in Intuition. Shanghai
- windows?, if checked, tells Intuition that the default public screen will grab
- any windows that don't have a specific screen destination and have them open
- on itself. Pop public screen?, if checked, tells Intuition that if any window
- opens up on the default public screen, that it should move itself to the front
- of the display. These gadgets are ghosted if Custom screen? is not checked.
-
- Name
- This string gadget specifies the name of the custom public screen which
- Luminus will attempt to open. This name is used as identification for other
- windows, possibly from other programs, so they may open on it. This gadget is
- ghosted if Custom screen? is not checked.
-
- Text font
- This display gadget shows the currently selected text display font, which is
- used in all of Luminus' document windows. The accompanying button, when
- clicked, will bring up the ASL font requester, from which you may choose a new
- font. This font must be a monospaced font. The font type is checked upon
- return from the font requester, and if a proportional font is selected, it
- will be ignored, and the old font will remain in place.
-
- Screen font
- This display gadget shows the currently selected screen font, which will be
- used on the custom screen which Luminus will attempt to open, if specified.
- The accompanying button, when clicked, will bring up the ASL font requester,
- from which you may choose a new font. This setting is ignored if Custom
- screen? is not checked.
-
- Public screen
- This string gadget lets you specify the name of the public screen on which
- Luminus will attempt to open its documents. This can be overridden (see New
- and Open in the Menus chapter).
-
- Colors
- This set of gadgets affects the color settings of the custom screen as well as
- the pens that will be used when drawing certain things, such as the cursor,
- blocked text and the status line.
-
- The first gadget is a cycle gadget. This tells what item will be affected by
- any color changes. The first item, 'None', indicates that no item will be
- changed, and using the accompanying palette gadget and red, green and blue
- slider will only affect the palette. The subsequent items are 'Status line
- foreground', 'Status line background', 'Block foreground' and 'Block back-
- ground'. Clicking to one of these items changes the palette gadget and
- sliders to reflect that setting's current pen.
-
- Selecting a color from the palette gadget makes that color available for
- editing with the sliders. If the cycle gadget indicates anything other than
- 'None', the color selected becomes the current pen for that setting as well.
-
- The sliders allow you to change the red, green and blue content of a color.
- Changes made are immediately apparent, but don't take effect unless the 'Use'
- button is selected.
-
- Use
- When you click this button, Luminus checks to see if the screenmode, width,
- height, depth or screen font have changed. If any of them differ from the
- current setting, Luminus will close its custom screen (if opened), and attempt
- to reopen it (if set). Should the text font differ from the current setting,
- all document windows will be immediately refreshed to reflect the new font.
-
- Cancel
- Clicking this button will tell Luminus to ignore any and all changes made to
- the display settings in the Display Settings panel, and will exit out of the
- panel.
-
- Operations Settings Panel
-
- This panel lets you set the options regarding the general operations of
- Luminus.
-
- ARexx port base name
- This string gadget allows you to enter the base name that will be used to name
- the ARexx port of a document. This name is suffixed with a numeric value to
- give a unique derived port name The default base name is 'LUMINUS'.
-
- Status line format
- This gadget contains a string with printf()-style formatting codes which
- control how the status line is displayed. Using these codes, you can custom-
- ize the status line to look whichever way that floats your boat. The follow-
- ing codes are supported.
-
- Code Meaning
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- %B Block mode indicator ('Block' or nothing)
- %c Column number
- %C Caps Lock indicator ('Caps' or nothing)
- %D Drawing mode indicator (verbose text; this code also reflects
- the current colors and text style)
- %E Editing mode indicator (verbose text)
- %f Filename of document
- %F Complete path and filename of document
- %H Horizontal direction indicator (verbose text)
- %I Insert mode indicator ('Ins' or nothing)
- %l Current line
- %L Total number of cels in document
- %m modified flag ('*' (asterisk) or ' ' (space) for modified or
- not, respectively)
- %n Current cel or page number (this code's value depends on the
- current editing mode of the document)
- %N Num Lock indicator ('Num' or nothing; see the Operations
- chapter for information on the NumLock key)
- %P ARexx port name of document
- %V Vertical direction indicator (verbose text)
- %Y Line type indicator (verbose text)
-
- These codes can be combined with regular text for a completely custom-made
- status line.
-
- Clipboard unit
- This is the clipboard unit number that each document will use by default when
- accessing the Clipboard.
-
- Console specification
- This string gadget allows you to specify the attributes of any console window
- that might be opened up, such as selecting Shell window from the Tools menu.
- Please refer to your AmigaDOS manual for more information on the console.
-
- Use AppIcon?
- Having this checkbox checked tells Luminus to place its AppIcon on the
- Workbench screen. You can use the AppIcon to easily load documents or return
- to Luminus without having to flip through screens. Please see AppIcon,
- AppWindows & AppMenuItem in the Operations chapter.
-
- Show status line?
- This checkbox determines whether Luminus' documents will display a status line
- in their windows by default. This behavior can be controlled in each indivi-
- dual document as well.
-
- Status line at top?
- This checkbox determines whether the status line (if displayed) will be at the
- top or bottom of the window. This is a global flag and applies to all
- document windows.
-
- Open attributes window?
- Open switches window?
- Open character set window?
- These three checkboxes tell Luminus whether or not to open the respective
- interactive support windows upon start-up. See Interactive Support Windows
- above.
-
- Beep on error?
- This checkbox tells Luminus to execute a DisplayBeep() (an Intuition function
- that flashes the screen and sounds a (pitiful) tone) when an error occurs.
-
- Ask before quitting?
- This checkbox tells Luminus whether or not to confirm a quit action. This
- flags only applies when quitting using the Quit menu item. If a document is
- closed using the Close item, and it's the last document, Luminus will shut
- down automagically without confirmation.
-
- Use
- Clicking this button puts the current display settings into effect.
-
- Cancel
- Clicking this button, on the other hand, exits this panel and puts all changed
- settings into the bit-bucket (it ignores them).
-
- Document Settings Panel
-
- This control panel lets you control the settings that apply to Luminus'
- documents.
-
- Width
- Height
- These two integer gadgets let you specify the maximum displayable dimensions
- of your documents. These settings only affect what Luminus will display in
- the document's window. Cels that extend beyond these boundaries are
- preserved.
-
- Pages
- This is the default number of pages a document will support upon initial open.
- The actual number of pages can be changed from the Page menu. This setting
- only applies in Page Editing Mode, since animation sequences do not have
- pages.
-
- Foreground/Background
- Cycle?
- The cycle gadget of this group of gadgets controls which (foreground or back-
- ground) will be affected by the palette gadget and Cycle? checkbox. Choose a
- color from the palette gadget to make that color current for the setting shown
- in the cycle gadget. Click on the checkbox to set or unset default color
- cycling for the appropriate setting.
-
- Edit mode
- This cycle gadget sets the default editing mode of each document upon initial
- open. The currently available modes are 'Page' and 'Animation'. The default
- is 'Animation'.
-
- Draw mode
- This cycle gadget sets the default drawing mode of each document upon initial
- open. The currently available modes are 'Text' and 'Attribute'. The default
- is 'Text'.
-
- Vertical direction
- Horizontal direction
- These two cycle gadgets set the default vertical and horizontal cursor
- movement upon initial open. You can choose from 'None', 'Up' and 'Down' for
- vertical, and 'None', 'Left' and 'Right' for horizontal. The defaults are
- 'None' for vertical and 'Right' for horizontal.
-
- Borderless?
- This checkbox determines whether Luminus' document windows will be opened with
- a standard Intuition window border, complete with close gadget; title/drag
- bar; zoom, depth and sizing gadgets; and vertical and horizontal scrollers.
- The default is a borderless window.
-
- Destructive backspace?
- This setting determines whether the backspace key, when pressed, will delete
- the cel onto which it moves. See the Operation chapter for information on the
- behavior of 'editing keys'.
-
- Show ruler?
- This setting determines whether the Ruler will be displayed by default in the
- documents' windows. The ruler is a pair of lines that intersect at the mouse
- pointer. By default, the ruler is not shown.
-
- Show ruler hashes?
- This setting determines whether the Ruler (if displayed) will have hash marks
- drawn perpendicular to its edges at character width/height intervals. The
- hash marks are centered on the character position. By default, hash marks are
- not shown in the 68000/010 version, and are shown in the 68020+ versions.
-
- Show ruler numbers?
- This setting determines whether the Ruler (if displayed with hash marks on)
- will have position numbers displayed adjacent to the hash marks. The numbers
- are displayed either to the left or above the hash marks, as appropriate. By
- default, numbers are not shown in the 68000/010 version, and are shown in the
- 68020+ versions.
-
- Interval
- This setting controls the interval at which the Ruler's numbers (if shown) are
- drawn. The numbers will start at this number, and are displayed in this inc-
- rement. For example, a setting of 10 will display every tenth ruler number
- starting at 10. The default value is 5.
-
- Use
- Clicking this button enacts the settings.
-
- Cancel
- Clicking this button ignores any changed settings in this panel and returns
- you to the document.
-
- File Settings Panel
-
- This control panel affects the settings concerning how Luminus saves and loads
- its files.
-
- Save type
- This cycle gadget allows you to set the type of file which will be saved when
- you select Save or Save as from the Project menu. The currently available
- types are 'ANSI' and 'IFF'. The default is 'ANSI'.
-
- IFF type
- If you elect to save file as type IFF, this cycle gadget lets you determine
- which IFF format will be used. The available formats are ANSI CEL, which is a
- proprietary IFF format Luminus uses, or FTXT CHRS, which most IFF-compliant
- word processors, as well as the Amiga's standard clipboard, understand.
-
- Line length
- This integer gadget determines the maximum length of a saved line before a
- CR(/LF) is appended. This allows Luminus to save documents so that lines will
- not extend beyond some BBS software's maximum line lengths.
-
- Video preparation
- This cycle gadget lets you choose the type of video preparation that will
- precede your file when it is saved. The available types are 'None', 'Home
- cursor', and 'Clear screen'. 'None' will not put anything before your data,
- obviously. 'Home' will put an ANSI code to place the cursor at the top left
- corner of the screen. 'Clear' will place in ANSI code that will clear the
- screen before the file is drawn.
-
- End-of-line type
- This cycle gadget allows you to choose the type of EOL that will be saved with
- your documents. The avail able types are 'CR only', 'LF only', and 'CR + LF'.
- The default is 'CR + LF'.
-
- Use alt. escape?
- Some BBS software, instead of using the standard escape character (ASCII code
- 27), use an alternate character, such as '@' or '`', for their ANSI escape
- sequences. Checking this box tells Luminus to use an alternate character when
- saving files. The string gadget next to it is where you input the character
- to use.
-
- Filter solid spaces?
- Checking this checkbox tells Luminus to convert incoming or outgoing solid,
- or "hard", spaces (ASCII code 160) to normal spaces.
-
- Prompt on save?
- Checking this gadget sets the flag that causes the Save panel (see above) to
- pop up before a file is saved. This allows you to change the save attributes
- for each file without having to change the defaults.
-
- Filter stray escapes?
- ANSI codes, by definition, always begin with the character sequence "esc[",
- where 'esc' stands for the ASCII escape character, code 27. If Luminus should
- encounter an "stray" escape character, i.e., one not belonging to a valid ANSI
- sequence, this flag determines how it handles them. If the flag is on, these
- escapes will be filtered out of the file. If it is off, they will remain as
- part of the file, but will never be displayed.
-
- I/O Buffer size
- This integer gadget allows you to set the size of the buffer Luminus will use
- for input and output. This buffer speeds disk access and generally makes
- loading and saving files quicker. As a rule of thumb, the larger the buffer,
- the quicker the file access; but you must be careful not to make the buffer
- too large. Note that this value is in kilobytes (KB), not bytes.
-
- Timed backups
- Interval
- These two gadgets affect whether Luminus will execute a timed backup during
- your editing sessions. The checkbox turns the feature on, and the integer
- gadget sets the amount of time (in minutes) that must pass before Luminus does
- an automatic backup.
-
- Directory
- This is the directory in which Luminus will saved your backed up files. This
- directory applies to timed backups (above) as well as file backups (below).
- If this is blank, the file's current directory is assumed.
-
- Extension
- This is the extension that will be appended to any files that Luminus backs
- up, either via timed backup or through the Save original? flag (below). You
- do not have to add a period at the beginning of the extension; this will be
- done for you. If this is blank, no extension is added.
-
- For example, Luminus backs up the file 'Logon.ansi', which you are editing.
- You have the backup extension set at "backup". The file will be saved into
- the backup directory as 'Logon.ansi.backup'.
-
- NOTE Luminus will attempt to handle backups intelligently. If the backup
- directory AND extension are both blank, the resulting path and
- filename would overwrite the original file, which defeats the
- purpose of the backup. So if this case is detected, Luminus will
- add just the '.' (period) to the end of the filename to create a
- (possibly) unique filename, preventing an overwrite. This is not
- possible with a filename that is the maximum length AmigaDOS allows.
-
- Save original?
- Setting this flags tells Luminus to preserve the original file when doing a
- normal Save (Save as is not affected, since it allows you to explicitly
- overwrite a file). The file will be backed up into the specified directory,
- using the specified extension.
-
- Use
- Click this button to make the changes you've made in this panel take effect.
-
- Cancel
- Clicking on this button aborts the panel and ignores any changes made therein.
-
- Box & Line Settings Panel
-
- This panel controls the settings concerning boxes and lines used in Luminus.
-
- Line type
- This cycle gadget allows you to set the default line type that will be used by
- each document.
-
- Box codes
- These are the unlabeled boxes that take up most of the panel's real estate.
- Each box corresponds to a part of a whole box, like so:
-
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
- | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 |
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
-
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
- | 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
-
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
- | 8 | | 9 | | 10 | | 11 |
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
-
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
- | 12 | | 13 | | 14 | | 15 |
- +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
-
- These gadgets allow you to enter the specific characters to use for each of
- the box parts when drawing a box using the Custom line type. The box numbers
- are as follows:
-
- Number Box part type
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- 1 Upper-left corner
- 2 Upper cross-beam
- 3 Upper intersection
- 4 Upper-right corner
- 5 Left cross-beam
- 6 Middle vertical cross-beam
- 7 Right cross-beam
- 8 Left intersection
- 9 Middle horizontal cross-beam
- 10 Middle intersection
- 11 Right intersection
- 12 Lower-left corner
- 13 Lower cross-beam
- 14 Lower intersection
- 15 Lower-right corner
-
- Use
- Clicking on this button makes any changes made in this panel take effect.
-
- Cancel
- Click this button to abort the panel and ignore any changes made in it.
-
- Requesters
-
- Select Public Screen
-
- This requester presents you with a scrolling list of all the currently opened
- public screens. From this list you may select a screen name and click the Use
- button, or double-click the desired screen name. Selecting Cancel or the
- window's close gadget backs out of the requester with no action being taken.
-
- If the Select Public Screen requester is called as a result of a screen jump
- request, an additional gadget is available. This is the Move all windows
- gadget. If this checkbox is checked when a public screen is chosen, then all
- windows, not just the initiating window, will be affected. This gadget is not
- available if the requester is called from a New or Open Document request.
-
- Choose Color
-
- This requester presents you with a palette gadget from which to choose the
- desired color, such as changing the foreground or background color. Click
- Use to make the change take effect, Cancel to back out.
-
- String/Integer Input
-
- This requester presents a string or integer gadget, with appropriate prompt-
- ing, for user input. Clicking the Use button or pressing carriage return from
- the gadget effect the change, which clicking the close gadget or the Cancel
- button back out with no action taken.
-
- ARexx
-
- This chapter discusses the ARexxTM commands available to you via Luminus'
- ARexx interface.
-
- Each document in Luminus has its own ARexx port, and may receive any command,
- including commands that affect global settings. The port name for any
- document can be found by selecting the About item in the Project menu.
-
- Some commands return results in the ARexx variable result, so you must be sure
- to set OPTIONS RESULTS in your scripts. If you do not, you will get an
- OPTIONS_RESULTS_NOT_SET returned in rc, and you don't want that, now do you?
-
- Some command are also only available in certain editing or drawing modes, or
- when a block is selected, so please be sure to read the command's description.
- Commands used while not in a certain mode usually return
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE in rc.
-
- Command Conventions
-
- The following convention is used for each ARexx command discussed in this
- chapter:
-
- Command
-
- Synopsis Arguments and options for the command. The command name is shown
- first, followed by any required and/or optional parameters.
- Parameters in all lower-case, such as
-
- SaveSettings file
-
- are substituted with something, like a filename. Some parameters
- can be supplied multiple times, such as filenames in the Open
- command. These parameters are followed by ellipses, like so:
-
- Open file...
-
- If the parameter has square brackets around it, like this
-
- Save [file]
-
- then it is optional. Parameter with no brackets, like the first
- two above, are required, and must be supplied for the command to
- work as documented. Keywords, which must be supplied as typed
- (except for case), are shown in all capitals, like this:
-
- Ruler ON|OFF
-
- Also, the vertical bar that separates ON and OFF in the above
- command means that you can choose from any of the items there for
- that parameter. So the above command could be Ruler ON, or Ruler
- OFF. Simple, eh?
-
- Purpose A brief description of the command.
-
- Description A detailed explanation of the command and its options, with
- examples as necessary. If a command is usable in a certain mode,
- this is discussed here as well. Some commands return results in
- result; the format is also described here.
-
- See Also One or more references to other ARexx commands or sections in
- the manual for further explanation.
-
- ARexx Commands
-
- Luminus' supported ARexx commands are discussed below.
-
- ActivateWindow
-
- Synopsis ActivateWindow
-
- Purpose Make this document's window active.
-
- Description This command causes the window associated with the document from
- whose ARexx port this command is received to become the input
- focus, or active window.
-
- See Also None
-
- AtCursor
-
- Synopsis AtCursor
-
- Purpose Grab the attributes at the current cursor position.
-
- Description AtCursor grabs the foreground and background colors and character
- attributes at the cursor position. This command obeys the
- current Attribute Mode flags, so if a particular flag is not set,
- such as foreground color, that attribute will be ignored. This
- way you can grab only the attributes you want.
-
- See Also AttrMode
-
- Attribute
-
- Synopsis Attribute [PLAIN] [BOLD] [ITALICS] [UNDERLINE] [BLINK] [INVERSE]
- [CONCEALED]
-
- Purpose Inquire about or change the current attributes.
-
- Description Specify any of the parameters to toggle that state of that
- attribute. The PLAIN parameter is a switch (as opposed to the
- others, which are toggles). Using plain in combination with the
- other parameters allows you to completely reset the attributes
- without having to check on their current state and toggle the
- appropriate ones on or off. For example, the current attributes
- are BOLD and UNDERLINE. You want to change them to ITALICS.
- Simply issue the following command:
-
- Attribute PLAIN ITALICS
-
- This will turn off all the attributes, and then turn on italics.
-
- Issuing this command without any of the parameters specified
- returns the currently set attributes as a text string in result.
- For example, if Italics and underlining were active, Attribute
- (with no parameters) would return:
-
- "ITALICS UNDERLINE"
-
- See Also None
-
- AttrMode
-
- Synopsis AttrMode [[NO]FORE[GROUND]] [[NO]BACK[GROUND]] [[NO]ATTR[IBUTE]]
-
- Purpose Change the attribute mode flags.
-
- Description This command sets the Attribute mode flags. These flags affect
- what attributes of cels are affected during Attribute Mode
- Drawing, as well as filtering which attributes are taken upon
- execution of the AtCursor command.
-
- Specifying any of the parameters prefixed with NO shuts that
- attribute off. Otherwise, it is turned on.
-
- AttrMode returns the current Attribute mode flags in result as
- follows:
-
- "foregnd-flag backgnd-flag attr-flag"
-
- where each -flag is either ON or OFF.
-
- See Also DrawMode, AtCursor
-
- BackgroundPen
-
- Synopsis BackgroundPen [pen] [[NO]CYCLE]
-
- Purpose Change the background drawing pen.
-
- Description This command changes the background color used for text and
- drawing. The pen parameter accepts a color register number as
- its argument, starting at pen 0 to the maximum pen usable on the
- screen. If the CYCLE keyword is supplied, the background color
- cycling flag is turned on. NOCYCLE turns it off.
-
- BackgroundPen returns the current background pen and cycle flag
- in result as follows:
-
- "pen-number cycle-flag"
-
- where pen-number is the numeric color register, and cycle-flag
- is either CYCLE or NOCYCLE.
-
- See Also TextPen
-
- BevelBox
-
- Synopsis BevelBox left top width height bevel [line-type [character]]
-
- Purpose Draw a box with a beveled appearance.
-
- Description The first five parameters are required, and specify the dim-
- ensions of the box to be drawn, and the bevel type. Valid bevel
- types are RAISED and RECESSED. The line-type parameter is the
- line type with which to draw the box. Valid line types are
- SINGLE, DOUBLE, SINGLEDOUBLE, DOUBLESINGLE, CUSTOM and SELECT.
- If the SELECT line type is used, you must specify the character
- to use in character.
-
- See Also Box, TextBox
-
- Border
-
- Synopsis Border [ON|OFF]
-
- Purpose Turn on or off the document window's border.
-
- Description This command tells Luminus to open the document's window with or
- without a standard Intuition window border, complete with close
- gadget, title/drag bar, zoom, depth and sizing gadgets, and
- vertical and horizontal scrollers. If the current state of the
- window differs from the desired one, the window will be closed
- and reopened in the requested state. The parameters are quite
- obvious, I hope.
-
- Border returns the current state (ON or OFF) in result.
-
- See Also None
-
- Box
-
- Synopsis Box left top width height [line-type [character]]
-
- Purpose Draw a box.
-
- Description The first four parameters are required, and specify the dim-
- ensions of the box to be drawn. The line-type parameter is the
- line type with which to draw the box. Valid line types are
- SINGLE, DOUBLE, SINGLEDOUBLE, DOUBLESINGLE, CUSTOM and SELECT.
- If the SELECT line type is used, you must specify the character
- to use in character.
-
- See Also BevelBox, TextBox
-
- BoxLineSettings
-
- Synopsis BoxLineSettings
-
- Purpose Bring up the Box & Line Settings panel.
-
- Description Issuing this command brings up the Box & Line Settings panel.
-
- See Also DisplaySettings, OpsSettings, FileSettings, DocumentSettings
-
- ChangeWindow
-
- Synopsis ChangeWindow left top width height
-
- Purpose Change the current window's size and position.
-
- Description This command's parameters any value of zero or greater for left
- or top, and any positive value greater than or equal to 100 for
- width, and 75 for height. The window, if its ultimate size and
- position would extend beyond the screen's boundaries, will first
- be moved and then resized to fit into the screen.
-
- See Also ZoomWindow, UnZoomWindow, MoveWindow, SizeWindow
-
- Clear
-
- Synopsis Clear PAGE|DOCUMENT [FORCE]
-
- Purpose Clear part or all of the current document.
-
- Description This command will clear larger portions of the document than are
- normally handles by Cut, Erase and their ilk. The first para-
- meter can be either PAGE or DOCUMENT. Specifying PAGE (which is
- only available in Page Editing mode), clears the current page.
- If this parameter is used in any other mode, INVALID_PARAMETER is
- returned in rc. If DOCUMENT is specified, the entire document is
- cleared. The second parameter, FORCE, suppressed the 'are you
- sure?' requester that normally comes up.
-
- See Also None
-
- Close
-
- Synopsis Close [FORCE]
-
- Purpose Close the current document.
-
- Description This command tells Luminus to shut the current document's window
- and free all associated memory for that document. The FORCE
- parameter tells Luminus to suppress the requester that would
- appear if you had made changes to the document since its last
- save.
-
- See Also None
-
- CloseAttributes
-
- Synopsis CloseAttributes
-
- Purpose Close the Attributes interactive support window.
-
- Description This command closes the Attributes interactive support window if
- it is open. If it isn't, nothing happens.
-
- See Also OpenAttributes, OpenCharSet, CloseCharSet, OpenSwitches,
- CloseSwitches
-
- CloseCharSet
-
- Synopsis CloseCharSet
-
- Purpose Close the Character Set interactive support window.
-
- Description This command closes the Character Set interactive support window
- if it is open. If it isn't, nothing happens.
-
- See Also OpenAttributes, CloseAttributes, OpenCharSet, OpenSwitches,
- CloseSwitches
-
- CloseSwitches
-
- Synopsis CloseSwitches
-
- Purpose Close the Switches interactive support window.
-
- Description This command closes the Switches interactive support window if it
- is open. If it isn't, nothing happens.
-
- See Also OpenAttributes, CloseAttributes, OpenCharSet, CloseCharSet,
- OpenSwitches
-
- CmdShell
-
- Synopsis CmdShell [console-specification] [STARTUP[=]startup-file]
-
- Purpose Start an AmigaDOS shell process.
-
- Description This command starts a new AmigaDOS shell process. If the
- console-specification is provided, that will be used, otherwise
- the console specification in the Operations Settings panel is
- used. You can specify a start-up file using the STARTUP para-
- meter. If this is not provided, 's:Shell-Startup' is assumed.
-
- See Also None
-
- Column
-
- Synopsis Column INSERT|DELETE
-
- Purpose Insert or delete columns.
-
- Description Using the INSERT switch, you can insert a blank column at the
- cursor position, moving all columns on the right over to the
- right to accommodate the new column. Columns that get moved
- outside the bounds of the document are not lost.
-
- The DELETE switch eliminates the column under the cursor and
- moves everything to the right over to fill its space.
-
- See Also Line
-
- Copy
-
- Synopsis Copy
-
- Purpose Copy blocked text to the clipboard.
-
- Description Copy, as opposed to Cut, grabs the currently blocked text and
- puts it in the clipboard, but does not remove it from the
- document. The block is deselected upon completion of the copy.
- The selected clipboard unit for the current document is used.
-
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if this command is used
- when no block is active.
-
- See Also Cut, Paste, Erase, Delete
-
- CreateIcons
-
- Synopsis CreateIcons [ON|OFF]
-
- Purpose Inquire about or alter the CreateIcons flag.
-
- Description If you specify either the ON or OFF parameter with this command,
- the CreateIcons flag will be changed to that state.
-
- This command returns the current state in result.
-
- See Also None
-
- Cursor
-
- Synopsis Cursor UP|DOWN|LEFT|RIGHT [amount] [SHIFT] [ALT] [CONTROL]
-
- Purpose Move the cursor around.
-
- Description The first parameter specifies the direction in which to move the
- cursor. If the amount parameter is specified, the cursor will be
- moved that many positions in the specified direction. Any of the
- switches, SHIFT, ALT or CONTROL, alter the effects of the cursor
- key just as if you had the appropriate key pressed. See the
- Operations chapter on the effects of qualifier keys on cursor
- movement.
-
- See Also Position
-
- Cut
-
- Synopsis Cut
-
- Purpose Remove blocked text to the clipboard.
-
- Description This command grabs the currently blocked text (cels), puts them
- in the clipboard, and removes them from the document. The
- selected clipboard unit for the current document is used.
-
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if this command is used
- when no block is active.
-
- See Also Copy, Paste, Erase, Delete
-
- Delete
-
- Synopsis Delete
-
- Purpose Deletes a block from the current document.
-
- Description This command acts like Cut, removing blocked text from the
- document, except that it does not copy anything to the clipboard;
- the text is just removed. Note that this command differs from
- Erase only in that it creates a "vacuum" that pulls anything to
- the right of the block in to fill the vacated space, whereas
- Erase leaves empty space where the removed text was previously.
-
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if this command is used
- when no block is active.
-
- See Also Cut, Erase
-
- DeletePage
-
- Synopsis DeletePage [FORCE]
-
- Purpose Remove a page from the document.
-
- Description This command completely removes the current page from the
- document. You will be prompted for confirmation of this. Using
- the FORCE parameter suppresses this requester.
-
- This command is only available in Page Editing Mode. Issuing it
- in any other mode results in a COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE error being
- returned in rc.
-
- See Also NewPage
-
- DisplaySettings
-
- Synopsis DisplaySettings
-
- Purpose Bring up the Display Settings panel.
-
- Description Issuing this command brings up the Display Settings panel.
-
- See Also OpsSettings, FileSettings, DocumentSettings, BoxLineSettings
-
- DocumentSettings
-
- Synopsis DocumentSettings
-
- Purpose Bring up the Document Settings panel.
-
- Description Issuing this command brings up the Document Settings panel.
-
- See Also DisplaySettings, OpsSettings, FileSettings, BoxLineSettings
-
- DrawMode
-
- Synopsis DrawMode [TEXT|ATTR]
-
- Purpose Change the current Drawing Mode.
-
- Description This command changes to the desired Drawing Mode. Currently,
- TEXT and ATTR modes are the only ones available. Future versions
- of Luminus may support additional modes. See the Operations
- chapter for details on each of the Drawing Modes.
-
- DrawMode returns the current Drawing Mode in result.
-
- See Also EditMode
-
- EditCel
-
- Synopsis EditCel [CHAR[ACTER][=]c] [ASCII[=]num] [FORE[GROUND][=]pen]
- [BACK[GROUND][=]pen] [PLAIN] [BOLD] [ITALICS] [UNDERLINE]
- [BLINK] [INVERSE] [CONCEALED]
-
- Purpose Change the parts of a cel.
-
- Description Using this command, you can change the attributes of the cel over
- which the cursor is lying. Underlying cels are not affected.
-
- The CHARACTER parameter lets you specify a new character to place
- in the cel. This is a single character. If you wish to specify
- the character using its ASCII code, use the ASCII parameter
- instead.
-
- The FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND parameters accept color register
- values as their arguments. This is the color register to which
- you wish to change the foreground or background color.
-
- The rest of the parameters affect the text attributes of the
- cel's character. The PLAIN parameter is a switch. Specifying it
- resets all of the text attributes. The others are toggles. So
- for example, if Bold is on in the current cel, and you enter
-
- EditCel BOLD
-
- the Bold attribute will be toggled to off. Using PLAIN in
- combination with the others allows you to set all new attributes
- without having to worry which ones to toggle on or off to get the
- desired settings.
-
- EditCel returns the attributes of the cel in result as follows:
-
- "character foregnd backgnd attributes..."
-
- where character is the character in the cel, foregnd is the
- foreground pen value, backgnd is the background pen value, and
- attributes... are the text names of whichever attributes are set.
-
- This command is only available in Animation Editing Mode. Its
- use in any other mode causes a COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE to be
- returned in rc.
-
- See Also None
-
- EditMode
-
- Synopsis EditMode [PAGE|ANIM] [FORCE]
-
- Purpose Change the current Editing Mode.
-
- Description This command changes to the desired Editing Mode. Currently,
- PAGE and ANIM modes are the only ones available. Future versions
- of Luminus may support additional modes. See the Operations
- chapter for details on each of the Editing Modes.
-
- When switching from ANIM mode to PAGE, you may lose some cels,
- potentially ruining your image. You are presented with a
- requester that allows you to abort. Using the FORCE parameter
- suppresses this requester.
-
- EditMode returns the current Editing Mode in result.
-
- See Also DrawMode
-
- Erase
-
- Synopsis Erase
-
- Purpose Erase a block from the current document.
-
- Description This command acts like Cut, removing blocked text from the
- document, except that it does not copy anything to the clipboard;
- the text is just removed. Note that this command differs from
- Delete only in that it leaves empty space where the removed text
- was previously, whereas Delete creates a "vacuum" that pulls
- anything to the right of the block in to fill the vacated space.
-
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if this command is used
- when no block is active.
-
- See Also Cut, Delete
-
- ExecuteScript
-
- Synopsis ExecuteScript AmigaDOS-script
-
- Purpose Execute an AmigaDOS script.
-
- Description This command allows you to asynchronously execute an AmigaDOS
- script.
-
- See Also Rx
-
- FileSettings
-
- Synopsis FileSettings
-
- Purpose Bring up the File Settings panel.
-
- Description Issuing this command brings up the File Settings panel.
-
- See Also DisplaySettings, OpsSettings, DocumentSettings, BoxLineSettings
-
- Font
-
- Synopsis Font [fontname size]
-
- Purpose Change the display's font and point-size.
-
- Description This command only changes the font used for the images; it does
- not change the screen's font. The fontname parameter is the
- filename of the font. You must include the '.font' extension.
- The size parameter is the desired point size (height) of the font
- that you want.
-
- This command returns the font name and size in result.
-
- See Also None
-
- GetCel
-
- Synopsis GetCel
-
- Purpose Get the attributes of the cel under the cursor.
-
- Description GetCel returns the attributes of the cel located directly under-
- neath the cursor in result as follows:
-
- "character foregnd backgnd attributes..."
-
- where character is the character in the cel, foregnd is the
- foreground pen value, backgnd is the background pen value, and
- attributes... are the text names of whichever attributes are set.
- This command returns the same result as EditCel, but is included
- since EditCel is only available in Animation Editing Mode.
-
- See Also GetLine
-
- GetColumn
-
- Synopsis GetColumn
-
- Purpose Get the current column.
-
- Description This command returns the current cursor column in the ARexx
- variable result.
-
- See Also GetLine
-
- GetLine
-
- Synopsis GetLine
-
- Purpose Get the current line.
-
- Description This command returns the current cursor line in the ARexx
- variable result.
-
- See Also GetColumn
-
- GotoColumn
-
- Synopsis GotoColumn column
-
- Purpose Move to a specific column.
-
- Description The column parameter specifies the absolute column number to
- which Luminus should move the cursor.
-
- See Also GotoLine
-
- GotoLine
-
- Synopsis GotoLine line
-
- Purpose Move to a specific line.
-
- Description The line parameter specifies the absolute line number to which
- Luminus should move the cursor.
-
- See Also GotoColumn
-
- HorizDir
-
- Synopsis HorizDir [NONE|LEFT|RIGHT]
-
- Purpose Change the horizontal cursor direction.
-
- Description This command allows you to set the horizontal direction of the
- cursor. HorizDir returns the current horizontal direction in
- result.
-
- See Also VertDir
-
- Insert
-
- Synopsis Insert CODE[=]code|CLEARSCREEN [COLOR[=]num]
-
- Purpose Insert a code into the animation.
-
- Description Use this command to insert non-typeable codes into your anim-
- ation. If it is a custom ANSI code, use the CODE parameter. Do
- not enter the escape character and opening bracket ([) for the
- code. This is automatically done, since all ANSI codes begin
- with them. If you want a clear screen code, use CLEARSCREEN. If
- you don't specify a color, via COLOR, the current background
- color is used. The num parameter is the color register number.
-
- This command is only available in Animation Editing Mode. If it
- is issued in any other editing mode, a COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE
- error is returned in rc.
-
- See Also None
-
- JumpScreen
-
- Synopsis JumpScreen [screen-name|NEXT] [ALL]
-
- Purpose Jump the current window to a new screen.
-
- Description The JumpScreen command allows you to move an existing document's
- window to another screen. The first parameter is either a
- screen-name or the keyword NEXT. The screen-name must match an
- existing public screen's name exactly, and the destination screen
- must be a public screen. Using NEXT will move to the next screen
- in Intuition's public screen list.
-
- The keyword ALL indicates that all document windows should be
- moved to the desired screen.
-
- If there are no public screens available, or the screen-name
- specified doesn't exist or can't be locked, the command drops
- result. Otherwise, the screen on which the window is opened is
- returned.
-
- See Also None
-
- Line
-
- Synopsis Line INSERT|DELETE
-
- Purpose Insert or delete lines.
-
- Description Using the INSERT switch, you can insert a blank line at the
- cursor position, moving all lines below down to accommodate the
- new line. Lines that get moved outside the bounds of the
- document are not lost.
-
- The DELETE switch eliminates the line under the cursor and moves
- everything below up to fill its space.
-
- See Also Column
-
- LineType
-
- Synopsis LineType [SINGLE|DOUBLE|SINGLEDOUBLE|DOUBLESINGLE|CUSTOM|SELECT]
-
- Purpose Change the current line type.
-
- Description This command changes to the desired line type. The first four
- line types assumed an IBM-style font. The line type CUSTOM
- allows for any font that may have complex box parts. See the
- Operations chapter for details on each of the line types.
-
- LineType returns the current line type in result.
-
- See Also None
-
- LoadSettings
-
- Synopsis LoadSettings file
-
- Purpose Load a file of saved settings.
-
- Description The file parameter specifies the settings file to load. You can
- specify a path with the filename.
-
- See Also SaveSettings
-
- LockGUI
-
- Synopsis LockGUI
-
- Purpose Locks the user interface, disabling display updates.
-
- Description Issue this command when you want to keep Luminus from updating
- its displays. All window redrawing (with the exception of
- Intuition-mandated refreshes) is disabled, as well as menu
- updates. You may still access the menus, but checkmarked items,
- for instance, may not reflect their proper state. This is useful
- if you are going to issue a lot of display-intensive commands and
- don't want the system bogged down doing refreshes. Updates do
- not get queued during a LockGUI.
-
- See Also UnlockGUI
-
- MoveWindow
-
- Synopsis MoveWindow left top
-
- Purpose Move the current window to a new position.
-
- Description This command's parameters accept any zero or positive coordinate
- values to which to move the current window. This command does
- not affect the window's size, and will always keep the window
- within the screen's borders.
-
- See Also ZoomWindow, UnZoomWindow, SizeWindow, ChangeWindow
-
- New
-
- Synopsis New [PORTNAME[=]ARexx-port] [SCREEN[=]public-screen]
-
- Purpose Open a new, blank document.
-
- Description This command opens a new empty document and its accompanying
- window. If the PORTNAME parameter is specified, the document's
- ARexx port will have the name given, instead of using the
- standard naming convention, which is to use the base name
- specified in the Operations Settings panel plus a unique numeric
- identifier. For example, If the base name is 'LUMINUS', and you
- have two documents opened, with ARexx ports called 'LUMINUS.0'
- and 'LUMINUS.1', the next document will be called 'LUMINUS.2'.
- Using PORTNAME, you can say:
-
- New PORTNAME THIRDDOC
-
- which will open the new document with an ARexx port named
- 'MYDOC'. If the portname specified cannot be opened, the
- document will open without an ARexx port. The portname used will
- be returned in result, or if no port was opened, 'Untitled' will
- be returned.
-
- Using the SCREEN parameter, you can specify the public screen on
- which to open the document. If the public screen specified is
- not available, or no public screen is specified, the name
- specified in the Public Screen setting in the Display Settings
- panel will be used. If that doesn't work, the default public
- screen will be used.
-
- If New cannot open a new document, result will be dropped; other-
- wise, the name of the ARexx port is returned.
-
- See Also Open
-
- NewPage
-
- Synopsis NewPage APPEND|INSERT
-
- Purpose Add a new page to the document.
-
- Description NewPage adds a new, blank page to the document. If you specify
- APPEND, the new page is placed at the end of the document, after
- all existing pages. If INSERT is used, the new page is inserted
- at the current page, moving all subsequent pages back one to
- accommodate.
-
- This command may only be issued in Page Editing Mode. If it is
- used in any other mode, a COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE error is returned
- in rc.
-
- See Also DeletePage
-
- NextPage
-
- Synopsis NextPage
-
- Purpose Move to the next page in the document.
-
- Description Issuing this command moves to the next page in the document, if
- there is one. If there isn't, nothing happens.
-
- See Also PreviousPage
-
- Open
-
- Synopsis Open file... [PORTNAME[=]ARexx-port] [SCREEN[=]public-screen]
-
- Purpose Open one or more files.
-
- Description The parameter file... specifies the file (with optional path) to
- open. You can specify more than one file to open. Standard
- AmigaDOS pattern-matching can be used for filenames. For
- example:
-
- Open Work:Pictures/ANSI/#?.ans
-
- will open all files ending in '.ans' in the directory
- "Work:Pictures/ANSI".
-
- Each file will be opened in a separate document and window. Open
- will return in result the names of each file (and path) opened,
- separated by a vertical bar ('|').
-
- See the description of New for details on the parameters PORTNAME
- and SCREEN.
-
- This command returns the ARexx port names in result.
-
- See Also New
-
- OpenAttributes
-
- Synopsis OpenAttributes
-
- Purpose Open the Attributes interactive support window.
-
- Description Issuing this command tells Luminus to open the Attributes
- interactive support window on the screen of the current document.
- If the window is already open on that screen, it is moved to the
- front. If it open on another screen, it will close and reopen on
- the appropriate screen.
-
- See Also CloseAttributes, OpenCharSet, CloseCharSet, OpenSwitches,
- CloseSwitches
-
- OpenCharSet
-
- Synopsis OpenCharSet
-
- Purpose Open the Character Set interactive support window.
-
- Description Issuing this command tells Luminus to open the Character Set
- interactive support window on the screen of the current document.
- If the window is already open on that screen, it is moved to the
- front. If it open on another screen, it will close and reopen on
- the appropriate screen.
-
- See Also OpenAttributes, CloseAttributes, CloseCharSet, OpenSwitches,
- CloseSwitches
-
- OpenSwitches
-
- Synopsis OpenSwitches
-
- Purpose Open the Switches interactive support window.
-
- Description Issuing this command tells Luminus to open the Switches inter-
- active support window on the screen of the current document. If
- the window is already open on that screen, it is moved to the
- front. If it open on another screen, it will close and reopen on
- the appropriate screen.
-
- See Also OpenAttributes, CloseAttributes, OpenCharSet, CloseCharSet,
- CloseSwitches
-
- OpsSettings
-
- Synopsis OpsSettings
-
- Purpose Bring up the Operations Settings panel.
-
- Description Issuing this command brings up the Operations Settings panel.
-
- See Also DisplaySettings, FileSettings, DocumentSettings, BoxLineSettings
-
- Overlay
-
- Synopsis Overlay file...
-
- Purpose Append one or more files onto the current document.
-
- Description This command attempts to append the contents of file... onto the
- current document. The file... parameter accepts multiple
- filenames. AmigaDOS pattern-matching can also be used. For
- example:
-
- Overlay Work:Pictures/ANSI/#?.ans
-
- will overlay all files ending in '.ans' in the directory
- "Work:Pictures/ANSI" onto the current document.
-
- All files that were overlaid, completely or partially, are
- returned in result.
-
- See Also Open
-
- Paste
-
- Synopsis Paste
-
- Purpose Paste text from the clipboard into the current document.
-
- Description This command grabs any text available from the clipboard and
- places it in the current document, using the current cursor
- position as its anchor point (top-left corner). The selected
- clipboard unit for the current document is used.
-
- Paste will only grab chunks of types FTXT CHRS or ANSI CEL from
- the clipboard; no other IFF form is supported.
-
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if this command is used
- when no block is active.
-
- See Also Cut, Copy, Erase, Delete
-
- Pause
-
- Synopsis Pause KEY|TIMED[=]val
-
- Purpose Insert a pause in the animation.
-
- Description This command allows you to insert a pause into the current
- animation. The type of pause is specified by this command's
- parameters. If a key-released pause is desired, use KEY. If you
- want to use a pause that only stops for a length of time, use
- TIMED with the number of clock-ticks in val (there are 50
- clock-ticks per second).
-
- See Also Insert
-
- Position
-
- Synopsis Position SOD|EOD|SOV|EOV
-
- Purpose Position the cursor at a predetermined point in the document.
-
- Description Using the Position command, you can place the cursor at any of
- the "framing points" of the document, namely the start or end of
- the document or view. The parameters SOD or EOD move the cursor
- to the start or end of the document, respectively. The para-
- meters SOV or EOV move the cursor to the start or end of the
- "view" (the portion of the document currently visible in the
- document's window), respectively.
-
- See Also Cursor
-
- PresetColor
-
- Synopsis PresetColor A2024|AMIGA|ANSI|EGA|FROMWB
-
- Purpose Load a predefined color set in the custom screen's color
- registers.
-
- Description Specify one of the parameters above to load that color set into
- the custom screen registers. This command only affects Luminus'
- own custom screen. If this command is issued without Luminus
- having opened its own screen, a COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE error is
- returned.
-
- See Also None
-
- PreviousPage
-
- Synopsis PreviousPage
-
- Purpose Move to a previous page in the document.
-
- Description This command moves to the previous page in the document, if there
- is one. If there isn't, nothing happens.
-
- This command is only available in Page Editing Mode. A
- COMMAND_NOT_AVAILABLE is returned in rc if used in any other
- mode.
-
- See Also NextPage
-
- Quit
-
- Synopsis Quit [FORCE]
-
- Purpose Shutdown Luminus.
-
- Description This command tells Luminus to close all open documents and
- shutdown, including closing its custom screen, if opened. The
- FORCE parameter tells Luminus to suppress the requester that
- would appear if you had made changes to any documents since their
- last save. Otherwise, a requester will appear for each document
- that has modifications.
-
- See Also None
-
- RedoDisplay
-
- Synopsis RedoDisplay
-
- Purpose Tell Luminus to do an entire refresh of the display.
-
- Description This command causes Luminus to do an entire forced refresh of the
- current document window. Some document information is recom-
- piled, the animation is redrawn, and Intuition is requested to
- update the window's imagery.
-
- See Also None
-
- Redraw
-
- Synopsis Redraw speed
-
- Purpose Redraw the current ANSI animation.
-
- Description This command causes the current animation to be redrawn from the
- first cel to the last as input into the document. The speed
- parameter is the delay factor used in drawing the animation.
- This value is how long Luminus waits between each cel. The
- higher the value, the longer the delay between cels, the slower
- the animation is drawn. A value of 50 is equal to a 1 second
- pause.
-
- See Also None
-
- RestoreDefaults
-
- Synopsis RestoreDefaults
-
- Purpose Reset settings to internal defaults.
-
- Description This command will discard the current settings and return Luminus
- to its internally stored settings.
-
- See Also None
-
- Ruler
-
- Synopsis Ruler [ON|OFF] [[NO]HASHES] [[NO]NUMBERS] [INTERVAL[=]num]
-
- Purpose Change the attributes of the Ruler.
-
- Description This command's various parameters affect the state and attributes
- of the Ruler. The Ruler is normally a pair of lines, one
- vertical, one horizontal, that intersect in the document's window
- at the mouse pointer. The parameter ON|OFF lets you turn on or
- off the Ruler. The second parameter, HASHES, turns on the hash
- marks that indicate character positions along the ruler's edges.
- NOHASHES shuts them off. NUMBERS turns on hash numbering, which
- places a position number at intervals next to hash marks. The
- interval can be controlled using the INTERVAL parameter.
- NONUMBERS turns numbering off. Ruler returns the current state
- of the ruler in result as follows:
-
- "state hash-state number-state interval"
-
- where state is either ON or OFF, hash-state is HASHES or
- NOHASHES, number-state is NUMBERS or NONUMBERS and interval is
- the current interval value.
-
- See Also None
-
- Rx
-
- Synopsis Rx ARexx-script
-
- Purpose Start an ARexx script.
-
- Description This command allows you to asynchronously start another ARexx
- script.
-
- See Also ExecuteScript
-
- Save
-
- Synopsis Save [file] [MODE[=]mode] [LINE[=]num] [VIDEO[=]prep] [EOL[=]eol]
- [ALTESC[=]code]
-
- Purpose Save the current document to disk.
-
- Description This command saves the current document's contents to a file.
- The file parameter is the filename under which you wish to save
- it, with optional pathname. If you want to change the way the
- file is saved without resetting your File Settings, some
- additional parameters are available.
-
- MODE lets you change the file format by which your file will be
- saved. The available modes are ASCII (only in Page Editing
- mode), ANSI, and IFF.
-
- The LINE parameter lets you set the maximum line length that will
- be saved before a newline is placed. This parameter is ignore if
- saving in IFF mode.
-
- The VIDEO parameter lets you specify the type of preparation code
- that will be prepended to the file during its save. Available
- preps are NONE, HOME, CLEAR.
-
- The EOL parameter lets you set the type of newline that will be
- used. Available types are CR (carriage-return only), LF (line-
- feed only), and CRLF (carriage-return and linefeed).
-
- The ALTESC parameter tells Luminus to use an alternate escape
- character instead of ASCII code 27. The character to be used is
- specified after ALTESC.
-
- See Also None
-
- SaveSettings
-
- Synopsis SaveSettings [file]
-
- Purpose Save the current settings.
-
- Description If the file parameter is specified, the current settings will be
- saved to that file. A path can be specified with the filename.
- If the file parameter is omitted, the settings will be saved
- using the last known filename. If no filename is used,
- 'Luminus.prefs' will be used.
-
- See Also LoadSettings
-
- SizeWindow
-
- Synopsis SizeWindow width height
-
- Purpose Change the current window's size
-
- Description This command's parameters accept any positive value greater than
- or equal to 100 for width, and 75 for height. This command does
- not affect the window's position and will not size the window
- larger than would fit on the current screen.
-
- See Also ZoomWindow, UnZoomWindow, MoveWindow, ChangeWindow
-
- StatusLine
-
- Synopsis StatusLine [ON|OFF] [TOP|BOTTOM]
-
- Purpose Change the state and/or position of the status line.
-
- Description This command tells Luminus how and whether or not to display the
- status lines in the documents' windows. The parameter ON or OFF
- turns on or off the status line in the current document only.
- The parameter TOP (or BOTTOM) sets the global flags in Luminus
- for where the status line should be displayed in all document
- windows.
-
- StatusLine return the current state of the status line in result
- as follows:
-
- "state position"
-
- where state is either ON or OFF, and position is either TOP or
- BOTTOM.
-
- See Also None
-
- Text
-
- Synopsis Text text
-
- Purpose Place text into the document.
-
- Description The text parameter can be any ASCII characters starting at the
- first non-whitespace character after the command until the end of
- the line. Strings which contain spaces do not have to be sur-
- rounded by quotes, and quotes are treated as literal text as
- well. The Text command obeys the current directional settings.
-
- See Also None
-
- TextBox
-
- Synopsis TextBox text [LINETYPE[=]type] [SELECT[=]character]
- [BEVEL[=]bevel] [JUST[IFICATION][=]justification]
- [LEFT[MARGIN][=]num] [RIGHT[MARGIN][=]num]
-
- Purpose Place outlined/justified text in the document.
-
- Description The first parameter, text, is a quoted text string to place. It
- may contain multiple lines, which should be separated by ASCII
- code 10 (hex 0x0A, a linefeed). Be default, the text is left-
- justified using the current cursor position as the origin. This
- behavior can be modified (see below).
-
- The LINETYPE parameter lets you specify the type of line that
- should be used for a box drawn around the text. The line-types
- available are: NONE, SINGLE, DOUBLE, SINGLEDOUBLE, DOUBLESINGLE,
- CUSTOM, and SELECT. If you use the SELECT type, specify the
- character to be used by using the SELECT parameter.
-
- If you want the box to have a bevelled appearance, use the BEVEL
- parameter. Valid bevel values are NONE, RAISED and RECESSED.
-
- If the text should be justified, use JUSTIFICATION. Valid
- justification values are NONE, LEFT, CENTER and RIGHT. If you
- use justification, you should specify left and right margin
- values, using LEFTMARGIN and RIGHTMARGIN. If either of these
- parameters is missing, defaults values are used: 1 for the left
- margin, the maximum document width for the right margin. Note
- that when justification is used, the current column position is
- ignored and not used, while the line position is.
-
- See Also Box, BevelBox
-
- TextPen
-
- Synopsis TextPen [pen] [[NO]CYCLE]
-
- Purpose Change the text drawing pen.
-
- Description This command changes the foreground color used for text and
- drawing. The pen parameter accepts a color register number as
- its argument, starting at pen 0 to the maximum pen usable on the
- screen. If the CYCLE keyword is supplied, the background color
- cycling flag is turned on. NOCYCLE turns it off.
-
- TextPen returns the current foreground pen and cycle flag in
- result as follows:
-
- "pen-number cycle-flag"
-
- where pen-number is the numeric color register, and cycle-flag is
- either CYCLE or NOCYCLE.
-
- See Also BackgroundPen
-
- UnlockGUI
-
- Synopsis UnlockGUI
-
- Purpose Unlocks the user interface, (re)enabling display updates
-
- Description This command is the counterpart to the LockGUI command. It
- clears the display-locking flag, allowing Luminus to update its
- displays when called-for. When the UnlockGUI command is issued,
- display will not immediately be refreshed and updated. To get
- the displays up-to-date, issue a RedoDisplay command immediately
- after issuing the UnlockGUI.
-
- See Also LockGUI
-
- UnZoomWindow
-
- Synopsis UnZoomWindow
-
- Purpose Restore a window to its original size and position.
-
- Description This will cause the current window to return to its original size
- and position, becoming "unzoomed." If the window is already
- unzoomed, nothing will happen.
-
- See Also ZoomWindow
-
- UseAppIcon
-
- Synopsis UseAppIcon [ON|OFF]
-
- Purpose Inquire about or alter the state of Luminus' AppIcon.
-
- Description If you specify either the ON or OFF parameter with this command,
- the AppIcon flag will be changed to that state.
-
- This command returns the current state in result.
-
- See Also None
-
- VertDir
-
- Synopsis VertDir [NONE|UP|DOWN]
-
- Purpose Change the vertical cursor direction.
-
- Description This command allows you to set the vertical direction of the
- cursor. VertDir returns the current vertical direction in
- result.
-
- See Also HorizDir
-
- WindowToBack
-
- Synopsis WindowToBack
-
- Purpose Move the current window to the back.
-
- Description This command moves the currently active document's window behind
- all other windows on its screen (except for backdrop windows).
-
- See Also WindowToFront, ZoomWindow, UnZoomWindow
-
- WindowToFront
-
- Synopsis WindowToFront
-
- Purpose Move the current window to the front.
-
- Description This command moves the currently active document's window to the
- front of whatever screen it's on, and pops the screen to the
- front of the display.
-
- See Also WindowToBack, ZoomWindow, UnZoomWindow
-
- ZoomWindow
-
- Synopsis ZoomWindow
-
- Purpose Resize a window to its "zoomed" size and position.
-
- Description Every Intuition window has two different sets of the position and
- size values. When a window opens initially, it's said to be in
- its "unzoomed" state. Clicking its zoom gadget causes it to
- revert to its "zoomed" state, which is generally smaller and off
- to the side somewhere. Luminus's document windows default to a
- "zoomed" size of about 100 x 75 pixels in the upper-left corner
- of the screen.
-
- Issuing this command will cause the window to revert to its
- "zoomed" state. If the window is already zoomed, nothing will
- happen.
-
- See Also UnZoomWindow
-
- Command Summary
-
- This sections provides a sort of quick-reference of all of Luminus' ARexx
- commands.
-
- ActivateWindow
- AtCursor
- Attribute [PLAIN] [BOLD] [ITALICS] [UNDERLINE] [BLINK] [INVERSE] [CONCEALED]
- AttrMode [FORE[GROUND]] [BACK[GROUND]] [ATTR[IBUTE]]
- BackgroundPen [pen] [[NO]CYCLE]
- Border [ON|OFF]
- Box left top width height [line-type [ascii-code]]
- BoxLineSettings
- ChangeWindow left top width height
- Clear PAGE|DOCUMENT [FORCE]
- Close [FORCE]
- CloseAttributes
- CloseCharSet
- CloseSwitches
- CmdShell [console-specification] [STARTUP[=]startup-file]
- Column INSERT|DELETE
- Copy
- CreateIcons ON|OFF
- Cursor UP|DOWN|LEFT|RIGHT [amount] [SHIFT] [ALT] [CONTROL]
- Cut
- Delete
- DeletePage [FORCE]
- DisplaySettings
- DocumentSettings
- DrawMode [TEXT|ATTR]
- EditCel [CHAR[ACTER][=]c] [ASCII[=]num] [FORE[GROUND][=]pen]
- [BACK[GROUND][=]pen] [PLAIN] [BOLD] [ITALICS] [UNDERLINE] [BLINK]
- [INVERSE] [CONCEALED]
- EditMode [PAGE|ANIM] [FORCE]
- Erase
- ExecuteScript AmigaDOS-script
- FileSettings
- Font [fontname size]
- GetCel
- GetColumn
- GetLine
- GotoColumn column
- GotoLine line
- HorizDir [NONE|LEFT|RIGHT]
- Insert CODE[=]code|CLEARSCREEN [COLOR=num]
- JumpScreen screen-name|NEXT [ALL]
- Line INSERT|DELETE
- LineType [SINGLE|DOUBLE|SINGLEDOUBLE|DOUBLESINGLE|CUSTOM|SELECT]
- LoadSettings file
- LockGUI
- MoveWindow left top
- New [PORTNAME[=]ARexx-port] [SCREEN[=]public-screen]
- NewPage APPEND|INSERT
- NextPage
- Open file... [PORTNAME[=]ARexx-port] [SCREEN[=]public-screen]
- OpenAttributes
- OpenCharSet
- OpenSwitches
- OpsSettings
- Overlay file...
- Paste
- Pause KEY|TIMED[=]val
- Position SOD|EOD|SOV|EOV
- PresetColor A2024|AMIGA|ANSI|EGA|FROMWB
- PreviousPage
- Quit [FORCE]
- RedoDisplay
- Redraw speed
- RestoreDefaults
- Ruler [ON|OFF} [[NO]HASHES] [[NO]NUMBERS] [INTERVAL[=]num]
- Rx ARexx-script
- Save [file] [MODE[=]mode] [LINE[=]num] [VIDEO[=]prep] [EOL[=]eol]
- [ALTESC[=]code]
- SaveSettings [file]
- SizeWindow width height
- StatusLine [ON|OFF] [TOP|BOTTOM]
- Text text
- TextBox text [LINETYPE[=]type] [SELECT[=]character] [BEVEL[=]bevel]
- [JUST[IFICATION][=]justification] [LEFT[MARGIN][=]num]
- [RIGHT[MARGIN][=]num]
- TextPen [pen] [[NO]CYCLE]
- UnlockGUI
- UnZoomWindow
- UseAppIcon [ON|OFF]
- VertDir [NONE|UP|DOWN]
- WindowToBack
- WindowToFront
- ZoomWindow
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- This chapter basically covers, well, miscellaneous things that usually can't
- be place anywhere else, plus just some tidbits of information.
-
- Caveats
-
- The Amiga supports multiple menu selections during one menu event. If you are
- not familiar with this, what it does is allow you to click with the left mouse
- button on several menu items without having to re-access the menu with the
- right mouse button. Luminus is designed to respond to these "chained" menu
- events. Certain menu items allow you to close and re-open windows, such as
- screen jumping and changing the screen mode of the custom screen. When the
- window that generated the menu events is closed, its menu structure is temp-
- orarily "lost", and any chained menu selections with it. So beware when
- multi-selecting an item that may close your window.
-
- The Future
-
- The following items are on my to-do list for future versions of Luminus. If
- you think of an item that is not in this list, please feel free to drop me an
- e-mail or postcard.
-
- - Scan modules. These would be mini-scripts that could instruct Luminus on
- how to "redesign" an animation.
-
- - Line drawing mode.
-
- - Fonts. Possibly an internal-format font set for large lettering, and sup-
- port for drawing Amiga bitmapped fonts.
-
- - Undo and Redo.
-