Loadstar 140/140.d81/ŽDan€h€shdU‰¥ì`g.del

Text File | 1996-01-01 | 17.5 KB | 669 lines

eep in mind it
must repeat within a factor of 24
bits horizontally and 16 bits
vertically. In other words, a pattern
that repeats every 6th bit
horizontally and every 8th bit
vertically would work, while a
pattern that repeats every 5th and
8th bit respectively would not.
Because 24 will divide evenly by 6
but not by 5.

    The second pattern configuration
is a perfect 16 x 16 bit or 2 x 2
cell.  Keep the 8 right most bits in
this pattern dark all the way down
the first 16 rows.  This lets the
fill command know this is not to be
used as part of the pattern.  The
lattice pattern of the "S.PATTERNS"
file will serve as an example.  If
you want, use this pattern as a
template.


 [UNDO]

    Mistakes are going to happen.  So
what happens if you select the wrong
function and overwrite part of your
picture?  Simply press [U]
immediately afterwards and the screen
will be restored to its previous
form.  Don't wait to undo a mistake.
The buffer is used for a variety of
reasons.  It's extremely important
the [U] be pressed immediately after
an error. Incidentally, you can
manually input a screen into the
buffer by pressing [CTRL-I].


 [EDITING FEATURES:]

 [NOTE:] Most editing modes may be
exited by pressing [RETURN].  The
exceptions to this are the sprite and
character editors which have on-
screen documentation.  DON'T try to
break out of this program by holding
down [RUN/STOP] and tapping
[RESTORE].  [RUN/STOP] has been
disabled, and if you tap [RESTORE]
during a disk I/O operation, the
program WILL LOCK UP.  Remember, If
you get stuck in a mode of which you
are not familiar, just press [RETURN]
to exit.  Then either refer to this
article or press [H] for help.
Incidentally, [SHIFT-Q] will prompt
you to exit the program.


 [ZOOM EDIT]

    This is one of the most essential
elements of HI-RES SKETCH. To use
zoom simply press [Z], move the
window to the desired area and press
[FIRE].  The chosen section will be
blown up 16 times its normal size
giving you precise control of each
pixel.

    Looking to the bottom of the
screen, you'll see a menu of three
editing modes: DRAW, ERASE, and
TOGGLE with the selection of each
mode as easy as hitting the first
letter. Pressing [SPACE] will allow
you to move the window to edit
another section, or you can scroll
the editing area using the cursor
keys.  Clearing the editing area can
be accomplished by typing [CLR].  Be
careful when using [CLR].  Undo is
not available in zoom mode.  You
could exit zoom mode with [BACK
ARROW] and press [U] to get back what
you've accidentally erased.  But any
changes you've made will be lost.

 [NOTE:] You may notice when exiting
zoom mode the pen will move to the
last place of the square zoom cursor.
This was done so you could use zoom
edit to aid in plotting points.


 [WINDOW EDIT]

    Window editing provides an easy
way to edit an exclusive section of
the screen.  Enter window edit by
pressing [W].  When you hit [W], a
window will appear in the upper
lefthand corner of the screen.  You
can expand the size of this window by
holding down [FIRE] and pressing the
joystick right (expand horizontally)
or down (expand vertically).
Shrinking (or de-expanding) is done
by holding down [FIRE] and pressing
the stick left (shrink horizontally)
or up (shrink vertically).  Once
you've adjusted the window to the
size you want, you're ready to use
the editing features.

    Copying a window is accomplished
by moving it over the section you
wish to copy and pressing [f1].  A
second window will be placed over the
first. Move this second window (via
joystick) to the destination area and
press [f1] again.  It's important to
note here that the source window is
ORed in with the destination.  You
can even overlap the two windows.
But because of the way a window is
transferred, you may end up with some
garbage.  If you always overlap from
right (source) to left (destination)
or down (source) to up
(destination.), you won't get any
unexpected results.

    Before copying a window, you have
an option of clearing the destination
area.  Simply type [CLR] and every
byte in the window will be erased. In
case you accidentally erase something
important, you can undo it by using
[U].

    Besides copying, you can also
flip, invert, reverse, and scroll a
window.  Flip, invert, and reverse
are accessed by [f3], [f5], [f7]
respectively.  Each of these
functions is basically self-
explanatory.  Since they are
reversible by hitting the same key
again, you can use them to test if
all desired bits are in a window.

    The last window editing feature
is scrolling.  You can scroll what's
in a window in all four directions
using the cursor keys.  If bits reach
the edge, they will wrap around to
the other side.  Pressing [SPACE]
will toggle between scrolling the
entire screen or scrolling inside a
window. Window scroll is always
active when you first enter window
edit.

    In addition to editing, windows
can also be saved and loaded. To save
a window move it over the desired
section of the screen (change window
size if necessary), press [S], type
in the file name and hit return.
Remember to use flip, invert or
reverse to test bits first.

    Loading a window is a little more
complicated.  To load a window press
[L], type in the file name and hit
return.  In a few seconds the window
size will change and move to the top
lefthand corner of the screen.  Move
the window to the destination area
and press fire.  As with copy, the
window will be ORed in with the
background. To prevent this type
[CLR] before you press [FIRE].


 [ANDing WINDOWS]

    Because ANDing has a rather
specialized use and requires a more
detailed explanation, I didn't
mention it up above.  The reason you
would use AND instead of OR is in the
case of turning selected bits off.
Let me explain with the following
example.

    Suppose you had an image you
needed to place over a complex
background.  You could use [f1] to OR
the window to its destination, but
the background would show through.
Zoom edit could clean up the picture,
but this would be very time
consuming.  The alternative is to use
AND to clear a selective area then OR
to place the image.

    To start you need to make a
duplicate of the image to use as the
AND window.  Once a copy has been
made, you need to darken it to make
it look like a shadow of the
original. Next use reverse [f7] to
get the mask.

    Now you're ready to transfer the
image.

    First, place the source/mask
window over the reversed shadow
image. and press [f2].  Next move the
destination window over the complex
background and press [f2] again.  If
you have done everything correctly,
you should see that part of the
background was erased.  Now the final
step is to OR the original image over
the same part of the background and
that's it.

 [NOTE:] To make the above process
easier use as small a window as
possible.


 [EXAMPLE WINDOW FILES]

    On this disk I've included the
example windows listed below.

 W.TREE
 W.BULLDOG
 SPORTS CAR

    Keep in mind when viewing these
windows that I don't consider myself
an artist to say the least.  Yet,
each of these windows, I feel, gives
many examples of the powerful editing
and drawing features of HI-RES
SKETCH.  For instance, the sports car
was drawn with line, ellipse,
compass, fill, window and zoom edit.
The tree was drawn with sprite stamp
and zoom while the bulldog was done
entirely in zoom mode.


 [FULL SCREEN SCROLL]

    As mentioned earlier, it's
possible to scroll the entire screen
in window edit mode.  But it would be
convenient to scroll the screen in
immediate (freehand) mode.  And you
can do just that by pressing the
cursor keys any time you need to
scroll the screen.  The only
difference is that scrolling in
immediate mode is coarse scrolling (8
bits at a time) while window edit
mode uses fine scroll (1 bit at a
time). Even though you'll still need
to use window edit to have complete
control over the entire screen,
coarse scrolling is very handy for
centering a drawing or using compass
mode.


 [CHANGING SCREEN COLORS/PAINT MODE]

    High resolution screens have only
two colors per 8 x 8 bit cell
(foreground and background).  There
are two ways these colors can be
changed.  All background and
foreground colors can be changed
collectively by holding down [CTRL]
and pressing [B] or [F] respectively.
Each time [B] or [F] is hit the
colors are toggled.  The pen color
can also be changed for contrast with
[CTRL-P].  [CTRL-D] will change all
colors to their default settings.

    Another way to change the
background and foreground colors is
paint.  Paint mode is entered by
typing [CTRL-1].  Once in paint mode,
you'll see a rectangle in the upper
left-hand corner of the screen.
Using [CTRL or CMDR-1 through 8] will
select the painting color while
pressing [SPACE] will toggle between
foreground and background paint.
Holding down [FIRE] and moving the
joystick will paint the screen.

  NOTE: HI-RES SKETCH was primarily
written as a two color editor.  If
you plan to use paint, make it the
last step in editing a picture.


 [SPRITE EDITOR]

    While this feature of HI-RES
SKETCH wasn't a necessity,  it's
handy for sprite stamping (explained
later in this article).  To enter the
sprite editor type [CTRL-S].  Sprites
are divided into four sets with eight
sprites in each set.  Numeric keys
[1-8] are used to access the sprites
while [UP ARROW] will access the
desired set.

    Many of the sprite editor's
features are similar to that of
window editing.  For instance, copy,
flip invert, and reverse all work in
the same manner, and all are accessed
by [f1], [f3], [f5] and [f7]
respectively. One major difference is
that on-screen documentation is given
for each function with the exception
being [CLR] which clears a sprite.

    Actual sprite editing is similar
to working in zoom mode.  Use the
joystick to move the cursor and keys
[T], [D], and [E] to select toggle,
draw, and erase.  You may notice that
the last line of the editing palette
can't be accessed.  This is because
the palette has 22 rows while a
sprite only has 21.

    After working on a sprite or
group of sprites as the case may be,
you'll probably want to save the
sprite(s) to disk.  To do this first
select where the save is to begin and
press [S].  Next select where the
save is to end and press [S] again.
After you press [S] the second time
you should see a cursor flashing in
the input box.  Type in the file name
and hit return.

    Retrieving a sprite file can be
accomplished by a much simpler
process.  First select where the load
is to begin and press [L].  Then just
type in the file name and hit return.


 [CHARACTER EDITOR]

    The character editor is very
similar to the sprite editor.  In
fact every function in the sprite
editor is available here.  And since
most functions are identical, I'll
only discuss the few differences.
First, copying is much easier.  To
copy a character move the icon over
it and press fire.  Next move the
icon over the destination character
and press fire again.  Another
difference is you have to press
[SPACE] to edit a selected character.
Hitting [SPACE] again will exit edit
mode.  Yet another difference is [f1]
is used to turn a character 90
degrees counter-clockwise.  Finally,
the last difference is the way
characters are saved and loaded.
Instead of being able to save a
desired number of characters,
characters are saved as a set (128
characters/set).  There can be four
sets in memory at once.  Pay close
attention to the set you're in when
saving or loading.  The current set
is denoted at the bottom of the
screen.

 [SPRITE STAMP]

    After you have created or loaded
a sprite, you can use sprite stamp to
stamp sprite bits right into the high
resolution screen.  To enter sprite
stamp mode type [SHIFT-*].  Use the
joystick to move the sprite around
the screen.  When you hit [FIRE] the
image will be stamped.  Pressing [U]
will undo the last stamp. Cursor up
and down or [SHIFT] [A-Z] will select
which sprite.  Using [SHIFT] [A-Z]
will only select the first 26 sprites
but is ideal for the creation of a
large sprite alphabet. [SPACE] is
used to toggle between stamp/stamp
erase.  Stamp erase is useful for
stamping on reverse fields.


 [SPRITE STAMP AS A DRAWING MODE]

    Sprite stamping not only can be
used for repetitive images, but also
as a powerful freehand drawing mode.
To take advantage of this you'll have
to turn off the buffer using [CTRL-0]
[RVS OFF].  Use [CTRL-9] to turn the
buffer on again.  Incidentally, the
buffer will always be on when
entering sprite stamp mode.  To help
get you started I've included a file
called "S.TOOLS" on this disk.

    As a final note, remember, you're
not limited to what I've created.
With the sprite editor built right
into the program it's easy to test
different sprites and save them if
you find them useful.

 [TYPING CHARACTERS]

    To type characters on the screen
press [T].  The icon is moved with
the cursor keys.  When using the
default set all characters are
available.  [f1, f3, f5, f7] will
select which of the four character
sets.  DELete is available for
erasing characters. You can't,
however, use INSert to insert
characters.

     As an added feature to typing
normal size characters, you can also
change the character size to those
listed below.

 [f2]...selects 8 x 8 (normal)
 [f4]...selects 7 x 8 (45 chars/line)
 [f6]...selects 6 x 8 (53 chars/line)
 [f8]...selects 5 x 8 (64 chars/line)

    If you choose to create a
character set of an alternate size,
you should use type mode to set the
size before saving.  This way you
won't have to change the size when an
alternate character set is selected.

    I have included two alternate
character sets on this disk. They are
listed below.

 "c.medium"... 6 x 8 size
 "c.small".... 5 x 8 size

  NOTE: Use the character editor to
LOAD/SAVE a character set from/to
disk.

 [SAVING/LOADING A HI-RES SCREEN]

    To save a high resolution screen
to disk simply press [SHIFT-S], type
in the file name and hit return.  To
load a high resolution screen use
[SHIFT-L].

 [DIRECTORY]

    Load the directory by typing [$].
After the directory has loaded, it
will be listed to the screen.  You
can list the directory over and over
again by pressing [L].  When the
listing reaches the bottom of the
screen, you can slow it by pressing
[CTRL].  After you've found the file
you're looking for, press [E] to
exit.

  NOTE: Because the directory stays
in memory using an 8K buffer to
protect what's overwritten, don't
load a directory with more than 255
files.  A large directory could
overwrite part of the hi-res screen
or even worse crash the program.  If
you're using a 1541 disk drive, you
don't have anything to worry about.


 [FINAL NOTES]

    There are a few final things I
have to say about this program.
First, don't under use window edit.
Window editing is one of the most
powerful editing features of this
program.  Second, when creating a
screen, think carefully about the
design and the best way to accomplish
it.  And finally, the best advice
anyone can give about using any
software is to be patient.  Now enjoy
the program!


 [HI-RES SKETCH KEY CHART]


 IMMEDIATE MODE KEYS

 [SPACE]   draw/erase toggle key
 [CMDR-SP] block erase
 [A]       plots point A at pen tip
 [B]       plots point B at pen tip
 [C]       plots point C at pen tip
 [SHIFT-A]  removes point A
 [SHIFT-B]  removes point B
 [SHIFT-C]  removes point C
 [BACK ARROW] remove all points
 [CMDR-A]  plots pen at point A
 [CMDR-B]  plots pen at point B
 [CMDR-C]  plots pen at point C
 [X]       eXchanges points A & B
 [M]       moves all points together
 [D]       distance from pen to
           points
 [L]       draws line from A to B
 [R]       draws rectangle A & B
           diag.
 [P]       draws parallelogram
           (A,B,C)
 [O]       draws circle, A & B radius
 [SHIFT-O]  compass, drawing arcs,
            etc.
 [E]       draws ellipse (A,B,C)
 [SHIFT-E]  draws partial (1/4)
            ellipse
 [CLR]     clear screen
 [U]       undo last function
 [CTRL-I]  input screen to buffer
 [W]       window edit
 [Z]       zoom edit
 [T]       type mode
 [H]       help file load prompt
 [SHIFT-*]  sprite stamp
 [CTRL-C]  character editor
 [CTRL-S]  sprite editor
 [CTRL-1]  paint
 [CTRL-B]  background colors
 [CTRL-F]  foreground colors
 [CTRL-P]  pen color
 [CTRL-D]  default colors
 [SHIFT-Q]  quit prompt


 COMPASS MODE KEYS

 [SPACE]   draw/erase
 [^]       angle on/off
 [A]       plots point A
 [C]       plots point C
 [1-9]     angle's accuracy
 [FIRE]    draw/erase
 [JOY RT]  rotate pen clockwise
 [JOY LT]  rotate pen counter-
           clockwise


 WINDOW EDIT KEYS

 [f1/f2]   OR/AND copy
 [f3]      flip
 [f5]      invert
 [f7]      reverse
 [CLR]     clear
 [SPACE]   window/full screen scroll
 [CRSR]    scroll window/screen
 [U]       undo
 [L]       load
 [S]       save
 [JOY]     moves window
 [FIRE]    selects load location

 The following with [FIRE] button:

 [JOY RT]  expand window horizontally
 [JOY LT]  shrink window horizontally
 [JOY DN]  expand window vertically
 [JOY UP]  shrink window vertically


 TYPE MODE KEYS

 [f1]      character set 1
 [f3]      character set 2
 [f5]      character set 3
 [f7]      character set 4
 [f2]      8 x 8 font size
 [f4]      7 x 8 font size
 [f6]      6 x 8 font size
 [f8]      5 x 8 font size
 [CRSR]    moves icon
 [DEL]     deletes characters


 FILL MODE KEYS

 [CRSR-LEFT/RIGHT] selects sprite
 [SHIFT-A thru Z] selects first
 26 sprites


 SPRITE STAMP KEYS

 [CRSR-LEFT/RIGHT] selects sprite

 [SHIFT KEYS]
 [A-Z] selects first 26 sprites
 [SPACE]   stamp draw/erase
 [CTRL-9]  buffer on
 [CTRL-0]  buffer off
 [U]       undo last stamp
 [FIRE]    stamps sprite
 [JOY]     moves sprite


 PAINT MODE KEYS

 [CTRL1-8] selects color
 [CMDR1-8] selects color
 [SPACE]   foreground/background
           paint
 [FIRE]    paint cell
 [JOY]     moves icon

 AM