Loadstar 128 #32/q32side2.d64/t.annotator

Text File | 1992-01-01 | 5.6 KB | 113 lines

                         T H E   A N N O T A T O R

                     Program and Text by Knees Calhoon


    An "annotation" is nothing more than an explanation, and we sure need
that, don't we?  Usually, an annotated work consists of a wide book with
the text of an article or piece of literature in the middle of the page. In
the wide borders are explanations of words, phrases or sentences with an
arrow pointing to the explained word or phrase.  In the computer world,
it's called "hypertext" and it's only available on the behemoth computers.
Until now...

    I first became acquainted with annotation when I read Martin Gardner's
"Annotated Alice In Wonderland".  It's probably the most famous annotation
of a piece of literature, but many other great works have been annotated,
including the Sherlock Holmes stories.  LOADSTARites may even remember that
Fender Tucker annotated my two "M-M-Murder" mysadventures on LS 128 #20 and
#24.  As far as I know, these are the only adventure games to be annotated;
most other adventure games have hint sheets instead.

    Many works of literature require explanation and annotation is a much
more readable way to do it than by simply writing another book that
explains the first.  It's best to have an explanation of a paragraph right
next to the paragraph.

    Because of the screen size I've decided to have two windows, one above
the other, rather than side by side as in normal annotations.  The top
window is where the original text can be scrolled through.  There is a
colored bar that highlights a line of text.  Down below is another window
that has an explanation of the highlighted line, if there is anything to
say about the line.

    This program assumes that you have some text in a file that you wish to
annotate.  Using your word processor you get the text in a standard format
-- PETASCII PRG file in 75 columns -- and give it a filename with an "a."
prefix.  If you haven't learned how to use your word processor enough to
format text in this Commodore industry standard way, you need to learn.  If
you don't have a word processor, then you might as well boot up a game --
you've got a game machine, not a computer.

    LOADSTAR recommends Busy Bee's THE WRITE STUFF 128 (which we sell for
$40 as the ILLUSTRATOR IIa package) which I used to create a couple of text
files which you can study as samples.  Any decent word processor will work
as well.  If it can't produce a 75-column (or less) PRG PETASCII file, then
it's not a decent word processor.

    The annotation of the text file is done within THE ANNOTATOR.  You
simply scroll through the top window until you find a line you wish to
explain, press RETURN and then enter whatever you want to say in the lower
annotation window.  Save the annotation when you're through and that's it.


 THE DETAILS
 -----------

    All of the above is an overview of what you will use THE ANNOTATOR for.
The C-128 is not a large enough computer to annotate a full-sized novel,
unless you do it chapter by chapter.  Because of the way I handle text (in
normal BASIC string arrays) the largest text file that can be annotated is
probably around 30 blocks, or 150 lines.  For each line of text, there can
be up to six lines of annotation, but I have a feeling that "out of memory"
problems would result if you had six full lines of explanation for every
line of a 30-block text file.  As a rule of thumb, annotate to your heart's
content, but if the program gets sluggish or you get an error, you've
annotated too much.  Break the file down into smaller pieces.

    There are only four options on the Main Menu.

  READ will display a file requestor and allow you to scroll through a
loaded text file.  Any annotation of the text file will be displayed in the
lower window.  You cannot change either the top or bottom text in the READ
mode.

  ANNOTATE is exactly like READ except for the fact that you can press
RETURN on any line in the top text and a cursor will appear in the bottom
window.  The box is a free-form entry window.  You may use HOME, CLR, the
CRSR keys, INSerT, DELete or even the ESC sequences.  You can enter upper
or lower case and you can format the text as you wish, thanks to Bob
Markland's nifty ML routine that scans the box and turns the insides into
six subscripted strings.

    HELP is simply a little instructions screen and QUIT does its usual
thing.

    Notice that if you hold the CRSR keys down when scrolling through the
top window, it will scroll fast and any annotation won't show.  If you want
to read the annotation, then don't hold the CRSR keys down.  Just tap them
and if a line has an annotation, it will appear in the bottom window.  You
can use CRSR RIGHT and LEFT to page through the text faster.

    That's it for THE ANNOTATOR.  The two samples on the disk are songs
that I wrote years ago.  Fender, the gentle side of my personality who
burned out on music years ago but likes computers, agreed to write the
annotations for the songs.  Songs, poems, short short stories, articles and
such are probably the most suitable things to annotate with THE ANNOTATOR.
Maybe you've received a letter from a relative that you would like to
dissect and explain for other relatives?  This is how I anticipate this
program being used.

    Remember: To use THE ANNOTATOR you must have some PETASCII text that is
formatted for 75 or fewer columns in a PRG file with an "a." prefix.  THE
ANNOTATOR (and your brain) will do the rest.

    If there is any interest in this program I can imagine adding a print
routine that will attempt to provide a normal annotation on paper.  Let me
know.

                   \\\\\ R - Run   RETURN - Menu \\\\\