Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/198.lha/TSnip_v1.4a/tsnip.doc

Text File | 1988-12-28 | 29.4 KB | 641 lines

TSNIP - this is my own implementation of "cutting" text from _any_
        window. I understand there is another program available to do
        the same thing; therefore I will do a better job on this than
        if there wasn't :-). BTW, I've finally seen the program which
        inspired TSnip (by reputation), but I find TSnip in its
        current incarnation far more useful.

Usage: tsnip [-p] [-c] [-s] [-k] [-K] [-a] [-m] [-e] [x_offset y_offset]
             [-f <font>] [-o <filename>] [on <screenname> or on -null]
             [-z or -vt100] [-emacs or -vi]

Or click on its icon from the Workbench, after customizing the tooltypes
field if you like. See the Workbench support section for the details on
that.

Whew!

0.  Intro.
1.  Output Destination.
2.  Command line options.
3.  Workbench Support.
4.  Interaction (keyboard/mouse control).
5.  Where the TSnip window opens.
6.  What to do with the PIPE: file.
7.  Problem windows.
8.  Handler-commands file.
9.  Control panel.
10. Syntax & Examples.
11. Added bonus for users of the 'vi' and 'emacs' editors.
12. Credits.


0. Intro.

    Note the new name... this is to avoid confusion with Digital Dynamics'
signal-processing program Snip. I now refer to the whole group of
programs in the distribution as CATSnip (Computer Aided Text Snip)
and this program as TSnip (Text Snip). How do you pronounce TSnip?
You could pronounce it like you do T-bone, or with a silent T. Just so long
as you know which is which.

Copyright 1988 John Russell     Freely redistributable

If you found the old Snip even marginally useful, you'll find TSnip V1.4
ten times better! If you had no use whatsoever for the old Snip but you
do use vi, either over a terminal program or as the Manx Z editor, you'll
get a lot better use from your editor if you run it in conjunction with
TSnip. This version, V1.4a, includes support for the emacs editor in
addition to vi.

The latest version (1.4a) has proven to be so much more useful than 1.3
that I'd be remiss not to encourage small donations ($5 or $10) if you're
so inclined :-).

John Russell
5 Alderdice Place
St. John's, Newfoundland
Canada  A1B 2P8
[phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]    (...utai!garfield!john13)

Features:
    - area to be cut is outlined during cutting
    - text in target area prevented from scrolling while cut going on
    - for non-standard windows, you can tweak placement of the 8x8
      regions with command line arguments or via key commands
    - multiple save formats; the layout of the program makes it simple
      to add in your own if it isn't supported
    - recognize text in any colour, or combination of colours
    - recognize any 8x8 font; you must create special files using
      TSnipGen for fonts other than the default Topaz 8 (see docs for
      that program for more details)
    - control panel for mouse interaction, step-by-step explanations,
      and changing options
    - can operate on any screen, and move from one screen to another
    - co-operates with mouse handler programs like DMouse
    - startable from CLI or Workbench; options can all be specified for
      either environment
    - comes with source, support programs, and a selection of fonts
    - supports CLI "break" command for termination

    - enhances the functionality of vi or emacs if you use either of those
      editors

Currently supported:
     - print text to standard output
        - standard output sent to any file
        - change output file at any time
     - save text to PIPE: file
     - save text to clipboard
     - have text echoed as if typed
        - with carriage returns after each line
        - as one long unbroken line

TSnip is a program I wrote for three reasons:

1) I needed something like it.
2) I had heard there was a program to do it and wondered how it would be
   possible to "read" text from a window, since once the letters are plotted
   there's no record of them anywhere except as pixels on the screen.
3) As a spinoff of some of the ideas I had in writing TSnip the vi-controller
   was started as a seperate program. I've decided to incorporate it into
   this and future versions of TSnip since it only adds about 1.5k.

Using TSnip
-----------

1. Output Destination

    The main consideration when using TSnip is deciding how you want the text
you "cut" from a window to be saved. Since I couldn't find any one way which
was good enough for all cases, I allowed 5 alternatives, and made it
possible to switch between them at any time.

Print to standard output - this is the default if you don't specify anything
    else from the CLI. If you want to direct output to a file, use this mode
    along with the -o option, instead of using ">file" redirection. In this
    mode, multiple writes can be done to a single file which is closed when
    the program exits. All error messages are also sent to standard output.

Write to pipe: file - I don't know about anyone else, but I find a pipe
    facility very useful; I imagine it's also very under-used, so if you
    don't have either of the two PD or one commercial implementations
    available I advise you to look into getting one. Basically a pipe is a
    file you can read and write simultaneously. Only some small amount of
    space is used at a time (typically 4K) so you can send a 500K output
    file from one program as input to another program without ever having
    to save anything to disk. Once the last of the data has been read, the
    file disappears. Thus any editor or other program that accepts straight
    ASCII input can process text you save to a pipe.

NB: V1.4 corrects a bug which sent a null character at the end of each line
    of output to a pipe or stdout file and caused problems for some programs
    (like DME) that don't like nulls in their text.

Paste to Clipboard - this is another under-used feature of the Amiga, sadly
    most editors don't use the clipboard for their cut and paste buffers.
    If they did you would be able to cut a section of text in, say,
    AmigaBasic, and paste it into another editor, or vice versa. Complete
    interchangeability, in the same vein as IFF.

NB: I've implemented the clipboard section, however aside from verifying that
    the data is written and seems to be in correct format I don't know of
    anything I have that will read it, so that part can't be tested.

Keyboard - the program which inspired this one (if only by reputation) pastes
    its data this way, by fooling your computer into thinking you had re-
    typed the text you snipped. This is extremely useful, so I implemented it
    for V1.2. I also give two different sub-options here... you can have the
    text printed as a column, eg line1 <cr> line2 <cr> etc, or as one long
    line. The first example allows you to import a section of text unaltered
    into something like a word-processor, the second allows you to do
    something like type 'delete' and snip a bunch of filenames which will be
    pasted back into the command line. When either of these output modes are
    selected, the next window to be activated after some text is cut will
    receive the text. If you want to make multiple snips in this mode, the
    -a option may be handy, it prevents you from having to manually click on
    the TSnip window after each paste operation. The keyboard option with
    carriage returns is the default if you start TSnip from the Workbench
    and don't specify a different paste method in the icon tooltypes.


2. Command line options.

    TSnip features about a gazillion command line options. As new features
get added I'm sure more will follow. To get the most from the program you
will need to know what they all do. Nearly all of them can be turned on or
off from within the program itself, but once you know how you want the
program to operate it's faster to do all the setup as you run it (especially
if you define an alias within a shell to run it with all your favourite
options).

    Output
    ------

    -s: output text goes to standard output, which is the CLI window or
        a file like PRT: or RAM:file. Under the 1.3 system software you
        can use the SPEAK: device as the destination to have the text
        read to you from the screen!

    -c: output text goes to the clipboard

    -p: output text goes to the file PIPE:tsnip (requires the pipe: device)

    -k: output text goes, as if typed, into the next window to be
        activated; each line is terminated by a return

    -K: output text is handled identically to -k except it is pasted as
        one long line using spaces instead of returns

    Window Activation
    -----------------

    -a: when output is going to keyboard, re-activate the TSnip window
        after each paste finishes

    -m: co-operate with a mouse handler, like DMouse or QMouse; when the
        TSnip window is activated or deactivated a command will be executed
        to change the options for the handler, so that you can have auto-
        activation of windows disabled only while it's necessary for TSnip
        to function. The file handler-commands in your S: directory holds
        the two commands which change these options.

    Offsets
    -------

    any two numbers: these will be taken as an offset to be used in
        positioning the text-recognition box; negative numbers should
        be preceded by a negative sign, positive numbers don't need a
        sign. TSnip by default recognizes text which is positioned in
        windows at the same position as used by console windows. However
        programs that don't use the console can plot text at any pixel
        position they like (for instance VT100 plots text at an offset
        of 0 & -1 from the default). If you don't know the offset
        beforehand you can find it by trial and error while TSnip is
        running; see the section on interaction for details on that.

    Editor control
    --------------

    -e: go straight into editor mode; instead of cutting text TSnip will
        let you use the mouse for cursor positioning in an editor which
        doesn't already use the mouse

    -vi: set up TSnip to send vi cursor-position commands; doesn't set
         editor mode automatically

    -emacs: TSnip will send emacs cursor-position commands while in editor
            mode

    -z: use this option if you are using the Aztec Z editor (a vi clone);
        it corrects a bug in Z's positioning commands. This option sets
        the -vi option too.

    -vt100: if you will be doing your editing in VT100 this sets the right
            offsets for doing cursor positioning in that window

    NB: The -vi, -emacs, -z and -vt100 options are "hints" to TSnip. You
        should use whatever combination best applies to you, for instance
        I always use -vi and -vt100... even if I don't expect to need to
        use the edit-control mode.

    Miscellaneous
    -------------

    -f <fontname>: recognize text in a particular font; you must use
        TSnipGen to create a bitmap file for that font, and put the
        bitmap file (with a .fontdef extension) in your S: directory.

    -o <filename>: text which is pasted to standard output will be directed
        into the named file. This could be a disk file, or the printer,
        or to any other more permanent storage spot than the CLI window.

    on <screenname>: open the TSnip window on the named screen; the details
        of this process, such as dealing with screens that have no title,
        are covered later on in this document.


3. Workbench Support.

    This version is the first to support the Workbench. When you run TSnip
from its icon, without any tooltypes set up, it's the equivalent of
running: "tsnip -k -a" (since standard output isn't too useful from the
Workbench unless you specify an output file).

    All command line options may be specified via the tooltypes field of
the icon, and all are optional. The way to make TSnip recognize your
favourite set of options is to single click on the TSnip icon, select
the "Info" menu item of Workbench, and when the Info window opens press the
button marked "add" and type into the corresponding string gadget a line of
the form "KEYWORD=OPTION" for each option you wish to set.

The options supported are:

FILE=output filename for pasting to stdout
PASTE=STDOUT, CLIP, PIPE, KEY, or KEYNOCR
REACTIVATE=TRUE or FALSE
MOUSECONTROL=TRUE or FALSE
FONT=fontname
SCREEN=screenname or "-null" if the screen is untitled
XOFFSET=offset value
YOFFSET=offset value
EDITMODE=TRUE or FALSE
EDITWINDOW=z or vt100
EDITOR=vi or emacs

Notes - If you specify one offset the other must be given too.
        The fontname is given as for instance "topaz" or "pearl", no ".font".


4. Interaction (keyboard/mouse control).

    When the TSnip window is active, the RIGHT mouse button can be used to
outline a rectangular area of text within whichever window the mouse is
currently over. After the text of the area has been interpreted the area
will flash to let you know it is done. While you are operating on the window
it will not change (eg scroll).

    When the special edit mode is enabled, the right button is used to
position the cursor within an editor that doesn't have mouse control. You
can tell when edit mode is turned on by looking at the TSnip window's
title which changes to reflect the mode. In edit mode, you click the
right mouse button once directly over the cursor's current position and
once over the desired new position. TSnip then sends the proper keystrokes
to the window to move the cursor there. Editors currently supported are
vi and emacs.

    Most command-line options can be changed by using the keyboard while TSnip
is the active window. The current key commands are:

    - s: change output destination to standard output (usually the CLI
         window)
    - p: direct output to the file pipe:tsnip
    - c: direct output to the clipboard
    - k: direct output to the keyboard
    - K: same as k except text is pasted as one long line

    - a: toggle automatic window activation when k/K selected

    - u: move the expected location of characters in a window UP by 1 pixel
    - d: move the expected location of characters in a window DOWN 1 pixel
    - l: move the expected location of characters in a window LEFT 1 pixel
    - r: move the expected location of characters in a window RIGHT 1 pixel
    - <return>: reset the offset back to (0,0), the default for console
                windows

NB: while in edit mode, toggled by the e key, the above 5 keys affect the
    position at which TSnip considers a row or column to start. That is
    there is a seperate 'cursor position' offset in addition to the one
    used for the text recognition box.

    - q: print the colour (as pen #) of the pixel directly below the mouse.
         Mnemonic is "query". Useful for diagnosing problems in windows.

    - <space>: close one or both TSnip windows and re-open them on the next
               screen down. Brings that screen to the front.

    - m: issue commands to enable or disable mouse handler programs when the
         TSnip window becomes active or inactive. See the section on the
         handler-commands file.

    - e: toggle edit mode. In edit mode the mouse is used for cursor
         positioning. When edit mode is turned off, the mouse functions
         to cut and paste text as usual.

5. Where the TSnip window opens.

    The "on" option lets you select the screen upon which TSnip opens a
window. The default is the Workbench screen, as if you had entered
"TSnip on Workbench". There is some flexibility in the way you specify the
window -- upper and lower case is not significant, and only the first word
of the title is considered. So if a program has a screen opened called
"MY PROGRAM'S SCREEN © 1988" you'd only need to say "tsnip on my" to select
that screen. Also, since many screens open without any title, entering "-null"
instead of a regular title causes TSnip to use the first untitled screen it
comes across. Some screens may cause difficulties in determining their
title, so I included a short program called "Menu" that I wrote way back in
the dark ages. It'll print out all screen titles, in context, with <NULL>
for untitled screens.

    When the TSnip window is open on a screen other than the Workbench,
please use extreme caution to avoid having that screen close. Either kill
TSnip first or move it to a different screen.

6. What to do with the PIPE: file.

    What I personally do is to create a macro within text editors to insert
the text straight into the editor window, or use the "insert file" option
from a menu, with filename pipe:tsnip. In DME this can be done by:

map s-f1 `insfile pipe:tsnip'

    You may wish to surround the new area with blank lines or do some more
formatting on it, but just the command to "read the file pipe:tsnip into the
editor window" should work with _any_ word-processor or editor that supports
such an operation (almost all). If your editor doesn't or you don't have a
pipe: device, you can use the keyboard output option to achieve essentially
the same result.

    BTW, this allows me to use "cut and paste" between multiple windows in
editors that don't have built-in support for it, or between different
editors.

    It's slightly more convenient to use a pipe than a regular file in many
cases, since when output is to a file you must close the file (by selecting
a different filename on the control panel, or clearing the filename gadget)
before you can read it. The pipe file can be opened for reading (multiple
times if you like) without needing to close it first.


7. Problem windows.

    Some windows appear to yield nothing but unrecognized text. If this
happens you can almost certainly remedy the problem by using the u, d, l
and r keys while TSnip is running to move the text-outline box to the exact
position required by that particular window. "Blitz" and "Keep" are two
programs that open troublesome windows, but they can be TSnipped from OK
with a bit of experimentation. Once you have found the proper offsets for
a particular window you can give them as command line arguments to avoid
any hassles in the future.

    Large areas of reversed text, or green-on-purple on some multicolour
screen, will likely be tough to tsnip from. However you can use the control
panel to do it like this:

    - activate the TSnip window, and open the control panel
    - position the mouse pointer over the window you want to get text from,
      directly above an area in the same colour as the text
    - press 'q' to query the pixel colour below the mouse. It will be
      displayed on the status line of the control panel. This is the colour
      the text is drawn in, and should be between 0 and 31.
    - enter that number in the "textpen" string gadget of the control panel

    Now only text in that colour will be recognized, but the background
will be ignored no matter what colour it is. If you erase the number in
the textpen gadget TSnip will again recognize text in any colour, but only
against a background in colour #0 (the standard background).


8. Handler-commands file.

    This can be located in your current directory or, preferably, in S:.
The first line should be the command used by your favourite input handler
(mine is DMouse) to turn OFF window auto-activation. The second line
should be the command to turn it back ON. I recommend using an explicit
path for the commands, otherwise you may get a requester asking you to
put back the disk from which you ran TSnip.

My handler-commands file looks like this (note that the first command should
be on the VERY FIRST line of the file):

c:dmouse -A0 -c2
c:dmouse -A3 -c2

    When using this option you must have the regular AmigaDOS Run command in
your C: directory (as opposed to the ARP Arun). It's a really good idea to
have addbuffers or FaccII running, or the necessary commands in a ramdisk.
This is because a command will be run each time the main TSnip window
is activated or inactivated while the -m option is in effect.

9. Control panel.

    This is a tremendously useful addition. The initial TSnip window is
only a strip so as not to clutter your screen. If you need some features
or extra information, you can click on the "Panel" gadget and open a second
window with gadgets galore. Hitting that gadget again, or the close box
of the new window, gets rid of the control panel without terminating TSnip.

    Your current output destination will be highlighted. You can change it
by clicking on any of the other output gadgets or via the keyboard
equivalents. The File gadget holds the name of the file you may have
specified in the -o command line option. You can change this at any time,
and the old file will be closed and the new one opened. If you erase the
filename entirely, output will be printed on the screen (to stdout for you
C people).

    The font currently being recognized is named by the Font gadget. This
must be an 8x8 font for which you have a .fontdef file in your current
directory or in S:. These special files are created by the TSNIPGEN program
that should be included as part of this distribution. If there is no file
named in the Font gadget TSnip will use an internal bitmap of the topaz 8
font in Kickstart 1.2. You can change the font at any time, or erase the
contents of the gadget to go back to the default font.

    Most text can be read without concern for its colour. But some text,
for instance text in the titlebars of most windows, is not plotted against
a clear background and confuses TSnip. If you want to read some text that
is like this, use the "q" key to determine what colour the _text_ is in
that area, by moving the mouse above the text and pressing "q" while the
TSnip window is active. You will see a message in the control panel telling
you what colour the text is in. Then type the number which corresponds to the
text colour into the TextPen gadget.

    If you are at all unsure how TSnip is working, look at the bottom line
of the control panel. As TSnip does its work it prints plain English
descriptions of the steps it takes here. Helpful information is present
for almost any action you take.

    Other features may be added to the control panel as I think of them or
as people suggest them.


10. Syntax & Examples.

tsnip             <-  program will print all messages to the CLI (default)
tsnip -s          <-  identical to above

tsnip -o prt:     <-  redirect output to the printer. You can cut
                      multiple pieces of text and have them all
                      printed this way.

tsnip -o df0:file <-  same deal, except text is all saved in a file

tsnip -p          <-  text is written to a file called "pipe:tsnip".
                      If you don't have a pipe device, you can re-
                      assign pipe: to somewhere else, although this
                      is less convenient.

tsnip -c          <-  text is written to the clipboard, unit #0

tsnip -k          <-  text written to keyboard when next window activated
tsnip -K          <-  same as above, but text written as one long line

tsnip 2 1         <-  to snip text from a non-standard (ie non-console)
                      window, you can specify an (x,y) offset from the
                      normal cut position within the window. For
                      instance, many versions of VT100 require that you
                      give an offset of (0,-1) to work properly. If you
                      specify one offset, you must specify both. Note
                      that you can also use the keyboard to adjust the
                      exact positioning of characters within a window.

tsnip -k 0 -1     <-  combination of an output option with x,y offsets

tsnip -f pearl    <-  use file "pearl.fontdef" or "s:pearl.fontdef" so
                      as to recognize text in the pearl 8 font

tsnip -a          <-  when using output to keyboard, the TSnip window will
                      be re-activated once the text is pasted to the
                      output window

tsnip -m          <-  use file "handler-commands" or "s:handler-commands"
                      to control a mouse utility program

tsnip -e          <-  set edit mode, in which the mouse lets you move the
                      cursor in vi

tsnip on workbench  <-  open window on Workbench screen, the default

tsnip -a -K 0 -1 on VT100   <- going whole hog here, output is to keyboard
                               without linefeeds, the TSnip window will
                               automatically re-activate itself after each
                               snip, it will open its window on the custom
                               screen of VT100, and the character location
                               will be offset the right amount to recognize
                               text on that screen

My standard usage is "tsnip -a -k -m -o prt: -vt100 -vi", and I use keyboard
controls and the control panel to set other options as I need them, such as
moving to the VT100 screen or recognizing a different font. The option
-vt100 means that if I need to make use of the vi cursor-positioning
capabilities, I will be using the VT100 window. The alternatives to this
option are -z (when using the Manx Z editor), or no specification at all.


11. Added bonus for users of the 'vi' or 'emacs' editors.

    I frequently make use of the Unix editor 'vi' when I'm telecommunicating.
Many other Amiga users do too, and a number also use the vi-clone 'Z' that
comes with the high-end version of the Aztec compiler. Now vi is a great
editor for getting things done... except in the area of cursor controls!
Finding your way around the screen is a very arduous task indeed. The same
is true of emacs -- I mean, using ^P, ^N, ^F and ^B for cursor movements???

    But no more! If you are running TSnip 1.4 you have, in addition to a
cut and paste utility, a cursor-controller for use with these editors which
will let you move the cursor around with the mouse; this lets you position
the cursor or delete a range of lines very easily.

    The editor control in TSnip is a seperate mode: while it's turned on you
won't be able to cut and paste. But you can toggle the 'edit' feature
by using the e key, or by giving the option -e from the CLI. If you
use Workbench, you can make edit mode the default by adding the tooltype
EDITMODE=TRUE to the TSnip icon. At any time when in edit mode, the e key
will flip you back to regular cut and paste operation.

    You position the cursor in edit mode using the right mouse button while
the small TSnip window is active. First put the pointer above the window
which contains your terminal program or the Z editor, directly over the
cursor. Click the RMB once. Now position the pointer over the spot you want
to move to and click. Voila! There's the cursor.

    Deleting lines in vi will also be enhanced using TSnip. If you want to
delete either forward or backward over a specified range of lines, put the
cursor on either the first or last line of the range. Enter "d" _in the
editor window_ (not the TSnip window), then go through the procedure for
cursor positioning to move the cursor to the other end of the range. All
lines including the ones delimiting the range will be deleted. If you want
to yank a range of lines, again you can do it the same way by entering the
initial "y" command in the editor window then positioning the cursor.

    I'm not familiar enough with emacs to say whether you can do similar
tricks there too. But I expect inventive minds will find some :-).

    There are some things you must know in order for the process to go
smoothly. First, TSnip needs to know where you're running the editor since
you might be doing it local or in a terminal window. There are 4 command
line options defined that TSnip can use to tell exactly how it should act
in edit mode. These are:

    - from CLI: inform TSnip about special editor windows with -z or -vt100
                tell TSnip what editor you will be using with -vi or -emacs

    - from Workbench: a tooltype EDITWINDOW=z or vt100
                      a tooltype EDITOR=vi or emacs

    It's especially important if you're using Z, due to a bug in Z's
cursor positioning routine (it thinks column numbers start at 0 when using
the | position command). If you omit these specifications, cursor movement
will still work but you may need to use u, d, l, and r keys while in edit
mode to position the 8 x 8 hitbox TSnip uses to tell where a row or
column starts. These offsets are seperate from those used when snipping
text.

NOTE:   There is no reliable way to deal with lines longer than 80 columns
        which wrap on the screen. If you move the cursor across one of
        these lines the cursor will end up one row off from your intended
        destination (still much better than the clumsy manual method of
        positioning).

    If anyone wishes to add similar routines for other editors like
EDT, etc. please do so and send them to me. I will incorporate them
into future versions of TSnip.


12. Credits.

    Window-locating routine by
        Davide P. Cervone
    Bug fix for setting/restoring drawmodes suggested by
        Leo Schwab
    Idea for improving efficiency via ModifyIDCMP from
        Bryce Nesbitt
    Several who responded with the idea of using a union to achieve about
        a 200% speed increase in text recognition
    Clipboard code from an example by
        Andy Finkel and Bob "Kodiak" Burns
    Code to send events to the input device adapted from "Ping" by
        Chris Saulit
    A timely reminder when I had quite forgotten about Snip from
        Phil Kasten
    SetFont, the program which makes the font options worthwhile, by
        Dave Haynie
    Greatly helpful feedback and suggestions, plus uploading to PLink, from
        Cas Borkowski (PLink SRU885)
    Workbench support code taken from CMD by
        Carolyn Scheppner