LODRAW is a low resolution draw and paint program that uses virtually all the alphanumeric and graphic characters of the C64 character set, as displayed on the keyboard. Includes a character editor so you can redesign characters and create your own character sets, with which to draw designs. You can also design and use extra large QUADE characters.Your designs and character sets can then be saved to and loaded from disk.
RUN LODRAW and a flashing, rectangular pen will appear at center of a drawing pad that occupies all of the screen except for the bottom two lines.
The pen is moved around the pad (up, down, left, right) with a joystick in port 2 or by pressing the cursor keys (by themselves or with <SHIFT> held down). The comma key and the dot key can be used to move the pen left and up respectively without having to hold down <SHIFT>. If the pen is moved past the screen border, it will appear on the opposite side of the screen.
Pressing <RETURN> will move the pen to the left side of screen and down one line.
BACKGROUND AND BORDER COLORS: The black background of the pad can be changed to any of the 16 colors available on the C64 by pressing <INST DEL> until the background you want appears. Hold down <SHIFT> and press <INST DEL> to cycle through the 16 border colors.
The bottom screen line is the MODES INDICATOR, indicating the status of several dual-modes of LODRAW. The line above it is the pen color indicator.
The five dual-modes of LODRAW are GRAF/ALFA, REVERSE OFF/ON, SHIFT/CMDRE, DRAW/KEEP and EDIT OFF/ON.
Initially,LODRAW is in GRAF, REVERSE OFF, SHIFT and DRAW modes, as shown on the MODES INDICATOR. The number to the left of each mode indicator is the function key that switches between the dual modes. LODRAW is also in EDIT OFF, indicated by the rectangular shape of the pen.
Moving the pen in DRAW mode will draw the current pen character and pen color. The initial pen character is the pen rectangle, which has been assigned to screen code 0. Press <f7> or press fire button on joystick to switch between DRAW and KEEP. In KEEP the pen can be moved around the pad without erasing the characters it passes over or their colors: the pen neither draws nor paints. By holding down <SHIFT> and pressing <RETURN> you can switch to PAINT only mode: in PAINT the pen will not draw the pen character, but will change the color of those characters it passes over to the pen color. Press <f7> to quit PAINT.
The number that appears on the left side of the pen color indicator is the screen character code of the character under the pen.
In GRAF mode you can redefine the pen character to be any one of the graphic characters on the keyboard without having to hold down <SHIFT> or <CMDRE> (the logo key at bottom left of keyboard): simply press a key on which a graphic character is imprinted. The new pen character will appear in the middle of the MODES INDICATOR. In SHIFT mode, the new pen character will be the graphic character imprinted on the right side of the key. In CMDRE mode, the new pen character will be the graphic character on the left side of the key you pressed. Alternatively, you can select a graphic character for the pen by holding down <CMDRE> or <SHIFT> and pressing the key on which the graphic character is imprinted. With REVERSE ON, the newly defined pen character will be the reverse form of the character.
PEN COLOR: Still in GRAF mode, the number keys <1> to <8>, pressed by themselves or with <CMDRE> held down, select the pen color from the 16 colors available. The pen color is shown in the pen color line above the MODES INDICATOR.
GRAF/ALFA: Press <f1> to switch between GRAF and ALFA. In ALFA mode, pressing a key, by itself or with <SHIFT> or <CMDRE> held down, will define the corresponding alphanumeric or graphic character as the pen character. Since pressing a number key <1> to <8> by itself now defines the corresponding number character as the pen character, the first eight colors are now selected for pen color by first pressing the left arrow key in upper left of keyboard (this is the SELECT key) and then pressing a number key <1> to <8>. Do not hold down the SELECT key. In ALFA mode, <,> and <.> are not cursor keys.
You can define the pen character by screen character code: press the SELECT key, then press <=> and you will be prompted to enter a screen character code (0 to 255); the character assigned to that code will now be the new pen character.
You can also define the pen character by placing the pen over any character on the pad, then hold down <SHIFT> and press <SPACE>: the pen character is defined as the character under the pen.
<f3> switches between REVERSE ON and REVERSE OFF. With REVERSE ON and a normal pen character, the pen will draw the current pen character in reverse form. If pen character is reverse then, with REVERSE ON/OFF, the pen will draw the normal/reverse form of the character.
CLEAR SCREEN: hold down <SHIFT> and press <CLR HOME> to completely erase the draw pad. But don't despair if you have been too quick to get rid of your current design: you can recover your design from a buffer used by LODRAW by pressing the SELECT key (left arrow) and then pressing the up arrow key (to the left of the RESTORE key). This UNDO function can also be used to recover a design after many of the design altering operations yet to be described have been carried out.
USER BUFFERS: You will have noticed a number 1 at the far right of the MODES INDICATOR. If you press <CLR HOME> by itself, this number will switch between 1 and 2. The number indicates which of two USER BUFFERS is currently available for storing and retrieving a design along with its color and the character set used by it. So, in addition to the current design on screen, and perhaps an older design in the LODRAW BUFFER, you can have a further two designs stored in the two USER BUFFERS.
PUT: to store the on-screen design and its color and character set in the current USER BUFFER, hold down <SHIFT> and press the second function key from the top (<f4>).
GET: to retrieve a design/color/character set from the current USER BUFFER, hold down <SHIFT> and press the top function key (<f2>).
HORIZONTAL SHIFT: you can displace a row of characters left or right away from the pen: simply place pen on start character of row and press <:> to move row left or press <;> to move row right (in ALFA mode or EDIT ON mode, press SELECT key first). Each press of one of these keys will shift the row one position. The number of characters shifted (the length of the row) is the number that displays in the middle of the pen color indicator line See below for an explanation of this (PROJECTION) number and how it can be changed. If the projection number is 0, as it is when LODRAW is first run, then all characters up to the first space character will be shifted. These SHIFT facilities wrap-around the screen.
VERTICAL SHIFT: you can likewise displace a column of characters up or down away from the pen. Press </> (key left of right SHIFT key) to move a column down or hold down <SHIFT> and press </> to move a column up. Further details as for HORIZONTAL SHIFT.
QUADES: a quade is a pattern of four successive characters in the character set which can be drawn in a square to the right of the pen by pressing <9> (or <SELECT> then <9> if in ALFA or EDIT ON mode). The first character in a quade is the current pen character. To get the idea of the arrangement of a quade, define the pen character as 'A' or '1' and then press the quade draw key. Now define the pen character as the back-slash character on the 'M' key and draw the graphic quade that results from that. By using the CHARACTER EDITOR to redesign groups of four characters with successive screen character codes, you can design quade characters twice as tall and twice as wide as commodore characters.
SELECT ON/OFF SWITCH: there are many LODRAW facilities which are accessed through the SELECT (left arrow) key. Press SELECT key to switch SELECT ON: a rectangle will appear on the left of the MODES INDICATOR. Pressing <SELECT> again will switch SELECT OFF: a > will replace the rectangle. SELECT is also switched off whenever any operation you have selected is completed.
DISK SAVE: hold down <SHIFT> and press the bottom function key (<f8>) to save to disk a copy of the current on-screen design. Scrolling instructions will tell you what to do. File names can be up to 16 characters long. The first character of a file name is a left arrow character: this is inserted by LODRAW, so you need only type in the remainder of the file name of your choice, up to 15 characters. If you make a mistake while typing the file name, you can press the right-cursor key to erase the file name one character at a time to the left. A file contains the design on the pad, color information for the entire pad, background color and the current character set.
DISK LOAD: hold down <SHIFT> and press the second function key from the bottom (<f6>) to load a LODRAW design/color/character set file from disk. The design will appear on screen with original colors, characters and background color. You do not type in the first (left arrow) character of the file name; LODRAW does this for you.
SELECT ON FACILITIES: for each of the following facilities you must first press the SELECT key to switch SELECT ON, then press the key that activates the facility. << will be used to indicate the keys to press for facilities that require SELECT ON.
DISK SAVE/LOAD CHARACTER SET: <<f8>/<<f6>: similar to previously described disk save/load facilities, but only the character set is saved/loaded. The first character of a file name, inserted by LODRAW so don't type it, is a @ (within LODRAW the @ character appears as the pen rectangle character). This is used, rather than a left arrow, to distinguish character set only files from screen/color/character set files.
DISPLAY DISK DIRECTORY: <<D>: your design will be restored when you finish using this facility.
ERASE FILE FROM DISK: <<SHIFT> <D>: you must type the first character of the name of a file since LODRAW cannot know if it is a video/character set file (left arrow) or character set only file (@).
EDIT ON: <<A> switches to EDIT ON mode and the pen displays as a left arrow character. LODRAW is now used like a typewriter. Press any character key (except left arrow key which remains the SELECT key), by itself or with <SHIFT> or <CMDRE> held down, and the corresponding character will appear at the current pen position; the pen then moves one position to the right. This typewriter action works in DRAW and KEEP. The pen, however, still draws the pen character & color when it is moved using cursor keys or joystick in DRAW mode; switch to KEEP mode if you do not want this to happen. Dot and comma keys are not cursor keys when in EDIT ON, and you must use <SELECT> and a number key to define one of the first eight colors as pen color. Otherwise, except for SHIFT/CMDRE modes selection of graphic characters for the pen, all the facilities of LODRAW operate in EDIT ON as they do in EDIT OFF. In ALFA mode, whenever a character is typed that character also becomes the pen character.
Press <<A> to switch EDIT OFF.
PROJECTION NUMBER: this number, used in a variety of PROJECTION facilities, displays at the center of the pen color indicator line. It can be changed by pressing any key from <<Q> to <<P> in the second row from top of keyboard, the number set being the number of the key up-left of the key pressed: <<Q> sets 1, <<W> sets 2, etc. You can add 10 to the projection number by pressing <0>, or <<0> in ALFA mode or EDIT ON. This gives a range of 0 to 39 for the projection number.
BOX PROJECTION: <<B>: a square, made with the pen character & color, is drawn from the pen, with side length equal to the projection number.
DIAGONAL PROJECTION: <<f1> or <<f3> or <<f5> or <<f7>: a diagonal line, made with the pen character & color, is drawn from the pen with length equal to the projection number (but does not exceed screen border).
ORTHOGONAL PROJECTION: <<cursor> or <<joystick>: a line, made with the pen character & color, is drawn from the pen left, right, up or down, with length equal to the projection number.
In all these projection facilities, with REVERSE ON the inverse of the pen character will be drawn (the normal character and the reverse character are inverse of one another).
HIDE/SEE PEN switch: <<H>: to make pen invisible/visible.
DRIVE NUMBER switch: <<*>: switches drive number between 8 and 9; the default disk drive number is 8. This is the number used by LODRAW to save and load files to/from disk. The switch does NOT change the actual device number(s) assigned to the disk drive(s) connected to your computer.
<<V>: REPLACE every normal/reverse character on the pad with the reverse/normal form of that character.
<<G>: same as <<V> except normal space characters are not reversed.
To use the following REPLACE facilities, you must first place the pen over a character on the pad that you want to change (replace) wherever it occurs throughout the entire pad. Because all the REPLACE routines are written in BASIC, it will take a few seconds for LODRAW to scan the entire pad.
<<S> REPLACE the COLOR of all characters on the pad that match the character and color under the pen, with the pen color.
<<Z> REPLACE the COLOR of all characters on the pad that match the character (only) under the pen, with the pen color.
<<C> REPLACE all characters on the pad that match the character under the pen, with the pen character.
<<F> REPLACE all characters on the pad that match the character and color under the pen, with the pen character.
<<X> REPLACE all characters on the pad that match the (normal/reverse) character under the pen, with the reverse/normal form of that character.
UNDO: <<up arrow>: all the changes produced by a PROJECTION, REPLACE or GET operation can be undone, restoring your original design. But keep in mind that the LODRAW buffer only stores video and color information, unlike the USER buffers which also store the character set.
SWAP: <<@>: this facility transposes the pen character with the character on the pad that is currently under the pen, without swapping their screen character codes. The changes are made in the character set to the data associated with the two character codes. Result: instantaneous change of all characters on the screen associated with the two character codes.
CHARACTER EDITOR: <<INST DEL>:
The character editor allows you to redesign any character in the character set used by LODRAW.
You have two options of selecting a character for display.
Option1: press <f7> key, then type in the SCREEN DISPLAY CODE of the character (as listed in appendix E of the Commodore 64 User Manual). These codes, including reverse image codes, range from 0 to 255. If the character code is one or two digits long, you must press <RETURN> after typing the code. A three digit code is auto-accepted as soon as the third digit is typed in, and a bell sounds.
Option2: alternatively, you may press any character key on the keyboard, by itself, or with <CMDRE> or <SHIFT> held down. The corresponding character will then display.
The character with screen display code 0 has been redefined by LODRAW as a boxy graphic character, because this character is used by the character editor to display characters.
The display of the character you have selected lists the sequence of eight bytes that make up the character and the address in RAM where LODRAW stores each byte.
The screen display code of the character appears to the right of the blue line, with the actual character displayed below the code, and to the right of this the quade pattern of four successive characters beginning with the selected character.
An eight byte by eight bit blow-up display of the character (the EDIT) appears below the blue line. Each bit is either a blank (= 0) or a box (= 1), as determined by the byte that appears to the left of each line of the EDIT.
At this point you can return to start of VIEW CHARACTER selection by pressing <INST DEL> (pressing <INST DEL> at start of VIEW CHARACTER selection will quit the character editor and your design will be restored to the screen). Or you can press <f3> to display the next character in the character set (increment) or press <f5> to display the preceding character (decrement).
Otherwise follow through with the EDIT CHARACTER prompt. Here again you have two options.
Option1: If you have once before designed a new character and have a ready list of the eight bytes that code for it, you can press <RETURN> and type in your eight new bytes (pressing <RETURN> to complete entry of any one or two digit byte, with auto-entry for three digit bytes). A blow-up EDIT of the new character will appear, line by line, as you enter each byte. For any of the eight bytes, if you press <RETURN> only, the old byte for the character will be entered unchanged. At any time while typing in a byte, you can press <f7> or fire button to quit EDIT CHARACTER mode with all remaining bytes unchanged from old character.
When all eight bytes have been entered you can press <f7> key or fire button or <RETURN> to go back to VIEW CHARACTER mode with character changes made in EDIT CHARACTER mode intact. Or press <f3> or <f5> for increment or decrement.
Option2: If, instead, you press <f7> or the fire button in response to the EDIT CHARACTER prompt, a flashing asterisk cursor will appear in the upper left bit position of the EDIT and a menu of EDIT facilities will display in lower half of screen. You can move the cursor either from the keyboard or with the joystick.
Press SPACE BAR to move the cursor down.
Press <,> to move cursor left.
Press <.> to move cursor right.
Press any letter key from <D> to <L> to move cursor up.
All movements of cursor are wrap-around.
At any position on the EDIT, press <RETURN> or FIRE button on joystick to switch the bit under the cursor. If the bit was 0 (a blank), it will be set to 1 (a box will appear); if the bit was 1 (a box), it will reset to 0 (a blank will appear). Changing any bit will change the byte that contains the bit, as displayed to the left of the EDIT, and change the corresponding character in the character set, as shown in the character display on the right.
<Z> BLANK CHARACTER: this zeroes the character, blanking all the bits, making a space character.
<X> FILL CHARACTER: this sets all the bits, making a full (reverse space) character.
<A> BLANK ROW: the row the cursor is located on is blanked (the byte is zeroed)
<S> FILL ROW: the row the cursor is located on is filled (the byte set to 255).
<Q> BLANK COLUMN: the column the cursor is in is blanked (the corresponding bit is reset for all eight bytes making up the character).
<W> FILL COLUMN: the column the cursor is in is filled (the corresponding bit is set for all eight bytes).
<V> REVERSE: every set/reset bit is reset/set, changing the character to its reverse image; using this key again will restore the normal image character.
<B> VERTICAL INVERSE: the character is flipped up side down.
<N> HORIZONTAL INVERSE: the character is flipped left to right.
<C> COPY CHARACTER: this facility allows you to copy the current character being edited into any character (other than the character with screen code 0) in the character set. Simply type in the screen code of the character you want to copy to, pressing <RETURN> if the code has less than three digits. Press <f7> if you change your mind and don't want to copy.
<SHIFT> <C> COPY QUADE: allows you to copy the four successive characters starting from the EDIT character to another location in the character set. Type in the screen character code (but not 0 or any code above 252) you want the quade copy to start from.
<R> ROTATE CHARACTER: rotates the EDIT character a quarter turn in clockwise direction.
<SHIFT> <R> ROTATE QUADE: rotates quade starting with EDIT character a quarter turn in clockwise direction. Handy to use with COPY QUADE: duplicate a quade and rotate the duplicate. Three copies of the original quade can be made so that each of the four has a different orientation.
<M> AUTO EDIT ON/OFF SWITCH: With auto edit on, the character editor will enter EDIT CHARACTER mode option 2 every time you select a character in VIEW CHARACTER mode, or use the increment/decrement keys.
<Y> EDIT QUADE: a blow-up EDIT of the quade displays; you can move the cursor to any bit in the 16 X 16 EDIT and switch it on or off. This allows you to design a quade as a single character, or edit the four characters that make up the quade on a single screen.
<P> EXPAND TO QUADE: enlarges the current edit character into the quade that starts from that character.
You can quit EDIT CHARACTER mode either by pressing < f7> (retaining all character changes) or <f3> (increment) or <f5> (decrement).
If you choose to increment to the next character in the character set, then the quade that displays will be the same quade that appeared when you selected your first character. This allows you to redesign the four successive characters in the quade, one after the other, and to view the resulting quade pattern.
<< before a key means that SELECT must be switched on first.
<f1> GRAF/ALFA
<f3> REVERSE ON/OFF
<f5> SHIFT/CMDRE graphics selection
<f7> or fire button DRAW/KEEP
<<=> define PEN CHARACTER by SCREEN CHARACTER CODE
<SHIFT> <SPACE> define PEN CHARACTER as pad character under PEN
<INST DEL> BACKGROUND COLOR cycles thru 16 colors
<SHIFT> <INST DEL> BORDER COLOR cycles thru 16 colors
<SHIFT> <CLR HOME> CLEAR PAD
<CLR HOME> USER BUFFERS SWITCH
<<1> to <<8> PEN COLORS
<CMDRE> <1> to <8> PEN COLORS
<SHIFT> <RETURN> PAINT: <f7> to quit PAINT
<JOYSTICK> or <CURSORS> MOVE PEN up, down, left, right
<,> MOVE PEN LEFT (GRAF, EDIT OFF)
<.> MOVE PEN UP (GRAF, EDIT OFF)
<f4> PUT screen/color/character set in USER BUFFER
<f2> GET screen/color/character set from USER BUFFER
<<UP ARROW> UNDO: restore previous version of pattern
<<M> MESSAGE
The remaining instructions apply only to the LODRAW HELP version of LODRAW:-
If you are uncertain of the nature of a LODRAW facility (and can't be bothered to look up the instructions) or whether a facility is accessed through a particular key, then you can press <RUN STOP> for help, then press the key you think accesses the facility. A help message will scroll across the bottom of the screen. Most facilities are catered for, and for most of these you do not have to press <SELECT> first to obtain the help message.
To quit LODRAW, hold down <CMDRE> and press <RUN STOP>.27,69 hj~46
