DP Tool Club 12/CD_ASCQ_12_0294.iso/maj/2053/columbus.doc

Text File | 1993-12-13 | 24KB | 553 lines

Columbus.doc
                       Text of the Columbus Demo

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     1.

                     Welcome to MAPIT's Columbus Demo

    To gain an overview of MAPIT, click each successively numbered
    triangle with the Left Mouse button to follow MAPIT's Columbus Demo.

    Data behind a triangle is called "hidden text" and can be viewed by
    clicking on the triangle with the Left Mouse button.  Clicking again
    hides the text.

    You can also print and follow along from the text of the demo found
    in the file COLUMBUS.DOC.

    The data you are now reading was copied from the file COLUMBUS.MP3
    into EXTENDED.MP3 for display by MAPIT.  When you've finished with
    the Columbus Demo, remove it by deleting EXTENDED.MP3

    The top of the screen has Mouse-activated pull down menus.

    The bottom of the screen holds the MAPIT status line displaying Zoom
    Factor, the approximate map scale, the distance across the center of
    the screen, and the Latitude/Longitude of the Mouse pointer.  Sometimes
    command instructions or information are written to this status line.

    Click the Mouse once to exit this window and again on triangle 2 to
    begin the Columbus Demo.

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     2.

     Let's follow Columbus's 1492 journey by zooming in on the
     Atlantic Ocean bounded by points 3 and 4 (Hudson Bay and The
     Sahara).

     Choose menu option "ZOOM/In by Corners" and DRAG the Mouse from
     point 3 through point 4.

     Dragging the Mouse involves moving the mouse to a point (corner),
     depressing the Left Button, dragging the mouse with the button
     STILL PRESSED to the second point (corner), and finally releasing
     the button.  (If you press and release the button without moving
     the mouse, nothing happens.)

     Now zoom in between points 3 and 4.

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     3.

     Zooming in reveals additional details: major rivers, national
     borders, and state borders in the US.

     The status line shows a zoom factor between 3 and 4 and a central
     screen width covering about 5000 miles.

     Measure the distance of Columbus's total journey from Spain to
     the Canaries to the Bahamas by choosing TOOLS/Distance and
     depressing and dragging the mouse from one point to the next,
     releasing at each point.  (This gives a Great Circle distance,
     not that of a constant-compass-bearing straight line.)

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     4.

     If you should want to express the distance of Columbus's
     transatlantic leg, some 3600 miles, in either nautical miles or
     kilometers, choosing DISPLAY/Statute Miles gives you the
     alternates in a third-level menu.

     Note that choosing one immediately updates the status line.
     You'll have to make the distance measurement over.

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     5.

     MAPIT enables you to navigate over the face of the globe by ZOOM
     and POSITION.

     ZOOM controls the zoom factor  -  the width of the displayed area
     and POSITION, where the displayed area is centered.

     You can POSITION by Centering, Dragging, or by entering explicit
     Latitude/Longitude coordinates.

     Choose POSITION/Center and click on the New World end of the
     Columbus voyage (approximately 24 N, 74 W according to the status
     line).

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     6.

     The background latitude/longitude grid, which is painted on your
     screen in gray, can be hard to see unless your terminal controls
     are adjusted just right.  This grid can be toggled on and off
     with DISPLAY/GRID.  Toggle it off, noting that the command takes
     effect immediately.

     Similarly turn off the Political labels from the DISPLAY menu.

     Country and state names don't immediately disappear.  Choose

     ZOOM/Redisplay to redraw the screen.

     Go to 6A.

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     6A.

     Draw a circle 2,000 miles in diameter centered on Cuba using the
     TOOLS/Circle menu.  (Tools/Fast circle may work better if your
     computer doesn't have a math coprocessor.)  As you drag the mouse
     increasing the circle's radius, notice that the radius appears in
     the foot's lower left corner.  The area within the circle is also
     displayed.  (You are witnessing a fact which disturbed the
     President during the early 1960's.)


     Why isn't the circle circular as it increases in size?  You are

     witnessing distortion in the higher latitudes due to the map's

     Mercator projection.  Later try measuring large circles and

     distances at the Standard World (Zoom = 1).  As curves flip over

     the poles, they do strange things.

     Go to 6B.

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     6B.

     MAPIT supports two forms of output: .PCX screen dumps and HP-GL/2
     plotter output.


     Create a .PCX file by choosing TOOLS/Plot PCX.  You can plot
     either full or partial screen and can, if you so desire, invert
     (turn black to white) before plotting the screen.  At a later
     time (or now if you're running MAPIT in a Windows' DOS box and
     opt to ALT TAB to another task) you can import the newly created
     .PCX file into a paint brush program for further processing or
     output to your printer.  (Children love flood-filling the oceans
     blue in paint.)


     Plot HP-GL/2 supports more detailed pen plotter type output to
     either files, HP LaserJet III laser printers, or pen plotters.
     You can import HP-GL/2 files into more advanced word processors
     (e.g. MS Word for Windows ver 2.0c) to create high-quality
     compound documents.


     Go to 6C.


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     6C.

     There are several ways to ZOOM.  You've already ZOOMed/In by
     Corners which changes both the zoom factor and the center of the
     screen.  You can ZOOM/In by or Out by a Factor, such as 2.  You
     can ZOOM/To Standard World, the initial whole-world display
     centered on lat/long 0 0.

     Don't confuse ZOOM/To Factor X with ZOOM/To Scale X.  Scale is an
     inverse relationship with respect to zoom factor and will give
     unexpected large zooms if small numbers are entered.

     Choose ZOOM/To Factor X and enter "40" to move in.

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     7.

     The first thing you probably noticed was the lack of detail in
     the islands.  They look like narrow triangles!  A considerable
     amount of data is required to support even a moderate zoom of 40.
     The shareware version you're using supports a world-wide zoom of
     only 6.  Even the MAPIT Basic World Data supports only zoom 24.
     (These islands, however, look much better at that detail.) Notice
     that Cuba, supporting detail to approximately 750, is provided as
     an example of the Detailed Data optionally available by continent
     with MAPIT.

     The Morrison Track of Columbus's voyage supports the traditional
     landfall on San Salvador (Watling Island).  See hidden text
     following the landfall date for the source of the alternate site
     and Judge Track.

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     7A.

     You can move figures (simple line drawings) to new locations
     quite easily.

     Move Columbus's ship figure by choosing the EDIT/Change/figure
     menu options, dragging a rectangle around the ship to select it,
     and selecting Move from the figure change menu.

     Cross hairs appear at the "origin" point of the ship figure.  If
     you pressed the left mouse button without moving the mouse, the
     ship would go right back  where it originally was.  Move the
     cross hairs to a new location and press the left button.  You've
     moved the ship!

     Choose POSITION/Drag to move that portion of Cuba at the lower
     left of your screen where Columbus landed to the center of your
     screen.  Do this by clicking on your point of interest and
     dragging it to the screen's center.

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     8.

     Notice the cities of Cuba.  The ones marked by stars are
     provincial capitals.  (Havana, the national capital, is off the
     screen to the north west.)  Selecting a city with the Left Mouse
     button displays that city's population.

     If cities of all sizes were always displayed, they would clutter
     the screen beyond recognition.  Therefore cities are made visible
     by zoom factor according to size.

      zoom      min size

        10      500,000 or national capital
        30       50,000
       300        5,000
       750          all  (Italic font)

     You can display city markers only or completely ignore cities
     altogether.  Choose DISPLAY/Cities and "City markers only" from
     the third menu level.  Then repaint the screen by choosing
     ZOOM/Redisplay.

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     9.

     The Tab key has a special meaning in MAPIT.  It will toggle you
     back and forth between your current position and your last one.

     Enter the Tab key twice.

     You can also save up to 36 locations with the regular alphabetic
     and numeric keys.  Choose "POSITION/Save as" and enter the letter
     "A".  The current location is now saved in "A".

     Tab to the last location and then enter "A".  You will find
     yourself right back "here".  Unlike the tab key, however, "A"
     will always bring you back to "here" unless you redefine "A".

     ZOOM/In by Corners on the small bay on the southeastern shore of
     Cuba south of Guantanamo near 20N 75W.  (You may need to select
     cities of all sizes back on.)

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     10.

     The US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, American's toe-hold in Cuba,
     is delineated by a red international border.

     ZOOM/In by Corners to that the naval reservation fills the entire
     screen.  This will put you at a zoom factor of about 2500.

     Zoom in and investigate the two areas named Fonts and Colors.
     Then look at hidden text 11.

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     11.

     You can choose from one of seven different style type faces each
     time you enter stroked text.  Face One, because of its
     simplicity, is the default.  Face Seven is a complex Old English
     face requiring more time to display, especially for those without
     a math chip.

     One of 16 colors is assigned to each of the 256 layers on which
     MAPIT entities are written.  Find out which is the "current
     layer", the one onto which new objects will be drawn, by choosing
     EDIT/Current Layer.  The status line gives the current layer and
     its color.  Type a return by itself to retain the same current
     layer.

     You can assign any color to any layer or turn layers on or off
     with EDIT/Set Layers.

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     12.

     You can tailor a map to a certain use by choosing which features
     to display.

     Turn off the display toggles DISPLAY/Grid and Major Rivers.
     They're off when the check mark isn't visible.  Major Rivers
     won't disappear until the next screen repaint.

     Reposition to mid-US by choosing POSITION/Lat/long and entering
     Latitude 40N, Longitude 95W, and Zoom 5.  Don't forget the Zoom!
     Then click on Go.

     The Lat/long method of positioning may not be quick the first
     time, but the last settings are remembered making it an easy way
     to return to a precise location.

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     13.

     Without rivers, the display of the US and southern Canada
     emphasizes the political.

     Now overlay rivers onto this display by toggling ON DISPLAY/Major
     Rivers and OFF DISPLAY/National Boundaries and State Boundaries.

     Be careful to choose ZOOM/Overwrite to overlay the current
     display WITHOUT first deleting it.

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     14.

     The rivers are now emphasized over the political boundaries by
     overlaying them.

     Without making any changes to the DISPLAY options, choose
     ZOOM/Redisplay to contrast the results when a clear is done
     first.

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     15.

     Different mapping objects are assigned to different layers.  You
     can achieve the same toggle effect in a more round-about way with
     EDIT/Set Layers/off.

     You can even make the rivers turn to blood as in Moses's day by
     EDIT/Set Layers/color and entering the Major Rivers layer 1 and
     setting it to color 12 (noting its default color 9).
     Zoom/Redisplay for full effect and then set layer 1 back to color
     9.  Don't forget to toggle on DISPLAY/State and National
     Boundaries and Grid.

     Use ZOOM/In by Corners to zoom in on the Havana, Cuba area (near
     23N 82W) at a zoom factor of 300.

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     16.

     EDIT/Insert brings up a third-level menu of objects which you can
     insert into your personal database.  MAPIT uses two databases:
     the main database (world.mp3 or demo.mp3) and a personal database
     defaulting to "extended.mp3".  When you add objects to the map,
     they are appended to the extended database.

     Choose EDIT/Insert/figure using the figure "truck".  (Figures
     must be preloaded by program FIGEDIT into the file "std.fig".)
     The figure appears in temporary graphics for sizing purposes.
     Accept the default scale factor of 10%.  Insert truck figures at
     three locations south of Havana using the Left Mouse button. Quit
     when finished with the Right button.

     Note that the figure was entered on the current layer in that
     layer's color.  You can organize and color your objects by
     entering them on different layers. (There are 14 colors
     defaulting to different layers.)  Layers 120 through 255 are
     reserved for the user.  The lower layers are used for objects in
     the main database.

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     17.

     EDIT/Delete is a DANGEROUS command.  With it you can delete
     objects from only the extended database.

     Choose EDIT/Delete DRAGGING a rectangle around one of your three
     truck figures.  All objects to be deleted will be highlighted in
     bright white.  If only a single truck is highlighted, answer "Y"
     to the question "Are you sure?"

     The truck is removed.  The deletion frame remains in case you are
     working with multiple complex objects.  ZOOM/Redisplay to get rid
     of it.

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     18.

     There are two types of text in MAPIT: Stroked and Hidden.

     Choose EDIT/Insert stroked text.  You are asked to select a
     temporary location to view text as you enter it.  Enter "Special
     Havana Shipment".  If you make a mistake, the backspace key
     deletes back a character-at-a-time.  The Enter (return) key is
     accepted as text taking you to the left margin of the next line
     for multi-line entry.  End text entry with the Escape key.

     A number of menu selections are displayed.  The Min and Max Zoom
     Factors refer to the range of zoom factors for which the text is
     visible.  Leaving them at 0 defaults visibility to the threshold
     zoom at which the text becomes legible.

     Valid Fonts are 1 - 7.  Note that complex fonts take longer to
     display.

     The Size is a magic number related to the current zoom factor.
     Remember the default size (0.0167) so you can go back to it.  Map
     Relative Text can't be larger than 10.  Try making it 0.1 and
     changing the font to 7.

     Map and Screen Relative refer to fixing the text relative to the
     map so that zooming will change its size or to the screen so that
     text size will be zoom invariant.

     Stroked text can be rotated at any angle, positive or negative,
     about its origin (rounded to the closest 2 degrees).

     Go to 18A.

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     18A.

     The text origin is important in inserting, displaying, or
     capturing (copying/deleting) text.  The origin is at the baseline
     left of the first character - the point you select when you
     insert text.

     For text to be displayed, the origin must be on the screen.  This
     explains why long text, whose front end is no longer in view on
     the screen, disappears, and why you can't see more than the lower
     left corner of the first letter of text which is too large.

     When you delete text, the rectangle must be around the text's
     origin, not necessarily around the text itself.

     Choose Location to insert a single instance of your "Special
     Havana Shipment" text below the trucks.

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     19.

     Choose EDIT/Insert hidden text.  A full screen window is
     presented into which you can type up to a whole page of
     information. (Scrolling is not supported.)

     You are actually in a mini editor with the arrow keys allowing
     you to  navigate through your text to make changes.  This editor
     supports word-wrap.  If you change the window's width, lines
     within paragraphs automatically adjust to fill the line measure.
     Because of this feature, you shouldn't type "Enter" (return) at
     the end of each line.  The return character is the paragraph
     delimiter.

     End text entry with an Escape.

     The Min Zoom Factor is that point at which the Hidden Text
     marking triangle, which is screen relative (constant size),
     becomes visible.  Visibility defaults to about 2/3 of the zoom
     factor in effect when the hidden text was entered.  A value of 0
     insures it is always visible.

     Window Width and Height display two values each.  The first is
     the current and the second, the computer's "suggested" setting.
     There is interaction between width and height.  The computer
     calculates the minimum width based on the longest line and the
     screen width, and given that width, calculates the required
     height.  If you enter a new width or height, the computer
     recalculates its suggested values.  Sometimes several iterations
     are necessary to fill the page as you want.  At any time you can
     View/Edit Text to review the current arrangement or to edit the
     text.  VIEW/Edit (Autosize) resets actual values to computer
     preferences.

     Go to 19A.

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     19A.

     For the purpose of this demo, enter text describing the contents
     or logistics of the Special Havana Shipment.

     Choose Location inside one of the truck bodies and Right click to
     exit.

     Verify that your hidden text is as you've entered it by clicking
     with the left button.

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     20.

     Choose EDIT/Insert line.  Enter a multi-segmented line between
     Havana and Guines representing a road.

     As you move the cursor during this command, notice that the
     latitude and longitude on the status line are continually updated
     to aide in accurate line positioning.

     Hold down the Left Mouse button and notice the temporary rubber
     band graphics tying the starting point to the current Mouse
     position.  Releasing the Left button fixes that line segment.

     If, while you are close to the end of that last segment, you
     press the Left button again, you'll begin a new segment connected
     to the last.  If, on the other hand, you click the Left button
     when you are a distance from the end of the last segment, the
     line is ended and temporary graphics replaced by a permanent
     line.

     If instead of clicking the Left button you click the Right, one
     segment of temporary graphics is deleted for each press and
     release.  If you try to back up beyond the start of the first
     line segment, the entire command is aborted.

     There are limits of approximately 100 feet to the accuracy of
     data entered into the database.  If you try to enter data more
     closely spaced than this, the temporary graphics will look good
     but will not be reflected in the database.

     Now enter the "road" between Havana and Guines.

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     21.

     Congratulations!  You have completed your overview of MAPIT and
     have exercised most of the commands.

     One last exercise will show the usefulness of the EDIT/Copy
     command.  The instructions for the MAPIT demo were supplied in
     COLUMBUS.MP3 and copied from there to EXTENDED.MP3.  You have
     inserted your own text and graphics into EXTENDED.MP3 mixing it
     with the demo text and graphics.  We will separate the two.

     Exit out of this program and at the command prompt

                     > ren  extended.mp3  combo.mp3
                     > mapit  combo

     Zoom back into the Havana area with a zoom factor of 300.

     EDIT /Set Layers off  133, the layer on which the demo graphics
     resides.

     EDIT/Copy DRAGGING a rectangle to encompass your Special Havana
     Shipment objects and answering "Y" to the prompt.  This command
     copies objects from the main database (COMBO) to the extended
     database.

     Exit MAPIT, compare the sizes of COMBO.MP3 and EXTENDED.MP3, and
     run MAPIT with DEMO.MP3 to show that you've successfully
     separated your Special Havana Shipment.

     This also shows how easy it is to share custom graphics and text
     with others.