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CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso
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RIPSPY.DOC
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1995-01-12
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RRRRRRR IIIIII PPPPPPP
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RRRR II PPPPPP
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RRR RRR IIIIII PPPP spy
Version 1.01
Remote Imaging Protocol (RIPscrip) Viewer
Manual and Software
Copyright (C) 1994 by Zachary G. Ives
All Rights Reserved
RIPscrip is a trademark of Telegrafix Communications, Inc.
DISCLAIMER AND LICENSE
By using this software, you agree to the following
conditions.
The author, Zachary G. Ives, makes no warranty, either
express or implied, with regard to this software. To the best of
the author's knowledge at the time of release, the program worked
correctly when tested. It may not work on all machines or all
copies of WWIV. The author will attempt to rectify any problems,
but can make no guarantees.
The author will not be held liable for the use, misuse, or
failure to use this software. Any losses or damages, financial
or otherwise, are the sole responsibility of the licensee.
You are licensed to evaluate this program for a reasonable
amount of time, but must "register" it with the author after a
reasonable period of time. The registration fee of $10 entitles
you to higher-priority technical support, possible discounts on
other products from the author, and a clear conscience.
Under the condition that you do not modify either the
program or its documentation, you may distribute this program in
its entirety to others. You are encouraged to upload it to other
bulletin boards. This program may also be distributed on disk,
provided the distributor makes it clear that he/she is charging
only for shipping and handling, and provided the fees are no more
than $5.00 per disk.
THE RIPspy RIP VIEWER
BASIC OPERATION
It's likely that just about anyone with DOS experience will
be able to use RIPspy without reading the manual. However, you
might be able to gain something from reading the manual.
The basic syntax is:
RIPSPY <filespec>
where filename is either a pathname to a certain RIP file,
or a wildcard specification. If you don't give any extension,
.RIP is assumed. Thus you can do:
RIPSPY HELLO
to show HELLO.RIP; or:
RIPSPY \WWIV\RIPMENUS\*.MN?
to display all the .MN? files in the \WWIV\RIPMENUS directory.
FONT AND ICON FILES
By default, RIPspy expects you to have Telegrafix's RIPterm
installed on your machine, with font files in \RIPTERM\FONTS and
icons in \RIPTERM\ICONS or the current directory. If this is not
the case, you can use the command SET RIPPATH = {path} to tell it
where to look.
If you have no RIPPATH and no RIPTERM\FONTS or RIPTERM\ICONS
directory, RIPspy will ask you for the correct directories.
RIP COMMANDS SUPPORTED
In general, RIPspy supports nearly all of RIPscrip's
commands with few limitations, as discussed below. It also
supports the majority of ANSI codes, plus the WWIV BBS program's
color and substitution codes (which begin with ASCII 3 and ASCII
15, respectively).
One integral feature that most other RIP viewers do not
support is the TTY/ANSI text window. Normal text or ANSI codes
will be displayed within this window, rather than anywhere else
on the screen. RIPspy displays the MicroANSI (91x43), normal
(80x43), and 40x25 TTY fonts, in the same font as RIPterm uses.
For the other (80x25 and 91x25) TTY sizes, it features a font
similar but not identical to RIPterm's. This should not cause
any problems anywhere, but it does look slightly different from
RIPterm's equivalent font.
RIPspy also has support for the full range of graphics and
clipboard commands, including Beziers, arcs, and so on. It even
supports the "active text variables" that are part of the
RIP_QUERY command, so you can save text windows dimensions, save
the clipboard to disk, and so forth. You can even write icons to
disk. As far as I know, RIPspy is the only RIPscrip viewer which
will do these things. If any of your screens rely on a saved
clipboard, RIPspy will have no problem in viewing them; while
most other programs would.
Even the RIP_READ_SCENE command, which is used to load one
RIP file from within another one, is supported. There are only
about four seldom-used commands in the RIPscrip 1.54
specifications which are not fully supported by RIPspy.
As with all RIPscrip viewers, RIPspy does have a few
limitations. Because it displays ANSI/TTY text as well as codes,
it will sometimes show stray characters on the screen. These are
not a problem with RIPspy itself, but rather with the image file;
some codes in the file are improperly coded. If lines are broken
by carriage returns without preceding backslashes, or other flaws
like this appear in your RIPscrip files, you may not see proper
display. However, buggy code like this should not be used
anyway, because it will not work under all circumstances.
There are a few commands that RIPspy does not implement,
especially anything that activates a response. This means that
most RIP_QUERY operations are ignored, except for those that
activate commands. Similarly, RIP_FILE_QUERY does not work. The
seldom-used RIP_COPY_REGION command is also not supported at this
time. If you have need for one of these commands, contact me and
I will probably add it to the viewer.
For those interested, I am planning on offering RIP viewer
libraries based on the RIPspy engine to authors of BBS door
programs. These will allow them to display RIP locally as well
as remotely. Contact me for more information.
YOUR OWN RIP PROGRAMS
Obviously, you are interested in RIPscrip graphics, so this
means you are probably a sysop or BBS/door developer. Now, for
the first time, you can add local display of RIP graphics to your
programs! My new RIPdrive and RIPlocal add-on libraries make use
of the same RIP-translation algorithms that are contained in
RIPspy.
RIPlocal is a full-fledged library for Turbo C++ or Borland
C++, and it translates RIP display strings into calls to
Borland's BGI library. You can use it to build programs which
are completely self-contained, even embedding the fonts within
the .EXE file.
If you wish to use other languages, or if you don't want the
overhead of graphics code in your program, you may want to use my
RIPdrive TSR and library combination. A very small library is
linked in with your code, and the accompanying TSR driver can be
loaded or unloaded by your users at will. The calls to RIPdrive
are 100% compatible with RIPlocal, so you can switch from one
library to the other as you prefer.
For more information on these and other programs available
from me, e-mail me at zack@pacific.pacific.net or one of the
other addresses listed below. You can also look for RIPdrive and
RIPlocal on Internet sites and bulletin boards nationwide as
LCLRIPxx.ZIP.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT / FEEDBACK
If you run into any problems in the installation or use of
RIPspy, or have suggestions for improvement, feel free to contact
me via E-mail, or even through postal mail. (Please do not
telephone me unless I give permission, as I may not be available
at the time.) I may be reached as #3 @11729 or #1458 @1 on
WWIVnet, or #3 @1 on GrapeVine. My Internet address is
zack@pacific.pacific.net.
My postal address is:
Zachary Ives
14001 Tomki Road
Redwood Valley, CA 95470
Furthermore, a Zack Ives Software Support sub is available
through The Griffon's Lair on WWIVnet, IceNET, ExpressNET, and
the GrapeVine. If you wish to subscribe:
SUBTYPE: ZAKSOFT
HOST: 11729 (WWIVnet)
6754 (IceNET)
1 (ExpressNET)
1 (GrapeVine)
This is the best way of getting tech support, asking
questions, and communicating with other sysops who are using my
programs. It is *the place* for support on any of my programs.
For copies of some of the other utilities I have created,
including my RIPspy command-line RIP viewer, please call my home
BBS, The Griffon's Lair, at (707) 526-2184. You may find more
information and utilities for RIPscrip on The Griffon's Lair, or
on Telegrafix's support BBS, The Vector Sector, at (714) 379-
2133. I also plan to make most of my utilities available through
the SimTel archives, accessible through a number of Internet FTP
sites such as oak.oakland.edu.
ORDER FORM
for RIPspy 1.01
If you are a registered user of my RIPspeed product for WWIV,
registration is free. Otherwise, please include a check for $10
payable to Zachary Ives.
Your Name: ______________________________________________________
Addr.: __________________________________________________________
City, St, Zip: __________________________________________________
Voice Phone No.: ________________________
The following information will only be used if I need to contact
you, or to notify you of upgrades:
Voice Phone No.: ________________________
E-Mail Address and Network: _____________________________________
Internet Address, if applicable: ________________________________
Mail this form, along with the check, to:
Zachary Ives
14001 Tomki Road
Redwood Valley, CA 95470
Thanks!