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Precision Software Appli…tions Silver Collection 1
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Precision Software Applications Silver Collection Volume One (PSM) (1993).iso
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tutor
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pcl40.arj
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PC-LEARN.DOC
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1993-01-05
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PC-LEARN v4.0 by Mark E Linehan
Written in Turbo C++ v3.0
Created For Majestic Shareware
(C)opyright 1992, 1993, by Mark E Linehan, All Rights Reserved
DISCLAIMER: Majestic Shareware, including any representatives or authors, may
not be held liable for any damages incurred through the use or misuse of this
or any other software package. Users of this software are hereby notified that
if they choose to use a program created by Majestic Shareware, and its authors
they do so at their own risk, and receive no guarantees or warranty's of any
kind expressed or implied here, or anywhere else.
Majestic Shareware operates with very low software costs and therefor it is not
feasible for our company to make refunds on our software. If you find yourself
unsatisfied with a purchase from Majestic Shareware please contact us and tell
us what the problem seems to be, if we cannot correct it, then we will gladly
give you a discount on your next purchase from Majestic Shareware.
REGISTER PC-LEARN AND SUPPORT OUR GROUP FOR ONLY $10.00
This will get you the most recent update with full documentation
Send $10.00 check or money order in U.S. funds to:
Mark Linehan
32 Beaver Street
Salem, MA 01970
PART I: What is PC-LEARN?
PC-LEARN is a multi-function program created for a variety of usefull
purposes. First and foremost it is intended as a type of tutorial maker. This
is not its only purpose however. PC-LEARN can also be used to create TESTS,
TRIVIA CHALLENGES, or just colorized, multi-screen text files with pauses page
clearing, and more.
PC-LEARN uses a .PCL file which is created using any plain ascii text
editor, and it is easy to use in my opinion. You don't need any programming
knowledge. PC-LEARN converts your ASCII file to a format it can recognize.
Features of PC-LEARN are the ability to ask questions and track the
number of correct and incorrect answers, start new pages with a screen clear,
ending a page with a [Q]uit, any key to continue prompt, Changing text colors,
beeping at the end of each line, asking true or false questions, as well as
normal text response questions, and more. I am sure you can find a use for
PC-LEARN. If nothing else you can easily create trivia to quiz your friends if
you like. We at Majestic Shareware are currently working on several files
which will serve as tutorials on various topics such as wine making, learning
an introduction to C programming, and others.
PART II: COMMANDS FOR PC-LEARN
Here is a listing of the various commands you can insert into your
text files to create a .PCL file.
[*ce Centers text from that point on, or until you issue a [*le command.
[*sl Toggles SLOW & NOISY display of text on and off.
[*le Begins printing text from the far left column.
[*be Toggles the BEEP at the end of each line on and off.
[*tr Tells PCL to ask for a TRUE or FALSE response, TRUE being correct.
[*fa Tells PCL to ask for a TRUE or FALSE response, FALSE being correct.
[*an Prompts reader for a TEXT answer, the line following the [*an command
will be the answer PCL expects, and should be in UPPER CASE only.
[*t# Sets the current text color.
[*t1 1 RED
[*t2 2 YELLOW
[*t3 3 GREEN
[*t4 4 BLUE
[*t5 5 WHITE
[*t6 6 BROWN
[*t7 7 MAGENTA
[*t8 8 LIGHT GRAY
[*cs The next line in the file following this command will be stored in a
PCL variable so that you can invoke it at any point using the [*cp
command.
[*cp Prints out the CONSTANT variable which was set using [*cs
[*c# Sets CONSTANT variable's display color which will remain the same.
( see [*t# for a listing of color codes )
[*ps Clears the screen to begin a new page.
[*pa Pauses until the reader hits a key
[*pe Does a page end, prompts reader with [Q]uit, any other key to continue.
[*st Display Correct/Incorrect answer statistics for the file thus far.
[*pr Display Percentage of answers that were correct.
[*gr Display a GRADE A,B,C,D,F according to correct answers.
PART III: EXAMPLES OF COMMANDS
[start of file]
[*ce <- All text will now be centered
[*t4 <- Text color changed to BLUE
[*ps <- Clears screen for new page
<- Blank line
GREETINGS FROM PC-LEARN <- This line will be centered
<- Blank line
[*pa <- Pauses the program until a key hit
[*le <- Text is no longer centered now
GREETINGS FROM PC-LEARN <- Printed from left side of screen
[end of file]
This would appear [ with a cleared screen and the color blue ]:
GREETINGS FROM PC-LEARN
GREETINGS FROM PC-LEARN
As you can see that was a very simplistic example. Now let's look at something
more in depth. How to ask questions!
[start of file]
[*t5 <- Set color to WHITE
PC-LEARN IS VERY USEFULL! <- Displayed to screen
[*tr <- Prompt reader for a TRUE OR FALSE
answer, with TRUE being the proper
response. PC-LEARN automatically
counts the number of questions you
ask in your file.
[*st <- Display ANSWER statistics
PART IV: COMPILING A .PCL FILE
Once you have completely written your ASCII file for PCL, you may then invoke
the PC-LEARN compiler which will convert your text file into a format which
it can interpret. Here is an example of using the compiler.
C:\PCLEARN> PCLC <your text file.asc> <finished file.pcl>
Notice you may use any extensions you want, but we recommend .asc for your file
and .pcl for the compiled file. This makes keeping track a lot easier. Also,
you may want to hold onto your .asc version of the .pcl file, because someone
could easily look up the correct answers for your file, and that is not very
nice. :)
Let's say I made an ascii file called TEST.ASC and I wanted to compile it for
PC-LEARN I would type the following:
C:\PC-LEARN> PCLC TEST.ASC TEST.PCL
That's all there is to it. I think that should cover just about everything, if
you need more examples there are several example .PCL files and .ASC files on
this distribution diskette.
PART V: REGISTRATION
Notice this program is not crippled in any way, although I forced myself not to
cripple it, I feel that if someone finds my software of use, and wants a better
version and full documentation they'll send the small donation in. Considering
the price of some software packages, I think $10.00 is very cheap. Not that I
think PC-LEARN is any major achievement mind you, it's just time and effort on
my behalf. BUT! Enough lecturing! Thanks for trying my program, and please
support Majestic Shareware, we have plans on putting out MANY FINE programs
from Arcade games to BBS programs. So even if you can't send $10.00, we will
gladly accept software and hardware donations as well! By operating in this
inexpensive method of shareware donations, we are able to charge very low
prices!