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README
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1993-05-04
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WELCOME TO TECHNOJOCK'S OBJECT TOOLKIT
--------------------------------------
This README file contains important information about TechnoJock's
Object Toolkit (TOT) version 1.10. For the latest information about
TOT, the accompanying programs and the manual, read this file in
its entirety. To print this file, just press T and specify a printer
port or a filename.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1. Usage Hints
2. Using the Demos
3. TOT Enhancements and Undocumented Features
4. The Norton Guides TOT Database
5. Files on the Disks
6. Shareware
7. Printing the Manual
8. Installation
9. Association of Shareware Professionals
+----------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 1 - U s a g e H i n t s |
+----------------------------------------------+
Many of you will want to start using the Toolkit immediately. However, we
really do recommend that you read the first three chapters of the User's
Manual before you start coding. Ideally, you should read the entire
manual - after all, we wrote it in the hope that you would!
If you insist on using the Toolkit without reading the documentation, at
least follow these hints:
1) The Toolkit includes the following, globally declared and initialized
objects:
SCREEN - for writing to the visible screen
KEY - for accessing the keyboard
MOUSE - for controlling the mouse location and shape
MONITOR^ - a POINTER to an object controlling display
characteristics
LOOKtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling default
colors, etc.
SHADOWtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling shadow
characteristics
SCROLLtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling scroll bar
characteristics
DATEtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling date
characteristics
IOtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling the form
input defaults
ALPHABETtot^ - a POINTER to an object controlling how the
TOOLKIT manipulates upper- and lower-case chars
2) If you create any other object instances (i.e. variables), make
sure you call the INIT method before any others, and the DONE method
when you are finished. The following code fragment illustrates how you
could use the ScreenOBJ object to save and restore the visible screen:
var SaveScreen: ScreenOBJ;
begin
SaveScreen.Init;
SaveScreen.Save;
{...}
{other procs which write to the screen}
{...}
SaveScreen.Display;
SaveScreen.Done;
end;
IMPORTANT NOTE: don't call the INIT and DONE methods for the
global instances described in hint 1).
3) Enable the FINAL directive in the TOTFLAGS.INC file to minimize
program size.
4) Run the demos to see how each unit can be used (discussed next).
+---------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 2 - U s i n g t h e D e m o s |
+---------------------------------------------------+
There are over 80 demo programs in the Toolkit. The majority of these
demos are designed to illustrate a specific finite part of the Toolkit. They
are referred to at the appropriate places in the documentation. Listed below
is a summary of the demo files:
DEMBR1-5 Browse demos
DEMBX1-3 Box demos
DEMCU1 Cursor demo
DEMDR1-7 Directory demos
DEMDT1-2 Date demos
DEMEX1-2 DOS EXEC demos
DEMFS1-2 Screen writing demo
DEMIN1-4 Keyboard and mouse input demo
DEMIO1-24 Form Input demos
DEMLK1-2 Link list demos
DEMLS1-9 List demos
DEMMN1-9A Menu emos
DEMMS1-8 Message demos
DEMOV1-2 Overlay demos
DEMSC1 Scroll bar demo
DEMSH1 Shadow demo
DEMST1-3 String demos
DEMSY1 System demo
DEMVI1 Virtual screen demo
DEMWI1-4 Window demos
DEMWR1 Screen writing demo
EXTDEM1-8 Extension demos
TOTDEMO Overall Demo
If your goal is to appreciate the power of the Toolkit, then consider
running the following demos (as well as being educational, they have visual
impact):
TOTDEMO
DEMIO21,22
DEMLS9
DEMMN9
DEMBR5
A special thank-you to George Butts and George Bean, two Toolkit users who
have generously given us some programs they developed with the Toolkit. Try
running the programs
TBROWSE
TELE
to see how easy the Toolkit is to use!
+-----------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 3 - E n h a n c e m e n t s |
+-----------------------------------------------+
This section identifies any last minute changes that have been made since
the documentation was printed. The following topics are discussed:
1) International Customization
2) Additions to totMISC
3) Key Constants
4) Further IO Extensions
5) Additional Methods
6) Overlaying the Toolkit
1) INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
===============================
The TOTIO2.PAS unit includes the following declarations:
CONST
NumberError: array[1..2] of string[60] =
(' The number you entered is out of range. ',
' Enter a number in the following range: ');
DateError: array[1..6] of string[60] =
(' The date you entered is invalid. ',
' Enter a date in the format:',
' The date you entered is too early. ',
' The earliest acceptable date is: ',
' The date you entered is too late. ',
' The latest acceptable date is: ');
NumberError is an array of strings with two elements. These two elements
represent the text that is displayed if an out-of-range value is
entered in an IO field.
DateError is an array of strings with six elements. This array includes
three pairs of strings which represent the various messages which are
displayed when an invalid or out-of-range date is entered in a date field.
Similarly, the totLINK unit includes the following declaration:
Const
NoFiles: string[20] = 'No Files';
The text is displayed in directory listings when no file is found.
You may customize these messages as necessary.
Refer to the Toolkit documentation on AlphabetTOT and DateTOT for other
customization considerations.
2) ADDITIONS to TOTMISC
=======================
The following procedures and functions have been added to the totMISC
unit, and are not discussed in the manual:
function DeleteFile(Filename:string): shortint;
Deletes a file from the disk, and returns a shortint code as
follows: -1 File not found
0 File deleted
1 Error - file not deleted.
function RenameFile(Oldname,NewName:string):shortint;
Renames a file, and returns a shortint code as
follows: 0 file renamed
1 file not found
2 rename failed
function ValidFileName(FN:string): shortint;
Checks a fully qualified filename to see if it is valid, and
returns a shortint code as follows:
-1 Path and name OK but file does not exist
0 Path and name OK and file exists
1 Illegal drive specifier
2 Illegal characters in path
3 Invalid Path
4 No file specified
5 Illegal Characters in name
6 Name longer than eight characters
7 Extension longer than three characters
function ParamLine: String;
Returns a string identifying all the items that were typed on
the command line after the program name. Each item is separated by
a single space, i.e. ' '.
function ParamVal(Marker:string): string;
Searches the parameters (typed when the program was executed) for
'Marker' and returns the item following.
function Frequency(Match:string;Source:string): byte;
Returns the number of occurences of match in Source.
procedure ResetStartUpMode;
Sets the display mode and cursor style to the setting that was
active when the program was first executed.
The remaining three functions are used to run child programs, but remember to
use the $M compiler directive to leave some memory for the child process.
Refer to the demo files DEMEX1-2 for more information. All three functions
return the Turbo Pascal DOSERROR code generated when the command was
executed.
function RunAnything(Command: string):integer;
Runs any DOS command or file with a BAT, COM or EXE extension, just
as though you had typed the command at DOS. This function uses a
secondary copy of COMMAND.COM.
function RunEXECOM(Progname, Params: string):integer;
Runs any EXE or COM program without needing a second installation
of COMMAND.COM. Progname is the name of the program, and Params is a
string representing the passed parameters.
function RunDOS(Msg:string):integer;
Drops the user to the DOS prompt. The user returns to the program
by typing EXIT. The Msg string parameter will be displayed as the
user is dropped to DOS. Normally, you should save the screen before
calling this function, and restore the screen when the user returns.
3) Key Constants
================
A new unit, totKEY, has been included in the Toolkit. This unit includes
a set of global constants which represent the various keys which are
recognized by the Toolkit. All the constants begin with the letter k, and
may be followed by Alt, Ctl or Sft (for Alt, Ctrl and shift) as appropriate.
For example, if you use totKEY in your program, you can use kF1 instead
of 315. Whilst easy to use, this unit does use some memory, and if
you are tight on memory, you may want to use 315!
4) Further IO Extensions
========================
The unit EXTIO2.PAS provides (yet) another field type, namely,
HotspotIOOBJ. This field allows you to designate any rectangular
area of the screen as a hot spot, and if the mouse is clicked in the
area, any of the tAction codes can be returned. The only method you should
call is the constructor which is defined as follows:
constructor Init(X1,Y1,X2,Y2: byte;Act:tAction);
This new object provides a way of integrating a status bar and a pull-down
menu with an IO session. The new demo file EXTENV1.PAS illustrates this
form of usage.
The unit EXTIO3.PAS provides the objects DropArrayIOOBJ and DropLinkIOOBJ
both of which are descended from DropIOOBJ. These objects provide "drop-
down" lists similar to those used in Windows, and in Turbo's History
List fields. Refer to the source file for further information
LEAVE FIELD HOOKS - a leave field hook can be used to validate whether
a field has acceptable data. The field hook procedure can be used to
stop a user from exiting a field (by pressing TAB etc) by setting the
value of the Field ID passed parameter to StayPut. StayPut is a constant
declared in the TOTIO2 unit. See the demo file DEMIO24 for a full example.
5) Additional Methods
=====================
A) TOTWIN - the method SetWinRestrict(On:boolean) has been added to
WinOBJ. This allows you to instruct the Toolkit whether to set
local window coordinates when a window is drawn.
B) TOTINPUT - the method SetForceOff(On:boolean) has been added to
the MouseOBJ object. When set to true, the Toolkit is restricted from
displaying the mouse cursor on systems with a mouse installed. To run
a non-mousable (!) application on a system, you must call the following
two methods at the begininning of your program:
Key.SetMouseMethod(0);
Mouse.SetForceOff(true);
The method SetSlowDelay has been added to the KeyOBJ to allow the setting
of the length of time to wait for a second click of the mouse, i.e. a
double click. The syntax of this procedure method is as follows:
procedure KeyOBJ.SetSlowDelay(Del:integer);
C) TOTIO2 - the method SetValue(Hi:integer) has been added to the ListIOOBJ
method and is inherited by LinkIOOBJ and ArrayIOOBJ. This method allows
you to set the value of the selected item in the list.
The function method IsNull:boolean has been added to all objects
descended from SingleLineIOOBJ. This boolean function method returns
true if the field is empty.
D) TOTLIST - the method GetSelectedPick was added to ListOBJ. This function
method is passed no parameters, and returns the node number, or array
index number of the highlighted item.
E) TOTLIST - the method SetChangeDir was added to ListDirOBJ. This method
is passed a single boolean parameter. When false is passed, the user
can select a directory, i.e. when Enter is pressed, the highlighted
directory is returned (rather than changing to the selected directory).
F) TOTIO1 - the method StopID was added to FormOBJ. This method returns
the ID of the active field (i.e. the one containing the cursor) at the
time the input edit session was terminated.
G) TOTLIST - The method RefreshList was Added to LinkIOOBJ. Call this
method if you delete or add nodes to the link list attached to the
IO field
6) OVERLAYING THE TOOLKIT
=========================
There are some inaccuracies in the Overlay section of chapter 3 (page 3-7)
refer to the file OVERLAY.DOC for further information.
+--------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 4 - N o r t o n G u i d e s |
+--------------------------------------------------+
If you have a copy of the Norton Guides On-Line database engine, you are
in luck. The Toolkit inludes file TOT.NG is a Norton Help Guide to the
Toolkit. If you own the Norton Guides, you can use TOT.NG to provide you with
a degree of on-line help. If you don't own the Norton Guides, don't buy it
just to use TOT.NG, you're not missing that much!!
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 5 - F i l e s o n t h e D i s k |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
The following files are included in the Toolkit:
Source Files:
EXTFAST PAS Extensions to totFAST
EXTIO PAS Extensions to totIO
EXTLINK PAS Extensions to totLINK
EXTWIN PAS Extensions to totWIN
TOTBUILD PAS Program for building all units
TOTDATE PAS Date management
TOTDIR PAS Directory display and file selection
TOTFAST ASM Assembly module for screen writing
TOTFAST OBJ Object file for TOTFAST.ASM
TOTFAST PAS Screen writing
TOTFLAGS INC Conditional defines and compiler directives
TOTINPUT PAS Keyboard and mouse control
TOTIO1 PAS Input objects
TOTIO2 PAS Input objects
TOTIO2 INC Input objects
TOTIO3 PAS Input objects
TOTKEY PAS Key constants
TOTLINK PAS Linked list manager
TOTLIST PAS Browse and list windows
TOTLOOK PAS Controls overall color defaults
TOTMENU PAS Menus
TOTMENU INC Menus
TOTMISC PAS Miscellaneous procedures and functions
TOTMSG PAS Message windows
TOTOVL PAS An overlay unit template
TOTREAL PAS Real type declarations
TOTSTR PAS String manipulation
TOTSYS PAS Hardware
TOTWIN PAS Window management
Demonstration Files
TOTDEMO PAS The main show-off demo program
DEMXXXX PAS Smaller demo programs (see section 2 above)
DEMXXXX TXT,DBF Resource files used by demo programs
EXTDEMX PAS Extending the Toolkit demos
Documentation Files
XXXXXXX TXT On-disk documentation (see section 7 below)
Miscellaneous Files
INSTALL EXE The Toolkit installation program
OVERLAY DOC Unit Dependencies for Overlay Initialization
README COM This file!
REGISTER DOC Registration data for Toolkit evaluators
VENDOR DOC Instructions and restrictions for ShareWare
vendors.
+-----------------------------------------+
| P a r t 6 - S H A R E W A R E |
+-----------------------------------------+
HERE'S HOW SHAREWARE WORKS:
You are encouraged to copy the TOT diskettes and share them freely with
others. You have the luxury of trying out the complete programs, at your own
pace and in the comfort of your own home or workplace. This is not a crippled
or demo copy, but the complete working version of the program.
After you have used TOT for a reasonable evaluation period (not to exceed
90 days) you must either stop using it or buy a licensed copy from TechnoJock
Software, Inc. or from an authorized dealer. The file REGISTER.DOC includes
all the information you need to buy the Toolkit. If you cannot find the file,
or if you have any questions, don't hestitate to call or write to:
TechnoJock Software, Inc.
PO Box 820927
Houston TX 77282
USA
Voice (713) 493-6354
Fax (713) 493-5872
Compuserve 74017,227
MCI Mail TECHNOJOCK
Why pay at all?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* You receive the most CURRENT copy of the program
* You receive the printed manuals (typeset and bound) and Quick Reference
* Notification of updates and new products
* Your input and ideas help shape future products
* A sense of pride and ownership, by having honestly participated
in the Shareware revolution
* The satisfaction of helping to keep software prices down, by supporting
a distribution method which doesn't depend on expensive advertising
campaigns
So please dive in and enjoy the fun of legally sharing good software with
your friends and associates. The following restrictions are designed to
protect the community of Shareware users and to prevent others from taking
unfair advantage of the trust, hard work and good will of Shareware authors.
Exceptions to these conditions must be received in writing from TechnoJock
Software, Inc.
+-----------------------------+
| DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS |
+-----------------------------+
1. Disk vendors (those who sell Shareware disks for a profit) must follow
the procedure outlined in the "VENDOR.DOC" file.
2. You may not charge more than $6 U.S. per diskette.
3. The files and programs on the disks may not be modified or deleted.
4. The programs cannot be sold as part of some other more inclusive package.
5. The programs cannot be rented or leased to others.
6. When distributed via a telecommunications link, all TechnoJock programs
(and documentation files) must be transferred in a library or archive
format. This means that all the files on each TechnoJock disk must be
combined into one file - one file for each TechnoJock disk.
If you are distributing the files on a BBS, then the following four
archive files must be available :
TOTSRC - Source code files, REGISTER.DOC and README
TOTDOC - Documentation files
TOTDEM - Demonstration files
TOTNG - Norton Guides file
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 7 - P R I N T I N G T H E M A N U A L |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
If you did not purchase TOT (complete with printed manual) directly
from TechnoJock Software, Inc., or from an authorized dealer, then you are
evaluating the program.
We have tried to provide you with everything necessary to evaluate TOT,
including all the documentation, demo programs and source code. All the
documentation files have a TXT extension and the following files are
provided:
Filename Description
------------ -------------------------------------------
INFO TXT A brief description of the on-disk documentation
Part 1 - User's Guide
CHAPT1 TXT Chapter 1 Introduction
CHAPT2 TXT Chapter 2 Getting Started
CHAPT3 TXT Chapter 3 Toolkit Basics
CHAPT4 TXT Chapter 4 Determining & Controlling Hardware
CHAPT5 TXT Chapter 5 Writing to the Screen
CHAPT6 TXT Chapter 6 Keyboard & Mouse Input
CHAPT7 TXT Chapter 7 Using Windows
CHAPT8 TXT Chapter 8 Displaying Messages and Prompts
CHAPT9 TXT Chapter 9 Managing Lists
CHAPT10 TXT Chapter 10 Displaying Directories
CHAPT11 TXT Chapter 11 Controlling User Input
CHAPT12 TXT Chapter 12 Menus Menus Menus
CHAPT13 TXT Chapter 13 Managing Dates
CHAPT14 TXT Chapter 14 String Handling
CHAPT15 TXT Chapter 15 Miscellaneous
Part 2 - Extending the Toolkit
CHAPT16 TXT Chapter 16 OOP Principles
CHAPT17 TXT Chapter 17 Replacing The Screen Writer
CHAPT18 TXT Chapter 18 Extending Windows
CHAPT19 TXT Chapter 19 Customizing Linked Lists
CHAPT20 TXT Chapter 20 Extending Input Field Types
Part 3 - Flash Cards
FLASH TXT A Not-Too-Quick Reference
Remember there is no substitute for the bound manuals which include
multiple indexes, screen shots and diagrams, and a quick reference.
Each TXT file represents a chapter of the User's manual or Flash Cards. Each
file includes running headers, and there is an embedded formfeed character
at least every 60 lines. To print the documentation you can copy each file
to the printer using the syntax
COPY file.TXT PRN
or you can import the file into your word processor. Just have a lot of paper
ready!!
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 8 - I n s t a l l i n g t h e T o o l k i t |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Refer to the beginning of Chapter 2 - Getting Started for a description
of how to install the Toolkit.
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| P a r t 9 - Association of Shareware Professionals |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Bob Ainsbury, VP Software Development at TechnoJock Software, Inc., is a
member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to
make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to
resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman
at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a Compuserve message via
easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.
That's All, Folks!