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1988-10-10
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DIALOG CONSTRUCTION SET
Derrick Anthony Hall
Copyright 1988
All rights reserved
Shareware Product
Dialog Construction Set, the resource editor for the rest of us, is
written completely in GFA BASIC. The premise behind this program was
to create an RCS editor that would provide ease of use and offer
flexability at the sametime. This program was fully tested on the
520 and 1040ST, with old and new roms.
THE DCS EDITOR
If you have used Degas or any other paint programs, you'll feel at home
within DCS editor. All that is needed on your part is a little
creativity. DCS does not support predesign GEM like dialog boxes, you
the user have to create them yourself. The DCS editor operates is
all three ST resolution modes.
To get started double click on the filename "DIALOGCS.PRG", by doing
so you'll be launched into the DCS editor. The editor is very straight
forward, nothing to memorized.
MENU FUNCTIONS
DIALOG Box:-Create up to 100 GEM dialog boxes. Press left mouse to draw
box, release to position. The option will be given to either ADD, DELETE or
CANCEL the dialog box that was been postioned. The CANCEL alert button only
returns control back to the menu bar.
TOUCHEXIT Button:-Create up to 50 active exit buttons. Press left mouse to
draw button, release to postion. When the button is positioned, you'll be
given the option to add TEXT or DELETE button. TEXT, allows you to give a
name to the button you're creating. DELETE, completely removes the button
from the work screen.
RADIO Button:-Create up to 50 active radio buttons. Press left mouse to
draw button, release to postion. When the button is positioned. You'll be
given the option to add TEXT or DELETE button. TEXT, allows you to give a
name to the button you're creating. DELETE, completely removes the button
from the work screen.
HELP:-Gives a brief discription on all the menu commands.
CLEAR SCREEN:-Clear work area.
SAVE:-Generates .LST file to be merged inside GFA BASIC interpreter.
DELETE:-Trash unwanted files on diskette.
WRITE DIALOG TEXT:-Write text to be positioned within dialog box area.
ON ACCESSORIES:-Activate accessory menu for selection.
OFF ACCESSORIES:-Deactivate accessory menu
QUIT:-Exit to GEM desktop
GFA BASIC KEYWORDS
To change text font and color use the DEFTEXT keyword within GFA BASIC
see below.
DEFTEXT c,s,r,g : "c" represents the number of preselected color
registers, high res 0 to 1, medium res 0 to 3, and low res 0 to 15.
"s" defines the style to be used by deftext, 0=normal, 1=bold face
2=light, 4=italic, 8=underlined, 16=outlined and 24=underlined &
outline. "r" defines the rotation angle, 0=normal, 900=90 degrees,
1800=180 degrees and 2700=270 degrees. "g" defines the height of the
characters in graphic dots,4=very small, 6=standard(color),
13=standard(monochrome) and 32=enlarged.
DEFLINE is used to set the line size and pattern. This is useful
if you wish to highlight an default button box.
DEFFILL will be one of the most used GFA BASIC keywords within DCS
generated code, when modifying dialog boxes to be filled with patterns
or colors.
EDITABLE DIALOG BOX ROUTINE
Print At(20,10);"Name :"+Space$(25)
Print At(20,11);"Address:"+Space$(25)
Print At(20,12);"City :"+Space$(25)
Print At(20,13);"State :"+Space$(25)
Print At(20,14);"Zip :"+Space$(25)
Print At(29,10);
Form Input 25,Name$
Print At(29,11);
Form Input 25,Address$
Print At(29,12);
Form Input 25,City$
Print At(29,13);
Form Input 25,State$
Print At(29,14);
Form Input 25,Szip$
They're many ways to create an edit routine for
homemade dialog boxes, for a excellent demo see page 49 of the new
GFA BASIC BOOK from Michtron, Inc.
GROW AND SHRINK VISUAL EFFECT
In every DCS generated .LST file you'll find an routine call
"Shrink_grow". This routine is used to achieve the visual opening and
closing effect when each dialog box is selected and closed. You can call
this routine by doing the following:
@Shrink_grow(Gem,lightx,lighty,wsgx,hsgy,lox,loy,wx,hy)
GEM=1 open grow effect
GEM=0 close shrink effect
Lightx,lighty=X,Y location of the shrink and grow box
wsgx, hsgy=width and height of the shrink and grow box
lox, loy=X,Y location of the dialog box
wx,hy=width and height of the dialog box
COMPLEX DIALOG BOXES
One of the ways to create complex dialog boxes, is to use your ST
monitor screen has a template. I'm sure it can be done in other ways,
since the screen template is easier and works best. Before designing any
complex dialog boxes, you should have an idea on the type of dialog box
you wish to create. A template is necessary if you wish to position
buttons and dialog boxes properly. All that is needed is
a soft tip magic marker to draw points on monitor screen. This will
guide you in creating boxes in a more precision layed out manner.
After you have gotten use to the editor and designing dialog and
button boxes, this unorthodox screen template won't be necessary.
Credit boxes are the easiest to create within any RCS editor, for all
that is needed is an dialog outline and an active button box.
RESET BACK TO NORMAL
If you should modify the Dialog Construction Set generated .LST file
code to accept different fill patterns and fonts, reset the GFA BASIC
commands back to normal. It is very important that you reset these
keywords or else your dialog box outcome won't be pleasing.
Set text font Reset text font back to normal
DEFTEXT 2,1,0,6 DEFTEXT 1,0,0,6(color mode)
DEFTEXT 1,1,0,32 DEFTEXT 1,0,0,13(monochrome mode)
Set line pattern Reset line pattern back to normal
DEFLINE 1,10,2,1 DEFLINE 1,1,0,0
Set fill pattern Reset fill pattern back to normal
DEFFILL 1,2,2 DEFFILL 0,1,1
CALLING DCS DIALOG BOX ROUTINE WITHIN YOUR PROGRAM
When you have completed your dialog boxes within DCS editor, marge
the .LST file inside GFA BASIC editor. To actually use or call your
procedure you will have to use one of the following methods:
@DIALOG_BOX
or
GOSUB DIALOG_BOX
ASCII CODES
How to obtain various ST ASCII symbols and characters within Dialog
Construction Set text editor. These symbols and characters may serve
useful when designing dialog boxes and GEM like windows.
Alternate-Control-E ( Close window symbol )
" -F ( Resize window symbol
" -I ( Clock symbol )
" -O ( Atari right logo symbol )
" -D ( Left arrow )
" -G ( Open window symbol )
" -K ( Music symbol )
" -C ( Right arrow )
" -B ( Down arrow )
" -N ( Atari left logo symbol )
Alternate-Shift-Z ( Quarter character symbol )
Alternate-F3 ( Copyright symbol )
" -F4 ( Register symbol )
" -F5 ( Trade mark symbol )
Dialog Construction Set is an extremely powerful resource construction
set editor for GFA BASIC, but every effort was being made to keep it
very small in bytes and simple, yet powerful enough to satisfy most
users. Hope you have fun using this program as I did writing it, enjoy.