Amiga Computing 68/ac068b.adf/fusion.lha/Read_Me_For_News

Text File | 1987-08-11 | 23KB | 448 lines

             THIS INFORMATION IS FOR

          T E C H N I C A L  U S E R S
          ----------------------------



                     SmartLink

The common means of passing data (for example, a picture)
between programs is to save the data in a file from the first
program, then load the data from the file into the second program.
This transfer of data through files is effective, but when the data
sets are large, it can prove to be slow. For this reason, a new
means of transferring data between programs was first developed for
Express Paint (which is an advanced graphics program) and is
supported by Fusion Paint. This new system uses features of the Amiga
Operating System to communicate between programs. However, it
does require that programs have special communications' ports
built into them for the process to work. This communications
method is called SmartLink. Currently SmartLink is supported in Fusion
Paint, Express Paint, Icon Magic, PortManager, Flip, Match, and Pixelize.
PortManager, Flip, Match, and Pixelize can be found in the Utilities
drawer. Express Paint is another paint program which can be used as a
partner paint program with Fusion Paint. Icon Magic is an advanced icon
and mouse pointer editor. See below for more information on Express
Paint, Icon Magic, Flip, Match, and Pixelize. The function of the
PortManager is also described below.

There are currently three methods of communications which
SmartLink allows. They are the transfer of data, the Service
Provider-Client link of two programs, and the Processor-Client link
between two programs.

Transfer of Data

Through the Special menu, Fusion Paint can transfer pictures, brushes
(cuts), and palettes to Express Paint, Icon Magic, or another copy of
Fusion Paint. There are many applications of this concept. For example,
two copies of Fusion Paint, with differenct screen resolutions,
could be running at the same time, in order to transfer pages back
and forth. See "The Special and Use Menus" section below for
information on how to transfer data.

Service Provider - Client

A Service Provider is a program which uses the interface (screen
and windows) of another program (Client). When a Service
Provider is accessed through the Use menu, it attaches itself to the
Client program. The Service Provider becomes an extension of the
Client. Flip, Match, and Pixelize are Service Providers which work
with both Fusion Paint and Express Paint. Information on how to use
these utilities can be found below.

Processor - Client

The Service Provider mechanism does not quite cover all the
desired possibilities for inter-program communications since it
may be constrained by the user interface of the Client program.
For this reason, it is also necessary that some mechanism be
allowed that would replace the process of "copy the page to
another program (the Processor), go to the screen of the other
program, use the other program to modify the page, copy the page
back to the Client, and go back to the screen of the Client". The
Process Picture item in the Special menu is the mechanism which
simplifies this process and allows the Processor-Client partnership
to exist.

With one menu action in the Client program, a user gets the
Processor to make a copy of the current picture and set up and
switch the user to the Processor's screen and window. The user can
then modify the picture with the Processor's tools. Then with one
menu command from the Processor's menus, the changed picture
can be returned to the original Client program The screens will be
switched back for the user to continue working in the Client
program.

Fusion Paint and Express Paint can work together in this Processor-Client
relationship. At this time, the Processor must be Fusion Paint and the
Client must be Express Paint. This is due to the fact that the
Processor program must be able to change resolutions.

Another application of this concept would be a word processor or
desktop publishing program (which handled graphics) that could
actually call on a Processor program, such as Fusion Paint, to edit a
picture for it and return the result to it when the user is done.

Note: SmartLink has great potential for Software Developers to
create other Service Providers and Processors for Fusion Paint and
Express Paint. Likewise, if you have an existing product which could
be enhanced by linking it to a graphics environment, SmartLink
provides the capability of attaching it to Fusion Paint or Express Paint.
If you are a Developer, and interested in supporting SmartLink,
contact Professional Automation Resources (PAR Software).

PortManager

The PortManager is unique in that it plays an intermediary role
between the various programs using SmartLink. The PortManager
allows programs which support the SmartLink concept to
communicate. In order to activate SmartLink, double-click on the
PortManager's icon. This need only be done once after the Amiga is
booted. In fact, clicking on the PortManager a second time will
cause the PortManager to shut down. The PortManager may also
be activated from the CLI with a command such as:

   run Fusion:Utilities/PortManager

Note: The PortManager must be started before running other
programs which use SmartLink.

Once the PortManager is running, startup Fusion Paint and take a
look at its menus. Notice that there are three menus. Now startup a
second copy of Fusion Paint, and once it is running, take a look at
the menus of both copies of Fusion Paint. Two new menus,
"Special" and "Use", will have appeared. These are the means by
which SmartLink is accessed from within Fusion Paint. The
Special menu contains the basic data transferring commands for
copying pages (pictures), brushes, and palettes to and from
another program. (For example, Express Paint or another copy of Fusion
Paint.) The Special menu also allows you to use Fusion Paint
as a Processor for Express Paint through the Process Picture menu
item. The "Use" menu contains the same program names as the
submenus in the "Special" menu. If you want to use a program as a
Service Provider, select its name in the Use menu.

                    The Special and Use Menus

The Special and Use menus are the means by which "SmartLink" is
accessed from within Fusion Paint. (See the SmartLink section
above.) The Special menu contains the basic data transferring
commands for copying pages (pictures), brushes (cuts), and
palettes to and from the current program. It also allows the
Processor-Client relationship (discussed above) to exist through
the Process Picture menu item. The Use menu allows a Service
Provider to take control of the program.

Transfer of Data Menu Items

The Copy Page From and To, Copy Brush From and To, and Copy
Palette From and To menu items in the Special menu allow the
user to transfer pictures, brushes, and palettes between Fusion Paint
and Express Paint or another copy of Fusion Paint.

To demonstrate these capabilities, start two copies of Fusion Paint
after running the PortManager. (For more information, see the
"PortManager" section above.) Draw a quick doodle in Fusion1 and
select the Copy Page To-Fusion2 function from the Special menu.
Now change screens to Fusion2 and observe that the doodle has
been copied to the screen of Fusion2. Continue the doodle in
Fusion2. Then switch screens back to Fusion1 and select the Copy
Page From-Fusion2 function. The doodling that was performed in
Fusion2 will appear in Fusion1. Finally, try out the Undo icon (or
the Help or Esc keys).

The Copy Brush and Copy Palette functions work in the same way
that the Copy Page functions do. Since Fusion Paint can have
many brushes in its Cut Clipboard, the brush that will be
transferred is always the currently selected brush. These Copy
From/To functions are currently available in Fusion Paint, Express
Paint, and Icon Magic.

Process Picture

This item of the Special menu allows a Processor program to
receive the current picture from Fusion Paint (acting as the
Client). Fusion Paint is an example of a Processor program. That is, it
supports the ability to process an Express Paint picture while
Express Paint is running. This is the sort of interface that will be
used by other Processor programs.

This capability can be demonstrated by running a copy of Express
Paint and a copy of Fusion Paint at the same time (provided the
PortManager has been executed). Once this was accomplished, one
would select the Process Picture-Fusion1 menu item from within
Express Paint. For example, draw a unique doodle from within
Express Paint. Next select the Process Picture-Fusion1 menu item.
The screen will be immediately switched to bring Fusion1 into
view, and a requester asking if it is safe to delete the current
contents of Fusion1 will appear.

If it is safe to proceed, click on the "Yes" and Fusion Paint should
reconfigure itself and load in the picture that was created in
Express Paint. This reconfiguration step means that Fusion Paint does not
have to be set up to the correct page, screen size, or number of
colors before it is asked to process a picture. At this point, you will
find that Express Paint has been put to sleep and that all the tools
of Fusion Paint are available for editing as normal (including the Change
Screen menu item). One difference will be apparent. That is, the
Use menu has disappeared entirely, and the Special menu now
only contains two items: Done and Done Boxed. Selecting Done will
cause Fusion Paint to awaken Express Paint and pass the new version of
the picture back to Express Paint. Selecting Done Boxed will also
awaken Express Paint and pass the picture back, but a region of
interest in the picture must be boxed in Fusion Paint before this happens.
The meaning of this boxed area will depend on the original calling
program, but it is ignored by Express Paint and Fusion Paint.

Note: When Process Picture is used, a new undo buffer will start in
the Processor. However, the Client program will keep its undo
buffer. This can allow one to retain operations from the Processor
in the Client after undoing operations executed in the Client.

Use Menu - Service Providers

The Flip, Match, and Pixelize programs found on the Fusion Paint disk are
Service Providers and are accessed by selecting their names in the
Use menu. For information on how to use these three utilities, see
below. You will find them useful.

To demonstrate this menu, start the Flip program by double-
clicking its icon and start a copy of Fusion Paint. If the
PortManager has been previously executed, the Use menu will
appear in Fusion Paint. Load an image. Once this has been done,
select the Flip 1 item from the Use menu and note that the Title
Bar changes to indicate that Flip is now active. The Flip menu is
now attached to the Fusion Paint window instead of Fusion
Paint's own menus. Select the Vertical item from the pull-down
menu, and watch what happens. Selecting the Horizontal item will
flip the picture left to right. (This takes a bit longer than vertical
flipping.) When you are done flipping the image, select the Done
menu item and verify that control of the screen has returned to
Fusion Paint by examining the menus.

                       Power Borders

The Power Borders (found in BORDER1 & 2 Drawers) feature of the Box
tool should be discussed at this point. This is a method that uses
border patterns defined in cuts to produce graphic frames or borders
around regions of the display. It is used in two primary modes. One
mode produces hollow borders (to surround existing graphics or text),
and the other produces solid filled rectangles with surrounding borders.

Power Borders are accessed through an Alt key which is held
down at the second mouse click of the Hollow Box and Pattern
modes of the Box tool. If the Hollow Box mode is currently
selected, a hollow border will be drawn based on the currently
displayed cut. If the Pattern mode is instead currently selected, a
solid filled border (again based on the current cut) will be drawn.

Since Power Border patterns are kept in standard cuts, changing
the border pattern is as simple as selecting a different cut. This
approach allows custom borders to be easily designed and used.
The Fusion Paint disk contains drawers of Borders that contain sample
cuts designed to be used as Power Borders. After loading these
cuts via the Cut tool (see "The Cut Tool" section in the manual
for details on loading cuts), try creating borders with them. While
drawing Power Borders based on these predefined cuts can be
useful, you will want to be able to create your own custom
borders. For this reason. the details of how Fusion Paint creates
the border are given below.

Note: The Power Border feature will always try to make a perfect
break-free border, and as a result the border drawn may be a
little larger than the rubberbanded area.

Before placing the border, Fusion Paint attempts internally to
break the current cut into a 3x3 or a 4x3 grid. Most common cuts
will be seen as a 3x3 grid. For a 3x3 grid, the four corner tiles
become the corners of the Power Border and the four side tiles of
the cut become the sides of the Power Border. If the sides of the
resultant border are longer than the four side tiles of the cut,
Fusion Paint will repeat them as necessary. The end result of this
process will often be very good, although there is a possibility that
noticeable joints will occur between the repeat pieces used to
make the sides. They can be touched up on the finished border
itself or by editing the sample cut and redrawing the border.

Cuts which can be broken into a 4x3 grid by Fusion Paint will
produce flaw-free borders. When Fusion Paint is about to use a
cut to draw a border, it looks at the cuts dimensions (width and
height) and from these determines if this border should be treated
as the 3x3 case previously described or as a specially constructed
4x3 case. In order to construct border cuts that satisfy the 4x3
case, three simple rules must be followed.

First, make the four corner tiles the same size and make them square.
An easy way of doing this is to draw one corner with a square boundary,
cut it out in the initial position, and flip it to make identical
(mirrored) corners for the other three tiles.

Note: Use the Flip tool which is on the Fusion Paint disk or Express
Paint to flip the image. Cuts (brushes) can be copied between Fusion
Paint and Express Paint. For more information see "The Special and Use
Menus" section above.

The second rule is to make the width of the top and bottom side
tiles the same as the height of the left and right side tiles. The
height of the top and bottom (and the width of the left and right)
tiles must be the same as the side length of the corner squares.
Again, this rule is easiest met by making one side and producing
the other sides by flipping the image. Once these four cuts and the
four corner cuts have been produced, it is a simple matter to use
the Brush tool to assemble the completed border cut.

To construct the grid, follow the third rule. Place one of each
corner and one of the left and right side tiles but two of the top
and bottom side tiles in the appropriate places. The resulting
image is 4 tiles wide and 3 tiles high. This allows Fusion Paint to
see the difference in the size of the side pieces and the size of the
corner pieces.

                            Icon Magic

Express Paint, Icon Magic, and Fusion Paint are commercial applications
which support the SmartLink process. For more information on Express Paint,
see the section above.

Due to SmartLink, Fusion Paint and Icon Magic make an excellent pair
of programs for the graphic's involved user. You are already aware of
the editing and graphic's power Fusion Paint yields. Icon Magic is an
Icon and Mouse Pointer editing and creation tool. Icon Magic makes it
a simple process to save an existing IFF image as any type of icon.
Since it can deal with IFF images as well as icons, through SmartLink
Fusion Paint can receive an image and be used to accomplish major editing
functions on that image. The edited image can then be passed back to
Icon Magic with one pull-down menu operation.

Icon Magic and Fusion Paint can transfer pictures, brushes, and
palettes back and forth via the Special menu. For more information
on using these two programs together, see the "SmartLink" and
"The Special and Use Menus" sections above. For more information
about Icon Magic; contact Glacier Technologies, P.O. Box 1309,
Vancouver WA, USA 98666. Phone: [phone].

                              Flip

This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service
Provider to Fusion Paint and Express Paint through SmartLink. It allows
you to flip the entire picture horizontally and vertically. Once both
the PortManager and Fusion Paint have been executed, starting
Flip will allow access to its functions through the Use menu in
Fusion Paint.

To demonstrate its operation, load an image and select the Flip 1
item from the Use menu, and note that the Title Bar changes to
indicate that Flip is active. The Flip menu item is now attached to
the Fusion Paint window instead of Fusion Paint's own menus.
Select the Vertical item from the menu, and the picture will flip
vertically. The Horizontal item will flip the picture from left to
right. (Horizontal flipping takes longer than vertical flipping.)
When you are finished flipping the image, select the Done menu
item and verify that control of the screen has returned to Fusion
Paint by examining the menus.

Since Flip has no control window or screen of its own, it needs
some way of shutting down. To shut down a copy of Flip, select the
Exit Flip menu item in the Flip menu. The Special and Use menus
in Fusion Paint will then be updated to reflect the fact that Flip is
no longer available for use.

                            Pixelize

This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service
Provider (in the same manner as Flip) to Fusion Paint and Express Paint
through SmartLink. This program is useful for making blocky pixel
effects, especially from digitized pictures. It is accessed through
the Use menu like Flip. Pixelize demonstrates one additional level
of take over that Flip does not. It requires that the user box the
areas of the picture with the mouse that are to be pixelized. The
size of the blocky pixels can be set from the Pixelize menu. Select
the Done menu item to return control to Fusion Paint. The Exit
Pixelize menu item shuts down Pixelize.


                              Match

This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service
Provider (in the same manner as Flip and Pixelize) to Fusion Paint
and Express Paint through SmartLink. The Match program provides a very
useful facility for matching the palette of one picture with that of
another so that the two may be easily combined. That is, it remaps
one palette to another, finding the best fit in the image of colors in
the new palette. In the matching process, the palette of one picture
is defined as being the desired or reference palette. To define the
reference palette, load a picture containing that palette into
Fusion Paint and select the Match item from the Use menu. Select
Set Palette from the Match menu and the Title Bar should briefly
state "Palette Set" before returning automatically to Fusion Paint.

Now load a picture into Fusion Paint that is to be converted
(remapped) to the reference palette that has just been set. Once it
is loaded, select the Match tool again from the Use menu. This time
select the Remap Palette menu item. The Title Bar will display the
message "Remapping Now...", and you should see the picture being
gradually converted from left to right. Note that the picture will
appear to be changing into very strange colors. This is normal and
will be corrected at the end of the remapping process. When the
remapping is done, the picture will revert to the correct palette
and control will automatically be returned to Fusion Paint. Match
can be shut down through the Exit Match item in the Match menu.

                       ONE MEGABYTE RECOMMENDED

Although Fusion Paint will run on a 512k machine, it is recommended that you
have at least one megabyte of memory. One megabyte allows much larger page
sizes since the entire 512k of Chip RAM can be dedicated to the painting.


                                 FONTS

We thank Zuma Group for allowing us to distribute two of the Zuma fonts on
this disk (Barn and mBarn). These two fonts have other sizes than those
given on this disk. Zuma also carries many other fonts. For information on
how to obtain the Zuma fonts contact:
                          Zuma Group, Inc.
                          6733 N. Black Canyon
                          Phoenix, AZ, USA 85015
                          phone: [phone]


                            PRINTER DRIVERS

This disk was built from Workbench 1.3. In order to make room for the fonts
which have been supplied on this disk, only some of the 1.3 printer drivers
have been supplied. If you have purchased Workbench 1.3 and want to use the
Fusion Paint disk as the Workbench disk, and the printer driver you need is
not here, copy the desired printer driver to this disk with the CLI command:

     copy df0:devs/printers/driver to Fusion:devs/printers

The above assumes your disk with the 1.3 driver is in drive df0:, and you
should use your printer driver's name where "driver" is specified. The
printer driver you copy must be from Workbench 1.3. The version of the
printer driver must match that of the printer.device file in the devs:
directory. The printer.device file on the Fusion Paint disk is from Workbench
1.3. For this reason, printer drivers from earlier versions of Workbench 1.2
or 1.3 will not work properly unless the printer.device file (from the same
version of Workbench) is copied to the devs: directory along with the
printer driver. In order for there to be room on the Fusion Paint disk for
your printer driver, you may need to delete some of the other files.

Do not mix printer drivers from different versions of Workbench. If you copy
a driver from an earlier version of Workbench, be sure that you delete the
other drivers on this disk. The drivers on this disk are from Workbench 1.3,
release 34.20.

                              LIBRARIES

If you are using a disk other than the Fusion Paint disk for your Workbench
disk, the arp.library file in the libs: directory must be copied to the libs:
directory of the Workbench disk. In order to install this file onto the
current Workbench, double-click on the InstallArpLibrary icon on the Fusion
Paint disk.