Kids Cube/4_History.iso/lrn2sign/lsign.doc

Text File | 1990-04-26 | 9KB | 190 lines

           ********         Learn to Sign        ********

                      Release 1.0         April 26, 1990

                       @ HCB Computing  -  Herb Bartow
                         316 Lafayette Street
                         Hackettstown, NJ 07840


DESCRIPTION: Learn to Sign is a tutor program aimed at teaching the
American Sign Language. This release only supports 'finger spelling'
but I plan to add support for actual signs in future releases such
as mother, father, etc. I am also looking into adding speech support.
( eg. program displays letter and pronounces it. These will be added
provided interest in this product warrants it and I can make it work!)
See below for directions on how to use this program.

REQUIREMENTS: Learn to Sign runs in CGA 320x200 mode, EGA 640x350 mode,
and VGA 640x480 mode. It will run on an IBM XT, AT, PS/2 or true IBM
compatable.
It requires a color monitor and can be run from a hard disk or a
floppy drive.

SHAREWARE: Learn to Sign is distributed as Shareware. You are free to
try it and make copies for others. If you continue to use Learn to Sign
you are asked to make a donation of $10.00 or more to the author to
support continued development of this and other software. Software
companies may include Learn to Sign in their catalogs provided they
send the author a copy of the catalog.

FILES: The following files are included with Learn to Sign  v1.0 :

       LSIGN.EXE        Learn to sign program
       LSIGN.DOC        Documentation (this file)
       LSIGN.TXT        Sample text file
       LSIGN.FRM        registration form

All files should be in the same directory on the hard drive or on the
same floppy drive. All these files must be included when distributing
this program.

SUPPORT: Support for this product is available through the author.
I can be reached via Compuserve. Address mail to Herb Bartow
(71331,1621).

I would appreciate hearing from you any suggestions or comments
about this program or if you encounter any problems in using it.
You may also feel feel to write me directly for mail support.
I will attempt to fix problems reported to me.

** No warranty is made or implied of this program. The user assumes
all reponsibilities from its use. I have tested this release on a
variety of PC's including an IBM XT, AT, PS/2 model 60 and 80, and
several XT and AT clones.

                                  @ HCB Computing.



     *****          USING LEARN TO SIGN.         *****

To start the program, just type in  LSIGN  followed by <enter>.
The program will use a file  LSIGN.CFG  if it is available. This
file is optionally created by the user and contains configuration
information. If it is not found, the system defaults will be used.
The file LSIGN.CFG is created after running SETUP from the main
menu. ( more info available under SETUP below. )
The program default is for a CGA monitor.

There are seven choices from the main screen. To choose one, use the
arrow keys to highlite your choice then press <enter>. Each choice
is explained below.

LETTERS: This will allow you to view the sign for a particular letter
or number ( 1-9 ). Just press the key for the sign you wish to see.
Press the ESC key at any time to return to the main menu.
Size and color of the letters is determined by LSIGN.CFG. This can
be changed and optionally saved by user using SETUP. (see below).

WORDS:  This option will allow you to finger spell a word a letter
at a time. Multiple words may be entered separated by spaces. Hit
<enter> after the last word. Size and color depends on setup. An
optional way of viewing words is to choose setup and set WORDS option
to 'more than 1'. This will display all letters for a word on the
screen at the same time. To use this option you should set the hand
size to a small value (1 or 2). This varies by graphics adaptor. If
more letters are entered then will fit on the screen, the letters
are truncated off both ends of the words. The moral is use this
option on words with few letters. I will attempt to improve in
future releases. Press ESC at any time to return to menu.

TEXTFILE: This will read in a standard ASCII text file and display it
one letter at a time using the current setup options. You can return
to the main menu at any time by pressing any key. You will be returned
when the end of the file is reached. This option provides a good way
to practice reading finger spelling. The default file is LSIGN.TXT but
this can be changed from setup. Currently there is a maximum file size
of 4000 bytes. You can edit and change lsign.txt or use any text editor
to create your own file. Pressing ESC will return you to main menu.
If you create your own file, remember to change the default text
file name in SETUP.

QUIZ: This will show a sign for a particular letter (A - Z) and wait
for you to type in the matching letter on the keyboard. If you press
the right key for the sign being displayed a new sign will appear.
If you get it wrong, the PC will 'beep'.
The sign will remain until you press the right key. Hitting ESC at any
time will return you to the main menu.

SETUP: Setup will allow you to configure Learn to Sign to your
system and preferences. When LSIGN.EXE starts, it looks in
the current directory for the file LSIGN.CFG. If it finds it,
it loads configuration information contained in that file.
If it does not find it, LSIGN.EXE uses default settings.
From within setup, use the arrow keys to choose the setting
you want to change then press enter.
After changing all the settings to your prefenence, press
ESC to quit setup. You wil be prompted on whether to save
these settings. If you answer 'Y', the file LSIGN.CFG will
either be created or updated. The next time you start
LSIGN, these new settings will be used. The new settings
also apply to the current session. If you press any other
key, the new settings will apply, but the file LSIGN.CFG
will NOT be updated.

Each setting controls the following:

Text color: This is the color of the text on the main menus.
Text color cannot be the same as the text background color.

Text background: This is the background color for the main menus.
Background color cannot be the same as text color or bar background.

Bar color: Is the color of the text in the highlited choice bar.
Cannot be the same as bar background color.

Bar background: Is the color of the background choice bar. Cannot
be the same as the bar color or the text background.

Hand color: This is the color of the displayed hands. For CGA there
are only 3 valid choices. For EGA and VGA there are 15 valid colors.
For EGA and VGA, hand color cannot be the same as hand background.
In EGA/VGA black is not a valid hand color.

Hand background: This is the graphics background color. For CGA,
black is only valid color. For EGA/VGA there are 16 valid colors.

Words: This defaults to 1. This means that when you view  WORDS
from the main menu, you will see one letter at a time. When you
set this option to 'more than 1', the program will display all
the letters for each word at one time on the screen. You should
set the hand size to a small value when using this option.

Text File Name: This is the name of the file which is read and
displayed from the Textfile option. It must be in the current
directory. Any standard Ascii file can be used. Length must
be less than 4000 bytes.

Hand size: This is a sizing factor for the hands. Only whole
numbers are used. As an example, if you enter 3, the hands
will be 3 times their normal size. This effect will vary
with graphics adaptor. Valid values are from 1 to 12.
If you set this value to high for your adaptor, parts of
the hands will not be displayed. Due to the varying types
of monitors and adapters, I have left this value open to play.

Delay: This is the time delay between each letter in seconds.
Valid values are between  .1  and 15.0 seconds.
As you become better at signing, you can lower this value.

Graphics mode: Set this option to match your monitor and
graphics adapter type. When you change this option,
remember that size, speed and colors will be affected.
The program has built in defaults which are set such as hand
size and colors. You can change these after setting graphics type.
The program also will not let you choose a higher level adapter
than you have. eg. if you have EGA, you cannot select VGA.

EXIT: Choosing this option will return you to DOS.

HELP: This is a limited help screen. Two pages of help will pop up
and briefly explain the options. It is only available from the
main menu currently. ESC will return you to the main menu. Any
other key will take you to page 2.

                  ***********           *************