¢¢¢¢ Turbo Basic Character Editor¢ By Gavan Moran¢ (c) 1989¢ ¢ The Turbo Basic Character Editor is a very powerful tool with which¢ to create your own character sets . It is unusual in that it is window¢ , rather than menu , driven . Yes , thats right - just like an ST . A¢ joystick is needed in port 1 in order to control selections in the¢ windows . The only time the keyboard is used is when loading and¢ saving character sets and when going from the editing to the¢ manipulation options .¢ ¢ When first running the program , you will see a large 8X8 editing¢ grid on the left hand side of the screen , a window containing credits¢ on the right and a window showing the entire character set being¢ edited along the bottom . Pressing START will cause the credits window¢ to disappear and a window offering various character manipulation and¢ I/O options will appear as will a smaller window containing the ascii¢ no of the character being edited and it's image . Alternatively , just¢ moving the stick or pressing fire will also cause the credits window¢ to disappear and you will find yourself controlling the editing cursor¢ in the 8X8 window .¢ ¢ The Edit Window¢ ¢ This window contains an 8X8 grid which represents the shape of the¢ character being edited . The small window at the top-centre-right of¢ the screen tells you the number of the character which you are¢ currently editing and shows an actual gr.0 sized image of it . Use the¢ joystick to move the cross-shaped cursor around the window in the 8¢ directions . Going off one side of the window will lead to you coming¢ back on at the other . Press the fire button in order to change a¢ square from lit to unlit or vice versa . The lit and unlit squares on¢ the grid represent lit and unlit pixels in the character being edited¢ and changes in the grid are reflected in the character in the small¢ window ( but NOT on the character in the bottom character set window )¢ . Note that changes are only made to the actual character when the¢ PUTCHAR function is selected in the manipulation window ( see later )¢ so feel free to try your ideas out . Once you have finished designing¢ your character you will want to place it in the character set or maybe¢ manipulate it using some 'special effects' . In order to do this you¢ will have to enable the manipulation window . Do this by pressing¢ START on the keyboard .¢ ¢ The Manipulation Window¢ ¢ This is the window down the right hand side of the screen . It allows¢ you to carry out many special operations on the character in the¢ character window and also allows disk I/O . The options availible are¢ shown inside the window . A white 'menu bar' is used to select an¢ option . This is done by up/down on the joystick to move the bar over¢ the desired option and then fire to select it . Sometimes this may¢ cause another window to be opened and the bar is then transferred to¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ this window and so on .¢ Let us go through the options availible -¢ ¢ EDIT : Selecting this will cause you to be back in the character edit¢ window controlling the cursor . Use this when editing a new character¢ or when 'touching up' after an effect is used .¢ ¢ REVERSE : This will reverse all the pixels of the current character .¢ It acts like the inverse key in the BASIC editor .¢ ¢ SCROLL up : Moves all the rows in the current character up by one¢ position . The top row will 'wrap around' to the bottom row¢ ¢ SCROLL down : Moves all rows down one . Bottom wraps round to top .¢ ¢ SHIFT right : Moves all the pixels across one pixel to the right .¢ Wraparound occurs on pixles shifted off right hand side of grid¢ ¢ SHIFT left : Shifts pixels to left . Wraparound occurs .¢ ¢ FLIP u/d : Spins character through 180 degrees around a horizontal¢ line through the centre of the grid¢ ¢ FLIP l/r : Spins character 180 degrees around vertical line through¢ centre .¢ ¢ ROTATE : Rotates character 90 degrees clockwise around centre .¢ ¢ GETCHAR : Allows you to choose a character in the set to be edited .¢ This causes another selection window to be opened which allows you to¢ select the character in the following ways¢ >> and << go backwards and forwards through the character set¢ ASCII lets you type ascii no of character to be edited¢ TYPE lets you type the character directly on the keyboard¢ QUIT returns you to the manipulation window selecting the character¢ currently shown ¢ Notice that a smaller , quarter-size window is opened over the edit¢ window while you are choosing the character . This contains a¢ representation of the character which will be chosen and is done for¢ speed purposes - on leaving the GETCHAR window , the full edit window¢ is restored .¢ ¢ PUTCHAR : When you have edited a character to your satisfaction , you¢ must put it back into the character set in order to affect a permanent¢ change . You may either put the character back into the set 'as is'¢ i.e. as the same char. no it was fetched as , or you may put it back¢ in as a different char. no .¢ As with getchar , these options are represented in a seperate window¢ - simply use the menu bar to select them . The options are AS IS ,¢ OTHER and QUIT . With the other option , you will be prompted to press¢ a key on the keyboard and this is the character that the redifined¢ character will be assigned to . e.g. pressing 'A' will cause the¢ character A (ascii no 65) to be redefined to the shape in the edit¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ grid . Use QUIT to go back to the main window .¢ ¢ DISK : This presents a window of I/O options . They are LOAD , SAVE¢ and QUIT . ¢ LOAD causes a directory window to be opened , showing all the files¢ on the disk with .SET extenders . Another window prompts you for the¢ name of the file to be loaded . Type your filename (minus the D: and¢ .SET extenders) . This set will then be loaded and displayed in the¢ blue window along the bottom of the screen .¢ SAVE opens a window which prompts you to type a name for the file¢ which you mean to save the current set as . The filename of the last¢ file loaded is displayed as a default and pressing RETURN will allow¢ you to save as this file . Any other keypress will allow you to type a¢ new name .¢ QUIT returns you to the main window .¢ ¢ DEFAULT : This option will opens a window with three further options .¢ They are -¢ CHAR which will change the character being edited back into it's¢ default ( O.S. ) form . Note that this also affects the actual¢ character in the set being edited .¢ SET which changes the whole character set to it's default form . ¢ QUIT returns you to the main window .¢ ¢ finally ,¢ CLEAR : This allows you to clear the character currently being edited¢ . i.e. set all it's pixels off . Note that it does not affect the¢ character in the set being edited .¢ ¢ ¢ NOTES:¢ ¢ When the program is run , it tries to load a character set off the¢ disk called CHARED.SET . If this is not present , the program will not¢ run . This is because the program itself uses a redefined set . If for¢ some reason you do not have the CHARED.SET file , simply rename any¢ character set file to CHARED.SET and use it . The program will then¢ run correctly , but needless to say the graphics of the windows , grid¢ etc. will not be correct . You can , of course , use the editor to¢ redefine the CHARED.SET file in order to change the grpahics of the¢ program to whatever you want .¢ The program itself is nearly 100% Turbo Basic . The exception is the¢ DLI routines for changing the character set and screen colour at the¢ bottom of the screen . These were created using the excellent DLI¢ MAKER program by Greg Anderson in the Jan '86 issue of ANALOG magazine¢ ( No 38 ) .¢ Well , thats about all . I think that this program nicely¢ demonstrates the power of Turbo Basic and hopefully should inspire¢ people to make the most of this powerful language .¢ ¢ ¢
