*******¢¢ CHAR PACKAGE for ATARIWRITER, and¢ ATARIWRITER PLUS by PETER PAYNE¢ and printed by OL' HACKERS A.U.G.¢ OHAUG not responsible for authors¢ poor memory! Program is on this¢ disk as "CHREDI.BAS"¢¢8-bit users are able to view the¢progam with AtariWriter or AW+.¢¢WHAT IT IS!¢ Char Package (pronounced Care¢Package, get it?) is a character set¢editor for the 8-bit Ataris. Written¢in standard Atari Basic B, it should¢have no problem running in BASIC XL,¢XE, or Turbo BASIC. It was written¢as an entry in the 1984 Greater San¢Diego Science and Engineering Fair¢(it won second prize). To my¢knowledge, it has more options than¢any other program of its kind, and¢has no serious bugs. I worked on the¢program on and off for two years,¢learning as I went, so the code is¢horribly unorganized. In fact, when¢I started it, I didn't even know how¢to alter the character sets. I have¢not worked with the program for¢nearly a year, and I doubt if I¢remember all the options, much less¢how they work.¢¢AN ACCIDENT¢ Unfortunatly, I have just¢discovered that the rest of my @*&$(@¢file has been erased (let's hear a¢big hurrah for the lame Habba hard¢disk!), so I'll try to tell you what¢things were all over again (hey, I¢love typing, don't you?)...¢ First of all, almost all the¢time, pressing escape will take you¢out of whatever you are doing. When¢editing your font, press option and¢select to switch between the user and¢ROM font (when copying from this also¢applies). Try other funky stuff in¢case I forgot to mention it here.¢¢FUNCTIONS?¢ I think 'A' allowed you to play¢graffitti and put character text on a¢graphics 0 or antic 4 screen. You¢can save by pressing start and S then¢the numbers 1, 2, or 3 when it beeps.¢Load by pressing start and L. Note¢that if you exit (with the escape¢key) without saving first you will¢lose the image.¢ I forget what 'B' was.I think it¢did something funky to the image in¢the grid. Try it. 'C' will clear the¢screen. 'D' is a demo mode, it shows¢you all the characters in all three¢modes. I think you could move up and¢down on the joystick to change the¢graphics 1 or 2 part, or press option¢or select or something, or 1 and 2.¢ I forget what 'E' was also. Tee¢hee, sorry. Some programmer, huh? Oh¢well, it *was* four years ago or¢so... 'F' is copy from. You press¢it, then either press the key of¢the character you want to copy the¢bit pattern of, or use the joystick.¢ 'G' was the disk menu, just like¢Dos. 'H' was something like overlay¢character, it would do just like 'F'¢but would not destroy the bit pattern¢in the window first. 'I' inverts the¢character grid. Forgot what 'J' was.¢Forgot what 'K' was too. 'L' loads a¢font from a device. Enter /B at the¢end of the font that was saved with¢the binary header. 'M' and 'N' split¢the bit pattern of the image in the¢grid, taking out odd or even bits.¢This allows you tomake multi-colored¢characters. 'O' is something like¢undo, it puts the last character into¢the grid. I think shift 'O' will do¢the second to last-but don't quote me¢on that. 'P' is parameters, you can¢change, such things as the filename¢that the text screens are saved to or¢loaded fromand other exciting things.¢'Q' Hmmm..?? 'R' was restore the font¢to the one in ROM. 'S' is save font.¢Enter /B to save it as a binary load¢file, it will ask you to enter the¢(I think) hex address, or maybe it¢was decimal, or maybe even both.¢¢ Try different things (like putting¢a '$' before a hex number). Goodluck.¢'T' means transfer the image on the¢grid into the third plane of the¢time-space continuum. Be careful¢using this option: you could upset¢the matter balance and start a¢chain-reaction that would cause the¢destruction of all life on the earth.¢(grin) Actually, I forgot what this¢option is, I am only joking about¢the time-space crap. 'U' is for¢upside-down, I think? I think 'V' was¢the animation screen, or something.¢You just enter the charaters in the¢animation string, and follow the¢instructions.¢GETTING OUT!¢ Remember, escape brings you back.¢You can also have a text screen load¢first, as saved with the A command.¢ 'W'? Got me. 'X' is make lines,¢I believe, although there is some¢doubt in my mind. It allows you¢to generate basic-action or assembler¢data with the data for the redefined¢characters that you indicate in it.¢I forget what 'Y' is. Sorry. 'Z' is¢enter character. It will take the¢image on the grid, and copy it to¢one of the characters in the user¢character set.¢There ya have it, folks. Sorry for¢being so imcomplete, if you have any¢questions leave mail to me (LETO-2¢on GEnie, or call me at 560-4272¢voice). Program is pretty straight¢forward and shouldn't be a problem to¢figure out.¢ Oh well, enjoy the fruits of my¢efforts, I sure had fun writing the¢program. Ah reservoir! (grin)¢ Peter Payne¢(EDITORS NOTE: The challenge for you¢dear reader is to fill in the missing¢info, and write up some comprehensive¢documentation and send it in to OHAUG¢so we can publish it. GOOD LUCK!)¢ -+-+-+-
