Aminet 2/Aminet AMIGA CDROM (1994)(Walnut Creek)[Feb 1994][W.O. 44790-1].iso/Aminet/util/misc/ForayDemo.lha/ForayBasics.txt

Text File | 1993-05-13 | 12.4 KB | 285 lines

INTRODUCTION TO FORAY


When first confronted with the variety of mushrooms found in the wild, the task
of identification seems overwhelming. To assist in organization, mushrooms are
arranged by mycologists according to shared features. Those with commonality are
grouped together by family Group, Genus, then species. Foray follows the same
Group, then Genus, then species naming convention. The present version of Foray
supports four mushroom Groups:

        Agarics- mushrooms with gills under the cap.
        Boletes- mushrooms without gills, but with spongy pores under the cap.
        Chanterelles- mushrooms without a cap or true gills with ridges or folds
        on the surface.
        Polypores- mushrooms without gills that appear in a variety of shapes
        and textures.

Each of the above named Groups comprise a database as far as Foray is concerned.
Each Group's database must be opened and navigated separately, that is, you can't
open an Agaric database if you started Foray by selecting the Bolete Group. You
may, however, return to the GROUP screen at any time and change the Group
without restarting the program. Within each Group, an individual record is known
to Foray by its Genus.species (botanical) name; in fact, the Genus and species
must be specified, as Foray will refuse to save a record that has no text in
these name fields. (This enables allocating a new record with just the correct
botanical name.) The associated pictures are also named "Genus.species;" this
is how Foray locates them when "show picture" is selected.

Foray is designed to be easy-to-use. Even someone who has never picked a wild
mushroom and doesn't intend to, can enjoy Foray simply as a pictorial information
source. The experienced mushroom hunter can modify the included information,
add new records, or create entire new data-bases. Foray is also designed to
assist the serious mycologist, offering the matrix for an extensive multi-genus
database. Records may be retrieved by Genus, Genus.species, common name, or by
selecting feature keys and initializing a search. Features associated with any
mushroom record may be changed, providing the opportunity to fine-tune an entry.
Individualized comments or "field notes" may be saved with any record.

In addition, each mushroom record can have an associated picture. The included
pictures are a study of how the Amiga's basic 16 colors may be expanded to
accurately reproduce the much wider palette of mushrooms in the wild. Using an
Amiga paint program, new pictures may be created by the user and added to a
database.



FORAY BASICS... a "tourtorial"

Click on the Foray icon

Wait for Foray to load... when the branches and leaves frame the opening screen
and the "continue" gadget is visible Foray is ready... click "continue"

The GROUP screen will now be presented. You will see gadgets for the 4 family
Groups mentioned above; click on one of these gadgets.


Now the RECORD screen for the family Group you selected will open.



LOADING A DATABASE

From the RECORD screen menu select DATABASE/load database.    Remember to
select a database that corresponds to the Group name you previously selected.

When the database is loaded, the number of records it contains will be noted in
the title bar.


VIEWING RECORDS

When a database is loaded, you may look through the records by choosing next
record and previous record from the SORT menu (or keyboard equivalent) to
browse through the database. If you want to see a picture for a record select
"show picture."


SORTING BY NAME

You can find a particular mushroom quickly if you know the Genus.species or the
correct common name of the mushroom. To find     a specific mushroom by its
botanical name select SORT/find name/botanical from the menu. The requester
for botanical name selection will appear. Click on a Genus name in the left
column and notice that the names for the species available will then be listed
in the right column. If you want to select all of the records by Genus, click
"accept" without selecting any name in the right column. To select a specific
record (Genus.species), first select a left column name (Genus), then a right
column name (species) before clicking "accept." Either way, clicking "accept"
will retrieve the selected record (or records) from the database.


SORTING BY COMMON  NAME

Finding a mushroom by common name is similar to botanical name sorting except
that you must know the name in order to enter it in the text requester. Select
SORT/find name/common from the menu. Enter the common name in the text gadget;
Foray will look for a record with a matching common name field.



SORTING BY KEY

Under the SORT menu choices you will also find Sort by Key. This is one of
the most interesting and powerful features of Foray. "Sort by Key" will open the
EDIT screen, in the sort mode. The EDIT screen will present a set of text
cycle gadgets, graphic cycle gadgets, and various buttons which may be selected.
The text gadgets cycle through the available options for the the text fields.
For instance, the "season" text gadget will present choices for the season of
the year when the mushroom is most likely to be found. Clicking on a graphic
gadget will cycle through the choices for its field. In a similar way you can
set the fields for various color options. Click on one of the color button
gadgets at the top-right on the screen; a color bar will appear which presents
the colors associated with the field. Different colors are available for each
field, so that color choices may be made more specific. To select a color to be
entered by a field name, simply click on a color in the color bar. The color
name will appear next to the field name. If you want to clear a color field
entry, select it's button gadget, then click just to the left of the associated
color bar, on the screen background. This will remove the text entry next to the
field name. Note that there are no string gadgets available for mushroom names;
name searches are made from the RECORD screen only, as described above.

It is not necessary to set all the fields; you may select any number from one
to all available. It is better to select only the features you are sure about
and not guess about others. (FORAY can retrieve a collection of records that
you can then look through to find the best match.)

When you are satisfied that all the field entries you have set match the known
features of the mushroom you want to find, go to the SEARCH menu. Under
SEARCH, you may chose broad or narrow. The difference here is how you want
FORAY to focus the search. With broad, you don't need a match for every field;
FORAY will find the best match or matches for the criteria selected. With
narrow, FORAY looks for a record where everything matches. If a match is found,
you are returned to the RECORD screen where the record (or records) that match
your field selections becomes the current record. The RECORD screen title bar
will tell you how many records were selected. If there are no records in the
database that match the selected search criteria, a requester will notify that
there is "no match." In this case, the EDIT screen remains the active screen
so that another search with different field choices may be made.


RETURNING TO THE RECORD SCREEN

You can get back to the RECORD screen (without finding a match) from a key
search by selecting "return" from the menu, or by clicking the "close window"
gadget.



EDITING A RECORD

To reach the EDIT screen, select RECORD/edit record from the menu. This
will put the current record in the edit mode, where any field may be altered.
You may try out the field gadgets and change anything you like, but keep in mind
that if you chose save selected from the menu, your changes will be permanent.
Chose abandon edit or select the "close window" gadget to erase the changes
and return to the RECORD screen.



ADDING A RECORD

Select RECORD/new record from the menu. This will open the EDIT screen in
the edit mode, but with all fields blank. You may try out the field gadgets and
change anything you like. In addition to setting all the

field gadgets to the choices you want, you must also give the new record a name.
FORAY will check to see if the Genus and species fields have text, and will not
save the new record until these fields have text entries. You may enter the
information in any order that you like. Once everything is completed, select
save selected from the menu to add the new record to the database. Choose
abandon edit or select the "close window" gadget to erase the entries and
return to the RECORD screen without adding a new record.



DELETING A RECORD

Select RECORD/delete record from the menu. This will permanently   remove the
current record from the active database. This is a non-reversible action, so be
sure before you select it.



SAVING A RECORD

A record may be saved independently from its parent database. You can save it as
it appears on the screen by choosing RECORD/save record/ text & picture from
the RECORD menu. This will save to disk a "screen grab" of the current record;
whatever is on the screen will be saved to disk, including a picture if one is
visible. RECORD/save record/text only saves the field information as an ASCII
text file which can loaded into a text editor or page layout program.



PRINTING A RECORD

A record can be printed in two ways. Choose RECORD/print record/ text only
from the RECORD menu if you want just the field names and entries for each
field to be printed. To print the text with a picture choose RECORD/print
record/text & pic from the RECORD menu. Note that the picture must be visible
on the screen to be printed with the text. The page printing format is set to
print the text first, and then the picture    below the text.





SAVING THE DATABASE (disabeled in demo)

After you have added or changed records, select DATABSASE/save database to
save the database. The existing database will be replaced with the new database,
unless you specify a new name for the database.



CHANGING GROUPS

To change the current Group and gain access to a different database,    select
the close window gadget from the RECORD screen. this will take you back to the
GROUP screen without the necessity of restarting the program. Select a new
group and load a database for that Group and proceed as normal.




SETTING THE PICTURE PATH (disabeled in demo)

Foray will automatically recognize the logical device name "mushpics:" as the
location for the mushroom pictures. One convenient way to take advantage of
this is to name any disk containing mushroom pictures "mushpics." Then the name
requirement will automatically be fulfilled when that disk is inserted in any
drive. Alternately, you can direct    FORAY to a new location for pictures by
entering the path from within the program. "Set Picture Path" brings up a
requester where a new path to the mushroom pictures associated with a database
may be specified.



SHOWING A PICTURE

Show Picture  Loads a picture file with the same botanical name as the current
mushroom from the "mushpics:" logical device. A requester will notify you if no
picture is available.



ADDING NEW PICTURES

FORAY pictures can be created with any bitmap paint program. They should be saved
as a standard IFF brush that is 270 pixels wide by 318 pixels high-- which
includes the frame that surrounds the picture.

You must use the same palette that is used for original pictures. To set the
palette, you can load any of the included pictures into a paint program and
then work from the loaded picture palette when creating a new mushroom picture.
This will also set the boundary for the picture since the frame will be shown
as well.

Pictures must be named by Genus.species names and must reside in a directory
with the correct Group name for the picture. As an example...

    Mushpics contains the
             |
        Agaric (dir) contains the
                                    |
                                    Amanita.muscaria (picture)

Using this naming convention lets Foray know what picture is associated with
what mushroom record, as the pictures share the mushroom's botanical name.



QUITTING FORAY

You may quit FORAY by choosing "quit" from the RECORD screen menu. Alternately,
select the close window gadget from any screen to step back through the screens
all the way to the opening or TITLE screen. Selecting the close window gadget
from the TITLE screen will  also close the program.