Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d11/pc_kd353.arc/HYPERDRW.TXT

Text File | 1989-02-21 | 14KB | 277 lines

                            HYPERDRAW

Introduction

Welcome to the world of HyperDraw and PC-KEY-DRAW Version 3.51.
The following information is provided to aid users of PC-KEY-DRAW
in using the features of HyperDraw.  First a little background
information on how HyperDraw came to be a part of PC-KEY-DRAW,
then a quick look at the terminology, followed by information on
using hypertext stacks, including a discussion of two stacks sup
plied with PC-KEY-DRAW, and finally a look at creating your own
HyperDraw stacks.  It's easier than you may think. For more
information on HyperDraw, hypertext, and hypermedia see the Octo
ber 1988 issue of BYTE magazine and the October 3, 1988 issue of
Newsweek.  There are also numerous books written on HyperCard for
the Macintosh.

The addition of HyperDraw makes PC-KEY-DRAW a brand new program
in many ways and as far as I know without equal in the IBM PC
shareware world.  I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.


Background

Many new features were added to Version 3.5, but perhaps the most
significant improvement and definitely the most exciting is the
addition of HyperDraw capability to PC-KEY-DRAW. PC-KEY-DRAW can
now be used as a graphic based data base.  It lets you link
screens together so that the user can easily flow from one screen
to the next.  This is a great way for organizing many different
types of information that includes pictures and text.  HyperDraw
is very similar to the HyperCard capability of the Mac.  Creating
linked databases in PC-KEY-DRAW is easy and using them is simple.
The tutorial disk is my first attempt at using HyperDraw.  It
provides an interactive tutorial for PC-KEY-DRAW that can lead
the beginner through all of the basic functions of the program.
See Using Stacks for more information on the tutorial disk.

To say the least, I am very excited about HyperDraw.  I see tre
mendous potential with a wide range of uses.  It is ideal for
interactive slide shows, for education, for picture databases,
family trees, scheduling diagrams, drawing detailing and so much
more.

HyperDraw works by creating tags on the screen.  A tag is a sec
tion of the screen with associated action.  Currently the actions
included run a macro (1), load a screen (2), or load a partial
screen (3).  Only screens have tags and any screen can have up to
eight tags. Each tagged screen can have eight tags and so on, so
there is no limit.  Additional tags and tag types will probably
be added in future versions.

You might find the history of HyperDraw interesting.  Ever since
I first put macros in the program I have wanted to have a way to
tag areas of the screen so that the user could define actions to
take place when the tagged area was selected with the cursor.  I
never could figure out a way I liked for doing it.  In the spring
of 1988, I saw HyperCard demonstrated on the Mac and I again got
interested in the idea, but once again was not happy with any
approach to the problem I could think of.  Several weeks later, I
received a letter from a long time user of PC-KEY-DRAW complain
ing about the .DAT files that accompanied the .SCN files.  They
contained the scale information for a drawing, but tended to
waste a lot of disk space.  I decided to encode the scale infor
mation in the .SCN file.  Several days later I saw the movie BIG
in which the main character develops an interactive comic book,
which I realized was basically HyperCard and I realized the tech
nique used for the scale information could be used for saving tag
information, giving PC-KEY-DRAW HyperCard features.  A couple of
long days later and PC-KEY-DRAW had its own database structure.

Several months after Version 3.51 started shipping, BYTE magazine
arrived in the mail with several excellent articles on hypertext.
I was surprised to find out that the concept of hypertext goes
back to 1945.  It has been a long time in coming to the PC world,
but the wait may have been worth it.  In Byte, Janet Fiderio,
points out that as a minimum, hypertext "is a DBMS that lets you
connect screens of information using associative links.", while
at its maximum "hypertext is a software environment for collabor
ative work, communication, and knowledge acquisition." She goes on
to say that "Hypertext products mimic the brain's ability to
store and retrieve information by referential links for quick
intuitive access."


Terminology

The terminology of HyperDraw is simple, but there are several
terms that must be understood.  In many ways using hypertext to
organize data is like using a stack of 3X5 file cards.  Each card
contains a portion of the information contained in the entire
stack. The term "stack" is used for a group of HyperDraw screens
linked to each other.  Linking of individual screens in HyperDraw
to other screens in a stack is accomplished by tagging a portion
of the screen with the name of screen, picture or macro to link
to.  A "tag" is the name, type, and button location used to link
to the next screen in the stack. The tag information is encoded
in the screen file. (SCN extension files)  Currently, only 8 tags
per screen are allowed per individual screen, but this will prob
ably be increased in future versions.  The term "button" is used
to describe the portion of the screen that activates a particular
tag by clicking on that area with the cursor.  Buttons may be as
small as a dot or as large as the entire screen, they may also be
visible and invisible.  Buttons are created on the screen by
using any of the programs drawing functions.  Sets of buttons can
be saved to disk and retrieved as symbols.  A button might say
"Push Here", "Click On This", or simply give the name or icon of
the appropriate action.  Anything on the screen can be a button.
Invisible buttons are simply areas on the screen that have been
tagged but not delimited by a picture, icon, or word.


Using Stacks

Using HyperDraw stacks couldn't be easier.  Once a stack has been
created anyone can move through the stack simply by "clicking" on
the desired button.  To click on a button, move the cursor into
the area designated on the screen using the cursor pad, joystick
or mouse.  Hit the <ENTER> key, the trigger, or the first mouse
button to activate the tag the cursor is on.  Tagged areas are
always rectangular, even if the visible button is not. If nothing
happens, you are probably not inside of the tagged area. When an
area is clicked on the appropriate action is taken, either a
macro is run, a screen is called up to replace the current
screen, or a picture is overlaid onto the screen. Cursor move
ment with a the keyboard or a mouse is fine for most uses, but a
short cut is provided with the keyboard and the <J>ump command.
Selecting <J> from Cursor Mode will provide a chance to jump to
one of the eight possible tags.  Enter the desired tag number and
the cursor will instantly jump to the top left corner of the
tagged area.  Hitting <ENTER> will then activate the tag.

Once you enter a stack the words "Home" and "Back will appear in
the bottom left and right corners of the screen.  "Home" and
"Back" are both buttons.  "Home" will take you back to the very
beginning, where you entered the stack. "Back" will back up
through the stack, one step at a time, until you reach the place
you entered a stack.  The <Back Space> key can be used instead of
moving over "Back" and clicking.  No key equivalent is provided
for "Home".

How you move through a stack depends on the how it was created.
Some stacks will be essentially sequential in design, while oth
ers will take a hierarchical form resembling the branches of a
tree.  In a sequential stack the user starts at the beginning
and moves to each subsequent screen in sequence.  This is how you
would read a novel.  In a stack set up like branches in a tree
the user can move down the desired path from one branch to the
next, occasionally backing up to go down a different branch.
This is how you would use a reference book.

The disk drive to save drawings on must be set to the drive:\path
that contains a given stack.  A drive cannot be specified in the
tag name.

The following discusses two rather different stacks that have
been created in PC-KEY-DRAW using HyperDraw.  The first is the
tutorial stack created to provide an interactive lesson in lear
ning and using PC-KEY-DRAW.  The second stack is a 3-D maze game
that is created primarily for fun.  Other stacks are in the
works.

Tutorial Stack

The tutorial disk for PC-KEY-DRAW is the first in a hopefully
long line of applications for HyperDraw.  It provides an interac
tive tutorial for PC-KEY-DRAW that can lead the beginner through
all of the basic functions of the program.  The user proceeds at
his own rate and in any order desired. The tutorial disk should
go a long way in helping the novice get started with PC-KEY-DRAW.
To use the tutorial put disk T-1 in the drive for drawings and
run the TUTORIAL macro with <Alt-k r>. Just follow the on screen
prompts and click on the desired action with the cursor, mouse or
joystick.


Maze Stack

In the September, 1988 issue of Scientific American, A.K.
Dewdney discusses three dimensional mazes and presents a 3-D maze
based on the legend of Daedalus' Labyrinth.  The discussion of
three dimensional mazes is fascinating and inspired me to create
a computer version of the maze using the HyperDraw capability of
PC-KEY-DRAW.

MAZE.ARC contains a number of screen files for PC-KEY-DRAW, Ver
sion 3.50 or later, that form a 3-D maze.  You can move through
the various levels of the maze by moving the cursor with a key
board, mouse, or joystick and clicking to go up or down in the
maze to another level.  A map of the entire level is available by
clicking outside of an up or down button.  A thread back to the
surface is provided by the <Back Space> command.

To use the maze start by creating a subdirectory on your hard
disk.  Unarc MAZE.ARC into the subdirectory, about 800K will be
needed.  Run PC-KEY-DRAW, Version 3.5 or later.  Set "Drive for
Completed Drawings" as the drive and subdirectory that contains
the unarced files of MAZE.ARC by using the Status Screen
<Ctrl-s>.  Load the first screen using <F8 o START(Cr) y>, where
(Cr) stands for <ENTER> or <Return>.  Click on START. Follow on
screen instructions.

To learn more about this and other three dimensional mazes, check
out Scientific American, Computer Recreations, September, 1988.
Enjoy the maze and PC-KEY-DRAW.  Good luck in finding a solution.


Creating Stacks

Many users will be content with using stacks created by others,
but sooner or later you will want to try your hand at it.  Creat
ing a stack is actually very simple. The screens used in a stack
are created using any or all of the programs drawing/painting
functions or they can be captured from other programs.  Once the
individual screens are created they are linked to other screens,
macros, or overlays by tagging a portion of the screen and
specifying the action to take.  The tagged portion of the screen gen
erally corresponds to a visible button on the screen created as
if it where a part of the screen.  The actual tag can be smaller
or larger than the visible button.
To start a tagging operation move to one corner of the tag rec
tangle and select <Alt-k t>.  The program will prompt you to mark
the opposite corner by moving the cursor and forming the desired
rectangle and then hitting <ENTER>.  The current tag list for the
screen is displayed in the top left corner of the screen and the
program will prompt for the tag number to use.  Select an empty
tag or replace an existing tag. When a user clicks on a tag, the
program will use the first tag it finds that matches the screen
coordinates of the cursor. This allows tags to be within other
tags. Only the first tag is activated. The tutorial stack uses
this in the first screen to provide help information when a user
is unsure where to start.  The same technique is used in the MAZE
game to bring up a map of the level.

Next the program asks for the tag type.  Version 3.51 has three
types of tags that can be activated.  Future versions will have
additional tag types for more power.

Type two (2) is the most common type as it calls another screen
(SCN extension) in much the same way as calling a screen with <F8
o>ld.  Each screen can have its own eight tags.  This is the
primary method of linking screens of information.  The other two
types are used to supplement screen files.

Type three (3) loads a picture file (PIC extension) over the top
of the current screen.  It is an ideal way of providing addi
tional information or providing help.  The picture file will load
so that the top left corner of the picture matches the top left
corner of the tag. Picture files do not have their own tags and
thus the existing screen tags remain unchanged.

Type one (1) runs a macro file (MCR extension), thus allowing any
PC-KEY-DRAW function to be called from a tag.  The macro will
start as if the cursor was in the top left corner of the tagged
area. There are many uses of the macro command, including anima
tion to illustrate a point.  Screens and pictures can also be
loaded using a macro, but it is generally desirable to load them
as type 2 and type 3 tags.

A tag type zero can also be entered, which will cause the current
tag entry for the specified tag number to be erased.  To simply
view a list of the tag names select <Alt-k t ENTER Esc>.

Finally, the name of the tag must be specified.  This is the name
of the appropriate macro (type 1), screen (type 2), or picture
(type 3). The program does not check if the appropriate file is
available on the drawing disk until the tag is activated.  It is
good practice to save the screen file to disk, before activating
a tag to test it out.

That is all it takes to create your own stack.  Once a stack is
created it can be added to or changed just as easily.  Since the
tag information is contained in each screen file, relationships
need only to be set up once.  For example, a screen contains sev
eral tags and an animation sequence.  When that screen is called
by a new screen, all of the tag information comes along.