home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
CD Exchange
/
CD Exchange - Volume 1.iso
/
education
/
amiflash
/
amiflash.readme
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-04-09
|
13KB
|
292 lines
**********************************************************************
* *
* AmiFlash version 1.0.0 Release Date: 04/03/93 *
* Copyright ©1993 Michael Neylon and Bill Gundlach *
* All rights reserved *
* *
* Fully-functional 'demo' version of a fast and flexible *
* flashcard-type study program. (requires WB 2.0) *
* *
**********************************************************************
0. Reqtools Copyright
Reqtools.Library is Copyright © Nico Francois. As per his documentation,
the 2.0 version of the library is the only file from that archive that
is distributed in this package.
1. What is AmiFlash?
Simply, AmiFlash is a program to help you memorize information.
Remember when you were in school and you memorized your vocabulary
words by writing them on index cards? AmiFlash can 'ask' you questions,
repeat the words that you missed, and also keep track of your score.
2. What do I need to run AmiFlash?
AmiFlash was written to work on an Amiga computer system that has
Workbench 2.0 or above. To use the program, you decompress the
files in the archive and click on the Install icon. This will copy
the reqtools library to your libs: drawer. In order for AmiFlash to
work, it is necessary that the reqtools.library be in libs:.
Overall, both the AmiFlash program and the editor take about 40K
of free memory apiece plus the amount of data stored in the
current 'deck' of cards.
AmiFlash has been tested on all models of the Amiga computer
under 2.0x and 2.1/3.0. No errors have been reported by
Enforcer when run on a MMU machine (according to the beta
testers).
3. Starting the Program
You can start AmiFlash by either clicking on its icon or running
it from the command line. The command line invocation is:
AmiFlash [options] [<filename>]
Where [options] are in the following format:
[options] = [STRAIGHT|RANDOM] [ONCE|STUDY] [KEYPRESS|TIMEOUT]
[DELAY=<n>]
and the follow template:
STRAIGHT/K, RANDOM/K, ONCE/K, STUDY/K, TIMEOUT/K, KEYPRESS/K,
DELAY/K/N
The options STRAIGHT, ONCE, and KEYPRESS are on by default. The
default DELAY is 3 seconds. You may call AmiFlash with the
infamous '?' option to remind yourself of the commands. Note that
this does not behave the same as with most AmigaDOS commands YET.
Similarly, there 4 ToolTypes that are in the .info file. These are:
ORDER = STRAIGHT|RANDOM (off by default)
MODE = ONCE|STUDY (once by default)
WAITTYPE = KEYPRESS|TIMEOUT (key is default)
DELAY = ##
Futhermore, you may start AmiFlash from the workbench by using the
multiple select and double-clicking on AmiFlash or setting a
datadeck's ToolType to AmiFlash.
4. Using the program
Overall, using AmiFlash is very straightforward (almost not worth
reading the manual 8^)). Once you start the program, it will ask
you to load the deck (if necessary) and then wait for you to begin.
The menu is very straight-forward. (I hope!)
AmiFlash has been programmed with GadToolsBox using the Adapt.Font/
System.font option. Thus, it will attempt to open the window using your
system font for the gadget text, but if it is too big, it will default to
topaz 8. On a non-interlaced, NTSC screen, this allows a maximum point
size of 12. Thus, for you interlaced folk, you should have no problem
seeing the text :)
There are two types of testing modes currently available in AmiFlash.
The first method is a 'once-thru' mode. This allows you to study the
cards in the deck, being tested on each one only once. For those that
are more pesistent, a 'study' mode is available. This allows you
to go through the deck, but put cards back in stack if you don't
get the right answer.
Just so you don't get bored seeing the same cards every time
you run the program, we've included a randomizer that will
'shuffle' cards in the deck. Of course, if you don't use this option,
you'll see the cards in the order in wwhich they were entered.
Finally, there is an option which determines how AmiFlash will
wait after you have entered your answer to a question. The
default will wait for you to press a key to go to the next card.
As of v0.9.6, only the <return> and <space> keys will perform this
actions. The gadgets shortcuts will perform their actions as well.
If you don't want to do this, you can set AmiFlash to wait
for a number of seconds (1-15) before going on to the next card.
Right now, only one wait method can be used. If you use the timer,
pressing a key will now (starting with version 0.9.2!) send you to
the next card, however, intuition functions are currently disabled
during this brief time.
You may quit or load a new deck while using a deck without a problem.
If you answer all the cards in one deck, you will be presented
with a small requestor with very simple statistics.
5. Important note about AmiFlash
This version of AmiFlash is what is commonly referred to as
"cripple-ware." The program will only use the first 15 cards
out of every deck. Yes, Mike and I know that this is annoying,
but this is necessary to get people to register. We're asking
for a very small amount of money for our programming efforts.
The suggested donation is $5.00 US. If you use AmiFlash and
like it, we ask that you send us the registration fee. In turn,
Mike and I will send you a full registered copy of AmiFlash, in
which the decksize is only limited by the amount of free RAM.
Registered users will receive free updates to AmiFlash.
See Section 7 for the new features to be added to the newest
registered version of AmiFlash (we're already working on a
number of them - HINT HINT).
6. Contacting the Authors
The majority of the included programs were coded by Mike Neylon.
Bill Gundlach helped out and wrote the wonderful documentation that
you're reading now. Yay! Mike and I can both be contacted by e-mail
through Internet. In fact, we prefer this method of communication.
Mike Neylon - mneylon@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu
Bill Gundlach - bgundlac@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu
These addresses should be valid any time during the normal school
year. Mine should also be valid for the 93-94 school year. I don't
know if Mike's will. (Mike sez: I will try to release my summer email
address as soon as possible. To be safe, you can probably get me at the
above address.)
During school, our Snail-mail address is:
Bill Gundlach
#117 White Hall
2061 Campus Dr.
Toledo, OH 43606
During the summer, use:
Bill Gundlach
1611 Cedar Point Rd
Sandusky, OH 44870-5210
Mike and I welcome suggestions and bug reports concerning AmiFlash.
Actually, we don't mind complements, either. :-)
7. Features planned for future versions
- Multiple right answers for questions
- More quiz modes
- Multiple line questions
- User-definable categories for words and quizzes by category
- Enhanced reporting features
- Decks that 'remember' what you missed last time
8. History of the Program
AmiFlash started as a project that I (Bill) started to try and
learn C. Many crashed program later, I brought the idea to Mike.
He helped me code the mechanics of the program and skillfully
wrote the entire user interface.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version MM/DD/YY
0.9.0b 03/07/93 First release to beta testers
0.9.1 03/08/93 - Changed Version numbers to strings (giving a bit
more freedom with these.)
- Fixed 'About' requester problem with Version
numbers (gave nonsense before)
- If user enters a delay time <0 or >15 secs (while
in the program), a requester is brought up telling
him of the error, and the delay is reset to 5sec.
- A VersionString is now impletemented, so it works