Software Vault: The Diamond Collection

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THE ELECTRONIC TEXT PUBLISHING SYSTEM Description: The Electronic Text Publishing System (or "E-Text" for short) is used to make "electronic" books or magazines, such as tutorials, training manuals, or even works of literature. The E-Text system allows you to create professional looking programs with little effort. E-Text uses text files that you create and compiles them into a menu driven "electronic" book, complete with a table of contents. If you know how to use a word processor, then you have all the skills necessary to publish your own "electronic" books on a disk. The electronic books that you create with E-Text can be copied, distributed and sold, royalty free. Share your knowledge, research, your works of poetry, fiction, or your sales products with others by using E-Text! Features: E-Text allows you to customize nearly every aspect of your finished catalog. Consider the following... E-Text allows you to... + Create a "Table of Contents" (Main menu) + Customize the size and location of the Main Menu + Customize the attributes of the Main Menu, such as colors, border frame, elevator bar, drop shadow, etc. + Define the colors of each screen + Use background wallpaper to create stunning screens + Invoke screen special effects - for example, screen wipes from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, opening curtains, splits, clock sweeps, etc. + Run DOS commands, execute batch files or other programs. E-Text can be used to create your own program menus or shell. + Consolidates all your .TXT files into just one compact data file. In fact, after compilation, only two files are necessary to make your electronic book available to your audience (READ.EXE and READ.DAT). This makes disk distribution file management a breeze. Special requirements: No special system requirements or hardware is required to use E-Text except a DOS version greater or equal to version 3.0. A hard disk does make the compilation process much easier and faster, however. Before we get started: If you obtained E-Text through a shareware vendor, or BBS, or CD-ROM, make sure that no files are missing. A file called PACKING.LST contains a listing of all the files required to run E-Text. If you have problems with E-Text, check the files that you have obtained with the PACKING.LST listing. If you find files missing, please notify your vendor, or BBS sysop, or feel free to contact the author via our 24-hour BBS at (703) 372-9680 N-8-1 ANSI. The latest version can always be downloaded from our BBS as ETEXT*.ZIP. Before you compile your very own electronic book we recommend that you browse through one that has already been created. You should find a file AESOP.DAT on your disk, which contains a short collection of Aesop's Fables. To view this electronic book from the DOS prompt enter --> READ AESOP then press ENTER. Browse through this electronic book and get a feel for what E-Text can do. If you like what you see, and would like to create similar e-text documents, resume reading these instructions and proceed with your first compilation. Terms and definitions: There are several terms that will be used throughout this documentation and that need to be fully understood by the user before you create your own electronic books. Please review these definitions carefully: ASCII FILE: This is a term used to describe any file that you create and save with an editor such as DOS' EDIT or Window's Notepad. An ASCII file contains only characters that can be found on a standard IBM keyboard. Most word processor programs (like Word Perfect) can save files in ASCII format IF you know how to. E-Text does NOT come with an editor because most users already have a favorite text editor or word processor that they feel comfortable with. We saw no reason to force the user to use another editor and have consequently not included one. CHAPTER: A chapter is any ASCII .TXT file that you create that you want to become part of your electronic book. Each selection from the Main Menu "Table of Contents" is considered a chapter. COMPILER: The compiler is the program that gathers all of your ASCII chapter text files (*.TXT), and binary wallpaper files (*.BIN) together, and prompts you step by step for specific details about how you want your final electronic book to look (screen colors, Table of Contents (Main Menu) size, location, shadows, etc. The compiler merges and can compress this information into a single data file (READ.DAT). DATA FILE: The data file is a specially formatted file that contains ALL of your chapters, wallpaper, and screen definitions. This data file is created by using the E-Text compiler (COMPILE.EXE), and once it has been created it can be identified by the default filename "READ.DAT". This data file is one of the two necessary files that must be placed on your distribution disk in order for others to read your electronic book. Data files can be renamed if you wish, however to use them with the "reader" you must specify its new file name on the DOS command line. For example, AESOP.DAT was originally named READ.DAT, but was renamed in order to preserve its contents from future compilations that would have created a new READ.DAT file and overwritten it. In order to use AESOP.DAT with the "reader", the user needs to start the electronic book from the DOS command line in this manner --> READ AESOP.DAT By using this method inside a batch file, the author can create several electronic books on one floppy disk, needing only one "reader". READER MODULE: This refers to the file "READ.EXE". This is the program that reads the information in your data file and displays it to your audience. Remember, in order to create an electronic book for distribution on a floppy diskette, two files must exist on that disk: 1) READ.EXE and 2) READ.DAT. TEXT FILE: Text files and ASCII files all refer to the same thing (see ASCII FILE above). WALLPAPER: If you have never used Microsoft Windows, then the term "wallpaper" may conjure up ideas of colored paper and wheat paste. With E-Text, however, wallpaper refers to background screen designs that can be used to liven up your electronic book. Wallpaper files should end with a .BIN file extension. How do you create wallpaper files? When you register E-Text you will be sent, as a bonus, the E-Text Screen Composer program that allows you to create your own wallpaper files. Several wallpaper .BIN files have been included with the evaluation copy, so feel free to use them. You may also use any text screen design program that generates BLOADable binary files. The "Laughing Dog Screen Maker" and "The Draw" are two popular shareware screen designers that can also create wallpaper files. You can find these programs on most large BBS's for downloading. As an incentive to register, you will be sent a screen design program written by the author at no additional charge. Please remember, wallpaper files are NOT graphic bitmaps images like .PCX or .BMP files, but rather they are colored text files used as a background beneath your Main Menu, and chapter text displays, or as opening and closing screens. Getting started: You will need to create all of the ASCII .TXT text files that you wish to include in your "electronic" book BEFORE you run the compiler (COMPILE.EXE). Use your favorite word processor or text editor (like DOS' EDIT) to compose the individual "chapters". If you are using a word processor, like Word Perfect, then it is absolutely essential that you save each "chapter" as an ASCII file. Most word processors add "control characters" to your document as you compose it. Control characters are used to identify italics, highlighting, underlines, margin spacing, etc. When using a word processor, these control characters will create problems if they are not removed. By saving a word processing document as an ASCII file, all the control characters will be removed. In Word Perfect 5.0/5.1, you can save your document as an ASCII file by pressing CTRL+F5, then selecting "1 DOS Text", then select "1 Save". If you are using DOS' EDIT, or the Windows' Notepad, then you do not need to worry about control characters, for their native file formats are ASCII. Each "chapter" of your "electronic" book MUST exist as an ASCII file, with a ".TXT" file extension. Valid file name examples are: "AESOP1.TXT", "TUTOR-3.TXT", "POEMS_5.TXT". The compiler looks automatically for all files with .TXT file extensions, and will ignore all other files. Rename your files to include a .TXT extension should you have failed to do so earlier. In each of your "chapter" .TXT files, you must reserve the very first line (top most) for a "header". This header consists of various parameters (commands) that are necessary for the reader (READ.EXE). This header line must absolutely be on line #1. If during the compilation process (using COMPILE.EXE) the compiler detects a .TXT file with a missing header, the compiler will flag this to your attention, and prompt you to correct the discrepancy. The header line can have many different parameters (commands), some of which specify the screen colors, size of the text view window, screen effects, and more (see advanced options later in this documentation). There are two parameters that are ALWAYS required in the header line: 1) the Table of Contents order number or character, and 2) a chapter title. A typical .TXT header will look like this: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 2|The Life of Aesop │ │ │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ Please note that the Table of Contents "order number" is separated from the chapter title by a "|" (pipe) character. This character always separates parameters on the header line. The "|" character is found on most IBM PC keyboards with the "\" (backslash) key. The Table of Contents "order number" determines the ORDER OF APPEARANCE that the chapter title will appear in the Main Menu. In other words, in the example above, the chapter "The Life of Aesop" will appear as the second chapter in the Table of Contents Main Menu. Now, to slightly contradict the instructions, the "order number" does not necessarily have to be a number. There is one exception where the letter "A" or "a" is used in place of the order number. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ A|The Life of Aesop │ │ │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ What the "A" does is instruct the reader (READ.EXE) to sort the chapter titles in ALPHABETICAL ORDER. If there are 10 chapters in your electronic book, and 9 of them have numeric values for the order number, and 1 of them has the letter "A", then the ENTIRE Table of Contents will be sorted in alphabetical order. Just one "A" in just one file is enough to cause all the other chapters to fall into alphabetical order. Additional header parameters: The "order number" and "chapter title" are required parameters that MUST exist in each .TXT file that you create. These 2 parameters, however, are not the only parameters that can exist on the header line. You can customize the appearance of each chapter in your electronic book by combining different parameters. Here's an example: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 2|The Life of Aesop|FORE=15|BACK=3|SCFX=6|MARG=10|COLS=14 │ │ │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ In the example above, "FORE", "BACK", "SCFX", etc. are each an individual header parameter. Please note that each parameter is separated by a "|" (pipe) character. Here is a listing of all the parameters available to you, which if used, must appear on the first line of your .TXT file, separated by a "|" character: FORE=## This is used to specify the color of the foreground text of an individual chapter, where ## is replaced with a color number from 0-15 (see valid colors below). BACK=## This is used to specify the color of the background text of an individual chapter, where ## is replaced with a color number from 0-7 (see valid colors below). 0 = black 6 = brown 12 = light red 1 = blue 7 = gray 13 = light magenta 2 = green 8 = dk. gray 14 = yellow 3 = cyan 9 = light blue 15 = white 4 = red 10 = light green 5 = magenta 11 = light cyan SCFX=## This is used to specify the type of special screen effect of an individual chapter, where ## is replaced with a number from 1-17 (see below). 1 = Clock sweep 10 = Slide Left & In 2 = Curtain 11 = Slide Left & Out 3 = Diagonal 12 = Slide Right & In 4 = Diamond 13 = Slide Right & Out 5 = Lines 14 = Slide Up & In 6 = Hole 15 = Split Horz. & Out 7 = Box 16 = Split Vert. & In 8 = Slide Down & In 17 = Split Vert. & Out 9 = Slide Down & Out MARG=## This parameter is used to specify the left margin where your chapter text contents will be displayed. ## specifies the screen column, and valid entries are from 1-60. If MARG=## is absent from the .TXT header, then a default of 7 will be used. ROWS=## This parameter specifies how large your chapter's text display window is in height. Valid values are from 1 to 23 rows in height. If no ROWS=## is used, then a default of 22 rows will be used to define the text window height. TOPR=## Specifies the starting row of the chapter's text window location, where ## is a value between 1-23. If no TOPR=## is specified, a default value of 2 will be used to position the beginning row of the text window. COLS=## Specifies how wide (in columns) the chapter's text display window is. Valid range in columns for ## is 1-79. If no COLS=## is indicated in the header line of your .TXT file, a default width of 75 columns will be used. Please note that E-Text does NOT perform word wrapping. You must insure that your .TXT files fit within the defined COLS parameter before compiling. BINF=xxxx Specifies the name of the wallpaper binary file to be loaded beneath the chapter's text display window. "xxxx" is replaced with the COMPLETE file name (with extension) which contains your binary wallpaper (e.g. BINF=HEADER.BIN, or BINF=MAIN.BIN). If no BINF=xxxx parameter exists, no wallpaper will be used behind your text window. LINE=# Use this parameter in your header to change the default of single line spacing. LINE=2 will double space each line of your chapter's text automatically. Valid range for line spacing is 1-4. TAB=## This parameter instructs how many columns that the text will scroll RIGHT when a user presses the TAB or right arrow keys. The default value is 9. Why would you wish to scroll your text left and right? If you have a really W-I-D-E text file (greater than 80 characters) then obviously part of your file will not be displayed initially on the screen (remember, a typical monitor can only display 80 columns of text at any time). Therefore by using the TAB or right arrow keys, the user can view any additional text that may be hidden beyond column 80. With the preceding header parameters, you can mix and match them to customize the layout of each chapter in your electronic book. Please remember that each parameter must be separated by a "|" character. Although all these header parameters allows you to customize your text display windows, you may elect not to use the text display window parameters such as COLS=, MARG=, TOPR=, etc. You can create eye-appealing text windows automatically by just making sure that your .TXT files are no larger than 70 columns wide and that they are left justified. If you are using a word processor, you can achieve such specs by using a fixed font such as Courier 10cpi, and 1 inch left and right margins. When you export/save your chapter files to ASCII, you will find that your .TXT files are less than 70 columns wide. This size will work well with the default text window values that the E-Text reader uses. Special header parameter "EXECUTE": E-Text is not limited to just displaying ASCII text files (chapters). E-Text can also run other programs or be instructed to carry out a series of DOS commands. The "EXECUTE" header parameter is used inside a .TXT file, placed after the chapter title on line 1, and specifies that this .TXT file is different. Different in that the contents of this .TXT file will NOT be displayed in a text window, but rather each line of the .TXT file will be executed (i.e., run from the DOS command line). ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 7|Display all AESOP files|EXECUTE │ │ DIR AESOP*.* │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ In the example above, the header parameter "EXECUTE" will instruct the program to treat the lines which follow as DOS commands. You are not limited to just one line of DOS commands or instructions. The example below shows how one can stack a series of commands, which will be run in sequence, one after the other: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 12|Delete all *.BAK files on all drives|EXECUTE │ │ DEL C:\*.BAK │ │ DEL C:\DOS\*.BAK │ │ DEL C:\WINDOWS\*.BAK │ │ DEL C:\TEMP\*.BAK │ │ DEL A:*.BAK │ │ DEL B:*.BAK │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ Neither are you limited to simple DOS commands. You can execute .BAT batch files, .COM and .EXE's (memory space permitting) when the end user selects a "chapter" in which you have the EXECUTE parameter. At the end of executing all the commands inside the selected .TXT file, the E-Text reader will return back to the Main Menu (Table of Contents). Graphic support Although EText does not support graphic .PCX/.BMP/.GIF file support directly, you can still incorporate high-resolution graphics in your EText documents. This is achieved indirectly by using the EXECUTE parameter (see above) in a .TXT file, where one of the executable lines contain the file name of a graphic image THAT HAS BEEN CONVERTED INTO AN .EXE FILE. For those who do not understand what this means... There are shareware graphic utilities like "Grabber" or "Graphics Workshop" that will convert a .PCX or .BMP or screen snapshot into a self-executing .EXE file. For instance, FLOWER.PCX can be converted using these utilities into a stand alone FLOWER.EXE file, where typing FLOWER from the DOS prompt will display the graphic image without the assistance of any other program or viewer. Inset's HiJaak will also create these type of .EXE files from any graphic image. Once you have a graphic .EXE file, you can include its file name in a .TXT file, using the EXECUTE header parameter. One suggestion, if you do use this method of displaying graphic images... To shrink the size of the resulting graphic .EXE file that you will be distributing, consider investing in a shareware program called "PKLite". "PKLite" will compress an .EXE to a fraction of its original size AND YET STILL REMAIN SELF-EXECUTING. This will give you more free disk space on the distribution floppy you will be using, and will cause the image to display faster. This also brings up another important point. Any graphic .EXE images that you create MUST BE INCLUDED ON YOUR DISTRIBUTION DISKETTE! It is not EText's responsibility to pack your graphic .EXE's into the .DAT file. EText expects any such graphic .EXEs that you create to be separate files on the distribution diskette. Line color highlighting: Even though you can color customize each chapter .TXT file in respect to foreground text and background colors using a header parameter (FORE=/BACK=), you may wish to add emphasis to one particular line (or lines) of text in a chapter. This can be done by adding to the end of a line of text a color code. A color code consists of a caret symbol "^" followed by a color number from 0-15 (see color code chart above). Here is an example... ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 5|The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow|MARG=10|SCFX=3 │ │ │ │ The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow^15 │ │ │ │ AN EAGLE made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a │ │ Cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the │ │ middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow, with her │ │ Cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made │ │ │ │ <─── Body of document ───> │ In the example above, the title line "The Eagle, the Cat..." is followed by the color code "^15". What the "^15" will do is instruct the reader (READ.EXE) to use color 15 (bright white) on that particular line (background remains unchanged). Such color highlighting is useful for titles, new paragraph description headings, or important passages that need to grab the reader's attention. You can use as many color codes as you like in a chapter file, however only one code per line of text is permitted (i.e., a line of text cannot have more than one color). To make a color blink (on and off), add 16 to a color's value. For example, color 15 is bright white. To use blinking bright white in your document, add 16 to 15. Use ^31 for the color code in this case. If you have an actual caret symbol in your chapter that is not to be confused with a color code (highly unlikely, but for math statements it is possible), then precede that caret with another caret (e.g., Mathematicians, solve for x, where x+5^^2=30). Shareware: Shareware is a try-before-you-buy marketing concept that allows you a trial period in which to evaluate a software program. The Electronic Text Publishing System is shareware software and continued use of the program requires that you support the author. Once you have registered, you will receive the latest version of E-Text that will permit you to begin distributing your electronic books (*.DAT files) legally and the E-Text reader (READ.EXE) freely without royalties. Distribution of this program: The unregistered, shareware version can be distributed by BBS's as long as NO FILES ARE DELETED from the original group of files (see PACKING.LST for original .ZIP contents). Shareware vendors are permitted to charge a small fee, not exceeding $6.00, in exchange for their services in providing evaluation copies to others. CD-ROM publishers are permitted to include E-Text in any compilations as long as the .EXE file date stamp is less than 2 years old. Once you have registered E-Text with the author, you are then granted a license to distribute the reader (READ.EXE) royalty free. The compiler, however, is limited in license, and can only be used on one computer at any given time. If you plan on using the compiler on more than one computer, contact the author for site license arrangements. All in the family: Attention: merchants and product distributors! If you would like to publish and distribute INTERACTIVE on-disk CATALOGS that display product items ALONG WITH INDIVIDUAL PRICES, AND CAN PRINT ORDER FORMS, please contact us and inquire about THE DISK VENDOR line of software. The Disk Vendor is for those businesses who want an alternative to a traditional printed paper product sales catalog. The Disk Vendor system handles credit cards, sales tax, shipping charges, personalized opening & closing screen, discounts on purchases, printed catalogs, order forms, and more. Create professional looking catalogs quickly and with little effort! You can also download a fully functional evaluation copy of The Disk Vendor from our 24-hour BBS, at 703-372-9680. The latest file can be downloaded as VEND??GB.ZIP where ?? represents the current program version. Program author: Philip P. Kapusta P.O. Box 5423 Falmouth, Va. 22403 USA If you wish to send correspondence to us, we would prefer an e-mail message left on our BBS (703) 372-9680 instead of paper mail.