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Frames
A Computer-Aided Instruction Tool
Version 1.1
User's Guide
Copyright (c) 1991 by Timothy J. Weber
P.O. Box 6721
Ithaca, NY 14851
GEnie: T.WEBER4
CompuServe: 70511,2247
Portions Copyright (c) 1988 by Philip A. Mongelluzzo
Waterbury, Connecticut
Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
Contents
Contents.................................................2
Introduction.............................................2
Shareware................................................3
System Requirements......................................3
Distribution Disk........................................4
Running Frames...........................................4
Frame Files..............................................4
Frame File Format...................................5
Entering Blanks.....................................6
Verbatim Lines......................................7
Frame File Reference................................7
Change History...........................................8
Version 1.0.........................................8
Version 1.1.........................................8
Version 1.2.........................................9
Copyright Notice and License.............................9
Introduction
This manual describes how to use Frames, a tool for
Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI).
Frames implements something known as "programmed textbooks"
on the computer. Specifically, it presents the student with
small bits of material, called "frames," and requires the
student to fill in words or phrases that have been left out.
The concept is not as complex as other CAI methods; it
doesn't provide hints, respond to wrong answers with
explanations, grade the student's progress, take different
paths through the lesson, or use graphics or sound. It
simply asks the student to fill in the blanks, and shows the
right answers when she has completed all the blanks on a
frame.
This has been done in paper textbooks for many years. What
Frames makes possible that paper doesn't is:
1. Easy monitoring of students' progress eliminating
paper records or standardizing them;
2. Unlimited distribution of lessons, reducing the
paper waste normally associated with workbooks; and
3. Easy creation of on-line tutorials by non-
programmers.
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
What Frames offers that other CAI programs don't is:
1. A simple user interface for the student. Frames
uses menus and dialog boxes in a familiar way.
2. A simple user interface for the teacher. Lessons
are easy to create, and no programming or macro
language is involved.
3. Modest hardware requirements. Frames can be used
without a hard disk or a graphics monitor.
Shareware
Frames is marketed as shareware. This means that you are
free to copy it, try it, and pass it along to any and
everyone, but you must pay the author $30 if you use it.
See the end of this document for the legal details.
To register, print out the invoice included with Frames by
typing "copy invoice.txt prn" at the DOS prompt, fill it
out, and send it with a check or money order to Timothy J.
Weber at the address listed at the top of this document and
on the program's startup screen.
Registration is important. There are (at least) three good
reasons to register:
1. It's legal. You are granted a license to use an
unregistered copy of this program for evaluation
purposes for 31 days (see the end of this
document). If you use it beyond 31 days, you are
violating the license agreement and breaking the
law.
2. It's nice. The author is making his living from
user-supported software (and also helping his
fiancee through school), and he depends on your
registration fees to eat.
3. It's in your best interest. As a registered user,
you will be notified of future upgrades, and your
requests for customizations or new features will
receive careful consideration. The more
registrations, the sooner upgrades will occur.
System Requirements
Frames has been tested on a PC-XT compatible with 640K RAM
and a CGA, running MS-DOS 3.1, and on a BSR 386SX with 2M
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
RAM and a VGA, running MS-DOS 3.31. Printers are supported
in straight ASCII mode.
Theoretically, it ought to run on any PC with a compatible
BIOS.
Without any frame files loaded, Frames requires around 80K
of memory; it will use all available memory for frame files
up to 640K.
Distribution Disk
The following files are on the distribution disk:
FRAMES.TXT documentation, ASCII format
FRAMES.EXE the executable file
TUTORIAL.FRA frame file for the tutorial
INVOICE.TXT invoice, ASCII format
AHED.COM The Ad Hoc Editor, by Michael Covington
AHED.TXT The Ad Hoc Editor documentation
Running Frames
To start Frames, simply type "frames" at the DOS prompt.
You will receive instructions on how to load a tutorial on
using Frames. All the information you need to know to use
Frames is contained in this tutorial; you should read it
before continuing to the next section of this User's Guide,
so you will understand the terms used there.
Frame Files
In order to use Frames, you must first enter the information
that you want presented to your students into a file. The
exact format of this file, called the "frame file," is
detailed below.
There are three main restrictions on frame files:
1. Frame files must have an extension of ".FRA".
2. Frame files must be placed in the directory that is
current when Frames is run. If you need more
information about directories or file names, see
your DOS manual. (If all your files are on one
floppy disk, this probably won't be a problem.)
3. You must create frame files with an editor or word
processor that creates "ASCII" or "flat" files. If
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
you don't have such an editor, you can use AHED,
the "Ad Hoc Editor" [1], included with Frames.
Frame File Format
Entering frames is simple: just type the text you want to
appear. It doesn't matter where your margins are set or how
the text is formatted in the file; Frames will reformat it
so that it fits on the screen. For example, the file
TUTORIAL.FRA (the frame file for the tutorial) has a right
margin at 60, but when you look at it with Frames, it fills
the whole 80 columns of the screen.
You can look at TUTORIAL.FRA with AHED or your favorite
ASCII editor or browser to see examples of all the frame
file format rules. This will make the following examples
easier to understand.
To indicate how you want your text divided into frames,
place a period (".") on a line by itself in the first
column. For example:
This is a sample frame file.
This is its first frame.
.
This is its second frame.
To separate a frame into one or more paragraphs, place a
colon (":") on a line by itself in the first column, like
this:
This is another sample frame file.
This is its first frame, the first paragraph.
:
This is its second paragraph of the first frame.
.
And this is the second frame.
By default, Frames numbers consecutively all frames and all
paragraphs after the first. The first frame in a file and
the first paragraph in each frame is unnumbered; this is so
you can use the first frame or the first paragraph of a
frame as an introduction or title.
If you want to change the numbering sequence, put the new
number right after the "." or the ":", like this:
[1] This is an independent product written and distributed by
Michael Covington, and is not a part of Frames. It's in the
public domain, so you may use it free of charge. For more
information, see the AHED.TXT file.
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
This frame will have no number.
:
This paragraph will be numbered "1."
:5
This paragraph will be numbered "5."
.597
This frame will be numbered "597."
Also, if you don't want your paragraphs or your frames
numbered at all, you can put a "0" (zero) after the "." or
the ":", like this:
This frame will have no number.
:0
This paragraph will have no number.
:
This paragraph will be numbered "1."
.0
This frame will have no number.
.
This frame will be numbered "1."
Entering Blanks
To enter a multiple choice blank in the frame file, you need
to:
1. Put parentheses ("()") around the choices,
2. Separate them with slashes ("/"), and
3. Indicate the correct answer by putting an asterisk
("*") in front of it.
For instance:
This statement is (true/false/*don't know). The
correct answer is "don't know".
To put a fill-in blank in the frame file, just put an
underscore character ("_") before and after it, like this:
This sentence has a fill-in _blank_. The correct
answer is "blank".
You can also have fill-in blanks with multiple correct
answers, like this:
This sentence has a _blank/fill-in blank_. The
two correct answers are "blank" and "fill-in
blank".
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
The only restrictions on blanks are that they cannot be
longer than 80 characters so they can fit on one line of the
screen, and they cannot be broken across lines. If you
break a blank across lines, it will be seen as just plain
text.
There are more examples of both multiple choice and fill-in
blanks in TUTORIAL.FRA.
Verbatim Lines
Frames reformats all lines by default. If you want lines to
appear exactly as they are in the frame file, put the ">"
character in the first column. This will force this line to
be placed on a line by itself on the screen, and spaces will
not be trimmed as they normally are. For example, this
frame file:
This
is
formatted;
>This
>is
>not.
will look like this on the screen:
This is formatted;
This
is
not.
Frame File Reference
The special characters in frame files are:
. In the first column, starts a new frame; can be
followed by a new frame number.
: In the first column, starts a new paragraph; can
be followed by a new paragraph number.
() Surrounds a multiple-choice blank.
/ Separates multiple-choice answers.
* Indicates the correct multiple-choice answer.
_ Surrounds a fill-in blank.
> In the first column, indicates that this line
should be taken verbatim.
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
Maximum line length: 255 characters.
Maximum blank length: 80 characters.
Change History
Version 1.0
November 1989.
Initial release.
Version 1.1
November 1991.
New features:
Verbatim mode.
Larger files are now supported. Frames will now use
all available memory to load frame files.
Use Alt now to get to a menu, not Control, for
compatibility with popular windowing systems.
Control is still used as the accelerator.
The Help menu is moved to the far right of the menu
bar, for compatibility with popular windowing
systems.
Bugs fixed:
Question marks and exclamation points didn't get two
spaces after them, like periods do. Fixed.
Crashed when loading if memory is exhausted. Now
reports the problem and continues, with no frames
loaded.
Allowed Save when there's no frame file loaded. Fixed.
Invisible "Abort, Retry, Ignore" when trying to print
to an offline printer. Now reports the problem and
allows retry or cancel.
Lines that start with spaces weren't formatted
correctly. Fixed. There are still some other
formatting problems, so for now, don't end a line
with a blank unless it's the last line in the
paragraph.
8
Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
Version 1.2
Summer 1992?
New features:
Replace the File Load dialog box with one that allows
browsing through directories and picking from a
list.
Mouse support.
Bug fixes:
More intelligent formatting.
Copyright Notice and License
This software is protected by the copyright laws of the
United States of America, as well as by the copyright laws
of many other countries pursuant to international treaties.
Frames computer program and documentation Copyright (c) 1991
by Timothy J. Weber. All rights reserved. No part of the
Frames computer program, documentation or related files may
be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system, or
transmitted except as provided by this license.
Your first use of Frames (hereinafter referred to as "the
Software") constitutes your agreement to the following terms
of license. Timothy J. Weber will be referred to as "the
Author."
LIMITED LICENSE. A limited license at no charge is granted
to use and test the Software for no more than 31 calendar
days. Thereafter, you must either pay the license fee or
cease all use of the Software.
FULL LICENSE. When a license fee is paid, the Author will
grant a non-exclusive license to use the Software by one
natural person (the "Licensee"). Licensed copies of the
Software may be kept only on computers used by the Licensee.
No purported transfer of the license shall be effective
unless the person transferring the license (the
"Transferor") notifies the Author of the name and address of
the recipient of the license (the "Transferee"). After such
transfer of the license, the Transferor must cease all use
of the Software.
COMMERCIAL LICENSE. Commercial organizations are granted a
limited license of 31 calendar days' duration during which
time individuals in the organization may evaluate the
Software. After this, the organization must pay the Author
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Frames User's Guide Version 1.1
for one the following, whichever is least: (a) a site
license, or (b) licenses for each user of the Software, or
(c) licenses for each computer the Software is used on.
Commercial users should contact the Author for further
information.
DUPLICATION LICENSE. License at no charge is granted to
duplicate the Software, including, but not limited to,
placement of the Software on electronic bulletin boards and
distribution by mail, as long as (a) only a nominal charge,
not to exceed $10, is made for such duplication, and (b) the
Software is duplicated exactly as it is distributed, without
change or omission.
UPGRADES. The full license applies to all future versions
of the Software. When future versions are released, the
Author will notify the Licensee by mail. Copies of the
current version of the Software will be supplied by the
Author on request, at the cost of the distribution
materials.
LIMITATION OF REMEDIES. Should you encounter problems with
the Software, the Author's entire liability and your
exclusive remedy shall be, at the sole option of the Author,
either (a) to terminate the license and return any license
fees that you paid the Author for the Software, or (b)
repair or replace the Software.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. The Author makes no claims as to
the suitability of the Software for any specific use. Except
for the Limited Warranty stated above, the Author disclaims
any and all other warranties, express or implied, oral or
written, including any implied warranties of merchantability
or fitness for a particular purpose. The limited warranty
stated above gives you specific legal rights, but you may
have other rights, which vary from state to state.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. In no event shall the Author be
liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use of
the Software, including without limitation any direct,
incidental or consequential damages or any damages for loss
of profits, business interruption, loss of information or
any pecuniary loss, even if the Author has been advised of
the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow
exclusion or limitation of liability for incidental or
consequential damages; therefore, the above limitation may
not apply to you.
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