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1992-03-06
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433 lines
Bell V1.0 is a VERY early version of a little experiment to create an
easy to learn and use mini programming enviroment. At the moment there are
very few instructions available. Most of the instructions are quite limited
to keep things simple. BELL (Beginners Easy Learning Language) is obviously
aimed at the absolute beginner who wants to cut his/her programming teeth on
something easy and quick. The programs (or more precisely, scripts) that can
written at this stage are vry limited of course but I amlooking for
ideas/feedback comments etc. before continuing this project.
Send your letters to:
Steve Bye
31, Wellington Road
Exeter, Devon.
EX2-9DU
If you want the latest copy of BELL include a stamp and a disk.
I will only reply when a newer version is ready,so it may be a while before
you get a reply. Don't forget to mention which version you have.
This is version 1.0b
CONTENTS:
Part 1, The Bell commands index in Alphabetical order.
Part 2, Bell disk set up.
Part 3, The Bell Picture Packer
Part 4, The Bell Sample Speed Player
Part 5, Bell Runtime Errors.
Part 6, Example programs.
Part 7, making a bootable/distributable disk.
Part 8, Tutorial
part 8, Limitations of Bell
<<<<<Part 1>>>>>>
Bell V1.0 Commands index:
-------------------------
APPEAR PIC [file number]
Loads in and fades in a picture described in [file number]
EXAMPLE:
Appear Pic 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLEAR SCREEN [colour number]
Clears the current screen of any pictures or text, leaving it blank and in
the colour specified by [number]. This "number" refers to the current
palette number. The best way to find out which colour is what is to
experiment. Remember though if you try a number too high you will get
an error. The range of [number] starts at 0, which is usually black and
the maximum number is 1- the amount of colours used in the current palette.
So if for example you had a 16 colour picture displayed you could clear it
with Clear Screen 0 right up to Clear screen 15.
EXAMPLE:
Clear Screen 0
Clear the screen with colour 0, usually black.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
END
Used to terminate your program neatly. Put in the very last line of your
program.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FADE SCREEN [Speed]
This fades out the contents of the currently displayed screen.
[Speed] is the speed at which the fade works, a minimum value of 1 must be
used, which is very fast.
EXAMPLE:
Fade Screen 5
fade out the current screen at speed 5.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MESSAGE
Your text here
Use the Message instruction to make text appear on the current screen.
This is useful for short staements like "Press a key" or "Click mouse
button" or "This program was written using the Bell language." etc.
The actual text you want displayed must be less than 80 characters in total.
You can get around this by having more than one MESSAGE instruction in your
program of course.
The text will be centered on screen for you. It is important to put the text
you want displayed on the line AFTER the message instruction. The text wil
be displayed at the current text curs.
EXAMPLE:
Message
your text here on the line after the message instruction
Prints a message centered on screen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOUSE OFF
This hides the mouse pointer from the users view.
EXAMPLE:
Mouse Off
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOUSE ON
This brings back the mouse pointer so the user can see/use it.
EXAMPLE:
Mouse On
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NO DRIVE CLICK
This instruction executes a tiny but brilliant PD utility called "Clicknot".
It stops all floppy drives from clicking when empty.
Will only work on WB2 or higher machines, so if you want your Bell program
to work on an A500 then don't use this.
EXAMPLE:
NO DRIVE CLICK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAUSE [seconds]
This freezes the program for the amount od seconds stipulated in [number].
EXAMPLE:
Pause 7
Freeze program for 7 seconds then continue as usual.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLAY MUSIC [file number]
Plays a Tracker music module (file name) from DF0:Music/.
EXAMPLE:
Play Music 1
plays DF0:Music/music1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLAY SAMPLE [file number] [Playback speed]
All samples must be IFF samples, if in doubt try the "Sam_speed" program
to see if they sound ok. See below for more detail on "Sam_Speed".
As expected, you need to store all your samples in a drawer
called.unsurprisingly, "samples/" The file names must go like this:
Sam1. sam2, sam3 etc.
[Filename] is simply the number, ie. to play sam1 you just put PLAY SAMPLE 1
But you also need to supply BELL with the playback speed required to make
the sample sound correct. Don't worry the supplied program "Sam_Speed" will
automatically play back each sample it finds in the "samples/" drawer on the
current disk in DF0: . "Sam_Speed" will first play the sample at speed 1
and then you must keep pressing the spacebar until speed 20. Make a note of
the speed the sammple sounds best at and add that to the PLAY SAMPLE 1.
Note: You may need to use the "PAUSE" instruction if the sample clashes with
another sample as BELL can only play one sample at a time.
EXAMPLE:
PLAY SAMPLE 1 4
Will play sample number 1 at speed 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
REPEAT
Use this at the end of your listing to make your program loop round forever.
EXAMPLE:
Repeat
Remember to use this as the LAST instruction of your program. Don'tworry
about using the END command, you can do this if you must though:
Repeat
End
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCROLL DOWN
This scrolls the current screen display up off the screen in a flashy fashion.
This can only be used on Low res pictures (a width of 320 or less)
If you try to use on a high res screen an error will occur.
EXAMPLE:
Scroll Down
Do a flashy screen scroll.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOW ANIM [file number] [Times]
This will play an IFF animaton file stored in the "Anims/"drawer.
As expected, the file or files should be called Anim1, Anim2, Anim3 etc.
Bell will only play Mode 5 Animation files like those created in Deluxe
Paint.
EXAMPLES:
Show Anim 1 2
Will play Anim1 twice.
Show Anim 3 1
Will play Anim3 once
Show Anim 2 0
Will play Anim2 forever, looping.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOW DOC [file number]
Displays an ASCII text file (file number) from DF0:Docs/.
Useful for letting the user read a long text file or the instructions to
your program etc. Uses the PD util PPmore which is stored in the "U" drawer
on the disk.
EXAMPLE:
Show Doc 1
Displays DF0:Docs/doc1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOW PIC [ file number]
Displays (file number) picture from DF0:Pictures/.
SHOW PIC can display normal IFF picture files and crunched picture files
(crunched with the Bell Pic Packer) or a mixture of both.
The type of picture (IFF or crunched) is automatically handled by BELL for
you, so after crunching you can just treat all the pictures as the same.
ie. You don't have to tell the program wether the picture is crunched or
not.
EXAMPLE:
Show Pic 2
Displays DF0:Pictures/Pic2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQUARE WIPE
This clears the current screen display in a flashy box fashion.
This can only be used on Low res pictures (a width of 320 or less)
If you try to use on a high res screen an error will occur.
EXAMPLE:
Square Wipe
Do a flashy screen wipe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
STOP MUSIC
Stops any music that is currently being played.
EXAMPLE:
Stop Music
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAIT KEY
This simply makes the program freeze until the use presses any key on the
keyboard.
Once a key has been pressed the program will continue with the next
instruction.
EXAMPLE:
Wait Key
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAIT MOUSE
This simply makes the program freeze until the use presses any mouse button.
Once the a mouse button has been pressed the program will continue with the
next instruction.
EXAMPLE:
Wait Mouse
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAVE WIPE
This clears the current screen display in a flashy wave fashion.
This can only be used on Low res pictures (a width of 320 or less)
If you try to use on a high res screen an error will occur.
EXAMPLE:
Wave Wipe
Do a flashy screen wipe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHITE WIPE
This fades the current screen out by turing each colour of the picture to
white. Can look awful on some pics, great on others, experiment.
You can use White Wipe on any resolution picture.
EXAMPLE:
White Wipe
Do a flashy screen fade.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<<<<Part 2>>>>>>
THE BELL PIC PACKER:
-------------------
This is a seperate program that crunches pictures for use in your BELL
programs. Crunching will save disk space, a lot of disk space if your
program uses a lot of pictures.
The PicPacker is very easy to use, just double click on the PIC_PACKER icon
to run the program.
You now have three options:
Right mouse button crunches ALL the pics in your "Pictures" drawer on
the current disk in DF0:
Left mouse button allows you to crunch one pic at a time.
Escape quits Pic Packer.
If you are using the Crunch all option the disk in DF0: MUST have a drawer
called "pictures" on it and it MUST contain at least one picture in the
standard bell convention of naming ie. Pic1, pic2 etc. The only limit is
disk space.
That's all you need to know, BELL automatically saves the crunched picture
over the top of your old IFF picture. When using the SHOW PIC command
crunched files are detected automatically soyou just treat the new crunched
pics as normal.
<<<<<Part 3>>>>>>
THE SAM SPEED PROGRAM
-----------------------
As you need to supply BELL with the playback speed required to make
sound samples sound correct the supplied program "Sam_Speed" will
automatically play back each sample it finds in the "samples/" drawer on the
current disk in DF0: . "Sam_Speed" will first play the sample at speed 1
and then you must keep pressing the spacebar until speed 20. Make a note of
the speed the sample sounds best at and add that to the PLAY SAMPLE
instruction
<<<<<Part 4>>>>>>
Bell V1.0 disk set up:
----------------------
The script file containg your program must be in pure ASCII.
Use a text editor such as Edword to write BELL programs.
Your program must be stored on DF0: root as "Program.Bell".
Root means NOT inside a drawer.
Pictures to be displayed must be stored on DF0: in "Pictures" drawer
under the names "Pic1", "Pic2","Pic3" etc.
Pro Tracker/Noise Tracker music mods to be played must be stored on DF0:
in "Music" drawer under the names "Music1", "Music2","Music3" etc.
Text files to be displayed must be stored on DF0: in "Docs" drawer
under the names "Doc1", "Doc2","Doc3" etc.
Anim files to be displayed must be stored on DF0: in "Anims" drawer
under the names "Anim1", "Anim2","Anim3" etc.
<<<<<Part 5>>>>>>
Bell runtime error messages:
----------------------------
0: Error 0 means you have a syntax error in the line specified.
Remedy: Look at the line in question and check the spelling and that
any paramaters like [number] etc. Are missing.
1: You can only use Low resolution pictures with the Square Wipe
instruction.
Remedy: You could use White Wipe, fade, Scroll up instructions instead.
2: You can only use Low resolution pictures with the Wave Wipe
instruction.
Remedy: You could use White Wipe, fade, Scroll up instructions instead.
Limitations of Bell:
--------------------
picture files. Bell can display virtually any IFF picture laced or not up to
4096 colours (Ham) BUT at the moment it cannot display AGA pictures.
This is a limitation of Amos that might well be fixed soon.