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1991-01-13
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H E R C A P 1 . 0
==================
TapirSoft Gisbert W.Selke
Jan 1991
General Overview
================
HerCap provides you with the possibility to capture Hercules graphics
screens to your disk. The graphics output is written in TIFF format,
which has been specified jointly by Aldus and MicroSoft; today, this
format comes as close to a raster graphics file standard as any.
Many graphics packages are able to read and process this format; chances
are that the graphics editor of your choice does support this format.
(If not, you might consider using PoMTEd, the Poor Man's TIFF Editor, by
the same author.) Alternatively, there are graphics format converters
available for free or as shareware which allow you to convert TIFF
format into a bunch of other 'standard' formats. (A good example is
Graphic WorkShop, or GWS, which is copyrighted by Alchemy Mindworks
and is available form many bulletin boards all over the world.)
Basic Instructions
==================
The simplest way to run HerCap is to invoke it from the DOS command
line just like that:
hercap
HerCap will install itself in memory with default values (cf. below) and
wait for you to trigger it. You may now enter your graphics application,
and whenever your screen shows a picture you want to save, hit the hot
key, by default Ctrl-F9. HerCap will then write the graphics screen to a
file named SCN00000.TIF in the current directory, which takes a few
moments, depending on the speed of your disk.
The next time you want to save some picture, press Ctrl-F9 again, and a
new file named SCN00001.TIF will be written to the current directory,
and so forth.
After exiting you graphics application, you will be able to view these
graphics files with any of a bunch of TIFF viewers, or include them for
printer output in your word processor (e.g., MicroSoft's can do so, at
least for versions 5.0 and up).
HerCap will remain in memory until you re-boot, so you may enter your
graphics application again and again without having to run HerCap again.
Note that the TIFF files are always written to the current directory,
unless you have explicitly requested otherwise (cf. below); the number
part of the name, however, will be incremented even if you have changed
directories in the meantime. HerCap will never overwrite an existing
file, though.
Optional arguments
==================
The behaviour of HerCap may be changed on the command line by a few
optional arguments, to wit:
/? : display list of available arguments; do not install
/0 : The Hercules graphics adapter has two pages, 0 and 1. Most
applications use page 0, so this is the default.
/1 : Alternatively, this tells HerCap to use page 1. Specify this
argument if your TIFF files end up empty.
/P<path>: Use the path given instead of the current directory. This
ensures that you'll find all your graphics dumps in one place,
even if you change directories wildly. You should use absolute
paths (i.e., as seen from the root directory) and drive
specifier, to make sure. (Don't type the angle brackets!)
/K<xxxx>: Use a different hot key specified by the 4 hex digits <xxxx>
(again, don't type the angle brackets!). The default is 4309
for Ctrl-F9. If you specify /K?, you will be prompted to hit a
key; HerCap will not install itself but show the hex number
that this key corresponds to.
/U : Uninstall HerCap, i.e., tell HerCap to remove itself from
memory. You may want to do this when you're sure you no longer
need HerCap for a while; it will return a considerable chunk
of memory to DOS and your other programmes.
As an example, if you want HerCap to write the graphics file to your RAM
disk E: and to trigger whenever you type Ctrl-Alt-P, you should use
hercap /pe: /k1908
Note that there are no blanks between "/p" and the path, and between
"/k" and the number.
To remove HerCap later, type
hercap /u
There is no way to change the parameters once HerCap has been started;
so, if you discover you want to change one of the parameters later, you
have to remove HerCap using the "/u" argument and install it anew.
Possible Problems
=================
HerCap uses about 32 kB of main DOS memory. This may be a problem with
very large graphics applications. If, however, your graphics application
runs fine with HerCap in memory, but a different programme needs more
memory (say, your word processor), you can easily reclaim memory by
removing HerCap from memory as soon as you're finished capturing.
Note that, due to the design of DOS, memory is *not* freed up if another
resident utility has been loaded *after* HerCap. In this case, you
should first remove that utility and then proceed to uninstalling
HerCap.
A common conflict arises from hot key usage. If your graphics
application acts on Ctrl-F9, you won't be able to perform this action
anymore. Unles... you tell HerCap what other hot key to use! Find a key
that is not used for any other purpose, and restart HerCap with a
different hot key assignment (cf. above). (Remember you have to
uninstall HerCap if it's already loaded!)
If your TIFF file shows all black-on-black, your graphics programme
maybe uses a different video page. Try "/1" on the command line.
Restrictions
============
HerCap uses some 32 KB memory, which is quite a lot. The reason is that
the complete screen is stored in memory before it is written out to
disk. This, in turn, is necessitated by DOS not being re-entrant.
HerCap uses neither extended nor expanded memory. If interest warrants,
such a feature will be included in a future release... maybe.
HerCap writes its output uncompressed. This is in order to keep the
resident code as small as possible. Use one of the standard TIFF file
processors in order to compress files, if you so desire.
HerCap, as the name suggests, works only on Hercules graphics adapters
and compatibles. If you have a different adapter, don't use HerCap! (No
harm would be done, but you won't like the results either.) There are
quite a few around, commercial and shareware, that you can use in such
an environment.
HerCap hooks into interrupts 09h, 13h, 16h, and 21h. It is, however,
'well-behaved'; i.e, it interferes only as far is unavoidable. This
means it will not pass along the hot key, and it also reserves int 16h
calls with ax=4242h and ax=4243h, which should be no problem at all. -
Some memory mappers report that HerCap also hooks interrupts ECh and
EFh; this seems to be an artifact, as HerCap definitely does *not* touch
these vectors that are purported to be used by DOS's BASIC interpreter.
HerCap will handle errors during writing to disk only so-so. In
particular, a full disk leads to a partial TIFF file that will probably
be unusable. Also, if you write to your disk's root directory and it
becomes full, you'll be in trouble. (This is a limitation of DOS;
use a subdirectory instead.)
Legal Stuff
===========
HerCap is a heavily hacked version of a PC Magazine Utility by name of
Capture, which dumps text screens to disk files. The original utility's
copyright remains intact; for the parts written by me, I retain the
copyright. In any case, this utility may be used and copied freely.
In case of problems, suggestions etc., why not get in touch with me at
TapirSoft
Gisbert W.Selke
Ermekeilstr. 28
D-5300 Bonn 1
Germany