Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/educ/quictyp2.zip/QUICTYPE.DOC

Text File | 1990-04-15 | 13KB | 305 lines

Quic-Type 2, By Matthew J. W. Ratcliff, 14-APR-1990

Suggested Shareware Contribution for Quic-Type 2: $10


                      Quic-Type 2

                An arcade style typing practice
                game.

                (c) 1988, 1989, 1990

                By:

                   Matthew Ratcliff
                   Ratware Softworks
                   32 S. Hartnett Ave.
                   St. Louis, MO  63135



NEW FEATURES:

o Warm up display, practice display with flashing keyboard
feedback for each character typed.

o Select different practice files from the game play menu.

o Separate "no pressure" practice screen, with keyboard display.
Helps the novice learn the keyboard layout without the pressure
of typing agains the clock.

o New pratcice files, with tutorial information on typing
technique.

RUNNING QUIC-TYPE 2:

When run, Quic-Type 2 displays the shareware screen for this
program.  If you like and use Quic-Type 2, a $10 shareware
contribution is requested.  After this display, an animated title
screen is displayed.  (The animation might be rather slow on a
slow 4.77MHz XT machine, but you will find the game play speed
quite acceptable.)  Press ENTER to leave the title screen and
move on to a warm up display.

A keyboard model is placed in the center of the display, floating
in a sparkling starscape.  For touch typist novices, your finger
positions should be as follows, when preparing to touch type:

Key             Finger
---             ------------------------
 a              Left pinky finger
 s              Left ring finger
 d              Left middle finger
 f              Left index finger
 j              Right index finger
 k              Right middle finger
 l              Right ring finger
 ;              Right pinky finger
 SPACE-BAR      Right thumb, usually. (You may use the left if
                you prefer.)

If you aren't certain which finger should type the 'b' key (left,
or is it right, index finger?  Left.), then select option [1]
from the game play menu, and enter the practice typing file
FINGERS.DAT.  This typing drill explains all the finger positions
and the keys they should type.

When the fingers are nice and limber, press the ESCAPE key to
exit the warmup screen and move on to the main menu.

This program will work in CGA, EGA, VGA, or Hercules graphics
capable systems, thanks to Turbo C's BGI (Borland graphics
interface) library.

QUICTYPE OPTIONS:

You may optionally specify the typing practice file and graphics
mode to use from the command line.  If none is specified, the
default file QUICTYPE.DAT is loaded.  A new typing data file may
be loaded at any time, from the game play menu.

When run, Quic-Type 2 defaults to the highest resolution of your
system and uses the practice file QUICTYPE.DAT, if no parameters
are passed from the command line.  The optional command line
format is as follows:

QUICTYPE [practicefile] -[mode]

The modes are '-C' for CGA, '-E' for EGA, '-V' for VGA, and '-H'
or '-M' for hercules/monochrome graphics.  The filename and
graphics mode may be speicified in either order, that's why the
letter for the graphics mode must be preceeded by a dash
character.

If you wish to practice typing from a different typing file, use
a command like this:

        QUICTYPE FINGERS.DAT

for example.

If you have a dual display system, both monochrome and color, you
may specify:

        QUICTYPE -H

to practice typing on the hercules display.

QUICTYPE PRACTICE FILES:

The practice file can be any simple ASCII text file, up to 40
lines of 80 column text.  Any line that begins with a semicolon
(;) is treated as a comment and ignored by QUICTYPE, as it
processes the practice file.  This allows you to place comments
in your file such as ";Spelling lesson #1 from chapter 4" or ";Q
and X intensive practice file".  Print out the file QUICTYPE.DAT
to see what a typing practice file looks like.  Feel free to
create your own with a simple text editor.  (The files cannot be
word processor files.)

If you don't have a text editor, you could write a simple BASIC
program to create your typing practice files.  Here's a sample:


10 OPEN "JS.DAT" FOR OUTPUT AS 1
20 PRINT #1,"; Practice file for the letter J"
30 PRINT #1,"Jack and Jill went to John's house for dinner."
40 PRINT #1,"Jerry's favorite meal was jack salmon and grape jam."
50 PRINT #1,"Jumping jacks, jump rope, and junk jewel collecting are fun."
60 CLOSE #1
70 PRINT "Typing practice file JS.DAT complete."


GAME PLAY MECHANICS:

Once a typing speed has been selected (menu options 2-4), the
game play screen is presented as a field of twinkling stars.  The
first sentence is selected and immediately begins smooth
scrolling down the display. There is a dividing line, below which
your typing cursor appears, at the bottom of the display.  You
must successfully type the sentence before it reaches this
dividing line.  If it reaches bottom, every character not typed
is counted as a typing error.

As you type the sentence, your input appears at the bottom of the
screen.  Typing errors are displayed, followed by a brief
chirping sound.  The error is then immediately erased, at which
point you can retype the key correctly.  This encourages correct
typing the FIRST TIME, disallowing the use of the backspace key
for corrections.  (A good typist is measured by both speed and
accuracy.)  When finished typing the line, press the ENTER key
to complete the input and move on to the next.

When you have completed typing a sentence, several computations
are made and displayed at the top of the screen.  The first
display field, called "Pct", is your typing accuracy, a
percentage.  If you made no typing errors, it will read 100.  The
next field is "WPM Burst", the speed, in words per minute, at
which you typed that last sentence. This field is followed by
"WPM Ave", average typing speed thus far in the game.  The last
field "Best WPM", fastest Burst WPM in the game thus far.

Sentences are thrown up on the dispaly one right after the other,
as each is typed completely.  Quic-Type 2 keeps track of typing
mistakes and dynamically adjusts game play speed to match your
typing ability.  A lot of typing mistakes will slow down the
scrolling of the sentences, minimizing the "pressure" of typing
fast so you can concentrate on typing correctly.  For each
sentence typed with no errors, the game play speed increases
slightly.  Each time Burst WPM tops your Best WPM, the game speed
will take a jump.  When you are on a roll, typing faster and
faster each round, Quic-Type 2 keeps increasing the scrolling
speed to continually challenge you.

Pressing the ESCAPE key any time during game play will stop it
early and prompt to play another game or quit.  When each game is
completed, Quic-Type 2 reports several statistics to give more
information on your overall typing abilities.  Your BEST WPM is
displayed once again.  Total characters typed, followed by total
typing errors are shown, along with a typing quality percentage
rating for the entire game.  This should be very near 100
percent, or you are trying to type too fast.  It is best to build
up typing speed gradually, maintaining a high level of typing
quality at all times.

This information is followed by a list of up to ten of your most
frequent typing mistakes, sorted in descending order of
occurence. This immediately tells you which keys you are weakest
on.  A distinction is made between upper and lower case
characters as well, which can indicate that you may know a key's
location, but have trouble typing it with the shift key
depressed, for example.  Each erroneous character is enclosed in
square brackets.  If you see empty brackets, this means you had
trouble with the space bar (indicating that you are probably
trying to push too hard for speed again).

QUICTYPE MENU OPTIONS:

Quic-Type 2 presents a menu with six options.  Options 2 through
4 select increasing levels of typing speed, and option 6 quits to
the DOS prompt.  If you have a very fast AT system, you may wish
to select a slower game play mode, even if you are a fast typist.
Regardless of what game playing speed you choose, your word per
minute (WPM) typing speed ratings are always accurate.

Option 1 is used to select a new practice file.  Some of the
other practice files included with this program are


FINGERS  - Practice typing lines of text that explain what
           fingers are used to type which keys.
NURSERY1 - The first of 3 files made up of nursery rhymes.
NURSERY2 - Nursery rhymes tend to be repetitive, a key element
           in effective practice.
NURSERY3 - The rythm of the rhymes also helps you develop a rythm
           to your typing that will improve your consistency,
           accruacy, and speed.
QUICTYPE - This is the default data file for Quic-Type 2.
ABCS     - Really give those fingers a work out by typing the
           alphabet for twelve greuling rounds.  Really helps you
           know the whole keyboard, if you practice it often
           enough.

A menu of files with the .DAT extender is displayed, when menu
option 1 is selected.  Simply type the name of the file you want
to practice typing, and press the enter key.  There is no need to
type the .DAT extender, Quic-Type 2 will add that for you.  If
the file cannot be found, you will be informed of the error and
given another chance to enter the filename.

Options 2 through 4 start the game immediately.  If you are
running in CGA, the display used is 640x200, 2 color.  This
allows the game to use a full 80 columns of text for your typing
practices, the same as for the other graphics modes supported.
However, the screen is much smaller vertically - so the games
will be much more challenging, since there is a much shorter
distance over which the lines will scroll before you have to
complete the typing.  Select the "Hunt & Peck beginner" mode
(option [2]) until your typing speed is up in the 40's or better,
if using CGA.  The software compensates for the shorter CGA
screen, but it may cramp your typing style a bit and you'll need
to choose a slower game play speed.

Option 5 enables a simple practice session with the keyboard
display.  Here ther is NO PRESSURE to complete your typing drills
accurately, nor quickly.  In the center of the screen a keyboard
layout is displayed.  Don't look DOWN at your keyboard, look at
the screen.  It's a very bad habit to look at the keyboard, when
typing.  If you are looking at the keyboard, then you are NOT
looking at the information you are trying to enter into the
computer - and you'll never type quickly.

The sentence to be typed is displayed just above the dividing
line at the bottom of the display.  Your entry will appear below
this line.  Type each letter and space carefully.  Each key you
type will flash on the display keyboard; so use it for reference
as you type.  Whatever you do, don't look down at the keyboard
once you've established your finger positions on the proper home
keys.  Use this relaxed typing practice mode until you are
comfortable with the basics of touch typing, or to familiarize
yourself with a new typing practice file.  You can type all the
sentences in the drill, or simply press the ESCAPE key to stop
the practice session and return to the game play menu.

Option 6 (or simply pressing the ESCAPE key at the main menu)
exits Quic-Type 2 and returns control to DOS.

THE END:

Quic-Type 2 is a great program for touch typists who need to
improve their typing speed or zero in on typing accuracy.  With
the new keyboard displays, and no pressure practice mode, it can
help the novice learn to touch type as well. From the error
reports, you can see the problem keys.  At this point you can
create different practice text files, which concentrate heavily
on the those problem areas.  Practice files made up of spelling
homework for your children is another good use for Quic-Type 2.

If you like it, please register it.

Please let me know what your top typing speed with Quic-Type 2
is.  I haven't been able to get above 120WPM.  This may be a
limiting factor of my computer's speed.  I may try to optimize
Quic-Type's game play loop to allow even faster typists to push
their performance to 200 WPM or more.  (But then, maybe I just
can't type faseter than 120WPM?)  If you have any suggestions for
further improvements, I'm listening.


Suggested Shareware Contribution for Quic-Type: $10


                        Quic-Type 2

                        (c) 1990

                By:

                   Matthew Ratcliff
                   Ratware Softworks
                   32 S. Hartnett Ave.
                   St. Louis, MO  63135