MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.2 (C) UK 1995 Steve Litchfield ======================================================= Released as shareware June 1995 ... Registration address (send cheque for 9 pounds to): Steve Litchfield 8 Grove Farm Mytchett Surrey GU16 6AQ Requires Psion Series 3a or Acorn PocketBook II, with approximately 90k of free system memory to run in. New features for v1.2 (from v1.1) --------------------------------- Proc-H now moves any current selection down one 'slot'; Psion-Control-Plus and Minus now set maximum and minimum detail; added Places of Interest overlay; added mountain peaks overlay; added Camping sites/parks overlay; added facility to display town plan schematics and utilities for creating your own; added a couple of the larger inland lakes; added Hillsborough; ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.2 is shareware. This does not make it a free program! Yes, you can copy it freely to friends or acquaintances, or even upload the original ZIP file to bulletin boards etc, but if you like it and continue to use it, then you are honour-bound to register the program by sending me a cheque for œ9 (pounds). If you have already registered MAPPER-3a for Great Britain, you can register at half-price, i.e. œ4.50 ... Registration gets you: a) a clear conscience that you're using paid-for software, and that you're helping support future development of MAPPER-3a/Ireland and other quality Psion shareware software. b) a special code that will personalise your copy of MAPPER-3a/Ireland, remove the opening and closing (and a few in-between!) shareware screens and let you access the program more conveniently, including the ability to add your own place names to the MAPPER-3a/Ireland database and shrink or remove the status window to give more room on-screen. No need to re-install the software, just use the registration menu option and type in the code! c) A direct say in how the program develops. *Note* the supplied MCLINK/RCOM script file which may help you to install the MAPPER-3a/Ireland v1.2 modules. You may need to customise it to suit your particular Psion's disk configuration etc. If in doubt, check your mapper installation against the module listings in the sections below ... ******************************************************************** ***************** IMPORTANT!! ******************************** ******************************************************************** This text file documents the history of the program, its installation, and some of the more technical aspects to running it. For general help in using and understanding MAPPER-3a, please browse through the *extensive* on-line help. This help is the only documentation of most of MAPPER-3a's features, so work through it properly! 8-) ******************************************************************** *******r*e*a*d***t*h*e****o*n*-*l*i*n*e*****h*e*l*p*!*!************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- All rights reserved, and copyrights, including the database files and their format, where appropriate (see listings below). MAPPER-3a/Ireland is a Geographical Information System (GIS) with a friendly interface..... Memory requirements ------------------- MAPPER-3a/Ireland 1.2 needs approximately 90k of system memory while running. If you try to start it with less than this amount available, it will hopefully warn you and exit. Components and Installation. ---------------------------- MAPPER-3a/Ireland v1.2 contains the following components: (note that an example MCLINK (or RCOM) script file is included, called INSTALL.SCR, which you may wish to customise for yourself and use it to save yourself some typing. To use it, start MCLINK and type @INSTALL.SCR. There may or may not be a few errors at the start depending on whether or not you already have the appropriate directories ....) {Inside MAPI12.ZIP are the following files, file sizes quoted to help you decide on whether to install certain overlays etc. Copyright and contributor information also included where known or appropriate} MAPPERIR.TXT - this file! MAPPERIR.OPA - the main program module. Place this in an \APP\ directory on any Psion drive, and install onto your system screen with Psion-I. Size - 40k. Note the name of this module is deliberately named differently to the MAPPER3A.OPA file in the main GB product, in case you want both installed on your machine at the same time! (C) Steve Litchfield plus some support files, to be placed in a \APP\MAPPERIR\ subdirectory: MAPHELP.RSC - the comprehensive on-line help file - 11k IRELAND.MP1 - a data-set of approximately 1100 towns and cities - 4k COASTIRE.MP2 - a data-set showing the coastline of Ireland - 1k ROADIRE.MP2 - a data-set of the Irish motorway and most of the primary route network - 2k MAPPER.PIC - some icons for use with the overlays, including a default one, the town planning symbols and the title screen - 3k Vector overlays (i.e. lines and boundaries): NTHSOUTH.MP4 - the boundary between Northern and Southern Ireland - 1k RAILWAYS.MP4 - a vector data-set of the Irish railway network - 1k Item overlays (i.e. specific points and labels and reference info): AIRPORTS.MP3 - airports! - 1k INTEREST.MP3 - places of interest - 8k CAMPING.MP3 - camp sites - 6k PEAKS.MP3 - mountain peaks over 700m - 1k Each of the .MP3 overlays listed above has an associated .PIC file of the same name. These are the on-screen icons for overlays, and will be used if present in the main \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory. If they are not present, a default 'star' icon will be used.... Each of the overlays includes reference information for each item, and this can be displayed by turning 'Overlay Reference Fields' On. As I say, all the above support files live in the \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory. New to v1.2 are town plan schematics, as used in MAPPER-3a for Great Britain. Users can use the supplied VECTDRAW utility to create town plans of their locality and then (hopefully) submit them to me for inclusion in the next release of MAPPER-3a/Ireland. The TPLIST utility is useful to keep track of which towns have been 'done'! A selection of town plans is supplied with MAPPER-3a/Ireland v1.2, as a starter, and hopefully the number of them will grow as time goes on. So ... VECTDRAW.OPO & TPLIST.OPO - put these into a \OPO\ directory on any drive on your Psion. The Tpnnnnnn.MT1 town plan files should be put into a \APP\MAPPERIR\PLANS\ directory on any drive. .MP3 Overlays and their format etc. ----------------------------------- You can use the overlay creation menu options to create your own overlay and then use the point and shoot method to identify where you want each item icon to appear, together with information for the reference field. Please note that although these user-made .MP3 files are editable under DATA, you will run into a few problems if you update the records in the file on a *flash disk*, as the file *must be compressed* for MAPPER-3a/Ireland to use it, and the 3a won't let you compress a file on a flash disk! Thus you'll have to copy the file onto your internal or RAM disk, make the changes, compress the file and then copy it back over into the \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory on your flash. MAPPER-3a/Ireland *should* default to creating new .MP3 files on your *internal* disk, which is where you'll have less problems updating your overlay. Note that the built-in/supplied overlays have been compressed slightly to save space and so are not editable under DATA. If you're desperate to see what's in them, the freeware program JBDATA will let you do this. You will probably want to create a custom icon as well. In this case, MAPPER-3a/Ireland needs a 17 by 17 single-plane PIC file of the same filename as the .MP3 overlay, but with a .PIC extension. I normally create these icons by starting with a 48x48 blank icon using DRAW206 (see appendix notes), drawing my icon in the top-left corner, and then using 'Alter/Dimension' to create a 17x17 PIC. Save and exit. Note that the coordinate system used throughout MAPPER-3a/Ireland is a simple X,Y grid of 1km squares of my own invention. You can get a readout of these coordinates, if you really think you need this information, using 'Centre Select' (Psion-T) and manipulating the cross-hairs etc. Conversion to and from latitude and longitude is not possible at this time, unlike the GB version, which has the benefit of a good national grid system with readily available conversion formulae. Deleting info from the custom town database, \OPD\MAPPER.DBF ------------------------------------------------------------ The \OPD\MAPPERIR.DBF file is editable under DATA, so you can delete individual towns etc and modify them in this way. Please remember to compress the file before exiting DATA ! Keeping a standard/default settings file ---------------------------------------- You can set everything up how *you* like it (i.e. your own private default for all settings) and then make the \OPD\MAPPERIR.SET file read-only. MAPPER-3a/Ireland will then always load your preferred settings in and will be prevented from overwriting them when you exit the program. Grabbing the current map screen as a PIC file --------------------------------------------- You may well want to grab a map screen as a standard Psion .PIC file, for printing or editing using DRAW (see small print at end) or PAINT or any other 3a bit-map editor. Grabbing the 3a screen is done with pressing 'Control', 'Shift', 'Psion' and 'S' simultaneously (it's easier to do than it sounds) and lo and behold a file called SCREEN.PIC will have appeared in the root directory (\) of your internal disk ... _+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_ Thanks for trying MAPPER-3a/Ireland! If you decide to remove MAPPER-3a/Ireland from your Psion, please note that it creates three small files in \OPD\ on your default disk. MAPPERIR.DBF (custom place database), MAPPERIR.REG (your registration key, once I've given it to you) and MAPPERIR.SET (used to store your preferences and position etc from session to session. If you've created any custom overlays or their icons, there may also be a few files in an \APP\MAPPERIR\ directory on your internal disk. Small print: ------------ 1) Reverse engineering of the program or data modules is strictly forbidden. Attempts to try and 'crack' the methods used by me to protect MAPPER-3a/Ireland from reverse translation are also forbidden. If you would like to create a complementary program and use my data-sets, then please get in touch with me. If you would like more information on protecting your own programs from reverse translation, then please contact Marco Aicardi at Via G Acerbi 6/3, 16148 - Genova, Italy for more details of his PROTECT software range. 2) Please note that I also run 3-Lib, *the* clearing-house for Psion public domain and shareware software. Send me a stamped self-addressed envelope to the above address, and I'll return the latest catalogue. All programs mentioned in MAPPER-3a/Ireland or its documentation are available from 3-Lib for a nominal copying charge. One of the most notable programs in the shareware library is the GB version of MAPPER-3a, which is much larger and more comprehensive, with over 30 overlays. The latest version (at May 25th 1995) is 2.9 and the file names to look out for are MAPA29.ZIP, MAPB29.ZIP & MAPC29.ZIP, three ZIP files being needed as there's so much data there, to keep unzipping possible even on a S3a machine itself. 3) A useful related program to have available for editing and cropping any screen-grabs you do in MAPPER-3a/Ireland is DRAW 2.06, by Rick Andrews. This is a S3a-only full bitmap editor and manipulator and is also shareware, available wherever you got MAPPER-3a/Ireland from. 4) You can contact me via email at slitchfield@cix.compulink.co.uk, if you'd like. To speed up registrations, you can quote your email address for quick return of your registration code. 5) On-line support for MAPPER-3a/Ireland, including test versions and extra utilities are provided in the 'mapper' conference on CIX. For more information on CIX, phone 01492 641961 and ask for an information pack ... 6) If you give MAPPER-3a/Ireland to a friend (as is encouraged with shareware!), then it's always best to give him/her the original ZIP file. If the transfer takes place by SSD, then remember to include both the main MAPPERIR.OPA program and the \APP\MAPPERIR\ subdirectory full of data files. Do *not* give your friend your MAPPERIR.REG registration file, as this is unique to you and contains *your* name, and subsequent piracy will tell the world who started the outbreak! 7) Note on copyrights etc.: be careful to only make use of freely available and public domain data sources when compiling any overlays, unless of course you sourced the information (from memory?) in the first place! If you submit an overlay to myself for inclusion in future versions of MAPPER-3a/Ireland, please state your source(s) of information and their copyright status. 8) Thanks to Alan Meban for helping get the Irish town plans started! Steve Litchfield ============================================================================