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Text File | 1993-12-25 | 16KB | 325 lines

QUILT.DOC -- Instructions for using the QUILT program Rev: 25 Dec 1993 Copyright 1990,1993 Steve Estvanik All Rights Reserved 1. INTRODUCTION 2. GETTING STARTED 3. CHANGING SETTINGS 4. DETAILS 5. REQUIREMENTS 6. SHAREWARE & THE ASP 1. INTRODUCTION =============== QUILT uses half square triangles to form fascinating and intricately changing patterns on your screen. (A half square triangle is just a square with a diagonal line dividing it equally in two. Another common type of quilting element is the quarter square triangle). There are 4 basic 'elements' possible: 2 squares with diagonals moving NW and NE, each of which can have the 'top' or 'bottom' colored. NW┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐NE │#\ │ │ /#│ │ \#####│ │#####/ │ │###\ │ │ /###│ │ \###│ │###/ │ │#####\ │ │ /#####│ │ \#│ │#/ │ └───────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘ 0 1 2 3 Two by two groupings of these elements form blocks. These blocks are then manipulated in various ways (Section 2). Later you can experiment (Section 3) with different colors, palettes and widths. These are sometimes called Douat tiles. A French monk named Dominique Douat first published illustrations of designs using these elements in the 1700's. I first found them explained and illustrated in a quilting design book by Barbara Johannah ("Half Square Triangles: Exploring Design", published by the author, PO Box 396, Navarro CA 95463). I've taken the basic 2 color system and expanded it for the EGA/VGA system. For variety, you can use up to 4 colors for the dark areas, using an additional 4 colors for the 'background'. While there are potentially 8 different colors, the more pleasing arrangements usually contain similar or repeated colors. Many interesting combinations occur when you set all the background colors to the same value. Or, create squares, by setting the foreground and background colors to the same value. (This is particularly effective with smaller widths). 2. GETTING STARTED (PATTERNS) ============================== QUILT runs on IBM PC's and requires an EGA or VGA card. The simplest way to run this program is as a screen saver. Type: QUILT -SS to start the program. A random pattern will appear. Patterns will continue to change until you press another key. You can leave this program running on your machine without worrying about burning in a pattern. You can also add this to a batch file such as your autoexec.bat file. The file SAVER.BAT shows how this can be done. Type 'QUILT' to start the program. The title screen appears and waits for you to press any key. he main menu then presents 2 basic types of commands: patterns and settings. This section describes the patterns you can create immediately. Section 3 shows how to change the settings to achieve varied colors, palettes and sizes. Press the first letter of the function you want. When entering numbers, type the number, then press <enter>. DISPLAY ALL PATTERNS -------------------- This option shows all 256 patterns available. Depending on the colors you have selected, you might want to see what the underlying patterns are, or how your color selection changes the perceived patterns. To use your current colors, just press <enter>. To see the basic patterns, enter any number from 1 to 15. SEQUENCE --------- There are 256 possible combinations of the 4 elemental shapes described above. This feature starts anywhere in that sequence, and cycles thru the patterns. The patterns are each held for a short time. This creates an excellent demo or wallpaper mode. Later you can try varying color arrangements, perhaps starting with some of the suggestions below. (See Colors in section 3). The number of each pattern is displayed so that you can note particularly interesting ones for later explorations. INDIVIDUAL ---------- Enter the number of the pattern you want to see, then press <enter>. The requested pattern will be displayed and held until you press another key. ROTATE ------- Select a pattern, and the basic gang of 4 rotates around its axis. This rotation swings the pattern through a 90 degree arc while anchoring one corner. Since each corner can be anchored, there are 4 possible rotations. These are shown, and the program waits for you to hit a key. You can then select a particular one or press <enter> to start a cycle that shows all 4. In the cycle, each will be displayed for a short time. (See section 4 for more details on the geometry of rotations.) Some examples to look at using the default color setup: Rotate 34, 194, 96 FLIP ----- This option is similar to Rotate, except an edge of the pattern is anchored, and the pattern is raised out of the plane of the screen, and flipped over to the next quadrant. Again, each of the four edges can be anchored, so there there are potentially 4 variations created. Some very symmetrical patterns can result in fewer, or even just 1 group. The easiest way to see how both rotate and flip work is by setting all the colors to the same color, and using 0 as the background color. Some examples to look at using the default color setup: Flip 71, 75 3. CHANGING SETTINGS ==================== WIDTH: ------ This lets you change the width in pixels of the basic element. You can use any value between 8 and 90 for VGA, between 8 & 85 for EGA. Try widths of 8, 14, 20, 30, 50, 90 to see how the patterns appearance changes with width. In each case, the program uses as much of the screen as it can, while using whole blocks. HOLDTIME: --------- The main purpose of holdtime is to let you keep patterns on the screen a bit longer. The default holdtime is 1 sec. This is the time used when any sequence of displays is run. You can change the holdtime to any number between 0 and 20 seconds. Note that a holdtime of 0 (or even 1 sec) may actually take longer than that time, depending on the basic speed of your computer. COLORS: ------ The current palette is displayed, and you can then choose which colors you want to use. Current settings are shown and you can enter new values, or press <CR> to keep the current color. Some interesting examples to get you started (in these examples, the background is kept to one color that appears after the slash '/'): 14 15 2 14 / 7 then try Rotation 119 12 4 15 4 /7 R194, 196 7 7 8 8 / 4 then check Individual 141 (also set width to 90) I 148, then rotate 148 1 9 5 13 /3 R35,41 4 8 8 0 /1 R110,201,213 15 13 15 7 / 5 R217 1 9 8 1 / 15 R 106 108 6 6 8 5 /13 R136 0 0 8 9 /4 R141 PALETTE: -------- You can create custom palettes consisting of 16 colors chosen from the 64 available. Colors 0 and 15 are held constant, since the program relies on these having predictable values. You can create palettes using any of the 64 colors in the other 14 spots available. You are first shown your current palette. Note that the default palette does not use values 0-15. Instead, it holds a selection of interesting colors from the total available. To change the current palette, press <enter> to cycle thru the 64 available colors, displayed 16 at a time. When you see a color you want to capture, press 'S', then enter the number of that color. The current palette will reappear, and you can enter the position where you want to store that color. The updated palette will be shown. When you press another key, you will return to the portion of the total color set where you were before. When you are satisfied with the new palette, press 'Q' to end the selection process. If you find particularly pretty or unusual patterns or combinations, please send them along so I can include them in the next version. VGA/EGA toggle. --------------- QUILT automatically detects if you have an EGA or VGA board installed. For the curious, this toggle lets you see what the design would look like in EGA rather than VGA. Not all VGA boards however, support EGA, so this function is not guaranteed to work on all systems. If it doesn't you might have to reboot to leave the program. 4. DETAILS =========== The easiest way to see how both rotate and flip work is by setting all the colors to the same color, and using 0 as the background color. The following sections show these progressions in more details. You can skip these sections and still enjoy the program. 4.1 Rotate algorithm -------------------- Rotation is performed by swinging the pattern through a 90 degree arc while anchoring one corner. Since each corner can be used as the anchor, there are 4 possible rotations. For example, starting in the upper left quadrant, the block is rotated around element C. It stays in the innermost area, but the surrounding elements end up in different positions in the upper right block. In addition, all the elements themselves have changed. Any elements that were originally 3's now are 2's (see diagram above). Similarly 2 --> 1, 1 --> 0 and 0 --> 3. ┌───┬───┬───────┐ ┌───┬───┬───────┐ ┌───┬───┬───────┐ │ A │ B │ │ │ A │ B │ D │ A │ │ A │ B │ D │ A │ ├───┼───┤ │ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ D │ C │ │ ------> │ D │ C │ C │ B │ -----> │ D │ C │ C │ B │ ├───┴───┘ │ ├───┴───┴───┴───┤ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ │ │ B │ C │ C │ D │ │ │ │ │ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ │ │ A │ D │ B │ A │ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───┴───┴───┴───┘ When we anchor another corner, it will stay in the center, and the 4 groupings of elements will be arranged differently. 4.2 Flip algorithm -------------------- For flips, an edge of the pattern is anchored, and the pattern is raised out of the plane of the screen, and flipped over to the next quadrant. This gives similar but different patterns from the rotations. Again, the movement causes both a relative change of position and a change to a different type of element. In this case, though, the direction of the flip is important. If the flip is left to right, then element 3 and 2 are swapped, and elements 0 and 1. When the flip is up and down, then elements 0 and 3 are paired, and so are 1 and 2. If you're interested in working through these changes, the easiest way to visualize it is to draw the actual patterns on a pieces of paper and flip or rotate it, or study the groupings that are shown in the program itself when you request one of these functions. Use single colors for all foregrounds, to make it easier to see what's happening. ┌───┬───┬───────┐ ┌───┬───┬───────┐ ┌───┬───┬───────┐ │ A │ B │ │ │ A │ B │ B │ A │ │ A │ B │ B │ A │ ├───┼───┤ │ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ D │ C │ │ ------> │ D │ C │ C │ D │ -----> │ D │ C │ C │ D │ ├───┴───┘ │ ├───┴───┴───┴───┤ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ │ │ D │ C │ C │ D │ │ │ │ │ ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ │ │ │ │ │ A │ B │ B │ A │ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───┴───┴───┴───┘ Note, too, that each flip does contain 2 groupings that are identical to its rotated cousin. In this case, starting with the group in the upper left quadrant, it contains the same positioning as the rotated version in the upper left and lower right quadrants. 4.3 Designing quilts -------------------- While the major emphasis of the program is on the displaying intriguing computer diversions and patterns, it can also be used to assist in the design of quilts themselves. Use the larger widths unless you have an extraordinary amount of time available. Somewhere between 50 and 90 should be best. Even at 90, the patterns can be striking. When you find an appealing pattern, note the colors, and the basic design -- use the 4 elements in the uppermost block, then, if using a rotate or flip version, copy the grouping you decide is best. This can become your basic template. The best feature of QUILT is that it lets you examine hundreds, even thousands of possibilities before making any commitments in cutting patterns or buying materials. You can try out many different color patterns, design ideas or variations. 5. REQUIREMENTS =============== QUILT is optimized for use with a VGA color board and but will also work well with EGA screens. It is fully menu-driven. 6. SHAREWARE & THE ASP ====================== Shareware is a means of distributing software. Under the shareware concept, software may be freely copied and passed along to others, or distributed through bulletin board systems or national networks. As a recipient of a shareware program, you may use the software for a short trial period to determine if it meets your needs. If the software is not suitable, then you can discard it. If you decide to use it, you must pay by registering. When you register a Cascoly shareware program, you receive: * A copy of the latest version of the program * A bonus of any other Cascoly program of equal or lesser value (see CATALOG.COM for details) * A free introductory account on CompuServe including a private User ID number and password, $15 introductory usage credit, and a complimentary subscription to CompuServe Magazine, - a $30 value! * A minimum of 90 days online support via CompuServe or by telephone. Support by mail is also available, if accompanied by a SASE. To register a program, enter the following command: CATALOG and the order form will be copied to your printer. Check off the program you wish to register, and check the program you wish to receive as a bonus. Cascoly Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.