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PPShow 1.2 User Manual
Jul 22, 1990
Preface
=======
This program is freeware, this means that you can copy it freely as long
as you don't ask any more money for it than a nominal fee for copying. If
you want to distribute this program you should keep this document with it.
This program cannot be used for commercial purposes without written permission
from the author.
If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find
any bugs, please let me know.
Write to the following address:
Nico François
Corbielaan 13
3060 Bertem BELGIUM
Contents
========
1. An introduction
2. Usage
3. Features
4. Note on crunching
1. An introduction
==================
PPShow was written to complement one of my other utilities, PowerPacker
(a command and data cruncher). It is used to show normal IFF ILBM files or
ILBM files crunched with PowerPacker. The decrunching is done automatically
so the user doesn't have to know if a file is crunched or not.
If you haven't got PowerPacker you are of course missing one of the main
features of this program. PowerPacker is available as shareware (up to
version 2.3b) or as a commercial program (version 3.0a). Order a copy for
$17.50 (Europe) or $20 (outside Europe) from UGA, P.O.Box 881, 3700 AW Zeist,
The Netherlands (only Eurochecks in Dutch Guilders or cash). The commercial
version offers several enhancements like 40 to 50 times faster crunching and
overlay crunching.
2. Usage
========
PPShow can be used in four different ways.
- First of all via the CLI:
If you enter PPShow without arguments you will get a usage template.
You use PPShow like this:
PPShow [-h] [<file|dir>]
The program will then load the ILBM file and display it. If the file
was crunched using PowerPacker 2.0 or higher PPShow will first decrunch it
for you. If the file was encrypted you will be prompted for the password.
If you enter PPShow without options, you will be presented with either a
file prompt or the ARP filerequester (if arp.library or asl.library is
available). Entering PPShow with a directory instead of a file as an argument
will also get you a requester, but it will be positioned in the directory you
specified.
There is only one option in this version: '-h'. This option is used to
force HAM mode when no CAMG chunk is found. If you don't specify this option
PPShow will assume a 6 plane screen is extra half brite. (Note that it is
wrong for an Amiga IFF ILBM file not to have a CAMG chunk, especially when
there can be doubt about what display mode to pick !)
PPShow can be made resident so it doesn't have to be loaded every time
you use it, use the ARP ARes command or the c: Resident command for this.
You can't make PPShow resident when it is crunched !! The file is supplied
as an uncrunched command file with the pure bit set. PPShow is reentrant as
well, so you can run it from several CLI's at the same time. (Not that this
is very useful, but it's possible :-D)
Example: '1> PPShow -h dh0:pics/HAMpicWithoutCAMG.pic'
- Via the WorkBench:
There are three different ways of using PPShow via the workbench: you
can set the default tool of the (crunched) ILBM file to 'PPShow', you can
single click the PPShow icon and then double click the picture icon or you
can double-click the PPShow icon and enter the filename in the string gadget
you will be presented with.
You set the default tool by single clicking the icon of the picture
and selecting 'Info' from the workbench menu. You will get a window with
several gadgets in it, click in the string gadget where it says 'Default
tool' and enter ':ppshow'. PPShow should be in the root directory of your
disk for this to work, if e.g. it's in the system directory you should enter
':system/ppshow'. Last of all select the 'Save' gadget.
NOTE: - PPShow will add '.pp' to the filename when the file wasn't found.
This is very useful in the WorkBench enviroment: you can make an
icon for 'house.pic' but name the file 'house.pic.pp'. Now the
WorkBench will show an icon with 'house.pic' as name, but if you
doubleclick it 'house.pic.pp' will be displayed. (As long as there
is no 'house.pic' file in the directory !)
3. Features
===========
- PPShow uses the filerequester of the asl.library or arp.library if
available.
- Abort PPShow by pressing any key (except <TAB> or 'P') or the right
mouse button. The screen can be dragged by an invisible drag bar at
the top.
- The pesky little mouse will be removed while displaying.
- PPShow offers full overscan support, PAL or NTSC. As far as I know
this is the first ILBM viewing program to do so, looks like PAL Amiga
owners still get forgotten. All Amiga display modes (like HAM, EHB)
are of course also supported.
- Deluxe Paint cycling is supported, press <TAB> to (de)activate. Up to
8 cycles are supported (DPaint III currently only supports 6).
- PPShow has the ability to print the screen it is displaying, all you
have to do is press 'P' on the keyboard and wait. The mouse pointer
will be visible while printing. Please note that the printer.device has
to be in the 'devs:' directory for PPShow to be able to print, you
should also have a correct system-configuration for your printer.
- Press 'L' to load another picture, you will be prompted for a filename.
4. Note on crunching
====================
A lot of IFF ILBM files are already crunched with the standard ByteRun1
compression. PowerPacker will crunch these files even further (most of the
time) but will not crunch them as well as uncrunched ILBM files. So save IFF
files uncrunched (if you can, e.g. with PixMate) before crunching them, this
way you will get the best crunching results.
As always, I hope you find this program useful !
PROGRAM HISTORY:
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.0
First release.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.1
Decrunching is about 40% faster (accidently used slow decruncher in 1.0)
Screen now pops to front when picture is ready to be viewed, not before.
Filerequester used when arp.library is available.
'L' command added to load other pictures without restarting PPShow.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.1a
The Guru isn't with me lately, after using a slow decruncher in 1.0
by accident I now used a fast but faulty decruncher in 1.1. It
sometimes didn't decrunch correctly, this has now been fixed. The
decruncher is still 40% faster than the 1.0 one. (and it's 2 bytes
shorter :^D )
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.2
Rewritten cycling routine in assembly, so less overhead when cycling.
Uses the all new powerpacker.library => shorter code.
Starting PPShow from the CLI with a directory as an argument now puts
up the requester positioned in that directory. Extremely useful once
you get used to this :^)
If you are running Workbench 2.0 PPShow will use the asl.library
instead of the arp.library (for the filerequester).
Fixed serious bug: memory wasn't freed when an IFF error occured.
No longer tries to display small brushes (intuition doesn't like very
small screens :( )
*****************************************************************************
PPShow 1.2 written by Nico François (Yes, Nico is my first name :-)
(c) 1990 Nico François / PowerPeak
//
Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !