17 Bit Software 1: Collection A/17Bit_Collection_A.iso/files/970.dms/970.adf/ShoWiz.Doc

Text File | 1991-04-18 | 17KB | 386 lines

                                  SHOWIZ 2.0
                            Written By  J.L. White
                        (C)1988-1989  Merlin's Software


  ShoWiz combines the features of a display program with those of a slideshow
 program. This means you can show individual pictures or a whole disk full!
 ShoWiz has 26 different ways to display your pictures and it works with ALL
 resolutions, including Overscan. You can even display Text files, with your
 choice of colors for the background, text, and shadows. Type "ShoWiz ?" to
 see the various options you have. NO SCRIPTS ARE NEEDED to show a disk full
 of pictures and you can show as many disks as you like as many times as you
 like. It creates its own script files, but you can set the slideshow up any
 way you wish by entering the type of wipe, amount of time to display, and
 the filename on the command line. ShoWiz will work from Workbench or CLI.




                 Is this the best slideshow program? ShoWiz!


 First I would like to say how happy I am at the success of version 1.0. I
never expected "Another show program" to be so popular. Thanks to all the
registered users who have made 2.0 possible.


What's New?

Where to I start? There are so many things that have been added. Oh well I
guess I will start at the top.

Bugs Fixed:

1. Bug Fixed for Dos 1.3. "Why it worked on 1.2 I don't know."
2. Bug Fixed for lo-res overscan pictures.
3. Bug Fixed to unlock directory so icon goes away.


New Features:

1. More Wokbench control. Icons can now accept type of wipe and time to
   display picture.
2. Files are now displayed in alphabetical order when using the dir option.
3. When using loop option, it does not start back at the beginning. This
   means that each time a picture is displayed it will use a different wipe.
   Depending on how many pictures are in the directory, you can show pictures
   for hours without seeing the same picture with the same wipe twice.
4. 3 new wipes have been added and i & v have been reversed.
5. Scripts have been added "YEAH!". Now you can use scripts with ShoWiz. This
   opens all kinds of new possiblities.
 A. Sound can be played from the scripts.
 B. Animations can be played from the scripts.
 C. In fact, almost any program can be executed from the scripts.
 D. Yes/No requesters and alerts can be used in the scripts.
 E. Plus many more features. Read below for more details.



Future Features:


1. Cycling of pictures will be added. Having problems finding some good
   source code on this. If you have some, please send it so we can add
   it in.
2. ASDG Scanner pics support. Showiz will display some but not all of these
   type pics. For now you can just run a show program that will display
   them from the script.
3. Any other features that the registered users ask for.


 ShoWiz is released as Shareware. Donations of $10.00 are gladly accepted.
 Those who send $15.00 will receive a disk full of samples from all our sets
 of picture disks along with the latest version of ShoWiz. Read M-List for
 our latest listings and also where to mail your money.

 Thanks go to Athanassios Kartsatos (AKA Souli...AKA Hermes) for his help on
 displaying overscan and for answering a bunch of dumb questions.

 Thanks also go to Harold Walpert for releasing his excellent code to fade
 the colors on the screen and to Paul Falstad for his on scripts.

 Thanks also to Andry Rachmat for his help on showing the directories and
 Steve Morgan for finding the 1.3 bug.

 Ok, that's it for the plugs and the thanks. So now onto the juicy stuff.


DOCS:

  There are alot of programs that deal with IFF pictures. Some display single
 pictures. Others use scripts to display a whole bunch of pictures. All have
 their place. I just got tired of using one for this and another for that so
 I decided to make one that did it all. Yes, I know, it's larger than Ushow &
 most of the slideshows but there are 26 different wipes in this. That works
 out to less than 1K per wipe. Plus the fact that it will display text files
 and handle scripts. I tried to make this as stupid proof as possible so if
 something goes wrong, you can't say I didn't try!

  ShoWiz allows you to display pictures from Workbench & CLI. Since Workbench
 doesn't allow as many options I will explain this first.

WorkBench Use:

 If you change the default tool of an icon to ShoWiz and then click on that
 icon, it will display the picture or text file (so long as the path is cor-
 rect). If you click on the ShoWiz icon then on a picture icon, it will show
 the picture. If you just click on the ShoWiz icon it will display all the
 pictures in that directory and will loop through all the different wipes for
 30 seconds each. The defaults are used when clicking on individual pictures.
 They are 30 seconds for time and `o' for display. If you would like to use
 a different wipe or time you can add them to the tool types of the picture
 icon. You would enter them into the tooltypes like this:

                 WIPE=-c
                TIME=+10

 This example would show the picture using the checkerboard wipe for 10
 seconds. Easy enough right? A sample icon is included in this arcfile.
 Scripts can also be run from Workbench. Read below for more info.


Cli Use:

 First `ShoWiz ?' will show you your different options. You can display pics
 one by one or by directory. To show a picture you would type `ShoWiz Pic'.
 To show an entire directory you would type `ShoWiz Directory'. Now by doing
 it this way it uses its defaults of 30 seconds & `o' for display. You can
 vary this however. When showing directories you could type in the following:

             `ShoWiz +15 df0: df1: !'.

 Now this would display all the pictures in df0: & df1: for 15 seconds each.
 When showing directories you can't give it the type of display, it will just
 loop through all of them. The `!' will tell ShoWiz to keep showing these
 pictures over and over again until you hit `ESC' to exit the loop.

 When showing individual pics you could type:

         `ShoWiz +15 -u Pic1 -f Pic2 +30 -c Pic3'

 This would show Pic1 for 15 seconds using the UP display then show Pic2 for
 15 seconds using the FADE display then show Pic3 for 30 seconds using the
 CHECKERBOARD display. If no option is given for the pic then the setting for
 the picture before it will be used. You can also use the `!' to loop through
 these pictures.


 Here is a listing of your different options:

 Time: Time is set in seconds. Any positive number is acceptable. If for
 example you typed `+30', it would display that pic for 30 seconds. If the
 number is less than 1, then 1 is used. Just put the `+' in front of the
 number to set the time. If you are displaying more than 1 picture the Time
 would be seconds until it loads the next picture. Now if you have a HAM pic
 then it would take a while to load making a longer delay. So when doing more
 than one picture remember to act accordingly.

 Option: This can be any of the following letters preceded by a `-' [abcdefg
 hijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]. Now HAM & Overscan pictures just won't work with some
 of these. Don't worry though cause if you try to select one that can't be
 used, it will use the default. Below is a brief description of the different
 types of wipes that can be used. Just remember they have to be lowercase
 letters!                                                       ~~~~~~~~~

 a=01 This will simply make the picture Appear on the screen. Nothing fancy.
 b=02 This will put the picture up in 5 Blocks in the following order: 15324.
 c=03 This will put the picture up using a Checkerboard effect.
 d=04 This will display the picture from the top Down to the bottom.
 e=05 This will display the picture then Enlarge it to 4 times its size.
 f=06 This will Fade the picture in from black.
 g=07 The picture will Grow from the middle out to the four corners.
 h=08 The picture will start in the middle. Half will go right and the other
       Half will go left.
 i=09 The picture will be displayed Inverted (upside down) then flipped.
 j=10 This is the opposite of h and will Join together in the middle.
 k=11 This will put 4 blocks up. One in each Korner.(Well you pick a better
       letter).
 l=12 This will display the picture from Left to right.
 m=13 This will Mix up the screen in a puzzle then straighten itself out.
 n=14 This will do zebra stripes accross the middle then spread from the
       middle to the top and bottom.
 o=15 This is the default. It will Open from the middle. Half going up and
      the other half going down.
 p=16 This will Pull the picture down from the lefthand corner.
 q=17 This will display the picture then shrink it down to a Quarter of its
      original size.
 r=18 This will display the picture from Right to left.
 s=19 This will display the picture in Strips.
 t=20 This will make a Trail of the picture. Going to the right then the
      left then back to the right then back to the left.
 u=21 This will display the picture from the bottom Up to the top.
 v=22 This will display the picture reVersed then flip the picture.
 w=23 I couldn't think of anything to call this but Weird!
 x=24 This will eXpand the picture from the center.
 y=25 This shows a blurred picture than cleans it up. "Why Y? -- Who Knows!".
 z=26 This does zebra stripes accross the screen then fills from top.






Text Files:

  Now to explain how to display text files. If you will notice at the top of
 each Text file is a header. The first line holds the information about the
 screen. ShoWiz reads a file to see if it has the string `Showiz.Textfile'.
 If it finds that it will load it on a screen. Best way to create your own is
 just to edit one of these files. At the end of the first line you will see a
 bunch of numbers. These are the RGB settings for the Background, then Text,
 then Shadow colors. For example:

             white would be `15-15-15'
             black would be `00-00-00'

 Any number between 0 & 15 will work. Red would be `15-00-00' and
 so on. Try different ones to see which ones you like best.

  If you don't want a shadow on your text just set the shadow color to the
 same settings as your background. The text that appears on the screen is
 what is inside the border of 's. In 80 column mode, you should see an  at
 both ends. Stay inside the border and overwrite the existing characters. The
 number of characters has to be correct. Try one and then load it up to see
 if you got it correct.





Scripts:

 ShoWiz really shines from the use of scripts. There are 16 commands that can
 be used in the scripts. ShoWiz reads this file just like a Text file. You
 must have a header that reads:

            *Showiz.Scriptfile*

 You treat this like you would a startup-sequence on a Workbench disk. Any
 line starting with a `;' will be used as comments and is ignored by ShoWiz.
 You can run scripts from an icon or from typing `ShoWiz Script'. Below is
 a list of the commands and a brief description. Included in this arc file
 is an example script file. Check it out. It uses all the available commands.



Picture Commands:


 Wipe = The type of wipe to display your picture.

Ex.            Wipe -c


 Time = The amount of seconds before loading the next picture.

Ex.            Time +30


 Show = Displays the actual picture itself.

Ex.            Show ShoWiz.Pic




Sound Commands:


 LoadSound = Load digitized soundfile into memory.

Ex.            LoadSound ShoWiz.Sound1


 PlaySound = How many times to play the sound in a loop. 0 = forever!

Ex.            Play +3


 Channel = You have 2 sets of channels to work with. You use either 0 or 1.
           Do this before loading a sound.

Ex.            Channel 1


 Quiet = This turns the volume down to 0. It is still in memory to use later.

Ex.            Quiet 0


 FreeChannel = This actually removes the sound from memory giving you back
               your precious chip ram. Be cautious when using sound and big
               pictures because it does eat up memory.

Ex.            FreeChannel 1



Other Commands:


 WB-On = This turns the Workbench colors back on. ShoWiz turns them off when
         it first starts and sometimes in the script you may need them.

Ex.            WB-On


 Fade-WB = This turns the Workbench screen back to black.

Ex.            Fade-WB


 Delay = This is a time delay for the script itself. When used ShoWiz will
         pause that many seconds before going to the next line in the script.

Ex.            Delay +5


 Request = This brings up a Requester for a Yes or No option. If Yes then it
           does the next line in the script. If No then it is bypassed. What
           ever text in on the line after the command will appear in the
           requester itself. If you try to open one but for some reason it
           can't open, a DisplayAlert() will appear with your text.

Ex.            Request Do You wish to play the Script again?


 Alert = Just like Request but a DisplayAlert() is used. Many people get
         shaky when they see that blinking red box so use with caution.

Ex.            Alert Do You have enough memory for Music?


 Stop = This is used to abort the script. This could be used with either a
        Request or Alert to abort. First do a Request then have the next
        line be Stop.

Ex.            Stop


 Repeat = This tells ShoWiz to read the script again, from the top. You can
          also use a Request with this to repeat or not.

Ex.            Repeat


 Execute = This is some REAL POWERFUL STUFF! With this command you can run
           any program from it. Use an animation program, a text reader,etc.
           It is best to use path names with it, just to be on the safe side.

Ex.            Execute df0:c/showanim -c5 ShoWiz:ShoWiz.anim

           I tried Movie with it but it seems to have a problem sometimes.
           However Showanim and the New DP player work perfectly. Experiment
           around with this. You might come up with some really neat things.
           Imagine using this as a startup-sequence. You could even load
           Workbench from it. You can exit the script with the `ESC' key.


  Well that about does it. I think you are ready to play with it. I hope you
 get as much use out of this as I have. It is perfect for demos and such and
 as a handy utility to display all those pictures you download. Please read
 M-List and if I can be of service to you, just drop me a line (hopefully
 with a check enclosed... hint..hint..).

 Support Shareware Authors!!!


    _ , Chat At Ya Later...
   {~}
  ( V-)
  "|Y|"
  _|||_---> J.L. White


P.S.

 Also included is ShoWizJr. This is a condensed version. It only has 10 wipes
 and does not handle scripts, but it is smaller! Use if ya like.