Azile is a slightly “altered” version of Eliza, the classic mainframe psychologist emulation program. Azile is a cranky therapist who couldn’t care less what your problems are. (This one attended the Don Rickles School of Psychology.) This version has been rated PG.
…and if you have Apple’s new Speech Manager, you
can actually hear as well as see the abuse you so
richly deserve (making this an excellent demonstration
of the Speech Manager’s new capabilities)!
Azile is also a simple, single-window, styled text editor. Azile is 32 bit clean, System 7 compatible, 68040 cache compatible, virtual memory compatible, big screen compatible and Apple Event aware. It recognizes extended keyboard keys.
Azile is ShareWare. The registration fee is $5. Registered owners are entitled to a copy of the latest source code as well as on-line product support. (See the “Registration” instructions at the end of this manual.)
••• Apple Menu •••
• About Azile…
This gives a few helpful hints for using Azile. It also includes instructions on how to contact me for product registration, suggestions or bug reports.
••• File Menu •••
• New
This will open a blank document window. Only one window can be open at a time. The default font and font size for the new window can be set in the Preferences… dialog.
• Open…/Open Any…
This will bring up the standard file selection dialog. Pick the TEXT document you wish to open. If you hold down the shift key while choosing this command, you will be allowed to open the data fork of any file, including non-TEXT files. If you open a TEXT document containing a ‘styl’ resource (such as documents created by JoliWrite 3.0, Stylus, America Online 2.0 and Tex-Edit), the text will display style attributes (boldface, italics, color, size, etc.). I would discourage you from trying to open active System files, of course.
• Close
This will close the active window. (It is equivalent to clicking in the window’s close box.) You will be prompted to save any changes you may have made.
• Save
This will save any changes you have made to the file in the active window. A standard file dialog will be displayed if your document is not yet associated with a disk file.
• Save As…
This will bring up the standard file dialog for creation of a new styled text file on your disk.
• Revert
This will revert to the last saved version of the file in the active window. All changes made since the last time the file was saved will be lost.
• Page Setup
This will display the standard Page Setup dialog allowing you to set certain characteristics for your printer.
• Print…
This will display the standard Print dialog box, which allows you to specify number of copies, print quality, etc.
• Preferences…
This dialog box allows you to customize Azile’s default font and font size. All preferences are stored in a “Prefs” file which is created the first time Azile is run. The prefs file is usually stored in the System folder or Preferences folder (System 7).
1) Default Font:___ This pop-up menu allows you to change Azile’s default font. The default font is used when a new window is created or when a generic text file is opened.
2) Default Size:___ This pop-up menu allows you to change Azile’s default font size. This size is used when a new window is created or when a generic text file is opened.
• Quit
This will close the Azile application. You will be prompted to save any altered or unsaved open documents before Azile quits.
••• Edit Menu •••
• Undo
Undo can reverse your most recent editing action or style change. After you undo something, it can be redone if desired. Undo does not work for the Replace function.
• Cut
Cut will remove the current selection to the clipboard, making it available for pasting to Azile or other programs. The clipboard holds the text as well as its ‘styl’ information, making styled selections available to other programs that support standard Mac conventions.
• Copy
Copy will make a copy of the current text selection and place it in the clipboard.
• Paste
Paste will move a copy of the clipboard contents to the current insertion point, deleting any text which may be selected in the active window.
• Clear
Clear will erase the current text selection.
• Select All
All the text in the file will become hilited (selected).
••• Search Menu •••
• Find/Replace…
This dialog lets you enter a text string for which to search. You may also enter a text string to use as a replacement when the search string is found. Selecting the “Find” button will hilite the first occurrence of the search string. (You may then use the “Find Next” or “Replace & Find Again” menu commands.) If you push the “Replace All” button, Azile will replace all occurrences of the search string with the replacement string, then report how many replacements were made. “Replace All” is not undo-able. The three small buttons labelled “CR”, “Tab” and “LF” allow you to easily enter a carriage return, tab or linefeed character into the find string or replace string.
All searches start at the top of the document, unless you select the “Start search at cursor position” option. The “Cases must match” option forces Azile to look for exact matches. Turn this switch off if you wish case to be ignored. The “Whole words only” option will limit matches to distinct whole words (i.e. looking for ‘the’ will find ‘the’ but not ‘them’).
• Find Again
This option becomes available once a match has been found. It allows you to keep searching down through the document looking for the next match.
• Replace & Find Again
This will replace the hilited word with the replacement string (from the “Find/Replace…” dialog box) and continue searching for the next match.
• Enter Selection
This will copy the current text selection (up to 255 characters) into the “Find/Replace…” dialog box. This text will thus be used for the next “Find Again” command.
• Word Count…
This command shows the word count, line count and character count for the active document.
••• Font Menu •••
The font menu lists all the fonts available to Azile. The current selection’s font is checked.
••• Size Menu •••
The size menu lists a selection of common font sizes. The current selection’s font size is checked.
••• Style Menu •••
This is a standard font style menu.
••• Azile Menu •••
• Start Interview
This command will initiate the conversation between you and Azile (a.k.a. Mac). First, you will be asked to enter your name. Then Azile will guide you through the deepest recesses of your soul, in search of true inner peace and harmony. In other words, it will display a statement or question and then wait for you to type your response. Follow each sentence with a carriage return. Please enter your response at the end of the text. Of course, it helps if you use English and only enter a single sentence at a time. Azile works best when you avoid terse responses and really try to “open up”.
This command changes to “Stop Interview” while Azile is active. It will cause Azile to bring the session to a close.
• Demo
This command is unimplemented.
• Read Starting At Cursor
This command will cause the active window to be read aloud starting at the current cursor position (or the end of the current selection, if some text is selected). Speech then continues until the end of the document is reached or “Stop Reading” is chosen.
• Read Selection
If some text is selected, this command will read it aloud. It can be stopped or paused as desired.
• Pause/Resume
If text is being read aloud, this will allow you to temporarily pause or restart the reading session.
• Turn Speech On/Off
This command activates the Speech Manager system. It must be selected before any other speech-related commands are usable. While Azile is speaking, the face at the top of the window will become animated. (If you enter text at the end of the document followed by a control-return, the entered line of text will be spoken if speech is on.)
• Speech Settings…
This command brings up a dialog which allows you to modify some of Speech Manager’s speech characteristics. The “Voice:” pop-up menu lists all the voice resources currently available to your system. Selecting a voice will adjust the pitch and rate to that voice’s default setting. Try experimenting with different rates and pitches to get the most pleasing results. The “Sample” button will cause a sample sentence to be read aloud.
••• Miscellaneous •••
• Requirements
Azile requires a Mac or Mac-compatible running System 6.0.7 or better. (I assume it will work with 6.0.3 or better, however I cannot easily test that assumption.) To use the speech facility, you need to copy Apple’s Speech Manager extension (along with any desired voices) into the Extensions Folder and re-boot. You may also use PlainTalk, if desired. The old Macintalk is no longer supported. Azile runs fine without the Speech Manager.
• Extended Keyboards
Azile makes full use of Apple’s extended keyboard including the forward delete, home, end, page up, page down and cursor keys. The escape key can be used to cancel any dialog box (just like command-period).
• Other Features
Azile is 32 bit clean, Apple Event aware, System 7 compatible, MultiFinder compatible, big screen compatible, 68040 cache compatible and adheres to all of Apple’s interface guidelines (as best I can tell). Undo is implemented for most functions. If you triple click on a sentence, the entire sentence will be selected. Hold down the shift key during cursor key movements to extend a selection.
• File Formats
Azile saves its documents in a format which can be read by any text editor or word processor (type ‘TEXT’). It saves the style information (font, size, boldface, etc.) in the file’s resource fork. Since this style information is ignored by other text editors, they are unable to display anything other than plain text when editing Azile’s files. When Azile re-opens a file which has been altered by another editor, all the style information will be gone, unless the other text editor also stores the document’s style information in the resource fork. For example, America Online 2.0, JoliWrite 3.0, Tex-Edit and Stylus create styled text files which can be easily opened by Azile with all style information intact! (Azile scans the document file for a resource of type ‘styl’. The first one it finds is used to style the text. If the document is using ‘styl’ resources for some other purpose, the text will look funny.)
In order to move a styled Azile document into another word processor without losing style information, you can use the clipboard to copy and paste the entire document. (Some expensive word processors apparently do not support Apple’s standard clipboard formats and may lose the ‘styl’ information. Go figure…)
Azile can open any ‘TEXT’ document (up to 32K) and can also display the data fork of any other file. Azile can correctly open stationery pad documents.
• Limitations
Azile is limited to 32K text files. Only a single document window can be active at any time.
• Registration
Azile is ShareWare. The registration fee is $5 (US). (Outside the US, you may send an appropriate amount of your local currency, if you are unable to obtain US currency.) Please send your registration fee to:
Tom Bender
5313 Beverly Drive
San Angelo, Texas 76904
• Source Code
Registered users may obtain a copy of the THINK Pascal source code by sending a disk and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the above address. The source code is intended for your personal use.
• On-Line Support
If you have questions, suggestions or bug reports, you can also reach me via modem:
America Online: TomBB
eWorld: TomBB
Internet: tombb@aol.com
• Other Products
Please also try Tex-Edit Plus (full featured text editor), Re-Pete (memory game) and Eliza (clinical psychologist), hopefully available on a BBS near you!
