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Text File
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2000-01-01
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10KB
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199 lines
~ Article Construction Kit version 1.1 ~
.
...........:..............................................................
: :
: This text file contains instructions to add colors, pics and headlines :
: to your articles for the forthcoming issues of * Undercover * :
:........................................................................:
....: : ........
....................................: :....... .... . . .
:...........:
Here is St Survivor, the new UCM main editor typing the crap. When I first
had the great shell of Earx in my hands, I thought I'd never be able to
assemble it with all the colors, pictures and headlines. But thanks to his
explanations and to Moondog's help I finally managed to.
When doing this quite boring job of adding headlines, pictures or colors
to other people's articles it occured to me that I could just teach *YOU*
how to do it ! This way your articles would look much better and UCM too,
not to mention that it could reduce my amount of work in other words UCM
could be released more often.
^^^^^^^^^^
Unfortunately I cannot take the risk to spread Earx's shell as I guess
there would still be some lamers to use it for their own purpose... You'll
have no choice but to send me your nicely done articles so that I can
check and correct them if needed.
.......................... PoWer ON !!! ......................
1. Write it down
----------------
I won't teach you how to write an article, either you are smart enough or
you are too dumb and in either cases you don't need me. Please remember
that UCM enables up to 80 columns textfiles. Your article must be in ASCII
and PLEASE there cannot be ANY tabulations in it !! Look at * UCM15 * and
let's say.. the article about MP3 : see the weird 0 character ?? Well it's
what tabulations look like when you include them into an article.
After that I hope I don't need to tell you that racist or "free" nasty
comments are not allowed either... To answer MC Laser publicly what I mean
when I say "free" nasty comments is REAL insults ! You don't have to like
the demo or game you are reviewing but it must * not * be an excuse to say
that "this fucking shitty game was coded by another son of a bitch". I
know this was more Moondog's style but it's not mine though you can say
that a game or demo is shit (quite enough to understand that it's not
worth getting, right ??)
2. Headlines
------------
Credits for the nice white font go to mOd. We will start with them. Of
course you don't have to use this big font, Ascii art is warmly welcomed
as well ! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The command to be added to your article is {*f1MY ARTICLE{*f0 .Once you
have typed in this command, the shell will use it to display the font. the
brackets are necessary so don't forget them ! the "f1" commands calls for
the big font while the "f0" restores the usual 8x8 font. NEVER FORGET the
f0 command or it will just fuck up !
Also take note that the font will be *automatically centered* and that it
only allows to display 20 letters in a row (and that * DOES * take the
blank spaces into account !!). Beyond this 20 character limit it will look
like hell. Also always use CAPITAL LETTERS to type in your headline, small
letters won't be recognized. I think that's all there is to be remembered.
Let's move to something more complex :-)
3. Pictures
-----------
Well it's not that complicated actually. First you can only use 16 colors
pictures saved in PI1 format. Also the palette should be STf or it won't
look very nice 8-(
As with the headlines, a simple command will be needed to display
the selected picture. Take note that you won't be able to use more than
two full size - ie 320x200 - pictures in one article !
The command to display a fullsize picture is {*i picture.pi1 m 0 20 0 200}
the brackets { } enable the shell to recognize a specific UCM command
*i is the image command
then type in the name of your picture.pi1 (example.pi1...)
m/l/r allow you to display the picture in the middle/left/right side of
the screen.
The first coordinates 0 20 refer to the X (horizontal) axis and it counts
16 pixels every time. In other words if you type 0 20 you will select a
20x16 pixels long block, ie 320 pixels, starting from point 0.
The other coordinates are for the Y axis and they don't need block size.
you can simply type in the line numbers from 0 to 200.
I think that's all you have to know about the pictures implementation. It
may look a little confusing but after a while you'll get used to it.
4. Colors
---------
One of the * most original * features of UCM is this possibility to
underline some words with a different color to highlight some fact, name
or whatever.
The color used for the text is almost white, maybe a little darker to
spare your little eyes 8-) 3 other colors are used : blue, pink and green.
These colors are set in the menu picture in other words I could decide to
change them someday (why not ?). Anyway this is not the point here...
The other colors, as described above, can be called at any time in your
article, you just have to type a specific command. Actually this sign is
an Ascii character :
- character 241 is ± and displays the font in green
- character 242 is ≥ and displays the font in blue
- character 243 is ≤ and displays the font in pink
- character 240 is ≡ and sets the font back to white
For my UCM articles I prefer to use a word processor like * EVEREST * . It
allows to call these characters quite simply by holding Alternate and then
typing the number of the desired character on the numeric pad. Couldn't be
easier.
There are a few things to remember about the colors : first I * STRONLGY *
recommend you type the whole article * BEFORE * adding the colors. Why ???
Simply because the characters you'll add for the colors will be displayed
on your work screen but *NOT* in the UCM, get it ?
for example I type : "and this demo is ≥really≡ great believe ≤me≡ !"
-> the word "really" will be printed in blue
-> the word "me" will be printed in pink
-> these words are ALWAYS followed by the ≡ instruction that will turn the
following words back to white (don't forget it or the rest of your article
will be blue !)
-> these 4 weird characters are here but won't be seen in the UCM
-> in other words the following sentences are of equal length :
"and this demo is ≥really≡ great believe ≤me≡ !"
"and this demo is really great believe me !"
-> the only difference between them is that the * first one * features two
extra colors but on screen (in UCM of course) they will have the same
length and that is maybe the most difficult thing to get used to
especially when you try to add nice colors to complex Ascii logos and look
at all these lines that look messed up...
5. The Shell Gfx
----------------
What would be * UCM * without a nice and colorful menu ?? Well one can
wonder... If you feel interested in painting a cool menu for us then it's
ok but you'll have to follow a few rules....
> colors 1,2,4 and 8 must NOT be changed as they are used to bring
color to the articles.
> the last 2 colors are also used for the big font and must NOT be
changed either or you would ruin the headlines
To make sure that you get the right proportions this small package
includes an example picture to guide you. Once again you * MUST NOT ! *
modify the set of letters displayed in the middle of the screen. The
presence and position of this font is essential to the functioning of the
magazine. Last but not least no need to tell you that you MUST RESPECT the
alloted size for the different buttons (exit, music, 1,2,3...).
6. Bonus time
-------------
Wanno do something more for us ? Well you can still code a cool intro
as some have already done and others will also do. Of course if you are a
module or chip musician you can compose a cool tune for us !!!
.........................................................................
: f i n a l l y :
:.......................................................................:
If you've understood it all after just one distracted reading then I
must admit I'm impressed !! But I recommend you print this tutorial as I
did when Earx sent me the shell. This is version 1.1 and I cannot promise
there will ever be an update to it. It will depend on what I could have
forgotten. Also you can mail me if you have any questions and I'll set up
a FAQ if I get enough questions. Last but not least don't hesitate to telI
me if I made a mistake or should add explanations to this tutorial.
That's it ! You can reach me at -->> survivor@atari.org <<--
.........................................................................
: stsurvivor/ LOud!^Lunactic Asylum^UCM main editor :
:.......................................................................: