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TOUCHTYPE TUTOR Version 2.0 16th April 1982 Direct Cursor Addressing Concept By: Tim Pearce 7 Bannerman St, Cremorne, N.S.W. Reworked By: R. Berthet 15/5 Cottonwood Cr. North Ryde, 2113. SYDNEY. (61-2)-88-1640 This document is entered into the public domain by its author, Richard Berthet. Please do not remove this notice. INTRODUCTION TTYPE (TOUCHTYPE TUTOR) is an application programme designed to aid the user to quickly gain touch typing skills using the computer keyboard and the computer, of course. Some of the features are: * Lots of HELP, which you can expand. * Onscreen representation of a 'QWERTY' keyboard to give visual feedback. * Graduated exercises with prompts (or comments) throughout. The objective of this document is to assist you, the programmer to get the programme up and running on your system as fast as possible, whereupon, it is fairly obvious what it is supposed to do and how it is supposed to do it. For the impatient, I propose to first discuss what to alter to make it go straightaway, and for those who may wish to tinker, I will launch into a discourse about the programme itself . QUICK INSTALLATION Hardware This version, (2.0), of TTYPE is written for Direct Cursor Addressing terminals, so if yours isn't, then you may either do a complete rewrite or wait for the Non-Cursor Addressing version. Software Following is a list of FILES that must accompany the main programme. It is necessary to have SOME exercise files, A to J are presently included. TTYPE .BAS MBASIC Source Code TTKEYBD .DAT KEYBOARD Datafile TTHELP0 .DAT HELP File 0 TTHELP1 .DAT HELP file 1 TTHELP2 .DAT HELP file 2 TTHELP3 .DAT HELP file 3 TTHELP4 .DAT HELP file 4 TTHELP5 .DAT HELP file 5 TTYPEXA .DAT | through to | Present EXERCISE Datafiles TTYPEXJ .DAT | Before running, the software will need to be altered to suit your terminal and computer. Here is a list of changes that may need to be made to get you on the road: 1. Refer to SECTION 1: 'ASCII CONTROL CODES' of Main Program In this section you will find the function to DEFine direct cursor addressing- ????? DEF FNCSRLD$(ROW,COLUMN) = ESC$+"="+CHR$(ROW+31)+CHR$(COLUMN+31) The constant '31' is the offset to correct the argument of the function from absolute ASCII values to ROW and COLUMN numbers for a 24 line X 80 column screen. If yours is different insert the correct constant. (A visual result of the function not having the proper values as its argument will be "haywire" printing on-screen.) 2. Refer to SECTION 3: 'INITIALISING BLOCK' of Main Program. You may need to change the following constants- DATAPORT% = 0 Decimal address of system dataport. STATUSPORT% = DATAPORT%+1 Decimal address of system status port. ESCTYPE% = 127 ASCII value of character used to escape to command level of programme. ESCCHAR$ = "RUB" String to print name of key for the above character (ESCTYPE%). Those few changes should at least make it look like it's going to run, if not you'll have to read the full description to ascertain where your problem is. EXPLANATION OF THE FILES TTYPE.BAS TTYPE.BAS is the MBASIC source code which contains the body of the programme and its assorted subroutines. This is the one that you will have to alter to suit your system. (See either Quick Installation or Programme Guide.) TTKEYBD.DAT TTKEYBD.DAT contains the data for the onscreen representation of your terminals KEYBOARD. It will probably require alteration of some of the minor keys that always differ between terminals. You will need the aid of a text editor(i). Following is what the file looks like and an explanation of its format- 13,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,-,^,\ !,,#,$,%,&,',(,),_,=,~,| 13,Q,W,E,R,T,Y,U,I,O,P,{,}," " q,w,e,r,t,y,u,i,o,p,[,]," " 12,A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L,+,*,` a,s,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,;,":",@ 10,Z,X,C,V,B,N,M,<,>,? z,x,c,v,b,n,m,",",.,/ 1," "," " Notice that some of the characters are between double quotes (e.g.",") this is because MBASIC interprets the comma character as a separator of the data. If you forget to put certain characters between quotes the READ statement gets "out of step" and will eventually generate an error message. (Read the MBASIC manual about the READ statement if you are not sure.) (i) Avoid use of the WORDSTAR (R) word processor in document mode on DATAFILES. It has the nasty habit of putting 'invisible' control characters in where you don't want them, for its own nefarious purposes. The net effect is that these control characters send the programme berserk! (Bit 8 of the Carriage Return is set high.) KEYBOARD DATAFILE FORMAT n,D,D,D,D,D,D,D,D N,N,N,N,N,N,N,N WHERE: n = Number of keys in the row. D = Characters DISPLAYED as the keyboard. (There should be 'n' of these.) N = NON-DISPLAY characters that corres pond to DISPLAY characters when shifted. i.e. You may choose to DISPLAY upper-case and shift to lower- case,which will therefore be the NON-DISPLAY characters. TTYPEX? .DAT Files of the genre TTYPEX? .DAT contain exercises and COMMENTs and are called by the main programme when required. (TTYPEXn.DAT where 'n' is a letter) * Any single exercise line can be entered. * Any line to be repeated is preceded by '|n' where 'n' is the number of repeats. * A COMMENT is preceded by '!#' and there may be up to 80 characters per line. For the COMMENT to print correctly there must 5 lines of COMMENT, even if you only want one. (See example following.) * A PARAGRAPH is specified by '|pn,ll' on a line by itself where 'p' indicates to the program this is a PARAGRAPH;'n' is the number of times to repeat it and 'll' is a 2 digit specification of the number of lines in the PARAGRAPH. EXAMPLE OF EXERCISE DATAFILE !#Exercise A. !# !# Left hand on the [A] [S] [D] [F] keys. !# !# Right hand on the [J] [K] [L] [;] keys. |3fff fff jjj jjj fff jjj ff jj ff jj f j |3ddd ddd kkk kkk ddd kkk dd kk dd kk d k !# !# !# RETURN the carriage without looking up. !# !# |3sss sss lll lll sss lll ss ll ss ll s l |3aaa aaa ;;; ;;; aaa ;;; aa ;; aa ;; a ; |2aaa ddd add add aaa lll all all add all |3aaa sss kkk ask jjj aaa lll jal ask jal |3ddd aaa aaa dad lll aaa ddd lad dad lad |3a as ask asks asks; f fa fal fall falls |3a al ala alas alas; f fl fla flas flask |3a ad add adds adds; s sa sal sala salad !# !# !# GOAL: Finish next two lines in one minute. !# !# |2a sad fad; a lass falls; dad asks a lad; TTHELP? .DAT Again these are a family of files and contain the HELP text (TTHELPn .DAT where 'n' is a number, presently in the range 0 to 5). They are designed with one special character (#) in them which, when read by the programme halts further input until receipt of a carriage return (See SECTION 8 Subroutine [4] for full explanation). This is TTHELP5 .DAT - <RETURN> - Continues with next line in the exercise. M - You've found this one! E - End the running of this program. Q - Quit to operating system. Hit <RETURN> for more HELP. # N - Start a NEW exercise. R - REPEAT last line, when you can't get it right! S - SKIP lines in this exercise. You will be prompted for the number of lines to SKIP. Note that printed comments have already been skipped. W - Print the number of WORDS so far and the ERROR count. Then the RESET option resets the ERROR COUNT to zero. L - Print the number of LINES read from the current exercise file. Used in combination with <S> this command tells you roughly how many lines to Skip to restart in the middle of an exercise. HIT key for MENU selection. PROGRAMME GUIDE You've heard of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, well this is the Programmer's Guide to Touch Typing. The Plot is to take you section by boring section through the main programme. Do not adjust your seat. We are in complete control. STANDBY ! (Oh, by the way, the programme listing is liberally dotted with remarks, so these notes are a companion to them.) SECTION 1 TERMINAL ATTRIBUTES Contained herein are all the onscreen pretty bits, originally from a larger MBASIC utility called UTILSCRN.BAS, written for the Lear Seigler ADM-31 terminal. The remarks tell all (I hope !). Things to look out for: * Check the ESCAPE sequences for your terminal and alter them to suit it. * As mentioned earlier, FNCSRLD$(ROW,COLUMN) is the fun ction defining direct cursor addressing, you will probably have to change the offset for the origin. * The string variables WRTPRTON$ and WRTPRTOFF$ are used to switch the video between full and half amplitude. If your terminal has an equivalent function use it, it'll make it prettier. SECTION 2 ALTERATIONS LOG Just a little bit of info to keep track of the programme's metamorphosis. SECTION 3 INITIALISING BLOCK Ahhhhh now we come to an important bit. In amongst this lot the numeric and string constants are assigned to their appropriate variables. Things to look out for: * DATAPORT% will probably be different in your machine. * ESCTYPE% sets the ASCII value of a key to strike to enter COMMAND mode. I chose a key which is not used often and was readily available. * ESCCHR$ assigns a string to print the name of the key you have chosen. (In my case it was "RUB".) * DELAY% sets the length of a time delay. The use of the time delay is explained in the section dealing with Subroutines. As a guide I've used 25 when running under the interpreter and 500 when compiled. The system has a 6MHz clock. (Don't forget to change it when compiling, as I always do, forget that is; or some text will be just a figtree of your imagination.) * Next you'll find a sub-headins "SCREEN ADDRESSES". These and their associated remarks are self explanatory. You can fiddle with these to your hearts content if you want to achieve a different screen layout. SECTION 4 START OF ACTIVE CODE & INPUT MENU This is the first bit of code that actually does something on screen. Essentially, it presents menu questions to initialise flags and will print HELP if it is requested. It is broken into 4 sub-sections which are the 4 questions that the programme seeks answers to. SECTION 5 SET UP & CHECK EXERCISE FILE My first reaction upon reading this code was unprintable; it still is. I haven't done much to it, apart from annotations, because the flow is so tortuous that any changes cause it to bomb. Anyway, it works, even if it is messy ! The aim is to open the exercise file and perform the following checks to each line as it is input: * If End Of File (EOF), then go to menu. * If it is an EXERCISE, how many repeats ? * If it is a COMMENT, then go to COMMENT processor. * If it is a PARAGRAPH, then input additional lines of the paragraph. The programme loops back through this section at the end of each exercise, starting below the line where the file is opened. SECTION 6 KEYBOARD SCAN You'll notice that this is one large FOR NEXT loop which is controlled by the number of letters in each exercise. A summary of the functions performed: * Assign, from previously stored array, an address of the exercise character, that corresponds to its position on the onscreen keyboard. * Print and highlight the exercise character on the key board. * Wait until response to exercise character is typed from terminal keyboard. * Print resultant input on ECHOROW or store it until end of exercise if ECHO OPTION is off. * Check for ESCAPE character or RETURN and take appropriate action. * Check input character to see if it corresponds to exercise character, if not increment ERRORCOUNT and CHARCOUNT. That is basically what occurs, minus a few embellishments. SECTION 7 ESCAPE OR ALTER PROGRAMME FLOW A series of IF THEN statements sort out suitable action in response to the character input by the user, after he/she has read the MENU. If no match is made the MENU is presented again until a match is made. SECTION 8 SUBROUTINES The subroutines are numbered; 1 to 9. I shall briefly describe the essence what each does: 1. CAPITAL. If the character falls within the range of the lower case alphabet it is converted to upper case. 2. ERROR COUNT. Prints the number of errors in the number of words typed so far. 3. INSTRUCTION LINE ADDRESS. Adjusts the address for instructions to be printed on the screen after the last instruction was printed. Not used in this version. 4. PRINT HELP. * Clears screen. * Opens TTHELP? .DAT, which is checked for end of file(EOF). * If (EOF) the program waits for any character to be input, on character input the file is closed, the screen cleared and a return made to the main programme. * If it is'nt (EOF) a line is input from the file, the left-most character is checked for the page de-limiter (#). * If "#" is present the programme waits for a <CR> input, whereupon the screen is cleared and flow returns to check for end of file etc. * Otherwise the line is printed and flow returned to check for end of line etc. 5. PRINT KEYBOARD. The objective is to print on the screen, a representation of the terminals' keyboard. The method may not appear to be too clear, but I shall attempt a description; * The file TTKYBD.DAT is opened. * The array, ADDRESS%(X,Y) has its contents initialised to 1. * The loop JLOOP% cycles through the 5 lines in the keyboard data that contain the NUMber OF KEYS in the upper and lower case rows. * The loop(s) ILOOP% cycle through unshifted characters and then the shifted characters. The first ILOOP is essentially th same as the second. Inside this first loop the programme reads a character converts it to an integer and assigns it to an array. The ROW and COLUMN addresses are stored in ADDDRESS%(X,Y). The character is printed at its correct position and an intger representation is also stored in DISPLAYCHAR%(X). COLUMN% is incremented by 4 or whatever spacing you wish. Inside the second ILOOP the same occurs except with one difference; The programme tests for certain ILOOP and JLOOP values that should correspond to the position on the keyboard of the double quote character ("). This character cannot be put in a BASIC data statement. It is assigned to the array by CHR$(34). 6.SKIP LINES. * The number of exercise lines to skip is input and the loop inputs the required number from the exercise file and end of file is tested for in each pass. 7. COMMENT PRINT. When the COMMENT indicators are detected in the exercise file the programme branches to here. The next 4 lines are input from the file and stored in COMMENT$(X), these are then printed in the next loop. 8. TIME DELAY. The two loops just give a predetermined time delay. I now have a more sophisticated version that will give the number of seconds delay that you input to the subroutine, to be addded at a later date. 9. PRINT HELP MENU. Prints a basic help for the input MENU. SECTION 9 ERROR TRAPPING These few lines are the minimum of error trapping, a lot more could be done. If the programme is on the "A" drive and can't find a file, the file is closed and "B:" appended to the filename and another attempt is made to open the file. If it is not on the B drive forget it !. If the programme is on the B drive it does not look for files on the A drive if they aren't on the B. THE END HINTS, HELP AND APOLOGIES Well that's a load of(sic) my mind. Don't think that you'll turn into an ace typist overnight, I typed this blurb in using the "Three Finger Technique". Brickbats and boquets may be addressed to the author, (preferably enclosed with $50 notes). My sincerest apologies for any errors in the document, but as we all know documenting a programme is the PITS!!!!. Now an idea from the programme originator, Mr Tim Pearce; It would be easy to interface a real time clock to measure typing speed. (e.g. using a Godbout SYSTEM SUPPORT 1 BOARD with a real time clock etc etc.) Just a little something for you to work on................... ............................HAPPY TYPING Richard Berthet. If the programme is on the B drive it does not look for files on the A drive if they aren't on the B.