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1994-11-08
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**************************************************
* 80Questions 1.0 *
* November 8, 1994 *
* by *
* Sean J. Miller *
**************************************************
I. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Line
-------------------------------------------------
II. Installation............................28
III. What is 80Questions 1.0?............... 37
IV. Making a Test.......................... 60
V. Starting the Program...................121
VI. Using the Program......................145
VII. Using Responses........................195
VIII. Future Versions........................213
IX. Acknowledgements.......................224
X. Last words.............................249
***** Final Note.............................267
II. Installation
Just execute the install program named INSTALL. This
will copy the required fonts from the 80Questions directory
to your FONTS: directory. Otherwise, copy the files in the
Fonts directory of 80Questions to your FONTS drawer of your
Workbench manually.
III. What is 80Questions 1.0?
FREEWARE-I know that was bothering your conscious, so I
got it over with as quickly as possible. You don't owe a thing for
it. How could I ask you for money when I can't pay the one's
who created much better programs. So if you do feel generous,
send your donations to authors of such programs as FreePaint,
ACE, and DICE. These have helped many broke Amiga users make
the most out of their machines-especially in the States where an
Amiga owner is as common as necrophilia.
The program is a flashcard simulator to help one study.
It has all the features of handwritten flashcards. For instance,
one can randomize the order of the cards or flip them over and view
the answer and respond with the question. It is very helpful to
me for classes which require blind memorization since I don't
like studying for classes like that, but I do like using the Amiga.
For those of you who prefer the Amiga for the home, but have to
use an IBM compatible at work, I also have a PC version so that
one could use it to study their tests at work. Just contact me at
the address at the end for a copy.
IV. Making a Test
I wanted to make an editor that was easily manipulated
for all users; therefore, I didn't make one at all. Instead, I
decided to let you use your own favorite text editor. I prefer
"ED" which came with my Amiga from Commodore due to its
simplicity. You may prefer to use your word processor
because of the advantages of spell-checking. "80Questions"
really doesn't care.
What it does care about, though, is that the test is in
ASCII. Text editors such as ED that came with the Amiga already
write in the ASCII format with no imbedded commands, but most
word processors usually do not. There should be an option,
however, in the word processor to export the file as ASCII. Be
sure to do so.
Also, DO NOT ALLOW WORD-WRAPPING! This can be
accomplished by extending you right margin way out in your
word processor, or using a text editor that does not care how
long a row of text is. "80Questions" will do the word
wrapping for you.
The reason for no word-wrapping when entering the text
is that the computer takes each line as a separate entry. The
first entry (line) is the first question, the second entry (line) is
the first answer, the third entry (line) is the second question, the
fourth entry (line) is the second answer...etc. Here is an
example:
How old are you?
21
What year were you born?
1972
What is your girlfriend's name?
Rosie Palm
As you can see word-wrapping would cause the wrapped
part of the line to become the answer to the first part of the line.
So, don't let this happen!!! Look at the file "example.txt" to see
how a test may be written if you still don't understand.
It is okay, however, to put a row of nothing between each
question and/or answer. The program will ignore any empty
lines (which consist of just a hard return). Here is an example
of what I mean:
How old are you?
21
What year were you born?
1972
What is your girlfriend's name?
Rosie Palm
This would be perfectly acceptable. Remember: the
only thing not acceptable is for a continuous line to be
word-wrapped by the text editor or word processor!!!!
V. Starting the Program
After you have made a test there are two ways to begin
it:
Workbench: Create a project icon for the test or
copy one of mine to it (see
below).
Click on the test icon, hold down
shift, then double click on the
80Questions icon.
Cli: Type:
80Questions [TestFilename]
To copy my icon to your test, go to the Cli (shell) and type
the following using your TestFileName:
copy example.txt.info to <TestFileName>.info
Of course, be sure to be in the appropriate directory before
doing so.
VI. Using the Program
The program is pretty straight forward. Here are
definitions of features. You always get to choose which
questions of the test in which to apply the features.
ORIGINAL - The questions and answers
are directly in the order
written.
RANDOM - Scrambles the order of
the questions and
answers.
REVERSED - Gives the answer and asks for
the question, but still
in the original order written.
NEW - Let's you go to another test
without having to exit the
program.
SNAPSHOT - If you find the original
program's windows and
centered text to look absurd
with your Workbench, then
adjust them to your
preferences (while still
maintaining program
readability) and choose this
option. The new settings are
then written to the file
"80Questions.cfg."
HELP - Everything you need to know
about "80Questions"
without my wordiness.
Other things to know:
[-quit] (including the dash) will stop a test
in progress immediately.
[-responses on] turns on the samples during a test.
[-responses off] turns the samples off.
[-talk on] turns on the Amiga's speech.
[-talk off] turns off the Amiga's speech.
[-back] lets you flip through previous
questions.
[-help] gives you help
VII. Using Responses
Responses are to add a little fun to the program. I was
afraid of users getting bored of them, so I made it flexible.
To add your own responses you must edit the following files:
rightiffs
wrongiffs
These files must hold the complete pathname of an
IFF sampled sound. Place only one pathname per line. The
LIMIT IS FORTY SAMPLES per file. I have included some of my
favorites to help you get started.
Remember: if you move my favorite samples to another
directory, you MUST change the path name in the appropiate
file!
VIII. Future Versions
Since I am a big music buff, I also thought it would be
neat to add a soundtrack option in which the user specifies
the path of an OctaMed song to play while taking the test. I
like to try to milk the Amiga for what it's worth.
I'm already totally revamping the program to be almost
totally graphically based so there are no longer any keywords
to memorize.
IX. Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank the following for their greatly appreciated,
though unrewarded help on this project:
David Benn - Creator of the great compiler ACE.
In essence, he did all the hard work.
He could also find bugs in a second
that I didn't notice all year.
You can get the ACE BASIC compiler
at: ftp.appcomp.utas.edu.au.
/pub/amiga/ACE
Björn Trost - Good friend from overseas who has
enlightened me on many things
concerning the Amiga. Also, the
author of FreePaint which was
used to create the icons (except
the .doc icon which is from
the icon package MagicWB.)
Brenda Jarrell - For her last minute ideas such as
the '-back' keyword.
X. Last Words
If you find any bugs, can't get the program to work on
your machine, or want to give any advice on improvements,
feel free to contact me through the following methods.
Mail: Sean J. Miller
4701 Lafayette Road
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
United States of America
EMail: sjmill01@ukcc.uky.edu
I hope this program helps you in your work, and good
luck towards earning your degree or whatever you're studying.
-Sean
**** FINAL To increase or decrease the limit of questions
**** NOTE: allowed, change line 16 of the source code to:
CONST MAX = Your desired value
Just in case, "Your desired value" is an integer!
Then recompile using the compiler ACE found at:
ftp.appcomp.utas.edu.au
Under the directory: /pub/amiga/ACE