ftp.barnyard.co.uk/2015.02.ftp.barnyard.co.uk.tar/ftp.barnyard.co.uk/cpm/walnut-creek-CDROM/KAYPRO/ARTIE71.LBR/ARTIE.DZC/ARTIE.DOC

Text File | 2000-06-30 | 15KB | 284 lines

=====================================================================

                 Documentation for ARTIE Version 7.1

                          by Peter Donnelly

                           - March 1987 -

=====================================================================

     ARTIE is for creating graphic images on CP/M Kaypros. Basic
instructions are included in the program itself.
     The following files make up the complete ARTIE package:

ARTIE.COM    - the command file for drawing and printing.
ARTFONT.ART  - must be present for the big-character function.
ARTHELP.TXT  - same for the help function.
ARTJUKI.CHN  - rename to ARTPRINT.CHN to support a Diablo 630-
               compatible daisy-wheel printer.
ARTPAN.CHN   - same for Panasonic 1091 and other dot-matrix printers.
ARTOKI.CHN   - same for Okidata 91 or 92 printer.
ARTSHOW.COM  - program to display a series of screens.
SHOW-?.ART   - sample screens to be viewed with TYPE or ARTSHOW.
ARTIE.DOC    - TYPEable to the printer.

=====================================================================

                            NEW FEATURES

     First I must apologize for the proliferation of versions.
Writing programs for the Kaypro is a little like offering custom kits
for Ramblers; you want to get them out there quickly, before the
number of interested people drops to zero. So I've released new
editions of the program as it evolved rather than waiting for it to
reach a definitive form.
     That said, version 7 will probably be the last major revision.
ARTIE was originally conceived as a tool for creating easy-to-use,
TYPEable screen files, and it has gone about as far as it can in that
direction.
     This latest version of ARTIE sees two major additions: simple
production of characters in large fonts, and a built-in screen dump
for the Panasonic/Epson/Gemini printers. There are many small
changes, and the code has been streamlined so that even with the new
features it will fit into less than 37K of RAM.
     The big characters are accessed through a new ^T command. A
default typeface is provided but users can easily build their own
font libraries. See ARTFONT, below.
     The screen dump, activated by ^G, produces a different image
than the regular ARTPAN printer driver: smaller and somewhat
distorted, with keyboard characters printed in compressed rather than
pica mode. Text in inverse video is printed in italics, as it now is
in ARTPAN.
     ARTIE now distinguishes between the numerical keypad and the
ordinary number keys, so it is possible to type in numbers without
the old ^N command.

                             USEABILITY

     The program was developed on the Kaypro 2X (1984) and should
work fully on any model that has TYPEable graphics associated with
ASCII numbers 0-31 and 128-255. In 1985 and later models using the
so-called universal ROM, and under some non-standard operating
systems, the non-pixel graphics on palette 3 will not be available.
Users of the earlier machines that display palette 3 should not
select this palette for output intended to be portable to other
Kaypros. (See also USER PATCHES and note on ARTSHOW, below.)
     The Panasonic printer driver should work on many other machines
such as the Epsons and Geminis. The Juki version will support most
daisy-wheels including the "Kaypro Letter Quality Printer."
     The graphics mode under ZCPR is automatically enabled.

                           ARTIE AND DDRAW

     Files from D. Griffith's non-commercial program DDRAW that have
been saved with the "T" option are to some extent compatible with
ARTIE. It is possible, for example, to draw a circle graph in DDRAW,
save it as a screen with the extension .ART, and read it into ARTIE.
Limitations are that you won't be able to edit the extreme right-hand
column, line 25 will be lost, and there will be difficulties where
more than two special video effects have been combined in a single
cell.

                          HINTS ON DRAWING

     Cells can have invisible attributes. If you print spaces while
the blink function is turned on, for example, then those spaces are
defined in the array as blinking spaces. If you get some odd results
when using the fill function, this may be the reason; only truly
empty spaces will be filled, not those defined as blinking or dim.
Similarly, ^E will clear only those cells which are the same in all
respects as the cell where the pointer is placed. Erasing with DEL
will restore spaces to neutrality.
     A quick way to reset the brush to a neutral state is to hit 0
followed by LINE FEED. This a good method to keep from accidentally
erasing or overwriting a cell when you next move the pointer.
     When in pixel-drawing mode you can only modify existing block
graphics or draw on a blank part of the screen. To do anything else
you must return to normal drawing mode.
     Since the special video effects apply only to whole characters,
it is not possible to toggle effects on and off in pixel-drawing
mode. If you want to draw with dim pixels, first fill the area with
"dim spaces" in normal drawing mode; or else draw at normal intensity
and then add dimming with a cut-and-paste procedure. When adding a
pixel to a blinking character you may get unexpected results, because
if you fill in the lower left corner you are in effect creating an
inverse graphic.

                            CUT AND PASTE

     The first time you strike ^C a cue line will appear, asking you
to mark the upper left corner of the rectangle to be cut. If you wish
to abort the cut at this time, just home the pointer. Otherwise move
the pointer to the top left corner of the block, placing it under the
top row, not above it. (To mark a single line, don't move the cursor
up the screen at all -  just to the left.) ARTIE will remember the
defined area until it is erased with ^KE or until ^C is struck again.
It is the boundaries of the block that are stored in memory, not the
contents, so any changes you make to the block after it is cut will
be part of subsequent paste operations.
     Details read into the screen from disk while the erasing toggle
is on will completely overwrite the rectangle they occupy; otherwise
the old image will show through wherever there are spaces (with no
video effects) in the new. This feature is handy for creating
textured backgrounds around complex images. You can also merge two
complete screens; simply save the one that is to appear in the
foreground as a detail file and read it into the other.
     You can add special effects to any block by setting the
appropriate toggles and then either marking the block and altering it
with ^KA or reading it in as a detail file.
     The ^R command serves for both screen and detail files.  ARTIE
will look for a screen file when you strike ^R with the pointer  on
the top line; otherwise it will look for a detail.

                               ARTFONT

     The file ARTFONT.ART contains a partial font of large keyboard
characters that is automatically loaded into memory from the logged
drive. To use the font, strike ^T and enter a string of up to 20
characters. A block five lines deep will come in much as if it were a
detail file, already marked as a block for further manipulation with
^K. Unsupported keys are printed as blanks.
     ARTFONT can be edited like any screen file, and different
fontfiles can be created for loading anytime with the ^N command.
When you edit the current font and save it under the same name, the
new version is automatically loaded into font memory.
     Editing of fontfiles must be done with pixel graphics only.
Characters may be altered completely but must always be contained
within a cell of 4 rows by 6 columns and of course are always
accessed with the same key. Proportional spacing imposes narrower
limits on some characters. The backslash is reserved for a user-
defined character or pattern.

                              ARTPRINT

     The program ARTPRINT.CHN can be run only on exiting ARTIE, with
the command ESC P.
     One can achieve surprisingly varied effects with the Juki
version. Unlike other graphics programs supporting the daisy-wheel,
ARTPRINT does not attempt to replicate a dot-matrix effect by
printing thousands of periods; rather, it prints a "shading
character" (of your choice) once for each screen pixel. The equals
sign makes a good all-purpose shading character. A larger character
such as a dollar sign will produce complex interwoven patterns; the
letter 'n', used in the fine checkerboard pattern, gives the effect
of woven rattan. If you want to get really fancy, divide your work
into two or more screens and print each one with a different shading
character, repositioning the paper each time.

                               ARTSHOW

     This standalone program can be used in two ways: to give a quick
scan of all screen files on the disk or to present a prepared show.
With the "A" argument (type "ARTSHOW ?" for a list of options) it
will search the logged drive for all files named *.ART and show these
in alphabetical order, with the filenames printed on the status line.
Otherwise it will display, repeatedly and without comment, up to 6
screens that have been named consecutively as SHOW-1.ART, SHOW-2.ART,
and so on. (These are loaded into memory to save wear on the drives.)
     ARTSHOW controls the video chip directly, not through the
regular BIOS routines, so that non-pixel graphics will be displayed
on all machines. (Special thanks to Raymond Rosenkranz for his help
with this.) However, you must cold boot with the reset button before
running the program, to prevent problems. Also, some machines may
produce a lot of screen-write errors.

                          USING ARTIE FILES

     Remember that a TYPE command will leave only 23 lines of an
ARTIE file on the screen, as the system prompt will print on line 24.
If you want to make TYPEable electronic greeting-cards, leave the top
line blank so that nothing will scroll out of sight.
     For the information of programmers who wish to incorporate ARTIE
screen graphics into their own routines, the files are made up of
continous strings of characters with no carriage returns or line
feeds. In case anyone wants to read a file line-by-line, the 80th
column contains a graphic space, character #128, a value not normally
found elsewhere on the screen. An exception is made for the last
column of the last line, which contains a null so that when the file
is written the cursor will not advance and force the top line to
scroll off the screen. Escape sequences have been inserted wherever
the video attributes (underlining, dimming, inverting, and blinking)
need to be toggled on and off as the screen prints.
    In Pascal, and I presume in other languages with character
variables, a file may be accessed by a simple loop of read and write
commands continuing until the EOF is encountered. Lines will sort
themselves out automatically with the normal dropping of the cursor
after every 80 printable characters.
     Unfortunately, MBASIC does not lend itself readily to processing
ARTIE files. They must be treated as random files and read character
by character. You will have to include a routine for determining
whether each character is part of an escape sequence; that is,
whether either of the two preceding characters is CHR$(27). Then
every printable character will have to be output through a direct
cursor address followed by a carriage return, necessary because
MBASIC insists on a CR every so often and will spit out random
characters if it doesn't find one. The process of reading and
printing the file will be very slow.

                            USER PATCHES

     The Kaypro video chip is capable of displaying a different
character for each of the bytes in the range 0-255. However, the
operating system does not allow access to some of these (like #7,
which is always interpreted as a control code to ring a bell), and
indeed the newer models running CP/M 2.2u do not permit display of
any of the characters in the range 0-31 through normal programming
means. All 256 characters are shown in Raymond Rosenkranz's public
program SEEBIOS, but to use them in drawing you have to buy Spectre
Technologies' REMBRANDT.
     Palette 3 in ARTIE contains a selection of low-range graphics
readily available (and TYPEable) on older machines. Newer machines
will simply not display these characters. To make ARTIE more useful,
owners of such machines may want to patch graphics or keyboard
characters from the range 32-255 onto this palette by replacing the
14 bytes beginning at address 211C.

                        COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

     ARTIE.COM and its associated files may be freely copied for
private use but not distributed for gain without the author's written
permission.

                        SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

     ARTIE's successor, ARTPAGE, is now available as a commercial
program. ARTPAGE does almost everything ARTIE does and much more.
Among its features:

- On-screen "what you see is what you get" layout of a full printer
  page in either of two formats, up to 115 text columns by 83 lines.
  The screen window is 79 columns by 24 lines.
- Fastest screen refresh of any Kaypro graphics program, permitting
  virtually instantaneous windowing onto any part of the page form.
  The window can even be moved line by line or column by column.
- Improved cut-and-paste facility even lets you send a detail
  directly to the dot-matrix printer.
- Accepts graphics files from ARTIE and from Spectre Technologies'
  REMBRANDT and PRESTO. (Fine-line graphics are not supported.)
- Text can be read in from any ASCII file and arranged in columns
  on the page, side by side with graphics. Some Wordstar print
  commands are recognized. Underlining, boldface, and italics are
  shown with video effects. Superscript, subscript, compressed, and
  expanded fonts are also supported.
- Drivers are provided for the standard daisy-wheel and Epson-type
  (nine-pin) printers. (Sorry, not the Okidata.)

     ARTPAGE is ideal for preparing newsletters, bulletins, technical
papers - any material where a mixture of text and graphics is
required.
     Look for PAGEDEMO.LBR on bulletin boards, or send $7 (refundable
on purchase) for a demonstration version that has all features except
file-saving and memory dump. Call 604-383-4955 evenings for more
information.
     ARTPAGE comes complete with printed documentation, at least
three headline fonts, and sample page files. The price is US $30 (Cdn
$40) postpaid. Send payment by money order for prompt dispatch by
airmail; payment by cheque will delay delivery for several weeks.

                           ARTIE SOFTWARE
                     964 Heywood Ave.,  No. 220
                     Victoria BC Canada V8V 2Y5

=====================================================================