Archive Magazine 1996/ARCHIVE_96.iso/discs/mag_discs/volume_8/issue_04/pocketbook/mapp20/MAPPER.TXT

Text File | 1994-10-31 | 17KB | 337 lines

MAPPER (C) UK 1994 Steve Litchfield
========================================

Note for upgraders. Please delete your \OPD\MAPPER.SET file before running
the new version for the first time!!

Quick summary for v1.2: (changes since 1.0)
12 or so town errors fixed, motorways now complete, and a couple of
primaries, systematic error in distance calculations fixed, crow-distances
are now *spot on* and on-the-road ones more accurate as a result, an extra
detail level is included, a couple of Little Chef changes included, the M
key now does the same as Psion-M for *quick* overlaying of motorways and
primaries, added ability to clear the second selection and recentre on the
first, National Boundaries added, no need to have all hotel/restaurant data
files installed, example MCLINK installation script. Phew ....

Work is currently underway on v2.0 which will feature customisable menus
and overlay management, including latitude/longitude tools and post-code,
airfield and primary route overlays...... I hope.

Introduction.
-------------
Welcome to MAPPER, released as shareware for the Psion 3a in November
1994. All rights reserved, and copyrights, including the database files and
their format.

Have you ever wondered where, say, 'Faversham' is? Or one of another many
hundred towns across Great Britain, which you've heard of but have no idea
of their location?

Do you ever need to know the distance between two towns or cities? Or view
your impending journey graphically to give it a sense of context and
direction? And get an estimate of the time it'll take you to get there?

Would you like to know where Happy Eaters, Little Chef restaurants,
Travelodges or Novotels are in a particular geographical area?

Have ever wanted to show people where you live, and you can't find a map or
a postcard to scribble on?

Do you own a Psion 3a?

If so, then MAPPER is for you. One thing it *cannot* do, for space
reasons on disk, is calculate 'best routes', or even display most roads
on the map, as the sheer amount of data involved would make the program
prohibitively large. Within this limitation, MAPPER may well fit one or
several of your needs...


Components and Installation.
----------------------------
MAPPER v1.2 contains the following components: (note that an example MCLINK
script file is included, called INSTALL.SCR, which you may wish to
customise for yourself and use it to save yourself some typing)

MAPPER.OPA   - the main program module. Place this in an \APP\ directory
               on any Psion drive, and install onto your system screen
               with Psion-I.

====Other support files, to be placed in a \APP\MAPPER\ subdirectory====

GB.MP1       - a data-set of approximately 1100 towns and cities
COASTLIN.MP2 - a data-set showing the coastline of GB and a few close
               islands.
LITTLE.MP1   - a data-set of all Little Chef restauarants in GB.
HAPPY.MP1    - a data-set of all Happy Eater restauarants in GB.
NOVOTEL.MP1  - a data-set of all Novotel Hotels in GB.
TRAVELOD.MP1 - a data-set of all Forte Travelodges in GB.
MOTORWAY.MP2 - a data-set of the GB motorway and primary route network
MAPPER.PIC   - some icons for use with the overlays

==========all the above are needed, so install them *all*============================================================

**NB. The primary routes are still being digitised, so expect most of them
to appear in the next release of MAPPER.

Shareware notes.
----------------
MAPPER is shareware. This does not make it a free program! Yes, you
can copy it freely to friends or acquaintances, or even upload it to
bulletin boards etc, but if you like it and continue to use it, then you
are honour-bound to register the program by sending me a cheque for £11
(pounds).

Registration gets you:
a) a clear conscience that you're using paid-for software, and that you're
   helping support future development of MAPPER and other quality Psion
   shareware software.
b) a special code that will personalise your copy of MAPPER, remove the
   opening shareware and advert 'nag' screens and let you access the
   program more conveniently, including the ability to add your own place
   names to the MAPPER database! No need to re-install the software, just
   use the registration menu option and type in the code!
c) Notification of any future major upgrades to MAPPER and a direct say in
   how the program develops. Your wishlist will become my to-do list!
   (Maybe!) Upgrades to MAPPER will be free for registered users (apart
   from any postage and packing costs for diskettes etc, if necessary).


Operation.
----------

1) Starting up
   The first screen you will see is the shareware 'nag' screen. This
   opening screen can be gotten rid of by registering MAPPER with me. Other
   nag screens will crop up from time to time in the program until you
   register, to remind you to do just that!

   The first time you go into MAPPER, the default zoom and position are
   used, but thereafter it will remember where you were and what zoom level
   you were on, for your convenience. It will also remember various other
   settings from session to session. Try out the 'Settings' menu for an
   idea as to what you can customise etc. Browse round the menu system in
   general to get an idea of what the program can do.

   Please be patient as the display is redrawn, it may take several seconds
   if you have zoomed out and there is a lot to display. You can interrupt
   the re-draw at any time by pressing an arrow key or the menu key.

   At all times during operation, the left-hand 1/3rd of the screen will
   remain boxed and visible. This is the status window and its job is to
   give you information!

2) Zooming
   You can use the Psion-Z (Zoom) and Psion-O (Out) hot-keys to increase
   or decrease the level of zoom, from 1x to 32x. For convenience, the 'Z'
   and 'O' keys on the keyboard will do the same, to save you pressing the
   Psion key each time.

3) Moving around (find, centre select etc)
   Moving around is generally accomplished in one of three ways:
   (i)  Using the arrow keys or Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys one press at a time
   to scroll the whole map in the direction of the arrow,  OR
   (ii) Using the 'Centre select' feature to position a cross-hair on the
   spot you'd like to use as the map centre, OR
   (iii) Use the 'Find' feature to actively go to a particular place. (See
   section below on 'Finding')

4) Detail levels
   There are four levels, (i) None, (ii) Major cities only, (iii) Major
   cities *and* towns and (iv) All towns in the database. User-selected
   towns will appear at all detail levels. You can change the detail level
   using Psion-(plus) and Psion-(minus), to suit your needs. Again, for
   convenience, the '+' and '-' keys do the same thing, so you don't *need*
   to press the Psion key each time.

5) Finding and selecting places
   Using 'Find', (Psion-F), you can get MAPPER to search through its town
   database (including any extra places you've added) for any and all
   matches. When it comes up with the place you were looking for, press
   'Y', as prompted. The place name found is then termed 'selected' and
   appears in the top slot in the selection window (the bottom-most white
   pane in the status box), and is also shown in bold type on the main
   display, and the map re-centred.

   Using 'Find' again results in the second 'slot' being filled, i.e. you
   then have two places 'selected' and the map centre is automatically
   placed mid-way between the two and the map zoomed out or in to fit both
   on screen, so that you can see at a glance the relative positions of the
   two places. The 'Distance between selected' menu option is then enabled,
   as you now have somewhere to go from and to! See below, under 'Distance
   calculations' for more info on this.

   With two places selected, a 'crow-line' (i.e. point to point) line is
   displayed between the two (if enabled under 'Settings') to help you.
   This is of most use when you're scanning along your intended route
   zoomed in, and so cannot see on screen your start and finish point
   anymore. Having the crow-line allows you to see at a glance restaurants,
   hotels etc which aren't too far from your intended direction of travel.

   If you use 'Find' for a third and fourth time, etc, the place found
   simply overwrites the town in the second 'slot'. To clear the selections
   made, in order to examine some different places, use 'Clear selected'
   (Psion-C) on the menu.

   If you want to go back to centre the map on your first selection, you
   can use 'Clear 2nd selection' (Psion-V) to accomplish this.

6) Overlays
   Current overlays shipped with the program are shown on the 'File'
   menu, but others are planned. Write to me, giving details of the
   overlays *you'd* like to see, and we'll discuss how best to do them!

   The Novotel overlay shows either a road or place name after the Novotel
   symbol. The Travelodge, Little Chef and Happy Eater overlays show the
   road names and junctions they're on. In addition, by turning the
   'Overlay item ref.nos' feature 'On', an extra number appears after each
   icon. For Little Chefs and Happy Eaters it is their official chain
   restaurant number, which is useful if you can't locate a restaurant
   exactly and need to phone for directions. For Travelodges, the number is
   the chain number for the Little Chef or Happy Eater they're attached to,
   and a 'L' or 'H' is shown after the number so that you know which chain
   it belongs to etc.

   More overlays are planned for the future. Register MAPPER today and let
   me know which overlays you'd like! (In the pipeline are other hotel
   chains and airfields....)

7) Motorways and Primary routes
   Data from the database of motorways (and a couple of primary routes -
   more planned) can be shown using 'Psion-M' or just (for convenience)
   'M'.

8) Distance calculations
   Once you have two places 'selected' (their names will appear in the
   selections pane of the status window), you can ask MAPPER to do some
   calculations. Use 'Distance between selected' (Psion-D) on the menu to
   do this.

   MAPPER will calculate (in miles and kilometres) the as-the-crow-flies'
   distance between the two places and display the result. It also has a
   jolly good stab at making an estimate of the 'on-the-road' distance,
   based on a fudge factor. This may sound a bit inaccurate, but I've found
   it to be accurate to within 2% or so of the actual 'in-car' mileage for
   most journeys.

   Using the above estimate and your average speed (changeable in the
   'Settings' dialog/menu option) it also gives a guess at the total
   journey time.

   The only real caveat to the above is, obviously, when the crow-line
   crosses the coast, i.e. unless your car is specially adapted (!) it will
   have to take the long way round, and in which case you'll have to use
   your common sense to estimate the actual road distance ....

9) Settings you can tamper with
   Your settings will be saved from one MAPPER session to the next. Stuff
   you can change:
   (i)   Crow-line between selected: can be off or on
   (ii)  Scale ruler: can be off or on. The ruler gives a visual guide to
   the current scale of the map, and is shown along the bottom of the
   screen.
   (iii) Motorway names: can be off or on. You'd usually be best off
   leaving the motorway names in, but on certain maps it can be confusing,
   so once again, you have the option etc.
   (iv)  Overlay Item ref.nos: can be off or on, depending on how much
   info you want on each overlay item
   (v)   Estimate of average speed: a bit of a fudge, this one, but enter
   your average road-eating speed in here for the distance calculation
   dialog to have something vaguely accurate to report.

10) Diamond key
   The diamond key is hard-wired to toggle between 'Place-names-in-grey',
   'Place-names-in-black' and 'No-place-names,-only dots'. It it thus
   convenient to fiddle with the diamond key in conjunction with Psion-plus
   and Psion-minus (More or less detail) to get exactly the map view *you*
   want.

11) Refreshing the display
    This simply redraws the basic map and can be used after displaying an
    overlay to get back to the original screen.

12) Help
    Help is available from the main screen only, by pressing the 'Help' key
    or by pressing Psion-H. It is a sub-set of the information in this
    documentation file.

13) Adding your own place names
    You will have noticed the 'Place new town' option on the menu. This
    allows you to add up to 30 extra towns of your own choosing to the
    standard database of 1120. You will have also noticed that this option
    doesn't work until you register the program! Rest assured, when I
    receive your registration and supply you with a special code to type
    in, this option will burst into life!

    Once registered and using this feature, MAPPER will prompt you first of
    all to pick a spot on the map with the cross-hairs. Note that if you
    are zoomed in a lot, the quantisation in the MAPPER coordinate system
    will limit your choice of locations slightly. The 'resolution' of the
    program is about 2/3rd of a mile.

    Next, there is a dialogue to fill in, giving the place name and whether
    you want it to be displayed to the left or right of the place 'dot'.
    There is a third field, which should be allocated accordingly, to let
    MAPPER know whether the place is on the mainland or not.

14) Deleting info from the custom place database
    Having entered a new place into the custom database with Psion-P, you
    may want to get rid of it for some reason. At v1.2 of MAPPER you can
    either use Psion-K to delete the last entry in the database or delete
    the MAPPER.MP1 file that is created in your \OPD\ directory on your
    default disk, although this latter option obviously clears all your
    additions in one fell swoop!

15) Grabbing the current map screen as a PIC file
    You may well want to grab a map screen as a standard Psion .PIC file,
    for printing or editing using DRAW (see small print at end) or PAINT or
    any other 3a bit-map editor. Grabbing the 3a screen is done with
    pressing 'Control', 'Shift', 'Psion' and 'S' simultaneously (it's
    easier to do than it sounds) and lo and behold a file called SCREEN.PIC
    will have appeared in the root directory (\) of your internal disk ...

_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_

Thanks for trying MAPPER! If you decide to remove MAPPER from your Psion,
please note that it creates three small files in \OPD\ on your default
disk. MAPPER.MP1 (custom place database), MAPPER.REG (your registration
key, once I've given it to you) and MAPPER.SET (used to store your
preferences and position etc from session to session).


Important details.
------------------
Registration address (send cheque for 11 pounds to):

Steve Litchfield
8 Grove Farm
Mytchett
Surrey
GU16 6AQ

Small print:
------------

1) Reverse engineering of the program or data modules is strictly
   forbidden. If you would like to create a complementary program and use
   my data-set, then please get in touch with me on 01252 515431.

2) Please note that I also run 3-Lib, *the* clearing-house for Psion
   public domain and shareware software. Send me a stamped self-addressed
   envelope to the above address, and I'll return the latest catalogue.

3) Thanks go to Vic Cox, and 'psipple' and 'willum' on CIX, for their
   comments, suggestions and testing.

4) A useful related program to have available for editing and cropping any
   screen-grabs you do in MAPPER is DRAW 2.06, by Rick Andrews. This is a
   S3a-only full bitmap editor and manipulator and is also shareware,
   available wherever you got MAPPER from.

5) You can contact me via email at [e-mail], if
   you'd like. To speed up registrations, you can quote your email address
   for quick return of your registration code.

6) On-line support for MAPPER, including test versions and extra utilities
   are provided in the 'mapper' conference on CIX.