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The Revenge Document Display System Written by The Hitchhiker Release 2.23 - 1st July 1991 Document Displayer Manual - The Hitchhiker's Guide -------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Revenge Document Display System. This document also covers the custom versions of this system: The Atari User Group (Scotland) Text Displayer. The Teddystacker Document Displayer. Merlin's Document Displayer. The Floppyshop Document Displayer. The SOFTViLLE Document Displayer. The Public Dominator Document Displayer. The STUG Norway Document Displayer. The PVK Document Displayer. The Revenge Document Displayer will load, display and print out any ASCII document. So what..?, you may ask... so does the ST's desktop, but what makes the RDD so special is the little (well, quite extensive) extras. You can scroll documents up and down at amazing speeds, search for special characters, words, or phrases, print out parts of a document, and much much more....read on for more info....! How to load a document... 1.. There are many ways to load a document into the RDD. Probably the easiest is to just load the displayer and use the built-in file-selector. 2.. The second way is to install it as an application on the desktop, so that when you double-click on a document the RDD will be loaded and the appropriate document auto-loaded. There are some problems with this method on TOS 1.0 machines, if you have this version of TOS then the RDD must be on the same disk, and probably the same directory (folder). This is a TOS problem and not one of my many...! 3.. Yet Another Way (YAW - sounds like a unix program...!) to load a document is to rename the RDD to DISPLAY.TTP and enter a document name on the command line. 4.. (PROGRAMMERS ONLY)...Launch the RDD from another program using the GEMDOS Pexec() function. The command line should contain the name of the document that you want to load, or nothing if you want to use the built-in file-selector. The RDD will return a value of 0 (ok) on exit. All colours and screen resolution will be restored. 5.. If you own a copy of NeoDesk3 then you can install the RDD as the default text displayer. This way any document will be shown using the RDD. Consult the NeoDesk3 manual on how to do this. The File Selector... The file selector is used to select which file that you wish to load. You are presented with a list of files (in alphabetical order) with any directories at the top. You may scroll the list up and down using the arrow keys or the mouse. To select a file simply highlight it in the centre of the screen and press RETURN, ENTER, SPACE or the LEFT BUTTON on the mouse. To exit from the file selector without selecting a file press UNDO or the RIGHT BUTTON on the mouse. All active disk drives / hard disk partitions are listed at the bottom of the screen. To select a different partition simply press the corresponding letter, for example 'C' for drive C. The 'special directory' <parent> will take you to the directory above the current one. Document Formatting... Once a document has been loaded it will be formatted. During this process the RDD will count the number of lines in the file, wrap any lines that are greater than 80 characters in length, expand tabs, and calculate the number of pages. When a document is printed the RDD paginates it automatically to fit the selected page size (11 or 12 inch). If you want to force a page break in a document then place the characters @# at the beginning of a blank line. The RDD will interpret these characters as a page break and will not display or print them. For example: Welcome to Automation Disk 2000. @# But the Pompey Pirates are the best by far....! will be split over 2 different pages. Special Documents... Special documents are files that have been treated in a special way. Currently two sorts of special documents are supported, Encripted documents and Packed documents. Encripted documents are used to enable you to distribute your text files without worrying about other people altering them, because they won't be able to make any sense of it... Only the RDD will be able to de-cript the text...! The encription program 'CRIPT.TOS' is supplied with the RDD. Packed documents are supported to allow you to put as many documents on a disk as possible. To pack a document, use the brilliant 'Pack Ice v2.20'. Select the 'data' and 'no picture compression' in the packer. If you want to pack AND encript a document then encript it first. Displayer Controls... Arrow Keys - Scroll Up / Down a line Shift Arrow Keys - Scroll Up / Down a screen. Enter / Return - Scroll down a line. Space Bar - Scroll down a screen of text. Alternate T - Goto the top of the document. Alternate B - Goto the bottom of the document. Alternate G - Goto a line. You are asked to enter a line number to goto. If you want to go forward 10 lines then enter +10, to go back 20 lines enter -20. To goto the start of a marked block (if any) then enter *. Alternate F - Search the document for a phrase. You are asked to enter the phrase that you wish to search for. You will then be asked if you want the search to be case sensitive. A case sensitive search is about twice as fast as a non-sensitive one. The search for the phrase is started from the top of the document. Alternate N - Find Next Occurrence of a phrase. Searches the document for the next occurrence of the phrase that you originally searched for using ALT-F. Shift Function Key - Set Bookmark. Allows you to remember the current position in the document. Function Key - Goto Bookmark. Goes to a previously set bookmark. Control T - Set TAB width. Allows you to set the size of the TAB control code. Normal values are 4 or 8. (default setting = 4). Alternate S - Start Block. Sets the start of a block at the top of the screen. See 'End Block' for more details. Alternate E - End Block. Sets the end of a block at the bottom of the screen. After you have marked the start and the end of a block, and it is valid, the block will be shown in reverse text. If you hold down one of the SHIFT keys while selecting ALT E or ALT S, you will be asked to enter a line number at which to start or end a block. If you enter +10 the marker will be moved forward 10 lines, -3 will go back 3 lines. If you enter an invalid number the markers will remain unchanged. WARNING: If you use Harlekin (the ultimate DA) and you have the macros enabled, pressing SHIFT-ALT-E will bring up the editor..! To get round this you can either (i) disable Harlekin macros, or (ii) select 'End Block' from the pop-up menu while holding down the SHIFT key. Alternate H - Hide Block. Kills (un-marks) any previously marked block. Alternate M - Bookmark Menu. Allows you to set, goto and erase bookmarks using to mouse. Control S - Save Bookmarks. Saves the current bookmarks that are set to disk. These will then be automatically loaded in next time that you view this document. Control G - Change text size. This option allows users of hi-res monitors to display 42 lines of text instead of the normal 21. This function is disabled when you are using a colour monitor. Alternate C - Set Printer Configuration. Allows you to configure the displayer to output the correct data to your printer. Alternate P - Print whole document. Prints the whole of the document using the current configuration. Don't forget to set the config before you start printing. You can stop printing by holding down both shift keys. Alternate W - Print block. Prints a previously marked block using the current configuration. Alternate L - Load Document. Displays the file selector and asks you to pick a file to load. Alternate X - Execute Another Program. Displays the file selector and asks you to pick a program to execute. You may run any program that exits cleanly and doesn't do to many nasty things (see the note on compatibility below). You are then asked if you want to delete the current document. If you delete the document then the space taken up by it is released to the operating system. When the program finishes you will be returned to the displayer. Zero (colour) - Toggle Hz Switches between the screen scan rates of 50 and 60 Hertz. Zero (mono) - Toggle Colours Reverses the screen colours. Tab - Display Pop-up Menu. Displays a pop-up menu so that you can execute various functions. Select an item by highlighting it and hitting Return. Alternate A - Autoscroll Mode. Allows you to scroll the document without holding down a key. You are asked to enter a speed, this is the amount of time (in 200/ths of a second) before the screen is scrolled. You must now tell the scroller which way to scroll up or down, and what to do when the start/end of the document is reached, press 'b' to bounce the document up and down, press 'w' to wrap the document, press 'S', (or anything else) to stop scrolling. If you want to stop the scrolling then hold down both Shift keys. Alternate Q / Undo - Exit the Doc Displayer. Mouse Control... At any time you may use the mouse instead of the keyboard. Moving up / down is the same as pressing the up / down arrow keys. The left button can be used to select items or to call up the main selection menu. The right button is used to either cancel a pop-up or to call-up the file selector. Pop-up Menu... To activate the pop-up menu then either hit TAB or press the Left mouse button. This allows you to select various functions without using the keyboard combinations (ALT+key). Use the Up/Down keys or the mouse to highlight the required function and hit Space, Return or Left mouse button to select. Press Escape or the Right mouse button to cancel the menu without selecting. Printer Configuration... The printer config menu can be accessed by pressing Alternate C or selecting it from the pop-up. Page length can be set to either 12 (A4) or 11 (normal listing) inches. Page width can be set to anything from 10 to 255 characters. So if you want to print out a program listing on wide listing paper, set this to 132. The displayer will handle any line / page conversions that are necessary. You may set the Left Margin for a print out. This is the amount of spaces that are printed on the left hand side of the text. This may vary from 0 to 99. If you enter * then the displayer will select a value that is suitable for the current document. If you specify 'page numbers' then the page number will be printed at the bottom of each page. 'Pause between pages' forces the displayer to pause after every page is printed. This allows you to print on single sheets, or produce double sided output. If you select 'Print Quality = NLQ' then the displayer will send codes to change the printer to NLQ mode. Note: this will only work with Epson compatible printers. If you select 'Bold Printing' then the displayer will send codes to change the printer to emphasized mode. Note: this will only work with Epson compatible printers. The 'Send codes to printer' option allows you to send various codes to the printer. If you enter '27' then the ascii code 27 will be sent to the printer. Entering 'A' will send the character 'A' (ascii 65). You may also select which printer that any output will be sent to. If 'serial' is selected then the current RS232 port settings will apply. A printer driver facility allows your printer to print almost all of the ST's character set. To edit a printer driver, select 'Edit Printer Driver' from the Printer Config Menu. The way that printer drivers have been implemented is as follows: For each of the ST's characters there exists a translation table for your printer. For example the ST character Ç (ascii 128) may not be supported on your printer but you could simulate it by printing a 'C' with a ',' printed over the top, so the translation would be '67 8 44'. You can allocate up to 9 printer codes for each of the ST's characters. This allows you to do strange things like double height text on some characters. If the ST's character is the same as your printer's character then just enter the ST's ascii code. You may save your printer driver to disk once you have built it, and load it back in each time that you want to print. The driver file will be saved to the same directory that the Doc Displayer was loaded from. All you have to do is enter an 8 character filename, the extender '.RDD' will be added by the Doc Displayer. NOTE: if the doc displayer is loaded automatically by using 'Install Application' then the driver files will be saved to the same directory as the document. I've built a couple of drivers for a the printers listed below, these should be on the same disk as the displayer. Standard Printer (no translation, works with SMM804) Star LC24 (should also work with LC10) Epson FX series Panasonic KX-P1081 (not tested) Compatibility... The original version of the displayer (v1.xx) had a few compatibility problems with some versions of TOS, but with version 2 these have been eliminated (I hope). The Doc displayer should work on any version of TOS, even the TT (TOS 3) in an ST compatible screen mode. The displayer will work in all of the ST's screen modes but NOT on large screen displays such as Hyperscreen, at best the screen will become corrupt or the machine may even crash. If your printer does not support Epson control codes, then don't use the NLQ or BOLD options on the printer configuration menu. There is a problem if you run the displayer in low rez with Turbo ST (1.8x) installed. The 'bug' shows itself when you exit the displayer. You will see that the screen colour planes have become offset. This must be a problem with TurboST because the Doc displayer only uses legal BIOS calls to change screen resolution. This bug only happens occasionally on my machine (TOS 1.4). The ability to launch another program from within the displayer can reveal a great many incompatibilities. You can only safely launch a 100% legal program. If you run a 'naughty' program then the Doc displayer may crash or produce unpredictable results. I have successfully used programs such as: HiSoft Basic Lattice C5 Devpac2 KnifeST First Word + Script Fastcopy ProFlight (v1.2) AVK DC Utils Michtron Hard Disk Utils any many more... If the document displayer is ran from the AUTO folder (yes it can be..!), or if you call it .TOS or .TTP you may not be able to execute programs that use GEM (VDI or AES). This is a TOS limitation...! Note for Techies: The Doc displayer uses the GEMDOS 'Pexec' call to run programs. The default Gemdos path is set to the directory that the program is in. If you choose to unload the current document before executing a program then the memory that is taken up by that document will be returned to the pool, this may result in the free memory space being fragmented, therefore the executed program may not be able to use it. If memory space gets too fragged then the ST seems to get a little upset... Talk to Atari about this one NOT me...! About the Doc Displayer... The original version of the displayer was written in HiSoft Basic, but from version 2.00 onwards it is written in Lattice C5. Small pieces of assembler have also been written to speed things up a little bit. Thanks go to: Teddystacker - Beta Testing, Ego Boosting, Distribution. Tempest - Fast memory moving routine (v2.01). Thor - Title screen graphics Axe of Delight - Depack Routine. HiSoft - HiSoft Basic / Lattice C5 / Devpac2. The Alien - Inspiration. Steve - Arcade Fantasy BBS (0533-376056 8pm-8am) The following PD libraries always stock the latest version of The Revenge Doc Displayer: Goodman Enterprises, 16 Conrad Close, Meir Hay Estate, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent ST3 1SW Atari User Group (Scotland), 27 Rosslyn Terrace, Edinburgh EH6 5AU Warpzone PDL, 53 Ropewalk, River Street, St Judes, Bristol BS2 9EG The ST Club, 9 Sutton Place, 49 Stoney Street, Nottingham NG1 1LX TRuST PD, 18 The Park, Southowram, Halifax HX3 9QY The South West Software Library, PO Box 562, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 2YD MT Software, Greensward House, The Broadway, Totland, I.O.W. PO39 0BX PD.ST, 95 Elton Road, Sandbach, Cheshire CW11 9NF Floppyshop, 45 Provost Graham Avenue, Hazlehead, Aberdeen AB1 8HB L.A.P.D. 80 Lee Lane, Langley, Heanor, Derbyshire DE7 7HN SOFTViLLE Computer Supplies, Unit 5, Stratfield Park, Elettra Avenue, Waterlooville, Hants PO7 7XN Public Dominator, PO Box 801, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 3TZ Freaks Public Domain Library, 29 Leap Valley Crescent, Downend, Bristol BS16 6TQ B-Soft Public Domain, 33 Corsham Road, Calcot, Reading, Berkshire RG3 5ZH. Atari ST User Group Norway PD Library, c/o S.A.Jensen, N-3630 Rødberg, NORWAY. If you have any problems getting the latest version then send me £2.00 (or £1.00 if you supply your own disk), and I'll send you the latest version. The Revenge Document Displayer is also distributed on "The Hitchhiker's PD/Shareware Disk V2.00" - highly acclaimed by most PD libraries. This disk is available from the above libraries. The Revenge Document Displayer is Shareware (some 'custom versions' are not) and may only be distributed for profit by registered organisations. Public Domain / Shareware Libraries may become registered by sending a fee of £10.00 to me at the address below. Any groups/packers/crackers etc may use the displayer on their menus as long as they greet me, read on if you'd like your own version. The HiSoft Basic source code for version 1.93 of The Revenge Document Displayer has now been released, and is available from any of the PD libraries mentioned above. The actual code is a bit of a mess as it has undergone a lot of 'bolt-on' upgrades and bug fixes. I have also released the bits of machine code that the Basic version uses (XTRAS.BIN & DOC.BIN). These will need to be added to your HBASIC.LIB file before you can compile the main program. This can be achieved by using the BUILDLIB.TTP program that is included with HiSoft Basic (not Power Basic). Consult your HiSoft manual for more information. Custom Versions... If you would like a custom version of the Document Displayer for your own use, then send £10.00, your name, address, telephone number, a black and white medium resolution picture (Degas PI2 please), and a name for the displayer, to me at the following address: Stuart Coates 9 Links Road Kibworth Beauchamp Leicester LE8 0LD England UK All correspondence will be handled in strict confidence. If you would like regular updates of your displayer and technical support then the cost is £30. You can also contact me via the totally brilliant ARCADE FANTASY BBS on 0533 376056 (300-2400 8pm-8am), but don't expect an immediate answer as my mailbox is only scanned a couple of times a week. The latest version of the RDD is always posted on this board. If you do leave any e-mail, then include your address / phone number as I can't reply via e-mail because I haven't got a modem. If anyone wishes to lend me such an article, it will be greatly received. History of The Revenge Document Displayer... Version 1.0 15th April 1990 The very first version was very primitive, and very slow. All it did was load a text file, scroll it up / down, and then let you dump it to the printer. Version 1.1 16th April 1990 A little bit faster, although it is still slow...! Version 1.2 14th May 1990 Goto Top / Bottom keys, Help screen, Search option, Bookmarks. Version 1.3 15th May 1990 Printer output improved, it now handles page breaks (wow..!). Version 1.4 26th June 1990 Handle TABs correctly, Scrolling speed increased (66%), Faster DOC loading time, Funky Title Screen, Changes to medium rez if you load in low rez. Version 1.41 1st July 1990 Better Help screen, program structure(?) improved. Version 1.50 10th July 1990 Almost a complete re-write of the text handling routines. This resulted in a great speed improvement, and the ability to handle larger documents. Version 1.51 11th July 1990 Repeat Search feature, 50/60Hz feature for colour monitors, Faster TAB handling. Version 1.52 16th July 1990 Doesn't now crash when you load a document with < 20 lines. Version 1.53 19th July 1990 Keystroke compatibility with the desktop text viewer. Faster DOC loading. Version 1.60 20th July 1990 Support for document encription. Version 1.70 23rd July 1990 File selector added, loading another document without quitting feature. The first Teddystacker version. Version 1.71 10th August 1990 Small bug in the file selector fixed. Version 1.72 17th August 1990 Very crude packing algorithm supported (this was one of my own..!) Version 1.73 21st August 1990 My packing routine removed. Now supports the ICE packer v2.11. I think I'll leaving packer writing to the guys who can.! Version 1.74 22nd August 1990 Automation packer supported. Version 1.80 24th August 1990 Now you can use pictures in your documents. Version 1.81 2nd September 1990 Picture dump routine, Printer Configuration screen. Version 1.82 7th September 1990 Faster text output even though it's still using the BIOS. Version 1.90 12th October 1990 Very fast text output routines used. These routines out-run programs like Turbo ST and Quick ST2. Version 1.91 19th October 1990 Nice font added. Version 1.92 26th October 1990 Faster text formatting (507%). Faster scrolling (9%). Version 1.93 28th October 1990 New file selector that allows you to switch drives. Mouse scrolling added. Version 2.00 3rd February 1991 Complete re-write in C (Lattice C version 5). (The old version was written in HiSoft BASIC). Better mouse support. Pop-up menus / interactive windows. Brilliant file selector. Now supports only ICE Packer v2.20. Picture ability removed (nobody used it anyway). Scrolling speed improved (20%). Search speed improved (350-800%). Ability to launch another program from within. Block marking/printing. Number of Pages display. Size of program reduced (about 50%). Overall Speed of displayer increased. Loads of new features. Version 2.01 17th February 1991 Scrolling routines speeded up by 50%. Text output routines 11-14% faster. Fileselector bug fixed. Search from current position feature. Version 2.02 19th February 1991 Enhanced box drawing. Help screen cleaned up. Max lines bug fixed - now doesn't crash. Version 2.03 26th February 1991 Picture is now displayed properly in medium rez when a document is auto loaded. Version 2.04 6th March 1991 Grey-Text implemented for block marking. Bookmark menu (set bookmarks using the mouse). Enhanced File Selector (inc scrolling by page). Printer Drivers Implemented (build your own...!) Probably the fastest text scrolling on the ST. Version 2.05 11th March 1991 Compatibility with programs that change the screen position. Problem with the moving busy-bee has been fixed. Slightly faster text output ...! Version 2.06 16th March 1991 Wide carriage printers supported, up to 255 characters. Left margin printing available. Version 2.07 18th March 1991 Small font (42 lines) available on hi-res monitors. Version 2.08 20/26th March 1991 Save bookmarks feature (autoload when you load doc). File selector enhanced. Almost all spelling mistakes eliminated. Version 2.09 20th April 1991 Minor code enhancements Version 2.10 5th May 1991 Autoscroll feature added. Version 2.11 18th May 1991 Autoscroll feature enhanced. Block marking by specifying line numbers. Initialises and exits 100% legally (probably). Scrolls text at 49 lines per second...! Searching speed is over 1900 lines per second...! Version 2.20 25th May 1991 (never released) Text formatting is now a lot faster. Version 2.21 2nd June 1991 Several bugs fixed in the new formatting routines. Handles VERY LARGE documents better. Version 2.22 25th June 1991 Text output and scrolling speed increased by about 5%. Many new 'Custom versions' released. Version 2.23 1st July 1991 Few minor bug fixes / optimizations. ə