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Text File | 1989-12-31 | 21KB | 421 lines

The Revenge Document Displayer Copyright (c)1990,91,92,93 Stuart Coates Version 3.00 23rd October 1993 Welcome to the Revenge Document Displayer v3 (RDD3). The objective with the release of RDD3 is to provide a text viewing utility for the Atari ST range of micros that is powerful and easy to use. Previous versions of RDD had a vast number of options available to the user, RDD3 has omitted some of the less used features of previous releases but has gained several very powerful ones. A Brief History ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD v1.00 was released on 15th April 1990 in response to a request from a friend of mine for a text viewing utility that was more flexible than the GEM Desktop's own. RDD1.00 was written in Hisoft Basic and didn't contain many features. I decided to develop the idea of the RDD from this base with several releases throughout the year resulting in RDD 1.93 released on 28th October 1990. That Xmas I purchased Lattice C v5.00 and decided to learn C - no better way than to port RDD to C. RDD v2.00 was released on 3rd February 1991 and contained many more features and was a lot faster. RDD2 was a lot more stable than RDD1 because of this rewrite. During 1991 and 1992 no less than 21 versions were released and 14 organisations purchased custom copies. Several other text viewers sprang up during this time which I'm grateful for as they gave me new ideas for the RDD, this also gave the ST community greater choice. Version 2.30 was released on 27th September 1992 and was the last RDD2 release. I received a large amount of feedback from RDD2 which encouraged me to start work on RDD3 in December 1992. The first beta release was shipped to testers in January 1993. Very few bugs were found in this although many features were missing. The RDD3 that you see today has taken many months to develop and has been thoroughly tested. Using The RDD3 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Loading a document: There are several way to load documents into the RDD3, 1. Double click on RDD.PRG from the desktop and use the GEM file selector to pick a document. 2. Rename RDD.PRG to RDD.TTP and enter a document name on the command line when running. 3. Install RDD.PRG as an application on the desktop so that it is loaded every time that you click on a text file. 4. If you have TOS2 installed or one of the many replacement desktops that allow you to place items on the desktop then place the RDD3 on the desktop and you can simply drag documents to it. (I strongly recommend Terradesk for this). 5. Machines running Neodesk 3 can have the RDD installed as the default text viewer so that any docs are displayed using the RDD3. 6. (For programmers only..) Launch the RDD from your own shell using the GEMDOS Pexec function. On the command line you should pass a list of documents that you wish to load separated by spaces. The RDD3 supports the ARGV protocol for extended command lines. Loading Multiple Documents: The RDD3 has support for multiple documents in memory, in fact currently up to 200 docs can be resident at once, this is of course dependent on available memory. To load more than one doc you can either specify individual filenames or use wildcard matches, for example if you wanted to load all .TXT files then tell the RDD3 to load *.TXT. The RDD3 also understands folder structures, so to load all of the documents within a folder just specify the folder name. The RDD3 does not scan folders recursively. Compressed Documents ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ RDD3 supports documents that have been compressed using Pack-Ice 2.40, this allows you to have an archive of compressed documents that don't eat up huge amounts of disk space. Archive Files ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ RDD3 can recognise most popular archive formats and has the ability to perform a verbose listing of the archive contents. The current release of RDD supports ZIP,ARC,ZOO,ARJ,LZH files. To make use of this feature simply load the archive file, to bypass the automatic listing feature hold down the Alternate key while loading the archive. Pictures ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ RDD3 has limited support for Degas PI? picture files and will only display pictures that are compatible with the current screen resolution. When a picture is loaded a document will be created with the line: 'PICFILE: <filename>', press Alt-V to view this picture. Document Formatting ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Before a document can be displayed by the RDD3 it must be formatted, this is done whenever a doc is loaded. Formatting causes any long lines within that doc to be wrapped at 80 characters and tab characters to be expanded. On-Line Help ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD3 has built in help that gives you a list of keyboard controls, to gain access to this press HELP while you are viewing a document. Main Features ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I'm not going to go through every feature in the RDD3 in great detail as that would take far too long and you probably wouldn't want to read it anyway, so I'll just list the main features and give a small explanation for each. Scrolling: Probably the most important feature, to scroll up and down use the arrow keys or move the mouse up and down. You can also move a screen at a time by holding down either shift key while scrolling. Move to Top or Bottom of Doc: Press Alt-T to go to the top or Alt-B to go to the bottom Goto a line: To go to a particular line press Alt-G and enter the line number that you want to go to. Find a word: Press Alt-F to search for a piece of text. You can also set up case-sensitive and global searches using this option. Pressing Alt-N and Alt-P allow you to find the Next or Previous occurrence. Load a document: To load another document press Alt-L or click the right mouse button, you will then be presented with a file selector, select the file that you wish to load and the RDD will do the rest. The contents of the Atari clipboard can be loaded by pressing Ctrl-A. Close a document: When you've finished with a document hit Alt-C to close it. Switching Documents: If you've got several documents loaded then you can switch between them in several ways: Keypad - Move to previous document Keypad + Move to next document Tab Show list of loaded documents F1-10 Move to document 1-10 Shift F1-F10 Move to document 11-20 Changing tab width: Press Ctrl-T to change the tab setting for the current document. Tab settings are stored on a per document basis. Printing a Document: Press Ctrl-P to print the current document and Ctrl-C to configure the printer. Ctrl-W will let you print a marked block. Marking a block: Alt-S and Alt-E allow you to start and end a block, pressing Alt-H will hide any block. A block can be saved to disk by pressing Alt-W, or to the Atari clipboard by pressing Alt A. Locate RDD: Pressing Ctrl-L will allow you to locate the RDD.PRG file to allow a configuration file to be saved in the correct directory. Press Ctrl-L and the file selector will appear, find the RDD.PRG file and select it. The RDD.PRG file will now be loaded and its location encoded within it. Save settings: The configuration can be saved by pressing Ctrl-S. Before using this option for the first time you must run the 'Locate RDD' option. Bookmarks: You can store the current position in a document by setting a bookmark. RDD3 supports 26 bookmarks. To set a bookmark simply press Shift and any letter A-Z. You can return to a stored bookmark by hitting just the letter A-Z. You can also set bookmarks by pressing Ctrl-B. Bookmarks can be accessed easily by pressing Alt-M. ST/IBM Characters: RDD3 supports both ST and IBM character sets, you can toggle between them by pressing Escape. Feature menu: RDD3 features a menu that you can perform operations from without using any strange key combinations. This menu can be accessed by clicking the left mouse button or pressing Insert. Toggle Text Size: If you're using a high rez monitor with your ST then the RDD3 can display a 50 line text mode, press Ctrl-G to toggle between 25 and 50 line modes. 50/60Hz: On colour screens you can toggle between 50/60Hz refresh rates by pressing Keypad *, not all monitors support this feature. Locate external editor: The RDD has the ability of support an external editor program to manipulate documents. To tell the RDD the location of this program press Ctrl-D. Execute external editor: To load the current document into an external editor press Alt-D. The current document will be re- loaded after editing. Document Information: To obtain statistics on the current document press Clr Home. View Picture: If a line with the structure 'PICFILE: <filename>' is at the top of the screen, pressing Alt-V will display it. Sorting Documents: If you have many documents loaded into the RDD you can sort them into alphabetical by pressing Alt-O. Using this option will result in all bookmarks being cleared. Running External Programs: The run an external program press Alt-X and select the program that you require. If the current document is an executable file then you can press Ctrl-X to run it. Utilities: The RDD has the ability to store up to 20 external utilities that are accessible with a single keystroke. These programs can be set up two ways. Press Ctrl-U or Ctrl-0 to 9 to locate a utility. A utility can be accessed by either picking it from a menu by pressing Alt-U or by pressing the appropriate number key, 0 to 9. Mouse Control: The mouse plays an important role in the use of the RDD. You can scroll through documents by moving the mouse up and down and call up the feature menu by pressing the left mouse button. The mouse can also be used within menus to make selections. In fact, although the RDD is a text based program, all of its features can be accessed via the mouse. Getting Help: If you require help while using the RDD press the Help key for a list of available help topics. Exiting: To exit from the RDD press the UNDO key twice. Compatibility ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD3 was written on an Atari 520STe with 4MB of RAM and TOS 1.62, therefore it should be 100% compatible with a similar platform. The beta testers of the RDD3 have varying configurations and have not reported any problems in the many months of testing. The code for the RDD3 does not make any illegal calls and does not rely on any special hardware being present (blitter, hardware scrolling, etc...) so should work on most configurations. If you plan to run RDD3 on a TT or Falcon then you must select an ST screen resolution as the RDD3 text routines do require this. If I eventually get access to a Falcon I shall make the RDD3 fully compatible. I have made a guess on making the RDD3 compatible with MultiTOS - if there is a 'MiNT' entry in the cookie jar then the RDD3 will resort to using just VT52 codes to draw the screen so that it may be ran in a console window. Due to Atari's unwillingness to place technical details of its machines and operating systems into the public domain I cannot make the RDD compatible with machines that I do not own or have regular access to. If Atari changed its policy of charging large amounts of cash for technical documents then the software produced for the ST (and the rest of its machines) would be of a higher quality and more compatible. The RDD3 should not conflict with any other programs that are running on your machine as it only accesses memory that it allocates itself. When RDD1 was released I did notice a problem with TurboST 1.82 when the RDD changed screen resolution, I can only assume that this problem still exists in RDD3 as the same TOS call is used - This is a problem with TurboST. System Requirements ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD3 will run on anything from a 520ST upwards. If you plan to make extensive use of the multi-document features then you'll be needing plenty of memory. To gain extra speed from a basic ST the RDD3 uses highly optimized text routines for all of it's text output and scrolling. If you have a screen accelerator loaded such as Warp 9, QuickST, or TurboST, you will not notice any speed change at all while using the RDD3 as my routines are faster and completely bypass the TOS routines. RDD3 Program Details ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Design and Coding Stuart Coates Beta testers Mark Matts Keith Frisby Trev Ward Gordon Meyer John Charles Robert Darling Stuart Richards Daron Brewood Development Tools Lattice C v5.52 Devpac 3.10 Harlekin 2 Development Hardware Atari 520STe 16MHz Accelerator 4MB Ram 48MB Seagate 157N Atari SM124 Essential Development Tools Jolt Cola Infectious Grooves CDs Yngwie Malmsteen CDs Bill & Ted Videos Sega Mega CD Support ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD3 is a complex program and therefore may contain some bugs. I would be very grateful if you could report any bugs that you find direct to myself via email (addresses below) or if you don't have email access then via my support BBS sysop Mark Matts at the address below: Mark Matts 66 Telford Way Leicester LE5 2LX England U.K. My email addresses: (preferred) Internet : scoates@filesys.demon.co.uk Compuserve: 100010,2106 Fidonet : 2:255/320.42 NeST : 90:100/101.42 Atarinet : 51:6/4.42 Official support BBS: System ST BBS Inside UK : 0533 413443 International: +44 533 413443 Times : 2200-0700 GMT Speeds : 1200-9600 The very latest version of RDD can always be downloaded from System ST first, and from Compuserve within a couple of days of release in the ATARIPRO forum. Registration ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD is distributed as shareware which means that if you use it then you're expected to register. The registration fee is 5 pounds sterling (or US$10) and should be sent to my support BBS sysop, Mark Matts (his address is mentioned earlier in this doc). All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version. The latest version of the RDD will also be made available via various BBS's and on-line systems. If you don't have access to a modem then you can obtain a copy of the latest version by sending a blank disk and 2 pounds sterling (or US$4) to Mark Matts. The RDD may be distributed freely by any PD Library or BBS but may not be used on any magazine cover disk without permission from the author, any magazine failing to comply with these restrictions will have action taken against them. Disk only magazines are free to use the RDD without the authors permission on the condition that a copy of the relevant edition is sent to Mark Matts in advance of publication. Why no direct support? ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I'm not publishing my current address as it is currently changing every few months and this would result in some correspondence being lost. Mark Matts has offered to handle all registrations and correspondence on my behalf and will forward any bug reports direct to myself. I do have several email addresses available if you do require to contact me. Future plans for RDD: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The RDD is undergoing continual development, some of the features that are likely to be included in future releases are listed below. If you have any suggestions for additional features then please contact either the author or Mark Matts. Future features: Support for non-ST screen resolutions - including all Falcon/TT modes and third party high resolution boards. Greater support for picture files - really dependent on user feedback - do you really need a doc displayer to display pictures? Support for MultiTOS / MiNT / Geneva - background printing and document formatting. Full support for the Falcon 030/040 including the DSP - just imagine the scrolling speed that this would be capable of - need to get my hands on a Falcon!