BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/doors_1/ct11.zip/CT.DOC

Text File | 1991-12-18 | 8KB | 160 lines

Crunchterm v1.1
Documentation
Copyright 1991 by Stephen David
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Introduction

     One of most people's favorite features on a bulletin board
system is the chance to interact with other users on the BBS
through on-liners (or doors).  On-liners have been written for
many purposes, usually to entertain.  They have ranged from hard
core strategy games to fun and easy arcade games.  The one
weakness with on-liners, however, has been with graphics.  Even
at the highest baud rates available today, it is aggravatingly
slow to transmit complex graphics to a terminal.  People have had
to settle instead for painfully simple ANSI graphics.  But now,
with the release of Crunchterm, Crunchware is changing all that.

What Exactly Is Crunchterm, Anyway?

     Crunchterm is a small, free standing, program called CT.EXE.
It can communicate through your modem with a BBS.  Normally, it
will act as any other terminal (term) program, simply receiving
and displaying text.  When, however, it receives special codes
from the BBS, it will carry out commands corresponding to those
codes.
     Crunchterm can display graphics faster than they could be
transmitted via phone lines because it stores graphics data on
the terminal end.  When a command is received, for example, to
display a picture, Crunchterm will load the picture from a
special data file on the terminal end and display it.  By using
this method, graphics commands can be carried out at almost the
rate that they would be if no modem were involved at all.
     Every time Crunchware produces a new program using
Crunchterm, it will also create special .CT data files for use on
the terminal end.  The only on-liners CURRENTLY supporting
Crunchterm are Crunch League Football and Rabbit Hunter, whose
graphics data is found in RH.CT and CLFB.CT (which should be
distributed with Crunchterm).  Rabbit Hunter is meant strictly to
be a demonstration of Crunchterm's features.  Crunch League
Football v2.0 is a totally revamped version of the popular
football simulator with full support for CGA and EGA Crunchterm
graphics.

So... How Do I Use Crunchterm?

     Crunchterm is easy to set up.  Although it can be used by
itself as a simple free-standing term program, it can also be
used painlessly in conjunction with your regular term program.
Setting up only requires only a few simple steps:

1.  Copy the file CT.EXE into the directory containing your term
program.

2.  Create a directory somewhere for Crunchterm data files.  You
can just use the directory containing your term program unless
you want to be terribly organized.  Then copy all files
distributed with CT.EXE ending with the extension .CT into that
directory.  With version 1.1 of Crunchterm these files should be
MAIN.CT, RH.CT, and CLFB.CT.

3.  If your regular term program does not support external
protocols, or you have already filled them up (or you have no
idea what an external protocol is), you can skip to step 4.  Run
your term program and edit the external protocols.  Create a new
one with the file name CT.  If your term program (e.g. Telix) has
the option, select not to have it prompt for file names.  In
order to run Crunchterm, wait until you have logged on to a BBS
and are ready to use a feature requiring it.  All you have to do
now is enter the command to download and choose Crunchterm as
your "protocol."  Rather than actually performing a file
transfer, your term program will send you into Crunchterm.  If
you are using this method to load Crunchterm, you can skip to
step 5.

4.  If you are not using Crunchterm as a pseudo-protocol, the
procedure for running it requires a little more effort each time.
Once you have used your regular term program to log on to a BBS
and are nearing a time when you would like to use Crunchterm, use
some method to enter a DOS command or go to the DOS prompt.  In
Telix, for example, this can be done using Alt-F and then
selecting "O" for Dos Command.  If your term program does not
have a similar feature, you must exit without hanging up.  At the
DOS prompt, type "CT c b"<cr>, where c is the active COM port and
b is the current baud rate.  It is extremely important that these
parameters are correct.  If you omit either, you will be prompted
to enter them.

5.  If you have copied your .CT data files into the same
directory as the one containing CT.EXE and your term program, you
can skip this step.  Otherwise, you must run CT (either using a
method described above or just simply from DOS).  Press Alt-C to
enter defaults.  You will be prompted for the path to the
directory containing CT data files.  Enter that directory.  You
will also be prompted for a default protocol and COM port.  You
can skip that by pressing <cr> twice.  Use Alt-X to exit
Crunchterm.  More information on the Alt-C command is below.

     Wasn't it easy?  Crunchterm is now up and running.  When you
get more .CT data files, simply copy them into the directory
where you copied the others.

Now I Got It All Set Up.  What Next?

     Once Crunchterm is installed, it should be easy to use.
Whenever you would like to use an on-liner supporting Crunchterm,
run it using whichever process described above applies to you.
     Normally, you should run Crunchterm before you run the on-
liner on the BBS.  If you run Crunchterm after starting the on-
liner, things may not coordinate properly, if nothing appears on
your end after the "Running Crunchterm" message for a few
seconds, try pressing Ctrl-A once.  If that does nothing, try the
space bar and re-run the on-liner.  If you select to run an on-
liner without running Crunchterm, press your space bar to abort.
     In order to exit Crunchterm and return to your regular term
program, use the Alt-X command.  Crunchterm on-liners will
usually send the command to exit automatically, but Alt-X might
sometimes be necessary.
     Use the Alt-C command to configure.  Any configuration entry
can be skipped by pressing <cr>.  Once Alt-C is pressed, you will
be prompted to enter the Crunchterm data file directory.  Here
you should enter the complete path to the directory containing
your .CT files.  The next two commands are useful only when
Crunchterm is not set up as an external protocol.  Crunchterm
will use the default baud rate and COM port entered here if you
do not specify anything when running CT.  Be careful, however,
not to allow the defaults to kick in when they do not correspond
to the active values.  Enter 0 to clear the defaults and have CT
prompt you when necessary.
     Use Alt-Q to toggle sound on and off.  If you would like to
play a game in silence, or Crunchterm sound somehow conflicts
with a memory resident program (which is possible with some disk
caches), press Alt-Q once.  A single beep signals that sound is
off and a double beep signals that sound is on.  The current
status of sound is saved upon exiting the program.

That's It!

     For more information, or if you have any questions or
comments, contact Infinity by e-mail at Lankhmar (703 360-4973),
over WWIV-Link (35 @ 17302), or over WWIV-Net (27 @ 7309).  If
you have a relatively long message or if you just feel like
giving a little monetary support to a poor programmer, you might
want to mail it.  Send correspondence to:

Stephen V. David
6030 Fort Hunt Road
Alexandria, VA  22307

     If you are interested in making an on-liner compatible with
Crunchterm, please contact us.  The only way graphical on-liners
can become widespread is if we create a standard code set for
them.  We believe that Crunchterm is flexible enough to serve
that purpose, and we would be willing to supply you with the
neccary Turbo Pascal source code for the Crunchterm coding.
Contact Infinity by one of the methods listed above for more
information.
     Any comments or bug reports are welcome.  The more input,
the better the final product will be.  In the meantime, have fun
with Crunchterm and Crunchware!