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Text File | 1994-05-25 | 29.5 KB | 801 lines

ARCHANGEL FOR THE ACORN ARCHIMEDES CONFIGURATION SETTINGS Archangel needs at least the following configurations ; *CONFIGURE SCREENSIZE 20 *CONFIGURE SPRITESIZE 40 *CONFIGURE FONTSIZE 6 As can be seen from this Archangel is only suitable for the Archimedes A310 and above , it will not run on the A305. Aditionally the Acorn Fancy Fonts need to be resident on the Archangel disk , since the program uses these for both the title and for text operations. THE MAIN MENU This is the menu bar that is presented when the program is first run , the menu appears over the title screen and the drawing screen scrolls down over the title , the program is then ready to be used. The options contained in the main menu are BRUSH LINE SHAPE FILL TEXT COPY FX UTIL DISK SPRITE Each of these options opens up onto a sub menu dealing with the options available in that menu , additionally sub menus may also contain further menus , for example the airbrush menu is contained as an option within the brush menu. Mouse Position Each of the menus contains a number of identical features , to see some of these move the mouse around whilst on the main menu and the two numbers X and Y in the top right of the menu alter to show the current X and Y coordinates of the mouse.These numbers appear on all the menus and sub menus and give a far better guide to the mouse position than would the naked eye. Colour Pallete This appears on all the menus except the disk access menu (where it isn't needed) , clicking select on this brings up the colour pallete with the current colour highlighted (the default is black).To select a new colour simply move to the one you want and click select , the mouse then changes to the colour selected (but not the Tint ( this seems to be a problem with hardware , though you never know)). If you don't want to select a colour simply press Menu or Adjust and the menu that the pallete was chosen from will be returned. Undo The undo function is acssesed simply by clicking the ADJUST button on the mouse after a drawing option and whilst the mouse is on the menu bar, UNDO will undo all the work done on the currently selected option , i.e all work done since an option was last selected from a menu. WARNING - the UNDO cannot itself be undone so be careful! Menu Locked/Unlocked (only available on main menu bar) This enables the user to draw on the full screen by removing the menu when the mouse is moved away from it , or during a drawing option , simply click select on the message 'MENU LOCKED' and it will change to 'MENU UNLOCKED' move the mouse off the menu bar and the menu will dissappear.Now move the mouse back to the area where the menu should be and it will come back on , clicking select on 'UNLOCKED' will 'LOCK' the menu again , it is recommended that while experimenting the menu is left 'LOCKED'. Moving around Moving around the menus is very simple , to select an option simply press the SELECT button whilst the mouse pointer is on top of that option , for example click select on top of the BRUSH option and the BRUSH menu appears where the main menu was. To reselect the main menu simply press the MENU button on the mouse and the program moves up one menu.Now click on BRUSH again and then click on AIRBRUSH , this shows the airbrush menu.Now to go back up click MENU and the BRUSH menu replaces the AIRBRUSH menu , click MENU again and the MAIN MENU appears again.This should all become clear after a small amount of use. The help line Whilst moving around earlier you may well have noticed a line of text which was changing below the list of options in the BRUSH and AIRBRUSH menu , this is the line of help text which explains simply the option selected and what will happen / what the computer wants you to do next. To see this in operation move to the BRUSH menu and move along the options with the mouse, as you can see the line of text changes as you move past each option. Now click SELECT on the CIRCLE option , this selects CIRCLE as the current drawing option,if you move around on the menu bar you will see that the help line doesn't change even if you move away from the circle option , this tells you that circle is selected. Now move off the menu onto the drawing screen and click SELECT again , the message now changes to CLICK SELECT TO DEFINE CIRCLE SIZE Now move the mouse around and you will see that the circle grows bigger and smaller , when you are happy with the size of the circle as a brush click SELECT, the pointer now vanishes and is replaced by a circle of the size selected centered on the mouse coordinates shown at the top right of the screen.The screen message now changes to SELECT LINE SHAPE MENU FILLED SHAPE Pressing SELECT will deposit a line circle on the drawing screen , and pressing menu will deposit a filled circle , try drawing with the circle to understand this.When you have finished click the ADJUST button , this ends the drawing and allows you acsses to the menu again. Move around the menu and the help line changes again , now to see the effect of the undo option press ADJUST whilst on the menu bar , the drawing you have just done is removed and replaced with the white area that was there before. Leaving a drawing routine At almost any point you can leave a drawing routine meerly by pressing the ADJUST button , for example if you defined too large a circle in the above example just press ADJUST and then reselect the CIRCLE option from the menu and redefine the size of the circle. The best thing to do now is to move around the program experimenting with the options and seeing what they do , remembering to have the menu 'LOCKED' so that the help line can be seen at all times. THE BRUSH MENU The options for the BRUSH menu are AIRBRUSH POINT CIRCLE RECTANGLE AREA ELLIPSE TRIANGLE All of the options , except AIRBRUSH and POINT can be either filled or open , once the shape has been defined and whilst it is being used as a brush clicking SELECT produces an open shape , and clicking MENU draws a filled shape. AIRBRUSH Clicking SELECT on this option opens up the AIRBRUSH menu (see the AIRBRUSH page for more information). POINT This allows you to draw with a point (ie a pencil) , once the option has been selected presssing SELECT on the drawing screen will deposit a point , SELECT can be held down to produce a freehand line.Press adjust to end. CIRCLE This allows a circle of any size to be used as a brush , click SELECT on this option , then click SELECT on the drawing screen and define the circle size by moving the mouse.Once the size is fixed click SELECT again and the circle is used as a brush.Press adjust to end. RECTANGLE This allows a rectangle of any dimensions to be used as a brush , the rectangle is defined by clicking on the screen and then once the size has been determined clicking SELECT again sets the size of the rectangle , this is then used as the current brush.Press adjust to end. AREA This allows any rectangular part of the screen to be used as a brush , click on the bottom left of the area required , and then click on the top right.The area is now used as a brush and whenever SELECT is pressed a copy of the area will be depositd at that screen position. Press ADJUST to end. ELLIPSE This is similar to the CIRCLE option , only this time it allows you to draw with an ellipse , click SELECT on screen and then define the size and shape of the ellipse , this can then be used as a brush.Press ADJUST to end. TRIANGLE This is a little more complicated , once the option has been selected click SELECT on screen , now move the pointer away and a rubber band line is shown going from the pointer to the first point.Click SELECT again and now a triangle can be pulled out , when you are happy with the size of the triangle press SELECT again and the triangle can now be used as the current brush.Press ADJUST to end. Every time you call a brush routine you will be asked to define a new size , this elliminates the necessity to redefine brushes somewhere else and then have to call them from a drawing routine. THE AIRBRUSH MENU The options for the AIRBRUSH menu are SRAYDENSITY TINTSPRAY DEFINEAREA SPRAYPAINT SPRAYDENSITY This allows the density of the spray from the airbrush to be alterred , the current value is indicated on the right hand side of the menu bar.To alter the value simply press SELECT on this option and the density increments by 1 ,and the value on the right of the menu alters to show the new density.Once the value reaches 10 it will loop back to 1 again. TINTSPRAY This selects spray painting using all of the tints of the currently available colour , the default is 'TINT OFF' as can be seen from looking at the right hand side of the menu bar.To turn this option on simply press SELECT on the option and the message changes to 'TINT ON' , to turn the option off simply click SELECT again. DEFINE AREA This allows you to define the rectangular area for the airbrush to spray paint into , any size or dimension of rectangle can be used , click SELECT on the bottom left of the rectangle and then on the top right of the rectangle.The airbrush size is then fixed until you next change it (even if you leave the AIRBRUSH menu). SPRAY PAINT This allows you to spray paint on to the screen , pressing SELECT on this option will replace the mouse with a box the size of the current airbrush.Pressing SELECT will then deposit paint randomly, and to the currently selected density, on the screen within the area defined by the airbrush rectangle. THE LINE MENU The options for the LINE menu are SOLID LINE BANDED LINE BANDED DOTTED LINE LINE DRAWING SOLID LINE This draws a solid line between two points , click SELECT on the first point and then pull away.A line appears between the pointer and the first point , to fix the line press SELECT.You may now move to another point on the screen and draw another line in the same way. DOTTED LINE This is identical to the SOLID LINE option but draws a dotted line. BANDED LINE This is the rubber band option , clicking SELECT on screen fixes the first point , then pull away.A line appears between the pointer and the first point , to fix the line press SELECT.Now pull away again and a line moves out from the last point selected to the pointer , and so on , a line is always drawn out from the last point selected to the pointer position. DOTBAND This is identical to the BANDED LINE option but draws with a dotted line. LINE DRAWING This is an edge detector that will operate on any rectangular area of the screen, click SELECT on the bottom left of the area to be detected and then click again on the top right.The routine will then search through the area looking for changes in colour , where it finds one it will deposit a pixel in the current colour.Thus the area is turned into a line drawing equivalent of itself. THE SHAPE MENU The options for the SHAPE menu are ARCSECTOR SEGMENT PARALLEL CIRCLE TRIANGLE RECTANGLE ELLIPSE Each of these options can be either open or filled , when the shape has been decided on pressing SELECT will produce an open shape , pressing MENU will produce a filled shape and pressing ADJUST will cancel the operation and leave no shape on the screen. As many shapes as you like can be drawn once the routine has been selected , each routine loops so that once (for example) you have drawn 1 circle the routine is ready to draw another at a different location. This means that it may be necessary to press ADJUST twice to exit the routine completely , once to terminate the current shape and once to end the option. ARCSECTOR This routine will draw either an arc (SELECT) or a segment (MENU). Clicking select will define the center of the shape and then the mouse can be moved to produce the required shape , when the shape is right click either SELECT or MENU depending on the shape required. SEGMENT This routine produces a segment , clicking select fixes the center of the segment , and then by moving the mouse around the angle of the segment can be defined.Once this is correct pressing either SELECT or MENU will draw a FILLED segment of the size specified.The reason this has no open option is that an open segment is the same as an arc. PARALLEL This will draw a parallelagram , click on the first point of the parallelagram and pull away , a line follows , click this as being the other end of the line starting at the first point defined.Then a parallagram shape can be pulled out.CLicking SELECT when the size is correct produces an open shape , clicking on MENU produces a filled shape. CIRCLE This will draw a circle on the drawing area , click SELECT on the center of the circle and move away to define the size of the circle , when the size is correct clicking SELECT produces an open shape and MENU produces a filled shape. TRIANGLE To draw a triangle click on the first point with SELECT , move away and a line appears between the first point and the pointer.Click select on the second point and then a triangle can be pulled out.When the shape is satisfactory click SELECT for open and MENU for filled. RECTANGLE To define the rectangle first click on the bottom left of the rectangle to de drawn , move the mouse away and a box will appear between the point clicked on and the pointer.When the box is of the correct size and proportion click either SELECT for an open shape or MENU for a filled shape. ELLIPSE To draw an ellipse first click with SELECT on the center of the ellipse , then move the pointer away , aline will appear between the pointer an the first point , this line represents the X dimension of the ellipse.When this is satisfactory click SELECT and now an ellipse will appear between the mouse pointer and the first point clicked on. The ellipse can be moved around by moving the mouse , once it is coorectly alligned press either SELECT for an open shape or MENU for a filled shape. THE FILL MENU The options for the FILL menu are FLOODBACK FLOODFORE LINEFORE LINENONFORE CLEAR SCRIBBLE FLOODBACK This will flood the currently selected colour to the background , ie it is the normal flood fill option on most drawing programmes , click SELECT inside the area you wish to be filled and the and will be filled with the current colour (remember this is the pointer colour) The following three options are included as they are part of the hardware and take up almost no program space. FLOODFORE This floods the currently selected colour to the foreground , this routine can cover a whole image so be very careful with it, but usually any damage can be undone with the UNDO option , but be carefull. LINEFORE This is a foreground line fill , move to the required point and press SELECT , a line foreground fill will be excecuted , this is a little difficult to explain , basically have a go and see what happens. LINENONFORE This is a background line fill , pressing select will fill a line on the background in the X axis between any non background coloured pixels on the screen.Holding down select will continually line fill , allowing an area to be filled manually. CLEAR This will clear the screen to the currently selcted foreground colour, click SELECT on the screen and a warning message appears , clicking SELECT again will clear the screen (which can still be undone with UNDO) , clicking either MENU or ADJUST will abort the option. SCRIBBLE This option will scribble into a rectangular area on the screen , define the rectangular area in the normal way and then press the required mouse button for the scribble you want SELECT-HORIZONTAL SCRIBBLE MENU-VERTICAL SCRIBBLE ADJUST-BOTH As you can see from this once the area has been defined there is no exit from the routine without drawing something , if you have defined the area incorrectly the answer is to fill it anyway and then use the UNDO option to correct the mistake. THE TEXT MENU The options for the TEXT menu are NORMAL TEXT ALIAS FONT 3DTEXT WACKY FONT NORMAL TEXT This will print text on the screen in the normal 8 by 8 font used by the Archimedes , clicking select on this option opens up a window at the bottom of the screen , this window requests the line of text to be printed , when you are happy with the text press return.The pointer is now replaced by a box that shows the size of the line of text you wish to print , when the text is correctly alligned press SELECT and the text will be deposited on the drawing area. ALIAS FONT This option allows text to be printed in the ACORN FANCY FONTS , having selected the option click SELECT on the screen and the message DEFINE SIZE OF EACH CHARACTER appears on the help line.Band a box that is the size of the characters you wish to use , once you have done this a window appears at the bottom of the screen asking for the line of text.Enter this and then press return , the pointer is now replaced by a box the approximate size of the text (the size isn't totally accurate due to the proportional nature of the typefaces).When this is positioned correctly click SELECT.Another message now appears in the help line SELECT PRINTS TRINITY MENU PRINTS CORPUS Click either SELECT or MENU depending on the typeface required , ADJUST will abort the operation. 3D TEXT This is very similar to the NORMAL TEXT option , but it uses the normal fonts printed in all tints of the currently selected colour and slightly offset to produce a 3D effect , have a go and see what I mean. WACKY FONT This behaves in an identical fashion to the ALIAS FONT option except that this font is produced from scribbled letters , much in the way that the SCRIBBLE FILL option on the FILL menu works , to appreciate this it is best to have a go with the option and have a look at the results.(WACKY FONT only writes in capital letters A to Z.) THE COPY MENU The options for the COPY menu are COPY MOVE RESIZE MIRROR FLIP 90 IGNORE-COL The last three copy options can produce either a full tone or a half tone copy (a copy with space between each pixel , allowing the image underneath to show through), once the copy area has been selected the message SELECT - FULL TONE MENU- HALF TONE will appear , click the mouse button for the copy you require.(COPY and MOVE have no half tone option as they are performed in hardware.) COPY This is the normal Archimedes hardware copy option , once the option has been selected click SELECT on the bottom left of the area you wish to be copied , now pull out a box and click SELECT on the top right of the area.The pointer is now replaced by a box the size of the area to be copied , when this is correctly alligned click SELECT and the area will be copied. MOVE This is identical to the copy option , but when SELECT is pressed for the area to be copied the origional area is deleted , this is included because it is in hardware and takes up no program room. RESIZE This allows areas to be either expanded or shrunk in both the X and Y dimensions , band the area to be copied in the normal way , and then click SELECT on the bottom left of where you wish the area to be copied to , now you can pull out a box from this point.This box can be of any dimensions , when you are happy with the size of the new area click SELECT on the top right of the box and the origional area will be copied. This routine can sometimes take quite a time to perform a copy , especially if you are enlarging a small area greatly, so go and make a cup of tea while you're waiting. MIRROR This allows an area to be mirrored either vertically , horizontally or in both planes.Once the original area has been banded it will have a rectangle placed around it , and the pointer will be replaced by a box the size of the area to be mirrored , this can then be positioned correctly.Clicking SELECT will then bring up the options SELECT - MIRROR HORIZONTALLY MENU - MIRROR VERTICALLY ADJUST - BOTH If you make a mistake you will have to let the copy continue and then UNDO the screen from the menu bar. FLIP90 This allows an area of the screen to be flipped through 90 degrees , either to the left or to right , band the area to be copied and the pointer will be replaced by a box showing the size the area will be. Click SELECT to position the box and then press the required mouse button for the copy you want. IGNORE COL This allows the copy options (except MOVE and COPY) to copy excluding a colour , the default is no colour ignore , to change the option simply click SELECT on this option. The present IGNORE option is shown on the right of the menu bar , once SELECT has been pressed it will cycle through to the next option.The ignore options are NO COLOUR IGNORE FOREGROUND COLOUR IGNORE BACKGROUND COLOUR IGNORE Foreground colour is the currently selected colour from the pallete. Background colour is the colour the screen was last cleared to. THE EFFECTS (FX) MENU The options for this menu are ALTERTINT TINTAVERAGE COLOURAVERAGE CONTRAST RANDTINT COLWIPE ALTERTINT This option allows the TINT of the colours within an area to be altered , the TINT of each pixel in the area can either be increased or decreased.Band the area in the normal way and then click SELECT , the message SELECT - ALL COLOURS MENU - CURRENT FOREGROUND ONLY appears , this allows either a whole rectangular area to be retinted , or just the current foreground colour within that area.Press the button for the optuon required and the message changes to SELECT - INCREASE TINT MENU - DECREASE TINT appears , click the required mouse button.Now all the pixels in the area will have their TINTS alterred accordingly. TINTAVERAGE This allows the TINTS within an area to be averaged out , band the area you wish to be averaged and then click SELECT , the area will then be prossesed so that the TINT of an individual pixel is the avererage if those around it. COLOURAVERAGE This will produce a colour average for an area , it works in the same way as the TINTAVERAGE option but works on the colour of the pixels and not the TINT.On a colour monitor this will produce a very strange effect , similar to the magic brush option in Artisan. CONTRAST This allows the contrast within an area to be either increased or decreased , band the area to be worked on in the normal way and then click SELECT , the message SELECT - INCREASE CONTRAST MENU - DECREASE CONTRAST will appear , click the button for the effect you want.This option works on the TINT of the pixels and not the colour , have an experiment and see what effects this option produces. RANDTINT This option will randomly alter the tint of an area , band the area in the normal way and then click SELECT , the message SELECT - ALL COLOURS MENU - CURRENT FOREGROUND ONLY appears , as with the ALTERTINT option this allows either the current colour to be randomly tinted , or the entire area to be randomly tinted , press the button for the effect you require and now each pixel in the area will be randomly retinted. COLWIPE This will allow the presently selected foreground colour to be remived from an area , band the area and then click SELECT , now the message SELECT - ALL TINTS MENU - CURRENT TINT appears , clicking SELECT will wipe all tints of the current colour from the area , clicking MENU will remove only the current tint. THE UTILITIES MENU The options for this menu are PRINTERDUMPS PIXEL EDITOR RUBBER GET SCREEN COL GRADUATE PRINTERDUMPS This selects the printer dump menu , for more information see the page on this menu. PIXEL EDITOR This selects the pixel editor screen , for more information see the page on this option. RUBBER This option allows all colour to be removed from the screen , click SELECT on this option and he pointer is replaced by a small square , clicking SELECT while this square is on the screen will remove all colour from that area. GET SCREEN COL This allows you to pick up a colour from the screen and select that as the current foreground colour , click SELECT on this option and then move the pointer to the point on the screen where you want to get the colour from , click SELECT again and now that colour will be selected as the foreground colour. GRADUATE This option allows an area of colour to be tinted from dark to light in either the X or Y axis , and in either direction.Combined with the fill option this can be used to produce graded filled shapes.Firstly band the area to be operated on and press select , the message changes to SELECT - X AXIS GRADUATE MENU - Y AXIS GRADUATE press the required mouse button for the graduation required , you will then be requested for the direction of the graduation.Now the routine will graduate ONLY the current foreground colour , to understand this more fully have an experiment with the routine. THE PRINTER DUMP MENU The dumps available on this menu are HARDCOPY FX HARDCOPY RX HARDCOPY MX TONE DUMP HARDCOPY FX/RX/MX These are all the full screen printer dumps that are provided in hardware , to select one of these simply click SELECT on the required dump and the machine will start to dump to the printer .(These dumps are only mono dumps and print all colours as black.) TONEDUMP This produces a tone dump of any part of the screen , simply band the area you wish to dump (this can be the whole screen) and then click SELECT , the dump is tailored to suit EPSON FX or compatable printers. THE PIXEL EDITOR SCREEN This has a rather different format to the other options available in the program , once this option has been selected from the UTILITIES menu the pointer is replaced by a box that represents the area that will be entered in to the pixel editor , once you have positioned the box over the area of the screen to be edited click SELECT. Now the screen clears to a plinth and the area selected is drawn in 8 times magnification on this plinth , in both top left and right are origional size copies of the area being edited.Any changes made are shown on the left hand side copy , while the right hand side shows what the unedited origional looked like. Colours can be selected in the normal way by clicking on the colour pallete option , additionally clicking SELECT on the right hand copy of the image will erase any changes made to the screen since the editor was entered and reset the editor to the state it was entered. To deposit a pixel on the screen simply click SELECT and a pixel of the currently selected colour will be deposited at the pointer position. QUIT AND REDRAW This will quit the editor and redraw the modified screen and place it in position on the full screen , normal UNDO can be used to correct any mistakes. QUIT This will quit the editor without redrawing the screen. THE DISK MENU The options in this menu are LOADPICTURE SAVEPICTURE CATALOG DRIVE NUMBER LOADPICTURE This will allow either a previously saved picture or any mode 15 picture that has been saved using *SCREENSAVE to be loaded into Archangel , if the menu is LOCKED then the picture will be loaded from the bottom of the menu bar and the top part of the image will be lost. When the option is selected a warning is issued , if SELECT is pressed and the warning is overridden a filename is requested , Archangel will then try and load the file from the currently selected drive. SAVEPICTURE This will save an image using *SCREENSAVE , it will be saved in the root directory of the disk in the currently selected drive. CATALOG This will produce an on screen catalog of the contents of the disk in the currently selected drive , it only catalogs the root directory as this is where all Archangel files must be stored.Click SELECT to remove the catalog from the screen. DRIVE NUMBER This will alter the current drive number , clicking SELECT increments the drive number , which is displayed on the right hand end of the menu bar.(NOTE - Archangel must always sit in DRIVE 0 as it may need to accses text from the font files , thus all saving of images can be done on drive 1 but Archangel will select drive 0 when it needs to load a font and then reselect drive 1 for the user.) THE SPRITE MENU The options for this menu are GET DRAW RETRIEVE DELETE *SLOAD *SSAVE LIST GET This enables you to get a sprite from the screen , click on this option and then band the area for the sprite , then click SELECT , you will then be prompted for a filename , the sprite will then be assigned to memory and becomes the currently selected sprite. DRAW This allows you to draw with the currently selected sprite , simply click SELECT on this option and when you press SELECT whilst on the screen the current sprite will be deposited at that point , holding down select will allow you to draw with the current sprite continually. RETREIVE This allows a sprite to be retrieved from memory , click SELECT on this option and you will be prompted for a name , type in the name of the sprite and press RETURN.This sprite now becomes the currently selected sprite. DELETE This allows you to delete any sprite from memory , click SELECT on this option and then enter the name of the sprite you wish deleted , it will then be deleted from memory. *SLOAD This allows a set of sprites to be loaded from the root directory of the currently selected drive ( see the DISK MENU ) , click SELECT on this and you will be given a warning message.If you continue you will be prompted for a filename , Archangel will then load in this set of sprites. *SSAVE This will save a set of sprites for use later , they are saved in the root directory of the currently selected drive. LIST This will produce an on screen list of the sprites that are currently in memory , it will also give you an indication of the room left available and the space used up by rhe current sprites.Click SELECT to remove this list from the screen.