Aminet 1 (Walnut Creek)/Aminet - June 1993 [Walnut Creek].iso/aminet/biz/demo/think214.lzh/demo

Text File | 1990-07-04 | 54KB | 1,171 lines

Introduction

  This file is a very abbreviated version of the Thinker manual.
  It is intended only to help in using the demo version of
  Thinker.  The Demo version of Thinker cannot save any changes
  to files, does not import or export ASCII, nor does it print.
  Creating a new file will write on your disk and will in fact
  create a new Thinker document with a single statement
  (The copyright notice).  This version of Thinker will only
  handle documents under 60,000 bytes in size.

******************************************************************
******************************************************************

   This demo expects all files deZOOed to a disk with the
   lable "Thinker".  Some parts of the demo package may assume
   that the disk name is "Thinker2"

******************************************************************

  This disk has been updated for Thinker Release 2.1.  See the
  Thinker project  "UPDATES" to see what has changed since the
  last release of this demo.  Lots of exciting new stuff!!!

  Documentation for The ARexx interface is not included in this
  demo package.

******************************************************************

    Thinker is available for $80 from:

        Poor Person Software
        3721 Starr King Circle
        Palo Alto, CA 94306
        (415)-493-7234

    Thinker is available at many Amiga stores and mailorder houses.

    Source for Tinydraw is available on request at no charge.

*******************************************************************

Introduction to Hypertext

  Thinker can trace its heritage all the way back to Doug
  Englebart's work at SRI's Augmentation Research Laboratory.  By
  combining elements of text processing, outline processing, and
  hypertext, Thinker becomes an Idea Processor that embodies the
  basics of Doug's ideas for augmenting the human intellect.

  What is HyperText?

    Footnotes are a form of HyperText.  Within the body of the text
    is a directive to look somewhere else in the text for more
    information.  With footnotes the directive is a footnote number
    while in HyperText the directive is in the form of a character
    string that "names" another section of the text.  In order for
    HyperText to work the text is divided into sections and each
    section has a label.

    One often encounters this form of textual link when a phrase like
    "See Chapter 2, section 1" appears in the text.  This type of
    link is good but can be carried further.  Imagine that each
    paragraph in a document had a label that described the topic
    discussed in the paragraph.  Now one could encounter the phase
    "See the section <correct use of the passive voice>" which would
    take you directly to the paragraph on passive voice.  However,
    where is that paragraph?  What Chapter?  What Page?

    When the document is online and being accessed via a HyperText
    processor, one simply points the mouse at the phase <correct use
    of the passive voice> and asks to see that paragraph.  Whether it
    is in chapter 10 or 2 is of no concern to the reader, the
    HyperText processor will find it and present it to the reader.

    HyperText documents do not have to be read linearly like a book.
    One can begin in the section with the most interest and follow
    the links around the document to explore the subject.  The
    creator of the HyperText document had only to attach descriptive
    labels to the various sections of the document.

  What is Hierarchical Text?

    Hierarchical Text is an extension of outlines.  Outlines are the
    arrangement of topics in subordinate relationships.  Rain and
    snow are two examples of precipitation and they are properly
    subtopics of precipitation in an outline of a paper on weather.

    If the idea of an outline is extended to an arrangement of ideas
    in subordinate relationships it becomes Hierarchical Text.  Ideas
    are paragraphs or groups of paragraphs and a paragraph on
    precipitation might have subordinate paragraphs on the different
    kinds of precipitation that one might expect to find.

  How Thinker combines HyperText and Hierarchical Text

    Thinker is a Hierarchical Text processor with HyperText.  A
    Thinker document is made up of a collection of paragraphs
    (referred to as "statements" or "branches" in this manual)
    arranged hierarchically and containing textual links to each
    other.  Each statement in a Thinker document can have a number
    of labels and can be referenced by a textual string (a link) that
    "names" one of the labels.

    A statement that begins with "(" is labeled, and the labels are
    strings of non-punctuation characters separated by commas (",")
    between the first "(" and the closing ")" at the beginning of the
    statement.  A link in the text consists of the non-punctuation
    characters between "<" and ">" characters anywhere in the text.
    When a label is a single word, the link to it can be expressed
    without the  "<" and ">" characters.  Thus, each word in a
    Thinker document is a potential HyperText link to a statement
    somewhere in the hierarchy of statements that make up the
    document.

    To expand the flexibility of Thinker, a link may contain the
    name of a Thinker document other than the one in which the link
    is found.   The document name is separated from the label by a
    comma.  Thus, <Thinker:example,link> is a link to the section
    labeled "link" in the Thinker document called "example" on the
    disk named "Thinker".

    When a statement has subordinate statements it is called a
    branch.  Thinker allows the manipulation of a document by
    moving, copying, and deleting statements and branches.  When a
    branch is moved, all the subordinate statements are moved as
    well.

    Display parameters control the format of the text on the screen.
    Thinker can be instructed to display only the first line of
    each statement and give the appearance of a simple outline.  By
    controlling the depth of the outline visible, the user can
    actually "see" very large portions of the document at one time.
    When the document is manipulated while viewing it in outline
    form, all of the text that is part of the document is moved when
    the visible portions are moved.

  What can Thinker "link" to?

    A HyperText link can link to one of four things: 1) A Thinker
    document, 2) An IFF picture file which can be displayed in a new
    window (the picture is thus compressed in size and colors) or a
    separate screen, 3) any Workbench application, in which case the
    application is launched in its own window and runs as a separate
    task (If a project is to be launched, there MUST be a project
    icon.  If an application is to be launched, it MUST have a Tool
    icon), or 4)  an ARexx port, in which case a message is sent to
    the port.

    The ability to link to other Workbench applications makes
    Thinker into a HyperMedia product.  Drawings, sound
    applications, database applications, word processing applications
    are all possible links in a single Thinker document.

  How does one interact with Thinker?

    All interaction with Thinker is via the Mouse and Menu system
    of Intuition.  There are no keyboard commands other than keyboard
    activation of menus.  Gadgets are available for common commands
    and menus are available for the complete command set.  Requesters
    are used extensively to provide a highly responsive user
    interface.  These requesters always appear directly under the
    mouse cursor with the cursor positioned over the most common
    choice.

    Text on the screen is modified as in many word processors.  The
    cursor is positioned in front of text that is to be modified and
    typing is always in "insert" mode.  Text is "selected" by
    sweeping the cursor over a block of text while holding the left
    mouse button down.  Selected text can be "cut" from the statement
    and "pasted" elsewhere or simply replaced by typing.  Thinker
    has "search" and "replace" functions to complete the editing
    capabilities.

    Thinker will print a document or prepare a text file for
    manipulation by a word processor or typesetting program.  This
    manual was produced using Thinker and HPPrint (a Poor Person
    Software typesetting program for the HP LaserJet Printer).
    Thinker can also import text prepared by a word processor into
    a Thinker document.

    Thinker appears deceptively simple by design.  The fact that
    labels and links are merely parts of the text eliminates much of
    the complexity associated with large numbers of obscure commands.
    However, one should not be fooled by the appearance of
    simplicity.  The combination of Hierarchical text, Hypertext, and
    Word Processing functions makes Thinker a powerful Idea
    processor.  Take the time to learn Thinker by working with the
    tutorial project (EXAMPLE) found on the Thinker distribution
    disk.

  NOTE: Thinker uses a lot of memory.  Lack of memory on CP/M and
  PC DOS systems is what limited Thinker on these machines to a
  mere toy.  One of the uses of memory is to cache blocks of
  documents in memory to avoid disk access.  Poor Person Software
  recommends the use of a Floppy Accelerator such as Facc II by ASDG.
  The cache available in Thinker requires a good deal more memory
  than Facc II to be as effective in reducing disk access.  Do not
  attempt to use Thinker without either enabling Thinker's read
  cache (see menus explained under Options) or using a program like
  Facc II.

Definitions

  The terms used in describing a Thinker document have other
  meanings in other environments.  In order to clarify the following
  discussion of Thinker, the most common Thinker terms are
  defined here.

  Anchor

    The statement that appears at the top of the window is sometimes
    referred to as the anchor statement of the window.  The user
    navigates around in a document by changing the anchor statement.
    The anchor statement is changed with Jump commands.

  Branch

    A Branch is a statement with subordinate statements.  When a
    statement is inserted into a document, it may be inserted at any
    level relative to the other statements in the document.  A branch
    is a statement at any level that has statements below it.   A
    branch may have a branch subordinate to it.  A Statement with no
    subordinate statements is sometimes referred to as a Branch.

  Clipping Level

    Clipping level refers to the number of document levels that are
    displayed in a window.  A window with a clipping level of 2 will
    show only the two highest level statements.  Clipping can be used
    to view a hierarchical document at different levels of detail.
    The document can be manipulated with clipping levels that exclude
    much of the document from the screen.  All of the invisible text
    is moved with the visible text.

    The clipping level can be chosen for the entire document or for
    single branches.  The Clip gadget at the top of the screen or
    the Clip menu sets the clipping level that applies to the
    document as a whole.  "+" or "-" gadgets in front of statements
    manipulate the clipping level applied to the single branch.

  Group

    A group is a selected sequence of branches at the same level.

  Jump

    When the anchor statement of a window is changed, a different
    portion of the document becomes visible in the window.  This is
    referred to as a jump.  Jumps can be made relative to a statement
    visible on the screen or relative to a statement named in a link.
    It is also possible to jump to picture files and Workbench
    applications.

  Label

    Any statement in a Thinker document may have labels.  A label
    is a name by which the statement is known and is like a key in an
    indexed file.  Thinker recognizes a statement that begins with
    "(" as its first character as being a labeled statement.  The
    labels are substrings of all of the non-punctuation characters
    between the initial "(" and a trailing ")" separated from each
    other by commas.  "(These,are,labels)" is a label string with 3
    labels.  The case of letters in a label is not significant and
    only the first 19 non-punctuation characters are significant.

    Labels in a Thinker document need not be unique.  Any request
    to jump to a label that is not unique will cause a requester to
    appear which displays the first characters of all statements with
    the non-unique label.  The user points at and clicks on the
    desired statement to select the target of the jump.

  Level

    Statements are arranged in a hierarchy.  The most important
    statements are at level 1.  Level 2 statements are subordinate to
    level 1 statements as in an outline.  Thinker does not limit
    the number of levels in a document but the display on the screen
    will be less than satisfactory for more than about 30 levels.

  Link

    A "link" is the appearance of a label in the text.  A link is
    either a single word or a string of characters delimited by "<"
    and ">".  A link consists of two parts.  Part one is optional and
    names a project, Thinker document or file.  Part two is
    separated from part one with a "," and names a branch.  Picture
    file links consist of only the file name and the comma as in
    <Thinker:art/mirage,>.  Links may by typed into requester strings
    as the address of statements when certain operations invite the
    user to designate a statement.  Links typed into requesters do
    not have the surrounding "<" and ">" characters.   Links can be
    activated by putting the cursor over the link in the text and
    double clicking the left mouse button or by using the Jump Link
    command.

    Links may designate labeled statements in the same or different
    Thinker document, IFF picture files,  any Workbench
    application such as a music player, paint package, or CAD
    application, or an ARexx port.  Use the file name or program name
    in the file portion of a link followed by a comma to specify a
    link to an application.

  Mark

    Thinker sometimes invites the user to designate a statement as
    the target of an operation such as "delete" or "move".  The user
    may elect to mark the statement on the screen or type in a link
    that designates the statement.  A statement is marked by moving
    the Pointing Cursor (a hand) such that the hand points to the
    statement and pressing the left mouse button.

  Origin

    The first statement in a document is referred to as the origin
    statement.  The origin statement may be moved or deleted in which
    case some other statement becomes the origin statement.

  Plex

    A complete group of statements.  All of the subordinate
    statements in a branch constitute a plex.  All the first level
    statements in a document constitute a plex.  A plex is designated
    by pointing to any member of the plex.

  See Through Link

    Links can be used to extract statements from one document into
    another.  The statement named in a "See Through Link" can be
    displayed on the screen in place of the link.  This allows a
    Thinker document to be a composite of other Thinker
    documents.  Details about the nature of "See Through Links" are
    found in the section of the manual describing the "Enable
    See-Thru" menu selection (under "Options").

  Statement

    A statement is a block of text.  Statements are like paragraphs
    in many word processing programs.  Thinker does "word-wrap"
    within a single statement but not across statements.  Text
    selection (by sweeping the cursor over text with the left mouse
    button held down) is limited to text within a single statement.
    Statements may contain up to 2000 characters of text including
    standard and extended characters from the Amiga keyboard.  The
    <ESC> and carriage return characters are also allowed.

  View Specifications

    The appearance of the text in the window is controlled by three
    parameters that together are called the view specifications.
    These parameters are "Clipping level", "Spacing", "Number of
    Lines" and are each explained in the Options Menu section.

  Window

    Only a small portion of a Thinker document can be displayed on
    the screen at any time.  Thinker uses Intuition windows to view
    portions of a document.  Up to 8 windows may be open at any time.
    Each window may display a portion of a different document or
    different portions of the same document.

Thinker Documents

  Thinker documents are not always meant to be read linearly.
  While this manual was created using Thinker, many uses of
  Thinker take more advantage of the Hypertext and Hierarchical
  text features.  A skilled Thinker user creates documents with a
  definite flavor.  These documents do not always read well when
  flattened and printed on paper and are meant to be read online.

  Outline nature of Thinker documents

    If a Thinker document is viewed with a clipping level of 1,
    only the first level statements (often these statements are topic
    names or section headers) will be shown.  It is rare but not
    impossible to have blocks of text at this level.  An executive
    summary is presented with the clipping level set at 2.  As the
    clipping level is increased, more and more details are revealed.
    If Thinker is used to design a program one would expect to find
    code fragments or pseudo code at the deepest levels of the
    document.


  Hypertext features

    Information is only presented once.  A reader should be able to
    start reading a Thinker document at the topic of most interest.
    All references to terms that require a definition in the context
    of the document should always have a link to the section of the
    document where the term is defined.  The fact the Thinker will
    treat any word as a link means that a Glossary section could
    define all terms and contain links to the sections that provide
    further clarification.

    When a new term is encountered, the reader double clicks on the
    word to open a window over the Glossary section defining that
    term.  If there is more information available then the Glossary
    entry will contain a link to the section of the document where
    the term is introduced and described in detail.  Double clicking
    on the link can move the Glossary window to the detailed
    information.

    These links make Thinker ideal for online help where the reader
    can go directly to the section of interest and still be able to
    locate quickly all the pertinent information.

    See Through Links make it possible to automatically extract
    information from one document into another without double
    clicking on the link.  A new Thinker document might summarize
    the information in many other documents by using See Through
    Links.  When the information in the original documents is
    updated, the new summary document will display the changes.

  Planning a book

    One possible use of Thinker involves coordinating all the
    details of a novel.  One technique that might be of value is to
    have several major sections of a Thinker document for various
    aspects of the planning process.  One section would have a
    labeled branch for each character in the book.  Other sections
    would describe historical events of interests and descriptions of
    each location.  Each of these sections would have labeled
    statements for each detail.

    The section of the document that describes the story line (plot)
    of the book would contain links to the sections containing
    detailed information.  The plot can be reviewed without having to
    wade through details that might confuse the issues.  As needed,
    each reference in the plot to details about characters, scenes,
    events, etc. could be checked by jumping to the section of the
    document where this information is found.  Multiple windows help
    organize the thought process.

    Small Example:

       (Characters)
           (Anastasia) - The heroine
               Lots of stuff about Anastasia
           (Scrully) - The hero
               Lots of stuff about Scrully
       (Places)
           (San Francisco) - Home of Anastasia
               Lots of stuff about SF
           (San Jose) - Home of Scrully
               Lots of stuff about SJ
           (New York) - Place of story
               Lots of stuff about New York
       (Plot)
           Anastasia meets Scrully in <New York>
           They marry and raise a family
           The End

  Organizing picture files

    Since links may be to IFF picture files, one use of Thinker
    might be to build a catalog of picture files.  Each section of
    the document would have a first level statement with a label
    indicating the type of pictures indexed.  The subordinate
    statements would contain descriptions of the picture and a link
    to the picture file.  Pictures are located by jumping to the
    section of the document with the descriptions for the correct
    type of picture and then double clicking on the link to the
    correct picture.

    Small Example:

       (People)
           (Lauren) <Thinker1:art/lauren,>
           (Bob) <Thinker1:art/bob,>
       (Birds)
           (Bluebird) <Thinker1:art/bluebird,>
       .....

  Thinker documents as databases

    Labeled statements in Thinker documents are much like indexed
    records in a database.  There is a great deal of flexibility
    above the typical database, however.  Records are not a fixed
    format.  Records can contain a variable number of pointers to
    other records.  Records can be part of a document meant to be
    read.

    Using Thinker to write is like writing inside a database as
    references can be checked with the click of a mouse button.
    Using Thinker is like having a completely free form database
    with references to applications, pictures, and documents.

    A Small Example:

       (Distributors)
           (American Software)  - Address
       (Dealers)
           (Winner's Circle) - Address
           (HT Electronics)  - Address
       (Unregistered buyers)
           (Nymous-A) - Address
                Orderdate:
                Shipdate:
       (Registered buyers)
           (Huxtable-P) - Address
                Orderdate:
                Shipdate:
                Amount:
                Registration:

  Thinker as a desktop organizer

    A desktop document can be used as an alternative to the
    Workbench.  Within the document are labeled statements covering
    various working task areas such as Letter Writing, Programming,
    Finance, etc.  Subordinate to these statements are labeled
    statements for each task in that area.  These statements describe
    the task and may include sentences describing the progress of the
    task.  Finally, there are links within the statements that name
    the Project or Tool used to work on the task.  A description of a
    program might contain the name of the source for the program so
    that you can link directly to the source and work on it within
    your favorite editor.  Other statements can link to other
    Projects and Tools, any of which can be launched in multitasking
    mode.

    A Small Example:

       (new projects)
           (Thinker) - Learn thinker <Thinker:example,>
       (old projects)
           (whoopydo) - Work on favorite program <Source:whoopy.c,>
       (appointments)
           (Monday) - Meet Alice at Restaurant

Viewing a Document

  A Thinker document is a hierarchy of statements.  There are three
  view specifications that control what portions of this hierarchy is
  visible on the screen.

    Clipping level

      The clipping level controls the depth of the hierarchy that is
      displayed.  A clipping level of 1 displays only the first level
      of the hierarchy (the major topics) and as the clipping level
      is increased more details are displayed.

      There is a global clipping level controlled by menu options and
      the Clip gadgets at the top of the screen.  Each branch has a
      local clipping level controlled by gadgets in front of the
      statements.  Local clipping levels are always higher than the
      global levels.

      A document can be searched rather quickly by starting with a
      global clipping level of 1 and using the local clipping gadgets
      to expand the areas of interest.

    Number of lines shown in each statement

      The document can be viewed as an outline by setting the view
      specifications to display only the first one or two lines of
      each statement or the full document can be viewed by setting
      the view specifications to display all lines in each statement.


    Spacing between statements

      The spacing can be adjusted to maximize the amount of material
      on the screen or to maximize the readability of the material.

  One views a linear document by scrolling over the document.  One
  views a non-linear Thinker document by moving the window to
  particular places in the document with the Jump command.  Jumps can
  either be relative to the document structure or can use links.

    Structure relative jumps include moving the window up and down in
    the hierarchy or forward and back at the same level.

    Links provide the most flexible way to navigate around a set of
    Thinker documents.   A link in the text ties the displayed text
    directly to text elsewhere in the document or in another
    document.  Links may be typed into a string gadget or found
    displayed on the screen.  If a link is displayed on the screen
    merely double clicking the cursor over the link executes the
    jump.  Any single word in a Thinker document can be a link!

  For those times when it is desired to scroll linearly through a
  document several scrolling gadgets are provided.  Scroll forward
  can be by single line or single statement.  Backward scrolling is
  by statement only.   There are Jump commands that jump forward by a
  full screen or back by a statement.  It is worth remembering that
  Thinker documents can be much larger than the Amiga Memory and
  only the active portions of the document are in memory.  This and
  the fact that Thinker documents are randomly accessed files makes
  it impossible to provide scroll bars.

Editing

  Text within a statement is edited much like text in a standard word
  processor.

  The cursor is positioned by using the mouse or cursor keys.  The
  cursor keys move the cursor within a statement, between statements,
  and will cause line by line scrolling forward or statement by
  statement scrolling backward.  When the mouse is used to position
  the cursor, the left mouse button is used to mark the place in the
  text.  Subsequent typing inserts characters at the cursor location.
  "Backspace" deletes a character to the left of the cursor and moves
  the cursor to the left.  "Delete" deletes a character to the right
  of the cursor and does not move the cursor.

  All printable keyboard characters are allowed in text (including
  alternate characters).  In addition the <ESC> character and <CR>
  character are allowed.  The <ESC> character is useful for imbedding
  printer commands in text.  The <CR> (carriage return) character is
  used in formatting tables as a single statement rather than as a
  group of statements.  The <CR> character is visible as "~" and
  causes the cursor to move to the next line of the statement in the
  first column of the statement.  A <New Line> character is put into
  the text.

  A block of text may be selected by holding down the left mouse
  button while moving the cursor over the text on the screen.  Only
  text that is totally within a single statement can be selected in
  this fashion.  Once selected, the text can be "Cut" from the
  statement and "Pasted" at some other location.  Selected text is
  replaced by any typed characters and the selected text is forever
  lost.

  Undo is supported with the "Revert" menu selection.  All
  modifications including structural changes are deleted.  The user
  may select "undo points" by using the "Save" menu selection.  In
  fact no changes are recorded until Save is selected.  There is a
  reminder warning presented if the user attempts to leave Thinker
  without a Save.  The requester gives the opportunity to save or
  discard the changes.

  Search and Replace operations are selected from the Edit menu.

Manipulating the Structure

  Statements in a Thinker document may be moved within the
  hierarchy, moved to another document, copied to other places in the
  same document, or copied to other documents or deleted.  The
  movement, copying, or deletion of statements does not require that
  the entire structure to be moved, copied or deleted be visible on
  the screen as parts of the structure may be obscured by the
  selection of viewing specifications.

  It is the ability to manipulate whole structures of the document
  that make the hierarchical text such a powerful tool.  The viewing
  specifications can be set to view the document in its outline form
  (set the number of lines for each displayed statement to 1) and the
  entire document can be restructured.

  Move and Copy and Delete options are available for individual
  statements, branches, and groups of statements or branches.  In all
  cases a sequence of requesters walks the user through the
  operation.  Some of these requesters have a "Previous" gadget which
  will recall the previously typed string gadget.

  The structure manipulation commands can be initiated from the
  menus, from the gadgets at the top of the window, and from the
  "power tools" requester.  The "power tools" requester is initiated
  by double clicking on the right mouse button.  From this requester
  it is possible to directly insert a statement or initiate a Move,
  Copy, Delete, or Jump command.

A Tutorial Example

  The first part of the tutorial will walk the user through the
  process of building a Thinker document.  The second part of the
  tutorial makes use of an existing Thinker document called
  "example".  In the following examples do not type the '"'
  characters.

  The Thinker document "Example" is a tutorial that leads the user
  through a short example of using Thinker to view and manipulate a
  document.  Duplicate the EXAMPLE document using the "Duplicate"
  option of the "Workbench" menu before trying the tutorial.  If you
  want to recover the original EXAMPLE document you can discard the
  EXAMPLE icon and "Rename" the "copy of example" icon.

  Start the first part of the tutorial by double clicking on the
  Thinker icon.  This will start the Thinker program and bring up
  a window with the basic gadgets and menus but will have no document
  displayed.  At this point we might jump into some existing document
  or create a new document.  One would jump into an existing document
  with the Jump Link command and create a new document with the
  Create New menu selection (in the Project menu).

  As an example of jumping into an existing document, there is a
  section in the "example" project that explains the format of a
  link.  The label on this section is "link".  To jump to that
  section, begin by selecting the Jump Link command (either from the
  menu bar or by selecting the "Jump" gadget at the top of the window
  and then selecting the "Link" gadget in the Jump Requester.)  Next,
  type in the string "example,link" (without the " marks) followed by
  typing the "RETURN" key.  Finally, select the "This Window" gadget
  in the Jump Confirmation Requester.

  Typing the string "example," (note the comma but no label typed
  after the comma) would jump to the beginning (origin) of the
  document "example".

  Whether or not you take the diversion suggested by the previous
  paragraphs, you create a new Thinker document by selecting the
  "New" menu option from the "Project" menu.   Do so now.  Note that
  a requester pops up inviting you to enter a project name.  The
  first part of the requester is filled in with the name of the
  current Drawer.  Since you double clicked the Thinker icon
  directly, this Drawer name will be the Drawer in which the
  Thinker program was found.  The Requester is already activated so
  simply type in the name of your new project.  In this example we
  use the name "tutorial".  If you entered the name "example" you
  will be greeted by a requester asking if you want to replace the
  "example" project that already exists.  You should respond by
  selecting the CANCEL gadget and begin again typing the name
  "tutorial".

  After some disk activity the window will display the new document
  (note the change in the window title) and the document will contain
  a single statement (a Copyright notice).  The first thing to do is
  to replace the Copyright notice with the first statement of our new
  document.  You might try using the Delete (Branch) command but you
  will find that you cannot delete the only branch in a document.

  Move the pointer over the Copyright notice and observe that while
  the pointer is within the statement it is shaped like a cursor.
  Move the cursor shape to the very beginning of the statement and
  press the left mouse button.  While holding down the left mouse
  button, move the cursor to the end of the statement.  Notice that
  the selected text becomes highlighted as you move the cursor.  When
  you have the entire statement selected, release the left mouse
  button.  Type in the string "What I did last Summer" (do not type
  the RETURN key).  Notice that the selected text is removed and
  replaced with the typed string.

  Now we are going to add some statements.  This initial document
  will look a great deal like an outline.  Remember that any
  statement you type could be as long as 2000 characters and fill the
  entire window.  In order to keep this first example short, we will
  only type a few words in each statement.

  Select the "Insert" gadget at the top of the window.  Note that the
  pointer changes into a hand with a pointing finger.  Move the hand
  so that the finger points at the first statement.  Press the left
  mouse button and notice that an Insert Confirmation Requester pops
  up with the pointer pointing to the word "After".  If you wanted
  this new statement to be directly after the first statement, you
  would simply press the left mouse button again.  Instead, move the
  pointer over the word "Down" in the requester and press the left
  mouse button.  Notice that the text insert cursor appears on the
  screen just below the first statement and indented by two
  characters.  Type the string "(school)Went to Summer touch typing
  classes.".

  Select the Insert gadget again and move the hand to point to the
  statement you just typed.  Press the left mouse button twice (the
  first time selects the statement and the second time selects the
  word "After" in the confirmation requester.)  Type the string
  "(beach)Went to the beach with Bob and met his little girl Lauren."
  (Who is Bob?)  Bob is someone that attended the same typing class
  so you will want to put any information about Bob in statements
  that are subordinate to the statement labeled "school".  Position
  the pointer over the first statement (the one labeled "school") and
  double click the right mouse button.  The Insert Confirmation
  Requester should pop up and you should select the "Down" gadget.
  Type the string "(bob)Met Bob, a computer science student who
  wanted to learn typing skills."

  Move the pointer back to the last statement "(beach)Went...." and
  position the cursor over the word "Bob" and double click the left
  mouse button.  Notice that the Jump Confirmation Requester pops up
  with the pointer positioned over the words "This Window".  Move the
  pointer over the word "New Window" and press the left mouse button.
  Notice that the new window opens with the statement "(bob)Met
  Bob,..." as the anchor of the window.  This is an example of a
  hypertext link.  "Bob" is the label on the statement "(bob)Met..."
  and the double click of the left mouse button with the cursor over
  the word "Bob" was a Jump Link command.  The same effect could be
  caused by selecting the "Jump Link" command from the "Commands"
  menu, or by selecting the Jump (Link) gadget at the top of the
  window and typing the characters "bob" followed by RETURN.

  Who is Lauren?  Position the cursor right after the word "Lauren"
  and press the left mouse button once.  The text input cursor should
  appear between the "n" and the ".".  Type the string " (See
  <Thinker:art/lauren,>)".  This is a link to a picture file.  Note
  that the comma must be present to indicate that the link is to some
  other file and not the document shown in the window ("tutorial").

  You have just added a hypertext link to an IFF picture file.  This
  link had to be surrounded by "<" and ">" because it contained
  punctuation characters (":" and ",").  Move the cursor between the
  "<" and the ">" and double click the left mouse button.  When the
  Picture Confirmation Requester pops up select the "Full Screen"
  gadget.  After a pause, a picture of Lauren appears (From the
  NewTek "Digi Paint" package.)  Typing any character or pressing the
  left mouse button will remove the picture and return the Thinker
  screen.  Repeat the selection of the picture link and select the
  "New Window" gadget.  This time an approximation of the same
  picture will be drawn in a new workbench window that you may move
  around on the screen.  This approximate picture is drawn with the 4
  colors available on your workbench.  The window has an invisible
  close gadget in the upper left corner that will close the window
  when selected.

  If you want to save the changes you have made to this new project,
  select the "Save" menu selection from the "Project" menu.  "Revert"
  will restore the project to its initial state (with the Copyright
  notice).

  This completes the first part of the tutorial.  The second part of
  the tutorial uses an existing document called "example".  You can
  begin by closing the Thinker window (select the close gadget in
  the upper left corner) and starting all over again by double
  clicking on the EXAMPLE icon, or by doing a Jump Link to "example,"
  (don't forget the comma).  In either case you should read the next
  paragraph before going on with the second part of the tutorial.

    Note: When a file name is selected in the file requester, the
    comma is optional unless you wish to add a label.

  Start the second part of the tutorial by double clicking on the
  EXAMPLE icon or by selecting the icon and use the "Open" option of
  the "Workbench" menu.  Read carefully and follow the instructions.
  It is helpful if you read ahead a little before executing the
  instructions.  The tutorial is not very long or complicated but is
  intended solely to give the reader a little familiarity with the
  behavior of Thinker and build a little confidence for the first
  time user of Thinker.

Not So Obvious Features

  Most of the operation of Thinker can be discovered by exploring
  the menus and selecting the gadgets.  There are, unfortunately,
  some behaviors that are not manifest by this exploration.  There
  are also some curious restrictions.  Poor Person Software tries
  hard to produce software that is useful and complete but without
  all the frills that would make it expensive.

  Restrictions

    When the Mark option is used for both the beginning and end of a
    group, both ends of the group must be in the same window.

    Only 19 characters of a label are significant.

    Only the first 32 statements with duplicate labels can be reached
    via a Jump Link.

  Features

    Window Memory Buffer

      When statements are displayed in a window, the text information
      is in a memory buffer where it is easy to update the data based
      on the keyboard input.  Any time that a Jump command is
      executed, "Save" is requested, or another project is opened,
      the changes in the memory buffer are moved into the Update
      Pool.  When there are changes in the Update Pool a "*"
      character appears in the title line in front of the "Thinker
      n.nn" string.  Since the Window Memory Buffer is not moved into
      the Update Pool at each keystroke, the "*" will not appear
      immediately upon making a change in the window.  Selecting the
      window sizing gadget will write the Window Memory Buffer into
      the Update pool.

      The presence of the Window Memory Buffer is only important when
      there are multiple windows open over the same document.
      Changes made in one window are not visible in another window
      until the Window Memory Buffer for the changed window is
      written into the Update Pool.  The previous paragraph contains
      a discussion of when the Window Memory Buffer is written into
      the Update pool.

      The Update Pool is where modifications to a Thinker document
      are stored until the user selects either "Save" or "Revert".
      After one of these selections the Update Pool is emptied.

    Read Cache

      Thinker keeps a cache of the all modified portions of a
      Thinker document in its memory (the Update pool) but only a
      small portion of the document that has been read from the disk
      is kept in memory (a read cache).  Since Thinker documents
      are randomly accessed AmigaDOS files, updating the screen could
      be a painfully slow process without this read cache.  The read
      cache is small and can be turned off if some Floppy Accelerator
      like Facc II from ASDG is used.  ASDG did such a good job that
      Poor Person Software did not feel that it was worth the time to
      include much of a read cache in Thinker.  The read cache is
      large enough to insure that screen updates are reasonably fast.

      As an alternative, small documents can be copied into the RAM:
      device and manipulated there.  When you are finished and have
      saved all your changes, copy the document back to a disk.

   Undo

      Once modifications have been applied to a Thinker document
      they cannot be "undone".  However, Thinker will accumulate
      all the updates to a document in its memory (the Update pool)
      until "Save" is selected in the Project Menu.  The user should
      learn to schedule updates to allow for backout of recent
      errors.

    Remembering Local Clip adjustments

      When the clipping level for a branch is adjusted using the "+"
      gadgets in front of statements, this action is recorded in a
      small in-memory data base.  This database has room for 32
      selections of "+" gadgets in each project.  If the 33rd entry
      is made into this database, the oldest entry is purged.

    Power Tools

      Double clicking the right mouse button with the cursor
      positioned over a statement will cause Thinker to enter
      "power tool" mode.  An insert confirmation requester and a set
      of tool gadgets will appear and invite the user to select a
      relative level to insert a new statement (as in the last step
      of the insert command) or to select a Jump, Move, Copy or
      Delete tool.  If the pointer is within a statement (showing the
      text pointer) and the user selects one of the levels, a
      statement will be inserted.  If a tool gadget is selected
      Thinker behaves as if the tool gadget at the top of the
      window was selected.

    The number of open documents is limited to 16

      When Thinker jumps to a new document, it must open a new
      AmigaDOS file.  Since there may be outstanding updates on the
      document that was jumped from and you may soon return to that
      document, the document is not closed.  After 32 such jumps you
      will have to use the "Close" menu item under the "Project" menu
      to close some project.  Close closes the document visible in
      the active window.

    Fast Jump Link

      Double clicking the left mouse button with the cursor
      positioned over a link (or word) is equivalent to doing a Jump
      Link command with the Mark option and positioning the hand over
      the link (or word).

    Keyboard Confirmation of Jumps

      In all cases when the confirmation requester is brought up to
      complete a jump.  The confirmation can be effected by typing
      the RETURN key on the keyboard.

Summary of Release 2.1 features

  With the features added in release 2.1, Thinker has become a
  general purpose word processor and database as well as a powerful
  Hypertext idea processor.   The major features are summarized
  below.  The section that follows this one describes the rest of the
  enhancements, and following that are the details of all of the
  changes are organized in a fashion that parallels the Thinker
  manual.

  Images as Statements

    Images that are displayed in workbench windows can be
    incorporated into as statements in a document.  To make this
    option more attractive, the picture display options have been
    expanded to include a new smaller size and extended color
    selection using a color dithering technique that allows the
    display of 10 colors on the Workbench screen.

    The new smaller size is 160 x 50 pixels on a non-interlaced
    screen or 160 x 100 on an interlaced screen.  This size has been
    dubbed the "Xfer" window size as it is anticipated that this is
    the most common size to transfer into a document.

    Pictures are first displayed in one of the workbench windows and
    then the most recently displayed or touched (click the mouse over
    the window to touch it) picture window can be inserted into the
    document using the "Insert Image" command.

    No provision is made for printing pictures.  Printed or exported
    documents will display a small box for each included image.

  Mixed Text Styles and Colors

    It is possible to display portions of statements in any of the
    standard text styles (Italic, Bold, Underlined) and any
    combination of these styles.  Simply select the text by sweeping
    the cursor over the text with the left mouse button held down and
    then use the Style menu to select the style.

    A typing style may be selected for future typing by selecting
    from the Style menu without selecting text.

    Foreground and background text colors are handled similarly.  You
    may wish to select an alternate color for text that represents a
    link but the color selection is NOT considered when isolating or
    selecting links.

  Saved Environments

    A complete multi-window, multi-file environment can be saved and
    restored later.  The Save Options menu selection saves the entire
    environment in the icon of the file displayed in the window that
    is active when the menu option is selected.  When this file icon
    is used to launch Thinker, all the windows that were active when
    Save Options was selected will be opened displaying the same
    files.  If any window was positioned at a label in a file when
    Save Options was selected then the window will be positioned at
    that label when Thinker is launched.

  Options in the Thinker Icon

    The default options for Thinker can set in the Thinker icon.  Any
    time that Thinker is launched the Options and Behavior settings
    are first read from the Thinker icon and then from the file icon.
     The options strings in the Thinker icon can be inserted and
    edited using INFO from the Workbench.

  Improved display speed while typing

    The display speed has been improved and now keeps up with
    moderate speeds of auto-repeat.

New Behaviors

  This section describes the remainder of the Release 2.1 features.
  Be sure to check to sections that follow for the details of menus,
  requesters, and gadgets.

  CLI Interface

    The special link <CLI,command> uses ICONX to execute the
    "command" command in the CLI environment.  "Command" can be any
    legal CLI command or set of commands separated by line feed
    characters.  Line feed characters are entered at the keyboard
    while typing into a statement using the "Return" key and show up
    on the screen as ~.  When typing a CLI command string into the
    Jump Link string gadget, type the "~" character to indicate
    Carriage Returns.

    The ICONX program must be in the C: directory for this special
    link to work.

  File Name Prefixes

    For some applications it is awkward to have the full pathname of
    files as part of links.  If the file is moved from one floppy
    disk to another or from one directory to another, then all the
    documents which contain the link must be changed.  The use of
    file name prefixes alleviates this problem.

    The CLI environment has a mechanism called ASSIGNS that solves
    this problem for CLI programs.  If fact ASSIGNS can be used for
    Thinker links.  A link of the form <ABC:filename,label> would
    look on the floppy disk with the label ABC: or if there were an
    active ASSIGN of the form "ASSIGN ABC: HD0:xyz" would look on the
    hardisk in directory "xyz".

    Thinker has a similar mechanism.  You can use INFO to add file
    name prefixes to the Thinker icon.  These prefixes act similarly
    to ASSIGNS.  If there is a tooltype of the form "ABC:=HD0:xyz/"
    then links of the form <ABC:filename,label> would be resolved as
    "HD0:xyz/filename,label".  The string on the right side of the
    tooltype is substituted for the string on the left side when
    found at the beginning of a link file name.

  Cursor Positioning

    The cursor can be moved quickly to the beginning or end of
    statements or lines using combinations of the cursor keys and the
    Alt or Shift keys.

    Shift-LeftCursor moves the cursor to the beginning of the line.
    Alt-LeftCursor moves the cursor to the beginning of the
    statement.

    Shift-RightCursor moves the cursor to the end of the line.  Note
    that the cursor always appears at the beginning of the next line
    when it is logically at the end of a line.  Alt-RightCursor moves
    the cursor to the end of the statement.

 Keyboard scrolling

    Scrolling can be accomplished using the Up/Down cursor keys in
    combination with the Alt/Shift keys.  Alt-Up and Alt-Down scroll
    the window one statement backward and one statement forward
    respectively.  Shift-Down scrolls the window forward a single
    line.

  Null Replacement Strings

    When replace is selected from the Search/Replace requester the
    replacement string is now always used.  In previous releases a
    NULL replacement string was treated as a search only.  In this
    release the NULL replacement string is treated properly.  The
    located string is removed from the text.

  Minimizing Jump Return Points

    Scrolling the window no longer fills up the Jump Return list.
    However, if one jumps to a statement and then scrolls forward
    followed by a jump, the last scroll position is put into the Jump
    Return list.  Thus the sequence Jump to "A", scroll to "B" and
    jump to "C" would leave "A", "B", and "C" in the Jump Return
    list.  Jump return from "C" will go to "B" and then to "A".  The
    positions between "A" and "B" that were visited as part of the
    scroll operations will be skipped.

  Wider Requester for Duplicate Labels

    When duplicate labels are presented for selection on a Jump to a
    label that is duplicated, the entire width of the screen is used
    to display the text of each of the statements.

 New Definition of Up

    For the Insert, Copy, and Move commands the definition of "Up"
    has been changed.  Selecting "Up" from the confirmation requester
    puts the statement(s) immediately above the marked statement.
    This is equivalent to splitting the plex at the insertion point
    and putting the second half of the plex subordinate to the
    inserted statements.

  Search behavior with small windows

    In previous releases a search that located a string in the second
    half of a large statement might not show the located string on
    the screen if the entire statement did not fit in the window.
    This situation was particularly evident with small windows
    displays only a small portion of a statement.

    This error is corrected in this release so that the located
    string is always displayed even if the statement must be
    displayed starting in the middle.  In effect the statement is
    scrolled until the located string is the first thing displayed.

    If you need to do a CHANGEALL operation, you will find that it
    proceeds much faster in a small window.

  Clock alternates with Free Memory

    The clock display in the upper left corner of the screen
    alternates with a free memory display.

  Automatic Close of Unneeded Files

    With this option selected, files are closed as soon as they are
    not displayed in any window and have no updates.  The advantage
    is that if you jump from file to file on several floppy disks
    while browsing, you will not be asked to insert all the floppies
    when you select Quit.

 Case Independent Sorts

    An option on the Sort command allows a choice between honoring or
    ignoring the case of characters during the sort.  If the case is
    honored, then the lower case alphabet follows the uppercase
    alphabet.

  Link Extensions

    Labels in links can be followed by a series of directives that
    extend or refine the link.  Commands include movement relative to
    the label (Down, Preceding, etc) and highlighting a phase within
    a statement.

  Line Length Selection

    The length of the line used for PRINT and for EXPORT with
    PREFIX=! can be selected.