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T E A C H E R A Didactic Tool for your Computer (C) 1991, 1992 by Paolo Gatti All Rights Reserved Version 0.60, released on 4-Sep-1992 User's Manual TEACHER TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...............................................................3 How Teacher was developed; Acknowledgements................................5 How to register............................................................6 Basic Concepts............................................................11 Logical Blocks............................................................12 Linear Block........................................................13 Terminal Block......................................................13 Question Block......................................................14 Evaluation Block....................................................17 How to create a lesson....................................................18 Internal Commands.........................................................19 External Commands.........................................................21 The Log File..............................................................27 How to customize Teacher..................................................28 TCRComp: the Lesson Compiler..............................................29 Error Messages............................................................32 Conclusion................................................................37 Index.....................................................................38 TEACHER INTRODUCTION 3 INTRODUCTION Teacher is a didactic program which can be used to teach lessons and to evaluate the performance of the student. At the moment, it's available on Amiga and Msdos computers, in Italian and in English. Teacher does not claim to replace human teachers, but it can add some interesting features to the traditional way of teaching. It can be used at school to examine students: in this case, it can provide an objective evaluation of the student's skills according to the answers he gives. It can also be used at home, if the student owns a computer, as a self-test. Teacher has many advantages: here are some of them. Advantages over the "typical" private lesson: -The student who owns a computer and a copy of Teacher can study whenever he likes and as long as he likes. -The student can suspend the lesson, start again from the beginning or from anywhere in the lesson he likes... as the teacher is a computer, it is very patient and never gets angry. -Teacher is definitely cheaper. -At the end of the lesson, the student knows exactly how good - or bad - his knowledge of the subject is. Advantages over the "typical" oral test: -A great number of students (one for each available computer) can be examined at the same time. -Everything the student answers can be permanently memorized on a diskette, and the teacher can, after the test, look again at the answers given. -Nothing is made up on the spur of the moment: every question is balanced and logical. -Teacher is a fair judge: all the students answer to the same questions and face the same difficulties; luck and partiality do not influence the final outcome. -The final evaluation is error-free: the mark the student gets depends exclusively on the answers he gives (correct, incorrect, partially correct), on the difficulty of the questions and on the skill required to discard wrong answers. -The student immediately knows, if he makes a mistake, what he did wrong and why: during oral tests, very often, there is not enough time to analyse deeply each answer. TEACHER INTRODUCTION 4 Advantages over the "typical" written test: -Teacher is flexible: according to the student's answers, it is possible to alter the following questions. For instance, if the student makes a very serious mistake, it is possible to ask him more questions on the same subject. -Teacher is colloquial: the student knows instantly if he answered correctly or not. -The student does not have to wait to know the mark he deserved: Teacher can calculate it in a fraction of second. -Sometimes, deceitful students manage to read the test before they take the exam... Teacher makes this nearly impossible, as it can encrypt the lessons so that only who knows the correct password can read the test. TEACHER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 HOW TEACHER WAS DEVELOPED; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I began writing Teacher in November 1990, when my teacher of History and Philosophy, Piero Carelli, suggested I wrote a series of questions on German Idealism. During the following months, thanks to the numerous beta-testers, Teacher gradually grew up to its current size. The program was written in C language, and the Amiga version was compiled with Aztec C compiler V5.0d-1. I must thank all the people who helped me to develop Teacher by testing the various versions of the program and giving me useful suggestions: Piero Carelli - for the idea & a very deep beta-testing; Giovan Battista Nichetti - for his suggestions; The vice-principal of my school - for letting me use the computer room; Ascanio Orlandini Mario Pacchiarotti Enrico Cima Piergiorgio Ghezzo and all my friends of FidoNet and AmigaNet- for technical advice; Marco Bissa Fabio Brassini Elena Danzi Matteo Maretti Silvia Provezza and the other students of my class - they didn't kill me when I "forced" them to test the program! 8-> Manx - for the compiler; Commodore Amiga, Inc. - for creating Amiga, of course! TEACHER HOW TO REGISTER 6 HOW TO REGISTER * READ CAREFULLY * Teacher is NOT free. It is NOT a Public Domain program, nor will it ever be. The author reserves all rights on the program. I chose to distribute Teacher as a Shareware program, as I think Shareware is advantageous for both the programmer and the user. The evaluation version of Teacher is freely redistributable, as long as it remains in its integral form: that is, you cannot distribute partial or modified versions. It is forbidden to the distributor to charge fees which exceed the costs of shipping&handling. It is also forbidden to modify, disassemble, decompile or reverse engineer the program in any way, and to include parts of Teacher in other software packages without the written permission of the author. Users are granted a limited evaluation license, which allows them to test a limited version of Teacher for one month. After a month, if you are not interested in Teacher you must destroy all the copies of Teacher you own; otherwise, you have to register. Registered users will receive by mail the most recent version of Teacher, together with a KeyFile which allows you to use Teacher up to its full potential. Registered users can still distribute evaluation copies of Teacher, but must not distribute the keyfile "Teacher.Reg". Somebody may ask, "Why should I register?". There are three good reasons. 1) You will sleep better, and you will not bear a burden on your conscience. 2) Only registered users can use all of the features of Teacher. 3) If you register you encourage the author to develop new and better versions of Teacher, and registered users do not have to pay anything to use these new versions. HOW TO REGISTER You just have to fill the form on page 8 and send it to Teacher Development c/o Paolo Gatti via Boldori 17 26013 CREMA (CR) ITALY (Tel. +39-373-201617) together with the photocopy of the receipt of a postal money order, or with a cheque in Italian Lire drawn on an Italian bank, non-transferable and made out to "Paolo Gatti". Your local bank or post office can suggest you the most convenient way. Beware - only the Author can grant licenses. Registration to one copy of Teacher costs 20000 LIT. (less than 20 US$). TEACHER HOW TO REGISTER 7 If you wish to make a multiple registration, that is, if two or more users want to make an order together, each user must fill and sign a copy of the form. I WILL NOT ACCEPT NON-SIGNED REQUESTS. If you are not of age, one of your parents must sign. If you order more than 10 copies to be sent to the same address, there is a discount: the copies ABOVE #10 only cost 15000 LIT. If you order at least 10 copies, you may ask for a single "Master Disk" containing all the KeyFiles; in this case, the duplication is up to you, but each copy costs 10000 LIT. Add 3000 LIT per disk for an Express delivery, and 5000 LIT per package (just once if the disks must be sent all together) if you want me to use registered mail. For instance, if a school wants to order 8 copies of Teacher, the cost is 8*20000 = 160000 LIT. 25 copies sent to the same address cost 10*20000 + 15*15000 = 425000 LIT. A Master Disk with 25 Keyfiles costs 250000 LIT. As I said, the evaluation version is freely redistributable; however, if you can't find it anywhere, you can get it from the author for 10000 LIT (registration excluded). Registered users can use Teacher to READ a lesson; if you want to use TCRComp, the syntax controller (see later), and if you want to create new lessons you must also register to TCRComp. Registration costs 10000 LIT per copy plus 20000 LIT per author; it is possible for many authors to use the same copy, provided only one author at a time uses it. Registration to a copy of TCRComp includes a free registration to one copy of Teacher. For instance, if three teachers want to use TCRComp on the same computer, they have to pay 70000 LIT; if each of them wanted to use it on a separate computer, the price would grow to 3*30000 = 90000 LIT. It is possible to upgrade registrations to TCRComp: if a fourth teacher wanted to use the same copy of Teacher, he would only have to pay 20000 LIT; he would receive a new Keyfile to replace the old one. Note that once you receive a new Keyfile you must delete the old one. Registered users have few restrictions: - The licence CANNOT be sold, transferred or let without permission from the author; - The KeyFile CANNOT be distributed; - A single licence allows you to use Teacher on a single computer at any time; that means that if you are a registered user you can use Teacher yourself on any computer you wish, and you can also lend it to others; but you CANNOT run at the same time two copies of Teacher, unless you own two licences. Consider Teacher as any object: if you buy it, you can use it where you wish, and you can lend it to others, but you cannot "double" it... TEACHER HOW TO REGISTER 8 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Cut Here -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- CONTRACT OF NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1- Paolo Gatti (the Author) cannot be held liable for any damage caused by usage of the programs Teacher and TCRComp. The User takes upon himself all responsibilities. 2- The Author is not obliged to develop further versions of the programs Teacher and TCRComp. 3- The User agrees that he CANNOT distibute the program's KeyFile, called "TEACHER.REG". 4- The user agrees to destroy all the copies he owns of the program and of the documentation in case of violation of the licence terms. 5- The User is granted permission to make safety copies of the programs, the manuals and the KeyFile, but in this case he must be sure that no more than one copy of the program per registration is active at any time. USER'S DATA: Multiple Order ( ) Main Form ( ) Name________________________________________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________________________________ ZIP code, City, Province/State______________________________________________ Country___________________ Phone Number____________________________________ I order #_______________ copies of Teacher, and #___________________ copies of TCRComp, for __________________ authors. Program Version: Amiga ( ) Ms Dos ( ) Italian ( ) English ( ) Delivery mode: To single users ( ) Cumulative ( ) Master Disk ( ) Extra postal services? Express ( ) Registered mail ( ) Cost: _____________ L. (Teacher) + ____________ L.(postal extras) + + __________(TCRComp copies) * 10000 L. + _________(authors) * 20000 L. = = ______________L.(Total expenditure) I accept all the clauses of this contract, especially clauses #1, #3 and #4. Authorized Signature _________________________________ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Cut Here -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TEACHER HOW TO REGISTER 9 The form should be very easy to understand. The only parts which require some explanation are "Multiple Order" and "Main Form". They are useful if you wish to order many copies of Teacher which must be sent to the same address. In this case, all the users must sign a copy of the form, cross "Multiple Order" and leave empty the monetary part of the contract; the person who wants to receive the parcel must cross "Main Form" and summarize on his form the cost of all the copies. If you have any doubt, enclose a letter (in Italian or English, please!) to explain your needs. TCRCOMP REGISTRATION FORM For each copy of TCRComp you order, you must also send me a copy of the form you can see below, as I need to know the names of the authors. There are no discounts for quantity on TCRComp, but remember - each copy of TCRComp includes a free copy of Teacher. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Cut Here -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TCRCOMP REGISTRATION FORM USER'S DATA: Name________________________________________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________________________________ ZIP code, City, Province, Country___________________________________________ New Licence? YES ( ) NO ( ) Program Version: Amiga ( ) Ms Dos ( ) Names of the authors: ________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ________________________ _________________________ _________________________ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Cut Here -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TEACHER HOW TO REGISTER 10 A short summary: every person or firm who wants to purchase one or more copies of Teacher and/or TCRComp must sign a copy of the Registration Form; for each copy of TCRComp, you must also fill the supplementary form. Please write everything, except the signature, in block letters, as I might not understand your handwriting. I will try to send the registered copies of Teacher as soon as possible, but, considering the famous efficiency of Italian mail 8-<, do not worry if the parcel takes two or three months to arrive. If you want a quicker delivery ask for Express mail. WARNING! The evaluation copy of Teacher works with some restrictions, which do not bind registered users. Registration to Teacher allows you to read lessons COMPILED WITH TCRCOMP. If you register only to Teacher, and if you try to use non-compiled lessons, the program will perform as an evaluation version. If you register to TCRComp as well, you can also read non-compiled lessons, without any restriction. As you should have read in the contract, the Author is not responsible for any damage caused by the program. Do not worry, though. That is only a legal clause to protect myself, but up to now Teacher has not damaged anything. Also note that the fact that registered users do not have to pay for the upgrades does not imply that the Author must go on developing Teacher. These conditions, in my opinion, are more favourable than those usually found in commercial products - and the price is much lower. Do not make me regret having chosen Shareware to distribute Teacher: if you use my program, register yourselves. TEACHER BASIC CONCEPTS 11 BASIC CONCEPTS Teacher and TCRComp have been developed to give teachers and students as much flexibility as possible. You can instantly see this from the fact that it is possible to transfer nearly everything from Amiga to Msdos and vice versa using any interface - software emulators, serial cable, Bridgeboard... The only thing that changes between the two versions is the executable code (on Amigas, "Teacher" and "TCRComp"; on Msdos "Teacher.exe" and "TCRComp.exe"). Teacher does not require much to work. The Amiga version works on all models from A500 to A3000 33Mhz. As for Msdos is concerned, Teacher works perfectly on PC XT, 286, 386 and 486 computers. The minimum memory required varies according to the size of the lesson, but 200K should be more than enough. The only major fault in Teacher is the interface for teachers which... does not exist: if I have time, I will develop it. At the moment, if you want to create a lesson you need Teacher, Tcrcomp and a Text Editor. (For Amiga users I suggest TxEd or Cygnus Editor). Any editor should be all right; the only requisite is that the editor MUST NOT add special characters (i.e. Bold, Underline...) to the text, as they could interfere with Teacher's text handling routines. You have to avoid TABs as well. Teacher, as you can read in the Introduction, has many interesting features: in the following chapters you will learn how to use the program. I strongly suggest, anyway, that if you want to do something "serious" with Teacher you should first of all have a clear idea of what exactly you want Teacher to do. People who know what they want to do can do it better. TEACHER LOGICAL BLOCKS 12 LOGICAL BLOCKS Logical blocks are Teacher's main feature. There are four kinds of logical blocks, and I will describe each of them later. Any lesson can be created simply by putting together, in a certain order, some blocks. This is a short description of all the possible blocks: LINEAR BLOCK: it writes a text onto the screen and goes on to another block. TERMINAL BLOCK: it writes a text onto the screen and ends the lesson. This is the least frequently used block. QUESTION BLOCK: it asks the student a question and proposes two or more possible answers. The student must choose the answer(s) he thinks is(are) right, and Teacher goes on with another block, determined by the answer or combination of answers given. EVALUATION BLOCK: it is similar to the Question block, but Teacher does not ask anything - it chooses where to go according to the student's score, the time he/she took to answer up to now, a random number or the contents of any of the 64 variables that Teacher can memorize. Every block can "call" any other block: that is, the lesson can go on from any kind of block (except, of course, a Terminal Block) to any kind of block. Moreover, as blocks are identified by their name, it is not necessary for the blocks to be put in sequential order: when Teacher seeks a block, it seeks it from the beginning of the text to the end. All blocks start with a line, long no more than nine characters (letters or digits), which identifies univocally that block; they end with a @#% sequence. Block names must be unique, and they must not enclose spaces. Note that Teacher is NOT case sensitive: "A" and 'a' are the same thing. Immediately after the Block Name, you have to type a text, which will appear every time that Teacher reads the block; the text must finish with a LineFeed and a @#$ sequence. Between @#$ and @#% you have to put some special data which varies depending on which type of block you want to create. Note that if your Text Editor allows you to write long lines without going to a new line, you can avail yourself of this feature: Teacher will page the text up for you. Otherwise, Teacher can leave the text as it is or page it up. Please read the description of "LeftMargin", "RightMargin" and "Justify" in the External Commands section to know more about text justification. An example: BLOCK1 ............. ..(Block Text).. ............. @#$ ............. ..(Other Data).. ............. @#$ TEACHER LINEAR BLOCK 13 LINEAR BLOCK It is a very simple block: it corresponds to a forced path. When Teacher finds such a block, it writes the text on the screen, asks the student to press Return and goes on with the next block. The structure of a linear block is the following: BLOCK_NAME Block Text @#$ 1 NEXT_BLOCK_NAME @#% For instance, if the student makes a mistake, you could tell Teacher to use this block: Error I'm sorry, but your answer was completely wrong. @#$ 1 Question3 @#% In this case, Teacher writes the sentence on the screen, waits for the student to press Return and goes on to the block called "Question3". TERMINAL BLOCK It is even easier than the linear block: it concludes a lesson. Here is the syntax: BLOCK_NAME Block Text @#$ 0 <- Beware! This is a zero, not an 'o'! @#% And here is an example: TheEnd The lesson is over. See you next time. @#$ 0 @#% Teacher writes the sentence, asks the student to press Return and ends the lesson. TEACHER QUESTION BLOCK 14 QUESTION BLOCK It would be nearly useless to write an extremely long series of blocks without giving the student any chance to say anything, wouldn't it? Therefore, here is the most important part of Teacher, the one that allows you to ask the student questions and to give him a score according to his answer. The complex syntax of a Question block is the following: BLOCK_NAME Block Text: the question @#$ Possible Answers;Maximum Contemporary Answers 'A' answer @#$ 'B' answer @#$ ... @#$ Score YES_A; Score NO_A Score YES_B; Score NO_B ... @#$ Answers; Continue with block... ... @#% Looks difficult, doesn't it? This is perhaps the most complicated part of Teacher to learn - but it is the most useful as well. "Possible Answers" is the number of the answers that the computer must suggest to the student. It must be at least 2. "Maximum Contemporary Answers" is the maximum number of answers that the student may choose among the ones the computer suggests. If this parameter is 3, for instance, the student can choose one, two or three answers. Obviously, this parameter must be at least 1, and cannot be higher than "Possible Answers". Immediately after these two numbers, put the texts of the possible answers, dividing them with @#$ lines. Teacher pages up answers as well; if you want to page them up yourself, remember that the text must be 3 columns narrower - 71 columns on Amiga, 74 on Msdos. After the last @#$ we find the scores: on each line there must be two positive or null integers, divided by a semicolon; the first represents how many points the student gets if he chooses that particular answer, the second the points he gets if he does NOT choose it. Do not worry if the concept seems strange - I am going to explain it later. There must be one such line for each possible answer. The Scores section must end with a @#$ line. At the end there is the Jump Table: here you decide, according to the answers given, which block Teacher must go on with. Each line of this section consists of a condition, a semicolon and a BlockName. Conditions are considered from the top to the bottom, and as soon as a condition is satisfied Teacher jumps to the corresponding block. TEACHER QUESTION BLOCK 15 Here is an example - you will probably need it... Question4 Which of the following blocks can you find in Teacher? @#$ 5;3 <- 5 answers follow; the student can choose up to 3. Question Block @#$ Answer Block @#$ Empty Block @#$ Terminal Block @#$ Illogical Block @#$ 10;0 1;7 0;6 12;0 0;2 @#$ Did the student choose... BCE;3Errors <- ...three wrong answers? AD;AllIsOK <- ...the two correct answers and nothing else? A;Partial <- ...the first answer and nothing else? A?;OneHalf <- ...the first answer and a wrong one? D??;D+2 <- ...the fourth answer and other two? B*;BAndMore <- Was the second answer chosen? C?*;C+1+More <- Were the 3rd answer and at least another chosen? ???;ThreeAnsw <- Was it a triple answer? *;SthElse <- In all the other cases... @#% When Teacher executes this block, the following appears on the screen: ------------------------------------------------------ Which of the following blocks can you find in Teacher? A> Question Block B> Answer Block C> Empty Block D> Terminal Block E> Illogical Block Please answer (max. 3 answers) > ------------------------------------------------------ Now the student just has to type the letters corresponding to the answers he chooses and to press Return. Note that if you do not answer, or give twice the same answer, or give an impossible answer, or give too many answers, Teacher does not accept it. TEACHER QUESTION BLOCK 16 In this case, the correct answer is 'AD' (or 'da', or 'Da', or 'aD'... it is the same thing). Suppose that the student answers 'ABC'. The score for this answer is calculated at once and added to the total; the same happens to the maximum possible score. In this case, the student gets: 10 points for answering A; 1 point for answering B; 0 points for answering C; 0 points for NOT answering D; 2 points for NOT answering E. The student's score grows by 13 points, while the maximum score grows by 37 points - the ones the student would have got if he had answered correctly. It is very important to give points to the student for NOT choosing the wrong answers! The capacity of excluding wrong answers is a useful one. Some words about "how many points should I give?". First of all, a single question must not be worth more than 30000 points, and the total must never grow higher than 2 billions. If you stay below these limits, the method I suggest is: 1) choose a maximum score for the question proportional to the difficulty of the question; 2) split it between the possible answers according to how easy or difficult is for the student to decide if the answer is right or wrong. Immediately after calculating the score, Teacher evaluates the conditions one by one. Any who has already worked with wildcards will recognize them immediately: '?' means 'any letter', '*' means 'any series of letters or nothing'. In Teacher, as the order of the answers does not influence the result, the characters in the condition must be put in this order: first of all letters, then question marks and finally the asterisk. As you can see from the example, you can write lots of conditions in this way. Please note that to write a logical AND you only need ONE condition: for instance, 'AB' means "Did the student choose A & B and nothing else?". To write a logical OR/XOR you must combine more conditions: AB;Both A;OnlyA B;OnlyB *;Neither In the example, the first condition, BCE, is false as it does not include A; AD does not include B and C. A and A? cannot be accepted as they limit to one or two the answers given, while ABC is a triple answer. D?? is not OK as the student did not choose D. Finally, B* is all right, as the student chose at least B. Teacher will continue the lesson with the block that follows the condition B*, i.e. BAndMore. Note: as a last condition, to avoid errors, you should always use '*', as it means "In any other case". If '*' is missing, the syntax controller TCRComp will warn you. The Question Block is the most difficult of all; if you feel you cannot learn how to use it, the only solution is to experiment and see how Teacher reacts. If I manage to write an interactive interface for teachers, I will try to make this section easier. TEACHER EVALUATION BLOCK 17 EVALUATION BLOCK This is the last type of block: it gives you the opportunity to choose between different continuations according to the student's current score. Here is the syntax: BLOCK_NAME Block Text @#/JumpMode EVALUATION_MODE @#$ -Number of alternatives <- Must be <0 Default Continuation Min;Max;Continuation Min;Max;Continuation ... @#% The line containing @#/JumpMode tells Teacher where it must "look" to decide where to go from here. If this line is missing, Teacher evaluates the current partial score. I shall explain JumpMode later, in the External Commands chapter. After the usual BlockText and @#$, there must be a NEGATIVE number: it means that this is not a Question Block but an Evaluation Block. On the following line there must be the name of a block: if Teacher is not able to decide a continuation, it will choose this block. Immediately after this you have to write as many lines as the absolute value of the "Number of alternatives". Each line consists of a minimum and maximum score (in 1000th) or time (in seconds) and of a Blockname; the three fields are separated by semicolons. When Teacher executes an Evaluation Block, it compares the previosly chosen object (for instance, the score) with the various intervals, from the top to the bottom. As soon as Teacher finds an acceptable interval, it "jumps" to the corresponding block; otherwise, if it cannot find any acceptable interval, it jumps to the Default Block. In any case, before going to the next block, Teacher asks the student to press Return. Here is an example: Eval You will soon know how well - or badly - you did... @#$ -3 <- Three Rating Lines. Average <- If all comparisons fail, go to "Average". 0;399;VeryBad <- First: did the student get less than 400/1000? 400;599;Bad <- Second: did he get from 400 to 599/1000? 850;1000;VeryGood <- Third and last: did he get at least 850/1000? @#% In this case, if the student's rating is less than 4/10, Teacher goes on with the "VeryBad" block; if the rating is between 4/10 and 6/10, it goes to "bad"; if it is higher than 850/1000, Teacher goes on with "VeryGood"; and finally, in all other cases, continues with the "Average" block. You should now know how to create a block of any kind. Combining the blocks correctly you can do nearly anything... you only have to try. TEACHER HOW TO CREATE A LESSON 18 HOW TO CREATE A LESSON You should know by now the internal syntax of the blocks; the last thing you have to learn in order to create a lesson is how to combine blocks. It is very easy: you just have to create a text file with any editor. The name of the file MUST end with ".Teacher" on Amiga and with ".Tea" on Msdos computers. This suffix (or extension) tells the computer "this is a lesson which can be read by Teacher". The first line of the text must be TEACHER_DFILE - it confirms that it is really a lesson. The second line consists of the name of the block Teacher must begin with. It is not necessary for it to be the first block. In the following lines, you can put (if you wish) some External Commands (see later) and, after them, a @#% line. After this "Introduction Block" you only have to put, in any order, the blocks which constitute the lesson. BEWARE! Avoid leaving empty lines outside text blocks. They could cause errors. An example: the lesson "Example.Teacher" ("Example.Tea" on Msdos) could be written this way. TEACHER_DFILE 2ndBlock <- Start with this block @#% <- No External Commands BlockOne ... @#% 2ndBlock ... @#% ... <- Various blocks ... ... ... LastBlock ... @#% Once the lesson file is ready, when you want to start the lesson you just have to enter, from CLI or Shell on Amiga, at the Prompt on Msdos, the command "Teacher <LessonName>", where <LessonName> is the lesson's filename without extension. For instance, to use the lesson "Demo.Teacher" or "Demo.Tea", you just have to write TEACHER DEMO and press Return. If the file called "Demo.Teacher" is not in the current directory, you have to tell Teacher the path to find it. You can now begin to experiment... good luck! TEACHER INTERNAL COMMANDS 19 INTERNAL COMMANDS You can already create some interesting lessons by using what you have learnt up to now. But Teacher can do much more! In fact, it is possible to display the student's mark, the time he took to complete the lesson, ask him to press Return, calculate a partial score... You can do all of these things by using Internal Commands. All Internal Commands have some common features. First of all, they all begin with the characters @#. Secondly, they must be placed inside a text; when Teacher finds them, according to the command, it performs some specific actions or replaces them with something else - for instance, the student's score. Two internal commands, @#$ and @#%, have already been described. Here you will find a description of all the other internal commands. PRESS RETURN - @#& It pauses the lesson until the student presses Return. This command is useful when you want to create suspense, or when you have to deal with very long texts which would otherwise overflow. An example: ... Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah @#& Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah ... In this case, Teacher displays the first Blah row, asks the student to press Return and waits; when the student chooses to go on, Teacher displays the second Blah line. WRITE MARK - @#*maxpoints This sequence is replaced with the student's mark; the maximum mark is the number (at least 2) following @#*. The mark is calculated dividing the student's points by the maximum possible score, and multiplying the result by the maximum mark. For instance, @#*100 writes on the screen a centesimal mark. If the student got 140 points on a maximum of 202, the result will be 70 (Teacher always rounds down). If you use @#* before asking any question, Teacher assumes that 0/0=1. (Otherwise the computer would crash...) CLEAR PARTIAL SCORE - @#^ This sequence should be used as a separate line. This internal command clears the partial score and the partial maximum points. TEACHER INTERNAL COMMANDS 20 USE GLOBAL SCORE - @#! This sequence should be used as a separate line. It is the opposite of @#^: when Teacher finds it, it forgets the partial score and uses global scores. An example: suppose the student got 360 points on a maximum of 400. A @#*100 command would write 90. If you now use @#^, the score becomes 0/0. Suppose that the student now gains 30/100 points. @#*100 would display 30. If you use the @#! command, Teacher sums up all partial scores, and the student gets a global 390/500: 78 on a @#*100. Besides @#*, the commands @#^ and @#! also influence Evaluation Blocks, as they use partial scores after @#^, global scores after @#!. SHOW TIME AND DATE - @#T or @#t This sequence is replaced by the time and date memorized into the computer. SHOW TIME ELAPSED - @#H, @#M, @#S, @#h, @#m, @#s These sequences are replaced by the number of hours, minutes and seconds elapsed from the beginning of the lesson if H, M, S are upper-case; if they are lower-case, Teacher shows the time elapsed since the last Time Reset (see External Commands). WRITE @# - @# The characters @#, followed by a space, are displayed as they are. WRITE @#something - @#@something Internal commands have only one fault - you cannot display the @# sequence, as it is recognized as a command and not as a text. No problem. Using this command you can solve this problem as well. For instance, the text "The @#@T command displays time and date" displays on the screen "The @#T command displays time and date". SEND EXTERNAL COMMAND - @#/Command This sequence sends the command "Command" to the External Command Processor. Read the following chapter to know more about it. PRINT VARIABLE - @#=var command (0.60) Only available in version 0.60 or higher. This command displays the contents of the variable 'var', where 'var' is a number between 0 and 63. TEACHER EXTERNAL COMMANDS 21 EXTERNAL COMMANDS With External Commands you can perform a series of complex actions: among these, the most interesting is perhaps the LogFile, i.e. you can write to disk a summary of what the student does, automatically. The "Log" chapter speaks about this in detail. If a command is followed by a number between brackets, you need at least that version of Teacher to use that command. WARNING! External commands, except Version and Time Reset, are reserved to registered users. In evaluation versions they are ignored. This is a good reason to register... VERSION Syntax: VERSION minimum-version-number It tells Teacher the minimum version of Teacher needed to use the lesson. For instance, "Version 0.60" stops the lesson if Teacher is not at least version 0.60. This is very useful if you use commands which were not available in older versions of Teacher. LOGMODE Syntax: LOGMODE Verbosity This commands activates and deactivates the Logfile, and tells Teacher which data must be written in it. Instead of Verbosity, you must insert one of the following keywords: NONE - Completely deactivates the LogFile. If this command appears in a lesson, no other commands in it may refer to the log. LogMode None must be put in the Introduction Block, and must appear only once. OFF - Temporarily deactivates the LogFile. If Teacher does not find any LogMode commands, it assumes the mode is OFF. All log-commands are ignored. HARDCOPY - Activates the Log and sends to it exactly what appears on the screen, neither more nor less. TERSE - Activates the Log, and writes the names of encountered Question Blocks and the answers given; moreover, when a @#* is executed, the score is written on the Log as well. All log-commands are active. NORMAL - Activates the Log as Terse, plus it writes for each question the points the student got and the maximum for that question. VERBOSE - Writes in the Log the names of ALL the blocks encountered; in Question Blocks, it memorizes the answer given, and the student's & maximum scores for that question, partial and global. FULL - Combines Verbose with Hardcopy. TEACHER INTERNAL COMMANDS 22 LOGNAME Syntax: LOGNAME LogFile It defines the name of the LogFile. If this command is absent, Teacher assumes the LogFileName to be <LessonName>.Log. If the current LogMode is None, Teacher stops. If a log is already open, Teacher closes it and opens the new log. You can use LogName to print results: you only have to use, on Amiga, "LogMode PRT:"; on Msdos, "LogMode LPT1". ECHONAME Syntax: ECHONAME If the Logfile is active, EchoName writes on it the name of the current lesson. For instance, if Teacher was activated with "Teacher Lesson1", EchoName will write "Lesson1.Teacher". ECHO Syntax: ECHO sentence If the LogFile is active, Echo writes the rest of the line on it. For instance, "Echo ***Second Part of the test***" sends to the log "***Second Part of the test***". ASK Syntax: ASK MinLen Sentence ASK writes "Sentence" on the screen, and waits for the student to answer. If the answer is shorter than MinLen characters, the student must answer again (useful to force students to answer...). When the answer is accepted, if the logfile is open, it is written on the logfile. For instance, "Ask 10 Type your name please" asks the student to write his name; when the student writes a sequence of at least 10 characters Teacher sends it to the Log and goes on. TIME commands: TIME [Reset|Write|Elapsed|Total] TIME RESET: resets the system chronometer. The internal commands @#h, @#m and @#s are affected, as they write the time elapsed since the last Reset. TIME WRITE: writes on Log the current time and date. It corresponds to the internal command @#t. TIME ELAPSED: writes on Log the time passed since the last Time Reset. If no Time Reset was given, this is the same as Time Total. TIME TOTAL: writes on Log the time elapsed since the beginning of the lesson. TEACHER EXTERNAL COMMANDS 23 AUTHOR Syntax: AUTHOR AuthorName This command MUST appear in the Introduction Block of any lesson you want to compile with TCRComp. Multiple Author lines, or Author lines outside the Introduction Block, cause Teacher to stop. Instead of AuthorName you must put the name of the author of the lesson. The author, of course, must be registered to TCRComp for the lesson to be compiled. Once the file is compiled, the Author line acts as a Copyright protection - if modified, the compiled file is totally useless. OVERRIDE Syntax: OVERRIDE You can use Override only in the Configuration file (see later). It tells Teacher that data in the configuration file must prevail over contrasting orders in the lessons' Introduction Block. If Override is not used, Teacher does the opposite. ADDPOINT (0.54) Syntax: ADDPOINT #points Adds #points to the current and global score. #points must be an integer between -30000 and +30000. Warning: if you use AddPoint without AddMaxPoint, @#* can give you a score higher than 100% or less than 0. ADDMAXPOINT (0.54) Syntax: ADDMAXPOINT #points It works exactly like AddPoint, but modifies the current and global "best" scores. SETVAR and ADDVAR (0.54) Syntax: SETVAR #var #num ADDVAR #var #num Teacher has got 64 internal variables; 60 of them (0-59) are free, while the other four are 60 - current score 61 - current best score 62 - global score 63 - global best score Therefore AddPoint 200 is the same as AddVar 60 200 and AddVar 62 200. A variable can be any integer number between -2e9 and +2e9; its contents can be set with SetVar and modified with AddVar. For instance, SetVar 0 1000 puts the value 1000 in variable #0; AddVar 3 -1 decreases var #3 by one. When the lesson starts, all variables are zero. TEACHER EXTERNAL COMMANDS 24 JUMPMODE (0.54) Syntax: JUMPMODE POINTS [default] JUMPMODE RND JUMPMODE RANDOM JUMPMODE TIME JUMPMODE TTIME JUMPMODE VAR #var JumpMode allows you to choose which parameter Teacher will use in an Evaluation Block to choose where to go. JumpMode only influences the CURRENT block; every time that Teacher changes block, JumpMode reverts to POINTS. POINTS: The default choice. Teacher evaluates the current score, in 1000ths. RND or RANDOM: Teacher evaluates a random number between 0 and 999, which is generated by the system clock. TIME & TTIME: Teacher evaluates respectively the time (in seconds) elapsed from the previous Time Reset and the time elapsed from the beginning of the lesson. The maximum time is 2,000,000,000 seconds - about 60 years. VAR #var: Teacher evaluates the current value of the variable #var. For instance, @#/JumpMode Var 5 tells Teacher to evaluate the variable #5. TIMEOUT (0.54) Syntax: TIMEOUT Maximum_Time_in_seconds Sets the maximum time the student can spend on the lesson. If the student is too slow, Teacher abandons the lesson and jumps to the block specified with the command TimeOutBlock. The count-down is reset by Time Reset. If TimeOutBlock has already been used before, TimeOut activates the count-down. To deactivate the countdown, use TimeOut 0. When the count-down reaches zero, it stops until you use TimeOut again. TIMEOUTBLOCK (0.54) Syntax: TIMEOUTBLOCK Block_Name Sets the block to which Teacher must jump whenever the countdown reaches zero; if TimeOut has already been used, TimeOutBlock starts the countdown. TimeOutBlock does not have to be restored when the count-down reaches zero. WAITMODE (0.60) Syntax: WAITMODE Mode If Mode is 0 (it is 0 by default) the student must press Return every time Teacher passes from one block to another. If Mode is 1 the student must instead press Return only when answering or when Teacher finds a @#& internal command. TEACHER EXTERNAL COMMANDS 25 APPEND (0.60) Syntax: APPEND Lesson [Password] Teacher ends the current lesson and starts the specified one. The student's score and the other variables remain unchanged, but the TimeOut, if active, becomes inactive. If the new lesson has been protected with TcrComp Encrypt, you must write here the password (mind: upper and lower case letters are different!). CHARSET (0.60) Syntax: CHARSET Computer Example: Charset Amiga If the lesson was not written on a Msdos, this command, placed in the introduction block, allows Teacher to interpret correctly the accented letters and other symbols. LEFTMARGIN and RIGHTMARGIN (0.60) Syntax: LEFTMARGIN column RIGHTMARGIN column These commands set the left and right edge of the screen. There are two restrictions: the number after LeftMargin must be 0 or greater, and the width of a line cannot be less than 30 characters. JUSTIFY (0.60) Syntax: JUSTIFY [LEFT|CENTER|RIGHT] JUSTIFY JUSTIFY [FORCE|LEAVE|NORMAL] This command allows you to choose how the text is printed: left-aligned (default choice), right-aligned, centered or justified (that is, both left and right aligned). Justify Force tells Teacher that the text must be re-paged up: Teacher will ignore multiple spaces and single Carriage Returns. To end a paragraph while Justify Force is on, you must leave an empty line. Justify Leave turns off repaging, and Justify Normal switches back to the default choice. RESET (0.60) Syntax: RESET This command clears all of the variables, including partial and global scores. This is useful when you wish to restart a lesson or when you want to foil any attempt of creating a Teacher.cfg file with an ADDPOINT 10000 line... MULVAR (0.60) Syntax: MULVAR var num Multiplies the variable 'var' by 'num'. 'num' can be any number. TEACHER EXTERNAL COMMANDS 26 RNDVAR (0.60) Syntax: RNDVAR var min max Places in the variable 'var' a random number between 'min' and 'max'. Remember, however, that Teacher only supports numbers between -2.000.000.000 and 2.000.000.000. CPYVAR (0.60) Syntax: CPYVAR var1 var2 Copies the contents of the variable var2 into var1. Other commands regarding variables (0.60) Syntax: ADDVARS var1 var2 MULVARS var1 var2 DIVVARS var1 var2 These commands perform the operations var1+var2, var1*var2 and var1/var2, and store the result in var1. TEACHER THE LOGFILE 27 THE LOGFILE The LogFile, about which I have already spoken, is one of the most flexible and powerful instruments that Teacher offers to the teachers. If used correctly, it allows you to organize easily tests on the computer, to judge yourself the results... The LogFile is always opened in Append mode. This means that data from one lesson do not delete those of the previous one, but are written after them. All data is available to the teacher until he deletes it manually with a Delete or Del command. To make it possible to distinguish what each line of the Logfile means, each of them is preceded by a special character that varies according to the origin of the line. These are the currently used characters: '%': this is a BLOCK through which the student passed. '!': this is a mark, expressed as Points/MaxPoints. '*': the results of a Question Block. '>': this was an Echo. '#': answer to an Ask command. '?': the name of the lesson, written by EchoName. '@': date and time written by Time Write. '+': partial chronometer, Time Elapsed. ':': global chronometer, Time Total. Among these, the '*' line, the one which reports the results of a question, has a special structure. Here it is: *BlockName AnswGiven POINT MAXPT PARTPOINT PARTMAXPT GLOBPOINT GLOBMAXPT (According to the LogMode, some data may be missing). POINT and MAXPT refer to the scores obtained and maximum in that particular question; PARTPOINT and PARTMAXPT to the partial counter (see @#^, @#!); GLOBPOINT and GLOBMAXPT to the global counter. The LogFile can be read by a statistics program, if you understand the meaning of the codes: this way you can, for instance, compare the student's performance during the various parts of the test, compare the results of all the students... The only limit is your imagination. TEACHER HOW TO CUSTOMIZE TEACHER 27 HOW TO CUSTOMIZE TEACHER: THE CONFIGURATION FILE Teacher's potentialities are not yet over. A single lesson may be used by different people who have different needs. For instance, a series of questions used at school as a test will require an initial Ask (who is the student???) and a Log; used as a "private lesson", Ask and Log are useless. With Teacher you can adapt the same lesson to different needs: the instrument to do this is the Configuration File. The Config File is just a text file, called "Teacher.Cfg", and put into the current directory (*); it must consist of a series of external commands, which are executed at the beginning of every lesson. For instance, the following Config File LogName Main.Log LogMode Verbose EchoName Ask 10 What's your name? Override tells Teacher to use Verbose Logs, and to send all data to the unique log "Main.Log"; every lesson must send its name to the Log, and ask the student his name. The Override keyword tells Teacher to override any contrasting directive in the Introduction Block. As external commands, the Config File is restricted to registered users. External commands put in the Config file or in the Introduction Block are also called Static Commands. The commands VERSION, AUTHOR and LOGMODE NONE must be static, while TIME RESET, TIME ELAPSED and TIME TOTAL must not be static. The reason is obvious. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (*) With Teacher 0.60 the configuration file can be ANY file, which you must specify in the command line if it's not "Teacher.Cfg" by using the -c option. For instance, if your Config File is s:Config.Tcr, you must write TEACHER LessonName -c s:config.tcr Just in the same way you can put the KeyFile where it most suits you: you only have to tell Teacher where to look, with the -k option. If you are an original and want to call your keyfile dh0:mystuff/tcrkey.abc, just call Teacher this way: TEACHER LessonName -k dh0:mystuff/tcrkey.abc TEACHER TCRCOMP 29 TCRCOMP TCRComp is Teacher's companion: whoever wants to write a new lesson for Teacher and does not want to get mad while testing it definitely needs TCRComp. TCRComp's main purpose is to analyse the text of a lesson and to report any error. If TCRComp says that a lesson is OK, it probably is - though there could be some structural error, as an endless loop caused by two linear blocks which call one another. The Analysis function of TCRComp is available in the evaluation version. TCRComp has other important features, reserved to registered users: it can "compile" the text of a lesson, making it faster and allowing users registered only to Teacher to use the lesson without penalties; it can check if a compiled lesson is OK or needs recompiling (as it was modified after compiling); it can encrypt and decrypt lessons. Two other functions exist: "Help", which shows a summary of the available commands, and "About", which shows a Copyright message. The syntax of TCRCOMP is TCRCOMP Command [LessonName] [Verbosity] [LOCK] [-kKeyFile] [-pPassword] The -k option, as in Teacher, tells TcrComp where the KeyFile is, if it is not "Teacher.Reg" in the current directory; the -p option specifies the password for encrypting and decrypting a lesson. HELP If you do not remember all the commands, type TCRCOMP HELP. ABOUT To see the copyright message, type TCRCOMP ABOUT. CHECK Analyzes a lesson. The syntax is TCRCOMP CHECK LessonName [Verbosity] where LessonName is the name of the lesson without the ".Teacher" or ".Tea" extension, while the optional parameter Verbosity tells TCRComp how much it must send to the screen: very little (use TERSE), very much (use VERBOSE) or an average quantity of data (no parameter). Beware when you use Verbose mode... it may be a VERY LONG analysis, as TCRComp writes an average of 5-6 lines per block. For instance, "TCRComp Check Physics1 Terse" analyses the lesson called "Physics1.Teacher" sending as little as possible to the screen. TEACHER TCRCOMP 30 COMPILE The syntax is the same as Check - you only have to change Check with Compile. "TCRComp Compile" analyzes the lesson, and creates a "Compiled file" whose name is the same as that of the lesson, except the extension which is changed to ".Tcr". TCRComp writes in the compiled file some data which will be read by Teacher and will speed up the block search. IMPORTANT!!! TCRComp Compile MUST be used EVERY TIME you modify, even by one letter, the text of the lesson. If you use an old compiled file you could cause a disaster, i.e. the lesson could stop abruptly because of an error. I think I will solve this problem in a future versions of Teacher, by reading the creation date of the files. TCRComp Compile needs an Author line in the Introduction Block of the lesson. The author, of course, must be registered. The name of the author will be encoded in the compiled file, and if the AuthorName is later changed the compiled file becomes useless. COMPARE It simply analizes the lesson and checks the corresponding compiled file. Any change will be noticed. The syntax is the same as Compile. PROTECT (0.53) It compiles the lesson as COMPILE, and creates the file Lesson.Encoded (on Msdos Lesson.Enc), which is readable by Teacher but NOT by humans. After running TcrComp Protect, delete or rename the file Lesson.Teacher and rename Lesson.Encoded in Lesson.Teacher. You now have a lesson which cannot be modified... and no student can look in the lesson file to see which are the correct answers! If you specify LOCK on the command line, the .Encoded file can no more be decrypted by TcrComp (useful for people who want to sell their lessons). Protect does not require a password. Protected files are 1 byte longer than the original. ENCRYPT (0.53) It's nearly the same as Protect; the only difference is that Encrypt requires a password to work. If the password contains spaces it must be put among quotation marks "". WARNING!!! In passwords upper-case and lower-case letters are NOT interchangeable. In order to read with Teacher an encrypted lesson you must - first of all - have at least version 0.53. In this case, just tell Teacher the password, which must be the same you used to Encrypt the lesson: TEACHER Lesson -pPassword TEACHER TCRCOMP 31 DECRYPT Extracts a .Decoded (.Dec on Msdos) file from an encrypted or protected .Teacher file. The .Decoded file is exactly the same as the original. Decrypt does not work if the file was encrypted with LOCK, and it needs the .Tcr compiled file to function. Decrypt reverses both Protect and Encrypt; to reverse the latter, Decrypt needs (of course) the password. TEACHER ERROR MESSAGES 32 ERROR MESSAGES This chapter lists the various error messages that can appear while using Teacher and TCRComp, and explains their meaning; in some cases, you will find how to fix the problem. ERRORS COMMON TO TEACHER AND TCRCOMP Can't open file "" Teacher cannot find that file on disk. Bad file name "" The name is incorrect since it contains some reserved characters ('*', '?'...) Pointer out of sync. Teacher always keeps in memory a "pointer table" in order to jump quickly to any block. If the table is messed up with, this error occurs. Usually the error occurs when you modify an already compiled file and forget to recompile it; use TCRComp Compile to solve the problem. Bad Log File Name. The parameter you used with LogName is bad. LF missing after @#%. You should leave @#$ and @#% alone on the line. Anyway, after them you MUST go to a new line! '*' command error. The Maximum score you gave to @#* is lesser than 2 or too high. '?' command not available. Teacher found a non-existent internal command. Error in default block. In an Evaluation Block, Teacher could not read the Default Block name. Error in score x. In a Question or Evaluation block, the x-th row of scores has something wrong. LF missing after evaluation line. In an Evaluation Block, after the min/max scores and the BlockName, you have to go to a new line. Error in answer maximum. In a Question Block, the maximum number of contemporary answers must be between 1 and the total number of possible answers. Answers are not yet over. At the beginning of a Question Block you announced more possible answers than those found. Check that the texts of the answers are separated by @#$ lines. Blockname longer than n characters. The name of a block is too long and has been truncated. TEACHER ERROR MESSAGES 33 The file is not a lesson. Very likely, the initial TEACHER_DFILE is missing. The file was not compiled with TCRComp. Teacher found a corrupt Lesson.Tcr file. This error should only occur if you change the contents of a .Tcr file - and I suggest you don't. Too many blocks. Teacher can read lessons long as much as 2000 blocks. In a future version this limit will cease to exist. Anyway, I don't think you will ever need to put more than 2000 blocks in a single lesson... The block doesn't end correctly. Either Teacher expects a @#% and doesn't find it, or it finds a @#% where it doesn't expect it. Too many exits. In a Question or Evaluation block, there are too many possible answers or too many evaluation lines. @#$ missing after score table. Just add it. I can't find the block "". Teacher wants to jump to that block, but no such block exists. Check that the @#% lines are OK and delete empty lines between blocks. Only one Author line allowed. You wrote more than one Author line, or you put one outside the Introduction Block. With LogMode_None you *CANNOT* use the Log. Teacher found in the same lesson a LogMode None and a command which activates the LogFile. LogMode None permanently disables the LogFile - if you just want to turn it off use LogMode OFF! LogMode None must be a static command. This means it cannot be called from within a lesson with @#/. LogMode None must be in the introduction block or in the config file. LogMode error: "" is not a valid sub-option. After LogMode you must put one of the seven valid keywords mentioned before. Override must be a .cfg command. The Override command, due to its nature, can only be used in the configuration file, "Teacher.cfg". Time commands RESET, ELAPSED, TOTAL cannot be static. That is, you must call them with a @#/. Unknown Time command: "" The Time commands are Elapsed, Total, Reset and Write. Version must be a static command. It is a mistake to put Version outside the Introduction block or the Config file. TEACHER ERROR MESSAGES 34 This lesson requires at least Teacher version X.XX. To know which version you are using, type TEACHER by itself. Unknown external command: "" This command does not exist. I cannot read the compiled file. A compiled (.Tcr) file MUST exist in order to use the DECRYPT and COMPARE commands. I cannot access variable # You used a variable out of the 0-63 range. Unknown JumpMode: '' After JumpMode you must put ONE of the following parameters: Points, Rnd, Random, Time, TTime, Var. Wrong justification parameter. You used a negative LeftMargin or tried to make the line shorter than 30 characters. APPEND cannot be a static command. You used Append in the configuration file or in the introduction block. TEACHER ERROR MESSAGES 35 TCRCOMP ERRORS Not enough memory. The system's free memory is too little, or too scattered. Blocks M and N have the same name. Teacher identifies blocks with a unique name; if it finds duplicates it immediately stops. Author's name missing. The introduction block must contain an Author line. Author "" is not registered. Check that the name is spelt correctly or register yourself as an author. I cannot write to the compiled file. The disk where TCRComp must write the compiled file is full, damaged or write protected. I cannot read the compiled file. ...very likely because it doesn't exist. The block calls itself. This is a fatal error in Linear blocks, as in these cases it causes an endless loop. If a question or evaluation block calls itself, the strange event is reported, but it is not an error. Block "" is never called. If you planned your lesson correctly, you must have written too many @#%, or misspelled the name of a block. The lesson is neverending. Unless you want the student to stay on the lesson for the rest of his life and of all eternity, you must include at least a Terminal block. Conditional sequence is too long. In a Question block, a conditional sequence is longer than the maximum number of answers the student may give. Bad character in conditional sequence. Conditional sequences can contain letters ('A', 'B',... as many as the possible answers), '?' and '*'. Any other character causes this error. Duplicate answer in conditional sequence. The same letter appears twice in the same conditional sequence. '*' is not the last conditional sequence. There are some conditional sequences after '*', but they will never be taken into consideration by Teacher. '*' conditional sequence missing. It is useful to use '*' as the last conditional sequence, as this stops the program from crashing if the student answers in an unforeseen way. You don't have to use this sequence, but you should - it's good for you. TEACHER ERROR MESSAGES 36 Useless password/Missing password When you ENCRYPT a file or DECRYPT a file you created with Encrypt, you must supply a Password (-pPwd); in all other cases, you must not use the -p option. LOCK is impossible You can use the LOCK option only with the ENCRYPT and PROTECT commands. The file is neither protected nor encrypted ...and you tried to DECRYPT it. This file has been locked You cannot decrypt a file which was created with the LOCK option. TEACHER CONCLUSION 37 CONCLUSION This is the end of Teacher's manual. During its development, Teacher has grown enormously, but it can still be improved. If you have any suggestion to give me, or any bug to report (in this case, please be certain that it is a bug of the PROGRAM and not of the lesson!) contact me at this address: Teacher Development c/o Paolo Gatti via Boldori 17 26013 Crema (CR) ITALY Phone number +39-373-201617 Fidonet address 2:331/203.1 Amiganet address 39:101/302.1 Usenet address paolo.gatti@p1.f203.n331.z2.fidonet.org Teacher can be used in many fields, not only at school. It can help teaching, of course. It is its first aim. But Teacher can be used in different ways. One is amusement: I don't think it would be difficult to write an adventure game with Teacher... particularly now that Teacher has got 60 available variables and a TimeOut feature. You could use it to prepare any kind of questionnaire as well. Use your imagination! Teacher, after all, is a tool: don't be afraid, use it, experiment! TEACHER INDEX 38 INDEX External commands are marked (*); TcrComp commands are marked (@). About...................@. 31 MulVar..................*. 25 AddMaxPoint.............*. 23 MulVars.................*. 26 AddPoint................*. 23 AddVar..................*. 23 Override................*. 23 AddVars.................*. 26 Append..................*. 25 Registration.............. 6-10 Ask.....................*. 22 Reset...................*. 25 Author..................*. 23 RightMargin.............*. 25 RndVar..................*. 26 Basic Concepts............ 11 Block, Introduction....... 18, 28 SetVar..................*. 23 Block, Linear............. 13 Block, Question........... 14-16 Time, Elapsed...........*. 22 Block, Evaluation......... 17, 24 Time, Reset.............*. 22 Block, Terminal........... 13 Time, Total.............*. 22 Blocks, Logical........... 12 Time, Write.............*. 22 TimeOut.................*. 24 Charset.................*. 25 TimeOutBlock............*. 24 Check...................@. 29 Commands, External........ 21-26 Version.................*. 21 Commands, Internal........ 19, 20 Compare.................@. 30 WaitMode................*. 24 Compile.................@. 30 Configuration File........ 28 CpyVar..................*. 26 Decrypt.................@. 31 DivVars.................*. 26 Echo....................*. 22 EchoName................*. 22 Encrypt.................@. 29 Error Messages............ 31-34 JumpMode................*. 24 Justify.................*. 25 LeftMargin..............*. 25 Lesson Structure.......... 18 Log....................... 27 LogMode.................*. 21 LogName.................*. 22