Crawly Crypt Collection 1

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Text File | 1990-11-13 | 12KB | 661 lines

ESCHER CUBES Version 1.4 By Jim Luczak Escher Cubes is a complete isometric drawing system. What are isometric drawings ? If you have ever seen drawings by M.C. Escher, then you have seen some examples of isometric drawings. Isometric drawing is a method of drawing by which you can create optical illusions. Escher Cubes does'nt use lines to draw with, instead it uses Cubes. You read it right, Cubes ! The easiest way to picture this drawing system is to think of each Cube as a Three Dimentional segment of a line. The drawing you create with Escher Cubes, to say the least, will be quite out of the ordinary. Anyone can use Escher Cubes. You don't have to know anything about drawing to have fun with the system. Escher Cubes Page 2 FEATURES * 16 Different Cube Colors to choose from * 16 Different Background Colors to choose from * 36 Different Fill Patterns * 12 Different Cube Sizes * Erase Mode * Works in Medium ( Color ) and High ( Mono ) Resolutions. * Drawings created in Medium Res. are automatically adjusted when displayed on a High Res. system. * Drawings created in High Res. are automatically adjusted when displayed on a Medium Res, system. * Drawings are automatically Recorded as you draw. * Drawings can be Saved to disk files * Saved drawing files can be used in either Medium or High Resolution. * Multiple drawing files can be loaded and displayed * Full Featured File maintanence system * Drawing File Editor * Drawing files can be Listed to a Printer * Drawing files can be entered from the Keyboard * Displayed drawings can be Dumped to a Printer Escher Cubes Page 3 CREATING DRAWINGS After the title page is displayed, the Drawing Screen will appear. To draw a Cube, Press the LEFT mouse button anywhere in the drawing area. A cube will appear. You can place as many cubes as you wish anywhere you wish. THE CONTROL BAR CUBE DIRECTION The Control Bar is located across the top of the screen. It occupies the area where the word 'OUTPUT' usally is. On the Left hand side of the Control Bar are SIX arrows. These ARROWS control the drawing direction. Clicking the LEFT mouse button on one of these arrows will cause a Cube to be drawn in the direction of the arrow. The cube will be drawn from the last placed cube. The UP ARROW draws cubes from bottom to top. The DOWN ARROW draws cubes from top to bottom. The RIGHT ARROW draws cubes from left to right. The LEFT ARROW draws cubes from right to left. The >> symbol draws cubes from back to front. The << symbol draws cubes from front to back. Escher Cubes Page 4 CUBE CONTROLS Next to the Cube Direction arrows, there are a number of controls that effect the way the cube is displayed. The COL Control changes the color of the CUBE. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control causes the color to change in ascending order. The RIGHT mouse button causes the color to change in Descending order. The BKG Control changes the color of the BACKGROUND. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control causes the background color to change in ascending order. The RIGHT mouse button causes the background color to change in descending order. The FILL Control changes the pattern that is used to fill the cube. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control causes the the fill pattern to change in ascending order. The RIGHT mouse button changes the fill pattern in descending order. The ERASE Control turns the Erase mode ON and OFF. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control toggles the ERASE mode on and off. The CLEAR Control clears the display screen. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control will Clear the screen. The SIZE Control changes the Size of the cube. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control causes the size to change in ascending order. The RIGHT mouse button causes the size to change in descending order. The CHECK MARK Control switches to the FILE CONTROL MODE. Pressing the LEFT mouse button on the control will switch operations to FILE CONTROL. Escher Cubes Page 5 Above the Control Bar are the Current cursor Position and Cube Position indicators. If you click the RIGHT mouse button in the drawing area, the Current Pos indicator will display the location of the mouse pointer. The Cube Pos indicator will display the location of the last drawn cube. The Current Pos and Cube Pos indicators are only updated when the RIGHT mouse button is pressed in the drawing area. If you move the mouse pointer over the Current Pos indicator and press the LEFT button, a cube will be drawn at the Current cursor position. Pressing the LEFT mouse button over the Cube Pos indicator will draw a cube at the Cube Position location. The Position indicators are a handy way of storing the exact location of a cube or finding the exact X or Y axis where a new cube will be drawn. To the right of the Cube Pos indicator is the Current Recorder Count. The Recorder has a maximum range of 5000. USERS NOTES: * ERASE MODE The Erase Mode will take a little getting used to. Cubes are properly erased, however you may find that you may erase parts of the picture that you don't want erased. See EDIT PICTURE DATA under FILE CONTROL MODE for another way of erasing parts of a picture. * POSITION INDICATORS As you use the system, you will soon find that it is not easy to place a new cube exactly over an old one. The Position Indicators can be used to store the exact location of a cube that you may want to come back to. Escher Cubes Page 6 You then can place a new cube in it's place by pressing the LEFT mouse button over the Cube Pos indicator. FILE CONTROL MODE To EXIT the program or to enter the File Control Mode, press the LEFT mouse button on the CHECK MARK at the extreme right of the Control Bar. There are TEN items on the File Control Menu. Each item can be accessed by pressing the LEFT mouse button on the appropiate Bar. RESET RECORDER Erases the picture from memory and restores the recorder count to zero. The recorder has a maximum count of (5000. Basic), (10000 Compiled) PLAY-BACK RECORDER Plays back the contents of the recorder on the drawing display screen. LOAD [-CUBE-] FILE Loads a previously saved picture file into the recorder. If there is a picture or other files already in the recorder, Escher Cubes Page 7 the new file will be appended to the end of the recorder. This feature allows multiple files to be loaded and displayed. SAVE [-CUBE-] FILE Saves the entire contents of the recorder to a disk file. DELETE [-CUBE-] FILE Deletes a specified picture file. ENTER [-CUBE-] DATA Allows you to enter picture data from the keyboard. If there is a picture or other files already in the recorder, the keyboard entries are appended to the end of the recorder. Along the top of the screen there are three lines that define the picture data information. EDIT [-CUBE-] DATA Allows you to EDIT any picture data that is currently in the recorder. To edit data follow the prompts at the bottom of the screen. Along the top of the screen there are three lines that define the picture data information. The NUL (-2) is a very handy way to eliminate unwanted section of a picture. To eliminate data items, simply replace Escher Cubes Page 8 the desired data item with a NUl (-2). When the recorder is played, a NUL is passed over and no action is taken. The END (-3) code causes the recorder to stop. When the recorder is played, it will display everything up to the END (-3) code. When the file is SAVED, the entire contents of the recorder are saved up to the END (-3) code. The HI (-4) and LO (-8) codes are used to adjust the contents of the recorder to the resolution of the system being used. These codes should NOT be edited. LIST DATA TO PRINTER Lists the contents of the recorder to a printer. RETURN TO CUBICLE Returns you to the drawing screen. EXIT PROGRAM Exits the program and returns you to BASIC USERS NOTES: * ENTER PICTURE DATA This function can be used to enter picture data that has been listed to a printer. You can also DUPLICATE parts of a picture by entering new X Y coordinates, and copying the data that you want duplicated. Escher Cubes Page 9 * EDIT PICTURE DATA Parts of a picture can be eliminated by replacing the code with NUL'S. You can also adjust the position of parts of a picture by changing the X Y coordinates. * PICTURE DUMPS Picture can be dumped to a printer by pressing the ALTERNATE & HELP keys at the same time. In most cases you must have the CONTROL PANEL DESK ACCESSORY active for the dump to work correctly. Escher Cubes Page 10 The Compiled version of Escher Cubes was created using L.D.W.'s ST Basic Compiler Version 1.0. Except for a few minor differences, the Basic and Compiled versions are the same. The most obvious difference between the two versions, is that the Compiled version does not use an output window. The entire screen is used for the program output. In one way this is convient, since more screen area is avaiable to work with. The main disadvantage is that you cannot directly compile a basic program. You must first make some adjustments to your code to compensate for the lack of a window. There is some good news however. Version 1.1 of L.D.W.'s Compiler will have the option of using an output window. This should allow ST Basic programs to be compiled without having to make very many adjustments to the code.