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Text File
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1990-08-20
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12KB
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243 lines
Text Screen Editor
Version 2.1
by Damien M. Jones
Copyright © 1990 Damien M. Jones
July 17, 1990
You may want to print this file out.
What should have been in the LZH file:
EDITV2_1.PRG The editor program.
EDITV2_1.HLP The help screen.
EDITV2_1.MAN This file.
IBM.FNT The IBM character font.
What this program is for:
This program is useful anytime you need to create a text
screen. It allows you a flexible method for adding color to
old text screens and for making new ones. Personally, I use
it to make screens for my BBS (which I'm still working on),
but anywhere one screen of colorful (or plain and drab) text
is needed, this program comes in handy.
What this program is NOT for:
This program does NOT handle animation! It produces text
files that start in the upper left corner and proceed to the
bottom of the screen. The only difference between its files
and normal ASCII files is the VT52 color control sequences
that are automatically inserted for you.
How to use this program:
This program really isn't that difficult to use. That's the
way I planned it. It does not, however, use menus. I think
that if you're going to be typing most of what goes on the
screen, it's annoying to have to take your hands off the
keyboard and grab the mouse.
To load the program, make sure you have enough RAM. About
70K should be enough. Run EDITV2_1.PRG from medium reso-
lution. The program needs EDITV2_1.HLP and IBM.FNT in the
same directory or the program will abort. After the program
loads those two files, it will present you with the help
screen. This screen was produced entirely with the program,
so it's a good example of what can be done. It is not meant
to be a complete description of every function of the
program, but merely something to jog your memory should you
forget which key is which. I have tried to make the
commands as easy to remember as I could, and for the most
part I think I did rather well. Press any key to leave the
help screen. DON'T PANIC when you see the screen disappear-
-it can be recalled by pressing the HELP key.
In the upper left hand corner of the now-blank screen you
will see the cursor. Whatever you type will be placed
wherever that cursor is, and the cursor will move to the
right as you type, similar to a typewriter. Press the
BACKSPACE key to back up if you make a mistake. Press the
RETURN key to proceed to the next line. Very easy. Most
word processors work this way too. You can use the arrow
keys to move the cursor around as well, and you can press
the HOME key (above the right arrow key) to place the cursor
back in the upper left corner. You can move the mouse
pointer to any spot on the screen and press the left button.
The cursor will move to that point.
Now that you've got some letters and stuff on the screen,
you're probably wondering where all the color is. No
problem. Press the F2 key. Type something. Voila! Red
type! Now press F3. Type something. Green text! The
first four function keys give you the four colors of text--
white, red, green, and black. Press F4 to get back to black
text. Now hold down the shift key and press F3. (That's
how you get F13--press Shift and F3.) Now type something.
Black text--on a green background. The keys F11 through F14
(Shift and F1 through F4) give you the same four colors as
text--but for the background. Now, if you ever mix up the
colors and can't tell what's what, you can press F5 to get
back to your normal black text on white background. Or, for
something different, you can press F15 (Shift and F5) to get
white text on a black background.
It is important to note that the colors you have chosen will
not affect anything on the screen until you type something.
You can move the cursor all over the screen, but nothing
will be changed until you type something.
You can press the F6 key to "invert" the colors. All this
means is that you swap the text color and background color.
So if you've got red text on a black background, you can
press F6 and get black text on a red background.
Now you know how to change colors, switch to a red
background and move the mouse pointer to an unused portion
of the screen. Hold down the right button and move the
pointer around. You're "painting" with the current colors.
This will erase whatever text you have on the screen, but
it's a fast way to add colored boxes.
If you press F16, you'll activate what's called "block
inverse". What this means is that instead of flipping the
colors you're using, you can drag a box around a portion of
the screen with the left mouse button, and everything inside
of that box will have its colors flipped.
Pressing F7 activates the "4-way" cursor. With this option
activated, the cursor will move in the direction it was last
moved when you type something. So if you move the cursor
down, then type something, the cursor will move down instead
of to the right as you type. This is most useful for
drawing boxes or other things on the screen. Press F7 again
to return to the normal cursor.
Pressing F8 places you in "high ASCII" mode. This allows
you to type almost all of the special characters in the ST's
character set, mostly composed of foreign letters and
symbols.
Pressing F9 puts activates "block painting". You can use
the mouse pointer and the left button to drag a box around a
section of the screen. You will then be asked if you want
"X-Ray", "Block", or "Cancel". "Cancel" gives you a chance
to stop if you made a mistake. "Block" fills the box with
the current colors the same way as if you'd painted it with
the right mouse button. "X-Ray" makes the colors change,
but all of the text will show through. This is one great
way to add color to old text screens... change the text
color, and X-Ray paint a box over a word or paragraph. Or,
if you want to take all the color out of a screen, you can
press F5 (for black text and white background) and then X-
Ray paint the whole screen. Instant bleach!
Pressing F10 "matches" the current colors to whatever colors
are underneath the cursor. So if you've just moved into a
colored area of the screen, you can press F10 and the colors
will be changed to match those that are already there, so
you can type in the proper colors.
Pressing F20 turns on X-Ray painting for the right mouse
button. With this on, you can paint with the right mouse
button the same way that X-Ray block painting works. This
is another great way to add a splash of color to a drab
screen--change the colors, press F20, and drag the right
mouse button over a word. Instant emphasis! Press F20 to
return to normal painting.
That's all of the function keys. The rest of the program's
functions are activated by holding down the CONTROL key and
pressing a letter key. So CTRL-S means hold CONTROL and
press S.
Pressing CTRL-A allows you to enter a two-digit hex code for
an ASCII character. If you are making screens with the IBM
character set (see CTRL-F!) then this function comes in handy.
Pressing CTRL-B lets you move a rectangular block of text
from one location on the screen to another. Drag a box
around a section of the screen with the mouse pointer and
left mouse button, just the same as if you were painting a
block. When you release the left mouse button, the block of
text will "stick" to the mouse pointer. Move it wherever
you want it, and press the left mouse button again. If you
don't want to move the block, press the right mouse button.
Pressing CTRL-C inverses the screen colors. This does NOT
change anything in the text file--it's just another set of
colors to use. Instead of white, red, green, and black, you
get black, cyan, magenta, and white, respectively. Press
CTRL-C to return to the normal colors.
Pressing CTRL-F allows you to access the IBM font. This
font contains some special characters for making lines and
boxes. However, this also does not change anything in the
text file--it's just another set of characters to use to
look at the file. Some terminal programs can use this font
and the other color set (DMJ Term comes to mind) so if
you're making BBS screens you might want to consider it.
Pressing CTRL-G shuts off the function keys. This is useful
if you need a special character that you get from the
function keys. For instance, you can press CTRL-G and then
F3 to get the copyright symbol ©. Press CTRL-G again to
turn the function keys back on.
You can press CTRL-L to load a text file. If it contains
color, it will be displayed in color, and you can change it
as needed. If it is too long to fit on the screen, you will
only be able to see and edit the top part, and when you save
the file, you won't save the rest of the file--only what you
see on the screen.
Pressing CTRL-N will erase the entire screen and reset the
colors, and also move the cursor to the upper left-hand corner.
You can press CTRL-P to save the current screen as a DEGAS
medium resolution picture (.PI2). When you do this, the
colors you have selected (by using CTRL-C) are also saved.
Press CTRL-Q to exit the program.
You can press CTRL-R to redraw the screen if it gets messed
up. Occasionally I have noticed Quick ST to mess up the screen
slightly when the cursor and mouse pointer overlap.
Finally, you can press CTRL-S to save the current screen as
a text file. After selecting the filename, you will be
asked whether or not to "trim spaces". If you do, the
screen will be saved as a normal text file, with the VT52
codes automatically inserted to change the colors. These
text files can be viewed from the desktop by double-clicking
on the file and selecting "Show" from the alert box. If you
don't trim the spaces, the file will be saved "padded out"--
with spaces to make each line fill up the width of the
screen. This takes more disk space. You shouldn't need
this, but it's there, just in case...
I hope you find this program useful. If you do, that's great, it
means I didn't waste my time writing this longer-than-expected
documentation. If you'd like the source code, leave a message
for RGLOVER3 on GEnie, and it should make its way to me... soon I
should have a BBS for you to call instead, and also a GEnie account
of my own.
-Damien Jones
Revision History
2.1 Several bugs were fixed. A small bug with the four-way cursor that
caused the regular cursor to move in the same direction as the
four-way cursor was fixed. A bug with the CTRL-N function not
moving the cursor was fixed. And a fairly major bug involving
files with no color was fixed.
2.0 Color functions were added. A normal typewriter style cursor mode
was added, to supplement the four-way cursor mode. Defaults were
changed to match more people's desires. Mouse movement of the
cursor was also added. Documentation for the program was written.
1.1 Some bugs were fixed, mostly with file handling. The CTRL-P (Save
DEGAS) function was added.
1.0 The original program was made, written mostly so I could edit
screens for the BBS program I was working on (and am still working
on). It had limited control, no color, and no mouse support.