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Text File | 1996-11-01 | 14KB | 327 lines

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ JMedia v2.0 ├─┐ │ (FREEWARE) │ │ │ │ │ │ (c) Copyright 1996 By Nick Onoufriou │ │ │ All Rights Reserved │ │ │ │ │ │ (USER DOCS) │ │ └─┬───────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────┐ │INTRODUCTION ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └─────────────┘ JMedia is a multipurpose graphics program. It was originally designed for easy editing of BBS menu screens using the RIPScrip protocol. It has however been expanded to do many more things. You can use JMedia to create demos, magazines, tutorials, and simple programs. JMedia is a complete authoring system that allows you to create actual executables that can be distributed royalty free. JMedia comes complete with an integrated development environment or IDE. It provides everything you need to write, edit, compile, run, and debug your applications. If you are a sysop and wish to use this program only for creating RIP BBS menus than please read SYSOP.DOC, the information provided from this point on deals only with creating JMedia applications. ┌─────────────┐ │REQUIREMENTS ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └─────────────┘ 286 computer or better EGA/VGA/SVGA display card ┌─────────┐ │FREEWARE ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └─────────┘ This program is FREE, use it for what ever purpose you wish. Cash donations are welcomed but not required, please don't send checks. For any amounts of $10 (American/Canadian) or more I will send you a disk containing JDraw Pro and some of my other Ripscrip utilities. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you may be able to reach me by: Voice (416) 757-7944 Internet: nick.onoufriou@westonia.com (until Jan 1/97) Surface Mail - Nick Onoufriou 1375 Midland Ave. #909 Scarborough, Ontario CANADA M1P 3B7 ┌────────────────┐ │GETTING STARTED ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────────────┘ When you first run JMedia you will notice a file displayer. This is the main menu where you select the files you wish to view, run, edit, or build. A help menu is available by pressing F1. You can configure some of the JMedia's default settings by selecting F2. Some of the configuration items may not seem clear right now but will have more meaning as you become more familiar with the program. The file type field is for setting the type of files to list in the file display. The default setting is "J ;RIP;PRJ" which lists all the files we will be dealing with. This is simply the extension of the files separated by a semicolon. Please note that the spaces following the "J" are required otherwise any file with extension containing the letter "J" will be listed. The icon search path field tells JMedia where icon files are located, you can use multiple paths by separating each with a semicolon. The icon export path is where files will be written to. The font path is where all the files with the extension CHR are located. The text window field is for setting the status of the text window command and all the commands that relate to it. You cannot overwrite this option using JMedia's command language, it is best to leave to "Y". The ansi field is used for setting ansi in a text window, you can overwrite this option using JMedia's ansi command as long as the text window option is set "Y". The disk write field is used to indicate if icons can be written to disk. The Line length field is the number of columns per line that will be used when creating RIP files. ┌────────────────┐ │ABOUT THE FILES ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────────────┘ There are three basic types of files you should be aware, these include files with the extension J, RIP, and PRJ. "J" files contain high level "english like" scripting commands. "RIP" files are compiled "J" files, which means the files contain the same basic information but are much more compact and not very readable. Some JMedia commands also expand into a series of RIP commands. Files with the "PRJ" extension are project files which contain names of other files. The files listed in the "PRJ" are assembled together to create a free standing executable file. ┌──────────────┐ │FIRST PROGRAM ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └──────────────┘ The entire JMedia command language along with description is listed in the COMMANDS.DOC file. The best way to demonstrate JMedia is to start with a simple "Hello World" program. Lets start by creating a new file, call it HELLO.J To do this type ALT-N from the main menu, you will be prompted to enter a filename. Type "HELLO.J" and press enter. If you did everything correctly you will notice that you are in a "Text Editor" environment. Type in the following program. Color Red TextXY 300 180 Hello World!!! Select ALT-S to save your program and then select ALT-R to execute it. If you have typed in everything correctly you should see a red "Hello World!!!" message in the middle of the screen. Press the "ESC" key to return to the editor. If you have made a mistake JMedia will indicate on the status bar which line the error occurred and also give you some description on what could have been the cause of the error. Lets now return to the main menu, if you look carefully you will notice that the HELLO.J program you have created is not displayed in the file listing. You must manually update the contents of the display by selecting ALT-R. Once you have done that the file should now be visible. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │CREATING AN EXECUTABLE FILE ├──────────────────────────────────────── └────────────────────────────┘ One of the most important aspects of JMedia is its a ability to create executable files which can run without JMedia. This only takes a few simple steps. From the main menu select the HELLO.J file you previously created and press the "Enter" key and you're back in the editor once again. This time instead of executing the program you must compile it. You do this by the selecting ALT-C. The word "Success!" should be displayed on the status bar when the program is finished compiling. What should have happen is the creation of another file called HELLO.RIP. Select the "ESC" key to return to the main menu. Once again select ALT-R to update the file display. Again you should see a new file called HELLO.RIP. A third file must now be created called a project file. Select ALT-N to create a new file and enter HELLO.PRJ for the filename. From the editor type the following. HELLO.RIP F8X8.FNT Save the file and exit back to the main menu. Type ALT-R to update the file display. Now select HELLO.PRJ and press the "Enter" key. You will see a new menu titled "BUILDING APPLICATION" and with the filename as "HELLO.EXE" with the status indicating "Success." If does not indicate "Success" than an additional error message will indicate what has gone wrong. Most of the time it will be caused due to incorrect spelling of filenames in the "PRJ" file. Exit JMedia now and look for the HELLO.EXE program, it should be in the current directory. Now type HELLO as though you were executing any other DOS program. Amazing, you have coded, compiled, and created an EXE file in just minutes. NOTE: The shareware version of JMedia will create EXE files that contain a shareware notice and a 25 second delay. The registered version does not create EXE files with shareware notices or delays. ┌─────────────────────────┐ │USING ADVANCE TECHNIQUES ├─────────────────────────────────────────── └─────────────────────────┘ In the last example we've demonstrated all the steps required to create a program from start to finish. Even though the resulting program was nothing impressive it still contained of all the basic steps for creating applications that are more complex. The JMedia command language consists of number of commands and a couple of macros, these are all listed in the commands.doc. By using these commands you can construct programs that are very powerful. Unlike traditional authoring systems JMedia allows you have complete control over the look and feel of every application you create. Before creating applications with JMedia you must take become familiar with how input/output and files are handled. JMedia uses a simple technique known as stacking. A series of commands or simply one command is stored in a buffer and then executed last in first out (LIFO) order. This means the last command that is stacked will be the first one executed. Each time a stacked command is executed it is removed from the stack. Using the same stacking technique you can stack files as well. Files must contain periods since this is the only way to distinguish files from commands. When a command is processed from the stack it simply executed, but if it is a file it must be dealt differently. Commands and files can be stacked using several methods. One way is to use the Push command: Push Play abc^Mscreen2.rip^M What this line has done is put "Play abc" and "screen2.rip" on the stack. When Jmedia finished processing the current file it will look on the stack and see what it finds. In this case it will first find the command "Play abc" and it will proceed to execute it. The second command that it will find is "screen2.rip" and since this is a file it will begin processing (displaying) this one as well. Notice the "^M" this acts as a command separator and command terminator. Another way to stack commands is by using the Button command. Button 10 10 0 0 a <>Option 1<>Play abc^M Button 100 10 0 0 b <>Option 2<>screen2.rip^M This will draw two buttons and wait for the user to select one by either using the keyboard (pressing "a" or "b" on the keyboard) or with a mouse. If option 1 is selected the command "Play abc" will be stacked" and if option 2 is selected then the file "screen2.rip" will be stacked. The AddHotKey and Mouse commands can also be used to stack commands similar to the Button command. It is important to note that only extended commands can be stacked. All other commands must be executed by stacking a file containing those commands. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │HOW EXECUTABLES ARE CREATED ├──────────────────────────────────────── └────────────────────────────┘ With the example program all the steps were listed on how to create the EXE file but no information was given on how an EXE file really function. When you build an application by selecting a file with a "PRJ" extension JMedia looks for a file called "JMRUN.EXE", this file should be in the current directory or in your DOS path. Once the file is found JMedia starts searching for all the other files listed in the project file. If a file listed is not found JMedia will indicate with an error message. If all the files are found JMedia begins to create an EXE file by assembling the various files together. Once an EXE file is created no other files are required. All reference to filenames will be used as a reference to locate the actual information inside the EXE. When creating a project file you must keep track of all the files your application will be using. This includes RIP files, fonts (CHR and FNT), icon (ICN), PCX, and any text files that are used by the picklist and browser commands. The first filename in the PRJ file must that of a RIP file. This is the startup file that will get things going. All other files can be placed in what ever order you wish. It is however a good a idea to keep files that will be accessed the most close together. One file that must always be included is the F8X8.FNT, this is the font used for the initial text window that is created automatically by JMedia. If you create text windows with other fonts you must include those fonts as well. When searching for filenames listed in the project file JMedia will look in the current directory first. If it does not find the file there it will look in the directory where JMedia has been executed. If the file is still not found an error message will appear. To avoid the searches you can specify the entire path when listing names in the project file. When you have created an EXE file it best run it and try out every option, this is the only way to be 100% sure that all the required files have been included in EXE. If a file was accidentally left out your application will halt with an error message indicating which file is missing. ┌───────────────────────┐ │DEMO APPLICATION FILES ├──────────────────────────────────────────── └───────────────────────┘ Explaining how to use JMedia by just words alone can seem very complex, some of the topics covered here are actually very simple once you study some of the demo programs and start creating your own applications. Most of the demos contain many files and therefore have been compressed into self extracting executables. It is best to create a directory for each demo and copy the file there. To uncompress it simply run the program, everything will self extract. Each demo application contains all the files required to build an executable, just select the PRJ file from JMedia and application will be created.