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1991-12-31
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PICTURETHIS(TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION
RELEASE 4.00
DECEMBER 31, 1991
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RELEASES 3.00 and 4.00
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by Patricia Y. Williams and
Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved.
HortIdeas Publishing, 460 Black Lick Road, Gravel Switch, KY
40328 U.S.A.
Trademarks/Owners: CaptureThis and PictureThis/Patricia Y.
Williams and Gregory Williams; IBM and PC-DOS,
International Business Machines Corp.; Hercules/Hercules
Computer Technology, Inc.; MS-DOS, Microsoft Corp.;
PostScript/Adobe Systems Inc.; typeface names/their
respective owners
NOTE: Carefully read all of the terms and conditions of the
License Agreement (near the beginning of the READTHIS.1ST
file on distribution disk #1) PRIOR to using the
PictureThis and/or CaptureThis programs. USE OF THE
PROGRAM(S) INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE TERMS AND
CONDITIONS.
Release 4.0 of PictureThis has two major improvements.
First, it works now at EGA and VGA resolutions (in addition
to CGA). Second, the editor is larger and more capable,
making PictureThis into a full-fledged PostScript page
layout "desktop publishing" typesetting program, as well as
a vector-based drawing program. There are other minor
improvements, and a few bugs have been corrected.
1.0 EGA/VGA SCREENS
PictureThis 4.0 now works with EGA (350 line) and VGA (480
line) graphics modes. You'll need to specify in the command
line which type of screen you are using (see section 6.0).
EGA and VGA screens use more memory than CGA, so you might
want to use CGA for complex drawings. VGA uses more memory
than EGA (which looks almost as good), so you might want to
standardize on EGA.
You can import drawings prepared in any screen mode
(including those done using earlier versions of PictureThis)
into any other screen mode. (There might be slight round-off
errors when you do this, but usually these aren't
noticeable.) You also can capture screens in EGA or VGA
modes for use as templates (see section 10.0). Templates
captured in EGA/VGA modes can be used in the other mode (EGA
template on VGA screen or vice versa), but the aspect ratio
will be wrong, and if you use a VGA template in EGA mode,
you will lose the bottom of it. CGA templates can only be
used in CGA mode. NOTE: PictureThis uses the EGA/VGA memory
in a somewhat non-standard way. If you have a memory
optimizer which tries to use the "excess" EGA/VGA memory
(such as DESQview's QEMM), you might have problems! (Disable
the optimizer if necessary.)
2.0 PROGRAM IN TWO PARTS
The program is in two parts: PICTHIS4.EXE (the root section)
and PICTHIS4.OVL (the overlay section). Using overlays
allows more user data, since only part of the overlay is in
memory at any one time. If you have extended or expanded
memory, overlay parts are automatically cached there. See
the user's manual for more details.
3.0 EDITOR CHANGES
The editor can import ASCII-format files prepared with word
processors. This makes it easy to do not only drawings but
entire text pages with PictureThis.
3.1 EDITOR SIZE
The standard size for the editor is 200 lines. (If you run
short of memory, the number of lines might be smaller.)
Since the editor is larger than one screen, you must be able
to scroll up and down to the various parts of your text.
This is accomplished with the usual PgDn and PgUp keys.
Ctrl-Home still takes the cursor to the beginning of the
text. Ctrl-End moves the cursor to the end of the text, as
before.
3.2 HYPHENATION
PictureThis 4.0 hyphenates text automatically. We have
incorporated HY-PHEN-EX (Copyright 1989 GeoMaker Software),
which uses a sophisticated algorithm to hyphenate words.
Hyphenation is ON by default in the editor. All you do is
type your text in normally; when the editor determines that
it is time to wrap a line, it first checks in the
hyphenation exception dictionary HYPHEN.LST (an ASCII-format
file which is user-modifiable) for the word that needs to be
wrapped. If it can't find the word, HY-PHEN-EX algorithms
are used to find possible hyphenation points. If no suitable
hyphenation points are found, the line wraps on the nearest
SPACE or HARD-HYPHEN. (A HARD-HYPHEN is a hyphen which the
user typed in as part of the text.) SOFT-HYPHENS (hyphens
inserted by PictureThis) appear different on the screen than
normal hyphens (they have a short line down on the left),
and can change each time the text is composed.
We think HY-PHEN-EX does a good job -- it very rarely places
a hyphen where it doesn't belong. But it doesn't catch every
allowable hyphen. (There are all kinds of rules about
hyphenation, and dictionaries don't always agree. One rule
that HY-PHEN-EX uses, which might seem a bit strange, is
that it never hyphenates a word less than five characters
long.) If you don't like the way a word is hyphenated by HY-
PHEN-EX (that is, by PictureThis), you can manually insert
your own hyphen. However, this can be dangerous, because if
you change any of the text before the inserted hyphen, or
change any text parameters (such as font or point size), the
hyphen is likely to end up in the middle of the line. (We
see this frequently in computer typeset work.) Be careful! A
better way is to add your word to the exception dictionary.
HYPHEN.LST can be edited in most word processors or editors,
including the PictureThis editor. If you are in the
PictureThis editor, and you want to change HYPHEN.LST, just
save your file (see section 3.3), import HYPHEN.LST, and add
a word. Each word in HYPHEN.LST ends in a CARRIAGE RETURN
and has hyphens wherever you want to put them. The order in
which the words appear is unimportant. Then save HYPHEN.LST.
If you want to use the new HYPHEN.LST, you must exit
PictureThis (save your drawing first), and restart it. If
you add too many words to HYPHEN.LST, it will slow down the
hyphenation process. In general, HY-PHEN-EX does such a good
job that you will probably seldom need to add a word. It
even hyphenates nonsense words "correctly". Note that HY-
PHEN-EX is made to work with American English; it will
hyphenate foreign words, but possibly incorrectly.
With normal text, hyphenation is usually desirable. However
if you want to turn hyphenation OFF, put the typesetting
code <HYX> in your text where you want it turned off.
Hyphenation can be reactivated with a <HYO> later in the
text.
3.3 IMPORTING AND EXPORTING ASCII FILES IN THE EDITOR
PictureThis 4.0 can import text files prepared in word
processors. It can also export a file prepared in the
editor. To import/export a file while in the editor, first
press F10. A line appears at the top of the editor, asking
if you want to [R]ead, [W]rite, (or in some cases)
[C]ontinue reading a file. If you press R or W, you are
asked for a file specification. You can type in a specific
file name (with path if necessary), or a file specification
with a wild card character (e.g., *.txt) to get a directory
of files from which you can choose, or you can just press
ENTER and get a directory of all the files in the current
directory. Choose a file as usual.
If you are writing a file, the contents of the editor will
be written to that file, except real CARRIAGE RETURNS
replace the END-OF-PARAGRAPH markers in the editor. You
could possibly use this saved file in another text editor,
but the PictureThis editor is NOT a general purpose editor,
and shouldn't be used as such. The file saving capability is
mainly so that if you are editing and have to quit, you can
save your file and come back to it later.
If you are reading a file, a portion of the file will be
appended to the END of the text that is already in the
editor, until it fills 75% of the editor's lines.
PictureThis remembers what portion of the file has been
read, so after you set part of the editor's text to the
drawing (in the process, freeing some of the editor's
lines), you can continue reading that file where you left
off. If you have previously read from a file, when you press
F10, you will be given the choice to [C]ontinue reading from
the same file. Just press C and another portion of the file
is appended to the end of the text remaining in the editor,
filling no more than 75% of the editor's lines. Why does it
fill only 75% of the editor's lines? To allow you to edit
the text without overflowing the end of the editor. If you
do overflow, (e.g., by changing to a much larger point
size), the text which overflows is permanently lost, and you
will be warned that it has happened.
An example of a typical session of typesetting a few-page
document for which you have an ASCII file produced by a word
processor follows:
A. Run CONVERT on the file (see section 4.0).
B. Set up your frame and margins on the drawing screen.
Let's say you want a two-column layout on 8-1/2 by 11 paper.
(You could use TWOCOL.DRW.) Choose the left column's margin
and place the cursor at the top left of the margin (Ctrl-L,
Ctrl-T).
C. Set up the font, point size, justification, etc. Save the
layout as a drawing.
D. Enter the editor.
E. Press F10, then R, then type your file name in. Part of
the file is read into the editor.
F. Edit the text as necessary. Compose (F3).
G. Note the line where the Height Remaining indicator turns
negative. Place an END-OF-TEXT (Ctrl-Q) marker at the
beginning of this line. Press F5 to set the text to the
first column.
H. Switch the margin to the second column and move the
cursor to the top left of this column. Enter the editor.
Notice that the text that was previously after the END-OF-
TEXT marker is now at the beginning of the editor.
I. Press F10, then C, to continue reading the Ascii file.
J. Edit and set the second column as you did the first.
K. Save your first page as a drawing and possibly an EPS
file.
L. Read the layout you previously saved as a drawing back
in, position the cursor at the top of the first column, and
repeat the above procedure.
M. Continue the above until you have reached the end of the
word processor file.
3.4 COPYING/MOVING/DELETING BLOCKS OF TEXT
PictureThis 4.0 allows the user to mark a block of text in
the editor, then move or copy that block to a different
position in the editor or delete the block.
To mark a block, place the cursor at the beginning of the
block and press Alt-B; then place the cursor at the end of
the block (the character AFTER the last character of the
block) and press Alt-E. If both ends are marked and the
beginning is before the end, the marked block appears in
reverse text. You can edit within or outside of the marked
block, and it remains marked. You can compose or perform any
other editor operations while the block is marked.
To delete a marked block, press Alt-D. The block is deleted,
and the text is recomposed. To move a marked block, place
the cursor after the character you want the block to follow
and press Alt-M. The block is moved to the new location and
remains marked; the text is recomposed.
To copy a marked block, place the cursor after the character
you want the copy to follow and press Alt-C. A copy of the
block is placed at the cursor. The copy remains marked (to
make multiple copying easy). The text is recomposed. The
original block is not changed, but it is no longer marked.
To "unmark" a block, press Alt-U.
3.5 FINDING/REPLACING TEXT
PictureThis 4.0 allows the user to find text in the editor
and to replace this text with other text.
To find text, place your cursor somewhere BEFORE the text
you want to find. Then press F9. The top line asks for the
text you want to find. Type it in and press ENTER. (The text
can include Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Z, and Ctrl-Q for their equivalents
in the text. It can also include Ctrl-E to find the END-OF-
PARAGRAPH symbol (down-arrow) which you get when you press
ENTER.) Another line appears, asking you to specify other
options. If you want to merely find the first instance of
the text after the cursor, press ENTER. The cursor moves to
the first character of the first instance of the found text.
If no instance is found, the cursor does not move, and you
see a message. The editor recomposes the text whenever it is
attempting a find, so it will find text even if it is
wrapped at the end of a line and even if it has a SOFT-
HYPHEN inserted in it. If you want to find the next instance
of the same text, press F9 again. Notice that your previous
text to be found is shown on the top line, so if you want to
find the same text again, just press ENTER twice. It will
find the NEXT instance of the text.
Before you press ENTER to execute the find, you can also
specify whether you want to find only text that is exactly
like that you typed in (case sensitive, the default), or
text that has the same letters, but possibly of a different
case (capitals vs. small letters) than that originally typed
in (case insensitive). If you specify case insensitive by
pressing I, and you are searching for 'dog', the search also
finds 'DOG' and 'Dog'. You can also press S for case
sensitive, if you have previously chosen case insensitive.
If you want to replace found text with different text,
before you press ENTER, press R. You are asked for text to
substitute for the original text. Type in your text (you can
include the same Ctrl characters as in the find line) and
press Enter. You then have, in addition to the case option,
a next/all option. Next (the default) means that only the
next instance of the found text is replaced. Press A for all
if you want ALL instances past the cursor position to be
replaced. When you are ready to execute the replace command,
press ENTER. The text is recomposed, and the next/all
instance(s) of the found text is replaced with the replace
text. The cursor goes to the beginning of the last replaced
text. If no instance is found, the cursor does not move, and
you see a message. If you want to perform the same replace
operation again, press F9, ENTER, R, ENTER, ENTER.
4.0 CONVERTING A WORD PROCESSOR FILE
Text can be prepared for a PictureThis drawing entirely in
the editor, but you might want to typeset text which was
previously prepared in a word processor. In section 3.3, you
learned how to import an ASCII file into the PictureThis
editor. If you import a file directly from a word processor
into the PictureThis editor, you will have usable, but not
necessarily ideal, text. The editor IGNORES any Ctrl
characters which it does not use (such as a linefeed) and
replaces RETURNS with its own END-OF-PARAGRAPH character
(down-arrow). This is fine in some cases, but not in others.
Various word processors use different methods to mark
special occurrences (e.g., indents, page breaks) in their
files. In particular, each word processor has a special
method to distinguish between HARD-RETURNS (returns which
the user enters) and SOFT-RETURNS (returns which the word
processor inserts when it decides that a line needs to be
wrapped). A typical method is to use a SPACE followed by a
CR for a SOFT-RETURN and just a CR for a HARD-RETURN. For
typical text imported into the PictureThis editor, you want
the SOFT-RETURNS to turn into just a SPACE and the HARD-
RETURNS to turn into just a CR, since you are reformatting
the text into a different margin. To solve this problem and
other similar problems, you can run the word-processor
prepared file through the program CONVERT before you import
it into PictureThis.
CONVERT is a standalone text replacement program useful
whenever you need to modify an ASCII file. It uses convert
instruction files (we recommend using the extension .CVT),
consisting of comments and search/replace pairs. We have
prepared a standard convert instruction file (STANDARD.CVT)
which is useful with many word processor files.
To run CONVERT, simply type CONVERT at the command line. You
are first asked for the name of the ASCII file you want to
convert. Type in its name (with path if necessary) and press
ENTER. You are then asked for the name of the file you want
to write. Type it in and press ENTER. You are asked for the
name of the conversion instruction file (e.g.,
STANDARD.CVT). Type it in and press ENTER. You are asked if
you want to replace all multiple spaces with single spaces.
(This is preferable for most typesetting. When most people
type, they place two spaces at the end of each sentence.
This is usually NOT done when typesetting text, so it is
desirable to get rid of the multiple spaces. There are
occasions when it is not desirable to get rid of multiple
spaces; for instance, if you are typesetting computer code,
the multiple spaces at the beginning of each line give the
code "structure" which you want to maintain.) If you want to
change multiple spaces to single spaces, press Y, otherwise
press any other key. Finally you are asked if you want to
strip the high-order bits of each character. WORDSTAR and
some other word processors mark certain characters by adding
a high-order bit to the character (equivalent to adding 128
to the character's ASCII value). For files from these word
processors, press Y; the high-order bits are stripped off.
(In general, this usually won't harm text prepared by non-
WORDSTAR-like word processors.) CONVERT then reads the first
10000 characters of your Ascii file (or the whole file, if
it is shorter than 10000 characters). It performs the first
search/replace command in the chosen convert instruction
file on the entire read portion of the file. Then it
performs the second search/replace command on the results of
the first command. It continues until it performs all of the
search/replace commands in the chosen convert instruction
file, then it writes the resulting portion of the file. It
then reads the next 10000 characters of the ASCII file and
repeats the process on this portion of the file. It
continues to read and process portions of the ASCII file
until it has processed all of it.
Since CONVERT processes portions of the Ascii file
separately (so that it can handle any size file), it is
possible that at a break between portions, a search/replace
command is incorrectly processed. CONVERT attempts to
correct such errors, but it is still possible (though
unlikely) that such an error could occur. If there is a
possible error at any break point, CONVERT informs you where
the error might occur. Even if CONVERT warns you of such a
possible error, it is not likely that such an error actually
occurred, and you probably can ignore the warning. If such
an error occurred, you would probably notice it in the
process of normal proofreading.
To make a convert instruction file, use a text editor or
word processor. You do not want any special control codes,
etc. in your convert file, so save the file as an ASCII file
or non-document file. Or you can use the PictureThis editor
to make a convert instruction file. Here are the rules:
No line can be longer than 80 characters.
Any line starting in column 1 with a SEMICOLON (;) is
considered a comment and ignored.
Any line consisting only of a CARRIAGE RETURN is ignored. A
search line is any other line, and is immediately followed
by a replace line (no comments or empty lines are allowed
between search and replace lines).
Any keyboard character except '=' or ';' (d,G,8,*, etc.) can
be included in a search or a replace line, and represents
itself. Special strings beginning with '=' can also be used,
as described below. (In the table 'N' represents a single
digit, 0 - 9.)
Special Character Meaning
=e or =E carriage return
=l or =L line feed
== equals sign
=; semicolon
=NNN the character represented by the ASCII
value NNN; NNN must be less than
256 (e.g., =032 is the same as
SPACE, and easier to read)
=?N a wildcard character that matches any
character
=aN a wildcard character that matches any
alphabetic character (a-z, A-Z)
=#N a wildcard character that matches any
digit (0-9)
=.N a wildcard character that matches any
punctuation character
Examples of search lines:
the dog will match 'the dog'
=a3=#9 will match 'A1', 'j5', 'Q0'
=?5"=032 will match 't" ', '?" ', '4" '
t=a1=.7g will match 'th,g', 'tD@g'
When a match is found, it is replaced by what the replace
line indicates. A normal character in a replace line
produces that character. A wildcard character uses the
character that was found to replace it in its position.
Examples of search/replace pairs:
the dog 'the dog' will be replaced by 'the cat'
the cat
=a3=#9 'A1' will be replaced by '1a'; 'j5'
=#9=a3 will be replaced by '5j'
=?5"=032 't" ' will be replaced by 't'' '
=?5''=032
=a1=#1=a2=#2 'b3c4' will be replaced by 'cb43';
=a2=a1=#2=#1 'A9Q8' will be replaced by 'QA89'
You cannot have a wildcard character in a replace line which
does not appear in the corresponding search line. An equals
sign followed by characters which are not in the previous
list is also an illegal string. If an illegal search/replace
pair is found, CONVERT aborts the conversion process.
Examples of illegal search/replace pairs:
=q4
a=q4
=?abc
=?cba
=32dog
dog
=a2cat=a4
=a1dog=a4
=456
ggg
STANDARD.CVT includes search/replace pairs to do the
following:
Replace SPACE followed by CARRIAGE RETURN with a SPACE. (To
get rid of some SOFT-RETURNS.)
Replace DOUBLE-QUOTES with a pair of SINGLE-QUOTES. (This is
normal typesetting practice.)
Replace a TAB with 8 spaces.
Replace a < with the special character used to start a
typesetting code in the PictureThis editor.
Replace a > with the special character used to end a
typesetting code in the PictureThis editor.
We don't know all of the ways word processors represent
SOFT-RETURNS and other important codes. If STANDARD.CVT does
not work properly with your word-processor files, you can
modify it and/or add to it to make it work. Sometimes just
writing the file out in ASCII mode might help. Try it! Write
a short file in your word processor. Then look at the HEX
version of it using any one of numerous utilities that
exist. We'd use LOTUS MAGELLAN, but there are many more. Try
to figure out what code your word processor is using for a
SOFT-RETURN, and write a conversion instruction file to
change it to a SPACE.
5.0 MEMORY MANAGEMENT/SAVING TEXT BACKGROUND
PictureThis 4.0 is a large and complex program which
maintains a large amount of user generated data and thus
uses a lot of computer memory. But it is still usable on a
PC with only standard memory (640K). There is no need to
have extended and/or expanded memory (though you can use
them (see section 2.0)). Four types of data use considerable
memory:
1. Data used to define curves, trails, and objects. You must
set how many curves are allowed with a command line
parameter (see section 6.0).
2. Textblock data (all of the text, plus all of the
information needed for placing the text in the proper
position, with the proper font, size, etc.). The memory
required for this depends on how much text is in a drawing.
When a textblock is cut or deleted, much of the memory it
used is freed, but a portion of it is NOT freed. If you cut
and delete large textblocks frequently, you can build up a
considerable amount of unusable memory. THIS MEMORY CAN BE
FREED SIMPLY BY SAVING YOUR DRAWING AND THEN GETTING IT
AGAIN.
3. Font information (character widths, kerning, etc.) for
each font used and definitions of all characters for each
screenfont used. 4. Background pixel color values for the
drawing screen. When each curve is drawn, the previous color
of each pixel in the curve is saved. This allows you to move
or erase a curve (or a full object) without leaving "holes"
in the background. (This is most obvious when you are using
a template.) This information is saved in a highly
compressed form used not only for redrawing the background
when an element is erased, but also for dashing elements for
selection (e.g., when choosing an object to copy).
Unfortunately, for large textblocks, this takes a lot of
memory. A page of small text uses a lot of pixel memory,
sometimes more than is available. "Jabbering" the text
helps, but is sometimes undesirable.
To solve this problem, we have added the ability to turn off
the background save FOR TEXT ONLY. To do this, press F9 to
enter the Miscellaneous menu, and then press B. You can
choose S for saving the text background or N for NOT saving
the text background. With either selection, the program
functions essentially the same. When NoSave is chosen, there
are only minor differences:
a. When any text is erased, a hole is left in the
background. Press D to redraw and get rid of the hole.
b. Where text is normally dashed-and-dotted (for grouping an
object), it is dashed with NoSave.
c. Dashing and erasing of text is slower.
For normal drawing with only small amounts of text, use the
Save option (the default). If you are doing a full page of
text, it is probably preferable to use the NoSave option
and/or to "jabber" the text (on the drawing screen only). If
you save a drawing, the current Save/NoSave option is saved
with the drawing and is used when the drawing is imported.
When you are setting text from the editor, you might see a
message stating that there is not enough memory to save
text, and that the editor is aborting. If you see this
message, don't panic. Save your drawing. Import it again.
Then go back into the editor and check whether you have
placed an END-OF-TEXT marker in the appropriate place (you
might have been trying to set the contents of the entire
editor, which could be much more than will fit on the page);
if not, put one in. Press F5 to try setting the text again.
If it doesn't work this time, you will have to jabber the
text on the drawing screen or switch to NoSave for text
background.
If there is enough memory to save the text, there still
might not be enough memory to display the text while saving
the background. For this message, the same remedy applies;
do one, two, or all three of the following:
a. Save the drawing and import it again.
b. Jabber the text on the drawing screen.
c. Change text background setting to NoSave.
6.0 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS/CONFIGURATION FILE
PictureThis 4.0 requires new command line parameters to
specify its new options. You may specify how many curves you
want to allow for and what screen type you are using. This
information is saved in a configuration file in the default
directory (called PICTHIS.CFG) and used the next time you
run PICTHIS4, so you don't have to type in configuration
information when you subsequently run PictureThis unless you
want to change it.
The two command line parameters are, IN ORDER:
1. A letter (a-h or A-H). The letter indicates how many
curves are to be allowed. An 'A' (or 'a') means 250 curves.
Each succeeding letter adds 250 more curves, so: a = 250; b
= 500; c = 750; d = 1000; e = 1250; f = 1500; g = 1750; h =
2000. Unlike previous versions of PictureThis, you no longer
have to specify the number of pixels allowed; memory for
pixels is automatically allocated. Text uses a LOT of pixel
memory, especially on EGA/VGA screens, so if you are using a
lot of text, either toggle "jabber" on so "real" text only
shows on the Quickshow screen, set the curve number low,
and/or set the BkgdSave setting on the Miscellaneous menu to
NoSave.
2. A three letter indicator of the screen type: CGA, EGA, or
VGA. If not specified, the default is CGA.
The command line parameters must be specified in order, but
you do not need to specify all of them. If you need to
specify only the number of curves, just specify the first
parameter. But if you need to change the screen type, you
must specify both parameters.
Examples of legal command lines:
PICTHIS4 b ega
PICTHIS4 A VGA
picthis4 d
picthis4 c EGA
PictureThis saves in PICTHIS.CFG not only these command line
parameters, but also the aspect ratio and the directories of
the font files, the screen font files, and the Kartoon
features files. If you install PictureThis correctly,
PICTHIS.CFG should include the proper directories. When you
need to use these files (i.e., when selecting a font or
going into Kartoon mode), if PictureThis cannot find the
needed file, it asks you for a new directory. After you type
in this new directory, it is saved in PICTHIS.CFG, so you do
not have to type in the directory every time you run
PictureThis (as was necessary in Version 3.0).
7.0 SAVING AND IMPORTING A DRAWING
In PictureThis 3.0, when a drawing was saved, the current
contents of the editor were saved along with the drawing.
This is no longer desirable, since you can now save the
editor contents independently. Now when you save a drawing,
the contents of the editor are NOT saved (but text already
in the drawing IS saved, of course). When you import a
drawing, the contents of the editor are NOT changed (even if
it is a version 3.0 drawing with saved editor contents).
This is preferable if you are working with a large file
prepared in a word processor: you can import your page
layout drawing; enter the editor; read in the word processor
file; set as much text as is needed to fill the page; save
the drawing; import the page layout drawing again; reenter
the editor (the text will start after the text that was
set); read in more of the word processor file; fill the
second page; etc.
8.0 HELP SCREENS
The Help Screens have been slightly modified. When you are
viewing the Main (Drawing) Help Screen, and you determine
which key that you want to press, you can press that key
while still viewing the Help Screen, and you will return to
the drawing screen with the operation performed.
There are now TWO Editor Help Screens (in addition to the
Font Number Screen).
9.0 NEW SCREENFONT
Included on the distribution disk is STANDARD.SFT. This is a
modified screen font which draws somewhat faster than the
STANDARD.SFT included with release 3.0. You can continue
using the old STANDARD.SFT if you prefer the way that it
looks.
10.0 CAPTURING A SCREEN FOR USE AS A TEMPLATE
CAPTHIS and ACAPTHIS work almost as before, but they now
capture VGA and EGA screens, in addition to CGA screens. You
run CAPTHIS or ACAPTHIS as before. Once loaded, either
program is activated when you press Shift-PrintScreen.
Either program determines the current screen mode and
captures the appropriate type of screen. If the current mode
is a text mode, it is not captured, and a regular Shift-
PrintScreen is executed. CGA templates are captured as in p
revious versions. EGA and VGA templates are compressed as
they are saved, so their files are of different sizes,
depending on how complex they are. The Shift-PrintScreen
interrupt is sometimes taken over by the program you are
running, in which case CAPTHIS and ACAPTHIS will not work.
This seems to be more true with EGA/VGA programs than CGA
programs. For example, CAPTHIS and ACAPTHIS will not work if
you have run MAGELLAN, even if you exit from it. If you have
trouble using CAPTHIS and ACAPTHIS, try rebooting your
computer without any shells and TSR's.
11.0 DASH CHANGES
The lengths of the dashes and gaps in both default and user
specified dash patterns are now measured in line-weights
instead of points. In PictureThis 4.0, if a dash is set to
be 4 line-weights long, it will be 4 points long for a curve
with line weight (thickness) of 1 point, but only 2 points
long for a curve with line weight .5. The dash patterns are
now proportional to the line-weight of the curve. You may
also set dashes and gaps to the values .1, .2, ..., .9 which
allows (almost) round or square dots when the linecap is
round or square. If you use a drawing prepared in
PictureThis 3.0 which has curves with dash patterns in
PictureThis 4.0, the PostScript output will look different,
unless the dashed curves all have 1 point line weights.