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RUNTIME.DOC
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1992-08-28
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******************* THE RUN-TIME PROGRAM ********************
There is a run-time program included in this kit to
display multimedia pictures created with The Multimedia
Workshop. In most cases, you will want to include it with
your pictures on disks that you distribute, so that the end
users will be able to use your pictures. Registered users
are free to distribute the run-time program MSHOW.EXE with
their products.
MSHOW runs in either of two modes, "batch" or
"presentation" mode. In batch mode, it displays one picture
complete with sound effects, etc, then waits for the user to
press any key before returning control to DOS. In
presentation mode, it displays a series of picture files and
presents the end user with a menu from which the user
controls the presentation.
When MSHOW starts, it looks to see if there is an
accompanying picture file name typed at the DOS prompt or
provided in the batch file from which you may have called
MSHOW. If found, MSHOW displays that picture file, then
returns to DOS.
If there is no picture file listed with the call to
MSHOW, it looks for a special file on disk called MSHOW.CFG,
which is created with the BUILD option on the The Multimedia
Workshop control panel. If it finds MSHOW.CFG then it runs
in presentation mode, using the group of picture files listed
in the MSHOW.CFG file.
In presentation mode, at the bottom of this first
picture is a small menu allowing the user to take one of
several actions. They are:
┌──────┬──────┬──────┬────────┬──────┬──────┬────────┬──────┐
│ HELP │ BACK │ NEXT │ RESUME │ AUTO │ GOTO │ SEARCH │ QUIT │░
└──────┴──────┴──────┴────────┴──────┴──────┴────────┴──────┘░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
These options can be selected with the left and right
arrow keys then a press of the [Enter] key, by pressing the
first letter of the menu item, or a sideways movement of the
mouse then a click of the left button.
HELP displays a single screen of information about how to use
the menu (although quite unnecessary!)
BACK shows the previous picture viewed.
NEXT shows the next picture in your presentation,
RESUME displays the last picture viewed during the last time
MSHOW was used. It does this by writing a small file to disk
containing the number of the picture currently displayed when
the user quits the MSHOW program. The next time the program
is started, if the user selects RESUME, it reads that file
and finds the picture so the user can continue from where he
left off.
AUTOmate is to display your presentation over and over again
automatically. When selected, MSHOW asks you to type a
number of seconds. It will pause for that long between each
picture. When it comes to the last picture in your
presentation, it will start all over again. This is
excellent for trade show displays, retailers can put a
monitor in their store windows at night advertising their
products, computer retailers can leave MSHOW running on
computers in their stores. A student at a science fair can
create a show about her project and display it at her table.
GOTO is an electronic Table of Contents. When selected, the
end user is presented with a picture of a Table of Contents,
and can type a number, and then be taken to that picture
within your presentation. This is optional and requires that
you make a special picture called GOTO. If MSHOW does not
find a GOTO file, it merely ignores the GOTO request without
harm. Making a GOTO picture is easy, and I'll tell you all
about it in a couple of minutes.
SEARCH (called FIND when in the CGA-LO video mode) allows the
end user to type a word or phrase. Then, starting at the
beginning of your presentation and working to the end, MSHOW
quickly searches each picture file for that word or phrase.
If found, the picture is displayed on the screen and a small
menu appears to allow the end user to continue searching for
more occurrences, or return to the regular menu. In addition
to selecting SEARCH with the mouse or menu bar, the user can
press [S] or [F] to begin a search. As you might expect, it
works rather slowly when a big presentation is on a floppy
disk.
QUIT
This is the way out to DOS.
USER CONTROL
New since version 4.0 are two invisible features: The end
user can stop a presentation at any time by pressing the
[Esc] key. The user is offered an opportunity to Quit the
script early. Whatever script has not been played yet, will
not be displayed. In presentation mode the menu bar will
return. In batch mode, the next keypress returns control to
DOS or the calling batch file.
In animation loops, the end user can press any key to stop
the loop.
************************** NOTE ***************************
NOTE: All runtime programs used by your presentation must be
copied onto your final disk. If you use synthesized speech,
PC-TALK.EXE and the speech files must be copied along with
your script files.
Also, if you use any fonts except the first two, BITMAP
or TRIPLEX, then the corresponding .CHR files must be copied
onto your finished disk.
******************** MAKING A GOTO FILE *********************
This is optional. The GOTO file is a special picture file
which is used by GOTO as a 'live table of contents.' The user
can type a number corresponding to any of the pictures in
your presentation, and be taken to that picture.
First complete all the pictures in your presentation and use
The Multimedia Workshop's BUILD option to make a MSHOW.CFG
file. Make a note of the numbers to the left of the picture
files that will be key points in your presentation.
To make the GOTO file, start a new picture file by selecting
FILE from The Multimedia Workshop's control panel and call it
GOTO. No other name will do, and it cannot have any
extension. In this file, list or illustrate the key pictures
in your presentation and put a number next to them. These
numbers are the number of the script file's position in the
menu. The first script file is 1, and the second is 2, etc.
In other words, if you have created a catalog of blacksmith's
tools, and you have several pictures of anvils, you need to
know the position of the first picture file of an anvil in
your anvil section. This will be one of your goto points. You
can have as many goto points as you can fit onto the GOTO
picture.
When your GOTO picture is done, include it along with your
other picture files, MSHOW.CFG and MSHOW.EXE in a
sub-directory or on a disk, then test it by running MSHOW,
selecting GOTO, and typing the numbers for the various
points, and make sure the pictures you expected come up as
you planned.
Note: There is a sample GOTO file included on The Multimedia
Workshop disks for use with The Multimedia Workshop Demo
Show. Take a look at that GOTO picture to see how it's done.
To see another example, look at the file (temporarily
renamed) GOTO.PEN included with this program merely as an
example. GOTO.PEN requires VGA graphics.
RENAMING MSHOW
Using the DOS command REN (Rename) you can change MSHOW.EXE
to BEGIN.EXE or GO.EXE, or you can make a batch file called
GO.BAT or START.BAT (etc) that starts MSHOW. This makes it
easier for the end user to start your presentation.
USING MSHOW IN BATCH MODE
Batch mode is for displaying a single multimedia picture
along with its sound effects and animation, or for use within
batch files. MSHOW will simply show a picture, then wait for
the user to press any key. When a key is pressed, control is
returned to DOS.
To use batch mode from the DOS prompt, type MSHOW, a space,
then the name of the picture file that you want to display.
For example:
MSHOW C:\PICTURES\SPIDER.3
or
MSHOW SPIDER.4
if your picture file is in the same place as MSHOW.EXE.
If you have a few pictures you want to display, and you want
to use a batch file to line them up, you can do something
like this:
Make a batch file called BEGIN.BAT, and in it, include these
lines:
MSHOW SPIDER.1
MSHOW SPIDER.2
MSHOW SPIDER.3
MSHOW SPIDER.4
When this batch file is run (when the user types BEGIN) a
picture of a spider, your picture called SPIDER.1 will
appear. When the user is through studying the first spider
and presses any key, your next spider picture, SPIDER.2, is
shown, and so on until all four pictures have been shown.
And of course you can also use the batch file to run other
programs, for instance:
MSHOW MY_INTRO.PIC
MYPROG.EXE
MSHOW END.PIC
The more you learn about batch files, the more things you can
do in the way of mixing and matching programs, picture files,
more programs, etc. For instance, you could make a catalog
disk which is mostly text, but in between displaying price
lists with a text presentation program, you could display
pictures of your more popular or interesting products.
NOTE: If you have chosen any typefaces beyond the first two,
BITMAP and TRIP, within The Multimedia Workshop, their
corresponding disk file(s), *.CHR, must be copied onto your
presentation disks along with your picture files.
_____________________________________________________________
end of chapter