Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/GRAPTIES/SKETCH.LZH/SKETCH.DOC

Text File | 1984-11-28 | 20KB | 361 lines

                        INSTRUCTIONS FOR SKETCH-A-COLOR
                         COPYRIGHT 1983 by MARK BRIDGER


     THIS SOFTWARE IS DISTRIBUTED "ON APPROVAL".  USE IT.  IF YOU LIKE IT,
     PLEASE SEND $20.00 TO:
                             MARK BRIDGER
                             31 CHAMPA STREET
                             NEWTON UPPER FALLS
                             MASSACHUSETTS 02164

     IN EXCHANGE YOU WILL RECEIVE A PRINTED COPY OF THE DOCUMENTATION.  IF
     YOU HAVE A FRIEND WHO MIGHT LIKE TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, PASS IT ALONG,
     TOGETHER WITH THIS MESSAGE.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.




                             OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

     The instructions that follow describe the features of sketch-a-color
     in the order in which you would most likely encounter them.

     l. COLORS  You have a choice of 16 background colors, displayed on the
     screen. Once the background color has been chosen you have a choice of
     one of two "palettes", each consisting of 3 foreground colors plus
     the background color.  The choice of palettes is the same no matter
     what your choice of background color: palette #0 is always
     green-red-brown (brown may appear as dark yellow) while palette #1 is
     always always cyan-magenta-white. Once you have chosen your
     background color, the palettes will be displayed over that
     chosen background.

     NOTE 1: If you choose as your background color one of the palette
     colors, then choosing that palette will give you only 3 different
     colors to work with in your picture (e.g. selecting background=green
     and palette 0 will give you only green,red and brown to work with).

     NOTE 2: For most monitors, selecting one of the colors 8-15 as
     background will force the palette colors to be the corresponding
     "high-intensity" ones. For example, choosing background 11=light cyan
     and palette=#1 will give you only the choice of light cyan, light
     magenta, and bright white.

     To choose your color or palette, type the number then <Enter>
     (='Carriage Return'). 

     NOTE 3: If you have a monochrome screen you should type "m" when
     prompted at the beginning of Sketch- a-Color.  You will see all
     pictures in white over a dark background.


     3. PICTURE EDITING  After you have selected your background and
     palette, you will be given the option of working on a picture
     previously filed (how pictures get to be filed will be discussed
     below). If there is such a picture you want to work on, answer 'y' and
     you will see a list. Type in the name of the picture EXACTLY as it
     appears in the list (except for spaces).  Notice that you must type a
     name of the form XXXXXXX.pic (don't forget the ".pic").  The picture
     will be reproduced on the screen in the background and palette you
     have just selected.


     4. MOVING  Where you are on the screen is determined by small
     "cross-hairs" which you can move around using the Cursor Control Keys
     (these are the four arrows together with <Home>, <PgUP>, <PgDn> and <End>).
     When you start the program the cross-hairs will be in the upper left-hand
     corner of the screen, and will be in color number 3 of the palette you
     have chosen.  Movement is either Fast or Slow, and in either Draw or Erase
     mode.  Initially you are in Slow and Erase.  Slow mean that each time you
     press one of the Cursor Control Keys, the cross-hairs will move one dot in
     the direction you have chosen; Erase mode means that the cross-hair
     movement will leave no trace, but will pass over any background picture
     without disturbing it.  To move Fast, simply type 'f'; to return to slow,
     type 's' (you don't have to press the <Enter> key, and either caps or lower
     case is OK).  When you are moving Fast, pressing any Cursor Control Key
     will cause the cross-hairs to move in that direction EVEN AFTER YOU TAKE
     YOUR FINGER OFF THE KEY.  To stop this motion, press the Space Bar.  If
     you want to draw on the screen with the cross-hairs, simply press 'd' (for
     Draw mode).  Now moving the cross-hairs, either Fast or Slow, will leave a
     trail on the screen.  The width and color of this trail can be adjusted as
     we shall see.
          If you want to draw a long horizontal or vertical line, the
     combination 'd' then 'f' will be useful.  For drawing an intricate shape, 'd'
     and 's' may be more useful. For moving to a new position, the 'e' mode is
     probably what you want.

     THE 'J' OPTION:  If you are in Slow motion and want to move more dots
     each time you press Cursor Control Key, try pressing 'j' once.  Now
     each time you move the cross-hairs they will skip 10 spaces.  To
     return to one-space-per Key press, type 'j' again.

     NOTE: None of the Moving commands should be followed by <Enter>
     (Carriage Return) -- although no damage will be done if you do press
     <Enter >.


     5. COLOR:  Pressing 'c' will cause the selection of palette colors to
     appear on the screen. Typing the appropriate number will choose that
     color to be your working color until another choice is made. Here
     again, you need not press <Enter> after your choice.


     6. WIDTH:  To set the width of the line you will be drawing, press
     'w', then a whole number such as '1' or '16', the <enter>.  If you
     forget to press <enter> the program will do nothing further but wait
     until you do.  The program will not accept negative, fractional or
     decimal numbers, so don't even bother to try.  Experiment with the
     width statement for a while.  Of course, you won't see any effect
     unless you are Draw-ing.


     7.  LINE: This option enables you to draw a line segment between any
     two screen positions (in the color you are working in).  To choose it,
     simply press 'l' or 'L'.  The word "line" will appear in the upper
     left (it will go away later without damage).  The FIRST point on the
     line will be the point where the cross-hairs are at the time you
     pressed 'l'.  You may now move the cross-hairs to whatever point you
     want the line seqment to END at.  Once you have chosen this point,
     press <Enter> and the line will be drawn.  Furthermore, this new point
     now becomes the starting point for another line.  You may move the
     cross-hairs again and press <Enter> to draw this second line.  When
     you want to STOP drawing lines, simply press the <Esc> key and the
     word "line" will disappear.

     GENERAL PRINCIPLE: To get out of a command in Sketch-a-Color, press
     the <Esc> key.

     8. BOX:  This is very similar to the Line command except here a
     rectangle will be drawn instead of a line.  The two points which are
     chosen as in Line will be OPPOSITE CORNERS of this rectangle.


     9. OVALS:  These commands
     will enable you to draw circles and ellipses.  There are two ways of
     drawing Ovals.  Their centers are always at the current cross-hairs
     position.  

        THE RADIUS METHOD: 'r' + (radius) 
           You press the letter 'r' followed by a (positive) number, then
        <Enter>. The Oval of that radius will appear; its center will be at
        the current cross-hairs position. Until further action, this will
        be the value of RADIUS. DON'T FORGET THE <Enter> HERE! (Once you
        press 'r' the program will WAIT for the <Enter>).

        THE CRESCENDO/DECRESCENDO METHOD: '<' or '>'
           The '<' and '>' keys work very much like the arrows do when you
        are moving; that is, each time you press '<' an Oval of radius one
        unit larger is drawn, while '>' causes an Oval of radius one unit
        smaller to be drawn. Just as in moving, you have the choice of
        Drawing ('d' pressed), which keeps each succeeding Oval, or Erasing
        ('e' pressed), which erases each Oval as the next is drawn, Slow
        speed ('s' pressed) which draws one Oval for each use of '<' or
        '>', and Fast speed ('f' pressed) which continues to draw Ovals
        until another key is pressed.

     What's the difference between an Oval and a Circle?  The proportions
     of computer screens differ.  What appears to be a circle on one will
     look flattened ("Oval" or "Elliptical") on another.  Furthermore, you
     may WANT to draw an Oval or Ellipse.  Therefore, Sketch-a-Color offers
     you a way of flattening circles to produce ovals.  This is by setting
     the ASPECT:

        ASPECT: 'a' +  (aspect) 
           You type the letter 'a' followed by a (non-negative) number. A
        value of Aspect equal to 1 gives a circle, while other values give
        various ellipses (values between 0 and 1 elongate horizontally,
        bigger than one elongate vertically; the value of Radius is always
        measured in the elongated direction). For example 'a' + 0.5
        together with a Radius = 34 gives an ellipse elongated in the
        horizontal direction with long axis = 68, and center at the last
        position of the cross-hairs.

     Combining Radius, Aspect and Color setting with the use of "<", ">",
     "D", and "E" enable you to draw (or erase) families of ellipses of
     different colors. It is best to try these for practice.

     WARNING: The (E)rase mode for (O)val is not a true erase in the sense
     that the background is not perfectly restored.  As each new circle is
     drawn, the previous one is replaced by a circle whose color is the
     background color of your picture. Un- fortunately, if there are points
     under the circle of other colors, they will be painted the same color
     as the background.  Therefore you must be careful in using the "<" and
     ">" keys -- especially in "F" mode.  Once again NOTE: it is best to
     experiment before embarking on an elaborate picture.


     10. PAINT  Paint is used for filling in a region with a solid color.
     Before entering Paint mode, Move the cross-hairs so that they lie
     WITH- IN the region you want to paint.  The region MUST BE BOUNDED BY
     AN UNBROKEN CURVE ALL OF THE SAME COLOR. If there is a break in the
     curve (an actual break or simply a segment of a different color) the
     "paint" will "leak" out and paint vast areas of your picture in search
     of an unbroken boundary of the correct color!

     To Paint, press 'p'.  You will be asked to chose the color paint you
     want to use.  Press the number of the color you want.  After this
     choice is made you will be prompted for the BOUNDARY color; that is,
     the color of the unbroken boundary up to which you want to paint.
     Again, press the appropriate color number  (don't press <Enter>).

     Finally, you get one chance to reconsider: "Paint (Y/N)?".  Look over
     the situation carefully before typing 'y' since Painting can cause a
     disaster if used carelessly.

     Typing 'n' will enable you to get out of Painting (so will <Esc>).

     11. QUIT  When you are done with your picture, press 'q' to Quit. A
     sequence of prompts will allow you to save your picture on a disk.
     Each picture takes 16K bytes on the disk, so make sure you have enough
     free space.

     IMPORTANT: When typing the name of your picture, use only LETTERS
     and/or NUMBERS, and NO MORE THAN 8 of them. Do not use any other
     symbols and DO NOT append a file extension ".ext"; especially, DO NOT
     type ".pic" after your picture name, since the program will
     automatically add that when creating the file.


     12. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

        (a) All commands and responses may be typed in upper OR lower case.

        (b) A great deal of care has been taken to prevent situations where
        a ridiculous input by the user will "crash" the program, causing
        all work to be lost.  Nevertheless it can happen! Try to type
        carefully in response to the prompts.

        (c) Prompts appear in palette color #3. If this happens to be your
        background color they will be invisible! Therefore: AVOID CHOOSING
        6,7,14 AND 15 AS BACKGROUND COLORS -- at least until you know all
        the commands perfectly (and even then you can run into trouble when
        it comes time to "save" your picture).

        (d) HINT: If you've spent a lot of time on a picture and want to
        try some experiment -- say some clever painting manoevre -- Quit
        and SAVE your picture first: just in case something goes wrong!
        You can always return to work on it again. 



                         ****   THE "ALT" COMMANDS  ****


        In addition to the commands so far discussed, there are a series of
     "Alt" commands.  These are entered by HOLDING DOWN the <Alt> key WHILE
     typing the correct single letter. These commands are described below.

     ALT S (= SAVE).  If you want to try something doubtful on your picture
     and are worried about the consequences, hold down the <alt> key and
     type 's'. You will be asked "Save or Retrieve". Typing 's' again will
     SAVE your picture IN MEMORY (NOT ON THE DISK).  This Saving is
     virtually instantaneous.  Later on, you don't like what you've
     subsequently done, press <Alt> 's' again and this time respond with
     'r' for Retrieve.  Your previous picture will be read from memory and
     restored.  If you try to Retrieve a picture and none has been stored,
     you'll get a message to that effect.

     ALT X (= ERASE).  If you get disgusted with your artwork, you can
     clear the screen and start over by holding down the <alt> key and
     typing 'x'. A single prompt will ask for confirmation: "Y/N".  A 'y'
     and your picture is GONE; anything else and you're back working on it
     again.

     ALT A + (angle in degrees) (= SET COURSE ANGLE) .  This enables you to
     draw lines at various angles.  The angle is measured from the
     horizontal "x-direction": a positive angle is measured
     counterclockwise, a negative one clockwise. To enter a course angle of
     say 37 degrees, hold down <Alt> and press 'a'.  Release both keys,
     type '37' then <Enter> (Similar to entering an Aspect or Radius).  You
     must press <Enter>: the computer will wait.
        To move from your current position in the course direction you've
     set, press 'g'.  As with other moving commands, the 'd', 'e', 'f' and
     's' keys have the usual effect. To start Drawing a line Fast, for
     example, press 'd','f' and 'g' (for Go).

     NOTE: Lines drawn in this manner will generally not be as nice looking
     as lines drawn by specifying endpoint or by using the keypad (arrow
     etc.) keys.  They will also be drawn much slower.


     ALT C = (COORDINATES). Holding down <Alt> and pressing 'c' will
     display the Screen Coordinates of your current location, the current
     Radius and Aspect of your Ovals, and the current Course Angle (the one
     last set using Alt 'a').  

     ALT W  (= WRITE).  This enables you to write on the screen.  Pressing
     <Alt> and 'w' displays a message notifying you that you are in Write
     mode; the message disappears after a few seconds, to be replaced by a
     color choice heading.  When you have made your choice a diamond shape
     appears (the "cursor") to tell you where you are about to type (if
     you've programmed in BASIC you'll recognize the cursor).  The cursor
     can be moved around the screen without affecting the background --
     simply use the arrows on the numeric keypad on the right.  The keys
     labelled: "home", "PgUp", "PgDn" and "End" move the cursor to the four
     corners of the screen.  Moving the cursor past the right margin makes
     it appear at the extreme left ("Wrapping"); a similar thing happens on
     the left and at the top and bottom. When you type, the characters
     appear at the cursor in the color you have chosen.  To erase a
     character either backspace over it, or type a space over it.  

     To change color, press <esc>; the color choices will appear.

     To EXIT from Write mode, press <esc> while the color display is
     showing.

     NOTE: it is possible to get certain graphics characters by holding
     down the <Ctrl> at the left, and typing letters.  Experiment with
     these and make yourself a list for reference.


     ALT M (= MOVE).  This is a very powerful command, allowing you to make
     multiple copies of the contents of a specified rectangular patch of
     screen.  Determine which rectangular area you want to copy, move the
     dot to the upper left-hand corner, and hold down <Alt> while pressing
     'm'.  Now you will be prompted to move to the OPPOSITE (lower right)
     corner of the rectangle and press <Enter>.  This will record the
     current contents of the patch in the computer's memory.  You may now
     move the dot to an other position on the screen and press <Enter>.
     This will reproduce the patch with this new point as its upper left-
     hand corner.  You may do this any number of times.

     NOTES: If you try to put the rectangular patch in a place where it
     would go off the end of the screen, nothing will happen.  Try another
     location.
            Each application of the patch wipes out everything under it, so
     be careful! This command requires some practice.

            To get out of this command mode, type <Esc>.

            Even when you Escape the Alt M command, the memory of the
     rectangular area remains in the computer (unless superceded by a new
     invocation of Alt M). To continue reproducing this area later on, use
     the next command described below.

     ALT N (= USE PREVIOUS PATCH).  Holding <Alt> and pressing 'n' returns
     you to the last part of the Alt M mode: moving the dot and pressing
     <Enter> will reproduce the most recently constructed rectangular
     patch.  Once again, <Esc> gets you out.

     NOTE: Alt M can be used as a method of saving an entire screen in
     additon to the one saved by ALT S.  Simply specify opposite corners of
     the screen as the corners of the patch.  REMEMBER, however, each time
     you use Alt M, the previous stored image is replaced by the new one.


     PRACTICE a while, especially the more powerful commands Alt M and
     Alt A.


     SCREEN DUMP:  A "screen dump" is a way of having your printer print
     the graphics on your screen.  You can purchase screen dumps
     commercially, but if you are operating under DOS 2.0 or higher and
     have an EPSON printer, you can use the one included on your original
     IBM PC DOS disk  (in the file "GRAPHICS.COM").  To use it, put a disk
     containing GRAPHICS.COM in the default drive and type 'graphics' then
     <Enter>.  Now load Sketch and draw your picture.  When you're done,
     turn on your printer, hold down the "Shift" key, and press the <PrtSc>
     key.  The printer will then make a (black and white) copy of the
     screen.