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Introduction This file is a very abbreviated version of the Thinker manual. It is intended only to help in using the demo version of Thinker. The Demo version of Thinker cannot save any changes to files, does not import or export ASCII, nor does it print. Creating a new file will write on your disk and will in fact create a new Thinker document with a single statement (The copyright notice). This version of Thinker will only handle documents under 60,000 bytes in size. ****************************************************************** This disk has been updated for Thinker Release 1.03. See the Thinker project "UPDATES!" to see what has changed since the first release of this demo. Lots of exciting new stuff!!! ****************************************************************** Thinker is available for $59 until March 31, 1989 and $80 thereafter from: Poor Person Software 3721 Starr King Circle Palo Alto, CA 94306 (415)-493-7234 Source for Tinydraw is available on request at no charge. ******************************************************************* Thinker can trace its heritage all the way back to Doug Englebart's work at SRI's Augmentation Research Laboratory. By combining elements of text processing, outline processing, and hypertext, Thinker becomes an Idea Processor that embodies the basics of Doug's ideas for augmenting the human intellect. The future of Thinker includes links to sound files, WYSIWYG print formatting, use of the Amiga Clipboard, and more. What is HyperText? Footnotes are a form of HyperText. Within the body of the text is a directive to look somewhere else in the text for more information. With footnotes the directive is a footnote number while in HyperText the directive is in the form of a character string that "names" another section of the text. In order for HyperText to work the text is divided into sections and each section has a label. One often encounters this form of textual link when a phrase like "See Chapter 2, section 1" appears in the text. This type of link is good but can be carried further. Imagine that each paragraph in a document had a label that described the topic discussed in the paragraph. Now one could encounter the phase "See the section <correct use of the passive voice>" which would take you directly to the paragraph on passive voice. However, where is that paragraph? What Chapter? What Page? When the document is online and being accessed via a HyperText processor, one simply points the mouse at the phase <correct use of the passive voice> and asks to see that paragraph. Whether it is in chapter 10 or 2 is of no concern to the reader, the HyperText processor will find it and present it to the reader. HyperText documents do not have to be read linearly like a book. One can begin in the section with the most interest and follow the links around the document to explore the subject. The creator of the HyperText document had only to attach descriptive labels to the various sections of the document. What is Hierarchical Text? Hierarchical Text is an extension of outlines. Outlines are the arrangement of topics in subordinate relationships. Rain and snow are two examples of precipitation and they are properly subtopics of precipitation in an outline of a paper on weather. If the idea of an outline is extended to an arrangement of ideas in subordinate relationships it becomes Hierarchical Text. Ideas are paragraphs or groups of paragraphs and a paragraph on precipitation might have subordinate paragraphs on the different kinds of precipitation that one might expect to find. How Thinker combines HyperText and Hierarchical Text Thinker is a Hierarchical Text processor with HyperText. A Thinker document is made up of a collection of paragraphs (referred to as "statements" or "branches" in this manual) arranged hierarchically and containing textual links to each other. Each statement in a Thinker document can have a label and can be referenced by a textual string (a link) that "names" that label. A statement that begins with "(" has a label, and the label is the string of non-punctuation characters between the first "(" and the closing ")" at the beginning of the statement. A link in the text consists of the non-punctuation characters between "<" and ">" characters anywhere in the text. When the label is a single word, the link to it can be expressed without the "<" and ">" characters. Thus, each word in a Thinker document is a potential HyperText link to statement somewhere in the hierarchy of statements that make up the document. To expand the flexibility of Thinker, a link may contain the name of a Thinker document other than the one in which the link is found. The document name is separated from the label by a comma. Thus, <Thinker:example,link> is a link to the section labeled "link" in the Thinker document called "example" on the disk named "Thinker". When a statement has subordinate statements it is called a branch. Thinker allows the manipulation of a document by moving, copying, and deleting statements and branches. When a branch is moved, all the subordinate statements are moved as well. Display parameters control the format of the text on the screen. Thinker can be instructed to display only the first line of each statement and give the appearance of a simple outline. By controlling the depth of the outline visible, the user can actually "see" very large portions of the document at one time. When the document is manipulated while viewing it in outline form, all of the text that is part of the document is moved when the visible portions are moved. What can Thinker "link" to? A HyperText link can link to one of three things: 1) A Thinker document, 2) An IFF picture file which can be displayed in a new window (the picture is thus compressed in size and colors) or a separate screen, or 3) any Workbench application, in which case the application is launched in its own window and runs as a separate task. If a project is to be launched, there MUST be a project icon. If an application is to be launched, it MUST have a Tool icon. The ability to link to other Workbench applications makes Thinker into a HyperMedia product. Drawings, sound applications, database applications, word processing applications are all possible links in a single Thinker document. How does one interact with Thinker? All interaction with Thinker is via the Mouse and Menu system of Intuition. There are no keyboard commands. Gadgets are available for common commands and menus are available for the complete command set. Requesters are used extensively to provide a highly responsive user interface. These requesters always appear directly under the mouse cursor with the cursor positioned over the most common choice. Text on the screen is modified as in many word processors. The cursor is positioned in front of text that is to be modified and typing is always in "insert" mode. Text is "selected" by sweeping the cursor over a block of text while holding the left mouse button down. Selected text can be "cut" from the statement and "pasted" elsewhere or simply replaced by typing. Thinker has "search" and "replace" functions to complete the editing capabilities. Thinker will print a document or prepare a text file for manipulation by a word processor or typesetting program. Thinker can also import text prepared by a word processor into a Thinker document. Thinker appears deceptively simple by design. The fact that labels and links are merely parts of the text eliminates much of the complexity associated with large numbers of obscure commands. However, one should not be fooled by the appearance of simplicity. The combination of Hierarchical text, Hypertext, and Word Processing functions makes Thinker a powerful Idea processor. Take the time to learn Thinker by working with the tutorial project (EXAMPLE) found on the Thinker distribution disk. NOTE: Thinker uses a lot of memory. Lack of memory on CP/M and PC DOS systems is what limited Thinker on these machines to a mere toy. One of the uses of memory is to cache blocks of documents in memory to avoid disk access. Poor Person Software recommends the use of a Floppy Accelerator such as Facc II by ASDG. The cache available in Thinker requires a good deal more memory than Facc II to be as effective in reducing disk access. Do not attempt to use Thinker without either enabling Thinker's read cache (see menus explained under Options) or using a program like Facc II. Definitions The terms used in describing a Thinker document have other meanings in other environments. In order to clarify the following discussion of Thinker, the most common Thinker terms are defined here. Anchor The statement that appears at the top of the window is sometimes referred to as the anchor statement of the window. The user navigates around in a document by changing the anchor statement. The anchor statement is changed with Jump commands. Branch A Branch is a statement with subordinate statements. When a statement is inserted into a document, it may be inserted at any level relative to the other statements in the document. A branch is a statement at any level that has statements below it. A branch may have a branch subordinate to it. A Statement with no subordinate statements is sometimes referred to as a Branch. Clipping Level Clipping level refers to the number of document levels that are displayed in a window. A window with a clipping level of 2 will show only the two highest level statements. Clipping can be used to view a hierarchical document at different levels of detail. The document can be manipulated with clipping levels that exclude much of the document from the screen. All of the invisible text is moved with the visible text. The clipping level can be chosen for the entire document or for single branches. The Clip gadget at the top of the screen or the Clip menu sets the clipping level that applies to the document as a whole. "+" or "-" gadgets in front of statements manipulate the clipping level applied to the single branch. Group A group is a sequence of branches at the same level. Jump When the anchor statement of a window is changed, a different portion of the document becomes visible in the window. This is referred to as a jump. Jumps can be made relative to a statement visible on the screen or relative to a statement named in a link. It is also possible to jump to picture files and Workbench applications. Label Any statement in a Thinker document may have a label. A label is a name by which the statement is known and is like a key in a file. Thinker recognizes a statement that begins with "(" as its first character as being a labeled statement. The label is all of the non-punctuation characters between the initial "(" and a trailing ")". Labels in a Thinker document must be unique. The case of letters in a label is not significant and only the first 19 non-punctuation characters are significant. Level Statements are arranged in a hierarchy. The most important statements are at level 1. Level 2 statements are subordinate to level 1 statements as in an outline. Thinker does not limit the number of levels in a document but the display on the screen will be less than satisfactory for more than about 30 levels. Link A "link" is the appearance of a label in the text. A link is either a single word or a string of characters delimited by "<" and ">". A link consists of two parts. Part one is optional and names a project, Thinker document or file. Part two is separated from part one with a "," and names a branch. Picture file links consist of only the file name and the comma as in <Thinker:art/mirage,>. Links may by typed into requester strings as the address of statements when certain operations invite the user to designate a statement. Links typed into requesters do not have the surrounding "<" and ">" characters. Links can be activated by putting the cursor over the link in the text and double clicking the left mouse button or by using the Jump Link command. Links may designate labeled statements in the same or different Thinker document, IFF picture files, or any Workbench application such as a music player, paint package, or CAD application. Use the Project name or Tool name in the project portion of a link followed by a comma to specify a link to an application. Mark Thinker sometimes invites the user to designate a statement as the target of an operation such as "delete" or "move". The user may elect to mark the statement on the screen or type in a link that designates the statement. A statement is marked by moving the Pointing Cursor (a hand) such that the hand points to the statement and pressing the left mouse button. Origin The first statement in a document is referred to as the origin statement. The origin statement may be moved or deleted in which case some other statement becomes the origin statement. Statement A statement is a block of text. Statements are like paragraphs in many word processing programs. Thinker does "word-wrap" within a single statement but not across statements. Text selection (by sweeping the cursor over text with the left mouse button held down) is limited to text within a single statement. Statements may contain up to 2000 characters of text including standard and extended characters from the Amiga keyboard. The <ESC> and carriage return characters are also allowed. View Specifications The appearance of the text in the window is controlled by three parameters that together are called the view specifications. These parameters are "Clipping level", "Spacing", "Number of Lines" and are each explained in the Options Menu section. Window Only a small portion of a Thinker document can be displayed on the screen at any time. Thinker uses Intuition windows to view portions of a document. Up to 8 windows may be open at any time. Each window may display a portion of a different document or different portions of the same document. Getting Started Running from the CLI The command THINKER [PROJECT-NAME] is used to start Thinker from the CLI. If a project-name is specified, the Thinker window is automatically positioned at the origin of the document. If the project name specified does not exist or is not a Thinker document or IFF picture file or if no project-name is specified then the Thinker window is blank and the Jump Link command or Create New command must be used to open a Thinker document. Running from the Workbench Double clicking the Thinker Icon will initiate Thinker with no active Thinker document (a blank window). The Jump Link command or Create New command must be used to open a Thinker document. If a document Icon is double clicked then Thinker is started with the window positioned at the origin of the document. Thinker terminates when the last window is closed. Thinker Documents Thinker documents are not always meant to be read linearly. While this manual was created using Thinker, many uses of Thinker take more advantage of the Hypertext and Hierarchical text features. A skilled Thinker user creates documents with a definite flavor. These documents do not always read well when flattened and printed on paper and are meant to be read online. Outline nature of Thinker documents If a Thinker document is viewed with a clipping level of 1, only the first level statements (often these statements are topic names or section headers) will be shown. It is rare but not impossible to have blocks of text at this level. An executive summary is presented with the clipping level set at 2. As the clipping level is increased, more and more details are revealed. If Thinker is used to design a program one would expect to find code fragments or pseudo code at the deepest levels of the document. Hypertext features Information is only presented once. A reader should be able to start reading a Thinker document at the topic of most interest. All references to terms that require a definition in the context of the document should always have a link to the section of the document where the term is defined. The fact the Thinker will treat any word as a link means that a Glossary section could define all terms and contain links to the sections that provide further clarification. When a new term is encountered, the reader double clicks on the word to open a window over the Glossary section defining that term. If there is more information available then the Glossary entry will contain a link to the section of the document where the term is introduced and described in detail. Double clicking on the link can move the Glossary window to the detailed information. These links make Thinker ideal for online help where the reader can go directly to the section of interest and still be able to locate quickly all the pertinent information. Planning a book One possible use of Thinker involves coordinating all the details of a novel. One technique that might be of value is to have several major sections of a Thinker document for various aspects of the planning process. One section would have a labeled branch for each character in the book. Other sections would describe historical events of interests and descriptions of each location. Each of these sections would have labeled statements for each detail. The section of the document that describes the story line (plot) of the book would contain links to the sections containing detailed information. The plot can be reviewed without having to wade through details that might confuse the issues. As needed, each reference in the plot to details about characters, scenes, events, etc could be checked by jumping to the section of the document where this information is found. Multiple windows help organize the thought process. Organizing picture files Since links may be to IFF picture files, one use of Thinker might be to build a catalog of picture files. Each section of the document would have a first level statement with a label indicating the type of pictures indexed. The subordinate statements would contain descriptions of the picture and a link to the picture file. Pictures are located by jumping to the section of the document with the descriptions for the correct type of picture and then double clicking on the link to the correct picture. Thinker documents as databases Labeled statements in Thinker documents are much like indexed records in a database. There is a great deal of flexibility above the typical database, however. Records are not a fixed format. Records can contain a variable number of pointers to other records. Records can be part of a document meant to be read. Using Thinker to write is like writing inside a database as references can be checked with the click of a mouse button. Using Thinker is like having a completely free form database with references to applications, pictures, and documents. Thinker as a desktop organizer A desktop document can be used as an alternative to the Workbench. Within the document are labeled statements covering various working task areas such as Letter Writing, Programming, Finance, etc. Subordinate to these statements are labeled statements for each task in that area. These statements describe the task and may include sentences describing the progress of the task. Finally, there are links within the statements that name the Project or Tool used to work on the task. A description of a program might contain the name of the source for the program so that you can link directly to the source and work on it within your favorite editor. Other statements can link to other Projects and Tools, any of which can be launched in multitasking mode. Viewing a Document A linear document is usually viewed by scrolling a window over the document. A Thinker document is viewed by navigating around the document using the view specifications to control what is displayed on the screen. There are three view specifications that control the display. Clipping Level The depth of the hierarchy that is displayed is determined by the Clipping level. A clipping level of 1 will show only the first level of the hierarchy (the major topics) and as the clipping level is increased more details are shown. When the choice of clipping level causes statements to be hidden from view, a "+" character appears in front of the branch that has hidden subordinate statements. Selecting the statement "+" gadget will cause Thinker to display the first level of hidden statements. The clipping level is increased by one for the selected branch only. When subordinate statements are displayed as a result of selecting the statement "+" gadget, the "+" gadget is changed into a "-" gadget. Selecting the statement "-" gadget will cause Thinker to hide the subordinate statements. If you want to find a particular area of the document and you don't know the label that names it, you can begin with a clipping level of 1. Use the statement "+" gadgets to selectively increase the clipping level in the area of interest. Number of lines shown in each statement The document can be viewed as an outline by setting the display to show only the first line of each statement. This setting often speeds the search for a particular section significantly as more of the document is shown on the screen at one time. Spacing between statements Once the correct section of the document has been located, the spacing is adjusted for either maximum screen content (0 lines between statements) or ease of reading (1 or more lines between statements). One views a non-linear Thinker document by moving the window to particular places in the document with the Jump command. Jumping can be done relative to a statement or via a link. For each of the Jump commands listed below it is necessary to establish the statement relative to which the Jump takes place. Most Jump commands require that the designated statement be Marked by moving the Marking Pointer over the statement and pressing the left mouse button. For some Jumps the label of the statement may be typed into the requester or marked on the screen instead. For Jumps that allow the designation of a labeled statement, a requester appears with two choices. Mark If you select Mark by moving the pointer over the word Mark and pressing the left mouse button, the pointer will change into a hand. Move the hand so that the finger points to the portion of the text on the screen that represents the name of the designated statement (a link). This can either be any word in the text or a string between the "<" and ">" characters. Mark the link by pressing the left mouse button. String Gadget If there is no string on the screen that represents the link to the designated statement and you know its label name, you can simply type the label name into the string gadget. The string gadget is already active so you do not need to move the mouse or press any buttons. Do not type the "<" or ">" that delimit a link in the text. The <carriage return> key signals the completion of typing. The following Jump commands are available either through the Command Menu, Jump sub-menu or by selecting the Jump gadget at the top of the screen. In all cases the result of the Jump is to make the designated statement the anchor of the current window, the anchor of some other open window, or open a new window with the designated statement as its anchor. Mark Some statement on the screen is chosen by moving the marking pointer over the statement and pressing the left mouse button. Link The designated statement is not on the screen and either its label is known or a link to the statement is on the screen. The label of the statement can be typed into the string gadget, the marking pointer can be moved over a link to the statement on the screen and selected with the left mouse button or a file requester can be brought up to scan for Thinker documents or workbench applications. See the section titled File Requester Explained for an explanation of how to use this requester. There is a short cut to doing a Jump Link. Any time the left mouse button is "double clicked" an implicit Jump Link (Mark) command is executed with the link being the character string under the cursor. If the cursor is between "<" and ">" characters, then the delimited string is used as the link. If no "<" and ">" characters appear on the line then the word under the cursor is used as the link. These are the same rules for locating the link on the line when Mark is selected on a Jump Link command. Return The last 6 of 16 possible previous locations in the document are summarized in a requester. Select the designated statement from the selection list in the requester with the mouse. The first portion of the string shown in the requester is part of the project name (between "<" and ">"). Forward This is a Jump to the last statement on the screen. Jump Forward can be used repeatedly to scroll forward in a Thinker document. Up Once the statement has been marked with the Marking Pointer, the window is moved to the statement of which the marked statement is subordinate. Down This Jump is like Jump Up except that the window is moved to the next statement one level deeper in the hierarchy. This is more likely to be useful if the resultant Jump is to a level deeper than the current clipping level (toward more details). Preceding The Jump is to the statement that precedes the marked statement at the same level. Note that if the marked statement is the first statement in a group that is subordinate to some statement, the Jump does not complete as there is no statement preceding the marked one at the same level. Succeeding The Jump is to the statement that follows the marked statement at the same level. If the statement marked is the last statement of a group subordinate to some statement, the Jump does not complete as there is no statement following at the same level. Next The Jump is to the statement that follows the designated statement regardless of level. Jump Next is a scroll forward. Back The Jump is to the statement that precedes the designated statement regardless of the level. Jump Back is like a scroll backward one statement. Origin The Jump is to the origin statement of the document. Editing Text within a statement is edited much like text in a standard word processor. Of course any editor is a bit fascist and Thinker is no exception. The cursor is positioned by using the mouse or cursor keys. The cursor keys move the cursor within a statement, between statements, and will cause statement scrolling forward or back. When the mouse is used to position the cursor, the left mouse button is used to mark the place in the text. Subsequent typing inserts characters at the cursor location. "Backspace" deletes a character to the left of the cursor and moves the cursor to the left. "Delete" deletes a character to the right of the cursor and does not move the cursor. All printable keyboard characters are allowed in text (including alternate characters). In addition the <ESC> character and <CR> character are allowed. The <ESC> character is useful for imbedding printer commands in text. The <CR> (carriage return) character is used in formatting tables as a single statement rather than as a group of statements. The <CR> character is visible as "~" and causes the cursor to move to the next line of the statement in the first column of the statement. A <New Line> character is put into the text. A block of text may be selected by holding down the left mouse button while moving the cursor over the text on the screen. Only text that is totally within a single statement can be selected in this fashion. Once selected, the text can be "Cut" from the statement and "Pasted" at some other location. Selected text is replaced by any typed characters and the selected text is forever lost. Undo is supported with the "Discard Modifications" menu selection. All modifications including structural changes are deleted. The user may select "undo points" by using the "Apply Modifications" menu selection. In fact no changes are recorded until Apply Modifications is selected. There is a reminder warning presented if the user attempts to leave Thinker without Applying Modifications. The requester gives the opportunity to Apply or Discard the modifications. Search and Replace operations are selected from the Edit menu. (manipulating the structureManipulating the Structure Statements in a Thinker document may be moved within the hierarchy, moved to another document, copied to other places in the same document, or copied to other documents or deleted. The movement, copying, or deletion of statements does not require that the entire structure to be moved, copied or deleted be visible on the screen as parts of the structure may be obscured by the selection of viewing specifications. It is the ability to manipulate whole structures of the document that make the hierarchical text such a powerful tool. The viewing specifications can be set to view the document in its outline form (set the number of lines for each displayed statement to 1) and the entire document can be restructured. Move and Copy and Delete options are available for individual statements, branches, and groups of statements or branches. In all cases a sequence of requesters walks the user through the operation. Some of these requesters have a "Prev" or "Previous" gadget which will recall the previously typed string gadget. New statements can be Inserted into the document at any level. A double click of the menu button shortcuts the insert process. Insert Selecting the Insert gadget (or menu selection Insert Mark) presents the Marking Pointer. A new statement will be inserted after the statement marked. A confirmation requester allows the user to select the level relative to the marked statement. Remember that Up and Down refer to the physical subordination of statements as viewed on the screen. Double clicking the right mouse button with the cursor over a statement is eqivalent to selecting Insert and marking a statement. Menu selections Insert After, Insert Down, and Insert Up insert a statement relative to the statement with the active typing cursor without the confirmation requester or any mouse action. Delete The user is presented with a requester to select either a Branch or Group delete. Once the choice has been made, the user is walked through the selection process. Each time that a statement is to be designated the user is given the choice of Marking the statement with the Marking Pointer or typing in the label name of the statement. The designated statement or group need not be visible on the screen nor even in the same document that is visible on the screen. However, if the Mark option is used for both the beginning and end of a group, both ends of the group must be in the same window. Copy The user is presented with a requester to select Statement, Branch, or Group copy. Once selected, the user is walked through the selection process. Copy Group is like Delete Group in that both the begin and end statements must be marked in the same window, however, either the end or beginning may be specified by typing the label in the string gadget. The destination of the copy may be marked in the same or another Thinker window. The destination of the copy may also be in another project that is not visible (as in delete.) There are some restrictions on the destination of a copy. A Branch or Group may not be copied to a place within the Branch or Group as this copy would never complete. Move Move is almost like Copy. In fact Move may be thought of as a Copy followed by a Delete. A Tutorial Example The first part of the tutorial will walk the user through the process of building a Thinker document. The second part of the tutorial makes use of an existing Thinker document called "example". The Thinker document "Example" is a tutorial that leads the user through a short example of using Thinker to view and manipulate a document. Duplicate the EXAMPLE document using the "Duplicate" option of the "Workbench" menu before trying the tutorial. If you want to recover the original EXAMPLE document you can discard the EXAMPLE icon and "Rename" the "copy of example" icon. Start the first part of the tutorial by double clicking on the Thinker icon. This will start the Thinker program and bring up a window with the basic gadgets and menus but will have no document displayed. At this point we might jump into some existing document or create a new document. One would jump into an existing document with the Jump Link command and create a new document with the Create New menu selection (in the Project menu). As an example of jumping into an existing document, there is a section in the "example" project that explains the format of a link. The label on this section is "link". To jump to that section, begin by selecting the Jump Link command (either from the menu bar or by selecting the "Jump" gadget at the top of the window and then selecting the "Link" gadget in the Jump Requester.) Next, type in the string "example,link" (without the " marks) followed by typing the "RETURN" key. Finally, select the "This Window" gadget in the Jump Confirmation Requester. Typing the string "example," (note the comma but no label typed after the comma) would jump to the beginning (origin) of the document "example". Whether or not you take the diversion suggested by the previous paragraphs, you create a new Thinker document by selecting the "Create New" menu option from the "Project" menu. Do so now. Note that a requester pops up inviting you to enter a project name. The first part of the requester is filled in with the name of the current Drawer. Since you double clicked the Thinker icon directly, this Drawer name will be the Drawer in which the Thinker program was found. The Requester is already activated so simply type in the name of your new project. In this example we use the name "tutorial". If you entered the name "example" you will be greeted by a requester asking if you want to replace the "example" project that already exists. You should respond by selecting the CANCEL gadget and begin again typing the name "tutorial". After some disk activity the window will display the new document (note the change in the window title) and the document will contain a single statement (a Copyright notice). The first thing to do is to replace the Copyright notice with the first statement of our new document. You might try using the Delete (Branch) command but you will find that you cannot delete the only branch in a document. Move the pointer over the Copyright notice and observe that while the pointer is within the statement it is shaped like a cursor. Move the cursor shape to the very beginning of the statement and press the left mouse button. While holding down the left mouse button, move the cursor to the end of the statement. Notice that the selected text becomes highlighted as you move the cursor. When you have the entire statement selected, release the left mouse button. Type in the string "What I did last Summer" (do not type the RETURN key). Notice that the selected text is removed and replaced with the typed string. Now we are going to add some statements. This initial document will look a great deal like an outline. Remember that any statement you type could be as long as 2000 characters and fill the entire window. In order to keep this first example short, we will only type a few words in each statement. Select the "Insert" gadget at the top of the window. Note that the pointer changes into a hand with a pointing finger. Move the hand so that the finger points at the first statement. Press the left mouse button and notice that an Insert Confirmation Requester pops up with the pointer pointing to the word "After". If you wanted this new statement to be directly after the first statement, you would simply press the left mouse button again. Instead, move the pointer over the word "Down" in the requester and press the left mouse button. Notice that the text insert cursor appears on the screen just below the first statement and indented by two characters. Type the string "(school)Went to Summer touch typing classes.". Select the Insert gadget again and move the hand to point to the statement you just typed. Press the left mouse button twice (the first time selects the statement and the second time selects the word "After" in the confirmation requester.) Type the string "(beach)Went to the beach with Bob and met his little girl Lauren." (Who is Bob?) Bob is someone that attended the same typing class so you will want to put any information about Bob in statements that are subordinate to the statement labeled "school". Position the pointer over the first statement (the one labeled "school") and double click the right mouse button. The Insert Confirmation Requester should pop up and you should select the "Down" gadget. Type the string "(bob)Met Bob, a computer science student who wanted to learn typing skills." Move the pointer back to the last statement "(beach)Went...." and position the cursor over the word "Bob" and double click the left mouse button. Notice that the Jump Confirmation Requester pops up with the pointer positioned over the words "This Window". Move the pointer over the word "New Window" and press the left mouse button. Notice that the new window opens with the statement "(bob)Met Bob,..." as the anchor of the window. This is an example of a hypertext link. "Bob" is the label on the statement "(bob)Met..." and the double click of the left mouse button with the cursor over the word "Bob" was a Jump Link command. The same effect could be caused by selecting the "Jump Link" command from the "Commands" menu, or by selecting the Jump (Link) gadget at the top of the window and typing the characters "bob" followed by RETURN. Who is Lauren? Position the cursor right after the word "Lauren" and press the left mouse button once. The text input cursor should appear between the "n" and the ".". Type the string " (See <mirage,>)". This is a link to a picture file. Note that the comma must be present to indicate that the link is to some other file and not the document shown in the window ("tutorial"). You have just added a hypertext link to an IFF picture file. This link had to be surrounded by "<" and ">" because it contained punctuation characters (":" and ","). Move the cursor between the "<" and the ">" and double click the left mouse button. When the Picture Confirmation Requester pops up select the "Full Screen" gadget. After a pause, a picture of Lauren appears (From the NewTek "Digi Paint" package.) Typing any character or pressing the left mouse button will remove the picture and return the Thinker screen. Repeat the selection of the picture link and select the "New Window" gadget. This time an approximation of the same picture will be drawn in a new workbench window that you may move around on the screen. This approximate picture is drawn with the 4 colors available on your workbench. The window has an invisible close gadget in the upper left corner that will close the window when selected. If you want to save the changes you have made to this new project, select the "Apply Modifications" menu selection from the "Project" menu. "Discard Modifications" will restore the project to its initial state (with the Copyright notice). This completes the first part of the tutorial. The second part of the tutorial uses an existing document called "example". You can begin by closing the Thinker window (select the close gadget in the upper left corner) and starting all over again by double clicking on the EXAMPLE icon, or by doing a Jump Link to "example," (don't forget the comma). In either case you should read the next paragraph before going on with the second part of the tutorial. Start the second part of the tutorial by double clicking on the EXAMPLE icon or by selecting the icon and use the "Open" option of the "Workbench" menu. Read carefully and follow the instructions. It is helpful if you read ahead a little before executing the instructions. The tutorial is not very long or complicated but is intended solely to give the reader a little familiarity with the behavior of Thinker and build a little confidence for the first time user of Thinker. Not So Obvious Features Most of the operation of Thinker can be discovered by exploring the menus and selecting the gadgets. There are, unfortunately, some behaviors that are not manifest by this exploration. There are also some curious restrictions. Poor Person Software tries hard to produce software that is useful and complete but without all the frills that would make it expensive. Restrictions When the Mark option is used for both the beginning and end of a group, both ends of the group must be in the same window. Only 19 characters of a label are significant. Features Undo Once modifications have been applied to a Thinker document they cannot be "undone". However, Thinker will accumulate all the updates to a document in its memory (the Update pool) until Apply Modifications is selected in the Project Menu. The user should learn to schedule updates to allow for backout of recent errors. Remembering Local Clip adjustments When the clipping level for a branch is adjusted using the "+" gadgets in front of statements, this action is recorded in a small in-memory data base. This database has room for 32 selections of "+" gadgets in each project. If the 33rd entry is made into this database, the oldest entry is purged. Power Tools Double clicking the right mouse button with the pointer positioned over a statement will cause Thinker to put up a "power tool" requester. The left side of the requester is an "Insert" confirmation requester and the pointer is positioned over the "After" selection. Selecting "After" causes Thinker to insert a statement after the one under the pointer. The right side of the requester allows selection of the "Copy", "Move", "Jump", and "Delete" tools. Selecting one of these gadgets is equivalent to selecting the corresponding gadget at the top of the window. Duplicate Labels Thinker does not allow duplicate labels. When a label is encountered that is a duplicate of an already existing label, the label is changed to a null label. When this happens, a statement may end up beginning with "()" which is the result of eliminating the duplicate label.