Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d4/cwp.arc/XWP.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-28 | 14.8 KB | 384 lines

XWP.DOC

Copyright (c) 1990 Longridge Software. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this file is to explain the licensing agreement covering the
program Crossword Publisher (XWP) (tm), and to outline how to use the program.

Crossword Publisher is a program for MS-DOS computers including the IBM PC, XT,
AT, and PS/2 families and compatibles.
Crossword Publisher is a crossword pre-press utility:
it takes a definition of a crossword puzzle contained in a
data file and generates text files using a setup file.
These text files can then be used with popular desktop publishing programs to
create a publication quality crossword.

Crossword Publisher automatically generates clue numbers, checks word placement,
reports phantom words resulting from the juxtaposition of two words in the
crossword matrix, generates either a single file containing the clues and the
crossword matrix or two files, one containing the clues and one the matrix.

Crossword Publisher not only allows you to create professional looking crosswords
for your newsletter or magazine, it also allows you to incorporate changes
and rapidly generate new artwork.

Crossword Publisher was written by Richard L. Siddall and is published
by Longridge Software.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

This file has a very simple format.
By leaving out justification and other textual effects, we hope that formatting
the document for printing will be easier for you.

TRADEMARKS

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

IBM is a trademark of International Business Machine Corporation.

The name Crossword Publisher is a trademark of Richard L. Siddall.

DISCLAIMER

Use of this program acknowledges this disclaimer of warranty by the user:

Crossword Publisher is supplied "as is."
Longridge Software disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including,
without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness of this
product for any purpose.
Longridge Software assumes no liability whatsoever for any and all damages
which may or may not result from the use of this product.

Use of Crossword Publisher is at your own risk.
This product is designed to create output data files.
This can result in the overwriting of existing files.
Use may result in permanent loss of data.

Longridge Software is not affiliated with any other company.

SHAREWARE

This program is shareware: you can try the program before you buy it.
If you decide not to buy it, throw it away.
Typically you obtain a copy of the program from a bulletin board or from a
specialist shareware house.
Your cost, if you decide not to buy, is limited to connect time charges or
a few dollars for a shareware disk.

If you like the program, you must register your copy before you continue to
use it.

The trial period for Crossword Publisher is three calendar days from receipt
of your copy.

SOFTWARE LICENSE

Crossword Publisher is NOT public domain or free software.

You are not licensed to use this program after expiry of the trial period,
three calendar days from receipt of your copy, unless you have registered your
copy.

You are licensed to copy and distribute this program subject to the following
conditions:

- Crossword Publisher may not be distributed in connection with, or as a part
of, any other product or service.

- No fee of any kind may be charged for the copying and/or distribution
thereof, excluding costs of duplication and distribution - not to exceed
$10.00 per disk - without the express written permission of Longridge Software.

- The customer must be informed that any fee charged is solely to cover the
cost of duplication.
The customer is not buying the software, nor are they buying a license to use
it.

- Distribution in modified form is not permitted.
All files resident on this disk must be copied and distributed with the
executable file, including this documentation.

- Crossword Publisher may not be "rented" to others.

- You agree to cease distribution when requested to do so by Longridge
Software or by the author.

Operators of bulletin board systems are invited to post Crossword
Publisher for downloading by all users, as long as the above conditions are met.

If you distribute Crossword Publisher please notify Longridge Software
so that we can send you updates and new products directly.

Use of Crossword Publisher constitutes acceptance of the licensing provisions
set forth herein.

SITE LICENSES AND QUANTITY PURCHASES

All individual, corporate, business, governmental, institutional or other users
of Crossword Publisher must be registered.

Site licenses are available for any number of computers.
Use of this software on multiple computers at the same commercial site is not
permitted without a site license.

Write for liberal discount pricing on site licenses and / or multiple copy
registration.

Longridge Software intends to prosecute any and all persons or institutions
violating its copyright or the conditions set forth above.
Write to Longridge Software for more information.

REGISTRATION

Please use the registration form provided on this disk when registering your
copy of Crossword Publisher.

To register your copy of Crossword Publisher, send your name, street address
(P.O. Box numbers are not acceptable), and the version number of the copy that
you are registering to:

Longridge Software
P. O. Box 771
Naugatuck, CT 06770-0771

Enclose a check or money order for $45.

To find out about volume discounts and site licenses, write to the same
address.

BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION

There are good reasons for registering your copy of this program.

In general:

- It's illegal to use the program and not register it.
Using it once every year or so is still using it: you're making yourself
liable for prosecution.

- Registration entitles you to technical support.
A good company provides technical support for free, although you may have to
pay for the cost of the phone call.

- Registered users are added to the publisher's mailing list, and receive
notification of new product introductions, new version releases, workarounds
for bugs, etc.

- Registered users often receive the latest version when the register.
Sometimes this is an extra cost option.
You will not need to be told how slowly new versions of software propagate
through the shareware distribution network.
Most of the software on your local bulletin board may be five or six years old.

- Nobody intends to have to recall a product, but recalls happen all the time.
With a car, wheels fall off after 5,000 miles.
With software, rarely used options wind up trashing your disk.
Registered users can be contacted if a recall is necessary.

- Registration forms often contain surveys that provide the publisher with
important market research data at no cost, allowing them to better address
market needs without incurring expenses that increase the cost of the product
to the registrant.

Specifically, for Crossword Publisher:

- Registration entitles you to complete details on how to use Crossword
Publisher, limited updates, and technical assistance.
You will be added to a mailing list and informed when new releases are made.

- The program is still under development, and new features are being added
all the time.
Registration brings you the latest version at the time of registration, and
entitles you to reduced cost or free upgrades as new versions are released.

- Registered users will receive a manual that explains the program options
in greater detail, and explains how to get the best out of the program.

- Registration is risk free: if for any reason you are not completely satisfied
with Crossword Publisher, return your registration packet within 30 days and
we will refund your license fee in full.

REQUIREMENTS

Crossword Publisher will work on any IBM PC, XT, AT or PS/2 compatible
machine equipped with 128K of available memory (i.e. after MS-DOS and any TSRs
have been loaded).

USING CROSSWORD PUBLISHER

To start the program type XWP and the name of a puzzle file, then press return.
Two puzzle files are supplied with Crossword Publisher.

After composing your own crossword, you must create a puzzle file using a
text editor or a database program.
The format of the file is described later.

When you start Crossword Publisher, you must specify one or more switches to
tell it what to do.
Each of these switches may be abbreviated.
Crossword Publisher will tell you if it is confused about what you mean.

/HELP causes Crossword Publisher to give you a summary of these switches.

/SOLVE causes Crossword Publisher to create a solved matrix: the cells will
contain letters of the solution.

/LENGTHS causes Crossword Publisher to append solution length information to
the clues: this gives the person solving the puzzle a useful hint.
Solutions containing more than one word will have more than one number in the
length data.

/MEMORANDUM causes Crossword Publisher to tell you what it intends to do before
starting to read the puzzle data file.

/LOG causes Crossword Publisher to display the clues as it reads them in.

/SETUP=filename is used to specify which setup file (.XSU) Crossword Publisher
will use.
This defaults to XWP.XSU.

/CLUES=filename is used to specify the name of the file that Crossword Publisher
will print clues to.
The default name is the name of the puzzle data file, and the default extension
is ".TXT".

/MATRIX=filename is used to specify the name of the file that Crossword Publisher
will print the matrix to.
The default name is the name of the puzzle, extended to eight characters with
letters from "MATRIXWP".
The default extension is ".TXT"

/EXPORT causes Crossword Publisher to translate the puzzle data file into
two files suitable for use with Crossword Composer.
You can use that program to alter your crossword, then convert the data files
back to Crossword Publisher format with XWPCNV.

If you find yourself typing the same switches over and over, you should create
a preference file, named XWP.PRF, which can contain any switch that could
appear on the command line.
You may have more than one preference file.
Crossword Publisher will use the one it finds first, starting its search with
the current directory, followed by the directory containing XWP.EXE (only works
with MS-DOS 3.0 and later), followed by the environment variable XWP, followed
by the directories on the MS-DOS path.
A preference file is not required.
Not finding one is not considered an error.
We strongly recommend that you do not abbreviate switches in a preference
file.

PUZZLE FILE FORMAT

A puzzle file normally has a file extension of ".XWP", and contains the
definition of a crossword puzzle:

- The width and height of the crossword matrix in cells.
These should be two decimal numbers on the same line, separated by a comma.

- The title and author of the crossword.
These should be two strings delimited by double quoted, on the same line
and separated by a comma.

- The clues and solutions making up the crossword, together with the direction,
and row and column location.

Each clue and corresponding solution takes up one line of the puzzle file.
Each line contains:

- The direction of the solution: word ACROSS or DOWN, followed by a comma.

- The solution, a double quote delimited string containing only letters and
spaces, followed by a comma.

- The clue, a double quote delimited string, followed by a comma.
If the clue is a tilde followed by the solution to another clue, then that
clue is replaced by a same-as reference.

- The row location of the first cell of the solution in the matrix, a decimal
number, followed by a comma.
This may be any number from one up to and including the height of the matrix.

- The column location of the first cell of the solution in the matrix,
a decimal number, followed by a comma.
This may be any number from one up to and including the width of the matrix.

- A decimal number that will be replaced by the clue number.

USING XWPEDIT

The companion program XWPEDIT can be used to build and edit puzzle data files.
To start XWPEDIT, just type XWPEDIT at the MS-DOS prompt.
If you type the name of a puzzle file after XWPEDIT, the data file will be
loaded into the editor.

The main menu will appear, showing the choices available to you.

USING CROSSWORD COMPOSER

PC-Help-Line distributes a program called Crossword Composer.
Crossword Publisher can be used with this program.
Use Crossword Composer to compose a puzzle if you find this more convenient
than using XWPEDIT.
Use XWPCNV to convert the Crossword Composer (CWC) data files to Crossword
Publisher (XWP) format.
You can export data files from Crossword Publisher in CWC format using the
/EXPORT switch.

USING XWPCNV

This program has a number of switches in common with Crossword Publisher.
The remainder are:

/[NO]AUTHOR: CWC format files do not contain a crossword author string,
so XWPCNV allows you to specify one using the command line.

/BAR, /TILDE, /UNDERLINE: CWC format files use the tilde, underline and
vertical bar as special characters.
XWPCNV allows you to specify strings to replace these characters when the
file is converted.
If you specify more than one string for a character, the strings are used
in rotation: the first string replaces the first instance of the character,
the second string replaces the second instance, and so on.

LIMITATIONS

Crossword Publisher is designed to be used to convert a crossword puzzle into
a text file that can be used by a desktop publishing program.
It is not designed to be used to compose crosswords.

FEATURES

Crossword Publisher automatically numbers clues and solutions and checks
word placement and validity of solutions.

The setup file allows almost limitless variations in the text produced by
Crossword Publisher from the puzzle data file.

Setup files are provided that allow text files to be generated for use with
Xerox Ventura Publisher, Professional Extension, and PostScript.
A batch file is included to ease the task of creating an encapsulated
PostScript file.

ABOUT LONGRIDGE SOFTWARE

Longridge Software is a shareware publisher.
We distribute and support a number of software products written by third
parties, providing our authors with a number of services, including centralized
payment collection, business hour technical support, and publishing services.

Prospective authors are asked to write for our submission guide.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for trying Crossword Publisher, and for supporting the shareware
concept.
We hope that you will like the program and decide to keep it.
Whether you decide to keep the program, or reject it because of some limitation
or personal preference, we would like to hear your reactions.
We regret that we cannot guarantee to reply to all correspondence, but we'll
give it our best shot!

END OF XWP.DOC