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u
V D O T
DotBASIC Visual Design Program
using
Mr. Mouse Image Construction Kit
by Dave Moorman
In order to create a program in
DotBASIC, you must first design the
screen. VDOT is where you do that.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts
of VDOT, here is a quick example,
step by step, on how to make a simple
DotBASIC screen.
1. Boot VDOT. Press <Shift-RETURN> to
go to Keyboard Mode. Cursor to the
left side of the screen and type
Howdy
Then cursor to the right side of the
screen and type
Quit
Press <F1> to return to Mouse Mode.
2. Click EDIT > BOX. Use mouse or
joystick to move the box slightly
above and left of the "H" in "Howdy".
Click. Now move the mouse down and to
the right until the word "Howdy" is
nicely bracked. Click.
3. The EDIT menu will appear. Choose
ADD REGION. A dialog box appears
titled "Create Region 1". Answer the
questions:
Line Number: 1000 <RETURN>
Hotkey: <h><RETURN>
Right Clk (Y/N) <n>
Unhighlighted Color: <1><RETURN>
Reversed? (Y/N) <y>
Highlighted Color: <7><RETURN>
Reversed? (Y/N) <y>
Is This Right? (Y/N) <y>
4. Repeat 2 - 3 for the word "Quit",
with a Hotkey of <q>, of course.
5. If your work disk is on a
different drive, click FILE >
DISK/DIR, then click ON DEVICE and
choose the work disk drive number.
Click EXIT DISK/DIR.
6. Click FILE > SAVE. Choose
MEDDLESCREEN.MED. Input the filename
by which you will call this DotBASIC
program. In this case, call it
howdy
Click OK. If you already have a
"howdy.med" file and want to replace
it, click OK again.
There! Your MED file is saved. To
complete your first DotBASIC program,
read Getting Started, elsewhere in
this issue.
--------------------
Now that you have had a taste of
how VDOT looks and feels, let's get on
with the many features. You may note
some references within the program to
Mr.MICK -- Mr. Mouse Image
Construction Kit -- published in 1997.
That is because VDOT is an extension
of Mr.MICK.
VDOT sports a built-in font tool
that does nearly everything a font
editor does -- but all right on the
screen where you can see the
interaction of custom characters. In
short, VDOT has everything you need
for dramatic text screen design.
Remember, you can create screens
other than MED screens. The
ToolBoxStash format has the screen
and color information in just 2K of
data. And SuperToolStash can block
together up to 4 TBS screens in one
8K file.
On boot-up, you will see a Menu
Bar and pointer on a black screen.
This is MOUSE MODE -- and every
function is available on the three
pull-down menus. You can call the
menus with a point and click, or
press:
CONTROL-F for File
CONTROL-E for Edit
CONTROL-C for Control.
Note that the functions on the
Control Menu have hot keys listed.
The F-keys are easier than slogging
through the menu:
F1 - Toggle Menu Bar On/Off
F3 - Toggle Window On/Off
F5 - Switch Font/Color Windows
UP ARROW - Window to Top/Bottom
The Menu Bar and Window are non-
destructive, giving you access to the
whole screen. Press F3 and F5 until
you have the Font Window visible on
the screen.
In FontMouse Mode, you can pick
up any visible character with a point
and click, then move it to any place
on the screen and place it with
another click. You can only pick up
characters from the Font display.
Press the right mouse button or F7 to
drop a character without placing it
on the screen.
At the right of the Font display
is the character editor. Point and
click a cell to toggle the pixel. The
cursor keys move the box cursor on
the display to select the current
character.
While the font is visible,
pressing F6 (or Font Edit Control
from the Control Menu) will display a
menu of ten useful character
manipulators. The pointer is trapped
in the Font Control Menu until you
press the right mouse button or F7.
The first nine controls are obvious
and immediate. To Copy one character
to another, first choose the
character to be copied using the
cursor keys. Then click on Copy. The
pointer will jump to the Font display
(and is trapped there). Point to the
character to receive the copy and
click. (To cancel, point at the
character in the box cursor.)
COLORMOUSE MODE
---------------
Press F5 to switch to the Color
Window. The pointer becomes a "Paint
Bucket." Point and click one for the
colors on the palette to set the
current color. Then simply hold down
the left mouse button (or fire) and
move around to point the characters
on the screen.
To the left of the palette is the
border/background box. Move the
"Bucket" to the far left edge of the
Color Window and click to paint the
border. Point to the center of the
box and click to paint the
background. If the background and
Menu Bar are the same color, press F4
to cycle through menu colors. All
menus and dialog boxes will be in the
Menu Bar color.
VDOT lets you work in any C-64
color mode. With the Color Window
visible, press F2 (or use the Control
Menu <F2 To .... Mode>). You will
cycle through each color mode. In
Extended Background, the background
colors are displayed in four
quadrants. In Multi-Color, the three
background colors are displayed in
three rows.
Note: If the border color is 0-7,
you will not see the extra multi-
colors. Choose colors 8 - 15 and
click the border rim of the color box
to see the two other background
colors in the center of the box. The
three rows WILL respond correctly to
painting even if they do not display
the colors. Just chalk it up to the
nature of our favorite beast!
We have just three other Control
Menu functions left. F8 is a
QuikSave, which you can perform once
an image has been named. The BACK
ARROW cycles you through fonts:
Custom to
Default Upper Case to
Default Lower Case.
Check Regions will be discussed
below.
TEXT MODE
---------
Point and click are nice -- but
the keyboard is better for straight
typing. Use the Control Menu <Shift-
RET: To Text Mode>, or press Shift-
RETURN. The menus are not available
in Text Mode, and the only Function
key functioning is F1. To exit Text
Mode, press Shift-RETURN or F1.
Clue: Remember F1! In a stroke or
two, F1 will get the Menu Bar back on
the screen.
In Text Mode, the keyboard works
almost exactly like the native C-64
screen editor. I have excluded the
irritating line links and bottom
scrolling. Insert and Delete only
affect the cursor row. Set colors and
Reverse On/Off in the normal way. CLR
clears the screen. However, if you
press CLR again, the screen will be
restored to the point where you
entered Text Mode.
F1 or Shift-RETURN returns you to
Mouse Mode.
THE MENUS
---------
File Menu
New -- clears work in progress.
Load --
VDOT will load:
ToolBoxStash (.TBS)
MeddleScreen (.MED)
SuperToolStash (.STS)
Font ( F. )
Screen (from 1024)
Color (from 55296)
The MeddleScreen (.MED) loads a
font followed by .TBS format data,
followed by Event Region Data. This
is the format required by DotBASIC.
As you can see, the this language's
name went through some changes during
development. At first, I thought I
would call it "Mouse Event Driven
Development Language Experiment" (or,
more narcassisticly, "Moorman's
EDDLE"). However, after using the Dot
Commands, the name DotBASIC became
obvious. By then, VDOT was working
with the .MED extension and I decided
not to change it.
SuperToolStash is a group of one
to four .TBS images in one file --
particularly handy for bringing
several images into a program with a
single bload. The .STS file fits
nicely at page 160 or 224 under ROM.
Screen and Color files have been
included to bring data in from less
sophisticated programs.
SAVE
Choose the file-type:
F. Font
.TBS ToolBoxStash
.MED MeddleScreen (aka DotBASIC)
.STS SuperToolStash
Next input the filename and
confirm. See below in Put/Get Image
about saving .STS files.
QUIKSAVE
Once a .TBS or .FTS file is
saved, the filename is embedded in
the data