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Text File | 1995-01-10 | 26.1 KB | 553 lines

* AmigaWorld * created by Wolfgang Lug Documentation of version 4.32 This program is dedicated to the late Len Parry. May the good Lord shine a light on you Make every song your favourite tune May the good Lord shine a light on you Warm like the evening sun 1. What is AmigaWorld? ====================== AmigaWorld is the best geographical database available for the Amiga computer. It contains information about every country on Earth, e.g. capital, size, population, languages, religions, curreny, GNP and the flag. Maps and text descriptions about each country, continent and many international organizations are available. There also is a country list that can be sorted as you like. So can e.g. have a look at all Asian OPEC-members, the countries with most inhabitants on top of the list. AmigaWorld is easy to handle, and you can choose between German, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Swedisch, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish output. One MByte of memory is required, 1.5 MByte are recommended. Any Kickstart version since 1.2 will do. 2. How do I start AmigaWorld? ============================= It's really easy: Just double-click the AmigaWorld icon. That's all. If you would like to start AmigaWorld from a CLI window you have to make sure that you are in the same directory as AmigaWorld: "cd df0:AmigaWorld". Then you have to give it some more stack: "stack 8000". Now you can start the program: "run AmigaWorld". AmigaWorld looks best if you use it with its special "Beatles" font that comes along with the program. If you want to install it in your system you can do so by double-clicking the InstallFont icon. Unimportant which font you use, the diskfont library has to be on you boot disk. It is included in every standard Workbench disk. 3. How do I make AmigaWorld "speak" other languages? ==================================================== After having started AmigaWorld, everything is displayed in English. But you can switch to another language! Just chose the item "Language" from the menu "Configuration". A new window pops up, and you are asked to enter the name of the new language. At the moment you can choose between English, German, Dutch, French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish, and I hope that future versions of AmigaWorld will give you even more choice. If you would like to translate AmigaWorld into a new language, feel free to do so! It is not very difficult, but it means a lot of work. Contact me and see chapter 7 for details! 4. How to use AmigaWorld ======================== Just try and find out! Most features are easy to understand, but you might not notice some of the less intuitive features. Therefore here comes a quick survey about the AmigaWorld screen: The list of countries --------------------- The list of countries is on the right side. It contains all the countries that are selected, e.g. by the "Selection" menu. If you move the mouse on a country's name and press the left button, a new window pops up where the available data for this country is displayed. With this method you can open up to ten country windows at the same time, thus enabling you to compare their data. The proportional gadget ----------------------- The proportional gadget in the middle of the screen enables you to move up and down in the country list. The map ------- The map has two functions: If you hit the right mouse button over the map, all countries are selected (and thus displayed). If you press the left button a bigger world map pops and you are asked to choose a continent. Click on the desired continent and a new map will be displayed, showing it. Now you can click on one of the brown coloured countries and its data will be displayed. The selection in the country list is not influenced by this. Every map window has got a little menu that contains the items "Close" and "Description" which enables you to obtain a text about the continent that is displayed. The search gadget ----------------- The search gadget is below the map. If you type in some text and hit return, AmigaWorld searches for a country with the name you entered. If you have entered e.g. "Belgium", only Belgium will be selected and the data about it will be displayed in a new country window. If you enter "Guiana" AmigaWorld will select the independent state of Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. If you're too lazy to type in the whole name or if you don't know it com- pletely, it is sufficient to enter the first letters and a star '*'. If you enter e.g. "fra*", France will be displayed. AmigaWorld knows several names for many countries: It doesn't matter if you enter "UK", "England" or "Great Br*"; the result is equal. Instead of a country's name, you can also type in its abbreviation (as it is used on number plates, e.g.). If you type "GB" then the United Kingdom and all its dependencies are selected. If you type "IND" then only India will be selected. Before starting a search, you should remember that AmigaWorld searches only the selected countries. If only European countries are selected, AmigaWorld won't find China or Mexico. Therefore it is usually necessary to restore the old selection after every search: Select the first item of the "Selection" menu. It is not only possible to search for a country's name: You can also search for a country, if you know its capital; or you can search for all countries, where a specified language is spoken; or you can search for all countries in South East Asia, e.g. This depends on your selection in the "Search for" menu. By the way: The search function is still enabled when you have already opened some country windows. 5. The Menus ============ A speciality, that should not be that special --------------------------------------------- Intuition gives you two ways of choosing a menu item: 1st) You press the right mouse button, move the mouse upon the item and then release the right button. That is nothing new to you, I suppose. 2nd) You press the right mouse button, move the mouse upon the item and then hit the LEFT button, without releasing the right one. Probably you wonder why the guy is telling you this rather boring story. Well, with the second method it is not only possible to select one item, but three or four at a time. So you can make your choice in the "Display" menu with one turn, or you can choose "Font" and "Colors" and "Save" from the configuration menu all at once. Especially if you use this on the "Selection" menu, you will notice that it works a lot faster than selecting five menu items one after another, each time waiting until the program has processed the input. Although it is an intuition feature, it is not supported by many programs. Coming next there is a description of all the menu items: The "AmigaWorld" menu --------------------- "About" whodunnit "User" tells how (and why) to become a registered user. If you have registered you will find your own name. "Translation" tells you about the brave men who translated everything into their native languages. "Quit" does what it is supposed to do. WITHOUT any stupid questions if you really, really, really want to exit. The "Selection" menu -------------------- "Restore" takes exactly those country into the list that have been selected before the last search. The following six items tell AmigaWorld which continents shall be selected and thus displayed in the country list. If you want only information about African countries, just switch off the rest of the world! "Dependencies" If this item is activated, not only independent states are selected but all the other countries and territories, too, e.g. Greenland or Hong Kong. It is not possible to select dependencies only. The "Sort by" menu ------------------ If you select an item from this menu, the country list will be sorted. The order depends on the item you have chosen. If you choose "Area" Russia is displayed first, the Vatican last. The "Display" menu ------------------ This menu determines the looks of the country list. It is interesting especial- ly in connection with the "Sort by" menu. "Rank" The country list will be numbered. This is helpful when comparing countries. An example: You have chosen only "Europe" in the "Selection" menu and "Population" in the "Sort by" menu. The beginning of the list will look like this: 1 Russia 2 Germany 3 Great Britain ... "Official Names" Instead of the common names (like Greece) the official names (like Greek republic) will be displayed. Quite useless. "Value" The value that corresponds with the "Sort by" menu will be displayed behind the names in the list, if this item is checked. "All Countries" AmigaWorld does not only display the selected countries but all the others, too. They are shown in another color, so you can still recognize which are selected and which aren't. This item is very helpful if you would like to compare the selected countries with the rest of the world. You could e.g. sort the list by GNP and have a look how the EU countries come out. Moreover this enables you to select one single country by clicking it with the right mouse button. The "Search for" menu --------------------- If you enter some text in the down left gadget, AmigaWorld by default searches for a country, with a name that is equal to your input. But you can also search for other things, depending on what you choose from this menu: "Name" is the default setting. You cannot only enter the name of a country, but also its abbreviation. This way not only the country itself but also all dependencies will be selected. Example: If you enter "P" then Portugal and Macao will be selected. "Location" This item enables you to make a more precise selection on the countries' location than it is possible with the continents menu. You can e.g. enter "Northeast Africa" or "East Asia". If you enter "Mediterranean Sea" or "Baltic Sea" you will receive a list with all countries that are bordering them. "Capital" From now on AmigaWorld will look for capitals that match your input. If you enter "Bo*" for example, Colombia (Bogota) and Germany (Bonn) will be selected. If you enter "Ber*", Germany (Berlin) and Switzerland (Bern) will be selected. "Language" You would like to know all countries, where the people speak English, Turkish or Swahili - no problem! "Religion" If you enter "Islam" nothing will happen: You have to enter the name of people believing in the religion, e.g. "Muslims" or "Shiites". With one exception: Enter "Ethnic" if you want to know where ethnic religions are common. "Currency" This enables you to search for countries that use a specific currency. You can only search for the main unit (e.g. Dollar) not for sub-units (e.g. cent). "Organization" This item is a bit different: A new window pops up where all those organizations are listed that AmigaWorld knows. Click one, and a description of it comes up, and its members are selected. Of course it is possible to search several times for different things: So you can find out which African countries are OAU members and Islamic. The "Configuration" menu ------------------------ This menu makes it possible to adjust AmigaWorld's outfit to your own prefer- ences: "Colors" A color requester comes up. "Screen Mode" calls the requester that comes up at start. Now you can choose a new screen mode, like Productivity, Hires or Interlace. Should you still work with an old Kickstart (< 2.1) this item toggles interlace mode on/off. "Font" If you don't like my beautiful font (shame on you!) then you can select another one. The size must be between 7 and 15 point. "Language" This enables you to communicate with AmigaWorld in another language. At the moment you can choose between English, German, Swedish, Dutch, French, Finnish, Italian and Danish, and who knows? Maybe YOU will send me a trans- lation into your native language! "Save" This one saves the current settings of the "Configuration" menu onto disk. Next time you start AmigaWorld, it will look exactly as you prefer it. 6. The data =========== Some words about the data as it is displayed in the country window: My most informative source is a German almanac, called "Fischer Welt-Almanach"; most data is taken out of the 1995 edition of this book. But there are more sources: Other books, newspapers, informations from my users, etc. Some information might need more explanation. Here it is: o Name: Some countries have changed their names in recent years, e.g. Burma to Myanmar or Upper Volta to Burkina Faso. That's why you might miss some countries in the list. If you would like to get information about a country that you cannot find in the list then you should type its name into the search gadget: AmigaWorld will display the data together with the new name of the country. o Capital: Every name is spelled in the language of its inhabitants first; if the English name differs, it is mentioned in brackets. o Language: Not all languages are mentioned that are spoken in a country; this would be impossible. I'm quite sure that every language that is spoken by more than ten percent of the population is mentioned, the languages of smaller minorities sometimes are, sometimes are not. o Religion: Same thing as the language data: Not all are listed, but most; very often the percentage is written in brackets. But you should not look at these figures too seriously: If you add up all the figures you will get a total percentage of more than 100% for some countries, of about 60% for some others. This is probably due to the different sources of the data: Some countries use data by the churches that probably just count the baptized people, even if they are agnosticians or atheists today. (=> about 95%) Some other countries seem to use data by statistic surveys, where the people are included that have no denomination (=> about 70%). And especially in Africa many people have two religions, e.g. Islam and an ethnic relgion (=> about 110%). The data about religion was originally collected by Ruud Hoekzema. But when I updated the German data file, I found lots of differences between my almanac and Ruud's sources. That's why the English version became a mixture of both. Every country window has got a little menu that consists of these items: "Description" produces a text about the country, telling you about its nature, climate, population, economy and history. These texts were written by Bo Arnholm and are only available in English, some of them also in Swedish. Bo Arnholm owns all rights of these texts. This means that you have to ask Bo for permission if you want to spread the texts apart from AmigaWorld or if you want to include them in your own publications. Please read the "LetterFromBo". "Map" This item activates a map that shows the location of the country. There are maps of the World, of each continent and of Central America and the Middle East. "Mother country" This item appears if the country window contains the data of a dependency. You can open the country window of the mother country by selecting this item. "Dependencies" This replaces the last item if an independent country is displayed. The country list contains its dependencies after selecting this item. "Close" well, guess! 7. The awo files ================ AmigaWorld 4.2 makes use of several files that are read while the program is running: o awo.cfg is the configuration file that tells AmigaWorld which screen mode, colours, font and - most important - which language to use. This file is NOT included in the freeware version because it can be changed easily with an editor. Sorry! o awo.output exists eight times, once per language. It contains all output texts. o awo.data contains the country data. o awo.org is used to list the organizations and show their descriptions. o awo.coord is read when the first map is displayed. The file contains the information which country is where on what map. (this was BAD ENGLISH, I'm afraid!) o awo.cont contains the text descriptions of the continents. o flags In this drawer you find the flags with their country code. o text contains the text descriptions of the countries. All rights are reserved by the author, Bo Arnholm. If you want to make any other than private use of these texts, then please contact Bo first. You find his address in the file "LetterFromBo" and at the end of this doc file. o maps This drawer contains the maps. That means: If you would like to translate AmigaWorld into one more language you have to translate at least the files "awo.output" (250 lines) and "awo.data" (very many lines). Of course you can also translate "awo.org" and "awo.cont" if you like but this is not really necessary. If you have decided to translate AmigaWorld then have a look at "awo.output" and "awo.data", guess how long it will take, and then: DO NOT START!! But contact me. Then I can tell you if your language does already exist and send you the latest data files together with a description of their structure. 8. Legal stuff ============== All folks that release a computer program write some stuff like this in their documentations. Maybe there is some sense in it, so I'm going to do it, either: The author will not be liable for any damage arising from the failure of this program to perform as described, or any destruction of other programs or data residing on a system attempting to run the program. While the author knows of no damaging errors, the user of this program uses it at his or her own risk. I stole it from the documentation of Patch 2.0 by Hartmut Stein who took it out of a readme by some other guy. You see, this is a paragraph with tradition! Of course I do not take any liability for the data files, either. If you send me translations of awo data or documentation files you loose all rights on them! 9. Distribution =============== The limited freeware version of AmigaWorld may be spread as you like it. I encourage you to make copies and give them to your friends! If you take money for copying, the CHARGE FOR AMIGAWORLD MUST NOT EXCEED DM 20,-, US$ 13,- OR THE EQUIVALENT IN OTHER CURRENCY. Only Mr Fred Fish of Tempe/Arizona may charge as much as he decides to. Moreover you have to spread the whole distribution as you have received it yourself. Please do not modify or delete any files from it. It is not allowed to give the version for registered users to any other people. Beatles font is Public Domain, i.e. you can spread it, modify it and use it in your own programs. 10. How to become a registered user ================================== If you like AmigaWorld, why don't you become a registered user? Registered users will receive the latest version of AmigaWorld, of course without any annoying limitations. They will also receive all flags, maps and text descriptions, as well as the latest data files, of course with every available translation. Well, if you are interested in becoming a registered user, then please send DM 40,- (that's about US$ 25,-) to this address: Wolfgang Lug Am Rinzler 4 78465 Konstanz Germany By the way: Bo Arnholm, author of the country descriptions, will receive a quarter of your donation. We will also be glad if you send laser printers, BMWs or simply more money! If you are already a registered user you can order the latest version of AmigaWorld for DM 20,- (Germany) or US$ 15.- (other countries). Of course I'm keen on your money in the first place, but I'm looking forward to ANY reaction on AmigaWorld. So, if you have any ideas, how to improve AmigaWorld: Write to me! If you find bugs in the program or in the data files, or if you just want to tell me about all my nasty mistakes in the English documentation: Contact me! If you think that AmigaWorld's icon is ugly: Create a better one and send it to me! Right at this place in the first documentation, there was an invitation to send me translations without telling me before. This was not too good an idea: The translations I received were all a bit "old-fashioned", because I had already improved the program itself. The Dutch version e.g. arrived one day after I had put the currency line into the data file. Of course my translators could not know this; it is entirely my fault. But because I do not want to happen this too often: Please contact me BEFORE sending any translation. This will also save you from translating everything into a language, that AmigaWorld was already translated to. I already have three French and two Italian versions ... If you are the first one that creates a translation into your language, you will get the full functional version without payment. If you have already payed you will get your money back. Credits ======= Last not least I wanna say "Thank you!" to some people: Alexander Linke who put me on Modula-2. Bernd Preusing for his module "IntuiPointer", which creates the busy pointer for the mouse. Kai Bolay for ImageConvert, that I used to convert the title and the little map into source code. Jean-Michel Forgeas for his great editor "Az". I wrote the documentation and most data files with it, and it is really the best editor for the Amiga that I know. You should test it yourself: It can be found on AmigaLibDisk 346! Thies Wellpott for his fine program "PlotMap" that I used to create all maps except the one of Antarctica. Preben Nielsen for "PicSaver". With this program I "grabbed" the maps and put them to disk. Special thanks to all registered users in fifteen countries, especially: Guido Alfani the Italian translator of AmigaWorld. Bo Arnholm who translated the data files into Swedish and made a lot of suggestions on how to improve AmigaWorld. For more than one year Bo has been working on text descriptions for every country now. Very big THANX for that! If you want to tell him something about his texts or if you like to give him an extra donation, why not write to him? Bo Arnholm Södermalmsgatan 13 431 69 Mölndal Sweden Bo owns all right on his texts, i.e. you need his permission if you want to make any commercial use of his texts or if you want to spread them apart from AmigaWorld! See the file "LetterFromBo" for details. Bjarne Bjørnsen for translating AmigaWorld into Norwegian. Olivier Bogros the man who translated 'awo.data' and 'awo.output' into French. David Gaussinel (of Bélier Production, Sarlat, France) who translated the documentation files into his native language. Ruud Hoekzema who translated the data files into Dutch and told me about many inaccuracies in the country data. And he also helped me to collect data about religions and international organizations. Some of the org descriptions were written by him. Mika Leinonen who translated AmigaWorld into Finnish and added some Australian dependencies that I had forgotten. Yves Salingue the French translator of 'awo.org' and 'awo.cont'. Casper Thomsen who translated everything into Danish. E N J O Y ! and remember: IBM sucks