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PROGRAM: LEACH VERSION 1.0
WRITTEN BY: DREW LUCY
DATE: 12/9/87
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This program is copyrighted. However, it may be copied and distributed freely
in disk form, as long as this "readme" file is distributed with the program.
VERSION 1.0 OF LEACH MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED VIA ANY ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD
SYSTEM, COMMERCIAL OR OTHERWISE, EXCEPT COMPUSERVE. I'd like to do one more
rev of the program before it's turned loose on the world.
USER BEWARE
This hack is still in the early stages of development. To date, it has never
harmed any disk resident data. Version 1.0 is much harder to crash than
Version 0.1 was. However, Ver 0.1 was a pushover and, Leach will probably
still crash the Amiga occationally. Leach does several things that no well
behaved program would dream of doing in a multitasking environment. Some ill
defined situations can still blow it out of the water.
The author is is not responsible for any ill effects that result from the
execution of this program.
CHANGES FROM VER 0.1 TO VER 1.0
* Ver 1.0 can be run against Graphicraft and Images, as well as all
Digi-view programs.
* New mouse pointer for easier end point placement.
* Degree read out in tenths of a degree so each slope is unique
* Ver 1.0 succesfully removes its menu from the Host's menu strip when
Leach's close window gadget is clicked. Leach's menu has become the
last menu item in the Host's first menu.
* Ver 1.0 does a much better job of handling the message traffic between
Intuition and the Host, which means it won't crash nearly as often.
DESCRIPTION
Leach is potentially useful only if you own NewTek Inc's "Digi-View" system,
Aegis Images or Graphicraft. It is intended for people whoes interest in
precision digitizing goes beyond "getting the color of her nipples to come
out right". When run in parallel with a compatible Host program, Leach
allows you to make fairly precise measurements of distances and angles in a
digitized image. The unusual feature of Leach is that you make these
measurements while ALL of Host's functions are still available to you. Leach
allows you to manipulate a "ruler" line that it draws directly onto the Host
screen image. While all this is going on, the Host continues to function
(more or less) normally.
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
This version of Leach can not be used from WorkBench. From CLI, the
procedure for using Leach is as follows:
1) "Run" the desired compatible Host program. I believe Leach will run
against any of the Digi-View programs (LORES, MEDRES, INTERLACE, etc).
However, leach has not been tested with the hires (640x400 color) program.
Leach has also been used successfully against Graphicraft 1.1 and both
Images programs.
2) After the Host screen appears, switch back to the WorkBench screen
by entering the "Left_Amiga-N" key combination. Click on the CLI window to
reactivate it.
IMAGES WARNING: The Fast Menu window must be closed while you attach Leach
to Images.
3) To start Leach use the command appropreate for the Host:
Host CLI Command (Note the quote marks)
-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Any Digi-View | run leach
Graphicraft | run leach "Graphicraft Version 1.1"
Images (320x200) | run leach "Aegis Images V1.1"
Images (320x400) | run leach "IHR VERSION 1.1"
-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Leach will automatically bring the Host screen back to the front. Leach will
abort shortly after it is run, if it can't find the Host in memory.
4) Once the Host screen has reappeared, you may opperate the Host
exactly as you normally would. OR...
5) Notice that a "LEACH" menu item now appears at the bottom of the Host's
first menu. Select the "Scr On" subitem and the Leach status display screen
will appear at the bottom of the display.
6) Click the left gadget on the Leach status screen. The ruler will appear
on the Host screen and the right gadget (labeled "MOVE") becomes enabled. At
this point, you still can't move the ruler line.
7) Click Leach's right gadget. Now, clicking anywhere on the Host image
(except near the ruler's endpoints) will cause the ruler to jump to the
position of the mouse pointer. The ruler can not be positioned so that it
would be partially off screen. Pressing and holding the Select Button very
near one of the ruler's endpoints will cause that endpoint to jump to the
pointer and then follow it as long as the Select Button is held down.
8) You may terminate Leach by clicking the close gadget in its status
window. In this case, the Host continues to execute. Leach will also
terminate if you select the Host's "QUIT" menu item.
RANDOM NOTES
Leach has one particularly un-nerving habit. The first time that you move
a ruler endpoint, the internal disk drive may spin briefly. Leach is
loading mathtrans.libibrary from SYS:Libs, in order to perform its first
trig calculations. By the way, the above mentioned library MUST be there.
The Leach gadget labels always reflect the action that will be taken
when they are selected, not the current state of the program. Thus if the
left gadget is labeled "SHOW", the ruler will be invisible, right?
If the ruler is made invisible for any reason, it will also be frozen and
the move/freeze gadget will be disabled.
Selecting an item from any Host menu automatically hides and freezes
the ruler and turns the status screen off. After making such a selection,
you must repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 to reveal and mobilize the ruler line again.
Selecting the "Scr Off" menu item turns the status screen off but does not
affect the state of the ruler.
When used on HAM mode screens, the ruler causes the colors to smear in the
pixels to its immediate right, just like menus do.
Drawing over the ruler in Graphicraft or Images will leave parts of the ruler
etched into the Host image.
Things can get alittle weird at quitting time if the Host Throws up a
requester. If you get tossed back to the CLI window but it is ghosted, use
Amiga-M to see if the Host is still running and waiting for you to satisfy a
requestor.
Leach often spits a failure message when it terminates. Don't worry about it.
The command line argument you give Leach is the Host screen title exactly as
it appears in the Host's Screen structure. However, leading spaces may be
omitted. Note that there are two spaces between "Graphicraft" and "Version"
in Graphicraft's title.
I will be revising Leach at least one more time. The current ruler line is
too hard to see. I am also considering adding a real world coordinate
system as an alternative to the pixel coordinates.
In spite of infrequent trips to the Guru, I find Leach useful for precision
digitizing. Without it, even simple tasks, like making sure that horizontal
lines are really horizontal, can be frustrating and time consuming. However,
Leach is a kludge at best. I hope that, along with other goodies, the next
release of the Digi-View software will include features similar to but better
than, the one that Leach struggles to provide.
Bug reports and enhancement suggestions would be welcomed. I can be contacted
through...
CompuServe ID 76337,75 Please leave email rather than (or in addition to)
Forum messages. Message life spans are shorter than
interval between my visits to the forum.
US Mail Drew Lucy
6777 Upper York Road
Star Route Box 102C
New Hope, PA 18938