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1991-09-20
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PRE1
P _ R E A D E R
Yet another infernal Reader. There are hundreds of them already, reliable,
comprehensive, user-friendly, sitting around pleading to be used. So pick
the Readers that will properly display texts with multiple colour and style
changes, compressed texts, ILBMs. Now the list gets shorter! Find the
Readers that will also display animations and sounds. . . Finally find the
Readers that will show illustrated texts, with pictures and animations
mixed in with the words. What, none?
Wrong. One.
First the general instructions. press HELP for a summary.
INSTRUCTIONS
Introduction
P-Reader can be used for:
All-purpose text reader.
Reader for special illustrated texts.
ILBM display, including HAM and cycling (where active).
Sounds (8SVX format).
ANIM5 type animation display.
Texts, pictures and animations may be compressed (with P-Compress - to be
released shortly) or uncompressed. P-Reader will check and act accordingly.
This reader forms the core of the complete P-Suite system. Also included
in the Suite, and being released over the next few months, are:
P-Writer.
A matching text editor with special facilities for writing in
colour and style changes and calling up illustrations.
P-Compress.
Compression and de-compression tool.
P-Check.
Utility for checking suitability of IFF illustrations - ILBM
and ANIM.
P-Animate.
Full-featured 3-D animation programme.
Calling
From CLI: P-Reader <FILE>
if no file is given P-Reader will open showing a file requester.
From Workbench: Click the icon.
P-Reader will again open with a file requester.
To open with a file (which may be a text, picture, or animation),
hold
<SHIFT>
click the
P-Reader
icon, double-click the file icon.
If you have Arp Library installed the standard Arp file requester will
be used.
Operation
P-Reader is mainly controlled by the ten function keys. To produce a key
strip index switch the printer on and click twice on the strip below with
the RIGHT mouse button to print it. Cut out, join, print "P-Reader" on the
back and enclose between two strips of clear Con-Tact film.
#! 1 1 15 0 reader.key
F1:
Move to Page [n]. To move to any page press
<F1>
, enter the number of
the required page, press
<RETURN>
.
F2, F3:
Press
<F2>
or
<F3>
to get the first or last pages respectively.
F4:
Search. Requester will appear. Click on this and replace the word
"text" with the string that you want to find. Set case-sensitivity and
press
<RETURN>
. The search will always start at the beginning of the file.
A cursor will appear immediately before the required string.
F5:
Search again. Search will continue from the last instance found.
WARNING The Search window must remain active during the search process
If your pointer automatically activates the window over which it is placed,
make sure that it remains over the Search window.
F6:
Print page. The current page will be dumped to the printer.
F7:
Print file. The whole file will be dumped.
F8:
Screen to back. Since P-Reader opens its own screen & window, depth or
window shrinking gadgets are not useful.
<F8>
, together with
<Amiga-N>
<Amiga-M> allow any screen to be brought up.
F9:
Load. Brings up a file requester. A new file can be selected at any
time.
F10:
Save. Brings up the file requester again. The text will always be
saved in normal un-compressed ASCii form. ILBM illustrations in the text
will not be saved (but see below under "ILBM Display).
If you do not have the Arp library, a simple string gadget requester will
appear. Enter the required file, press
<return>
and click
<OK>
or
<CANCEL>
.
Additional functions are performed by page header gadgets. From left to
right:
Window close
- terminates P-Reader.
Page up
- just click on it (L mouse button).
NoP
- No Pictures. Toggles to suppress or enable graphics.
Click it.
NoC
- No Cycling. Toggles to suppress or enable cycling.
Page Down
- Just click on it.
Window Size
To make it possible to include illustrations a displayed P-Reader text has
a set page size - no scrolling.
As a simple text reader
P-Reader
opens a screen matching the current
display mode. If however an illustrated file is loaded, a PAL (256 line)
or NTSC (200 line) screen will be used according to detail in the file
header.
ILBM Display
To stop cycling click once with the LEFT mouse button. Cycling must be
stopped before you can move on.
To dump to the printer click twice with the RIGHT mouse button.
P-Reader can be used as a stand-alone ILBM viewer. In this role it will
accept any of the standard view-modes and screen depths.
To start cycling press
<TAB>
.
To stop cycling click once with the LEFT mouse button.
To dump to the printer click twice with the RIGHT mouse button.
To close the screen click once with the LEFT mouse button.
ANIMATION Display
ANIM5s (as produced by Videoscape and P-Animator, etc) can be shown either
as text illustrations or by themselves. The animation will display its
opening screen while loading.
To start the animation click the LEFT mouse button once.
To end the animation click again.
The animation must be run (a double-click suffices) before you can move on.
Displaying large animations (not including the illustration on P8) usually
needs 1 Meg of memory. Click on the NoP gadget above if you have less.
ILLUSTRATED TEXTS
The preparation of illustrated texts for P-Reader is much easier with
P-Writer, its partner in the P-Suite stable. However P-Writer is not
essential.
Colour and Style Changes
The normal escape codes are used. The most useful being:
reset ^[[0;40m b'ground Pen1 ^[[41m style bold ^[[1m
text Pen1 ^[[31m b'ground Pen2 ^[[42m style italic ^[[3m
text Pen2 ^[[32m b'ground Pen3 ^[[43m underline ^[[4m
text Pen3 ^[[33m
The initial ^[ represents the insert introducer or CSI, the non-printing
character produced by 'Esc'. Refer to the instructions for your text
editor to see how to insert this.
Three types of graphics (four if you count sounds) can be called :
ILBMs (IFF pictures)
True ILBMs produced by DPaint or any of the standard drawing software can
be used, provided that:
Size is no greater than 640 X 256 (PAL) or 640 X 200 (NTSC).
No HAM or HALFBRITE.
Depth is three planes (eight colours).
The picture shares a screen with the text, so the palette used by the
picture will affect screen colours. Wherever possible the first four
colours of the picture should be close to 000, FFA, 3F3, F20. The rest of
the default palette is 45F, FC8, A60, 0A0.
Calling syntax:
<#><!> 1 [Left edge] [Top edge] [Cycling] [File]
#
followed immediately by
!
is the Command Introducer
or CI. P-Reader treats this as an escape sequence
introducer and the characters between it and the end
of the line are not printed. (Always put a command
sequence at the end of a line, not in the middle!).
#! 1 61 5 1 tree
1:
Enter 1 to indicate Type ILBM.
Left edge:
Position of left edge of picture - column.
Top Edge:
Position of top of picture - row.
Click LMB to
Cycling:
Enter 1 to enable, 0 to disable.
stop cycling
File:
Full path and filename.
This is CI 1 61 5 1 tree
The sequence may be placed anywhere on the page,
but is best put at the bottom so that all text is displayed first.
ANIMATIONS
This version supports straightforward ANIM5 animations as produced by
Videoscape, The Projector, P_Animator and others. Full information on how to
create animations for P-Reader will be given in P_Animator.
The command syntax is:
<#><!> 2 0 0 0 [File]
The sequence starts with the same CI as before.
2:
Type 2. Animation.
0 0 0
(For future expansion; do not omit).
File:
Full path and filename.
This is CI 2 0 0 0 fight.anim
Click LMB to start
The sequence can go anywhere on the page.
Click again to stop
There should be no text directly under the
anim. #! 2 0 0 0 fight.anim
UP TO THREE ILBMs OR ONE ANIM MAY BE
CALLED ON EACH PAGE
SOUNDS
Sound effects can be included if they are
in the normal 8SVX format. #! 4 yuppy
Command syntax: <#><!> 4 [File]
Sequence starts with the Command Introducer
4:
Type 4 - sound effect.
File:
Full path and filename.
BORDERS
Provides a standard Intuition Border which may
be used to enclose text or pictures.
This is
CI 3 56 14 19 5 6
The command syntax is:
<#><!> 3 [Left edge] [Top line] [Width] [Height] [Pen]
#! 3 61 11 18 5 6
The sequence starts with the same CI as before.
3:
Type 3 - means "Draw a Border".
Left edge:
First column to be included in the box.
Top line:
First line to be included.
Width:
Number of columns wide.
Height:
Number of lines high.
Pen:
Pens 0 to 7 may be used.
The command sequence may be placed anywhere on the page, however to prevent
the border from being over-written by text it is best put on a line below
where the border will appear.
Identification
To identify an illustrated text write the letters PRE at its very start,
followed immediately (no blank spaces) by 0 to indicate a PAL file or 1 for
an NTSC file.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Credit: Yuppee sound stolen from Nic Wilson's SAM sound-reader.
P-Reader may be freely copied and circulated in whole or in part, provided
that any distribution is accompanied by this file. The programme may be
used for any non-commercial or non-profit-making purpose. Authority for
commercial or profit-making purposes may be obtained from the author -
proposals for payment in kind will be looked on favorably.
Reactions, suggestions, bug-reports all welcome.
A.M.H Wyndham
1265 Canning Mills Road,
Roleystone,
WA 6111
Australia