JCSM Shareware Collection 1996 September/JCSM Shareware Collection (JCS Distribution) (September 1996).ISO/elec_bks/epf18.zip/DART.#01

Text File | 1992-08-29 | 12KB | 431 lines

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            Dart: Hypertext File Viewer

            By UserWare



                   ~release 1g dated aug'92~




                          Press (`PgDn`) to continue ..

:PREFACE

To get started, here are some hints:

■Press (`PgDn`) and (`PgUp`) to scroll through the text.

■Asterisks* mark references to other parts of the text.

·Press (`Tab`) or (`Shift-Tab`) to move to an asterisk.
·Press (`Enter`) to view the referenced text.
·Afterwards, press (`BackSpace`) to return.

■Press (`F8`) to use the Table of Contents.

■Mouse users can click the left button to select
 hotwords, buttons, items in menus, lists, and dialogs.
 A mouse can also be used to scroll text using the bars
 displayed alongside each window.


:INTRODUCTION

Dart is a hypertext* file viewer and program launcher,
and meant to be the simplest device of its kind.

Dart is intended for people wishing to publish material
on-disk, for personal or commercial use. Dart can view
any text file or run any DOS program, memory permitting.

Applications ideal for Dart include distribution of

■Articles.     ■Catalogs.  ■Magazines.   ■Manuals.
■Newsletters.  ■Novels.    ■References.  ■Textbooks.

Special features are available to people formatting a
text specifically for Dart, but no type of "programming"
is required.

:Desktop_environment

Dart offers a modern "desktop" environment featuring

■Multiple, overlapping windows, limited only by
 available memory.

■Mouse support, menus, dialogs, input boxes.

■Online hints for menu selections.

■Complete save and restore of desktop.

:READING_TEXT_WITH_DART

Dart's navigation features include

■Scroll forward or backward by line, screen, or label.

■Scrollbars showing relative location in file.

■Conventional and one-pass global text search*.

■Global screen* history, with manual override.

■Hypertext* table and index of contents*.

■Hotkeys* for navigation features.

■Online printing by screen, label, or file.

■Built-in editor for notetaking.

■Black & white mode for LCD monitors.

■43/50 line mode for EGA/VGA monitors.

Besides it's own brand of hypertext*, Dart can be
used to read any plain text file.

:Hypertext

So what is hypertext? In its simplest form, hypertext
lets you jump from one place to another place by
selecting a hotword. Generally, this is called linking*.

:Linking

To define a link, all a hypertext really needs is a
hotword and a place to jump.

To indicate a place to jump, authors can insert a "label"
into their text. When Dart prints a label on the screen,
it appears bolded on a line by itself.

:Asterisks

To point-out hotwords, authors may type an asterisk (`*`)
after a label or filename. You can move between asterisks
using (`Tab`) and (`Shift-Tab`), and select a hotword by
pressing (`Enter`).

After making a hypertext jump, you can press
(`Backspace`) to return.

For example introduction*, hypertext*, linking*, and
asterisks* are all hotwords that you can quickly select
by pressing (`Tab`) and  then (`Enter`). To move to a
previous asterisk, press (`Shift-Tab`) instead.

Page numbers can also be hotwords. Whenever you selects a
numeral, Dart jumps to that page number, or the last page
if the number is too high.

:Menu_system

To engage the menubar, press (`F10`), use the cursor
keys to hilite the appropriate item, and press (`Enter`)
when ready. Following is an overview of the major items
on Dart's menubar.

:Files

Dart's "Files" menu lets you select files to view, drop
to DOS, or exit the program altogether.

The `Open` item displays a dialog with three lists:
Files, Directories, and Drives.

Each of these is a sorted list. Entries can be selected
by using the (`Arrow`) keys, or by typing the first
letters of the entry. When the appropriate entry is
hilited, press (`Enter`). To move from one list to
another, press (`Tab`).

The Open `Files` list displays files in the current
directory. To view a file, select its name from the list.
If a program -- rather than a text file -- is selected,
the program is launched. Ditto for text graphics. (See
<Dart.#02 Graphics>*.)

To change the current file mask, press (`Tab`) to move to
the `Directories` list and select the ".  <current>"
entry, and edit the file mask.

The Open `Directories` and Open `Drives` lists display
subdirectories and drives. To change to another director
or drive, select its name or letter.

By hiliting a file and selecting the [`E`dit] button you
can make changes to a selected text file. Note that some
files distributed with Dart may be readonly, and cannot
be edited this way.

To create a file, or edit a file you are already viewing,
choose the [`N`ew] button, and Dart will prompt you for a
file name.

The built-in editor is intended only as a convenience. To
write your hypertext files, use a good ASCII text editor,
like MicroStar*, or export ASCII text from your word
processor.

The `Dos Shell` item temporarily returns you to the
operating system without exiting Dart.

The `Exit` item closes the Dart program, and returns you
to DOS.

When you exit from Dart, the program will automatically
save the current Desktop to a file named DART.DSK. Later,
when you run the program again, Dart will look for this
file, and if found, reload your Desktop. It will almost
appear as though you had never left.

The actual name of the DART.DSK file may vary if the USER
command line option has been used. (See
Command_Line_Options* for details.)

If you clear the desktop before exiting, Dart will not
save a new .DSK file, or delete the existing one.

:Contents

Dart's "Contents" menu will display labels found in a
text in two different ways.

■The `Table` of Contents lists the labels sequentially.

 This menu will also hilite the name of the passage
 currently in view, lending a "you are here" affect.

■The `Index` of Contents lists the labels sorted alpha-
 betically.

 The index does not "autoseek" the current passage, but
 remains at the label selected when it was last used.

To return to a previous screen after using either menu,
press (`Backspace`), or (`Shift`)(`F9`) for the screen*
History.

:Navigate

The Navigate item leads to three submenus, Goto*, Jump*,
and Screen*.

:Goto

Dart's `Goto` menu is a hyper fastlane; instead of
navigating pick lists, you can input label or file names,
or page or row numbers directly. This is handy for those
who already know a text well.

Goto `File` can also be used to launch external programs.
Just type the name of the program (including the .EXE or
.COM extension) followed by any parameters as you would
enter them at a DOS prompt.

:Jump

Jump `Label` assumes the cursor is on or next to the name
of a label. Pressing (`Enter`) is another way to make
this type of jump. The Jump `File` item assumes the
cursor is on or next to the name of a file: just as if
the words were "quoted". See Linking* and Multiple_Files*
for more about jumping. The `Next_star` and `Prev_star`
items move the cursor to the next or previous asterisk.

:Screen

Screen `History` lists the last line the cursor was on
for the last 128 screens viewed. To return to a prior
screen, simply select a line from the `History` list. If
the file is not already loaded, Dart will try to load it
for you.

Screen `Insert` adds the current line to the `History`
list, just as if you had jumped or scrolled from it.
Screen `Insert` is Dart's answer to bookmarks.

The `Back_track` and `Retrack` items allow you to move
quickly along the screen History. After you have back
tracked to review a screen, you can use Retrack to resume
your reading. The screen History list works like an
infinite loop: if you Backtrack or Retrack long enough,
you will always return to where you began.

:Search

Dart's Search menu provides for two types of search. The
first, called `Find text`, is the conventional type of
search used by most any text viewer or editor: input a
text string, press (`Enter`), and Dart jumps to the next
occurrence of that string in the file.

Additionally, Dart also offers a `Global` search. This
feature will quickly find every occurrence of the given
string in a file, compile a `Hit List` of the lines
containing that string, and then display the list.

You can then scan the `Hit List` for the lines you want,
and jump to them on demand. The `Hit List` remains
available until the next `Global` search, so you can jump
back and forth between finds as needed.

When searching for text, Dart uses the same upper/lower
case matching used by WordPerfect(tm). UPPERCASE letters
only match other UPPERCASE letters, while lower-case
letters match UpperCase and lowercase letters.

To search for a whole word, type a space before and after
the word. A single leading or trailing space can also be
used to find a prefix or suffix.

:About

The `Dart` item on the About menu displays an information
box. Included is information about the registered user
(if any), and how to contact UserWare.

The only way to have your own name, address, or other
information displayed here is to register the program
with UserWare. (See Registering_Dart*.)

The `Blank_screen` item blanks the screen until a key is
pressed. You can also press (`Ctrl`)(`PrtSc`) to do this.

:DIRECTORY
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                      ~Press (Tab) then (Enter) to select~
                      ~other available files~


 <Dart.#02    > │*  `Writing Text for Dart`
 <Dart.#03    > │   `Packaging Text for Dart`
 <Dart.#04    > │   `Questions (and answers)`
 <Dart.##R    > │   `Registration Order Form`


                        ~To return, press (BkSp) or (Esc)~
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
:SEE ALSOS

:Arguments
:Options
:Parameters

 When loading Dart: see <Dart.#03 Command_Line_Options>*.

 When readers launch programs: see Goto* file.
 When authors launch programs: see Multiple_Files*.

:Authoring_features

 See <Dart.#02> on the Dart Distribution Disk.

:Backtracking

 See screen* History.

:Bookmarks

 See screen* Insert.

:Closing_files

 Press [Alt-F3] or [Esc].

:Command_Line_Options

 See <Dart.#03 Command_Line_Options>*.

:Finding_Text

 See Search*.

:Hotkeys

 The following overviews hotkeys and the commands they
 execute:
                        (Shift)+
                        (F2) Compress file
 (F3) Open
 (F4) Goto label        (F4) Goto page
 (F5) Zoom window
 (F6) Next window       (F6) Previous window
 (F7) Find_Text         (F7) Global hit list
 (F8) Contents          (F8) Index
 (F9) Jump              (F9) screen History

 (Ctrl)+                (Alt)+
                        (F3) Close window
 (F4) Goto file         (F4) Goto row
 (F5) Size/move window  (F5) Tile window
 (F7) Global search     (F7) Search again
 (F9) Jump to file      (F9) Add to history

        (Enter)  Jump
 (Ctrl)+(Enter)  Jump to file

          (Tab)  Find next asterisk (hotword)
  (Shift)+(Tab)  Find previous asterisk (hotword)

 (Ctrl)+(Right)  Find next asterisk (hotword)
  (Ctrl)+(Left)  Find previous asterisk (hotword)

         (BkSp)  Scroll backward thru Jump History
  (Ctrl)+(BkSp)  Scroll forward thru Jump History

 (Ctrl)+(PrtSc)  Blank Screen

:Index
:Table_of_Contents

 See Contents*.

:Launching
:Multiple_Files
:Program_Launching

 See Files* Open, or Goto* Files.

 See also <Dart.#02 Multiple_Files>*

:Microstar

 See <Dart.#02 Microstar>*.

:Opening_files

 See Files* Open.

:Registering_Dart

 See <Dart.#03 Registering_Dart>*.

:Underscore

 Underscore character,
  see <Dart.#02 Hard_Spaces>*.

 Underscoring,
  see <Dart.#02 Text_Attributes>*.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
DART.#01 is Copyright (c) 1989-92 UserWare.
Version 1g dated Aug'92
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────