Cream of the Crop 1/Cream of the Crop 1.iso/PROGRAM/FARVIE.ARJ/READ.ME

Text File | 1991-09-20 | 18KB | 442 lines

Welcome to the shareware version of the farVIEW system.


The contents of the zip file include a license file: LICENSE.DOC,
FARVIEW.EXE - the hypertext program, the farVIEW on-line manual, called
HELP, the HOMEBASE textbase, a file that you can print, called
KEYBOARD.DOC, which lists the farVIEW keyboard commands, and this file,
READ.ME.


------------------------------------------------------More Installation-

To complete installation of farVIEW into your file system, you can do
two additional steps:

   1. Add the name of this directory into your path statement in
      AUTOEXEC.BAT.

   2. Modify the "Alias" preferences in the Preferences frame of
      Homebase to specify the locations of Help and Homebase.

These steps are not needed if you intend only to read the Help manual,
and if you always make this directory current before running farVIEW. But,
if you intend to make your own textbases, doing the above two steps will
allow you to access farVIEW, the Help manual, Homebase, and your own
textbases from anywhere within your file system.

farVIEW does not need the Help manual, but it does need Homebase to
determine your color preferences and other operational details when it
initializes; so it helps if farVIEW can find Homebase when it begins.
farVIEW CAN find Homebase to initialize when they are in the same directory.

You probably already know the procedure for adding a directory to your
path, so we won't presume to instruct you in that. But the procedure for
modifying the "Alias" preferences for Help and Homebase is less familiar
to you, so we will explain that a little later.


-------------------------------------------------------farVIEW has Help-

You can request help at any time while running farVIEW. farVIEW provides the
help function based on the location of the mouse cursor when you press the
middle mouse button (if yours has one) or when you press F1. If the cursor
is on text in the text window, the text is used as a key. Otherwise, the
window name is used as a key.

There is a special case, however. When the editor is active, and you
request help while the mouse cursor is on a space within the text window,
farVIEW provides help about the editor commands and the key macro facility.
This anomaly is rationalized on the belief that, by the time you are using
the editor, you already know the purpose of the windows, and you would
really like some help on the editor.

farVIEW uses the HelpList preference to determine which textbase(s) to
search for help. If HelpList doesn't name any textbases, farVIEW will
have no help. If HelpList names Help (which the release version does),
then farVIEW will look in the Help textbase for help. But you can name
several textbases. farVIEW will look in each in the order they are
specified until something is found.

The Help facility will not work in any directory except the directory
that contains the Help textbase if Help is not properly Aliased by a
preference. We'll explain the modification procedure shortly.


----------------------------------------------------------What You Need-

farVIEW should run on any PC-compatible machine.

If you don't have enough memory, you will get a message that you have
insufficient heap storage. Remove your TSRs and try again. You should
be ok with a 512K system, but certainly not with less. Incidentally,
farVIEW probably will not operate with MS-DOS 2.x.

farVIEW is strongly color oriented; you can use a monochrome monitor,
and set farVIEW preferences for that, but the 64 built-in Hiliter pens,
for example, are impossible to distinguish without color.

All farVIEW commands have keyboard equivalents. But they aren't obvious.
Mouse commands are easier to learn and more intuitive, so, use a mouse.

A hard drive is recommended.


--------------------------------------------------farVIEW Needs a Mouse-

Before you run farVIEW, make sure your mouse driver is loaded into your
computer's memory. Read your mouse manual for how to do this.

             YOU WILL NEED A MOUSE TO LEARN TO USE FARVIEW.

To run farVIEW, assuming you have not changed the active drive or the
active directory since the installation procedure, type

      FARVIEW HELP<enter>

at the command prompt.

Go ahead and do this, and browse a bit in the TOUR section of Help to get
comfortable with using the mouse in farVIEW.

The following sections contain short tutorials about using farVIEW. They
cover

   ■ Editing Preferences
   ■ Beginning a farVIEW session
   ■ Making a new textbase
   ■ Editing a frame
   ■ Making links
   ■ How to get help


---------------------------------------------Changing Alias Preferences-

As soon as you learn how to add the editor (ctrl-F7 adds it), you should
edit the Preferences frame in the Homebase textbase to set the two Alias
preferences.

To obtain the Preferences frame, start the session by typing

    farview homebase preferences

Then, press ctrl-F7 to add the editor.

Next, move the edit cursor to the lines

    |homebase|homebase
    |help|help

Then modify the lines to specify the drive and directory that contains the
farVIEW file set. For example, if you unzipped the files into \farview on
drive D:, modify the two preferences to read

    |homebase|d:\farview\homebase
    |help|d:\farview\help

Now quit the session with alt-F1. farVIEW will ask to save. Press the
"Y" or the Enter key.

NOTE: As you create your own textbases, you should integrate them into the
farVIEW environment by adding a line for each of them to join the two
described above. For example, if you create a new textbase at E:\WORK
called BILLS, then add a line like the following

   |bills|e:\work\bills

With this line in the Preferences frame, farVIEW will know where to find
the BILLS textbase no matter where you are in your file system.


---------------------------------------------Changing Color Preferences-

If you have a monochrome monitor, you will probably need to set the
monochrome preference to YES.

Proceed as above, except change the line

   |monochrome|

to

   |monochrome|yes

You can experiment by changing the subfields of the MONOMAP preference.
Each subfield specifies a color to which to map the standard farVIEW color.

The standard farVIEW colors are just the EGA colors:

   0   black           8   darkGray
   1   blue            9   lightBlue
   2   green          10   lightGreen
   3   cyan           11   lightCyan
   4   red            12   lightRed
   5   magenta        13   lightMagenta
   6   brown          14   yellow
   7   lightGray      15   white

|monoMap|;black;black;black;lightGray;lightGray;black;lightGray;light...

field:      1     2     3       4         5       6        7      etc...

The first subfield corresponds to black, the second to blue, etc., up the
the sixteenth field, which corresponds to white.

The various components of the farVIEW screen are associated with the
following color preferences:

   builtInColor       backtrack, homeward, show prev, and show next buttons
   messageColor       title and command bars
   textColor          frame text area
   menuColor          pop-up menus
   buttonColor        textbase buttons on text
   referenceColor     textbase references on text
   marksColor         color used to mark block with mouse
   editColor          color used for edit blocks


--------------------------------------------Beginning a farVIEW Session-

There are several ways to begin a farVIEW session:

   ■ To enter an existing textbase:

      FARVIEW textbasename [-E]

      -E causes farVIEW to initialize the EGA/VGA to "high-resolution"
      text display mode.

   ■ To enter an existing textbase at a specified frame:

      FARVIEW textbasename framename

      The specified frame becomes the "home" frame for the session.
      In other words, if you use the Homeward command enough times,
      you will always return to this frame.

   ■ To make a new textbase:

      FARVIEW textbasename -C n

      -C causes farVIEW to create a textbase using the name given. The
      number n should be a guess of the number of keys that the textbase
      will require. Compute this by guessing at the total number of frames,
      then multiplying by two or three. Don't worry about it; farVIEW uses
      hashing for speed, but can expand the dictionary if it threatens
      to overflow.

      As farVIEW creates the textbase, it also makes the "home" frame for
      the textbase. You will have to name the home frame when the frame
      description record is displayed. After you enter the frame name, you
      can specify a file name to store the frame. To terminate the edit,
      press any function key, or press a mouse button.


------------------------------------------------------Making a Textbase-

Let's make a textbase. You can use the command line option -C to create
a new textbase, but lets assume you are already in a farVIEW session.

Step 1: Move the mouse cursor to a space in the Text Window (if you don't
        mind, we will call that "open space"), then click the left mouse
        button. This obtains the Main menu. Select the Add Editor item.
        (You also could have used the keyboard equivalent: ctrl-F7, or cF7
        for short.)

Step 2: Click in open space again. Select the File... item from the Main
        menu. This obtains the File menu. Select the New Textbase item
        to create a new textbase.

Step 3: farVIEW will ask you to name the textbase. Don't panic when you
        see the Directory window appear. It is to remind you of the
        existing textbases.

           (An Aside: you can browse through your file system using
           the Directory window by clicking in one of the three
           windows: the Files window, the Path window, or the Drive
           window, then using the scroll bar to scroll through the
           active window. Clicking a drive or path name will change
           the Directory state. It's not another XTREE, but it is
           handy.)

        Back to business: Just type a name for the new textbase. Press
        the Enter key when you finish. Then specify the number of keys.
        Enter the number one (1), then press Enter. The textbase
        officially exists, but a farVIEW textbase needs at least one
        frame to feel comfortable.

Step 4: farVIEW will now ask you to name the first frame, the "root", or
        "home" frame of your new textbase. It will do this by showing you
        the fields of a standard frame descriptor, or abstract. some of
        the fields are filled in, like the date and time and the security.
        The important field here is the first one: the frame name. Give
        the frame a name, its your baby. Press a function key when you
        finish.

Step 5: That's it. The textbase exists, it has a root frame, and that's
        where you are.


--------------------------------------------------------Editing a Frame-

Well, since the editor is already on, let's put something into this frame.
How about this file? We could do this using ^KR (read block) just like with
WordStar to suck the file into the frame. You could do that if you wanted.
But, let's link the frame to the file, instead.

Step 1: Click in open space to obtain the Main menu. Select the Edit...
        item to obtain the Edit menu. Now, select the Edit Abst... item.

Step 2: Remember this? We saw it earlier in step 4 above: the frame
        descriptor, or abstract. Do one of the following:

           ■ Press the down arrow key once
           ■ Press the enter key once
           ■ Click the mouse on the File Name field
           ■ Press the up arrow key a whole bunch of times
             until the cursor wraps around to the File Name field

        Type "read.me" into the File Name field. Click the mouse OUTSIDE
        the edit window to terminate this step.

Step 3: Press sF1 (shift-F1) to refresh the screen with the file.

Step 4: Done. The frame is now linked to the READ.ME file. You can use the
        editor to improve my writing, but, remember that you are modifying
        the file as you modify the frame.


-----------------------------------------------------------Making Links-

farVIEW provides three linking mechanisms: the BUTTON link, the REFERENCE,
and the HILITE.

A BUTTON link is a mark that appears in a frame that you can click with
the mouse to link to some other frame. When you make a button in farVIEW
you will ALWAYS make a frame. You have already been through the Make
Frame sequence in Step 4 of Making a Textbase.

A REFERENCE link is a word or phrase that you declare in a frame so that,
when you click on it anywhere in the textbase, you will link to the frame.

Finally, a HILITE link is a kind of reference, which uses a color pair to
identify it. You can mark up a textbase with a hilite (you have 64 hilites
available), then at a later time find all the frames that contain that
hilite using the Find Hilite... item in the Go menu.


........................................................Making a Button.

Let's make a BUTTON first:

Step 1: Use the right mouse button (the Edit button) to mark an area
        of text. Place the mouse cursor at the top left of the area you
        want to mark, press the right button and hold it as you drag the
        mouse cursor to a position below and to the right of your starting
        point. Release the mouse button.

Step 2: Click the Make Button item from the Mark menu.

Step 3: farVIEW will now ask you to name the frame by showing you the
        fields of a standard frame descriptor, or abstract. We have seen
        it before at Step 4 in Making a Textbase, and, again, at Step 2
        in Editing a Frame. Give the frame a name. Then, click the mouse
        outside the window when you finish.

Step 4: Done. Click the new button with the mouse to go to the new
        frame where you can edit it.


.....................................................Making a Reference.

Now, let's make a REFERENCE:

Step 1: Use the Edit button to mark one or more words of text. See Step
        1 in Making a Button for details.

Step 2: Click the Make XRef item from the Mark menu.

Step 3: farVIEW will display the selected text in a window, which you can
        edit or replace. If you leave it empty when you quit, farVIEW will
        not make a reference. After you make any changes you want, you
        accept the contents of the window by pressing the Enter key or
        clicking the mouse outside the window.

Step 4: Done.


.......................................................Making a Hilite..

Finally, let's make a HILITE:

Step 1: Use the Edit button to mark one or more words of text. See Step
        1 in Making a Button for details.

Step 2: Click the Make Hilite item from the Mark Menu.

Step 3: Choose a color pair from the Hilite menu.

Step 4: Click the Text item from the Dialog.

Step 5: Done.


----------------------------------------------farVIEW Standard Versions-

The shareware version of farVIEW that you now have has no restrictions.
But, there is a commercial (standard) version that incorporates several
useful features.

   The farSlang Programming Language
   The Homebase ToolSet
   Network support
   The Royalty-free Browser

The standard versions of farVIEW provide a compiler, an interpreter,
and a mouse-oriented debugger to support program development using the
farSlang programming language. farSlang programs are compiled and
stored into farVIEW code frames, ready for access in all the same ways
as farVIEW text frames. When a code frame is accessed, the program is
loaded into memory to await the event that triggers its operation.

The 260+ command farSlang library allows complete farSlang control over
all aspects of farVIEW hypertext. A farSlang program can override
virtually any aspect of farVIEW behaviour.

The standard versions of farVIEW include an extended Homebase textbase,
which contains a library of many pre-coded farSlang programs that
provide many useful functions. For example, you can easily build an
Appointments manager with the tools in Homebase.

The "corporate" standard version of farVIEW contains network support and a
license to distribute a royalty-free browser with textbases. The browser
differs from the shareware version of farVIEW by omitting the editor but
incorporating the farSlang interpreter. This allows textbases to include
intelligent frames that interact with your reader. The "personal" standard
version of farView does not include network support nor the browser.

Click the About farVIEW button on the title frame of the on-line manual,
Help, for more information about the standard version

To register your copy of farVIEW, type the following command:

   farview help orderform

Instructions are provided for filling out and printing the order form.
Send the Order form and the registration fee of $45 to the address below.

---------------------------------------------------If You Have Problems-

If you have problems, contact us for assistance.



Thank you for your interest.

Paul J Medlock
President
farSight Technologies, Inc.
3831 Echodale Ave
Baltimore MD 21206
On Compuserve: 71121,1745