Revenge Document Displayer (The)

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Information - Revenge Document Displayer (The)

GenreMiscellaneousYear1993
LanguageCompiled CPublisher[no publisher]
DeveloperDistributor
ControlsKeyboard, MouseCountryUnited Kingdom
Box / InstructionsEnglishSoftwareEnglish
Programmer(s)

Coates, Stuart

LicensePD / Freeware / Shareware
SerialST TypeST, STe, TT / 0.5MB
ResolutionLow / HighNumber of Disks1 / Single Sided
Dumpdownload atari Revenge Document Displayer (The) Download / STMIDI
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Instructions - Revenge Document Displayer (The)

                           The Revenge Document Displayer
        
                    Copyright (c)1990,91,92,93 Stuart Coates
        
                                  Version 3.00
        
                                23rd October 1993
        
        
        Welcome  to  the  Revenge  Document  Displayer  v3  (RDD3).   The 
        objective  with the release of RDD3 is to provide a text  viewing 
        utility  for  the Atari ST range of micros that is  powerful  and 
        easy  to  use.   Previous versions of RDD had a  vast  number  of 
        options available to the user,  RDD3 has omitted some of the less 
        used  features of previous releases but has gained  several  very 
        powerful ones.
        
        
        A Brief History
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        The  RDD v1.00 was released on 15th April 1990 in response  to  a 
        request from a friend of mine for a text viewing utility that was 
        more flexible than the GEM Desktop's own.  RDD1.00 was written in 
        Hisoft  Basic  and didn't contain many features.   I  decided  to 
        develop the idea of the RDD from this base with several  releases 
        throughout  the  year  resulting in RDD  1.93  released  on  28th 
        October 1990.   That Xmas I purchased Lattice C v5.00 and decided 
        to learn C - no better way than to port RDD to C.
        
        RDD  v2.00 was released on 3rd February 1991 and  contained  many 
        more features and was a lot faster.   RDD2 was a lot more  stable 
        than RDD1 because of this rewrite.   During 1991 and 1992 no less 
        than  21  versions were released and 14  organisations  purchased 
        custom copies.   Several other text viewers sprang up during this 
        time  which  I'm grateful for as they gave me new ideas  for  the 
        RDD,  this  also gave the ST community greater  choice.   Version 
        2.30  was released on 27th September 1992 and was the  last  RDD2 
        release. 
        
        I received a large amount of feedback from RDD2 which  encouraged 
        me  to  start  work on RDD3 in December  1992.   The  first  beta 
        release  was shipped to testers in January 1993.   Very few  bugs 
        were found in this although many features were missing.  The RDD3 
        that you see today has taken many months to develop and has  been 
        thoroughly tested.
        
        
        Using The RDD3
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        Loading a document:
        
        There are several way to load documents into the RDD3,
        
        1.   Double click on RDD.PRG from the desktop and use the GEM file 
        selector to pick a document.
        
        2.   Rename  RDD.PRG to RDD.TTP and enter a document name on  the 
        command line when running.
        
        3.   Install RDD.PRG as an application on the desktop so that  it 
        is loaded every time that you click on a text file.
        
        4.   If  you have TOS2 installed or one of the  many  replacement 
        desktops that allow you to place items on the desktop then  place 
        the RDD3 on the desktop and you can simply drag documents to  it. 
        (I strongly recommend Terradesk for this).
        
        5.   Machines running Neodesk 3 can have the RDD installed as the 
        default  text  viewer so that any docs are  displayed  using  the 
        RDD3. 
        
        6.   (For programmers only..)  Launch the RDD from your own shell 
        using the GEMDOS Pexec function.   On the command line you should 
        pass  a  list  of documents that you wish to  load  separated  by 
        spaces.  The RDD3 supports the ARGV protocol for extended command 
        lines.
        
        
        Loading Multiple Documents:
        
        The  RDD3 has support for multiple documents in memory,  in  fact 
        currently  up  to 200 docs can be resident at once,  this  is  of 
        course dependent on available memory.   To load more than one doc 
        you  can  either  specify individual filenames  or  use  wildcard 
        matches,  for  example if you wanted to load all .TXT files  then 
        tell  the RDD3 to load *.TXT.   The RDD3 also understands  folder 
        structures,  so to load all of the documents within a folder just 
        specify  the  folder  name.   The  RDD3  does  not  scan  folders 
        recursively.
        
        
        Compressed Documents
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        RDD3 supports documents that have been compressed using  Pack-Ice 
        2.40,  this allows you to have an archive of compressed documents 
        that don't eat up huge amounts of disk space.
        
        Archive Files
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        RDD3  can  recognise  most popular archive formats  and  has  the 
        ability  to  perform a verbose listing of the  archive  contents.  
        The  current release of RDD supports  ZIP,ARC,ZOO,ARJ,LZH  files.  
        To  make  use of this feature simply load the  archive  file,  to 
        bypass the automatic listing feature hold down the Alternate  key 
        while loading the archive.
        
        Pictures
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        RDD3  has limited support for Degas PI?  picture files  and  will 
        only display pictures that are compatible with the current screen 
        resolution.   When a picture is loaded a document will be created 
        with the line:  'PICFILE:  ',  press Alt-V to view this 
        picture.
        
        Document Formatting
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        Before  a  document  can  be displayed by the  RDD3  it  must  be 
        formatted,  this  is done whenever a doc is  loaded.   Formatting 
        causes  any  long  lines  within that doc to  be  wrapped  at  80 
        characters and tab characters to be expanded.
        
        
        On-Line Help
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        The  RDD3  has built in help that gives you a  list  of  keyboard 
        controls, to gain access to this press HELP while you are viewing 
        a document.
        
        
        Main Features
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        I'm  not going to go through every feature in the RDD3  in  great 
        detail as that would take far too long and you probably  wouldn't 
        want to read it anyway,  so I'll just list the main features  and 
        give a small explanation for each.
        
        Scrolling:  Probably the most important feature, to scroll up and 
        down use the arrow keys or move the mouse up and down.   You  can 
        also  move  a screen at a time by holding down either  shift  key 
        while scrolling.
        
        Move  to Top or Bottom of Doc:   Press Alt-T to go to the top  or 
        Alt-B to go to the bottom
        
        Goto a line: To go to a particular line press Alt-G and enter the 
        line number that you want to go to.
        
        Find a word:  Press Alt-F to search for a piece of text.  You can 
        also set up case-sensitive and global searches using this option.  
        Pressing  Alt-N and Alt-P allow you to find the Next or  Previous 
        occurrence.
        
        Load a document:   To load another document press Alt-L or  click 
        the  right mouse button,  you will then be presented with a  file 
        selector,  select the file that you wish to load and the RDD will 
        do the rest.   The contents of the Atari clipboard can be  loaded 
        by pressing Ctrl-A.
        
        Close a document:  When you've finished with a document hit Alt-C 
        to close it.
        
        Switching Documents:  If you've got several documents loaded then 
        you can switch between them in several ways:
        
             Keypad -       Move to previous document
             Keypad +       Move to next document
             Tab            Show list of loaded documents
             F1-10          Move to document 1-10
             Shift F1-F10   Move to document 11-20
        
        Changing tab width:   Press Ctrl-T to change the tab setting  for 
        the current document.   Tab settings are stored on a per document 
        basis.
        
        Printing a Document:   Press Ctrl-P to print the current document 
        and Ctrl-C to configure the printer.  Ctrl-W will let you print a 
        marked block.
        
        Marking  a block:   Alt-S and Alt-E allow you to start and end  a 
        block,  pressing Alt-H will hide any block.  A block can be saved 
        to disk by pressing Alt-W,  or to the Atari clipboard by pressing 
        Alt A.
        
        Locate RDD:  Pressing Ctrl-L will allow you to locate the RDD.PRG 
        file  to  allow a configuration file to be saved in  the  correct 
        directory.   Press Ctrl-L and the file selector will appear, find 
        the  RDD.PRG file and select it.   The RDD.PRG file will  now  be 
        loaded and its location encoded within it.
        
        Save settings: The configuration can be saved by pressing Ctrl-S.  
        Before  using  this option for the first time you  must  run  the 
        'Locate RDD' option.
        
        Bookmarks:  You  can store the current position in a document  by 
        setting  a  bookmark.   RDD3 supports 26  bookmarks.   To  set  a 
        bookmark simply press Shift and any letter A-Z.   You can  return 
        to  a stored bookmark by hitting just the letter  A-Z.   You  can 
        also set bookmarks by pressing Ctrl-B.  Bookmarks can be accessed 
        easily by pressing Alt-M.
        
        ST/IBM Characters:  RDD3 supports both ST and IBM character sets, 
        you can toggle between them by pressing Escape. 
        
        Feature  menu:   RDD3  features  a  menu  that  you  can  perform 
        operations from without using any strange key combinations.  This 
        menu  can  be  accessed  by clicking the  left  mouse  button  or 
        pressing Insert.
        
        Toggle Text Size:   If you're using a high rez monitor with  your 
        ST then the RDD3 can display a 50 line text mode, press Ctrl-G to 
        toggle between 25 and 50 line modes.
        
        50/60Hz:   On  colour  screens  you can  toggle  between  50/60Hz 
        refresh  rates by pressing Keypad *,   not all  monitors  support 
        this feature.
        
        Locate  external editor:   The RDD has the ability of support  an 
        external editor program to manipulate documents.  To tell the RDD 
        the location of this program press Ctrl-D.
        
        Execute  external editor:   To load the current document into  an 
        external  editor press Alt-D.   The current document will be  re-
        loaded after editing.
        
        Document  Information:   To  obtain  statistics  on  the  current 
        document press Clr Home.
        
        View Picture:  If a line with the structure 'PICFILE: ' 
        is at the top of the screen, pressing Alt-V will display it.
        
        Sorting  Documents:   If you have many documents loaded into  the 
        RDD you can sort them into alphabetical by pressing Alt-O.  Using 
        this option will result in all bookmarks being cleared.
        
        Running  External Programs:   The run an external  program  press 
        Alt-X  and select the program that you require.   If the  current 
        document  is an executable file then you can press Ctrl-X to  run 
        it.
        
        Utilities:   The  RDD has the ability to store up to 20  external 
        utilities  that are accessible with a  single  keystroke.   These 
        programs can be set up two ways.   Press Ctrl-U or Ctrl-0 to 9 to 
        locate a utility.  A utility can be accessed by either picking it 
        from  a  menu by pressing Alt-U or by  pressing  the  appropriate 
        number key, 0 to 9. 
        
        Mouse Control:   The mouse plays an important role in the use  of 
        the RDD.  You can scroll through documents by moving the mouse up 
        and down and call up the feature menu by pressing the left  mouse 
        button.   The  mouse  can  also  be used  within  menus  to  make 
        selections.   In fact,  although the RDD is a text based program, 
        all of its features can be accessed via the mouse.
        
        Getting  Help:   If  you require help while using the  RDD  press 
        the Help key for a list of available help topics.
        
        Exiting:  To exit from the RDD press the UNDO key twice.
        
        
        Compatibility
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        The  RDD3 was written on an Atari 520STe with 4MB of RAM and  TOS 
        1.62,  therefore  it  should be 100% compatible  with  a  similar 
        platform.    The   beta   testers  of  the  RDD3   have   varying 
        configurations  and  have not reported any problems in  the  many 
        months  of  testing.   The code for the RDD3 does  not  make  any 
        illegal  calls  and does not rely on any special  hardware  being 
        present (blitter,  hardware scrolling,  etc...) so should work on 
        most configurations.   If you plan to run RDD3 on a TT or  Falcon 
        then  you  must select an ST screen resolution as the  RDD3  text 
        routines do require this.  If I eventually get access to a Falcon 
        I shall make the RDD3 fully compatible.   I have made a guess  on 
        making  the RDD3 compatible with MultiTOS - if there is a  'MiNT' 
        entry  in the cookie jar then the RDD3 will resort to using  just 
        VT52 codes to draw the screen so that it may be ran in a  console 
        window.   Due to Atari's unwillingness to place technical details 
        of  its machines and operating systems into the public  domain  I 
        cannot make the RDD compatible with machines that I do not own or 
        have regular access to.   If Atari changed its policy of charging 
        large  amounts of cash for technical documents then the  software 
        produced for the ST (and the rest of its machines) would be of  a 
        higher quality and more compatible.
        
        The  RDD3  should not conflict with any other programs  that  are 
        running  on  your  machine as it only  accesses  memory  that  it 
        allocates itself.   When RDD1 was released I did notice a problem 
        with TurboST 1.82 when the RDD changed screen resolution,  I  can 
        only  assume that this problem still exists in RDD3 as  the  same 
        TOS call is used - This is a problem with TurboST.
        
        
        System Requirements
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        The RDD3 will run on anything from a 520ST upwards.   If you plan 
        to make extensive use of the multi-document features then  you'll 
        be needing plenty of memory.  To gain extra speed from a basic ST 
        the RDD3 uses highly optimized text routines for all of it's text 
        output  and scrolling.   If you have a screen accelerator  loaded 
        such  as Warp 9,  QuickST,  or TurboST,  you will not notice  any 
        speed  change  at  all while using the RDD3 as  my  routines  are 
        faster and completely bypass the TOS routines.
        
        
        RDD3 Program Details
        ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
        Design and Coding                  Stuart Coates
        
        Beta testers                       Mark Matts
                                           Keith Frisby
                                           Trev Ward
                                           Gordon Meyer
                                           John Charles
                                           Robert Darling
                                           Stuart Richards
                                           Daron Brewood
        
        Development Tools                  Lattice C v5.52
                                           Devpac 3.10
                                           Harlekin 2
        
        Development Hardware               Atari 520STe
                                           16MHz Accelerator
                                           4MB Ram
                                           48MB Seagate 157N
                                           Atari SM124
        
        Essential Development Tools        Jolt Cola
                                           Infectious Grooves CDs
                                           Yngwie Malmsteen CDs
                                           Bill & Ted Videos
                                           Sega Mega CD
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