Ansidraw
~~~~~~~~
This is a 'drawing' program for ANSI-characters. The purpose of this
program is to provide means to do those little boxes and line-
drawings, you have seen on the PC.
Featuring:
- 5 different box-styles
- Block functions (copy, move, delete, invert)
- You can double / half rows depending on what rez you are.
- Doesn't utilize GEM for reasons mentioned below
Test things mentioned in a little helptext on startscreen
and you should 'soon' be acquitanced with other features of
Ansidraw.
Because program doesn't use GEM, you could use this program
through BBS (Mint), if it supports I/O-redirection (or use
it from auto-folder although I fail to see any reason for that).
Default files are optional:
8x16.fnt Mono rez font.
8x8.fnt font for med-rez + 50 lines hi-rez.
Ansi.asc Pic loaded at startup, if found.
(BBS-Logo, default layout...)
You can always get description of all the keys by pressing 'h'.
About the program's name:
It was first that came to my mind and a little misguiding.
Actually Ansidraw utilizes only PC's Ansi-_Characters_ and VT-52
control-codes. Sorry!
I have also been notified that this is a little hard to use ?! (8-B
So here's a short tutor:
1. Load ansidraw with ansifonts installed (put ansi.fnt in the same
folder with the program or use any other PD- or commercial program
that does the trick).
2. Start anew or (L)oad an existing picture.
3. Move cursor to the desired point by cursorkeys or joystick. Select
appropiate ansi character (press 'A', select character and press Return)
and start drawing. Default drawing mode is transparent ie. drawn
character is 'added' to the previous character on the spot. If you
want to draw only lines & corners, you can change mode to the
overwrite by pressing 'P'. Spacebar toggles writing (pen up/down).
Practice.
4. If you made an error you can change characters by selecting
overwrite mode or totally erase them by pressing 'Backspace'
(changes drawing character to ' ') and moving cursor over offending
error(s). If you want to erase whole picture you have to press
'N' twice.
5. You can redraw screen by pressing 'R' (handy if you get garbage
on screen when you're online), draw inverse characters by pressing
'I' and input text on screen by pressing 'T'.
6. Easiest way of copying stuff around screen is using 'Delete' to
move current line to the buffer and 'Insert' to get it from buffer
to the screen. More flexible method is using (B)lock commands.
First you move cursor to the startpoint of a block press 'B'(lock)
and 'S'(tart). Then you move cursor to the endpoint and press
'B' and 'E'(nd). Now you have marked your block. You may clear
it, copy it or move it: cursor to the desired point and 'B'
& 'M'(ove).
I hope this helped a bit!
---------
History:
v. 1.0
~~~~~~ (20.5.1993)
First version.
v. 1.1a
~~~~~~~ (1.8.1993)
changes:
I have noticed some bugs and illogicalities, so I fixed them. Now
you can also use joystick (not online, of cource) and keypad
for drawing.
v. 1.1c
~~~~~~~ (13.10.93)
changes:
discarded timeout -feature. Load -function tries now to complete
filename, first adding '.asc' to the end, then searching for first
filename which begins with given characters. Save -function adds
'.asc' to the filenames which don't have filetype specified.
By pressing 'g', you can use filesector to fileoperations (don't
do this, if you haven't got GEM at the moment!!!). Reads screen
size in characters.
v. 1.2
~~~~~~ (12.12.1993)
changes:
Doubled screen update speed. Blockoperations may now be
overlapping. Joystick movement speed configurable. Trun-
cates lines to COLUMNS when reading text. Some new bugs
eliminated :-). Installable.
v. 1.3
~~~~~~ (15.12.1993)
changes:
Can change to 25/50 lines on screens (does't work if you use any
other font changing program!). Uses line-A, so it might not work
on newer machines. Added a medium resolution font (8x8.fnt) + new
shortcuts for helppage :-). Modified load and block functions
a little.
v. 1.3b
~~~~~~~
Expands tabs to 8 spaces when loading. Recognices (unix,amiga)
and (atari,PC) line-ends.
v. 1.4
~~~~~~~ (11.1.1994)
Added Turn + horizontal and vertical flip + slant block operations.
Now you can draw 7-bit boxes too, if needed (Quite like good ol' Hack).
------------------
Possible future additions:
- Use of figlet style fonts?
Program was developed with GFA Basic 3.x.
DISCLAIMER: Programmer can't be held responsible for any damage
caused by improper or proper use of this program.
THIS PROGRAM IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN!
Mapware by:
Eero Tamminen N8-S
Sahantie 2
23600 KALANTI
FINLAND
E-mail: t150315@cc.tut.fi (not between 1.5 - 1.9)
(If you find this program useful, send me a some kind of map
of your hometown/city to the address above. Ansi-drawings,
bug-reports and suggestions and money is welcome too!)