The Learn System, Version 0.6 For IBM PC and 100% Compatables Second Draft, 05/01/1985 (c)Copyright 1985 Percy Keeley All Rights Reserved. Keeley Information Post Office Box 23388 Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 Introduction The LEARN system is a set of programs design to be aids in the creation and use of computer-aided-instruction(CAI) courses. The proper use of these programs is based on an assumption that the course author(s) want to create text screen images which are linked together by a logical relationship and driven by the student understanding of the material presented. The design of the LEARN system includes components which allow the creation of a viewable screen of text (much like designing the layout of a single page for a book), the specification of logic to control the display of specific screens, and a component to present the resulting CAI course to the student. Component One is the EDANSI (edit ANSI screens) program. Users are allowed to enter a subset of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) control sequences for screen formating and display. These ANSI control functions allow the control of the screen cursor positioning, reassignment of the meaning of any key on the keyboard, control of screen display attributes (like screen width, color, and alphanumeric/graphics mode selection). PC-DOS and MS-DOS versions 2.0 and above have device drivers which support the ANSI mode (the driver must be "installed" in order to be used). The ANSI extended screen and keyboard control functions are activated when DOS is booted up and a "CONFIG.SYS" exists in the root directory with a "DEVICE=ANSI.SYS" command in it. Please refer to your DOS Manual for details on using the "CONFIG.SYS" file for configure your system. Component Two is the LSCAN (lesson conversion scan) program. LSCAN accepts as input a command file created by any word processing program and the screen images created by EDANSI to produce a CAI file. LSCAN checks each command line for valid syntax, and converts it to a CAI format suitable for use by the LEARN program. Component Three is the LEARN lesson viewer program. LEARN accepts as input the CAI file created by LSCAN and executes the commands it contains for displaying screens and performing the logic associated with student responses. If an extension-less filename is supplied to any of these three programs then certain extensions are assumed. Input filenames supplied to EDANSI are given the ".SCR" extension; LSCAN uses ".DAT" for input and ".LKI" for output files; while LEARN uses ".LKI" as its default input file extension. LESSON command descriptions: A group of related commands are organized in units called "cells". A single cell contains commands that control the display of text defined in the cell and control the selection of the next cell to be processed based on the student's response to the text just displayed. The LSCAN program converts the ASCII text cell commands into a format called the "lesson file". There is a fixed limit of commands and cells which can be converted by LSCAN to the Lesson file format; up to 255 cells (with each cell containing up to 127 commands maximum) are acceptable for conversion. The lesson file is used by the LEARN program to present a lesson to a student. After LSCAN creates a lesson file, only the lesson file and the LEARN program are needed to allow a student to work with a lesson. LESSON command descriptions (continued) Each LSCAN/LEARN command has the same basic format which consists of... - a label field, - a command field, and - an operand field containing one or more operands These fields must be separated by at least one blank or tab character and must be placed in the order shown. If the label field is used then the statement begins on the first character position of the line, otherwise a blank or tab character must be the first character. The entire statement is ended by the use of a carridge return character (usually inserted automatically by most word processing and editor programs, including the DOS EDLIN program). A label field consists of a single or group of alphanumeric (alphabetic or number) characters up to 16 characters in length which indicates either the student's keyboard response which can cause the command in this statement to be executed (a response-label) or indicates the name that a group of commands is called by (a cell-label). The author defines the label using any combination of alphanumeric characters they desire. The command field defines what function a statement is to perform. The possible functions which can be performed in version 0.6 of the Learn System are: - Define a related set of commands (CELL), - Display text to student (DISPLAY, SCREEN), - Determine next group of commands to process based on student's entered response (CORRECT, INCORRECT), - Execute DOS level command based on student's entered response (SHELL), - Temporarally execute another LEARN lesson based on student's entered response (LEARN), - Define the default group of commands to process next (NEXT) The operand field consists of one or more operands separated from each other by commas. An operand can be the name of the group of commands to be processed next (the cell label), or a text string which provides inforamtion required by a command to perform its function (for example, a DOS file name for the LEARN command or text to be put on the screen by the DISPLAY command). Special Label Names: There are several label names available which can cause special actions to be performed like: 1) Endding the current lesson (/EXIT) 2) Restarting the current lesson (/START) 3) Causing the cell which was active prior to the current one to be activated next (/PREVIOUS). These special label names all start with the slash ("/") symbol and may only appear in the operand field wherever a cell-label may be placed. Special Cells: Currently only one special cell exists, the /START cell. The /START cell is the first cell processed by the LSCAN program as well as the first to be activated when the LEARN program begins. This cell is different from other cells in the same file in that: - this cell can be refered to by two different cell-label names, the name given in the first cell statement in the lesson source file or by using the cell-label "/START", - any statement which define a response-label in the /START cell will also be active as a default response for all cells in the same lesson file Statement Description: A cell is defined in the LSCAN input file by the use of the CELL command. A cell is terminated by the appearence of another CELL command or the end-of-file condition. The format for a CELL command is... label-name (space/tab) CELL (space/tab) option(1),option(2)...,option(n) A label-name followed by a blank or tab character, followed by the word "CELL", followed by a blank, tab, or return character. The CELL command must have a label and the command word "CELL". Operands may be present but are not used in the Learn System version 0.6. It is highly recommended, but not required, that the option "ASCII" or "ANSI" be coded as an operand in every CELL statement. In future versions of the Learn System this operand will be used to indicate the display format the DISPLAY and SCREEN commands use in a cell. The NEXT command provides the default next cell selection for a single cell. If no other commands in the cell cause another cell to be activated, then the NEXT command indicates which cell will be activated next. Like the CELL command, one NEXT command must exist in each cell. If more than one NEXT command exists in a single cell, only the first one is valid, the others are ignored. The CELL and NEXT commands are the only commands required in each cell, all others valid commands are optional (may appear at the discretion of the lesson author). In version 0.6, if the NEXT statement is not present in a CELL, the /START cell-label will be used as the default NEXT cell. In later versions of the Learn System the situation of a cell without a NEXT command might not be allowed. The DISPLAY and SCREEN commands display text on the computer screen. The DISPLAY command can display up to one line per command. Its format has one text operand and no label. The text string must be enclosed using single quote mark, double quote mark, or the vertical bar symbol. If the first character of the string is the left bracket symbol, the characters following the bracket will be processed as enhanced display control characters instead of just displaying these characters as text. Enhanced display control characters are defined and explained in the DOS Technical Reference manual available from IBM PC dealers everywhere. The SCREEN command specifies the display of an entire screen of text. This screen is stored on a disk file prior to the use of LSCAN program. LSCAN will read this file and store the screen contents in the lesson file. A screen file can be created by any word processing program capable of producing an ASCII text file. The EDANSI program supplied with the Learn System was designed just to produce screen text files suitable for LSCAN processing. The format for the SCREEN command has one operand which is the screen file name surrounded by single or double quote marks and no label field. The CORRECT and INCORRECT commands both use the same format for marking the currently active cell as correct or incorrect based on the student's response to the displayed information. A label and a single operand field are required for both commands. The label represents the text the user must enter to execute this command, while the operand is the name of the cell to be activated next when a user response match is made. The label contains the minimum alphanumeric characters which must be exactly typed by the student to cause a match. The student may type additional characters after those which match the label and the match will still occur. For example if the cell contains the following commands: DOSFUNC CELL CAT CORRECT DIRLIST COPY INCORRECT TRYAGAIN1 DEL INCORRECT TRYAGAIN1 CATALOG INCORRECT TRYAGAIN2 NEXT MOREDOSFUNC if the student types "delete" (with the enter key at the end of the line), then the LEARN program would determine that "delete" matches "DEL"; the cell would be marked as "incorrect" and a cell with the label "tryagain1" would be immediately activated. In the case of two words in which one has the entire spelling of the other in its begining spelling (such as "catalog" and "cat" in the previous example), the ordering of each label is important for the LEARN program to properly match a student's response. Using the previous example again, if the student enters "catalog", the LEARN program will match this response with the "CAT" label and not the "CATALOG" label this response was clearly meant for. The same results would occur if the student had entered "cat" or even "catal". In this example it is not possible for the command with the label "CATALOG" to be executed. If the cell contains: DOSFUNC CELL COPY INCORRECT TRYAGAIN1 DEL INCORRECT TRYAGAIN1 CATALOG INCORRECT TRYAGAIN2 CAT CORRECT DIRLIST NEXT MOREDOSFUNC then the student response of "catalog" would correctly cause the cell TRYAGAIN2 to be activated while the response "cat" or "catal" would cause the DIRLIST cell to executed. The SHELL command is used to temporary execute a DOS command, DOS batch file, or disk resident program (COM or EXE file) while the LEARN program is loaded in memory. In general, any command executable from DOS command level (i.e. "A>") is executable as a subcommand to the LEARN program using the SHELL command. The SHELL command uses the label field and has one operand which is the DOS command, batch command file, or program name with their respective parameters and operands all surrounded by either single or double quotes. Any student response which matches a SHELL command label field will cause the execution of the text in the operand field as if the text had been entered on a DOS command line. After the SHELL command has completed its DOS subcommand execution, the NEXT command is immediately used to activate the next cell. The LEARN command is used to temporary suspend the current lesson file and activate another. This action could be done using the SHELL command, but there is a great possibility that later versions of the LEARN program will not function properly when executed by the SHELL command. The Learn command provides a more reliable and safe method of "nesting" lesson files ("nesting" refers to a lesson file temporarily activating another lesson file). Nesting can occur up to 10 levels in succession. By using the LEARN command the lesson file limitation of 255 cells is overcome by allowing the LEARN program to access virtually an unlimited number of cells. The format of the Learn command has a label which must match the student's response and a single operand which is the lesson name (no quotes required). The EDANSI Program: The Edit ANSI.SYS screen (EDANSI) program was designed to create or modify files which represent screen images for display by the Learn System SCREEN command. This program can produce screen text in the two types of display formats which are supported by PC-DOS/MS-DOS versions 2.0 and above. Those formats are ... Standard ASCII: This format includes all printable ASCII characters plus a few (but not all) of the ASCII screen format control functions. Using this mode allows the creation of screens suitable for all display devices including printers, and most ASCII terminals connected to a PC by modems or RS-232 connectors. This format does not support the use of color or the use of some PC characters (which overlap the ASCII control code characters). Extended Screen and Keyboard Control: This format is fully explained in the DOS Technical Reference manual. In summary, this format supports the use of color, direct cursor positioning, and keyboard key code reassignment (redefining of keyboard keys to produce codes other than those codes it normally produces). This format is a subset of the ANSI format used in popular ANSI terminals such as the DEC VT-100 and VT-220 family. Please note that both of these formats are quite different from the BASIC language display format (which supports all ASCII screen control characters, unlike DOS which supports only a few ASCII screen control characters). The EDANSI program offers a simple method of creating display screens without requiring a lesson author to understand either display format. By using various option screens, the author can define foreground and background colors, screen size, and screen attributes. Some special IBM-PC display characters are made available for inclusion into screens, like the currency characters, line graphics characters, and assorted engineering/math/foreign language characters. Once a screen has been created using EDANSI, its file name can be used in the LSCAN/LEARN SCREEN command to process the screen as a part of a lesson file. Getting Started: 1) Use the EDANSI program to create or edit screen files which will present the information and desired responses to be a student. To start EDANSI simply enter its name to the DOS prompt, no operands are used. For example: A>cls A>edansi will clear the screen and start EDANSI. The first thing EDANSI will request is a file name for an existing file to be edited or a new file to be created. If no file name extension (or qualifier) is specified then the extension ".SCR" is added to the file name supplied. When the initial setup is complete, EDANSI is placed in text screen edit mode. You can use the cursor keys move around the screen, and enter text at any position except on the last character of each line or on the last line of the screen, these are used by EDANSI for line position control characters (yielding a 39x24 or 79x24 usable screen depending on the screen width selected). This mode has several function key submodes which are selectable at this point. The SAVE and END submode can cause the end of EDANSI execution with or without saving the currently editted screen. The OPT submode allows the selection of various screen display options and special character select. The DRAW submode allows a user to draw horizonal or vertical character graphics symbols into desired patterns and shapes. Two submodes within the DRAW submode can act as toggle switches to indicate: a) DRAW line by following the path of the screen cursor, b) MOVE cursor without drawing or erasing any line currently on the screen, c) ERASE line by following the path of the screen cursor, d) Draw SINGLE line when following the cursor, e) Draw DOUBLE line when following the cursor. Of special note is that under EDANSI, the (esc) key is used to place selected special IBM-PC characters on the screen in the text screen editing mode. Characters are selected or unselected (but not erased) using the OPT submode called "Assign Chars to (esc) key". In the text screen editing mode the (esc) key acts as a toggle switch which displays one of the selected special characters per each press of the (esc) key. Please also note that EDANSI does not support all Extended Screen and Keyboard Control features, just those that are most useful to most users. Other features can be specified using the LSCAN/LEARN DISPLAY command. Getting Started (continued): 2) Using the Lesson conversion program (LSCAN) involves four main steps: a) Create an ASCII text file containing Learn System LSCAN/LEARN commands. The PC-DOS/MS-DOS EDLIN program produces files that are just perfect for LSCAN, however you can use word processors or line editors such as WordStar, Multimate, Volkswriter provided that the word processing files are converted to normal ASCII format files in the same format as EDLIN processed files b) Execute the LSCAN with or without the source lesson file name as an operand. For example: A> lscan A> lscan lesson1 A> lscan lesson1.dat are all valid for converting a source lesson file called "LESSON1.DAT" to ".LKI" presentation format. The first will cause LSCAN to prompt the user for a file name since none was supplied. The second assumes that the file name has the file name extension ".DAT" (thus making the file name to be access "LESSON1.DAT") since none was supplied; a file name that has no extension can only be specified by having a single period at its end (i.e. "LESSON1."). The third example has the entire file name stated which does not allow LSCAN to assume anything (the disk drive and path portions is also supported by all Learn System commands and could have been made a part of second and third examples above). c) If any source lesson statements are in error, a message is print along with the line number indicating the statement's location in the file. These line numbers corresponse to EDLIN line numbers. Please note that under LSCAN version 0.6 many errors involving cell-labels which refer to non-existent cell names and response-labels which refer to non-existent response statements are not caught as LSCAN errors. d) When the DOS prompt reappears, processing is done and a lesson file usable by the LEARN program is produced. This file is only a valid one if no errors were reported by LSCAN. Getting Started (continued): 3) To use the Learn System Lesson Presentation program only one action is needed, execute the LEARN program with a lesson file name. For example: C> learn C> learn examples C> learn examples.lki C> learn a:\examples are all valid ways to execute the LEARN program with the lesson presentation file "EXAMPLES.LKI". The first will cause the LEARN program to prompt the user for a lesson file name. The second will cause the LEARN to assume that file name extension ".LKI" is to be added to the supplied file name (resulting in the LEARN program access file "EXAMPLES.LKI"). The third causes the LEARN program to assume nothing since the file name and extension are both supplied. The fourth example is equivalent to second example since no file name extension was supplied. For all Learn System programs, the disk drive and path portions of a file name may be specified if desired, the rules affecting file names with and without file name extensions remain the same. The same rules also apply to the file name entered as a result of a prompt given by the LEARN program as in the first example. Lesson Creation Example: To be successful with this example you must first use the EDANSI program to create three screen: "TITLE.SCR" This will be your first screen displayed when the LEARN program starts. Please place your name and business address as a part of the screen. This screen will introduce the student to what's coming later. The following menu should be displayed on the screen: 1 - This screen 2 - Color screen test 3 - My Artwork 9 - Exit back to DOS Please select a number above "COLORTST.SCR" This will be a screen which will display your favorite color as the forground color and a nice contrasting as the background color if you have a color monitor. If your monitor is monochomatic (single color) then use black as the foreground color and white as the background color. Display a message like the one below: Color Test Screen Blue foreground color with White background Enter one of the following numbers: 1 - Go to next cell 2 - Display this screen 3 - Display my Artwork(TM) 9 - Exit back to DOS "ARTWORK.SCR" This screen allows you to show off your creativity with drawing boxes, my only request of you is that you include the words "My Artwork" at the very top of the screen and you use the default colors for this frame (which are black background and white foreground). Next you'll need to use either EDLIN or your favorite word processor program to create a lesson source file for the following Learn System statements. Save this file as file name "Example3.dat". Example three contents: column: 1 9 19 +--------+----------+--------------------------- First cell Ascii screen "Title.scr" 2 correct colortst 3 correct MYartwork 9 incorrect /exit 1 correct first next nocell Nocell cell Ansi display "[0m" display "[10;5H" display " Invalid Entry Choice" next /previous colortst cell ansi screen "colortst.scr" 1 correct myartwork next nocell myartwork cell ansi screen "artwork.scr" 9 incorrect /start 2 incorrect /start 3 incorrect /start 1 incorrect /start next /start Next, review the steps needed to install ANSI.SYS to your version of DOS, and create any files necessary to support the ANSI.SYS enhanced screen and keyboard control support. All the information you need is in the DOS Manual. Last (but not least), you must process your ".dat" file with LSCAN to create a ".LKI" file. This lesson presentation file when run with the LEARN is your first lesson. Try it out and think about your next lesson. Final Note: The Learn System was designed with growth in mind, so please tell me about your experiences with this program, good or bad, so that I can know what things to change and which to just leave the same. Feel free to make suggestions by mail for future changes or enhancement you'd like to see in new versions of the Learn System. If you develop an exceptional lesson you want to share (for profit or not) with the world let me know, I'll send you information on selling your lesson with a special commercial license version of the LEARN program. Lesson Design Using the Learn System: 1) The Lesson Author creates a lesson plan which includes a written copy of the information to be presented in a paragraph form. 2) The Lesson Plan is segmented into computer display screen sized sections and is entered onto a computer disk using a word processor, line editor, or EDANSI program. 3) Test questions are formulated and added as screens where apropriate. 4) The Lesson flow and logic is flowcharted and entered into a LSCAN ASCII lesson file using a word processor or DOS line editor (EDLIN). 5) The LSCAN input file and screen images are processed by LSCAN to produce a .LKI lesson file. 6) The Author practices being a student using his lesson file and the LEARN program. If lesson usage problems occur then the LSCAN input file and/or screen images files are edited to correct those problems. DISCLAIMER: Programs and related materials created by Keeley Information are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of this program is with you. You assume the responsibility for the selection of the programs to achieve the results you desire and for the installation, use, and results from these programs. In no event will Keeley Information be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use these programs, even if Keeley Information has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. RESTRICTED PERMISSION TO COPY: The Learn System is NOT a public domain program. Individuals are granted permission to freely copy the Learn System diskette for their own use or for others to evaluate, so long as no price or other consideration is charged. Non-profit computer clubs, schools and universities are granted permission by the author to copy the Learn System diskette and share it with their members provided: - the organization has officially paid for its master copy of the Learn System, - the program and documentation are not modified in any way, - those who receive the program are encouraged (in writing) to support the further development of the Learn System by sending a $40 registration fee the author. - the programs may not be distributed via computerized "bulletin boards" or through any other telecommunications link. Others may be granted permission by the author to distribute the Learn System (including software developers wishing to include Learn System programs with software which they may be selling or distributing) so long as: - permission is obtained in writing from Keeley Information specifically authorizing the distribution of the Learn System. This permission must be obtained before distribution is commensed. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The sample '*.lki' files supplied are designed to be used with ANSI.SYS device driver supplied with PCDOS 2.10 and above. Proper installation of ANSI.SYS involve the following steps: - create or add to an existing CONFIG.SYS the command "DEVICE=ANSI.SYS", - insure that both a copy of the ANSI.SYS file (copied from the PCDOS system diskette) and a copy of CONFIG.SYS file (mentioned above) is in the directory of the disk which will be used to initially boot up PCDOS. - the computer is booted using the disk or diskette mentioned above. DISPLAY COMMAND CONTROL SEQUENCES SUMMARY: The Learn System DISPLAY command can be used to control screen display by using ANSI.SYS screen control sequences provided the first character used in the DISPLAY command's text field is "[". The "escape" character which must prefix all ANSI.SYS control sequences will be automatically generated by the LSCAN program when the lesson file is being converted to "*.LKI" format. The following summary describes some ANSI.SYS functions which may be used with the DISPLAY command. ..Text.. .............Description............................ [#;#H Used to move the cursor. '#' is a single or double digit number, the first '#' specifies screen row, the second specifies column. [s Save current cursor position. [u Restore cursor position to that which had been saved using function "[s". [2J Erase entire display, and set cursor at home position. All other ANSI.SYS functions are also usable, please refer to the DOS Technical Reference for a complete list of functions.