WELCOME TO Version 1.4 of PRISM! THE ANSI Editor for the Amiga! Version: 1.4 by Syd L. Bolton of Legendary Design Technologies Inc. Previous Versions: Chris Timmerberg Original Version: Colin Vernon PRISM has gone through a few changes since Colin's original code. Chris has added better load/save routines, and the ability to do interlace as well as some other features. 1.4 is a bit of a bigger step, and 1.5 is already being worked on! WHAT'S NEW IN 1.4 ----------------- a) Cosmetic changes to the menus. When there is a requester, "..." appears after the name (as in "Load..."). Also, menus with sub- options have a ">" to indicate sub-options are available. b) A menu option called "SClear". When it is turned ON (default) PRISM will write a "clear screen" to the beginning of a file. It has always done this, but I have found that I don't always want it, and end up using another program of mine ("StripANSI") to get rid of the clear screen. Sometimes you might make an animation to fit on what is currently on the screen, and don't want to clear everything else out. Now, you can make PRISM NOT write a screen clear to the beginning by turning the "Sclear" menu option off. c) Variable speed control! PRISM will now attempt (as closely as possible) to play back your animation at 2400 or 1200 baud, or the fastest. Of course, the faster your Amiga is, the faster the playback will be. d) A new file requester! It allows you to click on volume names, and has pattern matching. If you don't like FILE REQUESTERS that always read files (if you're a keyboard-maniac like me) you can turn OFF the Req. Read Files option in the CONFIGURE menu (see below). e) A CONFIGURATION EDITOR! You can now set things like interlace, colors, speed, and other options from a convenient requester. You can now also change the FONT that is used at will (keep in mind, you must specify ".font" at the end, as in "cleanibm.font" and that whatever font you use must have an 8 point size). Also, you can change the number of spaces the tab moves (normally 8). You can SAVE these changes so that when PRISM boots up, it will boot up with these choices, or you can simply "USE" them for the current session. For example, if you were "appending" to a current file, you might go into the CONFIGURE option, and change "SClear" to off (because you don't want the screen to clear in the middle of a file) and "USE" these preferences until you are done. f) The "Fore/Back" gadget has been replaced by TWO GADGETS. The first one normally says "Back Col". This works just like the Fore/Back did before. When you click it, the next color choice you make will be BACKGROUND color instead of foreground. If you click on the "FORE" gadget, you will see it change to "BACK" and "Back Col" will change to "Fore Col". Effectively, you have reversed the system. Now, the default will be to choose BACKGROUND colors all the time, and when you click on "Fore Col", the next color you pick will be foreground. Use this if you are doing a lot of work with the background colors. g) The source code has been re-written a fair amount. The problem was that a lot of white-space was wasted with spaces instead of tabs, and the code indenting did not follow logically downwards. I spent a LOT of time re-writing it to make it more readable. Unfortunately, because of the way it was originally written, this makes for some VERY long lines (in some cases the lines are about 170 characters long). This shouldn't be a problem for most editors, and I promise to fix the way the whole program was written in the next release. h) Sorry it's a little heftier than the last release, but it can't be helped! Part of it was the transition to MANX, and part of it was because of all the new features. There is always a price to pay! WHAT'S COMING IN 1.5? OR 2.0? OR WHATEVER? ------------------------------------------ I have a few ideas for the next release, but I am always open to suggestion. Here a few: a) VCR-like controls for the playback. A moveable window (like in DPaint IV) that has forwards, backwards playing, stop, pause and so on. b) An option to save the current file as a screen, from top to bottom. (instead of saving the file in the order that it was typed in). This would allow you to create title screens a lot easier, and experiment more without everyone seeing the cursor jump all over the place. c) A built-in option to convert IFF pictures to ANSI files. Neato. I've heard there is a two-color one. What about full color? d) A way to view the actual codes, and replace/insert codes manually wherever you want. e) ??? That's about it! If you have any suggestions, or if you find any bugs in this program, I seem to have taken over current development of it (or if you have done the same, let's put our brains together and see what we can come up with). You can contact me through the following venues: Syd Bolton President Legendary Design Technologies Inc. 25 Frontenac Avenue Brantford, Ontario N3R 3B7 (519)-753-6120 (voice/answering machine) (519)-754-4059 (fax) (519)-754-1120 (BBS: Probe, Sysop: Al Antoszewski. 24 hrs, 2400,8n1) Have a great day!