
                            DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE  IS  SOLD  "AS  IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OF
MERCHANTABILITY   OR  ANY  OTHER  WARRANTIES  WHETHER  EXPRESSED  OR IMPLIED.
BECAUSE  OF  THE  VARIOUS  HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO WHICH THIS
PROGRAM  MAY  BE  PUT,  NO  WARRANTY  OF  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS
OFFERED.   GOOD  DATA  PROCESSING  PROCEDURE  DICTATES  THAT  ANY  PROGRAM BE
THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT.  THE USER MUST
ASSUME  THE  ENTIRE  RISK  OF USING THE PROGRAM.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER
WILL BE  LIMITED  EXCLUSIVELY  TO  PRODUCT  REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE
PRICE IF APPLICABLE. 

The author  of this program must in his normal job write letters and reports.
After having  tried  several complicated word processing programs, he decided
to write  his own program in assembler.  The main goals were that the program
had to be easy to operate, had to be fast, had to permit printing of accented
characters,  could  format  paragraphs and could also give total control over
the printer. 

It seems  that the first goal was reached because the author was able to test
the program with various persons; a typist that has no particular training on
computers  can  write  letters  with QWAS  after  receiving  only  elementary
instructions. 

As for speed,  QWAS is as fast or faster than other programs as you will soon
find out; the reason for that is that the program is written in assembler and
was optimized   for  speed.   You  will  see  that  QWAS always  write on the
thirteenth line of the screen; it is that way so that you donot have to bring
the cursor all the way down if you want to see the lines beyond the bottom of
the screen. 

QWAS can  change  from  the  US keyboard to the Latin America keyboard at the
push of  a key.  In addition, most printable characters can be printed on the
screen by using a special function. 

QWAS changes line  automatically  when  the  end  of  the line is reached and
paragraphs can be formated easily and quickly. 

QWAS can  send commands to the printer to change the number of characters per
inch and  can change the type of characters or change the line spacing.  QWAS
will not  decide  on its own to try to print 100 lines on a page or decide to
make a  form  feed  or to start writing in the middle of a page as well known
word processing programs do. 

Why would  you  use  a program  like  QWAS when there are powerful well-known
programs  available?  For  the same reason that you may choose to buy a watch
with hands instead of a digital watch with lots of functions and for the same
reason  that  you prefer to use a $10 calculator instead of a $250 calculator
with 120  functions.   It  boils down to convenience.  If you have no time to
waste, QWAS will permit you to do the work much more quickly and cleanly. 

It is hoped  that  you  will like this program and that the instructions that
follow are easy to understand. 


 STARTING QWAS 

The program   must  be copied on the hard disk in a directory of your choice.
To read  them,  you  must  also copy files QWAS_MAN.TXT and QWASREAD.TXT but
QWAS can work without those.  QWAS could also run from a diskette. 

When it  is  started,  QWAS determines  if  you  have a monochrome or a color
monitor and adjusts itself accordingly.

The program  is  started  by  typing  QWAS  or  qwa  followed  by Enter.  The
following box will appear on the screen: 


                  ͻ
                     Type the path and the name of the file   
                         (not more than 40 characters)        
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                  ͼ

If you  want   to  create  or  write  in  a file  called  "numbers.tel", type
numbers.tel  and  press  Enter.   If  the  file   exist it will appear on the
screen.  If it does not exist, the program will ask you if you want to create
it.  To  accept  press  on  the  Y key.   To refuse, if for example, you have
written a wrong name, press the N key. 

When the  box  telling you that the file has been created disappears from the
screen,  it  is  replaced  by  the  cursor  on line 12 and you can then start
typing. 

Only the following characters are acceptable for naming a file:
                     abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
                     ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
                     :\!$&#%^-_(){}~1234567890@

If you try  to  use a character that is not acceptable, the program will tell
you and you will have to start over again. 

A file name   generally consist of two parts such as MYFILE.TXT, for example.
It can also consist of only one part such as TEL_NO. 

The first  part  of the name must never have more than eight characters while
the part  that follows the period must never have more than three characters.
In naming files one must avoid using single letters such as A, B or C because
disk drives are identified by single letters and confusion may arise. 

Never try  with a word processing program to write in a file which has a name
that ends with EXE or COM; such files are programs.  Most of the time, if you
try to  load  a program  in a word processing program, all you will see is an
apparently  unordered  sequence  of  strange  characters and the computer may
stall and have to be restarted. 


 US AND LATIN AMERICA KEYBOARDS 

When QWAS is  started  the  letters  US appear at the bottom of the screen to
indicate  the type of keyboard it is in.  If you maintain one of the Alt keys
down and  press  the  K key,  US  will  be  replaced by Latin.  The following
drawing shows the characters for each key in the Latin America keyboard mode.


   ĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿ
      !  "  #  $  %  &  /  (  )  = ?     ]  
    |  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0 ' \   }  
   
          ĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿ
          Q   W  E  R  T  Y  U  I  O  P  * 
          q @                            + 
          
           ĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿ
            A  S  D  F  G  H  J  K  L    [ 
                                         { 
           
             ĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿĿ
              Z  X  C  V  B  N  M  ;  :  _ 
                                   ,  .  - 
             

Here are  a few  remarks  to help understand the operation of the keyboard in
Latin mode:  If you press on the key corresponding to that marked  and 
in the  above drawing (actually { and [) then press on the A key for example,
character   will  appear  on  the screen.  If you hold one of the Shift keys
down and  again press on the key corresponding to that marked  and  and
then press  the A key, character  will appear.  We could have used any other
vowel to produce, for example  or . 

To obtain character @, hold one of the Alt keys down and press the Q key.  To
obtain  character  \,  hold one of the Alt keys down and press the key to the
right of the 0 key. 

In the following  pages,  if  you  see Shift-4, for example, it means to hold
down the  Shift  key  and then momentarily depress the 4 key before releasing
the Shift  key.   The  same  procedure  apply for commands such as Ctrl-F1 or
Alt-K. 


 INSERT AND REPLACE 

The word  Insert  or  Replace  appears at the bottom of the screen.  If it is
Replace,   you can change to Insert by pressing the Insert key or vice versa.
In order  to  understand  how  the  program works, copy the following without
worrying about what happens when the cursor reaches the end of a line. 

When DOS loads an EXE file, it can be put almost anywhere in memory, at any
segment address.  Therefore, DOS must then relocate the code by fixing up all
FAR commands to contain the proper segment addresses of their destinations.
For that reason, a header is included at the beginning of every EXE file.
This header's length varies from file to file. 

As you saw,  when  a line  is  finished,  it  goes  up  and  the  cursor goes
automatically at the beginning of the new line. Not,do the following: 
  Press on  the  key  with  an arrow pointing down several times; the whole
  paragraph came down each time. 

  Press on   the  right arrow key to move the cursor from letter to letter.
  The cursor  can  be  brought back to its position by pressing on the left
  arrow key. 

  Using the  arrow keys, bring the cursor near the middle of a line; If you
  type a  letter  while  the  word  "Insert"  appears  at the bottom of the
  screen,   the letters move to make a place for the letter you just typed.
  If you  do  the same thing while the word "Replace" appears at the bottom
  of the screen, the letters you type replace the letters already there. 

  The program treats spaces just like other characters.

The Backspace  key  which is sometime only marked by an arrow pointing to the
left erases the characters at the cursor. 

You have  no  doubt  noticed by now that, for example, C:041 at the bottom of
the screen  indicates  the  cursor  is  at  column  41 of a line while L:0003
indicates  that  the  cursor  is  on the third line from the beginning of the
text. 


 DEALING WITH LINES 

Using the arrow keys, move the paragraph to bring the cursor under the letter
F in the line beginning with FAR.  If you press Enter, an empty line is
created above the line with the cursor and your paragraph now looks as
follows:
When DOS loads an EXE file, it can be put almost anywhere in memory, at any
segment address.  Therefore, DOS must then relocate the code by fixing up all

FAR commands to contain the proper segment addresses of their destinations.
For that reason, a header is included at the beginning of every EXE file. 
This header's length varies from file to file. 


Before going  further,  you must repair the damage caused to the paragraph by
removing the empty line.  With the arrow keys move the paragraph by using the
arrow keys  until  the  cursor  is  on the empty line then type Ctrl-F3.  The
empty line should disappear suddenly. 

Using the arrow  keys move the paragraph  to bring the cursor to the right of
the last letter of the line that ends with "all" then press the Enter key; as
you can  see,  that creates an empty line under the line where the cursor was
located and you paragraph now looks like this:

When DOS loads an EXE file, it can be put almost anywhere in memory, at any
segment address.  Therefore, DOS must then relocate the code by fixing up all

FAR commands to contain the proper segment addresses of their destinations.
For that reason, a header is included at the beginning of every EXE file.
This header's length varies from file to file. 

Before continuing erase that empty line as you did above.

Now bring  the  cursor  under  the  s in segment on the third line then press
Enter.  Your paragraph now looks like this: 

When DOS loads an EXE file, it can be put almost anywhere in memory, at any
segment address.  Therefore, DOS must then relocate the code by fixing up all
FAR commands to contain the proper 
segment addresses of their destinations.
For that reason, a header is included at the beginning of every EXE file.
This header's length varies from file to file. 


The damages  you  have  caused  can  easily  be  repaired.   Bring the cursor
anywhere on the line that starts with "segment" then press F1.  Later we will
show you how to format paragraphs. 


 FUNCTION OF THE VARIOUS KEYS 

Now that  you  have  learned  some  of  the  basics,  it  is time to meet the
following screen which can be called by typing Alt-1 

ͻ
                          Function of the keys                             
                      Push Esc to restore the screen                       
͹
 CONTROL      Go to beginning of file        To to the end of the file 
   SHIFT  F1  Print characters in Alt-B  F2  Erase to the end of line  
  NORMAL      Join two lines                 Erase one character       
͹
 CONTROL      Special char. with Alt key     Justify at 0 to 77        
   SHIFT  F3  Erase one line             F4  Justify at 0 to 64        
  NORMAL      Erase one word                                           
͹
 CONTROL      Go to beginning of line        Display up 20 lines       
   SHIFT  F5  Move one word to the left  F6  Display up 5 lines        
  NORMAL      Move one char. to the left     Display up 1 line         
͹
 CONTROL      Display down 20 lines          Go to end of line         
   SHIFT  F7  Display down 5 lines       F8  One word to the right     
  NORMAL      Display down 1 line            One char. to the right    
͹
 CONTROL      Mark the beginning             Mark the end              
   SHIFT  F9  Quit a file                F10 Quit the program          
  NORMAL      Save without quitting          Save and quit             
ͼ

To understand  on  this  display  works  let us consider key F8.  If you type
Ctrl-F8 the cursor will jump to the end of the line.  If you type Ctrl-F5 the
cursor  will  move  to  the beginning of the line.  If you hold the Shift key
down then   press  F8 the cursor will move to the beginning of the next word.
If you  press  on F8 alone, the cursor will move to the right one letter at a
time.   F8  plays  the  same role as the right arrow key.  If you examine the
above screen  will find that keys F5, F6, F7 and F8 play the same role as the
arrow keys.   The reason for that is that if you put your four fingers of the
right hand  on  those keys, you can move around without having to look at the
keyboard;  after a while it becomes just as instinctive as typing.

Before going  on,  you  must  learn  about 3 other screens; you can make them
appear by typing Alt-2, Alt-3 and Alt-4. 


 PRINTING DOCUMENTS 

Before doing something with a paragraph, this progam will ask you to mark the
line at  the  beginning and mark the line at the end because it needs to know
where to start and where to finish the operations you ask it to make.  If you
want to  print  the paragraph you have typed, first bring the cursor anywhere
on the  first  line then type Ctrl-F9; the computer will beep to let you know
that there  is  a message  on the screen and if you look at the bottom of the
screen  you  will  see "The beginning has been marked".  Now bring the cursor
anywhere  on  the  last line and press Ctrl-F10; the computer will again beep
and will  print  the  message  "The end has been marked" at the bottom of the
screen.   You  may have noted that as soon as you pressed Ctrl-F9, the number
of lines  since  the beginning was displayed on the left at the bottom of the
screen.   You can now print the paragraph simply by typing Ctrl-Print Screen.
If you  have  done  everything  correctly  the printer should start and print
exactly what you wanted it to print. 

You can  print  as  many  lines  as  you  like or print only one line, if for
example  you  want  to  adjust  the position of the paper in the printer.  To
print one  line  place the cursor on the line then type Ctrl-F9, Ctrl-F10 and
Ctrl-Print Screen. 


 SENDING CODES TO THE PRINTER 

If your printer was set at 10 characters per inch, the lines of the paragraph
that you   just  printed may have finished beyond the right edge of the page.
To correct  the situation, the paragraph must be printed at 12 characters per
inch.   One  solution is to set the printer but for some makes that operation
is rather  complicated.   The easiest way to set the printer is to use one of
the features  of  QWAS; to show you how it works you will print the paragraph
at 17 characters  per  inch.   In  order  to  do  that,  follow the following
instructions:  Bring  the  cursor to the beginning of the paragraph under the
first letter then type Alt-I; the following screen appears: 

  ͻ
                  Insertion of commands for the printer in              
                              in a file                                 
  ͹
     Type the digit or character corresponding to your choice           
          10 characters per inch ............................. 0        
          12 characters per inch ............................. 1        
          17 characters per inch ............................. 2        
          Normal characters .................................. 3        
          Bold ............................................... 4        
          Double-strike ...................................... 5        
          Double-width (for one line only) ................... 6        
          Superscript ........................................ 7        
          Subscript .......................................... 8        
          Cancel superscript or subscript..................... 9        
          Underlining on ..................................... a        
          Underlining off .................................... b        
          Form feed .......................................... c        
                                                                        
                  To exit from this screen press Escape                 
  ͼ

For 17 char. per inch press key 2 as requested.

The screen  disappears  and  if you were in "Insert" mode a special character
has appeared at the beginning of the line or has replaced the first letter if
you were in "Replace" mode. 

Now print  the  paragraph again; you will find that the special character was
not printed  but  that  the  whole paragraph was printed at 17 characters per
inch.   To come back to 10 or 12 characters per inch, do as above but instead
of typing 2 type 0 or 1 depending on the pitch you want. 


 SOME OF THE MAIN FUNCTIONS 

Now that  you  have  become more familiar with the program, it is possible toexplain  the other functions of QWA, beginning with those shown on the screen
that appears when you type Alt-2 


 ALT-T 

The Tab key makes the cursor jump to the next marker while Shift-Tab makes it
jump to the preceding marker.  The position of the markers can be adjusted
easily.  To find out how it is done type Alt-T.


 ALT-P 

It is possible  to  change the settings of the printer by sending appropriate
codes to  it.   The  list  of  those codes is given in the user's manual that
comes with all printers.  In general, printer commands are composed of one or
more codes.   To see some examples, type Alt-4.  Normally, printers print six
lines per  inch  for  a line spacing of one sixth of an inch.  If you wish to
print eight  lines  per inch which corresponds to a line spacing of one eight
of an inch,  you have to send codes 27 and 48 as shown on the screen.  If you
type Alt-P  you only have to follow the instructions to send command codes to
your printer.   You  can  send as many codes as you want.  When a command has
been sent to the printer your text reappears on the screen. 


 SHIFT-F1 

Normally  when you press Shift-F1, character 27 is printed on the screen.  If
you want to change that, press Alt-B and follow the instructions. 


 ALT-C 

Each time  that  you  press a key, the loudspeaker in the computer produces a
click;  some people find the click helps them detect typing mistakes.  If you
would rather not hear clicks, you can turn them off by typing Alt-C.  You can
go back to the clicks by typing Alt-C again.


 ALT-A AND ALT-D 

The program  can  store  lines in the computer memory and you can then recall
those lines and deposit them anywhere in your text.  The way it is done is as
follows: 
1-Bring the cursor to the first line then type Ctrl-F9
2-Bring the cursor to the last line then type Ctrl-F10.
3-Type Alt-A.
To print  those  lines  anywhere  in  a text,  bring the cursor at the at the
desired spot then type Alt-D.  The lines remin in the computer's memory until
you exit from the program. 


 ALT-1, ALT-2, ALT-3 ET ALT-4 

Except for  Alt-3, the screens that appear when you type those keys have been
explained   above.   Alt-3  shows  the  box  drawing  characters.   To obtain
character  218  which is a corner, hold one of the Alt keys down while typing
218 on  the  NUMERIC  keypad  then release the Alt key; the box corner should
appear  on  the  screen.  To make straight lines, you can store the character
wanted  using  Alt-B  then  type  it  as  many  times as you want by pressing
Shift-F1. 


 JUSTIFICATION OF MARGINS 

You may  have  noticed  that  in the lines above the number of spaces between
words was  changed  so  that all the lines end at column 77.  To find out how
that is  done type a few lines then mark the beginning and the end just as if
you were  going  to  print  them  then  type  Ctrl-F4;  all  the lines should
rearrange  instantly and there will be 77 columns per line.  When printing at
12 char.   per  inch, that should give margins of about one inch on each side
of the  page.   If you mark again the same block but press Shift-F4, you will
obtain  64  columns  per  line which should give margins of about one inch on
each side when printing at 10 char.  per inch. 


 HOW TO SAVE A FILE 

To avoid  loosing your work in case of a power failure or some malfunction of
your computer,  it  is best to save regularly and to do that, all you have to
do is press  F9; a message at the bottom of the screen will tell you when you
can continue  with what you were doing.  When you are done all you need to do
to save  the  file is press F10.  If you wish to exit without saving what you
have written  you have to press Shift-F10 and answer Yes to the question.  If
you want  to  exit  without  saving  but do not want to exit from the program
press Shift-F9 and answer Yes.  You will notice that if you type a long text,
every 2000  characters  QWAS  will remind you that you should make a save; If
you choose to ignore the warning you will be reminded again and again. 


 CTRL-F3 

With this  function  you  can print characters 1 to 31.  For example, to make
character  1 appear type Ctrl-F3 then, while holding the Alt key down, type 1
on the  NUMERIC  keypad;  a smiling face should appear on the screen.  Do not
expect  to  be able to print those characters because most printers refuse to
print them.  The reason for that is that some characters, like 10, 12, 13, 26
and 27  are  used as control characters.  One character you should avoid when
using QWAS is  character  254;  if  you  try  to use it, you risk locking the
computer. 


 ALT-W 

To make  tables it is often useful or necessary to write lines longer than 80
columns  and  QWAS  can do that.  To see how it works bring the cursor to the
end of  a line  then  type  Alt-W.   Alt-W is a toggle and can also turn that
feature off. 


 FOR THOSE IN A HURRY 

To allow  QWAS to  operate  at greater speed, it is suggested to increase the
speed of the cursor by putting the following line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of
your computer: 
         C:\DOS\MODE CON: RATE=32 DELAY=1


 PRINTERS 

Only programs  that sell for hundreds of dollars can afford to supply printer
drivers.  QWAS was designed to work with Epson printers because most printers
can emulate them.  If you printer is not an Epson, set it so that it emulates
Epson printers.


 CONCLUSION 

For an example of what QWAS can do using Alt-I commands, print  the following
lines:

12 characters per inch  10 characters per inch  17 characters per inch
12 characters per inch  Bold double-strike  normal
double-width
double-width is cancelled by linefeeds
Exponent Index Back to normal Underlined No longer underlined
H2O   R2

