
                   VmASC UTILITY -ver 7-24
    (C)P. Mihok - VMV Ltd. - 5694-4 Hwy.7 E.,Unit 193,
            Markham, Ontario Canada L3P 1B4
                    6 Sept 1995

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:DESCRIPTION:

   This little utility lets you draw a colour screen of
IBM extended graphic characters with the mouse, to install in
your text mode software for example, or to provide a title
page or other screen for other software. To run it, type
GO-V at the prompt, and the batch file will run, giving a demo.

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:GENERAL REMARKS:

  This latest release fixes two minor bugs people reported, plus
adds a couple of features, namely block attribute replace and a
method of invoking the menus by touching the CTRL or ALT key.
Also I added some fixes to the edit and file menus. 10 June 95.

   I originally wrote this just out of curiousity and frustration
with other character drawing packages - I was curious whether I
could do it, and frustrated with their feature set.
   
   Now I did a major upgrade because I wanted to use it for
something and got frustrated with the feature set it had!
A few users tried and liked it, but had some suggestions that
I have implemented also.

  The resultant screens can be used in CYBRTEXT and can be
loaded into your C programs as data.

  This is probably the last gasp of this software, however,
since technology moves ahead apace and it's becoming affordable
to move up to 486 computers with VGA capabilities. My next
drawing package will probably be graphic mode, rather than
graphic character mode... and the newest CYBRTEXT likewise.

  Incidentally, CYBRTEXT's newest release is delayed a little because
I wanted to add a couple features first, but am busy doing my taxes
for the greedy spendthrift Canadian government and their myriad
parasitic hangers-on... <g>

 Sept 95 - Finally got all the features running and debugged! Now
you can accelerate into the future! A WINDOWS version is coming
out soon. (Of CYBRTEXT, that is. VmASC is solely for those who do
not have fancy machines or lots of money. I was reading recently
a lot of schools are still using XT's and 286's with CGA and EGA
monitors. Why shouldn't they have the tools to do something
interesting? My daughter uses VmASC as though it were a game
of some kind, and plays with it for hours.
  Incidentally, there is a shareware game called ZZZT which I just
discovered, which is entirely character mode. I didn't play with
it very long, but was thinking you could design your screens for
it in VmASC. It really makes a difference being able to move the
paste block around, seeing how the animation is going to look...)

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:TO USE:
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:LOADING:
 You can load a file from the command line by typing its name
as follows:

VMASC FILENAME.EXT

on the command line.

It will load the file. It will load anything, however, you
will get weird screens full of crap unless you are loading
a character mode screen capture file of 4k in length. You
can shift in the file until everything is positioned to your
satisfaction, if you're loading a file from another screen
capture (character mode) package.

 The utility writes files named ASCIIPIX.@V@, so you should type

VMASC ASCIIPIX.@V@

to load the last file you saved, (unless you renamed
it.)

  You can now load files from the FILE menu, available by
hitting F10. You'll notice a new feature, Shift In - this
allows you to shift in files that were created with other
drawing packages, or even (if you have the patience) to use
the software to view the contents of all kinds of files. (but
it doesn't give you much information about them however, nor
does it let you edit them beyond the contents of one screen.)


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:RUNNING:
 The software requires a DOS mouse driver to run, so be sure
to have a mouse driver loaded. (It detects if there is no
driver loaded.) It also requires a minimum of EGA to run, but
will run with a CGA or mono monitor. (However, you won't be
able to see the colours on a mono monitor, of course.) I no
longer have a CGA monitor to test things on, so I don't know
how it looks on one, but it works OK on a TTL monitor. (Of
course a VGA and super VGA monitor will work, running in EGA
mode, which happens automatically when you start the software.)

 Earlier versions required a 2 button mouse, but some users
complained it would not work with a mouse pad. So now you can
invoke the character attribute and fill menus with the keyboard.

 At the first screen (a HELP screen) push the mouse button to
start a screen. (Hitting ESC returns you to DOS.) You'll
find the mouse button has different repeat rates depending
on what you are doing, but basically it works slower in menus
and fastest when you are drawing, so you don't leave artifacts
on the screen coming out of a menu. (If you do, you can hit
the DELETE key. If something else is in the last-button memory
and nothing happens, you can press the mouse button with the
mouse cursor atop the unwanted character to show DELETE what
you want to delete!)

 You can hit F1 in the File Menus or in the main screen, and
you will get a help screen.

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:MENUS:

  There are three function menus and a HELP screen (F1).
---------------------------------------------------------
:MENU 1:PICK A CHARACTER AND COLOUR:

 The first function menu appears when you hit the right mouse
button or tap the ALT key twice. It lets you select a character
and foreground and background colour attributes. It redraws every
time you pick a character or colour (with the left mouse button)
so you can see how it will look (the sample is at the upper right
hand corner.) When you have the character and colour you want,
hit the right mouse button or any key to exit this menu.

 This menu now contains additional information about the
character and colour, as well as having been enlarged to make
it easier to look at. The upper left hand corner contains a
number corresponding to the character in the IBM extended
character set, and the upper right hand corner contains the
colour attribute, in hex notation, the first character
being the background value and the second the foreground.
There is also, beside that, a sample of the character in
the current chosen colour.

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:MENU 2:FILL OPERATIONS:

 This menu appears when you hit both mouse buttons at the same
time. (This can be a little tricky to get the hang of - I keep
ending up in the character/colour menu, myself. You can also
invoke it by tapping one of the CONTROL keys.) The selections
let you fill the background, fill or clear the whole screen,
fill upper,lower,right or left halves of the screen, or mark
block areas of the screen to capture and copy, fill, change the
attributes of, or clear. The left mouse button activates and
the right mouse button or any key escapes.
There isn't a floating highlight bar since I thought it would
add needless complexity to the code, but if people want it I
can add it.

 Fill works only on areas that don't already have something in
them (cleared areas) except block fill, which overwrites. I felt
that it was better to have them each work differently so you
have more flexibility.

 The menu contains a Global Character Replace feature which lets
you replace all examples of a selected character, across the screen,
with the current character and attribute. Block character replace
is also available.

 The menu lets you draw vertical or horizontal lines. If you want
to draw a line that does not extend from one end to other of the
screen, try Alt-L, which lets you draw a line (if that has been
included by release date).

 This menu also has an "UNDO" feature that undoes the last operation
that you performed which left something on the screen. It has only
a one button-deep memory, though.

: Block Operations - 

 This menu is a subset of the FILL operation menu. You first
mark a block and then can copy the block, frame it, clear it,
or fill with the character or attribute. You can now select an
attribute you want to replace within the block, and only things
that are that colour in the block will have their colour replaced.

 You can mark a block and repeatedly paste it by hitting ALT-B which
repeats the last block action. (any new block action will clear the
block from memory.) 

 I hope you like the floating paste block which I added. This can
be loaded from the current file or via "block load" on the file menu.

__________________________________________________________

:MENU 3: Files - hit F10

 This Menu lets you save, load and exit.Each has its own F1
help box.

 The edit function is upgraded, and now shows you the current
filename. Any editing key will allow you to edit it, but any
typing key you hit lets you start from the beginning.

 Lists of .TXT files and .@V@ files are available in the
appropriate load submenu selection.

 Save/Load simply saves or loads in the current format.

 Load as TXT - lets you load TXT files to which you want to add
colours etc. However it only loads one screenful - the purpose of
this feature is to allow you to load a file to which you have
already added character mode graphics, (which you want to colour
and view with software that displays coloured character mode
graphics, such as CYBRTEXT) and save the coloured screen to its
own file afterward. You can use this mode to view the contents of
weird files that you cannot view any other way, however it's not
the most convenient way on earth to do this.

 Shift Load - lets you browse through the file, shifting your
starting point along. This way you can load files that contain
character graphics and shift along til the graphic is in view on
the screen for your own use. It loads the type of file you loaded
last - for example if your last load was a TXT file it loads the
new file in TXT mode.

 Saving as TXT - strips off the colour information and simply saves
the characters. This does not format the result in any way, for
example, carriage returns and line feeds are not added.

 Block Load - Lets you load the first 4000 bytes of a file and
select a block, which is loaded into the block memory so you can
paste it around your new file. This allows you to create your
fonts, for example from graphic line drawing characters, such as

    Ŀ Ŀ  Ŀ
            Ŀ
            , and then reuse the characters or figures.

 I was considering putting the ANSI writing feature from VMANSI
into here as well, but nobody - absolutely nobody - has contacted
me at all about VMANSI, so I kind of think it's not worth the
bother. If you would like that, though, let me know - it won't
be THAT much bother!

 It really depends a lot on what people ask me to put in. And
whether they'll pay!


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:DRAWING AND WRITING OPERATIONS:

  When you are on the main screen, you can press the left mouse
button to paste the character and attribute where you want it.
If you want to delete the last character you pasted, try hitting
the DELETE key. You can put the mouse cursor atop any example of
the current character with attribute which you want to delete, and
press the mouse button then press DELETE. To delete a character to
the background value, hit the white background, the black foreground
and the zeroth character (which looks like a blank, at the upper
Left Hand corner) in the char/colour menu.

:Writing:
 You can hit the INSERT key to insert typed text, using the keyboard.
The DOS cursor appears on the screen and can be moved around using
the arrow keys. Text appears where you type it. When you hit the
backspace key, it stores the character it found in the previous
mouse location, in its restore memory, so you can hold the key down to
repeat that character backwards across the screen. You can also
move the cursor somewhere else and hit BACKSPACE to keep on repeating.
When you're done using the text insert mode, hit ESC or the right
mouse button to return to the mouse cursor (which is usually still
where you left it.) The text insert mode uses the current colour
attributes, chosen from the first menu. Note this is not a word
processor, so it lacks many edit features. They could be added,
but I don't really see any point.

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:SAVING AND VIEWING:

 When you leave (hitting ESC) you will be in an exit screen that
asks if you want to save. Hit Y or y and it will write a file
called ASCIIPIX.@V@. If there is already a file with that name
it will rename it. If you want to save previous efforts, you 
should rename the file from the file menu.

 You can reload this file by typing its name after VMASC on the
command line when starting the software, as previously discussed.
You can load @v@ or TXT files from the file menu. The software
doesn't check whether you are loading the correct type of file,
but it doesn't matter - it will load and display anything you tell
it to. It doesn't format it nor hide anything, though - for example
text files will show all the carriage returns (char number 13) and
line feeds (number 10).

 You can now use the Save/Load menu (F10) to vary your options for
saving and viewing the files.

----------------------------

 A utility is also included, VAVIEW, which will load a file called
ASCIIPIX.@V@ if there is one in the current directory, and then
it will display it. (The demo uses it.) VAVIEW has no options,
it merely displays ASCIIPIX.@V@ and nothing else. (I was considering
providing the ability to make a self displaying file out of your
drawings, but nobody has yet asked for it, so I haven't bothered.
I also could let VAVIEW load a file named at the command line if
anyone wants it.)

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:DISCLAIMER:

                - VMV Ltd. assumes no responsibility for the 
consequences of any application of any software product. Although 
all software has been carefully and thoroughly tested before 
release, VMV Ltd. assumes no liability for any software or 
hardware incompatibilities, for loss of data, disc damage, nor for 
any other consequences resulting or claimed to result from the use 
in any manner of their software. Use of the software is entirely 
by the user's choice and at the user's risk. Resale, 
redistribution and copying of this software at cost only, is 
freely permitted, if the shareware package is entirely unaltered.

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 History:
Jan 22 1995 - first beta test release
Jan 23 1995 - first real release, fixed a number of irritating
  little quirks with the way the mouse worked. Added extra button
  memory processing to make DELETE work better. Added global char.
  replace feature. Fixed errors in documentation. Ver 1b.
March 1995 -  A version which had some added features was given
 limited release
June 2 1995 - Added all kinds of features. Version 3 (or 5).
June 10 1995 - Final upgrades and fixes. Version 4 (or 6).
Sept 6 1995  - Fixed some things I noticed here and there when
 preparing to include it with CYBRTEXT. Version 7.

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:REGISTRATION ETC.:

  VmASC can be registered for $12 or any amount you choose to
send, paid by cheque/check or money order to 

VMV LTD. - 5694-4 Hwy 7 E., Unit 193, Markham Ont., Can.,L3P 1B4

  Please give an address where I can post you any fixes,
upgrades, etc.

  You can reach me by phone/fax, 905-471-5440, or 905-471-9824(8-8 EST)

 or by E-Mail

  J.Pierre Mihok 102547.3334@COMPUSERVE.COM

or c/o   70107,3050@COMPUSERVE.COM (a friend, Neil)

  People sending $12 or more will get a shareware disc in the mail!

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