DON'T TYPE THIS, LIST or QEDIT THIS!!!!!-) C O N S T R U C T O R c o n s t r u c t o r (c) 1991 Jussi Kantola of Polar Soft Current Version: 1.00 Hi! This is CONSTructor, kinda drawingprogram. You can draw little pictures (60*50 pixel) with your keyboard, and then save them in a consts which Turbo Pascals 4.0 and newer can handle. Also older versions of TP should be able to handle the const, but I haven't try it. If this kills Your momma, causes a nuclear war, turns Your teeth to dust, or just simply formats Your harddisk, you must blame yourself. It did none of those in my system. (But I have a XT, and XT's are different ;-)). I give no guarantee. From now-on the word 'area' means that 60*50 block on which You draw. So, the first thing to do is to execute the program. It is simple; just type 'CONSTOR' in the directory where You have located CONSTOR.EXE. There are few parametres available: CONSTOR -A Run Constor in AMIGA-mode, which means the most common amiga-graphics on EGA-board!!!!!! CONSTOR -YUPPIE Runs Constor with loadpics and other stuff.. CONSTOR -YUPPIE -A Runs first the loadpics, then the AMIGA-MODE CONSTOR -A -YUPPIE Displays a note indicating You may NOT use -YUPPIE as a second parameter. :) As a first run, I prefer You don't use any parameters. Now You have the CONSTructor main-screen in front of You. What You see is the list of available commands, area of drawing in the upper left-corner, current-color -indicator on the bottom of the screen, program name and an advertisement. Let's list the available commands, yes, let's. 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 Command: Letter: 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 PutPixel ErasePixel ChangeColor <+>,<-> Drawmode , Circle Rectangle StretchRectangle Swap Colors Center Lowerleft corner Upperleft corner Lowerright corner Upperright corner Move Pointer <>,<>,<>,<> Adjust rate <1>,<2>,<3> Save Load Clear Window MusicON MusicOFF Quit There they are. Now let's go through them step by step... (I HATE The Kids'...:E) PutPixel : ------------------ This command puts the pixel on the area, using the current color (shown on the bottom of the screen). ErasePixel : ------------------------ This 'erases' the pixel. It actually puts a black pixel on the current position. So You make no use out of this command, unless on black background. ChangeColor : <+>,<-> --------------------- With these to letters You may adjust the color used for drawing. '+' increases the color, '-' decreases it. The colors are in 'normal' order, so that black is 0, blue is 1, green is 2 an so on. The current color is indicated as a bar on the bottom of the screen. DrawMode : , -------------------- Switches the drawmode, which is: Constor puts a pixel (using current color) on EVERY position you move on. Press 'F1' to switch drawmode ON, 'F2' to end it. Circle : ---------------- This command allows You to draw a circle on the area using the current color. It uses the current position as a centerpoint. Then You just simply increase or decrease its radius with the up '' or down '' keys. 'SPACE' locates the circle on the screen. Pressing 'ENTER' instead of 'SPACE' will fill the circle with the current color. 'ESC' quits the circle. NOTE: DO _NOT_ PRESS ESC AS A FIRST KEY WHEN OPERATING WITH CIRCLE, RECTANGLE OR STRETCH-RECTANGLE. For some reason disunderstood by me this will cause an exit_to_dos.. :-( Rectangle : ------------------- Same as Circle, except the result is rectangle. NOTE: Pressing i.e. the up '' key causes the rectangle increase its size in EVERY DIRECTION, so the uppest side gets higher, lowest gets lower and so on. StretchRectangle : -------------------------- Allows you to make a rectangle shaped as You want. With the arrow keys You move the sides of the rectangle. So up '' key causes the uppest side rise one line, the right '' key causes the rightmost side move one column to the left... 'SPACE' puts the figure on screen. 'ESC' to quit. Swap Colors : --------------------- You may change ALL the colors of xxxx to yyyy, just as You wish to. First, You'll be asked about what color would You like to change. Select the color from the palette by moving the arrow with left- and right-keys, and confirm with enter. Then, select the new color, AND CONFIRM THIS WITH SPACE!!!. So, if You have a picture, that contains bright blue, You may easily change this bright blue to cyan, and so on... Center : ---------------- Homes the pointer. ('Home' is in the middle of the area: 30x,25y) LowerLeft, UpperLeft, LowerRight, UpperRight : ------------------------------------------------------- Fast-keys. Locates the pointer on the corners. Move Pointer : --------------------------- Moves the pointer on screen. Look the sections AdjustRate and DrawMode. Adjust Rate : <1>,<2>,<3> ------------------------- With this You can adjust the rate with '1','2','3' (how many pixel shall the pointer move with one keypress). Current rate is shown right below the area of drawing. Save : --------------- Saves the current image in a file. Prompts the name. Load : --------------- Loads image specified by You. Use this often, I REALLY worked with this :-). (Afterall, it waz soooo simple.. :/) NOTE: At least until next version, You _MUST_ be careful with loading. If You specifie a file which is not in current dir, the program Runs a several yards to get to an end, just to see there has been time error.. >:).. So write correctly... ClearWindow : --------------------- Clears the drawing area! MusicON : -------------- Switches on the interrupt-played song -> played in the background while drawing. The tune is called 'CSTMUSIC' :-). NOTE: This *MAY* 'cause some nasty effects, like crashes and so on.. Use if You like to, but don't blame me if that fine picture vanished... There has NOT been any crashes while I have played the song, though. MusicOFF : ---------------- Switches off 'CSTMUSIC' Quit : ------------ Quits the program. What's the matter, You don't like it?! There they are, the keys to the control of CONSTructor. Now let's get through a few little sakes. The using of the const in Your own programs is quite simple. Refer to the short source included in the packet, called EXAMPLE.PAS. I remind You of few things here: 1) Remeber to remove the last comma (,) of the const. 2) Read it as y:= 1 to 60 x:= 1 to 50 so, y-axel 1st, then x. That's how it won't be upsidedown :-) LITTLE 'BOUT WHAT THE SCREEN INDICATES -------------------------------------- There are numbers around the borders of the area. They indicate the x- and y-coordinates of the pointer. They also show the color of the pixel on which the pointer currently is. If pointer is on black, the color is shown as grey. If pointer is on grey, the color is shown as grey. If it is on red, the coordinates are red. (No, I don't think you're an idiot, just making things clear ;) Below the area lie two indicators. First one shows whether the DrawMode is ON/OFF, and another one shows the current rate. Also, Constor (not _yet_ optionally) generates a backup-file of current area always when is pressed. It's called ENDSAVE.CST. NOTE: There are few bugs still in the program. One appears sometimes in Circle-function. The command just doesn't work. Reset Your system, and try again. If it still jumps on your face, reset again, and so on. Can't understand what causes this bug. The code is clean. :( Then, both Circle and Rectangle draw on the border too, if you specify the size too big. There's no reasnoable explanation for this either: the windows are correctly specified, and still this keeps happening... Constor is distributed in a packet called CSTORxxx.ARJ (or the best packer available at a time) where xxx is the version. Files that should be included : CONSTOR.EXE The program itself CONSTOR.DOC This crap EXAMPLE.PAS An example of how to use the const in program X.CST } P.CST } TIME.CST } Constants STRIPE.CST } TRIANGLE.CST } Things, that may be included in future releases... - Mouse-control (Really want it?? WHY?! It's no-good.. :)) - Filling-options - Zooming - Shrinking possibility in StretchRectangle (I'm in a hurry ;)) - Possibility to define the size of the area. (No use of drawing a small arrow with Constor, when the final const is 3000 pixels in size... Huh) (Infact this is already done, but it ain't good enough to be published, YET) - - I need Your help. Please, PLEASE send Your opinions and ideas to me!! (I accept money, too !-)) Jussi Kantola Metsopolku 1 88300 Paltamo Finland telephone: +358-86-871569 (from finland 986-871569) Splash! SBBS +358-(9)86-871569 22:00-24:00 Finland time (20-22 in Greenwhich) V.22bis Circus Laplandia (2:227/666.6) (8310/6) Fidonet (2:227/666.6) You MAY NOT send crash netmail to me through those networks. You CAN do it as non-crash. (Somehow I think this won't get away from Finland, but just for case those +358's :)) I NEED YOUR OPINIONS IS THAT CLEAR?!?!?! Thanx: Sami 'Polle' Maaranen Jani 'Gadolin' Lehtinen Mikko 'Mike' Pekkala Pasi Eronen (Can't remember what was it You helped me with) And You, who told that CapsLock-interrupt in Fido :). I've lost that message :) And all at CL, You know well who You are.. Or at least You knew it last time I heard about You. It was a few hours ago :) Also other weirdos I've met on lines, tnx! Special thanks to Markus Saukkonen for his great Turbo Pascal Interrupt Music (TPIM). 'Cstsong' was made with it, of course. Jussi