ANSI MENU ROUTINES UNIT
                              Copyright 1995
                      By Scott M. Baker and Bob Dalton

                               INTRODUCTION:
                               ------------
          Sometimes you are going to want an ANSI menu of sometype
          for your door program.  This unit adds that function to
          the DDPlus package.  The ANSIMENU.PAS code included in
          this archive is FREEWARE and can be used in any manner you
          want and without cost, but remains copyrighted to Scott Baker.
          The news.exe program, news.pas and supporting files remains
          copyrighted to Scott Baker.  The ANSI Menu routines portion
          of this document remain copyrighted to Scott Baker. Everything
          else is copyrighted by Bob Dalton. 

                                REQUIREMENTS:
                                ------------
          At this point in time the only requirements are that you must
          be using Borland Turbo Pascal version 6.0 or 7.0.  I compiled
          the program with Borland Pascal 7.0 Professional and know it
          works. I expect it will with TP 6.0 as well but can't guarantee
          it.  You must also have already compiled the main DDPLUS.PAS
          unit BEFORE compiling the NEWS.PAS.

                                Files Included
                                --------------
          Below is a listing of all files for the ANSIMENU.ZIP Package:

          NEWS.CTL    - Required Configuration file for the NEWS.EXE Program
          NEWS.DIR    - Required file for the NEWS.EXE Program.
          ANSIMENU.DOC- The text file you are reading.
          NEWS.EXE    - Compiled version of the News.pas program. So you
                         see it in action immediately.
          ANSIMENU.PAS- The ansi menu unit.
          NEWS.PAS    - The News program by Scott Baker.

                    Installation and Preparation for Use
                    ------------------------------------
 
         1. Move the archive package to a temporary directory and "unzip".

         2. Before compiling the NEWS.pas be sure that your compiler knows
         where to find the listed units.

         3.  Try the news.exe program first to see the end product BEFORE
         looking at the code in the provided units. It will give you a better
         feel for what is going on.

         4.  That's it!  Enjoy and good luck.

                          THE ANSI MENU ROUTINES
                       ------------------------------

          There is an additional TPU file included with the
          DDPLUS package that includes a user-friendly ANSI-MENU
          handler. The TPU can be called up with the statement "USES
          ANSIMENU". The menu system is accessed by the single
          function:

                   CHAR:=GetAnsiMenu(menu_definition_template)

                The menu-definition-template type is declared within
          the unit. It is identical to the structure below:


                 menutype = record
                             header: string[80];
                             footer: string[80];
                             headercolor,
                             footercolor,
                             optioncolor,
                             desccolor,
                             arrowcolor,
                             bracketcolor: byte;
                             numoptions: byte;
                             options: array[1..20] of string[1];
                             desc: array[1..20] of string[80];
                            end;

                The structure is usually defined by your program as
          a constant. The ANSIMENU procedure interprets this
          strucure and uses it to generate a centered menu. The menu
          options may be selected by using the numeric keypad (the 8
          for up and the 2 for down) or by simply typing the the
          letter of the option. A sample door, NEWS.PAS, is included
          to demonstrate the use of the ansimenu unit.