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Information about “QBSCR SCREEN ROUTINES 2OF3 (1712,1714)”
Want to make your screen displays look like the professional programs,
fast and dazzling? You can, with very little effort, using QBSCR
SCREEN ROUTINES.
QBSCR SCREEN ROUTINES is a collection of utilities for the
discriminating QuickBASIC programmer. With these routines, and very
little effort, your own programs can be extremely professional in
appearance. The screen routines are especially useful if you are in a
hurry. The QBSCR package can cut development time of any project in
half, since all the display routines are already written for you.
Incorporate the QBSCR routines into your program with a single line of
code, and all of the QBSCR resources are at your disposal.
Screen routines are available for building menus, windows, banners,
color control, pop-down windows, exploding/imploding displays, text
input and control, etc. You also get a complete ASCII color screen
editor program to help you design complex screens for fast loading. A
demo program is included to demonstrate all the features available to
your programs.
The screen routines are more than just a toolbox, they can also fill the
role of tutor. By reading through the source code of these routines,
you will quickly find yourself learning how to do new things with
QuickBASIC.
FILE1713.TXT
Disk No: 1713
Disk Title: QBSCR Screen Routines 2of3 (1712,1714)
PC-SIG Version: S1.1
Program Title: QBSCR Screen Routines
Author Version: 1.6
Author Registration: $15.00
Special Requirements: None.
Want to make your screen displays look like the professional programs,
fast and dazzling? You can, with very little effort, using QBSCR
SCREEN ROUTINES.
QBSCR SCREEN ROUTINES is a collection of utilities for the
discriminating QuickBASIC programmer. With these routines, and very
little effort, your own programs can be extremely professional in
appearance. The screen routines are especially useful if you are in a
hurry. The QBSCR package can cut development time of any project in
half, since all the display routines are already written for you.
Incorporate the QBSCR routines into your program with a single line of
code, and all of the QBSCR resources are at your disposal.
Screen routines are available for building menus, windows, banners,
color control, pop-down windows, exploding/imploding displays, text
input and control, etc. A demo program is included to demonstrate all
the features available to your programs.
The screen routines are more than just a toolbox, they can also fill the
role of tutor. By reading through the source code of these routines,
you will quickly find yourself learning how to do new things with
QuickBASIC.
PC-SIG
1030D East Duane Avenue
Sunnyvale Ca. 94086
(408) 730-9291
(c) Copyright 1989 PC-SIG, Inc.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< Disk #1713 QBSCR SCREEN ROUTINES >>>> ║
║ (disk 2 of 3, #1712 and #1714 also) ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ To finnish printing the documentation, type: COPY QBSCR4.DOC PRN ║
║ ║
║ To start SCREEN BUILDER, type: SB (press enter) ║
║ ║
║ To print documentation for SCREEN BUILDER, type: COPY SB.DOC PRN ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
SB.DOC
S C R E E N B U I L D E R
a companion program for
the QBSCR Screen Routines
V e r s i o n 1 . 6
Conceived and Created by
Tony Martin
of
the BAD SOFTWARE Company
1611 Harvest Green Ct.
Reston, VA 22094
Software and Documentation are (C) Copyright 1990 by
Tony Martin
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to Screen Builder . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Few Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Files Included with Screen Builder . . . . . . . 3
Screen Builder's Qualifications . . . . . . . . 4
Starting Screen Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Basic Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Using the Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Saving Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Reloading Your Saved Work . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Entering Extended ASCII Characters . . . . . . . 13
Changing Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Block Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
ASCII Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Disk Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Jump To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Techniques and Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Using Your Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Closing Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix A - The ANSI.SYS Device Driver . . . . 28
page i
Welcome to Screen Builder
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking at the QBSCR Screen Routines and
Screen Builder! The BAD SOFTWARE Company, though
fictitious, takes its business very seriously and
tries to provide useful and interesting software.
As an active or potential QuickBASIC programmer,
you may have tried at some time to write BASIC code
to print a complicated multi-color screen. Only
then did you find that not only was it too much
work and far too tedious, but it required a lot of
code as well. Two or three of those and you've
eaten up a large portion of the string and symbol
space provided by QuickBASIC. This was a dilema I
was faced with many times. There had to be an
easier way to create fancy, eye-catching screens
without a lot of hassle and wasted code space. And
without spending a large sum of money.
Naturally, there wasn't an easy answer. After a
little thinking, the solution became clear. Screen
Builder.
Screen Builder is an interactive screen editor. It
will let you build screens with as many colors and
ASCII graphics characters as you like. They can
complex or simple, eye-catching or subtle. Its
entirely up to your imagination. The part Screen
Builder does for you is make it easy. You can edit
your screen just like a word processor does, with a
couple of added capabilities, including the entry
of extended ASCII characters, entry of text in any
color, including blinking colors, and block
operations designed specifically for building
screens.
Then, once your screens are designed and saved, you
can use them in your own QuickBASIC programs by way
of the QBSCR PutScreen and BuildScreen routines.
Both routines can handle the Screen Builder's file
format, and will place your screens on the display
either very quickly, or in an interesting animated
fashion. To get more information about PutScreen
and BuildScreen, refer to the QBSCR Screen Routines
documentation, included with this package.
Ready to begin? Screen Builder is very easy to use
and lots of fun. Most of the screen in the QBSCR
DEMO program were generated with Screen Builder.
Screen Builder even generated the ASCII table that
is displayed when you call up it's ASCII Table
function.
page 1
A Few Notices (and Nasty Warnings)
-------------------------------------------------------------
You've probably already read the pitch in the QBSCR
documentation about shareware. If you haven't, and
are new to the concept, you should read it.
The QBSCR Screen Routines and Screen Builder are
being sold together as a package. The cost for the
whole deal is $15.00. See the QBSCR documentation,
the last page in particular, if you would like to
register. If you do, you'll get a snazzy official
disk set, as well as a copy of the LASER program.
LASER is a graphics entertainment and stress
management program written by BAD SOFTWARE
exclusively for its registered customers. Its not
shareware, and the only way to get it is to
register a BAD SOFTWARE product.
And of course, we have the traditional "You can't
touch the author if you foul up your computer or
your company with this software" and "This software
will always be MINE" clauses...
The QBSCR Screen Routines and the Screen
Builder are (C) Copyright 1989 by Tony
Martin. I retain all rights to the
software and documentation. Both
software packages are provided "as is"
without warranty of any kind, express or
implied. I cannot be held responsible
for any consequences arising from the
ability or inability to use this
software. You may not charge any money
or accept any remuneration of any kind
for this software without prior written
permission from myself. I do not expect
royalties or credits if this software is
used as part of your program.
Sounds pretty grim, huh? If you can't handle it,
just picture me as a kindly gentleman helping
people across busy intersections. The important
message is that Screen Builder and the QBSCR
routines are here for you to learn from and use to
your benefit. Just remember that if you benefit,
so should I.
But to move on...
page 2
Files Included with Screen Builder
-------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Builder's files are thrown in with all the
other QBSCR Screen Routine files. This table below
will help you sort out what file is whose.
File... ...Description
---------------------------------------------------
SB.EXE . . . . . . . . . The Screen Builder Program
SB.DOC . . . . . . The Screen Builder Documentation
COLOR.BIN . . . . Color version of Opening Screen
MONO.BIN . . . Monochrome version of Opening Screen
ASCII.CLR . . . . . . Color version of ASCII Chart
ASCII.MON . . . Monochrome version of ASCII Chart
SB_CAP.CLR . . . . . Color version of demonstration
SB_CAP.MON . . Monochrome version of demonstration
The file SB_CAP is a screen that shows some of the
capabilities of Screen Builder. If you have a
color display, load SB_CAP.CLR into Screen Builder.
Otherwise, use SB_CAP.MON. This file is not used
for anything else, so you can delete it after
you're finished looking at it.
The files MONO.BIN and COLOR.BIN are the Screen
Builder's opening screen. If you are short of disk
space, you can delete them as well, since SB has
its own simpler internal opening screen. Note that
Screen Builder designed its own opening screen.
The files ASCII.CLR and ASCII.MON are used
internally by Screen Builder to display when a user
access the ASCII Chart function of the program. Do
not delete these files.
page 3
Screen Builder's Qualifications
-------------------------------------------------------------
This section will briefly describe Screen Builder's
capabilities, what it is, and a bit of trivia about
it.
Screen Builder is an interactive screen editor that
allows you to create multi-color ASCII text
screens. You have access to all 25 lines of the
display for your screens, all 256 color
combinations (for color monitors), and most of the
ASCII drawing characters. Once created, the screens
can be used in any BASIC program using the QBSCR
Screen Routines PutScreen and BuildScreen.
The Screen Builder can perform several block
operations, including move, multiple copy, color
change, delete, box draw, character fill, and
search and replace.
Screen Builder can also save your screens as ANSI
codes or as text Only.
Screen Builder has an extensive on-line help
facility that should get you through most anything
you need to accomplish. It's easy to use and very
informative.
There are a few other goodies, like Jump to DOS and
an ASCII table reference chart, that will be
covered in more detail later.
Screen Builder was written using QuickBASIC 4.5 and
the QBSCR Screen Routines. One routine used to
check for the existence of a file on disk came from
a marvelous book entitled "The Microsoft QuickBASIC
Programmer's Toolbox" and is available from
Microsoft Press. If you think QBSCR is good (I
don't know if you do), then try this book. QBSCR
is cheaper, though, and you don't have to type in
everything.
page 4
Starting Screen Builder
-------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Builder is pretty simple to use, and
starting the program is no exception. To start the
program, make sure the files SB.EXE, ASCII.CLR and
ASCII.MON are in the same place (i.e., the same
drive and subdirectory), and enter the following
command:
SB
followed by the ENTER key. Screen Builder will be
on it's way. You'll see an introductory screen,
and then after hitting a key to clear it, you'll
get a preliminary window of information.
This window contains some information about
accessing a few of the primary Screen Builder
functions. The reason it comes up before you start
is that once you hit a key to clear the window,
you'll be faced with a blank screen. Nothing but a
cursor will be there. The preliminary window tells
you how to get help and a few other items before
the screen goes blank on you.
Once this window is gone, you're on your own. The
blank screen is your editing area, where you will
be creating your screens. At this point you may
begin editing. Basic editing commands will covered
shortly in this manual.
If you want to have Screen Builder load a file when
you start it, you can follow the SB command with
the name of a Screen Builder generated screen file.
For example, the command
SB MYSCREEN.CLR
would start Screen Builder, and then automatically
load the file called MYSCREEN.CLR. If the file did
not exist, Screen Builder would simply load
normally.
page 5
Getting Help
-------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Builder is equipped with an capable help
facility. To get help from the edit screen, hold
down the Alt key and press H (referred to as Alt-H).
A screen of information with a menu will appear.
NOTE: If you pressed Alt-H while you were editing a
screen, and the help window appeared over top of
your work-in-progress, fear not! Your work is
still there, and will return once you exit help.
The menu in the center of the screen contains a
list of help topics. Choose the topic that is
closest to the area in which you require help. To
choose a topic, use the up and down arrow keys, or
the PgUp or PgDn keys to move the selection bar to
the topic of your choice. Alternately, you could
type the single highlighted letter that is
associated with the topic of your choice. Note
that this menu was generated with the QBSCR
MakeMenu function.
Once your selection has been made, some help text
will replace the menu. In the upper right corner
of the screen, you will see an indicator that tells
how many pages there are to this help topic. If
there is more than one, you can move from page to
page using the PgUp and PgDn keys. Use the Home
and End keys to move to the first or last page.
You may also obtain help from the menu. To get the
menu, hit the ESC key. Select the Help menu by
hitting the H key. Once the Help menu appears,
select the Help topic of your choice. When you
have finished reading your selected Help
information, you will be returned to the Screen
Builder edit screen.
To return to the help menu, hit the ESC key. The
menu will dutifully return. If you need more help,
simply choose another topic. If you are finished
with help and would like to return to your work,
you can either select Quit from the menu or hit the
ESC key. Both operations will return you to the
edit screen.
page 6
Basic Editing
-------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Builder's editing works very much like a
standard word processor. You can type normally
text will appear on the screen. The cursor is your
key to where that text will be placed. Move the
cursor to the spot you want you text to be, and
type it. The cursor movement keys are as follows:
Cursor Movement... ...key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
Character right . . . . . . . . . . . . Right arrow
Character left . . . . . . . . . . . . Left arrow
One line up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Up arrow
One line down . . . . . . . . . . . . . Down arrow
Word right . . . . . . . . . . Ctrl + Right arrow
Word left . . . . . . . . . . . . Ctrl + Left arrow
End of line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End
Beginning of line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Home
Top of screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PgUp
Bottom of screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PgDn
While typing, you can be in either overtype or
insert mode. In overtype mode, anything you type
will replace what you type over top of. In insert
mode, text to the right of the cursor will be
pushed right to make room for the new characters.
Note that in insert mode, if characters are moved
off the end of the screen, they are gone and cannot
be recovered. You can tell what mode you are in by
looking at the cursor. In overtype mode, the
cursor is a large block. In insert mode, the
cursor is a normal underscore. On slower
computers, working in overtype mode will speed
typing response considerably.
page 7
Using the Menu
-------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Builder is equipped with a menu interface
that provides access to all the functions of the
program. By using the menu, you don't have to
know all the keyboard commands while you are new to
Screen Builder. Since the menu is optional and
every command has a keyboard alternate, you can use
the keyboard commands as you become familiar with
Screen Builder.
To access the menu, press the ESC key while at the
edit screen. The top line of the display will
become a horizontal list of menu topics. They are
File, Graphics, Color, Block, Miscellaneous, and
Help. Notice that the first one, File, is
highlighted. You can move this highlight to the
specific menu you need using the following keys:
Highlight Movement... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
One Menu Title Right . . . . . . . . . Right Arrow
One Menu Title Left . . . . . . . . . . Left Arrow
Last Menu Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End
First Menu Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Home
Once the highlight is on the menu title you want,
hit either the down arrow or ENTER to get ( or
"pull down") the menu. It will drop down from its
title. Once the menu is displayed, you can still
select other menus by using the left and right
arrow keys to move.
Now that you see your menu, you can select the menu
command you want by moving the highlight to it and
pressing ENTER. The following movements are
allowed in the menu:
Menu Highlight Movement... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
Down One Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . Down Arrow
Up One Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Up Arrow
First Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Home, PgUp
Last Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End, PgDn
To select a menu entry without moving the
highlight, you can press the single letter within
your chosen entry that is highlighted. This
letter, called the "Quick Access" key, will cause
the command to be executed immediately when it is
pressed. You do not need to follow it with the
ENTER key.
page 8
Saving Your Work
-------------------------------------------------------------
At any point during your editing session, you can
save your work. In fact, it's a good idea to save
it every five minutes or so, to prevent accidents
from plundering your time investment in your
screen.
Fortunately, saving a screen with Screen Builder is
a simple matter. Once you are ready to save your
work, you can either choose the save function from
the File menu or hit the Alt-S key combination. A
window will appear in the middle of the screen
asking you to fill in the file name for the screen.
If you have previously filled in a name during this
session of Screen Builder, that same name will be
filled in for you. While entering a name, you can
use the following editing keys:
Edit function... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
Move character left . . . . . . . . . . Left Arrow
Move character right . . . . . . . . . Right Arrow
Move to end of line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End
Move to beginning of line . . . . . . . . . . Home
Delete at cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Del
Delete to left of cursor . . . . . . . . Backspace
Erase current entry and start over . . . Ctrl + Y
Toggle INSERT mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INS
Once the name is correct, whether you had to change
anything or not, hit ENTER to have Screen Builder
accept it. Screen Builder will then check the disk
to see if the file exists already. If it does, a
small window will appear informing you of this, and
asks if it's OK to overwrite the existing file with
the new information. If this is OK, press the Y
key, and the old file will be overwritten. If
not, hit anything else, and the save will be
aborted.
Once you are past the file name entry window, you
have one more decision to make. Screen Builder
will save your files in any of three different
formats. They are, in the order they appear on the
menu,
1. BuildScreen / BSAVE
2. ANSI
3. Text Only (No Colors)
page 9
BuildScreen / BSAVE mode is the most commonly used
format. This is the format you will save your file
in if you want to use it with the QBSCR BuildScreen
and PutScreen routines. There is one more
important note about this save format, and here it
is:
-----------------------------------------
ALWAYS save a copy of your screens using
the BuildScreen / BSAVE format! This is
the ONLY format that Screen Builder will
load into its editor! Save ANSI or TEXT
ONLY after you have saved a copy under a
different name using the BuildScreen /
BSAVE mode! If you don't, you will not
be able to edit the screen again using
Screen Builder.
-----------------------------------------
The ANSI save format will save your screen as text
with colors saved as well, as embedded ANSI escape
codes. This will allow you to TYPE your screens
from DOS and see them in full color. It is also
useful if you want to use them on a BBS (Bulletin
Board System). Note that if you want to TYPE ANSI
sceens at DOS, you must have the ANSI.SYS device
driver loaded. See Appendix A of this document for
more info on the ANSI.SYS driver.
The TEXT ONLY format will save the text of your
screen, but no colors. This is useful if you want
to load your screen into a plain text editor, merge
it into a document, or print it.
In any case, you will be presented with a small
menu from which you must select one of these save
formats. Move the highlight bar to the selection
of your choice and hit Enter, or hit the Quick
Access key associated with the selection of your
choice.
If you selected the BuildScreen / BSAVE format, the
file will saved immediately, taking one or two
seconds to do so.
If you selected the ANSI or TEXT ONLY format, you
have one more wicket to step through. You must
tell Screen Builder how many lines of the display
(starting with line 1) you want to save. This is
because, if you type a screen at DOS, you will be
limited to 23 of the 25 display lines if you want
page 10
to see the whole screen. When the DOS prompt
appears after TYPEing the screen, it scrolls the
top two lines off the screen. You might also only
have a 5 line picture. Whatever the case, you may
enter a number from 1 to 25, followed by the Enter
key. The save will proceed then, taking a few
seconds at most to complete.
You can abort the Save process at any time by
pressing the ESC key.
page 11
Reloading Your Saved Work
-------------------------------------------------------------
You can load a previously save screen into Screen
Builder at any time during your editing session by
selecting the Load function from the File menu, or
by pressing the Alt-L key combination. Once this
is done, a small window will appear in the middle
of the screen asking you to enter the name of the
file containing the screen you want to load.
During entry of the file name, the following
editing keys are available:
Edit function... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
Move character left . . . . . . . . . . Left Arrow
Move character right . . . . . . . . . Right Arrow
Move to end of line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End
Move to beginning of line . . . . . . . . . . Home
Delete at cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Del
Delete to left of cursor . . . . . . . . Backspace
Erase current entry and start over . . . Ctrl + Y
Toggle INSERT mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INS
When you finish typing the filename, hit ENTER.
Screen Builder then checks the disk for the
existence of the file you entered. If the file
exists, it will be loaded. If it does not, Screen
Builder will tell you this and wait for you to hit
a key. The function will terminate when you do so.
Hit Alt-S to try again, or select Load form the
File menu.
Note that when Screen Builder loads a file, it may
take from 5 seconds to about 45 seconds to do so,
depending on the speed of your machine. Although
the file will be visible on the screen, there will
be no cursor and you won't be able to do anything.
You will know when it is finished when the cursor
appears in the upper-left corner of the screen.
What Screen Builder is doing all that time is
constructing an internal representation of your
picture, including characters and colors. Please
be patient.
Once the cursor appears, you may begin editing your
screen.
page 12
Entering Extended ASCII Characters
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you have read this far in the Screen Builder
documentation, you surely have some interest in
making your programs look good. You'll probably
want to use windows, boxes, draw lines, and use
other special effects. Many of these can be
accomplished by using the extended ASCII characters
that lie beyond the normal keyboard characters.
To enter a special ASCII character, you have two
options. The first and easiest is to use the
Screen Builder's ASCII character facility.
Screen Builder uses the function keys to enter
special characters like box drawing characters.
Since there are only ten function keys available,
and many more special characters than that, they
have been organized into logically related sets.
Each set contains ten extended ASCII characters
(one for each function key). To see the characters
currently assigned to the function keys (i.e., to
see which set is active), select the Reminder
function from the Graphics menu, or hit the Alt-R
key combination. A small window will appear that
shows which set number is active, and which
characters are currently assigned to which function
keys. Once you have determined which key you need
to use to display the character you want, you can
hit any key to remove the small window. To enter
the special character of your choice at the current
cursor location, simply hit the appropriate
function key.
The second method of entering an extended ASCII
character is to enter it manually by way of its
ASCII code. You might want to do this to get a
character that is not in one of the ten Screen
Builder character sets. To determine a character's
code, select the ASCII Chart function from the
Miscellaneous menu, or hit the Alt-A key
combination. A chart will appear that lists all
the ASCII codes for the characters that Screen
Builder can display. Find the character you want
to use and obtain its three-digit number. Hit any
key to make the ASCII Chart disappear. Now, with
the cursor at the location on the screen you want
the character, hold down the Alt key, and while it
is held down type in the three digit code for the
character you selected. The three-digit code MUST
page 13
be entered on the numeric keypad on the right side
of the keyboard for this to work. If you try to
use the number keys along the top of the keyboard,
it will not work.
Suppose the character you want to enter is not in
the currently active special character set? You
can follow the above procedure, or you can change
to another character set that does have it. There
are ten sets of ten extended ASCII characters each.
To select a different set, choose the Change
Character Set from the Graphics menu, or hit the
Alt-G key combination. A window will appear that
displays instructions, the currently active
character set, and will also show all the possible
sets and the characters in them. Note that there
is a pointer that points to the currently active
set. To change sets, simply use the up and down
arrow keys to move the pointer to the set you want
to use. You can then hit the ENTER key to accept
this change, or the ESC key to abort it and leave
the old character set still active. The window
will then disappear.
There is also a keyboard shortcut for changing
character sets. If you know what character set you
ant, hold down the CTRL key and press the function
key that is numbered the same as the character set
you want to use. For example, if you want to use
the third character set, you would hit the Ctrl-F3
key combination. Nothing will happen on the
screen, but the character set you selected will be
active. You can verify this by hitting the Alt-R
key combination to see a reminder window.
The following table summarizes the keys used to
change and enter extended ASCII characters:
Action... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
Enter an extended ASCII character
from the currently active set . . . . . F1 - F10
Change the currently active set . . . . . . Alt-G
See a reminder of the
currently active set . . . . . . . . . . Alt-R
page 14
Changing Colors
-------------------------------------------------------------
When you add text to the screen you are designing,
it will always be displayed in the currently active
colors (foreground and background). If you need to
place text of a different color, the active colors
must be changed.
To change the active colors, you can select the
Change Colors option from the Colors menu, or hit
the Alt-C key combination. This will cause a
window to be displayed in the middle of the screen.
On the left side of the window are a few simple
instructions. On the right side is the color
matrix.
The color matrix is a matrix of all the possible
foreground and background color combinations. You
will also see a small box somewhere in the matrix
(inside the box will be the active colors), and a
status line at the bottom indicating the currently
selected colors (represented as the value BASIC
needs to represent those colors).
To select a new foreground/background color
combination, move the small selector box to the
color combination you want to use. The following
keys move the box:
Selector Box Movement... ...Key(s)
---------------------------------------------------
One space right . . . . . . . . . . . . Right arrow
One space left . . . . . . . . . . . . Left arrow
End of current row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . End
Beginning of current row . . . . . . . . . . Home
Bottom of current column . . . . . . . . . . PgDn
Top of current column . . . . . . . . . . . . PgUp
Note also that if the box reaches the end or
beginning of a line or column, subsequent movements
will wrap to the other side.
Once you have the colors you need selected, hit
ENTER to accept the change and clear the window.
If you decide you don't like the colors you have
selected, hit the ESC key and window will
disappear, leaving the original colors active.
Any text entered after the colors have been changed
will then be displayed in those new colors.
page 15
Block Operations
-------------------------------------------------------------
Block Operations are Screen Builder functions that
are performed on a selected rectangular portion of
the screen. The selected area can be as small as a
single character cell, or as large as the whole
screen.
There are several steps to performing a block
operation. The general idea is to
1. Mark the block by defining its upper
left and lower right corners
2. Performing the selected operation on
the block just marked.
There are two ways to perform block operations.
You can use the menu, or you can use the keyboard
shortcut. Both are detailed below.
Method 1: The MENU
---------------------------------------------------
To perform a block operation using the menu, you
would first hit the ESC key to bring up the menu.
Choose the Block menu. Once it appears, you select
the particular block operation you want to perform.
The menu will then disappear and a window that
explains how to mark a block will replace it. Read
through the instructions if you don't remember how
to mark a block. When finished, hit any key to
clear the window. Now the marking of the block
begins. Move the cursor to the upper-left corner
of the block and hit ENTER. Now move the cursor to
the lower-right corner of the block and hit ENTER.
Whatever block operation you selected from the menu
will then be immediately executed.
Method 2: The KEYBOARD SHORTCUT
---------------------------------------------------
Begin this method of a block operation by hitting
the Alt-B key combination. A window that explains
how to mark a block will appear. Read through the
instructions if you don't remember how to mark a
block. When finished, hit any key to clear the
window. Now the marking of the block begins. Move
the cursor to the upper-left corner of the block
and hit ENTER. Now move the cursor to the
lower-right corner of the block and hit ENTER. At
this point a single menu will appear in the center
page 16
of the screen asking you to choose which block
operation you would like performed on your
currently marked block. Select one of the choices,
and it will then be immediately executed.
The Block Operations Themselves
---------------------------------------------------
The following block operations are provided by
Screen Builder:
- Move a block
- Copy a block (multiple times)
- Delete a block
- Make a box in the marked area (single or
double lined box)
- Fill a block with a specific character
- Change the colors of a block
- Replace occurrences of a character
- Replace occurrences of a character and the
colors at the same time
Each will be detailed in its own section. The
instructions for each block operation will not
include marking a block, which is detailed above.
It will be assumed in the following sections that
the user knows how to mark a block.
MOVE a Block
---------------------------------------------------
Once your block is marked and the MOVE block
operation has been selected, you may use the
following keys to move the marked block around the
screen:
Block movement... ...Key(s)
-------------------------------------------
Up one screen row . . . . . . . . Up arrow
Down one screen row . . . . . . Down arrow
Right one screen column . . . . Right arrow
Left one screen column . . . . Left arrow
Top of screen . . . . . . . . . . . . PgUp
Bottom of screen . . . . . . . . . . PgDn
Right side of screen . . . . . . . . . End
Left side of screen . . . . . . . . . Home
Once you have the block where you want it, hit the
ENTER key. If you decide you do not want to move
the block after all, and want it returned to its
original position, then hit the ESC key.
page 17
COPY a Block
---------------------------------------------------
Once your block is marked and the COPY block
operation has been selected, you may use the
following keys to move the marked block around the
screen:
Block movement... ...Key(s)
-------------------------------------------
Up one screen row . . . . . . . . Up arrow
Down one screen row . . . . . . Down arrow
Right one screen column . . . . Right arrow
Left one screen column . . . . Left arrow
Top of screen . . . . . . . . . . . . PgUp
Bottom of screen . . . . . . . . . . PgDn
Right side of screen . . . . . . . . . End
Left side of screen . . . . . . . . . Home
If only want to make one copy of the marked block,
then hit the ENTER key once the marked block is
where you want it. If you want to make several
copies, hit the SPACEBAR to leave a copy in the
current position. You will then be able to move
another block to another location. Repeat the
operation, hitting the SPACEBAR to leave a copy
on the screen, until you are ready to place the
last copy. For the last copy, hit the ENTER key.
If you decide you want to abort the copy process,
you can hit the ESC key. Note that this will only
abort the CURRENT copy you are making. Any
previous copies will still remain on the screen.
DELETE a Block
---------------------------------------------------
Once your block is marked and the DELETE operation
has been selected, the area of the marked block
will be erased. This means that all characters in
the block will be replaced with spaces, and the
colors will be reset to white on black (BASIC
colors 7 and 0).
Make a SINGLE Lined Box
---------------------------------------------------
Once you have marked your block and selected the
SINGLE BOX block operation, the are of the marked
block will be overwritten with a box constructed of
single-line ASCII box drawing characters. The box
will be filled with spaces, and will be drawn in
the currently active colors.
page 18
Make a DOUBLE Lined Box
---------------------------------------------------
Once you have marked your block and selected the
DOUBLE BOX block operation, the area of the marked
block will be overwritten with a box constructed of
double-line ASCII box drawing characters. The box
will be filled with spaces, and will be drawn in
the currently active colors.
CHARACTER FILL a Block
---------------------------------------------------
Once you have marked your block and selected the
CHARACTER FILL block operation, a small window will
appear in the center of the screen. In this window
you will enter the single character that you want
the area of marked block to be filled with. If the
character cannot be entered using the normal
keyboard keys, you can enter any character in the
ASCII set by holding down the Alt key and entering
the character's 3-digit ASCII code on the numeric
keypad. See the section titled "Entering Extended
ASCII Characters" for more information on this
topic.
After the character has been entered (you do not
need to hit ENTER), the area of the screen in the
marked block will be overwritten with the character
specified. The characters will be written using
the currently active colors.
CHANGE COLORS of a Block
---------------------------------------------------
Once you have marked your block and selected the
CHANGE COLORS operation, the area of the marked
block will have its colors immediately changed to
the currently active colors. Remember to change
the active colors to those you want your block to
be before you begin this block operation.
REPLACE A CHARACTER
---------------------------------------------------
This operation allows you to replace all occurences
of one character with those of another character.
The colors of the character are left alone as the
change is made. Once a block has been marked,
select the Replace operation. A window will appear
in which you will enter the character to be
replaced, followed by the character to replace it
page 19
with. You do not need to hit Enter after the entry
of each character. Once the characters are
entered, the replacement will be made.
REPLACE A CHARACTER WITH COLORS
---------------------------------------------------
This operation is much like the above replace
operation, except that the colors of the replaced
characters are changed as the replace occurs. Once
a block has been marked, select the Replace w/
Colors option. You will then enter the character
to be replaced, followed by the character it will
be replaced with. You do not need to hit enter
after each character. Once the characters are
entered, the replacement will be made, changing the
colors of the characters to the currently active
colors as the replace occurs. Make sure you set
the active colors to the ones you want before using
this block operation.
page 20
Extras
-------------------------------------------------------------
The features of Screen Builder described in this
section are those that don't fit well into other
categories, and are called simply extras.
Each of the three functions will be described on
their own page to keep things as clear as possible.
If you prefer to skip this section, feel free to do
so. The functions described here are not necessary
for designing screens.
page 21
Extras - The ASCII Chart
---------------------------------------------------
While you are sitting at the editing screen of
Screen Builder, you can call up an ASCII chart that
displays all the characters available in Screen
Builder and their respective ASCII codes.
To see the ASCII Chart, either select the ASCII
Chart option from the Miscellaneous menu, or hit
the Alt-A key combination. The screen will fill
with an ASCII Chart for your viewing pleasure.
When you have finished looking at the chart, hit
any key to make it disappear and return to your
screen.
Note that for this function to operate properly,
the file ASCII.CLR (or ASCII.MON if you are using a
monochrome monitor) must be on the drive and in the
same subdirectory as Screen Builder. Otherwise you
will only succeed in viewing Screen Builder's error
handler.
Screen Builder was used to create the ASCII charts
used in this function.
page 22
Extras - Disk Directory
---------------------------------------------------
While you are editing a display with Screen Builder
you may have the need to check the disk directory
for whatever reason. This capability is provided
within Screen Builder.
To see a disk directory, either choose the
Directory option from the File menu, or hit the
Alt-D key combination. A small window will appear
and ask for a file spec. Here you type in the name
of the file you want to look for. Wildcards are
supported, and the default of *.* (all files) will
be filled in for you automatically. If you want a
different file spec, simply delete *.* or type over
it.
Once you hit ENTER and your file spec is accepted,
Screen Builder will display a larger window filled
with file names. If there are more file names than
will fit in the window, Screen Builder will pause,
waiting for you to hit a key to see more file
names. At any time during the operation, you may
hit the ESC key to abort the operation and return
to editing.
page 23
Extras - Jump To DOS
---------------------------------------------------
Should you have the need to exit to DOS at some
point during the operation of Screen Builder, you
are will find it easy to do so.
To go to DOS temporarily, either choose the Jump To
DOS option from the Miscellaneous menu, or hit the
Alt-J key combination. The screen will clear and
you will see your normal DOS prompt. You may then
perform any normal DOS operation. Note that Screen
Builder and your display are still in memory, and
you may not have enough RAM to run large programs
while at DOS via this function.
When you are finished with whatever business you
and DOS had to do, you can return to Screen Builder
and your work by typing
EXIT
at the DOS prompt and hitting ENTER. Screen
Builder will instantly return, exactly as you left
it.
page 24
Techniques and Hints
-------------------------------------------------------------
This section is here to clue you in on the few
aspects of Screen Builder that may not be obvious,
as well as to impart a few tricks. They are not
necessarily related, so they will be presented pell
mell.
- When loading a screen into Screen Builder, the
program has to build an internal representation
of your screen. This will cause a delay from the
time the screen shows up to the time you can
actually do something. The delay may be from 1
second to 45 seconds, roughly, depending on the
speed of your machine. Please be patient during
this part of Screen Builder's operation. And no,
your machine is not locked up. The best way to
tell when the program is ready for you to begin
is to watch for the appearance of the cursor in
the upper left corner of the screen.
- Make frequent use of the block operations. They
are the real power behind Screen Builder. With
them you can do many things quickly. For
instance, you can create large block letters with
the extended ASCII characters, and then copy them
if you need a second occurrence of one already
drawn.
- If you are performing a Replace w/Colors block
operation, and you forgot to change the colors to
the ones you wanted first, simply set the colors
to those you want, perform the same operation on
the same block, and replace the new character
with itself. This will change the colors of the
replaced characters only.
- That's all to this section for right now.
Perhaps there will be more after feedback from
users comes in.
page 25
Using Your Screens
-------------------------------------------------------------
Once you have designed your screens, you can use
them easily in your programs. There are two
methods for doing this.
The first is by using the QBSCR PutScreen routine.
This routine will retrieve a file from disk and
display it on the screen very quickly. Issue a
single statement with the name of the file as a
parameter:
PutScreen "MYSCREEN.CLR"
And that's it. The second method is for creating
special effects. By using the QBSCR BuildScreen
routine, you can implement wipes and other
interesting placement effects. See the REF or DEMO
program included for examples. The call is almost
as easy as PutScreen. The only extra parameter is
the type of effect you want, a value from 0 to 15
inclusive:
BuildScreen "MYSCREEN.CLR", 15
Try it just to see what you can do with it.
For more details on these routines, see the QBSCR
Screen Routines documentation.
page 26
Closing Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for giving the QBSCR Screen Routines as well
as Screen Builder a shot. Hopefully they will
provide you with some utility. If you have any
questions about these or any BAD SOFTWARE product,
you can reach me at the following address:
Tony Martin
1611 Harvest Green Ct.
Reston, VA 22094
I'll do my best to answer all correspondence.
If you would like to register the QBSCR Screen
Routines and Screen Builder, you can fill out and
mail in the order form at the end of the QBSCR
Screen Routines documentation, along with a check
for $15.00 made payable to Tony Martin. You will
receive an official disk set as well as a copy of
the LASER II graphics entertainment program. See
the back of that document for more details.
page 27
Appendix A - The ANSI.SYS Device Driver
-------------------------------------------------------------
The ANSI.SYS Device Driver is a file provided to
you with DOS. It interprets escape codes (codes
preceded by the escape character) into colors,
cursor movements, and keyboard macros. Screen
Builder only deals with the color codes.
For the Screen Builder's ANSI-generated screens to
show up properly on your screen (outside of Screen
Builder, that is), you need to have the ANSI.SYS
device driver loaded. Just to have it on your disk
is not enough. Here's how you do it.
Locate the file ANSI.SYS. If you have a floppy
system, it should be on your boot disk. If you
have a hard disk, it can be in the root directory
or a subdirectory. Placing it in the root
directory makes installation easier. Once you have
located the file, make a note of its location on
disk. If it is not on your boot disk, then copy it
there.
The next step is to locate your CONFIG.SYS file.
It will be in the root directory of your boot disk
(or hard disk). If you do not have one, we will
create it. Get a hold of a purely ASCII editor, or
one that saves as ASCII only. Load the CONFIG.SYS
file into it (or create it if it did not exist).
Add this line to the file:
DEVICE = ANSI.SYS
This assumes it is in your root directory. If it
is not, add the drive/path before ANSI.SYS, as in:
DEVICE = C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS
Save the file as text only - no formatting codes of
any kind. If you use Microsoft Word 5.0, for
example, you would save it as Text Only with Line
Breaks.
Now reboot your machine. When booting is complete,
ANSI.SYS will be loaded. If, when the machine
boots, you receive a message that says
Bad or missing ANSI.SYS
then the file could not be found as entered in the
CONFIG.SYS file. Check it again and make sure it
reads as it should.
page 28
SHOW.DOC
S H O W
A Screen Builder Utility
Program and Documentation Copyright (c) 1990 by Tony Martin
1611 Harvest Green Ct. Reston, VA 22094
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOW is a quick utility included for the convenience of the QBSCR
programmer. Show will quickly display any Screen Builder screen file
on your monitor and wait for you to hit a key.
Show accepts a Screen Builder file name from the command line. If you
had a file created with Screen Builder called MYFILE.SCR, you could
instantly display it with the command:
SHOW MYFILE.SCR
If you forget to enter the filename, Show will remind that you need to
do this.
The picture will remain on the screen until a key is pressed. The DOS
prompt will once again show its ubiquitous face.
That's all there is to it! SHOW was written in C for speed and small
size. The executable is less than 10K in size. A program with the
same functionality written in QuickBASIC weighed in at about 31K.
If you have any questions about SHOW or any other BAD SOFTWARE product,
feel free to write me at the address at the top of this document.
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #1713
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
COLOR BIN 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
MONO BIN 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
ASCII CLR 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
SB_CAP CLR 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
SB DOC 70664 4-11-90 12:00p
SHOW DOC 1404 4-11-90 12:00p
SB EXE 173926 4-11-90 12:00p
SHOW EXE 9529 4-11-90 12:00p
ASCII MON 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
SB_CAP MON 4007 4-11-90 12:00p
QBSCR4 DOC 74099 4-11-90 12:00p
GO BAT 38 1-01-80 1:37a
GO TXT 771 5-08-90 9:21a
FILE1713 TXT 2739 5-08-90 10:45p
14 file(s) 357212 bytes
0 bytes free