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1991-07-23
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B L A C K B O A R D
Version 1.10
Copyright 1991, Jeff Napier & Another Company
BLACKBOARD is for everyone who has something to say. If
you can teach cooking, volleyball, lawn mower repair,
trombone lessons, or even create a fanciful tutorial about
the creatures of the planet Clark-7, you can create a disk
that will be seen by hundreds of thousands of shareware
users. Of course you can use it to create an in-house
training disk or a retail product, too.
BLACKBOARD was carefully designed to suit the largest
possible audience using high-resolution CGA mode so that most
IBM-compatibles can display your creations. It will work
with VGA, EGA, CGA, Tandy, laptop and other computers.
BLACKBOARD is a multi-media drawing program
incorporating sound effects, music, pictures and text all in
ASCII-VECTOR-GRAPHICS, so large amounts of information can be
put on a single disk.
FEATURES
Features of this very special ASCII vector graphics
drawing and tutorial creating program:
* Author can combine text and graphics easily on-screen. This
is definitely a "what you see is what you get" environment.
* Graphics files are very small on disk - tutorials can
contain more than 100 graphics screens on one 360k floppy
disk!
* Using ASCII text files to store graphics commands and
vectors means the end user search for any text within any
picture - an automated index.
* Sound effects and music composition are easily be
incorporated into any presentation.
* This program package uses high-res monochrome CGA graphics,
a seldom seen format that allows the greatest variety of
IBM-compatible computers to display finished products, yet
maintaining a relatively high-quality resolution. User can
select background color, giving the illusion of color
graphics on CGA, EGA or VGA monitors.
* Package includes two run-time programs. One is for use in
batch files or special applications where display of one
picture is desirable. The other allows the end user a full
array of controls in viewing pictures.
* This is a Multi-media package. Tutorials can include text,
graphics, music, sound effects and some animation.
* Full screen is available for drawing, menu is another
full-screen overlay. No scrolling necessary.
* Some tools from sophisticated drafting programs are
included such as "grid" and "coordinates." Again, because of
the ASCII file format, minute adjustments in finished
products can be made.
* This program provides the possibility that anyone with
some knowledge to share can gain acclaim for their ideas or
gain financially through the wonderful world of shareware.
Unlike writing a paper-based book, you don't need to 'find' a
publisher or spend tons of your own money on printing and
advertising.
Getting your shareware publication to hundreds of
thousands of readers is quite easy. Simply make copies of
your disk, and send them to some shareware distributors or
upload to some bulletin boards.
For proof, look to BICYCLE TUNE-UP AND REPAIR and
OXY-ACETYLENE WELDING TUTORIAL - both successful shareware
products. They were created with an early version of this
very program package!
_____________________________________________________________
REQUIREMENTS
For display of finished products: (SHOW.EXE & DISPLAY.EXE)
=================================
MOUSE: not required.
RAM: 256k or more
COMPUTER: PC, XT or better.
DISPLAY: CGA, EGA or VGA. Hercules with CGA emulation ok.
Monochrome & LCD ok.
DRIVES: One floppy.
For Creation: (BLACKBOARD - BB.EXE)
=============
MOUSE: 2-button or 3-button.
RAM: 512K or more
DRIVES: 2-360k floppies or 1-720k or better, hard disk
recommended but not required.
COMPUTER: PC or XT-compatible. AT (286) or better recommended
but not required.
DISPLAY: CGA, EGA or VGA. Hercules with CGA emulation ok.
Monochrome & LCD ok.
_____________________________________________________________
The Files on the Disk
BB.EXE - BLACKBOARD, main program
SHOW.EXE - The main runtime display program
DISPLAY.EXE - Limited display program
HELP.0 through HELP.29 - Help files used by BB.EXE
(These files are not necessary for operation of BB)
BEGIN.BAT - To jump right in.
BB.DOC - The instructions for using BLACKBOARD, which you are
now reading.
GOTO - An example file.
_____________________________________________________________
LICENSE
Distribution of the complete shareware package without
modification or deletion is ok. In fact, we appreciate it!
Shareware distributors and sysops may consider this document
as official permission to distribute this package.
For non-commercial home use, registration is requested
but not required. Price $9.95
A license is required to use BLACKBOARD for creation of
products. Any distribution of SHOW.EXE or DISPLAY.EXE without
the rest of the package or without a license is illegal. This
includes distribution of your product as shareware, in-house
or in-school, retail material or otherwise. Licensing is easy
and inexpensive. Price: Home-use: $9.95. One-Product
Distribution License: $29.95. One-Author, Unlimited Number of
Products license: $99.95. Distribution may begin as soon as
your check is in the mail. Send to:
ANOTHER COMPANY
P.O. Box 298
Applegate, OR 97530
_____________________________________________________________
A Couple Of Quick Notes:
1. Like any big program, there will be much confusion about
the use of this program. This is natural. The best way to
avoid frustration is to experiment, experiment, experiment,
before you place yourself under any deadlines to develop a
finished product.
2. Make a back-up copy of the BLACKBOARD files. Then, if
anything happens to your working disk, you'll have another
copy.
_____________________________________________________________
TO BEGIN
Before you can display drawings, you must create some.
We'll start with BB.EXE, (also known as BLACKBOARD) the
creating program.
To start BLACKBOARD, first make sure your mouse driver
program is installed.
Type BB and press <Enter>. You will be asked for a
filename. Use any legal DOS filename. (up to 8 characters,
optionally followed by a period, then up to 3 more) The
program may flash a menu, called the "control panel," then go
totally blank. That's ok, because no picture has been
created yet and so it is displaying what you have created -
nothing. Press the right mouse button to bring back the
control panel (main menu).
Optionally, at the DOS prompt, you can type BB, then
press the spacebar, then type the name of an already existing
picture. BB will automatically load that picture when it
starts.
_____________________________________________________________
CONVENTIONS
Throughout the use of this program these conventions
apply:
The right mouse button: brings back the control panel or
finishes an object or answers N or negative to a question.
FOR ONLINE HELP: Point to any item on the control panel.
Then click the right mouse button. Then click any button to
return to the control panel.
The left mouse button: Selects an option from the control
panel or restarts a drawing object or answers a question
affirmatively.
The center button: is seldom used. It's purpose is to
drag lines around within the picture. If you have a
two-button mouse, you can toggle the center-button effect
with the spacebar on your keyboard.
The program is constantly saving your drawn objects (or
parts of your picture) to disk. Therefore, you will find this
program sort of weird if you are used to other drawing
programs. The program works best with a hard disk for this
reason, otherwise it will work ok, but it will be slower.
If a window pops up that asks a question followed by
'Y/N', press the left mouse button to answer yes, the right
mouse button to answer no.
Most other drawing programs do not allow the full use of
the monitor because some of the screen area is taken up with
the program menu. Typically the left edge and the bottom.
When drawing for disk-based applications, this is annoying or
worse. Therefore, this program allows full-screen drawing.
The control panel (main menu) is totally hidden when not
needed, then pops up to full-screen size when you do need it.
REMEMBER: Click the right mouse button from within most
operations to bring back the main control panel.
_____________________________________________________________
THE CONTROL PANEL
Let's go over the control panel option by option:
QUIT
In the upper left corner is 'DOS'. Selecting this option
with the left mouse button exits to DOS. You don't have to
save your file when you exit, because every item you
create is saved to disk as it is drawn.
REDRAW
Second from left, top row is REDRAW. This is the most-often
selected option. After awhile, especially with older mouse
drivers, the image on the screen gets pretty well wrecked.
Select REDRAW with the left mouse button to rewrite the
picture onto the screen. REDRAW is WYSIWYG. (What You See Is
What You Get). Selecting this option will show you exactly
what the end user will see, sound effects and all.
NOTE
Next to REDRAW is NOTE. Selection of this option places a
secret note in the ASCII disk file that doesn't show up in
the picture. This is useful if you want to mark places in the
ASCII file. For instance, let's say you have created a
rather elaborate face, then you want to start drawing a hand.
You might enter a note that says "start hand here." Then,
later, if you don't like the hand you've drawn, you can
eliminate everything south of your note.
UNDO
Next to NOTE is UNDO. Select this option with the left mouse
button and the last thing added to the drawing will be
eliminated from the disk-based file and the picture will be
redrawn. Sometimes it is subtle. For instance, if you
made several lines, and the last one was a small one then
only the last line will be eliminated - so the picture will
look nearly the same. In some cases, UNDO only undoes a
blank line at the end of the file and therefore must be
selected twice in order to get a result. You can use UNDO
over and over again to undo as far back into your file as you
like. When UNDOing TEXT, one line will be removed at a time.
UNDO automatically creates a backup file called
WORKFILE.BAK." You can rename or copy WORKFILE.BAK if you
have UNDOne too much, or otherwise wrecked the main picture
file. NOTE: Make sure you always have at lease twice as much
free space on your disk as the size of the picture file you
are creating.
BLOCK COMMANDS: COPY, MOVE AND BLOCK DELETE
Further right, along the top row of the control panel we have
several block commands.
Click the left mouse button to select COPY. Then you can
enlarge and shape a rectangle by pressing the right mouse
button or move the rectangle with no mouse button held, and
enclose anything on the screen. When the left mouse button
is clicked, the contents of the rectangle can be moved to
another location. Another click of the left button will 'set'
the copy in the chosen location. MOVE works the same way,
but deletes the contents of the rectangle from its original
location. BLOCK DELETE simply blacks out the contents of the
rectangle.
BUILD
Build is the heart of the system. This is where you take your
collection of pictures and BUILD them into a presentation.
Select BUILD from the control panel with a click of the left
mouse button. You will then face a screen that has a column
of numbers on the left and some instructions on the right.
You can build a presentation of from 1 to 180 picture files.
If your presentation was 13 pictures, in files called,
ANTIQUE.A ANTIQUE.B, and so on through ANTIQUE.M, for
instance, you would write the name of the file containing the
first picture next to the number 1. To do this, use the up
or the down arrow key to move the highlighted area to the 1 :
. Then use the backspace ([Bksp]) key to delete whatever is
by the 1 : presently. Then you would type in ANTIQUE.A. If
there is a file name by the 2 : delete that file name and
type in ANTIQUE.B. You would continue all the way through 13
: where you would put ANTIQUE.M.
If there was a file name by 14 : , you would delete that,
but put nothing in it's place. And delete all the subsequent
files. Then, when done, press the escape key ([Esc]).
Your picture files must be on the same disk and in the
same directory as BB.EXE. Do not use drive or path
designators. For instance, you can't use
c:\ANTIQUES\ANTIQUE.A with BUILD.
The program asks if you want to see the presentation.
Answer 'Y' with a click of the left mouse button to see the
presentation just as an end user would see it when they use
SHOW.EXE. The only differences are that some of the SHOW.EXE
features are blocked out from BLACKBOARD such as GOTO. This
is because they are not useful until your presentation is
completed. The mouse is deactivated during the presentation.
Use the keyboard to operate. Use HELP to find out about the
presentation's features. Use QUIT to return to the main
program.
FREEHAND DRAWING
Now, moving to the second row, leftmost box of the control
panel, you will see a squiggle. This represents freehand
drawing. Use freehand sparingly. It uses a lot of disk
space.
To use the freehand option, press the left mouse button
when you want to draw. Click the right mouse button when
done. A box will appear on your drawing asking if you want
to "Accept" the freehand. If so, click the left mouse button.
If not, click the right mouse button and the freehand portion
will be not be saved to disk.
LINE
Next on the control panel we have a straight line. Select
it with a click of the left mouse button. Move the mouse
pointer until it is where you want a line to start. Then
click the left mouse button. Move the mouse until the line
is as you like it, then tap the left button again. If you
don't like the line, click the right button. To draw
another line, click the left button again. To return to the
control panel, click the right button twice. If you are
making a line, but you are not satisfied with it's overall
position, you can drag it to another location while holding
the center mouse button! If you have a two button mouse, you
can press the spacebar of your keyboard to toggle 'line move'
or 'line size.' (Try it!) To make curves or seemingly
freehand lines, instead make a series of very short lines.
This increases drawing accuracy tremendously.
RECTANGLE
Next to the line option is the rectangle option. It works
almost the same as line drawing. Select this option from the
control panel with a click of the left mouse button. Move the
rectangle on the picture by moving the mouse when no buttons
are pressed. Hold the right mouse button and move the mouse
to change the size and shape of the rectangle. Click the left
mouse button when you are satisfied with the size, shape and
location of your rectangle. Now you can click the left mouse
button to draw another rectangle, or the right button to
return to the control panel.
CIRCLE
Next to the rectangle is the circle option. Use the left
button to select circles, then hold the right button and move
the mouse up or down to change a circle's size. Press the
left button to make a circle permanent. You can then press
the left mouse button to draw another circle, or the right
button to return to the control panel.
ELLIPSE
(And ARCS)
To the right of the circle option on the control
panel is ELLIPSE. Select this option with the left mouse
button. A window will open asking something like
('F/T/B/L/R/N?) You must press <F> on the keyboard if you
want a full ellipse, <T> if you only want the top half, <B>
for the bottom half, <L> for left half or <R> for right half.
<N> is for numeric, where you pick the number of degrees you
want drawn. Ellipses are drawn in the same manner as circles,
except you must place ellipses before you size them.
FILL
The next item to the right of the ellipse option appears
to be another rectangle. This is the way to fill closed
spaces with a pattern. The standard pattern is solid
white, but there are other choices available. To fill an
enclosed area, such as a circle, rectangle or polygon, select
this option with a click of the left mouse button then move
the pointer into the area to be filled. Click the left mouse
button again and the area will fill with the pattern. A box
will appear on the screen asking if you accept the fill. If
so, click the left mouse button and the fill will become
permanent. If not, click the right mouse button and the
picture will be repaired.
This option requires that areas be totally surrounded. If
even one pixel is missing from the outline of a polygon, the
"fill" will leak out and possibly fill the whole picture!
TEXT
Then we have text. When you select this option, you must
first locate and size a rectangle on the screen. Use the
right mouse button to size this rectangle, and the left
button to energize it. Then use the keyboard to enter text.
Unlike any other drawing program I have seen, the text
automatically wraps within the rectangle. (Do not press the
[Enter] key.) When done, press the [Esc] key to tell the
program that you are done entering text. This is important:
YOU MUST PRESS THE ESCAPE [Esc] KEY OR [ENTER] WHEN DONE
ENTERING TEXT. The standard mode of operation is left
justification (like a typewriter). You can also select left
& right justification (like a word processor). See "Set
Options."
If you have made a mistake in placement of your text
rectangle, you can use the backspace key to delete all text,
then press [Esc] to quit the text block. Then click the right
mouse button to return to the control panel, or click the
left button to place text again.
*************************************************************
YOU MUST PRESS THE ESCAPE [Esc] KEY WHEN DONE ENTERING TEXT.
*************************************************************
IMPORT
A good plan (one of many) for creating a text and graphics
tutorial is to use an ordinary word processor to create an
outline first. Then develop your outline into the text as it
will appear in your tutorial. Leave the pictures for last.
Instead of retyping everything, you can import the text
you have already created into BLACKBOARD pictures. The text
must be in ordinary ASCII mode. Virtually all word
processors can create ASCII text, because it is the universal
standard, but many word processors in their normal mode,
create unusual text that cannot be used directly by DOS
applications. So you must use the ASCII mode. See your word
processing program's instruction manual for details.
Break your finished text into blocks the size you will
want to appear in your pictures, then move each block into a
separate file. These blocks can be no larger than 70
characters wide and 19 lines long.
To the right of the TEXT option is IMPORT TEXT. When
selected, you are prompted for a filename. Then, a rectangle
will appear which is the size of the block of text within
that file. Obviously, then, the file should first be checked
to be sure that it is smaller than the area of the screen you
want to fill.
BIG TEXT
Moving down to the next line on the control panel,
you'll note that the leftmost box contains a medium size
letter B. This represents bigger text. This is for
subtitles. This feature is not as powerful as the previous
text option. You can only enter one line of characters at a
time. When selected with a click of the left mouse button,
you are prompted to enter from the keyboard "L/C/R". Press
<L> if you want the line left justified, <C> for center
justified and <R> for right justified.
Then you must select a place to start the text. Click
the left button to energize the spot, then type your text,
then press the <Enter> key when done. You will be asked
"Accept? y/n." Use the left mouse button to accept, the
right to abandon. The big text option temporarily wipes out
a large area of the picture on the screen. It will come back
if you select the REDRAW option. If you want to center a
line of text, watch the coordinate display in the lower left
corner. It will say 320,100 when you are in the exact center
of the picture.
To the left of the medium B is a larger B. This is
simply a bigger font.
These fonts look particularly good if you put a space
between each letter, and three spaces between words.
L i k e T h i s.
LINE WIDTH
The next box of the control panel contains two
horizontal lines. Clicking the left mouse button while the
pointer is in the lower half of this box will cause all
subsequent lines, circles, ellipses and rectangles to be
drawn with wide lines. Clicking the upper half of this box
will cause these objects to be drawn with thin lines. (Note:
circles and ellipses are cumbersome when drawn with the wide
line style. Therefore, you might want to draw circles and
ellipses with the skinny line width, then change the width
later.)
PATTERNS
Then next box is interesting. Clicking the left mouse
button with the pointer in any one of these four patterns
will cause that to be the current fill pattern. Then you can
go to the fill box (third from the right in the second row),
and select to fill an object. Place the pointer within a
circle, rectangle or polygon and click the left button. The
object will fill with the pattern. You will be prompted with
"Accept? y/n." Clicking the left button will accept the
pattern and write it to the ASCII disk file. Clicking the
right button will not write the fill to disk, and repair the
picture. If you accidentally fill a polygon that is not
entirely closed - and only one unlit pixel will do it, the
whole picture will fill with pattern. When asked, "Accept?
(y/n)" say no with the right button.
FATBIT EDITING
The next box on the menu is the FATBIT editor. Use this to do
fine touch up to your pictures. Selecting this option will
allow you to bring a box (which size cannot be adjusted)
around a portion of your picture. Then you get an
enlargement of that portion which you can modify pixel by
pixel. Use the left button to change any pixel to its
opposite color. Click the right button when done. Two notes
here: Oddly, you cannot change the same pixel twice in a row.
You must change another, then return to the one you want to
change back. The other note: Use this option judiciously, it
uses a lot of disk space in the ASCII file. (approximately 10
bytes per each pixel change).
Using fatbit editing you can create very professional
artistic effects such as shading, fading and highlighting.
MAIN
The next option on the control panel is MAIN. This
simply puts a full-screen border around your picture. This
effect makes all-text pictures look more inviting.
FILE
The next option on the control panel is FILE. Use this
to edit another picture. Click the left mouse button to
select FILE. Then type the name of the next picture file you
want to edit. You can select a previously created picture or
start a new one. Any DOS filename is legal with up to 8
letters, optionally followed by a period and three more
letters. You can also precede filenames with drive and path
designators. For instance: C:\PICTURES\COMPUTER.1.
ADD
The next option on the control panel is ADD. You can
merge two pictures with this option. If you have, lets say,
a landscape in one file, you can create a new file with a
picture of a cow, then ADD the landscape backdrop. From this
point forward, the cow picture will also contain the
landscape. Hints:
1. Make standard picture pieces that you can use over and
over again. For instance, if you are writing a tutorial
about raising cattle, you might draw a picture of a cow
facing you and another facing sideways. You could call these
pictures FRONT.COW and SIDE.COW. Then, simply draw your
backgrounds, add the proper cow, write your text, and you
have a completed picture.
2. You might want to have a small picture element in another
location on the screen. Therefore, start a new picture, but
before you do any drawing, add your cow first. Let's say that
the cow is in the middle of the screen, but you want it at
the bottom. Simple. Simply use MOVE to move it before adding
anything else to the picture.
Add also works with sound files. You can create a sound
(see the sound option) and add it to any file if you want
that music or sound effect to occur when that file is
displayed.
COORDINATE DISPLAY
Now, down to the leftmost box in the bottom row of the
control panel. CORD toggles the coordinate display in the
lower left corner. If it is in your way, select CORD to get
rid of it. (Note, the coordinate display doesn't actually
disappear until you then select REDRAW.) Select CORD again if
you want the coordinate display again. Use of coordinates
ensures that your lines will be straight and your pictures
can be in proper proportion. The location 0,0 is the upper
left corner of the screen, and 639,199 is the lower right.
The first number is the horizontal position and the second
number is the vertical position. The middle of the screen is
320,100.
GRID
Next on the control panel is GRID. With this feature
you can turn a temporary grid display on and off. You will
be prompted for the number of pixels between dots. 9 is a
good answer. A grid allows you to precisely align objects in
your picture. The grid does not appear in the finished
product. Use the REDRAW option to repair a grid that has
been overdrawn.
COLOR
The control panel item, COLOR, is only for the artist's
pleasure. You can change the background color, but the
finished product is displayed in black & white or whatever
color the the SHOW.EXE user selects.
SET OPTIONS
SET OPTIONS only has one function in this first version of
BLACKBOARD. Use this to switch text mode from plain word
wrap to right justification.
SOUND
Selecting this option with the left mouse button brings a new
menu of sound options. Some items on the menu are
pre-designed sounds such as TWINKLE and BOMB DROP. Select a
sound with a click of the left mouse button. Some of the
effects can run as long as you want up to one minute. You
will be asked for a time in milliseconds. 1000 milliseconds =
1 second. Some long sound effects such as NOISE, BOMB DROP,
and LIQUID take up lots of disk space.
You can also select a sub-menu for CUSTOM sound making or
MUSIC composition. In the MUSIC option, use the left mouse
button to select notes, durations, rests, attacks or menu
items. Select QUIT from the menu at the lower left when done.
To return from the SOUND menu, select MAIN MENU.
The sound timing works nearly the same on all computers
from 8086's to '486's.
Consider the timing of your music. The usual place to
add long sound effects, such as a melody is at the end of a
picture, so the whole picture will be drawn, before the
computer stops to play the music. Another way to do it,
however, is to have the music appear at a key moment in the
scene, then have the rest of the picture appear after the
music.
Sound effects combined with WAIT FOR USER can be
rather striking.
There is a limit of approximately 3000 sounds, or notes
in a single composition. You can make longer effects or
melodies, by choosing SOUND twice in a row, but the computer
may stop to read the disk in an unusual location in
compositions of over 3000 steps.
WAIT FOR USER
Selecting this option with the left mouse button seems to
have no effect. But it definitely does do something. It puts
a temporary stop in your picture. Until the user presses any
key, the rest of the picture remains undrawn. This effect
will occur, too, anytime the picture is redrawn within
BLACKBOARD. You may think the computer broke, because
everything stops before your picture is complete, but all you
have to do is press any key. If you use this option, make
sure to put a note within your picture telling the user to
"Press any key to continue." This is a good way to bring
attention to a detail in a drawing. You make the detail, then
select WAIT FOR USER, then draw the rest of the picture. This
works well when used right before a BLOCK DELETE to clear
part or all of the screen and then draw something new within
the cleared space.
DELAY
Use this option for building animation. It works well in
combination with MOVE. Delays are measured in microseconds.
To animate, you would make a picture, then add a delay.
Twenty to 70 milliseconds seems to work well. Then use the
move option to move one or more elements in your picture.
Then add another delay, etc. Each movement should be small.
Similarly, lines can grow, or dots can slowly appear, by
placing delays between each addition. Delays of less than 20
milliseconds will appear to play at different rates of speed
on '386's and '486's compared to '8086's, so longer delays
are recommended. Short delays and large movements will be
lost on LCD (laptop) displays. For the laptop market, you
should make your animations move slowly.
Try to limit the actual amount of area that moves each
time, because the nature of computer animation is that large
changes take the computer a long time to 'figure out.' You
can LAYER on a line to follow with your animated object. You
can also use the GRID option so each movement can be a
precise amount.
LAYER
The last item on the control panel is layer. This is
like the ADD feature, but the file added is only on screen,
and not added to the disk based file. When you are done
creating a picture with another layered onto it, the end
product will not contain anything from the layered one
picture. This can be used like a light blue pencil is used in
paste-up work. Make templates so you can carefully construct
your picture, then in the final result, the LAYERed on
template is gone.
HELP
Remember, you can always get help on any control panel item
by pointing to it with the mouse, then clicking the right
button. If your disk space is limited, you can delete all the
help files and the program will still work fine, but help
won't be available.
_____________________________________________________________
EDITING
(Optional)
If you have been experimenting, by now you have put some
mistakes in the picture and don't want to UNDO all the way
back to a mistake. Large-scale changing or erasing or
careful fine-tuning is simple. Use any ASCII editor to make
changes to the ASCII file. If you have a TSR editor, such as
SIDEKICK, all the better, because you can make changes
directly in the ASCII file on the fly.
Load (with SIDEKICK press [F3]) the filename of the
picture you are working on, then make your changes. Save the
file, drop out of your TSR and select REDRAW to see what
your change has done. In fact, once you get used to it,
using a TSR editor seems adds an incredible new dimension
of fine-tuning to computer art, because you can make
excellent adjustments to your pictures to achieve perfection.
You can also edit the file to reduce file size and to make
changes quickly, more quickly and precisely than bit-mapped
editing!
It may take some experimenting to understand all of
what's happening in the ASCII file. Briefly:
Most numbers are found in pairs, a horizontal coordinate,
followed by a vertical one. The upper left corner of the
screen is 0/0. The right hand edge is 639 and the bottom edge
is 199. So, the lower right corner is 639/199.
An R followed by numbers will create a rectangle. The first
pair will locate the upper left corner and the second pair
will be for the lower right corner.
A L is for line.
A C is for Circle. The first two numbers are the location of
its center, the last is the radius.
An E is for ellipse. (and arcs) The first two numbers are
the location of its center, the next two are the starting
angle and ending angle in degrees, and the last two are
length of its horizontal and vertical axes.
A P addresses one pixel at the listed coordinates. If the
third number following a P is 1 then that specific pixel will
be white. A 0 will set the pixel to background color.
F is a fill, the area containing the listed coordinates will
be flooded with white.
Text will be followed by two numbers, the horizontal and
vertical coordinate of the upper left corner of the first
letter. You can edit text just as you would in standard word
processing. The first line after a block of text must start
with a ~. This tells the program that the text ends and more
graphics follows.
The code, style1 or style3 changes line thickness.
D, for DELAY, will be followed by only one number, the
number of microseconds the delay is to last.
U, on a line all by itself, is the code for WAIT FOR USER.
Eliminate this line if you want to take a wait out of the
picture.
Sounds start with an S, and are followed by two numbers, the
pitch and the duration. Pitch is measured in hertz and
duration in milliseconds. Always put a blank line after
your last sound statement. The computer reads a series of
sounds before playing them. This way, it won't be caught
trying to play a sound and reading the disk drive at the same
time, which would stall the music or sound effect for a
while. It needs the blank line to know where a series of
sound statements ends.
CASE is important. In other words R0/0/639/199 will put the
largest possible rectangle on the screen, but r0/0/639/199
will do nothing, because the program expects a capital R.
Do not exceed the parameters of the screen. You can't make a
rectangle: R/-4/100/250/790, for instance, because it isn't
within the CGA dimensions of 0/0-639/199.
_____________________________________________________________
FOR THE END USER
After you have created pictures, you should make an easy
way for the user to view them. We have provided a choice of
two programs for that purpose.
DISPLAY
DISPLAY.EXE is a very small and simple program that will
show one picture until any key is pressed on the keyboard. To
use it, type DISPLAY, then press the spacebar once, then type
the exact name of the picture file you want displayed.
DISPLAY is powerful when used with batch files. You could
create a batch file that would use DISPLAY over and over
again to display a series of pictures you have created. Let's
say you have a company that sells farm equipment. You could
create a simple catalog disk that displays pictures you have
made showing some of your equipment for sale. You could have
a file called GO.BAT that might look something like this:
DISPLAY TRACTOR
DISPLAY MOWER.1
DISPLAY MOWER.2
DISPLAY MOWER.3
DISPLAY SPREADER.A
DISPLAY SPREADER.B
DISPLAY PRICES.LST
Then when the customer gets your catalog disk, and types GO,
one after another, as the user presses any key, the various
items will be displayed.
SHOW.EXE
This is the powerful display program. This one is like
DISPLAY, but allows the user to go back to view a previous
picture, find any text within the pictures, change the
on-screen colors and more.
This one displays a menu bar at the bottom of the screen,
requiring the last 12 rows of pixels, so make your pictures
with no important elements below vertical coordinate 188.
SHOW is easy to configure for your presentation. Use the
BUILD option from the control panel of BLACKBOARD.
The BUILD option allows you to line up the picture files
as you want in the order you want the end user to see them.
Instructions are built into the program. BUILD creates a
file on disk called SHOW.CFG. When the end user starts
SHOW.EXE, the program reads SHOW.CFG to see what files it is
to present.
GOTO
If you use SHOW you have the option of using a GOTO picture.
This is created like any other picture with BLACKBOARD, but is
a numbered list of some key points in your tutorial. It is
like a table of contents. The end user can type a number,
press [Enter] and be taken to the place indicated by the goto
file. There is an example GOTO file on this disk. The
example is from the BICYCLE TUNE-UP AND REPAIR tutorial, and
has no connection to anything on this disk. It is merely
provided as an example. The number that you list with each
entry is the actual number in the sequence of pictures as
they will be displayed by SHOW.EXE. In other words, if the
fourth picture is the beginning of a chapter about GUITARS,
and the 11th picture is the beginning of the part about
pianos, then your GOTO should end up looking something like
this:
4. GUITARS
11. PIANOS
You can put any artwork and any text you like in the GOTO
picture. You might consider using the text that is at the
top of the example picture so that the end user will have
instructions to know what to do with the GOTO option. GOTO
will not work if renamed. If you do not provide a GOTO file
on your finished disk, when the GOTO option is selected by
the end user, nothing happens.
Make sure the goto chapter does not contain numbers
higher than the total number of pictures in your tutorial.
RESUME
The first time SHOW.EXE is used, if the disk is not write
protected, a file is created called RESUME. It contains the
number of the last picture viewed by the user. This is so
the user can "resume" where the tutorial was last studied.
You can ignore the RESUME file.
_____________________________________________________________
YOUR FINISHED PRODUCT
If you are using SHOW.EXE, once you have created a
tutorial, series of pictures, catalog, or training program,
or whatever, you should put all your files on a master floppy
disk. From this master you will make copies to send to your
customers, to shareware distributors, sysops, etc. The floppy
must contain:
SHOW.EXE
Your picture files
SHOW.CFG
Optionally:
The file called GOTO
A file called BEGIN.BAT or GO.BAT for beginners
Advertising pictures to bring you more money
HINT: You can rename SHOW.EXE BEGIN.EXE. Use the DOS command
REN. Specifically you can type at the DOS prompt:
REN SHOW.EXE BEGIN.EXE
This way, the end user will know how to start your disk.
Then, of course, make a copy of your master disk and test
it extensively.
PRINT A PICTURE
Although BLACKBOARD was not specifically created as a
drawing program, since it does that job so well, you may want
to use it for a drawing then send the output to a printer.
There is a way to do that. To print a picture, quit the
program to get to the dos prompt. Load GRAPHICS.COM which is
a small TSR program that comes with MS-DOS. (If your
computer crashes, remove some other TSRs first.) Then run
DISPLAY.EXE or BB.EXE and put the picture you want to print
on the screen. While holding a shift key, press [Print
Screen] key, and your picture will be printed. This will work
on all dot, laser and other printers that do graphics.
MAKING MONEY
BLACKBOARD, if used properly, can be an excellent
money-making tool, possibly it can launch you into a second
career. The trick is shareware distribution. Here's what you
have to do:
Write a product that others will want to see. Your
subject can be anything, but it is often easiest and best to
write about what you know. If you are retired from the
vacuum cleaner repair business, why not write a tutorial
about vacuum repair for the public. Teach people how to mend
their own hoses, and how to replace motor brushes. (Or
whatever is done to vacuum cleaners)
Write a second product, something that is similar to the
first, but contains information people would want. For
instance, if you also repaired sewing machines, your second
disk could be about that. The second one will not be
shareware.
In the vacuum disk, the shareware one, you put an
advertisement for you sewing machine disk. For instance, if
people send you $19.95, you'll send them the "Complete Home
Sewing Machine Repair Tutorial Disk."
Make sure the title of the first disk is catchy. The
title will cause shareware users to purchase or download your
disk more than any other factor. In this initial purchase
stage, title is actually more important than content.
Keep your discussion and pictures lively. Many shareware
users buy fistfulls of disks at a time. They don't
necessarily respect every disk they have. Often they will
start loading every one into the slot one after another,
giving less than 5 minutes to each. Yours must grab their
attention. They will throw it onto the good pile, and only
later, when they come back to it will they give it their full
attention and respect. So, your very first 100 words must be
interesting and to the point.
Send your disk to as many sysops and shareware
distributors as you can. Another Company can help. We have a
list of over 240 shareware distributors' addresses which we
sell for $29.95. (send check to ANOTHER COMPANY, Box 298,
Applegate, OR 97530. Specify "Shareware Distributors List"
and whether you prefer 5.25" or 3.5" disk size.)
Now, unless your disk has a totally unattractive title,
hundreds of thousands of users will get it. Possibly
millions. Lets say you wrote "Beginning Piano Lessons." There
are 72 million IBM-compatible users just in America right
now. Perhaps one in ten will eventually see your shareware
listed somewhere. Of those 7,200,000 people, perhaps one in
10 will be interested in seeing a disk about piano lessons.
Of those 720,000 people, maybe only one in 100 will want to
go on to purchase your "Intermediate Piano Lessons" for $10.
That's 7200 times $10, or $72,000!
But that's not the end of the story. You can also write a
disk called, "Advanced Piano Lessons," another called, "Music
Composition & Theory," another called "Playing the Blues -
Piano," another called, "Blues Harmonica" etc. You get the
idea.
Prices and audiences can vary. You may have a very
specialized area of interest. How many people would be
interested in designing swimming pools, for instance? But
those who are, will have no other place to turn for
information. You can sell your non-shareware disks for $100
each!
The Reality
While writing shareware is a 'get-rich at home' idea
that is more likely than most to actually work, there are
some realities to be discovered:
* The inertia time in shareware can be long. Don't expect to
make money tomorrow. After you send your disks to
distributors, it may take them anywhere from a week to a
whole year just to list your shareware in their catalogs.
After users see your shareware, it may take them another year
to get around to sending you money.
The wind-down time is also long. Whatever mistakes you
make in your shareware will be around to haunt you for years
afterwards. If you have an 800 phone number, and if you
offer technical advice to non-registered users, your ears
will be burned out for the next five years.
* Your first attempts may miss the mark in one way or
another. Instead of making $72,000 from your first disk, you
may end up with $400. The way to fix this problem is to keep
writing. Make as many shareware and non-shareware disks as
you can.
* Like all home money-making ideas, there are many variables
that can slow you down. Expect the worst, then be pleasantly
surprised when things work out better. Don't quit your job
yet.
If you would like to learn more about this fascinating
business, write for our text tutorial disk, SUCCESS WITH
SHAREWARE! Send $19.95 to ANOTHER COMPANY, Box 298,
Applegate, OR 97530. Please specify whether you prefer 5.25"
or 3.5" disk size.
_____________________________________________________________
THANK YOU
Thank you for trying BLACKBOARD. We wish you great
prosperity and fame (if that is your desire). We hope this
program package can help you reach your goals.
- Jeff -
July 5, 1991
Attn Jeff Napier
Another Company
P.O. Box 298
Applegate, OR 97530
P.S. Please register:
HOME-USE $9.95
To make a single product: $29.95
One-author, unlimited number of products: $99.95
(Any form of distribution of finished products without
registration is illegal.)
