home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1993-12-14 | 13.3 KB | 239 lines | [TEXT/MSWD] |
-
- PasteColor Standard
- Version 1.0b6
- BY
- Guy Zaslavsky
-
- • Release Notes
- PasteColor is SHAREWARE. This means that you can try it out
- and pass a copy on to your friends (be sure to give them the
- complete package, including this document) freely, but if you want
- to use it regularly you must register by sending $20 ($30 for
- printed technical manual, and disk with latest version and utilities,
- sent to you via air mail) to me, at the address below. This package
- may be distributed freely electronically as well as via user groups
- and shareware software collections. Commercial distribution is
- prohibited without my written consent. PasteColor is ©Guy
- Zaslavsky, and you may not modify, decopmile, reverse engineer or
- otherwise reduce it to human perceivable form.
- As a gesture of good will, and because I believe that the
- shareware software distribution system can actually work well for
- both small developers and end-users (due to the absence of costly,
- multistage mediation and a try-before-you-buy convenience), I
- have decided to offer a $15 discount on the personal edition of my
- robust, soon-to-be-released, non-shareware Enhanced version, to
- all registered users of this version. This should not in any way
- constitute a consideration for registering this version. Again, this is
- a gesture, and not part of what you’re paying for. For more details
- about PasteColor Enhanced see section “Limitations and Future
- Enhancements”.
- send your name, address, e-mail address, comments, suggestions,
- and $20 ($30 for printed technical manual and disk with latest
- version and utilities , sent to you via air mail) to:
- Guy Zaslavsky
- 7 Rozen Street
- Haifa, Israel 34784
- You can send me e-mail to the following InterNet address:
- s3450158@techst02.technion.ac.il
-
- • What It Does
- PasteColor is an external command for HyperCard (XCMD),
- which allows you to add color (up to 32-bits per pixel!) to
- HyperCard stacks with copy and paste simplicity. Unlike practically
- every other product in the market that adds color to some aspect of
- HyperCard or another (Color text packages, pictures in external
- windows, etc.), PasteColor requires absolutely no scripting
- knowledge. You can paste any color picture into your stack,
- transparently, with no early preparation (except installing the
- needed resources from the installer that's built into the PasteColor
- stack). Once you choose "Paste Picture" from the Edit menu, your
- color picture will appear on screen.
- Manipulating color pictures pasted using PasteColor is much
- more convenient (in my opinion) then managing black and white
- pictures using HyperCard's built-in B/W graphics support. Each
- pasted in picture is treated as an independent object, in such a way
- that it can be moved around, cut, copied, or duplicated. Although
- you can’t edit the color pictures inside HyperCard, as you can with
- the standard B/W graphics, you are likely to find it most
- comfortable using a dedicated graphics program to produce quality
- graphics, and then paste the picture into your stack.
-
- • Using PasteColor
- Note: Before using any stack that contains PasteColor, make
- sure that HyperCard’s memory partition is set to at least 2Mb (4Mb
- if possible). You can change the memory partition in the Get Info
- window of the HyperCard application. You will not be warned if the
- memory is set to less, but you can expect a system error or color
- pictures appearing and disappearing erratically, if you try pasting
- large pictures (16/24-bit perhaps?), or work with large card
- window sizes.
- A pasted picture will be interactive initially. You can move, cut,
- copy, and duplicate an interactive picture. You do that by choosing
- an option from the pop-up menu that appears when you option-
- click an interactive picture. Moving a picture is the same as moving
- an icon in the Finder. Copy will place a copy of the picture on the
- clipboard, and Cut will further remove the original. Duplicate will
- create a copy of the picture slightly lower and to the right of the
- original.
- A forth option in the pop-up menu is perhaps the most useful
- one -- "Burn in...". By "Burning in" the picture you eliminate the
- possibility of moving or invoking the pop-up menu, permanently.
- This allows you to carefully position your picture on the card and
- then make it stay there without interacting with the user. Unless
- the option key is pressed while you release the mouse over the
- selection, you will be asked to confirm your intention to burn in the
- selected picture. This is due to the permanence of the burn in
- function in the standard version of PasteColor.
- PasteColor works intensively behind the scenes for every
- operation involving its objects. As a result you may notice slight
- delays on some operations when operating on slower Macs such as
- the II, IIx, IIcx, IIsi, LC, LCII, and Color Classic. You can know when
- that delay has ended when the browse tool cursor turns into a plain
- arrow, and then back. Also, if you try pasting large color pictures,
- there will be a long delay, and if you are short on disk space,
- possibly a system error. If you are experiencing tedious delays for
- simple operations (most likely on large stacks with many color
- pictures), try increasing the disk cache (in the Memory control
- panel) and HyperCard’s memory partition. You can also try working
- on a copy of the stack that’s on a RAM disk (also in the Memory
- control panel), but remember to copy the stack back to your hard
- disk when you’re done so that it does’nt disappear when you shut
- the Mac down.
-
- • Limitations and Future Enhancements
- PasteColor Standard does not include background support nor
- can it include color data with cards that are cut or copied (It can,
- however, correctly delete color data when deleting a card). If you
- wish to create a consistent color background in many cards in your
- stack, you must paste the color picture into each card individually.
- This causes both greater disk space (the size of the picture
- multiplied by the number of cards) and effort (repositioning each
- picture and burning it in individually). PasteColor Enhanced
- checks to see if you are in background mode and then decides
- whether to paste the picture normally or as one background picture
- that is shared by all cards of the current background, and does’nt
- have to be updated regularly. This method provides for
- considerably faster operation, as well as greater reliability. It also
- correctly moves color data along with cards being cut or copied.
- PasteColor Standard is not able to undo any action whatsoever.
- E.g., if you accidentally move a picture, clear a picture, or even
- worse - burn it in, by mistake, choosing undo from the menu will
- do nothing. PasteColor Enhanced can undo any action (including
- all the ones not existing in the standard version), as well as
- providing an option in every pop-up menu to de-burn all pictures
- in current card/background.
- PasteColor Enhanced offers these additional options in the pop-
- up menu: scale, clip, edit (opens the picture in a selected
- application) compress, re-initialize card/background, buttonize
- (convert into a clickable button), and export. It may offer color
- filling capabilities, so that you could, for example, create a smooth,
- color background which will consume a slight fraction of the disk
- space a picture of that size would consume..
- Duplicating in PasteColor Standard is not quite perfect. When
- duplicating, the current contents of the clipboard are destroyed.
- Also, instead of pointing to the original picture, PasteColor
- Standard creates an independent copy, which takes more space.
- PasteColor Enhanced can point as many pictures in a card as you
- want to the same resource, thus enabling you to create a repeating
- pattern using less disk space. It also works around the clipboard
- destruction problem.
- Currently, the PasteColor Standard Package is contrived of
- several XCMDs/XFCNs (see credits) and a few handlers that go into
- the stack’s script (an empty stack that includes a full installation of
- PasteColor Standard, consumes about 100K of disk space).
- PasteColor Enhanced is constructed of less, more integrated (thus
- faster) XCMDs, consumes about one third disk space, and works
- around many handlers so that your stack is more compatible, and
- color support is more transparent to HyperCard developers.
- PasteColor Enhanced is also “usable” -- you can use PasteColor
- from any stack, by writing one line in it’s “openStack” handler (start
- using stack “PasteColor Enhanced”), without actually installing PasteColor
- into that stack. This method provides for less disk space
- requirement, easier (collective) update of the PasteColor package,
- and your stacks stay practically the same (as far as HyperTalk
- concerns).
- Unlike many other programs (including HyperCard’s built-in
- ‘picture’ command) that read from external files, each pasted-in
- picture is contained in the stack file itself. If you paste many
- pictures into many cards, your stack could get quite big. PasteColor
- Enhanced offers both QuickTime support and internal JPEG
- compression to reduce the disk space required by up to 96% (the
- QuickTime support may include pasting in movies that play when
- double-clicked, I haven’t decided yet weather or not to include that
- in the first release of PasteColor Enhanced).
- When HyperCard hilites a button as a response to either a direct
- command or the very common button property “Auto-Hilite”, it
- actually turns every pixel in the button's area from black to white
- or vice versa. Therefore, since HyperCard is not directly aware of
- the presence of color, nor does it know how to handle color
- information, PasteColor will not be able to correctly display color
- inside a hilited button (the whole button area will appear as an
- inversion of the button itself and any other HyperCard objects or
- B/W graphics in HyperCard's graphic layer, with some color visible
- through the “white holes” of the button). PasteColor Enhanced
- includes a color aware inversion option (similar to the flash
- command, only limited to the button’s area), which can constitute a
- substitution for the built-in hiliting. I am considering adding an
- option of flipping the color data bounded by the button both
- vertically and horizontally, so that you can create a convincing 3-D
- effect in which the button, upon being clicked on seems to be
- pushed in.
-
- Tell me about anything you miss or desperately need, so that I
- can try and include it in an early Enhanced version (1.x).
- Overall, PasteColor Enhanced offers better performance and
- much enhanced functionality. Please register this version so that I
- can send you a $15 discount offer A.S.A.P..
-
-
- • Bugs & Incompatibilities
- PasteColor Standard does not have any as far as I know. Please
- inform me, if you unfortunately find any. If you are a plain, non-
- scripting HyperCard user, the use of PasteColor Standard should
- be absolutely transparent to you. However, if you are a serious
- scripter, or you want to install color support into existing stacks,
- you should consult the technical manual that I sent you along with
- your registered copy. The technical manual also includes
- information about locked stacks, low userLevels, transitions,
- animations, needed messages, and much more to help you get the
- maximum out of your new color-capable HyperCard!
- I hope that you appreciate the effort I made to not use even one
- global variable, in order to do a “clean” job, minimize callbacks to
- HyperCard, and obliterate any chance of a user getting into my
- variables and causing ugly errors. If you run into incompatibilities
- with certain scripts/externals and you send me specs of your work
- around to overcome them, I'll do my best to integrate them into an
- early version of the enhanced (or even standard) version.
- Registered users of PasteColor are entitled to free, unlimited
- number of upgrades to minor updates (these include mainly bug &
- incompatibility fixes and performance tuning), either by e-mail or
- by sending me a diskette and a self addressed envelope with $2
- worth of stamps inside. Interested developers, having an e-mail
- account in either AppleLink or InterNet, can subscribe to my
- PasteColor newsletter, which includes news, hints & tips, and
- general information on PasteColor and on various other
- HyperCard/AppleScript subjects, for only $15 per year.
-
- • Credits
- PasteColor is an independent XCMD. However, in order to boost
- performance, I replaced several of my own routines with other
- people’s externals which do a specific task better (in some way or
- another) than my own. Most of them are eliminated in the
- enhanced version, where I’ve refined my own routines to a point
- where the overall speed is at least as fast as now, while integrated
- into a one, smaller, more versatile, more reliable XCMD.
- I thank Frederic Rinaldi for his free, premium quality externals.
- I compared many of them to similar commercial externals and they
- usually turned out to be faster, more reliable, and generally offered
- more control over operation. I highly recommend them to
- everyone. Frederic Rinaldi can be reached at:
- CompuServe: 71170,2111 AppleLink: RINALDI1
- InterNet: RINALDI1@APPLELINK@APPLE.COM
-
- I also thank BangDabba Productions for “ColorizingHC” - the
- poorly implemented alternative to simply dumping a picture on
- screen (It gave me the incentive to write PasteColor), to Heizer
- Software for a great program (although difficult to master) --
- CompileIt! , and finally, I wish to thank Shai Samuel, of Apple
- Center Haifa, for helpful pieces of advice and support.
-