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╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ FIRST THINGS FIRST - READ THE FILE WARNING.TXT BEFORE PROCEEDING! ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ You may want to freq or download the file MAXTIPS.DOC from my BBS to help ║ ║ you understand the ins and outs of MAX Graphics more clearly. There isn't ║ ║ anything complicated about adding MAX Graphics to your BBS or doors, but ║ ║ I figure any extra help and information is better than none at all. True? ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ┌────────── ┌─────────── ┌───── ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ Creators of "The Comm Router"! │ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ │ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ Now the official managers of │ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ "BBS Utiliteez Software" │ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ │ ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── ┌─── │ Stephan Pollack [CEO] │ ┌────────── ┌─────────── ┌───── │ Doug Harrington [Chief Programmer] │ │ FidoNet 1:285/703 - utilz@bbc.net │ Online Development Incorporated │ Support BBS/FAX: 308-762-2239 │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ▀▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀ ╔══ ╦═╗ ╔═╗ ╦═╗ ╦ ╦ ╦ ╔═╗ ╔═╗ ▀▀ ▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ║ ╦ ╠╦╝ ╠═╣ ╠═╝ ╠═╣ ║ ║ ╚═╗ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ╚═╝ ╩╚═ ╩ ╩ ╩ ╩ ╩ ╩ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ v1.15 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The Universal Multimedia Interface For BBS Software Copyright 1995-1997 * Larry L. Athey * BBS Utiliteez Software ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Information Regarding MAX Graphics: ─────────────────────────────────── Notice is hereby given that the MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor language, and MAXterm are products of BBS Utiliteez Software and are protected by US copyrights listed with the US Library Of Congress (1996).... No changes, additions, subtractions, or other modifications shall be made to MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor language or the MAX Graphics development kit without express written permission from Larry L. Athey, BBS Utiliteez Software, Alliance, Nebraska, USA.... The MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor language may be used in any BBS or Door software 100% royalty free. You are also allowed to implement full local graphics viewing in any BBS or Door software 100% royalty free. However, any program that uses the MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor language *MUST* bear the MAX Graphics/BBS Utiliteez Software copyright notice.... Example: MAX Graphics and the MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor language is Copyright 1995-1997 * Larry L. Athey * BBS Utiliteez Software Disclaimer: ─────────── MAX Graphics, MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor and MAXterm are by no means copies of, or otherwise plagiarized remote graphics methods used by any other BBS software. Even though MAXterm responds to 3 commands used by RIPscript and other RIP capable BBSes, this isn't any kind of a copyright infringement of the RIP technology. These same strings of text randomly occur in computers all the time. Besides, according the the US Library Of Congress there is no copyright or trademark issued protecting the text strings: !|1K|*|#|#|# or ! .... Even though there may be some similarities between MAX Graphics and some other graphical BBS packages, this is not done intentionally. Since I have ran about every graphical BBS out there from DOS to Windows platforms, I'm bound to create things in the image of my own memory. I by no means, just set out to duplicate someone else's program or interface. If there is any part of MAX Graphics that resembles any program you may have written, just treat it as a parody. You know, like what Weird Al Yankovich does to other people's songs. The only difference is that I just have a crappy sense of humor when it comes to programming....<G>.... This document and the MAX Graphics development kit are freeware, but are not public domain. ....End of disclaimer.... ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── One Quick Note Before We Start: ─────────────────────────────── I'm going to apologize ahead of time in case any part of this documentation seems kind of vague. I'm a programmer, not a teacher, so all I can do is my best. Plus, it appears that there is a world wide campaign to abolish the reading of any and all documentation, so I really don't spend a whole heck of a lot of time writing any documentation any more. If for some reason you can't understand what a certain feature does by reading this document, all I can suggest is that you tinker around with that feature for a while until you understand what it's actually doing. Hands on experience is always the best teacher and most effective way of learning something new.... I am going to tell you right now that the word "RIP" is used who knows how many times in this document, but to normal people that doesn't matter...It is just that there are some people in this world that like to pick my docs apart to find things to whine about for who knows what reason, and that is one point a couple people have made to me. They seem to think that I need to learn more about "Product Focus" because the word RIP is mentioned like 150 times here...Big deal, RIP is part of the product focus, accept it.... ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── What Is MAX Graphics Anyway? ──────────────────────────── What is MAX? MAX Graphics is alternative to the inferiority of RIP1, 2 & 3 graphics. I'm not about to plagiarize on any other graphical BBS out there, so what I have done is devised a new SVGA graphics protocol that you can implement into any RIP capable BBS. RIP and RIP2 simply do not offer a high enough quality graphical user interface for the caller, yet for some reason, people insist on supporting the RIP format in their doors and BBSes. RIP1 is only an EGA graphics interface, RIP2 is barely SVGA interface, RIP3 is yet another WinDozzzze based internet/telnet toy, but MAX is a true full SVGA graphical user interface with full digital sound capabilities that you can drop in and use with _ANY_ BBS package out there! MAX is mainly for those people that want to be able to offer a _True_ SVGA graphical user interface to their callers without forcing them have to go out and change BBS software. All you really need to do to implement MAX Graphics into any BBS is rename or save all of the .MAX screens to .RIP or whatever naming convention your BBS uses for RIP screen files and put them where your BBS will read and send them. Unfortunately, BBSes with built in local display of RIP graphics won't be able to display these screens locally. Hey, maybe you or someone else out there will drum up the nerve to write a BBS package that will display local MAX Graphics. <G> Until then what you can do is modify your BBS program's system prompts to say "MAX" instead of RIP to eliminate confusion for your callers. If your BBS doesn't have the capability to edit prompts, you could always take the long way around the block and use a hex editor. Be advised that this may be a violation of the warranty or copyright of your BBS software. It's completely up to you how you choose to go about modifying your system prompts. Unlike other graphical BBS terminals (past and present) you can run the MAXterm program in conjunction with any other existing terminal program. MAXterm is compact and can be made even more compact by simply deleting portions of the program you don't need. Some people will not want to use the bundled screen and icon editors, so you would simply delete the two files SCRNEDIT.EXE and ICONEDIT.EXE....By doing so, you can cut the disk requirements for MAXterm down to about 200K. In addtion, MAXterm saves disk space by compressing all of its graphics resources when they aren't in use. Other programs such as RIPterm, FX-Term, StarLink, Etc, keep all of the resources stored on the hard drive uncompressed thus chewing up disk space and slowing down the program's overall operation due to the excessive disk access time required to locate a specific resource file. Be advised that neither MAXterm or MAXscript/MAXcontrol/MAXcolor support RIP graphics due to a HUGE royalty fee involved. This is the main reason that the MAX Graphics development kit is 100% royalty free. RIP has been commercialized from day one and is still commercialized to this day. Plus, even if I were able to get permission to support RIP graphics, it would be pointless. RIP and MAX use a completely different graphics interface and script decoding methods. MAXterm would become so bloated from the excess code (and out-dated EGA graphics code at that), it would simply retard the program to the point of being inoperable on most systems. Anybody can create and view MAX screen files. All you need is a copy of the MAXterm terminal or a text editor. Creating a MAX screen file is as simple as writing a graphics program in Pascal and BGI. The MAXterm program can edit and display screens locally and has a built in editor for creating or modifying icons. Here is a very brief overview of what MAX graphics can provide: ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── -Pascal like script language (More "English-Like" than RIPscript). -Allows the use of MAXcontrol "Control Code Language" to enhance speed. -All remote screen colors can be changed via MAXcolor codes. -Freeware Borland/Turbo Pascal 7.0 door and utility development kit. -Allows the use of MAX screens in any RIPscript v1.54 capable BBS. -All screens use 640x480 pixel resolution and 256 colors. -Fully mouse driven graphical user interface with windows. Window types: 1. Standard Block (Similar to MS-Windows 3.XX or OS/2) 2. Invisible (Used for saving screen regions) 3. Flat Panel (A window with no title header) 4. Transparent (Similar to looking thru a window screen) 5. Standard Panel (Similar to Windows 95) -Use of icons in screens (Multiple sizes and styles). -Use of buttons in screens (Multiple sizes and styles). -Use of over 300 GEM fonts in screens (Say it with me, "NO BGI FONTS!"). -Use of a scrolling picklist in any screen. -Use of a text file reader in any screen. -Use of a text editor in any screen. -Use of data entry fields in screens (5 different types). -Use of 256 color PCX graphics images in screens. -Use of VOC/WAV/MID sound files in any screen. -The creation of fully animated 640x480x256 resolution door games. -Freeware MAXterm user resource update door for any BBS. -More is yet to come! NOTE: The name MAX is in no way connected with the Maximus BBS software.... ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Creating Screen Files: ────────────────────── Unlike other graphics protocols out there, MAX Graphics does not require you to unload $200.00 on a paint/drawing program. Even though a paint or drawing program is considered to be a luxury, it's by no means a necessity. MAXpaint is available to streamline screen creation, but if you don't want to invest any money in software, then you will be pleased to know this.... MAXterm has complete local screen editing and viewing capabilities as well as an icon editor. If you are familiar with the Pascal programming language, then MAXscript will be like second nature to you. If you are not familiar with Pascal, fear not, this will still be an easy language for you to learn. MAXscript is a very Human Like script language. There is no need for you to learn a bunch of mundane pipe codes or escape sequences, everything is done with simple commands and variables. The only thing you may have a hard time getting used to is the resolution of the screens, but that won't last for long. When I first got into using high resolution graphics in my programs, it took me about 2 or 3 weeks to get used to 640x480x256 after working with 80x25x16 for God knows how many years before that. A quick example of a very basic screen file would look like this: ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Start_Screen() Draw_Window(100,100,630,380,1,'Welcome To MAX Graphics!') Put_Image(150,150,'CLOUD.PCX') Shadow_Text(350,150,5,0,2,'This Sure Beats RIP Eh?') Draw_Button(530,350,80,67,1,20,'Continue') Play_Sound('FUNKY.VOC') End_Screen() NOTE: MAXscript commands are NOT case sensitive! In the above example, there are 7 elements to the screen. I will refer to them as Element #1....Element #7 in my explanation of their functions.... All commands always end with a pair of left and right parenthesis to tell MAXterm when it has reached the end of a command string. In most commands, the parameters or Variables are separated by commas inside of parenthesis. Any text you wish to print, and any file names you wish to define must be declared inside of apostrophes. Those are the only rules you have to follow with script commands. Pretty simple huh? Element #1: This tells MAXterm that a new screen is about to be drawn and it needs to clear or reset all variables in memory. All screens absolutely must begin with the Start_Screen() command or its MAXcontrol counterpart! Element #2: This draws a window on the screen using 4 coordinates. In all examples where specific screen coordinates are used, they will be in the fashion of X1,Y1,X2,Y2...Your X coordinates are the columns and the Y coordinates are the rows. In an SVGA screen, your minimum and maximum X1,Y1,X2,Y2 coordinates are limited to 0,0,639,479. So the window in the example shown above will be plotted at 100,100,630,380.... But what about the other two parameters/variables? The other two parameters are for telling MAXterm what type of window to display and what text to place in the window header. See the "Overview" section above for a definition of window types. Element #3: This tells MAXterm to display a graphic image at the X1,Y1 coordinates. MAX Graphics only supports 256 color PCX images. This shouldn't present any problem since there are a number of shareware programs & utilities out there that can convert any graphics image from one format to any other and alter its color palette if necessary. Element #4: This tells MAXterm to display a string of text at the X1,Y1 coordinates. This command tells MAXterm to make the text be in color #5 (Magenta) with a #0 (Black) background. MAXterm's first 15 colors in its palette match the first 15 colors in the ANSI palette. The next parameter tells MAXterm which font to use for the text. MAXterm has three built in fonts and can load any font from an external GEM font file. The definitions for the fonts are: 1 - 5x8 Bitmapped Font 2 - GEM "System" Font 3 - 8x14 ROM Resident Font 4 - User Defined External Font The last parameter of course is the text you wish to display. Element #5: This tells MAXterm to draw a button on the screen at the X1,Y1 coordinates. The third parameter is the width of the button in pixels, this might take a little time to get used to. The next parameter, the 67 tells MAXterm what character to send to the BBS when this button is clicked with the mouse. The next param- eter tells MAXterm whether or not to plot a Small Icon on the button (1=Yes, 0=No). The next parameter is the number of the icon in the currently selected "Small_Icon" library file. The last parameter of course is the text to print in the button. NOTE: The "67" is the ASCII value for the character "C". I'm sure that most people don't know the ASCII values for each character on your keyboard, so the screen editor in the MAXterm program has a routine to read & display the ASCII values for you. Element #6: This tells MAXterm to play a sound file. The MAXterm program supports VOC, WAV, and MID (MIDI) sound files. Element #7: This tells MAXterm that the end of the screen file has been sent and that it should jump into "Wait State". MAXterm has two modes: Draw Mode and Wait State. The command that throws MAXterm into Draw Mode is the same command string that a BBS or door sends to RIPterm to tell it to clear the screen and prepare to draw a new screen. All screens absolutely must end with the End_Screen() command or its MAXcontrol counterpart! There you have it, a very basic example of a MAXscript screen file. As you will see further on into this document, there are a lot more MAXscript and MAXcontrol commands. Don't let the large number of commands intimidate you, they are only here to provide complete flexibility in screen, door and BBS design. Even the most sophisticated of screen files can be created using the bare minimum of script commands. All MAX commands must appear on a line by themselves! You cannot put two MAX commands on the same line and expect them to work. You can also not put a MAX command and something like a BBS color code on the same line or MAXterm will regard the entire command as being invalid. If you need to insert something like a color code into a screen file, it must be put on a line completely by itself. The RIPscript Misconception: ──────────────────────────── There is one misconception you may have about this and I will clear that up for you right now. Even though RIP's graphics are based on short strings of these crazy obscure characters, it's not any faster. RIP graphics are all based on "Line Drawing" methods all the way down to the BGI fonts used in RIP graphics, there are very little, if any, predefined graphics elements or "Graphics Primitives". You may think that first example script command is so long that it would take longer to draw than any RIP command would.... WRONG! MAXterm and the MAX Graphics development kit already have the Window Primitive predefined. If you were to do the same thing with RIP, you would need to send 40....Say it with me....FORTY COMMANDS to draw a simple window on the user's screen. To draw a "Transparent" window on the user's screen you would need to send in upwards of 40,000 commands to the user because you would have to plot out the majority of the window Pixel-By-Pixel. Now do you see the MAX advantage? The RIPSCRIP.DOC makes a huge deal out of the fact that their language is not humanly readable. They claim that it is faster than other languages they compared it against (in 1991 and before) that were humanly readable, but they didn't have MAX at that time. They were trying to design their language around slowpoke 2400 baud to 9600 baud modems. The truth is now nobody (nobody in their right mind) uses any less than a 14400 baud modem. RIP's methods still aren't that fast even with their short little cryptic script commands. They fail to tell you that RIPscript takes anywhere from 10 times to 40 times or more of their commands to do the same thing that you can do with one command from other languages. MAXscript is the slowest way of communicating with MAXterm, but it is still light years faster than RIPscript - EVEN AT 2400 BAUD! Take a look at the RIPSCRIP.DOC some time, it's available on just about any BBS, and see how many RIPscript commands it would take to equal just one MAXscript command. If you really want to speed up things in MAX, you can also use MAXcontrol commands which are basically just as cryptic as RIPscript commands. Every MAXscript command has a MAXcontrol counterpart, so you can sacrifice the humanly readable concept in exchange for added display speed. It's up to you how you want to do things, but either way you look at it - RIP graphics simply do not compare to MAX Graphics in any way - not in speed - and most definitely not in appearance! The Difference Between MAXscript and MAXcontrol Commands: ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── There are two ways of communicating with MAXterm. MAXscript is a script language that is humanly readable and understandable. MAXcontrol is also a script language of sorts, however it is not meant to be humanly readable. It is low level language meant to communicate with MAXterm at a much faster rate and provide complete Host <> Caller interaction. MAXcontrol works with MAXterm by using a two way communications method. MAXcontrol codes are not readable by the average Joe. A MAXcontrol command always starts with an ASCII #255 followed by a ~ (ASCII #126) and is terminated with another ASCII #255 to indicate the end of the command. The actual MAXcontrol commands are placed between the ASCII #126 and the final ASCII #255. Just like MAXscript, your parameters or variables are to be separated by commas with your text and hotkey declarations to be placed inside of apostrophes. MAXcontrol codes may also be used in a screen file with MAXscript commands. That kind of defeats the purpose of the MAXscript screen files being humanly readable by others, but that's completely up to you how you want to create your screens. You can replace any script command with a control command to give your screens an extra speed boost. MAXterm first looks for MAXcontrol codes, if it doesn't detect the MAXcontrol code sequence, it will then look for MAXscript commands. All MAXscript commands have a MAXcontrol code counterpart, see below: MAXscript: Draw_Window(100,100,630,380,1,'Welcome To MAX Graphics!') MAXcontrol: #255#126#128100,100,630,380,1,'Welcome To MAX Graphics!'#255 Or: ~Ç100,100,630,380,1,'Welcome To MAX Graphics!' Keep in mind that you CANNOT put the 4 characters "#255" in a MAX screen file or send them to the comport in your program and expect results from it. The #255 is the ASCII value of a character. Since this character has no actual screen image, just like the spacebar creates, the #255 is used strictly for clarity purposes only. In most text editors, you can add an extended key code anywhere by using your ALT key and your numeric keypad. For example, to add an ASCII #255, you would hold your ALT key and type 2 5 5 on the numeric keypad. After you release the ALT key, the character will appear. This procedure also works in most programming IDE's as well. Notice in the "Or:" example, you can't see the ASCII character #255 but it's still in there. Go to that line and hit your END key and you'll see that your cursor will show up one space past the end of the line. Now you may not believe this, but the MAXcontrol commands really are about 50% to 60% faster than MAXscript commands. The string Draw_Window( is replaced by a single ASCII character #128. If you are a programmer, what this means is MAXterm can use a "CASE" routine instead of an "IF THEN ELSE", which you know is a major advantage. Either way you look at it, the command line for a MAXcontrol command is shorter, which means it will transfer faster, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. ;) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The Ins & Outs Of MAX Graphics: ─────────────────────────────── As mentioned in the above, MAXscript can be used in any BBS that supports RIP graphics (ie: RIPscript v1.54)....When a BBS detects RIP graphics in the remote's terminal program, it sends an ASCII #27 plus [ plus ! (!). RIPterm will return "RIPSCRIP015410", but all most BBSes look for is to see if there is now data available at the comport after sending that string of text. MAXterm returns "RIPSCRIP015400" upon reception of the ! RIPscript Autosensing command, even though it is not RIP compatible. This is just to fool the BBS into thinking it is so the BBS can send the MAX screen files renamed as RIP screen files. After your BBS or door program has determined whether or not the user has RIP capabilities, you send the string #255~#255 to the comport. Remember, the #255 is an ASCII #255, not the 4 characters: # and 2 and 5 and 5. When MAXterm receives this string of commands, it will return the version number of MAXscript it supports (ie: #.##)....From this point on, you will need to tell your program that "YES" the remote caller does have MAXscript _AND_ MAXcontrol capabilities. Now before any RIP compatible BBS or door sends screen file data to the remote, it sends a pair of commands to tell the remote to clear the screen of any previously sent graphics, see below: RIP Clear Screen: Command #1 = #13#10 (Blank Line) Command #2 = #12#13#10 (Same as TTY Clear Screen) This basically has the same effect on MAXterm. This tells any MAX Graphics compatible terminal program to kill all active windows on the screen. Some RIP capable BBS programs and doors will only send the second command, so you will have to design your programs mainly around Command #2 to clear the screen. Command #1 is mainly just to send a blank line to tell the terminal program ignore any previous commands which helps prevent display errors. In the event your BBS doesn't send the ASCII #12 to clear the graphics screen, you will need to insert it at the beginning of your screen files. Keep in mind that some BBSes rely on the RIP screen file to clear the screen. Look at a RIP screen file created with RIPaint sometime. You will see that the ASCII character #12 is always on a line by itself at the beginning. As you can very well guess, RIPscript is another one of those things that never really achieved widespread standardization. TeleGrafix standardized it in their specifications, but not all BBS authors followed suit (there's a big surprise....NOT!). DOOR.SYS, FILES.BBS, and FILE_ID.DIZ all suffered the same thing, hopefully MAX Graphics won't....Anyhow, if the author of your BBS software neglected to follow the RIP standards to the "T", I would suggest you add a blank line and then an ASCII #12 at the beginning of every screen file in your BBS. After this command has been sent, this tells MAXterm to jump into "Draw Mode". While the program is in Draw Mode, it will only respond to MAXscript and MAXcontrol commands. It will completely ignore ANSI escape sequences and RIPscript commands at this point. From here, you must send commands to the terminal programs to instruct them to draw items on the screen, or jump into "Wait State" mode. All MAX screens must always end with an End_Screen() Or #255#126#254#255 to throw them in to "Wait State". If your BBS or Door program sends added information after the screen file is sent, you need to add a "Text View Window" immediately before the End_Screen() command. In some BBS or door programs, after a RIP screen is drawn, they may create some sort of dynamically generated text at the bottom of the screen. Some BBS programs do this to tell the user what the currently selected message or file area is or other system messages. If your BBS or door does this you will need to define a Text View Window somewhere on the screen using the command Text_View_Window(X1,Y1,C,R) or #255#126#252X1,Y1,C,R,#255....Keep in mind this command should appear immediately before your End_Screen().... A counterpart to the Text_View_Window() command called Text_View_Port() is available that performs the same function, but is only the view port with no window frame around it. The command syntax is exactly the same.... In some cases, your BBS or door program will require MAXterm to emulate a regular ANSI/ASCII terminal program. MAXterm responds to the same command strings that RIPterm does to throw it back into text mode, see below: RIP To Text: Command #1 = #13#10 (Blank Line) Command #2 = !|1K|*|#|#|# (Plus a #13#10) Or Command #2 = !|1K|*| (Plus a #13#10) Or Command #2 = #27[1! (Plus a #13#10) Again, the first command may not be sent by all BBS and door programs, keep in mind though that MOST of them do. Also, some BBSes only follow up their RIP commands with just a #13 rather than a #13#10, however, most of them do send the #13#10. The second commands are the ones that you should really focus on. The second command will instruct MAXterm to pop up a new window on the screen that supports 80x25x16 resolution using font type #3. Font type #3 is needed so the program can display high ASCII characters. MAXterm is also capable of dropping all the way back to full text mode ANSI in the event of this command. To throw MAXterm back into graphics mode, simply send the RIP clear screen command again. Keep in mind that while MAXterm is in text mode, or ANSI emulation mode - all MAX commands will be interpreted as raw text. In the event that you attempt to use a MAX screen file in your BBS and all you see are the raw commands, you will have to manually add a blank line and an ASCII #12 at the beginning of the screen file. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, READ IT AND UNDERSTAND IT! ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── In some BBS packages, there are oversights by the author where they forgot to add the "RIP to TEXT" command, one such reported case is with Renegade. The author forgot to add the "RIP to TEXT" command before displaying files and messages, possibly in even more places than that. In this event, if a user selects to list files, they will be given a blank SVGA screen with no apparent way of escape. Programming errors like this can cause you serious headaches as well as for your users. So, how do you fix it? SIMPLE!....Since I have no experience with Renegade I can't give you any specifics, but this general information should point you in the direction you need to accomplish remedying the error. MAXterm and RIPterm both respond to the same command to flip the terminal back to text mode. As stated in the above, the two commands used to make MAXterm and RIPterm do this are: RIP to TEXT: !|1K|*|#|#|# Or: #27[1! In the case of some BBS packages, there is a "Language File". This file is usually just a text file with each line being the text for specific system prompts. This isn't gospel, because there are also some packages that use a separate screen file for every system prompt. If there is a place in the BBS software where a "RIP to TEXT" command is needed, but does not exist, it is usually pretty simple to add one. In one of my experiments in TriBBS I had to add this command to the beginning of a prompt in the BBS language file. What I first did was add the color code to turn the text to Black on Black. This was just to hide the !|1K|*|#|#|# command. Then I added that command right before changing the color back to what the prompt originally used. That command by itself added to the beginning of the prompt fixed the problem where the user was stuck at a blank SVGA screen. This can be adapted to almost any BBS package. If not, then you should contact your BBS software author and tell him/her to correct this error in their code. Handling Windows: ───────────────── MAXterm and the MAX Graphics development kit handle windows in a similar fashion to the way OS/2 and Windows does. Meaning, every time you draw a new window, the previous window and its functions become inactive. You'll notice this right away because the window header of the previous window will darken every time a new window pops up. The only time you won't have this "Visual Index" is in the event you are using "Flat Panel" windows or "Invisible" windows. In that case, you'll just have to be sure you kill a window when it's no longer needed. Otherwise, the user will be stuck at a window with no obvious way out which will force them to drop carrier. By using multiple windows you can create menus with sub-menus and and make it possible to have an unlimited number of buttons and fields per screen. Refer to the Draw_Window() and Kill_Window() commands for more info. Handling PCX Images: ──────────────────── All 256 color PCX image files have their color palette values stored in the last 768 bytes of the file. Divide this by three and what you have is 256 groups of three numbers. These three numbers are the Red, Green, Blue values for each color (#0 to #255) in that order. Chances are that every PCX image will have values which are different from the values used in MAX Graphics so the image will need to be "Re-Scaled" on the fly, or the image will need to be permanently Re-Scaled with some kind of a graphic image file editor. One of the best shareware editors (if not the all around best) is a program by the name of "NeoPaint" from the NeoSoft Corporation. You can usually find this program on any shareware CD-ROM, or you can call their support BBS at (503)383-7195 or send a message to support@neosoft.com and ask where you can find it on the internet. At the end of this document you will find the color values (Red, Green, Blue values) for each color in the MAX Graphics palette. There is also a file included in this archive called MAXGRAPH.PAL which is a pre-made palette file for the NeoPaint program which will allow you to do a permanent palette Re-Scale on the image. If you don't Re-Scale the palette, then MAX Graphics will attempt to Re-Scale the image on the fly before displaying. The down side to this is that the colors won't match exactly due to the excessive amount of code required to perform an accurate Re-Scaling and there will be a very noticable delay. You would be wiser to permanently Re-Scale the image before using it in any screen file. External Font Files: ──────────────────── MAXterm and the MAX Graphics development kit all use the GEM font format. GEM fonts are used by a tremendous number of programs such as NeoPaint and NeoBook from NeoSoft and numerous other programs developed using the GX-Text programming kit by Genus Microprogramming. There are also a few utilities out there to convert Windows fonts to GEM format. This gives you an endless amount of available fonts to use in your screens and MAX Graphics compatible programs. For lots of GEM fonts and other GEM font utilities, please call the BBS number listed at the end of this document. Inline Color Tokens: ──────────────────── Inline color tokens are used for coloring text files and message text. These were probably first introduced in the RoboBOARD/FX BBS software, and then adopted by other graphical BBS packages. Only colors 0 to 15 are valid for use as inline color tokens. An inline color token looks like this: {0} or {12} or {14}. You simply put a number (0 to 15) in a pair of fancy brackets and it changes the color of any following text. ie: Standard_Text(100,100,15,2,'This {14}is {15}a {14}test.')....This would create a string of text alternating between white and yellow. Handling Icons: ─────────────── MAX Graphics supports 3 sizes of icons, 16x16, 30x30 and 60x60 pixels. Each pixel is a color value 0 to 255 with color #255 being transparent. You may, at your own discretion, use icons from RoboBOARD/FX by Seth Hamilton, or from Shotgun Professional by GUNN Data Systems. The RoboBOARD/FX *.ICO & the Shotgun *.30 icon files must be renamed with the extension *.002 and the Shotgun *.16 icon files must be renamed with the extension *.001. There are also a few utilities for RoboBOARD/FX out there that will convert any Windows icon to the *.ICO, *.30, or *.002 format, so you shouldn't have any problems finding enough icons for your system. You may also create your own icons using MAXterm's built in icon editor. If you are running any MAX compatible doors in your BBS, you may want to add a command or set of commands at the beginning of the menu screen file that the door is called from to restore the icon library file names or the mouse mask. Some doors may use their own custom icon libraries or may also change the mouse mask. So you will want to change them back to the default values for your BBS upon returning from the door. Doing this is simple and shouldn't be looked at as a "Task" or anything like that. All you need to do is add at the most, 4 commands to that menu screen, such as: Small_Icon_Library('ICON_LIB.001') [Use whatever icon library file name] Medium_Icon_Library('ICON_LIB.002') " " Large_Icon_Library('ICON_LIB.003') " " Mouse_Mask(0) [Use whatever mouse mask number] Doing this will assure that when a caller returns from a door, they will be seeing the correct icons in your screens and the correct mouse mask. Icons and Door/BBS Programming: ─────────────────────────────── If you are writing a MAX Graphics compatible door or a BBS program you can chop the size of your icon libraries down to just the size you need if you aren't using all 100 icons in the library. By doing this, you can prevent your icons from being altered in MAXpaint as well since MAXpaint will only read 100 record icon libraries. You are by no means required to distribute full size icon libraries with your programs. When you are displaying icons you are simply seeking to a specific zero based record location. So if you write a program that only uses 5 icons, then chop that sucker down to only 5 records (icons). This will save space in your archive, on the hard drive, and will result in a faster transfer in automatic resource update programs. MAX and ANSI/ASCII: ─────────────────── If you are unfamiliar with the ins & outs of graphics programming, then you are probably not aware of the fact that fonts in graphics mode don't have a background color. Such is the case with the GEM fonts in MAX Graphics and the BGI fonts in RIP. When you try to support ANSI terminal emulation in a graphics based program, you need to first block out the area where the font is to be located using the current ANSI background color. As you can guess, this slows things down quite a bit, especially in the case of scrolling the screen. If you intend to use MAX Graphics in your BBS, you should do one of two things: 1. Use MAX screens throughout your BBS as to avoid flip-flopping between graphics and ANSI emulation mode. 2. Eliminate any ANSI screens that excede 24 lines (ie: Rows) as to avoid scrolling MAXterm's screen in SVGA ANSI emulation mode. This may sound like a lot of work, but if you simply do one of these two things, you will have more users trying MAXterm and staying with MAXterm. The reason a lot of users try a graphical terminal program and then switch back to their original ANSI terminal program is because if the speed of ANSI in regular Plain Jane text mode. If you simply create a matching MAX screen for all ANSI/ASCII screens, then MAXterm will work just that much faster, and your users will continue to use MAXterm. Special Files: ────────────── MAXterm supports some special files that may be of interest to you. In the dialing directory of MAXterm, you will notice a field for each BBS entry called "Board ID". This is the 8 letter name that a BBS uses for its .PKG files, or in other cases, its ID for its QWK/REP packets. When you start up MAXterm, it will unpack DEFAULT.PKG which is a compressed file with the default graphics resources. Each BBS can custom create their own .PKG file which you can download and place in your \RESOURCE\ subdirectory. You will want to change the Board ID in the diailing directory to match the first 8 letters of the .PKG file. It's best to keep your .PKG files in ZIP format, but you may choose any archive method. You just need to make sure all of your users have this archiver in their DOS path. MAXterm is compiled with all the correct command line parameters for ZIP, ARJ, LHA and RAR archives. There are also spaces for adding the name of a batch file to execute any other type of archiver program. In your .PKG file, besides storing font files, image files, or sound files, you may also include a file named BACKDROP.MAX which is a script file you wish to display immediately upon connection to your system. This will be an actual indestructable backdrop which will display all the time. Most people put graphics images, custom drawings, or other text in their back drops. It is completely up to you what you want to display there. The Start_Screen() and End_Screen() commands are not required in this screen file.... Handling Remote Screen Files: ───────────────────────────── As mentioned in the above, you can store MAX screen files in your graphics resource packages. These can be a little tricky if you don't follow a few basic rules. If you aren't careful, you can lock up the user's terminal by sending the wrong commands. A remote screen file is the same as any other MAX screen file, with the exception that there is no Start_Screen() and End_Screen() command in the screen file. The screen file your BBS sends is what sends those two commands. An example would be like this: Your BBS sends this information: Start_Screen() Draw_Window(100,99,539,400,5,'RIP... NOT!') Show_Remote_Screen('REMOTE1.MAX') End_Screen() The file REMOTE1.MAX does this: Set_Fill_Style(1,239) Bar(104,127,204,395) Bar(104,127,534,227) Load_Font('CAM42.FNT') Shadow_Text(12,40,14,0,4,'Welcome To MAX Graphics!') Load_Font('TTL12_68.FNT') Shadow_Text(128,150,10,0,4,'RIP... NOT!') Load_Font('CAM42.FNT') Shadow_Text(172,243,10,0,4,'This Is MAX!') User_Button(449,355,80,35,16) Put_Medium_Icon(497,358,3) Standard_Text(462,365,0,2,'Quit') Standard_Text(462,365,4,2,'Q') Now this is only a basic example of the way you would use a remote screen file. In most cases, the reason you would want to use a remote screen file is because the file is so huge that it would draw too slow if you were to send it over the modem line by line. Even a slowpoke 386/SX25 with a 2400 baud modem would draw a 500+ line screen file in just a few seconds. This is why the Remote_Screen_File() concept was implemented. You can make your BBS or door program fly like a jet by using this method. As you can guess, if the user doesn't have the file REMOTE1.MAX in their graphics resource package, they will see nothing and may think their terminal has locked up on them and drop carrier. You should Keep your Draw_Window() commands in your main screen file, this is just a safety precaution. You never know if a user will attempt to modify your resources on their system, so you should try to keep all critical commands out of the remote screen files. Getting Remote Data: ──────────────────── Getting data from the remote such as, getting editor text, or getting the entry field data, etc, requires you follow just one simple rule. You must get the needed data before the current window is killed. Once you kill the current window, that data is gone forever. So if your BBS or door program requires information from the terminal whether it be from the text editor or from data entry fields, be sure you get this data before any command is sent to clear the graphics screen, or to flip the terminal back to text mode, or before any Kill_Window() command is sent. Handling PickLists and Text Readers: ──────────────────────────────────── If you plan on using picklists or text readers in your screens or programs, keep in mind that these items must be the first item in the window. If you ignore this rule, then your users will get locked into a loop that they can only get out of by their dropping carrier. Picklists and text readers will always occupy button numbers 1 and 2. So you will need to have one more button on the screen to escape from the loop. If you are doing this in your programs, you will need to look for button number 3 rather than 1. Now, the most important part about text readers and picklists....You will need some method of escape from one of these screens, the most obvious choice is to add a button to the screen. The ordinal value that this button returns must be and alternate keypress. Say for example you used Draw_Button() to plot a button somewhere on the screen and labeled it "Quit", the "Q" would be highlighted in red. Set the ordinal value that button returns to 16 which would force the user to either click on that button with their mouse, or press ALT-Q to escape the loop. Keep in mind that not all BBSes allow the use of alternate keypresses, so picklists and text readers should only be used in doors or BBSes that directly support MAX Graphics. MAX Limits and General Rules: ───────────────────────────── All MAX screens must contain at least one window! If you do not observe this rule, you will be having numerous users dropping carrier on your BBS because they will be locked into a blank SVGA screen with no way out. All MAX commands must appear on a line by themselves! You cannot put two MAX commands on the same line and expect them to work. You can also not put a MAX command and something like a BBS color code on the same line or MAXterm will regard the entire command as being invalid. If you need to insert something like a color code into a screen file, it must be put on a line completely by itself. The Minimum/Maximum X1,Y1,X2,Y2 screen coordinates are 0,0,639,479 but you should limit your screens to 0,21,639,458 to allow for a status bar at the top and bottom of the screen set to a 20 pixel height. Colors range from 0 to 255 with colors 0 though 16 matching the same colors found in the ANSI color palette. Color number 255 in icon files is transparent. The maximum number of buttons you can have in a window is 30. Buttons are defined as Draw_Button(), Radio_Button(), User_Button(), Click_Zone() and the scroll buttons on the picklist or text reader. Even though a BBS will have no problems sending screen files with more than 30 buttons, however, MAXterm with bomb out with a "Constant Out Of Range" error. As with button number limits, the 30 count limitation also applies to the entry fields and flipping icons. Exceeding this limit will also cause the MAXterm program to bomb out with a "Constant Out Of Range" error. As with button number limits, the 30 count limitation also applies to the Button Extensions. If for any reason you need more buttons, fields, or flipping icons, simply create another window and link it as a sub-menu. Keep in mind that as soon as the next window is drawn, all your buttons, fields, and flipping icons in the previous window will become inactive. To reactivate them you simply kill the last window drawn on the screen. Only one picklist, or one text reader, or one text editor is allowed per window. You cannot mix and match these in the same window and you cannot have more than one of any of them per window. Failing to observe this rule will result in your users being locked into a never ending loop without any form of escape. The picklist is limited to 800 items with each item being 80 characters wide. This is the absolute largest the picklist could be made due to the 64K limit in Pascal's data segment. There's absolutely nothing that can be done to make this any larger outside of resorting to disk access for the picklist, which of course, would slow down performance in a big way. Certain commands _MUST_ be used with a follow up command. You can place other commands between the initial and follow up commands, but when you are suppose to use a follow up command and neglect to do so, you will crash or lock up MAXterm. The initial and follow up commands are shown below: Initial: Follow Up: ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── New_Pick_List() Set_Up_Pick_List() New_Text_Editor() Run_Text_Editor() New_Text_Reader() Show_Text_Page() You can place other commands in between these commands to load up text files, define a new text file for the editor to save to, or to reset the picklist to a specific item number before display. Whatever you decide to put between them is up to you. Just keep in mind that you _MUST_ call the follow up command some time before the End_Screen() command is called. There is a very special exception to this concept. There are three commands that absolutely must be used together: Start_Text_File(), Put_Text_File(), and End_Text_File(). These three commands are used for creating a text file in the caller's \SESSION\ subdirectory. You can put as many Put_Text_File() commands as needed in between Start_Text_File() and End_Text_File(), just remember that none of these three commands can be used without the others! If you attempt to use any of these commands strictly on their own, you can be guaranteed that you will crash the remote caller's terminal program. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── MAXscript and MAXcontrol Command Library: ───────────────────────────────────────── After your BBS or door program has determined whether or not the user has RIP capabilities, you send the string #255#126#127#255 to the comport. If the caller has MAXscript and MAXcontrol capabilities, it will return the the MAXscript version number it supports in the format #.## ....From here you will tell your program "YES" there is FULL remote MAX Graphics support. AddTo_PickList('Text String') MAXcontrol: #255#126#149'Text String'#255 This command adds items to the picklist. The maximum number of items in a picklist is 800. Each item should be less than or equal to 80 characters wide. If it is longer, the excess length will simply be truncated. See Also: New_PickList(), SetUp_PickList(), Reset_PickList(), Get_Pick_Info() Animate_Icon(XStart,YStart,XEnd,YEnd,Delay,IconSize,Icon) MAXcontrol: #255#126#173XStart,YStart,XEnd,YEnd,Delay,IconSize,Icon#255 This command animates a Small, Medium, or Large icon from XStart/YStart to XEnd/YEnd. "Delay" is the total number of milliseconds between each icon plot. "IconSize" determines whether the icon is a Small, Medium, or Large icon (1-Small, 2-Medium,3-Large) and "Icon" is the icon's record position in the current icon library. Here's a hint to help eliminate flicker when animating the icon....The "Delay" should be a multiple or a divisor of the icon's pixel width or height. Meaning, a medium icon that is 30x30 pixels should have a delay factor of 15,30,60,120,etc....There is no technical proof to warrant this, however, this is the method I use and it sure works for me on my system.... See Also: Flip_Icon() Bar(X1,Y1,X2,Y1) MAXcontrol: #255#126#159X1,Y1,X2,Y1#255 This command draws a solid filled rectangle on the screen defined by the X1,Y1,X2,Y2 coordinates with the currently selected color and fill style selected by Set_Fill_Style(). See Also: Set_Fill_Style(), Rectangle() Button_Extension(ButtonNumber,'UpTo20Characters') MAXcontrol: #255#126#183ButtonNumber,'UpTo20Characters'#255 In some BBS packages such as PCBoard, Renegade, Nexus, Etc, you may assign entire strings to certain functions on your menus. In standard MAX and RIP buttons you can only send a character per button press. By adding an extension to the button, you can send the character assigned to the button and up to 20 additional characters. Buttons are drawn on the screen in sequential fashion and are numbered in the MAXterm program from #1 up to #30. So let's say you want to make the first button drawn on the screen send a string like "/G"....You would first plot a button and assign the character "/" to it. Since you are working with the first button you would use Button_Extension(1,'G') to add the "G" to the first button on the screen. Now when ever the user clicks on that button, it will send "/G" instead of just the "/" character by itself. Change_Field(FieldNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#152FieldNumber#255 This command will tell your program to make a new Entry Field active. After this command is issued, you need to issue the command Redraw_Field() to make the change take effect. This command is mainly for BBS and Door programs. See Also: Entry_Field(), Redraw_Field(), Field_Text() Clear_Screen(Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#161Color#255 This command will clear the screen from 0,21,639,458 in the color determined by the "Color" variable. This command will not touch the top and bottom status bars. Click_Zone(X1,Y1,Width,Height,HotKey) MAXcontrol: #255#126#171X1,Y1,Width,Height,HotKey#255 This command turns a specified region of the screen into a button of sorts. This will basically draw a frame on the screen that presses and releases with mouse clicks. X1/Y1 is where the zone starts. "Width" is the width of the zone in pixels and "Height" is the height of the zone in pixels. "HotKey" is the ASCII value of the character the zone is suppose to represent. Using this command in conjunction with the Bar() command allows you to create buttons with custom sizes, colors, and fill styles. See Also: Draw_Button(), Radio_Button(), User_Button() Draw_Bezier(X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,XRadius,YRadius,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#172X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,XRadius,YRadius,Color#255 This command draws a filled elliptical sector using X1/Y1 as the center point, and XRadius/YRadius as the horizontal and vertical axis. The sector travels from StartAngle to EndAngle and is drawn in the color specified by "Color". The sector is filled with the current fill style set by Set_Fill_Style(). See Also: Draw_Elipse(), Set_Fill_Style() Draw_Button(X1,Y1,PixelWidth,HotKey,UseIcon,Icon#,'ButtonTitle') MAXcontrol: #255#126,#130X1,Y1,PixelWidth,HotKey,UseIcon,Icon#,'ButtonTitle'#255 This command draws a standard raised button on the screen at X1/Y1 coordinates. This type of button has a predefined height of 20 pixels. You define the width of the button with the PixelWidth variable. This width is intentionally not predefined so you can create a more customized look to the screens you create. The HotKey variable determines the key's (ASCII Value) that needs to be pressed to make MAXterm return the Button # value. With no buttons on the screen, the button value is zero. If this is the first button on the screen, the button value will return a 1, if it's the second button, it will return a 2, and so on. The UseIcon variable tells MAXterm whether or not to plot a 16x16 (Small Icon Type) icon on the button (0=No,1=Yes). The Icon# variable determines the icon number in the currently selected 16x16 icon library file. See Also: Small_Icon_LIB(), Radio_Button(), Click_Zone(), User_Button() Draw_Circle(X1,Y1,Radius,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#158X1,Y1,Radius#255 This command draws circle on the screen inside with the X1,Y1 coordinates being the center of the circle. Radius is the amount of pixels from the center to the outmost edge of the circle. The color of the cirle is determined by the "Color" variable. The circle can be filled with a a color and pattern of your choice. See the Flood_Fill() command for more information. See Also: Flood_Fill(), Set_Fill_Style() Draw_Ellipse(X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,XRadius,YRadius,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#166X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,XRadius,YRadius,Color#255 This command draws and elliptical arc using X1/Y1 as the center point, and XRadius/YRadius as the horizontal and vertical axis. The ellipse travels from StartAngle to EndAngle and is drawn in the color specified by "Color". See Also: Set_Fill_Style(), Flood_Fill(), Draw_Bezier() Draw_Line(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#132X1,Y1,X2,Y2,LineColor#155 This command draws a line from X1,Y1 to X2,Y2 in the color specified by the variable "Color". Draw_Rectangle(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#162X1,Y1,X2,Y2#255 This command is similar to the Bar() command with the small exception that there is no fill, this is just a frame. You can still fill the rectangle with the Flood_Fill() command if you wish. The color of the frame is determined by the variable "Color". See Also: Flood_Fill(), Set_Fill_Style() Draw_Triangle(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,X3,Y3,Color); MAXcontrol: #255#126#178X1,Y1,X2,Y2,X3,Y3,Color#255 This command draws a triangle on the screen using the variables X1/X1, X2/Y2, X3/Y3 as the triangle's points going clock-wise with X1/Y1 being the top point of the triangle. The triangle is drawn in the color specified by the "Color" variable. The triangle is drawn unfilled but can be filled by Flood_Fill(). See Also: Flood_Fill(), Set_Fill_Style() Draw_Window(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,WindowType,'WindowTitle') MAXcontrol: #255#126#128100,100,630,380,WindowType,'WindowTitle'#255 This command draws a window at X1,Y1,X2,Y2 the coordinates. WindowType defines which type of window to display on the user's screen. There are four window types at this time: 1 - Standard Block Window 2 - Invisible Window 3 - Flat Panel Window 4 - Transparent Window 5 - Standard Panel Window Any window type setting outside of these ranges will cause the program to default to window type #1. See Also: Kill_Window() Editor_File('FILENAME.TXT') MAXcontrol: #255#126#176'FILENAME.TXT'#255 This command tells the text editor what file name to save the text in MAXterm's text buffer to. The file is stored in the user's \MAXTERM\SESSION\ subdirectory. This command needs to be called some time before Run_Text_Editor() or the program will use the default TEXTFILE.TXT file name. See Also: New_Text_Editor(), Run_Text_Editor(), Load_Text_File(), Start_Text_File(), Put_Text_File(), End_Text_File() End_Screen() MAXcontrol: #255#126#254#255 This command is used in either screen files or BBS or door programs to throw MAXterm into its "Wait State" mode. This command must be issued at the end of EVERY screen file or when ever your BBS or door program is finished drawing. This command does not apply to remotely stored screen files. See Also: Start_Screen() End_Text_File() MAXcontrol: #255#126#182#255 This command closes the text file created by Start_Text_File() so that it can be read by Load_Text_File(). Absolutely do not forget to issue this command after Start_Text_File() and do not issue this command unless there was a Start_Text_File() previously issued. Ignoring these rules will cause MAXterm to crash, no doubt about it! See Also: Start_Text_File(), Put_Text_File(), HTML_Browser() Entry_Field(X1,Y1,EntryType,Width,'DefaultText') MAXcontrol: #255#126#131X1,Y1,EntryType,Width,'DefaultText'#255 This command plots an entry field on the screen at X1/Y1 coordinates. This is only meant to be used with BBS or door programs due to the way it returns the text entered in the fields. However, you can still use these in your screens for purely cosmetic purposes. There are six types of EntryTypes: 0 - Normal Input 1 - Numeric Input 2 - Proper Input 3 - Date/Phone # Input 4 - Secret Input 5 - Upper Case Input After all of your items have been drawn in the window you will issue the End_Screen() command which will activate the scrolling of the Entry_Fields. In some part of your program you will have to execute the command Get_Field_Data() after the user clicks a button which is not a Picklist or Text File Reader scroll button. This will tell MAXterm to send the text string from each field to the comport in a fashion similar to a MAXcontrol code. The entry fields are numbered 1..30 as they are drawn on the screen and text strings will be returned to your BBS or door in a sequential fashion with a #13#10 at the end of each text string. MAXterm will send a #255#255#13#10 to indicate there is no more data to send. See Also: Get_Field_Data() Field_Text(FieldNumber,'Field Text') MAXcontrol: #255#126#248FieldNumber,'Field Text'#255 This command is mainly for MAX BBS and Door programs.... At some point in your program, you will find the need to dynamically change the text in an entry field. This command is to be used in conjunction with Change_Field() and the Redraw_Field() commands. Say you have three fields on the screen, the last field drawn is Field #3. Then say that for some reason you suddenly need to change the text in field #3. You would execute this command, then Change_Field(3), the Redraw_Field(). You may also omit the Change_Field() and Redraw_Field() and wait for the user to change to this field on their own. See Also: Entry_Field(), Change_Field(), Redraw_Field() Flip_Icon(X1,Y1,Icon1,Icon2,Icon3,Icon4,Size); MAXcontrol: #255#126#179X1,Y1,Icon1,Icon2,Icon3,Icon4,Size#255 This command is used to place icons on the screen that will continuously draw over top of each other while the mouse is in operation. This creates an animated effect and is useful for creating spinning or flipping images. Be careful when using this feature, the more icons you have flipping, the slower your mouse will react. If at all possible, use the "Small" icons for this feature to increase mouse reaction. See Also: Put_Small_Icon(), Put_Medium_Icon(), Put_Large_Icon(), Small_Icon_Lib(), Medium_Icon_Lib(), Large_Icon_LIB() Flood_Fill(X1,Y1,BorderColor) MAXcontrol: #255#126#165X1,Y1,BorderColor#255 This command fills an area starting at the X1/Y1 coordinates using the color and fill determined by the Set_Fill_Style() command. The BorderColor variable determines the color of the lines (or borders) where you want the fill to stop at. Say you used the command Draw_Circle(100,100,50,64). The border of the circle is in color #64. After you determine the color and style of the fill with Set_Fill_Style(), you would use Flood_Fill(100,100,64) to fill the circle to its borders or any other overlapping shapes so long as their borders are in color # 64 as well. See Also: Set_Fill_Style(), Draw_Rectangle(), Draw_Circle() Frame_High(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) MAXcontrol: #255#126#144X1,Y1,X2,Y2#255 This command simply draws a pseudo 3-D frame on the screen at the X1,Y1,X2,Y2 coordinates that appears to be raised. Meaning the top and left side of the frame are brighter than the bottom and right sides. See Also: Frame_Low() Frame_Low(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) MAXcontrol: #255#126#145X1,Y1,X2,Y2#255 This command is the opposite of the Frame_High() command. This draws a frame on the screen at X1,Y1,X2,Y2 that appears to be lowered. See Also: Frame_High() Get_Editor_Text() MAXcontrol: #255#126#249#255 This command is used to send the text saved to the text file created by the text editor. The text is sent in the form of a character by character transfer with a #13#10 at the end of every line to indicate a line feed. The MAXterm program will send a #255#255#13#10 to indicate there is no more data to send. See Also: New_Text_Editor(), Run_Text_Editor() Get_Field_Data() MAXcontrol: #255#126#250#255 This command is NEVER to be used in anything but a BBS or a door program. NEVER use this command in screen files! If your program uses entry fields for anything, then you will need a way of getting the field data from the user's terminal back to your program. For every entry field on the user's screen, this command will cause the remote's terminal program to send the text string from each field with a #13#10 at the end. The MAXterm program will send a #255#255#13#10 to indicate there is no more data to send. See Also: Entry_Field() Get_Pick_Info() MAXcontrol: #255#126#247#255 This command is used to get the pick list item number and text. First the item number will be sent followed by the string #13#10, then the item text will be sent in the same fashion. The MAXterm program will send a #255#255#13#10 to indicate that it is finished sending data. See Also: New_Pick_List(), Set_Up_PickList, Reset_PickList(), Add_To_PickList(); Hide_Mouse() MAXcontrol: #255#126#139#255 This command hides the mouse cursor from view. This is important to do before you do any drawing or text plotting of any kind. If you don't, the user will end up with a blemish on the screen as soon as they move their mouse. You shouldn't have to worry about using this command or the Show_Mouse() command if you are drawing complete MAX screen files with the Start_Screen() and End_Screen() in them. About the only people that will ever have to worry about these commands are BBS or BBS door programmers. See Also: Show_Mouse() HTML_Browser('FILENAME.HTM') MAXcontrol: #255#126#187'FILENAME.HTM'#255 This command starts up MAXterm's HTML browser. The actual HTML file must have the .HTM file extension, .HTML is not a valid file extension in DOS. The .HTM file must already exist in the caller's \SESSION\ subdirectory. You can use a resource update door to get the file to the user, but it is wiser to build the file on the fly if you change your HTML files on a regular basis. The HTML2MAX.EXE utility in MAXpaint will automatically convert an HTML file to a MAX screen file your BBS can send on the fly. Otherwise, you will need to add the remote text file building commands in the HTML file where needed. See Also: Start_Text_File(), Put_Text_File(), End_Text_File() Kill_Window() MAXcontrol: #255#126#129#255 This command is mainly used in BBS or door programs designed around MAX Graphics. Any time you use Draw_Window(), you must use Kill_Window() unless you are creating screens. Any time a new screen is sent, the RIP clear screen command is sent prior to the screen file. This does a global Kill_Window in MAXterm, so you don't have to worry about using this in your screens. The reason for this command is so you can kill any window you have created in order to restore that portion of the screen and also restore buttons/fields/picklists/editor/reader/etc that may happen to exist in the previous window (if any). See Also: Draw_Window() Large_Icon_LIB('FILENAME.003') MAXcontrol: #255#126#135'FILENAME.003'#255 This tells MAXterm to change icon library files for its "Large" (60x60) icons. All Large icon libraries have an extension of "003"....If the extension is any different, the default icon library will be used. See Also: Medium_Icon_LIB(), Small_Icon_LIB(), Put_Large_Icon() Load_Font('FILENAME.FNT') MAXcontrol: (#255#126#148'FILENAME.FNT'#255 This command will dispose of the currently loaded GEM font file in memory and load a new one. GEM font files must have the .FNT extension. These fonts are the user defined fonts and referred to as Font Type #4. See Also: Standard_Text(), Shadow_Text() Load_Text_File('FILENAME.TXT') MAXcontrol: #255#126#167'FILENAME.TXT'#255 This command is used to load a text file into the buffer used by the text reader and text editor. This command is called _AFTER_ the call to New_Text_Reader() and after the call to New_Text_Editor(). Note: You don't have to load a text file into the text editor if you don't want to. Run_Text_Editor() and Show_Text_Page() are called _AFTER_ this command. This file must exist in the user's ?:\MAXTERM\SESSION\ subdirectory. Note: The text buffer only allows for 99 lines of text. See Also: New_Text_Editor(), New_Text_Reader(), Run_Text_Editor(), Show_Text_Page(), Editor_File(), Start_Text_File(), Put_Text_File, End_Text_File() Lowered_Box(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) MAXcontrol: #255#126#147X1,Y1,X2,Y2#255 This command draws a box on the screen at that appears to be lowered at the X1,Y1,X2,Y2 coordinates. See Also: Raised_Box() MAXecute('FILENAME.EXE'); MAXcontrol: #255#126#185'FILENAME.EXE'#255 This command instructs MAXterm to execute a special program called a "MAXecutable". These are special executable files that run within the MAXterm environment. Some developers have found that they can make more elaborate programs by working outside of the MAXscript constraints. So they have written doors that run a special executable on the remote end. This command is usually reserved for door developers. Medium_Icon_LIB('FILENAME.002') MAXcontrol: #255#126#134'FILENAME.002'#255 This tells MAXterm to change icon library files for its "Medium" (30x30) icons. All Medium icon libraries have an extension of "002"....If the extension is any different, the default icon library will be used. See Also: Small_Icon_LIB(), Large_Icon_LIB(), Put_Medium_Icon() Mouse_Mask(MaskNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#141MaskNumber#255 This command changes the "Mask" of the mouse cursor. There are a total of 19 mouse masks: 0 - Standard Arrow 1 - Up Arrow 2 - Down Arrow 3 - Left Arrow 4 - Right Arrow 5 - Check Mark 6 - Up Hand 7 - Down Hand 8 - Left Hand 9 - Right Hand 10 - Stop Hand 11 - Hour Glass 12 - Diagonal Cross 13 - Rectangular Cross 14 - Rectangular Box 15 - Target Cross 16 - Target Circle 17 - Target Box 18 - Question Mark Any number outside of these ranges will cause the mouse mask to default to zero. See Also: Hide_Mouse(), Show_Mouse() New_PickList(X1,Y1,OnScreen,Width) MAXcontrol: #255#126#168X1,Y1,OnScreen,Width#255 This command initializes the scrolling picklist on the screen and allocates memory for it. The upper left corner of the picklist will be at X1/Y1 coordinates. The OnScreen variable determines how many items (in rows) will appear on the screen, and the Width variable determines how wide (in characters) the picklist will be. There are however a couple rules you must follow when using picklists in your screens and programs. The picklist MUST be the first item in the window. When you are in your repeat loop initiated by End_Screen() the top scroll button in the picklist with return 1 and the other will report 2. All other buttons added to the screen after the picklist will return values from 3 on up. See Also: AddTo_PickList(), SetUp_PickList, Reset_PickList(), Get_Pick_Info() New_Text_Editor(Y1) MAXcontrol: #255#126#154Y1#255 This command initializes the text editor on the screen. You will notice that there only a Y1 coordinate because the text field takes up the whole width of the screen. You'll need to call Draw_Window() before this for two reasons... The first reason is because you will most likely want to have some kind of a header to display what the text file or message is that is being edited. The second reason is because you will need to save the entire screen before you plot the editing field on the screen. That way when the user is done with their editing, you can make a call to Kill_Window() to restore the entire screen. After you call this command, you may optionally stuff the buffer with text from a text file. See Load_Text_File() for more information. See Also: Draw_Window(), Kill_Window(), Editor_File(), Load_Text_File(), Run_Text_Editor() New_Text_Reader(Y1) MAXcontrol: #255#126#156#Y1#255 As with the New_Text_Editor command, this command uses only the Y1 coordinate because the text file reader takes up the whole width of the screen. All of the same rules as the New_Text_Editor command apply here. You will need to issue a command to Draw_Window() to save the previous screen. See Load_Text_File() for more information. See Also: New_Text_Editor(), Draw_Window(), Kill_Window(), Show_Text_Page() Pie_Slice(X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,Radius,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#175X1,Y1,StartAngle,EndAngle,Radius,Color#255 This command draws a pie slice on the screen using X1/Y1 coordinates as the center "Point" and draws the arc of the slice from StartAngle to EndAngle. The over all size of the slice is determined by "Radius". The pie slice is drawn in "Color" and filled by the current color and fill style determined by Set_Fill_Style() See Also: Set_Fill_Style(), Draw_Bezier() Play_Sound('SOUND.FIL') MAXcontrol: #255#126#163'SOUND.FIL'#255 This command plays 1 of three types of sound files through the user's sound card. Supported sound formats are VOC, WAV, and MID (MIDI). The user MUST have the environment variable for their sound card set for their sound card before this function will work for them. Put_Image(X1,Y1,'IMAGE.PCX') MAXcontrol: #255#126#164X1,Y1,'IMAGE.PCX'#255 This tells MAXterm to display a graphic image at the X1,Y1 coordinates. MAX Graphics only supports 256 color PCX files since this is strictly an SVGA interface. Converting and/or cropping the image or altering its palette can be done with about any shareware or commercial graphics image editor. One such shareware image editor is called NeoPaint from NeoSoft Corporation and is available on almost any shareware CD-ROM. Put_Large_Icon(X1,Y1,IconNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#136X1,Y1,IconNumber#255 Plots a "Large" (60x60) icon at the X1/Y1 coordinates. IconNumber is the zero based record number of the icon in the currently selected Large_Icon_LIB. If the icon number you select IconNumber is larger than the amount of icons in the library (minus 1), then icon #0 will be used instead. See Also: Put_Small_Icon(), Put_Medium_Icon(), Large_Icon_LIB() Put_Medium_Icon(X1,Y1,IconNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#137X1,Y1,IconNumber#255 Plots a "Medium" (30x30) icon at the X1/Y1 coordinates. IconNumber is the zero based record number of the icon in the currently selected Medium_Icon_LIB. If the icon number you select IconNumber is larger than the amount of icons in the library (minus 1), then icon #0 will be used instead. See Also: Put_Small_Icon(), Put_Large_Icon(), Medium_Icon_LIB() Put_Pixel(X1,Y1,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#177X1,Y1,Color#255 This command is as "Low-Level" as low-level can get. This plots a single pixel at X1/Y1 coordinates in the color specified by the "Color" variable. This command may not be of that much use to you, but it is here in case you do actually need it. Put_Small_Icon(X1,Y1,IconNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#138X1,Y1,IconNumber#255 Plots a "Small" (16x16) icon at the X1/Y1 coordinates. IconNumber is the zero based record number of the icon in the currently selected Small_Icon_LIB. If the icon number you select IconNumber is larger than the amount of icons in the library (minus 1), then icon #0 will be used instead. See Also: Put_Medium_Icon(), Put_Large_Icon(), Small_Icon_LIB() Put_Text_File('String'); MAXcontrol: #255#126#181'String'#255 After you have created the text file using the command Start_Text_File(), you must call this procedure repeatedly until you are finished writing to the file. Keep in mind that in _SCRIPT.PAS this command uses Pascal's WRITELN.... See Also: Start_Text_File(), End_Text_File(), HTML_Browser() Radio_Button(X1,Y1,HotKey) MAXcontrol: #255#126#170X1,Y1,HotKey#255 This command draws a small rounded button on the screen at X1/Y1 coordinates. The HotKey variable is the ASCII value of the character that is returned when the user clicks on the button with their mouse. Unlike the Draw_Button command there is no icon, pixel width, icon settings, or title for this type of button. See Also: Draw_Button(), Click_Zone(), User_Button() Raised_Box(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) MAXcontrol: #255#126#146X1,Y1,X2,Y2#255 This command draws a box on the screen at that appears to be raised at the X1,Y1,X2,Y2 coordinates. This is basically a Flat Panel Window with no screen saving abilities. See Also: Lowered_Box() Redraw_Field() MAXcontrol: #255#126#153#255 This command must be issued immediately after a call to the Field_Text() and Change_Field() commands. This command is mainly for BBS and Door programs. See Also: Entry_Field(), Change_Field(), Field_Text() Reset_PickList(ItemNumber) MAXcontrol: #255#126#151#255 This command resets the highlight bar in the picklist to a specified picklist item. You issue this command and then issue the SetUp_PickList() command. See Also: New_PickList(), AddTo_PickList(), SetUp_PickList(), Get_Pick_Info() Reset_Remote() MAXcontrol: #255#126#169#255 This command is used to reset all colors and file names in the remote's terminal program to their default values. See the section of this document on MAXcolor codes. Run_Text_Editor() MAXcontrol: #255#126#155#255 This command must be issued ONLY after the New_Text_Editor() command has been issued. See Also: New_Text_Editor(), Load_Text_File(), Editor_File() Set_Fill_Style(Pattern,Color) MAXcontrol: #255#126#160Pattern,Color#255 This sets the fill style to be used to fill in the center of a Bar or Circle. A setting of zero will cause the shape to be drawn on the screen with just the frame being set by the "Color" variable. There are 12 different fill styles: 0 - No Fill 1 - Solid Fill 2 - Line Fill 3 - Light Slash Fill 4 - Heavy Slash Fill 5 - Heavy Back Slash Fill 6 - Light Back Slash Fill 7 - Light Cross Hatch 8 - Heavy Cross Hatch 9 - Interleave Fill 10 - Wide Dot Fill 11 - Close Dot Fill Any number outside of these ranges will cause the fill style to default to zero. See Also: Bar(), Circle(), Polygon() SetUp_PickList() MAXcontrol: #255#126#150#255 After the picklist has been initialized with New_PickList() and has had items added to it with AddTo_PickList(), it is now ready to run in the mouse loop. This command tells the program that you are finished adding items to the picklist and that it is now ready. When using picklists you need to remember that the picklist always adds two buttons to the beginning of your screen. The current item in the picklist with the highlight bar on it is returned in the variable PickInfo.Current in the MAX Graphics interface unit. Should you wish to return that text into your program, you would access it as PickList[PickInfo.Current].... See Also: New_PickList(), AddTo_PickList(), Reset_PickList(), Get_Pick_Info() Shadow_Text(X1,Y1,TextColor,ShadowColor,FontType,'Your Text') MAXcontrol: #255#126#143X1,Y1,TextColor,ShadowColor,FontType,'Your Text'#255 This is command is similar to Standard_Text() except this command plots your text with a shadow behind it. You simply define two colors here instead of just one.... FontTypes are: 1 - 5x8 bitmapped font 2 - GEM "System" font 3 - 8x14 ROM resident font 4 - External GEM font See Also: Standard_Text(), Load_Font() Show_Mouse() MAXcontrol: #255#126#140#255 Any time a call to Hide_Mouse() is called, you will need to call this command to re-enable the users mouse cursor. You shouldn't have to worry about using this command or the Hide_Mouse() command if you are drawing complete MAX screen files with the Start_Screen() and End_Screen() in them. About the only people that will ever have to worry about these commands are BBS or BBS door programmers. See Also: Hide_Mouse() Show_Remote_Screen('FILENAME.MAX') MAXcontrol: #255#126#251'FILENAME.MAX'#255 This command is used to display a remotely stored screen file. In some cases, a screen can simply become too large to send over the modem and display quick enough for your likings. What you can do is create a screen file and then place it in your PKG file for your system. Keep in mind that the actual screen file must not contain either the Start_Screen() or End_Screen() commands. Those commands will already be issued in the screen file that executes the Show_Remote_Screen('FILENAME.MAX') command. See Also: Start_Screen(), End_Screen() Show_Text_Page() MAXcontrol: #255#126#157#255 This command must be issued ONLY after the New_Text_Reader() command has been issued, this activates the text reader. See Also: New_Text_Reader Siren() MAXcontrol: #255#126#184#255 This command is the equivalent to the CTRL-G Bell in an ANSI/TTY terminal program, only it's about 100 times as annoying. This simply creates a siren tone through the caller's PC speaker. See Also: Play_Sound() Small_Icon_LIB('FILENAME.001') MAXcontrol: #255#126#133'FILENAME.001'#255 This tells MAXterm to change icon library files for its "Small" (16x16) icons. All Small icon libraries have an extension of "001"....If the extension is any different, the default icon library will be used. See Also: Medium_Icon_LIB(), Large_Icon_LIB(), Put_Small_Icon() Standard_Text(X1,Y1,TextColor,FontType,'Your Text') MAXcontrol: #255#126#142X1,Y1,TextColor,FontType,'Your Text'#255 This command is used to plot text at the X1/Y1 coordinates on the screen. TextColor is the color of your text and FontType is the type of font you want you text printed in. FontTypes are: 1 - 5x8 bitmapped font 2 - GEM "System" font 3 - 8x14 ROM resident font 4 - External GEM font See Also: Shadow_Text(), Load_Font() Start_Screen() MAXcontrol: #255#126#253#255 This command is used in either screen files or BBS or door programs to throw MAXterm into "Draw mode". This command must be issued at the beginning of EVERY screen file to clear/reset all variables in MAXterm's memory. This command does not apply to remotely stored screen files. See Also: End_Screen() Start_Text_File('FILENAME.TXT') MAXcontrol: #255#126#180'FILENAME.TXT'#255 This command builds a text file in the the caller's \SESSION\ subdirectory. This can be used for about any purpose, but the main reasons would be for creating a text file to load in the text editor or text reader. Keep in mind that this command absolutely MUST be followed up by an End_Text_File() command or you could possible cause MAXterm to crash the next time this command is called. See Also: Put_Text_File(), End_Text_File(), HTML_Browser() Text_View_Port(X1,Y1,C,R) MAXcontrol: #255#126#186X1,Y1,C,R#255 This command can be used in screen files or BBS and door programs. The reason for this function is that there are some BBS programs that create dynamically generated text after the screens are drawn. This text is most generally to tell the user what the active file or message area is or to send the user general system info or warnings. You would use this command to define a view port the screen where you want this information displayed. This command plots the Text View Port at X1/Y1 coordinates with the R defining how many text rows to display and with the C defining how many text columns to display. See Also: Text_View_Window() Text_View_Window(X1,Y1,C,R) MAXcontrol: #255#126#252X1,Y1,C,R#255 This command can be used in screen files or BBS and door programs. The reason for this function is that there are some BBS programs that create dynamically generated text after the screens are drawn. This text is most generally to tell the user what the active file or message area is or to send the user general system info or warnings. You would use this command to define a window on the screen where you want this information displayed. This command plots the Text View Window at X1/Y1 coordinates with the R defining how many text rows to display and with the C defining how many text columns to display. See Also: Text_View_Port() User_Button(X1,Y1,Width,Height,HotKey) MAXcontrol: #255#126#174X1,Y1,Width,Height,HotKey#255 This command draws and actual button on the screen in the current button face color. Similar to Click_Zone(), only this user defined zone is filled with color. See Also: Draw_Button(), Radio_Button(), Click_Zone() ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── TO BE CONTINUED: (More Commands Are Sill Being Added, Hang In There!) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── MAXcolor Commands: ────────────────── You can remotely change the colors used in the user's terminal program for drawing graphics primitives. However, there are no text based counterparts to these commands in order to retain the highest possible speed. These are similar to MAXcontrol commands, the exception to the rule is that the #126 in MAXcontrol is replaced by a #125, all MAXcolor variables start at #127. For a better description of what each variable is used for, please see the file SVGAUNIT.PAS in the MAX Graphics development kit. Win1Back = #255#125#127ColorNumber#255 Win4Back = #255#125#128ColorNumber#255 Win1High = #255#125#129ColorNumber#255 Win4High = #255#125#130ColorNumber#255 Win1Low = #255#125#131ColorNumber#255 Win4Low = #255#125#132ColorNumber#255 Win1Frame1 = #255#125#133ColorNumber#255 Win1Frame2 = #255#125#134ColorNumber#255 Win4Frame = #255#125#135ColorNumber#255 ActiveHdr = #255#125#136ColorNumber#255 InactiveHdr = #255#125#137ColorNumber#255 HdrTitle = #255#125#138ColorNumber#255 ButtonFrame = #255#125#139ColorNumber#255 ButtonFace = #255#125#140ColorNumber#255 ButtonHigh = #255#125#141ColorNumber#255 ButtonLow = #255#125#142ColorNumber#255 ButtonHot = #255#125#143ColorNumber#255 ButtonText = #255#125#144ColorNumber#255 FrameHigh = #255#125#145ColorNumber#255 FrameLow = #255#125#146ColorNumber#255 BoxBack = #255#125#147ColorNumber#255 BoxHigh = #255#125#148ColorNumber#255 BoxLow = #255#125#149ColorNumber#255 FieldTextHigh = #255#125#150ColorNumber#255 FieldTextLow = #255#125#151ColorNumber#255 FieldBack = #255#125#152ColorNumber#255 FieldFrame = #255#125#153ColorNumber#255 FieldHigh = #255#125#154ColorNumber#255 QuoteColor = #255#125#155ColorNumber#255 MsgColor = #255#125#156ColorNumber#255 TearColor = #255#125#157ColorNumber#255 FlagColor = #255#125#158ColorNumber#255 MsgIDcolor = #255#125#159ColorNumber#255 TextBack = #255#125#160ColorNumber#255 PickHighFore = #255#125#161ColorNumber#255 PickHighBack = #255#125#162ColorNumber#255 ScreenColor = #255#125#163ColorNumber#255 Special System Commands: ──────────────────────── MAXterm also responds to special commands that are actually extensions of the MAXcolor commands. MAXcolor commands are allocated from #127 to #199, MAXterm system control commands are allocated from #200 to #254 using the variable type #125. (Are ya' confused yet? <G>) These extended commands are for querying MAXterm for special information, making it perform some special functions, and changing its internal variables. If you are not a programmer, then these commands will have little or no value to you and should be avoided at all costs. #255#125#200#255 : This command is used to make MAXterm send back the user's name and password. Both of these are sent to the BBS/Door program followed by a #13#10. When the terminal is finished, it will send a #255#255#13#10. #255#125#201#255 : This command tells MAXterm to send a complete list of all resources in the \SESSION\ subdirectory. Each resource file name is sent to the BBS/Door followed by a #13#10. When the terminal is finished, it will send a #255#255#13#10. This command is very usefull if you are implementing automatic resource updating. #255#125#202#255 : This command tells MAXterm to change its download path to the \SESSION\ subdirectory. #255#125#203#255 : This command tells MAXterm to change its download path to the \RESOURCE\ subdirectory. #255#125#204#255 : This command tells MAXterm to change its download path back to its original path after it has been changed to another path. #255#125#205#255 : This command tells MAXterm to send back all of its critical system information. Each line of info is followed by a #13#10. When the terminal is finished it will send a #255#255#13#10. #255#125#206'FILENAME.EXT'#255 : This command tells MAXterm to delete a specific file in the \SESSION\ sub- directory. This is especially handy for updating your own resources or if you have implemented previewing of image files in your BBS/Door program. #255#125#207'FILENAME.EXT'#255 : This command tells MAXterm to delete a specific file in the \RESOURCE\ sub- directory. This is especially handy for doing complete updates of your BBS resource .PKG file. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The MAX Graphics Color Palette: ─────────────────────────────── To provide full compatibility from platform to platform, the actual palette settings (Red, Green, Blue values) are shown below. In BGI and most every other graphics programming interface, the Red, Green, Blue values are in a range of 0 to 63. Below are the Red, Green, Blue values shown left to right for each color in the MAX Graphics palette. The first row of numbers shown is color #0 and the last is color #255. In a lot of cases, these settings can be copied to a text file and used in other "Paint" programs such as the NeoPaint program from NeoSoft Corporation. Included in this archive called MAXGRAPH.PAL which is a pre-made palette file for NeoPaint. For information on how to obtain a copy of the NeoPaint program, please contact the company at the address or phone numbers listed below.... NeoSoft Corporation 354 NE Greenwood Avenue, Suite 108 Bend, OR 97701-4631 VOICE: (503)389-5489 FAX: (503)388-8221 BBS: (503)383-7195 MAX Graphics Palette Values: ──────────────────────────── 0 0 0 0 0 42 0 42 0 0 42 42 42 0 0 42 0 42 42 21 0 42 42 42 21 21 21 21 21 63 21 63 21 21 63 63 63 21 21 63 21 63 63 63 21 63 63 63 15 3 12 18 6 15 21 9 18 24 12 21 28 16 25 32 20 29 36 24 33 40 28 37 44 32 41 48 36 45 52 40 49 56 44 53 58 46 55 60 48 57 62 50 59 63 54 60 0 0 18 0 0 23 0 0 28 0 0 33 0 0 38 0 0 43 0 0 48 0 0 53 0 0 58 0 0 63 0 8 63 0 15 63 0 20 63 0 25 63 0 30 63 0 35 63 0 40 63 0 45 63 0 50 63 0 55 63 0 60 63 0 63 63 7 10 31 12 15 41 17 20 41 22 25 46 27 30 51 32 35 56 37 40 61 41 48 63 15 0 30 20 0 35 25 0 40 30 0 45 35 0 50 45 0 60 50 0 63 55 25 63 58 31 63 63 35 63 63 40 63 63 45 63 63 50 63 63 55 63 63 60 63 0 18 0 5 22 0 10 27 5 15 32 10 20 37 15 25 42 20 30 47 25 35 52 30 40 57 35 45 62 40 0 20 0 0 25 0 0 30 0 0 35 0 0 40 0 0 45 0 0 50 0 0 55 0 0 60 0 0 63 5 0 63 26 0 63 34 18 63 43 40 63 48 52 63 54 58 63 55 20 0 0 25 0 0 30 0 0 34 0 0 38 0 0 42 0 0 46 0 0 50 0 0 54 0 0 58 0 0 62 0 0 63 22 22 63 32 32 63 35 35 63 43 43 63 45 45 63 52 52 63 57 57 20 9 0 25 14 5 30 19 10 35 24 15 40 29 20 45 34 25 50 39 30 55 44 35 60 49 40 63 52 43 63 55 48 63 57 50 29 12 0 37 16 0 41 18 0 48 18 0 53 18 0 56 21 3 59 24 6 63 28 10 63 32 0 63 38 10 63 43 10 63 49 18 63 52 0 63 54 0 63 56 0 63 58 0 63 60 0 63 63 0 63 63 10 63 63 20 63 63 30 63 63 40 63 63 50 0 15 15 0 20 20 0 25 25 0 30 30 0 35 35 0 40 40 0 45 45 0 50 50 0 55 55 0 60 60 30 63 63 41 63 63 50 63 63 52 63 63 40 0 25 43 0 27 46 1 29 53 2 34 59 8 36 63 12 40 63 20 41 63 25 44 62 31 47 63 35 49 62 44 56 63 49 60 63 10 10 63 15 15 63 20 20 63 25 25 63 30 30 63 35 35 63 40 40 63 45 45 63 50 50 63 55 55 20 20 0 25 25 0 30 30 0 35 35 5 40 40 10 45 45 15 50 50 20 55 55 25 60 60 30 63 63 40 63 63 50 63 63 58 0 10 0 0 17 0 10 20 10 15 25 15 20 30 20 25 35 25 30 40 30 35 45 35 40 50 40 45 55 45 50 60 50 55 63 55 25 15 0 30 20 5 35 25 10 40 30 15 45 35 20 50 40 25 55 45 30 60 50 35 63 55 40 63 60 45 2 2 2 5 5 5 8 8 8 10 10 10 12 12 12 14 14 14 16 16 16 18 18 18 20 20 20 22 22 22 24 24 24 26 26 26 28 28 28 30 30 30 32 32 32 34 34 34 36 36 36 38 38 38 40 40 40 42 42 42 44 44 44 46 46 46 48 48 48 50 50 50 52 52 52 54 54 54 56 56 56 58 58 58 61 61 61 63 63 63 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── -=≡STANDARD DISCLAIMER≡=- Not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect, error, or failure to perform. No other warranty expressed or implied. Some of the trademarks mentioned in this product appear for identification purposes only. Backup all hard drives, floppies, and CD-ROMs before running this or any other program. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. List each check separately by bank number. Batteries not included. Contents may settle during shipment. Use only as directed. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Postage will be paid by addressee. Apply only to affected area. May be too intense for some viewers. Do not stamp. Use other side for additional listings. For recreational use only. Do not disturb. All models over 18 years of age. If condition persists, consult your physician. No user-serviceable parts inside. Freshest if eaten before date on carton. It takes ten first class stamps to mail a VHS cassette. This product is meant for educational purposes only. 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Avoid contact with skin. Sanitized for your protection. Be sure each item is properly endorsed. Sign here without admitting guilt. Slightly higher west of the Mississippi. Not affiliated with Snyder's of Berlin. Employees and their families are not eligible. Beware of dog. Not responsible for errors in typesetting or photography. Contestants have been briefed on some questions before the show. Limited time offer, call now to insure prompt delivery. You must be present to win. Dramatized for television. Persons using hold-open latches must remain at the refueling point during refueling. No passes accepted for this engagement. No purchase necessary. Use only in well-ventilated area. Keep away from fire or flame. Replace with same type. Approved for veterans. Booths for two or more. Check here if tax deductible. Bleu Cheese 25¢ extra. Some equipment shown is optional. Price does not include taxes. No Canadian coins. Not recommended for children. Prerecorded for this time zone. Reproduction strictly prohibited. 3% surcharge on Visa and MasterCard. No solicitors. No pedestrians, bicycles, or farm machinery. No anchovies unless otherwise specified. Vapors harmful. Stop engine. No smoking. List at least two alternate dates. First pull up, then pull down. Call toll free before digging. Driver does not carry cash. Record additional transactions on back of previous stub. Dealer retains incentives. May not be available in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Sorry, Canada Eh! This notice supersedes all previous notices. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Stephan Pollack [CEO] Douglas Harrington Jr. [Chief Programmer] Online Development Incorporated 921 Box Butte Ave. Alliance, NE, 69301 FAX/BBS #: (308)762-2239 FidoNet : 1:285/703 Internet : utilz@bbc.net http://www1.ridgecrest.ca.us/~sprice/maxgraphics.html ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ You may want to freq or download the file MAXTIPS.DOC from my BBS to help ║ ║ you understand the ins and outs of MAX Graphics more clearly. There isn't ║ ║ anything complicated about adding MAX Graphics to your BBS or doors, but ║ ║ I figure any extra help and information is better than none at all. True? ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝