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INVOKE.DOC
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1993-02-23
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Bill McGinnis Software
P. O. Box 2543
Alexandria, VA 22301
U. S. A.
METHODS OF INVOCATION BETWEEN STUDY HALL AND OTHER CAI SYSTEMS
(This is version 1.0 of invoke.doc, released Feb., 1993)
NOTE: This file is intended for CAI
developers. It assumes you already have
a printed copy of instr.doc available.
STUDY HALL is designed to be highly compatible with other CAI
development systems, both present systems and future. In fact, because of
its screen-oriented nature, where each screen has a name and number, STUDY
HALL is probably easier to invoke than any other CAI system in the world.
It is a simple matter to jump into and out of STUDY HALL tutorials at
any point desired. If you are already using another CAI development
system, it is very easy to start using STUDY HALL subroutines, within your
present CAI environment. Here is how . . .
INVOKING STUDY HALL FROM OTHER SYSTEMS
In general, to enter a STUDY HALL tutorial at a particular screen,
this is the syntax of the DOS command:
STUDY/filename/screen-name or
STUDY/filename/screen-number
Other CAI systems will each have their own particular command syntax,
but in every case, the syntax shown above will be imbedded in the invoking
command. For example, a PC-CAI tutorial would use this command to invoke
a STUDY HALL tutorial at a particular screen:
@SHELL (*STUDY/filename/screen-name*) or
@SHELL (*STUDY/filename/screen-number*)
This command causes a temporary exit from the PC-CAI tutorial while
the STUDY HALL tutorial is being entered and run. At the proper point,
control is returned to the invoking tutorial with this STUDY HALL control
character:
<* exit *>
This causes STUDY HALL and its tutorial to be erased from memory, amd
control is returned to the invoking PC-CAI tutorial, at the point where it
left off, just like a GOSUB in BASIC.
page 1
The <* exit *> control character can also be used in its conditional
form, such as this:
<* if score is less than 90 then exit *> or
<* if answer is cat then exit *>
INVOKING OTHER SYSTEMS FROM STUDY HALL
It also works the other way: you can invoke another CAI development
system from STUDY HALL, run it as a subroutine, then return to STUDY HALL
at the next screen.
If STUDY HALL is the invoking system, and another system is being
invoked, then the STUDY HALL control character is:
<* doscommand xxx *>
. . . where xxx is the DOS command needed to load and run the invoked
tutorial. (In fact, xxx can be any legal MS/DOS command, for any purpose,
not only for invoking other CAI systems.)
For example, this is the STUDY HALL control character which would
invoke a PC-CAI tutorial with a filename of bigdog:
<* doscommand CAI bigdog *>
At this time, there seems to be no way to enter a PC-CAI tutorial at a
particular location. You have to start at the beginning.
The <* doscommand *> control character can also be used in its
conditional form, such as this:
<* if score is greater than 90 then doscommand CAI super *> or
<* if answer is not Donald Duck then doscommand CAI goofy *>
Each CAI system will have its own way of returning control to the
invoking STUDY HALL tutorial. In the case of PC-CAI, the command would
be:
@STOP SYSTEM
This command erases PC-CAI and its tutorial from memory and returns
control to the invoking STUDY HALL tutorial, at its next screen.
For details about PC-CAI, write to P. O. Box 1169, Cedar Hill, Texas,
75104, U. S. A.
For details about STUDY HALL control characters, please see the file
named instr.doc, on the STUDY HALL release disk.
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