COLOURTOOL - THE ULTIMATE colour programming utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Version 2.5.2 19 Dec 1992 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by: Ray Markham P.O. Box 1590 Port Macquarie, N.S.W. 2446 Australia Phone (065) 837517.  ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ]] 32 [[ ColourTool v2.5.2 is now shareware. If you use this program then please help me to help you more by sending a small donation. $Aus10.00 is suggested, but any amount would be appreciated. By sending a donation, you will be advised immediately of any upgrades and amendments or other programs as they come available. A number of other utilities are already in developement and will be made available as soon as they are complete. The File Requester for the IFF file LOAD and SAVE functions are courtesy of Anders Bjerin. See the notes at the end of this file. All code, graphics and documentation except as already stated remain Copyright ©1991-92 by Ray Markham. All rights reserved. ColourTool was written in 'C' using SAS/C v5.10a and v6.0. DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The program and accompanying documentation may be freely distributed provided no changes or additions to the material is made, and the documentation and icons accompany the program unmodified. The program and accompanying files are not modified in any way, except for crunching or lharc'ing etc. HISTORY - most recent first ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ v2.5.2 This program. Added support for AMOS. v2.4.2 When I changed the colours I didn't change those for the preferences areas. These looked odd when called. This has been fixed in this release. v2.4.1 Modified some of the code so it would compile under SAS/C v6.0. Changed some of the colours to look correct for OS2 colours. Found and eliminated a bug in a couple of function calls. Changed the version numbering scheme. The new scheme is x.y.z, where x=version, y=languages supported, z=bug mods. v2.30 - Added the function to save CanDo colour tables. v2.21 - Found a bug which didn't allow the colour sliders to update properly after resetting the number of colour options menu. This was a result of tidying up some code for v2.20 and not finding all the references to that function. v2.20 - Added the save to preferences function. v2.12 - Discovered a bug which crept into the program at v2.0, when I rewrote some of the colour information routines for the Intuition screen handling routines. This caused the source code section to output the required amount of copies of colour zero . v2.11 - I found a bug in the CMAP read routine which had the annoying habit of crashing the system when reading a HAM colourmap containing more than 32 colours. v2.1 - I finally brought the IFF ILBM code in line with EA specs. v2.0 - Changed the entire look of the program and added some new features so I thought that is now worthy of a new version number. Added the new function dependant pointers, the background pattern and 3d-look borders for the gadgets. Also added at this release is the linked Intuition Screen colour load and save functions. v1.3 - Added the Copy, Swap and Spread gadgets for easier handling of the colours. v1.2 - Cleaned up the IFF code a bit. It does the same job, but just a tad quicker, and the code is now easier to understand. v1.1 - Fixed a bug in the colour slider code which caused misreading the slider position and giving false readings on the slider display. v1.0 - The first release as on MEGADISC 24. THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO ADD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Source code generation for other languages. If any one programs in any language that is not supported by COLOURTOOL, then please send me an example of the code required by that language's compiler, including how the language defines comments, and I would be more than happy to add that function. If anyone has any other ideas for something to do with colours, drop me a line with your suggestion and I will have a think about it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PROGRAM OVERVIEW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How often have you been writing a program and needed a new colour table, or just a few colours changed in your existing colour table? Or another case, you are looking at an IFF picture and would like to use the colours from this picture in your program, or even on your picture. Or, you have a program whose screen has some colours that you like, or again colours that you don't like and would love to change ( I know a few of these ). To solve these problems, I wrote COLOURTOOL. N.B. The program name is even spelled correctly. (This comment is especially for any Americans out there...) WHAT COLOURTOOL DOES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COLOURTOOL allows you to define a palette on the screen using the now familiar sliding gadgets (ala DPaint). With the use of the pull down menu and hot keys, you can then save the settings as source code for any of the currently supported languages (see below for list of these), or adjust the size of the palette. You can also take colours from an IFF picture file, or save the current colour selection to an IFF picture file. The program searches through the IFF file looking for a CMAP chunk. The save to IFF option will only place the number of colours that the IFF file currently contains back into the file. The final option is to load and save colours from linked intuition screens into the COLOURTOOL work screen. As with the other options, COLOURTOOL will only save the number of colours currently supported by the object screen. LANGUAGES SUPPORTED BY COLOURTOOL 2.30 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ColourTool is currently capable of saving source code colour table files for the following languages:- Assembler, BASIC, 'C', CanDo, and AMOS Compatibility with other languages will continue to be added as people request them. USING COLOURTOOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ColourTool is activated simply by double clicking on it's icon from workbench, or by calling it from the CLI or SHELL. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE MAIN SCREEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once loaded you are presented with a screen showing 32 coloured gadgets ,three sliding gadgets and a current colour display. By pressing a coloured gadget the colour in the display square changes to the currently selected colour. The sliding gadgets are also set to the red, green and blue values of the current colour. By moving the sliding gadgets you adjust the colour in real time. (Simple eh...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PULL DOWN MENUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By holding down the right mouse button you can access the pull down menus. Everything in ColourTool is activated by using the menus. The PROJECT menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT This option gives some basic information about COLOURTOOL. QUIT This closes Colourtool. QUIT can also be accessed with Right Amiga Q. The FILE OPTIONS menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LOAD ILBM: By selecting this option you will be presented with a file requestor for you to select a (hopefully) picture file for ColourTool to look at and attempt to find a CMAP (ColourMap) chunk for it to use. If it doesn't find a CMAP then it won't change the palette. This option can also be selected with Right Amiga L. SAVE ILBM: You will again be presented with the file requestor and selecting a picture file you will be able to install your current colour settings into that picture. (It makes for some interesting effects). This option can also be selected with Right Amiga S. N.B. The program will only install the number of colours that the picture has room for. e.g. if it is a 4 colour picture, ColourTool will only install the first four colours from the palette. LOAD INTSCREEN: This option allows you to cycle through information collected from any screens which are currently linked into the system through intuition. It displays the name of the screen, the number of bitplanes and number of colours that the screen supports. On this display you can exit back to the COLOURTOOL main screen or load the colours from the currently selected screen into the COLOURTOOL work area. SAVE INTSCREEN: Here you are given the same information as in the previous function, however here you are given the option of placing the current COLOURTOOL work area colours into the currently selected screen. NOTE: You cannot alter the bitplane setup of another screen by using this function. If for example the object screen has two bit planes supporting four colours, only the first four colours from the COLOURTOOL work area will be stored here. SAVE PREFS:0m This option saves colours 0 - 3 directly to the corresponding colours in the current system preferences structure. These colours are able to be used immediately. To save these new colours as your default you will need to call the Prefs program and save. SAVE SOURCE: This option allows you to select from five other menu's which write a file in the correct source code for either Assembler, BASIC, 'C', CanDo and AMOS. SAVE ASSEMBLER: Can be selected with Right Amiga A. SAVE BASIC: Selected with Right Amiga B. SAVE 'C': Selected with Right Amiga C. SAVE CANDO: Selected with Right Amiga D. SAVE AMOS: Selected with Right Amiga M. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The COLOUR OPTIONS menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By selecting the options in this menu, you are able to control the number of colours that you are working on and which are to be output. The options are 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 colours. This corresponds with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 BitPlanes. All colours above the selected number of colours, are ghosted and are not selectable. Save source options only output the currently selected number of colours. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTES: ~~~~~~ For ease of use, I wanted to install a file requestor for all work with files and storage devices. I had a look at a number of these, including the ARP requestor and the Dissedents file requestor. I finally settled on the file requestor by Anders Bjerin from the C Manual disk (Fish Disk #337). The main reason for this was that I don't expect the end user to have to install additional libraries that they don't usually use on sometimes already overcrowded boot disks, especially on standard (512K and One drive) machines, so that they are able to run one program or utility. I also decided to start COLOURTOOL on a screen 200 lines deep. This is just in case this program eventually gets anywhere near NTSC systems. Extra code to differentiate PAL and NTSC systems means greater size. It does actually save some memory and I didn't need the extra 56 scan lines anyway... COLOURTOOL has taken many hours of coding and many more of research and debugging to get to this stage and uses a number of special routines developed especially for the program. A number of other utilities are already in development and will be made available as soon as they are complete. So help yourself by supporting shareware and local programmers in particular. ---===*** END OF COLOURTOOL_DOCS RPM 19/12/92***===---