* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***************** VICON ***************** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Programmed by * * * * * * * * *Khai-Wei CHOONG* * * * * * * * * * * ******** FEATURES ******** ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ VICON is a powerful fully-fledged icon editor/designer in a friendly graphical user interface. It also comes conveniently with File Manager and Directory Manager. You are encouraged to make use of VICON and become a registered user. VICON is a great tool for the following kinds of people: 1) Users who need to create new or modify existing icons and bitmaps used in Microsoft Windows. 2) Users who need an easy way to create graphic images for the Borland Graphics Interface supported by any Borland Programming Languages (such as in Turbo Pascal, C, C++). 3) Users who need a graphical File and Directory Manager. Recognize 4 different formats! ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ VICON supports 4 bitmap file formats: 1) VICON Proprietary Icon File 2) Microsoft Windows Icon Resource File 3) Microsoft Windows Bitmap File 4) Borland Graphics Interface (BGI) File Automatic File Recognition and Conversion ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 1) Just click on any files in the File Manager. VICON will automatically recognize and discriminate among these different files, and you can preview, load and edit an icon to your heart's content. 2) You can convert one file format to another, or create one format from another. 3) You can convert a 16-color Microsoft Windows bitmap to a monochrome (black and white) and vice versa. VICON provides extensive features for editing and printing icons as well as managing files and directories:- 1) Draw solid or framed lines, rectangles, circles and ellipses. 2) Draw rotatable, solid or framed triangles and diamonds. 3) Each shape has its own variable color, stroke size, undo and redo, paint-over and paint-around operations. 4) Remapable colors, including changing only one or all color(s) in a user-defined region ( circular, rectangular, triangular, etc ) to a specified color within the icon. 5) Flood fill and border fill, with undo. 6) Kaleidoscopic patterns for all shapes and paintbrushes. 7) Four paintbrushes: Toggle, Graffiti, Potpourri and Eraser. 8) Speed control for continuous strokes. 9) Resizable and scalable icon, up to 64 X 64 pixels in size. 10) A grid over the drawing area with coordinate indicator for accuracy and fine-tuning. 11) Snap or Free roaming mode to ease cursor movement in grid. 12) Protected mode can be used as a safety net so that any drawn portion cannot be overwritten. 13) Global undo. 14) Edit two icons at once by easy swapping between them. 15) Utilize expanded memory if available. 16) Video emulation (VGA, EGA, CGA and Mono) and Gray Scale with adjustable gradients. 17) Print icons in different sizes and resolutions, using gray scales or colors on: * Epson-compatible Dot Matrix Printer * Hewlett-Packard LaserJet / DeskJet / InkJet Printer or any printer that implements the HP PCL Level III printer language * Hewlett-Packard Color Plotter or any plotter that supports HPGL commands Printing options include * Landscape or Portrait Orientation, * Parallel and COM Port Selection * Color Inversion 18) Palette editor and rotator for color control and customization. 19) Program customization and configuration. 20) Printer Control: Fonts, Margins, Ports, Line Feeds, etc... for printing text in windows 21) Automatic Screen Save. 22) Commands can be performed in multiple ways ( using mouse and/or keyboard ) via the interactive graphical elements:- - Hotkeys - Pulldown menus - Popup menus - Icons - Scroll bars - Sliders - Buttons - Rubberbanding 23) Printable on-line help. 24) Powerful DOS shell offering two options * Swap VICON to disk or EMS. Only a stub of 1616 bytes remains in memory. * Use only available memory in VICON. 25) File Manager is integrated seamlessly into VICON to let you: * Preview and retrieve an icon stored on disk * Manage directories and files: Copy, Move, Erase, Rename, Sort, Print, Date & Time, Attribute, View, Info, Volume Label, Wildcards, Directory Tree * Execute any program with optional parameter(s) ++++++++++ Copyright ++++++++++ VICON version 2.1 is not copy-protected. However, the copyright of VICON is strictly enforced. You may not charge a fee for this program. You may not alter the program or supporting items in any manner other than those icon files ------- failing to follow this rule may cause VICON to refuse to execute. ++++++++++ Important Notice ++++++++++ (1) Type VICON at the DOS command line to run the program. (2) Do not rename or modify VICON.EXE in anyway or it will refuse to run. Do not run VICON with DOSMAX loaded. (3) VICON uses some low level interrupt routines and may conflict with some memory resident programs. (4) VICON can be launched within Microsoft Windows as a standard DOS application. ++++++++++ Using VICON effectively ++++++++++ (1) Read through the Help in the main menu in VICON. (2) The number of available commands may be misleading since there are only ten buttons at the left side of the screen. These buttons or icons have multiple functions. Different function is evoked by clicking the object concerned with the appropriate mouse button(s) or a function key (F1, F2 or F3 etc). The function name is displayed at the right end of the horizontal menu. (3) Press F2 to toggle between the icon previewer and the file manager. Alternatively, activate the Window button with the mouse to achieve this. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Please read Register.DOC, Licence.DOC, BGIuser.DOC, VICON.Doc + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ VICON comes with the following files on a 360K disk:- VICON.EXE Executable Program file *.DOC VICON Document files *.CFG VICON Configuration files *.PAL VICON Palette files *.BGI Video Support files *.VIC Icons in VICON format *.IMG Icons in BGI format *.ICO Icons in Microsoft Windows 3.X format *.BMP Bitmaps in Microsoft Windows 3.X format You need not keep all the .BGI files but the one appropriate to your video graphics. Moreover, the .BGI files need not reside in the same directory with VICON.EXE as long as that directory is included in the PATH command within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. I have made a decision not to link the BGI files into VICON.EXE in order to keep its size small.