@DATABASE CharMap User's Manual @AUTHOR tpierron@free.fr $VER:CharMap User's Manual v1.4 @node MAIN Summary ____________________________________________ @{b}USER ' S MANUAL OF @{fg HIGHLIGHT}CHARMAP@{fg TEXT} VERSION 1.4@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ First, native language of the author is french. Excuse me for bad spelling. This guide will explain the main functionnality of this little tool. For those who doubt, using it, is dramaticaly simple and if you believe that you will learn more by trying it directly, you just can press the ESC key. @{" 1.INTRODUCTION " link Introduction } Why this piece of software @{" 2.REQUIREMENTS " link Requirements } Before to install it @{" 3.USAGE " link Usage } How to use it @{" 4.SOURCES " link Sources } Some notes about sources @endnode @node Introduction ______________ @{b}INTRODUCTION@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I feel curiosity in you, don't I ? Actually, a such tool isn't a new idea, of course. As i were using Microsoft Word on PC system, i were surprised that it doesn't exist on Amiga platform a tool which can display the whole charset of a given font. In despite of finding a such tool, I've decided to write my own. It took me about 9 days to wrote the 1.3 version. It also simply @{b}display the entiere characters@{ub} of an ASCII font. Which can be easily pasted into clipboard without being obliged to keyed in via horrible control escape sequence such as Emacs, etc... At last, don't you ever asked what's that fucking ASCII code for ©, ð or þ? Or else what's the curious char that is using the Foobar font? No problem, this tool can greatly helps you. @endnode @node Requirements "The requirements before to start CharMap" _____________________________ @{b}REQUIREMENTS BEFORE TO START@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The ressources needed are ridiculous. No need to have 512M of RAM, 300 dll of 12M each one. Actually it uses 4 shared libraries, which are all optional, but greatly improve user-friendlyness of this tool. · @{b}Asl.library@{ub} : Enables to choose a disk font · @{b}Diskfont.library@{ub} : Needs by the ASL.library · @{b}Commodities.library@{ub} : Hide the interface or reopen via hot-keys · @{b}Locale.library@{ub} : To use a different language than English. Of course, a 2.1 Kickstart or better is required. ______________ @{b}INSTALLATION@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ To install the programme, just use the installer script provided in the archive. Use it at least to install a different catalog than English or place this tool is directory other than WBStartup. The other files are the sources and the doc, you can do want you want with it. @endnode @node Usage ___________________ @{b}USAGE@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ @{fg HIGHLIGHT}1.The graphical interface@{fg TEXT} The main interface consists of a string gadget below'ed by 4 push buttons and a table where there are between 192 and 256 characters of a ISO Latin1 font. By clicking on a character, it will be inserted in the string gadget. It is possible to control the cursor using keyboard, in this case, the space bar corresponds to the left mouse button and the ESC key to the right one. The pushbuttons are just shorcuts to menu entry. The first one, right of the string gadget ("<="), clears everything in the latter. Then, the "font..." gadet opens a requester to change the font displayed (only if ASL.library is present!). The cycle gadget is identical to menu entry and the two last are used to transfert text in/from clipboard. @{fg HIGHLIGHT}2.The menu bar@{fg TEXT} The menu appears only if you're pressing the right mouse button outside the table where the chars are, otherwise a popup window will appear showing information about the char over flied. The pulldown menu contains the following commands: · @{b}Font@{ub} : Choose between different kind of font: · @{b}Screen font@{ub} : Show the default font used to render applica- tion running under Workbench screen such as gadgets, menus, etc... · @{b}Text font@{ub} : Evenly spaced font used by default. In older times it was the topaz.font which does this job. · @{b}Choose...@{ub} : Open a ASL requester to enable you to choose another font. _______________ · @{b}Charset@{ub} : Reduces or increases the number of displayed characters in the table. Among: · @{b}8bits ASCII@{ub} : All possible chars. · @{b}ISO Latin1@{ub} : Like the previous one, without the 32 first. These are control codes and have rarely a graphical symbol. · @{b}Amiga Standard@{ub} : Like ISO Latin1, without the chars from 127 to 159, included. This charset is the minimal chars that all amiga font should have defined. The choice of a charset is done by looking in the datatype of the font, to display each time the exact charset that a font has defined. · @{b}About...@{ub} : Display some copyright information. _______________ · @{b}Minimize@{ub} : Reduces the window to its title. Use this menu again to enlarge the window. · @{b}Hide@{ub} : Close the window. Use the hot-key to reopen it. · @{b}Next screen@{ub} : Jump to the next screen. Initialy, the programme opens its win- dow on the active screen. You can change it and jump to the next screen in the linked list. But be careful of processes like DPaint which manages their video memory themselves. That's why it's safer to use hot-key which move the window directly to the desired screen. In fact this menu entry replaces the "Hide" one, only if Commodities.library can't be loaded. · @{b}Quit@{ub} : ... · @{b}Cut@{ub} : Cut string to clipboard (if present). · @{b}Copy@{ub} : Like cut, but without deletion. · @{b}Paste@{ub} : Paste the 50 first chars from the clipboard. _______________ · @{b}Clear text@{ub} : In the string gadget @{fg HIGHLIGHT}3.Shortcuts@{fg TEXT} Some shortcuts which always simplify the life: · @{b}Amiga + S@{ub} : Screen font · @{b}Amiga + T@{ub} : Text font · @{b}Amiga + F@{ub} : Choose a diffrent font · @{b}Amiga + J@{ub} : Jump to the next screen · @{b}Amiga + ?@{ub} : About the programme · @{b}Del@{ub} : Clear the text contained in the string gadget · @{b}Amiga + I@{ub} : Iconify/Uniconify the window · @{b}Amiga + H, Esc@{ub} : Hide the main window · @{b}Amiga + Q,@{ub} or @{b}Shift + Esc@{ub} : Quit · @{b}Amiga + X,C,V@{ub} : Cut, Copy or Paste · @{b}BS@{ub} (<-) : Removes the last characters in the string gadget · @{b}HotKey@{ub} : A very useful shortcut, because it enable you to bring the window to the @{b}active screen@{ub}. Namely, if the window has been hiden, it will be reopen on this screen, and if it was already open, it will be moved to that screen. The default hot key is @{b}control lalt c@{ub}. @{fg HIGHLIGHT}4.Command line / Tool types@{fg TEXT} This tool can be launched from a CLI. There are 5 main parameters: · @{b}CX_PRIORITY=n@{ub} : n is a number between 0 and 127. 0 is a very good choice. · @{b}CX_POPUP=NO@{ub} : Force the window to don't open at start. Useful for user-startup script of WBStartUp drawer. · @{b}HOTKEY="..."@{ub} : The combination of keys which will make appear the window when it has been for example hiden. The exact syntax of these hot-keys is described in the Amiga user's manual. The default one is "lalt control c". · @{b}CHARSET=n@{ub} : Where n is a number between 1 and 3, corresponding to the charset available in the menu entries. If you give a number outside this range, the programme will attempt to choose the most appropriate charset for the default font. · @{b}GEOMETRY=...@{ub} : This one is a little bit nasty. It describes the positions of the main and minimized window. This is in fact a comma- separated list of signed numbers. The first two correspond to the left and top edge of the main window, and the two last to the minimized one. If a number is negative, it will be aligned to the opposite border that it usually refers to, and if nothing is given, the position will be centered on the screen. The default positions are ",,,", which centered all windows in all directions. · @{b}DONOTWAIT@{ub} : This tool-type is only use by Workbench when the programme is placed in the WBStartup drawer of the boot disk. It informs the workbench that it doesn't have to wait that the programme finishes before to launch the possible others located in the same directory. These parameters can be entered either in a command line or be placed in the icon's tool-types. If the programme is started from a command line interface, the command line will be interpreted, if it started from the workbench, it will be the tool-types, but @{i}never@{ui} both. @endnode @node Sources "Notes about sources" ___________________ @{b}ABOUT THE SOURCES@{ub} ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Sources are given for didactionnal purposes. If someone wants to improve it, feel free. The only thing to don't forget is that everything contained in this archive is placed under the terms of the GNU Public license, namely it's free software and must be stayed like this. Some technical details now. This piece of software has been compiled with GCC 2.7.0 for CBM-AligaDOS-mc68000 and requires 5 minutes on a standard Amiga with an optimization level 2. This programme has been written in almost 1500 lines of C ANSI code, spread over 4 files and totalizing 46kb. You can recompile it, by a command line like: @{b}gcc #?.c -o cmap -s -O2 -noixemul@{ub} to obtain a executable named cmap. @endnode