[**************************************************************************] Welcome to the ultimate self-test learning utility for the Amiga! [**************************************************************************] S T U D E N T A I D ][ Designed by Rick Rojas 2530 White Oak Drive Titusville, Fl 32780 For more info call: The Student Aid support BBS (407) 267-8155 2400-14.4K Baud Dual Standard HST [**************************************************************************] Student Aid Copyright 1992 by Rick Rojas, All rights reserved. [**************************************************************************] TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Description Pages -------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ i Cover ii Table of contents iii License agreements and disclaimers 1.0 Introduction 1.1 What is this program? 1.2 System requirements 1.3 How to become a registered owner 1.4 Updates and technical support 1.5 Credits 1.6 Copyrights and trademarks 2.0 Getting started 2.1 Running the program 2.2 Installing on hard drive 3.0 Commands 4.0 Technical 4.1 Data file format 4.2 Disk file structure 4.3 Memory usage 4.4 Multitasking ability 4.5 Microprocessor support 5.0 Problems and workarounds 5.1 Error handling 5.2 Incompatibilities 5.3 Known problems [**************************************************************************] LICENSE AGREEMENT: (Registered version) The Student Aid program is being licensed to you. You may NOT distribute the registered version of the program in any form. If you sell or trade this program to another user you MUST pass on the original copy and destroy all backup copies. Note: Your registration support from the developers is NON-TRANSFERABLE, new owners must register by sending a check or money order if they desire to receive any updates to the program. In addition, the following terms apply to all users of student aid. (1) It may not be modified in any way. (2) You may not reverse engineer The Student Aid Package nor may you examine their inner workings in any way. LICENSE AGREEMENT: (Demo version only) You may use and distribute the demo version of the Student Aid program as long as the following terms are agreed to: (1) It may not be modified in any way. (2) You may not reverse engineer The Student Aid Package nor may you examine their inner workings in any way. (3) Student Aid may not be distributed for profit nor will it be made part of a "for sale" software collection without prior written permission from author. (4) If distributed, it must include all of the original programs and documentation it came with and all copyright notices must remain intact. Your use or distribution of the Student Aid program states that you agree to these terms and have accepted this licence agreement. DISCLAIMER: The Student Aid program is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will author be liable for incidental, consequential or other similar damages. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of The Student Aid Program is with you. Author reserves the right to change The Student Aid Programs' copyright status and/or cost at any time, without notice. [**************************************************************************] 1.0 INTRODUCTION Welcome to The Student Aid program. We hope this program will help you in all your educational endeveours. Though this program was originally intended for Elementary, High School and College students it can easily be adapted to be used for psychological evaluations to studying questions for a certification test. In addition, it can be used by teachers for the creation of multiple choice tests and quizzes for class. This manual assumes that you are familiar with the basic usage of the CLI and WorkBench. If you are not please consult your Amigados user's guide. 1.1 WHAT IS THIS PROGRAM? Student Aid CAN help you LEARN something FASTER than normal studying! WHY? Because rather than reading the information and trying to remember it, Student Aid challenges you to THINK of the right answer! As you fail to answer - you learn (from your own mistakes). On top of that - you get instant feedback! And can continue onward, with minimal delay, learning more. You can even monitor your progress on various tests over time. To best use the program you should collect the quizzes from your instructors during the semester and type in those questions (or similar ones from your class notes) as the semester goes on and then use Student Aid to refresh your memory before major tests and exams. Though the data entry can be a lot of work initially, it does significantly aid in the review process. In this version of Student Aid data entry has been significantly been simplified to allow most everything to be done from the keyboard, and/or from the mouse. 1.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: The Student Aid program will work on any Amiga 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 with a minimum of 1 megabytes of memory. It has been tested under V1.3 and V2.x operating systems under most 680x0 microprocessor. Student Aid ][ will re-configure itself upon start to operate under PAL or NTSC video modes. 1.3 HOW TO BECOME A REGISTERED OWNER: Student Aid is available directly from author for $34.95 (see address below). Send a US check or money order (US or International M.O.) to: Rick Rojas 2530 White Oak Drive Titusville, Fl 32780 U.S.A. Please allow a few days for personal checks to clear. Sorry no CODs or charge cards. 1.4 UPDATES AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT: The Student Aid program may be updated from time to time. Author will notify registered owners, by mail, whenever The Student Aid program has a major revision. For additional info, status, updates, tests, contact author through above address or through the Student Aid support BBS. Technical support is offered to REGISTERED OWNERS ONLY! To become a registered owner you must mail in your registration fee. Technical support, and additional tests are available through the sysop of the Student Aid support BBS (407) 267-8155 or by mail to author. 1.5 CREDITS: The Student Aid program was designed and programmed by: Rick Rojas. Beta testing was done thanks to: Arnold Louwerns, Davide Vaccari, Robert Kersbergen, Donald Smith, Idiata Ebhodaghe and Ron Shaw. 1.6 COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS: Amiga, AmigaDOS and Workbench are registered trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. [**************************************************************************] 2.0 GETTING STARTED 2.1 RUNNING THE PROGRAM: FROM A FLOPPY WITHOUT A LOADED WORKBENCH 1) Install disk in drive DF0: then reboot FROM A FLOPPY WITH WORKBENCH LOADED 1) Install disk in any drive 2) Double click on disk icon to open list of disk contents 3) Double click on the SA2 icon to start it up 2.2 INSTALLING ON HARD DRIVE 1) Create a drawer on hard drive called something like 'SA', 'StAid' or 'StudentAid' 2) Install disk in any drive 3) Double click on disk icon to open list of disk contents 4) Drag SA2 icon, the SAData drawer, and the Tests drawer to your newly created hard drive drawer 5) Now you can run it from hard drive by clicking the SA2 icon [**************************************************************************] 3.0 COMMANDS To simplify operation, Student Aid comes complete with on-line help screens. To get help for the features available on the current screen simply press the [HELP] gadget or press the 'H' key on your keyboard. Help for that area will be displayed. [**************************************************************************] 4.0 TECHNICAL 4.1 THE DATA FILE FORMAT: The Student Aid Program uses a custom data file format for the tests which keep the file sizes down to a minimal amount, this allows you to store a large quantity of tests on each floppy. The data format is also consistent with previous versions of Student Aid and will load both tests and grade files created with older versions. 4.2 THE DISK STRUCTURE: The program is set up to automatically boot from disk, but contains no copy protection and can easily be moved to another floppy or hard drive. To do so requires that both the Student Aid program and the SAData drawer are moved to the same destination directory. The SAData directory contains the necessary pictures and text (help) information for the program to run, you MUST have this directory/drawer in the same area as the Student Aid program for it to run. Please note that if you do separate the program into different parts you may not distribute them. Only the Student Aid demo version may be distributed (and only in its entirety). 4.3 MULTI-TASKING ABILITY: Unlike previous versions, Student Aid II operates at a default priority and will multi-task just fine. Student Aid's MULTI-TASKING ability gives it power and flexibility and allows it to be a stable and reliable program. 4.4 MEMORY USAGE: Student Aid is a very memory hungry program and in its full capacity it will take up close to 400k of your Amiga's memory, therefore it is recommended that you have at least 1 meg of available memory before running the program. 4.5 MICROPROCESSOR SUPPORT: The Student Aid Program will work with any 680x0 microprocessor. They have been tested with the 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030 and 68040 microprocessors. [**************************************************************************] 5.0 PROBLEMS AND WORKAROUNDS 5.1 ERROR HANDLING: Student aid contains a certain quantity of internal error handling, should an error occur that was not properly handled - please contact author with a bug report indicating the conditions, your version number, the system being used (both hardware and operating system) and any related information needed to duplicate problem. 5.2 INCOMPATIBILITIES: Program may NOT run with FastROM (Ref. problem report A0012 for details) 5.3 KNOWN PROBLEMS: Read the SA2.problems text file on disk for a list of open software problems to your version, their effects, available work-arounds and the current status. 5.4 THE FUTURE: Currently there are no immediate plans for an update but author does hope to (depending on sales and demand) create additional test data disks on various subjects. Suggestions and submissions are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED!!! [**************************************************************************]