Tessalator  v1.0  3/4/90
                    İ1990 by Matt Fruin and Michael McCarty
Tessalator Docs
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     M.C. Escher is probably best known for his "impossible" pictures, the
ones showing paradoxical buildings and other structures.  But another type
of his pictures fascinates us as well as his impossibilities.  These are his
"continuing series" pictures which regularly divide a plane into the same
picture stamped over and over, sometimes rotated.  The resut is a sort of 
mosaic or tesselation, very intricate and intriguing to study.  We've tried
designing a tesselation like his on our own with paper and a pencil and got 
dismal results.  Then we decided to use the Amiga to help us.  The result of
this is Tessalator.

General Setup Overview:
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 o Configuration ranges from 1 to 11.  As you select the different configs
   the display image will change to show you the different rotations of the
   tiles.
 o Height ranges from 10 to 50. 
 o Width ranges from 10 to 53.
 o The Colors gadget chooses while color layout you wish for the tiles.
 o The Offset gadget selects which type of offset for the tiles.
 o The Offset Amount varies the amount of each Offset.


Tool Layout:
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 ____   ____   ____     ____
|  1 | |  2 | |  3 |   | 13 | 1. Freehand Draw -- this tool will allow you
 ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ     ŻŻŻŻ     to draw an unconnected line.  For complete
 ____   ____   ____     ____     lines just draw a bit slower.
|  4 | |  5 | |  6 |   | 14 | 2. Line -- draw a straight line.
 ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ     ŻŻŻŻ     (opposite button aborts command)
 ____   ____   ____     ____  3. Connected Line -- Draw a continued line.
|  7 | |  8 | |  9 |   | 15 |    (opposite button aborts command)
 ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ     ŻŻŻŻ  4. Box -- Draws an outlined box.
 ____   ____   ____     ____     (opposite button aborts command)
| 10 | | 11 | | 12 |   | 16 | 5. Ellipse -- Draws an outlines ellipse.
 ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ   ŻŻŻŻ     ŻŻŻŻ     (opposite button aborts command)
 6. Fill -- Fill area with the selected color or color scheme (once you
    start filling there is no way to stop, max fill time is 40s, use 
    undo to go back.)
 7. Grid -- draws a destructive grid on the screen to show you the borders
    of the offsets.
 8. Disk -- allows you to load and save pictures in either our own format 
    or save the screen an IFF picture.  When you select IFF save you can 
    position the tiles how you'd like them and then save.  When loading
    in a tile from our own format it will take 40s to redraw the screen
    and once you select load then you cannot undo the operation.
 9. Print -- Allows you to position the picture on screen and then print
    the screen to any preferences supported printer.
10. Corners -- Put just the corners of the box to show tile borders.
11. Reselect -- Allows you to reselect the configuration, height, width,
    and offsets without destroying the current image.  Maximum redraw time
    is 40s.  You cannot Undo after this option.
12. Undo -- Take back the last draw or fill operation.
13. Quit -- Exit Tessalator.
14. CLS -- Clear screen and keep current settings.
15. New -- ReConfigure the settings and clear.
16. Color -- Change colors in the palette.


Additional Notes:
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 o Fill -- This is entertaining but it's the best we could do with our 
   variations in the color tiles.  (Flood fill just won't cut it).  It
   only takes 40s max to fill any shapes so just sit back and enjoy the
   show.
 o Mousebuttons -- the left mouse button is the forground color and it is
   displayed as the top color of the right hand box in the color selector.
   The right button is the background color and it is displayed as the
   bottom color in the color selected box.  (If this is confusing then just
   try picking colors and it'll be obvious.)
 o Bigger -- this is a large box that is a double of the upper left tile.
   You can draw in this box just as you can in any of the others.
 o Configurations 10 and 11 -- For these to work properly you must make sure
   that your tile width is equal to the tile height. 
 o Tessalator will allow full multi-tasking.
 o The picture used in IntroTitle was created with Tessalator and then
   modified using Photo Lab by Electronic Arts.


Distribution Notes:
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  Tessalator is distributed as shareware to everyone in the Amiga Community.
Tessalator, along with its accompanying IntroTitle and Tess.doc file may be
freely copied and distributed.  We ask for any comments or contributions
($20 or whatever you can spare).  By sending up money you will be notified
of any new versionsor manual updates.  These will be appreciated and may be
send to:                
                             Michael K McCarty
                             1501 Oak Avenue
                             Manhattan Beach, CA  90266-5031
                             (213) 546-2502

Final Notes:
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	We've worked on this a long time and we are not sure if people will
really find a use for this.  The main intention of Tessalator was to first 
allow you to create the rough draft of a tesselation and then save it and 
import it into your favorite paint program and modify it to perfection.
If we find that you (the Amiga population) do in fact like this program
than we will be more than happy to put in a lot more time and rewrite a lot
of it in 68000 ML. This is why your comments are very helpful and important,
plus it tells us that we really didn't waste our time.  Thank you.  Special
thanks to Kirk Baker of Bonehead Research for his last minute help with our
file requester.