************************************************************* * * * SUPER RESOURCE MAKER V.2.2 * * * * By M&F Software Corporation © 1993-1994 * * * ************************************************************* Preface ------- This program will be extremely useful to those programmers who often use the AMOS Pro resource maker. I used the original version for some time and I found it very frustrating. Infact I had to redefine the elements every time I wanted to change their positions, or when developing the image, finding them not completely coincident to the icon I wished. When I enlarged a button by one pixel I had to delete the button, then redefine the box, and replace it on the new icon!! It is not a problem when you have to remake one or two elements, but it is quite boring when they are twenty or more!! So I thought of something more efficient, and added some new features to the original program, just to make it a little more flexible. When I started I realized that some more improvements could be done, and so I tryed to implement them. The most difficult part of the work was not carrying out my ideas but it was the intregration of my own procedures in the main program. I find more difficulty in understanding other's programs than writing them from the beginning, but here I only had to add some minor features so I opted for the update. (Well, I'm not able to write and to read the right location in order to build up a bank yet). New features ------------ - the request window has been enlarged so that it can contain the new buttons. - the slider has been improved: o The slider is larger so that you can see more elements on the screen o It is faster in updating the window after an operation o The scrolling of the elements is faster (3 elements at once instead of the original one) - now the graphic editor supports pages larger than the size of the screen. - you can modify the size and the position of the flashing box of any of the element already existing without having to completely redifine the box. - you can move the entire box when you want and where you want - and what's more important is that all this is made completely automatic Instructions ------------ - As I saw (and as I think many of you experienced) with the original version of the program any modification of the already saved bank was to be made by remaking everything from the beginning. Now you can save a lot of time and pain with the new features. - The button MOVE2 allows you to change the size of the flashing box. Just press MOVE2 and INCX,INCY,DECX,DECY to resize the box. The changes are automatically saved. Note that the box will change its dimensions according to the kind of the element you are modifing. So for example if you are modifying a button, a box or a horizontal line the box will enlarge itself by 8 pixels horizontally and 1 vertically; if it is a vertical line it will change size 8 pixels horizontally and 3 vertically. -The button MOVE1 allows you to change the position of the flashing box. Just press MOVE1 and INCX,INCY,DECX,DECY to move the box of 8 pixels horizontally and 1 pixel vertically. -You can use pages larger than the screen as the program will automatically configure itself to the size of the page you use. To scroll the pictures just move the pointer close to the border of the screen and magically the images will move! In the definition of the page, when you create it, use, as horizontal number, a multiple of eight. This is not a must but it is recommended as the program rounds the X coordinate to the nearest mulpiple of 8 and so, if you use the far right side of the images, you can lost part of you icon. Well, just use multiple of eight or don't use the far right side of the picture. It's not very complicated! In detail --------- For people who want to know how I programmed the new features I say...watch them! You are allowed to make all the changes you want if you respect the condition written below. I dont't know of any bugs, but I know the limitations of my program (oh, sorry, the program I modified). One of the limitations is the rounding of the pictures to one multiple of 8. This is necessary only by the fact that the pictures scroll 8 pixel at time. The value of the increment of the scrolling is held by the 'RR' variable. Change that number to make the scrolling faster or slower (increment/decrement the number).The default number is 8 (hence the limitation) and so if you diminish the value the scrolling will become slower but the rounding can be made to that number (that's not very useful indeed). Note that if you make the value too large the scroll will litterally jump from one side of the image to the opposite, that's not very...pretty to see. But it's only a matter of taste and necessities (if you have a very long picture, i.e. three/four time the width of the screen a very fast scrolling becomes important). I'd like, if you make some more improvement on this program, that you add your features as procedures as they are more easy to modify or to be replaced by more powerful routines. I hope my work will be useful to someone out there. Distribution conditions ----------------------- This program may be freerly distributed to anyone anywhere on the condition that my name and the name of my corporation it's not removed from it, even if you modify the program, and no profit is made by doing so. M&F Software Corporation ©1993-1994 You can contact me by Internet. My E-Mail is mberetta@varano.ing.unico.it Address messages to Mauro Fontax, as others use this account. If you have some idea or program that is interesting, just sent it to me. I will gratefully receive everything that you want to send me. Latest notes ------------ The version 2.2 fixes minor bug that remained from the original version of the program. The problem was when you tried to load a bank, then entered the graphic editor, and then quit the graphic editor just to press the 'Create a new bank' button. The picture disappeared, but the elements remained in memory. So after loading the required IFF picture, and having the list empty, the flashing box still was on the screen. If you deleted the first element (or if you defined it) the box jumped to the following element and so on. It was not a terrible bug (just it needed to press the 'Clear' button, but I managed to fix it with very little pain. I just inserted a few instructions in the NEW_BANK Procedure and all went well!