----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWIZ V1.0 - written by M. VENN 1991/92 README.DOC 5-1-92 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: ------------- Welcome to SWIZ V1.0 ! So, what is SWIZ ? Well, as you'll know, there are a few different types of utilities around for AMOS for developing bobs/icons and sprites, but what about the good old cursor ? No, well, that was until now ! If you've ever looked at the AMOS Set Curs command and decided to draw your own cursors for your own programs, you'll probably have gone through the old 8x8 grid graph paper routine, followed by working out the necessary bit-patterns for actually pulling the cursor from your grid into your AMOS code. This can become a little tiring after a while, is time consuming and requires a small understanding of binary. But then SWIZ came along... The good news though is that SWIZ will do all this for you ! It'll even write the AMOS code for you ! LOADING SWIZ: ------------- SWIZ can only be loaded via AMOS, so if you haven't got AMOS then you can't use the program ! After you've loaded AMOS simply go through the normal loading procedure via the editor and select the file SWIZ.AMOS on this disk via the AMOS file requester. Upon loading, AMOS may present you with a line like this: Can't fit program into editor buffer. Change buffer size? (Yes or No) If this happens select YES and SWIZ will continue to load. When SWIZ has loaded run it ! SWIZ SCREEN SETUP: ------------------ The SWIZ main screen is split up into 4 distinctive parts. The left hand side of the screen contains a square made up of a set of boxes forming an 8x8 grid. Each horizontal line of the grid has a label on the far left which ranges from "L1" to "L8". An AMOS cursor can only be made up of an area of 8 pixels x 8 pixels. So the "L" stands for (L)ine and the number (1-8) stands for the line of the cursor. So, L1 = L(ine)1 of cursor. L7=L(ine)7 of cursor. Each line consists of 8 horizontal pixels. 8 lines = 8 pixels x 8 pixels. Throughout the rest of this DOC this part of the screen will be referred to as "the editing grid". See later for more detail. Opposite the editing grid, on the right hand side of the screen are 2 more boxes. The upper one is full of the current cursors bit-patterns. You'll notice that each bit-pattern has a label next to it L1 - L8. This referrs to the line from the editing grid. Throughout the rest of the DOC this part of the screen will be referred to as "the bit-pattern box". It will be explained in more detail later. Underneath the bit-pattern box there's another box. This one shows the current cursor that you are editing and 8 other cursors (including the one you're editing). This box will be referred to as "the cursor box" elsewhere in this DOC. Again, it'll be explained more later. The last box on the screen is underneath all of the above mentioned boxes. It contains a set of icons which enable you to do things such as disk access and cursor manipulation. This box will be referred to as "the options box" elsewhere in this DOC. It too will be explained in greater deal later. SELECTING A CURSOR: ------------------- Cursor editing is made easy with the help of SWIZ. Firstly you have to select a cursor to edit. The cursor box contains a row of 8 boxes and underneath another box containing the current cursor that you are editing. To select a cursor to edit simply click the left mouse button on 1 of the eight boxes ! When selected it will be highlighted by a white box. As you now edit this cursor, it will be updated in the "current cursor" box (underneath the 8 boxes) and also in the highlighted box that you clicked on ! As a default, upon loading and running SWIZ, the first box will be automatically selected as the current cursor. You can change the cursor to edit by simply selecting another box from the 8. The reason for there being 8 cursors to choose from is that you can draw several cursors and compare them to each other at the same time. EDITING A CURSOR: ----------------- Editing the cursor is really easy ! Simply position the mouse pointer over a box in the editing grid and press the left mouse button. If the box that you clicked on is purple it will be changed to green. If it's green it'll be changed to purple. As you use the editing grid your actions will also be displayed on the bit-pattern box. A purple box is given a value of 0 (off) and a green one is given a value of 1 (on). This series of 0's and 1's forms the bit-pattern for each line of the cursor (for use with the Set Curs command). You can also edit directly on the bit-pattern box ! Simply click the left mouse button on the digit (0 or 1) within the bit-pattern box that you want to change and it will ! As editing is happening the necessary cursor boxes will be updated, as will the editing grid and the bit-pattern box. A purple box value 0 (off) will be a pixel that isn't displayed in your cursor (invisible). A green box value 1 (on) represents a pixel that will be displayed in your cursor. THE OPTIONS BOX: ---------------- This box contains a total of 20 options for you to use. To activate an option simply click the left mouse button on it ! Here's a list of the options and what they do: NEW - resets ALL of the cursors to their default settings. LOAD - bring up the AMOS file requester and asks you to load a cursor data file previously saved with SAVE ACD option. It will load over ALL existing cursors ! SAVE ACD - saves all 8 cursors to a data file that can be loaded using the LOAD option. The AMOS file requester will appear again. SAVE ASC - saves the current cursor data as AMOS code in an ASCII file which can be loaded via the MERGE ASCII option within AMOS. The AMOS file requester will appear again. PRINT - prints the current cursor data as AMOS code to your printer. Upon selecting the option a requester will appear to confirm your choice telling you to ensure that your printer is set up correctly and ready to go. The first time that this option is selected your printer driver will be loaded from your boot disk. ABOUT - doesn't need explaining ! Select O.K from the requester to return to the main program. QUIT - presents a requester to confirm your choice. Will return you to AMOS or SWIZ depending on your choice. NOTES: When saving data do not add any suffixes after filenames. They will be automatically added by SWIZ. Don't use any "." in filenames too. If you do SWIZ may become confused ! The SAVE ASC option saves the current cursor data as AMOS code to an ASCII file. To load this file into your own AMOS program select the MERGE ASCII option from AMOS. The MERGE ASCII option will produce a file requester asking you to select a file. Upon selecting the file (.ASC) AMOS will process it into AMOS code. The bit-patterns in a SWIZ .ASC file will be analysed by AMOS and may appear to be different when loaded against the original. This is because AMOS will try to make the numbers more efficient, you will however, get the same cursor as the one you designed ! The above 7 options cannot be reversed in any way by the use of the UNDO option that is listed amongst the options below. 90° - turns the current cursor clockwise 90°. FILL XL - changes the mouse pointer to a hair pin and waits for the user to press the left mouse button over a box in the editing grid or a number in the bit-pattern box. Once this has been done the entire line will be filled horizontally (x). To exit this option press the right mouse button. It will stay in this mode until the right mouse button is pressed. CLR XL - same rules as FILL XL except CLR XL clears an entire horizontal line. MOVE - waits for the user to press a cursor key (left, right, up or down) and moves the current cursor 1 pixel in that direction. Press the right mouse button to exit this mode. CHAR - waits for the user to press a key within an ASCII range of 33 to 126. The current cursor will become the character. (This option will erase the current cursor and replace it with a character.) Press the right mouse button to exit this mode. WIPE - erases the current cursor completely. Fills the cursor with a set of 0's (off) purples. UNDO - reverses the last action done with one of the options (not options 1 to 7). E.g: if you flip a cursor 90°, UNDO will place the cursor how it was before the flip. But, if you click on the editing grid or bit-pattern box then press UNDO nothing will happen. UNDO only reverses the last option selected (not 1 to 7). 180° - turns the current cursor clockwise 180°. FILL YL - same rules as FILL XL except FILL YL fills an entire vertical line (y). CLR YL - same rules as FILL XL except CLR YL clears an entire vertical line (y). INVERT - inverts the current cursor. FLOOD - erases the current cursor completely. Fills the cursor with a set of 1's (on) greens. DEFAULT - resets the current cursor to the default AMOS cursor. (Upon loading and running SWIZ all cursors are set to the AMOS default.) NOTES: You can change the current cursor that you are editing any time whilst using the program unless you are in an editing mode which requires you to press the right mouse button to leave it. If you are in no special editing modes at all then you can change the current cursor by clicking on the cursor you wish to edit in the cursor box. You'll also find a demo file called "SWIZ_examples.acd" on this disk which contains 8 cursors to have a look at. The disk also contain 8 .ASC files, each one from the above .ACD file. You can MERGE ASCII these .ASC files into the AMOS editor to test them out ! Well, that's the full instructions for SWIZ ! I hope that i've explained everything clearly ! SWIZ is very easy to use anyway, so it may be that you don't even need this DOC to run it ! WAFFLE: ------- SWIZ V1.0 was coded the last week of DEC 1991 and finished in JAN 1992. All code was written by M. VENN and was written using AMOS V1.3. SWIZ V1.0 was coded on a 1 MEG Amiga, but will work on half MEG Amigas too ! If I do an upgrade it will contain any bug fixes that need doing or fixes to any bugs reported to me and may contain some new features for editing. If you'd line an AMOS format complied version of SWIZ (compiled in a special format that can be ran from AMOS), simply send me a disk (with some PD on it) and return postage, and I'll put it on your disk and send it to you. The complied version is faster ! Please send any bug reports, comments, ideas or spare cash to: M. VENN 3 BRITTEN DRIVE GOODLEIGH RISE BARNSTAPLE NORTH DEVON EX32 8AQ ENGLAND Any disks or letters recieved will be returned/replied. Also, if anyone out there could possibly send me any PC TURBO PASCAL source code that they've done please do ! (On a PC disk please !) Enjoy SWIZ !