ALPHA PLOT INSTRUCTIONS ----------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- Alpha Plot is a sophisticated Hi-Res graphics program that will let you flex your Apple's Hi-Res capabilities to create colorful drawings and detailed charts and graphs. These instructions will do their best job if you run Alpha Plot and experiment while you read. Most of the details not in the instructions are printed on the screen. ALPHA INFO ---------- Any changes or suggestions that we have come up with since this book was printed appear on the Alpha Plot disk. Run the "Alpha Info" program. ALPHA PLOT'S TWO MODES ---------------------- Alpha Plot features a Drawing Mode and a Typing Mode. To enter either mode, select Key Chart Option 4, then D or T, OR type ctrl-D or ctrl-T while typing or drawing. In the Drawing Mode, you can do everything EXCEPT type. Typing Mode lets you type and access Options 1-6. TWO IMAGE PAGES --------------- The Apple has two Hi-Resolution screens or "Pages", called Page 1 and Page 2. With Alpha Plot, you can store two images in memory at the same time and view either one. Alpha Plot lets you draw or type only on Page 1, but you may easily move images from Page 1 to Page 2 and back, and from memory to disk and back from or to either page. You may, of course, store as many images as you want on disk. APPLE'S SCREEN LAYOUT --------------------- Apple's Hi-Res screens measure 280 plots wide (0-279) by 192 plots high (0-191). Four colors (1,2,5,6), two blacks (0,4) and two whites (3,7) are available for Hi-Res plotting. See "<1> Color Selection" and your Applesoft Manual and for more information. CURSOR MOVES ------------ Cursor moves from the Drawing and Typing Modes are similar. From the Typing Mode, you must press the CTRL key WHILE you press the appropriate cursor-move key. Otherwise, you would type the letter on the screen. KEY DIRECTION AMOUNT L. Arrow Left 1 unit (ctrl)-K Left 1 plot R. Arrow Right 1 unit (ctrl)-L Right 1 plot (ctrl)-A Up 1 unit (ctrl)-S Up 1 plot (ctrl)-Z Down 1 unit (ctrl)-X Down 1 plot See more about units, plots, and other cursor-move features in the Typing Mode and Drawing Mode sections. The Alpha Plot key layout works well for comfortable two-hand operation. Notice that the plot-move keys are adjacent to the unit-move keys. -------- If you find yourself in a part of Alpha Plot you don't want to be in (for example, you might accidentally press a 5 and be in the "Erase the Screen" mode), pressing the key as an answer to a question will usually get you back to the Drawing or Typing mode. COMPATIBILITY WITH NORMAL DISKS ------------------------------- Images created with Alpha Plot are completely compatible with your normal programs and disks. Therefore, you may use pictures made with Alpha Plot in your own programs. Run and list the program on the Alpha Plot disk called "PICTURE BLOAD DEMO" if you are unfamiliar with loading and viewing hi-res pictures under program control. SAVE TO BE SAFE --------------- Making a drawing on your Apple is quite a bit like programming. The more you plan, the better things turn out. The more you practice, the more efficient you will be. As with programming, SAVE YOUR WORK from time to time in case you want to continue drawing from where you were ten minutes ago (or in case the dog pulls the plug). STARTING OUT ------------ Boot the Alpha Plot disk, and choose the "Run Alpha Plot" option. Answer Y to "Clear the Hi-Res screen?" (or answer N if you have pictures in memory that you want to keep). After the usual amount of disk-whirring, you will be presented with Hi-Res Page 1, with text at the bottom of the screen offering you the choices D, T, L and S for Draw, Type, Load and Save. You will re-encounter this portion of the program each time you press the 4 key. More later about that. DRAWING MODE ------------ From this mode you can do anything except type--plot lines, dots, ellipses and boxes, and perform page and image manipulations. MOVING THE CURSOR ----------------- When you first run Alpha Plot, you will see a flickering squarish dot on the screen. This is the XO CURSOR, actually four cursors in one. Press the A, Z and Arrow keys a few times to separate the four cursors and to get a feel for cursor movement. Try the K, L, S and X keys too for one-plot movement. Notice how the O part of the cursor is controlled by you while the X stays in one position, and the two dots go along for the ride. CURSOR JUMPS ------------ How far your cursor goes with each keypress is determined by the SPEED (9 key). However, you may JUMP the cursor 50 PLOTS without changing the speed. Simply press , then A, Z, or an Arrow. To jump 150 plots down from the top of the screen, for example, type -Z--Z--Z. CURSOR COORDINATES and OFFSET ----------------------------- At the bottom left of the screen is information regarding the current position of the cursor. The H and V values after the word "CURSOR" represent the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the O part of the cursor. The "OFFSET" values represent the horizontal and vertical distances BETWEEN the X and the O. Notice that coordinates H=O and V=O place the cursor at the upper left of the screen and coordinates H=279 and V=191 place it at the lower right. (NOTE: To exit the Drawing Mode, type "4" or ctrl-T.) THE KEYS -------- Except for cursor moves, most Alpha Plot features are controlled by the top row of keys as indicated on your Keyboard Chart. Here is a discussion of each key and what it does. (SPACE BAR) DRAW/MOVE SELECTION ------------------------------- Press the space bar and you will see the flashing word, "DRAW", on the top left text line. Now move your cursor and it will indeed draw. Press the space bar again and "DRAW" will change to "MOVE", meaning you can move the cursor without drawing. The space bar is used because it is easily reachable with your thumb while you are manipulating the cursor. to plot a single dot, press the space bar twice and move the cursor away. (RETURN) ZERO OFFSET -------------------- Pressing the key while you are in the Drawing Mode will set the offset to Zero and place all four corners of the XO Cursor on top of the O. This same feature is accomplished by pressing 8 and Z. See " Modify Cursor". (1) COLOR --------- Press the 1 key and you can select your Drawing or Typing (size>1) color. If Alpha Plot isn't drawing or typing when you think it should be, maybe you have the drawing color set the same as your background. To select a new color quickly, simply type 1-3 or 1-6 or 1-whatever, depending on the color you want. COLOR BUGS ---------- 1. The Apple won't let you draw certain colors in certain vertical columns. You can only draw in Colors 1 and 5 in ODD-NUMBERED columns. Alpha Plot corrects this by moving the cursor one plot over when necessary. 2. A WHITE VERTICAL line will appear in color unless you plot another line directly next to it. Alpha Plot does this for you for Colors 4 (Black) and 7 (White), but NOT for Colors 0 (Black) and 3 (White). That way you have a choice when drawing vertical lines. SPECIAL COLORS: 8 & 9 ---------------------- COLOR #8 (REVERSE) lets you draw lines or boxes (not ellipses) in the OPPOSITE of the background color. These lines and boxes may be erased by re-drawing over them in Reverse. Experiment and see. COLOR #9 (MIX) lets you select TWO COLORS (not Reverse) for drawing filled boxes and ellipses. Every other horizontal line will appear in each color. You can create many different shades and hues by mixing colors (and by adjusting a few of the knobs on your T.V. set!). Load the "Color Chart" picture from the Alpha Plot disk to see the range of color possibilities. If your color is #9 (mix), your drawing color for lines will be the FIRST COLORS of the mix. (2) NOTES ---------- The notes at the bottom of the screen may be turned off to reveal whatever image may be behind the notes. Press 2 for full-screen graphics or to turn the notes back on again. (3) GRID --------- Press 3 to draw a Hi-Res grid over your picture. Press 3 again and the grid will be erased (that's Color #8 again!). There are dots at every ten plots in both directions. The grid lines are 100 plots apart. It is best NOT to draw or type with the grid on the screen unless you want the grid as a permanent part of your picture. When the grid erases, it will draw little dots and stripes on any NEW parts of your drawing. Another way to access the grid is to draw it on Page 1 and store it on Page 2 (see option 6). (4) DRAW, TYPE, LOAD & SAVE ---------------------------- Running Alpha Plot or selecting Key Chart Option 4 will get you into the "Draw, Type, Load, Save" mode with its animated text arrow. the Drawing Mode and Typing Modes (described earlier) may be entered from this option by selecting "D" or "T". "Load" and "Save", selectable by pressing the L or S keys, let you load and save (actually BLOAD and BSAVE) hi-res pictures to and from disk. Hi-res pictures will usually appear as 34 sector binary (B) files in your catalogs. Scrunched picture files (see page 38) will be smaller. You may catalog whatever disk is in your drive by first selecting L or S and then typing "CAT" (return) when a file name is requested. You cannot perform other DOS functions such as Lock and Unlock while using Alpha Plot. To resave a picture that is locked, save it with a different name OR save it onto another disk. If you want, you can even quit Alpha Plot and load and save hi-res images "by hand" by typing: BLOAD PICTURE, A$2000 (page 1) BLOAD PICTURE, A$4000 (page 2) BSAVE PICTURE, A$2000, L$2000 (page 1) BSAVE PICTURE, A$4000, L$2000 (page 2) The "PICTURE BLOAD DEMO" program demonstrates more regarding handling of hi-res pictures. ERRORS ------ If the disk is full or some other error occurs during a Load or Save, you will see an error message number on the screen and the program will continue. the error number represents the TYPE of error that has occurred. Here are the most likely numbers: 4=WRITE PROTECTED, 6=FILE NOT FOUND, 8=I/O ERROR, 9=DISK FULL, 10=FILE LOCKED, 13=FILE TYPE MISMATCH. See your Applesoft Manual for the complete list. If you are attempting to save an image and get a DOS error, such as "File Type Mismatch" or "Disk Full", your picture will NOT BE SAVED completely. You will need to exit Alpha Plot, correct the problem, Run Alpha Plot, and save your image again. (5) CLEAR THE SCREEN -------------------- Press 5 and select the color you want to clear the screen. Your picture will be permanently erased unless you pick "Color" #8 which will give you a NEGATIVE IMAGE of the screen. "Erase" again with Color #8 and you'll get your own positive image back! (6) IMAGE OPTIONS ----------------- Pressing 6 gives you four powerful options: (6-P) SEE PAGE 2: ----------------- Press P, and you will see your Page 2 image (if there is one). Now press any key, and the screen will flicker between Pages 1 and 2 so you may compare them. Press any key again, and you are back to Page 1. (6-S) SWITCH IMAGES: -------------------- Press S and your two pages will be switched. Now you can draw or type on your (former) Page 2 image. (6-R) RELOCATE: --------------- Any rectangular section of Page 1 may be duplicated on either page within the limits of the screen. BEFORE YOU SELECT OPTION 6-R, define the area to be moved with the four points of the XO cursor. Now press 6 and R, select 1 or 2 for the page you want the move made to and move the flashing rectangle to the desired new location. The 2 key will function here if you want to temporarily remove the screen notes. PRESS M TO MAKE THE TRANSFER or to escape. After the transfer has been made, you may delete the original section image by drawing a solid box over it. (6-M) MERGE PAGES: ------------------ Alpha Plot lets you merge pictures four different ways. If you're into the terminology ("A OR B", etc.), here it is. If you're not, ignore this: 1. A OR B (Opaque Non-Black Page 1 onto Page 2) 2. A EOR B (XDraw Page 1 onto Page 2) 3. A AND B (Opaque Black Page 1 onto Page 2) 4. A=B ( Compare/Combine) You will want to experiment with each option. If your Page 2 picture is valuable, SAVE IT on disk BEFORE MERGING. Here are two sample images. The four possible merges appear on the next page. PAGE 1 BEFORE MERGE (PICTURES GO HERE) (7) KEYBOARD/PADDLE SWITCH -------------------------- The 7 key will switch cursor control from paddles to keyboard and back with a "KEY" or "PDL" appearing on the top line of the screen notes. If you don't have paddles, you don't need paddles; keyboard control is far more accurate. Paddle-1 will move it vertically. Paddles have no effect in the Typing Mode. All keys except the cursor-move keys have their normal effect with paddles in control. (8) MODIFY CURSOR ----------------- The 8 key lets you select or re-arrange the cursor. The current cursor's symbol; "XO", "RB", or "--" will appear in the screen notes. (8-X) XO CURSOR ---------------- This is the Drawing cursor you will probably use most, since it is the most versatile of the three available. The XO cursor consists of four points. The O is the drawing point, the X is a stationary reference point, and the other two points assist in the drawing of ellipses, boxes and lines. Pressing (or Option 8-Z) or drawing a line (Option "--") will put all four points on top of the O. (8-B) RUBBER BAND CURSOR ------------------------ The Rubber Band cursor works similarly to the XO cursor, but shows you a stretchable projected line between a stationary point and any other point you select. Using this cursor, you can actually see a line plot before you draw it. Pressing (or Option 8-Z) or drawing a line (Option "--") will give the Rubber Band a length of zero. (8-N) NO CURSOR --------------- The no-cursor mode is used when you want to draw with no distractions on the screen. With no cursor you can do everything you can with either of the two visible cursors. ( 8-Z) ZERO OFFSET ----------------- Z will put all four XO Cursor points on top of the current 0 position, or make the length of the Rubber Band Cursor zero. Select Z when you want to move the usually stationary X position. Pressing from the Drawing Mode is the same as selection 8-Z. (8-R) ROTATE LEFT ----------------- R rotates the XO Cursor points or the Rubber Band 90 degrees counter-clockwise (unpredictable in PDL mode). (9) SPEED --------- Speed determines the NUMBER OF PLOTS the cursor will plot or move for each A, Z or Arrow keypress. you may select speeds 1-9 by pressing the appropriate number. Pressing a zero will select a speed of 10. "*" is 20 and "-" is 40. S, X, K and L will move the cursor 50 PLOTS regardless of the speed. To quickly select a new speed, simply type 9-5 or 9-* or 9-whatever. (0) ELLIPSE ----------- Pressing the Zero key will draw an ellipse that would touch each of the four sides of an imaginary box connecting the four XO cursor points. Another Zero will fill the ellipse. you do not have to wait for the circle to be drawn to fill it (simply type two zeros). You may halt an ellipse while it is being drawn by pressing . An ellipse may be any color or color mix, but not Reverse. Theoretically, to draw a CIRCLE, the H and V Offset values at the bottom of your screen should be about EQUAL. This depends partly on the amount of distortion on your monitor. Try a test. (:) BOX ------- Pressing Colon will draw a linear box connecting the four points of the XO cursor. Colors 4 and 7 black or white boxes have fatter vertical sides. Colors 0 and 3 do not (see "Color Bugs"). A second Colon will fill the box in the selected color or Reverse. You may use mixed colors for drawing boxes (see more under Color Selection). (-) LINE -------- Pressing a Minus-sign key will connect the X and O ends of your XO cursor with a line or make an imprint of the Rubber Band Cursor on the screen in the appropriate color. The offset will be set to zero at the O end of the cursor. To erase a Reverse line, simply draw over it in Color #8. (RESET) QUIT ------------ Hitting Reset OR CTRL -@ will give you the option of exiting Alpha Plot. Note: With a reset exit, you risk imprinting the cursor on your picture; no problem if you have already saved your picture. Alpha Plot erases itself when you quit. To list it, LOAD it, then LIST. TYPING MODE ----------- Alpha Plot lets you type directly onto Page 1 using the normal set of ASCII characters. There are a few characteristics you will notice that make Alpha Plot's type different from the type you are used to seeing on your Apple screen-- LOWER CASE: ----------- Whether or not you have lower-case hardware installed in your Apple, you can type in upper and lower case with Alpha Plot. The ESC key controls upper and lower case. SAME-LINE WRAPAROUND: --------------------- When you reach the edge of the screen while typing in any direction, the type will jump to the opposite margin, but stay on the SAME LINE. Use the carriage return when you reach the edge of the page (as you would on a typewriter) if you don't want this to happen. SCREEN POSITION --------------- Any character may appear at any vertical or horizontal screen position. There is no connection between Alpha Plot's type and Apple's HTABS and VTABS. Therefore, you may adjust the distances between lines and characters, and make vertical adjustments for subscripts, superscripts and so on. PROPORTIONAL SPACING -------------------- With Alpha Plot text, each letter only takes up as much horizontal space as is necessary. Most characters are the normal five plots wide. Some, like W's and M's, are wider. Proportional type is attractive and easy to read, and you can fit more characters per line on the screen than with normal type. the only disadvantage comes in backspacing, and vertical character alignment; a couple of extra keystrokes are sometimes necessary to align cursors and characters. Which brings us to-- CURSOR MOVEMENT --------------- To move the cursor in the typing mode, you must HOLD DOWN THE CTRL KEY while you press the cursor-move keys. CTRL-A and CTRL-Z move the cursor up and down one the height of one line of type (plus leading). The left and right arrows (ctrl-optional) move the cursor left and right the width of a normal character (7 plots at normal type size and kerning). CTRL-S, CTRL-X, CTRL-K and CTRL-L move ONE PLOT up, down, left and right, allowing you to move to any precise spot on the screen. NOTE: To Exit the Typing Mode, hit ctrl-D to draw, or hit ctrl-O and "4" to draw, load or save. Ctrl-J: ERASE A SEGMENT ----------------------- Ctrl-J will erase a letter segment one-plot wide and one-character high. You must follow each ctrl_J with a ctrl-K or ctrl-L to advance the cursor left or right. UPPER/LOWER CASE ---------------------- The ESC key will set the upper & lower case switch in three different positions; 1: Lower Case Only. Position 2 will produce a capitol letter on the next keystroke and then switch to lower case operation. The height of the flashing cursor and the notes at the bottom of the screen will tell you whether the next character typed will be upper or lower case. OPTIONS ---------------- Ctrl-O (letter O) will let you select typing options or exit the Typing Mode. (Ctrl-O, 1-6) ------------- Drawing Options 1-6 (on your keyboard Chart) are available from the Typing Mode AFTER TYPING CTRL-O. (Ctrl-O, B) BIG COLOR (same as Option 1) ---------------------------------------- You may select the color for type larger than size 1. Due to the color dot layout of Apple's graphics system, normal-sized type in color is not readable, so it's not available on Alpha Plot. (Ctrl-O, M) MODE ---------------- M changes the type output mode from Inverse to Normal to Xtype and back. Each Inverse and Normal character clears a path for itself, so you will always have white or black type on the opposite color. XTYPE will let you type over your drawings with the type changing color according to the background. Color type of size #1 is illegible, so don't use Xtype over a color background in size 1. Xtype is also sometimes hard to read when used over complicated backgrounds. (Ctrl-O, R) ROTATE TYPING CURSOR -------------------------------- R allows you to type sideways (good for labeling graphs, etc.) and upside down (good for people who are upside down). The cursor points the direction of the type. Carriage returns and cursor move characteristics are rotated with the cursor. (Ctrl-O, S) TYPE SIZES ---------------------- You may type in four type sizes. Every time you press S, the type size will increase up to type-size #4. Then it will go back to #1 or normal-size type. You will need to type a bit slower with type larger than size 1. (Ctrl-O, L) LEAD ---------------- L controls the vertical distance the cursor is moved for each carriage return, and thus determines the leading or space between type lines. Normal leading on the Apple is 1 (and somewhat hard to read). Because of Alpha Plot's lower case descenders (parts of letters like g's and y's that go beneath the base line), an extra space of leading is preferable, so 2 is standard. (Ctrl-O, K) KERN ---------------- K lets you adjust the kerning or space between characters on the screen. Normal is 2, but adjust it to suit your preference, to squeeze more type into a small space or to stretch a line out to make a title or whatever. On a color monitor, type kerned one unit could be difficult to read. POSSIBLE PROBLEMS ----------------- NO CURSOR --------- The Drawing or Typing cursor can get hidden behind the screen notes. Try moving the cursor up, or select Option 2 (or ctrl-O, 2) to remove the notes. You will also have no cursor if you are in one of the Option modes (top row of keys). Try hitting . THICK VERTICAL LINES -------------------- Use black or white colors 0 or 4 instead of #3 or #7. NO PLOT OR TYPE --------------- Check your plotting color. It could be the same as the background. STUCK IN TYPING MODE -------------------- Press ctrl-O (Options) and select Option 4. WHICH PAGE AM I LOOKING AT? --------------------------- usually page 1. The only time you see Page 2 is through Option 6-P or M. If the screen notes are visible or if you have a cursor, you are looking at Page 1. HOW DO I MAKE A PRINTOUT OF MY PICTURE? --------------------------------------- You need two things-- a printer capable of printing hi-res AND hi-res "dump" software. Ask your Apple dealer. CAN I USE DIFFERENT TYPEFACES WITH ALPHA PLOT? ---------------------------------------------- No. You can, however, add different type styles to your Alpha Plot pictures using other software (Beagle Bros' APPLE MECHANIC disk, for example). ALSO ON THE ALPHA PLOT DISK --------------------------- ALPHA BOOT ---------- This is the program that runs when you boot. It simply BLOADs Alpha Code, Alpha Plot's machine language programs, sets the Start of Program pointers to location 24577 ($6001), then RUNs Alpha Plot. If you run Alpha Plot and Alpha Boot hasn't been run, Alpha Plot will run Alpha Boot for you. ALPHA CODE ---------- This is the machine language section of Alpha Plot that does Page switches, superimposing, and so on. I is BLOADed by Alpha Boot. ALPHA INFO ---------- Run this program to see the latest changes (if any) since these instructions were printed. HI-LO PLOT ---------- This program is fun if you like fooling around with graphics. the program actually moves Hi-Res image values form Page 1 ($2000) or page 2 ($4000) down to LO-RES Page 1 ($400). What you get is an abstract image of your Hi-Res picture in Lo-Res. Since the Hi-Res screen is much bigger than the Lo-Res screen, several versions of the picture are available. Follow the screen instructions. But first, do this-- 1. Run Hi-Lo Plot. 2. Quit by pressing Q. 3. Load a Hi-Res picture onto Page 1 by typing "HGR" and "BLOAD FILENAME, A$2000". A good one to use is the "BBROS LOGO" on the Alpha Plot disk. Load a second picture onto Page 2 if you want by typing "HGR2" and "BLOAD FILENAME, A$4000". 4. Type "RUN", and select Option H. Follow the instructions and let things happen. 5. When you get a picture you like, exit the program with a Q, and type "BSAVE LO-RES, A$400, L$400". Now let's convert the picture BACK TO HI-RES. This will be an abstract of an abstract, not a real conversion. 6. Load the Lo-Res picture you just made onto LO-RES PAGE 2 by typing "BLOAD LO-RES, A$800". We have to use Page 2 because Apple's Text shares Page 1 with Lo-Res. 7. Type "RUN" again. 8. Select Option L. There's your abstract of an abstract! To save this picture, type "BSAVE HI-RES, A$2000, L$2000". Keep experimenting. Sooner or later, you'll come up with some award-winners. The actual Hi-Lo Plot program is named "^". The program you see in the catalog simply changes some pointers to and runs "^" for you. Don't tell anyone o.k.? SCRUNCH ------- Scrunch is a handy machine language program that lets you store hi-res pictures in a much less than the normal 34 sectors of disk space, thus postponing DISK FULL error messages. Scrunch is easy to use, especially if you follow these directions carefully-- TO SCRUNCH (COMPRESS) A PICTURE-- --------------------------------- 1. Exit Alpha Plot if necessary. Scrunch has nothing to do with Alpha Plot. 2. Type "BLOAD SCRUNCH" (return). 3. Load a normal 34 sector hi-res picture onto PAGE ONE by typing "BLOAD PICTURE, A$2000" (return). 4. Type "CALL 2500" (return). This will put a compressed version of your picture onto Page Two. It won't be legible until you unscrunchit (see below). 5. Notice the "BSAVE SCRUNCHPIC, A$4000, L$---" (return). Use any file name you want and the numbers you see on the screen. 6. Your picture is now compressed and stored on disk. Catalog and notice its new size. You may delete the original 34 sector version of the picture AFTER you are sure the compressed version will unscrunch. TO UNSCRUNCH A PICTURE-- ------------------------ 1. Type "BLOAD SCRUNCH" (return). 2. Load a scrunched picture onto PAGE TWO by typing "BLOAD SCRUNCHPIC, A$4000" (return) 3. Clear and view Page One by typing "HGR" (return). This step is optional. 4. Type "CALL 25003" (return). Scrunch and unscrunch commands may be typed directly from the keyboard or executed from your Applesoft programs. You will only need to bload the Scrunch program once (NOT every time you manipulate a picture). Remember, to use DOS commands like BLOAD and BSAVE under program control they must be preceded by a ctrl-D. Consult your DOS Manual. The Scrunch program is not relocatable. The amount of scrunching that takes place on a given image depends mostly on the complexity of that image. Scrunched simple images occupy the least space.