------------ ALITRON 1.0, 2/8/93 ------------- | A Public Domain VGA Graphics program | ------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION AND REQUIREMENTS ALITRON is Public Domain. This means that you can pass it around freely on BBS's, shareware groups, on disks, etc. ALITRON requires a VGA graphics adapter and monitor, since it uses the VGA/MCGA 256 color mode with 320 by 200 pixel resolution (which isn't too great but hey, it's the first program I have released yet, besides door file converters!). ALITRON bounces an object around the screen, leaving a trail behind, changing colors, and changing the radius size. You tell Alitron how to work by means of an ASCII text file, with each line containing the name of a variable and what you want the variable to be. On the chart below, you can see the many variables that Alitron lets you specify. CHART OF VARIABLES Variable: abbrev. What it means: Possible values: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- x x Horizontal start position 0 to 319 y y Vertical start position 0 to 199 radius r Radius or Ribbon width any number P p Starting Palette 0 to 256 C c Starting Color Attribute 0 to 256 DeltaX Dx Horizontal increment any number DeltaY Dy Vertical increment any number DeltaR Dr Radius increment any number MaxRad MinR Maximum radius size a # greater than 1 MinRad MaxR Minimum radius size a # greater than 0 DeltaP Dp Color cycling speed 1 to 256 DefaultColors DFC Use default colors? TRUE or FALSE BkgndLines BL Draw backround lines? TRUE or FALSE RotateColors RC Rotate the colors? TRUE or FALSE Lon Ld Ribbon (line) display on? TRUE or FALSE Con Cd Circle display on? TRUE or FALSE Pon Pd Point display on? TRUE or FALSE Pause Pz Pause on startup TRUE or FALSE COMMAND LINE AND COMMAND SYNTAX To tell ALITRON what text file to use, simply put it on the command line after the word 'ALITRON'. For example if you had a text file called "CONFIG.ALI" that contained your list of variables, you would type the following: ALITRON CONFIG.ALI Note that it does not have to be called that; the config file can be any legal DOS filename. You may also include a full pathname, as in ALITRON C:\GRAPHICS\CONFIG.ALI The format of each line in the text file is "VARIABLE=VALUE". The possible Variables are listed on the chart above, with their values. If a variable can be True or False, write TRUE or FALSE after the equals sign, for example "BkGndLines=FALSE". YES and NO can also be used in place of TRUE and FALSE if you prefer. (Backgroundlines can be drawn to start off with a colorful screen instead of a plain black background.) Alitron is NOT case-sensitive, so please feel free to capitalize any variable however you like. The abbreviations for each of the variables are shown on the chart also, provided to save typing when you understand what each function does. You can include comments in an ALITRON config file very easily becuase Any line that is not a valid configuration command will be ignored. Any variables that are not set up in your text file will be set to their default values, which you can also see by not specifying the filename. ALITRON makes it easy to have multiple configuration files in the same or different directories if you wish. Note that if you use comments that even though they can be anywhere in the file, they must not be on the same line as an ALITRON configuration command, or else the command will not work and your variable will not be assigned (you might even get a runtime error). Also please note that there may not be a space before the variable name, between the variable name and the equals sign, or between the equals sign and the value. Otherwise the line will be ignored and you might even get a runtime error. Here are some things you may wish to note about the chart: * 'Default colors' are rainbowish. Non-Default colors cycle through all 63 shades of each pure color Red-Yellow-Green-Blue. * You cannot rotate colors if you are using the default colors. * To have a non-changing radius size, set the radius to a value NOT between MinRad and MaxRad. Or set them all to the same value. * The Deltas can be any number, but if you get above 50 or so the display becomes unrecognizable. Experiment for preferences. * RotateColors seems to work just fine on my computer. However, on all the other computers I have tried it on, RotateColors seems to slow down the system almost to a grinding halt, even on 486 DX's that go too fast without color cycling. All I can guess is that it is some fluke of my graphics adapter. However, some of the .ALI files that are included with Alitron may use this option, so use at your own risk. However it should not be too much of a problem since you can always press Space to get out of Alitron. Experiment to see if it works for you. * The DeltaP ('color cycling speed') determines how many colors are rotated at a time. This value has no effect unless RotateColors is on. The larger this number the jerkier the display because it skips some colors. You might want to try this anyway if your computer is one that goes very slow when RotateColors is on. * The Point, Line, and Circle displays are drawn in the same color at the same time, so having both Line and Point on at the same time does nothing different than the line by itself. * You can have both Ribbon and Circle displays on at the same time causing it to appear to be a cylinder with a ribbon inside. AVAILABLE KEYS Keys active while Alitron is drawing are Tab and Space. Tab will pause the display until you hit Tab again. Space is the Quit key. ABOUT THE PROGRAM Alitron was written and debugged on an IBM 286 clone, and compiled using Microsoft QuickBasic version 4.5, in February of 1993. Since this is one of my first programs I would really appreciate any comments, donations, and bug reports. But before you blame a bug on me, check with the chart above and make sure all your values are within specifications-- Alitron should not crash unless you have something really weird such as Circles with a NEGATIVE radius, or a dot that is a couple thousand dots to the left of the leftmost pixel column, and so forth. PACKING LIST The only file really necessary to run Alitron is ALITRON.EXE. However there are some others that you should know: Name Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ALITRON.EXE This is the actual program. ALI.BAT Runs Alitron, using .ALI files as the text configuration files. DEMO.BAT Will run Alitron with every .ALI file in the current directory. *.ALI Some Alitron configuration files. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Whether or not you decide to end your text files with .ALI is up to you, but it might be helpful in identifying them to others. I may make .ALI the ONLY extension readable by Alitron in a newer version, so this may be one thing you might wish to comment on or adapt for yourself. Please pardon any .ALI files that have extremely strange names that are distributed along with Alitron. I just got tired of NUMBERING them, that's all. The word "ALITRON" itself is actually a nonsense word I made up, but I'm not telling you that. :) DISCLAIMER You use Alitron at your own risk, and by doing so you agree that the author will not be held responsible for any direct or indirect damages caused by execution of the Alitron program and data files. FREEWARE NOTICE Alitron may be distributed for no cost other than the cost of a floppy disk or other physical storage medium or upload-download ratio on a public BBS. Otherwise Alitron is free and may be freely distributed as long as this document is included with it. Any ASCII text file readable by Alitron may also be distributed freely, packaged with Alitron, or separately, if you wish. Questions, comments, and bug reports are always welcome. Please send your suggestions on how to improve this program and what you would like to see in future versions! Send e-mail to: tril@tunes.org