Pocket Book Bitmap Editor

by Andrew J. Rawnsley


Running this application opens a directory viewer containing two directories, APP and OPD. They are for use with the Acorn Pocket Book and should be copied onto the Pocket Book using A-Link.

WHAT IS IT?
The Bitmap Editor (BMP) allows you to produce bit map graphics for use in your own OPL programs. The files are saved as standard .pic files which can be loaded into OPL with the command: gLOADBIT. The program is designed for fairly small scale graphics, e.g. Desktop icons or other small icons. As the Pocket Book does not have graphic printer drivers, a print option is not available. However, this should not be too much of a limitation, as the Pocket Book is not designed for desktop publishing and the like.

INSTALLATION
Using A-Link, click on the Open $ menu item to open the directory display for the Pocket Book. Now enter the M directory and drag the directories OPD and APP from the disc to this directory.

As MS-DOS style *.* file names are not used by the Arc, the files on this disc use a '/' character to represent the '.', i.e. when you copy the file BMP/OPA to the Pocket Book, you should reaname it to BMP.OPA.

Now use the Acorn-I shortcut on the Pocket Book Desktop screen and install Bitmap as a new application. It should appear with its own BMP icon.

ENTERING BMP
To enter BMP simply press Enter with the cursor over the Bitmap title in the Desktop screen.

BMP MENUS
The BMP menus can be accessed by pressing the Menu key in the usual way, and then using the cursor keys. You can also choose options by pressing the Acorn key in conjunction with the appropriate hotkey for the option eg. Acorn-N would open the New Bitmap dialog box.

THE FILE MENU
New           ^N
Save          ^S
Load          ^F
Save & Exit   ^X
Quit          ^Q

THE TOOLS MENU
Line          ^L
Rectangle     ^R
Point         ^P
Text          ^T

THE FILL MENU
Solid Set     ^H
Solid Clear   ^J
Solid Inv     ^K
Outline       ^O

THE SPEED MENU
Speed +1      ^W
Speed -1      ^E
Default Speed ^D
Set Speed     ^Z

THE SPECIAL MENU
Info          ^I
Version       ^V

USING BMP
Before you can start creating a bit map image (picture), you must start a new image by choosing the New option. This allows you to enter the (file)name that the new image will be stored under and its x & y size, similar to Paint on the Arc. Files will be saved in the *.pic form. The OPD directory on the Pocket Book will be used unless a different directory is specified by the user. The other file menu actions are fairly self explanatory, and a useful option is that of Quit (^Q), which allows you to exit BMP without saving your work if you have made a mistake.

When drawing, use Enter or the Space Bar to choose a pixel. Move about using the cursor keys. The Tools and Fill menus work together. It should be understood that the fills are for use with the Rectangle tool only. All the other tools work using the invert option, i.e. the black pixels will go white and the white pixels will go black.

The Point tool is for accurate work setting or unsetting individual pixels.

When using the Line tool, first select the start point of the line, and then the end point.

The Rectangle tool allows you to produce a rectangle between any two points. Select the first point and the end point and the rectangle will be drawn.

The Speed menu allows you to set how many pixels the cursor moves each time you press one of the cursor keys. Using the Set Speed option, the X & Y speeds may be set to different, independent values. This is particularly useful whan you wish to draw a rectangle (or line) of a specific width and hight. The Default Speed is 1, although at this speed, moving the cursor long distances can be rather tedious!

The Info and Version options give exactly that. The information is similar to that available on a normal Arc info box, and consists of:
  The  X & Y positions on the image
  The X & Y size of the image
  The current X & Y speeds
  The name of the current file being edited


 Copyright RISC User 1993