
Name               - DeskDump
Version number     - 1.00
Function           - Desktop screen dumper
Last revision date - 18/2/91
Copyright          - (C) Alexander Buckley 1991

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Overview
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   DeskDump is a little multi-tasking program which allows you to dump any
Desktop screen to a sprite file. It will only work in the Desktop - if you
want to dump screens from outside the Desktop (very audible gasps!), you will
have to get a more powerful program (there have been at least two published 
as type-in listings in magazines). Its main advantage over the "Get Screen
Area" feature in !Paint is that DeskDump does not put an icon on the icon bar
and that any open menus are not closed.


Operation
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   To start DeskDump, simply double-click on its icon. Nothing will appear to
happen, but if you really want to be sure, bring up the Task Manager and then
double-click, and you will see DeskDump initialise itself in the Task
Manager window. To dump a screen, press <PRINT>. This will dump the Desktop
screen to a file in the current directory. Files are named intelligently, the
first one being called Pic0, the second Pic1, and so on. To de-activate 
DeskDump, press <CTRL><PRINT>. This will rid DeskDump from memory, and if you
really want to be sure, again, watch the Task Manager and you will see 
DeskDump disappear. Note that you cannot quit DeskDump from the Task
Manager using the Quit option there - it does not work - use <CTRL><PRINT>
instead!

   DeskDump has been found to work in the following modes - 0,1,2,4,5,8,9,10,
11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,24,25,26,27 and 28 - basically all the modes
available on a normal monitor, a multi-sync and a VGA monitor. Modes 3,6 and
7 are not suitable for the Desktop anyway, Mode 22 does not exist (yet?) and 
Mode 23 requires a big mono monitor that costs, well, a lot of money!


Technical details
-----------------

   DeskDump works by creating a window off-screen which has its "grab hot
keys" and "able to be opened off the screen" bits set. In FormEd, these
are the "No bounds" and "Keys" options on the "Window flags" menu. Inside 
this window is a writable icon, and the program simply polls to see if a 
hotkey has been pressed. If <PRINT> has been pressed (ASCII code &180), the 
screen is saved using *ScreenSave to a file with the current save number as
its suffix in the filename, for example, Pic0 then Pic1, etc. The program
repeats until <CTRL><PRINT> is pressed (ASCII code &1A0), at which point it
quits.

   DeskDump cannot dump screens from outside the Desktop because it would
have to be written as a module to do that, and I don't know how to write
modules yet! The more powerful dumpers are modules, and look at how
complicated they are!


Alexander Buckley
18 February 1991
