Re: Shape Table Problem Solved... Or Not

[John Townsend <utownje@lexis-nexis.com>]

Jon Bettencourt wrote:

> I finally have my shape table working. It will let me draw all 4 shapes. I
> moved it from the "free space" area, where it was being overwritten with
> string data, into HiRes page 2. The only problem now is, I have to rebuild
> my shape table because the way I encoded it into binary didn't work. Now
> when I XDRAW it, it goes everywhere.

When a shape "goes everywhere," it's usually because you have SCALE=0, which
makes the shape as big as possible (every move advances 256 pixels), and it
wraps around the edges of the screen.  Make sure that SCALE= is set to
something more reasonable for your shapes.

> Does anybody know of a program that will create shape tables for me? It
> might just be easier to use that.

Years ago (13, to be exact) I wrote and marketed a machine-language program
called DoubleVision, which duplicated and extended all of the Applesoft hi-res
and lo-res graphics commands for DHR and DLR modes with "&" vectors for
Applesoft and a MLI for machine language programmers.  It also included a
couple of utilities for creating DHR shape tables and character sets for
drawing text on the screen (e.g. you could &DRAW "Quick brown fox" AT 100,100
using any DOS Tool Kit character set).  The DHR shape tables were identical to
normal shape tables, but as you might imagine, the shapes look a lot different
in DHR mode.  The program relocated most of itself into extended bank-switched
memory (out of the way of most other programs), and could co-exist with other
& utilities if they were installed first.  I licensed the program to DynaComp,
and they only sold a dozen or so copies.  Anyhow, I've been meaning to dig it
out and re-release it as freeware, but never gotten around to it.  The main
hurdles are digging out the source code (if it hasn't succumbed to bit rot by
now) to reassemble it with a freeware license, and getting the manual, which
was written in LaTeX and only exists in hardcopy now, into a more easily
distributed form.  I'd be happy to do it though, if anyone's really interested
in it.

--
John E. Townsend
Sr. Software Engineer          "Machines should work;
LEXIS-NEXIS                     people should think."
Dayton, OH, USA                        -- IBM Pollyanna Principle
utownje@lexis-nexis.com