ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN APRIL 1989 LIMA NEWSLETTER
DRAW - A FULL PAGE WIDTH DRAWING PROGRAM
by Charles Good
In this newsletter issue we are publishing some
Infocom game maps created with a public domain "artist" program
that is somewhat resembles CAD (computer assisted drawing) programs on
other computers. The software was given to me bearing the name AUTOCAD
on the disk, although this name is not used in the program docs. These
docs bear no author name or date and refer to the software name simply
as "DRAW".
DRAW loads and autostarts from the E/A module (EA3), or Funneweb loader 7. This is one of the very few programs that boots from number 7 of the Funnelweb (v4.1x) Loaders menu. There are different versions of DRAW for those with PIO and with RS232 printers. I have had no trouble with the PIO version, but I have been told that one individual with a TI impact printer has not been able to get the RS232 version to work properly with that printer. I am unable to check this out myself, since nobody in my user group has an RS232 printer. With DRAW you have, in black and white only, very complete pixel by pixel control using either the joysticks or the arrow keys. Drawings are 480 pixels wide by 192 pixels high. This is the FULL WIDTH of an 8 1/2 inch piece of paper. Few other "artist" software packages for the TI allow you to use the full width of your printer paper! You window right/left one pixel at a time on the display screen, and there is a special "page locator" symbol at the top of the screen which slowly moves right and left to give you an indication of what you are seeing in relation to this 480 width. If the page locator is in the center top of the screen this means that there are 112 pixels to the left and another 112 pixels to the right of what you can see on the monitor. Although DRAW graphics are only 192 pixels high, the same as TI ARTIST, you can completely fill a printed page with what looks like one single graphic. You load one full width DRAW graphic from disk (a 49 sector file) and dump it to a printer. You can them load another DRAW graphic and dump it IMMEDIATELY below the first graphic on the same sheet of paper. You can fit four of these graphics one below the other onto a single 11 inch sheet of paper in such a way that you can't tell where one ends and the next begins. The following are among features available in TEXT mode:
The following are available in DRAW mode:
Other features:
Saving and loading DRAW graphics to and from disk is easy. You use FCTN/8 or FCTN/7 and enter the file name. Unfortunately these graphic files appear incompatible with other "artist" graphic formats and you can't view the graphics with MAX-RLE. DRAW appears to be very useful for full page width maps, circuit diagrams, flow charts, etc. User groups (not individuals) can obtain a copy of DRAW by sending a disk and paid return mailer to the Lima User Group, P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894. |
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