Category : Printer + Display Graphics
Archive   : BEX.ZIP
Filename : BEX.DOC

bex v0.1


( I'm a German with basic knowledge in english. If you want to
correct and post back this documentation we would be happy. )

email : [email protected]

or real adress : Christian Harms
Holbeinweg 6
71229 Leonberg
GERMANY - EUROPE

Wingman, alias Christian Harms proudly presents :


Well, well, well, this is another Bitmap-Editor for/in Mode X : BEX.
Ä Ä Ä


0. BackGound-Information
1. Introduction
2. MainScreen 1st Screen to Paint
3. Palette-Screen change Color-Table
4. Tools - Menu Tools like Rotate,Zoom, Get/Put ...
5. Clipboard manage many Bitmaps on RAM-Cache

0. BackGround-Information

[Future on]
Ok, but why v0.1, if this a ready program ?
Hmm, well : I want to make a Sprite-Animator and the first,little
step is this Sprite-Editor, and later (I dont know when), I will
program v1.0. And then, you will find BEX as one menu-point in
my Animator.
[Future off]

This Program can be used by Mouse or Keys, Mouse is better.
Every Click on a Button (for example) with the Mouse emulates
a keycode. So - it was very easy to program these many Buttons.

Ideas - post it to my email-number.
If you are interested in the XLib for Turbo Pascal, wait until second
half of October,93. OK, XLib are now real TP-Units ( with asm; ... ),
but Button-Manager, 16x16-Font and so on are new.

1. Introduction

He, I bet, BEX shows even better than the other XEDIT (Harhar).
Therefor, I named this editor "Bitmap Editor for Mode X" or
short "BEX" (sounds good :).

If exist a file "BEX.PAL", it will be loaded. If the Size min.
6 Bytes more then the real Palettes-Size (256*3), then are these
six Bytes the Numbers of Gray0 to Gray5 for the Buttons, Text
and so on. If no file exists, a "optimal 6-7-6 RGB-Color-Table"
will be set as default. ( This Palette is also used by PhotoStyler
for Windows, and you can design wounderful Pictures and save them with
this Palette. )

I used the PBM (Planar Bitmap) Format of Themie Goutas - XLib
Maximal Size are 250x250, for Rotate only 125x125 (more will forget).
Are you interessed in Gif-"Load" in BEX ?

Usage :

bex or bex

2. MainScreen

MOUSE:
In the Zoom-Window of the bitmap, you can put a pixel with the left
Mouse-Button and get the color of a pixel with Right. Color are able
to be chosen from the palette in the upper,right corner by pressing
a Mouse-Button, too. Other options are able to be activated by Buttons.
2,4,6,8 are the directions of the Numeric Keypad and it can have scrolled
large pictures with the left Mouse-Button. Horizontal Scroll is in
Zoom 4 or 8 not so slow as in the other Zooms. If you activate the
Scrooool-Buttons with the right Mouse-Button, it will scroll to the
border of the Bitmap.
Save will only save the area in the gray border.
Load and Dir are self-explaining.
After having activated the "sIze"-Button you can change the save-Size
of your Bitmap (See also "X"/"Y" in Tools-Menu).
Click Left on the Pal-Button, you go into the Palette-Screen. With Right,
you can flip between two different Display-Modes of the Palettes.
1st is the normal one of my RGB-Palette, 2ed is a 16x16-Display for
all other palettes (like Yak-Pal and so on.)

KEYBOARD:
Using the cursor-keys, you can move a little Cursor. By pressing Space,
you Put a pixel, Enter, you get the pixel-color as actual Color.
"+" Increases the actual Color, "-" Decreases the Color (Ok, it's stupid,
but If you have an other (simple) idea ?).
"sIze": Move the cursor to the new corner, an press I and the new borders
will be set.
Scrooooling: You can scroool the Bitmap with the numeric keypad, if NumLock
is lightend. Scroll to the End/Begin of the Bitmap, use PgUp,PgDown for
Y-,Home/End for X-direction.
Buttons can be activated by Big Characters: L,S,D,T,I,P


3. Palette-Screen

MOUSE:
On the Colors, you can choose it by pressing into the Color-Array.
If you want to decrease the Red/Green/Blue-Part of the actual color,
activate the Button with the Left-Mouse-Button, Increase with the
Right Mouse-Button.
With the Buttons "Gray0" to "Gray5" you can change the Menu-Colors.
Save, Load and Directory are not to be commentated (I hope it.)
"Save" will save Color-Numbers of Gray0 to Gray5 after the Palette-Data,
too (see also 1.Introduction).

KEYBOARD:
The actual Color can be changed by the cursor-keys, the "Red"/"Green"/
"Blue"-Parts can be increased by the "r","g","b" and decrease by
"R","G","B". With "0".."5" you can change the Menu-Colors.
And with "L","S","D" you can Load,Save and show the Directory
for other Palettes-Files (most *.pal).

4. Tools - Button

MOUSE:
"+" and "-" are the Buttons to Zoom, Unzoom the Big Bitmap, very
usefull in higher resolutions. "X" and "Y" are the Pixel-Width/
Height of the Bitmap (2-250).
With "<->" and "v^" can flip the Bitmap horizontal/vertical.
Ok, "Fill" : Click in a area, and this area will be filled with actual
color. The Fill-Algorithm don't run over the (X,Y)-Border.
"Clear" will the Bitmap fill in the (X,Y)-Border with the actual color.
And "Rot" is a dirty Rotate-function with a Range of 1-359, but one-step-
Angle.
"Big": If you have too sparse lines, you can make it bigger. By every
point all 4 neighbours will be filled with the Point-color if the are
in color 0.
"out": You can make Outlines for Sprites. It makes a comic-effect like
Commander Keen. Left Mouse-Button makes a little, Right Mouse-Button
a big OutLine in the actual color.
"Get" : You can save a rectangular area out of the Zoom-Window at disk,
and if possible (System-Memory), cache to the clipboard.
"Put" : choose one Bitmap from the clipboard and have put it to the
position you pointed to (see more 5. CLipboard).

KEYBOARD:
"+","-","X","Y","<->","v^" look under MOUSE.
"Fill" will fill on Cursor-Position with actual Color. Clear will the
Bitmap in the (X,Y)-Border have filled with the actual color.
The two Outlines can be chosen with "O" and "o".
"Get" and "Put", you can choose the Corners with Mouse or Keyboard.

5. Clipboard

MOUSE :
Here you can choose a Bitmap by pointing on the Name-Button and get it
with the "Get"-Button. New bitmaps can be added to the Clipboard with "Load".
"Kill" will the actual bitmap kill from the Clipboard-list.
ESC will abort Clipboard and "Ins".

KEYBOARD:
The first ten Bitmaps can be shown with "0".."9"-Keys. Other with "+" and "-".
"Get" can be activated with "G" or Enter. Other Keys: "L","S","D","K".