Dec 052017
 
DTPBrowser - Windows util for browsing ASCII text files and .BMP graphics.
File DTPB.ZIP from The Programmer’s Corner in
Category Windows 3.X Files
DTPBrowser – Windows util for browsing ASCII text files and .BMP graphics.
File Name File Size Zip Size Zip Type
16COLOR.BMP 37654 10458 deflated
256COLOR.BMP 65078 49303 deflated
2COLOR.BMP 16430 10845 deflated
DTPBROWS.EXE 103936 22510 deflated
DTPBROWS.HLP 25024 8639 deflated
DTPBROWS.TXT 17319 6771 deflated
REGDTP.TXT 971 516 deflated

Download File DTPB.ZIP Here

Contents of the DTPBROWS.TXT file



DTPBrowser
A multi-window bitmap and text viewer\editor.
1991, SJHDesign


We at SJHDesign would like to thank you
for trying DTPBrowser. Anyone who needs to keep
track of a hard drive full of text and image files will
find this program quite useful. It has the ability to:

Load as many text(ASCII) and bitmap
(.BMP) files as memory permits.

Perform simple text editing on ASCII
files or create new ASCII files.

Display 2, 16 or 256 color bitmaps
and copy them to the clipboard and
other applications.

Perform case sensitive word searches
on text files and replace search strings
with another user defined string.

Cut and copy text to the clipboard and
paste text between windows or into
other applications.

Load as many as 8 files from the
command line.

But best of all, DTPBrowser is compact and FAST. Since
the program doesn't impose a large memory overhead,
you can load more words and images and easily copy
them into your DTP or Word Processing program.

This text file contains a general overview of the program
and is divided into the following sections:

A) Installation(easy)

B) Registration(What's in it for you?)

C) Tips(Memory, file types and stuff)


A) INSTALLATION

The following files should be included in the
DTBR.ZIP archive:

DTPB.TXT- this file
2COLOR.BMP - sample 2 color bitmap
16COLOR.BMP - sample 16 color bitmap
256COLOR.BMP - sample 256 color bitmap
DTPBROWS.EXE - DTPBrowser executable
DTPBROWS.HLP -DTPBrowser help file
REGDTP.TXT - Registration Form for your printer

The best way to install DTPBrowser is to copy the files
DTPBROWS.EXE and DTPBROWS.HLP to the directory
in which you keep the text and bitmap files you will be
working with so you can find and load them easily. Note:
if that dirctory is not in your PATH statement (this can be
found in AUTOEXEC.BAT, an ASCII file on your root drive),
you should either include it or move DTPBROWS.HLP to
a directory that is included in your path. If you will only
be loading the program from Program Manger, you don't
have to worry about this, but many third-party application
launchers and Program Manager substitutes do not return
a fully qualified filename when they launch a program and
thus Windows will have trouble finding the help file if it is
not on your path.
Here is a sample directory setup that I have found to be
fast and practical:


C:
This dir has your Publishing or
--PUBLISHER word processing program. Put
DTPBROWS.EXE and DTPBROWS.
HLP here and include in your path.

DOCS These directories contain your text
and bitmap files and will always be
BITMAPS visible in the file load box when you
run DTPBrowser.

Running DTPBrowser:
------------------------------------
There are many different ways to load and run DTPBrowser.
Drag the file DTPBROWS.EXE from the File Manager
to the Program Manager and run it out of there, or simply
click on DTPBROWS.EXE in the file manager. If, like the
majority of Windows users, you use a third party application
launcher that allows command line parameters like filenames,
you can load DTPBrowser and concurrently open multiple text
and/or bitmap files by including the full filenames of the text or
bitmap files you want to load in the box where you specify
switches or parameters. If your launcher supports long
command lines, you can autoload load as many files(up to
255 characters)as will fit on the command line. Bitmap and
text files can also be autoloaded by editing the [Extensions]
section of your WIN.INI file like so:
[Extensions]
TXT=C:\PUBLISHER\DTPBROWS.EXE ^.TXT
INI=C:\PUBLISHER\DTPBROWS.EXE ^.INI
BMP=C:\PUBLISHER\DTPBROWS.EXE ^.BMP

Of course, you have to substitute the actual drive and
directory where DTPBrowser is located on your system
and be sure to delete any previous assignments of that
particular file format in your Win.Ini file. If you do this,
you can also install text and bitmap files in Program
manager groups and load DTPBrowser with that file by
clicking on the icon.
Note: Assigning the .INI extension to DTPBrowser is a
timesaver- all you have to do is click on any INI file you
want to edit in the File Manager(or whatever third-party file
utility you use). Since DTPBrowser supports multiple edit
windows, you can view and edit (for example) Win.Ini and
System.Ini at the same time. For any situation where it is
helpful to edit a number of inter-related files at once, it can
save lots of time to assign the file extension to DTPBrowser
in your Win.Ini file. I personally find this program useful
for editing complex DBase or Paradox database script
applications which are often composed of many small,
inter-related script files. As you use the program, you will
find many uses for it other than browsing text and images
for your Desktop Publishing application.

Using the RUN commands in Program Manager and
File Manager will also speed the loading of multiple files.
For example, if your Windows directory is current and
DTPBrowser is there, type this in the box that comes up
when you choose the run command:

DTPBROWS WIN.INI SYSTEM.INI CHESS.BMP PAPER.BMP

and DTPBrowser will load with with all four files ready for
viewing or editing.

Menu Commands : The menu commands are explained
in detail in the DTPBrowser help file. Just run DTPBrowser
and choose HELP(alt-H) from the menu.

B) REGISTRATION
It costs $29.00(US) to register DTPBrowser. I posted
a limited function Demo version(DTPBRO.ZIP) on three
CIS forums with an offer for this fully functional version
(for $29), had over 400 downloads and a whole lot less
registrations than that. I can only assume that this was
because either the Demo version was so fabulous that
nobody wanted the real thing or else people need more
of an incentive than that to spend their money. I'm going
on the assumption that the latter is true, so in that spirit,
here's what you get if you register DTPBrowser:

1) Major upgrade for $5 - we are currently adding
an enhanced text editor, three image file formats
(.PCX, .TIFF, Aldus\Corel .MTF), easier loading
of multiple files, printing and other improvements.
Beta release is scheduled on or before 7/1/92,
at which time registered users will recieve an
offer to upgrade the program for $5( to cover the
disk and shipping costs-$15 for orders outside
the Continental U.S.).

2) VGAColor Clipart Collection - I don't know about you,
but I'm tired of little stickmen and stuff that looks
like it was lifted from greeting cards and such
passing for clipart so we put together a collection
of two hundred 2,16, and 256 color clipart images
that we use frequently in our own work. Polished,
useful images for Desktop Publishers in .PCX
format (available separately for $19.95).

3) Unlimited Free Tech Support - we'll give you a special
number to call evenings and weekends if you have
any questions about DTPBrowser. All you pay is the
the phone company.

4) There's more coming-we are working on quite a few things
here. In particular, a compact Desktop- type program that
actually leaves some memory for you to load programs
in, a full featured Windows metafile editor as well as a
number of utilities to support the upcoming release of
Paradox for Windows. Registered users will be notified
of new products by mail and recieve substantial discounts.


So if we have you convinced, print out the file REGDTP.TXT
(a standard ASCII file that will output on any printer), fill out the
information so we know where to reach you for upgrades, etc.,
and send the form along with a check or money order for $29.00
($40.00 for orders outside the Continental US) to:

SCOTT HANRAHAN
326 E. 34th ST.
N.Y. , NY 10016
(make checks payable to Scott Hanrahan)
Specify 5.25" or 3.5" disk. Software will be shipped
via US Mail or UPS(faster) within 5 business days.

Or, if you would like us to send you a copy C.O.D.\Cash(it'll cost you
$4.00 extra) call SJHDesign at (212) 683-2264 or leave a request on
Compuserve (70144,3033). Any advice, suggestions, praise, criticism,
etc. can also be sent to either of the above. If you find a bug, please
call me ( if you have a Dr. Watson log, it would be very helpful).


C) TIPS

Memory Issues
-------------------------
DTPBrowser was written in Pascal in a manner that I think makes it as
fast and compact as possible. While the program itself doesn't take
up much memory, bitmaps do. It takes over 159K to load a 320x200
256 color bitmap-in theory, four of them would take up the entire lower
640K of your computer's memory(and that's not counting the 130-160K
overhead the Windows GUI imposes). The following tips are based on
what Microsoft calls an "average" Windows configuration : 20mhz 386
with an 80mb hard drive, SVGA monitor with 512k SVGA video card. (If
you don't have $2000 for that, write to Bill Gates and ask for a loan)

1)Real Mode - a real problem for programmers. For programs
like this one that deal with extremely large files requiring
lots of memory, the choices are to limit what your program
can do so all of it's functions are available in real mode, or
to write a separate real mode compatible program. We have
chosen the latter. If you are a real mode afficianado, DTPB16
has all of the text functions of this program but is limited to
2 or 16 color bitmaps. If you are a registered user we will
send this to you at no charge. This version of DTPBrowser
will run in Real Mode with full text functions, but will only
load the smaller bitmaps.

2) 256 Color Bitmaps-a good rule of thumb is that a
512k video card can load the palette table for
one 640x480x256 image with little loss of color.
Since DTPBrowser loads multiple bitmap images,
when two or three images of that size are loaded,
some loss of color(washing out) is inevitable. In
Enhanced mode, Windows compensates to some
extent by making additional virtual memory available
to the Palette Manager, but this memory is slow and
involves much disk thrashing. If you have two or three
256 color bitmaps loaded and want to copy one with a
full palette, maximize it, pull down the BITMAP menu
(alt-b) and choose the REFRESH command. This takes
all available video memory for the palette of that image
(at the expense of the other images, which will wash
out further). If you still do not get a realistic palette,
try closing the other bitmaps or minimizing any other
programs currently running and repeat the refresh
command. If you have a 1024k video card and 8 megs
of ram, this is not as much of a problem, but the rest of
us have to find ways to work around it.

2)Low Memory Warnings-there are two places where you
could get one of these: If you load a bitmap and the program
can't find enough memory for the operation, a message box
saying "Not enough memory to load bitmap" will appear
and you will get an empty bitmap window, which you can
close. Or, if there is not enough memory available to copy
a bitmap window to the clipboard, you will see a "Not enough
memory to copy image" message box and the operation will
be terminated.

3)Text Files-at this time, DTPBrowser can load and save text
files of 32k or less. If you load one larger than that, you will
see a message box saying "Unable to load entire File", and
the program will load as much of the file as it can. It is wise
not to edit and save files after you see this warning, as the
file will be truncated to 32k when it is written to disk. For large
text files, it is always better to work on copies of your original
files. As you load additional text files, this limit tends to
become lower, so try to load the largest files first. This and
other editing limitations will be corrected in the next version of
DTPBrowser(available around 7/92 for $5 to registered users).

4)Text Clipboard-cut and paste operations are limited to 8192
bytes(characters) at a time. Anything over that will be cut or
copied from your document but will not be written to the
clipboard. Keep this in mind when using the CUT command-
when working with large blocks of text, it's best to use COPY
instead, paste the text to your destination file or check the
clipboard to make sure it's all there and then go back to the
source document and delete the text with the CUT command
(it will still be highligted). This way, there is no chance of
losing text in cut-paste operations.

5)Text Searches-have the same 8192 byte limit as cut and paste
operations.


File Types
------------------
There are as many of these as stars in the sky. Text files come in
hundreds of flavors, but ASCII is the closest thing to a standard. Most
Word Processors and DTP programs read and write ASCII files, often
automatically converting them to and from their native format. When
you choose the Load Text command, the load box will have a wildcard
(*) where the file extension normally is- this is because ASCII files are
saved under many different extensions(*.txt, *.doc, *.asc, read.me...).
This means that you can load any type of file (even binary) into an
editor window, but be careful in editing non-ASCII files:
********************************************************************
* If you edit a non-ASCII file(such as a binary, bitmap, *
* word processor or desktop publisher file) and save *
* the changes to disk, chances are it will not be usable *
* by it's native program, or in the case of a binary(.exe) *
* file, it will not run correctly. *
********************************************************************
It's pretty simple to figure out which files are ASCII and which are
not. ASCII files (like this one) contain only readable text-if you see
symbols like in your editor window, then it's
probably not an ASCII file, so if you make any changes in it, don't
save the file, just close it (a message box will appear asking if you
want to save your changes-hit the tab key so that NO is highlighted,
and hit ENTER. It would be a simple matter to add an ASCII-only
filter to the program that would only allow ASCII files to be loaded,
but this is too restricting-after all, this is a BROWSER and most
word processing file formats are quite readable in the editor - you
see the actual text along with the strange characters described above,
and you can even copy and paste the text portions-BUT DON'T TRY
TO SAVE THE FILE!!!

File Errors:
As mentioned above, the editor window will load any type
of file, but the Bitmap viewer is a little more particular-it
will only load a Windows 3.x - type bitmap. If you load a
pre-Windows 3.0 bitmap, or some other file type with an
incorrect extension, you will get a message box that the
file is "Not a Windows 3.0 Bitmap". Hit the OK button(or
ENTER) and a blank bitmap window will appear, which
you can close by pulling down the system menu in the
upper left hand corner of the window and choosing the
CLOSE command.


DISCLAIMER

This software is offered for use as is, and no warranty
is offered or implied. We are not responsible for any
loss of data, damage to hardware nor any resulting loss
of time or revenue. Like all commercial software, this
program is utilized entirely at the user's risk.

Paradox, Paradox for Windows and DBase are
registered trademarks of Borland International, Inc.




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