ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER APRIL 1989
 
     ^^^^^^^  DRAW  A FULL PAGE WIDTH DRAWING PROGRAM  
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^a short review 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: 
     - both upper and lower case standard character set 
     - plus over munus sign 
     - 1/2 sign 
     - 1/4 sign 
     - arrows (left, right, up down) 
     - the exponent 2 (as in "squared") 
     - the square root sign 
     - underline  
     - vertical line 
     - degree sign   
     - the PI sign 
     - the greek letter omega 
      
     The following are available in DRAW mode: 
     - straight line, from a marked point to the cursor  
     - parallel line, after moving cursor away from a line 
     - rectangle, after marking 3 points 
     - box, makes "rectangle" appear 3D 
     - circle, after marking 2 points 
     - open triangle, drawn from cursor to 2 marked points 
     - fill 
     - arrows, up/down left/right and at 45 degrees 
     - cursor movement speed can be changed 
      
     Other features: 
     - letters and/or lines can be superimposed over each other
with or without erasing with one pixel accuracy. 
     - individual pixels can be turned on and off in either draw
or text mode. 
     - lines ONE PIXEL HIGH can be added or subtracted from the
entire graphic, moving EVERYTHING up or down by one pixel at a
time. 
      
     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. 
     .PL 1