Filelist of the archives belonging to the Quick-Basic8-Viewer V3.5:           
(This viewer is only running in the 80Columns-mode of a C128 !)

 "QB8V-V35.SFX" - A selfextracting archive (only depacking in C64-mode, sorry)
                  Containing the viewer and the following docs as a CBM-text.
 "QB8V-V35.DOC" - The infotext and the docs you're currently reading. 
 "QB8V-PX*.SFX" - 3 selfextracting archives (also only depacking in C64-mode)
                  Containing different demo-pictures for the viewer.
 
Note: To dissolve the SFX's, switch your C128 into C64-Mode, load the SFX-file,
      insert a disk with lots of room on it and run the SFX-program.     
           

-----------------------Beginning of the entire QB8V-Docs-----------------------           
           

           The Quick-Basic8-Viewer V3.5 by Martin Hoffmann 1993-1995
               Documentation written in 1995 by Martin Hoffmann
                                       
                                   Contents:
                                   ---------
               1.1. Introduction
               1.2. In General
               1.3. Hardware Requirements
               
               2.1. Using the Viewer Version 3.5
               2.2. History of the Quick-Basic8-Viewer
               
               3.1. Note to the Basic8-Format
               3.2. Future Projects
               3.3. How to contact me
               3.4. Contents of this archive
               
               
               
                               1.1. Introduction
                    (or Quick-Basic8-Viewer what's that ?)

What  is  the  Quick-Basic8-Viewer ? What abilities has it ? I decided to start
this documentation with these questions, because that is what everyone wants to
know  when  testing this utility. And often you have to read several pages of a
program's  documentation  before  finding  out  that the utility hasn't got the
features you are looking for...
So here is a short description of the Quick-Basic8-Viewer:
   * loading and displaying BASIC8-Pictures
   * easy to use (menu driven)
   * 100% in machine-language (no question, eh ?)
   * fast display-routines (using VDC's capabilities)
   * working with all kind of disk-drives (hopefully)
   * some kind of FREEWARE (postcardware)

Important note: This Utility was written on a PAL-C128, but as far as I know it
should  run  100% on a NTSC-C128 as well. If not, please contact me and tell me
about the problem... 


                                1.2. In General
                                       
This utility is FREEWARE, for more details see below under "How to contact me",
and  can be freely copied and distributed as long as nothing is changed and all
files  included  in  this archive are passed along with it. This utility is not
for commercial use. 
The   Basic8-Format   mentioned   in  this  documentation  is  a  trademark  of
Walrus-software.
                                                               The author (me).
                                                                               
                                                                               
                          1.3. Hardware Requirements
                                       
To  use  the Quick-Basic8-Viewer you need a C-128 in 80-columns-mode (VDC) with
64KB  VDC-RAM  and  a  disk-drive.  A  80-columns-COLOR-monitor is recommended,
because  with  a  MONOCHROME-Monitor  the  pictures  look  somehow ugly. That's
because   some  brightness-values  are  wrong  then,  e.g.  in  monochrome-mode
light-red  is  as bright as white ! If you only have 16KB VDC-RAM you can't use
the  Viewer,  because  a  Basic8-Picture  takes  24KB to be displayed. So first
expand  it  to  64KB by exchanging the two 4164's against two 4464's or 41464's
(If  you  don't  know  enough  about the hardware ask a friend who knows... and
don't  blame  ME  if  your  computer  is  out  of  order,  because you tried it
yourself).  The  disk-drive  can  be a 1541 or 1571, I have tested both, and it
should  also work with CMD-Drives or a 1581, but I haven't tested this, because
I  do not own one. And that's why CMD and 1581-Features like subdirectories are
NOT supported. (Maybe in a later version)


                       2.1. Using the Viewer Version 3.5
                                       
When  starting the Viewer it tries to load the file "QB8V.CFG" from the current
disk-drive  (normally  the  one  you  loaded  the  Viewer from). This file is a
ConFiGuration-File consisting of the following information:
   * Display Frequency (50Hz or 60Hz)
        try out which looks best on your monitor.
   * Mode while Disk-Operations (1MHz or 2MHz)
        1MHz  works  with all disk-drives, but 2MHz may cause problems, e.g. my
        1541  with  Prologic-Dos  V.1.1  crashes  when  loading in 2MHz-Mode is
        enabled.  So  if  you're  unsure  use 1MHz-Mode. The Configuration-File
        itself is always loaded in 1MHz-Mode.
   * Displaying Info-line (Yes or No)
        This  option  toggles  the  Info-line below the picture containing it's
        name,  length and format. You can toggle this in the Viewer by pressing
        "i" !
   * Default Drive (6...23)
        This  options  allows  you  to  choose the default-drive which is to be
        scanned for pictures. The following assignment is done:
                       y: = Drive  6 (not tested, maybe useful)
                       z: = Drive  7 (dito)
                       a: = Drive  8 (like in CP/M or an IBM-PC)
                       b: = Drive  9 (dito)
                       c: = Drive 10
                           ...
                       p: = Drive 23
                       
        In  the Viewer you can use the SHIFTED drive-character to switch to the
        appropriate drive, e.g. use SHIFT-B to switch to B:, which is drive 9 !
        
If  the  file  "QB8V.CFG"  is  not  found the default values will be set. After
changing  the  configuration-data you can press "ENTER" to leave or "s" to save
the  data  to disk and leave. This brings you to the main-screen of the Viewer.
All  the  info you need is written on the left half of the screen. On the right
half  of the screen is a directory of all Basic8-Files on the current disk (All
files  with  the prefix "PICT." are displayed). Use the Cursor-Keys to select a
picture  and press "Enter" to view it. Now you're in viewing-mode. Here you can
use  cursor-keys  or  "Enter" and "Del" to walk through the pictures, e.g. When
you  press  "Del"  the picture being in the directory above the currently shown
picture,  is  shown.  Did  anyone get that ? O.k.: If you have 3 pictures named
"PICT.A",  "PICT.B"  and  "PICT.C"  on  a  disk  and  you are currently viewing
"PICT.B"  you  can  press  "Del"  to  view "PICT.A" or "Enter" to get "PICT.C".
That's what I tried to explain.


                  2.2. History of the Quick-Basic8-Viewer...
                            (only for those who care)

Initially  the  viewer  was  ment  to  be a short tool for viewing one of those
BASIC8-Pictures  with  8x2Cells, which were produced by a BASIC-tool converting
PC-GIFs  into  VDC-Format. This was because the BASIC-tool took several minutes
to   produce   the  VDC-Picture,  but  had  the  ability  of  saving  it  as  a
BASIC8-Picture.  At this time I had no idea of how the pictures are packed, and
in  Germany  it's rather hard to find something out about an american format...
so  if  it's  still not working with some pictures, I may have interpreted some
values wrong...?

So  in  the end of 1993 the Version 1.0 of the Viewer was born: You had to know
the  filenames  of  the  pictures  you wanted to see and type them in. Then the
picture was loaded and unpacked into main-memory by taking the bytes separately
from  the  disk-drive and interpreting them for unpacking. After this the whole
memory-area  was  copied  into  the VDC-Ram (taking 3-4 seconds !?). This was a
fine working but uncomfortable, slow version.

Then  a  few  months  later the 2.0 Version was developed... Still based on the
same  loading-unpacking  and then copying concept, but with a list of filenames
to  walk  through  with  the cursor-keys (Similar to the current version). Much
better  but  still  not  very  fast,  not  at  last because of loading with the
BAS-IN-Routine ($FFCF).

That's  why  in  the  end  of  1994  Version  3.0 was finished. It had the same
picture-selection  frame,  but  a  different  system  of  loading: First it was
loading  the  whole picture (still packed) into main-memory by using the normal
load-routine  ($FFD5) and then using the VDC's memory-fill-feature to unpack it
from  the  main-memory  directly  into  the VDC-Memory. This was much faster in
loading  (for  Computers  having  fast-loads) and in unpacking, because the VDC
does it faster than you can do it by copying.

But  still  the  Viewer  was  not as comfortable as I liked it, so I decided to
improve it again: Version 3.5 (March 1995)
This  one  has the same features for choosing, loading and unpacking as Version
3.0 but has some bug-fixes and some additional features:

   * Option for changing the disk-drive (6,7,8,9...23)
   * Error-Handling : It's telling you what kind of error occurred (Version 3.0
     was sometimes crashing if some kind of disk-error happened)
   * This  version can handle the Basic8-Pictures which have no color-ram (Only
     bitmap)
   * The info-line below the picture is new, telling you the NAME, SIZE and the
     FORMAT of the currently shown picture.
   * A configuration-file in which different system-settings are stored. 

Last but not least (heard anywhere before ?) I like to mention that this viewer
was  initially  called  "BASIC8-VIEWER",  but  in  april 1995 when I decided to
upload  it,  I found another program called this name... GREAT! So I simply put
the  "QUICK"  in front of it ! Anyway the speed of my display-routine is one of
the most important features, so "quick" is not wrong...
By  the  way I think it will be uploaded at the end of may 1995, because I have
some  problems  in  creating a self-extracting-archive on the C128. I have read
that  CS-Dos  can  do it, but not without a REU 1750, and guess what - I do not
have  one  !  But then I found a program named "LZH to SFX" which should do it,
but it didn't...only CRC-Errors and mutilated files. So I'm still searching for
a comfortable and working method to create SFX's on C128 without having a REU.


                        3.1. Note to the Basic8-Format
                                       
As  I've  mentioned  before I had to find out the format of the Basic8-Pictures
myself. So I may have interpreted some bytes wrong... but the viewer works with
all  Basic8-Pictures  that  I  own.  If you're interested here is a list of the
header, as I have interpreted it:
   $00,$00 - startaddress of the picture (not used)
   $42,$52,$55,$53  "brus"  -  indicating  that the bitmap-data follows (if not
      there, the viewer will not show the picture)
   $??,$??,$??,$??,$??,$?? - unknown values (not interpreted)
   $50,$c8  -  witdh (in characters), height (in lines) of the picture. (if not
      $50  (#80  characters  wide)  and  $c8  (#200  lines high) it will not be
      displayed, maybe later versions...) 
   $??,$?? - unknown (not interpreted)
   $xy  -  colors  for  a  2colored only-bitmap-picture (2 colored pictures are
      recognized, if no "colr"-mark is found)
   $?? - unknown (not interpreted)
   packed bitmap data
   
   $43,$4f,$4c,$52 "colr" - indicating that the color data is following (if not
      there it's treated as a 2colored picture)
   packed color data
   
If  you have any Basic8-Pictures which are not handled correctly by this viewer
let  me  know and I'll correct it. It would also be nice if somebody could tell
me about the UNKNOWN VALUES in the header of the pictures...


                             3.2. Future Projects

I probably think of improving the Viewer as follows:
   * bug fixes, if somebody finds bugs and tells me about them...
   * expanding  the  Viewer  for  other picture-formats, only if other formats,
     being worth to be displayed, exist (non-interlaced!)
   * including  nice  features as SUBDIRECTORY-Handling with CMD-drives and the
     1581, but only if somone tells me how to change the directories


                            3.3. How to contact me
                                       
As  I've  mentioned  before  this utility is POSTCARDWARE, which means that you
needn't (NOT mustn't) pay for it. So it's freeware, but it would be nice if you
contact  me  when  using this utility and tell me how you like it... So send me
your  comments,  questions, ideas, pictures (graphics not photos!), nice tools,
etc.  At  the  moment you can contact me under the Internet/EMail-Address of my
brother  or  under  my  post-address.  But  someday  my  brother will leave the
university and then you can only reach me under the post-address.
If  you have any comments, questions, found bugs or Basic8-pictures which won't
work  with  this Viewer tell me and send me those pictures. Or if you have nice
pictures  (not  only  Basic8!)  send  them to me, please. And probably if I get
enough  nice  pictures  of  a  non-Basic8-format  I'll expand my Viewer to this
format...
O.K. contact me under:
Internet/EMail: hoffmann@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de
or send to: Martin Hoffmann
            Malstatterstrasse 13
            38116 Braunschweig
            Germany
            

                         3.4. Contents of this archive
                                       
This archive consists of the following files:
   * "QWKBAS8-VIEWR3.5" - The Viewer itself
   * "QB8V.CFG"         - The ConFiGuration-file
   * "QB8VIEW35.DOC"    - This DOCumentation
   * "PICT.*"           - Demo-Pictures
 
-------------------------------End of documentation----------------------------
