Introduction "Objects underneath this T-shirt are larger than they appear!" 1990 T-Shirt What is the Object Toolkit? TechnoJock's Object Toolkit (or simply the Toolkit) is a library of objects, procedures and functions for Pascal programmers. While writing a PC program, most people spend 80% or more of their time writing the program's user interface, and only 20% on the "meat" of the applica- tion. The Toolkit is designed to provide a wealth of professional user interface tools which can eliminate up to 80% of your development work. For example, to display a sorted directory listing in a moveable window takes a mere three lines of code. The interface tools include such features as efficient screen writing, window management, menu management, full screen user input, list dis- playing, directory listing and much more. These tools give programs a truly professional appearance, and use the latest interface style with pop-up dialog boxes, scroll-bars and malleable windows, all with full mouse and keyboard support. As well as needing a user interface, many programs have to manipulate strings, access files, check attached hardware, and the like. The Tool- kit also provides a rich set of routines to help with these common tasks. If you are new to object oriented programming, you are in luck, for the Toolkit provides a great way for you to learn this powerful facility without requiring that you be a rocket scientist! Required Software & Hardware The Toolkit is designed to work with v5.5 (or later) of Borland Inter- national's Turbo Pascal compiler for the IBM PC. To compile programs developed using the Toolkit, you will need Turbo Pascal v5.5 or later (or a 100% compatible Pascal compiler), and MS/PC-DOS (version 2.0 or later). Programs developed with the Toolkit will function on the same hardware as specified in the Turbo Pascal compiler documentation, i.e. IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, along with all true IBM-compatibles. A 640k memory mini- mum is recommended. Any of the standard display adapters are supported, including the monochrome, CGA, EGA and VGA. Software written with the Toolkit automatically supports the Microsoft (two button) and Logitech (three button) mice. Most other PC mice are compatible with these two 1-2 User's Guide -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- industry leaders. If the system does not have a mouse, no problem, the mouse features are ignored. In other words, if you develop a program using the Toolkit, it can be run on machines with or without a mouse. Royalties Many Toolkit users develop commercial programs specifically to sell for profit. TechnoJock Software, Inc. neither expects nor requires a roy- alty fee on such programs. The major restrictions are that you may not distribute the Toolkit files with your program, and that the program is itself not a Toolkit, i.e. a library of programmer's utilities. Refer to the License Agreement at the front of the manual for more information. Using the Documentation In two words: READ IT! The documentation is organized into three main parts: Part 1 User's Guide Describes the main components of the Toolkit and illustrates in a tutorial-like way how to use every unit. Part 2 Extending the Toolkit Good though it is, the Toolkit may not meet your exact needs. One of the real strengths of object oriented libraries is that the library can be extended and modified without making any changes to the original library source code. This part of the documentation provides guidance on how to extend and tailor the Toolkit to meet your specific needs. A basic knowledge of object oriented Pascal is required. Part 3 Flash Cards Small is beautiful. This part is a condensed reference designed for the experienced Toolkit user who wants a not-too-quick Quick Reference. Support TechnoJock Software, Inc. strives to support its users. If you have problems that you are unable to resolve: Introduction 1-3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- q send a diskette containing the problematic software, together with details about the problem to: TechnoJock Software, Inc. PO Box 820927 Houston TX 77282-0927 USA q transmit an electronic message on to one of the following IDs: CompuServe: 74017,227 MCI Mail: TECHNOJOCK q FAX the problem to (713) 493-5872 q call us at (713) 493-6354 Be sure to identify the following: the version of the Toolkit, the DOS version, the contents of the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, and a description of the hardware. Try to distill the problem down into a small program - it can take many hours to sift through a huge and unfamiliar program. Acknowledgements In this documentation, references are made to several products: Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International. IBM is a registered trademark and PC, XT, AT, PS/2 and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Brief is a registered trademark of Underware, Inc. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe Information Service, Inc. Pagemaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corporation. CorelDRAW! is a registered trademark of Corel Systems Corporation. MCI Mail is a registered trademark of MCI Communications Corporation. Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Manuscript are registered trademarks of Lotus Develop- ment Corporation. Norton Utilities is a trademark of Peter Norton Com- puting, Inc. PC Tools is a trademark of Central Point Software. Deskpro is a registered trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation. Toshiba is a registered trademark of Toshiba Corporation. Postscript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. For those who may be interested, the Toolkit was developed on three computers: a Compaq Deskpro 286 8 MHz, a Compaq Deskpro 386 33 MHz, and a Toshiba T3100SX laptop. The editors used for code development were Brief 3.0 from Solution Systems, Inc., and Sage Professional Editor from Sage Software, Inc. The documentation was produced with Lotus Manuscript, Aldus Pagemaker, CorelDRAW!, Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1, and was printed on a Postscript printer. Enough preliminaries ... let's get busy!