Copyright 1996, Hyperion Softword ************************************* * Orpheus 2, version 2.30 * ************************************* Comments and queries to: Hyperion Softword, 535 Irene-Couture, Sherbrooke, QC J1L 1Y8, Canada tel/fax - 819-566-6296 (Rod Willmot) email - willmot@interlinx.qc.ca Last revised: August 30, 1996 TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================================================== Notice Shareware Acknowledgments Part I - Setup 1. Introduction 2. Installing Orpheus 2 3. Notes for Beta Testers Part II - A Look Around 4. What's New 5. What's Missing Appendix - How to Order = Notice = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: * For introductory tutorials please read MANUAL.TXT; unlike this file, it is formatted to be easily printable. * 99% of the documentation for Orpheus 2 is in online Help. (Press in OH.EXE for context-sensitive help from any menu, dialog, or other situation; you can also run OHHELP.EXE from the DOS prompt.) * If you have projects developed with Orpheus 1.nn, you can use the included utility OH1TO2.EXE to convert them to the new file formats used by Orpheus 2. See OH1TO2.TXT for more information. Do not mix up Orpheus 2 files with your old files! = Shareware = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: * Orpheus is currently distributed as shareware. As an unregistered user you are welcome to evaluate this copy for up to 30 days. You may not distribute anything you might create with Orpheus 2, in any way, without purchasing a registered copy. Documents created with an unregistered copy invoke a warning message when performed by the Reader. * The price of Orpheus is $79 US, plus shipping. Yes, you can register with your credit card! For full details please see "How to Order" at the end of this file, or use the order form provided in REGISTER.TXT. A small number of advanced features require purchase of Orpheus Professional at $149 US; these are fully discussed in online Help. * If you purchased an earlier version of Orpheus you are entitled to an upgrade. Users who registered at the full current price of $79 US will receive a free upgrade directly from me, as soon as Orpheus 2 is deemed complete. If you are unsure of your status and wish to know what an upgrade will cost (if anything), give me a call. = Acknowledgments = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: * Warm thanks to the beta testers who have contributed to the story so far: Ray Ballard, Andy Roberts, Wim Berden and the guys at ILS, Joost van der Gaag, Przemyslaw Jackowski. * Thanks in many tongues to all those who have worked on translations of the Orpheus Reader: Daniel Marois, Marc Coulombe, Jan Moens, Jurgen Nijhuis, Paul de Kamp, Thorsten Glattki, Giovanni Calesini, Jesus de Paula Assis, Ernesto Eduardo Casin, Alexander E. Gubin, and Paul Brondum. * Special thanks to Daniel Coulombe at Synapse. * Orpheus uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to minimize memory use while shelling to DOS and running other programs. = Part I - Setup = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ----------------------- 1. Introduction ======================= What is Orpheus? System requirements What can it do? Windows version Shareware... What is Orpheus? Orpheus is a hypertext authoring system. It is designed for the creation of compiled hypertext documents that can be read with the Orpheus Reader. Registered users may distribute such documents (together with the Reader) any way they please: on disk, over BBS systems and the Internet, or installed on a LAN. System requirements: Orpheus runs on any IBM-compatible PC from the XT on up to the Pentium. Orpheus is currently a DOS-based system, requiring DOS 3.1 or higher; it runs very happily under Windows and OS/2. The authoring program requires a hard disk and at least 512K of RAM; for best performance XMS is desirable. The Reader can run on diskette, and survives on much less RAM. What can it do? Orpheus 2 has a capacity of over 2 million linked nodes in a single document. Text cards can be of any length. Graphics support now includes SVGA modes, and you can display PCX, GIF, and FLI/FLC files. Through script commands you can create a work that interacts exquisitely with the user. You can modify the appearance and behavior of the Orpheus Reader so that it looks like it was custom-programmed for you. Windows version: The code in Orpheus 2 was designed for easy portability to Windows-based programming. As soon as Orpheus 2 is complete, I will begin work on a Windows version of the Reader. Shareware... Yes, Orpheus 2 is shareware, as was Orpheus 1. If you are not a registered user of Orpheus 2, you are welcome to evaluate it for up to 30 days; you are NOT permitted to distribute (in any way) works that you may have created with Orpheus 2. The price of Orpheus 2 is $79 US, plus shipping. If I haven't provided ordering information in this release, please contact me by one of the methods given at the top of this file. NOTE: registered users of Orpheus 1.nn can receive an upgrade; please contact me. ------------------------------- 2. Installing Orpheus 2 =============================== Orpheus 1 users Orpheus 2 "Interim Version" Typical installation (For detailed installation instructions, please see MANUAL.TXT.) Orpheus 1 users: If you have used Orpheus 1 in the past, be sure to install Orpheus 2 in a completely different directory. The only "contact" between the versions should be via the Converter, OH1TO2.EXE, if you intend to convert your old projects to the new system. Orpheus 2 "Interim Version" users: do as above. The file formats of the "real" Orpheus 2 (this one) bear no similarity to the Interim Version. User the Converter to change your Interim projects to the new system (see OH1TO2.TXT). Typical installation: Place your Orpheus 2 files into a directory of their own on your hard drive, such as: C:\OH2 From now on you can use that location as your "working directory" for all of your projects. For example, in DOS you would switch to that directory and start up OH.EXE with the command "OH"; your projects would be based in that directory, with their files all stored in subdirectories created for you by Orpheus. See below in this file for discussion of starting a new project and loading an existing project. --------------------------------- 3. Notes for Beta Testers ================================= Memcheck Check out UPDATE.TXT for a list of changes, fixes, and new features. Memcheck ============ Beta versions of Orpheus now incorporate the Memcheck debugging tool from StratosWare Corporation. Besides helping you discover bugs, Memcheck will protect your work and your system from unexpected behavior. To activate Memcheck your DOS environment must include the MEMCHECK variable, which is done by giving the following command at the DOS prompt, =before= running OH.EXE: SET MEMCHECK=1 This command can be placed in your autoexec.bat file, or in a batch file used only for running the beta. The following batch file could be named OH2.BAT or BETA.BAT, and would optionally pass a project-name parameter to Orpheus: SET MEMCHECK=1 OH %1 SET MEMCHECK= The last command removes the MEMCHECK variable from your DOS environment, and can also be given manually. Whenever Memcheck encounters a serious memory-related error while you are running OH.EXE, a message box will pop up reporting the problem. Please note what the message says, along with some indication of what you had been doing before the error occurred. When you press a key to clear the message, Orpheus will safely exit. I find that debugging is especially convenient under Windows, i.e. in a DOS box. If the program appears to freeze -- no disk activity, no response to the keyboard -- you can safely terminate it using the Windows trick of pressing Alt-Space, selecting "Settings", then "Terminate". NOTE: Memcheck code is also present in the Simulator and the Reader, but not in Help. Does this have any bearing on whether you can distribute a beta version of the Reader to your users? None at all. Unless they themselves set the MEMCHECK variable on their systems, the Memcheck code does not run. = Part II - A Look Around = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: --------------------- 4. What's New ===================== Ascii file format Scrollable text Better linking System capacity Better compiling Improved compression Simpler Reader Customize Reader interface Disable Reader elements Selector keys in Reader Full-text Search in Reader Extended graphics support Hotspots improved Menu() command Ask() command Run() & Runbat() improved Data Fields Color schemes The Simulator * Ascii file format: Uncompiled cards are now plain text files. This means that you can create them with any text editor, though more commonly you'll switch into ascii mode (within OH.EXE) for plain-text editing. In ascii mode you can see the link codes and edit them manually (it's easy). The great advantage of the new file format: if something goes wrong, you can fix it. In Orpheus 1 the files were semi-binary, and trouble meant trouble. * Scrollable text: Text cards can be scrollable if you wish, with no restriction on length. Many users of Orpheus 1 liked the screen-sized cards, and you can still use them if you don't like scrolling, or limit scrolling to particular cards. * Better linking: First, link numbers now correspond in a perfectly obvious way to the filenames of the cards they point to. Second, linking itself is more flexible, and as mentioned above, easy to do manually in the rare cases when you need to. Crosslinks (as a link type) are toast; now you can link anywhere as often as you want, using the standard link types. There are several new link types, including Exit links (actions to perform when a user leaves a card), Private links (they don't go into the finished product), Report links (to print instead of the card shown onscreen), and more. Orpheus two extends the use of link codes to handle embedded labels and hilites; both dress up the text with color, and labels can also be used as link targets. * System capacity: The new system is built to handle over 2 million unique nodes, i.e. individual linked cards, of which Text cards can be of any length. Finished products are designed for extremely fast performance in the Reader, no matter how large the work. * Incremental compiling: The old system combined all phases of finished- product-making into one process, which you had to repeat from the beginning if an error was encountered. Orpheus 2 separates "building" into three stages: compiling cards into their individual finished, compressed form, in which they are stored in CMP files; verifying the links to all possible cards in the work, starting from the Homecard; assembling all compiled cards (and other elements) into a finished product. The first stage, compilation, can now be performed incrementally; once a given card has been compiled you no longer have to recompile it, no matter how often you compile new cards or assemble versions of the finished product. This is a huge time-saver. * Improved compression: Finished products are now significantly smaller than under Orpheus 1, particularly if you take advantage of the ability to use scrollable text (as opposed to stringing together many screen-sized cards using "More" links). Along with this there is better security: whereas an HTX compiled with Orpheus 1 could be deciphered without difficulty, and certain parts could be left in plain text, under Orpheus 2 an HTX file looks like 100% binary garbage. Any part too small to compress efficiently is encrypted. *Improved distribution: In terms of finished output, the old system produced a small HTX file with at least one numbered subfile; subfiles were limited to 64K. Orpheus 2 lets you set the maximum filesize up to 1 megabyte, which includes the HTX file. This means you can now assemble most projects into *one* file, the HTX, for simpler distribution. (With Orpheus Professional you can assemble into a self-reading EXE with *no* other files.) * Simpler Reader: The old Reader had a number of automatic features that, while intended to be friendly, could be troublesome. For example, the user could always open the menu system and shell to DOS, which could be dangerous if the Reader was being used on a BBS. Currently the Reader for Orpheus 2 is still "missing" the odd feature that made the old one stand out, but it's clear that =authors= will be happy that the Reader no longer forces it on them. In keeping with this, whenever I add an interface-related feature to the Reader I will make it possible for authors to hide or disable it. See online Help: Contents->Orpheus Programs->The Reader->Feature Set. * Customize Reader interface: You can customize the Reader interface (primarily as evidenced in text mode) in a number of ways. Open the Project Menu, select Project Options, then dig into the Screen Layout dialog. Read online Help about this and about making command buttons. You can make an interface all your own; an example is Help itself, which is NOT hard-coded into the Help engine, rather it was set up as the Help project's layout, and you can do the same with your own projects. * Disable Reader elements: All of the built-in Reader elements (such as the menu system) can be disabled through the Project Options dialog. You can also disable the hotkeys (like the one to exit the Reader) and force the user to do things through your own popup menus and/or command buttons. * Full-text Search in Reader: Using OHINDEX.EXE you can produce an index file to enable full-text search in the Reader. Searches can focus on one word at a time or on two or more words to find in proximity. The Search dialog is easy to use and extremely fast. For a demonstration, try the F4:Search button in online Help. See Contents->Orpheus Programs and explore under The Reader and The Indexer. (Note: to distribute a finished work with an index file you must have an Orpheus Professional licence.) * Extended graphics support: Orpheus 2 now supports SVGA graphics up to mode 29. You can display GIF graphics as well as PCX, and I've added support for animation using FLI/FLC files. * Hotspots improved: Hotspots now are drawn as convex polygons rather than blocky shapes; the new method gives you the same resolution as the image onscreen, making for real precision. In addition, hotspots can be "linked" to a sequence of script lines immediately following a hotspot command; you are no longer limited to linking hotspots to other cards. * Menu() command: the new script command menu() lets you display a popup menu; you can respond to the user's menu selection to call various internal Reader functions, to perform other script commands, or to initiate a hypertext jump. * Ask() command: the new script command ask() lets you display a popup dialog, similar to a standard Orpheus dialog. You can respond to the user's selection with the same flexibility as described above for the menu() command. * Run() & Runbat() improved: control whether the Reader swaps itself out before performing the command (e.g. if you're launching a very large external program you'd want the Reader to swap out). You can also control whether the Reader clears the screen; this lets you use these commands for special effects while displaying graphics. * Color schemes: Colors are now stored for three video standards -- mono, grey-scale, and color -- and if you have all three available while working you can select your own schemes for each and keep them in a single CFG file. The colors active on your system when you assemble a finished product are built into the HTX. If you selected "Your colors" in Project Options, the user sees your work first in your colors; otherwise the default colors appear. However, if the user has a Reader CFG file present, he sees with his own colors, but can still call yours through the Color Dialog -- if you give him access to it. * The Simulator: As a complement to incremental compilation, Orpheus 2 gives you a way to experience your work as if you were seeing it in the Reader, but without having to produce a finished copy of it. The Simulator works with CMP files (described above) -- the stored compiled forms of your individual cards. The Simulator lets you test scripts realistically, and is the environment you'll use for drawing hotspots. ------------------------- 5. What's Missing ========================= A number of useful features that were in Orpheus 1.65 haven't been plugged in yet; a few are now obsolete and won't be. Currently the graphic file formats supported are SPR, PCX and GIF, with FLI/FLC for animation. I should be able to add the new PNG format as soon as I can get the code. Many Orpheus 1 users took advantage of the ability to store graphics etc in library files; Orpheus 2 will replace this by optionally including them in the actual finished document. It will be a whole lot easier, simplifying script commands and eliminating the need to figure out a library-management program. It's all designed, just not coded yet! Look for INCLUDE on the Project Menu, in future releases. Missing from the Reader currently are some of the gadgets that were in Orpheus 1.65: a Bookmark dialog, a Tour capability, the ability to shell to DOS (universally disliked by authors). The Reader now includes Print and Color dialogs, a Notepad (superior to the old one), and a simpler menu system. A new and extremely powerful feature is full-text search, as illustrated in online Help; this one requires use of the Indexer and an Orpheus Professional licence, but you can try it out even in the shareware version. = Appendix - How to Order = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The following order form is also provided separately in REGISTER.TXT. ORDER FORM Please send me a registered copy of the latest version of Orpheus. I understand that I will receive a Licence granting me the right to sell, give away, or otherwise distribute any compiled electronic works that I create with Orpheus, along with the Orpheus Reader. In accepting this Licence I agree not to compile and distribute works created by others using shareware copies of Orpheus. +=====+======================================================+=======+=======+ | Qty | Product Description | Price | Total | +=====+======================================================+=======+=======+ | | | | | | | Orpheus 2 (Standard Version) | $79 | _____ | +-----+------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ | | | | | | | Orpheus 2 (Professional Version) | $149 | _____ | +-----+------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ | | Upgrade to Orpheus Professional | | | | | My registration #:_____________________ | $70 | _____ | +-----+------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------+ | Need a site licence or custom Reader? Call 1-819-566-6296. | - | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+-------+ | Canada.....$2 | | | Shipping (1st Class air) United States.....$3 | | | All other.....$6 | _____ | +====================================================================+=======+ *** Prices are in US dollars *** Total | _____ | +=======+ Name: ________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Phone: (work)_________________ (home)_________________ Fax: ______________________ Email: ________________________________________________ Preferred disk format: [ ] 3.5-inch (1.44M) [ ] 5.25-inch (1.2M) [ ] 3.5-inch (720K) Method of payment: [ ] check or money order enclosed [ ] purchase order # ____________________ [ ] credit card (see below) *Canadian and overseas orders MUST be in US dollars, OR the equivalent value in Canadian dollars according to the exchange rate when ordering. Example for April 1996 (73%): $109 Cdn = $79 US; $205 Cdn = $149 US. I have Version ____ of Orpheus, obtained from: ___________________________ Comments: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Hyperion Softword 535 Irene-Couture Sherbrooke, QC J1L 1Y8 CANADA *** U.S. customers: Please use extra postage on mail to Canada. *** ============================================================================ * Credit Card Orders * ============================================================================ The following information tells you how to purchase Orpheus by credit card. Credit card orders are processed by a company named Public Software Library, located in Houston, Texas (USA). As soon as it receives your order, PSL sends me a fax with your name and address, and I mail you your registered copy of the latest version of Orpheus. From then on you are my customer, and will deal with me directly for information, technical support, and upgrades. If you need INFORMATION about Orpheus, call Hyperion Softword, not PSL! PSL cannot tell you anything about Orpheus, but I certainly can. You can reach Hyperion Softword at 819-566-6296 (email: willmot@interlinx.qc.ca). =============================================================================== Credit card order of Orpheus (PSL #11142) from Public Software Library: Fax: 713-524-6398 Voice: 713-524-6394 CIS: 71355,470 Post: Public Software Library, P.O. Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705, USA. * Please enter your name as it appears on your card * Name: Address: Telephone: I wish to order: [ ] Orpheus 2, standard version: $79 [ ] Orpheus 2, professional version: $149 [ ] Upgrade to Orpheus Professional: $70 My registration #:____________________ Credit card: [ ] Visa [ ] Mastercard [ ] American Express [ ] Discover Card number: _________________________________ Expiry: ________________ Signature: ____________________________________ ===============================================================================