컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 BASIC PICTURES BASIC programing language deserves another look, with Bit Mapped graphics in color. BASIC OFFERS MORE THAN IS ADVERTIZED. At home or at work, all of us use excellent programs; the result of years of professional improvement in utility and convienience. But all programs don't come from the big Soft- ware houses. Beginners and novice computer users as well as independant Shareware authors also write programs, many of which are also excellent. An incredible number of people use BASIC. No other programing language is easier to master and programs written in BASIC are easy to debug and improve. I smile when professionals argue about their language's potential no matter how difficult it might be employ and achieve that potential. Language superiority is a non-issue. If you are beginning and don't aspire to be an expert professional programmer consider BASIC. It is far and away the easiest, most intuitive, high level language you can learn. Making a program in BASIC for yourself or to share with others can give you a feeling of acomplishment and pleasure too. BASIC in some form is included with every version of DOS. "Everyone knows", the high level programing language, BASIC, is now somewhere on your machine or in your disk box. If you have not tried to use it yet, I urge you to. On the other hand, if you have done BASIC programing but feel it isn't up to date, graphically handicaped, and unprofessional, I urge you to take another look. BASIC has, for years, had state- ments to import 16 color bit mapped graphics in EGA and VGA modes; wallpaper, icons, windows, cel animation, headlines, logos, etc. With a little extra work you may have 256 color full screens in BASIC. BASIC DOES PICTURES BASIC programs can incorporate bit mapped graphics into text with little more effort than printing a line of text. I was flabbergasted to find this out. And disappointed too, that BASIC documentation obscures this talent and that soft cover "how-to" books never explain the rich graphic world available through the BASIC BLOAD statement. BASIC was not dedicated forever to black and white text, it supports EGA, VGA, and the graphic images you expect from these systems. - 1 - 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 BASIC PICTURES Any graphic image you have seen on your monitor can be incorporated into your BASIC programs. It's that simple. The key is makeing the bit mapped graphic images in a form that BASIC can use. This is not difficult. You must be willing to ponder graphic matters of color, image quality, image scale, and background but the reward is in program appearance which in turn makes a program work better. Look at any book or mag- azine. It conveys much of its information with graphics, bold phrases, and color. If you feel that new PC Application are racing off ahead of you and all you've learned is antique and useless, take heart. Consider the graphics explosion as an expanding source of stuff made just for you to use with BASIC. As you will read below, BASIC does pictures, in many formats, handles color clips like objects, and really hums in VGA mode. Check this bulletin board for the program BLOADING or BSLOAD.ZIP. It explains graphic BLOADing, the few programing steps, and code at beginner level. IMAGE PREPARATION You may capture, convert, or paint graphics for BASIC. Here are some suggestions, very briefly. First, you must recognize, BASIC has two robust graphic statements, BSAVE and BLOAD. The BSAVE statement literally saves a copy of a speci- fied rectangular area as a graphic image file. Any BASIC pro- gram can recognize the image file later, retrieve it, and put it back on the screen at a location you choose. The BLOADING program above decribes BSAVEd image loading. Here are three ways to make (BSAVE) bit mapped graphic images that BASIC pro- grams accept as their own. BSAVEPCX (BSAV72.ZIP) I prefer to make my own bit mapped color images with a paint program. Any paint program is suitable if it will save your work in the widely used ZSOFT .PCX format. PCPaintbrush, WIN- DOWS Paintbrush, and ColoRix are a few. Shareware image conversion programs like VPIC will make a PCX file from most popular image formats. And many programs offer screen capture features which let you save a screen to be "cut up" later. It is most likely that you will paint images inside a familiar paint program, explore variations, zoom in to fix up, shade and trim, then save the screen. The colored text and bold fonts of the paint program should not be overlooked. Consider a headline, key words, a "by" line in any color(s). No spe- cial talent is needed to paint a word and nothing is more dis- tincive than a bold word in a page of text. The program BSAVEPCX will load any 16 color PCX file then allow you to capture any area of the screen. The captured clip is BSAVEd and ready to use in BASIC programs. BSAVEd images can be made from any PCX image file. - 2 - 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 BASIC PICTURES BMP2BAX (BSBMP2.ZIP) The program BMP2BAX will load any 16 color .BMP image and let you view it. If you want a BSAVE copy of the file, one can be made instantly. BSAVEd images can be made as direct conver- sions of .BMP image files. WINDOWS seems to be everywhere. If you use it, you will find .BMP extension files in the WINDOWS directory. This Micrsoft format is used for wallpaper and Paintbrush, a WINDOWS accessory saves .BMP format files. WINDOWS has a ready made pool of art. And of course if you wish to use the WINDOWS accessory, Paintbrush, as your image painting tool, you may crop and save .BMP file in the WINDOWS environment. ICO2BAX (BSICON.ZIP) WINDOWS uses many little 32 pixel square images (Icons). I have not found them especially useful in BASIC programs, you might. There are thousands of icons on bulletin boards and sold as shareware. Some are quality graphics. The program ICO2BAX will display icons in wholesale fashion, 80 to the page. To make a BSAVE duplicate of an icon, simply indicate which one(s). The program will also display the BSAVE copies, 80 to the page, if requested. SUMMARY BASIC language has taken a lot of criticism and has been set aside by many because it isn't new. Newness is a poor test. To make the point, apply the "must be new" test to other things that affect you: the English language, asprin, milk, steel, glass, oak, the hammer, scotch tape, refrigeration, arithmatic, and the U.S. Costitution to name a few. It's not a matter of age, it's a matter of enduring value. BASIC is criticized as not graphic. This is bum rap. Those documenting and teaching BASIC should be ashamed of the exclu- sions and omissions on this matter. I leave it to you to guess why graphic BLOAD has been kept a secret. BASIC is (still) a very good language for a beginning or cas- ual programmer. Microsoft QuickBASIC is a solid, structured, highlevel language. It is as colorful and graphic as any high level language and easier to learn and use than most. Third party add-ins like the CRESCENT Software Inc. Graphics Work- shop are outstanding additions to QuickBASIC. To illustrtrate the issue, the three file view/convert programs above are written in QuickBASIC. They are small, fast, and obviously handle graphic material. - 3 - 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 BASIC PICTURES TOOLS AND EXAMPLES For examples of bit mapped graphics in BASIC, code, documenta- tion, and BSAVEd images look for these programs on this bulle- tin board. BLOADING - Graphic BLOADing, exactly how it's done. BSAVEPCX - Make BSAVE graphic clips from PCX screens. BMP2BAX - Convert Windows BMP to BASIC BSAVE format. ICO2BAX - Convert Windows ICOns to BASIC BSAVE format. VGANOTES - A rich example of Bit Mapped graphics in BASIC. FOOTER - Using a graphic on the bottom text row. WORM - Light hearted animation with painted cels. SB - Viewer for any BSAVEd graphic file. WALLPAPR - Dialogue box over wallpaper. SZ - Array dimension calculator for BSAVE/BLOAD. Note: BASIC is taken to mean Microsoft QuickBASIC. GWBasic, BASICA and QBasic are interpreter versions of BASIC. They run their programs inside the BASIC environment which is not the quickest way and contributes to the reputation of the language as a toy, but they do graphics. QuickBASIC is structured, does not use line numbers, and can be compiled to make free standing executable programs that run very fast. Microsoft also sells a Professional Development System 7. Third party routines add all sorts of advanced graphic features. And for the pro, BASIC communicates with Pascal, C, and Assembly lan- guages. If your BASIC supports SCREEN 9 and 12, it supports both EGA and VGA. Robert Aukerman 6-10-94 ONEWORD 19715 Komar Drive Tarzana, CA 91356 cis. 70771,1476 - 4 -