X-Canvas Basics
(This page best viewed at
1024x768)
No attempt is made to
completely specify X-Canvas it's only function is to give an example of
how the enhanced features of the GIMMEx32 functions and illustrate some of
the X-prompt syntax and equivalent XAPI calls. That said I will probably
say more about the interface then strictly about necessary for that
objective.
This specific page only
covers the X-Canvis interface basic elements to make discussions of
X-Canvas more understandable. First off the program is designed to run on
a 720x450 Screen but can also run in a Virtual Screen Group and in this
case we will run it in a 960x678 pixel screen group with
Screen scaling. (Note: When in Preview Mode scaling changes so
that the Aspect Ratio is preserved.)
The Basic user interface
element areas are:
- The Drop Down Menu
- The Tool Box
- The View Port
- The 4-D Navigator
- The Color Management
- The Status Summary and Help
Each of these areas will be explained in more detail below.
1.
Drop Down Menu Area

This operates just like any other drop down menu.
2. Tool Box Area
 |
This area acts exactly like the same region in
the "CoCo Max III" software that inspires X-Canvas. |
3. View Port
The Viewport is the
biggest interface taking up about half the total screen space.
As the full unstretched screen is 720x450 and the Viewport area is
514x304.
(514x304)/(720x450)=0.482.. This is where
the picture shows itself for manipulation by the program.
In other words what's
in the Viewport is what you are currently working on.
4.
The 4-D Navigator
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 4-D Navigator lets you navigate in three dimensions
around a picture you
are editing plus in the case of a video clip lets you
navigate to and handle the
buffering of frames in memory.
Dimensions are X Y Z and T.
X= The horizontal offset of the upper left pixel
shown in the upper left corner of
the View Port from the upper left pixel of the actual
picture.
Y= The vertical offset of the upper left pixel shown in the
upper left corner of
the View Port from the upper left pixel of the actual
picture.
Z= The layer selected T M or B. Only that layer or
that layer and those below it
will show in the View Port.
T= The Frame in the video to show in the view port.
|
 |
 |
This is either T = TOP LAYER = # M= MID LAYER = #.1 B= Base
Layer = #.2
The Timeline shows a
graphic display of all the frames, indicating the current frame in Dark
Green
and those loaded into memory buffers in YellowGreen vs. those still on
disk in White.
The Maximum number of
frames is 255 click a frame and type
A To Update all frames in the scratch file with
data in memory buffers.
B For it to load into memory from disk in background.
F Make this frame the Focus for the "View Port" it
becomes the current frame
(Must already be in Memory )
R To Reload current frame from disk
S To save changes in frame to disk
U To save changes in frame to disk and then dump frame
X To Cancel all current changes by relaoding all in
memory frames from disk.
Z Show frame status for all frames +/- 10 Frames from
frame clicked frame.
The status window shows reference
frame numbers above each frame so you can
click T= and type in that frame
number and an action code.
The Z option only works if there are
more then 38 frames.
5,
Color Management Area
Shows current Foreground, Background and Captured Colors as well as 60
palette entrys.
The
top Row is always pallet slots 0 -->19
The next two rows are 20->59 by default but may be set to show
any
of the six groups of 40 consecutive colors. Such as 20 to 59, 60 to 99
ect.
with the last group being 220 to 255 + Last four Captured Colors on the
Color Stack.
Some special cases:
Palette slots 0 to 15 are reserved for coco3 colors.
Palette slot 16 is reserved for the most recent captured color.
Palette slot 17 is reserved for 100% transparency and
Palette slot's 18 and 19 work together as a pair to create a flashing
color.
Because the color in slot 18 swaps with either TRANSPARENCY, INVERSE,
BLACK or WHITE depending on the first 2 bits of slot 19.
The
frequency of the swap is determined by the last 6 bits.
where 0 = 1/16 th of a second 1 is 2/16 th of a second and so on
until 111111 which is 2 full seconds.
xs
6.
Status Summary and Help
This line has a RED ?
that you can click for help here is the process.
- If your mouse (Can either be Colorware Mouse or System Mouse) is
within 120 pixels of this ? it will start flashing.
- If you click on the ? you will see a popup telling you to click on
the item you would like help on.
that popup will be in the center of the View Port area.
- Click on the item you want help on within the XCanvas screen and a
popup explains what you just clicked on with a short explanation
possibly supplemented by a reference manual page number or internet
URL.
- If you click off the XCanvas screen with the System Mouse the
popup will tell you that It cannot tell you any specifics of items
outside of XCanvas but to read the CoCo5 manual for general details.
- The first time you touch any key or mouse the window will close and
you will have to click the ? again for help on another item.
In the example above DW means that the selected picture source media is
the Drive Wire Server other possibilitys are FD - Floppy
Disk , HD - Hard Disk or uD - Undisk
Volume.
The 1 means that the file is on drive number 1.
OS9 means that the file is on an OS9 formatted volume other
options are RSF - Radio Shack Floppy and MFD
- Microsoft Floppy Disk.
TESTPICTURE
is the name of the file loaded for editing.
64K/700K is the
size of the currently active frame and the size of the entire file.
48K is the free
memory on the CPU running XCanvas.
92,408K is the
free disk space on the volume "TESTPICTURE.CMF" is on.
NSP indicates
No Sprites in Movie.
7 of
9 indicates that we are editing frame 7 of a 9 frame movie
clip.