                              Uncle Carl's Famous
                                Alert Box Maker
                                     V.1.0a

                             (C)1992 Carl J. Hafner


* DISCLAIMER:
  - - - - - -
  The author cannot be responsible for ANY damage to your equipment, other
  software or hardware products, or physical or mental well being caused
  by the use, misuse, abuse or inability to use this program. The author
  also makes no guarantee as to the compatibility of this program with
  other software or hardware products.

  By using this program you are agreeing to accept ALL circumstances
  arising from its implementation. If you do not agree with these terms,
  DO NOT use this program !


* DISTRIBUTION:
  - - - - - - -
  You ARE free to copy and distribute this program as long as the files

  UNCALERT.PRG \ UNCALERT.TXT \ UNCALERT.CUR and ORDER.TXT 

  are included, are NOT modified in ANY way and NO FEE of ANY type is
  incurred upon the recipient for the files _themselves_.


* USAGE
  - - -
   UncleAlert runs as either a program or an accessory, depending on how
  you name it and where you keep it. In other words, change the last 3
  letters of it's name to ACC and place it in the root directory of your
  boot drive. Then press the reset button on your computer. The program
  will then load as an accessory. To run it as a program simply change
  the last 3 letters of it's name to PRG and double-click on it from
  the desktop.

* SELECTING AN ICON
  - - - - - - - - -
  Click on an icon (blank, exclamation mark, question mark, stop sign)
  with the LEFT mouse button to select it as the icon which will appear
  in the alert box. Selecting the far left "blank icon" me ans that NO
  ICON will appear in the alert box.

* ENTERING TEXT
  - - - - - - -
  Use the up and down arrow keys to move from one text line to another.
  Once on the desired line, simply type in the text you desire.

* ENTERING YOUR MESSAGE
  - - - - - - - - - - -
  Use the up or down arrow key on your keyboard to move the cursor to
  the 1st line of the panel. Once there, enter the first line of your
  message. Press the down arrow key once to move to the second line.
  Enter the second line of your message in the same way you did the first
  line. Repeat this procedure for the 3 remaining lines.

  These 5 lines contain the "message" you wish to convey to someone
  through the use of the alert box. The message can be anything you
  like ! You may enter as many as 5 lines of text or as little as
  zero. Of course an alert box with no message can be confusing.

* ALERT BOX BUTTONS
  - - - - - - - - -
  Below the 5 lines on which you just entered your message are 4
  additional lines.

  The first 3 of these 4 lines are noticeably shorter than the 5
  preceeding "message" lines. These 3 shorter lines represent the
  possible "buttons" which will eventually appear within your alert
  box.

  Move the cursor down to the first of these 3 shorter lines and enter
  some text, such as the word  "Okay" . Press the down arrow key to
  move the cursor to the next short text line. Enter the word "Cancel" .
  Press the down arrow key to move to the last of the short text lines.
  Enter the text  "Quit" .

  Now click the LEFT mouse button on the "TEST" button. An alert box will
  appear containing your 5 message lines and 3 buttons. The 3 buttons
  will contain the text  "Okay" , "Cancel" and "Quit" . Click on any
  of these buttons to return to the program.

  Next, move the cursor to the short text line containing the text
  "Quit" and press the  <ESC>  key on your keyboard to erase the
  text on that line. Now click on the "TEST" button again. You will
  notice that only 2 buttons now appear. Click on either of these buttons
  to return to the program.

  Lastly, move the cursor to the "Cancel" text line and erase it by
  using the <ESC> key. Click on the "TEST" button. Now only 1 button will
  appear, the button containing the word "Okay". Click on the "Okay"
  button to return to the program.

  A button will only appear if the proper line contains text. If no
  text appears on a "button line", then that button will not appear.

* THE BIG BUTTON:
  - - - - - - - -
  Move the cursor to the text line containing the word "Okay" and erase
  it.

  Now move the cursor to the very bottom line on the panel. You will
  notice that this line is fairly larger than the 3 we just tried out.
  This line is used for creating a "big button".

  Enter the text "This is a BIG button" . Now click on the "TEST"
  button. An alert box will appear containing your 5 messages lines and
  one very long button containing the text "This is a BIG button".
  Click on this big button to return to the program.

* SELECTING A DEFAULT BUTTON:
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  A "default" button is the button within the alert box which is
  chosen when you press the <RETURN> key. This "default" button usually
  has a wider "framing" around it than the other buttons.

  Click on the big button text line (in the UncleAlert panel) with the
  LEFT mouse button to "Select" it. Now click on the "TEST" button. When
  the alert box appears you will notice that the text "This is a BIG
  button" has a slightly thicker framing. This means that it is the
  default button.

  You may now either press the <RETURN> key OR click on this button
  to return to the program.

  The 3 buttons we created earlier may also be selected individually
  as a "default" button. Simply go back to the earlier example and
  click the LEFT mouse button on either "Okay" , "Cancel"  or  "Quit"
  to make it the "default" button. Remember to click on the "TEST"
  button to test the alert box.

  NOTE: Only ONE button may be a "default" button. When you select a
        new default button, any previously set ones will become
        de-selected.

        To "de-select" all buttons merely click in the blank area
        between the 3 shorter text lines and the last longer text
        line. If you do not select a default button, then the alert
        box WILL NOT respond to the <RETURN> key. It WILL respond to
        a mouse click.

* BUTTON SIZE
  - - - - - -
  The amount of text in any of the buttons can be anywhere from 1
  character to the maximum number of characters which will fit on
  the text line.

* BUTTON ORDER:
  - - - - - - -
  It doesn't matter in what order you use the 3 short text line
  buttons. If you wish to have just one button in your box you may
  use ANY of the 3 shorter text line buttons OR the big button text
  line.

  For example, you may enter the text "Okay" on the 3rd line of the
  shorter text lines. When you click on "TEST", only that button will
  appear. You MUST note that in the code created by the program,
  such a button would be identified as button # 3 .

  If when using this code in the Interpreter, you decide to change
  that button to the "default" button, you MUST identify it as button
  number 3. If it is already the default button and you wish to
  "un-default" it, you must specify a number which DOES NOT correspond
  to that button (such as 1 or 2). Please refer to your GFA owners
  manual for a more detailed explanation on the file created by
  UncleAlert.

* FORMDOIT!
  - - - - -
  If you are using Gribnif Software's "FormDoIt!" you will only be
  allowed to View/Test the first ten characters in the "Big Button".
  FormDoIt! trims buttons over 10 characters wide. The text for the "big
  button" will STILL be saved and the big button will STILL work, but
  only when FormDoIt! is disabled. I have no idea why FormDoIt! adds this
  restricton to alert boxes. BTW: FormDoIt! will do this to ALL GEM alert
  boxes created with ANY program, not just UncleAlert.

  To temporarily disable FormDoIt!, simply press SHIFT-SHIFT-DELETE .
  Press the same keys to re-enable it.

* SAVING:
  - - - -
  When you are happy, click on the "SAVE" button. A fileselector will
  appear allowing you to save a GFA  .LST file containing the source
  code for the alert box. This code can then be merged into your
  GFA source code.

* QUITTING:
  - - - - -
  Click on "EXIT" to exit the program.

* MOVING THE PANEL ON THE SCREEN:
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  You can "move" the panel about the screen by clicking and holding
  down the left mouse button over the "black title box". An outline
  will appear around the panel. You can move the outline around the screen
  until you are satisfied with the screen position. Release the left
  mouse button to "drop" and redraw the panel.

  Clicking on the main "parent box" (the box in which everything's
  contained) centers the panel on the screen.

* CLEARING ALL TEXT
  - - - - - - - - - 
  Double-clicking in the blank space between the "button boxes" allows
  you to clear ALL text in one fell swoop !

* LINE SEPARATORS
  - - - - - - - - 
  If you are a seasoned alert box maker you will no doubt be familiar
  with the "|" character. This character is used within the GFA
  Interpreter to separate text lines. You DO NOT need to use the "|"
  character below the Delete key to separate lines within the program.
  The program does this for you. If you do, the text on that line will be
  shortened to only those characters which preceed the "|" .

* PLACING TEXT WITHIN QUOTATION MARKS
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  If you put a word in quotations, the GFA Interpreter will NOT register
  that line as a line of code. That line will be preceeded by a  ==> .
  This is easily fixed. If the line is...

  ==> a.1$=" This is line "1" of the box. "

  change it to...

      a.1$=" This is line ""1"" of the box. " .

  IOW: Put an extra set of quotation marks around the quotation marks.


* PURPOSE
  - - - -
  To spend as little time as possible creating alert boxes <grin> .
  All you need to do is flip to the GFA menu bar to create an alert.

* ABOUT THE NUMBER OF SPACES PER LINE
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  GFA Basic documentation states that you can only have 30 characters
  per "text" line. I personally can get 31 characters. I don't know why
  so I made the lines 30 characters long (in case I'm the only one who
  gets 31).

  The maximum number of characters per "button" text is stated to be
  8, so I made it 8 (no, I can't get 9 here :-).

  The "big button" is completely undocumented in the GFA books I have.
  I just stumbled onto it one day. I've seen alot of other programs use
  "big buttons" so I assume it's legal. Here again, _I_ can get 31
  characters into this box, but I've set the program at 30 (so as to
  comply with GFA "text length" standards).

  You can always edit the .LST file in the Interpreter to add that one
  extra character if you need it.


* UNCALERT.CUR:
  - - - - - - -
  UncleAlert supports the UncleMouse .CURsor file format, making it
  possible for you to create your OWN custom mice for UncleAlert !
  After creating a .CURsor file with UncleMouse, place it in the
  SAME directory as UNCALERT.PRG/ACC and rename it UNCALERT.CUR.

  When UncleAlert is invoked, it looks to see if it can find a file
  named UNCALERT.CUR. If it does, it loads the new mouse shape. If
  it doesn't, it uses it's own cursor. If the file is NOT a valid
  .CUR file, then UncleAlert uses it's own cursor.

  The "hot spot" for the supplied .CURsor is it's center. This means that
  the center of the cursor must be OVER an object before a click is
  recognized. You can always edit this file with Unclemouse to alter
  any of it's attributes.


* CREDITS
  - - - -
  Thanks to Larry D. Duke for his .LST file on merging .RSC files and
  for TT compatibility.
  Written in GFA Basic (C)GFA Systemtechnik.
  UncleAlert, UncleMouse & associated files (C)Carl J. Hafner
  FormDoIt! (C) Gribnif Software
  GEM is a registered trademark of Digital Research.

  UncleAlert remains the sole property of the author, although there
  is no fee for you to use it.

  cjh - 7/20/1992

  Today in History: "One small step for a man..."

* VERSION HISTORY
  - - - - - - - -
  1.0a   -   Adds FormDoIt! "move" compatibility and .CURsor file
             support.
  1.0    -   Original version.
