Oho! This page contains screen shots from the latest version. Have a look before deciding if you want to download (the download is about 1.3 mB).
Note: as I added more screenshots, this page itself became large & took a while to display. So now this page only shows thumbnails which can be clicked upon to show the desired screenshot.
This
shows the map. It's a pretty poor example, as it only has a few rooms (you can
add more of your own, obviously). You can drag the rooms around to reposition
them and the connecting passage will automatically follow. This has no effect
on the TADS code, but does allow you to produce a map to your own satisfaction.
From the map we can create a new room; after entering the room's name, we can
edit the new rooms properties (see below).
This
shows the main program window. We have chosen to view rooms (as indicated by
the depressed Room button) and for each room we can edit the description, indicate
which rooms the passageways in various directions lead to, edit the room properties
and write some TADS code which is specific to this room (see below for directions,
properties and code).
Here
we see that going North takes us to the startRoom, whilst going south ltakes
us to the sushiBar. Drop down lists for each possible direction allow us to
select from all currently defined rooms. Its a little hard to see on the thumbnail,
but you can see on the larger image (just click) that directions which do have
a passage assigned are named in red, to make them stand out and that the direction
of the return path i sgiven afterwards in brackets.
If
you want to see these passges from the map view, a tooltip appears when the
cursor is left stationary over a room, which can be configured to show all passages
from the room. It can also optionally be configured to show the class(es) of
the room, its contents and, if desired, their contents.
Hovering
the cursor over a room on the map will, after a short delay, pop up a tooltip
showing: the class(es) of the room, details of any passages, with their direction
and destination and the contents of the room, if any.
This
screen shows how we can examine the rooms contents. It shows a list of all items
which have their initial location set as this room. We can double click on any
of the contents to jump to them and examine or manipulate them (and jump right
back by clicking their 'location' field).
We
can add TADS code here, which is specific to this room (we can, similarly, add
code for items and actors).
Items
and actors can be specified, just as rooms (I don't show the code & contents
tabs as they are not very informative). Note that we can click the 'edit'
button to examine the item's location (and jump from there back to here, by
examining the locations 'contents'). We can also use the drop down 'location'
list to change the item's location.
In addition to clicking on data fields to examine that data, the program offers a floating Navigation Bar which allows quick access to the data. Here is a very simple example from a newly begun work. in more complex pieces you will appreciate the fact that the sections of the nav bar can be expanded and collapsed.
The class hierarchy can be manipulated. New classes can be declared, old ones deleted (but, I won't let you delete 'built in' classes - those from adv.t). A class can inherit from other classes, to take their attributes and can have such inheritance removed.
All
rooms, items and actors can be based on any of these classes; in fact the
class hierarchy itself can be manipulted. In initial versions the classes of
adv.t are hard coded, in future they will probably be read in from TADS files.
In any case, even today, new classes can be added and removed and existing classes
can be derived from additional classes (given new attributes). In the following
picture, we see the 'wallet' item being given the 'floatingItem'
class (and all attributes which belong to it).
And
in this picture, we see the actual class hierarchy itself being manipulted;
the 'chairItem' class is about be given the attributes of the 'hider'
class too.
Note the objects/vocabulary radio group. I have decided that rooms/items/actors are basically interminglable, but that it makes no sense to mix them with vocabulary classes (unless you know better?).
Here
we see the properties associated with the class chairItem, declared in that
class....
and
here we see the properties which chairItem inherits from its ancestor classes.
This
is the class tree hierarchy. Like The Windows Explorer, you can expand and collapse
the nodes. Those classes with a + after their name have multiple parents (and
so, will show up multiple times in the tree. Properties have their names surrounded
by (brackets) to allow them to be distinguished from classes. Note the user
defined class'puzzle' - its background is a different (user selectable) colour,
to allow it to be distinguished from classes declalred in adv.t.
I intend to make such a distinction by colour for all list boxes which contain class or property names.
The
Configure/Map View
tab to allow you to specify classes or properties which you would like to see
visually indicated on the map.
If any room is of that class (or, optionally, of a class derived from that class) or has that property set (or, optionally, has the possibility to set that property) or contains an item or actor (which contains an item or actor, etc) which is of that class, or has that property set, then the representation of the room on the map will contain a small coloured square indciating this.
For
instance, you can easilly see all dark rooms or rooms containing actors, etc
You can also, for instance, define a property called 'puzzle' and mark
it as a design only property. You can then use it to quickly mark all rooms
conatining puzzles on the map but, since you made it a design only property,
no code will be generated for it.
For
the time being, I have added a simple memo pad for taking notes. In future version,
I hope to make it more sophisticated (any suggestions?).
There are as yet no screen shots of the various options. If you want to know what they are, download the program.
Not yet implemented are the Compile options & some of the Configure options. See also the to-do list and ideas.
Last updated 29 July, 2003 9:52 PM
