MAPPER-3a 2.5 (C) UK 1994,1995 Steve Litchfield =============================================== Registration address (send cheque for 11 pounds to): Steve Litchfield 8 Grove Farm Mytchett Surrey GU16 6AQ Requires Psion Series 3a or Acorn PocketBook II, with approximately 100k of free system memory to run in. MAPPER-3a 2.5 is shareware. This does not make it a free program! Yes, you can copy it freely to friends or acquaintances, or even upload the original ZIP file to bulletin boards etc, but if you like it and continue to use it, then you are honour-bound to register the program by sending me a cheque for œ11 (pounds). Registration gets you: a) a clear conscience that you're using paid-for software, and that you're helping support future development of MAPPER-3a and other quality Psion shareware software. b) a special code that will personalise your copy of MAPPER-3a, remove the opening shareware screen and let you access the program more conveniently, including the ability to add your own place names to the MAPPER-3a database and shrink the status window to give more room on-screen. No need to re-install the software, just use the registration menu option and type in the code! c) A direct say in how the program develops. Notes ------ *NOTE* for upgraders from versions prior to and including v2.2: take note of the continuing clarification of the name, MAPPER-3a, now including the naming of the OPA file and the subdirectory beneath \APP\ (This naming clarification is to avoid any possible clashes with programs of similar name and function on other computer platforms) The change of name means that you are best advised to (i) delete the old \APP\MAPPER.OPA file (if you have one) (ii) remove the old \APP\MAPPER\ directory and its contents (if you have one) (iii) create a \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory for the MAPPER-3a v2.5 data files (iv) after you've installed the v2.5 files, remember to do 'Remove application' on the old MAPPER-3a icon and **re-install*** from the MAPPER3A.OPA file. You'll know if you've done it right, as the v2.5 icon is slightly different .... Note the supplied RCOM/MCLINK script file which may help you to install the MAPPER-3a v2.5 modules. If in doubt, check your mapper installation against the module listings in the sections below ... ******************************************************************** This text file documents the history of the program, its installation, and some of the more technical aspects to running it. For general help in using and understanding MAPPER-3a, please browse through the *extensive* on-line help. ******************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick summary for v2.5: (changes since 2.3) You can now find an item in an overlay and its selection is treated in the same way as a selected place (for distancing etc), selected overlay items are shown on the main map screen with the correct overlay icons; Eastings/Northings now dynamically displayed as the 'Centre-Select'-type cross-hairs are moved on-screen; home town bug fixed; map text now printed in mode 3 (i.e. over-writing background as well) for slightly easier reading; custom overlays can now be built on any drive, flash or RAM; extra overlays, including Theme Parks, Castles, hundreds of camping and caravanning sites, Forte hotels (with phone nos), LandRanger map boundaries; help system revised (again) and speeded up; TAB key swaps current selections; *loads* more roads included; some improvements to the coastline; a 64x zoom mode is now available; eastings now shown before northings in all dialogs etc; registration overflow bug fixed; vector and item overlay names and/or reference information can be turned on or off independently; useful numbers and info section enlarged; cross-hairs can now be cancelled correctly with ESC key; coastline is boldened when zoomed in to x8 or beyond for easier displays; Quick summary for v2.3: (changes since 2.2) Jump to position function now supports jumping to specific northings/eastings; extra hot-keys added (I,L,V); name clarification extended to program filename and subdirectory; many, many more primary routes and other major roads; lots more postcodes added; a few minor bugs fixed; data fixes in the Race course overlay; setting home town now recentres the map display; a 'Compuserve node' overlay is added; a 'Surviving complete Vulcan bombers' overlay is added; the 'Novotel' overlay has been added to and also now includes phone numbers; the useful numbers section is now in 'Help'-style format; the main town database is now sorted in reverse-name-length order (i.e. finds 'Chester' before 'Manchester' etc); a .MP4 vector overlay is included to show the traditional OS 'letter' grid system. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is MAPPER-3a 2.5, released as shareware for the Psion 3a in January 1995. All rights reserved, and copyrights, including the database files and their format, where appropriate. One thing MAPPER-3a *cannot* do, for space reasons on disk, is calculate 'best routes', as the sheer amount of data involved with storing every single road would make the program prohibitively large. MAPPER-3a is a Geographical Information System (GIS) with a friendly interface ..... Components and Installation. ---------------------------- MAPPER-3a v2.5 contains the following components: (note that an example MCLINK (or RCOM) script file is included, called INSTALL.SCR, which you may wish to customise for yourself and use it to save yourself some typing. To use it, start MCLINK and type @INSTALL.SCR) {Inside MAPP25.ZIP are the following files, file sizes quoted to help you decide on whether to install certain overlays etc} MAPPER3A.OPA - the main program module. Place this in an \APP\ directory on any Psion drive, and install onto your system screen with Psion-I. Size - 35k plus essential support files, to be placed in a \APP\MAPPER3A\ subdirectory: MAPHELP.RSC - the comprehensive on-line help file - 10k USEFUL.RSC - a help file of some useful numbers - 1k GB.MP1 - a data-set of approximately 1100 towns and cities - 24k COASTLIN.MP2 - a data-set showing the coastline of GB and a few close islands, plus the national boundaries - 4k MOTORWAY.MP2 - a data-set of the GB motorway and primary route network - 14k MAPPER.PIC - some icons for use with the overlays, including a default one, and the title screen - 3k plus loads of extra overlays, which you can install as you wish... note that if you install them *all*, you'd better count the cost of the extra SSD disk space needed! .... they also all go into the aforementioned \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory ... Vector overlays (i.e. lines and labels): RAILWAYS.MP4 - a vector format data-set of the GB railway network (excluding some local or irregular services) - 9k FERRIES.MP4 - a vector format data-set of the external GB ferry routes - 2k OSGRID.MP4 - a vector format data-set of the OS 'Letter' Grid system - 1k LANDRNGR.MP4 - a vector format data-set of the OS LandRanger series nos - 6k Item overlays (i.e. specific points and labels and reference info): FORTE.MP3 - Forte hotels (all different kinds) - 8k LITTLECH.MP3 - Little Chef restauarants - 5k HAPPYEAT.MP3 - Happy Eater restauarants - 1k NOVOTEL.MP3 - Novotel Hotels - 1k TRAVELOD.MP3 - Forte Travelodges - 2k RACECRSE.MP3 - race courses ** - 2k AIRFIELD.MP3 - airfields - 8k FOOTBALL.MP3 - football grounds ** - 3k BEACON.MP3 - aircraft beacons - 8k REPET145.MP3 - Rn 145MHz radio repeaters - 1k REPET433.MP3 - RB 433MHz radio repeaters - 3k CAMPSITE.MP3 - recommended camp sites ** - 12k CARAVANC.MP3 - Caravan Club sites ** - 8k TVMAINTX.MP3 - TV transmitters ** - 2k MRACING.MP3 - motor racing circuits - 1k CIS.MP3 - Compuserve nodes ** - 6k VULCANS.MP3 - surviving COMPLETE Vulcan bombers ** - 1k AIRMUSM.MP3 - aircraft museums ** - 3k CASTLES.MP3 - castles ** - 5k PACKET.MP3 - packet radio stations (partial) ** - 4k THEMEPKS.MP3 - theme parks ** - 1k SKI.MP3 - dri ski slopes ** - 1k PEAKS.MP3 - mountain peaks in England and Wales ** - 12k Each of the .MP3 overlays listed above has an associated .PIC file of the same name. These are the on-screen icons for overlays, and will be used if present in the main \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory. If they are not present, a default 'star' icon will be used .... Each of the overlays includes reference information for each item, and this can be displayed by turning 'Overlay Reference Fields' On. Overlays marked with the ** symbol were contributed to the MAPPER-3a project by registered users, all others were compiled by myself. As I say, all the above support files live in the \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory. MAPPER-3a 2.5 needs approximately 100k of system memory while running. If you try to start it with less than this amount available, it will hopefully warn you and exit. .MP3 Overlays and their format etc. ----------------------------------- There are three ways to create your own .MP3 overlays: (i) Use the overlay creation menu options to create an overlay and then use the point and shoot method to identify where you want each item icon to appear, together with information for the reference field. This method can obviously be time-consuming if you have a lot of items to enter. (ii) If you have a lot of items in your overlay and you know their OS northings and eastings (as numbers from 0 to 1000, so you may have to divide your figures by 10, 100 or 1000...), you can make the MP3 file yourself by preparing (for example) a CSV text file and then importing into DATA. The format is: Standard DATA file, named xxxxxxxx.MP3 in \APP\MAPPER3A\ 4 text fields: Name, Eastings, Northings, Reference Info The first record is a header record and should contain (What the reference fields represent) (What the name fields represent) (Blank) (Blank) The second record and following records contain (Name) (Eastings) (northings) (Reference info) If this is not clear to you, then please get in touch and I can arrange to help you construct your overlay. (iii) The third option is if you only have information in latitude and longitude or in paper map form and require extra help to construct an overlay. Please get in touch and I'll see what I can do! Please note that although these .MP3 files are editable under DATA, you will run into a few problems if you update the records in the file on a *flash disk*, as the file *must be compressed* for MAPPER-3a to use it, and the 3a won't let you compress a file on a flash disk! Thus you'll have to copy the file onto your internal or RAM disk, make the changes, compress the file and then copy it back over into the \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory on your flash. MAPPER-3a *should* default to creating new .MP3 files on your *internal* disk. You will probably want to create a custom icon as well. In this case, MAPPER-3a needs a 17 by 17 single-plane PIC file of the same filename as the .MP3 overlay, but with a .PIC extension. I normally create these icons by starting with a 48x48 blank icon using DRAW206 (see appendix notes), drawing my icon in the top-left corner, selecting the top 17x17 and copying to the clipboard. Then create a new 17x17 PIC and paste the clipboard into it. Save and exit. Phew! .MP4 overlays and their format ------------------------------- These vector overlays are non-trivial to create, and are best only tackled if you know what you're doing. For the record, here is a quick summary: The MP4 format is simply groups of 5 eastings/northings pairs per record. The 1st/last duplicate/line-up. All ferries/railways etc thus are fitted into block of 5 coordinate pairs. The vector *name* is printed if required to the top right of the third coordinate pair, normally, or to the bottom left if you flag this to MAPPER-3a by setting the eastings coordinate of the *first* point in a record to be negative. Usual Psion OPL database format. First field is $ format, the numbers are all % format. All numbers in 1000s of eastings (i.e. 1km resolution). e.g. Record 1: Basingstoke E1:110 N1:234 E2:114 N2:227 E3:118 N3:220 E4:125 N4:210 E5:132 N5:200 Record 2: Basingstoke E1:132 N1:200 etc etc Deleting info from the custom town database, \OPD\MAPPER.DBF ------------------------------------------------------------ The \OPD\MAPPER.DBF file is editable under DATA, so you can delete individual towns etc and modify them in this way. Please remember to compress the file before exiting DATA ! Grabbing the current map screen as a PIC file --------------------------------------------- You may well want to grab a map screen as a standard Psion .PIC file, for printing or editing using DRAW (see small print at end) or PAINT or any other 3a bit-map editor. Grabbing the 3a screen is done with pressing 'Control', 'Shift', 'Psion' and 'S' simultaneously (it's easier to do than it sounds) and lo and behold a file called SCREEN.PIC will have appeared in the root directory (\) of your internal disk ... _+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_ Thanks for trying MAPPER-3a! If you decide to remove MAPPER-3a from your Psion, please note that it creates three small files in \OPD\ on your default disk. MAPPER.DBF (custom place database), MAPPER.REG (your registration key, once I've given it to you) and MAPPERn.SET (used to store your preferences and position etc from session to session. 'n' is a number chosen by MAPPER-3a). If you've created any custom overlays, there may also be a few files in an \APP\MAPPER3A\ directory on your internal disk etc Small print: ------------ 1) Reverse engineering of the program or data modules is strictly forbidden. If you would like to create a complementary program and use my data-sets, then please get in touch with me. 2) Please note that I also run 3-Lib, *the* clearing-house for Psion public domain and shareware software. Send me a stamped self-addressed envelope to the above address, and I'll return the latest catalogue. 3) A useful related program to have available for editing and cropping any screen-grabs you do in MAPPER-3a is DRAW 2.06, by Rick Andrews. This is a S3a-only full bitmap editor and manipulator and is also shareware, available wherever you got MAPPER-3a from. 4) You can contact me via email at slitchfield@cix.compulink.co.uk, if you'd like. To speed up registrations, you can quote your email address for quick return of your registration code. 5) On-line support for MAPPER-3a, including test versions and extra utilities are provided in the 'mapper' conference on CIX. Thanks very much to the members of this conference for their suggestions, help and the supply of data-sets! I owe you guys a pint or two! For more information on CIX, phone 0492 641961 and ask for an information pack ... 6) If you give MAPPER to a friend (as is encouraged with shareware!), then it's always best to give him/her the original ZIP file. If the transfer takes place by SSD, then remember to include both the main MAPPER3A.OPA program and the \APP\MAPPER3A\ subdirectory full of data files. Do *not* give your friend your MAPPER.REG registration file, as this is unique to you and contains *your* name, and subsequent piracy will tell the world who started the outbreak! 7) Thanks to all the testers and contributors out there, who have supplied ideas, support, bug-reports, data, code fragments etc. You are too numerous to mention, but I thank you all with a big Merci Beaucoup! Steve Litchfield 19/Jan/95