★ APPLICATIONS ★ CREATION GRAPHIQUE ★ PARROTRY PLUS ★ |
PARROTRY PLUS (Amstrad Action) | PARROTRY PLUS (Amstrad Computer User) |
Back in March '87, issue 18, we reviewed Parrotry - a graphics package with a difference. Since then Parrotry has joined the ranks that have sprouted a Plus. Parrotry Plus is unlike any other art package: it is unique in the manner in which graphics are designed and displayed. Parrotry remembers every brush stroke arid, later, can redraw your picture - parrot fashion. The advantage of this system is two fold: the screen is not static (as with standard graphic screens) and amount of disk space used is considerably less. Any picture produced with Parrotry may be re-drawn from within your own Basic listings which is a nice touch. Of course, if you do prefer static pictures, the design may be saved as an ordinary screen. Any graphical operation performed within Parrotry is remembered or stored. Coordinates of lines, colours they are drawn in, filled areas and such are all kept in two Basic arrays. This method of storing picture information means that the computer can perform operations quickly and easily on the data - like increasing by a factor, or copying or running through different speeds. Pieces of eight A single line, dotted with letters, at the bottom of the screen represents Parrotry's main menu Not very friendly, but then the manual is there if needed. From the drawing mode you can move a cursor anywhere on screen. Once positioned, circles, lines or points may be plotted, text printed, areas filled and colours changed. If you make a mistake there is a handy undo command Unlike usual delete operations though, you can keep on undoing all the way to the first line you drew or area you filled. If you wish to position text or shapes accurately then the grid comes in handy. This simply draws vertical and horizontal guide lines on the screen. The grid squares can be set to any size. At any time during the design of a picture it is possible to re-draw everything you've done up to that point. The speed at which the picture re-draws is definable - it is even possible to single step through the display, that is, after each command the program waits for you to press a key During playback it is possible to erase any section that doesn't look up to scratch. Included is a loop function which enables any part of your drawing to be repeated, any number of times, anywhere on the screen. While you draw you will notice a sequence number alongside the cursor co-ordinates This simply shows the number of commands that have been entered To perform a loop you will need to know the first and last numbers of the sequence. You can find this out by redrawing at slow speed. In addition to sequence numbers, the loop function needs to know how many times to repeat a sequence, new left or right cursor position and new up or down cursor position. You can't have nested loops (loops within loops), but this isn't too much of a restriction. Land ahoy There are a group of instructions collectively known as the data handling commands. These include:
The arrays themselves may be edited if necessary. All the information required to re-draw your design is stored in two arrays: X and Y. You can inspect, change, delete or add to this data by usmg the editing facilities. Each sequence or command starts with a control code (or command). These are usually numbers above 9000. Anything after a control code can be a horizontal or vertical cursor position, pen colour, or text. Absolutely anything in the array can be altered or removed. It is even possible to create pictures simply by editing the array but this isn't advisable if you wish to stay sane. Treasure me hearties The screens you create with Parrotry may be saved as either standard screens - binary files that can be loaded into other art packages - or array data. Whatever form you decided to save your designs, they may be loaded back (or re-drawn) from within your own Basic listings. It is very odd. even ludicrous, that you can't dump a screen to either printer or plotter from Parrotry Instead you must buy the Library disk, but even that only contains a plotter dump routine. If you wish to send a picture to the printer then you must hunt elsewhere for a routine. Parrotry Plus cannot compete with the Art Studio or Melbourne Draw in terms of quality and options. Indeed, it doesn't try: Parrotry is aimed at those wanting a live screen, animated graphics and colour switching, rather than the still pictures produced by other graphics programs.
What came first, the software company or the program? In this case Parrotry was first to see light of ' day. A fining name for the company was desperately needed. Treasure Island Software was eventually born. AA |
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