Subroutine Summary(v5.0)

Given the number and variety of routines available in INTERACTER, they have been organised into six sections. Each category is sub-divided into groups, which are identified by two-character codes, e.g. CU for cursor control, MN for menus and so on. The following sections provide a general summary of types of facilities provided by each of these subroutine groups.

1. Text Screen Output

Broadly, INTERACTER treats text and graphics output separately, though both can co-exist on the same screen. The subroutine groups in this category deal with various aspects of text screen output.

• Text Output Routines
• Cursor Control Routines
• Clearing Routines
• Text Attribute Routines
• Character Graphics Routines
• Window Management Routines
• Menu Output Routines

This category provides a set of functions which handle various types of text and option input, plus routines which allow the user to 'point' to positions or areas on the screen.

• Keyboard/Mouse Event Handling Routines
• Fixed Field Input Handling Routines
• Menu Handling Routines
• Input/Menu Handling Parameter Selection Routines
• Interactive Option Identification (Predefined menus/forms)
• Text Position Input Routines
• Mouse Cursor Control
• Grid Management

These routines allow the creation of interactive data entry forms to which values can be assigned or retrieved. Multi-part tabbed forms are also supported.

• General Form Creation & Editing
• Field-specific Characteristics
• Assign/Retrieve Field Contents
• Display Form/Field Boxes

These routines provide a substantial range of high resolution graphics output facilities, including all the basic graphics primitives upon which the separate Presentation Graphics routines are built. Graphics positional input is also grouped under this heading.

• General Graphics Routines
• Graphics Area/Units
• Graphics Style Selection
• Graphics Drawing/Movement Primitives
• Graphics Character Output Routines
• Graphics Hardcopy/Export
• Graphics File Import
• Graphics Input Routines
• Graphics Proximity Checks

To enable data to be presented simply and quickly, a set of routines are provided which draw bar-charts, line graphs, etc. These routines are built on the lower-level high resolution graphics facilities. Many graphical requirements can be satisfied just by using these routines, but calls to all the high-res graphics groups can be freely mixed for more specialised data presentation.

• Housekeeping/Option Selection
• Axes Plotting/Annotation
• Chart/Graph Plotting
• Contour/Surface Plotting

The remaining routines provide a variety of functions which are likely to be required in interactive applications.

• Screen Manipulation Routines
• Information Routines
• Operating System Interface
• Binary File Handling
• Hardware Identification Routines
• Debugging
• Miscellaneous Routines
• Character Manipulation Routines
• Maximum/Minimum Calculations
• Bit Manipulation Functions