** 1 page inside GEM regular feature / 996 words ** Inside GEM Mark Wherry puts theory into practice... We've previously discussed GEMScript and OLGA, and the potential they offer to GEM applications. It's time to turn the theory into practice with some practical examples of how these utilities can actually improve the way you work. Let's integrate! On Windows/MacOS platforms application suites such as Microsoft Office are extremely popular. What gives the component applications such as Word and Excel an advantage over similar Atari offerings such as Papyrus and Texel is their ability to work together providing an integrated solution. This is what OLGA and GEMScript bring to the Atari platform - a means of integrating separate applications into one. In order to achieve this functionality you must be running a multi-tasking environment (Magic, MiNT, Geneva, N.AES etc) so more than one application can be running at the same time. You will also need a copy of OLGA, the current release is v1.51. A GEMScript interpreter such as Scripter or Simple Script is also highly desirable - remember GEMScript is a protocol and not a program or utility in its own right. ArtWorx and Texel One of the weaknesses of Texel 1.x was the lack of chart plotting to visually represent the data stored within your spreadsheet. With Texel v2.x and ArtWorx v1.6 and above, it's possible to add graphs within your spreadsheet. To do this, you need to make sure that three entries exist in the OLGA.INF file. ** NP ** [Extensions] .TAD=$ARTWORX .CWG=$ARTWORX [Applications] ARTWORX=path ** /NP ** Where path is the full path to the location of the ArtWorx application on your system. For example the path entry in my OLGA.INF file reads: ** NP ** ARTWORX=D:\ARTWORX\ARTWORX.APP ** /NP ** That's all there is to it - and now for the fun! First load up Texel; this can be either the demo or the full version, load an existing spreadsheet, or create a new one for test purposes. Select a range of values, and then click the graph button towards the right of the top toolbar. Texel will now launch ArtWorx and create the graph in ArtWorx by sending commands via the GEMScript protocol. ArtWorx then draws that graph within the Texel spreadsheet by using the inplace drawing features within OLGA - neat eh? ** IG_TXL1.GIF ** ** Caption ** A graph based on a simple spreadsheet, generated by Texel and drawn by ArtWorx ** /caption ** This object can be resized within Texel as desired with no loss of quality because ArtWorx creates vector graphics. To customise the graph simply double click on it which opens the file containing the graph within ArtWorx. The elements making up the graph are grouped to start with, but can be ungrouped and edited as desired. On saving the file any changes made will be automatically updated within Texel - it couldn't get much easier from the user's perspective. Although the Windows/MacOS Excel spreadsheet can create graphs independently Excel is more expensive than ArtWorx and Texel combined and the ability to edit graphs within ArtWorx gives you total control over the finished result. ArtWorx and Scripter We have just seen how Texel can utilise the drawing power of ArtWorx, by controlling it using the GEMScript protocol. As we have previously explained you can create your own commands and, using a GEMScript interpreter, send them to GEMScript aware applications, including ArtWorx. The ArtWorx package includes some example scripts for use with Scripter, the commercial GEMScript interpreter based on a C-like syntax. Scripter has recently been translated into English by Peter West (TransAction) and, hopefully, an English release will be made available shortly. Using this combination ArtWorx can be used to plot scientific graphs, create mathematical images, or anything else you can dream up. Full details of the commands available in ArtWorx are included in the excellent hypertext, and the example scripts should whet your appetite. ** IG_AW1.GIF ** ** IG_AW2.GIF ** ** caption ** A little bit of code can create many colours! Well, on a colour screen it does... ** /caption ** ArtWorx and CAB The HTML tag has been supported since the release of CAB v2.0 and can be used to embed objects within webpages. Objects could include movies and pictures, and on other platforms it's possible to embed interactive movies such as Shockwave files. The tag has several parameters, the most essential being the filename, and the width and height of the area where the object is to be drawn. For example, entering will draw my favourite tiger file at a width and height of 400 pixels - the width and height values can also be given as percentages. When CAB interprets this tag, it asks the OLGA manager for the program which handles CWG files, in this case ArtWorx (remember the line in the OLGA.INF that reads .CWG=ARTWORX). ArtWorx then draws the tiger file within the CAB browser window, or a crossed box if an error occurred, using OLGA's inplace drawing abilities. To see this in action, look at the sreenshot. ** IG_CAB1.GIF ** ** caption ** An HTML file created in Everest and displayed in CAB. ArtWorx draws the tiger within the CAB browser using the OLGA protocol ** /caption ** This example uses CWG files, but other extensions can be added to the OLGA.INF file that ArtWorx, or another OLGA inplace drawing server supports, to increase the formats that can be embedded within HTML documents. Conclusion Hopefully these examples have given you an idea of the power GEMScript and OLGA brings to the Atari platform. If enough programs add support for these features the possibilities are endless. Next time I will hopefully have released the next version of my own freeware Simple Script GEMScript interpreter. In the meantime if you have any comments do get in touch with me at: ** BC ** mark@ataricomputing.com http://www.rvmp.co.uk ** /BC ** ** Boxout ** Contacts Texel, ArtWorx and Scripter UK distributor: System Solutions Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355 Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936 info-software@system-solutions.co.uk www.system-solutions.co.uk/cafe Please note English versions are not currently available. German demo versions can be downloaded from: http://ash.sww.net ** /boxout **