Drawing vectors and note vectors in Vapor Paint is generally done
with the mouse or whatever appears to be a mouse to Intuition.
You can also draw with commands sent to the AREXX port.  When the
mouse is used for drawing on the workscreen, the Raw mouse moves
are converted into floating point and turned into appropriate
objects and operations.  This roughly corresponds to what happens
in other paint programs, except that it is not a drawn line 
which results but the gesture of the drawing of the line.
Why do this? Well, most pointing devices don't have the number
of degrees of freedom necessary for creating 6-dimensional
datastreams in realtime.  My basic vertice is 6D, so all gestures
must know what to do with the dimensions which aren't directly
drawn in. This is why the "raw mouse" moves need to be converted .
At rendering time, the gesture-vectors are reinterpreted into 
honest-to-god pixels, using the vector Pens .

Vapor Paint has a generic method for selecting Mouse Tools, which may
be a bit confusing.  Mouse Tools are selected via a Matrix of pairs
of F-keys and shifted F-Keys.  The Left F-keys (F1..F5) control one
"axis" and the right F-Keys (F6..F10) control the other.  Think of
the left F-keys as the major category and the Right F-keys as a
subcategory.
 Here are all the currently available Mouse Tools and what 
 they look like on the screen.

Selecting and grid-setting kinds of things:
        F1 F6  Unknown                  Trace
        F1 F7  Select Vectors           Box
        F1 F8  DeSelect Vectors         Box
        F1 F9  Baseline Scaling         Line
        F1 F10 Set Grid                 Box

Drawing tools:
        F2 F6  Vector (Default)         Trace
        F2 F7  Note Vector              Trace
        F2 F8  Straight Line            Trace
        F2 F9  Vector Model             Trace*
        F2 F10 Dist to Rad/Mass         Trace
        F2 SF6 Cheap vector             Trace
        F2 SF7 Note Vector St           Trace
        F2 SF8 Text Box                 Box
Moving, rescaling operations
        F3 F6  Vector Move              Line
        F3 F7  Vector Rotate            Line
        F3 F8  Group Warp               Trace
        F3 F9  Clip Warp                Trace
Editing vectors
        F4 F6  Re-Draw Vector           Trace
        F4 F7  Re-Draw Radius           Trace
        F4 F8  Re-Draw Mass             Trace
        F4 F9  Re-Do Partially          Trace
        F4 F10 Move Radius Edge         Trace
        F4 SF6 Straight ReDraw          Trace*
        F4 SF7 Straight Redo Radius     Trace*
        F4 SF8 Straight Redo Mass       Trace*

Editing vertices
        F5 F6  Grip Move                Line
        F5 F7  Grip Drag                Line
        F5 F8  Magnet                   Line


All other combinations result in the "Unknown" tool. Since the "shifted"
F-keys also are part of this scheme, this gives 27 out of a possible
100 Mouse Tools.

Here, the feedback methods are elaborated upon:
When in a Trace, pressing the left mousebutton will start
the raw mouse recording, and releasing it will stop the recording.
Pressing the Right mousebutton will do a Select operation on the
endpoints of the vertices of the screen (which will show a bound
box around the vector which is selected).

When drawing straight lines, you create the vertices with the left button ,
and the one after that, etc.  until you press the right button.  One of the
reasons to avoid segmented drawing is that the timestamp information is
wildly inaccurate after such an operation, since you spend a lot of time
hunting about for the next point.(You may want to remap the time via the
TAB key)

In a Line mode, the line rubberbands from the original left-button down
spot to the latest spot until the button is let up.

In a Box mode, a bound box Rubberbands from the left-button's depression
until the left button's release.

    More details on the Mouse Tools themselves:

Selecting and grid-setting kinds of things:
        F1 F6  Unknown                  Trace
Although this tool technically does nothing, this does not
make it useless!  The trace left behind it can be used to rough out
the drawing at an even earlier stage than a note vector, or can
provide other disposable notes.  Also, the last vector drawn is
usually shown after a screen refresh. You can save this sketch with
shift-Enter key, and pop it back witht he Enter key.

        F1 F7  Select Vectors           Box
        F1 F8  DeSelect Vectors         Box
Every vector (or Iconic element) remembered in Vapor Paint
can be unselected, selected , visible or hidden. Some operations
on vectors require them to be selected, and often they are 
near each other. After a Select vector operation, the vectors
with endpoints in the select box are selected. Similarly with
deselect. Note that only vectors,views and note vectors are
selected this way.

(I've buried these two, not very useful functions here)
        F1 F9  Baseline Scaling         Line
As a mouse-oriented method for navigating the screen, I've
come up with baseline scaling. The line you draw on the screen
is roughly scaled to fit in a half screensized rectangle, centered
on its center, when the screen redraws, which is does immediately.
Fun, but the keypad is faster and more repeatable.
        F1 F10 Set Grid                 Box
Vapor Paint has a Grid locking facility, which would be nicer
if I drew more straight lines.  This mouse tool sets the grid size.
The G key toggles the grid on and off.  Again, this is a great
timestamp-scrambler and redundant point maker.  By default, the grid
is 1/100 in all dimensions. (Yes, you can grid radius etc.  but this
is also foolish.)

Drawing tools:
        F2 F6  Vector (Default)         Trace
When you draw you have complete control over 2 of the 5 of the
editable vertice dimensions (and implicitly, over the last, timestamp)
The Default tool just stuffs standardized values in the dimensions which
you aren't drawing. The Defaults are available for editing themselves in 
the "Main Pum" (see: Icons, Main Pum).After each vector is drawn, it
is registered with  a [V] Icon. 
        F2 F7  Note Vector              Trace
Note vectors are similar to default vectors but are used for making
notations which will not be rendered by the main renderer. Note vectors
can be interpolated. However, to lower screen confusion, they don't show
their radius and mass coordinates line normal vectors do. Note vectors 
show up as [NV] Icons.
        F2 F8  Cheap Vector             Trace
The Cheap vector tries to keep only non-colinear points. The idea is
to lower the redundancy in the vector. However, this ruins the
timestamp, as usual. 
        F2 SF7 Note Vector St           Line
A Straight Line version of note vector. Useful for grids and spines.

        F2 SF8 Text Box                 Box
You draw a box which is the character size.  Then a requester comes where
you can type in a phrase.  The prase is quickly drawn on the screen in a
cheap stroke font.  If the phrase begins with *, the rest is taken as a
filename for the real text.
        F2 F9  Vector Model             Trace
This tool uses the raw mouse moves to re-scale a chosen "model" vector.  A
model vector is a vector which has been crafted to the desired 6-d shape
and saved in a (non-volatile!) [M] Icon (up next to the [A] Icon in the
tree of Icons...) by pressing Shift-M.  You can save any number of these
models (under 134 million, that is) and select it by using the M key while
the Icon of the model vector is "in view".  (see pums and Icons) This model
vector is then used to provide default values which are used in the non-raw
mouse dimensions.  Thus, copies of vector with a certain radius contour can
be transformed all about the screen.
        F2 F10 Dist to Rad/Mass         trace
This again starts with defaults, but it takes a special "attitude" toward
the radius and the mass dimensions.  After the line is drawn, the length of
each line segment is rescaled and used for the vertices mass and radius
coordinates.  Thus, long, quickly drawn lines are fatter and heavier than
short, slowly drawn lines.  By changing the default radius and mass in the
"main pum" you can change the scale factor for distance to Mass and Radius.

      Conversion Tools: Moving, rescaling operations 
        F3 F6  Vector Move              Line
This operation works on a selected set of vectors or on a current,
unselected vector.  All selected vectors are moved in the same direction
and distance as the raw mouse line.  It works the same way with a view.
        F3 F7  Vector Rotate            Line
This operation is a three in one tool:  it translates, rotates and scales a
selected set of vectors (or an unselected current vector) The trick is that
the current vector's start and end points are remapped to the rawmouse
start and end points, and the same transformation is applied to all the
other selected vectors.  The same goes for Views.
        F3 F8  Group Warp               Line
This complicated operation takes a selected group of vectors and pretends
that there is a spine from the first to the last vertice of the "current"
vector, and uses the new Raw mouse line to warp the vertices along its
path.  A kind of multi-line redraw line.  Note:  Maps to length, not
timestamp. 
        F3 F9  Clip Warp               Line
This operation is very much like Group Warp, except it pastes a clipped set
of icons, and then transforms them, taking as the spine the last [NV] in
the set.  Find out about clipping before using this.

        F4 F8  Re-Draw Mass             Trace
        F4 SF8 Straight Re-Draw Mass    Trace
This tool remaps the mass coordinate in the same way as the previous tool
remaps the radius.
        F4 F9  Re-Do Partially          Trace
Very much like 46, but more useful in fixing up middle parts of lines.
only the parts of the line closest to the raw mouse line endpoints will be
remapped!  If the start coord is earlier than the end, nothing happens.

Editing vertices
        F5 F6  Grip Move                Line
An Invididual vertice closest to the starting point of the rawmouse line
will be moved to the endpoint of the rawmouse line in the current workspace
dimensions.
        F5 F7  Grip Drag                Line
This applies a poor version of finite element analysis to the problem of
moving the point while keeping the line lengths constant!(Wish this worked)
        F5 F8  Magnet                   Line
This drags points near the start of the line closer to end finish of the
line than points further away. Experiment!
The mouse also gives you access to the three "menu pums" and
the "secret exits". More about them in "Icons and Pums" and "Main Pum".
        F5 F7  Grip Cut                 Line
Cuts a line in two at the starting point of the raw mouse line. 

Henry Lowengard, jhhl-at-panix.com / 324 Wall St. Apt 5 / Kingston NY 12401

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© 1998-2022 Henry Lowengard