MOUSE.txt  V6.6              MOUSE SUPPORT


     APRS accepts a serial MICROSOFT mouse input on either COM1 or COM2.
With the mouse you may move the cursor and use the left button to HOOK
any station on the screen.  When hooked, most of the information about
the station is displayed on the bottom line.  The right button marks a
location and brings up a ZOOM menu.  HOOK one of the ZOOM factors and
the map will zoom.  Hook the upper left cursor POSITION display, and
the P-LIST will be displayed.  On the P-list, use the mouse to hook a
station and display all data at the bottom of the screen.  Hook again
to un-hook or click the right ZOOM button to re-draw the map on that
station!

     MAPFIXER.BAS also uses the mouse in two different applications.  The
normal application is simply as a cursor movement tool.  Activate this mode
with the F9 Key.  In this mode, the left button simulates the alt-ADD key
so that each click adds a new point at the current location of the cursor.
You may use this feature to literally draw a road on the screen.  To locate
the MAP-POINTER which will determine where these new points are added, the
right button simulates the FIND command.  Pressing this button will cause
MAPFIXER to move the  current MAP-POINTER to the point nearest to the
cursor.  Moving the mouse and pressing the left button, will then insert
new points.  To draw a new line, move the cursor to the new starting point
and press alt-NEW.  After indicating a line name and the color, each
movement and press of the left mouse button will add a new point.

COM PORT LIMITATIONS:  Since MICROSOFT only supports COM1 and COM2,
these are the only ports that can be used.  Although APRS does permit
COM3/4, this is only a ruse, since all it does is poke the BIOS so
that it points to COM3/4 whenever it accesses COM1/2.  This will ONLY
WORK if your COM3 or 4 port is using the SAME interrupt as its COM1/2
counterpart.  Since I have not added this kludge to MAPFIXER, you must
use either 1/2 with this program.


POOR-MANS MOUSE DIGITIZER:

    This mode makes it possible to use the mouse as a digitizer tablet!
Simply attach a cardboard pointer anywhere on the mouse.  The location
does not matter, since every movement is relative anyway.  Then lay out
the map to be digitized on a smooth surface.  As long as the mouse is
aligned perfectly with the up/down and right/left axis of the map, then
it can be used to digitize a map.  Here are the details:

    1.  Layout the map at a comfortable angle that matches the normal
angle that you use the mouse.  This will help assure that you always
keep the mouse oriented with the axies of the map.

    2.  Next, OPEN the COMM port for digitizer operations with alt-O and
select the POOR-MANS-MOUSE-DIGITIZER mode.  You will be prompted to
determine exactly how much mouse movement equals how much LAT/LONG.
Ignore the visual cursor during this process and simply move your mouse
(with cardboard pointer) between the two LATITUDE and then the two
LONGITUDE marks as prompted.

    3.  Since all movements of the mouse are RELATIVE, you will need
several locations on the map that you are building that are absolute
reference points.  If you are adding roads to an existing APRS map,
then you can use any existing intersections as good reference points
(although the accurracy of some of the USGS CD ROM maps is questionable
below 16 miles scale).  If you are starting from scratch, then mark
4 or more LAT/LONG intesections in the center of the four quadrants of
the map you are going to digitize.  Transfer these to MAPFIXER by moving
the cursor on the screen to where the cursor LAT/LONG coordinates
match as close as you can get to the coordinates of the reference
points.  Press F8 to add a marker at each of those points.

    4.  Begin building your map using the mouse and the alt-NEW command.
Move the mouse to the start of a new feature, and press alt-NEW.  After
answering the line name (the name is only a reference and will not be
used unless you do some TEXT editing on the file), and feature color,
then move the mouse along the feature and press the left button each
time you want to add a point to the feature.  SEE STEP 5 !!

    5.  At the beginning of each feature AND AT ANY TIME you suspect that
your mouse may have slipped, MOVE THE SCREEN CURSOR BACK TO A REFERENCE
POINT.  Then lift the mouse and move it also to the reference point on
your map.  Then roll the mouse out to where you are working and continue.
This should keep your mouse calibrated to the reference point.

    6.  ALWAYS KEEP THE MOUSE PERFECTLY ALLIGNED up/down/left/right with
the map LAT/LONG orientation during all movements.

    7.  NEVER MOVE THE MOUSE EVEN a HAIR if the left button is pressed.
This will generate LOTS of unwanted and un-necessary points.


NOTES:  You will notice that the POOR-MANS-MOUSE-DIGITIZER mode will work
at all scales.  In other words, as you zoom in, the mouse movement becomes
amplified to match the higher scale of the map.  Conversly, in normal
mouse mode, the mouse movement remains the same at ALL scales, since
its movement is NOT scaled to exact LAT/LONG coordinates.

The MAP reference markers are added to the map as typical features.  If
you want to remove them, use the normal MAPFIXER commands for deleting
points...

