Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Paul Froissart
uView (originally "µView", which stood for "Micro View") is a small (hum...) text viewer for the TI-89/92+/V200 calculators. Here are its main design goals :
uView works only under AMS 2.01 and above. You may download the latest AMS version from here.
Simply copy the file "uview_e.89z" (or "uview_e.9xz"/".v2z" depending on your calculator model) to your calculator. You do not need any kernel to use it, however if you have AMS 2.03 or lower you may need a program launcher.
There is a French version available in "uview_f.89z".
To run it, type uview() from the home screen. If you want to view a specific text, you may also type uview("myfolder\myfile") (this is mainly for use in scripts, since the integrated browser is usually much more practical than the Var-Link screen for other uses).
Note:
Now that you have installed it, you may want to create a keyboard shortcut for uView (because the 'u' letter is so far in the Var-Link screen ;-) ). Just type within the Home screen:
Define kbdprgm6()=Prgm:main\uview():EndPrgm
This will redirect the "Diamond + 6" combination to uView. Make sure you replace main\uview with myfolder\uview if you installed uView in "myfolder".
The first time you run uView, you may be asked if you want to convert your existing ZIP files so that they can be viewed by uView. If you don't do so, you will only be able to view your uncompressed TEXT files that use uncompressed PIC files, so you may want to do it only if you want to have a look at uView without actually switching to it.
Note that you will have to use the XDirUPak command if you want to uncompress your files back -- for more info, look at the file XPak.zip included in this package.
If the conversion fails because it says you do not have enough RAM, archive some files on your calculator and start again -- you should archive files until you reach about 100kb free RAM.
When you run uView, you see a list of folders; only the folders that actually contain text files (with extension TEXT or XPAK) are displayed.
To open a file, press the Right arrow to list the contents of a folder, and then choose your file and press Enter.
You may search for a specific file within all the listed folders: press F3, then type the text you want to search for, and type Enter (note: the search is case-insensitive). If you have many many compressed text files on your calculator, the search may be a bit long -- be patient! You now have a list of the files that match your request. To go back to the list of all your files, press F2. To display the search results again, press F2 once more.
Note that uView allows you to divide your texts into classes. Look at section 3.4 for more information.
Nothing special here if you already know TextRider, you may scroll with the up/down arrows, and a bit faster with the 2nd-Up/2nd-Down combinations.
You may search for a specific text by pressing F3, and you may use TextRider-like bookmarks with the APPS key.
You may group your text into several classes: one for Physics, one for Maths, one for Chemistry, etc.
To create a new class, just type (in the Home screen):
{"Mathematics","algebra","analysis"}->uview\maths
This tells uView to create a class named "Mathematics", containing the folders "algebra" and "analysis" (the name "maths" is just for your own use, so that when you give it to a friend you know that you're giving the description of your maths class, and not something else).
Now, when you press F4 in the main menu, you'll see a list of all your classes. Choosing one will restrict the actual folders to the folders concerning that class, so you access your texts faster. In addition, when you search for a file, uView will only search in the folders related with the active class.
It is highly recommended that you archive your "uview" folder.
Important note: you may not put other variables than your classes description in the "uview" folder, however there is an exception: it is possible to put the program itself in this folder.
uView uses the same syntax as TextRider. Download TextRider for more information about how to create a file, and read on to the next section for some precisions.
uView is, with minor restrictions, compatible with TextRider. Since version 1.9, it supports Pretty Printing and compressed pictures too. As far as I know, the only missing features are centered text and indentation. On the other hand, it has a few enhancements: it features bold characters, accessible through the #B command, and it searches for images in the folder where the text is located if it isn't found in the specified folder (or the current one).
It has another useful feature: you may add a title to your file, by adding the PrintObj tag (accessible in the text editor through F2->PrintObj) to the first line of your text. Instead of the filename, uView will display this title in the text browser.
If you don't use the "Light" version (located in the 'Light' folder of this zipfile), you may skip this section.
The specificity of the "Light" version is that it does not attempt to convert the ZIP files on your calculator to XPAK files (which is often necessary if you want to use the texts that TextRider used to read). If you still want to do so, you have to use an external program, named zip2xpak. To use it, simply send the file "zip2xpak.89z" to your calculator, then type in the Home screen:
zip2xpak("myfolder")
You may now erase the whole "xpak" folder if you don't think you will need to compress other files later on (uView does not use it).
In case you want to recover your original files, for whatever reason, it is possible by sending the group file "xdirupak.89g". Now write:
xpak\xdirupak("myfolder")
You may erase the "xpak" folder too afterwards.
version 1.0: first public release
version 1.1: important bugfix in the compression routine, no other change
version 1.9: new multitasking architecture, allowing for pretty-printing without increased loading times; now features an automatic ZIP->XPAK compression
uView has fully been written in C language on my calculator, thanks to the soon-to-be-released GTC embedded compiler.
This is the case for the XPak compression program too.
Special thanks to:
Q: uView doesn't run and doesn't say anything.
A: Make sure you have enough free RAM.
Q: uView does not display all of my texts -or- uView says "No TEXT or XPAK files found!"
A: It probably means some of your text files are ZIP files and that you refused to convert them, or simply that you have no text on your calculator.
Q: uView sometimes displays weird characters on the screen.
A: uView does not support all of the formatting commands of TextRider, so some of them may just be left out as text output. Don't pay attention to these :-)
Q: uView crashes.
A: Make sure you have enough free RAM and retry. If the problem remains, contact me.
Q: How do I contact you?
A: You can check for updates on http://www.genezis.fr.fm, and mail me at paul.froissart@tiscali.fr
uView is freeware. You may freely redistribute it, as long as the package (the ZIP file from which this file was extracted) is kept unchanged.
I (Paul Froissart) shall not be held liable for any damage caused, directly or indirectly, by use of this software. Use it at your own risk.