I am looking for information on how to display 80-column text and HGR grapics simultaneously in Applesoft BASIC. I know how to switch between the two, and I know you can do a split screen mode with TEXT and GR, but my goal is to display text where desired on the screen, and a small HGR image in the bottom right hand corner of the screen to fill some negative space. Is this possible?
I've leafed through the manuals I know of, but I haven't found a straightforward answer.
Maybe one of the other guys will have something more elegant for you, but I've seen this done by Randy Brandt in AppleWorks 5.1 (and in DBPix) where he displays the 80 column text screen and in the lower right corner places an image of a Paint Shop graphic.
But, he goes to some trouble to do that. When the 80-column screen is up and the user calls to view the picture, Randy converts the 80-column screen to a DHR image, saves the text screen, loads the Paint Shop graphic, places it on the DHR image, switches to DHR display and waits for the user to press a key.
When the user presses the key, the 80-column text screen is restored.
Dan Verkade also did something similar with TimeOut SuperForms for AppleWorks where he would allow the user to display what appeared to be a standard 80-column screen, but he had a custom character set that he would use to substitute some of the characters to any special box-corner graphics characters the user selected for his form.
Thanks for the tips. I was thinking it would end up being something convoluted.
I was also toying with the idea of rendering the the screen in HGR which would be a good excuse to use a custom font. :)