Screen Grabber

When documenting systems it is frequently necessary to use "snap-shots" of screens within the documentation. From much experimentation it became apparent that certain screen grab utilities conflict with AREV and cause the system to hang. To circumvent the problem once and for all the following screen grab routine was developed for use within AREV. To use, simply assign to a macro key as a subroutine call and then press the macro key when a screen shot is required.

This routine writes a file called CAPTURE.nnn to DOS where nnn is auto-incremented in the current session. Obviously the program could be amended to warn if the capture file exists from a previous session, to store screens in an AREV file or even to export into a WP file. (This is something successfully done by Tony Preston of Preston Microsolutions who has kindly sent his self documentation routines for inclusion in the utility diskette.)

    SUBROUTINE SCREEN.GRAB

       COMMON /SCRATCH/ CTR
       CALL VIDEO.RW(0, 0, 79, 23, "R", IMAGE)
       CALL MSG("Capturing Screen", "UB", SAVE, "")
       LENGTH = LEN(IMAGE)
       LINE.CTR = 0
       FOR X = 1 TO LENGTH STEP 2
          NEW.IMAGE := IMAGE[X,1]
          LINE.CTR += 1
          IF LINE.CTR = 80 THEN
             NEW.IMAGE := CHAR(13) : CHAR(10)
             LINE.CTR = 0
          END
       NEXT
       IF CTR ELSE CTR = 1
       OSWRITE NEW.IMAGE ON "CAPTURE." :CTR "R(0)#3"
       CTR += 1
       CALL MSG("", "DB", SAVE)
    RETURN

(Volume 1, Issue 9, Page 11)