Doodle Reference

Overview

Doodle lets you draw on your Palm computer screen. The mechanics of this are quite simple. Doodle traces the path of your stylus with a pen shape, optionally smoothing the path as it is drawn. The path covered by the pen is filled with an ink pattern. The filled path is combined with your existing drawing according to the current drawing mode. All of this can happen on any of the pages in your Doodle database.

Doodle has three interfaces for controlling how the simple mechanics of drawing on your screen. The simplest of these interfaces is the title bar which you see when you first start Doodle. The title bar interface is extended by the menus interface, which is opened by tapping on the menu button or on the title label of the title bar [1]. Finally, everything that can be done from the title bar or the menus can also be done through the shortcuts interface by simply writing characters in the graffiti input area. This allows you to work with the whole screen with the least visual distraction from your doodling. This reference discusses each of these three interfaces in turn.

Beyond the basics of the drawing interface, there are several other aspects to discuss:

• the Alerts for optional warnings of destructive or surprising consequences;
• the Preferences dialog for customizing Doodle;
• the Help dialogs for getting you started;
• the About dialog;
• the Pick Pen dialog for grabbing a piece of a doodle as your pen shape;
• the Pick Ink dialog for grabbing a piece of a doodle as your ink pattern;
• and your Database and how to get your doodles onto your desktop computer.

The Title Bar

The title bar is a rectangular bar across the top of the page which contains the name of the application, in a title label in the upper left corner, and whatever the application chooses to place in the rest of the space. Doodle fills the space with six buttons, and a graffiti shift indicator at the far right.

Buttons

Buttons are rectangular areas labeled with a graphic image or a text label which respond to being touched by altering their appearance. Doodle buttons alter their appearance when touched by reversing the black and white of their images or text.

Because Doodle's buttons are crammed into the title bar, they are smaller than the size recommended by the PalmOS user interface guidelines. This can make them harder to hit than most buttons. If you're having trouble hitting them, try recalibrating the Palm digitizer in the PalmOS Prefs application and experimenting to see where exactly the title bar buttons need to be touched.

Button Press

A button press occurs when the stylus touches the screen inside a button's boundary and is released while still inside the button's boundary. This is nothing special, it's the way you usually interact with buttons. In Doodle's title bar, a button press means go forward or accept.

Button Swipe

A button swipe occurs when the stylus touches the screen inside a button's boundary, is dragged outside the button, and is released outside the button going in the same general direction.

This is not usual. Most computer buttons would consider a swipe to cancel the button touch. In order to cancel a touch to a Doodle button you need to leave the button in one direction and then change directions before you lift the pen, or to swipe in a meaningless direction. All diagonal swipes are currently meaningless to Doodle.

Doodle's title bar buttons all use swipes that go left and right. Swipes going right mean go forward or accept. Swipes going left mean go backward or cancel. Some of the buttons also use swipes that go down. Swipes going down mean open a selection dialog.

Mode Button

The mode button controls and displays the current drawing mode. Pressing the mode button or swiping the mode button right cycles through the available modes in one order. Swiping the mode button left cycles through the available modes in the reverse order.

The drawing mode determines how Doodle interprets your pen strokes, Fill, and Paste commands. Each of the four modes defines a different way of combining inked strokes, a screen full of ink, or a saved image with your current page.

- Paint Mode

Paint mode overwrites your current image with both the black and white of the current ink.

- Erase Mode

Erase mode ignores the current ink and overwrites your current image with white ink.

In Fill and Paste operations, erase mode performs an exclusive or operation.

- Add Ink Mode

Add ink mode adds the black part of the current ink to your current image. Add ink either darkens or leaves the image unchanged depending on how the ink lines up with what is already drawn.

- Subtract Ink Mode

Subtract ink mode removes the black part of the current ink from your current image. Subtract ink either lightens or leaves the image unchanged depending on how the ink lines up with what is already drawn.

Smooth Button

The smooth button controls and displays the current smoothing filter.. Pressing the smoothing button or swiping the smoothing button right cycles through the available filters in one order. Swiping the smoothing button left cycles through the available filters in the reverse order.

Smoothing filters determine how Doodle interprets the stylus coordinates arriving from PalmOS. These can be taken as they come or averaged together to generate a smoother stroke. The price of a smoother stroke is a lag in pen responsiveness.

The absolute weight of smoothing is also under control of a smoothing Preference which adjusts how many points the Smooth Filter and the Smoother Filter average together. This allows you to customize the smoothing to your taste.

- Rough Filter

The rough filter does no filtering at all.

- Smooth Filter

The smooth filter combines 2, 4, or 8 successive stylus positions depending on the setting of the smoothing Preference.

- Smoother Filter

The smoother filter combines 4, 8, or 16 successive stylus positions depending on the setting of the smoothing Preference.

Pen Button

The pen button controls and displays the current pen. Pressing the pen button or swiping the pen button right cycles through the available pens. Swiping the pen button left cycles through the available pens in the reverse order. Swiping the pen button down opens a Pick Pen dialog.

Pens determine the outline of the stroke which Doodle draws when you drag your stylus across the screen. These can be as small as 1 pixel or as large as 29, be connected or disconnected, or be filled or hollow.

- Fine Pen

- Medium Pen

- Bold Pen

- Broad Pen

- Fine Italic Pen

- Medium Italic Pen

- Broad Italic Pen

- Broad Uncial Pen

Ink Button

The ink button controls and displays the current ink. Pressing the ink button or swiping the ink button right cycles through the available inks. Swiping the ink button left cycles through the available inks in the reverse order. Swiping the ink button down opens a Pick Ink dialog.

Inks are eight by eight square patterns of black and white. When Doodle draws it replicates the ink pattern in all directions to fill the area drawn. There are 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 possible ink patterns. Doodle gives you 8 to get you started and two ways to generate new inks from old.

- White Ink

- 1/8th Black Ink

- 2/8th Black Ink

- 3/8th Black Ink

- 4/8th Black Ink

- 5/8th Black Ink

- 6/8th Black Ink

- 7/8th Black Ink

- Black Ink

Page Button

The page button controls and displays the current page number in your collection of sketches. Pressing the page button or swiping the page button right cycles through the available pages. Swiping the page button left cycles through the available pages in the reverse order. The sequence of pages is circular, so forward from the last page in the database goes to the first page in the database and backward from the first page goes to the last page.

Your sketches are organized as pages in the Doodle database. Pages are numbered from 1 to the number of pages in the database, which will depend on how much memory your Palm computer has and how much time you spend doodling. Each page consists of the bits of an uncompressed bitmap and occupies 3200 bytes of memory.

Help Button

The undecorated ? is a help button which presents the same Help dialog as the Help menu item, the Help menu shortcut H, or the plain shortcut ?. The help button doesn't implement any button swipe gestures.

Graffiti Shift

The graffiti shift indicator shows whether shift, caps lock, punctuation shift, or extended shift is active in translating graffiti strokes into characters. This is useful since many Doodle Shortcuts are punctuation characters which use the punctuation shift..

The Menus

The main Doodle menus are available through the normal PalmOS mechanisms, namely tapping on the silkscreen menu button or by tapping on the title label in the title bar[1].

The menus are provided as a quick reference for the command shortcuts. You can, of course, simply use the menus. But the flow of your doodling will be facilitated by learning the menu shortcuts for the commands you use most often.

The Page Menu

The page menu defines operations on pages. These are the most commonly used operations that aren't represented on the title bar buttons.

Clear

Clear the current page.

Clear generates an optional Alert.

Fill

Fill the current page with the current ink according to the current mode. If the current mode is Paint Mode, then the current ink replaces the current page. If the current mode is Add Ink Mode, then the black part of the current ink is added to the current page. If the current mode is Subtract Ink Mode, then the black part of the current ink is erased from the current page. If the current mode is Erase Mode, then the current ink is combined with the current image using an exclusive or operation.

Fill generates an optional Alert.

Copy

Copy the current page into the paste buffer. The paste buffer has room for exactly one screen

Paste

Paste the contents of the paste buffer onto the current page according to the current mode. Paint Mode, then the paste buffer replaces the current page. If the current mode is Add Ink Mode, then the black part of the paste buffer is added to the current page. If the current mode is Subtract Ink Mode, then the black part of the paste buffer is erased from the current page. If the current mode is Erase Mode, then the paste buffer image is combined with the current image using an exclusive or operation.

Paste generates an optional Alert.

New

Create a new page after the current page and make the new page the new current page.

Duplicate

Copy the current page into a new page after the current page and make the new page the current page.

Remove

Remove the current page from the database.

Remove generates an optional Alert.

Title On/Off

If the title bar is showing, then hide it. If the title bar is hidden, then show it.

Title On/Off generates an optional Alert.

Beam

Beam the current page to another Palm computer.

The Mode Menu

The mode menu gives direct access to the drawing modes controlled by the Mode Button and to the smoothing filters controlled by the Smooth Button.

- Paint

- Erase

- Add Ink

- Subtract Ink

- Rough

- Smooth

- Smoother

The Pen Menu

The first eight entries in the pen menu give direct access to the eight pens which the Pen Button cycles through. The last entry opens a Pick Pen dialog.

- Fine

- Medium

- Bold

- Broad

- F. Italic

- M. Italic

- B. Italic

- B. Uncial

Pick

Pick opens a Pick Pen dialog where you can grab a region of doodle to use as your pen shape.

The Ink Menu

The first eight entries in the ink menu give direct access to the eight basic inks which the Ink Button cycles through. The next two entries are ink operators which change the current ink. The last entry opens a Pick Ink dialog.

- White

- 1/8th

- 2/8th

- 3/8th

- 4/8th

- 5/8th

- 6/8th

- 7/8th

- Black

Shuffle

The Shuffle operator creates a new ink from the current ink by using the current ink pattern as a seed for a random number generator and then shuffling the location of the set bits in the ink pattern.

This procedure always produces the same result given the same starting point. So starting from a basic ink and shuffling a certain number of times will always return to the same ink pattern.

Shift

The Shift operator creates a new ink from the current ink by shifting the current ink one pixel up, down, left, or right according to a predetermined sequence. The position in the sequence is remembered so that a subsequent shift takes the next direction in the sequence.

This procedure always produces the same result given the same starting point. So starting from a basic ink and shifting a certain number of times will always generate the same ink pattern.

Pick

Pick opens a Pick Ink dialog where you can grab a region of doodle to use as your ink pattern.

The Opt Menu

The opt menu provides access to commands which would normally be found in an options menu, but there isn't enough room left on the menu bar for "Options".

Preferences

Open the Preferences dialog.

Help

Open the Help dialog.

About

Open the About dialog.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts allow you to control Doodle by simply writing characters in the graffiti input area. This allows you to dispense with the title bar and with the menus and concentrate on drawing. Most of the shortcuts can be entered with or without the graffiti command shift. But four of them, the first four in the table, must be entered with no command shift.

Other Shortcuts
	space	Next Page
	backspace	Previous Page
	newline	New Page
	?	Help Dialog
Mode Shortcuts
	P	Paint Mode
	E	Erase Mode
	+	Add Ink Mode
	-	Subtract Ink Mode
Smooth Shortcuts
	<	Rough Filter
	=	Smooth Filter
	>	Smoother Filter
Pen Shortcuts
	.	Fine Pen
	~	Medium Pen
	#	Bold Pen
	@	Broad Pen
	,	Fine Italic Pen
	/	Medium Italic Pen
	;	Broad Italic Pen
	_	Broad Uncial Pen
	*	Pick Pen
Ink Shortcuts
	0	White Ink
	1	1/8th Black Ink
	2	2/8th Black Ink
	3	3/8th Black Ink
	4	4/8th Black Ink
	5	5/8th Black Ink
	6	6/8th Black Ink
	7	7/8th Black Ink
	8	Black Ink
	9	Shuffle Ink
	$	Shift Ink
	&	Pick Ink
Page Shortcuts
	C	Clear Page
	F	Fill Page
	W	Copy Page
	Y	Paste Page
	N	New Page
	D	Duplicate Page
	R	Remove Page
	T	Title On/Off
	B	Beam Page
Opt Shortcuts
	S	Preferences Dialog
	H	Help Dialog
	A	About Dialog

Alerts

Doodle presents several alerts. Each alert can be turned on or off in the Preferences dialog or turned off when it is displayed.

Destructive Alerts

Destructive operation alerts inform you that the operation you've selected will permanently destroy the current image. These are triggered by Clear, Fill, Paste, and Remove commands.

These alerts will give you three options: the name of the operation, which means go ahead and perform the operation; Stop Asking, which means go ahead and perform the operation, and, furthermore, stop confirming this particular operation; and Cancel, which means cancel the operation. Destructive operation alerts can be turned on or off in the Preferences dialog.

Title Alert

The title alert is presented when turning off the title bar, to let you know that it's going away, to let you keep it if you weren't trying to turn it off, and to offer some clues (in the alert info) about how to get it back. This alert will give you three options: Title Off, which means turn off the title; Stop Asking, which means turn off the title and stop confirming; and Cancel, which means keep the title bar. The title alert can be turned on and off in Preferences.

Preferences

The preferences dialog allows you to customize Doodle in a few ways. The customizations take effect when you exit the dialog by tapping the OK button. The settings are ignored if you exit the dialog by tapping the Cancel button.

Title bar on startup

If this box is checked, then Doodle will always start with the title bar showing, even if you had the title bar off when you last used Doodle. This avoids bringing up Doodle with a blank screen and thinking that your Palm has died.

Confirm title bar off

If this box is checked, then Doodle will present an Alert to confirm that you meant to turn the title bar off. This is to prevent new users from accidentally losing the title bar interface.

Confirm clear

If this box is checked, then Doodle will present an Alert to confirm that you meant to erase the current page.

Confirm fill

If this box is checked, then Doodle will present an Alert to confirm that you meant to fill the current page.

Confirm paste

If this box is checked, then Doodle will present an Alert to confirm that you meant to paste a copied image over the current page.

Confirm remove

If this box is checked, then Doodle will present an Alert to confirm that you meant to delete the current page.

Aligned ink picking

If this box is checked, then Doodle will always pick inks on 8 pixel boundaries. This ensures that picked inks are in phase with their painted images. Using out of phase inks can be entertaining, but it's very hard to pick an aligned ink without this constraint.

A similar preference might be implemented for pen picks, but, in practice, the hand and eye adapt to the pen's alignment quite readily.

Remember pick pages

If this box is checked, then Doodle will remember the pages where pen and ink picks are performed and return to them on the next pick operation. Otherwise the pick operations start on the current page. This allows you to make tool and palette pages and rapidly switch between them and the doodle you're working on.

Smoothing light/medium/heavy

This control applies some coarse tuning to the smoothing filters. Medium smoothing doubles the effect of light smoothing, and heavy smoothing doubles the effect of medium smoothing. The rough filter is always unsmoothed.

Help

There are help windows available for the main draw form and the pick forms. They are accessible through the menus or through the H shortcut.

Many of the other alert forms also have help dialogs associated with them. This is indicated by an 'i' in a circle at the right end of the alert's title bar. Click on the 'i' to bring up the help form.

About

The about alert states the copyright of Doodle and the license terms for Doodle. More details of the terms and conditions are available by tapping on the circled 'i' in the upper right corner of the about alert title bar.

Doodle 0.8 is copyright © 1997, 2002 Roger E Critchlow Jr.

Portions of Doodle are copyright © 2001, 2002 Peter Putzer, and copyright © 1999, 2000 Mitch Blevins.

Doodle is free software, licensed under the Gnu GPL which grants you certain rights but provides ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Pick Dialogs

Doodle has two Pick Dialogs for selecting custom pens and inks. These dialogs share a common Pick Menu and a set of common Shortcuts.

Pick Menu

The shared pick menu implements three actions.

Accept

Accept terminates the pick dialog and makes the current selection the new pen or ink. If the Preferences specify that pick pages should be remembered then the current page becomes the remembered pen or ink picking page. Doodle then returns to the page you were working on when the pick was initiated.

Cancel

Cancel terminates the pick dialog and restores the pen or ink to the value it had when the pick was initiated. Doodle then returns to the page you were working on when the pick was initiated.

Help

Help explains the conventions of the pick dialog you have selected.

Pick Shortcuts

As in the main drawing form, the Other Shortcuts must be entered without the command shift, but the Pick Shortcuts may be entered with or without the command shift.

Other Shortcuts
	space	Next Page
	backspace	Previous Page
	?	Help Dialog
Pick Shortcuts
	A	Accept Pick
	C	Cancel Pick
	H	Help Dialog

Pick Pen

The pick pen dialog allows you to select a custom pen from an image. The dialog has a title bar with the title "Pick A Pen", a pen button, a page button, a help button, and a graffiti shift indicator. A simple menu is installed with actions and shortcuts to accept or cancel the selection or to bring up a help dialog.

During the pick pen dialog when you drag your stylus across the image, a rectangle will be highlighted, and the selected pen image will appear in the pen button.

To accept the selected pen, tap on the pen button, swipe right from the pen button, select the Accept menu item, or write an A in the Graffiti input area. To cancel the pen selection, swipe left from the pen button, select the Cancel menu item, or write a C in the Graffiti input area.

The page button works exactly as the page button on the main title bar. You can navigate to any page in your database to select a new pen. When you accept or cancel you will return to the page you were working on. If you accept and the remember pick page Preference is set, the page you picked your pen from will be remembered as your "pen tool page" and the next time you do a pen pick you will be taken to that page.

Pick Ink

The pick ink dialog allows you to select a custom ink from an image. The dialog has a title bar with the title "Pick An Ink", an ink button, a page button, a help button, and a graffiti shift indicator. A simple menu is installed with actions and shortcuts to accept or cancel the selection or to bring up a help dialog.

During the pick ink dialog when you drag your stylus across the image, a square will be highlighted, and the selected ink pattern will appear in the ink button. The selected square may be aligned with the ink patterns in the image or it may be free to take on any alignment, depending on your pick aligned inks Preference setting.

To accept the selected ink, tap on the ink button, swipe right from the ink button, select the Accept menu item, or write an A in the graffiti input area. To cancel the ink selection, swipe left from the ink button, select the Cancel menu item, or write a C in the graffiti input area.

The page button works exactly as the page button on the main title bar. You can navigate to any page in your database to select a new ink pattern. When you accept or cancel you will return to the page you were working on. If you accept and the remember pick page Preference is set, the page you picked your ink from will be remembered as your "ink palette page" and the next time you do an ink pick you will be taken to that page.

Database

The Doodle database is named DoodleDB.[2]. A file named DoodleDB.pdb should appear in your Palm Desktop Backup folder on the first hotsync after you install and run Doodle. If you modify your Doodle database on your Palm computer, the DoodleDB.pdb in your Palm Desktop Backup folder will be backed up from the Palm copy on the next HotSync.

Where exactly the file ends up depends on how your Desktop is installed and which operating system its installed on. Usually you can simply search your disk for a file named 'DoodleDB.pdb' and have the operating system track it down for you.

Unix users can compile the doodle-db.c source provided in the Doodle source distribution. doodle-db can expand DoodleDB.pdb into a collection of .pbm files, or concatenate a collection of .pbm files into a DoodleDB.pdb. doodle-db requires two packages to compile, netpbm and pilot-link, which are widely available.

Windows users may download doo2pcx from Kees Moerman's Doo2pcx Page. doo2pcx can expand DoodleDB.pdb into a collection of .pcx files, or concatenate a collection of .pcx files into a DoodleDB.pdb.

Apple users may download DoodleReader.py, a Python script, which is supposed to do much the same thing as doodle-db or doo2pcx, but I don't know how it works, as I've never been in a position to try it out.

Notes

[1] - Early releases of PalmOS did not support tapping the title label to open menus, but there is a HackMaster hack called MenuHack which can enable this gesture on even the original PalmPilot.

[2] - The Palm creator type of DoodleDB is 'rcDO'. This is important only if you're trying to find Doodle's databases in another program.