TUTORIAL.TXT ·
TXT ·
37.7 KB ·
1988-01-20 ·
from WhatMicro_BrainStorm-2.0_Mar-1988
BRAINSTORM TUTORIAL
by David Tebbutt
BRAINSTORM PROGRAM
by David Tebbutt and Mike Liardet
POP-UP BRAINSTORM
by David Tebbutt, Mike Liardet and Adrian Evans
BrainStorm Software Ltd
18 Courtlands Close
Ruislip
Middlesex
HA4 8AX
January 1988
Sampler versions
1
You may copy and share this document and the Sampler versions of
BrainStorm and Pop-Up BrainStorm without permission from BrainStorm
Software Ltd. You may not, however, alter the products in any way.
Nor may you sell the products without the express written permission
of BrainStorm Software Limited. These conditions must be imposed on
all recipients of copies of the products.
Copyright (c) BrainStorm Software Ltd 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987,
1988. All rights reserved.
BrainStorm is the registered trademark of BrainStorm Software Ltd
2
CONTENTS Page
1. Introduction 4
2. What is BrainStorm? 5
3. A worked example 7
i The screen displays 8
ii Entering the Title 11
iii Making and editing entries 12
iv Deleting entries 16
v Searching for text 17
vi Jumping around your model 19
vii Marking and moving entries 20
viii Saving, writing, printing and loading 22
4. Ordering the full version of BrainStorm 26
3
Chapter 1 - Introduction
BrainStorm allows you to take full advantage of the computer's ability
to order and manipulate information. It automatically makes
associations between random thoughts entered into the computer and
helps you arrange them as a sort of three-dimensional model.
BrainStorm keeps your ideas in context thus making them easy to find
and comfortable to browse through. BrainStorm's blindingly fast
speed, combined with its ease of use, ensure that it will never
intrude on your thought processes.
The best way to understand the program's capabilites and potential is
to sit down and start using it. Chapter 3 contains a worked example
which runs through the different keys and operations possible. It
will take you half an hour or so, and will give you a taste for how
BrainStorm might meet your own needs.
Buyers of the full version of BrainStorm receive a printed manual
which continues with much more detail on the individual commands. It
contains the following sections:
Chapter 4 - BrainStorm Reference.
Appendix A - Command aide-memoire
Appendix B - Customising BrainStorm
Index
4
Chapter 2 - What is BrainStorm?
BrainStorm is a program which lets you enter your thoughts into your
computer as they occur to you. You can do this in either a structured
or unstructured way or, indeed, combine the two methods. Once inside
the computer, BrainStorm lets you structure this information in a fast
and effortless way.
If you think of a favourite garden, the focus of your thinking may move
from 'garden' down to 'flower beds', 'grass', 'trees' and 'furniture'.
If you then pick 'trees' as your next focal point you may move deeper
into your thoughts to find an 'oak', a 'cherry' and an 'apple' tree.
If you then focus on the apple tree, you may think of it 'in blossom',
or 'bearing fruit'. If you jump back to 'grass', you may associate it
with 'green' and 'short', for example. Our left brains - the
analytical, verbal, mathematical side - appears to be a mass of
similar associations and these associative paths enable us to move
around our minds at lightning speed.
BrainStorm constructs a similar model of the information you present
to it. You can enter a BrainStorm model at any point - by searching
for 'garden', say, or you can follow the paths 'up' and 'down' the
model, moving from 'garden' to 'tree' to 'apple' to 'blossom', for
example. If 'blossom' had been mentioned elsewhere in the model, you
would be informed by BrainStorm that it already knows something about
'blossom'.
Some people find hand-drawn 'mind-maps' of great help when planning.
Taking the garden example above, the mind-map might look like this:
Garden -+- flower beds
|
+- grass -+- green
| |
| +- short
|
+- trees -+- oak
| |
| +- cherry - blossom
| | |
| +- apple -- blossom -+- petals
| |
+- furniture +- stamen
|
+- pistil
BrainStorm's internal view of the model is very much like the above
diagram. It regards 'garden' as its overall title for the model.
This title has a list attached: 'flower beds', 'grass', 'trees' and
'furniture'. Each item on that list can have its own list, and so on.
Whenever a duplicate appears, like 'blossom', BrainStorm simply
creates an invisible link so that all the 'blossom' entries appear to
contain the same 'petals', 'stamen' and 'pistil' list.
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To make life easy for the user, BrainStorm simply displays a heading
followed by as much of a list as will fit on the screen. Behind the
scenes, a list can be as long as you like. Entries can be 'promoted'
to headings and and headings 'demoted' to become normal entries. Only
the overall title cannot be promoted or demoted. The top part of a
BrainStorm screen might look something like this:
+--------------------------------------------------+
|1 = blossom | <--- heading
+--------------------------------------------------+
| - petals |
| - stamen | <--- normal
| - pistil | entries
| . |
| |
If we demoted 'blossom' into the body of the screen, the heading would
become either 'apple' or 'cherry', depending which route we had taken
to reach 'blossom' in the first place. Once in the body, we could
take advantage of the fact that BrainStorm knows about '1' duplicate
of 'blossom' by following the link to the other occurrence. More on
this later.
Of course, our thoughts are generally about more substantial things
than gardens, but the same principles apply. BrainStorm can be used
for many different applications. It can be used for planning
meetings, projects, reports and talks or for gathering strands of
information when studying or researching. In the computer industry,
it may be used as a valuable tool in systems analysis, design and
programming.
But BrainStorm is more than these things - it helps individuals and
work groups squeeze the best possible results from their efforts. A
BrainStorm printout will show up gaps and weaknesses in a thought
model which can then be plugged by further research or thinking.
Teams can produce individual models and blend them together using
BrainStorm's powerful Merge facility. This builds a single model,
uniting the team members' thoughts under their common headings.
Imagine that - despite being separated by time or distance, team
members can still work together effectively.
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A BrainStorm printout can take many forms, but a typical one might look
like this:
Garden
flower beds
grass
green
short
trees
oak
cherry
blossom
petals
stamen
pistil
apple
blossom
petals
stamen
pistil
furniture
BrainStorm's simple commands allow you to move single or connected
groups of thoughts from one part of the model to another, where the
context may be more appropriate. As we saw earlier, BrainStorm even
notices when you duplicate an existing entry and warns you, just in
case it wasn't deliberate. You can print your BrainStorm models or
you can write them to disk in the ASCII form acceptable to most word
processors.
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Chapter 3 - A Worked Example
BrainStorm is a powerful program, with a wide range of applications.
As an introduction, it is a good idea to run through this worked
example, which illustrates in a practical way all of the major
functions of the program. When you have finished the example, you
will understand the potential use of BrainStorm, and feel confident
enough to start using it to structure your own thoughts and ideas.
To get going, make sure that you have space on a disk where you can
store your data files. The print format in this sampler is
preconfigured to fit an 80 character by 66 line page.
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3.i The screen displays
Ensure you are in the directory containing the BrainStorm program,
then:
Type 'Brain' [Enter] (Only type the characters within the
or 'Popup' [Enter] quotes, followed by the [Enter] key.)
(If you have loaded Pop-up BrainStorm, you will then need to press
[Alt] and [Left Shift] together, to make it pop up.)
The welcome screen will appear. When you have read it:
Press [Enter] (Single key depressions are in square
brackets)
You will now see the Master Menu:
==============================================================
BrainStorm Master Menu
U se L oad I d Drive P rint
C lear S ave W rite D irectory
M erge K ill
(Use option D to see disk directory)
Press the first letter of your choice or [Esc] to exit
Drive: C Model name: Status: EMPTY
==============================================================
The examples in this manual are taken from regular BrainStorm. Pop-Up
BrainStorm users will notice that their Master Menu refers to 'popping
down' instead of 'exit'. Later on they will notice a curious up/down
arrow symbol displayed in the corner of the screen. This is a
reminder that they're in a program which pops up and down. In all
material respects the two versions of BrainStorm are identical.
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The disk drive letter (Drive: C) at the foot of your screen may be
different. Please change it to the drive on which you want your work
to be stored. For example, if you have a blank disk in drive B:
Press [I] for Id. Drive
Press [B] to say you want to use drive B
Now, to go into BrainStorm proper:
Press [U]
The following screen will appear:
==============================================================
- Title
==============================================================
>.
==============================================================
Enter text at > or press command key (? for more information)
Line 1 of 1 Level 1 Mem left 4KB
==============================================================
You will notice that the screen is divided into three main areas. At
the top is the heading window. This is where you initially enter the
Title for your model, and also where the current heading will be
displayed once you have started to build your model. Below this is
the main display area where you make all your entries, and do any
editing. (Incidentally, the 'Memory left' figure in regular
BrainStorm is 60KB.)
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At the bottom of the screen is the status and command prompt window.
To switch backwards and forwards between status and key prompts:
Press [?] repeatedly
The command prompt window looks like this:
=============================================================================
Up [ ] Up10 [PgUp] Top of list [^PgUp] Promote [Home] Title page [^Home]
Dn [ ] Dn10 [PgDn] End of list [^PgDn] Demote [End] ^Jump to @ & switch
^Get ^Put Amend line [Tab] ^Title change Erase line [Delete]
^List Exit [Esc] Prev/Next NS [<-->] Mark line [@] ^Search for pattern
=============================================================================
The keys to press are either in square brackets, like [Home], or they
are the initial letter of the command like Get. The caret symbol [^]
preceding a key means that the [Ctrl] key has to be held down while
the command key is pressed. The command [^PgUp] means hold down
[Ctrl] while pressing [PgUp]. You will notice that the 'Up' and 'Dn'
commands have empty key boxes in the above illustration, this is
because the up and down arrow symbols may play havoc with your
printer. The [<-->] keyname against 'Prev/Next NS' signifies left and
right arrow keys.
Some of these commands won't mean much to you yet so:
Press [?] to remove them from view.
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3.ii Entering the Title
You will notice at the top of the screen the heading line contains
the word 'Title'. This serves as a default title in case nothing is entered
here. To enter a title for your model:
Press [^T] (That's [Ctrl] and [T] together)
The edit cursor moves to the Title line and the status and command
prompt window changes to show you the editing commands. The status
and command prompt window looks like this:
=============================================================================
Title: Amend text of title
Finish [Enter] Abandon [Esc] Tab [Tab] <- -> [Backspace] [Delete]
Line 1 of 1 Level 1 Mem left 60KB
=============================================================================
The Title entry is unique in BrainStorm. It acts as an 'anchor point'
for your model and you may only edit it. It can't be moved or
deleted.
We may as well stick with our garden model mentioned earlier, so:
Hold down [Del] To get rid of the word 'Title'
Type 'Garden' (Only the letters inside the quotes
please)
Press [Enter]
The word 'Garden' is now the overall model Title. The line cursor
moves back to the first line of the main display area ready for more
entries.
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3.iii Making and editing entries
Normally, you will make an entry simply by typing it, so:
Type 'flower beds' then press [Enter]
Occasionally, though, you might make a mistake or change your mind
about what you've typed. Simply move the line cursor (using the up
and down arrow keys) to the line you want to change, then press [Tab].
(But, if you want to change the main Title, press [^T].) The edit
cursor appears on the first character of the entry. You can then use
the following keys to make changes:
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BrainStorm editing keys |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| <- and -> (arrow keys) move the edit cursor left and right |
| |
| [Tab] moves the cursor right one word or eight spaces at a time |
| |
| [Backspace] deletes the character to the left of the cursor |
| |
| [Delete] deletes the character under the cursor |
| |
| [Enter] completes the entry and retains the changes |
| |
| [Escape] abandons the entry leaving the original text intact |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
This list appears in abbreviated form in the status and command prompt
window, whenever you edit an entry.
To continue with the example:
Make sure the line cursor is on the line below 'flower beds'
Type 'grass' then press [Enter]
From now on [Enter] will appear on this text without the words 'then
press'.
Type 'trees' [Enter]
Type 'furniture' [Enter]
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You already know that the up and down arrows move the line cursor.
Here is a summary of the six keys which move the line cursor:
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BrainStorm line cursor keys |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| To move up To move down |
| |
| Up arrow Down arrow One line at a time |
| |
| Page Up Page Dn Ten lines at a time |
| |
| ^Page Up ^Page Dn To the top or end of the list |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
A line number in the help/status window shows you where you are in the
current list. If the line cursor is in the middle of a list when you
start typing, the new entry will be inserted above the current entry.
If you do this by accident, simply press [Esc] and the new entry will
be abandoned. To put in more details about grass:
Move the line cursor to the 'grass' entry, then
Press [Home]
You will see that 'grass' is now the heading of a new, empty, list.
In BrainStorm terms, it has been 'promoted' to the top of the screen.
Now put in the information about grass:
Type 'green' [Enter]
Type 'short' [Enter]
That completes the grass details, so to return to the list of which
'grass' was part, you need to 'demote' the heading:
Press [End]
'grass' is now back in the body of the screen and you will notice it
has an equals (=) sign to its left in place of the hyphen (-). This
means that BrainStorm has further information which can be reached by
'promoting' the entry (using [Home]).
It's worth reminding you that you can take a different approach to
BrainStorm - you can throw your thoughts into a single list, then
structure it later on. We'll stay with this example for the tutorial
though.
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Now we need to give more details about trees, so:
Move the line cursor to 'trees'
Press [Home] to promote 'trees' to the heading
Type 'oak' [Enter]
Type 'cherry' [Enter]
You might want to expand on cherry, so:
Move the line cursor back to 'cherry'
Press [Home]
Type 'blossom' [Enter]
Now, you can put in more details about blossom, so:
Move the line cursor to 'blossom'
Press [Home]
Type 'petals' [Enter]
Type 'stamen' [Enter]
Type 'pistil' [Enter]
That's all the blossom details so, to get back to the tree list:
Press [End] to demote blossom
Press [End] again, to demote cherry
To put in the last tree:
Move the line cursor to the end of the list
Type 'apple' [Enter]
Now promote it:
Move the line cursor to 'apple'
Press [Home]
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Now, to create a duplicate entry, or 'namesake':
Type 'blossom' [Enter]
BrainStorm tells you it already knows about 'blossom' by displaying a
number '1' to the left of your entry. If there were more occurrences
of 'blossom' that number would be higher. The equals sign means that
the information you entered earlier about 'blossom', is now available
to this occurrence of 'blossom' too. To check this out:
Move the line cursor to 'blossom'
Press [Home] to promote it
The contents are those you entered earlier. Any entry with a number
to its left is called a 'namesake'. It is a duplicate of another
entry and both share the same attributes. You can move between
identical namesakes by using the left and right arrow keys when the
line cursor is against the entry:
Press [End] to demote 'blossom'
Press either the left or the right arrow key
You'll notice the heading has changed to 'cherry'. Press again and it
returns to 'apple'. This is one of the quick ways to get around a
BrainStorm model.
You've now built the model described earlier. There's more to
BrainStorm of course. You'll want to search for information, save
models to disk, print out your models, merge BrainStorm and text files
with the current model and generally mess around with BrainStorm's
structure. All this, and more, follows:
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3.iv Deleting entries
When you want to delete an entry, move the line cursor to it then press
[Del]. You will be asked to confirm that you want to do this. This
is because you not only delete the item, you delete all its
descendants as well. The only exception to this is a namesake. Press
[Y] or [y] to confirm. Once you've confirmed the action, there's no
going back. Press any other key to abandon the deletion.
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3.v. Searching for text
If you know you have an entry in the model somewhere but can't find
it, use the Search command. This allows you to locate entries which
contain a particular pattern of characters, or string. The case of
the letters is ignored and your search argument can be up to the
length of an entry line.
Using the 'garden' example:
Press [^S] for Search. (BrainStorm uses easy to
remember keys wherever possible.)
A line appears at the foot of the screen, into which you type the
sequence of characters you are looking for. In the garden example, we
may as well type the entire entry:
Type 'grass' [Enter]
The grass entry appears in the heading and its details are shown in
the body of the screen. BrainStorm invites you to confirm that this
is the entry you're looking for.
Press [y] to confirm that it is
Now try this one:
Press [^S]
Type *ee* [Enter] the asterisks match anything preceding
and following 'ee'.
The first entry to appear in the heading will be 'green'.
Press [Enter]
The next one to appear will be 'trees', with the three trees listed as
you typed them in earlier.
Press [Esc] [Esc] to abandon the search and to return to
where you were.
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The Search command will find text at the beginning, the end and in the
middle of an entry. It also allows you to be vague about the precise
characters through use of the question mark (?) as a 'wild card'. An
asterisk matches any number of characters and is useful at the
beginning, the end or both ends of the search argument. The question
mark can be used as a substitute for single characters.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Examples of Search arguments |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| argument would find: |
| |
| tre?s trees, tress, treks etc. |
| *es trees, ages, forgives etc . |
| *es* trees, ages, forgives, tress, stress etc. |
| es* escargot, esplanade, esoteric etc |
| ?re?s trees, tress, treks, press, wrens etc |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
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3.vi Jumping around your model
If you are working on part of a model but want to look at another
part, you can mark your present position and jump back to it whenever
you like. Not only that, but when you do jump back, the 'mark'
travels back along the direction of the jump to end up at the place
you just came from. In this way, you can 'toggle' between two parts
of the model.
Press [End] The line cursor should now be at
'grass'
Press [@] This marks the entry with an '@'
Now move the line cursor to 'furniture' and watch what happens when
you:
Press [^J] for Jump
Do it again and you will find yourself switching from your old to your
new focal point. This can be in the present list or anywhere else in
the model (except the model Title). For example:
Move to 'trees'
Press [Home]
Move to 'Apple'
Press [Home]
Now press [^J]
Press [^J] again
Although you can't always see it happening, the '@' mark moves
backwards and forwards too.
One other useful command gets you all the way back to the top of the
model (to the first entry under the Title):
Press [^Home] (Repeated pressings of [End], followed
by [^PgUp] would have the same effect,
but it isn't such an instinctive
choice, nor is it so easy.)
So now, with the Search command and [^Home], you'll never remain lost
for long in your BrainStorm model.
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3.vii. Marking and moving entries
One of the most powerful aspects of BrainStorm is the way in which the
model can be massaged until its structure accurately reflects your
thinking. You can detach entries from one part of the model and
attach them elsewhere, carrying all their details or 'descendants'
with them:
Move to 'cherry'
Press [@] BrainStorm moves the mark to the
current location
Move to 'furniture'
Press [Home] to promote 'furniture'
Press [^G] this 'Gets' the marked entry and, if
you don't take your finger off the key
quickly, the entries following the '@'
mark too. As you have probably
gathered, the '@' mark moves down to
the following entry as each is moved.
Move to 'cherry'
Press [Home] and you can see the descendants of
'cherry' ('blossom' and its
descendants) are still attached.
21
The converse of 'Get' is 'Put'. You may find this a better command to
use because you stay at the screen from which entries are being moved.
This gives you more control over the process:
Move to 'flower beds'
Press [Home] to promote the entry
Press [@] to mark the first (empty) line under
'flower beds'
Press [^S] Search
Type 'Blo*' [Enter] to look for 'blossom'
Press [y] to confirm
Press [^P] [^P] [^P] BrainStorm puts each of the three
entries under 'blossom' to the '@' mark
which is under 'flower beds'.
Now go to 'flower beds' and you will find that this contains the
details of 'blossom' - 'petals', 'pistil' and 'stamen'. Find both
occurrences of 'blossom'. They're under 'apple' and 'cherry' but,
having found one, you can reach the other using the left or right
arrow key to find its namesake. You will find that the details of
blossom have been removed.
Get and Put can't damage the BrainStorm model, they only rearrange it.
If you try and do something daft like moving a heading into the body
of its own list, BrainStorm will tell you so and prevent you doing it.
If you're feeling madly adventurous, why not put the model back the
way it was - 'cherry' under 'trees' and the 'blossom' details back
where they belong. (You'll need to use Get, Put and '@' mark.)
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3.viii Saving, writing and printing models
You will almost certainly want to save your models to disk, so that
you can add to them or refer to them again later. All the commands
that deal with the outside world of disks and printers are found in
the Master Menu:
Press [Esc] To return to the Master Menu
Here's a reminder of what the screen looks like:
==============================================================
BrainStorm Master Menu
U se L oad I d Drive P rint
C lear S ave W rite D irectory
M erge K ill
(Use option D to see disk directory)
Press the first letter of your choice or [Esc] to exit
Drive: C Model name: Status: EMPTY
==============================================================
Make sure you have a formatted disk in the drive displayed in the
status area. If you haven't then you may need to change the disk
drive setting:
Press [I] for drive I.D.
Press [Drive letter] usually [C] for a hard disk, [A] or [B]
for a floppy.
To save the model in the BrainStorm format:
Press [S] for Save
23
BrainStorm will ask for details of the section you wish to save:
Press [Enter] this signifies 'the whole model' and is
your most common response.
Type 'garden' [Enter] this is the name for your model. It
will be saved on disk as 'GARDEN.BRN'.
Press [y] to confirm that you want to save the
model using this name. If a file of
the same name already exists, this will
be renamed to 'GARDEN.BAK'.
Your model will now be saved. It is worthwhile to break away from
BrainStorm work from time to time, to save your model. Certainly do
this whenever you feel it would be difficult to reconstruct the model
you're working on, should the power fail, for example.
Once BrainStorm has been given a name to save to, it automatically
presents it as an option in the Save command. This means the Save
sequence is then: [Esc] [S] [Enter] [Enter] [y], followed by [U] to
return to your work.
Once you have finished working on a model, you may wish to produce a
printed copy of it:
Press [P] for Print
BrainStorm will ask you what parts of the model you would like
printed:
Press [Enter] for the whole model
It will now ask for the layout of the printed page:
Press [Enter] for the default layout
Make sure your printer is switched on and on-line, then:
Press [y] to confirm that BrainStorm should go
ahead
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The printout will look something like this (depending on how you
rearranged it with Get and Put):
Garden
flower beds
grass
green
short
trees
oak
cherry
blossom
petals
stamen
pistil
apple
blossom
petals
stamen
pistil
furniture
When you want to leave BrainStorm altogether, press [Esc] from the
Master Menu.
If, during another BrainStorm session, you want to use the model you
just saved:
Go to the Master Menu
Press [L] for 'Load'
Type 'Garden' [Enter] - your model name
Type 'brn' [Enter] - the suffix for a BrainStorm model
Press [y] to confirm
The model will be loaded and you may see it by pressing [U], for 'Use'.
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Other facilities available but which haven't been covered in this
sampler are:
Print to disk' using the Write command
Merge an ASCII file or BrainStorm model with the current one
Clear the current model from memory
Display the current disk directory
Delete (or Kill) a file from the current directory
Print the current list and its heading (using [^L])
These topics are covered fully in the retail copy of BrainStorm and
Pop-Up BrainStorm.
26
4. Ordering the full version of BrainStorm
Thank you for taking the trouble to learn about BrainStorm. We hope
you enjoyed it and can see the potential it offers.
We also hope you will join the thousands of people who have bought
BrainStorm during the past few years and benefit as they have done.
BrainStorm costs #49.95 including VAT and is available both from the
authors and from some computer stores.
If you buy direct, please add #3.00 for post and packing and send your
cheque for #52.95 to:
BrainStorm Software Ltd
18 Courtlands Close
Ruislip
Middlesex
HA4 8AX
BrainStorm (including Pop-Up BrainStorm) is available for IBM PC's and
compatibles. Regular BrainStorm is available for other MSDOS and
selected CP/M machines. Please give us details of your machine with
your order. You will be given a support telephone number with your
full version of BrainStorm.
We look forward to hearing from you.
David Tebbutt and Mike Liardet.
27