If you follow the instructions carefully you won't get
lost. You may always use Jump Origin (select Jump Origin
from the Jump Menu) to get back here.
This tutorial illustrates some of the more important
features of Thinker. For instance the word "statement" is
defined elsewhere in this document. To see the definition
of "statement" simply put the cursor over the word
statement (statement) and double
click the mouse button. Select "New Window" from the
dialog that pops up. The definition of "statement"
appears in a new window. Close the new window by
selecting the window close box in the upper left corner.
Now we will move this window to
the definition of "return". After doing this we will want
to return to this statement to read more instructions in
the tutorial. Jump Return is used to return to previous
places in the document. The instructions for Jump Return
are found in the definition of "return". Place the
pointer over the word "return"
(return) and double click the mouse
button. Select "This Window" from the confirmation
requester.
We have now Jumped to labels
within this document and returned. Jump to the definition
of "link" (link) and see more
information about links, labels. Try finding the
definitions of other terms by positioning the cursor over
the word and double clicking the mouse button. You should
be able to get back here using Jump return. To go on to
read sections on manipulating the structure, use the
scrol bar.
The following sections (insert, delete, move, copy)
deal with manipulating Thinker documents. These sections
are very short and are present to give the reader a place
to practice simple Thinker commands.
Inserting new statements.
Select the Insert tool (at the
top of the window) and point the finger at this
statement. Press the mouse button and select "After".
A statement is added at the same level as this one.
Type some stuff into the new statement (like "(new) A
new statement"). By beginning the new statment with
"(new)" you will add the label "new" to the document.
You can jump to this new label in the same fashion
that you jumped to labels in the previous examples.
The Reorg menu has command for inserting statements
relative to the statement which contains the cursor.
These commands have command key equivalents.
Insert is often used to add statements subordinate
to the one pointed to. Select "Down" form the insert
confirmation dialog and see what happens. What happens
when you select "up"?
Deleting statements.
Select the Delete tool. When the Delete Dialog comes
up, select the "Branch" option. Select the "Mark"
option. Point the finger at the statement you inserted
and select it with the mouse button. Confirm the
delete.
Use "insert" to add a statement below this one.
Then use "delete" to delete it. Add several statements
and delete some of them with "delete group" rather
than "delete branch". Add statements at several levels
and delete the high level statement. Notice that a
branch with subordinate statements is treated as a
single entity.
Moving statements
Select the Move tool at the top of the window. Select
the "Branch" option. Select the "Mark" option. Point
the finger at the statement that begins "(move) Moving
statements" and select the statement by pressing the
mouse button. Select the "Mark" option for the target.
Point the finger at the statement that begins "(copy)
Copying statements". Select the target by pressing the
mouse button. Select the "After" option.
Select "Revert" from the File Menu and confirm the
operation. Repeat the above instructions but select
"Down" at the confirmation. NOTE you will have to Jump
Link "move" to return to the move instructions as the
Delete Modifications operation loses the anchor
position.
Copying statements.
Repeat the "Move" instructions but start with the Copy
tool.
You are now ready to experiment with Thinker with some
confidence. Take the time to become familiar with all the
options before creating your first Thinker document.
Build your first Thinker document as an outline. Use
Insert "After" and Insert "Down" to build an outline
structure. Then go back and fill in your ideas in detail.
If you find that you want to re-organize your thoughts,
use Move "Branch" or Move "Group" to shuffle the document
around.
Statements may be pictures that are pasted in from
other applications such as MacDraw. Pictures must be
pasted into empty statments (no text) and are selected by
single clicking over the picture. Picture statements are
manipulated just like other statements except that they
cannot be edited. Cut and Paste a picture into its native
application for editing. See
(pictures) for some examples.
Option settings are not automatically saved with the
file. The Save Options menu item in the File menu must be
selected to save options. Also Options are not reset
every time that one jumps to a new file. To set the
options from a new file, select the Get Options menu item
in the File menu while displaying the new file. The
Options associated with a file are loaded with the file
icon is clicked on.
Selection from the Duplicate Label or the Jump Return
dialogs does not currently require a double click.
Selecting any item that is highlighted is sufficient.
Selecting a non-highligted item highlights it. Therefor
double clicking on a non-highlighted item does select it.
I can see that double clicking should probably be
required on highlighted items for consistency.
Font selections apply to the entire document (they may
some day apply to individual statments). Style selctions
are character by character.
Branch: A
statement that has subordinate statements or branches.
See (copy) and
(move) for examples of copying and
moving branches.
Button: The
switch located on top of the mouse See
(select). Also, objects in dialog
boxes that cause action when selected.
Confirmation: Most
operations require that you confirm the final execution
of the command. Many times you are given options as part
of the final confirmation. The confirmation dialog always
contains a "Cancel" botton that cancels the operation.
Cursor: When the pointer appears
as a vertical bar, the pointer represents a cursor in the
text. When you select the mouse button while the pointer
appears as a cursor, a vertical line appears in the text.
Typing will insert characters in front of the line. See
(typing).
Dialog: A
selection mechanism. When a dialog appears you must
select one of the words with the mouse button. All
Thinker dialogs have a "Cancel" option.
Document:
A collection of statements and branches organized in a
hierarchy. Thinker documents are stored in Mac files.
Double: When the mouse button is
clicked twice in succession within the time limit set in
the control panel Thinker recognizes a double click.
Group: A set of consecutive
statements or branches at the same level.
Hand: The pointer is sometimes in
the shape of a hand with a pointing finger. This pointer
is used when Thinker wants you to point at a particular
statement on the screen that you want to operate on. See
(select).
Jump: The
"jump" command is used to move the window around over
various portions of a document. Jump Link is a special
form of the jump command that uses the designated link to
name to place where the window will be moved. See
(Jumping),
(Jump-Link), and
(jump_return) for examples of
using various jump instructions to move around a
document. If you wish to use double clicking to select a
word for editing. Select the Behavior "Command Key Jump"
under the Behave menu. With this behavior selected hold
the command key down while clicking the mouse to do a
"Jump Link" command.
Label: A
string of characters surrounded by "(" and ")" at the
beginning of a statement. The leading "(" must be the
first character of the statement to qualify as a label.
See (link) and
(Jump-link).
Level: A
position in the hierarchy. Level 1 statements or branches
are the most important with higher levels representing
more detailed information. See
(insert) for more about levels.
Link:
A portion of text with the same value as some label. The
label may be in the same or different document. Links
that reference another document use a "," to separate the
portion of the link that names the file from the portion
that designates the label in the document. An example of
a link to this statement is (link)
(or simply the word "link").
(Try_Me_first,label) is an example
of a link to another Thinker document (which just happens
to be the same as this document). See
(Jump-Link) for instructions on
using links to move around a document. Links may be
followed by a sequence of positioning commands (dot
commands). (Try_Me_first,link.s)
means the branch successor to example,link. The
recognized dot commands are "d" (down),"s" (successor),
"p" (predecessor), "u" (up), "t" (tail of plex) and may
be combined into any sequence which may or may not have
meening.
The link (thinkerlogo,)
is a link to a PICT or GIF file. Thinker finds this
out when you try to jump to the link and gives you the
opportunity to show the picture.
There are two special types of links. See-Through
links extract statements from other Thinker documents
and make them appear as if they are in the document
with the link. A See-Through link is nothing more than
a link at the beginning of a statement. Select "Enable
See Thru" from the Opts menu and see what happens to
the link below.
<cookbook,butter.d> show statement down from
label "butter" in file cookbook.
The second form of special link is an External
link. This link extracts ASCII text from non-Thinker
documents. An external link specifies the filename,
starting byte number, and number of bytes that
describe what is to appear on the screen. As in the
See-Through case, the external link must be at the
beginning of a statement. Select "Enable See Thru"
from the Opts menu and see what happens to the link
below.
Mark: When the mouse pointer is in
the form of a pointing finger, the statement or branch
pointed to by the finger is designated as a target for a
jump or move/copy operations. See
(select).
Menu: A
selection mechanism activated with the mouse button.
Mouse: The Mac pointing device.
Origin: The very first statement
in a document is called the origin statement.
Pointer: The gizmo on the screen
that moves around tracking the movements of the mouse.
Postion: An exact location in a
document on the screen.
Picture:
An object that is pasted in from some other application.
Below are two examples. Pictures are scaled to fit as
best they can without being ridiculous. See
(link) for an example of a link to a
PICT file.

Return:
Jump Return is used to move the window to previous
positions in a document. Move the pointer away from this
statement and type the "R" key while holding down the
Command key. This is equivalent to selecting the Jump
Return command from the Jump Menu, or the Return option
from the Jump tool dialog. Note that there are summations
of several previous positions in the document listed in
the requester. To return to the tutorial, select the
topmost line of the requester (the line is
"<....ME_FIRST>(introduction)Introd") and then the
"This Window" selection from the confirmation requester.
See (Jumping) for more on Return.
Select:
Position the pointer over a statement or button and
pressing the mouse button.
See-Thru-Link: When
See-Thru is enabled, the statement that is linked to by a
see through link is displayed instead of the link itself.
A see-thru link must be the only characters in the
statement other than the label. Only 1 level of see-thru
is supported to avoid loops. See thru links may have dot
commands. Below is a see thru link, try it by enabling
the See thru option.
Statement:
A string of text within a hierarchy. See
(insert) for information on how to
add statements to a document. See
(delete) for information on how to
delete statements.
String: A
set of all printable characters including blanks and
punctuation characters.
Test: The character string that
makes up the body of a statement.
Tool: An item
in the window that signals the Thinker program when it is
selected by clicking the mouse button with the pointer
over the tool. Thinker tools are usually textual. See
(insert),
(copy),
(delete), and
(move).
Thinker: An idea processor. See
(introduction) for the
beginning of a tutorial on Thinker.
Window: An
intuition window is used to view a small portion of a
Thinker document. The Jump command is used to move the
window around the document.
Word: A
contiguous set of alphanumeric characters surrounded by
blanks or punctuation characters is a word.