Keyboard mode, F-key glyph sets and the pen

Keyboard mode types on the canvas the way a text editor types on a page: a key puts a glyph in the cell under the cursor and moves the cursor on. The F-keys type the block, shade and line glyphs that aren't on a keyboard, from 16 sets you switch between. Everything typed is drawn in the pen's two colours.

What ANSI art is types its first word this way.

Keyboard mode

Tools > Keyboard (Ctrl+K) is the tool Blockwright starts with. Keys type in every other tool too, unless the tool uses the key itself: the select tool takes the arrows, Enter, Esc and Delete while there is a selection, the glyph brush takes the F-keys to pick its glyph, and the text tool types into its own text layer.

Click a cell to put the cursor there. The cursor is a frame around one cell, drawn so it shows on any colour.

Keys

Key	What it does
A letter, digit or other character	Puts that glyph in the cell, in the pen's colours, and moves the cursor one cell right.
`F1` to `F10`	Puts the current glyph set's glyph for that key in the cell, and moves right (see below). `Shift`+`F2` to `Shift`+`F10` do the same.
`←` `→` `↑` `↓`	Move the cursor one cell. It stops at the canvas's edges.
`Home` / `End`	To the first or the last column of the row.
`Enter`	To the first column of the next row (it stays on the last row at the bottom).
`Backspace`	Moves the cursor one cell left and clears that cell. On the first column it does nothing.
`Delete`	Clears the cell under the cursor; the cursor stays.

A cleared cell is a space in grey on black on the bottom layer, and transparent on any other layer. A pixels layer is the exception: a cell cleared on one is transparent even when it is the bottom layer.

Typing on the last column leaves the cursor on it, past the glyph just typed. Backspace then clears that last cell rather than the one to its left. Any move of the cursor ends this.

Each key is one step on the undo stack: Edit > Undo takes back one glyph at a time.

Which keys type

A key types when it gives a printable character, unless Ctrl (or Meta) is held without Alt: those chords are shortcuts, such as Ctrl+↑ for the pen below. So characters made with AltGr, or with Option on a Mac, type, and so does text from an input method.

A cell can hold only a glyph CP437 has. Accented letters made of a letter and a combining accent are joined first, so e followed by a combining acute types é, which CP437 has. A character with no CP437 glyph, such as € or an emoji, is not typed, and the status bar says so for a few seconds: € has no CP437 glyph; not typed. When an input method sends several characters at once and any of them can't be typed, none of them is.

Five CP437 glyphs can't be typed either: ○ ◙ ♪ → ←. Their bytes, 9, 10, 13, 26 and 27, are tab, line feed, carriage return, end of file and escape, which a reader of an .ans file acts on rather than draws, so the file can't hold them as glyphs. The status bar gives them the same message as a character CP437 lacks, → has no CP437 glyph; not typed, though CP437 has them.

Where the glyphs go

Typing goes into the active layer. On a layer that is hidden or locked, a generator layer, a reference layer or a live text layer, nothing is typed. A pixels layer holds only spaces and the blocks █ ▀ ▄, so any other glyph typed on one doesn't land.

With Edit > Mirror Mode (Ctrl+M) on and Edit > Symmetry > Mirror X picked, every glyph typed is also put in the mirrored column across the canvas's centre, flipped left to right, so ┌ on the left gives ┐ on the right. The other symmetry modes don't repeat typing.

The F-key glyph sets

F1 to F10 type the ten glyphs of the current glyph set. There are 16 sets, the ones Moebius and PabloDraw have. Set 6, the shades and half blocks, is the one Blockwright starts on each time it starts:

Set	F1 to F10
1	`┌ ┐ └ ┘ ─ │ ├ ┤ ┴ ┬`
2	`╔ ╗ ╚ ╝ ═ ║ ╠ ╣ ╩ ╦`
3	`╒ ╕ ╘ ╛ ═ │ ╞ ╡ ╧ ╤`
4	`╓ ╖ ╙ ╜ ─ ║ ╟ ╢ ╨ ╥`
5	`┼ ╬ ╪ ╫ Φ Φ ¢ £ Ö ∩`
6	`░ ▒ ▓ █ ▀ ▄ ▌ ▐ ■ ·`
7	`☺ ☻ ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ ≡ ♫ ☼`, and a space on F10
8	`↑ ↓ ▲ ▼ ► ◄ ↕ ↔ ¶ §`
9	`« » ≥ ≤ ⌐ ¬ ² ÷ ½ ¼`
10	`π ± ⌠ ⌡ Ω ¥ Σ ° √ ⁿ`
11	`α ß Γ σ µ τ δ ∞ φ ε`
12	`Ç ç Ñ ñ ÿ ƒ ≈ ∙ ¡ ¿`
13	`â ä à á ª å Ä Å æ Æ`
14	`ê ë è é É î ï ì í ₧`
15	`ô ö ò ó º û ü ù ú Ü`
16	/ \ ( ) { } [ ] ` '

Changing the set

Key or item	What it does
Glyphs > Previous Set, `Ctrl`+`,`	The set before; from set 1 it goes round to set 16.
Glyphs > Next Set, `Ctrl`+`.`	The set after; from set 16 it goes round to set 1.
Glyphs > Default Set, `Ctrl`+`/`	Back to set 6.
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`F1` to `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`F10`	Sets 1 to 10.
Glyphs > Set 1 to Set 16	Any set; each item shows its ten glyphs, and the current one is ticked.

Sets 11 to 16 have no key of their own: pick them from the Glyphs menu or the Glyphs dock, or step to them.

Moebius picks sets with Alt+F-keys. Blockwright doesn't, because the desktop takes many of those keys before an editor sees them (Alt+F4 closes the window), and leaves Ctrl+F-keys and Ctrl+Alt+F-keys alone for the same reason. On a Mac the Ctrl keys on this page are Cmd.

Shift+F1 is Help > What's This?, not a glyph; F1 on its own types. F11 and F12 type nothing.

Seeing the set

The status bar shows the current set and its glyphs: F-keys set 6: ░ ▒ ▓ █ ▀ ▄ ▌ ▐ ■ ·. Its tooltip lists each F-key with its glyph and the keys that change the set.
The Glyphs dock, along the bottom of the window, shows the set as ten cells, with a list of all 16 sets beside them. Clicking a cell does what its F-key does with the active tool: in keyboard mode it types the glyph, with the glyph brush it picks the brush's glyph. Picking a set from the list changes the set.

Here is a sign typed in keyboard mode. The frame is set 2 (F1 ╔, F5 ═, F2 ╗, F6 ║, F3 ╚, F4 ╝) in light cyan; the bar is set 6 (F1 ░, F2 ▒, F3 ▓, F4 █) in light red; the words are letters in yellow:

The pen

The pen is the two colours everything is drawn in: a foreground for the glyph and a background for the rest of the cell. Keyboard mode types in both, and the drawing tools use them too. Blockwright starts with grey on black each time it starts.

Key or item	What it does
Left click on a colour in the Palette dock	Makes it the foreground.
Right click on a colour in the Palette dock	Makes it the background.
Colours > Previous Foreground, `Ctrl`+`↑`	The colour before the foreground (from 0, black, round to 15, white).
Colours > Next Foreground, `Ctrl`+`↓`	The colour after the foreground (from 15 round to 0).
Colours > Previous Background, `Ctrl`+`←`	The colour before the background.
Colours > Next Background, `Ctrl`+`→`	The colour after the background.
Colours > Default Colours, `Ctrl`+`D`	Grey on black.
Colours > Swap Colours	Swaps the foreground and the background. It has no key; give it one in Edit > Preferences... > Shortcuts.
Tools > Eyedropper, `Ctrl`+`I`	On a half-block pixel, a left click makes the pixel's colour the foreground and a right click makes it the background. On any other cell, a left click takes the cell's foreground and a right click its background.

The colours are numbered 0 to 15, in the order the Palette dock shows them. The Palette dock, its pen swatches and what the colours look like are on Palette, iCE colours and 24-bit colour.

Describes Blockwright 0.1.0 (c44974c).