Untethered Images make their debut in Unibase Imaging of Unibase by DMAC release 7.45i. This feature, supported by a half dozen new verbs and control functions in the AID programming language, allows operators to browse through the images associated with a batch of a job and select an image for attachment to the current data record.

Immediately several beta clients have extended the reach of these new verbs and control functions in ways not predicted. How do we present the new features? Joe Friday would say, "Just the facts, Madam, just the facts."

First, The image data control file (idc) which lists the images associated with a particular batch is no longer rigidly tied to the ASCII data record. The <imgcur xx>, which acts as a pointer, can be set to whatever the user wishes in the AID programming language. To extract the data associated with the pointer the control function <ilist> (returns data in idc format) has been added to with <ilistfp>(for the full path of the image) and <ilistpg>(for the page number of a multi-page tiff).

New Verb, Showsnip Shows Image Snippet From Anywhere On Screen

Second, a new verb, showsnip, was added to allow showing a piece of an image anywhere on the screen. For users who want to have several untethered images on the screen, the verb showsnip is image window based with ten image windows allowed concurrently. (See article on Image Windows).

Pan and Rotate Verbs Added

Third, the ability for the user to manipulate the image (naturally it can zoom in and out) required two more new verbs — pan and rotate.

Editkey Becomes A User Hotkey

Fourth, in order to play with an image window at any time, a new key called the editkey was introduced. When the editkey (currently {FIELD} e) is hit, the operator is taken into the field edit (or file edit) and a "when editkey" statement can direct the program to the correct code segment.

Image Buffers Give More Speed

Fifth, speed is always important so now up to 50 (depending dynamically on workstation memory) images can be uncompressed and stored for access in a circular fashion with the 51st image replacing the uncompressed image viewed the longest time ago. The up to fifty uncompressed images are all images ( somewhat like a heap of images) regardless whether they are displayed in the user AID program or in the normal flow of images.

Demonstration Is Coming Soon

We will be working up a demonstration of some of these features for our web site (www.dmac-unibase.com), display at AIIM, display at TAWPI and distribution as a demo CD-Rom or diskette (order at phone: 540-667-4695 fax: 540-667-4698) soon.

Our beta users tell us at DMAC we have leaped to the forefront of image entry with these features.