  /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD /CiD                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            One on One Interview with Ian Davis: The Creator of The Draw                                                                                                                   by RaD Man of ACiD Productions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      As many of you already know,  ANSI Artists owe much to the Father          of The Draw,  Ian Davis.  We thought  our  readers might like to get a          line into the mind of the man who makes  much of our success possible.          Ian was kind enough to share his insight  and experiences with us on a          variety of topics (May 26, 1992).                                                                                                                                                                                                               (Note:  ID = Ian Davis, RM = RaD Man)                                                                                                                           PROGRAMMING:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  RM:    What first motivated you to develop the ANSI Utility, The Draw?                                                                                          ID:    Well, you're going to be very disappointed.  (Laugh) I was kind             of bored one day.  I was searching for a topic to find, and I came              across a program called ANSI Draw, which I thought was lacking,                 and I decided to write my own version of it, and that became The                Draw.                                                                                                                                                        RM:    When did you first start programming?                                                                                                                    ID:    About eight or nine years ago.                                                                                                                           RM:    What did you feel was the most difficult part in developing The             Draw?                                                                                                                                                        ID:    I would have to say making the animation system work smoothly.                                                                                           RM:    What language is The Draw currently being programmed in?                                                                                                 ID:    It is currently being programmed in two languages, Turbo Pascal             and Assembly.                                                                                                                                                RM:    When you first started programming The Draw, did you foresee that           it would become this widely used and successful?                                                                                                             ID:    Oh no, hell no.  (Laugh)  The program would have been written any           way.  It just happened to turn out to be something that people used.            I started getting responses and suggestions, and I started implement-           ing those suggestions and ideas and the program started to take off.            It just filled a niche at the right time and I was in the right                 place.                                                                                                                                                       RM:    Aside from The Draw, do you have any future programming projects            that you are planning to release?                                                                                                                            ID:    Not off hand, most of the programming I do is for my own personal           projects and consulting work I do on the side.  My primary job is not           programming at all, it is actually electronic engineering.  So this             is more of a hobby.                                                                                                                                          RM:    Do you have any major plans for future releases of your software?                                                                                        ID:    Well, there are no major improvements in mind, although if I                think of new ideas, I will act upon them.  I do have a list of about            sixty to seventy possible features for The Draw, that wish to be                incorporated in the future.                                                                                                                                  RM:    Could you name a few of those features?                                                                                                                  ID:    The thing is, there is no guarantee they will appear in the                 program.  They are just ideas, and at the time I am programming or              doing upgrades I could deem they will be incorporated without                   significant effort.                                                                                                                                                 Well, one feature that may appear is an animation 'fade-out'                function, like the opposite of the animation scanner, it would be               along the lines of a fill command.  But it would fill, based on an              animation scanner.  For instance, you could have something fade in              and fade out to black or some color, or another image.                                                                                                              What else would I like to add, I'm going down my item list.  I              might add library files support, so you could have a list of images             that are commonly used or what not, and those could all be saved to             one common gigantic library file.  That would be applicable to a                block save of a region.  Like say, oh that's a neat image, and then             copy it to a block and save it to the library for future reference.                                                                                                 Lots of little features, I will probably add the ability to add             the ability to view The Draw format files inside the program.  The              reason that's not done right now is because, the way the loader                 works, it would be incompatible with the viewing of the file.  I                might add that in the future.  Probably a few animation scanners,               different options for creating ANSI files, other formats, new file              formats.  I may add the ability for external file formats to be used.           Such as custom file format, you could type in a descriptive name that           would appear on the command line when you are going to save a file.             And if you selected that, The Draw would created a temporary file,              and then call an external program, which would be expected to act               upon that temporary file.  Then it would create the ultimate file               that the user wants, and then control would be returned to The Draw,            and The Draw would delete the temporary file, and then you would have           whatever the custom file format is.  Kind of an indirect way of doing           it.  So, if somebody had this file format that they always use, such            as Wildcat @ files for instance, I may incorporate that eventually.             Say that if it wasn't incorporated, somebody could create their own             external file format generator, go in there and take a binary file              and convert it if necessary.  There are all kinds of possibilities.             Another idea is I could possibly improve the crunch routines to make            smaller files, polish screens, all kinds of different things.  I                might get around to writing the tutorial eventually.                                                                                                         RM:    When was the first The Draw released publicly?                                                                                                           ID:    I can figure that one out for ya, that's in the documentation               file..  The Draw history file; 5-1-86.                                                                                                                       RM:    Since the recent popularity of the new release of OS/2 v.2.0 and            it's reported success is very apparent now, are you planning on                 releasing an OS/2 specific version?                                                                                                                          ID:    I don't know what would be gained by releasing an OS/2 specific             version.  The Draw is a text-oriented screen generator, and programs            that run under Windows or OS/2 are universally graphically oriented,            like a painting program for instance.  There is no real sense or                need for a specific version to be regenerated.  I don't know what               specific features could be added.                                                                                                                            RM:    Do you ever find yourself doing any artwork with your own                   software, The Draw?                                                                                                                                          ID:    Not very often, I wrote the program, I don't sit around and                 doodle with it very much.  Typically I use The Draw when I'm creating           other programs.  If I need a screen, I'll sit and figure how I want             things to appear, and I'll create a temporary file.  I use it for               what it's designed to do, edit screens.  I just recently designed a             new title screen for it [The Draw.]  Based on input from you and and            a whole bunch of other people saying the old one needs to go.  It               appears from one side, then shading appears, and then a run of light            goes across it.  A little more racy, a little more interesting I                guess.                                                                                                                                                       RM:    As you know, alot of people have hacked and modified The Draw               (such as the version numbers.) Have you taken any measures to prevent           or discourage the pseudo-hackers from altering your software?                                                                                                ID:    Yes, there are now schemes in all the title and help screens,               and certain key areas are encrypted, any key to the version number.             So, if you manage to find where the version number is, which has                also been changed and encrypted, you will find yourself in a very               difficult situation of having to revise many many other areas of the            program.  There is no real way to prevent "hacking", it is just how             inconvenient you want to make it for someone to do the hacking.  I              think someone will find it a distinct challenge to redo The Draw now.                                                                                        RM:    Is that with The Draw version 4.5 that you implemented these                methods to protect your software from being modified?                                                                                                        ID:    Yes, that is with The Draw 4.5, right.  If I still have problems            though, I'll change the encryption scheme.  I may end up changing               the encryption scheme for every version.  So someone will have to               sit down and rethink everything they've done every single time.                 That's very easy for me to do, because all I have to do is create               a program to do the encryption.                                                                                                                              RM:    Approximately how many people have registered your software, and            how many registrations do you get on the average per month?                                                                                                  ID:    Well, it varies from month to month, and it also varies how                 recently I released a new version of the software.  Currently I have            four thousand, eight hundred forty registrations.  Typically I get              an average of eighty to a hundred registrations a month.  It's not              wildly successful, but its gotten its self a few steps above the                average shareware program.                                                                                                                                     OTHER:                                                                                                                                                        RM:    In your opinion, what is the best ANSI/Graphics art group you've            seen as of yet?                                                                                                                                              ID:    The one so far is your group.  Boost your ego a little bit there!                                                                                        RM:    For our million plus viewers, could you please enlighten us on              how you phonetically pronounce "The Draw"?                                                                                                                   ID:    Oh god, the way I pronounce it is "thee drah", with a short E.              I regularly get someone asking me that, I have a built in form letter           in my mailing list system, and if someone asks that I just hit the              key.                                                                                                                                                         RM:    Do you mind if I ask, what is your current occupation?                                                                                                   ID:    I'm an electronic engineer, I design digital hardware.  I design            computers, and I program the computers.                                                                                                                      RM:    In your spare time, what do you like to do?                                                                                                              ID:    I like to go outside, exercise, ride my bike.  I'll settle down             and play with the computer once in a while.  As The Draw makes it               very apparent.  I like to work on my car, other various things.  I              keep myself busy, whatever seems interesting at the time.                                                                                                    RM:    Do you have any favorite musicians or actors?                                                                                                            ID:    No, not really.  I don't really keep up with that.  I listen to             the radio, that's about the extent of it.  If I hear a song I like,             I go buy the CD.  If I see a movie I like, I go buy the laser disc.                                                                                                                                                                                 Okay, well that wraps up our interview with you, Ian.  Thanks              for taking the time out to share your views with our readers.  Your             comments will be featured in the upcoming ACiD Newsletter (Issue 2,             "The Product").                                                                                                                                              