THUNDER.DOC DOCUMENATION/MANUAL HELP SCREEN Ŀ Press to Return to Document Ĵ ESC : Return to DOS F1 : See This Help Screen F, F7 : Find Word or Phrase R, F8 : Repeat Find PgUp : Up a Screen PgDn : Down a Screen UpKey : Up a Line DnKey : Down a Line Alt-H : Hardcopy (Print Document) (0-9) : Go to Page Number   09 fulllist Reg. # 00000SPrinter ready? : This will "Clone" a Text Copy of the file. Do you wish to continue?DOS Write Error. Find: Unknown Parameter. Com File generated by ASC2COM V1.66. Copyright 1989 by MorganSoft, 2170 RaynorSt. SE, Salem, OR 97302. Syntax: ComFile [/s/c/p/h] where /s=use std output,/c=wait for retrace,/p=pause mode,/h:hard copy. Press Any Key to Continue ESC to Quit Page: ESC:Exit F1:Help F/R:Find/Repeat #:Page Home End PgUp  PgDn r0>u>t s k3 L!f=u3À>u3š-P;sX XxrNrFO<t>t؀uuIs@=á)á-=~-3áH á-@;}=|á3Ë>6V F@!r@!;>t^ F׻`@!^ LD@!e!ö2À >Ot RP$tXZ<0s-<:|&^6rn*á-=|  ø`6>t6oP"Gö,?3Ɋ3+ø6 3ۉ< t%&KuKu-UQSWV3Ɋ FF!<t<<t-< t,<t*:|:EwFÊд!^*>F_[Y]!N;t+SQRUVW3۴ʀ}2Ҵ  _^]ZY[AFQHY5su %$0<t ûtË>3 &,$Ȋ2  = u= tCCtQW3>u|G_YO>3Ɋ F>tMR6I3ҊIwZÀ>uPX>u!utð&װGS3ۊ[@;r3_XË.EE͍63ҍ>GVQ %ArZw t3(!.>u Hs33Ɋ F6>t>t >tG33W  u>X!@!q<u3zr'Kr>u  A PS[Xö>t 3ɍ6Í6o!<u!RQSP>OX[YZPS [XPSQW3& t _Y[X. THUNDER THOUGHT 1 (c) Copyright 1988-900 All Rights Reserved 1 R.K. West Consulting. P.O. Box 80598 Mission Hills, CA 91346, U.S.A.  3 USER SUPPORTED SOFTWARE: M The "Creativity Package" distributed by R.K. West Consulting consistsM of two programs, VERSIFIER and THUNDER THOUGHT (executable files VERSE.EXEN and THUNDER.EXE and related data files), and a book on disk, THINK THUNDER!C AND UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY. VERSIFIER and all related files andO documentation are copyright 1988, 1990 by Rosemary West. THUNDER THOUGHT andO all related files and documentation are copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by ThomasI A. Easton and Rosemary West. The book, THINK THUNDER! AND UNLEASH YOURL CREATIVITY is copyright 1989 by Thomas A. Easton. The authors reserve theJ exclusive right to distribute these materials, in whole or in part, for profit.O If you charge a fee in exchange for copies of these programs, you are aO disk vendor. Disk vendors must receive the authors' permission to distributeJ this product. If you are an ASP-approved vendor, you automatically haveN permission to distribute, and you must notify us if you intend to do so, soM that we may make sure you have the latest version of the program. Outdated6 versions of THUNDER THOUGHT may not be distributed.P If you distribute this product (a) You may not modify or omit any of theL original files; (b) You may not represent this software as being "free",N "cheap", or "public domain"; (c) You understand that you can not "sell" theJ software, but only provide a copying service; (d) You may not "rent" orN "lease" this software; (e) You must adhere to the ethical guidelines of theO Association of Shareware Professionals. Additional restrictions are outlinedP in the file VENDOR.DOC which is placed on each distribution disk. The authorsJ reserve the right to withhold or withdraw permission to distribute from% anyone at any time for any reason. 1 USING THUNDER THOUGHT K THUNDER THOUGHT is not an outlining program. It is not a think tankF program. It is computer-aided brainstorming, and it facilitates theJ creative process by automating its initial stages. With it, you need noF longer worry about how to come up with novel combinations of words,F images, or ideas. THUNDER THOUGHT will do that for you, leaving youI with the task of finding or recognizing sense in whatever combinations" of words and ideas it produces.I In essence, THUNDER THOUGHT works by throwing dice. You give it aJ vocabulary of up to 800 words or short phrases by filling in four listsI of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. When you then ask it to helpK you brainstorm, it picks words AT RANDOM from the appropriate word lists4 and plugs them into fill-in-the-blank sentences. H How can such a process possibly generate sensible sentences? YOUJ provide the vocabulary, generally to go with a specific, defined topic,H and random choices from such restricted sets of words can easily seemE nonrandom, especially when those choices are arranged to look likeH sentences. In addition, the human mind has a way of imposing order onJ disorder, in the process exposing thinking that is going on beneath theH surface. This is the key to psychological tests such as the ink-blotsI so beloved of psychiatrists. Like the ink-blots, THUNDER THOUGHT gives> your subconscious a chance to work, and that is the secret.E Do you still need convincing? Then let's try the program out. - GETTING READY 3 If your computer does not have a hard disk:L Whenever you use the THUNDER THOUGHT program, you could put your DOSI disk in drive A, start up your computer, replace the DOS disk with theJ program disk, and at the 'A>' prompt type 'THUNDER'. Or you could startG up with the DOS disk in drive A, put the program disk in drive B, atI the 'A>' prompt type 'B:', and then at the 'B>' prompt type 'THUNDER'.I Either option will quickly become a drag if you use the program often.K Before you use the program for the first time, you should thereforeE set it up to simplify using it in the future. Begin by preparing aH self-booting disk. To do so, first turn on your computer with the DOSK disk in drive A. When you see the 'A>' prompt, put a blank disk in driveD B and type 'FORMAT B:/S'. This turns the blank disk into a system6 disk--that is, it has on it the file 'COMMAND.COM'.G When the 'A>' prompt reappears, replace the DOS disk in drive AG with the THUNDER THOUGHT program disk and type 'COPY *.* B:' to copyF the THUNDER THOUGHT program, 'THUNDER.EXE,' and its data files (theJ lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) onto the "working disk"J in drive B. (If you do not have the data files, see the last section of this chapter.)I Because the working disk in drive B is a system disk, you can nowI use it in drive A to turn on your computer. Do so, just to see that itG works. Remove all floppy disks from your machine's disk drives, turnH the machine off, wait a moment, turn it on again, and put the working% disk you have prepared in drive A.K Did the 'A>' prompt appear as it should? Fine. Now, if you wish theJ program to turn on automatically when you boot up using this disk, typeI 'COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT', press , type 'THUNDER', press ,G press the F6 key, and press again. You have now added to theJ working disk the file 'AUTOEXEC.BAT'; it tells the computer to load andF run the THUNDER THOUGHT program. You may, of course, issue the sameE instruction yourself. If your computer is already on, just put theF working disk in drive A and type 'THUNDER'. However, before you useH this working disk, you should prepare a backup copy; prepare a secondI disk with 'FORMAT B:/S', put your working disk in drive A, and copy it with 'COPY *.* B:'.) If your computer has a hard disk:J Set up a directory for THUNDER THOUGHT this way: Starting from theL 'C>' prompt, type the command 'MKDIR THUNDER' and press . You haveH created a disk directory named THUNDER. Now, with the program disk inJ drive A, type 'COPY A:*.*\THUNDER'. All the files from the program disk( will be copied to the new directory. J When the 'C>' prompt reappears, type 'COPY CON THUNDER.BAT', pressL , type 'CD\THUNDER', press , type 'THUNDER', press ,H then press the F6 key and press again. You have now created aH batch file that tells the computer to switch to the THUNDER directoryK and run the THUNDER THOUGHT program. Whenever you turn on your computer,J you can just type 'THUNDER' at the 'C>' prompt and press to use the program. , STARTING UP J The first time you run THUNDER THOUGHT, the program will first askE you whether you are using a monographic or a color monitor. AnswerF appropriately, and the next thing you see will be the title screen.< Press , and you will see the initial or main menu:  1. ADD/EDIT VOCABULARY 2. NARRATIVE BRAINSTORM 3. TOPICAL BRAINSTORM 4. CHAIN LIGHTNING 5. POETRY 6. IMAGES 7. FREE ASSOCIATION 8. UTILITIES X. EXIT F Throughout the program, pressing the 'ESC' key will return youH either to this menu or to the sub-menu controlling the options listed here.K Option #1 on this menu allows you to give the program nouns, verbs,I adjectives, and adverbs that are related to whatever topic you wish toI brainstorm about. Each word list will hold 200 words or short phrases,A but don't worry about replacing every word with topic-specificI vocabulary. The point of brainstorming is to create novel combinationsH of words, images, and ideas, and you encourage novelty if you let theL vocabulary for this week's project mix with that for last week's project.K When you choose this option, either by typing '1' and or byH using the arrow keys to move the highlight bar over the selection and0 then pressing , you will see a prompt: ? WORK WITH OUNS, ERBS, DJECTIVES, OR AVERBS? I Pick your category and press the appropriate key. The screen willF display, numbered, the words currently in that word list (up to the' capacity of the screen) and ask you: / ORE, DD, ELETE, DIT, EIT K Typing M displays another screenful of words on the list (until youJ have exhausted the list). Typing A allows you to add words to the list.L Typing D allows you to remove words. Typing E allows you to replace words? or correct spellings. Typing X returns you to the main menu.K Option #2 on the initial menu offers you a NARRATIVE BRAINSTORM. IfH you choose this option, the program will display the following menu:  # NARRATIVE BRAINSTORMING - 1. BRAINSTORM ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME. 2. BRAINSTORM ONE PARAGRAPH AT A TIME6 3. BRAINSTORM AN ENDLESS STREAM OF PARAGRAPHS X. EXIT TO MAIN MENU J If you make the first choice, the program displays a list of eightH sentence frameworks (such as: "We the of an I from an ") and asks you to pick one. Once youH have done so, it picks words at random from the word lists to fill inF the blanks, records the result in file 'NARR,' and offers you aJ chance to do another or to quit. You can get at 'NARR' later on via theH UTILITIES option (#8) on the main menu or with your word processor toE clean up the grammar and reshape the sentence more to your liking.E The second choice on the narrative brainstorm menu causes theI program to pick sentence frames at random, fill them in, and save themJ in 'NARR,' continuing until it picks the eighth frame. The third choiceJ simply causes the program to repeat the second over and over, until youL press the ESC key. In each case, the program saves its results in 'NARR.'D You may then work on them as indicated in the previous paragraph.J Narrative brainstorms are interesting, but because they are whollyI random, they can be baffling. You may get more useful results from theG third option on THUNDER THOUGHT's initial menu, which offers TOPICALG BRAINSTORMs. A topical brainstorm is only semi-random, for it allows@ you to exert some control over the program's choice of words.J When you choose initial Option #3, for the TOPICAL BRAINSTORM, the program immediately asks you: - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BRAINSTORM ABOUT? H That is, it asks you to name a topic, typing in a word or phraseF that the program can then plug into sentence frames as if it were aJ noun. If you type in nothing but , you return immediately to the main menu.F Once you have named your topic, the program picks six possibleI "lightning rods" at random, displays them, and asks you to choose one.I A "lightning rod" is simply a noun. We call it a lightning rod becauseG its function here is to attract the lightning of inspiration that is the goal of brainstorming.K Once you have named both topic and lightning rod, the program picksH six possible "lightning bolts," displays them, and asks you to chooseJ one. As you might expect, a "lightning bolt" is an action word, a verb,E whose function is to link topic and lightning rod in a brainstorm.F Once you have picked your lightning bolt, the program displaysF topic, rod, and bolt, picks a sentence frame at random, draws wordsG from the word lists to fill in the blanks in the sentence frame, and- displays the result: a topical brainstorm.E Below the brainstorm, the program lists a new set of options:  1. SAVE THE BRAINSTORMG 2. TRY AGAIN WITH THE SAME TOPIC, LIGHTNING ROD, AND LIGHTNING BOLTD 3. TRY AGAIN WITH THE SAME TOPIC BUT A NEW ROD AND NEW BOLT& 4. TRY AGAIN WITH A NEW TOPIC X. EXIT K The first choice saves the brainstorm in the text file 'TOPIC.' TheE second keeps the same topic, lightning rod, and lightning bolt butH selects a new sentence frame and new words to fill in its blanks. TheL third offers you new lists of six lightning rods and six lightning bolts;H when you have chosen, the program picks a sentence frame and fills inF its blanks. The fourth allows you to start over by specifying a new0 topic. The last returns you to the main menu.I You will be astonished by how much sense a topical brainstorm canF make, at least until you pause to reflect that you have, after all,H picked three of the major words in the sentence. The random componentF is much less than in the narrative brainstorm. However, that randomJ component is enough to produce the novel combinations of words, images,L and ideas that are the point of brainstorming. Some of the novelty entersH the process when you are forced to choose from just six nouns and sixH verbs, all randomly picked, to go with your topic. More comes in when4 the program fleshes out the brainstorm sentences.E When you choose Option #4 on the main menu, you can try CHAINB LIGHTNING brainstorming. Once more, the program first asks you: - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BRAINSTORM ABOUT? L That is, as with topical brainstorming, it asks you to name a topic,J typing in a word or phrase that the program can then plug into sentenceG frames as if it were a noun. If you type in nothing but , you' return immediately to the main menu.I Once you have named a topic, the program offers you a list of sixJ nouns. Pick one. It then links the noun you chose to your topic to formG a "guided free association" chain. By answering the prompts, you mayJ continue to add links to the chain (although you should stop before theF chain reaches 256 characters--about three screen lines--in length).J Whenever you end the chain, the program offers you the choice of saving1 the result in file 'CHAIN' or of trying again.K You may find the "chain lightning" brainstorm even more astonishingK than the sentence-format topical brainstorm. The chain you forge link byC link is similar to the chain of free associations one makes on aJ psychiatrist's couch, and it can take you in strange directions indeed.F Randomness remains only in the choice of possible links the programH offers you. All else, from the initial specification of the program'sG vocabulary to your choice of specific links, lies in the workings of your mind.J Option #5 on the main menu, POETRY, is a variant of the "narrativeI brainstorm" approach. Choose it, and the program asks you to specify aG number of lines of "poetry" to generate. It then generates preciselyG that many sentences, using sentence frameworks constructed to seem aJ little more poetic than those for "narrative brainstorms." It saves the results in file 'POEMS.'E When you pick Option #6, IMAGES, the program generates twentyI adjective-noun, verb-noun, and adverb-verb-noun combinations and savesL them in file 'IMAGE.' Pressing then returns you to the main menu.I When you pick Option #7, FREE ASSOCIATION, the program offers youI a noun chosen randomly from the noun list. It then asks you to type inK a response (a free association) and repeats the process. After the firstH few rounds, you will notice that some of your own responses are beingG echoed back to you for further response. This allows you to create aG chain of related responses. At any time during this process, you canJ view and edit the word pairs on screen by pressing the F10 key. You mayI quit at any time by leaving a response blank. The word pairs are saved in the file 'FREE.'K Option #8, UTILITIES, is a list of several "management" actions youI may take. Choose it, and the program will display the following menu:   UTILITIES  1. SCREEN COLORS 2. DELETE ALL NOUNS 3. DELETE ALL VERBS 4. DELETE ALL ADJECTIVES 5. DELETE ALL ADVERBS 6. READ/EDIT A FILE 7. PRINT A FILE 8. DELETE A FILE X. EXIT F Option #1 allows you to specify the screen colors used by yourJ monitor, if that monitor is a color monitor and you told the program soK when you first turned it on. Options 2-5 do precisely what they suggest.I The "files" of Options 6-8 are the text files generated by the programJ as you use it ('NARR,' 'TOPIC,' 'CHAIN,' 'POEMS,' 'FREE,' and 'IMAGE').H Choice #6 allows you to look at and change one of these files withoutJ having to exit the program, though you may well prefer to use your wordE processor. Because extremely large files can be awkward to handle,I THUNDER THOUGHT will rename files that have become too large by addingF numbers to their names ('NARR1', NARR2', etc.). The current file isK always the one with the base name; past files are numbered sequentially.. Option X returns you to the main menu.J You still have one option left on the main menu. Option X. EXIT isI obvious: It drops you out of the program to the 'A>' prompt. (The sameI choice elsewhere in the program, as on the UTILITIES menu, returns you to the main menu.) 1 NOW FOR THE HARD PART J Many people find it very difficult to loosen up their heads enoughJ to generate new ideas. If you are one of these people, you can now rest9 easy, for THUNDER THOUGHT takes care of that hard job.E But THUNDER THOUGHT leaves another hard job for you. Like theJ program, creative people generate new ideas by the dozens and hundreds.F But they don't shout "AHA!" for every notion that pops into--or outE of--their heads. Most notions they throw away immediately, and theJ hardest part of real creativity is the ability to spot a good idea whenK you get one. And that is something THUNDER THOUGHT cannot help you with.G When you have used the program for awhile and saved a number ofJ brainstorms, lines of poetry, or images, you should put THUNDER THOUGHTK away. Boot up your word-processor instead, and use it to look at all theL brainstorms in the text files ('NARR,' 'TOPIC,' 'CHAIN,' 'POEMS,' 'FREE,'H and 'IMAGE'). Ask yourself, as you stare at each brainstorm, "How canJ this possibly make sense? How can I MAKE it make sense?" Throw away theI obvious baloney. Clean up the rest by adjusting the grammar, adding or- subtracting words, and otherwise fiddling.I Before long, you will find some very clear statements, images, orG suggestions emerging. Some will be trivial. A few will strike you asG pretty nifty ideas, and those are the ones you want to keep and turn4 into poems, stories, papers, projects, and so on.! Good luck, and have fun. 6 YOU SAY THE PROGRAM WON'T WORK? L You are most likely to run into trouble with THUNDER THOUGHT becauseI you just can't get past the random nonsense the program generates. YouH tell yourself that it looks like garbage, it IS garbage, and the hell with it!K In this case, there is no help for you. Give the program to someone else.J If you have more tolerance for the ambiguity of randomly generatedF sentences, you are most likely to run into trouble with the programJ because you have somehow lost or mislaid the data files containing yourF word lists. If you can't find them in a different directory or on aG different floppy disk, you must now tell the program to create thoseJ files for you. Fortunately, it's easy. The program itself will tell youG it can't function, remind you to look for the missing files, and ask< for your go-ahead to create them. Just answer the prompt.E You will then have the four necessary word lists. To make theF program work properly, however, you will have to use the vocabularyH input function to build the lists up to useful size (see Option #1 onJ the main menu). Experience will tell you just how big "useful size" is;I you may be happy with as few as 50 or 60 words, or you may prefer over 100.  * WARRANTY M THIS SOFTWARE, INSTRUCTION MANUAL, AND RELATED MATERIALS ARE SOLD "AS IS",N WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOTJ LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANYM PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE AUTHORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL MEETN YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE ERROR FREE.K YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SELECTION OF THE SOFTWARE AND FOR THEK RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OBTAINED FROM THE SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT WILL THEM AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, ORI OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF ORM INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THEK POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. IN ANYN CASE, THE REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO THE USER SHALL BE LIMITED TO REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE. . IMPORTANT INFORMATION O THUNDER THOUGHT is copyrighted material. It is not now and never has been inO the public domain. This material is being marketed using the try-before-you-N buy process known as the "shareware" method. You have permission to use theO software for a reasonable evaluation period in order to deterimine its valueO to you. If you want to continue using the program, the author relies on youM to pay for it. When you register your use of this product you will receiveN the latest version and will be enrolled in our upgrade notification system. N The registration fee prior to September 1, 1990 is $29.00. After that date,L the fee is $34.00. Upon registration, you will receive the latest versionJ of the 3-disk set, CREATIVITY PACKAGE, which include "Thunder Thought",I "Versifier", and Thomas A. Easton's complete book, "Think Thunder: And Unleash Your Creativity". J All prices are in U.S. dollars. Foreign countries other than Canada andM Mexico, add $5.00 shipping. Unfortunately, we cannot accpet foreign funds.M All payment must by in U.S. dollars, payable through a U.S. bank. Canadian; postal money orders in U.S. dollars are also acceptable. M We normally provide 5 1/4" disks. If you must have 3 1/2" disks, add $1.00- per disk (a total of $3.00) to your order. O If you paid a disk vendor for this material you paid for the copying serviceK only. Fees paid to disk vendors are not paid to the author, and are notO part of the registration fees. Use beyond the evaluation period violates the( license agreement and copyright laws. G Complete instructions for use as well as information on distributionN requirements are normally distributed on disk with this software. If any ofK these materials were missing from the copy you bought, please notify the authors immediately. , REGISTERED USERS L The registrant is granted a non-transferable, limited license to use thisK software on one computer workstation. Registered copies of this softwareK may not be copied (except for backup copies for use by the registrant),K and may not distributed. To obtain unregistered copies of this product,' write to the author for information. N As the registered user of this software, you will receive up to four issuesN of a newsletter or bulletin containing upgrade notifications. Please informI us of any change of address, so that you will continue to receive thisM information. Registered users are entitled to technical support and other benefits. * Thank you for supporting this software! . WRITE TO US H Please send in your suggestions, comments, and bug reports. YourL feedback is important. We would like to hear from you even if you haven't* yet registered. Tell us what you think. 2 R.K. West Consulting+ P.O. Box 80595 Mission Hills, CA 91346 H If you are reporting a bug or other problem, please describe theM problem in as much detail as possible and mention the type of hardware youM are using, DOS version, resident programs, and other relevant information.K If you believe you have found a serious bug, please send us the originalL distribution diskette so that we can find the source of the problem. SendO the exact wording of any error messages that you may have seen (if possible,G a print-screen illustrating the problem as it happened would be most helpful).K We write and distribute other shareware programs, some of which areB quite unusual. We will be happy to send a catalog upon request. ; "Creativity Package" documentation updated May 19, 1990.