eXpTools: a C++ class library for animation, tachistoscopic presentation, and response timing

The eXpTools Library is a general-purpose tool for developing psychological experiments that combine animation with tachistoscopic presentation. The library's C++ classes and assembly language functions are specialized for the creation of visual response time experiments. Its use is limited to variants of standard, 16-color, VGA high-graphics modes. However, it extends the capabilities of these modes through bit-plane animation techniques and a new, nonstandard, high-resolution graphics mode that will work with standard VGA cards and register-compatible cards. These techniques make possible a powerful animation class for managing complex animation or tachistoscopic presentations consisting of hundreds or thousands of frames. The library also combines such features as page flipping, screen blanking, video-refresh synchronization, interrupt-driven millisecond timing, interrupt-driven keyboard response collection, graphics primitives, bitmaps, and screen fonts. Utilities allow for the conversion of PCX graphics files and the creation of new screen fonts from monochrome bitmap files. The technologies and techniques underlying the library are presented along with an example program.