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Executor/DOS 1.99k status
Hi Folks,
There were several rather large bugs in 1.99j. We fixed a couple of
the obvious ones and internally cooked up and tested a 1.99k. We
found a couple more bugs and have fixed those and are now getting
ready for another day of testing. If we find no more showstoppers,
1.99k will be released sometime after 5pm Mountain Time Wednesday,
March 1. If we don't release 1.99j then, then I'll send another note
explainging what's going on.
Here are the bugs that were in 1.99j that were fixed in 1.99k
On some systems Executor used to hang soon after the splash
screen was dismissed
Various cursor movements could kill Executor
Lemmings under Windows drew trash on the screen
The DOS filesystem wasn't seen by Executor
The license panel had a number of quirks (it still has some,
but it has fewer)
a few esoteric fixes: ("Seahaven Towers had messed up colors,
among others)
One major difference that will remain in 1.99k is that CTRL-BREAK no
longer kills Executor. This is due to an intermediate form of the
current DOS extender that we're using. CTRL-BREAK should work again
in a future version. Another drawback is that ALL of Executor is read
into memory before Executor starts. Previously only enough of
Executor to get started was read in, and the rest was "demand paged"
(i.e. read from the disk into memory only as needed). That makes the
startup time for Executor longer. Future versions will still do this,
but they'll do it more efficiently, so the startup time will be
quicker. In addition, we'll be making Executor much more robust when
running one program after another (As many of you know, there are some
sequences of programs that you just can't run without exitting
Executor first if you want proper results.).
I'm also a bit behind in getting electronic keys sent out. We really
thought 1.99j was a good release. Silly us.
Sorry for not getting this status report out earlier. The last thirty
hours have been a bit of a blur.
--Cliff
ctm@ardi.com