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- Micro-Mapper Version History
- 3.1 *When I started breaking Micro-Mapper into pieces to fit within the
- small memory model(64k) I inadvertantly created a problem. I did
- find out about the problem until I installed Micro-Mapper on a machine
- used for a class I was taking. It was then that I discovered that
- Micro-Mapper was unable to find its files unless the file resided in
- the same directory as was being worked in. The pathing problem should
- now be solved. Micro-Mapper will now be called via a batch file that
- will supply Micro-Mapper with the "home" directory where it can find
- all of its files and support programs. If the path that is passed to
- Micro-Mapper is null, then the current path is assumed to be the home
- directory.
- *If Micro-Mapper is unable to find the MAPPER.MNU file on start-up, it
- assumes that the path is wrong and stops execution. Make sure that
- Micro-Mapper is called with a batch program that passes the directory
- name where the Micro-Mapper programs reside.
- *When asking to load a new file and the file is not found, perhaps due
- to a typo, the original file name was wiped out and the erroneous one
- became the default map name. Prior to the impementation of field
- definitions, this did not cause a problem. Micro-Mapper would allow
- you to define the fields for the map on the screen and place them under
- the name of the failed map name. While this was not a fatal error,
- it did cause understandable confusion. Micro-Mapper will now reset the
- map name to the current map name instead of the fialed name.
- *The routine that allowed entry of the Map name to load or save would
- not allow numbers. This has been corrected to allow ANY character.
- *Block character routine would accept lower case characters and not
- display the upper case equivalent. This is now fixed.
- *MEM file format display routines sped up 300%. Also, preliminary
- testing has shown that screens saved in the MEM format can be
- loaded directly by CLIPPER 5.1 programs using the RESTORE SCREEN
- command.
- *When an area was loaded onto the screen from disk, the map name was
- changed to the name of the area just loaded. This has been corrected
- to preserve the map name.
- *When displaying the directory prior to specify the name of a map, various
- uses had reported that it did not display correctly. Subsequent
- investigation showed that the display works fine with MSDOS 3.2 or DRDOS
- v5.0 or v6.0, but NOT with MSDOS 5.0 or 4.01. After many frustrating
- hours of trying to ensure a uniform display in a tight code space, I
- gave up. The directory will still be displayed, it will just be in the
- normal DOS format instead of the compact one provided Micro-Mapper.
- *Format of COLOR1(configuration screen), COLOR2(Change color scree),
- and TBL(Character chart scree) have been changed from .COM to .MEM.
- This allows faster loading and saves disk space.
- *Formated Documentation file in "ready to print" format. Use PRINTDOC.COM
- to send file to printer. File is set up for standard IBM printer
- command set and should print with page breaks, headers and footers.
- *Added PRINTDOC.COM utility to print MAPPER.DOC file.
- *Added Edit Screen message to remind user to press the ESC to get the Main
- Menu.
- *I have noticed that CAPTURE.COM does not seem to work with VGA screens.
- It is being worked on but a remedy is not yet available.
- 3.0 *Added Map Field function to Main Menu.
- *Moved all menus to MAPPER.MNU file to provide code space for Map
- Field function.
- *Modified DMEM.COM to prevent screen overrun when displaying screens
- saved by CAPTURE.COM.
- 2.9 *Added HOT keys to draw mode. This allows you to press a key to
- switch between double/single line, change color, select a
- repeating character.
- *Added U - use character command to draw mode. Place cursor on
- character to use(mouse only-if you don't have a mouse use R to
- select from character chart) and press U. The character under the
- cursor is now used as the repeating character.
- *Added A - use Attribute command to draw mode. Place cursor on
- attribute(color) and press A(mouse only-if you don't have a
- mouse use C and select attribute from color chart).
- *Added +- Commands to draw menu. Press + to increment the current
- color and - to decrement the color.
- *Modified Find/Change Function to allow finding a character and
- change its attribute and to find an attribute and change the
- character.
- *Added */ commands to the draw menu. Press * to increment the color
- by 16 steps(increments background by 1). Press / to decrement the
- color by 16 steps.
- *Added Zap Attribute to Area Function. This allows you to step the
- colors in an area and optionally keep the results or restore the
- area to original attributes.
- *Added ANSI color table to Color Chart.
- *Added routine to display 10 occurrences of draw character in color
- under cursor when selecting a color from the color chart.
- *Added F2 - use attribute to text mode. Place the cursor over the
- attribute you wish to copy and press ALT A. The typing color will
- change the one at that location.
- *Changed status line to show foreground and background color
- numbers.
- *Changed Edit Options Function on Main Menu to Options Edit to
- allow addition of Erase function.
- *Changed status line to show ANSI color sequence numbers.
- *Added Erase function to main menu. Default erase color is white
- on black.
- *Re-wrote, Map loading routines to use external loaders, DANSI.COM,
- DASCII.COM, DWCAT3.COM and DMEM.COM. This was done to free up
- some code space for this release.
- *Re-wrote ANSI and Wild Cat 3 screen generator routines to free up
- code space for this release.
-
- 2.8 *Added Wild Cat 3 BBS format to save and load screen functions.
- *Wrote Stand-alone display programs for MEM and Wild Cat 3.
- Added feature to allow you to display an area using the
- stand-alone display programs without clearing the screen. Handy
- for displaying pop-up menus. See documentation under required
- files.
- *Added G - Get Area function to the Main Menu. This function
- allows you to use the hard drive as a scratch pad, saving areas
- and later, loading them into a screen that you are developing.
- All formats are supported though I strongly recommend that areas
- saved for this purpose be in the MEM format.
-
- 2.7 *Added G - General ANSI option to the Load screen function to allow
- loading of an ANSI screen without having to load the ANSI.SYS
- device driver.
- *Removed Block character set from program. Micro-Mapper now uses
- .MCS files to get the desired character. Option was added to the
- configuration editor allowing you to change the name of the
- character set file. This change gave back over 10k of code space
- and made it possible for user to create and use their own
- character sets. If you make a nice one and would like it included
- in the next release, please send a floppy(360,1.2,720 or 1.44) to
- the registration address. Please specify if it is ok for me to
- put your name in the documentation as the contributor of the
- character set. The same thing applies to screens. I may rotate
- them though to keep the size of the MAPPERxx.ZIP file small. Put
- your name on the screens if you want.
- *Created the WIRE.MCS and LLET.MCS character sets.
-
- 2.6 *Fixed strange error #9 or memory supervisor error. Error occurred
- when running Mapper from within another program. Stack was being
- corrupted. Sorry about that. Stupid error on my part.
- *Fixed case where mouse driver allows mouse to visit 26 or more
- lines on screen. Caused cursor to go to first line and lock.
- *Added File list display when or saving loading screens. Up to 187
- files are displayed. IF there are more than 187, the screen will
- scroll, losing the fist lines displayed. Had a lot of requests
- for this feature from registered users. Note that all files
- having the proper extent are displayed whether they are mapper
- screens or not.
- *Fixed black hole error that occurred when loading a map over
- another map.
-
- 2.5 *Added Configuration editor.
-
- 2.4 *Fixed various ESC/Select "hole" bugs in new routines.
- *Added Load Map error routine to properly detect when map is not
- found in current directory. Hard to believe that I did not put
- this in from the start.
- *Added C as last character on 25th line to indicate current
- Text/Draw color.
- *Added MAPPER.CFG check to program initialization routine to allow
- you to change various program defaults such as window color, mouse
- delay times etc. See documentation for details.
- *Delete Area changed to use Current Text/Draw color, not the colors
- in the area to be deleted.
-
- 2.3 *Added ability to hunt through screen or area to change a color to
- another color.
- *Repeating character, under draw mode, now displays ASCII chart for
- character selection.
- *Areas may now be saved in MEM format. Such files are named
- SA#.MEM.
- *Smoothed out mouse interface to remove annoying "back hole" that
- occurred when a menu was placed over the cursor. Subsequent
- movement of the mouse cursor caused a hole in the menu.
- *Updated documentation to reflect use of COLOR and CHARACTER
- charts.
-
- 2.2 *Changed Area save feature to automatically save area under a new
- name if old name exists. IF SA#.ANS(ASC) exists the # is
- incremented one step. Six places are reserved, so you can have up
- to 999,999 temporary files under ANS, another 999,999 under ASC.
- That should be more than enough temporary file name combinations.
- *Added Color Change option to Draw sub-menu. Now you can change
- draw colors without exiting draw mode.
- *Re-wrote X-Chart routine to display Color ASCII chart instead of
- scrolling character BOX.
- *Re-wrote Color change routines to display Color chart instead of
- color box.
- *Changed all routines that allowed color/character changes to use
- new ASCII character and Color routines.
-
- 2.1 *Fixed Bug with ANSI screen load where the 0,0 character was erased.
- *Added feature to display draw character when in draw mode.
- *Fixed Bug with ANSI screen save that incremented the color of the
- foreground character 1 step when the background color was green
- (Stupid error that took an hour to find).
- *Fixed bug where when the mapper is started with the SAVE option, a
- subsequent selection of the New function displays the last saved
- screen image(save prior to displaying the menu).
- *Wrote companion TSR program to allow you to capture screens from
- already developed applications. Saves re-engineering time.
- Captured screens are saved as CS#.MEM and can be loaded into the
- mapper as memory format files. The screen may subsequently saved
- as ANSI, COM or ASCII. Note: the TSR uses about 27,872 bytes of
- your memory. This was kept a no-frills program to keep the size
- down. Main Frame users: many terminal emulation software packages
- trap the keystrokes preventing your favorite TSR from poping up.
- Some of the better packages allow you to invoke the emulator and
- tell it to allow the keystrokes to pass through. See the manual
- that came with the emulator for details. Why doesn't the TSR
- create a COM file? See note about keeping it small. To load the
- TSR type CAPTURE. To invoke the TSR and capture the screen, press
- CNTL(control) Backspace. Note that if CS#.MEM already exists, the
- # is incremented and the screen is saved as that. Screens are
- saved in the CURRENT directory.
-
- 2.0 *Improved COM(Generate) screen loading, faster displays.
- *Added Mouse/Cursor positioning routines with mouse mickey column
- and row values displayed.
- *Interfaced mouse with menus, now you can click on a letter and it
- will execute the function. Mouse may also be used for all
- sub-menu positioning with the exception of the drawing menu. You
- may also place the mouse cursor on and arrow and hold it down to
- scroll(ASCII chart and Color select window.
- *Added a user program exit(U) on the main menu. This exit may be
- used to call MUSER(BAT, EXE or COM).
- *Fixed bug with repeating character that disallowed exiting
- feature.
- *Mapper may now be invoked without clearing the screen by using the
- following start up command: "MAPPER SAVE"
- *Main Menu option(Z) allows you to clear the screen with a
- specified character. Remember that non-keyboard characters may be
- entered by 1) ensuring that the num lock is on, 2) hold down the
- ALT key, and 3) enter the decimal number of the character using
- the number pad.
- *Made minor changes to the Block character set.
-
- 1.9 Added High Speed Screen Save/Get routines to improve performance
-
- 1.8 Added ANSI Screen/Code generation/save/load functions
-
- 1.7 Added Line(Box) Drawing Function
-
- 1.6 Added DOS Window Function
-
- 1.5 Fixed Bug in Save Routine. Added character Find/Change function
-
- 1.4 Added ASCII Chart/ALT NUM character entry
-
- 1.3 Added Color Capability
-
- 1.2 Added Area Commands
-
- 1.1 Added COM Generate ability
-
- 1.0 Micro Mapper begins, Saves ASCII screens.