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-
- ****************************************************************************
-
- MultiView Mascot version 4.0.3 JSB Computer Systems Ltd
-
- readme June 1997
-
- Welcome to MultiView Mascot.
-
- Please read this file as it contains information not included in the
- printed documentation.
-
- Contents:
-
- 1. KNOWN PROBLEMS AT THIS RELEASE
- 1.1 Wyse 50
- 1.2 Color terminals, black foreground does not work
- 1.3 Window Menu shows the wrong accelerator keys
- 1.4 Wyse 60
- 1.5 IBM 3164
- 1.6 Wyse 370
- 1.7 Using wide, deep, graphics, local printer and program status
- line modes.
- 1.8 Marked text missing after Print Window.
- 1.9 Backtab on SCO console.
- 1.10 "Cannot update user license using system semaphores"
-
- 2. PROBLEMS FIXED AT THIS RELEASE
- 2.1 Release 4.0.3
- 2.2 Release 4.0.2
- 2.3 Release 4.0.1
-
- 3. NEW FEATURES AT THIS RELEASE
- 3.1 Release 4.0.3
- 3.2 Release 4.0.2
- 3.3 Release 4.0.1
- 3.4 Release 4.0.0
-
- 4. INSTALLATION & LICENSING
- 4.1 Hanging during installation
- 4.2 Upgrade path
- 4.3 Command file conversion
-
- ****************************************************************************
- 1. KNOWN PROBLEMS AT THIS RELEASE.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.1 Wyse 50.
-
- Although protected mode is now supported in the Mascot virtual
- terminal it still cannot be supported on the Wyse 50. The reason for
- this is that the Wyse 50 does not have character based attributes
- but visible ones. Since Mascot cannot support visible attributes,
- it uses the write-protect attribute (which is character based) and
- the attribute which can be associated with it to provide support for
- a single attribute.
-
- Mascot is using the write-protect attribute for a different
- purpose and therefore it cannot be defined as having its intended
- functionality. Protected mode has no meaning as write-protect is
- not available.
-
- There is a Hot key clash on the Wyse 50 terminal with
- Wordperfect when Wordperfect's menus are enabled. The key is ESC =, for
- details of how to change the Accelerator keys please refer to the Mascot
- Configuration Guide, section "Configuring Mascot accelerator keys" in the
- chapter titled "Customizing the Mascot Environment".
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.2 Color terminals, black foreground does not work.
-
- On terminals that support color, using the application command
- "-cfore,black" to assign a foreground color of black does not work at this
- release.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.3 Window Menu shows the wrong accelerator keys.
-
- On certain terminals Mascot's default accelerator keys have been
- redefined, these changes are not reflected on Mascot's WindowMenu. This is
- because this menu is not configurable on a per terminal basis.
-
- Please refer to 2.12, Terminals Implementation specific notes, in the
- techref.txt file for more information.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.4 Wyse 60.
-
- There is a Hot key clash on the Wyse 60 terminal with Wordperfect
- when Wordperfect's menus are enabled. The key is ESC =, for details of how
- to change the Accelerator keys please refer to the Mascot Configuration
- Guide, section "Configuring Mascot accelerator keys" in the chapter titled
- "Customizing the Mascot Environment".
-
- When using this terminal with Wordperfect 5.1 editing printer.tst
- (a demonstration file supplied with Wordperfect) the special character used
- at the bottom of the vertical lines of a FIG box are not displayed
- correctly.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.5 IBM 3164.
-
- Some applications may look different inside and outside mascot
- on the IBM3164 because they are using ESC 4 H during initialization. This
- attempts to set High Intensity which we cannot support in Mascot as it is
- a Default Color mode command (Mascot uses Program Color mode). To overcome
- this you may like to set the color for the application before it is evoked
- using ESC 4 <Pa1> <PA2> <Pa3> (the Set Character Attribute Command) or
- define the color for the application in the .mvw_color file.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.6 Wyse 370.
-
- Whilst using this terminal with Wordperfect 5.1 editing printer.tst
- (a demonstration file supplied with Wordperfect) scrolling down beyond the
- bottom line the whole screen scrolls up one line, including the line
- containing the document name and current position, this should stay on the
- bottom line of the display. The terminal was running in 24 line mode with
- the WPTERM variable being set to wyse370epc.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.7 Using wide, deep, graphics, local printer and program status line modes.
-
- In cases where there is more than one possible sequence to terminate
- one of the above modes, Mascot will only identify the termination sequence
- specified by the relevant termcap mnemonic (W1, D1, TGE and DP). As it is
- not possible to map these mnemonics problems may occur if applications use
- the alternative termination sequence(s).
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.8 Marked text missing after Print Window.
-
- Marked text is no longer present following a "Print Window"
- operation. The clipboard buffer is common for the Cut & Paste and the Print
- Window operations. Therefore, the marked text area is lost when a Print
- Window operation is actioned.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.9 Backtab on SCO console.
-
- The backtab on the certain SCO consoles move's the selection bar
- down two menu options instead of the usual one. This is due to the console
- driver outputting the backtab sequence twice.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1.10 "Cannot update user license using system semaphores"
-
- Mascot makes use of system semaphores so these should be enabled
- before trying to run the product. You should tune your system to provide
- this functionality. This may be described in Implementation specific notes
- for the Operating System in the techref.txt file.
-
- ****************************************************************************
- 2. PROBLEMS FIXED AT THIS RELEASE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2.1 Release 4.0.3.
-
- A problem was introduced at version 4.0.2, whereby HSS child
- processes incorrectly acquired the control terminal set on non-streams
- based systems (SCO, IBM, and HP). This resulted in control signals
- not being passed from the terminal driver to the child process. The
- following symptoms may have been experienced:
-
- - (intr) key not functioning with HSS.
-
- - ps would report "Unable to get controlling terminal."
-
- - HSS child process would show ? as the terminal line in the ps
- listing.
-
- When mascot was switching between degraded and non-degraded windows,
- the terminal screen was apparently flashing due to the screen being redrawn
- twice. The screen is now only redrawn once when switching between windows
- that are degraded.
-
- Alphawindow function keys would fail over slow connections.
- Function key sequences were being written across multiple writes, to an
- application's psuedo. This caused problems over slow connections running
- inside a mascot window. Now characters are buffered and sent in one write
- to the application.
-
- The LIBPATH environment variable was omitted by mascot and
- hss on AIX. AIX does not permit the LIBPATH variable to be passed to
- processes when the "suid" bit is set and the owner of the program is not
- running the process, however processes started by mascot receive the
- LIBPATH environment variable correctly. To resolve this the LIBPATH
- variable can be set by setting the MVWLIBPATH variable before running
- mascot. Once running, mascot sets LIBPATH to equal MVWLIBPATH and
- any processes created from mascot will then have the correct LIBPATH.
- It is suggested that users place the following line in their .profile
- file
-
- MVWLIBPATH=$LIBPATH; export MVWLIBPATH
-
-
- The grep command was not included in the install script list of
- tools and so would not be checked to see if available. If not available,
- serial number validation would fail with an invalid serial number.
-
- Setting the per window value default to no status line for wyse60
- was being ignored. The per window value for status line support on the
- wyse60 has now been removed and is controlled by the mnemonic DL1ON.
- Commenting out or removing this line causes the status line to be off
- by default, when mascot is started.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2.2 Release 4.0.2.
-
- Restricting the number of windows to be opened on a particular tty
- in the mvw_ttys file was ignored.
-
- The following fixes have been made to Window Watcher.
-
- - Continuous watch in alarming state was not canceled after
- selecting the window.
-
- - Continuous watch for pattern only saw the first event.
-
- - Watch for pattern failed to see the pattern if an application
- outputted null characters
-
- - Watch for pattern failed to match if the pattern was split across
- multiple buffer reads of the applications psuedo.
-
- - Watch for pattern allowed more then the maximum specified alarms.
-
- - Text displayed on either the Status or Label line was sometimes
- missed.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2.3 Release 4.0.1.
-
- When Mascot was first run often a warning message "Command Files in
- Wrong Format" appeared, when in fact the command files being used where ok.
- This has now been resolved.
-
- There was a problem when a screen redraw was called either from the
- root menu or after a limited degrade, the function keys were being returned
- to their default values and any key programming for the current session was
- lost.
-
- When unknown sequences where being encountered and mascots op buffer
- contained legitimate sequences the unknown codes where being written
- straight to the terminal before the buffered codes.
-
- Problems using 80/132 switching with doc18 TE. When an application
- put Mascot into degrade mode by sending the sequence to change screen
- width Mascot waited until the sequence to return width was received to end
- degrade mode.
-
- Copy to file failing on AIX. Copy to file was failing to create
- files, even when the user account had permission to create the file.
-
- Mascot caused Wyse370 terminals to lose their colour settings.
-
- Install failure under AIX 4.1. and HP-UX v10. The install script
- was locking up when installing Mascot on AIX 4.1 and HP-UX v10. The script
- tested that it was running in a bourne shell but on AIX 4.1 and HP-UX v10
- the bourne shell is no longer present so the script looped forever.
-
- Utmp updating and downdating on AIX. Mascot and HSS were not
- writing to the utmp files correctly, therefore who and w were giving
- erroneous results.
-
- The trailing / on the end of prompt60 is now optional, previously if
- a mail path had been specified without a / on the end then mail watch would
- fail.
-
- There was a problem using snapshot with a command line config file,
- where the snapshot did not save its contents to the file. This has now been
- resolved.
-
- ****************************************************************************
- 3. NEW FEATURES AT THIS RELEASE.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 3.1 Release 4.0.3
-
- A new submenu has been added to the root clients menu entitled
- "Technical help". Selecting this submenu shows three items, one for the
- readme and two for the mascot technical help guide, available as text or
- HTML. The HTML version is only available if JSB's ALPHAbrowser is installed
- on your system.
-
- Two new error messages have been added to the .mvw_messages file
- (50,51) which will be displayed if problems occur updating/downdating the
- utmp file. If the update fails a message box is displayed and the utmp
- updating is disabled for the current mascot session. The updating check
- is not available on AIX.
-
- The environment variable to set the users mail file for mail watch
- can now be set in the .mvw_startup file. This means that by changing the
- /usr/mvw/.mvw_startup file all users can have a mail watch set on for
- their mail without having to create .mvw_startup files in each home
- directory.
-
- To enable this feature add the following line to the central copy of
- .mvw_startup (usually in /usr/mvw).
-
- "$MAIL" f.mail_watch
-
- Should an environment variable other then $MAIL be required then change
- $MAIL to the environment variable in use.
-
- Notes :
-
- 1) the central settings will be overridden by any local .mvw_startup files
- in the user home directory. If the local .mvw_startup file does not contain
- a mail watch line then none will be set.
-
- 2) prompt 60 if set in the .mvw_messages file will override the default
- mail directory, if $MAIL is used. Any other environment variable will cause
- prompt 60 to be ignored.
-
- 3) When a snapshot is performed the mail file pathname will be saved in the
- users .mvw_startup and not the environment variable name.
-
- Support has been added for a redraw sequence which can be sent to
- an application when, the application has caused mascot to do a limited
- degrade e.g. switching to 132 column mode. The redraw sequence is sent to
- the application when mascot has degraded and needs the application
- to redraw its screen e.g. when the user switches to a mascot menu and then
- back to the application window.
-
- The redraw sequence is specified with the application command line with
- the f.exec statement in the .mvw_usermenu file using the -r flag followed by
- the redraw sequence.
-
- e.g. The following statement would set Ctrl L to be vi's redraw sequence
- when it caused mascot to degrade;
-
- " Vi " -r^L f.exec vi
-
- Support has been added for wyse60 page memory emulation in a mascot
- window. Mascot now acts on ESCw0 and ESCw1. These are to select page 0 and
- page 1 of screen memory on the wyse60. Two new mnemonics have been added
- SELP0 and SELP1 which contain the sequences to switch to page 0 and 1
- respectively.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 3.2 Release 4.0.2
-
- Mascot is now supplied in compressed format, to allow the software
- to be distributed on single media. The files are supplied as follows:
-
- mvw/install - Mascot Installation Program.
- mvw/readme - This readme
- mvw/Mascot.tar.Z - Compressed tar file containing Mascot binaries.
-
- As with previous versions of Mascot type mvw/install to begin installation.
-
- 8bit characters are now supported on Wyse 60 terminals. To allow
- 8bit characters to be parsed remove NEBC from the wyse60 section of your
- mvw_termcap file.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 3.3 Release 4.0.1.
-
- Mascot now supports the extended vt420 function key programming
- commands. To enable mascot to distinguish between terminals i.e. vt220 that do
- not support the extended format for function key programming but do support
- the normal format, a new boolean terminal capability has been added VTEK.
- Including this in the terminal description enables support for the vt420
- extended key programming.
-
- Using mascot -l now shows the verbose screen as in -v and then exits,
- the license count is not updated while using -l so the user count may
- show 0 users on the system. A transparent printer can still be created
- using -p to test that this function works ok and display the printer name.
- The printer is deleted straight away when mascot exits
-
- Mascot now detects to see if Mascot is already running to stop users
- running Mascot within Mascot.
-
- Details of all command files being used are now displayed when
- mascot -v is used.
-
- When using command line options you can now specify multiple options,
- now possible to do mascot -bc.
-
- New entry of AT386-ie added in mvw_termcap to support Unixware 2.0
- console. Graphics characters are redefined for drawing borders etc. and the
- entry is chained to AT386.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 3.4 Release 4.0.0.
-
- The features included here are covered in detail by the
- documentation. In summary they are,
-
- The main functionality added at this release is Watcher. This allows
- for the monitoring of events in background windows and file modifications
- and notifies the user of an event occurring. All aspects of monitoring
- events and notification to the user of these events are fully configurable.
- See the chapter Watcher in the Configuration Guide for more details.
-
- ****************************************************************************
- 4. INSTALLATION & LICENSING.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 4.1 Hanging during installation.
-
- Where the systems resources are not sufficient the installation of
- Mascot may sometimes hang. e.g. system memory, disk space etc.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 4.2 Upgrade path.
-
- Mascot has three different types of license, an Educational license
- which expires after 30 days, a Demonstration license and a Live license.
-
- This is the valid upgrade path,
-
- 1. Educational
- 2. Educational increment
- 3. Demonstration
- 4. Demonstration increment
- 5. Live
- 6. Live increment
-
- ****************************************************************************
- 4.3 Command file conversion.
-
- If you have upgraded from Mascot v3.3 your central (usually /usr/mvw)
- 'mascot.rc' command file will be converted to the new command file format
- during installation of Mascot v4. If you have other 'mascot.rc' command
- files on your system and you want to convert these to the new format, you
- can do this by running the supplied conversion program as follows:
-
- /usr/mvw/bin/mvw.convert filename
-
- Where filename is the name of the mascot.rc type file. The file can
- be prefixed by a pathname if you require. The new command files will be
- created in the same directory as the file 'filename'.
-
- ***************************************************************************
-