¶ AYS nows allows for the creation of 'windowless' services, which are intended to be used by stacks that implement communication front-ends that hide the detail of the connection.
The only visible difference to AYS version 1.x is that the pop-up menu that specifies the Terminal Emulation tool to use with a service, now has an additional entry, 'None'. That is, you can specify that no terminal emulation is to be used. This tells AYS to -
1) never show/activate the window associated with the service.
2) never to update the 'Windows' menu with the name of the service.
Since these services are neither visible to the user nor appear in any menu they may only be written to and read from via HyperTalk scripts. The idea then, is to develop scripts for a service in the normal fashion using a terminal emulation. When the scripts are debugged then the emulation can be dispensed with, (via selecting 'None' from the pop-up menu) and the service installed into the target stack.
¶ AYS now permits services to be placed in 'listen' mode to await the arrival of a incoming complementary connection. Such a facility permits the creation of simple HyperCard 'server' facilities.
¶ A further service definition parameter has been added. The new parameter allows for the specification of up to 5, comma separated "notification" strings. Each string, if detected in the service output will trigger the execution of a HyperTalk handler called 'ServiceNotify' that may or may not be defined for the service.
¶ The text with a text edit window may now be extracted via the property 'text'
eg. get the Text of window 'editorname'
¶ For each active window, (service or text edit) it is now possible to specify that the HyperTalk handler 'WindowDeactivated' is executed whenever the owning card window is made the frontmost window. This allows the user the ability to script an action in response to the owning card window being brought to the front. The feature may be set on or off via the window property statement "set the BehindCard of window "Windowname" to true/false"
• Improvements/Changes to Existing Features.
¶ The service definition 'Termination string' parameter has been expanded to allow the specification of up to 5, comma separated strings.
¶ The range of pages that may be scrolled by a service has been expanded to 0 - 30.
¶ The timeout feature has been redefined to be more meaningfull. The timeout feature is now defined as the number of minutes of inactivity that is allowed before the service is automatically terminated. That is, if a service has a timeout setting of x minutes, then if no input is received nor any output is sent by the service within x minutes then the service is closed. A zero value turns the feature off.
¶ The strings menu may now contain strings that contain control character pairs. That is, strings may now contain the character “^” (shift 6) which is interpreted as defining the following character to be a control character. The character is converted to its numeric control value by subtracting 64 from its character value, eg. ^M = control M (carriage-return) and ^[ = escape. Consequently, strings may now be multiple lines.
¶ The text matching facilities have been revitalised to include wildcard characters and the ability to recognise character string pairs and to automatically retrieve the text from between them.
• XFCN Arguments.
Several of the constituent XFCN, XCMD and HyperTalk scripts have had their argument lists expanded to provide an extended interface. Refer to appendices A, B and C of the user manual for details.
• Hypercard Global Management.
The number of HyperCard globals and the manner in which AYS manages them has been changed to provide a more consistant and useful interface. Refer to appendix D in the user manual for details.
• Bug Fixs.
¶ Management of the 'Function' menu within the AYS Installer stack has been improved to ensure that it is always highlighted when positioned on a service definition card.
¶ Collection of captured data via a script now only occurs after any string matching is done.
¶ A new scheme for closing service windows ensures that a service is always closed correctly regardless of the status of the current card.
¶ The 'Selection' submenu for a text edit window do longer requires a selection to be made for it to be highlighted.
¶ The pathname specified via the AttachLogFile message no longer needs to be an existing file.
¶ The handling of HyperCard pathnames for multi-disc environments now works correctly.
Legal Stuff.
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The At-Your-Service Software was written by Tim Barlow.
The MacTCP™ and Communications Toolbox™ software are copyrighted by Apple
Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
AppleTalk® and Macintosh® are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
LocalTalk™, MacTCP™ and Communications Toolbox™ are trademarks of Apple
Computer, Inc.
HyperCard is a registered trademark of Claris Corporation.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective corporations.
No charge may be levied for this program, nor may it be included as part of any package sold for profit without express authorisation from the author. It may be distributed freely via BBSs and other electronic data services that do not explicitly charge for file downloads, that is, do not charge a per file rate as opposed to a per hour rate. Further, no service or distributor may attach additional restrictions to this program or to its distribution. This program must be distributed complete with all documentation and additional programs.
Use of the At-Your-Service software and other software and fonts accompanying your license (the "Software") and its documentation is at your sole risk. The
Software and its documentation, and Tim Barlow's software maintenance and
extended maintenance, if applicable, are provided "AS IS" and without
warranty of any kind and Tim Barlow and Tim Barlow's Licensor(s), including but
not limited to Tim Endres and Apple Computer, Inc. (collectively herein referred to as "Tim Barlow"), EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND AGAINST INFRINGEMENT. TIM BARLOW DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. FURTHERMORE, TIM BARLOW DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY TIM BARLOW OR A TIM BARLOW AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (AND NOT TIM BARLOW OR A TIM BARLOW AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE), ASSUMES THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL TIM BARLOW AND HIS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS
PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF TIM BARLOW OR A TIM BARLOW AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE HAS
BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY.
In no event shall Tim Barlow's total liability to you for all damages, losses,
and causes of action (whether in contract, tort [including negligence] or
otherwise) exceed the amount paid for the Software and its documentation
