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- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Update.doc -- Access! (C) 1987/88 By Keith Young --
-
- Other text files in this archive:
- Access!me The origional 'doc' file describing most of Access!'s
- features.
-
- Script.doc Documentation describing Acc!'s new scripting language.
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Time: -23:-
- Date: 9/21/88
- Subject: Changes/Additions to Access! Ver 1.41 since 1.4
-
- This release (1.41) of Access! is mostly a 'bug-fix' version for
- 1.4 and as such does not add any major new features... although there
- are a few changes/additions that I concider significant. These you will
- find listed in the top part of this file, with the bug/feature fixes
- listed afterwards.
- As I am still trying to get the regular 'doc' file organized /
- re-written, I have not updated it (Acces!me) for this release, but have
- included it for new users... thank you for bearing with me.
-
-
- o 'rd' -- although 'rd' (the text file reader) is now a few bytes
- smaller (68 bytes to be exact 8) it has a new 'Iconify' feature...
- Once you are reading a file, pressing Function key #1 ( F-1 ) while
- the 'rd' window is active will cause it to shrink up into a title-bar
- sized window that you can drag/place in a convenient spot until you are
- ready for it again.
- While in this 'Iconified' state, there is a 'close' gadget (used to
- open (yeah, I know 8) it back up to normal size), front/back gadgets
- (act as normal window depth-arranging gadgets) and an area in-between
- with 'rd' displayed that you can used to drag the window.
- (NOTE: clicking the 'close' gadget when 'rd' is in it's normal, un-iconified
- state QUITS the 'rd' program)
- When you shrink the window, it first saves it's location and size
- so that upon re-opening it, it returns to that possition/size. (it also
- remembers where it was possitioned in it's 'Iconified' state).
- 'rd' will _now_ open on the current 'Front-Screen'. So that (unlike
- it acted in version 1.4) if Access! is running, but WBench (or any other
- screen) is in front when it is invoked... it will live on _that_ screen.
-
- Other programmers are welcome to take advantage of this and
- distribute (_this_ 1.41 version of) 'rd' with thier _non-commercial_
- product as long as credit is given to myself somewhere in the docs.
- (programs using custom screens, allowing 'leach' programs on thier screen
- should have some provision of checking to make sure all windows are
- closed/removed before closing the parent screen. Here's one example (and
- what *I* use) of how you might do this...(pseudo code)
- while( myscreen->FirstWindow )
- AutoRequest( ..."Please Close all windows on this screen"...);
- CloseScreen( myscreen );
-
- o Iconify -- speaking of Iconify, Access! itself also now has a
- similar feature... selecting "Iconify" (from the "Project" menu) will
- cause Acc! to close up all of it's windows and custom screen and open
- a small title-bar sized window on the WorkBench screen until you are
- ready for it again.
- While in this iconified state, Acc! will _still_ recieve in-comming
- text and store it in the review buffer as normal. However, it will NOT
- (currently) continue any kind of file-transfer so please do NOT try it
- while you are in the middle of a transfer. (yes, this would be a handy
- feature while doing a long transfer... it's _planned_ for a future
- version, so please don't waste your time (and mine) suggesting it <grin>.
- Actually, my guess is, 8 out of 10 people never read this stuff... so
- I'll end up having to respond to a lot of 'bug' reports anyway... <sigh>)
- To re-open Acc! to it's normal/un-iconified state, click on the
- 'close' gadget on the little window.
-
- o Read Text File -- new menuitem added (in the "Project" menu) to give
- further access <ahem> and 'menu key sequence' to the text file reader
- ('rd'). Also, version 1.4 of Acc! looked in the C: directory for 'rd',
- it will now first look in the 'current directory' (the one you were cd'd
- to when you booted Acc!) and then the C: directory.
-
- o Online help -- well... similar to the above item, there is another
- new menuitem in the Project menu labeled "Help". This selection is just
- a quick way to have a text file loaded into 'rd'... it is hard-coded to
- look for a file called "Acc!.hlp" in the current "System Dir:" (specified
- on the DEFINE window). The idea here was/is to have an 'online help'
- file for quick reference to keyboard commands etc... but I haven't had
- the time to actually write that file yet <grin>. It can, of course be
- any text file named "Acc!.hlp", so you might opt not to use my (future)
- online-help file, and use this feature to bring up a list of user-ids
- or any other information you'd like to have handy while online.
-
- o Optimized -- Much crunching took place for this release... Acc! is
- now roughly 25,000 bytes smaller on disk and should use a bit less CHIP
- mem while running. (that should give you a little more room on disk for
- these 'doc' files... hint, hint <grin> )
-
-
- ---------------- Bug/Feature Fixes Below --------------------
-
- o Re-draw -- version 1.4 of Acc! introduced a feature that re-drew the
- text of the screen if it had been cleared by some other user-invoked
- feature (going in/out of CHAT mode, changing fonts, colors, Interlace,
- etc.). There was one slight bug in this... the last line received was
- not _always_ re-printed... this is fixed now.
-
- o NewCli -- also introduced in 1.4 was a feature that opened a CLI or
- a WShell window on Acc!'s screen if you had 'conman' running... this
- window had a 'close gadget' on it (using a feature of 'conman'). Well, it
- seems that _sometimes_ clicking on this clse-gadget killed the CLI, but
- left the window open (with no way to close it). This version will not
- use the close-gadget... until this problem can be tracked down and fixed.
-
- o File-Requester Sort -- This was touched on in 1.4 and again for this
- version... it now acts how I want/invisioned it to <grin>.
-
- o Clear-Screen -- it seems that in adding a feature to 1.4 that would
- move the cursor down one line if a 'clear-screen' code was received _and_
- a gadget-bar was at the top of the screen... caused a small bugglet...
- if you had _no_ gadget-bar up top, and got a clear-screen, it didn't. 8)
- This is now fixed.
-
- o Scripts -- although no new features were added in this version, there
- was a small problem... when trying to select a script to execute, the
- file-requester came up looking in the "System Dir:" but after you
- selected one, the term then looked in the "Download Dir:" for the script...
- unless they were the same place, the term never found it. <duck>
- This is now fixed. (it looks i the "System Dir:", a future version may
- have a seporate directory/path for scripts)
-
- o Multi-Auto-Redial -- (well, somewhere in there 8) when multiple
- numbers were selected, and a connection was made with one, then 'Redial'
- was selected to continue to the next number in the list... it re-dialed
- the last again... I think this has been fixed... let me know if there
- are any inconsistancies (sp) left in the way that whole mess works <grin>
-
- o WXmodem Upload -- there was a bug (since 1.3a) in the WXmodem upload
- routine that may or may not have effected you... it wasn't a fatal bug,
- but caused the transfer to 'pause' for a (several) short periods during
- the transfer thus slowing things down a bit. This is fixed now.
-
- o Etc... -- I'm sure there were several other minor changes, but they
- escape me at the moment.
-
- That's all for now (at least that I remember)... Keep those
- suggestions, comments and (especially) registrations comming...
- Enjoy,
- - Keith
-
