------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JR-Comm 0.99b, First beta test release of JR-Comm 1.0. Copyright (C) 1988-89 by Jack Radigan. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 08/28/89 -------- I've found the bug and memory leak that caused the previous miscarrige... ====================================================================== Other bug fixes/additions for .99b include: - Split review buffer working. - Dial timeout gadget in the modem requester is now working. - Corrected mis-numbered gadgets in the general requester, all work as expected now. - EOL in handling modified, this was what caused the capture file puke... - Terminal requester got another logic drive, everything is now sane. - Added cursor color and no-blink gadgets to the terminal requester. - Split IBM ANSI into color and monochrome modes. - SkyPix should be much better now. - No more dots left on the bottom of the screen. - Palette now handles the VT100 screen properly. ====================================================================== A few more notes: - The color gadget for the cursor defaults to a '9'. This may seem a bit odd since the default display is the Workbench screen, but it still ends up selecting the color for any display due to how the pen number works. Think of it this way, bits 0-4 of the pen relate directly to the screen bitplanes, so a decimal nine works out to a binary 1001, which selects the first and fourth bitplanes. Since the Workbench screen is a 4 color screen, only 2 bitplanes are used, so you can change the 1001 to xx01, which produces color #1. Therefor, I picked 9 as a default since the three palettes all have decent colors assigned in that position. - The VT100 and IBM mono palettes work a bit differently. All you need to do is select any even color for the background, all will be changed. Colors 1 & 5 define the low intensity color, 3 & 7 define the high intensity. Colors 5 & 7 are the blinking versions. Both versions are adjusted regardless of which one you select. - The terminal requester now supports a global custom palette, you no longer have to tweak each one individually (unless you "want" too). It's pretty simple, when the gadget in the terminal requester is set, you are using the custom palette. Although it is set to the same colors as the IBM color palette when the program first loads, you can change the palette permanently by selecting the Palette menu item. You can't adjust the custom palette via the phonebook entry requester, only from the menu, and only if the custom palette gadget is set in the terminal requester. ====================================================================== 08/25/89 -------- Ok, here's the first beta of 1.0. There has been quite a bit of work done so far, most of it has to do with the console and error checking. One thing, I've not had a chance to make a JR-Update yet, I will soon. ====================================================================== The bugs that have been fixed so far are: - Serial device open guru, if the device didn't exist or it failed to open a guru would occur. - During a fatal abort JR-Comm could guru instead of exiting cleanly, this now works properly. Be warned though, most all conditions that result in a fatal abort will most likely not return all the memory that was allocated prior to the abort occuring. Too much logic would be required in order to do this and since it is a rare occurance brought on by someone trying to run this thing while being "close to the edge" I don't think it warrents the wasted space, agreed? - Local input from keyboard or ASCII send are now echoed to the review buffer and capture buffer. - Buttons in the protocol requester didn't accurately reflect the data in the phonebook entries, fixed. - Control characters in half duplex are now squelched. - Timer reset logic modified, possible guru generator. - Window location logic modified so that windows will now open in a non-interlace screen after having been moved down while in an interlaced screen. - ASCII send completely re-written, much faster and now also buffers the file before sending it. - Keyboard response time decreased while data is being displayed to the console. - Local CR/LF generated for half-duplex use when two JR-Comm's are connected together. ====================================================================== Now for the additions to JR-Comm for 1.0. - Range checking for all numeric input, only realistic values will be accepted by JR-Comm, no more negative buffer values and other such nonsense... - User defined d/l buffer size. Still defaults to 8k, definable from 8k to 32k in increments of 1k blocks. Don't go hog wild if you're running from a floppy, contrary to what you may think, too large a buffer will muck things up worse than a smaller one will, but go on, go ahead and see for yourself... - Split-screen review buffer allows simultaneous input and review. Still needs some work, displays some lines twice when changing directions. - VT100 emulation. Supports scroll regions, high intensity characters, blinking characters, double width and double height characters, smooth scrolling, line wrap, newline mode, VT100 ANSI graphics character set. Fully compatible with the VT100 torture test text file written by Joe Smith, 1985. You have to add the fonts included to your fonts: direcotory for it to properly work though. - SkyPix emulation support. Sound and brush transmission, play and display haven't been tested yet though. - TTY dumb terminal mode. Very dumb of course! - ANSI emulation sub-divided for support of Amiga private sequences and I also plan to divide IBM into color and monochrome displays. - Proper keyboard support for all emulations listed above. A special IBM scan codes mode is now possible for those who want to use their Amiga as a true looking IBM from remote via the popular IBM utility called "Doorway", this mode is called the Doorway mode in QMODEM 4.0. - Internal font now uses modified Pearl font for non-interlaced and interlaced screens. - 25/50 line mode in interlace mode. - Display now has intelligent scroll logic. Only bitplanes which contain data will be scrolled. It will also determine minimum width of scroll size to further decrease time spent scrolling display. This is not a cure-all addition, it will only result in a performance gain when all the bit-planes are not in use. - Now have CR, LF & CR/LF end-of-line in and out types. - The different terminal emulations now activate and deactivate certain gadgets in the terminal requester, these settings are recommended, adjust as required. ====================================================================== Some more notes: - The two new dialer gadgets in the modem requester aren't working yet, the code hasn't been added to the dialer, that's all. - The custom palette gadget in the terminal requester is an override feature, it prevents the internal palettes from being used. - Smooth scrolling was added for VT100, it's an expensive option, don't use it at speeds over 4800bps, data overruns are almost certain if you do. - Wrap lines mode was a late addition, I still have to add logic for the cursor to wrap up to the last line if it's active. It will wrap down to the next line now though. - IBM scan codes, as described above. If you grok an IBM BBS and know what the Doorway program is then you "want" this feature! - Answerback message, for use with VT100 mode. - EOL in was made a bit dummer to decrease processing time, it no longer does character by character checking for CR/LF pairs, so, if you see double spaced lines you need to set it to CR/LF. If the lines drop, but don't return to the beginning of the display then you have to set it to LF. One line being overwritten means a CR is the only thing being sent. When you change emulations these gadgets get updated to the most common EOL in setting for you. - The status line on top feature was removed for the time being, after adding VT100 and SkyPix it turned the console into a horror show, so I squelched it until I can tease out the snags that it caused. - CTS/RTS handshake has been moved to the general parameters requester. Set it and forget it now. Likewise, there is now only an XON/XOFF gadget in the serial requester. - Split review buffer gadget in general requester. - File saver is the thing that caused a major panic among floppy users when 0.94 was first released. Of course, it defaults to being inactive. - Pre-scroll is a recent addition. What happens is this, when more than 1k of text is queued up in the serial device for display output, the program will scroll up this amount of lines to decrease scroll overhead. 8 lines is a good number, but can be adjusted from 1 to 20. (I should make that zero so that it can be disabled...) - GMT offset was moved from protocol requester to the general params requester, makes sense, eh? - Task priority, settings range from -5 to 15. - Chat history and review are as before, but have minimum and maximum settings now, you can figure it out pretty easy if you must... - Ok, the much asked for (but I doubt the need for) download buffer size. In increments of 1k, the settings are 8 to 32. I hope this quells the masses... - The palette now has an undo gadget that will reset the palette to the settings that were in effect when the palette was first opened. I still have to make it work right with the VT100 palette, results are currently not as expected... ====================================================================== What still needs work: - Phonebook needs an overhaul, I've got a few rough ideas for dial in order of selection and last date called display for each entry. I have to give it some more thought though... - File requester still isn't dynamic yet... - Palette needs work for selecting colors/intensities with VT100... - Tweak the console code up, basic stuff, that's all. - Text mode protocol transfers have a few bugettes yet, will fix... - Add some quick-set gadgets in the status line for displayed parameters... - Tried to cure the infamous XOFF lock-up when offline, failed miserably. I also tried this on ATalk III, Access!, OnLine! and Diga!, all of them lock up tight too, I think this one is out of my hands... - Allow the serial device to inherit the buffer size from preferences rather than use a fixed 4k buffer like I do now... - Add XPR hooks... - Add logic to make open capture file more flexible, append, overwrite and the like. Automatic split sounds like something for the future though. - Add some sort of clipping for the split review mode, should make it clipboard compatible while I'm at it. - Make block counts work logically instead of displaying true block number. - Add a few more activity log actions for elapsed time on and such... - Add some basic logic fuctions to macros, for loading new files and a few other goodies... - Allow for voice calls in phonebook, don't know if it will be in the dialer, or a one-shot dial type thing yet... - More things on the wish list, but I have to dig up the scraps of paper that I wrote them on... ====================================================================== Scripts and ARexx support: I know you've been clamoring for this, I want it too. But not right now, ok? Definately will be there for the next release, but not in 1.0, sorry... ====================================================================== Now, there's sure to be more than a few bugs floating around in this one, I've not had time to really check this out completely yet. Please, please, don't be ignorant and pass this on to someone else, you've registered for this program and therefor, have a right to use it, but not the right or permission to give it away to someone else, thanks. Try to exercise this thing heavily, don't just set it up and use it, try everything it has to offer and see what breaks and what doesn't feel "right". All bug reports in conference #2 only, ok? Have fun... -jack-