Ham Radio 2000 #2/Ham Radio 2000 - Volume 2.iso/HAMV2/PACKET/TOP153EN/CHANGES.TXT

Text File | 1997-10-10 | 21.9 KB | 504 lines

This list is more or less in the order I made the changes, it is
not in any sort of order of importance. I suggest you read it
all, because the change you wanted might be at the end!

All programs get bigger as new features are added and so tend to
run more slowly on PCs with slow processors or relatively low
amounts of memory. If your processor is less than a 486DX2/66,
or you have less than 8Mb of memory with Win31, or less tha 12Mb
with Win95, then I would recommend making a complete backup of
your existing WinPack before you install this upgrade. You can
then easily revert to your old system if you find that the
performance of this version is unacceptably slow.


Changes WinPack V6.10 -> V6.30
------------------------------

1. Phone modem support added. This allows WinPack to be used on
the land-line port of an FBB BBS. See the "Phone Modem Support"
section of the help.

2. A sixth speed is available in "Options", "Comms Setup". This
defaults to 38400 bps, but it can be toggled between 38400 and
57600 by right clicking on the button.

3. Several servers made formless, so they don't open a small
window in the corner of the screen when they run. This was done
to try and reduce the problem of WinPack grabbing the focus from
other applications. The servers affected are LOC.EXE, ACK.EXE,
REQCFG.EXE and REQFIL.EXE.

4. A "Stay Connected" option added to the "Action" menu - this
allows you to stay connected to the BBS at the end of an Auto
BBS session. Also a STAY_CONNECTED script key word added - see
the "How Scripts Work" section of the on-line help for more
information.

5. An "Auto BBS Disable" option added to the Action menu - this
allows you to temporarily disable Auto BBS sessions.

6. WinPack now supports "themes" when reading bulletins. Using a
theme allows you to make a selection from your bulletin list
based on a combination of "To", "From", "At" and "Title"
selections. A themes editor is provided.

7. The "LEDs" in WinPack now work better when using TF host
mode.

8. [NOT AT] now works in the Selection List Editor.

9. A problem fixed with the viewers editor which could cause it
to mess up the viewers list.

10. The ACK server removes any viewer triggers (^.) from the
titles of ACK messages. Also viewer triggers are removed from
the titles of messages when you use WinPack's reply options.

11. If the title of a message contains an '&',it now displays
properly in the title line of the edit window.

12. If you somehow delete the BBS.TXT script file, WinPack now
warns you rather than closing down.

13. If you are writing or editing a message and select Abandon,
you are asked for confirmation.

14. You can now specify exclude texts in the ALARMS add-on, and
it has an option to log all monitored traffic containing an
alert text.

15. You can stop the registration information being shown when
the program starts - it used to appear for 5 seconds. This
feature is only available if the program is registered and the
registered callsign matches the callsign set in "Personal/BBS
Info".

16. A problem fixed which could cause WinPack in BPQ mode not to
respond to an external command from a user if a "cmd:" had just
been received from the software TNC.

17. Support added for specifying BTEXT in BPQ mode.

18. The window background colours of the BPQ terminal can now be
changed. (PLEASE NOTE - the fonts and colours menus for the
terminal are options on the system menu, which is the menu you
drop down by clicking the top left corner of the window, or by
pressing Alt+space). Different colours and fonts can be set up
for Terminal_1, Terminal_2, etc.

19. The BPQ terminal transmit window now has scroll back buffers
and automatic line wrap. Also, pressing <PgUp> or <PgDn> in the
transmit window will scroll the receive window - this makes the
terminal behave the same as the main WinPack screen.

20. A problem fixed which could stop the bull list scrolling.

21. A problem fixed which would result in the help file being
sent to a user if they sent just '/' on its own.

22. WinPack can now read messages to you - If you have a viewer
configured for an extension of SPK (speak), then, if you press
Ctrl+T whilst reading a message, WinPack will use the SPK viewer
to speak the message. SPKVIEW.ZIP contains an SPK viewer which
can be used by anyone who has a Sound Blaster sound card which
was supplied with the TextOle utility as part of its bundled
software. Unzip SPKVIEW.ZIP into your main WINPACK directory and
read SPKVIEW.TXT. This file also contains details of the rules
used by SPKVIEW, which may be off help to anyone thinking of
writing a different (better?) SPK viewer.

23. WinPack now counts the mail in the MAIL\SEND directory at
least once every 5 minutes. This means external programs can
put messages in the directory without having to tell WinPack
that they have done it.

24. Several changes to WinpScape, including support for some new
special protocol types and support for graphics - see
WINPSCAP.TXT and WINPSCAP.HLP.

25. The ^.HTM trigger is no longer necessary in the titles of
HTML messages. WinPack now decides whether a message contains
HTML by scanning it. However, it is still recommended that the
^.HTM is used, because it provides a method of selecting files
of interest (or not!) in the Selection List Editor. It is also
of course needed for backward compatibility with older versions
of WinPack.

26. Support for a special HTML protocol type - AX25MAIL - added
to WinPack. If you use Netscape as your HTML viewer, then
clicking on an AX25MAIL link in a viewed HTML file will
automatically put WinPack into message reply mode.

27. Support added for automatically submitting a form contained
in a viewed HTML file. For more information on both this and
point '26', please read AX25MAIL.TXT.

28. An attempt made to fix the problem of the bull list
sometimes not appearing when "Read Bulletins" is selected. If
you get this problem, I would be interested to know whether you
are running Win31 or Win95, and how much memory your PC has.

29. The connected station's callsign, displayed in the bottom
left corner of the screen is now on a lighter coloured
background. On some PCs it was previously difficult to read.

30. WINPLZH1.DLL partly rewritten to try and fix an occasional
GPF problem.

31. (With serious misgivings!), the LASTNUM internal variable,
used for FBB sync requests and "$NUM" in bulletin list commands,
can now be changed from within WinPack. Previously you had to
close down WinPack and edit LASTNUM.TXT.

32. As part of the battle to stop WinPack grabbing the focus
from other apps, external programs and servers are now started
without being given the focus. If you have any external programs
or servers which are DOS apps, you should make sure that the
PIF settings do not prevent them running in the background. With
Win31, the "Execution: background" option in the PIF should be
checked. With Win95 you should make sure that "Background Always
suspend" on the "Misc" tab of Properties is not checked.

33. In case point '32' gives people problems running DOS
add-ons, two new variables have been added to the [TERMINAL]
section of PACKET.INI, they are EXTERN_MINIMIZED and
EXTERN_FOCUS. They allow you to alter the way that servers and
external programs are run. The default now is that they are both
FALSE. The default for previous versions of WinPack was
"EXTERN_MINIMIZED=FALSE", "EXTERN_FOCUS=TRUE".

34. The maximum allowable setting of TXDelay in the TF host mode
software TNC increased to 500. This fixes a problem when using
WinPack with the version of TF in the SYMEK TNC3S.

35. WinPack will now attempt to process any 7plus .COR files
which are received.

36. For some reason, FBB V7 won't allow a user to use both
compressed download and compressed forwarding in the same
connect session. Previous versions of WinPack required you to
edit PACKET.INI and put "SPLIT_SESSIONS=TRUE" in the FBB session
in order to work round this problem. "Use Split Sessions" is now
an option on the "Mail Options" setup screen.

37. The alternative BACKUP server for outgoing messages, which I
have personally used for at least a year, is included in this
update. This server creates subdirectories of ARCHIVE\SEND named
according to the topic for SBs or the recipient's callsign for
SPs. Individual messages within the subdirectories have names
derived from the date you sent the message. This makes it much
easier to find particular messages. However, so as not to
overwrite your old BACKUP server - with which you may be
completely happy - the new BACKUP.EXE is put in the main WINPACK
directory. If you want to use it, you must replace the old
BACKUP.EXE in SERVERS\SEND with this new version.

38. An updated version of the documentation file WINPACK.TXT is
included. This file, written by Mike, G0OPC, was included with
WinPack up to V5.53, but left out of V6 because of lack of disk
space.

39. Expanding a compressed message which had become corrupted
whilst downloading it could result in WinPack creating a HUGE
file called FBBDECOD.$$$. A limit of 1Mb has now been put on the
size of this file.

40. An extra bulletins list prune option has been added:-
If you click the Prune button when reading bulletins, but you
haven't first marked a block of lines in the bulletins list,
then Prune will now trim the list down to the last 'N' lines.
'N' is a number which you can set using "Options", "Bulletin
Deleting...", "Bulletins List Prune Size" - the default is
5,000. (If you mark a block of lines before clicking Prune, then
it behaves exactly as it did on previous versions of WinPack.)

41. The Options menu has been slightly rearranged.

42. There is now a "splash screen" to give you something to look
at while WinPack is starting up. It displays SPLASH.BMP from the
main WinPack directory. SPLASH.BMP is included in the update,
and also SPLASH2.BMP which can be used as an alternative.
However, I'm not very artistic, so I'm sure a lot of people will
be able to create a much better SPLASH.BMP themselves! If you
don't want a splash screen, you can either delete SPLASH.BMP, or
add /NOSPLASH to the WinPack command line. (Hint - if you try
another SPLASH.BMP, first copy the original SPLASH.BMP to
SPLASH1.BMP, so you don't lose it.)

43. WinPack now has internal support for mailing lists. See
"Help", "Help Contents", "Writing Messages", "Creating And Using
Mailing Lists".

44. The background colours of the receive windows and the
transmit window can now be set independently of each other.
Previously they all had to be the same colour.

45. README.TXT has been brought more or less up to date.

46. A Baycom driver package which allows you to use WinPack with
BPQ and a Baycom modem is included in the update. It is
NODBAY13.ZIP. If you are interested in using a Baycom modem,
unzip this file and read NODE2BAY.TXT.

47. The BPQ Terminal now applies ANSI to ASCII conversion to
keyboard input in the same way as the main program. This fixes a
problem with not being able to input some accented characters.

48. Other applications can now put text files in MAIL\RECEIVE
which don't conform to WinPack's message format, and they will
still be made available in the "Read Mail" list. The message
status will be 'X', the "To" and "From" will be blank, and the
message title will be the file name.

49. Two new virtual TNC commands added to WinPack-TF. They are
AUTOSSID and CHANCALL. For more information, read the help on
the commands from within WinPack by sending "?AUTOSSID" and
"?CHANCALL" to the virtual TNC.

50. Support added for PC Flexnet. This is a major addition and
is somewhat experimental. Please read WINPFLEX.TXT, which is
part of this update, for further information.

51. The BPQ Terminal and the TF Terminal both now support the
WinPack text short-cut keys (Ctrl+F1 to Ctrl+F9).

52. A log is created of all Yapp file transfers. The file name
is YAPPLOG.TXT and by default it is put in the MAIL\RECEIVE
directory so that it can be read as an 'X' status message.
However, if you put "PERMANENT_YAPP_LOG=TRUE" in the [TERMINAL]
section of PACKET.INI, then the log is created in the TEXT
subdirectory of the main WinPack directory.

53. When creating 7plus parts, the 7plus program converts a few
special characters in file names to '_', e.g. a file called
EXAMP~1.ZIP will be converted by 7plus to EXAMP_1.ZIP. WinPack
didn't allow for this happening and sometimes couldn't find the
7plus parts.

54. If you try to close WinPack while you are in the middle of
writing a message, you now get a warning.

55. The keyboard Scroll Lock LED can be made to flash if you
have unread mail in your mail box. If you tend to leave your
monitor switched off, you can see if there is any new mail
without having to switch it on. There is a new option on the
Options menu - Flash Scroll Lock - to enable/disable this
facility.

56. Auto-prune of the bulletins list is now available. If you
add the command line option /AUTOPRUNE, then the list will be
pruned when the program starts. If you put entries in "Auto
Times" in the Selection List Editor which end with "PRUNE", then
the list will be pruned at those times. In both cases the
pruning is as if you have clicked the Prune button, when reading
bulletins, without having marked a block. (See point '40'
above).

57. Not a WinPack change, and only of interest to people who use
WinPack with BPQ:- A slight problem has been found with the BPQ
file BPQDLL.DLL which results in WinPack (or any other program
using it) terminating with a GPF if an unusual format of nodes
broadcast is monitored. The same problem also affects the BPQ
DOS applications PAC4.EXE and SWITCH.EXE. How many people are
affected by this problem depends on how many nodes put out these
unusual broadcasts - I know of one that definitely does it, so I
am sure there must be others. The file BPQPATCH.ZIP contains
patched versions of BPQDLL.DLL, PAC4.EXE and SWITCH.EXE which
fix the problem. Please read BPQPATCH.TXT in the ZIP for more
information.

58. The "quick reply with auto-quote" feature which was
introduced in V6.2 couldn't be used if you used WinPack without
a mouse, because it required you to right click on the reply
button. You can now activate this feature by holding down Shift
and pressing the speed key for the reply button - Alt+T for a
bulletin reply or Alt+S for a personal reply. (Yes, I know that
pressing three keys is a bit much, but for anyone who habitually
uses Windows without a mouse, it's probably quite easy!  :-)

59. WARNING! The WINPACK\TEMP directory is strictly for
WinPack's own use, and WinPack frequently deletes the contents.
Some WinPack functions will not work properly if WinPack cannot
empty the TEMP directory. DO NOT put your own files in that
directory, DO NOT write protect files in the directory, and DO
NOT create subdirectories in it. IF WINPACK V6.3 FINDS WRITE
PROTECTED FILES IN THE WINPACK\TEMP DIRECTORY WHEN IT IS
CLEARING IT, IT WILL ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE WRITE PROTECTION.
NOTE - these comments refer to the WINPACK\TEMP directory, they
have nothing to do with C:\TEMP, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, or your TEMP
environment variable.

60. Some minor problems which could occur when using multi-user
mode fixed.

Sticking Scrollbars
-------------------
No, I haven't fixed it! The effect is that some times when you
scroll a WinPack text window by clicking the mouse on the arrows
on the ends of the scrollbars, the scrolling doesn't stop when
you release the mouse. Also, if you move the mouse away from the
scroll arrow and then move it back, the scrolling restarts
without you clicking the mouse. I can't fix it, because the
problem is either in Visual BASIC or in one of the third-party
VBXs which I supply with WinPack. If it happens, all you have to
do is click the mouse somewhere on the scroll bar other than on
the arrow which is "stuck" - the arrow will then become
"unstuck".


For those upgrading directly from V6.1 to V6.3, here is the
previous CHANGES.TXT:-

Changes WinPack V6.10 -> V6.20
------------------------------

************************ IMPORTANT!! **************************
This is an "experimental/development" update. It is designed
to be used by people who have got WinPack V6.10 working totally
successfully and who want to try something new. IT IS NOT FOR
PEOPLE WHO ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH V6.10! There aren't any
"magic" fixes in it - problems aren't going to disappear that
aren't mentioned in the notes below. Some of the changes are
new features not only to WinPack, but to AX25 packet in general,
to understand them you must read the help or you won't even
be able to understand what some of these features do!
***************************************************************

Most of the changes listed below are explained by reference to
the relevant sections of the help file. Please read them!

1. Support for Viewers for messages and for 7plus files. THIS
IS A MAJOR NEW FEATURE. See "Help Contents", "Viewers". Also a
Viewers editor is available from the File menu.

2. Host mode support for TF2.7b and WA8DED. THIS IS A MAJOR NEW
FEATURE. See "Help Contents", "Host Mode Support".

3. An extra program - WinpScape - allows you to use Netscape
interactively on AX25 packet. THIS IS A MAJOR NEW FEATURE. It is
also highly experimental! See WINPSCAP.HLP.

4. Quick reply with auto-quote - for an explanation of this,
read a message, press F1 and read the "Quick Reply With
Auto-Quote" section.

5. MD2 Password support files included. They are MD2PASS.EXE,
MD2PASS.CFG, MD2PASS.TXT and G4IDEMD2.DLL in the directory
WINPACK\SCRIPTS\PROGRAMS.

6. The help has been restructured - there is now a separate
index window.

7. Extra support for DDE links from other applications - see
DDE.TXT.

8. Control keys supported in scripts - see "Help Contents", "How
Scripts Work", "Control Characters". Also the character to tell
the scripts SEND command not to send a <return> at the end of
the text has been changed to '~'.

9. SUSPENDREMOTE script command added - see "Help Contents",
"How Scripts Work" SUSPENDREMOTE.

10. Support added for using WinZip instead of PKZIP/PKUNZIP. See
"Help Contents", "PACKET.INI", "Section [TERMINAL]", ZIP and
UNZIP.

11. Outgoing mail now counted before and after every Auto-BBS
session, because some servers mess up the outbox count.

12. When WAIT_PROMPT is used in a script, the optional arguments
are checked even if a connection doesn't exist - this helps to
exit from scripts when a connect to the BBS fails.

13. The "Mail only this session?" prompt can be disabled from
the "Mail", "Mail Options" form.

14. Warning if saving a message to file fails.

15. Renumber program - if you put NOCHECK on the command line,
it won't attempt to check if WinPack is running. Apparently the
way the check is done caused a problem with some versions of
Windows NT.

16. If you use FBB compressed forward, the default value for
SEND_FQ is now TRUE. See "Help Contents", "PACKET.INI",
"Section [FBB]".

17. The '@' is now NOT needed in 'At' selections in the bulls
list.

18. If you use TF host mode or BPQ, FBB sync requests will be
sent even when a connection is progress.

19. An option added ("Options", "Log Frequency/Power") to easily
change the frequency and power used in the auto-log. The
defaults are the frequency and power set up in "Options",
"Personal/BBS Info", but you can create a file in the WINPACK
directory called LOGFREQ.TXT containing extra frequencies and
power levels. These will then appear on the "Log
Frequency/Power" menu. However, WinPack always reverts to the
default frequency and power when the program is started. The
required format for the entries in the file is, for example,
"432.650MHz/10dBW".

20. An option added to show the FBB unproto beacons being held
in memory, waiting for gaps in the list to be filled. This gives
an indication of how well you are hearing the beacons. If there
are usually a lot of beacons in the buffer, you aren't hearing
them very well. If the buffer is always empty, you are either
hearing them perfectly, or you aren't hearing them at all! (This
option is obviously only available if you use the beacons).

21. If you read a personal message and send a reply, the
message status becomes 'R'.

22. "Select A Message To Read" window made bigger.

23. The maximum 7plus part size can be set to 30,000 bytes,
previously it was only 10,000. (This is not for use on the UK
network! However, some other countries have networks capable of
handling 30kb parts.)

24. The Selection List editor now makes a better job of
evaluating times input like 1:25 rather than 01:25.

25. A few errors in the help file fixed (but some more probably
introduced with all the new features!)

26. Debugging beeps removed when using the Prune or Delete
options on the message list.

27. Fixed a problem with right clicking on the sig button - it
didn't do what the help said it should do.

28. When reading bulls, after a selection was made, the PgUp,
PgDn and Esc keys appeared not to work.

29. Yippee!! For a long time I have had occasional reports from
people who use the FBB beacons that they sometimes get duplicate
occurrences of the same messages in their list. I knew it only
occurred when people heard the beacons both direct and via digi,
but I had never been able to reproduce the problem. Totally by
accident I managed it. If only someone had given me a proper bug
report a year ago... Anyway, I'm confident the problem is now
fixed.

30. A corrupted file in the MAIL\RECEIVE directory could stop
the personal mail list from loading, the code has now been made
more robust.

31. If you used BPQ mode, FBB message beacons would be
collected whilst you were connected, but syncs would not be
sent. This has now been fixed.

32. A change made to SPEECH.EXE to try and stop it taking the
focus from other applications.


Roger Barker, G4IDE
October 1997