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ADVBAS.NEW
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1987-04-15
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ADVBAS 3.3, 04/14/87:
A new modem status routine, CARRIER, lets you check the Carrier
Detect. To ease those data-entry woes, STRIPBLANKS allows you to
strip the blanks (and control characters) off either the left or
right side of a string, or both. A bug in MAKEWINDOW dealing with
shadowed windows has been fixed. A cross-reference listing of where
ADVBAS routines are located inside source and object files is now
included (ADVBAS.XRF). The manual, ADVBAS.DOC, has been reformatted
to allow binding. Note that my address is changing as of June 1.
ADVBAS 3.2, 03/16/87:
You can check for the existence of a subdirectory with SUBEXIST
(drive spec allowed). COPYFILE will let you copy a file faster than
the system COPY command, and without having to do a SHELL. A drive
status function, DISKSTAT, has been provided. This allows you to
find out such information as the number of bytes in a cluster, the
amount of free space left on a drive, total space available on a
drive, etc. Routines to convert the time or date from numbers to a
string and vice versa have been added (DATEN2S, DATES2N, TIMEN2S, and
TIMES2N). For AT machines only, GETEXTM will return the amount of
extended memory in kilobytes. BLOCKMOVE will let you move a block of
memory from one location to another. DATASEG will retrieve the value
of the current data segment.
ADVBAS 3.1, 03/07/87:
Time/date compression has been added. DATE2INT and INT2DATE allow
you to convert a date to a single integer and back. TIME2INT and
INT2TIME do the same with the time. Given a month number, MONTH will
return the name of the month. SPEAKER will enable you to toggle
sound effects on and off, without changing the timing of the affected
routines. TINSTR lets you search a string for a character of a given
type, rather than a specific character. You can search for any
combination of Alphabetic, Numeric, Symbolic, Control, Graphics, or
Blank characters, or their opposites. The DTR function lets you
turn the communications signal DTR on or off.
ADVBAS 3.0, 02/04/87: (Second Anniversary Edition)
Many of the existing ADVBAS routines have been further optimized.
MMCHECK will now return the number of mouse buttons available as well
as a mouse status check. GETKBD and SETKBD allow you to get/set the
states of the keyboard toggles: insert, caps lock, num lock, and
scroll lock. GETCRT tells you whether the display is color or
monochrome. CLRKBD clears any pending characters from the keyboard
buffer. DELAY18TH and DELAY allow you to delay for a given time
interval, independent of machine type. CALCATTR calculates the
color/attribute for routines such as XQPRINT. Unlike the BASIC
formula it replaces, it allows use of the "blink" attribute. SHIFTL
and SHIFTR let you perform binary shifts on integers. It is now
possible to have low-res graphics on any monitor, using the SETPOINT,
RESETPOINT and TESTPOINT routines. These give you 80 column by 50
row graphics in text mode. Finally, MAKEWINDOW has been converted
from BASIC to a normal ADVBAS routine (in assembly language) for
extra speed and convenience.
ADVBAS 2.9, 01/12/87:
Mouse control has been added. You can see if a mouse exists, get or
set the location of the mouse cursor, check the status of the mouse
buttons in two different ways, and set a legal range for the mouse
cursor, using the MM series of functions (MMBUTTON, MMCHECK, MMCLICK,
MMGETLOC, MMSETLOC, MMSETRANGE). Expanded memory checking has been
added-- you can see if it exists, and if so, how much memory there is
and how much of it is free (GETLIMM). Finally, a BASIC subprogram to
generate pop-up windows (MAKEWINDOW) has been included. This is
based on Dave Evers' fine BASWIND routine, with assorted improvements.
The screen routines QPRINT, XQPRINT, SCRSAVE, SCRREST, GETSCREEN and
PUTSCREEN have been modified to automatically use high-speed mode
with monochrome adapters. Their speed with color adapters has also
been increased. Object code for all routines has been included,
along with information on automating library production. This will
allow y'all to produce custom libraries using either the standard LIB
format or the QuickBASIC 2.0 BUILDLIB format. This has been added
for your convenience-- please do not abuse it! You may create custom
libraries for your own personal use. You may -not- distribute them!
ADVBAS 2.8, 12/28/86:
Assorted file control functions have been added. MLOAD is a BLOAD
command for compilers which don't include it. EXIST lets you test
for the existence of a given file. A set of new file I/O functions
allow low-level control of file access. Among other advantages,
these functions allow file handling in subprograms (since error codes
are returned at the time of error, rather than triggering an error
trap) and support file-level networking/multitasking control (whereas
BASIC only supports record-level control). These functions include
FCREATE and FOPEN to open files, FREAD and FWRITE to access them,
FSETEND and FSETREC to move the file pointer, and FCLOSE to close the
file.
ADVBAS 2.7, 10/18/86:
A new version of the library has been added which is fully compatible
with the QuickBASIC v2.0 programming environment. Much of ADVBAS has
been overhauled to make it faster and more compact. New functions:
EQUIPMENT will give you information about the hardware you're running
on (memory and number of various kinds of ports). PRINTSCREEN
duplicates the function of pressing Shift-PrtSc on the keyboard.
GETSCREEN and PUTSCREEN are new, comprehensive screen save/restore
functions. GETSCREEN allows you to save any part of the screen to an
array, using any screen page, with either flicker-free or fast access
methods. PUTSCREEN is the corresponding restore-screen function. It
allows you to put a saved area onto any part of the screen, any
screen page, with either flicker-free or fast access. DOSINKEY lets
you get keypresses from the DOS standard input device. Combined with
DMPRINT, this allows you to use such DOS features as I/O redirection
and CTTY with compiled BASIC programs.
ADVBAS 2.6, 9/19/86:
XQPRINTD will allow you to print to the screen using direct screen
writes. This is the fastest possible print method, but will produce
snow on some color displays if you are printing to the active display
page. SCRRESTP and SCRSAVEP will allow you to save and restore any
screen page to/from an array. SCRRESTPD and SCRSAVEPD will do the
same using direct screen reads/writes (see note at XQPRINTD).
SETCOMM will allow you to reset the parameters on an open communi-
cations "file" without having to close the file (and thus drop the
DTR signal) first. In addition, it lets you set the baud rate to
speeds beyond the normal limitation of 9600 bps.
ADVBAS 2.5, 8/04/86:
DMPRINT now allows screen display directly through MS-DOS output.
This differs from MPRINT, which uses some BIOS routines. It is a
less sophisticated (and hence faster) routine than MPRINT. XQPRINT
and RECOLOR screen flicker (on color monitors) has been wiped out,
thanks to Steven Gibson. This and the other direct-access screen
routines have been modified so as to cause less interference with
interrupts. The manual, ADVBAS.DOC, has been reformatted so it will
print correctly on most printers.
ADVBAS 2.4, 7/21/86:
Functions have been added to convert numbers from one base to another
(DEC2ANY, ANY2DEC), and incidentally to allow use of unsigned
integers in your programs, with some twiddling. Space compression
has been added via BSQ, BUSQLEN and BUSQ, which allow you to compress
text information. Space savings range from a reliable 16% for normal
text, to up around 50% for files with many blanks (such as structured
C, Pascal, or assembly files).
ADVBAS 2.3, 6/28/86:
You can now set a file's time/date stamp using SETFTD. A host of
functions which allow you access to disk directories has been added,
giving the ability to search for a file using wildcards, or to
duplicate the DOS directory command: FINDFIRSTF, FINDNEXTF, GETNAMEF,
GETATTRF, GETDATEF, GETTIMEF, GETSIZEF. The manual has been revised
to list functions in alphabetical order, allowing the elimination of
the index. This file, ADVBAS.NEW, is now listed in reverse
chronological order, so the newest things come first instead of at
the end.
ADVBAS 2.2, 6/20/86:
Character insert/delete support for windows was added via MINSCHR and
MDELCHR. This can also be used to simulate left and right scrolling
of a window. The day of the week can now be gotten using WEEKDAY.
The most interesting new function is SOUNDEX, which returns the
soundex code of a word. Soundex codes allow you to identify similar
sounding words, so that you could do a phone directory search that
matches on the sound of a name rather than the precise spelling, for
instance.
ADVBAS 2.1, 6/14/86:
Window handling was added. The MPRINT and MPRINTC routines can now
be set to conform to screen windows, via the MWINDOW function.
ADVBAS 2.0, 3/28/86:
Four functions were added. KEYPRESS tells you if a key is waiting in
the keyboard input buffer. RECOLOR quickly resets all characters on
the screen with a given color/attribute to a new color/attribute
(text mode only). SETMATI sets the first "x" elements of an integer
array to a given value. ADDMATI adds or subtracts a given value from
the first "x" elements of an integer array. The documentation now
includes notes on how PC-compatible a machine needs to be before any
given routine will work on it.
ADVBAS 1.9, 12/12/85:
XLATE will now work with a string as well as single characters.
MPRINT will work with a string, replacing the old MPRINTC which could
only print out a single character at a time. The functions
STRIPRANGE, REVERSE, LROTATE, RROTATE, EXTRACT, READBITF and
WRITEBITF have been added. The documentation now includes a
reference listing of the ADVBAS functions.
ADVBAS 1.8: Not released to the public.
ADVBAS 1.7, 11/28/85:
The functions DELCHR and INSCHR have been added.