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1992-03-02
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VanTerm (tm) Release History (reverse chronological order)
12/10/91 -- Version 4.0
Cosmetic changes, minor bugs fixed, a few rough edges cleaned up, new
information for myself.
07/20/89 -- Version 3.8
Paul Lee added a couple of "rough" functions: Type-Ahead buffer, which
permits you to type up to 76 characters on a seperate line of the screen,
permitting you to read what is coming into the serial port without any
interference with/because of what you're typing. Once you press RETURN
the entire line is sent. No special characters or control characters
are passed, so don't use this to send Conrtol-C for example.
Paul also added the machine code necessary to protect that type-ahead
buffer AND provide a constant status line in the online screen.
I dressed up both functions, cleaned up some other code that slowed things
down a bit, and made the status line appear in almost EVERY screen. I
also made the program use the GEM Menu line for informational displays
whenever a File Selector was also on the screen, so you UIS II users
should not lose any helpful hints behind your Item Selector!
Thanks to my beta testers for this revision:
Burrell Bowie, Harry "Pete" Brewin, Paul Cartwright, Ken Jacobs,
Rich Bolero, and Alexander Vachon.
Enjoy! Spread this archive far and wide (it's as small as it gets and
created with DCOPY, so no need to re-archive it! Preserve its' integrity!).
==============================================================================
08/23/89 -- Version 3.71
Sorry for the quick update, but Paul Cartright found a serious flaw in my
Shadow buffer save routines... if you had a full disk or some other disk
error, you wouldn't get another chance to save, and you'd lose your buffer!
I'd rather have you pissed at me for 'Yet Another Update' than for losing
a file that just cost you 60 minutes of long distance download time! So, I
think I really made it bulletproof now... it will ONLY zap the buffer if
you select Cancel, and then it will STILL make sure you really want to!
Also made VanTerm look for a completed transfer that hasn't yet been saved,
so you won't do what I'VE done... exit VanTerm and forget the buffer, turn
the ST off, and THEN remember the file... Yuck! If such a situation occurs,
VanTerm will give you the opportunity to save the buffer (if a transfer is
COMPLETE, not 'in progress') when you try to Exit from VanTerm.
==============================================================================
08/22/88 -- Version 3.7
Removed ALL ARC functions and added DCOPY call! DCOPY is faster and
compresses better than ARC resulting in smaller ARC files! DCOPY is also
more functional than ARCSHELL! You can copy, format, delete, print,
display, and convert files and disks! Also moved File Info to a more
appropriate place, trimmed some wasted memory, shortened the .HLP file,
added status box to the online HELP screen, and moved the time display
to the menu line! (Took some searching, figured how to turn clipping
off, which is what kept me from putting it there before!)
Sorry for all the frequent updates... trying to get a nice finished
version before the VA AtariFest so Current Notes will have a nice
version for their library! Also preparing for ver 4.0, which will be
as improved and speeded up as GFA Basic 3.0 will permit, once the new
bugs are all fixed and the compiler is released.
==============================================================================
08/20/88 -- Version 3.63 WHOOOOPPPSS!!
Thomas Wong found a bug... Hit Help from online screen while Shadow is active
and displays the GEM screen graphics in the online screen! Ouch! Doesn't
REALLY do any damage... hit ClrHome and it's erased, along with whatever
was on the screen when you hit HELP... so, if you can live with it until
the next major update, and you already have 3.6 or 3.62, there's no need
to download 3.63... just hit Alt-X, S, K, or Y instead of the HELP key
while online. Sorry!
Also took this opportunity to add the companion desk accesory for WXYTR
to the VANTERM.ARC.. this will permit those with SS drives or only 1
drive to use TRANSFER.ACC for file transfers instead of the VanTerm
commands/menus, and remove WXYTR.TTP from the disk. Read README.1ST in
the archive for help on using TRANSFER.ACC. Also note, those of you who
play online games requiring arrow keys, TRANSFER.ACC sends the appropriate
commands, so you MAY be able to call TRANSFER's VT52 emulator when you're
playing the game. (I don't know for sure, I have no way to really test
it, so no guarantees here! The TRANSFER VT52 emulator may conflict with
VanTerm's I/O, so proceed at your own risk!) But the TRANSFER up/download
options will work.. that's what I used before I installed WXYTR.TTP...
WXYTR just gave VanTerm more control over file transfer, trying to make
it a simpler task for you. I still prefer WXYTR myself, but use whichever
you feel most comfortable with.
Important note to Shadow users!!! If you plan on pressing the RESET button
during a Shadow transfer and your modem normally responds to the Hangup Modem
function (modem hangs up on loss of DTR), then you'll lose your telephone
connection when you press the RESET button! If your modem is command
programmed and Hayes compatible, type AT&D0 to it to 'force DTR active'. If
you have DIP switches, find the one for DTR and set it to 'Force DTR' or
'Set DTR high', and then the reset button won't drop the modem offline.
==============================================================================
08/17/88 -- Version 3.62:
Corrected error handler, which was returning some improper text strings
like "error 8 Sector Not Found" which should have been "Error -8 Memory Full",
added (for Harry Brewin) paging options in Display Buffer and Alternate-R
(Free RAM) key recognition in GEM menu mode. Added onscreen clock in GEM
menu mode for the hell-of-it... Streamlined a few things.. enjoy!
==============================================================================
08/13/88 -- Version 3.6:
Paul Lee, coauthor of SHADOW (background file transfer program) has graciously
added the necessary code to access SHADOW directly from VanTerm! I 'dressed'
it up, and here it is. If you don't have Shadow, you won't care much. If you
DO have Shadow, simply enable it in the Xfer/ARC menu and configure it in the
CONFIGURE menu. If enabled, SHADOW will automatically be used for all file
transfers. If disabled, transfers will occur as before. The status of
SHADOW ('No Shadow', 'Shadow nnnK On', 'Shadow nnnK Off') will be displayed
in the GEM menu status line. "nnnK" is your Shadow buffer size in K bytes
so you can be reminded to not exceed that size in received files!
Since Shadow can quickly eat up RAM, ST owners with 512K RAM may have some
problems running VanTerm! You don't HAVE to have a ramdisk, so perhaps
eliminating that will help. Otherwise, upgrade to 1 megabyte of RAM, it's
worth it, especially for Shadow! If you don't have Shadow, order it direct
from Antic or your local ST software supplier... being able to use your ST
to do other things while up/downloading is great! And it's quite reliable
and safe, as Paul Lee has written it!
I also corrected a few minor display bugs, dressed the program up a bit,
and added CompuServe B protocol send and receive. (Shadow does it (?) but
Paul didn't put it in for some reason... uh oh.. someone with CompuServe
access please test it!!??)
Also added option to Copy File... once complete, it will ask if you wish to
set the date of the copy to that of the original file, or leave it as is
with the current system date/time.
Also removed the Script Processor to save RAM... VanTerm is getting large!
Took a vote on the BBS, and it was 3 to 1 in favor of removing it.
=============================================================================
REMINDER to Shadow users... if you're using VanTerm, you DO NOT NEED the
SHADOW.ACC loaded into your system using up ram! Take it out! Also, please
be warned that Universal Item Selector, FSELV, FATSPEED, TURBOST.ACC, and
TURBOST.PRG have all caused strange problems on my, and on other's, ST's!
Be careful of these. Shadow should also be FIRST in your AUTO folders.
Oh yeah... if you have a hard disk, why waste precious RAM with a ramdisk?
Hard Disk is faster!! Use that ram in a better way, say give half of the
ramdisk's useage to Shadow's buffer, and leave half for the ST so you can
execute program from VanTerm while Shadow's working on a transfer, or so
you'll have a larger chunk of ram for DCOPY, which will make IT work even
faster!