Version 1.5 includes features that can make your communication experience much more enjoyable. The first is Graphic Interchange Format or GIF (GIF is a service mark property of Compuserve Inc.) support. This includes a file viewer, VIEWER.EXE and GIF support from within WinComm for online viewing GIF files as they are being downloaded. The other is "Windows driver" (COMPAND.EXE) used to control many of the standard DOS programs that are used to compress and expand files. Information used to control COMPAND.EXE is stored in the WIN.INI file. The WinComm installation program sets default strings for ZIP, ZOO, ARC and LZH programs.
The remainder of this file which is UPDATE2.TXT, found in the WinComm MACRO directory, describes these features.
GIF Graphics
Operation of the VIEWER.EXE program
VIEWER.EXE can be used in two ways, as a stand alone viewer for GIF files stored on your computer and displaying GIF files under macro control.
For viewing GIF files stored on your computer:
Start VIEWER.EXE by selecting the View Graphics... menu item on the WinComm command menu bar,
OR
by double clicking the Viewer icon in the WinComm program group that was created during installation.
Select the file you want to view by highlighting the file in the file name list box and select OK.
The GIF file will be displayed in the Viewer window.
If the graphic is larger than can be displayed in the window, scroll bars allow the complete graphic to be viewed. The View|Full Screen menu item will also be activated and when selected will use the full screen to display the graphic.
The graphic can be copied to the Clipboard as a Device Independent Bitmap (DIB), a normal bitmap or saved as a .BMP file by selecting the appropriate menu item.
To use the viewer from within a macro use the following statement:
(RUN(GETSESSSTR(25)+"\viewer.exe",file.gif,1)))
where:
GETSESSSTR(25) returns the path where viewer.exe is installed
viewer.exe is the file name of the VIEWER program
file.gif is the name of the GIF file to display including the full path if the file is not in the macro directory.
"1" indicates to run the viewer program in the "restored" size.
Viewing GIF graphics online:
NOTE
For proper operation when connected to Compuserve be sure to use the VIDTEX terminal type and the CSI-B+ file transfer protocol.
When connected to Compuserve, view only:
Enter the Compuserve command DISPLAY at any prompt that allows GIF file downloading or viewing online. Depending on the forum where the file is located you may be asked if you want to use the B+ protocol, reply Yes. When DISPLAYing a graphic in this way the file will not automatically be stored on your hard disk. You can save the file as a bitmap (.BMP) by selecting the File|Save As... menu item in the VIEWER and name the file.
When connected to Compuserve, view and save as a GIF file:
Check the "View *.gif files during download" checkbox in the System|Defaults dialog box. Enter the Compuserve command DOWN at any prompt that allows GIF file downloading. The file will be displayed as it is downloaded as well as being saved on your hard disk.
When connected to any other service that allows downloading of GIF files:
Check the "View *.gif files during download" checkbox in the System|Defaults dialog box. With this option checked and a GIF file is downloaded using any of WinComms' protocols, the file will display as well as be stored to your hard disk.
NOTES ABOUT GIF GRAPHICS AND WINDOWS
GIF graphics include their own "palette" which can contain from 2 to 255 or more colors. The colors contained in the GIF palette are used by the GIF viewer to color each pixel in the graphic. If a color is requested by the GIF that is not available on your Windows display screen, Windows will substitute the nearest color. If your Windows display has only 16 solid colors, which is the case with VGA, the graphic may look very poor. To view GIF graphics with the greatest accuracy you must use a graphics card with a corresponding Windows display driver that can display 255 or more solid colors. Many of the VGA cards that are currently available have Windows drivers that can display 255 colors at a lower resolution than the 16 color driver. If you want to view GIF graphics at the incredible fidelity they can provide, obtain one of the 255 color drivers and check it out.
COMPAND.EXE
COMPAND.EXE is a program that is used to start and send commands many of the DOS character based (as opposed to a Windows program) archive or file compression programs from within Windows.
NOTE
COMPAND.EXE is a "shell" program that does not itself provide file compression or expansion. You must have one of the popular programs available to do file compression/expansion and insert its drive and directory in the WIN.INI file before COMPAND.EXE will operate properly.
Entries in the WIN.INI are used by COMPAND.EXE to display options in the COMPAND.EXE dialog box as well as defining the commands to send to the archive program when it is started. COMPAND.EXE is started with 2 command options, COMPAND.EXE C to compress files and COMPAND.EXE E to expand files. Install creates two program items in the WinComm program group to run COMPAND.EXE with the proper options. COMPAND.EXE can also be started by selecting Compress Files... or Expand Files... menu items using the WinComm command menu.
To use COMPAND be sure to verify these entries in the WIN.INI file. Entries are made in the WIN.INI by the WinComm installation program for the most popular file compression programs and the most common commands you might want to use with them. The only changes you will probably need to make in the WIN.INI file are the drive and path names for the extractname and compressname entries. See the Editing your WIN.INI file section at the end of this file
To extract/expand files:
Run COMPAND.EXE E using the Program Manager or the WinComm command menu
Select the file you want to extract/expand in the Files list box
Select the option you want to use in the Command/Options drop down list box
Type the directory path name in the Destination Dir edit box
Select [OK]
To compress/archive files:
Run COMPAND.EXE C using the Program Manager or the WinComm command menu
Edit the Display Filter to show the files of interest, default is *.*
Select the option you want to use in the Command/Options drop down list box
Enter the compress/archive file name in the Destination Name edit box.
Select the Compression Type in the drop down list box
Select the files you want in the compress/archive file in the Files list box. You can use the Shift and Ctrl keys to make multiple selections in the list box. There is a limitation of approx 128 characters that can be passed to the program so you may need to make multiple selection and compress to the same file to get all files in the archive.
Select [OK]
Editing your WIN.INI file
If you would like to add different compression/extraction programs or add to or change the options you can use the following information to edit your WIN.INI file.
[compression]
types=arc,zip,lzh,zoo
The [compression] entry allows you to specify the types of compression programs you want to use with COMPAND.EXE.
types=
A comma separated string with the 3 letter file extension of the compressed file created by the utility you want to use. The first entry in the string is the default compression type displayed in the "Files" edit box of the Extract dialog box. All entries in "type=" are displayed in the "Compression Type" list box of the File Compress dialog box.
Additional sets of entries follow, one for each compression program you want to use. They follow the form:
[ext]
Square brackets containing the 3 letter extension of the compressed file of the compression program you want to use. Must be the same three letter extension found in the "type" statement above.
extractname=path_program_name
path_program_name = the path and name of the program you use to extract/expand files with the extension at the heading of this set.
compressname=path_program_name
path_program_name = the path and name of the program you use to compress files with the extension at the heading of this set.
-Text to be displayed=command
This entry (beginning with the "-" ) will cause "Text to be displayed" to be shown in the "Command/Options" list box of the Extract dialog box. The "command" string will be passed to the extraction program as a command line.
+Text to be displayed=command
This entry (beginning with the "+" ) will cause "Text to be displayed" to be shown in the "Command/Options" list box of the Compress dialog box. The "command" string will be passed to the compression program as a command line.
