Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d3/bingo201.arc/READ.ME

Text File | 1991-08-20 | 20KB | 412 lines

                         Read Me file for Bingo 2.01
                         ---------------------------

   This file list various pertinent information about the Bingo
Programmer's Text Editor such as:
   -->   included files
   -->   features through previous version, and what's new with
         this version
   -->   major bugs fixed in this version
   -->   some notes about registering
   -->   author's comments
   -->   how to contact the author
   -->   how to aquire the latest version

Included files on disk/in archive:
----------------------------------

   read.me      : this file.  chock full of *extremely* important
                  stuff

   be.exe       : Bingo Editor 2.01 executable

   bswap.com    : program used by Bingo to aid in swapping itself
                  into and out of memory so as to consume only
                  ~10k when executing other programs

   bingo.doc    : documentation for Bingo; ready to be printed out
                  on an ascii line printer.

   register.txt : copy of the liscense agreement and registration
                  form, ready to be printed out on an ascii line
                  printer.

   Additionally, there will be a number of *.cfg files.  These
may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

   bingo.cfg    : sample keyboard definition file (the one I use)

   emacs.cfg    : sample keyboard definition file which mimics some of
                  the EMACS command set

   wskey.cfg    : sample keyboard definition file which allows Bingo
                  to mimic some of the Wordstar command set.

Features of Bingo through version 2.0
-------------------------------------
   -  high speed execution, with particularly fast searches,
      screen handling, and file I/O
   -  full color support
   -  superb macro capability
   -  large suite of utility functions: entab; detab; command
      repeat; sort; etc.
   -  redefinable keys; custom define your own keyboard setup
   -  complete menu system
   -  multiple files
   -  execute DOS commands with only 10k of overhead
   -  no configuration files needed; no environment variables to
      set
   -  completely configurable
   -  effective use of placemarks to mark positions
   -  edit files up to size of memory
   -  user definable help file
   -  extensive block operation support, include point, line, and
      vertical marking, and two different sets of block operations
   -  in addition to the default paste buffer, there are 26
      additional named buffers, 'a'-'z'.
   -  wordwrap and paragraph formatting support
   -  C Mode for programming in the C programming language
   -  Delimiter matching & indentation matching
   -  wildcard filespecs lead to a directory list picker
   -  execute command line level compilers from within Bingo with
      only 10k of overhead
   -  both vertical and horizontal windows
   -  you can interrupt Bingo at any time, exit it, and when you
      return it will allow you to pick up exactly where you left off
   -  command to allow you to save all the files in the ring
      which have been modified
   -  error parsing for most compiler types (Borland & Microsoft)
   -  macro functions dynamically manage memory space for 2048
      tokens
   -  Bingo can be set to detect the current screen size and use
      it, or to switch automatically to 43/50 line modes if it exists.
   -  print files, lines, or send control sequences to the
      serial or parallel ports, or to a file.  You can print with
      or  without line numbers
   -  the search  (and replace) algorithm will confine itself to
      the currently linemarked block, providing the search starts
      within the block.  All block types are treated as
      linemarked for this purpose.
   -  paragraph reformating function and word wrap mode preserve
      the left indention of the current line depending on whether
      or not Autoindent mode is active.
   -  a 'Count' option was added to the search function.
   -  command line switches (/lxx & /cxx) to start at a specific
      line & column.
   -  matching mode for matching insertion of delimiters now
      supported.
   -  'cut_append' & 'copy_append' allow a marked block to be appended
      to the current contents of the buffer, provided the buffer
      and the block use the same marking type.
   -  Ascii table built in
   -  Eeeeeek! Mice!!!!!  Bingo makes full programmable use
      of a mouse, should you have one.

Features New to Bingo version 2.01
----------------------------------
   -  extension specific settings have been introduced:
      -  [profile.???] contains the settings for any file with
         extension .???.  The settings used are the text
         configuration options, such as:
            insert mode, tab size, autoindention, wordwrap, C
            mode, right margin, smart tabs, matching mode,
            and backspace mode.
      -  the files can be in the current directory (first choice)
         or in Bingo's home directory.
      -  using the 'conf_profile' function you can control
         whether or not this file is loaded
   -  [keyset.???] likewise has the keyset to load for the given
      extension; this includes all key assignments and macros.
      This file will *not* load automatically, you have to
      explicitly load it using the 'key_set_load' or
      'load_profile' functions.
   -  'write_profile' & 'load_profile' to write/save the current
      settings to the extension file corresponding to the current
      filename.  You are given the option of writing/saving the
      information in the current directory, or to Bingo's home
      directory.  You are given the option of writing/saving both
      the profile and/or the keyset under a particular extension
   -  'print_file' & 'print_block' functions combined into
      'print_file'.  If you print while a block is marked, it
      will be printed.  If there is no block marked, the entire
      file will be printed.
   -  When you are printing out a file or a block, a line with a
      ASCII decimal 12 (FormFeed) character in it will signal the
      printing algorithm to end that page.  The text before and
      after the FF will be placed on the proper pages, after the
      top margin if applicable.  This makes it much easier to
      prepare short straight-text documents for the printer.
   -  all print functions cleaned up in general. Messages
      regarding printing will not overwrite the menus.
   -  The 'New Spec' option in the directory picker now allows
      you to enter a nonexistent filename, to allow the use of
      new files.
   -  Bingo will now restore the screen size to what it was when
      Bingo started, and it will resize the screen if necessary
      when restoring from a swap or interrupt.
   -  essentially, all of the search routines were reworked for
      more consistency and speed.
   -  Regular Expressions!!!  Yes, I have implemented a regular
      expression search algorithm for Bingo.  This option is
      available as a modification to any of the search commands,
      including 'search_and_macro'.  The algorithm is much slower
      than straight ascii search, but it cost a mere 3k in code
      size, and some things just can't be searched for without
      regular expressions, at least not easily.  Bingo's
      implementation includes:
      -  classes, i.e. [0-9] and 'not' classes, i.e [~0-9]
      -  occurrences of once, once or none (?), one or more (+), none or
         more (*)
      -  grouping  {}
      -  ORing of {} groups |
      -  wildcard character .
      -  match begin and end of lines with ^ and $, respectively
      -  support for debugging regular expression search patterns
      -  along with regular expression searches, you can specify the
         replacement in terms of the matched text.  '@n' in the
         replacement pattern places the text matching the nth
         group. '@@' matches the entire matched text. This allows
         you to do some nifty text manipulation.

         Examples:
         -                    [a-z]+/.
            would match any sequence of one or more letters
            between 'a' and 'z' followed by a single period.

         -                 help[a-z]+/.
            would match a sequence of 'help' followed by one or
            more letters then a single period.  It would match
            'helpoooooo.' and 'helpp.' but not 'help.'
         -                 19{87}|{88}
            would match '19' followed by one occurance of either
            '87' or '88'.
         -                 19{87}*|{88}
            would match '19' followed by none or more occurances
            of '87' or a single occurance of '88'.  Thus it would
            match '19', '1987878787', or '1988'.
         -                 .
            matches any single character.
         -                 ^[a-z]+
            matches a sequence of 1 or more letters, provided it
            starts a line.
         -                 ^[a-z]+$
            matches a sequence of 1 or more letters, provided it
            starts a line and ends a line.
         -                 ^[a-z]+/.[a-z]+
            basically matches filenames made up of alpha
            characters, which are found at the beginning of a
            line.
         -                 ^$
            matches a blank line.
         -                 ^.
            matches a non-blank line.
         -  These last two allow you to do some neat stuff using
            the macro capability, i.e., apply a macro to every
            non-blank line.

      This search algorithm is slow!!!!!!!!!!!

   -  you can now specify the default search/replace
      modifications.  New modifications include:
      -  'P', which will preserve the cursor position before a
         search and replace operation and return you to it when
         the operation concludes.
      -  'A', which while highlight or 'accent' the found text
         until a keystroke is detected.
      -  'D', used for debugging regular expressions; shows how
         Bingo interpreted what you typed in terms of numbered
         explicit groups.
      The latter two help out immensely when testing various
      regular expressions.
   -  'end_macro' function added; it wasn't really need, but it
      made for a useful menu entry.  The key sequence used to get
      to this menu selection is not recorded, so you can navigate
      to it in the menu without fear.
   -  'begin'/'end' added as delimiters which can be matched.
      This should convince Pascal programmers that I haven't
      forgotten them!
   -  Mouse reaction to the triple pyramids is now programmable
      for both single and multiple mouse clicks.  This brings the
      programmable number of mouse events to twenty.
   -  there is now support for both of the below types of C mode
      formatting:
            for(i=0;i<10;i++){   and   for(i=0;i<10;i++)
               ..stuff..               {
            }                             ..stuff..
                                       }
   -  for each of the 9 text settings, such as insert mode and
      matching mode, a seperate setting is now maintained for
      each file in the ring.  This greatly simplifies working
      with different types of files.
   -  'info' function reworked to give more precise information
      on the files in the ring.
   -  when control character highlighting is turned on, via the
      'conf_ctrl_display' function, a '' character will be
      displayed in normal text color at the end of each line to
      represent the end-of-line character.  This is only
      available when control character highlighting is active.
   -  anytime Bingo asks for a filename, you can now give it both
      '\' delimited and '/' delimited specifications.  '/'s are
      automagically converted to '\'s.  This will make life more
      palatable for those who use UNIX systems regularly.
   -  when Bingo is started from the command line an info screen
      is displayed, and a new function 'version_info', will
      redisplay the screen at any time.  This screen contains
      information such as version number, my name and address,
      etc.  In addition, it tells who this version is registered
      to, if it is a registered users copy.  Registered users,
      beginning with version 2.01, will receive a program to
      imprint their name on this opening screen, thus alowing
      them to show their friends what honorable people they are.
   -  'conf_sound' function allows you to control the frequency
      used when Bingo beeps -- setting the frequency to 0 results
      in no sound at all.
   -  'key_set_impress' functions writes the current keyset
      information; key assignments, macros, etc, to the BE.EXE
      file on disk, thus making them permanant.
   -  a seperate mouse config menu is now in place, with three
      options: whether the mouse is turned on, what length of
      time the mouse waits between multiple button presses
      ('conf_buttonwait'), and the amount Bingo delays before
      repeating a mouse function, say from the command line hot
      spots ('conf_mdelay').
   -  'conf_shadow' function allows you to turn on and off the
      shadowing of popup text boxes.  I wanted to see if it could
      be done easily, it could, i did it, it is pretty.  Not
      overly useful though.
   -  'T/F' flag added to the status line, at the right end, just
      before the triple pyramids, which shows whether the last
      function executed returned a True or False value.  This is
      preparatory to adding a branching and testing capability in
      future verions.
   -  'conf_winclose' allows you to control whether or not
      exiting a file, whether through quitting, filing, or
      aborting, closes its associated window.
   -  'conf_iobuf' && 'win_find' functions deleted.  They were
      judged to be of very limited usefulness.
   -  added default file extensions.  Up to ten default
      extensions can be defined, and when you ask for a file
      without an extension, such as 'main', Bingo will check to
      see if a file with any of the matching extensions exists.
      The extensions are checked in ascending order.  The
      function 'conf_def_ext' is used to modify the existing
      extensions.
   -  changed the pickdir code to display time as am or pm,
      rather than in 24 hour format.
   -  a new, slightly friendlier strategy for changing colors was
      implemented.
   -  added a seperate color attribute for the highlighted
      character in a menu selection.
   -  When you 'shell' to DOS or 'swap_shell' to DOS, no
      keystroke is required to return to Bingo.
   -  the backup extension to be used is now configurable.
      Choosing no extensions turns the backup feature off.
   -  'scroll_up' and 'scroll_down' functions added which scroll
      the screen in the direction stated, but do not move the
      cursor position on the screen.
   -  Bingo will no longer automaticaly entab a file when saving.
      this was judged to be more trouble than it was worth.  If
      there is a large outcry, I will add this in a future
      release.
   -  from inside any string entry box (such as when Bingo asks
      for the target sting to be searched for), youcan press
      Control-Q followed by any ASCII character.  You may use the
      Alt+keypad combinations if you wish.

Fixed Bugs in version 2.01
--------------------------
   -  bug in the macro handling fixed.  Whenever a key was
      defined, or if a keyset was read in, some keys would be
      made unavailable even though they were defined, such as the
      Control-Page-Up combination.  An unforeseen overflow
      condition caused this error.  This bug was fixed shortly
      after version 2.0 was shipped, and I subsequently shipped a
      corrected version fixing just this bug but a number of the
      flawed versions were distributed.
   -  bug in Overwrite mode fixed.  This was a serious bug
      which could cause real problems, depending on the
      situation.  What happened was that when you overwrite the
      last character on a line, the line was not properly
      terminated.  Later on, this was a problem.  Gracias to Bob
      Boyken for reporting this one.
   -  slight bug in Keyinst (not all functions are named
      correclty) was fixed.
   -  bug in the 'global' function fixed, and the whole function
      cleaned up to be easier and more painless to use.
   -  bug in using Escape to end macro recording fixed.
      Previously, when you hit Escape, the last key hit *before*
      Escape was also wiped out.
   -  bug within the swap/suspend code fixed.  Bingo was not
      properly saving the state of the error processing, the
      placemarks, and the type of block in each of the paste
      buffers.  This had to do with where/how TurboC stores
      different types of variables in memory.
   -  if the last line of a file was not followed by a LF, it
      would not be read in.  Fixed. (Thanks Steve, for noticing!)
   -  Likewise, Bingo was appending a CR/LF (or just LF) to the
      end of the last line, when, more correctly, it shouldn't be
      there.  Fixed.
   -  any number of small searching special cases were fixed.
   -  pernicious bug in the mouse routines fixed; with some mice,
      or more correctly, with some mouse *drivers*, Bingo's mouse
      was not operating correctly when in 43/50 line mode.
   -  irritating problem with the status line when not in mouse
      mode fixed.  Sometimes, if filenames were too long, the end
      of the name would be clipped off.
   -  bug in all of the commands which apply a key, such as
      'search_and_macro', 'repeat', etc.  Won't let you apply a
      key not explicitly defined in the table, such as simple
      'a'.  Fixed.
   -  bug in the 'paste_replace' function fixed; this one caused
      the replace to fail in certain situations.
   -  bug in the keyboard table management routines fixed, in
      which certain keys gave unpredictable results.  Very rare.
   -  bug where delete word popped to much text onto the undo
      text fixed.

Registering
-----------
   When you register your copy of Bingo, you get the next version
free, all following veersions for $5, and you of course get
unlimited support.  In addition, as of version 2.01, you will get
an executable with your name on the opening screen, so you can
show everyone what an honest person you are.

Comments
--------
   Whether you are an avid user or an avid hater of Bingo, PLEASE
do not hesitate to contact me.  It is of tremendous use to me to
get your feedback on Bingo.

Contacting the Author:
----------------------

   Feel free to contact me any time about any problems, suggestions,
or just plain discussions concerning Bingo, regardless of whether
you are registered.  Without users, any product, now matter how
good, is so much raw data sitting on a disk somewhere.  Either
write to this address:

                  Christopher R. S. Schanck
                  PO Box 279
                  Hanover MD 21076

or call:
                  [phone]

if that number shoudl no longer be active, use:

                  [phone]
                  9am to 6pm EST

Getting the Latest Version
--------------------------
   The best way to aquire the latest version of Bingo is by
calling the Computer Connections BBS in Washington DC.  This is a
very fine, very large board which is excellently managed.  It
will always have the latest release, and E-Mail left for me their
will get responded to.  The phone number is:
   [phone]