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Current Shareware 1994 January
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SHAR194.ISO
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drawing
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tdraw462.zip
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WHATSNEW.DOC
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1993-09-07
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TheDraw 4.62
============
Maintenance release. Bugs with PCBoard/Wildcat files related to background
colors, scrolling (ie: color wrap-around), and output slow down fixed. Also
repaired minor glitch in ALT-A screen when Numlock was turned on - the arrow
keys would only increment colors. Ansi files now include a special sequence
which turns on line wrap-around on terminal programs. This should help with
headaches related to the display of characters in the 80th column.
Wildcat/PCBoard Sysops: Because no cursor control is available in these
formats, display output cannot be accurately controlled. TheDraw assumes
line wrap-around is turned on (the standard Ansi configuration). If a caller
happens to have line wrap-around turned off, placing characters in column
80 will corrupt the following lines. There are two solutions: either do
not place characters in column 80, or display a short Ansi file when your
user first logs turning on line wrapping. All TheDraw v4.62 Ansi files now
include the appropriate Ansi sequence (ie: save a blank screen).
Special thanks to Luke Rice for reporting how typing an 'A' in the
color setup (ALT-A) screen might cause a crash.
Remember, do not assume someone else will report a bug you find!
Please write TheSoft or call G.A.D.M. at (510) 581-3019 if you ever
find something wrong. Thanks!
TheDraw 4.61
============
A few minor problems have turned up, which are taken care of in this
maintenance release. A bug in PRINTDOC prevented two sided printing,
THEGRAB did not properly handle some interrupts, the Setup utility had a
couple of hiccups, and TheDraw glitched the foreground color in creating
Ansi files with a space in the upper-left corner. Special thanks to:
Anthony Haxton for reporting the Setup utility would sometimes not
recognize the registered version of TheDraw.
Paul Hirsch for pointing out in the defaults configuration area of the
Setup utility one prompt worked backwards (ie: type Yes, and get No).
TheDraw 4.60
============
A significant number of valuable additions and improvements for this release.
The following new features were added for version 4.60:
o The Quick Palette. This allows you to choose any color and extended
character symbol quickly an easily. It is available when the pulldown
menus are displayed (press ESC or the right mouse button). Choosing a
symbol from the Quick Palette selects the associated function key set.
o Manual character painting. You can "pick-up" any symbol, and draw
by using SHIFT-Arrow keys. To pick-up a character, press the ALT-/ key
combination. Any symbol selected via the Quick Palette becomes the
current picked character.
o A memory resident screen capture utility is now included, called THEGRAB.
TheGrab can capture any text mode screen and create TheDraw format files,
Dos COM files, Ansi files, or Ascii files directly. It is small, needing
only 12k of memory.
o A new 80 character by 100 line edit buffer option (static screens only).
Ever have the need to create an extremely long scrolling color Ansi file?
Now you can do it entirely within TheDraw! The fact the screen -will-
scroll is incompatible with animated images.
o MULTI-COLOR FONTS! The previous release could only use single color
fonts when entering. This version permits you to use and create font
symbols drawn with multiple colors. In fact, you could create a "font"
of small block graphics if desired now. Color fonts show a "C" postfix
in the Fonts pulldown menu.
o Animation Fade Out. Ever wish you have an image appear, and then
disappear using the same effect? Previously is was an awkward thing
to do, forcing you to use sprite mode, solid spaces, a little futzing.
This option works identically to a Fill, but in addition prompts for
an animation scanner type. Neat stuff!
o Animation auto-repeat display. Typing "A" from the ALT-Q Redraw prompt
will make TheDraw redraw an animation sequence over and over until
you hit a key. Useful if your animation has a difficult to find hiccup.
o Ability to view TheDraw format files. You see what would be present
if you loaded the TD file.
o Library files. Do you maintain both TD and Ansi files for all your
screen images? Now you can put all the TD files into one place, and
attach a descriptive comment also. The library directory shows the
description, screen dimensions, and whether the entry is static,
animated, or a block save.
o TheDraw format file compression. TD files are now compressed when
saved to greatly reduce disk space requirements. This applies to
Library file entries also.
o C code file format revised to be compatible with more compilers.
o Three new file formats for BBS system operators: Avatar, PCBoard and
Wildcat BBS compatible formats can now be loaded/saved with TheDraw.
Avatar files can be animated. PCBoard/Wildcat "@-code" files are
limited to static only screens currently.
o To go along with the PCBoard and Wildcat formats, a quick reference
table of all @-codes is provided. From normal (non-animated) mode,
type ALT-Q (note that in animation mode, ALT-Q works as always).
o A screen auto-compress option was added to the Setup screen. Do you
block marking screens to avoid unused lines being output on the bottom
of the display? TheDraw can now optionally remove those unused lines in
Ansi, Ascii, Avatar, PCBoard, Wildcat static formats automatically.
o PRINTDOC now supports HP laserjet printers.
o TheDraw checks for the presence of Quarterdeck's Desqview (tm) operating
environment. If found, screen initialization is skipped to avoid making
Desqview always switch on EGA/VGA screen modes.
o For registered users, the SHADING.TD screen is now built right in!
Type ALT-A twice, or select from the pulldown menu. This shows all
available color shading combinations possible using dither characters
from function key set 6.
Plus several other minor enhancements throughout the program!
=========
Bug Fixes
=========
- Text centering in Animation mode could possibly lockup TheDraw if blank
lines were present. This has been fixed.
- Viewing object files no longer corrupts screen data.
- Column Insert/Delete should no longer insert extraneous characters, if
the numeric keypad arrows are used.
- Loading an Ansi file into a 23 line buffer might have resulted in the
bottom line being lost. This no longer occurs.
- Problems with Ansi Include Files not being copied properly was fixed.
- Ansi Loader much less likely to spuriously turn on animation mode when
it is not called for.
- Improved handling of "color bleeding" which occurs when scrolling Ansi
files write characters to the lower-right corner of the screen.
- Fixed problem with loading block files from the command line. Occasionally
random garbage would appear surrounding the wanted data.
- A number of minor fixes and cosmetic improvements to TDFonts. A rare bug
with creating the "~" symbol has been fixed. It could partly damage the
symbol data.
- QuickBasic calls to functions UNCRUNCH, ASCIIDISPLAY, and NORMALDISPLAY
could leave parameters on the stack. Recompile your code with the new
functions included here.
- Block COM files might have received invalid screen offsets if the
worksheet was scrolled at all.
- Global Screen Move now works properly when scrolled down into a large
worksheet.
- When saving an animated Ansi file, the cursor is no longer forced to the
left most column. The last character output in the Animation sequence is
where the cursor will be left.
- You could "click" on status line options, even the status line was not
there (ie: full screen mode). Now you can't.
- SETUP utility keyboard configuration now ignores Shift key codes, this
to handle some keyboards which send such codes before cursor control keys.
Plus several other minor fixes.
Special Thanks to:
Toby Vander Steen for finding animation text centering bug.
Gary Yuen for object file viewing and column insert/delete glitches.
Michael Arnett for pointing out the animation include files were
less than perfect.
Brad Crouch for finding a circumstance in which COM files would not
be saved properly.
B.J. Freeman for indicating the Setup utility keyboard config bug.
Dafyd V. Smith for the 23 line buffer loading problem, and suggesting
animation auto-repeating!
David P. Hummel and Dafyd V. Smith for suggesting the animation fade out!
Abram Miller for suggesting the modified dos prompt when doing a dos shell!
Carter Downer for suggesting the Quick Palette feature, screen autocompress,
and BBS file formats!
The many users who all requested the screen capture utility!
Please do not assume someone else will write about a bug you find.
Write a letter and be immortalized in the doc's of TheDraw!
In any case, Enjoy!