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Text File | 1994-09-08 | 27.4 KB | 769 lines

NED(tm) v1.7x Release Notes , _ /_ __. __ _ , , , __. __ _ _/_)_/ /_(_/|_/ (_</_(_(_/_(_/|_/ (_</_ This is shareware software. If you intend to use NED on a regular basis, please register and show your support for the author. Commercial, business or governmental use by non- registered users is prohibited. NED(tm) v1.7x (C) Copyright 1987-94 David L. Dight All Rights Reserved. Additional analysis by Francis C. Crisp P.O. Box 280, Kings Cross, N.S.W. 2011 AUSTRALIA Fax: +61 2 233 2929, On CompuServe:100033,2563 Internet: davidd@interconnect.com.au Revision 1.7.x.2 08-Sep-1994. ********************************************************* INDIVIDUAL USERS Individual and Company Users: Please refer to LICENSE.DOC and REGISTER.FRM for information. VENDOR AND BBS SYSOPS Please use the VENDINFO record or refer to the file VENDOR.DOC if you wish to distribute this software. ********************************************************* RELEASE NOTES Outlined below is a summary of changes and new feature additions in this release, in subsections, these are: A. Changes in version 1.7x 08/09/94 1. Changes in version 1.7a 01/06/94 2. New features in version 1.7a 3. Changes in version 1.6x 23/05/93 4. New features in version 1.6x 5. Changes in version 1.6e 21/12/92 6. New features in version 1.6e 7. Changes in version 1.6b 23/03/92 8. New features in version 1.6b 9. New features in version 1.5x 11/02/92 (initial shareware release). ********************************************************* A. Changes in version 1.7x What's New ---------- This release uses decryption to facilitate easier registration. The copy of NED you now have is 'upgradable' to the registered version upon receipt of your payment. You will be sent a validation key by e-mail (or mail if not available) which is then used with the utility VALIDATE.EXE supplied in this release. The registered version will not display any 'nag' screens. The advantage of this system is that you don't need to reinstall the software. The version you currently have is all you need. Additionally, should new versions be released, you need only obtain the new shareware copy and apply your user key. There will be no physical distinction between registered and shareware releases of NED. VIRCHK.EXE SF.EXE These files are no longer included. SF can be found on Compuserve IBMSYS LIB 6 SF70.EXE and on the internet (garbo, SimTel). How to register --------------- Fill in the REGISTER.FRM and post with your payment. With foreign registrations please do not send personal cheques. Although not strictly kosher, you can send cash (wrap a $A20.00 or $US10+5). This is the next best method after credit cards. ;-& Credit card orders ------------------ I can now process credit card orders (MC VISA AMEX). Fill in REGISTER.FRM with your cards details, sign and mail or fax to me. If you don't mind your card details being the subject of an e-mail message, then you can e-mail me your details without the signature. What next? ---------- I will send you your registration key by e-mail if possible. Alternatively, I will phone or write. You will receive a message with your user id and the file USER.CTX. Copy this file to the directory that contains VALIDATE.EXE. Alternatively, you can enter the ciphertext from the file on the command line or specify a source path. In some cases I will e-mail the cipher text and you can enter this text at the prompt. See below for more details. Execute VALIDATE from the DOS prompt (no parameters). See description below for a list of other options. VALIDATE will ask for your user id. Enter the id exactly as it appears in the message (without the double quotes). VALIDATE will produce a file called USER.NED. If NED cannot locate this file when it starts, or if the file has been modified or copied, the program will revert to the shareware version. Use DOS move to relocate this file somewhere on your PATH or use the options described below to create the key file in the desired directory. Save the message I sent you and USER.CTX (or a copy of the ciphertext) somewhere safe. This can be used again with subsequent releases. VALIDATE.EXE ------------ (v1.0) usage: VALIDATE [{-/}cfhit] -c <cipher text>, default (from file) -f <ciphertext file>, default user.ctx -h print usage -i <user id>, default (from console) -t <target key file path>, default current directory With no parameters, VALIDATE expects the file USER.CTX to be in the current directory. By default, the program will ask you to enter your user id. If your ciphertext file is in another directory or under a different name you can specify the file with the -f option, for example: validate -f c:\cserve\noname.001 There are a number of ways you can use VALIDATE depending on what is most convenient for you. The program can take as parameters all the information it needs. Example: validate -i "John M. Citizen" -c jkjdMjbd1Lpkwoqdgfwk473x validates the user id against the given ciphertext. If the -i flag is not passed, the program will prompt for your id. If successful the file USER.NED will be created in the current directory. The -t option allows you to specify the target path for USER.NED. For example, if you keep your executables in c:\bin, you could use the following command: validate -t c:\bin -f c:\cserve\noname.001 Which will create USER.NED in c:\bin using the ciphertext file in the compuserve directory as source. By default the target path is the current directory. VALIDATE will look along your path for USER.NED before creating the key file. If the program is run after the initial key file has been created, VALIDATE will attempt to update the original key file. Updates ------- Updates will be posted to CompuServe. This release was posted at: IBMAPP LIB 1 NED17X.EXE and on the Internet in a few of the main public access dos archives. This release is available at the following anonymous FTP sites: garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/msdos/editor/nedit17x.zip (and mirrors) oak.oakland.edu:/SimTel/msdos/editor/nedit17x.zip and /SimTel/msdos/editor/nedit17x.zip (mirrors) Updates will be announced in comp.archives.msdos.announce with follow up in comp.archives.msdos.d If you require a copy of XED or NED and only have e-mail access, I am happy to e-mail uuencoded copies. ********************************************************* Other changes A number of bug fixes have been made. For operation under Windows, NED will issue a DOS idle signal when no activity is detected. This improves performance when using NED in a DOS or Windows shell. A bug in Keep macro file has been fixed. A bug in File display mode in the file list directory listing has been fixed. ********************************************************* 1 Changes in version 1.7a 1.a A NEW configuration utility in this release. CONFIG.EXE usage: CONFIG [-hdcf] -h print help message -d force default settings, default False -c show commands, default False -f <file to edit>, default CONFIG.NED This utility can be used to quickly edit the configuration file CONFIG.NED. NED will search the current directory and then along the PATH for CONFIG.NED. If not found, a new CONFIG.NED will be created with default values in the current directory. To force the creation of CONFIG.NED in the current directory, CTRL+F4 can be used instead of F4. CONFIG also accepts a switch allowing you to edit other config files either not on the path or that use other names other than CONFIG.NED. 1.b Maintenance release with various bug fixes, including insert above display; closing the second last file in a session. NED correctly determines your video mode so that VGA50 or EGA43 are selected according to the capabilities of your card. (see note 1.c). 1.c If you are in EGA43, VGA28 or VGA50 modes, changing to any of the system windows (e.g. F10) will cause NED to revert to 25 line mode. Returning to the edit window will revert back to the original mode. 1.d The DATEFMT statement in CONFIG.NED is no longer supported. NED determines the date format from your systems' country specific information. 1.e If NED cannot find a file to open (either from the FILES.NED or CONFIG.NED FILE= statement or from the command line) the name "UNTITLED.TXT" will be used as the current filename. 1.f The bookmark system has been changed. (see 2.a). 1.g NED will ignore any line containing a " when entabi- ng a file. This will avoid format corruptions in lines that contain embedded spaces within strings. 1.h If you are editing small to medium length files (say less than 2500 lines), set the MAXLINES statement in CONFIG.NED to "MAXLINES=2500" (you can use CONFIG.EXE). 1.i Extension sort in FILE DISPLAY MODE sorts by extens- ion THEN filename. ********************************************************* 2 New features in version 1.7a 2.a NED now supports 10 bookmarks per open area. To set a mark, press SHIFT F9 then 0 to 9. You can simply enter 'n' or 'p' for the next free bookmark. When retrieving a mark, press F9 and the bookmark number or 'n' or 'p'. 2.b NED now supports VGA 28 line mode. To use this mode set the MODE statement in CONFIG.NED to: MODE=VGA28 NED will default to selecting VGA50 line mode when you use ALT+= to toggle. The above statement causes NED to use VGA28 mode instead. 2.c CALENDAR is now available with CTRL F6. This graphic- ally displays each month. Movement keys are active, with the current day hi-lit. A mark can be set with the usual SHIFT F9, goto mark F9. From the DOS prompt, enter 'd'. 2.d NED will recognise DOS \ and UNIX / characters in a pathname - but the path must contain either all DOS \ or all UNIX / - not both. 2.e For WINDOWS users, a NED icon and PIF file have been included. 2.f NED will save the state of your screen before loading by default. This will be restored on exiting. If you wish to turn this feature off, set the SAVER statement in CONFIG.NED to: SAVER=OFF 2.g An alternative printer device may be specified either in CONFIG.NED with the PRINTER statement: PRINTER=LPT? where the default is LPT1. The '6printer' command allows the default printer to be set. With no parameters, the default printer is set to LPT1. The current printer device is indicated on the F10 screen near 'Spooler'. Some systems may experience conflict problems when two or more processes set their printer to the same alterna- tive device. This should only be a problem when running multiple DOS shells (e.g. under WINDOWS 3.XX). 2.h The ruler now displays a reverse video block over the ruler position indicating the current x cursor value. 2.i An ALARM can now be set to ring at a specified time (or date and time). The '7alarm' command accepts a time string ( hh:mm:[ss] ) and optionally a date string. Enter the date string in your usual date format order. The time/date must be valid (i.e. greater than today's time (date). For example: <esc>723:54<enter> sets an alarm at 23:54. Whereas: <esc>723:54 5-16-94<enter> sets an alarm at 23:54 on the specified date. ********************************************************* 3 Changes in version 1.6x 3.a The problem with NED detecting certain printer's status flags has been corrected. The spooler will operate more reliably. 3.b For operation under WINDOWS 3.XX, SHIFT CTRL F10 can be used instead of ALT SPACE BAR to toggle the RULER on/off. ********************************************************* 4 New features in version 1.6x 4.a LARGE DOS applications can now be run under a DOS shell. NED will swap itself out of memory to either extended memory, expanded memory or to disk, depending on which is available. If no extended/expanded memory is available, a disk swap file will be created in the TMP or TEMP subdirectories, or to the current directory if these are not set. Use a ramdisk if necessary. The swapper can be disabled by setting SWAP=OFF in CONFIG.NED. This may be necessary on systems that experience problems when loading help, ASCII tables, Calculator, Calender or a DOS shell. 4.b COMPILE from within NED. Using the swapper outlined above, NED will execute a pre-defined compile string on the current filename. The compile string is defined with COMPILE= in CONFIG.NED (eg. COMPILE=cl /c /Os $). The '$' character is used as a placeholder for NED to substitute the current area's filename. You can omit the '$', in which case NED will simply execute the compile string. This permits the execution of make and batch files. The compile string can also be set from within NED with the '5' Compile command. When in command mode, the up/down arrows return the current compile string for editing. To execute a compile, press CTRL F9. 4.c The current compile string and the swap enable flag are displayed on the F10 status screen. ********************************************************* 5 Changes in version 1.6e 5.a File timestamps are now in 24 hour format (DD:MM:SS). 5.b AUTOSAVE intervals are now calculated from the time of the first modification since the last time the file was saved. An upper case delta appears next to the filename of a file that has changed and not been autosaved on the F10 status screen. This symbol is cleared when NED autosaves the file. 5.c NED warns and prompts to continue when writing files that contain more lines than read. 5.d NED and WINDOWS 3.XX will co-exist ok. NED can be run from a PIF or under an MS-DOS shell. NED will not interfere with WINDOWS hot keys. In one shell run NED and your current work files, and compile and execute in the other. ********************************************************* 6 New features in version 1.6e 6.a A REAL TIME CLOCK can now be displayed in the system window. CTRL SHIFT F5 toggles the clock on/off. This can be set in CONFIG.NED, with "CLOCK=ON/OFF". 6.b LONG FILENAMES can be viewed in F10 STATUS SCREEN by scrolling LEFT or RIGHT when the file pointer is over a filename. ********************************************************* 7 Changes in version 1.6b 7.a The ALT 0 (change colours) key is no longer supported. Use the COLOUR and INTENSITY statements in CONFIG.NED to set your colour preferences. ALT 0 is now used to change to area number 10. 7.b The CTRL F9 and CTRL F10 auto-entab/detab toggles are no longer supported. Use the DETAB and ENTAB statements in CONFIG.NED to set your preferences. 7.c SHIFT F4 no longer shells to DOS. Use ALT X. SHIFT F4 now forces entry to block mode in INTERLINE mode. 7.d CTRL LEFT/RIGHT (previous/next word) bug has been fixed. 7.e The 'p' option with the Laundry command is no longer supported. ********************************************************* 8 New features in version 1.6b 8.a If the FILE statement is set to nothing in CONFIG.NED and no file has been specified on the command line, NED will attempt to open the first file in FILES.NED if this file is found. ("FILE="). 8.b NUMBER OF CHANGES - for each open file area are now displayed on the status screen (F10). A change means any single block mode cut/paste operation or any line change. Numerous individual character edits within a line will result in a single change increment when the cursor is moved off the edited line. Keeping track of this should help you to decide when to save your edits. Files with changes will display the number recorded in bold/blinking attribute; files with no changes display nothing in this column. If AUTOSAVE is on and the file has changed since it was last autosaved, the LOWERCASE DELTA character will appear next to the number of changes value. 8.c NON-CASE SENSITIVE SEARCH - this is now the default. To force a CASE SENSITIVE search, press SHIFT ENTER when you enter the search string in command mode. 8.d NEW KEY ALT J - this key allows you to JUMP BACK TO A PREVIOUS POSITION IN THE CURRENT FILE. The previous posi- tion is updated whenever the cursor is moved off the current line. For example: <esc>G300<enter><esc>G150<enter><ALT J><ALT J> by pressing ALT J, the screen is positioned at lines 150 or 300. 8.e The RULER now displays the WIDTH OF THE CURRENT line marking the start and end of the line with the [ and ] characters. These will appear in bold attribute. If the start of the current line is outside and to the left of the edit window, a bold left arrow will appear in the first column; if the end of the current line is outside and to right of the edit window, a bold right arrow will appear in the last column. 8.f AUTOSAVE - this can be set to occur at a predefined interval between 1 and 1440 minutes. The '4auto' command accepts either the new interval or 0 to set autosave off. The AUTOSAVE statement in CONFIG.NED allows you to set up the autosave interval on startup. The default is off. Autosaved files have the first character of their extension set to the carat (^) and any characters after are moved to the right, the last character of the extension if any, is dropped. These files will appear in the current directory or in the backup directory if one has been set. NED only autosaves a file if it has recorded any changes since the last autosave. The statement: AUTOSAVE=5 forces NED to save any changes to any file every 5 minutes. 8.g The LAST 10 SEARCH strings and the LAST 10 REPLACE strings are available in command mode by pressing the up or down arrows on the S and R commands respectively. 8.h The MAXIMUM WIDTH of a line has been increased from 256 to 1024 characters. 8.i Symbols representing the left/right shift, ctrl and alt keys now appear in line 1 of the system window. 8.j After executing a command, NED remains in command mode. To force NED to return to the edit window by default, set the statement: CMDEXIT=ON in CONFIG.NED. The default is OFF. 8.k The time is continually displayed on the status screen. 8.l NED NOW HANDLES 10 FILES. The quick key to change to area number 10 is ALT 0 (ALT 1-9 for areas 1-9). 8.m COLUMN BLOCK OPERATIONS. NED now supports column block cut/copy/paste. There are now three types of block modes - INTRALINE, INTERLINE and COLUMN. Blocks that are cut or copied in one of these modes will be available for pasting in the mode in which they are cut/copied. Column pastes will occur at and below the cursor. If insert is on, the column is inserted at the cursor; if off, the column will overwrite at the cursor. 8.n JOIN LINE now strips any leading whitespace characters except one character on the next line before joining it to the current line. 8.o To force NED to enter BLOCK MODE in INTERLINE mode, press SHIFT F4. 8.p CTRL SHIFT F8 searches for the current search expres- sion from the bottom of the file up. 8.q File I/O has been improved. The time needed to read / write files is considerably reduced. 8.r The calculator now supports BINARY and OCTAL modes as well as DECIMAL and HEX. The space bar/shift space bar toggles the current value between these modes. New functions: '>' and '<' allow bit shifting; 'n' gives the exponent; 's' the square root; 'S' the square. 8.s You can PASTE FROM THE CALCULATOR to the file called "paste.cal". The result of an operation or a conversion is written to this file when you press 'p' and enter. 8.t SAMPLE MACRO FILE - this will be loaded by default if MACRO statement in CONFIG.NED is set to path SAMPLE.MCR. This file contains some useful keystroke macros. Press SHIFT F7 for a summary of their functions. 8.u For PC's with extended keyboards, SHIFT INS forces insert mode off. This is useful when recording macros. (note: if available, use the left INS key with extended keyboards.) ********************************************************* 9 New features in version 1.5x 9.a VIRCHK no longer used. Not included in this release. 9.b COMMAND '2' This allows you to execute DOS commands from within NED. For example, <esc>2dir/w<enter> will execute the DOS dir/w command. When the command has been completed, press any key to return to editing. See item 10 below. With no parameters, this command invokes a DOS shell (same as ALT X). 9.c COMMAND '3' This allows you to set the keyboard speed. 0 for no change, 1 is fastest, slowing down to 5 (a crawl). <esc>31<enter> will set the keyboard speed to the fastest setting. Keyboard rate can be set on startup in config.ned, KEYSPEED=1 9.d The DATE FORMAT has been changed with ALT Y to: dayname, dd/mm/yyyy, hh:mm {am|pm} Changes to the date string format via the DATEFMT command in CONFIG.NED will be reflected in the above string. 9.e The software REGISTRATION ADDRESS can be found on page 9 of the help screen. 9.f FIRST LETTER FILE SELECTION IN FILE DISPLAY MODE. If files are sorted by extension, first letter refers to the first letter of the extension. In either case the file selector bar will be moved to the first matching filename. 9.g NETWORK DRIVES should appear in File Display Mode. 9.h THE USER'S GUIDE. This is the roughly formatted text of the NED v1.5x user's guide. To get a fast printout of the manual you can use the FASTPRN.EXE utility supplied with this release and described below. ** Printing the User's Guide ** Note: NED.DOC is already formatted to 66 lines/page, with page breaks embedded. This file should be printed using the DOS print command. FASTPRN can be also be used if you use the -a option. Tabstops are set to 4. FASTPRN.EXE usage: fastprn [-aefhlmpst?] <input filename> -h|? usage banner -l<lines per page>, default 66 -t<top/bottom margin (lines)>, default 3 -m<left hand margin>, default 0 -f<output filename> -s<starting line>, default 0 -e<ending line (-1=all file)>, default -1 -a no formatting, output only -p pause for keystroke after page FASTPRN takes the name of the file to print and formats it for printing (page/line layout) to the screen (default). You may redirect the output to a file or to the printer directly. Alternatively you can use the -f option to specify an output file. This could also be 'PRN'. The -t option allows you to set the number of lines from the top of the page to begin printing (default 3). The -l option sets the number of lines to a page (default 66). The number of lines printed on a page is always: linesprinted = linesppage - (2 * margin) this defaults to 60. Printing begins on line 4. The -s and -e options allow you to specify a starting and ending input line range to process. If either are omitted, processing commences from the start or to the end of the file. The -m option allows you to set a left hand margin. The default is 0. For example to print this file, centred on standard continuous page, fastprn read.me -m11 -fprn outputs directly to the printer. fastprn read.me -ap Suppresses formatting. When -a is used, lines per page will default to 24 and margins will default to zero. The -p pauses after each 24 lines (useful for examining the file from the screen. fastprn ned.doc -a -fprn Formats the file ned.doc to the printer(note that this is already formatted and needs only to be printed). fastprn read.me -l84 -t4 -p > prn Formats the file read.me directly to the printer. 84 lines per page are set with top/bottom margins 4. The program after each page. fastprn read.me -e250 > intro.txt Formats only the first 250 lines from the input file. Output is redirected to intro.txt. fastprn ned.doc -s1456 -e1760 > file.txt Formats lines 1456 to 1760 inclusively from the input file. Output is redirected to file.txt. If the first character on any line is a page break (chr 12) it is printed and the current line number is reset to 9. This permits hard page-breaks to be inserted and printed in a file. 9.i When in File Display Mode,if the file selector bar is placed over the '\', NED will display the VOLUME LABEL of the current drive. When the file selector bar is over the current drive letter, NED displays number of BYTES FREE. 9.j You can enter FILE DISPLAY MODE on the 2DOS COMMAND. If you select a file by pressing return, the full pathname of the file is copied to the command parameter string and you are returned to command mode and the cursor is placed at the end of the string. You may edit the command, add parameters or attempt to execute it (if it is a valid DOS command). See note 9.b). 9.k F5 brace matching now recognises the CHEVRON characters « and », the BANG(!) and INVERSE BANG(¡), and the QUESTION MARK (?) and INVERSE QUESTION MARK (¿). 9.l DIRMAX statement in CONFIG.NED This defaults to 512 filenames for the file list, and for the maximum number of directory entries under File Display Mode. DIRMAX={64-10240} If you are working with directories that contain numerous files, increase DIRMAX accordingly. Keeping DIRMAX low saves on internal buffer space. 9.m CALCULATOR/ASCII TABLES These can be run from within NED with F6 and SHIFT F6. You can also execute NCAL.EXE from the DOS prompt. NCAL prompts: Press (c)alculator, (a)scii tables or esc: 9.n SOUND statement in CONFIG.NED Error beeps and blips can be suppressed by setting this statement to OFF: SOUND=OFF The default is ON. 9.o HOME DIRECTORY - when you enter FILE DISPLAY MODE, the current (home) directory is displayed. If you change to another directory, NED will change to this directory the next time you enter File Display Mode. To force NED to select the home directory, press SHIFT F1 instead of F1 when you enter File Display Mode. 9.p SEARCH INTERRUPT - you can now INTERRUPT a search by pressing ESCAPE.