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Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO
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riptm150.zip
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WHATSNEW.DOC
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1993-02-15
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-----------------
RIPterm v1.50.00
-----------------
VERSION HISTORY
-----------------
Date ... 02/15/93
-----------------
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 1.50.00 ... Released 02/15/93 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This is a very major new release with a great many enhancements and
other features that were not present in prior versions. The
following is a summary of what's new in v1.50.00:
RIPterm no longer requires a Mouse!
You can now access the pull-down menus via the keyboard by
hitting the F10 key. You may navigate through the menus
with the arrow keys and tapping <ENTER> on the desired item
to activate it.
You may now access ANY mouse field in a RIPscrip menu
without the mouse by using the TAB or SHIFT-TAB keys to
hilight the field you want to execute. Once the desired
field is hilighted, simply tap the <ENTER> key to activate
the mouse field. If you wish to un-hilight any mouse field,
simply tap the Escape key.
System Font ability (change your Text fonts). This mode
allows you to choose what size text you wish to use under
normal text environments. You have five separate Fonts to
choose from:
80x43 (default)
80x25 (normal DOS screen size)
40x25 (low-res font)
91x43 (get more columns of text at once)
91x25 (get more columns of text at once)
This new "System Fonts" ability allows you to custom tailor
how RIPterm will display normal text to you when in a full-
screen text mode interface. The BBS can overide this mode
under circumstances where your text interface is not full-
screen. Whenever your screen is "reset" by the BBS (i.e.,
it is zoomed to full-screen mode), your default System Font
will once again be re-activated.
Built-in text variable system for Keystroke Macros, amd for
BBS/RIPterm information exchange. This mode allows RIPterm
to become intelligent. It does this by storing information
in a local database file (RIPTERM.DB) for future retrieval.
Every piece of information that is stored in this database
file is associated with a text variabe "name". Each name
is from 3-12 characters in length. The data that is
associated with the text variable can be from 0-60 characters
in length. Any data that is stored in the database file is
saved indefinitely until either you, or the BBS alters it in
some way. For high-speed retrieval of text variable data,
the database is automatically indexed for you. An index is
like "sorting" something alphabetically so that you can find
a piece of information quickly. In the event that the index
becomes corrupt due to loss of power or something of that
nature, RIPterm will automatically re-build the index file
for you. See the section of the RIPterm documentation on
Text Variables in Keystroke Macros for many new details about
how to take advantage of this powerful feature.
A new "pull-down" menu has been added (DATA). Under this
menu, you can create (or modify) text variables, view the
contents of "pre-defined" text variables (e.g., $DATE$,
$TIME$, etc). Also, you can view the contents of your
Text Variable database.
Popup List ability in keystroke macros. Allow your keystroke
macros to do different things depending on a choice you make
when you execute the macro. Pop-up lists are easy to create
and can be extremely useful when you need a macro to apply
to more than one type of situation online.
Doorway mode for Marshall Dudley's DOORWAY access program.
Just type ALT-= (alt-equal sign) to enter doorway mode.
When in this mode, any special keystrokes you type are sent
to the BBS in a special way that any "doorway compatible"
package can use. In this mode, the BBS can actually take
advantage of ALT keys, Function keys, Arrow Keys, or various
other keystrokes. Only BBS software that directly supports
Doorway Mode can take advantage of this feature. This mode
is predominantly used when accessing "Door" features of many
popular BBS packages (like PC-Board, Wildcat, Synchronet BBS,
and many others).
Support for a 101-key enhanced AT-keyboard in Doorway Mode.
Do not use this option if you do not have a 101-key keyboard.
If RIPterm freezes up on you when you go into this mode,
reboot your computer and run RIPterm with the -E parameter to
disable 101-key support (i.e., RIPTERM -E).
RIPterm now auto-senses if a connection exists when you run
the software. If a connection already exists, RIPterm does
not send the modem initialization string, but simply taps
<ENTER> to the BBS to (ideally) re-display the current menu,
or at least some kind of prompt.
RIPterm can auto-sense RIPscrip with the ANSI sequence
<ESC>[! ... it will return "RIPSCRIP015000" (the RIPscrip
version number, i.e., "v01.50.00"). This will only occur
if the BBS you call can support RIPscrip "auto-sensing".
A new boot-up mode (/O) to say you're already online.
Completely rewritten text-scrolling code! Scrolling
text is approximately 10 times faster than in prior versions
of RIPterm. Callers at 2400 baud will notice that scrolling
is faster than the modem. Higher speed callers will still
notice that scrolling isn't as fast in a text-mode terminal
program, but that the scrolling is still much MUCH faster.
Scrolling speed is now limited by the speed of your computer,
and the type of Video Board you have. 16-bit video cards will
have faster scrolling than 8-bit cards. We can't get much
faster with the scrolling speed, due to hardware performance
issues. Future versions of RIPterm could very well auto-detect
your video card, and if you have an accelerated VGA card, it
might be able to improve performance still further.
Re-engineered File Transfer Protocols. You now have access
to the following protocols:
Xmodem (checksum) Xmodem (CRC)
Xmodem-1K Xmodem-1K (G)
Ymodem (batch) Ymodem-G
Zmodem Kermit
ASCII
NOTE: Zmodem now supports crash recovery
File transfer protocols now check to see if the connection
with the BBS has been lost. If so, it aborts the transfer.
File transfer protocols now allow you to abort a transfer by
tapping the <ESC> key.
Better support for flow control handshaking. RTS/CTS
support has been added for better high-speed performance.
Also, XON/XOFF flow control options are enhanced for more
reliable operation. Use RTS/CTS flow control with high-
speed modems for the best performance of your modem.
Baud Rates up to 115,200 are now supported. 4800 baud
now exists as a choice too.
The Modem Options dialog box has been restructured to be
less confusing, and more pleasing to the eye.
Help system has been overhauled (type F1 to see). You can
now use the arrow keys to navigate through the Help System's
keywords to hilight the desired keyword in the specified
direction. You no longer have to TAB endlessly through
numerous keywords to get to the one you want. Also, the
Help Table of Contents has been totally re-designed to be
easier to use.
Scrolling up/down one line in the scollback buffer no
longer trims spaces from the beginning of printed lines.
This gives an accurate representation of what the text
looked like. Note that ANSI cursor movement commands can
make the scrollback buffer look different than what you see
on the screen.
Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) characters are now
handled properly.
Cursor wrapping no longer occurs on column #80, but at column
81. This became evident with large ANSI pictures becoming
screwed up due to premature Cursor wrapping.
A complete dialing directory system has been added in this
version of RIPterm. You may have up to 100 separate systems
in a particular dialing directory file (e.g., RIPTERM.PHO).
You may have as many directory files as you wish. The Dialing
Directory has a great many features to make your life easier.
See the section in RIPTERM.DOC on "Dialing Directories" for
more information on the available features.
The "Dialing Window" has been overhauled to display what
system you are currently dialing. In addition, you may alter
the "Redial time" from within this window by clicking on the
increment/decrement buttons next to the timer. This allows
you to increase or decrease the available redial timeout without
having to edit your setup manually. Also, a DELETE button has
been added allowing you to remove an entry from the list of
Systems you are dialing. This would be useful if you were
dialing several systems and you decide that you do not wish
to dial one of the systems anymore.
Ability to keep Icons in separate subdirectories for different
systems. Specify which system's icons go where in the
dialing directory. If you do not specify which sub-directory
Icons will be stored in, the default ICONS\ sub-directory will
be used. If the BBS you are connected to instructs RIPterm to
load an Icon, it will first check that system's directory. If
the Icon is not located there, it will check the ICONS\
directory for the file. This allows a BBS to "overide" default
Icons with ones of their own design, thus preventing one BBS
from over-writing Icons from another system inadvertantly.
New command line options for specifying alternate Setup files,
alternate dialing directory files, and to automatically dial
an entry in the dialing directory upon bootup. Type
"RIPTERM ?" for more details or see RIPTERM.DOC for a more
elaborate description on these features.
Re-engineered internal memory management. RIPterm now uses
memory more efficiently than in previous versions.
Auto Download feature for BBS'es that can take advantage of
it. This allows protocols like Xmodem to auto-download
like Zmodem does.
Zmodem auto-downloads will now "erase" the Zmodem transfer
header before actually beginning the download.
New Block Protocol option - This is for use on RIPscrip
BBS'es where an error-free transmission of Icons or RIP
scenes is desired. RIPterm accomplishes this transfer of
information with its built-in file transfer protocols.
Progress Indicator on any upload/download that supports
Batch Transfer (i.e., Ymodem, Ymodem-G, Kermit and Zmodem).
Option to use DTR to hangup the modem instead of the less
efficient +++ ATH method. If for some reason, DTR fails to
hangup the modem, the normal +++ ATH method will be used to
disconnect. If the modem still has not terminated the
connection, the message "Hangup Failed" will be displayed to
alert you that you are still online.
Support for many new ANSI escape code sequences (some VT-102
and VT-52 features now supported). The new ANSI codes
processed are:
■ Underline mode now supported in "display attributes"
■ Blink mode now displays as BOLD (bright)
■ Invert Video mode now acts properly
■ Tab Stops are fully supported now
■ Scrolling regions now supported
■ Device Status Reports
■ Extended Save/Restore cursor (ESC 7, ESC 8) added
■ Reset Terminal Emulation command (ESC c)
■ Device Attribute Report (ESC Z)
■ Cursor UP/DOWN with scrolling (ESC D, ESC M, ESC E)
DOS Shell mode spruced up a bit - now displays a modified
DOS Prompt to indicate you are inside a DOS Shell.
New Intro screen mode. You may now view a .PCX file upon
bootup in place of the standard logo screen. If the file
RIPTERM.PCX is present in your RIPterm directory, it will be
loaded. A Brief copyright message will be shown at the
bottom of the screen. .PCX logo files must be 16-color
EGA images in a resolution of 640x350. The Copyright
Message is displayed from scan lines 300-349.
A new RIPTERM.RES (resource) file is included with RIPterm.
This file contains many of the frequently used graphical
images that are used internally in RIPterm. BBS Icons
are NOT stored in this file.
Local RIPscrip file playback ability. The host can now
transfer a .RIP file to your system, and then later on
instruct your system to play it back locally. Graphics
playback is lightning fast in this mode.
You can now automatically display a RIPscrip scene file
upon bootup of RIPterm if you wish. Use the -R parameter
when booting up RIPterm to execute a RIPscrip file. For
example, if you wanted to load RIPterm and display the
RIPscrip file MYSCREEN.RIP, issue the folling command:
ripterm -rMYSCREEN.RIP
If you omit the .RIP extension, it will be added for you
automatically. .RIP files by default, are checked in the
ICONS\ sub-directory.
New option to disable Beeps has been added for situations
where you want peace and quiet.
Status Bar has been re-designed. It is now shorter, thus
allowing a full 80x24 screen when in certain System Font
modes. In addition, you can now "click" on fields in the
status bar and the appropriate command will be executed.
Some status bar fields do different things in different
modes. If you are Online somewhere, and you click on the
"Online" field, it will ask you if you wish to Hangup.
If you are Offline, and you click on "Offline", it will
bring up the dialing directory automatically. If you are
currently logging a session to disk, the filename will be
displayed on that Status Bar. Clicking on this field will
allow you to close the Log File.
You may now "Pause" a log-file temporarily.
Data Security mode has been added to prevent unauthorized
queries from your local Database by Host Systems. This
mode was added so that as the user have control on what
types of information a BBS can ask your terminal.
You may now execute a local .RIP file from within a keystroke
macro quickly and easily. The .RIP file that is loaded will
be located in whatever Icons sub-directory is designated for
the system you are currently connected to. If it cannot find
the file in that directory, or you are not currently online,
it will load the file from the ICONS\ sub-directory.
You may now alter the Base-I/O address of your Serial Ports.
This becomes quite useful in situations where you have an
oddball Serial Port configuration where IRQ (interrupt)
settings just won't cut it. This is quite useful for things
like DigiBoards, or other multi-port boards. Consult your
Serial Port card's documentation for details about various
addresses it may use.
A dialing directory conversion utility has been included with
this release of RIPterm allowing you to convert Telix or
TeleMate dialing directory files to RIPterm format. This
utility will auto-detect what type of directory file you
specify, and will convert the first 100 non-blank entries
into the specified RIPterm directory file. Both Telix and
TeleMate allow up to 1000 entries in their dialing directory.
RIPterm allows up to 100 entries.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 1.01.01 ... Released 01/05/93 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This minor release altered none of the functionality of RIPterm
itself. This release solely altered the name of the company who
wrote the software to "TeleGrafix Communications, Inc."
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 1.01.00 ... Released 10/23/92 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This version added many significant features to the RIPterm
software. Of the many features included are the following:
Log-to-disk ability
Custom IRQ settings
Auto-Answer mode
New File Transfer Protocols were added:
Zmodem
Ymodem
Xmodem-1K
Auto-initiating Zmodem downloads
Shell to DOS ability
Upload ASCII files with optional Line/Character pacing
EMS/XMS/overlay support to maximize memory efficiency
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 1.00.00 ... Released 09/10/92 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This is the first official Public release of RIPterm as a Freeware
software package. Several features were added that were not in
previous Beta copies.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 0.99.31 (Beta) ... Released 02/15/92 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
A number of changes were made in this first Beta revision. Among
those worth mentioning are:
Support for the revised Mouse Region portion of the RIPscrip
protocol. It now has the ability to set the text window to
full screen and clear the screen when a mouse region is
clicked. This provides for a simplified installation on a
BBS that has many areas that cannot support RIPscrip.
More Streamlined clickable buttons, simple dialog boxes and
Information windows. In all of these cases, the buttons on
these windows are now "visibly" clickable and support default
choices when <RETURN> is pressed. In addition, tapping <ESC>
at any of these menus now operates properly rather than
selecting "YES" all the time.
The "Reset All Windows" RIPscrip command would not clear the
last few scan lines of the graphics display. This would
occasionally leave remaining graphics data on the screen when
it shouldn't be there. Now fixed.
When dialing the modem with the auto re-dialer, tapping a key
would display a message in the message window in the incorrect
font, size and color. Now fixed.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 0.99.30 (Beta) ... Released 08/28/92 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This was the initial Beta release of RIPterm.