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Text File | 1991-12-21 | 27KB | 650 lines

Recent Revision History ----------------------- This file contains a list of changes to the current release and also to several recent releases. If you have used {COMMO} before, please make sure you are caught up on all the changes and improvements. See the file READ.ME for important announcements and {COMMO} product information. ----------- ----------------- {COMMO} 5.1 December 21, 1991 ----------- ----------------- Bugs fixed ---------- If Esc was pressed after using SETEsc with the -P0 switch, random characters and colors would sometimes appear on the screen. Under certain circumstances, a LOOKfor could be triggered by a previously received Auto Receive string. This was sometimes happening during dialing, causing the Linked Macro to fail. Xmodem would sometimes get "stuck" on noisy lines. Setup File ---------- There are several new items. Add these to your Setup File if you need to use them (they are included in the new example Setup File): The ENQ/ACK terminal protocol is now supported. If your host requires this, add this item: {enq=yes} Answer ENQ with ACK (yes/no) Auto Receive string for the new HS/Link protocol: {aut=phbr,^bR} Auto Receive, HS/Link Name of your Omen Technology program. All of the example DSZ macros have been changed to use this variable: *{set dszprog,DSZ.COM} Name of program in DSZ family that you have (DSZ.COM, GSZ.EXE or DSZ.EXE) Dialing Directory ----------------- You can now include variables with each Dialing Directory entry. The variables will be set just before a directory entry is dialed. Any items in curly braces beyond the first four should be in the format: {name,string}. Be sure the first four items are present (even if null). See "Alt-D Dialing Directory" in COMMO.DOC for details. Dialing results will now be suppressed between dialing attempts and after cancelling a dial-in-progress. This eliminates most occurrences of NO CARRIER when Esc is pressed during dialing. Macro Processor --------------- You can now set a {COMMO} variable equal to any environment variable. Use the -E switch on the SETVariable function. For example: {setv-e xyz,PATH} will set "xyz" to the DOS path string. The environment variable name is case sensitive (they are usually upper case). See the new writeup of the SETV function in MACRO.DOC. The new Macro File has a variable in place of DSZ. Now you can define "dszprog" in the Setup File as DSZ.COM, GSZ.EXE or DSZ.EXE and that program will be used for all Zmodem and Ymodem macros (in the MOSTHOST, too). There are three new built-in variables: _nci Number of characters in input buffer _row Current cursor row _col Current cursor column The GETString function will now allow you to "append" to a variable. Just use the -A switch and characters will be appended to the current variable. A -C switch has been added to the POPStack function. This will clear all elements from the stack. The "W" switch on EXECute, RXMOdem and SXMOdem has been modified to include a "timed wait." For example {exec-w3 dir} will wait three seconds before restoring the Terminal Screen. {exec-w dir} will wait indefinitely. Note that "w1" will wait one second now, while "w0" will not wait at all. General ------- Setup File and Macro File support has been added for the new HS/Link protocol, including bi-directional transfers. The F2 key in the Internal Editor now has "intelligence." It will always enter the correct brace. Try it! F9 and F10 are no longer used. More items will now "speak" when the Speech Friendly Interface is on. These include window titles, selections in the Alt-T window and status messages in the Xmodem window. Alt-F5 is no longer used for Doorway Mode on the HP 95LX. Use Alt-= instead. ------------ --------------- {COMMO} 5.01 October 2, 1991 ------------ --------------- Bugs fixed ---------- The IFEXist function was sometimes causing corruption of a few bytes in memory. This was sometimes seen as "garbage" in the Macro File and may have been responsible for other unpredictable results. A "%" could not be used before the variable in the GETString function without causing variable substitution to occur (this should normally require "%%"). The test to differentiate between the dialing result codes CARRIER and NO CARRIER didn't work. Now you can use "CARRIER " (with a space) and the speed will be recorded properly in the Usage Log. Using "^jCARRIER" will not work since no character translation is done on the response codes. The SETEsc function would not always work when Esc was pressed and "yes" was answered. The macro would STOP instead of going to the label. The Setup File keywords were not accepted if they contained upper case characters (upper or lower should have worked). The Hangup command has been improved by delaying before dropping DTR. This seems to work better with certain modems. Macro Processor --------------- Day of the week built-in variables have been added. Use _dwn for the single digit numeric form: 1=Monday,...,7=Sunday. Use _dwt for text form: Mon, Tue,... The GETString function now has a "P" switch for Password Mode. In this mode asterisks will be echoed in place of the characters received. This also means that backspace editing is supported during password input. The INSTring function can now be used on built-in variables such as _pas, _dat, etc. There is now a "P" switch on SETEsc. "P1" or "P" (default) prompts the user when Esc is pressed. "P0" goes to the label without prompting. You can also reset the SETEsc label so that the macro will STOP when Esc is pressed. Just use SETesc with no argument: {setesc}. The SEND and MARK functions can have null arguments now without causing a macro error (they will do nothing). General ------- The BIOS terminal screen option (keyword BTS) in the Setup File has been replaced with Speech Friendly Interface (keyword SFI). Visually impaired users with speech boards should note this change. When this option is set to "yes" the Terminal Screen and other messages will "talk." Also, the up and down arrow keys now move the cursor instead of scrolling the screen in windows like Online Help, Scrollback and Variable Space. The Host Mode macro, MOSTHOST.MAC, has been improved. It should answer the phone properly with all modems now (make sure you check the configuration items at the top of the macro). It uses the new password switch in GETString so that backspace editing can be done. It does not allow overwriting files in the standard file upload directory. And it is much faster starting up and terminating. The Master Sound indicator, now "N", has been restored to the Status Line toggles. ----------- --------------- {COMMO} 5.0 August 28, 1991 ----------- --------------- Support File changes since last release --------------------------------------- Changes are required to the Configuration File and Macro File. Some changes may also be needed in your Dialing Directory. Read the sections below carefully and also the appropriate sections in COMMO.DOC and MACRO.DOC (now a separate Macro Programming Guide). Configuration File ------------------ The Config File has been replaced with a keyworded Setup File. This means that items may be in any order and may vary in number. In the future it will only be necessary to add new items if the new features are desired. New items in this release include: {ddp=2400,8n1,1,A,0} Default Dialing Parameters {min=yes} Send Modem Init String (yes/no) {mac=initmac} Startup macro label {sts=yes} Status Line on (yes/no) {ers=yes} Make sounds on errors/warnings (yes/no) Plus any number of SET items to set string variables. Keep in mind that the Setup File is only processed at startup. It may be edited with the Alt-G command, but the changes do not take effect until the next time {COMMO} is started. A new command "[Alt-T] Set Toggles" has been added to allow changing many toggle parameters without affecting the permanent setup. Dialing Directory ----------------- A set of Default Dialing Parameters (separate from the Current Terminal Parameters) is now maintained by {COMMO}. These parameters are set whenever a number is dialed unless overridden by a parameter string in the Directory entry. They may be changed in the "[Alt-P] Set Terminal Parameters" window or with the DPARms macro function. The telephone number field can now have variables to be used as additional prefixes, suffixes or any other way that you can think of. Read the Dialing Directory section in COMMO.DOC if you need to use this feature. Macro Processor --------------- The PgUp and PgDn keys are now used to bring up new Upload and Download menus. If you need to use these keys for full-screen editing, change the key-labels in the menus (use F6 in the editor to scroll to the right). You can now define and use string variables within all macro functions. Read the section "Programming {COMMO} Macros" in MACRO.DOC for complete details. Macro-id's are now called Macro Labels. They may be any number of characters of which the first eight are significant and they must be preceded by a colon. For example: {:label}. Key-id's are now called Key-labels and must have a colon, also. See MACRO.DOC for details. A new feature, called Function Switches, allows you to add modifiers to certain function names to change the action of the function. The list of functions in Online Help shows which functions may have switches. Here are some examples: {asci-e file,xyz} ASCII Upload, expand blank lines {asci-s0 file,xyz} ASCII Upload, do not strip linefeeds {exec-d c:\util\dsz.com} Direct EXEC All of the "%" parameters in the EXEC function have been eliminated. Some have been replaced with string variables, others with switches. And instead of "%i" you must now use the new INPUt function prior to the EXEC. These macro functions have been deleted: CONFig, DELAy, EXED, EXEN, TERMinal. New macro functions are as follows: ABAUd This replaces the former AUTObaud. AUTOreceive Set/reset Auto Receive strings. COMPare Compare strings, set conditions. DECRement Subtract from a numeric variable. DPARms Set Default Dialing parameters. EDIT Edit an external file. ELAPse Reset the elapsed timer to 0. GETString Get a string from the modem. HFLOw Toggle Hardware Flow Control. IFCOndition Test conditions set by COMPare. INCRement Add to a numeric variable. INPUt Input a string from the keyboard. INSTring Find a string within a string. LENGth Determine the length of a string. RCLOse Close the read file. READ Read from a disk file. ROPEn Open a file for reading. RXMOdem Receive a file using Xmodem. SETEsc Set a label to GOTO when Esc is pressed. SETGet Set parameters for GETString. SETVariable Assign a string to a variable. SFLOw Toggle Software Flow Control. SPOCtrl Serial port output control. SUBString Extract a substring from a variable. SXMOdem Send a file using Xmodem. TOGGles Open Set Toggles window. WCLOse Close the write file. WOPEn Open a file for writing. WRITe Write to a disk file. Since there is no longer a specific item in the Setup File for upload path (this is now a user-defined variable), the ASCII Upload window will not normally show a path in the input field. You can put in any path you like now by using the macro: {:ala} {asci %uldir%\,:} Use any path or variable. Notice the "\" after the path variable. This indicates to bring up the window with the path displayed in the input field. When a macro is running, messages from functions (such as LOOKfor, PAUSe, etc.) will now be displayed on the left side of the Status Line. General ------- {COMMO} now has internal Xmodem. This is provided for convenience and can also result in reduced memory usage. It supports 128 byte or 1k blocks and CRC or checksum modes. A new key command "[Alt-T] Set Toggles" allows changing many toggle parameters without changing the permanent setup. The following individual toggle key commands have been eliminated, but may be restored using macros: Alt-3 Master Sound toggle Alt-4 AutoBaud toggle Alt-5 Local Echo toggle Alt-0 Signal Lights toggle The F1 key is now used for Online Help throughout the program. To make this consistent in the Internal Editor, the F1, F2 keys to type curly braces have been changed as follows: F2 now types left and right braces alternately (it is reset to left brace when you move to a new line). F9 and F10 will type left and right braces, respectively. And F7 is now the key to bring up the Color Chart. Alt-U is now used for the Utility Menu. Multi Number Dialing is now started using Alt-N in the Terminal Screen and in the Dialing Directory window. Online Help now requires fewer keypresses to get to a topic. Just press the new two character topic code (no Enter necessary). Also the "keys" in the topic separators are now "T" followed by any character. So if you add your own topic, say "TX", you can bring it up by typing "TX" in the Help window. You can also use the macro function {help x}. Support has been increased for blind users with speech synthesizers. Many prompts and error messages are now displayed through the BIOS when the "BIOS Terminal Screen and errors" option in the Setup File is set to "yes." The "Other copy of {COMMO} running" message was being erroneously displayed after some ill-behaved programs were run. I have added an additional check to guard against this. The window with the question "Initialize modem?" has been removed. An item has been added to the Setup File in its place: {min=yes/no}. You can also use the command line switch: "/iy" or "/in" to override this setting. Using an "=" in command line switches is no longer permitted. So if you have a "/i=y", you must change it to "/iy". Some new command line switches have been added. These override Setup File items where applicable. Here is a summary of all command line switches: /iy, /in Initialize, don't initialize modem. /:label Startup macro. /sfilename Alternate Setup File. /dfilename Alternate Dialing Directory file. /mfilenmae Alternate default Macro File. /knn Size of Scrollback Buffer in kbytes. A new search function has been added to the file windows. In addition to "S", search for string from top of file, and "A", search again from top of page, there is now "D", search for a new string from top of page. The corresponding function in the Internal Editor is "Alt-D". You can now navigate in a triangle among the Macro Processor, Scrollback and Dialing Directory windows without having to exit to the Terminal Screen. There is a new input line editor for entering search strings, manual phone numbers, pathnames, etc. Keys supported are: right/left arrow, home/end, backspace, insert/delete and Alt-Y (clear input field). An "*" next to the column number in the Internal Editor indicates that the file has outstanding changes. A count of characters received from the serial port appears in the upper left hand corner of all full-screen windows. The wrapping of the last screen column in ANSI-BBS emulation has been changed to conform to the method used in VT102. I.e, the cursor will not wrap on the last column until another character comes in. This prevents double-spacing when lines are exactly as wide as the screen. I have stopped using the BIOS for serial port initialization. There were too many non-compatible BIOS's. PCjr users will have to specify Com2 now if the internal modem is not installed. ------------ ------------ {COMMO} 4.54 May 20, 1991 ------------ ------------ Support File changes since last release --------------------------------------- No changes are required to any of the support files. Bugs Fixed ---------- If carrier dropped while a macro was running and the "r" parameter was specified in a prior MACLoad function, macro processing would continue at an unpredictable location. The reload will now wait until macro processing has STOPped (also, the reload is cancelled by another MACLoad). Scrollback was refusing to display past an EOF character (ASCII 26). This caused part of the buffer to be unviewable at times. Internal Editor --------------- You can now split lines and join lines in the Internal Editor! To split a line at the cursor, just press Enter when Insert Mode is on. To join two lines, just press Del when the cursor is at the end of the line. Or press Backspace when the cursor is in column 1. Dialing Directory ----------------- Due to the public outcry concerning the change to the DIAL function, I have added a third parameter. This allows the function to behave as it did in releases prior to 4.53. Writing: ... {dial ,,c} ... will cause the Linked Macro to be started with a CALL instead of a GOTO. The final RETUrn will transfer control back to the DIAL function, resuming Multi Number Dialing if any more systems are marked. PUSH and POPS are not necessary when the "c" parameter is used. Macro Processor --------------- It is no longer necessary for the Selector Bar to be positioned on a macro-id to start a macro. Processing will start at the first macro-id or function on the selected line. This makes it a lot easier to test macros by starting at various locations. Also, macros in menus no longer require dummy macro-id's. The SETLook parameters (LOOKfor timeout, prompt response) are now reset to no timeout and no prompt response whenever macro processing stops. This will prevent undesired actions when the next macro is started. The split/join addition to the Internal Editor should make it a lot easier to write and maintain macros (see above). A string may now be specified in the MACRo function. The line on which the string appears will be displayed as the top line when the Macro Processor window is opened. This is intended for creating menus. For example: {nf6} {macro menu1} {} will search for the first occurrence of "menu1" and display from there. Macro errors are now reported in the Macro Processor window. The offending line is under the Selector Bar at the top of the screen. General ------- The opening Shareware advertisement will automatically terminate after 60 seconds if the key is not pressed. This will allow testing of unattended macro runs with the unregistered version. The Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys may now be used to scroll the screen when the Selector Bar is active (in addition to F3 and F4). This change applies in the Dialing Directory, Macro Processor and Scrollback windows. ------------ -------------- {COMMO} 4.53 March 29, 1991 ------------ -------------- Bugs Fixed ---------- The "other copy of {COMMO} running" check was causing a QEMM exception report on some Compaq 386 machines. The terminal emulation "insert mode" (ANSI-BBS, VT102) was not moving characters to the right as new characters were typed. This would sometimes cause {COMMO} to crash. The blinking message with the alarm was not always seen under DESQview. A "\" was being added to the upload path in the ASCII Upload window even if there was no path or only a drive designator. In an effort to reduce the number of erroneous {Off} log entries, I have stopped writing them unless an {On} entry has been made first. This will help modems with carrier detect "bounce." Macro Processor --------------- IMPORTANT: The DIAL macro function has been changed. When there is a Linked Macro in the Dialing Directory, {COMMO} will now do a GOTO instead of a CALL to the Linked Macro. A RETUrn at the end of unattended macros no longer goes back to the DIAL function. If there is nowhere to return to, the macro will STOP. Here are some details (see COMMO.DOC for more): o To continue dialing automatically these macros should end with (or GOTO) the following sequence (or variation thereof): ... {setlook 60} {lookfor ^jNO CARRIER^m} {dial ,} {} o This means that you can now call more than one system automatically when you: 1) Use Dialing Strings on the command line. 2) Mark numbers manually and press Alt-U. New function (see COMMO.DOC for details): IFCArrier This function will test for the presence of carrier detect. There is no longer a restriction on when COMMO.MAC can be reloaded when using the "r" parameter of the MACLoad function. If you are in a file window (including the Macro Processor), it will reload when the window is exited. Some of the macros in MACROS.TXT have been updated. In particular, the Generic Login Subroutine will now handle more boards. General ------- The Auto Receive feature has been improved. There is no longer a time period following a trigger when another one is disallowed. Instead, the serial port input buffer is cleared when returning from an EXECute-type function (during the trigger macro only). The Capture Mode can now be changed manually in the Capture File Options window. A Status Line message will be displayed during SEND functions that have any (~) delay characters. ------------ ------------- {COMMO} 4.52 March 2, 1991 ------------ ------------- Bugs Fixed ---------- A few users were having a problem with output data being sent repeatedly. The program had to be terminated to get out of it. I was unable to recreate this myself (I suspect flaky hardware). I have changed the transmit logic to accommodate more conditions and I would appreciate hearing from anyone who had this problem. The prompt timer in the LOOKfor function was expiring early when a beep was sounded. This caused difficulty in PCBoard login macros, for example, causing an "n|" to be sent too soon. The timer for the modem init string at program startup was beginning before the string was sent instead of after, leaving very little time for the modem to settle before dialing began. -------------------- Support File Changes -------------------- Configuration File ------------------ This release uses the same configuration file as 4.5 and 4.51. Dialing Directory ----------------- The [M] command, Manual Dial, no longer makes an entry in the Directory. Instead the number last entered is displayed when you press [M] again. [N] is no longer an option. Sorry, but this feature was incompatible with some of the recent changes and had to be sacrificed. Macro Processor --------------- Macro Processing has been streamlined to make execution of long macros even faster. The macro error window will now show the closest macro-id prior to the errant function. Now you can have as many as 15 GOLOoks plus the LOOKfor, for a total of 16 strings that can be scanned for at one time. New functions (see COMMO.DOC for details on these functions): STATusline This function will turn the Status Line on or off at any time. PUSHstack This will save a macro location to the macro stack. It is primarily useful for turning GOLOoks into subroutine calls. POPStack Removes an element from the macro stack. Used when a return from a GOLOok is not needed. General ------- Now you can press the [Spacebar] in ASCII Upload to get things moving when {COMMO} is waiting for a pacing character that won't come. This helps when you have specified the wrong pacing character or if you intentionally want to manually pace the output, line by line. A new key has been added in the Scrollback window. Pressing [C] will let you change the Screen Image pathname without leaving the window. Doorway Mode will now use the number of text lines on the display (instead of forcing 25 lines). This means that you must set the display correctly before starting {COMMO}. Most Doorway applications require the normal 25 line display, but {COMMO} will now handle more lines if required. The Status Line may now be turned on while in Doorway Mode. See the details under "Doorway Mode" in COMMO.DOC. Also, the DOORway macro function no longer has a y/n argument. It was too easy to get stuck in Doorway Mode! VT102 terminal emulation has been improved by holding the cursor in column 80 when 80 column lines are displayed. This will prevent double spacing when linewrap in on (linewrap now defaults to ON when you switch emulations). A message will be displayed for several seconds at startup if another copy of {COMMO} is running. This warning is intended to reduce the chance of losing support file data when files are saved at program exit (does not seem to work between DESQview windows, however). -end-