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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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1991-11-18
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4DOS Release Informationm
Version 4.0 -- November 18, 1991
Copyright 1988 - 1991, JP Software Inc., All Rights Reserved. Published
by JP Software Inc., P.O. Box 1470, E. Arlington, MA 02174 USA, (617)
646-3975.
This file provides information on changes in the November 18 release of
4DOS version 4.0. This is an interim release with only minor changes
and bug fixes. The changed files included with the update are 4DOS.COM
and 4DOS.HLP, plus these notes. A summary of the items changed in
4DOS.COM is included below.
In full copies of this release we have also updated APPNOTES.DOC with
more current information on a few products; a summary of the new
APPNOTES information is included at the end of this file.
The .ZIP file with which these notes are distributed is ONLY useful if
you have downloaded the November 1 shareware release of 4DOS 4.0 and
want to update to the November 18 release. It is NOT a complete copy of
4DOS! For a complete copy see the files 4DOS40P.ZIP and 4DOS40D.ZIP (on
some systems these will be called 4DOS4P.ZIP and 4DOS4D.ZIP).
If you have a copy of 4DOS distributed on diskette you also do NOT need
this update. All diskette copies were updated to the November 18 re-
lease prior to distribution.
This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and
page footers. It can be viewed with a file viewer such as the 4DOS LIST
command, or printed on most PC printers using the command:
copy readme.doc prn
Printing it with a program that formats the pages is not likely to work
due to the formatting included in the file.
4DOS 4.0 [11-18-91] 4DOSUPD.DOC page 1
4DOS Program Changes and Fixes
Version 4.0 -- November 18, 1991
Fixes
-----
** Fixed a problem with secondary shells in batch files run from
multitaskers.
** Fixed a bug in SETDOS output that would hang the system on a
SETDOS with no parameters if the cursor shape was set to single
digits for both values (e.g. SETDOS /S6:7).
** Bugs in the handling of directory names in SELECT [eg SELECT
DEL (dirname)] have been fixed, as has a bug in the /D switch.
** Fixed a bug in directory colorization that was causing odd
colors at times when the last extension in ColorDir had no space
after it. Also long ColorDir extensions using wildcards (e.g.
[0-9abc][0-9abc][0-9abc]:bri red) will now work properly.
** Fixed CLS so it recognizes the border colors set with the
StdColors directive in 4DOS.INI.
** Fixed filename completion (F8/F9/F10) which was not recogniz-
ing executable extensions at the beginning of the line if the
executable extensions were defined with a wildcard.
4DOS.INI Changes
----------------
** Added a new key mapping directive: HistWinDel = Key (Ctrl-D).
Allows you to remap the Ctrl-D key in the history window.
** The last line of an INI file will now be processed correctly
when it is not terminated with a cr/lf.
** Comments and trailing blanks will no longer cause an error
when used on lines with paths (eg HelpPath or AutoExecPath),
** The maximum line length has been increased to 511 characters.
** Fixed the EscapeChar and CommandSep directives to accept key
names. The correct syntax is still to use the actual character
but if a key name is used it will work.
4DOS 4.0 [11-18-91] 4DOSUPD.DOC page 2
Other Changes
-------------
** %@SUBSTR now gives a syntax error if the START argument is
negative.
** POPD will now save the previous directory for the "CD -" fea-
ture.
** Made changes to DIR and elsewhere to improve support for
"SYS:" constructs and unusual drive names ("]:" etc.) under Net-
ware.
** 4DOS will now convert a black-on-black screen attribute to
white on black when getting the default attributes for popup
history, SELECT, etc.
** Added a check for programs which "disappear" the cursor; 4DOS
will try to reset it to be visible.
** Changed MEMORY to show the total free XMS, instead of the
largest free block (these are often, but not always, the same).
BBS Sysops Please Note
----------------------
The very first fix listed above (related to secondary shells, batch
files, and multitaskers) was not included in copies of the November
18 release shipped to BBS sysops for their bulletin boards. All
other changes listed above WERE included on BBS sysop disks. Sysops
who have received branding codes from JP Software and don't mind
giving up JP Software's authenticity verification on the 4DOS40P.ZIP
file may update the copy on their boards as follows:
* In an empty directory, extract all files from the 4DOS40P.ZIP
file sent on the BBS disk.
* Overlay the extracted 4DOS.COM with the new copy included in
this update.
* Rebrand 4DOS.COM as detailed in the letter and README.BBS file
which came with the BBS disk.
* Re-zip all files to create a new 4DOS40P.ZIP.
* Install the new .ZIP file on the BBS.
Please do NOT include this file in your new 4DOS40P.ZIP as it is not
appropriate except when included with the update .ZIP file.
4DOS 4.0 [11-18-91] 4DOSUPD.DOC page 3
4DOS APPNOTES.DOC Changes
Version 4.0 -- November 18, 1991
The few changes listed below are included here to save you the download
time which would be required had the entire new APPNOTES.DOC file been
included in this update. The reason for each change is noted in square
brackets.
Running 4DOS along with COMMAND.COM [typographical error]:
On line 280 (near the end of page 5), the line reading
if not "%@eval[2+2]"=="4" quit
should be changed to read:
if "%@eval[2+2]"=="4" quit
4DOS.COM and C Language exec() Functions [new item]:
Most PC implementations of the C language contain an exec() func-
tion which overlays the C program with a new program. These
exec() functions load .COM and .EXE files differently. Some
exec() functions determine which type of file they are executing
based on the "header" contained in the file (this is the method
normally used by DOS), but others -- including those used in
Borland C++ and Lattice C -- use the file extension to determine
the loading method. Those exec() functions which use the file
extension will not work properly if they attempt to run 4DOS.COM,
because 4DOS.COM is actually an EXE file (these same functions
will fail with any file whose extension does not match its type,
even though such files can be executed properly by DOS itself).
The workaround for this problem is to rename 4DOS.COM to
4DOS.EXE, or make a copy of 4DOS.COM and call it 4DOS.EXE.
Netware (Novell) [additional information on TRUENAME and on input
redirection]:
The 4DOS TRUENAME command and the @TRUENAME variable function
will return true Netware server names when given a file name that
refers to a Netware drive. However the returned name will not be
correct if only the root directory name is given as a parameter
(for example TRUENAME K:\). This is because Netware fails to
recognize the true name request properly when only a root direc-
tory name is given; it is not a bug in 4DOS. If necessary, you
can work around this problem by adding a simple "." to the re-
quest (TRUENAME K:\.).
4DOS 4.0 [11-18-91] 4DOSUPD.DOC page 4
If you use 4DOS input redirection in a .BAT file which resides on
a Netware drive, you may experience incorrect file assignments on
some systems. When this occurs, an application run from within
the batch file, or a secondary shell run from such an applica-
tion, may loop forever attempting to read lines from the batch
file rather than accepting input from the keyboard. For example:
copy /r *.* g: < YES
wp
rem Now if the user shells from WP, the system will
rem loop forever reading lines from the batch file or
rem blank lines at the prompt.
This problem occurs because Netware does not handle file assign-
ments properly when 4DOS input redirection is used in a .BAT
file. We are working with Novell to attempt to resolve the prob-
lem. You can work around it in several ways:
* Change the batch file to a .BTM file.
* Place the file BTM mode with the LOADBTM command at any
point prior to the use of input redirection.
* Move the file to a non-Netware drive.
* User reports indicate that adding a line which does a "dum-
my" output redirection just before the input redirection will
prevent the problem from occurring. For example:
echo This is junk > junk.dat
copy /r *.* g: < YES
wp
del junk.dat
QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck) [modified information on OPTIMIZE]:
If you use QEMM's OPTIMIZE and your AUTOEXEC has 4DOS-specific
commands like GLOBAL, IFF, aliases, etc., OPTIMIZE will recognize
them based on the 4DOS.CMD file distributed with QEMM 6. Note
that in QEMM version 6.00 this file is incomplete in that it does
not include the ELSE, ELSEIFF, and ENDIFF commands; you should
add these commands to 4DOS.CMD if you use them in your AUTOEXEC
file. This error in 4DOS.CMD was corrected in version 6.01 of
QEMM. To use 4DOS.CMD it must be renamed to OPTIMIZE.EXC before
running OPTIMIZE; see your QEMM documentation for details. Also
note that OPTIMIZE cannot take account of the fact that 4DOS may
be loaded high with UMBLoad = Yes in 4DOS.INI, and therefore may
not give the best optimization results when UMBLoad = Yes is used
(OPTIMIZE has this problem with all programs which load them-
selves into UMBs, not just with 4DOS).
4DOS 4.0 [11-18-91] 4DOSUPD.DOC page 5