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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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WHATSNEW.201
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1991-09-20
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The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader
Version 2.01
Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Blue Wave Software
All Rights Reserved
Rather than forcing users to comb the documentation file (BWAVE.DOC)
for information about new features and fixed items in v2.01, this
addendum will supplement BWAVE.DOC and override any items in BWAVE.DOC
that are conflicting.
NEW FEATURES
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We couldn't resist making The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader even more
powerful and user friendly than before. If you are active in FidoNet,
and read the BLUEWAVE echo, you will probably notice that most of these
features are the direct result of user input on how they would like the
reader to perform. Let it not be said that we don't listen to our
loyal user base! If you are wondering what was "fixed" from v2.00 to
v2.01, please read BUGFIXES.201. If you are using a MONOCHROME system,
please read BUGFIXES.201 for a new command line parameter and
operational change!
Below is a complete list of new features and functions found within the
reader:
* Perhaps the largest request we have had is to allow the reader to
handle more messages per area. Although this did cost about 10K
more of memory, we have accomplished it. The reader will now use ALL
free memory available in your system to read mail. If you need to
read 2000 messages in one message base, it is now possible. The
maximum number of messages that can be handled in any one message
area by the reader is now limited only by the amount of free RAM
that you can give the reader. I have been successful in using the
reader in as little as 250K, but you most likely will need to enable
"Perform Memory Swaps", so that your archivers and editor have
enough memory to load. The average user probably won't need more
than 300K of free memory, while some others may need 400K free. You
may have to experiment a bit to determine the optimum for you.
* In order to help you determine how much memory is available to The
Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader at any particular time, you can press
<ALT-I> from *anywhere* within the reader. Pressing <ALT-I> will
display a window containing the current reader version, the
copyright notice, the registration status of the reader, and the
free memory available to the reader.
* The reader will now return time slices while running under DESQview.
While the reader is standing idle, the time slices will be given
back to the other DESQview window(s). This should make background
operations perform both faster and more smoothly. If you press
<ALT-I> while running under DESQview, the reader should report to
you the version number of DESQview that you are running. This will
verify the fact that auto-DESQview detection was successful.
* While reading messages, if there is a "Signature" line on the screen
(a line beginning with "... "), you can now press ALT-A to "Adopt"
this signature into your own Signature File. The signature filename
is taken from the SETUP menu under "Directories". The signature
line will be appended to your signature file exactly as it appears
on the screen, minus the "... " prefix.
* The maximum number of lines that the reader can handle in the
SIGNATURE File has been increased from 500 to 1000.
* While reading messages, the SPACEBAR now performs a dual function.
If a message is more than 1 "page", and there is more not displayed
on the screen, SPACEBAR will act like a PgDn was pressed. If all of
the message text has been shown, the SPACEBAR acts as an ENTER key,
and will move you to the next message. Now you can read an entire
message area simply by pounding on the SPACEBAR.
* The reader now displays a "Position Counter" at the bottom of the
message-reading screen, indicating your relative position within the
message area. The first message in the area will be message #1. If
there are a total of 200 messages in one message area, the reader
would count them off as "Pos: 1 of 200" through "Pos: 200 of 200" as
you progress through the message area. This counter has nothing to
do with the "Msg num xx of xx" display on the message header. "Msg
num xx of xx" is the ACTUAL number of the message on the BBS at the
time you downloaded your mail packet.
* The reader now allows for up to 10 user-definable "hot-key batch
files". You can create the files "ALTF1.BAT", "ALTF2.BAT", ... ,
ALTF10.BAT", and place them anywhere on your DOS Path. To invoke
these batch files, simply press <ALT-F1> through <ALT-F10> from
*anywhere* within the reader! If you have "Perform Memory Swaps"
enabled within the reader, the reader will swap its used memory
before executing the batch file. You could use these batch files to
load your communications program, or any other external utility.
* As a bonus to the ALT-F batch keys described above, it is now possible
to interface a spell checker with the reader. When reading
messages, the reader will remember the last file name of the message
that you have REPLIED to or ENTERED. If an ALTFx.BAT key is invoked
while reading mail, and there is a file name in memory, the file
name of the MESSAGE TEXT will be passed to the .BAT file as the
first command line parameter.
In ALTF10.BAT, you could have the following:
@ECHO OFF
REM Load Spell Checker from within Blue Wave
d:\sharewar\sharespl.exe %1 <other switches>
This would load SHARESPL.EXE with the file name of the message you
last saved.
NOTE: The instant you leave the "Open Packet Menu", the reader no
longer remembers your last message's file name. Make sure you use
your batch file requiring a file name parameter BEFORE you leave the
Open Packet Menu.
* You may now define your own "Quote Header", using tokens that will
be replaced with actual information when you reply to a message. In
order for the quote header to appear in your message, you must:
1) Make sure you have toggled "Attach Quote Header" to ON in the
SETUP->Options menu.
2) You must be REPLYING to a message, and you must tell the
reader that you want to QUOTE the message.
You can edit your own quote header in the SETUP menu under "User
Strings". The following tokens can be used, and will be expanded to
contain information about the message that you are quoting:
@F - Reader replaces the @F with the name used in the FROM:
field of the message that you are replying to.
@T - The @T token is replaced by the name in the TO: field of
the message that you are replying to.
@D - The original date of the message that you are replying to.
@S - The Subject of the message that you are replying to.
@N - Forces the reader to place a CR/LF in the quote header.
An example quote header line:
On <@D>, @F said to @T something@Nabout @S:
When expanded and placed in your Quote file, it may look something
like this:
On <18 Sep 91 12:30>, George Hatchew said to Fred Rappuhn something
about The Release of Blue Wave v2.01:
If you liked the "Standard" quote header of v2.00, use the following
as your Quote Header Definition:
-=> Quoting @F to @T <=-
* The OFFLINE Configuration menu now supports the "Bundle Messages
FROM You" flag that some of the BBS doors have. When this is set to
"No", the doors will not bundle any messages that have your name in
the From: field. If the BBS door that you use does not yet support
this flag, it will very shortly.
* When the reader performs a "Title Scan" of the message area titles,
messages addressed TO: you are now colored Light Magenta. Messages
FROM: you are colored Light Yellow. All other messages are still the
default color of Light Cyan. This should help you spot a personal
message much more quickly and easily.
* When performing a "Title Scan" of the message bases, the reader now
shows the current area's Long Area Name at the top of the screen.
* If you have enabled "Save Msg Read/Reply Tags", the reader will now
keep track of which messages you have read (same as v2.00), and
which messages you have REPLIED to (new). The status of both of
these flags is displayed when reading a message (on the message
header), and on the Title Scan.
Messages that have been replied to will appear on the Title Scan
with a "~" symbol preceding the message number. Some people like to
call this symbol a "tilde", but we call it a WAVE!
* There is a new toggle on the SETUP->Options menu to allow you to
define HOW you want the reader to default the "Save File" name. The
"Save File" is the file that is written when you press <ALT-S> while
reading messages to save the current message to disk. If you toggle
"Set SaveFile to AreaName" to "Yes", the reader defaults to using
the Short area name as the save file. If you are reading the
BLUEWAVE echo, the default save file will be "BLUEWAVE.TXT".
CONSUMER_REPORTS would default to "CONSUMER.TXT".
If you set this option to "No", the reader will default to
"BWAVE.TXT". However, if you change the path or file name at any
time while using the reader, it will remember your last input, and
leave it as the default for the entire session (or until you change
it again).
* When any external program is run (Dos Shell, ALTFxx.BAT, Archivers),
the reader will test the errorlevel returned from the program. If
it is NOT zero, it will display a window with the command line that
was executed and the errorlevel that the program returned. If this
is a non-critical error, the reader will continue as normal.
However, if an archiver/unarchiver fails, the reader handles it as
an error situation.
* The reader's selection windows were fine-tuned to be more consistent
and easier to navigate:
Ctrl-PgDn
Ctrl-End
~~~~~~~~~
Takes you to the VERY bottom of the selection list.
Ctrl-PgUp
Ctrl-Home
~~~~~~~~~
Takes you to the VERY top of the selection list.
All other navigation keys perform as before.
* Previous versions of the reader were stubborn as to where its
configuration file had to be. Version 2.01 now performs the
following steps when trying to locate its configuration file:
1) If the command line contains a <filename.cfg> parameter, THAT
configuration file will be loaded.
EXAMPLE: c:> BWAVE c:\bwave\mycfg.cfg
2) If there is NO command line configuration file, the reader looks
for the DOS Environment variable "BWAVE". There are two
possible ways to set the environment variable:
a) Set the environment variable with the full file name
that you want to load:
EXAMPLE: SET BWAVE=C:\BWAVE\BWAVE.CFG
b) If you want to save a few bytes of environment space,
you can use the SET command to only point to a directory.
In this case, you MUST use a trailing backslash on the
directory name so the reader does not get confused and
think you are trying to specify a file name. If there is
no file name on the environment variable, BWAVE200.CFG
will try to be loaded.
EXAMPLE: SET BWAVE=C:\BWAVE\
3) If there is no BWAVE environment variable, and there is no
command line override, the reader will begin looking for
BWAVE200.CFG. First it looks in the current directory, then it
searches the DOS Path.
4) If all three of the above options fail, the reader will perform
the steps required to make a first-time installation.
In ALL cases, the reader changes to the DRIVE and DIRECTORY where
its configuration file is located. This will allow you to have
multiple configurations on one computer. When the reader is
terminated normally, it will change back to the directory that you
loaded it from.
* The ability to edit your BWAVE configuration from *anywhere* within
the reader was added. If you need to edit your BWAVE configuration
from somewhere other than the Main Menu, you may do so by pressing
<ALT-C>. Have you ever been reading messages and decide that you
need to make a quick configuration change? Now you can simply press
<ALT-C>, make the change, and continue where you left off, without
having to "close" your mail packet and exit to the Main Menu! This
is an EXTREMELY useful feature!
There are 2 points to note when "Hotkeying" into the SETUP menu:
1) You will not be able to edit your UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD, and WORK
directories when pressing <ALT-C> to edit your configuration.
For obvious reasons, you must edit your default directories
only when entering the SETUP menu through the Main Menu.
2) If you edit your COLOR configuration by using <ALT-C> to enter
the setup menu, the color changes may not take place
immediately. If you are at the "Message Reading" screen, and
change your color configuration, you will need to exit back to
the "Choose Area to Read" menu before the color change takes
complete effect. This is not a design flaw, but is necessary
in order to not add more code overhead which would slow down
screen writes in-between messages.
"Hotkeying" into the SETUP menu was a last minute feature, which was
to be included in v2.10. However, we saw no point in keeping this
extremely handy function out of v2.01 just because of item #2 above.
"Use it in good health."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
We regret that we could not get ALL of the user suggestions into this
release of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Due to some bugs and
problems in v2.00, this release was meant to fix, not create, more
problems.
The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, version 2.10 has already begun
development, and we hope to deliver you a nice Christmas present. Here
are just a couple of the ideas that we are trying to incorporate into
the next release. This list is by no means ALL that will be
forthcoming. We want to have a *few* suprises!
--- New, powerful SEARCHING feature. This searching feature will allow
the user to define any number of "keywords" in the reader. Upon
user command, the reader will search both the message headers and
the message text for any of these keywords.
--- A Global PERSONAL message search/read feature.
--- Bulk/Mass Printing, Saving, and purging of messages within a mail
packet.
--- Much, much more!