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1992-08-31
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*** ANSIPLUS VERSION 2.03 RELEASE NOTES ***
Shareware Package
Thank you for evaluating ANSIPLUS. This file briefly describes ANSIPLUS, lists
the files included in the ANSIPLUS Shareware package, gives quick installation
instructions, and describes recent changes made to ANSIPLUS.
What is ANSIPLUS?
---- -- ---------
The ANSIPLUS console device driver integrates major console elements missing
from DOS and the personal computer BIOS into a single compact device driver that
can easily be controlled and personalized. With ANSIPLUS installed:
* User interaction with the DOS command shell and many applications will be
significantly improved.
* Screen output will be faster than with DOS's ANSI and non-ANSI drivers.
* The user will have complete control over colors and VGA/EGA capabilities.
* Users of Windows 3 will have access to ANSIPLUS features in all windowed
and full screen DOS sessions.
* The user will also benefit from all the other display and keyboard features
provided by ANSIPLUS.
The ANSIPLUS enhanced DOS console device driver is tailored to take advantage of
VGA and EGA display capabilities:
* It automatically adapts to VGA or EGA screen modes, both text and graphics,
including extended modes with large numbers of lines and/or columns. The
driver also automatically compensates for older video controllers with very
limited numbers of colors or shades (eg. CGA or monochrome boards).
* In text and in 16-color VGA/EGA graphics display modes, the driver bypasses
the BIOS and writes directly to the video RAM, so it can operate much faster
than either the original DOS console driver or the DOS ANSI driver.
* ANSIPLUS gives the user control over VGA/EGA palette registers and VGA DAC
registers to select and maintain colors using the video controller's full
capabilities.
* Text character height can be selected in any VGA/EGA display mode, extending
user control to the number of lines per display page.
* Smooth scrolling is provided as an option (requires a faster computer, eg.
80386 with 16-bit VGA).
The ANSIPLUS driver efficiently integrates several useful console functions that
in the past had to be provided by separate TSR programs or device drivers:
* Keyboard buffer size is increased and configurable.
* Undesired repeat keys are suppressed and several other key processing
options are provided.
* A screen saver monitors display, keyboard and mouse activity.
* Scroll-back lets the user examine lines that have scrolled off the top of
the screen.
* Fast screen output can be frozen and released with the Scroll Lock key.
* A timer-controlled beep tone generator allows user customizable tones.
Other ANSIPLUS features include:
* Menu driven utilities give the user full control over selected colors,
color palettes, border colors, video modes, text height, key reassignment,
beep tone definition, driver table sizes, and all other configurable
features.
* Special loading options for XMS upper memory blocks or DOS 5.0 high memory
area reduce low memory requirements to below 4K.
* Highlighting of user-typed keys when they are displayed by DOS on the screen
gives a clear visual separation of typed entries from computer output.
* All DOS ANSI.sys escape sequences are supported, plus additional ANSI/VT-100
escape sequences for clearing the screen, erasing lines, inserting and
deleting lines, and inserting and deleting characters.
* And much, much more.
See "Features Summary" in the ANSIPLUS documentation for more information about
ANSIPLUS features.
ANSIPLUS Packing List
-------- ------- ----
File Description
---- -----------
ANSIPLUS.sys ANSIPLUS console device driver
ANSIPLUS.doc ANSIPLUS Shareware documentation
SETCOLOR.exe Color control utility program
SETAPLUS.exe Driver features control utility program
ANSICOM.exe ANSI escape sequence editor
NEWAPLUS.exe ANSIPLUS bootup configuration program
APLUSLIB.exe Execution library for the utility programs
SETCOLOR.sch Color schemes file for SETCOLOR.exe
CONSETUP.com Sample escape sequence program
PUSHVID.com Save current video mode, video page and colors
POPVID.com Restore saved video mode, page and colors
INSTALL.exe Installation program
INSTALL.inf Installation control file
REGISTER.pls ANSIPLUS registration form
README.pls Release notes, this file
The documentation file, ANSIPLUS.doc, is a complete and up to date copy of the
ANSIPLUS Shareware manual, except for the section on ANSIPLUS Escape Sequences,
which are covered in detail only in the printed version. The file is formatted
for 80 characters per line and 60 lines per page, and uses no special characters
or other printer control other than form feeds.
Quick Installation Instructions
----- ------------ ------------
Before installing ANSIPLUS, or any other new device driver, be sure you have a
bootable floppy disk as insurance against trouble getting your system to run
after the device driver is installed.
The ANSIPLUS package includes an installation and configuration program called
INSTALL.exe, which should properly handle most installations. Context
sensitive help (via the F1 key) is provided for all entries. The following
three examples illustrate using INSTALL to install ANSIPLUS:
* If you received ANSIPLUS on a floppy disk and want to install it on your
hard disk, use the following installation procedure:
(1) Set the default directory to the hard disk (ie. get a C> prompt).
(2) Insert the ANSIPLUS diskette in drive A: (or other floppy drive).
(3) Enter the following command:
A:INSTALL
* If you received ANSIPLUS as a ZIP file, use the following procedure:
(1) Create a subdirectory on the hard disk to contain the unzipped ANSIPLUS
files. Move ANSIPLUS.zip to this directory and make it be the default
directory.
(2) Unzip the files into the directory with the command:
PKUNZIP ANSIPLUS
(3) Then enter the command:
INSTALL
* To install ANSIPLUS on bootable disk B:, from hard disk directory C:\APLUS,
enter the command:
C:\APLUS\INSTALL B:
See "Installing ANSIPLUS" in the documentation for more information about
ANSIPLUS installation.
Recent ANSIPLUS Changes
------ -------- -------
8/31/92 Version 2.03 released.
8/22/92 Bug fix: made VGA screen saver less likely to interfere with running
programs by disabling interrupts while the screen is being blanked or
unblanked and by restoring the sequencer index after the operation.
8/22/92 Bug fix: push/pop mismatch in VESA set mode processing. Symptom was
inability to start Windows.
8/22/92 Now use Int 15h keyboard intercept rather than direct port access to
get key scan codes for repeated-key detection and other key processing.
8/21/92 Version 2.02 released.
8/14/92 Added mouse reset to Windows exit processing. Windows 3.1 leaves some
mice (for example, Logitech C7) in an undefined state at termination,
so the mouse could not unblank the screen until the next DOS mouse-
using program had been executed.
8/12/92 Bug fix: still intermittent trouble with keyboard under Windows 3.1.
Made all of Int 09h handler uninterruptible.
7/22/92 Version 2.01 released.
7/21/92 Extended repeated key suppression to the Scroll Lock key. Now, when
Scroll Lock is held down for a long time, the scroll lock or smooth
scroll toggles will not change repeatedly.
7/17/92 Bug fix: 16-color to monochrome text attribute adjustments for EGA
monochrome now show low intensity as well as high intensity for both
foreground and background. VGA, CGA, MDA and color EGA are unaffected.
7/16/92 Minor changes to INSTALL/NEWAPLUS target drive and file path selection.
7/16/92 Minor changes to scroll freeze when smooth scrolling is active.
7/16/92 Bug fix: Scroll back storage is reorganized whenever a previously
unused display page is selected. In several display modes, including
25x80 text, a bug caused the scroll-back data to be scrambled when
reorganization was required.
7/15/92 Bug fix: On certain PC/XT compatible computers, all keystrokes were
erroneously recognized as repeat keys, causing all digit keys to be
ignored. Repeated key suppression is now disabled on XT's.
7/15/92 Bug fix: Repeated keys entered to QuickBasic programs such as DOS 5.0
EDIT.com caused pointer errors when keys were transferred between BIOS
and extended key buffers. Symptom was strange jumps in cursor position
or "phantom" keystrokes while holding down an arrow key. Fixed by
making the key shuffling subroutine uninterruptible.
6/09/92 Version 2.00 released.
Recent ANSIPLUS Changes (continued)
------ -------- ------- -----------
5/28/92 Bug fix: Made 16-color graphics mode pseudo-cursor XOR operations to
screen uninterruptible to prevent "mouse droppings" following mouse
movement in IBM DOS 4.0 shell or other programs that draw to the screen
during an interrupt and assume normal EGA/VGA graphics write mode is in
force.
5/26/92 Took over VGA/EGA BIOS text mode custom character generator load
function to speed it up and to prevent BIOS's restoration of OEM
palette when only one or a few character codes are changed.
5/18/92 Added Generic IOCTL and Int 2Fh functions that are also provided by the
DOS 4.0 and 5.0 ANSI.sys drivers. A few programs may rely on these
functions for information about the screen after they determine that an
ANSI driver is running.
5/08/92 Screen scroll-back completed. Between video display mode sets, the
driver now captures all lines scrolled off the top of the screen and
places them in unused portions of display RAM. To view the saved
lines, hit the Scroll-Lock key at any time. When Scroll-Lock is on
(as indicated by the light on enhanced keyboards), normal key input is
disabled and the following keys apply:
Home Go to the top of the saved lines
PageUp Scroll up one page
Shift tab Scroll up one-half page
Up arrow Scroll up one line
End Go to the bottom (ie. the original screen display)
PageDn Scroll down one page
Tab Scroll down one-half page
Down arrow Scroll down one line
Insert Save the current screen page for later scroll-back
Left arrow View a lower numbered display page
Right arrow View a higher numbered display page
Escape Cancel scroll lock, return to normal key processing
Scroll lock Cancel scroll lock, return to normal key processing
When you try to exceed the limit of travel up, down, left or right,
a short low pitched tone will sound. If you enter any key other than
those above, you will hear a short warbling sound, Scroll Lock will be
canceled, the screen will return to its normal display, and the key
will be passed back to the running program.
5/04/92 ANSIPLUS can now load itself to upper memory under DOS 5.0 with EMM386
and the CONFIG.sys DOS=UMB command active. The DEVICE=ANSIPLUS.sys /U
command should work correctly under EMM386, 386MAX and QEMM, with or
without DOS=UMB.
Recent ANSIPLUS Changes (continued)
------ -------- ------- -----------
5/02/92 The ANSIPLUS installation and configuration program, NEWAPLUS.exe, has
been completed. The program analyzes the runtime environment and
CONFIG.sys of the target drive, locates the source files, copies
ANSIPLUS to the target drive (or any directories of the user's
choice), and updates CONFIG.sys for a new install. The configuration
section lets the user set the startup (boot) driver table sizes,
colors and feature settings, as well as high memory loading options in
CONFIG.sys. Context sensitive help is provided for all entries.
See Installing ANSIPLUS in the documentation for instructions on
using NEWAPLUS.
4/24/92 Version 2 of the ANSICOM utility has been completed. The program is
now more user friendly, with colors and context sensitive help.
4/15/92 Repeated key suppression has been extended to the numeric keys (0-9).
This makes it impossible to key in an inaccurate number just because
a numeric key is held down too long.
4/14/92 To prevent escape sequence conflicts with programs written for other
ANSI terminal emulators or when displaying data downloaded from systems
configured for terminals such as the DEC VT-100, the six non-standard
(ie. added) ANSIPLUS escape commands have been changed to require a
"!" after the left bracket. The following table shows the affected
escape sequences:
Obsolete Revised
Sequence Sequence Description
-------- -------- -----------
Esc [v Esc [!v Select video page
Esc [t Esc [!t Set text height
Esc [e Esc [!e Set text treatments
Esc [c Esc [!c Define colors, palette, etc.
Esc [d Esc [!d Set driver features
Esc [g Esc [!g Define beep tone
Any escape sequences using these ANSIPLUS commands but without the "!"
will be ignored. If the "!" appears in any escape sequence that
doesn't need it, the escape command will execute correctly anyway.
Also in the name of compatibility, the Esc [K command (Erase Line) has
been corrected. To erase from the cursor to the end of line, you must
output Esc [K or Esc [0K. ANSIPLUS's extended parameters to limit the
character count and set the fill character are now the second and third
parameters instead of first and second.
ANSI and DEC VT-100 emulation have been enhanced by adding support for
the following escape sequences:
Esc [0J Clear from cursor to end of screen
Esc [1J Clear from start of screen to cursor
Esc [1K Clear from start of line to cursor
Esc [2K Clear entire line
Recent ANSIPLUS Changes (continued)
------ -------- ------- -----------
4/10/92 ANSIPLUS can now load itself into either XMS upper memory blocks or
into the high memory area used by DOS 5.0. The option is selected at
load time with DEVICE=ANSIPLUS.sys /U or /H. See Installing ANSIPLUS
in the documentation for details.
4/06/92 SETAPLUS can now list all key reassignments currently in force. Just
enter SETAPLUS LISTKEYS.
3/31/92 Added black outline text treatment for 16-color VGA/EGA graphics modes.
3/28/92 Improved handling of monochrome and CGA display modes. ANSIPLUS should
now give reasonable and readable displays in all modes, including those
with a very limited number of colors or shades. Programs written in
terms of 16 colors will be executable on machines with simpler video
capabilities, if ANSIPLUS is running on that machine.
3/19/92 Interrupts are now enabled as much as possible in all ANSIPLUS
interrupt service routines, minimizing any impact on communications
or other time sensitive processes.
3/18/92 Version 2 of the SETCOLOR and SETAPLUS utilities have been completed.
They now are menu driven, with context sensitive help, and should be
much easier to use. The command line interface for these utilities is
also still supported.