Pegasus Graphics Universe 1/Pegasus_Graphics_Universe.iso/p11/system/help/update.doc

Text File | 1992-10-15 | 12.4 KB | 357 lines

                    UPDATES LISTING FOR


             VERSION 7.32 (October 15th, 1992)

                             OF





                            P11



               A GRAPHICS PROGRAM WRITTEN BY:

                     RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN
                      P.O. Box 188006
                     CARLSBAD, CA 92009
                       [phone]
                       [phone]
                 America Online:RUSSELL DH
                   CompuServe:70743,1226




     THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITIES AS TO THE
    APPLICABILITY OF THIS PROGRAM TO YOUR NEEDS OR THE
 ACCURACY OF ITS FUNCTIONS.  PLEASE NOTIFY THE AUTHOR OF
 ANY INACCURACIES FOUND AND OF ANY DESIRED NEW FEATURES.






         CONCEIVED, DESIGNED, WRITTEN AND PRODUCED
   BY RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
            PROGRAM COPYRIGHT (c) 1984 to 1992,
   DOCUMENTATION COPYRIGHT (c) 1985 to 1992 by RUSSELL D.
                          HOFFMAN.



               ALL WORLDWIDE RIGHTS RESERVED.

           Differences From Earlier P11 Versions


     RUSSELL'S ANIMATION  MACHINE, also  known as  P11,  has
been available  since about  1986 and  in development  since
1984.  It has had many releases since that time, as any good
program would.   Sometimes  the overriding  reason for a new
release is  to offer  a major  enhancement to  the  program.
Other times,  it's to  fix a bug.  Usually, it's a little of
both.

     The current release of P11 is 7.32, released Oct. 15th,
1992.   Prior to  that was  7.30, released  Oct. 9th,  1992.
Prior to  that was version 7.26, released August 14th, 1992.
The release  prior to  7.26 was  7.22, released  a few  days
earlier.   Prior to  that was 6.40 which was released in the
summer of  1990.   Prior to  6.40 was  4.80, spring of 1989.
Prior to  that was  3.50, spring  of 1988.   Prior  to that,
there was 3.12.  And there were others even before that!

     The  current   release  contains   many   improvements.
Sometimes an  improvement also  results in  some  degree  of
incompatibility.  When this occurs it is noted below.







     The  following  changes  are  between  4.80  and  prior
releases. These  are followed  by a  list of  6.00  changes.
That in  turn  is  followed  by  each  successive  release's
changes.



1)   The ROUNDS  option of  \MOUSE  will  execute  zero  (0)
     cycles if  R=0.   Previously it  executed at  least one
     cycle.

2)   \DOS AT  END has  been removed.   Previously caused the
     EDITOR version to exit to DOS when a file ended.

3)   \SHOW has  been greatly  enhanced.  The new syntax uses
     keyword parameters  and has  a number  of new  options.
     The old  syntax can  still be used but options set with
     the new  format by  a previous \SHOW command will still
     be in effect, for example WINDOW= and PATH=.

4)   Picture  and  font  file  formats  have  been  changed.
     First, compression  can be  done if it will save space.
     Second, a  larger header  area for  each frame has been
     added.   Old files  can still  be used  but new  format
     picture files  cannot be  read with old versions of the
     program.    More  information  about  file  formats  is
     available elsewhere in this document.

5)   Several bugs  in vector string display have been fixed,
     so  you  might  get  an  incompatibility  during  \RUN.
     Usually this will mean nothing more than a few dots put
     on or removed that previously were vice-versa.

6)   \SPRINT can  no longer use characters to indicate frame
     values.  Only numbers, with or without brackets.

7)   The default  number of  rounds  at  the  start  of  the
     program is -1 (infinite), not 200. (Set with \ROUNDS.)

8)   \SCREEN previously cleared the screen.  It only changes
     the background or palette in Version 4.80.

9)   The default  keys for making animation run backward and
     forward with  \SHOW, the  plus and minus keys (+ and -)
     now correspond to those on the numeric keypad only, not
     those on  the regular  QWERTY portion  of the keyboard.
     These key assignments can be changed with \KEYS.

10)  Text lines  that are  too long  are now word-wrapped in
     \SCROLL and \OVERLAY modes.

11)  A mouse  round is now 1/20 of a second (adjustable with
     the SPEED= option of \MOUSE), or a new location, rather
     than 100 cycles looking for keypresses.

12)  The following  commands are  all new:  \BUTTON, \CRAWL,
     \ERROR, \KEY, \ON ERROR, \PASSWORD, \ROTATE and \SET.

13)  Significant changes were made to \BEEP, \FRAME, \MOUSE,
     \SHOW, \SPRITE, \RUN and \WIDTH.

     Version 6.00  has many  additional enhancements, fixes,
and some incompatibilities:



1)   New screen resolutions have been added, all bitmapped.

2)   \SCROLL scrolled  one line  less than  it  should  have
     prior to version 6.00.

3)   \BEEP did  not recognize  long beeps  prior to  version
     6.00.
4)   If  a  critical  error  occurred  during  the  \EXECUTE
     command the  program  went  into  a  locked  condition.
     Fixed.

5)   Maximum frames is 8000.  EMM may be used.

6)   Picture editor  keys have been switched around a little
     because the vector and raster picture editors have been
     combined.

7)   \PEN AIRBRUSH=#,#...  used to  be ON or OFF, YES or NO.
     Now it  can have  up to  ten numbers,  or NO to turn if
     off.  Color cycle option of \PEN is new.

8)   Additional  variables   ("N","O")   are   used   during
     initialization, to provide EMM data.

9)   Disk-based editing  has been  added. (Removed again for
     version 7.26.)

10)  Several parameters  can be set with the DOS environment
     string P11FLAGS=.

11   The maximum  size of  a font  file is  now 63K  and the
     minimum is 8k.

12)  The joystick and mouse may be used together.

13)  New commands  for version  6.00 are  \DATA,  \HUE,  and
     \ACTIVATE.

14)  Significant changes  occurred to  \SCREEN, \SHOW, \OPEN
     and \CLOSE,  because of  the  new  screen  resolutions,
     masks, disk-based animation, hue files and data files.

15)  The error display keycode <ALT>-123 has been added.

16)  \EXECUTE does  not require any minimal amount of memory
     to execute, however, if enough memory does not exist it
     will still  fail, of  course, but  P11 does  not try to
     guess how much is needed for the command to function.

17)  Raster frame masks have been added for smooth animation
     over backgrounds.

18)  Button 0  will  let  the  user  set  the  input  device
     button's correspondence  to none, one, and two buttons,
     and both one and two.

19)  Joystick has numerous enhancements.

20)  A graphics  interface with  icons has been added to the
     drawing editor.
21)  Frames larger  than screen  size (up  to about 64K) are
     permitted.

22)  To convert screen resolutions, first bring the image up
     to the  current by reading the image and writing it out
     again.   Then, using Disk Based Editing, you can change
     the screen resolution.

     Version 7.22  has many  additional enhancements, fixes,
and some  incompatibilities:



1)   New  screen   resolutions  have  been  added,  all  are
     bitplane modes.

2)   \AUTHORITY, \IN, \LOAD, \OUT, and \TEXT commands added.

3)   Joystick can  scale and  rotate a cursor in the picture
     editor.

4)   Digitizer has X- and Y-offset values.

5)   Bottom  line   of  screen  is  now  accessible  in  all
     commands.   Some screen text commands could not display
     the bottom line.

6)   Onion skin added for creating animation sequences.

7)   Paint All  does  not  turn  off  automatically  in  the
     picture editor.

8)   Tab characters  are permitted  in text  files, however,
     they do  not yet  display as text properly so don't use
     them in text lines to be displayed.

9)   Long lines  (>about 80 characters) with a backslash (\)
     in  them   would  try  to  execute  what  followed  the
     backslash as a command! Fixed.

10)  \OPEN LPT ? will open ANY printer (1, 2, or 3.)

11)  P11 keeps track of paths on drive A through I, not E as
     it did previously.

12)  No longer  do you  need to  confirm exiting with both Y
     and then C.  Now, just Y after <ESC>.

13)  <CTRL>+K is a keyboard recorder in the picture editor.

14)  Macros can  be viewed much easier.  They still can't be
     edited, though.
15)  MOUSE ACCURACY  and RESOLUTION  values  are  calculated
     correctly.

     Version  7.26   fixes   some   bugs   and   adds   some
enhancements.



1)   Fonts and  Aux files had the wrong version number built
     into the  program (they  had 7.20  and 7.21, which were
     internal numbers and never released.)

2)   Rectangles saved  with <F2>  in the  drawing editor and
     then redisplayed  while an  <F2>  rectangle  was  still
     active would not be drawn quite properly.

3)   If the  graphical icons were missing and you started by
     reading in  a picture  file in  the editor, then read a
     text file,  the text  file would be stored in the wrong
     area, possibly locking the system.

4)   The blinking text cursor now has two shapes, a vertical
     line on  the left  edge of the current position when in
     insert mode and a horizontal line along the bottom when
     in overlay  mode.   The <INS>  key toggles the mode, as
     before.

5)   Disk based  editing, added  in version  6.40, has  been
     removed.   It proved  difficult to  work  with  and  by
     rewriting the  screen  mode  conversion  routine,  it's
     major need  was eliminated.   Over  7K was saved in the
     editor by removing this "feature".

6)   Reversible  animation  was  accidentally  inhibited  in
     7.22.

7)   You  can  specify  the  environment  variables  on  the
     command line, in brackets ([,]).

     Version  7.30   fixes   some   bugs   and   adds   some
enhancements.



1)   HUE command  did not SET the red value properly in some
     cases.

2)   When converting  images from  one screen  resolution to
     another (and changing it's size to a larger one) is was
     possible for the program to mistake an image that won't
     fit in  the assigned  area for one that will, causing a
     number of  potential problems  including machine lockup
     or loss of that image.
3)   You can  now do  an \EXECUTE  command with DAT, PRN, or
     PIC files  open.   It is  recommended that  you only do
     this if  necessary since  the  user  could  remove  the
     media, or do something else that might damage the file.

4)   When Caps  Lock is On, depressing one of the Shift keys
     will decapitalize a letter.

5)   In the  drawing editor, scaling a full-screen or nearly
     full-screen image needed TWO overwrite messages; if you
     only answered  the first  one affirmatively  the bottom
     area of the image would be damaged.

6)   In the  text editor,  top-of-file display  and handling
     has been improved.

7)   SCRNSAVE.COM and  SHOW.PCX.EXE can  both handle  larger
     images, though they take more RAM to do so.

     Version  7.32   fixes   some   bugs   and   adds   some
enhancements.



1)   \DATA statement  fixed.   Prior to  7.32, depending  on
     data record  sizes, a read might end between the CR and
     the LF  in the  CR/LF end-of-record  format.   Then the
     next record  would appear  to be empty.  This was fixed
     in the  runtime version  of 7.31  but  not  the  editor
     version, 7.30.

2)   HPRASTER.EXE now  can flip  images on the X-axis and/or
     the Y-axis.

3)   \OPEN of a printer now will wait up to about 12 seconds
     for the printer to return a good (not busy) code.  Some
     printers take  several seconds  to perform  a reset and
     this allows them to be properly opened.

4)   If 3  above does  not work,  the IGNORE option has been
     added to  the \OPEN  command.   We recommend using this
     only after  advising the  user that the system may lock
     up if  you try  to write  to  a  printer  that  is  not
     available.