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File List | 1990-01-16 | 6.4 KB | 139 lines |
- POWERKIT II UPDATES
-
- FROM v1.26 to v1.27
-
- 1: Fixed "blank screen, lock keyboard with password" so program running at the
- time the keyboard was locked, will keep running (as advertised). The mach-
- ine (CPU) will be taken over while a menu or help screen pops up (disk reads
- or writes do the same thing). However, even this may cause problems during
- background e-mail or file transfers. Therefore, this protection for the
- popped-up screen can be disabled with ALT-ESC 0`, enabled by ALT-ESC 1` (the
- default). The PRICE you pay for disabling -- an underlying program may mess
- up this popped-up menu or help screen.
-
- 2: Added a switch to PKII.MOD (/^0 or 1) that turns border blanking off (0) and
- on (1, the default). Blanking the border takes such a long time that data
- can be lost while transmitting or receiving characters through a fast modem.
-
- 3: Added SCRL.MOD to the package. SCRL.MOD replaces INT 10h, services 6 & 7 --
- scrolls all or any part of the screen, up or down, in modes 0-7, without
- blinking the screen. This is for users of LIST, Norton Commander, and other
- programs, whose screens blink when these programs scroll the screen.
-
- FROM v1.24 to v1.26
-
- 1: The changes you will notice to MENU.MOD are:
-
- a. Your place in a menu is saved, when you exit a menu via MENU.MOD's "HOT"
- key. Re-pressing MENU.MOD's "HOT" key will now send you back to that
- place, instead of to the top of the menu.
-
- b. MENU.MOD now "stacks" menu files, to four levels deep. Pressing ESC
- will (eventually) get you back to the menu file that called the current
- menu file. This facilitates integrating menus, that you have created,
- into the POWERKIT II menu system (MENU.MOD accepts menus created by
- MAKEBAR, see PC-Magazine, vol. 6, No. 10).
-
- 2: The char. "|" can now be used to enclose MACRO descriptions, as well as "`".
-
- 3: Added 53 "CTRL-ALT" keystroke codes. They are enabled (disabled) by ALT-
- ESC 1\ (ALT-ESC 0\), and are attached to the "typewriter keyboard" keys,
- from "ESC" through "RIGHT SHIFT" (including ENTER, BACKSPACE, TAB, and LEFT
- SHIFT, but not CTRL).
-
- 4: Fixed "hide character" routine (cursor was being reset to the wrong spot).
-
- 5: Fixed a problem with MACROS that were of zero length, but had descriptions.
-
- 6: Added "Save Screen" (ALT-ESC 'hot key'Q) and "Restore Screen" (ALT-ESC 'hot
- key'R) to ANSI command set.
-
- FROM v1.22 to v1.24
-
- 1: Some of the housekeeping chores in the initialization code of some modules
- are now performed by LOAD.COM.
-
- 2: Fixed a problem in ANSI's insert line(s) routine.
-
- 3: Fixed a bug that prevented some VT100 codes (and DSR) from being executed.
-
- FROM v1.20 to v1.22
-
- 1: Fixed LOAD.COM and UNLOAD.COM to work with 4DOS, and (probably) many other
- COMMAND.COM replacements.
-
- 2: Added a "fake key" command to ANSI.MOD. The line -- PROMPT $e["string"v,
- (or the line -- ECHO "string"v) in a batch file, will put "string" into
- the keystroke buffer, just as if you had typed it, for input into a pro-
- gram called from a succeeding batch file line. See pp. 8-9 of ANSI.DOC for
- information on how to suppress displaying batch file actions.
-
- 3: Speeded up some of PKII.MOD's interrupt handlers. They were causing
- trouble when using ultra-fast (19,200 baud) modems on slow machines.
-
- 4: Fixed problems ANSI.MOD had with MS/PC-DOSes 3.0 and 4.01.
-
- FROM v1.12 to v1.20
-
- 1: Attached more CTRL codes to more keys, and added ALT codes to the numeric
- keypad keys. These new codes may be activated/deactivated by ALT-ESC, 1/0,
- \. The codes are the same as those produced by the IBM AT/339 BIOS (when
- using service 10h of INT 16h), or Superkey (mostly).
-
- 2: Added a help screen to ANSI.MOD, accessed by ALT-ESC F1, detached by the
- /J0 switch.
-
- 3: The default for the speedup factor is now 0 (no speedup), as it was found
- to conflict with the Everex "STEP" series floppy disk controllers. Set
- your own speedup factor with the /Sn (try n = 255) switch of PKII.MOD.
-
- 4: A plethora of minor tweaks and bug fixes.
-
- FROM v1.10 to v1.12
-
- 1: Fixed problem LOAD.COM had with 80286/386 processors.
-
- 2: Added code and storage to KYBD.BUF for a warm boot routine, invoked by
- SCROLL LOCK, F1, when PKII.MOD is loaded, its SCROLL LOCK key handler is
- active, and KYBD.BUF's /W1 switch is set. Procedure preserves date and
- time. The procedure is intended for Tandy 1000 users, plus those lacking a
- clock/calendar chip.
-
- 3: PKII.MOD's screen blanking routine will now blank the screen border on
- CGA's, EGA's, and VGA's. It will restore the border, if it has been set by
- ANSI.MOD.
-
- 4: Added a utility, NEWHOTKY.COM, to change the hot key of any module.
-
- FROM v1.06 TO v1.10
-
- Aside from the inevitable bug fixes, the following have been changed:
-
- 1: PCONSOLE.DRV is no more. It has been split into KYBD.BUF and ANSI.MOD.
- KYBD.BUF has the extended keystroke buffer, and the code for the view-port.
- It remains in CONFIG.SYS, as the buffer must be in the first 65k. KYBD.BUF
- need not be present for the PK II system to work. ANSI.MOD is the old Pow-
- erConsole. It is now a module, so it can be loaded and unloaded at will
- (but it MUST be loaded FIRST). It still appears to DOS as the "CON" device
- driver. Removing ANSI.MOD from CONFIG.SYS, gives you a better chance of
- getting the PK II package to co-exist with "problem" TSR's, because it lets
- you experiment with various orders of "stacking" the TSR's.
-
- 2: Pressing SCROLL LOCK (or HOLD), then ESC, will get you out of lockups (this
- sometimes works when KEYPAD 5, ESC doesn't). PKII's SCROLL LOCK handler
- must be enabled (KEYPAD 5, Y).
-
- 3: Several more ALT codes (for example ALT-' and ALT-.) have been added, to
- "hang" MACROS on.
-
- 4: Several more "non-ANSI" ESCAPE sequences have been added.
-
- ALT-ESC 10 m - Turns off cursor in graphics modes (the default).
- ALT-ESC 11 m - Turns on cursor in graphics modes (much slower).
- ALT-ESC 12 m - Turns off ANSI.MOD. It's still in memory, and the
- MACROS, and most of its other features still work. How-
- ever, DOS no longer recognizes it as the console driver
- (hence, the screen updates are MUCH slower).
- ALT-ESC 13 m - Turns ANSI.MOD back on.
-
-