Shareware Grab Bag/Shareware Grab Bag.iso/007/advbas32.arc/ADVBAS.NEW

Text File | 1987-03-16 | 10.1 KB | 203 lines

ADVBAS 3.2, 03/16/87:

     You can check for the existence of a subdirectory with SUBEXIST
     (drive spec allowed).  COPYFILE will let you copy a file faster than
     the system COPY command, and without having to do a SHELL.  A drive
     status function, DISKSTAT, has been provided.  This allows you to
     find out such information as the number of bytes in a cluster, the
     amount of free space left on a drive, total space available on a
     drive, etc. Routines to convert the time or date from numbers to a
     string and vice versa have been added (DATEN2S, DATES2N, TIMEN2S, and
     TIMES2N).  For AT machines only, GETEXTM will return the amount of
     extended memory in kilobytes.  BLOCKMOVE will let you move a block of
     memory from one location to another.  DATASEG will retrieve the value
     of the current data segment.


ADVBAS 3.1, 03/07/87:

     Time/date compression has been added.  DATE2INT and INT2DATE allow
     you to convert a date to a single integer and back.  TIME2INT and
     INT2TIME do the same with the time.  Given a month number, MONTH will
     return the name of the month.  SPEAKER will enable you to toggle
     sound effects on and off, without changing the timing of the affected
     routines.  TINSTR lets you search a string for a character of a given
     type, rather than a specific character.  You can search for any
     combination of Alphabetic, Numeric, Symbolic, Control, Graphics, or
     Blank characters, or their opposites.  The DTR function lets you
     turn the communications signal DTR on or off.


ADVBAS 3.0, 02/04/87: (Second Anniversary Edition)

     Many of the existing ADVBAS routines have been further optimized.
     MMCHECK will now return the number of mouse buttons available as well
     as a mouse status check.  GETKBD and SETKBD allow you to get/set the
     states of the keyboard toggles: insert, caps lock, num lock, and
     scroll lock.  GETCRT tells you whether the display is color or
     monochrome.  CLRKBD clears any pending characters from the keyboard
     buffer.  DELAY18TH and DELAY allow you to delay for a given time
     interval, independent of machine type.  CALCATTR calculates the
     color/attribute for routines such as XQPRINT.  Unlike the BASIC
     formula it replaces, it allows use of the "blink" attribute.  SHIFTL
     and SHIFTR let you perform binary shifts on integers.  It is now
     possible to have low-res graphics on any monitor, using the SETPOINT,
     RESETPOINT and TESTPOINT routines.  These give you 80 column by 50
     row graphics in text mode.  Finally, MAKEWINDOW has been converted
     from BASIC to a normal ADVBAS routine (in assembly language) for
     extra speed and convenience.


ADVBAS 2.9, 01/12/87:

     Mouse control has been added.  You can see if a mouse exists, get or
     set the location of the mouse cursor, check the status of the mouse
     buttons in two different ways, and set a legal range for the mouse
     cursor, using the MM series of functions (MMBUTTON, MMCHECK, MMCLICK,
     MMGETLOC, MMSETLOC, MMSETRANGE).  Expanded memory checking has been
     added-- you can see if it exists, and if so, how much memory there is
     and how much of it is free (GETLIMM).  Finally, a BASIC subprogram to
     generate pop-up windows (MAKEWINDOW) has been included.  This is
     based on Dave Evers' fine BASWIND routine, with assorted improvements.
     The screen routines QPRINT, XQPRINT, SCRSAVE, SCRREST, GETSCREEN and
     PUTSCREEN have been modified to automatically use high-speed mode
     with monochrome adapters.  Their speed with color adapters has also
     been increased.  Object code for all routines has been included,
     along with information on automating library production.  This will
     allow y'all to produce custom libraries using either the standard LIB
     format or the QuickBASIC 2.0 BUILDLIB format.  This has been added
     for your convenience-- please do not abuse it!  You may create custom
     libraries for your own personal use.  You may -not- distribute them!


ADVBAS 2.8, 12/28/86:

     Assorted file control functions have been added.  MLOAD is a BLOAD
     command for compilers which don't include it.  EXIST lets you test
     for the existence of a given file.  A set of new file I/O functions
     allow low-level control of file access.  Among other advantages,
     these functions allow file handling in subprograms (since error codes
     are returned at the time of error, rather than triggering an error
     trap) and support file-level networking/multitasking control (whereas
     BASIC only supports record-level control).  These functions include
     FCREATE and FOPEN to open files, FREAD and FWRITE to access them,
     FSETEND and FSETREC to move the file pointer, and FCLOSE to close the
     file.


ADVBAS 2.7, 10/18/86:

     A new version of the library has been added which is fully compatible
     with the QuickBASIC v2.0 programming environment.  Much of ADVBAS has
     been overhauled to make it faster and more compact.  New functions:
     EQUIPMENT will give you information about the hardware you're running
     on (memory and number of various kinds of ports).  PRINTSCREEN
     duplicates the function of pressing Shift-PrtSc on the keyboard.
     GETSCREEN and PUTSCREEN are new, comprehensive screen save/restore
     functions.  GETSCREEN allows you to save any part of the screen to an
     array, using any screen page, with either flicker-free or fast access
     methods.  PUTSCREEN is the corresponding restore-screen function.  It
     allows you to put a saved area onto any part of the screen, any
     screen page, with either flicker-free or fast access.  DOSINKEY lets
     you get keypresses from the DOS standard input device.  Combined with
     DMPRINT, this allows you to use such DOS features as I/O redirection
     and CTTY with compiled BASIC programs.


ADVBAS 2.6, 9/19/86:

     XQPRINTD will allow you to print to the screen using direct screen
     writes.  This is the fastest possible print method, but will produce
     snow on some color displays if you are printing to the active display
     page.  SCRRESTP and SCRSAVEP will allow you to save and restore any
     screen page to/from an array.  SCRRESTPD and SCRSAVEPD will do the
     same using direct screen reads/writes (see note at XQPRINTD).
     SETCOMM will allow you to reset the parameters on an open communi-
     cations "file" without having to close the file (and thus drop the
     DTR signal) first.  In addition, it lets you set the baud rate to
     speeds beyond the normal limitation of 9600 bps.


ADVBAS 2.5, 8/04/86:

     DMPRINT now allows screen display directly through MS-DOS output.
     This differs from MPRINT, which uses some BIOS routines.  It is a
     less sophisticated (and hence faster) routine than MPRINT.  XQPRINT
     and RECOLOR screen flicker (on color monitors) has been wiped out,
     thanks to Steven Gibson.  This and the other direct-access screen
     routines have been modified so as to cause less interference with
     interrupts.  The manual, ADVBAS.DOC, has been reformatted so it will
     print correctly on most printers.


ADVBAS 2.4, 7/21/86:

     Functions have been added to convert numbers from one base to another
     (DEC2ANY, ANY2DEC), and incidentally to allow use of unsigned
     integers in your programs, with some twiddling.  Space compression
     has been added via BSQ, BUSQLEN and BUSQ, which allow you to compress
     text information.  Space savings range from a reliable 16% for normal
     text, to up around 50% for files with many blanks (such as structured
     C, Pascal, or assembly files).


ADVBAS 2.3, 6/28/86:

     You can now set a file's time/date stamp using SETFTD.  A host of
     functions which allow you access to disk directories has been added,
     giving the ability to search for a file using wildcards, or to
     duplicate the DOS directory command: FINDFIRSTF, FINDNEXTF, GETNAMEF,
     GETATTRF, GETDATEF, GETTIMEF, GETSIZEF.  The manual has been revised
     to list functions in alphabetical order, allowing the elimination of
     the index.  This file, ADVBAS.NEW, is now listed in reverse
     chronological order, so the newest things come first instead of at
     the end.


ADVBAS 2.2, 6/20/86:

     Character insert/delete support for windows was added via MINSCHR and
     MDELCHR.  This can also be used to simulate left and right scrolling
     of a window.  The day of the week can now be gotten using WEEKDAY.
     The most interesting new function is SOUNDEX, which returns the
     soundex code of a word.  Soundex codes allow you to identify similar
     sounding words, so that you could do a phone directory search that
     matches on the sound of a name rather than the precise spelling, for
     instance.


ADVBAS 2.1, 6/14/86:

     Window handling was added.  The MPRINT and MPRINTC routines can now
     be set to conform to screen windows, via the MWINDOW function.


ADVBAS 2.0, 3/28/86:

     Four functions were added.  KEYPRESS tells you if a key is waiting in
     the keyboard input buffer.  RECOLOR quickly resets all characters on
     the screen with a given color/attribute to a new color/attribute
     (text mode only).  SETMATI sets the first "x" elements of an integer
     array to a given value.  ADDMATI adds or subtracts a given value from
     the first "x" elements of an integer array.  The documentation now
     includes notes on how PC-compatible a machine needs to be before any
     given routine will work on it.


ADVBAS 1.9, 12/12/85:

     XLATE will now work with a string as well as single characters.
     MPRINT will work with a string, replacing the old MPRINTC which could
     only print out a single character at a time.  The functions
     STRIPRANGE, REVERSE, LROTATE, RROTATE, EXTRACT, READBITF and
     WRITEBITF have been added.  The documentation now includes a
     reference listing of the ADVBAS functions.


ADVBAS 1.8:  Not released to the public.


ADVBAS 1.7, 11/28/85:

     The functions DELCHR and INSCHR have been added.