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Text File | 1993-10-18 | 14.2 KB | 270 lines

SCROLLit Advanced Scrollback Buffer October 19, 1993 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── New in SCROLLit 1.8 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Your SCROLLit registration key can now be ordered with a credit card by calling Public (software) Library at 800-242-4775 (orders only please). You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at P.O. Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705. For orders placed with PsL, in addition to the US$17 SCROLLit registration fee, there is a US$6 surcharge to cover PsL's service fee. ■ SCROLLit's compression algorithm has been improved to provide 5-10% more compression. Without compression, a line of text would take up 160 bytes in the scrollback buffer: 80 character bytes plus 80 color attribute bytes. SCROLLit compresses these lines, usually by at least 60%, so that more than twice the number of lines of text will fit in your scrollback buffer. Because of the overhead involved in setting up the buffer, small buffers (less than 40k) will not be compressed as much as large buffers. ■ In addition to capturing lines of text that scroll of the top of the screen, SCROLLit captures the entire screen whenever a BIOS 'clear-screen' request is intercepted (video BIOS function 06h). The screen is also cleared whenever a program changes video mode, so SCROLLit will now capture the entire screen whenever the video mode is changed (video BIOS function 00h). As a result, SCROLLit is more likely to contain a complete record of your text activity. ■ SCROLLit was inserting two blank lines into the buffer if a blank screen was cleared. This has been changed so that no lines are inserted in the buffer when a blank screen is cleared. ■ A conflict has been discovered between SCROLLit and older programs that use DOS function 00h to terminate. This function was superseded by function 4Ch with the release of DOS 2.0 in March 1983. Fixed. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.7 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Users can now select an alternate hotkey instead of the default Scroll Lock hotkey. The /H command line switch is used to specify a different hotkey at installation or to change the hotkey after SCROLLit has already been installed. For example, to install SCROLLit with a 100k buffer and set 'Alt S' as the hotkey, type: SCROLLIT 100 /H=81F Please refer to the documentation for more information. ■ SCROLLit's scrollback buffer can be stored in upper memory (instead of EMS, XMS or lower conventional memory) by using 'high loading' software such as DOS 5's LOADHIGH command or QEMM's LOADHI program. In some situations, the attempt to load SCROLLit's buffer into upper memory was unsuccessful, causing the buffer to reside in lower conventional memory. Fixed. ■ A new feature has been added for Desqview users. Some Desqview users have reported that installing SCROLLit within a Desqview window slows down the performance of programs operating in other Desqview windows, despite the fact that SCROLLit releases it's timeslice during idle keyboard polling. It turns out that any program or TSR that hooks the timer interrupt will cause this speed degradation in remaining Desqview windows. Quarterdeck's API programming staff have confirmed that Desqview will wait one extra tick before giving up the timeslice to ensure that the timer itself is serviced. The /NT (for NoTimer) command line switch has been added to SCROLLit, to allow installation without hooking the timer interrupt (the BIOS keyboard interrupt is hooked instead). For example, Desqview users who wish to optimize the performance of their system would install SCROLLit by typing: SCROLLIT 100 /NT Please refer to the documentation for more information. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.6 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Please note our new mailing address. Don't worry if you have mailed something to our old address: we will continue to check for mail at the old address for at least a year, or as long as mail continues to arrive there. ■ SCROLLit can now be registered online using Compuserve's shareware registration service ('GO SWREG'). When you register with the service, the US$17 registration fee (plus a $3 surcharge to cover Compuserve's service charge) is added to your monthly Compuserve bill. Your SCROLLit registration key will be sent to you by Compuserve mail (unless you request postal mail). ■ By default, SCROLLit uses a color scheme of blue and white against a cyan background. While this combination looks fine on a color monitor, some users of LCD notebooks report that these color attributes lack definition when translated into the shades of grey that these machines use to represent different colors. Two new command line parameters have been added to allow the user to specify the color attributes used in color text mode 3 (/AC=) and in monochrome text mode 7 (/AM=). These commands can be used to set the color attributes during installation or after SCROLLit has already been installed. For example, to install SCROLLit with a 100k buffer and customized color attributes for use during color mode 3, type: SCROLLit 100 /AC=20,27,2F,07 Please refer to the documentation for more information. ■ The operation of SCROLLit inside a Desqview window has been fine- tuned. Desqview users should notice smoother scrolling when browsing through SCROLLit's buffer. ■ The Ctrl-Home bookmark is designed to return you to the same position within the scrollback buffer as when you last exited SCROLLit. In some situations, SCROLLit was not saving the correct location within the scrollback buffer. In these cases, pressing Ctrl-Home would either return you to an incorrect location within the buffer, or, with some computers, cause a lockup requiring a reboot. Fixed. ■ In certain situations (relatively rare), SCROLLit would fail during installation, issuing an 'unexpected error 31' message and causing a lockup requiring a reboot. Fixed. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Pressing Ctrl-Home allows you to return to the position in the scrollback buffer when you last exited SCROLLit. This feature is often referred to as a 'bookmark'. Older versions of SCROLLit were only updating the buffer position when SCROLLit was exited with the Esc key. If you exited with the Scroll Lock key, the bookmark was not being updated. Fixed. ■ Two new command line switches, /- and /+, have been added to allow SCROLLit's capturing of scrolling lines to be temporarily disabled and then re-enabled. ■ A new command line switch, /R, has been added to provide more information on how to register SCROLLit. ■ The /? command line switch will display a list of all command line switches with a brief description of what they do. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ SCROLLit now supports 43/50 line mode of the EGA/VGA. Actually, SCROLLit will support any number of lines per screen so long as the BIOS is aware of the new line setting. Note that some EGA/VGA cards can provide 43/50 line mode support via the standard 80 column text modes (modes 2, 3 and 7) and/or via a nonstandard video mode (such as 50h). SCROLLit only supports the standard video modes, so you should use these standard modes for 43/50 line support (using video BIOS function 11h, subfunction 12h). If you find that you can only enter 43/50 line mode with nonstandard modes, then try resetting the video mode to the standard by changing the mode setting stored at memory position 40h:49h. ■ SCROLLit was not supporting the color video mode 3 on certain monochrome monitors. SCROLLit will now allow any 80 column text mode (modes 2,3 or 7) on any monitor type. After installation, the video mode can be switched between these modes and SCROLLit will still capture scrolling and popup on request. ■ The default keyboard repeat rate on many computers is a relatively slow 10.9 repeats per second. The keyboard repeat rate determines how fast SCROLLit will scroll the screen when you press and hold the up arrow or down arrow key. SCROLLit was setting a fast keyboard repeat rate on installation, but this new repeat rate would effect all subsequent keypresses (not just SCROLLit). Some users have pointed out that it is better for each user to set the repeat rate he or she is most comfortable with. The keyboard repeat rate can be set with DOS 5.0's MODE command or any number of public domain utilities. SCROLLit 1.4 no longer changes the keyboard repeat rate. ■ SCROLLit captures 'clear-screen' requests in addition to both DOS and BIOS screen scrolling. When you use the CLS command, for example, SCROLLit will capture the information on the screen before it is cleared. In addition, many programs clear the screen at startup, which would leave gaps in your scrollback buffer if SCROLLit did not intercept the clear-screen request. Another example of the need to capture clear-screens is during Compuserve sessions when the Compuserve terminal type is set to be page oriented. Instead of scrolling old output, Compuserve issues a clear-screen request after every page. SCROLLit will now capture these pages. ■ If 'search again, same text' was requested by pressing A before a target string had ever been specified with either F (forward) or B (backward), SCROLLit would hang while trying to search for an undefined target string. Fixed. ■ It is now possible to popup other TSR programs over SCROLLit. This is accomplished by issuing a 28h interrupt while SCROLLit is waiting for input. If you use a popup calculator or screen grabber, for example, they should now work while you are in SCROLLit. ■ The Procomm commands in the Appendix for setting BIOS screen scrolling were for the old shareware version of Procomm 2.4.3., not for Procomm Plus which needs no reconfiguring. The Qmodem command given was for BIOS writing, not BIOS scrolling. Fixed. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ SCROLLit 1.2 was not properly restoring the state of the A20 line when the buffer was stored in XMS. This would cause the system to hang in some cases, particularly if SCROLLit was installed in a Desqview window and DV was using the high memory area (HMA). Fixed. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ During installation, SCROLLit performs a CRC test of the program to ensure that the program has not been tampered with or infected with a virus. This CRC test would fail in Version 1.1 if SCROLLit was loaded in a Desqview window. Fixed. ■ Under certain circumstances, some versions of The Last Byte Memory Manager appear to have difficulty loading a TSR into high memory if the particular TSR has command line parameters beginning with a slash (/). SCROLLit 1.2 will now accept either slashes or dashes. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Broader support for ANSI drivers. Version 1.0 was not capturing some of the screen scrolling from certain ANSI drivers including older (1987 and earlier) versions of Microsoft's ANSI.SYS. SCROLLit Version 1.1 has been tested with several versions of ANSI.SYS, ANSI.COM, NANSI.SYS, ZANSI.SYS, VANSI.SYS and DVANSI.COM. In the case of the TSR drivers, (ANSI.COM and DVANSI.COM), SCROLLit should be loaded AFTER the driver. ■ SCROLLit is now Desqview aware. If SCROLLit is loaded inside a Desqview window, it will capture the scrolling of the Desqview screen buffer, rather than the hardware screen buffer that is used outside of Desqview. SCROLLit will give up it's time slice during periods of inactivity to optimize the performance of your other Desqview windows. All screen writing inside a Desqview window is direct writing to the Desqview screen buffer, to ensure that SCROLLit output stays within the Desqview window. ■ Scrolling algorithm finetuned - smaller code and faster performance. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SCROLLit 1.0 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ First public release.