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1993-01-06
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Revisions to dbLite since Version 1.0h (last complete documentation)
1.) Automatically sending printer codes to HP II compatible printers
to set the proper character set from Roman 8 to US 8. Basically
sending a 10U instruction. For some reason all HP II laser
printers come configured from the factory with Roman 8 which
doesn't support the ASCII extended character set for IBM PC
type computers. The net result is that lines and drawing
characters which appear on the screen don't get printed. Once
the printer is told to use character set US 8, it works. If
you have run the program on an HP type laser and found you
got bad output on line drawing characters and you haven't
reset your printer, this will take care of the problem
without a user knowing how to reset his/her HP.
2.) It is noted that the program is ugly on monochrome screens.
While this is not a great tragedy, what's worse is that the
menus don't show up properly on VGA monochrome screens (some).
As a stop-gap measure, the command line now accepts parameters.
You can alter the colors of the menus by typing the program
name followed by a number from 1 to 32000. No parameters gives
you the white on blue standard menu color. The same is true
for 0 or over 32000. The rest give you menu colors starting
with blue on black (1) and up to bright white on gray (143)
(blinking). The bright colors cause the blinking. You can
experiment with combinations which please you and which show
up best on your particular monitor. The cycle of colors runs
up in recurring cycles of 16, 0 - 15. We skip 0 in black on
black but the cycle goes like this...
0 - black
1 - blue
2 - green
3 - cyan
4 - red
5 - violet
6 - gold
7 - white
8 - gray ( overscanned black )
9 - light blue ( overscanned blue )
10 - light green ( " green )
11 - " cyan "
12 - " red "
13 - " violet "
14 - " gold "
15 " white "
The first 15 numbers give you a black background with the foreground
being one of the above colors by number. ( 1 - 15 )
The second cycle starts with 16 and goes to 31 and gives a blue back-
ground and the foreground cycles up from 16 with black on blue to 17
as blue on blue an so on. Obviously blue on blue obfiscates much
information. Anyway 32 - 47 is green background, 48 - 63 is a cyan
backgound and so forth. Some combinations cause blinking. Some
cause blinking only on the file retrieve menu. If you are really
bored start er up with mucho combos to check it out and write down
your favorites. The idea here is for mono people to get something
they can see.
If you find a color combo that you like on your screen, you can develop
a batch file which calls dblite.exe with something like:
copy con:dbl.bat
dblite 49
[CTRL] Z
[ENTER]
This will create a batch file called dbl.bat which when you type
dbl from the command line will execute dblite with the menu color
parameters 49 which will be blue on cyan. This is semi-pleasing
on a color screen and might be a nice change if you tire of white
on blue.
3.) I have gotten used to [CTRL] Y deleting a line so I added it.
[ALT] [DEL] still deletes lines but now so does [CTRL] Y
4.) I wanted the tab key to insert 5 spaces when the insert state
was on so I added it. Shift tab doesn't delete them. Inconsistent
but it's by individual preference.
Intentions: Work on program's interface on monochrome monitors.
@ 1/6/93 MJS