1.5 (21/3/99) Lists are now scriptable, and some scripts to manipulate lists have been
added to the script menu (and also appear in some modules).
New modules for Heroes of Might & Magic II (Heroes, Players and Towns)
and Death Blade.
You can double-click on the lists in the item editing dialog as an
alternative to clicking on the OK button.
Added a 'splash screen' (which you can hide using ACE's preferences).
A "Next window" script has been added.
You can choose Select All from the Edit menu (or press Command-A) to
select all files in the Open dialog (MacOS 8.5 or Navigation Library only).
When editing a compound file, changes to a window could sometimes be
saved even when the user clicked on Don't Save. This bug is now fixed.
Fixed a bug with the M&M III module (awards would get scrambled when
using tabbed windows).
The Class menu in the Unlimited Adventures module now shows all classes.
Fixed a cosmetic bug with lists on non-appearance manager systems
(switching between panes could make lists in other windows go blank).
1.4.1 (16/1/99) Fixed a bug that caused ACE to crash on startup with some old 7.5 systems.
(specifically, those with Apple Event Manager 1.0.0 installed)
Fixed a bug that prevented embedded scripts from appearing in the Script
menu if the save game was opened via drag-and-drop.
New module: Jewel of Arabia - Dreamers.
1.4.0 (13/12/98) Some modules now have lists (equipment, spells etc) that can be edited.
New modules: Escape Velocity: Override, Damage Incorporated, Abuse,
Curse of Dragor.
Open and Save dialogs use Navigation services (under MacOS 8.5 or with
the Navigation library installed).
It is no longer necessary to name a 'scpt' resource in a script using
ResEdit to make it appear in ACE's Script menu.
Fix a bug with big-endian variables (did not affect any existing modules).
Fixed a bug from version 1.3.0 which caused printing to fail (error id 11)
1.3.0 (30/4/98) Some modules now have tabbed windows and more features.
New modules: Mantra II, Might & Magic III party, Realmz 5.
You can now press the option key when selecting menu commands via the
keyboard (e.g. command-option-W to close all windows).
You can assign command keys to scripts in the script menu (see the
"Development (Scripting)" document for more information).
Renamed the Save As... command to Save A Copy As.
Updated and improved balloon help for menus.
Added a new "Close All But This Window" script.
You can use the optional parameter 'to' with the 'Save' script command.
The maximum number of open windows is now 40 (previously 16).
Lots of bug fixes.
1.2.1 (26/1/98) Fixed a bug with the Save As... command.
1.2.0 (12/1/98) ACE! supports scripting - look at the scripts menu for some examples.
New modules: Omega (version 0.75 and 0.80), Escape Velocity, Harry the
Handsome Executive and Unlimited Adventures design password.
Function keys 1 to 4 now Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear respectively. The Clear
button on the numeric keypad also clears text.
Lots of minor bug fixes.
1.1.1 (27/10/97) Added a better version checking process which won't become apparent
until later versions of ACE!
Fixed a bug that prevented ACE! from running on non-MacOS 8 PPC systems
(AppearanceLib not found error on launch)
1.1.0 (23/10/97) Uses the Appearance manager. On MacOS 8 systems, all dialogs and alerts
will be "theme-savy".
Changed the wording of the "Invalid Value" dialog and added a "Use
Maximum/Minimum button".
Fixed a bug with hi/lo nibbles (which only affected the 'M&M II' module).
Fixed a bug with reading in long data types on 68k Macs.
1.0.0 (29/9/97) First public release.
Planed Features
In no particular order of importance, some of the features planned for future versions are:
Debug mode
Currently, debugging a module is difficult, due mostly to unhelpful error messages. A debug mode will be added that will display better error messages. A debug menu will allow other debug options such as equation watching, control querying etc, module auditing etc.
Two sets of error messages will exist, one for debugging, and one for the ordinary user. Both sets will be rewritten to be more useful for their target audience.
Linked controls
A link between controls will allow controls to affect each other. This would happen in two ways:
1. A control could enable or disable other controls. For example, a checkbox might be disabled until another checkbox is checked.
2. A control could change the value of other controls. For example, increasing a character's 'strength' might increase their 'bonus to hit'.
An option would be provided to disable on-the-fly linking.
Recordability
A future version of ACE will be 'recordable', allowing you to make a script of your actions by recording them in the script editor.
Compatibility Issues
This section lists any known bugs, conflicts or cosmetic glitches in ACE! and the recommended helper utilities. Unless otherwise noted, all information is relevant to the current versions at time of writing.
ACE!
1. On systems with Appearance Manager 1.0.x, when pasting or clearing in an edit text field, a grey background will be drawn in the edit text field. This is a cosmetic bug with the Appearance Manager. It is fixed in Appearance Manager 1.1 and later (MacOS 8.5).
2. When more than one window is opened at once on appearance manager systems, windows in the background may not have their controls 'greyed-out' correctly. Moving the affected windows to the foreground and the putting them behind another window fixes this.
3. On appearance manager systems, some lists do not draw their scroll-bars properly when a list contains only a few items. On MacOS 8.0 or 8.1, the scroll bars are drawn as if they could be scrolled. On MacOS 8.5, the scroll bars are not drawn at all. I don't know why this happens.
ResEdit (version 2.1.x):
1. ResEdit may save changes to a resource fork even when the user clicks on the Don't Save button. This occurs when editing some resource types, and not with others. If you accidentally delete a resource or make changes you want to undo, use the Revert command (and see note 6 below).
2. ResEdit will freeze when you try to open or create a 'DITL' when the clipboard contains some styled text. The easiest way to avoid this is to select the 'DITL' resource (before opening it) and copy it (i.e. hit Command-C before opening the 'DITL').
3. On some Power Macintosh's, ResEdit will freeze if you copy or cut item(s) from a 'DITL' more than once.
4. ResEdit has (crash) problems displaying control items in the 'DITL' editor. If you are working in a 'DITL' and you see a pop-up menu contains characters that should not be present, or are greyed out, then you should immediately save the module and quit ResEdit. This seems to occur when you add, move or resize any custom control. Do not attempt to look at the affected control item, or make any other changes to other dialog items. Quitting and reopening ResEdit seems to reduce it's 'sensitivity' to this problem.
5. When attempting to open a 'DITL' resource, you may sometimes alerted that "the item count is too high", or that "the DITL resource is x byte(s) too large". You may see the size of the 'DITL' resource change after you dismiss this alert. Simply quit ResEdit and then re-open ResEdit and the module, and you should be able to open the 'DITL' normally.
6. The Revert command doesn't always work - sometimes changes you have made to a resource file will be saved even if you haven't used the save command. If you do use the revert command, quit and re-open ResEdit immediately to avoid problems.
7. Don't save while a 'DLOG' editor is open. Close the 'DLOG' editor before saving.
On Mac OS 8.5 or later:
8. When editing a 'MENU' resource, don't click in an empty part of the menu list (ResEdit will quit with an error type 1).
9. An (appearance manager) list control in a dialog will not draw correctly (it will be drawn outside the window). You can stop this from occurring by setting the "visible" field of the corresponding 'CNTL' resource before opening the 'DITL' (remember to reset it later). This bug appears to be cosmetic only, and does not affect the list in ACE.
