Australian Personal Computer 1998 July

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Australian Personal Computer 1998 July / apc37.iso / netkit / mac / dcomet / dcomet.hqx / Documents / A2. Comet Release Notes < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1998-01-29 | 24.5 KB | 558 lines

A2. Comet Release Notes through Version 3.1.3. _____________________________________________________________________________ These release notes document changes to the predecessor of dataComet, "Comet, the Cornell Macintosh Terminal Emulator," over its release history. Enhancements in 3.1.3: * Added "File transfer--archive overwritten files in '.back'" option in Control Global menu. Fixes in 3.1.3: * The A5 register is now properly set when servicing *all* interrupt-level calls. NOTE: Comet versions from 3.0.9 to 3.1.2 may exhibit random crashing behavior due to the presence of this bug, which was caused by the (automatic) placement of the routine which set A5 to Comet's A5 in the jump table... which assumes that A5 is already set correctly. * The "Comet Keyboard--no diacritics" resource is again used to patch key handling. The Control Global dialog now has an item "Remap Option key-combinations" to allow the user to ignore this resource and disable the dialog which prompts the user to install the Comet keyboard layout resource. The code which changes the keyboard layout has been modified so that crashes should no longer occur with Word. * The .edit window now handles the entry of control characters properly. * MacTCP receive buffers are now allocated to be (4 * MTU + 1K) so that Comet will now work on networks with large segment sizes. Fixes in 3.1.2: * The "Comet Keyboard--no diacritics" resource is no longer required to patch key handling so that Option-E, I, N, and U are handled correctly. The Control Global setting "Suppress remapping of Option key- combinations" can be used to restore regular keymapping. (Unfortunately this hack does not yet work correctly when Desk Accessories are up...) * The A5 register is now properly set when servicing MacTCP interrupt-level calls. * Comet now performs asynchronous closes. * If "Open session without terminal type nego- tiation" is selected, Comet no longer triggers the Connection macro twice if the host sends data with its first response to the session opening. * Comet now handles the case where MacTCP has no Domain Name Server specified correctly. * Selections no longer include junk at the end when an emulator screen is copied and the selection was made by dragging the cursor past the last line on the screen. * Character transmission occurs at the correct time when the host is in line-at-a-time mode; the "send_wait clobbered" message no longer appears and the line is now sent only after Return is pressed. * Fast drawing no longer crashes when 32-bit mode is enabled. * Key macros now use only the key code rather than both the key code and the resulting char- acter from a key down event to test for a matching key, so key macros will work regard- less of the keyboard layout in use. * Keying in the .edit window now sets the .edit window modified flag correctly so that the user is prompted to save the .edit window. * Appending to the .edit window now causes only the needed length to be deleted from the top of the window if the size would be > 32K. * Bug fixes prior to 3.0 have been deleted from this list. Enhancements in 3.1.1: * Several macro commands have been added: Find string, Shift selection, Set selec- tion length, and Set output window. Fixes in 3.1.0: * The "Comet Keyboard--No Diacritics" keyboard layout resource has been fixed so it is compatible with System 7.5. * A "Send Break" item has been added to the Serial menu so that a break can be sent. This feature used to be in C19, but was somehow dropped... Fixes in 3.0.9: * Pressing the mouse in the Set Key Macro dialog no longer enables the "Set" button, which sometimes resulted in the creation of mysterious "junk" macros. * If a window has "Close window when session closes" set, it now closes automatically if it fails to connect. * An 8-bit Telnet Binary mode option has been added to the Telnet menu. * A dialog now appears if the "Comet key- board--No Diacritics" keyboard layout resource is not installed in the System. As noted above, this can cause crashes. * Comet should no longer crash on startup with an 01 bus error (this occurred intermittently on some people's machines due to Comet's performing a CloseResfile on the file ID 0). * Comet should resolve the Uniform Resource Locator Telnet specifications using a ':' for the Telnet port prefix, and also the NCSA style where the port is preceded by spaces. * A "DEC VT220" terminal type is now provided in the "Configure Session╔" dialog. Telnet terminal type negotiations report it being available as a "dec-vt220". Fixes in 3.0.8: * Partial selections of 3270 emulator win- dows now copy correctly, so that NULL characters are read as blanks. * Keystrokes in the .edit window are now mapped to key macros. * MacTCP interface code has been modified to help guarantee that packets will be upcalled promptly. * 3.0.7 failed to call SystemTask() when Comet was in the foreground, so that DAs such as clocks might not get updated. This is now fixed. Fixes in 3.0.7: * More tuning has been done on GetNextEvent/ WaitNextEvent to improve performance. * A bug which caused hangs when quitting Comet with multiple windows open is now fixed. * Mapped the "Record Session" Edit menu item to Command-`. * Added code to move the scrollbar to the bottom of the window automatically when a session is closed. Fixes in 3.0.6: * Cursor tracking performance is improved over 3.0 when background applications such as DA's hog CPU cycles--Comet now uses GetNextEvent when keys are pressed or the mouse is moved and an emulator window is the topmost window. * The F1-F15 keys on the Extended keyboard now send the VT220 keys F6-F20. * The Control Global... dialog item "File transfer--always do dialog to rename files" is now saved when the Save button is pressed. * The original Mac keyboard & keypad work correctly again. Enhancements in 3.0: * SCROLLBARS in the emulator window for more conventional scrollback buffering! Find and Print functions are supported. (D1) * Command-' now controls scrollback buffering rather than .edit recording. * Macro recording start/stop functions are available in the Control menu. This allows one to make scripts in "watch-me" mode. (D1) * Pressing the Enter key in the .edit window causes the current line or selection range to be interpreted and executed as a macro command. (D1) * Files transferred with the extension ".rename" will trigger a dialog so that the user may rename the file before the transfer takes place. (D1) * You can drag the .edit window along with the emulator window by holding down the Option key as you drag it. (D1) * A "Miniaturize" command has been added to the Window menu so you can shrink windows with a Command-0 (zero). (D2) * Dialog items have been added to the ASCII Control Emulator dialog to set XON/XOFF and KILL characters. (D2) * Dialog items have been added to the ASCII Control Emulator dialog to control Paste pacing. (D2) * A dialog item has been added to the Control Session dialog to set the maximum size of the scrollback buffer. (D2) * The .edit window automatically loads the sessionname.edit file when a Comet document is opened. (D2) * Command-delete now closes a document. (D2) * Whups! Command-\ now closes a document since Command-delete conflicted with the IBM Delete key keymapping. (D4) * Macro commands have been added to allow you to bring windows to the front by number or by name (!w\000 & !WS). (D3) * A "File transfer--always do dialog to rename files" option has been added to the Control Global dialog, so that users can now be presented with a Standard File dialog when performing an upload or download. (D4) Fixes in 3.0: * Comet now sets MacTCP so that timeouts on sends WILL abort sessions after 255 seconds. (D4) * Comet now sets MacTCP so that timeouts on sends no longer abort sessions. (D1) * "Select All" now works correctly with emulator windows with more than 24 rows. (D1) * The macro dialogs now allow macros of up to 10K in size, rather than only 255 characters. (D1) * ASCII pasting is faster. (D1) * Selections can be made when cursor tracking is turned off using "!Ct". (D1) * The "Type address at cursor" command in the Network menu is now "Input address at cursor", and is associated with Command-I. A "!ta" macro command can perform the same function. (Provided with regards to the Bonze's alma mater, UT Austin!). (D1) * Fixed D1 scrollback copy bug where incorrect data was copied. (D2) * A cursor glitch occuring when changing windows when scrolling should be fixed. (D2) * 3270 download buffers are allocated at session creation to avoid out-of-memory failures. (D2) * When a window closes, the user is asked to save the .edit window if it has been modified. (D2) * The "Save..." command defaults to the document's startup folder. (D2) * The .edit window is no longer resized when a document is first opened, so you can maintain a configuration where auto-wrap will work well automatically. (D3) * The Notification Manager is used to alert the user when Comet needs to be brought to the foreground. (D3) * A bug which caused incorrect data to be copied when the scrollback buffer was copied is fixed. (D3) * Inserting an unformatted disk now brings up the "Format disk" dialog rather than causing Comet to crash. (D3) * The Send Telnet Interrupt Process macro (!tC) now sends a Telnet Interrupt Process. * Comet now uses WaitNextEvent under System 7 to allow background applications to run faster. (D4) * Comet tests to see if the default print record is correct when a download print.nodialog is performed, and performs the print dialog if it is not valid. This occurs because some Apple printer drivers fail to properly initialize the default print record. (D4) * WaitNextEvent calls have been modified for better cursor tracking performance. (B1) * The "Scrollback buffer" menu item check-mark is now set correctly when it's configured on. * A null-pointer reference which caused Comet to crash when used with Mandarin Sleep events or the "!FF" macro has been fixed. (B3) * When you use "Save Configuration..." to create a duplicate session with a different name, you no longer get the error messages "Can't save CONF 1 resource" and "Can't save document resource." (B3) * Comet session names are limited to 26 charac- ters so that the ".edit" text will always get loaded properly (since the Finder limits filenames to 31 characters). (B3) * Clicking with the mouse now sets the beginning point for shift-click selections at that point. Double-clicks are now tested so that single clicks are clearly differentiated. (B3) * When quitting Comet, open sessions with the scrollback buffer scrolled back now automatic- ally go to the end of the buffer so Comet doesn't hang waiting for the user to do so. (B3) * The VX split keyboard now works correctly so IBM function keys on the keypad are recognized. (B3) * Word selection extension holding the mouse down works as one would expect in the emulator window (B3). * The emulator window no longer scrolls to the end automatically if you press a key associ- ated with a key macro. (B3) Fixes to 2.1.7 in 2.1.7.1: * When a Comet session autoclosed after a !FF macro was executed, another session left open would not be set correctly as the front window if it was selected by launching its document, (configured for "Open session only once"), so that (e.g.) key macros would not be recognized and doing a "Set Key macro..." command would result in a dialog stating (incorrectly) that you need to save the new document before creating key macros. Now it is set correctly so that Comet recognizes that the front window is active. Fixes to 2.1.6 in 2.1.7: * 2.1.6 was compiled incorrectly; 2.1.7 is otherwise identical to 2.1.6B4/2.1.6. * The !FF and !Ff macros were added to support the library kiosks. See Info on Key Macros. * download.print.nodialog now performs a Print Job Dialog when the Print Manager fails to initialize the Print Job record correctly. This problem would have been seen before when .nodialog printing failed to work properly without performing the Print Job Dialog first. Fixes to 2.1.5 in 2.1.6: * The Comet fonts have been converted to NFNTs and are now accessed by name to avoid conflict with other fonts. You need to install the latest Comet-fonts in your System Folder to guarantee that fonts will display correctly. * A bug in the macro !Z match command was fixed so that matches are made correctly when the first character in the match string is repeated. (e.g., "!Z\255sion" would fail to match "ssion"). * Comet Telnet sessions switch into Newline mode when a Telnet WONT ECHO is received from the host. * Changing the size of the ASCII terminal window no longer results in triggering the login macro. * Emulators are no longer limited to 32 rows. * The Serial Baud rate menu now places check marks beside the 300 and 1200 when they are selected. * Color is bug-compatible with System 7.1. (i.e., Comet now avoids the broken Index2Color() call; earlier versions of Comet may produce displays that have garbled color mapping). * A bug in the vt100 emulator which caused display glitches with VMS EDIT /TPU was fixed (line feeds received outside scrolling regions no longer cause scrolling). * Comet's vt100 emulator no longer interprets an ESC-ESC sequence as a command to initiate an ft3270 download; this conflicted with the output generated (sometimes) by VMS DCL. * Comet's vt100 emulator now defaults to the correct configuration for the cursor keys. * Comet sends vt100 identification strings in one packet to make sure VMS/Multinet does not leap to process a partial ID string and report that an "incomplete escape sequence" has been received. * Comet Telnet sessions connecting to VMS Multi- net now report the currently selected terminal type when a VT100 variant is selected: "VT102" will be sent rather than simply "VT100". * Comet is now packaged with the Serial Driver resource version 3.0.0. OpenDriver() is used rather than RAMSDOpen to maintain compatibility with the Powerbook Express Modem and the Teleport ADB modems. * The download .print feature has been fixed to work correctly with printers other than LaserWriters; PrValidate is called to prevent problems with changes in the selected printer. * Comet can't be hung now by double-opens such as those caused by double-clicking a Bear Access Launcher button rather than single-clicking it. * Comet no longer tries to do fast drawing on a Duo. * Holding Shift when using the Print... command causes the dialog to be skipped. * "Use Asynchronous sends with MacTCP" is now the default setting. Users are encouraged to use this setting with Comet versions > 2.1.6D6. . * Comet used to crash when the user first keyed in the top window after Comet was launched with several other programs (e.g., as a startup app) and the activate event for Comet's top window was not received. Comet now activates the window itself in this case to avoid the problem. * (B4) An option has been added to the "Configure Session" dialog to allow a session to stay open when the Bear Access LaunchPad sends a Mandarin Sleep event. * (B4) The "Comet keyboard--no diacritics" file has been changed to avoid bugs with Microsoft Word and some international keyboards. MacSLIP/MacTCP compatibility fixes: * MacTCP error alerts are more informative. * Telnet sessions now open asynchronously. * MacTCP is opened asynchronously to allow MacSLIP's "Connect when MacTCP is opened" option to work properly. * Comet now sends only one packet at a time when Asynchronous Sends are enabled to avoid problems with MacTCP, which sometimes fails to send one of the packets when multiple asynchronous sends are pending; this caused problems with MacSLIP when modem speeds higher than 9600 baud were used. * Comet munges the MacTCP Retransmission Time Out (tmrRTO) to improve resend performance. Enhancements in 2.1.6: * Hardware handshake is offered as an option in the Serial menu. * A 20-point font has been added. The fonts have been updated to NFNTs. * A macro command to query the user to enter a string has been added (!QQ & !QS). * The 3278 emulator now offers a Sys-Request key (which can be mapped in the key macro dialog). * Comet now supports Apple Events. * CONN 1 disconnect resources are executed on Quit. A "Connection Close macro..." dialog has been added to the Control menu to better support NOTIS access. Fixes to 2.1.4 in 2.1.5: * Saving the global configuration and the default document type saves the updated data correctly. Fixes to 2.1.3 Beta 2 in 2.1.4 (2.1.3 has been skipped): * Errors no longer occur when saving configuration files. * 3270 Start Field commands now update the screen display correctly when they replace an existing field marker. Fixes to 2.1.3 Beta in 2.1.3 Beta 2: * You must now close a session before reconfiguring it using the Reconfigure Session... dialog. * When "Open document once only" is modified, the document status is updated immediately. * TFTP reports errors correctly when writing the last block of a file causes a disk-full condition. Fixes to 2.1.3 Alpha in 2.1.3 Beta: * When printing 3270 screens with Courier on a LaserWriter, NULL characters on the screen now appear as spaces rather than carets. * Comet now handles MacTCP Domain Name Resolution properly when the host entry has been cached. * IBM 3270 terminal reconfiguration is now performed when a session is reopened, and screen garbage no longer appears when the 3270 is made larger. * Setting colors in the Color... dialog no longer crashes under System 7 with TuneUps installed. * The Comet TFTP file transfer server now recovers properly from errors, and no longer presents errors dialog when routine file transfer errors occur. Fixes to 2.1.1 in 2.1.3 Alpha: * Aztec's latest C compiler provides compatibility with 32-bit mode for this new release. * ASCII terminal sessions now reliably erase all lines of the last screen from a previous session when a new session is opened. * Printing uses Courier except when Comet-fonts are needed to represent special characters; printing can be configured to always use Courier (using the Control Global... dialog). * The Word Select macro used to handle double click word selections now breaks the selection at the beginning and end of a screen line. * Documents can be configured so they can be opened only once using the Control Session option "Only one session per document." Clicking on a document which is already open will bring that document to the top and re-open the session if it is not already open, rather than opening another session. (This fix provides better support for Cornell's Bear Access). Enhancements in 2.1.3: * Comet registers an AppleTalk entity with the type COMET, so that network administrators can easily check user's Comet versions and configuration. * The Session dialog now offers an option so that Comet will connect with hosts which do not send a log-on prompt or other data to indicate that Comet's terminal-type setting is acceptable. * Automatic cursor positioning can be disabled with a key macro command ("!Ct"). * Serial baud rates of 57.6K and 38.4K are offered. * You can create a sound resource using "Record Beep..." in the Control menu. This sound will be used as the bell for that session when its window is not in front. This function is available only on Macs equipped with microphones; other Macs using System 6.0.4 or higher can use the sound. "Delete Beep" is provided to delete your replacement beep. * Files downloaded using Comet are made TeachText documents by default. A "Set default file type" dialog in the File menu allows you to select an application or document of the type you wish to use as the default. * A key macro command to make the next keystroke a Meta-key has been added ("!CM"). * A file downloaded with the string ".print" in its name will be printed automatically. If the name contains ".nodialog", no Print Dialog will be pre- sented; if the name contains ".delete", the down- loaded file will be deleted after printing. * A <Control-L> character entered in the .edit window will cause a page eject when printing. NB: Other applications may not handle this ASCII- standard control character correctly. * An iconified window which receives data will beep as well as become highlighted. Fixes to 2.1 in 2.1.1: * IBM 3278-3 & -5 emulations did not always correctly report the status of the first field on the screen. * Printing the emulator screen (as opposed to the .edit window) no longer crashes on Macs (e.g., the Mac +) without Color QuickDraw when using System versions prior to 6.0.7. _____________________________________________________________________________