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- Improvements in Ver 1.0 over v0.4b
-
- 1. Scanning options that allow any of 4 directions to save the current
- screen. This makes ANSIPIC compatable with other ANSI drawing programs,
- with a significant (up to %100) size/speed improvement, most notably over
- movies created with TheDraw. (load one in, save, and compare sizes!)
-
- 2. Point and shoot choice for load file. Instead of prompting for filename
- to load, ask for dir/mask/filename. Pop up window, and allow mouse/arrow
- choosing of filename.
-
- 3. Floodfill and Paint functions.
-
- Ver 0.4b had these bugs:-
-
- 1. A potentially dangerous bug where all frames where lost if the current
- frame was saved (F7). This was caused by faulty logic with pointers.
- Fixed.
-
- 2. The drawing functions (filling) didn't work properly in the 80th column.
- The background colour also did strange this in the 80th column when
- saved. This was solved with an embedded code to clear the line first in
- this case.
-
- 3. A harmless, but scary bug where clicking on the ------ in menus produced
- garbage on the screen. This then when away on clicking else where This was
- also caused by pointers I neglected to check correctly.
-
- 4. Numerous other small bugs and "look and feel" improvements.
-
- Improvements in ver 0.3b
-
- 1. Mouse button handling has been improved. Previously, when choosing from the
- menu, the editor could pick up the mouse button, then act on it as well.
- This was not a problem for me on the XT, but on faster machines it was a
- real problem. Fixed.
-
- 2. Animation support added. My implementation is not very efficient, but it
- is VERY easy to grasp. I am using "frames", like a movie. These can be
- moved through using PGUP, PGDWN, Home and End - and manipulated as per
- a single screen would. Then at save time, the program scans each frame for
- changes, creating an optimal ANSI movie.
- This has 2 major draw backs. Firstly, is that it is memory hungry.
- Each frame requires 4K of memory. Secondly, is that SAVING can take a
- long time for a large number of frames. These 2 issues will be attacked
- in a later release (v2.0 perhaps)
- But I believe the advantages far outway these. It is easy to edit
- each frame, changing things at will. (No more "remembering keystrokes!")
- It also allows you to edit each frame as if it was a single screen.
- Since you can save/load a single frame without creating the movie, this
- allows you to edit as many screens you like to cut and paste between screens
- quickly and easily.
-
- 3. Cursor blinks when cursor is on a character the same as the cursor. This
- was added because I found it was easy to "loose" the cursor when drawing
- large blocks of colour.
-
- 4. Support to edit screens larger than 24 lines.
-
- ******************************************************************************
- 5. Scanning direction options and How to load options (Framing) are in the
- menus, but are NOT implemented in this version (0.4b). The standard scan
- for ansi (Top to Bottom) is the default and so far unalterable. "Append"
- is also available in this release, which gives support to load and edit
- files larger than the screen size. The other scan types will be implemented
- in v1.0.
- ******************************************************************************
-
- ver 0.3b had these bugs:-
-
- 1. Ansipic didn't cater for the strange ANSI codes embedded into TheDraw's
- animated files. Mostly this is fixed, but on more unusual scanning, the
- program will pick up a couple of frames. Ansipic optimises it's output,
- so this isn't a problem. v1.0 will optimally save the 4 common scanning
- methods. In this beta release, only Top to Bottom, and appended scanning
- is supported.
-
- ver 0.2b had these bugs:-
-
- 1. Save didn't work properly when a bold and blinking character was next
- to a bold only character. Fixed.
-
- 2. Drop cutout didn't work using the return key. I had the wrong condition
- on the loop. Fixed.
-
- 3. Cuting out only worked when cuting out the way the status line said.
- Unpredictable results when cutting right to left, or upwards. Fixed.
-
- 4. Crashed with a run time error if trying to save a file with an extension.
- This only occurred when there were blank lines in the file, so I missed
- it in my initial tests (with Dick Tracy...). Caused by me not testing
- properly which files were open. Fixed.
-
- 5. Garbage appeared on the bottom line when deleting a whole line.
-
- 6. You couldn't edit the 80th column. This was a design feature, but I've
- changed this due to a request from a beta tester. (Hi Hamish)
-
- 7. The Ellipse algorythm was pretty poor. I've greatly improved on my own
- attempt by using Van Aken's algorythm, and using my own fonts to draw
- quite acceptable circles. Using certain fonts, the fill options are
- kludgy however, but this will be fixed in a later release.
-
-
-