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-
- HTBasic for Windows Release Notes
- Release 6.1
- TransEra Corporation
- 375 East 800 South
- Orem UT 84097
- phone (801)-224-6550
- fax (801)-224-0356
- Web page: http://www.transera.com
- ftp site: ftp://ftp.htbasic.com/pub/htbasic
-
- E-Mail: htb-sales@transera.com or
- htb-support@transera.com
- _______________________________________________________
-
- This file contains information regarding changes and
- additions that have been made since the last printing
- of the manuals.
-
-
- Manual Corrections/Additions
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- Installing and Using Manual - Tenth Revision
-
- Page 17 The Keyboard Reference Guide and the
- Keyboard Functions template no longer
- ship with HTBasic. For this information
- see chapter2
-
- Page 37 Add: 1600. The 1600 option provides
- compatibility for most newer HP DeskJet
- printers. This option is ignored unless
- the PCL5 and COLOR options are included.
-
- Reference Manual - Tenth Revision
-
- Page 51 Sample should read:
- Msb=BINIOR (-1,2^14)
-
- Page 76 Last paragraph include sentence:
- String variables must have their length
- declared when declared in a COM variable.
-
-
- SRM/UX Capability
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- With the addition of a DLL available through TAMS (Test and
- Measurement Systems), HTBasic can now be a full SRM/UX client.
- This allows an HP 200/300 with BASIC/WS that was connected to
- an SRM/UX system to be replaced by a PC and HTBasic.
- SRM/UX networking now allows files to be shared between
- HTBasic on a PC and HP computers with HP-BASIC/WS or
- workstations with HP-BASIC-UX/300 or HP-BASIC-UX/700.
-
- Now in an SRM/UX network an old series 200/300 computer can be
- replaced with a PC running HTBasic without any other changes
- being made to the way the system operates. SRM/UX provides
- all of the networking management for the TransEra PC client.
- This new capability dramatically increases the ability of
- HTBasic to be a direct replacement for HP-BASIC/WS.
-
-
- Changes\Fixes Since Last Release
- -----------------------------------------------------
- 6.1b Changes\Fixes
-
- 1. PCL.DW6 -Updated PCL driver, this driver now correctly
- states its version number.
-
- 2. GPIBNI.DW6 -Updated GPIB driver for National Instruments GPIB
- cards. This 32-bit only driver now supports all GPIB boards supported
- by National Instruments. This includes the plus "+" cards (cards with
- built-in bus analyzers) that were previously unsupported.
-
- 3. HPIBS.DW6 -Updated HPIBS (SICL) device driver for GPIB Cards.
- This driver has a repair that allows large data transfers using
- OUTPUT and ENTER statements.
-
- 4. In the 6.1 release, there was the addition of movement of the
- mouse generating ON KBD interrupts placing UP, DOWN, LEFT,
- or RIGHT keystrokes into the KBD$ buffer. Previously the
- mouse movements were ignored by the ON KBD statement. In the 6.1a
- update we have added a control register to turn off this functionality.
- The syntax is as follows:
-
- CONTROL KBD,203;0 ! default, mouse will give KBD interrupts
- CONTROL KBD,203;1 ! turns off mouse interrupts to KBS$
-
- 5. There was a problem introduced with the 6.1 release concerning the
- graphics area surrounding the Softkeys. Despite the presence or absence
- of the softkeys, graphics would not be displayed in this region.
- This has been fixed with this 6.1a update.
-
- 6. In addition, the WAIT OFF option for the EXECUTE command has been added.
- Using this option will cause DOS applications to return control to BASIC
- without waiting for user intervention. Not specifying this switch when
- using an EXECUTE statement with a DOS application, will cause the DOS
- program to wait with a "press any key to continue" prompt. Using this
- option with a Windows application will cause no DOS box to appear as
- the Windows application is closed. To prevent a DOS box from appearing
- at all, use the following syntax: EXECUTE CHR$(13)& "CALC".
-
- 7. Performing a Cat of empty Drive used to give error 56, this has been
- repaired to allow this without creating an error condition. CAT of an
- empty directory would leave null information. This has been repaired
- to give a blank display.
-
- 6.0 Changes\Fixes
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- 1. Caps Lock control from inside HTBasic. The commands is
- CONTROL KBD,0;1 OR CHR$(255)&"U". The control statement uses
- the values 0 and 1 for on or off and the output chr$(255)&"U"
- simply toggles the caps lock state.
-
- 10 CONTROL KBD,0;1 ! Turns on caps lock
- 20 CONTROL KBD,0;0 ! Turns off caps lock
- 30 OUTPUT KBD; CHR$(255)&"U" ! Toggles caps lock state
- 40 END
-
- 2. CAT of an invalid filename, or non-existent directory
- or file would not generate an error, just an empty listing.
- Programs that used CAT to test the validity of a filename may
- have been rewritten to use ASSIGN to test for a file. CAT of
- invalid filename or non-existent directory now generates error 56
- "File or path not found" in these cases.
-
- 3. On Win3.x or WinNT, CAT "*." listed only the files that have
- no extensions. On Win95, it listed all files. CAT "*." has been
- fixed to only list directories and files with out extensions on
- all platforms.
-
- 4. Full UNC (Universal Naming Convention) support added.
-
- 5. Colors customized through CRT control registers 15, 16, and
- 17 were reset to default whenever the HTBasic window was resized.
- These registers are fixed to retain their settings despite window
- resizing.
-
- 6. CONFIGURE MSI failed if string length exceeded 30 characters.
- This has been fixed to allow 256 characters in the statement.
- Note: It is still necessary to include the last \ in the PC path
- statement.
-
- 7. ISC 26 was limited to use ports lpt1-3. This has been repaired
- and now allows assigning the ISC to any valid port; this may be
- network mapped, or physical. The syntax to control which port
- ISC 26 is assigned to is: "CONTROL 26,102;X" to assign it to lptX.
-
- 8. In HP RMB, a sub that performs a DELSUB on a range of Subs
- including itself will succeed in deleting all the following subs,
- though it would error out when it tried to delete itself. Under
- HTBasic for Windows, it would error out, without deleting any subs.
- This functionality has been repaired to match exactly the
- workstation's behavior.
-
- 9. DOS error 21 on Win3.x. This was a hardware problem mixing
- EDO and non-EDO RAM in a non-EDO RAM compatible system when
- running older versions of WIN32s. This has been fixed with
- this release by mandating an update of WIN32s to version 1.30c
- during installation.
-
- 10. EXPANDED option was not working correctly using ISC26 and
- PCL driver (produced every other line inverted). This now dumps
- properly. Syntax for this option is: CONFIGURE DUMP TO "PCL" &
- DUMP DEVICE IS 26.
-
- 11. GLOAD missing option or configuration error during screen
- captures and restores when windows is set to more than 256
- colors or more than 1024x768. This was corrected by the
- implementation of DirectDraw extensions. This is only available
- in 32-bit windows. To enable DirectDraw extensions, place the
- -X option on the startup line of your HTBasic start icon. To
- install this version, select custom install and select the
- directX enabled version. This will install htbwinx.exe. Your
- shortcuts will point to this new executable.
-
-
- 12. The exclamation mark was not interpreted as a comment
- delimiter when typed at the end of an IMAGE line. IMAGE
- codes like "-" or "#" were still interpreted by the IMAGE
- statement, even after the exclamation mark. This has been
- fixed to always interpret the ! as a comment indicator.
-
- 10 FOR N=1 TO 10
- 20 PRINT "------------------------------ !"
- 30 PRINT USING Toto;"Hello",N
- 40 Toto: IMAGE "IMAGE 1 [",5A,"]",3D
- 50 PRINT USING Toto1;"Hello",N
- 60 Toto1: IMAGE "IMAGE 2 [",5A,"]",3D !-comment
- 70 PRINT USING Toto2;"Hello",N
- 80 Toto2: IMAGE "IMAGE 3 [",5A,"]",3D !#comment
- 90 PRINT "------------------------------ ?"
- 100 NEXT N
- 110 END
-
- 13. WIN-DUMP driver gave ERROR 2 when using large complex
- Windows printer drivers. This was fixed with the same DirectDraw
- as previous.
-
- 14. Values between x.x495" and "x.x500" are rounded up instead
- of down. For example: DROUND (12.3499,3) returned 12.4. This
- was repaired to give accurate rounding.
-
- 15. Negative pen numbers were not operational. These negative
- pen numbers have been implemented. These are useful in erasing
- positive pen graphics. However, negative pens should only be
- drawn over their positive counterparts. Unexpected output may
- occur if mixing pen numbers.
-
- 16. Unless an ON KNOB definition is active, movement of the
- mouse generates ON KBD interrupts and places UP, DOWN, LEFT,
- or RIGHT keystrokes into the KBD$ buffer. Previously the
- mouse movements were ignored by the ON KBD statement.
-
- 17. PRINTALL IS would not work properly unless you did a
- PRINTER IS to the same device first. PRINTALL IS now works
- independent of PRINTER IS.
-
- 18. CAT command when using NFS drives give MEMORY OVERFLOW.
- This has been repaired to allow for all NFS drive mapping.
-
- 19. WIN-DUMP INVERT would not INVERT properly. It has been
- repaired to properly INVERT DUMPED output. This only works
- if colors are 256 or less. For example:
-
- 10 CONFIGURE DUMP TO "WIN-DUMP" !INVERT IS ON BY DEFAULT
- 15 ! CONFIGURE DUMP TO "WIN-DUMP; INVERT" ! THIS TURNS OFF INVERTING.
- 20 MOVE 50,50
- 30 RECTANGLE 10,10,FILL
- 40 DUMP GRAPHICS
- 50 END
-
-
- 20. XREF with large files and long variable names: 40,000
- lines, numbered by 10. EDIT line 132040 would cause GPF as
- well as every 8960 lines. This has been repaired to allow
- the longer variable names in xref and to use line number
- 132040.
-
- 21. XREF with lines longer than 80 characters caused formatting
- problems. This has been repaired to allow for up to 256
- character long lines.
-
- 22. Month input is now allowed for both three-character
- abbreviations as well as spelled out. For example:
-
- 10 PRINT DATE$(DATE("10 FEB 1998")) ! This works fine.
- 20 PRINT DATE$(DATE("10 FEBRUARY 1998")) ! This reported year as 0.
- 30 PRINT DATE$(DATE("10 MARCH 1998")) ! This reported year as 0.
- 40 END
-
- 23. The MAT statement did not allow assigning elements
- of a two-dimensional array to a one-dimensional array,
- such as the following. This has been repaired to match
- Workstation BASIC.
-
- 10 ALLOCATE Tab1(1:5)
- 20 ALLOCATE Tab2(1:5,1:5)
- 30 MAT Tab1= (5)
- 40 MAT Tab2= (6)
- 50 CALL Tab1d_2d(Tab1(*))
- 60 CALL Tab1d_2d(Tab2(*))
- 70 END
- 80 !
- 100 SUB Tab1d_2d(Tabx(*))
- 110 ALLOCATE Tab(1:10)
- 120 IF RANK(Tabx)=1 THEN MAT Tab(2:4)= Tabx(1:3)
- 130 IF RANK(Tabx)=2 THEN MAT Tab(2:4)= Tabx(2,2:4) ! <-> Here was Error 16
- 140 SUBEND
-
- 24. The GPIBTNT driver had timeout problems under NT 4.0.
- This driver has changed names from GPIBTNT to GPIBNI. This driver is
- a 32-bit driver only for Windows 95/98 & NT. It currently
- supports the following National Instruments cards under Windows 95/98:
-
- All NI GPIB boards except the + cards with the built-in bus analyzer.
-
- Under NT it supports:
-
- All NI GPIB boards supported by NI, except the GPIB PCI and the
- GPIB+ cards, with the built-in bus analyzer.
-
- If your card supports hardware timeouts:
-
- Specify "TIMEOUT 0" in LOAD BIN to disable software timeouts.
- Use "CONTROL ISC,100;V" to set hardware timeout value to V.
- See your Hardware documentation for these values and their meaning.
-
- If you wish to use software timeouts use software timeouts set
- v to 0 and see "If your card does not support hardware timeouts:"
- Timeout value n is ignored in "ON TIMEOUT n GOTO linenumber"
-
- If your card does not support hardware timeouts:
-
- Software timeouts are enabled by default, but you may specify
- "TIMEOUT 0" in the LOAD BIN statement. Timeout value n in:
- "ON TIMEOUT n GOTO line number" is the value used for the timeout
- value in seconds.
-
- Using software and hardware timeouts together:
-
- It is possible to enable both software and hardware timeouts.
- If this is done the timeout value is approximately the sum of
- the two timeout values. In some circumstances the timeout
- value will be unpredictable.
-
- 25. Using an EXECUTE statement while the SERIAL32 driver is
- loaded will no longer reset the serial interface to its default
- settings. If a program expects the serial interface to be reset
- to these defaults it is now necessary to perform a RESET X where
- X is the ISC of the serial port you wish to re-set.
-
- 26. When changing the baud rate in the SERIAL32 driver the parity
- would reset to default. The baud rate no longer effects the parity
- in this manner.
-
- 27. DUMP DEVICE IS <file> should not allow dumping to LIF ASCII
- file type, it should cause error 58. Previously this would not
- generate an error.
-
- 28. DUMP DEVICE IS <bdat file> would delete the bdat header first
- and then dump screen contents to the bdat file. This has been
- repaired to retain the bdat header information. If you want a
- file of just the screen dump, which is a bitmap file, use a
- different file type to DUMP to.
-
- 29. If PLOTTER IS <file> file began with the numeral "1" when
- using SYSTEM$ ("PLOTTER IS") would return a "6". This has been
- repaired to return the whole file name.
-
- 30. ON TIMEOUT support was added for ISC 10 and printing.
-
- 31. PRINTER IS cannot be set to a LIF ASCII file. Doing so
- will result in error 58 and will not assign the PRINTER IS
- to the file. This used to result in the error message but
- the file would remain assigned and the file would fill with
- unrecognizable characters.
-
-
- HTBasic DIFFERENCES
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- This section lists the most common differences between HTBasic
- for Windows and HP BASIC 200/300/400/700 (RMB). For detailed
- information on differences and porting issues, see online
- help, the "Installing and Using Guide," and the "User's Manual"
- chapter 2. Specifically note the CONFIGURE statements.
-
- * To transfer BASIC programs between HTBasic & RMB use
- SAVE/GET. PROG files cannot be directly shared between
- HTBasic for Windows & RMB.
-
- * Use SYSTEM$("VERSION:HTB") to programmatically determine if
- executing on HTBasic for Windows.
-
- * When in the editor, results from directly executed commands
- are displayed in the message line at the bottom of the screen.
-
- * Operations which cause an error may not produce exactly the
- same error number as RMB. For example, if an out-of-range
- value is passed to an INTEGER parameter, one platform might
- report error 19 (value out of range) and the other platform
- might report error 20 (integer overflow).
-
- * The PRT printer address constant returns 10 (the ISC of the
- Windows Print Manager Driver) instead of 701. Use CONFIGURE
- PRT TO 701 to change.
-
- * Refer to either online help "keyboard functions" or the
- "Installing and Using Guide" chapter 8 for the mapping of
- keyboard functions. You can use CONFIGURE KEY to remap any
- key to the function you wish.
-
- * RMB uses the Roman-8 character set; HTBasic uses the Latin-1
- character set. Therefore, characters below CHR$(32) and above
- CHR$(128) display differently. Refer to the "User's Manual"
- Chapter 13.
-
- * RMB and HTBasic have different actions for negative pen numbers.
- Depending upon the device and drawing mode, RMB negative pens
- either erase or complement the corresponding color. In HTBasic,
- a negative pen complements the color map index, which is not the
- same as complementing the color.
-
- * HTBasic restarts a line-type pattern with each line segment drawn.
- RMB tries to continue the line-type pattern across sequential line
- segments.
-
- * The destination of an ON...CALL statement can be deleted in HTBasic.
- In RMB, attempts to delete such SUBs cause an error.
-
- * When doing a CAT TO S$(*) with HTBasic, the first array element has
- the text "DIRECTORY:" before the actual directory name.
-
- * RMB reserves 3072 bytes for softkey macros, HTBasic only allocates
- 1024 bytes for this purpose.
-
- * I/O Differences:
-
- - TRANSFER has limited functionality in this release. For more
- information, see the io_info.txt file.
-
- - ON INTR is not supported for RS-232 interfaces.
-
- - Some error- and EOF-handling in the ENTER statement is different.
-
- * Mass Storage Differences:
-
- - Filename wildcards are only available through the CAT statement.
-
- - INITIALIZE is not supported, and therefore, HTBasic cannot create RAM
- volumes. For RAM volumes, use a DOS RAM disc program instead (e.g.
- VDISK.SYS, RAMDISK.SYS). These volumes are accessed just like any other
- DOS disk (e.g. C:, F:, etc.).
-
- - There can be differences in file formats and byte ordering within files.
- See the ASSIGN statement in the "Reference Manual" for more information.
-
- * MSUS Format:
-
- RMB format: [directory path] [filename] [:msus]
- HTBasic format: [drive:] [directory path] [filename]
-
- You can map the RMB format to the HTBasic
- model using the CONFIGURE MSI statement.
-
- * The following RMB CSUB utilities are not provided:
-
- PHYREC: no substitute
-
- GDUMPC: automatically provided by DUMP
- GRAPHICS if current Windows printer
- supports color.
-
- BPLOT: Bload() and Bstore() functionality
- now provided through extensions
- to the GLOAD and GSTORE statements.
-
-
- LIMITATIONS
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- Due to the resolution of the PC clock (about
- 55 milliseconds), all timing functions (WAIT,
- ON CYCLE, ON DELAY, ON TIME, ON TIMEOUT, etc.)
- will be rounded to the nearest clock interval.
-
- The LINE TYPEs supported by this release are
- limited. Line type 3 is drawn the same as 4,
- and 6 is drawn the same as 7. The optional
- repeat length is not supported on the display.
- Also, not all display systems support dotted or
- dashed lines. In this case, dotted and/or
- dashed line types are drawn as solid lines.
-
- The SEPARATE ALPHA FROM GRAPHICS statement is
- not supported by HTBasic for Windows.
-
- HTBasic cannot directly access LIF diskettes.
- Use the HPCat, HPCopy, and HPPurge utilities
- provided with the product. These utilities
- are presently not supported under the Windows
- NT operation system.
-
- HTBasic does not support running more than one
- instance of HTBwin at one time on Windows 3.1x.
- (This is supported on 32-bit Windows.)
-
- The SET and RETURN clauses of the ASSIGN, DIALOG,
- CONTROL, and STATUS statements are limited to 36
- attribute pairs.
-
- The HP 82335 HP-IB interface is a memory-mapped
- device. As such, it may have collisions with your
- expanded memory space.
-
- In Windows 3.1x, recursive function calls
- (DEF FNxxx) can overflow the stack and cause
- HTBasic and/or Windows to crash.
-
- When plotted labels are rotated with LDIR,
- isotropic scaling of the label may not be
- maintained on some plotting devices.
-
- If you attempt to CAT a networked directory
- containing a file named "CON", HTBasic will hang.
-
-
-
-