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1990-08-10
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PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS:
DBTOOLS VERSION 2.0 "PRO"
Version 2.0 of dBTools is in the works (I'm actually making quite good
progress on it). It will be marketing commercially, and will not be
available as shareware (I will continue to support the shareware
version 1.23S however). It will probably sell for around $45 for single
user and $70 for a site license. Registered users of the shareware
version will be given full credit for their regitration towards the
purchase of Version 2.0.
Version 2.0 will have a number of new functions, increased capacity,
and will be easier to work with.
MORE USER FRIENDLY: (User friendlier?)
Instead of the cryptic function number, the names of the functions can
be used for increased readability. For example,
CALL DBTOOLS WITH "ATSAY,5,15,11/1,0,Hello, world!"
Function numbers can still be used if desired (they execute slightly
faster).
Color pair specification is of the form FG/BG, where either color
digits 0-15, or dBASE style color specifications (ie, +w/n and so on),
can be used interchangeably. Digits execute slightly faster.
Syntax help may be displayed by calling dBTools with the function name
or number, and a ?. For example, CALL DBTOOLS WITH "ATSAY,?" will
display the syntax for the atsay function.
Error diagnostics also display the syntax along with the offending
parameter string.
INCREASED CAPACITY:
──────────────────
Store up to 4 screen images instead of 3.
Increased memory for windows.
ENHANCED FUNCTIONS:
──────────────────
The WINDOW function supports a Title.
The BLAT and TWIDDLE sound effects have been combined into one function
with multiple options/subfunctions, and ALARM, CHIRP, BLIP, and CLICK
sound effects added (total of 5).
Menu functions can have a message associated with each of the menu
items. You can specify which row the message will appear, its colors,
and justification (centered, left, right).
Menus can have a hotkey other than the first letter, which will appear
highlighted from the rest of the menu item text. Inactive menu selections
are supported, which will appear in a different color in the menu, but
which cannot be selected. This would give the ability to enable only
certain menu selections based on user security level.
All menus support mouse control.
Monochrome monitors supported.
NEW FUNCTIONS:
─────────────
Encrypt - encrypt and decrypt a string of up to 128 characters. Good
for passwords or sensitive data.
Color Schemes - Define up to 12 sets of 10 color pairs, which can be used
in place of FG/BG specifications in a number of dBTools functions.
A color scheme consists of 10 color pairs which define colors of
various items:
1) Standard @SAY color
2) GET highlight color
3) Window frame
4) "Wallpaper" background
5) Menu active item (unselected)
6) Menu selected item (highlighted)
7) Menu inactive item
8) Menu hotkey highlight
9) Message color
10) Title color
Dialog Buttons - a different kind of menu. Similar to a horizontal
moving bar menu, except that the "buttons" can be placed in any
position on screen. Tab and Shift Tab cycles through each of the
choices and Enter selects, or you can click on a button with the mouse.
Move and Copy Window - windows can be moved from one place on screen to
another, or duplicated in another place.
Stuff Keyboard - characters can be stuffed into the keyboard buffer as
if you typed them.
Note: I would like to turn this into a keyboard macro facility, if I
can get around a couple of difficulties.
Flush keyboard buffer.
Some more code examples, such as some "canned" utilities (Backup,
reindex files, user definable Browse, file Pack/Purge, printer driver)
which can be easily customized and included in your applications.
WISH LIST:
─────────
Some ideas I'm toying with; if I can figure out how to do it, I'll
include them:
SetRow - set display for 25/43/50 row mode for EGA and VGA adapters.
Hardware reporting - Various status functions to report equipment
configuration, Shift/Alt/Cntrl key status, numlock, capslock, etc.
Self contained pulldown menu systems which don't require all the
external loops that version 1.23 does to implement them. Actually, if
you're familiar with FoxPro's menuing systems, I'm thinking of
something like that.