DP Tool Club 9/CD_ASCQ_09_1193.iso/maj/2068/whatsnew.doc

Text File | 1993-10-18 | 15KB | 270 lines

   SCROLLit        Advanced Scrollback Buffer               October 19, 1993


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   New in SCROLLit 1.8
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     ■  Your SCROLLit registration key can now be ordered with a credit card
        by calling Public (software) Library at 800-242-4775 (orders only
        please). You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at P.O. Box
        35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705. For orders placed with PsL, in
        addition to the US$17 SCROLLit registration fee, there is a US$6
        surcharge to cover PsL's service fee.

     ■  SCROLLit's compression algorithm has been improved to provide 5-10%
        more compression. Without compression, a line of text would take up
        160 bytes in the scrollback buffer: 80 character bytes plus 80
        color attribute bytes. SCROLLit compresses these lines, usually by
        at least 60%, so that more than twice the number of lines of text
        will fit in your scrollback buffer. Because of the overhead
        involved in setting up the buffer, small buffers (less than 40k)
        will not be compressed as much as large buffers.

     ■  In addition to capturing lines of text that scroll of the top of
        the screen, SCROLLit captures the entire screen whenever a BIOS
        'clear-screen' request is intercepted (video BIOS function 06h).
        The screen is also cleared whenever a program changes video mode,
        so SCROLLit will now capture the entire screen whenever the video
        mode is changed (video BIOS function 00h). As a result, SCROLLit is
        more likely to contain a complete record of your text activity.

     ■  SCROLLit was inserting two blank lines into the buffer if a blank
        screen was cleared. This has been changed so that no lines are
        inserted in the buffer when a blank screen is cleared.

     ■  A conflict has been discovered between SCROLLit and older programs
        that use DOS function 00h to terminate. This function was
        superseded by function 4Ch with the release of DOS 2.0 in March
        1983. Fixed.


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   SCROLLit 1.7
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     ■  Users can now select an alternate hotkey instead of the default
        Scroll Lock hotkey. The /H command line switch is used to specify a
        different hotkey at installation or to change the hotkey after
        SCROLLit has already been installed. For example, to install
        SCROLLit with a 100k buffer and set 'Alt S' as the hotkey, type:

               SCROLLIT 100 /H=81F

        Please refer to the documentation for more information.

     ■  SCROLLit's scrollback buffer can be stored in upper memory (instead
        of EMS, XMS or lower conventional memory) by using 'high loading'
        software such as DOS 5's LOADHIGH command or QEMM's LOADHI program.
        In some situations, the attempt to load SCROLLit's buffer into upper
        memory was unsuccessful, causing the buffer to reside in lower
        conventional memory. Fixed.

     ■  A new feature has been added for Desqview users. Some Desqview users
        have reported that installing SCROLLit within a Desqview window
        slows down the performance of programs operating in other Desqview
        windows, despite the fact that SCROLLit releases it's timeslice
        during idle keyboard polling. It turns out that any program or TSR
        that hooks the timer interrupt will cause this speed degradation in
        remaining Desqview windows. Quarterdeck's API programming staff have
        confirmed that Desqview will wait one extra tick before giving up
        the timeslice to ensure that the timer itself is serviced. The /NT
        (for NoTimer) command line switch has been added to SCROLLit, to
        allow installation without hooking the timer interrupt (the BIOS
        keyboard interrupt is hooked instead). For example, Desqview users
        who wish to optimize the performance of their system would install
        SCROLLit by typing:

               SCROLLIT 100 /NT

        Please refer to the documentation for more information.


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   SCROLLit 1.6
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     ■  Please note our new mailing address. Don't worry if you have mailed
        something to our old address: we will continue to check for mail at
        the old address for at least a year, or as long as mail continues to
        arrive there.

     ■  SCROLLit can now be registered online using Compuserve's shareware
        registration service ('GO SWREG'). When you register with the
        service, the US$17 registration fee (plus a $3 surcharge to cover
        Compuserve's service charge) is added to your monthly Compuserve
        bill. Your SCROLLit registration key will be sent to you by
        Compuserve mail (unless you request postal mail).

     ■  By default, SCROLLit uses a color scheme of blue and white against a
        cyan background. While this combination looks fine on a color
        monitor, some users of LCD notebooks report that these color
        attributes lack definition when translated into the shades of grey
        that these machines use to represent different colors. Two new
        command line parameters have been added to allow the user to specify
        the color attributes used in color text mode 3 (/AC=) and in
        monochrome text mode 7 (/AM=). These commands can be used to set the
        color attributes during installation or after SCROLLit has already
        been installed. For example, to install SCROLLit with a 100k buffer
        and customized color attributes for use during color mode 3, type:

               SCROLLit 100 /AC=20,27,2F,07

        Please refer to the documentation for more information.

     ■  The operation of SCROLLit inside a Desqview window has been fine-
        tuned. Desqview users should notice smoother scrolling when browsing
        through SCROLLit's buffer.

     ■  The Ctrl-Home bookmark is designed to return you to the same
        position within the scrollback buffer as when you last exited
        SCROLLit. In some situations, SCROLLit was not saving the correct
        location within the scrollback buffer. In these cases, pressing
        Ctrl-Home would either return you to an incorrect location within
        the buffer, or, with some computers, cause a lockup requiring a
        reboot. Fixed.

     ■  In certain situations (relatively rare), SCROLLit would fail during
        installation, issuing an 'unexpected error 31' message and causing a
        lockup requiring a reboot. Fixed.


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   SCROLLit 1.5
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     ■  Pressing Ctrl-Home allows you to return to the position in the
        scrollback buffer when you last exited SCROLLit. This feature is
        often referred to as a 'bookmark'.  Older versions of SCROLLit were
        only updating the buffer position when SCROLLit was exited with the
        Esc key. If you exited with the Scroll Lock key, the bookmark was
        not being updated. Fixed.

     ■  Two new command line switches, /- and /+, have been added to allow
        SCROLLit's capturing of scrolling lines to be temporarily disabled
        and then re-enabled.

     ■  A new command line switch, /R, has been added to provide more
        information on how to register SCROLLit.

     ■  The /? command line switch will display a list of all command line
        switches with a brief description of what they do.


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   SCROLLit 1.4
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     ■  SCROLLit now supports 43/50 line mode of the EGA/VGA.  Actually,
        SCROLLit will support any number of lines per screen so long as the
        BIOS is aware of the new line setting. Note that some EGA/VGA cards
        can provide 43/50 line mode support via the standard 80 column text
        modes (modes 2, 3 and 7) and/or via a nonstandard video mode (such
        as 50h). SCROLLit only supports the standard video modes, so you
        should use these standard modes for 43/50 line support (using video
        BIOS function 11h, subfunction 12h). If you find that you can only
        enter 43/50 line mode with nonstandard modes, then try resetting
        the video mode to the standard by changing the mode setting stored
        at memory position 40h:49h.

     ■  SCROLLit was not supporting the color video mode 3 on certain
        monochrome monitors. SCROLLit will now allow any 80 column text
        mode (modes 2,3 or 7) on any monitor type. After installation, the
        video mode can be switched between these modes and SCROLLit will
        still capture scrolling and popup on request.

     ■  The default keyboard repeat rate on many computers is a relatively
        slow 10.9 repeats per second.  The keyboard repeat rate determines
        how fast SCROLLit will scroll the screen when you press and hold
        the up arrow or down arrow key. SCROLLit was setting a fast
        keyboard repeat rate on installation, but this new repeat rate
        would effect all subsequent keypresses (not just SCROLLit). Some
        users have pointed out that it is better for each user to set the
        repeat rate he or she is most comfortable with. The keyboard repeat
        rate can be set with DOS 5.0's MODE command or any number of public
        domain utilities. SCROLLit 1.4 no longer changes the keyboard
        repeat rate.

     ■  SCROLLit captures 'clear-screen' requests in addition to both DOS
        and BIOS screen scrolling. When you use the CLS command, for
        example, SCROLLit will capture the information on the screen before
        it is cleared. In addition, many programs clear the screen at
        startup, which would leave gaps in your scrollback buffer if
        SCROLLit did not intercept the clear-screen request. Another
        example of the need to capture clear-screens is during Compuserve
        sessions when the Compuserve terminal type is set to be page
        oriented. Instead of scrolling old output, Compuserve issues a
        clear-screen request after every page. SCROLLit will now capture
        these pages.

     ■  If 'search again, same text' was requested by pressing A before a
        target string had ever been specified with either F (forward) or B
        (backward), SCROLLit would hang while trying to search for an
        undefined target string. Fixed.

     ■  It is now possible to popup other TSR programs over SCROLLit. This
        is accomplished by issuing a 28h interrupt while SCROLLit is
        waiting for input. If you use a popup calculator or screen grabber,
        for example, they should now work while you are in SCROLLit.

     ■  The Procomm commands in the Appendix for setting BIOS screen
        scrolling were for the old shareware version of Procomm 2.4.3., not
        for Procomm Plus which needs no reconfiguring. The Qmodem command
        given was for BIOS writing, not BIOS scrolling. Fixed.


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   SCROLLit 1.3
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     ■  SCROLLit 1.2 was not properly restoring the state of the A20 line
        when the buffer was stored in XMS.  This would cause the system to
        hang in some cases, particularly if SCROLLit was installed in a
        Desqview window and DV was using the high memory area (HMA). Fixed.


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   SCROLLit 1.2
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     ■  During installation, SCROLLit performs a CRC test of the program to
        ensure that the program has not been tampered with or infected with
        a virus.  This CRC test would fail in Version 1.1 if SCROLLit was
        loaded in a Desqview window.  Fixed.

     ■  Under certain circumstances, some versions of The Last Byte Memory
        Manager appear to have difficulty loading a TSR into high memory if
        the particular TSR has command line parameters beginning with a
        slash (/). SCROLLit 1.2 will now accept either slashes or dashes.


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   SCROLLit 1.1
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    ■  Broader support for ANSI drivers.  Version 1.0 was not capturing some
       of the screen scrolling from certain ANSI drivers including older
       (1987 and earlier) versions of Microsoft's ANSI.SYS.  SCROLLit
       Version 1.1 has been tested with several versions of ANSI.SYS,
       ANSI.COM, NANSI.SYS, ZANSI.SYS, VANSI.SYS and DVANSI.COM.  In the
       case of the TSR drivers, (ANSI.COM and DVANSI.COM), SCROLLit should
       be loaded AFTER the driver.

    ■  SCROLLit is now Desqview aware. If SCROLLit is loaded inside a
       Desqview window, it will capture the scrolling of the Desqview screen
       buffer, rather than the hardware screen buffer that is used outside
       of Desqview. SCROLLit will give up it's time slice during periods of
       inactivity to optimize the performance of your other Desqview
       windows. All screen writing inside a Desqview window is direct
       writing to the Desqview screen buffer, to ensure that SCROLLit output
       stays within the Desqview window.

    ■  Scrolling algorithm finetuned - smaller code and faster performance.


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   SCROLLit 1.0
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    ■  First public release.