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Thank you for purchasing Flash II from Missionware Software.
Copyright (c) 1996
Missionware Software
354 N. Winston Drive
Palatine, IL 60067-4132
phone 847-359-9565
This READ.ME is dated 10/24/96...for Version 3.02
Due to the time lag between producing a manual and shipping a product,
changes sometimes take place that can't be addressed in the manual.
What follows are details of those changes. Future revisions of the
manual will, of course, take these changes into consideration.
PACKING LIST:
The Packing List in the manual shows FLASH23.APP as the new,
multitasking, Flash II. It uses two configuration files called
"FLASH23.DEF" and "FLASH23.LST".
We're also including an older, non-multitasking version of Flash II,
version 2.23, for those who don't want or need the extra features
found in 3.0. That program is also listed in the Packing List as
FLASH2.PRG. However, we left out its configuration files. They are
"FLASH2.DEF" and "FLASH2.LST".
Each program automatically loads its appropriate configuration files.
You should NOT crossload the configuration files from one program to
another, however. In other words, do not load the "FLASH23.DEF" or
"FLASH23.LST" files into "FLASH2.PRG". The files are not downward
compatible. "FLASH2.DEF" and "FLASH2.LST" can be loaded into
"FLASH23.APP", however. "FLASH23.APP" will convert those files to the
new file format.
EDIT BOARDS: Flash II's master disk now includes a new program
called "Edit Boards". "Edit Boards" (EDIT_BDS.APP) is a separate
application that permits you to edit your .DEF and .LST files
outside of Flash II. It also gives you the ability to copy, cut,
paste and sort board lists. See the text file called EDIT_BDS.TXT
for complete instructions.
(NOTE: Edit Boards is included *only* when purchasing Flash II as a
new product. It is not included when upgrading from an older 2.x to
3.0x version of Flash II. You can purchase a copy of Edit Boards
directly from Missionware Software for only $10! Send your order to
the address at the beginning of this READ_ME.301 file, or give us a
call. Thank you.)
OPTIONS MENU:
1) MODEM OPTIONS - AUTO ANSWER/MINI-BBS MODE: With a proper
script, Flash II can be turned into a mini-BBS. It automatically
answers an incoming call when "Auto Answer" is enabled in Modem
Options. It automatically answers an incoming call when the option is
selected.
When "Auto Answer" is enabled, Flash II can act as a mini-BBS
when dialing in from a remote computer. Any macro command sent from
the remote computer will be interpreted by Flash II as if a macro was
run fromwithin Flash II itself. That means that you must send a '>'
before each command and a '|' after the command. For example, if you
wanted to get a listing of files from a particular drive, enter the
following from the remote computer:
>DDIR pathname AUX:|
Flash II responds with a listing of all files in "pathname".
If you wish to transfer a file from Flash II to your remote
computer using Zmodem, enter the following from the remote computer:
>UL ZM filename|
Flash II then sends the file to your remote computer.
The "Ring" string is used in conjunction with the "Auto Answer"
feature. If you plan on using Flash II to answer incoming calls, set
this string to "RING" (or whatever you modem returns in response to an
incoming call).
2) CLOCK OPTIONS: F2's clock to the right of the menu bar is
now drawn using v_gtext. It now displays using the current system
font. If you use something like Warp 9 to change the system font,
that font is used when displaying the clock.
When F2's corner clock was "Off", it was still overwriting
this area of the screen clobbering other clocks eg. Bermuda Clock.
3) TERMINAL OPTIONS - XON/XOFF: These fields have been removed
as they are now redundant. Now, XON is always 17 and XOFF is always
19.
4) TERMINAL OPTIONS - ROWS: The buttons are now "24", "User"
and "48". The third button changes to accomodate whatever number of
rows are supported using half-height characters in the current
resolution.
Underneath the buttons is an editable text field:
"User (max 33): __"
The existing number of Rows is entered as the default. The "max"
value is the maximum number of Rows available in a "fulled" window
given the current "Status Line", "Window Borders" and "Small Font"
settings and is updated as you change the settings.
If you enter a value that is greater than the "max" value an alert
appears asking you to enter a legal value.
Some of the buttons in the dialogue have been moved around a little
to fit this in.
5) TERMINAL OPTIONS - SMOOTH SCROLL: This item is deleted. It
is no longer needed since the Terminal screen is now inside of a
window.
Some other items were moved around in order to get the Status Line,
Window Borders and Small Font buttons near the Rows items. Selecting
these items changes the maximum available number of Rows. (See
above.)
TRANSFER MENU:
1) AUTOSTART ZMODEM UPLOADS: F2 now recognizes the zmodem
upload initialization string and autostarts a zmodem upload. The
upload begins immediately if files have already been selected,
otherwise the "Upload Options" dialogue and the "File Selector"
appears.
2) SEPARATE UPLOAD AND DOWNLOAD PATHS: There are now separate
upload and download pathnames in F2. They are stored in the DEF
file. The old transfer pathname in the DEF file becomes the download
path. The DXPATH command sets both upload and download paths for
backward compatibility.
To set each path manually, move the mouse pointer to the
Transfer menu and select either "Download" or "Upload", depending on
which path you wish to set. Use the file selection to set the desired
path. Do *not* enter a file name once the path is set - just click on
OK. When both paths are set move the mouse cursor to the Options menu
and click on Save Options.
WINDOWS MENU:
1) OPTIONS DIALOG: There is a new menu item in the "Windows"
menu called "Options Dialog". This item tops the current dialogue
window. If there is no dialogue window open then that item is
disabled. The check mark is there for consistency with other items
in this menu. When a dialogue window is open this menu item contains
the name of the dialogue eg. "Terminal Options".
TERMINAL WINDOW ENHANCEMENTS:
1) SCREEN ECHO: You can now toggle output to the terminal
screen just as you can toggle output to the printer. The command is:
SCREEN [ON, OFF, /] (keystroke = Alt-Ctrl-U).
The default is ON. When SCREEN is set to OFF all incoming
characters are placed in the capture and *not* output to the
terminal screen. This gives you the advantage of being able to
capture data at the ports maximum speed if required.
2) TERMINAL HELP DIALOGUE: This dialogue now includes a
"Previous Screen" button to view the previous screen.
SCRIPT COMMAND CHANGES:
1) LOAD TA COMMAND ADDED: There is now a LOAD TA [filename]
command to load to Command/TA buffer and it works exactly as the LOAD
CA command does.
BUG FIXES: Flash 3.00 to Flash 3.01...
TERMINAL SCROLL BARS: These were often set to minimum size when using
Alt-] to toggle them on and off.
BACKSPACE CHARACTERS WHILE ONLINE: F2 wasn't always deleting the
previous character in the capture buffer when receiving a BS. The
Review pause characters were being placed in the capture and that
interfered with the BS processing.
TERMINAL REVERSE AND REVEAL CHARACTERS: There could have been only
partial redraws of the screen when using the keystrokes Alt-Ctrl-V
(Reverse characters) and Alt-[ (Reveal characters).
USING A PASSWORD WITH FLASH23.LST: F2 crashed if your FLASH23.LST
file contained a password.
ALT-CTRL-A KEYSTROKE: There were two entries in the Options menu
that were supposed to be invoked with this keystroke, "Command/Type
Ahead" and "Save Options As". "Command/Type Ahead" has been changed
to Alt-Ctrl-D to avoid the conflict.
ALT-SHIFT-A KEYSTROKE: There were two entries in the Phones menu
that were supposed to be invoked with this keystroke, "Answer Call"
and "Save Boards As". "Answer Call" has been changed to Alt-Ctrl-W
to avoid the conflict.
FULL CAPTURE: F2's terminal was very slow when the capture filled.
It was displaying "Capture FULL" in the info line using the wind_set
call for every character received and this made it *very* slow. This
message is now displayed only once.
CAPTURE BUFFER SIZE: If there were errors in configuring the
capture buffer when F2 was booted then the amount of free memory
shown in the info line was garbage. The amount that actually got
allocated was correct.
TERMINAL WINDOW REDRAWS: Sometimes there was a horizontal bar left
in the terminal window after a dialogue window had been closed. The
bar was a couple of pixels high as was immediately above or below
where the dialogue window was.
TERMINAL WINDOW REDRAWS - ANOTHER BUG: Sometimes when you moved the
terminal window so that it would overhang the right side of the
desktop, F2 would blit an area that wrapped to the left side of the
screen. If you moved the window downwards so that part of it was off
the bottom of the desktop, F2 also blitted an extra area. This could
cause bombs on some machines.
CONNECTING WITH THE TERMINAL WINDOW CLOSED: There was a redraw
problem with this. F2 was attempting to clear the non-existent
terminal window and there were two unnecessary redraws that have been
removed.
MARKING A BLOCK WITH THE BUTTON WHILE SCROLLING: If you marked a
block with the mouse causing the text to scroll and then released the
button while moving the mouse, graf_mkstate continued to return the
button state as being held down. This caused block marking to be
erratic.
EDITOR MARKING A BLOCK: If the editor contained a couple of lines
of text and you attempted to mark a block of text starting in the
vacant area of the window below the last line of text then the marked
block went beyond the end of the capture. The window displayed the
block as column 0 (where the LF normally is) on all the vacant lines.
CLEARING THE COMMAND/TYPE AHEAD BUFFER: The wrong alert popped up
when you clicked on "New" in the menu and the Command/Type Ahead
window was on top.
PRESSING THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON WITH EITHER THE EDITOR OR TERMINAL
WINDOW CLOSED: This locked-up on the ST and would have been
unpredictable on other machines.
DISABLING THE BLITTER FOR HIGH SPEED: A side effect of disabling or
enabling the blitter chip is that the default color palette is
restored. F2 now immediately restores the current palette after
toggling the blitter.
WM_TOPPED MESSAGES: F2 wasn't responding correctly to these messages,
meaning that the window cycle gadget, found in multitasking systems
such as Geneva would not work right.
DOUBLE CLICKS IN DIAL BOARDS: This code has been changed because it
didn't work correctly on some systems.
MEMORY REQUIREMENTS: F2 hasn't been sufficiently checking memory
requirements when it first boots. If there was less than 32K left
after allocating memory for everything except the capture buffers
then F2 got it wrong. When this happened, the main capture buffer
displayed a garbage value. F2 now reduces the size of the Command/TA
capture in 4K chunks until there is enough room for a small capture.
If there is no memory for either capture then F2 aborts as it always
did.
# CHARACTERS IN MAMCOND/TA: If text included a '#' in it then F2
got confused. It called a sub-routine without saving the a0 register
on the stack and a0 was used in the sub-routine destroying the
pointer to the start of text to send.
DIALOGUE WINDOWS: If a dialogue window was open and not the top
window then opening another dialogue window caused problems. F2 was
not closing the first dialogue window before opening the new one
leaving a stray window open.
Now, when you open a dialogue window via the menu (say Terminal
Options) and click on that same menu item (Terminal Options again) F2
now just tops the dialogue window. Previously it also initialized
the buttons which destroyed any changes. This is more in line with
how most applications work.
EDITOR UPDATES WHILE ONLINE: If the Editor is the top window and
you are online capturing data, updates of the editor window were
infrequent. Now if new data arrives and there is no more data in the
input queue then F2 updates the window.
TERMINAL OPTIONS COLUMNS - THIRD BUTTON: If you activated the
Terminal Options window using Alt-M from the terminal and had a
resolution that supported more than 80 columns then this button had a
value of "00" in it.
EDITING A BOARD WHILE ONLINE: If you changed the Columns or Rows
setting in Edit Boards for the same board that you were already
online to the terminal screen wasn't cleared.
DIAL BOARDS "DIALING..." DIALOGUE: This dialogue was topping itself
when F2 went on to dial a second board or redial the first.
DIAL BOARDS: The "Dialing..." window, when it was first opened,
contained the last port used in the window's name line. Also the
Skip and Cancel buttons were not de-selected between dialing each
slot.
TERMINAL XOFF: F2 was using the Ctrl-S (xoff) keystroke to freeze
output to the terminal window. Some users need to send a Ctrl-S to
Ratsoft BBS to save a file. Now F2 sends an XOFF if there is no
incoming data in the queue. This should enable both functions to
co-exist.
TERMINAL CLR/HOME KEY: If you pressed Clr/Home while the terminal
window was scrolled away from the home position then the slider
positions were not updated to the home position.
TERMINAL PRINTING: An error flag was set incorrectly after printing
the first character in any terminal printing operation. This meant
that only the first character actually got printed.
FILE TRANSFER STATUS BOX DRAWING: The drawing of the File Transfer
Status box was done using the XBIOS Setscreen call followed by
v_gtext and vr_recfl calls. This box is now drawn using the VDI blit
routines.
This change is necessary because the Setscreen call is not supported
by the Cyrel graphics card.
EDIT BOARDS - MODEM PORT SELECTION: When editing a board slot, if
you clicked on Cancel to exit the RS232 Options dialogue the modem
port often changed to Modem 1.
AUTO ANSWER: If Auto Answer and Hardware were enabled and you
edited a board with a different modem port selected it was possible
for F2 to look at the wrong hardware and bomb.
ANSI/VTxxx SCROLLING: F2 erased too much of the screen when
scrolling after a Set Scrolling Region escape sequence.
EDITOR HORIZONTAL SCROLL POSITION AFTER A SHIFT-CLR/HOME: F2 wasn't
positioning the horizontal scroll correctly when the cursor moved off
to the left or right of the screen.
EDITOR CURSOR RIGHT KEYSTROKE: If the cursor was over a carriage
return character and the cursor right key was pressed and it was
necessary for the window to scroll to the left, the cursor was
sometimes placed over the line feed character at the beginning of the
line. It is now placed over the character to the right of the LF.
EDITOR SCROLLING: If the cursor was one position directly below the
home position and you pressed the cursor left key and this caused the
window to scroll right to the end of line, the cursor was sometimes
placed behind the vertical scroll bar.
SCC PORTS: When SCC ports were used at high speed they were not
being reset to 19200 baud when not in use or when F2 terminated.
MFP MODEM 1: The MFP interrupt vectors are now restored if another
port is selected.
MEGASTE MODEM 2: The Modem Options "Hardware" button is now enabled
for this port. This allows the use of DCD and DTR lines which were
incorrectly documented in Atari's manuals.
MIDI IOREC POINTERS: When the MIDI port is released, F2 was
"restoring" the non-existent iorec pointers for the output queue. F2
is now also getting incoming data using the iorec pointers directly
to increase speed.
IOREC POINTERS: F2 was restoring the wrong pointers when releasing
the port on Modem 2, Serial 1 and Serial 2 on the MegaSTe and the TT
and on the MIDI port on all machines except the Falcon. In each case
it restored the Modem 1 parameters to the other ports.
Also the MIDI port was set up to use 4K qeuues if the last baud rate
set was below 9600. It now sets up 32K queues.
BCONMAP CALL AT EXIT: F2 was not doing a bconmap call to restore
the original port when it exited. This could have caused problems
for other software that used the port after F2.
1200/75 BAUD RATE WITH DUMB MODEMS: This was using incorrect parity
because it wasn't looking at the correct variable.
MIDI AND ZMODEM Z-modem is now allowed using the MIDI port but
forces Streaming off.
ZMODEM DOWNLOAD: F2 wasn't updating the File Transfer Status box in
the terminal window when a Zmodem download was initializing. This
only mattered if there were problems in exchanging parameters with
the remote.
KERMIT UPLOADS: There was an error in F2's decoding of the remote's
ACK packet for F2's send init. packet. An exclamation mark was being
decoded as an SOH causing F2 to reject the packet and not begin the
upload.
B PROTOCOL DRIVE LETTERS: These are now forced to upper case.
TERMINAL CURSOR: The were display problems with the terminal's
cursor when using some graphics cards. These are now fixed. The
cursor is now only turned on (if required) when walking the rectangle
list. This has reduced the number of times it needs to be drawn and
has increased display speed by around 20%.
TERMINAL WINDOW'S TITLE LINE: This contained erroneous information
when MIDI was selected. It displayed data bits, parity, stop bits
and flow control eg. "8N1X" which are not used.
TERMINAL INSERT KEY: This keystroke is used to activate the
Command/Type Ahead Editor. It would "top" an open Command/TA window
but didn't work if the Command/Type Ahead Window was closed.
TERMINAL SMALL FONT: The "bold" character attribute for the Small
Font should have been inhibited because it makes the text almost
impossible to read. It now is.
TERMINAL CURSOR: It sometimes disappeared after an ASCII upload.
ANSI/VTXXX PRIMARY DEVICE ATTRIBUTES ESCAPE SEQUENCE: The host can
find out the temrinal's device attributes by sending a CSI c or CSI 0
c and the terminal should reply with CSI ? Psc; Ps1; ... Psn c. This
usually looks something like ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 c in the capture. F2 was
incorrectly responding to the response sequence when it shouldn't.
FORCED CLOSING OF DIALOGUE WINDOWS: When the dialogue window is
forcibly closed due to another dialogue window opening, it now
defaults to the "Cancel" button instead of "OK".
SAVING TO A FULL DISK: F2 was not checking for a full disk when
writing files and this could sometimes cause files to be truncated.
F2 has been checking for a full disk when files are created and the
file size is known at that time.
BUG FIXES: Flash 3.01 to Flash 3.02...
DISK SPACE: The number of bytes displayed was garbage if more than
100 meg of space was available. The hex to decimal conversion was
only accurate to 8 digits.
TERMINAL STATUS LINE & WINDOW BORDERS WHEN DIALING A BOARD: The
Terminal's Status Line and Window Borders were not being updated when
dialing a board. This could mean that they were on when they should
have been off or vice versa. The same problem ocurred when hanging
up.
DOUBLE SCROLL WHEN CLICKING ON WINDOW BORDERS: This is the bug that
Charles Johnson's buttonfix DA fixes. It's now fixed internally.
MAGIC: F2 has been changed to run under all versions of Magic. If
it detects the Magic OS it doesn't use hardware registers or the
IOREC pointers and only allows use of Modem 1 using the "Strings"
setting in Modem Options.
HIGH BAUD RATES ON THE FALCON: LST files created on a Mega or TT
where the port selected in a board was not Modem 1, had a problem
when loaded on a Falcon. The Baud Rate buttons of 38400 and higher
were disabled.
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