philip@hubcap.UUCP (Philip L Harshman) (10/30/87)
I, like most registered Red Ryder users have a subscription to GEnie. However, the only use I make of the service is to check the Freesoft roundtable for any new or interesting information. For this reason, I log onto GEnie maybe once a month. I would appreciate it (and I'm sure others would, too) if some of you out there in netland who log onto GEnie frequently would inform those of us who don't about any new or significant developments on the Freesoft roundtable. The recent posting about the availability of RR 10.2 was a real help. I'm not sure how long it would have been before I would have discovered it on my own. Until next time, thanks in advance!
cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (jeff t. segawa) (10/30/87)
In article <612@hubcap.UUCP> philip@hubcap.UUCP (Philip L Harshman) writes: > >I would appreciate it (and I'm sure others would, too) if some of you >out there in netland who log onto GEnie frequently would inform those >of us who don't about any new or significant developments on the >Freesoft roundtable. As of yesterday, Red Ryder 10.3 was the current version on the FreeSoft RT, but judging from the rate that bug reports are coming in, I wouldn't be surprised to see 10.4 before long. So, it might be a good idea to wait until a more stable version comes out. I have 10.0 and 10.2 and thought that 10.2 had too many quirks
rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro - Program Management Office) (11/03/87)
In article <612@hubcap.UUCP> philip@hubcap.UUCP (Philip L Harshman) writes: >I, like most registered Red Ryder users have a subscription to GEnie. > However, the only use I make of the service is to check the Freesoft >roundtable for any new or interesting information. For this reason, >I log onto GEnie maybe once a month. > >I would appreciate it (and I'm sure others would, too) if some of you >out there in netland who log onto GEnie frequently would inform those >of us who don't about any new or significant developments on the >Freesoft roundtable. The recent posting about the availability of RR >10.2 was a real help. I'm not sure how long it would have been >before I would have discovered it on my own. > >Until next time, thanks in advance! This is the note that goes with 10.3 (for registered owners of 10.0) Undocumented Commands And New Features -------------------------------------- 1) The buffered keyboard was designed to hold 32,000 characters, but for some bizarre reason, I imposed an arbitrary limit of 255 characters. This has been fixed and the keyboard buffer can now accept up to 32,000 characters (should you be so inclined). Because of this change, the following changes should be made to the chapter "The GETPARAM And PUTPARAM Procedure Commands". Page 141 - Parameter #87 is now unused. Parameter #497 holds the high byte of the buffered keyboard right margin, and Parameter #498 holds the low byte. With such applications as packet radio in mind, it seemed a shame not to allow some way to have more than one long line of text in the keyboard buffer. I approached this problem in the following manner. As usual, pressing the Return key will send the contents of the keyboard buffer. However, typing Shift-Return will instead put a special "carriage return" character in the keyboard buffer, allowing you to type multiple lines of text. The "carriage return" character is translated to a true carriage return when the Return key (unshifted) is later pressed and the buffer is sent. At the last minute, I also decided that it could be useful to offer a delay between each line sent, since some hosts (notably CompuServe), may "squelch" you if it detects you sending multiple lines of text shotgun style. By using the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 500,1 a one second delay (you can change this to any number of seconds delay you like by changing the "1" in the above example, or to 0 to disable this feature) will be enforced after every special "carriage return" character is sent. 2) Did some work on the DIAL/REDIAL routines to insure that they would work with some modemn previously discluded (notably, Avatex modems). A delay can be introduced between each character of the dialing string typed through the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 590,x where 'x' is a number between 0 (meaning no delay) and 255, which is the number of 60'ths of a second to delay between each character typed to the modem in dialing command. 3) There was a big call to give the option of having the Buffered Keyboard back at the bottom of the screen (as in previous versions) rather than in the Status Bar area. To accomplish this, the Procedure Command: PUTPARAM 12,1 should be compiled and executed. After executing this Procedure, you should immediately exit Red Ryder and then re-enter. To cancel this feature, the Procedure Command: PUTPARAM 12,0 should be compiled and executed and things will go back to normal. Note that when this feature is implemented, it is at the expense of one or more lines of text (depending on the font size in use), and that there is no way to turn off the Buffered Keyboard from within a Procedure. Also, the "Write A Procedure For Me" routine will no longer supply a "BBAR" command if the Buffered Keyboard is active as it shouldn't make assumptions about what environment it will be executed in at a later date. 4) New Procedure command added: MAKEFILE FILETYPE_EXP,STR_EXP Description: This command is used to change the existing file named in STR_EXP (it will not create a file and will set the Error Flag to "ERROR" if the named file does not exist) to the filetype contained in FILETYPE_EXP. This is useful for giving data files you create their own filetype, which can be specified later via a GETSELECT command. The USEROPENO and USEROPENA commands use the default filetype "TEXT" when creating a new file. WARNING: Never use the MAKEFILE command with an open file - always do a USERCLOSE first! Example: (Create a file called "Foobar") USEROPENO 1,Foobar (We could write out any data we want in it now, but for now,) (we'll just close it.) USERCLOSE 1 (Now change its filetype to "JUNK") MAKEFILE JUNK,Foobar 5) New Procedure command added: GETVOL STR_VAR Description: This command prompts the user to select a volume/path via the standard dialog box used with such commands as the "Set Auto-Receive Volume" command under the File menu. The Yes/No flag is set to "YES" if the user selects a volume, or "NO" if the user instead clicks on the "Cancel" button. The volume name is returned in STR_VAR. WARNING: The volume name returned does _not_ have a trailing colon (if you need it to, simply use a CONCAT command to put one there). Example: (Let the user choose where to put the file I'm about to create, which) (I'll call "Foobar") GETVOL A$ (Don't do anything if the Cancel button was clicked) IF NO END (Add the filename to the end of the volume name in A$) (Notice the leading colon before the filename) CONCAT A$,:Foobar (I could now create the file contained in A$) 6) If the Shift key is held down while choosing the Edit menu after selecting text, the Copy menu choice becomes "Copy, Then Paste". This means that first the selected text will be copied to the Clipboard, and then it will be immediately pasted to the modem. 7) Macro key strings have been extended from 40 characters to 240 characters each. This, of course, changed the format of both the Macro Key and Settings files. However, Red Ryder 10.3 will read both old and new styles, but will write only the new style files. What this boils down to is that the Settings files created by 10.0, and the Macros Keys files created by 10.0 or 9.4 will not automatically start up 10.3 if you double-click on their icons in the Finder. What you need to do is use the "Load Settings Files From Disk" and "Save Settings Files To Disk" commands to read in an old style settings file and write it back to the disk in the new style format, and the equivalent load and save commands for any old style Macro Key Files. 8) The Auto-receive and Archive paths are now kept in settings files so as to remain constant between sessions. Whenever a settings file is loaded (during start ]p or when you use the LOADSET command, for instance), these two paths are checked to exist. If the paths are not available, the path is reset to the same volume and folder that Red Ryder resides in. 9) New Procedure command added: QUERY0 STR_VAR Description: QUERY0 (that's a zero on the end) works exactly like the QUERY1 command, except that what the user types is echoed back to him as asterisks, giving a "secure input mode" for such things as passwords. The maximum number of characters that can be typed is 20. Example: COPYINTO X$,Please type in your password now. COPYINTO Y$,Each characters will be shown as an asterisk character COPYINTO Z$,for your protection. QUERY0 A$ (A$ now contains his password) 10) After selecting text with the mouse, two additional capabilities have been built into the Append To Archive File menu choice. If the Shift key is held down while selecting Append To Archive File, a standard file selection dialog box is brought up so that you can choose _any_ existing text file to append the selected text to. If the Option key is held down while selecting Append To Archive File, a standard file definition dialog box is brought up so that you can create a new text file that the selected text will be saved in. 11) The Procedure command GETGLOBAL A%,12 would return in A% the total number of seconds represented in the elapsed time clock in the General and Macros Status Bars. If the clock reads 01:20:15, the above example would return 4815 seconds. The GETGLOBAL command is documented, but global variable number 12 is not. 12) If the Option key is held down while quitting Red Ryder, a special file called *Saved Buffer* is created in the same folder (and disk) as Red Ryder. Red Ryder checks for the existence of this file at startup, and if it exists, Red Ryder reinstates the contents of the buffer to its exact condition before the last exit. I found this useful for testing purposes (them text selec:ion routines are a _bear_), but it also occurs to me that it might be useful for when you need to step out of Red Ryder for a moment, but don't want to lose the Saved Screens Buffer. This only works if the current emulation is TTY. By using the following Procedure command: PUTPARAM 53,1 the Saved Screens buffer will be automatically saved (and restored the next time Red Ryder is executed) without you needing to hold down the Option key (and whenever TTY emulation is being used). The Procedure command: PUTPARAM 53,0 (which is the default) will un-install this buffer saving feature. 13) Support for all control characters with ASCII codes from 0 to 31 is now supported when you use the Option key to send control characters (this is the default, but can be changed through the dialog box brought up by the Keyboard Mapping Preferences choice under the Customize menu). To send a CTRL-@ (ASCII code 0), you type Option-Spacebar. CTRL-A through CTRL-Z (ASCII codes 1 to 26) you type Option-A through Option-Z. The last 5 codes (27 through 31) are a bit weird. CTRL-[ (ASCII code 27 and often mapped as the ESCAPE key) is sent by typing Option-[ CTRL-\ (ASCII code 28) is sent by typing Option-\ CTRL-] (ASCII code 29) is sent by typing Option-] CTRL-^ (ASCII code 30) isugly because the ^ on a Macintosh is actually a shifted 6. Therefore, to keep your fingers from grotesque contortion, we'll make it simple. Just type Option-6. CTRL-_ (ASCII code 31) is also ugly because it's a shifted hyphen (-). Again, we simplify it. Just type Option-hyphen. 14) There was something elegant about the way we changed serial port settings in previous versions just by clicking on them in the General Status Bar. Elegant to some, ugly and non-intuitive to others. The dialog box that comes up now is gargantuan, and the few seconds it takes to appear seems like a lot of overkill just to change the damn parity from Full to Half. I found myself longing for something fast and easy, and came up with a way to make keyboard equivalents for the serial port settings that get changed the most. This involves using Shift-Option along with a key, so this meant that there would be a tradeoff of being able to send some international characters (actually, there are only a couple that conflict with my equivalents, but if I didn't make this selectable, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone would just _have_ to be able to send the conflicting characters). To enable these equivalents, you need to put the following Procedure command into a text file, and then compile and run it. PUTPARAM 51,1 To disable the equivalents so that the conflicting international characters can be sent, the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 51,0 lobotomizes the equivalents so that the original international characters are sent. The equivalents are: KeyPress: Does: -------------- ------------------- Shift-Option-1 Change to 1200 baud Shift-Option-3 Change to 300 baud Shift-Option-2 Change to 2400 baud Shift-Option-9 Change to 9600 baud Shift-Option-7 Change to 7 Databits Shift-Option-8 Change to 8 Databits Shift-Option-N Change to No Parity Shift-Option-O Change to Odd Parity Shift-Option-E Change to Even Parity Shift-Option-M Change to Mark Parity Shift-Option-S Change to Space Parity Shift-Option-F Change to Full Duplex Shift-Option-H Change to Half Duplex Shift-Option-X Change to Null Duplex Shift-Option-D Drops the DTR modem line for one second Shift-Option-R Sends a DEL (aka "RUBOUT") character (ASCII code 127) 15) In considering the above, I realized that by using Option-1, Option-2 and Option-3 to change the active Macro Key set, I was locking out the ability to send the international characters A, *, and #. Therefore, the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 52,1 will make Option-1, Option-2, Option-3 send the appropriate international characters rather than changing the active Macro Keys set. The command: PUTPARAM 52,0 will bring back in the Macro Keys changing function. Since this is the default setting when the "Red's 10.3 Stuff" file is created, you won't have to do the PUTPARAM 52,0 unless you've explicitly done a PUTPARAM 52,1 command in the past. 16) To cancel during printing after choosing "Print TEXT File" or "Print Selected Text", type a COMMAND-. (cloverleaf key and period). 17) The MacBinary II standard is now supported in all non-TEXT file transfers. MacBinary II (which can still be understood by programs that aren't smart enough to recognize MacBinary II) is used for all non-TEXT file sends. Non-TEXT file receives will determine which version of MacBinary the file is using, and report (BINARY) for MacBinary I or (BINARY2) for MacBinary II in the first line of text in the file transfer window. 18) To make the Enter key on the original Macintosh keyboard (no built-in numeric keypad) act as an ESCAPE key, the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 17,1 should be used. To make it act as a LINEFEED key, the Procedure command: PUTPARAM 98,1 should be used. PUTPARAM 98,1 will override PUTPARAM 17,1 by the way. After executing one of these commands, you should immediately exit Red Ryder and then start it up again for these to be functional. 19) A "Paste To Modem" command done with 100 characters or less of text in the Clipboard will cause those characters to be sent directly through the Serial Port. More than 100 characters will be first saved to a file, and then the file will be automatically sent (using the "Send TEXT File" command under the File menu) and finally afterwards, the temporary file will be deleted. This means that all 101+ character Pastes will be subject to all appropriate settings in the "Text File Transfer Preferences" dialog box, as well as whether or not to send linefeed characters after carriage returns (as defined in the "Keyboard Preferences" dialog box). 20) 18 and 24 point sizes of the TTY-VT52-VT100 font have been added. {cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!warp!rock Bill Petro