The Last Word 3.11 RC2

[flashjazzcat]

Download and information here.

 

Direct download link.

 

THE LAST WORD 3.11 RC 2 UPDATE README

IMPORTANT NOTE:

* The printer driver format has been changed in LW 3.11 RC2. Printer driver (PDR) files from previous versions (including LW 3.11 RC1) will NOT work with RC2. I'll provide a macro in the final release for the purpose of converting printer driver files to the new format. See later in this document for further details of the changes.

 

* The delimiter for input line switches (for append, continue load, page output, etc) has been changed from a forward slash ("/") to a comma. This is to avoid potential ambiguity with SpartaDOS path names:

 

D:LW/C

 

The above could potentially be a continue load switch follwing a file called "LW", or a file called "C" in the folder "LW".

 

In the new notation, to append the "continue load" switch to the file "LW", type:

 

D:LW,C

 

which is totally unambiguous.

 

 

CHANGELOG

PRINT FORMATTING:

Since RC1 was released, a serious bug print formatting bug was brought to my attention. Though "as designed", the bahaviour of the formatting toggles (such as doublestrike, italics, etc) was disruptive to header/footer formatting, in as much as character formatting changes in the headers and footers were not isolated from the main body text and vice versa. For those of us using plain footers and headers, this wasn't usually a problem, but it represented a serious obstacle to serious formatting using printer codes. For this reason, I shrunk the main text buffer by 256 bytes and put in place some long-overdue code which maintains separate character formatting and style toggle tables for body text and headers/footers. The code sends appropriate printer codes (subject to the loaded printer driver) to turn on and off character styling in a way transparent to the user.

 

A side-effect of these changes was that the printer "styles" no longer made much sense to the print formatter, since they were just ten arbitrary strings of printer codes set up by the printer driver. For example:

 

STYLE 1 27,45,49

 

The above line in the printer driver file meant that any time a reverse video "s" followed by a reverse video "1" appeared in the printed file, the Epson codes for "Italics on" would be sent to the printer. Since the program had no way of knowing what character styling the style code had set up, it had no way of turning it off when printing headers and footers.

 

The solution was to replace the 10 styles with 5 style pairs. These are described in much the same way as italic, underline, etc. e.g.:

 

STYLE1 ON 27,45,49

STYLE1 OFF 27,45,48

 

This style is for italics on and off (although of course we'd normally attach these codes to ITALIC ON and ITALIC OFF). In this way, styles can be manipulated by the print processor in a binary fashion in just the same way as the other character attributes.

 

An unfortunate consequence is that you'll have to rethink any print styles set up in exisiting printer drivers. See the printer drivers supplied with this RC for examples of the new format. It should be trivial for most users who've managed to set up custom printer drivers in the first place to amend them to suit the new system.

 

THE SEARCH PATH:

Another source of contention - especially with SpartaDOS X users - was LW's internal search path. This can be set up either in LW.SYS, or via a SpartaDOS X environment variable.

 

SET LWPATH=D8:;D1:>LW>;

 

The above example from CONFIG.SYS under SDX defines LW's search path as drive 8, followed by the LW folder on drive one.

 

PATH=D8:;D1:>LW>;

 

The above example from LW.SYS achieves the same thing, although in this case, the file LW.SYS must be accesible in the current directory or the DOS path.

 

In this version of The Last Word, some important changes have been made to the path:

 

1. When macros, config files, fonts, printer drivers, and extensions are loaded from the editor, the path is only searched if no device spec is entered in front of the file name. The device identifier on the command line is just a reminder of the current drive number (which is the last drive logged on the disk menu). So, using the path above:

 

COPIES.MAC

 

typed at the "Macro>" prompt will cause drive 8 and then the LW folder on drive 1 to be searched for the file (and lastly, the currently logged drive: see below).

 

D2:COPIES.MAC

 

typed at the "Macro>" prompt will cause LW to search drive 2 for the file. No other locations will be searched.

 

Similarly, under SpartaDOS X, the presence of any path delimiters in the filespec will prevent the path from being searched.

 

2. Note the example path:

 

D8:;D1:>LW>;

 

Take special notice of the trailing semi-colon. This denotes that the current (logged) drive should be searched after all other elements in the path have been searched. You can PREVENT the searching of the default (logged) drive by OMITTING the trailing semi-colon:

 

D8:;D1:>LW>

 

In the above example, the default drive will never be searched.

 

This is a useful feature when booting LW from hard drives which aren't drive 1. Under SDX, define LWPATH without the trailing semi-colon, so that even startup files which aren't present won't cause lengthy searches of SIO devices and floppy drives.

 

LWPATH=D3:

 

will confine LW to drive 3 (for example, PIO hard disk) when searching for its system files.

 

THE DEFAULT DRIVE

As of LW 3.11 RC2 it's possible to set the default logged drive from the SpartaDOS command line or via an environment variable.

 

/DD3:

 

on the command line will set the logged drive to drive 3.

 

SET LWDRIVE=D3:

 

will do the same thing. Note LW's insistence on CIO legal device names throughout. This is deliberate, and allows effective use of the H: (hard disk) device under emulation.

 

 

DISK OPERATIONS

The disk menu has undergone some subtle refinements. Now, when working on a selection of tagged files, the DELETE function first asks:

 

Delete <name> [Yes/No/All]?

 

You may enter Y to delete the highlighted file and advance to the next, N to skip the highlighted file, or A to delete this and all other files in the selection without further confirmation. Pressing <Esc> or <Break> will abandon the operation.

 

When copying files, the first file where the destination already exists will cause the following to be displayed (assuming file warnings are turned on):

 

<name> exists: Overwrite [Yes/No/All]?

 

Pressing A in this instance will overwrite this and all subsequent destination files in the selection.

 

During a tagged file operation, pressing <Break> will cancel the operation (once the highlighted file has been processed).

 

 

EXTENSIONS

The extension buffer is now limited to a miximum of 7 pages ("extpages 7" in LW.SYS). This is a result of bullet-proofing the rest of the program (we can't have award-winning software crashing on us!).

 

This also means the size of the main buffer is down on previous releases when using extended banks. Users with a penchant for editing 32K files should look forward to the "Pro" version of The Last Word...

 

 

HARD COMMAND REMAPPING

As of RC2, it's possible to use the COMMAND statement in LW.SYS to completely remap the ASCII codes which call up the internal commands. This is the third way (along with macros and keyboard redefinition) to customise the keyboard and command layout. COMMAND takes the form:

 

COMMAND <command>,<code>

 

where <command> is the internal code for the command to reassign (e.g. "Quit to DOS"), and <code> is the ASCII code to assign to the command. For example: LW now uses <SHIFT+CTRL+Q> for "Quit to DOS". To change it to <CTRL+Q>:

 

COMMAND 13,17

 

This assigns the internal function 17 (exit application) to ASCII code 17 (CTRL+Q). You can have as many COMMAND statements as you want.

 

These changes must be done in pairs (otherwise the fucntionality of CTRL+Q - "Run Macro" will be lost), and a given ASCII code must only appear once in the table. It should also be noted that these "hard" changes will affect the macro procesor, which basically interprets a stream of key codes. For less disruptive keyboard customisation, macros still remain the best option.

 

INCLUDING FILES WHEN PRINTING

The print formatter now offers you the chance to swap disks when looking for an included print file.

 

 

WRITING EXTENSIONS

One user has expressed interest in writing extensions for LW. I'll endeavour to undertake the enormous task of documenting the calls and equates prior to the final release of the program (along with an updated User Manual). I have added a hook in RC2 so that keystrokes entered in the editor can be trapped before they are passed onto the command processor.

 

 

 

[dwhyte]

Awesome!

 

I'm firing it up now to give it a go.

[flashjazzcat]

Anything to report?

[+Roydea6]

with the EMU the scroll up seems not to work, ala CNTL+up arrow, but SHIFT+up arrow jumps to top of screen.

 

Should add also this only happens after CNTL+K to set screen colors.

Edited July 18, 2010 by rdea6

[flashjazzcat]

with the EMU the scroll up seems not to work, ala CNTL+up arrow, but SHIFT+up arrow jumps to top of screen.

 

Should add also this only happens after CNTL+K to set screen colors.

Noted - thanks.

 

EDIT: Fixed. Vector at end of colour change display list was one byte instead of two. Thus CTRL+K command was causing LSB of cursor up command (which immediately follows the display list vector) to be overwritten.

 

A great spot. Thanks again.

Edited July 18, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

Any more feedback from other "usual suspects"? David? If RC2 is behaving itself, I'll commence with the updated manual and get the thing signed off.

 

BTW: Do we prefer (Yes/No) or (Y/N) on the prompts?

Edited July 19, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+Roydea6]

(YawN)

 

CNTL+; generates a not found on my 800xl with MyDOS, but works fine with SDX

 

not to whine but the color changing with CTRL+K just never hit a color combo that I like, but I can set colors in the CFG file that looks great.

 

MUST BE MY (.)(.) are not as sharp or my version of s-video is different.

 

 

PS the post got here today with my 600xl mem expansion from the 320 RAM thread.

Edited July 19, 2010 by rdea6

[_The Doctor__]

with the EMU the scroll up seems not to work, ala CNTL+up arrow, but SHIFT+up arrow jumps to top of screen.

 

Should add also this only happens after CNTL+K to set screen colors.

Noted - thanks.

 

EDIT: Fixed. Vector at end of colour change display list was one byte instead of two. Thus CTRL+K command was causing LSB of cursor up command (which immediately follows the display list vector) to be overwritten.

 

A great spot. Thanks again.

 

 

might this also cause the line count to jump from 0 to 65534 or some high number close to that? I've witnessed the line count do that twice when using the up arrow combinations

[dwhyte]

When closing italics at the edge of the right margin in a header, it still italicizes the whole document.

[flashjazzcat]

(YawN)

 

CNTL+; generates a not found on my 800xl with MyDOS, but works fine with SDX

 

not to whine but the color changing with CTRL+K just never hit a color combo that I like, but I can set colors in the CFG file that looks great.

 

MUST BE MY (.)(.) are not as sharp or my version of s-video is different.

Hope I'm not keeping you awake.

 

Ctrl+; only works if you have extended banks. With MyDOS, you must have a RAMdisk filling the extended memory. With SDX, you must not. This is as designed.

 

The colour changing situation must be down to your eyes. The colours generated with the CTRL+K routine are the usual Atari ones.

 

Might [up arrow bug] also cause the line count to jump from 0 to 65534 or some high number close to that? I've witnessed the line count do that twice when using the up arrow combinations

No. That's a bug in the line counter/formatter. I'll look into it. CTRL+H (home cursor) will always reset the line counter to 1.

 

When closing italics at the edge of the right margin in a header, it still italicizes the whole document.

That's a PITA. I'll look into it.

 

Thanks for the reports: your time is appreciated.

 

EDIT: David - I'm absolutely not getting the same behaviour here with the print formatter. If you can send me an example I'd appreciate it (replace the body text with Lorem Ipsum, etc...).

 

Using the EPSON.PDR and printing FOOTNOTE.TXT (first adding an italicised header and also italicising "fits and the usual amount of blank space is left at the end of the page" in the body text, I get this output:

 

sample.prn.txt.PDF

Edited July 20, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+Roydea6]

(YawN)

 

CNTL+; generates a not found on my 800xl with MyDOS, but works fine with SDX

 

not to whine but the color changing with CTRL+K just never hit a color combo that I like, but I can set colors in the CFG file that looks great.

 

MUST BE MY (.)(.) are not as sharp or my version of s-video is different.

Hope I'm not keeping you awake.

 

Ctrl+; only works if you have extended banks. With MyDOS, you must have a RAMdisk filling the extended memory. With SDX, you must not. This is as designed.

 

The colour changing situation must be down to your eyes. The colours generated with the CTRL+K routine are the usual Atari ones.

 

(YawN) was in reference to your Question about the YES OR NO prompt.

 

Another small glitch---------- after loading SYSINFO and using CNTL+T the columns showing BYTES WORDS are driving on the wrong side of the street.

 

 

[dwhyte]

 

EDIT: David - I'm absolutely not getting the same behaviour here with the print formatter. If you can send me an example I'd appreciate it (replace the body text with Lorem Ipsum, etc...).

 

Using the EPSON.PDR and printing FOOTNOTE.TXT (first adding an italicised header and also italicising "fits and the usual amount of blank space is left at the end of the page" in the body text, I get this output:

 

 

PM and attachment sent...

[flashjazzcat]

glitch---------- after loading SYSINFO and using CNTL+T the columns showing BYTES WORDS are driving on the wrong side of the street.

 

 

What am I supposed to be seeing here that's wrong? Are you saying the totals should be tabulated under the running counts?

Edited July 21, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

PM and attachment sent...

PM sent back.

 

Now I know how Steve Ballmer feels every time Vista is mentioned...

 

I advise use of <Select+e> when edging text right in headers and footers. David helpfully demonstrated that padding headers and footers out with spaces was causing the closing tags of formatting pairs to be dropped.

 

Until very recent revisions, the print formatter remained largely unchanged since I originally wrote the thing in 1999. It's effectively a two-pass macro preprocessor and is fiendishly complex. We're nearly there, though - thanks to serious users putting the program through its paces.

[flashjazzcat]

OK: header/footer bug is fixed. Even if the tags don't get closed on the header footer, the program closes them automatically on resuming the body text.

 

I'll amend SYSINFO.EXT later on.

 

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

I'm writing up the manual for the final release since everything seems to be working OK.

 

Couple of "up in the air" things:

 

• Since I changed "run macro" from <Esc> to <CTRL+Q> (so that an add-in - usually the icon menu - could be called with <Esc>), macros themselves now have no means of calling up whatever feature is attached to the escape key.
• <CTRL+Q> seems to me very close to <SHIFT+CTRL+Q>, the latter being the keystroke used to quit the program...

I propose to put "Run Macro" back onto the Escape key for the sake of internal consistency. Not sure about how icon bar fans would feel about this. Not sure what the best alternative keystroke would be to bring up a menu, either.

 

Views are welcomed.

 

Anyway, while I finish the docs, I'm going to write a short story this week (deadline: end of the month) using LW on a real Atari () to see how the thing feels on a large writing assignment and hopefully pick up any remaining bugs. This will be my first time actually doing any creative writing using The Last Word (back in the Nineties, I did all of my academic and creative writing using TextPro. The Last Word 1.0 and 2.1 didn't get finished until I was just about done with the Atari 8-bit, so all I ever wrote with it was a bit of source code. If I'd know then what I know now...).

Edited July 25, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

The new version will be released on Friday: just need to tweak the PDFs and didn't quite get them finished tonight...

Edited August 26, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[spookt]

Awesome, can't wait!

[flashjazzcat]

Gotta wait till tomorrow... that damned line counter is still off.

 

...aha... fixed.

Edited August 27, 2010 by flashjazzcat