The Last Word 3.11 Public Beta

[Mr.Amiga500]

I see the border text colour behaviour has changed... now how do I set it independently of the border background colour?

 

I had my colour scheme perfected and now I can't get it back. D'oh!

Just fired it up and <CTRL+K> to change colours and <P> to advance border text luma and <CTRL+P> to reverse it (and <B> to advance border colour and <CTRL+B> to decrease it) seems to work fine. What you've probably discovered is that print preview takes on the border colour and luma now. This was done months ago because no-one could agree what was the best background colour for the print preview screen. I'm open to suggestions if this isn't suitable.

 

Ah, yes. Now I've got it. On the last version, "P" didn't do anything so I thought "Prompt" meant cursor or something. Now it works nicely. Thanks! The print preview screen looks great too.

 

The icon bar is lovely. I found a bug though. I loaded a document, brought up the icon bar, selected the print preview icon and nothing happened. Then the text bar overwrote the bottom of the icon bar. It stayed like this until I brought up the icon bar again and this time print preview worked properly and the text bar looked normal again.

 

I'll take a picture if I can reproduce it.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Mr.Amiga500

[flashjazzcat]

I found a bug though. I loaded a document, brought up the icon bar, selected the print preview icon and nothing happened. Then the text bar overwrote the bottom of the icon bar. It stayed like this until I brought up the icon bar again and this time print preview worked properly and the text bar looked normal again.

 

I'll take a picture if I can reproduce it.

If you can, that would be great. I've just tried to and I can't seem to make it behave that way.

 

Also, the "view file" icon (magnifying glass over a disk) is incorrectly linked to the paste function.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I tried repeatedly, but can't reproduce it. Maybe it was just a one-time thing - corrupted memory or something.

 

Unrelated - I noticed that when going to print preview, the colour switches briefly to the default grey text with black background before going back to my set colours to display the print preview. Is this necessary? You probably never noticed this if you always use the default palette. It's not a big deal or anything - I'm just wondering why.

 

What does the magnifying glass do? It appears to be "find" (Find: prompt), but actually doesn't find anything. The search and replace works beautifully though.

[flashjazzcat]

I tried repeatedly, but can't reproduce it. Maybe it was just a one-time thing - corrupted memory or something.

 

Unrelated - I noticed that when going to print preview, the colour switches briefly to the default grey text with black background before going back to my set colours to display the print preview. Is this necessary? You probably never noticed this if you always use the default palette. It's not a big deal or anything - I'm just wondering why.

 

What does the magnifying glass do? It appears to be "find" (Find: prompt), but actually doesn't find anything. The search and replace works beautifully though.

I think you're absolutely right about the brief switch to grey text. The transition could be smoothed some: no idea why it goes back to the default (there are plenty of forgotten corners in these 10,000 lines of source code!).

 

The magnifying glass just defines the "find" string (same as <SHIFT+CTRL+F>). After that, you have to press <CTRL+F> or <CTRL+U> choose the magnifying glass with the right or left pointing arrow depending on whether you want to search forwards or backwards. The bi-directional nature of the search and a desire to keep "flag setting" to a minimum is one reason the set search string function doesn't segue into the find operation. The other reason is so a macro can define a search string, and then do a conditional search forwards or backwards. It would be nice for set find string to fall into a find operation, but it would always travel forwards unless there was a separate toggle somewhere for direction. That's one drawback of not having a nice windows API with check boxes.

 

Note also that while global search/replace is now "wraparound", forward and reverse find are not. Again, this is down to macro functionality, and the fact you can extend the boundaries of text selection using find operations. Try going to the top of a text document, setting the search string to "the" (with <SHIFT+CTRL+F>), then turning on block marking with <CTRL+M>, then doing finds repeatedly with <CTRL+F>.

Edited April 6, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Mr.Amiga500]

The magnifying glass just defines the "find" string (same as <SHIFT+CTRL+F>). After that, you have to press <CTRL+F> or <CTRL+U> choose the magnifying glass with the right or left pointing arrow depending on whether you want to search forwards or backwards.

 

Yes, I just discovered this myself and was about to edit my post. Wow, I'm discovering new features with this icon bar. (when you're too lazy to test features that use key sequences... like I am... icons help )

[+bf2k+]

 

*** EDIT ***

I guess I can't embed a telnet hyperlink.

 

Not anymore... it used to work a few years ago.

[flashjazzcat]

Yes, I just discovered this myself and was about to edit my post. Wow, I'm discovering new features with this icon bar. (when you're too lazy to test features that use key sequences... like I am... icons help )

Another method is to bang away at the keyboard with some dummy text loaded up. Virtually every possible key combination has a function attached to it. The first three help files describe most of the commands.

Edited April 6, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Mr.Amiga500]

Yes, I just discovered this myself and was about to edit my post. Wow, I'm discovering new features with this icon bar. (when you're too lazy to test features that use key sequences... like I am... icons help )

Another method is to bang away at the keyboard with some dummy text loaded up. Virtually every possible key combination has a function attached to it. The first three help files describe most of the commands.

 

When I looked quickly at your post, I thought you said, "get a dummy to bang away at the keyboard". (...picturing a crash-test dummy designed just to test programs... or a Frankenstein-type guy grunting and banging the keyboard... like a few co-workers I used to know )

 

Yes, I've read the help files. I've just been too lazy to try them all.

[flashjazzcat]

I've just changed print preview so that it simply disables DMA when setting up the screen. Previously, it was storing zero in the colour registers. This worked fine for everything but the border text colour, which still had its original luma (it's controlled by the DLI). It's nice and smooth now.

[+Allan]

Yes, I just discovered this myself and was about to edit my post. Wow, I'm discovering new features with this icon bar. (when you're too lazy to test features that use key sequences... like I am... icons help )

Another method is to bang away at the keyboard with some dummy text loaded up. Virtually every possible key combination has a function attached to it. The first three help files describe most of the commands.

Be careful doing this. I did it and my coffee maker went on.

 

Allan

[flashjazzcat]

Be careful doing this. I did it and my coffee maker went on.

Yes: <CTRL+C> used to draw the curtains but I changed it.

[Roydea6]

I see the border text colour behaviour has changed... now how do I set it independently of the border background colour?

 

I had my colour scheme perfected and now I can't get it back. D'oh!

 

i make a custom xxx.cfg file and keep it seperate from the LW folder and when I install a new beta I get my colors back by loading this xxx.cfg file.

 

so many beta's... new key definitions... becomes a new learning curve, when fingers are programed to use previous key def's.

 

icons are almost good... but slower than just selecting the proper keys for desired action.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I see the border text colour behaviour has changed... now how do I set it independently of the border background colour?

 

I had my colour scheme perfected and now I can't get it back. D'oh!

 

i make a custom xxx.cfg file and keep it seperate from the LW folder and when I install a new beta I get my colors back by loading this xxx.cfg file.

 

so many beta's... new key definitions... becomes a new learning curve, when fingers are programed to use previous key def's.

 

icons are almost good... but slower than just selecting the proper keys for desired action.

 

Yes, I always copy the config file over too - but because of the bug fix, the colours are different even though I'm using the exact same config file. I've fixed my config files now for the new change and everything's fine again.

 

The icons are slower than key sequences, but it's easier for someone new to the program to use icons before they've memorized the key sequences.

[flashjazzcat]

so many beta's... new key definitions... becomes a new learning curve, when fingers are programed to use previous key def's.

I agree: I still press CTRL+Q for quit. Remember these are betas, though: just throwing ideas around, getting closer to something that will please most people.

 

The icons are slower than key sequences, but it's easier for someone new to the program to use icons before they've memorized the key sequences.

That's right: the icons are mainly for new users. It's a complex program and it's frustrating that many useful features seem out of reach because they're accessed by keystrokes. It's a compromise.

[flashjazzcat]

I'm going to crack on with the cart version of the program and then retrospectively balance a final disk version against the feature set of the cart edition. I think it will be a little easier to trim the fat off the disk version once the cart version is a reality. A discussion with Wrathchild last week really cleared a few things up regarding cartridge banking and I have a few mechanisms I want to put into practice.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I'm going to crack on [...]

 

"Crack on, dude." (sorry, I've never heard the term "crack on" before )

 

So you mean I've been waiting here, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for 3.12 ("Last Word for Workgroups", service pack 1) and now I've got to wait for the cart first?

 

(I'm just kidding... I never twiddle my thumbs.)

[flashjazzcat]

"Crack on, dude." (sorry, I've never heard the term "crack on" before )

 

So you mean I've been waiting here, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for 3.12 ("Last Word for Workgroups", service pack 1) and now I've got to wait for the cart first?

 

(I'm just kidding... I never twiddle my thumbs.)

LOL. "Crack on" means to "Get on with it" over here.

 

I must admit I haven't done a great deal LW-wise since the last beta came out. I've had a lot of hardware jobs to catch up on, plus family commitments. I've had no further feedback re: the latest beta, so I assume it's 100% perfect. Therefore it'll be a cynch to get it finalised while I'm working on the cart.

 

Speaking of which, I don't have a USB MacFlash cart. How does one go about making a self-booting ATR flasher?

 

...urgh... it's OK. MaxFlash studio will apparently create one.

Edited April 28, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+Stephen]

I must admit I haven't done a great deal LW-wise since the last beta came out. I've had a lot of hardware jobs to catch up on, plus family commitments. I've had no further feedback re: the latest beta, so I assume it's 100% perfect. Therefore it'll be a cynch to get it finalised while I'm working on the cart.

 

Speaking of which, I don't have a USB MacFlash cart. How does one go about making a self-booting ATR flasher?

 

...urgh... it's OK. MaxFlash studio will apparently create one.

I think I found a bug with the latest Beta. I am using Sparta X on a 320KB machine (10 banks for LW). I loaded it from D2, and tried to load a config file from D7. It didn't change my screen colors. When I manually copied it to D2, exited to DOS and reloaded, the proper configs had all loaded, so I know it's a valid file.

[flashjazzcat]

I think I found a bug with the latest Beta. I am using Sparta X on a 320KB machine (10 banks for LW). I loaded it from D2, and tried to load a config file from D7. It didn't change my screen colors. When I manually copied it to D2, exited to DOS and reloaded, the proper configs had all loaded, so I know it's a valid file.

Thanks Stephen. It sounds a little weird: I'll see if I can duplicate the behaviour today.

[flashjazzcat]

I think the above problem is down to the "PATH". It needs to be redesigned before the final version (the drive number can be erroneously discarded).

 

Preparing the groundwork for version 4. I might call it "The Last Word X". There'll be four distinct versions on one cart: Standard version, Standard VBXE version, Text Editor, and VBXE Text Editor. VBXE versions will simply kick in if the hardware is detected. Text editor functionality will be selected by SDX users with a command line switch. Not sure what to do with other DOSes. Anyway, it'll work with every DOS ever written for the Atari.

[flashjazzcat]

I'll be releasing the final 3.11 version next week. The only other disk based version will be a stripped-down text editor at some point; release date unspecified.

[Roydea6]

I'll be releasing the final 3.11 version next week. The only other disk based version will be a stripped-down text editor at some point; release date unspecified.

 

Great news,

I recently was using this version [bETA], and notice that the Directory Sort function NONE doesn't have any effect on either DOS SpartaDOS or MyDOS.

Just wondering if this is an effect of the [bETA] or will it be non functional in the final release.

[flashjazzcat]

I recently was using this version [bETA], and notice that the Directory Sort function NONE doesn't have any effect on either DOS SpartaDOS or MyDOS.

Just wondering if this is an effect of the [bETA] or will it be non functional in the final release.

Hmmm... don't forget to re-read the directory having set sort to "None". It should then come up in disk order. It's working fine in my 3.11 beta 3 copy. Perhaps Sort->None should force an automatic re-read of the folder???

 

The Icon Bar is being dropped as a built-in feature since the reaction was mixed and advanced users would soon stop using it anyway. The icons will instead be supplied as an add-in (as was originally the case) which will work on 128K+ machines only. Just rename ICONMENU.EXT to LW.EXT to have them installed at boot-up. The Escape key has also been assigned as add-in #3 to enable it to be hooked into the icon menu. There'll also be an add-in supplied to restore the original function of the Esc key (as one of several ways to run a macro). Also, since there are a couple of ways to create menu systems with this app (via macros or add-ins), it didn't seem right to plumb in optional extras to the main code.

 

I'm also improving the CTRL+7 info screen and fixing a couple of other bugs. I've been using LW 3.11 beta 3 to edit some assembler source code and it's seemed pretty solid to me. The search/replace with wildcards is particularly useful: nothing like it exists in Eclipse or Notepad on the PC. I've done squat with the cartridge version of the program so far: I was at first waiting for new features in ATASM, and now they're present, most of my time has been taken up with the SIO2SD conversions and SPI interface research. This is why I've realistically slated December 2010 as the release data for the cart version. The conversion won't take long, but realizing the program's full potential with 128K of code space will take several months.

Edited May 24, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Mr.Amiga500]

The Icon Bar is being dropped as a built-in feature since the reaction was mixed and advanced users would soon stop using it anyway. The icons will instead be supplied as an add-in (as was originally the case) which will work on 128K+ machines only.

 

What? I like the icons and I don't have a 128K+ machine. I thought you said "Icons it shall be for LW 3.11."

 

OK: public opinion has decided the issue. Icons it shall be for LW 3.11.

 

Yep. I was right. That's what you said. You don't want to be called a liar, now would you?

[flashjazzcat]

Well, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I'm simply generating trade for the hardware vendors in the tried and tested tradition of Windows Vista. You might notice "Sponsored by Ultimate 1MB Upgrade" on the loading screen.

 

I'll see if I can make the extensions work on a 64K setup.