Changes for MEX 1.1 08/21/84 This file is a brief summary of the 1.1 update, and contains a file update list at the end. General enhancements/changes ---------------------------- - Several new commands: SSET: added to support Smartmodem commands (this command is sim- ilar to SET, and requires support by the Smartmodem overlay) A new Smartmodem overlay (MXM-SM20.ASM) that implements the SSET command will be available at a future date (Overlay writers and maintainers, please read the note at the end of this file) TERM: may be used to activate a term file without actually entering terminal mode (meant for use with READ files). TERM takes a filename argument. CLS: clears the screen (if supported by the overlay) BELL: [meant for use in READ files] rings the bell (regardless of the setting of the STAT BELL variable). Takes a numeric arg- gument, specifying the number of times to ring the bell. May be aborted from the console with ^C. - New STAT switch variables: QUEUE: turns on and off the queued I/O feature of MEX. When running terminal mode at speeds above about 4800 baud (on a 4 MHz CPU), turning queued I/O off will prevent dropped characters. Turning QUEUE off will affect in- memory ASCII capture as follows: when the in-memory buffer fills, and MEX sends an x-off character to the remote (to cause it to stop sending characters), MEX will miss any characters transmitted between the time the buffer fills characters actually stop being received. CAPTURE: may be used to toggle save-in-memory on and off (ONLY if a term-file is active; see new TERM command, which allows a term-file to be opened from within a READ file). PRECHO: toggles list echo on and off. SODELAY: When SODELAY is ON, the SENDOUT commands and keystrings are tied to the WCHAR and WLINE delays, similarly to files transmitted in terminal-mode. Note that SODELAY is inhibited by the WTECHO variable; hence, WTECHO takes preference. When SODELAY is OFF, SENDOUT and keystrings work exactly as they always have. (this change was suggested by MEXHACK1.ASM, by Bob Schultz, and provides the same feature as Bob's patch, with STAT incorporation added). TAB: Turns on and off MEX's internal tab expander. (This was requested by several users with strange terminals). - The help file is now named MEX.HLP, to provide consistency of filetype. Now all files with a type of "MEX" are READ command files only (as is INI.MEX, of course) - The user's manual is now a Wordstar format source file (MEX11DOC.WS). An additional file (MEX11DOC.TOC) provides a table of contents. - SENDOUT replies are now sent to the ASCII capture file, if one is open. If list-echo is on, SENDOUT replies go there as well. - SENDOUT reply timing variables may now be set as high as 255 seconds. - INITFILE is now off as a default - The phone library will now accomodate numbers of up to 30 digits in length (up from 24). Since this caused the two-entries-per-line screen display to exceed 80 columns in width, MEX is now distributed with the SPLIT varible on, limiting the display to one entry per line. - Files being received or transmitted with the V, R or S secondary opt- options may now be aborted from the console ... note that if you're running MEX remotely under BYE (or any method in which the port MEX is transmitting to is also the console) you should use the Q secondary option (without V, R or S, which don't make sense in this context anyway) to override console abort-processing. - A new MEXPAT variable (AUTOSV) causes ASCII-save to commence whenever terminal mode is entered with a filename argument. This variable de- faults to ON ... if you'd rather that terminal-mode save work the way it used to, reset this variable in MEXPAT. - The old STAT switch variable PAGE is now a value variable, and determines the number of lines in a screen page for TYPE, HELP and several other commands that now paginate their output. The PAGLEN variable should be set to the screen size less two ... STAT PAGE 0 disables pagination in all contexts (which is the only function PAGE had in the previous release). - A new secondary option, 'E', has been added, similar to 'T' (often used after a file transfer to go from file-transfer mode to terminal mode with no intervening command mode). 'E' works just like 'T', except that the computer echoes characters back to the remote. - User areas 16 to 31 are now fully supported - All STAT display lines now include the associated STAT keyword as the first word of the description line. Bugs fixed ---------- - All bugs fixed in previous patch files (in various MEXNEWS releases) are now incorporated into the source code and SHOULD NOT be added to MEX 1.1. - The bug that prevented single-character commands directed to a particular drive has been fixed (eg, S B:FILE.FOO) - Several commands that produced a good deal of console output (eg, STAT, STAT ?, etc) could not be paused with ^S nor aborted with ^C. This has been corrected. Additionally, these commands now pag- inate their output (using the new PAGLEN STAT variable) - Multiple command lines after a READ command will now be found after the READ completes. - Some overlays could not do file uploads in checksum mode (most notably GB10). This has been repaired in MEX 1.1. - The problems with corrupted keystrings and phone libraries, as well as the loss of HELP file positioning after disk I/O, has been fixed. - The APPEND algorthm (for appending to terminal-mode files) has been re-written, and is much more reliable. - An error in the distributed MEXPAT file, where a missing 'A' was inadvertantly omitted in the GLOBAL options list, has been fixed. Since this list was at the end of MEXPAT10, the only patch files that may be affected are those which tried to modify the global options table. (Thanks to Mark Pulver for reporting this one). - Previously, STAT DEBUG reset the high-bit of received characters (which defeated the purpose of DEBUG mode). This has been corrected. - The bug that prevented filenames with imbedded slash characters ("/") from parsing correctly has been fixed. - A bug causing default arguments in READ files to be ignored has been fixed. - Ejecting the CIS module now reclaims the space (you do have to use the COLD command before CLONEing, though). Enhancements available to overlays ---------------------------------- - A mode byte is now available in the patch-variables area (see MEXPAT11.ASM) , for read-only use by the overlay. This byte is set by MEX as follows: 00 - MEX is in command mode 01 - MEX is in terminal mode 02 - SENDOUT active 03 - Keystring being transmitted 04 - File transfer: Christensen-protocol send 05 - File transfer: Christensen-protocol receive 06 - File transfer: CIS-protocol send 07 - File transfer: CIS-protocol receive - A new variable, TIMBAS, is available (assemble MEXPAT for location) for fine-tuning MEX timing. This is the variable that was patched in a previous MEXNEWS. - Two new word-vectors are available (again, see MEXPAT) for use by Smartmodem ("logical") overlays: SMINIT is called by MEX at start-up, and may be used to send init-strings, etc, to the modem; SMEXIT is called just prior to exiting to CP/M. SSETCM is a SET command for the logical overlay, and may be used to change modem parameters. - Two new modem return codes are now supported. These are no-ring (code #5) and no-dialtone (code #6). - The AUTOSV flag mentioned previously is present in MEXPAT11.ASM. - Two new MEX service processor functions have been added: 236, PRID: Prints the MEX current MEX ID string on the console. 237, PRNTBL: This function is passed a MEX format command table pointer in HL (eg, your SET command table). It prints the table in columnar format ... returns carry=1 if the console aborted with control-C while the table was being printed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Overlay writers: The new Smartmodem overlay format will assume that the physical overlay (ie, the one that talks to the hardware) terminates by 0900H ... I think that most do. The exceptions that come to mind are those that combine the Smartmodem overlay and the hardware overlay (ostensibly, to add SET commands that manipulate the Smartmodem). The new SSET command should render that unnecessary; hence, you can regain the additional space by removing the Smartmodem code, and at the same time gain the ability to use any of the non-Hayes compatible modems (eg, Racil-Vadic, CTS, etc), since the hardware overlay will no longer be tied to the Hayes format. ------------------------------------------------------------ File list for the 1.1 release (non-squeezed CRC's as generated by CRCK.COM): MEX11DOC.WS FB01 --- The MEX User's Guide MEX11DOC.TOC B969 --- Table of contents to the User's Guide MEX11.COM 539B --- Generic MEX program, no overlays installed MEXPAT11.ASM FA14 --- Patch file (modifies MEX defaults) MEX.HLP D650 --- Online documentation file MLOAD21.COM E51E --- Overlay and patch file installation tool ------------------------------------------------------------ Ron Fowler August 21, 1984 Fort Atkinson, WI