A-Shell Development History

956.1.1   XTREE

Fix two recently introduced bugs in XTREE:

956.3.2   ATE

Remove the "*" entry from INFLD combo boxes (i.e. when the SETDEF list contains a * or *,* entry to allow wildcards).

956.0.1   XTEXT

XTEXT no longer displays "Page Break" in the page break line. (Apparently this was too obvious, redundant, even "ugly" for those with more developed aesthetic sensibilities.)

956.0.2   XTREE

XTREE combo box editing improvements:

956.0.3   ATE

The cache directory concept has been split into two parts: a temporary cache meant for storing files of temporary interest to ATE, and a more permanent cache for files such as icons that are likely to remain valid for the life of the application. Both the temporary cache and the permanent cache initially point to the directory previously used for the one-and-only cache (typically %MIAME%\cache), but you can now separate them on the Misc Tab of the ATE configuration dialog. Once separated, the contents of the temporary cache will be deleted at the end of each session. (As long as the two types of cache occupy the same directory, they will be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to remain permanently.

A new environment variable, ATEPERMCACHE, will be automatically created to point to the permanent cache directory. The recommended permanent cache directory is %MIAME%\PermCache, which will be set up be default for new ATE installations.

The old cache environment variable, ATECACHEDIR, has been shortened to ATECACHE (although the old form will still be recognized), and will point to the temporary cache directory.

Dealers/users will want to devise a strategy to migrate the permanent files from the old cache directory in to the new permanent cache, probably using the new ATSYNC facility (see next).

956.0.4   ATSYNC (ATE)

A new command, ATSYNC.LIT, makes it easy to synchronize a directory from the server to the permanent cache on the PC:

.ATSYNC {Hostdir} {,PCdir} {/Switches}

If the Hostdir specification is not present, uses current directory. Otherwise it should specify a directory in either AMOS or native syntax.

If the PCdir specification is not present, the default is the %ATEPERMCACHE% which is the environment variable automatically set up to point to the permanent cache directory on the ATE client. Otherwise, it can be a native Windows directory specification (with optional embedded environment variables using the %envvar% syntax).

 

ATSYNC relies on FTP (or SFTP) as configured on the ATE client. (The FTP root directory must agree with the root directory as seen by A-Shell on the server.)

ATSYNC sends a list of all the files in the Hostdir to the ATE client, which compares the size and modification date against the version on the PC. For those files where the server version is newer than the PC version, or for which the PC version doesn't even exist, ATE will initiate a file transfer. If the /B switch is specified, then after the files are transferred, it deletes any file in the target PC directory that was not present in the source directory on the host.

956.0.5a   ATE

The "CoStar" (actually Cogent) interface is now supported:

PRINT  chr(27);"[!v"; chr(27);"&oC"; CMD$

INPUT "",A      ! returns CR or "" if ok, else ^C

 

where CMD$ is a command string recognizable by Cogent. Two simple commands to test if the Cogent interface is working:

CMD$ = "ABOUTCG"                ! display the Cogent About box

or

CMD$ = "ECHO ""Hello world"""   ! tell Cogent to display msg box

 

Note that the sequence must be terminated with a CR (which is why there is no semicolon on the end of the PRINT statement above.)

956.0.5b   ATE

INFLD now allows list substitution (||L) to be used with combo boxes containing an edit control (||s). Previously, list substitution was deemed only sensible with the variation of the combo box which only allowed selection from the list (||S). If ||L and ||s are to be used together, and you want to allow the user to be able to enter values which are not in the list, then add a list substitution pair consisting of "*,*" (assuming the delimiter is comma) to the end of your list. For example:

SETDEF=",B,Blue,G,Green,R,Red,*,*,,"

This list would allow the user to select Blue, Green, or Red, (returning B, G, or R respectively), or, if the user typed in Yellow, it would just be accepted as is and no list substitution would take place.

While implementing this, a minor problem was fixed in which you could not preload a value in any combo box that wasn't in the list, even if the list contained wildcards.

956.0.6  XCALL AMOS

XCALL AMOS (or XCALL HOSTEX,"$ASHELL...") now replicate more switches from the parent to the child:

956.0.7   ATE

Minor adjustment in sizing/positioning of data controls that have borders (INFLD edit controls, combos, date pickers, sunken static, etc.) Previously, only single-column edit controls were expanded by 0.5 columns to the right to avoid truncation problems. Now all such fields are expanded 0.2 columns to the left, and a similar amount to the right, which should minimize problems with display anomalies (truncation or different font sizes) caused by the fact that the borders of such controls reduce the available display area for the contents. The one undesirable side effect of this improvement is that the outer left edge of such field types will no longer align exactly with plain-text; but this should be a minor issue considering that data fields are rarely aligned vertically with non-data fields, and even when they are, the new version would be close to aligning relative to the data in the field rather than to the outer edge of the border of the field.

956.0.8   UNIX

Fix conflict between SBR=INFLD_KEEPALIVE and multi-character function key translations.

956.0.9   Windows

Allow ORIENTATION=LANDSCAPE to force landscape orientation even when DEVICE=PROMPT:.

956.0.10   Windows Installation

The Windows installation/update program no longer overwrites ASHELP.MDF.