NComm V3.06: Released the 18th of February 1996
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The files within this archive are copyrighted but the archive
can be freely distributed as long as all the files within are
left untouched. Please refer to the original NComm 3.0 doc.
It's been a while since the last release of NComm (NComm 3.05).
The reason is that I have been very very busy with other things
(I still am), and off course: Commodore's depressing situation.
This release offers nothing revolutionary but is an attempt to
fix most of the remaining problems that have been reported.
Mediafoto BBS and Rodeløkka (M)BBS have been shut down. The new
support BBS is Ultima Thule BBS at +77613205, which is also support
BBS for the NComm MailReader utility "Thor". You will find various
NComm files on this board, including a complete NComm AmigaGuide
for NComm 3.0 (written by an unknown german user - thanks!).
IMPORTANT! You need a keyfile to use this version of NComm,
and to get a keyfile you need to be a registered user. If you
are not a registered user, this archive has no value to you
(if you try to start the program without a valid keyfile, it
will surely bomb your machine sooner or later. I will not be
responsible for the causes, you have now been warned!). If you
are a registered user but have not yet received a valid keyfile,
please leave your name and registration information at the
support BBS. The NComm.keyfile (apx. size 2K) will be installed
privately on the BBS as soon as your user information has been
verified (you can then download the file with Zmodem). Do not
expect to receive a keyfile through InterNet, the email address
torkel.lodberg scala.no is only intended for bug-reports/comments.
You may off course also pay the upgrade fee if you want to receive
the new version through mail together with the keyfile and a
complete set of files. Remember that private cheques (in opposite
to bank cheques) and American/Canadian P.M.O's are not accepted!
Fixes:
- Optimized speed of IBM2 graphics (displaying characters listed
in the NComm2.font is now much faster if there is a continuous
stream of characters from the same font). A minor change was
made to the NComm2.font, you need to run Install again to make
IBM graphics work properly (if you don't you will get a warning).
- If OS2.0 or higher, NComm will now call ScreenToFront with the
current public screen name or "WorkBench" rather than the old
WBenchToFront() function which fixes problems with public screens.
- All NComm windows should now show up on the public screen set by
the NCOMM_PUBLICSCREEN env variable, not only the main/split window.
- NComm now sets its own stack to 10000, removed stack checking code
- The beep function will now only allocate sound channels when
beeping, not when starting the NComm program.
- The list of filename postfixes that should not be chopped during
X/Ymodem receive is now ".LZX", ".ARC", ".ZOO", ".PAK", ".ZIP",
".LHA", ".LZH", ".ARJ", ".ZAP", ".WRP", ".DMS", ".ZOM" and ".LHW".
- The ReadVar function stripped one character too many if the last
line in the textfile did not contain a linefeed.
- Added CloseSerial/OpenSerial commands to the ARexx/Script parsers
- The options "REXX", "SCRIPT", "UNIT", "DEVICE", "PHONE",
"MACROS" and "CONFIG" can now be set via tooltypes. Any
CLI options will normally override the tooltype settings.
- Trying to set 80x24 on a 640x256/640x200 Workbench will no longer
crash but will warn you that you need an overscan workbench.
- Opening NComm on the Workbench screen will no longer crash if
the last window size stored no longer fits on the Workbench.
- The redial after logoff function now waits according to the
modem delay setting (previously always waited five seconds).
- NComm now supports the owndevunit.library (shared device
locking). It will always attempt to own the serial when opening.
If NComm is notified while offline, it will ask whether or not
it should release the serial port. NComm will refuse to release
the serial port in other situations or if requesters have been
turned off from the arexx or script languages (see: request).
- NComm will no longer try to flush the port if opened in shared
mode (this is known to cause crashes for unknown reasons).
- NComm now gives a better warning if it opened in shared mode
- If the NComm.font's are missing, the warning will appear after
the username has displayed (this looked pretty weird previously)
- The CLI script command will now write its tmp-file to T:, not RAM:
- The whole program was recompiled with SAS C 6.56. I'm not
sure if this fixes any problems but who knows...
Known problems:
- The VT100 emulation is still far from complete, but is next to go.
If anyone has a complete VT100 doc, please upload it to the BBS!
- It has been reported that NComm does not work too well with the
CyberStorm 060 card. I will not be able to look into this problem
until I am able to reproduce the problem myself (by borrowing a
card from an impatient user). There is a patch available that
works around the problem by placing NComm in chip memory. This
is probably not the real cause of the problem but makes NComm
run slow enough to work. This patch is supplied with the archive.
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