| FormAldiHyd V2.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FormAldiHyd is a driver intended for the Aldi/Medion/Tevion MD 9310 graphic
tablet  and  WacomIV  compatible  tablets (Graphire, ArtPad, A3, A4, A5 and
PenPartner). Experimental support for SummaGraphics compatible  and  AceCad
tablets has been added with this release but remains untested.
This program has been out some time now and has proven to be stable.
It fully works with:
- AipTek HyperPen 6000 (maybe other boards aswell, still unconfirmed).
- AipTek HyperPen 8000
- Aldi/Medion MD 9310 and Aldi/Tevion LT 9310
It works partly with:
- Wacom IV compatible (Graphire, ArtPad, A3, A4, A5 and PenPartner)
- SummaGraphics compatible boards (unconfirmed).
- AceCad boards (unconfirmed)
It does currently NOT work with:
- Wacom V series (Intuos) (might be added on demand)
Starting with V2.2 it finally works with MFC and IOBlix serial ports!
This is probably the only tablet driver that correctly works with all known
(MUI) applications and at the same time has full pressure support.
Some portions of the code have been ported from the  xf86HyperPen.c  source
by   Roland   Jansen   <roland@lut.rwth-aachen.de>   and  Christian  Herzog
<daduke@dataway.ch>, who has taken over development of xf86HyperPen.c.
The experimental WacomIV support  has  been  ported  from  the  xf86Wacom.c
source by Frederic Lepied <Fredric.Lepied@sugix.frmug.org>.
Short list of features:
- Comes both as CLI-only/WB (no GUI) and MUI version.
- Can be run either in 9600 or 19200 baud mode (HyperPen only).
- Supports pressure, which can be scaled to your  requirements  (e.g.  with
  ArtEffect).
- Versatile support of the functions keys at top of the tablet.
- Can play sounds on button presses to make clicks audible.
- Supports a threshold value for the left mouse button.
- Middle and right mouse button can be swapped for stylus.
- Mouse and Stylus can use different active areas.
- Mouse can be used in relative mode. A mode for left handed people is also
  available.
- Automatic detection of stylus and mouse.
- Tablet orientation can be changed by swapping x and y coordinates.
- Lots of different resolution can be chosen (up to 3048 LPI!).
- Fully compatible with MUI applications.
- Even works with low level software that reads the input  events  directly
  (Cinema4D, MagicMenu, etc.)
Usage
~~~~~
There are two different programs for you to choose:
FormAldiHyd - tablet driver with MUI interface (interactive)
Formalin    - CLI only/Workbench version (argument/ToolTypes driven)
Please send me an email if you use this program. Thanks to those  who  have
done so already.
History
~~~~~~~
V2.3 (21-Apr-01): (42648/21848 Bytes)
  - Lots of fixes to the WacomIV mode. There might be still  problems  with
    the mouse buttons or fkeys. Please report (give detailed description!).
  - Added experimental SummaGraphics / AceCad compatibility  mode.  Neither
    FKey nor pressure support. Completely untested.
V2.2 (08-Mar-01): (41420/21208 Bytes)
  - Released to my homepage and AmiNet.
  - Ooops: WacomIV selection was broken in FormAldiHyd V2.2.
V2.2 (07-Mar-01): (41416/21208 Bytes)
  - Released to my homepage and AmiNet.
  - Added support for sound effects (on demand of Jens Illigen).
  - GUI layout changed a bit again.
  - Added a HyperPen8000 compatibility switch, removed Skip CONFIG switch.
  - Fixed a bug in the WacomIV init routine - tablet would not send coords.
  - QUIET option did not work with Formalin  (next  time,  I'll  count  the
    number of parameters with my fingers :( ), introduced with V2.1.
  - When starting Formalin a second  time,  the  other  task  will  now  be
    terminated. This is especially handy when starting Formalin from WB.
  - Serial issue finally fixed. Now works with MFC aswell! Thanks  must  go
    to Thore Böckelmann for his help and to the testers.
V2.1 (24-Feb-01): (39136/19672 Bytes)
  - Homepage and AmiNet release.
  - Added support for the function keys. You can either use them  as  F-key
    emulation,  cause some string to be printed, emulate any special key or
    launch some shell program. It also should work with the WacomIV driver,
    although only the first 12 F-Keys are supported (I think there are over
    30!). Configuration via CLI in Formalin is a bit clumsy, so I encourage
    you to use the ToolTypes instead.
  - Added left hand mode for the mouse (swapping of left  and  right  mouse
    button).
  - Slight changes to the serial code, causing time out messages that some-
    times appeared to cease.
  - Changed the serial code to work around the strange behaviour (bug?)  of
    the  ioblixser.device.  Maybe this also fixes the MFC problems? A very,
    very big thank you must go to Günter Twellmeyer for  his  very  helpful
    bug  reports  and quick response. Without him, I hardly would have come
    close to the reason. Also, thanks to Thore Böckelmann for  support  and
    supplying a debug version of ioblixser.device.
  - Small modification to the WacomIV driver after having  a  look  at  the
    source code of the PenPartner driver supplied and by Denis Spach.
  - Saving the Prefs only changed the ENVARC: settings, not the ENV:  ones.
    Fixed.
  - LPI setting never worked with Formalin since V2.0beta. Fixed.
  - Some suboptimal GUI layout fixed.
V2.0beta (02-Jan-01): (34740/17632 Bytes)
  - Released to my homepage after a few weeks of nothingness.
  - Added experimental WacomIV mode. I don't have such a tablet to test the
    driver  on, so you are asked to give me feedback on what works and what
    doesn't.
  - GUI layout changed again a bit.
Contact address
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Any mail, comments or donations welcome:
Chris Hodges                    Account: 359 68 63
Kennedystr. 8                   BLZ    : 700 530 70
D-82178 Puchheim                Bank   : Sparkasse Fürstenfeldbruck
Germany
Tel.: +49-89/8005856            WWW: http://www.platon42.de/
Email: hodges@in.tum.de         IRC: platon42 on EfNet
 |