PCjs Machines
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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #3161)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5170"]
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HISTORY.TXT
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* History of Changes *
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Most of the following changes have been suggested by users of The
Desktop Helper. I believe in giving credit to those who have taken
the time to pass along their suggestions.
----Version 1.4----
1. DH will now make sure that its pop-up menu has the input focus
and that the input focus will be restored to the correct window
when the DH pop-up menu is removed from the screen.
First reported by Jim D'Agostino. Thanks.
2. The Launch Parameters dialog box (accessed from the Launch
Maintenance dialog box) now includes an optional Working Directory
field.
Added a selection for starting a task in the normal, maximized, or
minimized Run Style.
Added a Browse button. If you can't remember where the program to
be run is located then use this button to find it and automatically
enter its path and file name into the Command Line field.
You no longer have to type a "?" character at the beginning of the
Command Line to get DH to prompt for command line parameters when a
program is launched. There is now a check box that should be used
to indicate this.
First requested by Jim Freeman, Jim D'Agostino, and MANY others.
Thanks to all.
----Version 1.3----
1. Fixed a bug when running under Windows 3.1. When configured to
use the left mouse button, the pop-up menu would stick and not
disappear after letting up on the mouse button. Even worse, a
second left click would just bring the pop-up menu to a new location.
Only the escape key would make it go away (sometimes).
2. Windows (3.x) seems to lie about how high a single menu item is and
therefore my calculation for how many items will fit in the pop-up
menu list are wrong when the screen height is greater than 600.
This didn't show up until I moved to 1024x768. I was mystified when
I had fewer items in the menu list than when I was using 800x600.
Until I can figure a way around this I have disabled the calculation
on resolutions greater than 600. The maximum is set to 48. If you
should add more items to the list than will actually fit on the screen
then the list will automatically be truncated.
3. Added a Resources item to the Windows menu. It displays information
such as free memory and system resources.
4. The Cascade and Tile menu items will only show up in the pop-up menu
list for Windows 3.0. These two items will not be included in the
list if you run DH under Windows 3.1. The Windows 3.1 Software
Development Kit no longer supports the undocumented calls used to
implement these two commands.
5. With the death of Real Mode in Windows 3.1, DH will no longer work
on an 8080 or 8086 processor.
6. When an application caused critical error (system modal) dialog box
appeared on the screen, often because you referenced a floppy drive
without a diskette in it, you could not use your mouse to click on
the Cancel or Retry buttons if DH was configured to use the left-hand
mouse button. This has now been fixed.
First reported by Jim D'Agostino. Thanks.
----Version 1.2----
1. Fixed bug that caused a UAE when the DH pop-up menu was activated
while the beg box was still on the screen. The fix ensures that
the user can not activate the pop-up menu while the beg box is
on the screen.
First reported by Ken Roser. Thanks.
2. The "Exit Windows" menu item has been moved to the Window sub-
menu. This seemed like a more appropriate place.
3. Fixed bug with changing mouse button preferences. After making a
change only the desktop click activation method worked with the
new button preference. The non-client activation method would
continue working with the old button preference until DH was
exited and restarted.
4. Double-clicking an item in the list box of the "Launch Maintenance"
dialog box will now automatically invoke edit mode. This is a
short cut for- select an item and then select the "Edit" button.
5. Fixed bug that did not tell the user if changes could not be saved
to the DH.INI file.
First reported by Jim D'Agostino. Thanks.
6. Changed the method by which a click on the Desktop is detected in
order to avoid problems with Adobe Type Manager and other
applications that subclass the Desktop.
The symptom was that DH could be activated by a non-client area
mouse click but NOT by a Desktop click.
This also eliminates the problem of not being able to use the
"Close" command to exit DH because some other task started after
DH had also sub-classed the Desktop window.
7. The default mouse button for first-time users has been changed
from the left button to the right button.
----Version 1.1----
1. The "Launch Maintenance" dialog box is now (finally!) functional.
This eliminates the need to exit DH, use a text editor to edit
DH.INI, and rerun DH.
You view, change, delete, and add menu entries as well as move an
entry up or down to change its position in the list.
Because it is no longer necessary to edit DH.INI, the description
of its format and contents have been dropped from the manual
(DH.WRI).
Even though the format of DH.INI has changed slightly (SEPARATORs
now have a digit appended to them), you do not need to make any
changes manually. A minor change will be made automatically the
first time you use the new "Launch" menu to make a change to the
menu list.
Thanks to all those who have been patiently awaiting this feature
and thanks to Jim & Jim who insisted that it be implemented in order
to call DH a finished product.
2. Minor bug fix- when calculating how many items will fit in the pop-up
menu based on screen resolution the result was off by one. For some
reason I subtracted one from the result. You may now have room to
add one more item to the menu.
3. DH will now first look for your DH.INI file in the same directory
that DH was run from. If it fails to find it there then it will
default to the Windows directory.
First suggested by Jim D'Agostino. Thanks.
----Version 1.0----
1. Public Release.
Version 0.9 was released only to beta testers.
----Version 0.9----
1. Increased the maximum number of characters per menu item from sixteen
to thirty-two.
First suggested by Tom Clark. Thanks.
2. The "Registration" dialog box allowed you to type more characters on
each line then was acceptable. The User Name is limited to twenty-
five characters and the License Number is limited to six characters.
It was possible to exceed both limits.
3. Added additional Task Manager functionality- a multi-level "Windows"
menu with the usual "Cascade", "Tile", and "Arrange ICONs". This
menu selection will arrange all desktop windows and ICONs. It will
not arrange child MDI windows and ICONs.
First hinted at by Alan Mandler. Thanks.
4. Added a "Preferences" dialog box. This dialog will allow you to
choose left, right, or middle mouse button activation. If you
choose the right or middle buttons then it is not necessary to
hold down the Control key when clicking in the non-client area of
a window. The other benefit is that you do not have to hold the
button down- the menu won't disappear like it does when the left
button is used.
Also, note that if you select the middle button and your Windows
mouse driver is not capable of supporting this button then you will
not be able to activate DH. You must manually edit DH.INI, change
the "Button=3" entry in the "[Preferences]" section back to "Button=1"
(left button) or "Button=2" (right button), and restart Windows.
First suggested by Alan Mandler and Jim Freeman. Thanks.
5. Rearranged the components of the "Run" dialog box to allow for a
longer list of directories and a larger path.
6. Renamed the "Exit" menu item to "Close" so as not to be confused
with the new "Exit Windows" menu item.
7. Added an "Exit Windows" menu item. This will terminate Windows
without asking whether you want to save your Desktop changes.
First suggested by Antonio R. Dias. Thanks.
8. DH can now be used as your primary shell program. DH will display
a minimal shell (title bar with System menu). Just
change the "shell" entry in system.ini to run dh.exe. DH.EXE and
DHHOOK.DLL must both be located in your Windows directory.
The only other catch is that if your are running ATM (and possibly
some other software, but who knows?...) any other programs in your
"load=" or "run=" lines in win.ini will not automatically start up.
They must be started manually. This is a restriction at the moment.
This problem will be solved in a future release.
First suggested by Brent Ingraham. Thanks.
9. The "Run" dialog box now contains radio buttons that dictate what
the default file name will be.
First suggested by Ermine Todd III. Thanks.
10. Try to find the hidden dedication display in the "About" dialog box.
----Version 0.8----
1. Public Release.
Version 0.7 was released only to beta testers.
----Version 0.7----
1. There is now an alternate, more convenient way to activate The
Desktop Helper. Hold down the <Control> key while pressing the
left mouse button on top of any non-client area of any window.
Suitable non-client areas of a window are the title bar, a blank
portion of the menu bar, scroll bars, ICONs, etc.
This method is superior to the "hot keys" method of activation
that some other launching utilities use. Who wants to change
the hot key used when ever you install a new application/utility
that happens to use the same hot key? It is also better than
appending entries to the System Menu because the System Menu
is not always available in every window, such as some dialog
boxes.
First suggested by Jim D'Agostino. Thanks.
2. In order to allow more space for user added programs, the "Launch",
"Task", "Run", "About", and "Exit" menu items have been collapsed
into one menu item called "Desktop Helper".
First suggested by Jim Freeman. Thanks.
3. The maximum number of possible items that can be added to the
pop-up menu has been increased from thirty-two to forty-eight
(actual mileage will vary with vertical screen resolution).
4. You can now add your own separator bars to the pop-up menu by
placing the following line at the appropriate positions in the
DH.INI file:
(SEPARATOR)=
Note that the above line must be typed exactly as stated.
Also, note that a separator counts as one of the forty-eight possible
menu items.
First suggested by Brent Ingraham. Thanks.
5. Windows caches all .INI files. It was possible to exit The Desktop
Helper, edit DH.INI, and restart DH.EXE and not have the changes
reflected in the pop-up menu. This problem has now been corrected.
6. The "Run" dialog box now contains the prompt for optional command
line parameters and the "Run minimized" check box. These two items
used to be in a separate dialog box that popped up after the main
file selection box. This extra dialog box was a mild annoyance.
7. It is now possible to have a program located on the launch menu to
prompt for command line parameters. This is done by placing a
question mark as the very first character in front of the program
name. For example, to prompt for command line input when selecting
the Write program the entry in DH.INI should look like this:
Write=?write.exe
8. The "About" dialog box now contains a button to allow you to
register your copy of The Desktop Helper. A registration number
will be provided when you submit your registration fee. A valid
registration number will be necessary in the future to unlock
additional functionality.
----Version 0.6----
1. It was possible for Windows to crash when selecting a program to
launch from the pop-up menu if Windows was running in Real or
Standard mode.
2. If the Windows Debugging Kernel was running, The Desktop Helper
would cause a problem to be reported.
----Version 0.5----
1. First general release to the public.
ORDER.TXT
REGISTRATION FORM
The Desktop Helper
Remit to: Robert E. Alleger
317 Monroe Avenue
Edgewater Park, NJ 08010
Name (Last, First): ________________________________________________
Company: ________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
CompuServe Account Number (if applicable): ________________________
Version number of The Desktop Helper (displayed in About): _________
Where did you obtain this version?: _______________________________
Quantity Product Unit Price Total
_______ Single User registration (license only) $15 ______
_______ Upgrade to latest 1.xx version (check one)
5 1/4" 360K [ ] -OR- 3 1/2" 720K [ ] $10 ______
(only if you paid the registration fee)
New Jersey residents - sales tax ______
Shipping and handling - U.S. & Canada $2 ______
(only when ordering an
upgrade diskette) - International $3 ______
Total ______
Notes: All prices are in U.S. currency.
Residents of countries outside the U.S.A. and Canada
will need to remit extra money to cover postage cost.
Comments about current release and suggestions for future releases:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #3161
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
GO BAT 14 1-12-92 1:00a
READ ME 4241 7-09-92 1:04a
ORDER TXT 2118 7-09-92 1:04a
DH WRI 38400 7-09-92 1:04a
DH INI 566 7-09-92 1:04a
DH EXE 40448 7-09-92 1:04a
DHHOOK DLL 6144 7-09-92 1:04a
HISTORY TXT 12769 7-09-92 1:04a
SHOW EXE 2040 9-12-88 10:48a
9 file(s) 106740 bytes
51712 bytes free