Presented and released at KansasFest - '96, Spectrum v2.1 has many new
features
available in this update than were every available in past version releases.
For those of you who don't know just what Spectrum is, here's some of the
many
uses for the program. Use Spectrum to access bulletin boards and online
services
close to home and around the world. Online you'll find free software, computer
advice, airline schedules, hobby friends, financial tips...information for
all
your interests!
Spectrum is a graphics-based telecommunications program written specifically
for
the Apple IIGS. Being IIGS-specific, Spectrum provides features that are
not
possible in other communications programs.
You do not quit to ProDOS 8 to use Spectrum, which means you can still use
your
favorite NDAs (New Desk Accessories) and other utilities that work only
with
IIGS-specific software (e.g. Express, Harmonie, Independence, Kangaroo,
The
Manager, TransProg III (TP III), and so on).
Spectrum also uses the familiar IIGS "desktop interface" so it's
very easy to
learn and use. And that simplicity does not sacrifice speed or features!
A full-featured text editor is built-in. You can open Text, Teach, and AppleWorks
Classic files, edit them, and even apply special formatting features (e.g.
"convert lines to paragraphs").
Text messages can be posted from disk files, straight from the editor, or
even
pasted from the standard system Clipboard. Other files can be transferred
to or
from other computers using one of the included file transfer protocols
(CompuServe B+, Xmodem, 1K Xmodem, 4K Xmodem, Ymodem batch,
Ymodem-g and Zmodem).
Spectrum includes custom "online displays" (terminal emulations)
for the super
hi-res screen, 80-column text screen, color ANSI, ProTERM Special, Viewdata
and VT100. Most displays also support a "chat line" for conferences.
A powerful, English-based scripting language lets you tailor Spectrum
specifically to your needs. You can use the "Learn a Script" command
to
automatically learn basic scripts, or write advanced scripts that do almost
anything--from running an electronic bulletin board system to the daily
automatic
sending and receiving of mail. Several scripts are included as examples.
Other features include:
Separate Scrollback and Capture buffers (user-specified sizes from None
to memory
limit) Phonebook for 32 commonly-called systems (attach a script for automatic
logon) Online timer (monitor the cost of a call) Cool sounds (it even talks)
Spectrum supports all Hayes-compatible modems at speeds from 50 to 57,600
baud.
It also supports "hardware handshaking" for high speed modems.
Spectrum requires:
An Apple IIGS with at least 1MB of memory One 3.5" disk drive (a hard
disk drive
is strongly recommended) Apple System Software version 6.0 or later A modem
connected to the model or printer port on the back of the IIGS, or to an
Apple
Super Serial Card (and workalikes) in any slot, or an Applied Engineering
DataLink internal modem.
Retail price $129.95
Edited - Extracts from Usenet Post
References:<4uuc8t$gp3@seeker.the-hermes.net> <4v3182$dgr@india.lm.com>
taken
directly from the update notes for the v2.1 follow.
"...features or program changes since version 2.0 of Spectrum. To view
changes in
the scripting language choose Changes in Scripting v2.1 from the Topic menu."
GENERAL NOTE: The preference file format has been extended to support new
features. Older preference files are converted automatically to the new
format.
The new format cannot be used with older version of Spectrum. Significant
code
reorganization to make room for more features. The protocol transfer code
and
some of the dialog code have been put into two dynamic segments to be more
memory
friendly. The Spectrum Port driver wasn't forcing unused high-bits off (i.e.,
when a 7-bit data format was selected it was possible for the 8th bit to
be set).
(Fixed) The Spectrum Port driver stopped liking DataLink modems, especially
on
ROM01 machines. (Fixed)
Added more refinements to try to reduce data loss: - Removed a TickCount
call
from timer routine. - Now waits for VBL to cycle when changing hardware
handshake
status. - Added support for II Not Disturb to automatically turn Master
Time
Keeping on and off whenever Spectrum is started and quit.
^G (SysBeep) has been reworked so the correct Sound CDev sound should now
be
played. Now the interrupt-friendly (raspy) beep will play only if Hardware
Handshake is not checked and a carrier is detected. If an XCMD or Online
Display
was not loaded successfully, a beep is sounded and the items name is displayed
for one second in the Loading status area.
Added the capability for XCMDs to add custom menu items into Spectrums menus.
Several supplied XCMDs take advantage of this feature, including HodgePodge
and
Kermit. Added a new menu to the right of the Settings menu. A solid apple
menu is
shown only when an XCMD has added a menu item to it. Fixed a problem where
the
menu bar clock would not change to am at midnight or pm at midday unless
the
clock was fully updated (e.g., by a window closing or other similar event).
Alerts now use the latest cool button layout.
APPLE MENU:
Removed Spectrum built-in help in favor of the !Help! NDA (which is included
with
Spectrum). If you don't want any help you can inactivate the Help.NDA desk
accessory (located in the System:Desk.Accs folder). If you want help only
while
Spectrum is being used (even if you have Shift-booted the computer) you
can move
the Help.NDA into the same folder as the Spectrum application. If Spectrum
loads
the NDA, it is unloaded when Spectrum quits. Regardless of where the Help.NDA
is
located, the NDA always looks for its files in the Desk.Accs:Help.Files:
folder.
Added Menu Item Help that dims every menu item except those owned by Spectrum,
and changes the mouse pointer to a menu item help pointer. When a menu item
is
selected, Spectrum asks the !Help! NDA to display the appropriate help
information.
NOTE: Spectrum can't dim the TransProg III menu (if present). If you select
an
item from the TPIII menu, the help request is transmitted to !Help! but
then
TPIII will attempt to launch the item you selected.
FILE MENU:
Open Option - opening a file of type $50 could cause a crash because Spectrum
was
interpreting all filetype $50 files as Teach files. (Fixed) Loading an empty
file
into the Editor changed the name of the Editor window to the empty files
name,
even though the Editor contents were untouched after an error message was
shown.
(Fixed)
Save - Now sets the correct filetype on saved as files. With an auto-save
file
set up, 'Save As' will allow saving of the current buffer independently
from the
Save command. Added a clarification message when auto-saving a buffer to
a full
disk.
Send/Receive - Added the ability to transfer files that have a resource
fork, by
using a MacBinary header. Because the receiver must be capable of receiving
and
processing a MacBinary file, the default file transfer preferences are set
so
files with a resource fork can't be transmitted. If you decide to change
this
preference, be sure the recipient is able to handle the file. If you received
a
file via Zmodem to a P8 volume, and the file had a period as the first character,
Spectrum was doing strange things and reporting non-existent errors. This
was
caused by a bad JudgeName call. In the process we also found that if you
received
a file by Zmodem that required JudgeName, the transfer did not complete
properly.
Both items have been (Fixed)
A make this folder default checkbox has been added to the file selection
dialog
boxes for all built-in file transfer protocols. When checked (and you accept
a
file to transfer) the folder that contains the file is stored as the default
send
or receive file transfer path. The choice is not written to the preferences
file unless the settings are saved. When sending a text file, Macintosh
text
files would not be selectable. (Fixed) When sending Xmodem ProDOS, the received
file would be truncated. (Fixed)
Fixed a Zmodem escape character problem that showed on some host systems.
The
Freezer XCMD is no longer necessary, as its functionality has been incorporated
directly into Spectrum. SP was forcing filenames to lowercase for Zmodem
and
Ymodem receives. (Fixed) If an incoming Zmodem file happened to have a colon
or
slash in its embedded filename, a file not found error would occur and the
transfer would abort. Most Zmodem implementations do not pass these characters,
but some do, so Spectrum now replaces those path separators with periods.
Spectrum does not attempt to extract files from a Binary II wrapper if there
are
multiple files enclosed because it would be nearly impossible to resume
a
transfer. To help alert the user that they need to use some other program
(like
ShrinkIt) to extract the multiple files, a message is now added to the capture
buffer that says WARNING: A Binary II header holding multiple files was
not
unpacked.
Removed the code to resume CIS B+ uploads because CompuServe has never
implemented that capability. The file transfer status dialog box now shows
whether a Binary II or MacBinary header is present on the incoming/outgoing
file.
When using CIS B+, if you typed only a filename to send or receive,
the
correct file transfer folder was not always set properly. (Fixed) Launch
Fixed a
problem that would not let the Hangup checkbox be unchecked.
Quit - If you opened the SHR screen, then Editor, then switch to VT100,
then
go
back to the Editor and File/Quit, lots of windows would appear, disappear,
reappear, etc. as the windows were closed in a fixed order. The windows
are now
closed in the order in which they are layered.
EDIT MENU:
Paste - If text had been copied into the Clipboard, Paste was not highlighted
when the Editor was first opened. (Fixed) OA-V did not work in VT100 if
the chat
line had been open in the Spectrum Text screen. (Fixed)
Paste As Reply - This feature didn't work right if the selected text was
greater
than 76 characters. (Fixed) Find/Replace Pasting into the Find box now activates
the Find butotn. The apply/replace script command was changing some choices
in
the dialog box. (Fixed)
SHOW MENU:
Online Display - OA-j did not work from some online displays; you had to
press
Shift-OA-J. Fixed so it is no longer case sensitive. When displaying echoed
information, characters were routed to the script screen vector instead
of the
normal screen vector, which caused some information to be lost. (Fixed)
Editor - Added more support for extended keyboards (the small forward delete
key,
Home, End, Page Up, Page Down).
Clipboard - The clipboard window can now be printed. The window is also
now
editable in that you can highlight some text in the Clipboard window and
Edit/Copy which deletes all of the clipboard contents and replaces it with
the
text you had highlighted.
Chatline - If you press the down arrow in the first or second line when
the
cursor is to the right of the end of the next line, the cursor jumps to
the end
of the next line instead of sticking and not moving as expected. If the
chatline
was full, pressing the Arrow keys would cause a beep. Now it beeps only
when
inserting a character and the line is full.
PHONE MENU:
Dial Number - Spectrum no longer auto-dials the next phone number if the
current
phone number fails to connect. The modem init data and button names are
now
stored in pString resources for easier customization (maximum length of
40
characters). Linking a script to a dialing entry no longer corrupts the
first
character of the filename.
SETTINGS MENU:
Online Display - The Spectrum SHR Fast and Spectrum SHR Normal displays
have been
combined into a single Spectrum SHR display that automatically switches
between
the fast and normal display modes as necessary. If Delete=Backspace is checked,
character $08 is sent out the port when the Delete key is pressed, rather
than
whatever key sequence that might be associated with the left arrow key.
Pressing
Left Arrow still translates when necessary.
File Transfer - The File Transfer Settings menu item now presents a sub-menu
with
Receiving Options and Sending Options. Most of the options existed in
Spectrum
v2.0; the new or changed items are as follows: SendAhead is relevant for
both
sending and receiving, but different protocols handle SendAhead differently.
Therefore there is really only a single SendAhead option. If you change
the
setting in the Sending Options dialog box, it will also change in the Receiving
Options dialog box (and vice-versa).
The Sending Options dialog lets you specify the location of the files to
be sent.
The Receiving Options dialog lets you specify the default location for storing
received files. The Receive Options dialog lets you specify the filetype
and auxtype to be assigned when the received filetype/auxtype is unknown.
MacBinary is now supported so that files with a resource fork can be transmitted
to other Spectrum v2.1 owners, to Macintosh computers, or to others who
can
process a MacBinary header.
EXTERNAL COMMANDS: (XCMDs)
The Documentation: XCMDs: folder contains complete documentation on the
new and
updated XCMDs provided with Spectrum v2.1. NOTE: The Freezer XCMD is no
longer
necessary because its features are included directly in Spectrum v2.1. The
following XCMD-related changes were made to Spectrum itself: Unclaimed control
hits might not have been seen by XCMDs correctly. (Fixed)
For additional information or contacts concerning Spectrum v2.1 please note
below.
See the Seven Hills Software URL - specific to Spectrum as noted below.
http://www.nettally.com/shss/IIGS/SP.htm
For the Seven Hills WWW (IIGS) specific products Home Page see:
http://www.nettally.com/shss/IIGS
Contact Information:
Internet E-Mail: shss@nettally.com
Other E-Mails; SevenHills@aol.com
SevenHills@Genie.com
75300.1743@CompuServe.com
Voice: 904-575-0566, 9am-5pm ET
Fax: 904-575-2015, anytime
Surface Mail: Seven Hills Software
1254 Ocala Road
Tallahassee, FL 32304-1548