Visual DialogScript version 2.12 Release Notes 9 April 1997 =========================================================================== Welcome to Visual DialogScript! ------------------------------- Thank you for trying Visual DialogScript, the simple program development tool for Microsoft Windows. Please take a few moments to read this file. It contains important information both for new users and upgraders from earlier versions of the product. What is Visual DialogScript? ---------------------------- Visual DialogScript is a programming language and development environment that has been designed to enable you quickly to develop simple dialog-based programs or batch files for Windows 95 with the same ease as you might have written a batch file or a Basic program for DOS. The DialogScript language is easy to learn and similar to, though much more powerful than, a batch language or macro language. Visual DialogScript also includes visual tools: a Dialog Editor for designing dialog boxes visually, and an Icon Editor for creating graphical icons for your programs. There is also a Dialog Wizard which generates the code automatically from your visually designed dialog. Many useful DialogScript programs can be written in a matter of minutes! If you are new to Visual DialogScript, try the short Tutorial, then take a few minutes to read through the User Guide section of the online manual. This explains how the program works and covers basic concepts of the DialogScript programming language. There are also several examples which you can try out by cutting the code from the help file, pasting it into the editor window, and running it. System Requirements ------------------- Visual DialogScript 16-bit requires the following minimum system specification: - a 386SX PC with 4Mb RAM, VGA display and mouse; - Windows 3.1. Visual DialogScript 32-bit requires the following minimum system specification: - a 486 PC with 8Mb RAM, VGA display and mouse; - Windows 95. The same specifications apply to programs created with Visual DialogScript. Note that the 32-bit version uses functions of the Windows 95 shell so it will not run satisfactorily under Windows NT 3.x. Installation ------------ If you are an existing user upgrading to a new version, you can simply copy the contents of the ZIP archive to your current Visual DialogScript directory. Some distributions are split into two with the online help and associated files in a separate archive for easier downloading over the Internet. If you are an existing user and already have the online help from the previous version then check the list of changes to see what new features have been added. If you haven't already done so, it may not be necessary to download the help files if the changes are minor, or only bug fixes. New users should unzip the archive contents to a temporary directory (including the online help if downloaded separately.) Then run the program SETUP.EXE, which will copy the program files to the desired directory and create an entry in Program Manager or the Windows 95 Start Menu for the Visual DialogScript development environment. You may want to move the runtime engine (DSRUN.EXE/DSRUN16.EXE) to the Windows System directory, or alternatively to add the location of your Visual DialogScript directory to your PATH statement. If you run non-integrated DialogScript executables from directories other than the one in which the runtime engine is located you will get the error message "Cannot run script" unless this is done. Removing Visual DialogScript from your system --------------------------------------------- Visual DialogScript adds files to no other directories than its own. To remove it, simply delete all the files in the Visual DialogScript directory and then remove the directory. The 32-bit version creates Registry entries under the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JMTech\DialogScript\2.0. Registering Visual DialogScript ------------------------------- We hope you like Visual DialogScript and find it useful. However, please be aware that Visual DialogScript is not free or public domain software. You are granted a licence giving limited rights to use the software. The conditions of use are described in the Licence Agreement in the online help. This version of Visual DialogScript is fully functional. However, while it remains unregistered the software will display its startup screen for a longer interval, displaying a gentle reminder that the software is still unregistered. Also, any EXE programs you create will upon termination display a message that they were created using an unregistered copy of the product. Details of how to register, and what it will cost, will also be found in the online help. Technical support ----------------- Free technical support is available by Internet email, only to registered users. However, we will endeavour to answer any questions that may arise during your evaluation of the product. Support is provided via Internet email at: support@jm-tech.com. Please note that the free support does not extend to writing complete scripts. We will be happy to quote for this service at our normal consultancy rates. Multi-platform support ---------------------- The 32-bit version of Visual DialogScript can create both 32-bit and 16-bit executable files. DialogScript executables require the appropriate runtime engine DSRUN.EXE (32-bit) or DSRUN16.EXE (16-bit) or must be created as integrated executables with a copy of the runtime bound in. Either runtime is freely redistributable, without royalties, by registered users of the product. The 16-bit runtime is not included in the 32-bit package, so you will not be able to run any 16-bit programs that you create with it. To obtain it we recommend that you download it from our World Wide Web site to ensure you have the latest version. A common help file is used for both versions. Differences in capabilities between the two versions are (in general) highlighted where appropriate. Note that the examples in the help file are for the 32-bit version. Most of the commands where they access the Registry will have to be converted to the corresponding INI file commands. This is normally a simple matter of substituting INIFILE for REGISTRY and @iniread for @regread, and deleting the default key. For other differences see below. 16-bit limitations ------------------ There are some differences in the capabilities of the 16-bit and 32-bit versions. The main points to be aware of when writing 16-bit script programs are: * Long filenames, and various options relating to them, are not supported. * Registry support is limited, and does not allow named values to be used. * You cannot obtain the exit code of DOS programs run from within a script. * The maximum length of a variable or string list item, is 255 characters. * Internal string handling buffers are also restricted to 255 characters in length. Complex expressions may be truncated. Where this occurs, it may be possible to avoid the problem by breaking the operation down into smaller steps. * The maximum length of most command parameters is 127 characters. In some cases, to reduce memory usage, it may be less, where a parameter would not be expected to be very long. This should not normally be a problem. * Task bar icons are not supported. The Dialog Editor allows you to define them, but they will result in an error if used. Known problems -------------- * When clicking and dragging dialog controls in the Dialog Editor the control may lag behind the position of the mouse. The solution is to click on the dialog control and pause briefly before dragging or resizing the control. * The presence of tab characters in a script can cause problems for the interpreter. The IDE editor does not allow tab characters to be entered. If a different editor is used to edit scripts then care should be taken to avoid entering tab characters. * In the 16-bit version there is a limit on the maximum size of a script of 32K characters. This limit is imposed by the Windows memo control used by the editor, which (like Windows Notepad) does not allow more than 32K of text to be loaded into it. In the 32-bit version the maximum size of script that the editor can handle is approximately 64K characters. A solution is to use an external editor and then compile scripts using the command line compiler. * When copying example code from the online help, blank lines appear between some of the lines which were not present in the listing. These blank lines can cause an error if they appear in the middle of a dialog definition or embedded text so they should be deleted after pasting the text into the script editor. * If you try to create an EXE file in a directory that does not exist, VDS will hang. In practise this can only happen if the stored path from the last time an EXE was created from that script is no longer valid. * The Help menu options to connect to our Web site and to register online will only work if your system is set up to automatically associate your Web browser with an Internet URL. Changes in version 2.12 ----------------------- New features: * Added error trapping capabilities. OPTION ERRORTRAP,