GammaTech IRC Client version 1.01 Beta Version Drop 3 06/19/95 Version 1.01 has a number of significant enhancements which are described in more detail at the end of this file. The major enhancements include: Cut and Paste support. Scrollback buffer. DCC Chat and DCC Send support. Popup menus added to Input, Names, List and Who windows. Additional flexibility in user toolbar definitions. Beta drop 3 contains the following fixes and enhancements since the last drop: Fixed problem where minimizing and restoring window clears the output window buffer. Correct problem where output text is corrupted when the scroll buffer is full. Fix problem where recalling long commands concatenates text from the previous command. Help file is now up to date with the enhancements. This is beta code and has not been throughly tested at this time. Since this is beta code, it has an expiration date. The executable will become non-functional on Aug. 1, 1995. By that time there will be a demo version available for potential customer preview purposes. If you are accustomed to using text mode IRC clients you will likely need to review the documentation file regarding using the GammaTech IRC Client. The GUI interface of the GammaTech IRC Client is quite different from other text mode clients. Problems that some new users may encounter include: * Attempting to enter certain IRC commands before joining a channel. * Attempting to join multiple channels with Novice mode checked. * Not understanding how message traffic is dispatched to the various IRC windows. Reviewing the documentation will cut your learning curve significantly. Many of the windows have pop-up menues available for various functions. To call up the pop-up menu for a given window, click mouse button 2 in the window area. To install this beta: 1) If you are running a prior beta or demo of the GammaTech IRC Client, delete the prior files, especially the gtirc.ini file. 2) Shred any previous program object for GammaTech IRC. 3) Unzip the ircbeta2.zip file into the desired directory. 4) Run the makeicon.cmd file to add the program object to the desktop. To execute the beta: 1) Establish a connection with your Internet Access Provider. 2) Start the client by double clicking on the icon. Or, from a OS/2 command prompt, change to the GTIRC directory and enter "gtirc" and press Enter. Summary of changes: The toolbar height has been increased and better icons used for better functionality and appearance. The toolbar now has 4 user icons. In addition, the definitions are different for the Master window, Channel window and Query window. The Toolbar dialog has been changed to allow definitions for each of these window types. The toolbar icons appear on the DCC chat and send windows but they are disabled on DCC windows. The function of the Bold Toolbar icon has changed. To use it now, select the desired text with the mouse and then press the Bold icon. A bold marker will be placed at the beginning and end of the text. The /CLEAR command and related Toolbar icon are no longer present. This option does not make sense with a scrollable output window. Before, the user could call up the Toolbar dialog by clicking mouse button 2 on one of the toolbar user icons. This is no longer supported. The Recall toolbar icon now stacks the last 5 commands. Clicking on it repeatedly will scroll through the command list and wrap calling up the most recent command first. The output window now contains a scroll bar and a scroll back buffer. The last 256 lines of text are retained in the scroll back buffer. Text which has been scrolled off of the screen can be viewed by using the scroll bar. Screen updating is disabled when the last line of text is not on the display. To enable screen updated, scroll to the bottom of the screen. Messages received during the scrollback will be displayed at this time and automatic updating of the screen will continue. All this needs to be added to the help file also. The output window suports copy to clipboard only. Select the desired text and use the popup menu to copy, or the Ctrl+Ins keys to copy. The input window now supports cut, copy and paste. Use the MLE edit keys, mouse, and/or pop-up menu to perform these operations. The input area cannot be cleared using the ESC key. Other keystrokes can be used to clear it. The user may enter special characters directly into the input area as follows: ^A for manually entered CTCP commands; ^B to add a Bold text marker; ^G to ring the bell on the destination machine. The input window is now a fixed height depending on the font in use. Sizing the window changes only the output window height. The pop-up menu has changed and several windows now support a pop-up menu. Each menu is tailored to the window type. The following windows have their own pop-up menus: output, input, names, list, who The pop-up menu for the input window supports the following options: Command Help; Copy; Join; Notify; Paste; Query; Toolbar. The List window now contains a popup menu which performs several useful functions on the channel selected in the list. Double clicking on an entry will initiate a join for that channel. The pop-up menu allows for automated Join and Names commands. The Names window now contains a pop-up menu with several usefull functions for the nickname displayed. Double clicking on a nick name will initiate a query with the nickname. The pop-up meu options provide for automated Query, Kick and Notify commands. The Who window now contains a pop-up menu with several usefull functions. Double clicking on an entry in the Who window will execute a Whois command for the user involved. The pop-up menu allows for automated Whois, Kick, Ban and Unban commands. The pop-up menu for the output window supports the following options: Copy; Connect; Settings; Toolbar. DCC CHAT and DCC SEND commands are now supported. The help is up to date but the documentation is not. Some remarks in the IRC Primer section should also be added on these features. In addition there should be documentation on how the DCC features work. Note that the Settings Dialog has changed to account for the new DCC options. These new options should be documented. I believe the help is up to date on them now. The various lists of servers, channels, query nicks, etc. have been increased from 25 entries to 40 entries. The /LIST command will now accept wildcard characters in the channel name operand field. The List, Names and Who display windows will now tell you if no matching entries have been found. Feedback may be sent via internet mail to: ormson@ionet.net