Welcome to zMUD!

RELEASE NOTES for v4.55
=======================

Welcome to the public release of the "bionic" version of zMUD.  You will find this
version much faster than v4.4x and earlier, both in screen scrolling and in trigger
processing.  I have put some benchmark data on the web at:
http://www.zuggsoft.com/zmud/bench.htm
and will soon be adding timing tests for triggers.

This version should be compatible with old versions, with lots of bugs fixed and
several new features.  For the list of fixes and features, see the Version History
on the web page.

Here are some details on some of the new features.  I havn't had a chance to update
the help files (as usual) to include these new features.

VT100 emulation
---------------
This version has full VT00 emulation.  This can be enabled or disabled in the
General Preferences in the Emulation area.  Also, if you want to use zMUD as a
telnet client, enable the Character Mode in the emulation so that individual characters
are sent to the server as soon as keys are pressed.  In this mode, you must click on
the MUD window to activate the cursor, then start typing.  Your text will also be
added to the command line so that command history still works.  If you click on the
command line and type, the characters are only entered into the command line and the
entire line is sent to the MUD when you press Return.

Color Triggers
--------------
In the option tab of the Trigger dialog, you can now enable Color Triggers.  This
allows zMUD to trigger on the ANSI color codes coming from the MUD.  Note that in
order to use this feature, you must be knowledgeable about ANSI codes.  In your pattern,
enter the ANSI code, using %e to represent the escape character.  For example,
%e[31m triggers on red text.  I'll eventually add some code to make this easier for
people so you don't have to memorize ANSI codes.

The easiest way to get the correct ANSI codes entered into the trigger pattern is 
to Copy the line you want to trigger on by selecting it in the output window with the
mouse.  Then, create your trigger, make sure the Color Trigger option (in the Option tab)
is set, then paste (Ctrl-V) into the Pattern field.  This will paste the proper ANSI
codes from the MUD screen.

Multi-line Triggers
-------------------
Surprise!  Multi-line triggers are now here.  This was impossible to do in the old
versions of zMUD, but because of the way the screen routines have been rewritten, it
is now easy!  Now you know why I needed to work on the screen routines before working
more on the mapper, since I needed this in order to handle the multi-line exits in
next month's new mapper version.

Anyway, to trigger on multiple lines, use the $ character in the middle of a pattern
to denote a newline.  For example "line 1$line 2" triggers on a line that ends with
"line 1" followed by a line that starts with "line 2".  Use these new triggers in
moderation because they are not as fast as normal triggers.

GAG, SUB, COLOR, CW
-------------------
This version fixes lots and lots of problems with the above commands.  zMUD now 
allows SUB to work on multiple matches in a line.  For example, if you have
#TRIGGER {Zugg} {#SUB {Z}}
Then *all* occurences of Zugg on the line will be replaced with Z, rather than just
the first match.  Also, zMUD properly keeps track of the trigger matching line, so
if your trigger also spits out some text, and then colors or gags, the proper line
is modified.  Finally, SUB now works properly in all combinations of wordwrapping and
should no longer mess up your scrolling.

New Editor
----------
The new Editor in the Window menu is the replacement for the old Command Buffer.
It was fully rewritten and should work much much better now.  Give it another try
if you were frustrated with the old version.

GAG multiple lines
------------------
The GAG command now takes a numeric parameter specifying the number of lines to GAG.
Default is 1.  For example, #GAG 5 gags the current line, plus the next 4 lines sent
by the MUD.  You can use the #UNGAG command to display lines that otherwise might
be gagged.

CAPTURE block
-------------
When you specify the number of lines to capture to another window, if you specify 
zero then capturing will continue until a blank line is received from the MUD,
capturing a block of text.  Note that omitting the line count parameter assumes
a count of one line.

Other commands
--------------
The #PICK command has been expanded, and the #YESNO command has been added.  Check
the online help for details on syntax.

Happy MUDding!

Zugg (13-Apr-97)

zugg@zuggsoft.com
http://www.zuggsoft.com/zmud