HISTORY FILE FOR WCL -------------------- Version 7.50 (June 1994) ----------------------- 1. New feature: the "small" WCL window can now be set to be always in the foreground (by a new setting in WCL.INI = "TOPMOST-WINDOW="). 2. Enhanced support for networked users. Each user on a network can now have his/her own WCL INI file, and KEYS file - this is implemented with a new command-line parameter "/WCL$=". There are a number of ramifications; [a] a new command "CFG" or "WCLCFG" has been introduced - when this command is run, it loads the WCL configuration program, with access to the correct user INI file (if you just run WCLCFG.EXE from Program Manager, it may be reading/writing from/to the wrong INI file). [b] a new command "WCLMAP" has been introduced - to MAP and UNMAP drives on a Novell Netware network only. If you are not on a Netware network, please do NOT try to use this command. Also, the command might still be a bit buggy - so please use it with care! [c] the SPAWN command now creates its temporary batch file in the same directory as that in which the user INI file resides - to prevent one user overwriting another user's temporary batch file. [d] WCL will first look for the WCL.INI file in the Working Directory (specified in Program Manager) before looking anywhere else [e] the file specified in the "/WCL$=" parameter will take priority over any other INI file - it does not need to have the extension .INI. [f] the "/WCL$=" parameter can be used for WCL.EXE, BIGWCL.EXE, and WCLCFG.EXE. If it is used for any of them, then it MUST be used ALL three of them. Otherwise you may get each of them pointing to a different INI file. [g] WCL will first look for the KEYS.WCL file in the directory where the INI file resides, before looking elsewhere. [h] If you wish to see which INI file is being used for the current WCL session, type "SET". [i] the UNZIP, ENCODE, DECODE, and WCLMAP commands, and WCLCFG.EXE, can only be used by one copy of WCL at a time - because of shared memory in the DLLs. 3. New support for multiple commands on a single line (each separated by a semi-colon (";"). If WCL finds *any* semi-colon in the transmitted command line, it assumed that multiple commands are being transmitted. Restrictions; * you cannot include a command alias on any of the commands * the line is evaluated after the FOREACH command (which can also take the semi-colon). 4. Bug in the implied CD feature fixed (when no matching directory was found, the user was always dumped in the root directory). 5. Support for copying the contents of the WCL window to the clipboard added. In BIGWCL, this is a new command "CLIP". This copies all the contents of the scroll back buffer. In the "small" version, this feature replaces copying the screen to the printer (when you click on the "print window" menu item). If you supply a file name as an argument to "CLIP", then the contents of the file get copied the the clipboard, as text. e.g., "CLIP FILENAME.TXT" - copies that file to the clipboard. 6. The output of the DIR command can now be redirected to the Windows Clipboard, by supplying "CLIP" as the filename. e.g, "DIR *.EXE > CLIP" 7. New setting "SEARCH-DRIVE=" introduced in WCL.INI. This setting determines whether the "implied CD" feature will search the whole drive for any directory that is supplied at the WCL prompt. This feature is turned ON by default - meaning that anything in that setting other than a "0" or "OFF" will be interpreted as "ON". If the setting is turned OFF, then only the "path" will be searched for a matching directory. This setting was introduced because searching through the whole drive all the time may be time-consuming on large or networked drives. 8. New command "RUNHIDDEN" introduced - to run a program in a hidden state. The program will not show up in the task list - you need WCL's LISTWIN and SENDMESSAGE commands to perform operations on such a hidden program. e.g., RUNHIDDEN FAXSERV.EXE 9. New command "EXITRUN" introduced - to close down Windows, run a DOS program, and restart Windows again when you finish with the DOS proggram. e.g., EXITRUN DOOM.EXE 10. New command "MOVE" introduced - to move files from one place to another. This is basically a file copy, and then a file delete (if the copy was successful). This command takes the same parameters as the COPY command. e.g., MOVE *.DLL \WINDOWS\DLLS Version 7.40a (May 1994) ----------------------- Fixed a little bug which resulted in an error message in a dialog box appearing twice. Version 7.40 (May 1994) ----------------------- CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO SETTINGS IN WCL.INI ********************************************* 1. The effect of the "WINDOW-BORDER" setting in WCL.INI has been changed. It should now be turned ON normally. If it is turned OFF, then the WCL window ("small" version only) will have no title bar, no minimize button, and no system menu - and it will not be moveable. 2. The effect of the "WINDOWHEIGHT.BIG" setting has been changed. Before, it determined both the height of the BIGWCL window and the scroll back buffer size. Now it only determines the height of the BIGWCL window (i.e., the default height of the window, when the program is started - it can always be resized afterward). BIGWCL has some internal defaults depending on driver resolution. When you exit BIGWCL, the current height of the window is saved in this setting - so you can just resize the window to whatever suits you, and then type "SAVE", or just quit and start the program again. 3. A new entry in WCL.INI - "WINDOWHEIGHT" has been introduced. This determines the height of the "small" WCL window. Similar principles apply to this setting as to "WINDOWHEIGHT.BIG" (above). 4. A new entry in WCL.INI - "INSERT-MODE" has been introduced. If this is turned ON, then the default state of the insert mode in the doskey emulation will be ON (instead of the normal default to over- write mode). 5. A new entry in WCL.INI - "US-DATE-FORMAT" has been introduced. This is to allow the date and time stamps on files to be listed in the American format (mm/dd/yy) instead of the default (dd/mm/yy). 6. A new entry - "DIRCMD" has been added to WCL.INI, for greater compatibility with DOS. Any switch which is valid for the DIR command can be put in this setting, and such switches will automatically be applied to all DIR commands. e.g DIRCMD=/L /OD to do the DIR listing in lowercase letters, and sort by date. OTHER NEW FEATURES ****************** Apart from more than 100 internal enhancements, there are several new features in this release; 1. A configuration program (WCLCFG.EXE) is now provided. This saves having to make changes to the WCL.INI file manually. It covers most, but not all, of the possible settings in the INI file. 2. You can now assign a command to Ctrl-C (formerly it was not allowed). CTRL-C is set in the KEYS.WCL file to "EXIT" by default. You can change this by editing the file. 3. WCL will now save the last co-ordinates of the WCL window (this works for both the "big" and "small" versions), and also optionally save the Windows desktop, when you quit from the system menu, or by pressing Alt-F4 (i.e., assuming that the Save-Desktop feature is ON, and that WCL is the Windows shell). 4. The "PROMPT" command has been revamped for greater compatibility with the DOS "prompt" command. It can now take parameters such as $T, $D, $V, $Q, and $L, in addition to $P and $G. 5. The "DECODE" command is now much faster than before. Both the ENCODE and DECODE commands can now handle Unix format UUencoded files. To UUencode a file in the Unix format, use the new command "UNIXENCODE". Unix files are decoded automatically with the "DECODE" command. 6. An interface has been provided to WCL to allow Windows programmers to add user extensions to the internal command set. The interface files and documentation are in WCL_EXT.ZIP, which is now supplied as part of the WCL package. This interface has resulted in the addition of another DLL (WCL_EXT.WXX) to the package. The interface is provided "AS IS" - so use it at your own risk. 7. The maximum number of COMMAND ALIASES has been increased from 30 to 40. 8. The maximum number of lines in WCL batch files (.CBF files) has been increased from 30 to 150. 9. A *limited* subset of the Unix FOREACH command has been introduced, for operations involving multiple files, without resorting to creating batch files, or to transimtting commands one by one. RESTRICTION: this command is only supported in BIGWCL.EXE. See fuller documentation in the help file. 10. A limited subset of the GREP command has been introduced - to search for strings inside a text file. The syntax is GREP [-n -c -v] 11. The "TYPE" command (to display the contents of a file) can now take wilcards (eg TYPE *.TXT). 12. The "REN" command has been revamped in many ways. [a] It can now be used to rename files and directories whose names are regarded as illegal by DOS (eg because they have spaces in their names). In such cases, enclose the SOURCE file name in quotes - eg REN "FRED DY" FREDDY [b] It can now take wildcards - but you MUST use the wildcards in both the SOURCE and TARGET file names eg REN *.DOC *.TXT REN WCL*.TXT *.WCL - the TARGET file name in such cases MUST be a wildcard that begins with "*". eg REN WCL*.TXT FRED*.TXT - this is NOT valid. 13. A new command "DU" (for "disk usage") has been introduced. This command tells you how much disk space is occupied by the files in a directory (and all its subdirectories), without going through a directory listing. The command can take one parameter - the name of the directory whose disk usage you want. If "DU" is typed without any parameter, it will process the current directory. 14. A new switch for the "DIR" command has been introduced. This is "/Q" - for "quick" display. When this switch is used, the default behaviour of pausing for a keypress after each screen is overridden. 15. A new command "REPLACE" has been introduced. This is for searching for a string in an ASCII file, and replacing all occurences of that string with another one. Please do NOT attempt to use this command on a binary file. 16. A bug in the scolling on the command line has been fixed. 17. Support has been introduced for associating file extensions with an application. If you type the name of a file at the WCL prompt, and the file's extension has an application associated with it in the "Extensions" section of WIN.INI, WCL will execute the relevant application, with the file loaded. 18. Limited support for filename completion has been added. If the user types part of a file/directory name and then presses TAB, WCL will attempt to complete the file/directory name from the list of files and directories in the CURRENT directory. Note that this feature only works if both the DOSKEY emulation and command-line editing are enabled. 19. Changes have been made to the way in which the STARTUP lines in WCL.INI and the AUTOEXEC.CBF file are handled. Formerly, the programs on the STARTUP lines, and the AUTOEXEC.CBF file were only executed if WCL was the Windows SHELL. From this version, they will be executed, when WCL is started, whether or not WCL is the Windows SHELL. 20. Automatic directory changing ("implied CD") has been introduced. If you type the name of a directory at the WCL command line, and then add a backslash to it, the program will attempt to change to that directory, without your having to type "CD" first. In this respect, WCL first searches the "path", and then the whole disk, for a matching directory. If you have a large/slow disk, this may take some time. 21. The scroll bars have now been removed from the "small" WCL window. What is left now is a much smaller window, which is even less unobstrusive. The window can now be resized (reduced in size) to as small as you want. 22. A new command "WMCLOSE" has been introduced. This command shuts WCL down, WITHOUT ANY QUESTION. Some users have complained about being asked whether they really want to quit. This command is for such users. It is also useful for closing down WCL from a non-interactive batch file. You may even create a command alias for it, using the name of any of the WCL exit commands - and this will then take priority; e.g. NEWCOMMAND ESC WMCLOSE with this command alias, anytime you press ESC, WCL will close without further reference to you. [Details of early versions have been chopped out of here, because this file was getting too big.] (c) 1994, Dr. A. Olowofoyeku 268 Horwood, Newcastle, Staffs ST5 5BQ ENGLAND. E-mail: laa12@keele.ac.uk chief@mep.com