MUSHclient version 2.16.11
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Released: Thursday, 22 June 2000


CHANGES

1. Updated help file to reflect new changes, such as notepad window.

2. Fixed bug where if you opened a file with an obscure extension (ie. not MCL or TXT) when a world was active, it would attempt to process it as a world file, not a text file. Now, all extensions other than .MCL are assumed to be text files.

3. The parenthesis-balancing code has been enhanced after discussions with MUSHcode experts. There are now options on the Global Preferences -> Notepad screen, to control how the balancing works. This is because, for instance, in MUSH code quotes have no particular significance, and also you can have "percent-escapes", like this:  

 think ansi(c, Nick %) Gammon)

In this example, the "%" cancels the effect of the RH bracket.

Under certain obscure circumstances you will get different results when starting on the right-hand side, compared to starting on the left-hand side. In these cases, the results given by starting on the left-hand side should be considered more accurate (because this is the same direction that the MUSH-code scanner will be working).

4. Fixed bug in parenthesis-balancing code where it would incorrectly process quoted strings when scanning backwards.

5. The "choose existing notepad" dialog has been enhanced so you can double-click on a notepad name to select it.

6. New command in the notepad - "send to command window". This lets you send the selection (or whole window) to the *command window* of the related world, and activates that world. This lets you make a last-minute check that what you have typed is OK, and then press <enter> to send it on. The advantage of this is that the command is retained in the world's command history buffer.

7. When sending or pasting to the world, you can now specify the "line delay" per a line count. eg. Wait 2 seconds after every 50 lines. This is for servers that have anti-spam provisions that cannot accept bulk uploads.

8. If you close an *empty* notepad window, you are not prompted to save it, even if you have changed it.

9. Because I personally find that the ANSI colours can be a bit "dark", I have added buttons to the ANSI colour screen, that let you quickly change all 8 colours (normal) and 8 colours (bold) to be slightly lighter or slightly darker, with one button click. There are also buttons for changing all 16 colours at once. Of course, you can press the button multiple times to increase the effect.

10. Along similar lines, there are now buttons to add or reduce the colour of all the ANSI colours. Technically, this is increasing or decreasing the colour saturation. The intention of this is that you can change the "atmosphere" by globally reducing colour (ie. making everything tend to grey), or increasing colour (ie. making all of the colours richer). Note that most the default ANSI colours are already fully saturated (exceptions being grey and black), so that increasing the colour will not make any noticeable difference. However if you have already decreased the colour saturation (or have your own colour set) then increasing the saturation should make a difference.

11. Fixed bug where if you were in full-screen mode, and switched to a notepad/recall window, or the activity window, the menu bar would reappear.

12. Fixed mildly annoying bug where the "(no change)" entry in the "custom colour" combo-boxes would tend to get a partly-dotted border around it as the mouse moved over it.

13. Added a "smoother scrolling" option to the Global Preferences. With this checked the screen is redrawn immediately that it scrolls, thus eliminating the slightly disconcerting gaps (or duplicated lines) left, for a short time, when the screen scrolls quickly. However with "smoother scrolling" checked the screen updating *will* be slower. If you have a fast PC you will probably not notice the slowdown in speed, and may prefer the way the screen is redrawn more quickly. If you have a mouse-wheel mouse the difference is quite noticeable. With smooth scrolling on then scrolling is definitely slower, however the effect of the same line appearing to be duplicated many times (until the redraw catches up a moment later) is eliminated.

14. Also added a "very smooth" scrolling option, which gives a very smooth scrolling action (one pixel at a time). This would not be suitable for MUDs where lots of text arrives quickly, as it is definitely slower than normal scrolling, but if you are playing a MUD where small amounts of text arrive at once, you have a fast PC, and you like the smooth feel, then give it a try. Very smooth scrolling only applies to "line-based" scrolls, not "page-based". Thus, pressing PageUp or PageDown will still scroll in the normal way, but when new text arrives, or you scroll up or down a line at a time, then it will scroll smoothly. Smooth scrolling is also disabled when using the mouse wheel, as it is possible to "queue up" a lot of line-based scrolls, that then seem to hang the PC while it laboriously scrolls its way through the document.

15. In response to complaints that if the "focus" is in the upper window some typing is discarded (eg. Shift+Home, or Right-arrow), there is a new global option "all typing goes to the command window". There is no easy way of selectively sending some keystrokes to the command window and others to the output window, so this new option is a compromise. When activated, any keystroke action will immediately change the focus to the command window, thus you can always "just start typing" without worrying whether you had left the focus on the output window. *However* you can no longer use Ctrl+C to copy (with this option enabled). Thus you would need to use the *mouse* to perform this action. One way would be to RH-mouse-click and select "copy". Another way would be to use the main "Edit" menu. Even with this option unchecked simple keystrokes (eg. "A", "B") always switch the focus to the command window. Some keystrokes always affected the output window even if the focus was in the command window (eg. PageUp, PageDown) and these will continue to work normally.

16. Fixed bug where if the log file preamble/postamble exceeded 128 characters (after expanding any date/time fields) the entire preamble/postamble would be discarded.

17. Added new button to "command history" window - "send to notepad". This is so you can recall a previous command and send it directly to a notepad window.

18. When starting logging, and choosing to log retrospectively, it now logs your commands (or world.notes) according to the *current* setting of the "log my input" or "log my notes" flags, not according to how they were set when the lines were produced. Without this change it was impossible to retrospectively log your input, if you had not checked "log my input" when you typed the lines.
