*********************************************************************** * * * GEM Spooler history: * * * *********************************************************************** Version Changes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.x-1.0 Early versions of GEM Spooler never really left our harddisks. 2.0 First generally available GEM Spooler version (shareware) 2.1 GEM Spooler now has movable dialog boxes. New option: prompt for job settings. GEM Spooler can now ask for the job settings in every GEM program, whenever a job is added to the queue. Let'em Fly users can now also enable the shortcut option. Let'em Fly had problems with the resource file of version 2.0 while scanning for the shortcuts: it bombed on blanked G_TEXT objects. Although it shouldn't, we adapted our resource a little... (for your convenience) "Activate burst mode ?" will not appear if there are no jobs. The "Bytes printed" indication is now correct (version 2.0 displayed the bytes printed for each block only) 2.1b GEM Spooler survives resolution changes on the TT 2.2 GEM Spooler 2.2 is faster ! The standard evnt_multi() call was replaced by an alternative 'multi-event' call, that doesn't burden the stack. The net result is a faster spooler. Cosmetic change: the mover in the GEM Spooler dialogs has been restyled (it looks nearly the same as Flydial or Mydial movers) The problems with Tempus and with the Butler James clock are solved. These problems were caused by interrupt collisions between GEM Spooler and Tempus or James. Nobody's fault, because this was caused by a peculiarity of TOS when dealing with interrupts. New option: Intelligent filter (Setup). With this option set, GEM Spooler will check if a file really contains text before activating the filter. If the filter was set for a binary file, GEM Spooler will ignore it. This lets you set the filter always ON, no matter what file has to be spooled ! Filters now have a real name (16 characters). GEM Spooler will show this name in the Printer dialog instead of the filename (which happened to be GSPOOL2.CTB all the time). The names of the buttons User1, User2, User3, User4 can now be changed in the PDF file. The Job dialog will now give the name of the job instead of "(this job)". All utility programs use MyDial by Olaf Meisiek, featuring: movable dialogs, shortcut buttons etc. Serial printing avoids problems with input-output redirecting programs (solution suggested by Atari ST ProfiBuch) A terrible bug has been removed: if the buffer size was too high (e.g. 64Kb), the spooler didn't print. Sorry for this one ! 3.0 GEMSpool now uses SkyDial dialogs and so do the GEMSpool utilities. All GEM Spooler dialogs can now be key driven. All files (Log, PDF, CTB) are now named GSPOOL.*; the accessory name is now GSPOOL. This is done to provide a unified identifier for programs that call GEM Spooler (GSPOOL2 was version dependent). The queue capacity (number of jobs) can be changed Job log is now moved to the new location after changing the spool path The GEM Spooler accessory is now also available in German 3.0f Works on the Falcon030 too. 3.0g Some minor approvements for the Falcon030 Some small redirection errors (reported by Martin Mertens) have been corrected. 3.0h Modified 'Prompt for jobsettings' to cooperate with MultiTOS 3.1 Modifications for multitasking GEM : non modal dialogs, enhanced 'Prompt for jobsettings', continuous updating of the job queue. Support of 3D buttons on the Falcon. A small bug in CTBBUILD has been corrected (reported by Martin Mertens). A better layout of some dialogs: main dialog, printer dialog; Setup and Timingdialog were brought together in one Setup dialog. The size of the spool buffer can be changed. Multiple jobs can be selected for processing. The 'Printer offline' detection can be held back: several retries are possible before an error is generated (to give a little more time to some slow laser printers). Some rarely used features have been removed: Burst mode (makes no sense under interrupt driven spooling), activate spooler by hotkeys (could interfere with some applications)... Le GEM Spooler nouveau est arriv‚. The GEM Spooler accessory and manuals now also exist in French (thanks to Pascal Freche). The GEM Spooler 3.1 manuals are also available in German (thanks to Achim Steigert). The Dutch manuals are available again in TEX-DVI format 3.1b Two new options: - Force FCLOSE: This option makes applications that don't close their printer handles properly cooperate with GEM Spooler - MPT slots: the number of MPT slots indicates how many additional logical printers GEM Spooler can monitor. Two usages: a) expert users who desire to print with more than 2 applications simultaneously under MultiTOS. b) users who are confronted with ill-behaved applications that consume more printer handles than they really need to print Modifications to take advantage of new features in AES 4.0 (MultiTOS): - Shell redraw. Desktop file windows will be redrawn after GEM Spooler file operations (in NEWDESK or any system shell that accepts the SH_RDRAW message). - The name "GEM Spooler 3.1b" will appear in the accessory/application menu even when the spooler is started as program - Support of the drag & drop protocol of MultiTOS. Files dragged upon the GEM Spooler window in NEWDESK (or any other program that supports ARGS drag & drop) will be added to the queue. - A resolution change does not longer abort the print process. The active job is not reset, but is resumed. This is different than in previous TOS versions, where a resolution change caused a print job to be reset, just like after a system reset. Cosmetics: the mover object was slightly restyled SkyDial: some user defined objects were optimized (faster drawing) Job dialog enhanced: - Popup menus 3.2 Dialogs can be centered or opened on their previous position Keyware version of GEM Spooler. 3.2c Little bug in the registration procedure removed 3.2d Redirection problem with Gemini 1.99 solved SkyDial adapted to loadable system fonts 3.2e Obscure problem with VSCR cookies under BlowUp solved. Reported by Martyn Dryden. 3.2f 'Redraw bug' corrected. This bug occurs under Winx or MagiC (reported by Werner Reichert and Jens Cardinal) 3.2g Font problems under Geneva avoided by disabling loadable AES font support for Geneva versions under 1.04 3.3 3D look implemented ST-Guide help interface and help pages 3.3b Problem when loading as accessory under TOS 1.62 solved (reported by Jeremy Troth) Steven Van Rossen, March 1995