Change Log

• The version 2.0.2 from 24jun2001 contains some features from Gforth (e.g. stdin/stdout/stderr, and Gforth's DO..LOOP extension). Furthermore, object instantiation is faster and the initialization of object instance variables is different (you have to call the init function now in the init function of the parent). I don't like embedded object instance variables, anyway, and MINOS does not use them (use object pointers instead). Poll: Who uses embedded object instances?

• The version 2.0.1 from 22apr2001 contains some fixes, and a larger example (the OpenSched GUI). Dictionaries may now be as large as the heap allows. The Imlib binding now works for current Imlibs. Textfields can now directly edit string and integer variables.

• The version 2.0.0 from 28jan2001 is the first one that contains a version number. This version number will be incremented for each release, and also be part of the "bigFORTH" environment query. Furthermore, I fixed some bugs in the debugger (though not all), made file creation actually use the mode, and fixed a few other bugs and annoyances. There's also a Windows release this time.

• The version from 09oct2000 exports all the ANS Forth file wordset from DOS (no more also DOS required), fixes bugs in the floating point number conversion (precision on ASCII->float, rounding on float->ASCII), and some other bugs I don't remember anymore. No Windows release this time.

• The version from 15aug2000 fixes two bugs in the NT version, the 50% CPU consumption reported by the task manager, and the inability to detect modifier keys on mouse clicks. Furthermore, I backported the interfaces to bigFORTH's OOF. There are some minor fixes, too.

• The version from 09jul2000 fixes two class-browser related bugs in Windows (the opening but is only circumvented by making the window smaller, the redraw bug of too deeply nested widgets is solved by making the callback stack larger). Floating point contains now words to generate strings (same as output, just with $ instead of . at the end). Theseus now fills in stack comment and drops for actions with non-default stack effect.

• The version from 13jun2000 fixes a few show-stopper bugs, mainly on Windows NT (where the install process was broken). The few bugs (reference to idle.str, problems with integer conversion in float.fb) in the Linux version are fixed, too.

• The version from 04jun2000 contains lots of bug fixes, and again is made more compatible with Gforth.

  • Command line options are even more like Gforth.
  • Stream files are now .fs files, screen files are .fb files, images are .fi files, and modules are .fm files.

• The version from 12mar2000 contains further improvements:

  • Improved file reading is bug-fixed and again faster.
  • Command line options are more like Gforth.
  • Literal no longer state-smart (like in Gforth).
  • Much faster terminal output when scrolling.
  • create-file now has an additional option: exe to create executable files on Unix filesystems.
  • The source package has been renamed - it's the basic distribution.
  • Vocabulary cleanup: the widget library vocabulary now is called minos.
  • SQL works now with PostgreSQL 6.5.1, but no longer with PostgreSQL 6.4, due to unresolvable incompatibility between both libraries (unfortunately, they have exactly the same name).

• The version from 27feb2000 contains some more suggestions and small enhancements:

  • The editor menues are now a bit more conforming to common UI standards.
  • Locals are more like in Gforth, and support doubles, floats, and records.
  • The waveform viewer is a bit restructured to allow dynamic waveform usage.
  • File reading/repositioning is improved.

• The version from 13feb2000 fixes some remaining bugs people reported me, and clicking in Windows also sets kbshift. Also, Theseus now supports cut&paste of dialogs, and cleans up after closing the window (no memory leak anymore). Stable parts like patterns, icons, Enlightenment styles already have a revision number 1.0.0.

• The version from 23jan2000 fixes the key-hanger bug in Windows NT (and probably also Windows 95, but I didn't test it there). The nasty bug in Theseus that makes the example impossible to do is gone now.

• The version from 17jan2000 adds components as widgets in Theseus. Look at the Abacus calculator as example (each bead string is a component).

  The documentation now produces better PDF output, but still no outside contributions in sight. If you want to help translating and improving the documentation, join! If you want just to look at what's up there now, look at the documentation project page.

• The version from 09jan2000 cleans up a few bugs further bugs (especially in Theseus), and for all of you who expected the big computer crashdown, and are disappointed now, there's an Abacus as example.

  I put up the documentation on Sourceforge, and created a framework to get started. If you want to help translating and improving the documentation, join! If you want just to look at what's up there now, look at the documentation project page.

• The version from 31dec1999 cleans up a few bugs, adds some features, especially spheres and cylinders as primitives to the 3D turtle graphics, and has a better Christmas-tree. The class browser and other applications of VIEW now use an already open window of the same file, if available. I'm working on the documentation, but don't have yet anything new to put on the net.

• The version from 19dec1999 (mostly) completes the tabulator feature. You can now create real table rows/columns with htab/vtab boxes (the outer table box can be any ordinary vertical or horizontal box; it should have the other orientation than the table rows). All table boxes must have the same number of elements. There's also a tableinfotextfield to align text input fields. What's still missing is a multicolumn/multirow option.

• The version from 12dec1999 adds a tabulator feature. The menues in the editor use this feature to tab the hot key description. A tabulator hbox will follow, allowing to create real tables. I also reduced the Windows package in size by creating xbigforth.sys and float.bfm while installing.

• The version from 28nov1999 fixes the newly introduced bugs in the Windows version. Since christmas is approaching, I started with a chrismas tree as another example for the 3D turtle graphics. The description of the dragon graphics is now available in English, too.

• The version from 07nov1999 focuses on Windows improvements. I managed to run it under Wine and use the debugging facilities of Wine to make things better. Tooltips are now owned by the parent window, and don't change the focus; however, menus still change that (I don't know how to grab the keyboard for a owned window; the Menu modal loop seems to be something only Windows can do). Polygon drawing problems are fixed. The cursor numbers in my MSDN copy are wrong, I took the real ones. The stupid command line bug is fixed. Setup now lets you choose your ID.

• The version from 01nov1999 completes the transition of the OpenGL library to the new library interface, and also fixes a number of bugs reported by other people. Due to Ewald Rieger: Components now take the title string as topmost argument, Theseus doesn't crash if you close it without saving, ^L from the Editor loads stream files from the current cursor position, empty boxes don't crash the arrow navigator. Due to John Drake: the samplets for Windows work better. Things to do here: find out why the gears examples still don't work as under Linux (cut teeth on the blue gear in gears-old.m, no blue gear at all in gears.m. I suppose it's just a buggy OpenGL ICD.

• The version from 24oct1999 polishes the C library interface change. It now works on Linux, Win98, and WinNT. I added a preliminary chinese and japanese terminal option and 16 bit font support for X11 (no unicode, gb/jis encoding). The Windows version now doesn't display the annoying console window for GUI apps anymore.

• I've put the Windows port of 21oct1999 up for testing; it runs (at least up to what I tested) on NT and has obvious unresolved problems (such as ShellExecute crashes the system and OpenGL problems) on Win98. Since library bindings now need to know about the exact number of parameters even on Windows, a number of errors may have slipped through. I'm really asking me why I'm doing this...

  Current version is 17oct1999. This version changes the C library interface significantly. It now uses the stack provided by the system, and shuffles data around to that stack. This gives better stability, as the stack of C calls won't grow into the Forth system. It also allows to pass floating point variables from the Forth FP stack to C functions, as well as to pass parameters in order (as written in the C declaration). The library function declaration interface has also changed, but there's a legacy mode which translates old libraries (as I'm too lazy to adopt all at once). The OpenGL library is partly adapted to the new syntax and semantics. Currently, there is no Windows version, this stuff has to be ported over.

• Current version is 03oct1999, the adaption of the intermediate Windows version; there's an intermediate Windows version from 28sep1999. Due to a disk crash I had no time to do other things, and Windows still doesn't run (neither 95 nor NT).

  Thanks to MPE's benchmark (ported with some help from Stephen Pelc from MPE), I fixed an annoying bug in the Windows version. This fixed version also performs the benchmark division primitives faster. You find the benchmark in the file benchmark.str.

• The version from 26sep1999 fixes bugs and adds features. I've compiled it for Windows too, since it looks promising stable. Theseus now manages included files explicitely (not through the class name anymore), you can add filenames in the context menu of the dialog. All text-based widgets render their text through a font class, and Theseus allows to change these fonts (no font selector yet, it's just a string from xfontsel - I emulate the string parsing under Windows). The other highlight is the class browser. You can click on a class, and get source and a list of methods and variables. Clicking on them takes you to the definition of the method/variable.

  Thanks to MPE's benchmark (ported with some help from Stephen Pelc from MPE), I fixed an annoying bug in the Windows version. This fixed version also performs the benchmark division primitives faster. You find the benchmark in the file benchmark.str.

• The version from 15aug1999 works with overlays (chooses depth 24 even if not default, thus it now handles visuals and creates colormaps on demand). The close method now works a lot more like some months ago. Displays no longer have map and unmap, and use show and hide instead; as any other widget, too.

• The version from 08aug1999 contains some cleanups. The 8bpp dither code is much improved and allows to select colors at run-time. OpenGL with XFree86 3.9.15 kind of works (you have to set canvas-mode to 4, see xbigforth.cnf for an example). Both the turtle graphics canvas and the OpenGL canvas have a new actor (the click actor) to react on clicks. I included forthker.sys in the source distribution so that the source distribution is self-containing (except the data part), just type make to generate the rest. I deprecated libc5 support, I want to force you to update ;-). It still should be possible to update a libc5 based system you already have by compiling the new source: remove forthker.sys after unpacking, and type make. There's also a bit more documentation now.

• The version from 11jul1999 fixes a number of annoying things, and contains new features. I don't remember all of them, since there was no release for quite a time, but here are those I remember: Bernd Beuster added load/store support for MMX assembler opcodes. bigFORTH should finally work with glibc 2.1 systems. The dragon looks even better now, and uses textures when the ICD on Windows supports it. The component stuff has matured a bit, but still it isn't possible to use components with Theseus. Help now works under Windows, too (and no need for MSVCRT to execute from Theseus).

• The version from 02may1999 incorporates some of the topics that have been discussed at the German FIG meeting last weekend in Oberammergau. First, Theseus is now more reuse friendly and generates components except for windows with menues. Components are boxes, not windows. Theseus can still read old .m files, but may have one or two problems with them. Canvas and GLcanvas have a outer object pointer to access the component they are created in. This is work in progress, not a new beta.

• The version from 19apr1999 fixes an annoying bug in the pixmap load routine. XDestroyImage destroyed our own memory segment. This broke the last version when using the default theme and opening Theseus - since I received no report, obviously noone was testing it. The new version also uses the font class to handle strings, but just as before - the plan is to allow different fonts per object.

  I've compiled a Windows version on 20apr1999. It looks as fine as currently possible. There are still the random crashes in WaitMultipleObjects, whatever reasons that has. The dragon also is rendered completely in black, while the gears seem to work.

• The version from 11apr1999 is a major step towards completeness, and contains a lot of changes. First, only windows take a display argument, all other widgets set their dpy when being assigned to a display. This means incompatibility, you have to remove the display of all your handwritten sources. Theseus converts the old format automatically. There are a lot of other Theseus fixes.

  Furthermore, there's a new Enlightenment style, which uses the icons of the ShinyMetal style that comes as one of the default Enlightenment 0.15 style (see new Screenshot). The Windows style also looks a lot more like real Windows 95.

  Please test this version throroughly, and report all the bugs your find. I know there are some lurking around, and I want to find them. I want to leave the alpha stage, and finally go beta. This one is without Windows version, since the changes need work on the Win95 part.

• The version from 14mar1999 contains several fixes with glibc (libpq.so.2 for PostgreSQL, some tries to get it working with glibc 2.1), fixes in Windows (backing finally works), tuning in the 3D turtle graphics, and a new example (tree.m).

• The version from 28feb1999 cleans up the 3D turtle graphics, real smooth rendering, and better factoring. It also adds a bit more documentation, and fixes a number of bugs and annoyances in Theseus: unnamed objects don't generate names anymore (except indexes), so the problem with menues wents away (don't name menu-items!). Furthermore, displays and boxes can have names, too.

• The version from 22feb1999 (almost) completes the 3D turtle and the swap dragon (now with wings and feets - and smooth rendering). There is also some documentation for the 3D turtle graphics. bigFORTH now runs on glibc based systems, too. Theseus supports the editor widget.

• The version from 07feb1999 further improves the 3D turtle graphics. The swap dragon now has heads and wings, and just misses legs. It works now better with MESA, either. There is also a Windows version now, but since my OpenGL on Windows doesn't support textures very good, the dragon doesn't work that fine there.

• The version from 31jan1999 improves the 3D turtle graphics. Almost everything missing last time is here now: automatic texture generation ((x,y), (z,phi), (r,phi)), support routines, shading selection, etc.. Dropping points from a path still is missing. Look at dragon.m to see my first try to create the swap dragon as 3D turtle object (the heads and the wings are still missing). Be aware: this seems to trigger quite a lot of bugs either in MESA or in my way of using it.

• The version from 10jan1999 adds 3D turtle graphics. It allows much easier creation of 3D vertexes than OpenGL itself. Compare gears-new.str with gears.str to see the difference. The turtle graphic creates vertexes in rounds, in cylinder coordinates around the 3D turtle.

  The turtle graphics isn't finished yet, it lacks automatic texturing and can only handle a subset of all possible pathes. The MIDI player now displays notes and volume (midi-plus.m). I also added a few new optimization patterns to bigFORTH's code generator. There are floating point locals (with F: prefix, like Gforth) now.

• The version from 21dec98 enhances the Enlightenment style. See the new screenshot for more. If you have problems with the wave viewer in Windows, get the file wave-form.str from the Linux source packet. Sorry, no new Windows version this time.

• The version from 13dec98 fixes several Windows bugs. First, I keep a DC for every bitmap around now instead of creating them when bitmaps need to be copied. Then, OpenGL now works! It turned out that the order of loading the OpenGL library, creating pixmaps, selecting pixel formats and so on is very critical, and certainly not described anywhere.

• The version from 12dec98 fixes further bugs and makes bigFORTH easier to install. A fatal bug of the Windows version has been fixed. The Linux kernel has fixed my trace method. xbigforth for X11 now understands the -geometry option.

• The version from 19oct98 fixes many bugs in MINOS, Theseus, and even some in bigFORTH. All ANS Forth file operations are now per default part of bigFORTH. I also provided a new compilation for Windows, and Theseus now runs much better on Windows 95.

• The version from 30aug98 fixes several bugs in bigFORTH and MINOS. I found out that the Linux core developer disabled my trace method from Linux 2.1.113 (hope they fix that). Theseus now can handle viewports a bit better (but there seem to be some remaining flaws).

• The version from 16aug98 adds menu handling to Theseus. A menu is just a dialog box with menu-entries. Type the name of the dialog box in the "Menu:" text field of the menu title. There are a lot of bug fixes in Theseus, too. I changed the colors in the Enlightenment style (wood pattern instead of boring blue), colors are now in a separate file. Windows can now have icons as hint for the window manager (not all window manager support this).

• The version from 09aug98 adds some bug fixes for Theseus, pointed out by Matthias Warkus. It also allows to install bigFORTH with make install into /usr/local/lib/bigforth, and bigFORTH now tries to open files read-only, if it gets "permission denied". There are several other bug fixes, and a preliminary font object (which isn't used yet). I tried a native X viewport (using client windows), but the performance wasn't good (see file viewport.str).

• The version from 19jul98 fixes a number of Windows bugs. The waveform viewer is improved, too. The menu handling stuff is still not done, but at least can save and load menu-windows. Numerous other bugs have been fixed in Theseus, too. The Enlightenment style uses the new imlib (1.6), there's an imlib-old.str for those who haven't updated yet (I hope it still works, haven't tried).

• The version from 12jul98 contains added features in Theseus. The waveform viewer now is editable by Theseus (see waveform.m), though this is yet just a demo (loads only one file). A number of bugs has been fixed. Theseus now also can create menu-windows. The menu stuff itself isn't done yet, it just can handle different types of resources.

• The version from 28jun98 fixes further annoying bugs. It also contains bug fixes for the Windows version. Theseus runs/crawls under NT, but crashes under 95 (perhaps Bill wants me to update to Windows 98? :-). Theseus has a cut&paste stack now, and uses the mouse buttons to distinguish between editing modes (works faster). I also compiled the Windows package with the Inno Setup compiler, so the Windows fraction now is able to install MINOS with a double-click. As installation is the most important thing for this fraction, I hope they are fine now (read the file BUGS for the remaining annoyances).

• The version from 21jun98 fixes several annoying bugs. Theseus should run on Windows, though I didn't compile a Windows version yet (soon to come - there are some bugs to fix in there yet).

• The version from 02jun98 contains bug fixes and further suggestions from the Forth Tagung '98. Especially there is a menu for the dialog window. The system compiles now even if not all libraries are available (this is good if you don't want to install PostgreSQL or MESA yet, but benefit of the other features of MINOS/bigFORTH).

• The version from 01may98 contains bug fixes and suggestions from the German Forth Tagung '98 in Moers. I found the time to compile it under Windows again. Archive format includes gzip and bzip2, since the web server seems to misunderstand the bzip2 format, which results in corrupted files when downloading with Windows. Fixes also the MESA problems.

• The version from 05apr98 adds a half-implemented PostgreSQL interface (based on libpq), further improves the Enlightenment style, and has some bug fixes in Theseus. The time event management is used to delay tooltips.

• The version from 01mar98 improves the Enlightenment style. See a Screenshot. This is quite rudimentary, and not nearly as cute as E itself. I also added time event management in the event task. Add an event with schedule ( xt o time -- ), invocation happens automatically (or just do a invoke ( -- flag ) on your favourite display - it returns true if it scheduled an event), and on deletion, use cleanup ( o -- ) to remove pending events.

• The version from 15feb98 adds a first try of an Enlightenment style, just load Estyle.str in the command line (i.e. type xbigforth include Estyle.str at the prompt).

• The version from 25jan98 corrects some things in the Windows 95 style, to get a current version on Windows eventually. It also adds a beamer display, which allows to create simultaneous drawn copies of any widgets, e.g. two different views onto a text edit and such like. There's also some document update. This is the third public alpha round.

• The version from 18jan98 contains further bug fixes. It's now possible to create, save and load objects with icons. A MIDI player class is in the file midi.str. Example usage:

  midi : midi1
  s" jarre2.mid" midi1 file
  midi1 start
  

  This would play the MIDI file jarre2.mid. The method stop stops playing the current file, new files can be assigned by applying further file methods.

• The version from 29dec97 contains a number of changes and bug fixes. It is not really fine yet, and still requires improvements. It contains style support, so e.g. xbigforth include w95style.str makes it look a bit Windows-95-ish. The text fields are now composed, and take the per-stroke action. Libraries are loaded on usage, so to run MINOS, you don't need to have the MESA library; you only need it to compile it and to use the OpenGL widget. xbigforth isn't linked against all used libraries, since this is not necessary any longer.

• The version from 23nov97 improves menu handling. It's now much easier to create a menu on the fly (<object> menu-frame popup does the job and returns true if an item was selected).

• The version from 09nov97 improves Theseus look and feel. Also, there is the beginning of a help for Theseus. It is HTML help, and you can use your favourite HTML browser (Netscape or kdehelp, set the BROWSER shell variable accordingly). Look at the help files. The licensing has been resolved, too. MINOS is now GPL with the restriction that you must add your name to the credit file if you changed things. For creation of a shrink-wrapped distribution, you need the commercial license. If you want your changes to become part of the official distribution, you must agree to the use under the commercial license.

• The version form 02nov97 contains little changes.

• The version from 19oct97 fixes some bugs. I tried to port it to Windows 95/NT, but it doesn't really work yet (at least not with Windows 95). However, there's an actual Windows 95 version there.

• The version from 12oct97 adds an example to the OpenGL canvas (glcanvas.m), you can load it into Theseus or run it from the prompt with xbigforth include glcanvas.m. It crashes with MESA with 16bpp, but works fine in 32bpp or 8bpp. Theseus also supports now additional code in the class, and tries to load a file with the same name as the widget itself and suffix .str, if it exists. This eases add of code to make things work (like the OpenGL example).

• The version from 05oct97 adds OpenGL support (with MESA and the glcanvas widget). I haven't done excessive testing, though. To program a GL widget, load the floating point module with "import float float also", and get the floating point values with !<fp number> f>fd" for double numbers and !<fp number> f>fs for single numbers. I hope the archive isn't broken as last time.

• The version from 21sep97 now uses the multiline edit control within Theseus to edit code (at least most of the time), yet doesn't allow to click it into your app. It allows also to add code to the instance declaration. Still no windows version (it should however compile right out of the box).

• The version from 14sep97 fixes many bugs with the multiline edit control, but does not yet include it into Theseus. Other bugs are fixed, too. Sorry, no Windows version this time.

• The versions form 07sep97 contain some bugs fixed, adds a waveform viewer as example, and has tooltips as new feature. This is the first entry in the change log.

• I started with MINOS short after 15aug96. In November, I had some demos ready, and im April, Theseus was able to create a calculator. Since during that time I ``only'' had to learn for my exam, the most intensive work happend there.