Sloup Change History 0.0-2.1

Sloup 2.1 (9 Jan 98)

2.1g,N,-2,~G (2 Jan 98)

• 2.x: package dumper should convert more packages correctly; also, fixed error after dump was done
• 2.x: now plays registered sounds. for new sounds, see www.tactile.com
• 2.x: "empty" Notes entries now dumped, e.g., for stationery items besides Checklist/Outline

2.1f-2 (11 Nov 97)

• name change: from Slurpee to Sloup
• internal appSymbol = Sloup:TKnollSys. you'll need to remove old package and respecify your preferences.

2.1e-2 (14 Oct 97)

• fixed bug (introduced in 2.1d) in transferring binary resources, e.g., bitmaps

2.1d-2 (4 Oct 97)

• 2.x: title now added w/o cr to list, checkList Notes
• 2.x: large string/binary objects are 'flushed' more (fewer reboots?)
• 2.x: Newtworks support. You can import/export documents as plain text (no RTF, styles, graphics). this behaves almost identically to Notes: you can include title, labels and viewFont slots in entrySpec; ERASE!, REPLACE! and DUMP! work; you can include ----- to separate multiple documents in one Sloup file.

2.1c-2 (2 Oct 97)

• (1.x versions may be uploaded later)
• 2.x: Packages DUMP! "directory": includes frozen packages, omits built-in packages
• 2.x: more packages (including multipart) should be converted/dumped correctly (copy protected packages and some 2.x packages with "relocation headers" are not dumped)
• added keyboardMap option (similar to translationTable) to "sloupSpec"; when in Inspect? mode, it substitutes strings -- this might be useful when entering non-English characters, or certain control characters not mapped by your terminal emulator. for example, if backspace, left cursor or right cursor weren't recognized on Newton, you could specify: {keyboardMap: ["backspace*", "\u0008", "left cursor*", "\u001C", "right cursor*", "\u001D", ],...} *(you can discover what actual codes are sent via {debug: true})

2.1b,N,-2 (24 Jul 97)

• 1.x: fixed Notes folder ERASE! (only Unfiled, All worked; otherwise error), DUMP! (with delay) caused error
• 1.x: Package soup disabled
• 2.x: large/many binary objects should xfer with fewer crashes
• 2.x: registered sounds also appear in Sound picker

2.1a,-2 (26 May 97)

• fixes problem where Notes label was ignored for storing Notes (unless REPLACE! slot was used)

2.0 (final) (22 May 97)

2.0f-2 (15 May 97)

• added a "longString" data type which allows a multi-line string to be stored in a soup slot, similar to Notes. example (showing how to store HTML documents directly in Newt's Cape's cache)
• fix so Notes DUMP!, REPLACE!, ERASE! will work with SuperNotepad

2.0e-2, e-2~G (17 Apr 97)

• fixed a problem related to DUMPing variable length arrays, e.g, in Names

2.0d-2, d-2~G (11 Apr 97)

• Notes DUMP should avoid printing headers for entries not included in current class
• fixes to support import of gray scale graphics (this will require Newt's Cape Graphic Converter or other tools to use a new bitmap format)
• localized German version available: -2~G thanks to Reinhold Schoeb; Unix/Linux users should look at NewtonLink

2.0c, cN, c-2 (10 Mar 97)

• for NOS 2.x, gets/sets proper 'title field for Notes (for 1.x, first line of text is pseudo-title) for creating Notes, {title: "string", ...} uses first line of entry as title; for DUMPing Notes, other fields (e.g., labels and _modTime) are dumped first, then title (if any), followed by text. Note: if you are loading Newt source code, do not put the Newt header in the title since Newt is expecting it as part of the main body.
• if Refresh? turned off, avoids status display during DUMP
• Sound? checkbox is now a picker (like Newt's Cape's): none (for no sound) or names of built-in sounds
• eliminated register button in -2 version
• for NOS 2.x, binary objects now use VBOs (also compressed) so can be much larger, depending on available store (for 1.x, still limited to available heap)
• you can use Sloup via NTK Inspector. pass in a "file" via the :addFile API (part of the helperApp mechanism), which has the following 4 parameters:

  MIME type

  usually "text/plain". ignored for now.

  file name

  a string. ignored for now

  file

  lines of Sloup commands. be sure to quote any " with \

  options

  usually nil or {}. ignored for now

  DUMPed results are Printed. (This has advantage that if you use Inspector and get Sloup errors, you can do a stack trace and help me track them down!). For example,

  GetRoot().|Sloup:TKnollSys|:addFile("text/plain", "foo.slq",
  "Notes
  {labels: 'Personal}
  DUMP!", nil)

• for NOS 2.x, you can DUMP names of packages; an individual package can be transferred and installed or DUMPed using binary "hex text" format. this is to support alternate package extractors/installers, e.g., NewtonLink on Unix.

  Package // names of all packages
  {}
  DUMP!
  
  Package // dump an individual package
  {packageName: "foo", packageEntry: "binary:packageEntry"}
  DUMP!
  
  Package // dump an individual package
  {packageName: "string", packageEntry: "binary:packageEntry"}
  foo	!\
  01234567....
  BYE!

2.0b (4 Dec 96)

• fix: the variable DUMP feature in 2.0a didn't quite work...
• fix: last data field was getting lost (unless it was a multiline entry)
• DUMPing Bitmaps soup broke if there were PICTs {name: "symbol", bitmap: "bits"} -- should handle both

2.0a (29 Nov 96)

• feature: DUMP variable length array with single type

1.9 (final) (24 Nov 96)

• info button and about box (URLs are active if Newt's Cape is installed)
• "connected"/"disconnected" status immediately below Paste (useful in Inspect? mode)
• EVAL! command evaluates arbitrary NewtonScript expressions, e.g., EVAL!3+4
• fixed a bug with "empty" lines (lines with whitespace were treated as data)
• fixes some errors when Newt is installed
• added binary type prefix, e.g., "binary:myclass"
• added "dateTimeSpecs:..." for more flexible date/time output
• added pseudo-title field for Notes DUMP
• DUMP can list all soups
• added :addFile API for Newt's Cape helperApp (e.g., transfer Sloup files via web)
• DUMP for type 'boolean prints true or nil
• added noAddDelimCR to dump prefs; modified recordDelimiter, soupDelimiter
• translationTable now applied to all lines
• added convertUnicode option to the sloupSpec
• internal cleanup (more 2.x compatible)
• compatible with 1.x and 2.x Newtons

1.8 (8 May 96)

Public release. Summary of changes:

• NOS 2.x: import/export of outlines and checkLists
• new global settings (and mechanism)
• provides AutoConn? checkbox; stores many settings as Preferences
• allows line continuations for soup and entrySpec lines
• added keys for scrollUp and scrollDown
• new types supported: 'dateTime, 'boolean
• DUMP! with empty frame spec exports all fields
• long lines not truncated during DUMP
• prevents accidental soup creation for BYE, DUMP, ERASE, REPLACE
• binary hex strings can contain lowercase a-f in addition to A-F
• recompiled with latest NTK 1.6 and Platform files

1.8g (1 May 96)

• moved RegisterButton
• maps 'string type to "string"
• recognizes 'dateTime type to DUMP dates as 5/1/96 12:23 pm -- format may differ by locale; on input, this is same as 'date
• prevents accidental creation of DUMP, ERASE, REPLACE soups

1.8f (25 Apr 96)

• creates a top-level entrySpec for Sloup itself for setting certain global options. Instead of using _translationTable_ or _totalRecords_ in the data entrySpec, or keySettings slot (via Newt or NTK), you can set these (and new options) in a separate frame.
• Other settings: for regular data soups, you can specify a different field delimiter (default: tab) and also specify whether to strip off surrounding quotes from data values (default: nil) -- sometimes added during export from desktop apps. For example, {fieldDelimiter: ",", stripQuotes: true}.
• DUMP with an empty frame spec {} generates a frame spec (with types) from first entry. Currently, this assumes Newt installed (to use its better print method) and that the first entry in the soup is typical. nil value treated as 'symbol. ("para" and 'bitmap types not currently mapped). This can be handy for discovering structure of soups.
• NOS 2.x: Outlines and CheckLists can be created, dumped, erased in Notes. Initial tabs are used for nesting. For checkLists, use an entrySpec like {..., class: 'checkList}; for outlines, use {..., class: 'list}. To refer to just regular text notes, use {..., class: 'paperRoll}. For input, the default is 'paperRoll; for DUMP, the default is all classes.
• you can define characters for scrolling in Inspect? mode. For example, to define ctrl-uparrow for scrolling up (from ZTerm) and ctrl-downarrow for scrolling down (from ZTerm): {..., scrollUpKey: "\u001E", scrollDownKey: "\u001F",}. The debug setting now prints out chars as 4-char unicode strings.
• added boolean type. (same as symbol for true and nil)
• there may be a reboot problem if you Eval expressions in Notepad if you have Newt installed (just enter/exit Newt once to set a flag; I will fix Newt).

1.8e (14 Mar 96)

• DUMP! and Paste now working (really)

1.8d (6 Mar 96)

• fixed a startup problem that affected just the plain (1.8c) version
• freed up a little more heap upon exit

1.8c (5 Mar 96)

• DUMP! and Paste now working (broken in 1.8b)
• stores Connect config (9600,...,ADSP; if ADSP, host&zone also) as Prefs to be used with AutoConnect
• fixes (yet) another disconnect/quit error

1.8b (14 Feb 96)

• adds AutoConn? checkbox to control whether Sloup connect automatically upon opening
• stores Inspect?, AutoConn?, Sound?, Refresh? as preferences
• allows line continuations for soup and entrySpec lines
• prevents BYE! from being used as a soup name
• adds delay when switching from serial to ADSP (so that disconnect can complete first)
• fixes problem when DUMPing entries with long (>1000 char text fields) [note: the system's SPrintObject function, which Sloup had been using as the default dump function, incorrectly truncates strings to 1001 chars]

1.8a (20 Jan 96)

• binary hex strings can contain lowercase a-f in addition to A-F
• recompiled with latest NTK 1.6 and Platform files. I would be interested in knowing whether communication connections are any better (or worse), especially on OMP.

1.7 (17 Dec 95)

• Newton OS (NOS) 2.x-compatible
• last array in an entrySpec can be variable length (last type repeated as necessary)
• for Notes, last ----- before BYE! no longer required; empty paragraphs ignored correctly
• reverts to old protoEndPoint (as defined in Platform Functions 1.1), so Sloup should work on all MessagePad models [Sloup 1.6 failed on some]
• adds REPLACE!slot command for replacing entries in soups (especially useful for graphics)
• DUMP! command now looks at value of labels for non-Notes, e.g., to dump Names only in Business folder
• shortened buffer lengths to be more heap-friendly for lines longer than 1000 characters (5K for data lines), use continuations \
• bitmaps wider than 32 now handled properly
• version 1.7N (available to registered Sloup & Newt users) includes support for ADSP and faster serial connections (>9600) and has native code to improve transfers by 2-4x

1.6 (4 Aug 95)

• add Sound? and Refresh? checkboxes
• Inspect? makes view smaller; Sloup can be dragged off screen
• better coordination of Print&Notify behavior between Newt and Sloup if you use Newt, you must use Newt 3.1 (earlier versions incompatible)
• ctrl-w (or keySettings.closeKey) closes 'viewFrontMost
• much faster kbd entry for replacing ranges with multiple lines
• DUMP! parameter changes; BYE! parameter additions
• several special entrySpec parameters, e.g., translate to Newton unicode
• date types print as dates (e.g., 7/5/95) rather than integers
• fixed localization problem for "real" numbers (, as decimal point in Europe)
• added "Idxs:" field to show how many indexes a soup has
• version 1.6N (available to registered Sloup & Newt users) includes support for ADSP and faster serial connections (>9600) and has native code to improve transfers by 2-4x

1.5 (30 Apr 95)

• fixes "intern" for symbol values ("true", "nil", and "" (nil) work properly)
• uses "power off handlers" instead of changing Sleep Preference
• filters linefeeds from PC keyboard input in kbd mode
• allows faster entry via typing and pastes
• fixes timing problem (hopefully) related to archiving Sloup after quit
• redefines Write function (in addition to Print and Notify) if Newt is installed

1.4 (30 Jan 95)

• adds Inspector checkbox; when on, sends keyboard input to Newton fields; if Newt installed, outputs Print and Notify results to desktop
• adds Paste button so current field/selection outputs to desktop
• suspends Sleep setting while Connected (eliminates Sleep checkbox)
• changes layout (adjusts size, moves controls)
• customizes Sloup icon; does not "autoclose"
• adds button for Register application & Kagi shareware service
• adds icon for Newt (development environment) if installed

1.3 (20 Nov 94)

• fixes some basic bugs in tab-delimited text xfer (had accidentally removed an "unused" constant), e.g, CasioNam.tab example now works. also, blank lines now properly ignored.
• uses {labels: '_all,...} for ERASE and DUMP
• adds \ line continuation char to combine multiple tab-delimited and hex ("binary") lines e.g., you now can transfer much larger data entries (such as sound resources ~64,000 chars in length) with more terminal emulator programs
• adds No Sleep checkbox to prevent loss of data on long xfers
• shortens view by rearranging, eliminating some status info. view draggable
• more documentation. Sloup now shareware

1.2 (15 Oct 94)

• allows xfer at 56K if MNP supported by terminal emulator (~6x speedup)
• creates new soups and indexes
• trims initial LF (for PC files)
• creates bitmap, sound and code objects from hex (0123456789ABCDEF) ascii strings [for example, it can successfully xfer and convert a 15K hexadecimal character string (on a single line, without running out of memory!) into a 230x230 bitmap object that can be used as an icon]
• conserves memory better
• fixes ERASE! (All)

1.1 (3 Sep 94)

• (General)
• replaces custom Sloup sound with built-in "fun beep" (saves 12K)
• closes Extras drawer
• removes spaces after soup name
• ignores non-existing soup names (type something like "xxx" to see if connection is active)
• starts connection automatically, does not disconnect automatically -- in other words, you never need to tap "Connect" unless you've tapped "Disconnect". Sloup starts waiting immediately; after receiving each file, it beeps and waits for the next.
• adds support for "class:string" type for entrySpec so you can embed 'class' information for strings directly with the value. For a phone entry, you could specify "homePhone:555 1234" for input, and you would get this format if you DUMP!
• source available in Sloup format (sloup.nwt) to registered Newt users
• (Input)
• ignores empty data entries, e.g., blank lines in non-Notes files
• checks that Notes labels is a symbol (or NIL) (avoids mutant soup entries)
• adds viewFont:, height: to entryspec for Notes [see below]
• calculates height of each Note as default
• broadcasts soup changes just once at end of transfer (rather than after each entry) -- more practical to use from within Newt to upload source code
• skips "sortOn fix" for non-Names data
• (Output--Dump)
• dumps multiple paragraphs within a Note as a single entry (without graphics)
• fixes bug of NIL array/frame subfields
• pauses optionally (previously, DUMP paused for 10 seconds). To pause to set up a log/capture file, include the number of seconds followed by a semi-colon, e.g., DUMP!10;

1.0 (6 Jun 94)

• initial public release. changes from betas
• added 10 second delay after a DUMP! to allow time to log/receive/capture a file
• added an ERASE! command to clear out all soup entries or just those in a folder
• added a "para" datatype (useful for adding a note to a Names card)
• disconnects more cleanly

0.0 (Oct 93)

• Original "Slurp" example distributed by Apple DTS

Last updated: 17 Mar 1998

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