BRIEF

Welcome to BRIEF Version 3.1 ---------------------------- Thank you for choosing BRIEF! This READ.ME file contains important information about BRIEF 3.1. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. How to Get Help 2. Installation 3. Summary of New and Changed Features From BRIEF 3.0 to BRIEF 3.1 4. Summary of Mouse Button Assignments for Macros That Use the Mouse 5. Summary of New and Changed Features From BRIEF 2.11 to BRIEF 3.0 6. Corrections to the Documentation 7. Known Problems for BRIEF 3.1 for OS/2 1. HOW TO GET HELP ------------------ If you have any problems, please read this file and the BRIEF manuals first. If you still have a question and need assistance, help is available from the following sources: A. Type GO BORLAND on the CompuServe bulletin board system for instant access to the Borland forums with their libraries of technical information and answers to common questions. Also, on BIX, type JOIN BORLAND and on GEnie type BORLAND. B. Check with your local software dealer or users' group. C. Borland's TECHFAX service. Call (800) 822-4269 for a FAX catalog of entries. D. Borland's DownLoad Bulletin Board (DLBBS) has sample macros and technical information you can download with your modem. Call (408) 439-9096. No special setup is required. E. If you have an urgent problem that cannot wait and you have sent in the license agreement that came with the package, you may call the Borland Technical Support Department at (800) 851-9199. This number is temporary and may change. If this number is not in service, you can call the general Borland Technical Support number (408) 461-9144. Please have the following information ready before calling: 1) Product name and serial number on your original distribution disk. Please have your serial number ready or we will be unable to process your call. 2) Product version number. 3) Computer brand, model, and the brands and model numbers of any additional hardware. 4) Operating system and version number. (The version number can be determined by typing VER at the DOS prompt.) 5) Contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. 6) Contents of your CONFIG.SYS file. 7) Contents of your WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files, if applicable. 2. INSTALLATION --------------- For owners updating from a previous version of BRIEF to BRIEF 3.1, the addition of mouse support requires changes to the _init macro in your initials macro. These changes are done automatically by SETUP, but you must allow SETUP to update your initials macro. At the end of SETUP, when prompted to update your intials macro, either allow the update or write the changes to another file and replace the _init macro in your old initials macro with the _init from the new initials macro. To begin the installation: - Insert the SETUP Disk into drive A or B, depending on your floppy drive configuration and disks purchased. - From the OS/2 prompt, set the drive with the SETUP diskette as the default (if it is not currently the default, type "a:" or "b:" at the prompt and then press <Enter>). - Type "setup" - Press <Enter>. Follow the instructions. For more detail and step-by-step installation, see the "Installing BRIEF" chapter in the User's Guide. 3. SUMMARY OF NEW AND CHANGED FEATURES FROM BRIEF 3.0 TO BRIEF 3.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mouse Support BRIEF supports 2- or 3-button Microsoft-compatible mice. Mouse button assignments are similar to Windows 3.0 button assignments; a complete list is available in Chapter 3, "Command Overview," in the BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 User's Guide. The mouse is also accessible from the macro language by using new macro language functions. Chapter 7, "Programming the Mouse," in the BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 Macro Language Guide describes how to program the mouse. Mouse button assignments for the various macro packages also are included in this document. A sample mouse event handler is available in mouse.cb. Examples of using the mouse inside macros can be found in: buffers.cb dialog.cb dlg_list.cb dlg_menu.cb dlg_mous.cb errorfix.cb help.cb keys.cb prompt.cb pvcs.cb search.cb tlib.cb Mouse support necessitated the addition of close and zoom buttons and scroll bars. If these controls are enabled and your macros create windows, the controls will appear on the windows. The controls can be hidden using set_ctrl_state. To use the controls with the mouse, your macro will require a mouse event handler. The preceding list of macros contains mouse event handlers. Also mouse.cb is a sample event handler. Please see Chapter 7, "Programming the Mouse," in the BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 Macro Language Guide for complete details. Pushing and popping keyboards also affect the current mouse event handler. Redo Command A redo command is now available. Redo allows you to redo previously undone commands until you edit the buffer. Redo is assigned to <Ctrl+u>, which was previously assigned to Scroll Buffer Up. Scroll Buffer Up is now assigned to <Ctrl+e>. EMS Support If EMS memory is available, by default, BRIEF buffers files and macros there. EMS memory can be turned off by setting the environment variable BEMS=0. Popup Menu Added BRIEF supports a popup menu that is actuated using mouse button 2. When actuated, the popup menu appears with its top left corner at the current mouse position. During SETUP, you can choose how you want to use mouse button 2 to display the popup menu, as well as to perform other edits such as cut, copy, and paste. When SETUP displays the "Default button 2 action" prompt, select from one of the two options shown below. "Popup menu" -- If you select this option, mouse button 2 is given the following assignments: # Button 2 click Display popup menu # Button 2 double click Display popup menu # <Ctrl> Button 2 click Execute last menu choice # <Alt> Button 2 click Display last menu # <Shift> Button 2 click Copy to scrap "Quick edit" -- If you select this option, mouse button 2 is given the following assignments: # Button 2 click Copy to scrap # Button 2 double click Paste # <Ctrl> Button 2 click Cut # <Shift> Button 2 click Display popup menu # <Shift+Ctrl> Button 2 click Execute last menu choice # <Shift+Alt> Button 2 click Display last menu Besides using SETUP, you can also change the mouse button 2 assignment by setting a parameter for set_btn2_action. This parameter, which can be either QUICK_MENU or QUICK_EDIT, is defined in win_ctrl.h. If set_btn2_action is not called, the default assignment for mouse button 2 is QUICK_EDIT. The default popup menu that is displayed can be found in \brief\help\popup.mnu. You can customize this menu to suit your preferences. Processing for the popup menu can be found in \brief\help\popup.cb; it provides a multi-level menu structure similar to that of the Help menu. Macro package support can be added to the menu by creating a sub-menu that can be called from the popup menu. To do this, add a line that contains the following: # popup menu choice for sub-menu followed by a semi-colon # "process_popup_menu" # sub-menu name (in quotes) # filename of the sub-menu (in quotes) # height, width, line and column values (optional) For example, the line below adds a new popup menu choice, Display My Menu, that displays the sub-menu in my.mnu whenever it is selected. New Menu, the name of the sub-menu, appears at the top when the sub-menu is displayed. Display My Menu ;process_popup_menu "New Menu" "my.mnu" Check Boxes, Radio Buttons, and Push Buttons Added The Dialog Manager now supports check boxes, radio buttons, and push buttons. For a complete discussion of these features, including the documentation formerly provided in dialog.doc, see Chapter 4, "Using Special Features," in the BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 User's Guide. PWB Macro Included As an alternative to restore.cb, BRIEF now provides a macro called pwb.cb that supports the Microsoft Programmer's Workbench. Restore.cb lets BRIEF save its state information in the PWB state file called current.sts. To use the PWB macro: 1. Set BFILE= to the drive and directory where current.sts resides. PWB keeps current.sts either in the current directory (if no INIT environment variable exists) or in the first drive and directory specified in the INIT variable. For example, if INIT=c:\c600\init;d:\init, then set BFILE=c:\c600\init\current.sts. 2. Replace -mrestore in the BFLAGS variable with -mpwb. BRIEF creates private sections in the state file, and updates the [shared-] and [edit-] sections. Longer Status Line Messages Status line messages now can be 80 characters long. Long messages overwrite the Line:/Col: display and stay on the screen for at least three seconds, until the Line:/Col: display needs to be updated or the time changes. File names and prompts displayed in the message area can also overwrite the Line:/Col: display. Compiler Support Support for Borland C++ Version 2.0 has been added. Support for the following compilers has been upgraded to the latest versions: # Lahey Fortran, F77L, Version 4.10, F77L-EM/32, Version 4.00 # Alsys ADA, Version 4.4.2 These upgrades required a change in the error-handling macros. 4. SUMMARY OF MOUSE BUTTON ASSIGNMENTS FOR MACROS THAT USE THE MOUSE -------------------------------------------------------------------- ─────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────── Macro <Key Assignment> │<Modifier> Button Command │ Region ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Buffers <Alt+b> │ #Delete the file │ #<Ctrl> Click 2 #Edit the file │ # Dbl Click 1 #Exit │ # Click 1 │ Outside list │ Click 1 │ On close button │ #Select an entry │ # 1 Down, Up, Drag, Click #Write the file │ # Click 2 ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Errorfix <Ctrl+p> │ #Close the error file window │ # Click 2 │ Click 1 │ Outside error file │ window #Pick an error entry │ # Click 1 #Select an entry │ # 1 Down, Up, Drag ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Help <Alt+h> │ #Display key assignment │ # Click 1 │ In help text window #Pick a topic │ # Click 1 │ In help menu #Previous screen or menu │ # Click 2 │ Click 1 │ Outside window or menu │ Click 1 │ On close button #Exit help │ #<Ctrl> Click 2 ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Keys <F10>keys │ ┌───────────────────────┐ │ │In left window, default│ │ │menu handling plus: │ │ └───────────────────────┘ │ #Exit │ # Click 1 │ Outside both windows #Insert a new entry │ # Click 2 │ Click 1 │ In right window #Select an entry │ # Click 1 ┌────────────────────────┐ │ │In right window, default│ │ │menu handling plus: │ │ └────────────────────────┘ │ #Delete an entry │ #<Ctrl> Click 2 #Exit │ Click 1 │ Outside both windows │ Click 1 │ On left close button #Insert a new entry │ # Click 2 │ #To change to either window │ # Click │ In window │ ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Menus │ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ │Default menu handling plus:│ │ └───────────────────────────┘ │ #Exit the menu │ # Click 1 │ On close button │ Click 1 │ Outside menu #Pick an entry │ # Click 1 │ In client area #Select an entry │ # 1 Down, Up, Drag ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Prompt <Alt+e> │ ┌────────────────────────┐ │ │When a list of files is │ │ │displayed, default menu │ │ │handling plus: │ │ └────────────────────────┘ │ #Close the file list │ # Click 2 #Select and edit the file(s) │ # Dbl Click 1 #Select a file for editing │ # Click 1 #Toggle all selections │ #<Shift> Click 1 │ ─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────── Routines <Ctrl+g> │ #Default menu handling │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5. SUMMARY OF NEW AND CHANGED FEATURES FROM BRIEF 2.11 TO BRIEF 3.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Keystroke macros now can be saved (<Alt+F8>) and restored (<Alt+F7>). Windows now can be zoomed to full screen (and back to original size) by pressing either <Alt+F2> or <Ctrl+z>. A macro language with C-like syntax has been added. To translate macros from the original syntax, BRIEF contains the utility bc.exe. Using the -i option lets you translate macros back to the original syntax from the BRIEF macro language syntax. A macro language debugger has been added. It is a full-screen, source-level debugger that can debug programs written in either of the BRIEF macro languages. Smart indenting and template editing now is provided for Ada, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, COBOL, and Modula-2. C support still exists. The maximum number of lines allowed in a file now exceeds two billion. To support longer line numbers, integers in the macro language now are 32 bits. Several new macro language functions have been added: inq_window_info, create_tiled_window, display_windows, &=, |=, inq_top_left, copy_keyboard, for, do, inq_keystroke_macro, and save_keystroke_macro. Parameters to other functions have been changed. Control strings now can have up to 10 parameters, and each parameter can be a string or an integer. The restore macro now saves and restores tiled windows, as well as the other information it has always saved. Multiple files can be selected in file completion menus. File completion menus now are sorted into directories and files, and are listed alphabetically within the types. BRIEF might not fully sort the file list for a very large directory (due to time constraints). The Next Error command now correctly locates errors in include files. This version of Brief supports OS/2 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0. 6. CORRECTIONS TO THE DOCUMENTATION ----------------------------------- BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 Macro Language Guide Descriptions of two new mouse functions, inq_mouse_action and set_mouse_action, were omitted from Chapter 8, "Macro Reference." Each is described below. inq_mouse_action: Obtains the name of the current mouse handler. Syntax: inq_mouse_action () Parameters: None. Return value: The string name of the current mouse handler. Description: By calling this function before doing a keyboard_push, you can obtain the name of the handler that was current before your macro executed keyboard_push. The string name of the handler can be stored in a global variable, and then referenced in your mouse event handler using execute_macro. set_mouse_action: Declares a new mouse handler. Syntax: set_mouse_action (name) Parameters: name A string containing the name of the mouse handler to associate with the current keyboard. Return value: Nothing. Description: This function associates your handler with a new keyboard; when the keyboard is pushed, it becomes the current mouse event handler. Declare your special mouse event handler by putting set_mouse_action after the keyboard_push and assign_to_key calls in your macro. (If your macro uses the dialog manager, declare your handler while processing DIALOG_INIT.) When the new keyboard is popped, your handler is also popped off the stack, and the mouse event handler associated with the original keyboard becomes the current handler. On page 119 in Chapter 8, "Macro Reference," add this paragraph to the description of assign_to_key: Different key ids that make assignments to the same key are treated differently. For example, <Ctrl+H> and <^H> both appear to specify the <Control> key plus the <H> key. <Ctrl+H>, however, maps to the <Control> key plus the <H> key and <^H> maps to the <Backspace> key because both have the same ASCII equivalent. Pages 204 and 205 explain the syntax of set_ea(). Data types EAT_ASCII and EAT_MVMT cannot be used literally unless they are defined as constants. If optional parameters are to be left out of a call, use the following syntax: foo(arg1, arg2, NULL, arg4). The obvious syntax: foo(arg1, arg2, , arg4) will not compile. BRIEF for DOS and OS/2 User's Guide On page 34 in Chapter 2, "A Tutorial," add the following: If you enabled copying of macro source during SETUP, the macro source for copyrite.cb is copied into \brief\macros. If you did not copy the macro source, you can 1) use SETUP to install the macro source, 2) copy the macro statements from this manual, or 3) use an uncompress utility to extract the compressed macro source from misc\source.arc on the BRIEF installation disk. Example 1 on page 189 under the Background compilation section is invalid. 7. KNOWN PROBLEMS for BRIEF 3.1 for OS/2 ---------------------------------------- NETWARE v2.10 BRIEF is unable to write files to a network drive on v2.10. DosOpen() returns a sharing violation on files that have been created, written to, closed, and then opened. There is also a spurious bug opening files with a wildcard if the sharing bit is not set. NOTE: These bugs do not appear on NETWARE v2.15. NETWARE v2.1x SETUP is unable to install to a network drive. This is because the OS/2 version of SETUP uses DosOpen() to get a device handle, then uses the category 8 IOCtl call to determine if it is removable. This fails on network drives. You should first install to a local drive, then copy the files to the network drive. HPFS Support Changes to the extended attribute (EA) .ASSOCTABLE using the BRIEF macro primitive set_ea() are not reflected in File Manager. After setting associations from within File Manager and then extracting EAs with eautil.exe, no references to .ASSOCTABLE were found. At this time, it is unclear what EAs File Manager uses when setting associations. Search There is a bug in the current search engine that becomes apparent under certain very specific conditions. If the following conditions are met, the search does not act the same as under DOS: # Cursor is positioned at the end of a line # The first column position on the next line is not whitespace # The current file extension has no packages associated with it # next_word() macro is executed The cursor will be positioned in the first column of the current line instead of the first character of the next word on the next line. Parse_filename() The drive is not returned. Copy_ea_info() Does not copy extended attributes from one file to another.