Version History for WinPaw IDE and Engine

This page has no backlinks to other pages because it is used in 2 different places. Use your BACK button to get to the previous page.

Since the Engine is part of the IDE, any changes to the Engine are also changes to the IDE. Therefore, this history file will keep track of history for both. History will be kept in reverse chronological order.

Starting with Version 2.0.0, I will not be documenting the 3rd part of the version number. (2.0.xx)     This part of the version number will be reserved for changes which do NOT affect how the program acts for the User.

February 2009. Version 6.2

This is a maintenance version correcting some bugs. The main bugs were with loading inports.

August 24, 2006. Version 6.1 released.

August 2006. Version 6.0 released.

November 2004 and later. Version 6.0 beta versions.

New features:
1. It is now possible to change the width of a field in the database display (by dragging it wider) and having it be that width the next time you return to that database.
2. There is a new checkbox on the Adventure Settings Edit. If it is checked, a copy of the Room, Default Room, and Adventure graphics is kept in the database. This will allow less files to be packaged when you Package the Adventure.
3. On the Package screen, there is now a Browse for ReadMe button. Use of this button is optional, but if you use it, it will put the contents of the file selected in the ReadMe block above it.
4. The Adventure Editor, Location Editor, Object Editor, Message Editor, and System Message Editor have been redesigned.
   • The Adventure Editor has changed to a tab style form. All the original options are now split into one of the tab pages.
   • The other Editors mentioned have been redesigned to move the Converted Description section to the bottom of the page and size it according to the current Print Width.
5. A new sort for Vocabulary has been added on the Print and Print Preview screen.
6. ACE (Adventure Creation Environment) was released on Aug 18, 2005. It allows all text related HTML tags and a couple tags usable only in IE that allow you to use sound files & graphics. There are too many things which need to be done to allow ACE imports to get in this version. I will work on it for V7.x.
7. Duplicate words (using the same word as a noun and verb) are now allowed.
8. When importing PCPaw files, the default ink and paper are set to white and black respectively.
9. Seven new actions have been added: AGAIN, AUTODEC, AUTOINC, OOPS, MESF, MESSGF, and SYSMSGF. See the documentation for details.
10. Validation of Descriptions for Flags & Processes has been changed. Tags are not allowed at all. Since tags are not allowed, anything within matched <> is not allowed. Neither are unmatched < or >. A & is also not allowed.
11. A lot of applications allow you to change the way the set is sorted by clicking on the columns in the grid. Most of the databases are sorted by 2 or more columns and sorting by any one column would not make sense. V6.0 allows you to set the sort sequence for the Vocabulary and Objects, the only 2 databases where a different sort might be indicated. This will permanently change the sort until it is changed through this screen again.
12. At least one PAW source file has been found where not having the EXTERN command implemented causes the game not to work. As a result, I am putting out a warning when importing a game using EXTERN that it might not work correctly.
13. During an import, there has been a Flag Analysis shown at the end of the import for several versions. The analysis now marks the flags used in the Flag Descriptions Table.
14. Little blocks with the colors and their numbers now show in the Graphic Editor and when the Action is 'INK' or 'PAPER' in the Process Editor.

Fixes:
1. Several bugs have been fixed that relate to importing UnQuilled and UnPawed games.
2. A couple bugs have been fixed that cause problems when decompiling snapshots if the snapshot does not decompile correctly.
3. A bug was fixed which caused a Run time error '62'; Input past end of file during database creations and updates.
4. Several bugs were fixed relating to displaying descriptions. All descriptions should now display correctly no matter whether character sets are being used or not.
5. Several bugs have been fixed in the input routines.
6. A bug was fixed which caused a Graphics record to not be created when creating a Location record.
7. The Help files have been updated with all new oprions and have been completely reread for grammatical and/or syntactical errors and to make sure it all agrees with how WinPaw works.

February 28, 2004 Version 5.1 released to the WinPaw Site

It may have some other changes, because I had started working on version 6.0 before I had to quit working on WinPaw because of time constraints. After 8 months, I don't remember what I changed or added.

ACE allows duplicate words as nouns and verbs. WinPaw currently does not, although version 6 will allow them. Because of this difference, ACE games import will not be allowed until version 6.

June 13, 2003 Version 5.0 released to the WinPaw site

Version 5.0 now will let you develop and play a Quill game as if you were using the Quill system. All adventures have to be identified as

• WinPaw Adventure
• Paw Adventure
• Quill Adventure

You can also make the Adventure use graphics and Character sets or not. If it does not use character sets, if will take up less memory. However, you also lose the character sets Quill, Paw, and WinPaw usually support.

If you do not use graphics, you are in a text-only mode. The entire height of the screen will be taken up by the text rather than the bottom 1/3.

Because 5.0 supports graphics and non-graphics versions, it will no longer be necessary to have 2 different versions of the program available. Both this site and the IF-archive will only have Version 5.x.

Some other new things in V5.0
• The engine screen has been changed from 2 vertical panels to 2 horizontal panels. The picture is in the top 2/3, the text in the bottom 1/3. Each part is centered horizontally on the screen. This makes the screen look more like Quill/PAW and shows the picture with less distortion. It is still possible to scroll back in the text.
• Much work has been done in the Engine. A LOT of errors have been corrected, particularly in the parser.
• A couple things that were checked during startup and used to allow you only to print them are now going to a screen which will allow you to look at them and print them if you wish. This will allow Users without printers (laptops) to peruse these errors.
• Text display has been worked on so that text displays on the screen better.
• Verifying for test/run and export has been made stricter. Only Conditions/Actions/Graphics commands valid for an Adventure type are acceptable.
• I have had extended debugging in the program for several releases for my use in tracing through what happens while the Process tables execute. It is now available to Users. Use it sparingly. It can generate a LOT of output in a file. See the Help under Debugging for information on how to use it and what is in it.
• The possible number of locations, objects, messages, system messages, and flags has been increased to 999 each.
• In some cases, decompiled output was being deleted. This has been corrected.
• There is a new Menu option: Tools > Last Records. This is in preparation for something in the future, but you might find it useful, particularly when working with Vocabulary. It shows the last used key for each dataset. For Vocabulary, it also shows any missing numbers for each type. For the Process Tables, it shows any missing keys.
• Turning off Graphics in the Adventure Information Editor now is a text-only mode. No pictures print & the text takes up the whole height of the screen.
• A Characters Sets option has been added to the Adventure Information Editor. With this option off, it only uses Windows Fonts. Do this if you want to save memory. Character sets use a lot of memory.
• A lot of work has been done on the input routine. A medium typing speed will work, but if you type too fast, you will lose characters. It looks like about 30 characters per minute when using character sets is all it will take. No input is allowed until all messages print on the screen and you get a prompt.
• The IDE and Engine now minimise without aborting.
• The word length for WinPaw type adventures has been increased to 30 characters. This will cause a problem with Users who have developed WinPaw adventures. You will have to go through your vocabulary and add synonyms for any words which have been truncated to five characters so that you can use the whole word in commands.
• Some bold and italic fonts have been added if you are not using character sets.
• Andrew Clark has created a program called ACE (Adventure Creation Environment). It uses a text editor to generate PAW-type games. It has not been released to the general public, but one of my Users has requested that I make it possible to import ACE source files. ACE allows duplicate words (a verb and noun with the same name). The ACE import currently deletes any duplicate words, which in turn deletes those duplicate words from any object and Process Table that uses them. Version 6 of WinPaw will allow duplicate words so ACE files can be imported easier.

11-23-2002 Version 4.1 released to the IF-Archive.

11-16-2002 Version 4.1 released to this site.

The main change in version 4.0 is implementation of PAW character sets and graphics. It will be possible to use character sets and graphics very similar to the way they were used in the PAW and the Illustrator (within the limitations of Windows graphics). 4.1 finished up some graphics stuff not implemented in 4.0. To support characters & graphics, the following other changes were made:

1. All database records on the Main form are identified as a Table. When you do an Add or Edit of these records, you get the corresponding Editor.
2. Adventure Information screen font is now a character set. You can select any character set you have loaded. The fontsize selection will change the size of the characters in this set.
3. Location, Object, & Message screens will show the selected message or description in the Converted <name> Description area using the current character set and fontsize.
4. The character sets are also used during play of an adventure.
5. The CHARSET action now uses the PAW character sets you have loaded. The parameter must be a valid character set number.
6. New actions have been added to change character sets. BRIGHT (which was added in 3.1), INVERSE, and OVER. FLASH is also a valid action, but is not currently implemented. OVER does not work correctly in some instances due to limitations in Windows graphics.
7. Importing of UnPawed or UnQuilled games will now import the character sets and graphics used in those games.
8. Exports to UnPaw and UnQuill sources now export the character sets and graphics. NOTE: These exports will be validated for using only PAW or Quill graphics commands and Condition/Actions. If there are any graphics commands or Conditions/Actions not used in the original PAW or Quill respectfully, the export will not be done.
9. UnPaws 1.0 and above and UnQuill 8.0.5 and above support graphics. UnPaws 2.0 will decompile Quill/Illustrator snapshots. When running the decompiles for these utilities, the options which implement graphics are used.
10. New tags are available in descriptions to support the characters. The CHARSET, BRIGHT, & FNTSIZE implemented in 3.1 can still be used. (CHARSET is now the character set number). New tags of INVERSE, OVER, & FLASH are implemented similar to the corresponding actions. Another new TAG is <#n> where n is a valid character number.
11. I discovered when reading the Illustrator manual, that I implemented colors wrong in WinPaw. You can now only use colors 0-7 and 8 (Transparent) in INK and Paper commands in both the Conditions/Actions and Graphics commands.
12. CNTL/E now does an Edit and CNTL/L does a Load where it is allowed.
13. There is now a Status for Script shown in the Engine.
14. A good bit of work was done on the Help. All screen shots shown are current. The tutorial was fixed up in a couple places and references to the Flag Desc & Process Desc Tables were added. The Summary for Conditions/Actions has been alphabeticized and links to the command added. All the new Graphics and Character stuff was added to the Tutorial and Technical Manual. Forward and back page links were added on a lot of pages.

This version has some fixes. The fixes in version 3.2 are included plus some others I found during testing of 4.0 & 4.1. Because of all the changes I made for this version, I did not keep track of fixes. If you were having a problem with something, I may have fixed it. If I did not, let me know what it was. See the site Contact Me page for the information I need when reporting bugs.

Complete documentation for all the above changes and additions will be in the Help in the WinPaw program.

(8-14-2002) Version 3.2 of Engine & IDE released to this site.

7-19-2002: Version 4.0 of the IDE released to Beta Testers

(7/9/2002)Version 3.2 released to the WinPaw site

Bug Fixes
1. Fixed problem with invalid index when editing a location after creating new database.
2. Fixed problem with EOF when editing a location after creating new database.

Version 3.1 released to the IF-Archive (4/4/2002)

Version 3.1 (03/07/2002)

Bug Fixes
1. Corrected a problem with creating databases.
2. Corrected several problems importing UnPaw listings.
3. Correction 2 required a database update.

Version 3.0

This release adds HTML-like tags to room (long & short) descriptions, object descriptions, Messages & System Messages.
1. Two new Actions have been added:
   1. FNTSIZE - This changes the size of the font used.
   2. BRIGHT - This implements the PAW bright color attribute.
2. The CHARSET Action has been modified to use 5 Windows fonts. Only 5 were chosen to make WinPaw portable across the different Windows operating systems.
3. The tags which are implemented are: (Case is not critical)
   • <BRIGHT> - Brightens the Ink color.
   • </BRIGHT> - Restores the Ink color to Normal.
   • <INK=number> - Sets the Ink color to the color specified
   • <INK> - Restores the Ink color to the default Ink color
   • <CHARSET=number> - Changes the Font to the Font Number Specified
   • <CHARSET> - Changes the Font back to the Default Font
   • <FNTSIZE=number> - Changes the Font Size to the number specified,
   • <FNTSIZE> - Changes the Font Size back to the default Font Size.
4. A new area has been added to the Edit forms for the above Tables to show what the Description looks like using the default colors and fonts and any tags used in your Description.

Bug fixes
• If adding a new process table after 2 and process table 2 was empty it wanted to add a Table 2. Corrected.
• If deleting a record from any of the process areas when there was only one record caused program to abort. Corrected.
• Toolbar did not look right when database was not opened.
• 'I do not understand' message was sometimes repeated.
• Help file is now found correctly.
• Minimising Engine window caused program to abort.
• Picture is now only drawn if it is different from last command.
• Some menu items caused an abort when a database was not open. These items are now only enabled if they can be used.
• Miscellaneous minor bugs have been corrected.

Version 2.1

Bug Fix: A change of INK was changing the ink color of the complete command history. This has been corrected. This change also paves the way for the next version to come, which will allow changing Fonts, Font Sizes, and Colors (and maybe other attributes) in the middle of Descriptions.

Version 2.0.0

New Features
1. I have added a Find command to the Toolbar, the Edit Menu, and using a CTRL/F. You have to fill in the fields after the Binoculars with what to find and the field to find it in. The box with where to find it will have the fields you can search. It will search from the current record forward and if it cannot find it, it will re-search from the beginning.
2. Exports can now be done as any of the following:
   1. An UnPAW file
   2. A PC PAW file
   3. A WinPaw export file
   The thing you must remember in using the first 2 exports is that you will lose some of the features of WinPaw, like pictures, short descriptions, Flag and Process Descriptions, and the new commands I have added, like SCRIPT, YESNO, and SOUND. Any Process records using these commands will not go to the Export at all. I did put the Flag and Process Descriptions in the Exports for UnPaw and PC PAW as comments.
3. I changed some of the icons on the Toolbars in the IDE and Print Preview to make them easier to see.
4. A Most Recently Used FileList has been added to the Files Menu.
5. Debug has been enhanced by adding 3 new commands and being able to exit from it with a null entry. The commands are:
   1. S(et) - Sets the current Flag variable to 255.
   2. C(Lear) - Sets the current Flag variable to 0.
   3. H(elp) - Shows the Help screen describing Debug. This can also be done by pressing F1.
   In version 3.0.0 I will be adding F1 support for a lot of the controls.

Bug Fixes
1. The BRIEF command has been fixed to work correctly.
2. Fixed a couple errors in Loading Imports
3. Fixed some errors in Condition/Action validation
4. Fixed an error in printing Processes in Verbose
5. The MOVE action was fixed to work correctly.
6. Bit 7 of Flag 53 was not being set by LISTAT & LISTOBJ as described in the Essay on Objects. This has been fixed.
7. I have read thru the Help and corrected some errors. It has also been completely updated to Version A16.
8. A DONE in a sub-process was completely exiting all tables. This has been corrected.

Version 1.1.100

New Features
1. A reordering of the Vocabulary screen now will give you the next available Vocabulary number for the Type you choose.
2. BRIEF room descriptions is now completed. Set flag 259 to turn on BRIEF. BRIEF will give you a full room description the first time you enter a room and a short room description after that(If no short description is defined, you will get no description.).

Bug Fixes
1. Error about a field not found in recordset during load and startup corrected.
2. Error when creating or editing a message fixed.

Version 1.1.99

New Features
1. (I had to add a bug fix to this version since I have no way to save a version. The upgrading to PAW version A.16 and brief room descriptions is not completed. The logic in the Engine to support it still needs to be done. When it is completed, I will release version 2.0.0). I will have version control shortly.
2. This is my program and if it doesn't exactly comform to the original PAW, I can add stuff if want. Since I am trying to convert the original Colossal Adventure, I wanted short room descriptions. So I am adding them.
3. Adding a Short Description allows using the short description, if there is one, in the Brief Listing for Locations.
4. I was going through some of my Spectrum stuff the other day and discovered 'The Professional Adventure Writing System - A Supplement for the Spectrum - Version A16'. I will have a copy of this manual as part of the Help. It mainly concerns additions to provide a facility for multiple commands to be given to PSI's. I am upgrading the program to this version. My version will be 2.0.0
5. The upgrade to A16 required some changes to the flags. Since A16 used flag 58 (which I had already used), I had to add 20 new System Flags (to give me room for expansion). I changed flag 59 to 'reserved for expansion' in case I ever discover another higher version of PAW. I then moved the following flags:
   1. My flag 40 moved to flag 256
   2. My flag 58 moved to flag 257
   3. My flag 59 moved to flag 258
   If you had manipulated or checked any of the above flags in your adventure, you will have to change that condition or action to the new flag. I will not convert any Conditions or Actions on these flags during conversion to the new database.
6. A new flag 259 was added to allow the usage of brief room descriptions. Setting it gives you a brief room description or a null description after the first visit to a room.

Bug Fixes
1. A bug which caused the error 'The field <fieldname> cannot contain a null value' has been fixed and corrects any databases with fields that will cause this error.

Version 1.1.0

This version was never released

New Features
1. Added Brief Listings to the Print. These will just print the record number & descriptions for each database, shown to 60 characters or less.
2. The total size of the pictures used is calculated in the Adventure Settings Listing.
3. Additional listings have been added to the Print Screen.
   1. A vocabulary listing selecting only 1 Type
   2. A Process Listing which can print only part of the Table (you specify the Verb / Noun combination you want to print). You can only print one table at a time.
   3. A Location listing which shows the Conditional Exits in the Process Table and any objects present at that location at the start of the game. The Process records used for this listing must contain * or _ in the Noun, start with AT <location> and also have a GOTO and DESC. The Verb used in the Process record will be the Exit shown. Records with an asterisk(*) in the Verb will be considered to Unconditionally go directly to the location in the GOTO.

Bug Fixes
1. Fixed bug which caused current record and any new records to be set to belong to process table 3 when working in Process Table 3 and above.

Final Version 1.0.2

First release to the IF-Archive.

New Features
1. Printing and Print Preview reports of the Database. Pre-formatted reports of the complete database or individual Tables are now available. Some tables can be printed verbose. This means that any references to other Tables which have Descriptions will show the description of that Table record. Example from the Process Table:

   *     *     AT      0             !1 Welcome to Adventure
               SET     27            !1 Dragon on rug
               LET     28     1      !1 Gold chain status(unlocked, locked to
                                     !1 bear, locked to wall)
                                     !2 Value
               ANYKEY                !0
               GOTO 1                !1 You are standing at the end of a road
                                     !1 before a small brick building. Around
                                     !1 you is a forest.  A small stream flows
                                     !1 out of the building and down a gully.
               DESC                  !0
   

   
   Print Preview incorporates Zoom, moving to first, next, previous, & last pages and printing of the current page.
2. Export of your Adventure to a text file.
3. Import of the Export file.
4. Help for all of the above in the Help file.
5. The database is now checked for upgrades when the IDE is loaded. It will no longer be necessary to reload the current adventure to update the database.
6. ENTER is now used to execute commands in the Engine. The note about using TAB has been removed
7. System Message 16 (Press any key to continue), which is the message for the ANYKEY action, has been changed to 'Press ENTER to continue'. This was not correct anyway. Until the previous change, TAB was the only key that would work.
8. When using the Engine by itself, after an Adventure finishes, you can only Exit.

Bug Fixes
1. A word of longer than 30 characters (a word being any text delimited by spaces) in a description caused problems when printing. Words are now limited to 30 characters.
2. According to the Technical manual, the LISTOBJ action checks for objects PRESENT. The actual PAW shows that the ISAT action is what is used. This has been changed to agree with PAW.
3. After a Run and some other Menu options, the same Table as before was not showing. Corrected.

Final Version 1.0.1

(This version was only released to the mailing list)

Bug Fix: Invalid index when running a newly created database was fixed. To correct the database error, reload the database using Load Adventure.

Final Version 1.0.0

(This version was only released to the mailing list)

New Features

• The Print Width in Adventure Setup can now be changed to any value between 30 and 80 in increments of 5.
• A Process Descriptions Table was added to the database. This table can be used to keep track of what each additional Process Table is used for.
• This change cannot be seen, but the database also contains the numeric values for the Condition/Actions in the Process Tables. This speeds up initialization when playing the game.

Bugs

• Several bugs fixed which control how Descriptions wrap.
• Bug fixed where AdvContactInfo set to Null value would not allow creation of Database.

Beta 3

New Features

• Packaging of your adventure
• Running of UnQuill and UnPaw
• Contact Info added to Adventure Setup
• Condition/Actions entered using the 'Add to Conditions/Actions' fields now show what parameters are needed for the Condition/Action. Example: for the Action COPYOF the parameters will be titled 'Object' & 'Flag'.
• NOTCR, WORN, CARRIED, HERE allowed as locno+ in addition to the numbers 252 through 255 on the Process Table form.

• Bug corrected where adding a new record was sometimes changing the record key of the selected record .
• Bug corrected which allowed creation of a record with no Condition/Actions.

Beta 2 Patch 1

New Features

• Pictures not in proper directory can be copied there.

• A minor bug that caused some strings to not wrap properly.
• Bug that caused WinPawIDE to abort when starting up with 'Path not found' error.

Beta 2

New Features

• TimeOut is now implemented. The TIME action will set the values and TIMEOUT checks for it.
• You can now take the output file which was created with the TURN SCRIP ON command and use it as an input. Use LOAD SCRIP to open the file. This will activate a Next button on the Toolbar. Clicking on that button will execute the commands that you did in the SCRIPT file one at a time.
• Debugging is now implemented. See the Engine Help (under Using the Engine) for how to use it.
• The LOAD, SAVE, RAMLOAD & RAMSAVE actions are implemented.
• There are several new interfaces on the forms which create & edit the entries in the tables.

Bug Fixes. I did not keep track of my bug fixes this time, but I will in the future. Suffice it to say that bugs were found in some of the Import routines and other areas. All the bugs I found or which were reported to me were fixed.

Beta 1

5-31-01

First User release