CHANGES-pterm.txt

This file documents the major changes in each release of Pterm.

V5.0.0, April 2014:

Rewrite of the display engine to make zoom 200%, stretch, and full
screen mode work more consistently.

Copy/Paste text and related operations (such as execute browser) now
handle Unicode.  All PLATO characters, including accented characters,
are converted to/from Unicode.

New "Save GSW Audio" feature (in the File menu).  This allows you to
specify a file name (.WAV, .AIFF, or .AU type) to receive the next GSW
song.  Recording starts when the music starts, and stops when the
music is complete.  In other words, this captures one song at a time.

Note to Windows users: the scaling of -font- text has been fixed for
consistency with other platforms.  If you have code that uses -font-
with sizes chosen to look right on the previous Windows version of
pterm, you will need to adjust the text size.  

V5.0.3, April 2014:

-paint- command now supports the case with a tag (fill with character
pattern).

V5.0.4, June 2014:

This is the release candidate of Pterm V5.0.

It contains bugfixes as well as a new feature: scale with aspect ratio
preserved (courtesy Dirk Thierbach).

V5.0.5, December 2014:

This is the release of Pterm V5.0.

It contains bugfixes, more general scaling, and Mac Retina display support.

V5.0.6, December 2014:

This release corrects several bugs: crash on exit primarily on Mac,
wrong handling of -font- commands in certain cases, extra newline in
autowrap mode.

V5.0.7, March 2015:

Bugfixes: block erase and mishandled Alpha channel in "xor" mode;
pasting a string with no spaces that requires more than one line wrap;
erasing text didn't clear it for the copy-text operation.

V5.0.8, September 2016:

Bugfixes: fix block erase in xor mode.  Shift-stop was not recognized
after returning to Press NEXT to begin, in ASCII mode.  Text for the
copy/paste buffer was not correctly erased when writing in -mode
erase-.  Get rid of some extraneous (OS default) menu items on Mac OS.
Fix conversion of stand-alone tilde for copy/paste to be a standard
tilde character rather than Unicode "small tilde".

T6.0.0, March 2018 (beta):

Major new capabilities thanks to Dale Sinder.

Added floppy drive emulation, using image files for the data.  Two
floppy units are supported.

Pterm now supports running microTutor programs, either downloaded from
the PLATO host, or booted from floppy.  The microprocessor emulation
has been switched from 8080 to Z80.  Emulation of the "terminal
resident" is substantially more complete now, and includes terminal
resident calls that were added after the CERL X-50 report and are
documented in s0ascers.

The "connection" dialog is now a "new window" dialog, which lets the
user select a pre-existing profile to use for the new window.  The
"preferences" dialog is now "edit profiles" and modifies a profile or
allows the creation of a new one, without affecting the currently open
windows.  There is also a "session settings" dialog similar to the
"edit profiles" dialog that allows changing parameters for the
currently active window.

Profile handling has been cleaned up and made more consistent.  A new
window is created from a profile, which supplies the initial session
parameters for that window.  Those may be changed later (via "session
settings") but that does not affect the profile itself.

Profiles (*.ppf files) are now stored in the application data
directory rather than in unsuitable spots such as the directory where
the Pterm application lives.  That directory is OS-dependent:

    Windows:  C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\Pterm
    Mac OS:   ~/Library/Application Support/Pterm/
    Unix:     ~/.Pterm/
    
If you have saved profiles you want to carry over, copy them into that
directory before starting Pterm.  If the profiles directory is empty
when you start Pterm, it will create two default profiles (which will
appear in the connection dialog).

T6.0.2, April 2018 (beta):

Bugfixes.

(Re?)Added options for speeding up pastes with 8 spaces or period and
seven spaces using TAB.

Added experimental bilinear scaling option to display tab.  Only
applies to non-integer scaled windows.

Added Profile editor option to select starting zoom level.  Not 
applicable to Session Settings - use view menu.

Keep Window startup location with profile rather than globally.
Location is saved on closing a window or when 
View->Save location now is invoked.

Send SHIFT-STOP to both microTUTOR and host when microTUTOR is
running.

V6.0.4, October 2018 (GA release):

Bugfixes.

Removed "Mail command" preference setting.  Mail is now always
available, implemented by opening the "mailto:" URL.

V6.0.5, August 2021:

NOTE: The Mac release of this version is the last one to support Mac
OS versions earlier than 10.10, and the last to include PowerPC
support.  Linux binary kits are no longer supplied; Linux users
should build Pterm from the source tar archive.

Bugfixes.

Moved "Enable control characters" profile setting to the Emulation
tab, which is a somewhat more obvious spot for it than the Title tab.
This does not apply to Mac, which does not have that setting.

Add scale 3.5 (if Retina) and scale 4 menu options.

V6.0.6, April 2025:

New Mac kit to fix a problem with the previous version not installing
on recent versions of Mac OS.  Note: as previously announced, the Mac
version is for Mac OS 10.10 or later only, universal binary for X86
and Apple Silicon.

Bugfixes:
Fix wrong first character if text was erased and then new text
entered, and a "copy text" operation is done on the result.