Console / News: Recent posts

Well, here it is (finally) There have been numerous changes and fixes, features added. Maybe I should've called it v1.5? :-)

For people using devel versions: this is the latest beta build. Since no new bugs were reported for some time, I decided it's time to make the official release :)

- reduced CPU usage for window repainting

- proportional fonts work again (they got broken
during optimizations)... read more

- added <disable_menu> tag to <behavior> tag;
it disables the popup menu for main window
and tray icon, system menu is still available

- improved text selection (fixed some small bugs
as well)

- back to old window titles; Windows console
window has "Console Command Window" title
again; this simplifies things and fixes some
bugs

- added 'editor_params' attribute to <console>
tag; it can be used to pass additional
parameters to a text editor used to edit
configuration and view the Readme file

- both Console window and the hidden Windows
console window have the same titlebar text
now, so Console titlebar text just copies
whatever Windows console titlebar shows (i.e.,
currently running command), except when
Windows console titlebar text is completely
changed (in that case Win console titlebar text
is concatenated to the default Console title)... read more

- fixed a bug with non-animated cursor painting

- configuration files submenu is now populated
at startup, so the list can be used by external
programs; it is still refreshed when opening the
popup menu

- fixed a small bug with custom icons (if the icon
file is not found, the default icons are loaded)

- fixed a background image bug: if a background
image is not found, Console will use solid
background... read more

(If there are no bug reports, this will probably be the next official release)

- added <reload_new_config> under <behavior>
tag and '-r' command-line option to control
configuration auto-loading (when a new
configuration file is selected from the popup
menu); supported options: 'yes', 'no' and
'prompt'; default is 'prompt'

- added support for behavior/behaviour tag
spelling (no, I will not add alternate spellings
for 'color' tags and attributes :-)

- a user is prompted for configuration reload
when changing a configuration file (thanks to
Rob Davenport for the patch)

- fixed a small handle leak introduced in b340 (in
config file enumeration)

- fixed a memory leak when variable-width fonts
were used

- tweaked cursor drawing a bit (this fixed a bug
with fading block cursor and variable-width
fonts)

- Console windows with hidden/tray taskbar
option are no longer shown in the ALT-TAB
menu (a bug introduced in b339)

- added several things to the right-click menu:
copy, paste, 'always on top' toggle and
configuration file selection submenu

- fixed keyboard layout switching

- cleaned up and reorganized the code a bit

- added 'Readme' option to the menus; it opens
the Readme.txt file

- added flat scrollbar support (thanks to Adam
Hodson for the code)

- extended scrollbar supprot, added a new tag
<scrollbar> for setting several scrollbar
attributes

- fixed a problem with custom icons (no custom
icon was shown in the ALT-TAB menu)

- Console window now looks like a regular
window even when <taskbar_button> is
set to 'hide' or 'tray'; clicking on the minimize
button when Console shows tray icon
minimizes the Console window to tray (single
click on the tray icon to restore, double-clicking
on the tray icon still works the same); Thanks
to Daniel Cheng for the code

- new <behaviour> tag; moved <mouse_drag>
and <copy_on_select> there, added
<inverse_shift> tag that inverses SHIFT
behaviour for selecting when mouse drag is
enabled (thanks to Dean Scarff for contributing
code)

- Console window title set by -t command line
option is no longer cleared after settings reload

- added FreeImage library for image
loading/manipulation stuff... read more

- Console will now use cmd.exe as shell if no
shell was specified in the config file and
COMSPEC environment variable was not found

- added support for custom program icons
(<icon> tag under <appearance> tag)

- console font colors can now be mapped to
custom values

- fixed "dead characters" handling (hopefully)

- added support for non-truecolor bitmap
backgrounds

- finally fixed selection problems (they appeared
when inside border size was greater than
character width/height)

- added a command line switch for console title
(-t)

- files and directories can now be
drag-n-dropped to Console

- Console window is sent to foreground at start
now

- Console now supports Unicode characters (i.e.
it should be able to show various national
characters)

- added the <inside_border> tag to
<appearance> tag for setting client area
border (text is drawn a bit further from the
window edge for a more 'relaxed' look)

- fixed a text copy bug some people have
reported

- added a .reg file for activating file and directory
name completion for cmd.exe (thanks to Rob
'insanitee' for the idea)

- reduced CPU usage for window repainting

- proportional fonts work again (they got broken
during optimizations)

- mouse wheel scrolling looks better now

- mouse whell messages are now redirected to
console window (thanks to Francois Leblanc for
submitting a patch)

- fixed a small text selection bug (multiple
selection rectangles could be drawn)

- text can now be selected by left-click and drag
if Console window is not mouse draggable... read more

Hasty subject copy/paste :-)

- fixed window repainting problem with a
non-relative background image

- fixed a painting problem with 'console' style
cursor

- fixed a crash after reloading settings when
cursor style was changed to 'none' from
something else

- added multi-monitor support (without breaking
WinNT compatibility, I hope :); many thanks to
Daniel Soto (danisoto at users dot
sourceforge dot net) for providing the code... read more

- minimize box is back! It got lost... Note that
Console window will have minimize box only if
its border is set to 'regular' and taskbar button
to 'normal'
- setting Console window title is now done only
when a title text changes; this will, hopefully,
fix titlebar/taskbar flicker problem reported

- fixed window repainting problem with a
non-relative background image
- fixed a painting problem with 'console' style
cursor
- fixed a crash after reloading settings when
cursor style was changed to 'none' from
something else
- added multi-monitor support (without breaking
WinNT compatibility, I hope :); many thanks to
Daniel Soto (danisoto@users.sourceforge.net)
for providing the code

- speed improvements
- background painting bugfixes
- improved cursor drawing (now the previous
position is erased)
- text selection got a bit screwed up due to
painting optimizations, fixed
- added change_refresh attribute to <console>
tag; it controls how long window repainting is
delayed after a change is detected in the
real console
- improved window title handling

A small bugfix relase, forgot to test one thing :-)

After a while, here's Console v1.30

- a small window sizing fix (with regular border)

- window scrolling with background looks as it should now

- changed 'stretch' attribute of 'image' node to 'resize'

- added 'refresh' attribute to 'console' tag; it controls how often the console window redraws if there are no changes detected in the console; this timer is neccessary to ensure proper operation of some DOS programs (like RAR); this
refresh timer can be switched off to reduce CPU usage, but some DOS programs will not be displayed correctly (if at all :-)... read more

Since there were no bug reports for some time, I have decided to relase v1.20. Here's the new stuff:

- console resizing bug fixed (occurs when running some DOS apps, like RAR)

- added console title as an option

- added font color as an option

- changed font options' layout a bit

- taskbar_hide tag changed to taskbar_button tag

- you can put Console icon to sys tray now if you
left-click on it will bring the Console window to
the foreground, right-clicking will bring up the
popup menu and left double click will hide/show
the Console window... read more

- fixed a little bug with multiple Console
instances

- current command is now displayed in the Console
main window (if the titlebar is visible, of
course :-)

- problems with some combinations of window border and taskbar button when reloading settings
have been solved

- Console border would get screwed up when
reloading in some cases (e.g. changing the border
from thin to regular); this has been fixed now