August 13, 1987. The official “Fairware” newsletter.
I had hoped to have the next version of Customized MSCRIPT done by now. It was to have been called V5.3. But that changed last night.
I stayed up all night working on V5.3, in a creative binge. New ideas and solutions were flowing like water over Niagra. In dawn’s early light I realized that what I have here is Version 6…a really radical change from V5. Oh, it’s not done yet…there are loose ends to tie up, compaction to be done, testing, docs to be written…but essentially all of the new features that I will describe are WORKING.
When will it be ACTUALLY done? Well, if I had nothing else to do but work on this program, it would be done in 3 days. But I earn my living by making wooden toys and selling them at craft fairs…and the fair season is just starting. So I estimate 2 or 3 weeks til V6 is totally done. Maybe more…
I regret any inconvenience this may cause. I can only assure you that V6 is worth waiting for. When done, it’ll be sent out on a “first come, first served” basis. I only have time to send out a few copies a day.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Before I can send you V6, I need a copy of your printer manual!!! NOT the whole thing, but just a few pages (usually in the back of the manual) that list all of its control codes. Do not tell me that your printer is “Epson-compatible”. For my purposes, there is no such thing.
If you have more than one printer, send manual-copy for each. Even if you have a daisywheel, I still want the manual-copy.
V6 is designed to use fully the power built into modern dot-matrix printers; but some of the new features will also be quite useful for daisywheels.
I have several general requirements for V6:
1. It must have no less text room than V5.
2. It must be compatible with V5 where possible.
3. It must be extremely easy to use and understand.
4. The documentation must be clear, concise and thorough.
5. It will be “pre-customized” for the user’s printer, so that the user can immediately use it without having to figure out how to customize it. That’s why I need your manual-copy.
First some definitions:
TRANSIENT: definable by user within textfile.
SEMI-PERMANENT: predefined by me, but re-definable by user from BASIC or by using another program such as FONTMAN.
PERMANENT: not user-definable.
LIST OF NEW FEATURES IN V6
1. PRINT-PAUSE/QUIT. During printing, press ENTER to pause printing, press ENTER again to resume. Or press SYMBOL-SHIFT+BREAK to terminate printing.
2. DUAL FONTS: there will be two SEMI-PERMANENT 96-character fonts: a MAIN font and a GRAPHICS font.
3. There will be a GRAPHICS cursor, selectable by FUNCTION-9. When the graphics cursor is used, graphics characters will go into your textfile, and will be represented on-screen by the graphics font. How your printer prints these characters will depend on the capabilities of your particular printer.
If your printer has 1 or more bit-image modes, these will be user-selectable within text; and both the MAIN font and GRAPHICS font will be used for printing if you have selected one of the available bit-image modes. These modes essentially govern how many characters will fit on a line.
4. Transient ITALICS control. (PCODE *)
5. New IMBEDDED CODE SYSTEM: There will be 3 kinds of imbedded codes:
1. NCODES 0-9; transient; short for NUMERIC CODES. 2. LCODES a-z; A-Z; semi-permanent; short for LETTER CODES 3. PCODES permanent; short for PUNCTUATION CODES.
NCODES are the normal MSCRIPT printcodes #0-#9.
LCODES are new; each LCODE is a single letter that represents a sequence of printer control codes. Tasword has 16 similar gadgets. We will have 52, and they will be quite discernible on screen.
PCODES are like normal MSCRIPT imbedded “+” and “-” symbols. They are used to control things such as ITALICS on/off, and GRAPHICS PRINTMODE on/off, and BIT IMAGE MODE selection.
All of the above codes are imbedded in the usual MSCRIPT manner, using FUNCTION-G.
6. The Mscript FIND function will be made less fussy.
7. A few minor MSCRIPT flaws may be corrected.
8. MSCRIPT BASIC will be drastically simplified.
Some of this may sound complex. But believe me, V6 will handle like a 1987 Ferrari, instead of the 1947 Buick resembled by V5. NOTE: if you do not have a good font generator program, then I suggest you order my new FONTMAN. It’s very full-featured and includes 20 editable fonts and a fast MC font editor that is controlled by the keyboard or either joystick.
How much is all this gonna cost you? Well, as usual that’s up to you; I’d suggest $15 for V6, $5 for FONTMAN, +$5 for media/mail/handling/documentation. Donate AFTER you get and try, please.
If you have only a 2040 or daisywheel, or are not interested in graphics, you may prefer just to have V5.2. If so, holler.
In any case, please be sure I know what printer interface(s) and mass storage device(s) you have.
Other new FAIRWARE goodies now available:
1. Customized VUCALC for big printers.
2. Customized MASTERFILE for Aerco disc + big printer. (comes with a Sinclair Vendor database)
3. Duane Ruck‘s BA64 for AERCO disc, now with full printer support by Jack Dohany; with special version of FONTMAN.
4. PRX…an experimental printer driver, the “seed” for SUPERDRIVER.
FAIRWARE GOODIES in the works: (NOT available real soon)
1. SUPERDRIVER: maximum printer support package
2. BIGFONT: for making and using big, complex fonts.
Please note that MSCRIPT, VUCALC, and MASTERFILE are copyrighted. You must certify that you are a legal owner of each before I can send you may customized version.
I thank all of you for your continued patience and support…and a BIG thank-you to TIME DESIGNS for printing this.