minivmac-3.0.2 alpha released

[Robert]

Mac-Plus emulator

 

August 2, 2007

 

There is now a Mini vMac 3.0.2 alpha, with an assortment of bug fixes, new compile time options, and few changes to behavior.

 

The main change to the behavior of the default compile is that the stopped mode toggle is now Control-S-D instead of Control-S-S. Before I had wanted to make it quick to type, but now I think it is more important to prevent hitting it accidentally.

 

Another change is that the variation name displayed in the about message, and used for file names, no longer includes the development environment used to compile it or the debug status, but only has the program name abbreviation, the version number, and the target. Such as minivmac-3.0.2-imch, for the the Intel Macintosh version of Mini vMac 3.0.2.

 

When switching back to the Mini vMac application, previous versions would always ignore keys that were already held down. There is now a special case such that immediately after a drag and drop on Mini vMac, it will not ignore keys already held down. This makes it easier to rebuild the desktop of disk images by holding down command and option. However, the keys that map to command and option can have special meanings in other operating systems. (For example, in OS X, clicking on the window of another application with command and option down will hide all other applications.) So it usually works better to press command-option right before dropping, instead of before dragging. (Thanks to a complaint by David Sibley for this feature.)

 

An obscure change is that when entering the control mode, or the open dialog, or switching to another application, all the emulated keys (except for caps lock) are released immediately, instead of waiting until normal emulation resumes. An even more obscure change is that in the control mode, changes to the caps lock key take effect immediately, instead of waiting until leaving the control mode.

 

There is now a compile time option, “-ccs”, to swap the emulated Control and Command keys. And there is an experimental option, “-akm”, for making some keys more convenient to use.

 

The build system now supports more versions of Xcode. (Thanks to complaints from David Mullin.)

 

The build system now includes targets for Solaris, for use by Luc Pauwels port. So far the only change to the generated source from the linux target is to include the 'posix4' library. (And also the different target means the variation name, used in the about message, is different.)

 

The build system now has an option, “-pk”, to package the compiled application in a format suitable for distribution.

 

The biggest bug fixed in this version is that in OS X the clock could be off by some hours because the time zone wasn't taken into account correctly. This happened because I was recently updating the OS X specific code to remove deprecated calls, which now seems to have been a waste, since now it seems the entire carbon API is basically deprecated.

 

Another bug fixed in OS X, and also earlier Mac OS, is that dragging and dropping onto the open file dialog would also immediately try to mount that file in Mini vMac.

 

A call to XFlush was missing in the X version (such as the linux port), and the most noticeable effect was the lack of drawing when Mini vMac was in the background with the run in background option on.

 

The Windows and X versions now support the PageUp, PageDown, Home, End, Help/Ins, and ForwardDelete keys.

 

An obscure bug fixed is that the mouse position could shift slightly when leaving full screen mode (or entering the open dialog in full screen mode). A more obscure bug fixed in the Macintosh versions is that {mouse down, control-o, mouse up, type escape key} would leave the emulated mouse stuck down.

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