Changes between BGFAX 1.60 and BGFAX 1.55 SAT 21 JUNE 96 ========================================= ============== This 1.60 release has been in the works since February. Over 75 changes, bug fixes and new features have been made since BGFAX 1.55. Rather than list every single change as is usually done, I will only list the new features and significant bug fixes. For a complete list of changes, check the "What's New" link on my web page. We now have a U.K. registration site! See REGISTER.UK Compuserve SWREG registrations! See REGISTER.FRM for more info _____________________ BGFAX general changes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. BGFAX no longer needs an environment variable. If the "BGFAX" environment variable is not found, the BGFAX.CNF file will be looked for in the same directory as BGFAX.EXE. Any use of the "BGFAX" environment variable will override this new logic. 2. Have optimized the communications/timeslice routine in the DOS version somewhat. The DOS version should no longer take up 100% of the CPU when receiving or transmitting a page under OS/2. Also, the DOS version should run more smoothly with both DesqView and Windows. (CPUUSE.EXE for Windows 3.1 reported 4% usage when BGFAX/DOS is waiting for a call, 14% during page receive, and 38% spikes during interpage negotation.) A major problem with BGFAX 1.55 running in "slow motion" under DesqView has also been fixed. 3. Changed OS/2 version so that it now works with IBM's stock COM.SYS driver. Previous versions of BGFAX2.EXE would only work with Ray Gwinn's SIO.SYS. Now, it can work with both. __________________________ Changes in BGFAX send mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. BGFAX /SEND mode can now send TIFF-Class-F files! This is a very nice addition, since it allows much greater flexible in what documents are sent. I tested sending TIFF-Class-F files made from BGFAX, Faxworks/2, and Word Perfect 5.1+/DOS, and all the documents faxed correctly. (BGFAX has had TIFF-Class-F receive capabilities for nearly a year now, and VIEW has had TIFF-Class-F viewing capabilties for several months now, but this is the first time /SEND has been able to process them.) 2. Numerous problems with Class 1 mode have been fixed. Problems including not being able to transmit more than one page on some modems, non-stop failure to train errors, etc. 3. BGFAX /SEND mode will now create a SEND.DAT file after BGFAX finishes. The file will look like this: FaxFilename 2pages.fax FaxTelephoneNumber 7138939124 LastPageSuccessfullySent 2 TotalNumberOfPages 2 This is a regular ASCII file, which contains information about the last fax sent, including (most importantly) the last page successfully sent. To use this information, you would need to write a program to examine and see if "LastPageSuccessfullySent" is equal to "TotalNumberOfPages". If not, this indicates a transmission failure, and you will need to resend the fax using the /SP:lastpagesuccessfullysent+1 logic, so that you need not resend the entire fax. This may also be useful on some of the buggier fax modems, where they (sometimes) do not return a successfully condition upon sending the last page, even though it was really sent. What you would need to do, is see if the LastPageSuccessfullySent is one less than the TotalNumberOfPages, if so, you can "assume" (big assumption) that the last page might have actually gotten through even though the modem reports to BGFAX otherwise. 4. New BGFAX command line switch /NX This tells BGFAX that when sending faxes on Class 2 modems to "not wait for the initial XON" to be received. This might be necessary on some older Intel(GVC OEM) fax modems. Do not add this switch unless failed attempts in the BGFAX.LOG indicate "initial xon not received". _____________________________ Changes in BGFAX receive mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. BGFAX.EXE now uses a different interrupt with NFAX.COM since the interrupt used in the last version caused troulbe when running in OS/2 DOS boxes. If you use the /NF switch on BGFAX, be sure to that you replace any old version of NFAX.COM with the 1.60 version, and reboot the system. (NFAX is a TSR program that puts the word "FAX" on the screen when any incoming faxes are received.) 2. Fixed a major bug relating to saving files in TIFF-F format. Anybody telling BGFAX to save in Faxworks format should immediately upgrade to this release. The problem was that many faxes were getting scrambled because the byte-alignment filter in BGFAX was not working very well, resulting in faxes containing 50% bad scan lines. (Remember Z=ZFAX format, Q=QuickLink II format, F=TIFF-Class-F format) 3. New BGFAX command line switch /NT This tells BGFAX that when receiving on Class 1 modems to "not check training". Starting with BGFAX 1.60, the training information will be checked, and if more than 25% of the data is "bad", BGFAX will force the remote fax machine to step down to a lower speed. The /NT will override the retrain. 4. DOBBS.BAT and DOBBS.CMD will now have the PID number appended to them when BGFAX is running in /HOST /PID:nnn mode. i.e., /PID:4 will cause BGFAX to make DOBBS4.BAT files and BGFAX4.LOG files to keep things from getting "confused". 5. BGFAX will now honor the FaxWorks's FAX.IDX file. This is a standard ASCII text file that will be present in the receive fax directory. If BGFAX finds it, it will find out the last fax number that FaxWorks thinks it has received, and use that as the maximum fax number. BGFAX will also update the FAX.IDX file. 6. New TSR program ATOTSR.COM might be required if you are receiving in Class 1 mode with some Fido mailers. See the ATOTSR section in BGFAX.DOC to find out if you need to use it. If you tried to setup BGFAX before and noticed the word "DATA" would pop up on the screen with your Fido Mailer but you never got a "CONNECT nnnnn" message from the modem, you are probably need to use ATOTSR.COM. ___________________ Changes in VIEW.EXE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. VIEW.EXE has a new feature when you are in page-view mode. Alt-J and Alt-G will now allow you to jump ("goto") a specific page number. So, if you bring up page 1 and want to go to page 13, just hit Alt-J (or Alt-G, same thing since many people told me they prefered "jump" and some "goto", so I made everybody happy) and type in "13" at the prompt. Note that if you save faxes in ZFAX format, the first time you use the "jump" function, a quick analysis of the fax will be performed. On slow machines (less than 386), this may take a while. On files saved in QuickLink of TIFF-Class-F format, the jump should be instant. 2. VIEW.EXE now handles /PCX conversions differently. It seems that NOBODY liked my convention of converting multiple page fax files into PCX files. (If you had a 3 page fax, it would make HELLO.PCX, HELLO.P02, HELLO.P03 in the old version of VIEW.) It has been reported to me that most image editing software is brain dead and it will not acknowledge a file is PCX format unless it has a "PCX" extension, so here is how things work now: "VIEW 2letters.fax /pcx" will create PAGE0001.PCX and PAGE0002.PCX. Notice that the filename base is completely missing from the target files. I did this because I just personally HATE fax software that does a truncation to the base filename in order to stuff the page number at the end. So, how will the image editing software know about these funny PAGE*.PCX files? Well, know, VIEW will create a DOPCX.BAT file that says: CALL EXEPCX PAGE0001.PCX PAGE0001 CALL EXEPCX PAGE0002.PCX PAGE0002 So, you can now put the name of your image editing or OCR software in the EXEPCX.BAT file that you will produce, and pass the filename via the %1 variable (or %2 variable if you are using even brain-deader software that croaks if a PCX extension is given when the extention is already known to be PCX). 3. New VIEW command line switch /RF "Retain filename" mode will make VIEW convert PCX faxes using the naming convention used in BGFAX 1.55 instead of the new way. A three page fax converted to PCX would come out as: FILENAME.PCX, FILENAME.P02, FILENAME.P03 (all three being PCX files) 4. VIEW.EXE will now automatically "flip" pages in a fax if you press Alt-F when viewing the first page. This just saves you a keystroke on each page, since you will no longer have to hit Alt-F on any page except the first if someone sends you an upside down fax. 5. New VIEW command line switch /PL:nnnn This lets you refine the "page length" of a piece of laser paper, in the number of laser-scan lines. Normally, VIEW uses 3380 scan lines for a piece of A4 paper, but I was told some A4 printers very, i.e.: Deskjet 500C A4 /PL:3170 or /PL:3320 is performation skip Deskjet 500 A4 /PL:3234 Oki Laserline 6 A4 /PL:3411 If you are using US paper size, this switch should not be necessary! 6. New VIEW command line switch /RH VIEW.EXE will now double the number of scan lines of a low resolution fax during a PCX and DCX conversions so that it works better with OCR software that might be expecting more pixels to work with. To override this feature so that PCX and DCX conversions provide a one-to-one pixel conversion, use the new /RH switch (retain height). 7. VIEW now supports printing to 9-pin dot matrix printers. Use VIEW /P9 to set VIEW into 9-pin mode. NOTE: In this mode, VIEW will print pages twice as long as they should be. So, a 3 page fax will take 6 pages to print. I've refused to support 9-pin printing in the past, because it is my opinion that faxes just are not worth printing to 9-pin printers. By printing one page as two, it allows us to get something printed that at least is readable. If you still have a 9-pin printer you really need to go buy a 24-pin or laser. _____________________________________________________________________ Changes in MAKEFAX (ASCII/PCX/DCX to FAX converter for sending faxes) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. MAKEFAX can now handle multiple input files! Example... MAKEFAX cover.pcx+filename.txt+file2.txt output.fax or MAKEFAX @filename.lst output.fax Where "filename.lst" is a standard ASCII text file, with one filename per line. 2. MAKEFAX now supports 80-column and 132-column modes! FINALLY! MAKEFAX filename.txt output.fax /80 80-column conversion MAKEFAX filename.txt output.fax /132 132-column conversion Remember that MAKEFAX will default to 100-column conversion. 3. MAKEFAX now supports DCX as a valid input file type. (Recall DCX is a multi-page PCX file), e.g., makefax sample.dcx output.fax or, makefax coverpg.pcx+notes.txt+document.dcx+signatur.pcx output.fax 4. New MAKEFAX command line switch /LR MAKEFAX, when converting PCX and DCX files to FAX mode will now "guess" as to what resolution flag to put in the fax header, so that BGFAX knows what to tell the remote fax machine about the resolution of the upcoming document. If the PCX or DCX file has a page with greater than 1200 scan lines, it will assume the fax is to be marked as high resolution. If less than 1200 scan lines, it will be assumed low resolution. MAKEFAX can be forced to put a high resolution flag in the header with a /HR switch, and a low resolution flag with the new /LR switch. ____________________________________ Changes in FNTEDIT.EXE (font editor) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. FNTEDIT made more multi-tasking friendly. It will now return time slices when waiting for input from the keyboard. 2. FNTEDIT was not always saving changes to the last character edited. This should be fixed now.