DOS ain't dead - Blocek v1.7

Laaca

Czech republic,
27.10.2022, 00:49

Blocek v1.7 (Announce)

After many years I finally managed to adapt my text editor Blocek to new generation of my GUI system Wokna32.
So finaly the version 1.7 is here!
First of all I have to note that the home server for Blocek is changing because the SWEB.CZ domain is closing. It is pretty sad because many interresting sites will gone away. (Like with the Geocities, Yahoo and others)
So, the new home for Blocek is here: http://www.laaca.borec.cz/blocek

Anyway, the most interresting for you is probably the changelog:
=========================================================================
+ many improvements in the graphical user interface (GUI)
+ most of the windows can be moved by dragging the title bar by mouse
+ slovak keyboard layout
+ blocks of text can be selected by dragging the mouse with pressed left button
+ blocks of text can be selected not only in the edited text but also in most places of the GUI like information or help windows.
+ the scope of the Search or Search and Replace functions can be limited to text block only
+ many powerful conversion routines handling the code pages and Unicode
* if the document is not in Unicode it is always in some defined DOS code page
- The RAM size detection was wrong on some systems
+ Now can work even with graphic cards with non-continuous video memory (like GeForce RTX 2060)
+ can load and save with all three line-ending standards (CRLF, CR, LF)
+ can load and save Unicode files encoded in UTF-16LE and UTF-16BE
+ recognizes the Unicode BOMs (byte order marks)
+ customizable word wrapping
+ now can fixate the word-wrapping not only for the whole document but also for selected block only.
+ function for intelligent merging the legacy DOS style lines (78 or 80 chars) to word-wrapping blocks.
- better keyboard handler
- fixed bug in the conversion routine for 3-bytes long Unicode glyphs
+ conversion from HTML entities into Unicode chars
+ QR codes creation
- Program can't be shot down by Ctrl-Break (customizable in BLOCEK.CFG)
- fixed tabulators
- corrected minor bugs in the color selection dialog
- functions for moving to next word or to previous word now scroll the window if needed
+ the single-line text boxes can use the clipboards too (like f.e. in „Search and replace“ dialog)
+ more informations in the system information window
* the number of clipboards reduced to 7 (still more than enough) leaving more space on the upper line for menu
x the language files for german, turkish, hungarian and french languages are not updated so they are moved from "public" TRANSLAT subdirectory to TRANSLAT\VER162 - they can partialy work after copying back into TRANSLAT

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DOS-u-akbar!

Zyzzle

30.10.2022, 12:32

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7

Post reply

> After many years I finally managed to adapt my text editor Blocek to new
> generation of my GUI system Wokna32.
> So finaly the version 1.7 is here!
Possible bug report? Blocek 1.7 on my baremetal DOS system runs, and displays the initial screen with sample PNG image perfectly. I'm using CTMOUSE as mouse driver. However, when I attempt to do any activity, such as start a new document, change the font, or access an item on a menu, Blocek appears to initiate the action (eg, New Document), but then becomes completely non-responsive. The mouse still works, the system does not freeze, but nothing can be done. Requires a re-boot to get back to DOS.

I'm running plain MS-DOS DOS 7.1, Blocek is on a 64MB ramdrive, the only TSRs loaded are the XMS driver and the RAMDRIVE. Strange. I've seen this same behavior (phantom freeze / going into limbo) on two of my DOS laptops now. Both have 4 GiB - 8 GB of memory. Limiting memory size intentionally doesn't solve the problem.

Have you seen this behavior in Blocek before, or has anyone reported such problem with the new 1.7 version?

Laaca

Czech republic,
30.10.2022, 15:58

@ Zyzzle

Blocek v1.7

Post reply

> Have you seen this behavior in Blocek before, or has anyone reported such
> problem with the new 1.7 version?

Hi. Thank you for the bugreport. This is new for me. I tried Blocek on four physical machines and with five OSes (MS-DOS 7.1, Ms-DOS 6.22, FreeDOS, Win98, WinXP).

What happens if you load some file at the startup? Like "Blocek somefile.txt"
or if you just run INFO.BAT (which calls Blocek INFO.TXT)
What happens if you as the very first action in Blocek press SHIFT-ALT and go to keyboard layout menu (and select some other option than "DOS")?
Do you use some keyboard driver?
Do you have a write enabled C:\ drive?
Could you provide me your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?

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DOS-u-akbar!

Laaca

Czech republic,
30.10.2022, 19:24

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7

Post reply

Hm, I found some bugs in the text block moving routines which from some reason did not manifested on the machines I tried before.
Tomorrow I will release a 1.7b together with alterane builds with debugging on.

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DOS-u-akbar!

Zyzzle

30.10.2022, 23:22

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7

Post reply

> What happens if you load some file at the startup? Like "Blocek
> somefile.txt"

blocek -info program starts OK, with the PNG flower displayed. Can access file menu and exit program. When I try to load a file, blocek goes into netherworld.
blocek somefile.txt = program starts but immediate unresponsive / netherworld. The somefile.txt file isn't displayed.

> or if you just run INFO.BAT (which calls Blocek INFO.TXT)
blocek starts but is immediately non-responsive / netherworld

> What happens if you as the very first action in Blocek press SHIFT-ALT and
> go to keyboard layout menu (and select some other option than "DOS")?
blocek becomes unresponsive immediately when after go to layout or try to change to ENG, or other language. Also can't change codepage.

> Do you use some keyboard driver?
No.
> Do you have a write enabled C:\ drive?
Yes, but I installed blocek to my ramdrive, which is D:\ and has ~64mb free.

> Could you provide me your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?
Very basic.
CONFIG.SYS
files=20
buffers=20
device=himemsx.exe /numhandles=64
DOS=HIGH

AUTOEXEC.BAT
c:\srdxms.exe 65535k,c32,d // (RAMDRIVE)
c:\mtrrlfbe lfb wc
path=c:\;d:\;

That's it. Also tried with Microsoft HIMEM.SYS XMS driver and same results as with Jepeth's Himemsx extended XMS driver. Also tried eliminatig RayeR's MTRRLFBE write-combining, and blocek has same behavior as reported.

I'll try your new 1.7b and report back if it solves the problems.

Laaca

Czech republic,
31.10.2022, 21:52

@ Zyzzle

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

Hi!
I uploaded the version 1.7b which fixes several quite obvious bugs which from some reason was not manifested in my test cases.
However it is uncertain whether it can solve your problem.
Please, this version contains a subdirectory ALTERNAT.EXE which two other binaries. The bigger one contains a debug info which can help in case of crashes. But not sure whether it helps in case of freesing.
Unfortunately I was today quite busy so I was not able to replicate your DOS setup.
I hope I can do it in next days.

http://www.laaca.borec.cz/blocek

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DOS-u-akbar!

Zyzzle

01.11.2022, 03:41

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

> I uploaded the version 1.7b which fixes several quite obvious bugs which
> from some reason was not manifested in my test cases.
I tried new version and can report progress.

All 3 executables work. I can change language to English or other. I can access all the menues without a crash. Info works, system info works, everything seemed fine. However, the "limbo" behavior still applies if I try to change the font. That menu comes up with selection of fonts in blue color, I select one and Blocek becomes unresponsive.

Also when I try to "open" a file, the program either crashes (hard freeze with green info (text) superimposed over the VESA 800x600 screen, impossible to read or perform screen capture), or just goes into limbo / netherworld. This happens with all three executables, except the debug one prints the small green text over the VBE 800x600 screen, and so does the alternate exec. which is 681kb in size. The regular .exe which is 669kb just goes into limbo when I try to open a file or change the font.

If I try the QR-reader, it lets me type in the text, but then Blocek becomes unresponsive when I press OK button to generate QR-code.

I tried on 2 laptops so far, with same results, I'll try on as many additional bare-metal DOS systems as I can find to test, and report back with their DOS CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT as the same as mine in these two laptops I've tested so far.

Laaca

Czech republic,
05.11.2022, 23:07

@ Zyzzle

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

Please, try this build:
http://www.laaca.borec.cz/soubory/blo_dev.zip

I kicked out the use of the "ansistring" type and these routines now use only ordinary "string" type.
There is not checked the crossing the 255 chars limit so some new bugs can occur but, please, report if it somehow helped.

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DOS-u-akbar!

fritz.mueller

Munich, Germany,
05.11.2022, 23:35

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

> Please, try this build:
> http://www.laaca.borec.cz/soubory/blo_dev.zip
>
> I kicked out the use of the "ansistring" type and these routines now use
> only ordinary "string" type.
> There is not checked the crossing the 255 chars limit so some new bugs can
> occur but, please, report if it somehow helped.

hi,

you got my two mails with bug reports? reason, I often have problems with zip attachments

Laaca

Czech republic,
06.11.2022, 00:28

@ fritz.mueller

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

> hi,
>
> you got my two mails with bug reports? reason, I often have problems with
> zip attachments

Hello!
Unfortunately not. I have not got any emails from you.

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DOS-u-akbar!

fritz.mueller

Munich, Germany,
06.11.2022, 14:01

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7b

Post reply

> > hi,
> >
> > you got my two mails with bug reports? reason, I often have problems
> with
> > zip attachments
>
> Hello!
> Unfortunately not. I have not got any emails from you.

Thank you for telling me that they arrived in spam folder (as very often).

I just wanted to test the most actual version, but "blo_dev.exe" exits with
"a message chybi soubor default.cfg"

Please do not investigate too much work into the screenshot:
"I wanted to replace bloblo by bläblä with win keyboard in virtualbox"
I clicked around several times, so I may have made a mistake. I will inform you when I know more.
To all others: I sent a long list and screenshots of problems that I found,
I think it does not help anyone to publish everything here. German translation was included too.

fritz.mueller Munich, Germany, 06.11.2022, 14:20 @ fritz.mueller	Blocek v1.7b Post reply
	> I just wanted to test the most actual version, but "blo_dev.exe" exits > with > "a message chybi soubor default.cfg" Sorry, my mistake, blo_dev.exe is no setup routine but only the main exe file to be replaced in 1.7

KormaX

04.11.2022, 23:23

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.7

Post reply

Thanks!

I'm gonna update the Hungarian and maybe the Turkish translations within 1 week or 2.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

Laaca

Czech republic,
16.11.2022, 00:15

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.71

Post reply

New version!
The program site is here:
http://www.laaca.borec.cz/blocek

1.71
+ german translation
+ fast switching among opened files with Ctrl+Plus and Ctrl+Minus
- fixed some bugs (including crashes)
* changed the picture for welcome screen

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DOS-u-akbar!

Laaca

Czech republic,
26.12.2022, 00:18

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.72

Post reply

New version!
The program site is here:
http://www.laaca.borec.cz/blocek

1.72
+ french and turkish translations
- fixed scrolling of the line with cards of opened files
- fixed possible crash after closing a file
* minor improvements in the system information window
+ the GUI system can now process a multiline buttons
(currently used in the russian interface in fileselector)
- fixed some conflicts between BIOS/DOS keyboard drivers and the internal driver
(details described in the TECHNOTE.TXT file)

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DOS-u-akbar!

Berlin, Germany,
26.12.2022, 14:26

@ Laaca

Blocek v1.72

Post reply

> New version!
> The program site is here:
> http://www.laaca.borec.cz/blocek
>
> 1.72

I put version 1.72 to the SvarDOS package repo today.

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