Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!ames!ucsd!ogccse!schaefer From: schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) Newsgroups: comp.mail.mush Subject: Attention MushView Beta-Testers: Version 7.0 ALPHA Message-ID: <4767@ogccse.ogc.edu> Date: 16 Sep 89 22:42:37 GMT Reply-To: schaefer@ogccse.UUCP (Barton E. Schaefer) Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR Lines: 96 Yes, folks, you read that right. The decision has been made to abandon version 6.6 and make 7.0 the next official release. With that goal in mind, an alpha test version has supplanted 6.5.6.15 beta. Two major changes from 6.5.6.15 warranted the change in release number: The tool code has been more completely rewritten, to actually make use of the textsw features of SunView; and filename completion (ala 4.3BSD csh, but better :-) has been added to the line/curses modes. Several details of the tool interface remain to be sorted out, which is why this is designated an alpha test rather than beta. Also, the portable directory routines used by the file completion code have not yet been tested on a SysV system, so feedback from SysV users is urgently needed. Many thanks to those of you who worked so hard on making version 6.6 an unreality. :-) As with the 6.5.6.xx beta releases, the 7.0 alpha version is available for anonymous ftp from ucbvax.berkeley.edu, file pub/mushview.tar.Z (the same name as the previous versions). Also as before, tool mode bug reports should be sent to Rich Burridge . Other bug reports can be sent to Dan , me , or to Rich. Discussion and suggestions for improvements may be posted to this newsgroup or sent to the mailing list. The following is an excerpt from the latest README.View. Since the main changes to the tool mode are in implementation rather than functionality, this excerpt deals mainly with the file completion changes. I have also limited the commentary here to the changes since 6.5.6.15 beta; a more complete list of changes since the 6.5.6 baseline can still be found in README.View. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 7.0 Alpha differs from the several 6.5.6 Beta releases in that a large portion of the Sun code has changed to use text subwindows instead of pixrects. This is a significant enough change in "look and feel" that the release number was increased from 6 to 7. Addition of file completion to the line/curses modes is also considered a major improvement. In addition to the SunView conversions and linting, which make up the bulk of the changes, there have been a number of bug fixes and enhancements to the 6.5.6 baseline. These include: $bell This variable now has a string value of one to three words: await The await command rings for new mail complete Word completion rings on failure tool Tool mode rings for new mail If any word is omitted, the bell is not rung under those conditions. If the variable is unset, the bell is completely silent in tool mode and rings only for error conditions in other modes. $complete Mush now supports filename completion and will eventually support command completion as well. This variable has a two-character "string" value; the first character is used for name completion, the second for listing, ala ESC and ^D in 4.3 BSD csh. $fignore This variable modifies the behavior of file completion by specifying file name forms that should NOT be completed. See the man page for more details. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- To reiterate the important info -- 7.0 Alpha available for anonymous ftp from: ucbvax.berkeley.edu:pub/mushview.tar.Z Toolmode bug reports to: Rich Burridge Other bug reports to: Dan Heller Bart Schaefer Rich Burridge Discussion and suggestions: comp.mail.mush The authors are still wedging mush changes into late nights and corners, so response times may vary. We encourage alpha (and beta) testers to provide patches for problems they encounter whenever possible. Thanks again to all you volunteers. -- Bart Schaefer "And if you believe that, you'll believe anything." -- DangerMouse CSNET / Internet schaefer@cse.ogc.edu UUCP ...{sequent,tektronix,verdix}!ogccse!schaefer