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Mail Archives: djgpp/1993/08/23/15:13:52

To: David J Camp <david AT campfire DOT stl DOT mo DOT us>
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: New OEmacs Release 4.1
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 11:51:01 -0700
From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo AT hpnmxx DOT sr DOT hp DOT com>

> > GNU!  All the latest gnu software have been ported, including the
> > latest binutils and gzip (2x faster than 16-bit gzip.exe!).  More
> > utilities will be ported in the future, so joing the djgpp-announce
> > mailing list to get the announcements.
> 
> Has emacs been ported?  -David-

     To MSDOS using DJGPP?  (I never saw the original message, and so I
can only guess at the question.)

     If anyone's interested, a new release of OEmacs, Release 4.1, is
now available.

     I'm sorry about wasting the bandwidth, but I will temporarily not
be able to read my mail for a few weeks (until the middle of September),
and so I'm including a copy of the announcement at the end of this
message.

     -- Darryl Okahata
	Internet: darrylo AT sr DOT hp DOT com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion or policy of Hewlett-Packard or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.

===============================================================================
[ Note: this is still a Beta-test version.  ]

     Release 4.1 of "OEmacs" is now available via anonymous ftp.  OEmacs
is, basically, a version of GNU Emacs that will work under MSDOS, inside
a Windows 3.1 DOS box (note that it is NOT a native Windows application,
but works within a DOS box), or under DESQview/X (w/multiple native X11
windows).  It is partially based upon demacs, but is *NOT* compatible
with it.

     New features in OEmacs Release 4.1 include:

* This release is based upon GNU Emacs V19.19.

* This release contains mainly bugfixes.

* Added a new function, `emacs-pc-set-mouse-cursor', which is a
  very-low-level interface to set how the mouse is displayed.  This
  function takes two arguments:

	screen-mask
	cursor-mask

  The `screen-mask' is a 16-bit integer that is masked (bitwise-AND)
  against the attribute and character under the mouse cursor (the
  attribute is the upper 8 bits, and the character is the lower 8
  bits).  The `cursor-mask', another 16-bit integer, is then
  bitwise-XOR'd with the result to produce the attribute/character that
  is displayed as the mouse cursor.

  For example, to make the mouse cursor have a red background, while
  preserving the character below the mouse cursor, a screen-mask of
  0x0fff and a cursor-mask of 0x4000 would be used, e.g.:

	(emacs-pc-set-mouse-cursor 4095 16384)


***** Bugs fixed in Release 4.1 include:

* Fixed bug ("TZ not set") that could prevent Emacs from locating its
  support files.  The usual symptom of this is Emacs getting an error
  at startup, saying "Cannot open load file: term/pc-win" with the
  mode-line *NOT* displayed in inverse video (it is displayed as
  normal video).  This bug can come and go, depending on your memory
  configuration (such as the size of your environment).

* Fixed bug that prevented suspending Emacs with WATCOM C/386.

* After a mouse reset, the mouse display range is now explicitly reset
  to the screen area.  This was done to allow Emacs to be used with
  broken mouse drivers.


***** Features in OEmacs Release 4.1, but first added to Release 4.0:

* The ANSI.SYS driver is no longer required, but can still be optionally
  used.	 By default, release 4 will attempt to do direct screen writes;
  if you want to go through ANSI.SYS, you have to specify the "-ansi"
  command-line option, and it must be the very first option.

* If direct screen writes are used, you can enable mouse support.  Of
  course, you must have loaded a mouse driver in order for this to work.

* If direct screen writes are used, V19 Emacs "faces" (color text) can
  be used.  Check out Jonathan Stigelman's hilit19.el for a demo.

* On US keyboards, the C-h key can be optionally used as the help key.
  This may or may not work on non-US keyboards, depending on how the
  non-US keyboard device driver is written.  It is known to work on UK
  keyboards.

* A native X11 version exists for users of DESQview/X.	This version is
  a full, multi-window X11 implementation of GNU Emacs, complete with
  pop-up menus and changeable fonts.

     This release falls under the GNU Public Licence, with the exception
of a couple of redistributable files that are a part of the WATCOM C/386
compiler (yes, RMS allows this under the GPL).  See the file
"readme.1st" for details.

     For now, I suggest using email or the newsgroup "comp.emacs" to
discuss any issues/problems with OEmacs.  The normal FSF GNU Emacs
mailing lists and newsgroups have enough traffic as it is, and I don't
want to add more noise to these lists.

     I'd like to thank Chris Boucher (C DOT C DOT Boucher AT southhampton DOT ac DOT uk)
for much of the DJGPP and DV/X changes, and Michael Ernst
(mernst AT theory DOT lcs DOT mit DOT edu) for providing an ftp site.

     Also, please do not upload this release to Simtel20.  If all goes
well, I plan to upload Release 4.1 to Simtel20 in a few weeks.


***** Where can you get a copy?

NOTE: Please access the following ftp site during "off-hours" --
      sometime OTHER THAN 10AM-6PM EST (1500-2300 hours GMT/UTC).  The
      site adminstrators have graciously provided the disk space, and I
      don't want to annoy them by overloading their site with ftp
      requests.

     PLEASE BACKUP YOUR HARD DISK BEFORE USING OEMACS!  While I have
tried to make OEmacs bug-free, I'm sure that there are some bugs still
in it, and it's possible that a bug could cause information on your hard
disk to be lost or destroyed.

     Release 4.1 is available via anonymous ftp from theory.lcs.mit.edu,
in /pub/emacs/oemacs:

  /pub/emacs/oemacs:
  total 10654
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc         16365 Aug 23 14:35 INSTALL.DOS
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc           406 Aug 23 14:35 README
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc          4891 Aug 23 14:35 ROADMAP.DOS
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1122110 Aug 23 14:35 elisp201.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        252281 Aug 23 14:36 go32oe2.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1193292 Aug 23 14:36 oe41el1.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1196580 Aug 23 14:37 oe41el2.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1108102 Aug 23 14:38 oe41el3.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        456947 Aug 23 14:38 oe41gbin.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        490681 Aug 23 14:38 oe41info.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        814045 Aug 23 14:38 oe41min.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1174029 Aug 23 14:39 oe41src1.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc       1147381 Aug 23 14:40 oe41src2.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        670126 Aug 23 14:40 oe41src3.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        578596 Aug 23 14:40 oe41wbin.zip
  -r--r--r--  1 5536     toc        531268 Aug 23 14:41 oe41xbin.zip

This release has been broken up into a number of .zip files.  To see
what you need to get for a given version, get the file "ROADMAP.DOS".
The file "INSTALL.DOS" contains installation instructions.

     Note that all files have been compressed using the new .ZIP 2.0
format (which means that you cannot use the OLD pkunzip programs), and
must be extracted such that the subdirectory hierarchy is preserved
(i.e., give the -d flag to pkunzip).

     Also note that the minimal disk space requirements for the MSDOS
and DV/X versions is closer to 3.5MB (the docs say that 3MB is the
minimum).


***** What binaries are part of OEmacs Release 4.1?

* An MSDOS binary compiled using DJGPP:
	Advantage:	Starts up very fast.
	Advantage:	Runs under plain MSDOS or within a Windows DOS
			box.
	Disadvantage:	Requires a numeric coprocessor to run within
			Windows.
	Disadvantage:	Shelling to DOS takes a long time.
	Disadvantage:	Needs more memory to run under Windows.

	Minimally required files:
		oe41gbin.zip
		oe41min.zip

	You need at least 3.5MB of free disk space to install this
	version.  The exact amount depends on the cluster size used on
	your hard disk.


* A binary compiled using WATCOM C/386 9.01E:
	Advantage:	Does not require a numeric coprocessor to run
			within Windows.
	Advantage:	Shelling to DOS is fast.
	Advantage:	Runs under plain MSDOS or within a Windows DOS
			box.
	Disadvantage:	Takes a while to start up (about 20 seconds on a
			33MHz 486DX).
	Disadvantage:	Uses much more disk space than the other
			versions (14MB vs 3.5MB).

	Minimally required files:
		oe41wbin.zip
		oe41min.zip
		oe41el1.zip
		oe41el2.zip
		oe41el3.zip

	You need at least 14MB of free disk space to install this
	version.  The exact amount depends on the cluster size used on
	your hard disk.

* A DESQview/X binary compiled using DJGPP:
	Advantage:	Starts up very fast.
	Advantage:	Can display multiple X-windows (frames).
	Disadvantage:	Does not work under plain MSDOS or Windows.

	Minimally required files:
		oe41xbin.zip
		oe41min.zip

	You need at least 3.5MB of free disk space to install this
	version.  The exact amount depends on the cluster size used on
	your hard disk.


***** What are the differences between OEmacs and demacs?

* OEmacs has mouse and color-text support.  Demacs does not.

* OEmacs does not require that ANSI.SYS be loaded.

* OEmacs is based upon GNU Emacs V19.  Demacs is based upon an ancient
  version of V18.

* OEmacs works within a Windows 3.1 DOS box.  Demacs does not (however,
  rumor has it that demacs can run within a Windows 3.1 DOS box if the
  latest DPMI-aware go32 is used).

* The _emacs files are different.  In OEmacs, the _emacs file has been
  simplified and streamlined.  Demacs cannot use the OEmacs' _emacs
  file, and OEmacs cannot use the demacs' _emacs file.	As a matter of
  fact, OEmacs does not need a _emacs file.

* The terminal config files ("lisp/term/ibmpc.el") are different.
  Unlike demacs, OEmacs does not rely on reprogramming the keyboard
  mapping via ANSI.SYS.  Some versions of ANSI.SYS don't allow keyboard
  mapping, and some versions even crashed if this was attempted, and so
  OEmacs uses a different method of keyboard handling.

* OEmacs doesn't have the NEMACS or FEPCTRL code merged into the Emacs C
  code.  I can't test these features, and so I didn't bother merging
  them in.  The merge was done by hand (and not via patch(1)), and so
  merging these untestable features would have added more work, which I
  didn't want.  The demacs support for 8-bit characters was not added to
  Release 3.0 or 4.1, as V19 already contains support for 8-bit
  characters.

* The WATCOM C/386 version of OEmacs needs to load the emacs-lisp files
  at startup (this takes about 20 seconds on a 33MHz 486DX), while the
  DJGPP-compiled OEmacs is dumped and loads about as fast as demacs.

* Subprocesses with the DJGPP-compiled version of OEmacs do not work
  well.  Demacs has special GO32 modifications that make shelling to DOS
  quite fast; these changes have not been merged into the GO32
  distributed with OEmacs, and so shelling to DOS is quite slow (GO32
  has changed significantly since demacs was written).

     -- Darryl Okahata
	Internet: darrylo AT sr DOT hp DOT com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion or policy of Hewlett-Packard or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.

===============================================================================
Here is a copy of the bug list/FAQ:
===============================================================================
				OEMACS
		       Release 4.1 (BETA RELEASE)
			    August 22, 1993


This file was last updated: August 22, 1993

     This file contains a list of bugs and frequently-asked questions,
regarding OEmacs Release 4.1.


***** KNOWN BUGS:

* The Meta-{, Meta-/, etc. keys do not work.  Meta keys that use
  alphabetic characters work, but the non-alphabetic characters do not.
  Unfortunately, the ROM BIOS is supressing these keys, and so there is
  no easy way of getting these keys to work.


***** Frequently-Asked Questions:

* The "info" facility doesn't work.  I get the error, "Wrong type
  argument: stringp, nil", when I try to use it.

  This error occurs because Emacs cannot find its Info files, and is
  usually caused by having old environment variables, such as:

	EMACSLOADPATH
	EMACSEXECPATH
	EMACSPATH
	EMACSDATA
	INFOPATH

  Another possibility is that the Info files were not installed or were
  installed in the wrong location (they should be installed in
  "emacs-19.19/info").

  Yet another possibility is that you did not properly follow the
  instructions on installing OEmacs, and improperly set the value for
  "EMACSTOPDIR" in one of the "emacs.bat" files.


* Why doesn't the mouse work?

  Before the mouse can be used, an MSDOS mouse driver must be loaded
  (even if Windows is being used), and this must be done BEFORE starting
  Emacs.  For MSDOS 5.0 and 6.0, a mouse driver can be found as
  C:\DOS\MOUSE.COM (see the MSDOS documentation for instructions on how
  to load it).  With Windows, note that the mouse will always work for
  graphical/native Windows 3.1 applications, regardless of whether or
  not the mouse driver is loaded, but will only work within a Windows
  MSDOS window if a mouse driver was loaded *BEFORE* windows was
  started.

  Once the mouse driver has been loaded, you need to enable the mouse by
  placing the following line into your ~/_emacs file:

	(emacs-pc-enable-mouse)

  You can also execute this function via M-x.

  The mouse is not enabled by default because, the first time the mouse
  is enabled within OEmacs, a hardware mouse reset is done, and this can
  take a couple of seconds (some people don't use a mouse, and do not
  want to incur this "slowdown" when starting Emacs).


* Why doesn't C-@ work?

  The C-@ key (accessed via Ctrl-Space) should work in this release (it
  did not work right in earlier releases).

  If it does not work, chances are that you are using an old ~/_emacs
  file, and it contains a command that attempts to redefine some keys,
  using C-@ as a prefix character.  Examples of this are:

	(global-set-key "\C- AT G" 'beginning-of-buffer)
	(define-key function-key-map "\C- AT G" [home])


* How do I rebind the function keys or keypad keys?

  GNU Emacs V19 changed the way keys are defined.  In addition, the
  various function keys now send different escape sequences to OEmacs
  Release 4.0 and later (different escape sequences were sent with
  earlier releases); this was done to remove a conflict with C-@.

  With V19, the following can be used to define keys (for example):

	(global-set-key [home] 'beginning-of-buffer)	; home
	(global-set-key [C-home] 'beginning-of-line)	; Ctrl-home
	(global-set-key [left] 'previous-char)		; left arrow
	(global-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help)		; F1

  Note that the PC keyboard is incapable of redefining some keys, such
  as any shifted numeric keypad key, or Alt-keypad keys, or C-up or
  C-down, to name a few.  For a vague idea of what function keys can be
  rebound (assuming that you are familiar with Emacs-lisp), see the file
  "emacs-19.19/lisp/term/ibmpc.el".

  See the V19 documentation for more details.

- Raw text -


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