What's news:

dd/mm/yyyy

07/12/1998:

  • I've updated the Download page again, along with the checking of all the other pages. Some nice new things in this new version. Here's some from the what's new textfile:
  • I modified the windows-message recieving handlers. 'Modified' isn't entirely the right word: created is better. This is only directly useful for Plug-in authors, and thus indirectly for the regular user. Check out the plugin info file for more info. If they prove to work OK then RC2 will be promoted to 0.5 final..
  • What does this mean to you, the user? Well, if you download the latest Project Manager plugin, it means that you can doubleclick on a file in the project, which then opens automatically in Panther..
  • Some more user friendly-stuff: 'Auto Tile New Windows' was renamed to 'Auto Tile Windows', moved to the 'Settings' Menu and was given a new function: auto-tiling of all windows. Check it out: if you have 3 open editwindows, and auto tile new windows is enabled, AND you close 1 of the 3 windows, the others are now retiled. If you have only 1 open window remaining, that one is maximized. I also added some more horizontal lines to several menus.
  • Oh, I almost forgot: Seach now works. Sorta. Strictly speaking, it works, but it's VERY(!!!!!) slow. I definately need to work on that. Definately.
  • Also, there's some new stuff in the program manager. Again, straight from the what's new.txt file:
  • VERY useful update: you can now double click on a file in the Project Manager, and it is automatically opened in Panther, and the Project Manager is then also made nice and small again, so you don't have to push 'Shrink Window' again manually.
  • Also, if the PM window is small, and you click the little + in front of your project, the window is automatically expanded.
  • Added a little About window.

    14/08/1998:

  • I've updated the Download page, with the new Panther 0.5 Release Candidate 1, Project Manager 0.9RC1, and the new ComLynx Debugger. Some new features in Panther: (better) support for plugins written in C, some new plugin features. New in Project Manager: select more files to add at once, much improved file-checking and removing (from a project, that is.) I also updated the examples to be compatible with the new plugin-layout.

    9/05/1998:

  • It's here! It's finally here! The newest version of Panther and, finally, the Project Manager!
  • What took me so long to the release, is that while testing, I made a mistake with a picture. I thought it had something to do with the Project Manager, but after a desperate week it turned out to be something completely else. Anyway, it took a time to figure THAT out!

    24/04/1998:

  • At 23:38, for the first time I successfully compiled a project using the Project Manager!!!! Now I have to refine it, to make it work even better.
  • After some more work, it's running better, but still not perfect. Tomorrow, I'll get up early, and try to make it completely right. Let me tell you what's in so far:
  • You can add files, which need to be compiled.
  • Of each file, you can specify what needs to happen with it before it goes into the final program.
  • For now, you have to compile all of the files manually, before you can hit the "Compile all" button, which glues the entire thing together.
  • Tomorrow, I'll add automatic detection of which files need to be recompiled before the final compilation, which should a.) save you quite some time; and b.)make it easier, you always have the most up-to-date versions automatically used. But first, I need to get to bed. It's 01.30AM, y'see..

    23/04/1998:

  • I've been working real hard on the project manager, and I most probably will have it up and running tomorrow. Watch this space...

    22/04/1998:

  • More bughunting has been done: 1 bug troubled the unloading of plugins. When you had more than 1, you'd get all sorts of errors when quitting. This no longer happens.
  • I hope you didn't notice the following bug: when you had more than 1 new, unsaved files, and wanted to save them when you closed Panther, you'd end up with just 1 file, which had the name you specified for the first file, and contained the text of the last file.
  • As I also use Panter to update my homepage, I added HTML files top the Open File Dialog.
  • I also added an Eject option to the CD-Player menu.
  • I uploaded a updated version of Panther, which you can get here at the download page.
  • Further, I continued on the Project Manager, which is getting along quite nicely.

    21st April 1998:

  • Found a little bug in Panther: If you have only 1 plugin dll, it wouldn't execute any functions it should at shutdown. Is fixed now, will probably release version 0.31beta tomorrow or something.
  • 've been working on the project manager. It will allow you to keep track of which file belong to the project, and what should happen to them. So far, only the interface is up, so it LOOKS final, but it doesn't DO anything yet. Well, not much. Anyway, be kind enough to check out the screenshot page.

    20th April 1998:

  • Did a lot. Not gonna type it all now though (Hey, I'm lazy, ok?), so here's something from the What's New.txt:
  • MAJOR IMPROVEMENT: NOW ALLOWS PLUGINS!!!! Actually, I waited with releasing this beta to implement a second type of DLL's. The first "version" was sufficient for most things, but while coding it, I ran into some limitations. But since the first version was easy, I decided to leave it in, but just add another version. Since this one whas a little more complex, it took some time to implement it.
  • Also, I coded the first alpha version with pluginsupport, to support just 1 plugin at a time. Also, this was not a "Hot Plugable": Panther needed that pre- defined plugin right at the start. If it wasn't there, the program wouldn't run. That approach turned out to be WRONG!!! I spent an ENTIRE DAY (that is, +- 10 hours) rewriting (almost) the entire plugin code. But now it's great: you just copy a DLL into the Panther directory, and it's recognized and used. Up to 10 plugins are allowed at a time.
  • Removed some bugs which prevented some memory not to be released at shutdown. 1 particular case, I checked (The Info menu in Windows' Solitaire), and I had just 6% memory free... Now it should clean (almost) all opened resources at shutdown.
  • Another major improvement: you can now open as many files as you want, with a maximum of 10 at once. Close a few, and you can open some new ones. Previously, after you had opened 10 files, you couldn't open any new ones. Now you can!
  • Fixed the bug which occured after you had opened, then closed all files, and then tried to access the Settings menu. You'd then get an error, now you don't.
  • Saves the settings now!
  • Moved the 'Tile New Windows Automatically' to the Windows menu.
  • Added a 'Start CD at startup' option to the menu.
  • Added a 'Save Settings' option in the Settings menu.
  • Switched the hotkeys for starting and stoping a CD - Now F5 stops a running CD, and F6 starts it. Somehow, it seemed more logic this way.
  • Removed the annoying 'Settings aren't saved yet' messages.
  • When quitting, the 'Save this file now' dialog now says which file the question actually is about...
  • Now maximizes the first window automatically.
  • Fixed bug which prevented the app from closing sometimes. Was a very weird bug, which did happen when I opened a window before it was visible. Weird, weird, weird.
  • I added a visible shortcut to close a window; Previously, ctrl-f4 did work (Hello Standard Windows Functions!), but it didn't say so in the file menu.
  • Added a cancel option to the dialog appearing when you want to close an edit window.

    6th April 1998:

  • My beloved grandfather died on the 27th of March, and due to that I've been unable to code much, but I've made some significant improvements, I'll tell you about them soon.

    26th March 1998:

  • Uploaded new version to Download page, be sure to check it out.
  • In Alpha vesions, the CD doesn't stop playing when Panther quits.
  • The code to ask to saved altered files is finished.
  • You now can close one or all windows from the File menu.
  • Moved the menu's around a little.

    25th March 1998:

  • Fixed a broken link at the Download page. Thanks go to Ben Haynor for seeing it!
  • I altered the default font to FixedSys, so all characters are the same width. Thanks go to Ben Haynor for this tip.
  • Added support for *.H files.
  • Re-ordered the filetype lists in the open&save dialogs.
  • The option WordWrap in the Settings menu now reflects the wordwrap status of the active window, instead of the last value it had since it was altered.
  • Added a hotkey for wordwrap.
  • Removed bug which caused the Save As dialog to open when you wanted to save an opened (=not newly created) with CTRL-S or File->Save. This happened only the first time. It's fixed now, anyway.
  • Default extensions are no longer in capital. It was rather ugly.
  • Open & Save As no longer "remember" the previously opened/saved filename.
  • Slightly improved the way textfiles are closed. This way is (according to several helpfiles, at least) better, smaller and leaves less chance of leaving unused memory marked as used.
  • In Alpha versions of Panther(=the versions I don't release, but are "work in progress"), the "What's New.txt" file is automatically opened, to encourage me to write down improvements.
  • Working on code to ask to save altered files when quitting. Not hard, just tired, so it's not finished yet, as I wanna sleep now. (it's 1.00 am..)

    24th March 1998:

  • Everthing.
    This page was created by Laurens Simonis using the latest beta of Panther and PaintShopPro 4.1.