Editing Release Notes for FM Lite 0.4.9

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1. New Features
---------------
1.1 COMBOBOX and LISTBOX user controls are now implemented.

1.1.1   The syntax to specify a COMBOBOX control with the 'Ctl' keyword is:

Ctl[n]: COMBOBOX ( <combobox_style>, ...), <other_control_subkeys>...

where the possible <combobox_style>'s are:

DROPDOWNLIST            Specifies a combo box consisting of a static text
                                control with a drop-down list box which is normally
                                closed up.  This is the default style for a COMBOBOX
                                control.

DROPDOWN                Specifies a combo box consisting of an edit control
                                with a drop-down list box which is normally closed up.
                                (Not yet fully supported.)

SIMPLE                  Specifies a combo box consisting of an edit control
                                atop a permanently dropped-down list box.  (Not yet
                                fully supported.)

SORT                    Specifies that the strings in the list box are to
                                be alphanumerically sorted.

EXTENDEDUI              Specifies that the combo box will use an alternate
                                keyboard user interface, in which the down arrow drops
                                the list box down and moves the selection, and Enter
                                selects the current list item.  With the default
                                keyboard interface, F4 opens and closes the drop-
                                down list, and the cursor navigation keys immediately
                                select a list item.

AUTOHSCROLL             Specifies that the edit control will automatically
                                scroll horizontally to accommodate more characters
                                than can fit in the width of the edit control window.
                                Applies only to SIMPLE and DROPDOWN combo boxes.

HSCROLL                 Specifies that the list box will have a horizontal
                                scrollbar if necessary.

VSCROLL                 Specifies that the list box will have a vertical
                                scrollbar if necessary.

DISABLENOSCROLL         Specifies that scrollbars in the list box are to be
                                grayed out rather than removed when the number of
                                items in the list box is less than needed to require
                                scrolling.  By default, a vertical or horizontal
                                scrollbar is removed entirely if not required to
                                scroll the entire list box contents into view.

INTEGRALHEIGHT          Specifies that the height of the list box will be
                                adjusted to accommodate an integral number of list
                                items.  This is the default.

NOINTEGRALHEIGHT        Specifies that the height of the list box will be
                                exactly as specified by the 'Size' subkey, and
                                a partial item may be displayed at the bottom of
                                the list box,

UPPERCASE               Specifies that all strings in the list box are to
                                be converted to upper case.

LOWERCASE               Specifies that all strings in the list box are to
                                be converted to lower case.

OEMCONVERT              Specifies that the string in the edit control is to
                                be converted to the OEM character set and then back
                                to the Windows character set to force the string to
                                contain only characters that are legitimate in the
                                OEM character set.  This is useful for restricting
                                the character set of file names and path names.
                                Applies only to SIMPLE and DROPDOWN combo boxes.

OWNERDRAWFIXED          Specifies that the list items are of fixed height,
                                and will be drawn by the FD.  (Not yet supported.)

OWNERDRAWVARIABLE       Specifies that the list items are of variable height,
                                and will be drawn by the FD.  (Not yet supported.)

HASSTRINGS              Specifies that the list items in an owner-drawn list
                                box consist of strings which are to be stored by the
                                combo box control.  (Not yet supported.)

BORDER                  Places various styles of borders around the combo box
        CLIENTEDGE              control.
        STATICEDGE
        MODALFRAME

TABSTOP                 Sets a tab stop on this control.

GROUP                   Marks this control as the first (or one past the last)
                                in a group of controls.

ACCEPTFILES             Specifies that the control will accept a set of dragged-
                                and-dropped file names.  (Not yet supported.)

TRANSPARENT             (Not yet supported.)
        RIGHTALIGNEDTEXT
        RTLREADING
        LTRREADING

1.1.2   The syntax to specify a LISTBOX control with the 'Ctl' keyword is:

Ctl[n]: LISTBOX ( <listbox_style>, ...), <other_control_subkeys>...

where the possible <listbox_style>'s are:

SORT                    Specifies that the strings in the list box are to
                                be alphanumerically sorted.

MULTIPLESEL             Specifies that multiple items may be selected
                                simultaneously in the list box.  Items are selected
                                or deselected by clicking or double-clicking.  (Not
                                fully supported.)  By default, only one item may be
                                selected at a time.

EXTENDEDSEL             Specifies that multiple items may be selected
                                simultaneously in the list box.  Individual items
                                are selected or deselected by CTRL-clicking on them.
                                A range of items may be selected by SHIFT-clicking
                                or using the SHIFT-navigation keys.  (Not fully
                                supported.)  By default, only one item may be selected
                                at a time.

NOSEL                   Specifies that items in the list box cannot be
                                selected.  Clicking an item will result in an OnCtl()
                                handler event, but the item will not be selected.
                                (Not fully supported.)

MULTICOLUMN             Specifies that the items in the list box may be
                                arranged in multiple columns, which can be scrolled
                                horizontally.

HSCROLL                 Specifies that the list box will have a horizontal
                                scrollbar if necessary.

VSCROLL                 Specifies that the list box will have a vertical
                                scrollbar if necessary.

USETABSTOPS             Specifies that tabs in string items will be expanded.
                                By default, tab stops are set every 32 DBUs.

OWNERDRAWFIXED          Specifies that the list items are of fixed height,
                                and will be drawn by the FD.  (Not yet supported.)

OWNERDRAWVARIABLE       Specifies that the list items are of variable height,
                                and will be drawn by the FD.  (Not yet supported.)

BORDER                  Places various styles of borders around the list box
        CLIENTEDGE              control.  By default, the list box has no border;
        STATICEDGE              the BORDER style is recommended.
        MODALFRAME

TABSTOP                 Sets a tab stop on this control.

GROUP                   Marks this control as the first (or one past the last)
                                in a group of controls.

ACCEPTFILES             Specifies that the control will accept a set of dragged-
                                and-dropped file names.  (Not yet supported.)

TRANSPARENT             (Not yet supported.)
        RIGHTALIGNEDTEXT
        RTLREADING
        LTRREADING

1.1.3   To populate a list box or combo box control with an initial set of strings,
        specify the ['text' = ] "<string_list>" subkey, where <string_list> is the
        desired set of strings, separated by newline ('\n') characters.  For example,
        to populate a list box with the names of the following five cities:

Atlanta
                San Francisco
                Berlin
                Mexico City
                Paris

use:

text="Atlanta\nSan Francisco\nBerlin\nMexico City\nParis"

as the (initial) text string for the list box control.

Note:   The total length of the text string is currently limited to 1023
                characters, including one character for each newline ('\n') item
                separator.  For example, this accommodates a list of approximately
                102 items where each item has an average width of 9 characters
                (plus one character for the '\n' separator).  If the length of
                the text string exceeds 1023, it will be truncated to 1023 characters
                without warning.

1.1.4   The value of a COMBOBOX or LISTBOX control (as returned by the ((ctl))(n) or
        ((getCtlVal))(n) function) is the zero-based index of the currently selected item,
        or -1 if no items are currently selected.
        
        The value of a LISTBOX control with the MULTIPLESEL or EXTENDEDSEL style is
        not defined (i.e., these styles are not yet supported).
        
        The value of a COMBOBOX control with the SIMPLE or DROPDOWN style is undefined
        if the user types a value in the edit control window (i.e., these styles are
        not yet fully supported).

Note:   If the COMBOBOX or LISTBOX control has the SORT style, then the value
                of the control is the zero-based index of the item in the sorted list,
                which is not necessarily the same as the index of the item in the
                text string that was used to initialize the list.

1.1.5   The current selection in a COMBOBOX or LISTBOX control may be set programmatically
        by calling ((setCtlVal))(n, index), where 'index' is the zero-based index of the
        item to be selected, or -1 to deselect all items in the list.

For a LISTBOX with the MULTIPLESEL or EXTENDEDSEL style, you can select only
        one item at a time by calling ((setCtlVal))().  It is not currently possible to make
        multiple selections programmatically (i.e., these styles are not yet fully
        supported).

Note:   If the COMBOBOX or LISTBOX control has the SORT style, then the index
                of the item to be selected is the zero-based index of the item in the
                sorted list, which is not necessarily the same as the index of the item
                in the text string that was used to initialize the list.

1.1.6   The default action for a COMBOBOX or LISTBOX control is action=NONE.
        If you want to run the filter code immediately when an item is selected,
        specify action=PREVIEW in the Ctl(n) key definition.

2. Changes
----------
2.1 The evaluation of the ((sqr))() integer square root function has been sped up,
    and is now approximately twice as fast as the Filter Factory's implementation.
    Many thanks to Michael Johannhanwahr, who pointed me to a "fast" integer
    algorithm.  It turns out that, at least for a 200 MHz Pentium, this fast
    integer algorithm is actually a bit slower than using the Pentium FPU
    FSQRT instruction (including the conversion from integer to floating-point
    and back).  However, further research turned up an algorithm by Ben Discoe
    (rodent@netcom.COM) at Microsoft, which basically unrolls the loop in the
    integer algorithm above to achieve a speed significantly faster than the
    Pentium FPU, even when called as a closed routine instead of generating
    in-line code.  (Of course, these timing results apply only to a 200 MHz
    Pentium -- your mileage may vary -- but I believe they are a useful indication
    across most of the P5 and P6 line.)
    
    Note:   The ((c2m))(x,y) function also benefits from the speed-up in the integer
            square root algorithm, but is still significantly slower than the
            Filter Factory implementation.  I finally broke down and disassembled
            parts of FF, and discovered that FF precomputes tables for both
            ((c2m))(x,y) and ((c2d))(x,y).  The trick is that the tables are computed
            based on the ratio of x to y, where x <= y.  The ((c2d))() function,
            of course, depends only on this ratio; and the function ((c2m))(x,y)
            may be computed as: c2m(x,y) = c2m(x/y,1) * y, where x <= y.

I will probably implement this optimization in one of the next few
            FM releases.

2.2 The ((sqr))() function is now polymorphic.  When called with an integer
    argument, it computes the integer square root (by calling the integer
    square root routine described in 2.1 above).  When called with a floating-point
    argument, it returns the floating-point square root (by generating an
    in-line FSQRT instruction).

2.3 The default dialog background image mode is now 'TILED' instead of
    'EXACT'.  In most cases, the FD should use either 'TILED' or 'STRETCHED'
    as the dialog background image mode.  The 'EXACT' mode can be problematic,
    and should be used only in special circumstances.

2.4 FM now recognizes the following additional manifest constants:

DIM_EXACT           Used in a call to ((setDialogImageMode)) to specify
                        'EXACT' mode.

DIM_TILED           Used in a call to ((setDialogImageMode)) to specify
                        'TILED' mode.

DIM_STRETCHED       Used in a call to ((setDialogImageMode)) to specify
                        'TILED' mode.

CTP_EXTENDEDUI      Used in a call to set/((clearCtlProperties)) to specified
                        the extended keyboard user interface for a combo box
                        control.

BLACKONWHITE        Used as the second argument to ((setDialogImageMode))
    WHITEONBLACK        to specify the stretch mode when the first argument
    COLORONCOLOR        is DIM_STRETCHED.
    HALFTONE
    MAXSTRETCHBLTMODE
    STRETCH_ANDSCANS
    STRETCH_ORSCANS
    STRETCH_DELETESCANS
    STRETCH_HALFTONE

3. Bug Fixes
------------
3.1 A race condition that could occur after pressing the 'Compile' button
    has been ameliorated by introducing a 10 millisecond delay between the
    time the user interface is drawn and the filter code is first run.
    The symptom of the race condition is that the user interface might be only
    partially drawn before the filter code begins to run, in which case the
    user interface would not finish drawing until after the filter code was
    executed.  This problem may still occur, but should be much rarer.  If it
    becomes a problem again, we can increase the delay or seek another solution.

3.2 In Advanced Edit Mode, toggling the 'Use inlines' checkbox did not force a
    complete recompile, just a new code generation pass.  However, the 'Use inlines'
    flag is processed in the parse phase, not the code generation phase, so the
    new setting of 'Use inlines' was not properly recognized.  This bug has
    now been fixed: toggling 'Use inlines' will now force a complete recompile.

3.3 A problem which could cause a GPF within Photoshop's MMXCORE or FASTCORE
    module has been fixed,  However, there may still be some situations in which
    the GPF can occur, mainly while previewing large (~30MB) images with the
    Advanced Mode 'Proxy big gulp' option in effect.  To aid problem analysis,
    three temporary error messages have been added to FM.  If you get a
    FilterMeister error message box with any of the following messages, please
    record the details and send them to me:

a)  "Big gulp failed.  AdvanceState returned n" where n is a decimal error
        code.  (This is not actually an error, just a warning; execution may still
        proceed correctly.  Turning off the 'Proxy big gulp' option should
        eliminate this message, but preview dragging will be slower.)

b)  "Not enough memory to generate a preview image at this zoom level."
        In this case, execution cannot proceed; try using a smaller proxy preview
        zoom level, or increase available memory.

c)  "Unknown error (n) while trying to generate a preview image." where n is
        a decimal error code.  A mystery case; please send me the details, including
        the value of the error code.

4. Known Problems
-----------------
4.1 The 'bool' data type is not yet fully supported.  This can lead to unwarranted
    error messages when using the Boolean constants "true" and "false", such as:

FM-E-BADREF: Attempt to dereference through a non-pointer or selector

or:

FM-F-BADMIX: Illegal mixing of operand types.

As a temporary workaround, the compiler now treats "true" and "false" as integer
    constants instead of Boolean constants.

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