Staying on Top with EBL-Plus

We like to keep you abrest of changes with EBL-Plus or related products. This time, we are pleased to say that EBL itself has be updated from 4.09. Some of the changes were improvements suggested by customers like yourself. Others were corrections for bugs that were found. In any case, the complete details of all changes are shown below. We look forward to improving the product further to meet your needs.

The most recent change was to support Windows 95 as I am sure many of you have been looking forward to. An interesting side note, Microsoft essentually views the DOS side of Win95 as version 7.

Additions

EBL 4.09
- Enabled EBL-Plus to work on Windows95.
EBL 4.08
- Correction of CURSOR() operation.
EBL 4.07d
- Included ABBREV(), BITAND(), BITOR(), BITXOR(), BLINK(), CURSOR(), DOSCHARIN(), OVERLAY(), and XRANGE() functions from the compiler. functions.
- Added recognition of DOS 6.X & OS/2 2.X
EBL 4.07c
- New error message #47 "Unknown function()" to clarify certain types of syntax errors.
- New commands can be easily added if the command name starts with '@'. To add-on a @NAME command, create a @NAME.EXE program in any language. The program reads the batch file, writes an optional result to the console via DOS, and returns a result code to EBL's %R variable.
  Three parameters will be passed to the program as part of the command line (example: "/o D:\BATCH.NAM 1A2B"). The first '/o' parameter identifies it as being called from EBL with an 'offset' parameter type (other types may be added later). The second 'D:\BATCH.NAM' parameter is the full batch file name currently being executed. The program should examine the batch file to determine what action to perform. The third parameter (1A2B) is the offset in HEX of the currently executing command within the batch file. The program must return a displacement from this offset into %R (word memory location 0:4FE) of the next batch file command to execute. Returning 0 indicates an error. The displacement may be positive or negative.
  The program can also return a result if used like a function: "%A = @NAME( parm )". The program should simply write to the standard output device (Stdout). EBL will redirect this output to a temporary result file. EBL will use the first line of results as the value of the function. For speed, the result file that EBL uses can be put on a RAM Disk. Set the environment variable BTEMP to point to the optional RAM Disk (example: SET BTEMP=E:).
- Enhanced inline code capability of stack to also allow execution when a keyboard stack pause has completed. This also allows execution of inline code even when applications aren't waiting for keys. On entry, the inline code can look at AH to determine the source of startup. The expanded register meanings are:
```
        Entry into inline code:
             AH = 0 = GetKey
                  1 = GetKeyStatus
                  2 = Pause (via Timer Tick) complete
             DS:SI  = Address of the start of the Inline Code
        During inline:
             AX,BX,CX,DX,SI can be changed freely
        Return from Inline:
             SI = 0 = Call standard BIOS and reexecute the same inline
             AH = x = If SI=0 and AH=2 on entry, AH=x on return indicates
                          amount of ticks to pause before reexecuting.
```
- New DOS GROUP command will act as synonym for LEAVE command.
- New BAT GROUP command will flag return to EBL after DOS GROUPs. (Truely is a NOP).
- Fixed GOTO to DOS label when using /OLD under limited memory condition.
EBL 4.07
- Updated code which follows DOS's CALL chain to match DOS5's characteristics. (thanks Arno Krakauer and George Szentirmai)
- Updated code which closes files being read when shelling. (Thanks Jim Fouch)
EBL 4.06c
- Support added to recognize DOS 5.
- Added flexability when GOTO is used within a BEGIN/END block to avoid many block nesting errors.
- A bug was fixed to allow a ';' (semicolon) character to be used at the end of all TYPE statements after a WINDOW() function, just like it can be used outside of a window.
- The COLOR() function was enhanced to allow free-form color names contained within variables. This feature matches the capability of the Professional EBL-Plus compiler version 1.02 and later.
EBL 4.05
- A minor bug within the GOTO command caused it to be slower than normal. It now runs at full speed.
- KEY(PRTSC) key is recognized and will properly print the screen on the line printer when the key is read from the stack. The equivalent key value within BEGSTACK is \F0\01.
- Inline code can be placed in the stack. If you are familiar with assembly language programming, this technique can provide extra power within the stack in special instances. The executable code must be preassembled and the hex machine code must be placed in the stack using BEGSTACK. The prefix within BEGSTACK is \F0\02\ss\cc\cc\cc ... \cc where ss is the size of the code in bytes (0 to 255 bytes) and cc is the hexadecimal value of each byte to execute. The suffix \C3; must also be added. C3 is a near RET instruction and the ';' prevents an implied Enter key from being stacked. The registers AX, BX, CX, DX, and SI will be saved prior to execution and can be used freely as temporary storage. The DS register will be the same as CS. On entry to the inline code, AH=0 if the application is requesting a keystroke, and AH=1 if requesting keyboard status (refer to BIOS Int 16h for more information). DS:SI will be set to the address of the inline code entry point. If SI is zero before returning, EBL will allow a single keystroke to be gotten from the hardware and the inline code will be reexecuted. In this case, other items on the keyboard stack will not be used until the inline code returns SI non-zero. The code must be fully relocatable without any absolute addresses. If any other registers are used, they must be saved and restored within the inline code.
  Some examples: The following will create a beep when executed within the stack.
```
BEGSTACK
\f0\02\06\b8\07\0e\cd\10\c3;
END
```
  It is equivalent to the following assembly language code
```
        Mov     Ax,0E07h
        Int     10h
        Ret
```
  The following will page eject the LPT1 printer
```
BEGSTACK
\f0\02\08\ba\00\00\b0\0c\cd\17\c3;
END
```
  and is equivalent to
```
        Mov     Dx,0
        Mov     Al,0Ch
        Int     17h
        Ret
```
  The following automatically types the word 'ACCOUNT', then will allow 3 keystrokes to be manually entered, then the enter key will be pressed after this.
```
BEGSTACK
ACCOUNT;
\f0\02\12\EB\02\04\00\80\FC\00\75\05\FF\4C\02\74\03\BE\00\00\C3;

END
```
  and the inline code is equivalent to the following. This example demonstrates how local storage can be maintained for the inline code. It also shows how the stack can be stopped until specific events occur, in this case waiting for the application to request 3 keys.
```
        Jmp     short Me        ; Jump over local storage
        Dw      4               ; Define local counter
Me:     Cmp     Ah,0            ; Did App request a key?
        Jne     Restart         ; No, am counting just keys
        Dec     Word ptr [si+2] ; Decrement the count of keys
        Je      Done            ; Count is over?
Restart: Mov    Si,0            ; No, SI = 0 means restart
Done:   Ret                     ; Else continue & release stack
```
EBL 4.04
- Corrected bug where drive letter was always required for the updated CHDIR() function (e.g. CHDIR("C:\SUB"). It is now optional as it was intended (e.g. CHDIR("\SUB").
- The British spelling for CENTRE() was not implemented correctly. Now both CENTER() and CENTRE() perform the same function.
- A bug was fixed within the SPACE() function that caused a hang if one non-blank character was used as a fill.
- A SUBSTR() function has been added. This is a superset of the existing substring operator '$'. The syntax is: SUBSTR( string ,start {,length, {pad}} ) This function returns the sub-string of a (string) starting at the (start) character within the string, up to (length) characters long. If (length) is longer than the original string, then a (pad) character is appended. The default (length) is the size of the original string. The default (pad) character is a blank. A synonym for the SUBSTR() function is MID(). Either function name can be used.
EBL 4.03
- Corrected minor bug in DATE(Century) function.
- Corrected cursor positioning bug if READ was used within a WINDOW.
- Updated EDIT() to read keystrokes from DOS rather than BIOS to provide a system interface that works on a wider set of computers.
- Corrected SELECT() cursor positioning bug if used on a slow PC.
- Updated CHDIR() function to also change the default drive in addition to the current subdirectory.
EBL 4.02
- On IBM's 101 key keyboard, the CHARIN() function returned F1 and F2 when F11 and F12 was pressed respectively. This has been fixed.
- A new /A option ignores DOS version checking (use with caution). Must be used with /R option as in: BAT /A /R PROGRAM.BAT to startup the batch file named PROGRAM. This will allow EBL to work under many DOS enhancers like PC-MOS and 4DOS.
- The EBL-Plus Professional version of EBL.BIN and EBL0.BIN are released and match 4.02 in features and capabilities. Both can be 'bound' to a batch file with DOS's COPY command, then distributed royalty free. The EBL0 version does not use or reference any resident memory. By comparison, the EBL version has a small TSR portion that remains resident just like the matching BAT.COM. Please contact us at 1-800-634-8188 if you would like further information about the EBL-Plus Professional version.
4.01
- KEY(" ") function within an expression returns "KEY020" which matches the INKEY function. Formerly it returned " " which was different from INKEY.
- Recognition of DOS 4.x rather than 4.0
- RANDOM( {{min, } max {,seed}} ) function has been added. The default min is 0, default max is 999, default seed is random based on time. If only one parameter is supplied, it is a max and the min will be 0. If seed is not given, seed is random (based on system time). If a seed is given, it will restart a repeatable pseudo random pattern.
- Correction made to DIR(file,R) command so that it will restore properly.
- TRANSLATE( string {,{to list}{,{from list}{,pad}}} ) function has been added. This function translates a string to different characters. If a character in the string is found in the input list of characters (from), then it will be translated to the corresponding character in the output list (to). If the character is not found in the input list, then no change is made. If there are more characters in {from} than {to}, it will be translated to a pad character. The default pad character is a blank. The default output list is empty (null). If only a string is supplied without any lists, then the string will be translated to upper case. For example: TRANSLATE("12/23/56","-","/") == "12-23-56" TRANSLATE("abcde","HEX","bcd") == "aHEXe" TRANSLATE("abcde","1","bcd",".") == "a1..e"
- Correction made to an error inadvertently reported when an extended BATXV variable was used in a SHELL command.
- Correction made to duplicate CHDIR() function listed in help screen.