Changes for version 1.26 - March 10, 2008

• Beta testing concluded.

Changes for version 1.26 - January 13, 2008

• Fixed a problem with the keyboard editor, where "black holes" were appearing when the Great Britian keymap was selected.
• Removed a fix for GE character fonts that caused more trouble than it was worth!

• Two-up printing with selection was printing the same selection twice.
• The Open macro was changed to default to the VistaTN3270 directory.
• User exit macros were not being processed
• Changed max user-specified screen size from 72 to 90

• Added the TimeoutDialog=0 INI file option which skips the connection dialog when retrying a connection that was never established due to a slow initial response.
  

Thanks to a dozen or so users that reported various bugs, the following should be fixed:

• The Print options window hangs if run on a PC with no printers. Actually, this same problem occurs in version 1.24. Looks like we were looping in a Microsoft subroutine used to get printer information. Fixed by calling another MS routine to count the available printers before calling the looping subroutine.
  
• The new HTML help file has some images missing. Fixed... I hope I caught all of them. This happened, of course, because MS suddenly decided they wouldn't support the old WinHelp format in Windows Vista.
  
• The &localaddr variable was not being set. When I rewrote the basic IP connection routines in Vista TN3270, I forgot to set this. Should be fixed now.
  
• VSTPRINT (mainframe TSO command) fails. That's because I pointed the temp VST$PRNT file to the wrong directory. It should work now, and the temp file should be in the VistaTN3270 user directory.
  
• Macro recording fails with an invalid file message (*.mac). Actually, this problem also occurs in version 1.24. Because the Macro Description is the top field in the Record a Macro window, users are probably skipping filling in the real filename on the next line. I changed the code to prompt for a filename if that field is not overtyped.
  
• 2-up printing with selection prints the same thing twice. Fixed. I was using the same selection pointers for both sections of data.
  
• Clicking the Defaults button in the Options window (and others) fails. This should work now.

Changes for version 1.26 (from V1.24)

If you are a regular Vista TN3270 user, you've probably noticed that the older V1.24 version on my main download page hasn't been updated since 2004. There have been updates over the years, but mostly minor fixes and features for specific users, so I left the main download as it is.

But then along came an operating system named Windows Vista. Microsoft apparently wanted to close some of the potential security holes in prior operating systems, and Vista TN3270 was certainly exploiting some of them. For example: I like to have ALL files associated with a program under a single directory. That way, I can back up, copy, or move the entire thing at once, knowing that the program will run normally after such action. But that means writing files to the same directory as the executable program (vista32.exe), which is a possible security violation. Writing to certain portions of the registry and to c:\windows is also not allowed, and Vista TN3270 took advantage of both of those abilities in XP.

But with Windows Vista I'm forced to follow the standards I've been avoiding. So with V1.26, parameter files are written (by default) to a new directory in your My Documents folder, although the program is still installed under Program Files. One benefit is that Vista TN3270 should now run without kludges in a network or Citrix environment.

And I also wanted to address some other problems with V1.24. That version was basically written for Windows 3.1, which had limitations such as short filenames and some simulation needed for dialog boxes (such as the keyboard editor and connection window). In V1.26 you should be able to use long filenames, and most dialogs have been re-written to use Windows standards (so, for example, they will appear larger now when you increase your system font size). All this means there might be bugs in the new code, so please bear with me if you find any problems.

Some users of newer PC's (usually laptops) have been encountering a loop (hang) when reconnecting. Vista TN3270 V1.24 connects just fine, but gets stuck in a particular Windows subroutine. That routine was a holdover from Win3.1 days when multiple tasks weren't available. The fix was to convert the IP i/o routines to use a separate task, which is a major change to the underlying code. Hopefully it will prove as reliable as the old method has been over the years.

But basically, I'm hoping that V1.26 will look and work just like V1.24. I don't want to rock the boat with a new look or large changes. The interface should hopefully work just like it did before.

V1.26 installs to a directory totally separate from V1.24, so you'll need to re-enter your registration name and code. If you don't have it, just send me a note and I'll find your old registration e-mail. There is no additional charge for V1.26, by the way.

Parameter files (*.ses, *.key, *.bar, etc) are not compatible with older versions, so V1.26 will not use your V1.24 parameter settings, and instead revert back to the installation defaults. However, if you can find your parameter files in your old c:\program files\vista32 directory, you should be able to copy them to the new V1.26 parameter file directory (My Documents/TomBrennanSoftware/VistaTN3270), and the first time they are used V1.26 will try to convert them to the new format.

V1.26 also uses the OpenSSL routines to establish a basic SSL (secure) connection on hosts where that feature has been set up. This is still under development, but seems to work in at least a few environments so far.

There are other internal changes, which I hope will be transparent to the user. For example, a common data area is established for communication between multiple Vista TN3270 windows. Right now this is just used for session switching and common window functions such as ExitAll and Cascade. Later I want to use this area for other features, such as common copy/paste buffers between Vista TN3270 session windows.

Help documentation has been converted (and in some cases re-written) because Microsoft decided to do away with the old WinHelp program in Windows Vista. You can still download WinHelp from Microsoft (and I assume most people will eventually do that if they want to run their older programs on Windows Vista), but its a bother, so I converted. Hope you like the new Help file format.

Unfortunately, changes like this will naturally result in some problems. If V1.24 has been stable for you, if you are not moving to Windows Vista, and if you don't need any of the changes or fixes described above, they you might be best to just stick with what is working. I'll still support V1.24 (probably for years), until V1.26 hopefully becomes the stable standard.

Thanks for reading!

Tom Brennan