Project News. February 24, 2008

New release available!

New features for this release:

  • This was a bugfix release and has no new features at this time.

Fixed/changed for this release:

  • Fixed a crash in the settings window when using the new file browser if the filename is empty.
  • Fixed some double memory frees when a person who had a profile goes offline, and then comes back online in the same session.
  • Fixed a 1-byte overwrite into free memory when the session names are read from the profile.
  • Fixed a memory leak when redundant typing notifications are not sent.
  • Fixed a small memory overwrite when lines from a profile are long and must be split (when the pop-up information window is displayed).  This was a major cause of instability.
  • Fixed a missing WinEndPaint when updating the login progress percent bar.
  • Fixed the behavior of adjusting the ticker settings dialog window when the ticker settings are changed directly via drag and drop to the ticker window itself when a session is active.
  • Fixed the memory checking debug code when more than 1024 allocations to unique block addresses occur (special debug build only).
  • Enhanced memory checking code significantly to allow detection of out-of-bounds buffer writes, added the ability to check for leaks in C++ objects, and eliminated false hits from static allocated variables.  Also now checks for frees on new'd objects and deletes on malloc'd objects. (special debug build only)
  • Changed the popup windows to be limited on the number of lines they display.
  • Changed to interpret LF (from *nix IMs) to CR/LF so they are displayed properly in Mr. Message.
  • Increased the stack size in thread 1 to improve stability when recursion is required in various window procedures.
  • Worked around a PM bug which would not properly load icons from a DLL for push button controls.  This caused the new session settings window to fail to appear on the affected systems.
  • Changed client indentification to hopefully convince the server to send messages from mobile users to me.
  • Moved compiler platform from OpenWatcom 1.5 to 1.7a.
  • Turned on size and speed optimizations in release code.
  • Wrote a makefile which is much more managable for people who want to create their own Mr. Message builds, rather than shipping the automatically generated makefile from the OpenWatcom GUI.
  • Added ReadMe.build to the source distribution to help users build their own version of Mr. Message if they want.

I'm putting out a call to the user community to help me bring the documentation up to date.  Here is my Usenet posting in case you are interested and missed it:

I know my next release of Mr. Message is a bit overdue from where I predicted, but I've been making loads of usability improvements, so I hope it will be worth the wait.

In order to speed up the cycle, I'd like to ask the user community for someone who can put together a nice set of user documentation for me. I'd like to redo the preliminary docs that I have on my web page, but it is tedious work for me and I'd rather spend the time making improvements to the code if possible.  But without some good documentation, users might miss out on some features that they could be using and enjoying. So it is necessary in my eyes, but will slow me down quite a bit.

If someone in the user community is willing to work with me to create some well-illustrated, well-organized documentation web pages (plain HTML, nothing crazy) I would be very grateful, and would give an acknowledgement in my ReadMe and on the web pages themselves.

Please put together some preliminary ideas and pages and send them to me if you are interested.  You can start with my current documentation, update some of the pictures and add to them where you feel appropriate.  Also separating my current doc page into multiple, well-organized pages with links is something I'm looking for.  If I like what I see (and don't worry, I'm easily impressed ;-)), I'll send you my latest beta code so we can bring the docs up to date with the latest features as they are released.

Send me a ZIP file with your ideas.  All entries appreciated.  Thanks!