2.5b3 was posted tonite!!!!

[xbury.cs at clearstream.com]

ftp://ftp.metacard.com/MetaCard/2.5/

[README for MetaCard 2.5 Jan 30, 2003]

2.5B3 is the third beta-test release of 2.5.  This release should be
feature-complete, but probably has bugs in some of the new
functionality that may require new features to fix.

******************** MetaCard 2.5 release notes **********************

A SIGTERM signal sent to the UNIX (including Mac OS X) engines causes
a shutDownRequest message to be sent to the defaultStack.  Passing the
message causes a normal exit, not passing it causes the signal to be
ignored.

The constant "lf" was added.  It has the same value as "CR", which is
ASCII 10.

The uniEncode and uniDecode functions now return data in a
platform-specific byte order, which is required to use these functions
with the new unicode display capability.  Use the binaryEncode()
function if you need to convert to a platform-independent encoding.

Drag and drop is now fully implemented, though there may still be
changes to the API during the beta test period.  You can now drag from
other apps and drop on the MetaCard app and vice versa.  The following
messages, properties, and functions are supported:
  dragStart is sent when an selection in a field is dragged.
      Not passing dragStart suppresses the automatic drag.
  dragEnd is sent 
      Not passing dragEnd suppresses the automatic deletion of the selection

  dragEnter is sent when a drag enters a control.
  dragLeave is sent when a drag leaves a control.
  dragMove is sent to the control under the mouse when dragging over it.
  dragDrop is sent when the user drops on a control.
  The acceptDrop property governs whether a drop will be accepted.
     The default is for unlocked fields to accept dropped text, and all
     other objects to not accept anything.  This property should be set
     in a dragEnter handler.
  The dragData property contains the data dropped.  This property can
     also be accessed as an array (e.g., the dragData["text"]), but
     defaults to "text" if no type is specified.
  The dragSource function returns the long id of the drag source.
  The dragDestination function returns the long id of the object dropped
     on.  It is only valid during the dragDrop and dragEnd messages.
  The dropChunk function returns the character index where text was
     dropped in a field.
  Keys(the dragData) returns a list of the types of data in the dragData.
     Currently only "files" and "text" are supported

Block commenting using /* */ as delimiters is now officially supported
(this feature has actually been available since 2.4.1, but was just
never documented).

mouseEnter/mouseLeave messages are now sent when moving or changing
the visibility of a control changes the control at the current
mouseLoc.

The clipboardData property can be used to get or set the data on the
clipboard directly without having to use cut/copy/paste.  To set data
of a particular type, use an array format:
set the clipboardData["text"] to "some text"

The precedence of the "there" operator has been changed to that of the
other unary operators.  This shouldn't cause any backward
compatibility problems for fully parenthesized expressions, but you
should check any expressions of the form "there is a <a> and there is
a <b>" to make sure they do what you intended.

The engine will now no longer exits automatically when all windows are
closed if there are pending messages.  You must cancel pending
messages for a stack when it closes or use the "quit" command to force
the engine to exit.

The "boundingRect" property fixes the scrollable area of a group such
that it doesn't resize when controls are moved to the edge of the
group.  Groups also now automatically scroll when an object within
them is moved using the pointer tool.

The "ask" command now accepts [information | question | error |
warning] as modifiers in addition to password and file, and displays
the appropriate icon in these cases.

The shell() function now returns empty instead of 0 if there is no
error.

"rectangle" style buttons now draw using Aqua routines on MacOS unless
the backColor or backPattern of the button has been set.

Setting other properties in a setProp handler now calls the setProp
handler for those other properties instead of setting them directly.

Keys in array custom properties are now properly translated when a
stack is saved on a different platform.

Object's with cantSelect set to true now behave as if they have the
browse tool chosen rather than just being ignored as in previous releases.

The ask, answer, and "open printing with dialog" commands now all take
an "as sheet" parameter which will open the dialog as a sheet on OS X.
This parameter has no effect on other platforms.

The "sheet" command opens a dialog as a sheet on OS X, and as a modal
dialog on the other platforms.

Default-style buttons now throb appropriately in the Mac OS X engine,
but due to limitations in the API (i.e., there is no support for
animation in Appearance Manager), they only draw correctly when placed
directly on dialog backgrounds and not when placed on top of other
controls.

Fields now fully support unicode fonts, including input.  To set a
unicode font, append ",unicode" or ",language" to the textFont (e.g.,
"Arial,japanese").  Setting the font of a field or selection within
the field and then selecting in that range of characters will open the
platform-specific text input tools, set to input characters in that
language.  This information is retained accross getting/setting the
htmlText.

Button's can display Unicode in their labels if their fontName
property is set as above.

Fields now support cut/copy/paste of styled text.

The rtfText property of fields can be used to get and set the styled
text of that field in RTF format.

The unicodeText property of fields can be used to get and set the data
in the field as UTF-16 (16-bit Unicode) characters.

The debugging UI and script-language API has been entirely redesigned
to improve performance and usability.  As previously, though, the only
documentation on the API is available in the development environment
scripts.  The core UI features consist of:

  You now set breakpoints directly in the script editor by clicking in
  the column to the left of the script editor field.

  Once you've hit a breakpoint, you can run/abort/trace/step using the
  new "Debug" menu items or their keyboard accelerators.

  When you've hit a breakpoint, the "Execution Contexts" and "Variable
  Watcher" will show the state in the current context.  Clicking on
  the different lines in the "Execution Contexts" dialog allow you to
  see the call stack that led to the current script statement and the
  values of the variables in each of those contexts.

  You can view and change the value of variables in the current
  context using the "Variable Watcher".  Clicking in the column to the
  left of the variable names sets a watch on that variable, and a
  dialog opens so that you can specify an expression.  Canceling out
  of that dialog will cause the debugger to stop any time that
  variable is changed.  If you supply an expression, the debugger will
  only stop when that expression evaluates to true.  

  The "Message Watcher" shows messages as they are sent with the
  option to filter messages based on type, message name, and whether
  the message was handled or not.

******************* MetaCard 2.4.3 release notes *********************
(snip)


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