                                  Appendix C

New Features Since Version 1.0


The following is a list of enhancements made to The Monitor 
II since version 1.0. The list is arranged by function. 
Please review each area as there is important information 
that you may need to know.

General Operation

* The Monitor II will now execute in VGA 640 x 480 16 color
  mode. Put a /V on the command line. All of your current
  graphics will work, but there will be a large empty area
  at the bottom of the screen. Any new graphics you make
  can take full advantage of the extra area.

* The size of the program has been reduced by approximately
  20k. This increases the amount of available RAM while in
  a DOS shell.

* On-line help has been added to the opening screen, as
  well as the main menu screen.

* The EXECUTE SCRIPT function now displays the script
  filenames in alphabetical order.

Communications

* The reliability of the logon procedure has been
  increased.

* A flow control time-out has been added to the
  SETUP/COMMUNICATIONS menu.

* The RELOAD function for AC256 controllers now has an
  inter-character delay of three milliseconds for improved
  reliability.

* It is now possible to link the ALARM COM PORT with the
  MAIN COM PORT to allow remote access to the controller,
  or to allow the controller access to the alarm port
  modem. This is detailed in another appendix.

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Terminal Mode

* The main printer may be toggled on and off by pressing
  <Alt>-P in terminal mode (not recommended with Infinity
  in window mode).

* The Andover Programmers Toolbox , if you have it, can be
  used as a substitute for the built-in terminal program
  when using an AC256 Controller (you may need an update of
  APT for this).

Graphics

* The polling of variables on graphic screens has been sped
  up by  60% - 75%.

* Two attempts will now be made to read the variable before
  moving on.

* Many of the <Alt>, <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys may now be
  used as pointer activation keys.

* The palette cycle animation now runs much smoother.

* You may now specify default variable colors for each
  graphic. This simplifies adding multiple variables to a
  graphic when they are all the same color.

* A numeric value may now be passed to a script file
  through a SCRIPT FILE POINTER.  This eliminates the need
  for many copies of the same script file that differ only
  in the domain they backup, the history  graph they
  display, etc. See chapter 4 for more information.


History Graphing

* The history graph now has a PRINT button to print raw
  history data to the main printer. This data is formatted
  as an AC256 history page.

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Alarms

* Alarms may now contain a lower case 'a' instead of the
  uppercase 'A'. If a lowercase 'a' is used, the alarm will
  still be recorded but will not register as an alarm on
  the status line. This is useful for activating script
  files, etc. without making the user think there are
  alarms. This will also work for maintenance message using
  a lowercase 'm'.

* A users name will now be placed in the "ACKNOWLEDGED BY"
  area of the alarm report when they first look at that
  alarm. If another user then looks at the same alarm, the
  original name will be preserved. The name will always be
  changed to the current users name if he enters a comment
  about the alarm. This was done for accountability
  purposes. It is now possible to determine who saw the
  alarm even if no one actually acknowledges it.


Script Files

* ELSE - It is now possible to have IF THEN/ELSE
  statements.

* RETGRAPHIC - This can be used in place of the END command
  to return to the last graphic screen that was viewed.
  This will only work if the script file was  executed by a
  SCRIPT FILE POINTER on a graphic screen, or by an alarm
  message received while viewing a graphic. This command
  will  act exactly like the END command when the script
  file is executed from  the EXECUTE SCRIPT menu selection,
  so it is safe to replace  most (or all) of the  END
  commands with the RETGRAPHIC command.

* ALMREPORT - This command will display the alarm report
  just as if it had been selected from the main menu.

* MNTREPORT - This command will display the maintenance
  report just as if it had been  selected from the main
  menu.

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* WINDOWON/WINDOWOFF - These commands will enable/disable
  the message boxes that are displayed when connecting with
  a controller, etc. In previous versions of The Monitor
  II, if the CONNECT was successful but the logon failed, a
  box was displayed that informed the user that The Monitor
  II could not log on to the controller. This would halt
  the script file until someone pressed the 'OK' button. To
  eliminate this problem use the WINDOWOFF command when
  doing unattended auto processing.  The normal CONNECT
  function is not affected when executed from the
  CONTROLLER menu. The new @LOGGEDON variable can be
  checked to verify a logon (see below).

* @LOGGEDON - This internal variable may be checked after a
  CONNECT command to verify that The Monitor II
  successfully logged on to the controller. A value of 1
  means the logon was successful. A value of 0 indicates a
  logon failure.

* MODEMCMD $ - This command can be used to issue a command
  to the modem. The only difference between MODEMCMD and
  TRANSMIT is an inter-character delay that is required by
  most modems. The only parameter is the command to issue
  to the modem.

* RECSETUP #,# - This command will affect the RECEIVE
  command. The first parameter is the ASCII value of the
  character to use as an  end-of-line terminator. This
  should normally be set to 13 (or @CR) for carriage
  return, but may be set to any ASCII value. A value of 10
  is useful for stripping line feeds from incoming lines of
  data. The second parameter is how long the RECEIVE
  command should wait for a line of data from the
  controller. This is measured in 18ths of a second just
  like the PAUSE  command.

* SELECTFILE - Now shows the filenames in alphabetical
  order.

* HANGUP - this command will hangup the modem on the
  currently active COM port.  No logoff will be attempted.

