AscToHTM Documentation for the AscToHTM conversion utility
This documentation can be downloaded as part of the documentation set in .zip format (200k).

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11 Change History

11.1 Version 1.01 (April '97)

New functions

11.2 Version 1.04 (early July '97)

11.2.1 Bug fixes

11.2.2 New functions

11.2.3 Other changes

11.3 Version 1.05 (late July '97)

11.3.1 Bug fixes

11.3.2 New functions

11.3.3 Other changes

11.4 Version 1.1 (August '97)

11.4.1 Bug fixes

11.4.2 New functions

11.4.3 Other changes

11.5 Version 2.00 (October '97)

Version 2.0 marks the production of the first fully-windowed version for Windows 95/NT. This took a few months to be produced, so a fair number of other features have been added over this time.

11.5.1 Bug fixes

11.5.2 New functions

11.5.3 Other changes

Was
Now
Expect Numbered sections
Expect Numbered Headings
HTML header
HTML header file
HTML footer
HTML footer file

11.6 Version 2.10 (never officially released)

V2.1 was never officially released, but much of this functionality "crept out" as the shareware version was updated. Some of these versions were shown as V2.01 instead of V2.1. There's nothing like a bit of consistency (and yeah, this was nothing like a bit of consistency).

11.6.1 Bug fixes

11.6.2 New functions

11.6.3 Other changes

All versions

Windows version

11.7 Version 2.20 (Feb '98)

First major release after V2.0 (when AscToHTM first went fully-Windowed). Major change this time has been the introduction of TABLE generating algorithms. These were first made available as a separate freeware utility AscToTab.

This version is reviewed by ZDNet and awarded 5-stars, their highest award.

11.7.1 Bug fixes

11.7.2 New functions

Table generation

This is the biggest change in this version. AscToHTM now incorporates the technology first introduced in AscToTab. To support this the detection of pre-formatted text has been improved, new policies added, and new preprocessor commands added.

New policies include :-

"Attempt TABLE generation"
"Default TABLE border size"
"Default TABLE header rows"
"Default TABLE header cols"
"Default TABLE cell spacing"
"Default TABLE cell padding"
"Default TABLE colour"
"Default TABLE border colour"
"Default TABLE caption"


New Pre-processor commands
Description
BEGIN_CODE ... END_CODE
7.1.5
BEGIN_DIAGRAM ... END_DIAGRAM
7.1.6
BEGIN_TABLE ... END_TABLE
7.1.2
TABLE_BORDER
7.4
TABLE_BORDERCOLOR
7.4
TABLE_BGCOLOR
7.4
TABLE_CAPTION
7.4
TABLE_CELLSPACING
7.4
TABLE_CELLPADDING
7.4
TABLE_HEADER_ROWS
7.4
TABLE_HEADER_COLS
7.4


Other changes

11.7.3 Other changes

Documentation

All versions

Windows version

11.8 Version 2.3 (late April '98)

Minor bugfixes and upgraded functionality over V2.2. The main functional changes have been

  1. The introduction of wildcard support to allow conversion of multiple files at once.

  2. (related to the above) the introduction of the Directory Page feature (see 5.6.3 and 6.3.9) that allows the generation of a hyperlinked document spanning all the files in a directory.

  3. Major re-write of the contents-list generating routines. The program now makes a third, intermediate, pass through the document to analyse the contents structure. This means that contents lists are now placed at the top of the HTML file be default, rather than in a separate file as previously - though that behaviour is still supported if wanted.

This approach is expected to pay further dividends in later releases.


11.8.1 Bug fixes

11.8.2 New functions

Windows Version

All versions

"Make Directory"
"Directory filename"
"Show file titles in Directory"
"Indent headings in Directory"
"Directory title"
"Directory keywords"
"Directory description"
"Directory return hyperlink text"
"Directory Script file"
"Directory header file"
"Directory footer file"

11.8.3 Other changes

Sometimes I just work too hard :^)


11.9 Version 3.0 (August '98)

There are a fair number of small changes in functionality over V2.3, together with a fair number of bugfixes and refined algorithms. A lot of development during this time was directed towards the production of a text-to-RTF converter (AscToRTF) using the same analysis engine. Consequently there are a lot of changes "under the bonnet".

The main functional change has been the revamp of the Windows User Interface. A new section (4.1.2) has been added to this document describing the Windows interface in some detail. The changes include :-

11.9.1 Bug fixes

Windows version

All versions

11.9.2 New functions

Windows Version

All Versions

11.9.3 Other changes

An example piece of HTML code would be

        <A HREF="http://www.jafsoft.com/asctohtm/?doco">
        <IMG SRC="a2hlogo.jpg" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=36 BORDER=0
        ALT="Converted by AscToHTM"></A>

11.10 Version 3.2 (October '99)

(Version 3.1 was never released, but a release of AscToTab occurred sometime after version 3.0, and so in keeping with the policy of synchronizing version numbers that was labelled version 3.1)

Over a year after the last release, version 3.2 is a major upgrade, but is only given a minor version number change because the remainder of the functionality produced in that time will be revealed in version 4.0. In point of fact the main difference between the two versions is that 4.0 will fully document many of the features that are lying dormant in version 3.2 (especially in-line tagging and CSS/font support). Once the documentation is complete, the next version 4.0 will be announced as a major upgrade (suitable for review by software reviewers).

Version 3.2 starts to prepare the groundwork for Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and general font support that will be introduced in version 4.0. This has required a fairly radical change to the type of HTML code generated and how this is put together.

For example the HTML is now more standards compliant (this is now a stated goal of the software, although I can't always promise full compliance see 1.1.4), and as an aid towards CSS support "optional" end tags such as </P> are now being placed in the generated HTML.

Note that the use of the <FONT> tag is deprecated in HTML 4.0, and if you choose to add FONT markup to your pages they'll become much bigger, especially if they contain tables. This is because the HTML standard requires the FONT tag to continually be re-expressed to achieve the right appearance in all browsers (believe me, I only accepted this through bitter experience and grudgingly).

Major changes in version 3.2 include :-

11.10.1 Bug fixes

Windows version

All versions

11.10.2 New functions

Windows Version

All versions

11.10.3 Other changes

On the web site, and documentation

Windows version

VMS version

All versions

This should make it easier to rename files after production without breaking local hyperlinks. Links to/from other files would still stop working though.


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Valid HTML 4.0! Converted from a single text file by AscToHTM
© 1997-99 John A. Fotheringham
Converted by AscToHTM