!ButtonBar version 1.55 (23 Aug 2005)
!BBarEdit  version 1.62 (23 Aug 2005)

Help

This file only contains information about the various versions of
ButtonBar.

For help on actually using ButtonBar see !Help inside the !BBarEdit
application. This can be opened by clicking with the middle mouse
button on the !BBarEdit icon and choosing "App. '!BBarEdit' => Help"
from the resulting menu.

Important Notes:

In order to run correctly, ButtonBar requires the nested window manager;
it will work without, but will be less effective. See the compatibility
section of the !Help file inside !BBarEdit or !ButtonBar for more
information about this.

Version 1.49 of ButtonBar has required a slight alteration in the way
bars are created. This means that some bars will have their buttons
rearranged, particularly those bars with vertical orientation.
Unfortunately, restoring the buttons to their original positions must be
done manually, which can be achieved most easily by dragging buttons
using adjust in the editor.

Version 1.35 of ButtonBar has introduced a new BBar file structure.
Files with the old structure cannot be used with the module, but it is a
simple matter to convert any files to the new format: simply load them
into BBarEdit and then resave them.

Upgrading

Simply replace your existing copy of BBarEdit with this version, and any
version of ButtonBar with the version found in !BBarEdit.Resources. The
old versions should be completely removed first; don't just copy the
newer versions over the top. You may also need to convert any BBar files
you use into the new format. To do this load them into BBarEdit and then
save them out again.

Recent History:

Version                Notes
(ButtonBar/BBarEdit)
1.55/1.62 (23/08/2005) Added the option to use plain help strings in the
                       title field which are displayed verbatim by !Help
                       rather than with the "This is the" etc. text.

1.54/1.61 (13/06/2004) Fixed bug preventing the "Insert" menu working on
                       strings longer than 60 characters. Fixed
                       conversion of square brackets [] when editing
                       bars.

1.54/1.60 (27/04/2004) Recompiled for 32-bit Iyonix compatibility.

1.53/1.59 (19/01/2003) Added the capability to simulate menu selections
                       when clicking on a button.

1.52/1.58 (23/03/2002) Fixed a minor editor bug which could cause the
                       attributes of a bar to change when adding gaps.

1.52/1.57 (03/03/2002) Added extra support for hiding bars. The close
                       icon can now be set to hide a bar rather than
                       remove it completely.

1.50/1.55 (26/02/2002) Added the *BBarHide and *BBarUnhide commands to
                       the module.

1.49/1.55 (23/02/2002) Added the option to turn buttons into gaps as
                       breaks between other buttons. Rearranged the Edit
                       Bar dialogue box to suit this.

1.48/1.54 (16/06/2001) Added the option to have bars with widths or
                       heights which vary to fit the size of the window.

1.47/1.53 (23/05/2001) Added the *BBarList command to list the currently
                       loaded bars.

1.46/1.53 (23/05/2001) Improved module for better handling of dialogue
                       boxes. In particular: the Zap bar now works more
                       smoothly with Messenger.

1.45/1.53 (19/05/2001) Improved module for better handling of panes.

1.44/1.53 (17/05/2001) The module star commands have been bug-fixed:
                       they are now queued and hence will work 'outside'
                       of the wimp (e.g. in obey files). Now I've done
                       this the earlier problem concerning using
                       WimpTasks to execute *commands has been resolved,
                       so this is now the case.

1.43/1.53 (07/05/2001) Text can now be be automatically converted into a
                       sprite for use in buttons. I've not yet completed
                       variable size button support, though. The
                       examples directory structure has been made more
                       consistent.

1.43/1.52 (04/05/2001) Added support for variable height or width
                       buttons. The editor doesn't support this yet I'm
                       afraid, but it does preserve the settings.

1.42/1.51 (27/04/2001) Added the option to change the border and
                       background colour of bars. Added the *BBarMove
                       command so that bars can be positioned remotely.

1.41/1.50 (19/04/2001) Returned *command execution from WimpTask back to
                       OSCLI, since it turned out not all commands can
                       be WimpTasks. It therefore has to be up to the
                       user to get this right (I cant think of a better
                       solution unfortunately).

1.40/1.49 (12/04/2001) Fixed a bug which occurred when a file was shift
                       dragged into a writable icon. Fixed a minor bug
                       which made the Align button work incorrectly with
                       no title bar.

1.40/1.48 (10/04/2001) Fixed four bugs in the Editor: adjust dragging
                       buttons (caused an address exception), select
                       clicking a button containing a new sprite (caused
                       a hang, Sorry!), testing buttons (caused
                       occasional errors) and the Insert Key menu (had a
                       minor bug). Ive also fixed a bug in the module
                       so that *-commands are WimpTasked rather than
                       OS_CLIed. Previously this caused quite serious
                       crashes.

1.39/1.47 (18/03/2001) Fixed minor bugs in ButtonBar and BBarEdit

1.38/1.46 (15/03/2001) Increased memory allocation for saving and
                       loading files.

1.38/1.45 (11/03/2001) Buttons can be defined without plinths, and with
                       an extra sprite to indicate when the button is
                       being pressed;
                       New loading banner.

1.37/1.44 (08/03/2001) Serious bug in BBarShift removed so that it
                       should no longer hang the machine when the editor
                       is run;
                       Memory text transfers added (partially).

1.37/1.43 (04/03/2001) Bars can now have no title bar at all;
                       Buttons can be set to be drag bars (in case 
                       there's no title bar);
                       Bars can be set to jump to the top of the window 
                       stack when the mouse is over them.
                       
1.36/1.42 (03/03/2001) New file format is now fully integrated;
                       Buttons can be swapped by adjust dragging;
                       Name and Select/Adjust text size has been
                       increased.

1.35/1.41 (01/03/2001) Changed editor interface (testing is now
                       separate);
                       Editor allows adjust keypresses to be added;
                       New file format can be saved out (but not
                       loaded).

1.34/1.39 (11/02/2001) Improved editing features and stability;
                       Entire buttons can be copied by adjust dragging;
                       Close Icon can be added to bars;
                       New editor menu.

Earlier   (20/07/1996) Details lost in the depths of time...

Future enhancements:

A number of programs (e.g. Ovation Pro and older versions of Zap) do not
correctly interpret the simulated keypresses, particularly shift and
ctrl key combinations. This is a problem with ButtonBar which I'll
hopefully be able to sort out. It stems from the fact that different
applications trap keypresses in all sorts of different ways.
