Microwindows v0.89pre2 includes handwriting recognition

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Oct. 05, 2000

The following announcement appears on the Microwindows website, www.microwindows.org . . .

Microwindows v0.89pre2 is released with quite a few new capabilities, including handwriting recognition, graphics keyboard, and a new window manager. It's available via ftp, here.

In addition, a complete set of free truetype Serif, Sans Serif, and Courier fonts for running browsers on Microwindows are available, along with fixes to loadable chinese fonts. These packages are available via ftp, here: truetype fonts; chinese fonts.

This release is aimed towards preparing Microwindows for use on quite a few upcoming PDA projects. The 0.89pre1 announcement was skipped, so there's many changes and enhancements since the 0.88patch1 release. Much work has been on enhancing the Nano-X API and applications. Changes include:

Scribble handwriting recognition is ported to Nano-X. This stroke recognizer currently is Palm-compatible. I'm working on a trainer that will allow users to input their own stroke alphabet if desired. Try running scribble.sh.
A graphical keyboard for entering typewriter-style keystrokes is implemented, with support for the entire ASCII character set. The example demo is nxkbd.sh.
The NanoWM window manager has been significantly updated, with an updated look-and-feel and much enhanced application support functionality.
System color schemes for windows and the desktop/screentop are supported.
The VTech Helio is fully supported in this release.
Quite a few additions to the Nano-X API have been added.
Font support was extended for loading truetype fonts from an external font directory.
Compiled-in color bitmap support was added, with .bmp file conversion.
Changes were made to support running Mozilla on Nano-X.
Many win32 controls were enhanced with scrollbar support, and changes to the win32 api were added to run Kaffe well.
Check out the new docs on the left side of this web page.

Finally, I want to thank the increasing number of contributers to Microwindows, I was barely able to keep up. There have been many small changes and bug fixes contributed to this cut as well.

Following is the complete ChangeLog:

Version 0.89pre2 - 3rd October 2000 greg@censoft.com

added nxscribble handwriting recognition from Century Software
added nxkbd popup keyboard for Nano-X (original from Jay & Vladimir)
added SIGHUP ignore to Nano-X, removed GrRedrawScreen dropclient bug
implemented GrReadArea for pixmaps from Peter
added free truetype fonts to distribution (Arial, Times, Courier)
added FREETYPE_FONT_DIR config for truetype font search path, .ttf ext
enhanced nxclock no polling, nxterm better focus handling
added GR_UPDATE_UNMAPTEMP and GR_UPDATE_ACTIVATE update events
added GrGetNextEventTimeout and GR_EVENT_TYPE_TIMEOUT event
reworked NanoWM for 3d window decorations for Nano-X applications
removed multi-window decorations, uses only one window now
fixed user clip region parent offset bug from Peter
added GrGetFocus call for use with nxkbd and nxscribble
added GrGetSysColor for system-defined color schemes
fixed focus semantics during window move/resize/reparent
added Makefile INSTALL_PREFIX variable
added GrPoints function from Murphy
rewrote window manager property struct, added set background color added props, flags, title, background, bordersize get/set
added kbd_soft.c named pipe keyboard driver from Vladimir
added touch panel mods to mou_tp.c driver for Helio (TPHELIO=Y)
added inverted 4bpp screen driver for Helio (INVERT4BPP=Y)
added changes to Makefile for shared libs for Helio
added kbd modifier info for X11, nano-X hdr changes from Jordan
generate Nano-X root window expose event repaint on startup
removed termios errchk in serial/ps2 mouse driver
fixed DT_CENTER DrawText and MSDOS GetTickCount from Robert Sharp
fixed Makefile.rules .depend target errmsg
start work on Nano-X drawing library for 3d look/feel
added GrDrawImageBits, .bmp file conversion for Nano-X
must change MAXREQSIZE in nxproto.h
add title display to nanoWM
fix SetWMProperties title memcpy/wrapper bugs
fix many NanoWM bugs:
window move offset, mousedn on client loses title data
ported nxkbd software keyboard to Nano-X
added FREEBSD-X86 to config file as ARCH option

Version 0.89pre1 - 18th September 2000 - greg@censoft.com
added map-update events to be batched to any application that selects for child update events on the root window (window managers) this allows a window manager to get a list of all mapped windows without a special API call
updated nanowm bitmaps from Vladimir
eliminate need for sleep after nano-X startup, multiple connect trys
print nano-X server error messages rather than numbers
force nano-X cursor to appear on startup
fix cursor change without mouse movement
moved apps/nanowm to demos/nanowm to fix Makefile build problem
fix bad MIPS sys header define for SOCK_STREAM
fix free() bug in GrSetWMProperties from Vladimir
added alpha RGB444 12bpp fb driver for EP7211 from Julian
fixed uninitialized transparent color in devimage.c from Jamie
fixed mouse in abs mode for iPAQ touchscreen in portrait mode
renamed demos/mwin/demo.c to mdemo.c
added changes for compiled in HAVE_BIG5_SUPPORT
packhz12 program
bugfixed hzx12 big5 chinese font
added changes to win32 controls:
- listbox control with scrollbars
- edit control w/chinese support and caret
- combobox enhancements
- new scrollbar (client) control, smooth scrolling thumbs
- mtest2 demo program
- multiline edit control
wrote caret handling for win32
added Roman's changes for Kaffe port to win32 api:
- GetTextExtentExPoint, GetTextExtentPoint, DrawTextA
- SRCAND, SRCINVERT, BLACKNESS
- added blit AND, INVERT, BLACKNESS to x11 and 16bpp drivers
- GdGetTextSizeEx (freetype only for now)
- automatically append B/I for bold/italic in CreateFont
- fix delete pen/brush but not font resources in ReleaseDC
- change default TOP alignment to BASELINE in MwExtTextOut
- enhanced glyph width calculations for freetype in devfont.c
- auto antialias for freetype at height > 14
- not added (kaffe port):
- TextOut defaults to UTF8, not ASCII
- no SetForegroundWindow on NCLBUTTONDOWN on HTCLIENT area
enhanced demo2.c for upcoming Linux Journal article (Dec)

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