History of ToonTalk Enhancements and Bug Fixes

History of ToonTalk Enhancements and Bug Fixes - 2001

Here is the list of bugs and enhancements for 2001. Similar lists for 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 are available as well.

If you already have ToonTalk and want the latest update then click here.

1/9/2001

Java applets now work correctly if a bomb taken out of a box and used.

1/10

Fixed a bug generating a Java applet when a notebook with an empty page was involved.
Fixed a problem generating a Java applet of a robot that has a remote control for the looks of a picture in its box.
Fixed a problem with a spurious warning when you quit ToonTalk while a robot on the floor was holding a magic wand.

1/11

Introduced the notion of a local "ini" file that looks just like a toontalk.ini file. When ToonTalk is started by clicking on a TT, CTY, or DMO file then it looks for a file with the same name and with the extension INI and uses any entries there to override the defaults in toontalk.ini. So, for example, a TT file can set the FileSearchPath to indicate where to find needed pictures and sounds on the web.
Fixed a problem where sometimes producing a warning while ToonTalk is started caused an error.
Improved the error handling when an attempt to read a URL fails.
Fixed a problem where if you double click on a CTY file and give your name, the main notebook shows the city's name not yours.
Fixed a rare problem with erased pictures that have had a picture dropped on them that caused errors.
Fixed a problem displaying some things that are exactly at the minimum size (1 pixel at 640x480 screen resolution).
Fixed a problem dealing with toontalk.ini entries that are numbers greater than 64K.
Java applets sometimes started to run before fully initializing.
Java applets now work correctly if an erased picture is matched against an erased picture that a number or text pad has been dropped on.

1/12

Fixed a problem where sometimes describing a nest with things on it caused an error.
Fixed a problem describing something with parts that are ignored but would require a long description (over 2000 characters long).
Sometimes dropping something on the remote control for the looks of something X ended up showing that thing under rather on top of X.
A warning is now given if you try to make a Java applet of something that uses sensors that don't work in Java (e.g. the joystick sensors).
Fixed a problem where sometimes the page number was displayed too large and at the wrong place if the notebook is too small.
Made further improvements to the display of objects at the minimum size.
Java applets now work better if they contain a sensor that can't work in Java (e.g. a joystick sensor). (Though they can't work as well as one would like of course.)

1/14

You can now generate Java applets that use the magic wand to copy self - e.g. the robot holding the wand. (This happens when the Wand's button is displaying 'S'.)
Improved the way you can train robots to use the wand to copy themselves. (Good way to express recursion.)

1/15

If ToonTalk is reading something over the Internet, a message asking you to wait while it fetches the file is now displayed. And if running in full-screen this message appears as a subtitle.
If a picture included lots of pictures or sounds that are being fetched over the Internet, then the mouse appeared to freeze (if running in a window).
Sometimes resources for reading URLs were not released after the file was read.
When ToonTalk was fetching the notebook of remote controls, it sometimes spent time looking for files using the FileSearchPath (which if it includes URLs can be very slow.)

1/16

Simplified Java applets of pictures that involve birds who don't have nests or whose nest isn't on the back of the picture.
Improved the display of birds flying to nests on the back of pictures.
Improved the matching of sensors that show pictures with pictures.
You can now remove everything from the back of a picture by erasing its sensor that shows its parts. The sensor can be flipped to show the parts on the back and then Dusty can erase them.
Robots can now be trained to flip some remote controls.
Fixed a problem where the remote control for the looks of a text pad, displayed wrong if it was very small.
Improved the animation of ToonTalk built-in animations when running as a Java applet.
Fixed a problem reading the 'Delete' key in generated Java applets.
You can now see the pictures on top of an invisible picture in Java applets.

1/17

If you attempted to put a room or house on the clipboard and the encoding was larger than 32,000 then it didn't work. The limit is now 2,000,000 bytes.
Fixed a problem putting a house on the clipboard when robots were working inside.
Fixed a problem with how erased remote controls that display pictures used in boxes in thought bubbles matched things.
Fixed a problem where sometimes the name of robot was displayed at the wrong place.
If ToonTalk couldn't find the corresponding GIF or AU file for a BMP or WAV while generating a Java applet a dialog box reporting the problem was displayed. The warning is now placed in your log file and ToonTalk offers to display the log file when you quit.
Fixed a problem sitting on the floor when an entire city has been placed on the clipboard (by typing control-c when walking outside).
Java applets now display correctly changes to the appearance of something that was dropped on an erased picture.
Improved the handling of scales in Java applets when something next to them is erased.
Fixed the handling of scales in Java applets when used to compare pictures.

1/18

Improved the handling of the dropping of a team of robots on an erased box.
Fixed some problems erasing the remote control for the parts of something.
If a robot was trained to change the page number of the main notebook then sometimes when he repeated the notebook wasn't turned back to page 1. (Note this only applies to the main notebook since robots are trained with it on page 1 - other notebooks aren't automatically reset to page 1.)

1/21

Improved the display of box labels.
Fixed a problem when something was dropped on the remote looks for a picture and they were showing different sides.
Fixed a problem introduced on 12/19 loading the remote looks of things.
Marty no longer produces warnings about a robot somewhere stopping due to a mismatch of his thought bubble and box when running the puzzle game.
Fixed a problem that sometimes caused an error while quitting ToonTalk.

1/22

Fixed a problem generating Java applets that occurs sometimes when a robot was trained to use Dusty to spit out something.
Fixed a rare problem caused by a robot vacuuming something up.
Improved the handling in Java applets of the remote control for the looks of something being dropped on an erased picture.

1/23

Fixed a problem with Java applets of robots who change the button on the magic wand.
Improved and generalized the way Java applets work of robots who find things on the back of a picture. And such robots can now remove things from the back of pictures.
Fixed a problem training a robot to flip over a remote control for the parts of a picture (and other such remote controls).
Improved the handling in Java applets of notebooks with empty pages.
Can now generate a Java applet of a robot with an erased notebook in his thought bubble.
Fixed a problem introduced on 12/18 where sometimes when pictures are copied the copy comes out flipped over when the original isn't.
Improved the matching of flipped pictures.
A number on the back of a picture sometimes interfered with turning the picture into a Java applet.
Improved the robustness of robots that flip things over.
Java applets now work correctly when a text or number pad is dropped on an erased picture and the result is dropped on a notebook.
Java applets can now remove or add something to a notebook.
Java applets now support the erasing of the parts sensor of a flipped picture to remove all items from the back.

1/24

Fixed some memory leaks in the puzzle game.
Improved the wording of the warning that occurs when not enough memory is available for caching sounds in memory.
Fixed a memory leak when Marty speaks in one language and displays in another.
Improved the robustness of Marty displaying double-byte characters (e.g. Japanese).
Fixed a memory leak when training a robot with a box containing pictures that had been erased and had another picture dropped on them.
Made the dropping of something on the back of a flipped picture more robust.
Improved the handling of the remote control for the looks when it is flipped and the thing it is controls isn't.
Fixed a problem where an error can occur if the clipboard contains something that is only 1 or 2 characters long.
Java applets now work correctly if something is dropped on the flipped remote control for the looks of something.

1/25

Improved the Java code when a robot uses Dusty or the magic wand.
Generalized the way Java code finds things on the back of pictures.

1/26

When producing a Java applet from a picture, ToonTalk will name the applet the same as the first text pad it finds on the back that is less than 32 characters long (was 31 earlier). It also deals better with the situation when there are more than one text pad on the back that is less than 32 characters long. The most recently added one should be chosen.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets when a flipped picture defined by a user file is involved.
Began changing the Java applets to preserve the same structure of flipped picture on the back of flipped pictures that is found in ToonTalk. Previously every robot ran as if it were on the "top level" of the back of a picture.

1/28

If a picture blows up in a Java applet then any robots running on the back of pictures associated with that picture also stop. For example, robots running on the back of a picture in a box that is on the back of the blown up picture.

1/29

Fixed a problem introduced on 12/22/00 that fixed the size of text pads that had been flipped over. Once again they change size as you type to them (unless they are in a box or the like). Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
Worked around a limitation of Java that prevented complex pictures for working (when the compiled code to initialize them exceeded 64K).
Improved Java applets handling of "global" sensor like time, keyboard, and mouse.

31/1

Fixed a problem introduced on 10/13/00 that caused errors when a notebook is dropped on an erased box (to coerce it to a box with a page in each hole).
Fixed a problem when dropping a notebook with empty pages on an erased box.
Improved the handling of the main notebook in Java applets.
Improved the generation of Java applets of a robot (as opposed to a picture with robots on the back).
Improved the information left in the Java log file.
If a Java applet has a robot dropping something on a box with no holes or on a non-existent hole then the team that robot is part of is stopped but the applet is no longer stopped.
Java applets can run robots that drop boxes on erased notebooks.
Java applets can run robots that drop notebooks on erased boxes.
Java applets can run robots that turn on and off pictures using ' ' and '.'.

1/2

Starting on 10/24/99 ToonTalk would give a warning when a robot pressed spaced to a picture since its meaning was changed from "next image" to "turn on". This warning (and accompanying offer to automatically update things) no longer applies to robots created in a version of ToonTalk made after today.
Fixed a problem introduced on 10/31/00 that could cause errors when loading non-BMP picture files.

2/2

Improved the way Java applets copy things. Among other things connections between birds and nests are preserved correctly now.
Sometimes a Java applet was generated with erased pictures that were zero-sized.

3/2

Fixed problems in Java applets using the remote control for the looks of a text pad.
Java applets no longer break if a non-text object is dropped on an erased text pad.

4/2

In the puzzle game, Marty gives you a new hint if you walk over to him and he's not talking (and you've left the room at least once since he introduced the current puzzle). The check for whether he was talking didn't work right if he was using subtitles rather than a talk balloon and so he would sometimes skip over some hints.
Fixed a problem that sometimes caused an internal error while quitting the puzzle game.
Fixed a problem that sometimes occurred when a robot vacuumed up a notebook.

5/2

Sometimes when long-distance birds were involved the log file contained a spurious warning about a nest having a negative number of birds associated with it.
If a bird (and not her nest) is in a box in a thought bubble of a robot and that robot was saved the bird was turned into a long-distance bird. Note that you can still put a long-distance bird in a robot's thought bubble by saving the bird first and then putting it in the thought bubble box.
Fixed a rare bug in Java applets dealing with a robot dropping something on the floor.
Fixed a problem if rubout is typed too many times while changing the label of a notebook.
Fixed a problem where sometimes you could change a notebook of remote controls for a picture and the change effected all such notebooks of that user. (Might be this could also happen to other built-in notebooks before this fix.)
If a picture is destroyed (e.g. dropped in a notebook) while its notebook of remote controls is on the floor, the notebook now disappears instantly. It used to be it would be destroyed several seconds later and if used in the interim errors could occur.
Robots that flip over pictures now run faster when not being watched.

6/2

Birds and sensors in a thought bubble shouldn't really keep links to nests and pictures, respectively. When a robot is saved such links are no longer kept.
If something in a thought bubble formed a cycle of references (e.g. the remote control for the looks of a picture on the back of the picture) then it sometimes caused problems reloading.
Sometimes a flipped picture was displayed without displaying things on the back (until you flipped it twice). Fixed now.
Fixed a problem with very small things that are on the back of pictures that caused its geometry to have visible round off errors.
Fixed a problem where occasionally when flipping (by hand not by robot) a picture over the notebook of remote controls didn't appear.
Fixed a problem where difficulties describing the contents of a thought bubble sometimes lead to an error. One such difficulty was if the description of the contents of the thought bubble were too long (i.e. over 10K).
Improved how Java applets work when a built-in notebook is copied.
Fixed a problem in Java applets with flipping over the parts sensor of a picture.

7/2

Sometimes when starting to run a demo ToonTalk asked the user for his or her name.
If the command line options -i, -I, or -city are used then the local ini file associated with the file name argument is used if it exists.
The local ini file is now also consulted when launching ToonTalk (from StartTT). This means for example that a DMO file can have an associated INI file that sets the DemoToonTalk32 entry to the desired version of the ToonTalk executable. A DMO or CTY file can even reset the other Directory entries so that a different installation of ToonTalk is used.
Fixed a problem with local INI files.
Added the new command line options "-create_narration" and "-print_narration_start_times". These are useful for creating your own demos with narration.
You can now create a narration file of a demo while replaying the demo without creating a new one. (It used to be you need to use both -I and -o to add narration to an existing demo.)
When ToonTalk generates a narration file, it now only includes those WAV files that are needed. Previously it included all the appropriately named WAV files.
Added the new toontalk.ini (and local ini file) option in the Switches section. If "ExitWhenDemoEnds=0" then when a demo ends, the user is left in control rather than exiting ToonTalk.
Sometimes when searching for a URL that doesn't exist, ToonTalk mistakenly believed it did exist.
If ToonTalk can't load a non-BMP picture file (e.g. JPG, PNG, or GIF) either because the file is missing (or not reachable if an Internet URL) or because the version of ToonTalk doesn't have the DirectX Media installed, then ToonTalk will attempt to load a BMP file with the same name (except for the extension) instead.
Fixed a problem that interfered with finding the needed GIF or AU files for a Java applet on the FileSearchPath.
ToonTalk pictures containing JPG pictures can now be translated to Java applets without requiring the GIF equivalent of the files.

8/2

ToonTalk no longer imposes a limit of 128 objects on the screen at once. The only limits now are memory and the time it takes to display the scene.
Occasionally something sitting on top of a notebook would display as if it were on top of the notebook but under the top pages of the notebook.
Fixed a problem where after generating a Java applet that contains user-defined sounds that those sounds caused errors if used afterwards.
Java applets that use sensors displaying text now work in Portuguese and Swedish (previously some worked in Swedish) in addition to English.

9/2

Improved the error message for missing picture files to only append ".bmp" when appropriate.
Fixed a problem introduced 2 days earlier that broke non-BMP pictures.

11/2

Fixed a problem when a truck was loaded by a robot on the back of a picture (and no address was given).

12/2

Fixed a problem loading long-distance birds introduced a week ago.
In some screen resolutions when the programmer has a hat or long hair, a part of the hat or hair was displayed behind the head.
Sometimes when a robot was trained to drop something back on the stack it came from, the corresponding Java applet didn't work right.
Dropping some things back on its stack (e.g. in Tooly or a notebook) only worked correctly for certain type of things (broken since 1/16/01).
Fixed some recently introduced problems generating Java applets for user-defined pictures.
Sometimes when something was moved by a robot, an image of where it was remained for a short while.

13/2

In a Java applet a notebook no longer matches a copy of itself unless it has been erased.
Fixed a problem where sometimes Marty would wait several seconds to give help when called via F1.
Improved the error handling if ToonTalk is run at a screen resolution of 320x240 but the corresponding graphics data file is missing. (A common problem when installing the beta version over the trial version.)
If you flipped a text or number pad over twice and then erased it, it became an erased picture instead of an erased pad.
If you type '.', ' ', '-', or '+' to a scale it now behaves sensibly.
Fixed a problem where Marty would sometimes repeatedly give the same description of an erased picture.
You can now put a scale on the back of a picture. (Though I'm not sure that this is useful but it is consistent.)
The "touching who?" sensor no longer shows a flipped over picture or text pad.

14/2

An error sometimes occurred when a robot picked up a box from a nest and typed a number to change the number of holes.
Sometimes the labels on a box were displayed beyond the edge of the box.
Fixed a problem generating a Java applet when a picture has an erased picture on top (not very useful).
Sometimes if a named Java applet is being generated and a previous attempt was aborted or had an error, the new applet wasn't processed correctly.
If something was running when converted to a Java applet sometimes some of the robots were not converted and the applet didn't run properly.
Fixed a problem the occurred sometimes when a Java applet copies sensors on the back of pictures.

15/2

When generating a text-based Java applet, ToonTalk now uses the label on a bird to label the results and the label of a nest without a bird as a prompt to the user to enter data. Previously these were ignored and only the box labels under these objects were used if there were any.
Labels of birds and nests can now be one more than one line and still work in Java applets.
Sometimes flipped pictures in a box on the back of a picture got the "allegiance" of its sensors incorrectly transferred to the containing picture.
Java applets now, like ToonTalk, now have two behaviors for trucks that are loaded on the back of a picture. If no address is given the team runs on the back of the picture. Otherwise it runs in a new house.
If something was dropped on the remote control for the looks of something then Bammer the Mouse sometimes used his hammer on a point mid-way between the sensor and the object being controlled.
Fixed a problem that occasionally caused an error when a notebook was being destroyed.
Digits on number pads are now displayed with a narrower font when ToonTalk is run with double-byte characters (e.g. Japanese).
Fixed a problem that occurred sometimes in Java applets when pictures with sensors on the back were in a box which was joined to another box.
Fixed a problem in Java applets if invalid keystrokes are sent a number (e.g. 's').
Improved the way Java applets copy robots.

16/2

If you run demos by clicking on the 'See Demos' button, ToonTalk now checks whether they have local ini files.
ToonTalk now produces correct Java for a robot that vacuums up his box.

17/2

Fixed a recently introduced problem that interfered with a bird and her nest being on the back of different pictures.
Some kinds of failure to produce a working Java applet now cause a dialog box to appear offering to give trouble-shooting help.
The position of text and numbers on top of pictures in Java applets is now closer to the original layout in ToonTalk.
Fixed a problem that sometimes occurred when a robot in another house sucked up his box.

18/2

Text-based Java applets now run several times faster since they no longer sleep to maintain a good frame rate. (Problem was introduced on 11/22/00.)
The user log file now contains a list of media files that a generated Java applet needs to run properly.
When the Network entry SaveNestsAndBirdsAsLocal is set to 1 in toontalk.ini, birds can once again be saved without their nests so that when reconstructed the birds will build a new nest.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets involving trucks in notebooks.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets when the same robot is on multiple pages of a notebook.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets with notebooks in trucks.
Fixed a problem that occasionally caused an error when a robot who is not the first member of his team sets off a bomb.
Many exceptions in a Java applet now only stop the team, not the whole applet when they occur. E.g. when a number becomes too big, or division by zero.
Fixed a problem that prevented Marty from giving a hint in the puzzle game about using the bomb to start over.
Updated the Examples notebook on page 6.
Beta 26 released.

19/2

Sometimes an error was triggered when describing (either by Marty or as a comment in a Java applet) a read-only sensor that has had a number dropped on it (e.g. the random number sensor). Also do more error checking for problems describing things now so the consequences of the problem are minimized.
If while training a robot a key is typed to a number that is invalid (e.g. any of the letters in "invalid"), then the robot doesn't remember it.
Sometimes ToonTalk froze when you were holding (directly or via the magic wand) a picture with active collision sensors. Problem introduced on 9/9/00. Thanks to Jerry Balzano for reporting this.
The new Examples notebook introduced on 18/2 won't load in old demos. Fixed by introducing a new version of the string DLL. Again thanks to Jerry Balzano for reporting this.
Beta 26b released.

20/2

Sometimes an Internet file was cached but ToonTalk didn't use it.
Fixed a problem turning an Internet URL into a text pad of its contents.
The 'File to Picture' sensor has been extended to deal with files of text that are not pictures. Dropping a file name (including an Internet URL) on the sensor will now result in a text pad of the contents of that file.
If a picture is defined by a file that no longer exists then sometimes ToonTalk made an extra wasteful attempt to read the file.
Fixed a serious memory leak dealing with non-BMP pictures.
If ToonTalk fails to find an HTML file to display it now looks for the file in the directory given in the toontalk.ini file at the value of HTMLFiles in the Directory. And if none is given it uses the appropriate directory at www.toontalk.com.
ToonTalk now accepts JPEG files with the extension JPEG (as well JPG which it has for some time now).
Fixed a bug in the File to Picture sensor which sometimes caused errors later.

21/2

Fixed various bugs in the File to Picture sensor introduced the day before.
Text pads are currently limited to a maximum length of 64K (65,536). ToonTalk now handles better importing text files that are larger than that. Though they are truncated to 64K.
When a multi-line text pad is dropped on an erased box, the new line characters are now replaced by the language-specific name for the 'Enter' key. ("Enter" in English.)
Improved the display of multi-line text.
Improved the display of box labels when the space is small and the label doesn't fit.
Sometimes the Java applet would continue to run (and just waste CPU cycles) after all the robots were finished.
If a truck contains a box with a nest with an egg in it (e.g. pasted in that way) and it is dropped then the egg hatched but the bird was hard to find.
If a small nest with an egg in it is dropped the bird now grows to a normal size quickly.
ToonTalk didn't always deal correctly with local files that are given in the URL format, e.g. file:///c:/toontalk/readme.txt.

22/2

If a robot was trained to type '+' or '-' to the remote control for the looks of a picture in order to change its appearance or color, he did nothing when translated to Java.
9 of the built-in sounds did not play back in a Java applet.
Some of the images of flowers did not have GIF equivalents for Java applets.

24/2

If Java class archive or media files are needed and haven't been installed ToonTalk will now search for them on the CD-ROM and the FileSearchPath and if found copy them to the Java subdirectory of ToonTalk.

26/2

Fixed a problem where if you saved a city while holding Dusty, Pumpy, or the Magic Wand then when you reloaded the city you found an extra copy of what you are holding on the floor.
Occasionally when Marty is speaking and using subtitles that some subtitles weren't shown.
If the remote control for the looks of a text pad was erased and then something dropped on top, it couldn't be erased again. Thanks to Ross for providing an example of this.
If a robot was trained to drop something on the side of something (e.g. the right side of a text pad) and then is run where something that doesn't care which side (e.g. a number pad) is underneath, then the robot now succeeds in dropping what he is holding on top. Fixed for Java applets as well.
Fixed a problem introduced on 2/19/01 that sometimes caused descriptions of robots to be truncated.
Fixed a problem in Java applets that involve ToonTalk animations from the Pictures notebook, that caused them not to display until something else changes in the applet.

27/2

Some erased sensors in a thought bubble ("touching who", "file to picture", and "file to sound") didn't translate to Java correctly.
File to Picture and File to Sound now work in Java applets (if the appropriate GIF or JPG or JPEG or AU file is available).
Text pads that have been flipped and erased didn't translate to Java correctly.
Multi-lined text pads had too narrow a font width when the last line was the longest one.
Fixed a problem with handling the 'backspace' key in Java applets.
Fixed a problem typing to pictures of text pads in Java applets.
Fixed a problem displaying zero-long text pads in Java applets.

28/2

Fixed a rare problem destroying a nest with things on top (e.g. the nest is in a box that was vacuumed by a robot or it was dropped on a notebook).
Fixed a recently introduced problem where foreign birds didn't animate the delivery of things and they dropped them in the corner of the screen rather than on the nest.
When ToonTalk tries to load a DLL for a foreign bird, it now asks permission in all cases except when the programmer (as opposed to a robot) caused the DLL to be loaded. Permission is a good idea since DLLs can do anything. If AskBeforeForeignBirdsLoadDLL=0 in the Switches section of toontalk.ini then permission is granted to all installed DLLs.
ToonTalk no longer uses the FileSearchPath to find DLLs for foreign birds. They must be installed in the ToonTalk directory. This is because otherwise it could be a major security leak (i.e. a way to implement viruses in ToonTalk).
If a DLL implementing a foreign bird neglects to set some output values, ToonTalk no longer triggers an error.
Fixed a problem where an error occurred while trying to make an abnormal termination (typically due to fatal DirectX errors) that caused dialog boxes to repeatedly show up.
Improved the help messages generated by the 'File' foreign bird extension.
If a notebook is loaded and the file or encoding has been truncated, the first part of the notebook now loads fine.
Fixed a problem that sometimes caused DirectX errors when warnings were displayed before ToonTalk had finished initializing.
Fixed a rare problem where after being interrupted ToonTalk has the wrong color palette.

1/3

Fixed a problem introduced a few days ago that caused errors while quitting ToonTalk.
Fixed a problem introduced in November 1999 that caused foreign birds to animate in a confusing manner.
Primitive birds that were not able to load their associated DLLs now behave just like ordinary birds - including how Marty gives help for using them.
Errors followed if you tried to train a robot to vacuum something from the main notebook.
If you or a robot you were training vacuum up a page from one of the notebooks that live in the main notebook (Pictures, Sounds, Examples, Sensors, or Options) then those changes were permanent for that user name. Thanks to Micke for reporting this.
If a picture was flipped over and you flipped a remote control for its look back over then the notebook of sensors fly under the picture. This now happens only if the front side of the picture is showing. Thanks to Micke for reporting this.
Many of the options in the Directories section of toontalk.ini now support the use of '*' to mean the users subdirectory of the ToonTalk's User directory. So for example, "URLCacheDir=*\..\..\Downloads" sets the cache directory for URLs to a subdirectory of ToonTalk called "Downloads".

2/3

If ToonTalk needs a file that is only on the ToonTalk CD-ROM, it asks the user to insert the CD. It now does so a maximum of 3 times.
When ToonTalk is looking for a file on the ToonTalk CD-ROM, it now can deal with either version 1 or version 2 CD-ROMs. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
If you try to run ToonTalk at a screen resolution that your computer can't handle then you get a dialog box saying that the default resolution is changed and to try again. The default resolution was changed for only new users - now it is changed for all users.
Improved the way ToonTalk shuts down.
ToonTalk.ini entries did not work correctly if they were longer than 255 characters. There is no limit to their size now. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

4/3

ToonTalk now loads the local ini file of a city regardless of how the city was loaded.
ToonTalk now saves the local ini file of a city when it is saved if the local ini file came from the loading of a city (as opposed to loading a TT file).
Fixed a problem with the handling of the INI entry URLCacheDir.
Sometimes when flipping the view of a picture's parts sensor the appearance wasn't updated. Thanks to Micke for reporting this.
Pumpy wasn't able to expand pixel size objects on fast computers. Thanks to Micke for reporting this.
ToonTalk now loads a local ini file of a TT file when the file is loaded. Earlier this only worked if the TT file was loaded while ToonTalk was starting.
If the URLCacheDir has an entry then it is also added to the FileSearchPath.
Fixed a problem if a local INI file was loaded prior to finding out the name of the user.

5/3

Fixed a problem when a robot flips a text pad over and then uses it again later. Thanks to Micke for providing an example where this happened.
Made the processing of path names from INI entries more robust so they aren't broken by preceding and trailing spaces. And "\.." in a path is now simplified.

6/3

Changed the installation program so that city (CTY), ToonTalk object (TT), demo (DMO), user profile (USR) and puzzle (PZL) files are registered as MIME types. In theory this means that programs other than the Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer will do the right thing if you click on one of these files.

7/3

Fixed a recently introduced problem that caused the user's log file to contain warnings about something becoming a part of something while still on the floor.
Sometimes sensors weren't updated when robots used them on the back of a picture. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
A picture of a text or number pad can now receive a new appearance after being erased. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

8/3

When running ToonTalk with speech and no talk balloons Marty would sometimes skip over hints in the puzzle game.
Fixed a problem introduced yesterday with sensors like 'File to Picture' that become black when their current value is sucked off. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
Fixed a problem introduced a week ago that prevented you from changing the main notebook. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
Fixed a problem in the generation of descriptions of unnamed robots. (Introduced a few weeks ago.)
Fixed a problem where if you try to train a robot to vacuum something off the main notebook (or you or a robot tries to vacuum a page from a picture's notebook of sensors) then the page could be removed by hand. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
Released Beta 27b (beta 27 was aborted).
Marty appeared with no talk balloon in the credits screen if he was set to use subtitles or only to speak.

14/3

If a sensor is on a nest then it doesn't change who it is sensing when placed on the back of a picture. This wasn't true if you saved and then restored such a picture. Thanks to Dreyfuss Pierre-Andre for reporting this.
If an error occurs while describing something (e.g. the preamble to the encoding when something is put on the clipboard) then it now only interferes with the generation of the description and doesn't signal an error.
Generating the description of a robot while he is working sometimes caused an error. Thanks to Micke Kindborg for reporting this.
A spurious warning was sometimes generated when dropping a number on certain sensors.
Some sensors (e.g. "Visible?") were not kept up-to-date if more than one copy of the sensor existed. Thanks to Dreyfuss Pierre-Andre for reporting this.
ToonTalk no longer crashes if you drop a picture on the back of the remote control for its looks.
ToonTalk sometimes crashed if you dropped a user-defined sound pad on another user-defined sound pad.
If a sound was imported into ToonTalk from a directory that wasn't on the FileSearchPath then copies of the sound couldn't find the WAV file.

15/3

Sometimes when flying the helicopter over the eastern edge of your city the easternmost street was draw with water showing.
Under some unusual circumstances Marty wouldn't talk in the puzzle game.
Marty would only say one sentence and stop if certain voice engines were chosen (this was only observed with Truvoice engines).
You can now select and copy a part of a stack of pictures with the magic wand.
ToonTalk now uses a more robust method to decide if the text-to-speech engine can only say some words (and spells the rest).
Improved the handling of problems that might occur while initializing the text-to-speech system.

16/3

Fixed a bug in using the keyboard to change some sensors introduced 2 days earlier.
Sensors whose value are multi-line text pads no longer show an animated background since the text pad marquee is already animated indicating that it is a sensor.
Fixed a problem where if you visit a city that was saved while on the floor, the main notebook showed the wrong user name. Thanks to Ross for tracking this down.
The sensor for turning on and off sound effects wasn't working correctly.
If you made changes for all users using 'Set Options' these changes took effect even if overridden using the 'Options' notebook in your main notebook for several hours. (The number of hours depended upon your time zone relative to GMT.)
Fixed a problem with the DefaultUser toontalk.ini feature that caused part of the default information to sometimes be ignored.
ToonTalk will no longer load the string DLL from the connected directory but will always get it from the ToonTalk directory.
If you run ToonTalk in full-screen mode at a resolution your computer doesn't support then ToonTalk provides a message that the default resolution has been changed and you should try again. Prior to this fix its change of resolution only worked for new users.
A new entry 'LeftAndRightMouseButtonsDownMeansEscape' was added to toontalk.ini so that you must set this entry to 1 to retain the feature that clicking the left and right mouse button is interpreted as pressing the Escape key. Previously this was enabled only if mouse shortcuts were enabled.
When ToonTalk was started in a window and it needs to load URLs or search for them, then the window was started with the wrong colors (pausing and resuming always fixed it). Fixed now.

17/3

If a ToonTalk executable is run directly (not via StartTT or double clicking a ToonTalk file), then ToonTalk now offers to make this executable the default.
If a demo is run with a different executable than it was created with a warning is added to the log file.
Sometimes the animated background of a sensor would stop animating for a while.

18/3

Fixed a problem using the built-in voice for ToonTalk when installing from a CD-ROM with a "minimal install".

19/3

When using Pumpy on a picture sometimes the white box that is displayed to emphasize the selection is left on the screen for a second or two after the picture has shrunk to a smaller size.
Fixed a problem where the minimum frame duration has been inoperative since January 2000.
Fixed a major memory leak that depended upon the screen resolution, amount of physical memory, and usage pattern - on machines with 256 Mbytes rarely if ever occurred. Problem was introduced in May 2000.

21/3

If you typed '-' to a sensor showing 'no' then it went black. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
Java applets that frequently copied remote controls ran slowly and used lots of memory.
ToonTalk now often can recover from an error that there is no enough memory while creating a DirectDraw surface.
Released Beta 28.
Fixed a bug that occurs only on very fast machines when very little is happening and no memory is devoted to caching (i.e. '-m 0' on the command line).

26/3

Fixed a problem that put a warning in the user's log file about something becoming part of something while still on the floor. (I think this only occurred sometimes during the puzzle game if a robot was running when you brought Marty a solution.)
If ToonTalk runs out of memory it shrinks the cache it is using. This code correctly freed up memory but it neglected to set a lower subsequent cap on cache memory.
The random number remote control in some situations produced numbers from 0 to 1000 rather than 0 to 999.
If you set of a bomb on puzzle 48 after loading a truck then you ended up with an extra house and the following puzzle wasn't solvable. Thanks to Manal El Khoreiby for reporting this.

27/3

If you give a long-distance bird something that has robots running on the back then the robots will be running when the bird arrives at its nest. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

29/3

Fixed some circumstances where Marty has something to say but doesn't say it. Probably only happened in the puzzle game running with subtitles.
ToonTalk had troubles producing a Java applet for pictures with huge amounts of things on the back.
If you the ran ToonTalk puzzle game with the '-n' command line option to specify your name, then the saved state when you last quit the puzzle game wasn't always restored properly.
Fixed an installation problem that gave a useless default meaning to the 5th joystick button.
Fixed some problems with Java applets of robots that get rid of their box (e.g. putting it in a truck).
Fixed a problem with Java applets of robots that copy the top element on top of a nest with the magic wand.

30/3

Fixed a problem where adding numbers to the current address turned then black.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets when one of the built-in notebooks was placed in a truck or box before generating the applet.
Sometimes dropping something on a picture turned off its collision sensors for a cycle. Thanks to Ross for providing an example of this.
If a robot on the back of a picture stopped while holding something and the picture was flipped over then what he was holding appeared on the floor but couldn't be picked up.
A Java applet containing ToonTalk animation (e.g. person walking) had the wrong size for the pictures if running at a resolution greater than 640x480.
Improved the way a robot uses a vacuum on the back of a picture.
Sometimes in a Java applet when a picture has been erased and a new picture dropped on top both images were displayed. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
The sensors that showing whether something is colliding can be changed with the keyboard to undo a collision. This wasn't working right in Java applets.
The sensor showing whether something was dropped doesn't really make sense in Java. It now always shows 'yes' rather than 'no'.
The sensor showing whether your hand is visible in Java now always shows 'no' rather than 'yes'.

1/4

ToonTalk now deals much better with very large pictures created while on the ground. (On the floor you can't make something bigger than the entire floor.) It used to use up memory and sometimes crashed if you made a picture 100 times bigger than usual. Such very large pictures sometimes still seem to disappear.
Dialog box added on 17/3/01 when running a different executable than expected would sometimes be buried under other windows. Fixed now.

2/4

Fixed a problem running demos that involved long-distance birds. (Though in general the demos don't currently recreate incoming messages so such demos will probably fail.)
If you installed ToonTalk on a computer with more than 7 text-to-speech voices previously installed then the default voice (USMarty2 for the US version) was not the default when running 'Set Options' but the first voice found was.
Fixed a bug processing FileSearchPath when * was used.
Version 2.36 released.
Beta 29 released.

5/4

Fixed a problem if Marty was speaking and subtitles were being displayed where Marty won't say the second thing he would normally say.
If you used 'Set Options' to change the resolution to 320x240 it only worked for new users. The next time they ran ToonTalk it switched to 640x480.
If a puzzle file just contains the name of an HTML file, ToonTalk quits and launches a browser on the HTML page. In full-screen mode, a dialog box informing the user that ToonTalk has been paused appeared. And if ToonTalk offered another dialog box, e.g. that you can run with a higher screen resolution, then the puzzle's HTML file wasn't always displayed. Currently this feature is only used in some trial versions of ToonTalk.
If URLCacheDir is set then sometimes 0-byte files were created.
Fixed a problem generating Java applets when the pictures or sounds are found on the Internet due to the setting of FileSearchPath. Also eliminated some redundant work here.

6/4

Fixed a problem that interfered with Start ToonTalk asking for the ToonTalk CD-ROM when running demos from a ToonTalk installed from a CD-ROM and the demos weren't installed on the local disk.
Start ToonTalk now displays an informative dialog box if demos are requested that weren't installed.

7/4

If ToonTalk is installed and there are no voices then the option of Marty speaking with subtitles is now disabled and commented as unavailable.
Made several improvements to how ToonTalk uses the system file cache when dealing with URLs and URLCacheDir isn't set.
Fixed a recently introduced problem that caused Marty to sometimes ignore the PageUp button to have him repeat what he last said.
Fixed yet another problem with Marty stopping talking when 'Set Options' is set to speech and subtitles.
Sometimes when maximizing full-screen ToonTalk when it has been iconized triggered a DirectDraw error.
If you trained a robot that already has a tool (e.g. many of the puzzles an untrained robot has a magic wand) and you finish training him with him holding the tool and there are things left behind that the robot when run vacuums up then the robot got mixed up and stopped after finishing one cycle.
Removed a limitation of the file names of BMP files of a maximum length of 128 characters. This interfered with using the system file cache since such long names are common.

8/4

If you pressed PageUp and Marty was away, he would teleport in and then repeat the last thing he said. This interferes with user program that want to use PageUp and so he only repeats himself on PageUp if he is already on screen.
Improved the handling of imported sounds and their subsequent export (e.g. in a city). If the sound can't be found on the original path but can be found on the FileSearchPath (or the Users subdirectory) then the sound name changes from the full path to the short name. Also it can deal with URLs that are cached in the system file cache without the WAV extension.
Many parts of ToonTalk were confused by file names that had no extension but had a '.' inside a directory name.
Fixed a problem running some Java applets as Java applications (e.g. with jview.exe). If when generating an applet ToonTalk can't find GIF or JPG files but only BMP files then the result only runs as an application.
If a Java applet contained sensors that can't be supported in Java (e.g. the joystick sensors), then the log file filled with spurious warnings.

9/4

Fixed a problem that caused DirectX errors when a Java applet was being generated and ToonTalk needed to search the Internet for missing sounds or pictures.
If the latest ToonTalk (version 2.37) was installed by a patch file then it will look for Java built-in sounds and pictures in the directories only used by earlier versions of ToonTalk.

10/4

If a WAVE file is loaded over the Internet and URLCacheDir isn't set then you got an MCI error about a file not being found.
If due to other bugs a sound is loaded with an empty file name it no longer causes further errors.
If in a Java applet robots on the back of a picture in a box give it a speed or change its position the speed remains at zero and the position doesn't change. Thanks to Ross for providing an example of this.
If in a Java applet, a "touching who" sensor is added to the back of a picture that is already colliding (and some other collision sensors for this picture are active) then the sensor wasn't updated until a second collision occurs. Thanks to Ross for providing an example of this.

11/4

ToonTalk now handles better user sound files that have no data, just a header. They don't make any sounds of course.
Introduced a new mode for Marty - "subtitles without speech". Previously if subtitles were chosen and speech wasn't operational (e.g. no voices or no sound card) then the subtitles got stuck.
Fixed a problem where there was sometimes a delay in updating numeric sensors when placed on the back of a new picture. Thanks to Ross for providing an example of this.
By pressing 'Esc' during the titles it sometimes cut the speed which Marty displays text if not speaking in half. E.g. talk balloons or subtitles stayed up twice as long as normal.
Parenthetical remarks are no longer removed from long subtitles.
When ToonTalk describes the name of a file for a picture it now uses the short version of the name if the full path no longer contains a file and the picture can be found using the FileSearchPath.
If a sound was loaded using a URL (i.e. a non-local file) then the full path is maintained and not shortened.
The SpokenLanguage option is now ignored if Marty is not in a mode where he speaks.

12/4

Sometimes when no voices are installed on a computer, 'Set Options' gives a choice of a voice named and then nothing follows.
The new mode of Marty "subtitles without speech" sometimes responded correctly to PageDown to skip to the next line and sometimes not.
If a puzzle sequence ended with a puzzle containing the name of an HTML file to display and then that same user name attempted to play the puzzle game again an error occurred.
If when ToonTalk starts it needs to load files from the Internet or a CD-ROM then the title bar of the window now informs you of the status and asks you wait.

13/4

If a puzzle file contains just the name of an HTML file then it was shown as you entered the rocket rather than when you leave. Broken the day before.
If you have solved all the puzzles and are running ToonTalk in a window (not full-screen) then if you answer the dialog box that you want to start over again, you started again with the wrong color palette.
Version 2.39 released.

17/4

Fixed a bug introduced on 11/4 that caused sounds from WAV files to be silent.
Updated the option screen about turning sound on or off to make it clear that it is only for sound effects and does not turn off speech.
Released 2.39b and Beta 30.

19/4

Introduced a new toontalk.ini called "MaximumItemsInDusty" in the "Switches" section which limits the number of objects kept inside of Dusty's stomach. Useful if you typically work in a saved city and then save it again since everything Dusty ever vacuumed remains in his stomach taking up memory.
Fixed a problem training a robot with a box containing a flipped remote control for a picture's look. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

6/5

If the toontalk.ini entry "BackgroundsDir" in the "Directories" section is set then if some backgrounds are missing from that directory ToonTalk no longer looks for them using the FileSearchPath.
If a language version of ToonTalk is only installed on the CD-ROM, then ToonTalk used to ask for the CD-ROM with a blank message box. It now asks in English (since it hasn't found the file with the language-specific text strings).
ToonTalk no longer displays yes/no message boxes with no text (e.g. the bug above).

29/5

Updated the Swedish translation of ToonTalk.

1/6

Added a new entry in the Directories section of toontalk.ini. If MainNotebookLabel is set to a file name (which can include an * which is the user's subdirectory of the Users directory) then the ToonTalk object at the file location is used as a logo for the main notebook.

4/6

Fixed a problem in the Puzzle Game in situations where in Free Play Marty would beam in to describe a problem. This left Marty in an unstable condition that could cause errors on later puzzles.
Fixed a problem where sometimes ToonTalk would have an error while quitting while Marty was talking. (This problem was not normally observed since it usually caused ToonTalk to exit prematurely while quitting.)

5/6

Sometimes if saving (by typing control-c) an object after flipping it back over, it was restored as the size it was when flipped. This problem can be avoided on older versions of ToonTalk by dropping and then picking the object up before saving it.

11/6

Fixed a problem recording a demo log that pasted something from the clipboard whose encoding was larger than 64K.

12/6

Fixed a problem that sometimes occurred when dropping a remote looks of a picture on an erased picture.
Improved the new option added on 1/6 (MainNotebookLabel) so that the user's name is displayed on top of the logo.
The internal implementation that determines if two things are the same (e.g. dropping something back on a stack) was completely rewritten and is much faster.
Objects containing copies of the same thing (picture, robot, whatever) are now saved much more compactly. Can reduce the size of a city or encoding by a factor of 10. The new Switches entry in toontalk.ini DumpCopiesCompactly can be set to zero to turn this feature off and save things as before.

13/6

Made small improvement to the way ToonTalk launches a browser when showing trouble shooting or other advice.

16/6

Fixed a problem with the wall decoration remote control where some objects were displayed on the wall in not quite the right position.

19/6

Fixed a problem generating Java of a sound whose file name contains '\' - e.g. anything other than the short name used when the file is on the FileSearchPath.
If you log in with a new name and the DefaultUser is old then you get a dialog box asking if you want Marty to forget everything you've done.

20/6

If in the "FileExtensions" section of the toontalk.ini file you have "MissingPictureFileExtension=gif" then if a non-GIF file for a picture is missing then and the GIF version exists then the picture will be changed to use the GIF version from then on. Good for switching from one file format to another for an application with lots of pictures. "jpg", "png", and "jpeg" are other correct values.
If you removed something from the remote control for the wall decoration then the remaining items were placed wrong (sometimes even off the edge). Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

21/6

If you dropped a flipped picture on a decoration sensor (room, house, or roof) it was added. No longer.
The new code for deciding if two things were equal considered two pictures equal even if they differed by "SEE ALL", "SEE SOME", or "SEE NONE". This meant that if something was saved in the new compact mode and two kinds of visibility for the same picture occurred then when loaded they will have the same kind of visibility.
Fixed a problem that sometimes occurred while running Java applets that used a remote control that displays a picture (e.g. touching who).

22/6

Fixed a problem converting to Java a robot that has a flipped picture in the box in his thought bubble.

23/6

Fixed a problem with the size and placement of built-in animations (e.g. person walking) when converted to a Java applet.
The new "MissingPictureFileExtension" didn't work right if a picture had been created with the BMP extension (rather than just default to it). Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

24/6

Fixed a few small memory leaks and very large one when converting to Java something that contains notebooks.
Fixed a problem converting to Java something that contained the built-in Examples notebook.

25/6

When copies of the same notebook, robot, or flipped picture appear in something being converted to a Java applet, they now share the same generated Java code.
Fixed a problem with the new version of testing if two things are equal that didn't work for some notebooks resulting in less compaction.

26/6

Marty behaved strangely and the credits were not given if you visit a city that was saved while Marty was talking.
Introduced a new command line option "-ini_file <file name>" that can specify a new location for the toontalk.ini file. The default continues to be "toontalk.ini" on the Windows directory (called "WinNT" on Windows NT and 2000). This is useful for installations where access to the default location of the toontalk.ini file is restricted for security reasons.

27/6

Changed the autorun executable so that the next CD-ROM to be capable of being run off the CD-ROM without installation (though this isn't recommended because voices and the latest DirectX and speech facilities won't be installed).
Command line options that specify file names or user names can now be quoted and contain spaces. E.g. -n "Ken Kahn" on the command line makes the user name always be Ken Kahn.
Beta 31 released.

8/7

If you press F11 while sitting on the floor with nothing in your hand then Bammer will run out backwards and undo the last thing he did. (If you are holding something F11 means drop it and Bammer should ignore it.) This is a single-level undo for Bammer for each house - pressing F11 again will not undo the "bam" prior to the last one.

9/7

You can now press F11 after Bammer has come out while training a robot and the robot will remember things as if the object was dropped on the floor not on the original target.
Fixed a problem introduced on 12/6 that interfered with generating a new demo log files.

12/7

Fixed a recently introduced problem when something is dropped on something while Bammer is dealing with a different drop. Thanks to Ross for reporting it.
Fixed a recently introduced problem generating a Java applet when copies of the same picture were involved.

13/7

Demos that start in a city with a modified main notebook, only replayed if ToonTalk was installed on the same directory as when the demo was recorded.
Fixed a problem with the geometry of copies of the same picture when translated to Java.
Improved the way remote control for looks in a thought bubble for a robot are saved (to files or the clipboard).

16/7

Fixed a problem when Marty was speaking a different language than was being used to display subtitles where the last subtitles were sometimes not displayed.
Sometimes when something was dropped on a sensor the translated Java ignored it.

17/7

Sensors were sometimes saved so that when loaded back they displayed an old value.
If a negative number was dropped on certain sensors (e.g. the random number generator) then the translated Java version used the positive version of the number.

1/8

If a picture has robot running on the back and is copied then the corresponding Java didn't always run the copied robots.
Sometimes when a picture with robots and boxes on the back is dropped on an erased picture the sensors in the boxes didn't work properly in the Java applet.
If a sensor's value was changed (e.g. by dropping something on top) then copies of that sensor were not always updated in Java applets.

2/8

If something on top of a nest was copied by the Magic Wand then the corresponding Java applet didn't work right.

15/8

Touch sensitive mice are now supported by ToonTalk. You'll feel the helicopter, walls, etc. much like you do when using a force-feedback joystick. You'll also find a sensor notebook (at the end of the main sensor notebook) for using these effects in your own programs. You can have both a mouse and joystick and control and sense them independently. Note that the mouse uses the mforces.ifr while the joysticks use forces.ifr. You can edit either one using Immersion Studio. Note that if you add new effects you'll need to add them to both files.
Fixed a bug that has broken the joystick button down sensors for buttons number 27 to 32 since April 2000. Until there is a new file format for ToonTalk, these button sensors will be restored as active even if were turned off before being saved.
Pasting joystick buttons were active but didn't display an animated marquee until there values changed.
Improved the text on the opposite page of joystick and touch sensitive mouse notebooks.

16/8

Added labels to joystick and touch sensitive mouse notebooks.
Fixed a problem introduced in early June that caused Marty to not have a talk balloon during the credits screen when playing the puzzle game.
If a robot who sets off a bomb was retrained without stopping him (so he also sets off a bomb), then the bomb was sometimes left on the floor after the training.
Fixed a problem describing (by Marty or for the clipboard) a remote control for force feedback effects when no such device was connected.
Improved the error handling when a problem occurs describing a notebook contained in something.
Fixed a problem that sometimes occurred when retraining a robot that dropped things on the main notebook (and there no longer was a matching page).
Fixed a problem that crashed ToonTalk if a robot was trained to use Pumpy and was grabbed while using him.
Fixed problems in training a robot to use Pumpy.
When running a robot off screen who was trained to use Pumpy, it didn't run faster than when watched.
When running a robot off screen who was trained to use Pumpy, you no longer hear the sounds Pumpy makes.
Fixed a problem where putting a force feedback effect on the clipboard was restored as ordinary text. Did not happen if the force feedback effect was contained in something.
Beta 32 released.

27/8

Fix from 15/8 of joystick button sensors 27 to 32 inactivated until the next file format release since broke some old programs using joystick buttons.

10/9

Fixed several bugs in the recently introduced ability to undo the effects of Bammer.

14/9

The customization feature MaximumItemsInDusty is now disabled when playing the puzzle game since it can interfere with some puzzles.

18/9

Sometimes using the collision sensor to undo a collision left the items overlapping by a pixel or two.
Sometimes some sensors that have an animated appearance did not display the animation when not selected. (Problem introduced on 17/3.)
Improved the ability to run ToonTalk directly off a CD-ROM with no installation.

20/9

Selection feedback is now enhanced to include color changes. This feature can be turned off by setting "ColorSelectionFeedback" to 0 in the Switches section of toontalk.ini.
The standard wiggling selection feedback can be turned off by setting "MovementSelectionFeedback" to 0 in the Switches section of toontalk.ini.

21/9

Fixed a small memory leak when quitting ToonTalk.

22/9

Made the selection from Dusty and Pumpy completely stable. (For example, if you don't move the mouse then the selection doesn't change.)

25/9

The toontalk.ini customization "MainNotebookLabel" did not work correctly in demos.

24/10

Fixed a problem that sometimes prevented a gentle recovery from no free memory errors.
The toontalk.ini switch DumpCopiesCompactly was ignored in demo logs.

22/11

Fixed a problem when dropping the remote control for the visibility of a picture on the back of another picture. It didn't get updated properly.
Fixed a problem (introduced March 5) when Directories switches are set in toontalk.ini and contain spaces.

28/11

Fixed a problem running demos on machines without a sound card (or without Direct Sound drivers).

29/11

Fixed several bugs related to dropping nests on nests. (If nest A is dropped on nest B then all messages that would have been placed on nest A are placed on B instead.) Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

4/12

Fixed a problem returning a fresh robot or a truck back into the stacks in Tooly the Toolbox. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.
If a text pad (fixed width) was saved on the clipboard (not because it was part of something being saved) then when pasted back it became a variable width text object.
Saving numbers on the clipboard (not because they are part of something being saved) with operations (like '*' or '/') became text pads when pasted. Thanks to Ross for reporting this.

5/12

Fixed a problem saving a robot when something in its thought bubble is equal to something else being saved at the same time.

7/12

Fixed a problem caching media files that were obtained from a URL.
Puzzle 42 accepted any nest with 5 or more numbers on it. Now the numbers must be different. (Otherwise can get stuck on the next puzzle.) Thanks to Volker and his son for reporting this.

10/12

When generating a Java applet using built-in sounds and pictures and the needed files are missing then it used to give up. Now it gives up on pictures if the picture files are missing and on sounds if the sound files are missing.

12/12 (these changes were made during the previous 2 months)

ToonTalk can now run in 15-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit video modes in addition to the 8-bit (256 color) mode previously supported.
ToonTalk will run in the color depth that Windows is set to unless you are running full-screen and have set DesiredFullScreenBitsPerPixel in the Switches section of toontalk.ini to a different value.
ToonTalk now finds its built-in imagery in the directory specified by BuiltinPictureDir in the Directories section of toontalk.ini. The default file extension is specified by MissingBuiltinPictureFileExtension in the FileExtensions section of toontalk.ini. The default is now to use 8-bit GIF files so they can be shared with the Java applet generator. 24-bit imagery such as PNG files work fine (but are not recommended when running with an 8-bit video mode).
Picture files now include a new extension "ini". Currently there is only a Files section in the ini file. It can contain Picture and PictureMask entries. These are file names (either fully qualified or relative to the location of the ini file). The PictureMask file should contain white pixels for the parts of the Picture file that should be displayed and black for the parts that should be transparent. For example, [Files]
Picture=AL01.jpg
PictureMask=masks\AL01.png
ToonTalk now uses a new Microsoft API (GDI+) to read picture files. It deals better with PNG, GIF, and JPG than the old API. It also deals better with transparent pixels in GIF or PNG files. It also supports Exif and TIFF files. This new functionality does not work in Windows 95, however.
24-bit picture files now look much better in 8-bit video mode (but is a bit slow).
When an object is turned off it now looks darker. And when the power is turned off (via F8) then everything looks darker in a better way than previously.
Beta 33 released.

14/12

Fixed a problem running with 16 or 24 bit graphics. Its affect should be limited to the appearance of the programmer persona's hair or hat.
If a built-in ToonTalk picture or sound file is missing then on some systems (e.g. Windows 98) a dialog box appeared (even in full-screen mode but then it was "underneath" and couldn't be seen).

17/12

Changed the way text and number pads are displayed. The new format looks nicer (no separators between characters) and faster. The display format of variable width font is now much more like the fixed width font version.

19/12

A demo file that used the millisecond timer didn't work right if there were any cycles that took more than 1000 milliseconds.
Improved the way demos are recorded that start with a saved city. It should be both faster and fixes some rare cases where the demo stopped running properly.

21/12

The Japanese version of ToonTalk now has ordinary looking text pads. (Prior to this the style of text pads with variable width font was the only available style and it didn't have a border or background color).

Continue with 2002.