June 2006
The items listed here are available for all DOS applications, and are currently used mainly with text editing/word processing applications.
· Enjoy the benefits of on-screen text styles such as italics and bold, while working in a windowed environment. Tame can examine your color scheme and automatically display text in a more readable fashion. All text is displayed using the color of your normal text, and drawn with the style assigned to its original color.
· A menu item is provided to automate text style setup with supported applications, For other systems, simply edit a supplied template, and add styles as noted (e.g. make the word “italics” have italics style).
· Drag/drop has been configured for several applications to effect paste or file open. Edit verses paste is sometimes determined based on the file type, and may be changed by the user,
· Direct access to the Windows clipboard is now provided. Applications that use Windows 9x clipboard functions can automatically have that ability on NT based systems. For other applications, Tame provides direct access to the clipboard using file redirection.
· Smart paste will automatically switch to the old keyboard paste when filling in data fieldsn such as search strings or file names.
· Drag drop will always paste just the path if dropped on a data field.
· Dynamic row and column change has been improved, and Tame that capability is now available with more applications.
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· Map ay key to perform multi-step functions or enter common text. Support is not limited to standard keys - use the media keys provided ion new keyboards, function keys 13-24, or any other key that windows applications can access.
· Add items to the context or system menu. Items may send keystrokes, run commands, or specify Tame settings.
· Tame can switch to the codepage appropriate for each application when it is run. Codepage selection may be based only on the codepage assigned to the application, with no user setup whatsoever, and still allow exceptions by providing the codepage for those users.
· Tame can also automatically switch keyboard layout based on application, user, or other criteria.
· Tame breaks the codepage barrier, and can display text from multiple codepages on the same screen. Display based on the Unicode text without referencing a code page is also supported.
· If you use an application that uses the wrong codepage, you no longer need to choose between local codepage for data entry/display, and application codepage for correct linedraw characters and screen formatting. Dos codes that have different Unicode representation may be displayed using the appropriate codepage based on attributes such as color, or by a run of adjacent characters that form a linedraw shape with the application codepage.
· Enter and display unique symbols such as the Euro, even if it is not included in your keyboard layout or codepage.
· Keyboard translation provided in Tame can replace KB16, freeing up more conventional memory.
· Tile or stretch bitmap images as background for text. Eachimages may be displayed as a replacement existing colors or color combinations, or to replace text such as pattern characters that are commonly used.
· Use any font for screen display, including proportional fonts. You may now adjust the display properties like aspect and scale, to improve readability with any size text.
Tame can provide access to basic Windows functions with no changes to the application and very little configuration. Advanced capability is also available with a little effort, but that effort rarely requires changes to the application, because Tame works with functions already included in the application, perhaps for different purpose. Here are come easily attainable enhancements:
· Show different fonts in forms. Highlight the active form field, or differentiate data verses form text/lines.
· Add items to the system menu
· Show a bitmap in place of blank areas, or use it as a background in any screen or area of the screen.
· Process files that are dropped on the application window using windows drag/drop
· Capture keystrokes, screens, and file operations as you run the app, and save as HTML text that preserves colors and format.
· Tame provides a spooling function that will supply the app with a unique temp file name when the app opens a specific file name, like LPT1 or Outfile. Pre-configured post processing will commence when the file is closed.
· Utilize background execution of DOS or win32 commands spawned by the DOS app. The DOS app can wait for each command to complete, or can run in parallel if synchronization is not needed. If multiple commands are invoked, they may also be run as serialized or parallel. Standard error/output may be saved for reference or post processing.
· Handle Windows app events such as Open and Paste
· Provide final cleanup for events such as shutdown, logoff or suspend.
January 2006
The following changes were made.
The new Tame Console allows running DOS applications without the annoyances and limitations of the native console window.
· Automatic text resize when the window is resized or maximized to fill the screen
· Ultra fast key repeat with no overrun when the key is released. The repeat rate can vary depending on the key. By default, repeat is high for cursor movement, slightly lower for text insertion and very slow for function keys.
· Supports any number of rows and columns, as long as the application can work in that configuration.
· Multiple fonts may be displayed on the screen. Fonts may be displayed based on the color of screen text. This allows a more WSYWYG look with DOS word processors, and can enhance the look of form entry
· The console is not limited to 16 colors for text. Custom colors may be applied based on the attribute of screen text
· Cursor shape changes to indicate whether caps lock is active and/or insert/replace mode.
· System menu provides access to Tame features
New options for configuring the system
· Disable the close button on the window
· An icon may be associated with the application. The icon is displayed on the console window and also in the task bar.
· An application can be restricted to a single instance on the machine
· The console code page can be specified. This provides improved screen image for DOS applications that were developed using a different code page than that of the system.
· For multiprocessor systems, a subset of CPUs may be assigbned for working applications verses idle ones.
· A key may be posted to the input buffer of the application on startup. This may be used to bypass an opening screen.
· The DisableUserInterface setting may be used to prevent Tame from popping up dialog boxes when an error is encountered.
For problems that are difficult to diagnose, Tame can be set to continuously trace all processes. This facilitates analysis of rarely occurring problems, and of problems related to interaction of multiple processes.
Tame can save a snapshot one or more trace files at any time.
A less detailed system trace is also added. This trace includes keystrokes, screens, file operations, and Tame operations for all processes in the order they occurred
· CPU usage of Non-Polling applications may be drastically reduced.
· System options that were previously located in the registry may now be located in a tame.ini file.
· Application options have been simplified
· Memory usage by Tame has been reduced.
· Tame may now be loaded as a device driver in the config.nt file. This further reduces memory usage, and provides additional functions.
· ConsoleWatch text may now be restricted to specific portions of the screen.
· Dos time may now be obtained from the OS, even after the DOS app has attempted to change the time.
· A new file spooling feature allows a file to be post-processed by an external command when it is closed by the application. This may be used for advanced print spooling, as well as other uses.
· Tame allows bypassing the NTVDM popup window that occurs when an application requests direct access to the disk.
· Tame can provide a console image in HTML format.
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Tame can produce an HTML summary of a trace file. The summary
includes screen shots, keystrokes and important events.
January, 2005
This update provides additional support and corrects problems.
The following changes were made.
· New option for applications that attempt to perform direct disk I/O
· The process list with TameView now provides tab buttons allowing selection of which process details are to be viewed.
· New option to set the time slice for key spike optimization
· New option to avoid a long time slice in cases Tame would normally yield the remainder of the DOS clock tick.
July, 2004
This update provides additional support and corrects problems.
The following changes were made.
· Tame can now be used with the pre-release version of Longhorn.
· New option added: /Watch_Mem_Alloc to enable/disable consideration of memory allocations as work
· By default, the /FoxVideo option is now off.
· A problem was corrected where the Win32_Time option would sometimes report invalid time around midnight.
· The /KeySpikeOptimize option has been enhanced to allow quicker release of the CPU in non-poll mode. To use this feature, set the value to 7 or higher.
March, 2004
This update provides additional support and corrects problems that were present in release 4.5a.
The following changes were made.
· 16 bit Windows applications may not be tamed. Support for Windows applications is limited, but can be effective in many cases.
· Date and time inquiry by DOS applications are now serviced by obtaining the system time. This ensures that DOS applications experience the same time of day as Windows applications.
· The automatic adapt feature has been improved to work with more applications
· Problems with the /WatchBtrieve option were corrected.
November, 2003
This update provides additional support and corrects problems that were present in release 4.5.
The following enhancements were made.
· Applications that are not compatible with Windows NT based file locking may now be run with file locking disabled.
· The auto-adapt feature has been fine tuned based on user feedback
· Run-on key repeat processing has been improved
· The TameView interface has been improved, and now allows interactive process selection from a list of running processes. Also, the console of the DOS application is shown by default to help with program identification.
The following problems were corrected.
· When non-poll or non-work idle is in effect, Tame would occasionally yield a time slice while DOS was processing.
· The NTVDM would sometimes crash when using DOS shell products to launch DOS applications
· Tame would not block full screen mode for applications making undocumented video requests.
July, 2003
Version 4.5 requires a Windows NT based system, which to date includes Windows NT 4.0, all Windows 2000 versions, all Windows XP versions, and all variations of Windows 2003 server. Tame versions 4.41 and 3.34 will remain available for use with other operating environments.
This release features improved performance, response and configuration. The default settings should work for most applications without the need to specify any special options. For cases where options are needed, the process has been simplified.
The following enhancements were made.
· A new Auto-Adapt feature provides continuous settings adjustment, and keeps Tame tuned for a wide variety of applications
· Key spike optimization reduces CPU overhead while typing, moving the cursor and other common keyboarding situations.
· Key response optimization improves system response by reducing or eliminating keyboarding delays that are frequently experienced with DOS programs.
· Tame can use visual cues to identify a memory-intensive process that may take a long time to execute. If the program displays a message asking the user to wait while it processes, specify the string and Tame will also wait patiently...
· It is now much easier to specify settings that Tame should use. Settings are provided in a .TAM file that may be located in the program folder, or the Tame\CustomSettings folder.
· Tame can now detect a busy application based on screen changes that are done using direct (non-BIOS) methods.
· New options can be used to watch for limited types of polls even while boosted.
· The default status of several options has been changed with this release. Many options that were commonly required in the past are now enabled by default.
November, 2002
1. A compatibility problem using a Btrieve application with version 4.4 has been corrected.
2. Interactive keyboard response has been improved with an updated SmoothType implementation.
3. Registry values that specify log file name will now be ignored if blank.
4. HKCU may now be used to test new registry values on a single user. Registry values in HKCU will override those in HKLM.
October, 2002
This version provides several enhancements that improve performance and responsiveness for the interactive user, while also lowering CPU usage required by each user.
The following enhancements were made.
· Interactive keyboard response has been improved by the addition of the /SmoothType option. With SmoothType, the keyboard response of most DOS apps can rival that of native Windows applications. This option is enabled by default.
· Applications that process a long running request will see improved performance. This is due to new methods to determine whether the application is really idle so that Tame does not yield time slices that are needed by the application. This feature is enabled using the new AppQ_XXX options.
· Applications that process a long running request may now be restricted in order to help the system remain responsive for other applications and users.
· Tame can minimize CPU usage of some DOS applications during periods of rapid keyboard input. New tuning options allow Tame to determine more precisely when the application has completed its task. This allows Tame to yield CPU earlier than was possible with prior versions of Tame. This feature is disabled by default because the parameters are dependent on the application and the system. They may be set using the new “App_Qxxx” options.
· Tame may now yield time slices based on the applications use of the “DOS Idle” signal. Previously, this could only be used as a hint to more quickly end a boost or lower the polling thresholds.
· The TameView utility has been modified to not require the process ID to be specified. This simplifies the common case of monitoring the most recently launched DOS application.
· If the application does not use mouse input, Tame can now inhibit processing of mouse actions, so that they will not interrupt the DOS application.
April, 2002
The following enhancements were made.
· New option to instruct Tame to not ignore minor video activity such as cursor movement (/wxvid)
· A new option will improve performance with applications that may have low CPU usage when accessing the network (specify /CPU_Idle_Percent or /CPU_Idle_TiMe).
· The trace facility was enhanced to track more details, and to allow inserting a comment into the trace (TameView /TC)
· TameView /LO will now show only those options are not at the default value.
The following enhancements are available for all Windows NT based operating systems. This version provides no additional benefits for non Windows NT based environments.
· Tame now allows the administrator to monitor, control and diagnose all DOS sessions using a central console. The new “TameView” command line utility provides this capability.
· Tame has improved keyboard and mouse response in many situations
· New option to avoid yielding time-slices while unprocessed console input events are available
· New options may instruct Tame to watch file locking requests, and force a Windows-friendly delay between retries when a requested section is already locked by another user.
· Improved auto settings detect to more accurately work with applications that are called by other applications
· Added support for applications that do not poll
· Added an option to force printout to be spooled as soon as the app becomes idle
· Improved work detection for apps that use BTRIEVE
· Reduced false idle detection by observing page faults and other system level activity.
· Added option to prevent the application from entering graphics mode
· Added option to single thread application startup
· Added option for Tame to update the console title line
This was a major release.
· Added VDD support and many features for Windows NT based systems.