Changes Log for Pebbles Software

The Pebbles project began in fall of 1997. This page has a history of the various releases. See also the list of people who have been involved with Pebbles.

• Changes in Version 4.1
• Changes in Version 4
• Changes in Version 3
• Earlier Changes

Changes in Version 4.1

(Release 9/26/2000)

• Shortcutter V4.1:
• Added actions that are application-specific.
• Mouse buttons can be selected to do regular mouse actions, or else to draw using  scribble or  multicursor (like the mousepad).
• Fixed menu shortcut characters for OS3.5.
• The "New" button when editing a Macro goes directly to action panel.
• Fixed icons for RemoteClipBook and WebAssist.
• Removed unnecessary files from pebbles.zip, reducing its size to 1150K.

Changes in Version 4

(Beta release: 9/1/2000. Official release 9/24/2000)

General Changes

• A new Connections dialog box in all applications, so you can control how the hand-held connects to the PC.
• Support for connection by Infrared and sockets. This allows Pebbles applications to connect using radio networks like 802.11 (Wavelan or Proxim or Symbol Specturm 24 wireless).
• Support for color Palms (PalmOS v3.5) and Pocket PC (Windows CE v3.0).
• There are new icons for each of the programs (thanks to Joonhwan Lee).
• We fixed a bunch of memory leaks and other small bugs in all the software.

New Windows CE Programs

• There are now Windows CE versions of Remote Commander, Scribble and MultiCursor (all in one program called RemoteCmd).
• There is now a Windows CE version of the Switcher program.

Changes in Slide Show Commander

• Slideshow commander for the Palm has been licensed to Synergy Solutions and now is available for commercial sale. Therefore, the Pebbles distribution only contains the Windows CE version. Get the new version of Slide Show Commander for the Palm from Synergy at: http://www.slideshowcommander.com/.
• The Windows CE and Pocket PC versions are still available for free.
• The SlideShow program now shows a thumbnail picture of the current slide on the "scribble" pane.
• Menu commands for Black Screen, White Screen and Clear Scribbles
• Bullets are shown in the Notes view, which makes it much easier to read.

Changes in Shortcutter

• The Macro action is now implemented, so you can have a sequence of actions be invoked by a single Shortcutter action.
• New Mouse Pad widget: Can control the mouse of the PC, either in RemoteCommander mode, so it controls the real mouse;  Scribble mode, so it controls the Pebbles scribble cursors; or MultiCursor mode, for custom applications that support multiple cursors.
• New Toggle Button widget: Does an action when pressed down, and a different action when released. Useful for mouse buttons, so down press of the button sends mouse down, and release of the button sends mouse button up.
• New Graffiti widget: That acts as a big Graffiti pad, so you can make Graffiti gestures inside the widget (which you can make as big as the screen). Optionally define as characters only, numbers only, or 2-sided like the regular Graffiti area.
• Ability to send the Graffiti strokes (either in the regular area or in the Graffiti widget) to the application as if they were typed on the PC's keyboard.
• Feedback for the action being invoked is provided at the bottom of the screen.
• Added support for sending the middle mouse button.

Changes in Version 3

(Beta release: 8/31/99. Official release 12/6/99)

• A new version of the Slide Show Commander, featuring a new pane for timing the talk, and user-assignable application buttons actions. The changes are:
  • New Timer Tab. This tab allows you to time your talk. It has three modes, controlled by the choice boxes at the bottom of the window.
  • Assigning the Hard Buttons: Ability to assign the application buttons on the Palm to various functions, like forward and backward slide.
  • Disable the Automatic Power Off option.
  • Hyphen character sent as a space while a Slide Show is in progress, since hypen ends the slide show, and it is easy to give it accidentally when trying to do a space.
  • Always starts the slide show at the first slide instead of at the current slide.
• An exciting new application: Shortcutter, with which you can build panels of controls to allow the Palm Pilot to control your PC applications.
• Windows CE implementations of SlideShow Commander, MultiCursor, Scribble and Remote Commander.
• A new application for Palms: WebAssist, which helps with "hub-and-spoke" style browsing for Internet Explorer. (Sorry it doesn't work with Netscape.) Select a region in IE, Copy the text into the PC's clipboard, then use the Refresh button on the Palm to copy the links out of the selection.  Then tap on links to go to that page.
• A new application for Palms: Switcher, which combines the functions of the Windows taskbar and an application's Window menu.  It displays the running applications, and the windows of the current application, and you can tap on one to switch it to the front.
• Increased speed for all Pebbles applications, with an upgraded protocol (so you cannot mix old versions of the Pebbles software with these new files.  Therefore, the download below includes a complete set of files, even though some have the same user interface as before).
• PebblesPC now automatically detects the user name from the Palm or Windows CE device, so you only need to add and remove COM ports.

Earlier Changes 

3/18/99 
V2.3 of SlideShow Commander
(Changed only SlideShowControl.dll)
Now updates the notes and slide titles on the PalmPilot when the slide is changed at the PC end.

2/21/99
V1.0 of Scribble
First release of the Scribble application.

1/14/99
V2.2 of SlideShow Control
(Changed only SlideShowControl.dll)
Fixed a bug in the previous version where the new slide sometimes flashed a few times when you
changed slides.

12/7/98
V2.0 of all PebblesPC applications
(lots of changes to Remote Commander)

2/17/98
V1.0 of Remote Commander
(first Pebbles application)

Sept. 1997
Pebbles Project Begins
(as independent study project for undergraduate Herb Stiel)

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