Release notes for MECCA 2000 version 4.08.  Feb/15/2006



Fixed:

1. Information for a JPEG file may sometimes be read incorrectly, causing
   image rejection (m2kbin, typdrv, jpeginfo).

2. When multiple input files are given, bcompose ignored processing error for
   one of the input files.  This is now changed so that bcompose will stop on
   any error (bcompose).

3. Because of possible display modes change (grid on/off, etc.) "Reset to
   Defaults" in line attributes dialog now works more correctly than before
   (m2kprocs.tcl, tclIndex).

4. Added warning when H or V step count exceeds the limit 255.  Also fixed
   per-sep notes not being copied from part to part (parts.tcl).

5. Corrected the problem in black-sep graduated text where gray values
   were inversely mapped (PSgradtext.ps).

6. Corrected a condition introduced in 4.07, where a raster image may not
   step and repeat (typdrv, PSbasic.ps).

7. When selected seps were printed, the sep numbers in the output Title
   string did not match their actual numbers in the part (typdrv).

8. Minor clean-up in the file PSgraduate.ps.

9. The on-screen "total pages" counter was not updated after opening the
   first composed page, under Batch Compose (compose.tcl).

10. Minor adjustment for the left-hand side vertical layer chips to fit
    (lyrstrip.tcl).


Changed or New:

1. When PS file is being processed by Distiller (or other PS->PDF processor
   that understands distillerparams, default dot (dot 0) is now forced to
   be the round dot -- "Adobe Dot" (dot 2) as called by MECCA (PSDots.ps).

2. Added optional keyword "CLIP=clip_spec" to MFORM command, so that a
   clipping box may be set when desired (typdrv, m2kbin, galeyc, preview,
   pmunu, addpartdims, gpcdump).

   The MFORM command requires that XPOS and YPOS be given, they specify an
   "anchor" which is the upper-left corner of the merge area.  The new
   "clip_spec" is a string that contains comma-separated values (no space
   character permitted in the string), and can be one of the following:

   a. DX,DY,W,D (e.g. CLIP=5p,10p,3i,2i)
      specifies DX,DY as offsets from the MFORM anchor: positive DX goes
      to the right, and positive DY goes down (DX and DY can be negative
      values, which moves to left and up, respectively, from the anchor).
      The W and D values give width and depth of the clipping box.

      The example here means the clipping box upper-left corner is 5 points
      to the right, and 10 points down, from the XPOS/YPOS; 3 inches wide
      and 2 inches deep.

   b. W,D  (e.g. CLIP=3i,2i)
      specifies width (W) and depth (D) values for the clipping box, this
      is a short-hand for format (a) above where both DX and DY are zero.

   The clipping box described above is the unrotated corner positions.

3. typdrv now outputs PS Level-2 and above compatible "setpagedevice"
   statement to set the page size (typdrv).

4. bcompose command has a new option, "-f", to direct the output PS file
   to contain page size definitions to match the PDEF settings in the
   batch mark-up ("-f": flexible-page-size), rather than that of the
   printer's (bcompose, typdrv, bprt2, compose.tcl, compose2.tcl).

   This new option is also available in "Batch Compose" dialog, as the
   check-button "Match PDEF page size (if compose to PS/PDF)".  As it
   suggests, it is useful only when composing to PostScript file that
   may later be turned into a PDF.

   Please note this option causes the output PS to have 100% scaling, and
   no rotation.

   Technical note: the corresponding typdrv command line option is "-P",
   and is effective only when processing batch composed files.