READ-ME for Hack-it v4.0ß2 ----------------------------- FIRSTLY: I made this program for everyone to enjoy. I expect only one thing. I want you to send me email on anything you can! Have an idea for a program? for a feature of Hack-It!? Tell me everything! and visit my WWW Pages too! I know you are a net-junkie like me, so just do it. Copy-paste my address right now: nutt0006@maroon.tc.umn.edu If I don't get mail, I won't continue to make new versions. Background: Hack-It! is a little program the I made for myself and a friend, mainly for use with another wonderful program (I didn't write it, but it's still a great program ;), Wintalk, which brings up a small chat window and connects to another personon the net also running wintalk. We wanted to make it so the small chat window would stay above all other windows, so we could work on other things without losing sight of the Wintalk window. Information on This Release: Hack-It! v4.0 has become my key to learning Visual C++ and MFC. This is a completely new program, a total rewrite of the original. Delphi was a great programming environment, but for a small system utility like Hack-It! it was very clunky and cause no end of eadaches. This version (when complete) will come with a help file and extensive context-sensitive help nuggets. Other than that, use of Hack-It! is straightforward. Anyone willing to help write the helpfile, let me know. Revision History: (Short but sweet) Top-It! - Ancient ancestor to Hack-It! Written in visual basic, this program just made a window stay on top. You had to type in the name of the window, hit a button, and zing! it was topped. Never released, cept to a few friends. Hack-It! v1.0 - First release version Very basic, nothing special to it, just choose the window to act on and press a button. Basic Layout: Two listboxes, one for visible windows and one for hidden windows. Buttons for the first list: Top-It!, Hide-It!, Un-Top-It!. Buttons for the second list: Top-It!, Un-Hide-It!, Un-Top-It!. v1.1 - Not released Added the Auto-Top list which allows the use of wildcards to choose certain windows that will always be "topped" automatically. Basic Layout of Auto-Top dialogs: List of wildcard specs, with buttons to add, edit, and delete them. v1.11 - Second release version Bugfix to v1.1. No new features. v1.12 - Re-Bugfix to 1.11 Apparantly, that last .01 didn't cut it. v2.0ß - Version 2.0 beta 1 Added the Tray-It! feature, and cleaned up a few things. Still has some problems that are being difficult with me. Tray-It! allows you to run any program "on" the tray. It's nice for programs that you don't normally need to have shown, but that you run for long periods of time. v2.0 - Version 2.0 I FINALLY found the problem with the beta. It all works well now, but I have new ideas already. 2.1 is in the works, and 3.0 is on the board. v3.0ß1 - Version 3.0 beta 1 I skipped 2.1 (too many new things) and went right to 3.0. This is a complete rewrite of the original program, and so far it runs much cleaner and seemingly with less memory. Many new features, but most don't work quite yet (wanted to get this out so you could offer input *HINT HINT EMAIL HINT HINT*). Layout: Four tabs, for Visible Windows, Hidden Windows, Auto, and About. No help implemented yet... do you think I should? v3.0ß2 - Version 3.0 beta 2 I managed to get the interface all set...but nothing works yet. v3.0ß3 - Version 3.0 beta 3 All windows will have icons now...some will get the default "Windows Logo" icon, simply cuz' they don't have another one reg'd. Auto-Top and Auto-Hide are working...still trying to find a clean way to handle Auto-Tray, but it won't be long now. Still can't get trayyed programs to behave. Tray-It really doesnt' work well yet, try to avoid it, I'll have a new beta out before long. v3.0ß4 - Version 3.0 beta 4 I am limiting the Tray-It! slots to 20, to make things cleaner. Trayyed programs now act like they did in v2.0, it worked well then, I'll modify it to the recent standard once everything else is working. A few bugs have been cleaned up, code improved, but the biggest addition is the new splash screen, donated by Ashadi Hopper, a new aussie friend of mine. v3.0ß5 - Version 3.0 beta 5 - FINAL BETA I found a smooth way to handle Tray-It! slots, so they are back to as many as you like, and they behave very well now. You cannot tray the same program twice anymore. All auto functions work and the auto list is saved to d:\WINDOWS\HACKIT3.INI (d = your windows drive). This should be the last v3 beta, unless something AMAZING comes up. v3.0p - Version 3.0p (Prerelease) Only sent to people who sent me email. Prerelease, final bug check. v3.0i - Version 3.0i (Incomplete) Incomplete. I'm sick of Delphi for now. v4.0ß1 - Version 4.0 beta 1 Version 3.0 is no more. There were too many problems with Delphi to make a system util like Hack-It! run cleanly. This version will knock yer socks off and curl your hair. Too much to explain - run it and see for yerself. v4.0ß2 - Version 4.0 beta 2 Getting there! Trayying works now, but it's choppy and unstable. A temporary setup at best. Be careful with it. There's an elusive memory leak somewhere in the "add child windows to window list" routine, let me know what kinda of errors you might get, I'm having trouble tracking it down. The child windows and funky windows are immense fun to play around with, and YES you can tray child windows. You can even tray the Start button if you are so inclined, although I don't know why you'd want to do that. Have fun, be careful, keep reports/donations coming! -=Charles Oliver Nutter=- "Headius" on IRC nutt0006@maroon.tc.umn.edu http://umn.edu/~nutt0006 - COME SIGN MY GUESTBOOK!!!