
                       -------------------------------
     
                          RIPtel Visual Telnet (tm)
          
                            Version 3.1.2-patched

                       -------------------------------

            Copyright (c) 1996-97  TeleGrafix Communications, Inc.
                             All Rights Reserved

                        (Unofficial Patched Release)

1.0 - INTRODUCTION
------------------

Welcome to RIPtel Visual Telnet(tm), an Internet program that lets you see
graphics and multimedia over Telnet connections.  RIPtel uses the third
generation of TeleGrafix's Remote Imaging Protocol(tm) scripting language
(RIPscrip(tm)) online multimedia technology.  RIPscrip allows the rapid
transmission and display of graphics and multimedia over any type of computing
platform or telecommunications link.

RIPtel was commercial software, sold in 1997 as a 60-day evaluation.  TeleGrafix
Communications, Inc. has long since ceased operations and the product has been
abandoned for decades.

This is an unofficial patched build.  The evaluation expiry and the registration
checks have been removed, so it is not time-limited and needs no serial number,
and it has been brought up to date for modern Windows and for today's much
larger, higher-resolution displays.  It is not affiliated with, supported by, or
endorsed by TeleGrafix.  See license.txt for the terms this build is distributed
under, and license.original.txt for the original TeleGrafix agreement, retained for
reference.


2.0 - CHANGES IN THIS EDITION
-----------------------------

The changes below are what this patched build adds to TeleGrafix's 1997
release of version 3.1.

 - No registration and no expiry.  The program never asks for a serial
   number and will not stop working after 60 days.

 - Runs on modern Windows.  It installs into your own user folder, so it
   needs no administrator rights and can still write its own files --
   downloads, captures, scrollback and the phone book.  You will find
   them in:

       C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Programs\RIPtel\

   There is also a "RIPtel Folder" shortcut in the Start menu that opens
   that folder for you.

 - Opens in an ordinary resizable window instead of taking over the whole
   screen, and keeps the picture's correct 4:3 shape at any size.  Press
   Alt+Enter to switch to full screen and back.

 - The graphics are scaled smoothly to whatever size the window is, so RIP
   artwork stays clean on a large, modern monitor instead of turning into
   blocks.  The text cursor scales along with it, and the mouse pointer is
   shown at its original 32x32 size instead of being stretched to double
   size by Windows display scaling.

 - Drawing is much faster.  The original put the whole screen back on
   display after every single drawing command, which on a modern machine -
   where the picture is being scaled up to a large window - meant a busy
   screen could take many seconds to finish and animations crawled.  The
   drawing is now collected and shown up to 80 times a second, so complex
   screens appear many times faster and look exactly the same.

 - The wipe and slide effects between menus run at a sensible, consistent
   speed.  They never had any timing of their own - on 1997 hardware they
   were slow simply because redrawing was slow - so once drawing got faster
   they would have flashed past too quickly to see.  They are now timed
   deliberately, from about half a second for the simple ones up to about
   a second and a half for the most elaborate.

 - Correct on high-resolution displays, including Windows display scaling
   settings such as 125% or 150%.

 - The text terminal is a full 80x25 rather than 80x24, and the BBS is now
   told the real size, so hosts no longer fall back to 24 lines.

 - A bug in the original's Telnet negotiation is fixed.  It could cause a
   host to silently ignore everything RIPtel said after connecting.

 - The bundled demonstration phone book, which listed BBSs that have been
   gone for decades, has been emptied.

A complete, technical list of every change is in PATCH.TXT.


3.0 - DOCUMENTATION
-------------------
RIPtel has extensive documentation in its help system.  Open it from the Help
menu, or from the RIPtel Help shortcut in the Start menu.

Note that the help file uses the old Windows Help (.HLP) format.  Windows 7 and
later do not include a viewer for it, so on a modern system the help may not
open at all.  A readable copy is planned for a future release.


4.0 - REPORTING BUGS
--------------------
If you discover any bugs in this software you can report them at:

    https://github.com/bbs-land/riptel-reconstructed/issues

Please be sure to report the exact version of RIPtel you're using, what
edition of Microsoft Windows or Wine you are running under, the type of 
computer you are using (including video hardware), and any other information.
The more information we have, the easier it is to pinpoint a bug.


5.0 - KNOWN PROBLEMS
--------------------
Inherited from the original release, and still unfixed:

   - When working with the outline font system, you may notice pixel
     anomalies with characters rotated 90 or 270 degrees when bolding is
     enabled.  This is a problem with the scalable font system and is
     unlikely to be fixed.  The only workaround is to use one of the
     Expanded or Wide variations of the fonts.  This situation is most
     notable at high point sizes.  At lower point sizes, the pixel glitches
     in the font are typically too small to be noticed.

   - JPEG images do not display while they're downloading.

   - The macro Ctrl-Alt-F1 invokes the help system from inside the
     keystroke macro editor.

   - Drawing graphics over color 7 in the write mode "AND" does things
     you wouldn't expect in AND mode.  We think this is a Windows
     anomaly.

New to this patched build:

   - The smooth graphics scaling does more work on every redraw than the
     1997 original did, though the redraw limit described above keeps that
     in check.  On a very old machine it may still feel sluggish; roughly
     a 2012-or-newer PC is recommended.

   - Resizing the window, or leaving full screen, while a wipe or slide
     effect between menus is still running can leave the picture briefly
     scrambled.  It corrects itself as soon as the effect finishes.  The
     original could not be resized at all, so this only affects this
     build.


6.0 - UPDATES AND NEW EDITIONS
------------------------------
This version was patched from the original distribution files by
the BBS.land organization on GitHub <https://github.com/bbs-land/>

Newer builds, when there are any, are published at:

    https://github.com/bbs-land/riptel-reconstructed/releases


7.0 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
----------------------
TeleGrafix is grateful for the help and support of our beta testers and
those customers who purchased the pre-release version of RIPtel Visual
Telnet. The reports sent in by these customers have been essential to
refining RIPtel to be a stable and useful Internet tool.  We especially
note the contribution of Mr. Jim Edwards (Route 66 Online of Houston, TX),
whose insights and observations were always helpful.

Special thanks are due to Mr. Alan McNamee of Advanced Systems Research in
West Linn, OR and his wife, Cindy.  Alan's diligent (and sometimes
aggravatingly dedicated) pursuit of bug hunting in RIPtel has helped us
create a remarkably solid product.  Alan has spent thousands of hours
testing RIPtel over the past 18 months, and his technical observations have
been right on the mark. Without Alan's single- minded dedication to the
task of locating bugs in the RIPscrip driver (and RIPtel itself), this
product would have taken far longer to produce.  His detective work and
creativity have demonstrated amply why Alan must be considered one of the
premier software engineers in the world today.  His efforts to help develop
this technology have carried an enormous personal cost to him, both
financially and in time away from his family. The personal sacrifice
endured by Alan and Cindy has been far beyond the call of duty.  Thank you
Alan, for a spectacular job!  And thank you, Cindy, for your constant
support and toleration of the craziness this project has brought into your
family life! 

One final special note. This software is officially dedicated to Mr. Bill
Pommenville of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and his charming wife, Margaret. 
Bill operated "RIPnet", the Fidonet newsgroup covering our technology, for
many years. Though Bill was never affiliated with TeleGrafix, we came to 
revere him as an unofficial goodwill ambassador for RIPscrip. Through his
actions, thousands of people learned about our technology and we received
much valuable feedback. Because of his unique vantage point, Bill was never
afraid to tell us what we needed to know -- not necessarily what we wanted
to hear.  We think that is the mark of a true friend.  Much of his advice
and insight is reflected in the product you are now using.  Last year,
Bill and Margaret experienced serious health setbacks and they were forced
to curtail some activities.  RIPnet was among them.  Bill, thanks for your
wonderful advice and friendship over the years - you are truly one of a
kind. Margaret, thanks for your gracious hospitality and support of 
RIPnet.  You are special people and we wish you the very best.
