Updated 6 February 2013

Z88 PipeDream Viewer

Overview

A viewer for PipeDream 'wordprocessing' documents. Spreadsheet formulas and numbers are displayed but not interpreted.
Columns are properly placed. Print Underline, Bold, Italics, Subscript and Superscript highlights are supported.
Supports association with filename extensions. Just doubleclick an associated file to start the viewer with the file loaded.
PipeDream list files are supported.
Save As RTF. Limited translation to Microsoft Rich Text Format, for export to Windows 95 Wordpad or Word for Windows.
Save As Text. Tab separated text format. Numeric cells with simple expressions are correctly interpreted when loading into Excel.
Save As HTML.
Printing of current document.

PipeDream Viewer Screen.

Version History

960307
First implementation in Qbasic working well.

9605xx - 960904
Ported to Visual Basic Pro 3.0.
Added support for PipeDream column construct %PC% which prints a '%' (percent sign).
Added support for filenames as command line argument when starting program. It's useful for associating pipeview.exe with filenames with extensions like .pd to start PipeView with the file loaded when doubleclicking its name in FileManager.

960908 v0.1
Added an about box showing program version, my name, snailmail and email address.

960911 v0.11
Changed dimensioning of array holding document text.
Focus is now correctly put on the scrollbar when opening a new file.
Disabled showing of filename or document title in window caption.
Added support for PipeDream Option Page construct %OP%LM, Left Margin.
Columns are not placed correctly in this version.

960924
Added support for PipeDream column constructs %H1%, %H2% and %H4% which are the Print Underline, Bold and Italics highlights.
Replaced support for PipeDream Option Page construct %OP%LM, Left Margin with a fixed left margin of two characters.
Reenabled showing of filename or document title in window caption.
Now exits program also when pressing Esc. I think it is proper behavior for a file viewer.

960927
Save window state, size and position in ini-file.
Save list of recent files in ini-file.
Save font name and size in ini-file.

960928
Columns are now correctly placed again.
Changed version to 0.12.

961002
Now displays just about any text file.
Some support for PipeDream list files.

961013
Support for PipeDream list files added.

961014
Previous drive and directory saved in ini-file.

961015
Setting for max number of columns added. It's needed for loading as much as possible of large files. Depending on the file structure, files of around 40-50k are fully loaded. My largest files of 50-60k loads the greatest part using max number of columns = 8 to 13. Default value is 10.
Changed version to 0.13.

961016
Changed FontTransparent to false to overprint cleaner.
Some support for PipeDream column constructs %H5% and %H6% which are the Print Subscript and Superscript highlights.

961214
Now handle error 'File not found' a little more gently.

970112
Now loads complete user interface before handling command line argument avoiding "Error 5, 'Illigal function call' in LoadFile." when loading a list file from the command line.
Enabled quitting program by pressing Esc when showing list file.

970114
Limited "Save As RTF" support.

970121
Now "Save As RTF" translates the following constructs from PipeDream: Underline, Bold, Italics, Subscript, Superscript. Font name and size. Title, Header, Footer. 8-bit characters, hard space, \, { and }.
Changed version to 0.14.

980225
Removed Basic view code.
Eliminated setting of max number of columns.
Avoid Error 384, 'A form can't be moved or sized while minimized or maximized' in Form_Resize.
Moved version history to separate file.
Moved constants to separate file.

980226
Now offer a default filename when saving as RTF.
Fixed bug in @ field handling causing the program to hang when saving as RTF.
Translate PipeDream @T@ to 'Title' and @D@, @P@ to RTF \chdate, \chpgn and strip trailing @ when saving as RTF.
Changed version to 0.15.

981016
New menu 'Save As Text...' saves in tab separated text format.
Numeric cells with simple expressions are correctly interpreted when loading into Excel.
Changed version to 0.16.

990712
Corrected italic highlight in Save As RTF.

990714
Corrected highlight off codes in Save As RTF not to remove following character.

990715
Eliminated trailing spaces on rows in Save As RTF.
Changed version to 0.17.

990716
Some changes in Save As RTF.
Let sections with text in only column A become a paragraph with free flowing text without CRs. Break paragraph with a CR at an empty row or row starting with a space.
Parse also title, header and footer for embedded @ and % constructs.
Improved placement of columns.

990717
Save As HTML implemented. Sections with text in only column A have free flowing text without hard linebreaks. All other rows are in fixed pitch font to preserve formatting as much as possible.
Changed version to 0.18.

990718
Printing of current document implemented.

130206
Ported to 32-bit to run in 64-bit Windows.

Possible updates

Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End support.
Options for override on page length and top margin.
Header and footer justification elsewhere then printing.
Relative window position and size.
Eliminate trailing spaces in Save As Text.
Translate @ fields @T@, @D@, @P@, @ref@ and @@ when viewing.
Translate also @ field @ref@ in Save As RTF.
Translate also @ fields @T@, @D@, @P@ and @ref@ in Save As Text.
Translate also @ fields @D@, @P@ and @ref@ in Save As HTML.
Use current directory when loaded with command line argument.
Support for wrap width.
Restrict number cells to cell width.
Horizontal scrollbar.
Proper print preview with pagebreaks, headers, footers and all margins.
Copy as tab separated plain text to Clipboard.
Copy as formatted text to Clipboard.
Save As formatted text.
Tables in Save As HTML and RTF?

Feedback

Downloads

Download PipeView_2013-02-06_v0.19.zip. Z88 PipeDream Viewer for Windows. 32-bit version 0.19, 6 February 2013. Installation 1472K.

If you are interested in having a look at the source code,
Download PipeView_990719_v018_Source.zip. Visual Basic 3.0 source code. 26K.

Back to Cambridge Computer Z88