CoolTerm

CoolTerm is a simple serial port terminal application (no terminal emulation) that is geared towards hobbyists and professionals with a need to exchange data with hardware connected to serial ports such as servo controllers, robotic kits, GPS receivers, microcontrollers.

What is new in this release:

NEW/CHANGED FEATURES:

• Added configuration option for software supported flow control.
• Added configuration option for blocking keystrokes while transmit data flow is halted.
• Added printing for plain text and hex views.
• Added proxy settings to preferences (for update check).
• Changed preferences window to multi-tab concept.
• Made formatting of captured hex data configurable.
• It is now possible to use the 'Wait for termination string' option when capturing in hex format as long as formatting of hex data is disabled.
• Added "Packet Delay" option, which allows inserting a delay after the transmission of each packet, the size of which can now be specified via the connection settings GUI.
• The "Line Delay" option now supports matching all of the specified delay characters in addition to matching any of them. This allows for entire strings to be specified as line delay characters.

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Changed text encoding in "Send String" window to use system default encoding.
• Improved GUI for flow control settings to prevent hardware and software flow control from being enabled at the same time.
• Enhanced the behavior of the TX LED. When flow control is enabled and transmission is halted by the remote target, the color of the TX LED is changed to red to indicate that no data is being sent (select platforms only).
• The reception of break signals or framing errors now flashes the RX LED red when "Ignore receive errors" is enabled (select platforms only).
• Changed code to prevent the transmit progress from being displayed when "loop back receive data" is enabled and larger amounts of data are being looped back.
• [Win/Linux] Changed behavior of modal windows such as connection options and send progress windows so that only the parent terminal window is blocked as opposed to all open windows.
• [Mac] Added the following ApplesScript command:
        LookAheadHex(ID as integer) as String

• [Mac] Removed the following AppleScript commands:
        Str2Hex(PlainStr as String) as String
        Hex2Str(HexStr as String) as String

• [Mac] Universal Builds for Mac are no longer supported.

BUG FIXES AND STABILITY IMRPOVEMENTS:

• [Mac] Disabled SmartQuotes, SmartDashes, and SmartTextReplacement in TextArea.
• Added handling of OutOfMemoryExceptions in transmit thread.
• revised code to exclude text input line used in "Line Mode" from text size changes.

What is new in version 1.4.7:

NEW/CHANGED FEATURES:

• Added option to specify a custom file name for auto capture files when "Append to auto capture file" is enabled.
• CoolTerm will now save default settings to the application data directory, regardless of where CoolTerm is installed.
These locations are as follows:
          Mac: /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/CoolTerm/
          Win: UsersUserNameAppDataRoamingCoolTerm
          Linux: /home/UserName/CoolTerm/.
However, a default.stc file placed in the same location as the CoolTerm executable will take precedence over the one in the application data location. This is useful for portable installations of CoolTerm.
• baudrates.ini and ports.ini files can now also be placed in the application data directory (see platforms specific locations above). However, files placed in the same location as the CoolTerm executable will take precedence over the files placed in the application data directory. This is useful for portable installations of CoolTerm.
• Made text wrapping in plain text view a configurable option.
• Added option to format TAB separated data for the plain text display. If enabled, text will be aligned on a specified column width.
• Added option to handle a specified minimum number of consecutive received spaces for the ASCII display. If enabled, such occurrences will be replaced by a TAB character.

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Clicking 'Cancel' in the transmit progress window will now dismiss the window even if when transmission is halted by the target when flow control is enabled.
• NUL characters are now ignored in ASCII view mode if "Handle non-print characters" is disabled to prevent the ASCII viewer from behaving erratically on certain platforms.
• Changed code to optimize CPU consumption in plain text view mode.
• Changed the default name of new terminals from "CoolTerm" to "Untitled" to better conform with common practice.
• Changed Capture File Save dialog to use .txt as file extension by default.
• [Mac] Added code to prevent App Nap when CoolTerm is running in the background.
• [Mac] Changed encoding of strings returned by Apple Script from ASCII to the system default to ensure compatibility with the full 8-bit character set.
• [Mac] New AppleScript commands:
      - WriteHex(ID as integer, HexData as String)
      - ReadHex(ID as integer, NumChars as Integer) as String
      - ReadAllHex(ID as integer) as String
  
• [Mac] Deprecating the Str2Hex and Hex2Str AppleScript functions. Future versions of CoolTerm will not implement these functions anymore
• Added dialog to prompt for user's e-mail when sending crash reports.

BUG FIXES AND STABILITY IMRPOVEMENTS:

• Changed code so that port enumeration continues if an exception occurs with a certain port during operation. This should allow all valid ports to be enumerated.
• improved code to properly handle multiple instances (Windows and Linux).
• improved code for line condensing in ASCII view mode
• improved code to properly handle initial instance when new connection settings are opened.
• Fixed bug that resets the formatting of the plain text view after clearing the data in the receive buffer.

What is new in version 1.4.6:

NEW/CHANGED FEATURES:

• Added the option to automatically start file capture upon loading connection settings.
• Added option to append new data to auto capture files.
• Added option to filter ANSI escape sequences. If this option is enabled, ANSI sequence characters will be filtered in ASCII view mode.
• Added preference option to enable condensing the line spaces in plain text view mode (not available in Universal Binary builds).
• [Win][Linux] Added code to ensure that only one instance of CoolTerm is running on the system at the same time
• Added code to ensure that a connection settings file can only be opened once.
• Added preference option to show or hide the toolbar.
• Added UTF-8 support for plain text view.
• Updated preferences dialog to display extended character set.
• [Win] Added support for AltGr key combinations on certain international keyboards.
• Added shortcut (Mac: CMD-I, Win/Linux: CTRL-I) to Connection/Options... menu.
• Changed relative timestamp format from HH:MM:SS:sss to HH:MM:SS.sss to be consistent with established timestamp conventions.

• Removed CTRL+Alt+S short cut for "File/Save as default" to avoid AltGr+S triggering the short cut.
• [Win][Linux] Changed code to use platform specific default text encoding for the plain text window to allow displaying bytes larger than 0x7f.
• UI Tweaks to harmonize the look of the GUI between platforms.
• Updated Help Text with instructions on how to remove the serial port name from settings files.

• [Linux] Updated AutoScroll code to behave the same as it does on Mac and Windows.
• Fixed bug that didn't properly update the text of the Connection/Connect_Disconnect menu when switching between terminal windows.
• [Mac] Fixed bug where the text encoding of strings returned from AppleScript commands was not defined.

What is new in version 1.4.5:

NEW/CHANGED FEATURES:
- Added new option to handle End Of Text (EOT, ASCII code 4) characters. Enabling this feature will prevent the display from updating until a EOT character is received, at which time the display is updated with the contents from the receive buffer.
- Added code to present the user with the option to select a serial port if a loaded settings file includes an empty string for the port name. This allows the creation of generic settings files.
- [MAC] Additional retina support.
BUG FIXES AND STABILITY IMRPOVEMENTS
- Code improvement to avoid ThreadAccessingUIException

What is new in version 1.4.4:

NEW/CHANGED FEATURES:
- Added feature that shows the path to the current capture file (if a capture is currently active) when the mouse is hovered over the serial port status label at the bottom left of the CoolTerm window.
- changed Enter key emulation settings to use popup menu and added the option use a custom sequence to emulate the enter key.
- Added additional font sizes to preferences dialog.
- Added option to reduce the terminal refresh rate to once per second in order to reduce the CPU load on systems where power consumption is critical.
- Added text the the built in help to explain that reducing the size of the receive buffer can be used to reduce CPU power consumption.
- [MAC] Compiling for Cocoa from now on.
- [MAC] Added basic retina support.
IMPROVEMENTS
- CoolTerm now properly remembers the last used folders (individually) for opening connection settings, capturing to text files, as well as sending text files.
- Added DEL character (ASCII 127) to the routine that handles BS characters in ASCII view.
- optimized code to reduce CPU load while sending text files.
- stability improvement to the code of the circular receive buffer.
BUG FIXES AND STABILITY IMRPOVEMENTS
- fixed code that could cause extended ASCII characters to sometimes be incorrectly translated from hexadecimal format to plain text.