Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

New discussion forums are now available on my website!  Check it out:
http://forums.lebeausoftware.org/.

Registration is required in order to post messages, but it is free to join.

Until next time...

--
Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Enginneer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

Yes, I know, I know, I am silent for long periods of time for awhile now. I
am still around, still programming away when I can.  Circumstances in my
personal life have changed over the past couple of years and have been
keeping me from programming when I would like to.  I don't get a lot of free
time anymore, but I try to squeeze in some time when possible.

Microsoft has recently announceed that is is discontinuing development of
its MSAgent technology (http://www.microsoft.com/msagent).  In light of that
news, I have decided to release my latest MSAgent data spec sheet, which I
have been holding on to for several years, as it now includes full details
about MSAgent's compression algorithm, as well as adds new information about
the ACF and ACA file formats.  I was not sure how Microsoft would react to
the compression information being released publically.  However, since they
are not developing MSAgent any further, I figure it should be safe now.
Other people are already starting to implement their own MSAgent replacement
engines, so my latest spec can be helpful for them.  I am still planning on
working on my own MSAgent-related projects, as described in earlier mailings
and on my website.  It is just a matter of having enough free time to do so.

In addition, I am currently in the process of implementing back-end upgrades
to my website, so some functionality may not work correctly during the next
few days.  I should have everything working properly soon.

Until next time...

--
Remy Lebeau
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

For those of you using my TMSAgent VCL component, I have just posted a new
v2.1 beta onto my website for download.  This release adds install files for
C++Builder 2007.  Sorry, no C++Builder 2006 support is available yet -
C++Builder 2007 messed up my BDS 2006 installation and I haven't fixed it
yet.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscriber,

I have created a new blog for publishing announcements and news about my
development projects.  I will start using it in addition to, and eventually
in place of, this email mailing list.  The new blog is located at
http://blog.lebeausoftware.org.  A link is on the main Lebeau Software
website as well.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

For those of you who have been trying out the beta version of my
source code editor/viewer, SourceView, v1.0.0.17 is now available for
download.  I have recompiled the program to use the latest version of
the editor control, and have thus also added syntax highlighting
support for several additional programming languages:

     C#, CSS, HTML, Javascript, VBScript, VB, Ruby, Python

In other news:

- Last night, I just started experimenting with incorporating AJAX
into my website.  So over the coming weeks/months, you'll start to
notice some changes in the look-and-feel of the website.

- This past week, I've been working on my MSAgent character
processing/rendering engine again.  It is coming along quite nicely.
It is still primarily tied to Windows for right now, but I'm working
on cleaning it up and generalizing its interfaces so I can plug in
other platform support later on.  I'm hopeful that I can start
incorporating this engine into my projects in the near future.


Until next time...

--
Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

I am currently in the process of migrating my website and lebeausoftware.org
domain to a new hosting provider.  This will allow me to consolidate the
administration of them, as well as give me more storage space and new server
features.  So the website and email may not work during the the next few
days.


Until next time...

--
Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.14.11/543 - Release Date: 11/20/06

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
lebeau-software group:

Which of my products do you use, if any?

   o Agent Clipboard Reader
   o Grades Calculator 95
   o ICQLaunch
   o ICQ Chat Player
   o ICQ Chat File Format Spec Sheet
   o MSAgent File Format Spec Sheet
   o TMSAgent VCL
   o TRegExtension VCL


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lebeau-software/surveys?id=2379955

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

For you Borland C++Builder developers out there, I'd just like to mention
that my first-ever technical article has just been published in this month's
issue of C++Builder Developers Journal (http://www.bcbjournal.com).  My
article got the top slot in the issue, as well as the cover art, and I got
some major praise from the journal's editor:

     "Let me first say that your article was, hands down, one of the best
we've had.  It was *extremely* well-written, both grammatically and
technically, and the demo application was just perfect (not too simple, but
not too loaded with irrelevant features).  You should take pride in your
technical writing skills.  I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you
put into providing such a well-polished submission--thank you.  And, I hope
you will consider writing for us again."

Not too bad for a first-time writer, huh?

Ok, enough bragging for now.  That made my day.  Now on to other news.

With the recent announcement
(http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms695905.aspx) that
Microsoft Agent has been updated in Windows Vista to finally support SAPI 5,
I have begun updating my AgentCB application to support it as well.  More on
this to follow when a new version is ready for testing.

My Microsoft Agent processing/rendering engine is coming alone nicely.
Being able to display and run ACS, ACF, and ACA files without using
Microsoft's products is quite refreshing, from a programmer's standpoint.  I
recently updated my engine to use GDI+ on Windows systems.  This will allow
me to support transparent images, as well as resizing images (such as when
the character window is stretched), much easier.  I'm also working on
incorporating the engine into a new application now (adding a Preview tab to
the Properties dialog of ACS files) to help me iron out the interfaces
better so that I can then start incorporating the engine into the other
appications that I have planned (which are listed on my website).

That's all for now.


Until next time...

--
Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.4/449 - Release Date: 9/15/06

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I am currently moving my website to a new server to take advantages of new
hosting features, so the site may be unresponsive for the next day or so
while the files are being moved, and a I verify that everything still works
afterwards.

If anyone needs anything, feel free to contact me via email.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org



--
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.5.1/328 - Release Date: 5/1/06

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I have made a few updates to my website:

- The opening page has been expanded to outline the current projects that I
am working on, and the future projects that I want to create

- A new "Consulting" page has been added.

- The flash menu has been removed from the navigation sidebar.

- A link to the archives has been added to the "Mailing List" page.


Until next time...

Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org



--
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.1.1/270 - Release Date: 2/27/06

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I have begun using Version Control software to keep track of changes to my
source code.  As a result of that, I can now begin publishing more detailed
reports about what is changed from one version to the next.  I am now
working to add "Project Release Report" links on all of the download pages
for my website.  This will be a running log of all reported issues and
implemented features for each product.

Right now, only my AgentCB product has this report implemented.  You can
view it online now at http://agentcb.lebeausoftware.org.  I will continue
working to add similar reports to my other products.


Until next time...

Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software - Owner, Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org



--
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.23/240 - Release Date: 1/25/06

Hello Lebeau Software subscribers,

I am currently doing some maintenance on my website, so if anyone has
problems accessing the site for the next few days, that is why.  I'm moving
my domain to a different service provider, so it will take a day or so for
the Internet's DNS system to catch up with the new server, and another day
or so for me to make sure that everything in the website still works after
the move is finished.

If anyone needs anything, feel free to contact me via email.


Until next time...

Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software
Owner & Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

For those of you using my TMSAgent VCL component, the v2.0 beta is now
publically downloadable from http://msagent.lebeausoftware.org.  The source
code includes packages for BCB 3-6 (yes 6!).

For those of you already using the beta, the public version that is
available for download is the latest source code as of today.  I have made
some changes to it over the past few days to fix some bugs that were
reported.


Until next time,

Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software
Owner & Software Engineer
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I forgot to mention one more MSAgent-related product being planned for a
future release:

ACE Replacement
-------------------
The Agent Character Editor (ACE) that is provided by Microsoft is currently
the only software publically available for producing MSAgent-compatible
files.  I wish to produce an application that will do everything that ACE
can do, and then some!  ACE only supports 256-color bitmaps, icons, and WAV
audio files.  I want to support importing of PNG and MP3 files as well, and
maybe also importing and real-time rendering of common 3D file formats (3DS,
3DX, Lightwave, Wavefront, X3D, etc) directly.  Many MSAgent characters
currently available have images produced by 3D rendering software (3D Studio
Max, Hash Animation Master, Truespace, Xara 3D, etc), so it would be
beneficial to have an ACE-style editor that can render the wireframes in the
same software that compiles the final ACS file.


Until next time.


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

Yes, I know, I've been silent for a long time.  Too long, and for that I
apologize.  But I am still around, still programming away at several
projects when I have time to do so (which is not as much as I would like
sometimes).  Which brings me to today's many announcements.


-= MSAgent WebRing Membership =-
----------------------------------------
I have been supporting the MSAgent technology
(http://www.microsoft.com/msagent) for over 6 years now.  Lebeau Software is
now a proud member of the the MSAgent WebRing (http://www.msagentring.org).
I should have joined this group years ago.  Well, no time like the present,
right?


-= Upcoming Software Releases! =-
-------------------------------------

AgentCB v1.2
---------------
AgentCB v1.2 will now allow the user to choose their desired spoken Language
and TTS engine.  This has been requested from non-English users of AgentCB
for awhile now, so I finally got it into AgentCB.  Previous versions were
locked into using Enligh only.  MSAgent, which AgentCB uses to read the
clipboard verbally, has always had the ability to generate spoken output in
many foreign languages (provided the necessary support files are installed
ahead of time).  AgentCB will now be able to utilize this capability.

In addition, this version includes enhancements to the underlying MSAgent
support (for those of you familiar with my TMSAgent VCL component, this
version of AgentCB will be using the beta of the upcoming version of
TMSAgent), and users will also now be able to choose to use MSAgent
character files that are not installed in the default "MSAgent\Chars" folder
of the OS.

The current version of AgentCB is available at
http://agentcb.lebeausoftware.org.  If anyone is interested in beta testing
the new version before I release it publically, feel free to contact me.


ICQLaunch v1.0.1.22
----------------------
The new version of ICQLaunch will add support for the recently-released ICQ
v5.  Supporting ICQ v5 required several changes to ICQLaunch's internals.
Amongst the changes, however, allowed for the ability to support ICQ v5's
new Custom Status feature.  ICQ is no longer locked into hard-coded statuses
like, "Away", "DND", etc.  Users can now specify their own custom status
messages.  The new version of ICQLaunch will support this feature, in
addition to supporting ICQ v5 in general like it as with previous versions
of ICQ.

The current version of ICQLaunch is available at
http://icqlaunch.lebeausoftware.org.  If anyone is interested in beta
testing the new version before I release it publically, feel free to contact
me.


TMSAgent VCL v2.0
----------------------
The upcoming release of AgentCB is using the beta of the upcoming version of
TMSAgent as its MSAgent implementation.  TMSAgent v2.0 is a major redesign
over the current version v1.5.  Once AgentCB has been tested, and no
problems occur with the TMSAgent beta, I can then release v2.0 of TMSAgent.
And yes, this version will included native Borland C++ Builder 6 support - a
feature that is LONG overdue!


MSAgent ACS File Format Documentation
--------------------------------------------
For the past 2 years, I have been working on gaining an understanding of,
and documenting, the data format for MSAgent's ACS files.  The ACS File
Format documentation has been available for download at
http://fileformats.lebeausoftware.org.  I will be releasing a major update
to that documentation later this year.  Many data fields that were unknown
to me a year ago have now been identified.  The documentation is nearly
complete now, describing the entire ACS format in full now.  The only thing
still eluding me is the algorithm for parsing the raw image data for
individual animation frames (although I can now identify everything else
about the frames), and a few minor miscellaneous fields.  Other than that,
the rest of the data is fully documented now, and I have already begun
writing code to utilize this information.


-= New MSAgent Products in Planning Stages! =-
---------------------------------------------------

ACS File Viewer
-----------------
Using the knowledge I have gained by writing the ACS File Format
documentation, the first product that I will be releasing later this year,
probably during Summer 2005, will be an ACS File Viewer.  This product will
be a test bed for me to solidify my general coding for processing ACS data.
Unlike other viewers already available, this program will not be using
Microsoft's own MSAgent engine (available at
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent) at all.  I will be reading and displaying
the ACS file data directly.  This will mean that performance of processing
the ACS information will be faster and better optimized, and will not
require commonly used "hacks" to make the MSAgent engine do things that it
was not originally designed for (re-parenting character windows without
messing up the OS, multiple instancing, etc).  Also, ACS characters that are
loaded into the MSAgent engine by multiple processes at the same time,
whether by applications or by web pages, share a common instance of the
character onscreen.  The viewer will bypass this, being a completely
self-contained application, one which can even run on machines that do not
have MSAgent installed at all.

ACD-to-ACD Convertor
--------------------------
After the ACD File Viewer is written, it will be a small jump to produce the
next product, an ACS-to-ACD Convertor, which will probably be released in
Fall/Winter 2005.  The Agent Character Editor (ACE) that is provided by
Microsoft is currently the only software publically available that is
capable of producing compiled ACS files.  ACE uses ACD project files to
organize the bitmaps, icons, sounds, and layout information that character
authors define when creating their custom ACS files.  This convertor will be
able to reverse that process - extracting and generating the original ACD,
bitmap, icon, and sound files from ACS files for use with ACE.  This product
is meant to be used by character authors who have lost their ACD project
files and need to restore them from the compiled ACS files.

I do realize that an ACS-to-ACD Convertor presents possible copyright
infrigement issues.  Which is why the convertor will be the very first
shareware product offered by Lebeau Software.  The evaluation version will
not support extracting the images and sounds from ACS files.  These are the
key pieces of an ACS file's copyrighted intellectual material.  Authors will
have to prove that they actually own the characters they wish to convert,
and will have to purchase the full version and licensing to allow their ACS
files to be converted to ACD.  The licenses will encrypted and tied to both
the specific character being converted as well as to the character's owner
(and maybe also to machine hardware), and may also require online
validation.  This is so that licenses cannot easily be distributed or hacked
by software pirates, or falsified to allow converting of characters by
people who do not actually own them.

Also, neither the evalutation nor full version will allow loading or
processing Microsoft's own characters (Merlin, Genie, Robby, and Peedy)
under any circumstances.


MSAgent Browser Plugins
---------------------------
After the ACS-to-ACD Convertor is written, the next project will be to
revive my old browser plugin for supporting MSAgent in Netscape.  I will
update it to support Opera and Firefox, as well as give it a generic
interface so that Internet Explorer can use it as well.  This way, a single
plugin can cater to multiple browsers without requiring separate specialized
versions for each browser, or different scripting for different browsers,
etc.  Also, using my ACS File Format documentation to design my own
rendering engine will eliminate the dependancy on Microsoft's MSAgent
engine, thus allowing the plugin to also be ported to non-Microsoft
platforms (Linux, Mac, etc).  This will introduce MSAgent to new
marketplaces that have been previously unexplored.  I expect this product
won't be available until Summer/Winter 2006, but depending on the speed of
development of the other products, maybe I can push up the timetable 6
months or so.


Well, that is everything for now.


Until next time...

Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I have just released a new version of ICQLaunch.  This version fixes a bug
in status switching for ICQ2003a, and includes new support for the recently
released ICQ2003b.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I know, I know, I haven't written in a long time.  What can I say?
Development on my own projects has been slow lately.  Fortunately, it is not
at a dead stop.

I have just released new versions of both my ICQ Chat Player and my ICQ Chat
File Specification.  The Player has been updated to support exporting chats
to text files, a feature that has been requested by many for a long time, so
I finally got it in there.  Right now, only plain text is supported, but
eventually I would like to support exporting to RTF and HTML as well.  The
spec has been updated with additional notes to help better support older ICQ
Chat versions.

Both updates are available at my website, http://www.lebeausoftware.org (or
directly at http://icqchat.lebeausoftware.org).

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

Do not worry, I am still here.  I know that it has been a long time since I
last wrote out to you guys (7 months, unfortunately).  I have been very busy
with work for my day job, so I have not had much chance to work on my own
projects very often :-(  Also, the computer that I use for my LebeauSoftware
developments took a nasty nose-dive about a month ago - a virus sneaked
through my firewall and anti-virus, and then after it was cleaned my primary
harddrive had a near-complete failure and I had to replace it.  Fortunately,
no projects were lost, however it is slow-going getting my development
environment back up to what it once was.  Some projects I am working on
again, but many I am not yet ready for.

I am sorry that things are going so slowly lately.  I know that I have
several pending projects that were meant to be released a long time ago.
So, rather than telling you what all I am working on like I usually do, I'm
going to instead ask that if you happen to be waiting for a particular
project(s) to be released, feel free to go ahead and contact me directly
about it, and I will do my best to get you whatever I happen to have
available right now.  In the case of my VCL components, make sure that you
tell me which version(s) of C++Builder you are using.  Most of my pending
components are nearly ready, they just need more extensive testing, making
documentation, and maybe some final fine tuning.  So if you think you would
be good at testing and/or fixing things for me, that would be helpful.


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to let you all know that the new version of my TRegExtension
VCL component for Borland C++Builder has begin its first rounds of beta
testing.  For those of you not familiar with this component, it allows
applications written with Borland C++Builder to create and manage file
extension registrations on MS Windows systems.

This new version is a re-design of the previous version.  The internal
architecture has been changed around a bit, as well as expanded to support
the lates file extension features in newest Windows OS versions, as well as
expanded to support greater design-time features and configuration via
C++Builder's Object Inspector.  This means that less run-time code is needed
now in order to create and register new extensions or update existing ones.

If anyone is interested in helping me test this new version, feel free to
contact me and I'll get you a copy of the files.  I'm still working on
updating the documentation for it, that may still take a little while.  But
the majority of the code is functional now, pending testing that is.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

A small bug was found in my latest ICQLaunch version for the ICQ2003
support, where the online status wasn't being updated correctly.  This has
been fixed and posted on my website.

On separate notes..

For those of you who have been waiting for the new version of my
TRegExtension VCL component, I have been working on it again lately, and it
is nearing completion.  It is a complete internal re-write from my previous
version.  Most of the changes are internal, though there are a few smaller
interface changes as well.  It includes support for many new file extension
features that were introduced in Windows Me, 2K, and XP, as well as natively
supporting Builder 6, and it now includes full Object Inspector support at
design-time (no more need to code file extension registrations only via code
anymore).  The biggest challenges I still have to overcome before I can
release this new version is making the new IDE package design (the new
version has 2 packages - runtime and designtime) to work correctly in
Builder 3, 4, 5, and 6, and also to get the documentation updated with all
of the new features.  Be on the lookout for this future release.

For those new members who are not familiar with TRegExtension, it is a
native VCL (Visual Component Library) componenet for Borland C++ Builder
users to provide easy file extension support to their custom applications.

For those of you who are waiting for the new version of my TMSAgent VCL
component, I haven't forgotten you, either.  TMSAgent is also nearing
completion.  This is also an internal re-write from the previou version,
although the public interfaces have not been changed very much.  There are a
few new minor features.  At this point, mostly the documentation has to be
re-written from scratch as the original files I used for it have became
corrupted and are useless now.  Also, once I get TMSAgent released, I'll
also be releasing its companion suite of Balloon Dialog components as well.

For those new members who are not familiar with TMSAgent, it is a native VCL
(Visual Component Library) componenet for Borland C++ Builder users to
provide support for the Microsoft Agent technology
(http://www.microsoft.com/msagent) in their custom applications.

For those new members who are not familiar with the balloon suite, it is a
native VCL (Visual Component Library) componenet for Borland C++ Builder
users to create popup dialogs that are similiar to the popup help dialogs
found in Microsoft Office, which have a kind of rounded speech balloon look
and feel to them.  This suite includes components for custom CheckBoxes,
Radio Buttons, Push Buttons, Icons, and the main balloon itself.  This last
component can be dropped onto any TWinControl-based container, such as TForm
and TPanel, to transform it into looking like a balloon.  Being a
TWinControl derived component itself, the balloon container can contain
other standard windows components as well as the new support components.

Once all of these components finally get released in the near future
(hopefully), I'm looking to jump back into my ICQ clone development, and
hopefully in the not-too-distant future release my own clone as an
alternative to the official ICQ client application.  I'll most likely
re-write my clone with a new plugin architecture so that I can add-on other
protocols later on, such as AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, etc.  I'll let you all
know more about that in the future when I get back to it.

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

I've just released a new version of ICQLaunch.  This version adds support
for ICQ's upcoming new 2003a version.

As always, ICQLaunch is available from http://icqlaunch.da.ru or
http://icqlaunch.lebeausoftware.org

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I just released a small update to ICQLaunch.  It contains a bug fix for the
Shortcut Wizard that was causing it to fail on some sytems when the
"QuickLaunch Bar" option was used.  The location of the QuickLaunch settings
calculated by the Wizard would end up missing a backslash in the middle of
the path, thus the Wizard couldn't create any shortcut files for the
QuickLaunch bar correctly.  This has been fixed.

As always, ICQLaunch is available from http://icqlaunch.da.ru or
http://icqlaunch.lebeausoftware.org


Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

Just wanted to let you know that I've just released a new version of
ICQLaunch.  This version contains a small bug fix for the "Remove Owner
Limit" feature, which was previously storing the value to the wrong Registry
value.  This has been fixed now.

As always, ICQLaunch is available at http://icqlaunch.da.ru or
http://icqlaunch.lebeausoftware.org

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you all.

I've been busy writing up a new version of my TMSAgent VCL component.  Since
my last message regarding it, TMSAgent has since undergone a more-or-less
complete re-write internally.  That is why it is taking so long to finally
release it.  It is currently in a testing phase while I iron out the final
issues in its development.  I've been getting several inqueries lately about
Builder 6 support.  This new version will natively support v6 as well, yes.

Also needing finalizing is my new suite of balloon-related VCL components.
That will still most likely have to be released separately.  I was
originally planning to release it at the same time that the new TMSAgent was
released, but too much work has been going on in the last few months and the
projects have drifted in different directions.

For you new subscribers, TMSAgent is a native-VCL component for Borland C++
Builder that completely wraps the Microsoft Agent technology
(http://www.microsoft.com/msagent).

The companion balloon components are part of a suite of native-VCL
components for turning ordinary VCL windows into input balloons, just like
the one used with the MS Office Assistant.  There will be 5 components
overall in the suite - a button, a checkbox, a panel (the main component for
the overall balloon effect), a radio button, and a system icon list.  These
components expand on their base components to add extra functionlity for
custom images and appearances.

Hopefully, I can start getting these things released shortly.  I've been
doing a lot of work on TMSAgent lately, so that's my main priority at the
moment.  Once I get the new code finished, and the documentation remade, I
can finally get it released.


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Greeting Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I've just released a new version of ICQLaunch, v1.0.0.15.  This release
contains mostly internal changes to better support ICQ 2002.

However, because of these changes, a new dialog will be displayed the first
time you run the new ICQLaunch, asking you which version of ICQ you are
running.  This is necessary for ICQLaunch to properly locate certain ICQ
settings, since ICQ 2002 changed the location in the Windows Registry where
most of ICQ's settings are stored, and it was getting ugly to code support
for all versions transparently.

The dialog will only prompt you once, and the version you choose can always
be changed in ICQLaunch settings window later, if needed.

As always, you can download ICQLaunch at http://icqlaunch.da.ru or at
www.lebeausoftware.org

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

I've just released a new version of my ICQLaunch program.  This release adds
new support for ICQ 2002a, as well has has many internal changes to help
optimize performance a little better.

As always, you can download it at either http://icqlaunch.da.ru or
http://icqlaunch.lebeausoftware.org

Until next time...


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

Just letting you all know that my new quite of Balloon VCL components for
Borland C++ Builder are finally finished and ready!!  I just have to make up
the documentation for them and then they'll be released afterwards.

For you new members who don't know what these are, they're a suite of native
VCL components for making any window look like a speech input balloon ala
the Office Assistant in MSOffice.  A lot of users see the input window in
Office and ask MS how they can place input controls into the default speech
balloon of their own implementations of Microsoft Agent.  This is currently
not possible, the input window in Office is a custom control not part of
Microsoft Agent itself.  Since this is so frequently requested, I'm
releasing a suite of components so you C++ Builder users cna make your own
input windows as well.

Once the new balloon components are released, I'll also be releasing the new
version of my TMSAgent component as well (it's a full native-VCL wrapper
around the Microsoft Agent technology).  There have been a lot of changes to
it since the last version.  It's been done for sometime now, actually, but
just waiting for the companion balloon components to be finished as well.
Unfortunately the project files for the documentation for TMSAgent got
messed up since the last release, so I may have to re-do the documentation
from scratch again.  If so, that might take a while to do as there's a lot
to document.  In such case, I'll end up releasing the balloon components
separately than TMSAgent (any of you adventurous programmers can email me
requesting the new TMSAgent release before then, if you don't want to want
for updated documentation).

I'll let you all know when they're actually released.


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software Subscribers,

At long last - my ICQ Chat Player has finally been released!!!  This is a
standalone player capable of playing back ICQ .cht files directly.  ICQ need
not be installed to use this player.

Note that this is a beta version, a couple features are incomplete.  Namely,
the support for displaying emote/smiley/action images.  Due to increased
requests for this program lately, I wanted to get it released ASAP.  I'll
work on putting the image support back in for later versions.

For you developers, a spec sheet describing the details about the ICQ chat
file format is also included.

You can download ICQ Chat Player at http://icqchat.lebeausoftware.org


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau Software subscribers,

This is just a quick note to let you know I'm still here, working away at
new versions of several of my programs.

For you MSAgent users, a new version of my TMSAgent component for Boland C++
Builder is now finished and ready, and will be available for download soon.
I'll send out another notice when it is online.

With this release will also come the first release of new suite of companion
components for making your own VCL-based forms look like speech balloons ala
MS Office Assistant.  This includes new custom checkbox, radio, and button
components as well as the balloon component itself, for making any
TWinControl-based component have the appearance of a speech balloon (this is
particularly geared towards forms and panels primarily).  These components
don't have to be used for balloons alone, either, they're generic enough to
stand alone in any of your projects.

A new version of my Agent Clipboard Reader program will also be released
soon, which uses the TMSAgent component.  It will add new support for
specifying the language parameters the loaded character will use.  I'm still
working on support for selecting the TTS engine that's used as well.

And lastly, for you ICQ users, I haven't forgotten you, either.  My ICQ Chat
Player program is still on the horizon.  I'll post more about it later when
I have more information to share about it.

Until next time...


Gambit
Lebeau Software

Hello Lebeau-Software subscribers,

I've just released the next version of ICQLaunch.  It contains a new ability
to change ICQ's online status directly without first closing ICQ if the
account being launched is already running.  This feature has only been
tested with ICQ98b and 2000b so far, so if you find this feature not working
for you, please contact me and let me know.  Be sure to include the version
and build numbers of the ICQ you're running.

As always, ICQLaunch can downloaded from either http://icqlaunch.da.ru or
http://www.lebeausoftware.org

Until next time.


Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software