EContact 1.82

Two things Erez reported (8 Nov 2026), released together as he asked; EContact stays in maintenance mode. (1.81 was never released: its run was cancelled to take both.)

What you see:

• Sync Contact Photos' progress box: the Cancel button sits inside the box, two columns from its edge as in the other dialogs, no longer on its right frame.
• Contact photos are now drawn by the family's picture code (common's pic.c, the same as the other AERA programs), as Erez decided: "Always use family code". In 256 colours they look as before; in 16 colours faces show some magenta and yellow specks. The hub has been told, and a better colour match there will reach EContact with a later release. Dots in 16 colours come from making a photo of 16 fixed colours: 256 colours shows photos smoothly. Black and white is unchanged.

Also on main since 1.80 (tests only): EContact's tests no longer run another AERA program (the guidelines 1.2).

Tested on Erez's TOS 1.04 and 4.04 in Hatari, 10 of 15 boots (67%) under NVDI; the stock Falcon's speed rows as 1.80's.

EContact 1.80

A release Erez asked for (8 Nov 2026: "Remove the option to start with a Hebrew keyboard in all AERA settings. This will only be a F10 behavior"; guidelines 5.3). EContact stays in maintenance mode.

What you see:

• Settings no longer has "Start with Hebrew keyboard". The Hebrew keyboard always starts off; F10 switches it, and its badge shows while it is on.
• ECONTACT.INF's HEBREW= line is no longer read; an old one is ignored and dropped the next time the settings are saved.

Corrections to 1.79's notes: its NVDI share was 62% (18 of 29 boots), not 64%; and the line on the first photo's stretch on the Falcon was not measured for that release (the photo decode's measured gain is on the ST: its longest stretch 475 to 200 ms).

Tested on Erez's TOS 1.04 and 4.04 in Hatari, 9 of 12 boots (75%) under NVDI.

EContact 1.79

A release Erez asked for (8 Nov 2026: "Move forward with releasing everything"); EContact stays in maintenance mode.

What you see:

• The Hebrew keyboard is no longer in the menus (Options, and the toolbar's menu). F10 switches it as before, its badge shows while it is on, and Settings' "Start with Hebrew keyboard" stays (Erez, 7 Nov).
• The name is Gateway: Settings > Connection says "Gateway:", and the alerts, the connection errors ("Can't reach the Gateway at ...: is it on?"), the About box, the help and the README say Gateway, never "Pi gateway" (guidelines 7.3). The setting itself (GATE= in ECONTACT.INF) is kept: nothing to type again.
• A photo is decoded a few rows at a time, so the window answers meanwhile (the first photo's 175 ms stretch of 1.78 is gone).
• A button or a row held down shows pressed at once on TOS, not only when it is let go (guidelines 5.8).

Tested on Erez's TOS 1.04 and 4.04 in Hatari, 64% of the boots under NVDI.

EContact 1.78

A release in maintenance mode, for one change: the Hebrew keyboard's badge (the guidelines 5.3; Erez, 6 Nov 2026). It is 1.77 with this change alone, nothing else.

• While the Hebrew keyboard is on (F10), a small badge shows it at the right end of the toolbar and of a dialog's title band; F10 switches it off and the badge goes. The words "Hebrew keyboard (F10)" in the status line are gone. In a dialog window under MiNT or MagiC the title bar is the AES's, so only the toolbar shows it.
• The keyboard is now the family's shared code (common's hebkey.c) rather than EContact's own copy; typing in Hebrew is unchanged.

Speed: the first photo's decode stretch reads 175 ms against 150 in 1.77, with no code change on that path.

Tested on Erez's TOS 1.04 and 4.04 in Hatari, 63% of the boots under NVDI.

EContact 1.77

File names are now in lowercase. On a MiNT ext2 drive, delete the old folder and install this release fresh.

Why a release while EContact is in maintenance: the guidelines' rule 6.6 (Erez, 2 Nov 2026), the one change that goes to every app. On a MiNT ext2 drive ECONTACT.INF and econtact.inf are two different files, and a tester found the family's programs missing their own files there. Every file and folder EContact names itself is now in lowercase (econtact.inf, the key, the log, cache\ and its files, photos.pak, contacts.txt, tls.ovl, cacert.pem, roots.dat, the help file, the folder C:\econtact), and so is every file in this release and its zip. On TOS, EmuTOS and MagiC nothing changes.

This is 1.76 and 6.6 only, nothing else (the TLS overlay is 1.76's, 1.11, now named tls.ovl).

EContact 1.76

• Faster on an 8 MHz ST: Down to the next contact 75 ms (was 150), the list's arrow 105 (160), a letter typed in the search 95 (150), Settings opening 235 (320), the editor 350 (390), the accessory's window 2.0 s (2.1). On a stock Falcon Down is 35 ms (55) and a search letter 45 (70); under NVDI, with Courier 14 too, a search letter 35 (55).
• A click (the family's new rule): a contact or a group is selected the moment the button goes down, without the wait for a second click, and its card or list comes when you let go. Let go of a group somewhere else and nothing changes. EContact's own buttons (the sidebar button, Refresh, the search's clear button, the card's +, Edit and mail) and the Settings and editor tabs act when let go over them. A phone number or address on the card still waits a moment, as a click opens its menu and a double click mails the address.
• Under NVDI and with GDOS fonts, plain text is drawn the way it was before 1.75, not the faster way that only TOS's own screen has.
• The accessory takes less memory: 9 KB under 1.75.
• Shared code: Direct connections ask for RSA certificates first (a stock Falcon's ECDSA signing took too long for some servers), a faster scroll bar, the About box.

Still over the family's times on a stock 8 MHz ST (the speed rig, 621 contacts): Down 75 ms and a search letter 95 (50), the card with a photo 125 (50), Settings and the editor opening 235 and 350 (150), the accessory's window 2.0 s (500). The speed work goes on.

EContact 1.75

• Faster on an 8 MHz ST: a contact's card is drawn in 125 ms (was 165), a letter typed in the search answers in 145 ms (was 175), and the accessory's window is drawn in 2.1 s (was 2.6). Plain text is put straight on the screen, the same pixels the VDI draws, and the window's panes, margins and dialogs sit on 8-pixel steps, where TOS draws text six times as fast. So the panes and dialogs may sit up to 7 pixels from where they were. On a stock Falcon a search letter answers in 55 ms (was 80).
• Shared code: the clipboard written in pieces, and the gateway's copy updated to 1.17.

Still over the family's times on a stock 8 MHz ST (the speed rig, 621 contacts): a key or a line in the list 125-145 ms (50), Settings and the editor opening 315 and 385 ms (150), the accessory's window drawn 2.1 s (500; its longest wait 0.43 s). On a stock Falcon a card takes 150 ms and Down 55 ms (50), and the accessory's window 0.75 s (500). The speed work goes on.

EContact 1.74

• Several contacts at once: Shift+click adds one, Control+click a range, ^A (Contact > Select all) everyone shown. Delete, Add to Group, Remove from the group, Send Email (one message to them all), Copy Names and Emails (^C) and Export vCards then take them all; the card says how many are chosen. Adding many people to an iCloud group is one change on the server.
• One click on the window's arrow moves the card a line, one on its track a page. TOS 4.04 sent each click twice, so the card jumped two.
• The accessory's window opens a pane at a time, as the program's does: on an 8 MHz ST nothing waits more than 0.43 s, where the whole window was 1.27 s in one piece. It is drawn completely a little later (2.6 s).
• ECONTACT.PRG started by another program (EMail, EUpdate, a desktop set to the top window) finds its settings and contacts in its own folder. TOS left it in the desktop's folder.
• CONTACTS.TXT, for EMail and ECal, is written at the first boot of a 1 MB ST too.
• Shared code: TLS.OVL 1.11, faster memory moves and unpacking.

Still over the family's times on a stock 8 MHz ST (the speed rig, 621 contacts): a key or a line in the list 140-165 ms (50), Settings and the editor opening 320 and 395 ms (150), the accessory's window drawn 2.6 s (500; its longest wait 0.43 s). On a stock Falcon a key in the list takes 60-145 ms (50) and the accessory's window 0.79 s (500). Next: the accessory's opening turn (0.43 s), then text drawn the fast way on the 8-pixel grid.

EContact 1.73

• With no account, the groups on the left no longer repeat the list's "No accounts yet" hint, which the narrow pane cut off.
• Bold text under NVDI and in a GDOS font keeps to its letters' cells: it is drawn plain and struck again a pixel to the right, so the text after it is no longer covered. Without NVDI nothing looks different.
• Safer on the 68000: every build is checked for word and long accesses at odd stack addresses, which stop an ST with an address error.

Still over the family's times on a stock 8 MHz ST, as in 1.72: a key or a line in the list 135-175 ms (50), Settings and the editor opening 320 and 400 ms (150), the accessory's window 1.7 s (500). On a stock Falcon, a key in the list takes 60-150 ms (50) and the accessory's window 545 ms (500). Next: text drawn the fast way on the 8-pixel grid, the accessory's window drawn in parts, and photos decoded in steps.

EContact 1.72

• Esc and Undo as GEM has them: in a dialog, Esc empties the text field you are typing in and the dialog stays open; Undo (or the dialog window's close box) cancels. Esc still cancels a dialog without a text field, and an alert. A note of several lines never empties on Esc. Esc also empties the search field.
• ^U closes the window (the program quits; the accessory's window closes). ^W, the next window, does nothing with EContact's one.
• The menu: New contact and New group are in a new Contact menu, with Edit, Copy and Delete; the Edit menu is gone.
• The dialogs' buttons are the system's own, drawn as every other program's are, flat or 3D. A pop-up opens over its button, with the current choice ticked.
• The 3D dialogs setting is gone: dialogs take the 3D look wherever the Atari draws one.
• The list's scroll bar is flat on TOS 4, like the window's own slider, and 3D under MagiC and XaAES.
• The About box says the connection, the contacts and the memory in the family's words.
• Help: under MiNT and MagiC, the viewer named by STGUIDE= is asked first, and started when it isn't running.
• Under MiNT with BGEM.NG, Sync Contact Photos that ends while EContact's window is behind another program's says so as a notification, with Open.

Still over the family's times on a stock 8 MHz ST, as in 1.70: a key or a line in the list 135-175 ms (50), Settings and the editor opening 315 and 390 ms (150), the accessory's window 1.7 s (500). On a stock Falcon, a key in the list takes 65-150 ms (50) and the accessory's window 535 ms (500). Next: text drawn the fast way on the 8-pixel grid, the accessory's window drawn in parts as the program's now is, and photos decoded in steps.