Introduction

This page is dedicated to my DOS programs: Bloček and Kašmár and few other small utilities
Bloček - text editor with unicode support
Kašmár - editor for unicode and VGA fonts
Utilities - not more developped and maintained
All my programs are available with binaries and sources and they can be spread under condition of GNU licence. The same applies for all used source libraries.

Bloček

Bloček is text editor for DOS with unicode support. It means that unlike other DOS editors you are not limited to your current code page. It allows you to edit multilanguage documents, translate texts from one language to another, write modern web pages and so on.
Alternatively can be also used as image viewer (BMP, PCX, GIF, PNG, JPG and WMF)
Current version is v1.75b
Release date: 28. October 2023
Repacked: 8. February 2024 (corrected wording and typos in the program and documentation)

Here is binary (default download) or download the same version in legacy 8.3 format.
For some people may be useful a special distribution with integrated DOSBox-X
Bloček is written in programming language pascal and as a compiler uses Freepascal. Actually the version 3.2.0 but the compatibility with legacy version 1.0.10 is still kept.
The LSM file for FreeDOS distribution is here
Grab sources here or here (8.3 format)
Separate source of graphics library VenomGFX
You can also download a additional font packs: exotic middleeuropean fonts and simple world fonts


Bloček version history:
1.75b
  * tries to be more compatible with virtual environments
- copying texts from GUI dialogs to edit windows works better now
+ if you try to copy text to clipboard without any text selected, the word on cursor position will be used
- after every 65536 bytes loader added invalid character to loaded text
* slightly improved color selection dialog
+ functions for line expanding
+ optional spaces emphasing
+ Find dialog offers the phrase occurrences counting
+ right mouse click offers new word related functions
+ right mouse click (or Ctrl-L) offers new line related functions
+ correctly replaces Unicode characters above 0xFFFF to character 0xFFFD "�"
+ keyboard shortcuts in the main menu
* main menu does not allow to select functions which aren't currently applicable
* buttons in some situations accept keyboard shortcuts without pressed ALT
* unicode definition tables are now separated to own TBL subdirectory
1.74b
  + bookmarks (accessible by right mouse button click or from main menu)
- deleting a text block sometimes crashed the program
- key "delete" sometimes incorrectly changed the scope of the text block
- the non-resident part of the keyboard handler is more compatible with WinXP
- also the resident part of the keyboard handler is improved (see TECHNOTE.TXT)
- mouse wheel works again (with DOS driver CTMouse or with DOSBOX-X)
+ optimalizations in the program messages management
* the hotkey for text block delete changed from CTRL-Space to Shift-Del
    (to be consistent with one line input dialogs)
- fixed several bugs in command line processing
- other small bugfixes
1.73
  + cooperates with Windows clipboard
* mouse driver improvements
+ functions for choosing related chars (via CTRL-Q or mouse right click submenu)
+ distribution package with integrated DosBox-X
+ speed optimizations in editor: if possible, only the updated part of window will be rendered
+ system info window shows whether the OS allows to use SSE instructions
+ optional editor window left side panel showing line ending type
+ text selection range is properly updated during text operations
- various small bugfixes
1.72
  + french and turkish translations
- fixed scrolling of the line with cards of opened files
- fixed possible crash after closing a file
* minor improvements in the system information window
+ the GUI system can now process a multiline buttons
(currently used in the russian interface in fileselector)
- fixed some conflicts between BIOS/DOS keyboard drivers and the internal driver
(details described in the TECHNOTE.TXT file)
1.71
  + german translation
+ fast switching among opened files with Ctrl+Plus and Ctrl+Minus
- fixed some bugs (including crashes)
* changed the picture for welcome screen
1.7
  + many improvements in the graphical user interface (GUI)
+ most of the windows can be moved by dragging the title bar by mouse
+ slovak keyboard layout
+ blocks of text can be selected by dragging the mouse with pressed left button
+ blocks of text can be selected not only in the edited text but also in most places of the GUI like information or help windows.
+ the scope of the Search or Search and Replace functions can be limited to text block only
+ many powerful conversion routines handling the code pages and Unicode
* if the document is not in Unicode it is always in some defined DOS code page
- The RAM size detection was wrong on some systems
+ Now can work even with graphic cards with non-continuous video memory (like GeForce RTX 2060)
+ can load and save with all three line-ending standards (CRLF, CR, LF)
+ can load and save Unicode files encoded in UTF-16LE and UTF-16BE
+ recognizes the Unicode BOMs (byte order marks)
+ customizable word wrapping
+ now can fixate the word-wrapping not only for the whole document but also for selected block only.
+ function for intelligent merging the legacy DOS style lines (78 or 80 chars) to word-wrapping blocks.
- better keyboard handler
- fixed bug in the conversion routine for 3-bytes long Unicode glyphs
+ conversion from HTML entities into Unicode chars
+ QR codes creation
- Avoid shutting down the program with Ctrl-Break (customizable in BLOCEK.CFG)
- fixed tabulators
- corrected minor bugs in the color selection dialog
- functions for moving to next word or to previous word now scroll the window if needed
+ the single-line text boxes can use the clipboards too (like f.e. in „Search and replace“ dialog)
+ more informations in the system information window
* the number of clipboards reduced to 7 (still more than enough) leaving more space on the upper line for menu
x the language files for german, turkish, hungarian and french languages are not updated so they are moved from "public" TRANSLAT subdirectory to TRANSLAT\VER162 - they can partialy work after copying back into TRANSLAT
1.62r2 (repack from August/2021)
  + slovak keyboard layout
+ translations for german, french and turkish languages
+ more filters for conversions between Unicode and 8-bit codepages
+ included utility for creating new Unicode conversion filters (see .\KEY_TBL\TBL_CREA\)
+ added file TRANSLAT.TXT which contains instructions how to create a translations to other languages
* the binary in untouched
1.62
  - fixed a lot of typos in texts
- fixed block operations on the single line blocks
- solved "undeletable" first char of line which occured in some situations
+ block conversions to make case up or low
1.61
  + Conversion of the extended ASCII or Unicode chars into HTML entities
- fixed possible crash when opening large text file
- fixed crash after pressing up arrow after menu activation by mouse
* progress indicator now uses timer
1.6
  - fixed graphical glitch causing garbage in some circumstances when opening a new window
- mouse sometimes caused noticeable slowdown of program
- reenabled the char typing using ALT + <codes on numeric keyboard>
- fixed crash when "word wrapping" on empty file was selected
- optimized the method for getting the hardware glyphs from graphic card
+ implemented function keys CTRL+right arrow and CTRL+left arrow
+ implemented function CTRL+A (select all)
+ CTRL+Del deletes selected block
+ selected blocks are now visible just in the text - not only in status line
+ program language can be switched directly from menu system (no manual editing of conf. files is needed)
* not only the final compilation but also regular development is done with Freepascal 3.0.2
Changelist for the older versions is here.



Here you can see some screenshots:



Kašmár

Kašmár is tool for developers. It is a unicode font editor which allows you to create or modify bitmap unicode fonts used in my programs and libraries. It has also functions for import and export from/to VGA font files (which are used by many legacy utilities) so it can be considered also as a VGA font editor.
Current version is 2.0b
Compilation date: 5.January 2019
Download link here and alternate 8.3 download here
Bloček is written in programming language pascal and as a compiler uses Freepascal. Actually the version 3.2.0 but the compatibility with legacy version 1.0.10 is still kept.
Grab sources here or here (8.3 format)
Separate source of graphics library VenomGFX

Kašmár version history:
2.0b
- The window dragging works even in DOSbox now
2.0
* program is internaly greatly reworked
+ can open up to four files simultaneously (previous versions were able to open only one file)
+ block operations: now you can do most operations in block mode - with many chars at the same time
+ you can copy block of chars between opened files
+ can import and export VGA font files using ASCII/unicode conversion filters
+ can import font from VGA hardware
+ more functions in the painting grid
+ more possibilities with glyph width settings + better and easier to understand control of the program
- fixed some graphical glitches when compiled with Freepascal 3.0.2
1.9b
  + you can move all windows on the screen
- the input from numeric keyboard did not work
pre 1.9 versions
  gradual evolution


Here you can see some screenshots from Kašmár:

Utilities

My old software

  • Grabka - simplifies process of copying audio CD and converting them to MP3. Included is a simple non TSR CD player
  • LiveCD - utility for proud owners of Soundblaster Live! This tool sets volume of CD output so you can listen CD's without soundblaster compatibility drivers loaded.
You can download even other my programs and units on my czech site. You can browse it in "english" via google translator.
Link to google translated version of my czech site is here.