TurboPower Software Electronic Maintenance System Policies and Procedures ***-----------------------------*** Updated 94/02/09 Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------- TurboPower Software now provides maintenance updates of its products at no charge beyond the cost of a download. "Maintenance updates" are defined as those that change the version number by only 0.01. Updates of a larger degree must be purchased on disk from TurboPower as usual. The maintenance updates are provided in the form of a patch script generated by Pocket Soft's .RTPatch utility. This utility compares a group of files and generates a compressed list of differences in a single patch file. This file is processed by a utility named PATCH.EXE, which applies the patches to your existing copy of the library, thus updating it to the newer version. A single patch script is capable of updating only one minor version at a time. For example, a single script could update Object Professional 1.21 to 1.22. It could *not* update OPRO 1.20 to 1.22. To do that, you'd need two scripts, one for 1.20 to 1.21 and another for 1.21 to 1.22. If your cost of downloading patches, applying them, or rebuilding dependent files exceeds $20 for a particular product, it is sensible to order a complete disk set containing the current version from TurboPower. See the end of this file for contact information. Be sure to have your serial number handy when ordering. TurboPower's Fast Update Plan, which was an annual subscription service for obtaining maintenance updates on disk, is no longer available. Updates can now be obtained by using the Electronic Maintenance System as described in this document, or by ordering individual updates as they become available. TurboPower has also begun to publish a quarterly newsletter for all registered customers. Among other topics, this newsletter lists the current version numbers of all products. General Instructions -------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow these general instructions to take advantage of the Electronic Maintenance System. 1. Download and read UPDATE.TXT (this file). 2. Download PATCH.EXE (about 45KB) and store this utility in a directory on your DOS PATH. This utility is used to apply all patch scripts. It is not stored within the patch script files. (Note that we are using version 2.01 of PATCH.EXE. If you have an earlier version of PATCH, it may or may not work with our patch scripts.) 3. If desired, download files matching NAME.VVV (e.g., OPRO.122). These are small text files that describe the bugs fixed and new features added in a given version of a product. These files allow you to decide whether it's worth the time to download the patch file itself. 4. Download one or more patch files, whose names match NAMVVV.exe (e.g., OPR122.EXE). The file names are limited to 6 characters for compatibility with CompuServe. The patch file is a self-extracting archive based on the LZH format. Move the EXE file into the main directory of the associated TurboPower product (e.g., into the \OPRO directory of Object Professional). Then execute the EXE file, which will extract itself into a DOC file (e.g., OPRO122.DOC), one or more patch scripts (extension RTP), and perhaps a batch file. 5. Read the DOC file for instructions specific to the product and version. In some cases it will instruct you to run PATCH.EXE directly. In other cases you will run a supplied batch file. The DOC file also specifies limitations and restrictions of the patch. NOTE: At the time this document is written, the Electronic Maintenance System is brand new. Although it has been field tested, opportunity certainly exists for additional problems. Generating the patch scripts is a fairly complicated process that is subject to error. If you have any problems with the patching process, please contact TurboPower as soon as possible with all relevant details. Available Patch Files -------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table lists all available patch files. Patches are not available for all versions of TurboPower products. We chose to start the patches with the Borland Pascal 7.0 compatible versions of our Pascal products, and the next-to-last version of our C/C++ products. We ruled out earlier patches for several reasons: a) in many cases it was inconsistent with our 0.01 minor revision rule; b) it would be uneconomical to download and apply 8 patch files to bring an early version of Turbo Professional up to date, for example; c) it would be unfair to people who have previously paid for the Fast Update Plan or a series of individual updates. The version number in the table corresponds to the new version that you want to obtain. You must have the version immediately preceding this version for the patch to work. Product Version Patch File Summary File ----------------------- ------- ---------- ------------ Object Professional 1.21 OPR121.EXE OPRO.121 " 1.22 OPR122.EXE OPRO.122 Turbo Professional 5.21 TPR521.EXE TPRO.521 " 5.22 TPR522.EXE TPRO.522 Async Professional 1.11 APR111.EXE APRO.111 " 1.12 APR112.EXE APRO.112 Async Professional C/C++ 1.01 APC101.EXE APC.101 B-Tree Filer (Pascal) 5.41 BTF541.EXE BTREE.541 Object Professional C/C++ 1.04 OPC104.EXE OPC.104 TSRs & More (C/C++) 1.01 TSM101.EXE TSM.101 Win/Sys Library 1.02 WS102.EXE WINSYS.102 Data Entry Workshop 2.01 DEW201.EXE DEW.201 Turbo Analyst 7.01 TA701.EXE ANA.701 The size of the patch files varies significantly depending on the size of the product and the magnitude of the changes. The smallest patch files are about 40KB and the largest are over 400KB. In future TurboPower product updates we'll be minimizing the number of "artificial" changes that we make (file version numbers, date stamps, etc.) in order to keep the patch sizes as small as possible. Available Download Sites -------------------------------------------------------------------- We are attempting to make the patch files available to a wide variety of sites so that your download cost is minimized. The following table shows the current availability. Country Name Number Notes ------- ---------------- ------------ ---------------------- -any- CompuServe PCVENB LIB 6 Pascal/Windows products -any- CompuServe PCVENE LIB 1 C/C++ products CO, USA TurboPower BBS 719-260-9726 FL, USA TechMate BBS 407-274-0926 Germany GOLEM Warehouse +49-2132-76220 FIDO only +49-2132-80051 MajorBBS " Granny's In +49-4441-5404 " FRISCO BBS +49-8962-55805 Holland Multiline Paradise +31-1749-48422 +31-1749-48384 " Paradise Island +31-3200-34334 " WVD Nederland +31-30-313949 Belgium Tornado BBS +32-16-640582 Sweden Secret Blue Valley +46-46-188600 Switzerland YaCaN BBS +41-61-3022828 Special thanks to Rob Van.hoeven and Reinier de Groot of Holland for arranging the initial European distribution network for these patch files. If you can download the patch files from any of the existing locations and upload them to a reliable BBS in a different country, please let us know the relevant information for this table so that we can publicize it in the future. The following rules must be met for inclusion in this table: a) patch files for *all* TurboPower products and versions must be transferred in a timely manner; b) there must be no charge for downloading the TurboPower patch files; c) the BBS must be available on a regular basis, preferably 24 hours, 7 days; d) the patch archives must be distributed unchanged, except for the possibility of adding a BBS-specific header file to the archive. Note that the download sites outside of TurboPower and TechMate are *not* responsible for supplying technical support for TurboPower products, nor can they forward messages to TurboPower. Contact TurboPower or TechMate directly for technical support. PATCH.EXE Options -------------------------------------------------------------------- This section describes options that can be used with the PATCH.EXE program. Generally, you don't need to know these options, because each patch's DOC file tells you how to run the patch. You can use these options to perform partial patches, custom patches, and so on. General command line: PATCH [Options] By default UpdateDirectory is the current directory and PatchFile is PATCH.RTP. When a default assumption is correct, the argument can be omitted. Options: /BACKUP[:] Causes PATCH to make backup copies of any files affected by the updating process. If Directory is specified, the backup files are stored in that location. If Directory is not specified, the backup files are stored in a subdirectory of UpdateDirectory named BACKUP. /ERRORFILE Causes PATCH to log all error and warning messages to a file named PATCH.ERR in UpdateDirectory. This option is useful when the patch summary indicates that certain files could not be updated, to determine the name of the files and the exact problems. /FILE: Updates just the specified file from the patch. /LIST Lists information about the patch entries in PatchFile. /NOSUBDIRSEARCH Prevents PATCH from looking in subdirectories of UpdateDirectory to find files to patch. /PATHSEARCH Searches the DOS PATH to find files to patch, after looking in UpdateDirectory and subdirectories of UpdateDirectory. /QUIET Disables all PATCH messages except for errors. /UNDO Allows PATCH to undo all completed patches if an error occurs while processing any patch. Requires enough free disk space to back up every patched file until all patches are complete. Contacting TurboPower -------------------------------------------------------------------- You can contact TurboPower and TechMate directly by any of the following methods: Postal mail : TurboPower Software P.O. Box 49009 Colorado Springs, CO 80949-9009 Telephone : 719-260-6641 (tech support) 719-260-7151 (fax) 800-333-4160 (sales in the USA & Canada) 719-260-9136 (international sales) CompuServe : PCVENB section 6, or e-mail to 76004,2611 Internet : 76004.2611@compuserve.com Postal mail : Techmate, Inc. 1177 George Bush Blvd. #401 Delray Beach, FL 33483 Telephone : 407-274-4643 (tech support) 407-274-0862 (fax) CompuServe : PCVENE section 1, or e-mail to 75300,2214 Internet : 75300.2214@compuserve.com