Amiga Format CD 45/Amiga Format CD45 (1999-09)(Future Publishing)(GB)(Track 1 of 2)[!][issue 1999-11].iso/+system+/info/afcd_changes.txt

Text File | 1999-08-31 | 27KB | 617 lines

AFCD45 - 640MB estimated - November 1999

Got rid of the S drawer, making the CD even more streamlined.

Added new database function giving all the games ever reviewed in AF, some of
the serious products, Amiga Angels and Shops worldwide. AFCD_Install, AFCDView,
AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs have also all been updated.

AFCD44 - 571MB (+ 2 audio tracks) - October 1999

After last minute hassles the audio from WoA gets on at the last minute as four
MP2 files, the HTML gets usurped by Dan Dodge and Jim Collas with their
complete interviews there wasn't the space in the issue for in AF127, and
AFCDFind gets an update to allow Scalos users the same luxury of being able to
open Workbench windows with your search results that previously only Opus users
were able to do. There may be further changes, but pushed for time right now,
so I may have forgotten them!

AFCD43 - 617MB (+ audio track) - September 1999

Not many changes this month, but a new addition in the shape of Oliver Roberts'
(yes, he's done it again) AFCD_Install. This Installer program allows you to
pick and choose what you wish to install from the CD every issue and copies it
across to your machine's hard drive. Once set up it doesn't have to be set up
again, although you're free to make changes any time you like. At the moment,
AFCD_Install copies across AFCDFind indices, the Aminet Index, the latest
version of AFCDView and Installer. If you'd like it to do more, please make a
suggestion to the usual address... :)

Also updated the HTML code slightly so that the little "Goto:" graphic in the
top frame of all the pages is now a button that reloads the page it refers to.
This may not be useful for some of the pages, but it will allow you to easily
escape any of the websites included on the CD.

AFCD42 - 644MB - August 1999

AFCDView has been updated to prevent problems with AsimCDFS.

The -Seriously_Amiga- drawer has been renamed back to -Serious-, in conjunction
with the magazine.

Some people were complaining that the backgrounds in the html windows were too
garish and took too long to appear, so we've ditched them, although we have
kept the ones in the top part of the window. I have however added new
background images to the main parts of the pages. Let me know what you think.

(Ed's note - I know they still take too long to load. Let me know whether you like the
idea at all)

AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs have been updated (AFCDFind was last CD) so that they
now have on-line help. You can put your mouse over any gadget and hit the help
key on your keyboard to get instant advice about what to do.

Problem with AFCDFind's help and DOpus resolved.

We've updated the HTML on the CD again to include the Amiga Angels database as
part of the list. However, your browser may not be too keen on showing it in
the window as ours is. Check your MIME prefs for your browser and ensure that
you have a MIME type of text/plain with the extension txt set to use the
internal viewer if you do need it.

Updated the AFCD_Changes file somewhat - correcting speeling mostakes, mostly.

Added a printer driver drawer to -Serious-/Hardware

AFCD41 - 641MB - July 1999

AFCDView has been updated. Now it checks itself for the version on your hard
drive, and if a newer one is on the CD you'll be asked if you want to update.
Obviously this new feature is only coming in the version on the disc this
month, so you won't notice any difference, but when Oliver updates it next you
will be asked if you want the newest version. Also, AFCDView has been changed
so that you can no longer enter AFCDView as the default tool for a filetype in
AFCDPrefs.

We've also updated the HTML so there's no longer a Ben_Speaks! file, but now a
Start_Here! file. It checks to see if yoou have AFCDView in the path, and asks
you if you want to copy it to your C: directory if you don't. Thought for the
Month has been changed into Rich Speaks because no one was submitting any of
their own thoughts.

Last thing. Thanks to Matt "Neko" Sealey for providing us with the new disk
icon, based on Matt Chaput's GlowIcons that we're using for the AFCD. We forgot
to mention him before on AFCD39, so now we're offering up thanks to him...

Moved the GUI drawer to the Tools directory.

AFCD40 - 549MB + 2 audio tracks - June 1999

Updated the Ben_Speaks! portion of the disc. Now the html is a lot more
colourful and we're also including daily digests of the afb mailing list in
easy-to-read form on the web pages.

Updates for AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs to show the difference between keyword and
filename searches for AFCDFind, and to recognise PDF files.

Lastly, the CD has had a redesign,


AFCD39 - 649MB - May 1999

AFCDPrefs updated so that it can now handle LhA, LZX, ZIP and DMS archives.
You'll now be able to simply double click on any archive to extract to the path
you've chosen. Unless you are just using the defaults, these won't work until
you've updated your AFCDPrefs and you may get an error message. Put the
following commands in place (copy and paste them from this file to get perfect
results!):

LhA:

Tool: :c/lha (if you have lhA on your hard drive in C: you can just put "lha")
Args: x %f `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

LZX:

Tool: :c/lzx
Args: x %f `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

DMS:

Tool: :c/dms
Args: write %f to df0: <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

ZIP:

Tool: :c/unzip
Args: %f -d `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/AUTO/CLOSE

We've also put the floppy coverdisks on the CD as DMS archives
so that people with PCs with CD-ROM drives can take the floppies off for people
without CDs on their Amigas. Cleared out a lot of dead weight in the C, Libs
and other hidden directories. It hasn't reduced the bytecount by much (ooh
about a meg in total), but it does mean that the only files on the CD will
always be the newest versions of third party libraries and commands. We won't
be having any stuff from WB 3.1, so you won't simply be able to copy the libs
from our CDs onto your hard drive and expect to get a working workbench.

We've also started giving PowerPC program drawers special icons so that you can
tell if what you're looking for is a PowerPC program. At the moment, these
icons are only NewIcons - we don't have a MagicWB one.

We've changed the MUI drawer in +System+ now to GUI, and it now contains
archives of several different GUI systems, including MUI, Triton and BGUI.
We've put them on here just as archives, you'll have to unpack them (by simply
double clicking on them and choosing where to put them).

Lastly, we now have a new thing in our +System+/Info drawer. Called
AFB_Digests, it contains the text files of our online mailing list. If you
haven't signed up for it yet, you can go to http://www.egroups.com/list/afb/
and join in the fun. (This is now part of the HTML - Ben AFCD42)

AFCD38 - 559MB (plus audio tracks) - April 1999

That's it. We've thrown off the shackles of CD³² dependance (not our idea, TIB
don't want to make CD³²-compatible discs) and thus got rid of a whole bunch of
files from the CD, making its appearance in the lister of your favourite file
manager much simpler. At the moment, we haven't made sure that the libs and c
drawers that remain contain the very latest files we can find, but that's how
it'll be organised in the future. If there's anything in particular you want on
there, let us know (but no the ProPack program for SWOS since that's
commercial/shareware).

AFCD37 - 534MB (plus audio tracks) - March 1999

Updated AHI and MUI this issue, not much else though!

AFCD36 - 645MB - February 1999

Changed the way that AFCD_Changes works so that new CDs are at the top of the
file now, rather than at the bottom!

Took out the explicit path for all the default tools. If you're having trouble
getting things to work, make sure you have AFCDView in your path - your C:
directory would be a good place for it. Also, AFCDFind got updated this month
so that if you only want to search a particular portion of the CD it's
possible, and much faster than it used to be.

AFCDPrefs also receives its first update in an age, but it's well worth the
wait since the new version allows for a lot more filetypes and also allows you
to make use of Directory Opus' filetyping if you are running a current version
of that program. All hail Oliver Roberts!


AFCD35 - 643.2MB - January 1999

Two additions this CD: The first is the fact that we now have an ARexx drawer
in the -Seriously_Amiga-/Programming directory, the second is that we now also
have an additional drawer in ReaderStuff. Prompted by requests from users we're
going to have A "readers' Workbench" drawer which will contain images of Amiga
users' Workbenches along with readmes explaining just what they use to make
their Workbench look the way it does.

Also, advanced warning for next issue: We'll be taking off the +AFCD_Setup+
file since it has become less and less valuable as time has gone on. We provide
SnoopDOS on our CD every month, so if you find that there are libraries or
fonts that you are lacking you can always copy them across to your hard drive.
We'll also be changing the default tool AFCDView from ":c/afcdview" to simply
"afcdview". This may mean that you'll need to copy AFCDView into your C:
directory to be able to read files, but since it's only a tiny program this
shouldn't be a problem.


AFCD34 - 644.3MB - Christmas 1998

Only two changes this month. The first is that websites get no leeway from us
if they want to stay on the CD. The only option if you have a website that you
want to appear on every AFCD is to send it in to us every four weeks, whether
it has changed or not. The second thing to change is the fact that apparently
some people have a problem with drawers called Workbench being on our CD, so
we've changed the name to just WB throughout. We've also edited the preferences
for the browsers on our CD so that will hopefully stop the "Disk is write
protected" problem when using a browser from off the CD. We haven't tried this
solution before, so it may not work, but it's worth a try, right? (It didn't -
Ben AFCD42).


AFCD33 - 642.7MB estimated - December 1998

Another plus. We're considering getting rid of most of the files on the CD
related to booting. CD³² owners have until AFCD35 to complain, otherwise we'll
go ahead and stop the CD booting and ditch more of the system files. We've also
ditched a bunch of stuff from the +System+ drawer this month bringing the total
for the +System+ drawer down below 50 meg and the total number of System files
on the CD down to about 7%. If we can get rid of the booting part of the CD, we
can probably get rid of another 1% giving us just 6% repeated stuff every CD.


AFCD32 - 647MB - November 1998

Robert C. Miller has done a whole bunch of icons for our CD this month to
please all the newicon fans out there. We'll be using them from now on and
putting the MWB:NI question a rest.

Again, this is a packed CD this time, especially given that we received a CD
from one reader! We've had to redo the AVI file he sent us as an mpeg, but you
won't be able to see it in on this CD since there wasn't the time to do it (or
the space on the disc!) for this one.

We've also included some new utilities in the C: drawer for DOpus users. Dread,
Dshow and DPlay can be used in your AFCDPrefs to use DOpus' settings for text
file reading, picture showing or sound playing, to make our CD even more
integrated with DOpusbench.


AFCD31 - 555MB (plus audio track) - October 1998

Added a new newicon to the CD this month. Robert C. Miller is the artist
involved and we think he's done a great job on it. The starburst around it
really gives it a sense of wonder that we hope you find on our CDs (corny, I
know).

Archived some of the early AFCD indices (AFCD1-10) so that they take up less
room on CD. You can't get these CDs any more anyway. We'll be doing the same
every ten CDs from now on.

Updated the ARexx script that AFCDFind uses. You should have no problems in
DOpus now getting it to bring up the windows or files you need.

Updated subs advice.


AFCD30 - 646MB - September 1998

Cleared up a glitch in the AFCD_Setup script that meant that font prefs
couldn't be found on AFCD28 and AFCD29. Added a new drawer to
+System+/Tools/Workbench called Archivers which contains 68k and PPC versions
of all the common archiving tools. Also added some diagnostic tools to the
Expert drawer, and AHI and RTGMaster to the Sound and Graphics drawers
respectively.

Hopefully we should have some major changes in AFCDFind this CD, including the
long-requested ability to search for a file, click on a link and have the
file or drawer open up automatically. Unfortunately, it will only be people
using a current version of DOpus that will have access to this function because
Workbench isn't powerful enough!

Added a Roadmap page to the html so that beginners can find their way around
our CD easily. Changed ScreenPlay/Commercial so it has dashes, more consistent
with SeriouslyAmiga/Commercial. Changed the layout of the websites drawer to
make it more neat.

Deleted more obsolete libraries and the like to bring down further the amount
of repeated System files you have to deal with. Even so, I doubt that total
System usage will go down at all (it's more likely to go up) since we've added
some new tools and obviously the index for this CD. Even so, you'll find more
new stuff on our CD every month than anywhere else!

Design for the CD itself and its packaging changes this month. Our Art Editor
Colin has worked hard on a new look for the disc.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD29 - 645.2MB - August 1998

So far, there aren't a lot of changes to be made to this CD, mainly because
we're waiting to find out what you think of AFCD28. We're looking at adding
better DOpus functionality, because it seems that many of you are running it as
a WBR, and we can do a lot more (interactively) with it than we can with
Workbench. Updated the survey to keep it up to date. Updated AFCDView so that
it works properly with the new layout from AFCD28, and included the demo of
Golem that we missed out on last month. Check it out, you'll be amazed, honest!

Commercial software: none.


AFCD28 - 644.4MB - July 1998

Removed the Prefs drawer from +System+ and moved AFCDPrefs into +System+
itself. Got rid of the Superview library files from libs since we had already
got rid of the SVPrefs program and it was out-of-date anyway. Exclusive demo of
Golem's ace new XFL animation format which gives you full-screen, full-speed
animation with synchronised sound. Added AFCD history to the CD. Got rid of
separate Reader Warrant file and updated the Survey and Readme template. We
also made a big change in the -Seriously_Amiga- drawer by moving the shareware
drawers into their parent directory. This means that we have an extra directory
deep to play with which comes in handy mainly for the Programming drawer.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD27 - 642MB - June 1998

Little things really. Added little animated AF logos to the web pages, lost the
icon for the Indices drawer in +System+, added new viewers to the Tools drawer,
and so on.

Commercial software: F1GP


AFCD26 - 642MB - May 1998

A refinement of AFCD25. The Websites drawer got "-"s to put it up with the
content drawers in a lister, the viewers drawer got renamed to Tools and had a
lot added to it. Every month now, the AFCD will provide a useful collection of
tools, utilities and commodities for you to make use of. A subscriptions page
was added to Ben_Speaks! and the layout of it was changed to include frames
(not that I think frames are great, they just make navigation easier in this
instance). The Demos drawer was renamed to MegaDemos to save any confusion with
any other kind of demo. We've also reduced the amount of system files on the CD
to ensure that more of our CD is new stuff than the competition. As it stands
on this CD, less than 8% of the disc's contents are actually repeated material,
whereas CU's disc had more than 12%.

Commercial software: PPaint 7.


AFCD25 - 643.1MB - April 1998

All change! For the first time really since AFCD6, the CD was laid out afresh.
Instead of having nine drawers at the root and two files, we, all of a sudden,
dropped to only six drawers and one file - Ben_Speaks!. Speaking of which,
Ben_Speaks! changed this month from being a boring old Amigaguide file into
HTML, bringing together all the disparate elements of the CD: namely
Submissions advice, websites, Ben Speaks and subs, although subs isn't here
yet. The restructuring was done to leave CoverDisks, ReaderStuff,
Seriously_Amiga, ScreenPlay and In_the_Mag in the root and to add a new drawer
called System which contained pretty much what Look_here_1st! had contained,
but better. PD_Select was renamed to demos and put into the In_the_Mag drawer.
Because we ensured that you wouldn't have to run some horrid startup script to
make sure that everything ran from the CD okay, AFCD_Setup was moved to the
System drawer as well. We also had a few problems with this CD because some
Sanyo 2x SCSI CD-ROM drives wouldn't read it because it stretched the ISO9660
standard too far for them.

Commercial software: UFO Enemy Unknown.


AFCD24 - 639.2MB - March 1998

This CD was the first one done in the new year for us, so it was also the first
CD we did that had loads of Doom info on it. It was also another CD where we
had huge numbers of contributions from you (more than 180Mb). Other than that,
there weren't many changes from the previous CD.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD23 - 645.6MB - February 1998

Judging by responses we've had via email and in the post to AFCDPrefs, it
seemed that many of you weren't sure what to do with it, so I took the time to
explain it in Ben_Speaks! that CD (AFCDFind and Prefs now have online help -
Ben AFCD42). It's all a bit out of date now, but still relevant. The CD kept on
keeping on that month, but we did have a novelty in the shape of our first ever
MP3 file which was Petro Tyschtschenko's speech from Cologne. It was terrible
quality, but then it was  never designed to go onto the CD in the first place,
it was only many requests from readers that forced our hand.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD22 - 649.4 - January 1998

Not much has changed since the previous CD, although we do have another
exclusive game demo in the shape of Foundation on this CD. Other than that and
just about 100MB of reader contributions, the CD contains the usual up-to-date
mix of shareware and the like.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD21 - 648.5MB - Christmas 1997

This CD saw the start of yet another new feature to help you, the reader. We
started the very popular Reader_Requests drawer on AFCD21 and it has been very
successful so far. There was also a new AFCDSurvey to fill in and send to us
(we must have had 5,000 of these surveys so far. I read every one of them and
try to reply where possible). We also had an exclusive demo of the long-awaited
Genetic Species on AFCD21.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD20 - 651.3MB - December 1997

This CD sees the debut of AFCDPrefs, the tool that has made the AFCDs more
personalised than ever. The marvellous Oliver Roberts wrote this for us too and
like AFCDFind, it has improved and improved over the months we've been using
it, thanks to our increased familiarity with it and your helpful suggestions
through the AFCDSurvey. We had exclusive demos of Final Odyssey and Uropa 2 on
this CD along with a full version of NetBSD.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD19 - 433.4MB (plus audio tracks) - November 1997

Just a bit of a jiggle for the drawers on the CD this month - guaranteed to
confuse everyone, but we didn't get too many complaints. It seems that a lot of
you liked the audio tracks we had on the CD too.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD18 - 616.5MB - October 1997

Look_here_1st! gets plus signs now to make sure it appears at the top of your
listers in DOpus, but other than that there aren't many changes. We had 25
different websites on the CD and more than 120MB of your contributions though.

Commercial software: Aquanaut.


AFCD17 - 574.5MB - September 1997

This CD sees the introduction of the superb AFCDFind written especially for us
by that wiz Oliver Roberts. It made finding what you were looking for on our CD
so much better than having to trawl through the listed indices that it was a
shock, but even so it's improved immeasurably since then. Nice one Oliver!

Commercial software: none.


AFCD16 - 654.3MB - August 1997

Our fullest CD yet! This CD accompanied our 100th issue so we included all 100
top shareware titles which, no doubt, helped to fill the disc to the brim. The
only obvious change this month is the fact the the AFCD_Setup file gains some
plus signs in front of and behind its name and gets moved to the root of the CD
to encourage you to use it more. We also tried out a Reader Ads section on the
CD, but it didn't work out and was, instead, transplanted into the magazine.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD15 - 644.2MB - July 1997

The AFCD setup script becomes one file this month instead of two, but other
than that there's not much change. However, as you can see, this CD is very
full indeed.

Commercial software: none.


AFCD14 - 550.5MB - June 1997

Again, not much changed for AFCD14 if I remember rightly. We had a lot of games
though this issue including exclusive items from Vulcan previewing their
up-and-coming games (some of which still haven't reached us!).

Commercial software: none.


AFCD13 - 460.6MB - May 1997

An all-time low for content. We were decidedly hampered by Aminet not working
properly and a lack of time generally. A first mention of Quake in Ben_Speaks!

Commercial software: Scala 1.13.


AFCD12 - 617.1MB - April 1997

And now we start to consolidate with the CD. We've made a lot of changes over
the previous eleven discs and now the CD is pretty good, EMC can get on with
compiling instead of worrying about how to improve it. Of course, changes will
come, but not yet.

Commercial software: PPaint 6.4, Cinema 4D 2.


AFCD11 - 589.6MB - March 1997

A change in CD compiling took place this CD with the excellent
EMComputergraphic taking the helm. As a first step, they got every single
datatype that could be found at the time and put them on the CD. This CD also
marks the first appearance of the minus signs at the start and end of the
important directory names. The reason for this is to make them easier to find
in a directory utility like DOpus. We also had the complete (but unannotated)
source for Alien Breed 3D2.

Commercial Software: Turbocalc 2.1.


AFCD10 - 646.1MB - February 1997

A really packed CD this month and the first appearance of NewIcons for the
CD and for Ben_Speaks!, for what it's worth. We now have nine drawers in the
root of the CD to make it look neater (the extra drawer is one for Prefs). The
main work I did on the CD was to create a massive set of AmigaGuide docs for
all the transcsripts of the Lightwave Mailing list, along with huge numbers of
objects, scenes and the like for the premier 3D package for the Amiga. We also
started lining up the drawers in a now-familiar style and included a Reader
Warrant in the Look_here_1st! drawer.

Commercial software: FontMachine.


AFCD9 - 576MB - January 1997

We had interviews in Quicktime format on this CD, that weren't playable using
the Quicktime players available to us at the time. They may well be now, so if
you want to hear what Wolf Dietrich and Jason Compton had to say all that time
ago, give them a try now.

Commercial software: Octamed 6.


AFCD8 - 517MB - Christmas 1996

First appearance of our new AFCD icon, created for us by a reader. A new icon
for Ben_Speaks! - me with much shorter hair (it's probably about time for
another new one as I write this at the start of the production schedule for
AFCD28). Ben_Speaks has my thought for the month for the first time, but will
remain in AmigaGuide format for some time to come. Serious turns into
Seriously_Amiga. Still not many websites and the Andy Davidson interview didn't
get on the disc either. Also, we didn't want your MODs any more because of
copyright infringements.

Commercial software: Cinema 4D.


AFCD7 - 622.9MB - December 1996

Have_a_look_here_first! has happily been renamed to Look_Here_1st! on this CD.
It also features the first proper HTML with submissions advice and other
people's websites. We released The AGA Experience Volume 1 on this magazine as
well.

Commercial software: DataChrome.


AFCD6 - 600.4MB - November 1996

First appearance of Look_here_1st! drawer (unwieldly-ly called
Have_a_look_here_first! on this CD!).This drawer contained the startup scripts
and the colour patchers making the total number of icons in the root: drawers
8, files 1. It's also the first appearance on the AF_on_the_Web drawer,
although the only website included was the old AF pages. This CD marks the
first appearance of the venerable AFCDSurvey.

Commercial Software: none.


AFCD5 - 551.1MB - October 1996

Loads of problems! Lots of people reported that they couldn't read this disc
although we had had no trouble with it. Nick_Speaks! from the previous CD was
replaced with Ben_Speaks! and has stayed the same ever since (although the icon
has been improved!). First appearance of the In_the_Mag drawer and the Subs
Disk extractor.

Commercial Software: None, but large numbers of PhotoCD images of Bath.


AFCD4 - 526.6MB - Spetember 1996

First CD compiled by Ben. This CD was the start of the current layout, although
there were nine drawers and five file icons at the root.

Commercial software: none, but AlienBreed - Tower Assault movie.


AFCD3 - 475.2MB (but there are audio tracks) - August 1996

First audio tracks (excerpts from speeches given at the Toulouse press
conference) on an AFCD! No sign of the front end from AFCD1 & 2.

Commercial Software: TypeSmith v2.5.


AFCD2 - 644.5MB - July 1996

Still using the CanDo-generated front end, but it's getting difficult to keep
it up-to-date already.

Commercial Software: CanDo v2.5, Octamed 5, Wordworth 5.


AFCD1 - 614.4MB - June 1996

It's all new! What changes could there possibly be, other than the last minute
omission of Nick's toilet fury full-screen video.

Commercial Software: Real 3D v2.5, Real 3D v1.5, Blitz Basic v2.1AF, Personal
Fonts Maker 2.