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DP Tool Club 15
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future.txt
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1994-05-26
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┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SOURCEWARE ARCHIVAL GROUP │
│ WHAT'S COMING IN THE FUTURE │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
With the May 1994 release, SWAG has been in existence for exactly one year.
In that time, some pretty remarkable things have happened. SWAG has become
a worldwide resource for the PASCAL community. This is EXACTLY what we had
in mind when we started the project.
I get mail just about everyday from someone telling me that SWAG has
become an important part of their programming arsenal. As I read the
network mail each day, I'm amazed at how far and wide SWAG has spread, and
how often it is referred to as a reference source.
It has been and continues to be a work that I greatly enjoy, and I want to
express my gratitude for ALL those who have contributed to the success of
SWAG; the many network administrators, snipet contributors, beta testers
and pundits who have made many suggestions to improve the project.
We are up to version 2.8 of the READER.EXE. To be honest, I had intended to
release a new program with this version that would compress, using PKZIP,
the .SWG files. This would save about 4Meg of disk space. As many of you
appreciate, the size of SWAG is getting to be a problem. After a LOT of
thought and consideration, I decided NOT to release the SWAG compressor
program. One of the reasons for this was that users would HAVE to have
PKZIP and PKUNZIP to use SWAG, and I didn't want to rely on external
programs. Second, the GREP function became **SLOW** and the quarterly
update program was even slower. This was because each snipet file had to be
unpacked and repacked after use. I eventually decided that this was
unacceptable.
I realize that the problem is much more basic that just compressing the
data. What is needed is a completely new approach to saving the data, and
accessing it. The .SWG files are based on the QWK file format. I did this
for simplicity, and frankly, it was easy. Therein lies a great deal of the
problem.
So, by the end of 1994, I intend to COMPLETELY rewrite the SWAG project,
with a completely new file format. Each snipet will be stored as a packed
KEYED record in the files, with each having an UNLIMITED number of search
keys. This will reduce the overall size by greater than 70%, and should
provide the speed that we all require. Additionally, there will be a
"WINDOWS" version of READER.EXE. There will definitely be other new
features as well.
I welcome ideas that you might have regarding the "NEW" SWAG.
Thanks again to everyone who has made this entire project a success.
Gayle Davis
May 1994