Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/catalogs/scbatr21.zip/HISTORY.DOC

Text File | 1993-10-28 | 17KB | 287 lines

                                             TM
                            SCBA Trak History
                          =====================

 REGISTERED USERS NOTE: To upgrade your current copy of the program, you only
 need to copy the new SCBATRAK.EXE file into your SCBATRAK directory.

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 Version 2.10                                                   Oct. 28, 1993
 ------------                                                   -------------

 NOTE: The changes made in this version required modification of all the
       inventory data files. I'm eliminating some unused fields and adding
       some new ones. Depending upon which program you're upgrading from,
       you may see significant changes in the size of the *.DB* files.

       Unless you're upgrading from SCBABOTL v1.21 or earlier, you should see
       a reduction in the total disk space used by the data files. If you're
       a registered user, your existing data files will be converted
       automatically the first time you run the program. If you're not a
       registered user, you won't be able to use your existing data files
       with this version. MAKE CERTAIN you have all of the data files backed
       up to a floppy disk in case something goes wrong !

  1. Changed how the program displays certain information that uses dates.

     EXAMPLE: Previously, the "Last Hydro" date was shown on the air bottle
     reports. The user had to mentally add in the hydro test interval to
     come up with the next due date. Now, those types of reports show the
     "Next (whatever) Due" date to eliminate the mental gymnastics. Where
     appropriate, the "Last <whatever>" date is still used, like on the
     data entry screens. Because of this change, it is no longer possible
     to leave the "Visual Every xxx Days" field blank!  You must either
     enter in a number from 0 to 999 or  N/A  . If you are upgrading from
     a previous version of SCBA Trak, all of these fields that you left blank
     have been marked  N/A  automatically. You must also enter data in the
     "Certified . . ." and "Battery . . ." fields. These can no longer be
     left blank, and cannot be marked  NA  .

  2. Recompiled the program using the latest version of the language product
     that SCBA Trak is written in. The earlier versions had a bug that
     could cause a lockup when used with DOS 6 and the EMM386.EXE memory
     manager. Briefly, the DOS 6 version of EMM386.EXE could be configured
     in such a way that SCBA Trak thought expanded memory was available for
     use, when it wasn't. When SCBA Trak tried to use the non-existent memory,
     a lockup would occur at program startup or very shortly thereafter.

     Because of this new language product version, all of the index files
     will be recreated the first time you use this version. The file
     extension for the index files has changed from  .NTX  to  .NSX  . These
     new type index files are called "compound, compact indexes." The
     previous fourteen index files have been replaced by just five files,
     and the information is stored in the index files in a compressed format,
     resulting in significantly smaller index files for most users. One user,
     whose index files totaled over 700K of disk space, now has index files
     using just 102K of disk space. If you have just a few of each item, you
     may not find much of a change in your disk space usage at all.

  3. Added a "<record> of <total records>" counter to the top of the
     "Browse/Edit All <whatever> Inventory Records" displays.

     EXAMPLE: When paging through the air bottle inventory, the message at
     the top of the display used to read "Bottle Record Inventory Browse",
     regardless of which record you were looking at. The message now reads
     "Bottle Record Inventory Browse - 36 of 118" (assuming you were on the
     thirty sixth record of a total of one hundred eighteen bottles). This
     will help you know how many records you still have to look at.

  4. Changed the ordering of some of the columns of data used in the "Browse/
     edit..." functions to place the more critical information on the screen
     when you first select this function. Added a "wrap" feature to these
     functions. If you are using the right cursor arrow key to view columns
     that are off the screen, and you hit the right most column, the display
     will now wrap back to the beginning column with the next right arrow key
     press. Previously, you had to use the left arrow key to get back to the
     beginning. Once you try it, you'll see what I mean.

  5. Enhanced the operation of the "Browse/edit . . ." functions regarding
     detection of bottles that are overdue for hydro test, past their
     ultimate life date, or overdue for a visual check; of PASS units that
     are overdue for battery changes or functional test; and of masks and
     back packs that are overdue for certification or visual check. The
     relevant date for these items will now blink in red (blink in black
     for monochrome monitors) if the item is overdue. If information
     critical to determining a due date is missing, such as the "Last
     Certification" date, the "Last Battery Changed" date, the "Certified
     Every xx Months" field or the "Battery Changed Every xx Months"
     field etc., the word  MISSING  is shown in yellow to warn you that the
     data is incomplete. If you have marked the "Visual Every xxx Days" field
     as  N/A  , the column will just show two dashes  (   --   ). Some
     of the other reports now have coloring added to the dates if it helped
     the readability.

     Also, a new line has been added to the bottom of this display. If
     there are bottles currently overdue for hydro testing or past their
     ultimate life, if there are masks or back packs currently overdue for
     certification, or if there are PASS units currently overdue for a
     battery change, this new line will appear and blink a warning message.
     This will alert you to items which need immediate attention, but may
     not be visible on the screen you're looking at.

     Remember, if the first character of the "Last Known To Be On:" or
     the "Assigned To:" field is the star ( * ), those items will NOT
     be flagged as needing attention, as in  *Missing  .

  6. Enhanced detection of your air bottles that are overdue for hydrostatic
     testing or past their ultimate life (generally fifteen years for
     composite air bottles.)  When adding new bottles to the inventory or
     browsing through the inventory, SCBA Trak will now issue a warning if
     the air bottle you are currently looking at is either overdue for hydro
     testing or if its' ultimate life has expired. When adding your bottles
     into the fill log, SCBA Trak will also issue a warning if either of
     these conditions exists.

     Remember, these determinations are based on the data in the inventory.
     If your inventory file has not been updated for a hydro test that was
     performed, the warning will still be issued.

  7. When adding or browsing through the back pack or mask records, a
     warning box has been added to alert you if the "Last Certification" or
     "Certified Every xx Months" fields have been left blank. When adding or
     browsing through the PASS unit records, a warning box has been added to
     alert you if the "Battery Last Changed" date or the "Battery Changed
     Every xx Months" fields have been left blank in the PASS unit inventory.

  8. Added a check to the air bottle and fill log "Last Hydro Date" fields
     to assure you cannot enter a date that has not yet passed. Added the
     same check to the air bottle "Original Hydro Date:" field.

  9. Added a new "Inventory summary by PASS unit model" report to the PASS
     unit report menu. This new report shows you how many different models
     of PASS units you have, and the quantity of each model.

 10. Removed the "Filled By" field from the air bottle inventory data entry
     screen. Added the "Last Visual", Visual By", and "Visual Every xxx
     Days" fields to replace it. Many organizations are now performing
     yearly internal visual inspections of their air bottles as required by
     the Compressed Gas Association and some OSHA programs. Recording this
     information will help them stay in compliance.

     A new report, "Report on Bottles Due Or Almost Due For A Hydro Test
     Or Visual Insp." has been added to the air bottle reports menu. All
     bottles needing a hydro within the next two months or needing a visual
     within one month from "today" will be shown here.

     (The previous report "Report on bottles due or almost due for hydro
     test or refilling" has been renamed to "Find all bottles due for
     hydro test or refilling" for the sake of consistent useage throughout
     the program.)

     There is NO lead time added to the "Last Visual" date. Since I can't
     know if you are using this field for weekly, monthly, yearly, or
     "every 999 days" checks, adding a lead time would cause somebody
     somewhere some grief. If I were to add a month's lead time, and you
     were checking the bottles weekly, all of the bottles would always
     show up as overdue. To get a lead time, decrease your "Visual Every
     xxx Days" interval. If you are doing internal visual checks once a
     year, set the interval to 335 days instead of 365 days. Just make
     sure you and everybody else using the program is doing the same thing.

 11. The report "List of bottles requiring a hydro test through a specified
     date" has been renamed to "List of bottles requiring a hydro or visual
     through a selected date". The format of this report has been changed
     slightly to add a new "Visual Due By:" column. Those users performing
     visual checks can now use this report to project bottles which will
     be coming due for visual as well as hydro.

 12. Enhanced detection of network file locks by giving the user a dialog
     box whereby they can retry opening a file instead of just aborting
     back to the menu. For the sake of speed, each inventory file is
     opened exclusive. Since the fill log requires use of the air bottle
     inventory file only when adding bottles, the air bottle file is only
     locked by the fill log when adding bottles. In previous versions, the
     air bottle file was locked anytime you were using the fill log module.

 13. Added a new key combination, Alt+N . Using this combination from the
     main menu will rebuild the list of names used in the "Last Known To
     Be On" and "Assigned To" fields. Previously, after editing these fields
     to correct typos or remove obsolete names,  you had to quit the
     program, erase the file NAMELIST.DAT, and then restart the program to
     recreate the list of names.

 14. Added new key combinations  Alt+S  &  Shift+F9 . Using either of these
     combinations will shell you to DOS from all menus and data entry
     screens. This function actually swaps the SCBA Trak program out of
     conventional memory and stores it in either extended memory, expanded
     memory, or as a last resort, as a temporary file on the disk. Thus,
     you will have all but around 8K of your total memory available. The
     temporary file is about 600K in size and is marked with a READ ONLY
     attribute to prevent accidental erasure while in the shell. If you
     have sufficient extended or expanded memory, the swap usually takes
     less than one second. If the file must be stored on the disk, it can
     take several seconds. To return to the program, type  EXIT  and press
     the Enter key, just like the prompt says.

 15. Added the key combination  Alt+F4  as an alternative to the combination
     Alt+X  as a way to "fast quit" the program without having to return
     to the main menu.

 16. Added a "help" screen to show you what key combinations are available
     in SCBA Trak. The  F1  key or  Alt+H  key combination will bring up this
     screen from most places in the program.

 17. Some users have bottles in the inventory file which do not belong to
     them, but which they fill and maintain. When entering these bottles
     into the fill log, the "last filled" information in the air bottle
     inventory record would not be updated because the owner's name was not
     assigned to the F1 key. Now, when entering any bottle into the fill
     log, the air bottle inventory is automatically checked to see if there
     is a bottle with the exact same working pressure and serial number. If
     so, and the I.D. number of the fill log record exactly matches the air
     bottle record OR the fill log I.D. number is blank, you'll get a dialog
     box asking if you want the air bottle inventory information updated.
     The "Owner:" name now appears on the maintenance history report.

 18. You can now tap the space bar to cycle the cursor bar through the menu
     selections, in addition to using the cursor "down arrow" key.

 19. The operation of the "Find all bottles due or almost due for hydro test
     or refilling" report has changed slightly. Previously, all bottles with
     a duration of less than thirty minutes were excluded from the "needs
     refilled" portion of the report. Since NFPA 1500 restricts firefighting
     activities to SCBA systems with a duration of at least thirty minutes,
     this was done to avoid nuisance warnings from the older 1800 psi and
     2016 psi bottles.

     With the small five minute duration "emergency escape" systems being
     used more, primarily in confined space rescue, these bottles couldn't
     be flagged as needing refilled. Now, all bottles that haven't been
     filled in the past two and a half months, and where the DURATION isn't
     marked as  N/A  , will be flagged as needing refilled.

     Also, previously the DURATION entry required at least two digits. That
     restriction has been removed so you can enter 5 minute bottles as just
     a  5  instead of  05  .

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 Version 2.01                                                   Feb. 22, 1993
 ------------                                                   -------------

  1. Changed the automatic data file conversion function (applicable only
     to registered users who were using my previous program SCBABOTL) to
     insure proper conversion in certain network configurations. Users of
     SCBA Trak v2.00 will get the "data files need conversion" message the
     first time they run this version.

  2. Added a new key combination option, Alt+O, which allows registered
     users to print out an order form for someone else to use. This key
     combination only works from the main menu.

  3. Eliminated the references to the old NFPA 1500 "three month rule",
     which required air cylinders to be refilled at least once every three
     months, since this requirement has been removed. The reports still
     remain in case anyone is using them.

  4. Corrected the problem where the second and subsequent pages of a few
     of the multi-page reports only had one item printed on them. (v2.01a)

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 Version 2.0                                                    Feb. 22, 1993
 -----------                                                    -------------

  SCBA Trak (tm) is a complete rewrite of my previous program, SCBABOTL,
  which tracked air bottles and PASS units. A completely new user interface
  has been added, as well as new modules for tracking back packs and masks.
  Speed and reporting have been greatly improved. Since the program now
  handles much more than just the air bottles, I changed the name also.

  If you are now a user of SCBABOTL, your current data files can be read by
  SCBA Trak, but need conversion to the new format. If you are a registered
  user of SCBABOTL, the program will automatically convert your files the
  first time you use SCBA Trak, after you give your permission. Automatic
  conversion of data files is NOT available to unregistered users of SCBABOTL.

  I suggest you read the manual completely as there have been many significant
  changes and additions since the release of SCBABOTL version 1.42.

  Registered users of SCBABOTL are automatically registered users of
  SCBA Trak. You can use the same instructions I gave you with your SCBABOTL
  registration to turn off the SCBA Trak commercial.

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