Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/finance/sprm39.zip/STOCKNEW.DOC

Text File | 1993-10-31 | 38KB | 731 lines

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*           STOCK PORTFOLIO RECORD MANAGER from Gellman Software         *
*                        History of Recent Versions                      *
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     A Note to Users:  This file documents the large number of changes made
to the program over the last few years.  Major changes add new features.
Minor changes make the program easier to use or fix errors.  The philosophy
is to add useful features unobtrusively so that they can be easily ignored
by those who don't like change.

     Your ideas are welcome.  No suggestion for improvement is
insignificant.  If you can think of any feature that would be useful to
you, please let me know.  Every proposal will be seriously considered.


VERSION 3.9  Minor Revision (October 1993)

     -- NEW STATISTIC!  A new statistic now appears with the main display
for each stock.  Yield based on cost now appears along with the existing
yield which is based on the current price.  In order to add this
information, the screen and print main stock displays have been adjusted.
The dividend information on the top part of the screen display has been
moved, and a new line has been added.  On the printed version, the
percentage of profit/loss no longer appears on a separate line.  It is now
included as a parenthetical on the profit/loss line.  Other data elements
have been moved to make room for the cost yield.

     -- The portfolio summary (screen version only) now includes a
calculation of yield based on the cost of the portfolio in addition to the
existing yield which is based on the current value of the portfolio.  The
summary also now shows the percentage of profit/loss in addition to the
dollar amount of the profit/loss.

     -- When entering new transactions, the program now remembers the last
date entered (during the same session) and allows you to repeat it by
hitting the forward slash key.  There is a screen prompt when this facility
is available.

     -- When a new transaction is accepted, the acceptance message has been
changed.  The acceptance screen now shows selected main file information
that reflects the effect (if any!) of the newly entered transaction on the
holdings of the stock.

     -- There are several changes to the hypothetical transaction:

               ■ For sales, the proceeds are now displayed, along with the
          percentage of profit/loss.  Both appear when the data entry for
          the transaction is completed.

               ■ When selling all shares, the basis shown for the
          transaction was not always exactly equal to the actual basis.
          This has been corrected.

               ■ When a proposed transaction basis is displayed, it is
          accepted by hitting the ENTER key.  Previously, if another key
          was struck, the proposed basis was erased.  This has been changed
          to conform to the practice on the regular transaction screen.
          Now, the striking of a key other than the ENTER key does not
          erase the proposed basis.  It remains on screen, available for
          further editing.

     -- There are several changes to the process of selecting a file for
     viewing or printing:

               ■ When selecting a file for viewing, the first 24 files
          (*.RPT) in the CURRENT directory will be displayed in a box.  If
          you print reports to other directories, this will be useless.

               ■ Error messages on the select file for viewing and printing
          screens have been moved to the upper box.

               ■ If an error occurs while selecting a file for viewing, you
          are returned to the file selection screen rather than dumped back
          to the main menu.  The default file specification will once again
          be restored and prompted.

               ■ Previously, if you tried to read a report file when you
          did not write to or select a file for printing during that
          session, there was no prompt for a file name on the view file
          screen.  Now, if there is one .RPT file in the CURRENT directory,
          that name will be prompted provided that you have not written to
          or selected a file for printing in another directory.

     -- When viewing a report or the documentation, the first screen line
now shows the current location by displaying a percentage of the file that
has been read, and the layout of the first line information has been
altered slightly.

     -- When printing complete files or history reports for all stocks,
there is now a screen counter to show the progress of the print request.

     -- In previous versions, when displaying a complete log entry on
screen, the entire display shifted to the left when the note field was long
so that the entire note would appear on one line.  Now, only the note field
is shifted when necessary.

     -- The screen reminder of the current printer now blinks in part for
emphasis.  Similarly, the message that a change has been accepted is now
highlighted.

     -- Bugs fixed:

          ■ When selecting dates of your choice for transaction and other
     reports, the error message for a bad date appeared in the wrong place.
     This has been corrected.


VERSION 3.8  Major Revision (March 1993)
     (Thank you Phil Welty and Herbert Greenberg.  I didn't intend to
release a new version so soon, but a problem needed immediate attention.
The new dividend feature comes along for the ride.)

     -- MAJOR NEW CAPABILITY!  Dividends may now be categorized as
     ordinary, long term capital gain, short term capital gain, and tax
     free.  The new information is now available in several dividend
     reports and the printed stock file.  There is no need to change any
     previous dividend transactions to conform.  The default is for
     ordinary dividends, and any undesignated dividends will be categorized
     in this way.  To change other dividends, use the CHANGE menu.  All of
     this required a variety of small conforming changes throughout.

     -- The hypothetical transaction process has been changed in two ways.
     First, when entering a SELL transaction, hitting ENTER (or simply
     scrolling down) with a blank field is treated as the sale of all
     shares.  This avoids the need to copy a number that the computer can
     supply for you.  There is a screen prompt for this.  Second, in
     earlier versions, the user could edit the profit/loss field.  This
     seems pointless here and the ability has been eliminated.

     -- On the menu of stocks for selection, stocks have always been
     numbered.  Prior to version 3.3, you could select a stock by number.
     The ability to select by number has now been restored at the request
     of a user.  Hit the number keys and then ENTER.  There is no screen
     reminder of this capability.

     -- Total basis displayed or printed previously had only two digits to
     the right of the decimal point.  When transactions involved fractional
     shares or prices, this produced some apparent rounding errors.  In
     order to minimize the appearance of these errors, total basis has now
     been uniformly changed to four digits to the right of the decimal.
     There may still be rounding errors in this data field, but they will
     be at the .0001 level.

     -- The file viewer has been adjusted so that scrolling right and left
     now shifts the viewing window by 20 spaces rather than 10.  This makes
     it a bit easier to look around.

     -- Bugs Fixed:

               ■ A major internal shortcoming was identified and fixed.
          The documentation promises an unlimited number of stocks and
          transactions.  Due to unforseen limitations of programming tools,
          this promise was not completely fulfilled.  The program could
          accept unlimited stocks and transactions, but it was unable to
          display more than 400 transactions (or stocks) using the one-
          line, scrollable display.
               In addition, the same display of transactions could result
          in an improper background color if there were a large number of
          transactions.  All of this has been fixed by a complete revision
          of the display routines.  The display screen is now constructed
          on the disk rather than in memory.  The downside is that it takes
          longer to create the screen.  A progress counter has been added
          to the "Task in Process" screen so you can watch while waiting
          for the transaction screen to appear.  Sorry about this one.  No
          one actually reported any substantive problem.  One user reported
          the color problem which in turn pointed to the larger problem.

               ■ When changing the symbol for a stock that had no logs, it
          was possible that the program would crash.  This has been fixed.

               ■ The previous version promised to print a zero in the price
          field for stock sales.  This change was not well implemented, and
          it interfered with the display of some prices on the CHANGE LOG
          screen.  Hopefully, this has been fixed correctly now.


VERSION 3.7  Major Revision (January 1993)
     (Thanks as always to Phil Welty.  Some program changes are the result
of suggestions from David Hassell and Ron Bartlett.)

     -- NEW CAPABILITY AND REPORT!  Sales may now be categorized as long
     term or short term, and a new capital gains report is available
     separating sales in these two categories.  The new report can be found
     on the TRANSACTION REPORT menu.

          This has required small changes here and there in the program,
     but all has been accomplished without requiring reformatting of
     existing data files.  When entering or changing sale transactions, you
     will now be prompted to indicate if the sale is long or short term.
     The field may be left blank.  Sale transactions that have not been
     characterized as short or long term are listed separately in the
     report.  To designate existing sale transactions, use the CHANGE menu.

          Programmer's Note:  This report was requested by several users.
          It was not easy to decide how to do it.  There were many
          different approaches.  The one I selected makes the user do the
          designation.  Automatic determinations of long or short term
          sales are VERY complicated at best and impossible at worst.
          Comments welcome.  Further information can be found in the main
          documentation.

     -- NEW REPORT!  The program now offers a report that shows the capital
     transaction history for a stock.  This is a one line listing for each
     capital transaction (transaction numbers 1-6) showing the date,
     transaction type, price, number of shares, cumulative shares, basis,
     and cumulative basis.  This was requested by an Australian user!  You
     may find this report a useful and shorter alternative to a printed
     file listing.

     -- NEW FEATURE!  You can now read the documentation (STOCK.DOC) from
     within the program.  This is useful if you want to consult the
     documentation without exiting back to DOS.  This new option is the
     fourth choice on the DISPLAY menu.  You may specify a different drive
     and path if you keep STOCK.DOC in a directory other than the default
     directory.  You can only read a file named STOCK.DOC.  It's a big
     file, and it takes a few seconds for the program to digest it all.

     -- NEW FEATURE!  You can now erase report files (*.RPT) from within
     the program.  You no longer have to exit to DOS to erase an old report
     file.  This new option is the fourth choice on the DELETE menu.  You
     can specify a different drive and path if necessary.  You may delete
     all .RPT files in a specified directory or you may make individual
     decisions.  Note that the program will erase any file with a .RPT
     extension found in the designated directory, whether or not it was
     created by the program.

     -- The selection of dates for reports or multiple deletions now
     provides a fourth alternative.  The new choice is January 1, 1900 to
     December 31, 1999.  This includes all legal dates and offers reports
     or deletions that encompass all transactions in the files.  The
     previous date alternatives remain available:  year-to-date, last year,
     and user's choice.

     -- One consequence of the addition of short/long term designations for
     sales is a change in the existing transaction reports limited to stock
     sales.  The old reports included a column for transaction type.  For
     sales reports, this was always "SELL".  This superfluous information
     has now been replaced with an indication of the short/long term
     holding period.

     -- The internal file viewer now reads and displays files about 30%
     faster than before.

     -- Minor screen changes have been made to accommodate the capital
     gains data field and for other purposes.  Some windows have been
     modified, colors adjusted, and messages slightly revised.

     -- Bugs Fixed:

               ■ When entering a new transaction, hitting ESCAPE to abort
          an entry usually brought up the main stock file display rather
          than the main menu as intended.  This has been fixed.

               ■ When entering a new transaction, the field that held the
          basis was not always highlighted properly.  This has been fixed.

               ■ When printing transactions, the program would not print a
          price of zero.  This followed a practice of not printing
          meaningless fields.  However, it is possible to have a sale price
          of zero to recognize the disposition of a stock that has become
          valueless.  The program will now print a price of zero for sale
          transactions.

               ■ The entry of certain log fields with tremendously large
          numbers could either crash the program or exceed the ability of
          the program to display accurate figures.  Now the program
          monitors the entry of some fields and rejects numbers that too
          large for the program to process.  This is not foolproof, and it
          may still be possible to corrupt data files or crash the program
          sometimes when large numbers are involved in a transaction or set
          of transactions for a stock.  Don't even begin to worry about
          this unless you have more than $5 million worth of stock in one
          company or more than five million shares.  The actual maximum
          number is considerably higher than 5 million.

               ■ It was possible with earlier versions to crash the program
          by attempting to change or delete a log for a stock that had no
          logs.  This will no longer happen.

               ■ When changing an existing sale transaction, the program
          could get confused because the number of shares sold may be less
          than the number owned at the time the change was being made.
          This has been corrected.  There is no error checking for the
          number of shares sold during a change.

               ■ When entering or changing an illegal transaction date, the
          error message could overwrite part of the transaction type
          description under some circumstances.

               ■ The expected dividend report did not properly reflect
          dividends received once a year in the month of December.


VERSION 3.6  Major Revision  (May 1992)

     -- MAJOR NEW FEATURE!  A file viewer has been added so that reports
     printed to a file can be viewed without leaving the program.  The file
     viewer can be found as the third item on the DISPLAY menu.  Only files
     with an extension of .RPT can be viewed.  Files wider than 80 columns
     can be viewed by using the left and right arrow keys to shift the
     display window.  Only the first 16384 lines (a very large number!) in
     a file can be read.

     -- MAJOR NEW FEATURE!  A new portfolio summary has been added (number
     3 on the PORTFOLIO REPORT submenu).  You may now request a portfolio
     summary based on file prices for any given date.  The summary uses the
     price on or immediately after a specified date ($0.00 ignored).  If
     there is no qualifying price (e.g., the date specified is before any
     existing file price), then the most recent file price is used.

          This summary has some limitations.  It does NOT reflect any
     changes in the portfolio between the specified date and the current
     date.  Thus, it is most suitable for use in portfolios that are
     stable.  If you have sold a stock and bought another, the summary only
     includes the value of the current holdings.  If you have added a
     stock, the addition is valued at the current file price in all earlier
     summaries.  Please be careful not to misinterpret the results.

     -- When printing to a DOS file, the format of printouts has been
     revised.  Each report that is longer than one page now streams from
     top to bottom without page breaks.  The page breaks will appear when
     printing to a physical printer.  Several users felt that the page
     breaks were inconsistent with printing to a DOS file.  The end of each
     report is marked by a line across the screen.

     -- The portfolio comparison chart -- available when any type of
     portfolio summary is requested -- now proposes a description suitable
     for each of the three different types of summaries.  The proposed
     description can be modified.

     -- Previously, when printing a list of main files only, the current
     date printed only once per page.  It now prints as part of the title
     of each main file.

     -- The short screen display of transaction logs has been altered so
     that if the price, number of shares, or basis for any transaction is
     zero, nothing is displayed for that field.  Previously, a 0.00 was
     displayed.  The change makes the screen look less cluttered by
     eliminating unnecessary data.

     -- When entering or changing the basis for a transaction and a
     tentative basis is calculated by the program, hitting any key except
     ENTER allows the user to enter a different number.  In previous
     versions, the proposed basis was erased.  Now, the proposed basis
     remains in the field and can be edited or erased by the user.

     -- When ordering an expected dividend report, you are asked first
     about a leap year and then for a report title.  Previously, there was
     a brief delay between these two requests.  The delay has been
     eliminated.

     -- Several minor conforming screen and message changes have been made.

     -- Bugs Fixed:

               ■ The previous version thought that February had 27 days and
          28 days in a leap year.  The program now recognizes the correct
          number of day for February.  Since February 29, 1992 was a
          Saturday, no one noticed this error.

               ■ When changing a transaction log, the basis displayed in
          previous versions showed four digits to the right of the decimal
          point.  The display now contains only two decimals.  You can
          enter numbers with greater precision if desired, but the display
          will be rounded to the proper two decimals for dollar figures.

     -- Documentation:

               ■ The documentation (STOCK.DOC) has been completely revised
          and updated.


VERSION 3.5  Major Revision  (February 1992)
     (Thanks to Phil Welty, Mark Camp, and others for suggestions and
     assistance.)

     -- MAJOR CHANGE!  In all previous versions, the default printer was
     the IBM Proprinter (dot matrix).  The last version added the ability
     to print to a DOS file.  After asking a few users, I found that most
     usually print to disk, not paper.  As a result, the default printing
     device has been changed.  Unless otherwise specified, printing is now
     done to a DOS file named REPORT.RPT in the current directory.  In
     order to accommodate those who want to use paper as the default, there
     is a new command line switch (/IBM) that selects the IBM printer.  The
     laser printer command line switch (/HP) remains operational.  Printing
     devices can also be changed using the SELECT PRINTER option on the
     PRINT submenu.

     -- A corresponding change has been made in the SELECT PRINTER process
     and messages.  When selecting a DOS file, REPORT.RPT is offered as the
     default.  This can be changed, but the target file must have a .RPT
     extension.

     -- The second screen has been revised to reflect the new command line
     switch.  The recommendation for a physical printer has been dropped,
     and a notice of the change in default printer has been added.

     -- The Printer Selection Screen now shows the current printer.  A
     similar message now appears on the Report Title screen.

     -- When selecting a DOS file as a printer through the SELECT PRINTER
     submenu, entering an illegal path or file name now returns you to the
     submenu rather than to the main menu.  This gives you another chance
     to enter a legal name without an extra keystroke.

     -- NEW REPORT:  A new transaction report is now available.  It lists
     stock sales that were profitable separately from sales that were not.
     This Profit/Loss report is the fourth selection on the TRANSACTION
     REPORT submenu.

     -- The second screen for the DELETE MAIN FILE routine has been revised
     to show the current holdings in the selected stock.  This permits you
     to verify that you own no shares of the stock you are about to delete.

     -- Dividend and Transaction reports require that the entire data file
     be read and, sometimes, sorted.  If there are many transactions, this
     can take a while.  The "Task in Process" screen now shows whether the
     program is reading, sorting, and writing.

     -- Bug Fixed:

               ■ A rounding error in calculating net losses of
          approximately $.01 on stock sales has been corrected.


VERSION 3.4  Major Revision  (October 1991)
     (Thanks to Phil Welty, RDS from CO, Bob Blacher, Wayne Hammerly, and
     others for suggestions and assistance.)

     -- NEW FEATURE!  When a portfolio summary is displayed, you now have
     the option to save key information in a temporary portfolio comparison
     chart.  The chart allows for a short, user-supplied description so
     that different summaries can be distinguished.  The comparison chart
     can also be displayed directly from the PORTFOLIO REPORTS menu.  The
     chart contains the eight most recent portfolio summaries.  The chart
     is erased at the end of the current session.

     -- NEW FEATURE!  It is now possible to print to a DOS file rather than
     to a printer.  The printer selection screen has been revised
     accordingly.  Every printed report can be sent to a DOS file except
     for the transaction summary screen.

     -- The selection of dates for reports or multiple deletions now
     provides three alternatives:  year-to-date, last year, and user's
     choice.

     -- The DIVIDEND REPORT menu has been changed to conform to the
     TRANSACTION REPORT menu.  The same options exist as before, but the
     choice between a printout by company and by date is now made at the
     date selection screen rather than at the menu.

     -- The sorting algorithm used for date sorts has been changed.  While
     the earlier algorithm produced correct reports, it appeared to
     randomly order events that occurred on the same day.  The new routine
     will order same-day events predictably.

     -- The message indicating that a deletion request has been aborted has
     been made more generic.

     -- The opening and closing screens have been speeded up.  Other
     changes have been made to screen layouts, most notably the
     hypothetical transaction screen.

     -- Bugs Fixed:

               ■ The main stock file print routine printed an extra blank
          line which caused a main-file-only listing to extend to the last
          physical line of the page.  This has been corrected.

               ■ When entering or changing a new stock file, the program
          skipped the date field if the number of dividends per year was
          zero.  This could lead to a situation where it is impossible to
          change the date field.  This has been fixed by deleting the
          intentional skipping of the field.


VERSION 3.3   Major Revision  (June 1991)
     (Thanks to Phil Welty, Mark Camp, and others for suggestions.)

     -- Selecting an individual log for display, change, or deletion is now
     done with a lightbar.  Also, the previous main menu selection for a
     summary of logs has been eliminated.  One consequence of the lightbar
     log selection is a slight delay in filling the selection screen if you
     have many transactions for a stock.  The benefit is that you can
     bounce from one end of the list to the other instantaneously.

     -- NEW REPORT!  There are two new printed dividend reports available.
     Both offer a list of expected dividends for a year.  One lists
     dividends by date and the other by company.  See STOCK.DOC for more
     details.

     -- NEW FEATURE!  The program now offers the ability to enter a
     hypothetical buy or sell transaction for an existing stock.  This
     hypothetical transaction is available as the fourth selection on the
     ENTER portion of the main menu.  These transactions do not become part
     of the permanent files.  See STOCK.DOC for more information.

     -- When displaying a main stock file or a full log, hitting the +
     (plus) key will now result in the display of the next file.  Hitting
     the - (minus) key will now result in the display of the previous file.
     In earlier versions, hitting the space bar produced a display of the
     next file.  Now the space bar returns to the main menu.

     -- The lightbar selection for stock files has been modified.
     Previously, you could select a stock by entering its number.  This is
     no longer supported.  The HOME and END keys are now operational; they
     move the lightbar to the top and bottom of the list.  The HOME and END
     keys are also operational on the log selection menu.

     -- Lightbar selection has been provided for the portfolio,
     transaction, and dividend report submenus.

     -- The position of the portfolio reports and the transaction reports
     on the main menu has been reversed.  I found that portfolio reports
     were used more frequently than transaction reports.  My apologies to
     those whose usage patterns are different.

     -- The position and content of the message that appears when an
     illegal date is entered has been modified.

     -- In earlier versions, dates were not checked for non-existent dates
     (e.g., February 31).  The program now rejects these dates.  February
     29 is a valid transaction date, but it will not be accepted as a
     dividend date.  The program does not check to see if a particular
     February 29 is in a valid leap year.

     -- Earlier versions would permit the sale or disposal of more shares
     than were owned.  This type of transaction is no longer permitted.

     -- The display of decimal equivalents that appears at the bottom of
     the screen when entering a price has been expanded to include 32nds.
     The display is now partly in color.

     -- Minor revisions were made to many of the screen displays.

     -- The documentation (STOCK.DOC) has been revised to reflect changes
     to the program.  Paragraphs that are new or significantly changed now
     have the "#" character at the beginning.  This permits searching for
     new text using a text editor or word processor.

     -- Bugs Fixed:

               ■ When two transactions for the same stock were entered
          with the same date but with different prices, the current price
          displayed in the main stock file was the price of the first
          transaction of the day.  Now the current price is based on the
          price of the last transaction entered.

               ■ The ability to enter a date with a year greater than 99
          (e.g., 1/1/111) has been eliminated.

               ■ On the change file screen, it had been impossible to
          eliminate a dividend date from a file.

               ■ On the change file screen, the number of dividends had
          been displayed one space to the right of where it belonged.


VERSION 3.2  Major revision   (December 1990)
     (Thanks to Phil Welty, NJG, and others for suggestions.)

     -- NEW FEATURE!  A new transaction for cash dividends received has
     been added.  This permits users to track dividends and obtain reports.
     A number of conforming changes have been made throughout the program.
     The field for the amount of the dividend is highlighted on the data
     entry screen.  It appears where the PROFIT/LOSS field is for other
     transactions.  The documentation has been revised, and users may want
     to read the details of the new transaction and the new reports.

     -- The report menu has been modified.  There are now only three main
     menu entries:  PORTFOLIO REPORTS, TRANSACTION REPORTS, AND DIVIDEND
     REPORTS.  Each category has a submenu.  Dividend Reports are new, and
     there are four different reports:  one screen summary and three
     different printed reports.  No other reports have been added.
     Dividend transaction only appear in dividend reports and not in
     transaction reports.

     -- Titles for almost all printed reports can now be supplied by the
     user.  Some reports that had titles that were 2-4 lines in length now
     have a one line user-supplied titles.  The amount of data that will
     fit on a printed page has been adjusted accordingly.

     -- The printing of report titles has been shifted so that it occurs
     later in the report generating process.  This avoids printing of a
     title in the event that printing is aborted early enough in the
     process.  Previously, the title was printed well before any data.

     -- A new delete log function has been added.  It is now possible to
     delete multiple dividend transactions and enter data transactions at
     once.  This may be done for any period for a single stock or for all
     stocks.  This permits outdated dividend transactions or prices to be
     removed easily in one operation.

     -- Log displays for ENTER DATA transactions have been revised so that
     fields not used are not displayed.  DIVIDEND transactions follow a
     similar pattern.

     -- The short log display used to show the cost or basis to four
     decimal places.  The display now shows the cost or basis to two
     decimal places.  This avoids meaningless precision.

     -- After changing a main stock file, you are now left at the select
     stock file screen so that you may select another stock to change
     without going back to the main menu.  This facilitates changing
     several main files at the same time.  To return to the menu from the
     select stock file screen, just hit escape.

     -- A subtle error that permitted duplicate stock symbols in two
     extremely unlikely circumstances (not worth explaining here) has been
     identified and corrected.  No user reported the problem.


VERSION 3.1  Never released to the public

VERSION 3.0   Major Revision  (June 1990)
      (Thanks to Phil Welty, Jeff Donovan, Henry Bell, Rob Veeder, Nelson
     Ford and others for inspiration, assistance, and suggestions.)

     -- MAJOR NEW FEATURE!  Addition of full screen editing capability.
     Standard editing keys operational in input fields.  This change
     required considerable internal reorganization and revision of all user
     input screens.

     -- The program is now shareware.  The registration price is $25.00.

     -- Stock symbols are now checked to see if they match file names
     reserved by DOS for other purposes.

     -- The first line of the printed portfolio report can now be user
    supplied.

     -- Documentation revised to reflect new features and the change
     from freeware to shareware.  Appendix 3 (history of recent versions)
     removed and placed in separate file.

     -- The fields for dividend rate broadened to allow for eight
     digits, four digits on each side of the decimal point.  This allows
     dividends from $9999. to $0.0001.  WARNING:  since the rate is stored
     as a single precision number, it will not be accurate beyond seven
     digits.  If you enter a dividend rate with four digits on each side of
     the decimal point, accuracy will not be precise.  This should not be a
     problem since a dividend rate is not likely to be both in the
     thousands of dollars and ten-thousandths of a dollar.

     -- When entering a stock or a log, hitting the ESCAPE key now aborts
     input even when in the middle of a field.  Before, the ESCAPE key only
     aborted when it was the first key in a field.

     -- When printing a complete stock file, the heading on the pages
     after the first has been changed from a three line heading to a one
     line heading.  The result is to allow room for printing an extra log
     most of the time.

     -- The internal line counter for the transaction listing has been
     modified.  The result is more accurate form feeds, especially on
     listings of stock sales.  Use of form feeds has been sharpened to
     avoid unnecessary blank lines.

     -- A title has been added to the total line on listings of stock
     sales.  Totals for proceeds and profit/loss which formerly appeared
     only on stock sale listings now appear on transaction listings too.

     -- The number of the new log entry now appears in the upper left
     corner of the log entry screen.

     -- The screen and print versions of the main stock file now include
     the annual cash dividend (dividend rate times number of shares).  The
     printed version makes room for the number by putting the stock symbol
     on the title line, moving the number of logs in place of the stock
     symbol, and adding the cash dividend.  The print date now appears on
     the left of the title line.

     -- When ordering printing of a complete file for one stock, the
     printing is completed and the list of stocks reappears so that another
     stock can be printed if desired.  You must now hit ESCAPE to return to
     the menu.  Previously, you were returned to the menu directly after
     printing.

     -- The main menu option to select printer now indicates whether the
     current printer is IBM or HP.


VERSION 2.4   Minor Revision  (March 1990)
     (Thanks to Don Avila and NJG for suggestions.)

     -- Most printed reports and displays are slightly modified.  Decimal
     points are now generally aligned vertically, and dollar signs now
     float next to the first digit rather than a space away.  The decimal
     alignment is not changed on complete file printouts.

     -- The dividend rate now shows four numbers to the right of the
     decimal point.

     -- After a new transaction is entered, you may go directly to a
     display of the main stock file by hitting the ESCAPE key.  This
     enables you to see the effect of the new transaction on your holdings
     without using the menu.

     -- On the log display summary, you now hit ESCAPE to see the main
     stock file rather than M.

     -- The change log and delete log procedures are modified so that an
     erroneous number is properly erased after the error message.

     -- The program now allows references to log numbers higher than 999.

     -- If the log display selection requires more than one screen, the
     message at the bottom of all screens but the last is changed.

     -- Most of the messages that appear in the lower box during the
     entry of a transaction have been revised.  One notable addition is the
     display of the net proceeds for sales.  Also, the transaction numbers
     are now highlighted in the box.

     -- A stop print option is offered for print requests that require more
     than one page.  The response is neither immediate nor perfect, but it
     works reasonably well.

     -- When entering the date for a dividend, the program prompts for a
     date in the form MM/DD.  The documentation erroneously asked for this
     date to be in the form MM/YY.  The documentation is now correct.

     -- Version 2.3 failed to handle dates before 1910 properly.  The
     dates were stored and used correctly internally, but the dates were
     garbled on displays and printouts.  The original documentation for
     version 2.4 failed to include any explanation of this correction.

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