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Monster Media 1994 #1
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WILDCAT
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DATAV47.ZIP
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WHATSNEW.DOC
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1994-03-16
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WHATSNEW.DOC - DataView 4.7
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CHANGES, ADDITIONS, & BUGFIXES (version 4.7)
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The following list contains all of the changes and additions that have been
made to version 4.7.
1. Previously, DataView would not allow users to extract files that had a
"-" as the first character in the filename. However, they could mark the
file, and then read it which was a way to bypass that. DataView no
longer allows you to do this.
2. In DVCONFIG.EXE, it would add an extra backslash to the SCAN.EXE command
line. This backslash should not have been there, and DVCONFIG no longer
puts it there.
3. Fixed problem with DataView not working with self extracting EXEs
created by ARJ versions 2.41 or greater.
4. Fixed problem with DataView not working with the new type of SDN files
created by ARJ with a filesafe security envelope.
5. Previously, when a user's security level had a download ratio of zero
(no download ratio), DataView would not let them download. This problem
has now been fixed.
6. DataView now reports to the user when they have reached their maximum
lines. I had thought that it already did this, but I accidently
commented out some code from the last version, its in there now. :)
7. A new MOD viewing feature has been added. When you try to [R]ead a MOD
music file (an Amiga music format) DataView will give you a full
technical description of the file including all sample names and quite a
bit of other information. DataView currently supports 4, 6, and 8
channel MODs, although I will be supporting more music formats in the
near future. Here is an example:
Song name : beyond_music
MOD type : M.K. Num Patterns : 38
Song length : 36 Pattern size : 38912
Total size : 432158 Samples size : 392162
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1: SoftBass 17: Zoh2.Minor
2: SawSynth.Major1 18: FilterSynth
3: SawSynth.Major2 19: DistortedBass
4: SawSynth.Major3 20: SynBrass
5: HupII 21: SawSynth.Arrested1
6: OpenChord2 22: SawSynth.Arrested2
7: BassDrum+Bongo 23: SawSynth.Arrested3
8: SnareDrum+Bongo 24: AirCraft
9: BassDrum 25: PowerOff2
10: SnareDrum 26: HupIII
11: HiHat 27:
12: SnareDrumFill 28: Composed by ...
13: SawSynth.Minor1 29: Captain/Image!
14: SawSynth.Minor2 30:
15: SawSynth.Minor3 31:
16: BassDrum+Cymbal
For those that didn't install version 4.6ß, you may want to read the new
feature list for that version since it also applies to version 4.7. Its
listed below:
CHANGES, ADDITIONS, & BUGFIXES (version 4.6ß)
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The following list contains all of the changes and additions that have been
made to version 4.6ß.
1. Fixed problem with DataView not recognizing 43/50 line mode.
2. Added the [L]ist back to the read and archive view prompts.
3. Modified filter to determine if a file is text or binary. This feature
should be a little more reliable now. Please note that there is no 100%
way to know if a file is text or binary, so you may occasionly run into
a situation where DataView thinks that a text file is actually a binary
file.
4. Fixed read more prompt from going an extra line more then it should
have.
5. I made all of the prompts so that they now support wildcards and command
stacking. This means that you can now do things like:
"R 1 *.DOC DESC.SDI"
The above command line would read file number 1, read all documentation
files, and read the file DESC.SDI.
You can use this feature on most of the commands where it makes sense to
do so.
6. Added saving of user settings. Currently the only user settings that
DataView saves are whether the user is in expert mode, and how many
files they've downloaded in DataView. The number of files downloaded
are saved so that DataView can create the appropriate archive names when
a user downloads multiple files from your BBS. ie: DATAV001.ZIP
DATAV002.ZIP, etc.
These settings are saved only for the length of the call. After the
caller logs off and another user enters DataView, the settings are
lost. I had considered using a btree database so that the settings would
always be there, but this would slow down the program and make the EXE
quite a bit larger, so I opted not to take that route. My main goal is
to keep DataView as fast as possible.
In your \WC30\DATAVIEW\ directory, you may notice some files called
DV$SET.<nodeNum>. These files are simply the saved user settings, they
are nothing to worry about.
7. An expert mode has been added to DataView. I added this because the menu
files have become so large that they can be annoying to have to look at
everytime (atleast for me) =). If you know all of DataView's comands,
you can just hit [X]pert Mode and DataView will not display that long
menu to you. DataView saves this setting for the length of your call, so
you may go in and out of DataView multiple times, but DataView will
recognize that you are still in expert mode.
8. I updated the menu files for some of the changes that were made in this
version. Basicly, the menu files are the same except with a few more
options added to them. They are still fully editable. In the previous
version of DataView, there was only a file called DVMAIN.BBS for the
menu (or DVMAIN.SCR if your using seperate color menus). Well, now
there's an additional menu file called DVSYSOP.BBS. This is exactly the
same as DVMAIN.BBS except with yet a couple more features added to it.
This menu file is displayed to any security level which you have defined
as having sysop access in DataView.
9. A [D]ownload feature has been added to DataView. This is probably one of
the most powerful features in the program. This feature allows users to
create new archives which contain one or more files from the original
archive. DataView allows you to select which compression method you
would like to create the new archive with as well.
The download feature also has all internal protocols. Xmodem, Ymodem,
Kermit, and Zmodem are supported.
DataView supports full ratio, daily download limit, and time checking
before allowing the user to download anything. This means that there is
no way that a user could go and try to get free downloads through
DataView. In addition, DataView updates Wildcat's databases for number
of downloads and number of kilobytes downloaded.
Which security levels can and can't download are totally selectable
through DVCONFIG.EXE.
NOTE: The download feature is only available in the registered version
of DataView.
10.With the new download feature, I decided that there better be a way for
users to have a marked list of files in DataView. You will notice the
commands [M]ark, [E]dit marked, and [C]lear marked. These commands do
the same exact thing that they do in WildCat. The marked files are the
files that are archived for you when you download.
There are a few other things that you can do with marked files. For
instance, you can [R]ead all marked files by typing "M" when it asks you
which files you want to read. In addition, you could [L]ist all marked
files by typing "L M" at the main menu. These features are just
shortcuts though, and so I will not go deeply into them since I would
imagine they won't be used very much.
11.This version of DataView also adds two new features which I think are
really useful. In DVCONFIG.EXE there is a picklist of security levels
that have "sysop access". You can pick certain security levels which
will be able to access the following sysop features:
[Z] Delete files from archive
[Y] Add files to archive
The delete feature is extremely valuable so that you (the sysop) can go
and delete files from the archive which you may not want there (ie:
other BBS ads and such). My BBS is devoted to demos and music files, so
often I will come across an archive which may have 5 or more BBS ads in
there! Well, with the delete feature, I can clean up all of that garbage
and restore the archive to its original clean state.
The add feature probably is not as valuable, and I don't find myself
using it as much, but its there in case you need it.
These features are VERY powerful, but as you might imagine, they're
potentially very dangerous as well. This feature is configurable by
security level, and I would recommend only giving the sysop security
level access to this feature.
On my BBS, I have a filesysop, so only the filesysop and I have access
to this feature on my BBS. I would suggest a similar setup for your BBS.
NOTE: These features are only available in the registered version.
12.DataView now has the ability to report to you information on GIF files.
DataView will give you the resolution, version, and colors in a GIF
file. If you have other external GIF add on programs, DataView also has
a couple of other options for you. The following to batch files are
called up if they exist in the \WC30\DATAVIEW\ directory:
VIEWGIFL.BAT - Called if a local user is attempting to view a GIF file.
VIEWGIFR.BAT - Called if a remote user is attempting to view a GIF file.
13.Because of all of these new features, the DVTEXT.DAT has grown quite a
bit larger. Quite a few new prompts have been added. All of them are
still editable in the registered version of DataView.
14.The configuration program DVCONFIG.EXE has been totally rewritten to
accommodate all of the new features.
15.Quite a bit of other stuff has been added, but the above is just a
listing of the most significant stuff.
16.The [R]ead function has been fixed so that it displays ANSI files
correctly (or atleast most of them).
17.This version of DataView no longer requires a demo key. It will not
expire! I just decided that I don't like the idea of a demo key. Its too
much of a pain for you and for me! :)