Monster Media 1996 #14/Monster Media No. 14 (April 1996) (Monster Media, Inc.).ISO/pcboard/pwave110.zip/WHATSNEW.110

Text File | 1996-02-12 | 10KB | 190 lines

   ┌── · ▄▄▄. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │ .■▄█▀▀▀▀■.   PCBWave v1.10 - WHATS NEW IN THIS VERSION               │
    ■▄█░█▒    · ▄ Copyright 1995-1996 Lars Hellsten, All Rights Reserved  │
   ░███████▄▄▄▄██ Another great MatrixSoft product!                       │
   ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   └──────── Blue Wave / QWK offline mail door for PCBoard v15.x ─────────┘


                               INTRODUCTION


   This file contains a list of major changes that have been made since the
   last release of PCBWAVE.  It is best when upgrading to a new version, to
   search this file for the release of the version you're currently
   running, and then read *UP* from that point.  That way you see the
   changes in the order they were made.

   Please make sure you read through this file carefully, since there may
   have been important changes since the previous version that you should
   be aware of.  If you're not upgrading from a previous version (ie.
   doing a new installation), then reading this file is not necessary.


                            PCBWAVE FOR OS/2


   The OS/2 version seems to be coming along well, and has entered beta
   testing.  If you're interested in taking a look at the beta copy, you
   can send me an Internet e-mail message at "[e-mail]" and I'll
   see about getting you more information.  Hopefully it will be released
   within the coming few weeks (possibly by the end of the month).


                 PCBWAVE [DOS] v1.10 released on 02/11/96


   + Strings added - you must manually add these string(s) to your
     ENGLISH.TXT file (simply cut and pasting is adequate) and recompile
     with PCWLCOMP, otherwise PCBWave won't display anything where these
     strings are normally displayed.

     ; 078: This is displayed before string 77 - used to set the color
     078 @X0A

   * The protocol SEND and RECEIVE command line settings are now
     scrollable, allowing you to enter command lines longer than the 65
     character field.  You can now enter command lines up to 75
     characters, which isn't that much more, but it should be an
     adequate amount of space now.

     The default protocol command lines have been updated to by default
     use DSZ's "portx" parameter along with the @ADDR@ and @IRQ@ macros,
     instead of the "port" parameter with the @PORT@ macro.  This means
     the default setup is now compatible with non-standard IRQ
     assignments (before the sysop would have to change it manually).

     If upgrading from v1.00, you will have to update the command lines
     manually if you've got any modems on your system that are using
     non-standard IRQs unless you re-install PCBWAVE from scratch.

   * Tim Strike's FKFOSSIL is no longer being used for communications.
     Without the source code, it was impossible to adapt Tim's library to
     work without a FOSSIL driver, or port the routines to OS/2, so a new
     set of comm routines was developed from scratch.

     This means that PCBWAVE now supports both FOSSIL and ASYNC (direct,
     interrupt driven) communications.  If using FOSSIL mode, no changes
     are required from your current setup, other than making sure the
     "Communications driver" option in PCWSETUP is set to "FOSSIL".

     The ASYNC driver will allow you to get rid of your FOSSIL driver if
     you're not using it for any other doors.  In order to setup PCBWAVE to
     use ASYNC mode, first change the comm driver in PCWSETUP (under the
     variables and limits menu) to "ASYNC".  If you're using standard IRQs
     and base addresses, that's all you need to do.

     If you're using non-standard IRQ(s), PCBWAVE will ATTEMPT to read the
     IRQ setting from PCBOARD.DAT, and look up the correct base address for
     the port being used in your system's BIOS.  So most sysops don't need
     to change a thing other than the "comm driver" toggle in PCWSETUP.

     If for some reason this does not work, or the IRQ and base address
     settings defined in your PCBoard setup for some reason do not match
     the IRQ and base address settings for the port PCBWAVE is to use, then
     you can override the values by passing the /P:{addr,irq} parameter on
     the command line (and modifying your PCBWAVE batch file).  For
     example, "/P:2e8,5" would tell PCBWAVE the modem is on base address
     2E8 (the default address for COM4), and IRQ5.

     If you pass "0" for the base address, PCBWAVE will look up the correct
     address for the port it's using in your system's BIOS tables.
     Similarly, if you specify 0 for the IRQ, and are using COM1 or COM2,
     it'll use the standard IRQ associated with that port
     (COM1=IRQ4,COM2=IRQ3), or if you're using COM3 or higher, it'll try
     and read the IRQ from your PCBoard setup.

     The following command-line parameters have been added:

        /F:on/off   Override FOSSIL driver setting (ON=Use, OFF=Don't)
        /P:addr,irq Specify modem IRQ and base address (eg. "3f8,5")

   * When an error message is displayed, PCBWAVE will now pause for 2.5
     seconds, so error messages won't fly by before you can see them when
     running PCBWAVE from within PCBoard.

   + PCBWAVE now reads the IRQ and base address fields from PCBoard's modem
     setup if the port it's using is COM3 or higher.  COM1 and COM2 are set
     to IRQs 3/4, and base addresses 3F8/2F8 respectively.  This allows the
     following two new macros:

        @IRQ@  - Returns the current IRQ
        @ADDR@ - Returns the current base address.

     You can use these macros in your protocol setup, and no longer need to
     use a batch file to handle your protocols if the protocol driver
     you're using (ie. DSZ) requires the IRQ/address assignments.

   % PRESCAN mode should work properly now, in both single user mode, and
     processing a list of users.  The sample batch files have also been
     modified a bit.

   % If aliases were active in the configuration of a conference, but the
     alias PSA wasn't installed, or the user hadn't chosen an alias,
     PCBWAVE was including a blank alias field, and the FROM: field of all
     posts in the BW reader (only in the reader - PCBWAVE would set the
     FROM: field properly when processing the uploaded packet) was
     appearing blank.  If the user doesn't have an alias, PCBWAVE now
     passes their real name to the reader as their alias.

   % Fixed some problems in PCWSETUP with the way overrides were handled.
     If it looks like your override setups are corrupted, you may have to
     delete OVERRIDE.PCW and re-do them.

   * Major changes were made internally to the scanning code.  It now only
     scans new messages (the way most other mail doors work) as opposed to
     building data on every message.  This makes the scanning process much
     faster, although some elegance is lost with respect to how the
     bundling commands work.

     It builds data on other messages on the fly - if you issue the BO
     bundling command to bundle old messages, or the <conf#>L<#msgs>
     command to bundle messages older than your last read pointer, PCBWave
     will go and quickly rescan the messages in that conference that it
     hasn't already scanned.

     If all the messages in a base are new, there will be no visible
     difference.  If half the messages in a base are new, it should be
     about 50% faster.  If no (or very few) messages in a base are new,
     scanning should be about 75+% faster than PCBWave v1.00.

   % Fixed some problems with the logic the last read pointer updating code
     was using.  If a conference was set to personal messages only, it was
     setting the last read pointer to the last personal message bundled,
     when logically it really should've been setting it to the last message
     in the conference.  This would only be noticable if you were to turn
     personal status off and download again though.

   * When in prescan mode, PCBWAVE will no longer create empty mail
     packets.  This means you can do things such as have PCBWAVE bundle
     your own mail on a regular basis without having to worry about it
     filling up your reader's DL directory with tons of empty packets.

   + A progress indicator is now given to the user when PCBWAVE is
     initializing it's conference data - on some systems with many
     conferences, PCBWave was taking a long time to initialize and some
     users may have hung up not knowing what was going on.

   * Made some improvements to the way the door handles conferences, to
     speed things up.  The door now does most of what it needs to while
     it's initializing.  Some of the stuff it did when building mail (such
     as creating Blue Wave's <bbsid>.INF file) which required it to read
     through every conference on the system is now done when initializing.

   * Sped up initialization and message scanning slightly, at the cost of a
     few k-bytes of memory.  How much of a difference it'll make I don't
     know.

   * The door now checks for duplicate file attaches - that is, if for
     whatever reason the same file is attached to two messages, it won't be
     listed twice, and it won't bundle it twice.

   % PCBWave wasn't reading the "network type" field properly, so some
     areas were not flagged as the proper type from within the reader.

   % If a conference was marked as "default to ON" or "forced" in
     PCWSETUP's overrides manager the door was flagging ALL conferences as
     having forced/default status.