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Text File | 1996-05-20 | 37KB | 736 lines

Replicator Revision History 05-20-96 ■ Version 1.28 . Build 12 - Added a "Working Directory" field to the Defaults screen. This field should contain the path where Replicator will decompress the compressed image files, in order to write the image to a diskette. (Previously, the decompressed file was created in the same directory as where the compressed file existed. Internally, however, we have placed most of our compressed image files on CD-ROMs, making the "working directory" feature a necessity.) . Build 11 - Added a check to make sure the user cannot recreate any diskettes if he is using an unregistered version of Replicator and has more than 10 records in the database. (This situation should usually not occur, since the unregistered version is now limited to 10 total database records.) . Build 10 - Implemented support for a specific CD-ROM vendor to create Replicator Image Files for customers, burn them on a CD-ROM, and distribute Replicator with the CD-ROM. (This requires that Replicator be installed to a hard drive prior to use.) . Build 9 - Updated copyright notices for 1996. . Build 8 - Changed several of the variables written to the REPLICAT.INI file to be written as YES/NO instead of TRUE/FALSE. (The reading routines will recognize the values in either format.) . Build 7 - Changed the number of database records allowed in the unregistered version of Replicator from 25 to 10. (This was suggested by one of our users.) . Build 6 - Updated the vendor's library for the database engine and database browsers. This update includes only minor changes. . Build 5 - Implemented a file locking system for the file REPLICAT.INI to ensure that 2 users on a network or multitasking system cannot attempt to read or write to this file at the same time. (This process uses atomic lock files.) If this file cannot be read during the initial execution, Replicator will terminate. . Build 4 - Implemented a fix in a vendor's library for the compression routines used for the compression and decompression of Replicator's image files. STSI regrets to report that we found a data-corruption bug in our previous vendor's compression library. After reporting the bug and waiting several weeks, the vendor was finally able to fix the problem. We recommend that all current users obtain a copy of the latest version of PKUNZIP.EXE, and test any compressed files for possible errors. The data corruption bug appears to be somewhat obscure, and would have been present in Replicator For DOS versions 1.00 through 1.27. (In our case, we found 5 verified problem files in a total of 700 disks.) If you have a bad compressed file, PKUNZIP will report a CRC error on the file. In this case, you will need to locate the original disk and recreate the image. We apologize for any inconvenience to our users. . Build 3 - Changed the wording of an error message that can occur if an attempt is made to open a database with a corrupt or missing index file. Previously, the error message stated that the database was missing. The new error message indicates that the file is either missing or corrupt. . Build 2 - Added a special error message to report cases where the selected network type could not be initialized. Replicator now instructs the user to remove the "NetworkType=" line from the REPLICAT.INI file. This will make the database initializa- tion default to "No Network", allowing the user to enter the program, and reselect the correct network type. . Build 1 - Fixed a problem where the database initialization routine was always reporting "Insufficient memory for page buffer" if ANY error occurred when attempting to initialize the database. Changed routine to check the database error number and report the accurate error message. 09-18-95 ■ Version 1.27 . Added browse buttons to the virus scanner screen to allow users to browse their hard drive for the virus scanner(s) of their choice. . Changed the date field when a new record is added from the Database Management screen to automatically insert today's date, instead of Jan-01-1600. . Changed the behavior when deleting a record so that Replicator does not prompt the user to delete the file associated with the record if the file does not exist on the disk. . Replicator now updates the "Total Records" counter in the upper right corner of the Database Management screen after a record has been saved or deleted. . Fixed an intermittent problem where Replicator would attempt to read a disk during the Create Image From Disk process, and would immediately terminate the process without issuing any error messages. This was due to Replicator's inability to access physical information about the disk in the floppy drive. Replicator now issues an error message when this condition occurs. (This is usually due to a bad disk.) . Added a reading and writing retry loop when creating and restoring diskette images. The retry loop will report any errors to the user and give him/her the option of retrying the operation. The user can decide at what point to stop retrying the current operation, rather than having Replicator immediately terminate the operation, as it did in previous versions. . Added a "drive ready" check to the Create Image From Disk routine. This loop simply checks the disk in the disk drive, and if it cannot retrieve the correct disk type (the drive check will return "Unknown Disk" if the drive is not ready), Replicator will prompt the user "Unknown Disk Type or Drive Not Ready, Retry? (Yes, No)". . Changed the behavior of Replicator on the Create Image From Disk screen. Now, the cursor is automatically placed at the end of the "File To Create" field, where users can enter the filename immediately following the preset path. Also changed the description lines to be cleared on the first character the user types (unless it is a non-printable character, such as a navigational key). 08-29-95 ■ Version 1.26 . Fixed a potential problem where a read-lock was not being removed from a database immediately after a search was completed. (Only if Fast Search was enabled.) Previously, the read-lock was only removed after a user was done viewing the filtered records. Now, the read-lock is removed immediately after all of the records have been searched. . Renamed the options on the menu and the corresponding screens from "Copy Disk To File" and "Copy File To Disk" to "Create Image From Disk" and "Create Disk From Image", respectively. . Changed the layout of the Copy File to Disk screen. This screen will now only allow the creation of images that are catalogued in the database. To create a disk from an image that is not contained in the database, a new "Other" button has been created. . Increased the length of the File To Read field on the Copy File To Disk screen to 44 characters (to be even with the end of the memo window). . Added an option to pause after executing each virus scanner. This gives the user the opportunity to view the report, if any, generated by the virus scanner. . Added support for users to scan disks for viruses before creating a disk image. Two virus scanners may be set up on the Settings, Virus Scanner screen. A check box was added to the Create Disk Image screen to allow users to indicate whether or not the current disk should be scanned. . Made several cosmetic changes to Replicator including changing the color of dialog boxes that appear on the blue background screens to a more complimentary color. Also changed several of the various Yes/No controls to check boxes for better mouse support. . Added a second (independent) command processor for the Database Management screen's memo field to prevent keyboard hot-key conflicts with the memo field on the Copy File To Disk screen. . Changed the behavior of the Replicator Database Management screen. Instead of resetting the display to the first record in the database each time this screen is display, it will now remember the last accessed record. . Added type checking to make sure the disk type inserted in the floppy drive matches the disk type contained in the current database record, when using the "Copy File To Disk" option. If the two values do not match, an error message is issued, and the user is prompted for another diskette that matches the type in the database. . Disabled I/O checking during the "Copy File To Disk" operation to prevent potential Runtime errors. (If the image file is corrupt or an incorrect size, a message box will be displayed stating that a read error occurred.) . Fixed an operational problem where pressing Alt-C when viewing a record for the Database Management screen would cause a message box to be displayed prompting "Save Changes?". This message box is associated with the Cancel command, which is hidden from the user's view when the record is not being modified. . Fixed a problem where a Runtime Error #3 (Path not found) would occur if the user attempted to create an image file in a directory that did not exist. Added a check to make sure the directory exists before creating the image file. . Fixed an obscure problem where Replicator could appear to hang when printing one or more records (to a printer port or a file). This behavior would occur if the file list contained a line with only 1 character on it. (This problem was introduced in version 1.25.) . Fixed a problem where a Runtime Error #216 could occur when attempting to print all of the records in the database. This error occurred because memory was being allocated, but not released at the end of printing each record. . Fixed a problem when printing records that caused leading spaces on the front of each line in the file list to be trimmed. (This problem was introduced in version 1.25.) 06-06-95 ■ Version 1.25 . Incorporated updates to newest database code (v5.51). . Changed various references of "UsedRecs" to "GetUsedRecs" since UsedRecs represents the number of database sections, while GetUsedRecs represents the number of actual records. . Removed the "Initializing Database. Please Wait..." status screen, since the time required for database initialization has been drastically reduced. . Reduced the memory requirements and the time required to initialize the database by using the "MinimizeUseOfNormalHeap" constant in the BTInitIsam statement. This should help systems which have a limited amount of Extended (or DPMI) memory available. . Fixed a problem where the UsedRecs variable was being used instead of the GetUsedRecs function to determine how many records were used in the unregistered version of Replicator. . Increased the available size of the file list field from 16K to 24K. This should allow approximately 375 files / directories to be stored in the file list field of the database. . Rewrote a portion of the printing routines that prints the file list. Used a wrapping routine from STSI's internal libraries for more bullet-proof code. 05-15-95 ■ Version 1.24 . Reset the sequential record pointer after adding or modifying a record. . Fixed a problem where a Runtime Error 216 would occur (at 0004:109E) when Replicator attempted to retrieve the file and directory information from the diskette if the total amount of information saved would exceed 16K (approx- imately 260 files). Added range checking to make sure that the file/directory information cannot exceed this limit. Added a message box to inform the user at the time that this error condition occurs. . Fixed a potential problem where the temporary search results directory may not have been removed if Replicator was unable to create the temporary database. . Fixed a minor problem in the "Range Search" option that would cause Replicator to issue an error message that no messages were found in the user-specified range based on the starting and ending strings. This problem was inter- mittent, and occurred if the complete starting string could not be found in the first record selected. . Added an "Exists On Disk" field to the database management screen. This flag informs the user whether the file specified in the current record physically exists on the drive where it was created. In our company, we archive many of our Replicator images onto a tape, reducing the hard drive space consumed by image files. This flag gives a quick indication if the image file actually exists on the disk. . Created a literal string unit containing all strings that are read from the INI file and used variable references instead of literal strings, reducing the chance for typing or spelling errors. 04-17-95 ■ Version 1.23 . Updated the RTM.EXE and DPMI16BI.OVL files to the newest version (6-14-94). . Modified code to create temporary search databases in a temporary sub-directory (TEMP0001, TEMP0002, etc) underneath the Replicator program directory. This will help users not to be confused about "extra" database files appearing in the main program directory. (For an explanation of this process, read the section of the documentation concerning searching the database.) . Changed the Default Maximum Number of Workstations from 50 to 250 to allow network licenses of up to 250 users. . Added code to limit the number of network users that may access the Replicator database at one time. Registered network users will only be allowed access depending on the number of network users in their license. Non-registered users are allowed to have 5 users access the database at one time. (This is for evaluation purposes only. Database record limits will still apply for the non-registered version.) . Changed the default behavior of Replicator after deleting a record. Instead of resetting to the beginning of the database, it now advances to the next record. (If for some reason, it cannot access the next record properly, it will then reset to the beginning.) 03-09-95 ■ Version 1.22 . Added support for 25, 28, 43, and 50 line video modes. This setting can be overridden from the command line by using the /V=nn parameter (where nn is 25, 28, 43, or 50). For more information, please read the "Defaults" section of the Replicator documentation. . Modified code to make Replicator retrieve the information from the disk (volume label, disk size, file list, etc.) BEFORE compressing the image file. Previously, users might have unintentionally removed the diskette from the drive during the compression process, not realizing that Replicator still needed to access the disk to retrieve the disk infor- mation. Now, Replicator accesses the disk and retrieves this information immediately after the disk has been read, reducing the chance for this type of error. . Changed the appearance of the various status screen within Replicator. . Fixed a minor problem where an error message would be issued if a user selected the "Browse" button on the Copy File To Disk screen and immediately pressed Escape. Since no record was current when the Browser was created, it could not successfully restore the sequential pointer. 03-06-95 ■ Version 1.21 . Added the ability for OS/2 users to modify the default "Verify Delay" value that occurs after the Copy File To Disk process is completed. This setting is located on the Replicator Defaults screen. This delay is explained below. . Added a prompt after a disk has been formatted to allow users to immediately format another disk. . Added a display window to the Copy File To Disk dialog to allow users to see the files contained on a disk. (This scrollable window is filled in after a file is selected from the Browse window.) . Added a slight (10-second) delay for OS/2 users when Copy File To Disk is selected. This delay occurs after the disk creation is finished and before the verify process begins. This delay is needed due to OS/2's handling of floppy drives. . Changed a few of the options on the defaults page to check boxes instead of Yes/No controls. . Added an option for users to specify Interrupt 25 and 26 for the disk reading and writing routines, instead of the standard Interrupt 13 call. The Interrupt 25 and 26 routines were added to fix problems that we were experiencing when attempting to use Replicator under OS/2 v2.11 and OS/2 WARP v3.0. The Interrupt 25 and 26 routines should only be used in situations where the user is experiencing problems reading or writing. Previous errors such as "DMA Crossed 64K Boundary" and "Sector Not Found" (mostly on 1.2M disks) should now be eliminated. If you are using OS/2 and are still having problems, please contact STSI at (218) 924-2050. 01-23-95 ■ Version 1.20 . Added the option to allow Replicator to automatically detect the disk type in the specified drive when copying a disk to an image file. This option is on by default. Added a corresponding option to the Settings, Defaults screen to allow users to set the default setting for this field. (This option is not allowed on systems operating under OS/2. Due to conflicts in the disk detection routine, OS/2 does not currently report the correct disk type, so this option is simply disabled.) . Added a "Total Records" indicator to the top of the Database Management screen to inform users how many disk image records are maintained in the database. . Replaced the up and down arrow buttons with Next and Prev buttons to make the database browsing process easier. . Added a section to the bottom of the Database Management screen to display the files located on the original disk. . Added a conversion routine to convert databases from previous versions of Replicator to the current version. . Added new fields to the database that contain information about the original disk that was copied using Replicator. New fields include the disk's volume label, total files on the disk, total bytes consumed, and total bytes free. Also added a field to contain a list of all of the files that were on the original disk. This field stores the file's name, size, date, time, and the directory where it was located. (There is room for approximately 300 file entries in this field, depending on the length of the file's path when it is saved.) . Added a date field to the database management screen to display the date that a file was originally created with Replicator. . Added enhanced searching support to allow users to search either 1.) a single index field for a string, 2.) an indexed field for text starting and ending with a specific string, or 3.) an entire record for a specified string, with optional case-sensitivity. . Added printing support to print one or all records in the database to LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, or a file. . Moved the "Database Management" menu option to the main menu, and moved the "Format A Diskette" menu option to the Utilities sub-menu. . Added a "Created" field to the Database Management screen to indicate the date that the original disk image was created. . Shortened the Filename field to 12 characters on the Database Management screen, since this field cannot contain more than 12 characters. . Removed a call from the Copy File To Disk routine that would cause Replicator to attempt to close the image file if the dynamic memory allocation failed. (The file had not been opened at that point.) . Rearranged the order of a few procedures within the Copy Disk To File routines. The dynamically allocated disk buffer is now allocated prior to creating the image file. In the event that the dynamic allocation fails, the image file will not be created at all. (Previously, a 0 byte file would exist if the dynamic allocation failed.) . Fixed a potential problem where the dynamically allocated buffer in the "Copy Disk To File" routine was being unallocated twice in the same routine. (After testing with hundreds of disks, we did not see any problems arise as a result of this deallocation. Users were unlikely to see this problem manifest itself.) 01-05-95 ■ Version 1.14 . Fixed a serious problem that caused the database creation to fail when Replicator was executed. (This problem occurred because the default "NetworkType=" portion of the file REPLICAT.INI was set to "NOVELL" instead of "NONET".) A network call was being attempted due to this problem, causing an error #8100 to occur. The database was not being initialized, causing further problems in program execution. . Added error checking to make sure that a network user cannot attempt to open the database if another user has created a ".SAV" file in the Replicator directory. (Doing so could cause database corruption.) . Added code to make Replicator remember the last size and position of the browser screen within a session. Each time the browser is initialized, it will be displayed in the same position as it was when it was closed last. . Added a custom exit procedure to be executed in the event that a Runtime error occurs. . Added support for the browser to automatically highlight the current record in the database when it is initialized, rather than highlight the first record in the database. . Updated code with database library changes. 12-29-94 ■ Version 1.13 . Increased the number of columns in the browser window from 128 to 255. . Fixed some appearance issues on monochrome monitors. . Changed the "Search" button on the Copy File To Disk screen to a "Browse" button. (Serves the same function as before; only the text has changed.) . Removed the "Original Location" field from the browser screen. This will leave more space available for the description lines. Increased the width of each description column from 25 to 30 characters. . Fixed a problem where the ZIP file size was being displayed after a disk image was successfully created, even if the file had not been compressed by the user. 12-18-94 ■ Version 1.12 . Fixed a problem where the screen would be cleared when the user pressed Escape in the middle of a compression or decompression process. This caused the background to be erased, and many display problems appeared. Removed the statement that was clearing the screen after one of these errors, and cleaned up associated routines. . Fixed a problem where an error would occur after attempting to format a diskette. The format progress screen was not being erased and disposed of, causing an error to be displayed, even though the disk had been formatted successfully. . Corrected a minor problem where the completion line on the status screen would not always be completely filled out to the 100 percent mark when reading or writing a diskette. . Fixed a minor problem where corruption could occur on the Register Replicator screen if the user entered a registration name longer than 30 characters. Also shortened the length of the registration number field from 30 to 12 characters. . Added a 25-record limit to the database facilities when using an UNREGISTERED version of Replicator. This is strictly added as a registration incentive. Registered users should NOT be affected by this change! . Added a prompt before the formatting disk procedure is started. . Fixed a problem where the F1=Help keypress was not working on the database management screen. 12-10-94 ■ Version 1.11 . Added code to erase the original image file (.RIF file) if the disk image was not successfully created. . Removed unnecessary code for displaying the old style status screens. . Fixed a problem where Replicator was displaying "Track ?? of 79 total tracks" when reading or writing to a diskette, when the total tracks value should have shown "80". 12-07-94 ■ Version 1.10 . Added a "Paths" button to the Database Maintenance screen to allow users to globally change the "Location" field of each record in the database to a new user-specified path. . Added a Utilities menu option to the main menu, and placed the Database Maintenance menu option on the Utilities sub- menu. Added a Upgrade Program menu option to the Utilities menu to allow users of version 1.00 through 1.02 to upgrade their data files to the current version. (REPLICA.DAT needs to be renamed to REPLICAT.DAT, (and so on) to conform to the new naming convention.) . Reworked the status display screens to display more information and be more attractive in appearance. . Removed an extra (redundant) error message box that was displayed when a format process failed. . Added fail-safe checks to warn the user if changes have been made on the configuration or defaults screens if they select Cancel or the close box. This prompts the user whether or not changes that have been made should be saved. . Fixed a problem where Replicator was not remembering the disk drive type and letter after completing an operation. . Added an option to format a diskette if Replicator detected that it was not formatted. If the user decides not to format the diskette, the process is terminated. . Changed "Drive Type" wording on disk screens to "Disk Type" since the value of this field should reflect the type of disk in the disk drive, not necessarily the type of drive. . Fixed a problem where the Format Diskette routine was not properly detecting an unformatted diskette. . Fixed a problem where Replicator was attempting to read the default drive (typically A:) when getting drive parameters. This could pose a problem when creating images from the B: drive. . Fixed a problem where memory was not being freed after creating a diskette image. This could result in an "out of memory" error message after creating a large number of diskette images. . Converted Replicator to a protected mode application. Only systems with 80286 or higher processors can use Replicator. This should reduce the memory related problems on most systems. . Changed the name of Replica to Replicator. Previous name was found to conflict with a product from another company. 12-03-94 ■ Version 1.02 . Updated context-sensitive help routines and values. . Added a conversion routine to automatically convert data files from version 1.00 and 1.01 to version 1.02. This is necessary because of the date field that was added, as described below. . Added a date field to the database to store the date when the disk image file was originally created. This date is not displayed or accessed at this time. That feature will be added to a future version. . Disabled the display of "Swapping in..." and "Swapping out..." messages from being displayed when the compression and/or decompression processes are invoked. . Fixed a problem where Replica could not find the image file to recreate a diskette after a file had been decompressed. This problem only occurred if image files were stored in a directory other than the Replica program directory. . Added an option to allow the user to delete a file from the hard drive when an associated record is deleted from the database. After deleting a database file, a prompt is displayed to give the user the opportunity to delete the file. . Added a system to the Copy Disk To File screen that allows Replica to remember the previous settings between disk creations. This is useful when creating a series of disk images for a particular program. This is the default. In order to clear the settings, a "Clear" button was added. When selected, this button restores the default values, and sets all description fields to empty. . Integrated the use of up and down arrow keys on all dialog screens. This will allow users to use these keys in place of Tab and Shift-Tab. . Removed the use of overlays for Replica. Since error messages such as "insufficient memory" continued to occur from time to time during the compression process, we created a separate file called REPZIP.EXE that contains the compression and decompression routines. This executable file is simply called when it is needed. This reduced the size of REPLICA.EXE by about 45K. When REPZIP.EXE is executed, Replica is swapped out to EMS, XMS, or disk, thus leaving a large amount of free memory for the compression process to occur. This should virtually eliminate all "insufficient memory" error messages from occurring. 11-28-94 ■ Version 1.01 (Internal BETA Version, Not Released.) . Added a message box that will be displayed when an image has been created, to display the total size of the image file and the compressed file (if a compressed file was created). This will give the user an idea of the total compression that was achieved on during the compression process. . Added a "Beep When Done" option to the Settings, Defaults screen, and modified the code to beep when a disk image has been copied to a file, or when a new disk has been created from an image file. . Added a "Defaults" screen to allow users to modify the default values for the disk drive, drive type, disk image path, and compression setting. When the Copy Disk To File and Copy File To Disk screens are displayed, the default values are used. . Fixed a problem where a compressed (.ZIP) image file would not be placed in the same directory as the original (.RIF) image file. Instead, the compressed file would be placed in the default Replica sub-directory. Now, the compressed file will reside in the same directory as where the original image file was created. . Removed commands that allowed users to edit records directly from the browser screen. Now, all maintenance should be performed from the Database Maintenance screen. . Added a new menu option specifically for the purpose of database maintenance. This allows users to view and edit existing entries, as well as create new ones. (Users may want to create a new entry if they accidentally delete an entry.) . Changed the operation of the Search button. If the user does not select a record, but presses Escape instead, the browser will no longer put a blank entry in the "File To Read" field. Instead, it will leave the existing entry unchanged. . Fixed a problem where the columns in the database browser screen were not being truncated properly if descriptions or paths were longer than the column display width. . Added a warning message to alert the user if a file already exists before attempting to recreate or overwrite it during the Copy Disk To File process. . Added a prompt before starting the copy process to remind the user to enter a disk into the disk drive. 11-21-94 ■ Version 1.00 . Initial release of Replica.