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++ REVISION HISTORY ++
This file describes functionality changes other than minor bug fixes.
Changes in the current version of EDDY are described first. Changes to
versions prior to 8a have been deleted, as there isn't a lot of interest
in ancient history among the user base, and the file was getting pretty
big. If you have one of the older versions, and feel that you need this
information, I'll be glad to send it to you. Just ask.
Version 8h
==========
.. The values assigned to the Synchronization Controls when you set
them by pressing [Del] are now N,C,Y,C,Y,Y -- meaning: Tag for
"Delete" all files in the working directory which have the same or
newer versions in the target.
.. When doing a "Where's that file?" search, with option /D on, /D is
ignored during the search, making it MUCH faster.
.. Disk-image copying for Iomega ZIP drives now supported.
.. Bug fixed for registered version, which was acting as though
unregistered.
Version 8g
==========
.. For a variety of reasons, some people find it difficult to use many
programs, including earlier versions of EDDY, which use multiple,
simultaneous keypresses. EDDY now offers "Touchdown Keys" (TM) to
ensure that this problem doesn't keep anyone from using all the
facilities of the program. "Touchdown" refers specifically to the
three types of "shift" keys -- [Ctrl], [Alt] and [Shift]. When you
TOUCH one of them, it effectively remains DOWN until the rest of the
keys needed to complete the key combination have been pressed. This
is similar to Windows 95's "StickyKeys" feature.
.. Another feature has been added, to complement the HyperText linking
added in the previous release, to make navigating around EDDY.DOC
easier: a "KeyWord-In-Context" (KWIC) index. See Appendix D.
.. Two excellent utilities from ARCaine Technologies for saving paper
and storage space when printing are JETCOL, for laser printers, and
2COL, for dot matrix, inkjets, bubblejets and deskjets. You can
print up to 10 (with JETCOL) or 8 (with 2COL) clear, readable pages
on one side of a sheet of paper, and you can of course print on both
sides. Particularly useful for printing lengthy documents such as
EDDY.DOC, these utilities are now available on request to registered
EDDY users. They may also be found on many BBSs and Internet sites.
.. Once in a while you're likely to run across a text file that has
lines longer than your editor can handle. While there are a number
of utilities that address this problem -- often very elegantly --
there's a quick-and-dirty way to handle it with EDDY. LOOK at the
file and turn line-wrapping on. Next, "print" to a file ([^p]). The
resulting file will contain the text with lines that are a maximum
of 80 bytes long (just as they appear in the LOOK mode display).
Some lines will undoubtedly be broken in the middle of words, but at
least you'll now have a file your editor can work with.
.. You may now rename multiple files (for example, give them all the
same extension) as a group, not requiring typing each file's name
separately. See EDDY.DOC, Section 4.2.2.
.. The new EDDY.INI parameter "keypad" controls the way [NumLock] is
handled when EDDY starts executing.
.. The new EDDY.INI parameter "packing" controls whether deleted
directory entries are "packed" by zeroing the first byte or by
completely obliterating the entry.
.. "packing" also controls whether "slack" bytes in copied files are
zeroed-out, or not.
.. You can permanently "sort" your directory to "Unsorted" sequence.
All this actually does is give you a way to pack the directory
(delete all directory entries for previously-deleted files, and
ensure that the minimum number of clusters needed are used) without
having to change the rest of the directory sequence.
.. When using the "std" security option for DESTROY, you are given a
choice of value to be used to overwrite the disk areas concerned.
.. If the working directory is a CD-ROM, the target may also be a CD-ROM.
While of course you can't copy, move or delete files in this case,
this does allow file comparisons.
.. When RAM disks or Iomega ZIP drives are detected, the display will
show "-RAM-" or "-ZIP-", respectively, rather than "Drive".
.. When customizing, to correct mis-identified CVFs, use [Shift+F11].
Previously, this was handled by [F12].
.. EDDY now requires at least version 3.1 of DOS.
.. EDDY.AUX is now required to be in the same directory as EDDY.COM.
.. EDDY_FIG.DOC is no longer part of the EDDY distribution package. The
figures in EDDY.DOC include high-ASCII line-drawing characters, which
are a much more accurate representaion of the screens. If you have a
printer that chokes on these, please let me know. I'll be happy to
send you the pure-ASCII versions of the pages involved.
.. My old PC/XT has finally given up, and has taken its rightful place as
a boat anchor. Thus, while I will try to keep everything working for
that platform, I no longer will be able to test it specifically. If
you encounter problems with using EDDY on older hardware, please let
me know; I will try to fix any such problems where practical.
Version 8f
==========
.. EDDY.DOC, when LOOKed at with EDDY, has HyperText links to make
viewing the references to other sections easier, without losing your
place in the document. To see how this works, move the cursor to
EDDY.DOC and press [Enter] twice.
.. Recognition and handling of files on network drives is much improved
(bug fixes + cosmetic enhancements).
.. When looking at a directory on a network drive, there normally is no
".." entry, even when it is a subdirectory. Previously, to get to
the parent, you had to press [Alt+w], [.], [.], [Enter]. This still
works, but now there's a shortcut: press [\] to get the drive list
display, and then press [-] (which is shown in the list when there
IS a parent) to get to the parent.
Version 8e
==========
.. The "bytes" figure on the 3rd line of the display does not include
bytes in any files tagged as "Ignore". If there are some ignored
files, there's a "+" between the byte count and "bytes".
.. The "delete" Synchronization Control is enhanced to set common
values for the other Controls automatically, if you press [Del]
after [Alt+c]. Also, the state of this control is checked before
proceeding with a [^F5]/[^F6] tagging operation.
.. The rules associated with "find any text", as described in EDDY.DOC
Section 17.4, have been changed.
Version 8d
==========
.. A history of directory usage -- working and target -- is maintained.
This allows you to return to earlier directories easily from the
dialog boxes, by pressing [Up]/[Down], similar to DOSKEY.
.. The old directory recall functions -- [Shift+F10]/[Shift+^F10] --
are no longer used.
.. Swap file handling/usage has been revised. EDDY.DOC, Section 15.3
.. The modifier "!" is no longer used by EDDY.USE, nor when using the
DOS Shell.
.. You may specify -- by customizing -- a "trashcan" directory, into
which deleted files will be moved rather than deleted completely.
[Del] is used to override use of the trashcan.
.. Identification of compressed drives (e.g., Stacker) has been made
more aggressive, to reduce the frequency that you will be asked the
question. If EDDY makes a mistake with this analysis, you can
override it by pressing [F12].
Version 8c
==========
.. When using the DOS Shell ([F9]), confirming with [!] instead of [F9]
causes EDDY to attempt to swap out its memory, even when EDDY is
configured for "no swapping" (added in version 8c3).
.. There are MAJOR enhancements to EDDY.USE. Many thanks to user
Jacques Bensimon for most of the ideas! You may need to revise your
current EDDY.USE file (if you're using an earlier version of EDDY).
Please review Section 14 of EDDY.DOC carefully, to determine what
changes you need to make, and which enhancements you'd like to take
advantage of. One change that's easy to overlook: the meaning of
the "^" (caret) is reversed in this version.
.. Now you can be very precise about which files you wish to have
included in the working directory display. You may provide up to
five different file specifications, simultaneously, either from the
command line or from the [Alt+w] dialog box. File specs are
separated by commas. Thus, to see all executable files in a
directory, you could enter:
"EDDY *.COM,*.EXE,*.DLL"
You can use (and mix) file specs with and without wildcards; e.g.,
"EDDY *.COM,*.EXE,THISONE.ABC,THATONE.XYZ,*.B??"
is acceptable.
If you use press [*] -- the "file exclusion" feature -- you'll get a
display of all files that DON'T match ANY of the given file specs.
Multiple file specs may also be used with "where-is" searching.
.. If you often use similar, lengthy command lines -- e.g., lots of
options, long pathnames, multiple file specifications, and/or
filters -- you may want to use a "response file" instead of typing
everything from the command line. See EDDY.DOC, Section 2.4.
.. If EDDY is not able to determine positively whether the working
directory is on a "compressed drive" or not, you'll be asked.
Perhaps annoying, but it won't happen any more if you customize.
Also, as a sort of "compensation" you'll probably note that the
initial display (where the question doesn't have to be asked) comes
up noticeably faster.
.. The "exclusion" function now works with respect to attribute or
timestamp filters, as well as file specifications. If you use a
filter, you can use this function even when your file spec is "*.*".
.. When filtering, subdirectories are always displayed, even if they
don't match the filter. The "filter dirs" configuration parameter
is no longer used.
.. When there is not enough room on the target disk to handle all the
COPY/MOVEs you want to do, EDDY will warn you, as before, but if you
press [Enter] to continue with the update, any files that DO fit on
the target disk will be copied/moved. The others will stay tagged.
Copying is attempted in the order the files appear in the EDIT
display.
.. A frequently-requested feature has been the ability to make a copy,
in the working directory, of a file in the working directory (under
a different name, of course). This doesn't actually require any
special treatment by EDDY. With EDDY.USE, and the DOS "copy"
command, it's easy. To illustrate this, a file called EDDYCOPY.BAT
is included, along with a corresponding entry in EDDY.USE. Read the
comments in those two files for details.
.. When copying or moving directories or trees, the timestamp is
preserved. Previously, it was set to the current DOS timestamp.
.. The "list file" function is enhanced for use with multiple
directories, particularly when combined with the "Where's That
File?" command/option. Refer to EDDY.DOC, Sections 5.7.1 and 22.
.. When doing a "Where's That File?" search, you can tag subdirectories
at the start of the search as "Ignore" if you don't want to include
them in the search.
.. When doing a "FIND" in RAM, EDDY no longer displays a "hit" on the
copies of the string used internally by EDDY for matching and
display.
.. After an [Alt+o] when LOOKing at a raw disk to find the "owner" of
what you're looking at, the progress is shown during the potentially
long FAT and directory search process, to reassure you that EDDY's
not stuck. Also, you can cancel the process by pressing a key.
Handling of CVFs is better, too, with fewer (none, that I know of)
false alarms re "lost clusters".
.. Additional double click mouse actions:
- on the "LOOK" button, go directly to PATCH the current file (just
as though you had pressed [F4] ).
- on the "QUIT" button, exit to current working directory (just as
though you had pressed [Alt+F10] ).
.. The swap file name is now generated by DOS (rather than being called
"EDDY.SWP"), so as to be unique within its directory. This allows
nested swapping if another copy of EDDY is run from the DOS Gateway.
.. For "drives" that are recognized by EDDY -- either automatically or
as identified by the user -- as being "compressed volume files"
(CVFs), the third line from the top of the screen will show "[CVF]"
instead of "Drive".
.. The "wasted space" calculation is no longer done for compressed
drives, as the compression products themselves have already
optimized this by their own methods. Short of changing to a
different compression utility, there's not a lot the user can do to
improve on this.
[F11] toggles the "wasted space" display to show the potential space
saving, IF the disk were partitioned with different cluster sizes.
If your keyboard doesn't have an [F11] key, see EDDY.DOC, Appendix
A, Section I.
.. To cancel the current target, press: [Alt+t], [.], [CR]
.. When EDDY's timestamp is frozen (by pressing [Alt+=]), the frozen
state is indicated by an "=" next to the word "time" in the display
heading.
.. The date format may be customized by using the "date style"
parameter, described in EDDY.DOC, Section 30.3.2e, whether or not
you use DOS's "COUNTRY.SYS" in your CONFIG.SYS file.
.. CD-ROM handling is improved: better testing for ready/not ready, use
of [Alt+x], [Alt+l], [^p], and other cosmetic changes.
.. Option /U is no longer used.
.. When using options on the command line, either "/" or "-" may be
used to identify them. In earlier versions, the character used
depended on your choice as specified to DOS. Mr. Gates stopped
supporting this choice in DOS 5.0. Some UNIX enthusiasts have
been complaining, so EDDY leaves the choice to you.
.. If you create a disk-image file, there will no longer be a 4- or
6-byte "prefix" added by EDDY. The file will be an exact image of
the source disk. Older image files created by EDDY, which have the
prefix, will still be recognized, and can be used to restore a disk.
.. When marking a file (in LOOK mode), "byte" marks are always used.
"Column" marks are available only when LOOKing at RAM.
.. A new file, EDDY_FIG.DOC is provided. This is for users who have
asked for more realistic screen shots in EDDY.DOC. If your printer
is up to it, EDDY_FIG.DOC has replacement pages for EDDY.DOC. In
connection with this, the appearance of the scrollbar is slightly
changed; there is no change to the way it works, though.
.. Some users may notice a brief delay after the first display appears,
when EDDY doesn't respond to the keyboard. This is because some
initialization processing that EDDY used to do before displaying
anything is now deferred until that time. However, the overall
effect is that you get that initial display noticeably faster than
with previous versions. Also, with a registered copy, this delay is
significantly shorter.
A big part of the delay is associated with initializing the mouse
(if present). To minimize this, a short cut is used by EDDY, which
under unusual circumstances could cause erratic mouse behavior. For
more on this, see the discussion in EDDY.DOC of the new "reset"
configuration parameter.
.. The PC Jr is no longer supported. If this is a problem for you,
please let me know.
.. After nearly 4 years of enhancements to EDDY (since version 7a) and
inflation's inevitable effects, the time has arrived to increase the
registration price. Starting with this version, the price for EDDY
is US $29.95.
Version 8b (12/29/95)
==========
1. Bug fix: eliminate 'hang' when using expanded memory with QEMM
Version 8a (10/16/95)
==========
1. Support for installing and running EDDY under Windows is now provided.
That does NOT mean EDDY is now a Windows program! See EDDY.DOC,
Section 1.3.
2. Users of earlier versions of EDDY will immediately notice a big change
in the way file attributes are displayed. Most obviously, the
attributes are now represented by their initial letter (correspon-
ding to the field heading) if they are ON, while a "." indicates an
attribute that is OFF.
If you prefer the old style display, press [Tab]. You can customize
to make your preferred style the default. See EDDY.DOC, Section 4.4
for details.
The heading for file attributes is also changed slightly: "S" now
means "System" and "N" means "Network-shareable". Formerly, "Y" was
used for "System" and "S" meant "Shared". The old "S" and the new
"N" refer to the same physical attribute bit.
Editing the attributes is different:
- [+] used to be an attribute toggle; now, [+] turns an attribute ON,
and moves down one line, while [-] turns an attribute OFF and moves
down.
- You may also press the attribute letter when the cursor is in the
attributes field, which toggles the attribute setting between ON
and OFF. The cursor doesn't move.
- [y] and [n] work just as before.
3. [Tab] is no longer used for its eponymous purpose: i.e., it no longer
moves the cursor. (I've been waiting years for a chance to use that
word in print! <g>)
This change has been made due to confusion over its use in other
cases, such as toggling between text and hex modes in LOOK. To do
"tabbing" in the normal word processing sense, press [right bracket]
(it's spelled out to avoid the strange-looking "[]]"). Similarly, to
"tab left", press [left bracket] ("[[]").
LOOK mode tabbing is consistent with this. [t] and [T] -- never a
popular choice -- have been replaced by [right bracket] and [left
bracket], respectively. [Tab] is always a toggle, and traditional
"tabbing" is always done with the "square bracket" keys.
4. A number of users have reported erratic movement problems when using a
mouse. The mouse-handling logic has been reworked extensively. All
problems that I have been able to reproduce have been fixed. See
EDDY.DOC, Appendix D, for details.
Mouse-related changes are:
- If you double click on an entry in the EDIT mode directory display,
or if you move the cursor off the right end of the file display
line, the cursor will move to the MENU box.
- Clicking in any blank area in the right side of the display is
the same as clicking on the MENU box.
- If you double click on the MENU box, the last command you have used
by selecting from the menu will be repeated. This is particularly
useful for tagging several files for the same action, such as COPY
or DELETE.
- If you click both the left and right buttons within the double
click interval, the result is the same as if you pressed [F1].
- If you double click on the HELP box, HELP's keyword search
screen will appear, just as if you had pressed [Shift+F1].
- If you click on the scrollbar's "slider" (the left- or right-
pointing triangle), the mouse button usage will change from
right-handed to left-handed, or vice versa.
- The "double click speed" interval is now customizable.
5. The destroy command now offers an option that conforms to the U.S.
government specs for destruction of files, to ensure that even
special-purpose equipment cannot recover the data that was previously
stored there. It also allows you to destroy a disk! Not really --
read EDDY.DOC, Section 13.3 for info on why you might want to do this.
6. In a way complementary to the previous item, you may now create a file
containing all currently-unallocated sectors on a disk: LOOK at the
disk, and press [^u]. The file will be created on that same disk, and
thus eats up all the available space. You may browse (snoop?) in the
file, or whatever you like, but you'll eventually have to move it or
delete it before you can do much more with that disk.
7. When you are LOOKing at the raw disk, press [Alt+b] to view any "bad
spots" flagged in the disk's FAT.
8. Press [Alt+o] to find out which file or directory "owns" the area of
the disk currently displayed.
9. When a disk "bad spot" is encountered during a copy or move, one of
the options you'll be offered is "Retry".
10. When you LOOK at the boot record or MBR on a disk, the display will
automatically be show the formatted, text mode screen. As for any
other LOOK mode screen, you may toggle to hex by pressing [Tab].
11. Wasted space can be calculated on the basis of clusters that a file
occupies (which is correct for "real" disks -- i.e., not compressed
volume files), or on the basis of sectors (which is a better
approximation of actual space wasted on CVFs). To toggle between the
two bases, press [Shift+Tab]. See EDDY.DOC, Section 1.5.4.
12. Previously, there were some commands that EDDY refused to run on a
"compressed disk" (e.g., Stacker). These included editing directory
timestamps, and sorting/shuffling directories permanently. Now, if
you REALLY want to, you can disregard EDDY's warning and do these
things. Although these features have been tested successfully with
several combinations of compressed disks and MS-DOS versions,
there's no guarantee they'll work correctly for you. Be careful!
13. When you use the DOS Gateway, more RAM can be made available to the
processes you run. If you use the DOS environment variable "TEMP", or
customize EDDY to include a "swap path", a temporary file will be
created in the specified directory when you use the Gateway, and
various parts of EDDY will be stored there until you return to EDDY.
The RAM used will be released for whatever you want to do.
14. After a point-n-shoot command, if the command is set up to pause
after execution (so you can look at the results on the screen), the
DOS ERRORLEVEL is checked. If it's non-0, its value is displayed.
15. [\] in EDIT mode or when viewing a tree diagram works identically to
[^\], bringing up the drive selection window. Much quicker than using
[Alt+w] when all you want to do is change drives: press [\], then the
drive letter, and you're done.
16. EDDY.USE may now specify control strings for your printer. These
are described in detail with the examples provided in EDDY.USE. To
select and send these control strings to your printer, press [Alt+9]
and follow the directions given.
17. Formfeeds and linefeeds may be sent to your printer by pressing
[Alt+0] and [Alt+1], respectively.
18. [Alt+number] formerly had two functions: in EDIT mode, to tag a
file for copying with tab expansion (where "number" was in the range
0 thru 8); and in LOOK mode, to specify the tab expansion factor for
the display.
These functions are now performed by [Alt+#] (actually, [Alt+3] is
OK -- you don't need to [Shift]). The expansion factor (still 0 thru
8) is entered in response to the prompt that appears after you press
[Alt+#].
19. When you are using a file specification other than "*.*" to select
which files are displayed, and you want to change to use "*.*", press
[Alt+w] and then [.]; fewer keystrokes, no shift.
20. List files may now include subdirectories if desired.
21. When you customize, the current parameter values are now appended to
EDDY.INI without their accompanying comments, to save disk space.
22. Lines in EDDY.DOC that have changes or have been added since the
last release are indentified by a "@" in column 1.
23. The "Command Reference" (Appendix A in EDDY.DOC) has been
reorganized for (I hope!) easier use.
24. EDDY's "nagging" of unregistered users gets just a little heavier.