XTimer Release History

The Help and short cuts pop-up screen are always updated for each release.

Changes in 1.8.1

•  First version to allow unregistered users to try out automatic tracking features.
•  Shareware screen set back to showing every launch.

New in XTimer 1.8

•  Added automatic tracking for MacPPP/FreePPP.
•  Added automatic Rate Switcher feature.
•  Added automatic Log Clearing feature.

Fixes in 1.7.1

•  Fixed bug that caused XTimer to remember the time that passed, during a Pause, if the timer is Stopped without un-pausing, first.  Thanks to Steve Ross, on AOL, who identified the problem & determined how to reproduce it.  Great help, Steve!
•  The seconds can again be Rounded when using the mini-timer via the keyboard, using Ctrl-Z.  The last version had a bug, which prevented it.

New in XTimer 1.7

•  XTimer Spy - Now tracks AOL and eWorld free areas (as long as the appropriate dialog cue appears).  See the notes included with XTimer Spy for details.
•  Added Pause button to timers, and an indicator when the timer is paused.  This feature will allow you to stop the time from advancing when you enter free areas of your online service, while preventing certain preference settings from rounding off the seconds, resetting the time, or adding the time into the Log like at a regular Stop.
•  Added pop-up window that displays the current rate setting whenever you click and hold on the frame of the stoplight on the mini-timer.
•  Added dialog to the Settings menu so users can have XTimer Auto-Launch another application at startup.  (Hold down option key to prevent launching).
•  Re-wrote some sections of the Help, added new information to cover added features.

Changes in 1.7
•  The shareware screen reminder is now intermittant.
•  I Added "Register" and "Print Registration Form" items to the Apple menu when XTimer is not registered.

Fixes in 1.7
•  Fixed Next Notice Time bug introduced in the last release, which would cause an incorrect Next Notice Time to be displayed after a Stop.
•  Fixed the Round button to enable and disable at appropriate times.
•  Fixed bug introduced in 1.6 that prevented Copying text from the Help.

Fixes in XTimer 1.6.1

This release updated the XTimer Spy extension, only.

New in XTimer 1.6

• Registered users can now take advantage of XTimer Spy to track time spent on AOL, eWorld, and CompuServe!
• The Help screen is now modeless, which means it will let you keep it out and still do other things while it is out.  I've increased the help available, and added documents to the XTimer archive to try and provide as much assistance as possible for the myriad of problems and/or questions that can come up.
• Added 2 new preferences:  Auto-Add Time To Log and Silence XTimer Spy.  Both are explained in the Help.

Changes in 1.6
• Prefs menu is now called the Settings menu.  I thought this would help make it more intuitive on where to look to change the rate settings.
• Eliminated menu option "Hide Timer/Show Timer"; was kind of redundant with System 7, and I wanted to use Command-H to call up the Help screen.
• Updated version of PICTButton CDEF, from Paul Celestin.
• Changed preferences item "Use Radio Buttons For Add/Save" to "Allow Multiple Selections When Adding/Saving".  Makes it a lot clearer to understand for most users.
• Changed color of About screen and Register screen... after complaints about my color choice!

Fixes
• Fixed bug that prevented users whose system settings contained a non-U.S. currency format from using the U.S. format when they wanted to.
• Fixed bug that could have brought on an error to those who use the "Set Default Charge" option for their rate settings.  Read the chapter, "ATTN: SET DEFAULT CHARGE USERS" for details.
• Added code to "flush the disk" when changes are recorded to XTimer's preferences file.  This causes the system to write the changes to disk immediately, instead of waiting.  That will help prevent corruption from system crashes.
• Added code to verify and correct problems when preference file is corrupted, to prevent XTimer from crashing.
• Corrected problem that caused XTimer to crash when "esc" key was pressed during some dialogs. 
• Fine tuned "Auto-Return" feature to make it easier to use. Now you can click anywhere in the timer window, except in the controls (buttons, etc.) to bring XTimer to the front.  Only when clicking controls will Auto-Return reactivate the program in front before XTimer was activated.

New in 1.5

• XTimer will now localize currency settings for currency formats other than the U.S. dollar format.  Users may choose to override this feature and use the U.S. format.
• Maximum charge rate increased to 100000 of any currency per hour.
• XTimer can be registered online via CompuServe.  GO SWREG.  XTimer is I.D.#5002.
• Cash register sound option, to play when notices are sent.
• Preference to skip dialog screen when notices are sent.
• Modified File Menu, added new items, text saving options now uses sub-menu.
• Added "Modify Logged Time" feature.  Let's you quickly add/subtract minutes from the log total of the current rate.
• "Current Rate Total" (time on timer added to time in log) may now be displayed on both large and mini timer windows, and toggled off by option-clicking in window grow box of either size timer.
• Various places that formerly didn't allow you to click on the text to toggle checkboxes and radio buttons, will now let you.
• Print options were added.
• Added many command key short cuts to Menu items.
• New General pref setting allows automatic log clearing after text saves.
• Rate descriptions now allowed up to 25 characters (vs. only 20 before).
• Placed version number in About window.
• Preferences file routines modified to give maximum protection in case your system should crash (hopefully never because of XTimer!) while XTimer is in use.
• Added new Easter egg; updated another.

Change in 1.5 "Next Notice At..." message on large timer window can no longer be toggled on and off the screen.  The "Current Rate Total" message takes that place now, and may be toggled on and off by option clicking in either size timer window grow box.

Fixes in 1.5
     I've lost track of all the tweaking and minor corrections.  They were numerous. But here's what I can recall:

- I modified the code that handles the saving and retrieving of information from the preferences file.
- Corrected timer window update problems when the current rate's preferences are modified, when using CTRL-A to add time, after accesses to General preferences, and when Rounding preferences were checked.  Other timer window update problems were also corrected.
- Eliminated trailing spaces in the log information when saved in tab delimited format.  This was causing the log files to be unreadable by some database programs.
- Fixed error that allowed more than two places past decimal in charge settings.
- Reconstructed mini timer to eliminate minor size distortions. Improved appearance.

Fix in 1.4.1

•     A bug  introduced in 1.4 caused incorrect marking of items on the Notify menu, when "Repeating Notices" was not selected, after a notice was sent.  That bug is corrected in 1.4.1, otherwise 1.4.1 is the same as 1.4

New in 1.4?

•  Added preference setting to always avoid the warning message when selecting Reset.
•  Allowed Help to be saved as text with style information saved as well, and no longer as a Read Only document.
•  A FileMaker Pro© template, created by David Wood, is included with XTimer to use for importing XTimer tab delimited log files to a FileMaker Pro© file.
•  Modified Time format in Log to HH:MM:SS, in order to make it usable to database templates.  Users can generate time/charge totals with this format change.
•  Added totals to columns in log to show total charges and total time charged.
•  A new Notify menu item allows Notices to be sent one time only vs. always repeating.  
•  XTimer now lets users define a Notify time as "Other".
•  Now charge rates can be set to "Unused" with a keystroke.  Enter <ctrl> + U (or use small "u") where you enter the rate's name and it is changed to "Unused" for you. The charge will also automatically be changed to $0.00.
•  Added Default charge setting for rates.   Type "D" (or "d") as the charge and the default charge will be filled in automatically.  Helps those who bill clients at a standard rate and just change the names.  XTimer remembers which items were marked as default items and when the default rate is changed it updates all those items.
Note:  Charges are always calculated at the current rate per hour setting.
•  Now charge rates can be set up to $999.99 per hour.
•    Added keyboard commands to Start (ctrl-S), Stop (ctrl-X), Reset (ctrl-C), and
Round (ctrl-Z).  Note:  Items are disabled and enabled the same as the equivalent button controls; however, you can now Round the seconds even while using the minimized timer by using the keyboard equivalent.
•   Added pop-up screen to view short-cuts with a key press.  Press and hold the <spacebar>, to bring up the screen.
•   Updated Help screen information and email/snail mail addresses.

New In 1.3

• Color added to Help screen to make it easier to follow and to highlight areas of special significance.
• Users can now add a time on the timer to the current rate and bypass the dialog by entering <ctrl> - A, when the timer is stopped. 
• The current rate can now be displayed on the title bar.  You can toggle between the program name, "XTimer," and the name of the current rate by using Option-R.
• The items on the File menu are rearranged so that the more frequently used items are nearer to the top.
• The log will not place a comma after the hours if there are no additional minutes when saving as text.
• When text files of the log are created, any rates named "Unused", "unused", or "UNUSED" will be ignored.
• I added in options for database users to save or append the log to a text file in tab delimited format for easy import.
• Saving or appending the log in regular text format can be done with or without the usual log header.  Holding down the option key before pulling down the File menu while selecting those options will prevent the header from being included.
• 1.3 and some copies of XTimer 1.2 contain a change which users with multiple monitors will notice, when one monitor is color and one is black and white.  Paul Celestin added in code to his CDEF (Control Definition), which is used in the mini "stoplight" timer for the buttons, that now senses not only the color capability of the main monitor, but also on the secondary monitor.  So, now the mini timer will be drawn correctly on the secondary monitor when it isn't the same as the main monitor. 
• The prefs file is handled more efficiently.
• A bug was corrected that caused only the first item to correctly receive an add or save when using checkboxes, if "Reset After Add/Save" had been checked in the preferences.
• Another bug that reset the time on the timer whenever any rates were cleared was fixed.
• A shareware screen was added in order to entice more people to register the program.  Registered users who did not send me their e-mail address can contact me and I will send you your registration code.
• Registered users will find the About screen modified with their name on it, and an animated XTimer icon.  A previously hidden easter egg is disclosed.  That egg is accessible to unregistered users under certain conditions.

Fixes in 1.2

      Hopefully fixed log bugs for good. Another bug was found that caused the charges on the log to all be displayed at the currently selected charge rate, rather than their own.
      I fixed numerous minor bugs that were pretty obscure, like the timer unhiding itself when you minimized or maximized the window from the menu or by command key.
      Adjustment made to how time is kept, due to discovery that the number of system "ticks" per second works out to be 60.15, rather than the 60 I've been reading; which was probably a close enough generalization for most purposes.
     Fixed error which made XTimer window completely disappear if it was left on an alternate monitor at quit.

Changes in 1.2
     Moved the Prefs menu off of the File menu and onto the menubar.
     Alas, "Save Log As Text" has been added to the File menu. It should be viewed using a mono-spaced font like Monaco, in order to make the columns line up properly. Since TeachText uses Geneva, you'll be glad to see the new pref setting that allows you to select the text file creator. Also added, "Append Log to Text File", so you can keep your log copies in one place.
     "Next Notice at:" message now displays even when the timer is stopped.
     Checkboxes can now be used when Adding or Saving, for those who need to keep multiple settings for the same times, like to log connection surcharges along with the cost of the hourly on-line fees of their network. Users can still use Radio buttons if they prefer. Check the box appropriately in the Preference settings to decide.
     New menu item, Clear Time Of..., lets you easily clear the log. You could also just save zero time to any Rate and accomplish the same thing, but this is convenient and intuitive. 
     I modified the Help to try and clear up confusion some have expressed.
     Now users who know how to use ResEdit can paste in their own sound to be used when Notices are sent.  Must be ID 128, non-purgeable.  Must allocate additional RAM to XTimer to accomodate sound's bytes. I recommend also adding about a 15K buffer to prevent any possible memory errors. 
     Help screen text is in a compressed resource now, which helped offset the increase in code needed for new features.
     I changed some of the command keys.  It was brought to my attention that Command-D is used in many communication programs as "Disconnect", in other applications it is often used for "Delete...".  This seemed like an especially hazardous situation, especially noting the "Auto-Return" feature, so I changed "View Log" from Command-D to Command-G.
     I also decided that despite violating convention, it is much more convenient to have "Add Time To..." as Command-A (normally used for "Select All", which is not even a menu item in XTimer), rather than Command-J.  

Fixes in 1.1.1

     Fixed glaring lethal bug that would cause the entire log to be reset to zero when the Charge Rate Preferences were changed.  My most sincere apologies to those who were affected.  It made me sick when it was reported to me.  It's just bewildering that it wasn't found before XTimer was released to the public.

Changes in XTimer 1.1

New Feature: Auto-Return
     Allows you to set XT to automatically return control to the program you were using after you Start, Stop, or Reset the timer. This enables you to use XTimer without having to reactivate another program afterwards.  XTimer can be brought to the front with Auto-Return on by unclicking Auto-Return, clicking on the window title bar, or by selecting XTimer from the Applications menu.

Changes
     Users with multiple monitors will find that XTimer now centers windows on the main screen, not always on the screen where the mouse is located.

Fixes
     Code corrected for Macs using 68000 CPU's.  Now XTimer won't die with "Unimplemented Trap" on those machines.
     <option> Start now completely Resets, formerly it started with 1 second charged.
     Time now saved on timer when XTimer is quit while timer is running.

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