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Gold Medal Software - Volume 5 (Gold Medal) (1995).iso
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1993-11-11
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CHANGES AND MODIFICATIONS IN ARCTOOL
------------------------------------
1. ARCTOOL used an array method of storing it's file information, and this
had the effect of limiting the total number of files that it could display
to around 512. Also, this took up about 2K of stack with EACH archive that
was opened. Completely changed this so that BOTH archives and files inside
of archives can be displayed up to the available memory. In a typical
system, there should be around 300K available for ARCTOOL. This means that
you could handle a total of 2500+ archives or files. The next step would be
to allocate the buffers in EMS which could be done.
2. Added a file counter to "READING ARCHIVES .." so that on slow systems or
reading from floppy disks, you can tell how many files have been read so
far. BIG archives may take a minute or so, and some folks thought that the
system had hung.
3. Added the ability to ESCAPE out when reading archives. Previously, once
it started, you HAD to let it finish, now pressing ESCAPE aborts.
4. Added a "MAKE SURE PRINTER IS ON.." window to the "PRINT FILE" facility
to allow ESCAPE to be pressed to abort the printing of a file.
Occasionally, the 'P' key would be accidentally pressed, and if it happened
to be an EXE or COM file, the printer went crazy.
5. Reworked the whole mechanism for finding and reading the CFG file.
Normally, the CFG file was to be stored in the same directory as AT.EXE.
However on some systems, problems were experienced finding the file. Also,
on systems with MULTIPLE hard drives, the CFG could have been on another
drive completely. ARCTOOL should now CORRECTLY find the CFG file.
6. HOWEVER, JUST IN CASE, Added the "SET ATCFG=somepath" feature to allow
the explicit definition of where the CFG file can be found.
7. Added the /D switch to allow reading the CURRENT directory ONLY without
subs and without using the CFG file. Some folks had LONG directory names,
and it was very painful to have to continually enter :
AT \mypath\mypathsub1\mypathsub2\mypathsub3\mypathsub4\
every time one wanted to view ONLY the archives in that directory. Now you
can just enter AT /d from that directory, and all of the files in THAT
DIRECTORY ONLY will be displayed.
8. Added the SFX=ON,OFF switch to the CFG file. This can be entered BEFORE
and AFTER any pathname, and reading of SFX files will be activated and
deactivated as desired.
February 10, 1993
9. Added the ASSOCIATE facility. This works by keeping a list (up to 10) of
the file extensions that are associated. i.e. the extension 'TXT' could be
associated with the program LIST.COM and pressing return on a file with
that extension would execute LIST.COM for that file. This is REALLY nice
for viewing odd file types such as WORDPERFECT or LOTUS.
10. Changed the VIEW facility to allow for viewing ANSI files. Many BBS
files contain files with ANSI codes, and viewing them is allowed by
pressing ALT A when in the file viewer.
March 29, 1993
11. Incremented VERSION to 'E'. Enough changes made to justify this.
12. Rewrote the DOC files, and added page headers and breaks.
13. Added CUSTOM VIEW feature. Allows user to use viewer of choice as an
alternative to the internal viewer.
14. Added EDIT function on config file. Files are read in and can be tagged
as to which are to be saved. Changed format to include path\sfx=xxx on the
same line in the config file.
15. Add /SG switch to force ARCTOOL to read ALL LOGICAL drives for
archives.
April 12, 1993
16. Corrected bug that caused some disk caches under DOS 5.0 to pass a
directory as as readable archive. ARCTOOL would think that the root
directory of the drive was a single readable file. Strange problem !!! I
modified the assembler code to check for this and problem was corrected.
September 30, 1993
17. Had not done any major work in some time. Upgraded to VERSION 7.8G.
Added NEW file viewer code. VERY VERY FAST !! Has capability for viewing
files as big as 33 MEG !!!! Also changed HEX view.
18. Added code to save EGA/VGA font on program entry and restore on exit.
Some external programs were clobbering it. (VIEW.EXE - PCTOOLS).
19. Compressed EXE down to only 98000 bytes. Added code to write config
varibles (colors, paths etc) at end of EXE file.
20. Optimized code quite a bit. Should run 30% faster. Especially at
startup and while getting archive file names. Lookup for archives should be
lightning fast too. Done completely in Assembler.
November 1, 1993
21. LOTS OF CHANGES for version 8.0
.. Added COMPLETE Rodent support.
.. Added 43/50 EGA/VGA support.
.. "quick" cursor placement on files by name. Just type the name of the
file. As you do, AT will place the file cursor on the closest match. In
order to do this, ALL keys were reassigned. You must use the ALT keys with
the menu items
.. Made the EXE file smaller and MUCH faster. You'll notice that the EXE is
about 1/2 the size of the previous version. Neat trick huh ???