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Gold Medal Software 5
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Gold Medal Software - Volume 5 (Gold Medal) (1995).iso
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WHATS.NEW
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1994-09-14
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ShapeShifter(tm) Copyright (c)1992-94, By Curtis Little
"Software Solutions That Make Sense"(tm)
o Option added to user defined BBS options to specify whether the size field
(as updated in a BBS dir by ShapeShifter) should contain commas.
o Modified the internal Auntie DIR options to work with the new format
that includes commas. *WARNING: Auntie Sysops using older versions of
Auntie (those versions that didn't have commas in the file size field)
will need to use the User Defined Dir type with the following settings:
Filename Length: 12
Filename Start Column: 1
Size Length: 7
Size Start Column: 14
Right Justify: Yes
Use Commas: No
Optionally, the current settings for TBBS Dir types matches the format
used by the old versions of Auntie.
o Option added to tell ShapeShifter the BBS Dir file to update is contained
in the same dir as the converted file was found in. WARNING: None of the
dir files you specify should include a path if you want this to work
properly! When this option is set, ShapeShifter calculates the name of
the dir file to open by appending the dir file (you specified) to the
dir that the file is in. If you only specify the DIR spec, this causes
ShapeShifter to look in the dir the file was in. If you specify a
directory with the DIR file spec, ShapeShifter will append the DIR spec
you specified to the child DIR spec, ending up with the wrong result!
o Option added to allow user to perform a virus scan only. (This flag
keeps ShapeShifter from trying to create the new archive file - it'll
stop processing the original archive after performing the virus scan).
o User can specify an exact error level that the virus scanner uses to
indicate a file is infected in addition to the old method of considering
any error level return to mean a file is infected.
o The last error level returned by a command (archiver, scanner, external,
etc) is now saved in the log file.
o User can specify how much memory to make available for the pre and post
external commands.
o User can specify how much memory to make available for the scan command
o User can specify a base working directory to use
o Can now detect both PKZIP 1.0 and 2.0 type -AV files
New Features At A Glance:
-------------------------
o Support for self extracting archives
o Support to scan all archives for virii including protected -AV files and
internal archives that aren't going to be converted.
o Option to keep the original file if it's smaller than the converted
one.
o Feature to flag files in the log file if they are bigger than the
original file was.
o Built in support for BBS files now includes WWIV directory files.
o ShapeShifter will no longer require a keystroke on startup (the
configuration program does though).
o Colors can now be configured.
Recent changes in ShapeShifter:
-------------------------------
8/29/93
Released v2.0.
8/28/93
Fixed a minor bug that kept the Switch! command from freeing memory for
commands not related to the archiver.
8/24/93
Released v1.9.
8/23/93
Modified the way messages are put in the log file to help show the messages
relationship to nested archives. Each level of nesting has messages offset
by two characters from the previous level.
Changed the way messages in the log file are written to allow easy seaching
for files that weren't successfully converted due to an error. Instead of
the word 'Status', the word 'Error' is now used in the log for these files.
Note that files skipped due to things like -AV protection or size, etc are
not included in the 'Error' category.
8/19/93
Added a command line option to toggle the support for self extracting files.
The command line option to use is /F.
8/16/93
Fixed a minor bug that would cause an internal archive that is corrupted to
be copied to the badfiles directory in addition to the archive that
contained it.
Added the capability for ShapeShifter to detect and support
self extracting archives. Two new options for each archiver makes this
possible.
The new options are listed on the archiver options screen as 'SFX Id String'
and 'File Offset'. Together these options allow ShapeShifter to detect
virtually any self extracting file.
ShapeShifter is capable of detecting any self extractor that contains an
identifying ASCII string in the first 255 bytes of the file (.EXE) header,
as well as those with an ASCII identifier in the last 255 bytes of the
file.
Since most archivers that create a self extractor put a string either in the
.EXE header or at the end of the file, ShapeShifter can detect files created
by the various archivers. ShapeShifter's flexibility allows you to work with
future SFX formats in addition to those defined in the default configuration
file!
To determine the ID string used by a particular archiver, simply create a
self extracting file, and then using a binary file editor/viewer, examine the
first section of the file. You will normally find a string that is specific
to the archiver used. Specification of this string (upto 9 bytes of it) can
be done with SSCFG for each defined archiver.
If the identifier string always occurs at the same offset in a self extracting
file, you can specify the 'File Offset' to cause ShapeShifter to look at the
specific location. The way ShapeShifter treats the values specified for
file offset are as follows:
0 The ID string is searched for in the first 246 bytes of the
.EXE file header. Location of the string in this area
is not important - ShapeShifter will find it if it exists.
WARNING: Some archiver authors have found it convienient
to put the *SAME* ASCII information in the header of .EXE
files created by their other non-SFX utilities. For example,
Phil uses the same ASCII information in the header of a .EXE
created by PKLITE as he does with one created by PKZIP. In
these cases you must find another indicator to use to avoid
ShapeShifter thinking non-SFX files are SFX. This is done
by using the offset field as done in the default
configuration for PKZIP.
> 0 The ID string is searched for in the specified offset from
the beginning of the file. For instance, a value of 5 would
cause ShapeShifter to look for the ID string at
position 5 in the file (the first byte of the file counts
as 1).
< 0 The ID string is searched for in the specified offset from
the end of the file. For example, a value of -5 would cause
ShapeShifter to look for the ID string at the 5th byte from
the end of the file (the last byte of the file counts as
-1).
Note that ShapeShifter will not scan the first 246 bytes of the header
for any ID string that a file offset is specified for.
In addition to the options allowed for each archiver,
an option has been added (on the Misc Options section) that
tells ShapeShifter whether it should check for self extractors. If this
option is set to 'Yes' ShapeShifter will automatically check all .EXE files
to determine if they're self extractors. Note that .EXE does *NOT* have to
be defined for this to work. This option controls checking of .EXE files
for self extraction.
You may also define .EXE as an archive extension. When .EXE is defined as
an archive extension, ShapeShifter is capable of creating a self extracting
file (using the Archive Create command that you specify). ShapeShifter will
not attempt to use the Archive Extract command for .EXE files unless the
option to check for self extractors is turned off.
8/13/93
Fixed a minor bug that keep the flag for recursive arc conversion from
being set in SSCFG.
Added an option that tells ShapeShifter to scan a file even if it won't be
converted. Turning this option on causes ShapeShifter to expand an AV'd
file when you have protect -AV on for the purposes of virus scanning (the
original will not be replaced if you have the protect -AV option on). In
addition, nested archives will be expanded for purposes of virus scanning
even if you have the option for converting nested archives turned off (the
original nested archive will not be replaced though). This option is
listed on the Virus Scanner Options window as 'Scan All Files'.
7/4/93
Released v1.8 (non-public, limited distribution)
2/11/93
Added the new option (keep the orginal file if it's smaller) to the
configuration options which can be set with SSCFG. It's located in the
main options, misc options section.
2/10/93
Added a feature that allows you to tell ShapeShifter to keep the original
archive if it's smaller than the new one would be. This should help those
of us who are converting from LHA - it produces smaller files than PKZIP 2.04
in many cases (although not all).
This new feature can be toggled using the command line option /B. At default
all converted files are kept. To keep files if they were originally smaller
simply use /B- on the command line.
2/9/93
------
Fixed a bug that caused the new size for internal archives to be reported
wrong in the log file.
Added a feature that will flag files in the log file if after the conversion
they are bigger than they originally were. The line with the status will
start with a plus sign ('+') if the converted file is bigger than the original.
This new feature makes it possible to see which files are bigger when you
aren't using a logging level (i.e. above 1) that shows the file sizes.
2/7/93
Fixed a bug that surfaced due to a new feature in PKZIP v2.04 -- Previous
versions of ShapeShifter kept the working directory around when converting
archives with nested archives in them. This caused PKZIP to store a zero
byte directory entry in the ZIP when path support was turned on.
ShapeShifter has now been modified to recreate the directory for each
nested archive it converts, and then it's removed immediately after the
nested archive is converted. This method is less efficient than the previous
method I used, but it solves the problem that surfaced using the new PKZIP.
11/15/92
Fixed a minor bug when Switch! was toggled off for an external command.
Released v1.7.
10/21/92
Released v1.6.
10/18/92
Added options to specify whether Switch! should be used to make more memory
available for the virus scanner and external commands. (Note: For commands
defined for an archiver, the value of the Use Switch! option is used for every
command in addition to the archiver/dearchiver command).
10/12/92
Fixed a bug that kept ShapeShifter from properly converting nested
archives to the same format as they were originally in.
Fixed a bug that kept test mode from working properly.
9/25/92
Released v1.5
4/27/92
Added built-in support for WWIV directory files.
4/23/92
Modified the command line portion of ShapeShifter so it won't prompt
for a key to be pressed on startup. This move should allow sysops the
capability to test the program from within a batch file environment.
4/22/92
Modified the help screen to make it so pressing the N key would stop
the help screens.
Added options to configure the colors used by ShapeShifter
4/20/92
Released v1.01 publicly after several months of beta testing ShapeShifter.
4/13/92
Added built-in support for PCBoard, Prodoor, TBBS, and QuickBBS DIR formats.