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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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copyq317.arj
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WHATS.NEW
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1994-09-28
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What's New in CopyQM 3.17
Sydex, Inc.
P.O. Box 5700
Eugene, OR 97405
(503) 683-6033
September, 1994
CopyQM's diskette I/O routines now support IRQs from 2 through 15, instead
the previous 2 through 8. This allows 16-bit controller cards that can use
the higher IRQ numbers, such as the Adaptec SCSI cards to operate as secondary
controllers with CopyQM.
A new command-line keyword, "GO" has been added. This keyword will suppress
the "Re-insert Master Diskette" message that appears when reading the first
diskette of a session. If a diskette is in the source drive, CopyQM will
immediately begin processing it. This is useful when a diskette has just
been created and needs to be processed immediately without operator inter-
vention.
When the RECORD=/ASK keyword is used, a filename with "?" characters may
be used in response to the file name prompt. The effect is the same as
if the filename were given directly with the RECORD=filename keyword.
That is, for a file name of A???, files named A001, A002, A003... will
be created.
When the PLAYBACK=/ASK keyword is used, file names with "?" and "*"
characters may be used in response to the file name prompt. The effect
is to play back all image files satisfying the file specification, then
request a new file name. Files are accessed in alphabetic order.
A small bug in the self-extractor was corrected in CopyQM Plus.
What's New in CopyQM 3.16
You can now copy diskettes containing flawed areas by specifying the FLAW
keyword on the CopyQM command line, or by selecting the "Ignore master data
errors?" choice with CQMenu. Please note that the data content of erroneous
sectors is NOT repaired, but as much data as possible will be recovered from
the bad sectors. Consult the on-line help for more information.
The self-extracting file processor in CopyQM Plus has a bug repair. If
an unusable destination diskette was used when executing a self-extracting
image file, the "Make another copy?" processing would not recover correctly
and an "Image file corrupt" message would result. Note that the self-
extracting file would operate correctly the next time it was executed.
CopyQM Plus users can now invoke SHELL or OVERLAY procedures when an image
file is being written. The sequence of events is exactly the same as when
diskette copies are being produced.
What's New in CopyQM 3.15
CopyQM now supports writing on up to twelve (!) destination drives. You
must have an EGA or VGA display card when more than six destination drives
are being used.
In RECORD= mode, CopyQM now checks for a pre-existing file of the same name
as the image file to be written. If one exists, a prompt is issued, giving
you the opportunity to exit CopyQM before overwriting the file.
The first master diskette in a session is prompted for with the message
"Re-insert Master". The second and succeeding masters are requested
with the message "Insert Next Master".
We've made a couple of bug fixes related to multi-drive copying. One is
an out-and-out goof--the display didn't correctly show which drive in a
multi-drive set was really writing. The other is a subtle one and is
concerned only with 1.2M and 360K drives used to make the same 360K
copy--not a good idea, but supported at any rate.
CopyQM Plus users will note that the drive speed test now adds one more
digit of significance to the reported spin rate.
What's New in CopyQM 3.14
If the BLIND option has not been specified and a non-DOS, non-Macintosh
diskette is read, a prompt now appears allowing a change to BLIND copying
mode. However, you should be aware that the non-DOS error message can
also appear when a DOS diskette is infected with a boot-sector virus,
such as the "Stoned" virus.
Auto-sense for E-Ten Chinese-language display software has been removed
due to conflicts with some ATI Technologies VGA display cards. If a
restricted character set is desired, the "7BIT" command-line option
should be used.
What's New in CopyQM 3.13
CopyQM Plus now creates self-extracting image files directly, without
the use of MAKESXD. The SELFEXTRACT (abbreviated SELF) keyword, when
used with RECORD, causes a self-extracting file to be recorded. When
self-extracting files are produced, about 40K of additional base RAM
is required for operation. In general, CopyQM requires a base RAM
space of at least 350K for execution. Of course, the more memory the
better--i.e., faster--operation.
MAKESXD now does its work in a single pass, without any additional disk
space required for temporary files.
BIOS support has been improved to accomodate a few less-IBM-conforming
BIOS sets.
Code has been added to enabled interrupts at critical points. We've seen
some BIOS code that doesn't seem to re-enable interrupts after they've
been disabled.
Support has been improved for 2.88M drives and controllers. However,
CopyQM requires that 2.88M drives be jumpered for auto media-sensing
to work with the DIRECT diskette controller access modes. If your
2.88M drives are not not jumpered in this manner, you can either reset
the jumpers or use BIOS access.
The SCANDISK utility in MS-DOS 6.2 sometimes reports a spurious boot-
sector and/or FAT error on diskettes generated with the CONVERT= option,
though MS-DOS CHKDSK finds no problem. We've traced this to SCANDISK's
insistence on a certain media byte for a given media type. Interestingly,
in Microsoft's own words: "Beginning with DOS 2.x, the usefulness of the
disk ID byte in the FAT was reduced and it now considered meaningless..."
Not being ones to argue a minor point, we now insert the proper media
media byte in CONVERT-ed diskettes and SCANDISK is happy. Sigh...
What's New in CopyQM 3.12
CopyQM 3.12 contains a few minor changes to version 3.11:
1. Support for the E-Ten Chinese language system has been
incorporated. Users who use other double-byte systems
can force the use of non-extended codes by means of the
/7BIT command-line switch on any of the CopyQM product
set.
2. A bug occurred when a BLIND mode copy was attempted where
FIRST= did not equal 1. Only one sector per track would
be seen when CopyQM was run in Direct hardware access mode.
3. A few Windows API calls have been added to the Direct I/O
routines. CopyQM should run as a background task in direct
hardware controller access mode under Windows 3.1. However,
IBM OS/2's implementation of Windows and their DOS box appear
to ignore these API calls, so running as a background task in
OS/2 will still result in occasional "DRIVE NOT READY" errors.
4. Normally, CopyQM and its utilities will access the screen memory
directly in order to draw displays as quickly as is possible.
However, if the following switch is used, CopyQM and its
utilities will use the video BIOS to create screen displays:
/CRTBIOS
This can be abbreviated to /CR. For example, if a copy using
drives A: and B: is to be performed, the following command line
could be used:
COPYQM A: B: /CRTBIOS
Similarly, all CopyQM utilities, including CQMENU, CINSTALL,
ICOMMENT, MAKESXD (CopyQM Plus only), DRMAINT (CopyQM Plus only)
will accept the /CRTBIOS switch. The configuration viewer,
VIEWCONF, accepts this switch, but ignores it, as VIEWCONF
always uses the CRT BIOS.
Text-to-speech translator users may want to experiment with
the switches /7BIT and /MONO to reduce the number of non-text
characters on the screen. The /7BIT switch forces the use of
the lower 128 codes in the ASCII set; that is, line-drawing and
character graphics are not used. The /MONO switch forces use of
a monochrome display set.