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Text File | 1993-03-14 | 26KB | 504 lines

Tic-2-PCB History documentation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03-14-93 - 2.4 - This is primarily a bug fix & enhancement release. Added new routines to reformat description within the FILE_ID.DIZ and not even import a DESC.SDI that's non-standard. Fixed the way extra long .TIC file descriptions are handled. Fixed the Unknown area switch. It was found to be working backwards. Reorganized the method used to read in the areas, and then subsequently dimensioning my arrays. This makes the code more disk intensive now since I'm gathering the area info from the .TIC files first. This allows me to determine what area definitions are needed from the config file instead of loading all the arrays and string into memory, therefore getting the "Out of string space" error. Updated the CONVERT.EXE and TTPCFG.EXE to handle up to 560 areas which stops the problem with the dreaded "Out of string space". I have set an arbitrary limit of 560 areas, but this is only a minor change in code. (it also only applies to the configuration file manager - the main code will handle an unlimited amount) Fixed the problem with the area names and the code not properly importing the files into their correct directories. Fixed an annoyance with the display should a file description be longer than 9 lines (plus the Rcvd by line). Fixed the Multi-Node bug where you would receive an error message "Permission denied" if the DIR file or message base was being read while Tic-2-PCB was updating it. Changed the way the .TIC file info was gathered, therefore making it just a tad bit faster. Fixed a problem with the newer version .TIC files which use the Release keyword. Changed the screen clearing routine and added an output header instead of clearing the screen completely. I added the header so a person could at least tell that the program is working. I've added a command line switch called /DEBUG. This switch will turn on some logging which will show exactly where, and what the program was doing at any moment while it's executing. Should the code hang, be sure to grab the file TIC2PCB.DBG before running it again. I'll need this file in order to tell where Tic-2-PCB is pukeing. :( I would also like to receive a copy of your config file, the suspect .TIC file, and the archive too. In order to provide wide compatability, if you aren't validating the CRC-32 in the .TIC files, I'm not going to check for the keyword or line, this should give compatability to processors such as FileManager and a few others that don't produce the .TIC files with CRC lines. Now that I have assumed the duties of HUB here, I have finally discovered why everyone who is using Tic-2-PCB have asked me to make it forward files. It seems this TICK & Tic-2-PCB stuff is for the birds! You can bet I'll be implementing this as soon as I'm finished converting over to C++. Hopefully this will be the last release in QuickBASIC. When I do release the C++ version, I'll name it 3.0. 01-22-93 - v2.3 - CONFIG FILE CHANGE! I switched to a binary file format to speed up disk access and make life much easier for me. <g> Added a new configuration file manager since the format is now binary. (Duh!) This will cause some people to wimper and whine, but in the long run it will be much better. The name of it is TTPCFG.EXE. The syntax is: TTPCFG {CONFIG.NAM} Added a program to convert version 2.2 config files into an incomplete binary file. Mainly it places all of your area info and some default information into the binary config file. Use this before executing TTPCFG. Should save you some time. Removed the requirement for the DOWNLOAD.TXT entry. Made a command line parameter /VER which will report what the compiled program name is, version, and compile date. I have looked at the possibility of adding complete compatibility with ULP, but due to the possibility of loosing the description, I'm finding this more of a henderance than a benefit. If you test a file and then convert it, I will have to rescan the directory to see if it exists under a different name, change the name in the PCBoard directory & the DOWNLOAD.TXT file (if used). If the archive fails the verification and is renamed to .DUP, .BAD, or .ERR I have no way of handling it other than leaving the DIR file as is, or as a minimum change the DIR file entry to match the new file name, which I doubt would be desirable by most sysops... This is an unfortunate conclusion to this idea, I was looking forward to making this a really nice feature. :( Added the ability to send file announcements to a specific message base. All files received from an AREA will be announced in one continuous message. I removed the need for the TIC2PCB.SCR & .SC1 files. I'm now handling all the video routines internally. As all of you can see, this is starting to get even closer to the full blown file forwarding system I onced promised. It will evolve, but maybe not right away... Hang in there gang! Please note that my FIDO address will be changing some time in February from 1:347/10 to 1:347/110. 12-27-92 - v2.2 - CONFIG FILE CHANGE!!! Be sure to look at the new configuration file format! I made the config file so it will support keywords instead of a specific order (except for the area declarations). Added a KEYWORD {@}TEST You now have the option of testing each individual file, or testing a whole list of them by using the TEST keyword for individual file testing or @TEST to make a list file. If the KEYWORD @TEST is used, Tic-2-PCB will keep track of each file processed and shell out after completion of all processing and pass the filename TIC2PCB.LST as parameter %1. This should accommodate the next version of Stacy Smith's ULP program which will preserve the "Received by: Tic-2-PCB" lines if used, and individual file processing in local mode. Thanks Stacy! Added a KEYWORD COPYARC which if present, it will force Tic-2-PCB to copy the inbound archives to the destination directory and leave a copy in the inbound directory. Added a KEYWORD FILEDATE that if found will cause Tic-2-PCB to use the ARCHIVE date within the PCBoard(tm) DIR file. Added a KEYWORD LOGOFF that turns all standard logging off. The TIC2PCB.ERR file will still be written though. Added a KEYWORD NOINFO to turn of the appending of "Received by: Tic-2-PCB MM/DD/YY From:AREANAME" Added a KEYWORD NODIZ to turn off FILE_ID.DIZ checking. Tic-2-PCB will now shell out and check the archive for a FILE_ID.DIZ or a DESC.SDI and use it instead of the one or two line description that comes inside the .TIC files. You must have the archive utilities that are listed within the docs for this to operate correctly. Also, Tic-2-PCB can not I.D. self extracting archives or process the description files within them. If an archive can't be identified, it will be processed as normal. Added a KEYWORD NOCRC which will turn off the CRC-32 comparison of the included CRC-32 within the TICK file and the actual ARCHIVE CRC-32. This gives added security to your system should someone try to sneak a bogus file through your TICK processor. This WILL NOT check the files within the archive! Added a KEYWORD UNKNOWN which will allow UNKNOWN file areas to be imported into the default directories. This is designed to allow files to be imported that do not have a defined area in the config file. The reason for this is because there's no password checking on UNKNOWN imports. If this keyword is not found in the config file or it is commented out, all UNKNOWN AREA .TIC files will be renamed to TKnnnnnn.UNK and the ARCHIVE will NOT be imported into the system. Added a KEYWORD in the area declaration called PASSWORD. This will support password checking of the TICK files. If this option is used, it will search the TICK file for the PW keyword and then compare that password to the password listed in the config file for that AREA. If it isn't a match then the TKnnnnnn.TIC will be renamed to TKnnnnnn.PWD and the archive WILL NOT be processed into your BBS. To disable this feature, just comment out or delete the PASSWORD xxxxxx lines. Added a command line switch of /BELL to turn the beeping off when an error occurs. Added a new output screen. You can select /M for MONO on the command line if your system doesn't support color. I improved the logging routines. The following entries will now be found in the log file: --------[ Processing {INBOUND} - MM-DD-YYYY - HH:MM:SS --------[ Process complete - MM-DD-YYYY - HH:MM:SS --------[ Process Aborted! - MM-DD-YYYY - HH:MM:SS A - Area unknown for file specified Renamed .TIC to .UNK C - CRC check sum error on archive Renamed .TIC to .CRC D - FILE_ID.DIZ is longer than 450 bytes - Not used E - Error encountered in .TIC file Renamed .TIC to .ERR F - File doesn't exist Renamed .TIC to .FIL P - Incorrect password for AREA Renamed .TIC to .PWD S - DESC.SDI longer than 85 bytes - Not used √ - Process successful. File imported properly At the request of one of the Tic-2-PCB users (sorry I don't recall who you were) I have renamed the included config file, log file, and error file as SAMPLE.CFG, SAMPLE.LOG, and SAMPLE.ERR. Thanks for the suggestion, who ever you are! <g> TIC2PCB.DOC has been updated. Made available as TTP22.ARJ on 12/27/92. 11-11-92 - v2.1 - Set this up as debug code. After evaluation for a two week period this code is stable since recompiling under QuickBASIC 4.5. Made available as TTP21.ARJ on 11/21/92. 10-31-92 - v2.0b - Jim Dritsas reported a bug that didn't correctly write the PCBoard directory entries. This bug was caused due to porting the code over to VB-DOS. - FIXED 10-25-92 - v2.0a - This version wasn't supposed to make it out the door! I had compiled some test code, and in the process of getting the VB-DOS code compiled and bundled up, I accidentally grabbed the wrong executable and put it out. I'm very sorry for that! :( Added errorlevels to the code, and it will exit with the following levels: 0 - Successful execution, no errors encountered. 1 - Unsuccessful execution, errors encountered, and TIC2PCB.ERR file created/appended. 2 - Unsuccessful execution, no .TIC files to process. Added code that will continue processing if a .TIC file is found without an accompanying file. TIC2PCB.DOC has been updated. 10-18-92 - v2.0 - NO CHANGES MADE TO CODE EXCEPT RECOMPILED USING MS'S VISUAL-BASIC FOR DOS. 10-08-92 - v1.6 - CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! Changed the command line implementation to require a configuration file name. The method to execute the program will be TIC2PCB <config file> you must specify a configuration filename or the program will halt execution. This was done for people receiving files from another net, which was causing problems with the size of the array's within the code, you can now have several different config files to support each network. Fixed a bug that was reporting that the TIC2PCB.CFG file was not found when it actually was, but the file or path didn't exist within the configuration file. I have now written error trapping routines that will (hopefully in most cases) identify the line that the error occurred on and report what path/file it was working on when it encountered the error. There will also be a file created called TIC2PCB.ERR which will tell you what the error was in case you were asleep or away when the program last executed. Incorporated support for FileManager type TIC files. Made an option for a batch file to be called to process all files when received. This routine will call the batch file specified within the configuration file and pass the file name as %1, the file name will specify the location and the file name after it has been moved to it's destination directory. (C:\UPLOAD\FILENAME.xxx) Your upload processor must handle renaming or moving the file if it should fail any testing. Major optimization of code, which is based somewhat on OOP. I moved most of the routines into separate modules, which should free up some memory, run faster, and be easily modified. Support for FILE_ID.DIZ detection, Forwarding of files, a message report to the sysop when files are received, and a configuration program should be included in the next release after being compiled under VisualBASIC for DOS. After spending several hours, and a lot of weekends supporting Tic-2-PCB, I am considering making it shareware in the near future which I expect it to be a one time fee of $15 for non-commercial, and $25 for business use. I know this is something that you probably hate to see, I know I do when I've been using a free utility for a while and gotten used to it, but I now understand why authors resort to this type of programming. It takes a lot of time, and the family tends to be left out in the living room while I'm pounding away on the keys, and they only see me when I'm hungry or I need to go to the bathroom. <g> TIC2PCB.DOC has been updated. 09-11-92 - v1.5 - CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! Fixed a bug that was causing the descriptions to get cut off when a comma was encountered - FIXED Made an option for "Received by Tic-2-PCB mm-dd-yy From:AREANAME" entry in the DIR file. Completed the option to select either C)urrent date or F)ile date for DIR file entry. (NOTE: The log file entry will log the current date the file was imported) I thought I had this done in v1.4! :( I added a feature that will add an entry to your DOWNLOAD.TXT file so the common File Profilers will have upload/download stats for callers to view. Optimized some code, and rearranged some subroutines. Not really noticeable speed, just easier to make changes in the future. I will be adding a feature that will send a private message to the sysop, showing what files were imported and where. It will also send errors that are encountered (i.e. bad file names, incorrect paths, duplicate file name, etc.) There have been several requests to allow processing to continue when an error is encountered (bad file name, path errors, etc.). I have thought about this feature, but Tic-2-PCB exits when an error is encountered, just in case something is really wrong, and it decides to trash your system. (hopefully things will never get to that point anyway) <grin> If the general feeling is to continue on even after an error is encountered, then I will write it into the code. TIC2PCB.DOC has been updated. 07-30-92 - v1.4a - It figures! Not less than a week later, I get another bug report. :( Thanks to Tim Fierro, I have incorporated support for FEcho .TIC files. The file format is completely different than TICK, so I figured I would add support for that system too. If someone else has another file processor that Tic-2-PCB isn't processing properly, just send me a copy of the .TIC file and I'll try to add support for it too. Minor changes made to TIC2PCB.DOC. (not enough to reprint it) 07-23-92 - v1.4 - CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE! Released as a regular release. If I run into more serious problems, I'll start sending ßeta code out the door again. Thanks to Richard Vonzel, I was able to locate another problem that wasn't noticeable but yet caused some real hair pulling, if things were entered in mixed case, the program code wasn't interpreting the mixed case. FIXED! As requested by Bob Rathke, I instituted an UNKNOWN area, which will toss all unknown area files to the default directory listed in lines 2 & 3 of TIC2PCB.CFG. As requested by Jim Rhodes, a TIC2PCB.LOG file has been added. It will show the date imported, area name, file name, size, and destination DOS directory. If there's anything else someone wants entered in this log, let me know. The log can be disabled in line 15 of TIC2PCB.CFG by entering "N" (without quotes) for no logging. If this option is used, make sure you check the size of this log if you are receiving lots of files on a regular basis. You can delete it if it gets to big, or you no longer want it. You can also thank Jim for pointing out the problem when moving files to other drives, and the "Release" line in the .TIC files, which were corrected in the last release. As requested by several people, and to ease the problems of installation I've changed the way Tic-2-PCB handles comments. They're no longer required, nor is the pesky semi-colon (;) either! If you should forget to place the trailing back slash (\) on a line that is supposed to have a directory entry, Tic-2-PCB will no longer toss cookies or fits. Implemented the option for "F"ile or "C"urrent date to be used in the directory file listing. TIC2PCB.DOC has been updated. 07-16-92 - v1.3ß - Released this version due to the inability to move files to another drive. Tic-2-PCB will now move files to other drives. - I made a modification that will support the "Release" key word found at the top of some .TIC files. I think this was that pesky bug. - Cleaned up some output routines. It seems I left some debugging code in the file and word wrap was never enabled, and the version number was never changed. Sorry, it should work now. :-) - Had one report that the TIC2PCB.CFG file couldn't be found in the directory, I couldn't track this one down. Anyone else had this problem before? - Added more error trapping routines. - Added a support conference on my BBS called Tic-2-PCB (#8). - If you want access to this conference, send me net-mail with the following information and I will set up an account for you so you won't have to go through the verification procedures: REAL NAME: PASSWORD: ADDRESS: CITY/STATE: DATA LINE: VOICE LINE: DATE OF BIRTH: Your account will normally be setup within 24 hours. - As of this release, I will indicate if any changes have been made to the documentation. This should help save a few trees. <grin> - No changes made to Tic2PCB.Doc 07-15-92 - v1.2ß - 1.1ß1 Had a pesky little bug appear, but it disappeared after recompiling with the new code. Hopefully it stays gone! - Included code to preserve the original file date of the archive. It was being dated to the present day. I haven't had much time to incorporate the other features as of yet. This file date thing took me a while. I have some information that will help me include some more enhancements for future releases. Future enhancements will be: 1. Archive identification without relying on the suffix. 2. Calling PCBTEST (or other batch) on all moved/copied files. 3. Incorporating FILE_ID.DIZ & DESC.SDI detection. 4. Allowing a recompress of the archive after a copy/move. 5. Make a configuration setup routine. NOTE: I got a lot of calls reporting problems. I found that 80% were due to the configuration file being cleaned out. YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE ; (SEMI-COLON) IN THE 33RD COLUMN OR TIC2PCB WON'T WORK. I will be changing this in the next version or so. The other 20% were due to that invisible bug. 06-26-92 - v1.1ß1 Minor bug fix! Released the same day. 06-26-92 - v1.1ß Major upgrade! Added support for multiple areas, and tossing to different file directories and directory listings. - Enabled word wrapping for lines that are too long for the standard PCBoard directory listing. - Enhanced the Move file routine. <That was an oversight on my part>. - Began setting up the configuration file to support the FILE_ID.DIZ & DESC.SDI file description methods. These are becoming more and more popular. I plan on allowing the Sysop to say whether they would like to change the file date or leave it the same on new files. (Presently the file date is being changed to the current date when being copied) Will also allow Sysops to say how long of a secondary description they want up to eight lines. Be sure to read about the new configuration file changes, you must follow the pattern in the file or it WON'T WORK. Thanks everyone, for telling me what you wanted to see in Tic-2-PCB. 06-19-92 - v1.1ß Tic-to-PCB had a name change to Tic-2-PCB! I like this method of spelling much better. <grin> - Made a few changes to the video output and removed unnecessary code. Changed some sub routines, reformatted the code for easier reading. - Added TIC2PCB.HIS and FILE_ID.DIZ to archive. - A complete revision to the Tic2PCB manual. 06-12-92 - v1.0ß Initial release as ßeta.