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UpdateMaker 1.2.cpt
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1.2 Release Note
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Text File
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1992-03-03
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5KB
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105 lines
[ This release note should accompany distribution of UpdateMaker 1.2 ]
This is the third complete release of UpdateMaker and the first that I'm
happy enough with to commit to final form. This is not a beta version and
will not expire. 1.2b1, the previous version, will expire on or about the
22nd of March 1992, although it can still be used if you set your calendar
back. Differences from 1.2b1 are summarised below - numerous bugs have been
fixed and all users should switch to this version.
UpdateMaker is a utility program for making and applying update documents,
or for making stand-alone update applications.
An update document or application describes the differences between any two
Macintosh files and the changes required to convert one file into the other.
It is often advantageous to distribute update documents rather than a
completely new version of a file, not only because the update document
tends to be smaller, but also because it is useless unless the old
original file is available.
Stand-alone update applications are some 11K larger than the equivalent
document but have the advantage that the receiver does not need to have a copy
of UpdateMaker to use them.
UpdateMaker can create an update document for literally any two Macintosh
files, be they applications, documents, system extensions, or whatever.
For example, one can make an update document that will describe the differences
between the Font/DA Mover application and Disk First Aid, and change one
into the other.
Documentation on how to use UpdateMaker is built into the Help menu of the
application. No other manual is provided or required, because UpdateMaker
uses the standard Macintosh interface conventions 8-).
UpdateMaker requires System 6 or later; it is fully System 7 compatible and
slightly System-7 friendly. It was written with MacApp The Wonder Development
System, which is the main reason for its inordinate size.
UpdateMaker is copyright 1992 Analog Digital Instruments Ltd and is made
available to you by the Shareware principle: try it out and if you find
it useful enough to keep and use it, we ask for a shareware payment
(address details are in the Help documentation). For private use, we
ask for a $10 shareware payment, for commercial use we ask for $50. Large
companies or institutions should contact us about licensing.
The author would be grateful for any bug reports or constructive suggestions
not requiring the entire application to be rewritten :-).
Differences from 1.2b1:
Functional bugs (in approximate order of seriousness)
- An uninitialised pointer bug caused crashes during the build specification when
you clicked on Old File or New File.
- Some updates crashed on 68000-based Macs, both as documents and stand-alone
applications.
- Some stand-alone applications crashed MultiFinder on startup under System 6, because
their memory size had been set too small.
- Bringing up a help window, closing it, and bringing it up again tended to cause
crashes, more often on 68000-based Macs
- The 500K default partition size seems to be a bit small for some users - memory
management has been improved and the partition made larger
- Error handling has improved and stands a better chance of telling you what went
wrong in some detail rather than crashing
- Stand-alone applications didn't close properly and could not be run again without
restarting
- Stand-alone applications and UpdateMaker tended to leave a partially-built file
behind if an update failed
- The Quit button in stand-alone applications produced a bogus error message
- The Preferences file, which remembers override specs for particular application
types, would not forget them if you disabled the overrides.
- Some files under System 6 generated an incorrect warning about compressed resources
Cosmetic bugs
- The cursor flickered over the Done button in the Define Files dialog
- The wrong icons were sometimes displayed for applications
- The arrow between the icons in the Update specifications dialog wasn't drawn
if the Expert options were open and the second override was disabled
- Various dialogs didn't fit on the 512 x 342 screen properly
- The popup menus in the expert build options lacked a down-arrow
- The alerts didn't have appropriate icons
New features for the release
- UpdateMaker now always asks where the updated file is to be put, and behaves
correctly if you ask it to replace the original by deleting and renaming when done.
- The document window always appears overlapping the build window
- The progress bar now shows .5K steps instead of 1K, and doesn't switch to
a tick count at the end
- The expert build options now include a control for treatment of SIZE 0 which
allows for copy-regardless instead of the default always-replace
- the busy cursor is now a beachball and doesn't turn into a blur
- The stand-alone applications update dialog has been redesigned to make it clearer
and now credits AD Instruments
- Stand-alone applications now check to see that they have a compatible system
version before running
- Documents and stand-alone applications now have an internal checksum and will
refuse to run if they have been damaged in transit
- The description syntax has been improved as it tended to get a bit incoherent
- The help text has been expanded
Michael Hamel, Confuting Services Centre, University of Otago
29 February 1992
michael@otago.ac.nz