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1992-09-05
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RA Header HISTORY OF CHANGES
Version 2.0 (version with emphasis on adding customized headers)
───────────
■ Added sysop-customized header support to RA Header and all of it's
utilities and files. Headers can now be any size, shape, or style
of your own (or friend's) design. It supports up to 14 different
variables that can be left, center, or right justified anywhere in
a header. A text editor or a graphics drawing program (that can be
saved to standard ASCII) can be used. See RAHDR.DOC for details.
■ Added RAHDRVU.EXE, a custom header viewer/simulator so you can try
out your custom headers before actually running them on your BBS.
Instant selection, viewing, simulation of up to 90 different headers.
A short demo/tutorial is included (this tutorial is made of actual
custom headers!)
Several custom header examples are included that you can select from.
You can modify them for your own use, or create your own from
scratch.
■ RA Header no longer places an ASCII 255 character in column 1 of a
FILES.BBS file due to so many other utility authors not knowing how
BBS software handles an ASCII 255 character in column 1. This was
used in v1.3 only (all versions of RA Header have used ASCII 255 in
the header, but only v1.3 used it in column 1).
■ Automatic upgrade of v1.3 RAHDR.CFG file to latest version.
■ Added capability to specify an alternate RA Header configuration file
when using RAHDRCFG.EXE by using a command-line argument for the
alternate configuration file. (RA Header has always supported
alternate configuration files, but people using this feature had
to work in their current directory and then rename the file, until
now).
■ Changed break detection message so it exits as an error rather than a
warning. It will also tell you which file area RA Header was in the
middle of working on so you can go check it out (actually, I don't
expect to ever see where cleanup after a break has failed).
■ Rearranged RAHDR.DOC, added more sections due to custom headers, and
put section numbers in.
■ Added section showing all errors and warnings that RA Header will
provide if it runs into problems. This was added to show what will
constitute errorlevels of 0, 1, or 2.
■ RAHDRDEL.EXE has been modified to delete v1.X or v2.X headers.
It can now be completely command-line driven, or used interactively.
Version 1.3 (version with emphasis on speed)
───────────
■ Restructured a major portion of RA Header to increase it's speed.
RA Header v1.3 is much faster than v1.2. Hard drive tests have shown
an 18->29% reduction in execution time (using hard-drives of different
access times) for RA Header to complete all tasks. CD-ROM testing
has shown that this version is almost 4 TIMES THE SPEED!
■ Created some more functions to replace some Turbo C functions.
This trimmed down the disk space and RAM needed for RAHDR.EXE
during that part of development.
(I expect to convert some of RA Header to assembly in the future)
■ Eliminated 3 out of 4 times/file that a file in a file area is
accessed.
■ Eliminated 1 out of 2 times/file area that the FILES.BBS is read.
■ Eliminated redundant code for total bytes of all areas.
■ Reduced writes to disk during header and masterfile list creation.
■ Reduced computation during FILES.BBS and masterfile list creation.
■ Modified to use variables that are much more efficient.
■ Headers created/updated are now in a format that I plan to use for
a future version of RA Header that permits sysop-customized headers.
■ Modified RA Header and it's utilities so that I can increase the number
of file areas much more quickly if RemoteAccess increases the number of
file areas.
■ Revised FILES.RA reading in RAHDRCFG.EXE so that it doesn't chew up
as much RAM. Revised FILES.RA reading was also done to support the
possibility of RemoteAccess increasing the number of file areas.
■ Fixed problem where a file with a missing description could
sometimes not have it's file size added to the file area's total
bytes.
■ Fixed bug where the .ASC bulletin would always be Extended ASCII.
(This bug exists in v1.2 only)
■ Modified RA Header and it's utilities so they can now use root
directories for the RA, Alternate File List, and file area directories.
■ Changed sysop summary to not include a new files count when the
masterfile list is not wanted.
■ Changed color of Totals line in ANSI bulletin (br. cyan -> br. white).
■ "UNREGISTERED" will now show up as "Registered" in file area headers
(rather than blanked out) when RA Header is registered.
■ Modified RAHDRDEL.EXE so it will show when it's deleting a header, and
when a header wasn't found for each file area.
■ Automatic upgrade of RAHDR.CFG v1.2 file to latest version.
Version 1.2 (version with emphasis on CD-ROM support, and RA Header setup)
───────────
■ Added read-only device support (e.g. CD-ROMs) to RA Header. As a
result, an 'Alternate File List path' has been added to RAHDRCFG.EXE.
■ Eliminated need to force pathnames to have the drive letter specified.
This change also means that if you change drives after running RA
Header, you will not be placed in the last file area directory of that
drive, but instead in the last directory you were in on that drive
before running RA Header.
■ Forced RAHDR.EXE and RAHDRCFG.EXE to clear entire window when
in DESQview. (As of v1.1, when run in DOS, screen modes are detected,
and screen functions are executed with regard to starting screen mode)
■ Increased the error-checking in RAHDR.EXE and RAHDRCFG.EXE.
■ Increased automation of configuration setup by using the RA environment
variable (if set). RAHDRCFG.EXE will use that environment variable to
help set up default file pathnames if RAHDR.CFG doesn't exist.
Other directories will be looked for (e.g. TXTFILES) and used if the
RA environment variable is found. RAHDRCFG.EXE will also read CONFIG.RA
when upgrading or installing the first time. It is definate with the
data read from specific RA versions and will make assumptions and ask
if data read is correct if it isn't one of those specific versions.
■ Automatic upgrade of RAHDR.CFG v1.1 file to latest version.
RAHDRCFG.EXE's auto-upgrade is much more extensive than ever before.
■ If file area pathnames and the alternate file list path don't have
a drive letter specified, RA Header will account for this by assuming
the RA directory drive letter. This will ensure RA Header cannot use
the wrong root directory for pathnames when run from drives other than
BBS drive.
■ RA Header does not need CONFIG.RA anymore. (also includes the missing
files string in RAHDR.CFG). The information that was used in CONFIG.RA
is now automatically read when upgrading RA Header or configuring for
the first time and is configurable by the sysop.
■ Fixed bug where RA Header would sometimes still include the last file
area that was supposed to be excluded.
■ Fixed some file sharing conflicts that were possible when run on a
networked or multi-tasking BBS.
■ Misc. changes to RAHDRCFG.EXE include:
■ Added four fields.
■ Changed the "Save/Abort Changes" prompt in RAHDRCFG.EXE so that
the highlighted portion is readable by those with mono monitors.
■ Added 'S' for [S]ave, and 'A' for [A]bort when exiting
RAHDRCFG.EXE.
■ Fixed where spaces could go beyond the field limits for excluding
file areas in RACONFIG.EXE.
■ Fixed where backspaces would sometimes appear to erase part of
the field when entering data in RACONFIG.EXE.
■ Fixed where the right arrow wouldn't work in the Save/Abort part
of RAHDRCFG.EXE if Save/Abort was previously used.
■ Fixed where a RAHDR.CFG file would remain in present directory
after a person selected Abort if the file wasn't there at start.
■ Increased limits: OLD NEW
───────────── ─────────────
Files/Area: 32,767 -> 65,535
Bytes/Area: 2,147,483,647 -> 4,294,967,295
Files/All Areas: 32,767 -> 65,535
Bytes/All Areas: 2,147,483,647 -> 4,294,967,295
# Excluded Areas: 88 -> 200
Pathname Lengths: 78 -> 80
■ Added a header delete program for RA Header. This program will delete
headers created by RA Header v1.0 through v1.2. It's primary purpose
at this time is to give those people who are evaluating RA Header
more assurance that they can easily go back to their old FILES.BBS
files if they desire. This program was provided for RA Header
evaluation and a later version is planned to aid in conversion to a
later version of RA Header featuring sysop-customized headers, and it
will be updated at that time to continue it's present use too.
■ Added several new sections to the RA Header documentation.
(e.g. CD-ROM, Future of RA Header, Specifications, RAHDRDEL.EXE, etc.)
■ Fixed where filenames that are 12 characters or less and without
descriptions would show up as 'MISSING' files in the Masterfile list.
■ Fixed where filenames that are 12 characters and without descriptions
would put remainder of file info on the next line in the Masterfile
list.
■ Added a scrolling file area list to RAHDRCFG.EXE so it is now quick
and easy to select excluded file areas, rather than entering in the
file area number as in previous versions.
■ Excluded file area numbers are displayed for a quick-reference so
you won't have to scan through all 200 file areas to see if others
are excluded.
■ Included a Fast Select/Deselect key to also make it quick to setup
RA Header for those who only want a few included file areas versus
a few excluded file areas.
■ A text editor is no longer needed in order to exclude up to 200
file areas.
■ Significantly reduced accessing of the hard drive and computation during
Masterfile list creation.
Speed tests made before this optimization showed a 7% increase in time
needed to run RA Header on my system. After optimization, and under the
same conditions, RA Header will now run 4% FASTER THAN THE LAST VERSION.
The slower the access time of a BBS hard drive -> the greater the % speed
improvement over the last version of RA Header under similiar conditions.
If you are interested in the testing conditions, see the "SPECIFICATIONS"
section of RAHDR.DOC.
Version 1.1 (version with emphasis on sysop summary, new files, and
─────────── error detection)
■ Improved screen output during execution by providing a summary of each
file area.
■ Added marking of new files in allfiles list. New files may be marked with
an '*' if within a selected number of days old.
■ Configuration file RAHDR.CFG has been changed to include the version
of RA Header to support future upgrades more easily.
■ RAHDR.EXE checks RAHDR.CFG to make sure that it is the correct version and
will automatically upgrade v1.0 to v1.1 configuration file.
■ Added option to have backups (FILES.BAK files) deleted.
■ Clear entire screen regardless of textmode (25, 43, or 50 line mode) when
running RAHDRCFG.EXE or RAHDR.EXE.
■ Eliminated the escape codes that were used for color screen output during
execution of RAHDR.EXE. You may now run RAHDR.EXE in DESQview and get
colors without running DVANSI. Or for that matter, regular DOS users
wouldn't need to run ANSI.SYS to get RA Header's colors. Also, users of
older DOS versions (i.e. IBM DOS 3.0) will still get a nice 50 line
screen output despite their ailing ANSI.SYS.
■ Expanded on the insufficient disk space warnings so it would explain
exactly why the warning was given and how much disk space was needed.
■ Added errorlevels to RA Header that can be used in a batch to inform
you of specific system concerns.
Version 1.0
───────────
INITIAL RELEASE.