Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/telecomm/imhov107/doc/versions.txt

Text File | 1994-05-22 | 9KB | 234 lines

                               IMHO
                               ====


----------------- Notes on versions released so far -------------------

1.00
----
First release - used lots of memory.

1.01
----
Chopped down the memory a bit to more sensible size limits.

Closing the packet and replying Yes to Make packet
releases the memory for the messages before invoking the archiver.
(No reason for it to hold onto it - just the way it was written
to start with).

PERSONAL.NDX will be ignored if present in the message packet.
Caused some minor problems with the previous release.

1.02
----
Changed the way the taglines appear at the bottom.
It now puts the IMHO version on a separate line to give more
room for longer taglines - can now be 76 characters, compared
with 62 before.
Btw, if you don't want taglines just put a blank line in the IMHO.TAG
file and it will be left out of the reply.

The "Info" option in the menu bar of Use ACCessories now
displays the free memory available.

A message display "indicator" has been added to the header part
of the message display. This consists of 2 horizontal lines at
the right side of the screen. These are similar to "slider" bars
on windows - the lower one indicates the "total" number of lines
in the current message, and the upper line indicates which part
is being displayed on screen - left being the beginning and right
being the end of the message. The length of the upper line indicates
the proportion of the message which can be displayed, i.e. the
shorter the line the longer the full message.

A header line has been added to the list of message areas displayed
when the New Message option is entered.

1.03
----
***** I M P O R T A N T *****
The configuration file has changed - this version of IMHO will not
work with the old style IMHO.CFG file format.
It has been changed to a "keyword" and "value" format, rather than the old
method of having to know which line to put which parameter.
E.g. ...
messages          =  a:\messages\
edit reply header =  yes
taglines          =  random

There are some new parameters :-

  Taglines can now be switched off (use no memory) or set to "choose" mode
  where they can be selected from a list, instead of being picked randomly.

  The copy of the message packet to the work directory can be switched
  off to save space in a ram disk or to save time for hard drive owners.

  The size of memory "heaps" can be set - this can be twiddled with to
  get efficient memory use. See MEMORY.TXT file.

See file CONFIG.TXT for full details on the new configuration file format.


Fixed a problem with file I/O buffers. There were (unknown to me, before
I delved into the I/O routine source code) 1K buffers being allocated
from free memory for each file opened, and never freed. This made a
mess of my attempts to handle the free memory efficiently. This is all
fixed now - memory shouldn't disappear for no apparent reason any more.

The use of memory has been changed. The use of fixed size arrays in
the program has been changed to dynamic memory allocation. This means
that there are effectively no limits on most of the things that had
limits before (like number of taglines) and also that it only uses
the amount of memory it actually needs (e.g. loading the tagline file).
Therefore there doesn't need to be a "cut down" version for people
using machines with less memory.
See the MEMORY.TXT file in the documentation directory for details
about the use of memory.

1.04
----
Minor fix to allow it to work with RAMAIL door.
Puts the conference (area) number in both places in the reply
headers now.

1.05
----
This was never released.
It got changed to 1.06 because Rhoda (my very special beta tester)
got bored with seeing 1.05 for so long! :)

1.06
----
Lots of changes! Here's the list...

There's a new option on the first screen : List Message Packets.
This gives a list of (up to 500) message packets in the messages
directory along with the number of messages, the number to you,
the number left to read, and a comment.
This information is only available once bookmarks have been saved
in the new 1.06 format.
You can then click on a packet to open it.
Press <HELP> for other options and/or see the docs.

Bookmarks have been changed.
The old ones are no longer compatible. If you have old bookmarks
you will get a warning saying the bookmarks are not valid for
the packet.

There are now 2 types of 'bookmarks': the old place holder type, and
the new mark type which flag each message as being Unread, Read,
Replied, or Marked with a single character : blank, '-', '>', '#'.
Hit the '#' key when displaying a message to 'Mark' it.
The characters can be changed via the IMHO.CFG file (see docs).

^B no longer saves bookmarks. They get saved when
closing the packet, or by clicking the "Save Bookmarks" button (which
replaces the "Delete Bookmarks" button), or get saved to the work
directory when using the "Pause" button. Bookmark files can be
deleted with the "T" option in List Message Packets (see docs).
N.B. If something goes wrong (e.g. bombs or error messages) you
will lose your current bookmarks up to the last save/pause.

3 preset comments can be assigned to buttons in the pop-up box when
saving bookmarks (see docs).

The creation of the reply packet has been changed somewhat.
This may be a little confusing, so please read the following:

When a new reply packet is created it will be called xxxxxxxx.REP
where xxxxxxxx is the BBS name. This means you don't have to keep
renaming the last .nnn packet to .REP like before, in order to
upload it to a BBS.

If a .REP file already exists in the reply directory it will be
renamed to .nnn (the next highest number in the directory) before
the new .REP is created (so you don't lose any old reply packets).

The .REP is actually created first in the work directory and then
copied to the reply directory. Now, if there is already a .REP
file in the work directory you will be given the choice of adding
to that packet or making a new one.
If you add to it, the current .REP in work is decompressed with
the archiver, the new replies are added, then it is compressed
again, and finally copied to the reply directory; thus replacing
the .REP in the replies directory. You can add to the packet every
now and again if you're using a ramdisk for work and want to ensure the
replies get onto a permanent disk - you don't have to keep generating
new packets all the time like before.
If you elect to make a new packet then the .REP packet in the
reply directory will be renamed to .nnn before the new .REP is
copied into it.

If you have a .REP in the reply directory from a previous session
and want to continue adding replies to it, you must first load it
back into the work directory (unless you have a permanent drive
for your work directory and it's still in there from last time).
To do this, use the "Add to Previous REP" button on the open
packet screen.

I hope that makes sense!

The backup of individual reply files in work (replies.old) has
been removed - no real need for it, and it would have been
horrendous to figure out how to do it with the new adding to
reply packet option.

There is a new "View File" button on the open packet screen.
You can view the files that come along with the packet (e.g. news)
or other files. You can change the 'viewer' to be the editor
or some other program - see docs.

There is now a "Grabber" - hit 'G' when displaying a message.
You can grab the name of the person sending or receiving the
message, or grab taglines. See docs.

There is a new button: "Read Pers Messages" on the open
packet screen to read your messages in all areas.

The area can now be changed when replying to a message, or when
viewing the list of replies.

The list of areas in "Read Messages" now displays the number of
messages unread as well as the total number of messages in each area.

When displaying a message F1 jumps to the top of the message, F10
jumps to the bottom, and F2-F9 jump to tenths in between.

Lines begining ^A at the top and bottom of messages are not
displayed, and neither are SEEN-BY lines at the bottom. You can
switch them back on if you really want... see docs.

Registered users get "[Registered]" on the IMHO lines at the
bottom of replies, and a thankyou in the Info menu within ACCs.

You can set the stack size if needed - see docs.

Fixed a bug where messages weren't printed out in full when being
sent to the printer.

Fixed a bug where personal messages weren't being recognised due
to trailing blanks after the user name in CONTROL.DAT.
(e.g. Tomcat mail doors (?) )

Version 1.06 uses about 15K more memory than 1.04.

I think that's all!

1.07
----
Increased the limit on the number of areas from 300 up to 1000.
I eventually want to make this dynamic, so that it allocates enough
memory to handle whatever number of message areas it find in the
packet - but that will take quite a bit of rewriting. This will
do for now.

Added an option to switch the updating of the 'read' bookmark flags
on or off.

Version 1.07 uses about 51K more memory than 1.06.