Copernicus 1996 #3

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Text File | 1996-01-11 | 35.1 KB | 670 lines

CompuSlave For Windows Revision History 01-11-96 ■ Version 2.12 . Fixed a potential problem where corruption could be displayed in the message fields if the user deleted the last message in the database. . Added a warning message to the tag all process to alert users that they cannot tag more than 16,384 messages at one time. . Updated copyright notices for 1996. . Changed the size and position of the floating Tool Palette to allow room for 2 additional speed buttons. Added the Open Database and Close Database buttons to the Tool Palette. Moved the Time and Keyword fields directly below the Date field to make room for the larger Tool Palette. . Swapped the First through Last buttons on the "Messages" tab of the toolbar with the Browse through Sort buttons. . Added Tag All and Untag All buttons to the "Tagged" tab on the toolbar to allow users to tag and untag all messages in the database with one command. The Tag All command is limited to tagging 16,384 messages. . Added a warning to alert users if they try to close the database when messages are tagged. The warning message gives users the opportunity to cancel the close process, in order to perform an action with the tagged messages. . Enhanced CompuSlave's printing support. Added the ability to print the current message, tagged messages, or all messages in the database. Added a Font button to the Print Dialog to allow users to change the default font, size, color, etc. that is used when messages are printed to the printer. Added other options to break between pages, untag messages after printing, and prompt to continue if an error should occur. Added status screens to the print tagged and print all options to allow users to cancel the printing process. . Added an "Extract" button to the "Tagged" tab on the toolbar. Added support to allow users to extract all tagged messages and place them in another new or existing database. (After this process, the messages will remain in the existing database, but can be removed easily by selecting the "Delete" button and deleting all tagged messages.) . Added a "Print" button to the "Tagged" tab on the toolbar. This will allow users to print either the current message or all of the tagged messages. . Added a "Delete" button to the "Tagged" tab on the toolbar. This will give users the option of deleting all tagged records. . Added a "Tagged" tab to the toolbar at the top of the editing screen to manage operations related to tagged messages. . Added a "Tag Message" check box to the Normal view, and an option to tag a record from the browser or mini-browserr screens by pressing the space bar. . Fixed a minor problem where the focus would automatically shift to the message body field when using the "Mini-Browser view". This would be inconvenient for the user, since pressing the down arrow in the Mini-Browser would automatically transfer the focus to the bottom portion of the screen, forcing the user re-select the Mini-Browser before being able to press the down arrow key again. . Improved the appearance of the status screens. . Added a "Please Wait" dialog box that will be displayed before the Batch Import screen is displayed. This is necessary because CompuSlave has to search for a list of database names, and their accompanying import files. This process can require a little time, especially if the user has a large quantity of database files in the CompuSlave directory. . Added a minimize button to the Batch Import screen to allow users to minimize the entire CompuSlave For Windows application until the batch import process is finished. (This was especially necessary for Windows 95 users, since Windows 95 does not provide an easy way to return to the desktop or click on desktop icons if a large modal dialog box is in the way.) . Fixed a typographical error on the Network Options screen and on one of the Quick Tips. . Fixed a problem where vertical scroll bars were not appearing on the message body's memo window when the Mini-Browser or Full- Screen message views were used. 12-14-95 ■ Version 2.11 . Version 1.01 of STSI Com is included in the new CompuSlave package. Added many enhancements / improvements to STSI Com, including: -> CompuServe Settings screen for Name, User ID, Password, and Host Name. -> New Phonebook Layout. This will require users to set up any phonebook entries from scratch. Previously, users could not specify a different Com Port, Baud Rate, Parity, etc., for each phonebook entry. The new layout allows these settings, as well as a user-defined login script. STSI Com can optionally create a default CompuServe login script using the information entered on the CompuServe Settings screen. -> Phonebook Defaults screen to allow users to enter the default Com Port, Baud Rate, Parity, Data Bits, Stop Bits, etc., for each new entry in the phonebook. . Added a proper title to the title bar on the "Batch Add" dialog box used for adding a database to the Batch Import process or editing an existing database. (Previously, the title had been left as "Dialog".) . Spruced up the Register, Network Options, and Registration Information screens. . Performed minor cosmetic changes to the Defaults screen and the About screen. . Changed the help context on the View Activity Log screen so the "Defaults screen" help appears when Help is selected, instead of the Table of Contents. . Added the "Tip #" to the title bar of the CompuSlave Tip screen, so users can tell what Tip they are viewing, and when they have reached the end of the Tips. . Fixed a minor problem where the same CompuSlave Tip would appear each time CompuSlave was executed. Now, a tip is chosen at random. . Modified the questionaire in the REGISTER.DOC file. . Changed the caption on the Batch Import screen to "Batch Import" instead of "Batch Import Status". Removed the bold attribute from the font on the bottom half of the buttons on this screen. 12-03-95 ■ Version 2.10 . Fixed a problem where CompuSlave was not highlighting text when using the Find option if the text to be found contained more than 1 word and the words were separated in the message body by a line break. . Fixed a problem where CompuSlave was not highlighting search phrases in a temporary search results database if the search phrase contained more than 1 word and the words were separated in the message body by a line break. . Added "Last Import Date" and "Last Import Time" fields to the Database INI files to keep track of the last date and time that an import was performed on each database. Added columns for these values to the Batch Import screen, so users can quickly view this information. . Expanded the documentation and help files to include information about new options. Sectioned up the help file into smaller chunks, and greatly improved CompuSlave's context-sensitive help system. . Changed the behavior of CompuSlave to automatically return the focus to the message body field after a user selects Next, Previous, First, Last, and most of the other buttons. This allows users to immediately press the PgUp and PgDn keys to view the text of the message, without having to click the mouse in the message area first. . Added an option to the Defaults screen to allow users to specify whether or not a confirmation dialog box is displayed before a message can be deleted. This option is ON by default, which means that users will be prompted to confirm a message deletion. . Added support for CompuSlave to beep when a duplicate message is found and the user is prompted with a warning/confirmation dialog box. This will aid users who leave their computer somewhat unattended during the import process. . Noted a problem that occurred when using a Novell NetWare 4.1 network in combination with Windows 95. Attempting to open a database with the "Novell" network type specified would result in a "Fileblock cannot be opened in net mode" error message. During the process of tracking down this problem the file/product "Microsoft Service For NetWare Directory Services" dated October 1995 was installed. After this installation the error message reported above could not be reproduced. . Changed the wording of an error message that can occur if an attempt is made to open a database with a corrupt or missing index file. Previously, the error message stated that the database was missing. The new error message indicates that the file is either missing or corrupt. . Added initial support for batch imports. Added an option to the Utilities menu called "Batch Import". Added a Batch Import dialog box that display a list of available databases in the CompuSlave directory, along with the default import filename for each database. Multiple databases can be selected from the list to be included in the import process. When the Start button is selected, CompuSlave begins to open each database, import the selected text file, close the database, and continue with the next selected database. As much as possible, message boxes will be disabled during this process, to attempt to prevent unnecessary user intervention. (See new section in documentation and help file.) . Modified the default behavior of the CompuSlave Tips screen to display the tip after CompuSlave's main window has been displayed. . Added an option to the Help menu to allow users to access CompuSlave's Tips screen at any time during normal program operation. . Added a "CompuSlave Tip" screen that will be displayed on startup to give the user quick tips about special features and settings in CompuSlave For Windows. This screen can be disabled by de-selecting the "Show Tips On Startup" check box. New tips will be added on a regular basis. . Added a sample database to the distribution package called SAMPLE.DAT. (An index file, SAMPLE.IX, is also included.) This will allow first-time users to see how CompuSlave works, without having to create a CompuServe capture file immediately. (Also, the file IMPORT.TXT has been renamed to SAMPLE.TXT.) . Added STSI's CIS address (76300,3066) to the About box information. (When contacting STSI via CIS, users should address correspondence to Craig Stevenson.) . Added an option to the Defaults screen to instruct CompuSlave to beep when the import process is complete. The default is ON. . Removed the version stamp from the title bar of CompuSlave's main window. Instead, the version can be viewed from the About box available from the Help menu. . Re-adjusted the default pop-up position of the Tool Palette to be placed directly above the memo field, but underneath the Keyword field. . Decreased the height of the Tool Palette title bar to consume less space. (This required the removal of the close box on the upper left corner.) Also changed the layout of the Tool Palette to have only 2 rows, but 11 columns of speed buttons. Changed the position of the Date, Time, and Keyword fields to accomodate the new size of the Tool Palette. Added the New Message, Edit Message, Delete Message, Save Message, Cancel Edit, and Hide Tool Palette buttons to the Tool Palette, based on user request. . Changed the title on the Tools pop-up window to "Tool Palette". 11-12-95 ■ Version 2.00 . Updated the Setup program to exclude the installation of the Borland Database Engine, since this is no longer needed for the new database structure. Also added an enhancement to warn users before a file will be overwritten in their \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM sub-directories. This will give the user more control over what files are installed, especially if duplicates exist. Also added support for the Setup program to create a SETUP.LOG file in the destination directory. This file will contain a list of all files that were successfully placed on the hard drive during the installation process. . Added support for users to double-click on the close box of a maximized MDI child window to trigger a close event. (This overrides default Windows behavior that does NOT automatically close an MDI window when a double-click occurs on the close box of that window. Internal Reference #444973) . Added code to create, read, and write an INI file for each individual database. (If the database is named TEMP.DAT, the INI file will be named TEMP.INI.) Initially, this INI file will maintain the version of the database, and the name of the last capture file that was imported into the database. This will allow CompuSlave to "remember" capture file names between sessions. . Fixed a bug in previous versions of CompuSlave where multiple GPF's could occur after changing the font attributes of the memo field using the font dialog box. If the database was then closed, and any database was opened again in the same session, CompuSlave would issue multiple GPF's. The memory location for the font in the font dialog box was pointing to the global font setting for memo windows, due to a direct memory assignment. If the database window was closed, this memory was freed, resulting in the global font being unavailable for additional databases. . Added path checking to make sure that a new database is created in the default CompuSlave directory, if no drive and/or path is specified in the Filename field of the New Database dialog box. . Added an option to the Defaults screen to delete the capture (import) file after the messages have been imported into the database. The default for this option is OFF. . Added command line support to override the startup database file on the Defaults screen. Also added support for stacking the names of multiple databases on the command line, to instruct CompuSlave to open more than 1 database when it is executed. . Added a floating Tool Palette to display the most used speed buttons (copied from the main tool bar). Added an option to the Defaults screen for users to specify whether or not the Tool Palette should be displayed automatically when a database is opened. Added options to the Views tab and Views menu to Show or Hide the Tool Palette. . Changed the font on all of the dialog boxes from Arial to MS Sans Serif, which is easier to read. . Added an option to the Defaults screen to automatically load the Startup Database File when CompuSlave is executed. This box can be de-selected (unchecked) to disable the automatic startup file loading. . Added quick-key combinations for several often-used options, such as Ctrl+I for Import, Ctrl+F for Find, Ctrl+S for Search, etc. Added the display of these quick keys to the corresponding menu options. . Added a Reorganize Database option to the Utilities menu to allow users to rebuild a CompuSlave database. This is useful if the "Compress Message Data" option has been turned off, and you decide to enable compression. Rebuilding the database will compress all messages, saving considerable hard drive space. This feature is also necessary if one or more messages should somehow become corrupt. If corruption is found in the database, CompuSlave can ignore the corrupt messages during the reorganization process, thus deleting them from the resulting (newly rebuilt) database. . Added a Utilities sub-menu to the File menu and moved the Delete Database option onto this menu. . Added keyed field search options. New options include searching for a text string or a range of text (starting and ending strings) at the beginning of any one of the seven keyed fields. . Added a status window for the rebuilding process, in case the database index file (.IX) should become corrupt or is missing. . Arranged the menu options and titles to emulate the tab names on the speed button toolbar. . Added commands to disable the editing buttons (New, Edit, Delete, Save, and Cancel Editing) in a temporary search results database. Also disabled the Views options, since the search- word highlighting is only available in the Normal view. . Added commands to enable/disable selected buttons and menu options when the user selects the New or Edit Message options. (The user will not be able to browse, search, sort, etc., when they are editing a message. All options that are disabled during the editing process are re-enabled when Save or Cancel Editing is selected.) . Added search text highlighting in searched databases. If the Search String 1 or Search String 2 values appear in the edit fields or the message body, the text is highlighted. . Added Locate and Views menus to the main menu when editing a database. Reorganized menu options according to category. Made sure that all speed button options were also available on the menu system. . Added an option to the Default screen to allow users to turn off the "Current Message" update counter on the Search Status screen. When this option is turned off, the search can be completed 15% - 20% faster than if this value must be updated after every message. The default is on. Power users who need the speed will want to disable this option. . Implemented a new status screen, designed to display as much status information as possible, without slowing down the search process. . Added an option to the Defaults screen to view the log file, if one has been created. . Optimized the "Scanning Messages" dialog box that is displayed at the beginning of the import routine. This dialog box displays the number of messages that are found in the import file, incrementing the number display for each message. . Removed code (in the uses clauses) that required the distribu- tion of the file BIVBX11.DLL. Also removed all code that required use of the Borland Database Engine. . Verified that the display order in the Browse dialog box was changed accurately, depending on the current sorted field in the database. . Turned off sharing violation errors to allow CompuSlave users to open the same database on more than one workstation at a time. (This requires that either the Novell or MS-Net network options be turned ON from the Network Options screen.) . Removed the filtering options, since this functionality is not easily added to the new database structure. (This feature may be added back in at a later date, depending on user feedback.) . Disabled repetitive calls to the registration checking routine. Instead, set up a global variable that can be checked at a much more rapid rate, increasing speed for operations such as importing. . Added a check to detect if the import path is not valid when the import option is selected. A message box instructs the user where to change the default import path. If the import path does not exist, CompuSlave uses the current directory. . Added a status bar to the bottom of each database editing window. The status bar display the name and path of the open database, the number of total records, and the search criteria (if the database is a search results database). This infor- mation is updated each time a new record appears on the screen. . Added hot-keys to all Ok/Cancel button and linked field labels to editing controls on all dialog boxes. Verified that the tab order was accurate on all dialog boxes. . Fixed a problem when attempting to close the application. If a Find operation was being performed on a database, a message was displayed indicating that the user must cancel the find procedure before exiting. However, CompuSlave continued the exiting procedure anyway. CompuSlave now ceases the exit procedure if one of the database windows cannot be closed. . Removed the ability to size the Status dialog box that is used for searches and imports. Removed the maximize/minimize buttons from this dialog box. . Added an import dialog box that warns users when a duplicate message number exists in the database. The import dialog box allows users to add the new message anyway, skip the new message, add all duplicate messages, or skip all duplicate messages. . Added support to handle multiple responses to a message using the new database code. . Created tabs on the speed button display to allow users to access speed buttons according to their category. There are so many options available within CompuSlave, that tabs are necessary to manage the display of these speed buttons. Added an Edit tab for the New, Edit, and Delete buttons, and added a Print tab for the Print and Print Setup buttons. . Loaded all speed button icons into a resource file that is linked into the EXE file. These icons are loaded directly from the resource file when the speed button display is loaded or updated. . Added an option for users to display the speed buttons using Text and Picture together (default), Picture Only, Text Only, or no speed buttons. If users are in need of more screen space for viewing messages, they can have the option of making the buttons smaller, or not using them at all. In addition, beginners will appreciate the text and pictures which appear on each of the speed buttons, making CompuSlave easier to understand. This option may be modified from the Defaults dialog box. . Added support for CompuSlave to execute an external communications program (supplied by STSI). This will allow users to easily capture messages from CompuServe, without having to purchase a separate communications package. . Changed the CompuSlave database code to allocate a new message record buffer for each open database. (Since the database code was previously used in the DOS version, which has a non-MDI interface, a separate buffer for each database was not necessary prior to use in the Windows version.) . Added information to the GoTo dialog box to inform users that GoTo text must match, exactly, the contents of the field they are searching. . Added a "Temporary Database" designation to the title bar of a searched database. This informs users that they are viewing the results of a search they performed on a separate database. . Added an option to save a temporary search results database. When a full-text search is performed, CompuSlave creates a temporary database containing the search results. Before closing this search results database, CompuSlave prompts the user whether or not to save the database for future reference. The database can be saved in the same, or a different, directory, and it can be optionally renamed. . Changed the Print option to reflect format of the new database. . Added a "Find Previous" option to the Find dialog box. This allows users to go to the previous occurrence of the specified text, as well as the next occurrence (which is the default). . Set up the Window Menu to display a list of the currently open databases. . Changed the Network Users control on the Register dialog to a numeric/spin control. . Added help buttons to most of the dialog boxes within CompuSlave. . Implemented the startup file option, so CompuSlave will auto- matically load the startup file specified on the Defaults screen when it is executed. . Changed the options on the Defaults dialog box. Added options for an import path, startup file, and activity logging. Added Browse buttons to allow users to search for a particular import path and startup file. Made sure that users could select an open database as the startup file without receiving a sharing violation error. . Moved the speed-button panel INSIDE each of the MDI child windows in CompuSlave. This will allow easier processing of the events specific to each individual database. . Changed new databases to use ".dat" extensions, instead of the old ".db" extensions. Updated various file dialog boxes to support this change. . After much deliberation, STSI decided to change the format of the CompuSlave For Windows databases to be compatible with the CompuSlave For DOS databases. This is a MAJOR structural change, which required a complete rewrite of the database support within the program. . Increased the speed of importing capture files and CompuSlave For DOS database files. There is approximately a 350% speed increase when importing, over previous versions of CompuSlave For Windows. (The fields are no longer updated while the import is taking place, so users will not see changes taking place in the background while the import status screen is displayed.) 06-20-95 ■ Version 1.02 . Fixed a potential problem where a GPF could occur if a user attempted to close a database while 1) it was being searched for the purpose of creating a new temporary search database, 2) it was being created as a temporary search database, or 3) it was importing messages from a capture file or a CompuSlave For DOS database. Added a check to make sure that the database cannot be closed during the import process or the search process, until the import or search has been completed or cancelled by the user. . Fixed a problem where a GPF would occur when exiting CompuSlave if one or more editing windows were still open when the exit command was issued. This occurred because Windows needed to "Process Messages" immediately after each child window was closed. . Fixed a problem where CompuSlave was not remembering the background color on the memo field(s) after exiting and re-executing CompuSlave. . Removed several of the dialog boxes from the auto-create list, such as the About box dialog, the New File dialog, the Defaults dialog, and the Register CompuSlave dialog. This will reduce memory consumption and program overhead during CompuSlave's startup process. . Added a confirmation message to inform users that a database has been successfully deleted, or that one or more files could not be deleted after an attempt was made to delete a database from the File menu. . Modified the toolbar on the Browser to mimick the buttons displayed on the main (parent) window. Removed the Import button from the Browser window, and added a Find button instead. . Added an option to pack an existing database, reducing its overall size. Added a status window to let the user know that the database is being packed. . Fixed a problem where the Delete Database option on the File menu was not working properly. The database was not being deleted. . Added an option to "Match Case" in the Find dialog box. . Added a "Find Text" speed button to allow users to find text in the message body. This operation will find all occurrences of the user-specified text in the current message body, and then advance to the next record after all occurrences have been highlighted in the current message. A message box is displayed when the end of the database is reached. . Fixed a problem where CompuSlave was not erasing a temporary (search) database if the user exited the program without double-clicking on the system menu of the window belonging to the searched database. . Changed the Responses form to look at the secondary DataSource and Table when finding multiple responses to the current message. . Created a second DataSource and Table for searching operations to prevent changing the current position in the main table. . Added commands to disable the original and response buttons if an original message or response message does not exist. . Added 3 notebook pages to manage the new views added to the editing window. . Added buttons to the toolbar for a "Message Only View" and "Normal View" setting (in addition to the Mini-Browser button previously displayed. The Normal view provides the standard view, displaying all of the available message fields. The Mini-Browser view displays a grid on the top half of the form, showing several records in a table format. The Message Only view shows the entire message filling the window area. . Added support for the Setup program to add a Help File icon, and "Read Register.Doc" icon to CompuSlave's program group during the setup process. . Added the Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete commands to the memo window's right-click popup menu. . Added an Edit menu with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete commands that will take effect for the editing and memo fields. 06-11-95 ■ Version 1.01 . Fixed a compatibility problem with the Setup program running under Windows 95 (Final Beta), where the Setup program had determined that the Borland Database Engine Installation had been completed, even though it was still running. . Changed the border style of the status form from Dialog to Normal. This will allow users to resize the status form and minimize it (or maximize it) within the program. This should make it much easier for users to import or search a database and perform other non-related operations at the same time. . Fixed a problem where importing 500 messages would trip an error message that more than 500 messages could not be added to a database in the unregistered version of CompuSlave. Since the import status screen is set to "Stay On Top" of all other forms in the program, the status screen would hide the error message, making it appear that the application was stopped or hung. (Pressing Alt-F4 would close the modal dialog, and return control to the program.) Changed behavior to automatically hide the status windows before display this (and other) modal message boxes. . Changed the size of the database message field that is stored in the database table. Previous value of 240 is now reduced to 1. Since most messages are longer than 240 characters, storing up to 240 characters in the database, (as well as the memo field) was redundant and space-consuming. This can end up saving users megabytes of storage space, depending on the size of the database. (A conversion utility from version 1.00 will be available in a future version.) 06-10-95 ■ Version 1.00 . Initial release of CompuSlave For Windows. (Released with the Borland Database Engine v2.50)