ftp.wwiv.com/ftp.wwiv.com.zip/ftp.wwiv.com/pub/BBS/ZLAB_19C.ZIP/GIFT4B10.ZIP/GIFTEST.HIS

Text File | 1992-01-22 | 19KB | 340 lines

                               GIFtest 4.0ß
                   CopyRight 1991 by Dave Navarro, Jr.
                               History File

    Note that many changes are occuring in GIFtest, I think up dimented
    stuff to do to it all the time.  If you can think of anything let me
    know.  At present, the DOCs aren't even close to being finished and
    the utilities mentioned in ORDER.FRM aren't out of the alpha stages
    yet, but all seem to work, though they're buggy.  All "official"
    beta testers will recieve a free registered copy of GIFtest.  Thanks
    for you help.

    Note:  An incorrect price of $30 was listed in earlier betas.  The
    correct price for GIFtest 4.0 is $15 plus shipping.  This is to
    accomodate smaller BBS's which cannot afford high priced utilities
    for their BBSs.

    New!:  If you are using GIFtest with ZipLab, you can register
    GIFtest for only $10!  "Jeez Dave, how do we take advantage of the
    great offer?" Well, I'm glad you asked that..  It's simple, send in
    the ORDER form with your check/money order for $10 along with your
    BBS number and the serial number from your registered ZipLab and
    I'll leave a message on my BBS with your serial number to 'BRAND'
    GIFtest with!  Note:  This does not include any of the extra
    utilities that come with GIFtest like GIFbrand, to get those you
    MUST pay the $15 registration fee.

Version 5.0:
    As soon as 4.0 is out the door, I will start taking suggestions for
    the next version.  Already on the list is the ability to read
    resolutions from .JPG files created with GIF2JPG.  Much thanks to
    that author for providing me with the appropriate information.

Version 4.0:
    Beta [01/22/92]: Thing I've got it!  That pesky $DOOR.NAM problem
    should be fixed now.

    Beta [01/19/92]: Had a problem reading the new ProDoor $DOOR.NAM
    format.  Should be corrected.

    Beta [01/17/92]: Well, we can thank Sam Smith for the latest beta..
    Fortunately, before I got GIFtest out the door as a final product,
    he got around to changing the file format for the description files
    in ProDoor 3.44 dated after 12/31/91.  So, with this beta I have
    added support for /B:3 which tells GIFtest that you are running
    ProDoor dated after 12/31/91.  What's taking so long is that I had
    decided to convert the majority of GIFtest over to assembler to make
    it smaller and faster (and take up less memory), and I didn't expect
    to have to make a change of this magnitude this soon.  It's affected
    GIFtest and GIFBRAND which were both converted..  This beta should
    cover the necessary changes in GIFtest, but I'll need at least
    another week and a half to make the changes in GIFBRAND.  Sorry, and
    I'm just as anxious as all of you to get this version out and
    finished with so I can get on to the stuff in version 5.  Once last
    note..  I'd like to thank Steve Catmull of CDC for his idea for an
    option in GIFtest 5.0 of a way to reject untasteful GIFs...  I am
    thinking about some way to add a "GIF critic" option, but it may be
    impossible..  I'll sure give it a try though <grin>.  For all of you
    who have registered GIFtest (many thanks), I have printed out
    postcards for all of you with your serial number and branding
    information so that you'll at least have something until I get the
    disks in the mail.  And last, but not least..  I need some ideas on
    GIFLab..  My original intention was to just add ANSI color to
    GIFtest to make it more colorful (GIFtest already supports the COM
    port)..  But what do you want?  Do you want it as garish as ZipLab?
    Let me know.. ** Please Read GIFTEST.CRC **

    Beta [01/01/92]: Sigh..  It looks like all the bugs weren't
    completely out.  GIFtest was not opening the GIFLOG file in file
    sharing mode so that was causing a number of problems.  That has now
    been fixed.  Note, however, that you MUST have SHARE.COM or an
    equivelant loaded for this to work.  Also, a number of people
    reported some odd behavior under different situations.  I finally
    tracked it all down to places where I was using integers when I
    should have been using long integers.  If you are a beta
    tester/registered user, GIFSTAT 1.0ß is available for downloading on
    The Bard's Lair.  This util is for registered users and approved
    beta testers only.  Do NOT distribute it.  GIFBRAND 1.0ß is also
    available for beta testing.  When you call the system, leave a
    message to the sysop to get the password to download these utils.

    Beta [12/07/91]: Final Beta!  Fixed "/R:3" option to place
    description as the last line by itself.  Fixed problem where 1 out
    of every 7000 GIFs wouldn't pass because of an "illegal block". Some
    program somwhere is writing a block with a header number of zero,
    which is not defined in either the GIF87 or GIF89 standard. VPIC and
    CSHOW apprently just ignore this block and continue on processing,
    so the GIF views perfectly, but GIFtest would report it as a bad
    GIF.  If you use VPIC to "regif" the image, VPIC rewrites it without
    the offending block, which would get you around the problem.  If
    anyone knows what block type zero is, I'd appreciate it they'd let
    me know..  It doesn't seem to be part of the image.  I added the /Z
    option which display's debug info as GIFtest is operating.  If your
    having a problem, add /Z to the command line to help you to see
    exactly what GIFtest is doing as it processes the file.  I am gonna
    give this last beta 7 days, and if there are no more reports of
    problems, I'm gonna remove all the debugging code and release it as
    final.  When that happens I'll start mailing disks to all of you who
    have already registered GIFtest (if you have registered it and I
    have NOT called you or your BBS to give you your serial number,
    please send me a note or call my BBS.)

    Beta [11/23/91]: Added /A option to force upload descriptions to
    private (put a "/" in front of them).  It's gotten to the point on
    my BBS where idiots (you know who they are) upload adult GIFs in my
    main board public area for minors to download..  The only way around
    it is to either stop letting people upload GIFs, force all uploads
    private (a major pain), or have GIFtest force all GIFs to be private
    uploads.  Add /P:n routine where 'n' is the com port number..  This
    will have GIFtest send all it's display information to the specified
    COM port if carrier is detected.  GIFtest reads the port speed from
    the com port (only supports COM1: through COM4: with standard port
    configurations), so should work with any BBS software.  Fixed
    resolution insertion problem where GIFtest wasn't putting the rez on
    the last line by itself if position is set to 3.  Fixed GTSETUP.COM
    to reflect the changes in GIFtest 4.0 beta.
    [Note:  Can someone who is running GIFtest on PCB or ProDoor and not]
    [       using 4DOS please upload their PCBTEST/PROUT1 file(s)       ]

    Beta [11/17/91]: Fixed GTSETUP to use GIFTEST.CNF as the default
    config filename as opposed to GIFTEST.CFG.

    Beta [11/14/91]: Added the /F:filename option for PCBoard 14.5a
    sysops. PCBoard 14.5a will pass the location of the UPDESC[.n] file
    on the command line to PCBTEST.BAT as variable %3.  This, so you can
    now use /F:%3 on the command line to tell GIFtest the location of
    your description file.  You can then delete all the remaining lines
    in your GIFtest.CNF file which did contain the various names and
    locations of your UPDESC file.  (See sample PCBTEST.BAT file)

    Beta [11/07/91]: Finally fixed ALL problems with resolution
    insertion on PCB systems.  Rewrote the whole thing from scratch and
    tested it for 2 hours.  A number of PCB sysops have called me and
    asked where the heck the UPDESC file(s) can be found.  When a user
    types in a description of a file before they upload it, it is put
    into a file called UPDESC.  If it's a multinode system, the node
    number is appended as the file extension (UPDESC.1, UPDESC.2,
    etc..).  If you have NOT specified a word directory in PCBSETUP, the
    UPDESC file(s) are kept in the default PCB directory where
    PCBOARD.DAT resides.  If you have designated a WORK directory, then
    you will find the UPDESC file(s) there.  If you have PCBoard 14.5a,
    PCB passes a third parameter (%3) to PCBTEST.BAT during upload
    testing.  You can put "ECHO %3> UPDESC.LOC" at the beginning of your
    PCBTEST.BAT file and you'll find a file called UPDESC.LOC in your
    PCB directory which tells the location of the UPDESC file for that
    node.

    Beta [10/07/91]: COM routines are not functioning yet.

    Beta [10/06/91]: GIFtest no longer "automatically" searches path for
    GIFTEST.CFG, only if you specift /C or /C:filename on the command
    line.  Instead of searching the path for GIFtest, GIFtest only
    searches the current directory and the directory that GIFTEST.EXE is
    located in. Changed /P [rez position in description] to /R.  Changed
    /R [rez type] to /T.  Changed /D [debug on] to /Z.  Added /D to turn
    on duplicate checking via 32 bit CRC (same CRC used in PKZIP and
    ARJ). Added /P:n to indicate COM port number.  Note ->  GIFtest will
    send all output to both the local screen, and the COM port if
    carrier is detected on the indicated com port, if no carrier, only
    the local screen will recieve data.  COM ports supported are 1-4,
    com addresses 3FB, 2FB, 3EB, and 2EB using IRQ's 3 and 4.  COM port
    addresses are looked up from the BIOS table, so if you have a
    program that uses a non-standard port address and changes the BIOS
    table, GIFtest will support it.  GIFtest automatically reads the
    baud rate, parity and stop bits from the port so they do not need to
    be passed.  This will make GIFtest usable with a wide variety of BBS
    programs when not using the resolution insertion functions.  Once
    again, I fixed the PCBoard description handling routines.  I've done
    extensive testing with PCBoard this time, so they should be working
    properly.  I had been working on moving the CRC dupe checking
    routines into a database instead of searching the GIFLOG as I have
    been doing, but I've had too many problems because of how I've got
    the code setup..  Since there are plenty of CRC database programs
    available right now, I suggest you use one of those if the dupe
    checking routines are too slow for you.  To facilitate this, dupe
    checking now defaults to off and you must include "/D" on the
    command line or in the GIFTEST.CNF file.  CRC's are still put in the
    log even if dupe checking is turned off.

    Beta [09/15/91]: Fixed PCBoard Description Handling.

    Beta [08/12/91]: Changed display so that if a duplicate is found,
    instead of "Duplicate!!" is says "Duplicates [duplicate filename]".

    Beta [08/12/91]: Changed the display slightly to better accomodate
    PCBoard's PCBVIEW.BAT for redirection to PCBVIEW.TXT [sample
    PCBVIEW.BAT file for 4DOS included].  I have changed my BBS to
    PCBoard, and in doing so, have discovered the the PCB description
    routines are not working..

    Beta [08/10/91]: Fixed the "press any key" bug in the help display for
    the unregistered version.

    Beta [08/07/91]: Changed GIFLOG searching routines to make them
    faster when searching for CRC.  Added PCBOARD description support.
    GIFtest now parses UPDESC[.n] where [.n] is the extension with the
    node number. If GIFtest finds the PCBNODE= environment variable then
    GIFtest uses that for the node number (ProDoor systems should set
    this variable for each node to have GIFtest properly find the right
    description file if running multiple node and your using the same
    PROUTEST.BAT for all nodes.)  Made changes in "alpha" routines for
    recognizing "branded" GIFs.

    Beta [07/24/91]: Converted a bunch of routines to ASM to reduce size
    of EXE file.  Added "alpha" test routines for recognition of GIFs
    branded with GIFbrand.

    Beta [07/23/91]: Fixed logic for finding $DOOR.NAM description file.

    Beta [07/21/91]: Made changes in sample PROUT1.BAT file.  Added
    TESTGIF.BAT as a sample GIF testing batch file for ProDoor and
    PCBoard.

    Beta [07/20/91]: [04:15am]  Added /X:FILENAME option which will
    log any internal GIF comments found to FILENAME.  All descriptions
    are appended, FILENAME is not overwritten.

    Beta [07/20/91]:  Rewrote GIF testing logic to comply 100% with
    GIF89a standard.  No longer "crops" description fields in GIFs.
    Added /D option which will display "debug" information as GIF
    is processed.

    Beta [07/19/91]:  Fixed bug in /S, skip GIF testing and just add
    resolution.  Fixed bug in /E option, added "debug" routine to
    display where GIFtest "thinks" $DOOR.NAM is located.

    Beta [07/18/91]:  Added ProDoor resolution insertion routines and
    node checking routines.  GIFtest will now also display the exit
    code so you have some idea exactly what is going on.  Added CRC
    test for GIFtest itself.  If you type GIFTEST CRC, GIFTEST will
    display a CRC of itself.

    Beta [07/17/91]:  It seems that with the GIF89a standard, an image
    can end with a "!" as a terminator instead of a ";" which designates
    an extension.  Prizm BBS uses this to store ASCII text comments
    after their GIFs.  GIFtest currently truncates this "extension" and
    replaces the "!" terminator with the proper ";".  At present, VPIC,
    CSHOW and other GIF viewers do not recognize any extensions while
    viewing GIFs so by truncating this, GIFtest is able to get a more
    accurate CRC32. This will not affect your GIFs in any way other that
    to reduce their size.

    Beta [07/17/91]:  Fixed command line parsing so that it properly
    distinguishes between a filename and a command parameter.

    Beta [07/15/91]:  Searches path for GIFTEST.CFG file if not in
    current directory.  Removed /T option.. when testing GIFs, GIFtest
    will always trim off the extra bytes, otherwise the 32 bit CRCs
    don't mean anything. Added GTSETUP to the beta zip to help people
    create GIFTEST.CFG file.

    Beta [07/12/91]:  Does not have routines for placing resolution into
    description yet.

    Complete rewrite from scratch.  Now 70% assembler to speed up most
    functions.


Version 3.4:
    Recompiled to use less memory....  Fixed /E (erase) function.


Version 3.3:
    Added /L:[filename] option for logging of GIFs.  Log entries are
    written as:

    FILENAME.GIF 999999 01-01-91 [9999xx9999x999] 9999 OK GL FFFFFFFF
    ─────┬────── ──┬─── ────┬─── ────────┬─────── ─┬── ┌─ ┌─ ┌───────
         │         │        │            │         │   │  │  └ 32 bit CRC
         │         │        │            │         │   │  └ GIFLITE'd
         │         │        │            │         │   └ Status
         │         │        │            │         │       OK
         │         │        │            │         │       IM Incomplete Image
         │         │        │            │         │       IV Invalid Header
         │         │        │            │         └ Trimmed Bytes
         │         │        │            └ Resolution
         │         │        └ Current Date
         │         └ File Size
         └ File Name

    If the filename for /L is left out, then GIFtest assumes the name
    GIFLOG.  If the log file exists, it's search for the current filename
    and if found, GIFtest exits without retesting the file.


Version 3.2:
    Fixed resolution insertion (again).  3.0 and 3.1 weren't handling
    multiple line descriptions properly, and didn't do ANYTHING with
    single line descriptions.  When testing, this wasn't caught with the
    "/D" option because "/D" printed the description as it was being
    adjusted and not as it was put back in $DOOR.NAM so I didn't catch it.


Version 3.1:
    Added ability to detect if a GIF has been compressed with the
    unregistered version of GIFLITE.  If the GIF is valid and it has been
    compressed with GIFLITE then GIFTEST will exit with an ERRORLEVEL = 3,
    which will allow your batch files to use GIFLITE on uploaded GIFs if
    you desire.  Also added "/S" option to skip GIF testing alltogether.
    This was provided for SysOps who just want the resolution added to their
    description without all the testing.


Version 3.0:
    Rewrote GIF testing routines to test the internal image of a GIF file
    as well as the header and terminator.  This does not test to see if
    each pixel is the correct color, but rather tests to make sure that
    the correct number of pixels are represented in the LZW table for the
    image and that all internal codes are accurate.  Added /P:3 option to
    place resolution as the last line of the description by itself.  Once
    again fixed problem with descriptions not being displayed properly.
    Also included TESTGIF which displays techinical information of a GIF
    file.  WARNING!  TESTGIF.EXE does direct screen writes when displaying
    information about a GIF.  This could cause problems with some
    multitaskers on non 386/486 machines when used in the background task.


Version 2.3:
    Added /E option to erase Invalid or Incomplete GIFs and fixed problem
    where leading "/" was being deleted from description causing private
    uploads to be put in the public upload directory.  Fixed description
    duplication problem when description was the minimum allowed by ProDoor
    and using the /P:2 option.


Version 2.21:
    Minor bug fix in documentation to reflect the change in the switch
    charactor.  Use "/" instead of "-".


Version 2.2:
    Minor bug fix where GIFtest was improperly placing resolution when used
    with -p:2 or -p:0 options.


Version 2.1:
    Minor bug fix where GIFtest would remove "-"'s from filenames on the
    command line causing the GIF to be invalid.