home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.wwiv.com
/
ftp.wwiv.com.zip
/
ftp.wwiv.com
/
pub
/
OFFLINE
/
SX501P1.ZIP
/
HISTORY.501
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-01-31
|
19KB
|
426 lines
*-*-*-* Silver Xpress Mail System *-*-*-*
(c) copyright 1988-1993 by Santronics Software
This file contains a summary of changes made since version 5.00 of Silver
Xpress. It contains all changes across all systems. Unless specifically
stated, all changes are generic to each BBS.
┌─[ LEGEND ]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FIX: - means a bug or problem in logic was corrected. │
│ NEW: - New feature added │
│ ENH: - Stable feature was enhanced for whatever reasons. │
│ CHK: - Bug report check. Checked Out with no results. │
│ CHG: - Something was renamed, or changed. │
│ ISS: - Issue. Design consideration. │
│ DOC: - Information which will be added to the documentation. │
│ │
│ Unless otherwise stipulated, a RMODE or PMODE keyword will be used │
│ to indicate REAL MODE ONLY or PROTECTED MODE only. │
│ │
│ * - IF ANY OF THE LEGENDS HAVE THIS, THEN IT HAS NOT BEEN DONE. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
CHK: Someone reported Xpress is not telling Maximus that mail was
uploaded. Upon further checking, I saw no provision in Maximus to
tell it from a outside source that mail was uploaded. Systems
having this concept is OPUS 1.7x, RA, PCBOARD and QBBS.
FIX: Fixed a problem where keywords starting with D,L,Q (the commands
Delete, List and Quit) were were allowed.
FIX: Fixed Critical Error 3, location = 0131:0EBF production
location = 0131:0F08 debug version
problem: User does a DL then a UL, PKZIP 2.04 -M is removing the work
directory.
Remove -m option from the PKZIP 2.04g definition in XPARCH.CTL
Fixed in 5.01. 5.01 will now double check the directory.
FIX: Fixed a bug in XPADM.EXE where it was mixing the RIP menu mode with the
RIP Local Echo option. Changing one also changed the other.
ENH: Changed/added keywords in the PCBOARD Xpress and RBBS Xpress area
control "XPAREAS.CTL".
VOLUMEID removed
DOMAIN removed
MATRIX removed, see address
ADDRESS FidoNet Address, domain can be part of address
NETWORK Network conference belongs too
POSTCCMAIL PCBOARD: security required to post carbon copies
POSTRECREQ PCBOARD: security required to post a return request
LONGTONAME PCBOARD: Long names allowed in ToWhom Field
REGFLAGS PCBOARD: Registration requirement flags for conference
FATPATH PCBOARD: Location of File attach directory
NEW: Added Windows 3.1 and OS/2 time splicing.
NEW: Updated support for PCBOARD 15.1 structures.
ENH: Enhanced the output of the newfiles scan.
NEW: Added new switches to XPADM
-R force a reread of areas, files information from BBS
-RC force a reread of areas information only from BBS
-RF force a reread of files information only from BBS
These switches are equivalent to deleting the XPAREAS.* files or
the XPFILES.* files and then doing a XPADM to force a reread of the
BBS area and/or file configuration files. The switches simply
deletes the files for you.
NEW: Added new local console hotkey ALT S to display "Change Xpress
Security" window. This will allow you to change the current user's
Xpress security. Keep in mind, this is a permanent change.
FIX: Possible fix for a problem where some people claimed some
non-xpress QWK readers were burping on SX QWK packets. I was not
setting the CONFHIGH byte for the QWK msg header. Just the ConfNum
(lo byte). No popular QWK reader had a problem.
FIX: PCBOARD: Fixed a bug for PCBOARD Xpress where resetting the last
read pointer from within Xpress did not always change the value
permanently for PCboard's Users record.
FIX: PCBOARD: Fixed FOSSIL RTS problem.
FIX: JAM: JAM Tossing setting Echomail as NetMail. QWK tossed mail
into JAM area was not getting LOCAL bit set.
FIX: PCBOARD: File scan not turning off if File Request Limit is Zero
ENH: Check Carrier Detect during file scanning
FIX: XPADM. GroupName Global change did not allow numbers
FIX: XPADM. User Edit Dialog did not display F2 for GROUP NAMES
ENH: PCBOARD. New support for PCBOARD's 15.1 Index files for DIRxxx
files. Major Enhancement on the Xpress new file scanner. Tremendous
speed enhancement!
FIX: XPADM. GroupName Global Change was adding group to everyone.
Xpress FAT attachements for Groups were not being copied over.
ENH: PCBOARD/WILDCAT: Xpress Selected Areas Switch.
/MBC± Match BBS Conferences "Selected Areas" (default OFF)
If ON, Xpress will use the BBS selected areas for the Xpress
selected areas.
ENH: PCBOARD: Added Support for PCBOARD environment variables for
irregular com ports. The following environment string(s) and
options are now supported:
SET PCB=/COM[number]:
/IRQ:[number]
/BASE:[hex address]
The environment string will override any other port sources for this
information.
Also, there seem to be many door applications which use a standard
method to define port base and irq information. Xpress will now
support the following (these will override the PCB enviroment string):
SET BASE=hex address
SET IRQ=number
NOTE: For irregular comports in Xpress you can also edit the XMT.CFG
file included in the package. However, the environment strings will
override this file.
(Brad Dameron (Al Charpentier) from TCSNET):
ENH: PCBOARD: Added -J support for Local mode operations. Xpress will now
allow you to do vacation mail , prepacking or QWK networks or simple
local mode sysop usage. Note: The -J switch can take a record number
or a name:
-J[number] i.e., -J10
-J["Name"] i.e., -J"Alan Bennett"
Keep in mind, PCBOARD uses a BASE 1 record number for the user base.
That means a -J, -J0 and -J1 is the same as record #1. Xpress will
not accept 0 and automatically make it 1.
(Alan Bennett)
DOC: PCBOARD: Xpress now only Supports PcBoard 14.5 or better. 14.2 support
dropped. For 14.2 support use, SX 4.00.
ENH: PCBOARD: Support for 32 bit message numbers. This should take care
of the problem where large PCBOARD sysops do not renumber message
bases.
FIX: There was no way to delete ALL the keywords. One keyword always
remained.
FIX: Group File Attachments was being sent over and over again. To solve
this, new logic was added:
If a user wishes to uploads a file for a group, he must send it
to @GROUP XXXX where XXXX is the group name.
Upon upload, the new logic will create direct file attachments for
each member of the group.
With this new logic, the old GROUP file attachment check at the
download side was removed.
Xpress already has the logic to delete direct file attachments.
FIX: XPADM: Optional Netfiles Path was being REQUIRED for input
FIX: PCBOARD/RBBS: Fixed the Assistant Sysop Access of Private Mail
FIX: PCBOARD: Fixed Tossing Bug for areas over 999 in QWK mode.
FIX: PCBOARD: Fixed Tossing Bug for Max Lines Supported.
ENH: PCBOARD: Major enhancement for the File Request Search section in
Large File Systems. Duplicate dlpath files are skipped.
FIX: Fixed bug with new EXEC SWAPPING with WINDOW when using XPSHELL.BAT
file.
ENH: PCBOARD/RBBS: If area is a ECHO, the SYSOP name conversion is
skipped.
NEW: New XPLIMITS.CTL file allows for new baud rate settings from new
V.FAST modems such as the HAYES modem. The XPLIMITS.CTL must be in
the same directory as XPMAIL.EXE.
ENH: Shorten XPRESSxx.log name to XLOGxxx.LOG in XPADM.
Shorten XPNODExx.log name to XNODExxx.$$$ in XPADM.
Shorten XPSTATxx.log name to XSTATxxx.DAT in XPADM.
This should allow large networks with 100 plus nodes to use xpress
file names correctly.
FIX: PCBOARD: Corrected a file sharing problem with the new pcboard
message index files.
FIX: Fixed a long standing non-critical problem where Xpress was not
properly changing back to the original directory if the switching
occured between two different drives.
FIX: HMS ONLY: QWK netmail zone was getting set to zero on conversion to
HMS message. This was due to an Xpress Reader compatibility check.
The check was removed since it only applies to Xpress Readers
version 2.26 or below and the door now works with any QWK reader.
NEW: QWK UUCP mail host address was not set (all zero). To fix this for
QWK mail readers, a new field in XPADM is now available:
UUCP HOST ADDRESS: <zone:net/node>
FIX: QWK NETMAIL: If the destination is ZERO, the message is deleted.
A message is shown to the user.
DOC: Incoming Mail Processers can delete the message it is working on if
it wants Xpress to not toss the message.
FIX: PCBOARD: Fixed file sharing bug during the file scanner. If another
node was viewing a DIR listing, the scanner aborted with a 163 error
code.
FIX: Fixed Long Outstanding bug where logic for "truncate SeenBy" option
was reverse.
FIX: Fixed /K keyboard macro command line switch
FIX: Fixed menu bug. The action code security system in XPMENU.CTL simply
were not respected. Now they are. Now you truly have security at
the:
1) Menu Display Level, and
2) At the Action (to be taken) Level
So basically, what this means is that you can DISPLAY the options
and still restrict access to options. Before, the restriction came
at the display level. If an option could not be displayed, the user
did not have access.
ENH: Improved menu system suppresses the display of the macro characters
during hotkey mode.
FIX: PCBOARD: While adding WildCat's fido netmail support, I noticed a
potential bug of setting last read pointers in the wrong index for
PCBOARD areas.
ENH: PCBOARD/WILDCAT: Added new control options
Acknowledge Receipt : Tell User a Receipt for a message he read.
Also enabled with /ARR switch.
You may want to tell users a RECEIPT was
generated for mail he read (downloaded).
Match BBS Conference: If enabled, Xpress will used the conferences
selected for scanning from the BBS user
record. If off, the selection of conferences
is maintained by Xpress. However, there are
two conditions where the conference will be
selected automatically:
1) if user has mail waiting in conference
2) the conference was "sysop selected"
note: This can be candidate for a USER option
in the future.
To enable this option use the /MBC switch.
NEW: New vvc command for detecting return codes from a [dnloadmail]
command.
[if_mail_err] - macro for detecting return codes for
[downloadmail]
0 - successful scan and download
1 - successful scan and download and hangup
2 - successful scan, no mail
3 - successful scan, user skipped mail
4 - successful scan, packing error
5 - successful scan, downloading error
6 - scan aborted (user hit escape)
so a simple vcc script like this will do the trick of downloading
all the mail for multiple packets where a limit is imposed.
[:top][more_off]
[dnloadmail]
[if_mail_err]0[jump]top
ENH: Hitting Q in FLEX ASSISTANT will stop the assistant during the
current mail scan.
ENH: Vacation Saver: Added the ability to delete the packet or remove
the packet from the download list.
FIX: Fixed scanning security bug for HMS and JAM systems.
FIX: Fixed Stripping of Fido kludge lines for QWK packet creating. Only
HMS, FIDO, WildCat, RBBS, PCBOARD 15.1 are expected to possibly have
Fido Kludges.
ENH: Added automatic date detection for FIDO mail with zero dates. This
means the /FBD "Fix Bug Date" switch is no longer required. However,
using the /FBD now means to "Force Bug Date" fix.
ENH: Noticed that some frontends and tossers put a bad byte in the fido
date 19th offset. Xpress will now force a NULL character.
FIX: Changed the internal protocols to open the file in readonly mode
when transmitting files. This allows for readonly files to be sent
and for the same file to be shared with another transfer session
taken place on another node.
ENH: PCBOARD: Xpress will now detect a corrupted message. This required
the reading of the Pcboard 15.x IDX message files during the
scanning process. Hence this version NO LONGER supports PCBOARD
14.2. Slight slowdown because of the extra overhead. Will be
improved in a future version.
ENH: Xpress now FORCES sysop selected conferences PERMANENTLY. Not just
upon startup. This include stopping users from deselecting the area
at the Flex Prompt.
ENH: WILDCAT: Enhanced the Mail Scanner and Packing Time. Increases
scanning and packing time by almost 1000% To get the enhanced
speeds, the switches can be used:
/SRO+ SCAN: Open Mail Database in READONLY MODE
/SRO- SCAN: Open Mail Database in READWRITE MODE
/PRO+ PACK: Open Mail Database in READONLY MODE
/PRO- PACK: Open Mail Database in READWRITE MODE (DEFAULT)
/FRO+ FILE: Open Mail Database in READONLY MODE
/FRO- FILE: Open Mail Database in READWRITE MODE (DEFAULT)
Please READ this!! Very Important.
Whats does this means to the WildCat Sysop using the Xpress Mail
Door in a multi-node environment?
Typically, within a multinode environments, there has to be file
sharing logic of the mail bases controlling who has access to the
files when another person is using them.
The WildCat file system uses a product from Turbo Power called
Btree Filer. It is very secured and reliable and allows strict
control of the databases in MULTI-ACCESS enviroments. This is very
good for ON-LINE activity where users do not have the databases
OPEN for a very long time. Strict control options can be employed.
However, with the advent of off-line mailer systems like Silver
Xpress, these systems often take up quite alot of resources and
time to scan the message or file bases. This means the database is
OPEN for a very long time during a scanning or packing process.
This is not a problem with BTREE Filer. But when considering mail
scanning speeds, there is dramatic SPEED improvement if the scanner
can tell the world:
"Hold Up World. I'm scanning the mail database and I'm not going
to waste time doing database integrity checks. However, please do
not modify the mail database. Wait until I am finished."
To achieve this tremendous speed improvement, Xpress can open the
database for scanning purposes in one of two modes: READONLY or
READWRITE mode.
In READWRITE mode, which is the default mode, you can safely share
the databases even if Xpress is scanning them. This means another
node can add mail to a database while Xpress is scanning. This
would seem to be the ideal situation, however, in this mode, the
scan performance degrades severely, due to the overhead in database
integrity checks.
In READONLY mode, no other node on the network can WRITE to the
mail base currently being scanned or packed by Xpress. These gives
Xpress a tremendous boost in enhanced speeds since it does not have
to worry about checking for updates or the integrity of the
database.
So why not simply do this and don't bother with optional open mode
switches?
There is one major problem, and I believe this is the fault of the
BTREE FILER system, not WildCat. If Xpress opens the files in
READONLY mode, then there is NO WAY to inform another node to WAIT.
If another node is entering a message, BTREE filer will allow it!
Or rather BTREE Filer is not telling WildCat or a mail tosser to
"Hold Up, Someone is doing a READONLY mail scan".
Until the Turbo Power people can fix this BTREE Filer problem, we
cannot guarantee total integrity if you use the READONLY mode
option.
We recommend to use the READONLY mode to get the best Xpress
scanning and packing performance only when you are SURE no other
node is WRITING to the databases.
ENH: New information passed in 5.01 OPX mail Packets (BRDINFO.DAT),
in an QWK/X packets.
- UUCP HOST Address
- Proper DOOR Model Number. Reader Adjusted so that it will
allow ctrl-a lines in PCBOARD based messages (P1).
FIX: PCBOARD: Added a correction for a known bug in PCBOARD for 115200
lock baud operations. PCBOARD truncates one zero, sends 11520 to
doors.
ENH: Changed local snoop switch to /LS+-
ENH: PCBOARD/RBBS: Defaulted to using the X1 nodelist.
ENH: Renamed XMT.CFG to IRRPORT.CTL. Xpress will now read this file
instead.