JCSM Shareware Collection 1996 September/JCSM Shareware Collection (JCS Distribution) (September 1996).ISO/uother__/rep122.zip/REPLICAT.REV

Text File | 1995-03-09 | 20KB | 418 lines

                         Replicator Revision History


03-09-95 ■ Version 1.22

         . Added support for 25, 28, 43, and 50 line video modes.  This
           setting can be overridden from the command line by using the
           /V=nn parameter (where nn is 25, 28, 43, or 50).  For more
           information, please read the "Defaults" section of the
           Replicator documentation.

         . Modified code to make Replicator retrieve the information
           from the disk (volume label, disk size, file list, etc.)
           BEFORE compressing the image file.  Previously, users might
           have unintentionally removed the diskette from the drive
           during the compression process, not realizing that Replicator
           still needed to access the disk to retrieve the disk infor-
           mation.  Now, Replicator accesses the disk and retrieves this
           information immediately after the disk has been read, reducing
           the chance for this type of error.

         . Changed the appearance of the various status screen within
           Replicator.

         . Fixed a minor problem where an error message would be issued
           if a user selected the "Browse" button on the Copy File To
           Disk screen and immediately pressed Escape.  Since no record
           was current when the Browser was created, it could not
           successfully restore the sequential pointer.


03-06-95 ■ Version 1.21

         . Added the ability for OS/2 users to modify the default "Verify
           Delay" value that occurs after the Copy File To Disk process
           is completed.  This setting is located on the Replicator Defaults
           screen.  This delay is explained below.

         . Added a prompt after a disk has been formatted to allow users
           to immediately format another disk.

         . Added a display window to the Copy File To Disk dialog to allow
           users to see the files contained on a disk.  (This scrollable
           window is filled in after a file is selected from the Browse
           window.)

         . Added a slight (10-second) delay for OS/2 users when Copy File
           To Disk is selected.  This delay occurs after the disk creation
           is finished and before the verify process begins.  This delay
           is needed due to OS/2's handling of floppy drives.

         . Changed a few of the options on the defaults page to check
           boxes instead of Yes/No controls.

         . Added an option for users to specify Interrupt 25 and 26 for
           the disk reading and writing routines, instead of the standard
           Interrupt 13 call.  The Interrupt 25 and 26 routines were
           added to fix problems that we were experiencing when attempting
           to use Replicator under OS/2 v2.11 and OS/2 WARP v3.0.  The
           Interrupt 25 and 26 routines should only be used in situations
           where the user is experiencing problems reading or writing.
           Previous errors such as "DMA Crossed 64K Boundary" and
           "Sector Not Found" (mostly on 1.2M disks) should now be
           eliminated.  If you are using OS/2 and are still having problems,
           please contact STSI at [phone].


01-23-95 ■ Version 1.20

         . Added the option to allow Replicator to automatically detect
           the disk type in the specified drive when copying a disk to
           an image file.  This option is on by default.  Added a
           corresponding option to the Settings, Defaults screen to allow
           users to set the default setting for this field.  (This option
           is not allowed on systems operating under OS/2.  Due to
           conflicts in the disk detection routine, OS/2 does not
           currently report the correct disk type, so this option is
           simply disabled.)

         . Added a "Total Records" indicator to the top of the Database
           Management screen to inform users how many disk image records
           are maintained in the database.

         . Replaced the up and down arrow buttons with Next and Prev
           buttons to make the database browsing process easier.

         . Added a section to the bottom of the Database Management
           screen to display the files located on the original disk.

         . Added a conversion routine to convert databases from previous
           versions of Replicator to the current version.

         . Added new fields to the database that contain information
           about the original disk that was copied using Replicator.
           New fields include the disk's volume label, total files on
           the disk, total bytes consumed, and total bytes free.  Also
           added a field to contain a list of all of the files that were
           on the original disk.  This field stores the file's name, size,
           date, time, and the directory where it was located.  (There
           is room for approximately 300 file entries in this field,
           depending on the length of the file's path when it is saved.)

         . Added a date field to the database management screen to
           display the date that a file was originally created with
           Replicator.

         . Added enhanced searching support to allow users to search
           either 1.) a single index field for a string, 2.) an indexed
           field for text starting and ending with a specific string, or
           3.) an entire record for a specified string, with optional
           case-sensitivity.

         . Added printing support to print one or all records in the
           database to LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, or a file.

         . Moved the "Database Management" menu option to the main menu,
           and moved the "Format A Diskette" menu option to the Utilities
           sub-menu.

         . Added a "Created" field to the Database Management screen to
           indicate the date that the original disk image was created.

         . Shortened the Filename field to 12 characters on the Database
           Management screen, since this field cannot contain more than
           12 characters.

         . Removed a call from the Copy File To Disk routine that would
           cause Replicator to attempt to close the image file if the
           dynamic memory allocation failed.  (The file had not been
           opened at that point.)

         . Rearranged the order of a few procedures within the Copy Disk
           To File routines.  The dynamically allocated disk buffer is
           now allocated prior to creating the image file.  In the event
           that the dynamic allocation fails, the image file will not
           be created at all.  (Previously, a 0 byte file would exist if
           the dynamic allocation failed.)

         . Fixed a potential problem where the dynamically allocated
           buffer in the "Copy Disk To File" routine was being unallocated
           twice in the same routine.  (After testing with hundreds of
           disks, we did not see any problems arise as a result of this
           deallocation.  Users were unlikely to see this problem manifest
           itself.)


01-05-95 ■ Version 1.14

         . Fixed a serious problem that caused the database creation to
           fail when Replicator was executed.  (This problem occurred
           because the default "NetworkType=" portion of the file
           REPLICAT.INI was set to "NOVELL" instead of "NONET".)  A
           network call was being attempted due to this problem, causing
           an error #8100 to occur.  The database was not being initialized,
           causing further problems in program execution.

         . Added error checking to make sure that a network user cannot
           attempt to open the database if another user has created
           a ".SAV" file in the Replicator directory.  (Doing so could
           cause database corruption.)

         . Added code to make Replicator remember the last size and
           position of the browser screen within a session.  Each time
           the browser is initialized, it will be displayed in the same
           position as it was when it was closed last.

         . Added a custom exit procedure to be executed in the event
           that a Runtime error occurs.

         . Added support for the browser to automatically highlight
           the current record in the database when it is initialized,
           rather than highlight the first record in the database.

         . Updated code with database library changes.



12-29-94 ■ Version 1.13

         . Increased the number of columns in the browser window from
           128 to 255.

         . Fixed some appearance issues on monochrome monitors.

         . Changed the "Search" button on the Copy File To Disk screen
           to a "Browse" button.  (Serves the same function as before;
           only the text has changed.)

         . Removed the "Original Location" field from the browser screen.
           This will leave more space available for the description
           lines.  Increased the width of each description column from
           25 to 30 characters.

         . Fixed a problem where the ZIP file size was being displayed
           after a disk image was successfully created, even if the
           file had not been compressed by the user.


12-18-94 ■ Version 1.12

         . Fixed a problem where the screen would be cleared when the
           user pressed Escape in the middle of a compression or
           decompression process.  This caused the background to be
           erased, and many display problems appeared.  Removed the
           statement that was clearing the screen after one of these
           errors, and cleaned up associated routines.

         . Fixed a problem where an error would occur after attempting
           to format a diskette.  The format progress screen was not
           being erased and disposed of, causing an error to be displayed,
           even though the disk had been formatted successfully.

         . Corrected a minor problem where the completion line on the
           status screen would not always be completely filled out to
           the 100 percent mark when reading or writing a diskette.

         . Fixed a minor problem where corruption could occur on the
           Register Replicator screen if the user entered a registration
           name longer than 30 characters.  Also shortened the length
           of the registration number field from 30 to 12 characters.

         . Added a 25-record limit to the database facilities when
           using an UNREGISTERED version of Replicator.  This is
           strictly added as a registration incentive.  Registered
           users should NOT be affected by this change!

         . Added a prompt before the formatting disk procedure is
           started.

         . Fixed a problem where the F1=Help keypress was not working
           on the database management screen.


12-10-94 ■ Version 1.11

         . Added code to erase the original image file (.RIF file) if
           the disk image was not successfully created.

         . Removed unnecessary code for displaying the old style status
           screens.

         . Fixed a problem where Replicator was displaying "Track ??
           of 79 total tracks" when reading or writing to a diskette,
           when the total tracks value should have shown "80".


12-07-94 ■ Version 1.10

         . Added a "Paths" button to the Database Maintenance screen to
           allow users to globally change the "Location" field of each
           record in the database to a new user-specified path.

         . Added a Utilities menu option to the main menu, and placed
           the Database Maintenance menu option on the Utilities sub-
           menu.  Added a Upgrade Program menu option to the Utilities
           menu to allow users of version 1.00 through 1.02 to upgrade
           their data files to the current version.  (REPLICA.DAT needs
           to be renamed to REPLICAT.DAT, (and so on) to conform to the
           new naming convention.)

         . Reworked the status display screens to display more information
           and be more attractive in appearance.

         . Removed an extra (redundant) error message box that was
           displayed when a format process failed.

         . Added fail-safe checks to warn the user if changes have
           been made on the configuration or defaults screens if they
           select Cancel or the close box.  This prompts the user
           whether or not changes that have been made should be saved.

         . Fixed a problem where Replicator was not remembering the
           disk drive type and letter after completing an operation.

         . Added an option to format a diskette if Replicator detected
           that it was not formatted.  If the user decides not to format
           the diskette, the process is terminated.

         . Changed "Drive Type" wording on disk screens to "Disk Type"
           since the value of this field should reflect the type of
           disk in the disk drive, not necessarily the type of drive.

         . Fixed a problem where the Format Diskette routine was
           not properly detecting an unformatted diskette.

         . Fixed a problem where Replicator was attempting to read
           the default drive (typically A:) when getting drive
           parameters.  This could pose a problem when creating images
           from the B: drive.

         . Fixed a problem where memory was not being freed after
           creating a diskette image.  This could result in an "out of
           memory" error message after creating a large number of diskette
           images.

         . Converted Replicator to a protected mode application.  Only
           systems with 80286 or higher processors can use Replicator.
           This should reduce the memory related problems on most
           systems.

         . Changed the name of Replica to Replicator.  Previous
           name was found to conflict with a product from another
           company.


12-03-94 ■ Version 1.02

         . Updated context-sensitive help routines and values.

         . Added a conversion routine to automatically convert data
           files from version 1.00 and 1.01 to version 1.02.  This is
           necessary because of the date field that was added, as
           described below.

         . Added a date field to the database to store the date when
           the disk image file was originally created.  This date is not
           displayed or accessed at this time.  That feature will be
           added to a future version.

         . Disabled the display of "Swapping in..." and "Swapping out..."
           messages from being displayed when the compression and/or
           decompression processes are invoked.

         . Fixed a problem where Replica could not find the image file
           to recreate a diskette after a file had been decompressed.
           This problem only occurred if image files were stored in a
           directory other than the Replica program directory.

         . Added an option to allow the user to delete a file from the
           hard drive when an associated record is deleted from the
           database.  After deleting a database file, a prompt is
           displayed to give the user the opportunity to delete the
           file.

         . Added a system to the Copy Disk To File screen that allows
           Replica to remember the previous settings between disk
           creations.  This is useful when creating a series of disk
           images for a particular program.  This is the default.  In
           order to clear the settings, a "Clear" button was added.
           When selected, this button restores the default values, and
           sets all description fields to empty.

         . Integrated the use of up and down arrow keys on all
           dialog screens.  This will allow users to use these keys
           in place of Tab and Shift-Tab.

         . Removed the use of overlays for Replica.  Since error
           messages such as "insufficient memory" continued to
           occur from time to time during the compression process,
           we created a separate file called REPZIP.EXE that contains
           the compression and decompression routines.  This executable
           file is simply called when it is needed.  This reduced the
           size of REPLICA.EXE by about 45K.  When REPZIP.EXE is
           executed, Replica is swapped out to EMS, XMS, or disk, thus
           leaving a large amount of free memory for the compression
           process to occur.  This should virtually eliminate all
           "insufficient memory" error messages from occurring.


11-28-94 ■ Version 1.01  (Internal BETA Version, Not Released.)

         . Added a message box that will be displayed when an image
           has been created, to display the total size of the image
           file and the compressed file (if a compressed file was
           created).  This will give the user an idea of the total
           compression that was achieved on during the compression
           process.

         . Added a "Beep When Done" option to the Settings, Defaults
           screen, and modified the code to beep when a disk image
           has been copied to a file, or when a new disk has been
           created from an image file.

         . Added a "Defaults" screen to allow users to modify the
           default values for the disk drive, drive type, disk image
           path, and compression setting.  When the Copy Disk To File
           and Copy File To Disk screens are displayed, the default
           values are used.

         . Fixed a problem where a compressed (.ZIP) image file would
           not be placed in the same directory as the original (.RIF)
           image file.  Instead, the compressed file would be placed in
           the default Replica sub-directory.  Now, the compressed file
           will reside in the same directory as where the original image
           file was created.

         . Removed commands that allowed users to edit records directly
           from the browser screen.  Now, all maintenance should be
           performed from the Database Maintenance screen.

         . Added a new menu option specifically for the purpose of
           database maintenance.  This allows users to view and
           edit existing entries, as well as create new ones.  (Users
           may want to create a new entry if they accidentally delete
           an entry.)

         . Changed the operation of the Search button.  If the user
           does not select a record, but presses Escape instead, the
           browser will no longer put a blank entry in the "File To
           Read" field.  Instead, it will leave the existing entry
           unchanged.

         . Fixed a problem where the columns in the database browser
           screen were not being truncated properly if descriptions or
           paths were longer than the column display width.

         . Added a warning message to alert the user if a file already
           exists before attempting to recreate or overwrite it during
           the Copy Disk To File process.

         . Added a prompt before starting the copy process to remind
           the user to enter a disk into the disk drive.


11-21-94 ■ Version 1.00

         . Initial release of Replica.