Cream of the Crop 1

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Text File | 1992-06-22 | 15KB | 278 lines

SCBABOTL HISTORY ==================== REGISTERED UERS NOTE: To upgrade your current copy of the program, you only need to copy the new SCBABOTL.EXE file into your SCBABOTL directory. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.4 June 22, 1992 ----------- ------------- 1. Optimized several of the search and look-up functions to help users with lots of bottles (1000+). 2. The inventory list printing function now shows how many total pages will be printed and which page is currently being printed. A "Press Esc to stop printing" option has been added to several of the reports. 3. A new report has been added to the inventory. You can project future costs for budget purposes by specifying two dates and an estimate of what it costs to hydro test one bottle. The report will show all bottles due for hydro between your two dates and also total up the cost. And for those of you charged a different price dependent upon the bottle pressure or capacity, there is a summary report showing how many bottles of each pressure and duration there are. The program can handle up to nineteen different combinations of pressure/duration. If you should have more than nineteen different combinations, the rest are lumped together under the "OTHER:" heading. The program assumes that a bottle that was last hydro'd in February (for example) will need to be retested in February again, rather than in January. 4. A new summary report has been added to the inventory. It simply scans the entire inventory and tells you how many bottles of each pressure and duration you have. The program can handle up to nineteen different combinations of pressure/duration. If you should have more than nineteen different combinations, the rest are lumped together under the "OTHER:" heading. To keep the menu in a logical order, this report is now the first selection. The rest of the reports are bumped down one letter. 5. A new option has been added to the Record Deletion Menu. It is now possible to erase specific bottles from the SCBA inventory, selected by their serial number. You can erase one bottle at a time. This option was needed for users with several hundred bottles. Looking through the inventory list bottle by bottle was a bit tedious (I'm told!). 6. The operation of the main menu 'D' (search the inventory by serial or ID number) has been changed. Previously, it was only possible to edit a select few fields from this screen. You can now change anything. This change is applicable to both the SCBA bottle inventory and the PASS unit inventory. 7. The method of updating the inventory bottles from the fill log has changed. Previously, each bottle in the inventory was checked against each bottle in the fill log. When a match was found for the serial numbers, the information in the inventory was updated with the most current info from the fill log. This worked well even on slow computers, if the number of bottles in the fill log and inventory was no more than a couple of hundred. Unfortunately, coupling large inventories and fill logs with slow computers resulted in the "Please wait, updating the inventory..." message staying on the screen for a half a minute or longer. Now, the inventory bottles are updated at the same time the entries are made into the fill log. Since the "short cut" data entry method for adding your own bottles to the fill log had already located and verified the matching serial number/i.d. number in the inventory, it took adding about ten lines of code to the program to make the update at the same time. Can't figure out why I didn't think of this before . . . 8. Corrected the problem with misaligned maintenance notes on the SCBA bottle and PASS inventory printouts. The first line was OK, but the remaining ones were indented too far. 9. Changed all references to "Date of Manufacture" or "Date Made" in the SCBA bottle inventory and fill log to "Original Hydro" or "Orig. Hydro" to remove a point of confusion. 10. Changed the way all of the "Last Hydro Date" and "Date Made" (now "Orig. Hydro") entries are made. You now enter these dates exactly the same way they are stamped on the bottles; i.e. "mm/yy". You no longer have to remember to put in a "01" for the day of the month. (I should have done this one a long time ago.) 11. When adding new bottles into the inventory, the program now checks to make sure you haven't already entered that particular serial number or I.D. number. If you have, a pop-up box will inform you which number is already being used, and then erase the new entry. This only works when adding new bottles. If you go back in under the "browse/edit" or "search" features, this duplicate entry chack is not made. 12. When a bottle or PASS unit is erased, it is actually only hidden from the user, not physically removed from the file. This is because the actual removal of the record can take many, many seconds. After a large number of items have been erased, the presence of these hidden records slows down the look-up and retrieval of information. The program now monitors how many items have been erased from each database file. After you have erased the twenty fifth record, the program will physically remove these hidden records, resulting in a "Please wait, removing . . . marked for erasure" message. This physical removal occurs when you leave the respective menu screen, or when you quit the program for SCBA bottle inventory records. If you use one of the "bulk erase" selections on the Record Deletion Menu, this physical removal process is handled immediately, and the "erased" counter reset to zero. Bacause this is a new feature, you will get the "please wait..." message the first time you quit any of the menus. This assures you are starting off with tidy files and gives the counters some place to start. ============================================================================== Version 1.3 March 22, 1992 ----------- -------------- 1. Added an inventory function for PASS units. This function works the same as the SCBA bottle inventory function and will generate a report on all PASS units not having had a battery replacement within the past eleven months. 2. Changed the method of providing upgrades to registered users. All registered users will now receive instructions on performing the upgrades themselves. This eliminates the inconvenience of them having to send me a disk or money and allows them to use the new features immediately. 3. References in the FILL LOG to "department" have been changed to "owner" or "organization." This was done to accomodate industrial users who utilize the program for their fire brigades, and for those locations having HazMat teams that are not a part of a Fire Department. 4. Changed some of the menu descriptions to provide a clearer idea of what they did. Changed the printed report headers so they all look the same. 5. The format of the printout from the "NEEDS HYDRO TEST OR REFILLED" report has been changed slightly. Previously, both the "LAST FILLED" and "LAST HYDRO" dates would be printed for each bottle listed, even if only one of them was out of date. Now, only the date which caused the bottle to be listed is printed; the other date is shown as OK . 6. On all of the data entry screens, the operation of the "Entry By:" block has been changed slightly. Previously, you needed to retype the initials of the person making the entry each time. Now you only type them the first time. The initials are stored in temporary memory and will "pop up" on all subsequent entries. This should eliminate a lot of redundant typing. 7. The operation of adding new bottles to the FILL LOG has been changed. Numerous organizations keep track of their bottles by a short I.D. number, like "B1", "B2", etc. These users had to refer to an "I.D. Number To Serial Number" cross reference sheet when making entries. I am now requiring that your organization's name be programmed to the F1 key. When entering bottles into the FILL LOG, the program detects the pressing of the F1 key and the data entry screen changes. You no longer have to enter the Working Pressure, Serial Number, or Last Hydro Test Date. A new line, "Serial No. or I.D. #:" replaces the current "Serial Number:" line. You will type either the serial number or I.D. number here. After completing the rest of the entries, the program will search your SCBA bottle inventory file for an exact match of what you typed on the new line. If it finds one, the "Working Pressure:", "Serial Number:", and "Last Hydro Test Date:" will be automatically entered into the FILL LOG. After verifying that the information is correct, you will press any key except Esc to accept the information and proceed to the next entry. Pressing Esc will erase that entry. If an exact match cannot be found, you will be given the option of entering those three items manually. It sounds more difficult than it really is, but this "short cut" saves a lot of typing and eliminates the possibility of an inventory entry not getting updated because the wrong serial number was typed in. Also, you will not get the "Please wait, updating inventory...' message now unless you have actually added one of your bottles to the fill log. 8. Improved the operation of the program in detecting errors in the index files. Because these files are so critical to finding the information, and because they can be "corrupted" if the program terminates "abnormally" (as in a power failure or a Ctr-Alt-Del), the program now monitors how it terminates. If the program terminates in any way other than by using the Esc key from the main menu or by selecting the QUIT function on the main menu, all of the index files will be rebuilt the next time the program is used. 9. The copy to/from floppy disk functions have been enhanced. If there is a problem with the floppy drive or disk, the nature of it will be spelled out instead of just saying "floppy drive not ready." ============================================================================== Version 1.21 January 10, 1992 ------------ ---------------- 1. Added the ability to search for bottles in the inventory by the I.D. number as well as the serial number. 2. Added a "confirm you want to quit" pop-up box when quitting the program by using the Esc key instead of "Q." Just press the Esc key again, the Y key, or the Enter key to actually quit. ============================================================================== Version 1.2 December 6, 1991 ----------- ---------------- NOTE: The enhancements in this version change required a modification of the basic structure of the data files. All registered users upgrading from version 1.1x received (or will receive) a program which converts their old data files automatically. 1. The "initials" blocks have been expanded from three to six characters. 2. Added the file FILL_LOG.FRM to the package. This is an ASCII file which can be used to log your bottle fills. Several people told me they didn't want to try the program because they didn't want to have to make up another form. 3. Corrected several minor display errors and misalignments, as well as one obscure instance of the program looking for a non-existent index file. 4. Greatly enhanced the error-handling routines, particularly during floppy disk transfers. Any "unexpected" errors will now be written to your disk drive under the file name CLIP?.ERR. This will help isolate reported problems. 5. The ESC key can now be used to back up out of any menu. 6. The creation of backup files during a "restore from floppy" is now optional, via a pop-up dialog box. 7. The SCBA Inventory Reports menu has a new selection which will report on bottles needing a hydro test, without regard to or displaying/printing their "last filled" date. 8. A new column has been added to the "browse" and "search" listings. This column was added just to the left of the "STORED ON:" column. It is titled "NOTES?" and shows you how many lines of notes are present for that bottle. The "STORED ON:" column is now off the screen to the right and can be seen using the "right arrow" cursor key. The inventory "browse" and "search" screens now show you how many lines of notes (if any) had been previously entered. 9. The operation of the FILL LOG summary report has been changed. The report now displays on the screen first, with printing it an option. 10. Changed the printouts so the totals at the bottom of the last page are now centered on the page. 11. Added the "/BW" command line switch to enhance the readability of the display when used on monochrome monitors. ============================================================================== Version 1.11 September 22, 1991 ------------ ------------------ 1. Added the "/NS" command line switch to enable "no snow" on older CGA monitors. 2. Added a routine at program start up to check for existence of index files. It will only reindex now if one or more of the files are missing. ============================================================================== Version 1.0 July 22, 1991 ----------- ------------- 1. Initial release provided only to a few local fire departments for testing and suggestions on improvements.