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Text File | 1997-11-20 | 39.6 KB | 965 lines

Listed in reverse-chronological order, the following text details changes made to KingFisher, KFServer, and RexxFisher since their initial public release with version 2.1: v2.23 18-Apr-1996 »»» BUG FIXES: (no bugs known (hooray!); no bugs fixed) »»» IMPROVMENTS: KFServer is now able to handle a mixture of Release 1 and Release 2 datafiles. In other words, the supplied data files that comprise the 1000Fish database have always been in Release 1 format. Adding fish disks 1001+ in Release 2 format caused the server to mistake the inconsistent data offsets for a corrupted index file when sanity checking was enabled. It is now possible to define external commands to be executed when KingFisher completes a search. A spearate command can be executed for success and failure conditions of a search. Useful for playing a sound, or "say 'found something!'" The text layout engine has been completely rewritten. The code was a mess anyway. It's much prettier now, much more direct, and far less difficult to alter if this is necessary in the future. \> is now handled slightly differently depending where it is used: 1. in the format file it indents the field contents, effectively altering the left margin until the end of the field contents are reached; 2. if used within the contents of a record, the indentation is terminated by the next \n (newline) as originally designed. A completely untested \< should push the left margin to the left by one tab stop. Or so it is hoped... \# allows switching in and out of verbatim mode. Fields like the description field are handled in flow mode, meaning that blanks and end of line characters are treated as blanks and multiple blanks are treated as a single blank. In verbatim mode, practically all characters are allowed to go to the display, even multiple blanks. New "Product-Info Specification Version 8" integrated into the documentation. v2.22 (ack!) v2.21 31-Jan-1996 »»» BUG FIXES: KingFisher could forget to unblock its windows if the "Copy to Clipboard" command was issued in the Search Result Window. The program would still respond to external kill signals (which can always be issued to the server to cause it to signal all clients. The same problem may have affected printing and export functions as well. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER now removes the intial About window automatically if it has been visible for longer than 2 seconds while the server & database were being loaded/initialized. KingFisher now uses the KEYPATH environment variable (if set) in addition to the KEYS: KEYFILE: and KEYFILES: (logical) volumes to locate its keyfile. NOTE: The Installer will always install the file to the default directory if found on a distribution disk. KingFisher now adds the version and release dates to the Search Result Window entries for a significantly quicker overview of what records are likely to be newer than others. KingFisher now sorts the Search Result Window. By default, the entries are presented in alphanumeric order but this can be changed back to what KingFisher used to do: present the list in record order by altering the "Search-Result-Order" entry in the .prefs file to a value of "S" (sequence) instead of "N" (name); Name order knows how to take proper version numbers into account (i.e. v2.5 is earlier than 2.30, which is again earlier than 2.768.) v2.20 20-Dec-1995 *** 1st wide public release since 2.10 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER 2.11 and 2.12 didn't run with Kickstart 2.x because the Datatypes.library was auto-opened (fails under KS 2) rather than under control of my own routines, which adjust for the lack of it. i.e. KINGFISHER RUNS UNDER KS2.x AGAIN (v2.11 and v2.12 didn't.) KingFisher should no longer crash when adding fish from a directory tree. This was broken since v2.6. (whoops!) KingFisher had a subtle (and potentially quite serious!) problem with requester-blocked windows. This problem was especially serious with multiple blocked windows. 8-( KingFisher indicated a fish# (record) one too large when exporting fish to the clipboard (this was in the .INDEXINFO portion.) KingFisher's "Build Version Links" command is no longer available if the database is not writable. KingFisher's database title gadget would overlap the listview if KingFisher was started without this gadget visible and it was then selected to appear in the interface. KingFisher had a minor bug in the clipboard routine: under certain circumstances the clip would not be properly terminated and might then have additional junk appended. KFSERVER now marks the index files as "dirty" when truncated; this assures that they are actually written to disk if no other changes have been made to the database. KFServer can now properly truncate the default database. Why this has slipped me by for so long is a mystery... KFServer no longer complains about a record being too big after one or more records have been added to the database of which at least one is larger than any previous record. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KFSERVER will no longer exit if the default database is unavailable for some reason. A client that does not open a specific database is in such cases unable to get any work done unless ANOTHER client has opened a database. The database used by the "unspecific" client in such cases is, for most practical purposes, indeterminate (it is the database that has been open the longest.) KFServer now ignores /* ... */ comments at the top of Product-Info files. Nested comments are not permitted. KFServer now supports a 'priority' setting in its .prefs file to allow the server to be set to a higher priority than normal. It is not recommended to set the server's priority higher than 4. KingFisher now displays "(no database selected)" when the KFServer cannot present it the requested database on startup; it is then up to the operator to select a different database. KingFisher now positions to the first added fish after a directory tree scan and invokes the reindexing command for you (which you may cancel if you wish.) KingFisher no longer attempts to perform a reindexing operation on all fish added through the directory tree scan; you must perform this operation "manually" afterwards -- this is so you have more control over what and how you want to reindex. KingFisher can now start the KFServer in DEBUG mode if either the tooltypes (Workbench interface) or the CLI parameters contain the keyword "debug" KingFisher no longer complains about being unable to connect to the server when the actual failure was access to the desired database. This problem is now correctly diagnosed and presented to the user. KingFisher now has 'search-priority' and 'search-priority-relative' settings in the .prefs file, which control the priority while it is engaged in searching for information. Both KFSERVER and KINGFISHER now use a keyfile to determine freely distributable vs. registered status. The keyfile is sought first in the current directory, then in KEYS: KEYFILE: KEYFILES: and S: ------------------------------------------------- REGISTERED USERS: For the upgrade cost of US$5.00 you can upgrade to the latest KingFisher, and get the keyfile, too. The keyfile means you can just download future versions of KingFisher without needing to apply complicated patches to upgrade! ------------------------------------------------- Released a new and *much* more up-to-date Product-Info file. :-) Online (AmigaGuide) documentation reorganized: *lots* of work! Flag gadgets are now initially disabled by default to prevent premature manipulation before a database is loaded and its R/W state becomes known. New VIEW menu allows alternate view of a Product-Info file or the clipboard to help you proof-read your own Product-Info files. Viewing the Product-Info file is a "live view" that is implemented via Notification: any change to the file is immediately detected by KingFisher and the display updated. Custom formats used for the display, printing, and for exporting are now hotlinked via AmigaOS notification: a change to the files will be immediately reflected within KingFisher! KingFisher now attaches to the server while simultaneously the About window is being displayed. This improves startup speed. The About window cannot be removed during initial attachment to the server (busy pointer.) v2.12 23-Oct-1995 *** Only on the "GoldFish 3" CD-ROM »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER accepts one or more 'field-format-handling' entries in the .prefs file to allow setting defaults for field layout control based on the field name. This feature provides a global override for fields that do not specifically define their layout preference via option sets (see documentation.) In short, @{[f1>]description} as found in a .format file (see display/print/export formats) could be defined globally with 'field-format-handling=description=1f>' v2.11 07-Oct-1995 *** Released only to Registr.#1034 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER now supports help on the 'Use external gadget images' menu option. Help with expression errors now brings up extended AmigaGuide help as originally intended. Database title is now displayed even if no specific database is selected (i.e. if you have never done more than use the default without explicit selection through the "Open Database" command.) »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER no longer closes and reopens the window when changing the status of the "Show Database Title" gadget. Moved clipboard-related items in the EDIT menu up above the index- related items. Documentation brought up to date in several portions. Expression tutorial modularized. Typos fixed. Enhanced for AmigaGuide V39+ Support for external images on buttons. The ugliness of the Flag gadgets (2 rows of 8 flags in top right corner) benefits from this new feature especially. See the documentation, section 2.10 SPECIAL for more information. Internal images (esp. the Flags) improved. Well, *I* think they're nicer. Don't you? REXXFISHER now listens to the CTRL-E break signal to interrupt a search in progress. KFSERVER now keeps track of R/W status of both index components: This eliminates the server's attempt to update the quick index on a R/O volume even if only the main index has changed (and the quick index really did not need to be saved.) v2.10 4-Jul-1995 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER's "Apply Mask to Search Set" operation now properly titles its "operation completed" announcement window with the expected "Apply Mask ... operation completed" rather than the erroneous "Export..." title. Silly typo. KFSERVER had a subtle and rather severe bug in the update index routine. This afflicted *ONLY* an ONDISK index. Another part of this bug (it multiplied when I wasn't looking, really!) involved a corrupted 1st record in the index. INRAM index had no problems. A completely empty index (no index at all) would fail to extend the index when additions were made. This also affected reindexing. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: The Version Linking operation has been sped up DRAMATICALLY! In fact, we're back to an O(n) algorithm, which is better than I had expected to achieve. :-) The Version Linking now has a percent bar and no longer dumps the status information passed from the server to a console window. This was rather ugly for a long time, I must admit. <blush> Installing a database with the PROJECT/Install... command will now add paths to the relevant filename references if no paths are given in the .kfdb file being installed. The path added is the directory from where the .kfdb file is copied. Reindexing the database will now present indexing information in a small window with percentage progress bar, rather than with text dumped to a console window. The main window now opens with an additional gadget: the Database Title Gadget. You may unselect the appropriate menu entry in the PREFERENCES/Display menu if you rather not have KingFisher display the current database title. Depending on the resolution of your screen, you may find it more important to have an extra line or two of the descriptions visible. The menu button no longer blocks the VersionLink, Reindex Status, and About windows (these have no menus.) The menu (right mouse) button now closes the Expression History and the Open Database windows. The Open Database window adjusts its position based on the availability of the new Database Title Gadget and the Expression History gadget no longer has a border and close gadget (RMB and Escape key will cancel & close the window, as well as clicking outside the window.) The maximum height of the search expression gadget is now definable in the .prefs file as 'MaxHistHeight' -- a minimum of 3 lines is required. This height is dynamically adjusted to prevent the window from sliding up over the search expression gadget when the window is taller than screen space available. The "Apply Mask" operation in the Search Result Window's menu (where this command affects all fish in the displayed Search Set) has been sped up dramatically as it now uses a new call made available beginning with KFServer 2.8 When a search completes and the screen where KingFisher's main window resides is not the active screen, then KingFisher will flash all screens as a signal that the search is completed. The Search Result window now closes and re-opens when the main window is resized. Keeps things tidier. This is an option in the Display Preferences: Sticky Result Window. The font selection is now updated in the .prefs file only if a new font is explicitly selected. I.e. KingFisher will no longer store the system's default font selection automatically. 'Auto-Format=X' (where X=0,1,2) is not documented elsewhere as it is primarily a debugging aid: it allows you to select an alternate "Show All Fields" format. 0 is the old default; 1 and 2 are slight variations. The word 'REGISTERED' has been removed from the $VER: tag to make the string 100% Amiga User Interface Style Guide compliant. The evaluation version will continue to carry the "EVALUATION COPY" tag. KFSERVER now allows a DO-SANITY-CHECK=(yes|no) setting in .kfdb files to force or prevent the database index to be checked for the most glaring and obvious types of corruption. A SANITY-CHECK option in the KFServer.prefs file may be set set to specify a default sanity check mode for databases (.kfdb) that do not specify a DO-SANITY-CHECK value. The permissible values are: Always Will always perform a sanity check InRam Will perform the check only on an index that is loaded into RAM -- much quicker operation and less delay while opening a database. OnDisk Will perform the check only on an OnDisk index but not InRam index. The default for SANITY-CHECK is INRAM. Very slight speedup implemented on several operations, including the loading of fish. You probably won't notice... The LOADINDEX value in the KFServer.prefs file can now specify the following values: AlwaysInRAM Index will ALWAYS be loaded into RAM, no matter if the .kfdb file specifies it to stay on disk. With large indices in use this can really push RAM requirements through the ceiling but makes for faster operations. AlwaysOnDisk Index will ALWAYS remain on disk, no matter if the .kfdb file specifies it to be loaded to RAM. This is the most memory efficient, but slowest method of operation. DefaultInRAM If a .kfdb file specifies NO 'Index=' entry then the index will be loaded into RAM. This is and has been the default method. DefaultOnDisk If a .kfdb file specifies NO 'Index=' entry then the index will remain on disk for more memory efficient operation (but penalizing you with slower access speed.) The DEFAULT... values affect only .kfdb databases that do not set a preference for the index with the 'index=' entry in their .kfdb files. The ALWAYS... values override them. v2.9 4-Apr-1995 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER will no longer add of junk to the end of a custom display format. KFSERVER now reports an uptime of 0 seconds as "0s" rather than a null string (oh, my, the Earth moved!) (yawn) Fixed Error-By-1 on correcting VersionLinks that point into a region of records that are being deleted. Also included the Previous Link in the check (only the NextLink was checked before.) Removed a bug that prevented ONDISK index files from working. It is now possible to specify if a database index is to be used as an INRAM index (fastest) or ONDISK (no overhead in memory!) »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER now adjusts its gadget proportions according to the screen size. A medium resolution (such as 640x200) display will now present less stretched gadgets. Some images replaced with nicer ones, and colors (especially the 4th (usually blue) color) cleaned up. When running under Kickstart 3.0 or later, the KingFisher logo in the About window will now be displayed in up to 16 shades of gray. The image will be remapped to provide the best color fidelity available from Intuition's free/shared pens. An 8-color screen is not the best, but a 16 or even 32 color screen (can provide quite excellent reproduction!) The text formatting routines finally handle paragraph and field indentations properly! Default format cleaned up and improved. Added a \- symbol to the format parser, which fills the rest of the line with a dashed line (------------...) and then inserts a newline as if \n was given. Added a \N (uppercase version of \n) to function as a conditional newline that is added only if the preceding line is not already a blank line. The 'author' field is now handled as a "verbatim" field, meaning that linefeeds in the field are treated as real newlines instead of soft returns. Added option capability to the @{field} specifiers. Options are specified BEFORE the name of the field, and enclosed in []'s such as: @{[f]author} @{[0>]description} Available options at this time are: f,v Force Flow or Verbatim Mode. In Flow Mode, the presence of a newline in the file is treated as a blank space would, and only a \n sequence is regarded as a newline (paragraph break.) This produces word-wrapped paragraphs, where the end of a paragraph is explicitly indicated with a \n sequence. The DESCRIPTION is usually handled in Flow Mode. In Verbatim Mode, a newline in the file is treated the same as a forced paragraph break from the presence of a \n sequence. The AUTHOR field is usually handled in Verbatim Mode. By default, all fields are treated in flow mode, except for: reference, address, email, docs, run, stored-in, and author. If you wish to add the "contents" field to the display, specify it as @{[v]contents} -- the option set [v] forces KingFisher to use verbatim mode instead of the default flow mode. 0,1 How many lines to be placed between paragraphs. By specifying '0' in the option set, you can remove the blank lines that KingFisher inserts between paragraphs (in the description field, for example.) |,> Force non-indented or indented paragraphs. By adding '>' to the option set (in the description field, for example) you can add an indentation at the start of paragraphs (all, except the first); this is especially useful in combination with a '0' (see above) to improve readability. Try it! @{[0>]description} The frames for the Browse and Search gadget groups are now set to the same height. This makes for a somewhat cleaner appearance. The search expression gadget will now adjust its size to a combination of extra wide and very narrow characters, weighted towards the proportionally wider ones. This allows the window to be sized narrower while maintaining a sense of the current font's size requirements. The Listview scrollers are now adjusted in width to whatever font is selected for the window. This is _much_ nicer with large fonts; the minimum size is 16, no matter what. The formula is 2/3 of the font size, so that any font sized above 24 will bring the adjust- ment into play (i.e. a font size 30 will use a scroller width of 20.) v2.8 6-Mar-1995 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER will now properly handle EQUAL and NOT EQUAL comparisons in expressions. These did not work until now because of a trailing newline in the field data. Case sensitivity in search expressions is now implemented properly. Improved expression evaluation speed somewhat. Fixed minor bug in evaluation routine that may have been responsible for failures to find some information. Will no longer disable all relevant browsing and motion gadgets when attempting to step one record past the end of the database, leaving only the keyboard (left-arrow key, for example) available to move one record backward and "recover" the use of the gadgets. Why did I not find this earlier? Why did nobody ever report this? Will no longer place the .INDEXINFO= tag within the markers when writing records to the clipboard. This was an nasty error on my part that would make it impossible for KFServer to properly handle clipboard input. A very embarrassed "Sorry!" Properly updates the VersionLinks after adding new fish to the database. Now properly updates the QuickIndex when adding new fish. This was a very dreadful omission in the code for which I do apologize! My thanks to Dean Ridgway for making me aware of this problem. When opening a KingFisher Release 1 database, and the index is found to be a Release 1 index, KingFisher Release 2 will perform an on-the-fly conversion of the Release 1 index into a Release 2 index located in RAM. This has always been the case, but there was a very unfortunate mis-computation of index-size that could result in error messages and some junk at the end of the index. When hitting the close gadget while scanning a directory tree, the program will no longer lock up (it previously attempted to block a window that was already blocked; although officially supported, this does seem to cause trouble...) REXXFISHER's RF_OBTAIN command now returns the proper values when using the PVER and NVER options. KFSERVER's I/O handlers and indexing operations were rewritten from the ground up to streamline their operation and eliminate a number of strangenesses that grew there over time. Many problems should be fixed now: occasional case sensitivity to the ".name" identifier and serious problems with (re)indexing operations involving the QuickIndex and partitioned databases. Should now be able to find files in the root directory of a volume (or logical assignment.) This was a bug in SAS' dirwalker.c (for those interested, the problem is with walkdir(): appending a '/' is done only when the last character is not already a ':' or '/' but the offset tested is the character BEYOND the last one, so it will ALWAYS append the '/' to produce bogus names like: "SYS:/foo/KF.pi" »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER can now use DOS Patterns (i.e. "#?(foo|bar)#?" in search expressions. This is indicated in an expression with the use of the '#' operator (as opposed to =, !=, <=, >=, $, ...) Example: name # "#?(foo|bar)#?" No longer activates its window if KingFisher's screen is not the active one. This permits starting KingFisher in the background (perhaps with a hotkey) without having to "fear" that while you're typing something the console will get yanked away from your active window. Likewise, KingFisher will not active the windows it opens (when a search completes, for example) if its main window was inactive. Also supported now is the option to sort links by their associated version number. This means that if a CD-ROM contains version 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 1.2, 1.5, 1.9, and 3.1 the VersionLinks will be ordered to allow you to scan: 1.0, 1.2, 1.5, 1.9, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 regardless if this means moving forward or backward through the database! Notice that some programs use rather ill-constructed version numbers, such as 1.02 (which is handled as 1.2) since the two version numbers (before and after the dot) are not fractions but whole numbers. REXXFISHER experienced the same improvements and bug fixes to the search engine as KingFisher did (they share the engine code.) RexxFisher's version number upgraded from 1.11 to 2.8 to make the versions less confusing with respect to KingFisher and KFServer. New command to select a specific record without actually retrieving its data. This is quicker than an RF_GETFISH, yet the RF_OBTAIN command can still be used to obtain index-related data: RF_SELECT fishnumber KFSERVER now informs a client program if it cannot open a database file. It is then up to the client to retry the operation based on possible user-feedback. This is implemented to prevent the server from blocking. You can (if you absolutely must do this) force the server to block and present a message without involving the client by setting the following in the KFServer.prefs file: SUPPRESS-REQUESTERS=NO The value defaults to YES. Now actually removes deleted records from the database, eliminating the chance that subsequent additions followed by reindexing scans into only half-overwritten junk. A side-effect of this is that a Reindex operation following a Delete operation will NOT recover any records. Delete is now permanent! Now performs a sanity check on an inRAM index (but not onDISK) before loading. This produces a meaningful diagnostic and prevents confusing errors later. When a database is opened multiple times (perhaps by multiple clients) the the first client is the only one who has the right to modify the database. This prevents multiple clients attempting to alter the flags, for example. This mechanism will be improved in the future to permit implicit individual record locking. v2.7 19-Jan-1995 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER now properly calculates text layout in the About Window. Until now it failed to make use of available space the way it was meant to, especially with large fonts. System Requesters now open up on KingFisher's screen even if it is a custom screen, rather than bringing the Workbench to the front. While adding fish, a response of "No" was synonymous with "Cancel." Needless to say, this was not the way it was intended. If the server terminates while KingFisher is in the middle of an operation during which it may not check for an exit signal from the server, it will no longer attempt to re-start the server in order to continue the operation in progress. KFSERVER had a bug in kfcSETPOS command that caused the index entry of the PREVIOUS record to be addressed (for inRAM index.) »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER now (optionally) frames related gadgets with recessed borders to group gadgets visually. The option is available from the PREFERENCES/Display menu. Added ability to switch SmartRefresh/SimpleRefresh option from the PREFERENCES/Display menu. This used to be only available through the tooltypes or the KingFisher2.prefs file. 'Build VersionLinks...' command now scans the database QuickIndex and builds a new set of version links. This was an O(n) algorithm in KingFisher 1, but is now, regrettably, O(n²) because KingFisher 2 can no longer make the easy assumptions about the database that KingFisher 1 could make. The PREFERENCES/Display submenu now uses check marks to indicate which (if any) of the 'Load Custom Format...' and 'Show all fields in record' choices is the current one. This is an issue only with the Display Format option, as the print and export formats have no special dual option, and their presence or absence is easily noted by the enable/disable status of their respective 'Drop...' options. Now adds the START/STOP markers to the clipboard because it is easier to remove them instead of having to manually add them. The .INDEXINFO item is also added for maximum future compatibility. With the Search Result window's new menu item "Copy to Clipboard," all records in the Search Set are copied to the clipboard, each separated with proper START/STOP markers to make their separation easier. The UNREGISTERED version of KingFisher now requires user action to clear the initial About window to encourage reading of the text; it will no longer go away as it used to with a timeout. The REGISTERED version is not affected by this change. REXXFISHER can now truncate a database at the current record. To prevent accidents, the command can be given a parameter that specifies the exact number of records that you expect to be deleted by the operation. If the parameter is provided but does not match the number of actual records that would be deleted, then the call will fail and no truncation will take place. Omitting the value will by-pass this safety measure. RF_TRUNCATE [ records ] v2.6 02-Dec-1994 »»» BUG FIXES: KINGFISHER did not make REVERSE searches based on QuickIndex any faster than they were in version 2.4. This has been corrected. Please note that the QuickIndex and SearchMasks are not currently compatible and cannot be used together. This will be improved in a future release. Two problems involving severely trashed, and mysteriously vanishing text (Reconstruct database index...) in menus have been corrected. Fixed a memory re-allocation bug that was responsible for producing trashed items in the DBInfo list and other related problems of this sort. When the registered version is run without the NOOUTPUT option, it no longer claims to be freely distributable. Bit of an oversight! KFSERVER now returns the intended values for a kfcSELECTDATABASE command. Previously, the values returned by the command were not handled properly, although no immediately adverse effects came of that. Improved creation of new databases. New databases should no longer come up as read-only databases when they are first created, nor should there be any problems now adding data to a newly created database. Unconditional error messages have now been guarded with a verbosity level check, so the server will be less prone to ramble on about the things that are and are not happening. System Requesters are no longer suppressed. At one time this was meant to prevent the server from blocking in case that an unmounted volume was accessed, but this inadvertently disabled the server's ability to serve databases stored on off-line (unmounted) volumes. A bug was fixed involving detection of Read/Write status of a database. A database whose primary index file is stored in the root directory of a logical or physical volume (i.e. in DF0: or in KF2:, as opposed to a subdirectory DH0:Database/) would not be able to determine the status and assume Read-Only ability. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: KINGFISHER now supports the clipboard. Writes current fish to the clipboard; Appends one or more fish from the clipboard. Clipboard currently fixed to unit 0. The Center Window option now immediately centers the window on the current display when activated. The window will be re-centered when the size is changed, and the option is automatically turned off when the window is repositioned. A new option in PREFERENCES/DISPLAY is available to display all fields in a record. This uses the custom display mechanism and can be turned off by dropping the custom display formed by this option. Can now select larger fonts (previous version seemed to be limited to size of 24 pixels or less, at least on my system.) KFSERVER now reports total uptime and bases percentage of use on the total time the server was USED rather than the client's total connect time (which eventually led to 0% used when the server was idle.) REXXFISHER now has the ability to add all fish from a file to the current database, as well as affect the previous and next version link values in the index. The new commands are: RF_ADDFISH 'filename' RF_SETVLINK PVER fishnumber | NVER fishnumber v2.5 05-Nov-1994 »»» BUG FIXES: Explicitly quoted string constants in expressions are no longer affected by the TRIM BLANKS setting which shaves off blank spaces in expressions to avoid mistakes with blanks at the end of strings. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: The QuickIndex feature now deserves its name: It has been sped up so it can search 4500 records in a mere second (the exact speed depends on how many matches are produced and need to be processed.) Unlike the QuickIndex that was part of KingFisher 1.x, this QuickIndex feature is a) fully automatic and b) not limited to substring searches (i.e. you can search "name$king & ~name=kingcon) which was possible with KingFisher 1 only when not using the quick index. The expression syntax has been enhanced to permit a shortcut: field op ( value | value & value ^ value ) is equivalent to: field op value | field op value & field op value ^ field op value Thus: name$(king|aqua|fish) Is the same as: name$king | name$aqua | name$fish The portion in ()'s may contain multiple levels of parentheses to prioritize the evaluation order: name$(fish&(king|net|sticks)) represents: name$fish & ( name$king | name$net | name|sticks ) v2.4 01-Nov-1994 »»» BUG FIXES: If the KFServer is shutdown, all clients (such as RexxFisher and KingFisher) are now sent break signals instead of exit messages. This is more reliable and less prone to lost resources. Improvements made to handling user-interaction while adding records to the database. Once again, the $VER: tags have been fixed. The fact that the type identification ("EVALUATION COPY"/"REGISTERED") left an illegal white space in the string caused further problems. This time the identification (EVALUATION/REGISTERED) has been moved to AFTER the date portion. Even though this is still not recommended practice, so many programs used this method to append copyright or other text, that Commodore made special arrangements to support it; this is significantly more compatible than adding non-numeric letters to the version number. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: New menu command to reconstruct damaged or lost index files. This command is NOT named "reindex" to avoid possible misunderstandings about its purpose. Using "Reconstruct database index" causes the loss of all existing version links and individual record flags, so it is not a function to be used casually. Additional interface features added for more keyboard control (tabbing between Main and Search Result windows, for example.) KingFisher now recognizes if a search expression references only the field upon which the QuickIndex is based. In such cases a search is at least twice as fast as before. Further speed-up is scheduled for a future version. Documentation has been rewritten with AmigaGuide V39/V40 features in mind. If running under 2.x, the Installer will alter the .guide to make it readable with earlier versions of AmigaGuide. New Installer script permits partial installation and upgrades to be performed. v2.3 05-Sep-1994 »»» BUG FIXES: Corrected several problems involving access to an empty database that would a) produce a variety of complaints, some even completely incorrect assertions, b) not properly ghost relevant gadgets, and c) produce potentially misleading or bogus values for the numeric (fish/disk) gadget. Potential problem removed involving an improperly terminated node- context table for the AmigaGuide interface. This may have caused improper, unreliable, or unresponsive functioning of KingFisher's HELP system. Compatibility problem resolved with the Fish/Disk cycle gadget, which inadvertently used a NULL font pointer. This caused GadTools to use the system default font but could confuse system extensions that enhance cycle gadgets to produce pop-up lists, instead. Formatting problem solved which would not properly terminate the formatted output. This affected both KingFisher and RexxFisher due to shared code. Selecting an expression from the Search Expression History window will now cause the selected item to be moved to the top of the list. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: New menu command to edit a format file using external editor. File notification will be implemented in the next release. AmigaGuide is now opened on demand only. This preserves RAM when the help system is not needed and delays the need to insert a disk with the .guide file if this file is kept off-line on a floppy, for example. Now supports pointing at a gadget with the mouse and pressing HELP. This completes the implementation of context sensitive help. Displays are now handled with SIMPLEREFRESH; KingFisher takes care of its own refreshing, which means that Intuition no longer has to maintain a backup bitmap in case an obscured portion of the window needs "repair" (thus reducing RAM requirements!) and speeding up the moving of KingFisher's windows, especially on deep screens, such as 256 color displays. If you prefer the older method, place SMARTREFRESH into the tooltypes or change the REFRESH entry in the .prefs file to SMART. Now allows selection of any font from the system to be used for menus, requesters, display, etc. This functionality may be later expanded to a set of three or so separate fonts for various parts of the interface. Starting with Kickstart V38 (2.1) KingFisher now allows you to select a custom screen mode, complete with size, number of colors, and autoscroll. For V37 (2.04) it is necessary to construct the .prefs entry manually. This is detailed in the documentation for that menu command. v2.2 14-Aug-1994 »»» BUG FIXES: Fixes a bug with adding records to the database. Symptom: new records would show up blank and would, in fact, have only the 5 character (field identifier) string ".name" in them. Also fixed another bug with adding records to a database from which records had previously been removed (Delete Fish); the new records would be always appended to the database instead of placed in their proper location (overwriting old, unused data) while the index would indicate the position the records should have occupied. The result was apparently corrupted information. It is safe to delete all records starting with the first "bad" one and then re-adding them. The Version Tags ($VER:) in KingFisher and KFServer have been fixed to be Style Guide compliant. It appears that V40 software (KS 3.1) is more lenient than V37/V38 with respect to spaces in the program name. This was required to make the 'DoPatch' script/tool work. A problem was corrected with the 'DBInfo' entries in the .prefs file where bogus information was stored to the entries. Editing the KingFisher2.prefs file and removing all lines beginning with 'DBInfo=' will assure that these bogus entries will not interfere with normal operation. As more databases are added and the need arises to maintain last-position for them all, KingFisher will reclaim the space used by the oldest (possibly bogus) items, so there is not real need to modify the file and remove bogus entries. »»» IMPROVEMENTS: The promised speedup to the searching with masks has now been implemented. This may be dozens, if not hundreds of times faster than a previous search. Once you have setup various flags, you may be able to build a Search Set at blinding speed! A new option in the Global Preferences causes KingFisher to always open its window in the center of the display when you start the program. This is useful especially when KingFisher's window opens on public screens of varying resolutions and might otherwise end up being pushed about to suit varying resolutions; with the new Center Main Window option on, you can rely on it always appearing in the center. KingFisher now recognizes the 'Help-File' entry in the .prefs file, which specifies the name of the .guide; the default for this entry is "KingFisher2.guide"; without path, AmigaGuide will look for this file in several places, including the default directory. #EOT