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- Recent Changes to InteliCat(tm)
- -------------------------------
- If you need to contact me via US mail you can write to:
-
- Curtis Little
- PO Box 33613
- Northglen, CO 80233
-
-
-
- 10/13/93
- Released v1.89d
-
- Released v1.0 of the registration key program (FIXSN.EXE).
-
-
- 10/8/93
- Added intelligence to InteliCat so that it will now go through exact paging
- when pressing the PGUP key while viewing a report to the screen. (Prior
- versions didn't have an exact page start, but calculated where to go due to
- the problem incurred with various length comments). InteliCat can now
- overcome this minor technical problem.
-
- NOTE: Using the search function can cause some overlap in the pgup function
- since it causes a page to be set at random when a match is found.
-
- Added an option to print double sided reports. InteliCat is yet another
- product that helps us go easier on our environment!
-
-
- 10/7/93
- Added printer initialize and deinitialize strings. The strings are stored
- in a printer configuration file (the file name is whatever you specify as
- the printer name). They are available from the report output options
- screen.
-
- NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER NAME WITH SPACES IN IT (OR CHARACTERS THAT DOS
- DOESN'T ALLOW IN A FILENAME, YOU WILL RECEIVE AN ERROR MESSAGE WHEN
- INTELICAT ATTEMPTS TO WRITE THE FILE. IF THIS OCCURS YOU SHOULD CHANGE THE
- NAME OF THE PRINTER.
-
- You can specify specific ASCII characters by using a backslash in the
- init string. When InteliCat finds a backslash in the string immediately
- followed by upto 3 numbers, it will read the numbers and send the
- equivalent ASCII value. For example, to send an ESCAPE character followed
- by the ASCII value 15, the string would be:
-
- \027\015
-
-
- 10/6/93
- Finished the serialization program to allow registered users to 'register'
- the shareware versions of InteliCat.
-
-
- 10/5/93
- Added the capability for the user to specify to InteliCat what fields should
- be looked at to determine if a file is a duplicate (for reporting purposes).
- Setting the Dup ck field to yes causes InteliCat to require a match between
- two files on that field before considering them to be duplicates.
-
- (NOTE: The duplicate check depends on the sort order to be correct for
- proper operation. If you select the duplicate files report, InteliCat
- handles the sort for you. If not, you should sort the fields in a way that
- duplicate checking will succeed if that's what you want. The proper sort
- order to insure duplicate file checking works is to sort all the fields
- that you have InteliCat set to check in the order they appear on the
- options screen. For example, if you tell InteliCat to check the filename
- and size before considering a file to be duplicate, the sort to support this
- check would be FILENAME, FILEEXT, FILE SIZE.)
-
-
- 10/4/93
- Completed work on the report module that allows the user to specify the
- order that fields are printed on the file reports. A new field allows you
- to specify the column number for a field. When a report is printed, the
- fields are printed in column number order.
-
-
- 10/3/93
- Fixed an obscure bug that has been present in all versions of InteliCat that
- could cause it to be unreliable when logging something with a large number
- of subdirectories.
-
-
-
- 9/22/93
-
- Released v1.89c
-
- Fixed a bug that kept InteliCat from reading archive information from
- files created with the latest version of ARJ (v2.41).
-
- Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cusor to be displayed after returning
- from a DOS shell, ignoring the setting of the use mouse flag.
-
-
- 6/1/93
- Released v1.89b
-
- Added a command line option to turn off the mouse. Specify /R to keep
- InteliCat from allowing use of the mouse.
-
- Corrected a minor bug that would allow the user to enter a filter list without
- first specifying the filter file name. This would cause an error message to
- be generated when InteliCat attempted to autosave the filter list on exit.
-
- Fixed a problem in the new code that checked to insure the version of
- InteliCat in used is capable of reading the config/filter file.
-
- 5/27/93
- Modified the sort and selection portion of InteliCat to immediately recognize
- when the ESCape key is pressed instead of performing the selection or sort
- before realizing the user wanted to abort the operation.
-
- 5/13/93
- Added file filtering to InteliCat. Editing the filter list can be done from
- the configuration menu. The filters can be saved/read from disk (via the
- files menu). Full regular expression support (as defined in the manual
- for selection criteria) is provided.
-
- Any files on logged disks that match one (or more) of specified filters will
- not be logged by InteliCat. For example if you setup a filter file and
- define the filters as README*.* and *.BAT, InteliCat will ignore files on
- disks that are logged that start with README or have a .BAT extension.
-
- When filtering is being used, a symbol will be displayed on InteliCat's
- status line in the first position of the status line (to the left of the
- Log Drive(s) data).
-
- The name of the filter file is saved in InteliCat's configuration file. When
- InteliCat is started it will attempt reading the configured filter list.
-
- Added an option to autosave the filter file. (Available from the autosave
- options selection on the configuration menu).
-
- Modified the list input function (i.e. what's used when you are entering
- selection criteria or filters), and made it so pressing ESCape while
- inputting doesn't cause the criteria to be zapped (although the abort is
- still performed).
-
- 5/12/93
- Added a files menu. This menu will have the read and write selections for
- the various files used in InteliCat (they were previously located on the
- configuration menu).
-
- 5/9/93
- Modified selection criteria to accept dates in the configured format (instead
- of requiring dates to be entered in USA format in selection criteria).
-
- 5/6/93
- Modified InteliCat to allow users to backup to previously entered
- field when inputting a list of selection criteria. This can be done by
- pressing the up arrow. F10 now works as a 'complete' key when entering
- a set of selection data.
-
- 4/2/93
- Optimized the options input code.
-
- 4/1/93
- Added Switch! options to control how the Switch! DOS Shell utility works.
-
- Added an option to turn on/off the support for a mouse in InteliCat.
-
- 3/29/93
- Fixed a bug in the merge routine that kept things from working properly
- when the merged database contained duplicate disk IDs.
-
- 12/19/92
- Fixed a bug that kept the ALT-B (Next match backward toggle from working).
-
- Modified InteliCat to shut down the mouse completely before doing a DOS
- shell. Then, it is restarted when control returns to InteliCat.
-
- Added an option to rename the disk that is being logged when you are
- prompted if you want to replace it. (This helps when you have InteliCat
- set to automatically name a disk with it's volume label, and the disk name
- already exists. Using this option you can manually name the disk something
- different than it's volume label without having to go to configuration and
- turn off the use of volume label as the disk name).
-
- In conjunction with the new option outlined above, if you have InteliCat
- configured to automatically use the volume label as the disk name, and then
- manually rename the disk to something else using the option outlined above,
- InteliCat will prompt before writing the new volume label to the disk (this
- is only done if you have InteliCat configured to write the disk name as a
- volume label).
-
- 12/9/92
- Modified the sort to also put disks in alpha order when sorting by filename
- and the disks are included in the selection set.
-
- 12/6/92
- Released v1.89a
-
- Completed mouse support functions for all of InteliCat except the comment
- import utility.
-
- Added next match support while in the comment add/modify function.
-
- Added a toggle that allows you to reverse the search direction when
- searching for the next match. This key is valid in all parts of the
- program that allow searching for the next match. (I.E. the browse
- screens, report to screen, while adding comments, etc...).
-
- The new toggle key is ALT-B. Each time you press ALT-B it will reverse the
- search direction and then search for the next match to the criteria you've
- previously specified (or if you haven't initiated a search yet, it will
- cause you to be prompted for data to search for).
-
- The search direction flag is now stored in the configuration file. InteliCat
- will always default to the last search direction as maintained in the
- configuration.
-
- 12/5/92
- Fixed a bug that kept rename, delete, and replace from working properly.
- Replace and Delete had to be done previously using the disk list.
-
- Fixed a bug in the mouse routines that kept them from working after a
- hotkey (ALT-Z) was used to shell to DOS.
-
-
- 11/20/92
- Fixed a minor bug in the mouse routines that could sometimes make
- InteliCat confused in a way it wouldn't recognize mouse selections
- until after a key was pressed.
-
- Continued to increase mouse support in InteliCat.
-
- 11/15/92
- Released v1.89
-
- Continued to increase the mouse functionality.
-
- **NOTICE** Pressing return when prompted for the disk name to log will
- no longer display the list of disks. To display this list, select the
- dialog box option (tab to it and press enter, or press ALT-L) to list
- the existings disks.
-
-
- 11/6/92
- Fixed the delete file function to flag the database as being changed.
-
- Fixed the delete file function to keep the scroll bar line active after
- deleteing a disk.
-
- Modified the functions to get a disk name from the user to use dialog
- boxes, providing an option to list existing names for selection.
-
- Fixed a bug that kept the merge utility from being able to save the
- comment records when you merge into a database with no existing records.
-
- 11/1/92
- Modified the Log Disk function to use dialog boxes and include an option to
- log a disk starting at a specified subdirectory.
-
- Changed InteliCat to remain on the same logging drive when the logging
- of a disk is aborted.
-
-
- 10/31/92
- Released v1.88 of InteliCat
-
- The documentation is no longer distributed in a file separate from the
- program file.
-
-
- 10/26/92
- Added limited mouse support to InteliCat. Work included also added dialog
- boxes to many of the prompts in InteliCat.
-
- 7/3/92
- Fixed a bug that caused InteliCat to give an error message that the report
- destination file couldn't be opened if you loaded a configuration file that
- contained the option to automatically output to a file after having one
- loaded that asked for the destination.
-
- 3/30/92
- Released v1.87 to registered users.
-
- 3/8/92
- Released v1.86
- Fixed a bug that caused changed comments and keywords to not be flagged as
- a change in the database.
-
- Modified InteliCat to ask if you want to save the database anyway when you
- request to write a database that had no changes.
-
- 2/24/92
- Released v1.85
-
- 2/22/92
- Fixed a bug in the comment editor that caused F10 to prematurely quit
- (Previously, the F8 key would work around the problem).
-
- 2/15/92
- Fixed the search to retain the previous search value (next match now works).
-
- 2/3/92
- **********************************************************************
- ** IMPORTANT --- ALL USERS SHOULD READ ABOUT THE CHANGES MADE SINCE **
- ** VERSION 1.83 BECAUSE NOT ONLY HAVE NEW OPTIONS BEEN ADDED, BUT **
- ** THE OLD FILE NAME DEFAULTS OF LC ARE NO LONGER USED! **
- **********************************************************************
- The following changes have been made in InteliCat which are addendums to
- what InteliCat's documentation describes:
-
- New Options
- -----------
- o InteliCat now has options to configure how dates are
- displayed. From the Configuration menu you may select
- the date options to set the date format as well as the
- separator. This should make things look a little better
- for other countries that don't view dates in the typical
- format used in the USA.
-
- NOTE: At default InteliCat will detect the country (if you
- have MSDOS v3.0 or above. For DOS versions older than 3.0
- the USA format is used at default. You may change the
- default by editing the date options.
-
- o Auto save options - InteliCat now has autosave options to
- allow you to specify whether it should automatically save
- the configuration and/or database when exiting or reading
- a new file (if changes were made to the previous one).
- At default these items are both turned on.
-
- o Added an option to specify whether comments extracted from
- an archive should be put in InteliCat's keyword field instead
- of the comment field. (Note: You must have the option for
- extracting archive comments set for this option to work).
- This option is located on the archive options page.
-
- o Added an option to the import utility to allow you to
- specify whether comments imported should be put in InteliCat's
- keyword field instead of the comment field. (This is actually
- an option that is stored in your configuration file, but can
- only be modified from the comment import screen).
-
-
- Other than those changes the following minor changes and fixes have been
- added since v1.83 was released:
-
- o Modified InteliCat to allow the user to abort changes made since the last
- time a database was saved (autosave of the database must be off for you to
- have this option though!).
-
- NOTE: Comments that you modify are immediately written to disk, so the
- changes you make to existing comments can't be aborted. New comments
- you input for files that didn't have them will be aborted if you don't
- save changes though.
-
- WARNING: If you ZAP the database the changes can't be reversed! Once you
- --------
- confirm a ZAP, the database will be written to DISK with no records in it,
- unless you have backups of both the database file and the comment database,
- you won't be able to undo this action.
-
- o Modified InteliCat to remove references to the old default files of LC.
- NOTE: Existing users should rename their configuration to IC.CFG, delete
- the old configuration file, or add the following to your autoexec.bat file:
-
- ICCFG=LC.CFG
-
- o If you set up the configuration properly with your database name you don't
- really need to change from the old default of LC (if that's what you use).
- Note however, that if you do choose to modify the name of your database
- that there are TWO DATABASES that must be renamed. Please refer to the
- documentation in a section titled 'Two Files per Database' if you're not
- sure how InteliCat names it's database files.
-
- o Fixed InteliCat to not adjust the number of files, disk, dirs, etc when a
- configuration file with a lower number is read. Note however, that if you
- read a configuration file with more files/disks/dirs configured than what
- you currently have available, InteliCat will try to increase the number
- available.
-
- o Fixed the skip input of keywords option to really work.
-
- o Modified the program to default to XMS instead of EMS as a first choice
- (This is done because there appear to be a number of TSR programs out
- there that don't understand they are supposed to restore the state of the
- resources they use to make their operation transparent to other programs.).
- InteliCat's use of EMS ***REQUIRES*** that pages it maps in are not mapped
- out until it tells the EMM driver to do so. To solve the problem at
- default XMS appears to be a better solution for use when possible.
-
- o Fixed keywords to be carried over for files within an archive when
- replacing a disk.
-
- o Added the banner to show Switch! is active when the temp file is going
- to a disk file.
-
- o Added a display of the file date and the listing file date when the import
- utility asks if you want to replace an existing comment/keyword.
-
- o Fixed the DOS Shell to restore the cursor to the way it was before the
- shell when the user invokes the shell from something other than an input
- prompt.
-
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------
- Changes made prior to v1.83:
-
- 12/15/91
- Released v1.83
-
- Modified the archive view functions to once again use non-buffered i/o
- (as v1.78 used to). This change was made because the time to expand
- archives (i.e. ZIP files) has doubled since v1.78 due to the overhead
- involved with the buffering. The non-buffered i/o may be slower under
- some multi-tasking environments, but for the majority of users it will be
- faster.
-
-
- 12/01/91
- Released v1.82
-
-
- 11/30/91
- Changed InteliCat to delete usage of comments when a file is deleted (this
- change doesn't change most setups, but if you're short on disk space it works
- better than the old method of determing deleted comments when the database
- is read).
-
- Fixed a few bugs in the registered users upgrade utility that kept the old
- field width settings from being moved over when the configuration file is
- formatted for v1.8+.
-
- Modified the comment editor to issue a message when you press F10 to save
- & advance while on the last file. After the message, pressing a key now
- returns you to the menu. Fixed other methods of advancing out of range when
- editing comments to cause a beep.
-
- Made cosmetic changes on the report headers to show 'InteliCat'.
-
- Fixed a bug that kept the keyword field width from being honored.
-
- Fixed a minor bug that caused the files time stamp to be displayed wrong by
- 32 minutes in some cases.
-
-
- 11/17/91
- Fixed a bug in the expansion of ARJ archives.
-
- Released v1.81
-
-
- 10/5/91
- Due to a naming conflict, v1.8 of my program begins with a new name. From
- this point forward, this program will be called InteliCat.
-
- This version is starting with a clean version of this file as
- the documenation has been completely rewritten. In short, this version
- has the following enhancments over what was previously v1.78:
-
- EMS/XMS can be utilized allowing databases to have 32,000 files.
-
- Advanced selection criteria can now be specified (using logical
- operators).
-
- A merge utility has been added to allow combining multiple databases.
-
- Individual files may now be deleted from the database.
-
- Disk names are now treated as non-case sensitive, and an option is
- provided to allow you to force all disk names to upper case as
- they are added to the database. InteliCat won't accept disk names
- that are unique by their case only.
-
- The comment entry screen has been completely reworked to allow
- easier input of comments.
-
- The comment import utility has been expanded to allow import of
- a greater variety of file/comment listings.
-
- Reworked the options input screens to provide a consistent user
- interface. (Also added several new options, and changed the
- format of the configuration file. LCNEW - available to registered
- users - will upgrade the old format configuration files to the
- new format.
-
- InteliCat supports startup in extended VGA/EGA modes.
-
- InteliCat now initializes faster on many computers.
-
- GIF Files are now support as ARChive types.
-
- 4DOS descript.ion comment files can be imported automatically.
-
- Many other minor changes help round out the most significant upgrade of
- InteliCat to date.