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EDDY (TM) REVISION HISTORY Since the first public release of EDDY, many intermediate versions have been produced, but they had very limited distribution. There does not seem to be any useful purpose in detailing the history of all of them. This document describes functionality changes other than minor bug fixes. Changes in the current version of EDDY are described first. Changes to versions prior to 5.01 have been deleted from this file, as there seems to be little interest in ancient history among the user base. If you have one of the older versions, and feel that you need this information, I'll be glad to send it to you. Just ask. Version 6b (changes since 6a) ============================= 1. Directories may be selected from a tree diagram, rather than typing in the directory names. This involves lots of new functions and commands; certainly too much to describe here. See Sections 5.1 - 5.3 of EDDY.DOC for more information. 2. Empty (zero-length) files may be copied and moved. 3. After executing EDDY interactively (rather than in batch mode), ERRORLEVEL will always be set to zero. 4. Option /L means "Set top of LIST to current cursor position" (for use with repeating commands. This was formerly option /T. 5. When customizing, a list of customizable features is provided for review just before the new EDDY.COM is written. 6. Mouse sensitivity is adjustable - press [Alt+Shift+m]. 7. [^c] is used to terminate a repeating command - formerly [BackSpace]. 8. When building commands for "point-n-shoot' (EDDY.USE file or [F8]), the extension for the program file involved is no longer required. 9. The "speed search" facility for directories and filenames has been modified slightly. It is described in EDDY.DOC Section 4.1. Version 6a (changes since 5.53) ================================= 1. With this release, EDDY begins his move into the modern world. There is now support for mice (Microsoft-compatible variety, since that's all I've got to test with). Details are in Section 2.1.2 of EDDY.DOC. 2. Another major addition to user-friendliness (and without which a mouse wouldn't be all that useful) is pull-down menus. Menus are described in Section 2.2.2 of EDDY.DOC. In the following paragraphs, you may note that some command keys are now used in different places with different meanings. In the past, I've tried to avoid this, to maintain consistency and reduce complexity. With the addition of the menus, however, there's not nearly so much to remember in order to use EDDY efficiently. Overloading certain keys seems to simplify operations in some cases. 3. After an UPDATE, any files moved or deleted from the working directory will be shown grouped together at the end of the directory display, rather than in their original locations before the UPDATE. If there are more files in the directory than can be displayed by EDDY (currently, about 400), files deleted or moved will not be shown; instead, additional files from the working directory will be displayed. 4. Point-n-shoot capabilities are improved in 3 major ways: a. When you select a .COM, .EXE or .BAT file to execute ([Alt+F9]), you may edit the command line first, to add filenames, switches, or whatever is appropriate for the file involved. b. Commands from EDDY.USE ([Shift+F9]/[Shift+^F9]) may also be edited before they are used. c. You may specify a default command, which may be executed when there is no command found in EDDY.USE for the current file, or if you have no EDDY.USE file. The default command may be edited, made permanent (by customizing EDDY), or executed directly (by pressing [Shift+F8]). 5. You may UNDO the COPY, MOVE, DELETE and DESTROY commands without affecting other changes that may be pending for the file. Just press the key for the same command again; i.e., if a file is tagged for COPY, and you decide not to COPY, press [F5] and the tagging will disappear, but any other changes will remain. 6. When the copy/move confirmation window is displayed (as when the file in the target is newer than the one in the working directory), [Alt+a], [Alt+c] and [Alt+o] are accepted as valid responses. 7. After using the DOS Gateway - with [F9], [Alt+F9] or [Shift+F9] - the working directory will be reprocessed to insure that any changes made outside of EDDY will be reflected properly in the display. 8. You may tag a file for copy with TAB expansion and/or bit-stripping directly, by pressing [Alt+number] or [Alt+b]. No need to tag the file first by pressing [F5]. 9. The treatment of the archive attribute for files copied has changed slightly. If option /A is on, the archive attribute on the new copy of the file will be the same as the original file. If option /A is off, the archive setting depends on the type of disks involved: a. Floppy to floppy - copy set same as original b. Hard disk to hard disk - copy set same as original c. Floppy to hard disk - archive attribute in copy turned off, original unchanged d. Hard disk to floppy - archive attribute in copy turned on, original turned off 10. [Alt+r] from EDIT or LOOK modes displays a "FIND & REPLACE" dialog box directly. Before, you first had to press [Alt+f], then [Alt+r]. 11. When LOOKing at a text-format display with lines longer than 80 characters, moving to the left or right edge of the display may be done by pressing [Home] or [End], respectively. [^Left] and [^Right] are still available for this, as well. 12. Pressing [Home] twice in a row has the same effect as [^Home] - i.e., in EDIT mode, the cursor moves to the top of the directory display, and in LOOK the display moves to the start of the file. Similarly, [End][End] is the same as [^End]. 13. Pressing [s] in LOOK toggles [Up] and [Down] between their normal scrolling speed of one-line-per-keypress and half-page-per-keypress. A half page is defined by the number of text lines in the display, not the physical lines available on your screen. Thus, the speed of scrolling will vary, depending on the data you're LOOKing at. 14. In PATCH mode, press [Alt+a], to truncate a file after the cursor, or [Alt+b], to truncate before the cursor. Previously, you pressed [Alt+y] to truncate, and then answer the "Before or After" question. You can still use [Alt+y], too. 15. With path string displays, such as those resulting from [Alt+w] or [Alt+t], the displayed string may be edited before use. 16. The "pause" indicator for commands defined in EDDY.USE is changed. It is now "|" (the DOS piping symbol) instead of a hyphen. 17. The HELP screens and menus have their own color attributes, not tied to those used for other EDDY screens (but HELP colors are the same as menu colors). These colors may be customized as desired. 18. Volume serial number display and update are now supported. Press [^v] for these functions. 19. You may enter a FIND string containing all "?"s. This will match with strings containing all LETTERS. 20. When a batch mode execution finishes, "ERRORLEVEL" will be set according to the results - 0 for successful update, 255 for no matching files, other values corresponding to DOS error codes. 21. The files making up the EDDY distribution package have been changed. EDDYHELP.COM and EDDYLOOK.COM are now combined, along with the new MENU functions and UPDATE processing, into the single EDDY.AUX file. EDDY.HST, EDDY.WHY and EDDY.REG are now called EDDY_HST.DOC, EDDY_WHY.DOC and EDDY_REG.DOC, respectively. Version 5.53 ============ 1. Documentation update only, incorporating material relating to the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). Version 5.52 (changes since 5.49) ================================= 1. [Ctrl]-shifted letter keys are treated similarly in LOOK mode as they are in EDIT, described in item 3, version 5.49, below. Note that when entering data, as in PATCH or FIND, the [Ctrl]-shifted letters enter their corresponding characters. 2. [Alt+S+p] sends a form feed to the printer. 3. [S+F7] and [S+^F7] are used for the "Destroy" and "Destroy ALL" commands. Formerly, these commands used [F8] and [^F8]. [F8] now reserved for future use. Version 5.49 (changes since 5.45) ================================= 1. When calculating the net change in disk usage for the UPDATE confirmation display, space used for directories is included whether or not option /D is on. (Except with disks larger than 32 MB, for which this is not yet implemented.) 2. Read-only files may be patched without explicitly turning off the read-only attribute first (after a warning and "yes" answer from the keyboard). 3. Some users who use different keyboards at different times have mentioned that they often hit [Ctrl] when they want [Alt] om the AT-style "enhanced" keyboard. To minimize errors due to this problem, in EDIT mode EDDY treats most [Ctrl]-shifted letter keys the same as if the corresponding [Alt]-shifted key. Thus, either [Alt+o] or [^o] can be used to change the option settings, [Alt+a] or [^a] to set an attribute filter, etc. Only four of the letter keys are not always treated this way: [^f], [^w], [^n] and [^y]. [^f] always means "FIND in all files". [^w] always means "Where's that file?". [^n] and [^y] set attributes IF the cursor is in the attribute field; if not, [^n] sorts the directory by name (like [Alt+n]) and [^y] has no effect (like [Alt+y]). 4. Option /W is used only from the command line. To initiate "Where's that file?" searching within EDDY, only [^w] is used. Version 5.45 (changes since 5.44) ================================= 1. When EDDY asks for a "y/n" response, again pressing the same key that produced the message is treated as "yes". 2. The "seconds" field of a file's timestamp may be edited. (But only even #s may be entered - a DOS limitation.) 3. [Alt+p], pressed when you are in EDIT mode, prints the directory. If you press [Alt+p] when EDDY is waiting for you to confirm that you want to UPDATE (i.e., after you have pressed [Enter]), all update actions will be printed as they occur. Pressing [Alt+p] again turns printing off. Version 5.44 (changes since 5.42) ================================= 1. Bit stripping now works with hex-format displays. 2. When LOOKing at a file in hex format, you may select the hex portion of the display to be in words (as opposed to the normal bytes) by pressing [w]. If you want to see the words in inverted order (high- order byte first), press [W]. Press the same key again to return to the normal byte display. Version 5.42 (changes since 5.34) ================================= 1. You may delete a subdirectory that is not empty. When you press [F7], EDDY will tell you if this is the case, and wait for you to decide whether to proceed. If you do go ahead with the delete, all files - and all subdirectories below the current one, plus all of their files - will be deleted when you UPDATE. Read only attributes on files or subordinate subdirectories will be ignored. 2. The LOOK mode functions are now in a separate program module - EDDYLOOK.AUX - which is loaded only when required. This results in three improvements: 1) EDDY can display more files (up to around 400); 2) more memory is available for use with the DOS Gateway; and 3) the initial program load is slightly faster. 3. EDDY can switch freely between SUBST'ed drives and subdirectories and their un-SUBST'ed, fully expanded path equivalents. See EDDY.DOC, Section 5.5 for more info on this. 4. [Alt+^F7] flags all files as "ignored". Sounds silly, but see EDDY.DOC Section 13.1. 5. Customizing by using a previously-customized version of EDDY (item 5, version 5.26, below) is no longer available. The logic needed to ensure full compatibility between versions is bulkier and more cumber- some than seems warranted for such an infrequently-used feature. 6. When LOOKing at an entire disk, any sectors which had read errors when read by DOS are flagged with "???" between the hex and ASCII portions of the display. 7. When LOOKing at RAM, the display is updated constantly to let you watch locations that change dynamically (not for CGAs). Version 5.34 (changes since 5.31) ================================= 1. [S+^F9] is a multi-file "Point-and-shoot" for ALL displayed files, allowing you to process a list of files with the command(s) of your choice - e.g., MASM, PRINT, PKARC, WS or ???. See EDDY.DOC Section 15.2.2. 2. Comparing files - [Alt+S+F3] - has been enhanced to tell you where the differences in files are, including in files of different lengths. 3. A file that has been "ignored" - [Alt+F7] - is "un-ignored" only when a command affecting that file is performed. 4. When you exit to DOS from EDDY using [F9], the "prompt" string is changed to include the characters "Exit]" at the end. This is to remind you that EDDY is still active, and needs eventually to be EXITed to and terminated. See EDDY.DOC Section 24.3.1 if you don't like this change. Version 5.31 (changes since 5.27) ================================= 1. [S+^F3] compares all working directory entries to their correspon- ding target directory entries. For each entry, the result of the comparison is displayed, and EDDY pauses until a key is pressed. 2. When the display is in inverted order (e.g., after [Alt+i]), moving the cursor to the bottom of a subdirectory list via [PgDn] or [^End] leaves the cursor on the '..' entry, ready for a possible [F3]. 3. Option /I is eliminated. 4. Mailing address on final display changed. Version 5.27 (changes since 5.26) ================================= 1. Copying and moving is now done AFTER all other changes - renaming, timestamp, attributes - have been made to a file. Previously, copies and moves were done first. Version 5.26 (changes since 5.17) ================================= 1. Pressing [Alt+S+F3] compares the contents of the current file to a file with the same name in the target directory, and reports whether they are identical or not. 2. EDDY now has a "point-and-shoot" capability. You can define commands to be executed on specified files, without leaving EDDY, by creating a file called "EDDY.USE". For example, if EDDY.USE contains the line: *.ARC C:\UTIL\PKARC V %1 pressing [S+F9] while the cursor is on a file with a ".ARC" extension will display the contents of that file. 3. When the cursor is on a ".COM", ".EXE" or ".BAT" file, pressing [Alt+F9] executes that file, then returns to EDDY. 4. The COPY/MOVE/DELETE Controls default settings are changed to Y,Y,C,C,N,N. 5. If you are upgrading to a new level of EDDY, and you already have an old copy customized the way you like it, you may tell EDDY to create the new version with the same customized configuration as the old. See EDDY.DOC, Section 24.3. Version 5.17 (changes since 5.05) ================================= 1. A "FIND and REPLACE" function is now available. It is toggled ON/OFF by pressing [Alt+r] while the FIND window is displayed. If you start a search (by pressing [Enter] or [^Enter]) while the "REPLACE" portion of the window is displayed, REPLACE is activated whenever a match is found. 2. [End] is used to mark the end of a FIND string, rather than [Up]. 3. COPY, MOVE, DELETE and DESTROY can now be done in batch mode. 4. The file attribute heading letters have been changed from "RHSDAN" to "RHYDAS"; the meaning of "S" is now "Shared" (replacing "N" for "Network"), and "Y" means "sYstem". 5. The following operations are not allowed on network drives or on disks larger than 32 MB: - Any action (LOOK, PATCH, etc.) on the disk as a whole - Moving directories - Changing directory timestamps 6. The COPY/MOVE Controls may be used to govern the selection of files to be deleted, also. This is useful when "cleaning up" a disk with lots of duplicate files in various directories. You may, for example, tell EDDY to delete only files that are also in the target, and which have timestamps older than or the same as that file in the target. See EDDY.DOC, Sections 10 and 12.2. The default settings for the Controls are N,Y,C,C,N,N. 7. When LOOKing at a file, [F3] has the same effect as [Esc], thus saving a finger move between keys. [F4] works similarly for PATCH. Version 5.05 (changes since 5.01) ================================= 1. You may move subdirectories, including any files and other direc- tories they may contain (i.e., "prune and graft"). 2. You may change the timestamp on directories. 3. In LOOK mode, [Alt+p] prints the file. Printing starts with the first line of the display, and continues until a key is pressed. 4. In LOOK mode, [e] toggles EGA/VGA monitor between 25 lines per screen and 43/50 lines. 5. The DOS gateway is now available in LOOK mode, by pressing [F9]. Version 5.01 (changes since 4.16) ================================= 1. You may now LOOK at, FIND strings on, PATCH and COPY data from disks directly by physical sectors, without regard to file or directory structure. It's all described in Section 19 of EDDY.DOC. (In version 5.08 and later, Section 21). Extreme caution advised! PATCHing for physical disk sectors can also be permanently disabled, if you want to put EDDY on a machine which potentially-mischievous people can access. 2. EDDY now does data recovery. Using the above features, you can easily select data to be copied to a target file. No dangerous direct patching of directories and FATs required to recover a deleted file. See Section 20 (in 5.08, 22) for details. 3. A file that is tagged for "Copy" may also be tagged so that the new copy will be bit-stripped (any high-order bits removed) and/or have any TAB characters expanded. This is done by pressing [Alt+b] or [Alt+number], respectively. These commands have the same effect on the new copy that they would have on the LOOK mode display for the file. The file must already be tagged for "Copy" before these commands will work. 4. Option /D, directory sizing, has been introduced. Normally, the disk space used to hold subdirectories is not included in EDDY's display or calculations. If you turn on option /D, all such space will be accounted for in the display. However, the processing needed to gather the information is VERY time-consuming, so you may only wish to use it in cases where the information is really important. 5. Some users report program "hangs" (or no response at all) when certain keys or key combinations are used. If this happens to you, try using option /I when you execute EDDY. Option /I tells EDDY to use BIOS calls to access the keyboard, rather than the DOS calls used normally. It also enables cursor size changes, and the pitch and duration of "beeps" are controlled by EDDY, rather than DOS. 6. The display heading and the update summary display reflect the actual physical disks involved, even if they are SUBSTed or ASSIGNed, 7. When entering FIND strings, the "don't match" attribute is specified by pressing [Alt+k] instead of [Alt+m]. 8. HELP now offers menu selection of HELP topics. [F1] while in HELP displays the menu, providing a "HELP-for-HELP" facility. 9. Auto-scroll works only in LOOK mode. 10. The suggested registration fee is increased to $20.00.