Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/fileutil/cf.arj/CFHIST.DOC

Text File | 1991-02-18 | 9.3 KB | 234 lines

CF VERSION 0.9X

                             CF VERSION HISTORY
                             ==================



NOTE - Look at the END for details of the latest version of CF.



CF VERSION 0.9Q
---------------

(a)  Altered to accept any screen size from 40 x 25 to 200 x 100.  (Be warned
     that  CF  looks pretty messy in 40 column mode.  CF was designed  to  be
     used  with a minimum of 80 columns, but I couldn't see a good reason  to
     exclude 40 column mode.)

(b)  When invoked with no params, allow page-up, page-down, etc., in the help
     pages.

(c)  Increase the number of allowed file sets from six to ten.  (Because,  on
     a  132 column screen, with neither years nor sizes being displayed,  you
     can view up to eight file sets.)

(d)  Display  time  and size difference between reference  file  and  current
     file.

(e)  Allow the use of a carriage-return to display duplicates.



CF VERSION 0.9R
---------------

(a)  Add display of the number of duplicate records and indicate which one is
     on view.

(b)  Remove  the semi-colon between the size and time differences and  change
     the sign of the size difference.

(c)  Stop  the  whole page being re-displayed when the cursor  lock  mode  is
     changed since it is no longer displayed at the bottom of the screen.

(d)  Allow  the user to specify the temporary file name used  when  accessing
     archived files.  (That is, the -Y option.)

(e)  Cope with output from DR DOS programs; add recognition of XDIR  listings
     and check that the DIR output is acceptable.



CF VERSION 0.9S
---------------

(a)  Add the feature whereby a drive specification on it's own will scan  the
     whole  media.  For example, if you use "C:", CF would behave as  if  you
     had used "-D C:\".

(b)  Added file viewing and editing facilities.

(c)  When  searching  for programs in the search path, add searching  of  the
     current directory first.

(d)  Use  the viewer to display the small help text, contained in CF.HLP,  or
     the large help text from CF.DOC.  (These files must be in the  directory
     from which CF was loaded.)

(e)  Allow the use of the tab and back-tab keys to change select mode.



CF VERSION 0.9T
---------------

(a)  Add processing of output from Norton Backup, DS Backup and PC Tools.

(b)  Add  handling of the CFTEMPNAME environment variable.  (This  holds  the
     default  temporary  file  name string.  Note that a  '-Y'  command  will
     override this setting.)

(c)  Add  processing  of "gathered" text from a MAGELLAN .ZIP  file  listing.
     (But see the BUGS section for information on a MAGELLAN "problem".)

(d)  Correct a little "inconsistency" in the handling of FV output.  See  the
     BUGS section for FV information.

(e)  Add "all in this file set" mode.

(f)  Add -W local parameter.

(g)  Add  the  handling  of XTGOLD batch files.  See  the  separate  section,
     "XTGOLD FEATURES".



CF VERSION 0.9U
---------------

(a)  Cosmetic changes to the screen display and help processing.  (These were
     VERY minor changes - you might not even spot them...)

(b)  Improve the handling of FV's funny layout.

(c)  4DOS  adds the file spec to the end of the directory name strings and  I
     hadn't removed them before building a file name to pass to a listing  or
     editing program.  Now, I do.

(d)  Add auto-view, auto-edit and auto-batch modes.

(e)  Add XTGOLD-like application menu facilities.



CF VERSION 0.9V
---------------

(a)  Altered  CF to search the path for help files if neither exists  in  the
     directory from whence the program came.  This allows you to run CF  from
     a  RAM  drive,  by just copying the .EXE and .INI (see  the  next  item)
     files, and yet still be able to access the help files.

(b)  Change  the  program to get it's configuration information from  a  text
     file  (CF.INI)  instead  of  internal  tables.   See  the  CONFIGURATION
     section.   (As  a  by-product of this change, the  help  files  are  now
     invoked  by  using F1 and SHIFT-F1 rather than F1 and F10 - F10  is  now
     used to re-load the .INI file on the fly.

(c)  Improved  the handling of LHARC output by coping with multi-line  output
     (that  is,  the  "V" option) and strip single  quotes  from  around  the
     location .LZH file.

(d)  Fiddle  with  the  handling of 4DOS directory  output  (again).   I  had
     problems  because,  as far as CF is concerned, the  LOCATION  text  line
     looks  the  same  whether it comes from MS-DOS or 4DOS.   Also  see  the
     version history entry for 0.9U, change (c).

(e)  Altered the exit processing so that you can exit CF without it  clearing
     the screen.  See the KEYS section for details.

(f)  Add  use  of  XMS  (eXtended  Memory  Specification)  memory.   See  the
     explanation of the -IX parameter.



CF VERSION 0.9W
---------------

(a)  Use  a  buffer when reading the config file.  I tried this  before,  but
     cocked  the  test  program up and erroneously thought  that  the  buffer
     didn't make any difference to the speed of processing.  I was wrong.  In
     fact, it speeds up reading by an order of magnitude...

(b)  Change  the  help  file  that  appears if  you  invoke  CF  without  any
     parameters  - there seemed no point in displaying the help summary  file
     if  you didn't know the PURPOSE of the program.  It now displays the  CF
     documentation file instead.

(c)  Add the re-sort capability.  See the KEYS section for further details.

(d)  Add a crude form of validation for the help files.

(e)  Add  emulation  of  the menu and extension  file  facilities  of  Norton
     Commander.  However, these emulations are not as close as the  emulation
     of the equivalent facilities of XTGOLD.  CF now uses two new environment
     variables - "CFNCDIR" and the standard Norton Commander variable, "NC".

(f)  The environment variable CFBATCHDIR is no longer used.  Now, CFXTGOLDDIR
     is used instead.

(g)  The  key  assignments have been substantially altered.  The  small  help
     file,  CF.HLP,  is likely to be a more accurate source  of  current  key
     assignments  than this file, since the information is presented  all  on
     one  page  and when the keys are changed, I can find  the  places  where
     they're cited much more easily.



CF VERSION 0.9X
---------------

(a)  Added  the "parameter" line facilities to the config file.  Now, if  you
     want to have CF always sort by extension, you can put a line  "parameter
     -se" in the config file and it will treat the parameter as if it'd  been
     placed at the start of the command line.  See the CONFIGURATION section.

(b)  Add  parameter  indirection  feature.   This  allows  the  use  of   the
     "standard"  redirection character, '@', to load parameters from a  file.
     For example, "CF @FRED.TXT C:".  This convention may also be used in the
     .INI file.

(c)  Added the "variable" line facility to the config file.  If, for example,
     you  want the temporary file name to be "H:\!.!", you can either make  a
     REAL  environment variable or put a line like "VARIABLE CFTEMPNAME  H:\"
     into  the .INI file.  This will OVERRIDE any real  environment  variable
     since  the  config file is searched BEFORE the CF  environment  variable
     list.  (But see the notes in the .DOC.)

(d)  Added  code to strip the wild-card crud off of the end of HDIR  location
     lines.

(e)  Add the auto-recognition parameter, "RECOGNISE" to the list of .INI key-
     words.  Now, CF will, if the specified file doesn't exist, add a list of
     extensions  to the end of the provided file name in an attempt  to  find
     one that DOES exist.  Note this change means that, from now on, CF  will
     NOT  automatically  recognise  a .CF file when you do  NOT  specify  the
     extension.   (Unless, of course, you put "RECOGNISE .CF" into your  .INI
     file.)

(f)  Added the video parameter, -V.

(g)  Corrected  code that displayed locations as they were  encountered.   In
     earlier  versions of CF, they didn't get displayed if  location  storage
     had been inhibited via the -IL parameter.

(h)  Fiddled with the 4DOS directory name handling YET AGAIN.  This time, add
     a  line  of code to get the wild-card stuff stripped from  the  location
     string  in  the totals lines.  It doesn't really make  much  difference,
     because these are not actually used as location strings since the  lines
     that  contain  file  information  are preceded  by  a  location  string.
     However, it DOES stop the locations being duplicated on the screen,  one
     with the wild-card stuff present and one without.

(i)  Alter  handling of conflicting parameters.  Before, CF would ignore  any
     parameters that conflicted with earlier ones.  However, in my .INI file,
     I configure CF to sort by extension and, when I wanted extension  ignore
     mode,  CF ignored it because the sort request took priority.   Now,  the
     LATEST  parameter takes priority.  Therefore, in my example, the  ignore
     extension  request will override the sort by extension parameter in  the
     config file.