1/18/91 Released v1.78 1/17/91 Expanded the import utility to allow direct comment imports from several more formats of files. This new power is made possible by two additional prompts on the import settings screen as follows: Does FIRST space end filename: Comment line offset from file line: BE SURE TO READ THE READ.ME FILE FOR INFORMATION ON HOW THESE FIELDS CAN BE USED! These changes make it possible for LogiCat to import a wide variety of different formatted comment listings (although non-columnar formats are still not generally supported). Several examples of new BBS formats that can be imported direct by LogiCat are the extended PCB types, the new format used by Auntie, and CIS listings. 1/16/91 Tracked down an elusive bug that has been reported several times but couldn't be found by me. This bug would cause lockups while using selection criteria under certain conditions. Things should be smooth now. -- It's show time... 12/24/90 Modified LogiCat to prompt before exiting if two or more ESCapes were pressed in a row to get out - this fixes an annoyance several users had because they accidently pressed ESCape one too many times. Added a new hotkey - ALT-X that allows you to get out of LogiCat (without being prompted with are you sure). This new hotkey works from any of the main and sub-menus - this provides those of you who like being able to get out without confirming the action a way to do so. 11/07/90 Released v1.77 Modified LogiCat to automatically save the current database when creating a new file. 10/29/90 Modified the code for importing archive comments to disregard embedded CRs and LFs. This keeps the CR/LF combinations in an archive comment from messing up the comment display (and double spacing in the reports). CR/LF combos are replaced with a single space character by LogiCat. Modified the report code to cause LogiCat to abort the report if you press ESCape when prompted whether or not you want the report to go to the screen. 10/7/90 Released v1.76 Fixed a bug in the search function that could cause the comments for the first 8 commented files in a database to be overwritten under certain circumstances. 10/4/90 Fixed a bug in the replace function that could at times could keep the existing comment from being kept - this was observed in the case of individually commented files within archives. 9/30/90 Released v1.75 Modified LogiCat with the new BBS type listing to automatically turn off flagging of duplicate records while the BBS list is printed. Fixed a minor bug in the duplicate report where the value of the Flag Duplicate Records prompt on the main screen would not be updated properly after printing the dup report (note that it was shown properly when edited). 9/16/90 Fixed a problem where LogiCat would prompt the user if a comment should be replaced while importing even though the old and new comments appeared to be identical to the user. 9/14/90 Added new options to the Report Options screen that allow you to specify the max width of the field along with the field gap (the number of spaces between fields). Reports can now be created a little more like some users have asked for. Added a new report called "BBS type listing". This report is a printout in the basic format of a PCBoard DIR listing. Using this option along with the correct field width specifications you can create a PCB dir from a LogiCat Database. What this means is that you sysops can log your download disk, import comments from the BBS list(s) where you obtained the files, and then output a PCB dir list without having to type *any* of the comments manually! NOTE: In most cases you should leave the COMMENTS and KEYWORDS field width set to zero for automatic. If you specify a length the field will be truncated. For the BBS listing it is important to leave comments set at a width of zero so LogiCat can display the full comment using word wrap. The following settings are important if you desire to create a PCB file directory with LogiCat: Lines Per Page: 0 Left Margin: 0 Right Margin: 78 Action For a Newline: CRLF File Name Width: 0 or 12 File Size: 7 Modification Date: 0 or 8 Comment Width: 0 Field Gap: 2 Note that when you choose the BBS type listing the fields printed will always be: File name, File size, File Date, Comments - No matter what fields you have the options set for. This listing is currently only useful for PCB type directories. It should also be noted that the field width for most of the fields used on the volume report can not be specified by the user at this time. Only those that appear on the Report Options screen can have a user specified width. As a typical example of how a sysop might use this: 1) Sysop downloads files from another board to a special directory setup to receive downloaded files. 2) Sysop captures the file listing from the board the files were downloaded from to get the "descriptions". (This listing can be prepared with CT if needed - CT.ZIP is available on many boards including the LogiCat support BBS). 3) Using the DOS SUBST command specify a logical drive to refer to the subdirectory by. 4) Using LogiCat the sysop would LOG the drive defined by SUBST, import comments from the file listing, set the parameters as defined above for the field widths, etc., and finally, tell LogiCat to print the BBS report to a disk file. From there the only difference between the newly created file and a PCB files list is there will be a two line header on the LogiCat file - delete that and you have a PCB file list with virtually NO typing on your part! 9/9/90 Fixed a bug that would cause LogiCat to give an error when trying to save the configuration file under certain conditions when SHARE.EXE is used. Added some hotkeys that allow the user to easily get to some of the menu choices without having to go through the bar style menus. The hotkeys added as listed on the menu items when viewed, however, for reference they are as follows: (The ^ listed means to press CONTROL with the listed key) ^L - Log floppy disks ^M - Log multi-drives ^C - Add comments ^R - Replace a disk ^D - Delete a disk ^B - Browse files ^S - String search ^V - Volume report ^F - File/Ext report ^Q - Quick file/ext report ^O - Catalog options ^I - Import comments Note that these hotkeys are only valid when you are in the menus. Pressing the keys listed above from *any* of the pulldown menus (or bar menu) will select the listed option without having to first go to the proper secondary menu. (Unlike the ALT-Z hotkey for a DOS shell that is valid *anywhere*!). 9/8/90 Modified the logicat used in the import utility to always read the options from disk if the file specified changed (previously this was only done the first time through, so changing the file to another name was a quick way to duplicate the options to a new setup file. This is no longer done in the import utility). Modified the import utility to display a pick list when you type a wildcard in either of the filenames you're prompted for. NOTE: When you type a wildcard character the file and ext specified are ignored, however, the drive and dir (if present) will be used to determine which directory to view. 9/8/90 Released v1.74 9/7/90 After lingering around trying to get TC++ 1.0 to work I got patches today that finally fix things so LogiCat is workable under the TC++ 1.0 compiler. So, once again, LogiCat is now back to being compiled with TC++ 1.0. v2.0 will be developed with TC++. 9/3/90 Modified the comment import utility to only read the specified file the first time through, after that the file will be modified with the settings typed in (this avoided problems with the settings being changed each time the file was read when the user didn't intend it). Modified the comment import utility to only prompt if the comment should be replaced (when ASK mode is on) if the new comment is different than the old comment. Fixed a bug that would cause the archive library names to be out of whack under the right circumstances. 7/9/90 I've found that TC++ 1.0 is too buggy to use for LogiCat (or any other halfway complex program for that matter). Back to TC 2.0 until Borland gets it together. 6/7/90 Brought LogiCat up under TC++ 1.0. Future versions will be compiled under the new compiler. 6/3/90 Started dual development on LogiCat. v2.0 is now in the works, however, any reported bugs will be fixed from v1.73. 6/2/90 Added an option to LogiCat to allow users to have LogiCat prompt for the comments immediately after each disk is logged/replaced. Cleaned up the case sensitive vs case insensitive searches in LogiCat. Added a NEXT option for the search - Press N to find the next match from any place that you would normally be allowed to initiate a search. Pressing N to find the next match invokes the normal search if you haven't searched for something before. Modified the search functions to BEEP when wrapping around past the end of file (or beginning of file if searching backwards). Modified the report when output is directed to the screen to only allow ESCape to quit out of the report (this way users will no longer be able to accidently go past the end of the report). Pressing a key to advance past the end causes a beep now. 5/26/90 Released v1.73 5/24/90 Modified LogiCat to allow use of the file pick list from any prompt that requests a file to read. Now from the prompt in the comment import screen for file names you can invoke the pick list by typing a wild card in the name. All future prompts that request a file name to read (not write) will allow use of the pick list if a wildcard is in the name you type. Note that where possible I will automatically pull up the pick list (you can always manually specify the name by choosing the option!). Fixed the import utility to avoid re-reading the settings file if the user goes through the screen several times when creating a new setting file the first time through. 5/23/90 Fixed what should be the last of the problems using LogiCat under a network/ share environment. (This was a continuation of the work done on 5/1/90). Modified the import utility to allow the ignore extension option to cause descriptions of files without extensions to be imported (providing a library extension is defined consisting of spaces!). 5/2/90 Added a popup file pick list to all prompts asking for the name of a file to read. (By popular request!). Checkout the pick list. Modified the code to force the configuration extension to be .CFG - different extensions for a configuration file are no longer supported in LogiCat. 5/1/90 Fixed a bug in the backup routine that caused the popup window to not leave the screen when the database is backed up while the user was modifying comments. Completely worked through the code and cleaned things up internally to make LogiCat compile well at the highest warning level available. Fixed a problem with LogiCat under DOS 4.01 SHARE having to do with leaving the "VOLUME LABEL" open. Thanks to Randy Martin for taking the time to track down the solution to this problem and letting me know about it. 4/18/90 Made first of several possible modifications to allow LogiCat to work in a software system designed for the blind. Fixed a bug in the dummy entry code in LogiCat. Released V1.72 4/12/90 Fixed a bug that kept LogiCat from using an existing label as the disk name when optioned to do so. This was a bug brought on by some of the changes in version 1.7. Released V1.71 4/8/90 Switched from high level I/O for the main DB reading/writing to low level functions I wrote to avoid a suspected bug in the high level Turbo C I/O functions. Added code to detect an error on output of the database, allowing an option to retry writing the db (ALT-Z could be used to drop to DOS and fix the problem unless the disk is too full to even use ALT-Z based on the memory setting you configured). Modified the code to reflect my new address. Released V1.7 3/4/90 Finally found and fixed the last of the elusive replace a disk bugs. This took care of the last condition that wasn't accounted for when replacing a disk with comments and/or keywords on it. 2/24/90 Added a popup list of disk names. This list can be accessed by anyone who simply presses return without typing anything at one of the prompts for the disk name. All menu options that allow you to add/replace/delete/rename disks support the new popup. 2/19/90 Modified the volume report to print the comments on the same line as the keywords if possible. Modified the comments to print a space before hand so preceding keywords would be seperated. 2/18/90 Modified the import utility to keep it from going to the "default" settings when you typed the name of a setting file that doesn't exist. Modified the import utility to create the settings file immediately after asking if the user wants to create the file (instead of after finished importing). 2/17/90 Tracked down an elusive bug in the import that caused LogiCat to miss a comment under the right circumstances. Thanks to Richard Streeter for providing excellent documentation that allowed this bug to be tracked down. Added code to the DOS shell to put the screen back in 43/50 line mode if the user shells out while viewing a report to the screen in 43 line mode. This insures that the screen is corrected if the user shells and changes the video mode while shelled. Added the name of the database to the header of reports. Released v1.5 2/16/90 Changed the name of the "Printer options" to "Report Options" on the Options submenu. Added code to get rid of the line length limit of 511 characters in the import utility. The import utility can now handle importing files with an unlimited line length (although you can't specify to look at fields past column 999). Added code to trim trailing spaces from imported comments. 2/12/90 Got rid of a phantom comment attached to the disk name under certain conditions when replacing a disk. Cleaned up code making changes to insure Disk name is treated as a case sensitive field. Modified the import comments utility to only ignore the extension of a file if it is one of the configured library file extensions. Both the file in the data base, and the file attached to the comment must have an extension that is configured, or LogiCat will expect an exact match on extension. Fixed the hour on the report to display 12 instead of 0 when a report is printed during the noon hour. Fixed a minor bug where LogiCat asked if you wanted to abort without saving changes if the last file that you modified comments/keywords for was the very last file in the buffer. Modified the import utility to recognize blank comments and ignore them instead of allowing blank comments to be imported. 1/30/90 Fixed a couple of minor bugs. One was with the use of the volume label, under certain circumstances the options wouldn't work properly. That should be cleared now. Fixed a bug that was encountered when only 1 subdirectory was in the data base. LogiCat wouldn't recognize a data base if there was only 1 subdirectory in it (note that this bug was limited to v1.31 and v1.32). The subdir bug was caused by the changes made on 1/23/90. Note that the database wasn't corrupt, but LogiCat thought it was. The new version will read the older data bases without problems. Added an option to LogiCat to allow the import utility to ignore the file extension. Added an error message when LogiCat tried to read a config file, but the amount of data expected was less than normal (i.e. the file is either corrupt, not a config file, or in an old format). Added a utility program to the registered version of LogiCat that will upgrade older version of files to the new version format. This utility will not be made available except to registered users. Released v1.33 to registered users. 1/29/90 Previous versions of LogiCat automatically printed a blank line between files if comments and/or keywords were present and printed for the file. Now there is a double space option in the printer options screen. When set LogiCat double spaces the entire report. Added an option that allows the user to specify whether LogiCat should prompt for the report dest at report time. When set to YES, this option causes LogiCat to prompt whether you want output to go to the SCREEN, or to the report destination. This will work regardless of which printer name you use. Changed the initial menu to allow any shift combination along with the main menu letter pop that menu. If you have a submenu on the screen, and the submenu uses the letter pressed, the submenu item will be selected. To avoid this use the ALT letter key to indicate you want to select a NEW submenu. If you press a key that doesn't have an associated menu item, LogiCat will still popup the options menu as before (if a submenu isn't already on the screen). 1/28/90 Added code for an ASK option for the expansion of ARChives, and pulling in comments from ARChives. If you have either option set to ASK, LogiCat will popup a box and ask if you want to expand each archive. This allows the user to select the files to expand on a one-by-one basis. Fixed a minor bug in the expansion of ARChives when multi-drives were being used instead of the old method. LogiCat read the configured drive for the archive file when trying to expand. Released v1.32 for registered users. 1/23/90 Added a minor fix to set the "updated data base" flag when comments or keywords were deleted/changed. Refined the way subdirectories are handled. This included how they are read, and printed. LogiCat automatically determines the width of the subdirectory field based on the largest subdirectory that is in the file. This logic was carried over to reading existing data bases so the subdir field wouldn't get truncated to a smaller width than it should be if the data base read had a dir that is longer than one catloged in the session. Released v1.31 for registered users. 1/22/90 I'd like to offer special thanks to George Hawkins who found and reported a problem he encountered in replacing a disk (I probably wouldn't have found it without his find indicating how it occurred). The only change made was fixing the bug reported to me earlier today. Released version 1.3 1/21/90 Released version 1.2 1/20/90 Added code to discard trailing spaces in the disk name. A user of LogiCat was having problems deleting a specified disk because the original name was typed with trailing spaces in it. LogiCat will now avoid this possible problem. Added code to automatically uppercase the disk name if it will be written as a volume label, since the resulting volume label is upper case. This makes it so reading the same disk again will cause LogiCat to ask if you want to replace the disk (providing you have it set to use an existing label as the name). 1/19/90 Added code to block adding data bases to the floppy drive. A hard drive is now required to use LogiCat. Added multi-drive support (the ability to use more than just two logging drives) by popular demand. Now LogiCat has options that allow you to enter the drive letter to log/replace each time by choosing the multi-drive option from the appropriate menu. For users who don't desire to do this, the other options work like they always have. Added code to automatically adjust the number of files allocated upward if possible to overcome problems with running out of files when logging the disk. Note that once memory runs out this operation will fail, and an error will be printed advising the user doesn't have enough files configured. Added code to automatically adjust the number of disks allocated if needed. (Now all items have automatic adjustment available!) Fixed a very minor bug that wouldn't let you adjust memory usage for an item to the exact amount that was currently needed. For example, if you had 1000 files in memory, and requested to adjust the max files to 1000 LogiCat would advise you needed to clear the data base in memory first (adjusting to 1001 or above was required). Added code to block setting any of the colors to the same foreground and background colors. 1/18/90 Added code to automatically adjust the number of directories upward when you log a disk that causes the number of directories to go above the maximum configured value. This will overcome problems if you've got enough memory left to do it. Fixed a minor bug when the maximum number of directories is reached (and can't be adjusted due to a memory shortage). Previously an error message would be displayed, and then when the user pressed a key, LogiCat would continue logging the disk. The problem was that each time it tried to add a new file the error would be displayed (although this caused no real harm other than being annoying and a pain in the neck). Now LogiCat will automatically detect it has sent the error message once, and won't send it again during the same session. Added code to LogiCat to display a different cursor when in insert mode than it does when in overwrite mode. The cursor in insert mode is a normal cursor while the overwrite mode cursor is a block cursor. Released Version 1.11 (to registered users only) 1/14/90 Fixed a minor bug with pressing F10 when you're editing the comment for the last file in memory. Previously if you pressed F10 when editing the comment of the last file and then pressed ESCape, LogiCat would ask if you wanted to abort changes (even though they were already saved). Fixed a bug with the creation of a comment data base. Previously if you logged a disk (to a new data base) and then edited comments before saving the data base, the comment data base header wasn't written, so LogiCat wouldn't read the data base next time you started the program (couldn't read the comment data base, the other data base was fine). Fixed a bug that caused memory to become corrupted under certain conditions when the backup option was turned on. The error was caused by an undetected stack overflow. Released Version 1.1 1/10/90 Fixed a bug in the comment editor that caused snow on a CGA. In addition the comment editor was the only part of LogiCat that wasn't DesqView aware, changes were made to make the comment editor DV aware. 1/7/90 Version 1.0 was released.