FPBlt v2.0 Revision History
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A word on nomenclature: Each release is named in the following manner:
v<version>.<release>.<modification>
For instance, v1.0.4 means that the file is the fourth modification to
version 1.0 of the program. If a "ß" preceedes the modification
number, it means that the code in question is a Beta Test release.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ REMEMBER TO BACK UP BEFORE UPDATING THE CODE! │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
05/02/94 ■ FPBlt v1.00 released
05/25/94 ■ FPBlt v2.0.ß1 released
- Due to limitations in QuickBasic, the entire code was ported
and translated to CA/Clipper v4.0 (aka. Summer '87).
- NEW: FPBLT creates two files, FPBLT.PTR and FPBLT.RUN the first
time it is run. Inquire for details if you are curious, but do
not delete them (especially FPBLT.PTR)!
- NEW: FPBLT appends new areas automatically, if they're found in
FidoPCB's Pointer file (FIDOPCB.CNF)
- CHANGED: Configuration File has been reorganized and parameters
added as follows:
Line 1: Validation Code or 16 zeroes (0)
Line 2: Address (exactly like ORIGIN line in FIDOPCB.CFG)
° Line 3: Registration info for Bulletin (30 char limit)
Line 4: Path to FidoPCB (DO NOT ADD A TRAILING '\'!)
Line 5: Path/Name of PCBOARD.DAT
Line 6: Path/Name of the Traffic bulletin
° Line 7: Column Header text color in the Bulletin
° Line 8: Area Name color in the Bulletin
° Line 9: Received Counts color in the Bulletin
° Line 10: Sent Counts color in the Bulletin
° Line 11: Area Activity Totals color in the Bulletin
° Line 12: Grand Total counts color in the Bulletin
° = Enabled in the Registered version only
- IN PROGRESS: A new Error Handling system is being developed for
this version of FPBLT. The documentation still reflects the
Error Handler for FPBLT v1.0, and will not change until the new
one is complete.
05/29/94 ■ FPBlt v2.0.ß2 released
- *** IMPORTANT *** Some Operating Systems (NW/DOS 7, for one)
incorrectly report a "NOT ENOUGH MEMORY" error. The culprit is
the Clipper compiler, and can be resolved by adding the
following Environment command: SET CLIPPER=E000. If this does
not fix the problem, use: SET CLIPPER=E000;V002 instead
- FIXED: The FIDOPCB.STA file was not being deleted if it was of
zero length (no transactions).
- FIXED: Unless changes were made to the database record counts,
information was not displayed on the "Message Areas" line of
the display
- FIXED: If no updates were made to the Traffic Bulletin, no
information to that effect was displayed
- COSMETIC: Two error messages were inadvertently running every
word together to form one 'super-word'
- FINISHED: The new Error Handling system is now complete. See
the file, FPBLT.DOC for details
- REMOVED: Now that it is known that this release of FPBlt works
as advertised, there is no need to keep the Debugging module in
the code. This reduces memory requirements and boosts the
speed a bit. Some Debug trace code remains, and will be
removed at the end of the Beta cycle
05/31/94 ■ FPBlt v2.0.ß3 released
- FIXED: If a file required by FPBlt did not exist, FPBlt aborted
with an incorrect Error Message. This was because of a typo in
the error handler
- FIXED: If FPBlt could not find a file it requires, it would
either continue anyway, or not return the filename (depending
on the situation). This was indirectly caused by the same typo
06/01/94 ■ FPBlt v2.00 released
06/04/94 ■ FPBlt v2.01 released
- FIXED: If new areas were added to FidoPCB, an equal number of
records were added to the database, but not with the correct
area names, causing duplicate records and incorrect pointer
updates. FPBlt now creates a new database from scratch which
correctly places and names all areas. The old database is
renamed to FPBLT.OLD, and can be removed if desired. (automatic
deletion may come later).
07/07/94 ■ FPBlt v2.10.ß1 released
- *** IMPORTANT *** The structure of FPBLT.INI has changed! You
will have to make the necessary alterations to the file in order
to use this release of FPBlt! I've also added a new parameter
to the file. The new structure is as follows:
Line 1: Validation Code or 16 zeroes (0)
Line 2: Address (exactly like ORIGIN line in FIDOPCB.CFG)
° Line 3: Registration info for Bulletin (30 char limit)
Line 4: BBS software being usedⁿ
Line 5: Path to FidoPCB (DO NOT ADD A TRAILING '\'!)
Line 6: Path/Name of PCBOARD.DAT
Line 7: Path/Name of the Traffic bulletin
° Line 8: Column Header text color in the Bulletinⁿ
° Line 9: Area Name color in the Bulletinⁿ
° Line 10: Received Counts color in the Bulletinⁿ
° Line 11: Sent Counts color in the Bulletinⁿ
° Line 12: Area Activity Totals color in the Bulletinⁿ
° Line 13: Grand Total counts color in the Bulletinⁿ
° = Enabled in the Registered version only
ⁿ = New or altered parameter
- NEW: Added a routine that makes sure that every line in the
configuration file contains data, and exits with an error
message if not.
- NEW: Added a field to the Pointer Database in order to save the
cumulative totals for each Message Area. Without this field,
all totals will be wiped out at the end of every year. Before
using this version of FPBlt, you must run CNVTPTR.EXE to update
the database. This utility will create a new database with the
additional field, and rename the old one to FPBLT.OLD. The old
database can then be removed by hand.
- NEW: FPBlt now generates the Bulletin in pages, meaning that a
@more@ prompt is inserted after a predefined number of areas.
For the time being, this limit is hard-coded at 15 areas per
page, but this may change as the feature is enhanced.
- NEW: Added support for PowerBBS, which uses PCBoard's message
file format, and is by extension compatible with FidoPCB.
- NEW: Added a parameter to the Configuration file to identify
the BBS software being used. Valid codes: PCBoard, PowerBBS
- CHANGED: Because FPBlt now supports multiple platforms, PCBoard
@X color macros are no longer supported in the configuration
file. Instead of these macros, FPBlt uses a decimal value
between 1 and 128 to assign bulletin colors. See COLORS.LST
for a list of color values.
- FIXED: If certain characters with an ASCII value of 169 were
found in the validation string, FPBlt would refuse to go into
registered mode.
07/21/94 ■ FPBlt v2.10.ß2 released
- FIXED: Stats for each area and the totals didn't line up. This
was the result of a space that was being swallowed up.
- FIXED: When an area's statistics are updated, FPBLT adds the
daily, monthly and yearly totals to obtain the area totals.
For some reason the area totals were also being added in,
giving outrageous message counts.
- FIXED: When FPBLT performs its nightly maintenance (ie. setting
daily, and/or monthly, and/or yearly counts to zero) the counts
that get reset, are added to the next hierarchical level.
FPBLT was adding the results to the area totals on all recycles,
when it should only do so when the yearly totals get reset.
- GENERAL: Optimized and tightened the code in the recycler
module as part of the fixes.
07/21/94 ■ FPBlt v2.10 released
- *** IMPORTANT *** I have been delaying this release while
waiting for the author of PowerBBS to decide to keep his
promise to provide me with a list of new Macros in PowerBBS
(they were left out of the manual, probably on purpose). Over
a month's worth of leaving messages on the PowerBBS Support
board, mostly left unanswered, adding up to almost $200 in toll
calls have made me decide to give up on the wait. The only
real response coming from the author was to suggest that I
rewrite FPBLT with the PowerLang scripting language (as if it
could even do what FPBlt does). Future support for PowerBBS is
in serious jeopardy at this point, and will only continue if
the information I need comes to me. Remember, the manual found
in the distribution manual is incomplete (I have it here).
- COSMETIC: Changed some of the text displayed at the end of the
bulletin.
09/16/94 ■ FPBlt v2.20.ß1 released
- *** NOTICE *** For a number of reasons, starting with this beta
release, I will only update the Users Manual at the end of the
Test cycle. Updates and such will be printed in this file
- *** NOTICE *** The file CNVTTO21 ZIP, is no longer included in
the distribution archive. It was only required to perform the
upgrade to FPBLT v2.10. If you're still using a version of
FPBLT prior to v2.10, you will need to obtain v2.10 in order to
update the database file.
- NEW: Added Hooks to allow Command Line switches to be passed to
FPBLT. These hooks will permit specific tasks to be performed
instead of standard Bulletin Generation.
- NEW: Added Activity summary to the bulletin. This summary
displays the total number of messages and areas processed by
FPBLT during the last run. A reminder here that runs where no
messages were processed by FidoPCB, are not considered valid
runs by FPBLT, and that there is a bug in FidoPCB that doesn't
report outbound NET_MAIL messages.
- NEW: Rewrote the program shutdown routine so that it can be
called by all the normal exits from the program. Previously,
different conditions closed the program based on where the exit
request was made. The net gain is smaller, tighter code.
- NEW: Modified the way some process messages are displayed by
the program. This modification is a tentative step in the
direction of making FPBLT capable of supporting multi-lingual
operations in the future.
- NEW: Added the /BUILD switch. This switch makes it possible to
rebuild the FPBLT database without loosing the accumulated
statistics. The switch can be entered in upper or lower case,
and if it is entered incorrectly, FPBLT will exit with an Error
message. You can use this switch when you remove areas from
FIDOPCB.CFG, which is its intended purpose.
- NEW: Included a file called REBUILD.BAT to streamline the use
of the /BUILD parameter. You will have to edit part of the
SETUP section of this file in order for it to work with your
system, as follows:
toss_drv = c: (Drive where FIDOPCB is located)
fpbt_drv = c: (Drive where FPBLT is located )
toss_path = \fp (Path to FIDOPCB files - No trailing "\")
fpbt_path = \fpblt (Path to FPBLT files - No trailing "\")
Because of how it works, YOU MUST BE SURE THERE IS NO MAIL
WAITING TO BE PROCESSED (inbound and outbound). When run, this
Batch File will first change to the drive and path where your
FidoPCB files are located. It then checks for the existence of
a FIDOPCB.CN! Backup file, and deletes it if found. Next,
FIDOPCB.CNF is renamed to FIDOPCB.CN! in order to create a
backup. At this stage FIDOPCB.EXE is run using the SET ALL TOP
parameters. This creates a new, updated FIDOPCB.CNF file for
use by FPBLT. After changing to the drive/path containing
FPBLT, the Bulletin Generator is invoked with the /BUILD switch
in order to update the Pointer Database. The old file will be
renamed to FPBLT.BAK, and the counts from all fields for areas
which remain active, will be transferred to the new file, along
with the newly added areas.
10/19/94 ■ FPBlt v2.20.ß2 released
- FIXED: If an area is added to FidoPCB, which alphabetically goes
above the first area in the present configuration, FPBLT will
get stuck in an endless loop. This happens when the /BUILD
switch was used, but it can potentially happen if FPBLT were to
add areas automatically. Fixed by rewriting both routines.
11/01/94 ■ FPBlt v2.20 released
01/01/95 ■ FPBlt v2.21 released
- FIXED: After a Year change, the Cumulative counts are updated
and the Daily, Monthly and Yearly counts reset to 0 (zero) as
they should be. But afer the next bulletin update, the newly
reset counts would replace the Cumulative counts instead of
adding them in (One always slips through the cracks! <grr>)
