Log In Log Version 1.00

Beta Version - Revision History

Up to beta revision 10, I was merely developing the tools, that go together to make Log In Log, 
the most versatile 'phone cost teller for internet use there is.  Revision 11 also included 
some internal clean up of the code. The installation routine had been tested in r.10, but I 
hadn't realised that in r.11, the clean up had inadvertedly left out a routine, preventing the 
initialisation process from proceeding correctly, and thereby making the whole program useless. 
This became apparent within 24 hours, from feedback, and revision 12 was released, immediately.

Revision 13 - 23 May 1995
Here three minor but significant faults were addressed. 
	i) The watch time was showing minutes above 59 when an hour had been reached.
	ii) A stray DoEvents command in the alarm check routine meant that, if you did not ask 
for more time after the alarm went off, then there would be some dreadful onscreen flashing as 
the timer attempted to take control of the program you were working on, every second or so.
	iii) Installing in the Trumpet Winsock script file reversed the /s and /e commands for 
login and bye files.
These problems are fixed.

Revision 14 - 26 May 1995
	i) Disconnect button wasn't appearing when alarm was triggered, even when Trumpet was 
running. Fixed.
	ii) Watch wasn't remembering where it was on the screen. Fixed, I think.
	iii) Watch Always On Top function wasn't working properly. Fixed
	iv) Some small cosmetic changes.
	v) Some small cosmetic changes in the help file (lilh100b.asc).
	vi) Rewrote the routine that installs Log In Log into Trumpet Winsock script files. Now, 
selecting a .cmd file will now either add the relevant exec command, if it doesn't exist, or 
rewrite it, if it does, adding the current configuration file name as a parameter.  In this way 
even those who have used earlier versions can doctor their script files to the way they should 
be, without notepad editing. A login file can also now be reconfigured with the current 
configuration, automatically.
	vii) Further problems with a flashing screen, when the alarm was turned off, were 
addressed.
	viii) A report from Belgium detailed an idiosyncratic phone charge system. It seems that 
their change of pricing begins at odd half hours. Log In Log accepted only whole hours. This has 
been changed, with safeguards for those whose config. files were made with old versions.  The 
other problem reported is much more difficult to deal with.  In Belgium, it seems they have not 
two but three different rates, some of which come in and out more than once, per day. There 
is no way, because of the structure of the program, that I can get Log In Log to take this into 
account.  Perhaps a future edition, with some drastic reprogramming of phone cost calculations.
In the meantime, suggestions for Belgian residents have been added to the accompanying text 
file.
	ix) The history and view history functions were not working quite right, sometimes 
giving the wrong record and sometimes crashing the program with an error message. Fixed.

Revision 15 - 2 June 1995
	Fixed the following problems:-
	i) Watch did not update when alarm option was switched off.
	ii) Put in safeguard against selecting bye.cmd when a login script should be selected. I 
can find no way to prevent bye.cmd appearing in the file list of *.cmd files, but I can stop the 
user from selecting it.
	iii) Some more small bugs in the History Dialogue
A simple way to register, via a button on the Help dialogue and an extra file in the archive 
(lilr100b.asc), was also introduced.
	iv) At the last moment, a bug was reported that, when the title prompt was turned off, 
the start of the session was not recorded. A quick debugging session dealt with that.

Revision 16 - 10 June 1995

BUG FIXES
	i) Starting the log viewer by using the /v parameter left the cursor stuck as the 
Windows clock instead of the pointer. Fixed.
	ii) Logging in whilst using the program for other purposes, such as Statistics, 
prevented the log in process from operating correctly. This has been fixed so that this only 
happens when the timer is active. I also added a message box, that appears if you change the 
configuration whilst still logged on, that tells the user that the new configuration will only 
apply on the next log in.
	iii) Discovered that ever since r.14 when I added partial hours to the peak & off-peak 
start times, the configuration file was reflecting them wrongly. In addition, the calculations 
became wrong in places, if you did use partial hours. Fixed all this.
	iv) Fixed some small problems with the watch icon (minimize) and logbook icon (toggle 
always on top feature) double-click events. Also fixed the stopwatch icons to operate on 
double-click instead of single-click. This was actually a bug. The red/green stopwatch icons in 
the stopwatch itself will now respond to single or double-clicks.

NEW FEATURES

	i) By request, I did a bit of fiddling and made it so that the onscreen 
watch displays, not the 'phone costs, but the total costs - i.e. including the additional costs 
(server charges etc.). The sound effect will still only play when the phone costs are 
incremented. This is, of course, because the additional costs are constantly reassessed, 
whereas the 'phone costs are incrementally increased, according to the time allowed for a 
phone unit.
	ii) When minimizing the watch, a label now appears, in addition to the 
watch icon (which now appears to the right of, instead of on top of the timer icon), with a 
brief statement of time online & costs. This suggestion from a user makes it possible to view 
these essential statistics without taking up too much valuable deskspace, with the (relatively) 
large watch. The icon and its attendant label can now be moved around the screen by clicking on 
the icon, draging the mouse with the button held down & releasing it when it is in the desired 
location.

Revision 17 - 26 June 1995

BUG FIXES
	i) Fixed some small bugs in the history dialogue.  At the same time, I changed things so 
that deleting a log session from the record can now only be done from the session viewer. That 
way, you're sure what you're deleting.
	ii) Seems some buttons on the statistics dialogue put dates in a dd/mm/yy format whereas 
in many countries this order is reversed. I fixed this, so that it works whichever way the 
International settings in the win.in file (International applet of the Windows Control Panel) 
are configured.  It won't work with the yy/mm/dd option, which Microsoft provides, but then I 
wonder if any country uses this format.
	iii) Added some extra error handling routines & fool-proofing features, especially when 
setting peak & off-peak start times in the Set Rates dialogue.
	iv) Fixed it so that, if you have no phone charges, (e.g. in America), or no additional 
charges, then only total costs are displayed, because the rest is redundant.
	v) Some problems with including weekends in off-peak 'phone rates have been rectified.
	vi) By request, I changed the color of the Session Message & Watch title labels, giving 
them a more realistic, textured appearance.
	v) Also, by request, I have replaced the three sound samples that included voices with 
upbeat female voices.  Is this sexist? Should I increase the size of the archive by offering 
the choice? Answers please, by e-mail.......

NEW FEATURES
	i) As well as the possibility of deleting a session entry from the session 
viewer, the possibilities to edit or add titles and/or comments to session entries have been 
introduced. 
	ii) The Log In Log Watch now remembers whether it was full-sized or minimized when 
logging off and starts up that way again when logging on. If minimized, it will start up in the 
position it left off, also, instead of next to the timer icon.
	iii) In order to make more recent editions of this program more available, publicly, for 
evaluation and yet to benefit registered users, I have introduced two different editions.  The 
shareware, evaluation edition (executable file is lil1bxxs.exe - where xx is the beta revision 
number) is issued with liberal dollops of reminders to register and a simplified way of 
contacting me about registration. The Registered version (lil1bxxr.exe) dispenses with all this, 
of course.
	iv) Double-clicking the Log Timer icon will now cause a logoff sequence.  This can be 
used in the event of a line being cut off without calling the 'bye.cmd' script. In this way the 
number of failed logoffs should be reduced.
	v) Revamped the statistics information display.  Added average statistics for the 
period, also.
	vi) Redesigned the Set Timers dialogue, to make it more user-friendly & more logical in 
its layout.
	vii) I have included a Tips & Tricks file full of hints as to how to use Log In Log to 
best advantage. It also deals with rating systems incompatible with the current versions 
capabilities.

Revision 18 - 28 July 1995

BUG FIXES
	i) An obscure timing bug showed up, which caused an error on some machines, under some 
circumstances, when logging off. It was caused by the second instance of the program (the logoff 
sequence) started to write to the log file before the first instance (logon) had finished writing 
the start of the session to the log file & close it.  This would cause a 'File Already Open" 
error & often an "Illegal Fuction Call' as well, crashing the program, or would tell the user 
that he hadn't yet logged on. Now, fixed.
	ii) Yet more problems with various possible settings in the [Int] section of the win.ini 
file (International applet of the Windows Control Panel). In particular, a failure to calculate 
properly, when the dayname was set to blank in the Long Date Format section and when the time 
seperator was other than a colon. There might also have been some problems with 12 hour clock 
settings.So I examined all the algorithms for setting time & date to a standard before making 
calculations. I revised many things, and I hope that Log In Log will now work correctly in all 
sections, regardless of any of the settings in the win.ini file. 
	iii) Although I couldn't duplicate the problem on my own system, a report that the watch 
can get stuck off the edge of the screen, necessitating a manual edit of the loginlog.ini file,  
convinced me to add a stop for the watch at the edge of the screen in any direction.
	iv) The entire rates configuration dialiogue structure has been redesigned, to be 
clearer, easier to use, and to have more space. This is especially true for the new Time-Based 
Rates dialogue that replaces the old Additional Costs in the Set Rates dialogue. The latter is 
now renamed Unit-Based Rates and the Currency input section is moved to the main Configuration 
dialogue, because it is relevant to both of the other dialogues. Making space in the Time-Based 
Rates dialogue is to ready things for the introduction of multiple Server Rates, which is due to 
be implimented in a future version of Log In Log.  The demand seems to be great & many users are 
inventing clever get-arounds for this shortfall.
	v) A programming error would cause a faulty calculation, in the unlikely event that the 
user logged in one day & logged off after the off-peak start time of the next day (almost a day 
online, but not a whole day).  Fixed.
	vi) The watch & stop-watch now reflect the time-seperator selected in the [Int] section 
of the win.ini file instead of always showing a colon as seperator.

NEW FEATURES
	i) The Set Timers dialogue has now an additional item. A choice is given, between an 
unattended alarm prompt causing the alarm to switch off (default), as before, or allowing it to 
cause Trumpet to automatically disconnect the line, by sending a Bye command.  This can be 
extremely handy for unnattended internet operations, or if one has forgotten to disconnect the 
line. This was a suggestion from a beta tester who thought that that was how it was supposed 
to work.  Actually, no-one thought of it until him.

Revision 19 - 5 September 1995

BUG FIXES
	i) When viewing and deleting the first session in the History dialogue, an extra blank line 
was added to the log file between the header and the first entry. Fixed this small problem.
	ii) If changing the currency name without changing the Unit-based rates, the currency name 
was not written to the configuration file. Fixed this.
	iii) If trying to view the last session, from the history dialogue, when it was not yet 
logged off, the program would sometimes give an Input Past End of File error and crash instead of 
the correct message routine. Fixed this. 
	iv) Further problems with the universalization of date settings, prevented correct 
operation of some of the 'Set To:' buttons of the Statistics dialogue, under certain circumstances.
A small adjustment has fixed this. Also, faulty changes in the dates displayed & calculated upon, 
created some unpredicatable results under some Date Format settings. More tweaking of algorithms.
	v) A tiny but highly significant bug showed up. The Include Weekends in off-peak rates 
check-box of the Unit-Based rates dialogue, was not saving its value to the configuration file 
properly, when changed. Fixed.

NEW FEATURES
	i) It seems that there has been some difficulty with the Task Switching of Log In Log.  In 
the event of an accidental restore, through Alt-Tab switching, Task Manager or other means, then 
the LogOff sequence becomes activated. This is because I had hijacked the resize event to impliment 
my special emergency logoff procedure in case of accidental disconnexion from the phone line, in 
Revision 17 (see above). Many users, in fact have use Alt-Tab to bring the Watch to the top, only 
to find the log off sequence activated. In working around this, it occurred to me that, if the 
resize event actually resized the logtimer, as normal, and that in its restored state, it displayed 
a mini-menu, then the user could have a number of possible shortcuts for online activities. So, 
now, if you are online & the timer is on (i.e. you are using the online Watch and/or the alarm), 
then double-clicking the 'Log In Log Timer' caption, of the icon, or restoring it through Alt-Tab 
switching, Task Manager or any other means will bring up a menu with a series of options.  These 
include:-
	Hiding/showing the Watch
	Switching the alarm on/off
	Bringing the Watch to the top
	Disconnecting the 'phone connexion via Trumpet (if Trumpet is present)
	Setting off a Manual Logoff (in the event of a line failure).
	Switching the Timer off to save resources.(zero resources are used with timer off)
This, latter, will not effect the normal logging off sequence when it is activated later, via the 
Trumpet bye.cmd script (or manually, via an icon), but will prevent the Watch from displaying or the 
alarm from activating. This situation cannot be reversed to re-establish the Watch or Alarm.
	ii) Finally, I have rewritten the configuration dialogue, for even more ease of use. I have
provided a seperate dialogue window, centered on the screen. It now contains a tabbed dialogue
box with five tabs. A single click, on any tab, will bring a different section of the configuration
scheme to the front. A new section has been added for general settings, changing the log file,
setting the currency name and including a buttton for setting Log In Log into the Trumpet login
scripts. This, latter, has now been revised to become completely automatic. The online statement
is now automatically added. It's not very important, anyway, and in most cases will work with or
without it. The correct entry is made in the bye.cmd file, automatically, also. All the user has to 
do, is to press the button and select the appropriate login script from the File Browser. If it all 
works as it should, then - Voila!, all should be automatic.

Revision 20 - September 1995

BUG FIXES 
	i) A missing call to an important routine turned revision 19 into a disaster, as the
configuration was not saved to the file on disk. This has been fixed.
	ii) The spin buttons in the configuration windows have been improved in their functioning.
	iii) A number of minor bugs have also been fixed.