****************************************************************************** * !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Attention Info-ZIP Users !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! * ****************************************************************************** * * * If you are using the Info-ZIP ZIP tools and you have not done so * * already, PLEASE upgrade to UnZip version 5.12 and look up the -C * * switch. It removes the case sensitive nature of UnZip and is * * REQUIRED for MaxFile/PM to extract file description files from * * ZIP archives. * * * ****************************************************************************** ! PLEASE READ THIS ! THIS VERSION OF MAXFILE/PM WILL *_NOT_* RUN UNDER ANY VERSION OF OS/2 EXCEPT WARP OR ITS DESCENDENTS. * MaxFile/PM Version 1.27 * To install MaxFile/PM or update your existing MaxFile/PM configuration, you should unpack the distribution archive to either a floppy diskette or to a temporary directory. Move to that drive and/or directory and then run the supplied INSTALL.EXE to begin. Should the install program fail, all you need to do is copy the files listed in the file INSTALL.LST to a directory of your choice and then run MAXFMPM.EXE. I've tried to make the whole installation process as painless as possible. I hope you like it. ********************************************************************* * Go through EACH page of the notebook and make sure the settings are * * accurate for your system! I can NOT stress this enough. * ********************************************************************* If you are upgrading from a previous version of MaxFile/PM: YOU MUST ENTER THE SETTINGS NOTEBOOK AND SAVE YOUR CONFIGURATION BEFORE WORKING IN YOUR FILE AREAS! This needs to be done to correct some of the old settings and to configure the new settings added with this version. MaxFile/PM requires MSGAPI32.DLL, this DLL does NOT get copied anywhere for you, it is your responsibility to put it in your LIBPATH if you need it. This file is now included with MaxFile/PM for the convenience of those users who are not running Squish. Have fun! Craig =============================================================================== Necessary files The only files absolutely needed for MaxFile/PM to operate correctly are: MAXFMPM.EXE MaxFile/PM itself MAXFMPM.INI Initialization file (holds settings) MAXFMPM.HLP Online help EXECDOS.EXE DOS application executor MSGAPI32.DLL DLL for accessing Squish and *.MSG message bases *.BMP If you want to use button bars These aren't necessary, but they do come in handy: MAXFMPM.TXT Documentation MPMREXX.INF REXX documentation =============================================================================== What's New (or been fixed) I may not always put everything that has changed in this section of this file. I get quite wrapped up in the code and sometimes can't remember every little thing that I have worked on. But for the most part this section should be pretty accurate. 04-11-95 Fixed a problem parsing FILES.BBS files for systems using either extended description method when multiple consecutive comments were present in a FILES.BBS. This is turn pointed me to a fix that was needed in the All Files and New Files list generator, the TRAPs that were occuring in the list generator are fixed. 03-30-95 New item in the FILES.BBS window Context Menu, Descriptions sub-menu "Download Flags". This applies ONLY to Maximus users, it allows you to add time and byte flags to the selected files in a FILES.BBS window. New configuration option on Main Page 3 "Extract All Files on Document Scan". When checked ALL the files in an archive will be extracted when you perform a Descriptions->Scan Docs. Rewrote the BroadCastClose() and IsAreaWindowOpen() functions in an attempt to squash the timing errors that are happening with REXX scripts. 03-28-95 Fixed a bug in the AllFiles/NewFiles Generator code that was causing comments to be written out to the lists incorrectly. 03-02-95 Added "Revert" to the FILES.BBS window context menu. 02-02-95 Fixed bug with virus scanner getting called with a doubled-up path instead of path and filename.. 01-31-95 Changed from Borland's TLINK to LINK386.EXE, it produces a smaller slightly faster loading executable. 01-27-95 MaxFile/PM is now distributed as a self-extracting HA archive which was created by my port of Harri Hirvola's HA archiver utility. 01-23-95 MAXFMPM.INF removed from the distribution archive, everything that was documented in it, is now documented in MAXFMPM.HLP and is available using F1 inside the program. 01-21-95 Corrected a problem when reading in Avatar FILES.BBS headers. Added the ability to define an external archive viewer utility. See the settings notebook Viewer page. It gets used when you double click on an archive in a FILES.BBS window. Some types of self-extracting archives are indentified. ZIP, ARJ and RAR. Not all the types of SFX archives of those types will be identified. Those created with; PKWare's 2.04g ZIP2EXE.EXE, ARJ 2.41a and RAR 1.53 (NOT solid types) will be. 01-20-95 Modified makefile and memory options in an attempt to speed up the initial load time. Accelerator keys are now implemented in the File Area window. See the docs for their definitions. Removed one major source of headaches. I wrote my own string library to replace the run-time string library. This should clear up a LOT of problems (and headaches for me.) I *have* tested *all* of the functions, but *PLEASE* report any problems you find. 01-19-95 Thanks to the efforts and generousity of Elliott Goodman the description formatting routines for those systems using extended description markers has been fixed. No more traps or WPS lockups when formatting long descriptions. Borland's run-time library is causing me quite a bit of grief. Corrected exit list processing so that if MaxFile/PM itself traps the WPS won't get locked up. However, if a trap occurs inside of PMMERGE.DLL or PMCTLS.DLL (both are OS/2 components) there will be problems. Sped up the container refreshing that occurs when multiple items are selected and modified. Removing items is still a bit slow, but everything else moves along very quickly now. 01-18-95 Corrected a problem identifying newer RAR archives. Also corrected the archiver defaults in the settings notebook. 01-17-95 Online help is enabled, you can now wear out your F1 key. :-) 01-14-95 In the settings notebook on Main Page 2; Renamed "Hide CD Areas" to "Hide CDs". Added "File Headers", MaxFile/PM can now generate headers for your FILES.BBS files that contain a short statistics blurb about the file area. The header gets written when you save the FILES.BBS from *inside* a FILES.BBS window. Extra carriage returns EXPLICITLY removed from strings now. I *KNOW* they are history this time. 01-13-95 More work done to stop mysterious traps when formatting descriptions. The notebook page "Colors" has been added. It allows you to easily configure the colors used to display orphan file entries and comments in a FILES.BBS window. The File Date and File Size columns are now displayed empty for comment entries in FILES.BBS windows. This is another one I just figured out how to do. :-) 01-12-95 REXX.ERR no longer catches the error text from a REXX script, instead STDERR is redirected into the output window itself. Extra carriage returns in extended description lines have been taken care of. ::sigh:: See above.. :-/ I spent a LOT of time working on the way REXX and MaxFile/PM interact with each other in attempt to fix some mysterious traps that have been happening. Event semaphore is reset as soon as it is created and a small delay was added after the WinPostMsg() call to open a FILES.BBS window when instructed to do so from a REXX script. There's a timing problem here I haven't quite figured out how to overcome yet. 01-11-95 Moved the DosPostEventSem() call used to serialize REXX window open calls to after a FILES.BBS window is populated. 01-10-95 The All Files List generator is now run at a lower priority so that it won't eat up too many CPU cycles and detract from other processes. This does slow it down some, especially when a CPU hogging DOS program is polling its life away.. The best solution in this case is to tame the DOS program since that is where the problem is. Worked on the code that inserts records into the File Area window in an attempt to speed up the initial loading time. 01-09-95 Comments are now skipped when you perform a sort in a FILES.BBS Window. Comments can NOT be sorted at all, period. You have to move them around manually using drag and drop. You can now create a text file called MAXFMPM.EXC containing the area tags of file areas you want excluded from the File Area window. 01-08-95 Another bug squashed.. When a drag was initiated in a FILES.BBS window that had no files in it, MaxFile/PM would die a silent death. Added a REAL button bar to the FILES.BBS windows. It is fully configurable, clear down to what functions go on what button and the bitmap that gets displayed on the button. See the settings notebook page "Buttons" for the configuration options. Lots of numerous code tweaks that were made to accommodate the new button bar code. 01-06-95 Found a bug in the Cleanse Description code that was causing the cleanse to be a bit agressive and strip ALL the whitespace from the description. I do NOT know how it got in there, I haven't touched that portion of the code since version 1.04 and it was working. None the less, it has been fixed. [N.B: I *think* this can be attributed to the quirky nature of the Borland run-time library, I am not sure though. The new code does the same extact things, just at different times. I ran into the same thing when writing some code for another project.] Found a small error (not a bug, an oversight) in the drop code for the Main File Area window that would cause long descriptions to get mangled when dropping a file onto an area that was closed. Found a genuine bug in the code that handled skipping download counters when cleansing or formatting a file description. 01-05-95 Two new menu items on the Main File Area window context menu; Request Files and Receive Files. Together, these two will allow you to request files and when they come in have them tossed directly to where they belong. FILE_ID.DIZ, DESC.SDI or SDN.ID are extracted and used if they are present in any archives. Nifty, eh? :-} Added another configuration item to Main Pg 1 in the settings notebook; File Inbound. 01-04-95 Reworked drag initialization code sections to explicitly load and destroy the icon images used during a drag operation. Which fixes the display corruption during a drag after the first couple of drag and drops. 01-03-95 Moved the File Database Utility setting back to Main Pg 1 to make room on Main Pg 2 for "Hide CD Areas." You can now hide the CD areas in the File Area window, they are still there, you just can't see them when Hide CD Areas is turned on. [N.B: 01-11-95 This is NOT the case anymore, when CD areas are hidden, they are NOT added to the container list.] In addition to FILE_ID.DIZ, DESC.SDI and SDN.ID are now looked for to get a description from an archive. The order is FILE_ID.DIZ, DESC.SDI and then SDN.ID. Split the online reference files up, the REXX Extensions are now listed in their own file (MPMREXX.INF). When running the allfiles generator or a REXX script from the command line, MaxFile/PM will now take a back seat and not stomp over the foreground windows. 12-30-94 Added a whole bunch of new REXX extensions, see the docs. :-) MPM_DeselectArea() has changed, by omitting the area name argument, all tagged areas will be deselected. MPM_OpenArea() has been modified so that the window you want to open WILL DEFINITELY be open when this call returns if the return value is 'OK'. No more looping or SysSleep()'s are needed to make sure the window has had time to open. 12-26-94 I lost the source code to the install program that first appeared with version 1.24. The new installer is a bit prettier and allows you to make some decisions before-hand. I hope everyone likes it. Please note: If you don't let the installer create/update the desktop references and this is your first installation of MaxFile/PM, the first time you run MaxFile/PM it will ask you for your settings. Fixed CN_ENTER message response so you get the file you double clicked on instead of a random selection. 12-24-94 Added file summaries when saving a FILES.BBS. The configuration option for them is in the Settings notebook on Main Page 2 - Create File Summaries. ***** MAJOR CHANGE ***** OS2.INI is no longer used to store the window presentation parameters! This means that a smaller subset of presentation parameters are stored for each window, but this should make those of you worried about the size of your OS2.INI happy. To clean up your OS2.INI from previous versions of MaxFile/PM please see the REXX command script INICLEAR.CMD. Please *READ* the file before running it! You need to supply it with a list of your file areas so it knows what to remove from OS2.INI. NOTE: All your previous window positions and colors will be lost. This is a ONE TIME only conversion, all future versions of MaxFile/PM will use the current method of storing window presentation parameters. ***** ***** 12-23-94 Recovered from a system crash, I was a single generation behind on the file list generator source as far as backups are concerned. So I rewrote it from scratch. Expanded the file area headers and spruced up the listing some. The file list generator is slower now, but the end result looks MUCH better. 12-09-94 When rearchiving files if a file is already in the format that archives are being converted to, it will be skipped. This stops MaxFile/PM from deleting files inadvertantly. 12-05-94 Brand new installer, it's a _real_ PM installation program with some pretty buttons and a bit of intelligence. More so than the REXX script I was using before. Extended description markers are now stripped from file announcements made from a FILES.BBS window. 12-02-94 The Shift+Fx accelerators are now on the FILES.BBS context menu. (Serge? :-) 12-01-94 Added 4 new REXX extensions; MPM_FileAreaSort(), MPM_SaveFilesBBS(), MPM_AllFilesList() and MPM_SetWindowState(). Fixed up Remove Entries so that it will remove file entries for files that don't exist when removing just entries. Modified "Scan Docs..." so that the file dialog opens along with the Get Description Text dialog.