________________________________________________________________ Araxis PMdiff version 4.0 release notes (1st February 1996) For IBM OS/2** Warp 3.0, Microsoft Windows NT** 3.5, and Windows 95**. PMdiff 4.0 will _NOT_ run on OS/2 2.x or Windows NT 3.1. The Windows NT**/Windows 95** version of PMdiff has not yet been released. Release is expected in the second quarter of 1996. E-mail arac@demon.co.uk for further details. You can now order PMdiff by credit card! See orderfrm.txt for more information. ________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Araxis PMdiff is a graphical file comparison application. It works the way you work. Visually. Files are displayed side by side. Differences are highlighted and lines are drawn showing how the files are related. PMdiff allows you to select text from two versions of a file and produce a new version containing just the changes you want. The Windows NT version of PMdiff 3.1 enables you to compare directory structures and the files within them, quickly and easily. PMdiff for OS/2 is fully integrated with OS/2's Workplace Shell. To compare files, simply drag and drop them onto the PMdiff object, or onto the running application. PMdiff is highly configurable. Fonts and colours and other settings can be altered to show changes in a way that suits you. Check the friendly on-line help for details. PMdiff makes full use of OS/2 and NT's advanced features. Such as notebooks and pop-up menus (via mouse button two). PMdiff is an excellent addition to any OS/2 or NT software development product. See 'Licensing PMdiff' in the on-line help for details of how to bundle PMdiff with your leading-edge system. Araxis PMdiff is available for IBM OS/2 Warp version 3.0, Microsoft Windows NT 3.51, and Windows 95. ________________________________________________________________ INSTALLATION Run the friendly installation program (instos2.exe for OS/2 or setup.exe for NT and Windows 95) supplied with the package. You can install from floppy or hard disk. You may also use the Add Programs icon in the Windows 95 Control Panel to install PMdiff (Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs). Should you wish to uninstall the OS/2 version of PMdiff, simply run the uninstallation program, uninst.cmd. You may manually uninstall the NT version by deleting the contents of the PMdiff installation directory and then the PMdiff 3.1 group in Program Manager. ________________________________________________________________ GENERAL NOTES Araxis PMdiff for OS/2 makes extensive use of drag and drop. Use it to load files or change colours and fonts. Experiment with the second mouse button. It activates a pop-up menu containing many useful short-cuts. The on-line help is comprehensive, although not all items are available from General Help. Check out the Help Index to make sure that you don't miss anything. Two pairs of sample files are provided: hippo1.txt, hippo2.txt and mary1.txt, mary2.txt You may wish to try comparing these. ________________________________________________________________ EVALUATION VERSION PMdiff is the result of many months of dedicated development effort. It exists in evaluation and licensed versions. The two version are identical, except that the evaluation version does not allow preferences to be saved, won't save merged files and pops up messages from time to time reminding you of the benefits of registering. You may distribute the evaluation version freely, and use it for up to 21 days. If you find it useful then you are asked to register it. This won't cost you much, and will gain you * a disk containing the latest licensed versions (for both OS/2 and NT) allowing preferences and merged files to be saved * free support via e-mail * the satisfaction of supporting good OS/2 and NT software * a clean conscience See 'How to register and receive support' in the on-line help for details about registration. You may like to use the text file orderfrm.txt to help you place your order. ________________________________________________________________ LICENSED VERSION The licensed version of PMdiff allows you to save your preferences between sessions and save merged files. This is to reward you for registering PMdiff. You may install the licensed version on several machines. However, you must ensure that only the number of copies purchased are in use at any given time. You may use _either_ the OS/2 _or_ the NT version at a time, not both simultaneously (unless, of course, you have purchased two or more licences). For example, perhaps you have bought only one copy. You can install it on your desktop office machine, and your laptop. Even your home machine. But PMdiff must be run on only one of the machines at any given time. ________________________________________________________________ WARRANTY Your attention is drawn to the disclaimer in the on-line help (see 'Disclaimer' in the help index). ________________________________________________________________ HISTORY PMdiff 4.0 Fixed hang when PMdiff minimized. Fixed intermittent operation of mouse actions on the left file. PMdiff no longer stores the window position if closed when minimized. Reduced frequency of messages requesting registration. Fixed tab expansion problem. Increased message queue length so that processing of command line arguments works even if certain software (such as Stardock's Object Desktop) is installed which posts extra messages to applications as they start. Removed PMdiff tribble from product information dialog (R.I.P.), and replaced with the shiny new Araxis PMdiff logo. Added quick start help screen for new users. CR and LF characters at the ends of lines are now considered to be whitespace when doing whitespace insensitive comparisons (hence you can't view trailing CR/LF characters when ignoring whitespace). If you find any faults in this version, let us know because we've fixed everything reported so far. PMdiff 3.1 Fixed several faults introduced in 3.0, and some existing faults that surfaced during extensive stress testing. PMdiff 3.0 All known outstanding faults fixed. Go to next/previous difference buttons, keyboard support and file merge capability added. Also, optional display of CR/LF characters and line numbers. Icon updated. Tribble has experimented with eye-shadow. First port to Windows NT 3.5 and Windows 95. The OS/2 version is for OS/2 Warp 3.0 and higher only. It will not run on OS/2 2.x. PMdiff 2.9 Internal version. Ported to IBM VisualAge C++ for OS/2 v3.0 from Borland C++ for OS/2 v1.5. PMdiff 2.8 Internal version. Fault fixes and minor enhancements. PMdiff 2.7 Install program fixed (v2.6 install didn't work). Uninstall script uninst.cmd added. PMdiff 2.6 Minor bug fixes. Install program modified to create a 'PMdiff' object rather than a 'PMDiff' one. Registered versions sent to some beta testers. PMdiff 2.5 First publically released version. Install program added. PMdiff 2.4 Beta-test version. Limited release. PMdiff 1.0 Alpha version. Ported to Borland C++ for OS/2 1.0 (initial development was performed using the EMX version of GNU gcc). ________________________________________________________________ TRADEMARKS ** OS/2 is a trademark of IBM(r) Copporation. Windows, Windows NT, and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft(r) Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged. ________________________________________________________________ Daniel J Neades and Jason R Shannon, PMdiff development team E-mail: pmdiff@arac.demon.co.uk