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                            Revision history











          Author:

          Harry Doldersum
          Weerselose straat 26
          7623 DA BORNE
          The Netherlands, Europe.

          Phone:    +31 (0) 74 266 8480
          Fax:      See phone. Standby on request.
 
          Website:  http://www.Doldersum.com
          InterNet: info@Doldersum.com




MCBase revision history list:

Februari 28th  Updated version 2.5a to V2.5b: a maintenance release. 
		   All implementations (XT, AT and (DOS) Protected Mode (= DPMI).

		   - 1) While testing the new functions in MCBaseUtilities (the MCBase
			  V3.x add-on functions) for data export to previous versions, we 
			  found that the virtually unlimited line lengths available in the 
			  memo's of MCBase V3.x  could cause a problem for MCBase V2.x's 
			  memo routines, when memo data is exported back from V3.x to V2.x. 
			  (Since the MCBase V2.x memo editor is limited to display a line 
			  length of 256 characters maximum).
			  This potential problem has been resolved, by enabling MCBase V2.x's 
			  memo routines to splitup these long lines into a suitable length.

		   - 2) In the Protected Mode release V2.5, a new feature was introduced to 
			  enable users to invoke an external ascii editor for memo editing.
			  Unfortunately, this was only tested on genuine MS-DOS and Windows V3.x 
			  systems - therefor it remained unnoticed that, under Windows95/98/NT, 
			  swapping to the external editor could result in an error.
			  To avoid problems, this option is now only available if MCBase has 
			  been executed with the "/DS" startup switch (introduced in release 
			  V2.4b), also used to enable MCBase's "Dosshell" command.
 
Unreleased	   Updated version 2.5 to 2.5a: a maintenance release.

		   Changed the text in the "Edit/add and album" dialog, with field 
		   "Artist name": when adding a new album, this field would say 
		   "Currently no album selected" instead of "Currently no artist selected".
		   Also changed the "Edit/add a category" dialog, where the field label 
		   "Category" was misspelled as "Catagory".

August 27, '98 Updated version 2.4b to 2.5: a new release - Protected Mode version only.

		   Added functionality to the "Protected Mode" version of MCBase (distributed 
		   as "MCB_X86P.EXE") to be able to use an external ASCII editor for memo 
               editing. Any (ASCII) editor will do. 
		   A user can configure which editor he/she would like to use and select 
		   which databases should be using it, by stating these preferences in a 
	         newly added configuration dialog, which can be accessed using the menu 
		   command "Memo editing".

		   Background info: MCBase's built in editor is limited to a (memo) file 
		   size of 64Kb, due to it's internal structure - this memo size limit 
		   is not related to the memofield itself. When using an external (ASCII) 
		   editor for memo editing, the (memo) file size is not an issue.

		   IMPORTANT: this modification is not implemented in the XT and basic AT 
		   compatible versions of MCBase (there is not sufficient memory available 
		   under these circumstances) - therefor, these are now not updated and 
		   remain at version 2.4b for the time being.

June 1st, '98  Updated the MCBase utilities to V2.4b also. 

               When the MCBase executables were recompiled, a patch had been included
               to solve the Borland Pascal compiler's timing routine error "Runtime error
               200 at ...", that occurs on systems using a 200MHz processor (or faster).
               Since the MCBase utilities hadn't been altered, they had been left out, when
               recompiling the MCBase executables. These utilities still carried a version
               number earlier than V2.4b. Because of this, these utilities did NOT receive
               the patch to solve the error mentioned.

               With this update of june 1st, the utilities are now upgraded to V2.4b also
               and are therefor suitable for computers with 200MHz(+) processors. All
               archives, bearing the utilities, are now updated. The version number for the
               entire MCBase package is still V2.4b and has not been altered, since the
               utilities are now set on V2.4b also.

May 16th, '98  Updated version 2.4a to 2.4b: a maintenance release.

               1)   The formatted versions of all the documentation files, previously
                    stored  in the file MCB_WP5.LZH (now MCB_WP.LZH) are now
                    available in 2 formats, stored in the same archive:

                    - a) WordPerfect 6.x format (.DOC) using WP's  HyperText
                         features, where applicable. 
                    - b) Rich Text Format (.RTF).

               2)   When adding a new record to the database system, while carrying
                    the relations on to this new entry, the contents of the Release date
                    field will be transferred also. 

               3)   Used under MS Windows95, the "DosShell" command (temporary
                    access to the MS-DOS system prompt) could cause an error. To
                    eliminate problems, this menu command has been disabled by
                    default. On MS-DOS and MS Windows V3.x, a user can activate
                    the command by executing MCBase with the /DS startup switch.

                    So that's:     MCBASE /DS [enterkey]

               4)   A separate HTML file has been added to the package. When
                    opened with an Internet browser, this simple page will enable a user 
                    to reach us (or our website) directly.

Mar. 24th, '97 Updated version 2.4 to 2.4a: a maintenance release.

               Eliminated an error that could disable the "select" button in the "Edit/add
               an album" dialog after the "Album Edit mode" button in the Browse
               dialogs had been used.

Feb. 15th, '97 Updated version 2.3e to 2.4: a new release.

               Following changes and improvements have been made:

               - 1) The behavior of the Find dialog has been extended with a "preset"
                    function, to (when one or more data dialogs are already present on
                    the desktop) display that record from a database, that was either
                    most recently focussed or most lightly to be needed. (This is de
                    pending on the instance that invoked the Find dialog). This provides
                    a timesaver when, for example, a user wishes to reselect the same
                    record again, in both editing and browsing.

                    When using the Find dialog with the "Browse" options, all brows
                    ing is now based on alphabetical order. (For reasons, that have now
                    escaped me, I had used a non-alphabetical approach in previous
                    versions). 
                    Also, the Find dialog's preset option is used during browsing, to
                    automatically find the first valid match for a selected item.

               - 2) An additional button, called "Album edit mode", has been added to
                    the "Browse an album" dialog, that enables a direct connection
                    between this dialog and the "Edit/add an album" dialog. This allows
                    you to switch freely between browse and editing functions on
                    album record level, while carrying the currently browsed album
                    with you to it's edit dialog. Together with the already existing
                    "browse/edit" functional switch on song record level, editing your
                    collection is now more flexible and productive than ever.

               - 3) Normally, MCBase checked the FILES=xx statement in your
                    config.sys during initialisation to verify that the setting is sufficient
                    to open all databases, indexes and other user files. Recently, a user
                    reported that this wasn't enough for his specific configuration: it
                    still could occur that MCBase would crash on a runtime error # 4:
                    "Too many open files". Therefor, an errorhandler routine has been
                    added, to respond to these cases. MCBase still won't be able to run
                    without a proper FILES=xx setting, mind you: this routine merely
                    takes care of a  more graceful shut down.

                    Also, this initialisation check on the FILES=xx setting in your
                    CONFIG.SYS file could cause problems on systems using MS-
                    DOS's multi config option: only the first appearance of FILES=xx
                    would be read by MCBase's routine. Since adding the errorhandler
                    made this check obsolete anyway, the check has been removed
                    from the MCBase executable. (It is still being used in the installa
                    tion utility, however).

               - 4) Minor changes to the utilities GenMCB and MCBCnvrt, mostly
                    related to the above.

               - 5) Last modification to be mentioned, is the change of the ascii text
                    file extensions. Up until now, all files related to MCBase documen
                    tation have had an extension of ".MCB" in order to express that
                    relation to the user. Since this can disturb the process of opening
                    these files with utilities like Windows' Notepad and such, all ascii
                    text files now have the extension ".TXT" instead.

                    Please note that the WordPerfect versions of these files now carry
                    the ".DOC" extension.

               Apart from the above modifications, a new order taking service has been
               added, who's also capable of accepting ONLINE orders through their
               (!secure!) Internet website pages. You can find all the relevant information
               in the file ORDER.TXT. In case you would like to go to their page now,
               here's the URL:

                    http://www.shareit.com/programs/100256.htm

               
Dec. 20th, '96 Updated version 2.3d to 2.3e: a maintenance release.

               Minor change: a dialog box has been added, to draw the users attention to
               the ORDER.MCB file, where the pricing and order info can be found.
               Also, some minor modifications were made on the documentation and
               support files.

Sep. 14th, '96 Updated version 2.3c to 2.3d: a maintenance release.

               Major changes to the ordering information: a new (lower) registration price
               (US$30) and a new distributor for the United States (who is able to deliver
               from stock) have been added: Pik A Program Inc. in New York, NY. As a
               result of this, the registration and order information has now been removed
               from the manual file and has been relocated to the file ORDER.MCB (a
               copy of this file, in WordPerfect version 5 format, has been added to the
               MCB_WP5.LZH archive (see below) for your convenience). Also a small
               modification to the disclaimer and a minor program modification have been
               made. 

May 7th, '96   Updated version 2.3b to 2.3c: a maintenance release.

               Minor modifications to the license agreement.

Mar. 23rd, '96 Updated version 2.3a to 2.3b: a maintenance release.

               Improved picklist functionality: under (very) rare circumstances, it could
               occur that a picklist opened without showing it's data.

               Also added a new registration agent: Kelly Data GmbH in Germany. (See
               our orderform for full details).

Mar. 5th, '96  Updated version 2.3 to 2.3a: a maintenance release.

               MCBase's manual and revision document, which has always been included
               as a disk file, are now available in two file formats: in plain ASCII text
               format and in WordPerfect version 5 format. As always, the ASCII version
               is installed in the MCBase directory, while the WP version of these files are
               stored on the MCBase Master Disk, in the archive file MCB_WP5.LZH.
               (You may use included LHA archiver utility to extract the documents from
               the archive).

               Also made some minor extensions to the registration key system.

Feb. 14th, '96 Updated version 2.2 to 2.3: a new release.

               Improved the background functionality with which the memo editor dialog
               is closed: under circumstances, it could occur that not all record selection
               commands were re-instated when closing the memo-editor in an unex
               pected manner.

               Improved browse dialog functionality: when editing records, picked from
               the browse dialog, it might occur that the user deletes an entry. Since the
               browse dialog resides on the desktop during these edit functions, it will still
               contain that record (therefor: still available for selection). If this record is
               re-selected, you will now be given a message concerning the records
               "deleted"-status.

               When (re-)invoking a browse dialog it will contain the valid records only.
               (Undeleting a record is, of course, *always* possible with the main edit
               dialogs (until the record is physically removed by the "pack"-function)

               In the protected mode version, memory usage for one of the browse
               dialogs has been modified: now the picklist dialog for "browse for songs by
               title" also uses virtual memory, like all "edit & add..." picklist dialogs. (The
               other browse dialogs still use ram memory only, since it is faster). Motiva-
               
               tion was, that (while browsing a large database set) one could run out of
               memory on systems with only 2Mb EMS/XMS memory.

               Modified the behavior of the "Device access error": it is no longer a fatal
               error. 

Nov. 23rd, '95 Updated version 2.1 to 2.2: a new release.

               The "Browse for ..." picklists in the Protected Mode version
               (MCB_X86P.EXE on your MCBase Master Disk) are now controlled and
               loaded by index, instead of filtering the entire database set for the matching
               data. On larger databases, this results in a tremendous improvement on
               data access time.
               Due to memory shortage, this approach cannot be implemented in the
               MCB_XT and MCB_AT executables.
               
               Note:     MCB_XT is a version for (fast) XT-systems, MCB_AT is a version
                         for AT-systems with less than 2Mb RAM memory on board).

               Also solved a problem with the picklists eventhandler, that appeared to be
               unable to handle some special keys while focusing on the picklist contents.

Nov. 6t, '95   Updated version 2.0a to 2.1: a new release.

               Due to modifications in the default behavior of the dBase access routine
               library (HALCYON, by Griffin Solutions), the FIND dialog would no
               longer position itself at the nearest match, when an exact match could not
               be found, but positioned itself at the end of file instead.
               The FIND dialog is now restored to it's documented behavior: to position
               itself at the NEAREST MATCH, when an exact match is not found.

               Apart from the above, the default file search mask for the editor object has
               been changed from "*.*" to "*.TXT".

               Also an additional button has been added to the Browse dialog, called
               "Song edit mode", that enables a direct connection between the "Browse a
               song" dialog and the "Edit/add a song" dialog. This allows you to switch
               freely between browse and editing functions on song record level, while
               carrying the currently browsed song with you to it's edit dialog. This is very
               helpful, while editing songs that are related to each other in some way:
               once they are collected in a browse option's picklist, editing is just a
               mouseclick away.

               Unfortunately, the layout of the configuration file MCBASE.CFG needed
               to be changed, in order to further accomodate the ability to store desktop
               objects in the configuration file. The user will therefor need to create a new
               configuration file.

               Then there also were some minor modifications.


Oct. 10th, '95 Updated version 2.0 to 2.0a: a maintenance release.

               Minor modifications to the PACK routines, the picklist dialogs and the
               documentation.

               Added hotkeys to the memo selection dialogs, used by the various "Brow-
               
               se..." options.

               Added a routine to check (the first appearance of an)  "FILES=xx" setting
               in CONFIG.SYS. If the setting is found to be to low, you will be notified
               about this, after which MCBase terminates operation. (If MCBase is
               UNABLE to locate your CONFIG.SYS file, you will receive a warning
               message about this, after which MCBase will continue operation).


Aug. 17th, '95 MAJOR NEW RELEASE.

               Release of the new MCBase V2.0: a fully event driven, mouse controlled,
               object oriented, dBaseIII+ compatible, relational-to-the-max, windowing
               database management system, with handy dialogs, to set your personal
               configuration preferences. The only REAL database system for the music
                              collector.July 10th, '95 Updated version 1.1f to 1.1g: a maintenance release.

               Modifications to registration key recognition routine. Registration was
               recognized, but the databases evaluation limits weren't correctly unlocked.


Mar. 22nd, '95 Updated version 1.1e to 1.1f: a maintenance release.

               Documentation updates (and program changes, see below). 

               Added a new VendInfo record, according to the latest standard, in order to
               comply with the new set-up for the ASP CD-rom distribution.

               Added a (file based) registration key system to MCBase. This will enable a
               registered user, with a valid registration key, to turn any V1.x shareware
               copy into a personally registered version: MBase will look for the
               excistence of the registration key file and will present itself as a registered
               version *if* the registration key is found to be valid. (If not, it will continue
               to behave as a shareware copy).

               Also added a small (set of) sample database(s), so that the user will be able
               to "play around" with the system, without having to enter data first.


May 25th, '94  Updated version 1.1d to 1.1e: a maintenance release.

               Documentation updates (and program changes, see below). 

               Added a VendInfo record to the documentation and modified the distributi-
               
               on-policy to be more "friendly".

               Also added a possibility to accept credit card orders, using PsL's order
               processing services. 

               Finally, I removed the encryption on MCBase's executable code. As it
               seems, some computers COULD have had trouble running MCBase
               because of this encryption.


Mar. 22nd, '94 Updated version 1.1c to 1.1d: a maintenance release.

               Documentation updates (and small program changes) in order to comply
               with ASP requirements.


Mar. 14th, '94 Updated version 1.1b to 1.1c: a maintenance release.

               Corrected a SERIOUS error in the documentation, discribing the
               locationcode. 

               For tapes, the first 5 (!) digits of the (12 digit) locationcode are reserved
               for the actual tape number, instead of the discribed 2 digits. (The screen
               report for tapes is scanning for the first 5 digits, to find the first and last
               entry belonging to a certain tape). See the updated section 8 in the
               documentation for further information.

               Also elimitated a possible GP-error in the protected mode version.


Mar. 5th, '94  Updated version 1.1a to 1.1b: a maintenance release.

               Modified all "Add" functions, to stay active until the user decides that
               he/she is done. (Artist and Album "Add" fuctions were left after adding 1
               entry. This was based on the idea that one would process the data one
               album at a time). 

               Eliminated the possible occurance of an "error 100: Record out of range"
               while printing the reports. (It could occur under certain circumstances).

               Eliminated a possible counting error in the "Artist overview"-report. 

               Also made some minor modifications.


Jan. 7th, '94  Updated version 1.1 to 1.1a: a maintenance release.

               As mentioned in the documentation of the previous versions (in section
               "Future plans"), the processing speed of printer option "Songs by artist"
               needed to be increased.
               In this update, this processing speed has been successfully increased to a
               normal level.

               I've also included a function to cancel any running printjob by pressing the
               ESCape-key.


Nov. 24th '93  Updated version 1.0c to 1.1, a major new release.

               Eliminated the need for a pre-selection on databases with more than 1000
               entry's. (Credit for this goes to Griffin Solutions, who managed to realize
               virtual memory usage in their GS_dBase routine library: Thanks, Richard!).

               The "Allfield Editor" is added to the application as a standard item and also
               added is an separate "Append" option, so a user does not need to go
               through the "Edit"-selection list if he or she simply wants to "Append".

               The menu structure has been a bit modified to accomodate the above
               mentioned additions.

               Also, the bank adress has been altered to the adress of the Rabobank's
               headoffice in Utrecht.

               Last, but not least, a new pricing schedule is introduced, to enable a low-
               budget registration on the project. This is done by the introduction of two
               diffent types of users: a BASIC and a DEDICATED user, of wich the latter
               has a very interesting discount on future updates. See the ORDER.MCB
               document for further information on registration options and prices.


Oct. 5th, '93  Updated version 1.0b to 1.0c, a maintenance release.

               Eliminated two errors that occured in the album selection list for option #7,
               "View albums by artists". 

               1) When returning from the reportscreen after viewing an album (WITH
               the additional artistname display activated), the program would generate a
               NEW album selection list for the artistname that appeared on the bottom of
               the report screen, instead of using the original artistname that was selected
               by the user.

               2) While walking through the albums of the different artists, a heap error
               (#203) could occur. The memory of the album selection list wasn't properly
               released.

               Also eliminated an error in option #4, "Query on artist".
               A messagebox, to allow albumtitle display with each song title, sometimes
               appeared without a valid reason.

               Last, but not least, I added the following text to the ORDER.ME
               document, in order to prevent further questions on the subject:

               REGISTRED MCBASE USERS can receive MAINTENANCE
               UPDATES for shipping costs only. (NOTE: CompuServe users can receive
               their maintenance update through CompuServe mail, minimizing the need
               for shipping costs, thus FOR FREE!).
               (Same goes for users who can download it from my private host system,
               wich is standby on request).


Aug. 19th, '93 Updated version 1.0a to 1.0b, a maintenance release.

               Eliminated an error that could cause the system to be caught in an endless
               loop, if the last record in a database file was a "deleted" record.
               Also improved some text in a messagebox, displayed while the function
               "deleted" was processing the album database.


June 22nd, '93 Updated version 1.0 to 1.0a, a maintenance release.

               Some reportscreens had a bit of trouble with uncleared screens. The data
               from the previous information on the screen was sometimes not fully
               erased, which garbled the new information.


June 19th, '93 First release, version 1.0, of the MCBase database system.
