
                         The History of PowerData

This  file  contains  descriptions  of  the specific changes and fixes that
occur  in  the different releases of PowerData.  The most recent version is
first in the list.

The following list of abbreviations indicate the nature of the change:

MIN - Minor bug fixed
MAJ - Major bug fixed
NEW - New feature
CH  - Change in operation
OPT - Optimization or improvement of existing feature

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.210 - Unintentional V39 dependency in 38.200 removed

23-Aug-1993	MAJ	Due to a small oversigt on my part, 38.200 was
			actually 3.0-only. This manifested itself by oceans
			of Enforcer hits and wrong gadget settings in the
			main window, when this was opened. Fixed.
		NEW	Swedish (svenska) translation graciously provided
			by Jonny Lundin
		MIN	Files were not always being crunched, even when
			matching the filters. Fixed.
		CH	'Save' gadget now closes the window (like 'Use').
		OPT	Gadget hotkey routine optimized, redundant code
			removed.
		NEW	Added some built-in logic to automatically preclude
			certain special files as well as most archive formats
			from being crunched and/or decrunched. The filter is
			currently set to:
			#?.(lha|lzh|zip|zoo|arc|jpg|jpeg|arj|dms) and
			(#?startup-sequence)|(#?user-startup)|(#?PowerData.info)
			Please read the docs for a more detailed explanation
			of this.
		MIN	PowerData did not close the catalog it was using.
			This made it very difficult to make new language
			translations for PowerData, since you had to reboot
			the machine to test a modified string. Fixed.
		CH	Now uses keyfiles for registration.
		OPT	Additional visual improvements:
			 More attractive gadget hotkey underscoring
			 No more double-refresh when zipping the window
			  (thanks to Magnus 'ReqChange' Holmgren (2:204/404.6)
			  for his help and advice :-)
		OPT	Recompiled with SAS/C 6.3. This shaved an impressive
			5032 bytes off the executable, and also made it much
			faster.  Bye bye, Aztec... :-)
		NEW	Dutch (nederlands) translation graciously provided
			by Paul van der Heu

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.200 - Intermediate version before MAJOR new release

24-Jul-1993	CH	ARexx interface is now compulsory. In stead of the
			previous non-arexx executable you now get a special
			68020+ version (popular request)
		OPT	Localizing code cleaned up and optimized
		OPT	Miscellaneous GUI improvements, including
			  Backfilled window
			   Scalable checkbox gadgets (V39)
			   New-style menus (V39)
			   Hotkey shortcuts for gadgets
		MIN	GUI Bevelboxes were not being refreshed during window
			zoom operations. Fixed.
		NEW	Busypointer during crunch/decrunch is now switchable
			via a new checkboxgadget in the main window
		CH	Distribution now includes reqtools 38.1042
		NEW	Filenames are now expanded to include paths before
			being submitted to pattern matching. This allows you
			to use filters like "DH0{80MB}:Somedir/#?/s/#?.pp".
			You can still use the old "filenames-only" method
			via a checkbox gadget in the main window. The old
			method was retained because it is faster.
		NEW	Decrunching can now be made to work for files that do
			NOT match the patterns. This allows applications to
			always read crunched files, but only have those files
			crunched that do match the patterns
		NEW	Now also patches OpenFromLock() to provide more
			completePowerpacker support. May cure many problems
			with software failing to read Powerpacked files even
			with PowerData running.
		CH	ARexx port name changed to POWERDATA. Please fix
			whatever ARexx scripts you have.
		CH	Default temporary directory changed from POWERDATA_T:
			to just T:
		NEW	Distribution now includes full CatComp source
		NEW	New icon for the PowerData executable. Hope you like
			it :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.115 - Basic ARexx interface, more bugs squashed

09-Mar-1993	MAJ/MIN	Several bugs of different nature were found in the
			previous version. Hopefully I got them all now.
		NEW	ARexx interface, finally! There are currently seven
			commands, doing everything from quitting PowerData,
			to making it show its window.
		NEW	The installation scripts now ask which version of
			PowerData you wish to install (Rexx, or non-Rexx).
		CH	New reqtools.library once again. This time v38.1022.
		NEW	Italian localization [Mirco Zanca]
		NEW	Windows are locked and made to display a wait pointer
			(clock image) when PowerData is either crunching
			or decrunching data.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.110 - Global crunch/decrunch switches, new prefs file format

08-Feb-1993	NEW	Global switches enabling and disabling transparent
			crunching and/or decrunching.
		NEW/CH	PowerData now reports if its prefs file is mangled
			when it starts up (a small bug, really :-)
		CH	Prefs file format changed, allowing for more
			complex filename patterns and other, future
			enhancements.
		MIN	Changed default hotkeys from "ctrl alt ..." to
			"control alt ...". Commodities.library v37 only
			understands the latter format [Finn Kettner]
		CH	PowerData now comes with v38.1020 of
			reqtools.library. This version is a bit newer than
			the library contained in the 38.105 distribution.
		MAJ	Pattern handling was not entirely consistant. An
			internal buffer was set to hold patterns of 30
			characters, even though patterns span much more
			than that. This problem caused spurious gurus to
			appear when editing the pattern gadgets.
		NEW	Installer script now fully localized in French
			[Reza Elghazi]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.105 - Mostly bug fixes

17-Jan-1993	MAJ	PowerData *required* locale.library to be present
			in order to work at all. Fixed.
		MIN	The evaluation version of PowerData would hang if
			it could not open any one of the required libraries.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerData 38.100 - First public release. Hope you like it!

07-Jan-1993	NEW	Added French localization file (Reza Elghazi)
		CH	Updated installation scripts accordingly
		NEW	Added German localization file (Norbert Fhrmann)
		CH	Updated installation scripts accordingly

