               ZIPMAK - Make File Utility for Visual Basic

                          ***  FreeWare ***

               Copyright 1994 by Meridian Systems Inc.

               Meridian Systems
               P.O. Box 868
               Port Ewen, NY 12466

               CompuServe: 71643,1517

               Syntax: ZIPMAK <makfile> [<zipfile>]
                       <zipfile> defaults to same name
                       as makfile except it has .ZIP
                       extension.

                 Note: ZIPMAK will also zip the files
                       listed in ZIPMAK.LST if it exists.


Background
----------

ZIPMAK was created to facilitate multi-site team development with
Visual Basic.  A typical team approach to Visual Basic development
is to have one person responsible for one set of forms and modules,
another person responsible for another set, and so on.  As people
complete development iterations, the lastest levels of the parts are
generally collected at a central location, merged, then redistributed.
This process is most efficient when the developers send only the parts
that changed since the last merge to the central location. That's
where ZIPMAK comes in:

>>> ZIPMAK zips only the project files that changed since the last
>>> time you ran ZIPMAK.


ZIPMAK Distribution Files
-------------------------

README     - this file
ZIPMAK.EXE - the ZIPMAK utility executable
ZIPMAK.MAK - dummy MAK file used to zip the ZIPMAK distribution files
ZIPMAK.LST - ZIPMAK.LST file used to zip the ZIPMAK distribution files


Installation
------------

Copy ZIPMAK.EXE to any directory on your path.  ZIPMAK uses PKZIP(tm)
to do its compression.  You can substitute the archiver of your choice
by creating a batch file named PKZIP.BAT and placing it in a directory
on your path.  If you create a PKZIP.BAT, it will receive two parameters:

1) target archive file, in form <filename>.ZIP
2) next file to archive, in form <filename>.<extension>

Note: PKZIP is a registered trademark of PKWARE Inc.


Operation
---------

- Run ZIPMAK within your project directory.

- ZIPMAK creates a DBF/CDX file pair (table/index respectively)
  to keep track of your project files.

- Each time you run ZIPMAK, it reads your .MAK file to find the
  files that make up your project.  It compares the current date/time
  stamps of the files with the date/time stamps of the files recorded
  the last time ZIPMAK was run.  Any file that was updated since last
  time is zipped into an archive file.

  Note: ZIPMAK can only monitor project files for one project per
        directory.

- ZIPMAK zips only *.FRM, *.FRX, and *.BAS files.  VBXes, DLLs, etc.,
  are ignored.

- You can have ZIPMAK handle additional files for you by putting their
  names in a file named ZIPMAK.LST.  ZIPMAK.LST must be in your project
  directory in order to be found by ZIPMAK.


Sample Use
----------

The following command zips the files from MYPROJ.MAK into MYPROJ.ZIP
and primes the ZIPMAK database for this project.


C:\MYPROJ\ZIPMAK MYPROJ


To zip subsequent changes made to MYPROJ, just reissue the preceeding
command.


You can zip to an archive with a different name.  For instance, the
following command zips the updated files from MYPROJ to VER0501A.ZIP:


C:\MYPROJ\ZIPMAK MYPROJ VER0501A


ZIPMAK.ZIP was created by issuing the following command:

ZIPMAK ZIPMAK ZIPMAK

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


We hope you find this utility useful.
