
*  MaxFile/PM Version 1.24  *

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.

Certain required files will get over-written, but for any REXX scripts that are
present in the distribution archive AND in the selected install directory you
will be asked if it is okay to over-write them.

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.             *
    *********************************************************************

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
        MAXFMPM.INI
        EXECDOS.EXE
        MAXFMPM.INF  (Not absolutely needed, but does come in handy.)
        MSGAPI32.DLL

  The rest are just examples and the documentation files.

===============================================================================

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.

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.

11-26-94

    Cleaned up the All Files List generator a bit so long file
    descriptions would line up correctly. At the same time added a New
    Files List generator. Currently the New Files List is limited to
    files received within the last 15 days.

11-25-94

    Introduced a new command line switch; "/FIX", it allows you to get
    to the settings notebook so that you can enter your registration
    information after the evaluation period is over.

    *Killer* new feature.. :-) New menu option on the FILES.BBS Window
    Context Menu; Descriptions->Scan Docs... This one will extract all
    the documentation files it can find in an archive and allow you to
    browse through the first 8k of them to select and copy text for a
    description. (I was asked for this one a LONG time ago, never could
    figure out how to do it until now..)

11-24-94

    Download counters should now be safe when cleansing or formatting
    descriptions.

11-23-94

    Moved "Default Description" setting from Main Pg 2 to Main Pg 3 in
    the settings notebook to make room for the new FileList Margin
    setting.

    New configuration option; FileList Margin. It adds yet another twist
    to the way file descriptions are handled. If an Extended Description
    Marker is defined this setting is IGNORED. However, if no ED Marker
    is defined and FileList Margin is greater than zero, file
    descriptions are allowed to be upto 1024 characters. MaxFile/PM acts
    very much the same way that it does when an ED Marker is defined,
    with one exception. When a FILES.BBS is written, each extra line of
    a file description is padded with _FileList Margin_ characters to
    make them line up when the description is displayed on the BBS. If
    this setting is zero, descriptions are limited to 255 characters and
    no special handling is performed when the FILES.BBS is written.

    Mark Zembrzuski (hope I spelled that right Mark) suggested this.

    Added a check box to the "Format Descriptions" popup, "Cleanse".
    This allows you to perform an automatic cleanse (same as
    Descriptions->Cleanse from the FILES.BBS Window context menu) when
    you perform a Descriptions->Format. (Elliott? :-)

11-18-94

    Found and fixed a long standing memory leak in the ReadFILESBBS()
    code. I found this while I was rewriting this function to handle
    long file descriptions.

11-14-94

    MaxFile/PM is now a year old and still going strong! :-)

11-13-94

    Modified the behaviour (IOW, removed a kludge) in the GetDIZ() code
    so it only attempts a single extraction of FILE_ID.DIZ files on any
    single archive. Info-ZIP users, you really should upgrade to UnZip
    version 5.12 if you haven't done so already and use the -C modifier
    to remove case-sensitivity.

    Added two new long-awaited menu items, on the File Area window
    Context menu; Find Area... and on the FILES.BBS Context menu;
    Files->Find... With them you can type in an area name or filename,
    MaxFile/PM will find it and then scroll it into view for you in
    their respective windows.

    Added another REXX command script to the distribution archive. It
    will clear the INI entries in the OS2.INI user file that OS/2
    creates to store the presentation parameters for MaxFile/PM's
    windows.

    You can now set file announcement messages generated in a FILES.BBS
    window or a REXX script with the DIRECT attribute.

    New menu item on the FILES.BBS context menu; Files->Send. You can
    use this item to send a brief message with files attached.

    REXX command script added to process inbound TIC files. TICK.ZIP is
    now included in the distribution archive. To use it, unzip it into
    your MaxFile/PM directory. Please look at the file and read the
    comments at the beginning. You'll have to change some things to make
    it work on your system.

11-12-94

    Fixed a problem in WriteFILESBBS() that was causing only linefeeds
    to be written instead of CR/LF pairs when writing out multiple line
    descriptions to a FILES.BBS file.

10-14-94

    Removed debug code from ExecAndWait() function. This removes the
    message box that presents the "Bad RC" message. You will still be
    notified of errors with spawning archivers, but only if it is a
    serious error that requires your attention.

    "Remove Items", orphaned file entries (entry in FILES.BBS with no
    file in the download directory) can now be removed when you select
    to "Remove Entries and Files." Purge missing will perform the same
    operation.

    Phillip Perlman brought the above items my attention.

    Tweaked menu handling code.

10-05-93

    The number of significant characters for a duplicate file search can
    be configured now. Look for it in the Settings Notebook on Main -
    Page 2.

10-01-94

    Modified the behaviour of "Remove Items", when you choose to remove
    only entries, the old behaviour was to remove the entry for a file
    from the FILES.BBS window. This has been changed to show the file,
    which is still present, as an orphaned file (this is the way it
    should have been in the first place.) Comments are still handled in
    the old fashion.

    Added another option to the FILES.BBS window Context Menu, "Select All
    Files". It selects all files in a FILES.BBS window that are not orphans.

09-28-94

    Added "Files->Purge Dupes" to the FILES.BBS window Context Menu.
    This item scans through a FILES.BBS window and purges duplicate
    entries based on filenames. Useful when a TICK processor adds an
    entry for a file that already exists (during a replace, etc..)

09-27-94

    Added another option to the File Area window Context Menu, "Create
    FREQ List..." This option allows you to create a list of directories
    for mailers that use an OKFILE.* for file requests.

    Added "Files->Remove Missing" to the FILES.BBS window Context Menu.
    It searches through a FILES.BBS window and removes orphaned file
    entries.

    The download counter string is now configurable, it is on Main -
    Page 3 with the rest of the adopt options.

09-26-94

    Added a few more options to the File Area window Context Menu; "Edit
    REXX Macro..." this option allows you to create/edit REXX scripts by
    calling on your favorite editor from inside MaxFile/PM. And "Details
    View", this option will allow you to either have a full details
    view or just the area tag of the file areas displayed in the Main
    File Area window. A checkmark is used show which view is in effect
    (you should be able to figure it out by looking at the container...)
    When checked; details view is in effect, otherwise the view is text.

09-25-94

    *Finally* cleaned up dupe check results. Duplicate files are now
    only listed once like they should be, in alphabetical order.

    Rearranged the Settings notebook, the Adopt page has been renamed to
    Main - Pg 3 (more for consistency than anything else.) At the same
    time, added two new configuration items. For "Remove Items" you can
    now set a default action, options selectable are; "Prompt",
    "Entries" and "Entries and Files." For "Descriptions->Copy" you can
    now configure whether or not you want the (xx of xx) counter
    appended to the end of the copied description.

    "Copying" files and/or comments can now be accomplished via Drag and
    Drop. Hold the CTRL key down while you are dragging file or comment
    objects, when dropped on either the Main File Area window or on a
    FILES.BBS window, the objects will get copied to the destination and
    the original objects will be left intact.

    Most of the above was suggested by Michael Roedeske.

    Also found a small bug related to FILE_ID.DIZ extraction, some
    archives come with the read only attribute set on the files in the
    archive. This bit is now removed from any _extracted_ FILE_ID.DIZ's
    so that they can be deleted when no longer needed.

09-21-94

    Changed 'Extract To...' to only ask for the directory to extract
    files to once. All the archives selected will get expanded into the
    same directory. The earlier behaviour of asking for each file was
    locking up the WPS when a display driver of 640x480/256 colors or
    greater was being used (buggy drivers, not my code!)

09-14-94

    Added code to "peek" the termQ before actually doing a read on the
    termQ, this was done to fix a trap that occured under 2.11 in some
    instances when MaxFile/PM has to wait on an executable to finish.

    Make sure that you are using a display driver that is certified as
    compatible with the version of OS/2 that you are running. I found
    out the hard way that using the WD 640x480 256 color driver that
    comes with 2.10 will NOT work reliably with 2.11, it was causing
    MaxFile/PM to lock the WPS up tight after spawning an external
    process and waiting for it.

09-12-94

    Registration incentives (nag dialogs) have been removed so that
    interested parties may fully evaluate the performance of the
    program. The usage timer still ticks away, though.. Through Scott
    Dudley's generousity, I am now including MSGAPI32.DLL in the
    distribution archive for those who don't run Squish.

08-30-94

    Added a ^aMSGID kludge to file announcements so that some of the
    brain-dead mail readers would show the correct address for the
    message (they were -incorrectly- looking for a MSGID to obtain the
    origination address for the message.) Also fixed the incorrect date
    stamps for them in the process.

