Category : File Managers
Archive   : MIMENU.ZIP
Filename : HISTORY.DOC

 
Output of file : HISTORY.DOC contained in archive : MIMENU.ZIP
The following list a brief history description of each version of MIMENU.

1.0 - 1.5 These versions were written in dBase III with the Quick Silver
compiler. The final version 1.5 ran extremely well but due to the
Quick Silver compiler, the program size was extremely large (slightly
under 300K). I kept feeling something could be done to change this.

2.0 My first attempt at rewriting the dBase version into Turbo C using a
CXL library set for special windows and functions.

2.1 Cleaned up several minor bugs and added the "S" command for viewing a
computers system configuration. Also added mouse support, but could
only achieve support with mouse replacing the arrow keys.

2.2 Improved the mouse support with a better point and shoot cursor. This
allowed me to redesign the mouse pulldown menus and gave a Next and
Prev box to substitute for PgUp/PgDn keys.

2.3 Cleaned up one bug that caused an occasional duplicate page to be created
when a menu page was deleted.

2.4 Added new and improved features which include:
- Goto ("G" command) changed the way to select menu page to goto.
Select either by arrow keys or by mouse pointer.

- New built in quick macros for commonly used DOS commands. Pressing
the key will display a list of function key macros on bottom
line. F1 thru F8 are preset, while F9 and F10 can by changed through
the Modify command.

- Modify ("M" command) has the following changes:
-- First screen now allows the key to end editing.
-- Added a new area on first screen to input data for two user
defined function key macros (F9 and F10).
-- Second screen now allows the mouse to select items and colors.
will also end editing.

- The mouse pulldown menus can now be released by pressing or
by pressing the right mouse button.

- Edit ("E" command) changed the edit window to expand when cursor
enters the Path field. This expanded window now shows the extra
characters available for this field. The F1 help will still explain
each character in more depth.

- Corrected a couple misspellings in the program.

- I believe a problem of an incompatible older mouse driver (pre
version 4.01 Logitech) has been corrected to now allow this mouse
driver to display its cursor at startup.

- Password encryption was changed. Previous version could loose file
data if computer was turned off in the middle of it reading in the
old PASSWORD.DAT file.

2.41 Fixed a minor error with the new window that displays the special edit
characters for the choice path. The "%" character was left off.

Also had several instances when the program locked up or aborted
abnormally. Haven't isolated the cause which seams to appear during
or right after an editing function. Have now compiled using Turbo C's
HUGE memory module, which hopefully will prevent this problem again.

2.42 - 1 Sep 90 - Corrected the Function key DIR command which occasionally
displayed garbage on the screen after the file names found.

Also corrected a couple incorrect instructions in the help file.

2.5 - 7 Dec 90 - Added a new feature of being able to run an external
screen saver program instead of just the built in screen saver routine.

2.6 - 12 Feb 91 - Added new features and did some streamlining to tighten
up the code for a smaller product.

Features Changed:
The built in function key DOS command window was changed to a pop up
window in the middle of the screen instead of along the bottom. This
gave a more readable screen window.

Modify screen was changed since it was beginning to become to cluttered.
I changed the "M" screen to go first to a menu to select the area you
want to change. This also put the passwords on a separate screen to
keep peeking eyes over your shoulder from seeing the passwords while
you might be doing other changes.

The PASSWORD.DAT file and DEFAULT.DAT files have been merged into one
file, now called MI-RUN.CFG. A program CONVERT.EXE is included to
automatically change these files and delete the old files (and itself)
to save you disk space.

Features Corrected:
The Extended Memory was corrected on the "S" screen to not display any
memory for non AT type computers. XT's and others were returning
erroneous values.

Features Added:
A new default entry has been added to the modify screen to select if
you want MIMENU to return back to the last menu choice. If set to
a "Y", the last menu page and choice on any set of menu pages will
be set as the starting position. Normal exit with "Q" will always
start MIMENU back to the first page and first menu choice. Thanks
to Michael Valdez and Bob Swentor for making this request.


2.7 - 28 May 91 - Corrected a few minor problems that developed since the
last version.

Features Corrected:
Corrected a problem with the built in Format command that caused
problems with some computers with only a single 360k drive. It
would not retain the pop up window to select from.

Features Added:
The capability to provide a longer submenu filename. Now you can
place your submenus on other drives or directories. Before, if
a submenu filename (with path directory) was greater than eight
characters long, it caused unexpected results (usually it thought
it was in the process of a Copy command). A submenu filename can
now be no greater than 40 characters.


2.8 - 25 Aug 91 - Corrected a few minor problems and added features.

Features Corrected:
Corrected a problem with the pop up function keys requesting a
password if the choice currently highlighted required a password.
Now the Shift-Functions only require a password if the password
required choice in the password modify screen has been set to 'Y'.
Fixed help screen for GOTO window. Didn't like wording and GOTO
help information was not being displayed when GOTO window was
opened.


2.9 - 4 Oct 91 - Added new feature.

Added capability to the "G"oto command to allow the menu choice to
be selected by pressing the menu page number also. The help
screen was also updated to reflect this change.

3.0 - 26 Nov 91 - Minor update.

Changed last menu choice return feature. Now you can make MIMENU
start at any menu choice by supplying the command of:

MENU filename page choice (Example: MENU GAMES 1 3 would start
with the GAMES submenu file on page 1 with menu choice 3 highlighted.)
I did not like the first way I attempted to do this since shutting off
the computer while a program was being ran caused MIMENU to restart
back at the exited menu choice (even if its a few days later.) Now
each time you start MIMENU with the "M" batch file command from DOS,
MIMENU will start back up with the first page of the main menu.

MIMENU will now delete at program start, the DEFAULT.BAT file it created
when it last left. This will prevent an accidental program restart if
MIMENU has an abnormal abort due to a DOS command failure.

3.0a - 24 Dec 91 - Minor update.

My example above using the GAMES would not work without using the ".DAT"
extension for the file name. This has now been fixed (the extension
is now optional).

MIMENU can now also go to selected menu pages and choice by adding the
page number and menu choice after the menu name.
(Example: %GAMES 1 3 will load the GAMES menu set of pages and go
to page 1 and menu choice 3.) If the menu file is not present,
MIMENU will create the menu file as before but, along with the choice
"0" being set to return back to the main menu, choice "9" will be set
to return to the calling menu file page and number. You can then
remove either one of these choice that you might not want.

3.1 - 2 Jun 92 - Minor update.

Features Corrected:
Corrected a problem with the built in Format command that would
not format High Density disks properly with newer DOS versions since
3.x. Format should now be done properly.

Eliminated the CONVERT.EXE file that was included to update older
versions of MIMENU. If still needed, you will have to find a previous
version to use that file. This will help reduce the size in the
compressed file.




  3 Responses to “Category : File Managers
Archive   : MIMENU.ZIP
Filename : HISTORY.DOC

  1. Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!

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