Support is offered in two conferences at present, these being N.SUP.AUTOMAGIC
in NeST, and T_NETDEV in TurboNet. The program is distributed in EST_NETWARE,
and beta releases go through the beta chain echo AM_BETA.

I can be contacted by email to David J. Thomas at 2:442/600@fidonet.org,
90:103/103@nest.ftn, 100:104/0@turbonet.ftn, or as davtom@dream.embassy.co.uk.
My address for paper mail is currently 56 Forrest Road, CARDIFF, CF5 1HQ, UK
until October/November 1994. In most cases, the support echo should be used in
preference to contacting me privately, since this will allow other people to
reply as well, and may facilitate a quicker reply.

The version of MakeDiff that I publish is always obtainable via file request
for 'MAKEDIFF' from my board.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass
Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. The document explains the terms and conditions
under which you may use and distribute this package.

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

+--- 11 Aug 1994 -- Version 1.15 - 100307 bytes
| -- Use of the GNU General Public License
|This is the first release of MakeDiff under the terms of the GNU General
|Public License. In order to facilitate this, a few changes have been made:
|  (a) Keys are no longer required for use of the program. The key detection
|      code has therefore been removed, and this appears to have shaved 6k from
|      the object code!
|  (b) The source is of course being distributed along with the program.
| -- Improvement
|New CRC routines have been installed. These have been written in machine code,
|so I hope that they will offer some speed improvement over the older, BASIC
|version. I checked the output with an older version before 'going to press.'

+--- 26 Feb 1994 -- Version 1.14 - 106282 bytes
| -- IMPORTANT!!! New keys required
|Everybody must have a new key for MakeDiff before they can run this program,
|these will be supplied by myself or Al Petersen to you. I cannot send to
|everybody in a night, so please have patience. For now there is little change
|from version 1.13, so you can run that version until you receive a new key.
|Note that the key for MakeDiff is _not_ the same as that for AutoFile.
|You should add into your control file(s) your name as Name <name> as you
|specified when you registered, and your key as Key <key>. Both are case
|insensitive.
| -- Bug (Al Petersen)
|There was a problem with the date (viz. it was coming up as Sat Jan 36, 1994)
|in version 1.121, I suspect that the correction in 1.13 took care of this
|since I could not reproduce the bug.
| -- Change
|The ^PID line in netmails isn't required and has been removed. Also the
|registration number is not quoted in this release. (Everyone will have new
|numbers soon.)

+---  3 Jan 1994 -- Version 1.13 - 108353 bytes
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood)
|The 'day-of-the-year' numbers went haywire in earlier versions! I think they
|are OK now.

+---  5 Oct 1993 -- Version 1.121 - 112445 bytes
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|A slight problem with the key validation code was corrected.

+---  4 Oct 1993 -- Version 1.12 - 112438 bytes
|This release needs ALL keys issued with serial numbers from 1000 onwards to be
|updated. Please do not install this version of MakeDiff if you have not
|received an updated key, but instead, contact the support board.
| -- Change
|MakeDiff now searches through the netmail base at a much faster rate. (Take
|note for TMail, Ben -- that's what I mean by SPEED <grin>)

+---  1 Mar 1993 -- Version 1.11 - 109672 bytes
| -- Bug (Mick Coleman)
|Problem with detecting the screen length in columns, which caused the program
|to go into an infinite loop, should now be resolved.
| -- Bug
|The logging routines were slightly problemmatic. They should be all right now,
|and the entire entry of each log should now be displayed, even if it exceeds
|the screen width. Hopefully this change will solve Mick's problem.
| -- Bug (Mark Butler)
|Problem with importing the nodelist segments of hubs, these were regarded as
|not being of a net/region/zone and the whole segment was chucked out.
| -- New feature
|If MakeDiff is invoked with the parameter -R, then it will send a report to
|your nodes listing their node number, node name, location, etc as listed in
|your (or your hub's) segment. The reports use the same netmail priority as
|ConfRec (but if "None" is specified for ConfRec then the netmails are given
|Hold status). This reporting stops when either the zone number or net number
|changes. This option is not available for hubs. It is intended for use by
|coordinators at regular intervals, for example maybe twice or three times a
|year. Certainly not for everyday use, otherwise you might annoy your
|downlinks!
|When using this mode, any new segments will be imported, but no other
|processing will occur.

+---  8 Oct 1992 -- Version 1.10 (general release)
| -- New feature
|I am completely fed up with the lack of shareware registrations received for
|this program. Therefore, it now REQUIRES a key. I will personally send out
|full keys that are purchased. If somebody wants a demo key, it will function
|for 28 days only and is available by using AMKEYREQ, the AutoMagiKey Request
|program.
|People that have already registered must rename MAKEDIFF.KEY or AUTOMATI.KEY
|to AUTOMAGI.KEY before this, and future releases of MakeDiff, will function.
|I have removed the time delay that used to be present, since I hope that
|people will now register this product. If they don't, then it can always be
|re-enabled.

+---  3 Oct 1992 -- Version 1.092<beta> (restricted release)
| -- Bug
|Program failed if the control file did not exist.
| -- Bug
|If NoLog was used, the bar was still displayed at the beginning. Why does
|nobody tell me these things?...
| -- New feature
|AutoFilePath <path_to_AutoFile> allows you to designate where the HATCH file
|will be written.
| -- Bug
|%Y and %D options were not working properly.
| -- Bug
|If logging a line that was more than 69 characters, the program failed. Now it
|reads the width of the screen at startup, and this means that you can now even
|run the program in low resolution ;-)
| -- Bug
|If more than one % parameter was included in AutoFile or AutoDiff then the
|description was truncated on the left hand side.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|More than one space in the descriptions were converted to one. Underscores
|(_) will be replaced with spaces now.

+--- 29 Sep 1992 -- Version 1.091<beta> (restricted release)
| -- Update on Bug (Daron Brewood) of Version 1.09
|The error wouldn't have occurred if the Bink parameter was not used in the
|control file. I would like to remind you all NOT to use Bink or The-Box if
|Submit isn't used, in your control file. Anyway, if you don't remember, the
|program will now remind you. <grin>
| -- Change
|I've made the logging consistent. Some log lines which weren't very important
|were being given a higher priority than more important ones. Of course this
|matter is subjective, but I think that it's pretty good now. For a pretty full
|report of what's happening, use at least LogLevel 4.
| -- New feature for AutoFile 0.08<beta> or later
|In conjunction with AutoFile, it is now possible to have files automatically
|sent into file echoes. Whilst this could have been done before with the
|AutoSend parameter in AutoFile, this only allowed for a fixed description
|(unless you change it each week). This doesn't look too good! So...
|The new parameters are:
|AutoFile <area> <description>
|and
|AutoDiff <area> <description>
|Translations used in the <description> field are as follows:
|%D - Current Day number of the month (1-31)
|%I - Nodelist Issue number
|%J - Julian Day number (001-366)
|%M - Current Month (January, February etc)
|%Y - Current Year (e.g. 1992)
|%% - %
|If producing anything other than a Distribution, just use AutoFile and the
|file that would normally be submitted will be placed in the echo; else if
|producing a Distribution, the archived file (or the normal file if archives
|are not being produced) will be sent in the AutoFile area, and the difference
|file will only be sent in AutoDiff if AutoDiff is specified.
|This can only work with AutoFile because the program produces a file HATCH
|which AutoFile reads. At present, AutoFile hasn't been released to the general
|public, so please contact me for details of the program.

+--- 11 Sep 1992 -- Version 1.09 (restricted release)
| -- Bug (Joerg Spilker)
|After program exit, screen length was set to 25 lines whatever screen size was
|being used. MakeDiff will now use the entire screen no matter what the size of
|it (i.e. you could be using a Moniterm monitor), and restore it correctly at
|the end, assuming that the Line-A variable table is correctly set up. If you
|do experience any problems, include the "NoBar" control in your control file,
|and contact me, because I lack the facilities to debug this.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|If attempting to use the default outbound directory in BinkleyTerm mode, the
|program was creating another directory with the same name, and an extension
|.000. The program currently looks for the outbound directory with an extension
|of the hex zone number specified in the Submit statement (if specified), and
|if this exists then this will be used, in BinkleyTerm mode; otherwise it looks
|for the outbound directory specified. If this doesn't exist then it will be
|created.

+--- 29 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.08
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|The first line of a segment was being replaced by the program, and as a
|result, MakeDiff was reporting a fatal error.
| -- Bug
|Copyright, Head and Tail no longer work with anything but a distribution. I
|was intending for the three files to be used to write comments into the
|segment update for inclusion in the log of your coordinator, but this seems
|to have caused a lot of hassle, and if you want to inform your coordinator of
|anything then this is easily done in netmail.
| -- New feature
|In case you use environment variables to specify default directories for
|operations by archivers, any environment specified will now be sent to any
|program launched by MakeDiff.
| -- Bug
|Ordinary segments were being treated as erroneous where the entire name was
|not in upper case.

+--- 26 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.07<beta>
| -- Bug
|A few certain types of error were not getting eliminated properly with the
|previous version.
| -- New feature
|You can include the control NoBar if you don't want the E..F type bar at the
|bottom of the screen to appear, could speed things up and stops the Line A
|parameters being interfered with.
| -- New feature
|The program checks for lo-rez at startup, and requests a change to an 80-
|column mode if lo-rez is being used when MakeDiff is called.
| -- New feature
|The automated error update full file request has been extended to request a
|new file in the report netmail sent to indicate an error, now if any errors
|occur which haven't previously been trapped then the file will be resent by
|the "bad" node automatically. Note that if this was a password error then a
|feedback loop will occur, so you should check the log report for problems of
|this sort if you use passwords.
| -- Bug
|When copying a file to the bad files directory, the file was deleted before it
|was moved. Also an incorrect filename was passed to the function during the
|processing of generic filenames.
| -- New feature
|When using a mailer, if a list of files to send to the submit node is present,
|the program will now check through them to see that the file isn't already
|waiting to go out; if it is, then it will not add the filename to the list
|again, since it's already there, thus preventing a duplication.
| -- New feature
|It is now mandatory that networks who include more than one entry for a Type
|of the same hierarchy, specify EqualHier in their control files. This option
|is designed for TurboNet, which sometimes has many nets in the same Type Net
|segment, for example. It should be disabled for "proper" operation, otherwise
|a fatal error will occur upon every program execution.
| -- New feature
|It is now mandatory that the network level be specified in the control file,
|e.g. "Type NET4001 90:4001/0" should be changed to "Type NET4001 90:4001/0
|N4001". This is now part of the final error-checking routine. An option is
|that a password can now be placed on the line, if this is done then it must be
|at the end of the line, and preceded by !, e.g. "Type REGION1 R1 !PASSWORD".
|This is not case sensitive, but should only contain letters and/or numbers. It
|should not be included in the case of reading a pure data file (the *
|parameter) where someone is using a text editor, and for some reason cannot
|run MakeDiff; it also should not be used if the remote uses software that
|doesn't support passwords, e.g. versions of MakeDiff below 1.07.
| -- New feature
|Correspondingly with the above, it is now possible to specify "Password" to
|indicate the password used by yourself and your coordinator; in this case, the
|exclamation mark should NOT be included. (This does not apply in the case of a
|distribution nodelist.)
| -- Bug
|Error lines written by non-local nodes were not included in the output.
| -- New feature
|Automatic error update full file request is now completely implemented. If a
|netmail from MakeDiff to Coordinator with a subject line of "Request for X"
|exists, where X is the name of your segment (e.g. REGION10), which has the
|origin address of your "Submit" and the destination address of your "Address"
|then this will be deleted, and a full file or an archive file (NOT a
|difference file) will be submitted immediately. If more than one netmail
|exists that fulfills the above conditions, they will all be deleted. If test
|mode would normally be invoked, an override will occur and process mode will
|automatically be initiated, unless test mode has been forced from the command
|line.
| -- New feature
|If specified directories don't exist, these are created by MakeDiff. If
|specified drives don't exist, MakeDiff will issue an error report. Previously
|the program would just exit with errorlevel 254, not giving any hint as to the
|reason why.
| -- Bug (John Carolin)
|The MaxLine statement was not being read, instead "MaxList" was being read.
|To avoid confusion, the new version accepts both verbs.
| -- Bug (John Carolin)
|Apparently The-Box's equivalent of FLO files are named *.HF and *.IF, not
|*.CF, *.NF and *.WF like the guy originally told me! This error is now
|hopefully corrected.. !!

+--- 20 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.06
| -- Problem
|As it stood, MakeDiff 1.05b did not run on 1 megabyte systems, or smaller,
|without a MaxLine control existing in the control file. Therefore I have
|decreased the default to 5,000, which requires about 130Kb of data space. I
|have also done away with one of the arrays, since it is no longer needed.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Various comment lines from the Tail, and possibly other, files included
|verbatim were not added.

+--- 18 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.05b
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|File copying was again causing problems, I have resorted to a method much more
|similar to the original one where files are loaded into an array. The program
|does not attempt to copy any binary files, so I don't expect any problems with
|this method. The "CopySpace" parameter is once again removed.
| -- Bug
|The latest segment was not always selected, and the correct segments were not
|always deleted (anything in Update when in process mode, plus any file 2 weeks
|old in Master).
| -- New feature
|You can now specify a "MaxLine" control, where you can indicate the maximum
|number of lines that can be processed by MakeDiff. This is limited to 32,768.
|That is also the default; if you have memory problems then try and reduce this
|amount. The program will now cope very well with files the size of FidoNet
|nodelists on a 4 meg machine; I cannot vouch for the performance of the
|program on smaller platforms.

+--- 16 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.05a (not released through the file echo)
| -- Bug
|Various problems with Malloc and RESERVE prevented the manufacture of
|difference files in the previous version.
| -- Bug
|The program was attempting to validate a subset, which of course is completely
|unnecessary. This was preventing proper execution. The problem is now fixed.

+--- 15 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.05
| -- New feature (John Carolin)
|The program now uses the upper 24 lines of the screen for logging purposes,
|and the remaining line is kept for the indicator, now. This has been
|graphically done now, although the program is still a .TOS and does not use
|GEM (except that the compiler may issue an appl_init() and appl_exit(); if
|this occurs then GEM doesn't seem to mind).
| -- New feature
|It is now possible to control the priority at which requests for non-existent
|files are written, with the control "ConfNoSeg"; this has the same syntax as
|that of ConfError and ConfRec. This defaults to the same as ConfRec. Also the
|program now checks for existence of all files in test mode.
| -- New feature
|The CopySpace control has now been reinstated.
| -- New feature
|It is now possible to control the allocation of private nodes. You should
|modify your config as follows:
|If you don't wish to allow your segment, nor any segments written below you,
|to have any private nodes, add the keyword "NoPrivate" to your file.
|If you wish to allow complete access to private nodes in your segment and all
|segments written below you, leave your control file as it is.
|If you want to keep only those Private nodes that have been authorised by
|yourself, add "Private zone:net/node [zone:net/node [zone:net/node [...]]]"
|into the control file, and only those nodes which have been allowed Private
|status by yourself will be kept in the nodelist; the others will have a line
|stating "Unauthorised private node" and be commented out. Of course, you
|should ensure that all coordinators above yourself also allow the private
|node.
|I personally recommend the following:
|1) If a network is completely "open" with regard to assignment of private node
|numbers, obviously nobody should use the "Private" or "NoPrivate" controls.
|2) If a network allows authorised private nodes only, the following should be
|taken as a guide:
|  a. If you are a *C who is required to validate Private nodes, you use the
|     "Private" or "NoPrivate" keyword, whichever is appropriate.
|  b. If you are not required to validate Private nodes, you allow all Private
|     nodes through into your own listing, and don't use either keyword.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|The program would not report certain errors in the local segment when running
|in test mode.

+--- 10 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.04<beta> (restricted release)
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|Report netmail indicating any errors in received segments was empty.
| -- New feature
|Where a file has been processed correctly, the confirmation netmail produced
|by MakeDiff is now considerably shorter. Various changes have been made to
|MakeDiff's output to facilitate a change in the future where MakeDiff will be
|able to communicate with other copies of itself to inform them of errors, and
|this will mean even less for the human operator to do.
| -- New feature (Ben Van Bokkem)
|There is not much point in having two copies of the same file hanging around,
|which will have been the case if you produce a distribution up until now;
|these being the file produced in the Master folder, and the file produced in
|the Nodelist folder. MakeDiff will now create the file in the Nodelist
|directory only, if the "Nodelist" control is used and a Distribution nodelist
|is being maintained.
| -- Sort of a bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|If MakeDiff errored out when creating a nodelist, the files from the Update
|directory were moved to the Master directory. Those with generic filenames
|given the extension of the next nodelist date. The program now checks for
|these before those files bearing the extension of the last nodelist date
|first, in the Master folder, thus preventing data loss from two successive
|faulty runs of MakeDiff.
| -- New feature
|MakeDiff will now request an update file from a coordinator if a segment from
|that coordinator doesn't exist at the system, this is sent with the same
|priority as error report netmails, and occurs in Process mode.
| -- New feature
|Subject line of confirmation netmail now takes the form "FILE.EXT received -
|OK" or "FILE.EXT received - ERROR", indicating the status of the received file
|quickly to anyone using the LED List option.
| -- Bug
|Whilst trying to compile the difference file between REGION25.213 and
|REGION25.220 I found that MakeDiff simply froze up with it's infamous
|continuous placement of the C0 diff line, I think I've finally got the
|difference file creation routine right! If it can do parts of the FidoNet
|nodelist well then I am pretty confident that it's in working order.
| -- Change
|When "Bink" or "The-Box" is specified in the control file, the netmail written
|by previous versions of MakeDiff is no longer written, because there is no
|longer any need for this to be done. This means that the exporter need not be
|run after sending a file, and the errorlevel will of course be set accordingly
|upon program exit.
| -- Change
|"Arc" and "SendArc" controls are doubled now with "Unpack" and "Pack"
|respectively, I think these are more descriptive and the control file will be
|easier to understand. "Arc" and "SendArc" are retained for backward
|compatibility for now; please change your control files to list the new
|parameter.
| -- Change
|"SendDay" keyword dropped. This was supported for backward compatibility only,
|as early versions of MakeDiff used the parameter.
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|It seems that GEMDOS does not like excessive use of the Malloc() and Mfree()
|statements. Either that, or GfA Basic tries to grab more RAM than is
|available sometimes. It caused a general GEMDOS error.
|CopySpace is now deleted. File buffering still exists, but now a fixed buffer
|of 32,000 bytes is allocated whenever there is a need to do a file copy
|operation. The program is now, once again, totally devoid of Malloc() and
|Mfree() system calls.
| -- Bug
|When creating an archive of a nodelist but not creating a difference file, the
|program always reported "No archiver specified" even when an archiver was
|specified; this was not a problem because the archiver would still be called,
|but the misleading error message has been removed now.
| -- Bug
|The routine to change directory had a small bug that prevented proper access
|to a different partition.

+---  6 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.03<beta> (restricted release)
| -- New feature
|A new keyword, NoCheck, will suppress the full 
| -- New feature (John Carolin)
|It is now possible to specify a BinkleyTerm or The-Box setup for mail
|processors that do not correctly interpret the "With File" flag in a netmail,
|this will cause MakeDiff to write a .?LO file for BinkleyTerm systems or a .?F
|file for The-Box systems, where the name of the outbound file will be placed.
|To use this, the Hold directory must be defined (note that this should be the
|stub for BinkleyTerm setups, as it is placed in BINKLEY.CFG, MakeDiff will
|choose the correct outbound directory) and must be different from the Master
|directory. This method does have the advantage that any archive or difference
|file produced will be deleted by the mailer after it has been sent, but if you
|send your updates Crash then you must run the exporter after MakeDiff (if it
|exits with the errorlevel reporting that netmail was written) to send the
|netmail immediately, otherwise an additional crash mail packet will be sent by
|the exporter when it next runs.
|You must specify the keyword "Bink" for BinkleyTerm systems, or "The-Box" for
|The-Box systems. Note that MakeDiff uses the older 3D packet naming
|convention in BinkleyTerm.
| -- Bug
|The program treated all nodes with the "\" character (backslash) in their
|system name, location, and/or sysop name fields as being erroneous due to an
|exclusion of the character in the checking algorithm, this has now been
|rectified.
| -- New feature
|If a Master path is missing, it will be defined as being the current path,
|instead of an error reported. This now works as per the documentation.
| -- Bug
|When there was (at least) one problem with the control file, the program would
|go into an endless loop due to a file already open error. I seem to have fixed
|this, but I don't know how I did it! If it recurs, please let me know.
| -- New feature
|The cursor is now turned on by the program.

+---  5 Aug 1992 -- Version 1.02<beta>
| -- Major Improvement
|The file reader has been given a six-fold boost in speed. This should speed
|things along quite a bit! One side-effect, though, is that files must not
|finish in the middle of a line, except that the program will recognise a ^Z
|(hex 1A) and stop reading a file, as long as it's at the very start of a
|line. If you want to blame someone for that, blame the programmer of GfA
|Basic!
|The advantage in vast increase of speed outweighs the disadvantages brought
|on by slightly decreased reliability in my view. As long as MakeDiff is used
|throughout, there should be no problems.
| -- New feature
|I've added various time indicators at various boring points in the program.
|Whereas before you could be bored off to sleep watching a still screen, now
|you can be bored off to sleep watching # and = signs going about the screen!
|What amazing new stuff is in this release!
| -- New feature
|MakeDiff is now not only useful to coordinators, but is now interesting and
|useful to all with a copy of a nodelist! It can take as input certain parts of
|a nodelist, rather than a fixed segment made from within a text editor, and
|can produce a new nodelist that is a subset of the nodelist it was produced
|from. This is rather interesting, and it's worth spending some time over. The
|control statement that designates this type of operation has the following
|format:
|Subset <path and name of nodelist without extension> <information to include>
|For example, to produce a Zone 2 Region 25 "local" FidoNet nodelist (featuring
|mainly UK nodes) on my system I would use the following command:
|Subset D:\NL\NODELIST R2:25
|This would produce a nodelist as follows:
|;A FidoNet Nodelist for Friday, 31 July, 1992 -- Day number 213 : 12345
|;A This is a subset of the FidoNet Nodelist which contains:
|;A - Region 2 of Zone 25
|;A
|;A The FidoNet(r) Nodelist...
|This would then contain the first "Zone 2" line, a separator, and all lines
|from the "Region,25," line to the first line before the next "Region," line.
|The nodelist produced would be followed by the end of nodelist comments.
|The <information to include> field can contain any number and combination of
|the following:
|Z<zone> - Zone number <zone> and all it's regions and nets
|R<zone>:<region> - Region number <region> in Zone <zone> and all it's nets
|                   (a Zone entry will be included before the region)
|N<zone>:<net> - Net number <net> in Zone <zone> (a Zone and a Region entry
|                will be included before the net)
|It would even be possible to use the following statement:
|Subset NL\TNETLIST Z 100 R 101:13 N 101:163 N 101:164 Z 102 R 101:10
|Also note that the above is equivalent to:
|Subset NL\TNETLIST z100r101:13n101:163n101:164Z102r101:10
|Both are equivalent. The rule is that only the first letter of "Zone",
|"Region" or "Net" is included, and "Region" and "Net" must ALWAYS be followed
|by the zone in which the segment lies.
|Note that this facility needs an up to date nodelist to work, and will not
|work with a nodelist that is more than two weeks old. Also the PublishDay has
|to be set up, if the default Friday is not used by the network.
|As for time taken, it was taking 25 minutes to extract the Region 25 segment
|of the FidoNet NODELIST.213 of this week in the interpreter, which is
|obviously much too long, so a bit of optimisation of code reduced the time to
|a much more acceptable 4 minutes, which whilst still not being fast, is
|certainly usable.
| -- New feature
|Duplicate node numbers are now detected and trapped, unfortunately this
|increases the amount of work space required by 12Kb. If a Host, Region or Zone
|statement is a duplicate then it will be commented out, and all of the nodes
|immediately underneath this one will be assumed to be of the immediately
|preceding net, region or zone.
| -- New feature
|It is now possible to select whether confirmation netmails go out marked as
|Hold, Crash, etc with the two control statements "ConfReceipt" and "ConfError"
|which should be followed by one of None, Hold, Route or Crash. Confirmation of
|receipts can not have a higher priority than confirmation of errors. Both
|default to Route, although it is recommended that Crash be used to confirm
|errors so that the error(s) can be corrected quickly. It is certainly not
|recommended that "ConfError None" be used, as this will prevent MakeDiff from
|reporting errors to submitters.
| -- New feature
|I suppose some people have their setups set to cause earlier MakeDiff versions
|to produce nodelists with two semicolons occupying adjacent lines, this will
|no longer occur, which should save a small amount of space in the output files
|produced.
| -- Bug
|Comments were NOT ignored by MakeDiff, these were included into the nodelist.
| -- New feature
|The errorlevel exits employed by MakeDiff have now been tidied up, and
|documented for the first time, these are as follows:
| 0.....Test mode, no netmail written by the program
| 1.....Test mode, netmail written (normally notification messages)
| 2.....Test mode, general error occurred
| 3.....Process mode, no netmail written
| 4.....Process mode, netmail written (notification and/or file attaches)
| 5.....Process mode, general error occurred
| 254...MakeDiff internal error
| 255...Control file error
|These could be used, for example, to execute ParseLst after processing
|(useful for a distribution compiler), or to selectively export the netmail
|on exit with an errorlevel 1 or 3; I think this is more useful than the
|previous return of an errorlevel indicating only what kind of errors occurred,
|and whether Process mode was invoked or not.
| -- Change
|The CleanUp command now causes the removal of nodelist segments that are two
|weeks old, newer segments are not deleted, so it is possible to use this
|command and process your files more than once in the case of an error. Also
|all files in the update folder are deleted as soon as they have been moved to
|the master folder.
| -- New feature
|Whereas incorrect segments were simply deleted before, now they can be
|recovered from a new directory by use of the Bad keyword. The syntax is the
|same as Master and Update. If a file has errors, then it will be copied to
|the Bad files directory before being deleted.
| -- Improvement
|The copy routine has been improved in terms of speed. There is now a new
|keyword, CopySpace, that MakeDiff reads to allocate an amount of RAM,
|currently dedicated solely for file copying. The value defaults to 32k, but
|if you have out of memory reports from the program then decrease this value;
|on the other hand, if you handle with segments larger than 32k then you may
|wish to increase this value.

+--- 20 Jul 1992 -- Version 1.01 (public release)
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|The new feature added in 1.00 now actually works! The distribution of version
|1.00 was stopped, this will not go through most of EST, as the program had a
|major fault earlier on. Also checking should occur much faster, and certain
|updates are not necessarily written out.

+--- 19 Jul 1992 -- ******* FIRST RELEASE VERSION ******* Version 1.00
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood)
|When a file was received by 0.71, the checking procedure was failing, causing
|a bus error. Now fixed.
| -- New feature (Ben Van Bokkem)
|When a segment hasn't changed, there is no need for the segment to be
|resubmitted unless a full nodelist is being created. MakeDiff will now check
|any existing previous segment, and will only submit a new file (or difference
|file or archive) if there are changes between the previous segment and the
|current one.

+--- 10 Jul 1992 -- Version 0.71<beta>
| -- Note
|This version has not been fully checked. I believe it is in everybody's best
|interests that this version be released, even though it may contain a lot more
|errors than previous versions. If errors do occur then PLEASE REPORT them in
|N_DIFCHAT if you are a member of NeST, or by netmail if you are not (I will
|shortly be proposing that a new echo be started in TurboNet called T_MKDF, for
|similar queries etc to those placed in N_DIFCHAT).
| -- New feature
|If the program has not been registered, then it will now pause for 10s and
|ring the console bell 20 times during this period before beginning execution.
|My apologies for having to introduce this but I need more financial support to
|be able to continue with the program. If this doesn't encourage more people to
|register then I will be adding a requirement for a key to be pressed before
|the program will start processing.
| -- Bug
|Address reporting was not occurring properly.
| -- New feature (Bernd Renzing)
|MakeDiff will accept update files written by hand, without CRC information,
|where somebody for some reason cannot use MakeDiff or a compatible program to
|provide their |nodelist segment. In order that this can occur, MakeDiff must
|be informed; |this is accomplished by appending a star on the File line,
|placed after the type information, specified as follows:
|File HOST441 111:441/0 N441*
|The file written in the Update directory will be of a form that MakeDiff
|would usually write, and the file submitted by the coordinator below should
|just contain the nodelist information, and nothing more.
| -- New feature
|The format of the File statement has now been extended. You can now specify
|the type of data expected from each file. This will be of the following
|format:
|File TWOZONES 43:43/0
|File ZONE45 45:45/0 Z45
|File REGION10 37:10/0 R10
|File HOST234 13:234/0 N234
|File HUB6000 25:253/6000 H6000
|Z specifies that the nodelist segment is a Zone, R that it is a Region, N that
|it is a Net and H that it is a Hub. If no parameter is given, then the file
|will not be checked for validity, other than checking for errors in the file.
|What now occurs is that the file is checked for entries which should not be in
|the supplied update nodelist segments, so for example a Region entry would not
|be allowed in a Net. This already occurs at a local level in the local
|checking, but it would obviously be easy for somebody to change their Type and
|get MakeDiff to produce, for example, a zone nodelist where a region nodelist
|is desired, possibly having undesirable effects. Therefore this is a security
|measure.
| -- Bug
|Where you had a nodelist representation graph such as the following:
| Old Nodelist lines |        /
|                    |    /  /|   /
|                    |   /| / |  /
|                    |  / |/  | /
|                    | /  /   |/
|                    |/       /
|                    0------------- New nodelist lines
|The program kept trying to copy 0 lines again. Now fixed, because it will
|smooth from the start of the nodelist rather than the start of the block.
| -- Bug
|Where the same line occurred twice in the new nodelist but only once in the
|old one, and a difference file was being produced, MakeDiff would occasionally
|try to copy 0 lines again. Now fixed.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|MakeDiff was refusing to produce a difference file; I managed to get it to
|report an error at my end, but other than this, I don't know whether it will
|work on Daron's system because I haven't seen any logs from him of this
|problem.
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|Receiving archives only worked for one archiver type, and only if a SendArc
|statement was used; this is now hopefully rectified.

+--- 23 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.70<beta>
| -- New feature
|MakeDiff now ignores all comments found in segments; that is, all lines
|beginning with ; that are of greater length than one character. This is the
|first stage to implementing password protection in the future.
| -- New feature
|What happens when you've introduced a new node into your net, and want to
|inform the new node of their node number? You can edit the nodelist file
|yourself if your nodelist processor doesn't check the CRC at the top of the
|nodelist while just parsing a nodelist, but it's messy doing it this way, and
|in this age of automation, why would you want to do that?
|Another new control file statement has therefore been added, called Merge.
|When MakeDiff is run in test mode, if the current issue nodelist is found
|then a new nodelist will be created from the local details, and the nodelist,
|which contains the new data; this file has exactly the same name as the
|nodelist, but an extension .000. You can then process this new file instead
|of the old one. This works in whatever mode you are in.
|This option takes time, so it is not enabled by default; you need to include
|the Merge statement in the control file, along with the Nodelist statement
|with the same format as that described below, or just have the Nodelist
|statement in your control file and include the switch '-m' on the command
|line.
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|Whenever you run the program, it now reports any errors found in the local
|segment that you produce in a netmail. In addition to this, the error checking
|has been tightened by an even greater extent; it is now a requirement that you
|have the correct information on the first line, and if you are generating a
|Hub segment, you cannot have any of Hub, Host, Region or Zone in your segment,
|except for the initial Hub entry; if you are generating a Net, you can only
|have Hub entries, not Host, Region or Zone, except for the initial Host entry,
|etc. The program will abort with a fatal error if it finds any of these. You
|can determine this by the errorlevel exit; if 2 or 12, the program has aborted
|for some reason (2 in test mode, 12 in process mode).
| -- New feature (Ben Van Bokkem, Daron Brewood)
|MakeDiff will now automatically update the nodelist of the distributor, with
|the inclusion of the new control file statement Nodelist. This should contain
|the path and generic file name (i.e. no extension) of your nodelist
|directory. MakeDiff will then update your nodelist once per week, and delete
|the old copy. An example of use is Nodelist .\nl\nestlist
| -- Bug (Ben Van Bokkem)
|Still problems with the commandline interpretation of the program causing bus
|error! Now fixed.

+--- 12 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.69<beta>
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|Part of the diff creation technique was failing. This was when a break, as
|I've described below, was present, and the lines that MakeDiff decided to
|include as full in the diff were at the bottom of the file, instead of at the
|top.
| -- Bug
|Only field 6 (phone number) was being checked in the nodelist checking
|routine. I only found this out by chance, when adding the next feature listed.
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|Additional nodelist error checks: Pvt entries must have -Unpublished- in field
|6, and non-Pvt/Hold/Down must not have it in field 6.
| -- Bug
|If no SendArc was specified, it was not possible to create a difference file
|on it's own. This is now rectified.
| -- Bug
|When creating a distribution pair, a nodelist would be archived with the name
|<outlist>.Atm, regardless of the SendArc-type used.
| -- Bug
|If SendArc type is specified in lower case, then the program would exit with
|a bad array index.

+--- 10 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.68<beta>
| -- Bug
|The status log control statement was causing the program to crash if it was
|qualified with a path. I've stopped the release of 0.67 to NeST (as there is
|no point delivering two updates of the same program at the same time).

+---  9 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.67<beta>
| -- Release Keys
|Please delete every single 16-byte key you have, as they are no longer
|required. From this release, the program becomes a Wide Beta version, which
|means that distribution is no longer restricted (except as governed by the
|licencing agreement). Keys are still available for those wishing to register,
|and as an incentive to do this, there is now a short delay when you start the
|program if you have not yet registered, and of course, the netmails produced
|by the program all show Unregistered, but this in no way affects the
|functionality of the program.
| -- Bug (Steven Green)
|The command line bug was not fully corrected in the last issue of the
|program; it is, however, hopefully now completely eradicated. Well, you can
|but hope :-)
| -- Bug (Robert Darling)
|Difference files should not be terminated by 0x1a. This is now fixed. I
|wouldn't normally release a new version with just one small change, but this
|one is very important indeed!

+---  4 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.66<beta>
| -- New feature
|A lot more logging has been added, and I hope people find it useful.
| -- New feature
|Nodelist testing has been extended. Entries at the start of any list that do
|not have a Hub, Host, Region or Zone coordination entry above them are now
|removed, and Private nodes are now not allowed directly under Regions or
|Zones.
| -- Bug
|More fullstops in the names of explicit filenames have been eradicated.
| -- New feature
|The Threshold command can now have two parameters:
|Threshold <arc_min> [<diff_min>]
|The parameters are the minimum size of segment that will invoke archiving,
|followed by the minimum size that will invoke difference file processing.
|Defaults are -1,-1. "Threshold 0 0" will cause an archived difference file to
|be produced at all times. "Threshold 0" will cause an archived full file to
|be produced. "Threshold -1 -1" will disable both archived file production and
|diff production, which is default.
|The first parameter must not be greater than the second parameter, i.e. it
|must be possible to archive before a difference file is created. Less errors
|will result if a full file is received by coordinator, than if a difference
|file is received.
|There are the following new control statements:
|Arc <letter> <archiver_path> <extract_command> will cause the program to look
|for *.<letter>tu or *.<letter>Du in the inbound in addition to *.htu when
|using generic filenames, and if one is found, it will cause the specified
|archiver to be invoked with the command line specified, where % is replaced
|with the filename. The command should be a general extract command that can
|extract all files from an archive.
|SendArc <letter> <compress_command> will cause the archiver listed under
|<archiver_path> for a corresponding Arc statement to be invoked with the
|command line specified, where % is replaced with the archived filename and &
|is replaced with the filename to archive with.
|This now provides support for archivers, which can be very useful. Please note
|that you must have enough memory to run each archiver; if you do not have
|enough memory, then it is advisable to try an archiver that is less
|memory-intensive, e.g. SEA ARC v5 format. The following letters are advised
|for use:
|A for SEA ARC, J for ARJ, L for LHarc, O for ZOO and Z for ZIP.
|Please note that D cannot be used. This is because D is used for difference
|files. All other letters are suitable. The program has only been tested with
|SEA ARC version 6.02ST at present, however I see no reason why it shouldn't
|work with other archivers. If you have problems then try turning Debug on and
|see how much memory you have, or switch to an archiver that doesn't require as
|much storage space.
|FidoNet only uses SEA ARC version 5. This archiver does not compress as well
|as any of the others can. However, if there is a need to support it, then
|depending on whether you use ARC v6+ or not, you would use the 'a' or 'a5'
|command to produce an ARC v5 compatible archive. 'a5' ONLY for v6+.
|The add command does not have to cause the archiver to delete the old file
|after it has been packed. At the end of the process, if the archive exists
|then it will be sent, otherwise the non-archived file will be sent.

+---  3 Jun 1992 -- Version 0.65<beta>
| -- Bug
|There is no possible way of creating a difference file using a single-pass
|algorithm to be the smallest size possible when full generality is considered.
|This is because a line could occur as, say, the 500th line of a previous
|nodelist, with the next occurring also as line 200 of the previous nodelist.
|It may sound unlikely, but it does happen. So which way do we go? Do we skip
|all the lines up to line 500 and add the next one in, or do we add the first
|one in and refrain from skipping the lines?
|I have made an algorithm to correct this problem. It may not produce the
|smallest possible files, but the files it produces are small enough. To
|produce the smallest possible files requires 2^(n-1) calculations, where n is
|the number of overlaps (I've called them blocks). It's possible to get very
|close using a different algorithm that is slightly less efficient but reduces
|the number of diff-size calculations to n-1.
|Please note that as a result, it takes a lot longer time now. I am not happy
|about the speed, and will address the issue after I've added archiver support
|etc. Please be wary of this version, and if it should produce a problem,
|please send me a copy of it's debug logfile (which will now be very big!)
| -- Bug
|I think that the program was enabling the mouse pointer before. That's a
|problem with GfA Basic. I've introduced a HIDEM statement into the code that
|will hopefully get rid of the thing.
|(Don't blame me for GfA Basic!)
| -- Bug (Steven Green)
|If the program was invoked with a command line, MakeDiff crashed without fail.
|I think this was more to do with the GfA Basic compiler, but it should be OK
|now.

+--- 28 May 1992 -- Version 0.64<beta>
| -- Bug
|When a submit address was specified, outgoing files were sent to
|<node>:<net>/<node> instead of <zone>:<net>/<node>.
| -- Bug (Steve Caple)
|The program would fail if lines in the control file were indented. They can
|now be indented properly.

+--- 22 May 1992 -- Version 0.63<beta>
| -- New feature
|All of the % translations usable in the Copyright text file can now also be
|used in the Header text file.
| -- Bug
|When using explicit filenames (those with specified extensions) there were a
|number of occurrences in the log of a file with names like "NEST.UK.108". This
|should be now completely eradicated.
| -- New feature
|Two new command line switches have been added; -P causes automatic initiation
|of process mode, whether it is currently a process day or not; and -T causes
|automatic initiation of test mode, where the program only looks for incoming
|segments and tests them.
| -- Bug (Steve Caple)
|In the case of a small net with no segments, the Update directory being
|undefined was regarded as a fault. Also the program didn't check that the
|Master directory is defined, which should be in ALL control files.
| -- New feature
|The program will now accept ProcessDay as well as SendDay in it's control
|file. Both of these mean the same thing. I think that ProcessDay is more
|descriptive of what actually happens.
|Please change your control files, because SendDay will be dropped soon.
| -- Bug (Steven Green)
|The full path for a file attach should now be provided on the subject line,
|preventing a problem which was occurring where a file was not found when the
|mail processor tossed the netmail area.
| -- Tidying up of code
|The netmail generator has been standardised, with MakeDiff writing a signature
|for each netmail produced and a NUL byte added to the end of the netmail; I
|think that a problem used to exist with ACS which required a NUL byte
|terminator to be added. Also the update file attach documentation has been
|improved, with the filename, size (of difference file and full segment, if
|applicable) and CRC included. I'll be testing this before releasing it.
| -- Bug
|The crashmail sent by the registering process was slightly faulty; that has
|now been rectified.
| -- New feature
|All files produced by MakeDiff now have an end of file marker (hex 1A) added
|at the end of the file. Nothing seemed to be having problems without the added
|character, but since everything else seems to add this character, I added it
|as well, for compatibility's sake.
| -- Bug (Robert Darling)
|Illegal characters with codes greater than 126 or less than 32 were detected
|within various lines of the nodelist, causing problems with processing on
|various platforms. The program now checks for the illegal characters on ALL
|lines, including those with comments, and replaces any "extended" characters
|with question marks (?).
| -- Bug
|The copyright text was not appearing as a complete entity in the difference
|file created at the distribution level. Fixed.

+--- 16 May 1992 -- Version 0.62<beta>
| -- New feature
|Program now checks that a Distribution Nodelist is being created, if an Issue
|statement is in the config.
| -- Bug
|Program was incrementing the number after the Issue statement after every run,
|now fixed so that it does this only when send processing is initiated.
| -- New feature
|Added Automatic Key Request coding, this allows the user to immediately write
|a key request which will then be sent directly to 2:253/600.
| -- New feature
|Added Threshold control statement, which allows you to set the maximum size of
|full submittal file that will be sent before a difference file is sent.
|Defaults to 2048.

+---  6 May 1992 -- Version 0.61<beta>
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|There is now a facility for a nodelist issue number. A new control file
|statement "Issue" has been implemented, and it is to be entered by the user
|as "Issue n", where n is the issue number of the next edition of the nodelist.
|The software will update this once per week, and will add a new parameter
|signifying when the issue number was last updated. To use this in the
|CPYRIGHT.TXT file, specify %I or %i.
| -- New feature (Daron Brewood)
|The serial number report now contains the originating address of the current
|control file, useful for systems acting as more than one coordinator in one
|network or acting in two networks.
| -- New feature
|^APID: line now reports on serial number of copy used, and also it can be
|determined whether the user has registered his/her copy of the program.
|Unregistered copies have a - after the serial number, and registered copies
|have a + in this location. Well, it might encourage people to register :-)
| -- Bug (Bernd Renzing)
|Files sent from a coordinator were addressed to the same type of coordinator,
|e.g. a file contructed by a Region Coordinator, which is sent to the Zone
|Coordinator, was being sent to Region Coordinator on the destination system
|rather than Zone Coordinator. Rather cosmetic, but fixed anyway.
| -- Bug
|When non-generic names were being used, the program would sometimes try to
|make a difference file anyway, and the log reports indicated "FILE.EXT.htm"
|as having been created. Fixed.

+--- 27 Apr 1992 -- Version 0.60<beta>
| -- New feature
|I have added a debug mode. If the command Debug is supplied in the control
|file, the program will open, write and close the log each time it is written.
|Not to be used normally, because it takes longer. This is helpful in the case
|of exceptions causing crashes.
|This facility might be expanded to provide more information in the log file at
|a later stage, which should allow for easier hunting down of errors.
| -- Bugs (Steven Green)
|Problem with attempting to open a previous nodelist to produce a difference
|file when it wasn't available, fixed. The program should create a new nodelist
|segment in it's first run now.
|Problem with program bombing after sending out a nodelist segment update
|fixed. This was just a small problem with the logging routine.

+--- 17 Apr 1992 -- Version 0.59<beta>
| -- Error-trapping
|First and foremost, a lot of changes have occurred with the program, as you
|can note from the documentation file that is now included. If an error occurs
|now, the program should trap the error and report on the error in the log. A
|lot more errors which could have occurred have now been trapped, but as a
|consequence the program has been made much slower. It is rather unfortunate
|that GfA Basic has a problem with the LINE INPUT # command, in that if an end
|of line sequence is not received before the end of a file, the program used to
|exit with an error. There is now a loop which checks for end of file while
|taking in input lines, so the problem is circumvented. This also marks the
|first release of the compiled code.

+--- 16 Apr 1992 -- Version 0.58<beta>
| -- Error-detection code commenced
|A few bugs have been fixed, and a major addition of error-detection in
|nodelist segments has been started. At the moment this is limited to converting
|converting erroneous lines that could cause problems to nodelist compilers to
|lines that begin with ;E, with a short explanatory note at the bottom.
|A major bug has been rectified, which caused a diff file to never be completed
|if there was more to add to the end of a nodelist after the original was
|completed. I'm really glad I found that out, because it's been worrying me for
|ages!

+--- 24 Mar 1992 -- Version 0.55<beta>
| -- New features
|The program now calculates the required CRC all by itself, hence no more need
|for APPLYCRC! This isn't very fast at the moment, despite using lookup tables,
|but I intend to produce a C version. The entire top line is now created by the
|program, and has the same format as that produced for the biggie, the FidoNet
|one, except that Network-ST is substituted for FidoNet at the top of the list.
|The date used is today's date as seen from the system clock, and does not have
|to be a Friday. Please note that the new nodelist MUST CONTAIN a top line,
|even though it will be forgotten about. Suggestions in N_DIFCHAT please!

+--- 24 Jan 1992 -- Version 0.54<beta>
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|Much smaller DIFFs are now produced. The original problem of not checking for
|a possible copy after a delete has now been corrected. Actually this error
|was causing the program to go completely out of sync with the nodediff, and
|diffs were being produced that were rampantly long.

+--- 11 Jan 1992 -- Version 0.53<beta>
| -- New feature
|Support for commandline has been added. If the program is started with no
|commandline then the GEM item selector is used as in previous versions. If
|a commandline is specified then it should be of the following format:
|makediff <old_nodelist> <new_nodelist> <new_nodediff>
|Tested with the interpreted version, I think there will be problems with
|the compiled version.

+--- 11 Jan 1992 -- Version 0.52<beta>
| -- Bug
|When ParseLst has applied a DIFF, the end of the new nodelist produced has
|a ^Z (0x1A) character that was making MAKEDIFF fall down. Fixed.

+---  7 Jan 1992 -- Version 0.51<beta>
| -- Bug (Daron Brewood)
|After a delete flag was inserted, the Add flag was checked for immediately
|and as a result, any copying that could be done (which results in a smaller
|DIFF) was not performed. Fixed.

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