Version History

2.01

2.01fc5 | 2.01fc4 | 2.01fc3 | 2.01fc2 | 2.01fc1 | 2.01b3 | 2.01b2 | 2.01b1
2.0b18 | 2.0b17 | 2.0b16 | 2.0b15 | 2.0b14 | 2.0b13 | 2.0b12
2.0b11.2 | 2.0b11 | 2.0b10 | 2.0b9 | 2.0b8 | 2.0b7 | 2.0b6 | 2.0b5 | 2.0b4 | 2.0b3 | 2.0b2 | 2.0b1

Version 2.01

• Mail Compression is checked more often (every 15 minutes), but files are only compressed if they are larger than 32kb. This results in better ratios. You will have to turn mail compression on and off for a particular gateway in order for the check frequency to update
• Topic Repair now properly notices more kinds of duplicated messages. Previously if the local post date on a message was different then the message was considered unique
• OAT now recognises Mail Server Config and Mail Server.config in either the Mail Server folder or the config folder. Previously it only recognised Mail Server Config in the Mail Server folder and Mail Server.config in the config folder
• Topic Link Repair is much improved. The best way to use it is it delete all the 'thrd' lines from your Mail Server Config file and let OAT rebuild all the links. Then update the max message count information using find and replace in a text editor
• Fixed problems with attachments getting lost in the Mail Server folder if Mail Filtering is being used.

Version 2.01fc5

• Increased default thread stack size to avoid crashes in certain procedures (most noticeably during Buddy List or Mail to All users)
• Added Mailbox Cleanup feature at the request of John Agapitos.

Version 2.01fc4

• Bug in topic repair feature that would cause certain topic files to be corrupted if messages were deleted
• Topic Link Repair has a better explanation for 'duplicate topics'
• The "Telling other OATs to quit" dialog has been neatened up
• Long standing bug that would cause general crashes periodically has been fixed

Version 2.01fc3

• New Repair Topic Links feature added
• Mail Server Config may now be stored in global TeleFinder 'config' folder
• Fix bug that may cause crashes during File Listing or Search Engine if a comment is larger than 32k
• Bug fixed which might cause a crash if long strings were being dealt with
• We now have a nice watch cursor spin while application starts and stops
• Adjusted log file information for launch and quit
• Bug fix for very log path names in search engine (larger than 1k)
• Fix problem with Mail Filtering, Buddly Lists (any feature that uses a config file) where items on each line in the config file would get incorrectly transposed
• You can hit option-f to filter mail from Mail Server to Mail Server (filtered) immediately
• Files Received Log files are no longer moved from Mail Server to Mail Server (filtered)
• Occasional problem where online pseudo users wouldn't appear if OAT was launched before TF Server

Version 2.01fc2

• Fixed memory leak of about 40 bytes each time a window was updated
• Erroneous MaxTF Utilities Log files no longer appear
• Improved the way OAT manages its list of online users
• TF Mail Gateways are no longer treated as real users when dealing with User Notification
• User information cache rewritten to use a more efficient scheme.
• Mail Server mail importing should now be faster for internet email
• All kinds of files are moved from filtered to real Mail Server folder (instead of just EMAL and mMsg)
• Removed a DebugStr call that was missed (it was never called anyway)
• Gateway menu for mail compression now adds one disabled menu item if no gateways are found
• Cursory checks are made in case an OAT user unexpectedly disappears and they are reconnected
• Leak of about 60 bytes for each Sent Mail Item created fixed
• Occasionally 'notifyme.txt' file would not be recognised and renamed to 'logon.txt'

Version 2.01fc1

• Fixed slight problem where menus would not be enabled after correct entry of a keycode. The solution was to quit and restart the program
• Changed name of application to 'Online Assistant for TeleFinder'. The 'MaxTF Utilities Preferences' file inside the 'MaxTF Utilities' folder inside the system Preferences folder will be renamed to 'Online Assistant Preferences'
• MaxTF is now PowerPC native. A 68k version is also supplied if you are having difficulty with the PPC version (consider it a beta)
• Text configuration files can now be commented by using a hash (#) symbol at the start of a line. As such, instructions for user can be found in the files themselves
• Preferences text file for User Logon Notification renamed from notifyme.txt to logon.txt. Existing notifyme.txt files will be automatically renamed
• A bug in the routines that indexed the text configuration files meant that they were never sorted in memory and thus the binary search that was performed on them to lookup names worked depending on the order in the original file.
• NOTE Please keep the Mail Server Config file in the Mail Server folder in order for the Gateway Mail Compression to work
• PPP Assistant is now compatible with Open Transport/PPP
• PPP Assistant will shutdown TCP BBS nodes and Mail Server TCP/IP services when the PPP link goes down
• PPP Assistant will start TCP BBS nodes when the PPP link comes up, reset the web server and start Mail Server TCP/IP services
• The Online Help Agent help files are now more substantial, having been updated by Daniel O'Leary of the Klonezone Mac BBS
• The Standard Response User is now set by default to be the user called 'Online Assistant'.
• Mail Notification is back in! After a long absence, this favourite of many MaxTF users is back. And now it should be more consistent than it was before too...
• File Search Engine Access List can now be rebuilt remotely by sending the command rebuildaccesslist
• File Search Engine File List can now be rebuilt remotely by sending the command rebuildfilelist
• Topic Repair can now be started remotely by sending the command repairtopics

Version 2.01b3

• Registration Codes are now implemented. See elsewhere for more information.
• Fixed bug in keyworded configuration files that would occur if there were exactly two entries (two lines). Solution was to swap the lines if there was a problem
• Changed handling of directory parser to eliminate phantom bug
• Documentation for User Logon Notification
• Documentation that was added last release has now been credited in the version history
• Corrected 'notify.txt' to 'notifyme.txt'
• Machine Lock is temporarily missing. If you have been using it, you can continue to do so, however you will not be able to adjust the settings using the new version of MaxTF.

Version 2.01b2

• Guest mail restrictions: User 'guest' can (optionally) only send email to user 'sysop'. See Mail Filtering submenu under Local Assistance menu.
• Changes to PPP Assistant to be compatible with FreePPP 2.5 and later. (again)
• File Search Engine now reports criteria in the search results
• Adjusted task scheduling to be both more reliable and system-friendly
• Documentation for Buddy Lists.
• Documentation for File Search Engine.
• Documentation for Mailing List Importer.
• Documentation for Mail Aliases.
• Documentation for Topic Repair.
• New version of TFEmail CGI (see the TFEmail folder)

Version 2.01b1

• Major changes from 2.0b18.
• Complete rewrite for features of version 2.0b18 based on version 2.0b12 source.
• Machine Lock for preventing unauthorised access to the server machine.
• Mail Compression for exchanging mail between TeleFinder gateways
• Server Control, to automatically bring the TeleFinder server to the front after a certain period of inactivity
• Renamed 'Outgoing' folder to 'Sent Mail Items'
• Added Buddy Lists feature
• Lots of other things I can't remember...

Version 2.0b18

• This is a maintenance release to lengthen the time restrictions.

Version 2.0b17

• NEW LANGUAGE FILE
• Added 'front' (or 'bringtofront') command that will change the front application on the server machine. It takes one parameter; a program name or creator code. eg To bring the TF Server to the front remotely, send the command 'front EJT3'.
• Added 'launch' command that will launch the specified application on the server machine. It takes one parameter, the filename of the application. It may a full pathname, of just the program name if it resides in the same folder as MaxTF.
• The 'quit' command can now take a paramter, the name of the application to quit. The parameter may also be the creator code for the application. Omitting the parameter causes MaxTF to terminate. You can also send the quit event to machines across a network, using a parameter of the form 'Zone:machine:appname' (no quotes). If zone is omitted then the current zone is assumed. The above detailed commands all require sysop privileges. Also, the new Language File is required to recognise the commands.
• MaxTF will now quit any other versions of MaxTF running on the same machine when you launch a new version.
• Fixed various problems with Mail Filtering. The difficulties stemmed from a bug or two in the user caching code that MaxTF uses. This caused certain other internal structures to become damaged and in turn cause other things to go wrong.
• Added a variety of internal debugging calls (that log to the log file) to attempt to track down any remaining fatal errors.
• Modified PPP timings to hopefully provide a somewhat more reliable service. Added delay before trying ping after PPP open has been initiated.
• Fixed bug in Topic Repair that caused the topic file not to get updated after an attachment was encountered. This would, however, be fixed the second time around (shows up as -38 errors in the log file).
• Fixed problem where all paths in an access group following one that didn't resolve would be ignored during Topic Repair.
• New about screen..

Version 2.0b16

• Modified various mailbox checking routines to use a more reliable search method.
• Changed File Search Engine to allow hierarchial listings (ie, create a *real* folder in the File Area Aliases folder to group file areas).
• Fixed problem with the user manager cache that caused File Search Engine to occasionally report that a user did not have access to retrieve a file.
• Modified File Search Engine results to not show the full path to a file that the user does not have access to.
• Added threaded periodical and chore processing.
• Now uses asynchronous IO for many operations (most of all; file copying)
• Changed access list build to ignore folders whose names begin with a bullet--this prevents searching large message directories.
• Topic Repair now deletes file attachments as well as messages themselves. As a result, the feature may be somewhat slower.
• Added Mailing List imported. This checks the mailbox of designated BBS users for new email, and posts it to a topic file (in the mailbox folder). Please see the accompanying addendum entitled 'Quick StartÑMailing Lists'.

Version 2.0b15

• Changed special character for mail alias from forward slash (/) to hash (#) to avoid conflicts with Fidonet addresses.
• Added outgoing mail feature, which keeps copies of outgoing mail in a folder called 'Outgoing' in your mailbox.
• Added postmaster feature, which places failed mail into the mailbox of a user called postmaster (you must create the user). You can then send the mail on to the correct address, or back to the original sender.
• Improved Mail Alias feature, allowing users to have multiple user names (for email only; users still have to log on under their account name). The above features require Mail Filtering. Please read the Mail Filtering addendum for more information.
• Added mail forwarding feature, which will forward mail from selected BBS accounts to another address (multiple addresses are possible). Mail in the original account will be moved to a folder called 'Forwarded Mail'.
• Speeded up File Search Engine comment searches.
• File Search Engine now reads ZIP archive comments, and converts them to Stuffit SitC comments (TF Compatible).
• Various internal changes to help things along.

Version 2.0b14

• Added menu option to enable/disable Mail Filtering (previously it always on, which caused lots of confusion--sorry!).
• Fixed slight problem with occasionally missing mail items to be transferred.

Version 2.0b13

• Fixed occasional problem with Conference Adviser that would cause certain messages to be ignored.
• Added early incarnation of the Mail Alias feature. For more information, see the relelevant addendum.

Version 2.0b12

• !! New Language File !! If you have not changed your existing Language File, you may simply replace it with the new one. Otherwise, you should examine the changes made to the new file, and add/translate them to your version. please send any Language Files that you have created to HDS, so we can distribute them in a future release.
• More help topics are available, most courtesy of Daniel O'Leary at Klonezone BBS (kzpwrmac.cyberhighway.net).
• Improved reliability for certain compressed file sequences.
• Decompression is now much more multi-programming friendly
• Fixed bug in pseudo user mail checking that would delete any new files in the MaxTF folder after MaxTF has been run!
• Drastically changed exception handling mechanism to a custom thread-aware system, so now the program will not quit itself when a threaded task aborts with an error. Oops, I kinda overlooked that one.
• Added online mail notification. This will alert users if they have new mail via an instant message. This may be turned on or off via the 'Online Assistance' menu. The exact text that is sent may be adjusted with the Language File.
• PPP Assistant is now Open Transport compatible (I hope). It should have been to some extent before, but now it should work in all cases. It is not, however, OT native yet, merely OT compatible.
• Pseudo users created by MaxTF now have unique passwords assigned to them. This change will only take effect if you remove the existing MaxTF pseudo user(s).

Version 2.0b11.2

• Fixed problem with very small compressed files.
• Added safety check for partial compressed files.
• Topic Repair will now detect zero-length messages as bad.
• Added froody about screen animation.

Version 2.0b11

• Found a nasty little error that caused the software to periodically decide that the user manager had quit, if mail server was not running.
• The above error would cause the pseudo users to out repeatedly.
• Improved compression code reliability in the event of a system crash (files being worked on are left in a better shape/place/state)
• Improved compression code event of compression/decompression failing
• Once again adjusted processor loading for the Conference Adviser and File Search Engine.
• Inclusion of alpha-test TeleFinder User Overlay software. Please see the separate read-me with regards to this software. Any input on ideas for this software is strongly requested.
• Changed filename for outgoing log files. The file now attempts to reflect the name of the system (domain name).
• Fixed a bug which presented itself in 2.0b10 when compressed files were being created. These files had the wrong file type code, and the decompressor would not recognise them. Newly created files now have the correct file type ('mtfz'), but the decompressor will recognise both the incorrect ('mxtz') and correct types.

Version 2.0b10

• Finally found the intermittent bug in File Search Engine, which resulted in a slightly mangled file name in the text listings. This involved roughly 6 strange characters before the final part of the filename.
• Found another intermittent bug that caused the pseudo users to occasionally lose themselves. They are kept logged in to the chat server by periodically sending dummy messages, which wakes the chat server. Unfortunately, if MaxTF was running in the background, these messages could get ignored.
• PPP Assistant is now present, just turn it on from the Local Assistance menu, and optionally select the option to start it when MaxTF starts. Before you do this, however, you should set up the address of a host you know is online permanently (eg your ISP mail server/DNS). Do this from the PPP Settings menu item.

Version 2.0b9

• Another fault with Conference Adviser, which appeared after the fix in 2.0b7. Now, however, it should be working nicely (although a bit slowly, until I find a happy medium between processor loading and speed).
• Fixed a short time delay before any tasks were started if the MaxTF program was running in the background. Basically, the task would appear in the task list, but it wouldn't get any processor time until the next periodical task occured (every 5 seconds, roughly).

Version 2.0b8

• File Search Engine was given a nice speed improvement for version 2.0b6, but unfortunately this introduced a minor little bug which caused a nasty system lock up occasionally, most noticeable when you updated the Access Group list.
• The processor sharing for the Access Group list has been modified slightly to increase the amount of processor time the Access Group listing will consume, to make the time taken a bit more feasible.
• Resolving certain aliases should be a bit more friendly now. A 'feature' that existed in earlier versions involved the software attempting to open an alias file that was in fact a real folder (the folder had the alias flag set, internally [why? I don't know])

Version 2.0b7

• Conference Adviser didn't work in 2.0b6. Ooops. Fixed now
• Time limit was left as in 2.0b5 for 2.0b6. Ooops. There's now another month's time left.

Version 2.0b6

• Moved the log file to the application's folder; this makes it easier to get at. Old log files are saved everyday, and placed in a folder called "Log Files", in the same directory.
• The log file is now compressed before it is sent to Highlander Data Systems. Typical savings are very high, since the log file is basically text, with a lot of repetitions (dates, etc). As a result the file is now sent as an attachment, rather than in plain text in the message body.
• Added the Topic Repair feature: this will examine each topic file available to users (ie topics that are accessible through the online access groups, and aliases therein). The basic functions are as follows:
  • Check whether a topic has been moved, and repair it accordingly.
  • Search for duplicate messages in a topic (ie after you have put a mail packet back into Mail Server after it didn't quite parse correctly the first (or second...) time. There is the option to delete the duplicates.
  • Search for missing messages, those which have lost their actual message file. There is the option to delete the lost items from the topic file.
  • Automatically add a comment to the topic (Get Info). This is in the form of a text file called 'Comment', which should be placed inside the topic's messages folder.
• Unfortunately the Topic Linking features did not make it into this release. This is partially because I found a whole lot of extra stuff that I could do with the Topic Repair feature, and also because the Topic Linking needs to be whole before it will operate in any way at all (ie its about halfway there, but not noticeably functional at the moment, so it's been disabled).
• Removed dependance on conferences path; available conferences will now be based on the users access group (why didn't I do this in the first place?).
• Fixed problem with Language File; extended characters (8-bit) would not parse correctly and any strings containing them would be truncated.
• Added balloon help! This was actually present in earlier versions, but I had forgotten about it until now.
• Fixed prob that was introduced as of 2.0b5. Conference adviser would return 'd' for the message index for all found messages. Oops.
• Changed creator code for application to 'MXTF'; this is registered with Apple.

Version 2.0b5

• Moved 'Help Files' folder to the same level as the application, rather than the MaxTF Utilities Preferences folder.
• Moved Language File to the same level as the application (as above).
• Changed menu layout, Conference Adviser, Search Engine and Sysop Commands are now all grouped under one menu (submenus).
• Fixed slight problem with the hello commandÑthe distributed Language file with version 2.0b4 was in fact incorrect, and did not contain the complete set of responses.
• We now recommend using just one pseudo-user (eg 'Online Assistance'). This means users should be less confused. Of course, you are free to continue to use the existing settings (or your own variations), since this is possible using the User Settings window.
• Enabled File Search Engine and File List System. These aspects were under development in earlier versions of the program, and have now been completedÑ at least to a working extent. Neither feature has been tested thoroughly, so there could well be some functionaly anomolies.
• Added 'find' command, for the File Search Engine. See the full documentation for further information.
• Adjusted processor loading while doing certain tasks. In the future these settings will be user-configurable.
• Added 'abort' command. This allows a user to terminate any task that is currently being done on their behalf. This is functionally equivalent to selecting 'End Task' from the task window. Any results accumulated upto the point of termination will be returned as usual.

Version 2.0b4

• Fixed problem with aliased conferences in Conference Adviser. Sometimes, conferences in a directory with an aliased conference preceding it alphabetically would fail to be checked.
• Added 'hello' command, for users who say 'hi' to MaxTF's users.
• Completely redesigned pseudo-users control interface. Now, MaxTF's pseudo users are simply users--they do not have any direct connection to the commands they support. This means that sysops can have (if they wish) just one 'special' user, instead of a number (say three--'Help Manager, 'File Search Engine' and 'Conference Adviser').
• Added Sysop Commands control menu.
• Added Conference Adviser control menu. The conference adviser is now adjusted from this menu.
• Added File Search Engine control menu. This menu is currently disabled, as the file search engine is still under development. Any comments on the proposed features are welcome (requested?).
• Dramatically improved responsiveness with linking to he other programs. Network load is now negligible, and the checking for other programs is done fully asynchronously.
• Added Sysop 'Call' command. 'Call ' is the command format--it will play a sound with the specified name. Useful for co-sysops who call by modem, or simply users (privileges are adjustable).
• Added File Search Engine control menu

Version 2.0b3

• Fixed problem with bad filenames derived from subject lines: Subject lines containing colons would fail with a paramErr. Colons are now filtered out.
• Added 'status' and 'freemem' commands.

Version 2.0b2

• Fixed a few nasty (not fatal) problems with memory allocation. Memory would sometimes (often) not be released after a conference check.
• Problem with lower date bounds set to most recent date of last conference checked.
• Problem with TF/Pro created topics, which have the creator 'ERIC' (which is the Finder's signature). The Conference Adviser now only searches for files with the file type 'BBXF'.

Version 2.0b1

• First public release.