DBE Addenda 2




DBE NOTES AS OF 01-28-2015

DBE has had a long-standing non-recognition of '*' as a filespec:


I finally did something about the use of a '*' rather than a '*.*' filespec. I'd never thought of it before, just assuming people would type in the latter. Well; now it doesn't matter if they use the asterisk alone - even by itself without a path or drive designation. Now, ExpandParm just removes a single '*' at the end of the filespec if no '.' is present, which will usually cause it to add wildcards as '*.*' to the scan filespec. Because of this, an '*' will now show up on line 1 as the current filespec; and DBE won't be adding weird directory names to the end of the memory list as it was apparently doing (and I was never aware of it).




DBE NOTES AS OF 01-23-2015

DBE v4.4O
I added more features to DBE during the last couple of days:


(1)    The Find option is now integrated with SelectLevel so that you can press 'F' to view the Find Strings list (of file specifications) and then press '\' to open the Level list. When you exit from that by pressing one of the scan keys which activates a disk scan, the filespec you had selected from the Find list is used to search the Level (possibly including its subdirectories) for files matching that specification. By default, empty levels (or ones in which no files have been added to the memory list from) are trimmed from the list during this search.

(2)    The Find option is also integrated with the Read Fileset option, so that when a FILESET file is parsed by GetFilesetInput, as many filenames (not including the file path) as will fit into a 255-character string are saved and will then appear in the Find list the next time you use Find. You can switch between the normal Find list which you had typed in and the Fileset list by pressing the Tab key. Any time you read a different FILESET file, the FilesetSpecs list is replaced by a new one parsed from that FILESET file.

(3)    To get a list of filenames into the Find list without performing any disk scans, use 'OF'. The former 'OF' is now O followed by CtrlF (which is the option which asks if you want to clear a Level before scanning it for the files named in the FILESET).

I added an indicator to the main display to show when the AltKeyMode is in effect. It is rather subtle, consisting of displaying a thick bar behind the file pointer which travels up and down between the two panes, moving along with the selection bar, instead of the bracket character which normally is behind it. Someone who doesn't pay attention to the documentation will probably never catch on to what that's there for, if they ever see it at all.

I finally figured out that changing the default directory from DBE's status display wasn't working. I'd changed the normal state of the DefaultDir string to being backslash-terminated; and I never bothered to remove the trailing backslash before calling ChDir as is done immediately after you set its value in the status display. So I fixed that.

DBE wasn't writing a FIG file after pressing 'D' on a CtrlX exit to write one to the default directory, apparently because the sysconfig dir type wasn't being set. So I added 3 keystrokes, 'E', 'D', and 'T', which call the routine which sets the path for the FIG file to be written. That appears to solve the problem.

I just discovered another LFN discrepancy. The Write Fileset option wasn't including the path to the file because the LFN directory name took precedence; and when there is no LFN support that name is returned as a zero-length string. So I put in a check for that, setting the name to the 8.3 name if the LFN function returned a 'null string'. So Write Fileset now works correctly again.




DBE NOTES AS OF 01-18-2015

DBE v4.4O
Since yesterday, I added two new features to DBE.


(1)    A new directive is available for the FILESET file. Using "FILESET BACKUP" automatically causes files scanned for to have a ToBkpDrv target and a COPY tag shown in brown. Instead of the usual magenta triangle denoting an active target, a bright green "?" appears at the extension dot position (although this isn't new itself). The Write Fileset option was updated to include writing the BACKUP target directive.

(2)    The use of the DBCONFIG.TXT directory name abbreviations with the ALIAS directive is now much easier. Simply prefixing the abbreviation with a colon causes DBE to look for the definition in DBCONFIG.TXT before parsing the scan specification; and this works on the command line as well.

I also added several 'extra' keys to call functions tied to keypad keys, and added an "AltKeyMode" which simplifies tagging files somewhat.

Setting the states of the tag/target controls <SLTOP>, <STOI>, and <CTOM> cannot be done with the majority of onscreen keyboards, so, in order, '=', '_', and '-' above the keyboard can be used in the STATUS/Settings display to call the functions which set these variables. The AltKeyMode now uses '=' for Plus, 'm' for Minus, and 'c' for Ins keypad keys, and 'O=' is now used to reach the STATUS display.

Tagging in SelectLevel is now also done using * - + as well as Ins Minus Plus on the keypad. The typer-finder uses text keys for 'find' moves of the selection bar, so those weren't able to be used as extra keys in SelectLevel.

Tagging in the main files display in AltKeyMode using 'c', 'd', 'v', 'm', and '=' is possible now because in that mode the IMMEDIATE operations are now associated only with the uppercase 'C', 'D', 'V', and 'M'. The '=' key acts just like Plus, the 'm' key acts like Minus, the 'c' key acts like Ins, and the 'd' key acts like Del.

I noticed that the ToFilename target wasn't working right; and I'd noticed a few weeks ago that the new target entries were showing up with zeroed fields but had assumed there was probably something wrong with the DOS emulator I'm using on the tablet. However, I fixed both of those problems by putting in additional checks for long filename functions, effectively removing them because the LFN code was interfering with the 8.3 code when LFNs were unavailable from the OS or were turned off.




DBE NOTES AS OF 01-15-2015


BUILD 01-15-15 HAS NOT BEEN MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Changes and modifications since 11-14-13

Addition of command-line fileset input without resetting the Scan to a normal file scan after scanning for a Target directory caused the fileset itself to be skipped. This problem was noticed on 01-15-15 and fixed.

Turning off long filename operations has been resulting in several malfunctions since the addition of code supporting LFN directory names in the AddTarget function. This was noticed on 01-15-15 and apparently fixed by adding several more checks which take out the long filename string modifications if LFN operations have been turned off by the user or the OS does not support LFNs. One result of this was that two copies of the directory path were being prepended to the filename for the ToFilename Target type; which was a rather obviously incorrect method of constructing a filename string.

Another problem which surfaced in the absence of LFN support was that a check on the target filename after a completed copy operation, which is being made because the target file is copied with an 8.3 filename (possibly a temporary generated name) and must be changed to an LFN, prevented the normal transfer of attribute information from the new directory entry to the memory list when LFN support is absent or the function is turned off. This caused new memory list entries for the target files to appear with no name, attributes, size, or date until the directory was re-read for the files in question. The additional checks added have fixed this problem as well.

A new feature added, not documented as yet, allows more convenient use of DBE by those whose keyboards require extra switching to use the keypad Plus, Minus, and Insert keys or to enter Alt-key values. Two areas of program operation are involved in this new input scheme. While in the main display routine you may press CtrlLeftBracket to toggle this AltKeyMethod on and off.

Setting tags is simplified when this is on; but you must use uppercase C, D, V, and M for immediate Copy, Delete, Verify, or Move. Lowercase values will toggle the tags for these operations on and off. The tag-and-advance feature associated with the Plus keypad key will use the '=' key, and the '0' text key above the keyboard will turn off a tag as the keypad Minus key does. Pressing 'O=' gets you to the status display; and 'LJ' the list of jump points.

Also when on, in the SelectLevel window you can press Ctrl with C, V, M, or O to set or turn off all tags for a level simultaneously.

Note that DBE does not indicate whether this mode is on or off.






DBE NOTES AS OF 04-04-2013


BUILD 04-04-13 IS NOT BEING MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Changes and modifications since 03-28-13

As of 03-30-13, the reorganization of the Input Fileset code has allowed the
command line to be extended to this function. Prefixing a filename with an '@'
character on the command line causes DBE to read the file as a FILESET file,
so that at startup, DBE is ready for processing accordingly. If a TARGET
declaration is present in the fileset file, the opposite window will show the
target directory if possible, although unread.

Additionally, code was put in place to handle the * and ? filename wildcard
search characters; and if no path to a named file is prefixed to it on the
fileset line it will be assumed to be the current level selected when the
fileset file is opened for reading unless the fileset is input from the command
line, in which case the default is the current DOS directory when DBE is
started.

As of 04-03-13, any '\' and '/' characters which you enter manually when editing
the fileset line format control string are preserved. Only the delimiters which
DBE inserts are affected by the setting of the delimiter to be used (either \ or
/ in path names). This allows you to place a / prefix to a command-line option
for some executable program in the format control string and it will be left in
place.




DBE NOTES AS OF 03-30-2013


BUILD 03-30-13 IS NOT BEING MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Changes and modifications since 02-21-13

As of 03-16-13, the following features are available under the Options
Write Fileset feature. You can now press AltG to generate a Time36 fileset
name, AltP to give it the name of the current level, or AltC to make it the
current Entry's name, prepended to a 'DBE' file extension. Pressing 'F'
toggles the fileset type between FILE and DIR; and for the DIR type, only
directory names are written out to the fileset file.

When the DIR type is active, pressing 'I' to insert place markers into a
line format control string allows you to enter text to be written to all
lines of the fileset file as well as to press ^D or ^S to enter markers for
the location at which the long or short form of the directory name is to be
inserted into the current fileset line and to prefix either of these markers
with a ^X character which causes only the relative path from the current
level to be inserted into the line. With this feature it'll be possible
to use DBE to do the bulk of the work of creating SREP and SGET configuration
files, or batch files in which directory names and commands are hard-coded
into each line.

As of 03-18-13, the Write Fileset feature has been modified to support insertion
of the name and extension or both into a fileset file line using ^N, ^E, and ^F
and to prefix the path (either ^P for long or ^S for short) with ^R for relative
pathname.

It's a bit complicated to use the Insert option (i.e., to edit a line format
control string), but the default, OW[Enter]P[Enter], isn't that demanding.
If you wanted to insert the path and the short name with a wildcard replacing
the extension, though, you'd type

OW[Enter]I^P\^S^N.*[Enter]P[Enter]

which is more demanding. So you have to know what effect you intend to achieve
and think about what you're doing while you're pressing those keys to set up
the conditions for the write loop to follow.

After you enter the fileset name once (during a DBE session), when you start
with OW to write more lines, you have to press N to change the name, and until
you clear that filename to a zero-length string the prompt to generate a new
name doesn't appear. But it's no big deal to keep on writing lines to the same
fileset file.

As of 03-19-13, switching from a FILE type to DIR type fileset format removes
the ^E, ^N, and ^F markers from the line format control string. Pressing \ and
/ now switches the path delimiter character to the one you press so that DBE
will use that delimiter when inserting paths into the fileset line wherever
you have placed the ^P or ^S place markers. The '\' and '/' keys set the delimiter
to use for output so that you can write URIs for HTML/XML applications as well as
DOS batch or configuration files. The '.' key cycles the path prefix from '' to
'.' to '..' so that you can control how the ^R relative path flag operates.

For example, if you set DBE's current level to F:\GM\DOCS\DOM where the following
subtree occurs, as seen in DBE's SelectLevel view,
  ── DOM
     ── IDL
     ── IMAGES
     ── JAVA
        ── JAVA
           ── DOC
           ── ORG
              ── W3C
                 ── DOM
                    ── HTML
     ── L2CORE
and then use the default '' prefix setting, the fileset would contain the
subdirectories of DOM as follows:
    \*.*
    \idl\*.*
    \images\*.*
    \JAVA\*.*
    \JAVA\java\*.*
    \JAVA\java\doc\*.*
    \JAVA\java\org\*.*
    \JAVA\java\org\w3c\*.*
    \JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\*.*
    \JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\html\*.*
    \L2core\*.*
but if you press '.' twice to set the prefix to '..' the fileset would
contain the parent directory of the current level, 'DOM':
    DOCS\DOM\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\idl\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\images\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\doc\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\org\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\html\*.*
    DOCS\DOM\L2core\*.*
and using the prefix '.' would result in
    DOM\*.*
    DOM\idl\*.*
    DOM\images\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\doc\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\org\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\*.*
    DOM\JAVA\java\org\w3c\dom\html\*.*
    DOM\L2core\*.*
This only affects the use of the relative path flag; and if you do
not press I to insert flags into the format control string, the '.'
prefix setting will not affect output of the fileset lines.

As of 03-27-13, a semicolon beginning a FILESET line flags it as a
comment line, and DBE ignores it. (This was documented previously
but not implemented due to the author's oversight.)

As of 03-28-13, the Options Input Fileset feature now by default
restricts directories added to the list to those explicitly given
when a DIR type fileset file is being read, although it isn't going
to prevent immediate subdirectories of the current file path during
input of a FILE type fileset from being added to the list.




DBE NOTES AS OF 02-21-2013


BUILD 02-21-13 IS NOT BEING MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Changes and modifications since 01-25-13

I finally happened to notice that the hex view in split vertical mode wasn't
incrementing the counters displayed at the left by 8, but was displaying them
as if each line contained the display of 16 hex bytes. That's fixed, now.
It may have led to some confusion as to whether the file content was being
displayed correctly; however, I suspect that there has been nothing wrong with
that.

Obviously, if I don't give you a copy of DBE, this fix won't mean anything to you
unless I decide to recompile the 09-01-12 build with this fix implemented in it and
upload that to the server for distribution. I might do that; and then again, I
might not. These people accusing me of stealing their program/book/calculator/etc. are
really a nuisance, and I don't intend to allow any further releases of DBE to fall into
their hands because they'll just claim they "wrote a new version". No kidding. These
people ought to be hanged, literally. But they get away with their calumny and accusation
because most of them are black and they claim you're "racially prejudiced" if you make
any complaints about the falsity and/or arrogance of their pretensions.




DBE NOTES AS OF 01-25-2013


BUILD 01-25-13 IS NOT BEING MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Changes and modifications since 10-08-12

As of 10-09-12, the quote key now does not exit from SelectLevel, instead performing
a scan and adding any subtree of the current level to the list.

The file viewer color switch is now toggled by AltF8 and the LFonly/CRLF mode switch
is now toggled by F8.

As of 10-13-12 the prompt appearing during copying when DBE doesn't find a disk in
the drive expected now places red angle brackets around the SOURCE and/or TARGET
labels for whichever disk isn't OK as it SHOULD BE.

As of 11-27-12, the ShiftF5 and ShiftF6 keys cause the scan prompt to appear as with
F5, F6, AltF5, and AltF6; but the scan is restricted to those subdirectories already
on the memory list (if the directory containing the files of interest might not be on
the list already, use AltF6 as usual to scan the subdirectories and minimize the
number of new levels added to the list).

As of 11-27-12, a prompt appears when DBE cannot find a directory path matching the
scan file specification. This prompt displays the filespec and "PATH NOT FOUND", and
DBE then waits for a keypress before continuing.

As of 01-22-13, when a relatively large file is being copied, a "REMAINING:" count is
displayed indicating how many kilobytes are yet to be copied to the target location.
This is intended to show that DBE hasn't 'gone to sleep' during a long copy operation.
Previously, there was no progress indicator displayed while a file was being copied.

The pre-existing problem with DBE failing to complete processing of all deletions in
subdirectories during a GO with SubsScope was attended to on 01-25-13 and should now
have vanished. The cause for this was that traversal of the memory list during the
processing loop is by means of pointer chains in which the Next pointers are stored
in the file Entry records; and the NextF() function returned NIL at the end of the
list of file Entries in any given Level... EXCEPT when it was able to find an entry
in the following Level (if the Scope includes any more Levels). The presence of
directories on the list which are either empty or which have not yet been read leaves
points at which NextF() did not have a following Entry to return to the processing
loop variable NextPEnt; and this meant that the loop terminated without a search
for further entries beyond the empty or unread directory. As of 01-25-13 there is
now additional code in place to account for this condition (and if you find that new
code isn't working, send an email about it), so that it appears the problem is fixed.




DBE NOTES AS OF 10-08-2012


BUILD 10-04-12 IS NOT BEING MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

DBE v4.4O
Notes on the 08-30-12 build, which was the most recent

Build 8-30 still contained the address of the prior post office box which the
author of DBE had; build 10-04 contains the current mailing address which the
author (now homeless) is using.

Build 8-30 still uses the DBSYSCON revision from 01-08-11. For the additional
functionality of the 10-04-12 build it was necessary to adopt a revised format
for this file incorporating the initial 09-21-12 changes and those of 10-04-12.

The 8-30 build Options.SetID function attempted to induce a DiskID write onto
the disk in a particular drive using the ID time and r36 value from the disk
record currently on the list. (This assumes that a particular past DiskID was
written onto a disk and these values saved in a .FIG file, which may not be
reliable in any event.) The 10-04 build adopted a different approach to DiskID
file creation and timestamp checking.

People are threatening to beat up or kill the author of this program, claiming that
it was stolen from them or someone else. Forget about getting a copy if you're one
of those miscreants who show up, threatening me, calling me a 'bum' or a 'homeless
bastard'; because I'm not inclined to even talk to you. Period.

If you know of anyone who's involved in this harassment and has made claims that I
stole my work from someone else, I'd appreciated it if you can see if you can have
them deported or incarcerated.

NOTE (10-10-12):
The 09-01 build has been recompiled and is now being released instead of the 08-30 build, as of 10-10-12, although this represents only minor bug fixes and no significant changes to the program's features.



DBE CORRECTIONS AND NOTES AS OF 04-11-2011


NAVIGATION

DBE v3.0+
Documentation supplied (up to 04-11-11) in DBX.D0C

The behavior of the arrow keys in all versions of DBX.EXE and DBE.EXE
since DBX v3.0 is described in DBX.D0C incorrectly. The documentation
was not updated as of this date to correct changes in this behavior from
this version of DBX up to and including DBE v4.4O.

These keys no longer navigate past the boundaries of the list of files in
a directory, regardless of whether the adjacent directory contains files
which have been added to the memory list. Movement of the selection bar
stops at the list end, and only the comma and period keys will continue at
that point into a preceding or following directory from which files have been
added to the memory list.




DBE MODIFICATIONS BEING CONSIDERED 02-16-2011


Use of the keypad (when a Shift key is pressed or when NumLock is on) doesn't exit the SelectLevel function with a change of directory, and it is necessary to use Enter, Backslash, Shift7, Shift9, or one of the scan keys (which start a disk scan) in order to change the current Level. Since Shift5 opens the window and closes it, why doesn't it change the Level if you have placed the selection bar on a different one? Well, it doesn't, and the reason why I implemented it that way is far enough back in DBE's history that I don't even remember why anymore. I'm considering changing that, so there may be a new DBE release up before long that has that as the only change in it since the beginning of this month.



DBE RELEASE NOTES FROM 12-17-2010


DBE now lets you know whether LongFilename copying is enabled. The text "LFNs: Off" or "LFNs: OK" will appear on line 1 once the internal flag has been set. If no support for LFNS is found in the OS, "LFNs: NONE" will appear instead.

The Options Input Fileset disk scan has been changed so that it no longer scans the files in the target directory when a target is specified in the FILESET file. Previously, the target was scanned and files in it were added to the list, tagged with the value specified in the FILESET file. The OI option now simply adds an empty level to the list and defines it as the current target.

DBE now provides for file renaming. You press the 'K' key (which has no mnemonic value that I know of, but was used because it was almost the only one left not already designated for some other purpose) and edit the filename, pressing Esc to cancel. If you press the up or down arrow keys or the Enter key, DBE will attempt to rename the file. This is a bit tricky because both long mixed-case and 8.3 upper-case filenames are supported, and the result depends on several different factors; so you should refer to the documentation about this.

Improvements and additional support for LongFilename creation when a file is copied have been supplied recently, including mixed-case editing and the inclusion of '.' and ' ' characters in the filename. Previously, periods and spaces, if present in the source filename, would carry over to the target, but DBE would not create long filenames directly if those characters were present. Also, the addition of a target entry once the copy is completed has been supplemented with additional checks if a file rename (a ToName target) is to take place after the copy completes, so that new entries are generally matched up with the correct 8.3 filename after the LongFilename renaming takes place and an entry is added to the memory list for it. Previously, the existing 8.3 entry would not be changed, and a new entry for the target file would be appended to the list; and it was necessary to clear the list and then rescan the target directory or manually cut the old entry from the list.

The file viewer has been tweaked to improve two features. The keys which retrieve the previous/next file in the list without requiring closing the viewer and navigating using the selection bar (the colon and double-quote character keys) were turning off, by default, the viewing of the Selected list in the current window. This resulted in a situation where you couldn't retrieve entries to be viewed directly from the Selected list, and would have to traverse the normal file list to reach the files to be viewed. The Selected Search feature, which allows you to search files for a particular search string and then add those files to the Selected list, would still require you to navigate through all of the files on the memory list to reach the ones the string had been found in, or if you exited the viewer you would have to turn the Selected list display back on again. Now, DBE allows you to press ':' or '"' to view other files on the Selected list without having to exit the viewer, find the next file, and restart it.

The second viewer improvement is to store not only the current file viewing position for each file, but also to store the location relative to that where a preceding string search found a match. This means that, in general, you can exit the viewer during a string search in a file and then later restart the viewer and just press 'A' for Find Again to locate the next instance of the search string. However, if you view a different file and search for a different string, DBE forgets about the previous search string, so you couldn't simply restart the viewer with the former file and expect the 'A' key to find the previous search string. When you restart the viewer, you can press 'A' to try another find; and if it works, it works. Press it twice if not. If you still don't get the results you're looking for, press 'F' and enter the search string again. If you're looking for the same search string in a dozen different files, you can switch from one to the other and just press 'A' to find the next occurrences as long as there is no intervening search for a different string and you haven't exited from and restarted DBE, either. The drawback of adding this new field to the file entry records is that .FIG files created by DBE versions prior to 12-16-10 cannot be used with newer versions of DBE. Contact the author if you need to find a way to convert your .FIG files to the new format.

Also, the viewer now attempts to display the found text in the middle of the window somewhere, which makes life easier.



DBE RELEASE NOTES FROM 12-04-2010


Additional LongFilename support for directories, and a new Drive Record Table lookup feature, have been added since 11-16-2010.

Previous builds of DBE v4.4O only allowed explicit directory LFN creation when defining a new target. This has been extended to include automatic creation of new directory LongFilenames for both buffered and normal copying; and in addition the filenames are filtered prior to actually opening the source and target files so that any mismatch between the LFN and 8.3 names is 'handed up' to you by way of a prompt, and you can choose what to do at that point.

The disk scan operations are carried out completely independently of the new DDR tables, and do not update them when a drive is read from. If you have loaded a SYSCONFIG file which contains perhaps different drive letter assignments for some disks read in previous DBE sessions, the memory list will contain those drive letters when you use the DRIVES option to check which disk is assigned to which drive; and DBE reads that memory list to load the DDR table rather than reading the drives UNLESS you explicitly cause it to read them when using the DRIVES option. Thus, if a drive letter was assigned previously it will not be changed in the memory list automatically, nor will it be changed should you save the configuration again on exit.

If you have a 'most favored drive letter assignment' which Windows normally goes along with for your collection of USB drives, DBE will let you keep it, too; and as of this time it won't change them unless you indicate that should be done (which might be necessary if Windows for some reason has changed some drive letters on you and you can't get them back the way you want them right at the moment). DBE prompts you during copying if a memory list disk entry has a drive letter assignment that doesn't match up, for either source or target drives; and DBE now opens the DRIVES option to let you look at the list of active drives and see what you want to do about it based on which disks are known to be (have been explicitly checked for) or known to have been (as per the memory list entry) in a drive. If you are of a mind to fix your drive assignments in Windows before proceeding, you can exit the DRIVES option (and the copy routine) with Esc, press CtrlX to exit DBE and save the configuration, and then even go as far as editing the registry and rebooting your system if you have to do that in order to get Windows drive letter assignments back the way you want them. And when you boot up again and run DBE, you can just press G and go ahead copying (and the DRIVES option won't be called, of course, because Windows now has the drive letters back the way you want them set and which you had stored in the SYSCONFIG file).

If you're not of a mind to go to all that trouble to have things your way, use the DRIVES option to look up the right drive and press Space; and DBE will change the drive letter in the memory list disk entry. But remember that if you subsequently save the configuration, it will save that new (and perhaps temporary, from your point of view) drive letter assignment and you'll have to use the DRIVES option to change it back again later. If Windows is handing out drive letters so unpredictably that you can't keep track of which is going to be where and when, just use the DRIVES option from the main menu (press O\) and check all of the drives (press ✻) whenever you load a SYSCONFIG file at startup. That should do the trick.



DBE RELEASE NOTES FROM 11-16-2010 (Continued)


With reference to the Set ID feature: There might exist some potential for a DiskID timestamp created before a Daylight Savings Time adjustment is applied by Windows to be reported, after that DST adjustment, as differing from the value which was actually set when the DiskID was created. This DST hour mismatch is reported to occur with timestamps in network volumes which have been moved subsequent to a DST adjustment; but whether this would affect the INT 21h 71xxh ISR return values which DBE relies upon, I don't know. This may be the reason behind having to reset some of the DiskID timestamps; which is a problem which I have noticed previously, and most recently encountered just after the last DST change this fall (although network volumes have nothing to do with it in the latest case I am referring to). If this causes your copy of DBE to fail to recognize a DiskID it has created, and using the Set ID feature fixes it, plan on fixing it again in another six months when the next DST adjustment is applied! (I don't know if Microsoft is going to fix this bug; and it wasn't fixed in XP SP3. Apparently not, because they're dropping support for both Windows 2000 and XP.)




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