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.APPENDIX....: Revision History
.DISCUSSION..:
Letters appended to version numbers indicate modifications to the doc files, without any modification to the Fdate.EXE software.


16a 2003 July 04

• Fixed a deficiency in Fdate's /C format: it provided no way to obtain the 12-hour hour, or the the am/pm flag.
  
  

15a 2001 September 11

• BUG FIX -- The hour after midnight in AmPm format was incorrectly displaying as "012" rather than as "12".
• BUG FIX -- Corrected the "t1" Danish and German output format, so that the time shows the same way in the "t1" output format as it does in the "full" output format -- as 24-hour time rather than am/pm time.
• BUG FIX -- The aa-fdate_documentation.html file was accidentally omitted from the zip file containing the html.documentation. Thanks to Harald Beck for reporting this problem.
• DOCUMENTATION -- the "full", "d1" and "t1" output formats are now clearly described as being language-specific.
• DOCUMENTATION -- Added an entry for the /L (language parm)
• DOCUMENTATION -- Updated the documentation for Example 63 (Run a program at a specified time later in the day) so that it no longer uses STRINGS, which I think is not much used any more. Thanks to Jason Filz for reporting this problem.
  
  

14d 2001 July 26

• In the documentation: grouped the examples involving files together in examples 80+.
• Added the example developed for Steve Komosa.
  
  

14c 2001 Jun 21

• A few minor improvements in the formatting of the documentation.
  
  

14b 2001 Mar 21

• A few minor improvements in the formatting of the documentation.
  
  

14a 2000 Aug 28

• Fdate's documentation was converted to a dictionary format, which can automatically be processed into HTML!
  
  
• Added the ability to specify a lower bound for the #random function, on parm /B. If not specified, the lower-bound defaults to zero. This preserves compatibility with earlier versions of Fdate. Thanks to Mike Holley for pointing out this limitation in Fdate.
  
  
• Corrected a bug in the #random function. It was returning random numbers up to BUT NOT INCLUDING the upper-bound specified on parm /A.
  
  
• Removed the HISTORY.TXT file from the distribution, because it has been incorporated into the main documentation file.
  
  
• Removed the FDATEY2K.TXT file from the distribution, because it has been incorporated into the main documentation file, and nobody is interested in Y2K now that it has passed.
  
  
• Removed the FDATEBEG.TXT file from the distribution, because it was obsolete. An updated version has been incorporated into the main documentation file.
  
  

13a 2000 Aug 15

• Corrected a bug in the command-line parser, which was treating parm-like strings -- even when they were enclosed in quotes -- as real parameters. Thanks to David Rothman for reporting this bug.
  
  
• Corrected a bug in which the value for hundredths of a second for a file timestamp was displaying as garbage characters when using the custom output date. Thanks to Knud Henrik Stromming for reporting this bug.
  
  

12a 1999 May 9

• Added support for UPPER for Danish (DK) language
• Support for multi-character pad string when using /J
• Various fixes to the documentation.
• Thanks (and a "/" through the "o" ) to Knud Henrik Stromming of DSB Informatik in Copenhagen (Kopenhavn) for information and help with these last two versions.
  
  

11a 1999 May 4

• added Danish (DK) language support. Note that this requires use of codepage 850 to work properly.
  
  

10a 1999 Mar 27

• Added /C to provide free-form output, an improvement on /O
• Added /W (wait seconds) option for the GETK function
• The examples have been put into their own file: EXAMPLES.TXT
• Fdate revision history was moved to its own file: HISTORY.TXT
• Added CUSTOM.BAT and LANGUAGE.BAT to the distribution package
  
  

9.9a 1999 Mar 23

• When retrieving the date of a file, it is possible to specify a filespec that contains wildcards. In earlier versions, if Fdate found multiple files that matched the filespec it would return the date/time information from the first file that it found that met the filespec. Now, if Fdate finds more than one file that matches the filespec, it will return an error message.
  
  

9.8a 1999 Mar 07

• Switched to a "floating" century-assumption algorithm Added YYMMDD and YY-MM-DD input formats
  
  

9.7a 1997 Dec 01

• Corrected some minor bugs in the way error messages were formatted
• Updated my e-mail address to steve@ferg.org
  
  

9.6a 1997 April 22

• Fixed design flaw, in which justification was being applied to the entire output string, including prefix string and suffix string. Now, justification is applied BEFORE prefix and suffix strings are added to output.
  
  
• This essentially broke the "ECHO" function /FE. So a /Q parm was added to the echo function that permits it to still be used with justification (the /J parm). Modified all of the /FE examples that us justification, to show them working with the /Q parm rather than with /P. Modified HOLIDAYS.BAT, which was affected by this change.
  
  
• Renamed all .DOC files to .TXT
• Added contact info for Garrett Wollman and PSL.
  
  

9.5a 1997 March 17

• Added #random function
• Added HHMMSSCC and HH:MM:SS:CC output formats
  
  

9.4b 1996 Jun 24

• Corrected minor bug in TIME_SET.BAT example.
  
  

9.4a 1996 Jun 10

• Added input formats DAY# and MINUTE#. This should enable a person to use Fdate to produce an absolute date or minute (using the DAY# or MINUTE# output format), manipulate it as he wishes (possibly in ways not supported by Fdate), and then convert the result back into a more readable format. Specifically, this should allow a person to do "minute arithmetic" as well as "date arithmetic". Thanks to Kevin Jackson, of the New York State Executive Chamber, who reported the need to do time arithmetic.
  
  
• Added the MIN_MATH.BAT and TIME_SET.BAT examples.
• Added news about TurboPower's withdrawal of support for environment-manipulating routines to documentation of /V parm under Windows NT.
  
  

9.3a 1996 Apr 19

• Added output format mmddccyy.
• Added information on using Fdate with Windows NT.
• Added specific information on Garrett Wolman's Fdate.
  
  

9.2b 1996 Feb 1

• Rectified a minor documentation omission; I'd forgot to add /X to the overview list of Fdate parms.
• Expanded FdateBEG.TXT by adding the overview of things you can do with Fdate.
  
  

9.2a 1996 Jan 28

• Added /X (exclude) parm to /Fw (weekday arithmetic function).
• Added appropriate documentation, and examples :46 and :47. Thanks to Richard Rogers for a real-life application that required this feature.
  
  

9.1d 1995 Dec 08

• Added comments to example :67 (putting date into filename) and changed output format to ccyymmdd. Hopefully, these changes will make this popular example more useful and easier to understand.
  
  

9.1c 1995 Oct 22

• Added a usage example to the discussion of the "file" input format (/If). Thanks to Bob Stephan for the suggestion.
  
  

9.1b 1995 June 12

• Corrected example of Japanese date format in this DOC file. Thanks to Christopher Clark for pointing out the typo.
  
  

9.1a 1995 May 15

• Corrected bug that gave runtime error when function was #mult and /A parm was 0.
  
  

9.0a 1995 Feb 20

• prefixed "@" to the "echo ERROR ... " and "pause" that are generated when Fdate detects an error. This should make error messages a bit easier to decipher.
  
  

8.9a 1995 Feb 15

• Added "absolute month" output format (/Omonth#)
• Added example YMD_DIF.BAT, which uses new /Omonth# facility
• Added FdateBEG.TXT to the distribution .ZIP file
  
  

8.8a November 06, 1994

• Changed error action in cases in which the prefix parm /P was specified. In case of an error, the first line generated will always be "ERROR". If prefix parm was specified, then a second line will be generated with the prefix followed by "ERROR". Thus, if output is being routed to a batch file, and the prefix is something like "@set Fdate=", then that will continue to work.
  
  
• Removed the example of using /Fe to put equal-signs and redirection symbols into the environment. I doubt if anyone found this example useful.
• Added ability to break out of HELP using the ESC key
• Added justify parm (/J)
• Re-wrote HOLIDAYS.BAT to illustrate uses for /J.
  
  

8.7a October 27, 1994

• Added output format TDOS, which mimics the format used in the DOS "time" command in the U.S. Added an example using it to the "roll your own" date format example (:19) as example (a). Thanks for the request for this common time format from Roy Zider.
  
  

8.6a October 27, 1994

• Corrected a bug in output format T1: HOUR value was being prefixed by a leading zero if MINUTE value was less than 10.
  
  

8.5a September 28, 1994

• Added output date format "mmddyy" (PKZIP's "American" date format), and an example showing how to use Fdate to get a date for use with PKZIP for archiving files. Thanks for the tip on PKZIP's input formats from Dick Jensen.
  
  

8.4c September 6, 1994

• Revised HOLIDAYS.BAT so it would not go into an infinite loop if run on a system where Fdate cannot manipulate the environment, and to pad the year to the left with zeroes, so years before 1000 will be accepted.
• Added example showing how to left-pad a number with zeroes.
• Rewrote example showing how to time execution of a program.
• Updated my home mailing address after moving.
• Corrected information on how to make sure you have enough environment space in a Windows DOS box. Thanks for the feedback and on this issue from Ronny Richardson.
• Added WHATDAY.BAT (example :14). Thanks for the request from Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia
  
  

8.4b April 2, 1994

• Revised example :08, to use /fGetK rather than /fgetU
• Fixed formatting of #dif function
• Reformatted examples to reduce number of printed pages
• Duplicate example :07 was renumbered
• FORATIME.BAT (original version) removed as no longer interesting
• Modified JDATE.BAT to use new /Fget function
  
  

8.4a March 20, 1994

• Added GETK (get keypress) function
• Added ability to use /V when running in a Windows DOS box, thanks to a Turbo Pascal routine from the Turbo Professional library provided by Kim Kokkonen of TurboPower Software.
• Fixed a bug in which the prompt string (/Q) for the GET and GETU functions was being written to redirectable output (StdOut). The prompt string is now written directly to the screen, and will not appear in Fdate's output when the output is redirected to a file.
• Removed ALARM.BAT, ALARM.DOC, TIC.BAT and TIC.DOC from distribution package. They were too esoteric to be generally helpful.
• Added FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI to distribution package.
• Corrected algorithm for Mardi Gras in HOLIDAYS.BAT. Modified HOLIDAYS.BAT and HOLIFEDS.BAT to make them more interactive, using Fdate's new abilities to get user input.
• Started ZIPing Fdate.ZIP with PKZIP 2.04g rather than version 1.1
  
  

8.3a Feb 24, 1994

• Added the following string-handling functions:
  • get (get user input)
  • getu (get uppercase user input)
  • upper (uppercase a string)
  • len (length of a string)
  • substr (substring)
    
    
• Added /F#2xx (convert number to extended hex format) function. Deleted SETXX.BAT, which has been made obsolete with the addition of this new function. Modified second example of storing a 4-digit date to use #2xx instead of SETXX.BAT.
  
  
• Added output formats "ddmmccyy" and "ddmmyy" at the request of several users.
  
  
• Added output format "xxx" after several requests for advice on how to represent a large range of dates in a minimum number of bytes (usually for constructing filenames from today's date).
  
  
• At the request of several users, enhanced the "compare" functions (comp, tcomp, #comp) so they set distinctive errorlevels for their different results. See the table of contents ("COMPARE-FUNCTION ERRORLEVELS") and EXAMPLES.
  
  
• To discussion of /Fv parameter, added note about almost always redirecting output to NUL when using /Fv.
  
  
• Revised FORATIME.BAT example batch file to make error-correction a bit more robust and to add better documentation on how to use it.
  
  
• Added example batch files to use new functions, especially FORATIM2.BAT which uses new "get" function
  
  
• Removed FdateX.BAT demonstration batch file from distribution package, to reduce its size. The examples in this DOC file should make the examples in FdateX.BAT unnecessary
  
  

8.2 August, 1993

• Removed FILEDATE.BAT from the distribution .ZIP file.
  
  
• Corrected the Spanish and French "full" and "d1" output formats. Thanks for the information on Spanish and French date formats to Gene J. Raymond, of GJR Software Products.
  
  

8.1 July 27, 1993 BUG FIX

• An error-trapping routine that was added to version 7.9 contained a bug that caused Fdate's numeric math functions (#add, #dif, #mult, #div, #idiv, #mod, #comp, etc.) to return incorrect results.
  
  

8.0 July, 1993

• Added "V" (validate) and "m" (month addition/subtraction) functions
• Added math functions: #mult #div #idiv
• Added /T (time) parameter
• Added FORATIME.BAT example, which Walter Ledge (assistant sysop of CompuServe's CRFORUM) and I developed. A big thanks to Walt for his feedback and help.
  
  

7.1a Apr 15, 1993

• Added German language support. Thanks for the request, and the necessary information, from Patrick Schmucki, via the Active-Net BBS in Rapperswil, Switzerland.
  
  

7.0a Nov 14, 1992

• Added #mod function
• Major reformatting of documentation to make it more user-friendly