NFTP development progress: versions 1.22--1.50

2 February 1999: Worked on X11 driver. Slight change in progress indicator layout.
31 January 1999: Basics of X11 driver (need: keyboard, fonts, resize). Hotmousing in the menu is not longer sticky and can be turned off.
24 January 1999: Beta 4.
22 January 1999: A little fix for Unix display routines (sometimes first line would be displayed incorrectly). Translations for 1.50 are arriving at steady pace!
17 January 1999: Fixed: NFTP would return to BINARY mode when reconnecting. Indicator of current transfer mode in single-line bottom status line. Fixed: rename would fail if current directory if not the last visited one. Autoresize now works much better and is enabled again in PM version. Further improvements on PM resizing/moving code.
16 January 1999: Issued beta 3. Subtle fixes for cursor positioning code. Temporarily disabled autoresizing code in the PM version which was causing problems.
15 January 1999: Mouse drivers finally seem to work OK. Reworked menu mouse handler. <DIR> is shown instead of reported size for directories; when total subtree size is available (computed by walking), it is shown. Menu entry to compute total directory size, including subtrees. Progress indicator reports stall when do data is received during extended period of time. Mouse is useful in the main NFTP window (file navigation). History works correctly when using proxy.
10 January 1999: Mouse support starts to drive me nuts. Two new things in the progress indicator window: ability to restart file transfer (useful when stalled) and indicator of how long we've been waiting for packets from remote.
09 January 1999: Video_change_window_size, new coordinates for storing window position. Alt-left/right/up/down resize NFTP window. Pause in external program launch under Windows.
08 January 1999: Sorting in FTP Search: by time, by file name, by site, by size. OS/2 version now pauses when running external program how it is supposed to be. Displaying time in the FTP Search results window (switched on/off with Ctrl-T). Unix-specific fixes (exiting after transfer when disconnected). Changed progress indicator strings displayed in the window title. Separators in mle2. Visual enhancements in FTPSearch query panel. Screen settings and language separated by platform.
07 January 1999: Editing files on remote server (use "External viewer" command). New sort order is now forced upon already visited directories. Sorting in the FTP Search results window (needs improvement). Storing/restoring window position. Changing font size (PM version). Fixed problem with FTP Search stalling with very long result lists (over 300 items).
Happy New Year!
30 December 1998: Direct download from FTP Search results window (Shift-D/F5). Fixed search glitches in the listboxes. Search in History window (for sites and directory names). Interruptable socket recv/send (hangs while reading/writing control connection can be stopped). Still uninterruptable are DNS lookups and connect(). Message in the control connection when skipping file due to limitation of unregistered version. When changing language in NFTP/PM, old menu entries are deleted. New test version (beta 2). I am on leave until 6 January.
28 December 1998: Improvements on performance. Test version.
25 December 1998: Built version for Digital Unix OSF1 V4.0. While doing it, I have discovered a bug in the NFTP networking code. This bug was also preventing PORT mode from work under BeOS. Korean translation is available!
21 December 1998: Preliminary port to Win32 using Mingw32 (misses getopt and ftruncate and is not tested).
20 December 1998: Worked on FTP Search interface (regex and glob search, exclude/limit to paths/domains). Downloaded and installed MinGW32 (gcc port for Windows) and played with it. It misses some not very important functions, but in general to my surprise it appeared to work and even provide BSD socket functions! (They are in Microsoft WinSock2 DLL). It is possible that Win32 version will be compiled with it (RSXNT misses UDP support which is needed for FTP Search).
15 December 1998: Separate parameters in nftp.ini for viewers/editors on different platforms (makes possible to have one nftp.ini for multiple platforms).
14 December 1998: NLS strings for FTP Search. nls-dos, mnu-dos etc. files are no longer included into distribution. Removed bmkconv.cmd from distribution. Fixed problem with unwanted cursor display/hide commands when no such capability is present (caused annoying behaviour on FreeBSD console).
13 December 1998: Spent quite some time implementing basics of ARDP protocol; added primitive Prospero parser, and now have internal FTP Search interface.
12 December 1998: Registration info is now also saved in configuration file; new menu item to enter name/code (no longer needed to edit nftp.ini to enter them). Fixed glitch preventing Alt-key combinations from being recognized at Linux console. Additional characters are escaped when writing URLs for wget.
08 December 1998: Command-line option to force English.
07 December 1998: Got rid of NFTP_LANG environment variable. NFTP now saves its configuration parameters (currently, only language) into separate file. Upper-level menu item "Options" containing "Edit settings", "Select language", "Use flags". Moved "Sort" submenu into "View" submenu.
06 December 1998: Worked hard on FTPSearch interface.
05 December 1998: Started to work on FTPSearch interface (menu items, selecting servers to use). Submenus are now handled. Added control connection timeout option. FTPSearch interface works (via external ftpsearch program); needs some improvements though. Status line total/marked size display correctly shows numbers over 4GB.
04 December 1998: Finished optimizations of screen output routines. Unix versions are much faster now (regarding screen output over slow links).
03 December 1998: Worked on OS/2 VIO mouse handler. Optimizations of screen output routines under Unix.
02 December 1998: Worked on OS/2 VIO mouse handler.
29 November 1998: Clipserv is no longer needed (OS/2). Mouse slider drag in selection boxes. Layout tweaks. Option to disable mouse support. Fixed bug which was limiting directory names written into history files by 64 symbols. NFTP now restores window title upon exit ;-)
28 November 1998: Alt-keys now invoke corresponding menu items. Mouse works better in menu. Removed old Alt-key defaults.
27 November 1998: Reverted "-h" and "-b" to previous behaviour (otherwise "-h gcc" would not be accepted). Code rearrangements to have single source for all selection windows (bookmarks, history etc.). Scrollbars in these windows.
25 November 1998: Menu can be specified to be always kept on screen. Cleaning pathname in the prompt when logging in. Command-line options "-h" and "-b" now can be used to open history and bookmarks window when starting NFTP.
22 November 1998: Fixed bug: when directory contains only files starting with special symbols (e.g., !), it is shown as being empty (thanks to Vadym Bey).
21 November 1998: Thanks to Peter Marelas, I had the chance to build NFTP on Intel Solaris. The distribution will follow shortly (tomorrow?). Fixed bug with "Show information" sometimes putting wrong paths to clipboard.
20 November 1998: Added an option to disable upper status line. Worked on status lines, both top and bottom (they've got additional styles). When NLS files are too new or too old, warning instead of error is produced.
19 November 1998: Version 1.41 has been released
19 November 1998: NFTP/PM window now resizes itself to eliminate unused borders popping up due to granularity. Disabling/enabling menu items now works.
18 November 1998: Fixed security flaw in 1.40. Preparing for 1.41 release (it won't contain mouse support or TGUI versions, just bugfixes since 1.40). Also worked on 1.50; added support for loadable menus in OS/2 PM version.
15 November 1998: NFTP now uses five-fold network timeout interval when server without transfer restart support is detected. Added (primitive yet) support for mouse in OS/2 textmode sessions.
14 November 1998: Worked on TGUI version. Win32 backend now supports mouse (incomplete yet). LOT of makefile and code rearrangements. OS2 PM version basically works, but some things are still missing or broken. xterm mouse support (very primitive, needs severe improvement, but basic ideas are here). Yes, one can click on "OK" or "Yes"/"No" buttons! Fixed bugs: 1) under Win95, Esc did not work when capslock is on; 2) When passworded login fails, NFTP tried to keep wrong password and did not want to accept new one; 3) Unix versions ignored registration info.
11 November 1998: Worked on TGUI version. Fixed bug with nftp.ini updates failing on FAT (even if FAT is not officially supported).
09 November 1998: Have version running under OS/2 Presentation Manager GUI (textmode interface is emulated on top of GUI calls). It is incomplete, barely usable and crippled, but it works. Added clipboard support, window title support to OS2PM target.
F10 now exits internal viewer. Poked around with BeOS version and finally discovered a way to having Russian version of NFTP under BeOS!
08 November 1998: Worked on UI library. Fixed scrolling bug in very long bookmark folders. Increased max no. of bookmarks per folder to 1024. Test version is released.
06 November 1998: Worked on UI library.
05 November 1998: Fixed crash when download attempt from command line fails. Started to separate UI library from main code (I'm going to offer this library under BSD-like license, i.e. absolutely free).
03 November 1998: Fixed a problem when Esc-Esc in Unix version was ignored; now it produces immediate response.
02 November 1998: Changed two menu color defaults to something more appropriate for Unix and BeOS.
31 October 1998: Fixed: NFTP tried to retrieve marked directory as plain file when "Download" instead of "Download from all directories" is selected. BeOS-specific enhancements: installation script now adds entry to "Applications" menu (I have found about how to start Terminal with specific program under it looking at R4b2 upgrade script). Improved handling of window title under OS/2 (thanks to Sergey I. Yevtushenko). NFTP now runs under textmode-only OS/2 configurations (without PM).
27 October 1998: Received my BeOS R4b1 CD, built NFTP for BeOS R4. No changes appeared to be necessary!
26 October 1998: NFTP will no longer retry indefinitely when local disk is full.
25 October 1998: Fixed: OS/2 files get included into every distribution (bug in the makefile). Considering port to BSD/OS. When bookmark search fails, correct search string is displayed instead of 'null'.
23 October 1998: Version 1.40 has been released
19 October 1998: NFTP no longer hogs CPU when pausing while reconnecting (BeOS, Solaris). Mark is not removed when command to start wget was cancelled. Where's my domain???
18 October 1998: Added bunch of new screenshots. Fixed bug in Solaris version (login retry did not work; select() appeared to behave strangely on keyboard input :-( switched to more primitive and more stable method used for BeOS).
16 October 1998: Icon is added for Win32 version.
15 October 1998: nftp.com appeared to be taken :-( I have requested ayukov.com.
14 October 1998: My account on pair Networks is active! Now waiting for InterNIC to register nftp.com domain. Documentation updates, preparations for moving site to nftp.com. Target release date for 1.40 is 18 October.
13 October 1998: Fix for AS/400 date format support. Copying URLs to input field on "Open URL" command is smarter now; strings with spaces will be ignored (they don't look like URLs). Option to enable/disable automatic URL pasting. "Record everything" is now the default for history.
11 October 1998: Shift-L is now "Open URL", not "Save listing". Fixed: hotkey for "Rename" was not displayed. "Open URL" now copies clipboard contents into input field when invoked. Support for multiple date formats on AS/400 servers.
10 October 1998: Documentation updates.
9 October 1998: Clipboard support under OS/2 should now work correctly (using clipserv).
8 October 1998: Fixed bug when URL for wget was forming incorrectly in some cases. Parameter in nftp.ini to use right/left arrow for navigating directory structure (right -- enter directory, left -- go up one level).
7 October 1998: Fixed bug with copying URL to clipboard. Parameter in nftp.ini to enable/disable passwords in bookmarks. Some workarounds and patches for MultiNet 4.0 VAX servers.
6 October 1998: Fixing bugs. NFTP now will retry login when unable to connect and when server closed initial connection without sending anything. Passwords in bookmarks are now encrypted like in history and can only be edited from the inside of NFTP, not directly in the bookmark file.
5 October 1998: Worked on fixing bugs in upcoming 1.40.
4 October 1998: Login procedure enhancements. NFTP will delete its temporary files which are more than week old. Interface to use wget for downloading (Shift-W). "Open URL" option in "Sites" menu; looks and acts like previous "Login" options and allows pasting URLs unlike new login interfaces.
3 October 1998: Working on new interface for editing bookmarks and site information before login. Fixed some bugs in AS/400 parser. Some internal changes (URL struct now includes flags and description).
2 October 1998: Working on new interface for editing bookmarks and site information before login.
1 October 1998: URL is now written into listing files. Window title is updated more regularly when downloading (every three seconds; should fix problems with wrong display after reconnect during transfer).
29 September 1998: Fixed bug when files with percent sign in the name cannot be processed. Descriptions are now written also when doing tree downloads. Support for VMS UCX servers (preliminary).
28 September 1998: Nonstandard port numbers are now kept when opening login prompts. "Open bookmark" command now remembers the last position among folders.
25 September 1998: Support for VMS servers: MultiNet, MadGoat (switches to Unix mode).
24 September 1998: Worked on VMS server support.
22 September 1998: Fixed bug which could cause endless loop while reconnecting.
20 September 1998: Now all development builds have their own minor version number. Fixed: firewall type 2 did not work at all. Finished a version which runs in xterm under XFree86/OS2. Menu item to connect to NFTP distribution site.
19 September 1998: Resizeability enhancements. Looking in termcap for codes to disable and enable cursor. Looking in termcap to determine whether terminal can display character in right-down corner without scrolling (Unix). Test version.
15 September 1998: Enhancements for resizeability.
13 September 1998: NFTP now reacts to window size change correctly (Unix, BeOS; Win32 -- to do). Well, almost correctly, but it's hard to implement it 100% perfect in the environment which is not message-based. NFTP now reads termcap and uses key definitions from there when possible. This feature can be disabled in nftp.ini and NFTP automatically falls back to old method when key is not recognized in termcap. This should improve compatibility with some odd terminal emulators; namely TN and BeOS Terminal now work correctly. Fixed problem with some index files failed to parse correctly.
12 September 1998: Fixed bug with upload under BeOS (it was incredibly stupid, of course).
8 September 1998: Added an option to circumvent a bug in some firewall software. Worked on support for AS/400 ftp server.
25 August 1998: Fixed awful bug which was effectively ignoring 'network-timeout' option in many cases. NFTP should no longer hand on half-dead socket without receiving anything for a long time.
23 August 1998: Fixed problems: a) "Edit settings" does not work when NFTP home directory contains blanks; b) NFTP crashes on reload when initial directory is unreadable; c) passwords are no longer stored in entry field history.
20 August 1998: Version 1.30 has been released
20 August 1998: Fixed obscure problem with restoring connection which got broken while reconnecting. Version 1.30 goes public. Uploaded to: crydee.sai.msu.ru, hobbes.nmsu.edu, ftp.leo.org, ftp.bmtmicro.com, sunsite.unc.edu, ftp.tucows.com, uploads.winsite.com.
18 August 1998: Fix for install.sh under Solaris (native 'id' program has fewer parameters than GNU 'id' on my installation). Non-character hotkeys (i.e. Ctrl-keys, F-keys etc.) work in menu (i.e. you can hit F10 while being in 'Site' menu and NFTP will exit).
17 August 1998: Returned to Moscow. Rouble is falling...
7 August 1998: Test version. On leave until 16 August.
6 August 1998: While testing BeOS port, discovered serious problems: only passive mode works, upload does not work at all. Spent about an hour trying to find the reason why access() fails (finally solved). Ctrl-C now closes NFTP correctly under Unix (screen gets cleared and terminal state restored).
5 August 1998: Fixed remaining problems, NFTP now runs fine (with some limitations) in BeOS terminal window. 1.30 will include BeOS port. INI updater now writes CRLF delimited files on Win32 and OS/2. Same for debug and history files. Changed default editor on Windows back to notepad as DOS Edit can't handle long filenames.
4 August 1998: Played with BeOS for Intel several days when I had bits of free time. After resolving problems with some of its missing features and bugs in POSIX layer, NFTP/BeOS finally almost works (note almost) in Terminal window.
31 July 1998: Yes, NFTP 1.30 (Win32) will have self-extracting installer (GkSetup).
29 July 1998: Quick fix for arrow keys not working under national versions of Win98. Downloaded several installer software packages for Windows and played with them. Maybe 1.30w will have installer (and uninstaller ;-) Built new test version.
28 July 1998: Removed pause on message about e-mail not being set in nftp.ini.
27 July 1998: Monochrome mode seems to work OK (if it can be called "OK"). Even Windows default telnet is usable (barely though). New option in nftp.ini ('monochrome') and two command-line switches (-m and -c for mono and colour respectively) to override nftp.ini settings.
26 July 1988: Fixed bug when NFTP ignored the 'default-download-path' setting. Fixed failure to parse command line correctly under Solaris. Fixed problem with download-by-name not working. Now hidden files can be downloaded from the command line. Worked on monochrome screen mode.
25 July 1998: Fixed crash of Unix version when NFTP cannot determine terminal dimensions. Not that useful anyway because any good terminal emulator supplies window size, but anyway. At least NFTP does not dump core when started from Win95 telnet.
24 July 1998: Updating docs. New option to automatically lowercase file names under (not under Unix) when they consist entirely of uppercase letters. Test version is released. Had to raise unregistered limit to 1MB because Linux package slightly exceeds 500KB. May be I should get rid of static binaries ;-)
22 July 1998: Updating docs etc. Target release date for 1.30 is 31 July.
19 July 1998: Changed references in the docs from crydee.sai.msu.su to crydee.sai.msu.ru. Updated Unix man page.
18 July 1998: Menu tweaks. Removed limit on maximum of visited directories (was 8,192). Removed limit on maximum amount of local files in the directory (was 10,000). Default viewer and editor under Windows is now DOS "edit".
17 July 1998: Removed key action "automatic switch to control connection". Some fixing of logic of switching between control connection, remote and local views. Rearranged menus and submenus.
15 July 1998: Menu items can be disabled now (not all commands are valid in all modes). Further menu tweaks.
14 July 1998: Menu layout is now loaded from the file solving the problem of internationalization and configurability. Automatic fallback to English is provided. Option to always load English menu is provided. Further menu tweaks.
12 July 1998: Further unification of screen output routines. Changing video_put_n_cell() and video_clear() to avoid stupid creation of char arrays just to pass symbol and colour values. Background colour can be changed now. Pseudographics can be changed without altering NLS files (especially important for Unix where quite ugly substitutes were used by default). Replaced obsolete signal() calls with sigaction() interface; job control should now work correctly under FreeBSD. Hotkeys now work in menu. Numbers over 999,999,999 are now shown correctly in transfer progress indicator, summaries etc. Also improved prettinesss of numbers in dialog boxes (no longer prepended with lots of spaces). Fixed incorrect display in process table (speed was said to be in KB/s while it was actually in B/s).
11 July 1998: Rewriting of some internals (less code, cleaner code). Edit bookmark is now more relaxed about wrong syntax. Further command-line improvements: put, transfer lists, so now you can upload from the command line and process whole sets of get/put commands by recording them in file and then running "nftp -@ files.lst". I think I am done for now with command line functions.
10 July 1998: Further enhancements of command-line nicknames (when multiple matches are found, put a selection box).
9 July 1998: Basically, selecting bookmark/history by nickname from the command line works.
5 July 1998: Command-line enhancement: "ftp://userid:password@site.domain.net/" now works, so private logins are possible from the command line. Hotkey names are displayed in the menus.
29 June 1998: Menuing system (basically working, but definitely not finished) is now integrated into main code. New startup option (5): open menu; it is the default now. Need work: hotkeys, displaying hotkeys in menu items, internationalization, fix small glitches.
24 June 1998: Working on menuing system. Version/copyright message is now displayed on startup instead of stupid "init() done...".
21 June 1998: Back to Moscow
Thanks to Sergey Eremenko, the solution has been found for NFTP -- TN problem. Replacing one ANSI ESC call with another, equivalent has cured it.
23 May 1998: 29 May I will leave Moscow for Boston to attend SOHO 6/GONG 98 Workshop. Upon return 6 May, next day I'll move to Crimea where will spend 2 or 3 weeks. Therefore I will be absent from Moscow during June.
22 May 1998: Version 1.22 has been released

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