1. HISTORY SUMMARY FILE (reverse chronology) ============================================ NOTE: RMB is Right Mouse Button. Changes included in v2.3 (since v2.2) in Summary Form ----------------------------------------------------- See the file history.txt for a detailed log of changes made from version 2.0. o More attachment and MIME enhancements and fixes. o Stability enhancements - low level TCP routines fixed, memory utilization improved, GUI cosmetics and focus issues addressed. o New XFER directory mechanism can import file-based mail just as if it were delivered via POP3. o GROUP mechanism for FOLDERS to aid in auto-selection of custom templates when replying or posting NEW messags. Works also with NEWSGROUPS. o Address book entries can now specify a "GROUP" or tenplate tag used to auto-select custom reply templates (same as GROUP tags in FOLDERS, see above). o Filter List - more detail, RMB menu including CLONE option! o URL processing (direct and via "URL editor) now does a much better job of cleanup and assembling correct URL. o New filter disposition option: PURGE NOW from POP3 server. o Fix for UIDL mode and ATT* customers - their new mail server startled MR/2's UIDL mode! o Text Search through index files will now correctly match NUMERIC search text. o New filter criteria option (freeform filters) "Is this in my address book?" check. Example: {F}$@ checks to see if the FROM address is in your address/group books. o Account Switching - cleaned up and growing delays fixed. This also resulted in faster return from external utilities (edit externally AND rexx exits). o NEWSUTIL.CMD fixed to be multiplatform AND to use "google.com" instead of dejanews. Changes included in v2.2 (since v2.1) in Summary Form ----------------------------------------------------- See the file history.txt for a detailed log of changes made from version 2.0. o NEW news database engine. Completely rewritten database and much more stable/faster. Users must run rsetnews.cmd when converting from a pre-2.1 NEWS setup. o More attachment and MIME enhancements and fixes. o NEWS: Much more reliable reconnects when a socket is closed prematurely. MASTER GROUP LIST fetches now have a progressive "divide and conquer" algorthm for large lists (that were previously prone to failing). o Clickable INBOX dots for header-only entries. Changes included in v2.1 (since v2.0) in Summary Form ----------------------------------------------------- See the file history.txt for a detailed log of changes made from version 2.0. o Many, many bug fixes and smaller enhancements. o Speed improvements: Copy to large/open folders, mouse selecting via "swipe", reindexing folders, semaphore conflict fixed (occassional 30 second delay fixed). o Auto-Launch viewer enabled. o Multiplatform mode for compatibility with Win32 version. o Newsreader: Occassional data leaks plugged, o New Filter Wizard to aid in on-the-fly filter creation (RMB->Filter->Create new). o Better attachment handling and MIME processing (nest MIME messages, for example). A couple of new MIME associations added to the default (run addmime.cmd for existing setups). o Windows character sets now supported. Changes included in v2.0 (since v1.5) in Summary Form ----------------------------------------------------- See the file prehist.txt for a detailed log of changes made through version 2.0 (this is the OLD "history.txt" file). o Many, many bug fixes and smaller enhancements. o Speed improvements overall. Massively faster index loads. Improvements center on file system and GUI operations. Huge folders are now actually usable! Also, some code to reduce the fragmenting of critical files, increasing performance further. o Configurable columns. Not only can you adjust the column widths displayed for each message index page, but you can rearrange the order and even hide columns. More advanced options include adding spacers between columns and controling the line drawn to separate columns. o Y2K compliance. MR/2's message indices now handle 4 digit years. Older formatted index files are converted automatically. o REGEX pattern matching can now be used in filters. o Messages may be marked as PERMANENT and MR/2-sourced delete commands will skip these messages. Of course, there's a way to unmark messages, too! o Mailto.exe revised. There are now two new send-to-lists modes. Options to address each message INDIVIDUALLY to users, and another to keep the generic "To:" line but individualize each message with an "X-TO" header. o Remove from server now has an "after X days" option. Only available in UIDL mode. o Multiple work-in-progress messages will now all recover after a system failure. o Automatic trash emptying option. Can purge trash a specified number of days after being deleted. o Fetch my UIDL mode added. In addition to working a little better than the "last count" method, has the potential for futher feature delevopment. o Reading from PACKED FOLDERS should be quicker after the first message is accessed. The zip directory is cached for the last-accessed archive. o Selected counts at the bottom of each message index. o MIME handling improvements. Changes included in version 1.5 (since v1.4) -------------------------------------------- o Multiple selections now available when attaching a file. Click on as many file names (from the same directory) as you wish and attach them all with a single action o URL Editor allows user "fixing" of URL's before accessing them. o Options->Settings->Advanced now allows editing of ATTACHED directory default. No checking for validity is performed (yet). o "Detach to path" is now a menu item on both the message viewer's MESSAGE menu and on the RMB menu for attachments. Resulting form is much more simple than I originally intended. Perhaps more to come later. Up to 8 previously selected paths are remembered and the "default" button specifies and uses the default path. BETA. o Most pick lists are now font-drop sensitive and this information is saved and restored. In addition, many pick lists now support KEY jumping. Press "P" and the first entry starting with P is selected and displayed. Press "PE" and anything starting with PE is selected. Press SPACEBAR to clear the key-pick buffer. o New reply-time variable: @RUN:command@. This lets you run an external utility inline, as the reply file is being built. For example, comsider the following lines in a template: @Run:swapsig@ $File:rotsig.txt When the @run@ command is "expanded", the command line is loaded to run "swapsig", which should be a rexx command. In this example, I have assumed that swapsig.cmd REWRITES the file rotsig.txt every time it is invoked. I tested this this morning by having my rexx script write the date/time to a file, then dumping the contents of my environment ("set >filename") to the file. The next line inserted this file into the reply. YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE SOURCE MESSAGE at this time, but I probably should fix this for consistency. You do have almost all of the predefined environment variables set from source message. Items like MR2I.FROM and MR2I.TO and MR2I.NEWSGROUPS are all set for easier parsing. Parameters can be passed after the command but before the closing @. Open for expansion of this idea. Just a quicky, as it was about 20 minutes of code. o Enhanced RMB menus for the inbox, outbox and folder indices. The new SELECT sub menu has some functions inherited from News with some slight tweaks. By request. o All RMB Select menus now have an "Invert selections" option. By request. o A new MIME viewer specifier has been added. Placing a "#" (without the "'s) as the viewer for a MIME associations will produce a "can't view directly" message if anyone tries to RMB->View attachments of this type. By request. o Message OPTIONS menu now has a "Show MIME parts" sub menu that allows you to collapse a MIME message to show only parts (text/plain is even shown as a detachable part), show ALL parts as text (possible that some intesting displays will result!) or to use the "default" mode as defined by user-configurable MIME associations. By indirect request. This mode is persistent PER SESSION but is not saved to INI. I'm still debating whether or not to reset this for each message. The current setup will work while this is debated. o The NAVIGATE menu has some additions. It is now possible to move forwards and backwards to the "next" message with the same subject. These functions have also been mapped to the normal keyboard keys F for forward, B for backwards (active in the viewer only, the editor considers these typing keys :). o The functions Next and Previous Index Search Match (see the Navigate menu) have been assigned single key accelerators. You may use I to move forwards, J to move backwards. o MR/2 now times-out more reliable. Default is 90 seconds. o SMTP continuation line processing improved. o A new command line parameter (perhaps temporary) can control the tcp/ip READ timout. Since the last version made MR/2 very sensitive to timeouts, users have reported that the default 90 seconds is sometimes (rarely) not enough. Use /Kseconds to override this. For example: MR2I /K120 Starts MR/2 with a 120 second (2 minute) timeout. /K0 will turn timeout checking OFF and will cause MR/2 to work the "old" way. o {Z} Freeform filter specifier enhanced. Previously, this was only good for testing the SIZE of the current message/article. You may now add a header tag specifier. Example: {Z:X-Spam-Factor}100 equates to TRUE if the current header has a tag "X-Spam-Filter", and then if the data that immediately follows this tag can be evaluated as a number greater than or equal to 100. By request. o Ooops. Found another way that folder sort specifications could be lost. Fixed. Trash folder sort is now saved correctly. o Resending previously sent mail multiple times now works correctly. o Issues with initial focus and pre-selected items in list being in view have been addressed. o Beep is generated when text search is done and nothing is found. o Minor filtering inconsistencies fixed. Obscure bug, low impact. o Mailto.exe now accepts an optional fourth parameter: return path: mailto filename toaddress smtpserver returnpath Where toaddress can be simply an "." which tells mailto to send to the TO address in the message. Same with the smtp serverparameter; if a "." is specified, the default is used (from the environment variable SMTP_HOST). o Memory leak fixed when linking to REXX. A rather significant (3-6k) block of memory was allocated and never free'd each time REXX was called as a filter test, filter action or CTRL-Fkey invocation. Fixed. o "Mailto:" tags are removed from email addresses when tabbing out of fields. o Using +/- keys and all derivations now prevent recursion. This was causing a crash when paging through packed folders. The system will beep at you when a key is ignored, signifying it is "busy". o Formatted printing DATE in footer is now printed correctly. o Threw in a new @VARIABLE@ for replies and other templates. Similar to @Headerinfo:Tag@, you may now use @DomainInfo:Tag@. The header information matching TAG is extracted, and then the DOMAIN for that data is located and pulled out. If no tag exists, an empty string results. If no "@" is in the raw header data, the entire string results. So, using one of my messages as a source when replying, the template variable @DomainInfo:From@ will result in "secant.com". Changes included in version 1.2 (since v1.1) -------------------------------------------- Please note that many of these features have been publicly available for quite some time via "minor" maintenance release, they are listed here for the benefit of those preferring to upgrade only for major releases. For a more detailed discussion of changes, see the file "history.txt" in the distribution zip, and also available online via the MR/2 ICE home page at http://nick.secant.com/mr2ice.htm. o POP3 manual mode can be specified. In this mode, headers are fetched from the POP3 server but no bodies. Index entries are inserted with a new icon. The user can then pick and choose which full messages are fetched and when, if at all. This has been labeled "remote control" or "preview mode" in other mailers. A header-only entry in the index will show as a round "dot" icon. You can open this header for inspection, if desired, but the more common action would be to select one or more index "header only" entries and "fetch" again. Marked entries will be retrieved in full. o PreFetch filters. Filters that control the automated fetching of messages from the POP3 server. Criteria can be defined based on a messages header. If the criteria is matched, the user can specify to have MR/2 fetch the full message, just the header, or to skip the message entirely. There are two modes available. When used in normal "non manual" mode, PreFetch filters can be used to specify message for which only the HEADERS are desired. For example, messages from a certain user or over a specified size can be fetched in header-only mode, letting the user decide if/when to get the entire message. o User programmable Custom Mail Drivers. Third parties can now create drivers that allow MR/2 ICE to read/send with non-POP/SMTP mail systems. For example, a UUCP/UUPC driver set has already been created and made available to the public. o UUPC/UUCP interface via the custom driver interface mentioned above. Available as a ftp'able add on, see the MR/2 ICE home page for a direct ftp link (see MR/2 ICE's HELP menu). o Fax-by-email support!! MR/2 ICE now supports the transport of faxes and other FaxWork Pro and PMFax-related documents via email, with the potential to save fortunes in long distance phone calls! This feature will cooperate with release v3.0++ of FaxWorks Pro. o MR/2 ICE Ask-The-Experts(tm) Web Page! Yet another way to get user-based help for what's already the best-supported OS/2 email available! Simple web interface accepts and email address and question(s) from the user. This is then emailed to a panel of MR/2 ICE veteran users that have volunteered to share their knowledge. o MR/2 HELP menus now have links to various MR/2 web pages, including the home page, the FAQ and the Ask-The-Experts(tm) page. An online web-based manual with SEARCH capabilites should be available soon o The MIME subsystem now calls upon WPS Associations when viewing an attachment. If a viewer is not defined within MR/2 ICE, the attachment is treated as an "object" and opened via WPS calls. This feature is implemented via a new DLL. So as not to leave the existing OS/2 v2.x user base without updates, a special DLL is provided that allows use under v2.x, less the WPS integration. o Demand filters added. Filters meant to be called manually by the user against selected messages. o Messages may be "redirected" to other users without notably marking the message as a forward. (AKA "bouncing"). o Improvements to the split-screen editor and copying/quoting between windows. Pasting w/quote can be performed with a single click or keystroke. o Performance of Copying/Moving to folders vastly improved. o More documentation! Install.txt, keys.txt and readme.1st. The Readme.1st file describes all documentation files. The file INSTALL.TXT is loaded into the E editor for reference on the very first invocation of MR/2. o Overall performance increases: SMTP interface, Unique file generator, Reindexing of an index, o Improved subsystems: Forwarding, MIME, Multiple account logins. o Some minor attempts to improve workings on DBCS systems. o Much more in the way of fixes and improvements. What's New in Version 1.1 (since v1.0) -------------------------------------- o MIME support. Both incoming and outgoing attachments including support for configurable MIME associations, allowing you to control each MIME type. Declare a MIME part as "visible text" or define an external viewer for it. o Improved attachment processor. Attachments are handled faster and with much more flexibility. Files can be dropped on the message editor to add them as an attachment. RMB over an attachment allows it to be individually detached and/or "viewed". o Support for ISO-8859-10 and KOI8-R Russian character sets. Previous releases already included support for ISO-8859-1 through ISO-8859-9 and US-ASCII. MR/2 ICE now supports 47 code pages / character sets. o Improved hooks for PGP and other external utilities. MR/2 ICE can now be made fully PGP capable with the help of some wonderful third party tools. These tools include a PM based PGP front end and/or several REXX scripts ... mix and match, providing the most flexible solution possible. See the MR/2 ICE home page for more information about the third-party PGP tools. o Many more configuration options for MIME character sets. See Options->Settings->Advanced. o Improved spelling checker and thesaurus. o MR/2 ICE "server" options have been added that allow MR/2 to be controlled from other programs. For example, use MR/2 ICE as your SMTP interface for SLNR. Add message files to MR/2 ICE's outbox from any application. Invoke a "new message" from any application. Works with a running copy of MR/2 or a freshly loaded copy. o Third party tool support - MR/2 ICE is the default external mailer for the new Black Book v1.0. See the MR/2 ICE web page for links. o Improved POP3 server message reporting. o Improved REXX interfaces, both "on demand" and filter interaction. Have the REXX session loaded in the background, or in the foreground allowing user interaction. PreSend filters added that allow modification to any message just before it is sent. o Any external modifications to a message cause the message index to be updated to reflect these changes. In other words, editing a message's SUBJECT data using Tools->Edit Externally or the REXX interface will force the index to be updated, as well. o Outbound Filters enabled and enhanced. o Multiple copies of external editors and other utilities no longer causes problems. o Dozens of smaller bug fixes and enhancements. More detail? See the file "history.txt" in the distribution ZIP file.