                         What's New in CopyQM 3.24

                                Sydex, Inc.
                              P.O. Box 5700
                            Eugene, OR  97405
                              (541) 683-6033
                            email: info@sydex.com

                              March, 1996

We've made some Windows 95 optimizations, using the Lock Physical Volume
MS-DOS request to improve diskette access.  If you're running CopyQM in
a DOS window, the application title now reflects copying progress.

Plus owners should also note that the copy-protection feature has been
slightly modified to make it more useful.  Please consult the on-line
documentation for details.

Another change is that the combination of GO and NOPAUSE options will
cause immediate exit from CopyQM if a master read error occurs.

Self-extracting files also use the Win95 drive management code for better
performance.  If you're a heavy user of self-extracting image files, please
note that Sydex offers alternative extractors for Windows and OS/2, as well
as for Windows NT.  Contact us for more details.


                         What's New in CopyQM 3.23

A small tweak has been added for Plus creators of self-extracting files.  The
self-extractor uses the original drive type as a basis for selecting the target
drive.  Thus, if you've recorded a 1.2M format on a 1.44M drive, the self-
extractor will attempt to use a 1.44M or 2.88M drive in preference to a
1.2M drive.

A second change was made in the situation where a record filespec is used
with ? in certain positions.  The "Press any key." message after the file
is written would slowly "shrink" starting with the end characters.  This
has been fixed.

                         What's New in CopyQM 3.22


We often get asked about what kind of diskette is suitable for holding copies
of DMF-formatted software.  The answer is that ordinary DSHD 1.44MB diskettes
work just fine.

                         What's New in CopyQM 3.21


Some more small tweaks in DMF diskette copying were performed. If your system
required more than about 3 minutes to make a DMF copy, try this version for
better performance.

                        What's New in CopyQM 3.20

We took care of a small bug that would occasionally cause CopyQM to
report 81 cylinders instead of 80 when reading certain formats.  The
pricing currently in effect has also been extended to 1996.

As projected, DMF files can now be made to be self-extracting when using
CopyQM Plus.

                         What's New in CopyQM 3.19

             Self-Extracting Image Files (CopyQM Plus only)
             ----------------------------------------------

We've beefed up features in self-extracting image files, which now come
in two distinct varieties.  The first uses DOS calls to extract the
image and is the same as you've been accustomed to.  The second uses
BIOS calls and can handle a very wide range of non-DOS formats.
However, the BIOS version examines only the first two diskette drives
for compatibility (i.e., only drives A: and B:).

Either self-extracting file type now retains SKEW and INTERLEAVE infor-
mation specified when the file was recorded.

MAKESXD has also been adjusted to choose between the two self-extracting
file types.

You may suppress the password prompt during recording by specifying
OMITPASSWORD (or just OM) on the CopyQM control line.  A "no password"
case will be assumed.
 
                          Image File COMMENTS
                          -------------------

By specifying IMPORTCOMMENT (or just IM), information from ASCII text
files can now be imported as comment text when creating diskette images.
The filename of each text file must have the type of "TXT", but
otherwise have the same name as the image file being recorded.  Thus, to
import comment text for the file MYFILE.IMG, simply edit an ASCII file
with comment text and name it MYFILE.TXT and specify IMPORTCOMMENT on
the command line.

Imported comment text may be edited; to suppress the editing display,
use IMPORTCOMMENT with the NOCOMMENT switch.  Imported text will be used
"as is" with no operator intervention.

The ICOMMENT utility will accept the /IMPORT command-line switch to
produce the same effect.
 
                          SKEW and INTERLEAVE
                          -------------------

INTERLEAVE and SKEW are now part of each image file, so if they've been
specified when recording, they will be used when playing back or self-
extracting (CQ+ only) the image.  Either INTERLEAVE or SKEW may be
explicitly specified during playback, just as before, and the newly-
specified values will override the ones in the image file.

Microsoft DMF copiers need not specify SKEW=3 explicitly--CopyQM has
"smartened up" when it comes to DMF diskettes and now assumes SKEW=3
when a DMF diskette is copied.  This can be overridden, however, by
explicitly specifying SKEW.

There are a very (VERY) few double-sided formats in which skewing is
performed on a side-by-side basis, rather than on a cylinder-by-cylinder
basis.  To specify side skewing, rather than cylinder skewing, add ",S"
to the SKEW specification.  For example,

                                SKEW=3,S

results in side 1, cylinder 0 being skewed by 3 sectors; side 0,
cylinder 1 by 6 sectors; side 1, cylinder 1, by 9 sectors and so on.


                       What's New in CopyQM 3.18

                               October, 1994

After getting a few calls from customers wanting to copy the new
Microsoft DMF 1.68MB diskettes, we decided to come out with a CopyQM
release to do this.  Although no special arguments are necessary, you'll
probably want to specify SKEW=3 on the command line to optimize
performance of the copy.

Copying DMF diskettes is about 50 percoent slower than other "normal"
formats, due to the implied 2:1 sector interleave.

In connection with this, we've introduced two new command-line options:

    INTERLEAVE (abbreviated IN) allows the specification of a physical
        sector interleaving on all tracks.  Normally, INTERLEAVE=1 and
        sector numbers follow consecutively.  However, if INTERLEAVE=2
        were to be specified for a 9-sector format, the sector numbers
        would be placed on each track thus:  1,6,2,7,3,8,4,9,5.  It can
        be seen that two revolutions of the diskette are necessary to
        consecutively read all sectors on a track.  When copying Microsoft
        DMF distribution diskettes, INTERLEAVE=2 is implied.

    SKEW (abbreviated SK) allows the specification of a track "skew". That
        is, the track format is offset by a specified amount on each cylinder.
        Specifying SKEW=3 with a 9-sector format would place sectors as
        1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 on the first cylinder, and 7,8,9,1,2,3,4,5,6 on
        the second, 4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2,3 on the third and so on.  Note that the
        CONTENT of the disk is not affected, but access time may be improved
        somewhat.  SKEW normally defaults to zero (no skew).

A new CONVERT format has been added:  1.68M or 1680M, which is similar to
the Microsoft DMF, so now you can make your own DMF diskettes.

CopyQM Plus users please note:  As yet, CopyQM does NOT support DMF in
self-extracting image files.  We hope to have this handled in CopyQM 3.20.

Please consult CopyQM's online help for more information.  Use the command

            COPYQM /HELP

to display detailed information.


                        What's New in CopyQM 3.17


CopyQM's diskette I/O routines now support IRQs from 2 through 15, instead
the previous 2 through 8.  This allows 16-bit controller cards that can use
the higher IRQ numbers, such as the Adaptec SCSI cards to operate as secondary
controllers with CopyQM.

A new command-line keyword, "GO" has been added.  This keyword will suppress
the "Re-insert Master Diskette" message that appears when reading the first
diskette of a session.  If a diskette is in the source drive, CopyQM will
immediately begin processing it.  This is useful when a diskette has just
been created and needs to be processed immediately without operator inter-
vention.

When the RECORD=/ASK keyword is used, a filename with "?" characters may
be used in response to the file name prompt.  The effect is the same as
if the filename were given directly with the RECORD=filename keyword.
That is, for a file name of A???, files named A001, A002, A003... will
be created.

When the PLAYBACK=/ASK keyword is used, file names with "?" and "*"
characters may be used in response to the file name prompt.  The effect
is to play back all image files satisfying the file specification, then
request a new file name.  Files are accessed in alphabetic order.

A small bug in the self-extractor was corrected in CopyQM Plus.


                        What's New in CopyQM 3.16

You can now copy diskettes containing flawed areas by specifying the FLAW
keyword on the CopyQM command line, or by selecting the "Ignore master data
errors?" choice with CQMenu.  Please note that the data content of erroneous
sectors is NOT repaired, but as much data as possible will be recovered from
the bad sectors.  Consult the on-line help for more information.

The self-extracting file processor in CopyQM Plus has a bug repair.  If
an unusable destination diskette was used when executing a self-extracting
image file, the "Make another copy?" processing would not recover correctly
and an "Image file corrupt" message would result.  Note that the self-
extracting file would operate correctly the next time it was executed.

CopyQM Plus users can now invoke SHELL or OVERLAY procedures when an image
file is being written.  The sequence of events is exactly the same as when
diskette copies are being produced.

                        What's New in CopyQM 3.15

CopyQM now supports writing on up to twelve (!) destination drives.  You
must have an EGA or VGA display card when more than six destination drives
are being used.

In RECORD= mode, CopyQM now checks for a pre-existing file of the same name
as the image file to be written.  If one exists, a prompt is issued, giving
you the opportunity to exit CopyQM before overwriting the file.

The first master diskette in a session is prompted for with the message
"Re-insert Master".  The second and succeeding masters are requested
with the message "Insert Next Master".

We've made a couple of bug fixes related to multi-drive copying.  One is
an out-and-out goof--the display didn't correctly show which drive in a
multi-drive set was really writing.  The other is a subtle one and is
concerned only with 1.2M and 360K drives used to make the same 360K
copy--not a good idea, but supported at any rate.

CopyQM Plus users will note that the drive speed test now adds one more
digit of significance to the reported spin rate.


                     What's New in CopyQM 3.14


If the BLIND option has not been specified and a non-DOS, non-Macintosh
diskette is read, a prompt now appears allowing a change to BLIND copying
mode.  However, you should be aware that the non-DOS error message can
also appear when a DOS diskette is infected with a boot-sector virus,
such as the "Stoned" virus.

Auto-sense for E-Ten Chinese-language display software has been removed
due to conflicts with some ATI Technologies VGA display cards.  If a
restricted character set is desired, the "7BIT" command-line option
should be used.

                        What's New in CopyQM 3.13

CopyQM Plus now creates self-extracting image files directly, without
the use of MAKESXD.  The SELFEXTRACT (abbreviated SELF) keyword, when
used with RECORD, causes a self-extracting file to be recorded.  When
self-extracting files are produced, about 40K of additional base RAM
is required for operation.  In general, CopyQM requires a base RAM
space of at least 350K for execution.  Of course, the more memory the
better--i.e., faster--operation.

MAKESXD now does its work in a single pass, without any additional disk
space required for temporary files.

BIOS support has been improved to accomodate a few less-IBM-conforming
BIOS sets.

Code has been added to enabled interrupts at critical points.  We've seen
some BIOS code that doesn't seem to re-enable interrupts after they've
been disabled.

Support has been improved for 2.88M drives and controllers.  However,
CopyQM requires that 2.88M drives be jumpered for auto media-sensing
to work with the DIRECT diskette controller access modes.  If your
2.88M drives are not not jumpered in this manner, you can either reset
the jumpers or use BIOS access.

The SCANDISK utility in MS-DOS 6.2 sometimes reports a spurious boot-
sector and/or FAT error on diskettes generated with the CONVERT= option,
though MS-DOS CHKDSK finds no problem.  We've traced this to SCANDISK's
insistence on a certain media byte for a given media type. Interestingly,
in Microsoft's own words:  "Beginning with DOS 2.x, the usefulness of the
disk ID byte in the FAT was reduced and it now considered meaningless..."
Not being ones to argue a minor point, we now insert the proper media
media byte in CONVERT-ed diskettes and SCANDISK is happy.  Sigh...


                        What's New in CopyQM 3.12

CopyQM 3.12 contains a few minor changes to version 3.11:

        1.   Support for the E-Ten Chinese language system has been
             incorporated.  Users who use other double-byte systems
             can force the use of non-extended codes by means of the
             /7BIT command-line switch on any of the CopyQM product
             set.

        2.   A bug occurred when a BLIND mode copy was attempted where
             FIRST= did not equal 1.  Only one sector per track would
             be seen when CopyQM was run in Direct hardware access mode.

        3.   A few Windows API calls have been added to the Direct I/O
             routines.  CopyQM should run as a background task in direct
             hardware controller access mode  under Windows 3.1.  However,
             IBM OS/2's implementation of Windows and their DOS box appear
             to ignore these API calls, so running as a background task in
             OS/2 will still result in occasional "DRIVE NOT READY" errors.

        4.   Normally, CopyQM and its utilities will access the screen memory
             directly in order to draw displays as quickly as is possible.
             However, if the following switch is used, CopyQM and its
             utilities will use the video BIOS to create screen displays:

                     /CRTBIOS

             This can be abbreviated to /CR.  For example, if a copy using
             drives A: and B: is to be performed, the following command line
             could be used:

                     COPYQM A: B: /CRTBIOS

             Similarly, all CopyQM utilities, including CQMENU, CINSTALL,
             ICOMMENT, MAKESXD (CopyQM Plus only), DRMAINT (CopyQM Plus only)
             will accept the /CRTBIOS switch.  The configuration viewer,
             VIEWCONF, accepts this switch, but ignores it, as VIEWCONF
             always uses the CRT BIOS.

             Text-to-speech translator users may want to experiment with
             the switches /7BIT and /MONO to reduce the number of non-text
             characters on the screen.  The /7BIT switch forces the use of
             the lower 128 codes in the ASCII set; that is, line-drawing and
             character graphics are not used.  The /MONO switch forces use of
             a monochrome display set.
