(Continued from previous message)
 
- A new semaphore file, DBRIDGE.XON (short for ALT+X-Out-Now), can be made
  so that if you shutdown your D'Bridge system with ALT+X, any "after mail"
  commands in the scheduler will not execute... so the mailer will in fact
  stop everything its doing and shutdown immediately.
 
- A certain condition affecting SMTP/POP3 sessions should be resolved.
 
- The "Auto purge messages" option has been removed. It was not working
  properly and will be redesigned in a future version.
 
- The D'Bridge tosser no longer chokes on an invalid Fido *.MSG directory
  when that directory was loaded from a user-modified exported configuration
  (Note that this was an extremely rare condition and no cause for concern)
 
- A minor problem with unpacking large volumes of Echomail in Fido *.MSG
  format has been corrected.
 
- D'Bridge no longer acts strange when tossing more than 32,767 messages
  in a single Echomail area.
 
- Another miscellaneous problem with QuickBBS/GoldBase was corrected during
  the tossing of mail.
 
- D'Bridge should no longer hang on the AutoUpdate event if there are no
  Echomail areas defined.
 
- DBUTIL was further enhanced and is approx 10 to 15% faster than 3.64.
 
- More unused code was removed from the mailer for efficiency reasons.
 
- The strange appearance of ".$P2" files in the Queue should be gone.
 
- QuickDial should no longer randomly hangs the scheduler after a Quick-
  dial cycle has finished. This was an extremely difficult problem to
  resolve (suspecting a regression-bug from a prior release)
 
- D'Bridge should no longer immediately attempt a BinkD transaction when
  started for the first time in a day (a regression problem from prior)
 
- The mailer no longer hammers a dialup modem with initialization commands
  on every single trivial function such as menu interaction, etc.
 
- D'Bridge should no longer have any more random problems with Nodelist
  compiling or QueueScan's after the midnight-AutoUpdate event. This was
  a very difficult problem to replicate here but I'm pretty sure I fixed it.
 
- The Nodelist compiler "buffering" has been reduced to free up more memory
  internally. This is a TEMPORARY change and the first change to code that
  has not been changed in 20+ years. So if this is a problem, then let me
  know ASAP and in the meantime you may set an environment variable called
  NLBUFSIZE with a value of 256. This will make the compiler function as
  it did in 3.64 and prior versions.
 
- Cancelling the Echomail Areas screen exactly eight times in a row
  no longer crashes the whole system.
 
- D'Bridge should no longer crash with a "Write Log Error 2" black-screen-
  of-death problem on very large configurations.
 
- A black-screen-of-death problem when routing large amounts of Netmail
  should also be solved.
 
- The storage of internal events is slightly different; again please note
  that when you upgrade from a previous version, make sure to press CTL+A
  to abort running any overdue events if prompted.
 
- You may create a dummy/semaphore file called DBRIDGE.RAB (Rescan queue
  After a BinkD transaction). It will force a Queuescan after every BinkD
  transaction.
 
- The Internet Settings screen was not properly storing one (critical)
  piece of information when D'Bridge is configured for Linux BinkD.
 
- The XMAIL compress/decompress commands are properly configured on
  new installations. (This was another possible regression problem)
 
- A minor problem tossing Echomail messages from D'Bridge to certain BBS
  software was fixed, relating to the "Enhanced Echomail logging" setting.
 
- If "Enhanced Echomail logging" is enabled and the SCANDIRS.LOG file
  exists, then D'Bridge will no longer constantly report that it is scanning
  for outgoing Echomail if the semaphore/dummy file DBRIDGE.NSS exists.
 
  Incase you are unaware, D'Bridge has a lot of "hooks" in it to help
  integrate with BBS software or your own utilities. Enhanced Echomail
  Logging refers to D'Bridge communicating via log files which Echomail
  areas actually have pending mail to be tossed to (or scanned from) BBS
  software. This greatly improves performance during toss and scan cycles
  when your BBS has a large configuration with thousands of message areas.
 
  WARNING: Do NOT enable Enhanced Echomail Logging if you do not run a BBS
           or your BBS software does not support this feature.
 
- Pretty sure I solved the "Err 23" message in the Comm/Modem Setup screen.
 
- Problems with D'Bridge returning to the mailer instead of quitting to DOS
  after a Telnet connection "drops carrier" in multi-line mode should all
  be fixed now.
 
- Added a new option in BASIC CONFIGURATION to improve performance of the
  mailer when running under certain environments such as legacy computers
  running modern versions of Windows or "emulated" environments like VMWARE
  EXSI or Oracle VirtualBox. This new setting controls the number of "time-
  slice" routines D'Bridge generates when the mailer is Idle and waiting
  for commands.
 
  I tried to address this in the version 2 series but for many reasons I was
  not completely satisfied with the results. But the new code I have written
  for this release should hopefully solve all reported "high CPU usage"
  problems when D'Bridge is running.
 
  The higher the setting, the more timeslices are given back to your
  operating system and less CPU usage is allocated for D'Bridge processing.
  Performance of your computer may be significantly improved and/or
  background processes may be improved. D'Bridge may toss mail slower or
  be less responsive to system commands; with the exception of PSTN dialup
  sessions. PSTN dialup sessions are always assigned top priority CPU usage.
 
  Configuring a lower value implies that D'Bridge will use more CPU time
  (processing mail faster) but other applications and/or background-services
  on your operating system are allocated less time. If there only a few
  other applications running or D'Bridge is predominately the
"only" program
  running then the value can be set lower.
 
  Most of you should leave the default value as it is. Note that technical
  support is not provided for operating system issues; and it is perfectly
  normal for CPU usage to "spike" occasionally.
 
  When the mailer calls certain functions, external programs or a DOS-shell,
  then this option has no effect since control of the session is returned
  to the command-processor (COMMAND.COM, CMD.EXE, 4DOS, etc) which is
  usually an OS-native executable.
 
  WARNING: Do NOT use programs such as Tame to control the CPU usage. These
           programs are known to cause serious problems with D'Bridge.
 
- The timeslice question should be left at its default setting for OS/2.
  OS/2 has very comprehensive "slice" options for DOS programs and even the
  default settings for DOS programs under OS/2 is sufficient. When using
  Ray Gwinn's SIO replacement drivers for dialup modems, a D'Bridge setup
  runs very efficient and "plays nice" with other programs on OS/2.
 
- The Auto-Poll feature in the Scheduler has been slightly corrected to
  resolve a possible "file left open" problem that may creep up and cause
  problems elsewhere, when the mailer is left running unattended for long
  periods of time (weeks, months)
 
- Fixed a problem where under rare circumstances, D'Bridge would not save
  the COMM/MODEM settngs properly. Note that as per the beginning of this
  document, it may be necessary to reconfigure/adjust the settings in
  the COMM/MODEM setup screen after upgrading from a prior version.
 
  If you upgrade and D'Bridge does not start, then erase the COMM.* files
  and try starting it again. Reconfigure your PSTN dialup modem in the COMM
  MODEM setup screen again. The settings will be properly saved for future
  versions.
 
  The same step applies if you are downgrading to 3.64 or a prior version.
 
- Cleaned up some redundant things when D'Bridge is ran in a "Multi-line"
  configuration.
 
- The lastread pointers for QuickBBS and GoldBase were slightly corrected
  and adjusted to resolve a small problem that comes up over a period of
  time when large amounts of messages are stored.
 
- Very minor cosmetic corrections done to the way BinkD transactions are
  displayed.
 
- A very minor problem relating to the behavior of Areafix requests destined
  for Usenet has been fixed.
 
- A minor logic-handling problem was fixed with Areafix.
 
- The semaphore delay-checking code for Areafix requests destined
  for Usenet has been increased.
 
- Cleaned up the appearance of some setup screens.
 
- Minor adjustment to the way "Forward-to" systems are added to Echomail
  Areas.
 
- Added a few "sanity checks" to some of the D'Bridge setup questions and
  commands... since Murphy's law is that newcomers can (and do) crash things
  or do things I would not expect.
 
- Changed some very minor delay timing in the outbound-call logic.
 
- It is now possible to abort an Areafix request destined for a Usenet
  gateway (rewriting USENET.BBS and NEWSRC files), since large requests
  may take a significant amount of time to complete.
 
- Pretty sure I solved the random problems with BinkD domain settings
  not importing properly from 3.64 or prior versions.
 
- Corrected a cosmetic "bug" in the VIEW QUEUE ENTRY command, when a Queue
  entry no longer exists the mailer no longer merely shows the nodelist
  info and its no longer necessary to display the "Phone/baud" field
  on a BinkD transaction.
 
- Fixed where in some conditions, running D'Bridge normally then exiting and
  running DB SETUP, then exiting and doing this over and over again for
  dozens of times in a row would crash the system.
 
- Slightly revised the code for automatic checking of D'Bridge updates.
 
- I can't even begin to count the numerous things cleaned up in the code
  as a result of all of these changes.
 
A lot of hard work and countless hours went into programming 3.7. It is my
hope that it was "worth the wait" for you.
 
Enjoy,
 
Nick Andre
www.net229.org

--- D'Bridge 3.7