• Added a DXCC database. Uses the dxcc database cty.dat of the CT ver. 9 logging program for input, and converts it to two binary files. The cty file includes all the necessary information in good format, and it is updated pretty often. Thanks to Jim Reisert, AD1DC, for the database! Databases are stored in the directory clu\db\. The index file is loaded into RAM (XMS, if available) to fasten up searches.
• In 0.29f, after giving an AWay or a HERe command users didn't get any dx/ann etc messages. Fixed.
• Included support for PacketCluster-type databases, like the QSL database. New configuration file db.ini and a new command Find. See clusse.doc for more information. If you don't have any databases installed, rename or delete db.ini to get Clusse running.
• Database statistics are available trough the command STatus B.
• Modified and optimized configuration file reading functions and other buffered file reads. Saved some code there. There's an EOF marker in links.ini, see the example and add it to your file, too!
• New optional text file text\newuser.txt, sent to users logging in for the first time (not found in the user file).
• Installed Win 95 on my computer. Clusse runs fine under it, and now detects Windows and DPMI.
• The PC50 user count beacon timer can now be adjusted in links.ini, using command U. Default is 15 minutes, minimum 10, 0 disables the beacon.
• Rewrote the function which evaluates the difference between two date/time records in days. Should fix problems with expiration.
• Expiry won't (hopefully) crash to a division by zero on empty files nor dump the DX file...
• Speedup in MID file mounting, disk is now being read in bigger blocks.
• Reorganized BPQ socket mode handling. Preparing for AutoBIN file transfers etc.
• Transmit/receive byte counters are now stored for every socket. They're visible in the socket list (the STatus command).
• Link failure detection can be customized in links.ini.
• The DX list is now kept in memory. The size of the list can be adjusted, see expiry.ini for details. Update your expiry.ini!
• The DX list commands LBand, LInfo, LPrefix and LSuffix now all accept a second parameter, which specifies how many matched entries will be shown to the user.
• Added some XMS support functions to make the XMS module usable. XMS is now being used for storing database index files to fasten up searches. You can decide which index files are loaded into XMS in db.ini.
• New parameter X(ms) for the STatus command: gives information on XMS usage.
• New I/O error handling scheme. Gives more information about the problem, when crashing.
• Rewrote the function which sends specified amount of lines from the end of a text file to a user. Now reads the file in 8K chunks. It's used in the LErrors command, which used to be very slow.
• Fixed several things that caused stability problems. Clusse called BPQ without initializing some registers correctly and the BPQ switch wrote data to *WRONG* places, corrupting memory... it was my fault. (To be exact, BPQHOST function 8, callsign connected on the stream is returned to es:di. I left es:di pointing somewhere in Nevada when getting maxframe and paclen for the stream trough the same function.)
• Those users with the Sysop flag on have a "!" character after their callsign on the user list (doesn't work trough a PacketCluster link), so other users know who to talk to if they have problems... Their user callsigns don't have the character, but the Talk command strips any "!" characters from the recipient field, just to be sure...
• text\login.txt is loaded in memory to speed up user logins on systems with slow hard disks (like my system, OH7RBA). Maximum file size is 1700 bytes.
• DX spots originated from the local node aren't accepted when merging DX spots on linkup. Fixed, finally.
• The news file now accepts blank lines.
• Modified the login function to keep SSID's of 6 and 7. Usually, the SSID's of users are set to the first free SSID with the same callsign on the cluster network.

© Heikki Hannikainen <hessu@pspt.fi>