It's been a long time coming, but Wssindex version 7 is now ready for testing. Several variants are available for different operating environments; the table below should help you pick the right one.

You may also want to checkout Wss Stock, a new product for generating links to stock charting sites.

This is a beta release and it may well contain serious bugs. Please backup any existing databases before modifying them with the new release. The database format has changed, so you cannot read new databases with older versions of Wssindex.

Version 7 release history, changes are listed below.

• 1st beta September 18, 1999
• 2nd beta December 4, 1999
• 3rd beta December 12, 1999
• 4th beta Decembar 22, 1999
• 5th beta January 2, 2000
• 6th beta January 10, 2000
• 7th beta January 16, 2000 (mp3 support)
• 8th beta February 5, 2000 (fix German keyboard problem)
• 9th beta March 12, 2000 (Win/9x keyboard/paste problem, CAB file support)
• 10th beta April 2, 2000
• 11th beta April 9, 2000
• 12th beta April 23, 2000

Wssindex 7 versions
Built with	Environment	Download	Notes
MS Visual C 6	Win/95/98/NT4	wswin700.zip 135K	Win32 only. This is the version most people will want. Has not been tested under NT 3.51 or earlier, nor under Win/2000.
Djgpp	DOS and Win/3.x/95/98	wsgcc700.zip 142K	Setting display size requires card-specific setup. Not recommend for use under Win/NT due to no long file name support and general flakiness. Requires a DPMI provider such as CWSDPMI when used under DOS.
EMX/gcc	OS/2	wsemx700.zip 164K	Requires EMX runtime. Only tested under Warp 4
EMX/gcc	OS/2	wsomf700.zip 174K	Standalone, EMX runtime not required. Only tested under Warp 4

All versions are built from a common code base and have essentially identical look, feel and features. (Long file names are not supported under DOS or Win 3.x, and the OS/2 version extracts long names from extended attributes for files on FAT partitions.) All are text-mode console applications with mouse support. Database and configuration file formats are identical so databases can be used with any version.

What's new in the 12th test release

• Further attempts to make non-US keyboards work right.
• Fixed a few places where 2-digit year 2000 came out as 0 or 100.

• Tagging a subdirectory could cause a crash with an access violation.
• Input prompt in Win32 version was sometimes mispositioned, overwriting options, in file selection screen
• If Wssindex was started from a network drive with no associated drive letter, it got confused about the default location for database and config files. It now defaults to C:\WSSINDEX\ in this case. There is only limited support for referencing database and config files without using drive letters.
• There's a new option on the Screen, keyboard and miscellaneous menu: "Non-US Keyboard with KEYB.COM loaded (Win32 only)". Non-US keyboards will work very badly if this is option is not turned on. A remaining issue is that dead keys are not handled properly.

• Setting fixed column widths for output fields didn't work right; columns "wandered".

• Some of the international keyboard fixes caused problems in Win/9x if KEYB.COM was not loaded, including capslock being applied to number keys. (Fixing this broke non-US keyboard support until beta 11, sigh...)
• Paste only works in Win/9x if fast pasting is disabled (no problem in Win/NT). Implemented control-V to mean paste in places where pasting makes sense.
• Made printout width of comment and category fields separately controllable. Previously only the first was adjustable, but now that there may be more information printed after these two fields, the widths of both must be set if aligned columns are desired.
• Added support for extracting information from .CAB files. Note that there is a new Microsoft cabinet format which is not recognized by the Microsoft Cabinet SDK. For now, these files will be silently ignored until I can find some format documentation.

• Fixed problem with extended keys not being recognized when running German version of Win/98.

• Added support for MP3 audio files. Note that the information in the optional tag at the end of an MP3 file will not all fit into the Wssindex default 64 character comment size. I suggest configuring for 150 characters.

• Option "Codepage sets sort order" replaced by selection of codepage none, 437 (US) or 850 (International). This should work for all supported operating systems, and the speed penalty for using a code page is small. Note that if the code page is not set to none, sorting is almost case-independent, but not quite due to some quirks in the definitions of case sensitive and insensitive sort orders for the code pages.
• Matching file names when re-indexing and copying comments was case-sensitive, which could easily lead to loss of information if the option for case handling while indexing was changed.
• Added option to only copy comments when files are in the same directory as they were in the last time the disk was indexed. This can greatly speed up the copying process when there are many files, but it loses comments if files are moved or directories are renamed.
• On the add-comments screen, long file names might appear truncated or blank after a few files had been processed.

• Unloading a database before loading another could crash because unallocated memory was being freed.
• Added period and semicolon as possible export separators, period as possible date separator.
• Fix screen painting problem for fields longer than display width, most notable on the helper program configuration screen.
• Fixed screen painting problem where screen might scroll every time a character was typed when entering a file name.

• Last codepage changes broke shifted number key characters.
• Non-US keyboards should now work better. Only the German keyboard has been tested.
• Added ability in Win32 version to enter ANSI or OEM characters by Alt + numeric keypad digits (leading 0 means ANSI, otherwise OEM). (Other versions already had this functionality without any special action in my code.)
• New option under Long File Names to allow blanks in file names for database and config files. Defaults to YES for Win32, NO for other versions when an old (or no) configuration is loaded.

• Changed output format for long names when FN EXT style is requested. Extensions are now aligned with short name extensions if the name and extension parts each fit in their respective columns.
• 4-digit years past 2000 no longer come out as 19xx, Oops...

• In Win32 version, files without long names had the short name entered in the long name field and the short name was null. This sort of prints ok, but the missing short name prevented the extension from being recognized, so archive and image files wouldn't be processed.
• You were supposed to be able to use the mouse to navigate the add-comments and full screen file name entry screens, but only the insert/overtype toggle worked.
• In Win32 version, the year was messed up for the first file in the root directory.
• Codepage questions were completely ignored. Non-US keyboards should now work properly and sorting should be correct (provided the new option Codepage defines sort order is enabled). The database now uses your OEM codepage. Changing codepages is not supported. These changes apply only to the Win32 version; my DOS and OS/2 compilers lack codepage support.

• Support for long file names. This is the biggest change. It required a change in the database format; old databases are readable.
• OS/2 and Win32 versions.
• All versions have capacity limited only by memory and disk swap space; there are no longer separate DOS and EXTENDED versions with different capacities.
• A user-specified external editor can be used for entering comments and categories.
• A virus scanner can be automatically called before each disk is indexed.
• The depth to which subdirectory trees are indexed can be limited.
• 4-digit year formats (Y2K and all that).
• Unregistered versions now print "unregistered" in the header line of printouts and screen displays, but are otherwise fully functional. This reminder is disabled by a small key file rather than by setting environment variables. This key file may used by other WSS-DDC products in the future. Note: if you have previously registered any version of Wssindex, please send email for instructions on how to setup the new key file.
• Rainbow and TI Pro versions were discontinued because these machines don't run operating systems that support long file names.
• Various bug fixes and user interface tweaks.

• Long File Names (LFN's)
  OS/2 and Win/95/98/NT allow file names longer than the traditional 8.3 format. This introduces several complications for a disk cataloger. (1) files may have two names: Win/9x/NT assign an 8.3 name, typically containing a tilde, for use by non-lfn-aware programs; a file on a FAT disk under OS/2 may have an 8.3 name plus a long name in extended attributes. (2) the concept of a file extension is ambiguous when a file name may include multiple periods; is the extension of a.b.c "c" or "b.c"? (3) Extensions used to identify file types may have both 3 character and longer forms. (4) Printing tables in neat columns is awkward when file names can be over 250 characters long.
  Wssindex now records both short and long names (when present). This required a change in the database format, so older versions of Wssindex will not be able to read new databases. Wssindex generates a short name for files which have only long names (OS/2 hpfs disks).
  If a file has two names, the long name is considered the "true" name and is used in search and sort operations.
  The file extension is considered to be any characters following the last period in the file name. Two extensions are considered to flag files of certain file types, e.g., JPG and JPEG.
  The number of columns alotted for printing the file name is now configurable (specified as filename and extension columns separately, one blank column assumed). If the long name will not fit in this width, it is abbreviated as beginning...end. Full and alternate names may be printed in optional, variable length fields preceeding comment and category information. These will appear as lfn=longname and alt=shortname.
  If the configured filename print format is FN EXT, and one or both parts are too long, FN.EXT format is used.
• Turn off quick-edit mode for the Wssindex window under Win/95/98/NT or else Wssindex will not see mouse activity. (Anybody know how to turn off quick-edit mode from within a console-mode program?)
• Win/95 has some problems reading CD-R disks that use packet writing, such as may be created by Adaptec Direct CD. Wssindex has an option to attempt to compensate for this problem. The symptom is that files that are processed to extract information, such as archives and graphics files, appear multiple times in the same directory. It's not a Wssindex problem because something as simple as pkunzip -t *.zip shows the same symptoms. Based on my experiences, I'd say Adaptec Easy CD Creator is a great product, but Adaptec Direct CD is a coaster creator.
• Mouse position in the menus may be tracked using either the system mouse cursor or a highlight bar. Generally, the system pointer should be used, but the highlight bar may be useful in full-screen mode.
• Odd window sizes are supported, but you may have problems if you toggle to full-screen mode while using window dimensions not supported for full-screen use by the underlying operating system.

• Printing does not go through Windows or OS/2 printer drivers, so Wssindex cannot talk directly to Windows-only printers.
• To paste into Wssindex under Win/9x, you must either disable fast pasting or else use the standard keyboard paste command, control-V. Win/NT does not have this limitation.
• NTFS drives can have volume labels longer than 11 characters; Wssindex truncates these to 11 characters. If support for longer volume names is added, the database format will need to be changed again.
• If an NT disk is indexed over a network connection from OS/2, the last character of the volume label is lost. This seems to be an OS/2 limitation; the OS/2 VOL command does the same thing.
• Win/95 doesn't support long file names in MS-DOS mode for any application, so Wssindex will only see the 8.3-style file names. Long names are seen in a DOS window.
• The Win32 executable includes icons. Win/NT and Win/98 can see these icons, Win/95 can't. I don't know why.
• Postscript printing does not support high-ascii characters, including those which may be needed by non-US codepages.