NFTP : New File Transfer Protocol Client Version 1.02
Copyright (C) 1994-1997 Sergey Ayukov

VERSION HISTORY

Version 0.1 (preview)

First usable version. Used FTPAPI calls. Very slow; control connection messages cannot be seen. Wasn't exposed to public, although available.

Version 0.2 (preview)

Got rid of FTPAPI. Full-scale socket programming of ftp control connection and data transfers. Introduced bookmarks.

Version 0.3 (preview)

Never showed to public. The last version compiled with IBM CSet++. See 0.4.

Version 0.4 (preview)

Nearly the same as 0.3, but compiled with emx 0.9a + gcc 2.6.3. A handful of new features:

• logging in and out without restarting entire program;
• passworded entries in bookmark file;
• quick directory change: if you know where to go, you won't need to traverse all intermediate dirs;
• various bug fixes.

Version 0.5 (preview; close the beta stage)

Bugfixes plus

• ability to work in any 80xXX mode (25 <= XX)
• online context sensitive help (press F1, Shift+F1)
• code reorganization
• some errors are handled (mostly login errors)
• directory sorting by name, size, date/time
• create directory on the remote, remove file(s) on the remote
• preserving date/time of files downloaded
• fast built-in file viewer
• ability to invoke any ftp server command
• better socket selecting scheme

Will not work after 31 Dec 1995

Version 0.51 (preview; close the beta stage)

I am sorry for releasing 0.5 so full of bugs... There was a lot of...

• fixed couple of awful bugs (memory corruption) resulting in core dumps etc;
• got rid of malloc (goodbye, flat memory space! welcome, 32-bit segments and memory protection!)
• you can set nonstandard port in nftp.ini

Version 0.52

Same as 0.51 but without 31 Dec limitation. Only to be distributed by SAMS Publishing.

Version 0.53

Nearly the same as 0.52 but limited to 30 March 1996.

Version 0.60

I am a bit short on time; 0.53 expires today, so some new features weren't tested much. Bugfixes and small improvements plus:

• reget (restarting transfers)
• uploading
• IP numbers can be used instead of host names
• "Q" and "S" work! you can skip files during transfer or stop download/upload
• more intelligent networking (fixes some problems with dynamic IP)
• changing local directory, viewing list of local files etc.
• ability to specify arbitrary port (not in bookmarks though)
• new bookmarks can be created with Insert key
• installation program
• documentation

Version 0.70

Few bugfixes (including failing to recognize "hostname/directory" format when specified in the command line) plus

• fixed nasty bug causing nftp to crash when viewing some files with internal viewer -- thanks to Jose Ruiz who pointed out to such file
• sort by extension
• much more error recovery; there should be no more situations when nftp exits silently;
• improved sound signals; includes beep after successful login (configurable)
• tables in this manual look much nicer now :-)
• firewalling support -- does not work yet
• remappable keys
• ability to specify download directory in NFTP.INI. NFTP will change into that directory after start
• IBM TCP/IP ftpd for OS/2 is supported
• Windows NT ftpd is supported
• Windows 3.x WFTPD by Texas Imperial Software is supported
• Progress indicator in "view remote file" and during receiving of directory listing
• You can now try to "chdir" to symbolic link
• "Parsed" directory view -- hit Ctrl-P and see
• National language support -- check out NFTP home page
• Average transfer speed is now recorded in the history (.fls file)
• Russian version
• Chinese BIG-5 version
• Spanish version

Version 0.71

Several bugfixes plus

• '*' inverts selection
• f8 deletes local directories
• Neologic FTPD is supported
• moving language-dependent strings into separate DLLs (thus greatly reducing size of the package)
• (un)marking files by template (eg, '*.txt')
• Hungarian version
• German version
• Danish version
• Japanese version
• caching of viewed remote files
• downloading all marked files from all directories (alt-f5)

Version 0.72

No new functionality. Fixed small mistakes in national language translations. Added Norwegian version. Added missing ASCII and Postscript manuals.

Version 0.80

• Support for Neologic FTPD in UNIX emulating mode
• Support for PowerWeb FTPD
• Support for old (with DOS-like output) Windows NT ftp server
• F6 renames files/directories (on remote too)
• Alt-S saves listing of current directory into file
• left/right/ctrl-left/ctrl-right scroll remote/local directory listing
• symbols select files starting with these symbols
• complete firewalling support (a-la WS_FTP) (wasn't completely tested)
• built-in fileviewer now has ability to save file and search for text
• retrieving directories/viewing files is now interruptable (with ESC)
• when anonymous login is denied, NFTP will retry after specified amount of time
• Italian version
• Brazilian Portuguese version

Version 0.81

Mostly bugfixes. Also

• Dutch version

Version 0.82

Fixed bug causing zerodivide when transferring small (<1000 bytes) files and total size of batch transfer is larger than 1MB.

• NFTP now assumes that server has Unix-like LIST output when server OS was not recognized.
• French version (provided as separate DLL).

Version 0.83

I am very sorry -- releasing 0.82 with 1 Oct limit was a very stupid idea because right now I am in process of completing my PhD. I hope to return to work on NFTP in middle October or early November. There are no differences between 0.82 and 0.83 except expiration date. French version is now integrated into the package.

This version will live until 1 Feb 1997 (apparently I don't want to disappoint you just when you're celebrating New Year ;-) I hope to produce release (1.0) meantime.

Version 0.90

This version is essentially the same as 1.0; it will expire 1 Mar 1997 so you can use it while registering version NFTP (<smile>). Many small bugfixes and much more improved error checking plus

• PM Clipboard support (shift-insert/ctrl-insert)
• Cursor is positioned correctly after deleting/creating/sorting/etc
• spacebar/tab switches are more consistent now
• PWD is no longer necessary
• history in the command prompts (somewhat poorly done; use up/down)
• Ctrl-Z is no longer transferred in ASCII mode
• completely redesigned bookmarks
• some kind of batch mode; see command-line arguments
• directories are now removed with RMD
• fixed problem with template marking (*.h* -> foo.h)
• view turns transfer mode back when completed
• case insensitivity in file searches
• fixed problems with NT servers
• you can get file from unreadable directory (alt-d)
• improved handling of numeric IP addresses
• fixed junk appearing in input fields sometimes
• folder for NFTP. Editing .bmk and .ini
• tab expanding in viewer
• password is no longer visible in some firewall configurations
• long strings in prompts
• ask to re-read remote directory after changes done to it
• ability to reverse initial sort order in NFTP.INI
• esc no longer causes problems during transfer if hit several times
• Bulgarian version

Version 1.00

Same as version 0.90 but requires registering to transfer files larger than 500KB.
26 Feb 1997 was a black day in NFTP history. My hard drive (Quantum BigFoot 2.5GB) has died (only 3/4 sectors are readable). Latest NFTP sources were lost; I was thrown to pre-1.00 level. After long and painful attempts to read what is readable, much of the source code was restored, but I am still not sure that every feature/bugfix of 1.00 has been recovered. The result is version 1.02.

Version 1.01

SOCKS-capable version (was in limited distribution). Only binaries survived the hard drive accident by pure chance.

Version 1.02

Close to 1.01. Comparing to 1.00, it fixes great deal of small bugs and adds ability to insert/edit bookmarks from inside NFTP (Insert/Ctrl-E).

Planned for next versions:

• more multithreading (view file while downloading etc)
• searching for string in file names
• autodownloading file descriptions (00index.txt) and showing them (a-la CuteFTP)