There are a number of changes in this release beyond the usual bug fixes. First, I reduced the size of the hnt files by another 10%. Thus, once you go to this release, you cannot revert back to an earlier version. So you might consider making a backup copy of your hnt docs, just in case. To convert to this new hnt format, simply open hnt documents (in either Verify or Collection Setup views) and then save them.

I have added a new and much faster Choose Path dialog. With luck, this version may solve the annoying occasional crashes Win 95/98 users have been having. There are now three styles of choose path dialogs.

There is now a new checkbox in the Csv Maintenance sections to remove csv file prefixes during csv update operations. There is also a new button in the Csv Maintenance view that removes all csv file prefixes from all Hunter maintained csv files. Note the prefixes that are removed are contained in the Hunter Prefix text file.

There is a new option for collections on removable media (but not CDs), such as a network drive or a zip drive. When reverifying a collection, Hunter looks for new subfolders and removed subfolders. However, if that collection is on a removable media, then Hunter cannot be sure a missing folder is really missing or the drive is not connected or the zipdisk is not mounted. Thus, Hunter prompts you for what to do. With this new option, you can have Hunter automatically handle these circumstances without prompting you.

For csv makers there is a new method of making normal and extended csvs. If you have a collection setup and verified, and if you have added some new files and/or subfolders, you can merge the new stuff into the existing csv file. There are two Merge extras into csv menu commands available in the Action menu and in the right click Verify view menu. Only one collection can be done at a time, however. If there are no extra files found, nothing is done. The new csv file uses the csv's basename plus the _nnnn file count and is stored in the same folder as the collection's csv file.

The exciting new feature is the Auto Run. You can now create scripts to have Hunter perform a series of tasks on automatic. Scriptable actions include Collect Csvs, Unzip, Csv Maintenance's Update Csvs from Incoming, and any number of Main Hunts into collections. The AutoRun popup menu is only accessible when all other views are closed down. You can create a script, edit existing scripts, and run existing scripts.

When autorunning a Main Hunt, there is no provision to have any Undo operations. The Main Hunt autoruns utilize the current settings of the Main Hunt for that collection group.

If you need other Hunter actions made "scriptable", let me know.

A new option has been added to automatically make a backup copy of the hnt collection documents when you save one. The option is on the Csv and Collection tab. When checked, which is the default, every time you save a collection document (hnt file), it is written to a file with the .tmp extension. Then the existing .hnt document, if it exists, is renamed .bak (any existing bak file with the same name is deleted). Finally, the tmp file is renamed .hnt.

 Fixed a bug in the Csv Phase1 where csv file prefixes were not being removed. Question: should the automatic csv updates similarly have an option to remove all prefixes as they are moved into csv folders? And should there be an option to remove all prefixes from existing csvs in the main csv subfolders?

Fixed a bug in the Verify section of extended csvs - I was not getting the proper subfolder in certain cases.

Hunt view now has two checkboxes: one for reparsing and a new one for hunting only those files that are needed in each collection.

Unzip now has an option to also unzip subfolders of the main unzip folder.

Fixed some problems of view size when the various views are maximized.

Added a new import/export csvs feature. This series of actions allows one to share needed csv files with others so that each may find csvs they might need. This is not a terribly accurate process for many reasons. But at least you can swap potentially needed csv files. The process requires each party to make a report of csvs they wish to share with each other. When those lists are swapped, then you can make a list of needed csvs from the other's list and swap those lists. Finally, given another needs based on your report, the third action copies those into the export folder for you to zip and send.

In this version, I have added a wizard to assist collection setup. Under the Wizard menu is Add a new collection and Update a collection. These two commands are available in both Collection Setup and Verify views. Thus, we can now easily add or modify an existing collection while in Verify view without opening up the Collection Setup view.

Under Actions is a command to collect or gather csv files from various folders and move them into your main csv update incoming folder. This is for those who have burned the only copy of a collection's csv file on to the cd with the files. If Hunter is going to maintain the collection and report statistics, the csv files must reside on hard disk or the cd must be permanently mounted. This action allows one to pull a copy of all those csvs off onto the hard disk and then to place them into a Hunter maintained folder.

The hlp file is now finished; there are keywords available for searching.

I changed the ini file structure. There is now a HunterExtra.ini file. The incoming folders to hunt and similar potentially large groups of data are now stored in the extra ini file. This change was made so that those who routinely do large Hunt operations can avoid the possible ini file corruption. Under Win95/98, an ini file cannot exceed 64K and with a large number of folders in a Hunt, the ini file became corrupted. While this fix does not get around that limitation, if it occurs, the corrupted extra ini file can just be deleted without loosing all the main Hunter settings.

There is a nearly complete hlp system. Press F1 for the main help window or use the ? on the tool bar and click on things or shift-F1. I have not got the key words into the hlp file. Nor have I gotten in all the cross-references or "see also" linked.

There is a Setup Wizard to assist in making the initial setup. There is a help window to help setting up the Csv Maintence section for the first time. More fancier wizards later on.

I am not including the HuntersOwnersManual files this release as the hlp files are more uptodate.

The report options have been expanded a bit. I added an option to show the files that are Ok on the reports as separate from those marked as Valid. This can be used in conjunction with extended csv collections to help sort out which subfolder names do not match the extended folder information in the csv entries.

There is now a Create Needs Csv option. Whenever any report is made and whenever a verify is done, if this option is checked, a needs csv for that collection is created. That csv file does not have the _nnn suffix, however. These files are located under the VerifyReports folder in a folder called NeedsCsvs; further, they are located in subfolders of the groupname the collection is in, just like the normal reports. Hunter will maintain these need csv files and update them as needed so that they are always current. Note that the previous method of creating Needs csvs remains unaltered and are still stored in your Hunter Export Needs folder that you setup in the options.

The Append .jpg option now actually rewrites csv files whose csv entries fail to have the .jpg extension. Hunter first saves the original csv file in the Removed csv folder or in the Reports folder (if not using Hutner to maintain csvs). Then for those csv entries that lack any file extension, Hunter adds .jpg. This then should remedy various problems.

In conjuntion with the Append .jpg, Hunter now maintains a separate text file that defines what an image file extension actually is. You can edit this file to add in all other image types you desire. The file is called HunterImageTypes.txt.

Next, there is a new option in the Global tab - Save incoming hunt dirs in the hunter.ini file and in the hnt document file. If you are doing a temporary type of main hunt into collections and wish to use either a different set of incoming folders or a large number of them, then uncheck this option first before choosing the incoming dirs.

This option will enable Windows 95/98 users to get around the restriction that an ini file cannot contain more than 64k. If you had a large number of incoming folders, then the ini file can become corrupt and crash Hunter. Uncheck this option then to avoid saving the incoming folders in both the hunter.ini and collection hnt files.

There is a new option in the Verify and Main Hunt Options tab: "Delete a main hunt file if collection has this file and no exact file comparison can be made." The idea is this, one may have some of a collection located on a CD and some on a hard disk. When doing a Main Hunt into a Collection, if Hunter finds a file that is already verified in the collection, Hunter would do an exact byte by byte comparison before deciding to delete it. If that collection file was on a CD, then Hunter erred on the side of safety and copied it into the proper location on the hard disk portion of the collection. When this option is unchecked, this is precisely what happens. The result was, in fact, you now had duplicates in the collection. When this option is checked, if that collection file is on a removable media and is marked as Verified, then Hunter deletes the new one in the incoming folder. It is a bit risky because size and crc might not be sufficient in all cases, but has worked flawlessly in all my testing. However, if this option is checked, then Hunter MUST do a reverify just before the Hunt occurs to ensure it has the latest information on the collection status.

When making a csv, if you enter the new csv filename only, it is stored in the Reports folder. However, if you enter a fullpath and filename, Hunter now stores the new csv using that file specification so you can control where the new csv file is placed.

For those of you running Win95/98 and who had crashes using the new style choose path dialogs, I have finally found a way around the kernal timing problem. It is now fixed and should work fine.

I have simplified the two "navigation" listboxes in Collection Setup and Csv Maintanence.

I added another option on the Verify - Hunt Options tab: Delete main hunt files that are marked verified in the collection when an exact byte by byte comparison cannot be made. This option applies only to Main Hunt into collection and only when part of the collection is not mounted, such as when part is on a cd and part on the heardisk. If the collection file in question is on harddisk, Hunter compares it to the incoming hunt file as usual. However, if it is on removable media and you have this option checked, then Hunter checks to see if that collection file's status is "Verified." If so, the incoming hunt file is deleted. This option keeps you from getting duplicates of existing files you already have on cd. The older Hunter versions moved the incoming hunt file onto harddisk resulting in having it twice. However, use of this option has some risk: if you have a "wrong" file on cd that does match size and crc, and the right file is now in incoming, using this option will delete the correct one in incoming. The default for this option is to not delete but to move it into the main collection on disk and let you worry about dupes later on.

File renaming to lower, upper or capitalization can be done on whole collections in Verify view. Select the collections, right click and choose the type of renaming desired.

 This release introduces the Unzip Action. Many of us get in numerous zip files that contain csvs and collection files. The Unzip front end action lets you unzip all the incoming zip files and put the csv files into a csv incoming folder and all non-csv files into another main hunt incoming folder. Once unzipped, the zip files can either be deleted or moved to a zip done folder. Any that contain one or more errors are not moved or deleted but remain in the zip incoming folder.

To use, you can either use the Options button and set the unzipping options or just press the Zip button or menu item. The Unzip options dialog appears. When you press Ok to go ahead and do the unzipping, the settings are stored as usual. (The Options - Unzip tab is an alternative way to set them.)

For best operation, I would suggest you make an incoming zips folder and place all new zips in there as they arrive. Using either Options - Unzip or Unzip Setup dialog, set the folder to hold the unzipped csvs to be your normal folder that Csv Maintenance is using as the Csv Incoming folder. This way, you can immediately do an Update All Csvs. Further, point the folder for all non-csv files to be one that you normally have set up for incoming during Main Hunt Into Collections.

Thus, you have a sequence of Unzipping, Csv Maintenance Update All Csvs, and Main Hunt into Collections all ready to go. In the next version, I am going to try to automate this process or sequence so with one push of a button, the above sequence of unzipping, csv updating, and main hunt into collections can occurr effortlessly.

As usual, there are a few bug fixes and some minor improvements.

What's new in this release? Several key dialogs are now fully resizable.

And I have added the Clean Collection section. The Clean Collection action serves two purposes: to remove bad size/crc, extra and unneeded files from a collection and to rename subfolders of an extended csv collection to match the csv. Exactly what is done is under your control and your last settings are also remembered.

Definitions: An extra file is one that is not in the csv. An unneeded file is a duplicate file that is not needed, you already have that file in the collection. Bad size/crc files, unneeded and extras can be left where they are in the collection folders, moved into a common global set of folders, moved into a common global set of folders under a collection name subfolder, moved into a Hunter special foldername beneath the collection folder, depending on your choice. Additionally, the unneeded can also be deleted, since you already have that one.

So when you first bring up Hunter2p, look in the Options for the two tabs - Paths-2 and Paths-3. Besides the two global paths for corrupt jpgs and their backups, there are now global folder settings for the Unneeded files, Extra files, and BadSizeCrc files. They can be the same folder or different, depending on your needs. You should make one or more folders for these and set their paths accordingly. Personally, I would recommend using the Global folders with collection subfolders method. You can then more easily search those folders for misplaced scans that belong on some other collection.

Clean collection can be found in two places, Collection Setup view where you can use the Clean button to clean the current collection and Verify view where you can select one or more collections to be cleaned and press the Cs (Clean Selected) button or use the Action menu item or right click and choose Clean. In all cases, a Clean Collection dialog box appears to first determine how you want to proceed in the Clean operation. Set the radio buttons for each type of cleaning action you wished performed. NOTE: for extended csv collections - if all you wish is to have the subfolders renamed to match the csv, leave the other radio buttons on the top most setting, to do nothing and check Rename folders to match csv.

NOTE: if you have opted to have these extra, unneeded, and badsizecrc folders located beneath your main collection folders, Hunter will NOT permit these folders to be a part of the collection in terms of verification. Although you may select them, Hunter will remove them from the collection, so they are not counted in the verify process. Also, all global folders are not allowed to be in a collection; but they certainly can and often are Hunt Incoming folders.

When Clean runs, it first reverifies the collection, then does the actions you have requested, then does a reverify. If anything was done to a collection, a report is opened. Thus, when done, you can see the new verify results in Verify view.

This release changes the hnt file data structures! I have reduced the size of hnt files by a sizeable percentage. My hnt files here reduced some 42% with this version. After copying these new files into your normal Hunter folder, to convert to 2o, simple open in Verify view each hnt document and then hit the Save button. Caution: it is always prudent to make a backup copy of all your hnt files before converting them.

This release adds rudimentary support for recalling the last known size and location of all the views. When you now close one of the various views, its location and size are stored in your Hunter.ini file. So when you reopen that view, the window reappears where it was last located. After using it a while, let me know if this is sufficient for your needs.

Besides the usual bug fixes, I have added a Move Collection feature to the Collection Setup view. The currently selected collection can now be moved just about any way you want. It can be moved into another hnt document or into another group within the current hnt document. The csv file can be moved by Hunter to a new csv folder. And the folders containing the collection can be reset. Hunter will not "move" the collection perse. The Move Collection is implemented as a 3 phase dialog permitting you to select just which things are to be moved.

So suppose you have a collection in Ongoing that is now finished. Suppose further you have another hnt Finished document. Finally, suppose you have burned the collection onto cd. Being up Collection Setup and select that collection. Press Move Collection button. Then in the first dialog phase pick Finished hnt document and which group in it you want to move this collection into. Then go on to Phase2 and select moving the csv file into the Finished csv folder. Then go on to Phase3 and select the new collection folders where they are on the new cd. Then press Ok. Hunter will open up behind the scenes the Finished hnt file, move his collection into it, move the csv file into Finished csv folder, and reset the collection folders. Finally, Hunter will save the modified Finished hnt file.

I've made a number of minor improvements elsewhere. Of note, the hunt result messages are now more understandable, indicating what has happened during a hunt.

This release does not change the data structures; so you may simply replace the hunter.exe file and hlp file. And all should be fine.

Besides the few bugs that are fixed, this release implements the Jpg checking section. Jpg checking involves two aspects. First, there is the simple problem of extra 00 bytes that sometimes get added to the end of the jpg file during transmission. Hunter now can check for any bytes passsed the jpg's end of file marker and optionally remove them. Since this is modifying a file, there is the option to backup the file before Hunter makes changes to it. It is backed up to the folder you set in the Options for Jpg checking backups. Note, Hunter removes all bytes from the Jpg EOF marker to the dos eof whether or not those bytes are 0's. (Hunter looks for the eof marker within the last 200 bytes of a jpg file.) Secondly, there is the matter of corrupt jpgs. Hunter now uses the Independent Jpeg Group's standard jpeg coding which is also found in many commercial apps like Netscape's browser. When jpg checking a file, it is thoroughly scanned for all forms of internal jpg errors. Some kinds are obvious such as the scan is missing the bottom half. Other internal jpg errors are not so obvious. If a scan is corrupt, Hunter provides 4 options: ignore it and leave it where it is at, delete it (drastic), move the corrupt scan to a corrupt subfolder beneath the folder in which it currently is located, or to move the corrupt scan into a global corrupt scan folder. (Caution on deleting corrupt scans: some collections may include corrupt scans.) The Options button in the Jpg Checker View permits you to set the two new global folders, the backup and corrupt folders. When a jpg check run is finished, a HunterJpgCheckerLog.txt may be found in your main Hunter folder. It lists each file and the exact error message the jpg coding has generated. Also, you can save the listview results in a report file - that one is located in your Reports folder. When running, it is very dynamic, you can PgDn (or scroll) and follow the action as it checks jpgs.

This release does not change the data structures; so you may simply replace the hunter.exe file. And all should be fine.

This release fixes some annoying verify glitches when part of the collection is on a cd. It also improves the rename part of the verify process.

The Csv Maker section has been improved a bit.

This release also has some new features. All of the listboxes are now multi-select. Also, if you are using the New Style Choose Path dialog, when appropriate, these are now also multi-select Choose Path so you can select more than one folder at a time. Note Hunter always parses for all folders beneath a selected folder; so you only need to select the top-level folders.

A number of File Rename options are available from the Actions menu.

When any Verify View is open, there is now a Quick Verify option. This option allows one to verify a collection without having it actually setup in some hnt document. You choose the csv and the collection folders; it then verifies and makes a report. Nothing is saved except the report.

There is also a Verify All 'X' Collections button.

This is a bug fix release. There are no "new "features" or improvements except as they impact fixing a bug.

Some of the major bugs fixed include the following. If one launched Hunter from the DOS command prompt, all manner of ills resulted. The verification of extended csv collections has been fixed so that a folder can contain both scans and other folders and verify properly. The collection cd id number now works better. The problems with renaming files to match a csv entry have been fixed. The Apply button in the Options menu now works. When verifying a collection on removable media, you should see a drastically better mount - abort/retry/ignore scheme. Finally, Hunter now works with non-image collections as it was intended to do from the start.

A new option has been added - see Csv and Collection Options tab. If you want to use Hunter to make csvs and verify collections and find duplicates of non-image type files, you must uncheck the "image only" box. Then run all normal Hunter operations. This is a great feature for those of us maintaining networks. This options effects all parsing operations to permit the inclusion of all files, not just image files only.

Also, I have not fixed the "lockup" problem that some have run into when a hunt runs out of disk space. I am trapping and reporting the out of space disk error, but sometimes, I never get the chance cause the Windows file functions never return the error to me, choosing to lock up the system instead. A possible fix involving tracking the amount of free space on disks is tricky to do if one is not running 95 OSR2, 98 or NT.

I have skipped releases 2i and 2j because the letters are hard to read; and I will also be skipping version letter 2l. The next release should be 2m.

This release offers lots of new features. However, I have changed data structures in this release. You have used Hunter before and have some existing saved collection documents, you must follow the instructions in that readme.

I have completely redone the HunterOwnersManual making it simpler and more step by step to assist new users in getting Hunter up and going. Please read over the owner's manual for new tips.

What's new in 2k? So much it is hard to remember them all. Perhaps it would be easier to say what is not. You have to wait a bit longer for the Clean Collection, zipping and unzipping, jpg testing and fixing and the wizards and help.

There are at least 3 major areas of improvement. First all options are now in a set of property pages for easy access. I have added some new options, so make one of your first actions to review the Options pages. Note that after you set an option, it is then in use the next time that option is needed by Hunter. In other words, Hunter always reloads options, as it is about to do some action. More options are coming including a silent running option in which default actions can be made to message boxes so none pop up on you. Secondly, there is a vastly improved support for extended csv collections.

A new verify engine now handles verification much better. Also, when you verify an extended csv collection, Hunter always reparses the collection folders to see what new folders have been added, removed and renamed. If you want bad size, crc and so on to be reported on extended csv collections, then you must use the subfolder structure in the csv. If not, then Hunter can only say a file is there or not. In the reports, if the extended dir structure of the extended csv is not used, valid scans are marked Ok and not verified. They are marked Verified if they are correct and in the correct subfolder. You can also force a reparsing of the extended csv collection from Collection Setup View.

In Verify view, try right clicking for context menus. You can now explode an extended csv collection into a new view that shows the results on a subfolder by subfolder basis.

Many of the list views now have right click context menus - so experiment.

The reports sections have been improved. Notice also that a new field is now displayed, Loc. I have inserted a 6 character collection location id field for each collection. If you have collections on CDs, then you can enter an id number of your choice and it appears on the reports.

There is a new View Report set of menu choices. These permit viewing of the existing reports without having to actually create a new report as the Report menu items do.

You can now check one or more csvs for csv troubles. Specifically, it reports on whether or not the csv file contains duplicate entries - two different named scans that have the same size and crc values. This is valuable when collecting - be alert for these occurrences since they may be actual duplicates or they may indeed be two different scans (highly unlikely unless the csv contains thousands of files).

You can view a csv file with Notepad or as generated by Hunter from the information Hunter has read in. This way you can trace any problems that may be related to the way Hunter imputs a csv file.

The Error Log has been completely revamped and is now quite useful. Hunter logs all sorts of errors here in addition to csv input errors. They are time/date stamped and duplicate messages are not kept, only the most recent version is kept.

You can even edit it and cut out sections of log entries you do not want to keep in the log.

I tested Hunter in other resolutions and font sizes. In one particular mode, I discovered that you cannot resize it properly. If this happens to you, simply choose Window | Cascade and then you can resize it properly.

I think this version is fairly stable at this point. I believe the failure to find an occasional correct scan has been solved.

The Csv Maintenance Section has been drastically speeded up. Also, the perplexing occasional loosing of a csv in a collection as a result of csv updating has been largely solved. If you find that after an update a collection has lost its csv, please report it and all details. However, there is a new button Find Lost Csvs to help you out.

Deletes can go to the Recycle Bin, but it is faster not to. Note a delete occurs only after a file has been copied into the recieving folder or it is a duplicate.

So look for lots of little changes everywhere.