NewsLeecher 3.5 Beta 1
#: The v3.5 series of NewsLeecher uses a new article cache
system, which *isn't* compatible with earlier versions of
NewsLeecher. The cache is automatically upgraded when used with
NewsLeecher v3.5, and will not work with earlier versions after
the cache upgrade. It you still want to use an earlier version
of NewsLeecher, it is recommended that you make a clean-install
for NewsLeecher v3.5.
#: The XPAT feature is not yet hooked up in this release.
+: *BIG ADDITION*: NewsLeecher will now use separate threads
for saving article data to disk. This means that NewsLeecher
wont 'freeze' while saving downloaded files to disk.
The newly impelmented thread architecture is made in an
easy-to-expand way, so, if needed, more code will probably
be multi-threaded in the future.
+: NewsLeecher will now treat downloaded article parts as failed
if it discovers part CRC and/or filesize errors. The error
checking can be turned on/off from the setup dialog.
+: New and easy way to see if downloaded files are incomplete:
When NewsLeecher has downloaded an incomplete article, it will
now convert the filename associated with the article to
'UPPERCASE' before saving the file to disk. This makes it easy
to see that the downloaded file might need to be repaired or
deleted.
+: Added an 'extreme debugging log' option which will log
all server input/output. The option can be accessed from the
advanced setup sheet. It is highly recommended to keep this
option turned off under normal circumstances.
+: New 'Download small articles first' feature. If enabled, small
articles (small is user definable) will be moved to the top of
the transfer queue when a 'leech' command is initiated.
Feature can be accessed from: Options -> Download.
+: In addition to the new 'download small articles first' feature,
a new button, called 'small to top', has been added to the
download manager toolbar. If pressed, *all* small articles in
the transfer queue will be moved the top of the queue.
+: NewsLeecher will now ask if articles should be sorted, when the
user clicks one of the download queues header columns.
+: Added option to show text in the listviews in all-lowercase.
Saves screen real estate. Can be accessed from options.
+: Added a right-click popup menu to the page tabssheets that
makes it easy to open/close specific tab-pages.
+: Added possibility to 'Close NewsLeecher' when the transfer
queue is empty.
+: When browsing a (virtual) group, the groupname associated with
first selected article in the group listview, will now be
written in 'italic' in the group overview. This makes it easier
to see what group a specific article belongs to. Good when
browsing multiple text groups for example.
*: *BIG IMPROVEMENT*: Totally rewritten socket-communication
system. The new system is written from scratch to give more
control over the socket communication and should be a bit
faster than the old system used.
*: Updated the NewsLeecher cache to support 64bit pointers. In
prior versions, *very* large groups might get corrupted, due
to the limit of 32bit integers used by the cache format. The
old cache format will be updated on-the-fly, so it will not be
necessary to re-download headers. Note than when the cache has
been updated, it cannot be used by NewsLeecher versions prior
to v3.5 beta 1.
*: NewsLeecher now has support for future SuperSearch clustered
servers. Clustering SuperSearch makes it possible to further
increase index retention, improve the search capabilities,
index more groups, etc.
*: NewsLeecher is now able to use SuperSearch without having to
load the 'news' page first. This is done by saving SuperSearch
login data between sessions.
*: Improved maneuvering when deleting / marking-as-old articles
in the NewsLeecher listviews.
*: Hint descriptions in the NewsLeecher menus.
*: Improved logging when downloading files. Easier log overview
and more detailed information.
*: Server Mgr. Listview now shows the server specific retention.
*: Redesigned the Server Setup dialog.
*: The tabs have been relocated in NewsLeecher. The 'More' tab
is gone and all its subtabs are moved to the mainscreen page
control. Unused tabs can be turned off from the main menu or
by clicking the 'X' close buttons next to tab pages.
Note that the 'Xpat' / 'Posting Queue' tabs are turned-off
by default.
*: Cache save improvement: NewsLeecher will now only save group
cache to disk if the cache has been changed since it was
loaded.
*: Lots of visual tweaks. NewsLeecher now looks a bit better when
used in various Windows theme modes.
*: Visual improvement: Added a new 'Aluminum' toolbar theme.
*: Visual improvement: Changed checkbox looks in listviews.
*: NewsLeecher will now wait 3 seconds before reconnecting a bot,
if it has just disconnected. This will prevent some of the
"Too Many Connections" error messages that some users receive.
*: Image thumbnails are now generated in a separate program thread
to avoid program freezes.
*: New page control used in the NewsLeecher mainscreen. Improves
flexibility and looks.
*: Uses new and better method to find out if articles should be
marked as 'downloaded'. The new method is not compatible with
the old one, so previously downloaded articles will not be
marked as 'downloaded' anymore.
*: Moved some 'global listview' options to the 'Listview Misc. 2'
options dialog sheet.
*: Upgraded compiler, which has resulted in a major decrease of
used system GDI objects. (from 3500+ to around 900)
*: Many small improvements. Visual and non-visual.
!: Fixed bug where the 'new version' notification window would
be shown multiple times when the 'news' page was reloaded.
!: On the Usenet Manager tab, sorting by 'New (S)' now works.
!: Fixed bug where NewsLeecher would repeatedly try to connect to
servers without delay between the attempts.
!: NewsLeecher had some non-serious graphical bugs when working
in Windows non-classic theme mode. These are fixed.
!: Unloading groups resulted in a program bug if one or more groups
were actively updating. Fixed!
!: The 'never auto-reconnect' option was sometimes ignored. Fixed!
!: Sometimes NewsLeecher returned what seemed like a server
response, when it couldn't get in touch with a server. This has
been changed to avoid any confusion.
!: Various small bugfixes.