Upgrade.txt:

================================================================
This file describes the changes in QVCS 3.10 that a user of 
earlier QVCS releases will want to know about.

Installation:
================================================================
By default, QVCS installs into the 
C:\Program Files\QVCSBin directory.  Any existing installation 
in that directory will be overwritten.  This is OK.

After installation, you should copy any .ini files present
in the QVCS executable directory for any earlier QVCS 
release into the installation directory for the 3.9 release.
If you are a licensed user, you should also copy your
QVCS.License file into the 3.10 executable directory.

General Comments:
================================================================
* For 3.10, the QVCS/QVCS-Pro archive format is identical to 
  earlier 3.X releases. The cache files are identical to those used 
  in the 3.9 and 3.8 releases.  This means that 3.10 can 
  inter-operate with earlier releases, though switching to a pre-3.8 
  release will cause the cache to get re-built each time you switch 
  between 3.10 and a pre-3.9 release.  Note too that the cache
  locking mechanism for 3.10 and 3.9 is not compatible with
  earlier releases.

* The 3.10 release support for checkout comments no longer is
  supported for the qput command line utility.  If you use
  qput to checkin changes, qput will ignore any checkout 
  comments.  This is different than the 3.9 release where
  qput was able to use any checkout comments that had been 
  defined.

* The 3.10 release changes the way that checkout comments are
  stored.  As a result, any checkout comments that you have made
  with 3.9 will be lost when you upgrade to 3.10.

* The 3.10 release greatly reduces the number of cache
  collisions that can occur.  The cache collision algorithms
  remain compatible with the 3.9 release, but you'll see a 
  significant improvement by migrating all users to 3.10.

* The 3.9 release was the first QVCS release to be distributed 
  as a self-installing executable.  The installer is very simple:
  it just installs the files into a directory of your choice.  The
  uninstaller removes any registry settings that you may have set
  if you use the IDE integration feature of QVCS-Pro.

* The 3.9 release introduces the 'Recursion' feature from within
  QWin.  This is a very handy feature, but it can cause 
  performance issues if you use it on very large projects.

* The 3.9 cache locking scheme is different than in earlier 
  releases.  This means that while the archive file formats are
  identical to earlier releases, you cannot use 3.9 at the same
  time as earlier releases.  If you do, you WILL get cache 
  corruption problems, and other types of problems.

* Beginning with the 3.7 release, QVCS created an additional 
  subdirectory beneath your QVCS installation directory.  For 
  the 3.7 release, this subdirectory (qvcsUserData) contained user 
  specific file filter data files.  This trend continued with the 
  3.8 release.  There are now three additional file families in 
  that directory:

 fetchedWorkfileDigestStore.<<user name>>.Scc.<<machine name>>.dat
 fetchedWorkfileDigestStore.<<user name>>.QWin.<<machine name>>.dat

 currentWorkfileDigestStore.<<user name>>.Scc.<<machine name>>.dat
 currentWorkfileDigestStore.<<user name>>.QWin.<<machine name>>.dat

 checkOutCommentStore.<<user name>>.Scc.<<machine name>>.dat
 checkOutCommentStore.<<user name>>.QWin.<<machine name>>.dat

  The first two of these files are used to help QVCS keep track of 
  the files that you have retrieved from QVCS (via a 'get' or via 
  a 'check-out').  If you delete either of these files, then QVCS 
  will be able to update the file status column, but if your 
  workfile is different than the latest revision that has been 
  checked in, it won't be able to know if the differences are due
  to edits that you have made, or if the differences are due to 
  updates to the archive that other users may have made.  A 'get' 
  or 'check-out' will always refresh the status information 
  maintained in these files so that recovering the information 
  maintained in them is possible.

  The checkOutCommentStore files store your checkout comments.

* Beginning with the 3.8 release, the color coding of file 
  status is replaced by the 'Workfile status' column.  The Workfile 
  status column is very accurate, whereas the color coding of 
  earlier releases was based on file date stamps only.  You can 
  also sort on the Workfile status column, whereas in earlier 
  releases you could not sort on color coding of the files.

* Build 3.9.19 added a user preference to allow you to have
  colored icons (as in earlier releases) if you wish.  The workfile
  status column is still more informative, but some users prefer
  the colors.

* Beginning with the 3.8 release, the use of the cache is no 
  longer optional -- it is always enabled.  You can still rebuild 
  the cache, but you cannot disable the use of the cache.

* The cache format for 3.8 and 3.9 has changed from earlier 
  releases.  As a result, the first time that you navigate to a 
  project directory, the cache for that directory will get rebuilt 
  (automatically).  If you have a lot of files in that directory, 
  this will take some time.

* The help file contains a summary of most of the new features 
  of QVCS 3.9.  See the 'What's New in QVCS 3.9' for details.



Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions.  If 
you have other feature suggestions to improve the product, please 
let me know.

Our goal is for the QVCS product family to remain the best value 
in the version control market.


Jim Voris
Quma Software, Inc.
jimv@qumasoft.com
